With new figures from the British Government showing nearly half of internet users are now connecting via their mobile phones, we need to look at the impact of the rise of the mobile internet around the globe.

A few weeks ago,  my colleague Dean Ashraf related a story to me about a training course he had taken. It was an external course to learn a new computer programme, and was filled with a random assortment of people from different companies who had never met one another before. At lunch, all the participants grabbed some sandwiches and spent a few minutes making small talk. And then, to a man, they all retreated to corners of the room to pull out Blackberries and iPhones to check emails, catch up on the news, update their Facebook status, etc.

Some may call it the death of sand etiquette; I, however, call it progress. A few years ago, these people would have had to spend 45 minutes in forced and bland small talk with strangers they were never going to see again, and probably had little in common with. Today, however, they are able instead to spend the time being productive, or at least doing something they wanted to do.

This experience of being in a room full of people, all interacting with people miles away rather than those around them, is now replicated all over the world. The McCann Worldgroup global survey The Truth About Youth identified a generation of young people who live their lives online, and feel utterly lost without their mobile devices. However, it’s worth reminding ourselves how new this phenomenon is, and how explosively it has entered the mainstream of society. In January 2006, the 0.6 terabytes of data were downloaded via the Opera Mini browser (considered a proxy for use of mobile internet). By April 2011, that figure had reached 954 terabytes. That’s a 150,000% increase in use in a little over 5 years – pretty mind-blowing.

We are now at the point in the UK where mobile usage is starting to rival traditional Internet access. Recently, the Office for National statistics (ONS) released data showing that nearly half (50%) of internet users in the UK access the internet via their mobile phone in 2011, a figure that rises to 71% if you look at 16-24 year olds. And the mobile shift is set to continue, with Smartphone Internet use set to overtake desktop use within the next 5 years.

However impressive these numbers are, though, the real story of the success of the mobile internet is in the developing world. Across Africa, Asia and South America, internet evolution has been seen to skip a stage, with countries shunning the development of vast, extensive fibre optic networks and opting instead to develop extensive mobile networks. In February 2011, India, a country of 1.1 billion people, had 785 million mobile internet connections, compared to a mere 32 million dial-up and broadband connections.

The development of this technology is democratising the Internet, with access expanding rapidly, even to remote and economically deprived areas of the developing world. The potential social benefits of this increased access to the resources of the internet for these communities are many and various. Already, previously excluded communities are seeing how the mobile internet can help them to close the gap on the developing world.

Most apparent recently have been the impacts on political structures across the developing world where widespread mobile internet access has proven a real boon to free speech. Repressive regimes have found speech on the Internet much harder to control than traditional means of political organisation. In Egypt, a country were 70% of Internet users never use a computer to access the Internet, relying solely on mobile phones, the speed and reach social networking communications played a decisive role in the organisation of the Arab Spring protests which lead to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak after 30 years of totalitarian rule.

However, less dramatic benefits are also being seen; communities are also exploiting the resources of the Internet to improve their economic outlook. Previously, producers have suffered from an asymmetry of information when it came to selling their products. Now, Indian farmers are using the mobile Internet to check price information and exploit price disparities to their own benefit. In Kenya, a mobile application called M-Pesa (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money), which allows users to receive and repay micro-credit loans without visiting a branch is improving access to seed capital and is now being used by over 6 million small business people.

These are just a few examples of the many way the mobile Internet is changing the face of communities across the developing world, and helping them to engage with the world on a more equal footing. To me, the best thing about these developments are that they are the result not of any overseas intervention, but an organic development driven by people’s choices. Change of this pace and scale will doubtless cause issues as previously isolated communities take giant steps towards the wider world. But the positive benefits will hugely outweigh any negatives and will provide the hope of a better life for millions of people.

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We often get clients calling us up and saying : “We want to make a viral video”.

As we know by now, viral videos are not made–they happen. If the content is amazing, if it’s an experience that people will gladly, enthusiastically share with their friends, that’s viral.

Here are three top viral videos, with millions of views on YouTube and other peripheral viewing channels and blogs, that meet this definition:

“My BlackBerry Is Not Working”

“The Force” Volkswagen TV Commercial

“Walls” for BMW 1M

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You know things are different the moment you step out of the shower in the morning.

“Honey!” your wife trills. “I’ve made BREAKfast for you!”

In a moment of sheer panic you wildly scan the bathroom to make sure you haven’t somehow showered in the wrong house. But this is, in fact, your bathroom; ergo, however unimaginable her behavior, that must be your wife.

