Eight Questions With Featured Grey Swan Guild Member: Robert Kabus
Global Brand Champion. Alchemist Melding Insight + Media+Creative + Tech. Pioneer in Storytelling Truths & Aspirations Across the Customer Experience
Our Eight Questions is part of our ongoing series profiling some of the amazingly talented members of our global Grey Swan Guild and get behind the curtain of what makes them think and sense the world differently and more effectively than others.
Robert Kabus— Criss-crossing the World in a Quest for Insight — New York born, New Jersey raised, Adulted in San Francisco/Marin County/Manhattan Beach, with multiple stints in Singapore
Bio: Robert is a global brand champion who has led insight-driven growth across creative, design, media and technology companies. He has pioneered the practice of fully integrating insights and strategy across the entire customer experience to create uniquely powerful brand stories.
With a history of helping iconic brands such as adidas, Porsche, Microsoft, 20th Century Fox, Apple and Virgin America, Robert makes enduring cultural connections. Highly collaborative from inception through activation of every project, Robert has partner focus from front to back end.
A Sensemaking Metaphorical Tool You Personify:
A Cocktail Glass. Get it right, everything is in sync and the moment flows. We all play a part in memorable stories.
1. Who are you/ what makes you tick?
I love to consider all sides of an issue and understand what’s behind views I don’t share. I try and deal with the things I can influence, and not over-obsess with those I can’t. Doesn’t always pan out (e.g., politics) but works for the most part.
I like reinvention (to a degree). For most new things I’ve done career-wise, there’s been about 1/3 of the job where I had no idea what I was doing. There has to be some original component of every worthwhile solution. Otherwise, the potential impact is diluted before you even start.
I probably find humor in more things than I should. Need to be careful about that..
2. What are some of the important questions that you are making sense of nowadays?
- How to create high value insights at pace with accelerating cultural & commercial cycles?
- How to guide insightful decision-making that’s more data-fed than data-led?
- How much do views on social media reflect real world attitudes and beliefs?
3. How are some of the ways you go about making sense of the world?
I’m finding that asking the classics like “why” and “so what” remain important.. Not a new approach, but clients can become so focused on very specific, immediate deliverables that they may be missing the opportunity to solve the bigger problems.
Also, I always try to involve the people who are experiencing the problem at hand. Whether it’s a commercial or goodwill initiative, I believe the folks who are involved with the problem should be part of the solution. And I like to apply a narrative to every solution. If it doesn’t flow as an inspired story reflecting essential human truths, then it isn’t right.
4. What is overhyped? What is underhyped?
- Overhyped: Having specific, relevant experience seems overhyped. I feel that the best, most innovative work I’ve been a part of has involved people who brought diverse views into the equation. This has delivered more positive disruption versus the generic thinking from folks who “know” how it’s done in a specific category.
- Underhyped: I’d say the ability to think critically is underhyped. It’s not something that shows up in the box score, resume or credentials. It’s harder to tell if a person or org is bringing that to the table. So it’s easy to miss if you don’t put in the work to see if it’s there. I think it’s related to another underhyped driver of value which is conflict. Getting to original, transformative work can be a rough road. You need a culture that provides room for people to work through conflicting views in order to get to new places.
5. Who is at your sensemaker last supper? Four people?
- I’d like to do this with people I’ve had great chemistry with, they have a feel for where the world is going and everything about our explorations feels additive. So I’d go with some personal contacts. Even if we came up with nothing, I’d have a really good time, so there’s that.
- That said, you might be able to get me to swap some of them out for:
- Jon Stewart, American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor, and television host
- Bruce Springsteen, American singer, songwriter, and musician
- Bill Maher. American comedian, actor, political commentator, and television host
- I know Grey Swan Guild has issues with people from New Jersey :), so there’s some backup for me in those two choices. They all have great insight into human nature that gives us a sense of what lies ahead in this world.
- I’d also add someone from Pixar as they’ve been pretty genius at getting diverse talent to reinvent collaboration in amazing ways. Just need to go through their profiles and see if any of them are from Jersey.
6. What big and small question would you love answered or solved?
Big question: Is there any path forward to having high quality information sources that people across political, socio-economic, religious spectrums collectively view as credible?
Small question: Doesn’t it seem like time for some new company to become the next Apple?
7. When you are not thinking deeply about the world, what else are you passionate about in your day to day life?
- Before moving to Singapore, I loved to ride my motorcycle around Northern California. I typically have a fairly random, wandering mind, but when riding I had to be 100% focused at all times. It had a meditative quality for me.
- My wife and I are always in discovery mode — destinations, cocktails, new sports, whatever.
- My kids are grown and back in the U.S., but still manage to be the highlight of most of my days.
- I’ve recently gotten into playing guitar and writing songs. As they say, don’t be afraid to suck at new things. I’m doing this (in part) in collaboration with a life-long musician, so my shortcomings are on daily display.
- And I love all the subtle ways my golden retriever has trained me over the years.
- Diabolical. In terms of broader society, I get pretty fired up about politics, economic inequality and the environment.
- Oh, and I hope to get passionate about stretching because, lately, everything I do seems to make me sore.
8. What do you enjoy about being part of the Guild, and being part of the F+S Expert Squad and being 1,000 Day Radar?
For most of my career, I’ve been fortunate to have a community of thoughtful, progressive, creative opinion-leaders around me. So I appreciate how much that type of energy adds to your life.
It’s exciting to be part of a group that cares about important stuff and has the firepower to change things for the better. I think it’s one of those fulfilling moments where we’ll be making each other better in unexpected ways.
Find Robert at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-kabus
Twitter: @bobbyyaka
Instagram: akabas
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Interested in Joining the Grey Swan Guild:
Visit our website: https://www.greyswanguild.org/
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Attend our next new member onboarding regatta: https://bit.ly/gsgregattaNov21
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This Week’s Events
We assemble Friday and Sunday on Clubhouse this week for these two mind expanding events :
Futures & Sensemaking Series #5 — Nurturing Futures and Foresight in a Short Sighted World?
Join us November 5th Friday 1pm ET: https://www.clubhouse.com/event/M5Y5ErNJ
The past, present and future of Family — Edition #42 of the News Wrap
Join us Sunday 11am ET: https://www.clubhouse.com/event/maA88zZW
Grey Swan Guild — Our Mission
To Make Sense of the World’s Biggest Challenges and Next Grey Swans — curating and creating knowledge through observation, sensemaking, critical thinking, informed futurism, strategic foresight and analysis. www.greyswanguild.org
20 Hours of trend and future perspectives coming up November 10th and 11th:
Pre-register for Day One: https://bit.ly/gsgatelier8
Pre-register for Day Two: https://bit.ly/gsgatelier8b
Grey Swan Guild
Making Sense of the World’s Biggest Challenges — curating and creating knowledge through observation, informed futurism, and analysis🦢
