Monthly Archives: January 2011
I’ve always had a problem with the word “sticky” as it relates to product or go-to-market strategy. Sticky, from a customer point of view, is a negative. It’s something that you can’t get off. I prefer the word indispensable. That’s a customer-centric word. It implies that the customer can’t live without what you’re doing for them. It implies they don’t want to be without the benefits you provide, the outcomes you enable. It implies a level of value that by definition will increase the mutual lifetime value of the relationship. There are some things that may be both sticky and indispensable. But people don’t talk about those things. They don’t go viral, they don’t spread. Think about the difference between sticky and indispensable in your business, in your product strategy, in your marketing. How are you creating something that people can’t live without, and want to tell others about as … Continue reading
This post may also be viewed on the American Express OPEN Forum Idea Hub. In 2011, I will be a regular contributor to the American Express OPEN Forum on the topic of innovation. Here is the first one of the year: by Braden Kelley Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat in the middle night from a nightmare focused on you throwing a big party that nobody comes to? Or, in real life, have you ever thrown a big launch party for a new product or service, made a lot of noise with advertising, marketing and public relations – only to have the sales returns be anemic at best? According to a Linton, Matysiak & Wilkes study from 1997 titled Marketing, Witchcraft or Science, the success rate for new product introductions in the food industry is only between 20 and 30 percent. But, there is a key insight … Continue reading
In my continuing list of roles that any innovator must play, we come to the role that may be the most important role of all. Certainly we’ve seen how innovators must play a number of roles, including the Matador, the Futurist and the Jester. These roles have much to do with defining the opportunities and achieving initial traction. We’ve also examined the Tinkerer role, which has to do with developing and testing ideas once they are generated. Today I want to talk about the role that links all of these and many others, the role I call the Bulldozer. I suppose the label “Bulldozer” is somewhat politically incorrect, but nonetheless the label is often correct. Innovation is the most difficult initiative to start, and one of the easiest to stop. This truism means that an innovation leader must be able to create a great amount …
The easiest way to crush creativity is to find fault with new ideas which colleagues and subordinates bring forward. The more clever and more experienced you are, the easier it is to shoot holes in any proposal You can show your superior intelligence and highly honed management analysis skills by pointing out all the flaws in their proposals. All the experts pointed out to Marconi that radio waves travel in straight lines and the Earth is a sphere so it was silly to think of transmitting a radio signal across the Atlantic. Yet Marconi defied the experts by transmitting across the Atlantic. The radio signals were reflected by the ionosphere. As those experts showed, intelligence and experience can give us all the ammunition we need to criticize innovative ideas. All it takes is for a few crazy ideas to be shot down and people …
I’m a collector of best practices. I like to find out what forward thinking individuals and organizations have done to accomplish extraordinary results. Sometimes I share these stories in my keynotes or workshops. Invariably, my stock rises when I tell these stories. People think I know stuff. They get giddy. They take notes. They think about how to adapt these best practices to their organization. But then things get weird. People start becoming satisfied with emulating other people’s lives. Instead of thinking up their own best practices, they imitate. Ouch! The spirit of innovation gets replaced by the religion of innovation. Gone is reflection. Gone is the process of discovery. Gone is the ownership that comes with birthing new insights. In it’s place? Simulation. Imitation. And, all too often, the blind following of pre-packaged solutions. I’m not saying there isn’t value in paying attention to other people’s best practices. There … Continue reading
Over the last few days I’ve been writing about the different roles, or “hats”, that innovators must play. I’ve talked about the role of the Matador, anticipating the bulls who protect sacred cows. I’ve written about the need for the Futurist, to encourage people to think longer term. I wrote yesterday about the Tinkerer, who must convert virtual ideas into tangible artifacts for prospects and consumer to understand. Today I want to talk about another role, and I’ve struggled with the title. Basically it came down to either “the jester” or “the therapist” and I went with “the jester” because I thought it sounded more interesting. Today’s role is probably the most important and the most difficult to perform well. Innovation, as you know by now, is in high demand from the executive suite. Innovation, conversely, is very difficult to implement in the bowels …
