Tag Archives: Google
Jason Spero Is Learning From Both Endings and Beginnings
Jason Spero is going through a lot of change. His father recently passed away following a years-long battle with Alzheimer’s. His youngest child is in the back half of her high school years, and after nearly two decades helping to build Google’s mobile advertising business, he is stepping away from a big job to chart a new path, one shaped by family, community, and the lessons of mortality and loss.
In this candid conversation, Jason opens up about caring for his father during his battle with Alzheimer’s, preparing to send his daughters into adulthood, and the clarity he’s gained on how finite our time is. He reflects on the pride and worries that come from shaping the mobile and digital industry, and why he’s now turning his focus to entrepreneurship, technology for climate solutions, and reimagining community in an increasingly digital age. Jason also shares how Amherst set the foundation for his curiosity and critical thinking, what he hopes to impart to his own kids, and why liberal arts matter more than ever in an AI-driven world. And of course, he nominates the next classmates he hopes to hear on the show.
You can email Jason at jason.spero@gmail.com.
Resources Jason mentions:
Video – We Only Deserve a Styrofoam Cup: https://youtu.be/FNf1pKRhay8?si=czeWR5fizxc0afbN
Book – Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks: https://a.co/d/ignmyTZ
Apple, The Inventor Of The “Killer App,” Suddenly Finds Itself Without One
If you work in tech, when was the last time you thought about or even uttered the words “killer app?” It wasn’t that long ago when every consumer-facing ecosystem obsessed over them. Just as the first-person shooter Halo single-handedly drove sales of the Xbox game console, a killer mobile app makes consumers lust for the hardware that supports […]
Windows Phone: What Might Have Been
A week ago, my two-year old Lumia Icon fell out of my pocket. Though gravity had only about seven inches with which to wreak havoc, the phone landed screen-side down on a bump on my slate patio, sending a spider web of cracks through the glass. Cracked screen on my Lumia Icon My phone’s demise […]
What Ford Motor Co. Needs To Avoid Nokia’s Fate
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford and Alphabet Inc. (nee Google) are in talks to partner on the production of self-driving cars. Ford CEO Mark Shields is said to be concerned that his company must not become the automotive version of Nokia, a hardware giant that failed to adapt as smartphones and […]
Why Cars Won’t Become The Next Hot Technology Play
From the moment I received my driver’s license until I went away to college, I drove a new car every three months. That included everything from compacts to luxury models. I recall cruising in a brand-new 1990 Mercedes 500 SL convertible one Saturday. The traffic had cars in both directions inching along. A guy in a Ferrari ragtop, moving slowly enough […]
At Google, Motivation Is Spelled ‘Alphabet’
In the 1990 film, The Hunt for Red October, Sean Connery’s Captain Marko Ramius informs his crew that he has written his political superiors to notify them of his plans to defect. His crew is outraged and terrified: angry that he revealed their plot without consulting them first, and frightened that the might of the Soviet […]
An Ex-Nokian’s Perspective On The Fall Of Nokia, And How Other Companies Can Avoid That Fate
A friend of mine forwarded me an interview that former Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo gave in March of last year in which he explained the company’s fall from dominance that happened on his watch. I took an interest for two reasons. I worked for Nokia, coincidentally for nearly all of Kallasvuo’s years at the helm. I, […]
Why Mobile OS Updates Are The Right Time To Amplify Your Marketing
Marketers love big occasions. Product anniversaries, major holidays, national elections, the Olympics, the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Oscars all give marketers a platform upon which to engage and excite their customers. Even if a company doesn’t officially sponsor one of these events, marketers have figured out ways to draft off their momentum to […]
The Critical Insights You Need Following A Big Week For The Mobile Economy
Last week brought a flurry of upbeat news on the state of the mobile economy, especially the improving health of its advertising business. First, eMarketer projects that advertisers will pump $9.6 billion into mobile in 2013, with estimates that total mobile spend will eclipse desktop ads by 2016. Then, Facebook announced its plans to test […]
Microsoft’s Purchase Of Nokia In Perspective
Let me caveat this post with a critical admission: I work for Nokia. Readers rightly should interpret everything that follows with the understanding that even if I wanted to, I would be unable to offer objective commentary on the decision by Microsoft to purchase my employer’s Devices and Services business. Still, my mission is to […]
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