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Top Ten Trends in 2008

Jack Schultz at Boomtown USA shares the Top 10 Trends for 2008.

Interesting list. All of them gave me hope for the future. The common thread pointed to change, migration, innovation, entrepreneurship, education. The two that caught my attention were the two that focused on Education:

3. Education-This isn't Kansas, Toto! The jobs of the 21st Century are increasingly going to go to the well educated. Towns that have world class primary and secondary schools are going to be the winners. Entrepreneurial education is going to increasingly be pushed down to Kindergarten. Community Colleges will be the key to the constant retraining of the work force due to the rapid changes taking place in our economy.

4. Promises-It started with Kalamazoo, MI which promised to pay the college education for anyone who attended its grade and high schools. Newton, IA, and El Dorado, AR have followed suit. Several others are looking to follow. Huge driver of where the Gen Xers and Millennials are going to decide to raise their families. Employers will follow.

Hat tip to Becky McCray at Small Biz Survival.

A great plan to drop us from 24th to 25th place.

Some would say the internet was born here in the US. (Maybe Al meant to say it was born in his barn...) Regardless of its birthplace, or inventor..., as a nation we showed the power of this resource to level the competitive playing field, inspire/allow innovation that created millions of jobs that drove our economy and whose open-source system continues to do so even now.

So it's a bit odd to read of a new approach to killing this open-source resource for innovation and job creation. Time Warner Cable has chosen Beaumont, TX for a pricing experiment. They're going to tally their internet users gigabytes. And charge them accordingly, including overages and penalties just like we get on our cell phone these days.

It's a consumption-based billing plan.

Imagine the impact on our economy if we had a consumption-based billing plan for our highways? And what if we gave control of that billing plan to manufacturers of say...steel products or ag products ? What a great way to undermine your competition! Charge them a higher rate for using your highway to bring their product to market!

Imagine if TWC had a conference call company? Would they be tempted to NOT apply their consumption-based billing plan for gigbyte usage to their internet customers who use their service while at the same time applying these penalties to their customers who use our service?

Imagine if TWC was responsible for our highways. WIth a consumption-based billing plan they'd charge fees to drivers. And how easy would it be to charge a premium for say...cable install trucks of the kind used by their competitors or family cars exiting at/around a cineplex?

This is what the plan from TWC will do. You see as a cable operator they want their customers buying video rentals through them and their cable operations, not from iTunes, etal where the rental fee goes to their competitor, not TWC. So...being a company that focuses on bad profits, they create a consumption-based billing plan that adds fees to their customer to diminish their choices to only what TWC offers. The same video rented on TWC-cable for $3.00 will not include any internet usage fees  that would apply if the customer preferred to rent the same video for $3.00 from say iTunes or netflix, etal.

As Steve Levy, an editor at Newsweek wrote in the Washington Post:

Fast, cheap, abundant broadband is a fantastic economic accelerator, enabling breakout businesses and kick-starting new industries. Unless we move quickly, these will spring from foreign soil. Instead of testing systems that discourage people from vigorously using our overpriced, underpowered systems, government and industry should be working overtime to figure out how to get faster service for less money and make sure that all users, no matter where they live, have affordable access to the high-speed Net. Maybe then we'll get out of 24th place.

That reference to 24th place refers to our ranking as a nation among industrial nations for internet speeds and prices for their citizens.

SEED Conference: Jason Fried's Presentation

The SEED Conference was a few weeks ago. I've already posted it was a delight.

Jason Fried's presentation was titled: 10 Things. (Pretty simple title. That's the core of his message, I think. ) Here's my notes.

1). The Great Unknown. (Future)

Financial projections? Don't. They're pie-in-the sky. [Frankly, I agree. I don't project financials. I set goals, create incentives, work towards that goal. But...projections? They're like betting, really. I project the little ball will land on ...8. I project our revenues will be...x.]

5 Year Plans. They serve as blinders. [ Agreed. I can guarantee no one could plan today from 5 years ago.]

Product Roadmaps? Don't. They serve as product lock-ins. [It's like deciding if you need a rag-top or hard-top model on a spring day in the midwest. You don't know. Make a good guess. Start and be ready to be flexible.]

You don't know what you're doing until you're doing it. Just Wing It. [ If you do know, then you're a moment away from stagnation, hardening of the attitude and being wrong. ]

2) RED FLAGS. [ These are 4-letter words that serve as show-stoppers. ]

Need. This only serves to shut down conversations, close off possibilities. An alternative would be to ask "What do you think about that?".

Can't. Another version of "no".

Easy. It's everyone else's job that's easy. You use easy to describe everyone else's job, eg, It'll be easy for you to add this feature...

Just/Only. Very rarely is it either.

Fast. You can' do this real fast.  You can do this real fast; it's just one thing; You can do this real fast; it's only one thing; it'll be easy.

3) WORRY ABOUT THINGS THAT DON'T MATTER.

Pixels, partnerships, customizations, fonts...and

4) WHEN IS IT READY TO LAUNCH.

[Guilty! I'm a worrier by nature. I've learned to just let go...keep doing what I'm doing, winging it in a lot of cases...and I'm more productive and those around me are happier and productive!)

5) TOO MANY COOKS.

Work expands to fill the time.

Work expands to fill the personnel. Scale back to match the head-count.

