Marketing isn’t like other fields. Its transient landscape means the names of channel champions are lost to capricious winds. It’s not like there aren’t experts, but the lack of go-to marketing mentorship serves to illuminate a single irrefutable fact: marketers aren’t in control, not really. The steadfast expert of today is the foolhardy amateur of tomorrow – wisdom blossoms into madness and experience into ‘oh, is he still here?’ ...
Read MoreWe now have the tools to dictate our value – which has a far longer shelve life...
Read More1/ Empathy. 2/ Recalcitrance. 3/ Ability to live in the present. 4/ Live without distraction....
Read MoreWe’re never going to be content. Technology has seen to that. There’s always going to be something new to make a mockery of the old. Since we started pumping our air with the innovative spirit, business as usual hasn’t been business as usual. We’ve been shaking up the dusty establishment, discarding the detritus and devising new ways to work and play...
Read MoreWe’re trying to recollect futures we once dreamt of. The stream of new Star Wars films isn’t likely to end any time soon. Chock-full of homages and references to the original trilogy, before we had a brash and over eager Anakin Skywalker to contend with, Star Wars’ revival is testament to just how far we’ve entrenched ourselves in a memory. Like similar trilogy revisits, the new movies regurgitate the creative energy of their predecessors, rehashing the same basic premise and storyline to electrified fanfare. Because we’re not after something different. We’re looking to reclaim an instant of our childhoods, a memory, a cultural concern that supersedes reality TV shows and entertainment squeezed through a celebrity culture gone awry. But that’s just one example...
Read MoreIt’s not an opportunity for inspiration; it’s an opportunity for a selfie. Such is the pervasiveness of social media that many of us are unable to exist within a moment. Moments, in fact, serve only to perpetuate a self-image – a branding – easily framed by the perfectly angled photograph, wherein the select shade of the sun amplifies the features and attributes we most desire to expose, and renders in shadow those that we do not. We do not marvel for the sake of a cherished memory; we marvel for how an event may be represented to our friends and peers, and the return benefit gained on virtue of being physically present. Each day, we deposit into a shared fiction, one which narrates how we must live...
Read MoreIn Western society, efficiency commonly trumps questions of right and wrong. We are far less concerned with whether an action is just, when it is profitable. Scores of jobs are made redundant each year in low-skilled industries, where the labour can be better done by a computer, be it a ticket machine or robotic arm...
Read MoreFor those alive and well in the 70s and 80s, the obtrusive bleeper became an icon for fast-paced business types, but this pales when compared with the modern smartphone, which is essentially a fifth limb for many of us. It’s not only that the number of quality of life technologies is increasing, but that we’re becoming increasingly dependent on them. To be part of the modern world, it’s necessary to have a smartphone. Likewise, it’s increasingly necessary (and just a tad self-destructive) to be an active participant in social media. Almost unconsciously, technology has transitioned from convenience to necessity...
Read MoreGenerally, we’re an idealistic people. We’re inspired by the idea of the socially divergent working from humble dorm rooms and garages (modern day version of a lair), changing the world from the shadows. Spurred by Hollywood and an inveterately sensationalising media, there exists a cultural-wide love affair with the superhero narrative, attested to by the sheer number of superhero movies produced over the past decade (non-coincidentally resurgent from the 1970s and 80s). A number of factors are behind this: encroaching world wide calamity – the threat of (nuclear) war or the constant peril of terror attacks...
Read MoreAnyone that started their careers in small companies will have a solid idea of what we’re talking about. The sluggish mirroring of late 20th century business practices, whereby stringent office managers count the minutes and out-of-touch directors guide their workforce like blind guide dogs, is the bane of growth. That’s not to say such companies don’t survive – they certainly do – but only that their survival precludes the possibility of their success. Humans may live in three-foot high cubicles, but they’ll never be able to stand tall – businesses that refuse to change must also accept a low ceiling for growth...
Read MoreThe Internet is both pervasive in its application and ubiquitous in its function – having expanded to all corners of the globe, and is surely as vital to our day-to-day life as food or water. But it seems amazing that something originally intended to be a design for an information sharing network could have grown to such glorious heights, transcending all scopes of function and rapidly becoming mankind’s favourite tool for, well, just about everything...
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