What’s Next in Marketing and Advertising?

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Customer Service, Marketing

Paul Isakson put together an excellent presentation called “What’s Next in Marketing + Advertising”.

Check it out:

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Management Innovation: Yes, your employees have brains!

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Management, SANE Innovation

Henry Ford was once quoted to have asked the question: “Why is it that whenever I ask for a pair of hands, a brain comes attached?”

Too many companies ask this same question everyday. They may not verbalize it, but they ask it day in and day out by NOT asking the people that comprise their organizations questions like: “What do you think? Do you agree? How could we do this better?”

Ask is the second step in the SANE approach to innovation. Once you’ve set expectations that you want everyone to be involved in innovation, you have to start asking. Ask your team members to think outside the box. Ask them for their opinions. Ask them if they argee with you, rather than just telling them what YOU think.

Ask, Ask, Ask. “You have not, because you ask not.”

There are far to many mediocre “me too” companies out there playing catch up, with nothing innovative to show for themselves.

If you want innovation to become part of your organization’s culture, it has to start with YOU (the CEO, manager, team leader, etc). It starts with management innovation. It starts with humbleness, and waking up to the fact that you aren’t better than anyone else. By hiring other people, you’ve already admitted you can’t do everything by yourself, so why shoot yourself in the foot by insisting that you always know best?

Ford was an innovative man in his time, but the kind of thinking reflected in his quote above will only get you where Ford Motor Company is today – struggling and chasing a competitor that “gets it” (Toyota), because their competitor believes in the value of every individual employee.

Yes, your employees have brains! Why not encourage them to use them, rather than stifle innovation by reducing them to a role or a cog? Treat your team members/employees with the respect they deserve, ask them for their opinions and ideas, and start creating a culture of innovation today.

Advertisers – Don’t be this guy!

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Marketing

I’ve seen this great video brought up again in a few places, so I thought I’d republish it here as well.  The more exposure it receives the better.

It’s an excellent parody of the relationship between consumers and old school advertisers.

Don’t be this guy!

The new Starbucks “Idea Engine”

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Collaboration, Crowdsourcing, Customer Service, Product Management

I walked into Starbucks Friday afternoon for a cup of tea, and came across this:

I knew what was coming…

Starbucks recently launched a new site called mystarbucksidea.com, powered by Salesforce Ideas.

I love it when I see a company (especially a large name company like Starbucks), utilizing technology to listen to and involve their customers in more of what they do.

I thought it was cool that they were populating ideas that were brought up prior to launching the site, like this one:

“Please go back to your original idea of an European coffee house and get rid of the
extraneous items like cds, stuffed animals, countless foods and all that factory
holiday junk. I love the original Starbucks better. And Howard Schultz, I love you.

- An idea from our Annual Meeting of Shareholders on March 19, 2008 in Seattle”

Jeremiah gave some good quick thoughts here, and Jim Bruene over at NetBanker added some great thoughts here as well.

Great move Starbucks, and wonderful execution on the roll out of the site and marketing campaign. Now the challenge will become being agile enough to respond and execute on the top rated ideas as soon as possible. Do it now, as early as possible. It will really pay off.

I’d love to talk to the individual at Starbucks that was responsible for making this happen.

The best “APP” for getting things done

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Leadership

APP = Accountability, Purpose, Priority

These are three things that I’ve found critical to have when trying to get things done. Really, this goes for personal productivity and team productivity.

Accountability – You need to have someone that holds you accountable to doing the things you commit to doing. This could be your spouse, a business partner, a friend, a co-worker, etc. Find someone that will hold you accountable.

Purpose – You have to have a purpose for doing things, and that purpose should be clearly defined and stated/published somewhere. Being reminded often of the purpose for doing something helps to keep you focused.

Priority – How important is something compared to other things you want to do? Without priorities, you’ll flounder and jump from half finished item, to half finished item.

Purpose and Priority are also good ways to evaluate whether or not you should work on something at a given time. It’s easy to let “something cool” or “something new” steal your attention. If the purpose for you doing something is not clear and it doesn’t take priority over other items, don’t work on it.

In trying to really stay focused and get more things done, these are a few of the things I’ve realized I need. I also have a new filing system I’ll share soon, that some of you may find useful as well.

My Leadership Quote of the Day

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Management

“Remember, being a leader doesn’t mean that you’re better than everyone else.  It just means that you have the privilege of helping to better everyone else.”

- Me

Creating a Culture of Innovation: Setting Expectations

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, SANE Innovation

As a leader, setting the expectations of your team/employees is YOUR responsibility, and is the first step in creating a culture of innovation within your organization.

So, how do you set expectations? Communicate them!

It’s important to communicate your expectations clearly. These expectations should be both what YOU expect from your team/employees, but more importantly, what THEY should expect from you. People need to know that you are serious about working WITH them, NOT just serious about them working FOR you.

Let your team know that you want each and every one of them to know that their ideas and input are as valuable as anyone else’s – including your own. (Stress that last point.)

You should then clearly define how you plan to manage innovation and creative ideas within your organization. Do you have a formal process? (I’ll talk more about this in a future post.)

You then need to lead by example by you yourself meeting and exceeding the expectations that you have set for your organization. This once again means NOT bypassing the system or process you have put in place for managing ideas and creativity. If you set specific guidelines, adhere to them. If you set goals, exceed them. (or at least meet them)