Gosh, I haven't blogged here for weeks. I've instead been contributing to bloggingmiles and the asia scout network. Anyway, I'm here at the Triple bottom line investing (TBLI) conference. My goal here is simple, to learn about triple bottom line landscape and try to meet some new people from this world. The content here could be pretty strategic for us from a CSR and social enterprise perspective. This conference is held at the Landmark Hotel here in Bangkok.
As part of our contribution to collective intelligence, we think hosting an "unconference" would be a good step forward. This Saturday, we'll (TRNLab) be hosting Hakuna Matata Night - a space for social entrepreneurs or socially-minded individuals to meet, network and show their work in public. The presentations are very solution-oriented. Speakers present their solutions to existing social and/or environmental problems. These solutions can either be current work, projects or simply ideas.
So as to avoid boredom, each presenter is allowed a maximum of 20 images (Yes, I mean images as in pictures, diagrams, etc. NO bullet points allowed). The challenge here is for each speaker to translate their stories into visual and grapical presentations. Each image would only be shown for 20 seconds - giving a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds for each presentation. This keeps presentations short, interesting and allows more speakers to participate.
Hakuna Matata is actually a Swahili phrase that means “there are no worries here” or “no problem”. Hakuna Matata Night is a forum that is meant to inspire with solutions and not depress with problems. It is meant for us to showcase our ideas and efforts to change the world in a more realistic and practical way. We hope the event can inspire more parties as such, and spread virally across the globe. If you would like to set up your own Hakuna Matata Night, please contact us.
Here's a great example of how marketing managed to save a company, at least for a short period in time. In 1996 when Steve Jobs returned to Apple, the company's image was at the bottom of the hill due to a couple of product blunders. Steve Jobs had decided to consolidate the company and rejuvenate Apple's image. This ultimately took the form of the tremendously successful Think Different campaign. On a side note, this reminds me of the current Camper ad campaign which also comes from a different perspective with their "Walk, Don't Run" theme.
So 10 years on, and the Apple campaign has been recognised as one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever. Here's a link to the poem used in the ad, "Here's to the Crazy Ones", written by a Chiat/Day copywriter, Craig Tanimoto. Enjoy the clip (I couldn't upload a youtube clip because it has been blocked in Thailand):
Here's the clip on the making of "Think Different":
McKinsey has recenly released their global survey on business and web 2.0. Here are some of the interesting points they have mentioned:
* More than three-fourths of executives who responded to a McKinsey survey say they plan to maintain or increase their investments in technology trends that encourage user collaboration, such as peer-to-peer networking, social networks, and Web services.
* More than half say they are pleased with their past Internet investments, though some regret not boosting their own capabilities to exploit technology. More executives said they should have acted faster than slower.
* Retailers, who consider their companies cautious investors in the past, are stepping up their pace today. Similarly, many executives in emerging markets such as India and Latin America intend to move more quickly to capture the perceived benefits of these technologies.
Here's an interesting article from Science Daily. It talks about how creating too much of hype by marketing can more than often backfire these days. I would imagine it to be true because every one seems to use phrases like "the best", "top in the world", "the greatest".
Consumers are looking for the the quiet brand. The brand with so much subtlety that they speak through the quality of the experience the consumer has with the product or brand.
This website has been gaining alot of momentum lately - Prosper. It is online marketplace for people-to-people lending. Alot like eBay, Prosper acts as a marketplace that allows people to move beyond geographically based markets.
Fast Company's Senior Editor, David Lidsky, in his new column tries to answer every business person's lingering question - What should I be doing with my website to engage with my customers more?
Companies are competing with each other to attract more customers to their websites. They're constantly adopting new ideas and abandoning them at lightning speed. The answer to the question above is "nobody has a clue". Ultimately, as David suggests, instead of focusing on which features our Web sites "need", we should focus on how we'd like to project ourselves online and whom we want to reach.
Enjoy the rest of the article:
The Question
What do people want from a Web site? In our new tech column, we tell you why there's no easy answer on thriving in the ever-shifting digital landscape.
From: Issue 113 | March 2007 | Page 58 | By: David Lidsky
The number-one question lurking in every executive's heart, whether he's a corporate titan or founder of a Valley startup, boils down to this: Just what should I be doing with my Web site to engage with my customers?
You know what? Nobody has the answer.
