24 Hour Contest for Vijay Govindarajan Webinar Ticket

This is only a 24 hour contest, so act fast!

You only have until midnight GMT March 17, 2010 to enter this contest.

On March 18, 2010 at 1:00PM ET, Vijay Govindarajan will be conducting an online seminar titled "Reverse Innovation: A New Strategy for Creating the Future".

HSM Global has graciously donated one (1) $99 ticket for this contest. One lucky person will be able to attend this special event for free.


To enter the contest, do one of these two things before midnight GMT on March 17, 2010:

1. On Twitter, send @innovate an @reply with "Reverse Innovation contest entry" in the tweet


2. If you aren't on Twitter, add a comment to this blog entry with an alternative way of contacting you (your LinkedIn profile URL or website contact form url for example)

There will only be one (1) winner, selected at random.

If you would like to skip the contest and attend the webinar, click here to register - use code H5MW3B and save $20.


Stay tuned!

In two weeks we will be starting an Innovation Scavenger Hunt for a chance to win a $2,000 ticket to the World Innovation Forum in New York City on June 8-9, 2010. In the meantime, as an added value for our loyal Blogging Innovation readers, we have also negotiated a $200 discount on this great event when you register with our discount code "INNOVATE".


Editors's note: The ticket for the contest is being provided by HSM Global, not Blogging Innovation, and is conveyed at their discretion not ours.


Don't miss an article - Subscribe to our RSS feed and join our Continuous Innovation group!

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Conferences 3.0

To get the latest thinking and network with their peers, managers used to jump on a plane and go to an industry trade show or conference. Now with the Internet and Social Networks, managers can do a lot of the same things right from their desk. Conferences and trade shows are facing disruption from blogs, webinars, and social media. The economic downturn hasn't helped matters as companies have slashed education and travel budgets.

To survive, conferences will have to harness the power of the very tools that are threatening to kill them. This means the logistics requirements and characteristics of conference events are changing. In today's digital world, conferences have the ability to spill beyond the four walls of the event and grow their platform at the same time.

TED, with good reason, is widely considered the leader when it comes to utilizing digital media into their approach to events (including their wide distribution of recorded video content from their events). Outside of TED, of the different approaches to integrating digital and social media into conferences that I've seen, HSM Americas has the most innovative approach.

HSM Americas really seems to understand the important role that digital and social media can play in not only augmenting the experience for attendees, but also in expanding public awareness of the event and increasing the desire of non-attendees to attend the next event in person.

I had the opportunity to sit down with George Levy and Becky Gee of HSM Americas to discuss the Bloggers Hub concept from the World Innovation Forum and asked them the following five questions:

1. How did HSM Americas decide to do the Bloggers Hub at the World Innovation Forum?


• We wanted to expand the wisdom being shared by the speakers beyond the four walls, to expand the reach and impact to those that would like to come to the live event, but for whatever reason were unable to.



2. What were the key challenges to executing the Bloggers Hub concept?


• The greatest challenge was building a process - inventing as we went. The selection of the bloggers was particularly challenging.
  We had to look at what the make up of the group might be, where the Bloggers Hub would sit in the event space, and other big questions.



3. Do you feel that HSM Americas got a positive return on investment on the effort?


• This was a very good play, both from an exposure standpoint but also from a satisfaction standpoint (sponsors and bloggers). The value that attendees received from the event went beyond the timing of the event - "Continues after the curtain goes down."



4. Do you plan on repeating the Bloggers Hub concept?


• Yes, we will do it for the World Business Forum, although the organization will be more complicated because the conference will have more topics (more difficult to select the bloggers).



5. What were the biggest learnings for next time?


• We think that there are opportunities to better integrate the activities in the Bloggers Hub with what is happening on the stage. We will have to identify ways to expand the learning and interaction during and after the event.

The take-aways from my experiences and the conversation with HSM Americas, was that to put on a truly excellent conference today that is capable of extending beyond the four walls of the event, you should consider doing the following:

1. Create a selection process for inclusion of the digital press into your press strategy. Organize your digital press corps in advance of the event and arm them with digital media, speaker bios, discount codes, etc. so they can help build awareness for the event.


2. Make sure there are plenty of power plugins, WiFi, and suitable work surfaces


3. Build one community for the press and another for attendees on LinkedIn, Ning, or another social network in advance of the event so they can start familiarizing themselves with each other. Use these communities to also solicit feedback from both groups to help the speakers evolve their talks to be as interesting as possible for attendees.


