Gillian's Blog

GROWING CULTURAL PHILANTHROPY in Australia

ARTSUPPORT Australia has facilitated over $60million in philanthropic income to the cultural sector. This is a fabulous achievement.

Many gorgeous, inspiring and worthy enterprizes would not exist with out the team at ARTSUPPORT. They lead, facilitate, matchmake and network to generate possibilities in areas of cultural endevour.

They are supported by generous Australians, who give to the community. Many of the cultural events happening in your city are financially supported by them via ARTSUPPORT. I have experienced involvement in one of their initiatives - it was an amazing experience for all involved.

 To find out more about how to be a donor or a recipient. Click

http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/philanthropy/artsupport_australia

Messages - that actually communicate their intent.

It is important to remember that many messages we send out do not necesarily connect up with our customers.  Mostly they are text and image floating into the ether. To communicate exactly what we want, to whom is the challenge of our time. There are so many platforms and so many segmented audiences all getting masses of messages fired at them constantly. How to stand out and connect is the challenge.

I found the TED.com talk by Chip Kidd illuminating. He very cleverly articulated the key ingredients that make text & image work in his work as a book jacket designer.

This book jacket has had life well beyond this book and is a classic!

“Chip Kidd doesn’t judge books by their cover, he creates covers that embody the book -- and he does it with a wicked sense of humor. In one of the funniest talks from TED2012, he shows the art and deep thought of his cover designs"

 A very amusing talk on TED

http://www.ted.com/talks/chip_kidd_designing_books_is_no_laughing_matter_ok_it_is.html

(From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)

Click below to see the book jacket art of Chip Kidd.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1853737,00.html

SUSAN CAIN on the role of introverts in our culture.

Over Easter I had time to peruse TED.com and pick out talks that were not only relevant to our business - but also thought provoking.

 
The Quiet by Susan Cain

Susan Cain’s talk discussed how in US culture, being social and outgoing are prized above all else. It can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.

 In creative businesses you are always looking into gaps and cracks to find the new and the different. Introverts very often find and deliver them because they had taken the time to quietly reflect and synthesise ideas and opportunities.

 More about Susan Cain her books and her ideas.

http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/about-the-author/

 Susan's TED talk on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KYU2j0TM4

A good read - The Australian Moment by George Megalogenis

We have read, and been interested in George Megalogenis’s latest book. If you are in business it provides an historical perspective on the underpinnings of our government beyond the hype of the mass media. Reflection on the key levers of the past provide understandings that most people fail to think about.

“There's no better place to be during economic turbulence than Australia. Brilliant in a bust, we've learnt to use our brains in a boom. Despite a lingering inability to acknowledge our achievements at home, the rest of the world asks: how did we get it right?

He examines how we developed from a closed economy racked by the oil shocks, toughed it out during the sometimes devastating growing pains of deregulation, and survived the Asian financial crisis, the dotcom tech wreck and the GFC to become the last developed nation standing in the 2000s. As a result, whatever happens next, we're as well positioned as any to survive the ongoing rumblings of the Great Recession.

Drawing on newly declassified documents, fresh interviews with our former prime ministers and a unique ability to bring the numbers to life, Megalogenis describes how, at just the right time, the Australian people became more farsighted than our politicians. We stopped spending before the rest of the world, and at the top of a boom voted out a government that was throwing around the biggest bribes ever offered.

The Australian Moment is packed with original insight, challenging our often partisan selective memories and revealing how our leadership and community have underestimated each other's contribution to the nation's resilience.”

 George Megalogenis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2C4x46F0n0&feature=player_embedded#!

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/meganomics/index.php

Products you love and use.

Corban & Blair frames being made in New Zealand.

This is a reminder about something we take for granted. We know the products offered on ETSY http://www.etsy.com/ are hand made. BUT many, many other products we consume are also. As an example all Corban & Blair products are made by hand.  

Thought, design and effort have gone into getting our items to you. They are handmade in Australia, China and New Zealand.

Someone in a factory workplace has painstakingly cut, pieced, glued or sewn your item together- for you to consume.

For this reason we should place more value on what we buy and use.  Give thought, to how it has managed to get to you. It is a logistical and personal process- with hard work and long hours.

Putting Your Company’s Whole Brain to Work

A timely message (1997) and even more appropriate today. By Dorothy Leonard & Susan Straus

“Innovate or fall behind: the competitive imperative for virtually all businesses today is that simple. Achieving it is hard, however, because innovation takes place when different ideas, perceptions and ways of processing and judging information collide. That, in turn, often requires collaboration among various players who see the world in inherently different ways.” This can be a serious barrier that prevents people moving beyond the personal into the possibility of a new joint big picture.

How does your company innovate?

How do you move beyond the petty, the trivial and the personal?

