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Google’s 9 Principles of Innovation for Every Organization

In just 16+ short years (how time flies when it comes to innovation online), Google has gone from a company with one product to one with more projects than you can name, daily touching the lives of billions around the world, pushing the boundaries of innovation at every turn. Google’s Chief Social Evangelist, Gopi Kallayil, outlines the 9 principles of innovation at Google and how they can be applied to your organization.

1. Innovation should come from everywhere

Do you have an innovation department? Maybe a Chief Innovation Officer? Probably not. And they don’t exist at Google either. It is the job of everyone to innovate, from top to bottom. Innovation can come from anywhere in the company and many times, allowing each employee the opportunity to contribute to big innovative ideas, you will get some surprising results.

Google example: Dr. Roni Zeiger, chief health strategist for Google, convinced higher ups it’s Google’s moral responsibility to include Suicide Prevention Hotline information above the algorithmic search results for suicide.

2. Focus on the User

Product design decisions should always be made around solving customers’ problems, not by how much money it will make. Design a beautiful and useful user experience, and the revenue will follow, even if it is much later.

Google example: Instant Search provides search results as you type, leaving no time for the user to see the ads, but the UX is so great, people come back to Google over and over.

3. Think 10X

If you come into work every day and improve your process a little each day, you only achieve incremental progress. If you want innovative change, you need to think about how to change things by 10X. Think bigger than what you think is possible and don’t let available resources stop you.

Google example: Google Books was started in 2004 when Google didn’t have the power, funding, or technology to take on such a huge project, but that didn’t stop them!

*Fun fact: Marissa Mayer was the first page flipper for the project in prototype until robotic arms were built to flip the pages in time with the camera exposures.

4. Bet on Unique Insights

Every organization has unique insights because they see the world through a certain lens that no one else has. Don’t get stuck innovating your own products when you could have the next big idea to change the world.

Google example: The self driving car: Why did Google come up with this instead of a car company? Because their engineers saw a solution to the problem of over 1,000,000 fatal car accidents every year. The problem was human error. Take out the human and solve the problem.

5. Launch and Iterate

Some companies only ship when products are flawless and perfect. The problem is that no product is ever perfect. Once it hits the users, there are always nooks and crannies that appear full of issues and needed improvements. Take a leap of faith and release your next product as a reasonably functioning prototype and let your users provide all the feedback in less time. Iterate, then relaunch, then iterate and relaunch again. The most important button on any product is the feedback button. Use it!

Google example: Google releases a new version of Chrome every six weeks. Constant iteration has led it to become the #1 browser in many countries around the world.

6. 20% Time 

Give your employees 20% of their time to focus on the items they are most passionate about. You may be worried they will waste their time on frivolous side tracks, but when the ideas are shared around, people spend their 20% devoting their time and resources to the best ones, creating a self-governing and self-regulating environment. This truly allows everyone in the organization the time to act on their innovative spirit.

Google example: Street View on a bike was a great idea developed by Dan Ratner, Senior Mechanical Engineer. He spent his 20% time working to make the equipment smaller and more portable so that people could view the world’s most interesting places that aren’t accessible by Street View cars. Check out the underwater cam on the Galapagos Islands!

7. Default to open

Everyone wants to hire the best and brightest top 1%, but who can hire 7 million people? By opening up your your development to the world, you are tapping into a huge community of all the top 1% minds in the world. Tap into the collective wisdom of the people that use your product as well. They use it, so let them come up with your marketing ideas and strategies, like these adorable kids.

Google example: Map Maker is letting rural communities around the world create their own Google Maps. Over the course of 3 years, the small village of Kottayam in India built a very comprehensive map of the town where a map never existed before.

8. Fail Well

There should be no stigma attached to failure. If you don’t fail often, you’re not trying hard enough. You’re not pushing the boundaries of innovation. Failure is a badge of honor. Be honest about it and fail with pride.

