Nov 11, 2011 0
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.
Sep 26, 2011 0
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
Mar 12, 2011 0
Create Three Values from Great Monday on Vimeo.
Feb 12, 2011 0
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.
Jan 7, 2011 3
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?
Oct 1, 2010 0
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.
Aug 24, 2010 0
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.
Aug 19, 2010 0
From the outside: Saffron Consultants
Saffron Consultants is a brand consultancy founded in 2001, with 50-plus employees scattered across offices in London, New York, Madrid, and Mumbai. A client once said, “They’re the perfect combination of charm and brutality.”[1] It was this reputation for candor, and the firm’s design experience, that led us to believe it would be a robust test case for the Get Fired hypothesis.”
Wally Olins is the firm’s Chairman and Co-founder, and few names in branding are held in the same regard. He co-founded the venerable Wolff Olins [2] in 1965 and has overseen hundreds of brand creations and reinventions over five decades. Given his experience, he is uniquely positioned to advise how to realize new, expansive ideas.
For Saffron, the question is not as much about whether they might Get Fired for being too radical – after all, they are often hired to think in unconventional ways. Rather, it’s a question about whether a client has the ability to realize a radical idea and the organizational change that may follow it.
Why is it easier for some organizations to thrive on creativity and change, while others flounder at every attempt? “When you fail to innovate, it’s not because people don’t intellectually recognize the requirement to innovate, but it is because they cannot bring themselves to do the things that are required to make the changes.”
Aug 11, 2010 0
“If staying on the cutting edge is critical to your business, here you’ll find insights for generating and implementing radical ideas that will make your company an industry leader.”
In the latest issue of Design Management Review, I co-authored an article with John Stone on building innovation into organizations. Now, in the first of a four part series I’m posting that article here.
Innovation, anyone? The Tipping Point. Inside the Tornado. The New, New Thing. You’ve probably read one of these books, or heard that you should. You’re not alone. Over the past 10 years, nearly everyone has boarded the innovation plane—at least in theory.
With all this talk about increasing value for customers and shareholders through innovation, why aren’t there more companies actually doing it, like Apple, or Google, or Virgin? The problem is not a lack of revolutionary ideas—it’s an inability to pick, package, and ship the revolution.
When a big idea strikes, people have serious difficulties making it happen. You can read all the curb-jumping, paradigm-shifting, out-of-the-box innovation books you can order, but it won’t make any difference until you take on the true challenge: bringing that new idea to market. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb 15, 2010 0
Untangling brand and customer experience, in 10 minutes or less from Brandon Schauer on Vimeo.
Does the brand define the customer experience, or is the customer experience the brand? Your work may involve both, but you probably attack problems with a bias for one or the other.
Earlier this year I asked Josh Levine of Great Monday to simply describe the relationship between brand and experience, and I like what he said.
I went back and dug deeper with Josh to clear up the differences between how he described it and and the way I often see the relationships between brand and experience being practiced. What emerged was this illustrated question and answer, attempting to untangle brand and customer experience in just 9 minutes.
