Elizabeth brings a very unique perspective to New Kind.  In high school, she was a spirited debater, sparking her interest in international affairs and economics. While working for a non-profit in Colorado founded by an “entrepreneurial philanthropist” she completed extensive research in corporate self-regulation and the business costs of piracy in Somalia.

While in Latin America, she completed research examining the effects of different economic and political models on the region’s history and people.  In Chile, she worked with a Chilean non-profit on gender issues.  And, she also worked on Capitol Hill as an aide to Congressman Cao from Louisiana during the time while Congress was considering major health care revisions.

The most interesting thing about Elizabeth is not “what she did”, but rather the fact that she did all of these things before she was 22 years old.  She has covered a lot of territory in a short period of time.

So, welcome to New Kind, Elizabeth!  We look forward to your ideas and contributions to the success of our clients and New Kind.

Today, I am pleased to announce the first New Kind Board of Advisors.

On this board we are honored to welcome a fantastic group of people who are recognized leaders in business, education, public policy, and technology. These individuals not only bring great wisdom and deep experience, but each has a genuine commitment to making our world a better place in which to live and work.

Here’s a brief introduction to the members of our Board of Advisors (click on a name or picture to access the complete bio).

Josh Becker, Palo Alto, CA

Josh is a venture capitalist, the Co-Founder and General Partner of New Cycle Capital, and a former employee at Netscape, McKinsey, and Agile Software.

Laura Carpenter Bingham, Raleigh, NC

Laura is the former President of Peace College and currently serves on a number of corporate, civic and philanthropic boards.

Paul Jones, Chapel Hill, NC

Paul is the director of ibiblio, a contributor-run, digital library of public domain and creative commons media in the Office of Information Technology Service at UNC-Chapel Hill where he is also Clinical Associate Professor.

Eric Reeves, Dallas, TX

Eric is an attorney and the Founder and Managing Director of High Bar Companies. He is also a former member of the North Carolina Senate.

Mark Webbink, Durham, NC

Mark is the former General Counsel of Red Hat and is a visiting professor of law and executive director of the Center for Patent Innovations at New York Law School.

You may ask, why does New Kind need a Board of Advisors? The short answer is that the board will provide advice, recommendations, and guidance to New Kind related to corporate goals and strategy.

But beyond that, we believe an outside board will make us a better company; better for our own personal growth and better for those organizations and companies that we are fortunate enough to call our clients.

We are humbled that these accomplished individuals are willing to invest their time and expertise in helping us build a great company.  And to our advisors I say, thank you for agreeing to serve.  We will do everything we can to exceed your expectations.

The Institute for Emerging Issues serves an important role in North Carolina, bringing people together to ensure North Carolina’s competitiveness on the global stage moving forward. Unlike many policy organizations, it does not merely sequester academics in a dusty room and speak in theory.

Every single person I spoke with walked away from the conference feeling optimistic about the future of North Carolina. The fact that 1.5 million North Carolinians are part of a generation that is more tech savvy, globally aware, giving and diverse than any that came before it is a sign that the future is bright.

The other realization for many at the forum was that the new world of interconnectivity and community isn’t a fad, but the direction in which the world is heading.

Robert Safian of Fast Company was the headline speaker on day one.He drove this realization home as he showcased many compelling statistics, case studies, and stories. Safian calls the generation we are living in “Generation Flux” and he made that clear as he showcased how, “chaotic disruption runs rampant, not simply from the likes of Apple, Facebook, and Google.”

The timeline for big, dramatic change is moving much faster than it has ever been. One glaring example is the global smartphone market. Safian noted in his keynote that Nokia, RIM, and Motorola completely dominated the market five years ago, while today Samsung and Apple are the absolute leaders.

No one would have predicted this change.

Nor would anyone have predicted that daily deals (e.g. Groupon) would take the world by storm, Zynga would become a billion dollar business built on social media games, AirBnB would become a credible option for vacationers to locate their next stop, or that Twitter would launch revolutions.

Safian noted that the seeds for this transformation were planted during the dot.com cycle of the late 90’s that went from boom to bubble rapidly. Fast Company was but one of dozens of magazines launched to cover this period in time.

In fact, Fast Company launched with the headline, “Work Is Personal. Computing Is Social. Knowledge Is Power.”

Some wrote off that cover—and sentiment—as a symptom of dot.com hysteria. What is clear today, however, is that they were right… about ten years too soon.

