By Erica Christoffer, Multimedia Web Producer, REALTOR® Magazine

Do you want to shake things up, build a powerful brand, and attract more clients? Drop the “business-as-usual” mentality and find inspiration in Andy Stefanovich. Let’s face it, with a title like Chief Curator and Provocateur at Prophet, a branding and marketing consulting agency, Stefanovich commands creativity.  His mantra is LAMSTAIH (pronounced lamb’s tie) – Look At More Stuff; Think About It Harder.

Stefanovich explains LAMSTAIH in his new book, “LOOK AT MORE: A Proven Approach to Innovation, Growth, and Change,” (Jossy-Bass/Wiley, 2011) though a framework called the 5 M’s: Mood, Mindset, Mechanisms, Measurement, and Momentum. Each section is brought to life with stories of business innovation in action.

The following is an excerpt of Chapter 3 – “Mechanisms” – where he shares a number of examples regarding his work with the chamber of commerce in Richmond, Va., to revitalize the downtown area.

EXCERPT:

There are a variety of methods for exploring opportunities, but an essential first step is to create lists of the characteristics that define the issue or objective. This isn’t a counting-things-up kind of inventory. What we’re doing here is assessing three types of characteristics to find the components with the most opportunities for delivering growth and change: Continue reading »