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celery

Do you want fries with that?

Daizi Zheng has created a new kind of food packaging with Stereotype. Project Stereotype’s aim is to change people’s poor eating habits by encouraging them to make better choices — carrots in a pseudo-cigarette box, blueberries in a blister pack, and celery in a french fry container.

Whether the Stereotype marketing project is successful remains to be seen. An interesting point does surface, however. The creative packaging points to our tricky relationship with food. It’s not just about eating what’s good for us; it’s about having some “fun” while doing it. Our hedonistic tendencies move us out of the bounds of “healthy” many moments throughout our lives. Can you mix healthy and forbidden fun? Maybe so.

celery

Daizi Zheng has created a new kind of food packaging with Stereotype. Project Stereotype’s aim is to change people’s poor eating habits by encouraging them to make better choices — carrots in a pseudo-cigarette box, blueberries in a blister pack, and celery in a french fry container.

Whether the Stereotype marketing project proves successful remains to be seen. An interesting point does surface, however. The creative packaging points to our tricky relationship with food. It’s not just about eating what’s good for us; it’s about having some “fun” while doing it. Our hedonistic tendencies move us out of the bounds of “healthy” many moments throughout our lives. Can you mix healthy and forbidden fun? Maybe so.

Vegetable man on dish

Every year around the end of January, the State of the Union address is given by the President of the United States to members of Congress. The President reflects on the current health of the nation and places legislative priorities on the congressional plate. While the Constitution doesn’t require the address to be delivered in speech form, virtually every President since Woodrow Wilson has done so.

How is the state of the union in your company, your team, your family? Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. (Peter Drucker)

Whether we lead a corporation of thousands, a team of hundreds, a family of several, or a person of one, let’s take a cue from our nation’s capitol –  reflect and act in order to fulfill this year’s priorities, keeping in mind that time is of the essence.

Odd One Out

Competition is everywhere. Even when we don’t take notice. Seth Godin’s post, “The ubiquity of competition,” illustrates the point that businesses must win their audience by offering a compelling reason to be chosen over competitors.

There are twenty towns you can choose for your family’s new home. One invests in its schools, has a focus on inquiry, AP courses and community, while the others are muddling through, arguing about their future. Which one commands a higher premium for its houses?

There are fifty people applying for a job. Forty nine have great credentials and beautifully standard layouts on their resumes. One resume was hand delivered to the CEO by his best friend, together with a glowing recommendation about a project the applicant did for the friend’s non-profit.  Who gets the interview?

So why choose Coca-cola and McDonald’s over Pepsi or Burger King? The customer knows what to expect when she buys a bottle of Coca-cola (happiness)! A child knows what he’s getting for the happy meal (the bliss that comes with the surprise toy). In a competitive market, winning businesses give their customers the compelling “why.”

clipboard

Is the tech industry taking after computers in Hollywood movies that are “thin and light, a single pane that jumps to life when touched” (”The Tablets of Our Dreams,” Fast Company)? It seems that technology is getting closer with a highly anticipated product people are calling the iSlate by Apple.

Imagine a clipboard gone tech. This tablet computer is creating lots of buzz due to its potential utility on a personal and professional level — we will be able to access and share information with our clients and colleagues in a medium that many say could further transform the publishing industry (for book authors and magazine publishers).

Check out NPR’s interview with Cliff Kuang on the subject of this mythical creature, which is expected to debut next week.

red truck

A retired teacher has debunked the commonly held belief that car owners should change out their vehicles every 5 years. Entrepeneur.com highlights Irv Gordon, who has driven his 1960 Volvo P1800 over 2.7 million miles! “Can Your Car Last 1,000,000 Miles: How to get super miles and beyond” notes that more people are going Irv’s way, driving their vehicles past the 200,000 mark.

Consumer Reports estimates that drivers can save $20K by driving the same car for 15 years and 225,000 miles. Obviously just any vehicle will not do. Starting with a well-built product and maintaining it with diligence are essential.

“And by taking care of that vehicle and keeping it alive for another few years–perhaps allowing room in the budget for a vacation or other toys–you might earn superhero status in your own household.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY&feature=player_embedded

The singer will.i.am produced the song, ‘Yes We Can,” during the 2008 presidential campaign. This video is shared today not to support one president or political perspective over another but rather to honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., who believed that we can journey as far as our minds imagine.

In light of global events and the suffering in Haiti, the words “yes we can” have transcended the category of slogan. “YES WE CAN” is an affirmation of who we are, a people capable of taking part in change, in healing, in transformation at whatever level and place we choose.

Catch of the Day

Extrinsic or intrinsic reward? Which one drives you to move toward a goal? The annual bonus offered to an employee is like the carrot tied to a stick in the hope that sufficient motivation is created for the task. Is it enough?

In a National Public Radio interview with Neal Conan, author Daniel Pink declares that while extrinsic reward can and does work in certain circumstances, the driver that trumps all is the intrinsic need for freedom to self-direct.

One of the important drives that we have – this third drive to do things because they’re interesting, because we want to do them – is this drive for autonomy and for self-direction. This…comes out from the research of two brilliant scholars at the University of Rochester named Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. And what you’re seeing now in a lot of companies, and plenty of companies you haven’t heard of, is that providing individuals with enormous amounts of autonomy leads to a more satisfied, more engaged, more productive, more innovative work force.

For more on Pink’s analysis, check out his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.