Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog

Apple, Google and Everyone Else - Who Owns the Customer Experience?

It's funny, I would suggest that Apple and Google probably have very different design processes and certainly a very different culture so what is the common denominator?

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Posted by Futurelab at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Cultural Sustainability

by: danah boyd

Since Davos, I've been thinking about cultural sustainability. This isn't a term that I heard there, but one that I wish that I had.

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Posted by Futurelab at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Mano-a-Mano with Steve Ballmer

by: Guy Kawasaki

In one of the more unusual appearances that I've been a part of, here is a "fireside chat" with Steve Ballmer at Mix 2008. (He sidestepped by question about Vista twice, so if you want the latest news about Windows, you'll have to go here.)

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Posted by Futurelab at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Smell the Productivity: Office Aromatherapy

by: Roger Dooley

Can some scents reduce stress? Brain scientists are now confirming what herbalists and aroma researchers have long believed. Japanese researchers, using near-infrared spectroscopy, tested the effect of a "pleasant, floral green" aroma on subjects performing a mental arithmetic task and found that stress activity in the subjects' prefrontal cortex was reduced compared to a control group.

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Posted by Futurelab at 6:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Sales is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus - Podcast

by: Jon Miller

The relationship between Sales and Marketing at B2B companies is too often precarious and subject to change day by day.

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Brain Rules

by: Roger Dooley

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina (Pear Press, 320 pages) is a highly readable guide to using the latest neuroscience research to improve your life and work. Medina's prose never overwhelms the lay reader with jargon but still manages to convey the scientific underpinnings of his recommended strategies for enhancing learning, health, memory, and more.

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Posted by Futurelab at 6:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Companies Stall Because They Don't Listen to Customers

by: John Caddell

The Stall Points Initiative is an effort by the Corporate Executive Board, a business research group, to pinpoint why companies suddenly stop growing, then stagnate or decline for years thereafter.

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Decoding CEO Faces

by: Roger Dooley

The basic concept of facial coding is that a trained observer can detect fleeting facial movements that indicate the true emotions that the subject is experiencing, even if the subject is trying to conceal those emotions.

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Posted by Futurelab at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Enterprise 2.0 Fear Factor: Overcoming Risks, Uncertainties and Doubts

by: Christian Smagg

There are risks associated with adopting any new technology, and Enterprise 2.0 is no different. Enterprise 2.0 holds the promise of dramatically increasing business productivity, stimulating greater innovation, and creating tighter connections between employees, as well as with partners, suppliers and customers.

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Posted by Futurelab at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

"Big Think Strategy" Is a Fun, Inspiring Read on Reinventing Business

by: John Caddell

Every CEO these days wants to reinvent her business. One problem is thinking big enough. Being part of an industry, a market, a sector tends to limit a company's peripheral vision. How do companies break out of their comfort zone and find strategies that take advantage of their unique strengths while opening up new markets?

Continue reading ""Big Think Strategy" Is a Fun, Inspiring Read on Reinventing Business" »

Posted by Futurelab at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Enterprise 2.0 Fear Factor: Overcoming Risks, Uncertainties and Doubts

by: Christian Smagg

There are risks associated with adopting any new technology, and Enterprise 2.0 is no different. Enterprise 2.0 holds the promise of dramatically increasing business productivity, stimulating greater innovation, and creating tighter connections between employees, as well as with partners, suppliers and customers.

Continue reading "Enterprise 2.0 Fear Factor: Overcoming Risks, Uncertainties and Doubts" »

Posted by Futurelab at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Building an Innovative Culture - What Does It Mean?

by: Idris Mootee

Our move to the new office is almost complete. The latest batch of Herman Miller Nelson Sweg tables arrived. I always think the starting point of building an innovative culture is the workplace.

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Posted by Futurelab at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Power 3.0: Kinder, Gentler, and Better

by: Guy Kawasaki

Choose your weapon:

Power 1.0 = muscle and weapons
Power 2.0 = money, market share, or brain power

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Posted by Futurelab at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Predicting a Green Future

by: David Wigder

This past week, the Industry Standard (IS), an icon of the late nineties Internet boom, relaunched its online property. It did so, however, not as a publisher of industry content but rather as a consumer-driven platform to predict the future.

Continue reading "Predicting a Green Future" »

Posted by Futurelab at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Executing Your Strategy Is a Good Idea

by: John Caddell

The new book "Executing Your Strategy: How To Break It Down And Get It Done," by Mark Morgan, William Malek and Raymond Levitt, is an invaluable resource for leaders seeking to plot a course for the future.

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Posted by Futurelab at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

The New Midlife Crisis--It's an "Existential Necessity"

by: John Caddell

I've been working through my midlife crisis (profiled in this earlier post)--not buying a sports car or seeking a trophy wife (I have one of those already), but confronting this: since retiring at fifty is neither practical nor desirable, working 2000 hours or so per year better be fun and have some meaning in it.

