Sony founder, Akio Morita, once said: “Curiosity is the key to creativity.” So, given how curious researchers are, we decided to speak to some client-side researchers to discover ways in which they have used creativity to amplify the value of research.

 
The Listener
Dr. Simon Roberts, Lead, Design/Social Science, Digital Health Europe, Intel

Roberts’ solution has been to turn some of his findings and insights into well-produced booklets and brochures, something he did for a recent global ageing study with hundreds of in-depth interviews: “Let’s put it all in a booklet and make sure that every person in the organisation for whom this is relevant gets a copy on their desk. We can also use it externally to tell a story about our work.”

Pop here for the rest of the article – available only for a limited time – and do subscribe to Research World magazine.

This is the second part of our seven-part series on HR and talent.

This week, Danny Wain looks at how to draw inspiration from Google to innovate in HR and talent management.

Remember, each episode is a mere 2-3 mins long, short enough for the busiest managers or talent folks. And do drop us a line if you’re interested in sponsoring this series.

You can find out more about what Danny does here. Next episode goes up next week.

In the latest Global Business, Peter chats with Professor Gary Hamel, a leading management author and thinker, about some of the themes in his new book, The Future of Management.

His key message to leaders is to shift from a culture of control to one that embraces personal creativity, posturing that this is the only path to future innovation, growth and prosperity.

The chat contains some really stirring stuff and strikes a perfect resonance with the zeitgeist (unleashing personal creativity, wisdom of crowds, bottom-up innovation, global talent etc.). We liked it so much that we spent the time to pick out some choice quotes:

“You can buy obedience and diligence and even intellect almost anywhere in the world for next to nothing.”

“We’re going to have to get people to bring to work their initiative, their creativity, their passion, and those are human capabilities that cannot be commanded. Those are gifts that people either choose to bring to work or not.”

“The existing management model was built to drive alignment, enforcement and control. What management tried to do over the last 100 years was to regularise the irregular, to drive the variety out of processes…we happen to live in a world today where it’s irregular people with irregular ideas who create all the new economic value and the wealth.”

“Organisations are less human than the people who work there. [people are inherently creative and innovative] but somehow when we get to work that adaptability, that innovation literally gets bleached out of people between 9 and 5.”

“The ability to aggregate human capability via the web, that’s not going to go away.”

Management innovation at W. L. Gore & Associates: “Every employee is free to say yes or no to any request. Most managers would have a very hard time imagining how you can get things done in an organsation where you can’t use any of your positional power (because you have none); people have to be persuaded. People are annually evaluated by 20 peers on the value they create [rather than via a hierarchy based on following strict instructions].”

Management innovation at Google: “The folks who run that they don’t primarily see themselves as the authors of strategy, they see themselves as editors of strategy…ideas bubble up.”

Pop here for the episode (hopefully it will stay archived).

Series:AdTalk Series:MarketingTalk

Apparently, at TNS they have a summer party each year and each department is invited to make a short film on a theme……this year the winner was this one. Apparently everyone else’s are really straight down the line ‘this is us and this is what we do’ type things!

BTW, the irony in our headline isn’t lost on us!

10mins | Recorded @ Wildfire ‘07 | More podcasts in this series

Download the mp4 version (right click, ’save as’)

Timeline [10m44s]
00m00s Intro.
00m46s Ze’s interest in airline safety cards.
02m42s Will the internet ever become full?
04m20s Ze’s path to internet stardom.
05m44s ‘How To Dance Properly’.
06m33s Ze’s mad itinery/show appearances.
07m07s What’s next, after ‘The Show’?
08m12s Are the relationship rumours true?
08m31s Ze’s 2004 TED appearance.

Notable Mentions
Contagious.
Dennis Interactive.
Esther Dyson.
Felix Dennis.
Freeman Dyson.
Google.
Iconography.
James Dyson.
Larry Page.
Leo Burnett.
Sergey Brin.
TED.

Series:MarketingTalk Series:AdTalk
Series:Events Series:Wildfire Series:Wildfire07

 Entrepreneurship: “The satisfaction of building something from nothing“
(Gian Fulgoni)

 
 THE LEADERSHIP SHOW  Not all leaders are entrepreneurs. And not all entrepreneurs make good leaders. But, my oh my, when you get leaders that ARE good entrepreneurs, you can be sure that innovation and success are close behind. So sit down and prepare to be inspired by some anecdotes and wise words from three entrepreneurial leaders of our time – Chet Zalesky, Clare Bruce and Gian Fulgoni, Gian being a serial entrepreneur. Hosted by none other than Simon Chadwick, himself a former leader at Gfk NOP and now a strategic advisor. Part of our new leadership series, look out for more episodes

Listen to other podcasts featuring Clare

 STARRING 

• Chet Zalesky, founder and President, CMI Solutions
• Clare Bruce, founder and CEO, Nunwood Consulting
• Gian Fulgoni, co-founder and Chairman, comScore Networks
• Simon Chadwick, partner, Cambiar and gravitas (Host)

Timeline [21m34s]
00m00s Intro.
01m12s What makes an entrepreneur?
02m19s Starting a business through frustration.
03m11s The satisfaction of building something from nothing.
03m24s Entrepreneurial DNA.
04m35s Are entrepreneurs driven by passion?
06m37s Self belief and battling naysayers.
07m51s “What on earth am I doing!”.
09m10s How the founder’s role changes (“[over time] the justification for me becomes less obvious”).
10m43s The initial vision.
11m46s Change as a friend of the entrepreneur.
12m22s Becoming personally involved in hiring.
13m00s Giving staff a stake in the business.
13m58s Leaving the business and passing the torch.
14m44s Retaining creativity by investing in startups.
16m39s Inspirational hereos and role models.
19m58s Is MR naturally entrepreneurial?

Notable Mentions
ACNielsen.
Atari.
Commodore.
Donald Trump.
Dotcom boom and bust.
Dr. Alfred A. Kuehn (founder, Management Science Associates).
Entreprenurism.
IRI.
John Malec (founder, IRI).
Keller Fay.
Management Science Associates.
Margaret Thatcher.
Venture capitalism.
Winston Churchill.
Yesmail.

Quotes
On what makes an entrepreneur: “Someone who can’t work in a larger organisation!” (Gian).

“My family came from a farming background.” (Gian).

“We’ve even moved on from insight to adding emotion to everthing we do. Adding pixie dust is how we describe it, adding something that will touch their hearts and reach them as a person.” (Clare).

“[A receptionist asked me how I did it]…it wasn’t that I did it, I loved what I did…You really need to follow your passion and the rest should take care of itself.” (Chet).

“I would say though that the passion is necessary if one’s an entrepreneur because you’re always coming up against people who will tell you something can’t be done…you’ve just got to have alot of passion and emotion to just keep going and drive through all of that.” (Gian).

“As you build a company it’s really important to not have your people see the doubts that maybe occasionally cross your mind as to whether something can be done or not.” (Gian).

“It makes no sense to hire professional managers during the early years of a company, it’s the last thing you want. You want people who can thrive in change and people who are creative.” (Gian).

“The challenge for me, and I’m sure for every other leader on the planet, is to create the environment that makes these awesome people stay…we can’t afford to be so stupidly arrogant these days.” (Clare).

Thanks to freelance media and marketing journalist Jo Bowman for the use of her dulcet tones for the outro

Music 
Steffen Coonan and Theatrimus from the PMN

Series:Leadership

Mark Earls’ latest contribution to life, the universe and everything is gaining traction. His new book rethinks how people make decisions and discovers as a result that much of current research practice is fundamentally flawed in its assumptions and interpretation of consumer behaviour. Quite fitting for this self-styled ‘Contrarian’. The book provides psychology underpinning for many recent phenomena such as social networking, engagement, conversations, ethnography, blogging and predictive markets by showing how we act as groups and not individually. Part of our monthly column for ESOMAR’s Research World magazine

 STARRING 

• Mark Earls, author, Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature, Head Honcho, Herd Consulting

TIMELINE [17m19s]
00m00s Intro.
00m42s Why current research practices are wrong.
02m09s The industry is improving, but not enough.
03m21s The value of ethnography and predictive markets techniques.
03m57s ‘Herd’ questions the assumptions made in traditional research.
04m31s Improving opinion polling predictability.
05m10s Does ‘Herd’ have implications for all types of research?
05m29s Do social networking tools play a role in ‘Herd’?
06m48s The benefits of meme trackers.
07m10s Would ‘Herd’ have predicted the eventual success of SMS?
08m09s P&G Tremor panels.
08m58s Persuading others to adopt ‘Herd’ thinking.
09m35s Is Tesco a ‘Herd’ brand?
10m28s Co-creation, software beta testing and the open source movement.
11m34s Consumers co-creating ads.
12m10s Other brands that follow the ‘Herd’ philosophy.
13m03s Progressive research agencies.
14m17s Summarising the ‘model’.
15m25s Inspiration for writing the book.

Notable Mentions
Acacia Avenue.
American positivism.
Andrew Ehrenberg (Prof).
Blogs.
Bob Worcester (Sir).
BrainJuicer.
Co-creation.
David Goetz.
Digg.com.
Dodge.
Dove.
dunnhumby.
Ethnography.
Fiona Blades.
Gerald (Jerry) Zaltman: “How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market”.
Hall and Partners.
Harvard Business School.
Influence maps.
James Surowiecki.
Jeff Goldblum.
John Kearon.
MESH Planning.
Mike Hall.
MRS.
MySpace.
NHS.
Ogilvy & Mather (O&M).
OLR (Opinion Leader Research).
Open source.
P&G Tremor panels.
Predictive markets.
Social networking.
Spring Research.
Stephen Phillips.
TechMeme.com.
Tesco.
The Big Chill.
Tom Daly.
Unilever.
Wardle Mclean.
Wendy Gordon.
Wikis.
YouTube.

Quotes
“Post rationalisation is more important than sex.” (Jeff Goldblum).

“Individuals are really poor witnesses to the richness of their own lives.”

“We (MR practitioners) are still very bad at predicting.”

“I know that when an idea is interesting it creates energy … whereas most of our methodologies don’t look at that as an indicator.”

“The future may be much more two-way.” (in reference to P&G Tremor panels).

“This is perhaps one of the hardest things for business and market research to understand, consumers frankly tolerate us.”

“It’s never been harder to do marketing … we are at an inflexion point.”

Music Theatrimus from the PMN

Series:MarketingTalk Series:AdTalk

 GUEST  Kirsty Fuller, co-Founder and Chairman of the world’s largest qualitative consultancy, Flamingo International

 TOPICS  The new paradigm in branding (Jay-Z and Budweiser, co-creation, authenticity); The benefits of using intuition in research vs. being strictly evidence-based; EXCLUSIVE: Japan office coming soon

 NOTABLE MENTIONS  Andy Dexter, Apple, Budweiser, Chris Arning, Def Jam, Digg, Edny Tappy, Fiona Blades, Illuminas, Innocent, iPod, James Parsons, Jay-Z, Kate Moss, Levi, Maggie Collier, MySpace, Nike, Reebok, Simon Lidington, Top Shop, Truth Consulting, Walkman, YouTube

Music Brother Love and Martha Redbone from the PMN

Series:MarketingTalk Series:AdTalk
Series:Weekly

 EXCLUSIVE  ESOMAR Congress 2006 keynoters Julia Hailes MBE talks about the environment and sustainability, and Interbrand’s Rita Clifton talks about branding and engagement

 STARRING 

• Julia Hailes MBE, prolific environmental author, and Sustainability Consultant
• Rita Clifton, Chairman, Interbrand
• John Kearon, BrainJuicer (Host)

Recorded live at ESOMAR CONGRESS ‘06

TIMELINE [21m30s]
00m00s Intro.

Julia Hailes.
00m33s Intro.
01m14s The new Green Consumer Guide.
01m32s Reducing carrier bag wastage.
03m30s The environmental tipping point.
04m46s Driving change: the role of consumers.
05m33s Driving change: being a consultant.
06m49s The next milestone.
07m48s Advising national and local government.
08m20s Using celebrity endorsement.

Rita Clifton.
08m45s Intro.
10m03s Advising FTSE boards.
11m33s Memes and viral branding.
12m42s The work of researchers Populus.
13m08s The state of the research industry.
14m57s The role of research in predicting future trends.
15m37s Tremor panels.
17m11s The best research: topping & tailing.
18m57s Better presentations.

Notable Mentions
Asda.
BA.
Charles Leadbeater.
Co-creation.
DSG Intl (formerly Dixons Stores Group).
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
eBay.
Emap.
(The) Green Consumer Guide.
iPod.
John Elkington.
M&S (Marks & Spencer).
P&G.
Populus.
Sainsbury.
Sony Walkman.
Tesco.
The Times
Tremor panels.
Unilever.
YouTube.

Quotes
“Money is a great motivator…if you can get it so that market forces are pushing in the direction you want then I think that’s all to the good.” (Julia Hailes)

“This isn’t a golden age in my view for market research…I don’t think I would talk about it being in decline…” (Rita Clifton)

Music Theatrimus from the PMN

Series:MarketingTalk Series:AdTalk
Series:Events Series:ESOMAR Series:Congress06

Sponsored by 

In this thought-provoking chat, Dan O’Donoghue tells Olaf Willoughby why the end of advertising agencies is nigh, why planners should return to their roots as consumer champions, and why researchers shouldn’t expect guidance from ad. agencies during this time of media flux

 STARRING 

• Dan O’Donoghue, Worldwide Strategic Planning Director, Publicis, and author, “Born in 1842 – A History of Advertising”
• Olaf Willoughby, The Willoughby Partnership (Host)

PODCAST
Dan O’Donoghue has an impressive track record.

He helped to change Ogilvy’s research department into a planning department back when Spaghetti Bolognaise was an exotic dish.

In 1983, at ad. agency McCormicks, he renamed the account planning department to ‘Strategic Planning’ so the French could understand what it did, and also developed a way of using research to improve the input to creative rather than correct the output.

In 1990 he became joint Chief Executive of Publicis and was the planner on the famous, or infamous, “Papa? Nicole?” Campaign for the Renault Clio.

TIMELINE [31m13s]
00m00s Intro.
02m54s Born in 1842, a history of advertising.
03m25s A shift from advertising to communications.
03m53s Changes within the planning and creative functions.
06m57s Stimulation through creativity.
09m29s Implications for the research industry.
11m59s Is the research industry too risk averse?
13m54s A culture of conservatism.
15m23s Breaking through the conservatism.
17m01s The trend towards consumer insight planners within clients.
17m44s The story behind renaming ‘Account Planning’ to ‘Strategic Planning’.
19m34s Why Dr. Bob Cook, Firefish, won the 2006 AQR P R-S award.
22m27s The future of measurement.
26m39s Challenging traditional research methodologies.
28m52s Panels – “the underbelly of the research business”.
29m28s Final thoughts.

NOTABLE MENTIONS
AQR.
ASA.
BBH.
BMP.
Dr. Bob Cook.
Firefish.
Google.
John Hegarty.
Millward Brown.
MRS.
P&G.
Prosper Riley-Smith Effectiveness Award.
Simon Lidington.
Tremor panels.
Video diary.
WPP.

QUOTES
On the online ad. revolution: “We’re going to see the end of advertising agencies in the next few years. We’re all going to start calling ourselves communications agencies.”

On the implications for the planning function:
“Planning is a bit under pressure…planning is gradually morphing to be much more central to managing the communications process…”

“My problem with planning recently is it’s been pushed much more to justification of what agencies do rather than the old notion that they were the voice of the consumer or the voice of effectiveness.”

On the implications for creatives and planners: “…the digital area is one where the creative people have to really know what happens…and the planners equally are having to become a lot more creatively inspired or inspiring…”

On ad. agency structure: “My personal opinion is that in the future there are only going to be two departments – service and production.”

On creativity: “…[ad.] agencies have got to focus on stimulating the targets rather than stimulating themselves.”

On the way research is handling the changes: “…we’re in a revolution, not an evolution… things are happening so fast…and so the research industry is in a bit of a quandary I think as to what it should do and following us at the moment isn’t the right answer.”

On the increasing complex ad. market: “I’m on the ASA council and one of the worries we have is that regulating the [ad.] industry used to be easy, but when things are on the internet and they’re put into TV programmes, how are we going to regulate that?”

On the conservatism in research: “…the research industry is like the Young Conservatives, always having discos with buffets.”

On breaking the conservatism:
“When you’re in revolution there are only two sides, the side that wins and the side that loses. And the side that wins is the one going forward…buying into the modern world.”

“I was pleased to see Simon Lidington getting appointed head [of the MRS], because he is an innovative thinker…”

“The one thing the research industry and advertising industry has really understood much better than clients is how important research really is…research within the clients hasn’t had the profile and importance.”

Music courtesy of: Theatrimus and The Blue Mile from the PMN

Thanks to MrWeb for sponsoring this podcast.

Series:MarketingTalk Series:AdTalk
Series:Sponsored

 GUEST  Semiotician Dr. Rachel Lawes, founder of Lawes Consulting

 TOPICS  Launch of branded communities within MySpace; Researching social communities; Internet key to promoting movies; Advertising blending into content; Semiotics explained; Lawes Consulting breaking into new sectors

 NOTABLE MENTIONS  Halifax Bank, HBOS, Lynx, MTV, MySpace, Snakes on a Plane, Spring Research, Stephen Phillips

Music Brother Love and Slackstring from the PMN

Series:Weekly

Our Cranky Gang turns that old British pastime of whinging into an artform. But rather than simply moaning about the ills of our industry, the gang comes up with a plan. Our very own ‘A’ team…

 BEWARE  Crankiness level is high

 STARRING 

• Ian Wright, OTX Europe
• John Kearon, BrainJuicer
• Olaf Willoughby, The Willoughby Partnership
• Tas Tasgal, POV
• Mark Whiting, Moët Hennessy (Special guest)

 HOW CREATIVE ARE YOU?  Click to find out

NEW SHOW
This is the pilot for a potential new show. Let us know if you’d like it to become a series.

TIMELINE [39m10s]
00m00s Introduction.
01m02s Creativity defined.
03m34s The state of creativity in MR.
10m58s Who’s to blame?
14m30s Creativity in methodology.
18m10s Creativity in presentation/dissemination.
27m15s Ideas.
35m26s Pitching MR to fashion designer John Galliano, Dior.

NOTABLE MENTIONS
Apple.
Burke.
Ethnography.
IBM.
Intel.
John Galliano (Christian Dior).
M. Night Shyamalan.
Market Tools.
Marty Neumeier, ‘The Brand Gap’.
Mary Lou Cook.
McKinsey & Company.
Microsoft.
MRS.
Neuroscience.
Professor Patrick Barwise (LBS), ‘Simply Better’.
RI.
Starbucks.
TNS.

 EXCLUSIVE  In the final ESOMAR preview podcast, John Kearon of BrainJuicer convenes a roundtable with two senior clientside researchers and three from the supply-side, to discuss ways to inject entrepreneurism into the industry and improve the innovation, creativity, relevance and vibrancy of research

 STARRING 

• Alistair Millar, Unilever
• Jem Fawcus, Firefish
• Andy Bloor, Firefish
• John Jennick, Egg.com
• Gary Schwartz, FIRM
• John Kearon, Chief Juicer, BrainJuicer (Host)

Learn more about ESOMAR Congress ‘06

THANKS
A huge thanks to John Kearon and his roundtable guests, and to Véronique Jeannin, director general of ESOMAR, and her team for their help in producing these podcasts.

QUOTES
“[companies] say that they want consumers at the heart of the business but…that’s not necessarily the case with lots of brands.” (John Jennick).

“There’s lots of agencies out there that claim to be doing research in an entrepreneurial way. But if you look a bit closer, it’s dressing up old methodologies in new clothes and trying to pass them off.” (Alistair Millar).

“I’d like to see research being used as a way to drive continuous business improvements.” (Gary Schwartz).

TIMELINE [32m10s]
00m00s Introduction to the roundtable guests.
02m58s Examples of entrepreneurial behaviour and the notion of the ‘Red Pill’.
06m33s The rationale for encouraging research to be entrepreneurial.
08m40s The plague of conservatism.
11m14s How conservatism almost derailed the Axe (Linx) Click campaign.
12m50s The value of self-belief, passionate commitment and evangelism.
14m40s Is the industry Blue or Red Pill? Does it matter?
16m52s The value of a strong clientside insight function to encourage risk-taking.
19m08s The imperative for the industry to change.
21m13s Risk-taking: the panel share their biggest mistakes.
25m55s Final thoughts and hopes for the industry.
29m48s Future ESOMAR podcasts.
30m27s A few words from Véronique Jeannin, Director General of ESOMAR.

Music Theatrimus from the PMN

Series:MarketingTalk
Series:Events Series:ESOMAR Series:Congress06