If you've puzzled over why media companies like CBS and News Corp. are firing and hiring "digital czars" like basketball coaches, it's because they're lost inside "the question." If you've wondered why normally smart outfits like Wal-Mart start and then abandon a social-networking Web site within months, blame "the question." If you've ever stumbled upon yet another Web 2.0 company that seems to have only a me-too moniker and a dream, it's because even those folks, steeped in technology, have no more clue than the suits.
Why are we still so flummoxed by the Web? Why does every ripple in the water, whether it's social networking, user-generated content, or the popularity of video, produce such an outsized tidal wave of frenzied--and wasteful--activity? For one, it's about discipline, or rather the lack thereof. "Technology reduces the barrier to entry and that means less discipline in developing products," says Jeff Housenbold, CEO of photo processing and sharing pioneer Shutterfly. Don't forget myopia, either: the urge to impress only the most ardent and vocal technology users instead of the masses. "We tend to build what we want, or what will get us accolades at the next Silicon Valley party we attend," says Jeff Bonforte, who heads Yahoo's Messenger, Chat, Avatars, and Voice products. "Shame on us."
Perhaps the biggest problem is that we're too hung up on our own Web sites. Your site is your virtual corporate headquarters. Do you hang out in office parks for fun? Exactly. So why do you expect your customers to do the same online? Too many companies want their Web site to be a destination, because they're so used to controlling the way they interact with clients in the real world. But no amount of video, games, or free MP3 downloads is going to get anyone to spend time on your site.
Turns out that "the question" is the wrong one to be asking. You should ask "where your users are, rather than the other way around," as Ted Shelton, founder of news aggregation tool the Personal Bee, puts it. Once you've found them, then you can find a way to join the conversation--without being a tool.
This, of course, is the hard part, because companies are, again, too accustomed to being one-way publishers of information. "Imposing distribution onto consumers" is how traditional gatekeepers think, says Jordan Levin, a former gatekeeper himself as the president of the WB network, now CEO of a content-creation company called Generate. Try to remember that the Internet is a communications medium first and a distribution channel after.
Happily, there's evidence that this different idea is taking root. Viacom's broadband Web channels for Comedy Central and VH1 let you embed its video player on a MySpace page or any other Web site so you don't have to go to its site to watch videos. Consumer packaged-goods companies such as Unilever routinely build microsites or sponsor navigation bars at Web sites where the kind of person who might use Axe deoderant spends time. Frankly, video players, microsites, and nav bars are all kind of lame, but at least it's a step forward.
Ultimately, all the energy we devote now to divining which features our Web sites "need" should be redirected to nailing the point of view we want to project online and whom we want to reach. Do that, and we won't be as tempted by every shiny new feature that comes along. "There's 'useful' for the Web at large, and then there's 'useful' for us," says Craig Engler, who runs SciFi.com. In that distinction, so deceptively simple, lies the answer.
David Lidsky is a Fast Company senior editor. He has covered the technology industry since 1995.
Last Saturday (17th Mar 2007), my colleaugue and I were invited by Gilbert Lo, a lecturer Thammasat University, to give a talk on social entrepreneurship at an MBA class (Entrepreneurship & Creativity). The purpose of the talks was to introduce the topic to the students and get them to contribute ideas on developing support systems for social entrepreneurs (based on our existing Youth Social Enterprise Initiative model).
Expectedly, the topic was relatively new to most of them. For some, the idea of non-profit organisations was a new concept too. I did begin my presentation with an explanation on blended values, but I don't think it was well understood. Enjoy the clips:
When I receive things like this, it always dawns upon me how far behind we are in innovating and just doing cool stuff. Avenue A Razorfish has recently released their digital outlook report which examines trends in the way consumers, publishers, and advertisers employ digital media to have a conversation with each other. If you need raw data on every element surrounding the internet and web 2.0 in particular, I really suggest you have a look at the report.
Download the Digital Outlook Report: 2007
You might think that an ipod refers to that ultra-sleek digital music player by Apple. Instead this BBC article has come up with some cool acronyms for this generation.
Ipod = "insecure, pressured, over-taxed and debt-ridden" young working people
Check out the full article here.
The article I wrote for the GKP publication "Beyond Tunis" is finally out. Kund Florian, the editor, did a great job at integrating some really cool design elements into the article. Here's a copy from the actual magazine. The online version should be available soon! Click on the following link to download the printable version:
I spent my whole last week in Chiba, Japan attending a meeting on skills development and employment of young people organised by the ILO in collaboration with UNESCO. Chiba is a well organised small town built on reclaimed land about 40 minutes by train from Tokyo.
