CMO Blog

Our new brand identity launched a year ago today.

In just 12 months our new ‘modular, cool and contemporary’ identity has become firmly established with the new logo appearing on products from the Workabout Pro™3 through to today’s Omnii™ XT15, in and outside our offices around the world, on stationery, in Psion and reseller marketing campaigns, presentations and press releases. Also, at conferences and events like CeBIT, NRF and MODEX as well as at global partner conferences.

And of course the brand has been seen where it lives best, and most prominently of all: online. 

Our ground-breaking online community, IngenuityWorking, has exemplified the way we are today and the way we do business. It has showcased many variations of our highly adaptive ‘3D’ logo whether reflecting our products, our marketplaces, global anniversaries like the invention of the barcode through to ‘happy holidays’ messages.

These things just couldn’t have been done with our old brand identity. Happy Birthday to the new Psion!

Last week, we launched the Omnii XT15, our most rugged handheld device to date, targeted at the supply chain and logistics market – our core business and a critical product for Psion.

Not only did we introduce this new and compelling product to the market place, we also marked an industry first with the Omnii Advantage. This   gives our customers the opportunity to upgrade a module free of charge after the first year of ownership. Finally, we added an entire social media dimension to our global launch with the introduction of the Psion Survival Challenge to an enthusiastic global response.

As you will have seen, the product achieved global coverage in its first week and I am delighted that the XT15 announcement has been our most impactful launch since under our new identity. The launch also marks the point where we are seeing a breakthrough in understanding of the value of our open innovation strategy and, in particular, the adaptability that comes from modularity. Our campaign theme ‘Psion gives you more’ is definitely helping us to cut through the noise.

Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing media landscape and despite continuing economic difficulties around the world, we achieved 8,000,000 page impressions across global online media. This is more than four times the number we achieved for Omnii XT10.

In addition, journalists across all our markets, generated more than 50 unique articles. This is significantly more than we would normally expect to see after just 7 days, confirming that the appetite for the Omnii XT15 is considerable.

We have also seen our partners getting behind the Omnii XT15. We've received many requests from our partners for our Survival Challenge content and the online buzz is just the start with more videos to follow in the next weeks.

The team has also shown these videos to customers in sales presentations to a very positive response.

You can expect to see more social media activity around future Psion launches. And, if you haven’t already done so, please do share this content as widely as you can.

So we have started the year with a successful launch, but as ever there is more to do, so please keep blogging, tweeting and sharing all the content that we’re creating to support the XT15.

Always good to see big companies trying to move faster, and thinking like a smaller company (maybe), but getting into new ways of operating in a market that is changing due to the speed with which people share & discuss everything.

Link to article in Marketing Week (a UK publication) here: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/3032068.article?cmpid=MWE01&cmptype=newsletter&email=true

And quick quote from it to show the point.

"The concept of two-speed thinking means forgoing the traditional model of working sequentially on projects and moving on to a new idea when one project is finished, in favour of working on future ideas and technologies in parallel with current ones"

To me, two-speed thinking makes a lot of sense. Working in parallel, not serially, is not always possible, but its possible for many projects. Its adds a very conscious step in the process and actually should produce a result faster.  Is it tougher on time & people? Yes, but it often has the effect of de-cluttering your thinking, or your project, so that you focus on getting the core work right, with no fluff or distractions.

And there could be an argument for three-speed thinking, but that might require a change in the space/time continuum...  So try two-speed thinking and see what you get!

The world of online news and information never stop growing... So, I thought I would find out which sites you use and which ones you find valuable.

Here's two for starters:

Ports:  http://www.porttechnology.org/
Covering a wide range of topics from terminal operating systems, port management information systems, port construction and planning to terminal and container handling, this semi-hardback journal features over 40 technical papers written by leading industry professionals, divided into distinctive sections reflecting emerging trends and technical advancements which lead to greater efficiency and higher productivity in ports and terminals. The sections include core management issues such as port planning, design and construction through to financial and environmental issues, together with warehousing, logistics, customs and security; every aspect of operation in the port or terminal.

