Whilst it may require some peace and some introspection to think through a problem – building a better solution is best achived with a blend of talents, insights and knowledge.  Its as much an art as a science. Customers, suppliers, industry allies, IP owners and agencies, the team from the local firm – and yes, even those guys across the office – may have a valuable spark that will cause your innovation fire to burn.  Brainstorming and the resulting groupthink is a highly damaging and over valued process. And that is why collaboration and innovation – is not the same as groupthink or brainstorming.

For the full article – please see -  The Rise of the New Groupthink – NYT (versus seclusion and immersion).

For further information on marketing partnerships and collaboration, see www.benchstone.co.uk or visit www.andrewarmour.com

Sharot’s research and thinking into optimism is an interesting addition to the current debates on entrepreneurship, innovation, collaboration and reinvention. Her latest research, which builds upon her earlier work examining memory and emotion shows that the human brain edits or decodes the negative – and that we are biased towards an optimistic outcome through all areas of our life. In matters of love, in our self perception, in our estimation of our health and in business too – the majority of us overwhelmingly project a positive outcome even if facts show that is false. Most of us vastly over estimate a good future outcome. Incredibly – 10% of us think we will live to our one hundredth year, whereas the reality is that only 0.02% of the population will receive the telegram  from The Queen (if  they do indeed send them still?) . And humans as a whole also generally posses a ‘superiority illusion’ too – with 93% of us thinking we are in the top 25% of the population.

Is This The Secret Management Ingredient?

In commercial matters too optimism bias clouds our view of on outcome with that famous rose tinted glow. In just one example, the final cost of the Sydney Harbour Opera House was 14 times the first projection – and that tendency to build an overly optimistic budget, is far from rare. Many believe it was an optimism bias that led to the financial disasters of 2008; blurring the vision of private sector investors, consumers, government officials and analysts. As Sharot points out;

“ Whether it is a construction job, a film, a theatre project, a dinner party, a renovation, in war or peace – costs over runs and delays in implementation are the norm”. And she goes on; “If humans maintain an unrealistic view of the future even when accurate data is available, it must be the case that the brain processes the information regarding the future in a selective manner. A learning bias. A bias that allows us to incorporate desirable information into our future but not undesirable information – resulting in optimism” -

Does this suggest we need a healthy dose of scepticism and a reality check when we are presented with ambitious marketing, innovation and other business plans? Possibly. Does it mean we have to nurture pessimism? Likely not. Firstly, there is a clear link between the 20% of the population that have a ‘pessimist bias’ and those that fall into unhappiness and depression. On the balance of things, the benefits of optimism bias out weigh the possible negative ones. There are not many successful pioneers, innovators, entrepreneurs, sports people, artists and leaders who are not optimists.

As Sharot says; “Overall – this (optimism bias) is beneficial. Data pointing towards the upside of optimism is plentiful; optimists live longer, are healthier, happier, make better plans and are more successful”

Pioneering the new, developing the unconventional and the unknown has always been the domain of the optimists. Entrepreneurs and innovators create new products, processes, or services that help improve the lot of their customers – whilst turning that initial rough idea into a profitable commercial reality. (Those last three words of the previous sentence being the most pertinent, as the heart of good marketing beats to the mantra; ‘serve customers profitably’). So – what are the implications of the Optimism Bias – for marketing planning, innovation and partnerships? No matter how good the thinking, the plans, the research, the logistics and budgets – any new innovation requires a degree of risk and it is worth understanding that the author and instigator of a plan is likely an optimist. Unfortunately, unrestrained optimism can be misguided. As a colleague explained to me recently, most marketing campaigns involve planning, pricing, production and launching. And then the final part of the plan: you hope. Understanding that we have an optimism bias suggests incorporating a degree of challenge into a new business idea – but you also need to avoid pessimism too. As Thomas Friedman says; “Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists.” Pick up any tome that encourages business leaders to reinvent their stalling corporates – and the message is normally the same: that their failure  to innovate, renew and adapt has been a consequence of their inability to change and that to evolve and progress, there is a need to take risks. From open innovation, to collaborative partnerships, from product re-designs to entering new markets, no matter what the projections say something new is always a calculated risk. Innovators need to be optimistic but we need to understand that many of us have an optimism bias. As Tali Sharot says;

“The brain provides a distorted view of reality. It deceives, yes. But it does so for a reason and at the very same time it allows the realisation that each of us is susceptible to illusions and bias”

Thanks to Tali Sharot and the RSA.

You can hear a Pod Cast of Tari Sharot’s talk at The RSA.

For media & marketing partnership consulting please see Benchstone Limited.