The meeting was a great opportunity to interact with some interesting people and learn about new issues on employment. The highlight of the event was meeting with Ali Khan - a young social entrepreneur from Pakistan. His organisation, PNYS, seeds social programs in the marginalised communities (tribes) of Pakistan. His work focuses mainly on empowering young women to become more educated and start their own social programs in these communities.
Over the 3 days, we got to talking about the issues surrounding our work, focusing on how little resources is available for the high-impact on-the-ground work. Specifically, we were talking about the misallocation of resources by the development community to low impact work. More resources should be made available to social entrepreneurs who need to deliver high-quality services to communities at the bottom of the pyramid. In order for social entrepreneurs to deliver high-quality service they need to build organisational capacity and this can only happen with significant amount of funds.
At every point of the coversation we reached a dead end in terms of finding solutions; finally I just had to ask him - "How do you keep persevering when all the odds are against you?"
He answered with two simple words - "Emotional income!". Ali adds " You can't put into words the sense of satisfaction you get when you see the lives of the people you work with changed forever."
I believe Ali's work is crucial - particularly because he is empowering young women in Pakistan - a country where women play a marginal role in society and as individuals they do not receive the necessary education and support.
The "miniature earth" clip shows us what the world would look like if the population were reduced to 100 people.
This is also a good example of what good design, animation and communications can do to highlight issues in development which are generally presented in a very dull and linear manner.
This wall-mounted cd player incorporates minimalist japanese design. It was designed for Muji by innovation powerhouse - IDEO.
Call it either venture philanthropy or social venture capital - they both fall under social investments. This is a short piece on the lessons that can be drawn from the field of venture capital to be applied to venture philanthropy.
The emergence of social venture funds in an ever changing world has revolutionized the type of support available to nonprofit organizations. Although very little consensus has been built around the primary functions of social venture funds, at their core these funds aim to apply investment management practices (typical of venture capital and private equity firms) to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations to obtain greater returns on their investment - whether social, environmental and financial in a blended value approach.
The need for highly-engaged support mechanisms (social venture funds) for nonprofit organizations, particularly those lead by youth is crucial because of the culture of dysfunction that permeates through most organizations. The dysfunction exists through a range of critical elements – strategic planning, staffing, training, management, financing, and performance measurement – that success in delivering high-quality solutions becomes highly improbable.
Existing social venture funds commonly define themselves as “a multi-donor fund specifically created to address social issues that utilizes venture capital practices to maximize investor value and impact”. In the article “Virtuous Capital: What Foundations Can Learn from Venture Capitalists”, the authors Christine Letts, William Ryan, and Allen Grossman identify six points that distinguish social venture fund practices from those in more traditional grant-making:
1. Risk
• VC firms take risk and are rewarded accordingly. Rather than being avoided, risk is managed.
• Foundations avoid risk because they are not rewarded one way or the other for taking risk. Accordingly, foundations compromise the likelihood of measurable return.
2. Performance Measures
• VC firms focus on performance measures that will lead to long-term growth.
• Foundations focus on short-term program outcomes and avoid the question of long-term consequences.
3. Closeness of Relationship
• VC firms are comfortable with close working relationships with investees. They are involved in deal flow, CEO selection, strategic planning, etc.
• Foundations tend to keep their distance in their relationship with grantees. In addition, they tend to be totally uninvolved in operations.
4. Amount of Funding
• VC firms fund few deals but they put enough money in chosen deals to make a difference. They will also help with subsequent funding needs.
• Foundations fund a small part of each deal. They tend to undercapitalize and seldom help with subsequent funding needs.
5. Length of Relationship
• VC firms will stay involved over a number of years, and this is known to all participants.
• Foundations seldom stay involved for more than two or three years.
6. Exit Strategy
• VC firms have an exit strategy identified at the point of entry. Often the exit is made possible by another VC firm.
• Foundations rarely have an exit strategy.
By identifying the common venture capital techniques that funds might use to maximize investment value, including long-term investment, funding for capacity building, the establishment of evaluation metrics and strong criteria for investment, it is hoped to encourage a new perspective in social investing where investors have a sense that they have a stake in their investments and are closely engaged in the growth of the organizations. Very simply, if the investor has serious expectations about achieving measurable outcomes, be they social or economic, their commitment will be increased – they will involve themselves when necessary so that success might be attained.
