Social Media – Fad or Permanent Change?

Recently, I have had a lot of positive feedback on my BLOG. Thanks for taking the time to take a look.

Several months ago I did a post about social media and the link was pulled from You Tube. Since then, I have had many conversations about social media and its effectiveness. Some of you have commented that you would like to see the story again and you agree that social media is the wave of today and the future.

Others have said – “There’s no way you would get me involved in that”. I will add my 2 cents worth and then let you make up your own mind. Social media is the biggest, fastest change in media preference I have seen in my lifetime. It is extraordinarily powerful today and will be even more so in the future. Like it or not, I believe it is here to stay.

For business, it is today’s form of PR and sales – lead generation and conversion. To be successful, you need to understand the difference between “push” and “pull” marketing. Push is advertising and old-style sales approaches. Pull is more like fishing. Find the right bait (something of value) to draw prospects or your target audience toward you.

Enough from me. Here’s the link again. View it while it is still there and please post your comments. Thanks

Social Media Revolution

Should you be a tiger Mom or parent?

Since my December post, there has been a lot of coverage and discussion about Amy Chua’s article in The Wall Street Journal entitled Why Chinese Mothers are Superior.

In many ways, she reinforces the points I was making. But, do you think she goes too far? Do you think her kids hate being raised in this way? Well, her daughter is speaking out- Why I Love My Strict Chinese Mom.

I personally think we have a lot to learn from Amy Chua’s point-of-view. What do you think?

I also think we can generalize this concept to business. Businesses need to be more disciplined and more focused in order to compete in a marketplace that has quickly become more global than local and hyper competitive.

As always, I encourage you to share your thoughts. Thanks for your time. I hope this is a productive, successful and disciplined year for you and your business.

Why Does the US Trail Other Nations in Student Test Scores?

Last week some alarming news was released. Here is part of the story from Associated Press – “Scores from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment show 15-year-old students in the U.S. performing about average in reading and science, and below average in math. Out of 34 countries, the U.S. ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math.Those scores are all higher than those from 2003 and 2006, but far behind the highest scoring countries, including South Korea, Finland and Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai in China and Canada”.

Why is this? Everyone was quick to blame our education system and, to a certain extent, I agree. I don’t believe our education system is the primary cause of our low scores but just a symptom of a more complex issue. As in business, I feel it is important to find the root cause of a problem. If you just work on solving the symptom, the problem may never go away. In my opinion, the root cause of our world standing for education test scores comes from our family culture. Our family culture is more laissez faire and does not promote discipline,respect, hard work and achievement.

Don’t get me wrong. There are many students who are hard working and disciplined. Unfortunately, they just aren’t the norm. How do we fix this problem? We have to educate parents so they can build a family culture that is primed for achievement. A daunting task to say the least. Here are a few ideas:

1. Develop a test that quantifies the culture of the American family and compares the results with a global norm. Make this test available to parents who want to make a difference in their childrens’ future.
2. Define the gaps between where we are and where we need to be.
3. Develop a plan-of-action to close the gap.
4. Implement
5. Commit to the long term so that the effort can stay the course over many months and years of frustrating progress.

As with many areas of life,there is good news and bad news.The good news is that I have a reliable process for accomplishing the above steps for business. Just as with education scores, culture drives much of the success a business does or doesn’t realize. The bad news is that I am not aware of a research vehicle that can help with quantifying and managing the culture of the American family. If you are aware of one, let me know by responding to this post.

Here’s to a New Year of attacking root cause problems such as culture, both in our businesses as well as our Country and communities.

As always, please share your ideas regarding this article or subscribe to my posts. Thanks and Happy Holidays.

Are Your Priorities Where They Should Be?

Since my last post, I have been talking to quite a few business people. The one common thread from all of those discussions is that everybody wants to grow. The big question is – are you willing to adjust your priorities to achieve that growth? Most people will quickly answer yes but here is what I see:

• Most are consumed by the tactical issues of their business. Making, shipping and getting paid for the widgets they make.
• Developing new products, services or markets gets great lip service but little time allocated to make it happen. At the end of the day, it is one of the items that has not gotten done and gets put off until tomorrow and the next day.
• As a result, the business continues the way it has for years. Slow or no growth or worse yet shrinking.