It would be easy to say that we are in just another bubble as social networking startups become large, publicly-traded companies. But, as Safian made clear, unlike last time these companies are producing billions in revenue.

And, as he indicated, the success, or failure, of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and others is irrelevant to the change that the world is going through.

Generation Flux isn’t going away, regardless of what happens to the companies that drive it. The entire world is being disrupted at a greater rate than ever before and organizations must adapt to thrive in an environment of continuous reinvention and rapid change.

Fortunately the future work force, the one comprised of Generation Z, is prepared to thrive in this environment.

The question that remains is whether or not the rest of us can thrive in it. Safian said that Generation Flux isn’t an age, but an attitude. Those organizations who can rise to the challenge in the midst of chaos, change, and disruption will win the day.

Is your organization one that can win the day in Generation Flux? We would love to hear about it.

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of speaking at the Internet Summit in the Raleigh Convention Center downtown. I participated in the session on Content, Design, and Usability, which brought out some very useful perspectives. Sherry Bastion of Lenovo set the stage with Digital Experiences that Build Brand, Loyalty and Sales, followed by Todd Moy of Viget Labs, who illuminatated The Secret World of Usability. I went next, discussing Web Design as a Strategic Tool, and Michael Gowan wrapped up with Maximizing the Impact of Content. Thanks to everyone for the feedback — tons of smart people there! 

I posted my presentation on SlideShare if you’re interested. I focused on shifting from designer as website maker to designer as catalyst, who can solve technical problems as well as act as facilitator through the adaptive challenges (or the messy problems) that organizations face these days. I illustrate four areas where catalysts can approach these challenges and 14 principles that will help:

1. Clarify complicated things to create meaning.
2. Align self interest with shared purpose to ensure motivation.
3. Inspire action through openness to inspire contributions.
4. Form with intent to find answers.

There’s also an opportunity to shift — building on the knowledge of user-centric design — towards a community-centric design model which focuses on designing conditions and opportunities for relationships.

My hope is that these thoughts highlight an evolving role the design-minded individual can play in building brands, solving tough problems, and finding opportunities in the coming years.

The article pits two experts who debate the issues involved. Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain defends the classic ubiquity argument—“with open systems, a company can court far more usage and mind share.”

Frog Design’s Mark Vandenbrink, in his best “Jane, you ignorant slut” voice, retorts that Apple’s closed system gives the company a competitive advantage by creating “a more perfect experience” for its customers.

Who’s right? They both are. Apple proves closed systems work. Red Hat proves that open systems work. Both can drive competitive advantage. The idea that one strategy is right and therefore one strategy is wrong is flawed.

Instead of falling for that argument, let’s note that these systems are ‘creative/innovation’ systems—not software ‘development’ systems. This is a more self aware mode of comparison and from this perspective we can choose to make trade offs based on which design system will align better for our specific strategy.

Apple’s closed system worked because the company embraced a high-level commitment to design thinking and design-as-form. The systems and artifacts they designed were created to be beautiful and highly ‘human’ (as opposed to engineered technology). Frog Design is an expert in this form of design. But this ‘closed’ system is very expensive, highly dependent upon one powerful, ‘visionary’ design leader. Few businesses possess such committed leadership.

On the other hand, design has always been a competitive strategy chosen by desperate players. It’s easy to forget now, but as recently as six years ago Apple was anything but a lock to survive. Much less thrive. With Microsoft enjoying 96% of the market, Apple was a desperate company.

Thankfully for Apple shareholders and fans alike, Jobs was the man for the job. His early exposure to design, coupled with finding his design soul mate, created the opportunity to succeed. But it was a highly risky strategy. And one that could have easily failed.

Red Hat shareholders and fans know that open systems also drive a competitive advantage. Indeed, Red Hat is proof positive that a small company with nothing to lose can use open strategies to great success. With competitors like Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Novell (remember them), this small player has become a billion dollar company…selling ‘free’ software. That’s a pretty compelling story on the competitiveness of openness.

It’s only fair to note that Apple has utilized more open strategies with its open iPhone application creative process. Less known is the fact that Apple operating systems have, for years, been based on the same open development community-driven processes that Red Hat’s enterprise software uses—even Apple didn’t start from scratch.

In the end, both companies succeeded because of the disciplined and courageous leadership of two non-conformist business leaders who shared an inherent (though differing) belief in ‘design’—Steve Jobs and Matthew Szulik. Fortunately for me, I had the opportunity to work directly with one of these men. And every day I enjoy the products and services the other helped create.