Google example: Do a google search for failed google products and you will find a digital graveyard complete with skulls and crossbones. A few of my favorites: Buzz, Google Wave, and Google Dictionary.

9. Have a Mission that Matters

The most important principle for innovation in your organization is having a mission that people can believe in. Having a sense of  mission and purpose gets people in the door every day with the need to be innovative.

Google example: Ask any Googler why they work there. It’s not the great benefits or common areas stocked with snacks and ping pong tables, it’s the mission. They seriously believe the work they do has a huge impact on millions and millions of people. In tens of thousands of rural poor schools around the world, access to computers and the internet with products and services from Google level the playing field for information. Everyone has the same access to information whether they are in a small village or the Stanford University library.

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Lead Your Remote Workforce To Success

After Yahoo and BestBuy dissolved their remote work programs in 2013, many business leaders and HR professionals started looking at their own flexible work programs with a keener eye and a greater degree of skepticism and scrutiny.

But remote work as a business practice is not inherently problematic; it’s that most organizations don’t know how to make it work to their advantage. When structured properly, a remote workforce can be as effective as any on-site organization.

In this one-hour webinar, David Lewis, President and CEO of OperationsInc, shows you how to organize a remote-work culture that gets results and develop a leadership strategy that drives success.

In this session, David looks at:

  • How to establish rules and guidelines, and decide when remote work is appropriate and feasible.
  • Best practices in measuring performance and tracking a remote team’s activities and accomplishments.
  • Common pitfalls and issues, and how to anticipate and avoid them.

 

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Mastering the Hotel Marketing Ecosystem at the Property Level

Today’s hotel visitors have never been more connected. With multiple devices and countless online resources to consult during each phase of the guest lifecycle – from the point they make their booking decisions to well after they check-out – travelers’ hotel expectations have shifted.

Long gone are the days when the hotel marketing tactics were all deployed pre-stay and offline. Today, easier access to guest preference data, past purchase behavior and social media profiles has made the hotel marketing discipline a multi-phase and multi-channel practice that requires involvement from many different key stakeholders at the brand and hotel-property level.

In this webinar, Greg Bodenlos, social media and digital marketing hospitality consultant, walks us through this complex hotel marketing ecosystem. In the process, Greg reveals strategies and tactics for mastering the innumerable amount of hotel marketing priorities. The following are just a few of the questions that will be addressed:

  • What are the most important marketing focus areas at the property level?
  • How has the definition of hotel marketing evolved in the hospitality industry?
  • Where should hotel marketing live in the overall hotel operation ecosystem?
  • Who are the various key stakeholders to involve in hotel marketing initiatives?
  • What new hotel marketing challenges are on the horizon?

Greg Bodenlos is a passionate hospitality marketing consultant and HSMAI leader based in Boston, Massachusetts. With a passion for digital trends, social media and innovation – and over five years of hotel and technology work experience – Greg possesses a unique perspective on the hospitality digital marketing landscape. Playing digitally-focused marketing roles at the destination resort, luxury independent property, and now city center hotel has allowed Greg to play an active role in shaping hotel marketing best practices at the property-level as well as help bring hoteliers closer to creating more meaningful, personalized travel experiences for their guests. It was in his marketing role at Revinate – a SaaS start-up in Silicon Valley that designs and develops technology to improve the guest experience – where Greg was able to help hoteliers and academics better understand the power of leveraging consumer intelligence to drive better service and maximize revenue streams across the entire guest lifecycle.

Greg is a proud graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and has been featured as a hotel marketing expert on National Public Radio. Greg has been featured as a contributor in Crowdcentric Media’s Social Media Week New York blog, eCornell’s Blog and HotelMarketing.com, as well as played a co-authored role in an award-winning piece for Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research with Chris Anderson entitled Best Practices in Search Engine Marketing and Optimization.

Greg can be reached by phone at +1 781 686 2177, email at gregbodenlos@gmail.com, on Twitter @gregbodenlos or LinkedIn.