I wrote an article on social entrepreneurship two years ago. It's a shame I didn't think of sharing it here:
Here's the infamous VW viral ad - something you just can't help passing around.
How would you innovatively market deodarant? Show-off all its special features that don't really mean anything to any of us OR would you just give it a special feeling. This ad by Old Spice shows a growing trend of experience-centric products.
"I know how powerful it is, yet I scorn at it"
Here's a new and interesting idea in WiFi technology - fon. The following post is from boinboing.net:
Fon, a new Spanish company, is offering to build a service based on P2P principles for people to be able to access the Internet through other people connection using wireless networking.
The system is based on 2 categories of users;
-- Bill who resell their connection to other members of the service
-- Linus who offer to share for free and in exchange can benefit from roaming on the whole network.
The whole transaction is managed by the company (Fon)
I noticed something fairly interesting today. As I was walking back into my apartment building, 3 caucasian men had exited and were attempting to cross the street. The Thai guard stationed at the entrance rushes to halt the traffic on both sides of the street in order to help these 3 (who am I kidding - these are white people) men cross the street.
We (my family and I) have lived in this apartment for 6 years and not once have any of the guards aided us in crossing the street. Personally, I'm quite able to cross the street by myself, however, the guards have never offered such help even to my mother - an elderly lady - whom I would expect deserves more help than 3 white men.
"Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must be the joy of doing something beautiful."
Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy of the Aravind Eye Hospital
After watching the movie Blood Diamond yesterday, I remembered a unique photoessay of the actual events in a long lost copy of the Foreign Policy magazine (Sept/Oct 2005). The photoessay is by Kadir Van Lohuizen, and is titled "A Trail of Diamonds". I thought it would be good to share this because, unless you have a physical copy of the magazine, you won't be able to access the story.
It only takes weeks for a diamond, once uncovered in an African mine, to travel to India to be cut and polished and land in the showrooms of Paris and New York. The journey reveals some of globalisation's greatest fault lines - inequality, child labour, and outsourcing - and the people who too often fall through the cracks.
Riches under foot: In Angola, Sierra Leone and Congo, miners work for food but receive no wages. People dig, sieve, and wash bags of rock and dirt in 12-hour shifts, and the mines almost never close.
Faith corrupted: Many Congolese diamond traders like Pastor Mbaya Kafui are also clergymen. "I started my own church," says Kafui. "About 10,000 people visit 3 times a week. They sell their diamonds to me after service."
Boomtowns: Life revolves around the diamond trade in Cafunfo, Angola - a town generally acknowledged to boast the most valuable diamonds in the world.
Passage to India: The cargo is loaded onto the next flight to Antwerp. It was once the diamond capital of the world, with 15,000 workers. Now there are about 1,500. The stones will touch down only briefly before being flown to India.
Supply side: In the city of Surat, 150 miles north of Bombay, nearly 1,000,000 people are employed by the diamond industry. Many sleep on the factory floor. 70% of the world's production is now concentrated here.
Economies of scale: Chiman Choudhry, 60, and Yogesh, 13, both moved to Surat to work as diamond polishers. They each work 12-hour days and earn $60 a month for their labour.
For richer or poorer: Last year, grooms spent nearly $4.5 billion on engagement rings. "Clients usually make an appointment," says Philippe Schaeffer, a Paris jeweler. "They go away and think about it - then they come back."
I'm sure most of you at this stage are familiar with the concept of the long tail economics. For those who're not, here's a teaser:
Longtail economics are most visible on the internet. It has become cheaper to store more of the "niches" as the costs of distribution and storage are greatly reduced. The popular example used here is the difference between the amount of music available at your biggest music store vs. itunes. At no additional cost, itunes can store an all of the "niches" (rare stuff) not to found at music stores. The limited amount of physical space restricts these stores to holding only the "hits" (popular stuff). Business models that can accomodate the long tail at low costs will naturally become more profitable.
The longtail concept can be applied to almost any field, not just business - politics, philanthropy, etc, all have long tails. If you understand the "power law", it's very easy to understand the long tail. The head of the tails depicts where things are concentrated at - where the hits are. The tail instead depicts the rest of the world (the un-hits). In terms of sociology the head of the tail signifies where popular culture is and tail end signifies things happening on the fringe.
