Just in time for the Olympics, a visual tool to find your way around Beijing. For $10, a set of visual cue cards to hand to unsuspecting Beijing taxi drivers to drive linguistically-challenged foreigners to venues, restaurants and hotels.
Bic, the French company famous in Europe for its ubiquitous plastic pens, partners with the mobile telecommunications company Orange to introduce the Bic phone. For approximately $75 you get a fully charged phone and 60 minutes of talk time (rechargeable). Oh, and they won't leak in your pocket like the pens.
From our Yank-wandering-London friend, Tom Fishburne.
Shift perspective. Buy, rent or read about Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.
To respond to increasing numbers of clients asking us to help them think beyond the gray, grey conference room of a Marriott, Sheraton or Hyatt for their team retreats, training events, and project meetings, we've launched the beta version of www.frontiervenues.com. Zoom in to your preferred destination and rummage around the locations we love. From designer hotels in Miami to lodges in Namibia and bars in Istanbul. We're adding new venues as we discover them.
James McIntosh, our brilliant collaborator and commentator on why we like Pyramid Structures.
Good, simple corporate communication. Netflix proposed canceling an aspect of its online service (the ability to share accounts between multiple people). They announced the change ahead of implementation. Customers complained through their online response channel. They changed the decision and publicized it with humility.
How do you reduce time from dairy to store shelf? And increase number of units able to be carried by one delivery sufficient to reduce truck journeys by half? Change the design of the venerable milk jug. Then drop price and invest in education to shift consumer attitudes. The NY Times reports on Walmart’s attempt to reduce transportation costs while improving quality of product.
Required Reading: Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational. In one book he summarizes our whole business premise: the rational economic consumer does not exist. Buy a copy, or email us and we'll send you a copy.
Rand McNally's fabric map. It's microfiber construction is tear-proof, wrinkle-proof, water-proof and doesn't need folding. Wipe the sweat from your brow while finding your way around Nevada in the summer. Simple change, creating new demand.
Nicholas Felton's chronicle of his 2007. In graphic detail.
So much chatter on "Millennials", so little perspective.
We asked Tanja Miranovic, a Serbian student on a scholarship to University of Richmond, to create a one-pager to reflect her outsider's perspective on what's on the American Millennial mind. Read it here: Download millennial_novi.pdf .
NY Times on the rise of the color plum. (Honestly, no connection with our plum font).
Go see a master of immersive environments. Olafur Eliasson's "Take Your Time" exhibition moves from MoMA San Francisco to MoMA New York this month.
Step 1. Announce a controversial merger.
Step 2. Launch website - newglobalairline.com with patriotic statements about creating America's Premier Global Airline.
Step 3. Include bold sections on "How it Benefits You" and a "How You Can Help" link encouraging passengers to email their representatives to lobby in favor of the deal.
Against a backdrop of a tumbling stock price, Starbucks turns to its customers to ask What Next? At MyStarbucksIdea.com customers are encouraged to suggest ideas to improve their Starbucks experience. You can also vote for an idea and [the essential bit] see what the company is doing in response to those ideas.
Today's front pages from 57 countries around the world courtesy of the newly opened Newseum in Washington DC.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages
Front page shown: Al Watan of Damascus, Syria
From the founders of Cool Hunter, www.dear-god.net. In their words...
Dear God is a global project for people around the world to share their innermost hopes - and fears - through prayer.
It doesn’t matter what your version of God is…Jesus, Allah, Buddha or simply a spiritual universal energy… praying to a higher power soothes and heals. It’s scientifically proven that people who pray are healthier, happier and more resilient.
Share your prayers here and help us create hope one prayer at a time. Simply send us your personal letter to your God and/or a picture that sums up your message visually. (Dear God will source a picture if you don’t have one).
Disclaimer: This website is totally independent and non-denominational. We are not a religious or spiritual/new-age organization. We have no affiliation or relationship to any church or religious or spiritual group or organization.
In a culture obsessing over thin, we have a confession to make - we love BigBelly.
BigBelly Solar has created a solar powered compacting trash receptacle. One unit takes up the same space as a commercial bin, but it can out-eat its competition by five times. So, for every five collection trips needed for a standard trash receptacle, only one collection trip is needed for BigBelly.