RFID:  http://www.rfidtribe.com/
About RFID Tribe:
RFID Tribe, a global organization with local chapters, is the world's association for radio frequency identification (RFID) professionals. The group of industry experts collaborates on RFID and sensor technology, standards, venture capital, products, applications, industry trends, people and events.  RFID Tribe serves as an engine for ideas, people and capital.  www.rfidtribe.org
RFID Tribe - Where the World's RFID Community Shares Ideas ©
RFID technology covered: Active, passive, near field communications (NFC), smart cards, LF, HF, UHF, microwave, real time location systems (RTLS), electronic product codes (EPC), epcglobal, ISO, ZigBee, sensors, mesh networks

Feel free to add to  this list - if there are some good opportunities to join up with any of these, I'd like to know that too!

Here's some good reading for the weekend - and hopefully and inspiring week ahead...

Why Inspiration Matters

by Scott Barry Kaufman in HBR.org | November 8, 2011

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/why_inspiration_matters.html

“When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey.”

— Rudyard Kipling

In a culture obsessed with measuring talent and ability, we often overlook the important role of inspiration. Inspiration awakens us to new possibilities by allowing us to transcend our ordinary experiences and limitations. Inspiration propels a person from apathy to possibility, and transforms the way we perceive our own capabilities. Inspiration may sometimes be overlooked because of its elusive nature. Its history of being treated as supernatural or divine hasn’t helped the situation. But as recent research shows, inspiration can be activated, captured, and manipulated, and it has a major effect on important life outcomes.

Inspiration has three main qualities. Pyschologists Todd M. Thrash and Andrew J. Elliot have noted these core aspects of inspiration: evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation. First, inspiration is evoked spontaneously without intention. Inspiration is also transcendent of our more animalistic and self-serving concerns and limitations. Such transcendence often involves a moment of clarity and awareness of new possibilities. As Thrash and Elliot note, “The heights of human motivation spring from the beauty and goodness that precede us and awaken us to better possibilities.” This moment of clarity is often vivid, and can take the form of a grand vision, or a “seeing” of something one has not seen before (but that was probably always there). Finally, inspiration involves approach motivation, in which the individual strives to transmit, express, or actualize a new idea or vision. According to Thrash and Elliot, inspiration involves both being inspired by something and acting on that inspiration.

Inspired people share certain characteristics. Thrash and Elliot developed the “Inspiration Scale,” which measures the frequency with which a person experiences inspiration in their daily lives. They found that inspired people were more open to new experiences, and reported more absorption in their tasks. “Openness to Experience” often came before inspiration, suggesting that those who are more open to inspiration are more likely to experience it. Additionally, inspired individuals weren’t more conscientious, supporting the view that inspiration is something that happens to you and is not willed. Inspired individuals also reported having a stronger drive to master their work, but were less competitive, which makes sense if you think of competition as a non-transcendent desire to outperform competitors. Inspired people were more intrinsically motivated and less extrinsically motivated, variables that also strongly impact work performance. Inspiration was least related to variables that involve agency or the enhancement of resources, again demonstrating the transcendent nature of inspiration. Therefore, what makes an object inspiring is its perceived subjective intrinsic value, and not how much it’s objectively worth or how attainable it is. Inspired people also reported higher levels of important psychological resources, including belief in their own abilities, self-esteem, and optimism. Mastery of work, absorption, creativity, perceived competence, self-esteem, and optimism were all consequences of inspiration, suggesting that inspiration facilitates these important psychological resources. Interestingly, work mastery also came before inspiration, suggesting that inspiration is not purely passive, but does favor the prepared mind.

Inspiration is not the same as positive affect. Compared to the normal experiences of everyday life, inspiration involves elevated levels of positive affect and task involvement, and lower levels of negative affect. Inspiration is not the same state as positive affect, however. Compared to being in an enthusiastic and excited state, people who enter an inspired state (by thinking of a prior moment they were inspired) reported greater levels of spirituality and meaning, and lower levels of volitional control, controllability, and self-responsibility for their inspiration. Whereas positive affect is activated when someone is making progress toward their immediate, conscious goals, inspiration is more related to an awakening to something new, better, or more important: transcendence of one’s previous concerns.

Inspiration is the springboard for creativity. Inspired people view themselves as more creative and show actual increases in self-ratings of creativity over time. Patent-holding inventors report being inspired more frequently and intensely than non-patent holders, and the higher the frequency of inspiration, the higher the number of patents held. Being in a state of inspiration also predicts the creativity of writing samples across scientific writing, poetry, and fiction (as judged by a panel of fellow students) independent of SAT verbal scores, Openness to Experience, positive affect, specific behaviors (e.g., deleting prior sentences), and aspects of the product quality (e.g., technical merit). Inspired writers are more efficient and productive, and spend less time pausing and more time writing. The link between inspiration and creativity is consistent with the transcendent aspect of inspiration, since creativity involves seeing possibility beyond existing constraints. Importantly, inspiration and effort predict different aspects of an activity. Individuals who exerted more effort writing spent more of their time pausing, deleted more words, wrote more sentences per paragraph, and had better technical merit and use of rhyming in poems, but their work was not considered more creative.

