Innovation

I’m just back from a trip to Amsterdam. You see many of these devices in doorsteps in the city, going up or down steps to apartments and offices. At first I couldn’t work out what they were for. Water drainage? To ease delivery trolleys up and down steps?

And then I realised.

Of course.

In the city of the bicycle, this is a simple but effective innovation to help residents and workers get their bicycles down the steps in and out of their apartments and offices.
A great – simple – idea. Not over-engineered, no bells and whistles just a really good innovation.

Changing working practices

You know business is changing when Ernst & Young, one of the world’s biggest accountants announces that they are seeking to radically change working practices. Today’s City AM reports that Chairman Mark Otty is instigating new measures to attract and retain talent. This includes the idea of allowing staff to choose how much holiday they take each year and also allowing regular home working. City AM quotes managing partner Mike Cullen: “We want to break the ‘attendance culture’ in the workplace”.

A sign that this really is a Scrambled Up World Of Work…

Loving the details...

Another stay at The Hoxton Hotel.

You have to respect their approach to the details..

being innocent

When you spend a Saturday at a festival set up by a consumer drinks brand, along with thousands of (paying) others; you know that brand is doing something right. The Innocent Village Fete (formerly known as ‘Fruitstock’) is an annual day out at London’s Regents Park.

Innocent have succeeded and creating and marketing an experience that consumers want to buy into – the event is the total sum of all their brand values. The event is a real mish-mash of elements – not unlike the mish-mash of ingredients that goes into their smoothies. A few music stages, loads of food stalls, a fairground for the kids, a reading area sponsored by Penguin, even a dog show.

Innocent have pulled off a great success story – a city-centre mini festival where the brand experience is what it’s all about. How a smoothie company from Shepherds Bush decided to stage an event like this – and to deliver it – is testament to their pioneering spirit and their market positioning of just ‘being different’.

And you don’t even have to like smoothies to enjoy it.