Watch Out for the Bear Trap!!!
August 27th, 2010
Have you ever been in your office when your boss storms in to talk about something super exciting? “Hey, I just locked us in to do this massive event in the city and over 10,000 people are going to be there it is going to be awesome for our company!!!” His enthusiasm is addictive and you start to get really excited that your boss came to you to share the good news. As your boss talks through all the great things that need to be done to make this a reality you suddenly find yourself agreeing to handle tasks relating to the events.
You got so star struck by your boss and enthused about his success that you started agreeing to all his seemingly small requests! The next thing you know is that you are Running the Event and your boss has dished 100% of it off on you! You got caught in the Bear Trap.
Executives and “bosses” are really good at throwing around the Bear Trap and you need to always be on the look out for it. Many times tasks are accepted that have nothing to do with our roles and responsibilities and may deter us away from achieving our own goals. The next time your boss comes in to speak with you…Beware of the Bear Trap!
The Marketing Blunder that Paid Off Big…
July 27th, 2010
This is a true story. Some years ago a client engaged a consultant to help with a small postal mailing to the purchasing departments of blue chip corporations. The consultant sourced the list (which was provided on MSExcel) and drafted the letter. Thereafter the client was keen to take control of the project, ie., to run the mail-merge and the fulfilment (basically printing, envelope-stuffing and mailing).
The consultant discovered some weeks later that a junior member of the client’s marketing department had sorted the list (changed the order of the listed organisations in the spreadsheet), but had sorted the company name column only, instead of all columns, with the result that every letter (about 500) was addressed and sent to a blue chip corporation at another entirely different corporation’s address.
Interestingly the mailing produced a particularly high response, which when investigated seemed to stem from the fact that an unusually high percentage of letters were opened and read, due apparently to the irresistible temptation of reading another corporation’s mail…
Sometimes the best way to make an impact is to do things so outside the box that they have to get recognized.
Got Skills? Got Talent?
May 27th, 2010
Do you have the skills and talent to be able to run a business? Many people are hired for positions or apply for positions they are not qualified for, but they get the job? How does this happen? Companies demand they hire from within the organization, they do not have a process of matching strengths of a person to the needs of the job, and the list goes on.
The board of directors can truly kill a business if they do not have clarity around the job needs and organization needs. A while back IBM was looking for a CEO to help turn the company around and the hunt was on for a CEO that has the Skill set for being able to turn a business around. They hired Lou Gerstner, a man with no experience in the tech sector! Experience in technology was not the skill needed for the company! They needed a turn-around Guru and that he was! Lou turned IBM around and made this dying giant into an awaken monster.
Many CEO’s and Business Owners may not have the skills or talent to be in the position they hold OR they need help better understanding their strengths and weaknesses. Everyone has stronger skills and characteristics than others and it is critical to the role that their weakness are not requirements of the position. Great leaders fill their weaknesses with other peoples strengths and manage them. Board of directors need to be less PC and more brutally honest for the benefit of the businesses they oversee.
These boards have started to put the executives feelings above the commitment to the business. If these boards can not have honest, confronting, truthful conversations with the executives or themselves, then remove the board and do what is right for your business. It is not about Ego, it is about Commitment and the dedication to your employees and ensuring they have jobs and creating new ones.
We can help, email us to schedule a two-day Performance Bases Management Consult for your Business: info@theoctopussolution.com
Competition is a Great Thing
April 27th, 2010
Competition keeps the customer happy because they receive the best price, product and service when businesses fight for them. It also forces individual companies to not remain complacent. We have worked with many companies that look and feel the same as their competitors and they have taken no steps to differentiate themselves. Not only that but they do not even know what the competition is doing!
If you ignore the competitive landscape you do so at your demise. Look at competition as a great tool to keep you energize and constantly looking at your business and how to improve it. We all have a competitive nature and applying a good context will give you the momentum to be a better player in the game.
Here are a few things we have our clients look at when analyzing the competition:
- Competitors Website
- Branding – new or old, are they spending money on marketing
- Pricing – are they trying to capture the low, mid, or high level of the market
- What type of customers do they serve and how are they going after them
- Where do they do business and how saturated is the market they are playing in
- Who is running the company and what is he or she like
- Does your company go after the same type of customers
- What is their message to customers and how does your business differentiate
- What is the size of their business compared to yours
- Who are their suppliers
- Are their products or services different then yours
These are a just a few of the things to look at. Remember keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. Sometimes competition leads to mergers and acquisitions. You need information to make decisions and not having it is a breech of your duties to your employees, stake-holders and yourself. Pay attention to the competition and be creative. Being creative will allow you to think outside the box to deal with what to do and how to do it. If you have any good stories of competing for business please share them with us!
Crazy Ads from the 1950's…20 Years Later!
January 27th, 2010
The 1930’s ads were over the top and down right crazy in todays society. Let’s see how things have changed in the 1950’s Advertising campaigns?