Inspiration facilitates progress toward goals. In a recent study conducted by Marina Milyavskaya and her colleagues, college students were asked to report three goals they intended to accomplish throughout the course of the semester. They then reported on their progress three times a month. Those who scored higher on the Inspiration Scale displayed increased goal progress, and their progress was a result of setting more inspired goals. Therefore, people who were generally more inspired in their daily lives also tended to set inspired goals, which were then more likely to be successfully attained. Importantly, the relationship between inspiration and goal progress was reciprocal: goal progress also predicted future goal inspiration. As the researchers note, “this suggests that goal progress and goal inspiration build on each other to form a cycle of greater goal inspiration and greater goal pursuit.” Finally, inspired individuals reported experiencing more purpose in life and more gratitude.

Inspiration increases well-being. In another study, those who were exposed to Michael Jordan’s greatness experienced higher levels of positive affect, and this increase in positive affect was completely explained by their score on the Inspiration Scale. This inspiration was not transitory though, predicting positive well-being (e.g., positive affect, life satisfaction) three months later! Inspiration was more strongly related to future than to present satisfaction. The extent to which inspiration lasted was explained by self-reported levels of purpose and gratitude in life.

These findings show that inspiration matters a lot, which may cause someone to feel pressure to become inspired and helpless to do so considering the evocative and spontaneous nature of inspiration. The writer Elizabeth Gilbert rightly expresses this concern in her inspiring TED talk. I agree with Gilbert that one should not put pressure on oneself to become inspired. These key scientific findings suggest that inspiration is not willed--it happens. Knowing this should free you from the pressure to make inspiration happen.

This does not mean that inspiration is completely outside your control. Contrary to the view of inspiration as purely mythical or divine, I think inspiration is best thought of as a surprising interaction between your current knowledge and the information you receive from the world. There are things you can do to increase the likelihood of inspiration occurring. Research shows quite clearly that preparation (“work mastery”) is a key ingredient. While inspiration is not the same as effort, effort is an essential condition for inspiration, preparing the mind for an inspirational experience. Openness to Experience and positive affect are also important, as having an open mind and approach-oriented attitude will make it more likely that you will be aware of the inspiration once it arrives. Small accomplishments are also important, as they can boost inspiration, setting off a productive and creative cycle.

Another incredibly important, and often overlooked trigger of inspiration is exposure to inspiring managers, role models, and heroes. As Gregory Dess and Joseph Picken note in “Changing Roles: Leadership In The 21st Century,“ our competitive global economy requires leaders to shift their focus from efficient management to effective utilization of a company’s diversity of resources. They argue for five key roles of leadership:

1. Using strategic vision to motivate and inspire
2. Empowering employees at all levels
3. Accumulating and sharing internal knowledge
4. Gathering and integrating external information
5. Challenging the status quo and enabling creativity

Steve Jobs is the quintessential example of an inspiring manager, and he undoubtedly checked each of these boxes in spades.

To become personally inspired, the best you can do is set up the optimal circumstances for inspiration. As a society, the best we can do is assist in setting up these important circumstances for everyone. An easy first step is simply recognizing the sheer potency of inspiration, and its potential impact on everything we do.

Scott Barry Kaufman is a cognitive scientist at NYU. He is also Co-founder of The Creativity Post and Chief Pedagogical Advisor of The Future Project. Follow him on twitter @sbkaufman.

Good news! The idea that asking your customer what they really want, and then giving it them, is spreading... Co-develop, co-design and even co-marketing is kicking off at Harley Davidson.   Here's the write up and  the link:  http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/3031761.article?cmpid=MWE01&cmptype=newsletter&email=true 

Just a thought... I wonder if Harley Davidson would like an EP10 fitted to the bike - maybe I should ask..

Another great article to share with you all (and a download)... I am not saying I support it all, but I know it will stir some thinking!