Related articles

• The Optimism Bias (drronahart.wordpress.com)
• The Optimism Bias and our Brains may be Hardwired to Look on the Bright Side (wanderlustmind.com)
• Being too optimistic linked to brain”s ‘faulty’ function (news.bioscholar.com)

“Global companies that collaborate better, perform better. Those that collaborate less, do not perform as well. It’s just that simple.” ~ Jaclyn Kostner.

So true – and this excellent  post goes on to outline some great research pieces including Colin Brown’s ‘Six Degrees of Collaboration, which contains an excellent quote;

” While business was once all about keeping one step ahead of your rivals, in today’s socially networked society, working together can lead to greater success.  Steering the enlightened path is a new C-word that has emerged as the way forward for business: Collaboration. In today’s hyper-socialized economy, it’s not who you know that really counts, but who you don’t. The priority for many CEOs today is to break down the barriers that stand between them and their employees, their customers, their partners, their vendors – even their rivals. National boundaries are being bridged, corporate walls breached, expertise shared. Google’s Eric Schmidt’s prevailing mantra is ‘collaborate or perish’.

To see the full piece from Joe please see

“Collaboration” –The Key Driver for Success in Business, Globally: Diversity of Ideas, Strength in Unity, Power of Innovation, Leveraging Shared Business Model….

Well - This Is True, Isn't It?

The Advertising industry is not everyone’s favourite cup of fair trade organic peppermint tea – and the recent debate at The RSA – ‘Advertising In Society – What’s The Deal’ - offered the chance for a healthy exchange of views. Its premise was whether the consumer was ‘getting a good deal’. As the invitation said “what is the unwritten compact between society and marketer and does it need to change?” It was an interesting discussion and dialogue – but from where I sat, there was far too much agreement from the panel on the general worrisome nature of advertising and the horrific march of consumerism.

Certainly the panel certainly had some heavyweight research and thinking. Mark Lund, co-founder and managing partner, Now agency and former CEO of the COI; Patrick Barwise, Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing at London Business School and chairman of Which?; Jon Alexander, co-author of the WWF-UK,/ PIRC report “Think of Me as Evil? Opening the Ethical Debates in Advertising” – and Ed Mayo, Secretary General, Co-operatives UK. Call me old fashioned – and perhaps its a moot point worthy of a debate – but I always think a debate requires some strong opinions on both sides. The debate was certainly interesting but apart from Patrick Barwise there was simply too many shades of agreement. Comments that the advertising industry was populated by men with braces and large glasses tended to suggest a view of the industry that was strangely stuck in1981 rather than 2011. Lund pointed out that advertising is a vital part of the capitalist system and that it was the lifeblood of a free media.  Its worth adding that it was commercial newspapers that uncovered the truth about MP’s expenses and the sleaze of phone tapping – not any state broadcaster, regulatory body, pressure group or quango. And Lund made the excellent point that ‘most agree advertising works – but just not on them’. (At a guess, I would imagine most parents in attendance at a debate at The RSA are not going to suddenly rush out and buy a lot of frozen ready meals for Xmas and drag the kids to McDonalds because they’ve been subjected to ads on the telly). Patrick Barwise pointed out that planned economies simply do not innovate. And Jon Alexander saw advertising as dangerously out of control and even hinted that it ‘was the next banking’. Is it really? Somehow I can’t see advertising destabilising the global economy through reckless lending and creating massive burdens for the tax payer. The advertising industry may produce some irresponsible adverts – and annoying jingles but it is not the next banking industry. What it is – is the next music industry.

Technology Changes Everything…

The traditional music business relied for too long on 1950′s style economics and for many years it was on to a good thing. It was happy to see other industries invest in different technology, from cable TV to music players, whilst they reissued back catalogue and used restrictive agreements to keep artists in line. Technology changes everything. Technology as Kevin Kelly (Founding editor of Wired) pointed out is a adapting organism – it grows, merges and moves. The result is that the biggest music player on the planet now – is a computer business from Palo Alto – called Apple. CNN reports that over ten years the US music industry shrunk from revenues of $14 Billion in 1999 – to $6.3 Billion in 2009. The same decline is highlighted by PRS in publishing and live revenues too. And whilst the industry still seeks to sell per units – a business like Spotify is adding 500,000 new subscribers per month. And Apple is expected to make $13 Billion in 2013 from its iTunes music downloads alone – a business it only started in 2001. Futurist thinkers such as Gerd Leonhard have pointed out that the music industry will either have to adapt – or it will perish, as technology and consumers become the new powers. It did not adapt to a new environment and a mix of lifestyle changes, technology innovations and low-cost media options meant their traditional power declined. The real story is not that there is a shortage of songwriting talent crop failure a sudden decline in boy bands – it was that the industry did not adapt quick enough. For the media (and advertising) industry – the music business is the canary in the mine, the early indicator of troubles ahead. For marketing and advertising are facing the same changes that swamped the music business.

