Business Lessons from sucessful entrepreneurs and business leaders: LunchLearning.com

Reading time: 2 - 2 minutes

Video Time: 13 minutes 55 seconds

“In this world of digital, in this world of speed, in this world of fast. . .you’ve really gotta’ change it, and you’ve gotta’ make it happen differently. Right?!”

That ‘IT’, that Kodak’s Chief Marketing Officer, Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett on Twitter) is referring to in this quick and snappy video, is the heartbeat of your business. In this video, presented at the Twitter-inspired “140″ conference in Las Vegas, Jeff shares with his audience some anecdotes about how he came to be one of the most active C-Level Twitterers and how Kodak leveraged its mass of social media “followers” to help re-brand what is being talked about as one of it’s most innovative recent products.

There are two simple lessons for marketers of all stripes. . .and business owners of all sizes. . .in Jeffrey’s presentation:

1. Remember, we do not have all the answers, and 2.) We’ve got to always keep our eye on what’s next.

Marketing complacency can not only be damaging to a product-line, but to the bottom-line as well.

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 53 minutes 55 seconds

This week our topic is humor, and what better way to start it off than with The Onion (@TheOnion on Twitter), a news organization founded on this very principle. In this video, Sean Mills, former president of The Onion, appears on Authors@Google to promote the book Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition.

First, a little history about The Onion. Two students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Christopher Johnson and Tim Keck, founded The Onion in 1988, and sold it a year later to Scott Dikkers and Peter Haise. Initially, The Onion was successful only in college towns and cities near Madison. Slowly The Onion branched out, starting a website in 1996, and in 2001 moving its headquarters to New York City. In 2007, “The Onion News Network” was created, which is a web video portion of the site that parodies the 24-hour news networks.

Sean Mills begins his talk with a parody and satire-filled presentation of what The Onion is really about, including the past, present, and future of The Onion. Mills shows us that, time and again, The Onion has been there to report all the important breaking news. Mills also shows clips from “The Onion News Network,” and gives us a taste of their new morning show, “Today Now!” The last fifteen minutes of the video includes a question and answer portion, so if you want to skip some of the humor and get a little more insight into the specifics of the business, by all means skip ahead.

So sit back, be ready to laugh, and Happy Learning!

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Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 21 minutes 50 seconds

Many people view innovation as a cumulative process, more evolutionary than anything. Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and known for coining the term “net neutrality”, speaks at The Institute of International and European Affairs and explores a radically different perspective. Rather than viewing innovation and develop as the process where things continually grow and change gradually over time, Wu proposes that innovation occurs on a cyclical system that is dependent upon revolutionary developments.

The vast majority of innovation consists of incremental improvements on a given platform. However, these changes are minor and are merely refinements or additions upon the existing structure. As a platform matures, innovation slows down as the market is saturated and the low hanging fruit has all been claimed. A revolution reveals entirely new avenues of potential and, as a result, spurs innovation and new developments rapidly. This cycle is present everywhere, ranging from product development and personal growth to infrastructure and business.

It is absolutely vital to manage both the evolution within each cycle as well as the revolutions. Ignoring one results in stagnancy. While development isn’t absolutely necessary, it does limit the viable lifespan of anything that is restricted. The cycle of each revolution has its ups and downs as well, something that Wu is careful to note. Just as the Internet is currently growing, it is absolute folly to think that the Internet, as its perceived today, is the final, penultimate standard. It, like television and radio, CDs and cassettes, will undergo an eventual decline.

As you watch this video, consider the influence of cycles in your life, both personal and professional, and how things are transformed as a result. They are not inherently good or bad, but merely different and a prepared individual can anticipate and prepare for the changes they bring.

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Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 15 minutes 51 seconds

Craig Venter, successful entrepreneur and biologist, founder of three important scientific institutions (The Institute for Genomic Research, Celera Genomics, and the J. Craig Venter Institute) is probably best known for his work at Celera, where he successfully mapped the human genome. No doubt an extremely impressive resume, but lately Venter has been taking his biological research into even bolder areas.

Venter is currently putting his efforts into the J. Craig Venter Institute, where he works to solve environmental issues through the creation of synthetic organisms. Venter has continued to push the limits of science and business through groundbreaking work, co-founding Synthetic Genomics in 2005, a company which aims to create microorganisms that will actually produce environmentally-friendly biofuels.

In this video, Venter addresses the possibility of synthesizing new life through our digital world, and how new developments in this area could help solve global issues. I’m no scientist, so I’ll let the video speak for itself, but don’t worry, you don’t need to be a biologist to understand the important implications these discoveries will have on our world!

Happy Learning!

