I always love reading year-end “Best Of” lists. And also to hear, or read, what others are looking forward to in the coming year.
So here’s my take on it – a mixture of professional and personal highlights from 2018, and what I am looking forward to in 2019.
Best of 2018:
Best brand of the year: Epic Games free-to-play digital-game “Fortnite.” Because it upended most of the norms in video games, and deeply understood its players.
Best business book: Scale by Geoffrey West.
Best non-business book: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.
Best movie: Mary Poppins Returns (OK so I am sentimental!)
Best streaming series: Stranger Things
Best business journalism: “How CEOs Manage Time” by Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria in Harvard Business Review.
Most interesting person I interviewed: Susan Somersille Johnson of SunTrust Banks
Best sporting moment: What else? Roger Federer winning the Australian Open
Best family moment: Climbing across the 4600-meter Salkantay Pass on hike to Machu Picchu.
Best business trip: Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity… for lots of obvious reasons!
Best fitness routine: Cardio Tennis
Worst-timed stock picks: GE and Facebook
Best new city visited: Cuzco, Peru
And for 2019…
What I am looking forward to:
Business books to read (not all new): Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, New to Big by Christina Wallace and David Kidder, Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson
Other books: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, 10% Happier by Dan Harris, Becoming by Michelle Obama
Business trip: Okinawa and Tokyo for a series of seminars and visits
Movies: They Shall Not Grow Old, Dumbo
Streaming series: Stranger Things (hurry please!), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
New (to me) fitness routine: Orange Theory
New habit: Eating “The Whole 30” way – beginning January 2!
Business projects:
- Progressing a new Jim Stengel Group R&D project on purpose measurement and assessment to help leaders sustain their purpose-centered approach
- Pioneering a new marketing effectiveness leadership program with the EFFIE organization on the occasion of its 50th anniversary
- Launching a new book with the Kellogg School at Northwestern on branding in a hyperconnected world
- Working on some concepts for a new book – my third
Personal passion project: Renovating a 1920s beach house
Family event: Son’s wedding later this year!
Happy New Year!
