Tag: innovation - Page 2

With planning on the agenda this week and new hires, it has become apparent that we have to look closely at the past to ensure that our business goes into the future with it's best foot forward.

I'm in heavy business planning stage right now and I am looking for a lot of growth and development within our business. Our products need further development before August, and our APP must be finished for our clients, licensees and employees so that training and development as well as the marketing dashboard is at their fingertips.

I'm a strong believer in technology and how it powers performance. I don't hide behind the fact that I believe that marketing needs to reinvent itself and allow robots in, while still maintaining the personal touch. It's a hard combo and no-one really has it right. Marketing automation was supposed to solve this problem but there is no program yet on the market that actually does this well enough.

The human touch is still over-needed.

To keep abreast of what is going on in our industry and to maintain our position of leadership, we are working more on innovation and technology, while teaching new staff, new ways in which they can work to better perform for clients.

A catalyst for this is change is needed every year in a growing progressive company. You can't deliver upon continual growth at the rate we are aiming for without making sure you are a step ahead of the market - always.

People buy-in is instrumental and at my own fault I have sometimes forgotten that inclusion when I have impulsively developed a new or innovative process. Fairly stereo typical of an entrepreneur who is creative, but not acceptable and sustainable.

If your business hasn't:

Developed a business plan for 2016/17
Developed a marketing strategy that is not the same as last year, for 2016/17
Audited your processes for constant improvement across all areas
Set  your sales goals and ensured all team members are across them
Invested in people management, development and growth allowing adequate budget for the year
Made innovation your number one motivator for staying on top
Bought a copy of Gazelle's and completed the two page template and shared with your team

Back in the ’70s when I was just a wee bairn in London, my parents would straighten up and fly right to the sunny climes of Paris or Barcelona, where apparently I would eat only eggs (which I still believe is great holiday food for a toddler!). That is another hard-boiled story.

This one is partly about Polaroid and what Polaroid means to the generations that lived through the ’60s to the ’90s. It is also about reinvention and how this former brand giant reinvented themselves to become a digital dynamo.

Marketing agencies usually have a mix of large and small clients. Some are well known in the wider community, even the international community, while others are known only in the sectors they represent. But sometimes you see a client stride from industry renown into national and global prominence.

GP Graders is one such client. Their commitment to technology innovation and customer service has just seen the company take out the Australian Export Awards.

The next 12-months is going to be incredibly different for people who work at Marketing Eye. After years of working hard at establishing a product and service that is unsurpassed by industry standards, driven by technology, systems and processes, we are now working tirelessly on how to build the right culture going forward.

There have been many hit and misses and lots of unnecessary frustration, but finally I think as a team we have hit the nail on the head and I am about to test it to the nth degree.

Flat Organisational Structure

Weaning employees off hierarchy-driven decision making has been a test of both patience and perseverance. Gen-Y's have been told that they need leadership in order to be successful, yet some of the most successful companies in the world, like Google, are saying quite the opposite. Their investment in a flat organisational structure has not only shown dividends on the balance sheet, but it has created a workplace and culture that the world-over admires and respects.

For smaller companies that have an established organisational structure, driven largely by an entrepreneur, it is more difficult to adapt to a flat organisational structure with the primary reason being that both parties; the entrepreneur and the employees, find it difficult to let go.

I have been travelling the world growing "my small business" and have found that it is almost impossible to be the leader I would have hoped to be, living the life I do. I certainly am no role model in this department, nor do I follow the many books I have bought over time on "how to be a good leader" no matter how much I try but ultimately fail in my pursuit.