Session on Corporate Innovation

Yesterday (14 May 2013), I had the opportunity to conduct a session on “Corporate Innovation” to a diverse audience (3 to 10+ years experience). It was an interesting, and interactive session. The one strong view which was echoed from the participants was that there is VERY LITTLE INNOVATION happening at the ground level within most organizations!

Sharing below the key messages from my session

Overview to Corporate Innovation

1. Innovation has evolved from “Nice to Do” To “Good to Do” to “Must Do”. Innovate to survive
2. There is no “universal / standard definition” of Innovation
3. Innovation within an organization can happen at any time, at any place and from anyone. Innovation can occur at any level within an organization – from entry level to executive management
4. Innovation can be of technology, process, business, delivery methodology, product or user experience
5. What the wise have to say about Innovation. To read a set of interesting Innovation Quotes, click here
6. Focus of Corporate Innovation is how to “Simplify” / “Solve problems” / “Make things easier and better” / “Improve efficiencies” for internal (employees) and external (customers , partners, suppliers, vendors) stakeholders. Of course, corporate innovation initiatives focus on “Reducing costs” / “Improving Revenues”

* Innovation Life Cycle : Every innovation typically follows a life cycle as depicted below

* Importance of Corporate Innovation

1. Getting employees to “Think”, “Learn”, “Reflect”, “Experience”, “Comprehend” and “Apply” : Build a culture of innovation
2. Key Differentiator ; Competitive Advantage in the market
3. Additional “Revenue Potential” ; Non-Linearity
4. Better Customer Engagement
5. Market Positioning & Thought Leadership

* Lessons from my Corporate Innovation Journey

1. There are three distinct phases in the Innovation Life Cycle and each requires a different mind set
2. Your idea need not be unique; How you position your innovation makes all the difference
3. The Business Plan is just a baseline plan
4. When you start the GTM [Go-To-Market] activities can make all the difference
5. The first customer is the most crucial in your journey to success
6. Corporate Innovation should be a priority from the top
7. Internal communication and collaboration is critical to succeed

Extracted from paper published in the IIMB Summer Magazine (2012)

What do marketers really LOVE?

“What do marketers REALLY LOVE?”
On Valentine’s day, I wondered what do Marketers really LOVE.. As I observed several marketers and mulled over this subject, I figured that broadly there are a 5 Categories of Marketers based on what they LOVE

(1) The “Product / Service Centric” Marketer
This kind of marketer truly loves the product / service he / she is associated with. They believe in it, are passionate about it, and live breathe and dream the product / service.
The only issue is that they probably focus way too much on the product / service, and many times ignore the end-customer or the most effective way to market it, which generally has an adverse impact their marketing strategy.

(2) The “Marketing-Centric” Marketer
This kind of marketer truly loves “marketing”. The product / service is immaterial. The industry is immaterial. The channels are immaterial.
What matters to them is Marketing. And they can market anything anywhere anytime and to anyone; and end up doing a fantastic job most of time.
These are individuals who have “marketing in their DNA” and usually are an asset to any Marketing Team

(3) The “Customer-Centric” Marketer
This kind of marketer truly loves the “end-customer” and usually focus their marketing efforts around the “end customer”. They usually design and develop “customer centric” marketing strategies; and usually are pretty successful in what they do.
There are probably the best breed of marketers simply because at the end of the day the most important aspect of marketing is to connect, engage and create awareness of your product / service among your existing / potential customers

(4) The “Combo” Marketer
Most marketers are usually a combination of a “Product / Service” Centric Marketer + “Marketing-Centric” Marketer + “Customer-Centric” Marketer with varying degrees of focus on each; and varying degrees of success. Over time and experience, they hone their “marketing” skills; but most likely end up as “Combo Marketers” even decades later

(5) The “I Don’t really Love Anything” Marketer
This is the kind of marketer who does marketing as his job. They don’t really love anything – neither the product / service, nor marketing, nor the customers. They do an average job most of the time, and sometimes good and sometimes bad (Simply by the law of averages)! This is the kind of marketer you probably don’t want in your team (especially since most marketing teams are very small)

Those are the 5 categories I’ve come across. Have you come across any more? Leave a comment to let me know

Is there a measure to EXCELLENCE?

“Excellence is the
Result of Caring more than others think is Wise,
Risking more than others think is Safe,
Dreaming more than others think is Practical, and
Expecting more than others think is Possible.”
BY Ronnie Oldham

Everyone I know proudly recalls moments during their school years when their school work was graded as “Excellent!”. OR their parents said “Excellent!” for any of their efforts and creations or their coaches / mentors praised their efforts and outputs as “Excellent!”. Simply because that was the BEST POSSIBLE GRADING one could ever receive. And who does not like to receive the BEST?

