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September 30, 2017

Will a robot take your job ?

Interesting debate with some students we are teaching about innovation this week. We have been discussing AI, Robotics, Machine Learning,The SIngularity and all these exciting tech-driven futures. They suddenly got worried about being made obsolete by machines….asked whether unchecked ‘innovation’ is always a good thing ? I found a website set up by the BBC on the back of some research from Oxford University that might help if you have wondered the same thing. The researchers have listed lots of professions and calculated the percentage likelihood the job role will be replaced by a robot.

What is your automation risk ?

The page on the BBC website is titled- Will a Robot Take Your Job ? The short answer, and we find a rather heartening one, is – ‘not if you are a publican’. Cheers to the future people.

April 7, 2014

Dogs & Cats Takeover Snapchat

We love it when the socio-sphere comes a little closer to the real world. Digi-land is a place where we often find ourselves in a Dorothy-like tornado of hashtags, bitly shortcodes, jargon and apps with very, very silly names…Pet lovers on Snapchat are bringing us back down to earth.

Snapchat’s pet obsessives cut through that mess of stuff that no-one really understands and just send out pictures of their special furry companions. People love pictures of fluffy animals, and if they own one, ( a fluffy animal that is) they love nothing more than telling others all about it.

Pet lovers have been talking to their pets, sharing pictures and stories about their beloved animals for years. So it comes as little surprise that Snapchat is full of Cat /Dog pictures. Go Pet Lovers Everywhere! The Ideas Machine salutes you.

Dogs on Snapchat

April 4, 2014

A Few Tiny Rooms in London rated in Top 3 on Tripadvisor

London has literally hundreds of thousands of options for tourists, visitors. So what do you think the world’s biggest peer review network Trip Advisor rates regularly in the top 3 of the long, long list ? The Answer : Hint Hunt.

Hint Hunt is a live, interactive, escape game, for 3-5 people, based around 3 small rooms, in a really small office building near Soho, London. Gamers get 60 minutes to crack the puzzles and get out on time. Simple. And if the reviews are anything to go by they love it!

This little place beats Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, The London Eye….. rated third of thousands on Trip Advisor, Hint Hunt is hard to find out much about ( players respect the element of surprise and don’t reveal too much in their posts).

This is a lesson, if any of us really need one, in the true power of peer review and social media /networks. Tripadvisor reviews have taken this tiny enterprise to the very, very top of the table.

January 27, 2014

Fear of saying something stupid is a barrier to innovation

We love this blog piece, especially the analysis of framing innovation as ‘problem’ vs opportunity – and how people’s fears of ‘saying something stupid’ are a barrier to innovation. Obvious, but very, very true and often overlooked.

Personal take-aways from: Chapter 4: Of Innovation, Intuition and Imposters: Intangible Vulnerabilities in the Brains of Great Leaders (Pages 91-101)

Making “problems” part of innovation appears to be a substantial mindset change to discover new solutions. Knowing that a problem is something “normal” will relax people to take their time to find the similarities across great semantic differences. The saying “just give it time” makes even more sense now. This goes hand in hand with other topics discussed in other parts of the book; a focus change away from the perception that a problem is something negative towards something positive: that a problem is one way of innovation calling to be discovered.

It also seems to be important to have created a context for innovation in terms of the company culture. Although the book doesn’t specifically state it that way, but the fact that there may be tensions between madness and creativity, might explain the following thought process: “I don’t want to sound like a fool in front of my employees/the others.” Leaders might fall short of their own creative potential because they are afraid to say something “stupid” because they think that if the people they work with don’t understand it, they will have lose the leadership status they have had in the past. The same might be the reason why sometimes innovation is so hard to come by: because people are afraid to say something “stupid” that cannot be understood by the mindsets and paradigms of the people they work with. Changing this context by creating an “idea-free zone” might help people and leaders to truly open up without feeling the pressure of having to sound “intelligent” or to be understood. To challenge the status-quo might call for “stupid ideas.” Let´s think about the great inventors such as Bell, Tesla, the Wright Brothers and Babbage.

