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!

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Cork, Creativity, Harvard Business Review, Innovation, Ireland, Twitter, Vijay Govindarajan

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!

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Brand Architecture, Branding, Cork, Creativity, Design, design sustainability, Design Thinking, environmental design, Glucksman Gallery, Innovation, Ireland, Irish Design, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, ThinkTank, Twitter, www.think-tank.ie

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 2010, understand profitability.  If I could offer you only one tip for the future profitability would be it”…..but more from Baz Luhrmann later…….

As a marketing lecturer, the second most common question I get asked (next to, “what is coming up on the exam”?) is “How am I ever going to get a job in marketing?”. Worse than this, in the students where the glass seems perpetually half empty, the statement “I am never going to get a job in marketing” reverberates every year as the academic term is coming to a close.  Now, what is interesting is that this sentiment appears to transcend gender, age and academic achievements, and was heard as loudly during the “Celtic Tiger” era as it is now in our economic recession.  Essentially, no marketing student seems to think they are going to get a job in marketing.  For a marketing lecturer who has spent years working with these students this is a disheartening sentiment to constantly hear, but more than that, it is a frustrating one.  Why is it that these bright, intelligent, articulate students, these Generation Y students who are constantly being told that they are the chosen ones, the future, the ones who are connected; why is it that these students think they won’t get a job in marketing?

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Career in Marketing, CIT, Cork, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland, Irish Mad Men, Irish Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Graduates, Marketing Students, Rose Leahy, Strategic Marketing, ThinkTank, Twitter, www.think-tank.ie

Hello. My name is Anna and I am a Millennial. I am part of the largest generation yet to exist. We populate Facebook and YouTube. We are social and always connected. We are armed with laptops, iPods and smart phones. We are Generation Y, or indeed Generation Y Not.

The Millennials are the “wired” generation and we don’t know how to be any other way. We’re a new breed of consumers and unfortunately most businesses are not prepared for us.  Businesses need to get to know the Millennials if they want to be relevant and successful in the future. Our global annual spending power exceeds $250 billion and we also influence another $50 million in purchases. Our generation has bigger potential purchasing power than the Baby Boomers and is set to supplant them as the most powerful economic force on planet earth.

So let me introduce you to the Millennials..

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Advertising, Anna Sablovscaia, Baby Boomers, Brands, Cork, Generation X, Generation Y, Ireland, Market Segmentation, Marketing, Marketing to Gen-Y, Millennials, number of Irish Facebook users, Research, ThinkTank, trends, Twitter, www.think-tank.ie

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FACT: One in five Irish Enterprises fail according to the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association. In many instances they fail due to a lack of understanding of their customers and market place.

Post-recession shoppers are a completely different breed when compared to what has gone before. They’ve been profoundly impacted by a feeling of deprivation the recession caused and the way in which they’ve coped with it. Now they are more demanding than ever and their expectations are increasingly high. We all know shoppers are fickle and the days of being completely loyal to one brand or company are gone. Shoppers have been conditioned to search out the best price and value during these recessionary times yet they can be swayed at the point of purchase to make very different decisions. Other factors like emotions also come into play, hence the contradiction in terms, when you hear that more than one in two customers claim to be cutting down on treats but sales of premium products such as ice cream and chocolates are on the rise. How can that be?

Business consultancy Deloitte released an interesting research report just this week in New York where they talked about a ‘paradigm shift’ in consumer purchasing habits in the US. It found that a whopping 84% of households were examining their spending in every category to try and save money while 79% believed they were ‘smarter’ shoppers than they were two years ago. But it also found that 75% believed that the financial crisis had caused them to realise ‘which brands I really care about and which ones are less important to me’ and that there were only two or three brands which they ‘could not live without’.

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, brand audit, Branding, Colette Quinn, Company Analysis, competitor analysis, consumer insights, consumer trends, Cork, differentiation, Enterprise Ireland, Ireland, Jonathan Amm, Lisa Murphy, Market Analysis, Marketing, Marketing Director, post recessionary customer, Real Insights, Research, social media, ThinkTank, Twitter, www.think-tank.ie

Insights & Tips on Company & Product Naming

Naming a business is a lot like laying the cornerstone of a new building. Once it’s in place, the entire foundation and structure is aligned to that original stone. If it’s off, even in the slightest, the misalignment becomes amplified.

The tougher it gets out there, the more important it is to put your marketing money where it will do the most good. Coming up with the right name for a company or a product can make a huge difference in building a brand and even in determining it’s future success. Too often companies jump straight into designing a logo and then spend the rest of the marketing budget trying to explain to people what they actually do and what their difference is.

