SAN DIEGO–Credit unions were given much to think about at CO-OP Financial Services’ THINK 16 Conference last week. Featuring more than a dozen speakers from a variety of disciplines, the meeting ran three days and offered a wide range of ideas. For those who couldn’t be there, or those who were and want more, here are three books authored by three of the speakers.
The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
Author: Tom Kelley
The author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout an organization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity.
The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation.
Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience managing IDEO, Kelley identifies ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation.
Filled with engaging stories of how companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill and Samsung have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World
Author: Gary Vaynerchuk
New York Times bestselling author and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk shares hard-won advice on how to connect with customers and beat the competition. A mash-up of the best elements of Crush It! and The Thank You Economy with a fresh spin, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is a blueprint to social media marketing strategies that really works.
When managers and marketers outline their social media strategies, they plan for the “right hook”—their next sale or campaign that’s going to knock out the competition. Even companies committed to jabbing—patiently engaging with customers to build the relationships crucial to successful social media campaigns—want to land the punch that will take down their opponent or their customer’s resistance in one blow. Right hooks convert traffic to sales and easily show results. Except when they don’t.
Thanks to massive change and proliferation in social media platforms, the winning combination of jabs and right hooks is different now. Vaynerchuk shows that while communication is still key, context matters more than ever. It’s not just about developing high-quality content, but developing high-quality content perfectly adapted to specific social media platforms and mobile devices—content tailor-made for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Mobile Ready: Connecting With The Untethered Consumer
Author: Scott Bales
Whether you're Coca-Cola selling soft drink in Botswana, or Unilever selling shampoo in the United States, mobile will evolve the rules of engagement in your industry before this decade is out. There can be no doubting the ever-rising relevance of mobile.
With over six-billion mobile devices globally, an entire new ecosystem has been created that binds us all together, changing the mindset and behavior of consumers. The amount of time and money people are spending on mobile devices is growing rapidly and yet many businesses don't understand the mobile consumer. Nor a plan to capitalize on this tectonic market shift.
Mobile is not about the technology. Mobile is about behavior, context, and utility. When you embrace this, technology as an issue disappears. No longer are you talking about operating systems, hardware, or device features. Instead you’ll focus on the elements of mobile that always supersede the constantly redundant mobile device world. A consumer behaviour centric view of business and markets.
Mobile is a brave new frontier for the majority of incumbent businesses. It’s a big step forward in rethinking your engagement with customers, suppliers, and your workforce. It’s an inevitable transition in a world where brand engagement can and does happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Enjoy the journey into a world without physicality, be more open minded, and learn to embrace the future of your business.
Is your company mobile ready?