What is your Organizational Persona? Map it!

Do we focus on the customer too much? Most of us would disagree and say no that we should focus on the customer more. However, recently we have seen a tremendous amount of books written on organizational clarity. One of the reasons is that without understanding our purpose as an organization or as an employee of organization we limit our effectiveness. Dating myself, you go back to the 80’s where a tremendous amount of work was done on corporate vision and mission statements.

In a recent interview, Handling Impossible Projects, I asked author Michael Dobson, “When we think of a crisis like that, how much project planning goes into a crisis, such as Tylenol. Were they just winging it in that instance?”

Michael: Well, the part of the background of the Tylenol situation was that a lot of the executives of Johnson and Johnson had just gone through training or some workshop about corporate ethics. Their vision and mission statements and all these good management practices and they really only had one question to ask themselves. Did we mean all this stuff that we were saying? Once they said “Yes, we did mean it,” then they had a basis to go on.

This demonstrates how this understanding will guide is organizational decision making. Simon Sinek message of starting with Why, (Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action)) embodies this message. Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” He then draws another circle with “How” and another with “What”. It is powerful message and one of best Ted videos of all time. Not to downplay the effectiveness of the message but it is a very clever packaging of the old mission and value statements created in the 1980s.

How do we convert to a powerful Why statement?

Whether you call it Why or Vision, there is not anything else that maybe more instrumental to your success. Do you believe your organization has a heart? Does that mission pulsate throughout the entire organization? It’s not an iterative process. It is not anything that is cloudy or mysterious to your organization. It is Why you get up in the morning and go to work. With Vision, With Why, a unifying theme of purpose exists. All of your objectives, all the measures, all the targets, etc. become aligned.

I believe the simplest method of crafting our Why is through the use of an Organizational Persona Map. We use build personas to understand and empathize with customers but do we have one to understand our own organization? Can we easily identify what is the personality of our organization? As Sinek says, we know what we do and how we do it but do we know why? A humble attempt at creating an Organizational Persona Map:

Organizational Persona from Business901

Without vision, without why, you seldom provide a unifying theme of purpose. All of your objectives, all the measures, all the targets, etc. become disjointed. In a Business901 Podcast, Ari Weinzweig, CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, MI said, “Vision comes from the heart”. That should dictate how we act and the personality of our organization. Does it? How would your customer complete this?

Related Information:
The Kipling Growth Strategy Map
The Lean Business Practices of a Deli

Standard Work in Lean Marketing

Leader standard work is a concept in Lean Management, popularized by David Mann in his book “Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions, Second Edition”, that creates standard work for managers. For many in the Agile community, the notion of “standard work” brings a repellent idea of standardization and work standards, and the oppressive boot-jack command culture that comes with that. And yet, the way that Toyota implements standard work, it is much more akin to coding standards or working agreements, where you record the current best agreed upon way of the workers in the system for doing something, than an oppressive regime of Quality Checks.

David describes the principle nicely in his presentation on Creating a Lean Culture Process Focus and Leader Standard Work. The purpose of Leader Standard Work is to create behavioral change that drives Lean Leaders to visit the place where work is being done. This, along with Visual Management and a Daily Accountability process helps ensure the technical improvements in the Lean Transformation aren’t lost to the culture of firefighting and backsliding into what he calls the “pit of instability and despair” or what I like to call, “business as usual.” So, there are many organizational benefits to Leader Standard Work. And the good news is, it’s also a great way to drive some sanity into your day as a manager.

Since Lean is so intrinsically tied to standard work, many believe Lean cannot apply to their “Knowledge Based” occupation. In fact, it is often resisted in these circles. When met with resistance, I have found that typically there is a good reason why. As I review most Leader Standard Work for knowledge workers, I still find them heavily laden with specific instructions and very results based focus. In Sales and Marketing (I am considering Sales and Marketing to be knowledge work) , you will see instructions such as make 25 calls, send out 15 e-mails, 3 blog posts a week, etc. On the other hand, I do see slack time allowed under the disguise of daily or weekly Kaizen. So Leader Standard Work can apply to Sales and Marketing 9Knowledge Workers), or can it?

