Alain Thys

Last week I received what I consider one of the more remarkable job applications I have gotten in a long time. I've actually reprinted it below (with permission) so you can have a look at it as well.

Later this month September, Fred Reichheld and Rob Markey are launching their new book The Ultimate Question 2.0, a sequel to the earlier bestseller that brought us the Net Promoter Score and the knowledge that “happy customers make you more money”. 

When I was cleaning out my hard-drive earlier this week, I came across this presentation I did last April at the VTM Day (where I had the honour of sharing the stage with my hero Luc Besson :-)

It’s been a while, but there’s a new blogger on the Futurelab block. His name is  Helge Tennø, and he’s currently a planner at an Oslo design agency.

A number of people these days are exploring new ways of publishing. Seth Godin has launched his Domino Project, Ted is doing Ted Books, and some time ago Alexander Osterwalder had some great ideas on Business Model Generation.

On the face of it, customer-centricity is easy.  All you need to do is figure out what your customers need, and give it to them.  But anyone who's attempted to make his business act on the voice of the customer knows better.  Silos, policies and KPI's get in the way.

Today is a happy day. With the setup of Futurelab Brussels, we will finally become active in the Belgian market. Even though we’ve been based here for years, we’ve only had a handful of Belgian customers and never really engaged in any prospecting.

Last weekend I had an interesting experience.  On Friday and in part Saturday I participated in the International Marketing Congress in Ghent.  On Monday, I was at TEDxBrussels, which by now has become the biggest TEDx in the world.  The two events couldn’t have been more different.

It’s official, marketing is irrelevant.  At least, it looks that way when you look at the topic of this year’s International Marketing Congress.  After all, if all was in good order, would a thousand marketers gather to discuss the ways they can increase the relevance of their profession?