CoolGlobalBiz.comis a business blog by former USA Today reporter Edward Iwata and featured on GlobalPost.com(About and Commerce) and Alltop.com (Economics). CoolGlobalBiz.comexplores the nexus of business and culture, the cross-border fusion of the U.S. and world economies. Kingdoms rise and fall, cycles come and go, but the global economy still reigns. Companies evolve as borders dissolve. Markets merge, cultures and currencies converge. You say euro, I say peso / You say dinar, I say dollar. Cross-cultural executives and entrepreneurs are the mad innovators, the new arbiters of cool, and they're at the vanguard of the new business diversity, global-style. This transcends the Shakira-zation of the world, the ethnic flava of the month.
Every few generations, we're rocked by economic and cultural upheaval, from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Now we're at the cusp of another eye-popping epoch, an era of global innovation, integration and institutional change -- a cultural and money mashup unlike anything we've seen. The seasons are turning, turning. This ain't your Daddy's economy. The world: curved or flat? No matter, the convergence of business and culture won't wane. For better and worse, the new global order has arrived.
NOTE: This post on MC Hammer ran in October 2009. A month later, saw the 1980s' rap-and-pop icon at the Intel CEO Summit, an annual gathering of Intel-funded startup executives, in Orange County, California. Don't call them harem pants or parachute pants, he says. They're Hammer pants:
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, U.S.A. -- HammerTime is in real time, and still legit. If you don't follow tech news, you might not know that rapper MC Hammer is a serious social-media evangelist and Twitter freak (over 1 million followers at twitter.com/mchammer) who rivals actor Ashton Kutcher for digital savvy. Hammer hangs with legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors, including Marc Benioff,Ron Conway and Tim Draper. He appears at tech and biz events (Intel Capital, TechCrunch), and speaks at Harvard and Stanford. Last year, Hammer co-founded DanceJam.com, a social-networking dance site, with Flock entrepreneurs Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young, and he stars in the A&E reality show "HammerTime". Between things, he's retooling his Web site/blog, MCHammer.com, and he'll help Microsoft promote Xbox Live in November. Busy guy.
No doubt Hammer's got street cred in TechLand. He reminds me of Web evangelist and author Guy Kawasaki, a tough Hawaiian buddhahead who hasn't forgotten his roots either. Dabruddah from Honolulu and the Oaktown brother. I like that tag team. Beyond the old stereotypes of rappers, Hammer is a reverend and family man with wife and kids. And like Madonna and Bono, he's an artist with a conscience. Hammer gives back to his community, and his next CD will carry a strong humanitarian message, looking at homelessness, drunk driving and other social ills. Give the man credit. He rose from Oakland's mean streets to the heights of the entertainment field. While many would have given up, Hammer survived serious financial troubles in the 1990s and has found new acclaim today as an entrepreneur. (Although the Internal Revenue Service still is after him; see WSJ Blogs story and Hammer's denial, both below, that he owes back taxes.)
Like Michael Jackson, Hammer's global brand transcends borders. In the coming months, he's got concerts in Europe, Australia, Japan and elsewhere, and his music and Web 2.0 brand reach millions of fans abroad, including young trendsetters on the streets and in clubs. How does he do it? He thinks it's the continuity and positive nature of his message, and the universal appeal of music. (Real catchy and funky riffs don't hurt, either.) Hammer spoke recently on the branding power of Web 2.0 to corporate managers and executives at the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference at theArizona Biltmore. (See full conference coverage by the ANA Advertiser online magazine here.) Most companies are moving too slowly -- they need to do more than simply start Twitter accounts, he said. They must create trust, two-way communication and products tailored to many consumer groups. “To build brand awareness in social media is a lot easier than traditional marketing dollars,” Hammer said. “If it’s good enough for NASA (to use Facebook and Twitter) to say they found ice on Mars, it’s good enough for us to figure out where in our business models we can use and maximize and optimize social media.”