Leader Standard Work will fizzle out quickly if you simply try to practice Leader Standard Work through Lean Training, coupled with your experience and try to become more proficient through iteration after iteration. It doesn’t work that way. In fact, it may take years, certainly months, to acquire the skills needed. What stops you is that you not only have to learn new skills but these skills and learning are not stagnant. They are in constant turmoil; developing, adapting and evolving while obsoleting the existing structure.

Many companies may fall short as a result of not creating the internal collaboration structure needed for learning. The organization must develop as a whole and this can only be accomplished by developing their personnel by providing the necessary resources and opportunities. We also need to promote individual differences. Instead of teaching the way to do some things, we may need to step back and determine the key points that are required, as Simon Sinek says the “Why” while leaving the how alone (Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action).

When developing your Leader Standard address these three items;

1. Clarification – Minimum standard is explicit
2. Commitment – Level of commitment is expected from the individual
3. Connection – A path for support through conversation is provided.

Can your Leader Standard Work pass the 3 C Test?

 

Grow your Small Business with Lean

Story Dialogue can improve your Sales Pitch

Developing Pull in the Lean Marketing Conversation

There has been countless books written on the power of storytelling and why that is needed. We are told that we all humans are wired to communicate best through stories. We are told that from the beginning of time that this was how we transferred information and wisdom to each other. We are told that stories help us capture and remember concepts. However, does any organization practice storytelling. Do they practice how to create meaningful dialogue from them?

In the book, Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change, the authors discuss The Story Dialogue technique developed by Ron Labonte and Joan Featherstone. Ron and Joan saw it as a way to use stories to detect important themes and issues for a community, moving from personalized experience to generalized knowledge. The book explained how:

In Story Dialogue, individuals are invited to write and tell their stories around a generative theme - a theme that holds energy and possibility for the group. As a person shares their story, others listen intently, sometimes taking notes. The storytelling is followed by a reflection circle where each person shares how the storyteller's story is also their story, and how it is different.

A structured dialogue ensues guided by the questions: "what" (what was the story), "why" (why did events in the story happen as they did), "now what" (what are our insights) and "so what" (what are we going to do about it). The group closes by creating "insight cards", writing down each insight on a colored card and grouping these into themes.

When transferring this concept to sales training, I find it remarkably useful. Typically when customer conversations are recorded or repeated in sales training, they are evaluated by a certain set of criteria. The most common being did you stay on the script and second, did you engage the customer. I , personally, could not see two more opposite statements. However, I have experienced conversations like this repeatedly.

Instead, use the Story Dialogue as a guideline for improving the sales conversation. Gather your salespeople together and have them listen to a recording, watch a video or listen to an enactment. Now, instead of critiquing, we go around the room and have our salespeople tell how what they heard is also their story, and how it is different. You would capture all the different ideas with the use of insight cards. Group them in themes and have a structured dialogue on improving your sales stories or as many of us might call them, our sales pitches. 

This type of dialogue training can have deeper consequences. Instead of defending our actions, we create a more reflective atmosphere where we start inquiring about viewpoints. This shift through it will take time to develop will also transfer in the dialogue that you will have with customers. Developing a reflective inquiry approach can become a key ingredient in your sales approach. It is where the Lean Marketing Conversation creates pull.

Custom Magnetic & Dry Erase Comic Strip

Do you need a customizable comic strip that lets you create your own comics using magnetic characters? It’s a great start for a service design project and creating a customer experience. It’s part of a Kickstarter project by Erik Heumiller. There are loads of options on the website from $1 to $300.

The Magnet Comic is a dry-erase comic strip that uses magnetic characters with a variety of different facial expressions to make the comics you want to make. It also lets you make comics a part of your every day life whether at home or work because it's a physical comic you can display and interact with.

Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative projects that are brought to life through the direct support of others

Back this Project!

This project will only be funded if at least $6,500 is pledged by Sunday Dec 16, 3:17pm EST.

P.S. Pledge $10 and get a Comic Character of yourself emailed to you.

