Original author: Maureen Kelly

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Maureen Kelly

I had a long conversation with a friend last night that included a segment about men, sex, and power. I had just finished Ellen Pao’s book Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change which I thought was phenomenal (more in a separate post soon) so there was a lot in my mind about this topic.

I woke up to several articles this morning that reinforced a simple concept that so many people miss. Sexual harassment – while it includes sex – is also about power.

Let’s start with Harvey Weinstein. For a preview, read the shorter article titled Another man behaving badly in Hollywood — this time, Harvey Weinstein. What a shocker. This line about narcissism is reflected in the behavior of many prominent men.

“I have always argued that power, particularly the Hollywood strain, infantilizes. Success in Hollywood frequently reduces fully grown adults to narcissistic babies. Babies have no self-control. They scream and cry when they get mad. Their needs are uninhibited. Gratification must be instant. Weinstein may be a talented moviemaker. But he is also just another overgrown Hollywood man-baby.”

The longer article in the New York Times that kicked this off, Decades of Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Harvey Weinstein, is worth a complete read. As you put the pieces together, Weinstein’s public response is similar to many self-reflective apologies that come out of this situation when things finally become public.

Back to the first article, here is another great section from Robin Abcarian.

“Weinstein’s behavior is also an excellent example of the hypocrisy that is so rampant in Hollywood — and politics, for that matter. He is a liberal Democrat who publicly champions women’s rights and professional advancement but demeans and exploits them in private. (And yes, I do include Bill Clinton on that list.) The conservative equivalent is the anti-abortion crusader who privately urges his mistress to abort an inconvenient pregnancy or the “devout” Christian who ditches his sick wife to marry his mistress.”

Power. And that led me to the second story I woke up to, which is the anti-abortion crusader, Tim Murphy, who privately urges his mistress to abort an inconvenient pregnancy. The article Inside Tim Murphy’s reign of terror shows very clearly how power is at the root of this. The statement from Congressman Tim Murphy is another typical one, which basically says “I’m resigning, I’ll spend my time remaining working on important things, I’ve accomplished a lot, and please leave me alone.”

At least Harvey Weinstein said, “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it.” But, this was his fourth paragraph. As my mother taught me, the way to apologize is to start with the sentence “I’m sorry.” You can write anything you want after that, but start with the apology – that’s the lead – don’t bury it.

I’m really hopeful that we are at the tipping point of sexual harassment being completely unacceptable. I have a profound appreciation for the women coming forward with their experiences. I know there are many multiples of these stories being suppressed by non-disparagement clauses that were signed and sealed with money to keep people quiet. That’s just another form of power being used in this situation.

Also published on Medium.

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Original author: Brad Feld

AP

Samsung has pulled a successful comeback from its exploding phones fiasco last year, with its brand value up 9%, according to Interbrand.

The company managed to pull the feat by holding itself accountable, getting to the root of the cause and then communicating that effectively to its employees and consumers. It also used the opportunity to find a bigger brand purpose for itself and creating an internal culture of change that encourages and prides itself on taking risks.

In 2016, Samsung was blowing up — quite literally.

The phone maker was battling its biggest ever brand crisis, after defective Galaxy Note 7 smartphones began exploding around the world. A battery malfunction was threatening to permanently damage both its business and its reputation: its mobile sales were down 15% by October 2016.

"We became a cultural meme, a daily announcement on every flight," said Pio Schunker, svp of integrated marketing communications at Samsung Mobile Communication, speaking at the Association of National Advertisers' Masters of Marketing Conference on Thursday. "There was wave after wave of negative commentary — not just from the press, but from consumers as well."

But a year later, the South Korean company seems to be on the path to a full recovery. Just last week, it went up from the seventh to the sixth position in the marketing consulting group Interbrand's 2107 Best Global Brands list, and saw a 9% increase in brand valuation despite the crisis. Samsungs's profits are up in 2017 and its new Galaxy 8 has been selling well, according to Marketwatch.

Here's how Samsung managed to pull its comeback:

By embracing accountability

When disaster struck, Samsung knew that it had to be proactive and take responsibility, according to Schunker.

