Ideas, Innovation, Leadership

Leading a culture of Innovation

I came across this great video where Kevin & Jackie Freiberg talk about how to lead with a culture of innovation. One thought that stands out for me from this video is one question: What happens if we start a culture of planned obsolescence of all our products? I think this one question will differentiate between companies that will thrive and those that will lose their way! First, lets listen to what they have to say.. Now, I have tried to summarize what the Friebergs talk about below: Innovation happens when you learn to “be comfortable being “uncomfortable””. This is […]

Ideas

How do you innovate “Innovation” ..

A couple of days ago, I submitted my entry for the HBR/McKinsey M-Prize Challenge run by Management Exchange. This challenge is about “Innovating Innovation” and will be judged by some of the greatest thinkers in innovation. You can find below my submission for the challenge. If you like my thoughts, request you to vote for my submission here. SUMMARY Its not the lack of ideas that stops organizations from being innovative, but the way resources are allocated & employees rewarded that is the key. We need to change the way we set and manage KPI’s, the way we allocate funds (quarterly budgeting […]

Business Model, Leadership, Sales

The Challenger Sales model & its relevance in the selling models of the future..

I recently read the book – The Challenger Sale and would like to share my impressions from the book. My personal opinion on the relevance of this model: In order to succeed this model requires a change in the culture of the sales organization (from top to bottom), which we have observed is a very very difficult thing to achieve. Very few organizations have leaders who are capable of driving such a change initiative to success.  As this book is based on the research on reps that were successful in selling when everyone else was failing, this assumes that what […]

Marketing, Sales

Building an effective marketing strategy..

I am surprised at the lack of organizations with good marketing strategy. Doesn’t matter if they are  large MNC’s with millions of dollars of marketing budget or a start-up with minimal budget. I am sure that everyone in the marketing world understands the importance of having a solid strategy! Most marketing efforts fail in the face of unclear strategies. Good strategy can not only improve the effectiveness of your efforts but will help in reducing the total cost. But most importantly, it will help your customers to buy more from your sales teams. With the emergence of new media, more […]

Leadership, Sales

Great resources to create sticky presentations

Each and every one of us in the profession of selling, end up presenting (either about the products or solutions that we are selling, or about the company we represent or to showcase ourselves). And most of us still struggle even after years of delivering presentations for a living. Hence, the term, death-by-powerpoints. This is a key skill and something that we need to continuously  work upon. In Stephen Covey’s words  -“Sharpen the saw”! After having gone through a lot of reading, listening and presenting, I have realized the following: I deliver great presentations if I don’t use the standard slides […]