|
What do you do?
I am the marketing and innovation director for Brandhouse.
What training and qualifications do you have?
I have a BCom (Hons) degree from Rhodes University.
What did you do before this job?
I was the vice-president for Europe for oral-care brand development and innovation at Unilever.
What was your first paying job?
I was a marketing assistant in the Rama brand office. I was 24 and my first salary was R1750.
How would you describe innovation?
The ultimate form of innovation has been described as the conceptualisation and delivery of a new product or service that the target did not realise they desired or even needed.
Why is it so important for organisations to become, and then remain, innovative?
In today's world of rapid competitive response and the fast closing of out-performance "gaps", innovation is often the means of gaining and sustaining competitive advantage, not just for the sake of it, but because the outcome more often than not is profitable growth ahead of the market, a motivated "can do" leadership team, a winning culture and a magnet for attracting and retaining great talent.
How can we, as individuals, be more innovative?
My own belief is that it is difficult to be innovative without being innately curious about the world and having an intuitive sense of what drives human behaviour. Great innovative marketers have always been able to leverage these talents to envisage new patterns of behaviour and develop hypotheses as to how a new product concept or service might benefit from, or indeed drive, new behaviour.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
An airline pilot.
What happened?
When a good friend described flying as the equivalent of being a bus driver with wings, the romance of the idea was quickly extinguished. The fact that I am largely not coordinated added to the change of heart.
What about your job keeps you awake at night?
Besides our people, the reputation of our business and our brands are the most valuable assets we have. The myriad factors that can affect the reputation and governance required to manage these risks keeps me awake at night. Whether Spurs will ever win another championship also keeps me awake at night, but that's a different story.
What aspect of your work gets you out of bed in the morning?
The fantastic challenges and opportunities attached to this role get me out of bed in the morning - they are literally too many to mention.
What or who inspires you?
I am inspired by two individuals. Steve Jobs's legacy, because it is almost inconceivable that one person could conceptualise, create and win in as many product and service categories as he has. Great intellect, intuition and self-belief in one remarkable individual.
The second is photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Her talent in being able to tell a story with a single image and particularly her portraiture, through which she has almost created a new art form, while at the same time continually challenging and testing her own boundaries in reinventing herself is an inspiration.
Author: Margaret Harris
Article Source: Times Live