Technology is creating a new landscape that is less about pushing messages and promotions – and more about engaging, informing. If you do not do that – then you’re going to find it tough as a marketer. In one click you can ignore a brand. You can buy a SIM and then choose your phone – often based on what your friends tell you rather than what the adverts say. The biggest change and challenge to advertising will not be regulation and control, as Jon Alexander and Ed Mayo seem to favour. No. It will be the rise of internet television, TIVO, user controlled content, browsers that block adverts, parent controlled web browsing and private web spaces in the Cloud. Irresponsible and bad advertising will not need to be controlled or regulated – it will be filtered, shifted, blocked and ignored by the consumer’s choice of software and devices that will use powerful semantic tools. So what does this shifting advertising landscape mean for consumers? Its a good thing. The two best definition of marketing I know are firstly – ‘Marketing = Serving Customers Profitably’. And secondly – ‘Marketing = Keeping Your Promises’. There is a simple and fundamental truth to these definitions that some perhaps in advertising have forgotten over the years of massive brand campaigns and two-for-one promotions. And that is where perhaps the critique of Jon Alexander and Ed Mayo have a fair point. Good marketing is not about Machiavellian scheming, shoddy products, huckster hype, dodgy deals and rogue trading. Good marketing is about managing the relationships that are the source of your success: your customers and your suppliers – and making a decent margin whilst you do so. And spending money on creating bad and irresponsible advertising is not serving customers profitably and it’s not good marketing. It’s just dumb.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

The smartest new marketing propositions have ignored the traditional lure of producing glossy brand advertising. They’re not dumb. Disruptive brands such as iTunes, Spotify, Confused.com and Easy Jet changed the value chain and changed the game. Was it good for the consumer? The result is that people obtained cheaper products and services and cut out the middle men. From low-cost access to music to discounted flights and cheaper car insurance. This kind of new marketing is about embracing new technology investing in progressive product innovation rather than trying to win awards at industry galas with glamorous brand ads. It is disruptive. And the media industry itself will face similar disruptive challengers too. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) reports that digital media is now growing at 13% per annum and that it now accounts for 27% of a total media spend of £16 Billion. Television is now 26%. In the US – digital media is said to be growing at 32% per annum. And just two weeks ago a new computer game, Call Of Duty – Modern Warfare 3 generated £490M of sales in five days with very little traditional marketing and TV promotion. To put this into perspective – that is almost as much as the entire UK digital newspaper industry generates – in a year. I found this out about this from my free business blogs & feeds – downloaded on to a tablet whilst I skipped past TV ads.

The rise of TIVO, internet enabled television, free Wi-Fi and a proliferation of cheap handsets will only accelerate the trend. Mass advertising will have a place – but it will be a smaller place. And with apologies to the great Gil Scott-Heron, the social revolution really will not be televised: it will be downloaded and watched on a tablet, at a time to suit you and very likely – without any sponsorships or commercial messages. It will not be a middle-aged ad man from Soho (with or without glasses) who will be calling the tune. It will be you.

For more information on partnership marketing and innovation please see Benchstone Limited.

For more comments and articles by Andrew Armour please visit www.andrewarmour.com

Talent Management is becoming a hot topic in marketing and innovation as much it is in HR and strategy teams. Today I attended the first event organised by the Talent Management Association – a new body designed to share knowledge and best practice for the growing number of people interested in developing, retaining and stimulating the best people for the benefit of the business. Consultants, change management experts, project leaders, innovation teams and senior business strategists all seem to agree that business advantage is about getting the most out of the best people.  Machines, fleets of vans, shop fronts and databases are valuable assets – but they don’t have a pulse. Nor do they have personal ambitions, drive and creativity. The problems with finding, training and keeping the best people often beeps into the email inbox of the HR department.  And those beeps are growing. An opening address from Nick Kensley from Henley Management School explained that whilst HR’s to do lists seem to grow – it has to focus on delivering its priorities.  For modern HR its a question of keeping a focus and making trade offs, to be joined up, more relevant, to be quicker, to be more commercial and pragmatic.  And Talent Management is becoming one of those big priorities.

As Becky Ivers from Premier Foods explained it, Talent Management is about organisational opportunity and developing future leaders &  innovators. If your business is trying to be innovative and competitive it’s not just a nice to have.  I had the opportunity to present to a lively group in the morning on the topic of collaboration and partnerships – and how this relates to talent. We explored the increasing importance of internal and external collaboration – as a key driver to get the best out of people and drive a business forward – and why its so difficult to build trust and joint plans, to engage in dialogue rather than monologue. The need for a collaborative culture has been championed by General Electric‘s Global Chief Marketing Officer – Beth Comstock. As the most senior marketer in one of the biggest companies in the world,  she sees a key part of her job is to encourage new conversations and fresh collaborations – both across the silos within and key partners without. General Electric published their Global Innovation Monitor in early 2011 and reported that 86% of 1000 of the world’s top marketers they questioned identified partnerships as the most important element of innovation.

