Unconventional Thinking: The Master’s Course

Unconventional Thinking

This program explores the tactics used by successful organizations to change their cultural mindsets – to consider embracing ‘the unconventional approach’ to maintain a competitive edge.

The Take-Aways

Today, the velocity of competitive adaptation is too swift to settle for conventional solutions. It is incumbent upon us to search for urgent (fresh) ways to re-think our operations. When we allow ourselves to shed “the comfortable,” we often can be the first to re-invent an industry.

We have often heard we need to WOW the customer. But what is the step beyond WOW?  The step beyond WOW is to present the client/customer with a service or product they could not predict – yet is organic to their needs. “Unpredictable Reliability” can cause a viral flood of market share that a simple WOW moment cannot.

We live in the age of User-Generated content (YouTube, Wikipedia, E-baums). Your fans don’t want to simply buy your brand…they want to join it. They want to participate. They want to help advise you on what they want…and what they think will improve your brand. Smart organizations create an open channel of communication to make that happen. The customer/client isn’t always right…but at times they are pure genius. We cannot afford to dismiss their ideas.

With the proliferation of broadband Internet, the workforce of tomorrow can be free to work from home, on vacation, the corner coffee shop, and other areas outside of “the office.” When performance parameters are detailed, this approach has proven to be highly effective at raising morale and productivity.

It’s the age-old question. “You have to spend money to make money.” But WHICH money? Sales force? Finance? The fresh answer to fuel growth is three fold. #1: Money spent to enhance the customer experience always causes market share to expand. #2: Depressed real estate markets (and low interest rate environments) are prime times to borrow money for expansion. #3: Economic downturns provide extraordinary opportunities to add quality people to your organization.