Archive for innovation

Smart phones…I’ve opted out!

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Monday, March 28th, 2011

How many of you watched the video of the lady walking through the mall, texting and walking right into the fountain a few weeks ago? The big, 40 by 40 foot fountain, right in the MIDDLE of a mall? We all laughed right, could never happen to us…no, not us.

Technology is great, but looking around at my own life as well as observing others I’ve realized that we are beginning to be controlled by technology rather than using it to make life easier. As an example, I watched a colleague the other day who was working hard on a website project. Every time his iPhone® buzzed with a new email, text or update he, like Pavlov’s dog, stopped working, read the message, answered the message and then tried to get back to work only to be disturbed again in 30 seconds by the reply or rebuttle. He got virtually nothing done in 30 minutes.

Take this test for fun or the shock value… Read More→

New Year…New Direction ?

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Friday, December 31st, 2010

As 2010 is winding to a close it’s time to reflect on what was, what could have been and what will be in the year ahead.

We’ve dealt with a sluggish economy, clients who opted not to initiate projects, governmental regulation changes, team members who had family members laid off, perhaps you faced the need to downsize your staff as well. All in all, not one of the better years for business owners. Read More→

Employees, vendors and clients are all tuned in to WII-FM.

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

As a business owner, do you find yourself getting frustrated when all around you seem to think differently from you? Angry when the simplest of tasks or requests seem to be an imposition to others? When the common sense approach (i.e. Yours) turns into an all out brawl when trying to get cooperation? If this sounds familiar it’s because most of the people you are trying to enlist to help you are listening to different stations, they’re all on a completely separate channel.

Now this channel isn’t on Sirius, not on XM, not on cable and not even on those funny in-between HD bands. They are all listening, with you canceling headphones, to WII-FM.

The What’s-In-It-For-Me channel.

The only way that you can get and keep their attention is with really good incentive based advertising on their favorite station. As entrepreneurs and small business owners we have to craft our messages in ways that create mutual agenda items. Read More→

The fight for the NURDLE

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

I was reading the Wall Street Journal the other day and was astounded, well actually these days nothing surprises me anymore, that two toothpaste manufacturers are going to war over a graphic picture of a squirt of toothpaste.

Now I’m all about protecting intellectual property, I have plenty of copyrights and trademarks of my own, but this seems insane even to me, a professional marketer.

For the uninitiated, a NURDLE is the apparently correct name for the tiny little perfectly shaped glob of toothpaste shown on the box. In this picture the red, white and blue thingy.

nurdle

n. a grain, pellet, granule, or other small piece of a material, especially as part of a large quantity (such as foam kernels used as packing material); (in pronunciation-based spellings) a nodule; a quantity of a gel or semi-solid; a thing of unknown name (doodad, thingamajig, etc.). Also nerdle. Read More→

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Categories : Business - General, Just for Fun, leadership, management, Marketing - Sales

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Innovation – Hot new ideas are great cold.

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

I am regularly amazed at how quickly the most ‘corporate’ of companies, never mind us free wheeling, unstructured entrepreneurial companies, can get sucked off track and into the black hole vortex of wasting time by a simple 5 word phrase uttered in a meeting “I’ve got a great idea!”

As entrepreneurs, we are genetically programmed to develop and test new ideas and to keep looking for the latest bright shiny object. It’s actually a disease and we can’t help it.

However, over the years, I’ve found that some of my best ‘hot’ new ideas were better, even great, if I left them alone for a while and let them marinate.

I’m not suggesting in any way that you stifle the creativity and idea generation of you or your team members, in fact that’s how most small businesses discover new markets or create spin off businesses. An idea put before a work group, idea team or mastermind group grows and innovations are born.

However, to keep your production meetings on track as well as your own productivity, I would suggest that you institute a four step funnel or channel for the submission of new ideas. Read More→

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Categories : Business - General, Entrepreneurship, Marketing - Sales