Innovation is About Making Predictions

Dennis Stauffer | Innovator Mindset, July 11, 2011

http://insightfusion.com/blog/index.php/2011/07/

 One of the most critical skills an innovator needs is the ability to predict, to have good hunches, good intuitions, to have a sense of what will work and what won’t, or at least what’s worth trying and what’s not. We tend to focus on having good ideas, assuming that idea generation is the critical input, but having good ideas is not all that helpful unless we can distinguish the good ideas from the not so good ones once we have them. Selecting ideas for implementation is an inherently predictive exercise. We’re trying to foresee what will happen as a result of pursuing one idea as opposed to another.

 Similarly, organizations have long realized that to improve their capacity to innovate they need to become good at identifying the most promising possibilities. They must distinguish them from the less promising…as early in the innovation as process as possible. That way the available resources can be focused where they will do the most good, with a minimum of wasted time and expense.

 The Myth of Expertise

 One way to do this is to go to the experts. Find someone with related subject expertise and ask them to evaluate the options. As logical as this sounds (and as frequently as this happens formally and informally) it’s a particularly bad approach for two reasons. For one, expertise is acquired knowledge about how the world works so far. It’s a collection of facts and attitudes and beliefs that are inherently rooted in the status quo. Experts are often among the least willing and able to question those prior assumptions in order to actively consider new possibilities.

 I’m not suggesting that experts have nothing to contribute. They can often save us from repeating previous mistakes. They may draw on their knowledge to offer possibilities and refinements. But that’s different from knowing what will happen when we try something new, something that stretches the boundaries of that expertise. (And if we’re not stretching those boundaries, it’s probably not something very innovative.) 

 The second reason this is a bad idea is because most of us (including the experts themselves) think that experts are good at predicting the future in their subject area. Yet, researchers have found that the experts are no better on average at predicting future events than non-experts, across a wide range of fields that include, business, economics, politics, finance and technology. Experts sometimes make accurate predictions, just as non-experts sometimes do.  But the experts also get it wrong, and just as often. So, it’s hard to know when we can count on someone’s expertise and when we can’t.

 This second reason is a little frightening, partly because researchers also found that the experts have significantly higher levels of confidence in their predictions than non-experts. So when it comes to predicting the future, the experts are no better than the rest of us—but they think they are, and we think they are. In other words, the experts—despite their expertise—don’t always know what they don’t know…and are overconfident about it. That’s a recipe for some lousy decision making.

There are ways to overcome this problem, by for example tapping into the wisdom of crowds, something our research has found can be quite powerful. These techniques that gather a diversity of perspectives and opinions can be remarkably effective at screening out much of the bias that so often hampers good decision-making.

When it comes to innovation, making good predictions isn’t about trying to discern where the world is headed as much as where we might take the world. It’s an imaginative process (often just as imaginative as coming up with ideas in the first place). It may require mentally working through alternative scenarios, or designing thoughtful ways to explore and experiment with new ideas. Innovation is not about predicting the future we’re expecting but rather achieving the future we want to create.

Download the White Paper, Predictive Decision Making, The Ultimate Convergence Tool.

Dennis Stauffer conducts theoretical and applied research into the cognitive attitudes/assumptions/beliefs (i.e. mental models) that impact creativity, adaptability and the capacity to innovate, as individuals and as leaders, at the personal, team and organizational levels. He is the author of Thinking Clockwise: A Field Guide for the Innovative Leader and co-creator of the Stauffer Iterative Thinking Assessment, a psychometrically valdiated self-assessment instrument that measures a person's predisposition to adapt and innovate.

I've said before, and I am sure I will say it again, I do like so much of what I read on FastCompany.com.  This week, a great article on business cards and how they tell you much more about your company than the words on the front tell you about the card carrier themselves!

We have 4 picture-based business cards at present, and we're collecting ideas for what we put on the back of the next batch of 4 cards, especially for use by our sales people... so all ideas welcome!

Here's a short extract, but read the rest for yourselves on the link below:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1762924/show-me-your-business-card

Extract:

Why is this so important? Well, if you're really serious about building a powerful brand, you will need to crack the code of creativity first. This will allow you to stand out in the crowd, and more importantly claim ownership of the humble business card, because if you do, you will be on the right track.

It's the simplest and most difficult thing to do. For your brand to stand out and live its vision, you'll have to condense what its stands for in as few a words as possible. But once people have seen one of these distinct cards, they will not forget it.

So look at your business card with new eyes. Consider what will make your brand live, without having to explain it. The day you know your card has been saved, you can sit back, raise your glass and say, "Mission accomplished." Not only that, you can also toast the fact that you've created the very foundation for your future mass communication strategy.

