This newly-discovered breakthrough drug can bring tons of money to whoever can market it first

IN THIS ISSUE

The ingredient for the antibiotic erythromycin was reported to have been discovered in the Philippine island of Iloilo by Filipino doctor Abelardo Aguilar in 1949 but never got paid for it.  Now another Filipino scientist discovered microbes from the marine sediments of the very same island as the source of another breakthrough antibiotic seen to combat the multi-drug resistant staphylococcus aureus that is responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in humans. This time, with the protection granted by an intellectual property patent, the scientist sees to it that the Southeast Asian country gets a fair-share from the billion dollar revenue-pie to be generated by the discovery. READ MORE.

Though Amazon was thought out to be an “everything store” right at the very start, why the company decided to sell books first was an excellent strategic decision - if not a stroke of genius. Find out founder Jeff Besos’ reasons why he decided to start with books despite his initial goal of building "an Internet company that served as the intermediary between customers and manufacturers and sold nearly every type of product, all over the world." READ MORE.

What do Nike’s Air Jordan and hip-hop have in common? They both changed the way men dressed and helped boost the billion-dollar men’s wear business worldwide.  Now growing faster than the sales of women’s wear, says Josh Peskowitz, men’s fashion director at the high-end retailer Moda Operandi, cultural forces have driven the rise of men’s wear sales.

According to him, a “sea change moment” arrived in 1985, with the debut of Michael Jordan’s first signature sneaker for Nike. The Air Jordan 1 foreshadowed one of the defining characteristics of men’s fashion today, which is the sneaker as status symbol. Remaining a coveted sneaker up to this day, it is the first athletic shoe to be a status symbol and it marked a shift in how a lot of young men thought about the way they dressed.

It also happened to come along at the right moment. Hip-hop was still in its early years, but it was growing quickly. By the 1990s, it had gained a foothold on the radio and on TV. As a musical genre, it put more emphasis on clothing and branding as ways to show status. Peskowitz recalled that the first rapper he heard to check out a designer was Grand Puba, a member of the American hip-hop group Brand Nubian, who played a key role in hip-hop flocking to the clothes of designer Tommy Hilfiger. The rest, as they say, is history. READ MORE.

Richard Branson on the 'million-dollar lesson they don’t teach in business school' — plus 12 more secrets from highly successful people. Dr. Travis Bradberry, co-author of the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the co-founder of TalentSmart, writes that there are 13 things that extremely successful people do differently than most other people.

For instance, Warren Buffett once said he says the word "no" a lot, and Virgin Airlines’ Richard Branson has revealed that he carries a notebook with him everywhere he goes.

You might not be an entrepreneur, an Olympian, or a billionaire (or even want to be), but their secrets just might help you to get more done in less time and assist you to stop feeling so overworked and overwhelmed.

This post is based on interviews by Kevin Kruse – an associate of Dr. Bradberry – of over 200 ultra-successful people including 7 billionaires, 13 Olympians, and a host of accomplished entrepreneurs.

The interviews yielded some pretty incredible information about who they really are, what makes them tick, and, most importantly, what makes them so successful and productive.

One of his most revealing sources of information came from their answers to a simple open-ended question: What is your number one secret to productivity?

In analyzing their responses, Kruse coded the answers to yield some fascinating suggestions. READ MORE.

Three strategies for getting out of the “dark ages” to the modern ways of doing business. Today's business dynamic is calling for a different approach to strategic execution. Organizations can't afford to fly blind in their implementation of workplace tools.

The philosophy that "more is better" is a recipe for disaster. The burden is on leaders to critically examine tools being used and strategically select centralized tools that encourage transparency and a shared understanding of how individual tasks funnel up into larger organizational goals. READ MORE

If you what to get a glimpse of who would be Asia’s next generation of business leaders, you shouldn’t miss the 2019 Forbes 30/Under/30 List. 

These 300 entrepreneurs and game-changers, representing 23 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region, stood out for the right reasons. From innovating in technology and disrupting age-old industries to demonstrating immense talent and dominating the world stage, this group of young stars shines in more ways than one.

This report is definitely your definitive guide in getting a closer look at who they are. READ MORE.

In raising capital to fund business growth, there is no single, right way to do it. Whatever options you choose will likely depend on your company, its structure and market potential.

Here are five practical ways with which using “other people’s money” can enable you to grow more quickly than bootstrapping or funding it yourself. Getting the right kind of money, from the right kind of people who support your growth, can enable you to capitalize on market opportunities, accelerate growth, and increase your odds of beating competitors. READ MORE

SHARE the profitable ideas featured here by forwarding this issue to the email address of your like-minded friends and colleagues with whom you regularly exchange notes on new business developments and opportunities.

