Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Dijana Vetturelli, VETTURELLI
Industries merge and borders disappear. This was also true for Fifteen Seconds, originally launched in 2014 as a marketing conference, but later evolved into an interdisciplinary business festival which was visited last week by 5000 future builders, among them our VETTURELLI team. More than 100 speakers lined up on seven stages in the festival grounds in Graz and shared their personal and business experiences.
Although several days have passed since the conference, my impressions are still settling in, and I’m still mulling over how to encompass all the inspirational stories in just a couple of words. Organizers of the Fifteen Seconds have structured the topics into Startup, Tech, Media, Talent, Forum, Growth Stage (which included marketing, promotion and sales topics) and Google Track, but it is interesting how the organizational culture in all kinds of approaches and forms connected all the lectures, underlining that culture is the key of adjustment to the new digital age.
Third time’s a charm
Sergio Rodriguez from Spain’s El Mundo shared his organization’s experience. The second largest media house in Spain had three attempts at transformation from a traditional organization into digital. The first two were unsuccessful because they tackled the challenges of tomorrow using solutions of yesterday – vertical hierarchy, controlled and limited communication, decision-making at the management level without involving employees and responding to market challenges without a long-term strategy. Only the last attempt was fruitful, because they showed willingness for a fundamental change – both in the products and the way they are created, and through people with new attitudes, long-term strategies, and transforming employee awareness. The secret of success, according to Rodriguez, is in raising awareness that transformation of a company necessitates involvement of many people, and because of that it is necessary to invest enormous efforts in communication.
“Digital transformation is not about technology, not about products,
not about business – it’s about people!” SERGIO RODRIGUEZ
23 points for improving yourself, your colleagues and your company
Freitag, manufacturer of bags made of recycled truck tarpaulins, was founded 25 years ago and is proud of a system of self-organizing teams known as holacracy. Their Culture Coach is Pascal Dulux, who started his career in communications and marketing. Through 23 points he explained how employees within Freitag can develop themselves, their colleagues and the company. He described step by step how to create an environment for stimulating creativity and innovation – from defining purposes, manifesto, creating an inner movement, defining the roles of individual employees, shaping identity, building trust, organizing education, lots of socializing and then even more socializing (i.e. in six bars in Zurich they have an open tab for beer), distribution of strength, knowledge sharing, curiosity, and so on. Their 215 employees regularly gather at the so-called Not my idea events where everyone has the opportunity to become a designer, and design their own and the future of their colleagues, as well as the future of Freitag.
Transformation the Stanford way
Today, a large number of companies are struggling with how to boost creativity among their employees, and although Fifteen Seconds offered examples of best practices both from the traditional companies and from the Startup scene, it was interesting to hear the neuroscientist approach of Ellen Petry Leanse, a Stanford professor who led an interactive workshop to show The Neuroscience of Creative Innovation. In order to maintain the innate curiosity, it is recommended that we create the so-called “safe environment”, to ask a lot of open questions and to break the routine with creativity boosting games.
All in all, Fifteen Seconds has once again confirmed that the digital age brings with it major changes, whose winners will be companies that will, among other things, succeed in transforming employees’ awareness, including them into their decision-making processes and designing an environment to foster creativity and innovativeness. And I believe our industry has a lot to offer. But one thing is for sure – we will be back in Graz next year.