Ottawa Business Summit 2012
Ottawa Business Summit 2012
Published on February 22, 2012
For award-winning entrepreneur Toni Newman, one of the most valuable business lessons came from shopping for laundry detergent at Walmart. The Montreal professional stared at the shelves and counted dozens of different bottles of Tide. There was a lemon-scented variety. Tide for cold water. Tide for hot water. There was Tide to Go, which doesn’t even need water. The point, Ms. Newman said, isn’t that Tide keeps improving its detergent. But by creating a new customer experience, Tide is able to stand out from its competitors, Ms. Newman said, adding this is a key lesson for businesses in Ottawa. “Being better doesn’t make you stand out. It just keeps you in the game,” she said. Ms. Newman was the keynote speaker at last week’s Ottawa Business Summit, a one-day education, information and inspiration event hosted by OBJ and the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. Now in its seventh year, the OBS attracted more than 240 attendees to the Hampton Inn and Conference Centre. Ms. Newman, the co-founder of event management agency Geffman Productions, drew upon a quote from bestselling author Seth Godin to drive home her message. “In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace not standing out is the same as being invisible.” Ms. Newman started her address sitting atop a red-and-silver ladder – which she said illustrates how businesses must look over the heads of their competitors and see the opportunities that no one else can – before hopping down and walking between the tables, interacting with the audience. “Just getting the job done doesn’t cut it. The competition is getting better and better every day,” she said.
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