Two things struck me in reading the announcement that I thought that we could all do with reminding of:

My own personal cult brand? Yes, I am one of those Saab fanatics to whom Mr. Muller refers. Time to win “me” back. The lesson to all of us, don’t lose “me” in the first place: I am your bread and butter customer.

I would say that brilliant architecture transforms the landscape in unique and creative ways, ways that touch us emotionally and intellectually. So too does effective brand architecture, bring together vision, knowledge, experience, needs, benefits and voice that together provide the structure, inspiration and personality that determines a lasting brand. Every successful brand (product, service or cause) is built on solid and well-defined brand architecture.

Brand Architecture is designed on the premise that every touch point of a brand is interconnected and needs continuous management. A brand is a living, breathing entity. I often say that every brand architect should have as a theme song the platinum hit by the Police, Every Breath You Take* (“ … every move you make, I’ll be watching you”). Because its every move is “watched” and under scrutiny in the marketplace. It must offer authenticity in representation and consistency in delivery. That means never underestimate the importance of every touch point in brand creation, delivery and communications. How your brand looks and performs (“every breath it takes”) should be an orchestrated part of your daily thinking — leaving the one hit wonders to the competition.

*Every Breath You Take from 1983 album Synchronicity by The Police

-Ken Tencer

This point is made in the first part of the book because, all too often, successful companies become order takers. They have been wooed by the good times in which the phone would ring and now they sit and stare at it aimlessly, forgetting that, yes, it can dial out, too.

One of our colleagues and contributors, sales scientist Adrian Davis, President and CEO, Whetstone Inc explains, “marketing must now tie the end of their funnel directly to the beginning of the sales funnel”.

The success of innovation depends on telling people about what it is that you have innovated. Yes, there are some very strong traditional and marketing tools that can help raise awareness of your company or brand, and increase the number of people phoning in to you. But, don’t be complacent. Ensure that your lead generation process systematically ties together your innovation and marketing to a strong, proactive sales program.

I know, it can be tough. I am definitely not a born salesperson so I have made myself into a disciplined one – actively attending events, making well researched introductory calls and generally making sure that everyone in the company opens their eyes to opportunities and feeds them back to me to follow up on.

Remember, your phone is still your company’s best friend … but nobody can dial it for you.

-Ken Tencer

Disturbed and confused at least until I got to what I will call the moment of truth (on page 91), “…people in groups examined a more limited range of suggestions. The reason, according to Kohn, is fixation.  That is, as soon as one member of the group offers an idea, the others get stuck on it and conform their own thinking to the suggestion.  Creativity, in effect, is stifled. In many cases, we may not even be aware that fixation is occurring”.

So here’s the thing … brainstorming, ideation, creative thinking (call it what you will) is something that needs to be lead by an outsider who is an expert at leading discussion through a thoughtful, proven process.  Throwing the same group of people into the same room to discuss the same issues lead by the same boss with the same bias (that you probably hear expounded daily), not a good idea.

For years now, Spyder, in concert with uber researcher and facilitator Marion Plunkett (www.plunkettinc.com), has been running innovation and ideation roundtables and workshops that result in dozens of good, implementable ideas from the small, thought-provoking variety to the breakthrough, wow! type.

My headline and hypothesis? Brainstorming: Don’t Go It Alone.

-Ken Tencer

Where do the ideas come from? They certainly do not come from staring at the same four walls. They happen when you look through the window at the changing landscape beyond because inspiration comes from everywhere.

We suggest looking at innovation on three levels when you meet with your R&D, marketing, sales, engineering and finance teams to inspire holistic (not industry or company-specific) conversations.

- social innovation (movies, events, books, ads, programs)

- industrial innovation (seen, heard or experienced in other industries)

- category or brand innovation (relevant to your brands or business categories)

So, the next time that somebody asks if you have seen a great new movie or tried a super new product, don’t just answer yes or no. Remember to ask what they liked about it and why.

The great ideas are already out there, right in front of you.  You just have to remember to ask and act, and the sales will come.

- Ken Tencer

It is amazing how many growing companies do not have a support system (formal or informal) in place to support the founders, owners and C-suite. Why is it that we expect ourselves to have all of the answers when world leaders in performance (athletes and businesspeople) regularly have advisors to turn to in the form of individual coaches or formalized boards of advisors or directors.

As Rick Spence asked in his Profit Magazine article, Wanted: Good advisors, Why don’t more entrepreneurs use advisory boards? What does an entrepreneur do when she runs out of ideas? Or when he realizes he needs to be more systematic about gaining new business contacts, more professional about setting strategy or more proactive about seeking out management mentors? One solution is to form a board of advisors—a group of experienced businesspeople with complementary strengths and skills who meet occasionally to discuss the progress of your business and suggest ways you can pull up your socks.

