JimCarroll

What the CEO’s are saying: “Six things we need to do”

October 28, 2008 by JimCarroll

If you want to understand what you should be doing right now, you keep your ears close to the ground, and listen to what others are talking about.

I’ve had a huge number of events in the last two months, since the economic contraction began. All of my keynotes and leadership sessions have focused on strategies to “stay out in front of this thing.”
I’m also quite often working with senior management, and get direct insight into what the CEO’s are thinking. Here’s what one CEO stated as the most important priorities through the next year, given the economic challenges:

staff development and retention: keep the key staff engaged, innovative, and focused on the business.
change leadership: many of my keynotes use a phrase from Rupert Murdoch: “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” That’s particularly true now: organizations must “check their speed” and be able to evolve strategy, ideas, product and service very fast to keep up.

back of the house is critical. In other words, IT is going to help to see us through. We need deep insight into the business; we need to focus on the cost efficiencies it can bring. We have a plan of investment, and we’re not backing off now — it’s critical
client retention: absolutely critical. Obsess over the quality of client relationships. This is so important, I’ve got a separate blog entry on it.
“make plan” — we have a budget — we need to meet it. We need to relentlessly focus on closing deals. We’ve got to be a partner to our customers; they are looking for comfort, and we can provide that to them. If it means we share the risk with them, we do that too.
have fun: wellness, mental and otherwise, is going to be critical to everyone in the organization in getting through these times. Let’s focus as a team, have fun, and move forward!

That is a good concise overview of what one CEO is telling his leadership team to concentrate on. There are some powerful lessons here. And it’s insight like this that I’m sharing to inspire and encourage others to innovate at the pace required to stay ahead of fast paced economic change.

The economy — what I’m seeing happen RIGHT NOW

October 23, 2008 by JimCarroll

This is quite unreal.

A month ago, I faced a very busy September and early October, and was out on the road keynoting a wide variety of events – a leadership event for a global law firm; an economic development conference; a symposium on consumer trends; a commercial real estate conference; a leadership session for a major bank and another for a telecom company; an event for a life insurance company; a meeting of pharmaceutical marketing executives; a food services company; a tourism conference; and many others — all as the economic twists and turns evolved at a furious pace. Tomorrow, I’m off to New York to open a conference for professionals in the field of photography. More on that later.

All of these talks were immediately recast on the spot, to provide an outline of how the economy was going to evolve from this point out — and how executives within these organizations should be thinking about the future in order to innovate ahead of fast-paced events.

The message has resonated in a huge way — right now, people are clamoring for insight into the idea of “what comes next, and what should we do about it?” I have been stunned by the discussions post-presentation; I think the message of opportunity, and the necessity to quickly get beyond our economic shock and do things, is resonating in a huge way.

Having said that, my original suspicion during the last month of travels was that I was likely to see a slowdown in my own business, as organizations reacted and retrenched in light of the obvious recession around us.

I can now say that my suspicions were quite incorrect. In the last few weeks, I have seen a substantial – and I mean substantial — number of queries for events, and a significant increase is confirmed bookings, from organizations who have decided that now is the time to focus on trends and the future, and to focus on how to establish an innovative mindset to get there intact.

There are several sources of new business:

CEO’s running a leadership session, previously planned or just now being scheduled, and who now realize that they need an expert who can focus on “what’s really going on with the global economy, and what do we need to do to stay out in front.”
association executives who understand that in 2009, their members need a message of hope and inspiration, with specific, real, concrete guidance on how they can innovate their way out of this thing, and stay ahead of fast paced events
mid-level managers who understand that now is a critical time to change the capabilities, agility, culture, and attitude of their team in order to maintain customer service excellence, customer retention levels, and other critical measures of success.
marketing executives who realize that it is actually a good time to get in front of their customers with a clear, unequivocal message about their value, and how they can assist their customers as a partner.

The list goes on. Suffice it to say, I think this recession is going to be different from all others. The tag line for my Ready, Set, Done book was “how to innovate when faster is the new fast.”
I think that’s why!

The seven stages of economic grief – when do you innovate?

October 17, 2008 by JimCarroll

I was speaking with a client yesterday about an upcoming event in Palo Alto, California. We got to chatting about, obviously, the economic challenges that swirl around us, and the mindset that is quickly enveloping so many organizations.

Here’s what I think is going on: there are many organizations entering a state of absolute paralysis. Idea factories are being turned off. The result is that we’re not just entering an economic recession — we’re entering another idea recession, similar to what occurred with the last downturn starting in 2001.

What is so different time is the absolute speed with which ideas are shutting down — the paralysis in some organizations at the leadership level is absolutely stunning. This got me thinking about the fast paced events of the last few weeks in the context of the seven stages of grief.

I came to realize, things have happened so fast that many organizations still find themselves in the “shock” and “denial” phase. They’ll be the innovation laggards.

Then there are the innovation leaders. They’re prepared to keep the idea factory running, maybe not at full tilt, but running nevertheless. They know that despite the fact that vast sections of the economy are tanking, there are still growth markets; opportunities to step ahead of your competitors. There are opportunities to attack new markets. To streamline operations, build new brands, grab customer mindshare in new ways.