4. Organize a face-to-face social event for all of the press you have invited to attend


5. Publish a list of web sites covering the event in advance so people know where to find videos, articles, and podcasts from the event (both before and after)


6. Create a Twitter strategy and a Twitter hashtag and begin using it in advance of the event. Announce the Twitter hashtag at the beginning of every event session, and display the Twitter feed on your event web site during the event, in public areas at the event and on the big screen during event breaks


7. Encourage mixing between attendees and the press. This will enrich the coverage of the event.


8. Consider working with the speaker to provide course-changing input based on audience sentiment from Twitter, but DO NOT put up a live Twitter feed up behind the speaker or let the speaker monitor the Twitter feed during the event - Too Distracting!

Can conference organizers avoid sharing the fate of COMDEX? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure - leveraging digital and social media are the only ways to avoid being disrupted by them.


What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

World Innovation Forum Posts (updated)

I recently updated some of my World Innovation Forum (May 5-6, 2009) posts to add slides for some of the presentations.

You can also download the World Innovation Forum Executive Summary from our site - lovingly assembled by business analysts from ExecuNet.

The conference lineup included - Paul Saffo, CK Prahalad, Vijay Govindarajan, Clayton Christensen, Fred Krupp, and Dan Ariely

Here is a list of all of the posts from my World Innovation Forum trip with the posts that have been updated with slides at the top:

• Paul Saffo (updated)


• Vijay Govindarajan (updated)


• Clayton Christensen (1st Session) (updated)


• Dan Ariely (updated)


• ?WhatIf! Innovation Field Trip (Apple Store and OZOlab)


• Interview with CEO Alexander Tsiaras of TheVisualMD


• Brightidea visit with Co-founder Vincent Carbone


• CK Prahalad


• Clayton Christensen (2nd Session)


• Fredd Krupp

A thank you goes out to HSM Americas and the presenters for the slides.


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Interview - TheVisualMD.com founder Alexander Tsiaras

I had the opportunity to meet up with thevisualmd.com founder Alexander Tsiaras on May 7, 2009. We had a fascinating conversation about healthcare and the work that Alex's company is undertaking. Here is a video excerpt from part of our conversation:




Here are some of the key insights that bubble up from our conversation:

The Internet is an interactive medium, and if you want to be successful you have to learn to tell a story. Storytelling has a huge impact in fundraising, the outcome of politics, the behavior of consumers, etc.

Yet, most of the content on the Internet remains about gossip and commerce (even today). There is still a shortage of quality, deep content.

With thevisualmd.com, Alex and team are trying to tell interactive stories. If thevisualmd.com were a print publication, they would aspire to be LIFE magazine - beautiful pictures with good captions that together tell a story for those who want to browse, but with deeper content for those who want to explore the topic further.

Thevisualmd.com is of course an Internet site, and it has beautiful visuals that allow people to go through the story linearly or explore non-linearly. Alex is always trying with his team to think about the best way to use digital technology to have an impact on the people who consume the content.

For most companies, when it comes to utilizing digital technology, they tend to create cool graphics instead of using the technology to tell an impactful story. Many traditional companies are still intimidated by digital technology and provide tactical, unimaginative, and restrictive briefs as a result. The end result? Companies often blame their agencies for the lackluster outcomes from their digital presences.

In healthcare, one of the greatest tests is to achieve improvements in wellness. The biggest problem that wellness programs face is compliance. Patient compliance is dependent on three key things that most patients can't visualize or easily understand:

• Causes


• Consequences


• Solutions

Another challenge the healthcare industry faces is the defensive, cautious mindset of most healthcare organizations (especially big pharma). You could see this difference if you were to attend the TED conference and observe the level of collaboration and sharing of information that occurs there, and then attend the TED Med conference and observe the quiet distance between attendees.

Realizing the full promise of electronic medical records and potential behavioral changes from integrated wellness programs will require overcoming this combination of healthcare organizations' mindset and the patients' inability to visualize.

That is why we need to create solutions that provide a constantly updated wellness and treatment profile so that patients are more aware of the causes and consequences and can make changes in their behavior to improve their wellness.

Sensors built into mobile phones that can contribute real time data and the broad adoption of electronic medical records will provide the necessary data foundation, but there will still be a need for someone to provide the stories and visuals that link the causes, consequences, and solutions that will ultimately result in the necessary behavioral changes.