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Price Positioning Strategies

Learn the merits and drawbacks of five price positioning strategies and use our price positioning worksheet to experiment with your own pricing strategy.

The Internet has dramatically changed hospitality pricing. Its speed and transparency have removed most barriers between customers and suppliers. With OTAs like Hotwire, Orbitz, and Hotels.com, you no longer need be an industry insider to find the best pricing to suit your needs. Yet, hotels and restaurants still need to make pricing decisions; these new challenges simply up the ante. Today, we’re looking at five price positioning strategies, explaining their merits (and drawbacks), and providing examples. When you’re done reading, download a free price positioning worksheet to experiment with your own pricing strategy.

The Price-Value Matrix

Many factors will influence your prices, including your competitors’ rates and products. As the name implies, your goal is to develop a pricing strategy that places your brand and its products in a certain position relative to your competition. One way to visualize this is the price-value matrix (right).Price Positioning -- The Price-Value Matrix

The position of your products within this matrix is a function of your brand proposition, your competitors, and your pricing objectives. Are you looking to maximize short-term revenues or profit? Are you seeking higher profit margins in a luxury market with sporadic sales? Do you need to differentiate more to penetrate the market? Or, is your business in survival mode?

Once you identify your pricing objectives, plot your prices and those of your competitors on the price-value matrix. At a glance, you’ll see how your pricing lines up with your objectives. If your rates need tweaking—either because they “say” the wrong things about your brand relative to competitors, or because they’re undermining your pricing objectives—consider using the following strategies to position your rates or prices more appropriately.

Price Positioning Strategies

Skim

This strategy clearly positions your company above the rest; it tells consumers something is special (i.e., worth paying more for) about your products. For example, look at the prices The Old Homestead restaurant has set for their steaks and chops. We can smell the fried onions and seared, aged prime meat already. We can envision the long white aprons of the wait staff and the impeccable table side service. To skim, set your prices higher than the competition does in order to “skim off” customers who are willing to pay more. This strategy can be highly profitable, but be careful: Though high prices imply high quality for many customers, it’s still critical that they understand why they’d pay more to stay or eat at your establishment.

Match

This strategy puts your pricing on par with the competition, but not necessarily for all rates. To match, set one rate comparable to your competition and another slightly higher. This allows you to stay competitive for a larger pool of customers, yet doesn’t undercut the competition.

Surround

Price Positioning Strategy - SurroundThis strategy positions your first room type as the cheapest in the market, but offers your rooms with better options at a price that’s close to your competitors’ first available rates. Hence, you’re “surrounding” the middle market, hoping to capture customers willing to pay in those ranges. For example, look at Sizzler’s $16.99 sirloin steak and lobster special.

Outback Steakhouse offers a similar item for $24.99, but uses a filet and includes two sides instead of one. Outback also offers a 6 oz. sirloin steak for $10.99. This strategy allows Outback to attract customers looking for an inexpensive steak dinner, while offering customers willing to pay more, well, more, but at a price far shy of Ruth Chris’s smallest filet steak at $35.

Undercut

By undercutting your competitors’ rates in some categories, you can potentially attract more customers. To undercut, offer a price that’s comparable to your competition and another that’s lower. Take this example from the hotel industry.Price Positioning -- Undercut

Both hotels are located near a major airport, both have the same star ratings and amenities. But look at their airport parking packages for 14 days free parking plus a room: $359 versus $189.  These hotels had very similar best rate rooms, but one has chosen to undercut their competition on this package, likely in hopes of driving more cost-conscious travelers their way.Price Positioning -- Undercut

Price Positioning -- Penetrate

Penetrate

Being the low-priced option in your market has benefits and drawbacks. The strategy is primarily designed to get people in the door and in seats. For new establishments, low prices often seem the best way to entice consumers to try their products. But this strategy also can depress market prices, lower margins, and set a poor precedent as your business grows. Do your prices reflect how consumers value your hotel or restaurant? Here’s what consumers see as they peruse online hotel options; those using penetration pricing certainly stand out.

