Aha! Insight Technology Blog

TED is a conference that started in 1984. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. Evolving into much more than just those three categories, TED today features the world’s leading thought leaders across many categories. I enjoy reading the TED Blog and viewing the videos that are featured on the website. I’ve never been to a conference—the membership is $6000 per year and you have to apply for membership.

Anyway, I recently received an email with the latest news from TED and was surprised to see a video of Billy Graham, the preacher, that was recorded at TED in 1998. Of course it peaked my curiosity. TED and Billy Graham?

I thought it was awesome. Check it out…

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Dennis Pannuto is the President & Founder of Aha! Insight Technology. You can reach him at dennis.pannuto@ahainsight.com

In the 90’s I started a consulting company. Like most small companies starting out you have a general idea of the kind of work you want to do and opportunities, or lack of them, generally shape what you become—the hand of Providence carving the course, whether you believe the hand is there or not, I certainly do. Some believe in the law of attraction and that “I” can shape my own destiny, I’m just not that narcissistic.

I had no clue what to call the company. I recall sitting with my wife and a close friend trying to come up with a name. Everyone had ideas but nothing seemed right. You see, we kinda did a little of this and a little of that, and the little of this was related to the little of that but neither the little of this nor the little of that was enough to determine a name that could identify the brand. So, I decided to focus more on what my general business philosophy was, really a life fundamental. I pondered…

How could I sum up what I thought successful businesses and leaders did to achieve genuine success—not necessarily economic but simply success, since many great leaders, reformers, athletes, military greats, as examples, may not be driven by financial success. I could sum it up in three words: vision, commitment and patience. And this genuine success, in most basic terms, was defined as simply achieving what you set out to do. Thus, VCP Associates, Inc. was born. Many would ask me back then, ‘OK, P is for Pannuto, who are your partners V and C?’ It wasn’t planned that way but it turned out to be a great entry into laying out the fundamental ethic of the company and starting up good conversation.

Vision. Many people have it. There are great “life-changing” ideas, the next must have…but you can have great ideas and not have the Commitment required to fulfill the vision. Commitment is actually making the dream reality. Well, I meet many people with vision and commitment but the one, most common ingredient across the board missing from companies, organizations, teams and individuals to achieve genuine success is Patience.

If you can spare 48 minutes, watch a real good presentation by Seth Godin where he talks about many solid business fundamentals. One nugget in the presentation is about the reality of being patient in business and that some things just take a certain amount of time no matter how much money or people you throw at it. I often wish some of my clients, partners and friends realized that.

Simply: vision, commitment and patience need to work together to achieve what you want to. At least, that’s the model that I find works for me and for those I admire.

As Providence would direct, VCP led to opportunities that caused VCP, the company from ceasing its operation at some point—I don’t actually recall when, sometime in the late 90’s. VCP, today is still a fundamental I firmly embrace. Around 2003, I added to the VCP model by developing the Seven Pillars that hold up VCP. That’s for a future post…

From VCP to Aha!, quite a difference some may think. Well…not really, I think. Aha! is the spark, that flash that sets the V, the C and the P in motion.

Dennis Pannuto is the President & Founder of Aha! Insight Technology. You can reach him at dennis.pannuto@ahainsight.com

I believe that the customer experience lifecycle is the most important social dynamic a company needs to understand and nurture. Why? Because good relationships are the cornerstone of long-term success for a brand. Build it and they will come is true—if what you sell meets a need no one else can—but enter considerable competition and customers are less tolerant with poor customer experiences before, during and after the buying decision. Microsoft, with its monopoly on the corporate desktop, will someday be forced to refine their customer experience lifecycle. (As a former CIO, I can tell you that I have been held hostage by the technology giant and forced to deal with costly and painful experiences due to their seemingly lack of concern for how their new releases impact a company’s life.) Nevertheless, this posting isn’t about Microsoft.

I recently leased a Jeep 4-door Wrangler. Now some would say, shouldn’t you buy a car that is more economical on gas? Well maybe in a different set of circumstances but I don’t drive that much, I fill my tank twice a month and need an all-terrain vehicle because of where we live. This posting is also not about being “greener”; this post is about an opportunity for innovation in the workplace: an opportunity for Chrysler to bring innovation to its customer experience lifecycle. A dynamic that I know, firsthand, they care about. As the former CIO for BBDO, Chrysler was their largest client during my tenure and we were involved in many aspects of managing the customer experience lifecycle.

Anyway, back to my Jeep experience. I didn’t have a good experience with the dealership. I won’t bore you with the details. I tried to resolve it with the dealership, went as high as I could and basically was told we’re not going to help you. At the same time, I was sent a customer satisfaction survey from Chrysler, online and via postage paid mail, that asked about my dealer experience. I filled out both and sent in a letter detailing the experience. I received a reply back within a reasonable period of time and it basically said we can’t help you because…we can’t. Take a look at the letter…

Chrysler Letter

I decided I would call the gentlemen that signed the letter and see if I could better understand the process at Chrysler because if I had such a poor experience there had to be others as well and I’m sure Chrysler would want to know about it so they could correct the problem, right? I called the number at the bottom of the letter but I was told that there is no way to connect me to him.