[ Jason commented on their motivational tactic to give everyone Friday's off in the summer. He noticed that the same amount of work got done. Caveat was this wouldn't be sustainable over long periods. But it was a great motivator! And it served to keep his group at the edge where they're most creative. ]

6) NOT ENOUGH CHEFS.

The creatives, the visionaries. You have two choices: you can outspend or out-teach your competition.

7) INTERRUPTION IS THE ENEMY OF PRODUCTIVITY.

A fragmented day is not a productive day. [ I loved this point. ]

9) MEETINGS ARE TOXIC.

Communication usually fails except by accident.- Osmo Wiio

A meeting of 2 people turns into a meeting with 6:

Who you are.

Who they are.

Who you think they are.

Who they think you are.

Who you think the other person thinks you are.

Who the other person thinks you think they are.

[Sad, but true. ]

Meetings are symptoms of problems. People are lazy. Or they lack decision-making skills or resources.

[I'd agree. Our meetings dropped as fast as I could give the tools and confidence to everyone to make decisions they were more than capable of making. And our productivity only grew, along with our happiness and harmony in the company. ]

Meetings are costly. [ Bingo. When you consider the time-expense, the payroll expense...he's absolutely on target. Then when you consider the source for most meetings, the lack of authority and autonomy to make decisions, and how that indicates poor management of your number one asset, your people, meetings are VERY costly.]

10). Make Tiny Decisions.

Chop the problems into smaller bits: smaller decision, steady progress, no need to make big decisions.

When you make tiny decisions, you can't make big mistakes.

Decisions are progress. Progress is great for morale.

What are the easy problems. What's the easiest to do that has the most impact?

Make small launches, launch often, create little thrills.

Do something every week.

There you have it.

It was a great presentation. The content was excellent. The PowerPoint slides are minimal. That made their impact greater.  Jason spoke as expert who owned his topic.  I appreciate good speakers with great content and who incorporate PowerPoint as a supportive resource not as the content of their presentation.

I'll post my thoughts and notes from the presentations of Jim Coudal and Carlos Segura.

 

SEED Conference, Chicago, January 18

The SEED Conference in Chicago a few weeks ago was a delight. It was like finding a great little hotel or restaurant to savor with a few good friends. And you know it's so good, so fun, so easy and realized that it will get big as people find out about it. You're happy for the success. You're happy for the chance to be there at the beginning.

The SEED Conference was  a one-day conference on design, entrepreneurship & inspiration by 37Signals, Segura Inc & Coudal Partners.

Short and sweet. Sweet from being direct and to the point and all meetings were in one location and very informal without being disorganized. Short...it was one day, from 9 AM to 4:00 PM.

The content was excellent from Carlos Segura, Jason Fried and Jim Coudal. Separately I'll post some thoughts and impressions of each of their presentations.

Bottomline: SEED is a conference you should attend if you're interested in design, entrepreneurship & inspiration. Their leadership in these areas should inspire a growing conference in the coming years (especially if you don't hold it in January in Chicago....SMILE)

3 Tips for Keeping Top Employees

A short video at CNN shares 3 Tips for Keeping Top Employees.

I particularly liked the how they encourage you to not only say thanks to an employee, but to connect what they do, and what you're thanking them for, to the success of the organization. That gives meaning to the employee and significance and authenticity to your compliment and words of thanks. 

"...if they are not willing to change."

The biggest threat to established companies in rapidly-changing markets is usually themselves, if they are not willing to change. - Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of KaZaA, Skype and Joost, as quoted at the recent DLD tech/Net/media conference.

More about this conference at Fortune's Old media meets empowered customers.

Fred Reichheld's Presentation at Net Promoter Conference

Fred Reichheld gave a keynote, maybe THE keynote, at last week's Net Promoter Miami Conference - 2008.

Here's my notes from that presentation:

Today's lecture is about ...loyalty growth.

Loyalty leaders grow 2.6 times faster than their competitors.

4 Building Blocks of Growth: 1). Repurchase; 2) Buy more; 3) Referrals; 4) Constructive Feedback.

None of these are measured by GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)

Corporate CEO's whose missions are based on the Golden Rule:

Chick-fil-A: Every life we touch is better for it.

Enterprise Car Rental: Treat customers so they come back for more and bring their friends.

Bad profits alienate customers and demotivate employees.

Retention is not the right metric. ( That came from a visit to a leader with Harley-Davidson who shared with Fred the story of a customer who tattoo'd themselves with the corporate logo for Harley-Davidson. Yes, retention is not the right metric. You want customers who want to brand their personal logo, a body part, with your corporate logo. That's commitment. For any customers reading this, we'll pay the costs of our logo being branded on your body. You do have to be a current customer. And we'll provide the jpeg/gif image of our logo for your tattoo. )

The simple question of would you recommend us to a friend? integrate responses from the heart and mind of the respondent. The heart answers in terms of you know me, you hear me, you care about me; The mind answers in terms of  best features, best prices, best service.

We want fewer surveys and more conversations. - Scott Cook, CEO of Intuit.

The power of NPS comes from its open-source basis. And it's simplicity. And its ability to provide actionable feedback for a company. And it provides a standardized metric a company can rally around.

That's also a threat to those with vested interests in marketing research and surveys. There's some pushback reaction as NPS methodology gains acceptance.

