Matt BrittonFounder & CEO powering AI-driven consumer insights

How Millennials are Going to Slay the HiPPO #AskSuzy

Name: How Millennials are Going to Slay the HiPPO #AskSuzy
Uploaded: 2018-11-05T18:50:07Z
Channel: Matt Britton
Description: Speaker defines 'HiPPO' as the 'highest paid person's opinion' and argues it prevents businesses from becoming data-driven; gives historical examples…

5 Nov 2018

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Speaker defines 'HiPPO' as the 'highest paid person's opinion' and argues it prevents businesses from becoming data-driven; gives historical examples (Steve Ballmer, Blockbuster CEO, Ken Olson) who underestimated disruptive competitors or technologies, emphasizing that consumer demand often contradicts such executive assumptions.

Does anyone here know what a hippo is in terms of business? It's the highest paid person's opinion. To me, the hippo is the biggest thing from allowing businesses to become data driven because they're assuming everything, there's no data behind it. And I think the biggest role for people in organizations to really make change is to figure out a way to slay the hippo. So who is a hippo? Somebody who's stuck in their ways, not listening to consumers, shrugging off new competitors or just focusing on legacy models. And the Hippo hall of fame unfortunately continues to grow. Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, saying, Google's not a real company, it's a house of cards. Or the blockbuster CEO saying neither Redbox nor Netflix or even on the radar screen in terms of competition. Or Ken Olson saying there's no reason anyone would ever want a computer in their home. Now, if you ask consumers at this point, I would beg to differ that they would actually say this because the desire was there and these decisions usually are made in vacuums.