I like so many of the articles that Fast Company publishes, and this one is no exception...

Worth reading and wondering...  In looking for insight in our industry, what would a really "left field" view be?

http://www.fastcompany.com/pics/children-adorably-accurately-predict-future-computing?partner=technology_newsletter

Read this article which shows ... Eight Things Stand-Up Comedy Teaches Us About Innovation

Every comedian has a process -- and at some point, they ditch it to follow their gut.

Fast Company Design | 3 March 2011

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663337/method-what-s-so-funny-about-innovation

By Paul Valerio

This is the ninth piece in the 10x10 series by innovation firm Method. Read more from the series here.

Comedy, especially stand-up, is widely regarded as the most difficult gig in show business. Similarly, successful product innovation is so difficult, it could be regarded as the stand-up comedy of the business world.

E.B. White once said that analyzing comedy is like dissecting a frog: Few people are interested and the frog dies of it. However, a sacrifice must be made to help more great ideas see the light of day, and studying how good comedians work can reveal insights into how innovation can benefit from the same advice.

1. Know Your Audience, Then Ignore Their Advice

When it comes to innovation, the customer is rarely right. At least, they’re rarely right about what they want next. Businesses run on process, and the traditional market research process of concept testing is indeed an efficient process: Nothing kills ideas faster than concept testing. That doesn’t mean research has no place in innovation development; the key is to use it to understand, not to evaluate.

A comedian doesn’t ask the audience what the next joke should be about, he has the skill to tell them. Great comedians are tremendously astute observers of human beings. They know how people think, what experiences we have in common, and how to direct (or misdirect) our attention. They have to be ahead of their audience, but not so far ahead that they baffle us instead of amusing us. Similarly, the best market research is aimed at understanding how customers interact with a given product category, not asking them what should come next.

2. Data Does Not Replace Insight

Don’t just collect data about your audience, study them. Data doesn’t tell you what to do, insight does, and insight is the responsibility of the innovator, not the audience. It’s the lifeblood of both comedy and great design. It can be sweet, crude, or startling, but it is always brutally honest.

Why did it take so long for Heinz and its competitors to introduce the “upside down” ketchup bottle? We all knew that getting the last third out of the bottle was a huge pain, yet it took decades for bottle design to acknowledge this universally held understanding. The data was always there, it just needed to be recognized. The head-slapping “of course!” moment of seeing this bottle is much like hearing the punch line of a joke—it’s as surprising as it is familiar.

The operative skill is in seeing the basic truth that has been ignored, forgotten, or actively denied by the audience, and then revealing that truth in a new and unexpected way. When successful, it lets the audience see the most familiar things—especially themselves and how they interact with the world—in a fresh, but relatable way. That instantaneous discovery of the knowing self-recognition, is what makes us laugh and what makes us buy.

3. Keep It Fresh

Comedians can’t rely on the same routine for very long, no matter how successful it is. The same can be said for successful brands. As long as the approach and the tone are identifiable and consistent, the brand itself can and should change and evolve over time.

George Carlin kept his same scrutiny of language and hypocrisy consistent over a 40-year career, even though the material changed constantly. He was a relevant and vibrant comedian well into his seventies.

Radio Shack changed its name and logo to The Shack, but visit the store, and it’s like the last 30 years never happened. The mix of merchandise and limited store format is the equivalent of still telling the same joke from the 1970s. Meanwhile, Amazon has evolved to sell streaming television episodes and digital storage space, as well as the latest hardcover novel, all of which still fit within the brand’s point of view of broad reach and efficient delivery.

4. Develop Your Own Point of View

Late-night television talk show hosts all have the same daily news to work with, yet they each put their own spin on it. Leno takes a safer angle, which is why he tends to appeal to the broadest audience. Letterman will be more crass and juvenile, which might explain why he has greater appeal among men than women. Conan will be more cerebral, perhaps even surreal. Jon Stewart will simply let politicians provide all the necessary absurdity on their own. The content changes constantly, yet the various points of view stay consistent night after night.

Apple has the same access to components and contract manufacturers as its competitors, but Apple makes more interesting stuff out of it. It’s not that Apple has better or more data; in fact, they studiously avoid traditional market research. Instead, they consider not what people say they want, but what they are ready for. Then, they design the product according to their own point of view, not that of the audience. David Pogue of the The New York Times called Apple’s “secret sauce” a mix of “simplicity, intelligence, and whimsy.” The results, from the iMac to the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, are unmistakably theirs, as iconic as Letterman’s Top 10 list.

