Notes on the book, Brick by brick

It is key to stay true to your core consumers or else you can lose your vision in indiscriminate expansion without a strong foundation.

Innovation without expertise can be more damaging than staying embedded in tradition. True innovation is built on the core foundations of a brand.

Disruption needs to grow organically from the core. Manufactured disruption can go horribly wrong.

Simplifying organizational structures and going back to foundational values can help clear confusion and offer direction when in a crisis.

Innovation is more than just product. It is a process and culture that needs to be built into an organisation to bring about real change.

Partnering with your consumers can be truly empowering both for innovation as well as building the brand image.

Diversifying the talent pool is about recruiting multicultural and multidimensional expertise to balance creativity with focus.

Encourage creativity but define parameters of time and budget to challenge ingenious minds and produce successful results.

The LEGO story shows everything that can go wrong with textbook “out of box thinking.” LEGO learnt the hard way that sometimes staying within the box brings fosters greater imagination and productivity by challenging the creative mind with limitations like cost or time.

It took two world wars, the Great Depression, and a spate of personal tragedies to make the iconic plastic brick that would change toy history, forever. 

Riding on its half-century-old success story, LEGO was completely blindsided by a cultural shift of interest in the market. This  shows how losing touch with your core consumer can lead to disaster even for the most successful firms.

Panicked by its first loss in over 50 years, LEGO went on a diversification overdrive. This offers a lesson in how innovation can go drastically wrong if not done right.

Not wanting to be demolished, LEGO tried to disrupt itself by entering into the digital revolution. It did wrong and proved why disruption can be tough even for the biggest corporate giants.

Nearly driven to the ground by its thoughtless innovation binge, LEGO found itself gasping for survival. Getting back to its foundational values, saved LEGO from extinction.

From ignoring the shift in its consumers’ interests to making customers co-creators for some of its most successful products, LEGO had indeed come a long way. The legendary toymaker partnered with its consumers towards profitability.

Going by the book, LEGO got all the diversification mantras wrong, until it got them right. LEGO got the right mix of creativity and discipline to regain its place as the world’s most-loved toy brand.

(Emeritus Insights on the book by David Robertson and Bill Breen)

I can be reached at gorask@gmail.com and whatsapp number 8800477973 for feedback, suggestions, ideas, collaboration, guest podcasts and other opportunities for working together.

My English Podcast "Lifebook" can be listened on the link https://anchor.fm/sanjay-gora7

My Hindi Podcast "Kitabi Keeda" can be listened on the link https://anchor.fm/sanjay-gora

Books written by me are available on Amazon, Flipkart and Notionpress sites.

https://www.amazon.in/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ASanjay+Gora&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1

https://www.flipkart.com/search?q=sanjay%20gora&otracker=search&otracker1=search&marketplace=FLIPKART&as-show=on&as=off

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Notes on Management 300322

 Ace the most difficult negotiations by gauging your skillsets correctly and not transferring power to your opponent. Avoid mistakes such as overestimating their ability and imitating negative behavior. Instead, urge yourself on, listen and ask questions, and go into the meeting well-prepared.

A story that supports your brand makes the customer the hero. Determine your customer's greatest need and let that drive your narrative.

Every story needs a villain. Define your customer's main obstacle and make it the villain that your brand helps them overcome

Make your brand the guide in the story, not the hero. Offer your customer a way forward with empathy and confidence.

Customers trust the guide with a plan. Present your customer with a plan for achieving what they want and mitigating risk.

Challenge your customers to take action. Give them a direct or transitional call to action that moves toward closing the sale.

Customers need to know what's at stake if they don't buy your product. Show your customer how their vulnerability to key risks increases without your product.

Your customer needs a happy ending. Finish your brand story with a picture of exactly how your brand will help them achieve what they want—a win, a change, a holistic experience.
(Emeritus Insights on book Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller)

A fear appeal is a persuasive message that attempts to arouse fear in order to divert behavior through the threat of impending danger or harm. It presents a risk, presents the vulnerability to the risk, and then may, or may not suggest a form of protective action.(Wikipedia)

I can be reached at gorask@gmail.com and whatsapp number 8800477973 for feedback, suggestions, ideas, collaboration, guest podcasts and other opportunities for working together.

My English Podcast "Lifebook" can be listened on the link https://anchor.fm/sanjay-gora7

My Hindi Podcast "Kitabi Keeda" can be listened on the link https://anchor.fm/sanjay-gora

Books written by me are available on Amazon, Flipkart and Notionpress sites.

https://www.amazon.in/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ASanjay+Gora&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1

https://www.flipkart.com/search?q=sanjay%20gora&otracker=search&otracker1=search&marketplace=FLIPKART&as-show=on&as=off

https://notionpress.com/author/36667

Notes on Marketing 140122

Salesforce and retail networks help to tap consumer needs. Don't ask what is working, ask what is not right. Winning at the game is about understanding what the consumer wants today and being ready on time with it.

Graduate from being a product to a brand to an experience. It relies on the ability to catch a trend at the outset and leverage it into an opportunity.

Advertising has evolved into the role of demand generation beyond its initial purpose of informing. The difference between aspiration and the income to achieve it creates premium demand, advertising is key to that.

The factors of success of one business cannot be applied to another even if they belong to the same category. Be clear about what differentiates the brand and focus on creating fans. The consumer looks to an Indian experience which is also progressive.

Keep the consumer at the center of the business strategy and deliver using technology, design, variety, advertising, and retailing. Standing up to the needs of the customer in a changing marketplace results leads to success.

In a closed market, differentiation depends on fewer parameters. In an open market, being a multi-brand is advantageous as you can reach different segments of consumers. The key, as always, is consumer centricity.

Leveraging the essence of brand ambassadors, rather than their face, works with consumers. Using stories to convey the message instead of a celebrity showcasing a brand leaves a more lasting impression.
Today's Indian consumer in lifestyle categories looks for modernity while continuing tradition. Women outnumber men as buyers in most of these segments.

(Bhaskar Bhat, Titan)