John Drake

Your One Word or Symbol

Here's a great project called The Noun Project. The vision is to create a language that can be understood by all cultures of the world. The symbols are free to use. And it's amazing how accurately they guide you.

The moment before I found The Noun Project I was reading an article about Coppola on the 99% where he talks about the primary thing to keep in mind when making a film...

"When you make a movie, always try to discover what the theme of the movie is in one or two words. Every time I made a film, I always knew what I thought the theme was, the core, in one word. In “The Godfather,” it was succession. In “The Conversation,” it was privacy. In “Apocalypse,” it was morality.

The reason it’s important to have this is because most of the time what a director really does is make decisions. All day long: Do you want it to be long hair or short hair? Do you want a dress or pants? Do you want a beard or no beard? There are many times when you don’t know the answer. Knowing what the theme is always helps you."

These two things reminded me once again of the importance of simplification. But you can't just leave it at one word, can you? You can't walk into a briefing meeting, throw out a word like, "jubilation" and be done with it. It needs a well-thought out explanation. But once you leave the room, what remains without prompting or re-asking is your one word. "Jubilation".

And that's what people will refer back to when they want to re-center themselves on the task at hand. You can have a brilliantly-crafted strategic positioning line or an amazing mission statement or a beautiful collection of values but that focused word or symbol will probably still be the strongest tool for leadership and team cohesion.

If indeed it's possible to design an entire language out of symbols, or fit a feature film into one word, then brands and organizations should be able to do the same.

Potent Business Expression

Thinking in terms of Purpose Driven Marketing is the starting point. And an interesting way to articulate the idea of purpose driven marketing is the "Potent Business Expression" from the folks at BSSP. Found over at Influx, there's great thinking and examples throughout this presentation. 

The actual P.B.E. articulation begins on slide 54. The notes section in the transcript is very guiding. I particularly like slide 55 which defines P.B.E. (I've added some punctuation for the purposes of this post...)

P.B.E. More than a corporate vision, it’s an externalized and internalized expression humanized for conversations. The high bar gets employees motivated. Big emotional construct. Human truth/corporate truth that connects to the zeitgeist. Allows multiple forms and expressions and hybrids. Provides an anchor/glue/cement. The un-ambitious will limit it to a campaign. The brave will use it to fundamentally transform their business. Left unactioned and without visible manifestations, it will appear shallow and hollow.

Wonderfully stated.

The Purpose and Objectives of a Business

The other day my computer needed a tune up and for the first time in a long time I had to go through a weekend without the web. Which affected my reading. I always have a book or two in progress but I shift around from my books to the web. So when I was shifting around looking for my web time replacement I went to my book stack and found The Essential Drucker. I've always wanted to read it. Now was my chance. (And actually, a book like this is kind of like a blog considering it's a series of essays.)

The essay that really hooked me was "The Purpose and Objectives of a Business."

I think it's valuable to recenter oneself from time to time. Why do companies exist? From cars to luggage to home improvement stores what's the point of it all?

If you immediately said "profit" I encourage you to read on... (And then I encourage you to watch this and try to be a little less cynical this week.)

Drucker's thoughts on profit were as follows:

"Profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity. If archangels instead of business people sat in Directors' chairs, they would still have to be concerned with profitability, despite their total lack of personal interest in making profits."

Instead, he says, "there is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer."

I love that.

And the more you think about it the more true it is.

Consider:

Apple has created a customer who values design and dynamic personal expression from their technology.

Cabela's has created a customer who believes that the outdoor experience is something deeper than what general sporting good stores can provide.

H&M has created a customer who believes in the idea of cheap chic.

In fact, the best brands are creating new types of customers before our vary eyes all the time: Mini, Facebook, Pixar, Ralph Lauren, Fast Company, the list goes on... And a good question every company should revisit from time to time is:  What type of customer are we creating?

Anyway, because its purpose is to create a customer, Drucker continues, "the business enterprise has two--and only these two--basic functions: marketing and innovation."

Upon reading that I drew this:

 

And then I thought about value.

What's the value of an outsourced marketing partner to a business today? The best value equally straddles both areas. Communicate through creativity and marketing so that the customer clearly understands how the product or service fits them. Then apply creativity with innovation decisions to help a business provide better and more economical goods and services.

I look at the drawing above and immediately companies like IDEO, Naked and Fahrenheit 212 come to mind, primarily moving in from the right. I think many ad agencies and digital firms are finding ways to effectively move in from the left. I know we're moving more and more this way. And this is where the industry needs to be--providing creative ideas and insights that strengthen the fundamental purpose of a business.

Anyway, I liked the re-centering.

It's good to put the computer away sometimes.

