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April 19, 2007
MySafety: Teen Privacy on MySpace
In the era of social networks, many media outlets have focused on issues of privacy and it is not uncommon to hear older adults aghast at what kids or younger adults like myself make available as public information. Kids are putting there sexual orientation out there for anyone to see, posting every up and down in their relationships, and showcasing pictures of drunken nights in places like MySpace and Facebook.
I have been a member of Facebook since 2004 and recently caved to some friendly peer-pressure and joined the MySpace revolution. As someone who is so visible online I sometimes feel that the whole world can follow my every move. I often worry about what a potential employer might think or if some creepy person is checking me out without my knowledge. It makes me feel safer to know that these sites have given me the resources to only let certain people become part of my cyber life. (Although I find Facebook's privacy settings a little more secure than MySpace). While I do put a lot of personal information on these sites, I think I've been careful not to post anything I wouldn't feel comfortable with my mom viewing (the ultimate test of decency in my eyes).
The Pew Research Center has been concerned about the same issues and released a study this week from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that focuses on what teens are doing to protect their privacy in the Internet world and if they even consider things like privacy as they pimp out pages on MySpace with the latest design or widget.
Continue reading "MySafety: Teen Privacy on MySpace"
Posted by Lisa LaMotta at 11:24 AM
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March 27, 2007
Coffee Potlatch
Where you work, do you have a shared coffee pot for the entire office? Do you have one of those newfangled single-cup brewing machines? Or do people stop off somewhere on their way to work -- and after lunch?
In today's Financial Times, Stefan Stern suggests that how you serve coffee at work carries a message about your corporate culture.
It strikes me that the single-cup brewers, rather than be more efficient and economical, might be wasteful and overly focusing on individualism. Likewise, making people leave the office for their joe also seems isolating, rather than collaborative.
Perhaps the coffee pot is akin to the proverbial water cooler. Do you help your employees and team members gather and collaborate, or do you separate them?
Posted by Heath Row at 8:14 PM
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March 20, 2007
Fast Food for Thought
Stefan Stern's Business Life piece in today's Financial Times makes me shake my head. An SVP at McDonald's in Europe is circulating a petition to nix the term "McJob" from the dictionary. That senior executive, and the writer, contend that fast food restaurants are quality employers, offer progressive training programs, and support diverse teams. Stern holds up customer service training as a prime example and suggests that it's behind McDonald's 44 consecutive months of sales growths.
That's all well and good. I can understand people coming to the defense of their industry. But looking at the promise and potential -- much less the practices -- of an industry solely by looking at the numbers on the books (gender equity, economic growth) doesn't always show you the full story. Stern would be well served to spend some time behind the counter. So it's to his credit that he title drops Jerry Newman's new book My Secret Life on the McJob.
I've yet to read the book, but I read a review on the way to work this morning that suggested the book is worth reading for two reasons. One, it highlights some of the challenges facing fast food restaurants: low pay, poor management practices, inadequate training, and racial tensions. And two, it doesn't just dwell on the plethora of front-line experiences on which the book is drawn -- Newman, a professor at SUNY-Buffalo, worked at a number of fast food joints for two years while researching the book -- it spins the stories to suss out some solid leadership lessons and ideas.
Posted by Heath Row at 10:19 AM
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March 19, 2007
The Untapped, $5 Trillion Market
C. K. Prahalad, the University of Michigan strategy guru and author of the best seller "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," has lately taken some flack for his have-it-both-ways proposition that multinational corporations could alleviate global poverty while boosting their bottom lines. Critics like Aneel Karnani, also of the University of Michigan, argue that the bottom of the pyramid is smaller than Prahalad has claimed and far less lucrative.
In an interview for Fast Company's March "Fast 50" issue, Prahalad insisted he hadn't overestimated the size of the BOP. Now he's got some hard data to back up his claim.
According to a report released this morning by the IFC (the private sector arm of the World Bank Group) and the World Resources Institute, 4 billion people who live in "relative poverty" have purchasing power that amounts to a $5 trillion market. The report, The Next 4 Billion, uses income and expenditure data from household surveys to measure the size of the market at the very base of the economic pyramid. That's a first.
The report defines those who live at the base of the pyramid as having incomes below $3,000 in "local purchasing power" ranging from less than $3.35 a day in Brazil to $1.56 in India. In a classic bit of understatement, the report politely characterizes the $5 trillion BOP market as "underserved."
No doubt, some experts will continue to squabble over the numbers. But perhaps The Next 4 Billion, which is loaded with business case studies, will inspire at least a few big companies to at last understand that the BOP market could well be their next growth opportunity.
Posted by Bill Breen at 4:21 PM
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March 13, 2007
The Google Backlash
Poor YouTube. It seems that this innovative idea that once attracted the world's amateur filmmakers to put their work out there for the world to see has become a target since it's purchase by behemoth search-provider Google, dooming everyone's favorite at-work pastime to fall prey to the insecurities of media giants trying to bring down Google before the quirky search company can dominate every realm of the Web.