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Tags: 10 tips on company naming, @ThinkTank_, Advertising, Big Idea, Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Branding, Company Naming, Cork, differentiation, Fishy Fishy, Innovation, Ireland, Irish Patents Office, Jonathan Amm, Kinsale, Logo Design, Marketing, Product Development, Product Naming, Start-ups, Strategy, Trade Mark Agents, Trademarks, Twitter

Demanding inclusion in the boys’ club is a long and arduous path. Nowadays, smart women are building their own instead……

Get your sunglasses, grab your beach towel and imagine the following scene of children playing in the sand:

Seven boys, ages five to eight, are engineering an intricate series of dams and rivers by the water’s edge. They even build a small hot tub and are enjoying their time in this mini spa when along come the girls – first one, then two. As the third attempts to find a seat in the tub, two boys protest. “No girls allowed.” The girls argue but eventually move along. Minutes later the mothers arrive and demand equal rights for the girls. The boys protest, but the mothers stand guard as the girls are begrudgingly allowed in the tub.

Clearly everyone is having less fun. As soon as the guards leave, the chanting begins anew, “No girls allowed.” The scene repeats several times. Eventually, the mothers become distracted and the girls grow tired of trying. Then one lone girl starts to dig a short distance from the boys. She is far enough to maintain respect for the rule of separation but close enough for the engineers and construction workers to see her. Other girls join in. They build elaborate scenes creatively using beach flora, fauna and debris to make bridges, houses, trees and people.

A curious boy inches his digging project closer to the girls’ scene. Within minutes he connects his trench to their landscape. Other boys take note and edge closer. They build connecting roads as well. Soon the groups’ combined engineering and creative talents result in a complex and ingenious landscape filled with people, cars, pets, trenches, dams and a bigger coed hot tub!

This thought provoking story of boys and girls at play on a summer’s day is an excerpt from an article written by Dr. Anne Perschel which features in the Huffington Post. Anne is the founder and president of Boston based Germane Consulting and is a highly respected leadership and organizational psychologist.

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Tags: @TTStrategy, CIT, Cork, Dr. Anne Perschel, Enterprise Ireland, Entrepreneurs, Femtrepreneur, Going for Growth, Ireland, Leadership, Lisa Murphy, Management Consulting, MBA, Start-ups, Twitter, Women in business, www.irishwomeninbusiness.ie, www.networkcork.com, www.networkireland.ie, www.nwed.ie, www.sceb.ie, www.think-tank.ie

Let’s say you’re at a networking event and someone steps in the elevator with you, notices your nametag, and asks, “So what do you guys do?” Quick–what’s your answer? You’ve got just 30 seconds before the doors open so you’d better think fast.

In many ways an Elevator Pitch is shorthand for what your brand stands for. It’s your one-shot opportunity to be different and present yourself in a compelling and memorable way. For most business owners, getting to the crux of what you really do is the hardest, yet potentially most rewarding, one-minute conversation you could ever have.

So what is an Elevator Pitch?

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Advertising, Brand Positioning, Branding, Cork, differentiation, Elevator Pitch, Entrepreneurs, Ireland, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, Start-ups, Strategy, ThinkTank, Twitter, Value Proposition, www.think-tank.ie

In tough times we need ideas more than ever before. New ideas are the rocket fuel that can propel growth, ignite economic opportunities and improve our quality of life.

INSEAD’s Global Innovation Index 2009-2010, currently ranks Ireland as the 19^th most innovative country in the world. Ireland Inc is basing its recovery on forging a new smart economy built around innovation. Crowd-sourced competitions like Your Country Your Call have recently been launched to encourage citizens to generate new ideas and proposals that could transform Ireland by creating new jobs, new opportunities and a new way of thinking.

The IDA (Industrial Development Authority) have also invested €2m launching a global campaign with the positioning ‘Ireland – Innovation comes naturally’. It is designed to attract greater direct foreign investment and stimulate economic growth. To highlight this focus, the ‘I’ word has even found its way into our political lexicon. Minister Batt O’Keeffe is now fondly known as the Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Innovation.

So what can we do locally to become more of an Innovation Nation? As part of a new series, we’ll take a closer look at innovation and how we can apply it to our businesses and our lives.

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Cork, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Ireland, Jonathan Amm, Lateral thinking, Management, Marketing, Strategy, ThinkTank, Twitter

New opportunities or good-paying jobs won’t come from bailouts like NAMA. They come from start-ups. And where do start-ups come from? They come from smart, creative, inspired people who are willing to take risks and not handouts.

So if you’re considering starting your own business – or looking for ways to expand an existing one – here are three time-tested strategies you can implement to fast track growth and gain a competitive edge.

1. Discover an untapped niche that’s ‘hot’

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Comments (2) | | Digg This | Save to Del.icio.us | Posted by: Jon

Tags: @ThinkTank_, business models, Cork, Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Ireland, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, Strategic Competitive Advantage, Strategy, ThinkTank