Set Your Own Price Positioning Strategy

Price Positioning WorksheetHere’s an exercise taken directly from my eCornell course series New Media Marketing for the Hospitality Professional. This example illustrates the outcomes of five pricing strategies if your competition is charging $79.

Now, download your free price positioning worksheet here.

Though pricing can be a complex issue, this simple, effective tool provides an excellent start.

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Transcending Generational Differences in the Workplace

We’re at a unique moment in history; we now have three generations working side by side in the workforce.
Companies are facing challenges managing different work ethics, communication styles, values, approaches to teamwork, work-life balance expectations and relationships to authority.

In this fast-paced session, Carrie Shearer, eCornell faculty instructor and veteran HR strategist, demonstrates how HR professionals can transcend generational differences in the workplace:

  • Bridge the gaps among employees and help them avoid conflict.
  • Understand why each generation thinks and acts the way it does and then develop strategies to resolve the conflicts between generations.
  • Increase productivity in a generationally diverse workplace.

Carrie Shearer’s career has spanned nearly forty years and covered all areas of HR, with particular focus in compensation and global strategic issues. During her twenty years with Caltex Petroleum Company, she oversaw HR operations in 97 countries, developing HR curricula and course materials for developing HR practitioners.

At her consulting firm, Carrie Shearer & Associates, she offers expertise on strategic HR, international HR and leveraging a cross-cultural workforce. Carrie is a novelist, a frequent contributor to the HR track of Expatica.com, was on the advisory board of Woman Abroad Magazine, and is a sought-after speaker at international HR conferences.

eCornell offers four online certificate programs for human resources professionals, with the Advanced Certificate in Strategic HR being perhaps most relevant to today’s presentation. Whether you are new to HR, an accomplished HR practitioner, or an HR leader or business partner, there is sure to be a Cornell professional certificate that fits your career objectives.

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What to Expect from the 11th Edition of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry

The purpose of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, or USALI, is to establish a uniform set of accounting guidelines for the lodging industry. A new edition is released every 10 years to keep pace with an evolving business environment and to address ambiguities found in previous editions.

In conjunction with the rollout of the 11th edition of the USALI, eCornell presents this video panel discussion, moderated by Cornell Prof. Jan de Roos, which highlights changes and provides guidelines for best accounting practices.

About the panelists:

Jan A. deRoos is HVS Professor of Hotel Finance and Real Estate at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, where he has taught since 1988. He is also faculty author of eCornell’s online certificate program for the hospitality industry, Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management.

He has devoted his career to teaching and research related to hospitality real estate, with a focus on the valuation, financing, development, and control of lodging, timeshare, and restaurant assets. He co-developed a free tool, the Hotel Valuation Software, with Stephen Rushmore of HVS International and has developed a respected on-line executive education curriculum for hotel real estate professionals. His book on hotel management agreements, co-authored with James Eyster, is the seminal academic publication on the topic. Prior to joining Cornell, deRoos worked extensively in the hotel industry as a construction and engineering manager.

Robert Mandelbaum is the Director of Research Information Services for PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR), a CBRE company. He is based in the firm’s Atlanta office, where he is in charge of Research Information Services. Research Information Services produces the annual Trends® in the Hotel Industry statistical report, along with customized financial and operational analyses for client projects. On a quarterly basis, PKF-HR produces five-year forecasts of performance for six national chain-scales, six national location categories, and 55 major U.S cities using its proprietary Hotel Horizons® econometric forecasting model. Mr. Mandelbaum began his hospitality industry career with Holiday Inns, Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee.

He serves on the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s (AH&LA) Financial Management Committee that is responsible for preparing the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI). In addition, he is a member of the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) association. He is on the executive board of the Cornell Hotel Society, the author of articles for industry trade publications, a guest lecturer at college and university hotel school programs, and a speaker at industry forums.

