Strategic Mindset

I recently took a course at Schulich School of Business that offered a great survey of 2x2 matrices. They are so familiar and yet difficult, I really appreciated the chance to think for 2 days about the differences between decisions, problems and dilemmas. And the instructor's view is that decisions are to be made, problems to be solved and dilemmas to be managed. The framework around the design and specific usefulness of such strategic tools to manage dilemmas was excellent. This course is the first one I took as part of a "certificate of professional excellence" in strategic leadership. It's exciting to learn a few new things, validate things I am well versed in already and also meet new people in the process.

In follow up to the course I just read the fascinating book Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. If you are interested in a deeper understanding of how humans make decisions this book offers great food for thought.

Making Research Actionable

On November 20, 2008 I will present at this month's MRIA Ottawa Chapter Speakers Series event. My talk will provide an updated NAC Orchestra case study to further illuminate how we succeeded in aligning research, business strategy and marketing execution to deliver outstanding year 1 results for the NAC Orchestra. I will also offer updated information to address work undertaken during the current year 2 of the 5-year Audience Development Strategy.

For the event details, visit the MRIA Ottawa Chapter site.

Strategic Directions

With 2 successful conferences behind me, I went on vacation to Germany: we had so much fun seeing friends and family.

Coming back, I was fortunate to have several interesting projects brought to me. This attests to the effectiveness of my primary business development activity: deliver great work and invariably more interesting work results (so far, so good).

Over the last 2 months I have been working on projects as varied as branding-related research for the Stem Cell Network, a Nokia for Business marketing project, focus groups testing NAC Orchestra programming under consideration, developing a 5-year plan for NAC Music Education program evaluation and editorial work on defining 10 new thematics for Canadian Geographic's Canadian Atlas Online Phase 3 (based on the 3 volumes of the Historical Atlas of Canada).

As I am observing politics, the economy and 'nature at work' in Canada and the US in particular, I am wondering about the new strategic moves that will be required both in my own and in my clients' businesses. I know diversity of skills and continually honing my capabilities are important to my success - I already have a minimal environmental footprint in terms of my business. For my clients the answers will run the full gambit of business strategy: from investing in customer experience to attracting and keeping the right talent, from creating new products to becoming more effective and savvy communicators.

Conference Presentations

I am presenting at two national conferences on the National Arts Centre Orchestra work I've lead over the last 2 years.

Marketing Research and Intelligence Association National Conference in Winnipeg May 26, 2008 at 1 pm (full conference information)

MarCom for public and not-for-profit sector marketers and communicators

June 12, 2008 at 2:30 pm (full conference information)

Hope to see you there!

A marketing and a research perspective

I've been thinking about how to tell people about my consulting business in an easy to understand manner. Strategic Moves - Thinking : Business in a way does say it all. It encapsulates both an outcome and its underlying process.

In essence, what I am doing with Strategic Moves is to bring to bear a deeper understanding of my clients' 360 environment (including their organizations) and help them make decisions that will move them forward. In that applied, practical sense, marketing research isn't about the research results. It is about the insights, decisions and actions that follow the data and analysis. At best, the actions marketers - and thier agencies - take should be backed by deep insights derived from all manner of research and monitored and evaluated using analytical processes.

My positioning then is to bring both a professional marketing and research perspective to my clients' business issues. I think of it as a fire-aim-fire brand - take a lot of action and learn from all of it to advance the business or cause.

Social media vs social networks

I went to a presentation at MRIA Ottawa Chapter this week by Robert Hutton of Pollara. He was presenting some research on attitudes about social media, both among marketing professionals and users. There was certaily some interesting data. However, what struck me most was the very premise of the study: people who are using Facebook, LinkedIn, Ebay, YahooGroups and so on are not participants or users of social media. They are using social networks.

This crucial difference seems to continue to elude corporations and institutions as they are trying to figure out how to harness these supposed social media. Taking an advertising point of view is futile: users migrate away from social networking sites when they become too commercial, ie turn into media (whatever that means to the individual).

From the beginning the web has been about relationships, users defining what they accept and engage with. It's the genesis of the shift in power from the brand to the consumer. The challenge is not harnessing social media at all. The real challenge is working on having authentic relationships with ones audiences, including prospects. That means becoming a valued part of a social network. And it's way beyond buying ads on Facebook.

The old ways aren't going to keep on working. Let's invent new ones!

