Measure4Measure

A Formula for Happiness: Sustainable Integration

Wed, 23 May 2012 09:43:57 -0400

My latest article originally ran in MediaPost. Check it out here and below:

There has been a paradigm shift and all signs are indicating that global consumer culture is changing. In this new consumer culture, there is a growing realization that consumption does not necessarily equal happiness. And happiness is now being linked more intrinsically to sustainability.

The economics of happiness and the importance of happiness to society is not a new concept. Aristotle famously wrote that “happiness depends upon ourselves” and frequently discussed happiness in relationship to ethics. In the United States, the “pursuit of happiness” is placed on equal footing with life and liberty in the Declaration of Independence.

That said, while the foundation for a society that values happiness has been established, the post-Industrial Revolution experience in the West has been largely characterized by consumerism and materialism, with the takeaway message that happiness is obtained vis-à-vis the owning of things. The sociologist Thorstein Veblen wrote about “conspicuous consumption” in 1899 and by 1913 the idiom “keeping up with the Joneses” was practically a household phrase.

For KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyiniarz, founder and CEO of Sustainable Life Media and the highly anticipated Sustainable Brands conference, a revolution of interconnectedness is afoot. “What we see is that there is a redefinition of value going on the world right now,” she told me in a phone conversation. “There’s a growing realization that the principles that have guided society, marketers, and brands for the past 100 years have led us to the series of crises which we’re in now, from overconsumption of resources to ultimately a depletion of happiness.”

Much of this shift, Skrzyiniarz theorizes, can be attributed to a growing shift towards system thinking. “Society is increasingly aware of the interconnectedness of systems. We are on the whole more emotionally connected and as consumers are more aware of the factors that impact the larger system – from economic drivers, to fair trade and labor practices,” says Skrzyiniarz.

This shift is resulting in significant disruption in the marketplace, such as the rise of collaborative consumption. It’s a “what’s mine is yours” economic model that facilitates swapping, bartering, peer-to-peer sharing and repurposing of existing things. It’s crowdsourced, with grassroots-origins and also remarkably successful commercially as consumers are increasingly choosing businesses that enable human touch points.

Sustainability – and branding – are integrated issues where everything in a company must be aligned. “When we understand the world from a systems perspective, rather than in silos, we understand that sustainable brands cannot be developed in isolation,” says Skrzyiniarz. Branding should first be “who you are, what you do, how you do it and then, after all that, how you talk about it.”

Integration sounds daunting. My college calculus professor used to describe the operation of integration as “scary addition.” He described it as such: imagine that you are looking at the horizon and want to calculate the area beneath it. Integration is breaking the horizon up into recognizable shapes and then adding them back together. It requires seeing the whole as a sum of parts.

But there is tremendous opportunity to not only understand the world beneath the horizon, but to also make it better.

Let me know your thoughts here or at @Measure4What.

A Formula for Happiness: Sustainable Integration

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:58:00 -0400

My latest article originally ran in MediaPost. Check it out here and below:

But there is tremendous opportunity to not only understand the world beneath the horizon, but to also make it better.

Let me know your thoughts here or at @Measure4What.

Top Employers Treat Employees as Valued Asset

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:02:43 -0400

Interesting quote from John Friedman on the Sustainable Business Forum — and a nice shout-out to the value that a ranking like Working Mother has:

I absolutely cringe when I hear people say that employees want to ‘feel’ valued. The fact is that employees need to ‘know’ that they are valued. The best way to demonstrate (rather than say) that the work they are doing is appreciated by their colleagues and important to customers is by showing them how their role fits into the larger picture. For example, the partnership between building materials company Lafarge and Habitat for Humanity International reconnected employees to the tremendous value that the products they helped create bring to thousands of people. In addition, a consistent theme running through Working Mother’s annual list of Best Places to Work is that top employers treat their employees as their most valued assets by investing in their growth, engagement and satisfaction.

Oil tanker in Persian Gulf via National Geographic

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:02:44 -0400

Oil tanker in Persian Gulf via National Geographic

Science Communication: The Future Inspired: Butterfly Wings Idea Boosts Hydrogen Production

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:02:43 -0400

Science Communication: The Future Inspired: Butterfly Wings Idea Boosts Hydrogen Production:

sciencecommunicationsteam:

Researchers at China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University studied butterfly wings to discover ways to increase the amount of useful light gathered by solar collectors.

