Steve Jobs
RIP – Steve Jobs: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life; http://eicker.at/SteveJobs
Tagged: Disney Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Gerrit Eicker
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Gerrit Eicker
Virtual Goods
Inside Virtual Goods: U.S. virtual goods market to hit $2.1 billion in 2011; http://j.mp/b0YtUe
Gerrit Eicker
Best Global Brands 2010
Same procedure as every year: Google and Apple gain strongly in the Best Global Brands rankings 2010; http://j.mp/d6C9XU
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Gerrit Eicker
Interbrand: “IBM, Microsoft and Google lead Interbrand’s 11th annual ranking of the ‘Best Global Brands.’ Google (#4) sees a 36% increase in value over last year, bringing the brand closer than ever to rival Microsoft (#3). HP (#10) enters the top 10 for the first time, having increased brand value under a new business model and brand platform. For the 11th year straight, Coca-Cola (#1) retains its top spot as the number one ranked brand on the list. … A number of prominent brands faced extraordinary crisis in 2010 resulting in stalled growth, value loss and in the case of BP, failure to make the ranking this year. BP’s environmental disaster and inability to make good on its brand promise of ‘Beyond Petroleum’ led to it falling off of the list and helped competitor Shell emerge as an industry leader, now ranked number 81, up from number 92 in 2009.”
Interbrand on Google: “As Google continues its upward path, it increasingly finds it difficult to reconcile its brand promise, ‘Don’t be evil,’ with the realities of a powerful global brand. Although it continues to leverage this messaging through investments in Google.org (its not-for-profit philanthropic arm) and a number of other initiatives, its access to user information and what it is doing with it is increasingly being scrutinized. Recently, it compromised a key value – trust – when it violated 176 million users’ privacy with Google Buzz. And though its effort to pull out of China, which was censoring the search engine, and realign with its message demonstrated its commitment to its promise, only a few months later, it was quietly persuaded to work with the regime again. Still, Google’s reach and record for innovation is undisputed. Expect the brand to continue to diversify and expand, even as it experiences increasing backlash.”
Interbrand on Apple: “Apple had another great year. Negative buzz over the iPad name was quickly replaced by glowing sales and avid converts. Meanwhile, the iPhone 4’s sales reached the 1.5 million mark its first day. It continues to control its messages very carefully, which creates enormous buzz and anticipation. Advertising campaigns and interactive websites remain distinct and consistent, keeping the role of brand exceptionally high. If the brand has one fault, it’s the failure to provide perfectly functioning new products. This year, iPhone 4’s reception glitches warranted a public apology from Steve Jobs – and left the door wide open for public criticism. Apple could also improve its corporate citizenship profile, which remains neutral. While it partners with the PRODUCT (RED) Global Fund, this remains relatively unknown.“
Gerrit Eicker
Facebook, Twitter, and Grown-ups
Dumenco: How (and why) Facebook and Twitter became recess for grown-ups; http://j.mp/cdCYnU
Gerrit Eicker
Disney: First @earlybird
RWW on @earlybird: If you can not be good, be early. @earlybird promotions are for weaker products; http://j.mp/bFtjxK
Gerrit Eicker
Disney Digital Media: Accomplishments Wiki
Cheng explains how a wiki is the hub for the digital media department at Disney; http://j.mp/1T8epn
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Gerrit Eicker
FC: “Albert Cheng, executive vice president of digital media at Disney-ABC Television Group, is showing off his team’s latest creation. An online sneak peek of the Lost finale, perhaps? Behind-the-picket-fence footage of Desperate Housewives on a cell phone? No, something even more revealing: Behold the staff wiki. – ‘I’m not sure you can write this up,’ he says. ‘I’m not kidding.’ With a mischievous grin, Cheng, 36, resumes the wiki tour on the computer in his corner office in Burbank, California, the heart of TV land. – His team didn’t ask permission to create the internal Web site, with staff profiles and a section called ‘Cool Stuff We’ve Done This Year.’ They just did it. And truth be told, Cheng is rather proud of that. The project captures what his 20-month-old incarnation of the digital-media department is all about. Speed. Collaboration. Gumption. ‘I see us as a Silicon Valley startup within a big company,’ he says. … The wiki isn’t an act of defiance directed at the Big Mouse, and it isn’t a goof. Rather, it’s a nifty tool for a fast-growing 150-person virtual department. The digital-media crew is spread across the company’s television units – ABC, ABC News, Disney Channel, ABC Family, and a handful of its other cable channels. The members work in three cities, five buildings in L.A. alone, and four locations in this particular high-rise on West Alameda, about a mile from ABC headquarters. The Web site allows team members to review new social-networking applications, compare vendors, and share their latest projects.“
Gerrit Eicker 08:15 on 6. October 2011 Permalink |
Jobs: “When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. – Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. – About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. – I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now. – This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. – Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.“