MarCom presentation accepted

I've received confirmation today of acceptance at another conference. On June 12, I will present on the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Audience Development Project at MarCom. This presentation will focus on the institutional culture and organizational aspects of creating significant results for the Orchestra and articulating the strategy for the next 5 years. MarCom is an annual conference for public sector/non-profit marketing and communications professionals.

Teaching clients about online presence

In the last few days I've lead two Q and A workshop sessions with completely different clients to help them understand how they can start to use the web for much more than, well, than having a web site.
Helping clients draw the connections between their own site and how to drive the right kinds of traffic to their site means that they can become a lot more effective in their marketing, relationship building or sales efforts.
It's been interesting to speak about these issues to non-specialists - being understood seems to involve a lot of non-web metaphors that are grounded in people's real lives. (Something about marketing speak that mystifies and obscures rather than enlightens sometimes.)
Anyhow, having done these two sessions I now have a ready-to-go, customizable workshop on how to think about integrating online channels and using anything from SEO to search marketing to facebook or myspace and other social networking fora, to lead generation and nurture to e-news to RSS and whatever else we will be able to do on line next. Since surely itsgreatest hallmark remains its "evolution."

Conference presentation accepted

Excellent news: My conference paper has been accepted by the MRIA's National Conference Program Committee. I'll be presenting on my Audience Development work with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Winnipeg, May 25-28, 2008. Of course, now I'll have to craft a worthy presentation.

I'm planning to demonstrate the application of insights derived from various types of research methodologies in solving a major business issue at the nation’s leading live performing arts venue. (That's a mouthful!) Because I not only conducted the research but facilitated the strategy process, the outstanding business results (see previous postings) achieved already make a great example for "return on research invesment."

I'm also planning on making an argument for the idea of "integrated research." After all, today integrated marketing and integrated decision-making are everywhere - at least in words if not in deed - and I see opportunities for marketing researchers to advance a conversation about customer insight and its application.

Proposed a Research Conference Paper

After being part of the Net Gain 2.0 conference organizing committee last fall, I thought I try to get onto the presenters' roster for MRIA's national conference in May. Today, I sent in my proposal to take a look at the crucial role - and direct impact on the business - of multi-faceted research I conducted (from data analysis to focus groups) in the NAC Orchestra's Audience Development project.

I think there's a lot of interesting - and possibly innovative - work I can share in terms of integrating many kinds of research and gaining very sharp insights as a result. There's also a direct contribution the research had on the strategy formulation and the business results to date. In my view, this will serve as a great example of "return on research investment" - and further a discussion about the role of the researcher in the ever changing marketing landscape.

The decisions on conference programming will be made this month...

2008 will be the year of ...

Happy new year! May 2008 bring the challenges you relish and the rewards you seek.

For Strategic Moves, 2008 marks the second year in business. Yeah!

Year 1 confirmed that I could translate the business transformation promise of Strategic Moves into reality.

The Audience Development work I led at the National Arts Centre Orchestra throughout the year has delivered breakthrough business results already.

I think there are two transformation drivers that secured this remarkable success. First, from the outset audience development was defined as a "whole of business" issue, not merely a marketing issue. Second, we created a dynamic diagnostic and strategy process involving cross-functional staff in new ways.

By taking a strategy development approach that was highly dynamic and ongoing (rather than static), and involved everyone in the Orchestra organization and many throughout the NAC at large, we effectively used the development process itself to demonstrate new ways of working to staff, and to immediately begin fostering institutional culture change.

Rather than "ivory tower" strategy formulation and then shopping it around and explaining it to the people, we took a different tack: Based on the insights from the comprehensive diagnostic phase, we evolved key strategic tenets, tested them through implementing and refining core ideas and progressively implemented the learning from marketing to programming to customer service. In that way, we were also able to create new central ideas not previously part of the Orchestra's activities. At the end of this living and fully engaged process is the strategy document. The benefit is clear: by involving everyone throughout the strategy development, as we had previously throughout the diagnostic phase, there is a great deal of ownership and understanding of the audience development strategy. It's a running start on all counts.

Significantly, it's also been an opportunity to deepen my marketing research expertise, from conducting more focus groups, to undertaking surveys to data analysis. My 17 years of being a practicing marketer, combined with my research experience and the capacity to facilitate transformation processes (call it "leading from behind" if you will) are shaping Strategic Moves as a credible player at the cross-roads of research, strategy, marketing and facilitating transformation.

In that sense, I anticipate that 2008 will be the year of "the next big project."