Jeff Lawson, Co-Founder & CEO at Twilio and Stanford professor Hamilton Helmer discuss the “7 Powers” framework created by Helmer and how businesses that have adopted this framework have been able to create defensible market positions and thus are adept at keeping the force of competition away. Good stuff.

I’ve been talking to a lot of people about Smiling Lions lately. One of the areas I’m trying to help clients focus on are the cultural shifts happening as a result of a year plus of lockdown, divisiveness as a reflex and the general malaise hanging on culture like a a low fog.

I’m loving this just announced partnership between Starbucks and Arizona State University. This new effort looks to build on this relationship through the development of an innovation and rapid research facility designed to build platforms to support the “Future of People and the Planet” (heady stuff…) …

Was fortunate to be asked by local photographer-filmmaker, Sung Park to be part of his new series looking into some of the internal work/life monologs so many of us have been having over the last year of pandemic and cultural malaise. It was actually pretty cathartic to be honest. Here's a clip:

The Smiling Lions Adventure Begins…

Starbucks lessons: Two things I learned in my time with the brand and that I love seeing in the wild.

At every turn he would reference the work we were doing within the B2B digital space as more than simple marketing.

Interesting look at how strong of an impact Netflix has on retail across categories.