by YannigRoth

My favorite holiday reads from Cambodia

Koh Rong Samloen ReadingI originally started this blog to share thoughts, reads and conferences that I found worthwhile writting about. It turns out that my last book review dates almost 2 years back, so it’s time to write about books again! Just came back from 2 weeks of really relaxing holidays in Cambodia, a beautifull country that has much more to offer than the magnificient temples of Angkor.

I have spent quite some time reading – as I do under that palm tree on the picture – and I ended up wanting to write a blog post about 4 of the books I have enjoyed most during our holidays, 2 of which are about Cambodia’s tumultuous history. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Steep learning curve: My first years as a manager

NB Equipe WiSEED Toulouse_1_small

Photo by Pauline de Courrèges (via WiSEED)

4 years ago, HBR wrote that “most people don’t want to be managers” ; and more recently I’ve read a number of articles about Millennials not wanting to become managers neither. Despite these studies and trend reports, I always saw a management position as a logical next step in my career, and I am happy to lead the marketing function (team and agencies) at WiSEED.

My first 2-and-a-half years as a manager haven’t always been easy, and part of it can be linked to still being a young professional. Here are some learnings that I am happy to share about managing people, sometimes older than you (even though that mustn’t always be taken into consideration), when you haven’t hit the 30y. mark. Many mistakes, many successes and a very steep learning curve.

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by YannigRoth

In August: SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Target’s Vision Connect App & Investors’ Crypto Awakening

target app

Milkos/iStock via FastCompany.com

Here are some very interesting summer reads I would like to spread the word about. A cool portrait of a Japanese star-investor, a fabulous co-creative tool used by the American supermarket chain Target, a rather sad article about deceived crypto investors and more. I still enjoy reading about tech, growth and the challenges brought along by success and growth. It’s so easy to look at companies and their policies in hindsight and/or from the outside, criticizing their choices and policies. But one ought to remember that people build companies, and that people are limited, biased, imperfect trying to make the most of themselves and the organizations they work for. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

In July: Sponsoring the Lakers, watching #TDF2018 while working & vaporware horseshit

Zoox Bloomberg Businessweek PrintIn July, we became FIFA World Champions and the Tour de France has provided us with 3 great, entertaining weeks of racing. In this post I share my 5 favorites articles of the month: why Wish sponsors the LA Lakers, how Dribble’s product team works, where Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku comes from, when Airbnb adopted storyboards and what “vaporware horseshit” product Zoox’s team is working on. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

In May/June: Direct-to-Consumer Models, Agility At Scale & Teaching Alexa French

Warby Parker DTC article INC

Image via Inc.com

May & June have been busy months, and therefore I am combining my favorite reads of both months in this single blog post. Again, most articles discuss business strategy in web-driven environments (Warby Parker, Zalando…) but also some stories about user experience, culture or investing in the media.  Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

In April: @WSJ about Finance, @TakieDelaRu about Homelessness & @Sunweb’s Indefinite Sponsorship

tom dumoulin

Photo by Tim De Waele, via Cyclingnews.com

Today, Tom Dumoulin rolled into Pink at the Giro d’Italia (held in Jerusalem!). I know, this is May, not April… but I mention this because one of my favorite pieces of news in April is about Sunweb’s sponsorship engagement. His team has signed an unprecedented new agreement with its title sponsor, which will back the team on an indefinite basis. Other cool articles are about artificial intelligence, the evolution of finance in the last 10 years… or a very moving Russian animation about homeless people.

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by YannigRoth

In March: Print News, Silicon Valley’s Privacy & Christopher Wylie’s Story

wylie 2

Just five article that I found worthwhile sharing for March, and – of course – one is about Cambridge Analytica, co-founded by whistleblower Christopher Wylie. Also: a timely but unrelated piece about Silicon Valley’s culture of sercecy, an op-ed about reading news (only) in print and more.
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