Chrysler wants to know about my experience, I guess, I thought…why? I’m not sure, neither are they it appears…

Basically, if you have a bad experience at the dealership during a sale there is no way for your problem to be addressed within Chrysler, outside of trying to resolve it at the dealership. If the dealership conducts its business “inappropriately” they are not held accountable by Chrysler–it doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong. You have to pursue the matter outside of Chrysler. I’m not sure of the value of the customer satisfaction survey they want you to complete. If you complain, you receive a letter stating they really can’t do anything; you can’t contact the representative that wrote you and they don’t have that representative’s letter on file that they can reference when you call the customer service line.

You know…I’ll just let you hear the recording of the phone call. I was routed to a call center in India, someone tried to help me, put me on hold and then my call was disconnected after 15 minutes–a recording stated my call could not be completed at this time. I called back, was routed to India again and then sent back to the USA. The second call was 47 minutes. In total, I spent over 1 hour on the phone. So you don’t have to listen to all of the muzak, transfers and regurgitations of the incident, I have provided the last 4 minutes of the call below so you can get the substance of the outcome…Here goes, put your seatbelts on…(the unedited calls are available if you want them).

Chrysler Call Edited

Dennis Pannuto is the President & Founder of Aha! Insight Technology. You can reach him at dennis.pannuto@ahainsight.com

“The paradox of innovation is this: CEO’s often complain about lack of innovation, while workers often say leaders are hostile to new ideas” -Patrick Dixon – Building a Better Business

Innovation in Fortune 1000s today is commonly limited to those who create products or a marketing message. And even in these situations, true innovation, as I define it, is often left out. True innovation is some thing or way of doing something new that brings measurable value to the recipients of that thing.

The most powerful seed that many corporations allow to germinate and prosper freely throughout their departments and employees is mediocrity. This spirit of mediocrity is born from the fruit of a management team lacking a vision and a practical framework to execute that vision capable of genuinely touching every department and employee. Now I’m not talking about bullshit feel good words. I’m talking about a vision that inspires and delivers opportunity, satisfaction and a harvest to every employee, not just people who receive them because they happen to be in a certain department and the company had good sales that year. There are so many people that are part of delivering a product or service to a customer who work behind the curtain. Human Resources has to find the right people; Accounting and Finance need to make sure that money is managed wisely: IT needs to make sure that the company’s information and tools to conduct business are capable of facilitating business objectives; Facilities Management has to make sure that a suitable work environment is delivered to all employees and customers; Call Centers have to provide positive experiences to customers and should be knowledge centers full of nuggets for customer insights on how to improve products and services. All of these groups are part of the customer value chain. That value chain needs to be fine-tuned and optimized regularly.

Innovation in how we work is just as important as being innovative in product development and how we communicate the brand’s voice.

I speak from experience. Having spent over 20 years in the workforce in the US from washing dishes to developing and implementing global solutions for multi-national corporations, innovation in how we work is simply not considered much across the entire company. As a result, the waste of resources, time and lost opportunities is sadly mind-boggling.

The greatest threat to mediocrity is an employee fueled by innovation.

There are some who understand that innovation is a way of life and not relegated to a product, service or message. The CEO who leads the charge of innovation throughout the entire organization and is less concerned with his or her compensation package creates longer lasting equity for himself/herself and others. The executives that will set aside the pressures of quarterly targets and stand in the reality that having a great company means nurturing an environment that is an Eden of Innovation throughout the company will inspire those they lead; they’ll discover that they won’t have to pay recruitment fees anymore because people will beg to work for them.

Idealistic? Maybe a bit. Possible? Look around you…anything is possible.

Dennis Pannuto is the President & Founder of Aha! Insight Technology. You can reach him at dennis.pannuto@ahainsight.com

Excerpt from Aha!’s Research Insight (white paper), “Building a Global Brand Communications Platform in the 21st Century for the Fortune 1000″. For more information about obtaining a copy contact dennis.pannuto@ahainsight.com.

…in order for a brand to successfully position itself competitively, to gain market share and exploit evolving market opportunities, it needs to think beyond functional applications. Brands need to successfully implement Global Brand Communications Platforms that are able to effectively engage their customers in conversation, repurpose content in a variety of formats and dynamically deliver that content through multiple channels…

The New Company gets it…

Any initiatives that affect Marketing Communications at a company need to be driven and supported at the highest level; they will otherwise not succeed and will fail due to competing interests within various groups. In addition, it is important that the executive delivering the vision clearly understands that giving the command is less important than leading the charge.

The executive leading the charge will have to effectively support an execution framework to make the vision reality. There is no silver bullet. This isn’t about technology changes; this is changing the culture; change is disruptive; culture is made up of people. The technology has to be nimble but, more importantly, the processes of how people work have to be as well. The executive leading the charge needs a core team who is on board to craft an execution strategy and nurture it to success. There are no shortcuts to change. Otherwise, the execution won’t sustain the vision.

The New Company gets that no matter how long they’ve been in business, it must reinvent itself, oust the status quo and truly engage their customers because their customers are not outside the doors of the office anymore; they’ve made their way inside the building, the manufacturing facilities, the distribution centers and even the board room.

Dennis Pannuto is the President & Founder of Aha! Insight Technology. You can reach him at dennis.pannuto@ahainsight.com