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April 10, 2009
An innovative lunch
JFSA features marketing guru and his advice.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
"At the end of your life, I think the most flattering thing that anybody could say about you, is that you were a mensch." This was the ultimate message of Guy Kawasaki, keynote speaker at the Jewish Family Services Agency's fifth annual Innovators Lunch.
The lunch, held April 1 at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, featured CBC's Shane Foxman as the master of ceremonies. Rhonda Sacks, chair of the fundraising lunch, welcomed the crowd and thanked all those involved in putting it together, including the sponsors, noting that it was because of their upfront support of the event that, "100 per cent of all donations made today will go directly to the programs and services of JFSA, to the frontline, to those most in need."
After the new executive director of JFSA, Joel Kaplan, said a quick hello and thanks, and John Bishop spoke briefly about the menu, Stuart Goodman of Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc., which presented the lunch, said a few words. Goodman was also part of the video presentation, Think Change, which included architect, planner, real estate consultant and property developer Michael Geller and Geoff Glotman of the Glotman-Simpson Group of Companies. The video highlighted the work being done by JFSA and the theme that, "Together, we can change the world."
Kawasaki picked up on that theme, after being introduced by Leonard Brody, co-founder and chief executive officer of the NowPublic website.
Kawasaki was born in Hawaii. According to his blog (blog.guykawasaki.com), he went to Stanford University and, after Stanford, attended the law school at University of California Davis "because, like all Asian American parents, my folks wanted me to be a 'doctor, lawyer, or dentist.'" He apparently lasted a week and, the following year, entered the MBA program at UCLA. While there, he worked for a fine-jewelry manufacturer called Nova Stylings.
Currently, Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, and a columnist for Entrepreneur magazine. He is co-founder of Alltop, an online "magazine rack." He has written nine books, including his latest, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging and Outmarketing Your Competition.
His opening remarks at the Innovators Lunch began with something he dearly loves: hockey. "Hence," he said, "it's led me to a great love of Canada. I can honestly tell you, I've never met a Canadian I did not like." He added that it was fun to be at the lunch, at the intersection of several things that he loves: hockey, Canada and "the Jewish community and the Jewish philosophies," the latter of which, he said, he came to love through his part-time work back in the 1970s with Nova Stylings. He got to be quite close to the Jewish family that owned the business and, he said, "Basically, I started my career, literally shlepping diamonds.... I developed this great love of the Jewish culture, of the Jewish people because I really learned lots of the marketing and sales and entrepreneurship of my career working for that company. I'll tell you that the jewelry business is much tougher than the computer business."
Kawasaki then unveiled an Israeli hockey jersey, which he put on to much applause. He said he's been to Israel many times and recommended the Dr. Shakshuka restaurant in Tel Aviv before getting into his talk, The Art of Innovation.
"I'm going to give you a top 10 points of innovation that I'm hoping that JFSA can apply, that you can apply, that you can teach others to apply to make the world a better place," said Kawasaki. In brief, the points were:
1. Make meaning: "I think if you look at the companies and the organizations that are truly successful, it started with the desire, not to make money, but to make meaning," said Kawasaki. "I think that one of the natural consequences of making meaning is that you also make money." He gave the example of Nike, who took some cotton, leather and rubber and, with a meaningful ad campaign, made Nike women's aerobic shoes stand for efficacy, power and liberation.
2. Make a mantra: instead of a long-winded mission statement with a lot of idealistic, broad concepts, create a three- or four-word explanation of why your organization should exist. Kawasaki gave three examples: for Wendy's, "Healthy fast food"; for Nike, "Authentic athletic performance"; for Federal Express couriers, "Peace of mind."
3. Jump to, or create, the next curve: real innovators don't battle it out with their competition on the same curve. Rather, they take their product to the next level/curve.
4. Roll the DICEE: create a product that has Depth (lots of features), is Intelligent (anticipates a consumer's needs), Complete (the after-service, supporting software, etc., are as important as the product itself), Elegant ("you plug them in and they work") and Emotive ("great products generate strong emotions – you love a Harley, you hate a Harley, nobody feels indifferent to a Harley").
5. Don't worry, be crappy: if you wait for all the technology needed to make your product function perfectly, you likely won't jump to the next curve.
6. Polarize people: if you try to make the perfect product that is good for everybody, you will end up with mediocrity.
7. Let 100 flowers blossom: if people use your product for things that you never intended, be thankful and take the money.
8. Churn baby, churn: to be an innovator, you need to be in denial. You need to ignore the naysayers; that is, until you've got the innovation complete and you ship it, then you need to flip and start listening to others again. "It's the most difficult transition to make," said Kawasaki.
9. Niche yourself: you want a unique product that other people value (not just you).
10. Follow the 10-20-30 rule: "Truly, life is a pitch, if you are an innovator," said Kawasaki, explaining that any pitch to potential investors should have a maximum of 10 slides in any PowerPoint presentation, be only 20 minutes long and be prepared in 30-point font.
11. Don't let the bozos grind you down: the bad advice from unsuccessful people is easy to weed out, explained Kawasaki, but it's the bad advice from successful people that can be dangerous to an innovator.
This "bonus" point seems to be a reference to Reality Check, as Kawasaki's blog describes that, "In Silicon Valley slang, a 'bozo explosion' is what causes a lean, mean, fighting machine of a company to slide into mediocrity." The book description continues, "'If the two most popular words in your company are partner and strategic, and partner has become a verb, and strategic is used to describe decisions and activities that don't make sense ... it's time for a reality check."
For more information about JFSA, visit www.jfsa.ca.
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