18Jul 2010 by Aaron Templer No Comments

Box thinking

Branding, Strategy
It was my pleasure to write a guest post for a fairly new and very cool blog called Sundayed.com. You can check out my post here. The post is a reflection of my ongoing interest in bridging the left and right-directed minds. I try to use the trumpet and improvisation as a way to illustrate how even in creative pursuits, we all deal with context and in fact it can create greatness. This is something the creative mind understands very deeply. But sometimes when context is presented in a business setting, creatives find the constraints instead of the inspiration. Or least mine did for long time. Thanks for checking it out. Consider adding Sundayed to your RSS feed: a good site to feed the brain.
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09Mar 2010 by Aaron Templer No Comments

The beginning of the new bottom line

Marketing, Social Capital, Strategy
[caption id="attachment_1823" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="There is no bottom line anymore. It zigs, zags, and blurs."][/caption] Can we agree that there’s a category of enterprises that needs more concise branding? Call it social entrepreneurship, call it social impact, call it sustainable development. That yet-to-be defined category (even beyond L3C) of enterprises that care less about its status as Profit or Non-Profit and more about the contribution it makes to our world. (more…)
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08Dec 2009 by Aaron Templer No Comments

Great brands happen between the eighth notes

Branding, Creative Mind, Strategy
[caption id="attachment_1066" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="AT school with the Marcus Roberts Trio*."][/caption] This is a long post. But if you're in the mood for talking a little music and getting some groove and swing up in in your approach to branding, then I appreciate you settling in. The Marcus Roberts trio has been together for some fifteen years. They occupy a place in American music that combines the maintenance of tradition and honoring the past with a highly innovative interplay of harmony, space, and rhythm. And they’re heavy pros. Serious technique. If you haven’t heard Marcus walk a bass line with his left hand while improvising with his right you’re missing out on some joy in your life. I’ve shared a playlist on iTunes with a sample. Check it out. But…
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14Apr 2009 by Aaron Templer No Comments

Here’s to the roughnecks

Leadership, Strategy
I went to Ghana thinking I was open-minded about people and different cultures. I mean, I’m from the center of the universe (Boulder, Colorado). I’m married to someone from India. I listen to jazz music. I use a Mac. I have stubble. I’m hip. I’m down. I figured one of the student outcomes of this trip would be a little mind-expansion that comes from interacting with a different culture. That it would be good for the students to learn and experience people who look and live very differently than they do. I was wrong. I was the one needing a little of that educating. Many Newmont expats come from raw materials and excavation industries. Oil and mining mostly. Rough guys with tough backgrounds. Blue collar women who know what it's…
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