How did you move from a focus on customers to, now, “big think strategy”?
Several of my books were on customer experience. I launched the concept of experiential marketing, as least from a conceptual point of view, and also framed the right examples and benchmarks that companies can use to create a great customer experience. Most recently I’ve branched out into creative strategy, which I call “big think strategy”. Of course, focusing on the customer experience also plays a role in big think strategy. In fact, revamping, or moving from a more functional and analytical approach in your organization to focusing on customers and their experiences, is one way of doing big think; but there are other ways, as well. Those have become the themes that run through all my work.
That is certainly not a big think strategy, is it?
The customer experience is a major factor in anyone’s strategy; so, ignoring customers is short-sighted. I wrote my latest book to help companies think more broadly. All my work has been about creativity and doing new things. Customer experience is about innovation with respect to the customer. Big Think Strategy is, more broadly, about how to be innovative, how to develop an innovative, creative strategy within the organization. In the book, I give managers tools on how they can source bold ideas, turn them into a strategy and launch that strategy.