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e-commerce The BOP approach
E-commerce The BOP Approach by: Arvind Kumar This research work for this report is done by Mr. Arvind Kumar, founder, www.Nuttymarketer.com You may reach him at arvind@nuttymarketer.com . For centuries and most of the decades in the 20th century...
Innovation Management – Ignoring Content
A useful approach when generating ideas is simply to ignore content. Evaluating content is a hindrance rather than an enhancer. If the people who wrote Red Riding Hood had realised the number of interpretations and analysis it was going to receive,...
Is Innovation Dead?
You can tell it's quiet out there in the world of new products when the biggest introductions this season both come from Microsoft, the X Box and the XP platform. Though these new items are getting some buzz from tech journalists, the coverage...
Patience Not Panic: Survive and Thrive Through Economic Turbulence
From 28,000 feet, snow still spots parts of Michigan, Illinois and other states further West. The earth looks brown and barren, dark and ugly from this vantage point. But I know that if I could walk the fields and wait patiently, I’d see signs of...
Strong competitive moves should always be blocked.
Most companies have only one chance to win, but leaders have
two. If a leader misses an opportunity to attack itself, the
company can often recover by copying the competitive move. But
the leader must move rapidly before the attacker...
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Making Profitable Lemonade From Lemons!
This October 31 turned cold, wet and dreary across Chicago and its suburbs. A rotten night for Halloween. And it could have been a lousy night for this business traveler, cheered only by the prospect of conducting an interactive team session the next day for an area bank.
But Halloween evening was anything but cheerless at the 421-room Arlington Park Hilton in Arlington Heights, IL. Creativity, energy, and vision produced an event that not only garnered immediate press and local attention, but is also sure to have long-term residual effects for new business. Take heed and see what ideas you can extrapolate for your business. Here's the recipe:
First ingredient: a lemon. In the hotel business, that means low occupancy. Second: a surrounding residential neighborhood with growing families, schools, businesses, and senior citizens. Third: An empowered and creative director of catering, a town mayor, an eager-to-have-fun-high-energy hotel team from sales, catering, and conference services. Fourth: a dash of courage and a generous dash of money. Mix well with laughter, fun, and childhood fantasy.
The result: a Halloween party for 3,000 children, their parents and 150 younger-than-Springtime folks over 65 years of age, an energized work force, tremendous goodwill, increased awareness of the hotel, and lots of press.
But this event did not occur by magic. It first took the Director of Catering, Samantha Agnew, to realize that lemonade could be made from the seasonal low of room count and meeting rooms. The hotel approached senior citizens for their help, offering a free room and dinner for Halloween if the seniors would decorate their hotel door of Halloween, pass out a hotel-furnished pillow case of candy to the children walking down the halls, and take fliers out to the local grade schools to get attendance.
Response was overwhelming. Parking was at such a premium that a shuttle ran excited children and their relieved parents to and from their cars. The third and fourth floors were taken over by senior citizens who decorated not only their doors but also themselves. One high-flying grandmother even wore a burlap dress and
proclaimed herself "an old bag".
Fifty high school volunteers were fed dinner and then served as guides taking children through both floors. The hotel staff dressed in costume and worked the haunted house, a dozen carnival games, the movies, arts & crafts, and a storytelling session.
The town mayor, Arlene Mulder, greeted the guests in her best Minnie Mouse dress. The hotel's in-house production company, The Meeting House, festooned fixtures with cobwebs, built the sets, and created special effects. The children were bug-eyed with delight and amazingly well behaved for all the adrenaline rush that comes from make-believe and "treats".
Did the parents love it? You bet! No worry about rain, darkness, safety, or dangerous play.
And what about the hotel's paying guests? I can only speak for myself. The tiny clowns, brides, animals, spooks, power rangers, Alladins, lion kings, cowboys, and cowgirls carried me back to a time when I played outside at dark, carried flashlights with Mom & Dad, and warmed my cold hands with hot chocolate. The twins who appeared as oreo cookies, the miniature Charlie Chaplin (even to his walk), and the youngster who came as a quilted bag of M&Ms assured me that creativity and innovation were not dead.
There are lessons to be gleaned from Hilton's experience. What might you do to involve employees, community, and untapped resources that could generate short, mid-term, and long terms gains? Or are the people with budgetary controls concerned more with what they'll lose rather than what they will gain? What would it take to see possibilities rather than problems?
As for me, I think I had better call now for my next Halloween reservation. This first-time event is, I'm sure, destined to become an annual treat.
About the Author
Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE, is an international speaker, author and seminar leader. Her book ‘Work for A Living and Still Be Free to Live’ is also the title of one of her most popular and upbeat programs on Work/Life Balance. For more information on Eileen and her presentations, please call 949-496-8640 or visit her web site at http://www.eileenmcdargh.com.
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| DTI - Welcome to the DTI's Innovation Home Page |
| The DTI is working to stimulate a significant increase in innovation throughout ... It covers Living Innovation, web streaming of a series of high profile ... |
| www.dti.gov.uk |
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| Innovation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| An innovation in this light occurs whether or not the act of innovating ... A convenient definition of innovation from an organizational perspective is ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| National Innovation Website |
| The Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources has developed this website to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of innovation and ... |
| www.innovation.gov.au |
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| Innovation, creativity and brainstorming resources from ... |
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| www.innovationtools.com |
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| Innovation Weblog - Trends, resources, viewpoints from Chuck Frey ... |
| The Innovation Weblog - Valuable trends, resources and viewpoints in innovation, creativity and brainstorming from Chuck Frey at InnovationTools. |
| www.innovationtools.com |
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| CORDIS: Innovation Portal: Home |
| This Innovation Portal is supported by DG ENTR of the European Commission, ... European Commission adopts new Communication on Innovation: on 13 September ... |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| CORDIS: Promotion of Innovation: Home |
| This programme stands at the cross-roads of the Community's policies on Research, Innovation and SMEs. |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| Innovation Network... leveraging innovation, creativity and ... |
| The Innovation Network is an association of companies and employees committed to innovation. The site features some interesting articles as well as some fun ... |
| www.thinksmart.com |
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| Business Innovation : Car Reviews, Online Gaming, and Product Branding |
| If your in need of great Online Gaming material, we carry up to the minute news and reviews for all of your favorite games and gaming systems. |
| www.businessweek.com |
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| Innovation - Life, Inspired | PBS |
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| www.pbs.org |
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| Innovation.org - Welcome |
| Impact of Innovation Saving & Improving Lives Controlling Healthcare Costs Strengthening ... Future of Innovation New Medicines in Development Next Wave of ... |
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| Innovation Relay Centres - The World Largest Network for ... |
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| irc.cordis.lu |
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| The Tech Museum of Innovation | Welcome |
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| www.thetech.org |
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| innovation |
| Publication highlighting the research activities of NUS. The site provides snippets of selected articles online, and provides a subscription form online. |
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| Canadian Innovation Centre |
| Services includes invention evaluation, technology due diligence, market research, and education programs. |
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| London INNOVATION :: Home |
| Maximise your business potential through innovation. Learn the secrets of successful business innovation in London. |
| www.london-innovation.org.uk |
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| Eric Von Hippel's Homepage |
| Downloadable Books. Democratizing Innovation (2005) ... The Sources of Innovation (1988). Free download of the complete book. Permission granted by Oxford ... |
| web.mit.edu |
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| Intel Innovation in Education |
| www.intel.com/education/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pages |
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