Building innovation

One of his motivating passions was to build a lasting company. At age twelve, when he got a summer job at Hewlett-Packard, he learned that a properly run company could spawn innovation far more than any single creative individual. “I discovered that the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organise the company,” he recalled. “The whole notion of how you build a company is fascinating. When I got the chance to come back to Apple, I realized that I would be useless without the company, and that’s why I decided to stay and rebuild it.”

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

Never did I think that one paragraph could illuminate so much. I’ve been gravitating towards more operational bits over the last few months, but this sums up exactly my motivation in doing that. Brilliant stuff, as expected.

Things I just realised: I may be crap at it, but I started blogging in 2001 originally (on the ever so wittily named Whine Rack (not my idea)) - meaning I’ve been at it (off and on) for 10 years now. Safe to say things are more than a bit different.

If only I could write sentences without reams of parentheses (my favourite grammatical flaw, natch.)

Code Racer - multi-player game to learn code →

Interesting concept - in line with the math games from the late 80s/early 90s from TLC. Does gamifying learning code work?

Facebook brings sponsored stories to the news feed, but marked as featured. →

I give this a month before it changes back to sponsored. Beacon all over again.

BSkyB invests "double-digit millions" into Zeebox →

If you believe in the second-screen concept (and we do at Holler), this is a smart investment for a broadcaster to get their share of control over a content platform.

I’ve written this post before - how many years have I started off by saying I was going to write more? Each year, I let something get in the way - usually work - and leave all of the rants, ideas, and anything else kicking around unpublished. The last couple of years, I’ve “smartened up”, and just given up writing without any thought otherwise. I remain envious whenever a post is created on Attention Industry - although I have no idea how Jon produces so much content on a regular basis - but even that envy doesn’t inspire any action.

In addition to this, I would say that in 2011 I struggled with focus issues when it comes to the industry and my thoughts. Ty’s summed it up quite effectively here. I’ve been very fortunate to be at a point in my career where I am able to shape what I do on a day-to-day basis, but that often leads me stretched too thin across a number of different areas rather than being able to focus on a few key ones.

So -  this is the year when this changes. I’ll use this space for thoughts relevant to the world of advertising and digital, be them ideas, rants, commentary or anything else. In addition, I will focus what I do to ensure that I’m as effective as I can be - retaining my T-shape whilst ensuring that I’m working on the things most effective for the business and my own growth. This may mean a side project or two - something I haven’t done in years - but, suffice it to say, I’m looking forward to it.

In other words, watch this space.

Open Mode: Making Media Easier →

malcolmbastien:

Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ changed how we communicate. Now, people are familiar with social networking, and most importantly that means they’re comfortable with liking, retweeting, reblogging and sharing.

One great thing about sharing becoming mainstream is that any good content that’s out…

Nice post from Malcolm here - think that the sharing being mainstream bit is going to change a few more industries in 2012. 

staff:

Introducing the new and very improved way to customize your blog.

With themes organized by category, realtime previews, and an advanced code editor, it’s never been faster or easier to make your blog yours.

Interent Explorer users will still see the old Customize interface while we wrap up IE testing.

Design Solutions for new Log-in Problems →

Love the approach taken for this one in trying to determine whether you have an account or not…

joncrowley:

Yeah, marketers need to remember this. (Taken with instagram)