The Incredible Power of a Well-Formed Partnership
By Fard Johnmar, Founder, Enspektos, and Advisory Board Member, Society for New Communications of The Conference Board
Our culture has long celebrated the lone genius who — by sheer force of will —transforms companies, industries, mindsets and even civilizations. One of these celebrated individuals is the late Steve Jobs. Nearly 20 years ago, he returned to lead Apple, which was a company undergoing a slow decline. In the space of a few years, he helped to radically transform Apple, streamlining its product offerings and articulating (and executing) a clear and compelling vision for the company.
Jobs is so admired that one might think he accomplished this daunting task entirely on his own. But, Jobs himself would be quick to reject this assertion. He knew, as well as anyone, that it takes a team, a global village, to transform a multinational company. And, Jobs was very fortunate to work with some of the best and brightest in the technology industry.
Jobs’ team-oriented approach is clearly displayed in this video, filmed just before Apple’s famous “Think Different” campaign was released in 1997. During the meeting shown in the video, Jobs speaks warmly about how “we” and “the team” did an incredible job putting together what was to become known as an iconic marketing initiative.
Just like Jobs I have also benefited from the many people who have supported my — oftentimes ambitious — work over the last decade. One of my earliest collaborators was Jen McClure, who when I met her in 2006 had just launched the Society for New Communications Research. At the time I had just published the results of a global study focusing on the rise of healthcare blogs. The study was gaining some attention and I asked her if there was any way we could collaborate to further publicize the results of the survey. She immediately saw the potential of this early work in what would come to be known as the digital health arena and agreed to help me prepare a report about the study that was accepted for publication in the Journal of New Communications Research.
Over the years, I’ve continued to collaborate with SNCR on a range of important initiatives and I’ve found the partnership to be incredibly rewarding and beneficial for both sides. And, when I learned about its merger with The Conference Board I knew that while SNCR would be entering into a new era, the additional resources, reach and focus this new partnership would bring to the organization would be immensely valuable.
As a SNCR Senior Fellow, Advisory Board member and long-time digital health researcher, I’m especially excited about having new opportunities to work with The Conference Board and its vast network of leaders to shed new light on how technology is reshaping health, medicine and wellbeing globally.
More importantly, I know that this new partnership will help extend SNCR’s ten-year record of delivering high-impact research and insights across multiple industries. I’m looking forward to working with the new Society for New Communications Research of The Conference Board as it builds on this tradition of success over the next decade.