Hydrogen, as a renewable energy source, is produced from water and sun, but they key to cracking the development of this technology…

Via National Geographic

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:01:37 -0400

Via National Geographic

Tackling the Leatherman's Loop 10K...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:01:23 -0400

Today, I’m celebrating Earth Day with friends while running the Leatherman’s Loop — a 10K race outside of Westchester, NY that includes water crossings, mud flats, hills and walls.

As Micah True (aka Caballo Blanco) said in Born to Run:

Don’t fight the trail. Take what it gives you … Think easy, light, smooth and fast. You start with easy because if that’s all you get, that’s not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don’t give a sh*t how high the hill is or how far you’ve got to go.

Science Communication: The Future Inspired: Butterfly Wings Idea Boosts Hydrogen Production

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:41:29 -0400

Science Communication: The Future Inspired: Butterfly Wings Idea Boosts Hydrogen Production:

sciencecommunicationsteam:

Researchers at China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University studied butterfly wings to discover ways to increase the amount of useful light gathered by solar collectors.

Hydrogen, as a renewable energy source, is produced from water and sun, but they key to cracking the development of this technology…

Exxon Tops Forbes Global 2000 Ranking... Big Companies Still Pretty Big

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:50:13 -0400

As I wrote about in MediaPost, a few weeks ago I had the tremendous pleasure of attending the NYT Energy for Tomorrow conference. Awesome event (GORGEOUS setting in the Times Center) that sparked some lively conversations about the very exciting (ahem, potential) future of renewable resources (hellloooo wind farms).

Then, this past week I made the shocking discovery that the majority of my (incredibly smart and well-informed) millennial undergraduate students had never heard of the Exxon Valdez oil spill! Which rather disturbingly validates the power of PR and the vagaries of memory. (And I say that as a very happy, not-completely-jaded, PR professional).

So, I find it apropos that yesterday’s ninth annual Forbes Global 2000 ranking published with Exxon Mobile at the top of the heap.

For background, the Forbes Global 2000 is a ranking of the most profitable public companies. However, instead of just using a single metric such as sales, the team at Forbes evaluates companies on the basis of a combination of factors, such as sales, profit, assets and market value.

Interesting list, though not completely unsurprising, especially as it demonstrates China’s very steady financial progress. The ranking includes companies from 66 countries with the US and Japan still headquartering the majority of the list, although Forbes does note that they have a combined 14 fewer entries this year. China has the third largest number of companies with 15 more members this year than last year.

Speaking of oil spills we may forget in 15 years, most surprising to me was BP’s staggering return to the top 25 — up from THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY last year. They’re back to being profitable in 2011, going from having a $3.3 billion net loss to making over $26 billion in net income. Suddenly that $13 billion that the company has said it spent on the spill doesn’t seem quite so large. Maybe they can spend some to help the mutant, eyeless shrimp and one-armed crabs that are currently horrifying fishermen in the Gulf?

Your top ten:

1. Exxon Mobile

2. JP Morgan Chase

3. General Electric

4. Royal Dutch Shell

5. ICBC

6. HSBC

7. Petro China

8. Berkshire Hathaway

9. Wells Fargo

10. Petrobras-Petroleo Brasil

Going Beyond The 'End of the Road'

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:40:33 -0400

Reposting my article which ran on MediaPost:

Last week, I attended the New York Times-hosted Energy for Tomorrow conference. Held in New York City, it was a day of discussions and debate about the future of energy – weighing the pros and cons of wind, natural gas, ethanol, solar cells, nuclear or some heretofore undiscovered source of power. A recurrent theme was that restricted resources – or in some cases, restricted access to resources – is a key catalyst for innovative solutions.

Leading energy specialist Daniel Yergin addresses this concept in his recent book, The Quest. It’s a lengthy tome on the search for sustainable sources of energy that is a must-read, whether you’re in business, marketing or sustainability. One quote in particular stands out:

So often, over the history of the oil industry, it is said that technology has gone about as far as it can and that the ‘end of the road’ for the oil industry is in sight. And then, new innovations dramatically expand capabilities.

How many other industries and companies have thought that they reached the “end of the road” from a sustainability perspective? As one energy executive at the conference bemoaned, his company will have to change its core business in order to meet sustainability goals. He likened it to asking a candy company to make healthier products.

Not only does it require innovation to get past the end of the road, but it also may require a shift in corporate priorities, or even a shift in your core product.