Here are a few simple steps that could turn this cycle around:

1. Start with small steps – set aside one hour per day to work on your business strategy.
2. Here is the tough part – stay disciplined and spend that hour everyday.
3. During that hour – develop the following -

• Define what your business will look like in several years time – your unique brand, top and bottom line numbers, products, markets, people. Where do you want to go?
• Next itemize the factors that will help and hinder your progress.
• Develop innovative ideas for taking advantage of those factors that will help and eliminating or minimizing those factors that hold you back. Remember the definition of innovation – creativity that works. Make sure you filter your new ideas to identify those that will work.
• Budget based on outcomes – in other words, look at each initiative as an investment. What will you have to invest to achieve the results you desire and arrive at your vision several years down the road?
• Prioritize – you can’t attack everything so choose those initiatives that will most effectively and efficiently move you toward you vision.
• Develop an action plan and timeline to implement the concepts you have budgeted for.
• Assess and manage your business culture (how you get things done) to make sure that it supports your new direction.

After you have completed this, continue to budget your one hour per day. During that hour – monitor progress on your current plan and start developing updates to the plan based on what you are experiencing.

Simple? It can be if you have your priorities straight and are able to discipline yourself and your business to stay on track.

Building Sales – Add “Punch” to Your Message

Recently, I have talked with many business owners who are in desperate need of building sales and are frustrated by their inability to “move the meter”. I’d like to offer you a few quick points that could help.

1. Make sure you have branded your business, product or service. By this I mean – find some degree of uniqueness that you can deliver and communicate to your customers and prospects. Acting and talking like everyone else will make your job incredibly tough.
2. Know how your customers make their decisions. In the 21st Century, this can be a moving target – changing monthly, weekly or even daily. Armed with this information, you can deliver a message that is powerful and on-target.
3. Innovate. Remember my definition of innovation – creativity that works. Steps 1 and 2 are supported by research that takes the guess work out of your effort. Same is true of innovation. Come up with innovative new ways to deliver your brand and satisfy your customer’s decision making process.
4. Be consistent. On average, your customers and prospects are exposed to thousands of messages each and every day. If you throw one message out there and then run and hide thinking you have finished the “marketing” project, you will be sorely disappointed. Keep playing the game of communicating your unique, value-driven message every day and you will win while many others fail.

There you have it. A few steps that can “move your meter” today and into the future. What steps have you found that work? Share your ideas by responding to this post.

Also – celebrate the 4th and a beautiful summer. See you next time.

How Does Culture Drive Profit…or Loss?

The other day I had a business person tell me – “Don’t suggest things for our staff to do. The ideas won’t get executed properly”. Have you made the same type of comments in your business?

If you have, you might want to consider taking steps to manage your culture. If you have 3 people on staff, the cost of the above statement may not be a lot. If you have 1000 people on staff, the cost could be enormous. Personally, I think the cost of culture is huge no matter what size business you have.

I used to say that your brand or competitive uniqueness should drive everything you do. I no longer feel that way. First, you have to establish a culture that can effectively implement your brand and then define and execute your brand strategy. The same with anything else you want to tackle.

There are two drivers of your culture and both make a significant contribution to your overall atmosphere. One is the culture of your leadership team. The other is your staff culture. Both have to be managed to come to an effective outcome.

Recently, I reviewed a case study of a company that made an acquisition of another firm. The acquiring company had a poor culture while the acquired company had an effective culture. Guess what – without proper management, the acquired company will become as poorly functioning as the parent.

So the next time you find yourself complaining about your staff or your culture – remember – culture can drive or sap significant profit. Most importantly, you can manage it to make it better.

Is Obama Innovative?

I just got back from a brief vacation last week so I am paying more attention to the news. Before I give you my answer I have to once again share my definition of innovation – creativity that works. Creativity on its own has an incredibly high chance of failure. Innovation harnesses the power of creativity and channels all of that energy into a direction that will accomplish and exceed defined goals.

So here is my answer – NO. Obama is very creative. He has new vision for dealing with terrorism, health care, energy and many other important areas. His single biggest problem is that his campaign established him as a miracle worker. So anything he accomplishes is far short of a miracle. The focus becomes what he has not accomplished rather than what he has accomplished. In light of this, the resistance to his ideas is on the rise and his ratings continue to fall.

What could he do? First of all – be himself. Resist the temptation to respond to the pundits by being more emotional or forceful or whatever. Second, manage expectations in an effective manner. Someone in his position has to walk the tightrope of not being too up or downbeat. He has to inspire confidence that his initiatives will work while communicating the challenges. Most importantly, touch people by expressing how they can help make a difference in whatever crisis he is tackling.