"We knew we couldn’t afford the luxury of a fetal position and just lie there, so the first thing that we did to make things right was to take accountability," he said. "For Samsung, it wasn’t just the right thing to do, it was the only thing to do."

The company promptly held a press conference, in which it took full responsibility for the crisis. It was also forthcoming in its admission that while it didn’t know what was causing the battery malfunction, it would not rest until the actual cause was discovered. 

The company then moved into decisive and meaningful action, getting 700 researchers and engineers, 200,000 phones and over 30,000 batteries tested in every extreme condition possible. In a company first, Samsung also opened up to third party auditors.

When Samsung eventually figured out what exactly had gone wrong, it communicated that out to the public. In January, it announced a quality assurance program and other safety features, including an 8-point battery safety check, rolling them out the very next day.

By building 'brand love'

Once the issue at hand was addressed, Samsung turned its attention towards recovering people's love and trust. It focused on finding a bigger purpose that both its employees and consumers could rally around, made its brand more inclusive globally and tried to create an internal culture of change.

"This time the stakes were much higher, because we not only had to recover from all the damage that had been done, but do it during one of the most competitive smartphone launch seasons we’d ever seen in advance of the S8 launch," he said. "We needed to reclaim our leadership."

The brand sought to break away from its "immensely fragmented brand identity which lacked warmth and humanity," and instead inspire purpose beyond just its bottomline. It tapped into its inherent DNA of relentless innovation, crystallizing that into a bigger brand purpose encapsulated in the tagline "Do What You Can’t.”

 

 

Original author: Tanya Dua

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Original author: Edoardo Maggio

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John Stillwell PA Wire/PA Images

Mayor Sadiq Khan has hailed Uber's "humility" after London refused to renew the minicab firm's license. Uber is facing a barrage of issues in the British capital, from sex discrimination allegations to lawsuits.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has welcomed the humility shown by Uber's chief executive after the city stripped the taxi app of its license to operate — but once again criticized the company's London management on Thursday.

Transport for London (TfL) shocked Uber last month by deeming it unfit to run a taxi service and refusing to renew its license, citing the firm's approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi met TfL Commissioner Mike Brown on Tuesday for discussions both sides described as "constructive." Khan said he did not have talks with the Silicon Valley firm's boss.

Khan, a center-left politician from the opposition Labour party, has repeatedly criticized Uber's leadership in Britain, previously saying that instead of hiring "an army of PR experts and an army of lawyers" it needed to address the issues raised by TfL.

But Khan, who is also chairman of TfL, contrasted that with Khosrowshahi, who apologized for the firm's mistakes in an open letter to Londoners last week.

"What gives me confidence about the TfL decision is the fact that the global chief executive officer for Uber apologized to London," Khan told LBC Radio.

"I think that bodes well in relation to the humility which hasn't been shown by Uber London or Uber UK," he said.

Citing separate disagreements with unions in London over strike action on the underground train network, known as the tube, Khan said he always preferred to solve matters without court action.

"The global CEO has gone away to do some further work and I always think, as I said before when it came to the tube strikes, the way to resolve differences is constructively and amicably around a table rather than through litigation," he said.

Asked on Thursday, Uber referred to its comments on Tuesday when it promised to "make things right in London."

Uber's license expired on Sept. 30 but its roughly 40,000 drivers — defined by the firm as those have made at least four trips in the last month — are still able to take passengers until an appeals process is exhausted, which could take months.

Uber's fate in London will be decided by a judge who will rule on the appeal after it is submitted by Oct. 13.

The firm reported that 2016 revenue in Britain rose 59 percent to £37 million ($49 million) and its pretax profit jumped 65 percent to £3 million, according to a filing posted on Britain's Companies House website.

Khosrowshahi, who has only been in the role for just over a month, has also had to deal with a fractured board in the United States, which on Tuesday attempted to end months of strife by unanimously passing a series of measures to shore up corporate governance, bring in major investor SoftBank and diminish the power of former CEO Travis Kalanick.

