How To Innovate - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 075

Aug 16, 2023

Casey Stanton, founder of CMOx and author, discusses the importance of innovation for CMOs and when to start. He emphasizes the need to avoid copying others and instead emulate their thinking. Stanton also highlights the value of having a process for innovation. A case study on Pepsi's unique approach to entering the fast food market is explored.

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Introduction

00:00 • 4min

The Role of a CMO, Reaching Maximum Output, and Innovation

03:49 • 3min

Learning from Others: Emulating How They Think to Innovate

06:30 • 4min

The Importance of Having a Process

10:47 • 10min

Innovative Approaches and a Case Study on Pepsi

21:01 • 4min

How do you innovate as the Chief Marketing Officer of a company that you are just stepping into? Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey discusses when CMOs should start to innovate, how not to innovate, and two approaches to finding novel solutions that enable your to solve bigger problems.

Takeaways:

There are few opportunities for a new CMO to innovate within the first quarter of their tenure. The focus of this period should be on aligning their team and ensuring person and role fit. A certain amount of triaging is also a necessary part of this stage.
You don’t innovate by copying others. It’s impossible to copy what another company is doing and expect to be seen as the leader. By relying on copying them, you are always behind them.
Rather than copying another company’s actions, instead try to emulate how they think and approach problems. What do they hold to be true? What constraints have they put in place? By recreating their process of thinking, you can produce much greater results.
A few ways to understand someone else’s thought process include listening to their podcast appearance, watching their TED Talks, reading their blogs, or even examining their career.
An important way to drive innovation is to have a process to follow. The first step of the process is to identify the problem. Next, define what success looks like. Then figure out how to innovate a solution to solve the problem and meet the success criteria.
When innovating, try to look at the problem from every considerable angle to find multiple possible solutions. Also, consider the Kaizen approach that focuses on constantly making minor improvements, these will build to a great impact over time.

Quote of the Show:

“How do you innovate? It's not by copying what they've done, but trying to emulate how they think.” - Casey Stanton

Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
CMOx Website: https://cmox.co/call
The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/
Internet Archive website: https://archive.org/

Ways to Tune In:

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ThocrAzXcMg