'Innovation is easy' - IBM, Dennis and Yoyo Design reflect on lessons from Do It Day and how it could lead to more agile ways of working
Gather as many ideas as you can, don't let ego get in the way and never direct social to a billboard in Leicester Square without checking it first were some of the key takeaways from yesterday's (Monday 2 November) Do It Day.
Speaking to The Drum Works managing director, Justin Pearse, during the last panel of the day, Bill Sullivan, IBM European lead, portfolio marketing, hailed the day a success describing the whole process as "fascinating" with many lessons for businesses to take away about being more agile.
"We're used to having these vast processes," he said, "so it was fascinating to watch people with ideas and strategy just seeing what will work and what won't. We achieved so much in a day and, though it's not always possible, it was great to get to just trash out different ideas."
Nick Adams, strategist, Yoyo Design, added: "Today really taught me you need to gather as much information and ideas as possible. Sometimes ego can really get in the way but I couldn't tell you the job titles of the people I was working with and it really showed me how seniority and titles isn't the most important thing."
Despite being a massive success, Do It Day was not without its challenges with Paul Lomax, chief technology officer at Dennis, surprised that planting 10,000 trees in the Heart of England Forest turned out to be a lot easier than imagined.
"The real successes of today had the right minds in the room," he said.
Of whether or not events like Do It Day could lead to an overhaul in the current creative process, Sullivan commented that he does feel, at present, there is a "limit to what you can do" as large corporations "play it safe" and don't allow too much creative freedom.
Adams added: "We need more experimentation, I wouldn't say the creative process is broken, but we do need to be more agile. Airbnb and Tesla are businesses that are reinventing how we consume things and at the heart of that is real creativity and a creative approach to things. These are the businesses that are innovating further and creating real change."
"Innovation is easy, it's sticking with it that's hard," remarked Sullivan, "you need to encourage everyone to get involved."
Find out more of the challenge outcomes at The Drum's Do It Day overview.