Fred Reichheld, you'd expect him to make THE keynote presentation. It's his research that served to develop the Net Promoter Score. He wrote The Ultimate Survey which outlined the power and practice of the Net Promoter Score. And his consulting firm, Bain and Company, along with SatMetrix, have served to promote the power of NPS and its impact in bringing good profits and a focus on the customer back to the boardroom.

Fred Reichheld's blog.

The Net Promoter blog.

Net Promoter Conference Presentation: Vivian Blade

I liked Vivian Blade and her presentation at the Net Promoter Conference - Miami 2008. She was well-organized, ran a good PowerPoint presentation, very crisp in her presentation and demanded responses from a post-lunch audience made sleepy in an oxygen-deprived conference room.

She's a Master Black Belt, Marketing with GE Consumer & Industrial.

She's an Ali fan, too.

She spoke about Driving Investments in NPS Improvements with "Lean Six Sigma Approach".

Here's my notes:

NPS is a growth enabler. It's a simple framework.

Absolute score is less important than the trend - Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE.

NPS is about how we improve customers' experience.

Negative references are 3 times the number of positive references for your company. [Translation: do something great for a customer and they'll tell 1/3 their number of friends as if you do something to annoy or disappoint them. See the power of turning your detractors (negative reference source) into promoters (positive reference source).

Companies are involved in 3 types of activities:

Non-Value-Add: not necessary and does not add value

Non-Value-Add: Necessary, does not add value. [That's the definition of a commoditized market]

Value-Add.

Value-Added activities make up 5% of an average company's activities. [See the opportunity? Change that to 10%, spend 10% of your day adding value and you're way out in front of your competition.]

I've got some notes about:

Listening: Experience vs. Expectations.  [My scribbles say this point was about talking to your customers and hearing them tell you how well you delivered on your promise, how their experience matched up with the expectations you built for them.]

2 sets of customer cues: experience and product. To grow you must deliver exceptionally well on the key cues for each.

She also spoke about lean manufacturing and Six Sigma and their role in generating a positive Net Promoter Score. (I've linked each term to their definition in wikipedia. )

This was great for me. My passion with NPS is from its focus on operational excellence, from innovation to consistently delivering an outstanding and dazzling experience, AND doing it efficiently/effectively ie profitably.

Thanks, Ms. Blade. 

Saying Goobye to Bad Profits at eBay

Goodbye bad profits; hello customer loyalty.

Having just returned from the Net Promoter Conference in Miami my ears were attuned to good profits, bad profits.

The term bad profits is defined in the Net Promoter methodology as profits that come at the expense of customer loyalty. Sign-up fees and cancellation fees and early termination fees are prime examples. Or charging customers to call your customer service center like some airlines have, continue to do so...(Digression: Hello? You CHARGE your customers when they call you for service...?)

We once charged fees to change access codes. It's a very good step for customers to take to insure confidentiality on their conference calls. And there we were penalizing them for taking steps to insure a great experience with our service. 

Some accountants love the fees as they show so well on financial statements. What doesn't show so well, or so immediately, are the alienated customers, the lost referrals, the early departures. And in our case, we replaced the fees charged to our customers for their emails and phone calls saying Thanks. You guys are so great. Thank you for taking care of this so quickly....etc, etc. Very positive ROI.

I was surprised and delighted to read how eBay's new CEO, John Donahoe, will stop charging upfront fees for their members. ( Those fees looked good on financial statements for eBay. But the former customers, and their activity, of eBay looked even better at Google and Amazon where they went because those firms didn't penalize you for doing business with them.) Look for a turnaround at eBay's fortunes in the coming weeks and years if they continue to get rid of bad profits and their customers and their loyalty returns. 

Link from Verne Harnish.

Put the customer first

Shawn Frey at The Broom Wizards reminds his readers that selling starts with the act of giving. Sure, it's a free sample of his products. And sure they have to come to his Freightliner Sprinter that's stocked full of his products...

But it's a free sample of a product that helps the customer.

It puts the customer's happiness first.

Skip all the hype and theory about sales. Definitely forget the ads that interrupt our day. Successful sales starts and stops with your attention to the small details...like putting your customers' delight as your first order of business.

Disclaimer: Shawn's a friend. He's a customer, also.

The Travel Industry...Champions of Bad Profits?

I just returned from last week's Net Promoter Conference - Miami 2008. I'm flush with the ideas of customer loyalty, good profits vs bad profits, detractors and promoters. 

My travel newsletter from the Washington Post came this week. There in it was a near perfect description of bad profits and their consequences, compliments of Joe Brancatelli.

First off, let's talk about bad profits. That term is key in understanding Net Promoter Score methodology. According to Fred Reichheld and Bain & Company, bad profits:

...often boost short-term earnings; in the long run, they burn out employees and alienate customers. They also undermine growth by creating legions of detractors—customers who sully the firm’s reputation and switch to competitors at the earliest opportunity. Bad profits choke off a company’s best opportunities for true growth, the kind of growth that is both profitable and sustainable.

Joe Brancatelli has a great online resource for travelers of all stripes. His column in the Washington Post  describes bad profits, pefectly, AND shows their consequences.

