February 23, 2012
"By crowdsourcing product interest, Fancy enables merchants to see what consumers are most interested in, and then sell products directly to them based on that interest. Into a helicopter tour of Hawaii? You got it. A new style from Christian Dior? Click away."

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Hype and interest in Pinterest has gone off the scale recently. Now, here comes a piece about a high-end competitor, Fancy, which has just introduced a social commerce platform that, writes Austin Carr, “allows brands and merchants to sell products directly from Fancy.” It’s an interesting proposition, one that rewards brands savvy enough to track and capitalize on trends and interests. Will I use it personally? Call me grumpy, and never say never, but for now, I’m filing under “interesting and yet not interested.”

[Story via Erik Van Crimmin]

2:10pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZLv7dxGvEAJ5
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Filed under: crowdsourcing Fancy Pinterest products consumers brands selling 
January 30, 2012
"Politicians see the world as blocs of voters living in specific geographies — and they see their job as maximizing the economic benefits for the voters in their geography. Many C.E.O.’s, though, increasingly see the world as a place where their products can be made anywhere through global supply chains (often assembled with nonunion-protected labor) and sold everywhere."

— In a New York Times op ed, Made In The World, Thomas Friedman discusses the gap between the way lawmakers think and the way chief executives approach their business. The issue: while politicians are focusing on one nation, executives are competing in a world where outsourcing is an antiquated idea and where “every product and many services now are imagined, designed, marketed and built through global supply chains that seek to access the best quality talent at the lowest cost, wherever it exists.” Friedman recounts the tale of President Obama asking Steve Jobs about all those workers overseas. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” said the late Apple CEO, bluntly. But, argues Friedman, the United States could learn how to compete effectively, if it could just focus and get its act together. The list of things it needs to change/master is daunting, but really not optional if the nation is to thrive.

2:14pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZLv7dxFdc1fE
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Filed under: Thomas Friedman globalization innovation politics CEO products services manufacturing design