Posts Tagged ‘guy kawasaki’
Live @ IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit — Opening Keynote Debrief: Motivate the Elephant
Click to enlarge. The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit kicked off earlier today in Orlando, Florida. Over 200 IBM executives, industry specialists, and other thought leaders will be sharing their insights and expertise there over the next three days, including factoids like those seen in the infographic above.
If you love nothing else about IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, you have to love the fact that it’s driven by results.
Here in Orlando, day one of the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit has already revealed some of those facts, or business outcomes, that demonstrate the power of a more integrated customer experience in action.
By way of example: I mentioned earlier via Twitter that over $27 billion in sales generated by the Internet Retailers Top 500 is powered by IBM Commerce software.
Another example: IBM manages $57 billion in annual procurement spend managed on behalf of our clients.
Yet another: IBM analyzes over $100 billion of commerce transactions each year in the cloud and conveys that insight back to our customers.
But those are results on the so-called “back-end.”
Let’s turn our attention for a moment to the newly empowered consumer: 86 percent of them use multiple channels in their shopping efforts, and they spend four to five times more than the average.
Four in ten smartphone users search for an item while in the store, and yet online sales via mobile devices were up 300 percent over 2010.
Or how about this one: 77 percent of the global population are now mobile subscribers.
That’s an immense opportunity.
Guy Kawasaki On Enchanted Customers
As former Apple evangelist and social media thought leader and author Guy Kawasaki kicked off today’s keynote session here at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit, he explained to the audience that we had over 200 interesting and very valuable sessions of the audience’s peers and outside industry experts sharing their own insights.
He began with the notion of the “chief executive customer,” that is to say, with placing customers at the center of the commerce experience.
Citing his own book, “Enchantment,” Kawasaki revealed there are three pillars for building enchantment with your customers. One, you have to be likable. Two, you must achieve trustworthiness. And three, you have to do something “DICEE” (the acronym which translated to “Deep,” “Intelligent,” “Complete,” “Empowering,” and “Elegant.”)
Kawasaki shared some compelling examples of which he spoke. After running into Virgin mega CEO Richard Branson at a speaking engagement in Moscow, Branson cornered Kawasaki and asked him the ill-fated question: Do you fly on Virgin Airlines?
Kawasaki admitted that, as a loyal United customer, he did not. Branson then used his charm and personality, and even a quick shoe shine, to convince Kawasaki he should reconsider.
Kawasaki now also flies on Virgin.
The Legend Continues…
After some other amusing anecdotes, Kawasaki turned the rostrum over to Craig Hayman, IBM’s general manager, Industry Solutions.
Hayman talked about examples of businesses that have had to completely reinvent themselves (Play-Doh, the children’s product, used to be a cleaning goop used prior to World War II!).
Hayman explained that the rate and pace of change in today’s marketplace is soaring, but that ultimately the customer “owns the transaction.”
“If you disappoint them,” Hayman explained, “they’re going to share their point of view (especially via the social media!) and then move on.”
Hayman handed the reins over to Lenovo senior VP of supply chain, Jerry Smith, who explained that Lenovo is a $30 billion global personal technology company with 27,000+ employees and customers in 160+ countries.
Partnering with IBM, Smith explained, Lenovo rebuilt its company around a global supply chain vision whose goal was simple yet straightforward: To become the undisputed #1 supply chain in personal technology by providing a best-in-class customer experience.
As Smith related to the gathered audience, “We need you (Lenovo’s sales force and partners) to sell product on the water,” meaning those units which were already on ships leaving China heading for parts around the globe.
Lenovo’s supply chain overhaul saw delivery performance go up by 15 percent, and onboarding costs/time down some 85 percent, giving them better negotiating leverage, higher order speeds, and leaner inventory, a must for the PC business.
The Grass Always Grows At Husqvarna
Smith’s handoff was to two executives from Husqvarna, the 300+ year-old company that, these days, specializes in outdoor equipment.
Think chain saws and lawn mowers.
