Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Learning as Competitive Advantage

Learning has been my lifelong pursuit -- and we could argue successfully that learning to learn is a life-saving skill (even as it is an acquired one when we feel less curious). Because we start at birth and we keep going with varying degrees of deliberate practice throughout our existence. We learn the most as we teach, we learn when we engage with public speaking, we learn by example, and some of us are extreme learners, taking opportunities to enhance the way we look at thinks both by assimilating new knowledge and doing things differently. [Additional resources on how to... Read more →

Experimentation as a Mindset

I recently gave a talk on the main stage of the Consumer Goods Technology Sales and Marketing Summit in New York City titled what is keeping marketers up at night, specifically what is top of mind for CPG and retail marketers. It is a complex web of partnerships and services that bring consumer products to market and technology is a strong component of making it happen. Yet, more and more brands are either finding or seeking a direct relationship with consumers. We are more plugged in than we've been to date, often more informed and intensely time starved. This means... Read more →

Fueling and Measuring Innovation

Making Sense: Measuring How to Measure Innovation (to Get Real Results). Fast Company: One reason why that innovation metric gap exists is because there’s no set formula for what fuels innovation. What works for one company might be too fuzzy for the next. That said, there are a few things you can measure in order to figure out how innovative your company's culture is--it's the first step in figuring out how to reshape that environment and start promoting new behaviors. The Disruption Machine. The New Yorker: A pack of attacking startups sounds something like a pack of ravenous hyenas, but,... Read more →

World Cup: a Play by Play on the Language of Connection

When I last viewed this Nike ad on YouTube, it had more than 75 million views, more than 400,00 likes, and 27,399 comments, some of which provided a behind the scenes look at how people interact with stories: "who did he become at 2:55?" You could not get me to watch a 4:13 ad on TV, even if I owned one, yet this execution is so compelling that I have now watched the ad five or six times -- and not just for professional reasons, I really enjoyed the experience. Several elements make this production a play by play example... Read more →

How to Get Motivated to Write

Lately I have been spreading myself too thin, and my writing has suffered as a result. What used to come easy and flow right out of me and onto the screen now takes hours of effort to squeeze into something that makes sense. I have a secret reserve of good writers I turn to when that happens, and a few ideas on how to return to a productive and happier self. Tapping into a reservoir of ideas Rule # 1 -- read better, and read more of it. A dip in my creativity is a leading indicator that I am... Read more →

Do I dare?

[found here] +++ Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effect on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here. Read more →

The Average Person Does not Exist

A few thoughts from the floor of the #CGSM2014 conference as I am about to take the stage to talk about marketing makes decisions following Michael Senackerib, CMO Campbell Soup. Scott Stratten opened the day with stories about how people share emotion and often we draw from the most extreme and the most recent experiences. He also made the point about how we should not use technology just for the sake of showing we are using technology. Case in point: QR Codes. Marketing is going -- needs to go -- where consumers are going. Yet, it is doing so halfheartedly,... Read more →

Commerce with Digital at the Core

The premise on my talk at the Consumer Goods Technology Sales & Marketing Summit# [on Twitter #CGSM2014]: Commerce with digital at the core The latest sales figures on tablets and smartphones, the rise of Google, and rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter in the last few years say it all – the new paradigm is caveat venditor, or let the seller beware. In the palm of their hands your customers have the tools and the access they need to create media, upload data, share content, and compare notes about your company, products and services… and those of your competitors’. Technology... Read more →

Value Today, and at the End

Making Sense: of Value Arista, Uber, Silcon Valley. Om Malik: However, the gulf is that of perception. In order to understand Arista, you need to understand the networks and how they have evolved. Uber on the other hand is easy to grok — and fun. [...] From an investor standpoint, it took Arista Networks ten years to get to public markets. Protecting Debit Card Interchange Revenue. Ron Shevlin: it’s important to see what happened to other forms of payment. From 2006 to 2009, credit card payment volume declined by 3%. From 2009 to 2012, it grew by 25%. Prepaid debit... Read more →

Game on for Apple

Last night I watched Steve Jobs, the movie. It was okay -- I wished the story expanded beyond the earlier days and was left wanting for more detail around how Apple the company came to life. Also, the movie stopped short of the come back in 1997 -- take for example this excellent Q&A Steve Jobs did at the WWDC that year. In that respect, I enjoyed much more Pirates of Silicon Valley, an earlier movie about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. I'll be curious to see how Alan Sorkin brings the story to life -- especially if Christian Bale... Read more →