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January 26, 2014

How to Innovate with Pubic Hair: American Apparel

It would be churlish not to comment on US clothing retailer American Apparel ‘s decision to ‘shock’ using mannequins with full pubic hair. Seen here sporting a rather large ‘bush’ showing through flimsy undergarments, this plastic lady and her plastic friends have been seen across select AA US store window displays.

Personally, I love it. Interesting that something so, shall we say, ubiquitous can be used to such great PR effect. Simple, cheap to do, massive PR, what’s not to like ?

From an innovation perspective, this example teaches there is value in revisiting taboos. It encourages us not to feel like we have to beat the marketing teams of our competitors by playing according to category or advertising rules and mores.

I am not saying massive ‘bush in-ya-face’ is the best tactic for a fashion brand, nor that shock tactics are always a great plan, but this American Apparel stunt certainly got buzz and let’s face it, the story adds a degree of interest to what is otherwise a black and white box selling sweat tops and casual gear.

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July 31, 2013

Happy People Sell

One guy and his simple mantra, ‘Happy people sell’ creates a call centre like no other. One of the best examples of business and the blindingly obvious I have seen recently. Nev, the boss of a Welsh call centre keeps his troops happy with what many might call ‘unorthodox’ management tools. If you haven’t watched him in action, switch on and check out The Call Centre aired on BBC Three, available on BBC iplayer.

July 23, 2013

Virgin Media and The Guardian Award UK Innovators

Virgin Media Innovation Nation asks the public to decide which finalists are the most innovative

July 8, 2013

Why Innovation works best when it is Extreme

Extreme Innovation is about pushing things as far out as you can- and then pushing some more! After years running client projects I can’t remember one where an organisation’s internal conservatism did not dampen down the project results. One client , now chairman of a major UK retailer once said that we should never tailor anything to make it more ‘acceptable’ to them… “We’ll do a great job of squashing these ideas into an ‘us-shaped’ hole”, he said.

How right he was! The lesson for me was to push harder on client projects- they are paying for innovative thinking , not the same stuff they do everyday, not for a chat to make them feel better about the world.

Challenging the status quo requires us to be genuinely different and original. Restless pursuit of something original requires proper thinking and a fearlessness of the discomfort we all feel at the edge of what is possible . Obvious.

Feel the fear

Next time you are about to present to clients asking for innovation, or running sessions on innovative thinking / process..it think about the edges, if you don’t have precipice anxiety …you haven’t pushed it hard enough yet!

The 20/80 Rule for Innovation: It’s All About the Edges (inc.com)
The Innovative Employee: Traits, Knowledge and Company Culture (innovationmanagement.se)
Extreme Innovation (bravenewbusiness.wordpress.com)

July 3, 2013

Customer Relationship Management – remember me When It Matters

I used to live abroad and came back to the UK looking for lovely things and experiences to remind me of home. A kind of ‘Brit-fix’. One of these was regular visits to a very swanky country hotel with several Michelin stars to its name. My husband and I clocked up several thousand dollars worth of amazing memories and several tens of thousands of calories over the years. But each time we went they would greet us like first time guests. At first I thought it was because we arrived looking like we’d ‘won the holiday’ , so I changed my wardrobe and wiped the chocolate off my daughter’s face. Nothing changed. One awful day my husband remarked on their lack of acknowledgement and suggested we find an alternative.

Horrified that my oasis would be denied me, I wrote to the manager. If my local pizza joint can tell by my mobile number who I am, where I live and how much pepperoni I like…why can’t you say ‘welcome back’ when we come visit?

They were contrite and admitted they were pretty arrogant in believing they did not need CRM. Our clients like discretion they said. Well this client wants to feel welcomed and recognised I said. So they asked us back, pulled out all the stops and made a huge fuss of my daughter who loved being welcomed by name and given a small bear to hug.

We are going back again, we will likely spend most of the cost of a week’s holiday on wine and we will continue to love them as long as they love us back.

I don’t need them to remember my birthday or note my blood group. I just want them to recognise me when it matters. Obvious.

It is the When It Matters part that counts. Try looking at your customers’ journey and identify the key moments of interaction customers experience with you- does your CRM kick in when it really matters? Or do you sling stuff at them according to your signed off marketing plan? Are you missing them When It Matter

An English Garden