Highlights from MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
FOR IN-HOUSE CREATIVE MANAGERS

More than 70 creative professionals came together on November 12, 2008, to focus on some of the challenges and opportunities that in-house creative teams face these days. This InSource event was held at The Mansion on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. With featured speakers Emily Cohen (a consultant to creative professionals who provides guidance on effective staff, client and process management strategies, work segmentation improvements, metrics development and customized teamwork training) and Moira Cullen (a design strategist, writer and educator with extensive experience in the corporate world who is now working with The Hershey Company), this full-day event provided practical insights on effective management strategies.

Thanks to Xerox, The Boss Group, ColorEdge, Mohawk Paper and the Rothman Institute of Entrepeneurial Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University for their support of this relevant and successful event!

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Highlights from the InSource October 2007 Event - WHITE NOISE

Building a high-performance creative team with staying power in the corporate setting is a formidable challenge. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was the development of the new package design system for the Publix brand private label and the in-house creative team that moved this initiative forward.

Creative professionals who came together in October 2007 for the InSource Fall Event called “White Noise – How A Predominantly White Label Created So Much Noise For Publix And Its In-House Team” had the extraordinary opportunity to learn firsthand how this work has generated success for Publix. Hosted at the Publix Super Markets Corporate Office in Lakeland, Florida, this half-day event focused on major insights of this work from an in-house perspective, with an emphasis on various aspects that are relevant to other corporate creative teams.
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JUNE 2007 GENERATING IDEAS THAT STICK
Creative professionals are acutely aware of the ongoing need to develop good ideas and communicate these ideas in compelling ways. However, it takes more than good ideas to achieve maximum business success. Creative teams must do their best to generate “ideas that stick,” which means ideas that “are understood and remembered, and have a lasting impact” to change the thoughts and behavior of the people who are the focus of one’s attention.

Dan Heath was the featured speaker for a half-day InSource event held on Thursday, June 21, 2007, at SAS Worldwide Corporate Headquarters in Cary, North Carolina. His lively presentation explored some of the reasons (including fear, greed and lack of empathy) why people have good ideas that don’t stick, described the 6 principles of “sticky ideas” (namely, “simple unexpected concrete credible emotional stories”) and offered practical insights that in-house creative managers and their teams can use to generate and champion well-constructed ideas in the corporate environment. Read more

APRIL 2007 DRIVING INNOVATION THROUGH DESIGN
Question: What is the number one challenge of in-house creative professionals in the corporate setting, according to a recent survey of peers? Answer: "Staying fresh and innovative."   Innovation was the focus of an in-depth discussion for the InSource community by panelists James Barrood, Gordon Kaye, and Bob Wagner. Sheree Clark served as facilitator throughout the half-day event held at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey, on Tuesday, April 3, 2007. Read more

NOVEMBER 2006 THE BUSINESS OF IN-HOUSE DESIGN
Jeni Herberger was the featured speaker for a half-day InSource event held on Thursday, November 16, 2006, at Wyeth headquarters in Madison, New Jersey. Her lively presentation offered practical advice on a wide range of business strategies for in-house creative professionals, including how to build an effective structure for success as a creative team, tactics for becoming a profit center and the logistics of developing useful tools such as profit-loss statements and efficiency measures ­ to increase the perceived value of in-house design services in the corporate environment. Read more

MAY 2006 BOARD OF DIRECTORS ROUNDTABLE : EXPOSED
Defending our creative departments, communicating value, department structure, chargebacks, asset management, workflow, process...the list goes on. In May, InSource opened our doors to the creative community, addressing the hottest of these topics, offering insight and sharing perspectives. As a corporate creative leader it is critical you arm yourself with as much management strategy and justification theory you can find to answer the questions that management will confront you with when that phone rings. This event was moderated by Peter Phillips, an expert on in-house creative management from the Design Management Institute. And will panel of InSource Board of Directors and the attendees, discussed these pressing issues. We welcomed Peter back to InSource; his academic insight and dynamic style led to lively, informative and spirited discussions.

MARCH 2006 BREAKFAST
On March 1st, 2006, InSource hosted “Building, Motivating and Selling a Successful Internal Creative Team.” This event panel featured 3 highly successful corporate creative directors: Peter Sheridan, Director of Graphic Design & Production for Bristol Myers Squibb; Martin Shova, Assoc. Director of Creative Services for Kraft Foods; and Justin Knecht, Sr. Manager of Creative Services for Binney and Smith. The discussion was moderated by leading industry creative consultant and managing partner of Sayles Graphic Design, Sheree Clark. Sheree mixed case study with lecture and group discussion to create a lively and dynamic event.

JUNE 2005 ROUNDTABLE
On June 1st, 2005, InSource hosted “Forging Brand Consistency from the Inside Out” presented by The Vanguard Group's Donna MacFarland (Senior Manager, Vanguard Brand Management Team), Brad Kear (Vanguard Brand Design Director) and, representing the external consultancy team, Carla Hall of Carla Hall Design Group. The panelists presented a priceless glimpse into their strategy and process surrounding ensuring brand consistency across all consumer touchpoints. Additionally, they focused on establishing a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary team, engaging internal resources, ensuring management support and defining and maintaining measurements throughout the process. This sold-out event, sponsored by Mohawk Paper, was held at Pfizer headquarters in Madison, New Jersey.

MARCH 2005 ROUNDTABLE
On March 2, 2005, InSource hosted “A Seat at the Table: Articulating Design's Strategic Value to Management,” a presentation and panel discussion that featured design business authority Moira Cullen, Creative Development Strategist at Hallmark Cards, as guest speaker. Moira's incisive presentation opened with an analysis of design's strategic business value, then detailed a practical, 3-part framework within which to articulate that value to both colleagues and senior management. Topics discussed included the need for collaboration, the power of properly framing ideas through the use of language and the importance of discussing creative potential and process through the specific language of business. Following Moira's presentation, she participated in a roundtable discussion. This event, sponsored by Mohawk Paper, was held at Wyeth in Madison, New Jersey.

NOVEMBER 2003 ROUNDTABLE
InSource held its second breakfast event entitled “Project Management-Taming the Beast” at Wyeth in Madison, New Jersey on Friday, November 14 from 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM. The meeting focused on how to effectively manage an in-house department's workflow from an initial project request to final deliverables including: project initiation, job assignment, job tracking, cost analysis and benchmarking departmental effectiveness. Sponsored by Creative-Manager Inc., a project management solutions provider, the event featured Shel Perkins, a well respected industry expert on design management, as the keynote speaker. A panel discussion followed with a panel of Shel and Ron Ause from Creative Manager. Emily Cohen, an InSource board member and design business consultant, moderated.

MAY 2003 ROUNDTABLE
On May 22, 2003 InSource held its first roundtable event that included a powerful presentation by Peter Phillips of the Design Management Institute, a respected expert on in-house management. Following Peter's keynote address was a roundtable discussion where attendees were able to both speak about the challenges their departments were facing as well as provide solutions to those challenges. The excitement among the participants at having this opportunity to share ideas and strategies for improving their departments was clear and InSource is now embarking on a number of initiatives to further its mission.