are you ready to form voltron? (june 2010)

Boulder Digital WorksEvolve!

Are You Ready to Form Voltron?

A 10-minute presentation, June 7 2010Art Directors Club, Internet Week, New York

© BBH New York, June 2010. Licensed under CC. Some rights reserved.

Ben Malbon

Executive Director of Innovation, BBH New YorkFounding Partner, BBH Labs

T-shaped people.And why they’re important.

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How Commander Keith, Pidge, Lance, Sven & Hunk . . .

. . . transmute into Voltron

For us, it’s not about ‘being digital’.It’s about being integrated.

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Being integrated means ‘getting’ digital.And ‘getting’ digital is as much about new behaviors as new skills.

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What we produce has evolved.

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What we produce has evolved.And so how we produce it also needs to evolve.

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‘Then’

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Now‘Then’

MEDIA

PRODUCTION

CREATIVE

STRATEGY

TECHNOLOGY

OUTSIDE COLLABORATORS

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Now‘Then’

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© BBH LLC & Made By Many Ltd Licensed under CC

Some rights reserved

Now‘Then’

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This requires an evolved set of resources.

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We need people fluent in at least one language. But literate in many.

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We need T-shaped people.

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AW

ES

OM

E

COLLABORATIVE

AR

EA

OF A

WE

SO

ME

NE

SS

:C

OR

E S

KILL A

S C

ON

TR

IBU

TIO

N

TO

CR

EAT

IVE

PR

OC

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APPETITE FOR COLLABORATION:LITERACY & ENTHUSIASM FOR OTHER DISCIPLINES; EMPATHY

How do you know when you’re looking at a T-shaped person?Well, a resume or portfolio is not enough.

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Me

Big: 1+1=2

I can teach

Linear

Closed

We Better: 1+1=3

I can learn

Networked

Open

T-shapedI-shaped

T-shaped people are not enough on their own.They need the right operating system in place to run effectively.

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Operating system not ready?Then even the best software will fail.

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(Note: this is the part that most agencies forget.Busy hiring in awesome people, but running on old OS.)

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© BBH LLC & Made By Many Ltd Licensed under CC

Some rights reserved

Think: what’s your plan for Forming Voltron?It had better be *at least* this good . . .

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Thank you

ben.malbon@bbh-labs.comhttp://bbh-labs.com @BBHLabs@malbonningtonhttp://bdw.colorado.edu/@bdwcu 27