Video: Brands, Sustainability and Innovation – meet Iain Foxall from Foxall Studios

Iain Foxall was recently in Stockholm to participate in Fashion Talks 2012. This is the interview with him made for Axtalk by me. Iain talks about Brands, Sustainability and Innovation. Meet Iain Foxall from Foxall Studios. Enjoy.

 

 

/Anders Bjers

Video: Status of Luxury Brands and Sustainability

Burak Cakmak is a former Global director of Sustainability for GAP, GUCCI and PPR. This is an interview with Mr. Cakmak that I made for Axtalk during Fashion Talks 2012, in Stockholm. Enjoy.

Anders Bjers

Jobs Presents New Apple Campus – Revisited Moment

As I read news from Forbes about the progress of Apples new campus, I also stumbled upon Steve Jobs presentation at the Cupertino City Councils meeting on June 7. Its great to listen to him and notice the passion in his voice about the new campus and hear him make the case for the campus to be. Feels like time traveling to watch him again – “aLive”.

During November I lectured for many many digital professionals. Every time Apple came up it was as an exception, that in several areas of “digital”. Same thing wherever I went: London, Stockholm or Paris. But think about it the other way – what if every company had a way and a soul as Apple have, as Jobs infused it over the years and made it root.

How would the worlds companies look and how would their corporate headquarters look around the world? As Apples new campus is evolving – celebrating design and natures splendor together in a beautiful presence. Obviously – the apples won’t  fall far from their trees at this campus in Cupertino, CA…

See for yourself.

Anders Bjers

VIDEO: Dr. Muhammad Yunus on Social Business

Pure pleasure to interview Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus on Social Business, values and the mobile phone as the new aladdins lamp. Dr. Yunus has a big heart, a warm handshake and a sharp mind that focuses on opportunities for humans.  Enjoy!

Produced for Axtalk by Anders Bjers

VIDEO: Pavan Sukhdev – Why We Need to Value Nature in New Ways

Pavan Sukhdev has a razor sharp mind focused on economy. Set to the task to bring understanding on how and why we need to value nature in new ways. The interview with Mr. Sukhdev was made during  The Stockholm Dialogue on Global Sustainability – Seizing Planetary Opportunities for Axtalk by me.

 

VIDEO: Janine Benyus about the Code of Nature

Unforgettable moment. Interviewing Janine was a pure treat, so many questions left – but listen closely, when she explains how she is uncovering the code of nature!  Interview made for Axtalk by me.

/ Anders Bjers

The Poetry of Innovation

How we use our language has more impact on innovations then you might think. Poetry, words, metaphors has an important place in the process of innovation and there are some rules of thumb to learn and use. Even if we have all the new smart pads, apps or phones at hand, we still need to fill them with our expressions, ideas and most important – words. So, let´s dive into the amazing waters of metaphors and discover the poetry of innovation.

The possibilities of information and marketing offer no guaranteed boost for communicating innovations. From ideas internally at a company and in the process, up to the marketing of finished products, services or other offerings, there is more to it than using modern megaphones.

It is not clear that new tools like social media, advertising, PR people, journalists or marketers are up to the task of communicating innovations in such a way that other people understand and embrace great new opportunities instantly or easily.

So what is affecting our decision making?

Several articles have recently dealt with different aspects of language for how we perceive the world. It’s not new but in the context of innovations – it is exciting. The significance of metaphors is striking. Not in terms of how advertising, social media and marketing are designed but how people convey innovations for and among each other in order to innovate and drive innovation to success.

Author James Geary writes in his new book “The I is an Other” about how we use metaphors in everyday life without thinking about it. The sports metaphors are obvious. ”The ball sailed over the net like a swallow”; “He sank like a stone”. In the financial context stock prices are likened to human mood swings: “stock market opened sour”, “price increased by comet speed.” The power of metaphors cannot be mistaken. President Obama’s slogan “Fired up – ready to go” is a powerful sample of metaphors that literally made a change. Metaphors help us understand complex contexts with multiple senses and provide insights that would otherwise take more time and effort to bridge with more actual words. Complex sciences need poetry and metaphors as powertools to bridge knowledge and understanding.

Recently Senior Researcher James Wilson wrote in the Harvard Business Review about Language of Innovation and the importance of using metaphors in the language to describe innovations and during innovation processes. Wilson and his team at Babson Executive Education found that people described new technological innovations and why they were successful or failures in certain ways.

They found that people with no real facts were describing innovations with three different kinds of linguistic tools.

• Metaphors – replace facts with figurative descriptive terms, words and sentences.

• Exaggerations – driving the language with focus on its impact, not facts.

• Revisionist rhetoric – simplified, inaccurate and self-fulfilling descriptions designed to support someones own arguments and experiences.

Wilson’s team came up with some rules of thumb that successful communication of ideas and innovations should use.

- Use metaphors to support with facts – not to replace facts with metaphors. Understand how and when the metaphors used in presentations, internal / external communications.

- When there is a good idea but no clear evidence that supports the idea – start out by making prototypes and experiments. Many people start talking about the idea but then lose power and motivation to make prototypes or to implement the idea.

- Learn how to use metaphors effectively and at the right time. In organizations with many involved simple metaphors can help to disseminate and communicate ideas faster, build interest and support. Although the organization is mostly using quantitative way to evaluate ideas, many individuals still rely on aesthetic terms and qualities as a yardstick.

- Use excessive and revisionist rhetoric only in its proper place – small groups. Only the teams that know each other well benefit from this kind of language. Expression is discarded naturally. Wilson’s studies show that about 30% of innovations occur in small teams of high level of trust among members.

So, it’s really not enough to bring in PR people, marketing people, social media, apps, resellers and “smear on” a facade of words and images in the final stages of innovation processes or to products launched on a market. In every part and point of innovation there is a story to tell and the way will determine whether the idea will be a “flip or flop”.

The Poetry of Innovation, the need to drive and communicate innovation from an idea that manifests itself in reality – is important in every step. When companies and individuals realize the potential and understanding of using metaphors properly – there are opportunities to realize more ideas, more companies and more entrepreneurs, that will create a growing economy. Furthermore, if innovation is to succeed, we need to understand that innovation is carried by more than the idea – namely, our common language and how we shape the world with every word.

A richer language – creates a richer world.

/ Anders Bjers

VIDEO: Axtalk – Nobelpristagare möts för en hållbar planet

Intervju producerad för Axtalk. Läs blogginlägg om symposiet på Axtalk.

 

/ Anders Bjers

VIDEO: Innovation and Communication

From Seminar hosted by Googol. Yours truly as Keynote speaker. Enjoy.

Anders Bjers

VIDEO: The Social Animal – You, Me and We

Right Now much is about social. Movies – The Social Network; Telephones – Smart Social Phones; Slates – Ipads; Everything – Internet of Things and on and on… So to conclude that Social is a basic need is no overstatement today. Its an understatement, because we are empowering and dis-covering our relations and capabilities between our peers and “co-humans” in a greater speed and depth than ever before. We are rediscovering Our flock. So, it feels appropriate to dive into David Brooks latest book The Social Animal. If you want a quick glance, check Brooks column in the NY Times.

It is very interesting that Brooks writes this kind of book. As a conservative columnist describing himself as someone being “not good at moments of intimacy with family or friends” in a Times Q&A. Watch this brand new TED video with Brooks.

Enjoy the story of ourselves as social animals and our deeper human nature and who we are… or who we may think who we are… Who are you?

Enjoy /

Anders Bjers