In recent months, Google has been the target of everyone from Microsoft to Viacom to The American Association of Publishers, with a host of others trying to edge in on Google's (what used to seem inevitable) takeover of everything Internet.
Google's latest (and on-going) thorn in its paw has come from Viacom in the form of a $1 billion lawsuit. Just a month after Viacom asked Google's YouTube to remove all of its content from the site, Viacom says that the video-sharing site is participating in "massive intentional copyright infringement."
Despite YouTube's efforts to comply with the plethora of complaints that have been ushered in throughout the last few months about copyrighted material, it seems that the site is not policing its content adequately enough for its attackers. (YouTube has a policy to remove copyrighted material when asked.)
YouTube's original appeal came with the freedom it allowed the world to share content, much like the once-popular Napster, it seems that YouTube will eventually be destroyed by the legal ramifications that the openness of the Web allows. As a frequent viewer of YouTube, I feel that the site has already been tainted and lost that special something that once made it so interesting to visit. The mass appeal of the site has brought out a slew of other companies posting their own content to the Web in hopes of competing with the traffic that YouTube generates.
Did Google's acquisition of the company bring unwanted attention to YouTube's copyright issues? Or was YouTube doomed to follow the path of Napster from the start? Will all content eventually go the way of sites like iTunes, making the amateur filmmaker just an amateur once again?
Posted by Lisa LaMotta at 12:08 PM
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February 15, 2007
Move Over Batman, Make Room for Bauer
I swear I'm not the type to watch a television show just because everyone else is watching it. I’ve never even seen any of Carrie’s ubiquitous dating foibles on Sex and the City, nor have I paid attention to all of the plot twists and cliffhanger hysteria on "Lost." Yet when it comes to 24, I am completely hooked.
No, I'm not just watching 24 because every media outlet and worth-her-weight-in-gold blogger is talking about it. Nor am I here to put my two cents in about 24's “meaning” for the larger anti-terrorism effort and whether real-life agents are more likely to torture suspects because they’ve seen Jack do it on the show. Really, truly, I watch "24" as an escape from my real life, which some could say is torturous, but is nothing compared to the 24/7 non-stop rollercoaster ride that is Mr. Bauer's.
Continue reading "Move Over Batman, Make Room for Bauer"
Posted by Ruthie Ackerman at 10:48 AM
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February 9, 2007
Park Life Balance
In the United States, we've got Take Our Daughters to Work Day. We've got Job Shadow Day. And there are various organizations and resources targeting young entrepreneurs.
But in Japan, Kidzania puts the "fun" back in "job function." (Subscription may be required.) The indoor theme park for children comprises 50 company-sponsored exhibits that enable young thrill seekers to role play various career choices -- from gas station attendant to surgeon.
First opened in Mexico, the park has been a tremendous success since it opened last fall. Entry fees can near $25, parents aren't allowed in the exhibits, and the park can accommodate about 3,000 children at a time. But the upshot is important to the Japanese economy as a whole, not just the company behind Kidzania.
With the rigorous attention -- and expectations -- paid to schoolwork and studying, students often graduate without knowing what they want to be "when they grow up." Kidzania gives children a chance to plan while playing.
Posted by Heath Row at 2:04 PM
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February 8, 2007
Ad Nausea
Few people at Masterfoods are snickering behind their hands this week, as the company, a division of Mars, has come under fire for the Snickers ad that aired during the Super Bowl. After complaints from organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, marketers have pulled the ad.
At the same time, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has publicly denounced a GM ad that also aired during the game. While it's debatable whether either ad was bad -- in terms of creativity or political correctness and cultural sensitivity -- the hue and cry raises some interesting questions.
As was seen in the recent Aqua Teen Boston Farce, controversial marketing campaigns can increase the reach a campaign might have otherwise had. But that street goes two ways. Controversial ads also give political and cultural advocacy groups the opportunity to protest publicly -- attracting media attention the groups might not have gotten otherwise, and attracting attention to the groups' causes and issues.
So it's arguable that controversial ad campaigns benefit the very organizations that react negatively in response to the campaigns -- by providing them a mass-market platform for their messages.
Posted by Heath Row at 10:22 AM
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February 6, 2007
My, What Big Roses You Have!
A new Coors Light survey found that 44 percent of men spend more time planning for Super Bowl Sunday than they do Valentine's Day. So how are men making up for their paucity of planning? With their checkbook, of course. A National Retail Federation survey found that this year the average man will spend $156.22 on their sweetheart--nearly double the $85.08 that the average woman will spend.
"With males spending significantly more this year than females, men may be looking at Valentine's Day as a way to make up for that HD-TV they splurged on for the Super Bowl," says NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin.