How does this apply to you and your business? There are two basic sides of every brand. The expectation you build through sales, advertising, social media, PR and so on. And, the delivery of your product or service to your customers. Make sure that the delivery always exceeds the expectation you have established. In this way you build confidence and trust in you, your business, your products or services. Always a good thing don’t you think?

Speaking of think – let me know what is on your mind. Do you agree with my points or not? Do you have another topic you would like to air?

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

Can You Manage Your Business Culture?

The answer is a resounding YES. In my nearly 40 years of working with businesses I have heard thousands of business people complain and worry about their culture. So far, I have not run onto any that take effective steps to manage this all-important issue.

Here are two general stories that I have heard time and time again.

1. “We developed a new brand – it was exciting, unique, powerful…everything you would want in a brand. After two years it fell flat on its face. Our people never owned it.”
2. “We are rapidly expanding. Adding new facilities and new people so we can support our growth. We have lost a lot of momentum because we lost the culture that was the key to our success.”

These two stories didn’t have to happen. Here are a few steps you can take to manage your culture:

• Quantify your current culture at both the associate/staff and leadership levels. You can segment this effort by facility, department or look at the picture as a whole.
• Benchmark this culture against other businesses to define the areas where you need to improve.
• Define action plans that will close the gap between where you are and where you need to be.

This is one effort you can’t do on your own. You will have to get help. Why? To accomplish these steps, you will need a research tool that has been tested and proven valid. The good news is that one is available. Call or email me to find out more.

The most important take away from this post is – don’t let your culture manage you and your future. Take control to make sure you generate lasting and assured success.

How to Put Innovation to Work for You

This morning, I heard a story on NPR stating that the 2000′s were not good years for the private sector. The reporter cited the fact that there were no innovations like the internet to spur the economy and job growth. Here are a few observations and suggestions.

Depending on one significant development or innovation like the internet to create success is dangerous. It sets the bar of success so high that many may feel they could never develop and implement an idea with such impact. Think about the internet. It was not one innovation. It was a new idea that inspired thousands of smaller breakthrough concepts like eccommerce that has allowed us to effectively and safely do business over the web, Flash that has allowed us to easily deploy video over the web, social media and so on.

If every business, large and small, consistently worked to build a culture of innovation, the result would be a groundswell of growth, profit and inspiration for all. How do you accomplish this? Here are some suggestions:

1. Bring your core team together and decide how much growth you would like to achieve. How does this translate to dollars and cents?

2. Look at your history and define what amount of growth and profit you accomplished with past new products or ideas. Monitor your competitors to decide how many new ideas they are launching.

3. What is a new customer worth to you in top and bottom line growth?

4. With this information you can define how many innovations and new customers you have to generate each year to hit your goal.

5. Build a business culture that makes it a priority for everyone to contribute new ideas and prospects to the effort.

6. As I always stress, test your new ideas so you implement only those that will work.

Sound easy? Let’s face it – it’s not. Most businesses get caught up in the day-to-day “fires” and never focus on where they want to go and how to get there. Don’t let that happen to you. Resolve today to make this a year of action that results in the success you want and need.

Next week, I’ll talk about how to build the all-important business culture to support innovation and growth. In the meantime, have a great week. It’s summer!

Gulf Oil Crisis Didn’t Have to Lead To Disaster

If you are in the oil business and that is your primary focus, don’t you think that you would envision a situation where you would have a blow out at one of your off-shore wells? More importantly, don’t you think you would see the need to have a sure-fire solution to the problem? Apparently, BP’s answer to these questions is – NO.

What BP could have done is to develop a plan that states the problem before it occurs and then develops various solutions. Here’s the important part – TEST the solutions before the crisis and then implement only those you know will work. Instead they are playing trial and error with the Gulf Coast. Not the best way to handle the problem. And, it seems our government is no better at the planning or testing game. Everybody is scratching their heads hoping for results with the latest Top Kill idea that once again has not been tested underwater.

This is not unlike the way many businesses operate. Do minimal planning and what planning you do is under the gun of a crisis like a recession or other major event in the market. In a crisis, you don’t have the luxury of testing your ideas before implementation. So, many times your actions don’t solve the problem but make it worse and you and your staff become gun-shy of coming up with or executing new ideas or solutions in the future.

Everybody loves success so whether we’re in business or otherwise, let’s take the steps to assure that we win more often than we fail. Plan – test, develop new ideas or solutions – test. Implement only those ideas where the odds of winning are stacked in our favor. Do this consistently and be amazed at how enthusiastic everyone becomes because success is intoxicating.