A client was of mine was told that he didn't jump in alongside his people to get new projects and improvements off the ground. As a result, things weren't getting done on schedule. So I asked him why he seemed to 'manage from a distance'. His response: "My people are long time employees. They're highly educated and have a lot of experience. If I start managing too closely, they'll lose their motivation." I'm thinking,"What motivation? Apparently they aren't getting much done! His approach to the situation isn't at all unusual, is it? We live in a time when managers are getting messages that say they should be consultative and participative. OK. But what happens when the work group doesn't know what to do our how to do it? When there is a change, people want clear, strong direction. We all want to know what, where, when, why, and then, if the situation warrants it, how. Think about it: when we face the unknown, we start to get a little insecure. What do we look for? Direction. Strong leadership. Clarity. Help. It has nothing to do with longevity or advanced degrees. It has to do with diagnosing the willingness ... read more >>
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New strategies require new measurement – or so says Helge Tenno. In this fantastic presentation, Helge suggests that when it comes to the social web, we are using the “destination web” as a basis for measurement – and we are, therefore, using an outdated system to measure the efficacy of emergent networks of value. And I tend to agree. Quoting Adrian Ho: This is because measurements create their own context. For example, I’d argue that it’s precisely because we measure horsepower that horsepower is valued.  However, the flow-on effect of this is profound. It means that we must fundamentally shift the way in which we create strategy and drive its implementation. Gone are the days where strategy can be built and refined over months and sometimes years. Strategy must be what Katie Chatfield suggests:
… you have a core thought, but it should be fluid, evolving and allow you to do several things simultaneously and build on the ideas that work. And this comes back to a process for continuous digital strategy. It means, for marketers, living life at the edge of your brand. But fundamentally, it is understanding how people change behaviour, not why – for it is not the ... read more >>
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 Yesterday's report on the causes of the crash of Air France Flight 447 is incomplete, and the reliability of the investigation's findings will never be without question. But the broad conclusion is probably all-too true: the computer had something to do with it. Well, it's more than likely that many automated systems played roles in the accident, but it seems to have started with the plane's speed sensors yielding incoherent readings. The bad data may have tricked other systems in doing things that weren't in the best interests of staying aloft. Analysis of the wreckage suggests that the pilots tried to land the plane on the water, as if they'd eventually wrested control from the computers, only too late. Automation is a wonderful and frightening aspect of our lives, isn't it? From toasters to power steering, we rely on machines to do things that our ancestors either had to do manually, or couldn't do at all. Computers have made that automation much more pervasive: we expect our hard drives to preserve our family pictures, just as engineers at nuclear power reactors depend on software programs to make sure the fuel rods don't overheat. I'm a firm believer in habit ... read more >>
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 Ever heard of WOM? It stands for “Word of Mouth”.
You might be rolling your eyes and saying “great, another acronym to remember and another marketing concept to understand and incorporate into my business.” But not so fast, this one is on of the most important concepts to come along to marketing in years. Let me explain myself… Explaining Word of Mouth Marketing in Plain English According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association web site, they define it as “Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place. It is the art and science of building active, mutually beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications.” It goes on to explain “Word of mouth is a pre-existing phenomenon that marketers are only now learning how to harness, amplify, and improve. Word of mouth marketing isn’t about creating word of mouth — it’s learning how to make it work within a marketing objective. That said, word of mouth can be encouraged and facilitated. Companies can work hard to make people happier, they can listen to consumers, they can make it easier for them to tell their friends, and they can make certain ... read more >>
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Today I sat in a meeting for an RFP that my company is considering bidding on. There were about 50 other companies there for the Q&A session about the project. Until now, the only RFPs we’ve entered have been for advertising, and since this project is a much different project than anything we’ve done in the past, I don 't know much about the RFP process. Considering the RFP is well over 100 pages, it is really easy to get overwhelmed and just say "I'm not doing this." On top of this, I’ve got two qualities (which most entrepreneurs share) that can affect how well I do in an RFP process – I love control and I hate to lose. One of the reasons I became a business owner was to be in control. Of course, when you try to sell something you lose a fair degree of control, but at least you can have control over the selling process. With an RFP you have virtually no control over the process and, in many cases, the organization issuing the RFP knows exactly who they will hire before the process even starts. Ideally, you want to be speaking with the organization before they start the RFP process. If you’re not, that makes it all the more tempting to give up before you start. Then there’s ... read more >>
