Up, Up and Away – Rotary Newmarket

Tuesday, 2 April 2013 - Auckland, New Zealand

Rotary New Market

Presentation Summary

Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, talks to the Newmarket Rotary Club about Winning in the Age of Now, and how to turn a brand into an irresistible Lovemark for the next generation.


“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” 
– Vince Lombardi

You want to win as businesses, entrepreneurs, executives.
You want to win as Rotarians, humanitarians and leaders.
You want to win as families, parents, individuals.

I’m going to talk about how to win in a VUCA world.

Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous

A winner turns VUCA on its head; and reframes it as superVUCA.

Vibrant, Unreal, Crazy, Astounding

I’m a radical optimist. The only way is UP.

The 5 winning tracks to deliver a SuperVUCA world:

1.To Win Now, ENTER THE NOW

The context for winning in business has shifted from production to people.

Winning starts with Purpose.

Martin Luther King did not say: “I have a Mission Statement.”

And we live in the Age of Now.

ERA OF NEW AGE OF NOW
Strategy Purpose
Attention Participation
Inform Inspire
Interruption Interaction
Return on Investment Return on Involvement
Pumping Markets Creating Movements

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit.” – Vince Lombardi

In the Now, execution is the killer app.

  • Fail fast, learn fast, fix fast.
  • Drive the important not the urgent
  • Jeff Bezos: Customer Bar-Raiser
  • Blue Ocean: Eliminate – Reduce – Raise – Create

2. To Win Now, UP THE CREATIVITY

Velocity demands the unreasonable power of creativity.

1. Pour in Emotion

Creativity starts with emotion.

Emotion has always trumped reason, and it rules the world of the moment, because it’s fast.

Emotion is how to get action, and you are all in the action business. Donald Calne: Reason leads to conclusions, emotion leads to action.

2. Generate lots of small ideas, continuously

Big ideas are scarce, strung out over time, investment hungry.

3. Be a Disruptor

Evolution takes centuries. Revolution takes 30 years.

The Now demands constant disruption. It’s about reframing constantly:

  • Steve Jobs: Presence into absence.
  • Surprise with the obvious: ‘Space Pen’ – To develop a pen that could write in space, NASA spent millions on advanced technology. The Russians used a pencil.

4. Ask 3 questions of any idea:

  •  Will people want to see it again?
  • Will people want to share it?
  • Will people want to improve it?

3. To Win Now, INSPIRE OTHERS TO DELIVER

Continuously challenge yourself and coach others to achieve the Dream.

To inspire people today you must provide:

  1. Responsibility
  2. Learning
  3. Recognition
  4. Joy

4.To Win Now, CREATE A LOVEMARK

Revolution starts with language. To win, go beyond brands:

  • Brands are owned by companies, marketers, and stockholders. Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them.
  • Brands are built on Respect. Lovemarks are created out of Respect and Love.
  • Brands build Loyalty for a Reason. Lovemarks inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason.
  • Brands deliver performance, respect and trust. Lovemarks infuse Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy, the stuff that matters.

Mystery: It’s what we don’t know that has most value. Storytelling is the richest vocation.

Sensuality enthralls the emotions, Vision, Sound, Scent, Touch, Taste.

Intimacy is empathy, commitment, passion.

Most organizations do Intimacy badly, or wrong, or badly wrong.

The secret is to put yourself in the heart of the audience. Not bringing them to you, but asking to be invited into their individual hearts.

  • Brands aim to be Irreplaceable. Lovemarks are Irresistible.

5. To Win Now, START WITH 3Es

  1. Enthusiasm: Be an ‘irresistible force of nature. Otherwise, in the words of Vince Lombardi: “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
  2. Edge: Change happens at the margins, the fringes, the crazy edges. The further you are from conformity at the center, the more you can make things happen. This is where Kiwis rock, at the world’s edge.
  3. Everyone: Inspiration and love driven through business is the way to go.

Spirit Dance

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An address to the Waikato Management School Sustainable Enterprise Symposium. Opening thoughts, ideas, inspirations and directions. Here’s an early presentation linking personal passions, professional practice, local imperatives and academic affiliations.

Edge of the World

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A careers presentation to the Waikato Management School in Hamilton, NZ. What we do in life echoes through eternity. Business is a gladiatorial career choice. It is the engine of human progress. For power to touch and transform lives, no career track comes close. Kevin Roberts takes school-leavers and families on a journey through and beyond Waikato Management School. From Dream to Reality. From Edge to Centre.

Freedom Train

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An address to the Tuck Academy of Management Symposium: ‘Why Smart Executives Fail’. Smart executives have a new job – turning their organization into a Lovemark. A Saatchi & Saatchi case-study on transformative leadership. This presentation explores the power of language and tells the story of Saatchi & Saatchi’s turn around. Through freedom and inspiration, ‘nothing is impossible’.

Brand New Day

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An address to the Women in Business Inaugural Conference, Judge Institute of Management (Judge Business School), University of Cambridge. Business has global credentials to make the world a better place. By creating self-esteem through jobs, choices, opportunities and challenges. By focusing the power of ideas on innovating for the greater good.

Gotta Find a Way!

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An address to the 10th International Snackex Conference. Curiosity is a human quality that can deliver true and relevant insights on the road to discovering Lovemarks, and it can be as simple as talking to real people in real time. Europe’s snack industry leaders get some food for thought on escaping the commodity trap.

Love’s Transformation

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An address to the Unie der Belgische Adverteerders. Emotion is the primary motivator and ultimate game breaker. By building on Respect and igniting Love, Lovemarks are a call to action. Belgian advertisers go inside mystery, sensuality and intimacy to develop an understanding of the brands people love.

Rising Sun

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An address to the Netherlands Association of Advertisers. Emotion is the rising sun in branding. Ideas, conviction and passion can lead to massive opportunities. Amsterdam Ad-folk get a week’s worth of ideas for connecting in the new reality.

Paint It Black

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An address to the Color Marketing Group Annual Conference. The man in black takes his paint brush to the rainbow at the Color Marketing Group’s Fall International Conference. A new spectrum coloring where we are and where we have to get to. Paint brands beige. Paint emotion purple. Paint love gold. Paint Lovemarks red. Paint colour white. Paint the edge silver. Take a step back. Black attack!

2010 – Near Future Visions

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An address to the Cambridge Alumni in Management / Judge Business School. The intersection between the public and private sphere is game-breaking territory. The optimistic power of ideas can change the world for the better. Through opportunities, business has the power to deliver self-esteem. We need to develop attitude, use the market, negotiate and invite love back into business.

Stop! In the Name of Love

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An address to the World Association of Research Professionals (ESOMAR). Business has moved from the clichés of consumer focus to the realities of consumer commitment. We must develop ways to measure important human emotions like love, empathy and loyalty. The market research industry gets asked to step up to inspiration, and find ways to get past information, and find meaning.