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Five Steve Jobs innovations that changed the tech industry forever..

21/11/2011

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Five Steve Jobs innovations that changed the tech industry forever

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_ Apple founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs has passed away after several years of battling against pancreatic cancer.

Although Jobs had been on medical leave since earlier 2011, and resigned from his role mid year, the news has shocked the tech industry.

From introducing the original Mac to the latest iPhone, Jobs has been responsible for some of the biggest changes in the information technology industry – changes that have informed how other companies and entire industries do business.

But although Jobs himself has died, his impact on the tech world will never be forgotten. Here are five of his biggest innovations.

1. The Mac
This is the device that changed how everyday consumers use personal computers.

It can’t be overstated how significant the release of the Mac was in the 1980s. That period in the information technology scene represents the transition from computers being mysterious objects used by universities and rocket scientists into something personable and useful. Jobs, (along with peers including Bill Gates), transformed the perception of computers being cold and aloof to a must-have household item.

An early video of Jobs debuting the Mac to thunderous applause highlights its significance. The first powerful, useful personal computer that would set the trend for years to come.

Jobs didn’t do it alone, but the Mac transformed how we perceive and relate to desktop computers – a consumer relationship that informs business decisions to this day.

2. The iPod
Apple never takes the first step. When Jobs debuted the iPod in 2001, it wasn’t the first MP3 player on the market and it technically wasn’t even the best. But this device – which has sold hundreds of millions of units in the past decade – represents Jobs’ vision.

By releasing the iPod, Jobs proved that consumers don’t necessarily respond to technical specifications. Instead, they prefer stylish, well-designed objects that are as much of a fashion item as they are music player.

Although Jobs’ obsession with design started in the 1990s, the first iPod represents the strengthening of the relationship between technology and industrial design. Until his resignation Jobs had always been obsessed with design – how gadgets look and feel, rather than just what’s inside.

The iPod wasn’t the best MP3 player on the market – but Jobs proved that consumers don’t really care.

3. The iPhone
Before the 2007 release of the first iPhone, smartphones were barely breaking any ground. They weren’t good looking, they couldn’t browse the internet very well, and they certainly couldn’t operate any comprehensive software.

Jobs’ vision for the iPhone changed not only how smartphones operate, but also how they appear – nearly every major smartphone that is released now appears similar to the original version of the iPhone that launched just four years ago.

The genius in Jobs’ vision isn’t the phone itself, but in his recognition that the phone
was slowly becoming more of a personal computer than just a calling device. Even now experts and analysts constantly comment on how the phone is now becoming a personal computing device with more power than some laptops currently on the market.

Foresight is everything in technology – you need to be able to see where the market is heading. The iPhone was in production for years before it was actually launched, with Jobs at the helm.

Vision is everything. Part of Jobs’ skill as an entrepreneur was being able to see where the market would be four, five or 10 years ahead of time. It’s only now that smartphone makers are beginning to offer alternatives.

4. The iTunes/App Stores
Having Macs and iPods is great, but devices are nothing without the content that fills them. Two of Jobs’ most underrated innovations are the iTunes and App Stores, both of which have changed how people interact with digital music and software forever.

Think back to the year 2003. There was basically no easy way to buy music online, so most people pirated it from peer-to-peer networks. Music labels are in disarray, publishers are fretting over what to do next, and consumers see no reason why they should ever have to pay for music again.

The creation of the iTunes Store represents a fundamental shift in how we consume content, and once again, highlights Jobs’ ability to not only see where markets are going, but create entirely new ones when none exist.

Working with music labels to create an entirely new digital marketplace, Jobs created a perfectly simple way for users to buy music – just click on a song. No mess, no fuss, just clicks. And most importantly, it’s cheap. Users were given an easy alternative to support artists and get high quality tracks.

Although the App Store wasn’t necessarily filling a gap in the market like the iTunes Store, it nevertheless represents Jobs’ ability to spot a future opportunity.

Just as Jobs recognised smartphones were becoming more like computers, he also recognised these computers need software to fill them. Giving developers the freedom to create all different sorts of products and features, and then sell them, has not only created new revenue streams for Apple but – put simply – has created an entirely new industry out of thin air.

Jobs had a great eye for design, and loved to create well-built devices. But content is king, and Jobs recognised that offering customers valuable material like music, television shows, films and apps is just as big a part of the entire Apple experience.

5. Pixar
Not a device, not a piece of content, but nevertheless technology that has changed filmmaking forever. In the 1980s Jobs bought a small graphics technology group from George Lucas that would later become Pixar, now renowned and celebrated for its high quality feature films, and for being the first company to produce a film entirely generated with computer graphics.

Jobs’ vision is obvious here. Recognising that technology would not only change consumer electronics forever, but also filmmaking, he set out on an opportunity to have a stake in that change.

Pixar’s legacy is clear, and although Jobs has had less to do with the company as time has gone on, it is nevertheless a key point in his career and represents a significant leap forward for the use of technology in cinema.

How Steve Jobs Built an army of entrepreneurs.

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_ For many Australian consumers, the first thing they think about when they consider the legacy of Apple founder Steve Jobs will be sitting in the palm of their hand – the iPhone, the iPod and the iPad have become such powerful symbols of the genius of Jobs and Apple.

But what has always struck me about Jobs is the fact that he didn’t just create brilliant products. At least two of his greatest innovations could be considered to have created entire industries, or at least allowed struggling sectors to flourish.

While the iPhone and iPad are brilliant products, I have always thought that the real genius of these devices was the way Jobs and Apple created content markets that sat behind them in the form of the iTunes Store and the App Store.

Jobs realised that content is king in the digital world. It was no good building a sleek, beautifully designed device with the power of a small laptop if you couldn’t listen, watch, play and use content on it.

The way the iTunes and App Stores were set up – such that Apple gained the right to approve what was sold in them and took a 30% cut of any items sold– guaranteed the company’s devices would continue producing revenue for Apple long after that initial sale. This closed ecosystem is hated by many users, but it’s hard to deny it’s very, very smart.

But while the Apple markets may have been closed in many ways, they did open up a range of entrepreneurial possibilities for businesses that saw the opportunity to sell products to a rapidly-growing marketplace.

No more was this true than in the App Store, where hundreds of thousands of software developers – particularly those developing games – seized the chance. The bar, at least initially, was relatively low.

Armed with a developer’s kit and time, games could be created over a weekend and generating revenue the next week.

As well as the army of start-up app developers, the App Store allowed some genuinely huge businesses to be built, even here in Australia.

Rob Murray, founder of games studio Firemint, enjoyed huge success with his games, most notably Real Racing. After a few years he was able to merge with another Australian games studio (Infinite Interactive) and in July he sold his business to US giant Electronic Arts for an estimated $40 million.

A few weeks ago, Murray appeared on the BRW Young Rich list with a fortune of $24 million. Fellow app developer Andrew Lacy, who sold his development company Tapulous to Walt Disney, was valued at $20 million.

Would this have been possible had Steve Jobs not created an ingenious platform for entrepreneurship? I am not sure.

While the iPhone and the iPad will always carry Steve Jobs’ DNA, the pace of change at a company such as Apple means that updated models will arrive very quickly. Eventually, they may in fact become some other designer or CEO’s products.

But the impact of the App Store and iTunes Store will live on for much longer. Hundreds of thousands of developers have been given the chance to launch their own little businesses on this platform.

Some have made huge businesses out of this opportunity. The vast majority haven’t. But the creation of this market has allowed so many people to get a taste of entrepreneurship – who knows what great companies this could create in the future.

That’s a pretty amazing legacy to leave behind.

