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Iowa Caucuses: I'm an A-B Voter...

The Iowa Caucuses loom. The mainstream media are ready to hype, distort, barely report the results.

After much consideration, I realized I'm an A-B voter. A-B stands for anybody but.

I'm for anybody but:

Rudy. Paraphrasing Joe Biden, Rudy's campaign and qualifications can best be described with a noun, a verb and 9/11. That and some campaign-claim whoppers and interesting friends.

YouTube Video of Joe Biden describing Rudy's campaign message. I'm not a fan of Joe's. But he was spot-on with this one.

Romney. It's hard to see him as a leader of our country and its institutions when he's so willingly and repeatedly compromised the values of all the institutions he's joined, his church or our Constitution or his family, to further his political ambitions.

Hillary. I don't think I could tolerate 4 years of her. And given her voting record over the years, I don't expect we'd see much real change. I think early on she could have been a force of positive change. But over the decades, too many compromises have been made to keep her believable now.

Fred Thompson. Please. Just stop.

CBS News.

Joe Biden. People say he has great foreign policy experience. I don't see it. A great many years, yes.  Early-on, his campaign's sole significant backer was MBNA. Joe led the charge in years past changing the personal bankruptcy laws making that step more difficult while at the same time granting more access by credit card companies to consumers, eliminating many restrictions on the credit card companies from imposing what had been usurious rates.

Mike Huckabee. His only qualification seems to be he's a great story teller. He told great ones as Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas where he was paid by a non-profit organization to crisscross the country and attack Hillary Clinton's health insurance plan. Oh, RJ Reynolds is reported to have been the corporate sponsor of this group that in turn sponsored good 'ol Mike to talk about the evils of national health insurance. Granted, I wasn't a fan of the plan, and Hill's on my list of A-B candidates. But I didn't receive any money from a tobacco-sponsored group to attack her plan, either. Then again, I'm not running for President.

Link from Philadelphia Inquirer.

This is but one of the charming personality quirks of good 'ol Mike. And if you want a candidate who'll entertain you with bedtime stories...Mike's your guy.

John McCain. I liked John McCain in 2000. Well, at least until the South Carolina primary where something, someone, changed him and his message. I'd hate to see what would happen with real world pressure from someone intent on harming the whole country not just him personally.

Alan Keyes. Ok. A moment of levity.

Bill Richardson. Maybe as Sec'y of State or National Security Adviser. But not President.

So that leaves us with:

Ron Paul

Barack Obama

John Edwards

Christopher Dodd.

None of them are perfect. But then perfection isn't my criteria. All I want is someone who can speak in complete sentences and articulate complex messages with a confidence and dexterity in English, who'll honor their oath of office, remember our constitution, be predisposed to do what's best for our country as a whole, whose leadership isn't based solely on divide and conquer, remind us all that it's our diversity that's made us great,  restore our standing among nations where we lead by example as opposed to threats and arrogance, and balance the budget.

PS: Hillary. Please stop calling our house.

PPS. Normally, I avoid political topics. But I don't see discussing the future of our country as political. I see it as something that's important to everyone.

Consumer Health Care: Nine Traps to Avoid

Here's Nine Traps to Avoid with consumer health from the Washington Post.

It's a free-market for health care folks. Your only means to compete against hospitals, insurance companies, Big Pharma...etc, is to arm yourself with knowledge. Start now. 

The Ideal Health Care System

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece describes the dream of its author for a an ideal hospital. The vision applies to the vision of an ideal national health care system, too:

The physicians and staff would provide their warmth, healing powers and skills to our patients every day in every way with sincerity and commitment.

It would be filled with wonderful, upbeat, pure-of-heart people who are dedicated to our patients, patient's families and each other. They would provide alternatives that bring healing when possible and provide nurturing all the time. They would, before all else, do no harm, be open, honest and dedicated and would employ whatever tools available to help those patients through their challenges: beginning, middle or end.

I'd add one sentence. And it would be affordable to all.

Let's hope in 2008 we see this vision made manifest.

Rockin' Cars, Shockin' Prices, Uncertain Economy

Just to continue with my meme* about cars and what they signify for our economy and culture...( and I promise it's a 2-post meme for several reasons: one being that I'm not nor ever have been a gear-head and more importantly these posts tend to drag me into a rant. Honestly, that's not productive most of the time. )

Today in the NY Times was a list of the years Top 10 cars, Cars Rock, Stickers Shock (should be a reader-friendly link). It's well-written as you'd expect from most articles at the Times.

A few points come to mind after reading this article. The first is based on this opening paragraph:

MY list of favorite automobiles this year is, I think, a reflection of America: there’s a growing class of millionaires at the top, a widening blue-collar class at the low end, and a middle class that is rapidly disappearing.

That's not a good demographic. It's not that sign of a well-functioning economy. It's a sign of a banana-republic economy, one that's characterized as predatory, one where only the strong survive; certainly neither compassionate, nor conservative.

The 2nd point is look at the list of the Top 10 cars. Only one model on the Top 10 comes from the Big-Three US auto manufacturers. And that's the Ford F-150 truck. A truck. 'nuff said. Ok, one model on the Top 10 List  comes from a California design firm N2A, (No Two Alike) and it's based on Chevy models. Based on...is the operative phrase.

