Innovate or Die: A Requiem for the 90s
When you step off the elevator into IMPAQT’s Pittsburgh headquarters, it’s what you may expect from a fast-growing start-up packed with nearly 90 bubbly, bright people. There is trendy décor and the steady buzz of high-tech efficiency that only dataheads and math majors born after 1984 can master.
But another feeling is ominously present.
Amid our fashion-forward architecture sits ten conference rooms paying homage to another time and place – the search industry in the ‘90s. (tune up the soft music)
Part honor, part tongue-in-cheek, we’ve named each conference room after a now-defunct search engine company which once breathed life between 1990 and 1996.
Northern Lights. Magellan. Wanderer. . …. (may they rest in peace).
The ghosts of engines past are a gentle reminder of good intentions, as is noted on one room’s plaque: “…it was named after the clipper ship which held the 150-year-old speed record for the San Francisco to Boston voyage.”
These early adopters make us, in part, proud. We love their chutzpah. We love their relentless enthusiasm to navigate murky waters. But, the lessons they leave us are crystal clear:
1. Re-invent and innovate
2. Stay customer-centric
3. Re-invent and innovate
4. Remember that search is about behavior
5. Re-invent and innovate
6. Believe the data
7. Re-invent and innovate (did we mention this one already?)
They have, no doubt, inspired us to relentlessly re-invent our company. For example, since our inception in 1999, we have continually created proprietary research tools (like ExstoNet™ and BidWise™) to help marketers easily collect and understand online consumer behavior for their brands. And we’ve been told that our account teams’ strength is in seeking original ways to look at problems- which leads to creative ways for solving them.
To whom do we owe this innovation obsession?
Thank you, Veronica.
Thank you, Jughead.
Thank you, Archie…..and the rest…
