Las Vegas (June 11, 2004) - Doing things the same old way in an environment that demands near-constant change isn’t going to cut it, a noted speaker and author on creativity told a group of accounting marketing professional gathered here.
Rather than doing things a certain way because that way it’s always been done, accounting marketing professionals need to look at the tasks that they do routinely and train themselves to look at them differently, Jeff Tobe told more than 400 attendees at the annual conference of the Association for Accounting Marketing here.
“If it ain’t broke, break it,” Tobe told AAM members during the opening session, Wednesday. “Sometimes you have to break some rules to be creative.”
Tobe challenged attendees to step out of their comfort zones to spark their creativity. “It’s okay to color outside the lines as long you don’t fall off the page,” he said. “You have to find out where the edge of your page is. It’s different for everyone.”
“Creativity is 100 percent about perspective,” Tobe added. “If you see the world through your customer’s eyes, you’ll see the way your customer buys.”
Tobe also challenged accounting marketers to look for the “second right answer” to a challenge. “You need to shatter the stereotype of the experience customers expect to have with you.”
- Melissa Klein Aguilar