Men looking to--ahem--make up for more than their lack of planning and a den full of electronics might want to go ahead and splurge on a bouquet of the World's Tallest Roses for their sweetheart. The Washington Post explains in a story entitled, 'My Love is Like a Six-Foot Rose':
"Delivered in a 78-inch box emblazoned 'The World's Tallest Rose,' the ultimate long-stemmed rose is up to 72 inches long and capped with a furled and individually wrapped crimson bud three inches high and almost as wide…In addition to the stem length and bud size, other parts of the plant are gargantuan: the leaves are large, the buds have as many as 60 petals or more, and the stems are as thick as your finger and thorny."
The World's Tallest Roses are all natural and hormone free. The secret? Selective pruning and the fertile soil found between two volcanoes in the Ecuadorian Andes. The plants produce only six to seven long stems per plant per year, according to the Post. The farms, located at 9,600 feet in the mountains south of Quito, have approximately 400,000 bushes.
Of course, roses this big will put a little more than a dent in your checkbook. One dozen will cost you $249.95, plus tax, plus $59.95 for priority shipping. And since her vases are all for normal-sized bouquets, chances are you'll also have to throw in the 24-inch Galvanized French Flower Vase, too--$79.95, plus tax, plus shipping.
$400-plus on roses? It’s almost enough to make you wish you'd planned a romantic, home-cooked Valentine's Day dinner--with plenty of ice-cold beer, of course.
Posted by Alex Pasquariello at 1:07 PM
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January 30, 2007
Sell Phone
Sometimes, it's difficult to pinpoint the impetus of an idea -- or the originator of an innovation. Take, for example, the camera phone. Who knew that one man may very well have been responsible for coming up with one of the more ubiquitous consumer technologies?
A recent Slate piece, "The Camera Phone," contends that the man behind that invention is one Philippe Kahn. Once CEO of Borland Software, Kahn went on to found Starfish Software, which was later acquired by Motorola and is now part of Nokia. He also had a hand in Lightsurf Technologies, which continued his work in mobile media.
Coming across this bit of information hit me like an epiphany -- and it turns out that the "secret" hasn't been well kept. Which begs the question: What other innovators have been forgotten and rediscovered? Why isn't Kahn known as well as, say, some of the grandfathers of the Internet?
Posted by Heath Row at 9:36 PM
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January 25, 2007
Colleague, Come Hither...
When you need a team member's help, how do you get their attention? Do you email them? Call them? IM them? Get up and walk over to their desk? When you're based in a central workplace, the options are relatively clear. But when was the last time you sent a colleague a text message via cell phone?
The possibilities are obvious in an office environment: People may have Blackberries and other smart phones, but even a text on an older flip phone could get them the information they need during a meeting -- or find them while they're "managing by walking around." And in Australia, a service called BangItUp helps people find -- and hire -- tradesmen such as plumbers, electricians, and building contractors... via SMS.
This month, BangItUp celebrates its 17,000th success story. Just imagine: You can text the service and connect with a "tradie" -- regardless of whether they're in the office or on the job -- in about three minutes.
If only getting an appointment with the cable guy were so simple.
Posted by Heath Row at 10:32 AM
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January 24, 2007
United They Evangelize
In one corner, we have "latte-sipping, Prius-driving, endive-munching, New York Times-reading snobs." And in the other corner, "Hummer-driving, Bible-thumping, fire-breathing, snake-handling fundamentalists."
Just another skirmish on Capitol Hill? Not quite. Rich Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Eric Chivian, a Harvard biochemist, were actually poking fun at the stereotypes associated with their respective camps in an NPR story this week. They've moved beyond their differences and are bringing science and religious leaders together to tackle the same issue: global warming.
Last year Cizik was the subject of Moving Heaven and Earth in Fast Company. He and Jim Ball call themselves environmental evangelicals. They made waves by insisting that reversing climate change is a Christian responsibility. Eighty-six evangelical leaders signed on, drawing criticism from Focus on the Family's James Dobson and other members of the religious right. The other day Cizik was back in the news, forming an unlikely alliance with scientists. It's part of a larger strategy to "transform the issue" for the 2008 election, he told me, from left-wing to mainstream. "We want candidates from both parties to come forward and say, 'Here's my climate-change policy,' just as they would give their policy on anything else."
You don't have to look far - gas reductions in the State of the Union, the sessions at Davos - to see which way the winds are blowing.
Posted by Chuck Salter at 5:41 PM
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January 15, 2007
Does Your Team Swing?
USA Today today has an interesting interview with Wynton Marsalis. Recently named one of America's best leaders by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and US News & World Report, Marsalis shares his ideas about improvisation at work -- and what leaders can learn from jazz.
He touches on the concepts of respect, integrity, and trust -- as well as meritocracy. About 10 years ago, the Fast Company touched base with Gary Burton about similar topics and themes. The two pieces might make useful parallel reads.
Posted by Heath Row at 10:19 AM
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January 11, 2007
Commissioning a Symphony
This news is a bit old at this point, but I just learned about it, and it might still merit mention. While companies such as Symantec are experimenting with the idea of adverbands, another company -- Nike -- is foregoing promoting fake bands in order to commission original music from already active musicians.
