In a playground in Florida there are basketball courts and volleyball nets. Inside, there are bright colours. Nerf-guns and a talking life-size Austin Powers cut-out in the lift; in the games room, ping pong and pinball. Children of all ages run amok, from the pre-schoolers in the day centre to the 40-year old vice president with the robot collection. An average well-endowed school? No, these are the offices of CapitalOne, one of Americas largest credit card firms. What is happening when an enormous financial institution like this allocates each department a monthly ‘fun budget’ and when managers are graded on their ‘coaching skills’? There never has been a time when changes in taste, social outlook and lifestyle have been faster and more fundamental. Coolsearch shows that the revolution that is going on inside the workplace and that which is taking place in the marketplace are two sides of the same coin. Traditional divisions between work and play and between home and the office are being eroded. Twenties-somethings are using their mastery of new technology to transform product development, marketing and merchandising as consumers and ideas generation and decision making as workers. But how can older companies with deeper vested interests and complex hierachies keep in touch with the needs generated by the new generation? Syrett and Lammiman show how street-wise market research, better use of technology, shorter decision making hierarchies, corporate venturing and bottom up leadership has helped a variety of seeming dinosaurs get abreast of the trends, in particular: ·How leisure manufacturers GMT in California uses interactive Website technology to design award-winning games tailored to the needs of their customers ·How IKEA meets the needs of younger home owners by getting them to do it all themselves ·How 3M uses storytelling to hang onto its corporate memory ·How ‘stagegate’ decision making helped Diageo turn staid old spirit brands into night club winners ·How L’Oreal uses diversity to meet new global tastes in cosmetics ·How Consigna and GlaxoSmithKline use incubator labs to process the latest market information ·How Enterprise Cars became the biggest car hire company in the world by staying away from airports ·How Nortel Networks have held onto the entrepreneurial skills of their technical staff by setting them up in own businesses ·How Marks & Spencer lost it and is re-finding it again through effective leadership. Coolsearch draws on original research by the authors on how new ideas are inspired and shaped in organisations as well as on interviews with leading thinkers in innovation including London Business School’s Costas Markides, Strategos’s Gary Hamel and Insead’s W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.
Book Details:
- Author: Jean Lammiman
- ISBN: 9780470327920
- Year Published: 2004
- Pages: 248
- BISAC: BUS041000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Management
About the Book and Topic:
In a playground in Florida there are basketball courts and volleyball nets. Inside, there are bright colours. Nerf-guns and a talking life-size Austin Powers cut-out in the lift; in the games room, ping pong and pinball. Children of all ages run amok, from the pre-schoolers in the day centre to the 40-year old vice president with the robot collection. An average well-endowed school? No, these are the offices of CapitalOne, one of Americas largest credit card firms. What is happening when an enormous financial institution like this allocates each department a monthly ‘fun budget’ and when managers are graded on their ‘coaching skills’? There never has been a time when changes in taste, social outlook and lifestyle have been faster and more fundamental. Coolsearch shows that the revolution that is going on inside the workplace and that which is taking place in the marketplace are two sides of the same coin. Traditional divisions between work and play and between home and the office are being eroded. Twenties-somethings are using their mastery of new technology to transform product development, marketing and merchandising as consumers and ideas generation and decision making as workers. But how can older companies with deeper vested interests and complex hierachies keep in touch with the needs generated by the new generation? Syrett and Lammiman show how street-wise market research, better use of technology, shorter decision making hierarchies, corporate venturing and bottom up leadership has helped a variety of seeming dinosaurs get abreast of the trends, in particular: ·How leisure manufacturers GMT in California uses interactive Website technology to design award-winning games tailored to the needs of their customers ·How IKEA meets the needs of younger home owners by getting them to do it all themselves ·How 3M uses storytelling to hang onto its corporate memory ·How ‘stagegate’ decision making helped Diageo turn staid old spirit brands into night club winners ·How L’Oreal uses diversity to meet new global tastes in cosmetics ·How Consigna and GlaxoSmithKline use incubator labs to process the latest market information ·How Enterprise Cars became the biggest car hire company in the world by staying away from airports ·How Nortel Networks have held onto the entrepreneurial skills of their technical staff by setting them up in own businesses ·How Marks & Spencer lost it and is re-finding it again through effective leadership. Coolsearch draws on original research by the authors on how new ideas are inspired and shaped in organisations as well as on interviews with leading thinkers in innovation including London Business School’s Costas Markides, Strategos’s Gary Hamel and Insead’s W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.
Substantial and well-researched book on a very hot subject.
1. First book on “coolsearch”, the marketing technique that keeps big business in touch with trends on the street. 2. Media savvy and connected authors will generate substantial PR and opportunities for bulk sales. 3. Timely there is currently a real thirst for coolsearch and cool-hunting techniques 4. Research based on interviews with key thinkers in the field of innovation and creativity
About the Author
Jean Lammiman is a human resource development specialist whose career has spanned roles as a practitioner, academic researcher and consultant. She was Training Director at the International Stock Exchange and Management Development Director at Grand Metropolitan during a period of intense organisational change. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Fellow of the Institute of Directors. Michel Syrett has written on a wide range of business issues over 20 years. His work has been published in, among others, The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, Management Today, Director, Asian Business and The South China Post, He has also conducted research on innovation and leadership for Cranfield School of Management and the University of Hong Kong. Jean and Michel co-lead a research programme into innovation at work at the Roffey Park Institute. They are co-authors of twelve books and reports, most recently Successful Innovation, published by The Economist. Jean also led at Grand Metropolitan a marketing forum focusing on the global marketplace for leading brands such as Smirnoff, Haagen-Dazs and Burger King.