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The way Bran Ferren sees it, the future of warfare depends as much on creativity as it does on raw firepower. The former head of research and development at Walt Disney Imagineeringthe elite R&D arm responsible for the entertainment empires secret saucethe 72-year-old Ferren has spent decades building a reputation for fusing art, design, and storytelling with serious technical and engineering know-how in pursuit of novel innovations and experiences. This pioneering approach to creative technology is the heart and soul of Applied Minds, the company Ferren cofounded 25 years ago to help clients from the Pentagon to Fortune 500 companies envision and test breakthrough technologies before they even realize they need them, from rapidly prototyping advanced robotics and vehicles to designing futuristic command centers and immersive simulators. If you can imagine it, chances are the artists and engineers at Applied Minds can make it a reality. Now, with the United States gearing up for its next big war, Ferren and Applied Mindss unique brand of prototyping has never been more important. In a defense sector often constrained by bureaucracy and incremental improvements, the companys ability to think outside conventional silos and pull insights from unexpected fieldswhether theme park design, Hollywood special effects, or commercial techoffers a much-needed jolt of creative problem-solving and gives Applied Minds an edge in a defense landscape that increasingly demands speed and creativity over incremental improvements. Weve turned into, for lack of a better word, an imagineering resource for hire, says Ferren in a recent interview with Fast Company. The son of two artists, Ferren grew up surrounded by people doing art and technology, whether it was uncle Roy Ferren, the director of flight test for North American Aviation (now part of Boeing), or uncle Stanley Tonkel, the prolific Columbia Records recording engineer who helped produce tracks for famous musicians from Miles Davis to Frank Sinatra. Ferrens early career encompasses a constellation of creative endeavors. In the 1970s and 1980s, he cofounded Associates & Ferren, a design and special effects firm that quickly rose to prominence for its work in film, theater, and high-tech installations. The company contributed to several Hollywood productions, providing innovative visual effects for movies including Altered States (1980), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), as well as special effects for Broadway plays like the Sherlock Holmes mystery The Crucifer of Blood and major concert performances by Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., and Depeche Mode, among others. Ferren distinguished himself by marrying the theatrical and the technological; among his more unusual projects includes orchestrating a nationwide tour of the Bill of Rights to mark the bicentennial of the document, a task that involved designing and building a special transportation vehicle from the ground up to house the fragile artifact as well as a traveling exhibit space to accompany it. I really love doing new things that Ive never done before and that other people haven’t done before . . . theater, film, rock n roll touring. These were all early venues where you had the opportunity to do that, Ferren says. His expertise in blending technology with storytelling caught the attention of Disney, leading to the acquisition of his company in 1993 and his installation as head of R&D at Walt Disney Imagineering, which is responsible for master planning all of the companys far-reaching creative endeavors, including theme parks. Theme parks are story driven, Ferren says. It’s about bringing you into those stories. Ferrens group was also responsible for prototyping and demonstrating next-generation products for Disney executives to provide insight into the technological trends shaping the entertainment industry, including desktop gaming consoles, ebooks, and on-demand digital video delivery. Ferren likens the role of Imagineering at Disney as the defined job of what ARPA or DARPA is for the defense community, which is to prevent surprise, he explains. Imagineering was my home, but also from my perspective, my job was: How do I help bridge between different worlds, such as Silicon Valley and such as Hollywood, who often have very compatible goals, but speak different languages? he adds. Renderings and illustrations adorn the walls of Applied Minds headquarters. [Photo: Jared Keller] Always in search of the next big thing, Ferren left Disney in 2000 to cofound Applied Minds with computer scientist Danny Hillis, whom Ferren had previously recruited to Disney as a fellow in 1996, and entrepreneur Doug Carlston. Since then, the company has worked with major players across virtually every industry you can think of, from automakers General Motors and Ford and agricultural giant John Deere to geographic information systems pioneer Esri and defense primes like Boeing, as well as every branch of the U.S. armed forces. (The company declined to share the total value of its contracts but stated that its roughly an even split between military commercial clients). In the process, Applied Minds has notched more than 1,000 patents that encompass everything from full-color and enhanced 3D night vision devices, customizable instrument control panels, immersive display environments, centralized controls for autonomous vehicles, modular vehicles, and even portable systems for communicating undergroundthe latter of which is of particular interest to the U.S. military ahead of a future conflict. Applied Minds made a splash from the get-go. In what might be th companys most significant early innovation, Ferren and Hillis would end up playing a pivotal role in the development of pinch-to-zoom technology, the now-ubiquitous multi-touch gesture interface used on smartphones, tablets, and other touchscreen-based devices. (The pairs 2005 patent was at the center of a high-profile 2013 lawsuit which saw consumer electronics juggernaut Apple accuse competitor Samsung of infringing on its own patents, including