Last fall, Nike commissioned a 45-minute workout mix from LCD Soundsystem. Earlier in the year, Nike had commissioned a mix from the Crystal Method.
Both commissions were less advertisements as such but marketing tools to encourage people to use Nike's Nike+ system, which helps people track workouts using their iPods.
This effort also differs from the formerly popular practice of commissioning company theme songs or using pop songs in TV adverts. But does the resulting music stack up? Reviews seem to indicate so.
Were you to commission music for your customers, what would you aim to accomplish?
Posted by Heath Row at 11:07 AM
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November 27, 2006
Keeping Up With the Vanderbilts
From the obvious headline department: a piece in today's New York Times called "Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices."
It's an article about people who grew up dreaming of, and attending graduate school with the purpose of, becoming doctors and professors. Once they reached these positions, however, they decided that low six-figure salaries just weren't high enough. One man went from a $200,000 per year hematology-oncology practice to a seven-figure biotech consulting job at Merrill Lynch. A Dartmouth business professor left academia for multimillion-dollar positions in Wall Street firms.
Everything's all well and good if these people happen to love consulting and equity firms. But the problem here is that the Times' particular subjects don't especially love their jobs, or at least they don't say they do. They love medicine and education. The doctor still does hospital rounds on his free weekends and the former professor squeezes in one adjunct class a semester.
What do you think of the trade off? How much does one really need to earn? What would it take to make you quit your career for a more lucrative one?
Posted by Josie Swindler at 12:10 PM
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November 21, 2006
Kramer's Racist Remarks Not Funny
Michael Richards, best known as Seinfeld's Kramer, entertained sitcom audiences for ten years as a zany, outspoken character who would do or say pretty much anything. This weekend at a famous Los Angeles comedy club, fans were shocked at his ability to do just that. During his show, Richards launched into a racist rant, confronting black members of the Laugh Factory audience with repeated use of the N-word and various other epithets.
Richards said he was prompted by the heckling of audience members who were disrespectfully loud and told him he wasn’t funny. He called black hecklers the N-word and told them that 50 years ago, they would have been "hung upside down" for such comments. A tape of his tirade can be found on TMZ.com.
Last night on the Late Show with David Letterman, Richards issued an apology stating that his outburst was a result of anger, not bigotry.
Check out the tapes. Is Richards sincere, and did he just let anger get the best of him? Or is he really racist? What about his career? Will it suffer?
Posted by Kathryn Tuggle at 4:18 PM
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November 17, 2006
Smoking Guns
In Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel, British secret agent James Bond was a chain-smoking 70-a-day man. But in the new version of Casino Royale I hope to watch this weekend, the only smoke we'll see will come from 007's Walther PPK automatic.
Smoking is no longer welcome at the movies. Philip Morris's leading brand, Marlboro, is reckoned to have featured in 74 of Hollywood's top-grossing films in the past 15 years, but this week the world's largest tobacco manufacturer ran up a white flag. "We do not want our brands or brand imagery depicted in movies and television shows," reads an ad running this week in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and other industry publications.
Is this what the endgame for Big Tobacco looks like? Here in Europe, home of the moody, espresso-primed drag, public policy and opinion are swinging decisively into action. Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway and Sweden have all banished tobacco from the workplace, restaurants and even pubs. Spain's partial ban allows smoking only in tapas bars and cafés or lounges. Even in France, a coming decree will ban smoking in restaurants next year, and in all public places from 2008.
Now in Italy an association of personnel managers has this week recommended smokers' pay be cut on the grounds that workers who take smoking breaks do an hour a day less work than others.
Big Tobacco looks further east to China for a breather from this onslaught. But with the Chinese government promising a tobacco-free Olympics when the world's heaviest smoking nation hosts the event in 2008, it seems prospects for the cigarette business are finally being stubbed out.
Posted by Ian Wylie at 6:29 AM
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November 8, 2006
At Least He Was a Consistent Hypocrite
Before he was exposed as a hypocrite about homosexuality, Ted Haggard, who resigned last week as head of the National Association of Evangelicals amid a drug and sex scandal, was already a hypocrite about the environment. As we described last spring in a story called Moving Heaven and Earth, Rich Cizik, the NAE's longtime Washington lobbyist, had a conversion a couple of years ago on the issue of global warming. Unlike conservatives who don't buy the scientific evidence, he became convinced, and he believed that fighting climate change and protecting the impoverished populations who suffer the brunt of it should be central to the evangelical mission.
So Cizik helped form the Evangelical Climate Initiative and draft a call to action. In February, 86 evangelical leaders signed the statement, sending shock waves through a community regarded as a unified voting block. Haggard told Cizik he agreed with the ECI's position but he wouldn't sign. When more conservative evangelical leaders wrote a letter expressing concern over the NAE's (read: Cizik's) involvement, Haggard went along with the decision that prevented Cizik from signing his name as well.