TheVisualMD tells great visual stories and feels it has an important role to play in our more-connected medical future.

What do you think?

Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

World Innovation Forum Wrapup

Stu Miniman tagged this photo with Twitter identities

I recently had the opportunity to attend the World Innovation Forum (May 5-6, 2009) and a couple of pre-conference events on May 4, 2009 - the ?WhatIf! Innovation Forum and the Paul Saffo Workshop. I was invited to blog and tweet from the balcony at the World Innovation Forum as a member of the BloggersHub (sponsored by Pitney Bowes).

The conference lineup included - Paul Saffo, CK Prahalad, Vijay Govindarajan, Clayton Christensen, Fred Krupp, and Dan Ariely

I did a lot of live-tweeting at the event and have now finished up my blogging this week in David Letterman fashion with a series of Top 10 Insights posts. To wrap it up, here are my Top 10 World Innovation Forum Experiences (including private visits I scheduled while in NYC):

1. The infamous Cinco De Mayo dinner


2. Dan Ariely


3. ?WhatIf! Innovation Field Trip (Apple Store and OZOlab)


4. Clayton Christensen (2nd Session)


5. TheVisualMD visit with CEO Alexander Tsiaras (blog entry coming soon)


6. Making Boris Pluskowski laugh at my tweets


7. ?WhatIf! Innovation Breakfast


8. Brightidea visit with Co-founder Vincent Carbone


9. BloggersHub Pizza Lunch


10. Paul Saffo Workshop

Here are links to all of my Top 10 Insights posts:

• Paul Saffo


• CK Prahalad


• Vijay Govindarajan


• Clayton Christensen (1st Session)


• Clayton Christensen (2nd Session)


• Fredd Krupp


• Dan Ariely

It was good to finally meet the other innovation bloggers in person and to hear a lot of great speakers. The BloggersHub helped to extend the reach of the event to thousands of people around the globe who followed the tweet stream and blog posts, and several of the online conversations around points made by the speakers had me laughing out loud.

In the end, I came away with a few key insights that will help to shape my business, and a couple of thoughts for new white papers that I hope will advance our collective understanding of what it takes to successfully and continuously innovate.


Have you found this conference coverage useful?

Do you think more conferences should model the BloggersHub concept?


NOTE: If slides from any of the talks are shared with me or posted somewhere, then I will update my posts with embedded versions or links.


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Top 10 Dan Ariely Insights - World Innovation Forum

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I've distilled the 90 minutes with Dan Ariely down into these Top 10 Insights:

1. Dan Ariely suffered extensive burns when he was younger and what he learned about prolonged pain (and removing lots of bandages) is that while going quickly (to get it over with), you also need to take breaks and recover (the mind can only absorb so much pain - or change - at once)


2. Optical illusions are an analogy for how our intense focus causes us to miss key indicators of change


3. Why do some countries have more organ donors than others? It's as simple as using opt-out instead of opt-in.


4. The way we ask questions causes people to reflect differently on how they answer


5. Not all choices are there to be picked - some are there for comparison - to make picking other choices easier (a dummy choice being present can actually change the choices people make)


6. Just because people are switching tasks more these days, it doesn't mean they don't still lose a great deal of productivity doing so


7. Ariely did research into cheating and found that most people cheat - and they tend to cheat just a little bit - amount of reward and probability of being caught did not matter


8. Getting people to sign at the top of form that they are telling the truth increases accuracy more than bottom


9. The more steps a choice is removed from real money - the more likely people are to cheat or steal


10. We design to overcome physical limitations - we know we're not supermen - with mental limitations - we think the opposite

Finally, I'd like to end with a couple of bonus fun facts from Dan Ariely on cheating:

• Cheating across countries is constant (once all parties agree that something is cheating)


• Between bankers and politicians - Bankers actually cheat twice as much

Updated May 24, 2009 - Here are the slides from Dan Ariely's presentation at the World Innovation Forum:

Dan Ariely - World Innovation Forum

View more Microsoft Word documents from Braden Kelley.

