WWRD: “What Would Rose Do” … The Intro

When I see something spectacularly interesting (or even terrible) on TV, or when I visit a theme park, or when I listen to my friends talk about business challenges, I can’t help but become enthralled with the inner-workings of that thing. What were the people in charge thinking about when they created that marketing campaign? What did they want to achieve with that product reveal? How did this solution or that product address the business challenges?

For me, the bits of information I gathered from the TV spot or the email campaign or the press release would send me into an ecstatic detective mindset… not as the detective solving the crimes but as the author creating the storyline for the detective to solve. In essence, I became Agatha Christie or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle each time a business question intrigued me.

What if I were the creator of this marketing campaign, or product launch, or business innovation? What would I try to do with the information I gathered? How would I lay this pebble down in order to drive future growth?

Perhaps, I want to acquire new customers with limited budget? Or, perhaps I want to increase efficiency so as to maximize customer turnover? Whatever it may be, the more I put myself into the shoes of these companies, the more insights I would gather from their marketing campaigns and product launches… and with all those breadcrumbs, I would be able to connect disparate ideas across industry verticals and innovate.

I have often shared my thoughts and hypotheses with colleagues, clients and friends. These musings have generated robust debates, oftentimes leading to extraordinary new ideas. Nonetheless, they have always been private.

Then, a few weeks ago, a long-time good friend suggested I share my thoughts with a broader audience. “Why not let others know how to leverage campaign data, or launch a product, or hire a team? There are people out there who could be inspired by your non-traditional way of thinking.”

At first, I hesitated. My musings are not based on insider information. I know not how the leaders of those companies truly think; however, I do have 10+ years of experience leading marketing, starting businesses, and running operations. In these past years, I have soaked in the world’s different businesses like a sponge and I have come to trust my instincts and intuition. In addition, I have worked in large corporations as well as created startups; I have led marketing and operations in financial services, media/entertainment, e-commerce, food & beverage, and tech. I have been able to innovate across verticals because I have been taking learnings from different industries, different companies, and different disciplines and melding them together to create something new and unique.

Why not share with others? Perhaps, my cerebral exercises could be informative and fun for those who come upon it.

And thus, I started my series: What would Rose do… if she were the person in charge.

I will try to post regularly. And, for some of my musings, I’ll turn them into case studies.

Hope everyone enjoys reading these posts as much as I do thinking through the business challenges and solutions!

Rose