This leads us to another topic - innovation only happens in the fringe. So if you're trying to predict the next big thing' it's always good to track the fringe. Now we're back to the internet - more specifically - weblogs. Blogs have become the most popular tool platform for self-expression. Whenever we blog, we leave a digital trail of ourselves; as a result, it has become a great resource for the business community to find out more about our tastes (likes and dislikes) and the trends we create and follow.
A host of tools have sprung up to help trend analysts identify and track trends:
Hittail - a website that spits out trends trends from blogs in the long tail. It uses a bunch of complicated algorithms to do this.
Blogpulse - works like google trends - measure what people are blogging about using graphs.
Google trends - it measures people's googling habits using graphs. For fun, here's a graph I found on popular types of babes.
Recently, I had the opportunity to give talks on trend analysis and trend mining at a conference on New Media (Youfest) in Bangkok and also at a class on the same topic at the Faculty of Communications at Thammasat University in Bangkok. Youfest, was simply a gathering for Thailand's "silicon valley techies" to present their latest endeavours.
Here's a copy of the both presentations:
Consumer trends
Trend mining
If you're interested in watching the whole conference, here's the link to download the torrent (200Mb):
Youfest torrent
We recently completed a guidebook for social entrepreneurs on how to get started with their ideas/ventures. There are still some minor additions and improvements that have to be made before the final draft is released. In the meantime, here's a taste of the beta version:
The book is meant to inspire and help young people plan their ventures before setting off and implementing their ideas.
Are smart people overrated? They definitely are. I've come to this conclusion not just because the world continues to be unnecessarily plagued by problems that can be easily solved if enough "smart people" focus their energies on it, but because I've personally witnessed flawed decision-making by the so-called experts.
Our inherent education systems are left-brain oriented. They tend to define smartness as the capability of memorising and regurgitating a huge volume of information. This left-brain paradox has left many creative people (right-brains) thinking that they are dumb and cannot succeed in this world.
The transition of ages is already beginning to occur in some parts of society where the ability to be creative gives you an upper-hand to your left-brain, more sequential peers. A clear example where this shift is taking place is in the internet - platform where innovative ideas clearly dominate!
I'm attaching 3 interesting articles of which I find shows us good examples of smart people being overrated and the shift from the information to the conceptual age:
Seven Habits of Highly Defective Investors by Paul Krugman
Download krugman_7habits.pdf
Talent Myth by Malcolm Gladwell
Download talent.pdf
Excerpt from "A Whole New Mind" by Dan Pink
Download pink_new_mind.pdf
Conferences can be quite overwhelming. They're often filled with rigid agendas, ballooning egos and those random persons who're not shy of being garulous and incomprehensible at the same time.
Barcamp is the latest craze in unconferences. It's almost like meeting up with your peers at the pub after work without the pints.
They define their unconferences as "an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants".
The unique characteristic of Barcamps are that they're able to attract the experts that normally head to traditional conferences. At Barcamp, participants interact at the same level with the experts in that specific field.
Pecha Kucha has finally arrived in Bangkok. It started off in Japan as an informal platform for artists, designers and architects to showcase their work, creations, etc.
The event is scheduled for the 18th of Nov 2006, at House RCA, commencing at 19:30.
Blended-value styled Pecha Kucha!
I think it would be great if there was a similar event for those from the social and environmental (blended-value) end to showcase their work. In true pecha kucha sense, the platform should not impose any particular themes, but instead encourage creative and inspirational ideas, solutions, etc.
I found an interesting article in the Nov issue of FastCompany. Written by Cheryl Dahle (one of our Judges to evaluate different social ventures for ww.ysei.org), the article sheds light on the existing gap in funding for organisations/businesses that have an integrated social element within their organisation.
For example, if you were running a tourist lodge that provided employment for inner-city youth, most traditional investors would shy away from investing in you. However, social investment funds are made up of investors who recognise and accept below-market returns on investment. Read on in the article below.
FastCompany Article
New Profit
It isn't uncommon for us to be overwhelmed by the sense of loss of direction or focus in our lives. This feeling shouldn't be denied to expose itself as it reminds us that we are only human and allows to keep our feet on the ground from time to time. Loss of focus can emerge is various forms. It can occur in our relationships, career, and every other element of life that we are engaged in.
