Right now I’m preparing two sessions on innovation for delivery at the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and want to talk about where great ideas come from. Look in the obvious places! Customers are one of the greatest sources of ideas. But for real insights, we often need to look at our brands ‘in the wild’, as they are used in our customers’ everyday lives.

The head of Heinz, William Johnson, tells the story that he discovered –  in his […]

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• Categories: Customer Experience, Marketing, Selling, Strategy
• Comments Off on For the best advice, ask your customers…

One of the most important articles I ever read was about the link between how employees are  treated and rewarded and bottom line sales, profitability and customer loyalty. You might say: isn”t that obvious! Yes, I agree but often the best articles are telling us stuff we know already but don”t deliver on.

 Like motivation. How many of our internal communications conversations are designed to motivate staff? Not that many, yet we know that a motivated team is much more […]

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• Categories: Business Communications, Customer Experience, Marketing, Selling, Strategy
• Comments Off on Why employee engagement is the new buzz term

A meeting that seems casual and unplanned can often lead to new business. But to make the most of these chance encounters, you need to know the types of people who can be helpful to you and your business and, even more importantly, you need to be able to communicate how you can add value to them.

Here are some quick tips for turning casual conversations into profitable relationships through better networking.

Talk to the right people. Who are they? Well, either people […]

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• Categories: Business Communications, Marketing, Selling, Uncategorized
• Comments Off on Turn Casual Conversations into Profitable Relationships – The Art of Networking