Seven Innovation lessons SMEs can learn from Steve Jobs

_ Steve Jobs will be remembered for creating some beautiful products, but no doubt he will also be revered as one of the greatest innovators of the past three decades.

The secret to Jobs’ success lies not only in his keen eye for design and consumer electronics, but for being able to create a vision, innovate new products within that vision, and then do it again, and again.

If nothing else, Apple under Jobs’ leadership was focused on innovation, by staying ahead of the pack and being focused on creating new ideas that no other company was working on. It’s a legacy more entrepreneurs need to keep in mind.

Last month SmartCompany hosted a webinar with Gallo Communications founder Carmine Gallo, author of the book The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs.

Gallo’s webinar – which can be viewed here – took the several hundred attendees through some of the biggest innovations they should learn from Steve Jobs’ success.

From getting more creative, to being in control of your company’s vision, here’s what SME should learn from Jobs’ impressive track record of innovation:

Do what you love

Last year when speaking with Bill Gates at an All Things Digital conference, Jobs responded to a question about how entrepreneurs can hope to have the same success he has with Apple. His response was simple – you need to have a passion for what you do, “otherwise any rational person would give up”.

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition,” he said in his famous commencement speech in 2005. “They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

Jobs was successful because he cared about his products. He was so hands-on that he finalised key details, including the exact weight of products, to the type of wood that was to be used in Apple’s retail stores.

Only someone who cared about these products would go to such a high level of detail. But it is exactly this tendency to place such a high priority on seemingly unimportant bits and pieces that makes Jobs’ dedication to innovation a lesson all entrepreneurs must take to heart.

Put a dent in the universe

There is a reason why the iPhone continues to sell millions of products while other smartphones fail to reach that same level of success – Apple’s focus on creating something new.

Part of Jobs’ skill was being able to see where a market would be two or three years’ ahead of time, and then creating products that suit the vision of the future. Jobs is famous for saying Apple would rather gamble on its own vision rather than make “me-too” products, and SMEs need to follow the same example.

Creating something new is always better than being a copycat. If you have a good, different idea, then have the courage to follow it through. Your success will be greater than if you had created a slightly better version of something that already exists.
Get creative

Plenty of entrepreneurs are intelligent thinkers, but not many are creative. You need to have the ability to perceive information and then use it to create something totally different.

Jobs once said that part of the reason the Mac was successful was that the “people working on it were musicians, and poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians, who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world”.

Successful innovators need to be creative and foster creativity within their own businesses. Don’t restrict your staff, or yourself, from bringing up new ideas – some may even work.

Sell dreams, not products

One of the biggest fundamental mistakes marketers make is that they sell the actual product, without the reasons someone should buy it.

Consider the tablet market. Plenty of Apple’s competitors have tried to sell alternatives to the iPad, including the Motorola Xoom, and the Galaxy Tab. They haven’t even come close to making a dent in Apple’s success, and here’s why: they sell a product, rather than the benefits.

Motorola, Samsung and Research In Motion praise their devices’ various bells and whistles, such as USB connectivity, a high definition screen, the ability to watch any video file you want, and so on. But none of these companies actually show you what you can do with it.

Consider Apple’s own marketing. Its advertisements show families connecting via FaceTime, children learning to write, and board members reading reports on the fly, backed by the comforting, simple sounds of an acoustic guitar or piano. The message is simple – the iPad will help you be creative, work and connect with your family, and it’s easier than what you’re doing now.

Successful innovators identify problems, tell their customers how they can fix it, and then introduce a product. Sell the idea of your product and what it can do, not just the product itself.

Say no to 1,000 things

Jobs once said that having focus is the ability to say “no”. He made that comment in 1997, less than a year after he returned to the company to help straighten things out. He lamented that Apple was heading in too many directions without much focus.

Innovators need to say no. They need to learn when a product isn’t good enough, and when you can do better. Just as an editor eliminates the worst part of a news story, an innovator’s job is to cut the worst parts of a product, and then work on the promising parts.

Create insanely great experiences

Here’s a secret – Apple’s products aren’t the most technically capable. Most smartphones on the market can do more than the iPhone, and a Windows machine will let you do much, much more than a Mac running OS X. But Apple still outsells them all.

“It just works.”

Most people want simplicity and power. They want to be able to do all sorts of things with their computers, but don’t want the hassle of figuring out how to do it. Apple products are powerful, yet simple. Their user interfaces are so easy to use that children can operate them.

Innovators must not only create good products, but recognise the experience of using them is just as important. Your product might be powerful, but if it doesn’t “just work”, then you’ve wasted your time.

Be in control of your message

One of Apple’s biggest successes this past decade has been its ability to control a cohesive message and brand. Jobs has steered the company away from a complicated, unattractive mess, to a firm that is inherently tied with attractive, simplistic design. Less is more.

And this branding reaches throughout the entire company. Consider the slides used at all of Apple’s presentations – they’re clean. Free of complicated graphs, with rarely more than one graphic appearing on the screen at a time, they deliver the same message as Apple’s products.

Controlling your company’s message is critical to good innovation. Building a brand helps cement your company in the minds of your customers, and that message needs to permeate throughout the entire business and its values.

Part of being able to innovate is also being able to create a cohesive message. Too many businesses fail because they don’t have a singular vision. Build one, and then ensure it stays intact.

The Real genius of Steve Jobs

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_ When Steve Jobs launched the iPad 2 in March 2011, I felt the biggest story out of the event – other than the appearance by the ailing Jobs himself – was a little revelation about the size of Apple’s customer base.

Jobs revealed that Apple now has 200 million accounts with credit card numbers on its books, linked to its various online stores selling music, video, books and, of course, applications.

“Amazon doesn’t publish their numbers. But it’s very likely that this is the most accounts with cards anywhere on the internet,” Jobs said at the presentation.

As I have argued in the past, the real genius of Apple’s product releases over the last decade has been the way it has rolled out marketplaces to accompany its products.

Yes, the iPod was cool, but it worked at its best when you put all your music into your iTunes account and started buying new albums and songs from the iTunes store.

Yes, the iPhone was great, but it worked at its best when you loaded your phone with applications from the App Store.

Yes, the iPad was great, but it was at its best when combined with the App Store and the new iBooks store.

The clever part is that by developing these markets, Apple was able to get multiple revenue streams. It sells its hardware once, but by creating these marketplaces and taking a cut of anything sold by publishing companies, music companies and app developers, it ensured customers would keep the money pouring in.

The marketplaces also work as a brilliant barrier to competition. Even if you are tempted by a rival company’s smartphone or tablet, transferring your music, contacts and other content from your Apple device isn’t easy. And in the case of apps, if you switch to another phone brand, you’ve just taken a big loss.

Those are the reasons why Apple has been able to build a database of 200 million credit cards.

The question I have is this: What could they do with that database in the future?

Clearly, Apple will expand into selling other forms of content – newspaper subscriptions (as seen with Rupert Murdoch’s new publication The Daily) and other forms of micropayments would seem to be obvious targets.

But let’s think bigger. The new iPhone 5 is rumoured to include near field communications technology, which can allow for the phone to be used a payment device – a lot like the cashless “swipe and go” technology Visa is rolling out with some retailers.

Think about it. Before you head out for a day of shopping in the city, you log onto iTunes, transfer cash from your credit card to your Apple account and then head off.

When you go to buy something in a retail store, you simply wave your phone at a store’s terminal/chip reader and the money is transferred out of your Apple Account to the store’s banks account.

That might be a long way away. Apple might not want to go down that path at all. But its 200 million-strong customer database is just ripe for some serious monetising.