As I warned in a recent column, the travel industry will continue to slap surcharges on published prices. During the past week, for example, airlines have attempted to impose a fuel surcharge of $50 round-trip on domestic fares. It fell to $40 and is now $10. And some Dollar Rent a Car franchises in New England are testing a $2 "top-up" fee if you return your rented car with a full tank of gas.

These 'fees', how they're delivered and what they communicate to the customer and the employees needed to enforce them, is what's known as bad profits in the Net Promoter Score methodology. The travel industry, as a whole, has created legions of detractors with its focus on bad profits.  Sure, an airline's accounting department can see an extra $50.00 per customer, per flight and think...Jackpot, bonus-time! And no one ever shows them the true costs of these bad profits from low employee morale, high employee turnover, high customer churn, and the resulting costs from ad campaigns to keep replacing once loyal customers.

Joe's post shares a more immediate pressing consquence for the travel industry. He shares 10 Tips on How to Complain to the travel industry. It's sad that an influential writer like Joe Brancatelli is inspired, incited really, to arm his readers, the customers of the travel industry, with tips on how to get just compensation when things go awry on the road.

That's a consequence. No way a profit can be considered good when you're arming your customers to do battle with you.

Think of the impact on  the morale of your employees when your short-sighted policies have so alienated your customers that popular websites and resources have articles on how to do battle with you...and these are the most popular articles. And your employees know A. they're powerless to make you stop; B. they're powerless to solve the customers' complaints.

That's bad profits. That's NOT a sustainable business model. That's the consequences.

Update: airlines are reporting another round of quarterly losses. They're blaming the cost of fuel...And as expected they're reinstating the unpopular Saturday-night stay rule.

United senior vice president John Tague is quoted by [Ted Reed of The Street.com] as saying United is "working very hard to segment the market where we can with minimum stays, Saturday-night stays, differential pricing between airports and a number of other tactics." Reed writes "carriers who have added the restriction suggest that when applied discreetly, it's part of a move toward more sophisticated yield-management efforts.

Discreetly is the operative word. You surely don't want your customers to know. That would be a bad thing.

The Best Small Biz Books - 2007

I love books. I can't borrow books at the library; I have to own them, savor them. At this point, I have so many by my nightstand that buying them is cheaper than paying overdue fees at the library.

And here's a 5 more to add to my list: The Best Small Business Books of 2007. Check them out.

John Jantsch has your social media strategy

John Jantsch can show you Your Social Media Strategy in a free webinar tomorrow. In his own words, he says he'll talk about...

Social media, and by that I’m lumping together blogs, RSS, social networking and bookmarking, presents the marketer with a rich set of new tools to help in the effort to generate new business.

I'm dubious of the title expert. And John never refers to himself as such. And that's a good thing.

But it's an extremely small universe of people who've mastered a social media strategy better than John Jantsch. I mean, just look at his website and blog and blog channel.

And John offers the added benefit of someone who's done it himself, for his business and others. It's not theory or what-ifs, but reality and who-not -I-did - you - can - too that he's offering.

And the webinar is sponsored by Jigsaw, a social media I need to master. You do, too, probably.

It's free. It's tomorrow.

John's blog post has the link to register.

Disclaimer: John's a customer of ours. We've been a customer of John's. John lets me rant about business life on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog Channel.

Net Promoter Score Conference: A 10

Would I recommend the Miami - 2008 Net Promoter Conference?

Yes.

How likely would I be to recommend the Net Promoter Conference in the future? On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being definitely would not and 10 being definitely would, how would I rate my likelihood to recommend Net Promoter Conference?

Oh...a 10.

What would I say?

Well organized, well-structured, prompt schedule. Excellent presenters who not only spoke about the power of Net Promoter to build and grow loyal customer evangelists, but who also spoke about how they changed their internal operations based on the feedback of their customers using the simple Net Promoter Score to grow more passionate and loyal customers.

Would I attend next year's event?

Yes.

On  a scale of 10....

10.

I went down to Miami to attend this year's Miami - 2008 Net Promoter Conference. And it was stronger and more useful than last year's show in NY. That reflects the maturity of the knowledge, the slow but steady acceptance of this simple metric to build good profits, kill bad profits and do that by inspiring passionate loyalty in your customers...just by listening to them and doing what they tell you. The speakers not only spoke of the role of Net Promoter Score and the Ultimate Question Survey, they also spoke about how they executed the survey and how it impacted their organization and how it enabled them to re-orient their company towards...their customers' needs. Oh, and the benefits of focusing on customers.

This week, I'll add post about a few of the excellent presentations I saw.

Here's the Net Promoter Blog.

Miami...I understand, now.

Miami, I understand, now. I walked, ran really, 5-6 miles, on your sidewalks (such as they are, such as wherever they are...) and up your crowded streets (such as they are and as finished as they are...) including Brickell and Biscayne Bay...I understand, now. I too, would be a bit distracted and impatient with mere mortals, their hordes, keeping me locked in my expensive car, idling, stuck in traffic looking out through narrow slits between ever more high-rises (did we say the building boom continues apace in Miami?) towards the waterfront, ever-more hidden and blocked behind gated communities which even if it was my residence I wouldn't quite reach them in time to enjoy their offerings...

And looking at the number of high-rise residences under construction...it's only going to get worse.

I understand. I too wouldn't make eye contact for fear I might miss a glimpse of paradise lost.

Bounce...I loved it

I just finished reading Bounce!: Failure, Resiliency and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success, but Barry Moltz.

