One of the guilty pleasures of being a branding professional is reading the annual parade of polls that list the world’s ‘most trusted brands’. If you’re a small or medium sized company, the chances are, you’re not on those lists. That’s why I tend to look at them for entertainment purposes only. But even though few companies will ever grow to the stature of Coca-Cola, Apple, Google or Mercedes Benz, there is a key lesson to be learned from ‘most trusted’ polling. And to me, that lesson is ‘know who you are’.

Understanding what is unique about your brand and why customers buy from you is the foundation of your success. If you stay true to those insights, they will guide you through your strategic planning, your product development and your market expansion. In other words, staying true to who you are will allow your customers to trust you.

When I ask my clients who they are, some have a tendency to translate the question into ‘what are you?’ And they might answer with something like, “We’re the second largest manufacturer of low-flow control systems in the tri-state area.” Then I’ll nudge them into telling me why. And that’s where we begin the brand building process. Whether they tell me that they have the most stringent quality controls in their industry, the lowest prices or the best after-sales service, what they’re really articulating is what makes them a unique brand and why their customers trust them. They are defining the active ingredient in their brand. And knowing that is the battering ram that opens the door to future possibilities. It gives both of us the plotline we need to tell the company’s story and grow into the number one manufacturer of low-flow control systems in the tri-state area.

Lesson learned is that you don’t need to have revenues in the tens of millions to be a most trusted brand. You just need to be true to who you are.

While the assumption that a company or an industry could be “too big to fail” has been used mainly since the recent financial crisis, the notion itself has smugly resided in corporate boardrooms since the dawn of the modern corporation. “Our technology dominates the market, no need to worry,” said the buggy-whip maker to his horse.

Failure and evolution are a natural part of business, but sometimes it’s hard to watch. Sadly, we may now be witnessing the demise of a key industry giant in Kodak – a company that actually foresaw and invented the future, yet somehow managed not to learn from it.

As reported in the New York Times, “The big story here is that their core business, the yellow box business [film], got cannibalized by the digital camera, which ironically they invented,” said analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank Securities.

The good news for investors is that Kodak’s management claims that the company is now soundly and strategically focused on digital printing technology – this in a world that is increasingly going paperless.  I don’t mean to pick on Kodak; they are not the first company or industry to resist change, nor will they be the last.

In an upcoming Innovation Insight entitled “Fueling Green,” we will look at how the auto industry is managing changing technologies very well by re-imagining their own future… and actively trying to adapt.

by Ken Tencer
Originally published as a Special to Globe and Mail Update, Wednesday, Dec. 07, 2011

With Dyson’s new bladeless fans, generation of kids will be denied the chance to stick pencils through screens to see what happens when they touch fast-spinning blades.

For any other reason, you have to love the British-based company because its innovations are so obvious yet so breakthrough.

• Safe, bladeless fans that move air without all the rumbling and rattling.
• Technology patterned after jet engines.
• Dual-cyclonic vacuums that suck up more dirt, more efficiently.
• Airport hand driers that actually work.

Why were these products not developed sooner? Did no other company listen to generations of frustrated consumers? Or were the former market leaders simply too afraid to cannibalize existing products and markets by introducing something truly innovative?

Dyson’s success is a lesson to all business leaders: Don’t be afraid to make yourself obsolete, or someone else will do it for you.

For most companies that’s easier said than done. I used these words while co-chairing a recent innovation conference in New York City, and I heard the groans from the audience.

I have heard their thoughts out loud too often:

• “We are the market leaders. We are too big to fail.”
• “Our technology dominates the market, no need to worry,” said the buggy-whip maker to his horse.

Too many great companies have disappeared because they resisted change instead of embracing it. We may now be watching the demise of yet another giant, in photography company Eastman Kodak Co. The incredible thing is that Kodak actually saw and invented a future when digital photography would replace film. But somehow it managed to resist it. As analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank told The New York Times: “The big story here is that their core business — the yellow box business — got cannibalized by the digital camera, which ironically they invented.”

The “good news” for investors is that Kodak is now soundly and strategically focused on digital-printing technology (in an increasingly paperless world?). I don’t mean to pick on Kodak, as it is not the first company to resist change, and it won’t be the last.

So where do we turn to find an example of an industry successfully making itself obsolete? Look at autos. Car makers recognized it was only a matter of time before the traditional combustion engine model gave way to newer, cleaner technology. So over the past decade they have gradually introduced us to the future, in the form of clean diesel, hybrid and now fully electric engines.

Each of these introductions started small, with expensive pioneering products sold to early adopters. This is how the industry developed its ability to introduce alternative technology, test demand, optimize production, and manage the transition. Today auto makers have a clear understanding of their market and possess the production capacity to ramp up a full-scale transition – fully cannibalizing the old combustion technology – without endangering their revenues.

The car industry didn’t just stay ahead of the curve – it created and managed the curve. If more of Dyson’s vacuum-cleaner competitors had shared that kind of vision, they wouldn’t be sucking air.

Listen to the Interview with Ken Tencer

In a recent white paper written for the American Management Association, Mitchell identifies four key conditions a company must put in place to achieve results from their innovation efforts. He calls them “The 4 Ps of Innovation”: Priority, Plan, People and Process.

Priority: As simplistic as it sounds, says Mitchell, your organization has to make innovation a priority. “Organizations fail because innovation, as a true, organized effort, always falls off the to-do list or never makes it on the list at all,” he says. Top management must commit to innovation, “lay out the overall goals and make the commitment to resources they believe it will take to reach those goals.”

Plan: Innovative organizations must set specific goals and determine ways of reaching those goals. A formal innovation plan should be written and shared. The plan should include your specific objectives and the strategies (people, tactics, resources) required to meet them.

People: Your innovation team must be carefully selected and receive the same attention accorded to any senior-level advisory board. In composing your team, don’t choose only “creative types.” Mitchell says that idea people must be balanced by more practical types who know how to achieve even the wildest ideas.

Process: Innovation is not a freewheeling brainstorm session; it’s a disciplined process. You need a step-by-step framework for generating, evaluating, and moving ideas along the development path. Especially important is how your ideas will be nurtured and funded, as well as how you will decide whether each idea as a go or no-go. (See The 90% Rule for lots of ideas on creating a winning process.)

Finally, Mitchell notes your company will also need a culture that supports innovation. You have to lose your fear of failing, and accept that mistakes are part of the learning process. Otherwise, he warns, your embedded culture will likely ensure that “only the safest ideas are put forward and nothing significantly innovative ever gets done.”

We use criteria focused on three key areas — global (such as vision and position), market (sales and marketing criteria) and financial. We tell our clients that you need to choose at least two different criteria from each of those three areas. This way, you can tell which are the best opportunities that match your current strategy and resources. It brings a lot of discipline and rigour to the process.

-Ken Tencer

*Adapted from an interview on The Business Coach, Episode 77 on Business Expansion Strategy at http://www.profitguide.com/podcast/532–podcast-77-business-expansion-strategy

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.

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

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

“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.