One of the best thought leader, low hanging fruit techniques is to get reconnected to your school - be it high school, college, or graduate.
You need your schools.
Over the last few days, I have been down in Chapel Hill, North Carolina attending alumni weekend festivities for the Kenan-Flagler Business School. I was fortunate to be asked to speak with two marketing classes of current students on the intersection of the retail sector and public policy as well as lead a lecture on retail disruption for the alumni back on campus. You can see the decks here: retail politics and retail disruption.
Talking with students as they are about to embark on their careers is a fantastic opportunity. To answer their questions and share your experience I find to be a most wonderful exchange for all involved. Also, you need to be on your game as your audience has immediate access to the WWW to challenge your ideas in real-time, or worse, you are white noise as they tune you out, so they update their Pinterest pages.
Speaking with the alumni, be it 2017 MBA graduates not even 365 days out of college, or older students who departed the school in the 80s, 70s, and even 60s can't be beaten as a venue to present your ideas. This type of cross-generation audience fosters an exchange of experience and knowledge that is a challenge to replicate on a daily workday.
As you think about upping your thought leadership game as a means to improve your experience and knowledge, think about going back to school. Reach out to that alumni director, speak with a former teacher, or find conference taking place on campus.
The ability to share ideas, speak with students, engage alumni from decades past in a safe and friendly environment is a powerful tool that will help you expand your thought leader capabilities.
Walkabout, Homaro Cantu, WIP, Steal, Zen
Walkabout, Homaro Cantu, WIP, Steal, Zen
The Weekly | Brigadoon
April 7, 2018
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross
Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia
The Weekly = Enterprise + Culture + Sport + Policy
Subscribe here: http://thebrigadoon.com/subscribe/
ROSS RANT
Make that walkabout a priority; your imagination will thank you
Made famous in the United States by famed Australian philosopher Crocodile Dundee, a walkabout is a journey through the wilderness of one's choosing to satisfy an itch, a desire to be elsewhere, the craving for the open road, or to engage the space over the horizon.
A walkabout can be a simple bike ride to your local art museum or possibly a more adventurous cross-continental journey to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. A walkabout can be joining the local historical society or taking a gap year to teach economics in Canada.
Regardless of the distance traveled or the actions taken, your imagination will thank you for the change of scenery. The brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. Same morning routine. Same office commute. Same weekly meetings. Same quarterly reports. Same yearly industry conference. Sameness overload.
This sameness can suppress your ability to generate new ideas.
Without generating new ideas, you become a manager and not a leader.
Changing up the pace, the people, the poetry can have profound results. From developing new skills and insights, but more importantly, your ability to generate new ideas.
You are a mashup of what you let into your life - friends, meals, music, books, art, lectures, movies, experiences, etc.
Every new idea is a mashup of one or more previous ideas. Without developing new ideas, the mashup process stalls.
So make time for that walkabout. Big or small, your imagination will thank you.
“I have stared long enough at the glowing flat rectangles of computer screens. Let us give more time for doing things in the real world . . . plant a plant, walk the dogs, read a real book, go to the opera.” -- Edward R. Tufte
FIVE ARTICLES TO READ
Making sense of non-public Blockchains http://bit.ly/2H5wmES
NASA is trying to build a supersonic aircraft without the boom http://bit.ly/2qd9FXl
The life and death of Homaro Cantu, the genius chef who wanted to change the world: Guardian reports, how a homeless child grew up to become the most inventive chef in history. http://bit.ly/2uSkVh5
Double double trouble? Tim Hortons plummets in ranking of Canadian brands: CBC reports, a public spat with some of its franchisees and outrage over its response to minimum wage hikes seems to have made a dent in Canadians' much-publicized love for Tim Hortons this year, as the iconic coffee and doughnut chain has plummeted on an annual ranking of brands by market research firm Leger. http://bit.ly/2Etewsl
Four key lessons in entrepreneurship from hip-hophttp://bit.ly/2Ep6Bwl
1. They just start
2. The tools are practically free
3. Make language your leverage
4. Everything’s a WIP (work in progress)
GUEST POST
You know you got something to say: Looking for a place to share ideas, comment on business, tell a funny story, or provide expertise?
This is the place.
Send The Weekly 500 - 750 words on any topic that would benefit the Brigadoon community.
Please note, I do my best copy editing after I hit send. So, whatever you send me, I suggest you do a bang-up job on the spelling, grammar, and editing before you send it over.
PRODUCTIVITY
@ThisIsSethsBlog: Words on slides http://tinyurl.com/ya9vm2j6
GEAR
Far Ride magazine: A quarterly advertisement-free publication printed in Seoul, South Korea focused on the exploration of cycling related journeys around the world aimed at putting you on your saddle more. http://farridemag.com/
BOOK
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative: One of my go-to books for inspiration, innovation, and imagination.
Written by Austin Kleon, a great reminder to all of us, you don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. Written as a manifesto for the digital age, the book is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and filled with new truths about creativity: Nothing is original, so embrace influence, collect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you. Stay smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring—the creative you will need to make room to be wild and daring in your imagination.
DOCUMENTARY
The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling: HBO is running this four-and-a-half-hour documentary about the iconic comedian. Developed by Judd Apatow, the documentary features conversations with more than 40 of Shandling’s family and friends, and four decades’ worth of TV appearances, along with personal journals, private letters and candid home audio and video footage that reveal his brilliant mind and restless soul. Apatow’s documentary not only chronicles one man’s ability to survive the ups and downs of a life in show business but also offers a profound investigation into the power of comedy to elevate the human spirit.
