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Did you know?

I saw this YouTube video yesterday in a meeting at UCI. "Did you know?" was designed as a wake up call to our education system. But it is also a sobering reality check for marketers. We are attempting to solve the unknown challenges of tomorrow with yesterday's tools and beliefs. True in education. True in business. Take a look.

Comments

2010 said…
Harvard Business Review a few years back had an article titled "America's Creativity Crisis." It said that the greatest economic challenge facing the U.S. has little to do competition from China or India.

And more to do with a decline in the creativity of its population. (great advances come from ideas which come from our people). Rising nations have learned from the U.S., ie attract foreign talent. This article said should we lose even 2% of our popluation to foreign markets, the effect on our economy would be huge.

The wake up call is certainly for academia, as well as for our government: Teach creativity, foster advances in education and welcome all those millions of college graduates from China and India into our human capital - then see what happens.
David Murphy said…
Good point. Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship have long driven our economy. We cannot lose that. A good debate is whether we need to teach more creativity or merely stop punishing creativity. We're taught at an early age to color within the lines!
Craig Kleber said…
This may come as a left field comment, but I believe America's love of innovation (American style) is coming to bite it in the butt. This country has so happily chased the new, the latest that very little value has been put in to seeing and appreciating the longer term. One result has been the relative weakness of American brands amongst its own educated wealth - especially in automobiles. What Harley Earl was pursuing vs. Butzi Porsche in terms of styling/design has Porsche where it is today (most profitable large car manufacturer in the world)and Cadillac clinging to and recycling a brashness of personality that seems as crass as its cars. Going for the quick buck has its downsides, please Wall St. in the next quarter and kill the brand in the next decade!

My point is that I hope Americans see the American innovation worth recaputuring is as much or more that of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Walt Disney and John Browing. Lasting innovation that is worth buying across the globe. And as a mature economy, with a highly developed middle class perhaps the German, Japanese and Italian approaches may be the better bet. vs. the seductively dazzling success of China or India.

One wonders how many Americans in marketing today would agree with Butzi Porsche's belief "A good product must be respectable. Good design is not fashion" - it may be a little dry but my god it has done well for them.
Don Longfellow said…
Thanks for making me aware of the "Did you know" video... pretty eye opening stuff.

It reminded me of a tour we did at UCI a few years back.

In the morning the Business school presented projects they were doing in areas such as price elasticity, ROI metrics, share vs. profit... all important stuff.

In the afternoon the School of the Arts presented how theyy were using holograms to show a dance performance on a stage in California that was actually happening live in New York. They also showed us a multimedia presentation room with video screens and kiosks as an experiment in how we communicate with each other.

My future in marketing communications felt like it was coming to life in those projects at the Scool of the Arts. Very creative. Verry innovative thinking.

BTW - I agree with the previous post about the need for lasting innovation and a commitment to the long term. I also don't see more innovative, creative thinking in business as contradicting that.
David Murphy said…
There have been good articles written about the role of design theory in solving business problems. It is an increasingly fertile route to lasting solutions and innovations. Hence the rise of D-schools challenging the traditional B-school curriculum. Design theory pushes us to solve business challenges through an intimate understanding of customers (not demos) and our unarticulated needs, an appreciation of aesthetics that inspire, and functional design that simplifies.

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