söndag 31 januari 2010

What does it take to make a change in the 21st Century – My commitments

The second out of hopefully many more “What does it take to make a change in the 21st Century” event took place yesterday. The day was about our body and mind as opposed to only our minds. We danced as an expression for how we felt and we all felt really inspired by the more creative elements. The topics for discussion were. 1. Environment 2. Education 3. Personal change 4. Enlightened Businesses. I was in the enlightened businesses group and we attacked the issue from three dimensions. Entrepreneurial businesses, People and how existing businesses need to evolve. We all felt empowered to do what we can as individuals in business to try to shape our organizations, but we also recognized that the guiding principles of business needs to be re-evaluated and evolve. Not rocket science, but an important acceptance of the group, to really start exploring some solutions.

When we started to explore solutions we discussed individual actions that we can do to shape our environments. I loved that angle because that made most of us leaving the room committing to actions we all can take to really shape our businesses. Personally I committed to my practices of health (sleep, physical and spiritual health) cultivate close relationships and development, but also to empower super people to live a more healthy life. What this exactly means will be explored the nearest couple of months.

Thanks for organizing the event and for inspiring me to continue to live and learn.

Until next exchange

Emanuel

About Late Night With a Leading Thinker


Our first London Late Night With a Leading Thinker gathered around 14 people in our home around the question of WHAT TO DO NOW? The last few years I always find myself discussing the big questions and more seldom than often I really challenge myself to go down to individual actions that I can do in my everyday life to really live more in harmony with myself and nature. As much as I really guard that dialogue because I really believe it is important to get it right, this week’s session was initially all about the actions we can all do every day to reduce our negative footprint on earth.

Catalyst, a network of passionate professionals set the scene by introducing their perspective on the issue and also their specific focus: FOOD. I loved their focus in the sense that FOOD is something that connects us all. All being ALL as opposed to only human beings. Their story was touching and helped us finding beauty in connecting with nature. All participants got to eat organic nibbles that one person from Catalyst had harvested from his home in the countryside of England. We also go invited to just walk around with our bear feet on earth helping harvesting some organic products that he is farming in his home.

After being challenged on the scale of the issue, there was a sense that we needed to empower each other to think and act from a space of optimism as opposed to from a space of fear. Sustaining Ability as opposed to sustainability was a manifestation of focusing on a vision of having a choice, i.e. sustaining our ability to chose how we want to live our life, as opposed to the more negative goals of sustainability which is more about sustaining a sinking ship.

As always, I left with more questions than answers, but also with inspiration to continue my journey of exploring how we ALL can live in harmony with earth.


Thanks Catalyst for coming and sharing your powerful story and thank you all participants, i.e. Leading Thinkers for showing up with your mind, hearths and wills to make the evening an inspiring one!

Until next exchange

Emanuel

About Spiral Dynamics

I got a very vivid introduction to spiral dynamics in the beginning of this week: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics is about human development. It is an integral theory that helps us to understand the evolution of mankind. I had some transformative hours in the sense that it helped me to understand myself better, but also some of the tensions in today’s world. Some of the questions I have post allowing the theory and the worldview to sink in are if we have time to await the evolution to have its journey or if we need a revolution and also, is the theory applicable globally or is it more skewed towards a the vantage point of western societies?

The introduction made a very strong impression on me and I am keen to explore the implications further. I can feel that it is a worldview that can help me to understand the current state of the world better and in a more holistic way. As much as it helps me to understand where we are at, our challenge ahead is to understand how we move ahead from here. I think the rest of the week helped my explore that further. Partly through our first "Late Night With a Leading Thinker" here in London, but also from yesterday's session on "What does it take to make a change in the 21st Century.

Until next exchange

Emanuel


söndag 24 januari 2010

About my old lloyd shoes

Yesterday I threw away my old brown lloyd shoes. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it so I just took them with me in an orange plastic bag and hanged them on the door of a second hand store. When I came back an hour later, they were gone. Hopefully in the hand of someone who disagreed with that the shoes had walked their last mile…

My brown lloyd shoes had on my feet walked their last mile and every time I throw away a pair of shoes I take the opportunity to think about where those shoes have taken me…For example I have celebrated in them and I have cried in them - I have experienced the world and life in them. I dare to say that my brown lloyd shoes have always been with me as I have experienced the world and some of the most transformative years of my life so far.