After his speech, business people mobbed Hammer as if he was Apple's Steve Jobs. The rapper graciously signed every autograph and posed for every photo. No rampant ego, no fawning entourage, no cooler-than-thou vibe. In an interview with CoolGlobalBiz, I asked Hammer how he handles his celebrityhood. "I've been doing this for more than 20 years," he said. "I'm an extrovert -- I feed off people's energy." Hammer looked happy when I told him I could tell he was an avid reader from the rhythm of his talk. "You picked up on that?" he said, grinning. "I subscribe to over 100 magazines and newspapers."
More than 140 characters from Hammer:
On using social media to globalize corporate brands: "Using social media globally -- especially for a brand that's already established, whether it's McDonald's or Coca-Cola -- is the opportunity to engage your consumers from anywhere, anytime. And it's all happening in real time. It's a real reality show. Companies used to stagger the releases (of products). It would come out in America, then four months later in Asia, then Europe. Now companies can roll out on a global basis, in real time, using social media as a key tool and component."
On reaching fansworldwide through tech tools: "Using social media, you can create, plant seeds and begin to market your product and interact with consumers. My tweets are being translated into Japanese currently. Imagine how that shortens the distance between me and fans that I have in Japan. I've done five or six shows in the Tokyo Dome, and all of the youth there were tweeting and texting and all of these things."
On social media for market research: "I've played arenas in Russia, Brazil, Europe . . . Social media was how the promoters knew there was a demand for me over there. They're following the tweets (of fans). They're very plugged into social media there. They said, "Hey, Hammer, can we get you over here?" And all of a sudden there's six, seven shows in March in Europe, and I'm going down to Australia next month. Social media is driving the conversation and creating the interest."
On building his brand, "the culture of Hammer": "There's a consistency in the message, in thinking of myself as a brand. I'm consistent in what I'm trying to communicate. Once you get the template, the blueprint, you launch the Hammer brand the same way you launch (Microsoft's) Xbox. You go in and create awareness . . . and you use the same template on a global basis, keeping in mind you still have to finetune it. Music is a global language. It's a social language that connects and creates interaction. When you add social media to a local language or culture, that's a powerful combo."
On the estimated global value of his brand: "All things considered -- the albums, the videos, the books, the memorabilia, the Hammer signatures, the Hammer pants, the t-shirts, the name 'MC Hammer,' all the commercials that use "U Can't Touch This," the culture of Hammer and its positivity and spirituality -- the value of all that going forward is a billion dollars, and I say that conservatively. My brand is 20 years old and has already reached over 1 billion people around the world. If you had Google news alerts on me, it would be 24 hours, non-stop."
DIVERSITYINC., THE MEDIA firm that studies diversity in the business world, yesterday announced its annual Top 50 Companies for Diversity in the United States. The top five: Sodexo,Johnson & Johnson,AT&T,Kaiser Permanente,and Ernst & Young. Most companies on the list boast long histories of U.S.-style diversity, and now many are leaders in fusing those practices with their global business strategies. In the past, business and diversity conferences have focused on the old black-white racial paradigm, born of U.S. civil rights history and federal laws and court rulings. But in recent years, more confabs have started exploring the broader world view of globalization and diversity -- an undeniable force that will shape all aspects of business, regardless of one's politics. The Society for Human Resource Management, for one, is merging its U.S. and global conferences, to better address global business issues.
WISH I COULD have written about the DiversityInc conference, but don't know if the media was allowed. Their work is valuable and important, and should be reported on as widely as possible. One fascinating finding on the global talent pool by Dr. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, a Columbia University economist and head of the Center for Work-Life Policy: Women claim more than half of the college degrees in growth markets such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the Middle East, according to DiversityInc's Sam Ali. That's a huge talent pool. (Written a bunch of posts on women and business, including "Woo Hoo, Womenomics! Businesswomen Hold Up Half the Sky.")
IT ALSO WAS good to see Columbia University provost Dr. Claude Steele, author of a new book, Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us, speaking to an influential corporate crowd. As a Stanford University sociology professor, Steele was a calm and moderate voice on racial issues during the debate over multiculturalism in the 1990s. While some scholars/activists veered to the right or left, his well-balanced writings were grounded in deep theory and common-sense reality, and students of all political stripes sat up and listened. Hopefully, global business leaders will read his important work.
