Dig Deeper.
Articles, book reviews and thoughts on executive coaching, communications and the world of business.
Innovation in Desalination: Okeanos Technologies
It’s not just those signs you see in neighborhoods alerting residents to restrictions on watering lawns. Water shortages are a critical problem around the world and the challenges are a lot worse than the fate [...]
Cadillac Takes Manhattan
A couple of weeks ago, Cadillac surprised many people by announcing they were moving their corporate headquarters to a trendy building in lower Manhattan. But anyone following their recent moves might not have been so [...]
Bowing Before the Brand
Derek Thompson has an interesting article in the Atlantic on how marketers--particularly in Silicon Valley--are studying cults like the Moonies and evangelical movements to understand how they can build stronger and more sticky brand loyalty. [...]
The Science of a Great Presentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nYFpuc2Umk Nancy Duarte is a brilliant graphic designer but also a great brand builder and communicator. In this video, she does a brilliant job of breaking down what makes an effective presentation. To illustrate, she [...]
The Ocean Exchange
I'm on my way to Savannah, Georgia, to host this year's Ocean Exchange Conference, a global innovation conference which awards two prizes for great, market-ready ideas for sustainable development. It's a fascinating conference, with ten [...]
Quote/Unquote
"The most important leadership tool is the leader's Self--your Self. At the foundation of this principle...lies this simple assumption: every human being is not one but two. One is the person we have become through [...]
Do You Trust Your Gut Feelings?
Interesting interview in HBR with psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer and his new book, Risk Savvy: How to Make Good Decisions. Gigerenzer looks at how, in spite of massive amounts of data available to us, we're really [...]
Working Less Pays More
http://youtu.be/Edx9D2yaOGs Andrew Sullivan links to a great article on the fallacy of the 60 hour work week. Money quote: "Taking some time off actually improves a worker’s productivity at work. A study from Ernst & [...]
You Are What You Read #5: The Brand Strategist’s Guide to Desire
It’s hard not to love a book that heads a section “What brands can learn from samba." (The answer? Joy and rhythm. If you’re in the business of pumping clogged sewer pipes, for instance, be [...]
Is Trustworthiness the Killer App of the Future?
PriceWaterhouseCooper recently released their 17th CEO survey. In a by-lined article in PWC's Strategy + Business, the company's chairman, Dennis Nally, predicts that trust will become increasingly critical to business success. The world in which [...]
Let’s Get Happy. Everyone Else Is.
Andrew Sullivan points to Charles Kenny's article in Bloomberg Businessweek on the interesting, even surprising rise of happiness around the world, as reported in the World Values Survey. The survey, which has data going back [...]
Stephen Wolfram Plans to Change the World
Fascinating long article yesterday by Jimmy Guterman about tech CEO Stephen Wolfram. If you're not familiar, Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, the leading computational software for math and science fields, along with the Wolfram|Alpha [...]
You Are What You Read #4: The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan
Yasushi Inoue’s remarkable historical novel, The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan, was first published in Japan in 1958. In it, we follow the rise of a mysterious, itinerant samurai named Yamamoto Kansuke, whom Inoue describes [...]
You Are What You Read #3: Unconscious Branding
How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing In 1957, Advertising Age created mass-hysteria across the nation when it published the results of a scientific study on subliminal advertising. The study, conducted by market researcher James [...]
You are what you read #2: What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn
Think about the great companies you know, the great brands you’ve made part of your life, even part of your personality. Did any of them get there because they had great advertising? The answer is [...]