6′ 4″ Laker guard Shannon Brown has become a fan favorite for his athletic and emphatic dunks. He’s a true high fly act; some say he has the highest vertical leap in the NBA.
The Lakers organization did the smart thing and backed a viral campaign designed to get Shannon into this year’s Sprite Slam Dunk Competition:
It worked. Today the NBA announced Shannon will be joining Nate Robinson, Gerald Wallace, Demar DeRozan, and Eric Gordon in Dallas.
The lesson? Your brand culture isn’t just about your stars. It’s about your role players too.
“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., American Civil Rights Leader, in Strength To Love
“A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world.”
Charles Dickens (as Scrooge), English Author, in A Christmas Carol
Our hands-down favorite desktop pastime this year:
Natten går tunga fjät, runt gård och stuga.
Kring jord som sol’n förlät, skuggorna ruva.
Då i vårt mörka hus, stiga med tända ljus,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.Natten var stor och stum. Nu hör det svingar,
i alla tysta rum, sus som av vingar.
Se på vår tröskel står vitkläd, med ljus i hår,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.Mörkret skall flykta snart ur jordens dalar.
Så hon ett underbart ord till oss talar.
Dagen skall åter ny, stiga ur rosig sky,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
Raply Waldo Emerson, American Poet
With Apple’s help, Disney is rethinking its retail presence:
Disney Stores, which the media giant is considering rebranding Imagination Park, will become more akin to cozy entertainment hubs. The chain’s traditional approach of displaying row after row of toys and apparel geared to Disney franchises will be given a high-tech makeover and incorporated into a new array of recreational activities. The goal is to make children clamor to visit the stores and stay longer, perhaps bolstering sales as a result. Over the next five years, analysts estimate that Disney will spend about $1 million a store to redecorate, reorganize and install interactive technology.
Harvard’s Mary Tripsas stresses the importance of categories:
GLANCE through a photo album of early automobiles and you’ll find an eclectic assortment of vehicles, including three-wheeled machines and bicycle-like contraptions. You’d be hard-pressed to identify many as cars.
Early consumers were confused, too, until innovators finally converged on a carriage-like design and coined the term “horseless carriage” in the 1890s, giving a clear point of comparison. More than 100 years later, we can learn from their example.
Jeff Klein knows that a hotel is more than a destination:
A New York society brat turned serious hotelier and restaurateur, Mr. Klein, 39, bought the Sunset Tower in 2004 and has transformed it partly by throwing out the handbook of how entertainment industry haunts are managed, especially in Los Angeles. A ban on media leaks about boldface business deals or celebrity frolicking is strictly enforced. Mr. Klein is also very careful about curating a clientele.
“De réir a chéile a thógtar na caisleáin.” | “It takes time to build castles.”
Irish Proverb