Uber is facing a barrage of issues in the British capital. Alongside its lost license, it is also embroiled in a legal battle over the employment status of its drivers. It is also appealling a ruling that would require its drivers to take English tests, has been accused of sex discrimation, and needs to find a new UK boss.

Original author: Rob Price and Reuters

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, left, and Tesco CEO Dave Lewis. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Joshua Roberts

LONDON — The CEO of Tesco says the supermarket chain sees Amazon as a "formidable competitor" but emphasised that Tesco is in a "good place" to compete with the online retail giant.

Share prices of supermarkets worldwide slumped in June after Amazon announced it was acquiring US grocer Whole Foods.

The deal represents a major expansion of Amazon's ambitions in the food and drink sector, and there have been rumours that the e-commerce giant could pursue a similar deal in Europe.

"We have to respect Amazon," Tesco CEO Dave Lewis said at a press conference in London this week. "We see them as a formidable competitor.

"But delivering food and handling food is very different to delivering non-food. If we as Tesco play to the strengths that we have in terms of the stores we have and the delivery capability we have, then actually we can deliver a great service for customers that is very difficult to compete with."

Lewis highlighted the fact that Tesco leads Amazon in the UK grocery home delivery market in London, where Amazon operates its Fresh delivery service, and said that the Whole Foods deal shows Amazon is "trying to buy things that we as Tesco already have."

"Competition makes you stronger," Lewis said. "We should just be mindful as to what it is Amazon are doing, look at the strengths of what it is they ultimately bring to the market, and ask ourselves as Tesco: how do we do better? Just don't give up where we start from — we start from a very good place."

Original author: Oscar Williams-Grut

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Sweet Paul is one of a growing number of digital magazines Issu

Many digital publishers are struggling to scrape by in an era when banner ads trade for pennies and social networks control distribution.

Maybe it's time for magazines to make a comeback? 

That's been the bet at Issuu, a company that has been helping entreprenuers publish digital magazines for over a decade. Now Issuu is rolling out a new product via which these publishers can charge readers for digital subscriptions.

According to Issuu CEO Joe Hyrkin, there are now  35 million indy publications using Issuu's free tools, which let creators put togther slick magazines on niche topics ranging from craft brewing to knitting to cycling. 

In aggregate, these 'digi-zines' reach  100 million unique readers each a month globally who consume close to a billion pages of content, Hyrkin said. Issuu pulls in revenue from selling some publishers premium tools and services.

To date, Issuu publications could make money from selling ads or weaving e-commerce into their magazines. But now, they can sell individual issues or monthly subscriptions at the price of their chosing. 

You might ask, why the magazine format? Wasn't the rise of the blogosphere supposed to enable these kind of narrow publishers?

"I think its an indictment of that system, meaning d igital ads, p rogrammatic," said Hyrkin. " Blogs are often one page, and are r andom in terms of cadence.  Consumers don ’t know when or where content is coming from."

Meanwhile, he argues that in a news feed, sea-of-headlines digital media era, magazine-style packaging still has an appeal.

"A collection, a curated body of work is much more interesting," said Hyrkin. "And five  years ago, i f you wanted to do a publication like this, you had to get g et blessed by [legendary Vogue editor] Anna Wintour.  Now, if you are a fashion publisher today, y ou have access to a set of digital tools to put together a  world class digital publication."

For example, one breakout Issuu publication is Sweet Paul, a Brooklyn-based food and crafting magazine that was born out of a blog founded in 2007  by Paul Lowe, a traditional publishing veteran, and his partner  Paul Vitale.

Started as a side project, it evolved into a full time job for both Pauls , and eventually led to a deal to print and distribute copies of the digital magazine with the retailer Anthropologie.

"We've been building an audience that is young and tech savvy," said Vitale. And the Issuu platform provides " the ability to have so much control."

"We’ve lost a lot of big magazines over the past couple of years," he added. "I think t here’s a lot of room f or magazines like ours.  You can have a really small team. And you d on’t have to lay people off because we lost an ad."

Original author: Mike Shields

Original author: David Choi

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Getty/John Lamparski

Amazon is sharpening its assault on the ad business, and big-name advertisers are starting to take notice.