That means fewer trucks on the road at a time, minimizing fuel needs and emissions, and making for less wear and tear on the roadways.
BigBelly Solar acknowledges the need for efforts around "reduce, reuse, recycle", but also recognizes things we can do to make an immediate difference in our environment, and we dig that.
The U.S. airline industry as a whole discards enough aluminum cans a year to build 58 new Boeing 747s. But despite the captive audience and ample time, flight attendants still walk the aisles collecting trash without any attention to separating out the tons of recyclable product disposed of by passengers.
Finally, one airline stepped up and took notice. During the past year, Delta Airlines commenced a recycling program for all domestic flights. Catering and Cabin Service crews sort aluminum cans, plastics, newspapers and magazines.
So far, they've collected over 60 tons of recyclables.
In June of 2007, Delta secured support from Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport. By September, four other airports joined Delta's initiative. Plans are in place for all Delta hubs to be part of the program by the end of 2008.
Simple change; big impact.
The poster is blank with clear coating over the headline and the visual. Over time, dust and dirty particles on the street get stuck on the poster, gradually revealing the message. The pollution speaks for itself.
Agency: JWT Hong Kong for Friends of the Earth
French visual, global message.
[Translation: Around the world someone dies of Aids every 10 seconds]
Agency: Leo Burnett, Paris Client: Sidaction, Paris
A recent study published by Caltech proves what we suspected all along. High prices convince our minds we're receiving a higher quality experience. Neuro-economist Antonio Rangel measures greater activity in the pleasure centers of the brain when subjects are given a cheap wine to taste but told it's expensive. More from APM's Marketplace.
LONDON (AFP) - A scheming conman walked off with a bagful of cash from Barclays, by posing as its chairman, the bank admitted Thursday....(continued)
To the despair of firefighters everywhere, we have a habit of hiding ugly red fire extinguishers in the back of kitchen cupboards where they're inaccessible to rapidly respond to a kitchen fire. The answer to this problem? Have form meet function. Home Depot introduces the stylish Home Hero fire extinguisher.
Source: Fast Company Photo: Home Hero
Society's greatest killer? Smoking, drugs, drinking, obsesity... or lack of education? Douglas Kamerow, former Asst Surgeon General offers a counter-conventional wisdom view.
How do you save $1.3bn worth of jet fuel every year? Clean the engine. Andrew Blum of Wired Magazine on Pratt & Whitney's Eco Power Engine Wash.
"I don't believe that government is good at picking technology, particularly technology that is changing. By the time you get it done and go through democracy, it's so outdated."
Mayor Bloomberg on influencing citizens' behaviors. Interviewed by Nicholas Thompson in Wired Magazine.
Photo: Larry Fink.
Smart Cars have been racing through the narrow streets of Amsterdam, Paris and Rome for years at a nifty 36mpg. Mercedes now thinks newly gas-conscious America is ready for the tiny Smart Fortwo. We dropped by the Smart House on Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice, CA to take a look. Starting around $12,000 the Fortwo gets mileage similar to that of a hybrid at a much more attractive price (and it's so fun to street park face-in). The team in Venice reliably informs us that first cars will go on sale in the US in late January and interest is high, with 30,000 people already on the wait list. We're betting Kirsten will have a pink convertible by the summer.
Michael Shermer, Editor of Sceptic Magazine, delivers a brilliant presentation on the art of challenging conventional wisdom. Buick hub caps, invisible gorillas and Katie Melua... a skeptical start to 2008
A gift from us to you over the holidays. Inc Magazine's Dumbest Products of 2007. Thanks for being part of the Project. See you in '08.
A strategy retreat that immerses your exec team in globalization? Skip the golf resorts of Arizona or Orlando. Try Miami. Stay at Delano or Raleigh. But don't stay on South Beach for the whole retreat. Wander into the regenerating design district; immerse in the latin world of Little Havana. With 62% of Miami residents foreign-born, it's hard not to develop a globalist strategy while gathering there.
Photo: Kaitlin Yapchaian
Lala.com's plan to up-end the music industry. Take a couple of old platforms (CDs and radio stations) and play.