Think like Steve: Making your business like apple

_ There is much that can be learnt from the legacy of Steve Jobs.

Like Henry Ford, Jobs was someone who had a profound effect not only on his own company and industry, but everyone else’s.

He took Apple from the brink of being dismantled in 1997, to America’s second-most valuable company.

How did he do it? Of course, the iPod, iPhone, iPad and iTunes have all played a role, but what has really driven Apple’s success isn’t any individual product, but its ethos. In Apple’s case, that’s a brand of thinking that emphasises perfection, innovation and detail.

Here are a few thoughts on what can be learnt from Apple’s success that you might apply in your own business:

Make it better

MP3 players and smartphones were around before the iPod and the iPhone. Yet the iPod was an MP3 player so good it changed the face of the music industry, and, while the iPhone didn’t do much that was new, everything it did, it did better.

Think about what’s wrong with the products in your industry – why aren’t they as good as they could be? Apple have been adept at going back to the drawing board and asking, “How should this product work?”

Build it how you saw it

Steve Jobs made Apple a design-driven company, with creative people at the top and engineers underneath who push the envelope to execute their ideas.

The process of moving from the design table to the production line is often one of compromise. Make as few concessions as possible when translating your ideas into products.

Create a product ecosystem

Whether it’s an iPad or a movie download, Apple’s products connect seamlessly.

Think about the opportunities for your business to develop products that cater to customers’ needs while effortlessly connecting to each other.

Focus on profitability

Despite the fact that Netbook computers were becoming enormously popular, Apple refused to enter a space where profit margins were low. Instead, they created the MacBook Air – a premium offering much more in keeping with Apple’s designs.

Think carefully about what spaces to be in, and how each fits with your overall vision.

Go global

“Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China”. Apple has taken full advantage of China’s ability to manufacture goods for less. They’ve also sought to fully control the delivery of their products (through Apple stores) only where it’s most profitable, letting resellers do the work elsewhere.

Be the last word

Jobs was famous for his interest in ideas and his power to critique, and at Apple, his final word is gospel. It’s this fact that – from phones, to computers to content – delivers Apple its vision and direction.
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Is the Reward for Hard Work in Your Organization More Hard Work?

18/11/2011

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_There's a lot written about the traits of strong leaders, and yet there are some common traits among our organizations' worst managers, which are also worth noting, and which are particularly relevant at the present moment.

Poor managers shift the bulk of the work to their highest performers while simultaneously doing little or nothing to develop or correct the performance of low performers.  This approach can get the job done in the short run.  In the long term it burns out your stars, rewards your low performers, and sends a demotivating message to the general population: there are no consequences for poor performance, and the reward for hard work is more hard work.

This dynamic was not as toxic when the economy was booming, and there were more financial rewards for the highest performers.

The economic downturn has left organizations leaner and flatter, with fewer financial rewards and fewer promotions to recognize our increasingly taxed star performers.  Top talent is no longer waiting for the employment market to improve to take action.

According to the AP, in April 2010 the number of employees voluntarily leaving their companies outnumbered those who were fired or laid off.  This for the first time since the beginning of the recession. 

There is going to be a mass exodus of the top performers as the economy starts to turn around,

Now more than ever, it is critical that your managers are managing: managing low performers--developing their skillsets, correcting poor performance and ongoing feedback, while supporting work-life balance for top talent, and boosting initiative among the entire staff.

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Social media marketing schedule.

12/11/2011

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_ Why have you joined the social media world?

Some social networkers are there for purely egotistical reasons. They don't want to engage in the conversation. They simply collect followers and friends in order to have bragging rights every time they collect another thousand. But connecting, following or befriending just anyone dilutes your influence and standing among those in your audience.

Others join because they feel they must. They spend a few days setting up their profiles and then abandon them when other tasks call.

The real motivation for any business social networker is connection: You should want to connect with like-minded people who can help your business and whose businesses you can assist. You want to add to the conversation, and not come across as desperate, spammy or a waste of time. If you develop a bad reputation in these communities, it will be hard to shake off.

But making such strong, real connections takes time, effort and thoughtfulness. If you never return to your profiles, you and your business will be forgotten (best case) or seen as unconnected, clueless or lazy (worst case). If you post too much, people might consider you a pest and stop following you.

Some social networkers are the worst of both worlds: They don’t post to their blog or text their friends or colleagues for weeks at a time. They don’t reply to messages sent to them, and the company site looks like it has gone out of business. Then, without any warning, they’re back . . . alive . . . and conversing. Was the organization’s social networking person out of the country? Did they suffer a grave illness? Nope. They were just distracted, disorganized, sidetracked or overworked. There’s no method to the company’s madness in being a social networking participant. Not committed. No strategy. Its influence will never be felt. The competition will soon fill the void.

Whether your company is a one-person business or a large organization, your commitment to social networking should be consistent, compelling and informative. The social networking community is a fragile, collaborative ecosystem. Make the commitment. People will follow a trail of dependable, exciting, instructive news. But once the trail goes cold, they’re gone and likely never to return.

Being a social media maniac isn’t the right persona either. You know who we’re talking about. These people can answer emails on their laptops with one hand while texting friends or colleagues on their iPhones with the other. They can’t be looked in the eye when talking because their heads are always looking down at some screen. This behavior may be seen as good technology gone bad.

The key is to strike a balance somewhere in the middle. Avoid becoming a social media ignorer or a social media maniac. Develop a social networking schedule that does not run your life but does keep you accountable. The goal should be consistency. Choose a schedule and stay the course for at least six months. As you find success, you can slowly grow your social networking persona.

The sample social networking agenda below can be used as a springboard for designing one that suits your schedule and the community channels you’ve joined.

Twice Daily in the Morning and Afternoon

  • Check Twitter via a program like HootSuite. Respond when necessary. Follow the @replies that make sense.
  • Check Linkedin. Reply to emails and comments when appropriate.
  • Scan Twitter followers for relevant conversations to join.
  • Check your business's Facebook Page for questions and respond when necessary.
  • Scan Google Alerts for brand and company mentions. Respond as appropriate.
Weekly or on Weekends
  • Build Twitter Lists to better organize ongoing discussions and special interest groups. Set up saved searches in Hootsuite to find out if people are talking about you or your company.
  • Scan LinkedIn questions from network connections and respond when appropriate.
  • Catch up on LinkedIn discussions. Add to discussion when appropriate.
  • Send LinkedIn invitations to connect with clients when beginning a new assignment.
  • Ask for LinkedIn recommendation after successfully completing a project or engagement.
  • Add new content to Facebook like videos or photos.
  • Think of ways to repurpose this content and energy to reach a larger audience with the social networking gospel.
  • Keep an eye open for new social networking venues, tools, and functionality that will make the social networking experience more enjoyable and easier to traverse.
  • Identify new social networking influencers and build relationships where appropriate.
Through the Week
  • Mondays: Schedule tweets through HootSuite to go out three times per day at regular intervals.
  • Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: Join one hot trend conversation on Twitter, if appropriate, and add new content to Facebook (new items you are selling, photos, discounts and other promotions).
  • Tuesdays and Thursdays: Respond to Blog comments.
  • Fridays: Check traffic at your blog or website.
Obviously, your daily social networking to-do list will be much different, given your available time and commitments. Just be sure to make the schedule livable. If it’s not working, change it. Keep making modifications until it works for you. 

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Learnings from Drucker - answering these questions before wielding the axe..

12/11/2011

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_ If you’ve got employees who are “seemingly always part of problems instead of solutions,” get rid of ’em—and fast. That’s the word, anyway, from G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón of Maddock Douglas, a firm that consults with companies on innovation.

