About The Book

Synopsis

Disruptive new business models are emblematic of our generation. Yet they remain poorly understood, even as they transform competitive landscapes across industries. Business Model Generation offers you powerful, simple, tested tools for understanding, designing, reworking, and implementing business models.

Business Model Generation is a practical, inspiring handbook for anyone striving to improve a business model — or craft a new one.

Change the way you think about business models

Business Model Generation will teach you powerful and practical innovation techniques used today by leading companies worldwide. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a new business model — or analyze and renovate an old one.

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 SOURCE : businessmodelgeneration.com  PAR: alexis mouthon  ACCÈS DIRECT A LA PLATEFORME: PSST.FR

 UNE INITIATIVE DE: POURQUOI TU COURS?  AGENCE DE PLANNING STRATEGIQUE 2.0  DIRIGÉE PAR: Jérémy Dumont

Stories have defined our world. They have been with us since the dawn of communication, from cave walls to the tall tales recounted around fires. They have continued to evolve with their purpose remaining the same; To entertain, to share common experiences, to teach, and to pass on traditions.

Today we communicate a bit differently. Our information is fragmented across various mass-media channels and delivered through ever-changing technology. It has become watered down, cloned, and is churned out quickly in 140-character blurbs. We’ve lost that personal touch where we find an emotional connection that makes us care.

Using storytelling, however, we can pull these fragments together into a common thread. We can connect as real people, not just computers. In this article we’ll explore how user experience professionals and designers are using storytelling to create compelling experiences that build human connections.

[Offtopic: by the way, do you know the Smashing Network has its own Smashing Network RSS Feed? Only excerpts are displayed in the feed.]

It Begins with a Story

In 1977, a simple story set the film industry on its side. The special effects technology used to create this story had not been created or used in filmmaking at the time of its writing. The author disregarded what was popular and marketable at the time (apocalyptic and disaster movies) to create his own vision. The film starred unknown actors and the genre had mainly been seen in 1930s serial movies. It was turned down by many film studios and at one point was almost shelved.

Image credit: Wired (Courtesy of Ballantine Books)

The movie, if you haven’t guessed, was Star Wars. The author was George Lucas. Star Wars went on to become one of the most successful films of all time and turned into a pop culture phenomenon. It gave birth to the blockbuster and the trilogy, and completely changed the way movies with special effects were made. Many of today’s most influential film companies were spawned from the success of these movies: LucasFilm, THX, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), and Pixar.

Star Wars wasn’t a new story though. It drew from mythic archetypes of stories told over thousands of years.

Revealing the Design in Stories

The creation of a story is often viewed as an almost magical or random process. The author sits in front of their canvas, the blank word processor, and begins to type whatever inspires them at the moment. Great stories, though, don’t just happen randomly; they are designed. There is a pattern at work here. In order to be entertaining, have the right dramatic cues, and tap deep into our collective psyche, a specific method is used to build the story. A story that fails to pull the audience emotionally and keep their attention may not have used enough of these patterns as a guide, as shown in the typical story arc below.

The story arc is widely used in screenwriting and novels.

The structure of the story has been around since long before screenwriting was taught. There was a point that it remained simply an unnoticed rhythm in the background of every story. Some aspects of this structure — like the hero’s journey and comparative mythology — were first popularized by Joseph Campbell. He wrote about his discovery in the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell was a student of Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung, who believed that we are all born with a subconscious idea of what a “hero”, a “mentor”, and a “quest” should be.

Campbell studied the structure of religion and myths across many cultures. What he discovered is that, consciously or not, every story (or myth) told had been created with the same basic formula. This is why great stories transcend even language barriers. It was this conclusion made by Campbell through his research that created large ripples in the waters of myth and religion.

We find the blueprint for “The Hero’s Journey” in films like Star Wars and The Matrix (via Star Wars Origins, Unofficial Site)

The stories we have seen on the silver screen or read about in novels have been able to captivate us by continuing to use these patterns. We talk about dialogue and certain scenes at the water cooler as if they had happened to a mutual friend, rather than some fictional character. All because we became emotionally invested in the characters and the story.