Trust is a big part of innovation and collaboration...

True creativity happens – when people connect, exchange and realise they can see the world differently. As Matt Ridley puts it – “Ideas Have Sex” – and its by engaging with the ideas of others that we can more effectively create new ones. From my view – there is no point in nurturing all that talent unless they are encouraged to be collaborators too. There is no value in having a good idea, keeping it to yourself and banging your head against the wall because things don’t happen. As Beth Comstock memorably says; ” We used to think we had all the answers – but we know that’s not how the world works anymore, for innovation to flourish, we must embrace a new innovation paradigm that promotes collaboration between all players”

Congratulations to the TMA and Sharon Hitch for building a great event – and here’s to another. For more information on partnerships and collaboration, see www.benchstone.co.uk and www.andrewarmour.com

Related articles

• Are You In The Conversation Business? (andrewarmour.com)
• GE’s Beth Comstock on Why Openness Is Good For Business and the World (mashable.com)
• Talent Management, Employee Productivity Take Center Stage at Virtual Talent Management Conferences (prweb.com)

Starting With The Basics. A sign at Autonomy Corporation's HQ

Over 13 years – a Cambridge University PHd named Michael Lynch took his research into the mysterious world of  ‘pattern based computing’ – added a £2000 chance investment he obtained from a bloke he met in a pub – and turned this into into an international technology giant that last month was purchased by Hewlett-Packard – for something in the region of $10.2 Billion. His story shares a lot of similarities with Mark Zuckerberg – the founder of FaceBook. And as he built up what would become Autonomy Corporation, Lynch agrees that there were indeed lots of late night coding marathons fuelled by chinese takeaways. However, unlike the movie ‘The Social Network’ -  his ‘group of British nerds’ were never ever surrounded by beautiful women…

Would you have given this man £2000?

Last night, Dr. Michael Richard Lynch OBE -  founder and CEO of Autonomy Corporation chatted to a crowd at Adam Street Club – part of the latest series of Mandrake Club events. He’s a visonary who sees  a new phase of ‘hyper-change in the world – one where technology is about being ‘human friendly – not just computer friendly’. Lynch  is the nearest the UK has produced to a global technology superstar and like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates – he has moved from geeky software pioneer to become a genuine trans-Atlantic business tycoon who sits on the Executive Boards of the BBC and investment firm Apax Partners. If you’re considering a career as a 21st century software pioneer it does of course helps if you are firstly incredibly bright. And so it’s indeed no surprise that his doctoral thesis on signal processing is said to be the most widely read PhD paper in the Cambridge University library. Box ticked. But of course, that’s only half of it. Lots of very clever people have the brains but achieve nothing. Critically Lynch comes across as a truly rounded entrepreneur who seems as comfortable discussing City finance, PR, sales and marketing – and sharing a joke, as he is at debating data protocols and bandwidth. When starting out, he placed a sign saying ‘Authorised Personnal Only’ on the door of the broom cupboard to give the impression he had a room full with banks of engineers and developers. He eventually employed over 1900 people from Autonomy Corporation’s HQ’s in San Francisco and Cambridge. He was named CBI’s Entrepreneur of The Year in 1999 and a ‘computing pioneer’ at The World Economic Form in 2000. CNBC made a documentary about him. In 2008, Silicon.com described him as one of the most influential technology pioneers in the world – ranking him alongside the likes of Tim Berners-Lee, Jimmy Wales and Eric Schmidt. So what kind of advice could a father possibly have offered to direct his son towards such success? According to Lynch the career advice from his father was;  “Never get a job where you have to into a burning building”.  His father being a fireman -  this was expert advice.

Lynch is now a champion for the UK tech industry, a huge advocate for entrepreneurship and innovation. He does not come across as a big fan of the City and clearly he has had a few run ins with the investment crowd as they seek to manipulate and hedge company valuations. In  a rare move for British entrepreneurs he went to Silicon valley and built his reputation and fortune from there too.  Autonomy Corporation, steered by Lynch, built a customer base for its sophisticated data management software that now includes the likes of Citrix, Novell and Symantec. Lynch clearly loves the simplisitic beauty of selling successful software. As he puts it, once you’ve written it, you can mass produce it for 2p a piece and sell it for £500,000 a copy. Over the last decade he drove the growth of  Autonomy Corporation as it acquired a collection of  data handling, email management and processing businesses – including Verity Inc, BlinkX and Zanta. Although he said he would never sell, HP made him an offer earlier this year that was hard to refuse.

