The Invisible Mentor

Archive for November, 2010

I wanted to learn more about Nordstrom, the company I knew in name only, after participating in the webinar “Innovate the Steve JobsWay: 7 Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success,” and reading and reviewing The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success byCarmine Gallo so I purchased The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: A Handbook for Implementing Great Service in Your Organization by Robert Spector and Patrick McCarthy.

Steve Jobs, Co-founder and head honcho at Apple studies companies like The Four Seasons, Nordstrom and Mercedes Benz to deliver impeccable customer service. I wanted to learn for myself what made these companies so special so I started with The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: A Handbook for Implementing Great Service in Your Organization.

The co-author Robert Spector has written several books about Nordstrom, and you can see that he is an expert in the ways of all things Nordstrom. Like Carmine Gallo in his book The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Robert Speck has spoken to many Nordstrom employees, present and past. In addition, he has also spoken to many of the Nordstrom clan.

The book is divided into three sections:

1. Part I: What Managers Can Do to Create Nordstrom-Style Service
2. Part II: What Supervisors Can Do to Create Nordstrom-Style Service
3. Part III: What Employees Can Do to Create Nordstrom-Style Service

It is truly a handbook because at the end of each chapter there are exercises for the readers to do and keys to success nuggets. The book is splattered with mini case studies on other companies that have introduced Nordstrom-like service.

The book is a very practical guide because while you are reading you get a sense of how things are done at Nordstrom, and you could easily replicate it. Robert Speck and Patrick McCarthy even include a section on compensation at Nordstrom. What I also appreciated, was that they included some negative information as well. There are about five Nordstrom store that were unionized, and there was a class action suit against the company for not paying employees for their time when delivering impeccable service such as dropping off a product for a customer after work or writing Thank-you notes to customers while at home. As a result of the lawsuit Nordstrom made changes.

For anyone who wants to up the level of customer service they deliver in their business, this is one book that they should read. But, I’m never for copying everything that one company does, but instead look at other companies, and introduce the elements that make sense for your kind of business, that’s what Steve Jobs did.

So what makes Nordstrom so special?

• The company is decentralized
• One of the company’s mantra is to “Use sound judgment”
• The customer is king and queen
• The company cuts down on the number of rules for employees to follow
• Employees have a lot of power to make decisions on their own
• Employees are allowed to take care of the complete needs of the customer. For instance, a customer initially wants a dress for a party, she finds the perfect dress but doesn’t have a purse or shoes that matches the dress. The employee can take the customer to the shoe department and service her there as well. So employees can work in other departments when serving customers, which allows them to earn more commissions
• The company makes it possible for an employee to say yes to a customer by giving them the authority, as well as stocking merchandise in a variety of colours and sizes
• The company hires people who are nice, knowing that they can train them on the technical aspects of the job
• They promote from within
• All the Nordstrom clan who work within the company started off sweeping the floors and working their way up
• Employees work on commissions, so they set the amount they can earn
• The company has a profit sharing plan

The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: A Handbook for Implementing Great Service in Your Organization is a good book if you to want to learn about how to deliver Nordstrom-like service, but I recommend that you also read about The Four Seasons (Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy) and Mercedes Benz who also deliver impeccable service. You can also read up on companies on BusinessWeek’s Customer Service Champs to identify other companies that are doing customer service right.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or  RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

When you enter a bookstore, a retail store, or even a restaurant, what are your expectations? Does your level of expectation rise or fall depending on how much money you spend? As a customer, what kind of experience would you like to have?

Recently, my friend and I decided we would go out to dinner and see a movie afterward. I have been very intentional in trying to make time for friends, and deepening the relationships. As an introvert, give me a few good books, and I am happy to sit and read and read and read.

I was looking forward to going out because it was a different experience, and you have more creative ideas and solution, when you immerse yourself into different situations.

We bought our tickets for the movie first then went downstairs to the restaurant. There was a line-up but we chatted while we waited, and in no time we were seated. That’s went things got interesting.