Greg Remeikis, CPA, is a partner in Cohn Reznick’s Accounting & Auditing practice; co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Hospitality Practice; and a member of the firm’s National Hospitality Industry Leadership Committee. He has been providing professional services in the hospitality industry for 20 years to hotels and quick service restaurant owners. He has been involved in the planning, fieldwork and reporting for external audit services for two publically traded hospitality entities and numerous privately hospitality clients. He has also led two internal control risk assessment, documentation, testing and remediation engagements related to Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance. He serves as the firm’s quality control partner related to the hotel area of the hospitality practice. Greg has provided a variety of consulting services to the industry, most notably – real estate development and construction services to boutique hotels, internal control consulting to both public and privately held companies, audits and due diligence related to hotel acquisition and fraud audits for fidelity bond claims.

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Learn How and Why to Eat a Plant-Based Diet

The Government Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the nation’s top nutritional panel, released a 571-page report with their dietary guidelines for Americans. Their top finding? That Americans need to consider the environment when planning out their diet.

According to the group, two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. About half of American adults, or roughly 117 million people, have preventable chronic diseases related to poor diet and physical inactivity. They best way to combat this is a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low- or non-fat dairy, seafood, legumes, and nuts.

Converting to a diet that limits or cuts out meat seems daunting. However, eCornell’s Plant-Based Nutrition certificate can walk you through how and why to make this transition.

eCornell partnered with the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies to create this certificate program. In it, you’ll learn about nutrition science and the role diet plays in maintaining health or creating disease.  Explore some of the ways a “wholistic” approach to nutrition might inform our approach to scientific and medical practice, healthcare in general, and even education and the environment. Interact with students from around the world, get great recipes and learn how to optimize your nutritional health for a long and healthy life.

Learn about our Plant-Based Nutrition program here or check out our downloadable flyer.

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Dynamic Content Personalization: Hoteliers’ Powerful New Tool to Maximizing Website Revenue and Conversions

Traditionally, hotel and resort websites have served the same content to all site visitors regardless of their preferences, demographics, past booking behavior, or even geographic location. Today, technology allows us to personalize content for property website visitors, making for a more intimate brand experience, and a profitable one at that.

HeBS Digital’s Mariana Mechoso Safer and Sara O’Brien discuss how you can use dynamic content personalization to deliver unique and relevant website content to specific customer segments. When dynamic content is delivered effectively, travelers enjoy service that is tailored specifically for them, while hospitality organizations enjoy more website engagement, greater conversion rates and increased revenues. You’ll learn to:

  • Recognize and reward specific customer segments by displaying personalized and relevant content that speaks to their preferences and expectations.
  • Differentiate your resort or hotel from the competition and the OTA channel.
  • Deliver higher levels of consumer satisfaction from the direct hotel website experience.
  • Significantly increase website conversions and revenues

Mariana Mechoso Safer is Senior Vice President, Marketing at HeBS Digital, overseeing advertising, marketing and public relations. Mariana heads the Las Vegas office, developing and implementing digital marketing strategies for HeBS Digital’s West Coast partners. She frequently conducts industry research and publishes in major travel and hospitality publications, and is also a guest speaker and presenter at hospitality events and conferences.

Mariana can be reached by phone at +1 702 463-1857, email at mariana@hebsdigital.com, on Twitter @mmechoso or LinkedIn.

Sara O’Brien is Senior Marketing Manager at HeBS Digital. She manages the development and execution of all HeBS Digital advertising, marketing and public relations. Starting with a position in consulting and client services, Sara has a solid understanding of hotelier’s business needs and objectives, including how to help them generate the highest ROIs from their most cost effective channel – their own website. Sara’s professional experience includes over nine years of advertising and marketing experience. Sara has a Master’s Degree in Global Marketing from Emerson College in Boston and a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

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Hotel Marketing Summit 2015

Three of the hotel industry’s most creative and forward-thinking marketers joined eCornell for a live YouTube summit on hotel marketing in February, 2015. Access the video below.

