elBulli: a creative organization Management Innovation eXchange
Really liked this case study over at the MIX. It’s this kind of stuff that makes it part of my weekly reads:
Lessons
ElBullis experience in building the creative organization brings to the fore the importance of having a model of organization aligned towards creativity.
5 determinants of the creative organization at elBulli are presented:
1-Creation and Creativity-Focus on creativity rather than customers-Exploring new path rather than leveraging activities already carried out
2-Diversity-In team composition-Broad, diverse cognitive base-Incorporation of new ideas-Greater ability to interpret reality, crafting innovative options
3-Strong Organizational Identity-Based on strong long lasting values -Generosity to share knowledge in and outside the organization-Teamwork:individual talent to enhance organizational talent-Extreme creativity
4-Low macroculture embeddedness-No comparison or benchmark with competitors-Viewed by the market as an artistic experience: elBulli=art-elBullis gastronomy spans across arts, psychology, science and technology-Breaking new ground: avant-garde cooking
5-Open business model-Knowledge is created in and outside the organization-Partnership that enable knowledge acquisition i.e.,Harvard-Sharing knowledge with others
via elBulli: a creative organization Management Innovation eXchange.
On the CMO Role
Liked this piece from David on collaboration routes for the CMO. My only issue is as defining these as routes for the troubled CMO when in reality they are perfect for any CMO.
Fourth identify and leverage great ideas. Too often silos are constrained and fail to create brilliant offering or marketing innovations. Or there is the ultimate silo tragedy that an all too rare home run product or marketing program is developed in one silo unit and remains hidden because there is no mechanism to leverage it or even to make it know to the rest of the organization. Three organization capabilities are needed to change this. First the silo groups need to be empowered and motivated to create offerings and marketing programs. Second, there needs to be mechanisms to identify and share the existence of winners either through cross-silo meetings or through staff facilitators. Third, there needs to be a process to test and roll out the winners. Firms with this capability have seen a big payoff. Consider that McDonald’s “I’m lovin it” came from Germany, Pantene’s “Hair So Healthy It Shines” came from Taiwan, and Nestlé’s ice cream sack Dibs came from the US. Consider also the learnings for P&G from the Pampers Baby Car web site and the VISA learnings from promoting the Olympics in the US.
An Email Charter
This email charter – created by Chris over at TED — should be a key ingredient in every employee handbook, training program and best-practices guide. It’s brilliant – I’ll make a few adds over the next day but wanted to get this up:
Respect Recipients’ Time: This is the fundamental rule. As the message sender, the onus is on YOU to minimize the time your email gobbles at the other end — even if it means taking more time at your end before sending.
Be Easy to Process: This means: crisp sentences, unambiguous questions, keep it short. If the email absolutely has to be longer than 100 words, make sure the first sentence is clear about the basic reason for writing.
Chose Clear Subject Lines: Here are some that don’t work:
- Subject: Re: re: re: re
- Subject:
- Subject: Hello from me!
- Subject: next week….
- Subject: MY AMAZING NEW SHOW starts next week at the Vctory Theater at 113-86 Broad Lane, every night 8 PM 6/7–7/12
- Subject: TED Partnership Proposal
- Subject: Rescheduling today’s dinner with Sarah G.
- Subject: Noon meeting cancelled (eom).
- EOM means ‘end of message.’ It’s a fine gift to your recipient. They don’t have to spend the time actually opening the message.
To Innovate, Be Willing To Be Misunderstood
Great transcript with Jeff Bezos on innovation – right on the money:
…First of all, I think we have gotten pretty lucky recently. You should anticipate a certain amount of failure. Our two big initiatives, AWS and Kindle — two big, clean-sheet initiatives — have worked out very well. Ninety-plus percent of the innovation at Amazon is incremental and critical and much less risky. We know how to open new product categories. We know how to open new geographies. That doesn’t mean that these things are guaranteed to work, but we have a lot of expertise and a lot of knowledge. We know how to open new fulfillment centers, whether to open one, where to locate it, how big to make it. All of these things based on our operating history are things that we can analyze quantitatively rather than to have to make intuitive judgments.
When you look at something like, go back in time when we started working on Kindle almost seven years ago…. There you just have to place a bet. If you place enough of those bets, and if you place them early enough, none of them are ever betting the company. By the time you are betting the company, it means you haven’t invented for too long.
Florence Welch: Letter from LA – NOWNESS
Great movie and worth a watch: Florence Welch: Letter from LA – NOWNESS.