After 10 minutes no one had taken our order. No one had approached us to explain that they were extremely busy so it would take a while for us to get served. No one gave us even a glass of water. My friend beckoned for the waiter to come over. He did, but was not happy about it. He told us we had to wait because the other customers who were ahead of us had to get served before he could take our order, and he proceeded to tell us that if we were in a rush we should go to the take-out section because it was a lot faster.

My friend and I kept looking at each other and then she told him that there was no reason for him to behave like that, and he started to defend his actions. I looked at him and thought, “No tip for you, I’m not rewarding bad behavior.”

About 15 minutes after waiting we got some water a dinner roll each. And it took another 10 to 15 minutes before he took our order. Fortunately we did not allow the waiter to spoil our evening, I refused to give him that power. The food was good, but it didn’t make up for the bad experience.

I felt like I was scolded. I felt like I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar. And, I felt like he didn’t value my business.

At the end, when he brought the bill, he knew that we were going to the movies, but he didn’t care. I took my bill and got another waiter to cash us out. My friend who was more upset than I was about the experience tipped him 15 percent. I on the other hand gave him nothing and walked out.

I have been thinking about this all weekend, and I wonder why we reward bad behaviour? Why do we accept less than we deserve? I also asked myself, “Am I treating my customers the way that I would like to be treated? Are you?” And, should a business owner be held accountable for the service his employees provide?

Tomorrow, we”ll take a look at Nordstrom in a book review. Nordstrom is the standard that is copied and benchmarked for customer service.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or  RSS Feed.

What would it be like to travel to 80 countries? Doreen Conrad has done that, and now it’s not daunting for her to take on the world. This is Part Two of your workshop this week. What you can expect to learn include:

1. The steps Doreen Conrad took to succeed in international trade and services
2. What she recommends for those just starting out
3. The five life lessons she has learned so far
4. How she generates great ideas

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’ve had quite a full career in the private sector, public sector and overseas in an international organization. I have learned very much, which I am now applying by working as a management consultant, having retired from the government and the United Nations.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

My situation is unique in that we didn’t have children, so the personal life is my husband and I working on my career. He was in a unique position because he was able to travel with me most of the time because he retired early. He is my life and with me quite a bit. Now that I operate a home-based, he is my accountant. I have the luxury of work not interfering with my personal life because my husband is always with me, and there are no other things to feel guilty about, or tough to build into my life such as children getting into university, and encouraging and mentoring them. My personal life is fairly straightforward that way.

Having children introduces a certain amount of complexity into your life in trying to juggle everything. In my particular case it’s not a juggling act.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

Not having children of our own. Not through any fault of our own, we weren’t able to, and that changed my life as well. That was a major, personal aspect of my life because I was then choosing to focus on my career, and I think it took me in a completely different direction.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

• The biggest lesson I learned is something I read a few years ago and I keep it with me everyday, “Picture that you have one gas can of energy everyday, would you like to spend most of that on negative things that you cannot change, or would you rather use it up on very positive thoughts and very positive actions?” Pick your battles. Every time you find something is annoying, just think, “I’m not going to say anything because in the scheme of things, it’s going to use some up my energy and I don’t want to waste it on that.” This is something very important which I have shared with many people who have wasted much of their day on something they cannot change.
• Marketing is everything that you do. What you wear, what you say, people are judging and assessing you. I’ve traveled with young people who have said on route to a business trip, “I guess I’ll wear my jeans on the plane,” and I say, “Well you can do what you want, I choose to dress up in a pant suit because you never know who you are going to meet” and sure enough two out of three occasions we bump into someone who is a very high level client and they are looking at me as a business professional and the other person as a student. Always have business cards with you even if you are not in business. I tell recent graduates to get business cards made up so they have a leave behind for people to contact them easily, and they look professional.
• I took a course a long time ago on conflict management and that has helped me enormously in my career. You learn some basic things such as, if you are going to argue or disagree with someone, there is no reason to use the word YOU. For example say, “If this continues, this is what the impact is going to be, so what we need to do is, instead of you did this and now this has happened,” which puts people on the defensive. This has stuck with me all these years and I just heard a speaker talking about practically the same thing that you should remove yourself from the situation and keep it in third party so that was quite reassuring for me. I suggest to your readers to look up any books they can find on conflict resolution because it just helps you in your day-to-day dealings at home, and with your colleagues at work, and it avoids confrontation.
• Always be professional and never lose your temper. If you have to leave the room and cool down, just never let anyone see you lose your cool.
• Networking is important and is an opportunity everywhere. If you are in a service industry, as most people are in North America, you have to have a wide network of people who are going to refer you. Develop network skills to get out there, and realize that everyone is a prospect who can potentially refer you to someone else. I have many example of how that has happened for me over the years. Perfect your networking skills ad make sure you are well read so that you have something to talk about, and ice breakers ready when you meet people.

