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creativity

CREATIVITY   |  Comment

Give Them a Story to Tell!

I recently attended a lecture on marketing and I heard a statistic that as shocking as it was didn’t really surprise me. You see according to a recent study at Durham University, 68% of customers move to a different supplier/provider purely because of the way their first provider treated them. That’s over two thirds of YOUR customers moving to a competitor, not because of your product, but because of the way it was “packaged”. Gone because of something that is totally within your control. How on earth do organisations get it so wrong?READ»

CREATIVITY   |  Comment

Fast Company review of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why The Best Ideas Have Something Missing

FC Expert Blogger Seth Kahan (Leading Change) has posted this review of my new book. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/seth-kahan/leading-change/pursuit-eleganceREAD»

BUSINESS   |  1 comment

Judging Talent by Watching American Idol

Are you truly talented or are you putting on a show? READ»

Kenan Samms

Have A Back-Up Plan To Your Back-Up Plan

Every week I share a few stratagems to help inspire my readers. But if you’re not familiar with my books, Hide A Dagger Behind A Smile and The Way of Innovation, then you probably find the stratagems interesting but not ...READ»

CREATIVITY   |  Comment

Why Little Louie Can Never Be A Genius

Can 10,000 hours of focused work make you or your child into a genius? Can Malcolm Gladwell possibly be wrong?READ»

ADVERTISING   |  Comment

Twitter’s tweet out quickly.

I just read that Neilson Online (www.nielsen-online.com) has found that 60% of people who sign up on Twitter abandon the service.  In fact Twitter’s retention rate is around 40%, which means that only 40% of the people who visited ...READ»

Kenan Samms
TYLENOL   |  3 comments

A Spoon Full Of Sugar Helps Investors Take Their Medicine

Every time my 3-year-old son sees a bottle of children’s Tylenol he asks for “petesina.” That’s his word for medicine or “medecina” in Spanish. Does he have a headache? No. Is he addicted to pain killers? I hope not. But ...READ»

SALES   |  Comment

Sales and Status - Business Improvisation at its Best

Status awareness and manipulation is one of those allusive attributes that people often think a great sales person is ‘born with’. Like most value sales skills, some come to them naturally and perform them in an unconsciously competent state of mind. Status awareness and manipulation, your own and how you use it to affect a situation, is a key ingredient in sales and leadership. We are constantly keeping track of our status relative to others. Status is also about pecking order, real or imagined. We hold a metal representation of our status in our minds during interactions and it affects our metal processes. If your target relationship with a client is as a trusted adviser and if your purpose is to obtain an insider position then observing and manipulating status is a critical success factor.READ»

idea
CREATIVITY   |  Comment

Looking to Hire the Most Creative Employees? Find the Candidates Who Lived Abroad

Cartoon Character by Tourist Republic Businesses battle to hire creative, productive employees. Management gurus have been happy to indulge that trend, offering all manner of "creativity courses." What if you ...READ»

Kenan Samms

Create A New Category – Build A Profitable Niche

On Wednesday I started an examination of an investment strategy firm that specializes in microfinance, Minlam Asset Management. As I interviewed one of Minlam’s founders, Mike Hokenson, I noticed a reoccurring theme that I see ...READ»

TALENT   |  1 comment

What does a red-headed snowboarder have to do with strategic HR management?

Uniqueness, creativity, taking risks, seeing beyond the obvious... READ»

Kenan Samms

Ethonomics And Microfinance Go Hand In Hand

There has been a lot of positive feedback on my string of blogs themed “financial firms doing good.” It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity that pours out of our televisions and newspapers, but as I travel across the ...READ»

CREATIVITY   |  Comment

To Trust or not To Trust

What drives us to trust companies? I just saw a study from Edelman called the Trust Barometer. It talks about the lack of trust people have in business and governments and how it’s changed over time.  For some perspective, the ...READ»

Kenan Samms
SUN TZU   |  Comment

Build Your Innovation Tool Kit

On my flight back from Rochester the other night after delivering a workshop to a group of CEOs, I was reading a fascinating article titled "Culture in Action" by Ann Swidler. In it I read the following ...READ»

BRANDING   |  3 comments

The Rewards of Branding

When branding as a marketing discipline received its first big wave on analytical attention and discussion in the early 1990s, it became the hot topic of marketing professionals. Not long after it seemed a bit trendy to talk about ...READ»

Kenan Samms
CREATIVITY   |  Comment

The Meaning and Power of Forgiveness

In light of everything that is going on in our country and the world right now, including the economic crisis that is on center stage, it may be a good time to consider a topic that usually gets ignored when the "blame ...READ»

CREATIVITY   |  Comment

Want to be Smarter?

We've been dumbed down long enough. Maybe there's a better way.READ»

Kenan Samms

Adopt An Appropriate Time Horizon And Choose Investors Carefully

While speaking with Randy Eisenman and Sunny Vanderbeck, the founders of Satori Capital, I found a new sense of respect for the idea of “time horizons.” You see, over time, companies gravitate toward the expectations of its ...READ»

Can America truly change?

Is change really coming to America? After all we did elect a President who ran on the platform of change. I do however wonder if we as Americans really have the capacity to change.  And if we do, why are we so slow to change? Is ...READ»

A culture that nurtures innovation

There’s a lot being written about how to survive the down economy but I think something is missing from the dialogue:  how to create a culture that thrives during it. Yes, intuitively most people know that to truly excel during ...READ»

CREATIVITY   |  Comment

Where is the Genius in The Genius Machine?

Would you like to be brilliant?READ»

Kenan Samms

Create A Mission And Purpose Beyond Making Money

A mission will drive you and your employees more than money can.READ»

CREATIVITY   |  Comment

What it really takes to Innovate?

One of the biggest barriers to organisations innovating, especially SME’s is the widespread misuse of the word innovation and its application by companies who can’t really define it. Because of this, innovation is normally ...READ»

Kenan Samms

Company Stakeholders Are More Than Just Shareholders

In business school, they still teach us the shareholder is king and that all corporate decisions should be made based on maximizing shareholder value. But if you see a wider view, a more holistic perspective, then you will see that ...READ»

Leading the Way Out of this Economic -- and Ethical -- Mess

I'm looking for any sign I can find that we're in recovery -- not only that the economy is turning around, but that the mindset that led us into this mess is shifting. I found a good one. The chief learning officer of ...READ»

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