Great Monday //

Recently, my colleague Robert Richman and I were asked to speak at the DMI Annual Conference in New York. Here we explain how culture is the key to building a design-driven company.

As often as it has been said over the past few years most businesses still can’t adapt to the new business landscape. I understand why: There’s a lot to change, and even in the best of circumstances momentum can keep a business heading in the same direction, right or wrong, for years.

Where to start, then? How should businesses acquire customers—or more accurately—how they shouldn’t.

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As companies look for ways to improve their reputation in an ever more difficult market, executives likely find themselves struggling with one of the most misunderstood, perhaps underutilized business tools around: Brand.

This series of whiteboard sessions explores some of the latest trends we’ve observed and programs we’re working on. it’s meant to help clients and colleagues explore the implications and opportunities of an accelerating market and the emerging tools we’ll need.

Please leave your comments or reach out to me directly—I look forward to hearing your ideas as well, these concepts are evolving and, of course, imperfect.

Josh

Quarter over quarter it’s becoming more apparent that customers, the market, and even investors are handsomely rewarding organizations that invest in brand. Yet even the best logo is no cure-all if your company doesn’t deliver the goods.

As companies look for ways to improve their reputation in an ever more difficult market, executives likely find themselves struggling with one of the most misunderstood, perhaps underutilized business tools around: Brand.

This series of whiteboard sessions explores some of the latest trends we’ve observed and programs we’re working on. it’s meant to help clients and colleagues explore the implications and opportunities of an accelerating market and the emerging tools we’ll need.

Please leave your comments or reach out to me directly—I look forward to hearing your ideas as well, these concepts are evolving and, of course, imperfect.

Josh

Brand, or reputation if you like, is driven as much by a company’s ability to deliver on expectations as it is about making bold promises. While agencies used to set market expectations with external communications like PR and ads, today brands are formed in the minds of the customer by much more.

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We are extremely excited to have established a great partnership with Silicon Valley’s best know brand firm, Liquid. Based in San Jose Liquid has been building great brands for over ten years. They’ve asked me to help their impressive roster of clients create change from the inside out by collaborating on internal brand initiatives. We look forward to many successful projects consulting with Liquid.

You can see more of their award winning work and read about their process at www.liquidagency.com

Here’s to doing great work together—cheers, Liquid!

Create Three Values from Great Monday on Vimeo.

Pre-profit Priority from Great Monday on Vimeo.

Forget value-added, today’s customer demands value first. Whether individual or corporation, they’re too smart to buy just because your Super Bowl ad said so. To get future customers you need to think about your pre-profit priority—building a community.

One Minute Mondays: Why work? from Great Monday on Vimeo.

Pretty much all Josh thinks about is how to help companies live their brand. Working with him, I get to hear a lot of gems and, I started thinking other people should really hear this, too. So (with my limited video skills) we decided to put this monthly video series together.

Enjoy this no-frills look at some of the thinking that goes on here at the office. First up, Josh wonders: Why work?

Your turn

Do these examples alone prove the Get Fired hypothesis—that process can change perceptions and you’ll have nothing to fear when promoting a far out idea? Two examples do not a statistically significant sample make—however, they do support the hypothesis.

Assembled in one methodology, these concepts can be applied to change risk-averse attitudes and get more new ideas to market. The following “Get Fired framework” is a plan of action based on what we’ve learned to help you succeed in building, vetting, and implementing your biggest, craziest ideas.

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From the inside: Steelcase

From its 1937 creation of a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired desk to its 1996 investment in product design juggernaut IDEO, Furniture-company-turned-workspace-consultant Steelcase has a long history of not only investing in new ideas but successfully bringing them to market.

The latest in this long tradition is a newly formed group called Growth Initiatives, anascent project that focuses on creating, testing, and bringing new innovations to market. The group’s objective is to capture and systematically fund potential revenue streams as they look 5 and 10 years into the future. To accomplish this Growth Initiatives uses a rigorous venture capital-style investing process that grants progressively larger amounts of resources as an idea proves its value. This method mitigates Steelcase’s investment risk and ensures that only the most viable ideas move forward.

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