J. Walter Thompson New York Celebrates the Launch of Risk/Reward

J. Walter Thompson New York hosted Anne Kreamer on June 9 to launch Risk/Reward, her newest research-based book that puts the American workplace under the microscope. Her last book, It’s Always Personal, examined the complexity of workplace emotion. Risk/Reward deals with risk, and what it takes to have a successful career and attract and retain modern talent in the 21st century. Most of all, it explores how embracing intelligent risk is an essential way to improve the quality and longevity of our working and personal lives.

When Kreamer says “risk,” she doesn’t mean skydiving or signing an office lease without a business plan. “Successful risk taking is using analysis and trial and error,” she explained. “It’s using self-knowledge to get outside our comfort zones in beneficial ways.”

Kreamer partnered with Mark Truss, Director of Brand Intelligence at J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, to conduct three surveys over seven years that informed many of the book’s conclusions.

Using the research conducted by J. Walter Thompson, Kreamer developed a test, much like the Myers-Briggs type test, to determine what kind of risk taker a person is. The Risk Tolerance Test divides people into four categories: Pioneer, Thinker, Defender and Drifter.

Kreamer, a “thinker-y pioneer,” and Truss, a “thinker with a touch of pioneering,” discussed the book’s themes and conclusions, sharing wisdom gleaned from years of research and successful, risk-driven careers.

“If you don’t have butterflies when you’re launching a project, it’s probably not big enough,” Kreamer said. A serial entrepreneur, Kreamer knows a thing or two about launching big projects. She and her husband quit their jobs to launch Spy magazine in 1986. “We were all in,” she said, “so if it failed, that was it.” Spy magazine was a successful magazine that lasted 12 years. It focused on well- researched intelligent pieces about American media and making fun of high society.

Truss also offered a piece of advice that resonated: “You get paid in two currencies: cash and experience. Always take the experience.”

In case you missed the event, watch the full Risk/Reward conversation moderated by LinkedIn’s Brett Wallace below.