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So much of the literature on the subject of referrals focuses on the proper ways to network, ask for referrals, and create incentive programs for referral sources. While some of these more tactical things do indeed produce referrals for the organizations and salespeople that employ them, they are often little more than window dressing when it comes to the big picture. Building a foundation that automatically generates referral momentum is not done through external actions – like some many things in life, you do it from the inside out. Plain and simple the most widely referred business are purely more referable. I’ve studied a lot of businesses that easily generate referrals and they share some common internal tendencies as part of their brand and culture. Make people look good Looking at all business relationships with an eye on making prospects, customers, vendors, mentors, and staff look and feel good is a tremendously attractive internal quality. I read this quote recently and I think it works well here - “To a large degree, our success and happiness in life depends on how much people like themselves when they’re with us.” Joe Caruso
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Are you about to head out for the long 4th of July weekend? Be sure to bring along some extra cash to cover the tourist taxes you'll probably encounter. That's right. It's not being widely broadcast by state and local convention and visitors bureaus, but out-of-towners are the new hot revenue targets. Tourist taxes are the latest way for cash-strapped cities and states to bring in some money. Back in May, I talked about some other desperate innovative options in Money-hungry states, cities tax trolling. Taxing visitors is not a new idea. For years, accommodation taxes have been used to help pay for things such as new convention centers. The thinking is that the folks who will be coming in for the expos at the building should help pay for its construction. Now, however, tourists are being tapped for more general revenue needs... read more >>
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I thought it was one of my better posts ever on Huffington, A Great Debate About Ideas, because it covered something really important — the battle of free vs. not — and tied Chris Anderson, Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, and Ellen Goodman together. But it wasn’t, it turns out, because of a dull deadline. Maybe I should have called it “The Battle of Free vs. Not.” Hmm, no, see, I’m not that good at headlines. Naked idea orgy?
- Delete it
- Start over
- Make it a list of 10
- Make it a list of 5
- Insult somebody famous
- Find a way to add one or more of the words “naked, brutal, violent, sexy, stripped, revealed, angry, face-off” … or something like that.
- Blame it on the readers, the editors, or anybody else you can think of.
- Take a walk, and think about a single sentence that would make you want to read the rest of the post.
- Go browse a blog reader like Google reader set to show just headlines.
- Go back to point 1 and go right down this list again.
True story: when I was young, working with UPI in Mexico City — we’re talking about early 1970s, so seriously, a long time ago — the system we used to report Mexico news to New York Editors showed them the first sentence ... read more >>
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The thought of putting together a board package seems to instill a lot of apprehension in founders/management of startups. That’s a shame, because — if done right — the board package will create hardly any additional work and will be an incredibly useful tool not just for making the board effective but also for managing the company. Here are some suggestions that may help: - Choose a format and order and stick with it. Good to start with a “what’s working and what is not,” together with or followed by KPIs.
- Pick no more than one big topic to go into detail on. This could be the biggest problem you face, the biggest opportunity, etc. Trying to cram too much into one package virtually guarantees it won’t get enough attention.
- Have each of your key management team members contribute a section to the board package on their area. They too should pick a format and try to stick to it.
- The KPIs and team member sections and possibly even the “what is working and what’s not” should be part of your day-to-day management process. The only extra time for board package should be putting these into a single file.
- There are no points for production value. These should be working documents, not ...
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 Twitter is attempting to gain some kind of control of the use of "Twitter" and "Tweet" in a way that reminds me of Google’s attempt back in 2006.
TechCrunch got its hand on an email that was sent out to one Twitter app developer: Hi, Twitter, Inc is uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own. How can we go about having you change your UI to better differentiate your offering from our own? Thanks, That prompted an official response from Twitter’s chief of damage control Biz Stone. The use of "Twitter" appears to be pretty much off limits, but his comments about using "Tweet" have me puzzled: We have applied to trademark Tweet because it is clearly attached to Twitter from a brand perspective but we have no intention of "going after" the wonderful applications and services that use the word in their name when associated with Twitter. In fact, we encourage the use of the word Tweet. However, if we come across a confusing or damaging project, the recourse to act responsibly to protect both users and our brand is important. I’m not a trademark attorney – if you are, correct me if I am wrong – but if you ... read more >>
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