There was a point in the not-too-distant past when a person who heard a song that they liked but didn’t know would have to keep some of the lyrics in their head and recite a poorly executed version of the melody to their friends, hoping someone could tell them the title and who performed it.
Chris Barton changed that. He made it as simple as pressing one button on your phone. This May, the creator of the music app Shazam will deliver a keynote presentation at PPAI’s North American Leadership Conference in Chicago.
- After creating Shazam, Barton worked for Google when it was still in its startup stage and then moved on to Dropbox, which was a 90-person company at the time.
- He will touch on all three of these career phases in his NALC presentation titled “Five Ways of Thinking Differently To Bring Impossible Ideas To Life.”
According to Barton, disruption is the key to industry-changing success, not for the sake of shaking things up but to highlight where new opportunities can create different approaches.
“To me, disruption is when you introduce a change that’s so significant that it sort of redefines the way customers are choosing the product or service that they are buying,” Barton says. “That disruption might be a new product, but it might be a business model as well.”
‘Leaders Have To Enable It’
NALC will be attended by a core group of some of the promotional product industry’s most influential leaders. Barton has a message for them.
A byproduct of being an industry that has existed and grown for over a century is that there can, at times, be a reluctance to change. According to the Shazam founder, the people present in the room he’ll be talking to have the power to hold back innovation, and it’s something they need to consider.
“The leadership needs to enable [innovation],” Barton says. “If leadership blocks change that leads to innovation, then it can’t happen. It’s all about the leadership buying into its importance. Change comes from all parts of the organizations, not just from the top. But leaders have to enable it.”
Chris Barton
Creator, Shazam
It takes discernment to support impactful innovation. Leaders hold a great deal of responsibility for the ways that their decisions affect many other people. But resistance to change can also be a detriment unto itself.
“Almost anytime you make a change that is really significant, there are people who will question it,” Barton says. “That could be your colleagues at your own company. That could be the board of your own company. That could be the CEO. It can come from your suppliers or your partners.”
Register Now For NALC
Barton will join several other speakers at NALC, which takes place May 12-14 at the Sofitel Magnificent Mile in Chicago.
Early bird registration is now open for the event. Click here to register.
