Making the Best of Low Market Share
I’ve said before that I love a good graph joke, but I mostly do line graphs or the occasional bar graph. There’s a lot of opportunity to play visually with those.
Pie graphs are harder because they’re always the same shape. You have your circle, the slices, some shading, and, frankly, they’ve been done to death. That’s how this one came along; challenging my brain to come up with a different angle. After some playing with the graph itself, it hit me that I could do something outside the graph, and there it was.
Sometimes an idea comes like that. It’s not so much an “A-ha!” moment as a “I’m bored with line graphs” moment.
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About: Mark Anderson’s cartoons appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Anderson is the creator of the popular cartoon website, Andertoons.com, where he licenses his cartoons for presentations, newsletters and other projects. He blogs at Andertoons Cartoon blog.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:13 am
So how does it taste? I am not so fond of whipped cream, but maybe it is culinary experience to eat a pie chart!
Mark: Thanks for your email regarding the possibility to embed your cartoons. Talk to you soon again.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:12 am
Very cute. Love all their pointed noses, makes me chuckle.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
This is what I love about your cartoons. It gets us all thinking out of the “pie” as the case may be. Sometimes — well oftentimes, I have this fantasy of being in a meeting and showing a slide like that!
Thanks for another year of smiles.
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 am
Alternate text: “Pay no attention to the pie…instead, focus on this little can we are about to open up on the competition.”
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:40 am
Mark,
Not just a great cartoon for its humor, but also sound business thinking, too. Sometimes your focus is in the wrong place. The pie chart you’re looking at may not be the thing you should be paying attention to.
Love it!
Regards,
Kelly
January 6th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Very funny! (But look out for your competition - they might own the ice cream!)