L2 Innovation Forum last week was extremely inspiring and thought-provoking. NYU Stern Business School in partnership with L2 Think Tank pulled together an incredible assortment of thinkers, strategists, innovators, philosophers, and technological leaders to discuss how technology is impacting luxury brands.
Here are some highlights:
Less choice is better
Sheena Iyengar tells us to offer less, but more qualified choices through a 4-step process. Cut options, consult with other people, categorize solutions, and finally create conditions for the consumer to be happy with choices that they make. She urges us to create a trusting relationship with the consumer, and make choice selection a more transparent process.
Luck is part of the strategy
Aswath Damodaran presented a somewhat cynical presentation on valuing luxury. He told us that value of a brand is really just an illusion. However, it does exist, real or not. This value should be nurtured as it creates a sustainable competitive advantage. Additionally, he reminded us that luck is a critical ingredient in this magic formula.
Frans Johansson expands on this luck ingredient topic in his Medici Effect presentation. He urged us to create flexible strategies with small executable steps that we can alter quickly. He argues that luck is a major part of any success, and failing at any one of these small executable steps would not jeopardize the entire strategy, but would rather inform the next set of small steps. Stay flexible.
Human centered disruptive technology
Luke Williams, of Frog Design, showed us how to marry unconventional concepts into successful technological solutions. From combining a sexy bathing suite and hijab to combining Bob Dylan music and computer hardware, Luke told us that disruption is possible if we open ourselves to all the possibilities around us. Gary Vaynerchuk told us to start caring about humans, and create solutions that will “out care” anyone else in the marketplace.
In conclusion, L2 Innovation forum opened my eyes to the possibility of technology to really reach into hearts, not just minds of consumers. Currently, technological solutions have made the world a much more efficient place to live in, but how do we take technology to connect people in a more emotionally satisfying way? How can technology bring people closer – really closer, as opposed to alienating them with illusion of choice that seems to pull us apart?
