CCultural Leadership
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Grant McCracken on “Dark Value”

...ark Value: How To Find Hidden Value In the Digital Economy. First, because Grant McCracken. Second, in it, Grant explores (at least based on the little I’ve read) the conundrum that contemporary culture creates value, but it’s not something that’s easily measured. And certainly not by the majority of marketers who are understandably focused on ROI and other rubber-meets-the-road issues. Of course, I get it: It’s hard out here for a marketer. For y...
CCulture

Grant McCracken’s “Culture Matters” Series

...is predicated on how we frame them.  More often than not, that frame is culture. Nuggets from Rapaille’s “The Culture Code” can be found here. My review of Blue Ocean Strategy is here. Grant’s series, “Culture Matters,” is here in part 1, part 2 and part 3. Stay tuned for my interview with Grant.  It should be up in a day or so....
CCulture

PODCAST: Grant McCracken on Managing Discontinuous Change

...way.  Except to say that doing this interview was truly a pleasure because Grant–the author of Flock and Flow: Predicting and Managing Change in a Dynamic Marketplace— is a thinker and blogger from whom I’m always learning.  So, if you’re interested in dimensioning the challenge of culture that is confronting businesses and how marketing organizations must adapt in order to get ahead of the cultural innovation curve, this podcast is for you. 00:26...
BBlog
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Why Luxury Brands Need Chief Culture Officers

Noted cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken recently wrote about the deep challenge facing luxury brands, based on a Fast Company article. Both the Fast Company article and Grant used the above vintage image as a key example of what’s wrong in luxury marketing. In a nutshell, he points out, that it’s the sensibility of the times that have changed. Attention, sellers! The single most important idea driving your market place is dying. This idea o...
CCulture

Culture: The Newest Medium

...t said, where do we go from here? A good next step is to pick up a copy of Grant McCracken’s “Flock & Flow: Predicting and Managing Change in a Dynamic Marketplace”. Why? In it, he provides an extremely useful framework for understanding how innovation moves across the landscape. Equally important are his recommendations for the additional skill sets that will be needed to create competitive marketing organizations. Over the next few weeks, I’ll b...
CCulture

Can Not Knowing About Contemporary Culture Be A Career Liability?

Grant McCracken presents a provocative take on the Sumner Redstone’s (right) firing of Tom Freston (left), which kicked off an intense discussion.  He read the situation like this: Freston got his job as a CEO of Viacom because he was deeply informed about contemporary culture and lost it because he was not informed enough. Whether this is true or not (I think there’s some truth here) remains to be seen.  But the fact is, most corporations ARE di...
CCulture

Nike and the “continually curious” organization

...e is that it has made its employees–and here’s my acknowledgement of Grant McCracken’s work on my own thinking–"listening posts" that help it interpret changes in the cultural landscape. Now, speaking of both Grant and Nike, you’ll want to check out this post.  He talks about his experience with the Nike+ running shoes that lets upload your jogging mileage to the Web.  Suddenly, you’re no longer involved in a solitary activity.  The cool insight h...
CCulture
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“Classical Beauty” As Slow Culture

...g time, be it years, decades centuries or longer.  Cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken describes the differences between fast and slow culture in his book, Chief Culture Officer: How To Create A Living, Breathing Corporation.  He writes: Think of it this way: Fast culture is like all the boats on the surface of the Pacific.  We can spot them, number them, track them.  Slow culture is everything beneath the surface: less well charted, much less...
CCulture
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Pokemon Go’s Dark Value

...Turns out the mobile game Pokemon Go is an example of Grant McCracken’s concept of Dark Value. This tweet by Rick Ramos sums it up:   I think #PokemonGO is the greatest #Health app ever created for kids & kids at ❤️. Walk 5K to unlock an egg – WOW! pic.twitter.com/6zBMg8K0Yy — Rick Ramos (@ricktramos) July 14, 2016 For some background on Pokemon Go, check out this video. Ht Craig Brimm at Culture A.D. for the link to the video....
WWriting Beyond
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The Culture Q&A: Intel’s Genevieve Bell (Part 2)

...Whether it is non-traditional market research. Whether it is make sure you do a walk around in the places where you’re doing things. Whether it’s about starting to ask different questions of the data. Whether it’s about having social science on the payroll. I think [cultural anthropologist Grant] McCracken and Netflix is a really interesting combination. On the other hand, that’s the seduction of big data: Imagining that data is what’s going brid...
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Dynamics15

...Global Denitria Lewis, CUSPData Corporation Christine Mauro, Siegelvision Grant McCracken, Freelance Anthropologist Philip L. McKenzie, InfluencerCon Laura Moser, Momentum Worldwide Indy Neogy, KILN Latoya Peterson, Racialicious Marian St. Laurent, Heavy Symbols Michael Street, SF1M Michael Tonge, Carat/The Culture LP Tadd Wilson, Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions Take a look. Hopefully, like me, you’ll get some inspiration and insight. Also, ple...