01.10.2014 Views

Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

168 BRAND RELEVANCE<br />

base was undoubtedly one reason for his success. Overburdened<br />

managers often feel like it is wasteful to absorb information not<br />

immediately applicable. However, information outside a fi rm ’s<br />

boundaries can play a key role when it comes to that fi rm ’ s creative<br />

thinking.<br />

Access Diverse People. Different people and organizations<br />

bring different knowledge bases, experiences, and perspectives<br />

to the table. Having people from different backgrounds or being<br />

able to access them means that different ideas and perspectives<br />

will enrich and deepen the process. The challenge is then to get<br />

them into the same actual or virtual room to focus on an issue.<br />

Multiple parties not only can contribute ideas but, perhaps more<br />

important, can refi ne ideas. Most new offerings start in forms<br />

that are unfeasible or easily rejected. Refi nement by various<br />

partners makes offerings viable.<br />

Know and Use Brainstorming. Many people and organizations<br />

feel that they know how to brainstorm but few make it a<br />

part of their management rhythms or do it well. The innovation<br />

fi rm IDEO provides some guidelines to effective brainstorming<br />

beyond simply doing it regularly. First, have a good, motivating<br />

problem statement. The best usually center on a customer<br />

need. In addition to getting early ideas out, brainstorming can<br />

be used to address sticky issues or barriers that arise as offering<br />

ideas emerge. Second, make sure that there is a suspension - of -<br />

evaluation period during which the goal is to generate a high<br />

volume of ideas and allow weird ideas to build toward better<br />

ones. It helps to count ideas. Aim for 100 to 150 in a one - hour<br />

session. Third, when fl ow of energy and ideas slows down, fi nd<br />

another starting place even if it is fanciful. Fourth, unless the<br />

group is experienced, have a warm - up period. 5<br />

Force New Perspectives. Each different perspective provides<br />

a source of ideas. The idea is to challenge ideas and stretch thinking.<br />

What can the manager of a five - star hotel learn from a zoo?

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!