As with any problem there a potential solutions. I believe there are simple remedies to aid this common dilemma.
Get a Mantra
Before pursuing anything - whether it's a lifepath, career or new startup - we should develop a MANTRA for that particular pursuit. A mantra is short, it's three or four words long. It helps remind us in the back of our minds of what we are trying to achieve with the choices we have made. Ultimately, it helps us understand why we exist.
Use Pyramid Thinking
Pyramid thinking can be very effective in any pursuit - writing, speaking, developing presentations, planning, etc. Popularised by Barbara Minto and commonly used by McKinsey consultants, pyramid-thinking allows you to hierarchically structure points and communicate concepts with clarity.
Very simply, the main point or explanation of the problem (thesis) is delivered clearly at the beginning. Using the picture above, supporting arguments can be based on inductive and deductive reasoning.
inductive reasoning: each of the elements in row two of the pyramid answers a question (e.g. why, how, how do you know) about the idea above it.
deductive reasoning: the supporting argument of inductive reasoning. Each of the elements leads logically to the next.
On the weekend of the 7th, I had the opportunity to attend a conference on creativity in business at the Thailand Center for Design and Creativity (TCDC). The talks ranged along the lines of massclusivity, catalyzing innovation through design thinking (Tom Kelley, MD of IDEO) and building brand value through contradictory marketing/signals (Shubhankar Ray, Creative Director of Camper). With all of the recent coverage of the latest business fad - design and visual thinking by FastCompany and Businessweek - the talks at TCDC seemed more than fitting.
Tom Kelley delivered a rather entertaining and succinct talk on catalysing innovation the IDEO way. Anyone who's read his books will recognise that all of the content came from there - "The Art of Innovation" and "The 10 Faces of Innovation" (he did admit though that having 10 elements in the book was the wrong thing to do - he'd prefered 7 elements instead).
The interplay between design and business is becoming increasingly intertwined. Traditionally, designers that have always stayed in their design departments end up working as mere designers on products, services and experiences. Business strategy has always been a field which has been left to those coming from b-schools. The benefits that can be reaped from designers working on strategy is quite immense. It is time for designers to embrace business beyond the products and services and begin designing strategy.
Designers are inherently capable of:
-engaging the context to and reframe problems
-working abstractly
-visualising (use form to embody and communicate ideas)
-discovering critical relationships
-generating meaningful relationships
Design thinking can be thought of more as a tool that can unlock creativity. It is a discipline with a set of competencies that can be understood in objectively and applied broadly across business functions. There is potential for design to be used strategically, while also using it to create,manage,and grow organisations.
I was having breakfast at Ricky's coffee shop (great breakfast joint on Phra Atit Road, Bangkok) this morning and couldn't help but overhear the conversation taking place between 2 women at the table next to mine. Presumably both had met each other here in Bangkok while on vacation. I could gauge from their conversation that one of them was from Finland and the other from the US. The lady from the US was talking about her love for traveling and how she wanted to explore the world while her boyfriend was at home attending to work and taking care of her pet dog. She then, spent the next half hour raving about how much of a connection she and her dog had with each other. At this point I began to wonder about the role of her boyfriend in all of this - her pet dog seemed to mean more to her than her boyfriend; was he merely existing in her life to take care of her pet while she was away on vacation.
It then occurred to me that this was not the first time that I had heard of girls/women raving uncontrollably about their pets. Why the sudden deep connection with pets? A generation ago you wouldn't have heard of such a thing. I could only come up with the following hypothesis - both evolutionary and biologically young women have always nurtured and cared for children and in modern urban times when fewer women are bearing children, substitutes such as pets begin to fulfill their need-to-nurture tendencies.
Last Wednesday the Thai military led by General Sondhi (a muslim who I imagine is fasting during this Ramadan) seized the government in a coup which ousted ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra. At around the same time, the boss at the social enterprise I work at was planning to reorganise and reshape the workplace. He issued some radical changes that had to be carried out. Some of us were quite pleased with the changes but most were taken aback and showed some amount of hesitation.
Similarly, the Thai coup has generated mixed reactions from individuals of all walks of life - the average man, intellectuals, and western influenced foreigners. I use the term "western influenced" because of their perpetual reference to the fact that the pursuit of democracy in Thailand has been weakened tremendously. An attempt to understand if true democracy ever existed in Thailand would yield an unlikely answer - NO.