This type of emotional investment is something that brands strive for every day. Starbucks doesn’t want to just sell us a cup of coffee; they want customers to become invested in their story — the ambience, the aromas, the community. The goal is to become the “third place” for people (work, home, and Starbucks). They say, for them, “It’s really about human connection.”

The Power of Emotion

When speaking about stories, we describe the experience in a certain way. It tends to be more of an emotional experience, sometimes affecting us more on a personal level in how we relate to the story. This is much different from the way we traditionally describe the experience with products like websites or applications. Those are seen as more utilitarian and task-oriented.

If we are able to accomplish what we came to do, say transfer some money in a banking application, then it has been a good user experience. In order to achieve our goals, the interface should be usable and function the way we expect. This view is preached by many usability experts including Donald Norman, a professor of cognitive science and usability consultant for the Nielsen Norman Group.

After hearing that if people followed his rules “everything would be ugly,” Norman decided to explore people’s relationship to design. The result was the book Emotional Design. Through his research, Norman found that design affects how people experience products, which happens at three different levels, and translates into three types of design:

• Visceral Design This design is from a subconscious and biologically pre-wired programmed level of thinking. We might automatically dislike certain things (spiders, rotten smells, etc.) and automatically like others (”attractive” people, symmetrical objects, etc). This is our initial reaction to the appearance.
• Behavioral Design This is how the product/application functions, the look and feel, the usability, our total experience with using the product/application.
• Reflective Design This is how it makes us feel after the initial impact and interacting with the product/application, where we associate products with our broader life experience and associate meaning and value to them.

Image credit: D. Alan Harris Photography

There is a lot more to emotion than can be covered here, but understanding those basic levels of processing gives us some insight into why storytelling is so powerful. Consider how the levels of thinking play off each other in an amusement park: People pay to be scared. At the Visceral Level we have a fear of heights and danger. At the Reflective Level we trust that it is safe to go on the ride, and we seek that emotionally charged rush and sense of accomplishment (overcoming that fear of heights) after the ride is finished. Knowing that emotion is so vital to how we think makes it more important to create not just a functional and usable experience, but to seek and make a meaningful connection.

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 SOURCE : smashingmagazine.com  PAR: alexis mouthon  ACCÈS DIRECT A LA PLATEFORME: PSST.FR

