Empathy drives innovation... how

I have written stuff about empathy before. But seeing this interesting book through the frog design blog it has given me a different angle to the same problem.

So there is a lot on looking at empathy for your customers outside the company walls ...which is great. But what about empathy inside the company walls. What about your staff and understanding what motivates them. How about walking a day in their shoes to gain a better understanding of how to truly connect and engage them in your future. Staff can often be the most tangible elements of your business. Gaining empathy for them and their situation will have the roll on affect to your customers. Everybody has dealt with someone who doesnt want to be in their job and someone who does. The difference is often small things like having a better understanding of the mission of the business. They feel they have been listened to, that their is an open culture to share opinions, that they have a sense of input in their future. Similar to the Hawthorne Effect which I have brought up before. So maybe you should start by looking at your staff first.

BUT... why cant we treat our customers with similar style ideas. How can we have a regular monthly staff meeting with customers. Innocent in the UK invited anyone and everyone to their annual general meeting. What about the company newsletter or the company away day. What about an employee performance review.. how would you do those for your customers.

Could be an interesting way to show your empathy for both groups of people...

Innocent open the door to the Ivory Tower

Not that I believe Innocent have ever lived in an 'Ivory Tower' like most other brands. But I am kind of obsessed with how the digital world is opening up the doors of most operations as consumer have more information and in turn more power to change what they want from companies and brands. Innocent's recent open AGM is a brillant example of how they are truely opening the door and getting their 'drinkers' involved in their busines. Check it out over here

Can you steal brands across countries ??

A few years back when I was living in Aus. They launched a smoothie brand called Nudie. It was highly regarded as the way forward in creating a new brand/product. It was utilised to depict athe way companies will turn in mass in a world of product parity. It was all about the way it was developed, purely from a brand perspective as opposed to a product one and I got addicted to them. A key player in the industry also helped his mate to launch it, so it added to the PR.

Then the truth came out............

Both the brand and product idea were stolen from a brand in the UK called Innocent which had done it all before.

Can you steal 'the full brand experience' or even a product from another country? A lot of the tactics that were used by both companies were detailed in the book 'the Pirate Inside'.

But the idea is the same......