Strands of Genius: No Middle Class, Softbank's Strategy, Stitch Fix Style Forecast
See you next year! + Prof G on healthcare/USA
WRITING FROM | Chattanooga, TN
WORKING ON | xmas
LOOKING AHEAD
Nov 5 - Dec 21 | Chattanooga, TN
Dec 21 - Jan 4 | Isla Mujeres, MX
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Merry Jingles darlings. We love you. How you doing? It’s a nexus of tough out there right now and it is cold, wet and dark where we are, weather wise. This season is tough for many but there is joy there too. Hold on to the joy.
Btw we got some outreach this week with a sob story about a freelancer about to lose their house and make their son homeless at Christmas - very dark sign - that tried to install malware on our machines from clicking the URL, even darker. Be careful, don’t click on ANYTHING you get randomly sent. Hopefully, you don’t think of us/strands as random outreach. Proof is in the consistency of the pudding, as they don’t say.
This is the last standard edition of strands until we regroup in mid-Jan after family time. It’s getting even weirder out there, stay safe.
Please do think of us early next year for speaking, workshops, training or consulting. In the last few years we have done structural brand and business strategy for big brands and small, an advertising holding company, global media agencies, worked with private equity on marketing strategy and operational guidance for acquisitions, workshops and training for independent agencies of all shapes and sizes, and various things for media companies and trade bodies like ARF. Here to help.
Anyway, one unusually well-targeted piece ad unit on LinkedIn brought some absolute joy into my life in the form of the Softbank vision strategy investor presentation, which is always a banger. We link to it below but it’s so great we want to share some highlights. It is a distinct voice in the world of corporate deckopage.
Some context may be needed. It’s the second largest public company in Japan and its a technology investment holding company. It’s mostly famous because of its mercurial founder Masayoshi Son, who made an incredible bet on Yahoo and Alibaba really early and sunk billions into WeWork. Its Vision Fund is the world’s largest tech VC fund. It’s an investment company. As such, it has a thesis it sells to investors. Those of us in the PPT world understand that different categories have distinct deck grammar. Softbank goes for a classic 90s powerpoint.
No bells and whistles animated gif template stuff but it gets…abstract.
We often discuss long vs short term but here they map out a 30 year strategy. They want to bring ‘happiness to everyone’ with IT and this is how they intend to do it: “SoftBank works to comfort people in their sorrow”. Based on a Twitter poll (yes, really), they established these primary sorrow drivers:
But they don’t limit their thinking to decades.
So they want to invest in brain tech
and robots
So Softbank doesn’t go extinct
Anyway, grab it and enjoy. This is strategy, apparently. Everyone give yourself a break.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Erin&Eric, Maddie&Paulie, Wild River, Ren, indoor plants, resistance, habitus, chicken sandwiches, homemade soup, Silo, Int. Chinatown, Day of the Jackal, nice people, Softbank, Warc, Ben, Inga, our lovely clients this year, and YOU MOST OF ALL for allowing us into your inbox and being part of a community of people trying to remain inspired and be nice and make money in the industry and the world.
Thanks for reading. Hugs for everyone! Merry jingles.
:: THE LINKS ::
DIVERGING DEMOGRAPHIC DESTINIES - CARS & THE MIDDLE CLASS
What happens when the middle class splits into the haves and have-nots? Companies respond to demand and are either shifting to value offers or moving up to cater only to the top 10-20% of people that have any money. Plus some old Playboys, postmodernism, and Jaguar. “Whereas forty years ago an average new car cost about a fifth of an average annual salary, a new car is now prohibitively expensive for most." (Warc)
SOFTBANK’S 300 YEAR VISION
As above. There is a video presentation and deck on their site. “The “SoftBank Next 30-Year Vision” summarizes the results of a year-long discussion by around 20,000 SoftBank Group employees, along with wise feedback from external Twitter users.” [Told you] (SoftBank)
STICH FIX STYLE FORECAST
Online personal styling service Stitch Fix just unveiled its 2025 Stitch Fix Style Forecast, an annual report that combines insights from millions of clients, stylists, and in-house trend experts to reflect on 2024’s fashion influences and predict 2025’s standout trends. (Stitch Fix)
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:: Prof G on Healthcare/USA ::
CNN healthcare USA
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @faris is still “tweeting” while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
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