Leadership
Alexander Isley inspires us. Yes, he was named one of the most innovative designers in the past 50 years by his peers. Yes, he’s won all kinds of awards. The fact is, Alexander Isley does straight-up great work. His firm, Alexander Isley, Inc., is dedicated to engaging people'
Company Culture
I love it when names fit. When they just feel right. Julius Caesar. Abraham Lincoln. Mickey Mantle. Would Norma Jean have ever become the icon Marilyn Monroe became? Naming is a awesome responsibility. I remember the process of deciding on what to name my children – lifetime decisions to make, and
Leadership
I first discovered the strategy consultancy, Booz & Company,* a dozen years or so ago when, as a designer turned small business owner, I was desperate to understand the business world better. Their Strategy+Business magazine articles were accessible and helpful. Earlier this year, the firm combined with PwC and
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There’s a very interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal titled, “Is It Better for Businesses to Adopt Open or Closed Platforms?”While “open” systems have been seen as driving competitive advantage over the past decade or so, the article speculates that Apple’s success is evidence that,
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One summer about six years ago I had the privilege of attending a week-long AIGA program at the Harvard Business School titled Business Perspectives for Designers. It was a great experience—a week of business school with 50 other designers reviewing classic business case studies in the traditional Harvard way.
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I was reminded of an old favorite this morning—a New Yorker cartoon from the early 70s. In it, a Bella Abzug feminist type startles a prototypical busy Wall Street CEO type as he makes his way down the Manhattan sidewalk. She in her large hat, and he in his
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It was the very early 1960s and I was about five years old when I went to see the movie Pinocchio—the classic Carlo Collodi story of the wooden puppet who dreams of being a real boy. It may have been my first movie seen in a theater; I’m
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We can’t say that Orwell didn’t warn us. He did. And today “doublespeak” has created a world where it is often the most “conservative” businesses, industries and business leaders who act with the least concern for long-term business success—risking their reputations and brands today for the potential
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While I was preparing to moderate a panel for the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce recently, someone asked me why we named our company New Kind? Perhaps it's the gray hair. It's understandable. It’s simple really. At New Kind, we believe that when competitive environments change,
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We work in the "finest office building in North Carolina." At least that’s how Frank Harmon described The Small Office Building at 105 Brooks Avenue a decade ago. Frank should know. From driving into the covered parking lot to the crunch of the gravel under your feet
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In early 2010, New Kind began a project with the Communications Office of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to help test new ways for the department to engage with its “customers”—the citizens of North Carolina.As in many states, North Carolina’s Department of Transportation is often
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Last night I happened upon this great interview with economic historian Elin Whitney-Smith in strategy+business, Booz & Company’s excellent online magazine. Titled A Long-Wave Theory on Today’s Digital Revolution, the article looks at previous periods of disruption throughout history in an attempt to better understand what companies