Regeneration + Ecosystem Strategy + Brand Activism + Innovation + Art
I have to say the story of Jung’s Red Book is fascinating.
But what really stunned me was what the book actually looks like:
A work of art, surely, but we are about to learn a lot more about dreams. And reality.
Do you have a book of dreams?
Vijay Govindarajan’s Innovation Quarterly is now open to subscribers.
It’s free, and it’s going to be good.
Sign up if you’re interested in how innovation works.
Disclosure: VG truly is one of the sharpest minds in the business world, and I’m privileged to work on his newsletter!
After talking about it for several years, my daughters have finally launched Planet Green. I wonder how long they’ll demonstrate “constancy of purpose”?
Thanks to their activism, we have now been vegetarians for several years, we worry about water, and try to stop wasting natural resources. In many ways they have helped shape my green thinking, by opening my eyes to the news and to our stunning inaction as the planet dies around us. The Silk Milk boycott was their idea, as was their insistence that we should minimize the use of paper towels, etc. etc.
It will be a fun experiment, I believe.
Michael Moore brings his unique perspective to the issue:
Question: why is this a unique perspective?
Because, all too often, we don’t really care about our customers.
If the Mayo Clinic supports the Obama health care plan, you should too, period.
It’s not enough to work hard and do your best when the Becks and Limbaughs of the world are doing their best to destroy your arguments with rage, hatred and lies.
What’s needed is a simple framework to communicate what it is you are doing and why.
Vijay Govindarajan‘s post – Obama’s Challenge: Communicating a Framework for Change – shows us what Obama should be doing to communicate more clearly.
And he’s got to find some of that campaign passion as well.
The magic of Steel Pulse is their ability to transform a song into a mystical experience.
What should be a simple rendition of “Chant a Psalm” turns into a moving version of their timeless classic:
And here’s another version of David Hinds singing the same song in a more traditional style.
The Republicans are busy with their one goal: “obstruct Obama.” So what else is new? They were against Social Security and Medicare as well.
But here are some real numbers. If you look at the current cost of health care as a % of GDP, the Republicans should be signing up for the public option. Of course, they don’t care about the public – we, the people, that is.
We’re being taken for a ride, as usual.
Have a nice day.
Senator Kennedy wanted the public option back in 1970!
It’s time, America!
More from Ted Sorensen >>
Updates here >>
I know we are entreprenurial geeks, but this is a staggering statistic:
Though Indians make up barely half a percent of the U.S. population, between 1995 and 2005, they founded more than 15 percent of all the startups in the greatest technological center (Silicon Valley) the world has ever known.
Read all about it >>
Unfortunately, there are far too many believers in this Gospel of Getting Rich.
The main idea: wealth is a reward for following God.
So that makes Halliburton, Exxon and the health insurance companies all paragons of virtue. They are doing god’s work – ripping off the rest of society.
And people like Stephen Hemsley must be a saints.
Nice.
So how come Jesus was a poor carpenter? Or the Buddha had nothing but a begging bowl? Must be because they weren’t very blessed… Poor beggars.
It’s nice to see how democracy works, or not.
First the insurance lobby, now Big Oil.
Let’s allow the insurance companies to deny people health care in order to maximize profits.
Let’s look the other way while Oil companies stop alternative energy strategies from taking off…
Is this a last gasp for Capitalism 1.0?
Why is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation silent?
Where’s the Pope? Again, the silence of “the church” is deafening.
A few weeks ago I gave up on Silk Soy.
Now, I’m done with Whole Foods.
How does the CEO of a company justify his “politics” when it goes against the brand of his company?
The short answer is: he’s not the right person for the job. I mean, you won’t see the NRA electing Howard Dean as CEO. So how does Whole Foods have a CEO so out of touch with his customers values? Or his company’s values? On Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ no less. What’s next, FOX?
Bye-bye, Whole Foods.
Additional Reading: On Value and Values by Douglas K. Smith
AlterNet‘s Joshua Holland tells us about some of the highlights of what’s really in the more progressive legislation working it’s way through Congress.
Let’s pass health care reform, and become a civilized country that’s run “for the people.”
The New York Times reports:
A patient in Illinois was charged $12,712 for cataract surgery. Medicare pays $675 for the same procedure. In California, a patient was charged $20,120 for a knee operation that Medicare pays $584 for. And a New Jersey patient was charged $72,000 for a spinal fusion procedure that Medicare covers for $1,629.
Whew.
Wake up everybody!
Tammy Erickson describes her banking nightmare. What should be a simple 10-minute transaction turns into a week-long disaster.
This is, all too often, the “corporate way.” We pay lip service to customers, but in fact, we don’t do anything to actually make the customer experience any better.
Customers are not our first priority. Really.
The Rethuglicans are freaking out.
But what’s depressing is the way in which it’s being orchestrated.
Online, it’s troll-time.
The media has been bought off. The Republicans and the Blue Dogs have been bought off. And the masses are once again being taken for a ride.
What a business model!
Nice job, health care insurance industry.
C’mon Obama, don’t punk us.
The sad truth is that 30% of Americans are so out of touch with reality that they won’t see the truth, preferring instead to chant their prepared slogans and lies – prepared for them by those bastions of morality: Rush Limbaugh, FOX News, and the good old GOP.
There is no reasoning with them. They are fascists.
The saddest part is that they are hurting themselves to help the very companies which would deny them care at the drop of a hat.