“You don’t want the victims, nonbelievers, or know-it-alls,” the author wrote in a recent piece for Bloomberg Businessweek titled “Three Types of People to Fire Immediately.” “It is up to you to make sure they take their anti-innovative outlooks elsewhere.”

If Peter Drucker were looking to hand anybody the pink slip, however, my guess is that he’d pick Maddock and Vitón.

Drucker certainly believed in setting high standards, but he often took a dim view of terminations as a way of bringing this about. That’s because all sorts of managerial mistakes can take potentially good workers and turn them into bad ones. So it’s worth answering these questions before wielding the axe:

1.     Are your employees buried by trivial meetings and paperwork? “This is not job enrichment,” Drucker warned in Managing For the Future. “It is job impoverishment. It destroys productivity. It saps motivation and morale.”

2.     Do your employees feel they can go straight to the top, if need be? “Every employee at IBM had the right to go directly to the company’s chief executive officer, that is, to Thomas J. Watson, to complain, to suggest improvements, and to be heard,” Drucker pointed out in The Frontiers of Management.

3.     Do your employees understand how what they do fits into the bigger picture? Many fighter-plane factories during World War II had high turnover and bad morale. Then, at one factory, the boss arranged to have a completed plane brought to the plant. “To his amazement, this visit created the most intense excitement among the workers and resulted in an almost unbelievable increase in morale and productive efficiency,” Drucker recalled in Concept of the Corporation.

4.      Do your ambitious employees with leadership abilities get a chance to lead? “Without opportunities for leadership in the work community the ability, energies, and ambitions within the work force may be directed against management and work community,” Drucker wrote in Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. “They will be negative, destructive, demagogic.”

5.      Have you made an honest effort to reassign someone who isn’t panning out into a new role that better plays to his or her strengths? “People who fail to perform must be removed from their jobs,” Drucker wrote in The Practice of Management. “Whether the man should stay in the company’s employ, however, is a different matter. While the policy governing the first decision should be strict, the policy governing the second should be lenient. . . . A real job—not ‘made work‘—consonant with the person’s capacities can almost always be found with effort and imagination.”

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6 Personal Traits Will Accelerate Your Influence at Work

11/11/2011

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_ “They just don’t understand me!”   This is one of the most popular excuses from employees that are having trouble creating impact and influence in the workplace.    In fact, most employees who say that are just tired of a workplace culture that does not encourage them to share their individuality.

Today’s employee wants to engage in a more meaningful and purposeful way.  They want to throw titles and corporate speak out the door.  They want a more genuine environment where people can share their concerns about the business, their personal struggles and ways to collectively solve problems.   Workplace silos, the politics of leadership and the fight for recognition make it difficult for these employees to be productive.

We all experience similar challenges in the workplace, just in different forms. Everyone is hurting, but most are scared to share it because they believe this will disrupt any momentum they have.     The trick is to connect with your colleagues in ways that promote transparency and unity.  People must learn how to feel comfortable about sharing more about themselves; their personal selves.   I have learned that when people know your personal backstory they approach you more respectfully.   Your colleagues become more aware of what really matters to you and will find ways to integrate your heart into your work.     I have also learned that when this approach doesn’t work, you won’t fit into that culture.

Everyone has a backstory. Unfortunately, most people feel that if they disclose it, it will weaken them.     In fact, the reverse happens because all our stories overlap – and those parts that we share connect us.  Why do you think small groups and online communities have become so popular?  In today’s world, people want to connect with others in ways that matter equally to their hearts, and their heads.

Here are (6) personal traits that will help you accelerate your influence at work:

1. Your Goals and Aspirations:

Let others know about what you strive to become, where you are headed and / or what path you desire to take in your career.    It’s ok to be open about what you long for.   Discussions about goal setting are always enlightening and create great dialogue.   They connect people in profound ways that bring them closer together – and that help people work more strategically with one another.

Perhaps you are in middle management and your goal is to lead a business division in your organization.  Not only can the right succession plan be put into place, but maybe you can be assigned as the next employee resource group (ERG) leader that will offer you the experiences and exposure that will be required to reach your ultimate goal.

2. Your Heritage:

Don’t ever assume that others know your cultural background based on your name alone.  In fact, even if they can figure it out, they may not understand the nuances of your culture.    Your heritage defines your customs, attitude and outlook.  It represents your roots and most likely how you were raised.   It helps others understand how you are wired as a leader, decision maker and individual.

For example, if you are from South Korea and are actively involved in your community, you are well versed in the desires and market trends of your culture.    Based on how you share this trait with others, there can be an opportunity to work with as an advisor to your organization’s multicultural marketing department.

3. Your Passion:

What excites you most?   Share it with others.  This cultivates an interesting dialogue because it touches the core of what fuelsyou and gets you going each day.   Your passion defines the magnitude of the impact you seek to create.   While you may surprise some people, it may get you closer to the next opportunity in your organization.    Believe me, I always find ways to align the passion of my employees with their responsibilities.

Coaches can be great mentors. I remember that one of my managers was passionate about being a high school baseball coach.  After he invited me to a few games I realized that he would be a valuable asset to our organization’s mentoring program.

4.  Your Adversities / Struggles:

This one is delicate, but necessary.   We have all faced hurdles in life and it amazes me just how much we all have in common when adversities are shared.   How you can contribute to your organization by utilizing the lessons learned from your experiences with adversity can make a big difference.

Like many of us who have aging parents, caring for elderly is challenging.    But over time you acquire patience and an aptitude and spirit of wanting to help others.   This experience can help you serve as small group leader to others that share the same struggle in your organization; but also gives you the opportunity to support your company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

5.  Your Family/ Childhood:

Talking about your parents and/or siblings will give your colleagues a broader understanding of who you are and what you represent as an individual.  Your family defines your fabric and materials that influenced your upbringing.

That is why your childhood can help others learn a lot about your perspectives.   For example, I grew up in a small town called Azusa, in Southern California.   Because my father worked at the Miller Brewing Company just down the street he would come home for lunch every day and I was able to spend a lot of time with my Dad, especially during the summer, where he would share stories about the impact of his immigrant past and his experiences in Cuba before Castro.

Perhaps now you know why I write about the immigrant perspective.

6. Your Hobbies

What you do outside of work fuels your heart and soul.  Whether it’s your desire to play an instrument or give back to your local community.   Share what drives you in ways that others don’t know about.  I remember I had a boss that played the guitar.   I also knew of (3) others in my work that played instruments and they formed a band that performed for the organization.

These (6) personal stories represent the real you: why you think, act and innovate the way that you do.  Open your mind to seeing beyond the obvious ways to create influence in your work.  By sharing your personal stories, the impact that you can have on those around you will be greatly magnified.

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Coca Cola Content 2020

9/11/2011

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How Coca Cola are attacking social media. very interesting. All Businesses should watch this and take learning from this social media giant. The talk about the iPhone, The VW golf , Nike and other great brands.

Moving from one way story telling to multiple channel conversation and engagement through story telling.

A fantastic way to deliver a business initiative though social media and video.
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6 Ways to Use Social Media for Business.

9/11/2011

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In just a short time, social media has become a ubiquitous mainstay in the lives of consumers. Popular platforms have rapidly grown to hundreds of millions of users, and the adoption of social media platforms has no end in sight.

This social media “revolution” has changed the traditional, corporate monologue into a two-way dialogue with customers and prospects.

