Happy Friday! I have had a 3 day week this week and it was great. In Japan, Microsoft to be specific are testing out 3 day weekends and productivity has increased 40%, imagine being more focused and it working as you are all pulling for the same goals in less time 😉(If you’d like to pitch working 4day weeks, here’s a popular Medium article)

Have you seen the Google drawing game? (Here is an alternative version using their tech) Let me know what you think it is…

Anyways, onto the real reason why you are here…

🔥The Must-Reads Of The Week 🔥

1. Talk like TED: ⏯ The Must Watch TED Talks

2. Leader: 💪 vs 🤗: Challenging what makes a great leader

3. Screen time: 📲 The six apps Google have released to help you manage your time and screen time —> On the other hand, Canada 🇨🇦 is allowing their Google-powered smart city to go ahead but there are obvious question marks over data collection I know I wouldn’t want to live in somewhere like this but many will see a positive, is this the future or too controlling, I suppose we will find out.

4. Hmm 🕵️‍♀️: Vice uncovered Wayfair’s risky tactic of calling a customer who is browsing their site This isn’t the first time this has happened and will continue to happen when marked as a concierge service. What do you think it is ok? Or is it a massive no-no?

5. Emoji 😲 How emojis are created, submitted and approved for us to use

6. Kids these days 🇫🇷 Why old is new and cool again, why Paris’ Galeries Lafayette is attracting younger shoppers than ever before ⦿ Livestreaming Shopping 🛒: QVC might not be cool but it’s inspiring a how new generation of clothes shopping⦿ Influence: Here is a longread into the cultural influence of the hair scrunchie and it’s significance in 2019 (Thanks VSCO 🤭)

7. Birdseye ❄️: Why frozen food industry is booming 

8. Growth 🚀 : Ever wanted to know how some of the most successful companies got their growth from for their first million users?

9. Strategy 💯 : How WeChat was built on vision (and a work of art not just a Product) - I’m a big fan of WeChat (as a platform full of useful features not of their reporting on individuals) and what they have achieved and now they led the Chinese mobile revolution. FWIW In 🇨🇳, many didn’t have access to a desktop and the internet skipped whole generations. If you are in Marketing or Product go take a look at WeChat and their ecosystem. Here is a good read.

10. 📚 The must-read Business books 📚

11. Help Yourself👏 The simple guides & matrixes that will help improve your day

12. Live 🙌 YouTube News: they have rolled out super stickers for chat to earn creators more money. & Pregnancy videos especially waters breaking are becoming insanely popular 

13. Smart💄How & why the beauty industry is taking personalisation to the next level thanks to inspiration from 23andme

14. 5G ✏️: Why design yes design is likely to make or break 5G adoption 

15. ⁉️What Group? Whatsapp now finally allows you to filter and choose which groups you are added to in real-time

16. 🍔 Ad? Uber Eats is looking to add ads in-app to create a sustainable business This isn’t new and something Just Eat and many other companies in the marketplace models offer, but is interesting how quickly Uber has entered this space 

17. Alexa 💬 Alexa is 5, although pretty much the market leader, why is it still so basic? 

18. Two ugly sides of going viral 🦠:  How a misleading story about a Political leader’s husband went viralHow the promise of fame is haunting college kids 

💡 What a great idea 💡

❤️ Work Culture ❤️

Culture is always popular on the Must Read Newsletter so here are a handful of good reads from this week: ⦿ Surviving disengaging workplaces⦿ Netflix was always famous for its culture, but it might well be too cutthroat, does supporting colleagues mean weakness?⦿ Uber “Entrepreneurship fuels the work that we do ⦿ Simon Sinek - How do you learn the infinite mindset

💲Business 💲

How a milk alternative became such an empire and ran those anti ads

Thanks for reading this weeks newsletter, changing it up a bit, I will leave you with a quote this week:

Disclaimer: All views are my own, until you go onto the articles.