Gary Bertwistle - The Espressohttp://www.garybertwistle.comI recently had the pleasure of chatting to a government official who talked about celebrating a curious mind. He was an audience member who believed that it was imperative that his department go down this philosophical road in order to solve some of the issues that his area of responsibility faced. Immediately I grabbed my journal and jotted down the line celebrate a curious mind.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/2ae00aaa-6871-4cad-9861-89dbadd2d9f921/07/2010The once dominant coffee brand Starbucks has just announced that it's customers will shortly be able to access free Wi-Fi in all it's US stores. Up until recently you had to register with Starbucks to receive a card to access their Wi-Fi network and even then time limits were imposed on your ability to surf the net. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/f883775b-5662-4bdd-9ac2-f1573b33c2d914/07/2010During a visit to the Florence some years ago my wife took me to see the statue of David. Although I am not an arty sort of guy, I must say that seeing the statue of David was profound and left me in awe. It stimulated my creativity, challenged me to do more with and of my work and life, and I was truly humbled by the beauty of Michaelangelo's work.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/d6f3cd21-7916-43d5-b59d-0edc2f8892dc7/07/2010There was a time twenty years ago when you weren't able to fill your time by looking at the palm of your hand. There was a time where waiting for a bus meant just that, waiting. There was a time where waiting for a train meant just that, waiting. There was a time when Mum was late to pick you up from the footy and you had to wait, and do just that, wait .http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/2adc36af-e0ef-4f01-ba68-12afd47749a430/06/2010I had a coffee last week with best selling author Marty Wilson at the Dymocks store in George Street and we discussed the upcoming release of Marty's new book entitled What I Wish I Knew About Motherhood due for release in 2011. Marty said that the process of interviewing many, many mothers to research the book had undoubtedly made him a better parent.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/fc02299f-3dc0-4136-bd3a-47ddd77f6fe123/06/2010Recenlty R & B artist Mary J Blige was a guest on Oprah to promote a new album, and her centre for excellence that she has established for girls in the USA.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/6591d15d-a99a-43ea-8375-12087cec8e8d20/06/2010What ever happened to creating, innovating and using your imagination just for the hell of it? Since when does creativity have to prove anything, break through something or impress someone in order to be seen as creative? When we are kids we just create - because we can, because we love to and because we have no reason not to. We just express ourselves as part of our learning and for the sheer enjoyment it brings to our minds.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/8bdcb2b9-9060-4de0-a98f-35c4ac7bcdd29/06/2010Your brand, like a bag of coffee beans, sucks up perceptions from all those different places. Bundled together they create a vibe that can either be good, great or non-existent. Small to medium sized enterprises need to be particularly careful to ensure that their marketing is not simply their advertising and promotion, because it's not. It's every single contact point you can possibly have with your customer, creating a perception which is ultimately your vibe.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/1d49f600-e16b-4950-991e-7680726b41352/06/2010One of the biggest issues that faces the service industry today is that entities such as councils, governments, law firms, accountancy firms, financial planners and advisors have to recognise that they need to innovate just as much as consumer products. So when the Espresso came across a Dutch city that has launched an iPhone app for lodging civil complaints we thought it was a great way to 'rattle the cage' for service industries and to stimulate their thinking.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/f4eea3c3-bea9-450b-9753-772ca393eb4526/05/2010Great creatives in every field fascinate me. So when one of Australia's great creative's released his new book it was a natural step for me to grab it and have a read. The first thing that occurred to me when picking up the book is that there are thousands of books written on success but this one is a book on failure. Written by world acclaimed creative and one of Australia's most successful advertising men Siimon Reynolds. This book explores the main courses of failure and reveals solutions for overcoming them and creating a successful happy life.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/b9fe316d-e528-4351-b489-da7016eb16fd19/05/2010In my latest book The Vibe, I discuss at length my philosophy around business and the people you associate with and how they can elevate or hinder your brand. I call it 'elephants dance with elephants'. The companies that you build an alliance with, show testimonials from, sponsor or promote in any way around your brand, can elevate your brand to new levels if the other brand is aspirational, just as they can detract from your brand if the opposite is true. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/35cc4c1b-8409-42ec-80b0-11d30c34196f12/05/2010I believe we all spend too much time on/with/around new technology - it's time to go back to sitting under a tree and pondering. In a recent interview I did with Helen Hawkes on technology I commented that technology is not the enemy and there is of course a time and place for everything, but that nothing will replace the experience of disconnecting for 10-30 minutes a day, just to sit with a pen and paper and ponder, dream, think and imagine 'What if?'http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/d879bf57-d7a1-47d4-98ce-12bb6dcd73316/05/2010Time and time again in speeches, particularly when presenting to service industries, I talk about the fact that innovation and creative thinking shouldn't be limited simply to products in certain categories. Thinking differently can and should apply to any part of any business in any industry. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/1ffd3757-6c10-4d1c-90e5-6959df5acda528/04/2010There has been a lot of talk recently about the trend of people and brands giving more - to each other, to society, to charities or the environment at large. In the 2008 address to the graduating class at Stanford University, Oprah Winfrey stated that the greatest gift that anybody could take from the university into workplace was to give. Marketers call it 'giving to get'. The question to ask yourselves is what are you and your organisation giving to others in a genuine, no catches, no hidden clauses way that benefits others?http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/b9e257af-0a21-4f28-956a-fb09b7d01e4314/04/2010Sometimes innovation can come in the form of identifying an opportunity. The Creative Problem Solving Institute in Buffalo, New York, states that you can generate up to 80% more ideas when you involve more than one person in the process. Collaboration can often be the most powerful form of problem solving and creativity. With this in mind I would challenge organisations to consider that people within the organisation do not have to have all the solutions.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/60ce023c-87bd-40bd-b730-5b4eb12f90b77/04/2010One of the characteristics that I find all great people who exercise their creative spirit have in common is curiosity. You can hear it in their language. They are constantly using phrases like, 'What if?', 'What else?', 'Why don't we?', 'What if we could?','Why don't we try?' or 'What's stopping us?' to remove the many barriers that each of us carry with us in our minds. I know it sounds easy, but one of the most powerful starting points is to change your language. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/d2dd52f0-fc73-4c31-a86c-4681a22cc00831/03/2010Stanford University in the USA reports that several years ago Continental Airlines went from worst to first in airline performance. So astounding was their performance turn-around that the Wall Street journal put a journalist onto the story to find out how they did it. The journalist independently investigated the airline industry to better understand Continental Airlines and it's competitiors , and also investigated they key elements which determine an airlines ability to land on time. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/a89489d8-26bc-4a11-b342-3c362188605224/03/2010When writing my books What Made You Think of That? and The Vibe, I've was always conscious of the fact that whenever I discuss trends that are happening in the world, that I can back up what's written. I always love a good challenge and hate being told things can't be done. When my uncle Joe died of prostate cancer after a 14 year torturous battle, one of the last things he said before he left us was, 'They'll never find a cure for cancer.' That, to me, was like a red flag to a bull. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/a434cb45-fe1b-4f48-b2da-75d3e896f86e17/03/2010One of the reasons that there are great ideas dying in boardrooms all over the world as you read this, is because people didn't have the courage to speak up and have their ideas heard. Few of us have the courage to rock the boat, disrupt the norm, go against the flow and swim against the tide in order to find a new and innovative way of doing something, either in or out of the office. Even fewer have the courage to speak up and be heard over the roar of mediocrity with a new and interesting way of finding a solution to a given issue. It takes courage.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/6d858461-d4f2-4d09-a62a-8cabc49f6cf510/03/2010There is no doubt that the face of brand globally is changing. Trends driven by consumers and customers are changing how brand managers, marketing managers, CEO's and entrepreneurs need to look at and handle their brands. For the last 10 years I've been doing key note addresses to some of the best known brands both here and overseas, and in doing so, I've collected a bunch of stories, anecdotes and examples of how the great brands are building a true vibe around their organisation. Today more than ever, you can't just have a logo to bang on the side of a box or at the top of an invoice to know who to pay. Today you must own a perception. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/40763163-f82b-46da-9ec0-867ab053c77d3/03/2010Have you ever noticed that the people who have the best ideas are the ones who never seem to be rushing? As I disembarked from a flight to Melbourne early one morning, I casually cruised through the terminal to the pick up area. Around me guys were rushing, bags in arm, mobile phones locked to their ears. It dawned on me that these guys wont find the next idea.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/28ba8356-18cb-49e9-a20d-80f228811ce124/02/2010Iconic actor Paul Newman, famous for his roles in movies like The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid and the Colour of Money , was being interviewed by James Lipton on Inside The Actors Studio. Lipton commented that he had read how important rehearsal was to Newman. Newman replied, "I have always liked the exploration. In fact on some occasions I would lock myself in a hotel room with a 12 pack of Budweiser, just to see where I could go with this thing. You would be happy to know that 90% of this discovery was useless. It seemed eccentric and exciting at the time, and yet (he pauses) 10% of it was from a place I didn't know about. It took me down avenues that I don't think I would have otherwise explored."http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/5f376dd6-3223-4391-a102-18db8cc5153117/02/2010For many years now in my speeches about marketing and brand, I have made mention of a number of the most recognised brands in Australia bringing back positioning statements which were dumped 10-15 years ago after many years, or even decades, of service. Brands such as Mortein (with Louie the Fly), Antz Pantz, Pea Beau, Razamatazz and Mars have all gone down the path of changing their positoning only to come back 5-10 years later to resurrect their iconic positioning and a successful strategy. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/edbbc3c0-8a2f-43ec-9d91-fe95e3e0e45d10/02/2010Stephen Covey also wrote the best-selling book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People', and his book 'The Leader in Me" is the story of the extraordinary schools, parents, and business leaders around the world who are preparing the next generation to meet the great challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. I believe that it's a great book for parents and educators alike, however the main reason I have chosen to use this quote as the basis of my first editor's note of the year is that I believe the quote above is particularly pertinent for leaders of business.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/e840f08b-1833-45d2-b1ce-29450787ea213/02/2010The year is almost at its close and I'd have to say that I don't think it will come quickly enough for a large proportion of the executives I have had the privilege to speak to over the last couple of months. This year has been a challenging one for many and there is a definite sense of burnout amongst the ranks. A lot of people currently seem to be living on caffeine, they are tired, burnt out, frazzled and all the other f words that go along with it. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/0fd79d96-fce4-479c-a939-b66c647d4d8b9/12/2009Quite often when I'm speaking to audiences I am asked "How do you judge a good idea?" Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes, the guys who invented brainstorming and wrote about it in Alex Osborn's book, Applied Imagination, had a step process for creating and innovating through the use of brainstorms. One of the steps in their process outlined how to judge which ideas are the most valuable to you, which is a vital part of the process as sometimes your sexiest ideas are not the ones that will work out the best. There is a link below to a podcast in which I explain how to specifically run a creative session to extract great ideas and then how to judge which ones will be the most valuable to you. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/94d5633d-0d38-4021-af67-fdcba72f69532/12/2009The Power Of Vision Not long ago, Starbucks had a vision of having a store 5 miles from every customer and in Australia that was certainly true in the major cities. However, Starbucks reached saturation point and got to a stage where it had nowhere to go but down, and thats exactly where it went. With bad coffee, untidy and underperforming stores and a stock price that fell dramatically, the brand was forced into a direct showdown with McDonald's McCafe's, which began opening on every corner.