When Thaksin ascended to power through the noble effort of an election, very few realised that votes were bought and elections were rigged. During his reign, he's changed laws to benefit his businesses and limited the amount of press freedom. Many individuals have come to the conclusion that the military coup has yielded more freedom and a greater potential toward implementing true democracy.
IDEO, a design consultancy founded in Palo Alto has become synonymous with the art of innovation through the use of design thinking. By helping businesses innovate, the firm has redefined design methodology into a multi-disciplinary, collaborative science that can consistently deliver high-impact results. In essence, design thinking is a rather structured (appears to be chaotic) and holistic approach towards solving problems.
Through publications like the Art of Innovation and the Ten Faces of Innovation, IDEO has made it accessible for the common person (you & me) to apply design thinking for solving problems. The methodology is not restricted to any particular field, it can and should be applied to anything that requires a new solution/innovative approach.
IDEO's 5-step design process includes (Businessweek article PDF):
1) OBSERVATION
2) BRAINSTORMING
3) RAPID PROTOTYPING
4) REFINING
5) IMPLEMENTATION
To delve deeper into the detailed processes involved at each step, I urge you to read the pdf article above.
Links:
Businessweek PDF article
Businessweek Online article
IDEO Method Cards - if you thought the article was informative, the method cards show you 51 different ways of conducting a detailed design process
With the internet, the world is at the peril of our fingertips. We're capable of achieving almost anything with the continuosly evolving applications found on the web. However, many of us still find ourselves lost in trying to maximise some of the most simple functions that are avaiable - "search".
"Searching" has become a modern-day past time ever since the birth of Google. Google's search technology enables us to find results that are closer to our expectations. We're now able to find what we're looking for more efficiently and in much less time. However, Google is not the only world available in the "search" universe.
Below are more platforms/tools that we can use to maximise our search efforts:
Delicious - social bookmarks site that enables us to view what members have searched for on any topic; a sort of a google of individual search collections.
Wikipedia - ever expanding online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone who can add more information on any topic
Twingine - formerly known as Yagoohoogle, this site enables us to view our search results from both Yahoo & Google
Technorati - blogs can be a wealth of information on a variety of topics. Technorati is dedicated for blog searches, rankings, etc
Google Images - good tool to look for images/pics
Getty Images - although I'm not prescribing plagiarism, but it can be a better source of images than Google Images
Flickr - an online photo sharing and management portal
Google Video - enables video searches and uploads of individual clips, but requires Google Video player if viewing clips offline
Google Trends - I highlighted this tool in my last post. Gtrends enables us to map what people have
been searching. Takes us throught he life-cycle of trends.
Youtube - much more popular than Google Video, I believe its because they enable users to upload individual clips much more easily that GVideo; plays the clips online via flash clips
Odeo - allows you to upload your own music, podcasts, etc and share it with the rest of the world
Metacafe - exactly like youtube but less stringent on censorship of various materials
CNet - all the reviews you need on everything related to consumer technology
Download.com - central platform that allows you to download diverse software
Digg - crowd aggregated news platform (read what others find interesting)
Google News - easy to search news and matches results to google trends
FastCompany - great database on fringe business issues that are normally not covered in mainstream media
Economist - provides intelligence and huge databased on business info
Businessweek - your best source of business news
New York Times - i particularly like the travel guides because it provides traditional info and articles by people who have insider information
Worldbank - decent portal for development-related knowledge and info
Google Earth - use it to view and pinpoint exact locations anywhere on earth; I used it to find the location/distance of my hotel and the World Bank in DC when I attended a conference there. Gives you a piece of mind to know info beforehand.
Wiki Search Engine list - database of all the search engines that exist; and the list continues to grow
Trend studies have been on the rise since the late 90s. Accidental guru's such as Malcolm Gladwell, Watts Wacker, Seth Godin, and Duncan J. Watts have all given a shot at explaining the birth, life-cycle and death of trends. We've heard their perspectives filled with "familiar" terminology - memes, idea virus, devox, fringe, six degrees of separation, connectors, mavens, etc.
Google has developed an interesting tool that allows us to watch what the world is searching for - Google trends. It also displays how frequently the topics you've searched for have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.
The example here shows the trend comparison of 3 music groups - the killers (blue line), pharrell (red line), james blunt (orange line) (don't ask me why I chose them - they just popped out).
