Think Like A Start-Up

In my recent session at the Marketing Society I talked about the need to think like a start-up.

I'd therefore like to clarify further what I mean by this:

1. Support a test & learn culture
I was once told "The biggest issue with failing in not failing.... it is failing to pick yourself up again afterwards", but this is only part of the approach you need. You must also foster a culture that supports failure when it inevitably does happen, by encouraging innovation and testing to find out what works (and learning from those things that don't).

2. Be prepared to pivot
Accepting you are wrong is a humiliating experience and it is also a viable business strategy if your proposition or market isn't working. Lots of start-ups have changed their business model or product to suit a better customer need.

3. Learn from everyone you can
Big businesses tend to know a lot about their current situation (e.g. their products and typical customer attitudes & other insight). However start-ups learn quickly... they have to. But in my opinion it is their approach to fast learning that interests me.
They ask everyone, from people who have used their website or app just once... through to mentors and others who have done similar things many times before.
They ask about their product or service: what people liked, what they didn't like and more importantly how it could be improved.

Does your company do these things?

Change is the only constant @haydens30 #digitalday2015 think nimbly, think like a start up pic.twitter.com/f3JEhm9zDG

— Tiffany St James (@tiffanystjames) October 1, 2015

Developing Scottish eCommerce

I recently answered a few questions for a press article about eCommerce, following my presentation at a the 'Pixels & Pies 2' event in Edinburgh.

One of these was printed yesterday in The Times Business Insight supplement:

http://www.times-scotland.co.uk/

The latter part of what I wrote was quoted:

The Question?

What themes/issues were most able to help attendees get to grips with in the tourism industry briefing?

The Complete Answer.

My presentation covered the opportunity that eCommerce presents for all industries and in particular the tourism and food & drink ones. I gave several examples of new businesses that are using eCommerce in

different ways and across the international stage. The UK is actually one of the most mature markets for the adoption of eCommerce, both from a supplier/retailer perspective and a buyer/consumer one too. 

We therefore have the opportunity to learn from the fantastic success stories that are out there already, build

or evolve current off-line processes, products & services to suit a growing online population and contribute to the growth of the Scottish economy.

Famous for 15 minutes

(Well, more like 15 seconds)

A great thing happened toward the end of my working day yesterday. I was on http://www.twitter.com/ and an announcement came from Jeremiah Owyang, that the Forrester Marketing Conference was being streamed from the Hyatt Regency hotel in LA. It turned out that he was in the front row of the conference with a hand-held video camera, with an accompanying chat forum running via ustream.tv

I tuned in and watched & listened, first to Forrester Researcher Harvey Manning and then, following the presentation from Brian Haven on Engagement, Jeremiah asked the forum if anyone wanted to ask a question.

A few minutes later, my question was asked by Josh Bernoff at the live event and answered by Brian Haven.

Take a look at the recorded footage:




A big "thank you" to Jeremiah for allowing me to participate in the Q&A session