Comments on: Heather Champ, Improviser

By: MerryHooYa

MerryHooYa — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:41:33 +0000

I can tell you this, working with Champ means love is definitely not a constant. Not even close. I regard her as a phony hold-over from the dumb days (1999-2005) and I feel the same about Derek. Never have a seen two people so tirelessly self-promote and fiddle with tools to make sure they rank high in searches.

By: Content is cheap, context is expensive: Is it any surprise which one we lack? | Unstructured Thoughts by Taylor Davidson

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:55:30 +0000

[...] How are we going to empower people to shine through companies? [...]

By: admin

admin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:57:48 +0000

I think the potential that non U.S. companies have that many U.S. companies currently do not is their employees’ ability to set aside ego and personal ambition to recognize and champion the essential values upon which the brand is built. The ‘power of personalization’ is only as good as the talent of the people using the tools of personalization. A Disney employee blog about baseball statistics, for example, would not be as in-tune with the brand as a blog about baseball as a family pastime. A personal brand is only as good as its ability to harmonize with another brand. When it comes to business, this often means the brand of one’s employers.

It is simply not enough to toot one’s own horn. One must have a sense of how the toot jibes with the whistle, plunk and boom of other players to make the music that is a company or organizational brand.

We have a star/soloist mentality in the U.S. This can quickly turn into cacophony. Non U.S. companies, in my experience, tend to be more oriented to the ensemble/orchestra. This is a much more effective way of collaborating, creating harmony, and being productive in one’s business scenes.

By: Taylor Davidson

Taylor Davidson — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:30:46 +0000

I loved this article, and liked your take on it. Finding ways to “personalize the company” and let people shine through directly to fans and customers is the biggest challenge and opportunity for traditional companies.

US business regulations and culture seem to be more bound by “letter of the law” rather than the more improv “intent of the law” found in the UK and other business systems. Perhaps non-US companies will be able to take the power of personalization and improv to heart faster than US companies? I’m curious what you think…