Social media:
  • Allows companies and brands to learn more about target audiences easier and more affordably

  • Levels the playing field for brands of every size and industry

  • Provides cost-effective communications in comparison to traditional channels

  • Emphasizes great content, empowering companies to leverage helpful assets to attract fans, followers and friends

  • Harnesses the importance and relevancy of “now” – real-time, immediate communications

  • Delivers a greater reach, with a multiplicative effect of pass along, as compared to other marketing communications channels

    What this means for businesses is the time to embrace social media channels to reach customers and prospects is now. And while social media marketing and communications is no small task to undertake, there are six objectives every company should consider to have at the core of their social activity. These include:

    1. Building Brand Awareness
    2. Making Customer Service Personal with Social Media 3. Adding Events to Social Media Programs
    4. Adding Social Media to Product Introductions
    5. Embracing Social Media to Build Your Sales Pipeline 6. Activating Your Community to Take Action

    This guide walks through each of the “Big Six” objectives and provides a tactical overview of the business case, team considerations and actual content examples and templates to use for your social media initiatives.

    In other words, the following pages can be used as a cheat sheet on how to get started today using proven tactics and best practices, with sample content and examples to help jump-start your social media success.
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Using social media to build brand awareness is the number one goal of most social media marketers. Hundreds of millions of people are talking, learning and engaging through social media channels. If you don’t have a presence in social media, your company is missing what’s become a fundamental communication channel in the marketing mix.

It’s arguable that there isn’t a single company or organization that doesn’t have brand awareness as one of its core organizational goals. Social media has quickly become one the best ways to reach large audiences who are hungry for information and conversation. For professional communicators, having social media as a tool in the arsenal for building brand awareness is no longer a nice to have. It’s a must have.

Top four arguments for using social media..

1. reach
Building branding awareness is centered around reaching more people. One of the strengths of social media is wide reach, and employing the use of these channels can help extend your brand’s presence tremendously.

2. traffic
Social media drives traffic to other corporate channels.

3. New audiences
As media becomes more fragmented, social media helps reach new and growing audiences, as well as compliments other efforts to interact with these people.

4. Expertise
Illustrate your domain expertise by allowing staff and/or corporate accounts to share, educate and provide relevant information to your prospects and clients. You will be building a public profile filled with helpful information that highlights the expertise you hold in your respective industry.

Content..

1. Details about the company, including Services and offerings..
People follow brands to learn more about them. Don’t be afraid to talk about your culture, employees, what you offer, services you provide or general conversations about who you are as a company.
  • Tweet pictures or details around a fun company function.
  • Post on Facebook sharing the latest information and updates about your products or enhancements in services.
  • Post a YouTube video showcasing clients talking about how they use your product.
  • Upload a presentation to SlideShare highlighting your industry, services, and importance of your area of expertise.
2. Thought leadership content..
Beyond corporate collateral, your business is probably publishing content that illustrates your domain expertise. This is commonly referred to as thought leadership and is powerful in raising awareness. If your focus is B2B, this might be a white paper or best practices guide. If you are consumer focused, this might be tips or creative ideas on how to use different products. Either way, it’s content that provides value, while elevating your placement as a leader in your space.
  • Share a link on Facebook of the latest whitepaper or helpful article published by your organization.
  • Create a series of Tweets sharing interesting product facts tied to interests that resonate with your target audience.
  • Upload pictures to Flickr, tagged with your company and keywords, showing your clients benefitting from your services in different ways.
  • Share a YouTube video of employees giving advice on how to use your product or service in creative ways.
3. Company News..
Every company has interesting activities happening regularly. Maybe you hired a new leader who brings an exciting or unique background. Or perhaps you have a new corporate initiative worthy of sharing publicly. All of these news updates help highlight what type of company you are and promote the growth of your network by building interest in your corporate activities.

  • Interview new team leaders about what they are excited about and include as a post on corporate blog – written or videoed.
  • Post a Flickr image of a corporate social initiative promotion poster to share what your company is doing to give back to the community.
  • Post pictures on Facebook of your office and teams that work there. 
  • Post public facing presentations for product and service announcement details on SlideShare.
4. Questions for Feedback..
Building brand awareness isn’t just about sharing your own content. It’s also based on asking for content from others. Asking for input gets more people engaged with your brand and sharing ideas across their networks. As a bonus, input can be used to learn about your network and potentially used for aspects of future marketing.

  • Tweet a question of the week about users’ favorite aspect of the latest product, service or communications campaign focus area.
  • Introduce a Facebook poll asking what areas of your product, new features, or services your community cares about the most.
  • Always pose a question at the end of blog posts asking if readers have any other ideas or helpful feedback.
  • Ask what type(s) of industry-related content and resources your community finds most useful to help inform what the best content is for your brand.
5. Community Content..
Many people keep up with social media accounts to learn about industry news. Employees of companies are followed because they talk about their industry – not just the product they sell. Marketing agencies are followed because they share content from leaders in their space – not just their services. And millions of people follow companies because they share noteworthy news about their industry, the people in it and third party resources – not just for discounts or product news.

  • Write a blog post sharing helpful resources from industry leaders.
  • Share links to industry events in which your network may be interested in attending.
  • Post links to and reflections about thought leadership content from market influencers. 
6. Research..
Despite the size or industry of your company, new research or community findings are always interesting. If you work in a B2B company, this may be a study on industry business trends. Companies offering tangible products may conduct research on user perceptions or quality of ingredients. This research elevates the expertise of companies. It also can build awareness of product or offering strengths and unique positioning in your industry.

  • Post industry infographics and charts on Flickr with relevant tags.
  • Interview the person(s) leading research projects on video to post to YouTube for additional insights.
  • Share your research with well-known bloggers and invite them to share insights with their readers.
  • Break up interesting findings into a multi- part series of blog posts to grow readership over time.
7. Customer Success Stories..
There’s no better way to grow brand awareness than to have customers share their success stories. Sometimes these are formal case studies based on lengthy results. Other times, they are prompted or spontaneous content shared by your community. Regardless, sharing customer success allows results and personal feedback of customers to speak on behalf of your company.

  • Invite customers to write guest blog posts to discuss interesting product experiences and/or success.
  • Tweet links to success stories, tagging customers and partners discussed to make them aware they can share the content, too.
  • Ask for user submitted videos of anecdotes about your product or service. Interesting stories and testimonials help break through the clutter and get attention.

Measurement..

1. Activity to engagement ratio

Comparing activities published by your organization to engagement (or interactions) from your audience will help determine the value of your content. In social media, value is displayed by engagement.

2. Potential impressions

Mere exposure to your content is important when the goal is to build familiarity with your brand. Content shared by your organization will reach your network and potentially further - to the connections of individuals within your network. The pass along effect of social media is especially powerful because information is being delivered via trusted sources.

3. Confirmed impressions

Similar to the change in network, confirmed impressions represent time vested in your brand via views of your content, social media sites or homepage. It is important to remember confirmed impressions are not necessarily in network because not everyone will publicly display their commitment to your brand.

4. Change in current Network

When someone opts into your social network as a fan, friend or follower, a relationship is established with that user. A positive change in network will confirm users’ exposure and commitment to your brand.

5. Comments & replies

Comments and replies are great resources for qualitative
data. You will gain insight to your target market’s interests, concerns and sentiment, and you will gain validation that your network is paying attention to the content and messages you share.

6. Mentions by audience

Keeping track of independent mentions by your audience will help to identify how often your brand is being discussed publicly and if you have any brand advocates. You will know when your initiative has gone beyond the pushing of a message by your brand and has become something people are spreading awareness of in their personal networks.