 UNE INITIATIVE DE: POURQUOI TU COURS?  AGENCE DE PLANNING STRATEGIQUE 2.0  DIRIGÉE PAR: Jérémy Dumont

The newest breed of superheroes are not on the big screen, but in the small business community! People have long been awaiting for a “hero” or social entrepreneur to arrive with the special ability to recognize society’s problems and bring about global changes. Entrepreneurs who have the burning desire to create “social value” and develop long-term solutions are real life Supermen/Wonderwomen. So if you wish to help the disadvantaged by empowering them with tools for success, check out EvanCarmichael.com’s “The Top 50 Social Entrepreneur Blogs To Watch in 2009” to start improving the lives of others right now! The illustrations for the top 3 category leaders are provided by Happy Worker, a creative agency that makescustom action figures and custom toys. News Blogs 1) TreeHugger  URL: http://www.treehugger.com TreeHugger is a leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. It strives to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information. 2) Global Voices Online  URL: http://globalvoicesonline.org Global Voices is a leading participatory media news room for voices from the developing world. Begun in 2005 as a simple blog, Global Voices has grown into a vibrant global community of more than 150 active volunteer authors and translators. 3) Gristmill  URL: http://gristmill.grist.org The writers at Gristmill feel that reading environmental journalism too often feels like eating your vegetables. Boiled. With no butter. At Gristmill, they bring the life out of green issues and sustainable living. 4) GreenBiz URL: http://greenbiz.com/current/blogs GreenBiz offers daily news on green business, business and climate change, and sustainable business practices. 5) CSR News URL: http://www.csrwire.com/ CSRwire is one of the online world's leading sources of corporate social responsibility and sustainability news, reports and information. Big Ideas 6) How to Change the World  URL: blog.guykawasaki.com A practical blog for impractical people, "How to Change the World" is Guy Kawasaki's ever popular blog on topics important for both entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs. 7) Worldchanging  URL: http://www.worldchanging.com/ Worldchanging is a media organization that seeks to inspire readers around the world with stories of the most important and innovative new tools, models and ideas for building a bright sustainable future. 8) Triple Pundit  URL: http://triplepundit.com Serving people, planet, and profit, this blog offers an integrated bottom-line approach to looking at business from the next generation of MBAs. 9) Have Fun, Do Good  URL: http://havefundogood.blogspot.com Britt Bravo, founder of the Changeblogger Network, blogs on topics that focus on teaching individuals and organizations to realize their big vision. 10) Spare Change  URL: http://www.social-marketing.com/blog Blogger Nedra is a consultant, author and speaker who uses social marketing to promote health and social issues. 11) Marc Gunther  URL: http://www.marcgunther.com/ Marc Gunther is a leading thinker about business and sustainability. All of his work is animated by his belief that companies that make the world a better place—by serving their customers, their workers and their communities—will deliver superior results to their owners in the long run. 12) Audeamus  URL: http://www.audeamus.com Audeamus covers the world of social entrepreneurship, international development, global philanthropy, social enterprise and corporate social responsibility. 13) Beneblog  URL: http://benetech.blogspot.com/ What happens when technology can do great things for humanity, but doesn't make a lot of money? Jim Fruchterman explores the social entrepreneurship side of technology applications. 14) Social ROI  URL: http://www.socialroi.com SocialROI sets out to enable social entrepreneurship and to spread the word about some of the good stuff that’s happening in the space. 15) Social Entrepreneurship URL: http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org Change.org is a social entrepreneurship venture whose blog aims to serve as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time. 16) Global Envision  URL: http://www.globalenvision.org/ Global Envision is dedicated to increasing awareness of two of the defining trends of our time — the spread of more open markets and the global fight against poverty. 17) Fast Company Expert Blog  URL: http://www.fastcompany.com/expert-blog/8 Fast Company sets the agenda, charting the evolution of business through a unique focus on the most creative individuals sparking change in the marketplace. This expert blog focuses on the future of social entrepreneurship. Seeing Green 18) GreenUpgrader URL: http://greenupgrader.com/ GreenUpgrader scours the earth for the best & most innovative environmentally friendly products, bringing you choices and inspiration for ways to protect our planet. 19) Environmental Leader URL: http://www.environmentalleader.com/ Environmental Leader wants to make you just that, a leader in the fight for sustainability. This blog offers clean energy and sustainability news for corporate and government decision-makers. 20) Ecopreneurist  URL: http://ecopreneurist.com/ Ecopreneurist provides news and advice on sustainable and social entrepreneurship. Learn about new green products and services, and get marketing and branding assistance for your green start-up business. 21) Greenbang  URL: http://www.greenbang.com/ Journalist Dan Ilett and friends write Greenbang.com, which tracks the explosion of environmental business. 22) Cleantech Blog  URL: http://www.cleantechblog.com/ Cleantechblog.com is one of the premier sites for commentary on clean technologies, news, and issues relating to next generation energy and the environment. 23) World is Green  URL: http://worldisgreen.com Worldisgreen.com is about the concept of “sustainability”. It focuses on the three forces of profits, planets and people as the triple bottom line, which need to work in harmony for a sustainable future. 24) Echoing Green URL: http://echoinggreen.org/blog Echoing Green documents news, trends, and the true life of social entrepreneurs. Its goal is to seed social entrepreneurs and their innovative ideas for positive change. 25) Marketing Green  URL: http://marketinggreen.wordpress.com/ Marketing Green’s mission is to provide industry professionals with practical strategic marketing advice on how to build green brands and motivate mass market adoption of more sustainable products. 26) Ecological Economics  URL: http://forestpolicy.typepad.com/ecoecon/ Ecological Economics is a blog designed to daylight and refine economists’ and ecologists' views, agreements, and disagreements on current environmental and natural resource issues. Social Entrepreneurship at Work 27) AfriGadget URL: http://www.afrigadget.com/ AfriGadget is a website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. A team of bloggers and readers contribute their pictures, videos and stories from around the continent. 28) Global X  URL: http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/global-x Watch leading social entrepreneurs as they tell moving stories that had a significant impact on their personal and professional lives. They also give aspiring social entrepreneurs advice they can use immediately to scale their ventures. 29) Kiva Chronicles URL: http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/kiva-chronicles Co-founder of Kiva, one of the most successful social ventures today, Matt Flannery blogs about his real-life experiences as a social entrepreneur. 30) Capital Ideas  URL: http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/capital-ideas Capital Ideas is a six month series providing a "Finance 101 for Social Entrepreneurs" through a combined offering of basic finance knowledge, practical advice and case studies. 31) Annansi Chronicles  URL: http://annansi.com/blog/ G. Kofi Annan is a consultant who works with global brands to create socially innovative community experiences. Annansi Chronicles covers the culture and business trends which are defining Africa’s new brand image.