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Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes

Total Video Time: 22 minutes 25 seconds

Games tend to exist in a single state. Board games exist in reference to the board, sports take place on a given field or arena and video games exist in an enclosed virtual domain. With the advances in technology however, there have been developments in creating games, if they can still be rightly termed, that break through these boundaries. Alternate, or Augmented Reality Games (ARGs) utilize a number of platforms to develop immersiveness and to blend the boundaries of reality and fiction.

ARGs exist for a wide variety of purposes. They have been used to advertise, generate buzz, be a stand-alone game or even educate and push an agenda. However, what defines them is the blending of the real world and artificial world with no clear distinction. To achieve this, “hacked” websites, buried treasure, things washed up on the surf, to shadowy individuals and user contributions are utilized.

While a respectable number of ARGs have been developed, there are four particular landmarks: The Beast, produced in conjunction with the Stephen Spielberg movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Perplex City, I Love Bees, developed to market the video game Halo 2, and World Without Oil. The Beast was the first major successful ARG, attracting three million individuals around the world to participate through emails, websites, faxes and phone calls. I Love Bees followed a similar, but far more complex path, inviting its participants to solve puzzles as well as further develop the narrative of a digital intelligence stranded on Earth. World Without Oil is regarded as the first serious ARG, utilizing user submissions to describe a, well, world with rapidly diminishing oil supplies to liven its narrative.

This video series follows the observations of Naomi Alderman, the lead writer for Perplex City, one of the first major ARGs designed to operate independently without external funding. While it was only moderately successful in achieving its goals, much of its structure is now part of the standard for ARGs. In a world where company interaction becomes an increasingly important element in marketing, ARGs are a step far beyond that of Facebook groups and Twitter feeds.

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Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes

Video Time: 24 minutes 55 seconds

Alright, so a lot of us are back from vacation and I bet you’re itching for some more lunch learning. This time the theme is boldness in the business world. All this week we are going to showcase individuals who have done something different, risky, or innovative that has had an impact on their business. Being the video game junkie that I am I couldn’t resist shining the spotlight on Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto is the General Manager for Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, but you might know him better as the creator of Nintendo’s Italian mascot Super Mario.

Today’s video is a question and answer session between Miyamoto and his fans about his work at Nintendo. Miyamoto talks about his innovative creations the Nintendo Wii (mentioned as the Nintendo Revolution in the video) and the Nintendo DS, two systems that drop the conventional standards of gaming. The Wii has you trading in your regular corded controller for a motion sensing nun-chuck apparatus while the DS gives you the ability the play games via touch screen. Both gaming systems have experienced wild success during these tough economic times even though people are cutting back instead of spending. So what made Miyamoto risk it all on two very experimental gaming systems? His personal desire to see video games mimic real life. In the video you will see that Miyamoto wasn’t content with just sitting around playing games he wanted to be active. His strong desire to integrate motion into gameplay was risky, but looking back it’s clear to see that it was the right decision.

This should be a lesson to all of us who are out there trying to make it as an entrepreneur. If you’re not following your own personal convictions or don’t have enough faith in your product to try something completely out of the box then you might not succeed. Now I’m not saying that if you believe in your product enough you’re going to be successful, I’m just saying that it’s one of the first steps for it to be profitable. When you watch the video you can see that Miyamoto is deeply passionate about what he does and as entrepreneurs we should be too.

Just for fun, let’s put a little perspective on this. According to Wikipedia the Xbox 360, a competing gaming system, has sold 31 million units worldwide as of August 27, 2009; while the Nintendo Wii has sold 56.14 million units worldwide as of September 30, 2009. That means Nintendo has sold roughly 20 million more units than its leading competitor…not bad for Miyamoto’s radically new gaming system. As you watch this video, I hope you can find more insight on what it takes to be a bold entrepreneur.

Happy learning….and Game On!!!

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Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 35 minutes 25 seconds

Marissa Mayer (@MarissaMayer on Twitter) is the Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google. She has become a much recognized face of Google, often seen in interviews and speeches discussing Google’s current goals and achievements. In this speech given at Google Press Day in Paris, Mayer goes into detail about Google’s past, present, and future goals as a company.

Mayer begins the lecture with a quick introduction to the components of the search experience, which are specifically: comprehensiveness, relevance, speed, and user experience. Mayer stresses how Google has focused on each component to fine tune the overall search experience. When she describes the early days of Google, she marvels at how much Google and the internet have grown. When search first began, people were ready to sort through many websites to find the information they needed, but Google put its focus on relevance, aiming to place the best results first. This made Google extremely popular, just through people spreading the word, without any real advertisements.

Mayer explains how as information has increased rapidly on the web, it has become even more necessary to use search, and things like relevance and ranking become extremely important. She talks about how much information seeking has changed since search and the internet were introduced. At one point, we would have gone to the library, or asked other people when information was needed. Now, Google can answer a question in under a second. And despite using a lot of new features and capabilities, Google has remained clean and simple. Mayer describes many of these current capabilities in detail, for example things like spell correction, alternate queries, and sitelinks, all help make search more efficient and effective.

