Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Three Cups of Tea: the Story

Having been immersed now for many years in a culture that thrives on the 30-second sound bite and the 30-minute power lunches, last evening I had a very meaningful reminder that we can't cut and paste relationships. I attended an event of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia where I learned about the story behind Three Cups of Tea (now available in Italian: Tre Tazze di Te') from Greg Mortenson himself. Mortenson is the founder and Executive Director on nonprofit Central Asia Institute. Since a 1993 climb on Pakistan's K2, he has dedicated his life to promoting community-based education and... Read more →

Made in China: the Conversation

Mark Vamos at FC Now wrote recently from Davos about innovation in China by telling the story of Jack Ma Yun, the founder and CEO of Alibaba.com (a Chinese version of eBay) and his observations on the inroads his country is making into technology, engineering and science. An interesting conversation ensued in the comments. A few years ago, I met a dynamic and passionate entrepreneur who is helping sell American made goods in China. James Chan is the founder of Asia Marketing Management and author of Spare Room Tycoon. Dr. Chan agreed to be my Avatar for discussions on his... Read more →

Conversation @ Work

Ever had one of those days in which all conversations seem to lead to the same place? I've been having one of those months. Lately it seems that more and more organizations forget what they've learned in the past and proceed to start over every day -- despite all the evidence that learning and evolving might be good for business. A kind of permanent Ground Hog Day reel. Guy Kawasaki reminded me of some of those discussions today in his post Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption and Seth Godin gave us yet another refresher on Really Bad... Read more →

The Big Picture

In her comment to Interrogating Reality, Terri Waterman of Surreal Concepts writes: "Observing is truly the best way of dealing with life as a whole. We all have the innate ability to flow with whatever we are faced with in every moment." When I think about a business and how it works, I think about the big picture. In my observations of the daily activities of corporate America, I see not only the various roles that each discipline and department has, I see the whole system, whether that exists formally or not. That's why I have a hard time understanding... Read more →

If a Tree Fell in the Forest

"There's no sound when a tree falls unheard in the forest, and there's no space-time without consciousness nearby to watch." [Richard Bach, Running from Safety] Last night I hosted one of our monthly conversations with Fast Company magazine readers' network from the series on CEO perspectives. Our guest was Bill Loftus, CEO, Gestalt, a 230-people, $34-million software company founded in 2001 and already winning simulation technology contracts for theatre-level training exercises over Raytheon Co., an 80,000-employee and $21.9 billion organization. Gestalt's sweet spot is the technical expertise that serves commercial, defense and utility industries. They help enterprises solve challenges --... Read more →

It's Not About the Logo

And it's not about the marketing spend. You have seen it in the news and if you managed to miss that, there have been some notable discussions about it in the conversations we've had in my neighborhood of the business blogosphere: AT&T announced that it will fold the Cingular brand into it's own. Get over it, says Todd Wasserman in a recent article on BrandWeek, after all the Cingular brand didn't stand for much. I beg to differ: it did stand for something, which went well beyond the sentimentality of marketers -- it would be worse to call it the... Read more →

All the Way from Fiji

This is not that kind of trip. It's a trip courtesy of Fiji Water advertising as seen on CNNMoney.com. A misadventure in marketing that had the Los Angeles-based bottled water company use a slightly offensive headline: "The Label Says Fiji Because It's Not Bottled in Cleveland." The city of Cleveland took exception; city officials retaliated by having the bottled water tested revealing that Fiji contains 6.3 micrograms of arsenic per liter, while the city's tap water has none. Ouch! Does it matter that Fiji countered by saying that its own tests found less than 2 micrograms per liter? Who would... Read more →

The Case for Beer Connoisseurs

Perhaps you've seen it in the news; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. was looking for a chief beer officer for its Four Points Sheraton hotel chain. The Wall Street Journal published the news on Wednesday January 3. As Peter Sanders wrote, "The position is one in a long line of marketing gimmicks and branding promotions rolled out at Starwood in the two years since Chief Executive Steve Heyer arrived from Coca Cola Co." The chief beer officer is required to have a passion for and knowledge of beer, strong written and verbal skills, and the ability to work part-time... Read more →

Renaissance People

"In a renaissance society driven by the need to forge connections, play is the ultimate system for social currency. It's a way to try on new roles without committing to them for life. It's a way to test strategies of engagement without being defined by them forever. It's a way to rise above the seemingly high stakes of almost any situation and see it as the game it probably is. It's a way to make one's enterprise a form of social currency from the beginning, and to guarantee a collaborative, playful, and altogether more productive path toward continual innovation." [Doug... Read more →

Interrogating Reality

As seen on the pages of The Wall Street Journal recently in the form of adverts: Barclays Capital congratulates its 72 newly promoted Managing Directors, 8 of which are women -- 11%. Lehman Brothers congratulates its 158 newly promoted Managing Directors, 21 of which are women -- a little over 13%. This is not going to be a conversation about why these organizations and many others have so few women in their top ranks, a subject visited by many over the years. I jotted down the information because I am often searching for answers on how modern organizations can more... Read more →