#fivequestionswith

[jerrydoby]

#Repost @thehypemagazinenetwork (@get_repost) ・・・ #Salute @trapbeckham for coming through for #TheHypeMagazine #FiveQuestionsWith #interview series. Wishing you much continued success ~ JD Check out the full article on www.thehypemagazine.com

[wolffolinsblog]

Five questions with Fabiola Gianotti

Fabiola Gianotti is a particle physicist at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics in Switzerland generally accepted as one of the greatest research centres in the world. In 2012, she announced that the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had discovered the Higgs boson, together with the other big LHC experiment, CMS. In 2016 Fabiola will become the 16th person to lead CERN as Director-General and the first woman to do so. For any designers reading this, Fabiola's also well known for her love of the typeface Comic Sans.

What are the most significant shifts affecting your world? At CERN we operate the biggest and most powerful accelerator ever built by mankind - the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is housed in a 27km ring 100m underground. It allows 2 beams of high-energy protons circulating in the two different directions – clockwise and anti-­clockwise – to collide at 4 points of the ring where 4 giant particle detectors are installed. It took over 25 years of effort by the international community to build the accelerator and the experiments, which are jewels of technology. Many of the technologies we developed at CERN have been transferred to society, from the worldwide web to instruments for medical applications.

During the first LHC operation period (2010-13) we recorded a lot of data and produced a wealth of beautiful physics results. The highlight was the discovery of the Higgs boson. This tiny particle is special and it's a key element to understand why the universe is what it is. Without the Higgs boson, elementary particles like the electrons and quarks, which are the fundamental constituents of atoms, would not have a mass. And if electrons and quarks did not have a mass, atoms could not stick together – and matter as we know it would not exist. The universe and even us would not exist in the form that we know – so the Higgs boson is a crucial part of our understanding of nature.

Understanding the origin of the particle masses is only one of the crucial questions for which the Large Hadron Collider was conceived and built. With the discovery of the Higgs boson we have answered that question, but there are many others. For instance, when we look at the nice sky at night, what we see, stars and galaxies, are only 4% of the universe. The remaining 96% is dark. Dark means that it is made of forms of matter and energy that we don't know (yet) and that do not interact with our instruments. So one of the most exciting goals of the LHC in the coming years will be to discover the particle that is responsible for dark matter, if such a particle is accessible at the energies explored by the LHC. If this happens, it will be a big triumph, as it will explain what comprises about 25% of the universe when today we only understand about 4%.

There are many more mysteries to investigate, such as why the universe is made up mainly of matter, with very little anti matter, how to describe the fundamental forces in one framework, etc.

What do you see as the key growth areas for you over the next 12 months? At CERN we try to understand the fundamental constituents of matter and how the universe works.  The LHC starts to operate again in the coming weeks after two years of shut down. We will be able to collide proton beams at higher energy than before (almost a factor of two higher) and therefore we should be able to explore the above mentioned and other questions with larger opportunities for success.

To achieve these exciting scientific goals, we develop cutting edge technologies in a huge number of sectors, from superconducting magnets to cryogenics, electronics, just to mention a few. Many of the technologies we create go on to be used in a variety of useful ways across the world and in ways that affect all of us. So when people ask how discovering the Higgs boson will change our lives, I answer that it has already. Because we had to develop so much innovative technology in order to discover this particle, which is already being used to make our lives better.

CERN is also an incredible human adventure and a concrete example of peace. Here, more than 10000 scientists from all over the world (over 100 different nationalities) work together peacefully, animated by the shared passion for science and for advancing the frontier of knowledge.

Does ‘brand’ play any role in promoting what you do? Research is not much a question of ‘brand’. But I think it’s very important that scientists come out of the laboratory to explain what they do. Science and knowledge are a legacy and a wealth for mankind. Scientists don't do what they do just for themselves. Ultimately, they do it for everybody. If I am an artist and paint something, it is not just to hang it in my room. Knowledge and art belong to everybody, and it’s our duty to show society what we are doing. Education is also extremely important – from the youngest age to university. Teachers are responsible for propagating knowledge but also for making as many fields of knowledge accessible to the kids. I’m very perturbed when I hear young people say they hate mathematics. If they hate mathematics it's because they were not taught mathematics in the most attractive way. Indeed, mathematics can be fun, it can be a game and so stimulating from an intellectual point of view. This is one of the reasons why at CERN we run programmes for teachers and students, as well as physics, computing and accelerator schools for young physicists. Direct experience in a scientific laboratory like CERN really helps people understand science better and to get passionate. We promote outreach and education, to engage more and more of the public at all ages and levels.