pinch-to-zoom, which the former had popularized with the launch of the iPhone in 2007; Apples lawsuit was invalidated based on Ferren and Hilliss existing claim to the technology.) Applied Minds also established deep roots in the defense world. Among its most notable projects are the Photographic Landing Augmentation System for Helicopters (PHLASH), developed in 2007 to help prevent brownouts during dicey helicopter landings in the deserts of the Global War on Terror, and the U.S. Armys Expeditionary Lab, a mobile workplace designed to help soldiers engineer technical fixes on the fly while deployed overseas. The company has provided the Pentagon with prototypes for advanced combat vehicles, sophisticated cockpit interfaces for the militarys upcoming sixth-generation fighter jets, next-generation workstations to streamline operations, immersive simulators to improve training, and new approaches to data visualization that look like theyre ripped straight out of a science fiction movie; it even participated in the Pentagons ill-fated effort to build a real-world Iron Man suit to protect troops engaged in high-intensity combat. An Applied Minds rendering of the companys vision for the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) that U.S. Special Operations Command sought to develop for ground troops. [Photo: Jared Keller] Among Applied Mindss latest victories is a critical fix for the U.S. Air Forces next-generation KC-46 Pegasus tanker, considered a critical aerial refueling capability for extending the range of tactical and transport aircraft amid a high-intensity future conflict. Unlike traditional tankers, which feature a boom operator positioned at the tail with a direct line of sight of a target aircraft for the delicate dance of lining up the refueling boom, the KC-46 instead transmits digital imagery from the so-called Remote Vision System (RVS) to operators at a high-tech Aerial Refueling Operator Station nestled in the body of the aircraft. But initial testing had revealed that the RVS feed was marred by image distortion, inconsistent lighting, and depth perception issues that made it consistently unreliable during refueling operations. Without an accurate picture of the outside world to work from, operators simply cant do their job, rendering the KC-46s core mission of keeping other aircraft fueled and ready to fight effectively moot. At the behest of Boeing, the prime defense contractor on the system, Applied Minds eventually rolled out a fix in the form of the RVS 2.0, which features enhanced cameras and a full-color high-definition display to improve depth perception and counteract glare and shadow. Now, youd say, Clearly the U.S. Air Force Research Lab and Boeing and Rockwell Collins were working on this, they dont need a few more engineers and computer scientists to solve things. . . . Why would we have expertise in this? Ferren says. Its because we actually come from the film business, so some of us have expertise on how you make good looking images. Bran Ferren at the Applied Minds Electro-Optics Test Range at the companys headquarters, where employees evaluated their fix for the KC-46 Pegasus tankers Remote Vision System. [Photo: Jared Keller] While Applied Minds operates in the defense technology space, it doesnt function like a traditional defense contractor. Instead of competing for massive military contracts or manufacturing hardware at scale, the company has positioned itself as an elite think tank and prototyping powerhouse, working on a project-by-project basis and helping organizations rapidly develop creative solutions to complex technical challenges. This approach allows the company to remain agile, moving between industries while maintaining a small, highly specialized team of engineers, designers, and technologists. Indeed, those skills Ferren honed as head of R&D at Disney Imagineeringarchitecting immersive, intuitive experiencestranslate surprisingly well to a military context. To wit: One of the Applied Mindss specialties is the development of military command centers, those high-intensity spaces where critical information and life-or-death choices collide. The company has designed installations including the
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E-Commerce
If you have been on the job market recently, you know how challenging it can be. Lots of tech companies, for example, are pulling back on hiring. Federal workers are being laid off by the thousands. And some types of jobs are simply not as available as they once were. Particularly in short supply are those prized white-collar positions paying $94,000 or more. So, any serious job seeker must sharpen their skills to land a job. You can increase the likelihood of a successful search by avoiding the following six big job search mistakes: Mistake No. 1: Applying for too many jobs The first mistake is applying for too many jobs and, as a result, not giving enough time to any one application. Some individuals send in applications for 100, 200, or even 400 jobs. That is far too many. Statistics reveal that job seekers who apply for 21 to 80 jobs have about a 30% chance of receiving a job offer, while candidates who apply for more than 81 jobs have only a 20% chance of receiving an offer. More applications typically get worse results. To get that next big job, focus on applications where you’re a decent fit, and give more attention to each one. Mistake No. 2: not customizing your résumé The second (and very common) mistake is sending every company the same generic résumé. Contrary to popular belief, most hiring companies do scrutinize résumés. After the interview, its the second-most-important vehicle for assessing a candidate. Providing boilerplate wont often get you the job. Focus your work history and the bullet points under each job youve held. Align this material with the job youre applying for. For example, dont put down that you optimized supply chain operations if you are applying for a leadership role. Instead, say you led a supply chain team. Avoid jargon and technical language that might be misunderstood. Be sure to include only relevant work