That was Haggard's style: Instead of leading an organization that represents some 30 million evangelicals to embrace an effort that continues gaining momentum (as Bill Moyers' excellent special "Is God Green?" illustrated last month), Haggard followed the old guard, which included James Dobson of Focus on the Family. No doubt Haggard thought he was protecting himself by appeasing them. Now he's discovering the fragility of that alliance. On Monday, Dobson, who had been named part of the team counseling Haggard through his current crisis, announced that he wouldn't be participating after all. Dobson said he didn't have time.
Posted by Chuck Salter at 5:45 PM
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October 17, 2006
Steve Jobs on the iPod .Vs Zune
In celebration of the iPod's upcoming fifth birthday, Newsweek writer Steven Levy recently talked with Steve Jobs about the iPod's cultural impact, including its design, cool factor, and affect on how we listen to music. When asked wheter he saw Microsoft's upcoming iPod competitor, Zune, and it's propsed community-building abilities as a threat to the iPod, this is what Jobs had to say:
"In a word, no. I've seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you're connected with about two feet of headphone cable."
Is Jobs take just, or is Microsoft in a good position to be a dominant contender in the MP3 player space?
Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 2:54 PM
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October 3, 2006
Getting Some Tail
“As anyone who has neglected a gym membership knows, the future-looking self can make virtuous choices that the present self wants little to do with…. When [Nextflix] DVDs arrive in the mail, customers’ present selves are likely to prefer light fare like Meet the Fockers over a demanding classic like The Seventh Seal, especially after a long day at the office. When, as a result, they postpone returning, say, just one of the three DVDs, this creates a bottleneck that reduces the costs of fulfilling a subscription. Customers’ virtuous choices then become management’s reward.”
-- Daniel G. & Dominique C. Goldstein, “Profiting from the Long Tail,” Harvard Business Review
Dear Librarian:
If you're the sort who attends to the world beyond the silent stacks, you've surely heard certain people -- attractive people in prohibitively expensive business suits -- barking about something called the "long tail." Lately every illiterate business writer and fifth-rate futurist in America has claimed a piece of the Chris Anderson's The Long Tail
In short: I was wrong. While I’ve never joined a gym or purchased a DVD player (see the quote above), this frank article spoke to me. Loudly. It showed that we librarians could -- nay, should -- employ this long-tail attitude to wag our own economic dog.
We can, that is, use it to dramatically increase our late fees, one of our few meager sources of library-based income. Mr. Anderson talks about these so-called “recommendation engines,” computer programs that suggest to people other DVDs or books or songs they might enjoy based on their recent selections. That’s too mild an approach. Librarians, after all, are the original recommendation engines. We should take things to the next, as it were, level and force readers to check out “virtuous” books and films, along with the standard excrement they lug out of our beautiful libraries and onto steaming beaches for light reading and then, after, some seasonal debauchery. We are, let’s remember, librarians: We have the power to shush, to stop people from using cell phones and from snacking. We can make this happen. Let’s force those philistines to haul a big fat Riverside Shakespeare or Ulysses with them when then select the latest James Patterson or Sandra Brown. Why not demand that they take home The Seventh Seal when checking out the Focker films? Maybe one or two people will actually pick up a little culture along the way….
Continue reading "Getting Some Tail"
Posted by Ken Gordon at 3:08 PM
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September 20, 2006
Musical Chairman of the Board
Kudos to Chicago Company of Friends member Robb Murray and the rest of the collaborators involved in the mini-musical "Macho Motors" -- which focuses on a "perplexing job situation."
The project is available in two parts on YouTube.
Posted by Heath Row at 3:25 PM
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September 8, 2006
What's for Dinner?
Did you know 90,000 horses were slaughtered in this country last year and exported for human consumption? Neither did I. I learned about it today after reading this article about a House vote that passed the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. There are only three horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. that would have to shut their doors if the ban passes the Senate. But the idea of killing horses and then serving them up for a meal has caused an uproar among activists, celebrities and regular folks alike, driving support for the new law.
The inhumane nature of the practice is another argument. I found some footage from inside a horse slaughterhouse provided by the Humane Farming Association. Just based on that, it didn’t look much different from footage I’ve seen for cows, pigs or sheep. Killing animals is a disturbing business, period. Even on farms that go to great lengths to maintain a high quality of life for their animals, the fact that they will die for food eventually is unpleasant. Some of the cutest, happiest animals I’ve ever seen were on a free-range farm just north of New York City. In six months, the lambs would be lamb chops. That’s the nature of the beast.
It’s easy to single out horses for this ban because we don’t eat them in the U.S. I’ve been meaning to read Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” for a while. As a teaser, I read the excerpt provided on his website. Interesting read in light of this new development.
Posted by Tonya Garcia at 5:53 PM
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September 6, 2006
Madden for President
Last week the videogame company EA came even closer to world domination. It released first week sales data for Madden NFL 07, which dominated like a 300 lb. lineman. The game was EA’s biggest launch ever, selling more than 2 million copies and bringing in more than $100 million. The phenomenon is more than hype -- more than 53 million units of some sort of Madden have been sold.