Often we, scientists, are not able to explain science in a simple way and the public thinks that what we do is extremely complex, intricate and impenetrable. But physics is simple. The fundamental laws of physics can be written on a page, they are elegant and beautiful.

What or who inspired you in the early years of your career? I was a curious child and asked myself many questions, like why do the stars stick to the sky, where do we come from, where are we going, why do things work the way they do in nature? At the age of 16-17, when deciding what to study at University, I thought that physics might help me answer some of these questions. Furthermore, when I was 17 I read a biography of Marie Curie which impressed me a lot. I enjoyed the kind of domestic way she did physics. She would be cooking supper in one room and then go into another room to check on how her tests of radioactive materials were progressing. It gave me a sense of how integral physics is to day to day life. It was really something special. Of course, at that time I would never have predicted that I would be working in the biggest experiment in the world in the future. I mean the ATLAS detector is 45 m long and certainly wouldn't fit in my apartment!

My father was a geologist and he transferred a love of nature, curiosity and attention to the detail. We would take long walks in the mountains and stop to admire a little flower or an insect. My mother was in the field of humanities and literature. So at home we would chat about everything. The discussions were always interesting and entertaining and not just around science. My parents taught me intellectual rigour and breadth, and the love for knowledge. I don't regret my education in humanities as it was complementary to what I did later on. It was great that I could study humanities up to 18 and still choose a scientific direction for my university topic. It’s very important that the school system does not close paths too early.

What advice would you pass on to others starting out? My general advice is not of course to only study physics! Choose something you love and do it with courage, passion and determination. Be stubborn, in the right sense of the word, i.e. facing challenges with determination and without being scared of them. At the same time be modest and humble. Because only by being modest and humble can we hope to give our best. Also, we realize every day how limited what we know is, in every branch of knowledge, compared to what we don't know. Newton used to say "what we know is a droplet, what we don't know is an ocean". So only if we are humble and modest can we hope to make a step up and advance our understanding.

I believe each one of us as an individual can bring something special to our work. Our DNA is different, our personality is different and we can bring our specific talents to what we do. We should preserve the richness and diversity of mankind from gender, ethnicity, culture, religion etc. It's good that the world becomes more global and barriers are reduced while at the same time we maintain our personality, origin and tradition as our originality also comes from that while working together. We should celebrate our individuality as well our collaboration. I find this inspiring.

I loved everything and at the end decided on physics. But whatever I had pursued, I think I would have made it with similar enthusiasm. When we do something we like, we commit in depth and with passion. If I had 10 different lives I would engage in 10 different directions. My advice is to explore what you enjoy and to find your passion.

[pobber]

Five Questions with Jon-Paul Kaiser

In ‘Five Questions with..’, artists answer five questions about the art piece they have just released. 

We recently released 'The Ripper' by Jon-Paul Kaiser, a 18 x 24 inch Screenprint, and asked him to answer 5 questions about the print.

Tell us a little bit about this print and how the idea came about?

I’m fascinated by all kinds of different legends throughout time and the Ripper has a particular draw. The setting in smoggy Victorian London, down in the shadowy underworld of Whitechapel. A time and place that feels so long ago, almost alien and yet really isn’t that long ago at all..

I wanted to capture the moment when you turn your head to see who those footsteps belong to, only for it to be your worst fear realized.

How long did it take to complete this?

Weeks! The main drawing itself took a couple of days, then the art-working and tweaks took a lot longer.

What is unique about this and why should people buy this print?

It’s a dark piece, with an iconic character and my take on him, using my distinctive style and is a striking piece.

Describe this print in one word.

Fear

Anything else we may have forgotten?