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

I’m quite competitive so I really like games, card games in particular. I like to play with friends, and I like watching a little bit of television, not too much, mostly nature programs and true crime, to get my mind off things.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Someone once said to me that I’m a real lateral thinker. I look for opportunities everywhere. If I sit down to read the newspaper, I don’t completely tune out because I’m looking to see how I can use information, so I’m continually cutting things out of the paper. We were going to be marketing a course through the university and then I read in the newspaper that all the top companies in the region had education grants for their employees, so I saw it as an opportunity right away. It was an opportunity for us to go after the companies that already had budgets for this kind of thing. So I’m always thinking laterally and outside the box for opportunities everywhere.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“Marketing is everything and you never know.” And I would add to that, “What first impression do you make on other people?”

How do you define success?

Success is surpassing the goals you set for yourself. I never aimed at meeting expectations. I always aimed at surpassing them. So my own benchmark was to exceed everyone’s expectations. On all those performance evaluations when I was in the workplace, if I didn’t get the top box, we had to have a talk about what I needed to be superior, and the answer would be nobody gets superior because no one on the earth is perfect. So success is surpassing the goals you set for yourself.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Have a positive attitude 100 percent of the time. It is patience and it is creativity.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

When I realized that this was quite a specialized field and there wasn’t quite a lot of material on it, I sought out to train myself. I found a couple of seminars in the United States. I found an annual conference that I attended every year. I just kept on trying to find out as much as I could to be the expert that I wanted to be in my field, which is international trade and services. It’s a unique and untouched area. I also went to a related conference called “Frontier and Services”, and academics would report on how the general public reacted toward hotels, airlines, management consultants and so on. I would draw from the examples and say, “If consumers are reacting to these trends, then we need to teach companies to do the following.” So again it’s thinking laterally and outside the box. It is taking what we know, what the research is telling us and applying it into a business strategy. This is what I did to succeed in my field.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

I would say not to necessarily go it alone. You already have a network of people who can help you, and give you advice, and they are happy to do so. When I realized all the things that I needed as far as advice and getting started as a sole practitioner, I had never worked on my own business in my life, and starting a little later in life, I realized I needed technology savvy because I’m going to have to get into social networking, websites and so on. I thought about who I had in my network who could give me advice and help me with that. I have nephews for example, so think about what you need, and who in your network you can draw from to give you advice on sources and the way forward. It’s very important to use your network and don’t go it alone.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

I’m not sure that I would say anyone in particular, but I would just generally say that I would love to speak to a world leader, who has had to deal with so many challenges, such as in Haiti or other least developed nations, and I would ask them how do they continue to lead and be positive and provide hope to their constituency. What’s the fire, what’s the passion, how do you keep going?

I would also like to speak to people who have survived grief – loss of loved ones – and ask them how they cope with that, and have the hope to go on. I want to be positive in all aspects of my life, and the things that worry you like health, and losing loved ones, and what’s happening in the world. It would be nice to talk to people who have something to share in that regard.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

One of the books I read is called Away from Her and it became a movie with Julie Christie. It’s about a childless couple just like my husband and I, about our age. She was diagnosed with dementia and he had to put her in a home. She was vacant after that and it was such a profound book to think about the fragility of life and how relationships are just hanging like that. That had a deep impact on me and I think about it quite a lot, and how it can happen, and pray that it won’t.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

