Savvy Saturday April 27th, 2018

In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.

– Seth Godin

Reflection on Transformation

Peter Drucker predicted that by 2020 a new world – completely different from our grandparents’ reality – would exist. Drucker, father of modern management, explained in a 1992 essay for Harvard Business Review, that “every few hundred years throughout Western history, a sharp transformation has occurred. In a matter of decades, society altogether rearranges itself – its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions.”

To live through transformation is to experience how society rearranges itself over the course of time; it is to live our grandparents’ reality along with our children’s triumphs and challenges.

At a young age, I was given the opportunity to participate in a bygone age; an era of sailing ships, slow travel, unchartered waters, and traditional navigational tools like steering by compass and navigating by stars and sextant. I grew up on sailboats; traditional wooden sailing ships that had very few comforts beyond a bunk, a well-stocked galley kitchen, and a solidly built hull and rigging.

My childhood prepared me for thinking about transformation. Experiencing the shining Southern Cross constellation, dolphins playing at the bow, lava rolling into a frothy sea off the Hawaiian Islands, or voices joined in chorus to accompany raising sails is the best way to learn that we are part of something bigger – an ecosystem beyond our own “world.”

In business we are also part of ecosystems and our connections to networks, to ideas, and to each other means that we must stay relevant, interested, and moving towards bettering our organizational practices in a completely transformed (and dynamic) reality.

Transformation is about profound change but it may be our connection to the simple (yet important) things that guide us through. My work in Marketing and Strategy is about finding and expressing those connections to heart and meaning as well as learning through insights, conversations, and sheer determination how best to create, market, and adapt the products and services we deliver to our clients and stakeholders. In a broader context or ecosystem, we must align ourselves with human interest, values, and a larger purpose in order to stay meaningful and be relevant as the world changes around us.

Aristotle said that society is something that precedes the individual. If society undergoes change we cannot look to further individual or even organizational goals but rather explore how those goals connect us to something larger. That’s what carries us through transformation and what carries a ship safely through unchartered waters.

Esther Clark, April 2019

Savvy Saturday April 14th

The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. – Socrates

Visual Business Inspiration

Did you know that Ford made typewriters? Now you do… business inspiration for those who enjoy seeing brands evolve and change. – EMC

Savvy Saturday October 21, 2017

Today’s savvy thought comes from Peter Drucker and from one of the objectives of the Founder of the Global Peter Drucker Forum, Richard Straub. As I prepare for the upcoming Forum in Vienna in just a few weeks, I am also pondering the theme of the Forum: Growth and Inclusive Prosperity.

 

 

Savvy Saturday October 14th, 2017

No legacy is so rich as honesty – William Shakespeare

 

 

 

Savvy Saturday October 7, 2017

This weekend, Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving. In the spirit of gratitude, I am sharing with you a quote that calls us to live appreciation and not just “say thanks”. In business, as in life, gratitude and appreciation is characteristic of great leaders, mentors, teachers and friends. Happy Thanksgiving!

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
John F. Kennedy

Savvy Saturday September 9th, 2017

A person who feels appreciated will always do more than expected.

Savvy Saturday August 26th, 2017

Why do we need great writers? Because they are integral in building our brand and our following. Because they help articulate our values and our beliefs. Because they help paint the vision that our followers, our tribe or our organization are working towards. They help us lead by example through articulation of our actions. Writing is a reflection of our thinking and of ourselves – whether as people, as organizations or as society.

From “The Written Word”  by Esther Clark.

 

Savvy Saturday August 18th, 2017

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” – Bill Gates