From the category archives:

New Media

Be an Innovator and Create Something

by Elena on December 3, 2009

What do guys like Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos have in common? Yes they are insanely wealthy, and yes they were young when they made their millions, and ok yes a few of them started their companies in their garage; but besides all that, what I want to focus on is the fact that they are true innovators that changed they way things were done in their fields.

While rummaging around Barnes and Nobles, I came across an article in The Harvard Business Review about innovation in business. I felt guilty spending $16 on a magazine, so I opted for a $5 foam something or other from Starbucks instead and sat down to read the article.

The following couple of days I was telling anyone who would listen about “The Innovator’s DNA.” I usually avoid titles with the word business in them, but this article struck a chord. “The Innovator’s DNA” discusses what sets apart innovative companies like eBay and Amazon. They may be big corporations now, but they all started with an idea, no matter how small. eBay started because its founder wanted to help his fiancee find rare Pez dispensers, you know, the plastic toy that releases candy from its head. Google, known for its innovative products, completely changed the way we search for information. Their work ethic, offices, algorithms, advertising, products etc. etc. continue to influence and dominate the search landscape. (Admittedly, Google makes my nerdy heart flutter, so I may be a bit biased).

The review studied the habits of 25 innovative entrepreneurs, as well as thousands of other executives and individuals involved in such companies. As it turns out, there are certain “discovery skills” that innovators use to get ahead. The good news is that these skills are most often learned. In other words, you aren’t born with the gene to create an empire. It’s also fascinating because they aren’t limited to entrepreneurs. Anyone interested in living outside of the box can use them to get ahead.

Associating
Innovators are open minded and can relate various ideas from various fields in order to be successful. A rather famous example is Steve Jobs, who dropped out of college and took a course in calligraphy. A career in calligraphy is not a traditional career choice, however years later while designing the first Macintosh computer, Steve Jobs was able to use his calligraphy skills. He introduced various typefaces and fonts that were later copied by Microsoft and used today on all computers.

Questioning
Innovators ask questions, simple as that. They ask the easy questions and the hard ones. They challenge assumptions and don’t believe that things need to be done a certain way. Maybe that’s why Sergey Brin enters business meetings on rollerblades. Why not? By asking lots of questions you get down to what people want and the ways to make your products and information better and more useful.

Observing
Innovators learn from what is around them. Even Shakespeare borrowed themes and storylines from the great writers before him. New technology builds upon the technology before it and the media is constantly changing. By studying those around you, the successes as well as the mistakes, you gain insight for your future endeavors.

Experimenting
Innovators aren’t afraid to experiment. With experimentation you risk failure, but they are willing to risk some failure to attain their goal. As an innovator, you need to learn from your mistakes and go forward with your successes. After being fired from Apple, Steve Jobs started Pixar, and as luck would have it, he returned to Apple when they bought his other company NeXT.

Networking
Innovators network because they can learn from others. Not only do they need to test out their ideas, but they also gain a greater perspective from others, inside and outside their field.

Image via: Yodel Anecdotal

{ 5 comments }

The Fall and Rise of Media

by Elena on December 1, 2009

Media and print journalism traditionally are difficult industries to enter. Most prospective employees have numerous unpaid internships under their belt. They work countless hours each day, often for very little compensation. The stereotype of the lowly intern getting coffee for the reporters in the newsroom has been true for some time. He pushes through piles of paperwork before getting a single word he’s written printed anywhere. Times are a changing however, and the media world is changing as well, bringing new obstacles that bright eyed college graduates can anticipate.

David Carr of The New York Times recently wrote an inspiring article about the changes affecting the media landscape. Any writer and editor knows the tribulations that print media is encountering. More and more magazines fold each month, revenues are down, spending is down, and each magazine seem slimmer than the previous year. Postings on ed2010.com have gone from lots of promising jobs at glossy mags, to the current array of dubious positions at new online magazines. The reason: glossy mags aren’t hiring anymore, and when you do come across the open positions, the competition is fierce.

While these changes may seem difficult at first, they are just the progression of a malleable medium. Media has always changed and grown. What Carr recognizes is that people are finding other ways to find success in this industry.

For every kid that I bump into who is wandering the media industry looking for an entrance that closed some time ago, I come across another who is a bundle of ideas, energy and technological mastery. The next wave is not just knocking on doors, but seeking to knock them down.

Somewhere down in the Flatiron, out in Brooklyn, over in Queens or up in Harlem, cabals of bright young things are watching all the disruption with more than an academic interest. Their tiny netbooks and iPhones, which serve as portals to the cloud, contain more informational firepower than entire newsrooms possessed just two decades ago. And they are ginning content from their audiences in the form of social media or finding ways of making ambient information more useful. They are jaded in the way youth requires, but have the confidence that is a gift of their age as well.

It is no longer a privilege of the few in the industry. People with something to say can do so rather easily. The question is how do they get people to listen?

Photo via: uhlandfriends

{ 4 comments }

Is the Internet Making Us Lazy and Giving Us ADD?

by Elena on November 5, 2009

The challenge: Can you last a week without reading any media outlet, publication, online forum, or blog? Better yet, could you abstain from Facebook, Twitter, Matador, or whatever social networking site you frequent? If you think you can, you are one of the few. It certainly can be done, but not without some discomfort and a slight feeling of disconnect from the world. The obsession with information and consumption has penetrated our society for quite some time now. Employees have become so obsessed with information that many companies have started to block certain sites in order to ensure that employees aren’t surfing the net instead of doing their job. Even those efforts are thwarted since more and more people have a Black Berry or iPhone, which provide constant access to an endless supply of knowledge at any time of day. Most of us need information, we crave it. We want it now, and we want it short and pithy.

Last year Nicholas Carr wrote an article for The Atlantic where he asks his readers, Is Google Making Us Stupid? Suddenly a former literary major in college found himself skimming articles and avoiding novels. It became difficult to paying attention to things that once kept his interest so profoundly. I was also an English Literature major and the current owner of a bookcase full of books that I used to spend hours reading. Now between changing careers, keeping up online and with life in general, I find the task of finishing a novel rather daunting. In fact, the time when I get most of my reading done is when I travel. I personally feel that traveling allows me to put aside some responsibilities, in particular social media, and just experience, without worrying about everything else.

Claiming that the internet and Google are making consumers stupid, is a false and bold statement meant to catch the reader’s attention. I wouldn’t call someone stupid because they read five online newspapers per day and have over 1000 subscriptions in their Google Reader; however that same person probably skims through most articles in order to read more, know more. They aren’t lazy and they certainly aren’t stupid, but rather less anchored than media consumers 10 years ago. There is merely too much information saturating our short attention spans.

{ 0 comments }

Next Entries →