experience. If you have waited on tables at your university or worked in a donut shop, leave it out unless youre applying for a service- or people-focused job. Mistake No. 3: Not tapping into your network A third job search mistake is overlooking your network. A LinkedIn study shows that 70% of job seekers get their jobs through successful networking. Dont go it alone. Ask those you know for leads and introductions. Successful networking is usually a multistep process. Most of the time, success is not through your first-degree network but through your second- or third-degree network, writes career coach Sarah Felice on LinkedIn. This means you have to have a lot of conversations, coffee meetups, Zoom meetings, and phone calls. If you are interested in a position in a particular industry, approach an acquaintance who is knowledgeable about that field. Ask them to connect you to relevant people. If you’re interested in moving up within your company, do your research and find out which department head you should talk to. Introduce yourself with a well-written letter. Such steps may take time, but they will be much more likely to get results. Mistake No. 4: Poor interview prep To ace the interview, you’ve got to research the company and the job, prepare a script to guide you, and develop answers to possible questions. The knowledge you gain as you prepare will enable you to align your background with the companys culture and the job. It will also help you ask intelligent questions and show that you take the company and the job seriously. An interview script will provide an all-important guide for you. It doesnt have to be memorized or delivered verbatim. It simply will remind you how you want to open the conversation, what your message is, how you are going to develop your message, and how you will close the conversation. Without a script to guide you, you wont come across as clear-minded and confident. (For more discussion of how and why to prepare a script for your job interviews, see my book, The Job Seekers Script.) Mistake No. 5: Using weak language Be mindful of the words you use throughout the interview process. Eliminate anything that has negative overtones. That includes phrases like I cant, I dont, Im not sure, or I dont know. Eliminate filler words like um, ah, and you know. Avoid overly casual speech like You guys. And dont judge the questions by saying things like, Thats a good question. You’re there to answer questions, not evaluate them. Apologetic language, such as Im sorry, also tests poorly. You may think you are being thoughtful when you apologize, but doing so can make you sound weak. Mistake No. 6: Not following up The final job search mistake to avoid is not following up after your interview or a conversation with someone you networked with. Write a note of thanksan email or an actual written noteand do so promptly. People appreciate that thoughtfulness, and often it will make all the difference if somene is deliberating about hiring you.
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E-Commerce
Barbara Corcoran is one of Shark Tanks longest-running sharks, with an estimated net worth of approximately $100 million. But shes also one of 10 kids from a working-class family. By age 23, shed held more than 20 jobs. By 52, she sold her real estate company for $66 million. Corcoran knows how to build wealth. Her financial strategies are bold and unconventional. They buck traditional financial wisdom andfull disclosurethey can be also risky. But could they help you build wealth? 1. Dont Bother Saving Money Ive never saved a dime my whole life, Corcoran told CNBC Make It in 2023. Rather than letting her money sit idly in a bank account, Corcoran immediately identifies the best way to spend anything she earns, often investing it into something with the potential to grow her wealth. Of course, investing all your earnings is risky. No one knows when an unexpected expense or income loss is coming and youll need to live on your savings. But consider the root of Corcorans advice: How much money can you safely risk investing in yourself or a business venture you believe in? How much money could you reasonably put into a stock or other fund with the potential to grow at a higher rate than your savings account? 2. Be The Highest BidderOn Valuable Assets I am always willing to overspend on any property thats good, Corcoran said in an interview. Overspending on anything might sound counterintuitive, but Corcoran is specifically referencing quality assets with high growth potential. Corcoran especially believes in using this principle for real estate investments. She says that if youre willing to spend more than anyone else on a property you know is quality and be patient, you will eventually make that extra money back and then some. 3. Put All Your Eggs in One Basket One piece of advice people hear all the time, and I just dont believe it, is Diversify. Dont put all your eggs in one basket, Corcoran told CNBC Make It. Diversification is investing in different areas so you dont lose everything from a downturn in one area of the economy. In Spring 2025, you might hesitate to even put all your literal eggs in one basket, but Corcorans advice here is about investing in areas where you have expertise rather than diversifying just for the sake of it. Corcoran has historically focused all her money in real estate, where she can constantly leverage her knowledge and experience to evaluate current and potential investments. Corcoran isnt alone in this view. Warren Buffett famously called diversification protection against ignorance. His late Berkshire Hathaway cochair Charlie Munger also referred to the practice as diworsification. Both investors made billions by focusing their investments in industries where they were already experts. Focused investments can lead to outsize returnsbut also outsize losses, so the expertise piece of Corcorans advice is vital. Dont just toss all your money into one thing you dont understand, she said. Stick to what you know.
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E-Commerce
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