Friday December 21, 2012 is a long-anticipated day. We’ve long ago known it was the “end of the world” as we know it. It also marks the Winter Solstice, the darkest and longest night of the year – which marks the return longer days and light. It is of course the season of Advent in [...]
Author Archive | Nilofer Merchant
Podcast of Global Business Network Leader Chat
This conversation with Andrew Blau was recorded on Thursday, October 11th, 2012. It is the history of how the book came into formation, and a discussion of the key ideas within it, to guide where should business and organizations go next in their evolution. I wanted to share it with you in case some of [...]
Are You Giving Up Power?
When I spoke at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women’s Summit, the first question asked in the room was this: “Doesn’t this Mean I am Giving up Power?” And I loved it. This is what women do: we dive into the heart of an issue so we can deal with directly. Just as surely as social boosts [...]
Keeper of the Flame… Conversation on Video with Nancy Duarte
Whenever I give an interview, I ask the conversation partner to not tell me any of the questions because I really want it to be a conversation — not some rehearsed packaging of ideas. Sometimes, this comes out well, and sometimes not. The combination of factors affects it — the questions themselves, the community that [...]
Innovation In the Social Era
About a year ago, a blogger I had never met posted something online that he called “An Innovation Matrix”. I thought the blogger had a really original idea — something that took innovation both deeper and beyond the Blue Ocean thesis. I encouraged him, certainly guided him, and — every now and then — challenged [...]
In a fragmented world, go deep
I think I have a problem. I cannot go even a few hours without compulsively checking Twitter. I admit to doing what Tiffany Shlain talks about in her movie, Connected, where I sneak off to the bathroom to check email. It’s not even that meaningful, or joyous. I’m not on any particular deadline. There is [...]
What Cory Booker is Teaching us about 21st Century Leadership
This week, Mayor Booker is living on a “food stamp” budget to raise awareness of food insecurity. For those of you that don’t know of him, Cory Booker is an American politician who is currently serving as the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, first elected in 2006. He caught my attention when Mark Zuckerberg, who [...]
If You OverCommit Here, You UnderCommit There
I think a lot about the question of how to spend one’s time. My life consists of three main things: writing, speaking and Board work. I write to hear an idea unfold. I need to write with space because what I think will come out and what comes out are not the same and it’s [...]
What Will Save Us?
Any time I have a chance to share my story to a good listener, I get to reinterpret the narrative thread that ties it all together. The story I would have told you of, say my Apple work experiences at age 25 would be different than the stories I will pull out now after nearly [...]
Thriving in the SocialEra & What it means for Social Business
When you realize social can affect everything, you can create value entire differently. And that has huge implications for us as leaders, for our organizations and for our economy. But it will mean we need to stop thinking “Social Media” and start thinking about what Social really means — to be connected, purposefully and in [...]