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What Twitter Users Think About the Brands They Follow

9/11/2011

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Followers are a loyal base of current customers

eMarketer estimates there will be nearly 21 million Twitter users in the US by the end of this year, and a sizeable minority of those will use the service at least in part to follow brands.

Research on Twitter users from Constant Contact and Chadwick Martin Bailey put the share following brands at 21% of the total. That falls closely in line with April 2011 research from Compete, which found 19% of Twitter users found brands to follow on the service.

In the Constant Contact/CMB study, most brand followers kept up with just a few favored companies on Twitter. Their top reason for becoming a brand follower, cited by 64% who did so, was that they were already a customer of the company—far ahead of the 48% who did so just to get discounts and deals.

While Twitter followers may already be loyal customers, that doesn’t mean following has no effect on them. Overall, 50% said that after following a company’s tweets they were more likely to purchase from the firm, and among men the share was 55%. An even stronger majority said they would be more likely to recommend the brand to others, at least in the case of a few companies they followed.

If brands what them to do so, they will have to give their followers what they want. Aside from promotions and discounts, that means information—61% follow brands so they can be the “first to know” what’s hot—and exclusive content (36%), along with content they can share with others and pass along via retweets (28%).

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Leaders walk forward alone

9/11/2011

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Leaders don't convince people to follow them. Leaders walk forward alone and those who want to go down their path decide to follow.
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Reputation vs character!

9/11/2011

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Your reputation is a point in time snap shot of how a selected group of people perceive you. Your character on the other hand is what will go to the grave with you... So be more concerned with your character than reputation for it lasts forever. ~ Richard Austin
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Time Management

8/11/2011

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Time Management
"Time is the scarcest resource of managers. If it is not managed, nothing else can be managed" ~ Peter Drucker

The reality of today’s world is that we have to do more, better, faster, and with less. Time, quality, and cost are in constant tension, especially during hard economic times and the speed in which the world is changing. Often times, one or two of these factors takes priority and plays a prominent role in our planning, setting priorities, decision-making, and other time management issues.

Time escapes minute by minute and hour by hour. Nothing you do will stop or rewind a clock or calendar. You all have the same amount of time, 1,440 minutes per day. There are no short-cuts to managing yourself more effectively. The key is to invest your time in the most productive way, not only for the sake of your organization but for your own peace of mind. Here are some quick tips to help you prioritize tasks so that you can work more efficiently.

  1. Record All Activities: Write down all your multiple demands, competing priorities, tasks, and activities for the day or week

  2. Determine Primary Goals: List your primary goals for the day or the week

  3. Consider 80/20 Rule: Determine which 20% of activities will yield 80% the results, Bringing you nearer to your goals

  4. Evaluate Important vs. Urgent: Decide which of these activities are the most important versus the most urgent. At this stage, take into account how certain items affect others and the consequences for not accomplishing certain tasks (for example, someone might need something from you in order to do their job)

  5.  Rank: Use a ranking system to begin planning. For example:
    • “A” tasks have high priority and must be completed immediately
    • “B” tasks are moderately important but can be done after the “A” tasks
    • “C” tasks are of low-level importance and can be tackled in our spare time

  6. Create a Schedule: Indicate deadlines for each task and estimate the time involved
    to complete the task. Create a schedule, keeping in mind any tasks that may be linked together to increase productivity. For example, can you couple something of lesser priority with something of greater importance?

  7. Revisit Goals and Adjust: Review your goal(s) and the rewards of doing the task on time, and make any necessary adjustments.

  8. Purge: Get rid of items on your list that remain at the bottom and will realistically not get
Resource. Dale Carnegie Training.

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When leaders say "Sorry"

8/11/2011

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We all have breakdowns in our interactions with others. In those interactions where you are the “perpetrator,” how you recover will strengthen or weaken the relationship. And in business, relationships are essential to doing good work. It’s vital for leaders to contribute to meaningful, trusting relationships.

First, let’s be clear on a few terms.

Breakdown is when there is a momentary collapse in your integrity. You behave in a manner that’s not you and is inappropriate.

Perpetrator means you are the instigator of the breakdown.

Recovering from the Breakdown
The most effective way to recover from a breakdown you perpetrated is to say sorry to those involved.
  • The apology must be face-to-face. It cannot be done through email. To be frank, that’s meaningless and gutless.
  • Take ownership of the breakdown. In other words, clean up your mess.
  • Do not make excuses or explain rationales for your behavior.
  • Get straight to the apology. “I owe several apologies. My behavior was over the top…”
  • Keep it short. Don’t ramble.
  • Leave room for others to respond. If they don’t that’s okay. More time may need to pass.
  • It may be necessary to talk about next steps. It depends on the severity of the breakdown, however.
A leader who can say, “I’m sorry” sets a standard of interaction that deepens relationships. It also lets others know that it’s okay to be human. Sure we all have “stuff” going on in our lives, and sometimes we take out our stress on others. A sincere apology lets others know the importance of team and camaraderie. It’s an act of humility.

The leader who can say, “I’m sorry” signals to the team that community trumps individuality

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When people follow we are trully leading.

8/11/2011

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The responsibility of leadership is not taken, it's given. Only when others choose to follow us can we truly lead.
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The words "Thank You" are two words that some leaders neglect to say enough

7/11/2011

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It's simple, but more powerful than you might realize. The words "Thank You" are two words that some leaders neglect to say enough. Have you ever had the unfortunate experience of doing something and not being thanked? How does it feel?

Why do I say these two words are powerful? Because by neglecting to say thank you; you lose some respect. People will view you differently as a leader. You might even possibly lose the opportunity for someone to do something nice for you again. I would encourage all leaders to express gratitude often towards those they lead. Be genuine, specific and timely in your gratitude and watch what a difference it makes.

Saying thank you can be as easy as verbally telling someone, writing a quick hand-written note and placing it on the keyboard of the person you are thanking before you leave for the night, making an unexpected phone call, sending a quick e-mail, giving a candy bar or single flower, baking some cookies or providing a favorite snack. There are a mulitude of ways to say thank you, just do it. People like grateful leaders.

There are the leaders who have an attitude of taking people for granted, and there are leaders with and attitude of appreciation. I like people…for the most part….we all have those people who get under our skin or we don’t really get on with, but no matter who it is I want to make sure that I appreciate people. People are our most valuable resource and we need to treat them as so. An attitude of appreciation is so much more than saying “thank you” to people, but that helps. It’s more than having a “volunteer appreciation day”, but that could be cool. An attitude of appreciation is day in and day out cherishing the sacrifice people are making to help build the kingdom. When you have that mindset it will ooze out of you. The way you talk to people, the ora you give off, your accessibility…these things show your appreciation.

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Customer experiance and Social media

4/11/2011

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There’s bad news and good news about the way consumers interact with brands on social media.

The bad news? When customers complain on social media, those complaints can tarnish your brand’s name for a wide audience faster than ever.

The good news? Just as complaints travel at light speed thanks to social media, so do compliments.

If you think you’re not “on” or “doing” social media, you’re wrong. Your company may not be active, but I guarantee your fans and your non-supporters are there. Because of this, it is the brand’s responsibility to create a social media experience that can turn a dissatisfied customer into a raving fan.

To help your brand do this, here are seven ways to create a memorable customer experience on social media.

1. Give Your Customers a Place to Talk Some companies are afraid to set up facebook pages because they allow customers to comment, which means someone might write something negative. It seems counterintuitive, but you should actually want customers to complain on your company’s Facebook page. If your customers are complaining about you on their personal, privacy-protected Facebook profiles, you have no way to know if they’re complaining, much less reach out to them and make it right.