Keypoint: useful tool for people involved in any form of "market" research to conduct trend-mapping. The use of market in this sense does not refer to its commercial sense, instead it refers more towards an environment or platform.
I recently watched "An Inconvenient Truth" the film we all relate to as Al Gore's film. The film in which he redeems himself after a failed run at the US Presidency. In the film he refers to himself as someone that used to be "the next president of the US". "An Incovenient Truth" is a good film. It was a good mastery of the art of clearly communicating what to many seemed a dull subject to contend with.
But the point about this post is not to highlight Al Gore or global warming. This post is dedicated to the person behind the recent surge of socially relevant movies such as "An Inconvenient Truth", "Good Night and Good Luck", "Syriana", "Fastfood Nation", etc - Jeff Skoll. He is someone that exudes a general nonchalance that can be very misleading in his pursuit to change the world.
Jeff Skoll used to be the President of eBay. Since leaving the company, he's started 2 ventures that have made significant social impact. His $600 million Skoll Foundation makes funds available to social entrepreneurs who are tackling the world's biggest problems. Participant Productions is the first film company that produces compelling films and other kinds of media that are socially relevant. The company is a social enterprise in that it aims to boost awareness of one of six issues: the environment, health, human rights, institutional responsibility, peace and tolerance, and social and economic equity while remaining financially sustainable. So far, his movies have garnered 11 Academy Award nominations.
In essence, this is proof that one person can be all the difference in creating change.
Links:
Skoll Foundation
Participant Productions
Fast company article
Wikilink
From a traditional sense people tend to relate deviant behavior as behavior that is a violation of social norms - particularly anything criminal or other negative elements.
I tend to classify deviance more constructively and share the definition provided by the authors (Watts Wacker & Ryan Matthews) of the Deviant's Advantage - something or someone operating in a defined measure away from the norm.
The book examines the transformation that takes fringe ideas such as jazz, holistic medicine, and even personal computing into mass markets. Using examples such as Richard Branson (founder of Virgin & "poster boy" for deviance), they show the process of taking a peripheral (fringe) idea to the mainstream and applying it to one's business. Richard Branson's deviance comes from his notion that everyday people should be able to have a lifestyle that would normally be closed to them. A regional deviant that comes to mind is Tony Fernandes - CEO of AirAsia.
The seeds of deviance are rooted within us; it is a part of our DNA. The only hurdle is learning how to channel it constructively to yield revolutionary results. This doesn't just apply to businesses, the emergence of social enterprises is a sure-fire sign that deviance can transform a once laggard sector into one that creates alot of positive impact.
TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. It's a conference that brings together the movers and shakers involved with paradigm shifting ideas. They're now making the content from TED more accessible through providing a collection of presentations from their annual conference.
Each year, TED hosts some of the world’s most fascinating people: Trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses. The talks they deliver have had had such a great impact, we thought they deserved a wider audience.
I would suggest definitely listening to the talk on innovation by Sir Ken Robinson and the presentation by Majora Carter a social entrepreneur on community development . I find it one of the most interesting ones here.
Other speakers include:
Rick Warren
Pastor Rick Warren is author of The Purpose-Driven Life, which has sold 30 million copies worldwide. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 21:46)
Dan Dennett
Dan Dennett is a Tufts philosophy professor and cognitive scientist, most famous for his books, Consciousness Explained (1991) and Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (1995). In this talk, he responds to the presentation by Pastor Rick Warren, taking issue with claims in his book, The Purpose-Driven Life. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 25:29)
Julia Sweeney
Julia Sweeney is a comedian and playwright, performing here an excerpt from “Letting Go of God.” (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
Joshua Prince-Ramus
Joshua Prince-Ramus is architect of the Seattle Public Library and principal of REX (Ramus-Ella Architects). (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
Al Gore
Al Gore, in his own words, “used to be the next President of the United States of America” but has since changed professions. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson is author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, and a leading expert on innovation and human resources. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
Majora Carter
Majora Carter is the Macarthur-winning founder of Sustainable South Bronx, an organization dedicated to holistic community development, sponsoring projects that create jobs, protect the environment and bring beautiful green space to the inner city. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
David Pogue
David Pogue is the personal technology columnist for The New York Times, an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News, and one of the world’s bestselling how-to authors. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
Tony Robbins
Tony Robbins is father of the life-coaching industry. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
Hans Rosling
Hans Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden’s world-renowned Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