 PHOTO CREDIT: en.wikipedia.com

One-on-one engagement with apps is the future of marketing

It’s inevitable. Apps like Messenger are about to change the landscape of marketing to become more one-on-one when it comes to customer engagement.

WIRED Contributor, Jakob Schiller sits down with Eric Toda, Head of Marketing for Hill City, a Gap Inc. brand to discuss how it is starting to happen now in his company.

SCHILLER: I'm meeting with Eric Toda, the head of marketing for Hill City, which is new digital, direct to consumer men's wear brand.

As an inventive thinker, Eric is definitely not one to shy away from new marketing trends.  What's up Eric, how are you doing?

TODA: Good how are you?

SCHILLER: Good, tell me a little about yourself and tell me about Hill City, your new brand.

TODA: Yes, Hill City is a new, Gap, Inc. brand that's focused on men's active lifestyle. Where we started we just wanted to make the best versions of the clothes we love.

There's a lot of great men's apparel companies but who's serving your entire lifestyle?  And taking today's technology that you find in active wear, that comfort, that breathe-ability, and putting it in your favorite pair of chinos. Putting it in your favorite T-shirt and your favorite jackets.

SCHILLER: So you look good, you feel good, you go down the street to San Francisco or you go climb Mt. Tam, whatever you want to do, get up and go.

TODA: Exactly.

SCHILLER: I love that.

TODA: We have an enormous community of people that continues to grow and wanting to be a part of the brand. Of wear testers, and of people that just love what we stand for.

SCHILLER: And so light bulb goes off, you get incredible feedback, you want to scale the program. How do you do that in this sort of modern, marketing world.

TODA: We could have done it in a really scrappy, but time consuming way, with a 20 person team to go stand on a street corner to say, “Who wants to be a wear tester?” But, we looked at a bunch of different methods that exist today. If you get a red dot on your email, and a red dot on a text, what do you answer first?

SCHILLER: Text.

TODA: Text.

TODA: All day long. It's easier, it's more lightweight, more conversational, more human.

SCHILLER: Right.

TODA: So we started looking at automation via Messenger. How are we going to bring this to life in a way that is cool and different than they have ever seen. 

But it’s so easy to navigate.

You're able to scale this to anyone wherever they are, any time of the day, but it's also happening in a format that you are used to.

To build it on an existing platform that people are already using that already has the reach, very easy, lightweight to press that button, no brainer.

SCHILLER: So, it's automated and is there machine learning?

TODA: There is machine learning in the background, there's also natural language processing so you can say things to us that doesn't feel like you are talking to a robot.

SCHILLER: And so you might not have the power people-wise to be doing all those sort of transactional interactions but they end up creating real communication between the brand and the people.

TODA: Exactly. Send us a message. Literally the blue button up top. Send us a message. Blue button, you click it, and you will start to see the magic happen. It will start prepopulating everything that you need to get started with Hill City.

SCHILLER: Cool, and then so it's just like a tap. Like you literally can choose from options.

TODA: Exactly. It's all one tap, swipes. Instead of a website where you're navigating it through some prepopulated layout,  you are choosing where to go next. One of the key insights of us on using Messenger is we don't  have a storefront and with a storefront you are able to build a very human to human connection every time someone comes in.

How did you like that jacket? I remember you bought those pants last time.

Did it fit?

What if you were able to take that experience to any single person that wants to interact with your brand, but right in the palm of their hands?

SCHILLER: And what is that sort of one thing that Messenger does so well?

TODA: Well it allows whoever is interacting with Messenger to dictate where they want to go. They can see how rich the experience is.

SCHILLER: You have essentially reimagined what Messenger could be.

TODA: What we wanted to do was not create another channel to sell to them.

SCHILLER: Right.

TODA: What it should do is give them a sense of equal say in where this brand is going.

03:22

SCHILLER: So how is Messenger going to lead the future of your marketing and marketing in general?

TODA: We believe the future of marketing is one to one.  And it has to be that way for building a community. Because not every community member is the same.

SCHILLER: Right.

TODA: Messaging effeminately plays a huge role in that.

SCHILLER: Smarter and better overall.

Yep. Eric, thanks for coming by, it's incredible to see the way the brand has grown and innovated in such a short period of time, so thanks for coming.

TODA: Thanks for the conversation man. 

This interview is based on the transcripts of  the video How Apps like Messenger are Changing the Future of Marketing produced by WIRED Brand Lab and Messenger Business. PHOTO CREDIT: WIRED Videos