Hive Health

As part of my development plan I recently attended an event celebrating Women’s Enterprise Day. ‘Rising to the challenge’ hosted a panel of award-winning women inventor-innovators sharing first hand experiences of overcoming the many challenges of getting a new product idea to market and establishing a young business.

Notebook in hand I was aiming to learn what it means to be innovative – what are the secrets behind it and indeed is there a set formula that can help us to ensure that our work is always as relevant and insightful as possible.

Speaking at the event were 4 successful inventors all well in the swing of marketing and production and on their way to what seemed to be a fairly common goal of making money! What interested me the most was the similarities in the principles and attitudes of these inventors to our industry. So what did I learn…?

The need to have an idea but to accept that it will evolve was potentially the rule that most resonated for me. Ideas – no matter how inspirational they may be, need to adapt and change and most importantly they need to be relevant to the end user. Without knowing your customer, what makes them tick and why they would be interested, your idea is likely to sink. Whilst these 4 inventors were unique in the way they described their experiences, they all had this understanding in common. They demonstrated a vast understanding of the market within which their product/idea sat and talked passionately about who their customer was and how they interacted with their product. Finally the importance of having a brand that wraps the idea and being a true advocate for the brand (with a small air of arrogance and belief) was something that I’m sure has guided their success.

Whilst I am still not convinced that I have a set formula in my armoury to help me to learn the art of innovation, I was certainly reassured that we too are doing something right…

More than 50,000 people gathered outside Hive yesterday to watch the Regent Street Christmas lights being turned on. Colleagues, friends, sisters and WAGs gathered in the office to drink us dry and eat 200 of my sister’s cheese straws.

This year the theme is stars and with this in mind the organisers dug deep in their credit crunched pockets and hired McFly. (I thought a McFly was a happy meal). This bunch of plucky funsters took time away from their busy schedules to throw the switch. Next year we are pretty sure they will available to check the bulbs.

Want to experience it for yourself? Click the video to see what the Nokia N95, a window ledge and Verve Clicquot can achieve when combined to capture the magic of an event.

 So Obama has won, history made. But what a legacy Bush has left him with. Economic chaos and 2 wars to name just the obvious challenges he faces. Traditionally the healthcare industry is highly sceptical of Democratic nominees, but this election has been a little different. Donations to the Democrats are up 15%  and the industry seems more relaxed about Obama’s intentions than one would expect. Quite how things pan out is still anyone’s guess. How much focus can health get when there are such monumental issues facing the US economic and foreign policy programmes?

What is clear though is that drug prices will get severe scrutiny, generic drugs will feature heavily in both his and medicare’s planning and he wants an expansion in healthcare benefits to the uninsured. What he is also wedded to is investment in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Over the last few years the US as a centre of innovation has been on the wane. Less graduates in science, less investment, less of everything. He has been clear that he wants greater investment in healthcare research, he is a firm believer in biological knowledge and stem and genetic research. These areas will be reinvigorated by his election and with his support the palate for cutting edge research may just be on the turn.

What the real impact of all of this means is anyone’s guess, but if his mantra is true and “change is coming” I sincerely hope it reignites the exploration of life changing research.

I recently attended a webinar on the barriers faced by organisations and communications teams to internal engagement and was really interested in the differences and similarities between internal communications and marketing.  

In the internal comms world there exists a common frustration with the disciplines lack of ability to get serious attention and ongoing commitment, especially when compared with its revenue generating cousin. A situation that was not expected to improve with the impending financial crisis, and its subsequent pressure to decrease ‘non-essential’ spending.

What also struck me as interesting was that when we discussed communications some of what we take for granted in the marketing world is not adopted within internal comms. Marketing tend to build a foundation for any activities on understanding our audience, their perspective, what they believe. All of which can be much easier when we are removed by the mere fact that we are ‘not one of them’. It seemed to me that viewing the internal audience as ‘one of us’ can tend to skew the approach one takes when communicating with them. This was discussed in depth by the attendees, with the majority considering this to be a challenge that the discipline needs to grapple with.

Despite this, so much is shared between the disciplines. The idea that communication professionals are integral to achieving the organisations goals is certainly common, as is the constant efforts to convert too-often tactical activities into strategic activities and is the need to get the balance right between leadership expectations and communicators’ ability to deliver.

It was a fascinating webinar, and really good to spend some time interacting with a brilliant, diverse group of internal comms bods, I for one was delighted to see audiences/beliefs being pushed to the forefront.