Marc Hershon
Working creatively in the innovation vacuum of the corporate boardroom is a near-impossible task, which is why Marc taps into his 25+ years of improvisational acting and comedy training — as a performer, director and instructor — to bring radically fresh thinking to every new assignment that Simmer Creative Studio takes on. He's been using improv to lead to brand names solutions since 1987, when he started working for Lexicon Branding, Inc., one of the hottest branding companies in the world. After 16 years with Lexicon, Marc took a break to write screenplays (including a trio for the Hallmark Channel: Santa Jr., Monster Makers and Wedding Daze.) He also consulted on his own and with Jonathan Littman, creating new landmark names for products, services and companies under their Simmer Branding banner. At the very end of 2009, Marc once again focused his branding efforts solely with Lexicon.
Working as a consultant to a wide variety of companies — from Fortune 500 outfits to mom-and-pop operations — gave Marc the insight into corporate culture he needed to create the title for, and collaborate on, I Hate People!, the business book with attitude he wrote with Simmer Branding Studio partner Jonathan Littman, that has gotten rave reviews from the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and CNN.
Marc continues writes screenplays. He also writes comedy material with and for SNL veteran Dana Carvey. Starting in early 2009, Marc founded and began teaching improvisational comedy (having performed on the comedy stage since 1983) with the curriculum at the Free Range Improv School & Company (FRISCO) in downtown San Francisco.
Jonathan Littman
A Contributing Editor for Playboy, Jonathan has been writing bestselling books and articles about business, crime and sport since the mid 1980’s. His last three major pieces for “that magazine” have been set in the worlds of baseball, football and golf, affording him the pleasure of partying at the SuperBowl and giving him an excuse to travel to Augusta to see Tiger and Phil at the Masters. Jonathan has written about business and high-tech for over two decades. He’s the co-author of the new Ten Faces of Innovation, (Doubleday, November 2005) with Tom Kelley of IDEO, and also co-authored the bestselling business classic, The Art of Innovation. Jonathan’s two non-fiction volumes on famous computer hackers, The Watchman, and The Fugitive Game, the bestselling story of the legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick, guaranteed that pimply boys broke into and read his e-mail for many years. Jonathan also penned a little book on Churchill that he advises you skim to impress people at cocktail parties.
Working with Simmer Creative Studio partner Marc Hershon, Jonathan wrote I Hate People!, the business book with attitude from Little, Brown & Co. that flips convention thinking about the power of teamwork on its head.
Jonathan studied how the ancient Greeks and Romans spoke and wrote while earning a degree in Rhetoric at Cal Berkeley, and, as his friends know all too well, he likes to talk as much as he likes to write. A frequent corporate speaker who has written broadly about innovation, design, technology and business, Jonathan has appeared as a commentator and guest on Talk of the Nation, Fresh Air, CNN, Fox & Friends, and many other radio and television programs. Jonathan’s books have been published in thirteen languages, and he has been featured in Newsweek, Time and the New Yorker. Four of Jonathan’s books and articles have been optioned for film, and Showtime is currently turning his Playboy piece on the Barry Bonds BALCO drama into a movie (Jonathan is a co-producer.) A two-time winner of the Computer Press awards, Jonathan’s San Francisco Chronicle series on murder at the Cabazon Indian reservation was a finalist for a Pulitzer prize.
Access is the centerpiece of Jonathan’s work: access to fascinating businesses, criminal investigations, and great stories. Jonathan wrote the first major piece about Amazon.com for the Los Angles Times, and has managed to get inside some of the most amazing startups and biggest corporations in America. Independence and a novel perspective are his trademarks.
