Peter Fisk’s Blog
Gamified brand and retail experiences … from Alibaba’s black cats and red envelopes to Nike Fuel, Headspace Streaks and Duolingo Games
January 21, 2020
For the last few years I have watched the growth of Alibaba’s 11:11 (aka Singles Day) Shopping Festival in awe … the numbers of participants, and their spending, are just staggering. Last year, $30 billion (213 billion Yuan) sales in 24 hours, rising …
Tinker Hatfield is the pole vaulting architect who became a shoe designer, and head of Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, turning sneakers into objects of desire
January 19, 2020
Tinker Hatfield joined Nike in 1981, having started out as a pole vaulter and then trained as an architect, and rapidly became its lead shoe designer. He realised that his architectural skills could be applied to shoes, and is credited with designing t …
Question Burst … Questions are much more powerful than answers, says Hal Gregersen … the challenge for leaders is to ask better questions
January 18, 2020
At the core of an innovative and capable leader is the ability to ask catalytic questions that uncover false assumptions and lead them down productive, new paths. The Leader’s Dilemma suggests that leaders inherently are shielded from the information t …
Comic-Strip Leadership … 7 animated movies to inspire how you lead your business, your people and your future
January 17, 2020
Leadership is not what it used to be. The definition of leadership is shifting from what you could call the Steve Jobs model, the recognition of a singular individual who is founder and CEO, to a definition that has almost nothing to do with your title …
What are your strengths as a leader? Positive psychology proposes 6 virtues and 24 character strengths
January 15, 2020
“Character Strengths and Virtues” is a fascinating psychology handbook that brings together the work of many different projects to create a classification system for widely valued positive traits in people. The aim is to present a measure of humanist i …
Ari Weinzweig and his Zingerman’s Deli … “the coolest small company in America”
January 15, 2020
Zingerman’s is a gourmet food business group based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. The original business and still the flagship store is Zingerman’s Delicatessen in the town. Starting from the original deli, Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (ZCoB) has …
“Whakapapa” means to plant trees you’ll never see by being a good ancestor … 15 leadership lessons from the All Blacks rugby team
January 14, 2020
Legacy is one of the most motivating topics for business leaders. What will you leave behind? What is your purposeful contribution to others that follow you? In James Kerr’s book Legacy he explains how the methods of the All Blacks rugby team have deve …
BlackRock’s Larry Fink sends his 2020 Letter to CEOs … Climate change, sustainable investing, and “a fundamental reshaping of finance”
January 14, 2020
Exactly two years ago today, Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock, wrote a letter to many of the world’s business leaders – CEOs of companies who looked to his business for investment. It shook the business world. This was not another anti-capital …
Nike’s CEO Mark Parker hangs up his running shoes … How an average marathon geek became an innovative shoe designer, and the world’s most creative CEO
January 12, 2020
Mark Parker was the running geek who became an innovative shoe designer, and then became CEO of the world’s largest sportswear company. He stepped into the top job at Nike in 2006, and into the rather big running shoes of founder Phil Knight. Knight sa …
Should Nike’s Vaporfly racing shoes be banned, or is this reasonable technologically-enabled human progress?
January 10, 2020
Nike’s record breaking Vaporfly Next% shoes have adorned the feet of multiple marathon winners since their release in 2017. But according to speculation, they seem likely to be banned when the World Athletics announces new rules surrounding running sho …