Monthly Archives: August 2009
I came across this interesting perspective on the blog of Mark Turrell, CEO of idea management software company Imaginatik, in his post Myth #3: “We need lots of ideas”:The next time someone tells you that you need lots of ideas, stop, think and work out the outcomes you want before you go collecting thousands, and thousands, and potentially more thousands of fluffy, non-relevant ideas that go nowhere.The gist of Mark’s post is that encouraging the contribution of ideas from all quarters is actually counterproductive. He prescribes the concept of an “appropriate” number of ideas.Wow. Really?The post makes some good points, but I’m not in agreement with its overall tone. As I read the post, it struck me that there are really only two ways to reduce the number of ideas:Limit who gets to contribute ideasHave everyone self-censor ideas that they “know” will be noise This perspective is quite different from … Continue reading
One of the unwritten rules of Lovemarks is don’t get stuck in the commodity quadrant, the realm of raw products and raw actions. For service industries like travel, this is unforgivable, which is why I will only fly on an American airline out of desperation or duress.For land based industries which originate in the commodity zone, global integration has laid down hotly contested conditions that demand re-positioning. How to climb the value chain onto a premium rung as value gets redefined around rising standards of quality and sustainability? The answer lies in an end-to-end story of value that turns the ordinary into the extraordinary.Being from New Zealand, where the sheep outnumber the people (see the comedy horror movie Black Sheep for the dark and ridiculous side of this), I’m excited to see the unveiling of Laneve, a new wool brand from Wool Partners International, a joint venture headed by top … Continue reading
1. Have a Vision for ChangeYou cannot expect your team to be innovative if they do not know the direction in which they are headed. Innovation has to have a purpose. It is up to the leader to set the course and give a bearing for the future. You need one overarching statement which defines the direction for the business and which people will readily understand and remember. Great leaders spend time illustrating the vision, the goals and the challenges. They explain to people how their role is crucial in fulfilling the vision and meeting the challenges. They inspire men and women to become passionate entrepreneurs finding innovative routes to success.2. Fight the Fear of ChangeInnovative leaders constantly evangelise the need for change. They replace the comfort of complacency with the hunger of ambition. ‘We are doing well but we cannot rest on our laurels – we need to do … Continue reading
You may or may not know this: Art has its foundations in utility. Great works of earlier centuries were never meant to hang in museums and adorn private collections any more than elegant Egyptian hieroglyphics were meant to simply beautify crypts, wooden totem poles to garnish the forest, or coarse images of the hunter’s kill to decorate the walls of a cave. Rather, they were intended for a very specific purpose or to signify a specific event, judged first and foremost by function and usefulness, and by the ability to meet the requirements of the commissioner. They were made by people, for people.Deborah Adler knows it, though. She was a design student when her grandma Helen took grandpa Herman’s prescription medication Amoxicillin by mistake in 2001, and it was a clarion call for Deborah to apply her skills and make sure such a thing never happened again. Coming from a … Continue reading
