Facing Disaster, Trustmark Launched a Renaissance

Setting tradition aside, the 95-year-old insurance company looked to Apple and American Girl as a guide to its future

BusinessWeek, November 4, 2009 — On a sunny day in June 2006, David McDonough, chief executive of Trustmark Insurance, was roaming Chicago's Navy Pier, talking to strangers. "We needed to understand what made people tick," says McDonough of the exercise, which was part of a two-day workshop designed to get his executive team to look beyond actuarial tables and stimulate thinking about the company's future.

Design Is More Than Packaging

New York Times, October 5, 2008 — THE word “design” tends to conjure up images of crisp graphics, nicely arranged interiors or pleasing packaging. But a growing cadre of advocates say the world of design has much more to offer corporate America.

They are proponents of “design thinking,” which focuses on people’s actual needs rather than trying to persuade them to buy into what businesses are selling.

Properly used, design thinking can weave together elements of demographics, research, environmental factors, psychology, anthropology and sociology to generate novel solutions to some of the most puzzling problems in business.

Where Do the Best Ideas Come From? The Unlikeliest Sources†

Peers, Suppliers Can Spark Some Great Innovations for Marketers

Advertising Age, July 17, 2008 — There's a "secret sauce," as a friend would put it, to creating a recipe that works for serving up innovation success. But if businesses have trouble getting it quite right, it's because they're short on a critical ingredient: inspiration.

Where Do the Best Ideas Come From? The Unlikeliest Sources?

Peers, Suppliers, can spark some great innovations for marketers

Prophet, July 1, 2008 — There's a "secret sauce," as a friend would put it, to creating

serving up innovation success. But if businesses have trouble

because they're short on a critical ingredient: inspiration.

Innovation Quest: Catalytic Leaders Set the Pace

Marketing News, June 24, 2008 — Innovation appears to be the holy grail of our times: Miraculous things will be wrought

when you find it, from an expanding cadre of continuously delighted loyal customers to a powerful, valuable brand, to sustained and healthy growth.

But the innovation quest is long, laborious andnot for the faint of heart. And success requires strong leadership setting the pace: a catalyst and change agent who has the vision, desire and ability to enlist and inspire others to the cause.