Open or closed? Yes.

One of the case studies we were assigned was Apple Computers, and during the review the professor asked how many of us thought Apple would still be around in 10 years.

This was 2005. Apple stock was trading at about $35 a share. It’s most recent product success was a strangely shaped desktop model available in tangerine and teal. Their laptops were incredibly overpriced, we were told. The iPod was just beginning to go mainstream and iTunes was still competing against “free.” The iPhone was just a gleam in Jobs’ eye. The iPad? All we knew was the Newton had been a colossal failure.

But this was an audience of 50 designers. Those of us who were old enough had purchased an SE. We loved the 1984 commercial. And we had been wearing black long before Steve Jobs adopted our look. Every hand was raised. Quickly. Confidently. No hesitation.

The HBS professor, who resembled Bill Gates younger, geekier brother, chuckled. Actually, I think it might be more accurate to say he giggled. Clearly he was amused at this congregation of misfits and their silliness. “I have to tell you” he confessed, “I teach this case study quite often and I always ask this question. Never do I get more than one of two people to raise their hand. I really can’t imagine Apple will be around in ten years.”

I suspect he doesn’t ask that question anymore.

Thank you, Steve. Thank you for reminding us that wealth can be created by creating value, not simply capturing and pocketing the value others have created while injuring or killing the very ecosystem that lead to its creation.

Thank you, Steve, for showing that CEOs don’t have to play the ‘next quarter/uncertainty’ Wall Street game. That building a sustainable business demands you take a longer perspective than next quarter’s bonus and stock options.

Thank you, Steve, for proving, once and for all, that a CEO who has the courage to commit—nay, insist—on employing design as strategy can not only succeed, but kick ass.

New Kind is currently seeking someone interested in gaining on-the-job experience learning how to build brands and communities in a non-traditional way.

Did your marketing, advertising, or public relations classes in college leave you feeling like you were studying history? Do you sense that there is a big shift underway that most companies you’ve interviewed with don’t quite understand?

About New Kind

We are a new kind of agency guiding organizations on a journey toward more effective ways of operating in a changing world. Some might call us a communications agency, a design studio, even a management consulting or innovation strategy firm. We embrace those labels. But we prefer to think of ourselves as community catalysts, helping organizations solve 21st century problems and create 21st century opportunities.

Our mission is to inspire communities of passion—whether outside or inside organizations. 
When people collaborate as a community with a shared vision and purpose, amazing things can happen.

Read more about us in this recent story from the Raleigh News & Observer.

About the Internship

This is a paid temporary position, located in our office in Raleigh, North Carolina. It will begin as soon as we find the right candidate. We are looking for folks that meet the following criteria:

• strong writing skills (we’ll want to see examples of your work)
• active in 21st century communication channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
• college graduate with degree in a related field (like communications, marketing, business, and journalism) or a degree in a totally unrelated field (but with an awesome story for why you’d be a good fit anyway)
• natural curiosity and willingness to take on anything from important proposals and complex brand positioning projects to administrivia like scheduling meetings or cleaning whiteboards (if it’s good enough for our CEO, it’s good enough for you:)
• a strong design sensibility and appreciation for what good design can do
• experience building presentations in Keynote or Powerpoint
• previous experience leading or participating in online or real world communities (personal or professional are both valuable)

In this position, you’ll have the opportunity to work on a broad spectrum of projects, with a particular focus on helping our Director of Operations and Director of Poetics. Typical projects may include research, scheduling/coordination, writing, editing, proposal development, presentations, and general office work. But we’ll also be eager to work with people who can stretch the limits—you may be able to help us in ways we haven’t even figured out yet. We are excited about that.

How to Apply

If you are interested in being considered for this internship, please send an email to chris(at)newkind.com or connect with me via Twitter.

Please attach your resume and some samples of your writing work (or send links to where we can find them on the web). Also include some thoughts in your email about why you are an ideal candidate.

We look forward to hearing from you.

We were very excited that New Kind was featured in Sunday’s News & Observer. The article profiled New Kind’s non-traditional approach to branding and strategy.

We were especially proud of the very kind words from some wonderful people and organizations we work with: Kevin Trapani, CEO of Redwoods, Denise Gonzales Crisp, co-chair of the identity committee for the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, and Madhu Beriwal, CEO of IEM. And of course, a special thank you to Matthew Szulik, former Chairman and CEO of Red Hat.

You can read the article here.