5. Create a Story Around the Material

Think of the story leading up to the punch line. Few comedians during the past 50 years have survived by merely telling a series of jokes. Instead, most are excellent storytellers. Good comedians and designers constantly play with the expectations that are built into the patterns of storytelling.

Some comedians are such good performers, they can transcend what would otherwise be quite ordinary material. Likewise, a Michael Graves toaster may not toast bread any better than a plain GE model, but through such products, Target changes the storyline for what everyday products are expected to deliver. That story serves to differentiate Target from WalMart and provides a rationale for paying a little more for functionally identical merchandise.

6. Even Friendly Audiences Need to Be Won Over

Getting people to laugh is probably even harder than getting them to buy. Buck Henry put it very well when he said “to make someone laugh is to disarm them.” Deciding to buy is as much a release of tension as laughing, especially when people aren’t buying on the basis of need alone.

People may watch a comedian expecting to laugh, but they still need to be disarmed and won over. It’s a competitive environment, just like business. What does a comedian say after he leaves the stage with the audience cheering? “I killed ‘em out there.” What does a great salesman say after a fantastic quarter? “I made a killing in the market.”

Brands have to do more than just meet expectations, they have to penetrate the built-in resistance to commit. That energy and insight has to be supplied by the performer, not the audience.

7. Don't Expect Everyone to Get It

Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and Andy Kaufman were not for everyone, so their appeal was not as broad as Milton Berle, Jay Leno, or Jerry Seinfeld. Switch the core audiences between these groups of comedians and, from the response, you might conclude they were all lousy comics. Similarly, the audiences for a Toyota Prius and a Cadillac Escalade are not all that different demographically, but they don’t “get” cars the same way.

Good branding and design, like good comedy, is often the art of sacrifice. You are defined by who and what you’re not for, thus freeing you to excel within the audience that gets you.

8. You Can't Test Your Way to a Decision

Comedians know what they think is funny, but they can’t test their routines in a vacuum. They might try out new material in smaller clubs, after hours, before making it a part of their main act. Even so, there’s no guarantee that what works in one club will work in front of a larger audience in a different city.

Similarly, research predicted that New Coke and the new Tropicana packaging were sure-fire hits. Meanwhile, both Herman Miller’s Aeron chair and the Seinfeld pilot bombed in research.

The problem is not that respondents lie or that the researchers are stupid. The biggest mistake is in the willingness to cede control of creative decisions to the consumer. Research is an aid to judgment, not a replacement for it. It still comes down to a judgment call, and that judgment should be based on understanding the consumer, not in asking their permission to proceed.

No, but seriously, folks...

Innovation, like comedy, is a messy, often counter-intuitive business. It’s an iterative loop of creation, feedback, revision, rejection, and creation again. Used correctly, research fuels the understanding that leads to real breakthroughs. In the wrong hands, it all but assures the death of originality.

So, I killed some frogs here, but if one more good idea sees the light of day, perhaps they did not die in vain.

Paul Valerio leads Method’s Customer Insights team in San Francisco, combining research and branding strategy disciplines to guide the creative process for Method’s clients. Paul is a brand strategy and market research specialist, with more than 20 years of consulting experience for clients in retail, manufacturing, professional services, technology, pharmaceuticals, quick-service restaurants, and many other consumer and business-to-business categories. His favorite comedian is Lewis Black.

I try to never stop learning how to do a better job for the company; so I am often reading papers, reviewing new agencies that might have something to offer us, or going to a conference to see how other people like me are doing their job...  And there is still no substitute for just talking to people in the business, in the channel and at customers, to see what they really want from us.

In the past 18 months, we have set out to deliver a better dialogue with resellers and customers alike.  We now have many new tools to help us get a consistent global campaign in place, and with the new brand rollout, I am hoping that it's also going to really help make for a consistent global experience too.

With that in mind, I am going to invite Tony Condi (Global Director of Field Marketing) into this Blog to share some thoughts, themes and ideas with you.

And in all honesty, I'd really like to know what you think make a great marketing campaign (and what doesn't) so that we really can have a more fruitful dialogue in the future.

So, at this point, I will invite Tony into the discussion and we'll get things going.

Believe it or not, but IngenuityWorking is one year old today!