The Importance of Mastering the Fundamentals

"At the very center--the heart of the structure--is skill. Skill, as it pertains to basketball, is the knowledge and the ability quickly and properly to execute the fundamentals. Being able to do them is not enough. They must be done quickly. And being able to do them quickly isn't enough either. They must be done quickly and precisely at the right time. You must learn to react properly, almost instinctively."

From They Call Me Coach.

One of the best books on life, leadership and teamwork I believe there is.

Maybe Your Agency Isn't Very Interesting

Not long ago I was chatting with a principal of an ad agency headquartered far away from the one I work at about credentials meetings. (You know, that sometimes awkward / sometimes wonderful meeting where a potential client and agency meet for the first time to see if there's chemistry?) He said that during this initial meeting his agency never talks about themselves at all. Rather, they immediately dive into the client's business.

Since then I've been asking around and this approach seems to be the growing consensus in our industry about how to approach the first meeting with potential clients. And that's all fine and good and important. Of course you need to talk about the client's business.

But what about your business?

Clients say agencies often feel the same.

It's not to hard to see why this is the case. We all start using the same language around the same time. We're in communications, after all, so word gets around pretty fast: "Integrated," "Fully Integrated," "Media Agnostic," "Joining the Conversation," "Cause Related Marketing," "Accountability,"...

You get the idea...

We also move around a lot. I think two and-a-half years is the current employee tenure at large shops. So there are nine million people who have "worked" on Nike, Budweiser and Coke.

As I was thinking about all this I was also keeping up with the Mirren Conference this week... My friend Adam posted this during Alex's presentation:

Appropriate coming from CP+B. Everyone has tried to emulate them for years.

Some still do.

So I wonder... if you're an agency that only talks about the client's business the first time you meet, if deep down inside you know your agency isn't very interesting.

If I'm a potential client, and I'm sitting across the table from Mother, I'm really interested to hear about mass roots, and perhaps even Dogmatic.

If I'm across from Anomaly, I'm interested in their different business model.

If I'm across from TBWA\Chiat\Day I'm interested in hearing about Disruption and Disruption Days.

From Naked's unique approach to Sid Lee's philosophy to Trumpet's venture funding program if I'm a potential client I want to hear that stuff. Things like this show an agency is dynamic. They understand things beyond marketing. They understand sales channels, distribution and most importantly, they think a-typically and have an opinion.

Proven success, measurement and quality creative will never be replaced. But today, how you work, what you do and how you do it is graded much higher than it was ten years ago. The opportunities for a creative company to be dynamic are vast today. This wasn't always the case. And our industry is full of some of the most creative business-minded people in the world... seems we should put this to more use.

So if you're an agency who refuses to talk about yourself because you don't think clients care, look inward. Perhaps there's not much to talk about. Because if there was, I bet they'd be interested in hearing it.

The Premortem

McKinsey has a good article about trusting your gut. When is it wise to do so and when should you get some facts? Midway through the piece Gary Klein, a scientist at MacroCognition, talks about something called "the premortem," which I love. We've all heard of the postmortem, that wildly fun meeting when everyone hovers around after a project to discuss things that didn't go as planned and learnings to be applied. But why don't we do premortems? Perhaps we should start...

Klein: The premortem technique is a sneaky way to get people to do contrarian, devil’s advocate thinking without encountering resistance. If a project goes poorly, there will be a lessons-learned session that looks at what went wrong and why the project failed—like a medical postmortem. Why don’t we do that up front? Before a project starts, we should say, “We’re looking in a crystal ball, and this project has failed; it’s a fiasco. Now, everybody, take two minutes and write down all the reasons why you think the project failed.”

The logic is that instead of showing people that you are smart because you can come up with a good plan, you show you’re smart by thinking of insightful reasons why this project might go south. If you make it part of your corporate culture, then you create an interesting competition: “I want to come up with some possible problem that other people haven’t even thought of.” The whole dynamic changes from trying to avoid anything that might disrupt harmony to trying to surface potential problems.

What Type of Account Person Are You?

There's a great story from Peter Bregman over at HBR which identifies a core component of human behavior regarding how we act when we're paid to do something versus when we simply do a favor or go the extra mile. From this story comes the insight that every day each of us ask ourselves "Am I the type of person who..." in response to situations that come across our lives. 

Am I the type of person who sends thank you notes?

Am I the type of person who turns off my colleagues' office lights when I'm last to leave?

Am I the type of person who says, "actually, no, my meal wasn't ok" to the waiter?

We don't necessarily know we're doing it, but indeed, every day we are put into situations with other people where we make judgement calls about ourselves...Bregman writes that 'people tend to think of themselves as stories and when you interact with someone you're playing a role in their story' as well as your own.

I like to correlate most things back to advertising. One dimensional? Some say so. Anyway, reading this piece made me specifically think about Account Management.

While job descriptions are abound the great account person approaches every day differently, ready to respond to whatever situation needs leadership. Could be client requests, creative team guidance, strategic development, accounting matters, you name it. 

