Last week I
flew to Bogota, Colombia for the day. My Latin American partner, AltaGerencia,
had arranged for me to speak at a conference organized by Ecopetrol, Colombia's largest integrated oil company. I’ve
delivered such ...READ»
One of
greatest Union generals in the U.S. Civil war, William Tecumseh Sherman,
described the goal of effective military strategy as maneuvering so that the
opposing general finds himself “on the horns of dilemma.”
That ...READ»
Chances are, you—or certainly your kids—have a Facebook profile. Perhaps you’re one of millions of Twitter users, following or being followed by others on this fast-growing micro-blogging site. Once the provenance of college ...READ»
Last week I
introduced Ajit Prabhu, the co-founder and chief executive officer of QuEST
Global. My interview with him was fascinating, and during our discussion, I
learned that the basic idea behind QuEST was born while Ajit was ...READ»
Most successful
people are somehow inspired to do things differently. For some it is an
innovative idea, and for others it is identifying a need and filling it. For
Ajit Prabhu, the co-founder and chief executive officer of QuEST ...READ»
The best communicators are the ones who can create and share
a strong narrative story. The best novels are the ones with the most
interesting plot and the best speeches are the ones that arouse an emotional
response from a ...READ»
Say you're a wayward explorer wishing to sail around the world promoting sustainability, but you don't quite have the pocket money to see such a voyage through. Perhaps your goals are less lofty, and you simply want to finish that ...READ»
Several months ago, I was browsing through a bookstore in
Seattle looking for something to read on my flight back across the
country. After having spent eight hours
on stage working to keep a mental step ahead of 250 ...READ»
I’ve interviewed hundreds of business outthinkers, and one
of the most common patterns of success is “coordinate the uncoordinated.”
We’ve seen this work for companies like Credit Justice Services, an
ethonomic credit ...READ»
In the midst of all the bad economic news and the escalating healthcare debate, one government program seems to be meeting with nearly universal approval: the Cash for Clunkers deal.One of the reasons this program has gained ...READ»
A Chinese phrase advises that you “borrow a corpse for the
soul’s return.” This metaphor points to the fact that we tend not to dig
through garbage. Once we’ve thrown something away we mentally label it “trash”
and so ...READ»
When I pull up to the village in which my mother grew up in
Bangladesh, I feel like I'm on the set of a cowboy movie. Two long streets
cross in the center, each bordered by a well-planned lineup of storefronts.
From this ...READ»
The healthcare debate has heated up not just in Washington, but as an issue gaining significant traction with the American public.
No doubt this is due to the deeply personal, high-stakes nature of one’s own health. It is ...READ»
An ancient Chinese saying advises that you “borrow a road”
to reach your objective. If someone else has access to your customer, then
borrow his road to share this access.
An interesting permutation of this pattern is ...READ»
Last week I introduced an interesting hotel investment firm, Thayer Lodging. The owners, Lee Pillsbury and Fred Malek, were not new to the hotel game. They were part of a team that had driven jaw-dropping growth for Marriott Hotels. ...READ»
Every Friday vendors came around to play “lucky lotto.” These
vendors supplied food, chinaware, and table clothes to Lee Pillsbury
and Fred
Malek, the owners of Thayer Lodging, a
privately held hotel investment company that ...READ»
One of the cardinal rules of branding is to stake out some unique territory, defend it at all costs, and then leave the remaining ground to others.That's because brands have to stand for one clear virtue in the minds of busy ...READ»
Enjoyed Cliff Kuang’s piece (http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/print-media-dying-online-revenues-are-tiny-what-if-ads-are-blame) on why ads might be to blame for the crappy state of Internet advertising. ...READ»
In my book The Way of Innovation,
I talk a lot about how consumer habits can become a powerful underpinning of a
company’s grand strategy. For example, when I was a loyal Starbucks customer (someday I’ll share why I no longer ...READ»
A reverb (or reverberation) is typically used to describe sound--or more specifically the instance where a sound continues despite the original source of the sound being removed. If you apply the same idea to social media, a reverb ...READ»
There was a time when age used to matter for marketers. We would buy media based on presumed age ranges of audiences in the hopes that this bit of demographic information would help us reach the right people. In fact, this is one of ...READ»
Many brands like to treat social media like a big party at the cool kids house. Everybody's invited, and having a great time. The conversation is flowing and it's the place that everyone wants to be. Eventually, you realize that your ...READ»
Last month an unlikely underdog stunned the marketing world at the International Cannes Advertising Festival. At the show, a single marketing campaign took home a Grand Prix award in three categories simultaneously--direct, cyber and ...READ»
I would design an agriculture tractor to be charged via photovoltaic cells to power it through the season with no fossil fuel and will minimize the need for lubricants if not syntethic ones. In addition the existing precission farming ...READ»