You dress quickly, and step downstairs into wafting drafts of delicious smells. Bacon, hot rolls, coffee. Bewildered, you set into your meal. Your wife is wearing makeup. Her hair us up in a do. She may even be wearing false eyelashes, which she bats at you unironically.

“And I’ve made a special LUNCH for you!” she continues. “Here!”

She hands you a 1950’s aluminum lunchbox.

“Meatloaf!” she exclaims, and looks at you adoringly.

Fortified accordingly, you’re off to work. The people around you are in on it. A stranger walking his dog smiles at you and says, “Lookin’ sharp!” When you miss the trashcan with a useless receipt, an old lady with a cane painfully bends over to retrieve it, saying, “Dearie, let me get that for you.”

On the train people are deferential. Everybody seems enormously pleased to see you. A kid with a skateboard and a tattoo on his neck offers you his seat. You take it hesitantly. A man wearing coveralls pats the kid on the shoulder, and the kid smiles with self-satisfied contentedness.

The guard at your office building greets you exuberantly.

“Good day! Good DAY, sir!”

“Yes,” you agree. “It is, isn’t it? It’s been a really, really good day, hasn’t it?”

He laughs jovially, as if he’s distantly related to Santa Claus. “Indeed!” he chuckles good-naturedly. “Indeed it is! So VERY good of you to say so!”

As you walk away, you hear him chuckles the word “Capital!” to himself.

By mid-afternoon it begins to wear on you. Your boss, the people in line at the coffee shop, mothers with strollers and even their infants—the entire world seems is involved in some kind of sycophantic conspiracy. For fun, you try to pick a fight with the sour Admin lady at your company, but she lets your provocation go with perfect equanimity.

After you’re dropped off at home by an astonishingly friendly and interesting colleague you’ve never taken the time to get to know, you open your front door.  By now, your hands are shaking with nearly uncontrollable anger. One more kind word, one more generous gesture, even the barest hint of a smile, and God help you you’ll pull the house apart with your bare hands, board by lousy damned board.

You shove the door open and announce with menace, “I’m home.”

And from the TV room you hear the spectacularly comforting statement, “Terrific, let’s have a fucking parade.”

The fury floods out of you. It’s followed close upon by a wave of gratitude towards the unloving, sardonic wife you’ve come to need so much.

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Borders: he name rings loud and clear for most of us who’ve walked by their red facades at malls or their black awnings that sheltered the homeless from the elements. For me, Borders had a very personal and deep connection. As an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Borders was a shining case study of how to grow a business and ultimately how to destroy one, too. The brick-walled haven on East Liberty was always a place to get books I’d never heard of and certainly ones that never made the New York Times’ bestseller lists. But it was the people that made the store so much more than just any other standardized Borders that I now walk into in Dubai.

In our line of business, and as the truth hunters before me have represented, there is an infinite power in the collective wisdom of people: People who know what they want and people who want to share that with others. I don’t want to glorify folks in advertising, but we’re all a bunch of faceless warriors. We make brands famous without ever showing off a byline to tell the world that we’ve done it. For recognition, we turn to our trade mags. Borders No. 1, as I will always remember, was one such place. From the epic science-fiction section to the breakaway on Russian literature, No. 1 would make sure that you either found what you were looking for or helped you discover it. The former part of this scenario is very dictated as much of the design and creation models that businesses have today rely on the knowledge that people are looking for them. But it is the latter that is so much more important.

Discovery is the key to helping people find what they wouldn’t otherwise. Publishers know this best as they get the best editors in the world to create magazines that curate content for the everyman that can’t go around looking for it. Its for this reason that I sometimes wonder why editors today are even called that. They should be called Curators. And that is exactly where Borders got it all wrong too.

As a place that is teeming with books on everything from “Catcher in the Rye” to “Javascript for Dummies” and the latest Hustler to travel guides for Timbuktu, Borders never really could build the curation model. It instead left this to the world and slowly they lost their edge. If I wanted a bookshop, I could find many others and we did. Barnes & Nobles, Coles, Kinokuniya, Magrudy’s, Gandhi… the list is endless.

Its exactly here that I believe we need to change the way we need to take this example as a parallel for everything else that we create. The world today is so busy with so many things to see and so many things to do that you need to create something that finds them. Help them discover it and they will come. If you reach out to them hoping that they understand you as you do, they’ll probably never get here. People will define their own paths to get to the destination. All we can do is build roads for them and lead them there.

