Carefully Folded Business Plan: What We Can Learn From Gap’s Failures

By Richard Laermer, Guest Author I was watching an old TV show from last year –gosh, my TiVo has so much stored it could have been from two years ago– and found myself gawking at a super-colorful Sarah J Parker dancing and carousing to “I Just Love Being a Girl” in a really horrible ad

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The State of Taboo, 2008

By Richard Laermer, Guest Author I just spent two years studying trends in the near future for “2011: Trendspotting,” my new book from McGraw-Hill (www.Laermer.com). Taboos are changing. There are not as many of them—and the ones existing will surprise you, make you think twice before going down certain roads.

Hello, Narrative: How America Builds and Tears

It isn’t the downfall we crave – it’s the Grand Story. We are a culture of Fabulists and Fictionalists and Dreamers and Absolutists. Our mediasphere behaves accordingly