Humankind is facing unprecedented revolutions. How can we prepare ourselves and our children for a world of such unprecedented transformations and radical uncertainties?
Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching “the four Cs” — critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. More broadly, they believe, schools should downplay technical skills and emphasize general-purpose life skills. Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, learn new things, and preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations. To keep up with the world of 2050, you will need to do more than merely invent new ideas and products, but above all, reinvent yourself again and again.
Modern marketing is defined by perfection of means and confusion of ends. We are getting more efficient at delivering average. Efficiency is relatively easy. It’s cuts, it’s short-term, it’s rational, it’s targeting, it’s late funnel, it’s low risk. It’s 0 to 0.1. It smells like fresh laundry. Effectiveness is relatively harder. It’s investment, it’s focus, it’s long-term, it’s emotional, it’s fame, it’s ideas, it’s top of funnel, it’s bets, guts and risk. It’s 0 to 1. It has freakish breath.
One of the things that impresses me about Indonesians is their ‘RESILIENCE’ - to bounce back up from any setbacks and failures. Indonesia become one of the top countries to produce some of the highest number of entrepreneurs and small businesses. But it also became one of the countries with a high number of failed businesses. This upcoming event being brought to Jakarta is a good example of this resilient spirit wherein people plan on coming together to talk about moving on from failure.
About the event -
“FuckUp Nights is a global movement active in 84+ countries and 300+ cities to share publicly business failure stories. You will hear three to four people share their failures in 7 minutes and 10 images. After each speaker, there’s a question/answer session, as well as time for networking (beers).
In the third volume of FuckUp Nights Jakarta you will hear stories from
Dian Hasan
Co-Founder of Impact Hub Jakarta and Coworkinc
Rafael Jeffry Anwar Sani
Director of AccelerAsia
Delvy Gusmiranto
Sales Manager at RIFF APAC
Farina J. Situmorang
Managing Partner at Catalyst Strategy and CMO of HARA”
The Swedish furniture company just opened its first store in India–and just like Ikea does in most countries, it has carefully adjusted the inventory, design, and even food to fit local tastes.
As Ikea has expanded into Asia over the last five years, this has been a crucial part of its strategy–along with preserving the company’s instantly recognizable brand and its famed shopping experience. But even crucial elements of Ikea’s business, like flatpacking most furniture, have to be rethought in some Asian countries, where consumers expect that furniture is assembled for them. Here’s how Ikea tweaked its design in its new Indian store–and around the world. –– ADVERTISEMENT –– [Image: courtesy Ikea] INDIAN FURNITURE CAN BEAT THE HEAT AND HUMIDITY In the hot, humid climate of southern India, untreated pine furniture–which might work in cooler climates–is a no-go. As the New York Times reports, that meant the company had to adjust some of its furniture designs to use different materials. And because people tend to clean their floors using water, the designers added risers to keep furniture from getting wet. The way Indian families use their space also impacted the number of product options: Because impromptu family gatherings are common, Ikea offers a greater number of stools and folding chairs in the India store. [Image: courtesy Ikea] CHINESE IKEA SHOWROOMS GET THEIR VERY OWN BALCONIES The displays in the showroom are culturally relevant as well: In China, the showroom includes an entire section on balconies, which are common in Chinese homes. But in southern China, these balcony displays show them being used to dry clothes, while in northern Chinese Ikea stores, the displays show the balcony as another place for food storage–both according to the custom in the area.
We’ve well and truly been in the purposeful brands era these past five plus years, but how many brands truly have a higher order brand purpose that gets
We’re now seeing so many esoteric and vacuous brand purpose statements, which often only serve to make a marketer feel like they’re doing something more meaningful.
A little bit of me dies every time I hear the words: “We need to rethink our North Star…” Think Coke’s “To refresh the world… inspiring moments of optimism and happiness”. Think Starbucks with their purpose of “Inspiring the human spirit”. Seriously, it’s BS. I just want a brilliant coffee experience, thanks.
Whilst I certainly don’t discount the need for brands to contribute to humanity beyond generating profit and shareholder value, I think we as marketers need to be a little less indulgent in the role we think our brands play in people’s lives. Brands like Patagonia have it built in at a foundational level, that’s why their purpose works across their entire business.
People want to believe in things. We are a herd species and we generally swarm towards ideas, movements, people and brands where there’s a shared belief system. Strong heuristics that activate the Systems 1 (primal, emotional, fast, unconscious processing) part of the brain. In my humble opinion, I’ve found that by obsessing about your brand conviction (or belief), marketers can get to a far more interesting, inspiring and genuinely insightful space that’s centred around the value the brand can create for people.
If brand purpose is at 30,000 feet, a great brand conviction is 10,000 feet. Still inspiring and aspirational, but within reach (for a skydiver anyway) and most importantly, actionable.
