• Rekha Balu's Strategic Innovation addressed the idea that brand-consciousness transcends all income levels. Have your cell discuss the notion that perhaps the new economy has been too focused on the upper-middle class. What efforts have your company done to penetrate your brand across income levels? Invite social workers from a homeless shelter to a cell meeting to talk about what degree of brand-conciousness they've noticed in their work. Then arrange a cell trip to spend an evening giving back to the community. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or shelter. The United Way's directory should give you a good start of where to look in your community. Second Harvest is a nonprofit group that brings local food banks together under a national umbrella. See if they operate in your city and possibly even convince your business to participate in a program to fight hunger. If there are animal lovers in your cell, try the Hugs for Homeless animal shelter directory for other volunteer opportunities. Hindustan Lever's business strategy involving India's poor is so notable because it involves a necessary hygenic product -- soap. Have your cell collect hygenic products like soap, toothpaste and shampoo and donate them to a nonprofit group that helps the poor, like a church or the Red Cross. Finally, have your cell take a look at Hindustan Lever's web site to read more about their business strategies and discuss the training program mentioned in the article about spending six to eight weeks in a rural village living the lifestyle of Lever's clients. Could your company do anything like this? What possibilities exist to make your employees more in line with your customers? Consider arranging a weekend cell excursion to a campground on the condition that no luxury items be allowed, and after 48 hours of dirtyness discuss what you would want from a soap product.
• Bill Breen's inside look at Nestle's net strategy showed a strategy shift from producing hits to maintaining customer loyalty. Take a look at the various Nestle web sites before your next meeting, such as VeryBest Baking, VeryBest Pet and VeryBestBaby. Discuss what about these sites can foster customer loyalty, and if the almost complete lack of branding on these sites is perhaps overkill. Take a cell trip to the nearest large supermarket and look over what brands advertise a web presence and what big brands are noticably missing one. Do logos and brand names still dominate a product's packaging? Have everyone in your cell enter the store with a very specific shopping list. Discuss the choices made on that list and the influence that brand name and web presence have on those selections. After the cell shopping trip is over, have each member look at the web sites of the products they purchased and analyze if each company is using the Internet as a means of enhancing brand image or building customer loyalty. What food products could benefit from a web-friendly approach like Nestle's?
• Off the Walls raises the role that workspaces can play in terms of workstyle. What role does artwork play in your area's business community? Do any members of the cell work for organizations that incorporate art into their office designs? Go on a field trip to see several examples of art set in a corporate environment in your city -- and talk to the companies' executives about how the artwork was selected, what it means for the office's culture, and how the artwork fulfills a function. You might also explore local organizations such as Art at Work, the White Gallery and the Art Action Alliance that help companies connect with artists and organize exhibits in their offices.
• Agenda Items might inspire a CoF-style Show and Tell event. What are cell members' killer apps? Encourage people to bring in an item, technology, product, or other artifact that is extremely important to their work lives and styles. Folks can show off their items to the group, talk about what they mean to them, and offer examples of how they use them. Might be fun and productive.

Daniel Richards contributed this month's Next Steps.

June 2001 Connexus | Flash Points | Next Steps

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