When customers complain on your brand’s Facebook page, you can respond and resolve issues. If you do it right (and get a little lucky), unhappy customers will turn their opinions around and recommend you to friends because of your fantastic customer service.

2. Integrate Social Media Into Your Customer Service Neglecting your social media properties when they’re full of customer complaints is suicide for your brand. It’s like publishing a customer service hotline phone number that no one ever answers. (Except worse, because the whole Internet can see your negligence.)

Don’t open up the floor for complaints without a plan to handle them. Predict the complaints you may get and construct policies for replying to them. You should also plan on responding to fans who compliment you. At the very least, you should thank customers for the compliment. But if you really want to make customers happy, show happy customers your appreciation with coupons or other rewards.

3. Activate Your Existing Customer Base Most brands have more customers than they do Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Start building your social media fan base by reaching out to your current customers — after all, they already “like” your brand in real life.

Think about how you currently contact your customer base and how you can use those communication channels to draw customers to your social media properties. For example, you could run a contest or promotion on Facebook and then include that promotion on your product’s packaging, in your next email, and in any touch point you have with your customers.

4. Be Proactive Don’t just wait for someone to post on your wall or tweet your account. It’s especially easy on Twitter to monitor for mentions of your name and reach out when someone has a problem, even if they haven’t mentioned your account. Set your brand apart by proactively interacting with customers who are talking about your brand, whether you’re thanking them for a compliment or helping them solve a problem.

Think about why your customers use social media sites like Twitter — it’s because they want to “connect” and to have a voice out there. Make them happy that someone, most importantly your company, is listening to what they have to say.

5. Reward Influencers
Find the social media influencers for your audience and give them extras. This could be as simple as giving them advance notice of a special promotion, or complex as giving them a free trip and tour of your facilities. For example, check out what Musselman's apple sause did for its blogger network. Making people feel special will help turn them into advocates for your brand. Reward your brand ambassadors when they least expect it and you’ll see some pretty phenomenal results.

6. Create Compelling Content Give your fans something of value on your page. For example, Nordstom’s Beauty Central on Facebook provides a ton of relevant, useful content. You can do something similar to this in every industry. If you’re a movie producer, post behind-the-scenes photos, and if you’re a bank, write money saving tips. It’s hard to get people to engage with your brand when you don’t have anything interesting to say. Every brand can (and should) create quality content.

Social media can be a channel to make customers or followers feel special, like they’re in an exclusive club with your brand because they follow you. Make them feel this exclusiveness whether you have ten social media fans or 100,000.

7. Stand Out From the Crowd Some of the most memorable social media experiences are created by going beyond text. This can be as complex as Starbucks’s Pumpkin picture app, or simple as using voice applications to let your brand’s spokesperson actually speak to your fans. The more interactive and engaging your social media presence, the better. In part, social media is a little anti-social because there can be a lot lost in plain text. By giving your fans a true voice on social media, or encouraging participation through photos and videos, you humanize the experience that much more. You’ll be doing so when most of the other companies out there aren’t really participating effectively this way.

Has a brand ever given you a truly memorable social media experience? Let us know in the comments.

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Principles from how to win friends and Influence people - Dale Carnegie

4/11/2011

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Become a Friendlier Person

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest, sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
4. Become genuinely interested in other people.
5. Smile.
6. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
7. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves. 8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
9. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Win People to Your Way of Thinking

10. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
11. Show respect for the other person’s opinion. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
12. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
13. Begin in a friendly way.
14. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
15. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
16. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
17. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
18. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
19. Appeal to the nobler motives.
20. Dramatize your ideas.
21. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader

22. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
23. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
24. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
25. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
26. Let the other person save face.
27. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
28. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
29. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
30. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.


Fundamental Principles for Overcoming Worry

1. Live in “day-tight compartments.”
2. How to face trouble:
a. Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen?”
b. Prepare to accept the worst.
c. Try to improve on the worst.
3. Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health.

Basic Techniques in Analyzing Worry

1. Get all the facts.
2. Weigh all the facts — then come to a decision.
3. Once a decision is reached, act!
4. Write out and answer the following questions:
a. What is the problem?
b. What are the causes of the problem? c. What are the possible solutions?
d. What is the best possible solution?

Break the Worry Habit Before It Breaks You

1. Keep busy.
2. Don’t fuss about trifles.
3. Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries.
4. Cooperate with the inevitable.
5. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth and refuse to give it more.
6. Don’t worry about the past.

Cultivate a Mental Attitude that will Bring You Peace and Happiness

1. Fill your mind with thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope. 2. Never try to get even with your enemies.
3. Expect ingratitude.
4. Count your blessings — not your troubles.
5. Do not imitate others.
6. Try to profit from your losses.
7. Create happiness for others.

The Perfect Way to Conquer Worry

1. Pray.

Don't Worry about Criticism

1. Remember that unjust criticism is often a disguised compliment.
2. Do the very best you can.
3. Analyze your own mistakes and criticize yourself.

Prevent Fatigue and Worry and Keep Your Energy and Spirits High

1. Rest before you get tired.
2. Learn to relax at your work.
3. Protect your health and appearance by relaxing at home.
4. Apply these four good working habits:

a) Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand.
b) Do things in the order of their importance.
c) When you face a problem, solve it then and there if you have the facts necessary to make a decision.
d) Learn to organize, deputize and supervise.

5. Put enthusiasm into your work.
6. Don’t worry about insomnia.

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Leadership tips - Jack Welch style..

3/11/2011

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Jack Welch, respected business leader and writer is quoted as proposing these fundamental leadership principles (notably these principles are expanded in his 2001 book 'Jack: Straight From The Gut'):

  1. There is only one way - the straight way. It sets the tone of the organisation.
  2. Be open to the best of what everyone, everywhere, has to offer; transfer learning across your organisation.
  3. Get the right people in the right jobs - it is more important than developing a strategy.
  4. An informal atmosphere is a competitive advantage.
  5. Make sure everybody counts and everybody knows they count.
  6. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner - the true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open.
  7. Business has to be fun - celebrations energise and organisation.
  8. Never underestimate the other guy.
  9. Understand where real value is added and put your best people there.
  10. Know when to meddle and when to let go - this is pure instinct.
As a leader, your main priority is to get the job done, whatever the job is. Leaders make things happen by:
  • knowing your objectives and having a plan how to achieve them
  • building a team committed to achieving the objectives
  • helping each team member to give their best efforts
As a leader you must know yourself. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can build the best team around you.

However - always remember the philosophical platform - this ethical platform is not a technique or a process - it's the foundation on which all the techniques and methodologies are based.

Plan carefully, with your people where appropriate, how you will achieve your aims. You may have to redefine or develop your own new aims and priorities. Leadership can be daunting for many people simply because no-one else is issuing the aims - leadership often means you have to create your own from a blank sheet of paper. Set and agree clear standards. Keep the right balance between 'doing' yourself and managing others 'to do'.

Build teams. Ensure you look after people and that communications and relationships are good. Select good people and help them to develop. Develop people via training and experience, particularly by agreeing objectives and responsibilities that will interest and stretch them, and always support people while they strive to improve and take on extra tasks. Follow the rules about delegation closely - this process is crucial. Ensure that your managers are applying the same principles. Good leadership principles must cascade down through the whole organisation. This means that if you are leading a large organisation you must check that the processes for managing, communicating and developing people are in place and working properly.

Communication is critical. Listen, consult, involve, explain why as well as what needs to be done.

Some leaders lead by example and are very 'hands on'; others are more distanced and let their people do it. Whatever - your example is paramount - the way you work and conduct yourself will be the most you can possibly expect from your people. If you set low standards you are to blame for low standards in your people.