The 3rd point? Now look at  the list of 5 cars that qualify for the annual Lump of Coal in the Cup Holder Award as the article's author wrote. 3 of the 5 models that qualify are from the Big-Three US auto makers. Actually, 5 of 5 as Buick scores a gruesome-threesome in its one spot. That takes work, hard work, to fill your one spot on a worst-of list with 3 examples.

None of this bodes well for our economy.

* First post of this 2-part meme: Another F-Model from Ford.

Strangling Creativity by Law

Lawrence Lessig discusses how creativity is slowly being strangled by...law. It's really about control...control of content, control of its creation, and yes, the money derived. The Internet Mr. Lessig claims is a chance to revive the read-write culture that Souza romanticized as a culture of amateurs, not an amateurish culture, but a culture of amateur artists and designers and creators and innovators.

It's 19 minutes long. You should watch...to the end.

Link from Teresa Valdez Klein.

The sincerest source of failure

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It's the sincerest source of failure for a business strategy. Why? It's the strategy of a follower, not a leader. Leaders are at the top, followers are a bit behind.

Jeffrey Phillips at Innovate on Purpose is more articulate on this idea: The sincerest form of flattery.

iinovate interview: Martin Eberhard, Co-founder of Tesla Motors

0-to-60 in under 4 seconds.

125 MPH, top speed

Not a gallon of gas.

That's what Tesla Motors is doing with its Roadster.

Here's an interview with the co-founder of Tesla Motors, Martin Eberhard.

Debbie Weil's Gift

Debbie Weil will show you How to Write A Great Business Blog...for free.

Usually, she charges. So, this is a great offer.

And rightfully so that she charges, because she's a pro at helping corporations embrace the power of blogging for their corporation. And she's a pro because her skills are so excellent and prodigious.

But now, she's offering her knowledge...for free. Free advice from an expert, maybe THE expert in corporate blogging.

Get it.

Disclaimer: Debbie and I do business together. We sponsor her newsletter. And we've helped with some conference calls. And she's included a quote from me in her book: The Corporate Blogging Book.

And we do business together, because it's fun working with Debbie and productive and we support what Debbie's doing with bringing the power of blogs to corporations.

Another F-model from Ford

Ford Motors is coming out with a new model.  And in the recent tradition of Ford Motors the name of this new model starts with the letter F. F-series trucks, Ford Focus, Ford Fusion...and now the Ford Flex. Funky 2009 Ford Flex Gets Its Own Calling Card.

And in the same recent tradition of Ford, the design looks like...someone else's. Here's some comments by folks who've experienced a rare sighting of the Flex:

It looks like a Scion on steroids...

It looks like a grown-up Mini Cooper...

The sentiments there were the same with the Ford Fusion. They fused (get it...) together design elements of different leading models they could no longer compete with: Volvo, BMW, Honda, Toyota. They took the trunk from one, the tail-lights from another, the front-end of the 3rd...fused them all together in a design wholly unimpressionable except for the dizziness in your head as you try to figure out...which model it isn't. Oh...it's that Ford...

They've taken the same approach to the design of the Flex. Take the front end of a mini, attach to the long box of the Scion wagon...round off the more interesting elements of either design, make it bigger (Ford engineers seemingly don't get out much. Otherwise, they'd notice buyers prefer smaller models...) and add the f-word name: Flex.

I guess the next model in this series of design ripoffs from Ford should be...the Ford Fake, or the Ford Fraud.

Here's a review of their FOCUS: Same small-car stew, stirred and reheated.

It's kind of a pattern here. Bland, boring, reheated, designed-down for the American consumer.

What am I doing, yet again, ranting about Ford? I guess my point is...is this the best a leading American company can do? Copy and meld the designs of better cars? Stale doesn't work when the consumer's smart enough to arm themselves with knowledge.

The question becomes then is Ford smart enough to recognize the consumer's onto them?

My guess is we'll see yet another round of disappointing earnings reports from Ford. Then their management will blame the cost of worker's healthcare for their declining marketshare, sales, and profits.

Health Care Solution: Checklists and Stakeholder Involvement

Peter Pronovost is a critical-care specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He created a checklist in 2001 with the goal to solve one problem: line infections. According to the article in the New Yorker,

he plotted out the steps to take in order to avoid infections when putting a line in. Doctors are supposed to (1) wash their hands with soap, (2) clean the patient’s skin with chlorhexidine antiseptic, (3) put sterile drapes over the entire patient, (4) wear a sterile mask, hat, gown, and gloves, and (5) put a sterile dressing over the catheter site once the line is in.

Ok. So he created a checklist that was not much more than a list of steps everyone had been trained in and had been standard procedure for years. YEARS.

Yeah. And? We all know what happens to checklists. No one uses them.

Unless. Unless you get stakeholder involvement.

The first group of stakeholders he involved were, yes, the nurses. He asked the nurses to just note when the checklist wasn't followed. He found that in more than 1/3rd of the patients, the steps weren't followed. (It's a bit scary to consider which of the steps weren't followed: Washing your hands or cleaning the patients skin first...putting a sterile dressing over the catheter site...?  )

Ok. So now he knows there might be a problem. And he's got a little bit of data and buy-in from one important group: nurses.

Then he added a little accountability. The following month convinced the hospital adminstration to empower nurses to intercede with doctors when they see proper steps on the checklist not being followed with patients.

Huge. This was revolutionary.