Two years ago, I found myself in an inspiring workshop by Daniel Burka, the creative director behind Digg. While ‘-isms’ were thrown around aplenty, his suggestion to pick up a copy of “How Buildings Learn” stuck with me. So awed by the parallelism that Stewart Brand draws in this book, I gave up my lunch hour before the the next session to pick a copy at, would you believe it – Borders. A Borders unlike No. 1, but it did the job.

One of the shining examples that comes from Stewart Brand’s take on architecture is the design of the walkways at MIT. In a class project, students were asked to create the best path from the street to a building on campus. Most set out to define the shortest path and the areas for best access. Some even drew straight lines. Much as we do today in advertising and brand building. However, it was one student who waited out the entire fall semester to come up with a design at the end. Over the four months, she would take photographs from the roof of the building, creating a timelapse of change that was happening on the ground. The result was phenomenal. What she found was that over time, people walking on the grass had created paths themselves. Where the grass was thinner and flat and couldn’t grow, she found the solution to her problem. People would walk across the grass and created a natural route undefined by systems or planning. It was a natural progression.

With advertising, we find ourselves in the same spot today. We will continue to create content for people. And while I won’t discount the traditional mediums of outreach, on the digital front user experience and accessibility is now being defined through dynamic channels that change paths and routes everyday. The masses will get there if we nudge them ever so slightly, as involuntarily as possible along the way to get here, to the dark side. While Borders never could understand the scope of letting people find them for what they wanted, we truth hunters shouldn’t let this wisdom pass. Borders gave the world over four hundred standard stores and much like Amazon, that sold them CDs, toys and everything else that bookworms don’t need. It became a classic example of letting the final destination change from a knowledgeable curator to a pick-what-you-want grocery store.

Borders No.1 will be shuttered and we will lose an icon like many that have gone before it. All because they failed to understand that it wasn’t merely aesthetics and diversity that influenced buying models in the world of books. They were letting people walk out of their stores without the infinite wisdom of what they knew best – books. It would be a shame if we let people do the same with the content and innovations we create. Becoming an educator on why our themes connect people will only leave them feeling stronger about us.

I may have jumped the gun on quite a few themes above, but here is the gist for the readers who saw an essay and proceeded all the way down to these closing lines: Content will get to people on social and digital platforms if it is strong enough. The same will work on ground too. Are you just a pretty face or do you have truth to share?

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Brazil has enjoyed an unusual amount of economic success in the last few years, despite the world’s economic situation. The liquidity crisis in 2008-09 barely affected the nation. In fact, the GDP of Brazil grew 7.5 % in 2010 and is expected to increase by 4% in 2011.

A few years ago, Brazil was the 10th GDP in the world. Now it is the seventh. Ours is a very affluent society, especially in the biggest cities. That is exemplified by the prominence of luxury goods. For example, Brazil is the second-largest market for Montblanc products globally. And São Paulo is the only city in the world to have three Tiffany stores. Brazil also created the second fleet of helicopters and private jets in the world. But this strength can also be seen in terms of income distribution. In the past eight years, almost 30 million people joined the middle class in Brazil.

But the greatest news is that the economy will be driven even further because Brazil is becoming the epicenter of sports in the coming years. The two biggest sporting events in the world will take place here: the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in Rio 2016. But that’s not all. We have the Confederations Cup in 2013, plus a series of world championships from different sports modalities which will be part of the games in 2015, as part of the tests of the Olympic facilities.

The most important athletes, the greatest idols, press, authorities and — most important of all — FANS will be heading to Brazil and, right after them, great brands and huge investments.

This environment will bring enormous opportunity. Take a look at the global sports industry. It moves $1 trillion a year. How much of that goes to Brazil? Only 3%. Imagine what will happen with the proximity of the forthcoming events — investments shall increase at an incredibly fast pace. World Cup and Olympics will have a direct impact on the country’s economy of an estimated $60 billion, with huge upward projections for the next 20 years.

The country has begun its transformation in anticipation of the upcoming events. Stadiums and arenas are being refurbished. And plans for modernizing our infrastructure, like airports and subways, are finally being approved. The Brazilian business environment is feverish with these opportunities and is creating relationships with confederations, athletes and sponsorship consultancies. It is a brand new world to be explored with a focus on marketing strategy, activations and events.