Just because we like it. The opening credits to Weeds. Your organization feel like this? If yes, call us. Or call our competition. It doesn't matter, just call somebody.
Yap says we have to profile her friend Allison Rogers in Treehugger. We agreed because we a) we like the Green the Capitol initiative and b) are scared of Yap. The Capitol initiative doesn't mean squat for directly changing natural environment, but we like the influencer impact on the political environment.
Photo: Treehugger.com
Dig trenches or look for the high ground? In response to rising concern around global warming, Enterprise Rent-a-Car responds with the worlds largest fleet of hybrids and high-mileage rental vehicles and a carbon offset program to boot. Soft environmentalism or hard business? You be the judge.
Source: Inc Magazine, November 2007
Professor Barry Schwartz on the impact of choice on decision-making and satisfaction.
Offsite venues. We like Istanbul. Great venue for discussing impact of globalization on organizations. Europe meets Asia. Iraq war. Religious diversity. EU membership. For the venue, we recommend the Four Seasons Istanbul. A former prison (case study in business reinvention?), the hotel is located in the center of the Sultanahmet district, steps away from the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. With only 65 rooms, your offsite can own the hotel space while allowing participants to roam the neighborhood on foot for breakout sessions. If you arrive ahead of the event, skip the luxury of the Seasons and stay around the corner at the independently quirky Empress Zoe.
We reluctantly bought the NY Times Bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek for a scan read. Skipping over the author's self-indulgent I-became-world-champion-fighter-by-leveraging-the-bureaucratic-rules nonsense, we liked his suggestions on taking a media famine for a week (no TV or newspapers, no websurfing beyond specific research) to free-up thinking time. His attitude to email (download it twice a day, not twice a minute). And his reinforcing of the argument that efficiency (doing lots of tasks productively) does not necessarily equal effectiveness (achieving the goals of you/your organization). Borrow a copy, or buy a discount used copy.
We mentioned yesterday that we thought Facebook hopeless. We should justify. We recently had the pleasure of working with a crack team of clients building a business case around a very different kind of social networking site. The research showed, again and again and again... a huge gap for filtered groupings, exclusivity according to relevance. We think Facebook will either retreat back into the college only world (currently being chased by College.com) or will just run headlong into Myspace's space until Google or Microsoft feel obliged to purchase them simply to fire rocks at NewsCorp. We can't talk about our client's product, but Business Week has put together a pretty slide show of some of Facebook's more exclusive rivals.
While we head off to fill out our application for Beautifulpeople.net, you can read the Harvard JFK School of Government's case study of Monetising Connectivity at Stockholm-headquartered ASmallWorld.net Download harvard_asw_networking.pdf.
We used to be fans of Facebook. No more (just how much junk can you throw on a webpage?). But we were interested in Robb Webb's analysis of saturation of Facebook across international markets. The most Facebook users per capita? - The US ranks sixth behind Canada, Norway, UK, Sweden and Australia. Reassuringly, penetration of the French market is at a paltry 0.67%. The web has yet to replace the cafe for French society.
Source: Robb Webb, Reach and Saturation of Facebook
We love this. Clean, simple, ego-free. De-clutter life, reduce environmental impact. Gather that pile of catalogs that fall through your mailbox over the holiday season and spend five minutes at www.catalogchoice.org. Remove yourself from dozens of mailing lists in one clean move.
Source: NY Times
Tokbox.com - The next Facebook for social networking? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But we do plan to embed the technology into clients' corporate intranet sites. A great tool to improve collaboration on multi-location projects.
The WSJ on how environmental policies can influence the attraction of talent to an organization.
Recipe: Take one Wall St client/friend of Frontier. Add a dose of talent as a vocalist. A sprinkle of social consciousness and mix well with people of similar ingredients. Top with a deep coating of the actor-activist Billy Talen (Rev Billy). Throw in the media oven of Austin South-by-Southwest and Edinburgh's Fringe and when it reaches 400 degrees you have What Would Jesus Buy? Morgan Spurlock's look at how consumerism has sucked the spirit from the holidays.
As the developed world debates the rise of China and subprime credit woes, take an entertaining look at the human dynamics behind the issues. Watch the trailer, then go see it.