So, all this begs the question that many of us would like to ask -  ‘how do you do that then?’ Lynch is very clear on what works and what does not, what needs to be encouraged and what needs ditching. As befits someone who studied at the highest level in science and mathematics he strongly emphasises looking at first principles and solving basic problems. To the amusement of a bunch of partisan Londoners he also noted that he originally thought everyone he met in Silicon valley were absolutely brilliant – because they all interviewed and spoke so well. Then, as Lynch says, ‘I found a lot of them were absolutely rubbish’. But  – apart from not taking completely at face value during – what are his top secrets to his success? Well – here they are.

Michael Lynch’s Secrets To Success:

1 – The Hungry Wolf: Even the strongest wolf will have times when it will go hungry and to survive it has  to adapt. In this regard, Lynch advises never to stick rigidly to your original plan. Learn, adapt and move on. Kind of like a wolf …

2 – Beware Of Doing Things Properly: If you hear this, it normally means you are looking to do things like other people. A key element of Lynch’s philosophy is not to follow what other people do ..

3 – Always Take A Gun To A Knife Fight: No, he is not referring to living in the USA or parts of north London but instead he advises finding  ‘an obscene’ advantage over your competition.

4 – Don’t Get Drawn Into Rusty The Clown’s Fight: A strange one -  but interesting. Building on the previous point, he warns not to get drawn into fights that the competition is setting up. Fight the battles that you want ..

5 – Focus: No surprises here. An oldie but goodie and for good reason. Like many others, Lynch is big on Focus. ‘Do five things, then go home’.

6 – No Innovation Team: Steve Jobs famously said that seeing a big corporation setting up an innovation team was like watching your uncle dance at a disco. Writers such as Scott Berkun and TomKelley have said similar – and have emphasised that its is hard to create a top down culture for innovation. Like them, Lynch is not a fan of organised, managed innovation. Instead he favours taking a few risks with the people you hire – and creating a positive atmosphere where ideas are shared and nurtured. As he puts it, entrepreneurs need to help the small seedlings (ideas..) to grow – don’t just stamp on them.

For more articles on innovation, marketing partnerships and alliances visit www.benchstone.co.uk.

And for more information on memberships and events at Adam Street Club call +44-0207 379 8000

Related articles:

• Profile: Mike Lynch (guardian.co.uk)
• British tech champion heads west (ft.com)
• Collaborate To Innovate (andrewarmour.com)
• The Parts We Play – Building Trust (andrewarmour.com)

A Transactional Relationship, is relatively simple, often easy to replace (if it stalls) and the conversation is based on unit costs and delivery, with the talk based around standard offers, rate cards, scopes and specifications. A Managed Relationship – requires a boutique service, a tailored offer,  specialist reporting or pricing. It is complex – but at its heart, it is still a vendor-purchaser transaction with the invoicing going one way. A Partnership – requires both parties to have a shared understanding, to collaborate and build a joint plan, understanding what value the other party is seeking.  It may involve cash. It may not – as cash is not the only currency. It will more than likely require both parties to change what they do as ‘business as usual’. A partnership requires more communication, more conversation time – and its movement forward is oiled by a lot of trust. How do you know when you need to treat a relationship as a partner? The simple test is that if its difficult, expensive if not impossible to replace – then you’d be a fool not to treat such a high value relationship as a partnership. You need to nurture it; be it a critical supplier, a valuable customer or a hard to get content provider. This was reinforced to me recently in this great piece by Seth Godin – Talent and Vendors. Godin points out the essential distinction between managing talent, which does not have a set product to sell, and trading with a vendor. He says; “While the talent is also getting paid (to be in your movie, to do consulting, to coach you), she is not a vendor. She’s not playing by the same rules and is not motivated in the same way. A key element of the distinction is that in addition to the varying output potential, vendors are easier to replace than talent is.”

It’s difficult to replace special talent. And its difficult to replace highly valuable partners. In fact, as every partnership and relationship manager knows, they are a lot easier to lose than to obtain and the contract agreement is the start of the work, not the end of it. A valuable partnership needs a lot of resources and the aim is to build mutual value and trust.

On this point,  Jamie Billingham also recently published an interesting graphic explaining how an increase in TRUST (that mysterious and highly valuable element of business relationships) – takes a connection to become a collaboration, through an increase in shared risk and reciprocity. It’s a smart and simple way to think about it. At Benchstone, we often discuss how the three key Partnership Gears – Fit, Planning and Momentum – are ‘oiled’ by Trust, created with a high level of communication and getting the simple ‘little steps’ in place. Without an ability to build trust, the relationship either stalls, goes backwards and ultimately fails. Or – it can be retrieved and revert to a transactional relationship. In many cases, a transactional and highly functional relationship is all that is required. But – if you are seeking to build smarter collaborations, product innovations and dynamic fresh ideas – then richer relationships are required. And the part you play in creating a culture of mutual trust will ultimately decide what the outcome of the final Act will be…

(C) Jamie Billingham. It's all about Trust

And its Trust keeps the Partnership Gears moving in the right direction...

