Apologies for the title...let me explain. I have written many songs in my life, as I know, has my fellow Create and Innovate Musketeer Christina. I have only one that I will claim is any good (quite prolific eh?) It's titled 'Hi and Low' and has as it's bridge the following...
"Said goodbye to some I loved
Did I love em strong enough
Only they'll ever know.
We gotta celebrate the act man
Cause Mystery's a fact man
Hi and Low..."
If I could upload the mp3 file I'd let you have a listen.
Anyway the point I am slowly getting to is that Change is Certain.
As Innovators and Creators we should all embrace the space. Indeed we must inhabit the space.
We can not prove an Innovation will work.
We can only sense that we or something needs to Change. And no more intensely than now.
And we don't know at what point in the cycle we are at any given time (that's hindsights job)
That's why I believe Innovation and it's friends Imagination, Creativity and
Collaboration have to be incorporated into our lives, both public and
private.
I stumbled across this quantum physics definition that took my fancy today after reading a post by Create and Innovate on the facebook page (go and like it now) about Uncertainty.
https://www.facebook.com/createninnovate
" The Heisenberg uncertainty principle says that the more one knows about where a particle (person;sic)
is right now, the less one knows about how fast it is going and the
direction that it is going. This also works the other way around: the
more one knows about how fast the particle is going and the direction it
is going, the less one knows about where it is right now".
So I don't know what you make of that definition (I would love to hear).
It somehow appealed to my sense of Mystery that surrounds all of our existence.
Ommmmm.
Kevin Coffey
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Monday 25 June 2012
A Faster Horse
Gotta love Steve...
Don’t be a focus- group slave
When Jobs took his original Macintosh team on its first retreat, one member asked whether they should do some market research to see what customers wanted. “No,” Jobs replied, “because customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.” He invoked Henry Ford’s line: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’”
Read this on the plane to India...see the whole Fin Review article here...
A Faster Horse
Kevin Coffey
Don’t be a focus- group slave
When Jobs took his original Macintosh team on its first retreat, one member asked whether they should do some market research to see what customers wanted. “No,” Jobs replied, “because customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.” He invoked Henry Ford’s line: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’”
Read this on the plane to India...see the whole Fin Review article here...
A Faster Horse
Kevin Coffey
Friday 22 June 2012
Dear Retail - Your Sales Just Aren't Enough
And I don't mean - increase the percentage off or give me more for less...I mean as consumers, we aren't duped by the term SALE anymore. Myer have had 30% off footwear for months now but every time they advertise they make it sound like a bigger and better sale than the one that came before. We won't be duped I hear consumers cry! Translation - we're not idiots so stop treating us like idiots!
So let's talk about the Retail Experience. I don't mean the internet retail experience and I don't want to talk about the damage that online is doing to stores. For the record, I am no fan of closing stores in favour of internet retail. In my book all that's going to do is make for less social contact, less part time work for students (read how on earth will they develop a good work ethic) and the flow on from all that is still unknown - really. I want to talk about Bricks and Mortar retail.
Walk into a shopping centre. Talk about same old same old. Oh they have been renovated, expanded, updated, onlined...but fundamentally what has really changed? Walk into a Westfield or a GPT centre and you see the same brands in the same shops and sometimes they have a different shell. I was completely dumfounded/gobsmacked/horrified, when at the International Airport in Sydney I found myself confronted with the SAME STORES. Had I been beamed up to Westfield or GPT? Was this a nightmare? Where were the niche, quality, artistic, UNIQUE stores I had fantasised about?
Thank goodness for centres like the Junction Village, Darby Street, the little shopping village at Lambton and others like them - at least they offer consumers that something different! Unfortunately many of the operators are having to close the doors because they can't compete and they're not being supported.
I am tired - tired of having my senses offended by the over stimulation provided by too much product in a small space - make that too much of the SAME product in a small space. It might work in Singapore, where there are endless malls, with endless shops, with endless product but it doesn't do it for me. I know - all you true shopaholics are now gasping and in a state of shock - but this is my blog and you are free to comment!
Renew Newcastle (thanks Marcus, Marnie, Siobhan and others) are an example of how innovative ideas can create and revitalise a retail experience. Renew Newcastle supports and encourages niche stores with niche, quality, handmade, artistic local product.
Another change in retail is becoming evident with the focus returning (brace yourselves) to where it should be - back to the customer, read customer service and customer experience. I caught a glimpse of an Are You Being Served rerun on free to air TV(my children love it) the other day and it was remarkable. What goes around certainly does come around! Full circle back to customer service. I mentioned to someone on the counter at Coles that I had had trouble with a product and she informed me that part of the new training was to make it up to customers when they weren't happy. She replaced my product! Dumbfounded/gobsmacked and pleasantly surprised this time! I remember when you had to have a receipt, a signed affidavit and a witness to get a replacement, and you had to be extremely brave, prepped and well prepared to venture in for a refund...
Westfield and Sportsgirl are all about adding to the customer experience. Walk into their domains and you are likely to find a stylist who will help you put it all together. Clever and effective. Apple have been all about the customer experience for quite some time, from greeting you at the door to ensuring that you can close a purchase from anywhere in the store and not just at a point of sale register.
In store innovations are being implemented all over the world. Theatre, sound, new technology, digital media and the integration of sustainable retailing are being used to improve or simply change the customer experience. If you want to read more try this article http://www.popai.com.au/news/june-2010/marketing-at-retail-innovations-set-to-transform-how-australians-shop.aspx
or simply google innovations in retail. You can only wonder what's next...
