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Neat short film I found from Germany that discusses carbon footprints. The original description says, “One of the three winners of the Germanwatch screenplay competition about Climate Justice. In this four-minute movie produced by Peter Wedel the CO2 intensive lifestyle of an urban dweller (played by Benno Fürmann) is put in contrast to the people in developing countries which are affected most by Climate Change. Further information on this topic: www.germanwatch.org”

As quoted from their blog:

The Bootcamp Bootleg is intended for people who’ve already had an introduction to design thinking, but who need some refreshers as they head out to tackle real-world challenges. The teaching team curated the collection by leveraging the work of many predecessors, drawing from material developed by d.school teaching teams and folks throughout the design world over the last five years.

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hat tip to designsojourn

& Practices Guide from Stanford Design School" class="sociable-hovers" />

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From the Nokia Conversations blog, comes this great piece of creative that tells the company’s sustainability story in Beijing. The film style has a journalistic feel to it; for some reason to me, reminiscent of the BBC. If Nokia were to make similar videos throughout its global operations, it could have a nice library of stories that communicate the values of its brand.

This type of storytelling is what we call in German “die Oberfläche”, and is meant as a gentle snapshot of a company’s operations without much detail. For reporting purposes, it serves as an excellent tool when looking closer at specific markets (in this case). For an extreme example of video reporting done well on a budget, see this HKBN CSR Report.

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From French automaker Renault comes this great piece of creative that goes through what cars have provided us over time, asks some social critical questions, then elaborates on the values of the company before gently introducing its upcoming range of electric vehicles.

What I love is how they (or rather the agency responsible), has been able to combine these different topics together into a flowing narrative that, while promoting its upcoming electric vehicles, isn’t pushing a green or eco theme. It’s focused on people and values, things which the mainstream public can relate to.

Now if only Ford can also weave together a similar concise message.

via Futerra

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From my Singaporean pal Brian Ling over at Design Sojourn, comes a set of design strategies he put together for a presentation. While there are some familiar themes regarding customization, usability, crowdsourcing, and designing to communicate an idea, there are also a few notable ones including Haptic Relationships or “high-touch electronics”. I particularly like this strategy because it involves applying usability principles in interfaces conducive to human movement and touch. The Nintendo Wii applied this to gaming in such a way that made total intuitive sense.

I also like using beautiful materials as a strategy. Foremost this is differentiation tactic that when applied to a line, will make it premium. Applied to an entire brand, it’s also likely to become premium in comparison to other brands, although I don’t necessarily think it has to be. What we’re talking about is standing out and looking great - no matter the material cost. Apple notebooks are either white plastic or matte aluminum. Nothing too fancy there, but they sure stand out!

Do you have a favorite strategy or one to add?

I found this chart by Ethical Corporation to be an interesting segmentation of disciplines in sustainability and CSR

Now although individuals obviously specialize in specific areas, there’s two job types that need an exposure to and basic knowledge of all: chief officers and communications professionals.

via Perrine Bouhana

& CSR Career Skillsets & Competencies" class="sociable-hovers" />

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Christina Wodtke speaks at Interaction 09 on defaults, sharing mechanisms, updates, notifications and even SEO as holistic elements of a viral system that is currently driving the popularity of social networks and social media successes everywhere. Over the last three years she’s been working on understanding social collaborative behavior and viral loops, and asserts that interaction design is key to an applications ability to promote itself.  Additionally, she speaks on the underpinnings needed to devise a successful social system as well, touching on identity, reputation, and relationships in digital communities.

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Some interesting ideas by Roger Martin here on how management education can be improved. First he mentions in his assessment of the MBA that most programs tend to be very shallow versus deep. Students are taught a variety of models, theories, and approaches but what remains unexperienced is the ability to decide which should be applied to a particular circumstance. Roger is rightly critical of standardized approaches when he discusses an financial options valuation formula that is applied to every conceivable options type.

Second, he discusses how MBA programs teach subjects individually with very little overlap of other disciplines. This narrow versus broad approach doesn’t allow for people to appreciate how other business functions can have an impact. Also, the philosophical approach of current management education is based on looking after one self, reminiscent of Milton Friedman’s ideas on business’ responsibility. Very true. Ethics, CSR, and Sustainability are definitely elective courses. Shouldn’t social and environmental values in addition to self-interest be integrated into all courses? Beyond what’s merely lawful or customary. What about having courses on other kinds of business models like social enterprises and entrepreneurships?

Lastly, he criticizes the approach of having students analyzing the here and now, then choosing among a set of existing options. Thereupon people are called to calculate the internal rate of return, forecast probability based on past data, and things of the like. In other words, students aren’t being challenged to imagine and create new options. Ultimately we should be more dynamic versus static-oriented.

He goes on to describe how management education can be improved by becoming more deep, broad, and dynamic. By going beyond inductive and deductive logic which refine and hone that which exists, to incorporating abductive logic which explores what can be.

Enter Design Thinking, a balanced orientation to administering business by being analytical (seeking 100% reliability on one end), and intuitive (seeking 100% validity on the other). And that’s how management education should be taught

Normally I stay away from stories about politics and business. It’s just not my thing to delve into speculation about collusion and conspiracy. So when I  had picked up John Perkins book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, it was under my impression that I’d delve into some wild ride on corporate espionage, theft, bribery, and the like. What I left though with was a unique historical perspective of American modern imperialism and subjugation through international finance and economic development.

John explains his history of becoming an economic hit man - officially he was an economic adviser - working for a private firm in the 70s, that saw him travel to Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other countries where he made inflated economic growth predictions and drew up loan proposals to international development banks, upon approval whereby American engineering and construction firms would receive contracts. However, the underlying strategy was to get these countries so far into debt that when they defaulted, concessions were given such as natural resource mining/drilling rights.

What I ended up with was an expanded and critical view of how international development can maliciously be favored toward one country’s political and business interests. There is no conspiracy, it’s a systemic problem at a macroeconomic, social, and environmental scale (triple bottom line). In reading the book, one can see parallels in understanding how and why China for example, is now operating in a very similar fashion in Africa.

Sustainability operates on a macro scale as well, which for most of us is quite difficult to comprehend since we work in the limited business and geographic spheres we do. The difference that we can make is continuing to live lighter, consume less, volunteer, and spread the word to others on the benefits of doing so. I’m an optimist that people and business can be positive change agents abiding by principles of equity and justice.

If you’re interested in a two part video interview with John (in lieu of reading the book), see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GhXsx7-Rs

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Produced by Xplane for an Economist magazine conference in November, this video brings together a variety of facts and figures around climate change using animation and music, in what I can only call a creative confluence of hope and a subtle call to action.

- via Cool Infographics