Updated May 28, 2009 - Added some videos of Dan Ariely speaking at TED


What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Top 10 Fred Krupp Insights - World Innovation Forum

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I've distilled the 90 minutes with Fred Krupp down into these Top 10 Insights:

1. We are pumping pollution into the air like there is no tomorrow - and if we don't change, there might not be...


2. There are now more wind power employees than people mining coal


3. The solar energy business market cap is over $100 Billion - Who knew?


4. Brazil and Indonesia are #3 and #4 in CO2 emissions - after #1 USA and #2 China


5. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) created an online community to spur innovation


6. Fred Krupp is not a supporter of the Pickens Plan - he thinks it ties us to natural gas powered electric cars and trucks


7. Fred Krupp showed a video of a guy making things out of sugar and then criticized the technology because it can push food prices higher (I love it when people aren't afraid to weaken their own proof points)


8. Conrad Burke of Innovalight and their printed solar cells was another interesting topic


9. Will the world approve a cap-and-trade agreement by December 2009 in Copenhagen when Kyoto is revisited?


10. Fred Krupp is a huge fan of implementing a cap and trade system

Finally, I'd like to end with a quote from Bernie Karl that personifies the entrepreneurial or innovative spirit:

"I never let lack of money or education stop me, I believe they are my two strongest assets."


What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Bonus - Top 10 Clayton Christensen Insights - World Innovation Forum

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I've distilled the second 90 minutes with Clayton Christensen down into these Top 10 Insights (primarily about health care and education):

1. Disruption drives things towards convenience and accessibility


2. Clayton Christensen believes that the key to healthcare is pushing care farther from the center towards nurses and users and local devices


3. There is a tension between people's different learning styles and the need for standardization


4. When Clayton Christensen writes a book, he draws a diagram. Then he writes a chapter to describe the diagram. That's how his brain works.


5. Clayton Christensen believes that over time teachers will become tutors and all instruction will eventually go online


6. Schools struggle to keep kids engaged because the kids are looking to feel successful and to have fun with their friends


7. Instead of telling Andy Grove of Intel what to think, Clayton Christensen told him how to think - and then Andy Grove could draw his own conclusion


8. We tend to frame problems incorrectly, often lack a common language to discuss the problem, and usually don't take time for re-education before proceeding to try and solve it


9. The tyranny of delivering the numbers tends to make great innovation ideas homeless


10. We should build cheap, limited electric cars aimed at teenagers - parents don't want teens going far or fast

Finally, I'd like to end with a quote I heard recently from an unknown origin:

"Minds on the margin are not marginal minds"


What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Top 10 Clayton Christensen Insights - World Innovation Forum

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I've distilled the first 90 minutes with Clayton Christensen down into these Top 10 Insights:

1. Largest markets don't represent the biggest growth opportunity - non-existent markets are key


2. Sustaining innovation improves product past what people need - disruptive innovations often win by being inferior but closer to customer needs


3. Low cost strategy only works when you are fighting against a high cost competitor - prices fall if only low cost competitors exist


4. A good disruptive strategy creates an incentive for leaders to exit the contested area and focus on higher margin businesses


5. Biggest opporunity in China isn't low cost labor, it's the untapped market of non-consumers


6. Clayton Christensen believes that green energy opportunities are not in high tech solutions but in low tech developing world instead


7. Be careful about outsourcing too much of your operations - you can end up creating competitors (Compaq/Flextronics example)


8. Good companies survive by setting up separate businesses with an unfettered charter to kill the mother company


9. Clayton Christensen doesn't seem to believe that listening to customers is key to innovation


10. Listening to customers doesn't necessarily tip off leaders to possibilities of disruptive innovation

Finally, I'd just like to say that if you've never seen Clayton Christensen in person, he is a gentle giant with a calm demeanor, and surprisingly funny.


Update May 24, 2009 - Here are the slides from Clayton Christensen's presentation at the World Innovation Forum:

Clayton Christensen - World Innovation Forum

View more Microsoft Word documents from Braden Kelley.

What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Top 10 Vijay Govindarajan Insights - World Innovation Forum

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I've distilled 90 minutes with Vijay Govindarajan down into these Top 10 Insights:

1. Most companies spend too much time on Box 1 thinking and not enough on Box 2&3 thinking


• Box 1 is about closing the performance gap and restructuring


• Box 2&3 are about Closing the Opportunity Gap (projects for 2020) and Renewal


2. Strategic Intent is about dreaming big (other people call this a BHAG) - not creating a mission statement that nobody reads


