Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

The Force of Desire

Have you ever experienced one of those moments when everything around you seems to go crazy? You worked very hard on a project putting in insane hours, stretching yourself to the limit, getting all your proverbial ducks in a row and cannot wait for that magic moment, the tipping point, when it all comes together. And just when you expected everything to fall into place you get complete chaos instead. That is not the moment to start doubting yourself. It is not a good time to pull back. In fact, that is the moment when you need to renew your... Read more →

Our Love Affair with the Screen

I was reading The Sunday Inquirer and came across Karen Heller’s column titled The Tyranny of the Screen Reaches, and Ruins, the iPod. Heller writes “there are too many screens fighting for people’s attention, mostly people under age 25.” She calls what young people view on the tiny iPod screens junk. According to Heller music, which began life on the iPod as a personalized soundtrack, is going all visual on us and that is not a good thing. The visual aspects of music is the realm of stylists and hair extension artists, she writes, looks before talent. That is an... Read more →

The Language of Connecting

A couple of years back I received a copy of Imagine, a small booklet written and designed by Synectics, Inc. to give people a bit of the feel for the work they do in fostering creativity and innovation in organizations. One of the ways in which we can foster productive and creative environments is by using language that promotes and facilitates connection-making. What other words and phrases could we use for connecting? Joining in, asking permission, inspiring, energizing, motivating, supporting, fostering leadership in others all come to mind. When all else fails, a good sense of humor saves the day... Read more →

How Good do You Want to Be?

Paul Arden's book It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be has been defined as a pocket guide to making the most of yourself, the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible possible. Maybe a book cannot do all that by itself. It did spark a few thoughts. Taking a second glance at the concise paperback I felt inspired to flesh out some principles that have guided me in my career: I do it for me - absolutely, unequivocally. Whatever your career goals, they should be your choice and yours alone. How good do you want to... Read more →

Blogs as Lovemarks

A recent report by Jupiter Research concludes that only a small percentage of consumers consider blogs and public forums to be trustworthy. When considering a purchase, they are twice as likely to trust information on a corporate Web site or on a professional review service. 20% of advertisers surveyed by Jupiter planned to use some form of viral marketing in the next year: "New viral marketers will adopt advertising within blogs and social sites just as heavily as experienced viral marketers, and will also place increasing brand awareness ahead of direct response goals" according to the survey, which was conducted... Read more →

Get Real: Surviving in a Reality-Show World

If you were looking for candidates to vote off the island ten years ago, Mark Burnett might have been on your short list. After distinguished service in the British military, he became a nanny, worked in an insurance office, and then sold t-shirts on the beach. But Mark Burnett is more than a "Survivor," and now he's one of the few people who can call Donald Trump and say, "You're fired!" Today he is one of TV's hottest producers. With "unscripted" reality drama series successes like Survivor and The Apprentice under his belt, Burnett pioneered how reality television revolutionized the... Read more →

Word of Mouth vs. Viral Marketing

The September 4 issue of Brandweek magazine contained a small note on how Gary Spangler, who is responsible for word-of-mouth campaigns on behalf of DuPont, rescued the term "word-of-mouth" on Wikipedia. Spangler heard the free online encyclopedia was considering eliminating the term in favor of "viral marketing". He communicated this to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, among others, to pressure Wikipedia into not making that change. Spangler defines viral marketing as a subset of word-of-mouth, along with referral marketing and brand blogging, among others. Thanks to him, word of mouth has saved word-of-mouth. Spangler admitted that Wikipedia is the... Read more →

When There is No One to Ask and Everyone is Watching

From 1992 to 1998, Franco Bernabe' was the CEO of Eni, Italy's large, energy-focused industrial group. During that time he transformed the organization from a debt-ridden, government-owned and politically controlled entity into a competitive and profitable publicly traded corporation focused on energy production. Along the way, he divested more than 200 businesses, asked for the resignation of hundreds of managers, and implemented completely new systems and procedures. His story, narrated in an in-depth interview by Harvard Business Review [requires purchase. See an extract here] highlights the many qualities a leader draws upon, especially in times of crisis. Among them clarity... Read more →

The Knowing vs. Doing Gap

This past week, Guy Kawasaki posted a blog entry titled "Why Smart People do Dumb Things" where he proceeds to enumerate a number of reasons extracted from the homonymous book by Dr. Mortimer Feinberg and John J. Tarrant. Among them he lists hubris, arrogance, narcissism, unconscious need to fail. Kathy Sierra posted an interesting entry in her Passionate Users blog, "Why Duh... Isn't" today. Both entries illustrate some examples of the ever fascinating knowing v. doing gap. There is a big difference between knowing what we should do and actually doing it. The knowledge piece seems quite sexy; being interested,... Read more →

Welcome to the Conversation

In observing what is happening to the marketplace and the blurring of traditional business roles, it has become increasingly clear to me that what we have called the experience economy from the famous book by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore and the new conceptual age with Daniel Pink, has become a conversation. One where content and product producers, delivery channels, audience and customers come together to define the future of work and the creation of meaning. The meeting of the minds resulting in commercial and intrinsic value. I have found myself the interested participant and learner from this conversation, the... Read more →