Pronovost and his colleagues monitored what happened for a year afterward. The results were so dramatic that they weren’t sure whether to believe them: the ten-day line-infection rate went from eleven per cent to zero. So they followed patients for fifteen more months. Only two line infections occurred during the entire period. They calculated that, in this one hospital, the checklist had prevented forty-three infections and eight deaths, and saved two million dollars in costs.

Here's the math:

One checklist + one problem, + one hospital + one group of passionate stakeholders to monitor the use of the checklist = 43 infections and 2 million dollars and eight lives...saved.

You have to wonder what would happen if  other hospitals used this same math? The article provides some more examples of this approach. You get an idea.

Link from Mark Hurst, Good Experience Blog.

One Christmas Story

I found this post last week...and saved it for today, Christmas Eve.

The True Meaning...at Nick's Blog.

Merry Christmas!

40 million went without needed medicine in 2005

40 million of us, 40 million Americans, went without medicine, dental care or vision care in 2005 because we could not afford it. That's according to a recent study by the Center for Disease Control. The report writes In 2005, almost 20% of adults reported they did not receive need health-related services in the past 12 months because they could not afford them.

And this economy is doing swimmingly creating jobs...whose pay and benefits do not allow for access to health care.

As this number goes up, the number of adults without access to health care, we're going to see signs of a sicker America as posted last week.

Link from Kelly Montgomery at Health Insurance blog.

Health Care Solution: Health insurance Counselors

Groups like Medicare Rights Center and individuals like Frederic Riccardi champion the rights of medicare and medicaid recipients to insure they receive proper benefits under the maze of plans, restrictions, small print, smaller print and never spoken terms.

Health insurance counselors like Mr. Riccardi, who travels to senior centers around New York City, help the elderly to understand coverage options and to escape the financial and medical vises that may be gripping them. Hospitals and senior centers often employ these caseworkers, nonprofit groups like the Medicare Rights Center have hot lines, and every state has a health insurance counseling program (www.shiptalk.org). NY Times article

Their role sounds very much like what customer service was once described. Serving the customer, championing the customer's needs, showing them you care. Whatever. For the many they serve, it's often a life-saving service.

There's no garbage cans, only volunteers

Dumb Little Man ( I LOVE that blog title) has a post that reminds us the power to change our life lies squarely with each of us. He reminds us and he offers some tips as well. Stop Being Treated Like Garbage.

Make sure the only garbage can in your life is on the curb in the mornings, and it's not you.

There's no garbage cans, only volunteers.

LinkedIn: Why?

Linkedin... is a sort of high-end consensual database of colleagues. In some ways it aims to turn the entire planet's workforce into one big set of colleagues, who only come to know one another when one can solve a problem for the other.

That's according to David Kirkpatrick, senior editor at Fortune, in his Fast Forward newsletter. (sorry for the lack of a link. But after 3-4 clicks around Fortune's site I couldn't find one for the article.)

It's more utilitarian, focused, purposeful for its audience than other sites whose sole purpose seems to be to sell advertising...(ahem, cough-gag, Facebook).

BEST (?) customer service email.

From The Consumerist. It's hysterical, a great story. And what customer wouldn't be thrilled to receive it.

Yes, it's one option for best customer service email.

Here's another option for best customer service email:

We fixed your problem.

And it's sent/ received within minutes from when the customer sent their report of a problem.

Yes, we all want meaning in our life. We all want an exceptionally personalized email from our service provider. But sometimes, for customers and the companies they buy from, all that's required is a simple reply, delivered quickly, with a solution to their problem or answer to their question.

One ring? One email, sent quickly, with one answer: the one the customer wanted.

Disclaimer: Yes, yes. I know the best customer service email is the email that's never sent. Almost the customer service paradox of what's the sound of one-hand clapping? If Customer Service is not answering customer replies can you say that your customers are being served. But then, your service, your product, your communication with your customers  would be so perfect in tone and text at all times for all audiences of wakefulness and comprehension, including those who prepare it, including yourself, myself, as leader, that yes, you could say customers were being served in all facets and manner and do so without impugning the reputation of your reader in asking them to accept it. But...we live in a world of imperfection. Humans have invaded our company. We create the imperfections and then in solving them we create meaning...and quickly move ahead unlike this disclaimer.

Link from Seth Godin.

Just One Rule, thank you: Make the customer happy

From Ben McConnell's post, The Tyranny of One, comes the simple question that vexes too many customer service operations:

When someone wants to add a new rule, how about eliminating an existing one instead?

Yeah. How 'bout it? Or how about having just one rule:

Make the customer happy.

Baseball: Ya' shoulda listened to your fans

Whenever you want to know the state of your product, ask the customer.  They'll tell you. They'll tell you honestly, clearly, succinctly, concisely.  Sometimes you don't even have to ask; they'll tell you publicly and repeatedly.  The wisdom of the consumer, like that of the American voter, is ultimately proven to be pretty accurate. Oh, yes. We're all fooled some of the time. But never all the time.

Take baseball for instance. Baseball fans chanted the state of the game for years. The chant was Sterrrr-royds, sterrrr-royds.

Owners didn't listen. Owners and players and and locker-room guys and their union reps and GMs and coaches and the broadcast networks and beat reporters and oh my, the commish...none of them seemed to listen. Or maybe they did, enough to create a collective dysfunctional state of denial based on their shared vested interest, MONEY/GREED, and the sense that the fan, aka customer, wasn't smart enough to see through the bloated beasts that would appear each spring, talking about their work offseason...the regular displays of roidal rage that were broadcast for yuks...the regular torn tendons that were too small to handle the near-immediate surge in muscle-mass that comes from steroid use.