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/4e5a1098-dc45-41d3-ac10-ba39cdc68f3f25/11/2009Dr Martens Pop Up Store Whilst spending a lazy Sunday afternoon cruising the very cool Spitalfields Markets near Liverpool Station in London, I walked around a corner and heard someone say, "That is the latest pop up store from Doc Martens". Dr Martens are a pretty mainstream brand these days and have latched on to a trend that is happening in retail around the world - Pop Up Stores. Although sometimes known as temporary stores, the trend in marketing is to call them Pop Up Stores. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/453475c5-a0bb-4aaf-9846-bd51987a1cdb18/11/2009Satisfaction Guaranteed, But That's Not Enough On returning home from London recently the first question family and friends asked was, 'How was the flight?' I replied, 'It was ok. Nothing worth remarking about, nothing special, nothing exciting, nothing that wowed me, just the fundamentals, getting me from point A to point B, on a moderately comfortable aeroplane with typical aeroplane food.' British Airways did nothing to impress me. They took care of all the basics - just. Staff that didn't smile, average food, a breakfast that I couldn't eat, a seat to sit in and a movie to watch. Nothing exceptional, nothing exciting and nothing that I would tell anybody else about, apart from 'It was OK'. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/0591f82c-cd95-462b-8b61-edba7391f80011/11/2009Do Tobacco and Chocolate Go Together? Whilst speaking in London recently I ventured down to Sloan Square on Kings Road to visit a chocolatier I had heard about called Gerard Coleman. Coleman owns L'Artisan du Chocolate and is chocolatier to many of the Michelin star chefs around Britain. Visiting his store and sampling his products was truly an experience. I can certainly see why many believe that he is one of the greatest chocolatiers in the world.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/98dd54c7-1e52-4471-adb2-fdfeaaf8e0a74/11/2009Those of you who are regular readers of The Espresso or have read any of my books will know that I talk a lot about the creative process of looking up. My point is that we walk around with our heads bowed, often concentrating on the electronic device in our hand when walking, running or sitting, without taking the opportunity to look up. One of the wonderful things that children teach us is that there is a whole world above our heads that we just don't see.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/ea37f44a-50aa-4bbe-8e07-29cbabd41ec228/10/2009Recently one of Australia's most iconic brands tried to innovate it's product by involving the consumer. Vegemite, which is unquestionably one of our greatest brands, thought it would be cool to invite Australian consumers to rename its new, more spreadable version of the iconic Vegemite. The name they chose to run with "iSnack 2.0" has now been withdrawn because Australians hated it.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/cbf3953b-1ffd-416b-8adc-cb017630e0d421/10/2009Much to the angst of my wife I have been approached by a political party to help them with the marketing and branding of a future campaign. This should be an interesting experience as I have long believed that there is a lack of true creativity and/or brand value in a lot of the information that is thrown at us via different media channels. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/8db505b5-e19c-4593-81a9-f38116c0f09e14/10/2009You may have seen in the press recently that the Australian government is looking to create a positioning statement for our country. Following on from past campaigns such as 'Throw another shrimp on the barbie', and 'Where the bloody hell are you?', the Australian government is finally starting to see our country as a brand. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/30e6cf07-8770-4a32-b3ac-b9e75fbdb7277/10/2009I've been pondering the question 'Is there a relationship between learning modalities and creativity?' As you may be aware, people primarily have three key modalities that they use when they're learning or processing new information. Those three modalities are visual, auditory and kinesthetic.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/3f0e0aa8-e9e7-4dbf-bcca-8df9bf8d95f430/09/2009While I was working in Adelaide recently, the leader of a large and very successful building company took me to see one of his impressive display homes. As we drove away from the home, he told me about how he had found a new way to wire the homes and by doing so had saved himself 2 weeks of construction. He said that 2 weeks had now put him in front of the competition as he could now put out quality, beautifully designed homes, quicker than his competitors. He said "I'm always looking to see what I can do better." http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/b4525fe2-bffe-47f3-8ddb-e39360275c5b23/09/2009Is there a relationship between creativity and expectation? I would argue yes. The most creative people I have met through my career have had an expectation that they would find the next great idea. The expectation was both of themselves and from those around them. Truly creative people who exercise their creative spirit in and out of the workplace fully expect to find new, interesting and stimulating ways of doing things. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/b0c66546-f83c-4e6e-a67e-55b58db35f9e16/09/2009There has been a lot written in the area of creativity about whether it is best to have a clean desk or a cluttered desk. Having lived and worked with a lot of great creatives, my belief ihttp://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/71b9c59f-43db-4433-9409-f6dadbf8fdb89/09/2009I recently heard Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics interviewed by Barry Bissell on his radio program Cover to Cover, which looks at the greatest albums ever made, and she talked about her approach to the song writing process. She mentioned that on some days she sits there and nothing comes out, and just when she thinks to herself 'I can't do this, I'm crap', all of a sudden, out comes a song. As Annie Lennox had discovered, quite often it is the persistence of sticking with a thought that reaps the greatest rewards. I believe that too often people give up too quickly on their ideas or problems, and if they can't find a solution within two or three minutes, they tend to give up or talk themselves out of it and move on to something else. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/d1bc787d-6ed0-4377-8d8e-9459e78ebc222/09/2009Last year I wrote a story for the Fitness First chain of gyms about brain exercise. My story was based around the fact that we pay money to gyms and personal trainers to get us physically fit, without thinking about what are we doing to get mentally fit. I asked those reading the story to consider exercising their brains. After all, the brain is the only organ in the body that improves with use - the more it is used, the better it gets.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/7e897e4a-2fe4-422a-94c7-7e0466cb25a926/08/2009I had the pleasure recently of working a team from Mathletics, an online maths platform. The company's CEO, Tim Power, made the following comment about the value of Mathletics for the children who use it. "After sitting with many hundreds of children watching them engage in this amazing program, the ... greatest strength of the program is that it taught and/or made children believe in their own self-worth. When children are able master mathematical tasks in a certain period of time, in a lot of cases they surpassed their own beliefs of what they thought possible. They surprised themselves and gave themselves an amazing feeling of self worth." How brilliant!http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/b8d90071-4110-4ba3-a029-0f448259665a19/08/2009Many years ago when I was working in the corporate world, every year there would be a day where you could take your team and clients along to hear some of the best speakers in the world speak on leadership, sales and motivation. Unfortunately those events are few and far between - up until now. In it's third year, the Day of Inspiration has quickly established itself on the corporate calendar as a day out of the office, where you and your team can be inspired, motivated and truly moved by some of Australia's best keynote speakers.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/295405ed-bd95-4e8a-a85d-164dda399c7712/08/2009When was the last time you congratulated or acknowledged somebody for their thinking? Not the idea itself, but the actual process of them thinking differently? It is a little understood or acknowledged area of people's development.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/1beee14a-28d3-48aa-b99b-a5c7f1cd60715/08/2009It was a Friday night and I was half way through a Spin (cycle) class, at my gym. Half way through the class, the instructor encouraged everyone to turn up the resistance on their bikes, which puts a greater workload on your legs and lungs, and makes your workout increasingly more difficult. Looking around, I could clearly see on the faces of those in the class who were working hard and who were simply cruising through the class. Right about then I heard the instructor say the following words 'Right, by this time you should be working very hard. It should be hurting, but enjoy your discomfort'. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/55de2b46-fd65-47d1-8c37-38ee0706a8ef29/07/2009Tom Hanks is one of the world's great actors. Recently I saw him interviewed on Inside the Actors Studio by James Lipton who asked Hanks the following question - 'It's been said that artifice and self consciousness are the enemy of the actor. Would you agree?' Tom went on to explain that he in fact believes that self consciousness is the death of an actor. He said that when the actor starts to question his character, his character's emotives or the written script in front him, then you truly can't be in the moment, you truly can't seize the emotions of the character and you live in a conscious world, instead of unconsciously producing the role.