EA also announced, though not in these terms, that while it is responsible for turning much of the male 18-34-year-old demographic into living zombies and horrible boyfriends, it is now preparing to inundate them with advertisements even when they’re not watching TV. The franchise game Need for Speed has previously featured billboards with static advertisements. Now, Need for Speed Carbon and future games will feature changing, timely advertisements when gamers play over the Internet or on Microsoft’s Xbox Live service.
As the inestimable John Madden once said, “Don’t worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon.” EA is doing just that.
Posted by Josie Swindler at 2:05 PM
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September 1, 2006
It's Labor Day. Let's Celebrate?
Just in time for the Labor Day holiday, the nation’s August
employment numbers have been released showing that the number of jobs in the U.S. increased by 128,000 for the month.
Despite this positive showing, PBS aired a documentary this week, “Waging a Living,” about the working poor. The accompanying web page says one in four American workers are earning less than the poverty level for a family of four. Oil prices are high and consumer confidence is low. According to a quote in this Reuters story (also published in the New York Times), “The housing market, gas prices, heating oil, political instability – these are our biggest concerns.”
But all is not lost. That same story says that shops with a focus on the teenage customer (Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle, for instance) had a great month. The article cites back-to-school shopping as a reason. But I’ll take it a step further and say that, where there’s so much to be worried about, people feel better when the kids are happy. There’s an optimism attached to these purchases, a positive look towards the future.
Are you feeling optimistic this Labor Day weekend? Tell us why.
Posted by Tonya Garcia at 2:02 PM
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August 28, 2006
Business Minded Teens
According to a recent poll released from JA Worldwide (Junior Achievement), more than 70 percent of teens are interested in starting their own businesses.
The most popular type of business, selected by 32.4 percent of respondents, was “professional services,” such as a lawyer, insurance agent, or accountant. More than nine-of-ten (95.1 percent) teens who took the fifth annual JA Worldwide “Interprise™ Poll on Entrepreneurship” believe that a college education will help them successfully start and grow a business. The poll was administered online in early 2006, and more than 1,400 teens aged 13-19 voluntarily participated.
With all of the successful college dropout executives out there, such as Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Microsoft Chairman and Co-Founder Bill Gates, it's interesting that today's youth find college an important step to entrepreneurship. It's even more interesting that in the age of Web 2.0, where teens are being counted as the majority in using these services, that Web and technology entrepreneurship are not being highlighted in this poll.
Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 1:11 PM
| 4 Comments
August 16, 2006
If Time is the New Currency...
Talk to anyone in the ad industry these days and the mantra de jour is: time is the new currency. Brands, entertainment, technology...you name it, we're all competing for the public's attention. And if someone is willing to spend "time" with you (forget spending money), in this fractured, over-caffeinated, A.D.D. world, someone gracing you with their attention is the ultimate compliment.
Yet, ironically, if you take a step back it seems people have more free time than ever. Blogs, podcasts, YouTube, MySpace...who are all these people who have tons of excess time to make spoof commercials and Mentos montages? I can barely climb out of the deluge of magazines that pile up next to my bed every week, yet there seem to be an abundance of folks who have all the time in the world to create "user-generated" content that's all the rage these days.
Is there just so much pent-up creativity out there that now that there's an outlet, people are simply making better use of their time? Or is this renaissance of expression really just a euphemism for reduced office productivity? What is the public's threshold for giving away all of our free time for free?
Please let me in on the secret. I'm dying to know.
Posted by Danielle Sacks at 11:56 AM
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August 15, 2006
Innovation: Frozen Spam, Nothing Is Worthless
Want to see what frozen spam looks like? Visit Alex Dragulescu's Spam Architecture project. He's built a program that uses junk email as input and generates three-dimensional architectural models based on keywords and patterns in the spam. They're quite beautiful. High-quality innovation comes from solving people's problems. Really fabulous innovation comes from solving problems no-one knew they had and using materials no-one knew were useful. (via City of Sound and Bldg Blog)
Posted by Russell Davies at 12:12 PM
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August 14, 2006
The Goth Economy and Creative Hiring Habits
I'm blogjamming from vacation in Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast. It's a picturesque seaside town with an overwhelming Victorian vibe and an above average density of goths. This is slightly surprising until you remember that Bram Stoker described Dracula coming ashore in Britain, from a ship steered by a dead man into Whitby harbour. Which means that now Whitby has a flourishing goth economy all of its own; a festival, shops, even a fantastic guesthouse.
This is a powerful reminder of the economic power of a subculture, especially if you can aggregate people in the real world, not just online. But it also reminded me of one of the most provocative articles I've read in ages; this piece from The Guardian about the fact that goths tend to make brilliant employees and business people, especially in the creative industries. As a long-time hip-hop/dance fan I'd always tended to think of goths as the weird kids you didn't talk to, but this article reminded me that the cliques of school aren't good guides to employment practise and the things that make goths strange at school are exactly the traits you want in business. The geeks will code our world, the goths will design it.
