Good Morning Friends! 

Thanks again for opening and reading Must Read this week! 

Newsletter #238 has ten hand-curated must reads stories with my insights and commentary, this week's newsletter includes these 5 standouts: (1) Resse Witherspoon's brilliant reengineering of Hollywood, (2) different trends that catch on (3) be inspired by donut distribution (4) why Zoom is after emails and calendars & (5) the need to slow down time when you get older.   

Must Read Stories Of The Week

Work Must Reads 

> The Reese Witherspoon Loop 🔂 - A good explainer of how businesswoman (actress, producer ++) Reese Witherspoon reengineered how Hollywood worked to sell her business for $900m. When you know how the system works, you can reimagine how you can leverage the tools and the system. 

> 5 Leadership Lessons - Learn 5 essential lessons from agency leader & Must Reader Paddy Moogan Look out for: "If I could make the argument over remote / hybrid / office working go away overnight, I would!"

> Black Gloves = Quality Food 🤨- Trends are always odd, especially when they pick up momentum from creators (remember the 25% rule in effect) videos featuring black gloves are taking over and it is signalling quality (Salt Bae to blame maybe). FWIW Barbers had the same trend a few years ago and it started to become somewhat normal. 

> How Strategy Outsmarts Competition 👏 - Crocs and Krispy Kreme have approached business very differently over the last few years but both have been strategically very smart, focusing on core product extension (not going after huge lines of expansion) and distribution. Brands that know who they are and what they are (and who and what they are NOT) typically win the long-term battle with this guiding pillar. Related Read >> know the difference between vision, mission, strategy and tactics 

> Data Play 🤖 - While the obvious play for most internet companies is to move to logistics and data, very few actually make it useful. Instacart has been on a transition under Fidji Simo and now wants to help grocers build their stores of the future while placing tech and food at the centre with her vision of Groceryssance. While offering delivery and insights to drive the love of their brand and their solutions. Hint: Watch many other European food delivery companies offer similar and compete with the large supermarkets with delivery and tech solutions. FWIW many other platforms included non-restaurant retailers to their platforms in a race for growth versus a race for pure play demand.

> Etiquette, Boundaries & Oversharing 👀- I have had this conversation regularly over the last couple of years, many people haven't been taught to understand boundaries and social and cultural etiquette and has led to a number of anti-social behaviours and people constantly oversharing: from speaker phone conversations to sharing their whole lives on social media stories and these are small examples that have created more friction than required. Yes, things change but let's help others learn what is acceptable and rewarded behaviours and which are "bad" behaviours. 

> KFC Pub 🤤? - KFC Delivery is operating in a pub in London for the World Cup where you can book and enjoy your favourite bucket. (You can book here) Smart concept that a few will take inspo from as pairing with experiences has been critical throughout the pandemic.

> Maps Battleground 🗺️ - Maps are a battleground most think Google won (coupled with the acquisition of Waze), well Apple, Amazon, delivery apps and now TomTom have different ideas on what the map is for, their latest take is to re-think the map and move away from data collection and ads to making maps better for usage not for advertising.

> Zoom Vs Office Vs Google Suite 📧 📆 📷 - In one of the worst-kept secrets zoom announced zoom mail (their email client) and zoom calendar (alongside their recent chat tool) to compete against the likes of Microsoft and Google Suite. Its a hugely competitive space so why go into this? Companies struggle to leave products that their staff now bring into the workplace, zoom, dropbox, slack and many others were seeded by their staff and then were mass adopted. With Zoom's security-first approach they might win over some IT teams but will it be better than years of conditioning with MS Office and the startup's email suite of choice GSuite? Unlikely but a few adopting these and modern features might just convince some to move. Remember the market is so large some market share is a huge bump in revenue.

FWIW The workspace market is ready for better tools not more small tools slightly improving a tiny feature, and building the best hybrid workspace where people meet effectively, collaborate and move projects and campaigns forward is going win.

Life Must Reads

> Tired Of Being Tired 💤? - A good guide on what to do to stop being tired and get some energy back

> Why Time Goes Quicker The Older You Get 🕰️ - Good read on why time flies the older you get, maybe its because we get used to appreciating the mundane and get comfortable with the boring. The older you get the more you look to slow down time is a favourite recent quote I heard and then tweaked from Professor Scott Galloway. 

⬇️ Want an uplifting mix? 🪩  A nice little upbeat mix of 70-00's tracks 👏 

Have a great weekend and if you want to chat about stories just hit reply 

Thanks, Danny Denhard