“Grass always grows,” explained John Marchionda, Husqvarna’s VP of marketing, as his counterpart from IT, Simon Howard, nodded his head in agreement.
Husqvarna’s most recent marketing investments include a social video education space on its website that are both sales force and tutorial, explaining the likes of using chain saws safely, and effectively, and helping turn the inventory in the process.
The last IBM customer to “testify” in the morning session was Aditya Bhasin, the senior VP for Consumer Marketing and Digital Banking.
“People trust other people, not institutions,” explained Bhasin. He and his team are using that knowledge to make banking better, combining the best of human interaction with a more robust and effective technology system.
One example: “BankAmeriDeals,” a form of digital couponing that combines buyer behaviors, shopping, and payment systems to bring more value to its customers in direct savings on purchases.
Another: Its new Facebook branch, which is helping match consumers with local ATMs and bank branches, and helping answer customer questions through a medium they’re most comfortable with.
Change Is A Four Letter Word
The co-author of Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Dan Heath, batted clean-up in the morning session by talking about a theme universal to many of IBM Smarter Commerce clients’ initiatives: Change.
“Change is a four-letter word for a lot of people,” Heath explained, before challenging the audience to think about “what happens when you leave Orlando? Will the change you envision be a change you are willing to fight for?”
Heath explained that change is definitely within the art of the possible: We’re certainly optimistic about change the moment we decide to get married.
With much laughs from the audience, and Heath’s wedding album pictures onscreen as pudding proof, Heath explained that change is made more difficult by the battling two sides of our brains: The Rational, Conscious, and Deliberative side, and the Emotional, Unconscious, and Automatic side.
The emotional side is like a big elephant in our heads, the little devil telling us “We deserve ice cream” or “Call my ex.”
The rational side…well, we like to often ignore that side.
To make his thesis actionable, Heath explained a three-part framework for thinking about change.
One, he explained, we have to “direct the rider.” Point to the way you want to change and “find the bright spots,” those areas of opportunity where you’ve already succeeded.
Second, “motivate the elephant” — give them a compelling reason to change.
And finally, “shape the path,” for change.
That is, “cultivate a culture that’s more conducive to change” and encourages more people to participate.
Customer Sessions At The IBM Smarter Commerce Summit
Well, we’re nearly mid-summer here in the great state of Texas, the sun is shining, and IBMers are hard at work planning for the forthcoming Smarter Commerce Summit to be held down in Orlando, Florida, September 5-7.
This event is the third in a series of Smarter Commerce events we’ve held the last year. First, there was San Diego…then there was Madrid in May (You can read some of the coverage of that event here).
And now, Orlando.
But this will be no Mickey Mouse expedition.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Summit in Orlando will provide business execs and practitioners with the insight and resources they need to more effectively connect with their customers.
Orlando’s event will bring together over 150 business and practitioner breakout sessions comprised of everything from new technology to best practices to industry perspectives and yes, even some visionary thinking from the likes of tech guru Guy Kawasaki, who will be keynoting there.
But there’s another aspect of the Smarter Commerce Summit that makes it such a one-of-a-kind event: You get to hear directly from our customers.
Scores of them.
In fact, if you click here you’ll get an up-to-the-minute view of the customer-led sessions for the event thus far. I built a quick tag-cloud this afternoon to give folks a flavor of some of the types of discussions one is likely to find in those customer sessions:
The larger words are more dominant in terms of their use, so you can judge by the cloud there’s going to be mucho focus on IBM customers, as well as topics focusing on “marketing,” “Mmanagement”, “commerce,” “global,” “integration,” and much more.
You can also find broader access to the Session Preview Tool to get a glimpse of all the currently-scheduled sessions.
You can also start following the #ibmscgs Twitter hashtag to keep up with key announcements and information leading up and throughout the course of the event.
If you’re already sold on the idea and just want to know where to go register, visit this link for all the details and the registration form.