1. One of the best books that really impacted me, which I quoted from earlier is, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and it’s all small stuff. It’s a really easy read, which gives you short, two-page strategies for various irritants in life and how to overcome them. I love that book, it would go with me.
2. The second one would be a book that I have wanted to read and haven’t had time. I’m interested in life thousands of years ago so I picked up a very interesting book on life of the ancient Egyptians, what they ate, how they survived, so I would take that book with me because I would love to get to it and I’m not sure I will unless I’m on a deserted island.
3. I would take a thesaurus because I would like to learn a new word every day. I think that would be a chance for me to sit down with a thesaurus and learn a few words every day, and have different ways of saying the say things.
4. I like Bill Clinton, he is one of my heroes. I have his very thick biography called My Life. Being on a deserted island would be the opportunity for me to read his biography that I wouldn’t otherwise get.
5. I also like fiction so I would like to have some of my favourite authors like James Patterson, and Jeffery Deaver.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

If I’m going to be on a deserted island, I would have to take one with Christmas music I love Christmas. And I love the music, and it would have to be the one I have which has Christmas carols sung by crooners of yesteryear such as Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. The movie would be Gone With the Wind because I think there is so much to that story. It is very powerful and I have seen it many times.

What excites you about life?

Possibility, anything is possible. The fact that the world is smaller than I thought it was. I have been to over 80 countries now, some of them many times, so it’s not daunting to me anymore to take on the world. I think the possibilities are endless.

How do you nurture your soul?

I nurture my soul through the appreciation of nature. I love nothing better than going for a walk in the woods up at the cottage, or sitting on the dock looking at the lake for hours. This regenerates me, and brings me back to my roots, and makes me realize what a beautiful earth we have.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

I would wish that they could help Indonesia and Haiti. It’s just one tragedy after another, and the people have suffered so much. I would wish that they could be on a good road to recovery with no more tragedies.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

When others I care about around me are happy. I’m kind of a pleaser, so if something is wrong in someone’s life who is close to me, I am not happy either. I empathize a lot and so it’s really important to me that everything in the world is good with all those I care about.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Doreen Conrad has had a very successful career because someone believed in her. Someone saw her potential and took the time to let her know and offer her the encouragement she needed to change her career path? Have you had a similar experience? And, who in your life could you offer encouragement to? If you see potential in someone, it’s your responsibility to do whatever you can to assist them in unleashing that potential. All of us will benefit from that gesture of goodwill.

Treat Doreen Conrad’s interview, and all the interviews on The Invisible Mentor Blog like a workshop where you are there to learn. It doesn’t matter which industry you are in, or what your job function is, you never know what ideas you can transport from one sector to another, or one job function to another.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’ve had quite a full career in the private sector, public sector and overseas in an international organization. I have learned very much, which I am now applying by working as a management consultant, having retired from the government and the United Nations.

What’s a typical day like for you?

A typical day for me now, as of two years ago, is working in my home-based office as a sole practitioner getting up in the morning, responding to emails, preparing proposals, working on projects and perhaps preparing to travel to deliver a workshop. It’s the first time in my entire career that I don’t have a boss or staff members to work with me. I’m on my own except for my business partners.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I’m always motivated because I have a positive attitude. Nothing is insurmountable. I have never stayed at a job where I was in the least bit unhappy. It was always about me enjoying what I was doing, and that’s a natural motivator.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I definitely would have put more emphasis on education. I grew up in an environment where I was not encouraged to have a career. I was encouraged to be a mother and secretary. Those were some of the choices available at the time, and I would definitely have looked at an international career much sooner than I did.