SONGS
Brigadoon Sundance playlist on Google Music. You can listen here.
SPORT
Sebastian Steudtner big wave surfing at Nazare, Portugal: Watch this http://bit.ly/2H8niyI
How to survive in the Premier League: FT reports, a season tracking the highs and lows of Swansea City as they battle to avoid relegation. https://on.ft.com/2GGHYNp
WSJ - Jason Gay: My Masters is Paris-Roubaix. Golf is fun, but on Sunday morning, cycling offers a rock fight for the ages https://on.wsj.com/2HaChs0
Make that walkabout a priority; your imagination will thank you
Made famous in the United States by famed Australian philosopher Crocodile Dundee, a walkabout is a journey through the wilderness of one's choosing to satisfy an itch, a desire to be elsewhere, the craving for the open road, or to engage the space over the horizon.
A walkabout can be a simple bike ride to your local art museum or possibly a more adventurous cross-continental journey to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. A walkabout can be joining the local historical society or taking a gap year to teach economics in Canada.
Regardless of the distance traveled or the actions taken, your imagination will thank you for the change of scenery. The brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. Same morning routine. Same office commute. Same weekly meetings. Same quarterly reports. Same yearly industry conference. Sameness overload.
This sameness can suppress your ability to generate new ideas.
Without generating new ideas, you become a manager and not a leader.
Changing up the pace, the people, the poetry can have profound results. From developing new skills and insights, but more importantly, your ability to generate new ideas.
You are a mashup of what you let into your life - friends, meals, music, books, art, lectures, movies, experiences, etc.
Every new idea is a mashup of one or more previous ideas. Without developing new ideas, the mashup process stalls.
So make time for that walkabout. Big or small, your imagination will thank you.
-Marc A. Ross
Marc A. Ross is the founder of Brigadoon and specializes in developing winning communications, content, connections, and commerce for entrepreneurs and thought leaders.
Morning Consult - Marc A. Ross OpEd: Sure, China Is a Competitor, but It’s Also a Market
April 5, 2018
Much of the press coverage on the current state of U.S.-China commercial relations is focused on competition, and not enough on the market for American goods and services.
China as a competitor has been dominating press headlines for years. Candidates seeking high office in the United States have been informing voters that China plays unfair, doing business there makes little sense and the only solution is tough action. Numerous political columnists use China to score easy points and advance one-sided protectionist remedies.
Years of one-sided opinion is having a negative impact on U.S.-China commercial relations and is fostering a tit-for-tat retaliatory tariff environment.
In the United States, Pew Research reports negative views of China have increased by 26 percentage points between 2006 and 2016. And American negativity towards China has been higher than Chinese negativity toward the United States in every year since 2014.
A January 2017 Pew Research survey of Americans found that 65 percent of respondents said China is either an adversary (22 percent) or a serious problem (43 percent), while only about a third (31 percent) said China is not an issue.
And in a separate Spring 2016 survey by Pew Research, a majority (55 percent) of Americans held an unfavorable opinion of what more and more Americans see as our most significant Asian rival.
This hostile environment is the public affairs reality that American business is facing right now.
Many Americans now see China, one of our most significant and most promising markets, as a loser for US business. Unfortunately, this belief is fertile ground for politicians supporting protectionist policies and trade halting tariffs. Actions that if successfully passed would force Beijing to respond with retaliatory trade tactics including increased limits stifling full access to the growing Chinese consumer marketplace for American goods and services.
It is time for those that care about a productive and engaged US-China commercial relationship to take these polls seriously and engage Americans in Main Street coffee shops and at picnic tables during backyard BBQs.
For far too long American business has relied on a model dependent on high-level government relationships with support from the White House and corresponding federal agencies to manage the U.S.-China relationship.
This model is exhausted and broken.
The Congressional Research Service reports total U.S.-China merchandise trade rose from $2 billion in 1979 (when China’s economic reforms began) to $636 billion in 2017. China is currently the United States’ largest merchandise trading partner and our third-largest export market behind Canada and Mexico, our neighbors and NAFTA partners.
According to the U.S. State Department, American companies exported $135 billion in goods to China in 2017. Exports sourced, developed and packaged from across the nation.
Thirty states experienced at least triple-digit goods export growth to China since 2006, and four states saw an increase of more than 500 percent over the same period: Alabama, Montana, North Dakota, and South Carolina per the U.S.-China Business Council’s State Export Report. USCBS concludes every U.S. state has experienced triple-digit services export growth to China since 2006, with 16 states enjoying the export growth of more than 400 percent.
At a grassroots level, it is critical to remind Americans that U.S. goods and services exported to China come from a wide range of industries. Goods such as transportation equipment, agriculture products, computers and electronics, and chemicals. These exports also sustain logistics jobs in America’s ports and warehouses throughout the country. Also, U.S. services exports come from the travel, education, and transportation sectors as well as professional business and financial services.
Leaders of American business need to play a more decisive role in reversing this trend and ensuring American goods and services reach the ever-expanding Chinese marketplace. Sitting on the sidelines will be too detrimental for America’s economic security.
Marc A. Ross is the founder of Brigadoon and specializes in developing winning communications, content, connections, and commerce for entrepreneurs and thought leaders.