Death by Kinko’s

And while in New York we needed to do something pretty straight forward…make 40 copies of a document. How hard can that be? A google search shows more Kinko’s in any given square mile than Starbucks – that’s saying something…

I just read about the messy marriage of Fedex and Kinko’s and I was about to experience it first hand. Off we go to do said photocopying when we discover not one but every single black and white copier inoperable. They each needed ink, lens cleaning a group hug, I dunno. The staff tried their darndest but despite being literally surrounded by photocpiers, were unable to reproduce our document streak free. So off we trooped to another Kinko’s to find the same issue. Streaky copies…we eventually (at around 11pm) had the Kinko’s folks do the copies for us and we picked them up the next day.

The icing on the cake was that they had no way of binding the documents…just paperclips…no bull clips, nothing. They didn’t even sell them! So off to a paper supply store to get clips. Blood pressure at a million over one by this point!! And then we collate, collate, collate and just make it to our meeting!

Everybody breath….

Conflict of interest

Our youngest, Harper is 2.5. Last week he decided he was over diapers. Hasn’t been in the product for 7 days now. And I though he was a team player…

The face of Interface

One of my true heroes is Ray Anderson – the CEO of Interface carpets. Carpet making is a messy business. Ray has been in the business for 50 years. 14 years ago at the age of 60, he was asked what his view on sustainability was. He drew a complete blank. Since then he has transformed his company into a business at the cutting edge of sustainability. Drawing on Bill McDonough’s Cradle to Cradle principles and bio mimicry, his carpet design and facilities are the gold standard in sustainability.

I was lucky enough to meet hiim at a marketing conference last week. It was such a thrill to meet someone I have read so much about. He was the keynote speaker and his words made all of us really sit up and think. Needless to say he received a standing ovation. He is truly inspirational.

One big omission…

I failed to report on a terrific afternoon Kim and I had in Santa Monica, at an event to launch the new brand and name of CHEC – the non profit we support. Their new name is Healthy Child and they do great things to help keep homes safe for kids.
The event was held at the fabulous home of Steve Glenn. His home is the very first Platinum Leeds standard home in America. And his business – Living Homes – is in the business of making these homes for everybody. As he says, they are “nature made, factory built”. They are prefabricated offsite and then the team arrives onsite and puts it together – just like lego, kinda. His home took 8 hours to erect and you just have to watch the tour here. It is beautiful!

The kids at work at gDiapers

Spring has sprung and the Village has been out tilling the fields…

The Business of Being Born

Wow – what a great movie. It was just the right balance of data and expert opinion revealing the state of birth in the US, real experiences of Mums and Dads and their birthing stories, the view from a midwife and an Obgyn’s eye and humour. Yes humour – they had that fabulous clip from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life and the machine that goes ping.
I was really surprised you can make a movie that hammers home a point so well while being entertaining and not preachy. Just the facts.
The film is in the top 10 for audience popularity – if it wins the audience choice award, they get another
viewing tomorrow. And then it is off to a Cinemax near you.

A touch of De Niro

Kimmo and I are in NYC for the day – gotta love that JetBlue redeye. With 42 channels free it is just so hard to get any shut eye. We are here as a sponsor of a film that has been shortlisted for the Tribeca Film Festival. The film “The Business of Being Born” is by Rikki Lake of talk show fame. Her first birth involved a 30 hour labour and a world of intervention – drugs, C-section the whole nine yards with lots of machines that go ping. Her second was just the reverse: midwife, at home in a pool. It is a subject close to our hearts. We had both our kids in a pool at home with a midwife. One in Australia and one in the US.
We are setting up for a post launch party in Tribeca and will then choof off to the cinema to see it. Should be fun!

All sizzle, no sausage?

Dot com business plans were derided as all sizzle, no sausage. Joel Makower makes the case for the recent media focus on green business being less bubble-ish. There’s much more sausage with all the recent sizzle. Mmmm… is it lunch time yet?

Someone ran off with our company

And they are known as customers like these two champions – Jenn and Melissa in Virgina who said “we wanna help”! So we said sure and they cruised along to their local Whole Foods and spread the gospel. And then they recruited customers and now those customers are wanting to help. I think my job is in jeopardy here…I wonder what the market is like for wsshed up flushable diaper executives?

Three-peat

The Aussies sealed the deal in Kensington over a lack lustre Sri Lanka to make it a record three-peat in World Cup Cricket. Muralitharan’s doosra failed to mezmerize an at last in-form Gilchrist who smashed 149 from 104 balls including 13 fours and 8 sixes. It was like Wrigley last week…
To Chris and Amber who enjoyed the Direct TV Lounge including pastries washed down with pink champagne and IPA – thanks for coming. See you back here in November for the World Cup Rugby live from France.