(NOTE: "Whistling Vivaldi" is a reference to Brent Staples, a black New York Times editorial writer and memoirist who wrote in a Harper's essay "Black Men in Public Space" that he whistled Vivaldi and Beethoven tunes so white folks wouldn't be scared of him on the Chicago streets at night.)
SUCH A WASTE of global workforce talent, and such staggering inequity that always is hard to fathom, no matter how often you see the data . . . The new annual World Economic Forum report on the global women gender gap (link below) still shows harsh barriers blocking half of the global workforce . . . The countries with the lowestpercentage of female employees? India (23%), Japan (24%), and Turkey (26%) . . . The highestcountries? The United States (52%), Spain (48%), and Canada (46%) . . . Most of the women work in entry- and mid-level jobs, with less than 5% holding CEO posts . . . Not surprisingly, global women trail in paycheck power too . . . Recent numbers from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) show that the median earnings of women are on average 18% lower than men (link below) . . . Hopefully, the numbers will improve for the next generation.
SOME JOURNALISTS SIT in bay windows their whole careers, writing precious words about the precious world they see. Their fancy work is best suited for parlor talk, not the ugly and brutal world that ruins our morning tea and wine tastings. Other journalists actually hit the streets, getting dirty and filthy and bloody, at times risking their safety to write about the human condition. Ted Conover is a reporter's reporter, exploring illegal farmworkers (Coyotes), hobos riding the railroads (Rolling Nowhere), and prison guards at Sing Sing (NewJack, a National Book Critics Circle award winner). Not easy work.
CONOVER'S NEW BOOK,The Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and the Way We Live, is a fascinating look at how roads reflect our global culture, from Peru, to Nigeria, to the West Bank. If you liked William Least Heat Moon'sBlue Highways, this goes a bit further. In a Salon.com interview, Conover says: "Roads are a yardstick of the growing complexity of the world. They are one of the essential connections between people, and through them you can look at both the ways connection propels us forward and the ways it sets us back." Conover is on a book tour now, and Routes of Man is enjoying high praise from some of our finest essayists of the modern American West. William Kittredge writes in a publicity blurb: “Humans evolved on the road and we go on seeking territory, survival, wealth, and even knowledge. The Odyssey, Don Quixote, On the Road, The Road, Arabian Sands, Marco Polo on the Silk Road, wagon trains heading for California, and Latinos at the fence between Mexico and the U.S.A.—so many of us streaming toward vivid dreams." Conover follows that vein. Rick Bass, in a book review for the Philadelphia Inquirer, writes: "The Routes of Man is the kind of book that sadly doesn't get written much anymore," given budget cutbacks in publishing and the changing global economy. That makes books such as Conover's even more valuable.
YEARS AGO, I took a writing class from Conover at the old Aspen Writers Conference in Colorado. Conover was a very good teacher, an antithesis of the posers, brown-nosers, and self-promoters who rule much of the media today. Real and authentic -- those are the words. For some reason, I failed to mention Conover in a freelance story back then for the Los Angeles Times on modern Western authors (see below), so this blog post is good karma. It's good to see a journalist of his caliber exploring the globe, doing important work. There's so much crap out there, let's at least read the real stuff, written by authentic reporters.
KENYA LOVES US, but Pakistan hates us . . . India? Loves us . . . Jordan? Hates us . . . Mexico? Loves us . . . Egypt? Hates us . . . France, after the messy breakup, has moved back in . . . And Muslims abroad aren't inviting us to brunch anytime soon . . . If Americans still wonder what the world thinks of Old Glory, check out recent congressional testimony by Andrew Korhut, president of the Pew Research Center . . . ("Restoring America's Reputation in the World.") . . . Researchers for the Pew Global Attitudes Project interviewed 200,000 people in 57 countries . . . That's a humongous sampling . . . Our image sank after the invasion of Iraq, and it bounced back in Europe when President Obama moved into the White House . . . We need to fix our country's reputation, our global brand, real fast . . . Far too much is at stake.