So how can businesses and brands take advantage of this perfect storm? First, there needs to be a focus on the behavior and consumption drives of sports fans. The new generation of fans interact with sports in both Physical and Digital arenas. The ultimate mission for brands should be to direct all efforts and initiatives towards turning sports fans into brand fans. This is the key to marketing success across all of the upcoming sporting events in Brazil.

But, dealing with Brazilian fans can be tricky. Here are a few tips:

• First of all, Brazil is located in Latin America, but has a personality all its own. The country is filled with Portuguese-speaking people that do not identify themselves with Argentinians, Colombians or Peruvians. So if you want to be there, you need to think locally. Do not try to simply transplant a good strategy that worked in Mexico or Uruguay; if you do so, you are flirting with disaster.
• In Brazil, people have a hearty sense of humor. If something bad happens, rest assured, it won’t take someone very long to make a joke about it. Therefore, a humorous approach to marketing is half the battle in achieving success in our country.
• Finally, Brazilians are absolutely passionate about soccer. The National Team yellow t-shirt is considered almost sacred amongst the population. Brazil is the only country to be a five-time world champion, and its citizens are very proud of this achievement.

Because of our love for sports, every Brazilian sees him/herself as a hero through its National Teams. And international brands have to deal with this passion with respect and emotion in addition to reaching them on both the physical and digital fields. This is the best way to captivate Brazilian fans. By doing that, they will be more than just fans; they will be brand ambassadors. And there is nothing better than that.

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In the advertising industry, PowerPoint presentations are ubiquitous–used to show creative and strategic work to clients, to share information with colleagues, and to pitch new ideas. They are also quite commonly deployed at industry events. The nickname for these documents is “decks”, as in, “I’ll send you the deck tomorrow.” In Deck The Halls, we are going to share some of the more creative decks we see from around our network. The deck below is The Digital Heart. It was created by Karina Hillestad, a copywriter at MediaFront Digital/McCann Worldgroup Oslo.
–The Editor

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The year 2010 kick-started the decade of innovation. We have seen the emerging sophistication and creativity in cross-disciplinary communication and platform convergence as consumers are taking leaps into the digital world and brands are fully embracing the spirit of the digital age.

We have witnessed the major trends and developments in “social” everything–social media, social shopping, social gaming, social group buying, etc. Put simply, everything consumers do is getting social. In this context, what matters is what consumers decide to be worth talking about, and what matters is what is getting into consumers’ streams of attention.

This brings us to the challenge of what it takes for brands and businesses to matter to consumers’ lives in the post-digital era where change is rapid and newness never lasts. As consumers are transforming, it becomes vital for brands and businesses to transform and disrupt markets in which they live. And this is why innovation has become the new buzzword, because the focus is on transforming disruptive technology into industry-leading, innovative, multi-disciplinary communication.

We predict three innovations in technology-enabling experiences that will become the game-changers in the 2012 and beyond.

1)   New Media Invention Enhances Real-Life Experience

Technology defines consumers. As technology becomes fast-paced and sophisticated, the same is true for consumers. Online behaviors are reshaping other areas of life as never before. In this social-media-saturated culture, consumers are living the liberated “anything-anytime-anywhere” mindset and it becomes difficult for brands and businesses to break through the clutter.

In hope of drawing consumers’ attention and creating engaging experiences in the real world while at the same time spurring “virtual” talk-of-the-town momentum, innovations in communication technology are taking center stage. Some of the latest technologies taking the world by storm are 3D projection mapping, 3D hologram, multi-touch surfaces, along with integrated object recognition. It is the era of the “unseen”–digital made tangible works wonder.

2)   Cross-Platform Convergence Becomes A Reality

As consumers are gradually multitasking and embracing many touch points in a day as they are on-the-go, we can no longer possibly see one touch point as a silo or treat it as stand alone.

Communication in the future will have to leverage multiple touch points and go cross-platform in pursuit of creating a better experience through convergence. This means traditional and new media will be intertwined to the extent that they become inseparable. Screen Hopping, Location-Based Services, Gamification, Augmented Reality, QR Codes, enhanced with Mobile and Tablets Apps, are the key transformational technologies. We are at the critical point when “convergence’” becomes a reality.

3)   Live Interactive Participation Moves Brand Experience

Living in real-time real-location, consumers’ expectations about the experiences surrounding them are changing. To engage them requires technology-enabling interactions that give life to the touch points consumers interact with.

