Talk Like Ted – Book Review

I am a fan of books on presenting, especially good ones, and this new book by Carmine Gallo, TALK LIKE TED – The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds, is definitely a good one. The approach Gallo has taken is to analyse over 500 Ted talks, looking at the videos, interviewing the speakers, and working with the people involved in making it happen. The book highlights great Ted Talks, such as those by Hans Rosling, Amy Cuddy, and Amanda Palmer, and uses these to describe the lessons we can all learn from them. Gallo divides these lessons into three groups of three, and includes many of the well-known points about passion and storytelling. However, because TED talks are available via the web, we can read his descriptions and check out the videos – increasing our understanding of the points he is making, seeing them in action. No book is going to be a complete solution, and I could quibble with some of the advice. For example, I would like the book to focus a bit more on identify the needs of a specific audience, and in my professional world I often have to deal with speakers and/or audiences […]

Appreciating Asia Pacific – 3rd and Final Post

After a week in Singapore, a week split between Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo, the final week of my Vision Critical Asia Pacific tour finished with client-focused events in Auckland, Melbourne, and Sydney. The complex picture of Asia Pacific suggested by the earlier cities was complemented and compounded by the events in New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand In Auckland my two days were spent in the company of Camorra Research, the New Zealand partner of Vision Critical. New Zealand is a small country, population 4.4 million, with a total market research spend (according to ESOMAR’s 2013 Global Market Research Report) of about US $96 million (just slightly smaller than Singapore and Hong Kong). Of all the countries I visited on this trip, New Zealand was the one where the research buyers seemed most willing to try something new and the least inclined to favour international research brands. My time in New Zealand was split between a training session with the people responsible for delivering research services and a client round table. At the training session, key people from Vision Critical’s Sydney office were engaged in knowledge transfer with a great bunch of people from Camorra, and I was able […]

Appreciating Asia Pacific – Part 2

Last week I wrote about my week in Singapore, with Vision Critical and MRMW. This week I exchanged the warmth of Singapore for the distinctly more chilly streets of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Monday and Tuesday were spent in Hong Kong, with my Vision Critical colleagues and, one of our key partners in the region, ABN Impact. Monday focused on meetings with clients and prospects and on team training/briefing sessions. On Tuesday morning ABN Impact put on a great insight community event at the JW Marriott. The speakers included Bashuli Sane from Cathay Pacific and Mike Sherman (ex-SingTel) who wowed the audience when they shared how insight communities were bringing the customer into every aspect of the decision making process – I gave an introduction to communities presention, helping fill in the broader picture of what an insight community is and how they are built, managed, and developed. The market in Hong Kong is quite developed and the Q&A session focused on practical issues, such as recruitment, language (e.g. working in English, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese), and incentives. Wednesday morning saw the Vision Critical roadshow in Shanghai, the guests of the Mandarin Oriental, and in the company of […]

Appreciating Asia Pacific – Part 1

This post is written as I reach the end of the first week of a three week Vision Critical trip to the Asia Pacific Region. For the last few years I have been spending about ten weeks a year in the APAC region, typically spread over three or four separate trips – because I am convinced that this is where much of the future (especially in terms of commerce, marketing, and insights) is being made. Singapore Client Round Table I arrived in Singapore Monday evening and the week got off to a flying start with breakfast with my Vision Critical colleagues from Sydney and from our newly opened Singapore office, followed by a meeting with the CEO of Indian partner, Majestic and lunch with an insight community client, Google. The afternoon was devoted to a client round-table meeting where several of Vision Critical’s clients gather to hear a keynote presentation (from me on this occasion) and then spend time sharing their learning with each other. This event was hosted by Google in their superb offices overlooking the Marina area, with key contributions from SingTel, Sony and others. Client roundtable sessions are a great way for clients to share their experiences […]