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This is an abridged version of the original article I wrote for Business Insider.
In a forgotten corner of the White House sits a huge, Parthenon-shaped cake. Nearby, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner are dancing like Zorba and dripping with hummus. Why all the glee? It’s because Europe just gave the U.S. an amazing gift – the gift of greater incompetence. I call this glitch in time ‘America’s Last Stimulus’. It may be our last chance to stimulate growth, kick-start our export engine, and make sure every European gets a big, wet kiss at the airport.… CONTINUE READING —>
It wasn’t very often that my parents took me to the museum. Let’s face it, we were poor immigrants and Brooklyn already had 15 Pakistanis for culture. Plus, I’m pretty sure that my parents were faking their interest in art for my benefit. No one would mistake our one bedroom apartment for the Louvre. A loo, maybe. I could tell they were faking it when my engineer dad tried to fix one of the crooked installations at the Guggenheim. OK, I’m not sure that actually happened, but I remember him scowling at how no one there would ever pass a first round interview at his old Soviet aviation plant.
As an adult, I’ve come to appreciate how those lopsided installations and grotesque paintings got inside the MOMA.… CONTINUE READING —>
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This week’s episode of Ideafaktory Radio is the first of a three part series with Forbes contributor and Social Enterprise guru Mark Fidelman. This wasn’t even meant to be recorded! Mark deviously taped our private conversation on his iPhone and captured the two of us brawling over the future of apps, among other issues that keep geeks up at night. In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why you don’t need to motivate people who work at MTV
- Why only rich, hot people should go into journalism
- How successful apps get pimped
- Why Twitter and Facebook might be #JumpingTheShark #LOL #OMG
- Why I don’t care that apps are dying as Mark nurses app developers back to health, like Mother Theresa.
A little something I just whipped up. So do you agree?
You might also enjoy my recent related posts: The 15 Faces of Facebook & What to Sell Them and Facebook IPO & the Dark, Dirty Secrets of Facebook vs. Google Data.… CONTINUE READING —>
Having led innovation at Amex, MasterCard and Citi, I know where the bodies are buried. I also know that payment wars aren’t just about fees anymore. That’s so 1990′s. Years ago, when Walmart threatened to enter payments and banking, incumbents nearly soiled their Hanes. After a little sword-fighting, providers slashed their margins so thin, big merchants had no incentive to do their own thing. This time it’s different. Payments companies are not the real threat.
Today’s war is about data and its power to shift loyalties. In the arms race to probe customers’ deepest, darkest desires, card companies and merchants find themselves bringing spitballs to a gunfight. So, I’m not surprised to see Walmart, Target and others are starting their own 99% movement. Big retailers are launching their own mobile payments system.… CONTINUE READING —>
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The first episode of the Ideafaktory Podcast is the best one ever. It’s a great conversation between Steve Faktor and Dan Lyons (aka the original “Fake Steve Jobs“, aka “Real Dan Lyons). Dan has written for Forbes, Newsweek and many publications that begged me not to use their names!
This episode is all about social media fame as job security. You’ll learn:
- What crazy thing Dan wrote that made me reach out to him in the first place
- How Dan escaped being an anonymous drone by blogging…as the end of print media loomed
- Why you need to be a star
- All about the brilliant, but seedy underbelly of monetizing influence
- Why you should never get out of your jammies
- Why immigrant parents don’t care if you can spell
Enjoy.… CONTINUE READING —>
Just got this confidentially from a friend on this project… Unreal!
Original Email (names were changed/omitted):
—– Forwarded Message —–
From: omitted
To: omitted
Sent: Wednesday, Jan 15, 2012 4:54 PM
Subject: Proposal: New Post Office Business Model – Go Postal!
To: omitted
Sent: Wednesday, Jan 15, 2012 4:54 PM
Subject: Proposal: New Post Office Business Model – Go Postal!
Hi Dave,
To follow up on Tuesday’s meeting, below is the summary for the “Go Postal” NBM. I think the team did a good job. (Though I think they used the old template.)
As you can see, this would be quite a shift from what the US Postal Service does today and potentially controversial. Would likely require significant retraining and capital investment to upgrade our pilot locations. Good news is Andrea spoke with both Legal and Facilities – both say it can be done.… CONTINUE READING —>
As I baked muffins to celebrate Facebook’s IPO, it occurred to me that there’s one HUGE, unspoken difference between the data people reveal to Facebook and what Google collects through search and other tools. It’s this: Facebook knows the image you want to project to the world – your “social resume”. Beautiful vacation photos; that perfect profile photo you Photoshopped so much that your nose is part puma, part Joan Rivers; and those photos of you surrounded by hot girls that lets the world (and Facebook) know that your party never stops.
Well, Google knows your dark, ugly, dirty truths. Your transcribed Google Voice messages reveal you argued nonstop on that island vacation as your kids yelled, “I hate you!” in the background.… CONTINUE READING —>
I recently saw a post on the TED web site posing the question, “Can advertising be a force for good?” Here’s my response:
What a nonsensical question! Advertising is a vehicle for transporting messages. It’s not inherently good or evil. It conveys the desires, values and motivations of the payer (client). Is every client good? I’m always amused when people try to spin their chosen professions as altruistic. Advertising is what it is – something you do for client money. (It’s no different than consulting, something I’m all too familiar with.)
One thing to keep in mind – advertising produces nothing. It is the means, not the end, so it has no intrinsic demand, like Kit Kats or even Sea Monkeys.… CONTINUE READING —>
RIM’s stock is down 13% since yesterday, when the company promoted a company insider to CEO. In a well-run company, that’s called “succession”. In a struggling company bleeding share, it’s called “delusion”. To add to to the insanity, the co-CEO’s loom in highly visible roles including the ironic “Head of the Innovation Committee”. The market is doing the best it can to break RIM out of its delusion. Many have written about the new CEO saying wacky things like “If we continue doing well what we’re doing, I see no problems …”. What I haven’t seen written about is the psychology behind the seemingly-bizarre actions of the company’s leaders. I attribute it to “Reality Distortion Field Failure”.… CONTINUE READING —>
Now that I’m mired in the startup world, I thought I’d have a little fun with pictures.
So what do you think?
As a journalism student at NYU, I remember my immigrant dad interrogating me suspiciously about a profession he couldn’t possibly understand. He asked me the kinds of questions you’d expect from an engineer who just risked everything to drag his family out of the Soviet Union. “How will you make money?” he’d ask in his thick Russian accent. “What kind of (stupid) job is writing?” He would have been more proud if I majored in mink skinning or Zamboni maintenance. Slowly, he chipped away at me until I gave up my journalistic dream. For the past 10 years, it seemed like my dad’s fresh-off-the-boat wisdom paid off.
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Steve Faktor is an entrepreneur, futurist, and digital commerce expert. He is author of Econovation (Wiley) about America's rehab from consumerism with an overdose of 'producerism'. Steve is the former Vice President and Head of the Chairman’s Innovation Fund at American Express. He has created numerous innovations in payments, loyalty and mobile as a senior executive at Amex, Citi, MasterCard and Andersen. At IdeaFaktory, he develops patents, incubates startups, and provokes new thinking on business…with a satirical touch. Steve is a global keynote speaker on fututre growth opportunities. He also leads innovation workshops and training based on his proprietary 4C's of InnovationTM methodology. Full Bio
