Although we are in the Business of creating & revamping brands, over the years several brands have also influenced us, inculcated new habits & at times brought a change in the societal mindset.
This was the discussion during this Monday Morning Meet at Elephant. Brands; be it product, service, behavior or conversations Influence & Infuse habits, perceptions & attitude among people. The social change brought by Delhi Metro making residents conscious of cleanliness, infusing a sense of pride in travelling  & becoming disciplined in how the public transport is perceived, used & kept is one such example. The Influence of Blackberry in providing both convenience & being connected on the move was also discussed & how it has helped entrepreneurs & executives to stay in control of their businesses anytime making business a 24 hour affair and completely changing the definitions of “connected”. Examples of Royal Enfield & Flickr were discussed in terms of how they have enabled people to express their hobbies & at the same time provided a platform to connect with people having similar interests. Based on the principles of Seth Godin's Tribe, both of these brands have also managed to create a community of followers & have given them a reason to explore & express. One of the examples that was  Amul & how the brand has influenced consumption of dairy based products of Urban Indians. Apart from the above mentioned, examples of Levis Jeans influencing the way one started dressing in the eighties, online banking portals changing how we bank & hypermarts changing the way we shop were also discussed. Tata Sky changing the way we watch television with democracy of information is another significant example for a service brand that changed habits.
What was reiterated through these discussions was that brands have the power to Influence, Integrate new habits and also bring social change. It is Important for marketers to visualize the changes they want to bring about so that it gets integrated in the thought process. And we believe this process can be enhanced by using design thinking tools.

Elephantversity Institute of Innovation along with Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries & Agriculture(MCCIA) organized a day long workshop on 'Business Innovation for MSME's" on 9th September in Pune.

The workshop was aimed specially towards Micro Small & Mediaum Enterprises (MSME's). It covered MSME's, those who are supplying to other businesses (OEM's) & also to those who make their own products. The challenge for  the workshop focused on the issue 'how Industry could Innovate in a turbulent economy'.

Ashish Deshpande, Partho Guha, (Founder Director of Elephant Strategy+Design) along with Hrridaysh Deshpande (Director, Elephantversity Institute of Innovation) shared several strategies & tools for developing new user centric product from strategy to prototype to relevant Business model. Anna Muoio (Principle Social Innovation, Continuum, USA) also briefed participants about Innovation & Design thinking.

The issues covered in the workshop included innovation framework, understanding users, interactive ideation & prototyping and business model & strategy development.

Ashish Deshpande holding the session
 

Partho Guha briefing the Participants about the exercise

Participants Prototyping

Participants explaining their concepts

The participating entrepreneurs & managers of MSME's equipped themselves with necessary knowledge, tools & the confidence to Innovate. As we at Elephant Strategy + Design & Elephantversity believes ‘Everyone Can Innovate’.