3. Every company needs a growth playbook for three horizons:


• Horizon 1 - Core Business


• Horizon 2 - Adjacent Space

Horizon 3 - Entirely New Space


4. Horizon 3 projects are 95% assumptions and Horizon 1 projects are 95% knowledge


5. People at the top "Think" - People in the middle "Make Sure" - People at the Bottom - "Do" - If you want transformation - You must engage the "Doers" at the bottom


6. Huge entry barriers to keep competitors out can also prevent you from getting out of the fortress you've built when it's disrupted


7. Because the message is simple - It does not mean that it is easy to do - The future is now


8. India and China went from 55% of World GDP to less than 5% because they missed several productivity revolutions


9. Innovation in emerging markets coming to USA will be hard for American companies to compete against because low margins won't be attractive


10. Be the change you want to see in the company - If you get fired for it, find a new company

Finally, I'd like to leave you with a link to a Vijay Govindarajan webinar (Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators) where you can listen to a lot of the content and follow along with many of the slides.


Updated May 24, 2009 - Here are the slides from Vijay Govindarajan's presentation at the World Innovation Forum:

Vijay Govindarajan - World Innovation Forum

View more Microsoft Word documents from Braden Kelley.

What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Top 10 Paul Saffo Insights - World Innovation Forum

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I've distilled my time with Paul Saffo down into these Top 10 Insights:

1. There are times when the uncertainty is so great that you shouldn't even forecast at all


2. Google becoming richer as people 'contribute' search strings - Where else do you think you are consuming but actually contribute?


3. 2/3 of Roomba owners give them a name - 1/3 take them with them to friend's house or on vacation


4. Innovative ideas often take about twenty years to succeed - If you find something that has been failing for almost 20 years, pay special attention


• LucasFilm Habitat failed 20 yrs ago, others followed in failure, then Second Life took off


5. People tend to substitute forward velocity as a measure of succcess


6. Sometimes bad management is what allows innovation to happen


7. The innovators' trap is mistaking a clear view for a short distance


8. People talk about innovations as an S-curve. Most people look at the inflection point. Look at the flat spot instead.


9. Forecasters tend to over-estimate the short-term and under-estimate the long-term


10. If you want to make sense of the future, look back - Look back twice as far as you are looking forward

Finally, I'd like to end with a quote from Mark Twain:

"History doesn't repeat itself, at best it sometimes rhymes"


UPDATED May 24, 2009 - Here are the slides from Paul Saffo's presentation at the World Innovation Forum:

Paul Saffo - World Innovation Forum

View more Microsoft Word documents from Braden Kelley.

What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Top 10 CK Prahalad Insights - World Innovation Forum

Taking a slightly different approach than other World Innovation Forum bloggers, I've distilled 90 minutes with CK Prahalad down into these Top 10 Insights:

1. Companies achieving competitive separation will be focused on 'next practices', not best practices


2. Managers must focus some of their attention on volatility and discontinuities, because if not actively managed, discontinuities become disruptions


3. To manage volatility you must address two contradictory requirements:


• Strategic Clarity and Consistency


• Operational Agility and Resilience


4. Avoiding commoditization from now will require the creation of personalized, co-created experiences (possibly using multiple vendors)


5. Only when you try to get rid of variable costs do you realize they are fixed


6. Our new business reality requires systems capable of enormous volatility and scaling up and down rapidly


• How do I create capability of anticipating the future?


• How do I enable real time reconfiguration of resources?


7. Four billion people want to be part of the global marketplace - this will have a profound impact on sustainability


8. The question is not whether I can invest big, it is whether I can learn fast


9. Innovation requires speed and stamina along with clarity of direction


10. Don't start where you are in determining strategy - you will only get extrapolation from present - and you will only get budget-oriented approaches


• Position yourself in 2015 or 2020 and then fold the future in


• Strategy is about folding the future in, not about extrapolating


• You imagine the future and then you determine the short steps inbetween to get there

Finally, I'd like to end with a quote from CK Prahalad's mother:

"Never accept silence as agreement because you'll regret it later."


What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

A Conversation with OZOlab

I had the opportunity to tag along to the first part of the ?WhatIf! Innovation Field Trip on May 4, 2009. This event began at the Apple Store SOHO, which was then followed by a conversation with OZOlab.

OZOlab was founded by Jordan Harris and Roo Rogers, a blending of Virgin branding experience and economic development experience. The two got together to try and have a positive impact on the world through business. One of the things they realized early on is that companies in the green space do a very poor job of branding (exemplified by the poor audience recall of 'green' brands when asked).