For the full piece by Seth Godin see – Talent and vendors. And to see the work of Jamie Billingham - click here.

For more information and articles on partnerships and collaboration see www.benchstone.co.uk or visit andrewarmour.com

Related articles from Andrew Armour

• Moss Kanter – On Why Everything Goes Better with Partners (andrewarmour.com)
• On Collaboration And Partnering (customerthink.com)

Everyone Loves Free WiFi

Sometimes a technology changes everything, not just within their own industry – but within those that connect to it. The trend becomes the ‘adjacent other’  – something from a different industry, area or market that impacts and changes yours. These changes, could open up new opportunities for you or they can be the springboard that your competitors were waiting for. Steam ships begat refrigeration, jet airplanes led the modern charter flight and tourism industry and famously microwave ovens – created a whole new way for blokes to prepare a curry, at half time during the match. Some marketers got up to speed, some missed it.

Remember when you lacked hundreds of TV channels and Sky+? Remember when you fiddled pre- smart phone? Remember when you got about without a SatNav? But can you  imagine not having them? Once tasted, technology that is easy to use and adds a real consumer benefit is part of our standard menu. And as futurist Kevin Kelly famously says, the network spreads and technology merges and adapts (what he calls ‘The Technium‘) – it grows with almost a life of its own. And WiFi is reaching that tipping point. It’s the crucial third element that connects brand content with smart devices. The growth of WiFi will lead to radical changes in how we live, work and play. And for marketers, how and where you can connect to your customers. In the UK, BT owns the biggest WiFi network with more than 4000 hotspots across stations, cafes and venues. Further WiFi networks are rapidly being rolled out by The Cloud/Sky – Virgin and O2. Deloitte reports that WiFi traffic is set to grow between 25-50% over 2011  and they note that informal and formal collaborations between venues, handset manufacturers and mobile operators will drive this surge. Bango also reported in February that UK WiFi will grow at 50% – and CEO Ray Anderson says “Our data shows that where available WiFi is becoming the mainstream method to  connect to the internet.”

And WiFi is not just about technology, apps, gadgets business either. It’s about venues, retailers, destinations and brands being able to attract and retain customers. A Research On Track June 2011 survey identified a 6% uplift in pub usage from frequent customers if free WiFi was available. Restaurant chains such as Pizza Hut are using their free WiFi offer as a hook, to promote to their users. In the US last month, it was reported that nearly a third of all web traffic is now through WiFi networks. This is higher than the top two mobile networks combined. Tesco’s Chief Information Officer Mike McNamara, interviewed by the Financial Times in July expects all of their stores to eventually offer free WiFi to customers. He notes that brands have to embrace the opportunities that WiFi will offer ; “You can stand like Canute and pretend nothing is happening or you can say its going to happen anyway, I’ll help make it happen.” He says. Deloittes identifies that consumers who want to send files ‘on the move’ or who live in rural areas may continue to heavily use 3G and 4G networks – but in urban and suburban areas – WiFi will dominate. They point out ‘WiFi-only’ tablets and other devices can be up to a third cheaper than their Sim card cousins and so will become increasingly popular with consumers. They report; “WiFi providers will likely be locating hotspots where people are known to need high-speed connections. Shopping centres could be designed around WiFi access and some retailers may make it part of their policy. And sponsored WiFi could become increasingly common part of branded marketing initiatives.” And smart providers such as JiWire enable marketers to sponsor free WiFi access and place their highly targeted promotional messages through to very specific hotspot locations. Through smart WiFi partnerships; advertisers can reach targeted audiences at specific locations, the network operators gain a revenue stream, venues attract consumers by offering free WiFi – and you get to upload photos, check your FaceBook and emails – and download the goals, before you head home and put that curry in the microwave. Marketers need to get up to WiFi speed. If you own real-estate, how can you add a hotspot? If you want to reach customers in specific venues or locations, how can you use that hotspot to reach them? For services such as JiWire, the ability to communicate to users via their specific hotspots can lead to some very smart and location based offers. At present WiFi users tend to be more affluent, with 75% being aged 25-49 and 65% being in management roles. As a channel, WiFi is ideal if you’re targeting young, media savvy, urban sophisticates, with a disposable income. And that will become a broader, more mass market user base over time too. History tells us that smart merchants adapted to technology trends and changing fashions – rather than try to build it themselves. Smart merchants have always used and adapted the latest technology, not invented it. (See my piece More Myths Of Innovation). They’ve always had to move fast – to keep ahead of their competitors. And right now, marketers need to keep up with the speed of WiFi.

