Picture power
Authors of “Going Visual” show how to harness the impact of images

Which has more impact: several pages of text describing a wonderful widget, or a photo? No contest, right? In a split second, all the details are captured, to be shared with others — almost instantly in the case of digital images.
      In their new book, “Going Visual: Using Images to Enhance Productivity, Decision Making, and Profits,” authors Bob Goldstein and Alexis Gerard say images are the best new tool people can use to significantly improve business.
Gerard , a photographer since his 20s, founded Future Image Inc. in 1991, the official information and research partner of the international Imaging Industry Association (I3A).  Goldstein is an analyst for The Future Image Report, and has appeared on CNNfn and at many conferences . “We're visual from the moment we're born and open our eyes,” Goldstein says. “What do little kids do first? Draw pictures, even before they have language skills.”
      Images are everywhere, the pair points out — from office walls to websites, from magazines to billboards, and even children's drawings on the refrigerator. People communicate the most important messages in their personal lives through images. “We rely on our sense of vision,” Gerard says. “It's the core thing that defines us as human beings. It's also the core premise of our book.”
      The two explain humans are good at processing images, but need technology to produce them — a burnt stick, pen, paintbrush, or camera. “Technology has improved consistently, from early cave drawings, to paintings, to photos,” Gerard explains.
      Yet, images remain largely unused in interpersonal business communications —where people spend so much time and need the most powerful tools. Goldstein and Gerard cite three elements of visual communication: skill level, time requirements, and audience reach. “As you progress, the three dimensions evolve gradually,” Goldstein says. “For instance, take 19th-century photo glass plates — they took a lot of skill, but less time than painting, but their reach was still very limited. With digital imagery, both skill and time have decreased, and the reach is wide.”
      Today's technology has outpaced society's awareness, the duo says. Rarely do business people use the imaging technology available. “We need to give business people an awareness of how important images are,” Goldstein says. “They don't have to relearn anything. These are basic skills everyone has — to take a picture to communicate and document something. This should become a reflex, and people need to take that reflex into their business lives.”
      According to Gerard, business people are starting to relate to this new technology and how it impacts their core business. “We found people getting very excited and enthusiastic,” he says. “These weren't imaging people, per se; but they were excited about what imaging could do for them and their business.”

Alexis Gerard and Bob Goldstein, authors of “Going Visual: Using Images to Enhance Productivity, Decision Making, and Profits,” say images are the best tool people can use to significantly improve business — and retailers can cash in on selling imaging products and services.  The pair will sign and sell copies of the book at PMA 2005.

      Goldstein and Gerard outline “The Business Case” in chapter two of their book, establishing four essential requirements by which a business sets goals and measures the effectiveness of deploying a Going Visual strategy. They also detail “The Process,” five action steps that serve as guiding principles for planning and implementing. “We feel we've identified, in the business user, a potentially huge new market for imaging devices and services,” Goldstein says.
      And the book gives retailers a complete “recipe” of how to sell imaging products and services to those businesses. Research for the book —  “and how the pieces fit together” — took two years, during which Goldstein and Gerard talked to industry executives, researchers and educators, visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, and did case studies in the real world.
      “We had a theory, a concept; but we wanted it to be the absolute reality,” Goldstein says. The book, he adds, is really about imaging as communication, such a fast-developing technology that he and Gerard made it “future proof” for a three-year window.
      The authors focus on early adopters of the new imaging technology – businesses switching from text-based communications to image-rich methods. With low-cost, easy-to-use technologies readily available — digital cameras, cameraphones, computers, camcorders and the Internet, even nontechies can get on this productive bandwagon and sharpen their competitive edges.
Case studies include a self-employed sales representative, who used a digital camera to “revolutionize her business”; a property management firm that started with one digital camera and wound up with 50; a nationwide retail garden and home furnishings company that uses images from cameraphones and digital cameras; a global communications services firm whose director says, “We use images everywhere”; and an international entertainment enterprise that uses videoconferencing to manage project teams around the world.
      Gerard adds there was a “major sea change” at the time he and Goldstein teamed up on the book. “There was an incredible explosion of cameraphones,” he says. “What has been gratifying is the explosion did not change our core argument. Getting people to develop a reflex to take pictures was a challenge. With the advent of cameraphones, that challenge is eliminated.” “So many people say, ‘Why do I need a cameraphone?'” Goldstein says. “I can give them a zillion reasons. It's cute, but we go way beyond cute. It's the fastest-developing technology.”
       Gerard and Goldstein have collaborated on several projects through the years. “We really understand how each new wave of technology gets adopted, and how it changes people's lives,” Gerard says. “We wanted the book to be an enjoyable read, to be fun and to re-invigorate people.”
— By Sheila Pursglove
e-mail: spursglove@pmai.org

How to get a copy Bob Goldstein and Alexis Gerard, co-authors of “Going Visual,” will sign and sell copies at PMA 2005, Feb. 20-23, in Orlando, Fla. The book will be published by John Wiley & Sons in February and also is available for sale on www.amazon.com .