Brand conviction/ belief statements should express what the brand is passionate about and how they deliver on that experience. It needs to have stretch but be based on truth. It should then inform how the brand behaves. It should serve as your guiding light to attract believers, not just consumers.
Those folks that will defend you and stick with you when times are tough. I don’t see people lining up to defend Coke’s ‘refresh the world’. How about a commitment to drastically reduce plastic bottles? That’ll refresh our world a little bit. Here’s a handful of brands I respect who have simple yet powerful brand conviction/ belief statements that inform not only their brand communications but their entire brand experience, both internally and externally. Airbnb, Tesla, Samsung, Nike
Experience teaches us that when we are in the act of writing we are alone and on our own, in a kind of absolute state of Do Not Disturb. And experience tells us further that each story is a specific thing, never a general thing—never. The words in the story we are writing now might as well never have been used before. They all shine; they are never smudged. Stories are new things, stories make words new; that is one of their illusions and part of their beauty. And of course the great stories of the world are the ones that seem new to their readers on and on, always new because they keep their power of revealing something.
| Eudora Welty, The Reading and Writing of Short Stories (via stoweboyd)
Love the insight and the work from The Container Store. They are not in the business of selling practical boxes, they are in the business of making more space at home.
The brand’s new tagline "Where Space Comes From" taps into the universal truth around the struggle to overcome the space issues that plague us all. From kitchens, to garages, to closets, making the most of our space can feel like an insurmountable feat if we don’t have the right support. These practical challenges are presented as the grand quandaries they can often feel like in our lives. Framing everyday situations in the grandeur of science, the new campaign tackles questions that always lead to the same answer: The Container Store. “This campaign is designed to speak to consumers going through different life stages – whether that’s buying a new home, growing their families or downsizing,” said Felipe Avila, vice president of marketing at The Container Store. “We want to connect with them through stories they can relate to and identify with.”
“The pyramid is the total amount of time spent consuming media in a day. The items at the top of the pyramid should contribute the least to your overall media consumption, because they aren’t good for you. The things at the base should contribute the most because they are good for you.“
I was going through the author Paul Auster's interview on his process of writing in this month's Monocle and these excerpts describe the world of writing so brilliantly:
Monocle: As you write, are you describing images in your head?
PA: Oh yes, they're images - I see it all very clearly. If two people are talking in a living room, even if I don't describe the furniture in the passage, I know where all the sofas and chairs and tables are. In the brain, imagination and memory are the same thing, in the same place; dual functions of the same natural process. Novels are "remembering things that have never happened"
Monocle: What do you ask other writers?
PA: South African author John Coatzee talked about his writing process - that he imagines his work as him walking down a road and he just puts the suitcase on the road and leaves it there and walks on. I like that; the suitcase is just there for other people to take.
And just like that, now when I look at my bookshelf, it looks like its filled with other people's suitcases.
I can never read self-help books or autobiographies because they are too preachy and make zero impact on my life. BUT, 'Tiny Beautiful Things' by Cheryl Strayed/Dear Sugar is witty, anecdotal, non-preachy, insightful and just filled with so many fun little snippets that do not preach or teach or sympathise or empathise. All it does is give perspective.
And here's one story that I read today:
Cary Grant wasn't born a suave and bedazzling movie star. He wasn't even born Cary Grant. He was a lonely kid whose depressed mother was sent to a madhouse without his knowlege when he was nine or ten. His father told him she'd gone on an extended vacation. He didn't know what became of her until he was well into his thirties, when he discovered her still institutionalised, but alive. He was kicked out of school in England at 14 and by 16, he was traveling across the US performing as a stilt-walker and acrobat and mime. Eventually he found his calling as an actor and changed his name to the one we know him by. Of himself, Cary Grant said 'I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point.' Play every piece of yourself and play it with all you've got until you're not playing anymore. That's what Cary Grant did. The lonely boy who lost his mom in the fog of this father's deceit found himself in the magic of wanting to be. His name was Archibald Leach.
*Cary Grant is the Don Draper of 30s Hollywood.
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
I’d begin by pointing out that just about everyone is anxious. The first way around it is to not label yourself. You might feel anxious, but you aren’t an anxious person. The steps that worked for me:
Present to dogs. Dogs and small children. Do it often. Magic tricks, powerpoint presentations, singing. Doesn’t matter. Do it for dogs. Do it for small children. Daily.
Then, present to strangers. Go to the train station and see if you sell someone on a tour of the city for $5. Get on the phone and see if you can get a tech support person to laugh at something you say.
Then, present to people at a meetup group or toastmasters or some other group of generous strangers. Nothing at stake. Present on something you care about. Organize a wine tasting, etc.