Smarter Customers Require Smarter Commerce
Guy Kawasaki will present a keynote at IBM’s Smarter Commerce Global Summit, being held Sept 5-7 in Orlando, Florida. Kawasaki is a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital fund. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web—the success of which is attributed to social networking tools such as Twitter. He is considered one of the top 50 most popular bloggers worldwide. Previously, Guy Kawasaki was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy Kawasaki has a BA in psychology from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
I mentioned in previous posts the upcoming IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit that will be held in Orlando, Florida September 5-7.
As the overview for the event explains, there’s no question that your customers are in charge. They now have more information, more access, and more influence than ever, and it takes a smarter marketing organization to keep up with these ever smarter customers.
The Smarter Commerce Summit 2012 provides a great venue for business execs and practitioners to come together and gain insight and access to resources that enable them to more effectively connect with those customers.
The event combines over 150 business and practitioner breakout sessions comprised of new technology, best practices, industry perspectives and visionary thinking, all to help you potimize your own business.
It is the single largest gathering of experts and peers for discovering new solutions to today’s most complex digital challenges.
We’ve recently announced our keynote speakers, including Guy Kawasaki, founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures and a one-time Apple executive. I saw Guy speak at the IBM Smart Camp Global Finals earlier this year in San Francisco, and have enjoyed his keynote discussions at SXSW Interactive for a number of years. There’s only a handful of speakers around who can get you re-energized about the opportunity technology presents for innovation, while entertaining you in the process, and Guy is definitely one of them.
At the Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Orlando, Guy will discuss “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions,” a talk based on his tenth book that explains how you can not only get your own way, but also bring about voluntary, enduring and delightful change in your organization.
The Session Preview Tool is now available to give you a glimpse of some of the sessions you’ll find on the ground in Orlando, and remember, you can also follow #ibmscgs via Twitter to keep up with key announcements and information leading up to the event.
As of press time, my associate Scott Laningham and I will be in attendance as we were in Madrid, providing on-the-ground blogging and Webcasting coverage so you can better understand how IBM is helping companies around the globe practice smarter commerce.
If you’re already sold on the idea and just want to know where to go register, visit this link for all the details and the registration form.
TurboTech: IBM SmartCamp Video Debrief
For you regular readers of this blog, you know I attended and blogged the IBM Global SmartCamp Finals in San Francisco week before last…wow, has it already been two weeks?
In fact, it was two weeks ago today that Profitero was announced as this year’s winner.
Although as I mention in the videocast with Scott Laningham below — in which we talk for about 15 minutes about what I saw, heard, and witnessed at the SmartCamp finals — all the participants, as well as those of we IBM bystanders, were winners when it came to hearing some of these groundbreaking business plans for helping build smarter (and more data-driven) cities around the globe.
I also enjoyed meeting my blogging counterpart, Steve Hamm, who provided extensive coverage on IBM’s Smarter Planet blog and with whom I broke bread…err, noodles…somewhere in Chinatown. I couldn’t find my way back to that noodle shop if I had to — I’m not sure if Steve could, either.
IBM SmartCamp Global Finals: Guy Kawasaki On Twelve Lessons He Learned From Steve Jobs
In the last keynote session before Profitero was announced as the “IBM Entrepreneur of the Year,” Garage.com founder, VC, former Machead, and all around tech cheerleader Guy Kawasaki paid a visit to speak to the gathered IBM SmartCamp finalists.
In classic Guy Kawasaki fashion, the renowned tech thought leader, former Apple employee twice-over, and celebrated speaker completely overhauls his presentation to the IBM SmartCamp finals just moments before he went onstage. The audience was certainly NOT disappointed in the change of topic.
Though his talk was entitled “The Art of Enchantment,” Kawasaki, in typical Kawasaki fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants fashion, announced he was supplanting that canned pitch with one more geared towards the gathered entrepreneurial masses, “12 Lessons I Learned Working With Steve Jobs.”
Kawasaki started his pitch by joking that he’d just been in the greenroom where the judges for the competition were gathered, and that there were five bottles of wine in there, so don’t expect a verdict anytime soon!