Combining location and real-time data, interactions will get more fanciful, more sensorial and more “live”. And this will be achieved through technologies like Gesture-based interaction, live interactive outdoor, experiential retail concept and co-creation of experience. There is no better time to engage consumers through a personalized “live” experience and a real-time real-location charm.

The innovation that matters is one that accentuates and expands the “social” element communication. Real innovation means that once a person has an experience, they want to share it with the world around them. And that is the new milestone for brands and businesses to achieve.

The real challenge is not only about what technology offers, but how we redefine and redesign technology to touch consumers’ lives and allow them to share experiences in a more meaningful way. And that is why innovation matters in a world where consumers are constantly redefining what will happen next.

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A lot has been written about the use of Myers Briggs Personality Type and how that translates to the workplace.  After taking the test, all I can remember is that I’m an introvert and that my wife and I are exact opposites in every category.

So if things like I.S.F.P. and E.N.T.J. leave you scratching your head, here’s another method to help keep your work relationships harmonious.

Through 30 years of Marriage Counseling experience, Pastor/Counselor/Author Gary Chapman has identified that each of us feels or perceives love in, primarily, one of 5 different ways.  He refers to these as the 5 Love Languages:

1. Acts of service

2. Physical Touch

3.  Quality Time

4. Receiving Gifts

5. Words of Affirmation

The concept is that if someone is not speaking your “Love Language”, their efforts to make you feel appreciated could be falling short.   One of the biggest problems is that we tend to project our language to others.

So, in a business sense, if my primary Love Language is Words of Affirmation, then I’ll tend to use that to pass out accolades and appreciation. But if someone on my team has Receiving Gifts as their Love Language all the ‘attaboys in the world are not likely to be as well received as a well thought-out gift.  (Or a one-on-one lunch if they’re a Quality Time, a high-five if they’re a Physical touch, or pitching in on a dreaded task if they’re an Acts of Service.)

Note: Physical touch in the workplace is obviously a volatile and highly-charged issue rife with legal and human resources complications, so please tread delicately here and rely on your human resources department’s policies and guidance on any physical contact.

So while I don’t know what my wife’s Myers Briggs type is, I do know that, because she prefers Quality Time, simply going for a walk with her after a long day or running to the grocery store late on a Sunday night goes a long way toward making her feel loved and appreciated as opposed to bringing home flowers.  Likewise, because he prefers Acts of Service, giving my son a hug isn’t received nearly as well as making his lunch.

The Love Languages are primarily focused on personal relationships like spouses, significant others and kids, but understanding how your team members and coworkers feel appreciated can really make the workplace a better place.

So take the test, and have those close to you do the same.

Just don’t let a coworker’s preference for physical touch result in a visit to the HR department with a sexual harassment complaint.

And if you are ever in doubt, raises and bonuses are always a great plan B.

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Growing up in the 1970′s helped fuel my deep and abiding love for dystopian novels and movies. Of course, George Orwell’s 1984 remains on the top of my list, even though some of Orwell’s more hysterical narrative inventions may seem a bit antiquated and silly and, in some cases, a completely ass-backwards understanding of how technology has enabled individuals to fight back against authoritarian government. Of course, with some governments, it’s still quite prescient.

Orwell’s star has faded (outside of academia and college campuses) as sci-fi authors like Philip K. Dick (the stark raving genius) continue to hold more sway with the public imagination. You can’t watch the TV weather or a network forensics crime lab show without stumbling across the large-scale touchscreen computers that appeared in the 2002 film adaptation of Minority Report. If hardware development had memes, this would be the memiest.

The current debate about Internet privacy and data collection (worry) + (don’t worry) has taken an interesting turn with the growing fascination of mouse hovering. A recent story in Adweek that summarizes the state of mouse hovering as an engagement measurement and as an alternative metric to click-throughs provides a nice outline of the technology. A new US start-up mentioned in the story will be among the first of many firms to help both ad agencies and clients understand, measure and monetize the mouse-over and jettison the click-through.

A fantastic blog post from 2005, when the interest in mouse hovers — which were still being called “rollovers” — provides a fascinating illustration of how this technology actually works. I’m going to skip over all of the actual nuts-and-bolts technology because I find the conceptualization of mouse-hovering so intriguing. I’ve been working on a computer every day since 1985. In some ways I “think” with my fingers–when writing I will stop and tap on a row of keys when in the middle of a thought, when bored or distracted, or when looking for inspiration. When using a mouse of course I get distracted and am frequently multi-tasking, but there is some method to the madness of looking at the infrared footprint of my mouse-hovers to get some sense of where my attention might be.