Posted by Russell Davies at 1:16 PM
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August 1, 2006
Thoughts on Women and Collaboration
There's something I observed at BlogHer '06 about women and collaboration that I didn't see mentioned in author and tech geek blogger Robert Scoble's post "What I Learned from BlogHer," where he sums up his experience there and highlights comparisons to the mostly male tech conferences he's used to attending.
What I observed was best summed up in a statement that Arianna Huffington, syndicated columnist and founder of The Huffington Post, made during the closing keynote, where she shared the stage with Hurricane Katrina Direct Relief founder and professional blogger Grace Davis, WashingtonPost.com/Newsweek Interactive CEO and Publisher Caroline Little, and SixApart founder and President Mena Trott in a discussion lead by Chris Nolan of Spot-on.
Huffington made the statement after announcing that she'd soon launch a new section on her site called "Politics Aside" that would feature topics that were not politics, such as mothering, sex, relationships, and cooking. She said, (and I'm paraphrasing here):
If anyone wants to cross post with us, it’s all about linking and cross posting — it’s all about supporting each other. It's not about if you're buying Newsweek you're not buying Time.
In my experience such a call for sharing of content is not common practice at male conferences — at least not in this context or without some sort of business deal being discussed. Well, unless of course the conversation has anything to do with open source. Don't get me wrong, BlogHer is not based upon an us .vs them philosophy, it's an opportunity for all kinds of women bloggers to pursue exposure, education and community. In that vein, session topics ran the gamut from Search Engine Optimization, Writing for the Web, CSS, Podcasting, and Video to Business Blogging, Community Activism Blogging, and Political Blogging. And besides, men were not excluded from the event. Scoble was there, as was Guy Kawasaki, John Battelle and George Kelly, among others. (Read Christine Herron's post on the estimated ratio.)
Back to my original thought though — am I wrong in thinking that collaboration means something entirely different to women than it does to men?
Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 1:25 AM
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July 27, 2006
Mood Ringer
Having a bad day? How come? Were you in a bad mood when you got to work in the morning? Or did something happen in the office that threw you for a loop -- and now you're trying to find an even keel?
Knowledge@Wharton features an interesting piece on the research of Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard and Steffanie Wilk, a professor at the Fisher School of Business at Ohio State University.
The researchers found that both positive and negative moods affect employee productivity, but that positive moods are more potent. Most importantly, they discovered, the mood you bring with you to work has a stronger effect on the day's mood -- and on work performance -- than mood changes caused by events in the workplace.
Let's take a quick survey of FC Now readers. What affects your productivity more: concerns at home or concerns at work? Take the Fast Company poll.
Posted by Heath Row at 5:11 PM
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July 14, 2006
One for the Weekend
My previous Netflix rental was explicitly about business. My most recent watch, which I saw last night, was explicitly about post-war Poland... but implicitly about business. Go figure!
Krzysztof Kieslowski's 1976 film The Scar touches on a lot of serious business issues: The impact a new business can have on a community, involving community members in business development projects, paying attention to the needs of employees, the importance of leadership -- and finding yourself in a situation where you're being set up to fail -- social responsibility, and the impact your work can have on your family life.
It's subtitled, and a subtle cross between the Apprentice and the Corporation, with a little social revolution thrown in.
Worth a rental.
Posted by Heath Row at 5:46 PM
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Going to Work... Green
Hear, Hear -- a new online publication more oriented toward small business -- features an article today that offers advice that might still be of interest to Fast Company readers. The environmental impact of your business activity can be a concern, but what about the environmental impact of your daily work habits?
Shawn offers four extremely basic ways you can lessen your daily environmental load at work, including carpooling, recycling, and packing a lunch. (Imagine!)
What else might people do at the individual level to further the ideas of green business?
Posted by Heath Row at 5:39 PM
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July 13, 2006
Feeding America
Grocery chains across the nation have started to mimic Whole Foods choice of products -- all natural, organic, and specialty food items. Because these items are specialty items, they carry a specialty price tag. Is the American economy so strong that people will shell out more dough for groceries just because -- or are shoppers more concerned with what their lamb chops were fed and how they were treated while being fattened for the slaughter?
Thirty new steakhouses have sprung up in New York City this past year, according to a story published in Crain's this week. People out there are willing to pay well over $100 a head for a steak dinner in NYC -- and chefs and restaurateurs have been feeding the frenzy.
Are we willing to spend more money on food today than a decade ago? Is this a new trend that will fade with the economy or a lifestyle choice that will grow even stronger with the new generation?
Posted by Melanie Brooks at 5:30 PM
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July 10, 2006
On the Movie
While many people are walking the movie-theater plank to see the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, I'm staying in this warm evening to watch a Netflix rental of The Corporation.
It's not a cheery film -- in fact, it paints a decidedly un-cheery picture of modern business -- but it's well worth watching. The documentary's combination of stock footage (including some wonderfully naive educational films from four-plus decades ago), interviews with academics and activisits, and original reportage paints a thought-provoking image of business, business people, and the motivations of same.