What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

I’ve discovered that there are certain things that I really don’t want to work on anymore. I really don’t want to do in-depth market research studies. I’d rather get a business partner to do that part of the work. To be motivated and happy, I need to continue to focus on the things that I know I am good at, and I must find other people, other partners, to contract out the parts that I am not happy doing.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

Unquestionably it has to be the impact of information technology. Being in the service sector you are essentially selling a promise. You do not have anything tangible to show as a sample, and therefore technology has been incredible as its speed has increased and its cost has decreased, which now allows service providers to both market and deliver their services online without even needing to leave their home office. So definitely that has been a significant development in my industry.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

• One of the big threats is I have to travel for my business and with the threats of terrorism and the increased security, increased cost of checking bags, environmental fees, it’s becoming more and more onerous and I think it can be a threat to international business as time goes on. I find myself saying no to international travel more than I’m saying yes just because some of the hassles that are only going to get worse as time goes by.
• The second threat is that, if we get another global recession donor funds may dry up. Most of the work I do is funded by international donors and I’m seeing a lot of agencies and governments cutting back on their international trade budgets.
• The necessity to continue to market my services and to prove my credibility.

I’m traveling and not enjoying the experience as much, especially when I’m traveling nine hours to another time zone and have to deliver a workshop the next morning, so it becomes less and less fun as the years go by.  I had myself certified as an International Trade Professional, which gives me additional credibility, when I go out into the marketplace both here in Canada and abroad, so people see that I’m obviously qualified in the field. I’m working to ensure that my clients give me good word-of-mouth referrals because service business is garnered by word-of-mouth referrals so I’m asking all my clients if they are happy with service to tell others. I’m being more proactive with that.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

I don’t have that much competition particularly in my area which is the promotion of the export of services. No one is going around to other developing countries saying, “Okay accountants, lawyers, consultants, here is how you sell your intangible products. Here is how you market something people can’t see.” There are a lot of people in international trade and service but they are all working on policy, trade negotiation, free trade agreements and so on. But not too many people are looking at the business community to the specific challenges that they face. So that is definitely very unique for me, at the moment anyway.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

Without question it has to be public speaking. One of the best ways to market your service is to stand up in front of an audience and be perceived as an expert in your field, and that involves understanding the audience and what they would or would not be interested in hearing. I go to dozens of conferences – I was just at two in the last two weeks alone – and you continually see people stand up, and deliver facts and figures that’s of no use to the audience.

I have trained myself in public speaking. I do it a lot and I volunteer to do it a lot. I even have a couple of slides that I use in my workshops to tell people what to do and what not to do when they are asked to give a presentation. One of my favourite slogan is, “Marketing is everything that you do,” and if you are marketing yourself, you are standing up in front of people. You have to be an excellent public speaker. So I think that people need to take a close look at improving their public speaking skills.

Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it.

I would say that on a couple of occasions, I have developed materials that I have shared with others at workshops and people have asked for the slides with all the information, so there is an intellectual property issue because others can easily use my materials. Now what I do instead of handing out my PowerPoint, to overcome this issue, is to prepare a short summary, which is an expansion of each point on the slide, and hand that out to the audience so it’s not enough information for someone to teach it or copy it, but is a leave behind for them.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

I have learned not to rush into things. Decide if something is right for you and is going to make you happy. Don’t take something on because you think you should or you want the work. Think about who is going to see what you are presenting. The competition is everywhere and so you need to think about your intellectual property, and how you can keep your specific material yours.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

My big break came when I was working in the private sector for several years mostly as a support person helping marketing managers at trade shows and things like that. The president of the company who was located many miles from the plant where I worked, noticed me. He said, “You know you’ve got great potential.”

No one ever told me that before. That was the hugest break that I got because he thought I could do more.

I said, “Do you think I could do more?” and he said, “I think you could do a marketing manager’s job, why don’t you go for it?”

I never ever would have thought about that unless someone had stepped up to the plate and said, “You’ve got that potential, I know you can do it.” He being the CEO of the company, the Chairman of the Board, aged seventy-something, telling me that, he must see something in me so I need to go after this and I think it changed my entire career.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

I think one of the biggest mistakes I made was in hiring an employee. It became obvious in a few weeks that it was mistake. Regrettably the interview process was not exhaustive because we were in a foreign country, and they didn’t fly people in for three or four day so you could get to know them in a work setting. But I think that was a mistake I made, I chose the wrong person. And I learned that you probably have to do more than the interviews and looking at the references because that doesn’t always show the true person. I was much more cautious after that, so I think that contributed to better recruiting and HR processes throughout.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

The one time in my life when I was bitterly disappointed was when there was a re-organization where I worked, and years of work had been decided by new management to be changed and moved into somewhere else. I didn’t understand the changes and was quite disappointed. So, if you don’t want to experience change you need to work in an environment where you are not going to be facing major change.

