Happy New Year! If you are making New Year’s resolutions, a good one would be to prioritize innovation as your #1 mandate in 2017.
Attached is an article (“Innovation As A Mandate”) written by our friend and client Doug Rozen, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer at OMD, inspired by his recent attendance at CES 2017, a place where several innovations in consumer electronics are announced annually.
CES innovation standouts this year included the LG’s “wallpaper” TV, PowerVision’s underwater drone to help recreational fisherman, PicoBrew a home beer brewing system, Motiv smart ring captures fitness and health data – an alternative to FitBit, and Amazon Alexa the must have personal assistant.
We are also seeing several firms including Uber, Google, Tesla continuing to expand testing of driver-less cars….and Toyota unveiled their 2030 “Concept-i” car at CES2017. With so much smart technology being included in the design of “next generation” automobiles, we are perhaps less than a decade away from changes in automobile travel that will dramatically improve safety.
What are your company’s plans for innovation in 2017? Which areas of your business are most vulnerable to new competitors entering with new, disruptive digital and mobile business models?
Also, in terms of your personal brand and career, what new innovations do you need to pursue in order to create the career changes and advancement you are striving for?
As always, we welcome you comments and input.
Best,
Jeff Gundersen, CEO
The Innovation Mandate
By Doug Rozen, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer – OMD
Why the first week of the year at #CES2017 is critical.
We are just 5 days into 2017 as 200,000 ascend on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. While #CES2017 has become the place for marketers to see the latest and greatest, meet with agencies and partners and just have a good time, the real reason to attend #CES2017 is to get your innovation agenda in place for the new year.
Every marketer should adopt an innovation mandate – be it a manifesto, a framework or a roadmap. Innovation is not an accident. The best innovation is intentional. This is the difference between true innovation and just ideation. Marketing innovation is separate from creative ideation – the two often get confused as the same. Innovation is the delivery of ideas that either causes disruption or accelerates opportunities.
Successful innovation mandates are:
- True to a marketers organization and brand
- Measurable (good or bad)
- Long-term visions with short-to-mid term flexibility
- Supported broadly across the organization (top down, bottom up)
- Safe zones for an organization to push teams
- Not an accident: They carefully designed and structured
If done right, marketing innovation removes friction, tells a story and allows for emotions to overweigh data. Sometimes you need to fire before you can aim. Innovation mandates will allow you to define the disruption opportunities (think Netflix 1.0 – DVD distribution) as well as acceleration opportunities (think Netflix 2.0 – creation).
As you review #CES2017 highlights, don’t forget that innovation is intentional. Reaching consumers in new ways and in new places is seldom achieved on just a leap of faith. Spend time analyzing your innovation agenda and updating it for the new year, new gadgets, new trends and new opportunities.
New Year, New Role! – Lola White, Partner & Personal Brand Strategist – Executive Connections LLC
Are you ready for new career opportunities in 2017? The job market is heating up, there is pent-up demand for talent in several industry sectors, 2017 budgets are approved, and the market for top talent is currently robust.
Finding the right next career step is not just about updating your resume, bio and LinkedIn profile, it’s about creating a strategic plan and framework for achieving your long-term career objectives. This type of planning is essential to creating a strong foundation from which to either launch a new job search or be an “active listener” as search firms call to solicit you for desirable positions.
Fitting this personal planning into your current full-time career role is the other challenge we hear from almost all of our clients. We have worked with numerous C-level and mid-level executives who have commented, “What EC helped me accomplish in 30 days would have taken me 3-4 months to fit into my busy schedule.”
EC is now taking reservations for our February Brand Activate program and we have 3 spots open for new clients. Our personal branding programs include Brand Activate, Brand Positioning, and Brand Forward and you can check out these programs on our website, www.executiveconnectionsllc.com. Pls. e-mail me (lwhite@executiveconnectionsllc.com) for a free 30 minute consultation if you know now is your time to initiate your next career step.
Remember, it’s about figuring out where you are going first, then adjusting your personal brand materials to reflect the direction.
Leave a Reply