Friday 21 December 2012

Building A Futureproof Brand? What You’ll Need In 2013.


(By Marc Stoiber). I help clients build futureproof brands, so a predictions article seems a natural fit. And because collaboration with my network of global experts is part of building those brands, I’m blessed to stand on the shoulders of giants when looking ahead.
So without further ado, let’s launch right into it.  My futureproof brand 2013 predictions (with a little help from my very talented friends).
1. The Implosion Of ‘Greed Is Good’ Brands
I leaned on my friend John Marshall Roberts for this one. John is a best-selling author, behavioral scientist and founder of Worldview Thinking. When I asked him to polish the crystal ball he told me “The individualistic worldview, focused solely on profit, is continuing to decay. Obama’s re-election gave it another kick – expect continued collapse of this worldview, and the brands it represents, in 2013.”
But will we suddenly be inundated with brands that put the humanistic worldview first? Not necessarily. “There is going to be a rise of companies that succeed against all status quo wisdom” Roberts says. Think Tom’s Shoes, with its ‘buy one give one’ philosophy. Or Zappos, selling insane service to build a shoe business…   Read the full article here .  

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Banks: The Epitome of Social Irresponsibility


Financial crisis, casino gambling, outsized bonuses, rate fixing, now money laundering, etc, etc . In the last six years, the public's opinion of the banking industry has dropped by over 60 points. No wonder then that even the Wall Street Journal is beginning to call for the largest banks to be broken up. See more here .

Corporate sustainability lost some of its sexiness in 2012 ?


It was an odd year for green business, and it began with some mixed signals about how far companies were coming on sustainability. A GreenBiz report indicated that progress had slowed or even regressed, but MIT and BCG also declared that sustainability had reached a "tipping point" with more companies putting sustainability "on the management agenda." A very interesting article at HBR, here .

Saturday 8 December 2012

Is there anyone like Nassim Taleb?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time, reveals how to thrive in an uncertain world in his new book Antifragile .
Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension, and rumors or riots intensify when someone tries to repress them, many things in life benefit from stress, disorder, volatility, and turmoil. What Taleb has identified and calls “antifragile” is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish.
Antifragile complements The Black Swan by celebrating systems that gain from disorder, trading away short-term predictability and micro-rationality for long-term success exploiting macro-unpredictability. It's a bold attitude, amply supported by argument and example from many fields. If anything, it is more outrageous and iconoclastic than The Black Swan. It is Taleb's most important book to date, as it closes the circle. On one level, the universe (at least as perceived by humans) is ruled by disorder, but on another level, the crucial elements are those that gain from disorder as eventually these are fitter for survival than any element, however strong, that requires order.
If you have read any of Taleb's other books, Antifragile is the best next one to read. If you have not read any,  start with Fooled by Randomness .
According to The Telegraph, “ Antifragile has annoyed fans of Taleb’s earlier works because, in turning away from statistics, his thought has become baggier, bombastic and often preposterous. Nevertheless, his work exerts a strange pull. Taleb’s aim is both quixotic and ambitious: he wants to overleap the limits of epistemology and return to the founding drama of Ancient Greek philosophy. Taleb is incisive when he writes about the original Greek philosophers and their medieval Arab followers. Plato’s Republic begins with an attack on merchants and money lenders collectively known as krematistes: the moneymakers. Plato is the perfect example of a top-down, authoritarian state-planner and his attack on the riff-raff in trade is a decisive moment in philosophy. Taleb re-energises the debate by taking the moneymaker’s part. In his heart, he remains a barrow-boy challenging the philosopher kings in the same way that, as an options trader, he once took on the academic economists. His story is similar to many other members of the statistics revolution.” See review here . And the HBR text here .


Friday 7 December 2012

10 trends that will shape consumer behavior in 2013 and their implications for MarCom people


JWT recently released the eighth annual forecast of key trends that will shape or significantly impact consumer mindset and behavior in the near future. No need to elaborate why such trends have considerable impact in the MarCom strategy of every company in our times.
In this year’s report, new technology continues to take center stage, as we see major shifts tied to warp-speed developments in mobile, social and data technologies. Many of our trends reflect how businesses are driving, leveraging or counteracting technology’s omnipresence in our lives, and how consumers are responding to its pull. However, what should be noticed in the 2013 report, is the fact that MarCom people are for the first time pay attention  on happiness and  well-being and how businesses are addressing it for marketing and real good purpose. Happiness  was a favorite  theme in the book  ‘Nice’ Capitalism four years ago ( you can also download for free ) and a popular topic of many posts in this blog. See more about the ten trends, here . For  stories about the new breed of superior brand species, ie Nice Brands, follow us also in Twitter .

Τώρα είναι πολύ αργά Κύριε Στίγκλιτζ...


To τελευταίο βιβλίο του νομπελίστα οικονομολόγου Τζόζεφ Στίγκλιτζ, («Το τίμημα της ανισότητας», εκδ. Παπαδόπουλος, 2012) που παρουσιάστηκε στις 4/12/2012 στην Ελλάδα, κρούει των κώδωνα του κινδύνου για τις εντεινόμενο χάσμα των εισοδημάτων στον δυτικό κόσμο. Στις σελίδες της ελληνικής έκδοσης η ανάλυσή του για την «καταστροφική επίδραση της ανισότητας στο δημοκρατικό πολίτευμα», εστιάζει κυρίως στις ΗΠΑ. Αποτυχημένος οικονομολόγος, αφού δεν προέβλεψε την κρίση, αποτυχημένος σύμβουλος αποτυχημένου Πρωθυπουργού, τώρα ανακάλυψε ότι η πηγή του κακού και της Αμερικανογεννημένης κρίσης είναι.. οι ανισότητες στη κοινωνία! Δεν ρίχνει μια ματιά στο βιβλίο ενός Έλληνα που την προέβλεψε πριν ξεσπάσει το 2008 και ανέφερε ως μοναδικό λόγω τις ανισότητες? Ας το διαβάσει τώρα εδω.