SCHMITTblog

BRITE Rocked

...and now you can rock, too.

Go to the BRITE Conference homepage to check out the content from the event.

Innovation in Curation

For decades, curating a show in a museum meant putting the works of art together and displaying them (for example, hanging the paintings on the wall with some consideration on where they should hang and perhaps putting some introductory note at the beginning of the show, written in “high brow” art-history lingo). There are still too many shows like that. But the really good ones today are quite different.

 

Like the brilliant show on Spanish Painting & Sculpture 1600-1700 in the National Gallery in London, which I attended yesterday. The show is titled “The Sacred Made Real.” For innovation in curation starts with the name: “Spanish Painting …” is the subtitle; the “Sacred Made Real” is the main title, providing a theme for watching the show. The audio guide, rather “audio program,” is superbly done and really enriches the experience. It is easy to use, includes interviews with the curator and others; allows you to play music of the time, and so on. What else is on? Not only the usual lunchtime talks but also “The Making of a Spanish Polychrome Sculpture,” which reveals the technical process in creating such sculptures.

 

All of this is experiential and customer oriented. That’s why I ask my EMBA students in the Munich program to go to the museums there. As museums have adopted a customer orientation and are wiping off the old dust, managers can learn a few lessons from them about how to innovate in a business in which there had been little change for too long.

Something that would Change Everything

I was recently asked to submit a short piece to the student newspaper ("The Bottom Line") focused on "something that would change everything."

Here's what I wrote:

IF WE COULD READ EACH OTHER'S MINDS ...

my world, and yours, would no longer be the same.  We’d talk less; why bother? Lectures might turn into meditations. Thoughtlessness might be true leadership.

Professors would be hit particularly hard: it would be tough to appear smarter than your next door neighbor.

Would it be a world where everybody would be honest, and friendly, where you can “exchange love for love … [and] … trust only for trust”? (Surprisingly, that quote is from Karl Marx).  Actually, trust would be instant, and thus quite meaningless because we could not abuse it.  We wouldn’t need exams or student honor codes.

We might see more action, and not just talk.  Mentally, however, it would be a boring world. A world without seduction.  A world without secrets, without pretense, without phoniness. Plain vanilla.

A world not worth living in.

Business Ethics—A Religious Perspective

Last night, here in Jamaica, invited by Synergy Communications, I gave a talk over dinner to senior executives on Big Think Strategy. Before I spoke, Father Ken Richards said a few words to the audience on business and ethics; he also said grace and spoke a short prayer before dinner began. I was touched by his words but disappointed, as I told the audience, that he did not include increased sales of my book in his prayer.

I also chatted with the Father before and after my talk. He is working on an article on business ethics. When I asked him about the relevance of his thoughts to the current financial and economic crisis, he pointed out the spiritual immaturity of many movers and shakers who view business just as business, that is, “business dealings are transacted on the sole basis of one’s own business interest,” excluding moral considerations. Perhaps this compartmentalization of life can explain, in part, the mess that we are in.

Big Think CSR in Korea

I just returned from Seoul where I had been for the last few days to write a business case, together with my friend and Yonsei Prof Dae Ryun Chang, on Yuhan-Kimberly.  The company produces diapers, tissues and napkins under the Huggies, Kleenex and Kotex brand names. But it also has been doing good: its "Keep Korea  Green" campaign has been running for 25 years. Aside from using recyling procedures, they have planted  21 million trees on public land and near schools. When many other companies are  "strategizing" how "green" they should  be, or, better, how to fake green cheap -- they have shown Big  Think corporate social responsibility for many years. For more information, see http://www.yuhan-kimberly.co.kr/renewal/sustn/sustn_01.asp
 

Horse Auctioned Off

Just a quick note that the  Schmitt Shanghai Trojan Horse was  auctioned off at a conference in  Munich. The proceeds will go to an institution that supports children. More  on that soon. I am off to Kolkata (India) for  a branding workshop and a couple of other speaking engagements.  I have  never been to West Begal; so expect a blog from there as well. Enjoy July!

BRITE conference (this week)

I will be speaking this week on Big Think, and leading an interactive session for CMOs on sourcing big ideas, as part of the BRITE '08 conference and CMO summit on branding, innovation, and technology, at Columbia Business School, this Thursday and Friday, Feb 7-8th.

BRITE '08 is part of a major initiative by my Center on Global Brand Leadership at the school.  The event will bring together big thinkers from business, technology, media, and marketing to discuss how technology and innovation are transforming the ways that companies build and sustain great brands.

Topics include: social networks, user-generated content, viral campaigns, B2B branding, driving innovation inside and outside the organization, ROI for online marketing, TV 2.0, online content platforms, brands that thought big in 2007

Fellow speakers include:
    * Marty Homlish (Global Chief Marketing Officer, SAP)
    * Craig Newmark (Founder, Craigslist)
    * Patia McGrath (Global Director of Innovation, GE)
    * Bob Greenberg (Global Chief Creative Officer, R/GA)
    * Andrew Miller (CEO, Quattro Wireless)
(full speaker list)

Conference registration is here.  There is also a BRITE blog, wiki, and more fun things to explore.

I hope you can join us!

-Schmitt

Kill your sacred cow

Just contributed a blog, called "kill the sacred cow" to Columbia Business School's new blogging site.   Check it out here.

-Schmitt

Bavarian Big Think launch event (held at a transitional point of Munich’s future)

I have been in Munich (Bavaria) for a couple of days for Siemens.  For one of the events (an executive forum for senior managers), Siemens had flown in my Trojan Horse from Shanghai and displayed it at the “Antikensammlung” at Koenigsplatz (http://www.antike-am-koenigsplatz.mwn.de/), where the event was held.  It was great to see the horse on display at one of the major museums in Munich as part of the Bavarian launch event for my book.

The topic of my talk, “Big Think,” was timely indeed.  As I write this, a massive wave of Small Thinking is going through the city: an initiative to stop the “Transrapid” – a fast speed magnetic train (based on Siemens technology) that would run from the airport to Munich. The train has been running in Shanghai from Pudong to the airport for years now but has been blocked in Munich by dubious public concerns  -- about costs and the environment -- and by a “do we really need this?” mentality. 

Does Munich need this? Absolutely. The airport is projected to double in size within a decade and thus needs a fast and reliable mode of transportation. The train technology is environmentally friendly.  Moreover, currently it takes about 50 minutes in a slow moving city train to get from the airport to the main train station.  On the way, at one station there’s an annoying several-minutes wait while the train gets connected with another train. What’s the point of that sort of “Gemütlichkeit” in the 21st century? Does the city of Munich, which considers itself to be a “high tech hub” in Europe, really want to move at such a snail’s pace into the future? 

Oddly enough, the current mayor, Mr. Ude, seems to think so and has banked his entire re-election campaign on such small thinking. I, for my part, have joined  www.bayern-pro-rapid.de   a group of people that feel it is time to leverage this bold idea and leave small thinking behind.

Don't use "my boss is a small thinker" as an excuse

During a talk in Seoul (South Korea) on Big Think Strategy (see pic), a middle manager asks me, "What can I do if I think big but my boss doesn't?"   I first point out that I often hear the same from senior managers -- that is, "I think  big, but my staff doesn't" and I describe that I have written a lot about how leaders can set up organizational structures and hire for Big Think. But the questioner insists: what if the boss is a small thinker?  In that case, you must try to carve out a niche for yourself in the organization;  go for a smaller but significant  project -- one that is not under the radar  screen of your small  thinking boss --  and there, think big!  Also, find allies  in other  departments,  even among senior managers.   Don't use my boss is a small thinker" as an excuse!