Tag / cycling

by YannigRoth

Wisdom for entrepreneurs: The main causes of personal failure, according to Napoleon Hill

I am passionate about self development, and it is particularly relevant now that, as an entrepreneur, I am responsible of my own success. Remember how I shared Benjamin Franklin’s routine (1909)? I am even ore interested by words of wisdom coming from the past, detached from the modern world and its sense of immediacy.

Earlier this year, I cycled through Cambodia by myself, from one WILD to another, and I had ample time to read and reflect on Napoleon Hill’s « 13 Keys To Success – 13 Steps to Personal Achievement » I found at a Phnom Penh book store. It was published in the 1990’s but contains lifelong ideas from the author, who advised President Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936 and died in 1970 after decades of dispensing his thoughts to millions across the globe.

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by YannigRoth

Can responsible sports sponsoring increase brand equity? Help a student find out (take his survey)

Many years ago, I started this blog to write about cycling and sports sponsoring. It was my passion, in in some way still is. I have written about charity sports sponsoring or a Breton cycling team’s sponsors in 2009, or about one of my students’ masters thesis about female sports in 2015, or Sunweb’s “indefinite” cycling sponsoring agreement in 2018 (it lasted a couple of years only).

I have been less active in past years, especially on this blog, which receives less attention than in my years as a curious, avid student & cyclist. WordPress blogs are for boomers anyway, right? Anyway, I recently got referred to a very smart student who is investigating the cycling industry – especially the notion of sponsoring.

His name is Skylar Ross, he’s a master’s student at ESCE in Paris, and he’s majoring in international marketing, conducting his thesis investigation on brand equity, loyalty and effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives within professional road cycling teams.

I’m publishing this post to support him. With a passion for the sport and industry, I encourage all cycling fans and supporters who read me to take 5 minutes to answer his survey.

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by YannigRoth

I cycled through France & Spain for 1 month, here are my 10 preferred, cycling-friendly places to stay

Departure day in Paris, on June 15th

Bikepacking is one of the latest trends in cycling-land, like gravel racing or the development of the e-bike. Interestingly, these various trends all play towards individuals’ desire for more freedom and discovery, away from performance and technicality.

As I was going through a phase of professional transition, a break in which some thinking time was very welcome, I took the opportunity to embark on a self-organized 2800km #TourdeFranceSolo in 21 stages, spread out over a duration of 1 month.

I set out to a journey that combined visiting family & friends, riding some of this year’s Tour de France stages, and simply testing myself on places I always dreamed to ride in, like the Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux climbs.

Here is a really home-made video of my journey, which I purposefully wanted to keep on paper, and below I’m sharing 10 great places I discovered along the way. I found them through a combination of Les Collectionneurs, Airbnb & Google Maps-based hotel or Bed & Breakfast search. I can reassure you that all of them were very cycling-friendly, which was obviously important for me!

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by YannigRoth

Articles I enjoyed in the last five (!) months: Switching jobs, the risk of VC investment & Parisian etiquette

paris etiquetteThe last blog post I wrote about my favorite articles dates 5 months back. It feels like an eternity.

These have been pretty eventful: I switched from one tech company to another, have taken time for myself between both jobs, picked up running quite seriously again, spent a lot of time reading, and – now – we’re in the midst of a global pandemic. Crazy. Let me share 10 tweets from the last five months… which may or may not be related to the above events. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

In January: @Kquesen Social Media Advice, @FManjoo About Facebook & @Snapchat’s Data

cookies broccoli NYTimes

Happy new year to all my readers! I wish you a joyfull, fulfilling, stimulating and healthy year 2018. A propos healthy… one of my favorite January reads is a NY Times article that compares Facebook’s news feed to food (cookies or broccoli). Farhad Manjoo writes that no food is toxic in itself – and no feed is either – what counts is how much of it we consume and how relevant is it to our lives. Other articles I found worthwhile sharing are Campbell Flakemore’s testimonial about stopping his pro cycling career – food is part of it – and an article about Snapchat’s user data… and corporate culture. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

In November: @Vontz about Strava, @RosabethKanter about Strategy & @WarrenBarguil about Life

Warren BARGUIL (France / Team Sunweb) pictured during the 104th Tour de France 2017 - stage 18 from Briançon to Izoard, 179.50 km - foto VK/PN/Cor Vos © 2017

November’s digest contains 6 articles: 2 about product strategy (Strava & Facebook), 1 about debunking fake viral stories (Facebook), 1 about management, 1 about a prominent cyclist’s outlook on life, and 1 about a really cool photography project. Let me wish you – reader – a great, loving and fulfilling month of December.
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by YannigRoth

My Favorites in October: LVMH and Cycling, Derek Black’s Story & Donald Trump’s Revolutionaries

Image via Bettmann Archive

Derek Black’s father, 1982 (via Bettmann Archive)

This month again, a bunch of great articles about marketing, management, sports sponsoring or financial innovation. The usual suspects. But, in the wake of the U.S. election, also two long, important articles about U.S. nationalism in the broad sense. The first is a lengthy article about Derek Black, who turned his back to white nationalism as he met co-students from other cultures and beliefs. The second is about the follower crowd of Donald Trump, depicted as a heterogeneous – and sometimes sympathetic – group of people opposing a variety of contemporary realities (from immigration to media) with little alternatives to offer. May these two be as interesting to you as they were to me.
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