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 SOURCE : evancarmichael.com  PAR: alexis mouthon  ACCÈS DIRECT A LA PLATEFORME: PSST.FR

 UNE INITIATIVE DE: POURQUOI TU COURS?  AGENCE DE PLANNING STRATEGIQUE 2.0  DIRIGÉE PAR: Jérémy Dumont

AN ASTONISHING amount of time is being wasted on investigating the amount of time being wasted on social networks. Studies regularly claim that the use of Twitter, Facebook and other such services poses a threat to corporate wealth. One published last year by Morse, an IT company, estimated that personal use of social networks during the working day was costing the British economy almost £1.4 billion ($2.3 billion) a year in lost productivity. Another, by Nucleus Research, an American firm, concluded that if companies banned employees from using Facebook while at work, their productivity would improve by 1.5%.

This assumes that people would actually work rather than find some other way to pass the time they have to spare. In the same vein, perhaps companies should also ban water coolers and prohibit people sending e-mails to their friends. The assumption that firms can block access to the networks altogether is also rather heroic. Some employees now have web-enabled smart phones, so trying to stop them from surfing their favourite sites will be another waste of time.

To veterans of the technology industry, the fuss over social networking sounds all too familiar. Whenever a new and disruptive technology appears, there is initially a backlash against it before it becomes broadly accepted. Even a seemingly innocent application such as Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet was greeted with much scepticism because managers assumed workers would use it to make lists of their fantasy football teams or their weekend shopping—which is exactly what they did and still do. But along the way, Excel has also become an invaluable business tool.

Social networks were not designed for businesses as Excel was. Instead they are part of a growing trend known as the “consumerisation” of IT. Thanks to companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook, people now have access to communications devices and web applications that are often far superior to those offered by their employers. And thanks to cloud computing, which allows all sorts of computing services to be delivered via the internet, they can use these devices and applications pretty much wherever they like, including in offices and factories. This trend is accelerating as more digitally savvy youngsters enter the workforce with their iPhones at the ready.

Moreover, as people become increasingly used to sharing and collaborating outside the workplace, they are coming to expect firms to be more open and collaborative places too. Many companies are organised into strictly separate regional, product-line and functional “silos”, making it hard for people to share information beyond their immediate colleagues. And the rise of vast, globe-spanning corporate empires with hundreds of thousands of employees has left many folk isolated in small work groups run by managers who care only about their particular fiefs. As a result, efforts are duplicated and valuable information ends up being hoarded, not shared.

I spy A-Space

In the corporate world such hoarding leads to lost profits. In the world of intelligence it can lead to lost lives. The recent unsuccessful attempt by a terrorist to blow up an American aircraft in flight has highlighted the need for better information-sharing among security agencies. To improve matters, the intelligence community is developing a system called A-Space, a sort of Facebook for spies that holds profiles of analysts from various agencies and allows them to contact one another and to share large amounts of text, graphics, images and videos.

Before a pilot of the system was launched in 2008 it often took weeks, sometimes months, for spooks to track down relevant people to talk to at other agencies. “The intelligence community was a bunch of stove pipes,” says Ahmad Ishaq, A-Space’s project manager. Now the 14,000 people with access to the secure system can easily and quickly get in touch with each other.

Social networks are being used to break down internal barriers in the corporate world too. A few companies, such as Zappos, an online retailer owned by Amazon, encourage employees to use public networks such as Twitter to share information. The argument for using a system that allows the world to see what a firm’s employees are up to is that it helps make faceless corporations seem more human in the eyes of their customers. Networks such as Twitter are also free and very easy to use, which means people adopt them quickly.

