What Do You Think And Why?
Tom O’Keefe and Jeff King are two of the four partners who have just merged their respective businesses, OKRP and Barkley.
When we are clear about why we think what we think, when we are free of insecurity or hubris or ego, then we can assess an alternative path with an open mind.
Mergers provoke the need to lead through this lens.
How Vulnerable Is Too Vulnerable?
Anselmo Ramos is the Co-Founder and Creative Chairman of GUT, a global independent creative agency that’s headquartered in Miami, and with six other offices around the world.
How vulnerable is too vulnerable?
The answer, of course, depends on the culture that you have created. If your culture is based on deep and enduring emotional trust, you give people the ability to show up as complex, multifaceted humans, to show up as whole beings.
Are You Conscious Of Your Choices?
Kara Swisher is the most effective and successful tech journalist of our lifetimes.
In a world of white men with giant bank accounts and even bigger egos, how did this 5 feet 2 inch, self-described, liberal lesbian mother of four, end up as the most influential and insightful reporter of the technology age?
As you’ll hear, Kara puts it down to curiosity, confidence, and understanding the choices available to her.
This week’s guest is Avery Baker. She’s the former President and Chief Brand Officer of Tommy Hilfiger.
Six months after she stepped down from her position at Tommy, we talk about her desire to empower others and why it's an essential skill to demonstrate as a leader.
We also discuss the new leadership paradigm that we have developed together for creative and innovative businesses. We call it 'Partnership Leadership'.
Who Lit The Fire In Your Life?
Dr. Jerry Gustafson is the Professor Emeritus of Economics at Beloit College and the Founder of the Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberal Education at Beloit, known as CELEB.
Jerry was also my faculty advisor when I was an undergrad, and the person who, without question, lit the fire in my life.
Bob Pittman has lived several lives in the course of this one. At 28 he gave birth to MTV. Then turned Nickelodeon into a lasting success and launched VH-1 and Nick at Night. He ran Six Flags and Century 21 before becoming COO of AOL-Time Warner. In 2014, Bob became Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. We talked about the science and showmanship of leading creativity, about tortured geniuses and what he thinks about his failures and his legacy.
Dianne Wilkins is the CEO of Critical Mass - a global digital experience design agency. She is also a talent magnet, drawing people to her with her openness and her commitment to their success. She is also a survivor. We talked about her willingness to jump in, the tragedy that changed her life, and the role that ice cream played in shaping her remarkable career.
Rei Inamoto is unique. And he’s an identical twin. His professional life has encompassed some of the most prominent and powerful leadership positions in the creative industries, including as the worldwide chief creative officer at AKQA. In 2016, he and his partner Rem Reynolds, launched Inamoto and Co - a "business invention studio". Rei and I met in their offices in Brooklyn and talked about the impact of having a twin, of life as an outsider, and about the importance of humility.
My conversation with Kojo Marfo - Director and Founder, My Runway Group Kojo has a passion to change the world. He focuses on social impact through instilling self belief in young adults. His ventures - including adults. His ventures - including myrunwaygroup.com, are targeted at providing a platform for youth development and creative growth.
John Borthwick is the founder and CEO of Betaworks, a New York based start-up studio, and a seed stage venture capital company. Betaworks has built a diverse range of companies that sit at the intersection of media and the intersection of media and technology, including Giphy and TweetDeck. Last year, they launched of a $50 million early-stage fund called Betaworks Ventures. John and I talked about why small is beautiful when it comes to unlocking creativity and about the first time he saw the Internet.
Trevor is renowned for his contribution to society and for encouraging future talent. In 1995 Trevor set up Quiet Storm, the first agency to write, direct and produce its own work. He’s chaired the IPA’s Ethnic Diversity Forum and set up “Create Not Hate” to tackle gun crime by getting disenfranchised youth into advertising and creative projects. He was awarded an OBE in 2009 for his services to charity and advertising. This episode was recorded at the Eurobest festival in London.
Kerrie Finch is the Founder & CEO of FinchFactor - one of the most successful reputation management companies within the creative, tech innovator and startup sectors, with offices in Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles and New York. Kerrie is the founder of SheSays Amsterdam and an ADCN board member. She's also incredibly warm and genuine. I talked to Kerrie at Eurobest in London.
