Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Give Vilfredo Pareto More Respect

In 1906 Vilfredo Pareto made the observation that 80% of the property in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. With further embellishment, this morphed into the Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule, which posits that for many phenomena, 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes. It's also called the law of […]

Learn More October 26, 2006

Two (Make That Three) Things That Kill Marketing Creativity

Marketing creativity is a favorite theme of Seth Godin's, and his comments here nail it. Still, to his two creativity killers, I'd add a third: Fearful, unimaginative bosses.

Learn More

Madonna Deserves A Raise

Madonna is being villified for seeking to adopt an orphaned Malawi child. Here, from the Chicago Tribune, is a typical article, which disparagingly concludes: “When the public tires of Madonna’s latest exploit and the media moves on to something else, little will have changed for Malawi and the million orphans she left behind.” To which […]

Learn More October 25, 2006

Pass The Dopamine, Please

In an article titled “The Joy of Giving,” The Economist reports on brain research that seeks to explain the mental processes involved in making donations. Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke used a standard technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging to map the brain activity that occurred when test subjects were […]

Learn More October 24, 2006

The Philanthropy 400

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has released its annual Philanthropy 400 survey. Get your hands on the full report. But here, from the publicly released summary, are some highlights that impressed The Agitator: Donations to the largest 400 charities grew by 13% in 2005, to $62.7 billion (the second year of double digit growth … 2004 […]

Learn More October 23, 2006

If A Tree Falls In The Forest …

… and no one is there to hear it, was there a sound? I can't make up my mind. Should I be following the meltdown of the ACLU for lessons in how a venerable nonprofit brand can self-destruct? Or is this internecine warfare merely “inside baseball” as one ACLU ally put it … real only […]

Learn More October 22, 2006