is a New Zealand innovation award winner, social entrepreneur and holds a number of company directorships. He has gained success through a variety of ventures, encompassing education, ethnic communications, and international distribution of technology. Travis dropped out of high school, saying a system that measured memory rather than critical thinking and application of knowledge did not work for him. He gained a non-traditional education consisting of mentoring from several of New Zealand’s finest business leaders and learning from a number of the best minds on the planet, including lessons from Peter Drucker, Al Reis, Jack Trout, Richard Branson, Jim Collins, Dale Carnegie, Anthony Robbins, and Jack Welch. Travis was born into poverty in Cannons Creek, Wellington. He experienced considerable hardship during his childhood, including living in an overcrowded house with a couch as a bed, in a benefit-dependant family, having to grow their own food as a result of poverty, and surrounded by a multitude of other social ills. These experiences taught him to be self sufficient through hard work and are why he is motivated to help others.
Paul Brest visits Google to present his book "Money Well Spent: A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy".
This event took place on July 14, 2009, as part of the Authors@Google series.
Why you should listen to Paul Breast? It's good to give a little something back. If you plan or care about a social investment, Paul Brest and Hal Harvey's book can advise you on how to develop a strategy to ensure that your money is well spent. It addresses potential and practising donors eager to know how to improve the effect of their philanthropic activities. And, with its clear view on how to strategically approach a philanthropic mission and an abundance of insights and examples from the experience of two philanthropy professionals, it does so successfully.
While there have been seminal contributions on philanthropy and strategic giving in recent years (for example by Peter Frumkin and Joel Fleishman), Brest and Harvey set out to boil this thinking down to practice, doing for philanthropists what books on business strategy do for business entrepreneurs and executives. They cover the whole range of strategic social investment, introducing readers to the pertinent topics and terminology of the field like theory of change and logic models, programme-related investments and the SROI concept, and the eternal questions surrounding social impact measurement.
Their presentation is engaging, too. For example, they present a three-dimensional model for categorizing philanthropic goals and go on to talk about 'philanthropy in the small cube' (addressing short-term, small-scale problems that affect people's quality of life) and 'philanthropy in the big cube' (the fight against long-term, life-threatening and global problems). They also invent Sally Holder, president of a hypothetical medium-sized foundation, and invite the reader to share a day in her life.
The authors discuss key issues (like specifying goals and tracking progress) repeatedly and from different perspectives, giving examples and discussing pitfalls. Reading all or only part of the book, therefore, the potential donor will gain both knowledge of, and a good feeling for, what really matters in strategic philanthropy.
Chris Anderson, the editor of WIRED, explores the four key stages of any viable technology: setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and, finally, becoming ubiquitous.
Before Chris Anderson took over as editor of WIRED, he spent seven years at The Economist, where he worked as editor of both the technology and business sections. Anderson holds a degree in physics and has conducted research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and has done stints at the leading journals Nature and Science.
(He is not, however, to be confused with the curator of TED, who has the same name.) He's perhaps most famous for coining the term "the long tail," a whiteboard favorite that describes the business strategy of pursuing many little fish (versus a few big fish), as typified by both Amazon and Netflix.
Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable slideshow on the real secrets of success.
Richard St. John knew how he had found success -- through his marketing company, the St. John Group, which boasted clients like Nortel and BlackBerry/Research in Motion.
But he couldn't get away from the question: Why him? He thinks of himself as an average guy, not talented at school, not terribly handsome or particularly lucky. So he spent more than a decade interviewing 500 people he defines as successful -- from architect Frank Gehry to non-celebrities successful in their own lives.
The resulting book, Spike's Guide to Success: Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and RICH, has spawned a new avenue of success for St. John as a motivational speaker and talk-show star. His newest book is 8 to Be Great: The 8 Traits that Lead to Great Success.
Richard Branson about the ups and the downs of his career, from his multibillionaire success to his multiple near-death experiences -- and reveals some of his (very surprising) motivations.
Richard Branson bootstrapped his way from record-shop owner to head of the Virgin empire. Now he's focusing his boundless energy on saving our environment.
Thinking out of the box isn't enough. Leading executive coaches, Marshall Goldsmith and Steven Berglas, talk about entrepreneurs as "socialized juvenile delinquents" who can make a real difference within their corporations
How small employers can keep the best. Leadership consultant Sheryl Spanier talks about dealing with fear in the workplace, locating the right hires, and keeping top talent engaged.
Liberty Mutual does the right thing. Liberty Mutual's Steven Sullivan talks about how the insurer's message of "doing the right thing" struck a chord with employees and customers.
Swapping Services. We take a look at bartering-trading one service for another. Craiglist.com says barter listings have doubled in the past 12 months. We talk to some barterers and look at tax implications.
Innovation and design expert Paul Bennett, chief creative officer of IDEO, presents inspiring examples that show it's hip to be happy and that playful can be profitable. You'll learn how you can use collaboration, creativity, and experimentation to meet the increasing need for products and services that deliver real help for customers.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results......
While there have been seminal contributions on philanthropy and strategic giving in recent years (for example by Peter Frumkin and Joel Fleishman), Brest and Harvey set out to boil this thinking down to practice, doing for philanthropists what books on business strategy do for business entrepreneurs and executives. They cover the whole range of strategic social investment, introducing readers to the pertinent topics and terminology of the field like theory of change and logic models, programme-related investments and the SROI concept, and the eternal questions surrounding social impact measurement.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tUKS1yQI8l2KNvHYjSeOF_hvaEqJmiLrGdnfaUKxg06CE6C_nr20osj2zWs8YvvzEkinjcGue6HRsDWtY74v3XOBtJCYDBQzJYfavB7EWlyT_6tbNn9QdrhIdBnrqd8M3AkYXJHKejHkhUThGAfOtJ=s0-d)
