This is the third season of the series. Last season a favorite of mine was the pairing of actress Isabella Rossellini with Dean Kamen, who invented the Segway. (You can download this episode and others on iTunes for a buck-ninety-nine.) One thing that really resonated with me in a total Daily Brand sort of spirit was this quote from Kamen:

“I think sometimes the press or the media expect when you have a choice between what’s politically correct and what’s correct, you go with what’s politically correct … and I can’t do it, I can’t do it. When I said people should get water that’s pure and healthy everywhere in the world, and they should get it now, they shouldn’t have to wait 20 years to build infrastructure, people will depend on historical precedent to say you’re wrong instead of depending on current technology. The technology development is easy … changing people’s attitudes is really hard. That’s the problem.”

If you’re here reading this, you know that he and you and me and anyone else like-minded and committed to making even the tiniest quote-unquote difference on a daily basis is the solution to that problem and many more. Hats off to him and you and us and them. Godspeed….

Posted by: Colin Mangham

Just watched another episode of Iconoclasts tonight. If you haven’t seen any of these shows I highly recommend setting aside an hour (or 48 minutes with TiVo). Sundance describes it as a “series of intimate, unpredictable portraits of creative visionaries whose passion for what they do has transformed our culture.”

Really the concept is to get two remarkable people (celebrities in their respective industries) from disparate backgrounds and career paths talking to reveal their commonalities … typically world views, inspirations, driving motivations and, more often than not, intriguingly spun yarns of humble beginnings and proverbial hard knocks on their yellow brick roads.

Tonight’s episode (well, TiVo’d from whenever it actually aired) paired Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz with legendary TV producer Norman Lear (”All In the Family,” “The Jeffersons,” “Sanford and Son,” “Maude,” and others). You can check out video clip highlights here, including their trip to the original Starbucks in Seattle and Lear showcasing his original copy of the Declaration of Independence, which he has toured around the country to encourage 18 year-olds to register to vote (the “Declare Yourself” campaign).

Pairings this season:

Posted by: Colin Mangham

The above notion’s been common in the American vernacular for a couple of decades. I believe the first widespread use of this was in non-profits engaging people to make positive changes in their own communities that might Butterfly Effect into positive change in faraway lands. Not every ambitious company, however, subscribes to such a viewpoint in today’s increasingly global economy. A few different orientations are prevalent (I’m pulling together case exampled for my next couple of blogs) and have, in widely varying degrees, proven successful in meeting the needs of their respective managers.

Posted by: Colin Mangham

Yesterday’s Japan Times featured a lengthy profile of former restaurant manager Einosuke Sumitani, who opened Tokyo’s Kidzania (a franchise of the original in Monterrey, Mexico) in October of last year. If you’re not familiar with this “career theme park” — and I admit I wasn’t — it’s worth checking out at KidZania.jp [English text version].

The gist? Remember when you wanted to be a fireman? Or an astronaut? Or a trapeze artist with Barnum-san & Bailey-san? Well, here’s a whole Westworld-inspired scene where the currency is in Kidzos, everything but the giftshop prices is scaled to two-thirds actual size, and children of all ages actually pay their parents’ hard-earned Yen to suit up in their favorite grownup roles.

There are 50 company-sponsored pavilions, and over 70 different roles to, um, play. Notably, parents aren’t allowed inside, they have to watch from the perimeter windows. At first blush it sounded a bit like Carly Fiorina had come out of retirement to run the Wonka Factory, or more accurately a low-cal version of Kid Nation (but thankfully not the island of Battle Royale). It actually looks like it could be fun and educational, as they say. I’ll of course let you be the judge:

Service Station Attendants
Beauticians
Coca-Cola Bottlers
Pizza Tossers
Burgermeisters
Way-Off-Broadway Dancers

Posted by: Colin Mangham