Now, yesterday, the professional baseball industry is shocked, SHOCKED, to find out that steroids were being used by players...over the last decade...at least.

OMG!!!

The news, to them came in the report from former US Senator George Mitchell's Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances...etc, etc.

I listened to a baseball-beat reporter claim mea culpa for his not recognizing the use of steroids in baseball over the past 10 years of his reporting. Claiming he was too close, too busy, to see the patterns, the signs of its use. The day to day challenge of covering baseball precluded, occluded, their vision. Huh. Really? So, the day-to-day challenges of fans to make a living, provide for their families, juggle economic booms and busts, manage the personal impact of huge turmoil in their industry, declining incomes, rising prices, no health care...were somehow less, less enough that they didn't interfere with their vision. Yeah, ok.

For a year or two, I'm good with that claim. I too get too close to see a pattern or find a way to drill into that nagging, inconsistent data. But for a decade...? No.

And the baseball players union? You think it was in their best interest to NOT allow independent drug testing? By protecting the minority, you besmirched the reputations of the majority? That's leadership?

Don't get me going about the rest of the food chain who feasted on the fans' loyalty and devotion, oh and ticket prices and parking and concessions prices that eliminate fans whose family incomes don't subject them to painful amounts of AMT.

Next time...listen to your fans. Get it: fanatics? Fan is short for fanatics. They're fanatics about your product and its every detail. Save yourself some embarassment, keep the same fandom and their money in your pocket and who knows, and build an industry that brings pride back to the national pasttime.

4 Corporate Cultures, From the Inside Looking Out

John Moore, author of Brand Autopsy, shares a 3-part series on the experiences of Alex Frankel who:

Alex went undercover as a UPS package-delivering employee, Enterprise Rent-a-Car insurance up-selling associate, clothes-folding Gap employee, Latte-slinging Starbucks Barista, and Apple platform-converting sales evangelist.

Alex went on to write about his experiences in PUNCHING IN: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee. 

Fascinating read. Part one, John shares his email interview with Alex. Here's some pearls:

* I went in convinced that each of the jobs I would be doing would be soulless and the people I’d be working with would be somehow plastic, but I was wrong.

* Essentially, the best of the frontline corporate cultures match the people who are hired. I am someone much more hardwired to be a good fit at UPS than at Starbucks.

* If you can attract customers to work for your company who arrive as fans of the company before they even start work, you are in good shape. 

And in Part Two Alex talks about his failed interview with The Container Store. I like this guys honesty and clarity about this experience for him, why their different interview approach was so effective, and how it led to him being chosen...to not join the company.

Finally, in Part Three, John shares some Business Lessons culled from the book and his interview with Alex:

Business Lesson #1
A great advertising campaign can inspire employees far more than an internal memo ever could.  Frankel illustrates this with how the UPS branding campaign has impacted the employee culture at the company.

Business Lesson # 2
Don’t under estimate the power of a killer uniform. A uniform has the potential to jazz-up the spirits of employees or deflate them.

Business Lesson #3
Don’t hire people for the ‘right now.’  Hire the right people now.

Business Lesson #4
Evangelical employees can perform miracles. “Forget changing the store design adding new cuts of jeans—employees like Moses were Gap’s only hope of Salvation.”

[ I'd agree. I walked into a Gap store In SF back in October. Yawn. That's what I thought of the store's design. Glanced around, looked for a couple of items, didn't find them...

Being the only guy in a nitewear store I was promptly ignored...

Wrong...a guy in a nitewear store by himself is sending major buy signals...first off, a guy shopping is a major buy signal and one shopping for nitewear...double buy signal...But the associates communicated a major yawn to me...except one.

Finally, a very funny, engaging, helpful associate stepped forward and we had a great conversation about Nick and Nora, no not the pajamas, the Nick and Nora Charles from Dashiell Hammett's detective novels. Nick was played by William Powell and Nora was played by Myrna Loy in The Thin Man. ( You oughtta rent it. Black and White, with real dialogue in extended scenes, real actors working their craft with a snappy plot and only one shooting. No special effects either and it's still a great movie. )

And we talked about how both loved the Nick and Nora films, the books and how she watched them at home with her grandmother. Well, a couple hundred dollars later and one happy wife a few days later...I can testify to Alex's point about Gap.]

Back to John and Alex. It's a great 3-part series. The book looks to be a great read. I love the part about what the associate editor of the WSJ thought about his book. That's in Part-3. It only confirms two things: 1. why you should read the book; 2. why customers no longer trust most major corporations.

John's blog, Brand Autopsy, is one I could read and riff on regularly. He's very clear, passionate and articulate about the brands and what makes them survive and the sources of their...demise. Thanks, John.

Be afraid of your customers

Yes, you should wake up every morning terrified with your sheets drenched in sweat, but not because you're afraid of our competitors. Be afraid of our customers, because those are the folks who have the money. Our competitors are never going to send us money.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, talking in HBR's October 2007 issue (paid sub'n required) about the article Amazon.toast (circa 1997) that predicted the demise of Amazon when Barnes & Noble opened their website. At the time B&N had 30,000 employees and $3 Billion in sales. Amazon then had 125 employees and something like $60 million in annual sales. 

Judging from the results, I'd say fear is good. Not just any fear, though, but fear  that arises when you understand who/what/where brings you your greatest opportunity for success and failure.

