”Innovation is to do something differently” …
Place, Kosice 2013
The next day of the International Conference on Creative Industries and City Image started bright and early with an extremely interesting talk held by Peter Littmann. Although throughout the entire presentation I had to fight back a strong urge to stand up and yell across the conference hall that I am originally from Hamburg – Littmann’s chosen city of residence, I nevertheless managed to pay close attention to the benefit of relatively lost cost.
”The benefit of relatively low cost: This formula was used by Slovakian companies in the past in their defense against competitors from Western Europe. At present, however, the number of business sectors and products where Slovakian producers can only rely on low cost to compete against the rest of the world is rapidly declining. The only way for Slovakian producers to sustainably cope with the pressure both from the West as well as from the East are innovations, quality, and service. Marketing, all business processes, and the entire added value generation chain must be customer-focused.”
– Peter Littmann
We need a relationship with a product. A good relationship ensures that a customer will keep coming back. A successful brand is like a loyal boyfriend or girlfriend. The car industry for example is very good at this – in particular at the strategy of making customers feel like they are part of an exclusive club by buying the product. This kind of relationship building doesn’t have anything to do with money or a budget, it has to do with intelligence.
Dobré nie je vyborné! Good is not enough. We need to be excellent. We need to be better than the others if we want to succeed with a product. This doesn’t mean we have to be better in ever single aspect, but at least in one area we must outdo the competition i.e. in design-function. We then need to make sure customers recognize this, and when they do they will value our product over that of others.
It is important to remember that if you want people to invest in your city, it’s irrelevant what you think of your city, it’s what others, the outside-world, think of your city that matters.
The most important lesson is to learn to help oneself
Twenty years ago Finland was depressed and it’s economy was down. Now it is
a booming country. They helped themselves. They didn’t wait around like East Germany waits around for West Germany to help them out while they never take self-initiative. Slovakia has no one to wait around for – Slovakia must take self-initiative in order to make itself into a modern and successful country.
Peter Lettmann at the International Conference in Kosice 2013
Peter Littmann is honorary professor for marketing at the University Witten/Herdecke, Germany, member of the board of Nyenrode Business Universtiy, Netherlands, and Member of the Harvard University Art Museums’ Visiting Committee, Cambridge, USA. He is member of the publischer’s board of ‘Absatzwirtschaft’, Germany’s leading marketing publication and advisor of the business daily ‘Financial Times Deutschland’. From 2004 until 2010 he published a weekly column on marketing and communication in Germany’s leading business daily ‘Handelsblatt’.
A quick look at Start-Ups and their potential for cities
Following Littmann was the director of international economic development at Tel Aviv Global & Tourism, Avner Warner. Warner, responsible for leading Tel Aviv’s strategy for global development as a business center, had a lot of useful pointers for any city working on getting or maintaining being ahead, innovative, and entrepreneurial. The focus here was primarily on Start-Ups, Tel Aviv being presented as a model example as the second most successful city for Start-Ups after Silicone Valley.
Avner Warner presenting at Kosice International Conference 2013
Technology nowadays is developed from the bottom up, everyone can be an entrepreneur via global networking. Start-Ups needs professionals but most of all diversity. This diversity is found in cities. San Fran, NY, London, and most recently Berlin have developed into hubs for entrepreneurs and Start-Ups. Offering a platform for young innovation and Start-Ups is a great opportunity for cities.
Journals From Bratislava 