"... Praise loudly, blame softly." (Catherine the Great). Follow this maxim.

If you seek one singlemost important behaviour that will rapidly earn you respect and trust among your people, this is it: Always give your people the credit for your achievements and successes. Never take the credit yourself - even if it's all down to you, which would be unlikely anyway. You must however take the blame and accept responsibility for any failings or mistakes that your people make. Never never never publicly blame another person for a failing. Their failing is your responsibility - true leadership offers is no hiding place for a true leader.

Take time to listen to and really understand people. Walk the job. Ask and learn about what people do and think, and how they think improvements can be made.

Accentuate the positive. Express things in terms of what should be done, not what should not be done. If you accentuate the negative, people are more likely to veer towards it. Like the mother who left her five-year-old for a minute unsupervised in the kitchen, saying as she left the room, "...don't you go putting those beans up your nose..."

Have faith in people to do great things - given space and air and time, everyone can achieve more than they hope for. Provide people with relevant interesting opportunities, with proper measures and rewards and they will more than repay your faith.

Take difficult decisions bravely, and be truthful and sensitive when you implement them.

Constantly seek to learn from the people around you - they will teach you more about yourself than anything else. They will also tell you 90% of what you need to know to achieve your business goals.

Embrace change, but not for change's sake. Begin to plan your own succession as soon as you take up your new post, and in this regard, ensure that the only promises you ever make are those that you can guarantee to deliver.

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Fundamental aspect of modern marketing

3/11/2011

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First, here's something that is fast becoming the most fundamental aspects of marketing to get right, especially if you want to build a truly sustainable high quality organisation (of any size) in the modern age:

Ensure the ethics and philosophy of your organisation are good and sound. This might seem a bit tangential to marketing and business, and rather difficult to measure, nevertheless...

Price is no longer the king, if it ever was. Value no longer rules, if ever it did. Quality of service and product is not the deciding factor.

Today what truly matters is ethical and philosophical quality - from the bottom to the top - in every respect - across every dimension of the organisation.

Modern consumers, business buyers, staff and suppliers too, are today more interested than ever before in corporate integrity, which is defined by the organisation's ethics and philosophy.

Good sound ethics and philosophy enable and encourage people to make 'right and good' decisions, and to do right and good things. It's about humanity and morality; care and compassion; being good and fair.

Profit is okay, but not greed; reward is fine, but not avarice; trade is obviously essential, but exploitation is not.

Psychological Contract theory is helpful towards understanding and developing fair balanced philosophy, especially in meeting the complex needs of staff, customers and the organization.

People naturally identify and align with these philosophical values. The best staff, suppliers, and customers naturally gravitate towards organisations with strong philosophical qualities.

Putting a good clear ethical philosophy in place, and communicating it wide and far lets people know that your organisation always strives to do the the right thing. It's powerful because it appeals to people's deepest feelings. Corporate integrity, based on right and good ethical philosophy, transcends all else.

And so, strong ethics and good philosophy are the fundamentals on which all good organisations and businesses are now built.

People might not ask or talk about this much: the terminology is after all not fashionable 'marketing-speak', nor does it correlate obviously to financial performance, but be assured; everyone is becoming more aware of the deeper responsibilities of corporations and businesses in relation to humanity, and morality, the natural world, the weak and the poor, and the future of the planet.

Witness the antagonism growing towards certain multi-nationals. People don't rail against successful corporations - they rail against corporations which put profit ahead of people; growth ahead of of society and communities; technology and production ahead of the natural world; market domination ahead of compassion for humankind. None of this is right and good, and these organisations are on borrowed time.

People increasingly prefer to buy from, deal with, and work for, ethical, right-minded organisations. And whether an organisation is ethical and right-minded is becoming increasingly transparent for all to see.

So be one.

Aside from which - when you get your philosophy right, everything else naturally anchors to it. Strategies, processes, attitudes, relationships, trading arrangements, all sorts of difficult decisions - even directors salaries and share options dare we suggest.

And it need not be complicated. The ultimate corporate reference point is: "Is it right and good?... How does this (idea, initiative, decision, etc) stack up against our ethical philosophy?"

Organisations are complex things, and they become more and more complicated every day. A good ethical philosophy provides everyone with a natural, reliable reference point, for the tiniest detail up to the biggest strategic decision.

So as you start to write your marketing plan, be it for a new start-up, a huge corporation, or a little department within one, make sure you put a 'right and good' ethical philosophy in place before you do anything else, and watch everything grow from there.

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Work Life Balance

2/11/2011

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DISC

2/11/2011

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DISC You will see the DISC model often represented as DiSC®, which reflects the ownership of this particular logoform by the US Inscape Publishing company. Inscape has extensively researched and developed its own DISC systems, which according to the company's publicity have been used by over 40 million people since the early 1970s, which are used with the intention of enabling people to "...gain the insight they need to be more successful, productive, and fulfilled at work..." Inscape also say, "... DiSC® instruments are based on a simple idea - that the foundation of personal and professional success lies in knowing yourself, understanding others, and realizing the impact of your actions and attitudes on other people..."

The DISC model is attributed to Dr William Moulton Marston, whose book Emotions Of Normal People (1928) first explained the model using the DISC terminology, and which also provided the descriptive words on which the commonly used DISC personality assessment systems were built. Marston didn't create an assessment tool. This was done initially by researchers at the University of Minnesota, in 1972 according to Inscape. Inscape, and others, have continued to develop, test and validate DISC assessment systems, which are marketed with gusto to the corporate and organisational development communities.

The dimensions of Behaviour and Situation feature strongly in Marston's ideas.

There are several slightly varying interpretations of this model. Here's a general outline.

DISC basic personality types model There are different interpretations of this model, based on the same underpinning structure. This presentation of the DISC model borrows from various interpretations. The colours mainly emphasise the columns - they are not part of the original DISC theory - but they also reflect the logical correlations to two of the Four Temperaments and Keirsey main types (D = Phlegmatic/Rational; I = Choleric/Idealist) and the Jungian Extravert-Introvert 'attitudes'. Other than this there is no attempt here to overlay the DISC model or personality traits directly onto any other personality model. There are overlaps and correlations between DISC and other personality systems but not a direct overlay. Logical comparisons and correlations between DISC types and the types contained in the theories of Jung, Benziger, etc, are shown lower in the grid below.
Picture
N.B. The closest equivalent types shown above from the models of Jung, Myers Briggs® and Keirsey are just a guide, and have been arrived at by factoring in the typical DISC dimensions of extraversion-introversion and proactive-passive, which imply the obvious Extraverted or Introverted Jungian equivalents, and Judging (proactive) or Perceiving (reactive) Jungian equivalents. As we've seen, none of this is a perfect science, and the correlations are formed by logical extension rather than clear admissions of statements from the originating theorists. Benziger's correlations however are those stated by Katherine Benziger herself.

Unlike testing systems such as Myers Briggs® and Keirsey which typically match people to defined 'types', The DISC model instead presents a series of four main 'type' descriptions (titled above as Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance). The DISC testing instruments tend to identify people's dominant or preferred type and one or two supporting types from the four available, and this mixture is then represented by a graph or personality description based on the mixture of the types.

In this respect no person is exclusively just one of the four DISC types. Most people have a dominant or preferred main type, plus one or two supporting types in different degrees depending on the person and the situation. DISC systems commonly not only assess the person but also the person's mix of dominant types from different perspectives.

It is important to note again that the DISC system of personality assessment, like all personality models, provides a guide and a perspective of personality; it is not a 100% reliable or definitive measurement.

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