I can’t even argue that mouse-hovering mistakenly measures negative interest–as when I might hover over those bottom-feeding remnant ads that promise to unlock the housewife’s secret to eliminating belly fat and shake my head in wonder at the bottomless stupidity of the Interwebs. But attention is still attention, and that is what mouse-hovering measures.

Of course the fatal flaw in mouse-hovering is that there must be a massive disconnect between the hand and the eye. I read the headlines on The New York Times website with great attention, but my mouse is hovering on the margins absent-mindedly. The only way to measure this will be to use our built-in webcams to scan our eyes in real time and map then against the actual words and images we are reading. But that’s a different movie.

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While Medea puts the Dragon to sleep, Jason and Orpheus take the Golden Fleece.

Argonauts are known as the heroes who accompanied Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece.

This Greek legend highlights Jason’s perilous voyage in which, after numerous risks,  he comes out victorious thanks to the help received from unexpected allies bringing riches from their countries of origin.

Since the beginning of times, human evolution is marked by Innovation.

Fire, agriculture, democracy, steam machines, electricity, Internet …  are all products of innovation which have made a mark in th the History of Mankind (and continue to do so).

Though faster, each time.

TV needed 38 years to get to a population penetration of 50%, Facebook had 100 million users in 9 months. 400.000 download applications are made each day with Apple’s OS system; a few years ago this did not even exist …

We are NOT ONLY  immersed in an age of changes.  We are immersed in a change of AGE.

If we search in Google today we will find 4.360.000 results related to innovation, approximately 20% more than only two years ago.

According to The Boston Consulting Group, in 2010 innovation was considered one of the strategic priorities for 72% of the companies on a global level.  The curious thing about the research was that the immense majority of managers interviewed were satisfied with the levels of innovation obtained in their respective companies, while 64% of the employees in the same companies declared that the innovation level was frankly low.  Something is clearly failing.

And which is the vital ingredient for a generalized advance to be made in the culture of innovation in a Company, country or society?

It is not enough to boost the process of generating ideas, the key lies in their diffusion.

An idea that is not communicated never reports a progress for society.

According to the growth model of Michael Kremer, economist and professor at Harvard, any individual in equal conditions has the same possibilities of innovating for society, designing something new, useful and profitable, when a correlation exists between size of population and the number of innovative ideas it produces.

According to this, the frequency of great ideas increases with the growth in population.  This has very important derivatives, especially with those Core Businesses based in the world of ideas (such as for example technology or advertising).

If the potential of collective innovation is very superior to that of an individual mind, we should reflect on new solutions, new operating ways and new creative formulas based on cloud talent.

But we must be prepared for strong and powerful change barriers:

The same corporation that advocates the prosperities of “open innovation” gives the order to never use external resources.

Another Argonaut told me the other day that when trying to implement innovation initiatives within his great company, the Board Committee regarded him with distrust, being too worried about its own uncertain future.

To solve today’s problems the collaboration, ideas and perspective of all are needed.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln:  “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present”.

We count on more than 7 billion of potential innovative minds.  Thanks to communication, citizens are conscious of the problem and destroy all the barriers to change they find in their way, or, at least, try to: Egypt, Yemen, Turkey … are examples of this.

The world is under a process of approval of the World Wide Mind, phenomenon such as Facebook is good proof.

Education is the most important of all pending assignments.  This was one of the most important conclusions reached at the last Worldwide Innovation and Creative Talent Forum celebrated in Spain a few weeks ago (and which surprisingly not one news cast covered while talk shows continued to reach peak share).

The great emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil have invested enormously in infrastructure, technology and education during the period of economic boom.  They sent thousands of innovation Argonauts to train in other shores searching for the Golden Fleece, which today they have brought back to their countries.  Meanwhile, other markets such as Italy or Spain pay no attention to their future positioning and are at present at the end of the line in worldwide innovation.

A truly Darwinian ocean exists between an invention and an innovation, in which the original invention must literally survive in the “nature” of the business world.

A widely spread error is to limit innovation to disruption, understood as an overnight market breakup.  Nothing further from the truth:

1. First, innovation if made up of so many breakthrough innovations as of little changes in what already exists.
2. Second, an innovation does not change people’s habits in a day but requires an adaptation period.
3. Third, innovation must not be considered a result of ideas coming from privileged minds in moments of special enlightenment.  Google would not be what it is today if it had not been able to learn from the contribution of millions of clients who use   their platforms.

