Jim Gilmore
Strategic Horizons

Jim Gilmore lives in Shaker Hts, and his business, Strategic Horizons, is based in Aurora, but he is much better known nationally by some of the largest firms in the world who are their clients. With the slogan, "Helping executives see the world differently," Jim and his partner Joe Pine host the annual ThinkAbout conference , where they charge $2450 a head, (and a few hundred more if you show up a day early to help them set up and work!), and lead participants in a "Learning Excursion" to Nashville, simultaneously one of the world's most authentic and fake cities in the world. While there, they visited 4 different musical venues, such as Tootsie's, a down-and-dirty (i.e. "authentic") nightclub, where everyone actually plays cover songs written by other artists. on the other hand, they went to the Wild Horse, a corporate-owned chain, with artists doing original material. Cool Cleveland's Thomas Mulready met Jim Gilmore at Legacy Village, a paragon of the real/fake polarity, and they discuss the book, the conference in Nashville, and how Gilmore feels about the authenticity of his hometown of Cleveland. Moments later, mall security asked us to leave. The book is now available here See book review in the 11.21.07 issue of Cool Cleveland here. .http://www.StrategicHorizons.com

Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want
James H. Gilmore & B. Joseph Pine II
Harvard Business School Press

Reading the book Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want is like taking a litmus test for your own set of values. While marketing has become a "giant phoniness machine," according to author Jim Gilmore (see Cool Cleveland video interview in the 11.21.07 issue of Cool Cleveland here), this book attempts the almost impossible: explain the desire for authentic and transformative experiences and products, show how all businesses deal in man-made (fake) goods and services, then offer advice on how to "render authenticity." Page after page of eye-opening, often contradictory theory can make one's head spin, offering a dense business read that cannot be consumed on the flight to Chicago. In fact, the very subjects of the book, "Deconstructing Authenticity," the five real/fake, fake/real polarities, "From Marketing to Placemaking," offer true fodder for examining one's own business, business model, customer interaction and brand. The opening chapters on the demand for authenticity and the ironic over-supply of inauthenticity will elecit chuckles and nods of agreement, causing the reader to re-examine their own set of values and their own definition of authencity. Is Disney the most authentic (they perfectly conform to their own self-image), or are they the ultimate image machine, all visual bluster and no "real" heart? Today's consumers are just as conflicted, and this new book is a dense and challenging account of how a business might map its own destiny in this age of authenticity. Buy the book here. http://www.StrategicHorizons.com
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