My name is Kjerstin, and I used to run an international nonprofit organization. A pretty great one, at that: my organization, FORGE, helped more than 70,000 refugees in war-torn Africa recover from conflict and prepare for a peaceful and self-sufficient future. In refugee camps across Zambia and Botswana, we built libraries, created computer training centers, provided micro-finance and agricultural finance, started preschools, ran health education programs, and more. In short, we helped refugees determine not only what they needed but how they could build it for themselves. No one else was doing what we did, and we could squeeze more out more out of our money than a souvenir penny press.

So…why the past tense?

While there are no shortage of reasons I could give you, the simplest one is this: I starved FORGE to death. 

When I started the organization, I was young, idealistic, and naive. Not experienced…

There is something truly fortuitous about working for a company that seeks to see the good and beautiful in humanity…..we start to find what we are looking for.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by ugliness and sentiments of doom. We live in a world where most front page stories or breaking headlines are negative….most major celebrations seem to be at least partly overshadowed by tragedy. We are so connected that it is hard to be oblivious to sadness and suffering everywhere!

However, we are learning a wonderful lesson….when we seek goodness and beauty we find it! There is so much awesomeness, so many gorgeous hearts, that really their courage and generosity OUTSHADOWS the sadness and tragedy.

Take, for instance Zach Sobiech. Given a terminal cancer diagnosis he made a very conscious choice to make other’s happy as long as he could. He also turned to music to express himself…

Some people say big data is wallowing in the trough of disillusionment, but that’s a limited worldview. If you only look at it like an IT issue it might be easy to see big data as little more than business intelligence on steroids. If you only see data science as a means to serving better ads, it might be easy to ask yourself what all the fuss is about.

If you’re like me, though, all you see are the bright lights ahead. They might be some sort of data nirvana, or they might be a privacy-destroying 18-wheeler bearing down on us. They might be both. But we’re going to find out, and we’re we’re going to find out sooner rather than later.

This is because there are small pockets of technologists who are letting their imaginations lead the way. In a suddenly cliché way of saying it, they’re aiming for 10x…

For those of you who view me as a customer service expert, you might be surprised to know that I have an avid interest in marketing and most of my work over the last 10 years has been with, and continues to be with, marketers and the Marketing function. So in this post, I am going to address what I see as two most important challenges facing marketers and the Marketing function.

Is technology the answer to the challenges facing marketers?

I recently attended and spoke at the Technology for Marketing & Advertising conference/exhibition in London. What I found fascinating is the love of new technology.  I was reminded of the heady days of CRM.  Do you remember those days?  The days when Siebel sales folks would open up every sales presentation with “Siebel is the fastest growing software company ever.” And the point was that CRM technology was going…

It doesn’t work if you fill up the tank with petrol when your car runs on diesel.  It doesn’t work to turn up at a nightclub and expect to get peace-quiet.  It doesn’t work to drive down the wrong side of the road at a busy time when there are lots of cars on the road and expect no problems.  It doesn’t work to turn up in your bikini for work or to turn up with your business suit to sunbathe on the beach.  And almost all of us get that.

So why is it that in the world of business we forget this.  Why is it that we still cling to stupid ideas, and practices, like what gets measured gets done. Rubbish. In the world of business what gets measured gets gamed. And if it isn’t being gamed now, then you can rest assured that someone is working on…

Lately I have had a series of conversations with a group of leaders of global high-tech companies. It became very clear during my conversations that their vocabulary reflected a fresh, new way of thinking about work. The executives emphasized that the key to success in the new digital economy is likely to be a new position for knowledge professionals and a wide social acceptance of more sustainable values.

What could this new position look like?

Once acquired, knowledge and skills that are specialized to a given enterprise are assets that are at risk in the very same way that financial assets are at risk. If one can’t continue for some reason, the value of context-specific knowledge and competencies may be much lower somewhere else. Human capital then follows very much the same logic as financial capital and should be treated accordingly.

There is, however, one major difference. Human capital is…

9 to 5 is stuck in our heads as the typical workday. I’m not sure if it’s Dolly Parton’s song and 1980 smash hit movie that burned this into our psyche but 8 hours is what we expect to spend at work. I actually think, for the last few decades, it is probably closer to 8 to 5. But either way, it’s nice to see this work-day idea dying off, at least in the office environment (retail and consumer services like restaurants don’t fit well in this description). Consider these things:

• Most professional adults don’t need to be babysat at work by a manager since tablets, smartphones, and collaboration software (dropbox, SharePoint, Skype, Salesforce,…) make communication and access to work a 24/7 option;
• People are not spending all their time at work working anyway. A lot of the time there just aren’t things that need to be done at the…