The other day, while waiting for my plane to board, I was treated to a throaty remake of the Beatles classic “Penny Lane” running over the airport PA system. Didn’t catch the artist, but didn’t need to: The re-make, of very recent vintage, was decent, but it didn’t ring half as true to my forty-something…

Innovation is under attack – no, not the actual practice of innovating. Government leaders, titans of industry and all manner of stakeholders in the public and private sector have been doubling down on the urgent need for innovation to deliver solutions that deliver lasting and meaningful impact. But the term innovation has steadily been under…

Innovation in medicine alone is not sufficient to meet the growing health needs of the world’s population. As healthcare communicators, our priority is to improve understanding and shape positive behaviours to achieve the best outcomes. Traditionally, communications have focused on individual groups; engaging patients and healthcare professionals to transfer information. However, the increasing power of…

If it has become fashionable to assert that our nation’s future rests with innovation, business leaders are likewise looking to innovation as their companies’ chief source of competitive advantage going forward. Price Waterhouse Cooper’s annual CEO survey found that respondents are “placing a higher premium on innovation today,” showing special interest in the creation of…

Today’s market is a dynamic one for marketing services. It’s a “jump ball” environment, and public relations firms, ad agencies, branding and digital shops, among others, are all seeing opportunities to compete but also to collaborate in new ways. Clients and prospects clearly seem less concerned about which discipline to work with; it’s all about…

We use our “Firm Showcase” feature to celebrate the most exciting, pathbreaking models, techniques, and approaches in our industry. This week, our attention turns to a large agency that made headlines for doing something that many companies have talked about but few have done: Aggressively altering their model to meet the demands of today’s clients….

Risk, instability, uncertainty, change, volatility: These are the buzzwords of our time, and they apply to changing markets as much as they do to changing geo-political conditions and even our changing physical environment. The question is: What do we in the public relations industry do about it? How can we better run our firms to…

Creativity pays, which is why we all want that next great idea, that flash of brilliance that will delight clients and keep them coming back for more. What if I told you that a firm out there has devised a pathbreaking new tool, at relatively low cost, for harnessing some of the best young minds? …

What are the truly inspiring stories in our industry today? Which agencies, individuals, teams, or offerings are boldly pushing the envelope, creating new value, innovating, seeing around the corner, making the world a better place, and inspiring others to do the same? Who are our big risk-takers, our thinkers, our trendsetters, and our heroes?

In today’s shifting economy, creativity at all levels of the organization is key to business success. Yet creativity involves experimentation, which by its very nature requires going beyond the known, the familiar, and the comfortable. How good are you at venturing into your discomfort zone? How courageous are you? And what can you do to…