So, what will the future look like at Google? Google is working on answering questions even faster, according to Mayer, their goal is the speed of light. Of course, there are also numerous new features that Google is trying out. Developments in cross-language search which uses translation to search multiple languages, or universal search which offers up multiple types of links like images and videos that are all the most relevant to your search. One very interesting new capability is personalization, which takes a person’s search history and uses it to make search more relevant to the individual. The last ten minutes of the video includes a question and answer portion, which focuses on Google’s new developments.

It’s incredibly exciting to see what Google is coming up with to broaden and sharpen our search experience! So, enjoy this intriguing video about the future of search, and of course, Happy Learning!

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 56 minutes 11 seconds

The idea of Avon Products inspires a wide range of thoughts ranging from the image of door-to-door saleswomen and house parties to that of top-line perfumes and men’s fashion. However, two things that generally do not leap to mind is a fashion juggernaut and an enabler for thousands of women across the country. As a company sometimes referred to as ‘The Company of Women’, it is only natural to find a woman standing at its helm: Andrea Jung, currently ranked as the sixth most powerful woman in the United States according to Fortune Magazine. She is a critical piece of the force of Avon and a figure well worth considering.

However, to truly grasp the concepts that drive Avon, we have to step back an era. Before women were even permitted to vote, much less be accepted in the workplace, the original founder of Avon, under the name of the California Perfume Company, decided to work with a predominantly female sales force. The spiritual element, in addition to the business logic, of female independence resonated with the company and proved to be a potent asset.

Maintaining this spirit of supporting women’s independence has done much to encourage the longevity of Avon by pushing them to explore new markets and giving the company a core concept to rally around through the ages. This center on aiding women has pushed the company to enter markets where other companies have shied away from, such as in developing countries, where women are just beginning to enter the economic environment, and grow in times of poor economic growth from people with an entrepreneurial spirit being laid off seeking new opportunities.

This video looks at a variety of elements, from the importance of spirit, constant reinvention, and the capacity to do multiple things at the same time. Whether it’s the ability to look forward at the future without losing sight of what brought you to that point or to strive towards an ideal while remaining grounded in reality, Andrea Jung is a potent woman at the head of a powerful company that has its very spirit geared towards uplifting peoples.

Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes

Total Video Time: 23 minutes 57 seconds

Let’s end our week with another co-creator of a popular networking site. MySpace launched in January 2004 to great success. However, MySpace has not really been thought of for use in the professional world. Many bands have used it as a launching pad for their music, but professionally MySpace is often overlooked. Former CEO Chris DeWolfe addresses this issue in the video below.

For example, according to DeWolfe, companies that go for a more guerrilla marketing, and focus on below-the-line (BTL) techniques, could do well with MySpace.

DeWolfe also talks about the development and expansion of MySpace.

Some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

1. How MySpace deals with competition
2. How MySpace earns respect
3. Plans for MySpace applications
4. How building “branded” communities has been successful for MySpace

From Chris’ bio: Chris DeWolfe is the co-founder and former chief executive officer of Myspace.com, the leading online lifestyle portal. DeWolfe co-founded MySpace with Tom Anderson as a way for bands to release their new music and share with others. The site soon turned into a social networking site that went beyond the music industry. In July 2005, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation purchased MySpace.com for $580 million. By 2006, MySpace reportedly had more than 106 million accounts and 230,000 new registrations per day.

(from biography.com)

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Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Total Video Time: 36 minutes 15 seconds

You’ve heard from business experts the past few days. Why not spend some time picking the brains of the people who created the major social networking sites? How did they come up with these ideas, and where do they see them progressing in the future? You have to wonder if they knew their creations would get the insanely popular response.

Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd on Twitter) is the CEO and creator of Facebook. He is a perfect example of a young entrepreneur with a creative idea who has gotten so far professionally at such a young age. Facebook went from being a fun social networking site to a way of life. Very few young people these days do not have a Facebook, and the way they connect now is by “friend requesting” new people they meet. As seen in Tuesday’s video from Clara Shih, Facebook has become a social phenomenon that impacts cultural norms. Did Zuckerberg have any idea where this would go? And more importantly, can you get any ideas about how to get your business to succeed? Watch and learn.

In this video, Mark talks about where Facebook has been, how it has evolved, and its plans for the future.

Some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

1. Changes in Facebook from 2007 to 2008
2. Plans for international expansion
3. How Facebook plans to move into sales
4. Can Facebook be a bad thing, to the point of being banned?

From Mark’s bio:

“Mark Zuckerberg is the CEO of Facebook, which he founded in 2004. Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, families and coworkers. Mark is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. He leads the design of Facebook’s service and development of its core technology and infrastructure. Mark attended Harvard University and studied computer science before moving the company to Palo Alto, California.”

(from facebook.com)

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