Uncovering your hidden genius
A genius is somebody with extraordinary intellectual and creative power. If you go by Simone de Beauvoir, “One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius.” Dr. Alan S. Gregerman, a renowned consultant in innovation, buys this, and defends his position in his book Surrounded by Geniuses. The tome guides the readers on how to unlock the brilliance in yourself, your colleagues and your organization.
Two basic and influential themes surface from Gregerman’s book. The first states that it doesn’t necessarily take brilliance to win in a competitive business environment. What it takes is your talent to unlock genius in the dwindling, fast-changing landscape, coupled with the power to turn such talent into a novel, convincing and noble value for the customers you choose to wait on. Customers come first, and the existence of any business revolves around them. You will remain relevant to them if you are in-step in delivering unique offerings that match their demanding and discriminating needs.
You will never be able to do this, Gregerman asserts, “If you are content with incremental change or merely copying the best practices of your best competitors.” Thus, to achieve improvement, you have to consistently reinvent the game that you choose to play. And the best way, he explains, is to unlock your own genius and that of the people you work with. Together you can open a world filled with gripping ideas that, once adopted, will truly matter to your customers.
The second theme hypothesizes that excellent business ideas and insights into implementing them with dexterity and fervor are likely to be discovered — serendipitously or synchronically — in some of the most unexpected places. Gregerman pushes that instead of only benchmarking the best practices of competitors and other leading businesses and personalities, you should cast a much wider net by examining history, popular culture, nature, science and even science fiction if you really want to figure out how to differentiate yourself or rise above the clutter. You can, for example, come across historical perspectives in a hardware store, fresh fashion ideas in a hangar, or an environmental care concept inside a place of worship. Whatever you do or are busy with, hunt for the preeminent insight and use it with competence and zeal in your universe.
In the communications arena, an insight is an obscure discovery about your target consumer, often combining bits of knowledge that are actionable and touch the heart. It is not merely a description of habits and practices, a “benefit barrier” about a product or category, not superficial or obvious or merely a list of data and facts about the consumer.
“I watch TV every day” is not an insight, but “I watch TV while surfing the Net, listening to my iPod, and chatting with my friends via BlackBerry Messenger” is. It is all about doing all these things at the same time every day. It is multi-tasking.
“I want my family’s clothes to be clean” is not an insight, but “providing my family with clean and well-pressed clothes is a reflection of who I am as a mother who always want the best for her family” is. It is a clear manifestation of a woman’s desire to be appreciated as a good mother.
“I want to be beautiful” is not an insight, but “I want to be as beautiful as my favorite celebrity because she always stands out among the rest, and I want to be like that, too” is. It projects the yearning of a young lady to stand out in the crowd.
Gregerman also posits that the motivation to do outstanding things is everywhere, and you have access to the same knowledge, where everybody else has a real opportunity to triumph, to make a real difference, and live to tell your tale. He recognizes the ability for creativity and innovation within every person and that ability can be directed towards transformation.
Surrounded by Geniuses challenges the accepted approaches to organizational strategy, innovation and marketing and elucidates a new way of thinking and behaving, which he believes can prove to be more fundamental to customer relationship and business success. By “combining an explorer’s passion with the curiosity and openness of a child, you can develop to be a genius,” Gregerman avers. The author offers 10 intriguing journeys to come face-to-face with 10 persuasive ideas that can turn around the way you think or perform, and, of course, your business.
1. The power of a promise. It is guaranteeing customer satisfaction and making and delivering on a substantial, meaningful promise. Delivering a promise is the most basic idea in the history of business. If you are able to guarantee it, success will be with you.
2. The magic of a conversation. You can outsell most other salespeople through the thrill of a dialogue that matters. Essentially, a good conversation is having a point of view or a theme, focusing on how you can take your audience on an essential journey through trials and tribulations to arrive at some new point. To do this, you have to have a structure, useful elements, and key messages that allow you to be heard and acted on. In both personal and professional encounters, whoever tells the best story wins.
3. The wonder of a performance. As they say in theater, “It’s show time, folks.” This pushes you to turn in a high performance level — a feat packed with amazement, risks and surprises, just like Cirque du Soleil, which reinvented the concept of a circus to bring new excitement to the world of entertainment. Being in business, as in theater, requires a real, honest-to-goodness product or service that titillates customers. And that’s all there is to it.
4. Your wish is my command. Demands of customers must be met with sincere service. To drive home the point, Gregerman uses the example of a world-class concierge at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Central Park, New York, and how he answers difficult and unusual customer requests. This example underscores the importance of your personal networks, how to tap into them when the need arises and why you should maintain them as long as you can.
5. When every second counts. Managing and respecting your and other people’s time is undoubtedly critical. To win in business, you must always be ready, available and dazzling. Gregerman emphasizes this point by sharing his story of a visit to a shock trauma center in the University of Maryland in Silver Springs — one of the world’s finest — where life-and-death decisions are all part of a day’s work. The author asks, “Why can the best shock-trauma units save people on the verge of death while most company help desks can’t answer simple questions?”
6. Be the fastest. Speed counts, and it is the only way forward. You must have the predisposition to instantly accelerate to competitive status or die on the vine. To illustrate the value of constantly speeding up, the author tells the tale of his journey in the world of cheetahs — the fastest creatures on land — across the harsh savanna of Tanzania in Africa where speed is everything, especially when you’re not the biggest or fiercest cat around.
7. When nothing is everything. Every little thing matters and you should aim to do all of them right all the time. Gregerman uses his experience of watching Seinfeld, one of the most successful TV shows in recent history “where life’s everyday problems are a cause for celebration, not brooding.” He comments, “Watching Seinfeld reruns might be much better than spending millions of dollars on market research.”
8. It is rocket science. It supposes that you can have a mindset that failure is not an option. The idea is that you can win by being perfect, or as a close to perfect as possible. Tough job but it can de done, as proven by the launch of the Atlas 5 rocket and the world of rocket scientists, whose mission demands precision and excellence. From them, you can learn how to be a genius at things that are seemingly very complicated, but truly aren’t.
9. No smile, no gain. The thought is that you can triumph by making customers happier and healthier. The author takes you to an aerobics class in Friskis & Svettis on the shore of the North Sea to honestly understand the potential of making customers fitter and happier. It is a journey to the frontlines of an unusual effort to make exercise fun and accessible to everyone and its implications for all. Smile and the gain will follow.
10. Have spider sense. It emphasizes why you and everybody else need to think more like Spider-Man if winning is the goal. Who doesn’t aim to win anyway? And to win you should, at all times, anticipate the needs of your customers and respond with compelling value. Gregerman transports you to the pages of the classic comic-book character, his milieu and experiences as a very human superhero; to recapture the amazing power you possess, and moves you to use it to your and your customers’ advantage.
It’s time to uncover the genius in you. Have your ticket and passport ready, don your most comfortable getaway gear, bring a catlike curiosity and open mind, and meet up with your future business and life transformation.
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E-mail bongosorio@yahoo.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.
Surrounded by Geniuses is available at National Book Store.