How Zing Training Started! -

Next week’s Business901 Podcast features Ari Weinzweig, CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (ZCoB) has annual sales approaching $40 million. ZingTrain, a consulting and training company that shares Zingerman’s approach to business with like-minded organizations from around the world, and offers a variety of management training seminars in Ann Arbor, as well as customized workshops and presentations at client sites. An excerpt from the podcast: 

Joe:  A big part of your organization has become Zing Training. What started that? Did you just wake up one day and say, "Gee, we need to bottle this up?"

Ari:  ‘Well, we opened in '82, and then in '93, Paul and I spent about a year writing a new vision for the business. When we opened, we were very clear about our vision. And actually the first natural law of business, I think, is organizations that have a clear vision of greatness are going to have a better shot at succeeding. So when we opened in '82, we were very clear in our minds and what we wrote down that we only wanted one deli. We didn't want a chain or replicas. We knew that we wanted something that was unique to us and not a copy of something from New York, or Chicago, or LA.

We knew that we wanted really great food and service but in a very accessible setting, and that we wanted a really great place for people to work, and to be bonded into the community. By '93, so 10, 11 years in, I mean, we kind of had done that. In that, we had filled in, expanded twice on the site that we're on.

We're in the historic district, so it's not easy to do that. We kind of had, I guess in hindsight what would be the equivalent of an organizational "midlife struggle."

I don't think it was a crisis, because we weren't crashing, but we weren't really clear on where we were going. We had achieved what we had set out to do despite going against the odds. So we spent about a year coming up with our next vision, which we wrote out.

It was called Zingerman's 2009, so it was for 15 years into the future. That vision outlined that we would have a community of businesses all here in the Ann Arbor area, because we like to be connected to what we're doing.

Each building should be a Zingerman's business, but each would have its own unique specialty. So that way, we could grow but keep the deli unique, and do other things. And we would only do a business when we had a managing partner or partners in it that would own part of that business and have a passion for whatever that business did, and be connected to it every day going for greatness.

And after we wrote that vision and rolled it out, then Maggie Bayless‑‑who we had known at the restaurant‑‑ she had been, I mentioned a waitress there. But she had gone back to school and gotten her MBA at Michigan, and wasn't that thrilled with the corporate world, but loved training.

She read that vision. She came to us and said, "Well, what about doing a Zingerman's training business?" That's how it started, then we worked on it for a while and opened it up in 1994.”

I have written about Zingerman’s many timese and in fact, Ari’s book,Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service, provided the service outline for a retail operation that I was part of for several years.  Several mindmaps and more details are in this blog post,  PDCA Cycle of Zingerman’s Deli.

Related Information:
Can the customer be front stage in your organization?
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing
Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset
The New Names of Marketing are still PDCA

Finding your Vision, It may be as simple as Tapping your Shoes

There are several purposes to the Balance Scorecard. One of the most important is to create measures that are forward looking and proactive. This way the Balanced Scorecard can be an effective agent of organizational change. However, we can never start any forward thinking without a vision.

I use to think that Vision and Mission Statements were a consultant/academic type exercise. I did them but I have to honestly admit, it may have been more of an exercise than a real vision. In recent years, working with such a variety of companies, I have shifted my thinking. Without vision, you seldom provide a unifying theme of purpose. All of your objectives, all the measures, all the targets, etc. become disjointed. In a recent interview for a future Business901 Podcast, Ari Weinzweig, CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, MI said, “Vision comes from the heart”. That statement sums it up perfectly.

Recently, I have participated with organizations using Hoshin Kanri and the Balanced Scorecard. These approaches have a remarkable similarity and both are driven by the vision and strategic goals of the organization. These approaches will highlight a lack of vision. You will find great difficulty in completing the process without a crystal clear view of where you want to go. It’s that Why, Simon Sinek explains in his book, Start with Why.

Whether you call it Why or Vision, there is not anything else more instrumental to your success. Do you believe your organization has a heart? Does that mission pulsate throughout the entire organization? It’s not an iterative process. It is not anything that is cloudy or mysterious to your organization. It is Why you get up in the morning and go to work. With Vision, With Why, a unifying theme of purpose exists. All of your objectives, all the measures, all the targets, etc. become aligned.