Mindy Grossman is one of only 51 women CEOS of Fortune 1000 companies and she turned HSN into the second best performing Fortune 1000 company of this century. Since taking over as the CEO of Weigh Watchers last summer, the company’s share price and membership have risen dramatically. I talked to Mindy about the life changing decisions she made at 19, about unlocking creativity from the C-Suite and about the importance of Winnie the Pooh.
Vanessa Friedman is the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The New York Times. Her approval is sought by the most famous and successful designers in the world and she has built a reputation as a brilliant, thoughtful and fair judge of what is relevant in this the most creative of industries. I talked to her about the challenge faced by people who make things from their minds, about the importance of structure, and about the high-flying nature of her secret hobby.
Geoff Edwards has been leading on his terms for his entire career. He has been featured on the cover of Creativity Magazine’s inaugural “Creativity 50” and Boards Magazine's “Top 50 Art Directors” In America. Today, he is Head of Creative at CAA Marketing and Co-Founder of SATURDAY MORNING, a coalition for Peace. I talked to Geoff about superheroes and kryptonite, about building a business with Spike Lee, and about the decision he made that he still thinks about.
My conversation with Laura Jordan-Bambach - the Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder of Mr President/SheSays She describes the early part of her career as a cyber-feminist-code-hacking artist. Today, she is the Chief Creative Officer and partner of one of London’s most influential agencies, Mr President. She co-founded SheSays, the Great British Diversity Experiment and the Cannt Festival and she was recently named one of the BBC's top 100 innovators.
Ash is one of the UK’s best known comedy producers, responsible for, The Office and the IT Crowd. He has won five BAFTAs and a Golden Globe. In 2007, he co-founded the independent production company, Roughcut TV with Tim Sealey and over the last decade the company has established itself on both sides of the Atlantic with deals with the BBC, NBC and HBO.
Tom Goodwin is the definition of a disruptive thinker. He was recently named one of LinkedIn’s most influential contributors and brings to any conversation a natural unwillingness to accept the status quo. I talked to Tom about the importance of embracing difference in others, about the power of trust and about the freedom of being wrong.
Michael Kassan is perhaps the best connected person in the creative industries. As the founder Chairman and CEO of Medialink, he creates and unlocks relationships at the intersection of Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue, Hollywood and Wall Street. I talked to Michael about the criteria he looks for in people he wants to interact with, about what he’s learned about doing deals on the back of a napkin and about what he loves about being in the room when it happens.
Neil Tardio is a hall of fame film director, responsible for some of the most iconic advertising ever created. His 1977 Xerox commercial, "Brother Dominic", is part of any list of the greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time. I talked to Neil about working with some of the most legendary creative figures of the last fifty years, about the challenges of marrying art and commerce in one of the most pressurized environments, the film set, and about the lasting power of creating simple human connections.
During her career she has been at the heart of some of the most original and disruptive thinking of any of the creative industries. As she approaches the end of her fifth year at Wieden, I talked to her about discovering that months don’t always start on Mondays, about her role as a change agent, and about the one thing she wishes she had more of.
Gerry Laybourne has spent her life unlocking the creativity of others. From her early beginnings as a teacher and film-maker, she created not one but two game-changing networks. First, Nickelodeon, and then the Oxygen network. Along the way, she was named the most influential woman in the entertainment industry and one of the 25 most influential people in America by Time magazine.
Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs are the co-founders of Food52.com. Their goal was to create the first crowd sourced, online cook book. As you will see if you visit the site, they have already achieved much, much more than that - a fully realized food, cooking and lifestyle community and ecommerce destination.
Rosemarie Ryan has been leading creativity almost of her life. She has helped to build some of the most famous and effective creative companies of their time, leaving behind her a wake of improved businesses and more thoughtful people.
Today, she is the CO founder of CO Collective, a strategy and innovation company based in New York.
I talked to Rose about the role her family played in unlocking her leadership at a very early age, about the importance of hard conversations when you’re the leader, and about the role of generosity in her leadership philosophy.
Elizabeth Kiehner is one of the world’s experts on the application of some of the world’s most powerful technology to solve the problems of today and tomorrow.
As the Global Design Practice Director at IBM, she and her team can take the power of Watson - rapidly becoming not just a computer system but in many ways a new form of intelligence - and apply it to the problems of both today and tomorrow.
I talked to Elizabeth about the expansion of natural language technology in our daily lives, about a machine’s ability to edit tennis highlights without human involvement and about how to design solutions for problems that will exist 5 years from now.