With product and search ads on Amazon.com, and its data on shoppers being used to run display ads all over the web, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant is increasingly becoming top of mind for advertisers. In fact, its ad business is already worth over $2 billion. 

"I think that they are a force to be reckoned with, they are excellent with everything they do," said Kristin Lemkau, chief marketing officer at JPMorgan Chase. "You have to do business with Amazon."

Lemkau, speaking at the Association of National Advertisers' Masters of Marketing Conference on Thursday, said she sees Amazon as a potential challenger to the Facebook-Google duopoly in the digital advertising space.

"They take customer obsession seriously," she said. "And I think they feel like the first big, emerging advertiser that can be grouped with Facebook and Google."

"They have a search engine, a programmatic stack, premium content and one of the top five apps," she told Business Insider in an interview later. "And they are the biggest consumer company in the world today."

Lemkau also addressed the issue of brand safety, which has been foremost on the minds of marketers over the past year. JPMorgan Chase, in particular, has been vocal about the issue of branded content appearing next to inappropriate or violent content online.

It stopped working with YouTube earlier this year, for example, when the platform was in the thick of its brand safety controversy, and also pulled its ads from NBC in June, ahead of an interview Megyn Kelly did with controversial guest, Alex Jones. 

"Performance is important, but at the time, we didn't care about the performance," she told ANA chief Bob Liodice. "We were putting a stake in the ground that we were not going to support fake news."

She also mentioned how before the company decided to crack down on fake news, its ads were running on 400,000 plus websites, but getting clicks from merely 12,000. JPMorgan Chase then restricted those sites to just 5,000, and is currently on its way to limiting its display ads to about 10,000 approved sites.

"We cull it all the time, but this is something incumbent on brands themselves to figure out."

Original author: Tanya Dua

Did you come across a 7-foot-tall Chewbacca at Comic Con in New York? There was a familiar face inside. Adam Savage of "Mythbusters" and Tested fame went incognito on the convention floor as the furry fan favorite "Star Wars" character Chewbacca. We watched him get ready and followed him around to see how fans reacted. Following is a transcript of the video.

Adam Savage: Hey I'm Adam Savage from Tested.com, formerly of "Mythbusters."

I'm here at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York for New York City's Comic Con.

If you didn't know this about me, I have a cosplay habit. I go to cons all year round, and I walk in costume.

Last year was my first year at New York City Comic Con, and I made a seven-foot-tall Totoro costume. Today I am doing a brand new thing. I am walking with Chewbacca as a captured prisoner of a First Order stormtrooper, who will be played by Tested.com’s own Norman Chan.

The trick to Chewie is that he's a little bit tousled. His hair is tousled. And if you tousle it right, he looks right. See? It's kind of an Empire hairdo.

There are a lot of little things to do to prep for Chewbacca. One: I have to take my glasses off and put in a single contact lens. This is how I've learned to see in cosplay. If I put in two contact lenses, I can't see my phone, and that effectively makes me useless.

I also made some Imperial cuffs out of PVC. One hour build.

I have some tall boots that I wear that make me about 7 inches taller. The shirt here and the pants are Kanekalon artificial hair latch hooked onto webbing. So it’s a very lightweight and breathable costume. And then with the top of Chewbacca’s head rising about 5 inches above mine, I am almost 7-feet tall.

Yes, I do sweat in there.

I am ready to be led around as a prisoner.

I am so energized by what it's like to walk around. Because when people see a Chewbacca in front of them, they kind of lose their minds. They never thought that they would see a Chewbacca, and many of them just come up and hug you.

Like, Chewie is such an amazing character. He’s my favorite non-human character in film. So I love bringing him around and allowing people to experience a Chewie in the wild.

"Get a picture!"

"Hurry up, he’s a prisoner!"

"Chewie!"

I wanna take pictures with everybody, and when we stop, it's just not enough time. So we take like 10 or 15, and then we have to keep moving. Otherwise we’re just going to clog up that whole portion of the con.

"Chewbacca!"

