Thoughts
Ideas that transform people, businesses, and industries
Deeply rooted in our organizational ethos is the celebration of authentic and unapologetic “thought.” We believe each member of our team brings with them a unique view of themselves, our clients, and of the world we live in. We make a point to not only articulate our individual experiences, senses, emotions, and actions internally, but to share them with you here.
You are making a big (data) mistake!
Ok, I don’t expect technical accuracy from the USA Today, but I do think it’s worth reviewing an article from Chuck Raasch entitled “’Big data’ transforms our lives and lifestyles”. The article is interesting in that it talks about how large data is used in all sorts...
Funniest. Yoga. Instruction. Ever.
"Now press your hand down onto your knee with 20% effort. You know, like you were touching your iPhone."
One size fits both, none or all
I noticed this Techcrunch article about Spotify's innovation and development processes a few weeks ago, but some of my recent discussions with clients made it even more timely. The article eloquently lays out an interesting approach to "agile" and "lean" processes....
The Thank You Economy
I started listening to the audio version of a book called, “The Thank you Economy”, read by the author Gary Vaynerchuk. The content of the book, which is basically how to use social media effectively as a business and why, is actually quite interesting when explained...
Why I won’t buy Kurzweil’s latest book
I'm a Ray Kurzweil fan. Four of his books sit on my office shelves. I've read them all (one of them twice). But, I won't be buying his latest. "How to Create a Mind" (at least as he explained on the Diane Rehm show) argues that we are already merging with our...
Apple takes over the Jasper house, but not for the whole weekend
Can you believe I set up three new apple devices and reconfigured a couple others during my 18 month old's nap on Saturday? Yes, Gus is a good napper, but Apple also has perfected the art of getting people up and running on new devices quickly. My iPhone 5 finally...
Marketing the President of the United States
I just can’t help myself; I really do have to blog about the election because it really has brought about a new era in politics that will have impacts to all future generations. What I’m talking about, of course, is the use of large amounts of data and extensive...
Are You Big Enough for Big Data?
Gartner has recently put forth a formal definition for Big Data: “Big Data are high-volume, high-velocity, and/or high-variety information assets that require new forms of processing to enable enhanced decision making, insight discovery and process optimization.” For...
So, You Think You Can Analytics?
In a recent conversation with a colleague, we were discussing why organizations engage consultants as opposed to hiring employees themselves. This led to an offshoot discussion about why organizations go even further – turning to fully outsourced services, especially...
Politics and undecided voters
The Economist covered Colorado in one of their recent swing state analyses. When I read in their analysis that Coloradans "express little interest in a campaign that is very interested in them", I did a double take. Perhaps that is true for some people in Colorado,...
You can have any color as long as it’s black
I've recently been in the market for a new car and it’s been harder to buy one than I thought. I have only two firm requirements:1) Excellent gas mileage: preferably a plug-in hybrid2) Cloth seats: the vegetarian in me just can't abide buying leather...
So this is what VIP (in a smart phone inbox) looks like
I've had the same iPhone for over 3 years. I resisted the urge to upgrade from my 3Gs two times previously. Even though my iPhone had passed the coolness stage in terms of features/functions, I decided to continue upgrading just the OS. The iPhone 4 and 4s,...
Privacy? No thanks…. I think
Last week I received an email from a local garage I'd never heard of before. I was kind of intrigued that this local garage had found me via email … but, more intrigued that they were targeting me for a timing belt. Somehow they knew that I was about to hit 90,000...
Catalyzing Creativity
Creativity is an elusive and confounding idea for many people; even people traditionally deemed as "creative" will struggle, often painfully, in pursuit of this alluring idea. I think in most people's minds the first thing they tend to think of when they think of...
Welcome to the Thought Ensemble!
I'm excited to announce that I have officially started with Thought Ensemble as a Senior Partner. Since Thought Ensemble is a small organization, not very many of my regular readers are likely to know much about them, so let me provide a bit of context. Thought...
Innovation is as innovation does
Innovation has long been saluted as the golden ticket of long lasting success in business. Many other factors attribute to starting and maintaining a successful business, but if you want to stay in the game for the long haul it's highly likely that you are going to...
Move over Icy Hot
I ran into this article http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/august/cooling-glove-research-082912.html describing a body cooling glove being developed at Stanford University to help increase the physical performance and recovery time of athletes. After some further...
Plant control
Have you ever wanted to walk into your living room and turn on your TV by tickling your azaleas? Or start your dishwasher by yelling at your fern? Maybe sanitize your bathroom by smelling your poppies? Well, thanks to the hard work of Ivan Poupyrev, from Disney...
Scam for a Scam
We've all received emails claiming that we are in line for a large sum of money from some person who we've never before met or heard of. A prince or noble or some other dignitary with a lot of money and no one else in the world who can help them; except for you. ...
First rule about Trunk Club- NO ONES GIVES UP CONTROL TO TRUNK CLUB…well, maybe they do
For those that know me, I like a fair bit of control. Whether that relates to what I'm working on, my daily schedule, what I'm going to eat tonight at dinner, etc etc etc. About the only person who can wrestle that control away from me is my wife...except for...
The NeverEnding Story… of support
Nobody likes to call into a support line for a large company. Typically you’re looking at 5-15 minutes of menus and hold music before you can even get in touch with someone, who then, may or may not be able to help you. Some companies are better than others and...