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 SOURCE : economist.com  PAR: alexis mouthon  ACCÈS DIRECT A LA PLATEFORME: PSST.FR

 UNE INITIATIVE DE: POURQUOI TU COURS?  AGENCE DE PLANNING STRATEGIQUE 2.0  DIRIGÉE PAR: Jérémy Dumont

INTRODUCTION

Marketing is about selling people more. So can sustainable marketing really work?

- Marketing comprises a set of skills that generally enable companies to sell more stuff to more people to get a greater share of the market. These skills are usually portable: it doesn’t matter what’s being sold to whom in what marketplace. The social and environmental impact of the stuff that’s being marketed remains, for the vast majority of people in marketing, until recently, largely irrelevant. The idea of sustainable marketing is inevitably sort of ridiculous.

- Sustainable development comprises a set of ideas, principles, values, mindsets and practices that enable individuals and organizations to improve their quality of life in ways that simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life-support systems, in other words, without destroying the planet. At the very least, it can mean consuming in more environmentally and socially responsible ways; for some, it means consuming less.

The idea of sustainable marketing is, therefore, sort of suspect. The marketplace is greener now than ever before and will become even more responsive to products and services promising environmental responsibility well into the 21st century. The reasons are many. People are worried. In the 1980’s, environmental calamities dominated the news. Almost daily, headlines trumpeted oil spills, toxic-waste dumps, and nuclear meltdowns. A hole punctured the ozone layer, a garbage barge searched in vain for a dumpsite; apples were not considered safe to eat. The issues were no longer in someone else’s backyard far-away, but in our own. The environment rose to the top of the public’s worry list.

MARKETING INNOVATION AND SUSTAINABLE MARKETING

Nowadays, businesses that fall short of developing effective value propositions have difficulties in taking advantage of market opportunities that are characterized by uncompromising market forces such increased competition, shortened product lifecycles and more sophisticated and variable customer demands. It is a disconcerting fact that many, if not most, businesses struggle to develop sustainable, innovative value propositions that help them sustain their market positions.

Marketing innovation and sustainable development are today’s hottest topics of our planet among intellectuals. Why not harness the creativity and innovation of one of the oldest professions there is to move forward our societies onto a much more sustainable footing? Humanity has been known to tackle far more challenging tasks, anywhere from placing a man on the moon, to persuading people to buy aloe vera toilet paper, as Steve Hilton from Good Business often illustrates. Surely, therefore, bringing together these innovators and persuaders needed to make the world more sustainable should also be possible.

Will we assist to less growth with marketing sustainability? Not really. I think if it is well done, it could mean better, smarter and much more efficient ways of buying and making stuff. What if marketing sustainability is just a pipe dream when consumers are largely ambivalent about the green credentials of the products and services they buy, and certainly find it difficult to pay ‘green premiums’? We don’t think it will be. If done properly, it will appeal to personal values and allow that twinge of “I would really like to do something”.

However, I have to notice that efforts by the odd responsible company are not nearly enough to make producer and consumer change stick. A much wider collective effort is needed if we are going to be successful at reversing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, considering most of us are not willing to sacrifice Aloe Vera toilet paper for banana leaves. If marketing can turn “lead into gold”, then it has the potential to make sustainable development a household word, a universally recognised way of adding both social and economic value. Marketing can create, influence and change target audience attitudes, beliefs and perceptions. In a nutshell, marketing works; that’s why companies do it. A more interesting question is how can it be used to reinforce sustainable development?

I have to mention that although sustainable development and marketing innovation are the 21st century most discussed topics, they are conflicting concepts. Today’s evolution about these topics is to set a challenging sustainable development benchmarks for every element of the marketing mix and build intrinsic brand value in and through sustainable development. Through engaging companies from a range of sectors that are both already active in sustainable development and have high brand awareness, as well as leading media and communications agencies open to new opportunities, we hope to build wider competencies in sustainable marketing within the profession and more broadly in businesses.