Innovation is inherent to “new” and it is only possible to move in the territory of “novelty” under a context of uncertainty.  The culture of innovation does not exist where a culture of tolerance to failure is not to be found.  How can one learn to walk if one is not willing to fall?

In my opinion, innovation within any company, but most of all in the ones who live on the vertex of what is new, starts by accepting that a magnificent idea can come from anywhere, not only from the organization, but from the biosphere surrounding it (clients, stakeholders, suppliers).  Innovation is not a lineal but an absolutely organic process.

So the most important thing is to make the ground fertile in the culture of collective innovation, as DNA.  But important also is to choose not only the idea but the moment to make it happen.

In Apple 1.500 business ideas were turned down before the Company focused in just 4 products, choosing the adequate timing to launch each one:

– Mac
– iPod
– iPhone
– iPad

The crisis has brought to light the importance of innovation for the sustainability of companies and their own society.  Any company, especially if their core business is creativity, should adopt innovation as a permanent point in their agendas.  Innovation is our greatest strength for finding opportunities and for being able to take advantage of present and future challenges.  Without innovation the advancement of society is slowed down and thereby its economy.

This simultaneously occurs to the unstoppable evolution of businesses, where anticipating changes and possible impacts mid and long term is a key factor for success.

It is vital to form a vigorous team within the organization focused on identifying and analyzing future tendencies.   It is absolutely necessary for a country, a company sector or a brand, to detect social, business, technological and scientific tendencies.

We should search for a focal point of innovation for Spain:

Silicon Valley represents technological innovation, New York financial innovation, Bangalore software innovation … we should find what Spain’s innovation focal point is.

Source: www.urenio.org/2006/08/12/global-innovation-clusters/

Innovation is the key for growth and competitiveness in the modern economy.  The main problems facing today’s society (environmental, economic, energetic,) can only be resolved through innovation.

For sustainable innovation to happen in a concrete area a series of ingredients have to be on hand:

– The laws and politics of a given country must eliminate any barrier to sustainable innovation.  As an example, the Worldwide President of Ikea classified Spain as the most difficult country in which to do business due to the complicated and slow bureaucratic processes.
– Companies: Efficient leadership will be the one able to establish an innovative culture encouraging the generation of ideas.  Especially in those sectors in a critical reinvention phase (advertising, for example).
– The education system:  The new society requires failure as a way of learning to be understood.  The creation of true creative gymnasiums in schools is not only a recommendable but essential action. It must be pointed out that our education system is one of the less efficient and creative ones in the world.
– People:  We are the centre of innovation. From us come the ideas, attitudes, and the motivations to continue or not creating.  We are all important in the innovation chain.
– Social networks:  They are the elements that join together the diversity of people and the heterogeneity of knowledge to make innovation possible and widespread.
– Social responsibility:  However, there is a type of innovation which already exists, although not very developed, detectable by any cool hunter in the world:
– Open social innovation.

Bill Gates, in his speech at the World Economic Forum defined it as “creative capitalism”.

“There are two focuses in human nature: self interest and the caring for others.  Capitalism cares for self interest in a useful and sustainable way, but only for those who can afford it.  Governmental and philanthropic aid canalizes our concern for those who cannot pay.  But to provide faster aid to the poor, we need a system which makes better use of the innovators and the companies than we now have.”

But if innovation is so attractive, why is it that not all Companies innovate?

It is not that easy.  It has to be considered the new DNA of the organization and the leader given empowerment.  In McCann we consider innovation as a business discipline.  The Company provides all the abilities, tools and creativity to be at the service of idea generation and the necessary resources are provided for the transformation process of these innovation ideas.

However, great barriers exist that slow down the introduction of an innovation process in large organizations, among them:

– obsessed in day to day work
– finances focused on traditional areas (safest results) versus innovation (greater risk of failure)
– lack of commitment and motivation of the most powerful innovation team in any large company: its employees
– lack of an adequate balance between discipline and liberty
– lack of involvement with the organization’s mission

More and more, Argonauts of knowledge are needed.

“Knowledge is not impersonal, like money. Knowledge does not reside in a book, a databank, a software program; they contain only information.  Knowledge is always embodied in a person, created, augmented, or improved by a person.” 
– Peter Drucker

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