Not that I can think of…

 The Ripper is available exclusively via SubUrban Vinyl. Get it here.

[wolffolinsblog]

Five questions with Katja Seidenschnur

In the eighth of a series of interviews with inspiring female leaders, Wolff Olins' global COO, Sairah Ashman, interviews Katja Seidenschnur.

Katja Seidenschnur is responsible for the Nescafé Dolce Gusto business in Europe, the next billionaire brand at Nestlé. Nescafé Dolce Gusto is a portioned coffee system, which is providing great-quality coffee-shop beverages at home. Previously, Katja held various leadership roles in marketing, innovation and business management at Henkel and Nestlé, and was educated at IMD and Harvard Business School.

What are the most significant shifts influencing your business?

There are three key shifts influencing our business: the economic crisis; technology, especially in digital; and finally lifestyle and demographic changes.

The economic crisis

The economic crisis has put our consumers under pressure. So on one hand we need to look at how we can be more efficient and smart – simplifying and driving out unnecessary costs and waste - and on the other, how we can be more innovative and differentiated, in order to have more meaningful brands that can’t be easily replicated. We need to add value to our consumers and customers. In Europe we’re generally not going for strong economic growth but market-share gains, so we have to think about what our consumers value, how we communicate what we offer beyond our product and how we create an emotional bond with them. Technology also supports us here by enabling us to add in extra features and services that make us differentiated.

Technology

More than ever before we need to be fast, honest and transparent. Technology has enabled us to talk directly and personally with our consumers and vice versa, which presents us with huge opportunities. But also, consumers are more demanding of us and we are more accountable. For example, our consumers challenge us to answer questions, like ‘what’s in my food?’, ‘where does it come from?’, ‘how sustainable are we?’ and ‘what do we give back to society?’ So, for example, even though our supply chain is incredibly complicated, we’ve had to gain even more control of it so that we can provide answers. In doing so, we’ve streamlined our operations and ask more questions of suppliers. This is making us a more socially aware, environmentally friendly and robust as a result.

Lifestyle and demographics

The other key shift for us is in nutrition and health. In Europe we’re seeing higher health insurance costs, rising levels of obesity and more sedentary lifestyles. Food can play an important role by offering better nutrition. We are making a great deal of effort to be the leader as a nutrition, health and wellness company, to be better than the competition from a taste and health perspective, to offer more nutritious food for the older population and setting the important base when it comes to children.

What do you see as the key growth accelerators over the next 12 months?

The key drivers for us are innovation and playing in the right categories. For example, portioned coffee and our brands Nescafé Dolce Gusto and Nespresso are clear growth drivers for our region. Also of course responding to the trends I mentioned previously - linked to convenience, customization, pleasure – will be key.

What role do you see brand playing in this?

Brand is very important for us, especially in Europe where a specific, niche and focused brand has the power to create relationships with our customers, to create an emotional link, to be an expression of who they stand for. For me, the formula for a great brand is one that tells stories of origin and history, of trust and purpose, and one that makes you dream.

Who inspired you in the early years?

I draw inspiration from my early life – my father was an explorer and an entrepreneur – he taught me the value in being open-minded and determined. My mum taught me to be generous.

In my professional life, a boss inspired me - he was a change leader, tearing down walls between people. He had a clear purpose and from that created a belief that everyone could strive for. He was consistent in bringing people together, trusting others and focusing on results.

What advice would you pass on to others just starting out?

It’s unlikely that your career will be linear so take chances and opportunities as they arise, you just don’t know where they might lead. The only thing that will be a constant through it all is you. So stay true to yourself. 

[wolffolinsblog]

Five questions with... Carolyn Dailey

In the sixth of a series of interviews with inspiring female leaders, Wolff Olins’ global COO, Sairah Ashman, interviews Carolyn Dailey.

Carolyn is one of the most influential figures in the creative industries, currently founder and CEO of The Dailey Partnership, the strategy and branding boutique for the creative industries, and previously MD of Time Warner International in London. Wired Magazine recently named Carolyn one of the top 10 women Digital Powerbrokers.

What are the biggest shifts influencing your business?