I loved it. Besides some very good perspectives on the role of failure in your inevitable success, and tips on how to manage that inevitable part of the journey to success, Barry shares his failures and their role in his successes now and in this very successful book.

Theory is all well and good. I like theory and philosophy, the view from 30,000 feet. But I also appreciate and respect the view from the trenches especially when it's this honest AND this helpful.

Thanks Barry for your journey and sharing it with us, with me.

Interview w/ Royal Dutch Shell's CEO

It's a one page interview with Jeroen van der Veer,the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell.

The issue of global warming and energy resources comes down to this:

Q. How close are we to an understanding globally that climate policy and energy policy are all interrelated issues?

A. ...There is a kind of sense of urgency. Secondly, there is a preparedness to do things. Thirdly, do we agree who has to take what action? I think that is still a huge problem.

I bolded that last line for emphasis. Not that it needs it, really. But that's what it all comes down to: who's going to do what? 

Innovation is fun when it's free, when the inspiration springs from inside. It's a bit tougher slog when innovation is demanded from the outside. You see the problems created. And you HAVE to find a solution and you can't wait for personal conveniences or political viability. Then you really have to reach down and connect everyone's vested interests to show how the change will improve their lives or serve to reach their goals.

Unlocking Cool in Your Company

Don, the Idea Guy, shares a slideshow to help you Inspire Infectious Innovation. It's good. His blog is good, too.

As John Jantsch wrote...Change is the Ultimate Secret for Business Success. And nothing like Inspiring Infectious Innovation to create some change in your organization.

The Ultimate Secret to Business Success?

Change is the ultimate secret to business success.

John Jantsch explains.

Thursday's I usually talk a bit about innovation. And change and innovation  can be used interchangeably. Innovation...is the ultimate secret to business success.

Innovate or die.

Change or die.

Grow or die.

The State of the Entrepreneur

We have the State of the Union Address later address this week. 

Laurel Delaney at the Global Small Business blog pre-empted it last week by linking to the state of the small of the entrepreneur report...for the world. It's the 2007 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report, prepared by Babson College, London Economics School and an university team from each country.

Given the impact of global competition on our economy, a disproportionate share of jobs are created by small businesses as compared to their bigger and stodgier big brothers/sisters...this report may have more direct impact on the economy section of our current State of the Union than a couple of extra bucks this April from Uncle Sam. According to the Executive Summary:

Nascent and new entrepreneurs expecting to create more than 100 jobs in five years reporesent only 1.7% of all nascent and new entrepreneurs, yet they expect to create nearly 50% of all expected jobs. Almost 90% of all expected new jobs are foreseen by less than one-quarter of nascent and new entrepreneurs.

One interesting statistic is our aging population. Entrepreneurial activity generally doesn't arise from an aging population. That means much slower job growth as fewer entrepreneurs arise. Maybe that's balanced with the need for fewer jobs. Maybe. But given the expected longevity of the workforce, the delayed retirement plans for all...maybe not.

Another interesting statistic is the correlation between high incomes and high levels of high-expectation entrepreneurship activity. The US currently is among 3 high-income countries that generate the highest levels of high-expectation entrepreneurship. I'm not sure how that activity changes as our income levels for all but the wealthiest begin to stagnate or decline.

Bottomline, we're not alone in generating entrepreneurs. Nor are we necessarily doing the best job at this point. We're still at or near the top in many categories. But changes loom. Or challenges loom, and some, like an aging population, can't be modified with a one-time $300 refund check.   A sustained commitment to supporting entrepreneurs and small business, the ones that drive job creation, is needed.

Say Goodbye to Hollywood...

NBC's CEO had my humming this song today. Say Goodbye to Hollywood. It's a Billy Joel song, kinda bitter-sweet, kinda melancholy.

He announced that NBC was going to cut, by $50 million, their investment in pilot programs.

Pilot programs are to network TV what innovation is to every other industries. Pilot shows are the innovative products for network TV, like iPhone and iPods are Apple's innovative products.

And everyone knows what happened when Apple introduced those two innovations: their revenues resumed growing, growing a lot.

And everyone knows what happened to the Big 3 Auto companies when they stopped innovating new models: their sales dropped, dropped a lot, dropped abruptly.

And now NBC will compete by cutting back on innovation and instead offering a product unremarkable and undistinguishable.

Say goodbye to NBC...

Say Goodbye to Hollywood from Billy Joel...

Miami...kinda cold

I left Iowa today. It was, I don't know, -3-4-5 degrees. That's cold.

I flew to Miami...where it's hot. 80 degrees, hot colors, hot cars. But I find it colder than Iowa.

There's a lot to be happy if you live in Miami: tropical weather (80+ degrees today), tropical fauna, hot and lively colors on the buildings, cool architecture, beautiful people, expensive cars and clothes...fresh seafood...so it's odd to never see anyone smile or make eye contact, with anyone.

Ok. Granted. I live in a little bitty town in Iowa where we all know each other and the only people we don't wave to are: A. family; B. in-laws; C. ex's. Other than that we wave at everyone and for the most part it's sincere.

But even in Chicago or NY, the crustiness is but one layer deep. It's more from being busy and surviving the weather (Chicago) or cabbies (NY, ok, kidding about cabbies, honestly cabbies may be the friendliest of all..so, maybe just surviving the crush of humanity on the sidewalk.)