As soon as you work in any large organization, the management team is going to change, the shareholders are going to change, the directors are going to change so there is always going to be change. If you are averse to change and want to stay on one path and not participate in change then you should put yourself in an environment where there is not going to be changes.

Now that I’m my own boss there isn’t going to be a lot of change. I put myself in a position where I’m a sole practitioner and very few environmental factors are going to change the way that I work now.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

I had to make the decision twice to move away from my home town and family for work. Fortunately, my husband was extremely supportive and able to move with me on both occasions, one not so far away, and the other overseas. They were major decisions which involved giving up jobs, material things including a house. It impacted my life but it was the best decision I made on both occasions. I think I had some gut feeling that it was the best thing to do and why not, why stay at the same thing. Part of me was saying why upset the apple cart, everything is fine and we are happy. The other side was pulling at me for the adventure and the change, and the new challenges that would come my way.

Those two decisions to move away from family were difficult ones, but in the end were positively the right thing to do.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

• I would be remiss if I didn’t say my husband of 37 years because he was always supportive. When I was 27 years old and hardly ever been outside of Canada, I said, “My company has asked me to deliver a tender to Finland, what do you think?” And instead of balking at the idea, he said, “You might as well go. I’ll probably never take you to Finland.” From that day forward he has been very supportive of me building my career, so that was a major influence and he is such an enabler for making it happen for me.
• The business travel to Finland showed me that someone entrusted me with a very important document, and I do believe that that was an event which helped to shape my life because it gave me confidence in myself and I knew that I could do much more.
• That mentor I mentioned before that told me thought I had more potential and could do much more. He gave me the impetus to push and do more, to train myself more. One of the things I’d like to share is that I started to work for people who I thought could teach me. When I went for a job interview, I was in essence interviewing them to see if I could learn from them and whenever I heard them express things in a really unique and professional way I made notes. I copied them and their mannerisms, and I learned so much from mentors and bosses.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

I believe it’s the two jobs I had where I was asked to set something up from nothing. I was given some resources and people to get started, but all the strategic planning, the implementation, the execution, the impact these had on thousands of people around the world really gave me great satisfaction. Those two accomplishments told me that I had a skill and could go in and set things up from nothing and make them work. I felt that was a real accomplishment in my work.

How did mentors influence your life?

They encouraged me. If I took mentors out of my life, the people who continually told me that I could do more and I should, in the absence of that I would have stayed where I was. I sensed I would have if there wasn’t any push, so that was key.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

You can do it! I’d go home and think about it and think, “Really?” In my disbelief the Chairman of the Board said, “You could be president of this company some day.” And that was pretty heavy for me in my twenties. I went home and thought about that which opened all kinds of doors in my mind.

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Through referrals from contacts, I mentor many young women who are recent university graduates. People say to me, “Just sit and talk to them because you’ve had a fulsome career in three unique areas and maybe you could give them advice on how to get started.” I think the core message that I would pass on to your readers is to: think things through, don’t rush into things and really look at what can be done instead of what cannot be done and believe that anything is possible, take risks, because there is always a way.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

In the recent webinar, “Innovate the Steve Jobs Way: 7 Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success,” Carmine Gallo shared seven principles for innovation which he learned from studying Steve Jobs for many years. The webinar was a prelude to his book The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success. I found it extremely useful to attend the webinar before reading the book and I combined what I learned in the webinar with what I learned from the book. I have also expanded what I wrote in a previous blog post. The book provides concrete examples of how Steve Jobs innovates and the author conducted several interviews with former Apple employees.

To support what he says in the book, Carmine Gallo also looked at what other innovators were successfully doing.  He defines innovation as, “A new way of doing things that result in positive change.” How can you innovate the way you do your job? What innovations are occurring in other industries that you can transfer to yours?

