Walter | Cooler Insights

The Art of the (internal) Start-up

February 6, 2010 • Blog • 3 comments

Courtesy of A Fresh Start (up)

As some of you may know, I am in the midst of switching portfolios in my organisation and heading to the National Art Gallery, Singapore to lead the corporate services function. Unlike my previous role at the National Heritage Board, this one covers a broader spectrum of responsibilities – from HR, Finance, Admin, Strategic Planning, Policy, Marketing & Communications, to IT. You can say that it stretches from conceptualisation, development, funding, and staffing to communication, reporting and implementation.

Due to the start-up nature of the institution (which just celebrated its first birthday), many things need to be put in place. It has certainly been an exhilarating couple of weeks thus far, and I look forward to more excitement ahead.

Creating Exceptional Customer Experiences

January 30, 2010 • Business and Management • 3 comments

Courtesy of Inside Retail HK

How can retail and service businesses differentiate themselves through service?

That is the age-old problem faced by numerous consumer-facing businesses here in Singapore and everywhere around the world.

Your Most Important Stakeholders

January 25, 2010 • Blog • 1 comment

Courtesy of CoverUps.com

There are two things which are absolutely vital in ensuring organisational success:

1) Hire the right people.

Infinitesimal Improvements

January 18, 2010 • Blog • 3 comments

Courtesy of “Shanty” Cheryl

As we start a fresh new week, I thought its useful to consider for a moment how we can do things differently. It doesn’t have to be a huge paradigm shifting, game changing milestone, but just a smallish innovation that defies conventional wisdom. And nope, these aren’t New Year resolutions or anything as noble as that. However, they can apply equally at work, at home, at school, at church, or anywhere else.

The idea behind this is to gradually improve in baby steps which are less daunting than taking a huge leap into the unknown. They can be as small as replacing an unhealthy breakfast item (say fried bacon) with a healthy one (say a slice of guava), or perhaps slightly larger – like reading at least 15 minutes to half an hour every day. Doing something small and easy allows one to pick the low hanging fruits, boosting one’s morale and equipping one towards larger and bolder pursuits in life.

For me, I’m going to try to blog at least once every other day, no matter how tired, busy or lazy I feel. Writing gets better the more you do it, and the only way to open that tap is to just keep turning it.

If the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, forget about moving the world. Instead, begin by moving that itsy bitsy little obstacle in your life first.

Anointing Your Advocates

January 16, 2010 • Blog • 2 comments

Advocacy Gone Awry (Courtesy of Taejin “TJ” Moon)

I chanced upon a brilliant post by Jeremiah Owyang, renowned web strategist and thought leader, on Advocacy Marketing. This new form of Word Of Mouth marketing is different from the traditional areas as advocates are like members of your inner circle – your best customers so to speak.

Quoting from Jeremiah:

Anatomy of a Brand

January 14, 2010 • Content Marketing • 1 comment

Are these brands or logos? (Courtesy of search-this.com)

What is a brand? How does one understand the art and science of branding in the digital driven age?

First, a brand is not a logo. Certainly, logos represent one dimension in the embodiment of corporate or product brands. However, they are just a visual representation and a signpost rather than the true meaning of the brand itself.

Suprising versus Satisfying Your Customers

January 12, 2010 • Blog • disabled comments

Surprising Them May Be Better Than Satisfying Them (Courtesy of Anthony Cain)

In many B-schools, the mantra for marketing goes something like this:

Do surveys and profile studies to determine what your target customers prefer.

Imagination versus Pragmatism

January 8, 2010 • Blog • disabled comments

Dubai was all about the dream without the reality, and landed itself with a huge debt. (courtesy of Bobesh)

There are two school of thoughts in marketing. The first belongs to the world of imagination while the second is centred on pragmatism. Do these spheres of marketing always have to sit on opposite poles?

Let us look at this in some detail.

Author: coolerinsights