I stopped in at a fruit stand and asked the lady behind the cash register.

Do people not speak to each other in Miami? Smile, wave, make eye-contact?

She replied:

Como?

I laughed. I liked that. It gave her a minute to consider who and why this one guy without a tan came to her stand and asked why people weren't friendly. I repeated the question.

She replied:

Cold...in Miami.

Yeah. Kinda. A different cold.

What's your perfect business day?

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing asks the question: What would your perfect business day look like?

Here's my perfect business day:

The lead line is ringing constantly; the customer service line is ringing constantly with customers sending us referrals; a new partner wants us to market their services to our customers; I'm signing performance bonus checks left and right; customers are calling me to tell me how great our company is.

And all the calls are being answered.

And this is the 365th day in a row where this happens.

DON'T Be All Things to All People

The rule applies to attracting and retaining customers as much as it applies to attracting and retaining talented staff.

BusinessWeek's article, What It Means to Work Here, has some thoughts on this rule as it applies to finding and keeping talented employees.

Have the Courage of Your Convictions

Accept that you don't need to be—nor should you try to be—all things to all people. No matter the content of your signature experience, you can use it to attract people who are suited to your organization's culture—and who want to further its goals.

It was a tough lesson for me to learn that not everyone would fit in our company. We really couldn't be all things to all people or accomodate all needs from all people. We're a great company. But not for everyone. As that reality and its impact has sunk in to my addled brain, we've become a stronger company and a better company for our staff and customers.

That's a huge competitive advantage for small businesses. Be different. DON'T be ALL things to ALL people. Find one great thing. Be the best at it. Then find another. Then another. Pretty soon you're a big company with great big departments and those with vested interests saying we can't change...But until then, have fun, grow, be different, add jobs, stir and repeat.

Tomorrow: Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Chris Anderson and John Jantsch

Join all of them  together, for a panel discussion  focused on helping you discover the one thing that will make or break your marketing efforts this year.  And you can listen to the panel discussion from the comfort of your office, wherever that may be at that moment. It's a conference call.

It's at 2 PM, ET.

It's free with your name and email. Just visit John Jantsch's post Come Hear One Thing? And you'll see the link to register.

Remember "Core Inflation"?

Can you see  Chris Farley on SNL in his skit  where he interviewed Paul McCartney (...'member that time...? ) talking about inflation?

Chris Farley: 'member when they talked about inflation and ever'body laughed and all 'cause it was so low. And the only stuff goin' up was energy and food prices. But it was ok, 'cause they weren't part of 'core inflation'. And they thought they were so smart and ever'thing? 'member? Yeah...'at was cool.

Well now it turns out that core inflation or not, energy and food price increases um, have an effect on people's buying power.No [kidding], sherlock.

USAToday: Consumer Inflation... Up 4.1% in '07.

Energy prices are up 17%; food prices are up nearly 5%. And consumer prices overall are up...4.1% for 2007.

Cue laugh track...ready?...'cause it's still ok 'cause 'core inflation' is up only 2.4% for 2007.

Yeah, that's right. To get people to spend what's left of their declining take home pay, retailers are having to lower their prices for consumer goods. There's celebration about that...Yeah! We have to lower our prices 'cause no one can afford our goods after paying 17% more to heat their homes and drive their cars and 5% more to eat...Those non-core items.

That retailers have to do that, that they still report declining sales for Christmas...that declining retail sales during the peak retail buying season is not a good sign for a consumer-based economy...well, no one wants to admit that.

What? What's that I keep bumping into in our national living room? An elephant? No way. It must be a duck; it can't be a recession.

Chris Farley: Hey. 'member when we had the recession or sump'n and, and...ever'body knew it but no one would say it, y'know no one would say the word....Yeah...'at was cool.

Yeah. That was cool. 

He doesn't do deadlines...

I've always darkly enjoyed (ok after the aggravation has passed) how people build their own Rationalizations and Excuses Department by Tim Berry.

I have much less patience for that department now having found that investment rarely yields a positive ROI. Better to just confront the silliness right then, found out who they are, and they you...and move forward.

And as the blog's author writes: Good luck with that. Let me know how it works out.

Vinod Khosla interviewed at iinnovate

Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and partner at Khosla Ventures shares early stories from Sun, his views on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and his outlook on clean tech investing with his interview at iinnovate.  It's a great interview. Here's some random quotes.

The question of how you keep a company innovative...I haven't seen many companies be very successful.

The single biggest piece is allowing people to fail without hurting their careers.

I look for the right person, first. If it's the right person, that's perfectly fine. The right person's key, that we can work with.

The 2nd most important key is the large market that's open to disruption.

The third piece is how important is the technology breakthrough they're talking about.

Net connected appliances, and co-generation

From Beet.Tv are profiles of technologies working to help lower energy use...today.

High-tech electricity meters in Seattle (10% savings)

Natural gas co-generation, networked lighting and shades in the new NY Time building. (40% savings).

Cool.

5 Principles of Innovation

5 Principles of Innovation are listed at Fortune's Innovation Insider. The list is from  the Center For Creative Leadership. I think they're all excellent.

1) Innovation starts when people convert problems to ideas.

2) Innovation needs a system.

