Can mantras replace mission statements?

There's been an unusual amount of talk about mantras. A blog I read pretty often talks about mantras and I thought I'd try to find mine. Having just read a number of mantras, all that's coming to mind is a concoction of those that I read.

Can a mantra replace a mission statement? All through undergrad and grad school I was taught the importance of a mission statement and a vision - personally, I think it's important. It keeps an organization in line and helps it not to stray from its decided path- but in the world of constant innovation today, a mission statement may put constraints on an organization and its creativity. If a mantra provides more vision and direction than a mission statement and vision, it should be what defines the organization.

According to Wikipedia, Buddhists in Tibet carve mantras in stone as a form of devotion. The cool thing about mantras is that they apply to more than just organizations- they are a strategy for life. Since I haven't put mine to words yet, I'll use Roger von Oech's mantra as an example- "Look for the second right answer" - it's a great mantra for organizations as well as a great personal mantra - it makes you look beyond that one good idea, and hopefully gets you to that second or third great idea.

I know one of my mantras is to never stifle creativity, at work, and at home. That's probably not my final mantra, but who says I can have just one?

What's your mantra?

More smart advertising.. this time with toilet paper!

A lot of people I know avoid using public restrooms- especially in crowded and over-populated places like New York City! Although, if I was in New York City over the next few months, I would want to check this out.

Charmin, the popular toilet paper brand, is going to have public restrooms set up in Times Square between November 20th and January 1st, open for use between 8am and 11pm. There will be 20 stalls in total, and cleanliness and a good user experience is guaranteed by employing one bathroom attendant for every 2 stalls.

What a great way to advertise- and more importantly, get the public to participate in your advertising efforts. Charmin estimates that the stalls will get more than 300,000 visitors, but, as in most advertising, using the number of eyeballs as a measure, this campaign will have amazing results just based on the location of choice- New York City's Times Square.

What I want to do

A number of people ask me what kind of career I want or what I want to do with my education. At interviews, people ask me where I see myself 5 or 10 years down the line, and I try to explain it to them, but the concept of innovation is, surprisingly, not as well known as I thought it was.

I found this article that talks about innovation and the role of innovation in organizations. That's what I want to do- that's what I want to be a part of... Here it is:

http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/2006/11/mark_johnson_of_innosight_innovation.php

Smart advertising

I've been meaning to write about this for a while- and, no, I don't have a weird obsession with product placement.

If you watch the show Heroes, it's impossible to not know what the Nissan Versa looks like- after all, it's the car from the future that Hiro (a character on the show) specifically asks for when he lands in America and is at the car rental office- and of course, the rental agency had only one car left.

The Versa is Nissans newest model that I've only seen advertised on TV- I love that they are doing product placements in the show Heroes. They take it a step further and have ads on the Heros page on nbc.com, and on the Heroes blog, and on Hiro's blog. They have the Versa in their comic book too (top right), which is available on their website and is incorporated into the show.

Since most internet users are immune to ads on the internet and most people switch channels or forward thorough ads on TV or the radio, I wonder why more companies aren't doing these product placements- I think it's one form of advertising that cannot be ignored- sure you can stop watching a show, but how many people just stop watching a show they like? I don't watch a lot of TV, but I watch enough to know that there isn't enough product placement on TV. Of course I don't want it to get to a point where I'm watching commercials when I'm watching a show, but I think this is a market that advertisers need to capitalize on.

From the Mini Cooper in the Italian job, to Carrie Bradshaw's Macintosh laptop, product placement works- and isn't limited to the several placements done in James Bond movies!