Here is my final collection of insights from the P&G Alumni Conference. They all touch on one of the most important topics: change.
Technology changes, people don’t: why you should kick-start your culture
Nigel Vaz, CEO Publicis Sapient
It takes five years for a company’s culture to change. To drive change in your organization’s culture, you need to:
- Build common ground among your people
- Embrace and embed change in all aspects of your company
- Have change led by the leaders of the organization
Change before you have to
Kirk Perry, President Google Brand Solutions
It’s easier to change before you have to, so do everything you can to get ahead of the curve. Inspiration can come from unlikely places. Take the Jetsons cartoon series from the 1960s. In only 24 episodes, they accurately predicted the future, including FaceTime, Skype, Alexis and Roomba robot vacuums.
Here are some key trends to take note of:
- Everything mobile: People look at their phone 150+ times a day. The best ads are 6 seconds long.
- Create magical experiences: Tesla lets you buy a car on your phone in 3 screens vs. another automaker’s 14 to schedule a test drive.
- Artificial Intelligence: Machine learning is here now and changing the way we interact with the world.
- Immersive experiences: Augmented reality can let someone see a piece of furniture in their home before buying.
- Real-time health care: A “Fitbit” that monitors health functions will revolutionize health care.
Acceleration & aging
Bracken Darrell, CEO Logitech
Humans have 100 billion neurons in our brains. To keep your brain firing on all cylinders, you need to keep learning new things and experiencing surprises. Our memories peak around college graduation, so we need to work at ways to keep our brains young. Learn to play an instrument, develop new skills or participate in new experiences.
Forget the 4 Ps
Jim Stangel, former Global Marketing Officer, P&G
We all were taught the 4 Ps of marketing in school: product, price, promotion and place (distribution). They still matter, but they’ve been replaced by the 2 Cs: creativity and courage.
Change is a key part of Barr Corporate Success. We help companies figure out what they need to change (strategic planning) and then how they are going to implement those changes (team and executive coaching, leadership training, assessments). If you are looking for an experienced partner on this journey, give us a call.