The greatest trick Steve Jobs ever pulled was getting us to use his phone as the benchmark for all phones. They make a good benchmark of course: best experience, best industrial design and best ecosystem. Best for developed nations (and the developed...
You're going to hear a lot of talk about "ecosystems" as Windows Phone 7 (Microsoft's new SmartPhone Operating System) starts to gain momentum. An ecosystem is a pretty critical element of the modern technology landscape, worth getting to grips with....
Ok, I'll admit it. I'm biased against the current crop of Nokia smartphones. I just think they're crap -- and maybe that's because I'm a "power user" (although sometimes I think my levels of frustration exceed the everyday consumer). Or maybe it's ju...
BROKEN BRAND PROMISE #1: With claims service so fast, it’ll be as if it never happened.
BROKEN BRAND PROMISE #2: We care about you, and we protect you.
I actually like Outsurance's new set of TV campaigns (see below). They're catchy, witty and ...
Reading an extract of Gary Vaynerchuk's new book, The Thank You Economy. You can grab the same extract here. First thoughts, it looks a lot better written than the first. More mature. Excited.
Here's a paragraph:
At its core, social media requi...
I so badly wanted to like this phone. In my world, Nokia just hasn't cracked it since the E71. That phone rocked my world. Nothing has since, and it seems that until Symbian has been rudely shoved aside, this situation will remain.
Here's a quick ...
Nokia was kind enough to send me some rad bluetooth headphones, and more importantly, a R200 gift voucher for the Nokia Ovi Store (the artist formerly known as The Nokia Music Store). I did a quick interview with Jake Larsen when the store launched a...
Disclosure: Tim Britz, the brand manager at Clarins who kindly gave me this interview is a personal friend, and is probably on Foursquare because of my incessant hounding. I have no current commercial ties to Clarins South Africa.
Congrats on gett...
I had a very strange experience today. It was a warm winter's day, and we had a fire going outside. Glass of wine in hand, I was fiddling around with my iPhone (as one does -- usually to one's wife's discontent) -- specifically a cult favourite app o...
"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Writing this post has taken a long time (and it's a long post). It's one of those opinion pieces that moves dangerously be...
Andy Hadfield is a digital native (can’t remember life without the Internet) and is fascinated with the impact it is having on our lives and businesses. An entertaining and compelling personality, Andy speaks with authority and insight about the new shape of life, work and play in the digital world.
Importantly though, he’s not a “techie”! Andy understands the hard realities of business, and delivers pragmatic, realistic lessons from the future, which every business will find valuable. His intensive front-line experience underpins these viewpoints.
He has played in every corner of the digital industry, launching his first startup at age 19 - getALife (gAL) was a social network before the word was even invented. The site was a political and community mouthpiece for South African students between 1997 and 2005 and was covered on every major media platform, including Time Magazine. It also has the dubious honour of being sued by Robert Mugabe.
He then spent the next 7 years honing his strategic skills across a range of industries, including finance, professional services, construction and media. With The Virtual Works, this included building the digital platform that underpins “The Deloitte Way”, a real time strategic assessment, staff engagement and reward programme. He was also involved in creating Africa’s first monetised niche social network (www.designmind.co.za) which drives communication and collaboration across the construction industry.
At First National Bank, Andy helped develop a team to manage digital strategy across the consumer banking segment. This included projects such as corporate crowdsourcing, the bank's first official FaceBook presence, a major overhaul of www.fnb.co.za and a world-class “Amazon-style” online sales system for financial products.
Since 2010, he founded and operates www.OneBigWidget.com, a boutique strategic consultancy and stable of pioneering digital projects. You can find him on www.andyhadfield.com or tweeting his love for cricket, wine and the new style of business on www.twitter.com/andyhadfield.