Customer Service: The bar keeps dropping

It's funny. It's not that difficult really to provide crazy, wonderful, customer service. Ultimately, it just comes down to giving your full attention and resources to...your customer.

Funny story by Barry Moltz, Put Down that Cell Phone and Give Me Crazy Customer Service.

Facebook, .1%ers, Long Tail, Privacy Fears...Oh My

Pip Coburn pulls all these threads and a few more together on a flight from NY to LA. Democratizing the Internet? Vs. Privacy vs. the Long Tail.

Worth the read.

Customer Service is the New Marketing

Who: Customer Service is the New Marketing.

What: It's a one-day event that brings together innovative business leaders from several industries to share tips and suggestions about how they got their own organizations to do customer service differently

Where: San Francisco

When: February 4, 2008.

How much: $295.00, before December 31st. And with this link, it's 15% less. 

Windows Vista: You buy it; you fix it.

A whole industry of IT experts has been created solely to address Microsoft's quirks. Our IT-guy Extraordinaire regularly thanks Microsoft for his job security and earnings ability. For that matter, we thank MS for their operating systems requiring us to hire someone like Dana.  He's got job security and an opportunity to do some interesting, innovative, work here.

In some respects Microsoft's approach to writing software code is the same as the IRS writing tax code. The code is written. It's up to the consumer or the taxpayer to make that code understandable, useful. That means added expense. With the Tax code the added expense comes from accountants and lawyers and time spent working to satisfy the tax code. With Microsoft it's the cost of added security softare to provide what it won't and added IT professionals to fix what Microsoft can't.

This keeps Microsoft's stock price high as all this expense is off'd to their customers.

One has to wonder what the impact would be if the IT departments and their expense were directed towards innovation, solely, as opposed to providing reinforcement for Microsoft's quirks.

The latest example of boosting its stock price at the expense of its customers is ....yes...the Vista Operating System. It's a really a forced-march mentality by Microsoft on the backs of its customers.   Try buying a new PC with the dependable and proven XP operating system. Nope. That means many of your operating aps will need to be upgraded, also. Presto, a boom for PC-related application stocks.

(Hello, Apple...I'm your guy in 2008.)

Despite all claims to the contrary, Windows Vista still contains enough quirks and unaccountable behaviors to vex anyone (And that's what a small business wants, right? An operating system with enough quirks and unaccountable behaviors to vex anyone. Why that sounds like our tax system...Sorry. I'm digressing.) and they, Microsoft, still insist you buy this product.

Right.

You buy it and you fix it. The sign in china shops is You break it, you own it. There oughta be a law with Microsoft's Vista operating system: You buy it; you fix it.

Oh well. We're not alone. O'Reilly has the book, Windows Vista Annoyances that promises to not only discusses the most irritating features of the latest Microsoft operating system and how to get around them, but also explains how to improve Windows and do more with the software than Microsoft intended. Aha! The slaves turn on their master with cunning vengeance.

Either way. Microsoft Vista. You buy it; you fix it.

Can you answer these questions?

Could you answer these 2 questions Keith Ferrazi asks at his Never Eat Alone blog?

And could you commit to it in writing?

If you can, then you've got your business plan. And a life plan, too.

Global Small Business Blog

I just subscribed to this blog, Global Small Business Blog, by Laurel Delaney. I've received her newsletters for a few years now.  And now with the power of RSS, I can instead receive her feeds. Much more convenient.

Why did I subscribe now? Demand for US Products Abroad Outpaces Supply.

I found her blog on the blogroll list of Anita Campbell's Small Business Trends Radio.

52 (+2) Creative Ideas for Finding New Clients

Bootstrapper has a list of 52 Creative Ideas for Finding New Clients.

They're all good, well-organized into Online Tools and Resources, For Freelancers, Marketing Strategies, NetWorking Ideas.

My favorite was number two: Start Blogging.

I'd add two ideas to her list:

1) Awe your customers with your attention to their needs. Provide them with immediate solutions. And then find more solutions for more of their needs.

2) Do the same for your employees.

Gary Harpst's Next Book: Execution Revolution

Skip Reardon, who writes the Be Excellent blog, announced last week that Gary Harpst has a brand new book coming out: It's called Execution Revolution: Solving the Problem that Makes All Other Problems Solvable.

You gotta love that title. It's one thing to talk in theory about execution revolution. But Gary's put himself on the line promising to solve the problem that makes all other problems solvable.

Being the faded, jaded, reader that I am, if I saw a title like that I'd pass on it.

But I'm psyched to read this book. I loved Gary's first book, Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Business That Learn, Lead and Last. I loved it so much I convinced Gary to chat with me for a few weeks running on a podcast series about his book and his Six Disciplines for Excellence. 

During that conversation, I found that Gary delivers on his promises. I have no doubt that Gary's  new book will deliver on his title's promise: solving the problem that makes all other problems solvable.

Health Care Solution: Rate MDs

RateMDs allows patients to share their doctor ratings. Visitors can find doctors and their ratings by specialty, city, name, last rated, etc. To date, almost 400,000 ratings have been shared on 119,843 doctors. 424 ratings were added yesterday.

Caveat: it's not a perfect system. It could be prone to abuse. But that would be fairly easy to recognize.

