DECEMBER 23, 2008

One thing I love at the end of each year is the endless litany of “best of” lists. It ties up the year in a nostalgic, entertaining way that allows me to savor with satisfaction those “best ofs” that I enjoyed, and commit to pursuing those I overlooked. One of my personal “best ofs” this year has been here at the Undercurrents blog, both contributing to and consuming it, so I thought I would mention some of the blog entries I have appreciated the most since our March 31st re-introduction of the site.

On innovation, I particularly enjoyed Lisa Bader’s December 12th post about Google and Procter and Gamble swapping employees so that each organization could learn more about the other and how best to target consumers.  What cutting edge companies, I thought, and how could we encourage our clients to adopt the same kind of experimental attitude?  (I also liked how Lisa surveyed some of her coworkers for opinions on what companies they would like to “swap” with if they could.)

On personalization, I liked Ryan Baldwin’s December 3rd post about Deoxyribonucleic Influence - how individual DNA has become a hot commodity for products, art, and fashion.  I think we’d be surprised how many people are mapping their code and hanging it on their walls as part of their interior design.

On saturation, Michele Cimino offered perspective in her October 29th post about the overwhelming choices involved in planning a wedding, and how her sense of reason allowed her to tunnel through to the information and purchases she wanted.  I realized that in order to stop feeling overwhelmed by my unlimited options (a topic I wrote about on May 5th), it would help if I defined certain boundaries in advance of my pursuit of informational enlightenment.

Kristen Variola’s July 2nd post about the Taiwanese ”Love Boat” educated me about immigration and how - even with the melting pot it creates in terms of diversity - many subcultures fear the loss of their identity as a result.  Her example was insightful.  She talked about Chinese-American parents who send their kids on four-week educational tours on ships so they can interact and hopefully connect with other Asian youth.

Nothing tells a story better than a photograph.  In a globalized world, it is easy to feel disconnected from what’s going on in - say - Africa.  Gloria Huang’s August 28th post about professional photographers teaching the locals in Mozambique and South Africa how to take pictures was heartwarming.  The women and children were then able to share their photos with the rest of the world to improve understanding of their plight.  What a creative new way to communicate a message and make the world seem a little less isolated.

While these are my favorites, here are some honorable mentions:

The internet is changing the world of philanthropy (April 28th) - Corey Mull

The way our irrational fears about risk affect our behavior (May 23rd)- Kelly Stepno

Word-of-mouth is an underrated marketing tool (Aug. 5th) - Krissy Rigopoulos

The disappearance of the newspaper in an internet world (April 29th) - Mike Clements

Evaluating new tools based on usefulness instead of hype (April 3rd) - Gayle Weiswasser

The power of social media (April 11th) - Steve Skojec

And the great VIDEO that started us off - you have to check it out to see what kind of perceptive powers you have! (April 1st) - Jenn Dodd

I believe our beloved Nellie Lide, the original voice of our New Persuasion blog, whom we lost at too young an age, would be proud of us.

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JULY 24, 2008

As a parent of two teenagers – one a rising high school senior and the other a high school freshman – college is a looming reality. It’s a part of our daily household conversation thread, and the source of not just a little anxiety. We talk about it at the dinner table, during long car rides to out-of state softball tournaments or while sitting on the back porch in candlelight on summer nights. We talk about the challenge of getting admitted to your first-choice school at a time when there is a glut of qualified applicants. We debate the merits of small colleges vs. big ones. And we try out different majors and discuss essay strategies. However, one thing we don’t talk about is the value of a college education.

But that’s just what Wall Street Journal economics writer Greg Ip did in a story this month, “The Declining Value of Your College Degree.” For much of the last century, a college degree pretty much guaranteed that your income would rise faster than it would for someone without one. But around the turn of this century, that equation began to change. Since 2001, Ip reports, the inflation-adjusted wages of all U.S. workers – including college graduates – did not grow.

Ip’s point is not that a college education is worthless; it’s that it’s not enough anymore. It’s simply the price of admission to the modern workforce. Employers are demanding more specialized knowledge – what Ip describes as skills that are “more narrow, more abstract and less easily learned in college.”

