“‘Hey, I Think this Might Work’: Problem-solving in the Ad Industry

Well, first of all, I would like to give you a warm welcome. This blog will be a place where you’ll be able to find a world of experiences, thoughts, ideas and feelings mixed with some of the knowledge I’ve acquired in these crazy advertising realms.

The person you’re reading right now is me, Gregorio Cavazos, a Mexican human, advertiser, a recently IT entrepreneur but most of all a problem-solver, although this last adjective would be the main definer for my lifestyle.

So, let’s talk about the creative side of life. We all know what is the feeling of being creative, that feeling of having the key for a struggling situation, to come up with the needed solution for a problem that seems unsolvable, to be the hero on a scenario where everything is against your odds but still you had the nerve, the temple and the courage to say

“Hey, I think this might work”.

That kind of passion for creativity is what led me to take this way of life, this career of problems to be solved. Though it is called a Master’s Degree on Global Strategic Communications, I have to be sincere that the toughest part to understand on the program is not the globalism or the strategies on it but the same old and revisited communication theories, as they get to analyze and defragment the behaviors our civilization has been having since centuries, some of those hard to believe according to this era.

Taking part on how this program has helped me to improve my lines of thoughts, I’d start with how amazing it the learning you can get from a lot of different cultures. You might think on different cultures as strictly people living on different countries or continents, but as people from several nationalities are coexisting on any single part of the planet, this kind of cultural learning is taken to another level.

It is shocking how the way of work you have, as a native from a certain country, can be really similar to another one on the other side of the world, but how different can be the workflow used on one state of the U.S. compared to another one.

These kinds of similarities and eventual misunderstandings are unique ways to mark your experience. You get to learn that there isn’t a right way to shake hands, just different ways to do it.

Also, as the career is taught in the U.S., there is obviously a trend from foreigner students to adapt to the American culture, but, if you really are interested on learning about other costumes, ask them about how the things that are really usual for you are done in their countries. You will be surely surprised about how wrong you can be if it were all the other way around, being you the foreigner and careless student they once were.

So, by the end of the day, we can say there are no absolute wrong or right when you talk about a global culture, but I guess that’s part of its magic, to discover and learn from it every time.

I don’t know about you, but I love this picture, it makes you think how different and how alike are we at the same time:

All of this has helped me to be prepared for working on any kind of environment nevertheless the major nationality or the mix of cultures in the place, of course it will set some differences on my behavior, but I don’t see it as an unyielding obstacle anymore.

Here, as a welcoming token to this first post. Please have at hand with you this  gestures infographic!