This kind of thinking is by no means limited only to the energy industry. In 2003, McDonald’s began selling salads, and in that time claims to have sold more than 1 billion salads in the U.S. Burger King, which is making a move to be more casual dining and less “fast food,” is reinventing itself by selling salads and smoothies. Will Burger King be able to convince consumers to look past its name and trust them to prepare healthier options?

In lieu of a reinvention, companies whose products may be considered a threat to environmentalism are trying to develop innovative alternatives that do not require a complete overhaul. For example, this week, 3M – the company behind Scotch tape and Post-it notes – announced the launch of a “greener” masking tape that provides the same level of effectiveness while using fewer resources, in particular, paper products. Perhaps we’ll eventually live in a world where we don’t need masking tape, but, until then, 3M has the right strategy – make its products as green as possible.

As one executive described it to me, innovation is like getting to a brick wall and realizing while you can’t go through it, you can find a way to climb over it.

How have you gone beyond the end of the road? Let me know, here or at @Measure4What.

Finding patterns we didn't know were there...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:04:05 -0500

I can’t resist a good pattern. Patchwork quilts, the golden ratio, diagramming sentences and classification systems… love them all. I find it reassuring that there can be order in perceived states of chaos — this is how I justify the way my office looks. Oh sure, it appears that things are out of order, but I promise, I can find the paper you’re asking me for.

Science magazine describes in their latest issue that scientists have developed a new program, called MINE, that can find patterns in data scientists don’t know how to look for. They describe it as:

“useful for identifying and characterizing structure in data.”

I don’t pretend to understand even a fraction of the math involved (pun absolutely intended)… but my sense is that the program applies different ways of analyzing patterns (sequence, exponential, one-step-back-two-steps-forward, etc) and see what fits. Like the Cinderella method — if both glass slippers fit, then we have a winner!

Maybe there are sociological applications as well beyond financial modeling and genome sequencing. Like, let’s put the data points of my dating life into the program and see what patterns emerge, because while I’m fairly certain there’s a pattern, I just haven’t been able to figure it out.

Then again, can’t scientists agree that there are some data sets that are truly random?

Give And Take: Creating Sustainable Impact

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:00:06 -0500

As we move past the holiday season and into 2012, the frenzied language of cutting and slashing is filling the air with vows to cut carbs, slash prices, and reduce spending! This season, I’m challenging myself to adopt a rhetoric of sustainable “creation” to accompany a long-standing philosophy to “reduce.”

The language of reduction is one that is familiar and sacred to the sustainability advocate. The phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle,” while verging on being an oversimplification of the green movement, is one that is embedded in the public’s consciousness and synonymous with what it means to be an environmentalist.

Read my full piece at MediaPost here.

Rankings: The Evolution of Fortune's Most Powerful Women and How Pattie Sellers Changed My Life

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:00:05 -0500

Pattie Sellers changed my life. In 1998, I was a sophomore in a Texas high school, starting to think about college. An ambitious and bright kid, I longed for female role models and other than Ann Richards, wasn’t finding many of them in Lone Star State.

In 1998, Fortune launched what would become their first annual Most Powerful Women list, naming the 50 women their team of editors had deemed the “most powerful women in business.”

Commenting upon that first list they penned:

So where do you find the majority of our 50? Look to the industries that put a premium on creativity: advertising, media and entertainment, and publishing. There you’ll find the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Paramount’s Sherry Lansing, and MTV’s Judy McGrath… A huge hole: no top women at blue-chip firms like IBM, Dell, Compaq, or Intel.

The world has changed since 1998 and the list has changed accordingly. 2011 saw a remarkable increase in women in leadership roles in technology with Meg Whitman (H-P) and Virginia Rometty (IBM) both helming their companies in CEO roles.

Of course, things haven’t been completely balmy for women in tech if the spectacular / wince-inducing departure of Carol Bartz from Yahoo! is any indicator.

Since the first list in 1998, Fortune’s MPW list has become a mini empire, with a lot of thanks due Pattie Sellers, who the Washington Post recently profiled. Sellers is the brains behind the list and the annual Most Powerful Women Summit and has consequently been a powerful force shaping the agenda of women in leadership. She’s also feisty, as her self-described “politically incorrect” 1996 “Women, Sex, and Power” article demonstrated.

The Post gives a bit of the origin story of the list, quoting Sellers as telling editors as the time:

We have to rank them… It’s the only way that guys will read this thing, because guys are into stats and status and size and rank.