And the cause of this shift? The same basic forces that are reshaping every aspect of modern life: globalization and technology. Today’s graduates are competing not just against one another, but against immigrants and foreign nationals who have similar educations and skills. And, as we all reside today in a borderless Web environment, they are direct, not distant, competitors.

That competition has caused some political backlash against globalization. A decade ago a solid majority of college grads said that globalization had been good for the U.S., according to a poll conducted for the WSJ and NBC News. But in March, the same poll found only a third of graduates thought globalization was good and nearly half thought it bad. But globalization is not an exclusively negative economic force. It produces winners and losers. Increasingly, specialized knowledge and skills are what separate the two.

So our late night conversations about college with our daughter will become broader. Yes, she’ll still be going to college. But the question of “what unique skills should I acquire” needs to be added to the list of all the others. Because her post-college life will be lived in what we at New Persuasion call the Brain Race – the global competition for specialized knowledge that will define the power of individuals, corporations and nations going forward. And a college education will be only one piece of the required 21st century skill set.

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JULY 11, 2008

Two weeks ago I read an article in the Express that said the U.S. Trials for the Homeless World Cup were coming to DC.  That’s right – the Homeless World Cup, coming to recruit homeless men and women from our nation’s capital to compete against other homeless men and women from around the world.  Apparently the local players would stay in George Washington University housing, attend the LA Galaxy-DC United game and compete for a spot on the U.S. national team, which travels to Melbourne, Australia, in December.

Now, I had heard (and quite honestly, chuckled a little) about the Homeless World Cup last year when I learned that ESPN was co-sponsoring a documentary about the global phenomenon.  (You can watch a trailer for the film, entitled “Kicking It,” here).  But what seemed comical at the time - a vision of bearded, teethless individuals scurrying madly about an open field for someone else’s entertainment - was true misconception; I didn’t realize or appreciate potentially how phenomenal the Homeless World Cup could be.

After reading the article in the Express, therefore, I decided I should visit the Homeless World Cup website to learn more.  And, to my utter amazement, this is what I found:

There are one billion homeless people living in our world today.

The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever. 

If only America’s rich NBA stars could feel the same way about representing their home country in the 2008 Olympics, maybe they wouldn’t lose.  But I digress…

The impact of the Homeless World Cup is consistently significant year after year with 73% of players changing their lives for the better by coming off drugs and alcohol, moving into jobs, education, homes, training, reuniting with families and even going on to become players and coaches for pro or semi-pro soccer teams.

The ultimate goal of the tournament?  To use sports as a means for social inclusion, involving between 100,000 and one million players by 2012.  In a word, to use sports for social change.

So, yes, a ball really can – and already has – changed the world. 

I wonder: what else can it do?

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JULY 2, 2008

Is our country in danger of too much assimilation? As cities all around the U.S. diversify culturally, the process of becoming “American” becomes quicker and quicker. Not only are major cities diversifying, a growing number of immigrants are also settling in suburbia. As a result, growing up in a diverse environment, marrying outside of one’s race, and being more aware of other cultures is becoming the norm.  All of these sound like good changes, but as we become further removed from our ethnic roots, are we also becoming further removed from our individual heritages? Or are we simply breaking ties with the old and solidifying a new American culture?

According to a study using the latest Census Bureau figures, the percentage of Asian women born in the United States who marry Asian men has declined from 59 percent in 1994 to 37 percent today. The proportion of American-born Asian men who marry Asian women has also dropped, from 65 percent to 52 percent. According to this New York Times article, some Chinese-American parents are hoping to reverse these marriage trends by turning to cultural tours such as the Love Boat. These parents are sending their children on the four-week summer program, designed to strengthen young people’s connections with their Taiwanese roots, race, religion and language. The Love Boat – officially called the Expatriate Youth Summer Formosa Study Tour to Taiwan is sponsored and partly subsidized by the Taiwanese government. The tour got its nickname from the many romances that occur between the young participants.

As New Audiences rise in our country, will they long to rekindle their connections to their countries of origin? The success of the Love Boat suggests that more programs like this one will pop up as new Americans find it harder to meet others of the same descent.

