Do more than accept diversity: Seek out diversity. I promise it will make you more interesting, more informed, and more understanding. | | | | An East German "romeo" agent infiltrates the west in Deutschland 83 (and 86). If you liked "The Americans" then you'll dig this. And the 80's soundtrack is killer.
(FremantleMedia International) | | | | |  | “Do more than accept diversity: Seek out diversity. I promise it will make you more interesting, more informed, and more understanding.”
| - | Mellody Hobson, great life and business advice |
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| | rantnrave:// Happy VALENTINE’S DAY! Make sure you hug, kiss and appreciate your wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, theyfriend or partner. Remembering that the two halves are better as whole. Recall why you’re together. Outside of the romantic part of the day, and because this is MEDIAREDEF, I tend to think in terms of M&A. The combination of two companies so that the union can be bigger and better. We're going to see a lot of this in the big media space in the next few years as scale is necessary, especially in the OTT direct-to-consumer race. When two companies merge sometimes it’s in the same sector, sometimes different ones. Content and content. Content and distribution. Media and tech. Really any industry combo. Traditionally different cultures. Often, when these unions fail, they fail because of mistakes made in the integration phase. Largely around communication, respect, and culture. Here are just a few some pro-tips for a successful relationship. Don’t assume the company you’re buying, even in a troubled sector, is full of executives that didn’t know what they were doing. If you spend the time, you’ll find there were reasons for everything. Get to know your new family. Go to dinner or lunch. Get to know what makes them tick. Respect their differences. Media is a creative and relationship culture. A people culture. Artists are trusting you with their dreams. And the executives themselves are talent. Sometimes thinking is different at a technology or platform company. Sometimes similar. No better or worse, just different. Try not to call your new partners “you people.” Consult them before you make changes or announcements. Celebrate what made them successful. If they think, talk and look different than you, embrace that diversity. It’s just good business. If compensation is different between sectors that’s not a personal affront to you. Sometimes when this happens the employee makes more than the boss. Check your ego at the door. Your enemies are outside the gates. Don’t create them within. Encourage debate. Sometimes conglomerates were run efficiently by having divisions compete. In the race for scale, that may not be the best way to do things anymore. But understand where those executives came from. If you are in a top-down culture, don’t negate a bottom-up one. Sometimes power can dull perspective. The hungry see more clearly. But if you just spent $5-10-25-50-100-200 billion or whatever, proceed with care. Failure should not happen at integration. It's amazing to me how much destruction to assets can happen in the first 1-2 quarters after the deal is closed. I could go on and on... STARBUCKS' HOWARD SCHULTZ may make a great cup of coffee, but in the political arena, he's spilling a hot cup on himself daily. His latest quotable? "I honestly don’t see color now." You live in AMERICA and you don't see color? Then you're f***ing blind. It's a misguided and insulting phrase. I point you once again to my pal MELLODY HOBSON's TED TALK "Color blind or color brave?"... Instead of flowers, I got you some amazing collections of oral histories. And I got my girl these kicks... Who knew that all the “pot” CHEECH & CHONG blazed in “UP IN SMOKE” was actually lettuce? Or that 20 years ago, it was considered too expensive to create “BLACK PANTHER's WAKANDA onscreen? Or that a note from RICHARD PRYOR saved one of the funniest scenes in “ANIMAL HOUSE” from the cutting room floor? All this and more from the making of some modern classics. REDEF MediaSET: "Movie Oral Histories, Vol. 6"... What if SNOOKI had finished her veterinary classes instead of hanging out at the JERSEY SHORE? And what if BOB NEWHART had been a school principal instead of a psychologist? Or if the feud between the EWINGS and the BARNSES had been set in HOUSTON instead of DALLAS? The men and women behind some of your favorite shows reveal what could have been. REDEF MediaSET: "TV Show Oral Histories: Season Seven"... Happy Birthday to LEE SOLOMON, LIZ GATELEY, JARA SHAPIRO, FRED SALKIND, ANGELO SOTIRA, DOUGLAS ALDEN, ROBERT ROSENBERG, and AMIT SHAFRIR. | | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator |
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 | Topic |
| All over the country, there are people who can’t stop spending money on state-run lotteries--and their states are doing almost nothing to help them. | | |
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 | Stratechery |
| Apple is, according to the Wall Street Journal, driving a hard bargain with publishers ahead of the launch of its rumored News subscription service: Apple Inc.'s plan to create a subscription service for news is running into resistance from major publishers over the tech giant's proposed financial terms, according to people familiar with the situation, complicating an initiative that is part of the company's efforts to offset slowing iPhone sales. | | |
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 | Aspen Ideas Festival |
| Today race is a more prominent and intransigent problem than ever. Writers Jelani Cobb and Wajahat Ali examine issues like identity politics, the Travel Ban, a wall on the southern border, and Black Lives Matter. | | |
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 | The Verge |
| "Using innovation to improve equity is what brings it all together." | | |
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 | The Daily Beast |
| College fraternities give men a comfort zone, but the author of a new book on frats says that does not have to mean that the Greek system encourages or condones terrible behavior. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| Alden Global Capital says it is saving newspapers. Records show its subsidiaries are profiting from the remnants of their demise. | | |
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 | Knowable Magazine |
| Retirement is a time for spending, not saving. And yet many people hold on to their wealth. Understanding why, and where that money ends up, is of increasing importance as the US population ages. | | |
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 | The Miami Herald |
| In the United States, suicide takes more lives than car accidents, more firefighters than fire and more policemen than crime. | | |
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 | recode |
| O’Connor thinks we’ll get a federal privacy bill this year. But she’s more concerned about the future of free speech on the internet. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Computer programming once had much better gender balance than it does today. What went wrong? | | |
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 | Both Sides of the Table |
| Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. What gives? | | |
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 | Wired UK |
| Right now, children are filming themselves chewing, whispering and tapping to give their adult audience an ASMR buzz. | | |
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 | The Intercept |
| "The Intercept" has uncovered a pattern of official harassment aimed at journalists covering migrant caravans in Mexico, as well as attorneys and activists. | | |
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 | Bloomberg Businessweek |
| Cheap stick framing has led to a proliferation of blocky, forgettable mid-rises--and more than a few construction fires. | | |
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 | The Muse |
| After a particularly lackluster 2018 VMAs, so sleep-inducing that the big opening number was the former Vine-turned-pop star Shawn Mendes, New Yorker critic Doreen St. Felix commented that “the first true post-millennial V.M.A.s, was so bereft of shock, sex, and offense that it seemed barely to register.” | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| One man's opinion on the best (and worst) fast food French fries. | | |
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 | Kotaku |
| Yesterday, at the exact moment Activision Blizzard chief executive officer Bobby Kotick hopped on a quarterly earnings call to inform shareholders that his company had just gone through a "record year," employees across the publisher of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and more were being brought into conference rooms and informed that they were losing their jobs. | | |
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 | Foreign Policy |
| It’s no accident that a growing number of comedians around the world are running for office--and winning. | | |
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 | New Republic |
| The videos were supposed to lead to reform. What happened? | | |
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 | Advertising Age |
| TrueX could help Walt Disney reimagine TV advertising. | | |
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 | Slate |
| What will the data giant really harvest from the international food relief agency? | | |
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 | Lawfare |
| The prospect of meaningful change in Iran forever lies somewhere between unthinkable and inevitable. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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| © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group |
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