It feels like only a few days ago that we removed the beta sticker, and held our breath waiting to see what would happen. It’s actually 12 months today since we pressed the button for the very first time.

We have a lot to be proud of. John Conoley told an audience of journalists and investment analysts at our results day yesterday that we are now ‘world leaders in social media’ and he was right. Isn’t it nice to be world leaders in something once again??

Today, more than 12,000 people are registered users of Ingenuity Working and now there is regularly more than 60,000 visitors each month.And its doubling every 4 months or so.

It’s you that’s making all this happen. The employees,  partners and customers that regularly contribute have helped establish the community as the most significant business to business community that exists anywhere in the world today.

We are breaking new ground every single day thanks to your efforts and commitment to making Ingenuity Working the transformative engine of the new Psion.

But before we celebrate too much, I wanted to check whether we’d kept our commitments. So I looked back at the first announcement of Ingenuity Working. Here’s how we did:

• We said we’d live our values, our highs and our lows in full view to become more trusted than any comparable company or competitor. Delivered – we are exposed to the world for all to see.

• We said we’d share and leverage Psion's significant IP portfolio with a wide range of vendors and component suppliers. Work in progress – we’re definitely getting there and have ideas on how we share IP with partners live in the community.
• We said we’d accelerate a fuller and uniquely, open dialogue with our global customer and reseller community. Delivered – This happens every day and we can all think of examples where real customer solutions have been developed in the community before our very eyes.

Finally, and critically, IngenuityWorking is making us easy to do business with and customers, business partners, media and social media experts are noticing what we’re doing.

Why don’t you tell me your community experiences of the last 12 months?

I’d love to hear from as many of you as possible.

What have you learned? What could we do better? What’s your favourite IngenuityWorking moment?

As you can see, the new identity is live and visible on IngenuityWorking and on www.psion.com  complete with a new video showing the evolution on the front page of this community.

I just want to thank everyone who made this transition possible, it's a long list of committed & ingenious people!  Thank you.

So here we are, Friday 28^th January, and we’ll be live on Monday!

The team are checking that the re-skin of the website and IngenuityWorking are looking their best. We’re loading images, animations and new text. There’s not a lot left to do, but this is definitely the start of the process, and not the end, so please don’t expect a ‘big bang’ and it’s all done on day one!  We will complete later in Q3 this year. Hang in there…

Let’s be clear; this is not the multi-million-dollar-rebrand that many other companies go through. Far from it! However, I do believe (and I think you will agree) that the work we have done, especially the imagery and the animations bring it life in a way that looks like a big budget rebranding!

We’ve set about this in a way that make its highly cost effective. Instead of TV adverts, billboards and huge parties we’ll be focusing primarily on digital work, particularly on psion.com and ingenuityworking.com, and helping you, our partners and resellers, bring it to life..

The internet has completely changed the cost and the impact of brand work along with giving us far greater speed and adaptability. That’s why we will use it so much!

Back to the subject…  So, now is the time that I’d like to know what you thought about what you saw at our Partner Conferences in the autumn last year, and  I’d also like to know what you think on Monday when it all goes live (digitally at least). 

I'd like to know what you liked then and what you like now.  But equally I am keen to hear about what you don’t like, or would like to understand more about.

Thanks.

When a company’s brand evolves, it must reflect many things. History, certainly, but critically it has to embody what we do today and what we will do in the future.

We started previewing the new identity and logo in late 2010. Showing how it changes from the old Psion logo to the new Psion logo, how it works in the digital world, how in animates and brings to life our proposition. We also considered how we can reflect our customers, resellers and partners in it.

And the point is this - the 31^st January will be the start, not the end, of this stage of Psion’s growth and development. It will signal the beginning of a new era for us.

Our new business model is at the heart of this.  It is best summarised as the combination of: Open Innovation, Modularity and Customisation. Our new brand will reflect our new business model and the customers & markets we address.

Psion is, and has always been, an ingenious company, doing ingenious things. Very often Psion broke new ground, changed the rules, and found new paths.

Our brand also has to reflect this spirit of ingenuity too.  That is why our new logo will not be conventional.  It will break new ground & change a few rules too.

For example: Instead of being written in a traditional font, it won’t be.  Instead of having a specific colour, it won’t have one. Instead of being static, it will be animated. It will come to life in the digital world.

Our new brand identity will allow us to bring our famous ingenuity back to life.

If you love what we do, then I think you will like what we are about to do….again.