Carmine Gallo has identified seven principles to guide innovation based on what he has learned from studying Steve Jobs, the Co-founder and CEO of Apple. The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs has 15 chapters, an introductory one and two chapters devoted to each principle. Though the book presents a lot of information on the way Steve Jobs approaches innovation, there are many examples of others who are innovating in similar ways and achieving success.

Principle One: Do What You Love

Passion is everything, and it keeps you going when you face inevitable setbacks. Be obsessed and improve the areas that you love. To achieve success, passion is not enough – follow your obsessions, tailor them to your skills, and focus on what you can make money from. What is your calling and your destiny? How can you change the world?

A simple formula is Success = Passion + Skills + Market Demand

Principle Two: Put a Dent in the Universe

Innovation doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Have a vision, because innovation cannot occur without one. What’s the bigger picture and how can you share your vision with enthusiasts who will make your vision a reality. How is your product or service going to change the world? How can you leave the world a better place than you found it?  How can you make your customers’ lives better?

Margaret Mead’s quote, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has,” encapsulates this principle.

Principle Three: Kick Start Your Brain

Seek our new and novel experiences, and bombard your brain with them. Who is doing something remarkable that you can learn from? Steve Jobs studied the Four Seasons Hotel and Mercedes Benz because they are aces when it comes to remarkable customer experiences. Jobs introduced a Concierge Service in the Apple Store based on what he learned from observing the Four Seasons Hotel.

A critical part of this principle is to make connections among disparate things and force yourself outside of your physical and mental comfort zone. To live a vision requires creative thinking which requires immersion in novel experiences.

New experiences expand the way you think. Surround yourself with people from different cultures. Experiment, and try new things. What are two things that you can do differently to improve the way in which you deliver your product or service?

Principle Four: Sell Dreams Not Products

Understand your customers, and help them to fulfill their dreams. Get to know them better than they know themselves. How can you change your customers’ worlds? Create remarkable customer experiences and market that.

Your customers often do not know what they want, so be a linchpin as marketing guru Seth Godin says and anticipate what they need before they do. It’s a twist to the concept of build it and they will come, to build it and convince them that they should come.

Principle 5: Say No to 1,000 Things

Take the road less traveled. Remove distractions so you can focus on the core product. Eliminate distractions from the customer experience. Don’t spread yourself too thin, and go for simplicity. Steve Job told Nike’s CEO  Mark Parker, ”Get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.” Go for simplicity and elegance.

Simplify and focus on your product and service offerings. What are you best at? What is one thing that you do extremely well? Focus on it and simplify.

Principle Six: Create Insanely Great Experiences

Create emotional connections with your customers. What are five ways you can enrich the lives of your customers? What relationships are you forming with your customers? Look outside your industry for examples. Create memorable experiences so you have rabid fans. Before you innovate, hold your customer in your mind’s eye, and proceed from there.

Principle: Master the Message

Effectively communicate your vision. Innovate around the way you communicate the vision. What are master presenters and communicators doing? Emulate them. Be a great storyteller, and be consistent in your messaging.

I enjoyed reading The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success because I had to stop several times and think about what I was reading. The many examples demonstrated how others were using these seven principles with great success, and I understood how I could use them as well. I also learned about innovative products that others were delivering.

For instance, DNA 11 creates art with their customer’s DNA and became a multi-million dollar business in five years. The owners Adrian Salamunovic and Nazim Ahmed didn’t conduct focus group interviews to decide if there was a need for their product, they created the product then created the demand for it. They also noticed that some of their customers were asking for art with their pets’ DNA, so they offered that to other customers who might not have thought of that.

What Carmine Gallo has shown in his book is that innovation does not necessarily mean crating something radically new. Sometimes it is simply doing something in an entirely new way. This is a practical book written in a clear manner. I recommend The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Further Reading

Review: The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence

How to Build a Business by Doing These 10 Things

Review of How to Build an Empire on an Orange Crate by Honest Ed Mirvish

Review: Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy by Isadore Sharp