With: Little grey cells is not done “to” you, is not done “for” you, but is done “with” you. This network is genuinely member-led – which means all of the below is up for discussion by members (or at least the board that represents the members).
LGC: is a ‘brain trust’ for members which is unashamedly elite (in sense of invite only, for the great & the good) – but not elitist (in sense of not stuffy, snobby or formal).
Support and discover: The ‘brain trust’ creates a space to grapple with new challenging ideas: members agree that they participate with intention to challenge, support and discover – not to impress and to shine.
Time-sensitivity: Built for people who are busy: 1 unit of effort in for 10 units of effort out.
Trust and support: As members experience how the ‘brain trust’ works they feel comfortable acting as a group that can coach, support and challenge each other – particularly through key transitions. It will be like having your personal board of master marketers.
Little Grey Cells Values
As per the first point above this is one of the first things we would want to get member input on. But this only set as a default (or until the members say this doesn’t reflect what they want).
Say = do If we say something is going to happen – it will happen. There is little that we are going to do that couldn’t be copied or done by someone else. We don’t have a unique IP. But I can promise this.
Serious, but not solemn. As a safe space we want to welcome in genuinely difficult and occasionally controversial discusion topics. We are deadly serious about creating the best space to do this. But we believe that bringing some fun – dare we say even some joy – to this process actually supports better outcomes.
The devil’s in the detail / aggregation of marginal gains I cover this point below in differentiators: the nature of networks broadly like this is that there is no one big new idea, no IP. The thing that ends up making the whole thing feel really different is doing lots of seemingly little things absolutely spot on.
Diverse This is not just about members, but about welcoming different viewpoints. We even welcome the friction that creates. We believe diversity of viewpoint underpins innovation. At the risk of being a bit “meta” we even think there is an argument not to commit to particular values because the value of diversity could even apply to the values themselves.
Little Grey Cells Impact – 1 / 3 Years
Inward looking / selfish:
Recognition in the industry that this is number one place for top-level marketers
Outward looking / for members:
At the risk of sounding like a broken record…. I think this is really something that we want member input on. So I would ask you the question: if we were speaking in 1 – 3 years time, and you were to tell us that LGC had been a huge success for you, what impact would it need to have had for to to feel you made the right choice by joining?
Little Grey Cells Financials
Our commitment is to do this for free for 12 months. After that we need to re-assess, and we will do that with members
We are going to run the membership so that it incurs as a small a cost as possible (for example we would like to hold the meetings at member offices). Even so, running LGC is going to take a lot of time. So a question you haven’t asked, but is useful, is ‘why am I doing it?’
What is in it for me – particularly financially?
I am a Marketing and Brand Management consultant who works with exactly the type of people who are going to be members. While I am not going to use LGC as a platform to promote what I do, I expect that just through exposure and getting to know members better that this will lead to paid consulting work.
It is possible however that my commitment to not selling myself will mean this doesn’t happen, in which case after 12 months we would need to look at a funding model. This will be discussed with members.
Little Grey Cells Differentiators
I have included below some detail of what is out there and our differentiators. But I think it is useful to give a helicopter view of this:-
- There is no element of what we are going to do that has not ever been done before
- Even when we do things in new ways there is no IP, nothing that couldn’t be copied
- So the key is doing lots and lots of things better
Example:-
The elite element of LGC is at the heart of what will create value. So imagine this scenario…
We have a meeting that is covering a topic that is really important to you personally and your company. But the meet clashes with a board presentation you need to do. So you want to send your head of X – who is the person most involved in this – to the meeting. She is absolutely a star in the making, and will no doubt be a member of LGC in the next few years. So what do we do?
The easy thing is to allow your head of X come. We don’t risk upsetting or offending you. It is very easy to justify (you can’t make it; your replacement is a star in the making etc etc). But our view is that once we do this we have started down the unstoppable path of members sending their lieutenants to events instead of coming themselves, and one of the premises of the network is already having its foundations undermined.
But what we do instead is we make sure you get thorough notes from the meeting, we ask if there are any questions you particularly want raised, we make note of any members that we think it would be particularly useful for you to contact post event based on their contributions – and then remind you of our “no replacements” policy and politely decline to let your replacement come.
It is getting lots of things like this spot on that makes the difference.