But, it's a start towards empowering the patient/aka the consumer with knowledge and bringing consumer-facing accountability for  the doctors. As with all large groups, it's no different with doctors. The overwhelming majority are wonderful, helpful, professional providers of health care. A few examples spoil that reputation for their colleagues and do so primarily at the expense of the patient.

And here's a resource that lets the patients spread the word on which doctors are the norm or better, and which doctors aren't.

90% increase in the past decade? Guess who.

Hospital bills.

The Orlando Sentinel reported last week that hospital bills have increased 90% over the past decade.

"We have a sicker America," said Carmela Coyle, a senior vice president at the American Hospital Association in Washington, which represents 5,000 U.S. hospitals and medical providers and was not involved in the study.

The conditions with greater-than-average growth in billings were sepsis, chest pain, respiratory failure, back pain, osteoarthritis, irregular heartbeat, procedure complications, congestive heart failure, medical-device complications and diabetes, according to the report.

The article doesn't say if more people are needing hospital care or the care needed at hospitals is more expensive. Either way, it points to...a sicker America. That has repurcussions in a whole host of areas related to quality of life, global competitiveness, national debt, economic growth, budgets for education and infrastructure, etc, etc.

Link from Kelly Montgomery's Health Insurance blog.

Inspiration: Paul Potts

Watch this video: Cell Phone Salesman Sings His Heart Out.

Life During Wartime

Blast from the past. From Talking Heads, Life During Wartime.

We got computers; we're tapping phone lines....

Seems so prescient, so innocent. From only 20-30 years ago. Ahhh. Art school.

This ain't no party. This ain't no disco. This ain't no fooling around.

Nope. It sure isn't.

Bizzuka makes Baton Rouge Airport Soar

You know you're web design and content management agency is a winner when:

* their design of your website wins national awards (and attention from the press for you)

* your business is a small regional airport

* your website was competing against designs from other airports much bigger, flashier, newer, etc.

That's what Bizzuka, a provider of component-based web content management and intranet-based solutions, accomplished for its client the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport. According to the press release, Bizzuka's work brought  a national award for  the airport's Web site, FlyBTR.com, finishing second in a competition of 73 US airports both large and small. The airport was honored at Airports Council International's Annual Excellence in Marketing & Communications Contest held in Kansas City, MO earlier this year.

Congrats personally to Paul Chaney, the Internet Marketing Director for Bizzuka and to all those involved at Bizzuka and the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport!

Have you bought your stuff today?

Ever wonder What is the Story of Stuff, the stuff you buy.

Ever go a day without buying some of that stuff?

First question answered with a link from Mark Silver at Heart of Business. Thanks, Mark.

Second question asked by Seth Godin. You have to answer it.

15 Steps to Bigger Ideas

Tim Siedell lists 15 Steps to Bigger Ideas at Drew's Marketing Minute.

I'd say he's spot on with his list. Here's my faves from his list:

1) Give yourself a target.
The more concretely you define the problem, the more energy you can focus towards a specific solution.

6) Actively search for inspiration.
Look into other industries or unrelated fields for sparks of inspiration. Search the web. Look for items that spin you into new directions.

7) Aim low at first.
Nervous about a deadline? Frustrated? Get an easy solution onto that blank page and you'll loosen up and feel more confident.

8) Forget about it.
Seriously. Go to a movie. Take a walk. Move on to another project.

9) Go to sleep.
Research shows that a good night's sleep leads to bigger and better ideas. Let your subconscious go to work.

12) Be a sponge.
The more stuff you have in your brain, the more material you'll have to work with the next time you free-associate.

15)  Collaborate. 
Working with others will help you grow your ideas exponentially.

According to Drew,

Tim Siedell is creative director and co-founder of Fusebox Brand Communications. His bad banana blog is an excellent daily resource for creative ideas and inspiration (step 6 above). 

Innovate Like It's Your Job...

Because it is your job.

Good post on the topic by Jeffrey Phillips at Innovate on Purpose.

Innovation: Energy Resources

Hydrogen Car is Here a Bit Ahead of Its Time. It's the HONDA FCX, with 134-HP, 270 mile gas tank, production and showroom ready. Now all it needs is a national infrastructure of gas hydrogen-stations. Now that there's a car, maybe buyers will manifest. And if  buyers manifest, they'll want to show it off...to their inlaws in the next county, the next state, the next region...

GM has it's own fleet of Hydrogen Cars. They're setting up complimentary test drives in a few markets. But you have to wonder how close they are to market. Their hydrogen model costs...ahem...up to $1 million each. Their commitment is to have a show-room ready model by..again, ahem...2012. The article quotes a spokesman from Honda saying their showroom ready models won't be available until 2018. But the above article says their FCX is showroom ready for leasing at $600 a month...now.

BMW announced the Hydrogen-7 in September 2006. According to the article at AutoBlogGreen...The BMW Hydrogen 7 will be built in a limited series, and sold to select customers in the U.S. and overseas in 2007.

It's a good sign that PR pieces for auto manufacturers' hydrogen models are getting competitive, too. It means the industry is taking it serious, recognizing there's lots at stake.

Offshore Wind Power. Imagine oil derrick-type structure but supporting wind generators. Why not? I doubt there would be oil slicks...From EcoGeek and Peak Energy.

