Archive | March, 2010
Brands under inspection

Brand Building: The importance of Transparency

Brand Building: The importance of Transparency and where to place the limits. Part III of a 4-post series Having discussed the issue of transparency at the governmental and societal levels, as well as the enlightening role of the Internet in the two previous posts, this third post is dedicated to the implications of transparency for [...]

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The Iconic Jar

Marmite – Mar-Mighty? Love it or Hate it?

Marmite is required taste.  For those of you who have ever tried it, you know that Marmite (owned by Unilever) does not leave you neutral.  This “love it or hate it” element is captured beautifully in the Marmite Cereal Bar ad campaign that is currently on display in England.  Given my cosmetics background, I could [...]

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Still Unlikely Balancing Act

Women’s Day 2010 – The French Equilibrium

In Paris, yesterday, I attended a conference hosted by the MEDEF (the union of employers in France), where the ORSE (Observatory of Societal Responsibility in Enterprises) was promoting among other things the arrival of a new book, « Patrons Papas: paroles de dirigeants  sur l’équilibre travail et vie privée » (Editions du Cherche Midi) or “Papa Bosses: [...]

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WikiLeaks Logo

WikiLeaks: Wicked or Wonderful leaks?

WikiLeaks is one  of the most riveting initiatives (read: ongoing battles) on the Internet and is putting a new spin on the transparency-anonymity debate.  The Sunshine Press, which runs WikiLeaks, is an non-profit organization funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public.  The “brown paper envelope of the digital age”, WikiLeaks.org could [...]

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Transparency and Anonymity

Transparency & the Enlightening Role of the Internet (Part II of a 4 part series)

This is the second of four posts on the topic of Transparency. This second post deals with the role of the Internet in the evolving importance of transparency. With the Internet providing the opportunity for all people to express their opinion more or less liberally, governments, associations and companies – and to some extent even individuals — that reign by fear, with tight-fisted control will struggle to justify or manage their subjects. Lack of transparency and incongruent positions will, over time, be shown up.

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Android smartphone

Smartphone invasion continues … everywhere

Connected phones going global A wave of publications on 2009 results show that the smartphone invasion continued at a great and global pace, outstripping the wildest predictions of only a few years ago.  Clearly, the people are voting with their pocket books and a certain number of companies (Apple, Google, Nokia, network operators, in the [...]

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Just how transparent should one be?

The Deal with Transparency: The Parent Generation Meets the Trans-parent Generation (Part I in a series of 4 posts)

Transparency is one of the important buzzwords that has surged into new management and leadership vocabulary and, surely, rightly so. It has, in fact, become such a buzzword that the University of Michigan has put it tops of its 2010 list of 15 words that should be banished. This post is the first of a [...]

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