Leading by ideas
I was cleaning off a shelf at the house the other day, trying to make room to store some books, going through a stack of old magazines I had saved because at the time I first started stacking them there, they seemed indispensable.
From the April 2000 FastCompany, I came across "Report From The Future," a regular feature in the magazine then, this time entitled "Change Your Mind, Grow Your Company." I highlighted this, a quote from Douglas Atkin, then a partner and director of strategic planning at Merkley Newman Harty.
"These days you can't succeed as a company if you're consumer-led - because, in a world full of so much constant change, consumers can't anticipate the next big thing. Companies should be idea-led and consumer-informed."
More true now, for sure. Consumers do not anticipate what they next want, not beyond improvements to things they currently have. I want Apple to combine phone and email features with my iPod's ability to store and play music, and sync my calendar and contacts. In short, I want a "shazzam" moment that will combine a Blackberry with my iPod, with the resulting elegance and "cool" in most Apple products. That's not innovation or an idea, it's an improvement (yet, I say to myself, a worthy one).
Consumers adopt ideas by first choosing products. Then after using their purchase, they recognize its tranformative power and like what it's done for them. (Or in some cases, what it's done to them.)
We at BURRIS are focusing our energies and our time on our ability to help generate ideas, the kind that drive innovation, the inspired solutions that overcome particularly thorny marketing problems. The kind that can lead to real innovation. First we need to convince our customers that they need ideas, that the best way out of their challenges is through some fresh thinking.
But we're challenged. How do we sell your ability to facilitate something so shapeless as "ideas"?
From the April 2000 FastCompany, I came across "Report From The Future," a regular feature in the magazine then, this time entitled "Change Your Mind, Grow Your Company." I highlighted this, a quote from Douglas Atkin, then a partner and director of strategic planning at Merkley Newman Harty.
"These days you can't succeed as a company if you're consumer-led - because, in a world full of so much constant change, consumers can't anticipate the next big thing. Companies should be idea-led and consumer-informed."
More true now, for sure. Consumers do not anticipate what they next want, not beyond improvements to things they currently have. I want Apple to combine phone and email features with my iPod's ability to store and play music, and sync my calendar and contacts. In short, I want a "shazzam" moment that will combine a Blackberry with my iPod, with the resulting elegance and "cool" in most Apple products. That's not innovation or an idea, it's an improvement (yet, I say to myself, a worthy one).
Consumers adopt ideas by first choosing products. Then after using their purchase, they recognize its tranformative power and like what it's done for them. (Or in some cases, what it's done to them.)
We at BURRIS are focusing our energies and our time on our ability to help generate ideas, the kind that drive innovation, the inspired solutions that overcome particularly thorny marketing problems. The kind that can lead to real innovation. First we need to convince our customers that they need ideas, that the best way out of their challenges is through some fresh thinking.
But we're challenged. How do we sell your ability to facilitate something so shapeless as "ideas"?
posted by Mark Burris - BURRIS at 1/16/2005 10:09:00 AM
2 Comments:
More about Douglas Atkin and his comments from the April 2000 FastCompany: "Atkin tries to work only with clients who have a vision for their brand...and he believes marketing people should confront problems. 'Many clients ask, "How do I know if I have an ... idea that will work?" You need to tell them that any idea poses some sort of risk. You can minimize that risk, however, by making sure that you're strategically informed. If you try to research a radical idea, consumers will usually tell you not to do what you want to do. So, instead, you should become informed about your market. Then you can take a creative leap: You can step out of the darkness and into the semi-light.... Companies need to rethink who defines their brand. The power of the marketing director is declining. As service becomes an important part of the brand experience, employees such as customer-service managers and distribution managers become just as important as the marketing director. The separation of marketing, research, advertising and customer service into silos no longer makes sense.'"
One other comment about the role creative should play in working with customers, this stolen from Martha Farnsworth Rice, a demographer, formerly working with the US Census Bureau. Ms. Rice said that "for the first time ever, the US population has roughly equal numbers of people in each age bracket. Tectonic plates are shifting, and it's my job to warn the world about what that means."
Interesting stuff. (I looked up "tectonic," and I think I'll be using that word in the future.)
But for my reading and retention, this is the more valuable comment from her: "My challenge is to be clear about how I spend my time and energy. I'm in the early-warning business, not the implementation business.... Change is happening faster than ever before, and we can't afford to let it just happen."
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