It’s very similar to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz! She was running away from home for a better life. They did not understand her. She lacked a vision. Linda, the good witch came back and told Dorothy, “You have had the power all along; you just had to find it.” I encourage you as a business to find your vision and identify with it. Tap those shoes together: Find the Vision, the Why of your organization.

P.S. How long should you plan for? I think vision is something that will extend many years out and would venture to say for even young companies that 5 years is a minimum period. Most mature companies should paint a vision and strategic direction for at least a 10 year period.

Related Information:
Is the Balance Scorecard being revived?
Driving Profit through People and Processes
PDCA Cycle of Zingerman’s Deli
It’s the Who, not the Why @simonsinek

Prototype your Value Proposition

If you read this blog, you know that I am a big advocate of the Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (Wiley Desktop Editions). I have bought this book at least four times since I ended up giving it away. Though I have blogged about it and listen to Steve Blank discuss it, Steve Blank on the Lean Startup at Ann Arbor I have ever watched Alex Osterwalder present the approach.

Alex Osterwalder is the best-selling author of Business Model Generation. He tells us how organizations start approaching the challenge of designing business models in a radically new way. Companies learn how to test their business models upfront, iterating on the feedback received from their clients, thereby reducing the risk of failure.

Related Information
The 7 step Lean Process of Marketing to Toyota
The New Names of Marketing are still PDCA
Dealing with uncertainty in the Lean Startup
Lean Thinking: Prototype early and often

Can you be Lucky by Design?

Beth Goldstein, Founder and CEO is an author, consultant, trainer and founder of Marketing Edge Consulting Group, she has empowered hundreds of entrepreneurs to successfully grow their companies.  We discussed her newest book, Lucky By Design: Creating Real Opportunities that Empower Your Business coming out this fall.

Beth‘s special talents is helping companies gain an understanding of how their customers think, what they value and what influences their purchasing decisions. She then applies this knowledge to create targeted sales and marketing programs that drive revenue growth while increasing profitability and customer loyalty.

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Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Lucky or go to the Business901 iTunes Store

Her first book, The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit: All the Tips, Forms, and Strategies You'll Ever Need! is used in 30+ cities around the U.S. to teach business owners the critical skills they need to accelerate growth.

Are You Lucky In Business?

TAKE HER 5 MINUTE SURVEY &
RECEIVE OVER $75 IN VALUABLE BUSINESS TOOLS FOR SHARING YOUR OPINION
(You will be re-directed to Beth’s site.)

Related Information:
Lean Thinking: Prototype early and often
Using the Media Engagement Framework as your Kanban?
What’s behind Collaboration and Value Networks?
Business Processes as Value Networks
The Role of PDCA in a Lean Sales and Marketing Cycle

Helping Customers to Excellence eBook

This is a transcription of a Business901 podcast, Xerox Operational Excellence Program that I had with Tricia Bhattacharya. She is currently a Worldwide Segment Marketing Manager for the Xerox Graphic Communications Business Group. In this role, she is responsible for developing marketing programs focused on in-plant environments. She also holds a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Her 19-year career at Xerox has spanned roles from product development to marketing and she holds several patents for technologies developed while working on high-speed color product innovations.

Helping Customers achieve Operational Excellence -

She authored the Guide to Operational Excellence that Xerox makes available to their print customers. It introduces a five-step plan to help in-plants remove waste like overproduction and idle time.

When I asked what I left out of the podcast Tricia stated: “Well, I think one thing I'd like to mention is, this is just part of a whole host of tools that are available for our Xerox customers that help them with their operations. So, this is the Operational Excellence Guide. We have over 100 business development tools as part of our profit accelerator program. They're all free of charge and part of the value of being a Xerox customer.”