For more information on partnership marketing, collaboration and innovation, visit www.benchstone.co.uk

PS: Some crib notes:

If like me you sometimes wonder what all the jargon means – here’s some crib notes, courtesy of Steven Trugbild of Mobilise Today.com and Deloittes. Firstly, 3G means ’3rd generation mobile network, to transfer data such as video, emails, internet browsing and it runs at about 500 Kbits per second. 4G is 30 times quicker than 3G and enables high-definition images and greater bandwidth. As a mobile networks, 3G and 4G have a long range. WiFi connects to the internet without using mobile network. WiFi is a technology alliance, first established in the 1980′s through a collaboration between Cisco, Motorola and Nokia. ( Amusingly the original developers took a node from the 1930′s term Hi-Fidelity (Hi-Fi) to develop the name WiFi). It requires local hotspots, just like your home wireless router and is therefore short-range – only about 20-90 metres. But it’s getting faster and faster, with speeds of around 100 Mbits per second. What does all this mean?  A 1000 Mb video file can take 7 minutes to download on 3G and about 30 seconds on 4G or WiFi. Using your mobile network could consume your entire ‘unlimited’ (but normally limited to 200 Mb per month) – data allowance. Quite simply, on WiFi – you can download the video free and quicker and because you are using a hotspot that may only be 20-90 metres away, advertisers can use that information to send you very relevant messages.

Can you collaborate without conversation? The short answer – is no. And the medium and long answer is no too. Collaboration is the heart of successful business partnerships, alliances and co-ventures – which in turn are viewed by many as the drivers of innovation in a complex and ever-changing landscape. As I’ve written about previously, connecting and adapting has always been at the heart of commercial endeavour – not invention and individual genius, that may however make a more interesting personal story.  Organisations want to innovate and collaborate – yet challenging, relevant and new conversations are still missing from their plans.  Collaboration is a hot conversation at the moment. The Harvard Business Review – from July-August 2011 devoted forty-three pages of excellent research and comment explaining why and how collaboration, both within and outside of the organisation works. (You can see HBR’s excellent work on collaboration here.) In it Yochai Benkler points out that as human beings we seek out collaboration and that science & psychologists now show we are less selfish than we once thought. A need for reciprocity and mutual self-interest is almost hard-wired into our biological responses. He quotes biologist Martin Nowak; “The most remarkable thing about evolution is its ability to generate cooperation in a competitive world”. A modern marketer with a focus on partnerships and alliances could not put it better – and as I often say, ‘partnerships give you collaborative advantage that is difficult, expensive – if not impossible to replicate’. Benkler summarises by saying; “adaptability, creativity and innovation appear to be the pre-conditions for organisations and individuals to thrive. We need people who aren’t only focused on pay-offs, but do their best to learn, adapt, improve and deliver results .. in a world where insight, creativity and innovation can come from anywhere”.

In another piece, Paul Adler points out the dangers of rabid culture of individualism; “It is quite possible for everyone to work hard as an individual without producing a good collective result”.  And in the same issue of HBR -  Ibarra and Hansen point out the importance of a collaborative business culture, that emphasises strong internal networking across traditional silos (and cultures) – as well as encouraging external thinking and discussion. They point to examples of this kind of culture in organisations such as Salesforce. com and General Electric. GE’s research from early 2011 identified that 86% of senior marketers view partnerships as the most important element of innovation and Beth Comstock, the Global CMO of General Electric is well-known as a champion of partnerships, alliances and collaboration which are now placed at the heart of GM’s strategy. Comstock was interviewed by Ibarra & Hansen and she sets out what a partnership philosophy means in practical terms; “I work hard to curate information that I don’t believe many at GE will have heard” – and tellingly, she goes on to say, “I probably spend half my time immersed in the worlds beyond GE and I hope this encourages my colleagues to be more externally focused”. So what’s the point of all this collaboration and conversations? Is it all just theory – or does it lead to tangible outcomes? Well, Comstock’s broad conversation with NASA led to firstly collaboration on research and then on to commercial discussions focused upon deals in health care and space technology. It’s about making that connection, starting the conversation and encouraging – a dialogue.

The real importance of conversation – and dialogue was reinforced to me again at a recent Knowledge Cafe in central London, coordinated once again by David Gurteen – where he asked a lively and eclectic cafe-crowd to consider and talk about three simple, key questions; 

• How does conversation change the way we see the world?
• Can conversation change the world for the better?
• What do we need to do, to have such conversations?

(if you’d like to know more about how the Knowledge Cafe’s work – see my earlier post On Cafes & Conversation or visit David’s site at Gurteen.com ).