Maybe I was just tired of listening to my own advice but I know that my inclusion of a group of trusted advisors has pushed, prodded, prompted, focused … moved my business in different directions and to new heights.

Remember, business is a team sport.

-Ken Tencer

The study found that these CEOs are laggards in social media. For the most part they were all unconnected and uninvolved. Out of the top 100 CEOs studied only two had Twitter accounts and only one had a blog. Only 13 of the top 100 CEOs studied had LinkedIn accounts, and none in the top 20 had accounts.

Wikipedia had the highest level of engagement compared to any other social media tool among Fortune 100 CEOs. Three quarters of the CEOs studied had some sort of Wikipedia entry. However, of the 76% that had Wikipedia entries nearly 30% had incomplete or out of date information.

CEOs are not using social media and new technology as an extension of traditional communications outlets as they should. These top executives could be using social media as a way to communicate new information and build further brand loyalty. Often, CEO’s are not as connected as their employees and customers and thus are missing out on opportunities to positively influence the company’s perception, awareness and brand experience by taking part in social media activities.

Social media Web sites offer great opportunities for companies and senior level executives to connect with partners and customers in real time. Facebook alone boasts 350 million registered users in over 180 countries around the world, Twitter has over 75 million users and LinkedIn has about 60 million registered users. Social media continues to grow worldwide with unprecedented increases in the past year. Users talk about anything and everything, including corporations and their brands. Most social media Web sites offer opportunities for businesses to promote their products and services, and communicate with the masses.

Another survey conducted by eMarketer.com surveyed 438 management, marketing and human resources executives and found that 81% saw social media as being useful for both brand building and enhancing customer or client relationships.

Understandably, CEOs may not have the time to actively engage in all the social media outlets that are available to them, but these activities could be delegated to an employee. Some Web 2.0 and social media conscious companies have hired Social media Marketing Managers in recent years. These individuals’ sole responsibility is to position the brand and image of the company and of senior level executives online. This practice could and should become more mainstream.

Social media is a free and powerful medium that offers an opportunity to connect with the world. Top level CEOs should begin to embrace this medium on a more intimate level to maximize their communications and marketing objectives.

-Ken Tencer

At Spyder Works, whether it’s working one-to-one to solve a client’s immediate problem or making enough time to write a book, the process we use is geared to achieving a balance that meets the immediate demands of running the day-to-day business and the need to work towards our longer-term plans.

Each business day I start by asking myself three questions:
• What am I going to sell today?
• What one thing can I do today to make my business better?
• How will the answers to these previous questions mesh with the long-term vision of the company?

The answers to these questions keep me constantly thinking about growth, innovation and long-term focus. Making them a part of your daily routine will help you to replace short and long-term with continuous and sustained.

- Ken Tencer

I was recently at a BEDC business luncheon (www.bedc.ca) and the keynote speaker was talking about how they had rethought their business, both internally and with the input of their customers. Through the process, they began to understand that they were not specifically in the hearing aid business but, what I will call, the hearing device technology business. They were leaders at assisting people to hear things more clearly while blocking out external noise. This revelation enabled them to leverage their existing expertise by applying their hearing device technology to emerging markets like blue tooth ear pieces for cell phones and military applications.

This type of thinking exhibits leverage: getting more out of what you already have.

- Ken Tencer

“President Akio Toyoda said he was “deeply sorry” for accidents caused by safety problems with Toyota vehicles…and that a period of explosive growth may have weakened the automaker’s internal controls.” He also said that “We pursued growth over the speed at which we were able to develop our people and our organization, and we should sincerely be mindful of that (Krolicki, 2010, Globe and Mail)”.

This is a classic example of an organization  not having a full compliment of people in the process of assessing, contributing and allocating internal resources to new opportunities. The company did not have enough human capital and management capabilities to handle the rapid expansion. They didn’t have the people in place to achieve their objectives and handle the speed of the growth. This in turn led them to move away from their costumer-centric focus that made Toyota such an  innovative and renowned brand.

The one question that we remind our clients to ask during the strategic process is: What resources are you going to need to get this done? It ensures that they take the time to think through the implementation in cross-disciplinary team … carefully identifying the resources that will be needed to successfully execute on the opportunities that they wish to pursue. And, most importantly, to do so at a pace that they can manage and control.

Ken Tencer

* Krolocki, K., ‘Toyoda ‘deeply sorry’ for accidents’, The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2010.