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Posted by Futurelab at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

"Everything You Should Know About Me as an Entrepreneur You Could Learn from My OB/GYN"

by: Guy Kawasaki

An email pitch from an entrepreneur named Sherry Couch of BizNiche brought a big smile to my face. First of all, how could I skip an email with a subject line like this one: "Everything you should know about me as an entrepreneur you could learn from my OB/GYN"?

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Posted by Futurelab at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Strategy and Innovation: from Clausewitz to Lao Tzu

by: Idris Mootee

The most amazing thing with strategic experience innovation is that it takes one kind of company and leadership to create the idea and another kind of company to scale it up and drive industry transformation and we see it in markets after market.

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Posted by Futurelab at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Serious Games For Hospitality Training

by: Eliane Alhadeff

Hilton Garden Inn, the award-winning mid-priced hotel brand with locations throughout North America and Europe, this week unveiled Ultimate Team Play - the first interactive training game to be used in the hospitality industry that utilizes game-based technology.

Continue reading "Serious Games For Hospitality Training" »

Posted by Futurelab at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

The Hottest New Agency for the Year Is WANAA!

by: Idris Mootee

The hottest new agency is WANAA (We Are Not An Agency). Ok, there is no agency called WANAA. You get the point. Headhunters are calling everywhere tyring to recruit new heads for interactive agencies as many have plans to replace theirs. The problem is the interactive heads just move around from one agency to another...with little result...sadly. This is not going to change anything. Coming back to the topic of agency consolidation, these are the questions:

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Posted by Futurelab at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Top 5 Harvard Business Review Breakthrough Ideas

by: John Caddell

In which we select the best of the annual Harvard Business Review list of twenty breakthrough ideas (free link) for the benefit of time-constrained executives everywhere. This service is provided at no extra charge.

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Posted by Futurelab at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

How is the Getty Museum Different from Enron?

by: John Caddell

It's not a trick question. There may be little difference at all. The Getty is one of several museums that have been accused of systematically acquiring stolen antiquities. (The Getty last year agreed to return forty disputed works to the Italian government.)

Continue reading "How is the Getty Museum Different from Enron?" »

Posted by Futurelab at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Ten Questions with Garr Reynolds

by: Guy Kawasaki

All hail Garr Reynolds! He has written the definitive book about making great presentations: Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter). To give you a taste of his book (and increase my link count), here are ten questions (really thirteen) with Garr.

Continue reading "Ten Questions with Garr Reynolds" »

Posted by Futurelab at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Why Is It Even Harder for Leaders to Innovate?

by: Idris Mootee

Here I am with Adam (a smart and creative guy who started with us only for a week) in our new office. He was given three tools to get started: 1/ a power drill 2/ a IBM tablet and 3/a blackberry. He has a typical profile of the people that we carefully select ..the left and right brainer..the raw material for an innovation provocateur.

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Posted by Futurelab at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Media Agencies Are Getting Younger

by: Dick Stroud

The IPA’s 2007 Agency Census has just been published. I rushed to see what was happening to the age of agency staff. Wow, the percentage of under 30s are increasing.

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Posted by Futurelab at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Finland Fine Land and Hel Looks

by: Scott Goodson

A friend of mine Anne from Helsinki wrote a wonderful description about the spectacular styling and profiling found in the nordic capital of Helsinki. There is something incredible happening up there that I've never seen before. It's not London or Paris or even Tokyo, it's something far more interesting and distinctive.

Have a peak...

Continue reading "Finland Fine Land and Hel Looks" »

Posted by Futurelab at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Your New Year Resolution - Unlock Your Creative Mind

by: Idris Mootee

This is a warm day and it feels like spring here in Washington DC, unfortunately I've spent most of the day in a hotel (I'd love this Park Hyatt that I am staying because they have has a amazing selection of teas).

Continue reading "Your New Year Resolution - Unlock Your Creative Mind" »

Posted by Futurelab at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

B-Week Innovation Predictions 2008 - Some Thoughts

by: Idris Mootee

I just finished reading Business Week' s latest "Innovation Predictions 2008" and there are 3 things that I am interested most since they resonate with what my company is doing and my personal interest. Let's look at those three:

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Posted by Futurelab at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Partnership Pitfalls and Avoiding Murder

by: Roger Dooley

While flipping channels, I ran across an episode of City Confidential, a show that takes viewers on a trip to an American city while recounting a murder there. This particular episode involved two business partners - one was convicted of killing the other. The murder victim was apparently exceptionally hard working and capable, and was abandoning the shared business due to the poor performance and lack of effort on the part of the other owner.

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Posted by Futurelab at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Managing the Creative Class or the Modern Day Working Class "Da Vincis"

by: Idris Mootee

People often complain that creative types are difficult to manage if they can be managed at all and many of them are high maintenance in nature. There is some truth here but I don't necessarily think that is case. My favorite types of creative people are what I called the "Da Vincis". They are people who can use both sides of the brain. Maybe this is what Roger Marin refers to as "Integrative Thinker". I picked up his book The Opposite Mind (while I was stuck in Denver airport for a connecting flight back from Palm Spring where we had a planning session) and I was reading it during this holiday. I buy 10 books a month and I read only one of them. Here is a good one.