"Hey Chewie, can I get a selfie?"

I’m Adam Savage. You guys look amazing. Keep it quiet.

"Later Chewie!"

Dude!

Norman Chan: Oh my god!

Savage: How was ... hey look at you sweaty!

I'm replacing a portion of the water I just sweated out. Nathan Fillion told me that in a very hot suit, he's lost as much as 3 pounds in an hour in water weight alone. And I'm sure I have come close to the same thing.

The second best part about cosplay, aside from walking the floor, is taking the costume off.

Alright, back to the rehearsals for Mummenschanz.

Original author: Chris Snyder

Oracle loves to pick fights with Amazon Web Services in the database and cloud markets, but the enemy it should really take aim at is Microsoft, according to one analyst. 

"Microsoft is their big competitor," says Larry Carvalho, lead analyst on platform-as-a-service at IDC.  

Amazon may be a giant in the cloud world but Microsoft is a bigger threat to the types of big business customers that Oracle depends on.

"Oracle is about two to three years behind Microsoft," Carvalho tells Business Insider.  

Pick your battle

Earlier this week, when Oracle announced its newest database, the Oracle 18c, chairman Larry Ellison called it the first "fully-autonomous" and "self-driving" database on the market. But to Carvalho, that claim doesn't mean much in a market full of semi-autonomous databases, like Microsoft Azure's SQL.

Microsoft CEO Satya NadellaAP"Oracle," Carvalho said, "is just catching up."

While certain functions on the Oracle 18c may be new, such as its reported ability to autonomously patch cybersecurity flaws, the heart of Oracle's new product is machine learning. Microsoft launched Azure SQL, which self-tunes and recommends security fixes, in March 2016.

The competition, according to Carvalho, will now come down to which customers Oracle is chasing. While Amazon might steal business from Oracle when it comes to Java workloads, Microsoft has the advantage when it comes to .NET workloads. The Oracle-owned Java and Microsoft-owned .NET are the two main frameworks used for building database applications. 

Open strategy

Oracle's best hope for winning, Carvalho reckons, is to hammer home the message that it supports open source software and that its product plays nice with everyone, working with tech from different manufacturers. 

"The whole open source story that Oracle is pushing might draw new customers, but they'll have to show differentiation about why Oracle and not Microsoft," Carvalho said. "It has potential, but I haven't seen anything come out of it." 

For now, however, Oracle is presenting the market as an issue of pricing. In his keynote, Ellison mostly focused on the price of its services compared to Amazon Web Service's. Ellison promised to include a clause in its contracts that says it will cost less than half of what Amazon charges for the same service. 

Amazon fired back on Monday, describing Ellison's presentation as "no facts, wild claims, and lots of bluster." 

Get the latest Microsoft stock price here.

Original author: Becky Peterson

Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

The Google Home Mini is a small, palm-sized $49 smart speaker powered by the Google Assistant smart voice assistant. Google Home Mini is a direct competitor to Amazon Echo Dot, a very popular smart speaker that costs the same and is roughly the same size. In my first tests, I like the Google Home Mini more than the Amazon Echo Dot because the Google Assistant agent is generally smarter than Amazon Alexa.

Amazon's Echo Dot is a sensation: Affordably priced at $49.99, the sleek, puck-shaped gadget seems to be leading the pack for voice-controlled smart speakers — and taking Amazon's Alexa voice assistant into new places. 

So it came as no surprise this week when Google announced the Google Home Mini, its own take on a smaller smart speaker, at almost the exact same price of $49. It's powered by Google Assistant, the search giant's own voice assistant, and ships on October 19th.

Not only did I get to play with a Mini after the big Google hardware event this week; I got to bring one home and try it in my own house too. And I'm here to make the case that the Google Home Mini is, indeed, better than the Amazon Echo Dot. 

Functionality-wise, the two devices are very similar. You wake them up with a magic word — "Alexa" for the Echo Dot, and "OK Google" for the Home Mini — and then ask them to do things. Both of them can play music from major streaming services, set alarms and timers, give you sports scores, and control your smart lightbulbs and other "connected" appliances. 