When it gets right down to it, great account people make the difference. They're the only ones in the agency who truly touch every part of an account. And it's a job chalked full of person-to-person interactions. Therefore...

Am I the type of account person who...

-Stops and thinks about every assignment and brainstorms solutions before getting other departments involved?

-Crafts a brief to be so concise, clear and insightful that I could write good ideas from it?

-Treats the traffic manager with as much respect as the Creative Director?

-Believes it's up to me to proactively lead everyone: from the CEO on down.

-Strives to measure ROI for all efforts without client prompting?

-Studies great creative work from around the world and thrives to be involved in its creation?

-Voluntarily contributes content to the web?

-Checks fear at the door?

-Smiles (even though I might be totally freaking out inside)?

I doubt whether any of the above statements are included in job descriptions at most agencies or that account teams are measured against any of them. But do your best to be that type of account person. The difference is felt agency-wide and makes the job a whole helluvalot more fun. Anyway... Stuff to ponder. 

Change By Design

Over the holidays I had a chance to read Change By Design by IDEO CEO, Tim Brown. If you are at all interested in design, creativity and how these things can influence business, you should read it. Pick up a copy here. Some highlights include the importance of prototyping, the role of a blueprint and finding "T-Shaped" people. These things can apply to every business.

But more about those later...

For today, the thing that stuck out most to me is the importance of Empathy. Or, in other words, truly understanding the business challenge from the mindset of users.

If you work in marketing, ask yourself: How often are you in the field? How often are you out watching customer behavior? My guess is, not often enough. Especially these days...

It's tempting to think that we are connected because we are reading consumer tweets and blogs. But that's only half of it... The small irony is that the more we stop and read the less we physically observe. And if there's one thing that comes screaming out of the case studies in Change By Design it's the sheer amount of time that was spent in the field by IDEO design teams understanding, talking with and observing the needs of people in the user environment prior to concepting.

So in 2010 it's important not to be solely focused on the screen in front of us... be it a computer a mobile phone or a Kindle. Look up, watch, listen and take the time to link things together.

Change By Design is about "Design Thinking." And while the definition of Design Thinking is pretty much the entire book it was summed up nicely at one point as "translating observations into insights and insights into products and services that will improve lives."

Good stuff.

The Future of Work

What is the future of work? The team at PricewaterhouseCoopers has some ideas compiled in a comprehensive report found here. The collection of thinking is about what the working world may look like in 2020. It's a thought-provoking read and took PwC over two years to complete.

You should download the full report but below are some highlights to consider about the future of work:

1. People management will present one of the greatest business challenges. This means the function of HR will go one of three ways: 1.) become the heart of organizations, 2.) become the driver of corporate social responsibility, 3.) become only people sourcing and will be entirely outsourced. 

2. Business models will change dramatically. PwC looked at a number of global forces that will have significant future influence but the primary ideas are: individualism vs. collectivism and corporate integration vs. fragmentation. To articulate this they created three worlds: Blue, Green and Orange.

Marketing agencies will most likely look to Orange. Largely, this has already begun, of course. But those slow to embrace this world might not be around in 2020. Orange will not come at the expense of Green and Blue... elements of these worlds need to be embraced too. And that is true for whatever world companies find themselves in. The blend of all thinking = success.

3. Millennials, the future leaders. The survey also evaluated the thoughts of 4,271 Millennials from 44 countries. And while the majority of those surveyed are associated with PwC in some fashion, there are key learnings all organizations can take away, such as:

-88% of Millennials will choose employers who have corporate social responsibility values that reflect their own. 86% would consider leaving an employer if these values no longer matched their expectations.

-Most expect to work "regular" office hours. Only 3% expect to work mainly at home.

-75% believe they will have only between two and five employers throughout their career.

-Training and development is the most highly valued employee benefit (chosen three time higher than cash bonuses). 

-They envision that by 2020 China, India and Russia will have more economic influence than the US and Europe.

-Over 1/3 believe that companies will be more influential than governments.

So what does this all mean?

2020 is ten years away. Think of where we were in 1999... the things we didn't even fathom then vs. the things we use daily now. Yet, for those of us who have been in business that long, it seems like only 10 minutes ago, doesn't it?

Some random things to think about:

Even the smallest of companies should think global. If it seems unfathomable to be selling goods in China, can you export your intellectual capital? Become a consultant in what you know for those who are going to build what you've already built?

If indeed we are to become a collection of collaborative networks what is your unique specialty to bring to the table? Personal expertise is what networks will seek when compiling teams.

If certain enterprises become King, in what ways can you, the employee, influence its growth and social responsibility? You may work there for awhile, best to make it work for you.

Find your world, dive in and start positioning yourself... time has a way of flying by.