Related Posts:
Kanban at Xerox Corporation
Need a primer on Lean Six Sigma?
Modified DMAIC
Using DMAIC for your A3 Report in the Lean Marketing House

Predictive Measures with Throughput Accounting

Dr. Charlene Spoede Budd was my guest on the Busienss901 Podcast and as you would expect our discussion was about the Theory of Constraints Through-put Accounting methods and the application of the knowledge that we gain from this information. We discussed the use of accounting throughout the organization for developing predictive measures versus reactive. This is not your regular accounting discussion. 

Dr. Budd was a contributor to the recent Theory of Constraints Handbook on two separate subjects:

1. Traditional Measures in Finance and Accounting, Problems, Literature Review, and TOC Measures (Chapter 13 of Theory of Constraints Handbook)
2. A Critical Chain Project Management Primer (Chapter 3 of Theory of Constraints Handbook)

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Charlene Spoede Budd is a Professor Emeritus from Baylor University, where she taught management accounting and project management classes for a number of years. She is certified in all areas of the Theory of Constraints and is the Chair of the Finance and Metrics Committee of the Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization. Her research has been published primarily in practitioner journals and she has been awarded three Certificates of Merit for articles published in Strategic Finance. Dr. Budd has co-authored two accounting textbooks with her most recent book, A Practical Guide to Earned Value Project Management.

The subject matter may seem a tad dry but give this podcast a chance, I do not think you will be disappointed!

Related Posts:
Six Sigma a great companion to marketing
Use Intuition or Six Sigma for your Marketing Data?
Theory of Constraints Roundup

Constraint is in the marketplace, Do this!

My guest this and week was “Dr. Lisa” Lang. She is considered the foremost expert in the world in applying Theory of Constraints to Marketing and currently the President of the Science of Business. She recently served as the Global Marketing Director for Dr Goldratt who is the father of Theory of Constraints and author of The Goal. Dr Lisa has a PhD in Engineering and is a TOCICO certified expert in Theory of Constraints. She is currently serving on the TOCICO Board of Directors.

This week podcast centered on applying the Theory of Constraints externally or when your Constraint is in the market place. Dr. Lisa offers some great ideas on how to market utilizing the Theory of Constraints and creating that all important "Mafia Offer." If you would like to learn more about the Mafia Offer, go to Dr. Lisa's website the Science of Business.

Dr. Lisa is the author of 3 books: Maximizing Profitability, Achieving a Viable Vision, Increasing Cash Velocity, and Mafia Offers is due out in May 2010. Science of Business specializes in increasing profits of highly custom businesses and applying Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma to sales and marketing, having developed the Mafia Offer Boot Camp, Velocity Scheduling System, and Project Velocity System.

Before becoming a consultant, Dr Lisa was in operations, strategic planning, purchasing, R&D, and quality while working for Clorox, Anheuser-Busch and Coors Brewing. She is known for having developed the Anheuser-Busch plastic beer bottle. In addition to consulting, Dr Lisa is a highly sought after Vistage/TEC speaker on “Maximizing Profitability”. Dr Lisa also provides professional keynote speeches and workshops for organizations like: TLMI, ASC, NTMA, MCAA, NAPM and private events for corporations like: TESSCO, Bostik, GE, Pfizer and Sandvik Coromant.

P.S. The Mafia offer is only as good as what you have created using the Theory of Constraints internally. Listen to Part 1 of this podcast first, Theory of Constraints equals Focus and Leverage

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Technorati Tags: theory of constraints,marketing,mafia boot camp,manufacturing,machining,velocity

Big Book of Marketing interview with Author Anthony Bennett

I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Bennet editor of the new book, THE BIG BOOK OF MARKETING released in January 2010 by McGraw-Hill on the Business901 Podcast. The book is based on material developed for one of Georgetown University Business School’s most popular marketing courses, THE BIG BOOK OF MARKETING is a unique and comprehensive guide to essential marketing practices from the world’s best marketers. The 86 companies represented in the book are industry leaders representing a range of goods and services, high-tech and low-tech industries, and industrial and consumer fields. Each chapter offers their real-life lessons and practical takeaways on every topic necessary for marketers to master today. This is a transcription of that podcast.

