Day 3: Don't know why you say good bye, I say hello

The final day. Sigh. More learning and good-byes.

The keynote speaker for the final day was inspirational, as good keynote speakers are, and lives in our backyard. Here are the handy, dandy notes (thanks, loaned laptop) from that session:

Keynote: Lessons in Innovation from Better World Books

Xavier Helgesen, Better World Books

Send email for presentation at xavier@betterworldbooks.com

Innovations:

1: It started with one book drive; good learning experience; found out what they were good at (selling and shippin)

2. “Swipe from the best, then adapt.” – Tom Peters

- best ideas come from outside your field

- most ideas aren’t original: steal freely.

-benchmark against business…are your stakeholders as satisfied as Zappos?

3. Great ideas don’t have to come from the top…but the top can sure squelch them fast.

-When team members come to you with a suggestion…say, “What do you need to make that happen?”

-data is are a great servant, but a horrible master.

-Encourage discussions of “how can we?” instead of “here are the problems”

4. Finds out what matters to your stakeholders

-You would be amazed at what you learn

-Idea: Conduct “listening labs” (more at: http://www.creativegood.com/;consulting/labs.php)

-Idea: Track net prompoter score (more at http://www.netpromoter.com/)

5. Give a Great Experience

== Here are some ideas you can try

Idea 1: OCLC WorldCat Direct

QUICK + BWBOOK

What if ILL worked like Netflix?

Idea 2: Storage as a service

- Unlimited shelf space for 10 cents per book per month

- Books available via ILL for direct shipment

- Books can be instantly weeded and sold to recoup costs

- This is still in the idea phase – let better world books know what you think

Idea 3: Fully managed gift service

- BWB sets up collections points, mailing address and allows shipment of all books

- Cagalogs books received with donor info included and sends spreadsheet or list

- Desired books sent directly to library or professor

Idea 4: Partner with Libraries when library wants to run their own book drives

The rest of the conference (the final day is just a half a day)

There was one more session; it was a business update of the vendor of the principle Interlibrary Loan software and related products.

Then lunch, then good byes, and travel home.

Whew. Not much left to say, but..

APPRECIATE the people and time you spent. Be grateful that you have an organization, boss who supports you. And the next move is to implement at least one or two things and add value to your organization.