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I am not a science or math person. I never have been. You can ask my two best childhood friends: one who happens to be thriving in finance, the other who happens to be thriving in the clinical trial space. Try as I might to avoid science and/or math, what the grown-ups said was true: ‘These are the things you will utilize in your adult life’ (remember that?). Oh, how I hate it when the grown ups are right.
In my job - and I would suspect in a lot of jobs out there - every day is a type of science experiment that requires you to commit to a forecast about what will work, and what won’t. New variables, new responses, shifts in the market - when you think about it, you need to be a really good meteorologist to read the map and announce ...
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Remember the ad campaign, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”? Well, it looks like those same friends are doing more than just keeping you from getting a DUI - they’re actually keeping you healthy.
This past Sunday, the New York Times published Better Health, With a Little Help From Our Friends. The article discusses the role and impact that friends can have on each other, highlighting data from a new study that shows how conversations can influence one’s levels of health and happiness.
The content in this article is highly consistent with the data we have seen in our programs over the years. The theory holds true across a range of therapeutic categories, as well. And while we may not be measuring health outcomes, per se, we do know ...
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Josh Bernoff is Senior Vice President, Idea Development at Forrester Research. A couple of years ago, he co-wrote the best seller, Groundswell, which gives guidance and perspective about living in a world transformed by technology.
Today, his latest book, Empowered, hits the shelves. It talks about how organizations can transform themselves by empowering their employees (and their customers) to be HEROs: highly empowered, resourceful operatives that make a difference.
Josh and his co-author Ted Schadler build on their framework by introducing the IDEA method: identifying mass influencers, delivering groundswell customer service, empowering customers with mobile information, and amplifying fans to spread the word.
As a reader of this ...
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As we head into the Fall season, brand teams and their agencies will be fine tuning their marketing plans for 2011. I doubt there will be dramatic changes in the general allocation of DTC budgets as most big brands will maintain a reliance on mass media reach and frequency patterns to raise brand awareness. And while print, PR, direct mail and digital will be in the mix, too, it’s safe to say that for the first time, “social media” will have a confirmed spot within most brand plans in the year ahead. It’s a big win, for sure - but the victory here may not prove so successful.
I’d hazard a guess that no fewer than 25 brands right now are trying to figure out how they can either develop or expand upon their Facebook pages. No doubt, ...
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Today over lunch, a few of us were eating Chinese food and talking about PCs, Apple computers, and a host of technological innovations that have emerged over the past few years. It dawned on me that just a few years ago, we couldn’t have even had this conversation since none of this stuff had been invented – iPads, downloadable apps, Facebook updates, and a ton of other useful gadgets! We were all gushing with enthusiasm for how cool our world has become, and how the way we interact with technology – and with each other – is really changing.
Our conversation moved on to brands we like and products we use, and without realizing it, we were influencing each other about the products we like most, and wanted others to try – truly, authentic ...
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in March 2007, I attended a conference called Community 2.0, and I thought I was ahead of the curve. There were a few hundred people there to discuss the best ideas around the use of online communities, and I thought there was no better place to be. Turns out, during that same week, there were thousands of people who were far more informed than me who were hanging out in Austin, Texas at the South by Southwest festival. Who knew?!
Turns out, SXSW has evolved over the past twenty-five years to be the festival for innovations in music, film and technology. And in March 2011, for the first time ever, there will be a one-day track on health, focusing on how the various innovations in social media and digital technologies have created a ...
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The childhood game of telephone shows how over time, when messages gets passed along, the story is often not the same as when it was first told. That’s kind of fun when you’re a little kid, but can be problematic in a business environment.
Last week, I gathered my entire staff for an all-team meeting. The theme was about ‘defining our future’, but it really centered on one key idea: telling the right story. I pointed my staff to All Marketers Are Liars, a great book by Seth Godin about the power of telling authentic stories in a low-trust world. If you have yet to read it, I highly encourage you to grab yourself a copy.
Before we went too deep into our meeting, I paused and asked each person to write down three statements about ...
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Working in a small, start-up company has it’s pros and cons, for sure, but one of the biggest benefits is the sense of camaraderie… family even... that can develop when the company is small and the people are all working closely together, such as here at HealthTalker. I mean, if you think about it, we are together 8+ hours for five days each week. That’s more time than I’m around my family, practically speaking.
The interpersonal dynamic, much like a family, has it’s ups and downs. And much like a family, when people get along, it’s really a lot of fun to be with them. Working with people you respect is important… and if you like them as well, it makes your day enjoyable. The work becomes less “work”.
In most companies with TONS to do (like ...
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Over the holiday weekend, I took my cousin’s two children for a walk. I created a little game, offering a prize for the child who could guess the length of time we would be walking. Both were thrilled by their sudden good fortune to win something. But what would they win?
I posed the question to them, giving them the opportunity to decide on their prize. After I crushed their dreams of trips to California or five million dollars (sorry, kids), one of them said, “OK Andy, how about total attention?” I curiously asked what that meant. He told me that it would just be me and the winner, out for a bike ride, with no other distractions that could get in the way. He told me that meant no cell phones, no Blackberries, no other adult ...
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I had the unique privilege to go hear Seth Godin speak in downtown Boston a couple weeks ago. As a recent convert to the Seth-Fandom tribe, it was quite a treat to hear him live and see what he’s really like. I was not disappointed.
Seth took the audience on a brief catch-up of his books and how the story weaves through them. He ended up by talking a lot about the concepts from his latest book: Linchpin. If you haven’t yet read it, I highly recommend it. It’s a refreshing look at what it means to work passionately.
After speaking for a bit, Seth opened it up for question and answer time. I took the plunge and asked one: “You speak about the need to ship as well as the goal of treating work as art. How do you deal with them when they are in ...
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Observations, commentary and perspectives on word of mouth, life in a start-up, and the challenges of the pharma industry.