A Knowledge Cafe tries to eliminate the traditional point scoring, that is such a feature of our everyday conversations. It is a notion that is neatly expressed by the brilliant Theodore Zeldin and his famous quote; “A conversation doesn’t just shuffle the deck of cards – it creates new ones”.  The ‘Cafe’ format has been smartly honed by Gurteen as a way to  encourage the making of those new cards by stimulating dialogue rather than monologue. In addressing the above questions, the various groups shifted the conversation from how you define good and bad outcomes, to discussing (in a sign of the times) – how you engage in a conversation with looters. The idea was to explore and share knowledge. I ended the evening with as many new puzzling questions as answers – and as many new insights. But isn’t that the point of a good conversation? It leads you to a different view, adds insight and helps you play with ‘ a new card’ rather than flip over that same one again and again and again. And if you are trying to innovate, to explore, to create something fresh – isn’t that where your next conversation should start?

For more information about partnership marketing, alliance and high risk high value relationship management visit www.benchstone.co.uk – and for more articles and comment on innovation and collaboration see www.andrewarmour.com

Related articles

On Cafe Conversations, Connections & Collaboration (andrewarmour.com)
The Art & Science Of Collaboration & Conversation (andrewarmour.com)
Collaborate To Innovate – Don’t Just Cannibalise (andrewarmour.com)

I love a good myth me. I adore movies such as Jason And The Argonauts. I would love to think that mythical creatures such as the Yeti could be discovered. And my heroes are dramatic and rugged individuals explorers such as Lawrence and great business mavericks such as Branson and Dyson. Myths are powerful reference points and point us in a direction – but can also be very misleading. Berkun and Kelley’s books brilliantly expose some of the myths in business innovation thinking and practice. Berkun shows how much innovation is systematic step by step and Kelley shows the ten different ‘faces’ needed to drive innovation, from ‘hurdler’ (overcoming blocks) through to ‘anthropologist’ and ‘experimenter’. It needs a blend of skills – not just technology and product specs. And of course both point out the vital role for partnerships and collaboration. Psychologist Markman, writing in Harvard Business Review says the most problematic myth of innovation is the belief that the lone hero and genius will battle through and then suddenly find the great missing link. Hero! It happens sometimes and when it does it becomes part of our mythology. In reality, most innovations and breakthrough is a combination exercise not an individual one. As he says; ” the problem with these stories glorifying eureka moments is that — most of the time — they are not true”. Yet often, that is what most marketers and technologists are striving for: Eureka.

My take is that great innovation is best supported through partnerships, collaboration and new conversations rather than insular, lonely and rogue contemplations. 18th century merchants who introduced tea, coffee, spices and silks were not loners – they were connected and had key relationships. Steven Johnson has pointed out that the best new ideas come from exploration with the ‘adjacent other’ – an aspect of knowledge or skill that may not be in your current set, but that can be powerfully blended with yours. As Johnson says – ‘ideas can have sex’. Example; Apple’s development of music player and distribution was the ‘adjacent other’ – with the innovation being more about working in a smart way with the music industry and using and enhancing existing PortalPlayer technology rather than inventing in labs. The issue is often that those leading innovation projects are pushing their own agendas, favouritism and self-interest – and the result is often an addiction to a ‘we’ve launched’ culture rather than a consumer focused questioning of ‘what value or benefit does this really give?’. My favourite marketing discipline is still one of the simplest I was every taught. Complete the sentence; ‘I will buy and use this more than the alternative because it…’. I’ve seen marketers gazumped and rooms fall strangely silent, unable to answer this (surely the most basic of marketing tests?) – despite months of project plans and innovation. On a related point The Financial Times also recently noted that a modern startup and tech obsession – with the aim being to raise finance, sell the business and moving on – does not foster true business thinking, marketing innovation or consumer benefits. Everyone is aiming for the model set by FaceBook’s Zuckerberg and Google’s Larry Page – but too many are poor me-too extensions, lacking a genuine love of solving a consumer’s problem. Again – it is too much inward thinking.

Working with external partners helps challenge the conventional thinking far more than searching for heroes and killer apps or finding a sucker who may buy your source code. Smart businesses such as Virgin, GE and Xerox already acknowledge that innovation is best built with partners and working collaboratively to build genuine value to the consumer. How do you start? With a good conversation. As Theodore Zeldin says; ‘a good conversation does not just shuffle the deck of cards – it creates new ones’.  New ideas. New knowledge. New opportunity. And if you want to truly challenge convention and pursue innovation – isn’t a dynamic, fresh and open conversation with someone with a different point of view, from the other side of the track, the adjacent other who can add to your thinking – really the best place to start?

For more on partnership marketing, collaboration and innovation visit www.benchstone.co.uk and www.andrewarmour.com

Related sources, background articles and further infromation, see

• Bust Your Innovation Myths (blogs.hbr.org)
• Extracts from Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun (agencyg1r1.wordpress.com)
• Collaborate To Innovate – Don’t Just Cannibalise (andrewarmour.com)