by Shari Allison | May 7, 2013 | Concept development
It’s Thursday morning, you’re in the elevator, and the CEO skates between closing doors to join you for a 30-floor ride. You consider commenting on the unseasonably balmy weather, but inquire about her watch instead. You then exchange a series of jokes and, in perfect unison, toss your heads back in laughter. At the 25th floor, she insists that you join her in the company lounge for a bite to eat—she’d like to get to know you better. You take style points from Sandberg and lean in. Instant promotion. Real life: Silence. You exit the elevator with pit stains and wonder if she heard you swallow that burp. Sound familiar? You’re in good company—being trapped in a confined space with upper management is sure to send anyone into a tailspin. But, with some simple tactics on hand, you can navigate a terrifying situation with grace. Try on these life vests to avoid drowning like a conversation klutz. The Trader Joe Casual and approachable, Trader Joe’s employees are known for their infectious positivity. Whether it’s in the context of goat cheese or lentil breeds, they set a comfortable precedent because they don’t overthink simple human interactions. They wear contagious smiles above relaxed Hawaiian shirts, and they offer genuine inquiries that don’t overstay their word-exchange welcome. They just connect. And by channeling their easygoing grocer tude, you can do the same. You: “Hi! How’s your Wednesday going?” CEO: Good, and yours? You: “It’s going well, thanks. Just working on [whatever you’re working on] and getting some air. I don’t think we’ve met—I’m [first name, last name]. I work in [this department] with [your...
by Shari Allison | May 7, 2013 | Market dynamics
Every day, we make a thousand little compromises, avoid opportunities, actions and people–all so that we can stay away from the emotion of fear. Note that I didn’t say, “so we can stay away from what we fear.” No, that’s something else entirely. Right now, most of us are avoiding the things that might merely trigger the emotion itself. That’s how distasteful it is to us. The alternative? To dance with it. To seek out the interactions that will trigger the resistance and might make us uncomfortable. Are we trying to avoid the unsafe? Or merely the feeling of being unsafe? Increasingly, these are completely different things. Due to ‘enhanced security’ a recent bike event in New York City forbade the 30,000 riders from carrying hydration packs. No practical reason, just the desire to avoid fear. The upcoming exam doesn’t get studied for, not because studying is risky, but because studying reminds us that there’s a test coming up. We loudly keep track of all the failures of commission around us, but never mention the countless failures of omission, all the mistakes that were made by not being bold. To track those, to remind ourselves of the projects not launched or the investments not made is to encounter our fear of forward motion. (So much easier to count typos than it is to mention the paragraphs never written.) There’s no other reason for not having a will, a health proxy, an insurance policy or an up to date checkup. Apparently, while it’s not risky to plan for our demise, it generates fear, which we associate with risk, and so we avoid...
by Shari Allison | May 7, 2013 | Innovation
Before you take money from a venture capital firm, you’ll agree to a valuation — how much your startup is worth. That valuation will also affect how much of your company you own. Optimizing for a higher valuation can sometimes mean owning less of your company, so strategies for each founder can vary widely. How a valuation is determined, investors say, is more an art than a science. There are standard factors that will be considered before putting a price tag on a startup, but the biggest factor turns out to be demand — how many other investors are vying to put money into your company. That said, there’s a lot an entrepreneur can do to influence valuation (aside from, you know, building something that’s valuable). The more investors you pitch to and the better you are at telling your story, the more interest you’ll generate, which will drive up your price. As a rule of thumb, the valuation will generally be set in line with the return the investor wants — if the seed round is $1 million and your investors want a 10x return, the valuation will likely be set at $10 million. But investors are far from arbitrary with valuations. “You’re buying part of the company as an investor,” says Caitlin Strandberg of Flybridge Capital Partners. “The investor wants it to be as accurate as possible.” That said, the seemingly “over the top” valuations on the market are a result of investors believing they’ve found an outlier. These big, fast-growing opportunities are few and far between, so when a someone thinks they’ve found one, the valuation...
by Shari Allison | May 7, 2013 | Concept evaluation/execution
John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design, delivers a funny and charming talk that spans a lifetime of work in art, design and technology, concluding with a picture of creative leadership in the future. Watch for demos of Maeda’s earliest work — and even a computer made of...
by Shari Allison | May 7, 2013 | Communication strategy
When advertising and entertainment collide, as it so often does, “advertainment” is born. Remember Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking space jump? That’s advertainment fromRed Bull. And the 18-minute Follow Phoenix documentary about rock band Phoenix? That’s advertainment from Spotify for its (relatively new) Follow button. It’s everywhere. Advertainment can be a simple paid product placement in a TV show, video game, music video or movie — think about the blatant red Coca-Cola cups on American Idol‘s judges’ table. But brands’ advertainment efforts can be much more elaborate. Again onAmerican Idol, we routinely watch branded segments disguised as music videos in which the show’s contestants sing near or in Ford vehicles. “Creating advertising people welcome alongside their favorite content is a huge challenge but an incredible opportunity,” Chet Gulland, head of digital strategy at Droga5, told Mashable. Here are a few examples of brands courting time-crunched consumers through various methods of advertainment, even massive and expensive stand-alone ad campaigns....
