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Despite their recent troubles and exit of embattled CEO Travis Kalanick – the rise of Uber is one of the undeniable success stories from Silicon Valley. This week co-founder Garrett Camp shared the original Uber pitch deck from when the company was just a concept seeking funding. Although it is just 25 poorly designed, the … Read more
As the highly anticipated solar eclipse approaches, there are plenty of towns and brands finding creative ways to cash in. Chiquita created a humorous video about the impending “Banana Sun,” there are “eclipse chasing” flights selling for $10,000 and Krispy Kreme even created an “eclipse donut.” This article takes a deeper look at the windfall that seems to be approaching small … Read more
A new survey shows that jobs outside of Wall Street are increasingly being preferred by MBA graduates as just 19% of respondents selected Wall Street as their top employment choice – a drop of 7 percent from last year and the lowest level in the 8 year history of the survey. While the survey only … Read more
Back when I worked in the agency world, I remember the angst every time an unreasonable demand came in from a client without a “proper” brief. Rather than try to change this sad reality of last minute requests (or complain about it behind the client’s back), “The Backscratchers” agency have created a model that embraces … Read more
As investing in robotics takes off, this story about what VCs and investors look for has a valuable insight as shared by investor Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital: “what I recommend in two words is: make magic … when we feel that we’ve seen something that nobody else has seen, that we’ve seen something that … Read more
The tenure of most Chief Marketing Officers is woefully short, but this fact is often dismissed as a symptom of changing leadership or sometimes ineffective results. New research points to the fact that CMOs often suffer from vaguely defined job responsibilities and confusion between whether more strategic thinking or focus on commercialization (or a hybrid) … Read more
The more technology gets baked into things that we once enjoyed in simpler formats ,the more people will choose to “Strategically Downgrade.” Many farmers, for example, have turned to new ways of hacking the software on their tractors themselves. Now there is a new tool, from the same hacker that famously hacked the iPhone when he … Read more
Inventions are fun and world changing … but sometimes they are also dumb and head-scratching. In this week’s email, I’ll share a few of both. You’ll read stories about Intel’s secret plan, the future of aquaculture and perhaps the most gratuitously pointless product ever. Some of these inventions may be ahead of their time and … Read more
The stories this week offer a valuable reminder that while we tend to focus a lot of our attention on looking forward toward the future, there can be a beautiful resonance that comes from looking in the other direction from time to time. Kodak brings back film, the ultimate “device like no other” from a … Read more
Given it is the end of the year, this week’s stories include several holiday themes, including an inside look at the PR strategy behind Hatchimals, a great strategic idea from Hasbro UK and an app designed to reduce food wastage. Other stories I selected this week include Amazon revealing its bold ambitions to transform the … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my latest book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - relesaed 10/01/2024.
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of ten books.
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In addition to Non-Obvious Thinking, Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.