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Posted by Futurelab at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Bravely going where no man (person) has gone before

by: Dick Stroud

Brother and sister plus father with dementia. Doesn’t sound a laugh a minute. This is a subject that is very close to the hearts of many of the 50-plus. At one level having to deal with the practicalities of ageing and difficult parents at another, staring at one’s own future?

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Posted by Futurelab at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

The company that went bankrupt on Christmas Eve

by: Dominic Basulto

Over the past few years, one of the most interesting innovations in the airline industry has been the growth & expansion of the "business class only" travel segment for service between international cities such as New York and London. Companies like Eos, SilverJet and MAXJet were early pioneers and deserve enormous kudos for their courage and tenacity for taking on the airline majors in a brazen attempt to siphon away the industry's most profitable customers.

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Posted by Futurelab at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Total economic impact of Software-as-a-Service: The foundation of a sound technology investment

by: Christian Smagg

As firms look to focus on core business processes, software-as-a-service (SaaS) provides an increasingly attractive alternative. Companies of all sizes are weighing advantages of SaaS which has emerged as an important deployment option in customer relationship management (CRM) but is also eliciting interest in other areas such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), security or backup just to name a few.

Continue reading "Total economic impact of Software-as-a-Service: The foundation of a sound technology investment" »

Posted by Futurelab at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Mapping The Serious Games Industry Within The UK

by: Eliane Alhadeff (also see Business&Games)

The West Midlands (UK) region is fast becoming recognized as one of the key EU regions with regard to the development of Serious Games.

Continue reading "Mapping The Serious Games Industry Within The UK " »

Posted by Futurelab at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Driving successfully web 2.0 into the enterprise

by: Christian Smagg

There are risks and challenges associated with adopting any new technology, and Enterprise 2.0 is no different.

It is quickly becoming evident that successful implementation is arising from business strategy, aligned with clearly defined outcomes & objectives, and supported by organisational structures, company's culture and adapted technologies. Like any other project, it requires thought, preparation, support, energy, and communication.

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Posted by Futurelab at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

adults' views on privacy (new PEW report)

by: danah boyd

PEW has a new report out on adults and privacy: Digital Footprints. It's a solid report on the state of adults' perception of privacy wrt the internet. Of course, what humors me is that adults are saying one thing and doing another.

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Posted by Futurelab at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog

Customer Centric Thoughts from the World’s Sharpest Minds in Marketing, Strategy, Innovation and Design

Authors

Contributing Blogs

March 11, 2008

Apple, Google and Everyone Else - Who Owns the Customer Experience?

March 9, 2008

Cultural Sustainability

March 7, 2008

Mano-a-Mano with Steve Ballmer

March 5, 2008

Smell the Productivity: Office Aromatherapy

March 4, 2008

Sales is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus - Podcast

March 3, 2008

Brain Rules

February 28, 2008

Companies Stall Because They Don't Listen to Customers

February 27, 2008

Decoding CEO Faces

Enterprise 2.0 Fear Factor: Overcoming Risks, Uncertainties and Doubts

"Big Think Strategy" Is a Fun, Inspiring Read on Reinventing Business

February 26, 2008

Enterprise 2.0 Fear Factor: Overcoming Risks, Uncertainties and Doubts

February 25, 2008

Building an Innovative Culture - What Does It Mean?

February 20, 2008

Power 3.0: Kinder, Gentler, and Better

February 14, 2008

Predicting a Green Future

February 13, 2008

Executing Your Strategy Is a Good Idea

February 10, 2008

The New Midlife Crisis--It's an "Existential Necessity"

February 2, 2008

"Everything You Should Know About Me as an Entrepreneur You Could Learn from My OB/GYN"

Strategy and Innovation: from Clausewitz to Lao Tzu

February 1, 2008

Serious Games For Hospitality Training

January 31, 2008

The Hottest New Agency for the Year Is WANAA!

January 30, 2008

Top 5 Harvard Business Review Breakthrough Ideas

January 27, 2008

How is the Getty Museum Different from Enron?

January 21, 2008

Ten Questions with Garr Reynolds

January 19, 2008

Why Is It Even Harder for Leaders to Innovate?

January 18, 2008

Media Agencies Are Getting Younger

January 12, 2008

Finland Fine Land and Hel Looks

January 8, 2008

Your New Year Resolution - Unlock Your Creative Mind

January 6, 2008

B-Week Innovation Predictions 2008 - Some Thoughts

January 3, 2008

Partnership Pitfalls and Avoiding Murder

December 28, 2007

Managing the Creative Class or the Modern Day Working Class "Da Vincis"

December 27, 2007

Bravely going where no man (person) has gone before

The company that went bankrupt on Christmas Eve

December 26, 2007

Top 10 articles of the year

December 24, 2007

Total economic impact of Software-as-a-Service: The foundation of a sound technology investment

December 21, 2007

Mapping The Serious Games Industry Within The UK

December 19, 2007

Driving successfully web 2.0 into the enterprise

December 17, 2007

adults' views on privacy (new PEW report)

December 15, 2007

Neuromarketing and Election 2008