A marketing link

In my view good marketing involves crafting compelling and contagious stories about products. Crafting such stories is an iterative process...these days stories are told using various mediums.
This story commissioned by the advertising agency Nordpol+ Hamburg uses origami models and computer animators to tell the story of the japanese sports brand ASICS.



Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

Viewing photos of nature can boost your memory...

I read an interesting study by Berman, Jonides and Kaplan (2008) from the University of Michigan. They tested the effect nature walks (and nature photos) on cognitive function.

In their first study participants were given a 35 minute cognitively taxing task- repeat loads of random numbers back to the experimenter in reverse order. After this cognitive exercise the participants were sent out for a walk. The first group went to an arboretum and the second down a busy city street. Both the groups took the test again.

The result indicated that the test improved by almost 20% after wandering amongst the trees. By comparison those subjected to a busy street did not reliably improve on the test.

In the second study participants did not leave the lab but instead some stared at pictures of natural scenes while others looked at urban environments. The group staring at the nature photos beat the chaps staring at the roads and lampposts.

“Who's Leading Who? - The Piano Trio as a Leaderless Team"

I started typing this yesterday night watching Liverpool torment Real Madrid to a 4-0 defeat and today I continue this post watching Barca beat Lyon 4-2. 

Yesterday I left work early, at 3:20 PM, to attended a interactive workshop conducted by Rob Kapilow and The Gryphon Trio on leadership. I was not sure what to expect as I walked in the drizzle from St. George station to the Fleck Atrium in the Rotman building. The workshop started few minutes late with the introduction of the presenters.

This was the first time I was attending a live performance by The Gryphon Trio, and I have to say they are spectacular. The workshop very hands-on, entertaining, and informative. More on this later.

Canadian firms are adopting cloud computing faster than rest of the world !

Being at QLogitek I was not surprised by IT World Canada report indicating that large Canadian enterprises are more aware and more likely users of cloud computing compared to their global counterparts. This study was conducted by "Kelton Research." If you were familiar with QLogitek's client list (see a short selection of clients) using SaaS EDI and SaaS supply chain management solutions even you would not be surprised.

The study surveyed 502 C-level executives and IT and business decision-makers from mostly large enterprise organizations in 17 countries including the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Singapore.

It showed that more than 67 per cent of Canadian organizations reported they are currently using a combination of cloud computing and internally owned IT systems, compared to only one-third of companies worldwide.

Nearly two in three IT executives worldwide (65 per cent) and four of five in Canada (80 per cent) believe cloud computing reduces upfront costs.

QLogitek's clients in retail and CPG markets have been using software-as-a-service (SaaS) and Integration-as-a-service (IaaS) both of which are subsets of cloud computing for over 8 years.

Indicators of economic upturn

Like me if you are wondering about smart indicators to spot economic upturn, then Larry Stybel's - Larry is a management expert often featured on HBR - suggestions may interest you. Larry suggested these three:

1. Uptick in nonexempt overtime. Before companies have the confidence to hire full time staff, they will pay hourly employees for overtime. "Keep asking people, 'Who is starting to pay overtime?'".
2. Increase in back orders for corrugated boxes. Boxes are ordered for one reason: stuff is going to get put into them.
3. An increase in customer orders at plastics companies. Plastics are ubiquitous in manufactured products. "The plastics industry will see positive change before you can."