It may seem a bit outdated to repeat today in 2012, but Sellers was on to something. Women’s rankings — as we’ll hopefully demonstrate on this blog — are now almost ubiquitous, but that wasn’t the case in 1998. Not only did Sellers and the crew at Fortune begin to really look at what it means to be a woman in management, but also to try to quantify power.

Criteria that the team did and still does look at are factors like — is she a rockstar (how quickly did she climb the ranks), how many career moves has she had (if she a life-er? Did she work her way up the ranks or get spotted out of a crowd), the harder figures like earning capacity, board seats, titles, revenue under control and her wider impact on the larger economy.

Sure, it’s subjective… but as a high school student in 1998 flipping through an issue of Fortune while sitting in my dentist’s waiting room, well, it was life-altering. And while, as the 1998 issue mentions, 70% of the women on the top 50 list went to co-ed schools, I like to think that that issue influenced my own decision to attend an all women’s college, in the tradition of Hillary Clinton, who — if we’re talking rankings — was just named the Most Admired Woman in the annual USA Today/ Gallup Poll.

Should PR be part of MBA curriculum?

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:00:00 -0500

As a professor of media studies and public relations, I can’t resist discussing the recent study by the PRSA that supports their initiatives to incorporate more PR coursework into business school programs.

Some of my favorite stats from “Business Leader Survey” (which surveyed over 200 US VP-level and above business leaders):

93% believe PR is just as important to their companies as other forms of communication, including advertising and marketing
97% think CEOs should understand the role of corporate reputation management
98% believe it’s also important for C-level executives to have a working knowledge of basic public relations skills
94% admit that the senior executives within their companies need additional training in core communication disciplines, such as reputation management
98% believe it will be important in the future for corporations to have senior managers with a working knowledge of building and protecting a company’s credibility
96% say it also will be important for these individuals to have a working knowledge of building and protecting a company’s reputation

So while we’ve established that business executives could benefit from communications training and understanding PR, I’m also curious about the result… should PR professionals get training in business?

My short answer is YES.

At the end of every semester, I’m always asked by students if they think they should pursue a graduate degree in order to have a career in public relations. Now, while I’m both a professor and have a professional career at an agency, I always have to preface my answer by reminding my students that my graduate degree is neither in business or PR — rather, it’s in English literature and focused on the highly irrelevant subject area called ‘translingualism’… does anyone even study that any more??

That said, my answer is usually that I think you gain the best understanding of PR through hands-on experience and if I could do my graduate career over again, it would be to get an MBA.

More women managers, making more money, though still not first preferred gender of dads

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:00:00 -0500

On the whole, as a Wellesley lass, this makes my heart sing. Though slightly troubling that gender preferences when starting a family in the US haven’t changed in over 50 years… Ruh roh.

Via Fast Company

Happy holidays! Via @benwaring

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:05:06 -0500

Happy holidays! Via @benwaring

Infographic: Santa may be jolly, but he ain't green

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:00:00 -0500

Aww…

CSR is not a band-aid for poor products

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:00:00 -0500

Turns out you can’t start a CSR program and hope your investors forget that your products don’t work, according to CB Bhattacharya, Daniel Korshun and Sankar Sen’s latest piece in the McKinsey Quarterly.

In fact, if your products are really failing then your efforts at implementing CSR will have a negative return. The researchers theorize that in cases of poor performance, investors tend to interpret the CSR programs as detracting from the company’s core business objectives.

Reflecting on this, I suppose it does beg the question: “are you a non-profit masquerading as a corporation,” or “are you a corporation masquerading as a non-profit?”

Graph geek that I am, really love the below:

Love a good graphic! I suppose it’s a good thing that...

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:05:05 -0500

Love a good graphic!

I suppose it’s a good thing that Goldman’s clients own more than the company does… ?

Via maintainpr

Corporate Navel Gazing

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:00:05 -0500

I keep hearing the phrase “entrepreneurial spirit” being tossed around, especially as it regards to those working within a larger corporate organization. There’s been a lot of dialogue recently about how large corporate entities need to think like a start-up in order to survive — one of my favorite pieces in AdAge was a directive to CMOs to start thinking like a start-up in order to stay relevant.

I love the thinking behind being entrepreneurial in a corporate environment, but I’m a word person at heart (hello, multiple degrees in English lit) and have trouble getting over the antithetical nature of the phrasing. So when I heard the phrase “intra-preneur,” I was intrigued.

I wrote a longer piece in MediaPost about why sustainability professionals should consider being “intra-preneurs” — check it out here.