Make July 4th Your Innovation Day

What better day to talk about innovation than the few days leading up to July 4th.  Think back to the situation the Founding Fathers faced.  "Yay!  We have our independence!  OK, now what ... oh yeah, we have to create an entirely new economic model from scratch."  They had to throw out traditional trade relationships and business practices and start over.  Yikes.  But, the key thing is they did it.  It wasn't easy.  Change and innovation never is. 

As a result of the current economy and the changes brought on by technology, many companies and individuals are facing their own daunting business scenarios.  The question we have to ask ourselves, do we want to be "Americans" (i.e. the Innovators) or the "British" (i.e. trying to maintain the status quo).

Now, there is a good reason to maintain some parts of the status quo.  In fact, in times of great upheaval, it's good to get back to basics.  And, there are some tried and true ways of doing business that should never be abandoned:  Building relationships, keeping your word, underpromising and overdelivering etc.  But, you also need to layer in something new. 

If things have been slow at your company, this summer is the perfect time to step back and "think outside the box." Or as some people say "just think" (because isn't that what thinking outside the box is?)

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We did some thinking leading up to this summer at the Downtown Women's Club and and realized that we had to stop thinking of ourselves as just a networking platform.  Instead we need to provide our members with more meaningful content and resources.  This is why we will be phasing out/revamping some of our less successful programs and introducing two new programs:

1.  Our new eBook series.  We'll be rolling out eBooks based on our popular DWC+ Teleclass series exclusively for our DWC+ members.   We just released the first one this week:  The Downtown Women's Club Beginner's Guide to Facebook.  This 57-page eBook is available FREE for DWC+ Members. Non-DWC+ members can click here or the box at right to find out more.  If you are a DWC+ member, you should have received a copy in your latest Network Now! newsletter, or you can check the member center starting next week.

2. Our DWC Brand Ambassadors affiliate program.  We'll have more about this next month, but we realize that we have such amazing members who have been helping us spread the word and now they will be able to benefit from it.  We also are hoping to partner with non-profits and business allies where they can earn revenue and donations from selling DWC+ Memberships.

Why are we moving in this new direction?  Because technology and the state of the economy caused us to revisit our business model and we realized that we needed to evolve from being simply a networking group to providing meaningful content and revenue-sharing opportunities.

We're not the only ones who are adjusting to the new playing field.  Check out this terrific article from the New York times featuring one of our long-time advisors and friend of the DWC:  Paige Arnof-Fenn.

Filling the Downtime with No Downsizing.

Have a great 4th everyone!  Go out and celebrate and start thinking about how you and your company might innovate!

Comments

[Doreen Blades]

You are so right. We all need to start thinking outside of the box and this requires us to just relax and let the creative juices flow. How many of us have had a great idea in the shower or driving. We need to give ourselves permission to just think about whatever comes into our heads and not what is the next thing on our to do list.
Have a great creative summer.