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What is ‘real’ Innovation?

I feel I need to write a post about something which has been bothering me for a while. It is about the (mis)use of the word innovation.

Many people talk about innovation and innovative new products. What I struggle to deal with is: most of what people label as innovative is really just an improvement on an existing product. What many organisations and media commentators think is so innovative is really just ‘features and benefits’.

Simon Sinek (author of Start With Why) claims that:

“Real innovation changes the course of industries – if not society.”

Examples include: the microwave, the fax machine, locomotion, the light bulb, iTunes, the internet, flight.

Do you agree?

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Simon Sinek is the author of Start With Why. Listen to an interview with him on the Marketing Over Coffee podcast (iTunes link), in the episode titled Special Interview with Simon Sinek, author of “Start with Why”. You can also view his keynote in this TED talk.

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Did you mean: Adam Jaffrey?

Did you mean: Adam Jaffrey

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For years I’ve been dealing with people spelling my name incorrectly.

I find it’s a problem within many organisations I deal with; their employees lack any attention to detail. Spelling a customer’s name 100% correctly is 100% THE MOST IMPORTANT THING when it comes to customer service. This is even more important when the customer explicitly gives your the correct spelling, or when it is easily obtainable. Countless times I’ve found myself spelling out my surname, letter-by-letter, and find the attendant has still spelled it incorrectly – they simply don’t listen!

Additionally, when dealing with organisations who (make the mistake to) outsource to India/Indian cultured countries, it is not acceptable to address European/Westernised cultured customers by their surname! This may be the norm in Indian cultures, but immediately shows your customer you don’t care about them and know nothing about their culture when you address them incorrectly. I don’t ever want to hear the words “Hello Jaffrey” again.

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For those concerned, my name is spelled:
Adam Jaffrey

NOT any of the common misspellings:
Adam Jaffery
Adam Jeffrey
Adam Jeffery
Adam Jaffry
Adam Jeffry

I even got this once, after explicitly spelling my name to the service attendant:
Adam Geffrey

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Aside from this post being a rant of me whinging about my pet hate, it’s also being used as a test:
I’m trying to use this post as a net to catch any misspellings of my name people may use in search engines. I’m currently not all that fluent with proper SEO techniques, but I’ll give this a go.

So if you were looking for Adam Jaffrey and spelled it wrong, take note, not only for me but for all customers you deal with in the future.

And now that you know how to spell my name, drop me an email and find out what I can do for your business!