There are plenty of opportunities to turn ideas into innovation. It all depends on where you want to place yourself on the scale of the seven stages of economic grief.

It’s back! Aggressive indecision! Here’s how to kick it out!

October 15, 2008 by JimCarroll

It’s back!

Aggressive indecision! With all the economic turmoil, leaders, executives and staff have the “deer in the headlights” syndrome.

I spoke about this trend extensively on stage during the last recession in 2001-2002. People got into the message, and it restored their enthusiasm for the future and innovation.

I actually wrote about “aggressive indecision” in my book, What I Learned From Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation. Ask yourself if you are seeing these signs:

Take a look around you – at yourself, your co-workers, your organization, and the business world at large. What do you see? People mired in the thick mud of aggressive indecision. They tend to wait for absolutely perfect information which will help convince them that the time is right to make a decision, rather than making decisions based on imperfect information as they had done in the past. They’ll take a look at the information they have, decide that it’s just too darn risky to make a decision on what they see, and do nothing.

The result is an economy in which everyone seems to be stuck in a rut, unwilling and unable to move forward. The fact is, our confidence in the future has been shattered. Corporate nervousness has become the watchword, with the result that everyone is taking the easy way out: deal with uncertainty by doing nothing.

An era of “aggressive indecision:” a very dangerous attitude to have, given that organizations must be in a state of continuous innovation in order to cope with the rate of change that now surrounds us.

Look, organizations that innovate and adapt at high speed, while trying to deal with the harsh new realities that surround them, have a good chance of coming out the other side of this thing. On the other hand, if you let aggressive indecision rule your corporate culture, you are probably not going to do well.

Share the video, and the original article around. Get out of your funk! Innovate!

Read the original article Paralyzed by indecision: Just Do It
Read Jim’s blog entries on the global economy

How do you innovate in a volatile economy?

October 15, 2008 by JimCarroll

When the Readers Digest Food & Entertainment Division, based in New York, went looking for a keynote speaker on marketing and advertising trends within the consumer goods sector, they went with Jim Carroll.

In an event co-sponsored with Advertising Age, the publisher of such innovative titles as Everyday with Rachel Ray wanted to provide a concise, inspirational but challenging overview of the trends impacting innovation, marketing and advertising within the food sector … and decided that Jim’s message on how to innovate at high-velocity was the ideal fit for their symposium.

Ironically, the event fell smack-dab in the middle of one of the wildest economic corrections that we’ve ever seen, and much of the discussion through the day focused on how to innovate in a fast-paced, ever more challenging economic environment.

I outlined how innovation-oriented organizations will use the economic challenges as an opportunity — they’ll examine the emergence of fast-paced trends, and will adjust their actions, products, services, and brand message accordingly.

Consider a few of the trends we’re already seeing:

The food consumer is now shifting their focus — 71% of consumers are choosing to prepare meals at home instead of eating out as a result of the economic correction, Restaurant trips have decreased from 1.5 times a week in 2006, to 1.2 times today. (Food Marketing Institute US Grocery Shopper Trends 2008). There’s a big opportunity to rapidly shift to in-house meals, from a branding and comfort perspective.
Chef Katie-Lee Joel, who also spoke at the event (she’s the author of the book The Comfort Table and a Top Chef judge on TV), affirmed this point, speaking of the trend in which “comfort food” — feel-good food — will once again take priority as people adjust their spending.
other trends will pick up steam as people think more about their food consumption habits. For example, the trend to “local food” will pick up steam with the recession — people will want to feel responsible when it comes to food choice and the environmental footprint related to particular food. A study in Australia found that the typical shopping basket of 29 supermarket food items had travelled an astounding 70,803kms! An unbelievable number that certainly causes a pause for thought!

The key issue — organizations must have the capability to understand how their markets are changing quickly with the recession; how consumer choice is changing; and how their advertising, branding and marketing activities will need to change. It’s something I call corporate agility — it’s been covered extensively in this blog, and in my Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast book.

It’s a critical concept to think about during these times.

Do you really need an innovation spark? How about a custom edition of Ready, Set, Done?

October 15, 2008 by JimCarroll

Since Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast was published a year ago this week, it proved to be a book that has provided unique innovation guidance to thousands of people.

And in many cases, the book has been purchased in bulk, with copies distributed to those in attendance at one of many keynote presentations or workshops through the year.

Many CEO’s and event organizers have indicated that it would be great if they could tie their innovation message to that found within the book. To that end, we’ve done a few custom print runs during the year. We’ve now decided to formalize the process.

Effectively immediately, with an order of as small as 250 copies, we can offer you a custom edition of the book.

What you get:

Prominent mention of the name of your CEO or sponsor on the cover of the book
Four pages (2 pages, 2 sides) for a custom Foreword right at the front of the book, bound into the book

Contact Jim Carroll for details, to explore this fascinating new opportunity.

The cost for a custom print run will range from $16-18 depending on volume, plus shipping costs. For a group of 250, that’s a cost of just $4,000 to put in front of your staff, customers or association, a customized message with a very special book about innovation.

JimCarroll

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THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE FAST features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.

THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE FAST features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he
covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.