Big Book of Marketing Ebook

Podcast: Big Book of marketing from Atlas Air to Boeing

Related Posts: Lean Marketing House

Technorati Tags: Marketing,Brand,Busienss Development,Indistry,Marketing Practice

Business901 Webinars for the Month of March

How Good are you at Marketing Yourself?

Marketing your Black Belt: Every 2 weeks  on Friday. Marketing your Black Belt is based specifically on addressing these issues: Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Customer Retention and Communication & Collaboration.

Get Clients NOW - 28 Day Program: Program starting on first Monday of every month: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (GMT-0500).Program Structure and Agenda: During the first three sessions you will receive all the tools and training needed to design your individual 28-day marketing action plan. The listing above is the starting date for the program. You have signed up to start on that Monday this listed and for the following 28 days.

Lean Marketing Assessment: First Wednesday of every month. This program will allow participants to gain a clear snapshot of their present marketing conditions and practices. The participants can use the assessment to determine areas in need of improvement and develop a plan accordingly.

Value Stream Marketing: Thursday, March 11, 2010 from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (ET) (New). We want our participants to learn how to utilize a Sales and Marketing Value Stream which is an entire different procedure than your typical Marketing Funnel.

Lean Your Marketing thru Referrals: Monday, April 05, 2010 at 12:00 PM (GMT-0500). These groups are the most affordable way for you to crank up your marketing and build your business. Learn new techniques, create a Referral Message that will resonate with your Customers, Not other Marketers!

How many times has a good idea failed because of a poor plan or execution? For start-ups and established organizations alike, Business901 provides effective but easy to use methodologies. It is flexible enough to allow you to apply your own ideas, while giving you guidance before, during and after. We will provide practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that can have immediate impacts on the success of small and mid-sized businesses. Our experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services to include marketing.

Visit the individual webinar pages for additional details

P.S.  Ask for details about our Achieving Expert Status Program 

Technorati Tags: Marketing,Get Clients Now,Lean Marketing,Value Stream Marketing,Webinars,Black Belt,Lean,Six Sigma

Big Book of marketing from Atlas Air to Boeing

I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Bennet editor of the new book, THE BIG BOOK OF MARKETING released in January 2010 by McGraw-Hill on the Business901 Podcast. the book is based on material developed for one of Georgetown University Business School’s most popular marketing courses, THE BIG BOOK OF MARKETING is a unique and comprehensive guide to essential marketing practices from the world’s best marketers. The 86 companies represented in the book are industry leaders representing a range of goods and services, high-tech and low-tech industries, and industrial and consumer fields. Each chapter offers their real-life lessons and practical takeaways on every topic necessary for marketers to master today.

As Tony said in the podcast it is not a book filled with ideas from PHD’s. It is a book filled with authors that have CEO, V.P after their names and companies from Boeing to Atlas Air and BzzAgent to Ogilvy. What I found interesting in the book is the diversity of the content. I called it a book of short stories! Great reading, Great knowledge of information. 

Anthony G. Bennett (Washington, D.C.) has worked in marketing for over 22 years, including as an international marketing research analyst with Union Camp (now International Paper), general manager/vice president for Hunt-Marmillion Public Relations (now Ogilvy), Special Assistant promoting the first Bush administration’s National Energy Strategy, and marketing consultant to small companies and national organizations. He now teaches marketing at Georgetown University.

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Related Posts:

Your first Step in Achieving Expert Status
Marketing is about Content and Circulation not Cute and Clever

Technorati Tags: Branding,Public Relations,Product Life Cycle Extension,Quality,Sales Cycle

Why Social Media is so Lean

Wikpedia: Lean is basically about doing the right things, to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity while minimizing waste and being flexible and open to change.

Lean actually got its name from the best selling book, The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production-- Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry. This management classic was the first book to reveal Toyota's lean production system that is the basis for its enduring success. The next book on Lean, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated by Womack and Jones, introduced five core concepts:

1. Specify value in the eyes of the customer
2. Identify the value stream and eliminate waste
3. Make value flow at the pull of the customer
4. Involve and empower employees
5. Continuously improve in the pursuit of perfection.