It’s undoubtedly technology and how it’s making creativity and the creative process a real-time two-way conversation. It’s transforming how we interact with creative talent too. Making everything more direct, more mobile and more visual. It’s allowing us all to move from a monologue to a dialogue. Through technology creative people can reach new audiences, express themselves in new ways and create new products. With audiences reacting and responding directly.

Technology is also lowering the barriers to entry for all of the creative industries – For example a talented filmmaker can make a fantastic film for very little money and distribute it themselves - this focuses competition on talent rather than on who can afford access to expensive infrastructure. It’s a really exciting time to be creating and making things.

Lastly, technology is breaking down silos in creativity - so people in fashion are starting to work more with people in TV, or with digital media or in design. There’s an enormous amount of crossover and interesting collaborations taking place as a result.  Just look at fashion icon Burberry work with film and at Zaha Hadid, whom we think of as an architect, but who is now designing shoes, furniture and jewellery with other creatives. And then there is fashion designer Jonathan Saunders being asked by museum curators to stage his fashion week catwalk show at the Tate Modern.

What are the key growth accelerators for your business over the next 12 months?

The wonderful things that tech has enabled mean that my clients - creative people and companies who are all innovators - can now do entirely new and different things.

Established creative forces are starting to do brand new things – like moving well-loved literary characters across the worlds of digital, film and television and vice versa and often simultaneously - and newcomers are emerging who previously couldn’t have. And these two groups have an effect on each other, they’re starting to cross-pollinate in a serious way.  This means we’re beginning to understand there is currency in creativity, connection, and cross-pollination and it is driving huge growth in the business of creativity.

Aside from my own business I am also very involved in a number of social enterprises and, in that context, I see people measuring value in new ways, such as social impact where money is not the only currency. New models are emerging that are about more than that and altering our traditional definitions of value and that is accelerating growth greatly in the social enterprise space.

What role do you see brand playing in helping achieve your goals?

Brand has always been the most valuable asset – it can literally transform a business, as I was lucky enough to learn first-hand working with HBO. Brand is now more important than it has ever been. Content is brand and it helps you make choices more clearly and easily in a world that is non-stop. We’re overwhelmed with so much information that the most important thing is to be distinct, to be known and to own whatever space you operate in.

There used to be a broadcast mentality in branding. The approach was, ‘we’ll just find a couple of consumer insights, build this thing called a brand and then find a way to promote and sell it’. But now creating a brand has become much more of a dialogue or a conversation and what is interesting is that that conversation is starting to influence the product and ideas – shaping them in real time as they move along.

So brand is increasingly about the influential distinctive voice – both online and offline.  In terms of having one and also letting others freely influence by becoming your co-creators and ambassadors.

What or who inspired you in the early years of your career?

Family was my early foundation – instilling hard work, shooting for the best and living your values.  Then no question about it, the person who inspired me most in my early career was Ted Turner, the founder of CNN. 

At the time I’d never met anyone quite like him - the ultimate visionary and imaginer of new things and new ways of doing things. He was absolutely fearless and that was the most inspiring thing. He found out the most he could about something and then went with instinct. I don’t think he’s ever done a focus group. Ever. He just imagines things and then makes them happen.

In a small way that is what we were asked to do while launching CNN in Europe back in the 90’s – pursue the big ideas like bringing more freedom of information to more people and then figure out how to deliver the things that would make that happen, from dealing with government decision makers who’d never heard of satellites to finding out the cheapest place to buy office supplies! That time taught me to always look at things in a non-traditional way and find new ways to deliver.

What advice would you pass on to others just starting out?

It sounds really simple, but figure out what you’re really good at and do more of it. Experiment and be really open to doing whatever it takes to learn everything you can. The happy coincidence is that that what you’re good at is usually the thing that you really love. So decide what things you love, and then think very open-mindedly about the jobs you can pursue that will let you put the things you love doing into practice.

  Sairah Ashman is global COO of Wolff Olins. 

Click here to read the other interviews in the series.

[wolffolinsblog]

Five questions with Diane Morgan

In the fifth in a series of interviews with inspiring female leaders, Wolff Olins’ global COO, Sairah Ashman, interviews Diane Morgan. Diane is a global business education leader. 

