The Joy of Wandering

Wrapping up my 3rd week of interning at Participant Media means I'm nearly 1/2 way through my time in LA! I had planned to update the blog more while I'm here, but I've been so immersed in the experience that it has been challenging to put it to words!

One of my favorite things in the whole-wide-world is to be in a new city and simply wander around, noticing the details and soaking up its unique history and culture. The vastness of LA, with its pockets of cities and neighborhoods, is the perfect place to feed this joy of wandering. Similarly, my internship in the Social Action department has been a joy as it is allowing me to combine my varied experiences, interests and education all in one role.

What does a Social Action intern do exactly? We support the Social Action team, whose job it is to create and execute campaigns designed to engage audiences in the themes of Participant Media's films. For example, the documentary, Waiting for 'Superman', which explores the state of our current public school system, has a campaign giving people tools to get involved and impact the system at local and national levels.

Working in the Social Action department in just these 3 short weeks has allowed me to draw on my work experience in campaign development and community engagement. I'm also drawing on my undergrad degree in Sociology by employing research methods and statistics to identify or rule out social trends and themes. My quirky filmmaker habit of "interviewing" people I meet during my travels is paying off too. Tying it all together, of course, is learning from the Social Action team how to put into practice the business and digital strategies I've been studying for the past year.

And just when I thought this internship was the perfect intersection of my interests, it got even better! I've recently been assigned to design a digital campaign on a topic that's near and dear to my heart both professionally and personally. I can't say much more than that for now... stay tuned!

So, as the title of this post is the Joy of Wandering - let me wander back to the main point here - I'm overjoyed because I'm using the fruits of my wanderings among seemingly far-flung professional, educational and geographical explorations and have the opportunity to learn so much more at such an amazing company!

A Light Bulb Went Off in the Desert

That's Texas in my rearview mirror - and if you look closely, you can discern the spider that we seemed to have picked up somewhere in the desert.

The 1,400+ mile roadtrip from TX to CA was an amazing journey with my Mom where along the way we saw old friends, stopped off in Tombstone (where I got a "talking to" from the Marshall - which I guess wasn't too bad considering the reputation of the town), soaked up the iconic southwestern culture and had a misadventure with my car key (yay, Triple A!). It was a beautiful mother/daughter experience... despite my Mom freaking me out by repeatedly referring to us as Thelma & Louise. They wound up in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I wanted to make it to LA for my internship!

In between disagreeing over what music to play, Mom and I listened to the classic, Good to Great by Jim Collins. The findings of the author's research on what separates "good" organizations from "great" ones are compelling - and what I found most provocative were his thoughts on the use of technology by the "great" companies. In an age when social media is typically touted as a fool-proof method of marketing and networking, Collins' research is perhaps more important than ever. In Collins' interviews with leaders of "great" organizations he points out how little those leaders emphasize the use of technology. Now, that's not saying they don't use technology... of course they do. Collins, however, stresses that technology is an accelerator and not a creator of success.

Without proper analysis of the market, a sound business strategy and the discipline to stick with the strategy, technology becomes a tool in unskilled hands, yielding, at best, short-term gains. Collins uses the example of DrugStore.com and Walgreen's at the height of the Dot Com Boom. While the financial markets and analysts fell all over themselves regarding DrugStore.com, they practically had the obituary for Walgreen's written. I won't get into the details here - you should read them for yourself in chapter 7 of Good to Great - but Walgreen's emerged from their "slump" with a solid business strategy, trouncing the internet's wunderkind DrugStore.com, who has continued to flail since the Dot Com Bust.

Listening to Good to Great upon completing my first year of my MBA studies was perfect timing. Because the program has a focus on Digital Media Management, the book, like the program itself, reminds us that the tools of technology are critical accelerators, but are no replacement for a solid business foundation.