ReviewPro’s Josiah Mackenzie, HeBS Digital’s Mariana Mechoso Safer, and hospitality marketing consultant and HSMAI Boston Chapter leader Greg Bodenlos discussed, debated and dove into emergent technologies and practices to predict what’s most likely to influence hotel marketing strategies for the year ahead. They also covered:

  • The hotel marketing ‘ecosystem’, from guest experience design to multi-platform marketing and operational feedback analysis.
  • Personalizing the customer journey, from the inspiration stage to booking and beyond.
  • How to leverage user-generated content to increase customer engagement.
  • What you should focus on when analyzing your ‘reputation’ online, and how to use that data to improve your business.

Josiah Mackenzie leads business development at ReviewPro – helping partners across the hospitality industry use 360-degree guest intelligence to create better travel experiences for their guests and unlock new areas of revenue growth for their businesses. The rise of data from the social web – where people are leaving digital data trails wherever they go, 24/7/365 – has given the hospitality industry a dramatically expanded ability to understand consumer sentiment and trending new demand areas.

Featured as a hotel technology trends expert by media outlets such as CNN, PBS, MSNBC, The Washington Post and Entrepreneur Magazine, Josiah is also a frequent keynote speaker at conferences throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Josiah can be reached by telephone at +1 415 671 9629, via email josiah@josiahmackenzie.com – or on Twitter @Hotel_Intel.

Mariana Mechoso Safer is Senior Vice President, Marketing at HeBS Digital, overseeing advertising, marketing and public relations. Mariana heads the Las Vegas office, developing and implementing digital marketing strategies for HeBS Digital’s West Coast partners. She frequently conducts industry research and publishes her major travel and hospitality publications, and is also a guest speaker and presenter at hospitality events and conferences.

Mariana can be reached by phone at +1 702 463-1857, email at mariana@hebsdigital.com, on Twitter @mmechoso or LinkedIn.

Greg Bodenlos is a passionate hospitality marketer and Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Chapter leader based in Boston, Massachusetts. With a passion for digital trends, social media and innovation – and over five years of hotel and technology work experience – Greg possesses a unique perspective on the hospitality digital marketing landscape. Playing digitally-focused marketing roles at the destination resort, luxury independent property, and now city center hotel has allowed Greg to play an active role in shaping hotel marketing best practices at the property-level as well as help bring hoteliers closer to creating more meaningful, personalized travel experiences for their guests. It was in his marketing role at Revinate – a SaaS start-up in Silicon Valley that designs and develops technology to improve the guest experience – where Greg was able to help hoteliers and academics better understand the power of leveraging consumer intelligence to drive better service and maximize revenue streams across the entire guest lifecycle.

Greg is a proud graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and has been featured as a hotel marketing expert on National Public Radio. Greg has been featured as a contributor in Crowdcentric Media’s Social Media Week New York blog, eCornell’s Blog and HotelMarketing.com, as well as played a co-authored role in an award-winning piece for Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research with Chris Anderson entitled Best Practices in Search Engine Marketing and Optimization.

Greg can be reached by phone at +1 781 686 2177, email at gregbodenlos@gmail.com, on Twitter @gregbodenlos or LinkedIn.

 

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Applying the Dual-System Approach to Executive Education

For decades, European and Asian countries have embraced the dual-education system for professional development. The concept is built upon a “learn-on-the-job” model, where training is highly targeted, timely, and designed to align individual competencies with broader company goals.

While education costs continue to soar, the dual-education system delivers specific educational tools at a very specific point in time, while keeping the “cost-value proposition” in perfect balance.

This approach can also be applied to executive education because it is an adaptive, agile and proven model for delivering high-quality education. In the dual-education model, executives receive ongoing, timely and targeted training that helps them make the greatest contribution to the organization, while fostering engagement, inspiring a motivational culture and helping to retain the highest-performing executives.

Join Uwe Wagner, a senior eCornell faculty instructor and CEO of Innovative Think Tank International, for a look at how the dual-system approach should be applied to executive education.