These concepts have stood the test of time and are still used as the foundation in Lean thinking through out the world. But as I review these concepts look how readily they apply to social media and marketing today.

Specify value in the eyes of the customer: Social Media has brought on a wave of content marketing. As a result, we have more FREE information available instantaneously today than ever. Social Media is about supplying value to the customer. The essence of Social Media is the interaction and discussion. Book Recommendation:  Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust

Identify the value stream and eliminate waste: To be effective in Social Media, you have to understand your value stream and do what is important to your customers. If you try to do everything, you will be quite ineffective and realize very little results, if any. Book Recommendation: Get Content Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing

Make value flow at the pull of the customer: Costumers find you in Social Media by your activity, not by your bombarding of messages. Book Recommendation:  Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media)

Involve and empower employees: Social Media is about transparency and authenticity throughout are entire organization. More people are communicating with each other at all levels of our organizations then ever before. We have no barriers. World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories

Continuously improve in the pursuit of perfection: The bar is raised for us everyday. The people that are falling behind in Social Media may not recognize the world tomorrow. Do you have to jump in and spend vast amount of time in this world. No, not at this point. however, you need to have you not only your toe but a rather large portion of your foot in testing the waters. If you are participating in Social Media, the result of it will be continuous improvement. Shameless Plug: Duct Tape Marketing Social Media Pro hosted by Business901.

 

These concepts have stood the test of time and are still used as the foundation in Lean thinking through out the world. But as I review these concepts look how readily they apply to social media and marketing today.

Technorati Tags: lean,social mediam Marketing,value stream,duct tape marketing

IF YOU WANT TO BE ONLINE, YOU NEED TO LEARN ONLINE

IF YOU WANT TO BE ONLINE,

YOU NEED TO LEARN ONLINE

Social media is all the rage and it’s here to stay. Maybe you’ve heard about it; maybe you’ve embraced it. Ultimately, it’s important that you understand how to use and integrate social media. Need help sorting it all out? This innovative coaching program uses coaching, strategy, feedback and accountability functions aligned with a full set of online tutorials and training to deliver the practical, tactical know how so important to the success of the small business.

 

If you want Social Media to WORK

YOU have to participate

You have to learn HOW

Find out how you can become proficient

Special 1-time offer

Technorati Tags: FaceBook,LinkedIn,Social Media,Twitter,Web 2.0

Business Plan Mistakes

Affiliate Post of the Week: Business Plan Mistakes

By Palo Alto Software, Inc.

Often you may hear about what a business plan consists of. While including the necessary items is very important, you also want to make sure you don't commit any of the following common business plan mistakes:

1. Putting it off: Don't wait to write a plan until you absolutely have to. Too many businesses make business plans only when they have no choice in the matter. Unless the bank or the investors want a plan, there is no plan.

Don't wait to write your plan until you think you'll have enough time. "There's not enough time for a plan," business people say. "I can't plan. I'm too busy getting things done." The busier you are, the more you need to plan. If you are always putting out fires, you should build firebreaks or a sprinkler system. You can lose the whole forest for paying too much attention to the individual burning trees.

2. Cash flow casualness: Cash flow is more important than sales, profits, or anything else in the business plan, but most people think in terms of profits instead of cash. When you and your friends imagine a new business, you think of what it would cost to make the product, what you could sell it for, and what the profits per unit might be. We are trained to think of business as sales minus costs and expenses, which equal profits. Unfortunately, we don't spend the profits in a business. We spend cash. So understanding cash flow is critical. If you have only one table in your business plan, make it the cash flow table.

3. Idea inflation: Plans don't sell new business ideas to investors. People do. The plan, though necessary, is only a way to present information. Investors invest in people, not ideas.

Don't overestimate the importance of the idea, particularly the importance of the uniqueness of the idea. You don't need a great idea to start a business; you need time, money, perseverance, common sense, and so forth. Very few successful businesses are based entirely on new ideas. A new idea is much harder to sell than an existing one, because people don't understand a new idea and they are often unsure if it will work.

