Think Out Loud is a blog brought to you by the team at ThinkTank - a catalytic consultancy specialising in strategic marketing, branding and innovation based in Cork, Ireland.
At ThinkTank we were encouraged to read Alf Smiddy’s recent Blog post entitled -It’s all about your Brand - which also appeared in innovative financial services firm, Quintas’ spring newsletter.
As a former MD and Chairman of Beamish & Crawford Plc, for over twelve years and current chairman and director on a number of Boards, Alf has a tremendous depth of experience in both the financial and branding arenas. This combination of skills is particularly unique and it’s inspiring to hear one of Cork’s most respected business leaders recognising the importance and value of brands.
In an insightful and thought -provoking post he outlines why in our tumultuous economic landscape, business as usual has become irrelevant and how companies need to to “inspire and mobilise people around a common purpose.” He goes onto explain,“I firmly believe that it’s through innovation, the re-invention of existing brands, and the creation of new brands that will create the climate for business success going forward.”
When it comes to innovation we often focus on the sexy part – coming up with the ideas! In this insightful Harvard Business Review video Vijay Govindarajan, Tuck School of Business professor, talks about why innovation is so hard to implement and what you can do about it. Innovation is all about commercializing creativity and Vijay explains why companies need to forget about the past if they want to create the future. In his new book The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge with Chris Trimble – he explains how companies need to build separate innovation teams that a are separate from the operating engine of the business. This is important if you want to let go off organizational baggage and introduce new skills and fresh perspectives. You can follow Vijay on Twitter right HERE!
Good design is good business. Yet it’s amazing how few good business people recognize and understand the commercial value of good design.
Think about how every day poorly designed products and services add complexity instead of simplicity to our lives. The tortuously convoluted language used by the financial services industry, the non-intuitive features on electronic gadgets that most of us will never fathom, big call centres that tell you what they can’t do instead of what they can, antiquated recruitment practices that tick boxes instead of identifying talent and newspaper layouts that are cluttered with ads all fighting for attention like kids on a sugar rush! The universe may contain intelligent design but many products and services certainly do not!
No committee, no budget and no rules; The grassroots movement that’s determined to transform the way people look at Cork city.
A new movement has begun to “transform” Cork city into a better place for its residents and visitors. It’s a movement without a leader. Already, two cafés, two marketing companies, publicans, journalists, start-up businesses and unemployed people have pledged their support. It’s called Transform Cork and it’s open to everyone keen to improve the city. There’s no committee, no budget and nothing but the power of the internet at its service. It’s using Twitter, Facebook, blogs and now the Cork News. It seems to have sprung out of nowhere, committed to changing Cork from the bottom-up – rather than the top-down.
“Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who’s forging a bullet with your company’s name on it,” Gary Hamel, a leading business strategy writer and consultant, has written. “You’ve got one option now — to shoot first. You’ve got to out-innovate the innovators.”
Unfortunately most organizations have an in built defence mechanism against new ideas. People don’t like change so immediately find reasons why ideas should not be considered. The problem is that if you don’t start anticipating the future you could be run over by it.
Many SME’s would acknowledge that they need to become more innovative but just don’t know how to start or where to begin. ThinkTank sat down to map out 4 practical ways SME’s can generate ideas, capture insights and successfully implement a game changing innovation strategy.
As companies grapple with the challenges of the recession, ThinkTank sat down to brainstorm some new ideas to help businesses shift from their existing present to their best future. We’ve outlined ten of our best ideas that could help sharpen your strategy and spark some fresh new thinking!
Now, more than ever, we need to shake things up. With tough times we need a different way of thinking and the energy to turn things around. International marketing guru Seth Godin, author of bestseller Purple Cow & Tribes, has recently released his latest ebook What Matters Now – which is available as a FREE download right here.
It’s jam packed with terrific ideas from ‘70 BIG THINKERS’ each sharing their ‘one powerful idea’ with you to think about as we head into the new year. This exciting ebook also contains groundbreaking ideas from some top business gurus like Tom Peters and best selling author Elizabeth Gilbert.
Share it with your staff, share it with your colleagues – it contains some inspiring ideas that could change the way you think, change the way you work and maybe even change the world!
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