Life is an adventure in forgiveness. | | | | One of my favorite actors, Mark Strong. Body of Lies. 2008.
(Warner Bros. Pictures) | | | | | | “Life is an adventure in forgiveness.”
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| | rantnrave:// One of the seminal lessons learned at business schools is that of MARKETING MYOPIA by THEODORE LEVITT. The theory argues that many companies are too narrow in defining their own businesses. If the passenger train business saw themselves as being in the business of passenger transportation, they might have come to dominate the passenger bus systems, for example. If KODAK saw themselves as being in the industry of enabling consumers to easily take and enjoy photography, not film sales and development, they might have embraced digital photography (which they were first to develop, oh, and kill). What’s interesting is that this concept is at odds with another b-school lesson: focus on your core competency. Yet, one of the most successful companies of the 21st century is one that ignores that very idea: AMAZON. It does everything from e-commerce to video, personal assistants, hardware, grocery, drone tech and transatlantic cargo shipping. And they do it really well. However, this actually isn’t in conflict with Levitt’s thesis. At the core of Amazon, is marketing myopia’s core lesson: “businesses will do better in the end if they concentrate on meeting customers’ needs rather than on selling products.” Which makes one wonder why that the major music labels have so fully missed out on the meteoric rise of podcasts. Are they in the business of audio entertainment or just music? Notably, PANDORA and SPOTIFY say they’re in the business of audio distribution. And don't get me started on cable companies and what business they thought they were in. I assure you customer needs were not top of mind. At SLINGBOX, we often told them that they should be "on-ramp to video anywhere" business... Is the high life getting more stylish? Weed is showing up in fashion design and editorial spreads, and marijuana startups are taking cues from the fashion and luxury industries. As the marijuana industry bets on further legalization, how else does it intersect with the business of style? FashionSET: "Higher Times: Selling the Marijuana Lifestyle"... Can a boy-band graduate shake his own mythology and expectations and rock his way into a new life in 2017? Or is he truly shaking anything at all? JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE did it. Meet HARRY STYLES, who you may or may not have known before. MusicSet: "Harry Styles' Second Direction"... Friend doing well: Congrats to MELISSA WOOD on her new health and well-being site... Happy Birthday to KYLE HELLER (if you're looking for a great creative agency call him), RALPH DAVIDSON, JAMES ANDREWS, MATTHEW HILTZIK, ZACH SIMS, and JULIA SCHULHOF. | | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator |
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| The world is changing at dizzying speed -- but for some thinkers, not quickly enough. Is accelerationism a dangerous idea or does it speak to our troubled times? | | |
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| Backed by FIFA's tacit support, Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria has woven soccer into its grisly campaign of oppression, tearing apart a generation of players. | | |
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| A wide-ranging discussion. | | |
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| She's spent her career championing underdog causes. Now Schakowsky is taking on the biggest bully in sports. | | |
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| Karen Carpenter has seemingly always been big in the Philippines. I never knew why until now. | | |
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| The chess grandmaster, political activist, and author joins Tyler for a conversation on artificial intelligence, Russia, Putin, how education must change, favorite cities for chess, the most likely challenger to Magnus Carlsen, Tolstoy v. Dostoevsky, the benefits of pressure for performance, and why we should speed up our search for new frontiers and challenges. | | |
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| Western brands risk alienating China’s young, modern consumers with campaigns that miss the mark culturally and play to Western clichés of the country, according to marketing experts. | | |
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| Some research suggests that cars would be safer with no involvement from humans at all. | | |
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| IBM's confidential "WindsorGreen" was detailed in documents exposed via an apparent backup drive. | | |
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| It took decades to get from "Maude" to "Scandal," where abortion is just one choice among many a woman can make. | | |
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| The communal living moment may finally be upon us. Are millennials ready to share? | | |
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| Shakil Khan, the head of special projects at Spotify and co-founder of Student.com is one of the fixtures in Internet circles. And connected as he is - is the guy who got many of my peers to support CharityWater - no one really knows him. | | |
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| It’s 2017. Why are air carriers still failing people with disabilities? | | |
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| The fired F.B.I. director’s conspicuous independence-for so long, his greatest asset-proved his undoing. | | |
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| In the era of Trump, consumer nihilism is an alluring (if empty) temptation. | | |
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| On the latest Recode Media, Bell reveals the only person at CNN who’s the same on- and off-camera. | | |
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| From planned obsolescence to focus groups, designers and corporations haven’t always seen eye to eye. | | |
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| It’s been more than a quarter-century since last we saw the citizens of "Twin Peaks," a town whose many mysteries will be revisited--and folded into newer enigmas--when David Lynch and Mark Frost’s series returns for a new season on Showtime on May 21. | | |
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| With the approval of U.S. officials, the AP arranged with an SS officer to obtain pictures taken by Nazi photographers and distribute them to American newspapers. | | |
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| Of the best virtual reality at the Tribeca Film Fest, some of the top projects hinged on creating an experience you can't duplicate at home. | | |
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| In a world where cord cutting and streaming services have blurred the picture for the pay-TV industry, Matt Strauss, Comcast's top video executive, believes the key to keeping customers hooked up may come down to just one word: bundles. | | |
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| Farmers who had long rotated plantings among a diverse group of grains are increasingly turning to one. | | |
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| | | | | Tina Turner & Bryan Adams |
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