Kathy Mast Consulting

Marketing, Research & Innovation

I hope that all of you are enjoying the holiday season as much as I am. What a great time to share a spirit of worship and thanks, generosity through giving, and anticipation for a new year. The holidays also challenge us as we add new activities into already full schedules. I'm catching up today on writing about several recent noteworthy events.

Innovation in the Best and Worst of Times

Whether you find your business in the best of times or the worst of times, innovation can help you grow your business. In the best of times, innovation investments will help you increase your existing competitive advantage beyond that of your competitors. In the worst of times, innovation and creativity are your best opportunities to achieve stability, produce new products and services, and optimize your investments.

Collaboration and Communication

Have you recently considered how critical the skill of collaboration is to your company? As I thought about the importance of collaboration, I realized how many vendors are, and will continue to be, required to develop and deliver wireless and mobile services over the next five years. Wireless and mobile technology offers your company many opportunities for innovation and gaining market share. However, the technology, protocols, global restrictions, service and customer considerations are highly complex. Staff doesn't need to have all the technical knowledge, but service delivery will be much more achievable if they can...communicate and collaborate.

Wireless and Mobile

"What will be the key mobile and wireless technology trends through 2011? How will the mobile strategies of wireless service providers, device manufacturers and software companies evolve? How will corporations choose and use mobility?" These are just three out of several hundred questions and possible scenarios, accompanied by strategic planning assumptions, presented by Gartner, and large corporate, executives at the Gartner Wireless and Mobile conference this week in Grapevine, TX. I attended the conference to get a look at the current status and future trends in wireless and mobile technology to assist my clients in determining their best investment strategies.

Best Wishes

Thank you for your business and following in 2006. Your confidence, feedback, and time and investment in KMC is greatly appreciated.

I'm looking forward to continuing our work together in 2007. To you and your family:

I wish you a blessed, Merry Christmas and a prosperous, Happy New Year.

Innovation Models

While preparing a presentation on "Creating an Environment of Innovation," I've been studying several innovation models. Geoffrey Moore writes about "Four Innovation Zones" in his new book "Dealing with Darwin." The zones build on the concept of value disciplines first written about in the book "The Disciplines of Market Leaders" by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema. The zones/disciplines include product leadership, customer intimacy, operational excellence and category renewal. They present a number of innovation possibilities for companies in growth, mature or renewal zones. A chart from Moore's book presents opportunities you may want to consider. They are documented as follows:

Symposium Day 4

In my opinion, the best presentation of Day 4 was about the newest thinking regarding the I/T organization. The session reflected my own opinions about a more effective organizational methodology for I/T. This approach breaks down silos and allows for more collaboration in delivering business solutions. Gartner predicts that, though this will not be an easy transition, it is an essential one.

Technology Enhancements - Audio Brochure

Announcing the release of a new electronic version of the Kathy Mast Consulting brochure. Expanding on the printed version, the electronic version is an audio presentation featuring client engagements.

The e-brochure was built with two new, versatile, software applications. The presentation software ties together slides, audio files, music, if desired, and graphics. It allows the user to move forward or backward just by selecting slide titles. The software package is called "Articulate," and I recommend that you explore it for your own presentation needs. It also serves as an e-Learning, authoring tool. I was introduced to Articulate when I viewed a series of lessons on personal branding presented by personal branding specialist, William Arruda.

Focusing on Core Competencies

A friend, who is a client simulation engineer for Texas Instruments, and I were recently corresponding about the New York Times article, “Cashing In Its Chips,” by Damon Darlin, on TI exceeding Intel’s performance. You can read the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/business/yourmoney/09chip.html?ex=1153281600&en=a6d1f0f71158307d&ei=5070. (Free registration is required). The article describes TI’s amazing “resuscitation” since the early 1990s, in spite of the death of its CEO in 1996.

Speaking of American Global Competitive Advantage

Monday night I attended an SMU Cox School of Business and Bank of Texas Business Leaders Spotlight presentation. Featured speaker, Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large of "Fortune" magazine, talked about some of my favorite subjects--global competitive advantage, how American businesses are performing in the global marketplace, the changes that are occurring and why the changes are occurring now. Though about 100 business leaders attended, I came away motivated to share with others what he had to say because of the insight and clarity of the message.