What Next?

Michael Donahue, who has spent 60 years in the advertising business including leadership roles at the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and the 4A's (American Association of Advertising Agencies) reminds us of a) the importance of continuous learning and curiosity, b) why it is never too late to pioneer and innovate (Michael led the 4A's drive into digital over two decades ago when he was at "retirement age"), and c) the need to focus on loyal users and the next generation and, finally, how we should be more worried about the Fear of Finding Out (FOFO) versus the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Further Reading:https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-donahue-460b425/ https://www.mediavillage.com/article/2023-the-year-to-get-back-to-basics-turning-common-sense-ideas-into-common-business-practices/print/ https://www.mediavillage.com/article/two-way-mentoring/ https://www.mediavillage.com/article/marketers-need-to-connect-the-dots-developers-of-transformation-successes/ https://www.mediavillage.com/article/why-and-how-marketers-need-to-lean-in-hard-on-millennials-and-generation-z/

James Rosewell is the founder of https://movementforanopenweb.com/ In this episode, he restates the case for the original vision of the internet as the Open Web. He discusses the increasing influence of the key digital platforms on the shape of the internet and why recent discussions about GDPR, consumer privacy, and the death of the 3rd party cookie are more nuanced than they might appear.Further Reading Links:James Rosewell Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosewell/https://twitter.com/jwrosewellhttps://movementforanopenweb.com/#joinhttps://movementforanopenweb.com/mows-mission-opening-the-web-for-everyone/ Topic further reading links: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/toothless-digital-watchdog-is-all-bark-claim-critics-w0qz76mt7 https://digiday.com/marketing/googles-privacy-sandbox-updates-are-met-with-both-skepticism-and-a-little-more-optimism/

Former McKinsey partner, co-founder of Happiness Squad and author, Ashish Kothari, is on a mission to “democratise happiness” and help a 1 billion unlock their full potential through integrating the art and science of happiness. In this episode, he predicts the crisis on stress, anxiety, and burnout in organizations will get a lot worse before it gets better in 2023, that organisations will continue to see suboptimal returns from and slow progress from ‘flourishing programs’ unless we drastically change course, and that the rise in AI technologies will further cause the urgency and pull to elevate human consciousness and need to evolve our adult development. In order to thrive versus just survive, he shares a practical set of ideas that you can start to implement right away to unlock your full potential and live with more joy, health, love, and meaning. In his words, you can “ACHIEVE MORE” not by “DOING MORE” but by “BEING MORE”. Further Reading Links:https://happinesssquad.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishkothari1/https://community.happinesssquad.com

Teresa Barreira, Publicis Sapient CMO & CCO, explains why the individual Is the new ‘mission critical’, how non-branded content marks the next wave for brand building, and declares the marketing funnel to be dead. She also argues that marketers should embrace generative AI as a competitive way of augmenting their own work and redefining their craft. Further Reading Links:https://www.publicissapient.com/impact/never-done-filmhttps:/www.publicissapient.com/news/publicis-sapient-and-oscar-winning-director-ben-proudfoot-launchhttps://www.adweek.com/agencies/publicis-sapient-captures-its-impact-in-3-documentary-films/https://www.linkedin.com/in/tbarreira/https://www.teresabarreira.com

HR legend, Josh Bersin, Founder & CEO, The Josh Bersin Company, shares insights from his recently published book, Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World's Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations. He argues that to survive the global talent war, the managerial mindset needs to shift to human-centred leadership, especially as your employees embody your brand and are your best conduit to customers. Further Reading Links:@Josh_Bersinhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bersin/https://joshbersin.comhttps://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-Secrets-Enduring-Employee-Focused-Organizations/dp/1646871103/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Shopify’s Deann Evans takes us behind the scenes of its dramatic growth across 175 countries. She also explains how its ‘Chaos Monkey’s’ have eradicated 320,000 hours of internal meetings resulting in a productivity increase of 25%, what it’s like in a 100% ‘work anywhere’ company, and why no one ever joined Shopify to sit in meetings.Further Reading Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannre/

Rishad revisits Madison Avenue’s ‘creative revolution’ with Andrew Cracknell (former agency ECD and author of “The Real Mad Men: The Renegades of Madison Avenue and the Golden Age of Advertising”) to ask, “what can we all learn from the original Mad Men (and women) of that golden age of advertising?”Further Reading Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-cracknell-7288b444/?originalSubdomain=ukhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9HO0ZTlCYM

In this episode, Rishad talks with leading futurist Andrew Curry, Director of The School of International Futures. Andrew shares some helpful approaches used by futurists to improve business outcomes, considers how his own work has changed over the past 20 years, and talks about developing futurist capabilities in the next generation of leaders. Further Reading Links: https://soif.org.uk/https://twitter.com/nextwavefutureshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-curry-802198/ https://soif.org.uk/app/uploads/2020/06/NGFP_Futures-Manifesto_2020_web-1.pdf Note: This interview was recorded in 2020, so a good opportunity to see if Andrew’s predictions materialised!

What can business leaders learn from military leaders? In this episode, Rishad talks exclusively with Colonel Kevin W Farrell, PhD, (USA Retired). We learn about the advantages of Back Briefing, Red Teaming, and what it’s like working with Brad Pitt as a military advisor! Further reading Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-w-farrell-ph-d-9800302/ https://battlefieldleadership.com

Do you know your ‘Buppy’ from your ‘Backboner’ from your ‘Devout’? Esther ‘E.T.’ Franklin, Global Chief Strategy Cultural Fluency Officer at Spark Foundry, unpacks the many aspects of the identity conversation and how marketers are missing growth opportunities due to wildly blunt audience assumptions. Further reading links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/estheretfranklin/