Branding for Centro, the Cisco EMEAR sales data dashboard

November 21, 2017

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The development objective was to increase Cisco sales teams’ usage of Centro, a powerful, real-time data dashboard. Achieving this would improve the allocation of sales resources, align teams to the same data and speed up response times to changing market conditions. It would also reduce the sales team’s addiction to Excell spreadsheets, which are time-consuming to create and out of date just as quickly.

A brand workshop was run in London with all key stakeholders either in the room or teleconferenced from Munich and Milan. The insight from this work was to focus on individual sales’ team members sense of self-worth and accomplishment. We also wanted to suggest they should be looking at the same data sources as their boss…

OUTCOMES

The Centro logo was created using Cisco’s core content font, but with a target motif to suggest goals being well met. The staircase image invoked a sense of real-time interaction, all underpinned by the key line ‘How am I doing’. Delivery included branding for the EMEAR insights team intranet, a full set of product icons, email newsletter styling and a complete brand design guidelines.

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Tory MP on May’s government: “This can’t go on”

November 3, 2017

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A great quote from today’s NYTimes. 

“We’ve had enough of this generation,” one furious young Conservative member of Parliament told me. “They’re frankly embarrassing. What have they ever given us? Brexit, austerity, Theresa May, the threat of Boris Johnson, and now sex and sleaze. Last week, the mood of my generation changed from quietly planning for the future to ‘This can’t go on.’ ”

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Should Facebook be shut down?

November 3, 2017

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There is an argument that Facebook should be shut down.

If a firm has become wittingly or unwittingly weaponzied by Russian intelligence, isn’t the responsible thing to do to shut the firm down?

In the case of Facebook, CEO Mark’s Zuckerberg’s first response to accusations his platform had been taken over by Russian intelligence was that the accusation was “crazy”. Later, Facebook admitted that millions had seen Russian fake news. Now, they’re admitting hundreds of millions have seen it. (Although Zuckerberg did not show up to the Sentae hearings on social media – he sent lawyers instead. What kind of message does that send?)

Until recently, Facebook argued that it was “impossible” to regulate the content on its platform. What they meant was “unprofitable.” Has Facebook chosen profits over country, unwittingly committing treason? IF so, Facebook should be shut down.

And if it truly is impossible to regulate, then Facebook should be shut down.

The average age of a Facebook employee is 28. Do employees understand that the role the fourth estate plays in democracy? Do they “get it”? Do they accept any responsibility for the hate messages they routinely publish on their platforms?

As others have pointed out, Facebook are running a swimming pool without lifeguards, taking massive profits despite the huge risks. When democracy drowns, they just shrug.

If Facebook cannot guarantee that a foreign government won’t weaponize their platform at the next election, then Facebook must accept adult supervision  – or be shuttered.

 

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Fintech is starting to take market share from high street banks

November 2, 2017

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Britain’s leading financial technology start-ups are celebrating a record-setting week as they accelerate their push to take market share from high-street banks in areas such as payments and lending.

TransferWise will on Thursday announce that it has collected $280m from investors, a record fundraising round for a UK fintech, to finance expansion of its cross-border payments service into more countries around the world.

Meanwhile, Funding Circle has for the first time outstripped net new lending by the major high-street banks to UK small businesses, according to figures released by the Bank of England this week and data provided by Europe’s largest peer-to-peer lender to SMEs.

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Facebook profits will be hit by plans to secure it from abuse, say Zuckerberg

November 2, 2017

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Facebook has warned that its profitability will be hit by investments in securing it from abuse after it was home to Russian attempts to manipulate US politics, as it trounced earnings expectations in the third quarter.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive, said the goal of “protecting our community is more important than maximising profits”.

Facebook estimates costs will rise 45 to 60 per cent next year, hitting margins as revenue growth is due to slow.

“Our community continues to grow and our business is doing well,” said Mr Zuckerberg. “But none of that matters if our services are used in ways that don’t bring people closer together.”

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Facebook’s next fake news headache: messaging

November 1, 2017

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While much of the fake news conversation in the U.S. has been about what’s spread via Facebook’s News Feed, there are also reports of misinformation spreading globally on Facebook’s messenger properties, WhatsApp and Messenger.

An increasing number of people in developing countries are reliant on its messaging platforms for news and information. Fake news is rife.

In India, the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology said the country is “helpless” to stop the fake news epidemic on WhatsApp because it can’t access content through WhatsApp’s encryption, per CNET.

In Kenya, government officials accused the managers of 21 WhatsApp groups of spreading hate, per Quartz.

In Catalonia, a journalist tells The Washington Post that they are aware of fake news being spread on WhatsApp, “but we’ve only been able to debunk those pieces that were sent to us by our users since Whatsapp is such a private system.”

In the U.S., Facebook admitted earlier this month that some of the 470 accounts Facebook identified at the time as Russian-backed used its Messenger product as part of the efforts to meddle in the 2016 election, per Recode.

On messaging platforms, stories, posts, pictures and videos cannot be viewed by anyone outside of an individual or group conversation — making fake news harder to track.

 

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