Denuo - denuology.com

Rishad seems to be everywhere these days, and we’re not just talking about his travel schedule – although 140 flights in 2008 alone has to be some sort of record, right? This month we find Rishad on the pages of his home country’s most popular daily newspaper, The Economic Times. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the pub or its massive reach, it equates to India’s version of the Wall Street Journal and ranks as one of the top financial dailies in the world.

Upon returning from the Electronic Entertainment Expo, my eyes had to readjust to not seeing projection monitors the size of a high school around every corner. The industry has been long without a big, loud proclamation of its growth and limitless future and this year’s E3 was exactly that. Plus, I saw Mini Me playing video games, which pleased me to no end. This was my first E3 and, by all accounts, it was a great one to be a part of. Every company had something remarkable to show and it became next to impossible to find a bad game on the show floor. That said, here’s my personal Top Five titles that I instantly pre-ordered from the expo.

I moved into a new apartment about a year ago, and I receive an insane amount of direct mail. It’s usually addressed to “Or Current Resident,” – and I’ve gotten enough of it that I’m well versed in the rather unique tactics used in the space.

Despite this direct mail expertise, I was still amazed at this particular piece from AT&T. I’ve scanned in the envelope and the insert for your enjoyment. Click for more direct mail strangeness.

I’m in the 5th of 6 modules of the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. As you can imagine, we spend lots of time on management processes and models in tumultuous environments. My friend and classmate Rikke Grundtvig (Communications Director, Omnicom, Copenhagen) regularly makes demands for guidelines and recently asked for a set any business can apply to ensure they’re perpetually in beta. She did so a couple times yesterday, so I thought I’d get the ball rolling on her behalf. I do so knowing full well there isn’t an answer, but some trends do emerge when you start looking the most flexible of companies.

The executive summary:

[1] Listen.
[2] Know your company’s purpose and don’t change it.
[3] Empower employees to co-pilot the mother ship.
[4] Assume everyone is a potential collaborator.
[5] Place lots of bets and be ready to double down.

Authenticity is a factor in gaming that had to wait for the technology to catch up to it. In the early days, the two blips on the screen could easily service as “ping pong paddles,” but not as something like a real-life personality or established fantasy characters (like the infamous dragon-duck from the Atari 2600 classic, “Adventure”). Now that consoles can push life-like experiences in both graphics and immersion, games are held to a higher standard of authenticity, whether its how a receiver catches a pass or a comic-book hero destroys a building. There’s no room for scuttling details away because of technological limitations. Lucky for us, developers are rising to the occasion, earning success through remaining authentic to the core values behind their titles and representing them in the unique ways that gaming allows.