Must Reads 265

>> Critical Distance

Good Morning Must Readers, this week’s newsletter includes the following important themes:

  • IP Theft & What it actually means today and tomorrow

  • Better Leadership 

  • VR & new use cases (until its replaced by AR)

  • 4 Day Work Weeks Vs 5 Shorter

  • Chinese App Power & Why the new TikTok ban is so important

>> Critical Distance 👩‍💼 - How important getting time to think and stepping back or stepping out actually is to improve you as a professional and as a leader.

>> IP Theft & Coca-Cola 🥤 - A story on how important the Coca-Cola soda can lining is so vital to their drink and how IP theft got caught in China. Be aware that cloud storage and USB pens are still being used to take documents out of companies and people still haven’t learnt you can’t email everything to your personal account. In the future with AI I am sure this will be addressed or worried about less.

++ Trivia Time ++ Which Babies names were the most popular in the 🇺🇸? Girls (A) Olivia (B) Emma (C) Charlotte — Boys (A) Noah (B) Elijah (C) Liam

>> VR Use Cases 👓 - VR struggles with use cases but helping old people being more connected and active is not one I had on my list but its great to see these types of tests happening, especially with those who will want to embrace different.

>> Tesla x Advertising 🤣- Elon Musk has relied on his PR, his worshippers and Tesla superfans to promote Tesla for free. The issue is now it’s caught up with Tesla with other EV manufactures reducing the gap with tech and offering different EV features. Musk might just learn that pay-to-play (aka advertising) might be a critical way to grow Tesla and importantly revive Twitter away from his PR antics and confusing strategy in general.

» Related Read: Uber Utility Battle 🚕 - Uber had its best quarter last quarter whilst other competitors struggle. Uber have introduced ad services (like so many others serving ads to supplement their prices & retention issues) and bespoke services. Uber’s biggest battle isn’t the prices anymore its 3 fold, (1) being able to service us with taxis (in London its impossible to get one)
(2) being able to serve more locations &
(3) increase repeat usage by retaining users.
Introducing more products and services often helps others but when your aspiration is to become the Western super app you need to be the app you select for almost everything not just when you want to travel and eat.

>> 4 Days A Week ➕- Buffer is a social media tools company, they are well known for flipping the script on working styles and breaking the norms, they have recently compiled their report on their 3 year ~ 4 day a week test and had some positive results including 99.1% are less stressed. Interestingly 70%+ has suggested five shorter days might be an option for the future work day. As we look for more positive examples of different ways of working, we will likely see more attempt the 4 day work week, but like with hybrid, those who are underprepared (and don’t do their full homework) and disconnected with their teams will ultimately fail and “return to normal” 🤷 

>> Chinese Apps Raise 📲 - Chinese apps are dominating the global charts with the most downloads across both Android and iOS device. One reason is they have tapped into the culture and created apps that enable anyone to create easily or consume more easily & more quickly. In China you cannot operate without a specific approved licence - this is one reason why so companies and governments struggle to get to grips with the influence these app makers can have. While Chinese companies cannot create an operating system to compete these companies are demonstrating how important understanding users are and how to monetise in foreign markets.

» Related Read: TikTok is now banned Montana, Montana (state) have told Apple and Google to drop TikTok from their app stores and for every day the penalty they would have to pay is $10,000-per-day. Expect other states and countries to attempt to follow this.

Heniz Sauce Remix Machine

>> FMCG Reeemiixxxx - One of my favourite inventions is the Coca Cola freestyle machines, you pick your flavour or custom flavour coke. Heinz have been inspired and launched their remix product to have 200 custom flavours. I predict many other companies are going to look at creating a remix or pick your own / pic-n-mix approach where customers have their chance to own it and then share it across social media etc. These machines aren’t cheap but scaleable and gives personalised experiences were others just won’t.

++ Trivia Answers ++ - For Girls (A) Olivia & (C) Liam. Apparently, Yellowstone (which is brilliant btw) influenced the most popular names in US here are the rest of the top 10 most popular names.

>> Why Helping Men Is So Challenging 😔 - Not surprisingly it is down to the pressure of society and how we are taught when we are  

>> Living Under Water? 🌊 - A professor broke a record for living underwater recently, one thing many are considering is, is the sea an alternative to space. With the size of the ocean and the opportunities underneath it  

Thanks and have a great week,

Danny Denhard

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