4. Fear and dread.

Doing a business plan isn't as hard as you think. You don't have to write a doctoral thesis or a novel. There are good books to help, many advisors among the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), business schools, and there is software available to help you (such as Business Plan Pro, and others).

5. Spongy, vague goals: Leave out the vague and the meaningless babble of business phrases (such as "being the best") because they are simply hype. Remember that the objective of a plan is its results, and for results, you need tracking and follow up. You need specific dates, management responsibilities, budgets, and milestones. Then you can follow up. No matter how well thought out or brilliantly presented, it means nothing unless it produces results.

6. One size fits all: Tailor your business plan to its real business purpose. Business plans can be different things: they are often just sales documents to sell an idea for a new business. They can be detailed action plans, financial plans, marketing plans, and even personnel plans. They can be used to start a business, or just run a business better.

7. Diluted priorities: Remember, strategy is focus. A priority list with 3-4 items is focus. A priority list with 20 items is something else, certainly not strategic, and rarely if ever effective. The more items on the list, the less the importance of each.

8. Hockey-stick shaped growth projections: Have projections that are conservative so you can defend them. When in doubt, be less optimistic.

Source: bplans.com

Technorati Tags: Business Plan,Marketing,Marketing Plan,Palo Alto Software,Planning

New Get Content Get Customers Out Soon

 

Excited to show you the new cover for the revised and updated paperback version of Get Content Get Customers (Turn Prospects Into Buyers with Content Marketing), which will be available in bookstores on May 22nd.

And, by the way, the paperback does include new case studies and has a few expanded pages on social media content marketing.

I really believe that anyone passionate about a topic should write a book. If that's you, check out this post I wrote a while back - "10 Keys to Writing a Book when You Have No Time to Write a Book."

This is from Junta42 blog, and written by Joe Pulizzi.

One Page Management, really?

 

Are your employees productive? Do they have specific objectives and measurements? One Page Management offers a system for all personnel and a key to high production and realized goals. In a growing company finding quality personnel is one of the most difficult task. As a result, managing that talent has become more difficult and demanding.

You must develop your personnel through outlining their objectives, strategies and actions. Critical information must be gathered, linked and displayed. This allows time for information to be used instead of gathered. Focus, feedback and Management that allow managers to see a total overview by giving them only the information they need. Achievers must become readily visible, problems must be spotted before they cause real trouble, and managers gain greater control over their own performance.

<?xml:namespace prefix = pstyle="text-align />Managing your team is a great opportunity to access and develop their strengths and skills, to share your goals and objectives and so achieve your business aims. It is a continuous process which includes regular review discussions, action plans and success.Ok, you know all this but how do you go about it. I use the The One Page Business Plan® not as a business plan but as a performance plan. Review the layout and tell me what you think. I think it is a winner for this

Technorati Tags: One Page Business Plan ,Business Plan ,Performance Plan ,Organization Planning

This is from Business901.

7 Ways to Have Character (and Show It) on LinkedIn

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

7 Ways to Have Character (and Show It) on LinkedIn

This is a special Make a Referral Week 2009 guest post

By Scott Allen, author of The Virtual Handshake

The best way to increase the number of referrals you receive is to increase your worthiness of receiving them. Part of that has to do with your competence, i.e., how well do you know your stuff? All other things being equal, people prefer to work with experts, not amateurs. But that’s obviously beyond the scope of a single blog post to cover!

Theo ther part of it is your character. Are you someone that people in your network not only know, but also like and trust? Do your friends and associates trust you to treat the people they refer to you well? Show and grow your character, and you’ll receive more referrals.

InThe Virtual Handshake, we introduced the idea of “Seven Keys to a Powerful Network”, one of which is your character:

1.Answer questions well.

2.Add value to introduction requests.

3.Make good recommendations.

4.Respond in a timely manner.

5.Help your contacts learn how to use LinkedIn effectively.

6.Be proactive.

7.Use LinkedIn to enhance face-to-face networking.

Great article, I recommend going to John's blog and reading the entire post. This is a condensed version.