Then, he got semi-serious and explained he’d worked from Apple on two different occasions, 1983-1987 and again in 1995-1997, so he was uniquely positioned to comment on what all he learned from Jobs.
Before he turned to the lessons, Kawasaki suggested “the world is a lot less interesting without Steve Jobs. Most entrepreneurs would be fortunate to create one standard…Jobs created five or six (the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod, etc.)
Kawasaki went on: “I’m sure right now he’s up there telling God how to run the universe.”
Then, on to the lessons.
Number one. “Experts” are clueless. As entrepreneurs, if you start listening to all the experts, you will be led wrong. Time and time again people told Steve Jobs nobody would buy an (insert Apple product here)…At one point, even Michael Dell told Apple they should dissolve the company and give the money back to shareholders. Ignore the experts. Correlation and causation are not necessarily the same thing.
Rich and famous often equals “lucky.”
Number Two. Customers can’t tell you what they need. If you ask customers they’ll say give us better, faster, cheaper, and status quo. Build the product YOU want to use, and that you think the world can use. Fact: Nobody told Apple to build the Macintosh…iPod…iPad…
Number Three. Jump to the NEXT curve. He then explained a simple but revealing analogy. Ice 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0
Ice 1.0 was when ice harvesters sawed blocks of ice out of the lake when it was frozen and then distributed it.
Ice 2.0 saw the advent of the ice factory, so you could get ice any time of the year, and didn’t have to be in a “cold” city.
Ice 3.0 saw the advent of the “ice box,” better known as the refrigerator.
The ice harvesters did NOT embrace the ice factory, and the ice factories did NOT embrace the refrigerator. Yet, all served the same purpose: Keeping your food fresh.
So, if you want to be successful, put your solution to the problem in terms of the benefits, NOT the process you use to get there.
Number Four. The biggest challenges beget the best work. Ram a big challenge down the throat of your employees. The challenge Steve Jobs gave us was to compete with IBM. Remember the print ad we ran. It’s headline was” “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.” IBM was a magnificent competitor, and it was a great challenge for us to take them on.
So, find a mighty opposite for yourself.
Number Five. Design counts. Don’t think it’s all about price. Most people also care about design, and Apple’s premium pricing has proven that over and over again.
Number Six. Use big graphics and big fonts. Consider this slide when Jobs introduced the Windows version of iTunes. It had a massive Windows logo, then underneath the following headline: “The best Windows app ever written.
Number Seven. Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence, not a sign of stupidity or lack of conviction. When things change, you have to react and reform. Steve Jobs demonstrated this when he evolved from accepting no independent applications for the iPhone one year, to fully embracing them the next.
He saw which way the wind was about to blow, and he realized to bolster the iPhone app ecosystem, he needed to open it up to outside developers.
Number Eight. Value is NOT equal to price. Nobody ever bought an Apple piece of equipment because it was the cheapest thing.
Number Nine. A players hire A+ players. You should always be hiring someone as good or better than you in your own field.
Number Ten. Real CEOs can demo. They can run the product, show the product, build stuff with the product.
They don’t hand it over to someone else. They DO the demo.
Number Eleven. Real entrepreneurs ship. Don’t worry, be crappy.
Imagine you were the first refrigerator company. The first fridge had to be better than the best ice factory, but it didn’t have to be perfect.
Once you jump curves, that’s when the real excitement begins. When you ship, you’ll learn more in two weeks from your customers than you will sitting in a dark room.
Number Twelve. Marketing equals unique value. Pets.Com was a classic example where that rule did NOT apply.
You have a dog. You have a cow. You kill the cow, put it in the can, and give it to the dog.
That was the Pets.com business model. Shipping dog food. The problem was, it’s dead cows in cans. It weighed a lot. It was less convenient and just as expensive to order it via the Internet. It wasn’t unique. It wasn’t valuable.
And finally, number thirteen. (Never mind Guy said there would only be twelve).
Some things need to be believed to be seen.
But sometimes you also need to believe in things before you will see them.
turbotodd
Turbotodd 