Bob Scarpelli’s Latest Thought

Swear. I love Bob. Here’s his last missive to the troops sent last Monday:

“Here’s a Thought from Bob Scarpelli

One of the speakers at our Co-Creativity Conference in Beijing last fall was Jennifer Wen Ma, an artist who is the youngest member of the Beijing Olympic Committee. Ms. Wen Ma leads a group of artists who are creating the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

She acknowledged the daunting challenge of creating a show that will “stun the world”. It will be watched by billions of people around the globe and will be China’s “face” to the world during the Games.

Now that’s pressure.

She talked about dealing with the expectations of her “client”, the full Chinese Olympic Committee.

Her first instinct was to completely defy those expectations and do something that had no connection with Chinese history or the “expected” icons.

But then she said something that I thought was very insightful and could be a lesson for us as we continue to break new ground in the work we’re doing for our clients. She said, “Working within expectations is sometimes as important as defying expectations” because “if we want to defy expectations, we have to know what they are.”

Later this year at the Beijing Olympics, Jennifer Wen Ma will certainly challenge the notion of what an Olympic Ceremony should be. But she will also do it by “working within expectations” to find a brilliant new solution that will stun her clients and the world.

Good advice for us, too, as we work in new ways everyday with our clients.

Bob Scarpelli
Chairman
Chief Creative Officer”