Amazon Echo Dot AP

The two devices are also very similar sizes, not much bigger than a hockey puck, though the Home Mini is a little shorter and a touch wider. The Google Home Mini sports an, ahem, unique fabric-covered aesthetic. You can get it in black or white, and Google itself will be selling an exclusive "coral red" color.

The Home Mini has touch controls on top for volume, and a switch that mutes the microphone. In my initial tests, the Google Home Mini's speaker seems both a little louder and a touch clearer than the Dot's. 

The Home Mini also supports Bluetooth, so you can connect other gadgets to it and control them with your voice. But it lacks an auxiliary port, which the Dot has. Generally speaking, though, if you really care about sound quality and don't plan on using an external speaker, you're going to want either the larger, original model Google Home ($129) or Amazon Echo ($99). 

The four dots mean this Google Home Mini is at maximum volume. Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

Both devices also carry some corporate synergies. With an Amazon Echo Dot, you can shop on Amazon, control a Fire TV streaming box and listen to Amazon Prime Music; with a Google Home Mini, you can control Chromecast streaming devices, access Google Play Music, and shop with new Google partner Walmart. It's a matter of taste.

Okay, so if the two devices are the same in so many ways, why do I like the Google Home Mini better? Well, to answer that, I'm going to have to take a big step back and explain why I like the Google Assistant better than Amazon Alexa. 

Before equipping my house with my first Google Home, I tried the Echo Dot, but got really frustrated at its limitations. It can answer some basic questions ("When do the Yankees play next?"). But, despite Amazon's efforts  to smarten Alexa up over the years, it tends to stumble over anything more complicated ("How do I get rid of a depleted fire extinguisher?").

You can enable Alexa "skills," or apps, that extend its knowledge and functionality — skills for recipes, for games, and trivia, and relaxation. And Amazon, to its credit, has put in a lot of work in nudging you towards the right skill, depending on your question. Not every skill is great, though, and frankly, I don't always remember which skill I need when I'm just trying to figure out a question. 

Which is why I like the Google Assistant, and thus Google Home, better. Because it taps straight into Google's base of knowledge, both global and personal, Google Assistant can answer lots of questions, even the really obscure ones. "What day was the Battle of Hogwarts?" "How does Pikachu evolve into Raichu?" Even, "when is my flight on Tuesday?"

All three colors of Google Home Mini available at its October 19th launch. Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

I don't want to sound too down on Alexa. Amazon has put a lot of smarts into its assistant, and it's really convenient to be able to check on my Amazon orders or place new ones with my voice. Functionality-wise, Alexa integrates with way more third-party apps, meaning I can use it with my preferred shopping list app. And yet, Google Home is my favorite.

When we started using the Google Home in my house, we were skeptical after our experiences with the Echo Dot. However, the Google Home has won us over to a frightening degree. "Just ask Google" has become a refrain in our house. We use it for identifying actors in movies, or to figure out what the heck an "ancient grain" is in a recipe. 

And the Google Home Mini makes it cheaper to stock our home up with that kind of intelligence, plus each individual unit is more demure and easier to stash on a bookshelf or endtable. We already love Google Assistant, so the only way Google could have messed this up for us is by whiffing on the hardware. And so far, Google Home Mini is great.

Original author: Matt Weinberger

Google released two new smart speakers at its big hardware event on Wednesday, causing the already full space to get a bit more crowded. Tech heavyweights have more or less been playing catch-up with each other since Amazon first released the Echo in 2014. As we can see in this chart from Statista, the Google Home Mini directly competes with the Amazon Echo Dot on the low end of the price spectrum, and the Google Home Max against the Apple HomePod at the very top. 

Smart speakers have become increasingly popular over the past few years as technology advances and new devices enter the market. According to an analysis by Adobe Digital Insights (ADI), smart speaker sales in the US rose 39% year over year outside of the holiday season. Despite the increased adoption, the same report found that 49% of US consumers still don't use any type of voice assistant. 

 Anaele Pelisson/Business Insider

  

Get the latest Google stock price here.

Original author: Caroline Cakebread