 MARKETING INNOVATION

Much of the discussion about marketing and sustainable development focuses on developed markets; on the levels of consumption amongst the world’s richest people and the changing nature of their preferences. Companies face fierce competition for growth in developed countries whilst, in contrast, the most disadvantaged people in the world represent a market with enormous potential. And if the world’s population expands in line with current predictions, over 90% of people will be living in (what are now) developing countries within 30 years. It is no surprise, then, that marketers are increasingly interested in the opportunities amongst the world’s poor, which may involve addressing their basic needs. But is this wishful thinking, or are there compelling commercial reasons for business to pay attention to developing markets? As the term sustainable development enters the business mainstream, the responsibility for managing social and environmental issues is slowly shifting from the corporate fringe to an important business function.

The implementation of communication strategies is a marketing innovation. Not only does the company inform the general public of its efforts to reduce its environmental impact, but in addition, it listens to its clients and tries to gain acceptance of its employees. A sophisticated form of the communication strategy consists of taking part directly in the development of restrictive measures (emission standards, branch agreements, etc.). This effort seems to show a proactive approach to companies on the environmental question, but on the other hand, it could be a way to impede environmental progress by means of a lobbying policy.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a company in possession of a good (or poor) fortune must be in want of innovation. Yet, by all accounts, some 40-90% of innovations fail in the market. In this elective we examine the drivers of market adoption, taking the perspectives of both ‘objective reality’ and the ‘perceived reality’ of the players in the decision. We then offer some suggestions for bringing innovations more successfully to market.

Invention and innovation have proven to be crucial components for the development of modern societies. However, 1.3 billion people who currently live on less than a dollar a day do not enjoy the benefits that many modern inventions have brought. At the same time some key new technologies are known to have caused enormous damage to the global environment.

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING

Increasingly, business is investing in sustainable development strategies, often not fully embraced by their marketing departments.

The result of this means that mixed messages are being transmitted to shareholders and stakeholders alike. There is a real need to join sustainable development business strategy with the marketing departments that drive that strategy forward.
Because marketing influences the development of products and services, as well as the communication methods used to influence consumer behaviour, it is at the axis of one of the most challenging issues facing business today: addressing the current unsustainable levels of production and consumption in an uncertain world.

There are two key approaches to marketing and sustainability. One seeks to embed sustainable development within a company’s core marketing strategy from innovation to the market. The other aligns opportunities for marketing and advertising with the values of sustainable development, either overtly or covertly.

Why is it now that people think about sustainable marketing?

As mainstream marketing is changing and as we enter a ‘third age’ of branding, the context for brands is changing irrevocably. The first age of branding was the age of functionality, where product purpose was legitimised through trademarks. The second age was the age of aspiration, meaning brands served a self actualising purpose. The third age of branding is the age of reconnection, that is, solutions-oriented branding. Empowering consumers to make the world a better place through the products they buy.  For example, if we take the case of the refrigerators, we can say that in 1950’s, somebody could easily be convinced to buy a refrigerator just because it looked cool in his/her eyes, but in today’s uncertain world, we might ask ourselves about the impact of the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that our refrigerator is emitting and demand a more environmentally friendly refrigerator.

So, if today’s successful marketing is about appealing to personal values and delivering consumer empowerment, then surely the time is right to inject sustainable development into the marketing mix to help address some of the gritty issues currently facing our planet.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Today’s fast technologies innovation and invention have made people worry about their living environment. Although they need improvements for the household equipments they are daily using, they started asking themselves about the future of the world. Based on this, we have to mention that marketing innovation is developing with consequences for humankind. In this 21st century, sustainable development remains a term which many marketers have become accustomed to hearing alongside jargon such as stakeholder engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Sustainable development is a compelling idea for many people. It is concerned with how business can contribute to some of the most significant challenges that the world faces today; from climate change and biodiversity, to working conditions and health amongst the poorest in the world. But marketing managers have struggled to translate these ideas into viable commercial propositions into marketing strategies that create competitive advantage, build trust or develop new business opportunities.

Moreover, marketers have often faced criticism for being part of the problem for pushing the consumption of unsustainable products and lifestyles.

Sustainable development is becoming a key strategic issue for companies. With growing pressure from global warming, natural resource depletion, widening social gaps, legislation, societal pressures, and the evolution of consumer expectation, the role of marketing within an organization is changing dramatically. Consumer demand for “ethical” products and services is increasing and the marketing is a lever for innovation to answer to this new demand. Social and environmental values are now elements of a brand, marketers need to tackle these issues. Sustainable development is the practice of protecting the environment while improving living standards for all, and invention and innovation is key to its success. Invention and innovation for sustainable development isn’t just about developing new technology, but includes new processes and new ways of solving old problems. Creative thinking is the rubric. Creative thinking has always been integral for improving well-being.

