Blog

I recently binge watched Amazon’s new take on Tom Clancy’s CIA-analyst-turned-field-operative, Jack Ryan (played by John Krasinksi, formerly John Halper in “The Office”). Early in episode one, when the higher-ups at the C.I.A. strongarm Ryan to strap on a SIG-Sauer P226 and hop on a plane to fight terrorists in Yemen, he delivers his takeRead more

To my ear, tone-deaf communications reached new decibel levels in 2018, with the tech world contributing mightily to the noise. It was a shrieking cacophony of a year, brimming with inept statements, videos, tweets and posts that offended, hurt, angered or baffled the intended audience—inevitably, to the utter amazement of the tone-challenged communicators. “Tone-deaf” inRead more

I had the opportunity to attend my first Content Marketing World in Cleveland a few months back and I was really energized by the quality of the sessions, the closing keynote by the inimitable Tina Fey, and also just the sheer number of attendees. So many content marketers, all eager to share best practices andRead more

I love it when a plan comes together. While any day is a good day to quote “The A-Team,” Hannibal Smith’s catch phrase feels particularly appropriate as we announce our newest A-Team member – and as I reflect on Big Valley’s journey over the past four and a half years. As most of you know,Read more

I recently helped my folks pack up and move to a new place. During the packing and purging of decades of accumulated stuff, my Mom invited me to peruse the bookshelves and take anything of interest—one of my picks was Deadline Artists, an anthology and celebration of some of America’s greatest newspaper columns throughout history.Read more

Misalignment is the scourge of the modern marketing department, and it’s no surprise why: So many channels to manage with no way to predict the customer journey. Highly fragmented roles and teams executing on compressed time cycles. Intense pressure to drive business impact, while staff are drowning in disconnected data and unclear strategy. The problemRead more

It took longer than people expected, but the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) came down hard on Theranos yesterday — banning the company and its CEO from owning or operating a medical lab for two years. As I’ve written before, this is an important story for Silicon Valley business and marketing leaders toRead more

Unicorns aren’t dead yet, though some would like them to be. Others claim we’re now in a “post-unicorn” world. Whatever the future holds, the class of $1B+ private companies continues to expand and contract weekly – providing a valuable microcosm to understand today’s tech trends and startup dynamics. To that end, we’re launching the first complete study thatRead more

Silicon Valley continues to be in the news for the wrong reasons. Theranos is the leading culprit – though not the only one – and it’s important for Valley companies to track what’s happening in the broader communications environment. Crises rarely just impact one company. They tend to drag down a category of like companies (at leastRead more

Silicon Valley has been in the hot seat recently, with several companies facing major and minor media firestorms. Tesla was accused of using low-paid foreign labor for its factories. Facebook is defending itself against charges of editorial bias. Palantir is responding (or not) to staff turnover and customer satisfaction questions. And Theranos is battling a series of disclosures aboutRead more