Inflatable Solar Panels. 400 times less expensive than polished aluminum mirrors.... The company behind the design is CoolEarth Solar; cool name. Link from TreeHugger

North African Desert Solar Project. From the Grist...A string of gigantic solar generators in the northern African desert could cleanly supply one-sixth of Europe's electricity needs... In addition, the stations could be used as desalination plants to provide fresh water to desert countries. Digressing for a moment. The project awaits $10 billion in financing. The Prince of Jordan, it's reported went to the UN for financing. You see the irony...Jordan, with its proximity to nations with their dwindling supplies of oil, needing financing from Europe for an energy resource project. I think it's called vision or the lack thereof.

Answer their calls in one ring

Seth Godin riffs on this idea with his post titled The Discipline of One Ring. What if you organized your company to answer your customer's calls after...one ring?

If you run a business your first question is: Is it expensive? ...(ok, it's not a question. For those who ask it,  it's a an issue that's as real as the mirage in the road on a hot summer day.)

Here's Seth's answer:

Expensive? Well, it's more than you're spending now. But it's cheaper than advertising and cheaper than losing a customer to the competitor who had the discipline.

3 sentences. BAM! Mirage gone.

How to Handle Angry Customers.

Don't make them angry. Don't frustrate them. 

I saw an offer to join an audio conference to learn the keys to dealing with angry and frustrated customers - resolving conflict without giving away the store.

I thought...why not just not make your customers angry and frustrated? Why not a seminar on how to make your customers happy?

Why not a seminar on reminding businesses we're here to give away the store? It's their store, the customers store, anyway.We're just managing it for our customers. My store is the store of conference calls and communication and collaboration. I give it away every day. I do so in a way that keeps the store open for the customers, and employees, to keep coming back when they need to.

Too few businesses think like that. It's an adversarial relationship in their mind, with their customers and employees. We might give away the store if we make them happy....! OMG. We may make them happy...

Honestly, I've never seen a customer take the store. Even when I've offered, they've declined.

We've created angry customers. Some part of our service offering failed. I've had to call the customer, as CEO, and literally offer the store to make things right.  What do I need to do to make things right for you, to feel good about being our customer?

They never wanted it. They didn't want the store. They just wanted to be heard. They wanted to know that their needs were important, their life was important, their goals were important and how my service helped them with those goals was important to me. Important enough for me to call and offer the store. 

They want you to care.

If you care, and you communicate it, then any anger passes quickly. And you kept the store by offering  to give it away.

Small Business Trends Radio

I had a nice chat yesterday with Anita Campbell and her co-host Steve Rucinski at Small Business Trends Radio . I was their guest for their weekly Small Business Event. And we talked about how we handled the changes in our industry over the past 7 years with prices dropping by over 70%.

In the Face of Certain Doom, One Company Finds Success is the title of the post. And the link to the MP3 recording is there.

The whole experience with Anita and her producer, Staci, was so easy, so well-organized and so professional. As I commented on their post about our chat, the process to prepare for their show served to help me clarify, yet one more time, one more level, what we're doing and where we're going.

Thank you, Anita and Steve!

I like Small Business Trends Radio for the same reason I like John Jantsch and Duct Tape Marketing: She focuses on resources that work...today, right now. She focuses on solutions you can put to use today. You should listen to her show.

Facebook: Members can't sell their own ads...?

I love Facebook. It's a rich community of members. AND, it's a rich case study in what happens when a company gets really, REALLY, successful and rich in REALLY short time.

Early symptoms of hubris are emerging with Facebook. Hubris, and the need to control all that is theirs now to give. That's as they see it, it seems. The original business model was all about freedom, openness and sharing, when there was nothing, nothing left to lose. And now that they're talking about real money...(a billion here, a billion there...pretty soon you're talking real money...the late Sen. Everett Dirksen, possibly) now it's theirs and their alone to give.

Take for instance the latest development. Members can't advertise their own ads on their own profiles. Technically, they can. And they do, with a company called weblo. But Facebook thinks members' own ads on their own profiles may be... unseemly.

Facebook does not allow users to sell ads on their profile pages. Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, told me on Nov. 6 that is because Facebook does not want people’s profile pages to become cluttered.

“We don’t want a free-for-all,” he said.

I'm wondering if Mr. Kelly has recently visited Facebook. It's the free-for-all nature of Facebook that makes it so charming, enticing, captivating, and drives its growth.

Oh but wait. This would be a free-for-all where...Facebook loses control. It would be a true free-for-all not just the patina of one. Be careful what you build, you may just get it.

The irony, one might say perspective skewed by self-serving monied interests, is rich here. Unlike Facebook's Beacon program...which was a free-for-all when discovered, with Facebook following its members, announcing their activities, making it virtually impossible to opt-out from Facebook's monitoring their every activity...and cluttering a lot of people's day...you think a member advertising their own ads only on their own profile would be a 'free-for-all'.

And it's your esthetics that keep you from allowing members to indulge in the same activities as you deem right for you. Yes. We are Facebook...we know what's best for our members...Nothing like a parental attitude manifesting in a corporate dictate... Free-for-all's are bad if it's the members' free-for-all and it's good if the free-for-all is free...for...all except the members with the ad revenue going directly to Facebook, not the member.

Facebook, you've not created paradise, but you are about to pave over your own business model.

Wired News Saddest-Cubicle Contest

You want to laugh when you see the contestants in Wired News Saddest Cubicle contest. But it's a nervous laugh, really. A sad, omg, laugh...we hope their penance is short-lived kinda laugh...as we've all been there in different periods of our life.

