ChangeThis: Issue 64

The 64th issue of ChangeThis has been published for all of you autodidactic business literature enthusiasts out there. Excerpts and links below.

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The Upstarts Are Here!: What Can You Possibly Learn from Entrepreneurs in Their Twenties? Plenty. by Donna Fenn

"We're smack in the middle of 'perfect storm' conditions for young entrepreneurs, which means that if you haven't already noticed that the CEO down the road may look more comfortable at the local skate park than in a board room, you will soon. And if you have noticed the trend, you may be asking yourself who these young people are, why they seem to be starting companies at an accelerated rate, what kinds of companies they're starting, and if they're really so different from the young entrepreneurs of the past couple of decades. As it turns out, the entrepreneurs of Generation Y (those born between 1977 and the mid-nineties) are really quite extraordinary. So if you are tempted to dismiss business owners in their twenties as self-centered, arrogant dilettantes who approach the start-up process like a teen with a new video game, better think again. Humor me for a few minutes, and consider that you may even have a thing or two to learn from them."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.

Meaningful Digital Strategy: The Next Evolution of Marketing by Bob Gilbreath

"Four years ago, I grew frustrated with the lack of brand investment in digital marketing and set out to understand the fundamental reasons why this promising new space was still only attracting a small sliver of marketers' multi-million-dollar budgets. I discovered that the issue was bigger than tiny click-thru rates and cautious organizations. Rather, there was a need for an entirely new way of approaching marketing strategy from the ground up. The interruptive, tell-and-sell model of slick ad copy and buying eyeballs by the thousands was already showing strain, and most digital advertising tactics were simply replicating this failing marketing model.

I set out to discover an alternative path, starting with the handful of our clients that had put digital in the forefront of their strategy, and then broadening my vision to companies that seemed to be enjoying success with a completely different course. I found that these organizations had a common approach: People were choosing to engage with their marketing and they were using marketing itself to add value to their customers' lives. I called this approach 'Marketing With Meaning'and captured the model in a book that was recently released: The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with your Customers by Marketing with Meaning.

This manifesto brings my search full circle, providing a supplement to The Next Evolution of Marketing that specifically focuses on how brand managers must reset their digital strategy to win customers in this new space."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.

Social Response Capitalism: Today and Tomorrow by Bruce Piasecki

"I believe we need something no less than a new kind of leader. Most social commentators today, from Sarah Palin to Barack Obama, note that we need leaders we can trust, leaders who can compete on price, quality and social needs—from avian and swine flu, to new forms of energy, and better cars, computers and homes. We need to combine the best that MBAs get with what Masters of Public Administration know and get in their experiences of a lifetime. How is this possible? And where will they work?

This essay explores what I mean by social response capitalism—sometime quite necessary but still missed by Fox News and the Heritage Foundation, as well as by most of the liberal leaning members of our thought establishment. Is this a new form of capitalism? Is it a deviant form of socialism? Or simply a new way to compete in a smaller more integrated and globalized world?"

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.

The Freak Factory: Making Employees Better by Helping Them Get Worse by David Rendall

"If conventional approaches aren't working, then what should we do? Instead of attacking people's weaknesses, we need to find the strength that is hidden inside their apparently negative characteristics. It is time to stop trying to create well-rounded and balanced employees. We need employees that are unbalanced. We need employees that are freaks. It is time to build a freak factory."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.

Healthcare Reform: It's Our Debate, Too by Zane Safrit and the Triiibes Community

"We need our help. Together.

Together we can create a healthcare system that could in all honesty earn the title 'Best healthcare in the world.' But right now, our current healthcare system is on life-support. We pay to sustain its life-support, in big ways and in small, with expensive health insurance premiums or expensive emergency room visits, with expensive prescriptions with jack-in-the-box side-effects, with a growing percent of our GDP, with a growing number of personal bankruptcies that result from high costs of catastrophic healthcare, with jobs lost as small business can't afford the health insurance needed to attract the talent to grow and create jobs ... and it's getting worse."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.

How to Be Positive ... When Things Suck by Kathrien Ahn

"Sometimes life comes up from behind you and kicks you in the ass, which is how it tells you that you're supposed to be moving in an entirely different direction. Maybe you're fighting a losing battle in a relationship or career. Maybe you've neglected your health, and its coming back to haunt you. Whatever it is, we're all born with talents, and some of us have chosen to pursue them and some have preferred to stay in the 'Safe' zone. In tough times, you have to dig deep because all the extraneous layers are stripped away and you're faced with a decision. Go for it or not? It's up to you."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.