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MAY 26, 2008

“With outstanding skills and charming character, they are a treasure to the Japanese Beatles band scene, winning acclaim from numerous quarters. If you are The Beatles lover, you’re sure to be captivated by their music. Love lives? You’ll surely enjoy our show. Experience a stage full of excitement and enthusiasm!” - The Silver Beats

At the modern intersection of globalization and entertainment, you’ll find a Japanese Beatles cover band called the Silver Beats.  Allow me to introduce them to you.  There’s Hidemasa Mabuchi as John, Tadaaki Naganuma as Paul, Yukinobu Kabe as Ringo, and Hajime Kubo as George.  But don’t let their foreign names fool you: these gentlemen bear a striking resemblance in look and sound to the original Fab Four from Liverpool (not to mention that they boast a repertoire of nearly 160 Beatles songs).  Don’t believe me?  See for yourself: A Hard Day’s Night – She Loves You – Come Together.

Debuting in 2002 at The Cavern Club in Tokyo, the Silver Beats first made waves in the United States when the band opened for (and by many accounts upstaged) The Killers during The Killers’ 2007 national tour.  According to screenwriter/filmmaker Jason Whiton, the reason this Japanese tribute band is unlike any other American tribute band is that tribute in Japan is “an integral part of artistic tradition” in which “the student strives to follow in the style of his master.”  Whiton believes that modern Elvis impersonators, for example, place too much emphasis on the King and not enough on his music.  The Silver Beats do the opposite.

Last January, I had the privilege of attending a rare, sold-out encore performance by the Silver Beats at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.  I admit that I had never actually heard of the band prior to the concert; I only bought a ticket because a friend of mine had seen them open for the Killers and said it was a “must-see” experience.  So, I tagged along.

Within seconds I found myself transfixed in a time-warp of sight and sound.  At the same time, I couldn’t help but notice that the karaoke-singing crowd surrounding me consisted mainly of Gen Y music lovers, most of whom were born after John Lennon died in 1980.  Yet, there we all were, reviving a band we had never before seen live and resurrecting a man with whom we had never shared a single breath on earth.  Why?

Potsy of the DC Rock Club, also stopping by 9:30 that night, lends us insight.  He writes:

With The Rolling Stones, The Who, and potentially Led Zeppelin keeping yesteryear rock alive with tours, some of us still have a shot at seeing concerts featuring music that never seems to die. Never mind the fact that The Beatles consciously stopped touring at the height of their career, Lennon’s death certainly meant we would never get the chance to see The Beatles perform. Even if Ringo and Paul hit the road together today, I don’t think it would be at all interesting.

I couldn’t agree with you more, Potsy.

So, last weekend when I read a news release announcing that the Japanese foursome would be returning to the United States this summer to perform at the 2008 Virgin Mobile Festival with legendary rocker Chuck Berry, I wanted to spread the word.  Even if you can sing along to only one Beatles song, you’ll find The Silver Beats’ sonic resurrection incredibly enlightening, particularly when paired with Chuck Berry.  As John Lennon himself once said, “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.”  I wonder: what would Lennon call Chuck Berry plus The Beatles’ own Japanese tribute band?  Probably, he would call it Love. Love, Love, Love.

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MARCH 31, 2008

We’ve been busy. In the past few months, we’ve taken some time to step back and reflect on New Persuasion and Undercurrents — where we’ve been, and where we want to go. We’ve added some new faces to our team and with that, a renewed energy and focus.

We want Undercurrents to serve as a way for us to share our passions and expertise with our clients, colleagues and friends. This will be our primary outlet for communicating our obsession with understanding not just how the world is changing, but why and what it means for the future.

With contributions from a cross-section of our staff, we will primarily focus on the five forces driving the era of transformational change that we are experiencing today — Innovation, Globalization, Saturation, Personalization, and Im(migration).

We plan to post at least once a day so check back often – and more importantly, join in the conversation. We’d love to hear what you think about our new look, our new blog, and anything else you’d like to share.

If you are new to our blog, welcome. And for our old friends, welcome back.

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