What are the most significant shifts influencing your business?

There are four big shifts affecting education right now. Demographics is the first. In the West, we’re living longer, retiring later and experiencing multiple careers. As our lives change, our educational needs change with us: we used to go to college for our studies and then spend the rest of our lives learning at work. Now, we need lifelong education. The big question for employers and educators is how to continually educate and train a workforce that will be in work for the next 50 – 70 years. 

The second shift is in how technology is changing everything – it’s enabling us to access education on a global scale, to learn from our peers via social networking and to even open-source our education. It’s also changing our educational needs in its own right, as tech advancement is so rapid, we need to continually keep up.

The third is around cost, especially given recent turbulent times.  Funding and access is under greater scrutiny and of increasing importance. A lot of education is privately funded through loans, which puts pressure on education choices and first job salary expectations. More thought is going into market demands and how to be immediately market ready.

The final shift has to do with diversity and this has several strands to it.  At a meta level, we’re now seeing strong competition from fast growth markets offering excellent higher education opportunities locally. People who previously educated themselves abroad are increasingly staying local and building their networks in markets they’ll eventually work in. This is increasing choice and competition.

We’re also seeing diversity within people’s expectations and goals from education. This requires us to have a good grasp of needs from both a global and a local perspective, so we can build the right resources and tools to meet those goals and aspirations.

Finally, and directly relevant to your theme of encouraging women in business, we’re changing the make up of businesses by investing in women in the early and mid stages of their careers. At one end of the spectrum we’re looking at how schools recruit and fund in this area.  While also directly funding Black, Hispanic and Asian Women’s’ MBAs, which is helping to build personal careers but also long term case studies and role models for the future.

What are the key growth accelerators for your business over the next 12 months?

This incredible explosion of online education and educators. We’re seeing similar shifts in education that we saw in newspapers when content first went online. There is a completely new interest in this space and many are arguing that it will never take off. But then you have the rise of something like Huffington Post (in newspapers) or Coursera (in education) which proves the new models and leads editors or educators to ask – how do we take advantage of the great content that we have to offer and connect that with something that the market really needs? How do we create a first mover advantage, how do we hang on to our intellectual property, while adapting to this changed environment?

There will still be a need for traditional education but online education is going to completely upend how schools allocate resources, the expectations of students and the delivery of content. It will take education from something that was traditionally elite to something for everyone. 

What role do you see brand playing in helping achieve your goals?

It’s big and about owning niche or unique spaces and interactions. There’s no longer one single entry point or touch point. This is creating a lot of competition and a lot of individualisation. We’re increasingly selecting brands that help build or augment our own personal brand and vice versa. We’re blending our personal and professional identities to a point where we’re becoming personal brand promoters. Which means there’s an opportunity for brands to become more sophisticated, responsive and tailored for their audiences.

What or who inspired you in the early years of your career?

A couple of things have really informed my progress – to do with people and also situations. I guess first off, I grew up believing anything is possible, literally living the American dream and that I could be President if I really wanted to. I also come from a very supportive family, the kind that encouraged me to take risks and look beyond the usual from an early age. For example, an uncle inspired me to travel early in life, which opened up a world of new experiences and possibilities I wouldn’t have known otherwise. It helped me understand that just when things are starting to feel uncomfortable it usually means something wonderful is about to happen.

What advice would you pass on to others just starting out?

Think big. Think, “I could run a country, I could be a CEO”. Picture yourself doing it. Focus on becoming an expert in your chosen area early on. Actively surround yourself with people who can help you make informed choices and decisions – be open and seek advice. But most of all, don’t give up your passions; find ways to build on them.

Sairah Ashman is global COO of Wolff Olins. 

Go here to read the other interviews in the series. 

[wolffolinsblog]

Five questions with... Kathryn Parsons

In the third of a series of interviews with inspiring female leaders, Wolff Olins’ global COO, Sairah Ashman, interviews Kathryn Parsons. Kathryn is the co-founder of Decoded who demystify the dark arts of the web through code. 

What are the most significant shifts influencing your business?