Any questions? This is the business model for the Health Insurance industry. Time to disrupt it – once and for all.
Disgusting.
What happens when the right-wing runs out of ideas. They turn to stupidity, lies, fear, hate, and hypocrisy – the five cardinal virtues of the Republican right.
An example of how the current system of death-care maximizes shareholder value >>
I agree.
Morons.
How are these christians taken seriously by anyone?
They are information terrorists.
Have they no shame?
No.
The answer is simply, no.
No shame. No conscience. No decency.
Nice quote from Dante.
This is what we’re up against. Is this the America we want? Bad news: we already have it. Well done, CIGNA. Thank you, Blue-Dog Dems. And of course, this edition of American Reality is brought to you by the Republican party, or as they call it now, the GOP.
Funny how the church goes silent when anything important happens… whatever happened to the “least of my brethren”?
Maybe the Pope got bought off by the insurance lobby…
Do you trust your doctor or the paper pushers at your insurance company?
Another way to look at the issue: is it bribing or lobbying?
When the Republicans and the blue dog Democrats are both in the pockets of the drug and insurance companies, what do you expect? This is why we have lost our way, and why specifically, we need campaign finance reform.
Here’s some background reading:
– Health Care Realities
– Gang of Sickos: Six US Senators Sell Out Constituents for $11 Million from Health Industry
– How Pharma and Insurance Intend to Kill the Public Option, And What Obama and the Rest of Us Must Do
– Sicko by Michael Moore (watch the whole thing)
– Industry Cash Flowed To Drafters of Reform
– Obamacare Is At War With Itself Over Future Costs
– The cost of no public option
– Crazy Wingnut Healthcare Attacks Exposed
– Nearly 2,000 Americans Seek Treatment in Fairgrounds Barn
– My Car Has Better Insurance Than I Have
– Firefighting in the 1800’s: A Corrupt, Bloated, Private For-Profit Industry
Time to throw these money-lenders out of the temple! Call and write your reps on Capitol Hill – daily! It’s your health, after all.
P.S. – Democrats, dump Baucus, now.
Is this another sign of global warming?
Giant jellyfish in the Sea of Japan and two, jumbo squid off San Diego.
Just another one of those “climate-change” coincidences?
Almost forgot, presenting – the green goop that ate Alaska:
Where have all the fish gone?
Here’s my intuitive intelligence interview with Francis Cholle at Emory Marketing Institute >>
Cholle’s main point is that businesses have lost track of how to manage holistically. They are too focused on counting beans to create sustainable business value.
He’s not saying analytics are useless. He’s just saying that Mark Hurd at HP isn’t going to come up with the products HP needs for the future by using analytical processes (that’s not in the published interview – but we did discuss it!).
Read the interview here>>
My family has been a customer of Silk Soy for well over seven years. As of today, we quit. Why? Two reasons:
1) the soy beans aren’t organic anymore
2) they’re from China
Anyone who trusts food from China is being foolish. Remember this? Not to mention the carbon costs of transporting food all that way…
Read all about how Dean Foods destroyed its brand and beat up on American organic farmers at the same time. I thought about writing them or calling them, but it’s less work to just switch. They’re obviously not going to listen to their customers anyway.
Just another example of the short-term, unsustainable mindset of the multinational company.
How long must we sing this song?
Jack and Suzy Welch star in a Microsoft-sponsored, web-based, business reality show. The site is here, but it’s too cluttered (I think they were trying to be cool).
I do think this is a great advertising campaign, if the branding fools don’t destroy it (by placing too many Microsoft (yawn) pitches in the margins, for example).
Watch the first show below. Jack jumps in and “surfaces” a few issues at Connect by Hertz – a new car-sharing venture. In a way, the fact that Jack pulls these issues out in 5 minutes sorta tells us how out of it Hertz is.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
After watching this I get the feeling they don’t understand VG’s Box1-2-3 strategy for innovation. In fact, they are most likely going to fail. After 30 days, the CEO has still NOT created a global business unit for Griff. Not good. No follow through on commitments.
One more thing. Why doesn’t Microsoft bring Jack and Suzy into Microsoft for a few days? They could wake the sleepyheads real fast. Stop one: The Automotive group!
Also, I’d like to see Obama send Jack and Suzy into GM for six weeks. That would sure be a reality show worth watching.
BTW: A quick ecosystem analysis shows that Zipcar is beating them hands down. Rankings: almost 600,000 for Connect by Hertz and 22,000 by Zipcar.
Beeb >>
What’s the business value of democracy?
Finally, the real value of Twitter revealed>>
“We’ve been struck by the amount of video and eyewitness testimony,” said Jon Williams, the BBC world news editor. “The days when regimes can control the flow of information are over.”
Hope takes to the street:
Get the big picture >>
This is very moving – the faint twitter of Democracy in Iran.
The question: is this going to be another Tiananmen Square? Or is there hope for a middle-eastern Wenceslas Square?
Ahmadinejad, you have lost the election and your soul.
Nicholas Kristof‘s article on the difference between health care in the US and health care in Canada is a must read for everyone.
And it’s good to know that the AMA is a crooked organization as well. What did you expect? Medicine is a for-profit business. Anything else is socialism… right?
And darkness covered his eyes.
Madness = an 88-year-old white supremacist.
Who is to blame? The NRA? The schools? Parents? Republican extremism? FOX News? The Neo-Nazis? Operation Rescue?
Hate closes down the world.. And hate speech begets hate-filled actions.