I know I'm late to the party, but if you haven't seen the movie yet, you should. If you have, what did you think?
I think this movie will be worth talking about for quite awhile. Its take on leadership, globalization, and the profit motive is quite refreshing!
Posted by Heath Row at 7:53 PM
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July 8, 2006
Fwd: Hello Muddah...
The Washington Post took a look at summer camps that help children keep in touch with their parents online.
If your children go to camp, how do you keep in touch?
Posted by Heath Row at 8:29 PM
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June 28, 2006
A Monument to Work?
There's an interesting debate brewing in New York City over the design of the World Trade Center memorial.
The original plan calls for the names of the 2,979 victims of the trade center terrorist acts in 1993 and 2001 to be listed at on eight parapets at plaza level--in a random order that architect Michael Arad says reflects the "haphazard brutality of the attacks."
But the victims' families aren't content with that. According to The New York Times, they're insisting that victims' names be arranged by the building in which they worked, by their employer or other affiliation, and by floor. Says Edith Lutnick, executive director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund. "You're addressing what everyone asks: 'Where did they work? How old were they? What tower were they in?"
I'm not going to try to assess the emotion or the politics driving this argument (though it certainly does sound like the victims' organizations are throwing their weight around).
But I find it very telling that our instinct is to associate people so closely with their employers and places of work. Not with their communities, not with their families. And not as individuals, as Arad's design stipulates. No: The firefighters' union wants its guys identified foremost as firefighters. Thomas S. Johnson, chairman of the executive committee of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, says it's "nonnegotiable" that his son be listed as an employee of the brokerage firm of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
It's been observed before that the Trade Center disaster was distinctive as a tragedy set in the workplace. But should that define how we remember its victims? Do our jobs so define us? Do our associations with organizations supercede who we are as individuals?
Posted by Keith Hammonds at 11:02 AM
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May 23, 2006
Go, Go, Globalism!
The real sign of how tightly integrated the global economy is isn't offshoring -- or any political organization or multinational structure -- it's the Eurovision Song Contest.
And, in a fine parallel to Fast Company's recent feature about bosses from hell, this year's winner of the Europe-wide competition, announced scant days ago, may very well be from that nether region. Lordi, a Finnish metal band that dons the garb of monsters -- think Gwar gone global -- took the top slot for their little ditty Hard Rock Hallelujah.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S. of A., we get Ryan Seacrest. How can that possibly be fair?
Posted by Heath Row at 5:19 PM
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April 27, 2006
Work Space
I adore alternative work spaces. And while they don't always succeed, they're always worth trying. Eventually, someone will crack the code.
The newest entrant to hit my radar is the Work Factory in Richmond, Virginia. Equal parts shared office space, meeting venue, and networking organization, the Work Factory piggybacks on space already used by the publishers of a regional business magazine.
To accommodate those with a part-time need for office space and a full-time need to connect with other entrepreneurs, The Work Factory provides member businesses with a place to meet clients, state-of-the-art work stations that can be accessed from home computers around the clock, high-speed wireless internet access, and printer/copier amenities as well as an array of services ranging from technology support to accounting advice.
The model is similar to that of Gate 3, once based in northern California. There, the space also was adjacent to already rented and in-use office and work space. It'll be interesting to see how the Work Factory improves on the model!
Have any Richmond-area Fast Company readers gone to the Work Factory? Share your stories here.
Posted by Heath Row at 2:41 PM
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April 19, 2006
Unnecessary Innovation?
The judges on American Inventor shot this fellow down -- watch how quickly their expressions shifted from amusement to near-disdain -- but I wonder: Perhaps the Therapy Buddy is a good idea? (Sign in may be required.)
Naming aside -- Big Hug, Warm Fuzzy, or something else less therapy-oriented might be more palatable -- this product might very well meet a very real need. Sure, you wouldn't leave home with it or perhaps even let too many folks know you had one (OK, maybe your drumming circle), but when was the last time you needed a hug and your parents or family weren't readily at hand?
There are a lot of lonely people in the world. There's got to be a way to market to them without further stigmatizing or belittling loneliness.
Is the Therapy Buddy a good idea? Take the Fast Company poll. (However you vote, everything is going to be alright.)
Posted by Heath Row at 9:18 PM
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March 31, 2006
Security (or Wet?) Blanket Policy
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a front-page piece on how some large organizations are limiting access to Web services (subscription required) because of security concerns. That means that employees aren't able to use online tools such as instant messaging, Skype, Web email such as Gmail, and other tools.
Do you think this increases -- or hampers -- productivity? Take the Fast Company poll.
Posted by Heath Row at 5:23 PM
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March 30, 2006
Games People Play
The fine folks at Blockdot have developed a new game that might be up the alley of Fast Company readers. The game: Office Invaders. The goal: Fire rubber bands at your enemies in order to reach the executive suite on the 20th floor.
File under: Friday fun. Only a day early!