OZOlab's first venture is OZOcar - a black car service in New York City that uses only Toyota Priuses with WiFi and AC Power Adapters. OZOcar went from idea to business in six months and was launched on the back of the Green Car to the Red Carpet movement. They did their first fashion show in September 2005, and now have a profitable business servicing celebrities, corporate accounts and individuals. They have run into a lot of challenges that they did not expect in greening the car service business, but feel they are doing a lot of good. The most frustrating thing has been corporate clients' reluctance to give up the traditional paper voucher system for a more efficient (and more green) paper-free system.

OZO is designed to be an umbrella brand focused on green values and good design and they are currently working on a couple of other product line ideas. One is OZOhome - a cleaning system shipped to stores without water. The second is OZOwater - a water system based around stylish bottles and a series of filtration, enhancement, and flavor discs. OZOwater is the farthest along the product development process. OZOhome was started on first, but they didn't make the product real soon enough and lost a bit of momentum on the project (they are trying to pick it back up now).

Along the way OZO Labs has said no to a lot of ideas, including OZOvodka, OZOfertilizer, and creating their own green-focused retail stores (a Green Depot idea).

It will be interesting to see if OZO can change our water drinking habits and our cleaning habits, but I wish them the best. The OZOhome cleaning system is something that has to happen sooner or later. We just can't keep shipping water all around the country if the consumer can add it at home at the end.

I wish OZOlab every success with these challenges in changing behavior.

What do you think?

@innovate on Twitter

An Inside Look at the Apple Store

I had the opportunity to tag along to the first part of the ?WhatIf! Innovation Field Trip on May 4, 2009. This event began at the Apple Store in SOHO.

The Apple Store session began with an Apple Store GM recounting of the predicted failure of the Apple Stores when they first opened back in 2001. Apple for their part wasn't seeking to create just a retail store. They wanted to create a place to gather. Their first goal was to get brilliant real estate, and then integrate the store into the community if possible.

The Apple Store started with four products (two laptops and two desktops) - this was before the iPod. They designed the stores to have flexible space - to be flexible to customer needs. In addition to the space being flexible, they've been flexible in creating new roles (e.g. Concierge, Creative, etc.) as a need was recognized.

Apple Stores hire for customer service and train new hires on the technical skills. They also try to look ahead at people's potential and move them around for the best fit. The reason for this is as follows:

1. The Concierges and Floor Staff are about creating the relationship
2. The Studio is about deepening the relationship
3. The Genius Bar is about repairing the relationship if anything goes wrong

To connect with each other before starting the day, employees participate every day in a morning huddle. Employees are also empowered to make suggestions. No suggestion is too crazy.

Apple Store employees seem to believe that they exist to provide information and provide a good ownership experience first, and then if they happen to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of product, so be it. They seem to take pride in each store having its own personality and local decision making capabilities because they want the store to be a gift to the community. Along those lines, Apple Stores have summer camps for kinds and school nights where teachers can bring in their students.

Apple believes that investing in the customer experience will pay off in the future. After all, people's lives are on these computers, and sometimes people need to have live support available, so Apple Stores provide that. They want to be able to provide the right solutions to people.

While other retailers might get bogged down in features, Apple tries to focus on benefits and orient them towards solutions that resonate with customers. The personal shopping service grew out of the desire to be able to offer busy people a way to schedule time for their questions about Apple products instead of having to wait to speak to someone.

Another solution they decided to offer that didn't exist when Apple Stores began opening was One-to-One. Apple discovered customers were looking for instructions/advice at the Genius Bar and so they created the $99/yr service (up to one appointment per week) that includes advice on professional apps like Final Cut Pro. The goal of One-to-One is to help customers know how to enjoy their computer at home.

Customer success stories are shared with teams and there is also a section on the One-to-One Portal for success stories. Two examples are a girl that learned how to use Final Cut Pro in the SOHO store and just got a movie into the Tribeca Film Festival, and a 5-foot tall model that wrote a book on the computers on the floor that has since been published.

Question: If One-to-One customers are a losing proposition after maybe session number two, how did you sell it to corporate?

Answer: You have to look beyond the direct cost to revenue comparisons. A service like this creates loyal, happy customers that help to convert other consumers into Apple customers.That's not easy to measure, but they know it happens. You can't quantify everything. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing. Ultimately Apple wants to exude passion to create passion.