3) Passion is the fuel, and pain is the hidden ingredient.

4) Co-locating drives effective exchange.

5) Differences should be leveraged.

For me, numbers 1 and 5 are the key. Complaining is the first step of converting problems into ideas. Never underestimate its need. If no one's complaining, there's no need...yet...to innovate. Listen to the complaints, then move the dialogue to finding ideas.

That leads you to step 2: a system. You'll need some system to move problems and  their being voiced as complaints into the discussion on finding ideas.

Passion. You won't have innovation without passion. Passion comes from caring, that's been unfettered by bureacracy. Employees having a voice to complain, to share their passion for something better or their pain at something stupid...is the key to their participation in finding their own solution.

Steps 4 and 5 go hand in hand. Co-locating for me means...bringing different people, departments, groups, technologies, budgets...together to create an agitating, exhilirating source of diverse ideas.

Want 'em to learn? Let 'em sleep

Interesting Op-ed at the NY Times: The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade. (reg'n required.)

Research shows that teenagers’ body clocks are set to a schedule that is different from that of younger children or adults. This prevents adolescents from dropping off until around 11 p.m., when they produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and waking up much before 8 a.m. when their bodies stop producing melatonin.

I know, I know. The first thought is just to yell at them louder, lecture them about responsibility and setting the alarms, etc.

But when some schools changed their start times from 7:30 to 8:40...

Attendance immediately went up, as did scores on standardized tests, which have continued to rise each year (Jessamine County, KY)

In Minneapolis and Edina, Minn., which instituted high school start times of 8:40 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. respectively in 1997, students’ grades rose slightly and lateness, behavioral problems and dropout rates decreased.

In Fayette County, KY, the number of teenagers involved in car crashes dropped, even as they rose in the state.

If that's the results, I say let 'em sleep.  Standardized tests only build standardized thinking, good for routine jobs of low wages and no benefits, anyway.

Maybe better sleeping habits will help improve science and math scores and help maintain some global competitiveness in the future years. It's disturbing to read from the National Science Foundation report that Many Americans appear skeptical of established scientific ideas in these areas, ["Big Bang and evolution] even when they have some basic familiarity with them. U.S. scores on questions about these two areas are lower than those in other countries. That reflects the signs of a tired mind that prefers wishful thinking over rigorous, disciplined, research.

20 Million Acres Producing...

GoozNews shares a very funny (painfully funny) op-ed post in the Washington Post by James Woolsey, the former head of the CIA. Part of the post is an imaginary conversation between a K-Street/Oil industry lobbyist and a leader from Tehran. It's so rich I'm sharing it here:

Says Tehran:

"My regime is much better off if nobody understands that. If you'd ever eaten grass-fed beef, you'd know it's quite tasty. The only thing you add to a cow by feeding it corn instead of prairie grass is fat. And since the corn makes cows huge and sick, they need lots of antibiotics, which are used so massively on the dumb animals that it helps make bacterial strains grow immune to the antibiotics more quickly. Sooner or later, that means Americans will find that their antibiotics don't work. So your stupid country now has 20 million acres' worth of corn that basically does nothing but promote cardiovascular surgery and infectious disease."

Somehow Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues comes to mind: 20 years of schoolin' and they put you on the dayshift.... Now it's 20 million acres and they put us in a heart attack...look out kids, they keep it all hid...the pump don't work 'cause the vandals stole the handles.

Who won the Iowa Caucuses? Word-of-Mouth

Patrick Galvin at Buzz Builder explains how and why Word-of-Mouth Wins Iowa Caucus.

I REALLY like his summation:

Before Election Day in November,billions will be spent on traditional advertising. But, I would bet that the victor will not be the one who buys the most advertising. Rather, it'll be the candidate who gets the masses buzzing.

I sure hope you're right, Patrick. 

146 ideas in 30 minutes

From Verne Harnish's The Growth Guy blog, comes the story of Roy Harmon, CEO and President of the Bank of Tennessee. He emailed all 200 of his employees at the end of last year. He asked them for ideas to help improve their company. And he gave everyone 30 minutes to respond offering $100.00  to someone randomly drawn from each 20 suggestions.

The result: 146 ideas in 30 minutes. Some were great, some...so-so. Some redundant. And many shared the ideas on the same theme.

What a great way to inspire and engage with everyone in a fun way and end up with... 146 ways ideas in 30 minutes to improve everyone's day.

Recession or opportunity? Quack.

If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck...it's probably a duck.

If you're a consumer-based economy and your Consumers Cut Back Sharply on Spending

If it's Christmas and you see a Poor December at Retailers...

When Goldman-Sachs, the bastion of capitalist enthusiasm opines it expects the US economy to drop into recession...

And the CEO of UPS talks about slipping into recession...

You'd have to say it's likely what we have here is a recession duck. It's an election year, so we have to say it's a duck.

That is, unless you're a small business. Small businesses are hiring, growing. That's opportunity.

Company disconnect: Benefits unwanted

There's nothing like the right benefit to engage everyone in your company. The right benefit connects the company goals with their personal goals. It incentivizes right behavior. It shows you care enough to know what's important to them. And it's a key resource to use to make everyone's day exciting and fun...productive.

That sentiment or its lack carries over to cooperation within the company and is very clearly communicated to your customers.

So, why then do so many companies offer benefits that staff don't want.