As you grow older, you get to hear less of the “Excellent!” – Be it at home or outside.. Simply because as you grow, expectations increase and more importantly, it is probably hard to be the BEST in the eyes of everyone around you! Adding to this is the fact that many people don’t pause to appreciate and express the EXCELLENCE around them…

So, I’ve been thinking..
Is there really a measure to EXCELLENCE?
How does anyone qualify EXCELLENCE?
Is everyone qualified to judge EXCELLENCE?

And here’s what I realized…
In any sphere of work or life
Sometimes, EXCELLENCE is a FALLACY
Sometimes, EXCELLENCE is a REALITY
Sometimes, EXCELLENCE is a DREAM

EXCELLENCE is RELATIVE to your experience
EXCELLENCE is SUBJECTIVE to your ideas and views
EXCELLENCE is INFLUENCED by your emotions
EXCELLENCE is PERCEIVED in your mind
EXCELLENCE is BOUND TO CHANGE.. with time.. with life

So that’s my view..
What do you think? Is there a MEASURE to EXCELLENCE? Leave a comment to let me know

How frequently should you blog?

There’s a lot of global debate and discussion around “How frequently should you blog?” – Be it a personal blog or a professional blog.. And also a lot of answers, advice and best practices ranging from “You should blog every day“  TO “You should blog 2-3 times per week“  TO “You should blog once a week”  TO “You should blog once a month“… With so many diverse opinions it becomes hard for any blogger to figure out the right answer..

From my personal experience I can definitely say that there is NO RIGHT ANSWER.. It all depends on the big WHY? Why are you blogging and what do you want to achieve from your blogs? So the frequency of your blogs should be governed by your own personal blogging objectives..

Having said that, I can also say from personal experience that blogging in the long run requires creativity in terms of
- Blog topics and the way you articulate,
- Discipline in the blogging process and
- Time and effort to keep the blog active over a long period of time (say years)..

All three parameters are equally important. So if you have a lot of ideas, but are not disciplined and don’t take the time to publish a blog you will not have an active blog!

Also, most of the globally reputed blogs publish atleast 1 article per week, some of them 2. But they do ensure that the blogs are updated regularly at a pre-determined frequency (including days of the week and times of the day). Having been a blogger for several years now, I can definitely say that the recommended frequency for any serious blogger (no matter what the objective) is 1 – 2 blogs / week. It can be your own blogs or a guest blog, but there absolutely has to be an update every week.

From the reader’s perspective it helps to know when one can find an update on your blog and hence they can look forward to your posts regularly.

For the blogger’s perspective, enforcing a frequency ensures that you read regularly, you think constantly and you also write on a regular basis so that you have an active blog. And if you look at the larger canvas of life, reading, thinking and writing are 3 key foundational pillars for anyone to learn, grow and evolve in the journey of life.. So why will anyone not do them?

Customer Centricity

“Customer Centricity” is the latest buzz-word across the globe. Be it a banking organization, a telecom company, an insurance firm, an IT services organization, an entrepreneurial venture or a retail business.
At a high level, “Customer Centricity” translates to the following:

Know Your Customer: What this entails is to:
Know the Customer Profile – Based on the business that an organization is in, information about the customer profile varies. For e.g.: In a B2B scenario, customer profile includes information on the organizations history, its vision, its values, its offerings, its management, its employees, its location, its clients, etc.
Know the Customers Plans – An overall understanding of where the customer is headed is important. What are the short term, medium and long term plans? And more specifically, what the customer is planning with respect to the offerings relevant to your organization.
Know the Customers Priorities – This will help in getting insights to the customer’s point of view; specifically on where they would be willing to invest their time, their money and their resources.
Know the Customers Preferences – Every customer has their unique preferences. Investing time in learning these enables an organization to align and position their offerings accordingly.

Understand Your Customer: The next step is to process all the customer information to understand the customer. Many organizations do a great job of information capture but forget to do the required due diligence to understand the customer. What it translates to is:
Get the Big Picture – This means processing and analyzing the customer information to get a holistic view of the customer. If an organization is able to piece the big picture from the customer’s point of view, they usually are able to successfully work with the customer.
Identify the Requirements which are relevant to your organization – An organization needs to have the required maturity and business acumen to extract customer requirements relevant to their business context and offerings.

Service Your Customer: The third step is to service your customer’s requirements as per the pre-defined agreements. Typically the date of completion, quality and scope of work is non-negotiable. What is important in the long run is to consistently honor these contractual commitments.

Invest in Customer Relationships: Building customer relationships is the one of most important step in Customer Centricity. However, also the most overlooked. This means building meaningful long term bonds with the customer – One which provides the opportunity to play additional roles and wear alternate hats – that of an advisor, a mentor, a true consultant, a confidant, a strategic associate, and lastly that of a valued partner.

Originally published @ http://blog.wipro.com/blog/2011/07/04/customer-centricity