Despite the fact that people everywhere have an innate ability to be creative, rich countries are not doing enough to stimulate and harness invention and creative thinking, and poor countries tend to stifle innovation and creativity outright. This is typically due to a combination of factors: insufficient financial resources, lack of role models, education systems that don’t inspire or value creativity, and social/political environments that discourage creativity, invention and entrepreneurship. Sustainable development has different meanings and implications in different parts of the world. Julia Marton-Lefèvre, executive director of LEAD International, an organization dedicated to leadership for environment and development in a workshop on “invention and innovation for sustainable development” held in November 2003 said to understand the challenges and ramifications “not only in London and Paris and New York, but also in tiny villages in Nigeria and Indonesia and China.” Sustainable development is for all countries, not just developing ones. Based on what she said, I can mention that while rich countries need to develop alternative sources of energy and other technologies that reduce their own impact on the environment, poor countries need to develop their own innovation capacity, in order to address their own particular needs.

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 SOURCE : creativeheadline.com  PAR: alexis mouthon  ACCÈS DIRECT A LA PLATEFORME: PSST.FR

 UNE INITIATIVE DE: POURQUOI TU COURS?  AGENCE DE PLANNING STRATEGIQUE 2.0  DIRIGÉE PAR: Jérémy Dumont

 Copyright by World Economic Forum - swiss-image.ch - Photo by Gian Vaitl

The World Economic Forum is once again making full use of the major social media platforms at the upcoming Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland giving unprecedented access to the wider public. The general public can actively participate in a number of sessions through video submissions, blog comments, tweets and quick polls.

Twitter

We will live tweet the most salient quotes from the key sessions on the Forum Twitter account: http://twitter.com/Davos which now boasts over 1.5 million followers. Over 250 participants are on Twitter including Queen Rania of Jordan,Bill Gates, Jens Stoltenberg Prime Minister of Norway and Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, President of Mongolia. You can follow their tweets by subscribing to the officialTwitter list: http://twitter.com/Davos/WEF2010. For news junkies there is a specific list of media organizations and journalists covering the meeting:http://twitter.com/Davos/WEFMedia.

For the first time participants are invited to leave their comments on a dedicated Twitter account: http://twitter.com/Davos_2010. The official hashtag of the meeting is #WEF. The short URL to the Forum’s meeting website is http://tr.im/Davos10. To show your support for the Forum why not put a Twibbon on your Twitter avatar:http://twibbon.com/join/Davos.

The Forum will also microblog in Chinese on Sina.com:http://t.sina.com.cn/davos. And finally, you can get all the feeds by subscribing to the Forum on FriendFeed http://friendfeed.com/worldeconomicforum.

Blogging

Key sessions will also be blogged on the Forum’s blog http://www.forumblog.org. All the blog posts about the Forum are aggregated it in the Davos Conversationhttp://www.davosconversation.org on Netvibes. The programme of the Open Forum is on the blog http://www.forumblog.org/openforum and you can send comments which the moderators will integrate in their respective panels.

Facebook

The Forum recently released a report on Faith in the Global Agenda based in large parts on polls conducted on Facebook with over 130.000 respondents. In selected sessions in Davos, we will once again tap into the collective wisdom of the onlinrowd through these “pulses” on Facebook. The pulses allow us to capture the opinion of several thousand Facebook users in a matter of minutes. Their views will be fed back into the panel discussion at specific sessions. If you are on Facebook why not become a fan of the Forumhttp://facebook.com/worldeconomicforum.

MySpace

Sloane Berrent has won the MySpaceJournal competition organized by MySpacein partnership with the Wall Street Journal. The 30 year old will report from Davos for the global MySpace community. Watch her winning video entry below:

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 SOURCE : forumblog.org  PAR: alexis mouthon  ACCÈS DIRECT A LA PLATEFORME: PSST.FR

 UNE INITIATIVE DE: POURQUOI TU COURS?  AGENCE DE PLANNING STRATEGIQUE 2.0  DIRIGÉE PAR: Jérémy Dumont