At the Heart of Change

Melissa was a featured speaker at Q Talks: Live!, an energizing event series featuring thought-provoking talks from Quinlan faculty, alumni, and friends. In her talk called “At the Heart of Change,” Melissa discusses how the pressure to evolve and change is as constant for business leaders as the innovation that’s driving it. Reflecting on almost… Read more »

Lessons in Daring

We celebrated our 18th birthday this June. Eighteen is when we enter adulthood, an age at which most of us start coming into our own. It’s a milestone that offers a chance to reflect as well as think about the future and how we’ll choose to grow up. Here are a few simple takeaways that… Read more »

Turning a passion for great ideas into a new product

My team and I are in the business of ideas. As a branding and strategy company, we constantly use creative thinking to develop new names, concepts, models and stories that help people with vision communicate their ideas. Two years ago, we launched the Creative Challenge­—an internal initiative where team members paired up and got $10,000… Read more »

Innovate Authentically: The importance of purpose when trying something new

The below article was featured in The Economist’s 2016 Innovation Forum event summary. Blue Daring partnered with The Economist to host the Forum in Chicago this Spring. The Forum brings together today’s leading thinkers to envision how companies can transform and adapt to flourish tomorrow. While adopting a culture of innovation has many benefits like product… Read more »

Your Products Don’t Matter

Your brand’s value is not what you make or what you do. It’s certainly not your tagline. Your brand’s value is the net change your business catalyzes in your customer’s life—the purpose and goal of your products or services. Through this lens, Tesla does not make cars, but rather energy efficient solutions. Waste Management does not… Read more »

Growth: The Sweetest of Deaths

If you have ever fallen in love with a restaurant, you’ll know about the heartbreak of crushed expectations when you visit them after their time in the spotlight. Why is it that the minute restaurants have to cater to a lot of people quickly, they lose the very thing that made them famous to begin… Read more »

Words Are Never Enough

While sitting at the Hyatt in Belgrade last month, I had an epiphany. My kuma Katarina, who I was meeting for coffee, walks in. We hug, say hello and she says: “You look good.” That afternoon I had my glasses on (which I never wear out of my home) and so I said “Are you… Read more »

Launching the New Blue: Lessons from Our Refresh

Many of you know the saying the shoemaker always goes barefoot. For those who don’t it means when a craftsman does not do for himself what he does for others. I started to feel that way about our brand. While our core philosophy has gone unchanged, the last five years [since our re-brand] have been so… Read more »

Want to Piss Off Your Vendors? Do These 5 Things

I love all of our clients… but that hasn’t always been the case. Sometimes the most exciting opportunities never get off the ground just because the people behind it, quite simply, lack vision. Over 10 years running Blue Daring has taught me (and I am certain many of you) that the best work and outcomes… Read more »