Fast Company's “Innovation Uncensored” brought together the most creative minds in business for two days of idea exchange. Here’s what they talked about. http://bit.ly/7BigIdeas by Abigail Marks (@nycabby), Director, Strategy & Operations, OgilvyEntertainment

1. by Abigail Marks, Director, Strategy & Operations, OgilvyEntertainment

2. 1
Authenticity is what you do and whose
interests you serve. It’s not what you say.
We seek it out in friendships, relationships,
and as consumers. It is simply irrational
that we aren’t behaving accordingly as
organizations. Being authentic leads to the
development of the most successful and
enduring personal and corporate brands.
Both Mario Batali and Diane von Furstenberg
offered up personal reflections to the
audience, and both have built a brand that is
bigger than themselves or the products they
sell. Diane von Furstenberg is still learning to
grow into the brand DvF has become.
Nancy Lublin, CEO of DoSomething.org,
made it clear that in the world of social
good, the days of supporting a cause based
on the ‘CEO Wish’ are over. Corporations
need to get involved—both authentically
and tactically—with causes that mean
something to their business, employees and
consumers. Young people are hungry to have
an impact on the world around them, and
if your consumers care about something,
you should too. Co-founder and Co-CEO of
Warby Parker, Neil Blumenthal, predicted
that in 20 years, you will not be able to hire
decent talent if don’t put community ideals
above your own. I don’t think it will take that
long.

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I joined in a collective sigh of relief
the moment it happened; even
though there was no name calling,
bad digital and mobile ads received
a public shaming. The lesson: don’t
hate the player, change the game.
Care about consumers’ experiences;
don’t aim to disrupt what they’re trying to do.
To that point, don’t expect an exchange of
value in order to get a consumer to disclose
personal information to the brand. If you
are getting information from a consumer,
use it to improve his or her experience.
Don’t cannibalize the relationship being
established.
Brands can be drivers of social innovation
as well. Alexa Von Tobel, LearnVest CEO,
tackled the taboo of personal debt, the
cost of secondary education and the
inaccessibility to financial planning tools for
those who need it most. The conversation
turned to social change, youth culture
and equality, topics were opened up and
buzzwords were slaughtered, which was all
quite refreshing and effective.

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Great innovation is a balance between the brainpower inside big organizations
and the agility of the fearless. Matt Kingdon, Co-Founder of What If! Partners,
requested that all flowcharts be left at coach check. Innovation isn’t about
fitting into existing boxes and processes. In order to grow, organizations must
play it a bit loose—not just tolerating creativity, but encouraging it.

5. Matt Kingdon reminded us that innovation is
often triggered by those too naïve to be aware
of why something can’t be done. Actively
listen to team members with varying levels of
experience. Innovation is cultural, and as with
any culture, it must be supported, reinforced,
passed down, and and fostered.
After some contemplation, Brian Wong of
Kiip to us that his abilities and talent at such
a young age were borne out of traveling the
world, meeting different cultures and that
most ideas are a subconscious culmination
of his experiences. In a similar thought
Kingdon reminded us, via the a simple
exercise of folding your arms the “wrong”
way, that we need to endure discomfort to
break habits, both physically and mentally.
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6. “Learning by doing” is perfectly acceptable.
Sometimes it is the only way. If the emergency
responders on the East Coast had only relied
upon approved, established channels during
superstorm Sandy, the devastation could
have been even worse. By adapting in real
time, finding means to reach those in need
through Twitter and using other lessons from
previous disasters from the Google crisis
team, the Sandy social media response
forced a rapid digital evolution of emergency
response.
Innovations happen when you take beta
concepts live, sometimes by necessity,
sometimes by opportunity.
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7. As Jack Dorsey, Creator of Twitter and Founder and CEO Square, pointed
out, technology is a great equalizer; it levels the playing field and opens up
competition based on merit. Technology is merely the canvas. It is up to
the creativity of users to put it to use. Gratitude and humility are essential to
learning, collaborating, pivoting, and adapting.
Consumers don’t care about industry models. Individual needs win, every time.
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8. David Droga reminded us that brands can
no longer rely on buying attention. Just in
case anyone didn’t realize it, most television
technology these days is being developed in
an effort to avoid the advertising industry.
Dove’s Fernando Machado revealed that the
best content is developed from the purpose
of a brand. Brands must engage through
meaningful experiences, be that content,
events, communications, or anything else
we can dream up.. As proof of concept,
Dove’s latest project “Real Beauty Sketches”
brought tears to the eyes of many audience
members, who gravitated toward the cultural
insight that only 7% of women think they’re
beautiful. Dove’s sensation, “Real Beauty
Sketches,” is the work of a brand that
understands where its consumers live.
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