Are you getting the outcome and success you want? Is it sustainable?

Article in Harvard Business review. July-August 1997. http://hbr.org/magazine

Link to IDEA WATCH on Harvard Business Review

http://hbr.org/2012/04/good-data-wont-guarantee-good-decisions/ar/1

BUSINESS VALUES FOR A NEW CENTURY - Tom Peters

I was reminded of these business values  (list below) written by Tom Peters in 2006, by a business colleague. They are an excellent bench mark to build exciting and sustainable businesses.

If we were are able to maintain these attitudes in our businesses processes we would be more successful and our people resources more empowered. See his latest book. The Little Big Things.

http://theharperstudio.com/authorsandbooks/tom_peters/the-book/the-little-big-things/

BUSINESS VALUES - A REMINDER WE CAN MAKE WORK A GREAT PLACE TO BE

1. Do fabulous work and be known for our innovativeness

2. Attract exciting people - more than a few of whom are a little offbeat.

3. Raise hell. Constantly question "the way things are done around here" and never, ever rest on our laurels.

4. Make sure those who leave us, voluntarily or involuntarily, can testify to having learned a lot, having had a special experience and having made fast friends, while they were here.

5. Have a collegial, supportive, yeasty, Zany, laughter-filled environment where folks support one another and politics is as absent as it can be in a human (ie:imperfect) enterprise.

6. Ensure that no question or innuendo ever surfaces about our ethics.

7. Dot the I's, cross the t's, answer the phones promptly, send out errorless invoices and in general, never forget that the devil is in the detail.

8. Work with exciting customers (and other partners) who turn us on and stretch us, from whom we can learn and with whom we enjoy associating (and who pay their bills on time, too)

9. Take in substantially more money than we spend (where spending includes above-average compensation and a very high level of investment in the future.)

10. Grow by creating pioneering, top quality service and attracting innovative clients, not via growth for growth's sake

Tom Peters June 2006

An ENTREPRENEURIAL fix from www.springwise.com

I always feel inspired by the ENTREPRENEURIAL fix I get from Springwise.com. and the information they collate for all of us. Cute, innovative and savvy business ideas from around the world. Click the link below and open your mind to new possibilities.

http://springwise.createsend1.com/t/y/l/ykirql/dhkrjtjh/k/

Tim Harford and his latest book ADAPT

We recommend the writing and ideas of economics writer Tim Harford who studies complex systems -- and finds a surprising link among the successful ones: built through trial and error.

Hear more about this in his inspiring TED talk. http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html

Background

“Tim Harford is a senior columnist for the Financial Times. His column, “The Undercover Economist”, reveals the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. He is also the only economist in the world to run a problem page, “Dear Economist”, in which readers’ personal problems are answered tongue-in-cheek with the latest economic theory.

Tim’s first book, “The Undercover Economist” has sold one million copies worldwide in almost 30 languages. His second book, “The Logic of Life“, was published early in 2008 in English, and has also been widely translated, and his third book, “Dear Undercover Economist” is a collection of his “Dear Economist” columns.

Tim’s latest book Adapt has a very important message for our times.

“When faced with complex problems, we have all become accustomed to looking to our leaders to set out a grand vision, experts to draw up a detailed plan of action, or gurus who can provide us with some infallible solution.

In this groundbreaking book, Tim Harford shows us a new and inspiring approach to solving the most pressing problems in our lives. Harford argues that today’s challenges simply cannot be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinions; the world has become far too unpredictable and profoundly complex. Instead, we must adapt—improvise rather than plan, work from the bottom up rather than the top down, and take baby steps rather than great leaps forward. Drawing from research across disciplines—psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, physics, mathematics, political science, and economics—and interviews with some of the world’s most pioneering leaders, thinkers, and strategists, Harford reveals hard-won lessons learned in the field and the importance of adaptive, trial-and-error processes in tackling issues such as fostering innovation, climate change, poverty, the financial crises, and conflict.

. . . . . . this is a handbook for surviving—and prospering—in our complex and ever-shifting world.”

New Zealand Artist Elliot Mason's Latest Work.

 

I can’t help telling people about my nephew Elliot Mason’s latest artistic works. He now has a blog of his 2010-2012 paintings.

http://elliotmasonpainting.tumblr.com/

If you are interested in the essence of New Zealand, its people and what makes it unique Elliot has been spending time exploring it.

“In a world of work, money, industry, cell phones, computers, success, status, gaming, parties, drugs, music, art, cars, pets and everything modern worthy of a time slot in your busy schedule it’s easy to look away from nature and what it has to offer.”

 Enjoy this body of work created in Tauranga, New Zealand/Aotearoa!

For further information and enquires contact Elliot.  Email: elliotmason7@gmail.com  Phone: 0273142807