Monthly Archives: August 2011
When the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit closed on August 7 at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, it left a swath of unmet needs, unfulfilled consumer demand, and a transformation of the designer’s personal and corporate brand. The late McQueen was elevated from fashion rebel/outsider to Artist/household name in the exhibit’s wake, but for thousands of New Yorkers – it was only hearsay because they could not get in. The show opened with 5,100 visitors on its first day, more than popular shows like the Jacqueline Kennedy and Chanel exhibitions. When it closed, the final attendance count had reached 661,509 visitors, making it the eighth biggest show on record in the history of Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not bad for the son of Cockney cab driver, and the one of the six children that was always a “misfit.” Today, as the summer of our US debt ceiling debate … Continue reading
When your company has an existing, proven method of conducting business, it can be a struggle to keep innovation alive. But innovation is a key factor in driving both real-time and future success, especially marketing in today’s fast-changing and customer-driven world. Here are nine recommendations to motivate innovation throughout your marketing organization. 1. Encourage and reward (or require) teamwork Creativity and ingenuity are occasionally products of the individual, but adding the ideas and resourcefulness of others or an entire group can accelerate innovation. Brainstorming sessions work to produce this effect, and collaborating on ideas in groups can help bring a project from the beginning stages to completion with the best results and breakthrough new ideas. 2. Prioritize diversity Your team can bring to the table numerous, advantageous differences in culture, experience, expertise, thinking styles, and perspective. Use these as a catalyst and instigator (in a good way!) to innovation in … Continue reading
Who says the established old companies can’t innovate? It takes courage and will – but it can be done…and at more formidable levels than thought! Continue reading
We know there are differences in the ways that individuals solve problems, communicate, and ideate. We also know that neural pathways are being created and stimulated while we’re doing these things. Now, from the journal Scientific American, we understand that greater collaboration is more than just smart business – it’s built into our genetic makeup. The business case has begun to gain momentum, as witnessed by Deloitte’s study, Talent Edge 2020, which found that executives across the globe rated collaboration as a top focal point in the coming years (66% said they anticipated increasing this avenue of talent strategy, second only to increasing talent operations and technology). [This does not show that it is important, just that it’s perceived as important.] Dr. John Sullivan further supports this idea in a post titled Cross-Functional Collaboration: Discovering its $ Value and the Genius of Google on the HR blog ERE.net, stating that … Continue reading
Business Leaders get it. Innovators get it. So why are traditional R&D Product Development people the last to understand that transparency is key to innovation and market leadership? Organizational fear is what I heard from frustrated innovation managers at Innovation conferences including the Open Innovation Summit held in Chicago, and CoDev in Scottsdale earlier this year. Here’s the problem as I understood it: “We want to be more innovative, but our managers are concerned that if we begin to market into new spaces, our existing (traditional) customers will be turned off.” “If we open innovation to others, department leads fear they will lose control of our intellectual property. ” “Managers believe their experts have the knowledge to create new products. They feel like third party contributors sharing a bunch of dumb ideas is nothing but a distraction.” So what’s a business leader to do to encourage Open Innovation in a … Continue reading
Yesterday I wrote about the world’s booming population, a big undertow changing the way the world works. Here are five more super shifts redefining planet humanity, from globaltrends.com. Another five tomorrow. 1. Mobility in resources, people, products and services, capital, knowledge, beliefs, opinions The ongoing revolution in global communications technologies offers organizations the ability to work 24/7 across time zones. Companies in emerging economies are benefiting from faster knowledge flows to rapidly catch the leaders in many industries. Mobile broadband penetration outstrips fixed broadband, billions of people are permanently “on,” able to work from whatever location they happen to find themselves in, blurring the boundaries between work and personal time. Data has become a deluge and information can be disseminated globally in minutes with a “tweet”. An ever-expanding array of digital entertainment and social media compete for our time. With mobile expansion, time is being compressed. 2. Potential of food … Continue reading
