Harvard Business School Professor John Quelch 8 point strategy.Companies should bear eight factors in mind when making their marketing plans for 2008 and 2009:
1. Research the customer. Instead of cutting the
market research budget, you need to know more than ever how consumers
are redefining value and responding to the recession
2. Focus on family values. When economic hard times loom, we tend to retreat to our village.
3. Maintain marketing spending. This is not the time
to cut advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase
advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can
improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during
good economic times.
4. Adjust product portfolios. Marketers must reforecast
demand for each item in their product lines as consumers trade down to
models that stress good value, such as cars with fewer options.
Here are some links to further describe in detail some of the models, concepts and thought leaders I presented. Please feel free to post any comments as to what resonates with your work, practice and clients.
Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann argues that in the 21st century, the most important mind will be the SYNTHESIZING MIND. Individuals are subjected to huge amounts of information. We must be able to decide what is important; how best to organize it for ourselves; how best to communicate it to others. Almost everything that can be automated will be
This is my favorite creative process model. It was introduced to me by Gail Taylor of MG Taylor and Tomorrow Makers. It is a one of many models from the MG Taylor modeling language. This is one of the oldest of the MG Taylor Models, developed in
1979 by Matt Taylor and Richard Goring as part of an unpublished book entitled
Designing Creative Futures.
What we know—and what I typically observe when I go into organizations, or when I'm sitting with my private executive coaching clients—is that we're all really good at focusing . We know how to narrow down options. We know how to create option plans. We know how to do timelines. We know how to negotiate and sequence.
What we're not very good at, and what we need to learn more of in a strategic thinking capacity, is how to scan. Interestingly enough, as leaders, scanning is frequently asked of us; that is, the ability to find new opportunities, to solve problems, and to get out of the box. Still, my observation over the last, several years of doing this work is that it is really hard for us to scan. And so I want to spend a little bit of time talking about this.
Here's a collection of processes and thought leaders that I use in my practice:
Open Space Technology
Open Space Technology is an approach to organizing large-scale,
participative meetings in which diverse groups come together for the
purposes of managing complex issues in short periods of time, with no
advance agenda, and minimal facilitation. This approach to meetings,
most often attributed to Harrison Owen, generally results in a report
of all topics and discussions generated by participants, isolation of
critical "focal issues," and identification of next step actions. Open
Space is widely known for its Four Principles: 1) Whoever comes is the
right people, 2) Whatever happens is the only thing that could have, 3)
Whenever it starts if the right time, 4) When it’s over it’s over, and
its Law of Two Feet, which allows for movement of participants from
discussion to discussion, given their judgment of where they can best
learn and contribute.
See www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace