I recently watched an interview with Bono, the lead singer of U2. During the interview he said that one of the ways of being remarkable is to conceive and sell ideas. He described compelling ideas as “currency” and said that “there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come”. Great businesses have compelling ideas at their core.Apple computers = beautiful design.
Discovery Health = reward healthy lifestyle.
Kulula.com = anyone can fly.
Nokia = reliable simplicity.
TIME magazine’s “Manager of the 20th Century”, was a master at defining and selling ideas. In my opinion the key to his leadership success was that he chose and stuck to a few big ideas in his 20 year reign as CEO of General Electric. Some of Jacks big ideas included:
‘Be one or two in your market or get out’;
‘Act as a boundaryless organisation’;
‘Drive high quality and super efficiency through six sigma’;
‘Create value through services’ and
‘Streamline operations using e-business’.
When he got stuck on an idea he was like a bulldog. He would sell, push, describe, measure and reinforce that idea at every possible opportunity. Most of his ideas lasted for at least 3 years, creating a clear set of priorities for the tens of thousands of people employed by GE at the time.
Great IDEAS are:
· Simple
· Understandable
· Translate into action
Questions to consider:
Are you selling a clearly defined idea from within your business?
Is your idea simple?
Do you have a story, analogy or metaphor around your idea?
Can your idea translate into action?
Do you stick with an idea for long enough for it to take effect and permeate the hearts and minds of your clients and employees?
Entrepreneurs who are successful over the long term are the ones who embrace, expose and give life to an idea whose time has come.
If you wish to get a deeper insight into making an idea stick – this is a BRILLIANT book (my best book of 2007 thus far).
Visit the books website:
http://www.madetostick.com/
Made to Stick related articles:
» Read the Time Magazine article.
» Read the U.S. News & World Report article.
» See the authors on The Today Show.
» Listen to the Morning Edition interview.
2 comments:
What I love about Kulula flights are their sense of humour. However, one needs a sense of humour to understand their recent specials - I did a check on flight costs and both 1time and Mango had lower prices than their specials.
Which kulula flight did you find was more expensive?
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