Decoded is a reaction to the single most important shift of our era - technology. The new global challenge is to equip ourselves in response to it. And that’s why we’re in the world.

Today every business, sector and system is struggling with a lack of coding skills. Whether it’s governments, entertainment brands or healthcare businesses. We are surprised on a daily basis to discover the extent of this issue globally and locally.

Now more than ever there’s a need for hybrid skills - digital literacy and better programmers. It’s a very rare skillset. We’re in a global race to recruit excellent, amazing programming talent.

Every day we’re trying to hire brilliant coders and programmers, especially women, who can teach others to code. 

What do you see as the key growth accelerators for you over the next 12 months?

As the digital world continues to grow and become more complex, our role becomes clearer and our business more necessary.

We’re looking to develop more products and work with more companies to see how we can help transform their business, or a department in it – taking a digital challenge and helping them find a solution. We also want to continue to Decode the digital dark arts. It took us a year to develop Code_in a Day and we are still tweaking and improving it. We’ve also launched Data Visualisation_in a Day and Social Data_in a Day, and we’re working on tackling big issues like cyber security and future platforms.

It’s really exciting that we’ve just launched CodeED_in a Day – to teach teachers across all subjects. Decoded are experts at teaching professionals and if you teach one teacher, think about how many children they can teach. We want to give teachers the tools to bring their subjects alive through technology.

We’ve grown through the evangelism of our alumni  – people telling other people, and being transformed by the experience. I hope that CodeED_in a Day will have a similar ripple effect and promote more digital literacy amongst teachers and children.

What role do you see brand playing in helping to achieve your goals?

When we first set up Decoded we just wanted to crack that mission impossible – could you learn to code in a day? There is something about the Decoded brand that creates equality. Maybe our values like ‘respectful’, ‘interested and interesting’, ‘no bullshit’… and lot of what we do, using beautiful spaces, a wonderful chef who makes food specifically for learning creates an environment which debunks the usual cliches and fears around “tech” and “ed”.

Our brand drives us to tackle big social issues: how do you re-skill people whose existing skills are no longer relevant and who are working in industries that are dying? Digital is a real solution for that across every age group. And it’s not just about Silicon Valley where there’s the money, the entrepreneurs, the technology and the programmers. I love that there’s a Chilean version of Tech City now and other Tech Cities around, doing their homegrown versions.

Speaking of equality, we’ve pretty much had a 50/50 male : female attendance ratio. But we’re aware of the bias towards men in this arena.  Which is why it’s so great to have such strong attendance by women, who then become advocates and encourage their peers to come along.  That’s how you make change happen – advocacy.

What or who inspired you in the early years of your career?

I’ve been seriously lucky to work with people I love and really respect. My co-founders are amazing. Steve Henry is inspirational, his words of wisdom when we get lost in a world of code! Richard Peters and I have worked together for 8 or 9 years and probably still will when we’re 80 and Ali Blackwell – a passionate and amazing educator and technologist.

When I look at how the business has grown I think it’s really through my relationships with other women, some of whom have done courses with Decoded. I have hundreds of women who have helped and mentored me. And hopefully they’ve got something back from me too because that’s how I feel mentoring should work.

For example, Sian Westerman, Managing Director of Rothschild, advocate for women on boards, judge on the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year awards and a Decoded alumnus. Her support and guidance has had an incredible impact upon me and the business. I also recently met Sherry Coutu, an entrepreneur and investor currently working on Founders4Schools, an initiative I am really excited about being involved in.  

I am a big believer in “passing it on”. And I especially make a conscious effort to do this with women. It is incredible to see the impact this can have. Start doing it, and you won’t be able to stop!

What advice would you pass on to others just starting out?

My advice is to be brave and really believe in what you’re going to do. Setting up a business is a tough journey. So find people that you like and trust. And ask for help. Just do it. You will find there is an immense amount of support and goodwill out there. Most of all, embrace the chaos!

  Sairah Ashman is COO of Wolff Olins.

More in this series:

Five questions with Zena Bruges, CEO of The Future Laboratory

Five questions with Sunny Bates, a curator of talent and disruption