Maybe it's because they don't ask their staff what's important to them.

I'm guilty. I came up with an incentive for us to cut costs, add to our cash flow. The incentive was a big party with a budget 10% of the savings over a year?  How cool would that be?

Not very as it turned out. A big party had no meaning for anyone. Frankly, they wanted the cash. Luckily, we all talk to each other. They told me. I listened. Together we achieved far more than I expected in generating more cash by cutting costs, streamlining our day and doing it without any impact on our customer focus. In fact, our lead conversion ratio only increased. (Sorry for the self-promotion. Won't happen often, but the anecdote served to highlight the importance of matching benefits with people and goals.)

More on this disconnect between a company's generosity and the needs of its staff in What's the Point of Benefits that Staff Don't Want? from Management Issues.

Our health care system is 19th...

out of a list of 19 other developed countries.

According to a recent study published at Health Affairs our 'best health care system in the whole world' is rated 19th out of a list of 19 developed countries for our ability to prevent

amenable mortality  - that is, deaths from certain causes before age 75 that are potentially preventable with timely and effective health care. In addition to the U.S., the study included 14 Western European countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. According to the authors, if the U.S. had been able reduce amenable mortality to the average rate achieved by the three top-performing countries, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths annually by the end of the study period. - Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis, Commonwealth Fund.

Oh sure, we're making progress. We're 4% better at preventing preventable deaths. But that's compared to an average 16% improvement in Western Europe, Japan, Australia Canada and New Zealand.

But I guess that's ok to many. We have the best health care system in the world, we're told. We're told that a lot by people receiving contributions by the major players in this system, it seems.

I'm not sure what their criteria is to assess that title. According to this study, their criteria doesn't include preventing deaths by providing timely and effective health care.

And as Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly wrote,

But there's a bright side: at least our healthcare isn't funded by the government, like it is in France. Keep that in mind if someone you know dies of preventable causes. Their odds would have been a whole lot better in Paris, but who'd want to live in a socialist hellhole like that anyway?

For the 100,000 and their families who would live in a socialist hellhole with a system that could prevent their amenable deaths, I'm thinking...they might prefer it.

But before then, they might want to ask someone why can't their best system in the whole world do better?

People seem to die when ideology trumps data.

Health Care Solution: Lower Ninth Ward Clinic

Patricia Berryhill, registered nurse, opened her home in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans to provide health care for her citizens and neighbors in the Lower Ninth Ward. She continues to do so, even now, 2.5 years later. USA Today.

Healthcare Credit Scores

From Kelly Montgomery at About.com's health insurance blog post, Do your know your health care credit score?,  comes this news:

According to the Baltimore Sun, the health credit score, designed by Healthcare Analytics, is designed to help providers and other stakeholders in the healthcare industry with information on a patient's ability to pay for services.

Here's how it works. You go to a hospital, with or without health insurance. You have your treatment. You go home. THEN, the hospitals claim, they'll look at your MedFico score to judge your ability and likelihood to pay and then based on THAT they'll decide how much help they'll offer you to pay your healthcare bill.

And the hospitals PROMISE, cross-their hearts and all, pinky-finger-twist-and-a-snap kinda promise, that they'll NEVER, EVER look at your MedFico score before treatment is considered.

Why, why, of course not! No one ever abuses credit reports especially when they have vested interests and they're involved in creating a credit report, ability-to-pay report, unique to their needs. Of course not.

And of COURSE, they wouldn't factor in a MedFICO report when the patient returns for later treatment or ongoing treatment or complications treatment...

And the fact that hospitals charge uninsured patients triple the standard Medicare prices applied for those with insurance and 2.5 times their standard prices applied for those with health insurance...is a coincidence?  Maybe. 

I guess if you're going to gouge people, people without options, you want to know if it's worth your effort.

Kicking people when they're down. Whew. I thought the management in the hospital industry had hit bottom but I guess not.

10 Tips for Living Green

Some are a bit expensive, perhaps (buying a hybrid car); some are inexpensive (maintaining proper inflation with your car's tires). But there's 2-3 things we all can do, since no one in Washington is doing anything.

Environmental Protection newsletter provides the list of Ten Tips for a Green 2008. The list is from Green Mountain Energy.  Note: I couldn't find the list on their site. But they do offer other valuable resources in helping us all live a bit greener AND cheaper.

Car insurance by the mile

From Brady Forrest at O-Reilly Radar comes a profile of Milemeter: a Dallas-based startup that will let you buy American car insurance by the mile.

Cool. And a side-benefit is it's another motivator to change our oil-consumptive driving patterns. Drive fewer miles, your insurance lasts longer.

Innovators: You need them other folks, too.

Diversity of thought and the freedom to express it is the key for successful innovation. Or as this article in the NY Times expressed it:

Look for people with renaissance-thinker tendencies, who’ve done work in a related area but not in your specific field,” she* says. “Make it possible for someone who doesn’t report directly to that area to come in and say the emperor has no clothes."

Yep. Nothing like pointing out the emperor's nekid to make everyone look for a solution.

* Cynthia Barton Rabe, author of Innovation Killer: How What We Know Limits What We Can Imagine — and What Smart Companies Are Doing About It.

Want More Production? Get More Diversity

If you're looking to improve the productivity of your company, then add a heaping helping of...diversity