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/d9eeeaa6-0da3-45cd-b3da-8e24157acbd622/07/2009Recently I had the privilege of speaking to the creative team behind Brink Productions, a theatre company based in Adelaide. During my presentation one of the Directors, Kay Jamieson, mentioned that the Australian Aboriginal Piinjarra tribe had a term called "Ngapartji Ngapartji" This Aboriginal term roughly translates as "I give you something, you give me something".http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/6e7ccc48-0a5f-44a7-baf7-17c1755590cb15/07/2009The Espresso - Edition 10http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/695337a9-1b5e-4fdb-88ad-fa2c659baee68/07/2009When the Tour de Cure 2009 crossed the finishing line in Cairns a couple of weeks ago to the cheer of family and friends and the spray of champagne, it was an emotional time. Not because of the athletic acheivement of cycling 1555kms, not because of the comradery of the team, and not just because of the more than $830,000 raised to help cure cancer. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/321811c6-b029-40aa-954a-5b7ca92031152/07/2009Browsing through this year's list of Business Week's 50 Most Innovative Companies, it is no surprise that the list is headed by companies such as Apple, Google, Nintendo, IBM and Hewlett Packard. In amongst the list are also a number of retailers, car manufacturers, electronics businesses, take away food brands and entertainment companies.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/ea39b2fa-d6ef-4668-b01d-d77c610afd7324/06/2009Emotions were high on Sunday as the 2009 Tour de Cure finished at the Esplanade in Cairns after a gruelling 10 days on the road, cycling the 1600 km distance from Brisbane. Raising over $812,000 and countless millions of dollars worth of media awareness, this year's Tour was by far the most successful to date. http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/b3d31f23-12ac-4acc-9a27-5f1feb28d8c310/06/2009It was during the runup to the 2006 Winter Olympics that I first came across the name Bode Miller, a champion Alpine skier from the USA. With 31 World Cup victories, he is America's most successful alpine skier. He is also a four-time World Champion in four different disciplines and has a pair of silver medals from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Despite his incredible success he is also his own man with his own unique attitude to training and competition which has made his career all the more interesting to follow.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/64586881-36ce-40ff-863c-70e92825720f3/06/2009I recently saw a fascinating interview with the late Paul Newman on a Biography Channel program called "Inside the Actors Studio" on Foxtel. The show's host, James Lipton and Newman were discussing the concept of intuitive vs cerebral acting and I was struck by how that discussion perfectly encapsulated my beliefs about creativity, so much so that I wanted to share it with you here.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/d904ef32-243f-422a-bf2a-e8210cb50f5a27/05/2009It was a beautiful autumn morning last Thursday when I walked my little girl Charley to kindy. As we were about to cross a road Charley, who has just turned three, turned to me and said, "Dad, aeroplane! Look at the jet stream". There she was, looking up to a beautiful autumn Sydney sky, eyes locked on an aeroplane flying over and the jet stream following its path across the sky. It is not the first time she has done this. As we walk to and from kindy each day she is constantly pointing out the moon, spiders webs, birds and flowers in the trees above us. Unlike adults, her focus is not only on the 180 degrees directly in front of them but holistically in every direction from every angle. I love the fact that Charley points these things out to me because it constantly reminds me to look up.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/b6906edf-997a-4775-bc95-8a8d4d18bd0c26/05/2009What an amazing feat for such a young brand! The phrase "I'll Google it" has helped make the internet search giant the world's first one hundred billion dollar brand. The analysts of the Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands by consultants Millward Brown found that the companies who's value grew the most were those that were actually investing in innovation during these uncertain times. Millward Brown chief executive, Joanna Seddon, who was behind the research that valued the Top 100 global brands said "Those who continue to invest in their brand will be better positioned for business growth as the economic situation starts to improve than those who have cut spending." http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/247c73ad-9e22-4c0c-a1c9-d4507390aab413/05/2009Hi everyone and welcome to the first edition of The Espresso, the worlds first newspaper for creative thinkers. We promise to scour the world to find what's news in thinking - tips, tools and stimulants that will help you look at your world differently. This newspaper is not for everyone. Its for those people who like to push the boundries, hate status quo, like to challenge the norm and get restless if they're not able to challenge the normal paradigms of traditional thinking.http://www.garybertwistle.com/Espresso.aspx?id=/9fdf6520-eb5b-4a8e-8730-4cb62999b24e6/05/2009