Ironically, Nicole does not refer to herself as an innovator. In her eyes, the innovators are the ones who are curing cancer and reducing the world’s impact on the environment. However this self-professed “irresistible force against immovable objects” is a Cannes-Lions Gold Lion award-winning marketer who for 13 years has gotten to play in a sandbox filled with social scientists, technology makers, and a gigantic portfolio of brands and partners.
Every day, 1000’s of new bright-eyed and bushy tailed companies sprout from depths of start-up soil. Some are formed in incubators, and some are the results of a few cocktails and some ink on a napkin. Others come from angry laid-off executives, and even some stem from the optimistic naiveté of college and high school students. Like a song on the radio, we never quite know how some blow up and become chart topping billion-dollar organizations while others – even crowd favorites – simply bang, pop and fizzle; never to be heard from again.
“Innovation to me is new ways of connecting people, especially people who are not yet connected.” -Jeff Gomez
When most of us think of AT&T (or most telecommunications companies), we immediately go into tirades about things like how our phone calls always drop at that one spot on the freeway, or how our cable went out a few times last month, or how much we’ll be rebelling against the price of roaming charges for using our tablet in another country. Unfortunately most of us don’t realize, or perhaps appreciate, what it takes to keep millions upon millions of people – literally all over the planet – connected to the people, places and things we love… 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
The more technology draws us closer to each other, the more we find that the proverbial “American Dream” no longer resides only in America. All around the world, individuals are empowering one another to do the incredible.