Not everything succeeds though. The iPod bar was taken out to create the Studio for One-to-One. They continue to experiment in the stores, including the upcoming ProLabs.

The Apple Store GM described the relationship between corporate and retail as linear not vertical. Product managers and developers pay visits to the store to hear the voice of the customer first-hand, and store employees often get called to Cupertino to work on special projects.

Finally, they have a saying in the stores:

"With every Apple computer comes an Apple Store."

What do you think?

@innovate

Live Coverage from the World Innovation Forum

Hello all,

Next week I will be attending the following events and live blogging and tweeting from them:

1. May 4 - ?WhatIf! Innovation Field Trip to the Apple Store and OVO
2. May 4 - Paul Saffo Workshop
3. May 5/6 - World Innovation Forum
4. May 7 - Field Trip to TheVisualMD headquarters to interview CEO Alexander Tsiaras

I will also have my video camera and hope to record some segments for YouTube's Survival of the Fastest and for the Innovation Interviews section of my site (coming soon).

If you'd like to be interviewed on camera at the World Innovation Forum about the innovation efforts at your company, please DM me on Twitter. If you live in the UK, I am especially interested in interviewing you for potential Survival of the Fastest segments.

Or if you'd just like to meet-up at the event, then please also DM me on Twitter.

In addition to yours truly:


@innovate (Braden Kelley, http://blogginginnovation.com)


The following individuals will be joining me in the Bloggers Hub at the World Innovation Forum:

@reneecallahan (Renee Callahan, http://www.innoblog.com)

@donpeppers (Don Peppers, http://www.peppersandrogersgroup.com/blog/)

@Pauldunay (Paul Dunay, http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/)

@HelenWalters (Helen Walters, http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next)

@AndreaMeyer (Andrea Meyer, http://workingknowledge.com/blog/)

@chrisflanagan (Christine Flanagan, http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/weblog)

@pinnovation (Jeff De Cagna, http://www.principledinnovation.com/blog/)

@yourboot (Julie Lenzer Kirk, http://blog.julielenzerkirk.com/)

@katiekonrath (Katie Konrath, http://www.getFreshMinds.com)

@dominicbasulto (Dominic Basulto, http://endlessinnovation.typepad.com/)

@FHInnovation (Kathie Thomas & Stephanie Susman, http://innovation.fleishmanhillard.com)

@LeftTheBox (Samir Balwany, http://www.leftthebox.com)

@Stu (Stuart Miniman, http://nohype.tumblr.com/)

@SteveTodd (Steve Todd, http://stevetodd.typepad.com/)

Other bloggers covering the event live include:

Idris Mootee, http://mootee.typepad.com/

Howard Wright, http://www.howardwright.com/

Bernie Gracy, http://www.pbconnect.com/

Michael Lee Stallard, http://www.michaelleestallard.com/

Robert McNeill, http://www.thoughtbright.com/?q=blog

I look forward to meeting all of my fellow bloggers and other conference attendees May 4-7 in New York City.

All the best,

Braden
@innovate

World Innovation Forum 2009

The World Innovation Forum will take place May 5-6, 2009 in New York City.

May 1, 2009 is the last day of the $410 discount.

I will be a featured blogger at the event, and as a special service to my loyal readers I have negotiated an extra $200 discount when you register using the discount code - INNOVATE.

Speakers will include:

• CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN & Disruptive Innovation


• World-renowned for his work on innovation and disruption, sought-after consultant and best-selling author


• VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN & Innovation in a Global World


• One of the world's leading experts on strategy and innovation


• FRED KRUPP & Eco-Innovation


• President of the Environmental Defense Fund


• DAN ARIELY & Predictably Irrational


• Behavioral economist and best-selling author


• CK PRAHALAD & The New Age of Innovation


• One of the world's most recognized thinkers on strategy and author of the bestseller, Competing for the Future


• PAUL SAFFO & Future & Technology


• Stanford University Professor, Technology Futurist and Forecaster.


• Founding Chairman of the Samsung Science Board

Here is a video from one of the speakers, Clayton Christensen, on why some people are more innovative than others:



In addition to blogging and vlogging at the event I am looking to set up interviews with corporate innovators for a new feature called "Innovation Interviews" that will launch on our revised site in April.

If you will be attending the conference, occupy an innovation role within a company and would be willing to be interviewed, please contact me to set up an interview.

I look forward to seeing you there!

@innovate