Saluting my Alma Maters

2016, March, 14

It’s time to pop the champagne. I am proud to say that both of my Alma Maters received top rankings this year. Amherst College is ranked as the Number 1 liberal arts college by College Choice, and INSEAD is ranked as the Number 1 business school in the world by the Financial Times.

Short excerpts from these rankings:
“Students at Amherst enjoy very small classes (70.8 percent have fewer than 20 students) and a very low student/faculty ratio of 8:1. Amherst only accepts a very elite 14.3 percent of its applicants.”

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“INSEAD joins an elite club of schools that have reached the number one spot, including Harvard Business School, London Business School, the Wharton School, and Stanford Graduate School of Business”.

Let’s celebrate, Lord Jeffs and INSEADers!

For the full articles and ranking, see:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/646f7384-b623-11e5-b147-e5e5bba42e51.html#axzz3zHPOkoHI
http://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/best-liberal-arts-colleges-2016/

Kudos to Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart

Congratulations to Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, who were inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame last month and will be inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November, for their indelible contributions to pop music.

Dave and I connected when he was a guest on my radio show series, and I found him to be a fearless, cultural innovator. We shared a profound conversation around the thrill of continuously pursuing new frontiers and incessantly harnessing our childhood sense of creativity. There was also a funny moment when I called Dave at a scheduled time, and he was still talking with Mick Jagger on the other line.

My favorite quote from the conversation, which made it to the back cover of my Slingshot book:

“Slingshot is like looking at things through the other end of a telescope.” – Dave Stewart

#eurythmics #music #rock&roll #innovation #popculture #creativity
The Un-Carrier: T-Mobile disrupts U.S. mobile telecom
An industry disruptor is one that shakes up an industry by challenging taken for granted assumptions and rules of competition. It is able to disrupt and reshape an industry by delivering tangible value focused on the needs of customers, while the incumbent industry players are focused on trying to outcompete each other.
Theatre of the absurd continued: Giant space umbrella
Following up on my story last week about GE’s big idea for using CO2 emissions, let’s continue with another seemingly wacky, repurposing concept again this week. How about a giant space umbrella to solve the problem of global warming?
Companies with the best sense of humor
At the start of this month was arguably the most important date of the annual corporate calendar. It was none other than April 1st, aka April Fools Day. Humor is one of the most universal manifestations of creativity, which is the central fuel for future-shaping companies. Not surprisingly, more and more organizations worldwide are embracing humor as a core cultural dimension, and we see an exponential, global proliferation from year to year of companies commemorating April Fools’ Day, the annual celebration of laughter and childlike fun. These organizations conceive of and bring to life farcical campaigns on April 1st, signaling to all internal and external constituents that they, as an organization, have a sense of humor and appreciate levity.
Repackaging Customer Pain as Motivation

At the heart of the Slingshot Framework is the premise of always identifying customer pain points and transforming them into points of delight and infatuation. The continuous pursuit of such transformation is what creates irresistible offerings.

Here is an interesting and humorous twist on this process. The Manuscript Writing Café in Tokyo only caters to writers on a deadline, and does not let them leave until their work is finished. Customers can select the level of pressure they will be subjected to by the staff, for example choosing an "S" treatment means that they will be pressured aggressively to complete their work, while "M" represents a milder level of anxiety and less frequent monitoring of their progress.

In essence, the café is replacing the customer pain point of procrastination with another pain point, that of coercion. This is seemingly a welcome substitution of pain by their target audience because it provides them the necessary motivation to ultimately reach their desired point of joy: That of completing their work.

To learn more about the café: https://grapee.jp/en/199026

#motivation #customerexperience #marketinnovation #cafe #customerjourney #innovation
Homage to Greatness

I am currently in Montreal, having led a session at the Women Presidents Organization annual conference. My visit happened to coincide with the national funeral for hockey icon Guy Lafleur.

The ceremony is taking place at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in downtown Montreal, right next to my hotel. This pic is from my hotel room at the moment Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived.

Lafleur, called ‘the blond demon’ was described as a "Jackson Pollock painting on ice, a frenetic innovator who pushed the boundaries of his art beyond what had ever been conceived, a singularly dynamic force that turned an everyday sight as simple as a man on skates with a puck on his stick into a masterpiece — something you had seen before, perhaps, but never quite like that".

#hockey #lafleur #innovation #leadership
Children’s imagination building city of the future
Once, Thomas Edison was asked by a reporter: “Mr. Edison, you being the world’s greatest inventor, what you do you think is the greatest invention?” He replied without hesitation: “The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child.”
Creativity Conquers All

I was pleased to be one of the very first guests of the Action This podcast series, hosted by Zack Hamilton, Chief Experience and Strategy Officer at Stingray.

Join our spirited conversation revealing the key drivers of creative transformation mastery:

https://www.chatterresearch.com/s1e3-creative-thinking-conquers-all/

#podcast #transformation #creativity #leadership #customerexperience
Humor Is Back!

I was very pleasantly surprised to see so many companies re-engage in expressing their sense of humor this April 1st, after a 2-year pause.

For your amusement, here are some of the best humorous campaigns that were unveiled:

https://www.cnet.com/culture/internet/april-fools-day-2022-butterfinger-mayo-invisible-earbuds-and-other-jokes/

And here is T-Mobile’s prank, which has consistently been a leading April Fools activists:

https://www.androidpolice.com/t-mobile-april-fools-new-magenta/

Beyond making you smile, such humor has serious, strategic benefits. Often the seeds of break-through ideas are hidden in humor. Therefore, as you browse through these examples, ask yourself:

What 'absurd' ideas do they trigger for expanding your customer’s experience to a whole new level of relevance and enrichment?

#humor #aprilfools #leadership #businesstransformation #creativity
Young and Profiting

I really enjoyed my guest appearance on the Young and Profiting podcast show. Its host, Hala Taha - the CEO of YAP Media – is a highly gifted conversationalist with a disarming passion for sharing knowledge.

I invite you to listen in on our high-paced repartee here, in which we discuss key elements of Slingshot, ranging from reconnecting with our inner child to mastering Infatuation Intervals:

https://www.youngandprofiting.com/169-slingshot-your-way-to-market-domination-with-gabor-george-burt/

#YAPMedia #podcast #creativity #selfimprovement #leadership

Saluting my Alma Maters

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