The winner was a great guy, I'm sure, who's been relegated to shlub-status with his cubicle framed  by...

filing cabinets in a windowless conference room, near a poorly ventilated bathroom and a microwave. The overhead light doesn't work -- his mother-in-law was so saddened by his cube that she gave him a lamp -- and the other side of the wall is a parking garage. Gunnells recalls a day when one co-worker reheated catfish in the microwave, while another used the bathroom and covered the smell with a stinky air freshener. Lovely. - Wired News

( You know your settings are sad when you're mother-in-law gives you a lamp. 'k? )

As part of a due diligence assignment I saw a group of executives take 2 x 3 tables that served as desks for their frontline customer service staff and put a divider in the middle. Presto! They had twice as many desks. And that pinnacle of managerial acumen was achieved at 1/10th the cost of buying new desks. Wow. ( In the dictionary was their picture by the term 'short-sighted'. I also saw their picture by the term 'myopic' and 'narcissistic', but I digress. )

They were actually quite proud of their creative initiative and touted it as signs of their leadership brilliance. It was difficult for me not to laugh during their management meetings when they loudly and profanely complained about the decline in morale by their front line customer service staff...and the increase in customers terminating their service.

Granted, maybe some of these contestants could be in temporary settings. It happens.

I once worked very happily in a cubicle area carved out by a 5-foot high divider by a hallway and window. The good part was I had light and fresh air. The sad part was I had to have fresh during Iowa winters as the airflow was so poor, caused in large part by the divider. That meant during the winters I needed to keep my window open even while snow blew in and I sat with a hooded jacket to keep typing. It was an inspiring sight, well at least amusing.

I didn't mind, really. We were all on a mission. We knew why we worked in such close quarters. The camaraderie was so great,  I was so busy, and jacked up on caffeine, I didn't really notice. A simpler time for a lot of people.

But, um, the bottomline was...I was psyched, motivated, challenged, revved each day I walked in the office.  I never saw my settings as an example of the saddest cubicle. My cubicle could have been slightly smaller than a gitmo cell but I was inspired, excited, in a setting where I could contribute with relatively few constraints, working with a great group of people, doing something great for each other, our community and our company.

I would never have thought of my cubicle as...a cubicle, much less an example of sad, nor thought to enter it in a contest. Honestly, it was where I went to make things happen in my own little world, my own little area of influence.

And maybe the winner of this contest, and the rest of the entrants, see their cubicles as where they go to make things happen...Maybe. But my sense is...they don't. And that's what's sad.

Link from Strategic Public Relations

Make Meaning...

StoryCorps, an oral history project, collects the stories and legends of everyday people in America. They've been collecting stories since 2003. 

Make meaning in your members' lives. That's how you create passion; that's how you grow. 

Link from DailyGood. 

We love SubscriberMail!

We love SubscriberMail! Not only is their service excellent, but their people are even better. They're totally attentive to our quirky, personalized, needs as a customer. Their staff is always professional, skilled, creative, friendly...every time.

But y'day they rose to yet another level of service. Here's the story. We had an ice storm out here yesterday. You may have heard about it. Lots of people without power.

It wasn't our turn to lose power yesterday. (We did lose it last night.) But we did lose our phone and internet service yesterday afternoon for a few hours. I called SubscriberMail and asked Ed if he could do us a favor. (Full disclosure requires I tell you he paused for a moment.) I explained we needed to get a note out to our customers letting them know we're out of touch right now with this ice storm. Would they send a quick note to our customers letting them know? 

Ed didn't hesitate after he understood the nature of my favor. He said they'd take care of it right away. And they did. I called back in a few minutes ( I forgot to leave them my cell phone number.) Ed told me the staff were leaving a meeting and he'd bring it to their desks.

And maybe 15 minutes later Chris called to tell me the 3-4 line note they'd crafted and it was being sent in 2 minutes. And almost by the time I returned to my desk, there was a copy of the email.

They were so smooth, so helpful, so immediate in their answer yes we can do this...

That's what customer service is about. Serving your customer. Finding a solution for their needs.

Thanks Ed and Chris!

Thanks Jordan for hiring and managing the folks at SubscriberMail so well they'd do this for us.

We love SubscriberMail!

How You Can Succeed without Advertising

Success without Advertising - NY Times (blog-friendly link).

...what they do is useful, practical, needed

...has credibility, an authoritative voice.

The who* isn't so important. It's the what and the how.  ...what they do is useful, practical, needed. And they do it with credibility and authority.

And that's how you succeed without advertising: offer something useful, practical and needed. And do it with credibility and authority. Or in secular terms, give them what they want. Be honest in doing it.

*The Who: Consumer Reports.

Why is strategy execution so hard?

Skip Reardon gives 4 spot-on reasons to explain Why is Strategy Execution So Hard:

1. Your strategy fails to recognize the limitations of the existing organization. [This is what I refer to as another great idea killed by reality reason.

2. Your employees don’t know how the strategy applies to their daily activities. [ A 2-day event with Verne Harnish, CEO of Gazelles, enlightened me that we all see the world for how it answers 3 questions:

A. What's in it for me?

B. Why should I care?

C. Why should I believe?

I'm successful in promoting an initiative with any audience, to the extent I can answer those 3 questions succinctly and in a compelling manner.

3. Your organization’s business systems or processes can’t support the strategy. [See Reason Number 1.]

4. Your performance measures and rewards are not aligned with the strategy. [See Reason Number 2.a and 2.b.]

Fundamentally