Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Developing entrepreneurship among the world’s poorest

If you are feeling crappy about the economy or mad at Wall Street I recommend you see this extremely compelling and uplifting interview with Acumen Fund founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz in the McKinsey Quarterly. She is a passionate speaker, I don't understand why the McKinsey Quarterly Editor - Bill Javetski interviewed her (he's a dud)..... but she more than makes up for it.






The Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty
"We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches."


The article and interview center on the publication of her newly released book The Blue Sweater, Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an interconnected world.

The traditional Advertising Agency model - RIP?

Besides "my career reinvention & the great job hunt of '09" , writing this blog and other ordinary stuff.... I have been reading and learning, my field of interest has been focused on new media, interactive/digital, personal branding & social media marketing etc.... this is not only the future, but the present of advertising.

Recently I had a conversation with an old friend from college, he basically confirmed what I had been feeling for the past 5 years, the traditional advertising agency model is dead (don't feel sad, it had a loooooong life). What will replace these monoliths ? Swifter smaller shops, will clients still insist on a "one stop shop" mentality? Will it be segmented and niched? My early professional roots are in the US Hispanic side of the business, and this "time" reminds me of the early days in that business, where we where in the midst of defining ourselves and doing it at the same time, there where few rules to play by, and it all emerged quickly. What will define the leaders of this next era? Who are the leaders leading the charge? And what will the shop of the future look like?

Monday, March 2, 2009

Women 2.0 Start-Up Competition

Ladies with ideas...... I came across this and am totally fascinated by the concept....it is NOT limited to women, but there has to be one woman in a lead function. This is a competition geared towards entrepreneurs, and finding the next great idea.

Women 2.0 is a San Francisco based organization devoted to increasing the number of start-ups led by women.

Amongst their many sponsors - here are some of my personal favorites: "Girls in Tech", "Girl Geek Dinner" , "Ladies who Launch", "invinicibelle"

The third-annual Women 2.0 Pitch 2009: Startup Competition is open to early-stage ventures around the world, from high growth business ventures in web 2.0 to mobile and biotech, consumer clean tech to consumer hardware. Applying companies must be in beta-stage and have not received significant funding. Teams with at least ONE FEMALE in the founding team are invited to compete for a chance to win:


One-on-one meeting with Michael Moritz from Sequoia Capital


3 months of office space and mentoring
from Plug and Play Tech Center


PR strategy from JonesPR


Marketing strategy from MWW Group


Legal support from Pillsbury



What do Disney, HP, and Microsoft have in common? These iconic American companies started in tough economic times. Despite the downturn in the economy, many entrepreneurs and VCs are saying that now is a great time to start a

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Your Google Results & your job search

Your personal Google search results, are extremely important during your job search... and even in every day life. For example, I Google people all the time to get to know more about them.

Dan Schawbel , the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, makes the point that your Google results are your "resume" professionally and personally, HOW TO: Take Control of Your Google Search Results . If you think of yourself as a brand, and you should, then you have to take control of the information that is easily available about you. It takes a bit of work, and being "creative" but it's very important to make sure that there is information about you, and most importantly, that its accurate.

I have started to think of myself more as a "brand", and am think of how to successfully "brand myself" - now that is trickier......

Monday, February 23, 2009

“Reinventing Innovation.”

Recently, I read some excerpts from a fascinating book on success and innovation "Outliers, The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell was invited to speak at a conference in Canada on "Reinventing Innovation". The transcript of his speech is published in "I have an Idea" Advertising's Intellectual Archive.

One of the premises of the book is that, innovators can be divide into two broad groups. The first group called ‘conceptual innovators’, are the people who have the big, bold, breakthrough ideas, and they execute them very quickly. The second group is 'experimental innovators', those who do not have one big bold central idea. Experimental innovators may never have a big, bold, breakthrough idea. By virtue they are experimental and open to trying new things and learn from failure - using failure to launch their next move.This process is not "efficient" by business standards but can lead to great success and genius. After all part of success is learning from your past experiences..... especially your failures.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The basics of the new job search......

Amy Hoover from the TalentZoo, lays out the fundamentals you will need in order to get the job search going, Job Search 101.

I would also add, that networking is still your best resource for finding work, reach out to everyone and anyone you think can help you find a job, or recommend you to someone who can help you find a job - do NOT be shy. Pursue informational interviews, promise to keep them brief - 15 minutes on the phone, people who actually have jobs are very busy these days often wearing "multiple hats", but if you can score one of these, be well prepared with questions and ask for insights, and finally, don't forget to follow-up.

Amy Hoover is considered an industry expert in employment practices and trends. She can be reached at amyh@talentzoo.com, http://www.linkedin.com/in/ahoover, and wants you to friend her on Facebook, too.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

What will shape the next era in advertising - The best ideas

This article reminded of something I witnessed first hand - the great economic crisis in Argentina and the tremendous creativity that ensued. No matter what financial crisis, these Argentine agencies kept wining awards for their creativity. During that time, when the Argentine dollar was totally devalued, I had the opportunity to work there quite often, producing commercials with some of the most creative and talented people I have ever had the pleasure of working with.... it was an amazing time.......and proved to me that great ideas don't need exorbitant budgets, just carefully crafted messages and executions.

The truth is that smart marketers understand that there is never a time to let their guard down, and that investment in advertising is a necessity in order to keep their brands alive, and their consumers engaged and buying their products - how they deploy those budget will change dramatically. I don't believe that the :30 message in traditional broadcast will be the medium of choice. Instead, I see that advertisers are looking at more creative and targeted ways of communicating their message to their potential consumers - both conceptually and in their placement. No doubt, digital is the standout medium, others are mobile and targeted social networking. Creatively, we will also begin to see more comedy, because who doesn't need to laugh during these times? Testimonials will also be big, because they are simple and generally easy and cheap to produce.

Todd TilfordSo what will shape the next era, as best put by Todd Tilford, ECD, Grey/N.Y " Ideas will shape the next economic era just as they always have. May the best ideas win. "

Check out this article in Creativity - by the top creative minds in the advertising industry - Upside Downturn