One of the big downfalls of GenAI is that it currently only draws from content it is trained on that already exists. So, the information it generates is “known.” GenAI can’t (yet) create new material; it can only consolidate and spew back what’s already been created by others. In other words, “it” cannot be innovative.
But you can!
I was playing Solitaire on a flight recently and was struck by how much I like developing and following standardized processes, yet how likely I am to vary from a process when I think it’s appropriate.
The trouble is Continue reading “Finding the Right Balance Between Standard Processes and Variation”
Throughout my career I have hired a number of people into marketing roles, and have also aided other companies and organizations in finding, interviewing, hiring and onboarding marketing staff. It can be challenging to effectively assess job candidates for any role—when hiring for creative roles it can be even more challenging. How can you determine whether applicants have both the aptitude and the innovative chops to be a valued member of your team?
Continue reading “My Favorite Question to Ask When Hiring Marketing Professionals”
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
Communication is key to any business, whether it’s a meeting with potential clients on a sales opportunity or coordinating and staying in touch with staff. Distance is becoming less and less of a hindrance to effective and meaningful communication. New technologies introduced over the last two centuries have greatly enhanced our ability to stay connected; from the telegraph to the telephone to internet and video conferencing we can now see and hear people from anywhere in the world in real time. And a recent strategy by a 2020 presidential hopeful is demonstrating the increasing development of the latest iteration of long-distance communication. Continue reading “Could Holographic Tech Change the Way We Communicate?”
Many of us are familiar with the concept of disruptive innovation: a new product or service enters the market and overthrows established competitors by fundamentally changing the paradigm. Common examples include the advent of the automobile, the personal computer, or direct streaming services. But, do we really need to be disruptively innovative? Continue reading “Forget Disruptive Innovation: How NON-disruptive Innovation Can Help You Expand Your Market”
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
We recently wrote a blog post on some of the lessons to be learned from a decision by retail giant Amazon to abandon plans to open one half of its HQ2 in New York City. The media have been quick to label the decision as a failure and a PR disaster for the firm that stirred up months of media frenzy when it announced its search for an HQ2 several months ago. Continue reading “What We Can Learn From Amazon’s HQ2 Failure”
I’m a big fan of EContent, a media outlet that focuses on content related to digital publishing, media and marketing. They have a number of very influential contributors* who write about trending topics, and useful strategies and tactics to help readers succeed in the online world.
It’s one of the many media outlets that I try to read as often as I can. Recently, when browsing through the topics on their homepage, I came across a piece by Theresa Cramer, the editor of EContent: Lessons From Serial: The Myth of the Shrinking Attention Span. I found it to be a very thought-provoking piece, and I was especially struck by one particular line in the piece: Continue reading “How Will You Make Your Audience Want To?”
Traditional forms of marketing often pose a challenge for businesses in that they are often necessarily reactionary. Generally, marketers can’t determine customers’ satisfaction with a product or service until it’s already been created and introduced. By that time, it may be too late. Continue reading “Engaging Customers in Real-Time Product and Service Development”
In the midst of the current Ebola outbreak, there has been much made of the role of big pharma in the race to stem the tide of the deadly virus. Many commentators, non-governmental organizations and governments have been critical of drug companies in the past and currently for what is seen as their lack of interest in developing vaccines and cures for illnesses that are deadly, but just not profitable.
But numbers are numbers, and the decision-makers of publicly-traded companies are obligated to conduct their business in a way that returns an acceptable return on investment to shareholders.
In an editorial for Forbes Continue reading “Unlikely Collaborators Come Together to Tackle Ebola”
Despite the fact that business and advertising classes and textbooks tell us that the first stage in the consumer decision-making process is identifying a need, there are certainly instances when consumers don’t know they have a need. That’s where innovators can have an edge.
Lee E. Miller and Kathleen Hayes Onieal recently wrote a blog post for Harvard Business Review called “Getting People to Believe in Something They Can’t Yet Imagine.” In the blog post, Miller and Onieal discuss the fate that often befalls new, groundbreaking innovations: Nobody believes they will catch on! The very fact that something is so revolutionary and unheard of often makes getting buy-in from key decision-makers next to impossible. The authors point out some of the reasons for this, including organizational inertia, fear of change, financial disincentives and fear of failure, among others.
So what can be done to overcome these obvious challenges? Certainly, companies introduce innovative products and services all the time. What makes the champions of change within those organizations succeed? Miller and Onieal point to several paths to success: Continue reading “The Innovator’s Edge: Addressing Needs That Don’t Exist!”