So let's talk about the Retail Experience. I don't mean the internet retail experience and I don't want to talk about the damage that online is doing to stores. For the record, I am no fan of closing stores in favour of internet retail. In my book all that's going to do is make for less social contact, less part time work for students (read how on earth will they develop a good work ethic) and the flow on from all that is still unknown - really. I want to talk about Bricks and Mortar retail.
Walk into a shopping centre. Talk about same old same old. Oh they have been renovated, expanded, updated, onlined...but fundamentally what has really changed? Walk into a Westfield or a GPT centre and you see the same brands in the same shops and sometimes they have a different shell. I was completely dumfounded/gobsmacked/horrified, when at the International Airport in Sydney I found myself confronted with the SAME STORES. Had I been beamed up to Westfield or GPT? Was this a nightmare? Where were the niche, quality, artistic, UNIQUE stores I had fantasised about?
Thank goodness for centres like the Junction Village, Darby Street, the little shopping village at Lambton and others like them - at least they offer consumers that something different! Unfortunately many of the operators are having to close the doors because they can't compete and they're not being supported.
I am tired - tired of having my senses offended by the over stimulation provided by too much product in a small space - make that too much of the SAME product in a small space. It might work in Singapore, where there are endless malls, with endless shops, with endless product but it doesn't do it for me. I know - all you true shopaholics are now gasping and in a state of shock - but this is my blog and you are free to comment!
Renew Newcastle (thanks Marcus, Marnie, Siobhan and others) are an example of how innovative ideas can create and revitalise a retail experience. Renew Newcastle supports and encourages niche stores with niche, quality, handmade, artistic local product.
Another change in retail is becoming evident with the focus returning (brace yourselves) to where it should be - back to the customer, read customer service and customer experience. I caught a glimpse of an Are You Being Served rerun on free to air TV(my children love it) the other day and it was remarkable. What goes around certainly does come around! Full circle back to customer service. I mentioned to someone on the counter at Coles that I had had trouble with a product and she informed me that part of the new training was to make it up to customers when they weren't happy. She replaced my product! Dumbfounded/gobsmacked and pleasantly surprised this time! I remember when you had to have a receipt, a signed affidavit and a witness to get a replacement, and you had to be extremely brave, prepped and well prepared to venture in for a refund...
Westfield and Sportsgirl are all about adding to the customer experience. Walk into their domains and you are likely to find a stylist who will help you put it all together. Clever and effective. Apple have been all about the customer experience for quite some time, from greeting you at the door to ensuring that you can close a purchase from anywhere in the store and not just at a point of sale register.
In store innovations are being implemented all over the world. Theatre, sound, new technology, digital media and the integration of sustainable retailing are being used to improve or simply change the customer experience. If you want to read more try this article http://www.popai.com.au/news/june-2010/marketing-at-retail-innovations-set-to-transform-how-australians-shop.aspx
or simply google innovations in retail. You can only wonder what's next...
Tuesday 5 June 2012
Look Outside Your Industry For Ideas
It has been written that Steve Jobs knew how to make connections...the magnetic ac adaptor for the macs were actually a connection he made between his products and the magnetic power chords that accompanied woks selling in Japan as a safety precaution. The magnetic ac power adaptor was an impressive innovation.
Picture a wok simmering away and a child running through, tripping on the chord, knocking the wok over, contents going everywhere, 3rd degree burns...Enter the magnetic ac adaptor - wok is simmering away, child runs through, trips on the chord, chord comes away...Jobs made a connection, adopted the idea - and adapted it for the Macs. If you tripped on the chord, the computer wouldn't come crshing down...
Human beings are adaptable creatures. Maybe we should ask more often how we can adopt and adapt ideas from one industry into another industry. A great example of this being accomplished successfully is the use of sensors. Sensors are used in homes and in businesses as triggers for security systems. Sensors trigger the alarm if anyone breaks into your home or business - or in my case if a spider crawls over them. The auto industry adopted the use of senors for other security reasons - to prevent accidents. The technology of sensors has been adapted to assist people with sight impairments - same concept - adopted into different industries.
And look at how the mobile phone has evolved. From the early days when it was simply a way of making a mobile call, to its modern day morphises of call maker, txt sender, email receiver, music source, picture taker, film producer, game source - one idea - so many different applications - oh applications!
Which brings us to the collaboration of ideas and that opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. Richard Branson's space shuttle, when it takes off, will be an historic occasion bringing together space travel and tourism. Can you think of two more remotely connected industries coming together to create a new possibility...
Picture a wok simmering away and a child running through, tripping on the chord, knocking the wok over, contents going everywhere, 3rd degree burns...Enter the magnetic ac adaptor - wok is simmering away, child runs through, trips on the chord, chord comes away...Jobs made a connection, adopted the idea - and adapted it for the Macs. If you tripped on the chord, the computer wouldn't come crshing down...
Human beings are adaptable creatures. Maybe we should ask more often how we can adopt and adapt ideas from one industry into another industry. A great example of this being accomplished successfully is the use of sensors. Sensors are used in homes and in businesses as triggers for security systems. Sensors trigger the alarm if anyone breaks into your home or business - or in my case if a spider crawls over them. The auto industry adopted the use of senors for other security reasons - to prevent accidents. The technology of sensors has been adapted to assist people with sight impairments - same concept - adopted into different industries.
And look at how the mobile phone has evolved. From the early days when it was simply a way of making a mobile call, to its modern day morphises of call maker, txt sender, email receiver, music source, picture taker, film producer, game source - one idea - so many different applications - oh applications!
Which brings us to the collaboration of ideas and that opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. Richard Branson's space shuttle, when it takes off, will be an historic occasion bringing together space travel and tourism. Can you think of two more remotely connected industries coming together to create a new possibility...
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