I had my brown shoes on me the 9th of September 2009 as I was entering the doors of my new learning environment in Cadbury. Last week the board of Cadbury recommended the shareowners of Cadbury to accepted a bid from Kraft Foods to acquire the company so my employer of choice will change ownership and there are strong reasons to believe that many others things will change as well! I would lie if I would say that I am not welcoming change as I really believe that the only thing that is really, “always constant in my life is change”, and most times change for me means expanding my worldview and learning new things! Having said that, I curious to see how Kraft can maintain what’s great with Cadbury as they are trying to improve the Cadbury-Kraft business. I do have hypotheses on some of the challenges, but also on some of the opportunities that await everyone involved in this process, but I do feel a need to allow the nearest future to enfold before speculating too much on what’s a reasonable and good ways forward.

The week ahead is about reviewing the past and gain inspiration for the nearest future. I am looking forward to explore spiral dynamics and to host the first “Late night with a leading thinker” here in London! Our first guest is Andrew from Catalyst! I shall look forward to this and a lot more!

As much as this blog post was about my brown shoes, it was about gratitude to life more than anything ells!

Until next exchange
Emanuel

lördag 16 januari 2010

a call for help - Haiti

Friend --

On Tuesday, a catastrophic earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, but the death toll -- already in the thousands -- is climbing fast.

This is the worst earthquake to hit the area in more than 200 years. Entire communities have been ripped apart and as many as 3 million people have been directly affected, including tens of thousands of American citizens who are in Haiti.

Our neighbors in Haiti are racing to confront the enormous devastation -- and the OFA community can help.

Click here for more information about essential relief efforts and ways you can help today.

Footage is pouring in of homes collapsing, Haitians carrying injured family members, and hospitals being overrun in what was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives. Personnel from the United States and our partners in the international community are on the ground in damaged areas right now, working side by side with the Haitian people. They're providing much-needed food, water, and sanitation supplies, saving lives and helping local communities start to rebuild.

Despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, I encourage those who can to reach out and help. It's in times like these that we must show the kind of compassion and humanity that has defined the best of our national character for generations.

Click here to find out what you can do:

http://my.barackobama.com/Haiti

As this story continues to unfold, I hope you will continue to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers, as well as the many Haitian-Americans who have done so much to enrich our country and who are worried about friends and loved ones in this time of need.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

onsdag 13 januari 2010

The role of digital in the marketing mix - initial thinking

Free flowing thoughts as I am learning about the role of digital in the marketing mix in an era of transition...

Digital marketing is NOT about re-learning everything that marketing is all about. In fact, they way we do most things will still be the same. Marketing in the digital era is still about segmentation, targeting and positioning, and the marketing tactics are largely the same as well. Digital marketing makes mass marketing very expensive and inefficient. Thus, we need to be clear on what is the role of digital in the overall marketing mix.

Digital is enabling us as marketers to do our jobs better.

The segmentation can be more precise and our targets can be more relevant. The way we develop products can be more informed and the way we price them can more reflect the specific target. The way our brands behave can be more targeted.

The way we distribute our products can evolve, but the idea behind where we chose to be is the same, i.e. where people are making purchases. The way we do promotion need to evolve, but what we are trying to achieve will be the same, i.e. building sustainable relationships with our consumers.

Digital is not about NOT doing TV advertising, but instead it enables us to see the responses of our actions that give us choices on how to respond and proceed.

Digital is enabling us as marketers to do our jobs better.

But it will require more from us.

As opposed to start and finish a campaign activation, we are always is campaign activation. As opposed to talk at our consumers, we need to get their permission to have a dialogue with us. If we decide to talk at them, we have the medium to understand their responses to what we have to say. As opposed to be the only source recording messages about our brands, we are one out of millions of people who openly share opinions in influential mediums.

Digital reminds us about our global world and it gives us a space to leverage resources for our global brands.

Digital enable us to behave more targeted and to be better marketers.

The challenge ahead is to understand the role of the different mediums and the role of digital in the marketing mix...How can mass and permission marketing synergize each other and who will be the best in leveraging the opportunity that has emerged through the digital revolution. The challenge ahead is about being timely and relevant to mitigate risk and leverage opportunities that emerge with the digital space. The consumer is informed, conscious and the queen...be good enough for her, him, earth, and us and you will thrive!

Until later

Emanuel