birdfeed

Four keys to great public speaking

2009-05-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Nick Morgan, founder of Public Words, Inc., is a former Fellow of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and one of America's top communication and speech coaches. He's penned a new manifesto with for keys for turning any public speaking engagement into an opportunity to change the world. (After all, isn't that the point?)

Morgan thinks most speeches are awful because:

Speeches are awful because speakers make it about them instead of the audience
Speakers don't take their audience on a journey
Speakers don't rehearse
Speakers think about their content but not their body language

He then offers simple, practical advice that I wish everyone would read, take to heart, and put to use before they stand before us and subject us to "Death by Powerpoint."

[Download "Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking"]

How David beats Goliath (more often than you think)

2009-05-07T05:15:00.001-07:00

Underdogs win a lot more often than you think. Malcolm Gladwell explains how.

We're all familiar with the story of David and Goliath, where David stood before the giant of the Philistines and survived to tell about it. For forty days, Goliath had been dispensing soldiers with relative ease, until David came along. David rose to the challenge and, at first, girded himself with a helmet and mail and sword. But David recognized that waging this battle using conventional warfare would be suicide against Goliath. So he changed his strategy to take advantage of this strengths.

Malcolm Gladwell, in an article for The New Yorker, argues that this simple act of adjusting strategy is the key for weaker opponents – the Davids – to win against foes that greatly overpower them. He tells a compelling story of Vivek Ranadivé, who took on the job of coaching his daughters woeful basketball team, a bunch of “little blond girls” from Menlo Park, daughters of computer programmers. He says, “They weren’t all that tall. They couldn’t shoot. They weren’t particularly adept at dribbling. They were not the sort who played pickup games at the playground every evening.” Yet he was able to take them from obscurity to a national championship by changing the way they played: Instead of playing to the strengths of opponents, the adopted a relentless full-court press strategy and crushed the better-abled competition.

Gladwell suggests successes of this type aren't all that uncommon. In fact, political scientist Ivan Arreguín-Toft recently looked at every war fought in the past two hundred years between strong and weak combatants. The Goliaths, he found, won in 71.5 per cent of the cases. Thinking about the original David, who took off the heavy, unfamiliar armor and picked up five smooth stones, Arreguín-Toft wondered, when the underdogs likewise acknowledged their weakness and chose an unconventional strategy? He went back and re-analyzed his data. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5 to 63.6. When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win, Arreguín-Toft concluded, “even when everything we think we know about power says they shouldn’t.”

Which begs the question, what should you be doing to change the game to play to your strengths?

[Read Gladwell's article, "How David Beats Goliath"]

Swine Flu Primer

2009-04-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

I was involved in several conversations over the weekend with folks from Harvard Medical School and Staywell Consumer Health Publishing about the current swine flu outbreak. It's becoming increasingly clear that this epidemic – now found in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Spain – has broken through to be called a pandemic.

Indications are that most of the cases that have spread beyond Mexico's border, like the school in Queens, NY, or the cases across Spain, have been the result of travel to and from specific regions within Mexico. But with the introduction of NAFTA years ago, the amount of business travel to Mexico has increased greatly and we can expect these cases to continue showing up across the country.

At this point, while the death toll in Mexico climbs, the US health care system has been able to deal with the disease. How long we can control both the severity and spread remains to be seen, of course, but there are some can do to prepare and prevent swine flu from hitting home.

Harvard Medical School offers an overview on their site of things each of us need to know, as well as a more complete Special Health Report covering swine flu in detail:

[How to protect yourself (and your loved ones) from swine flu]

[Get the Swine Flu Special Health Report]

Jessica G. asks, "Please disregard my previous email(s)..."

2009-04-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

So this morning I received an email from Jessica G. at Donatos Pizza informing me of the April specials for Donatos catering. I didn't recall ever asking to receive this information, but hey, things happen right? I glanced at it and trashed it. A few minutes later I got another one. And then another. And another. At last count, I had received the same message at least seven times. Ooops. Looks like someone is learning how to use their new email software (at my expense.)

Then I realized that the messages actually included in the To: field all of the intended recipients, and there were *a lot.* Some names I know and recognize, others I don't, but I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach thinking about all the mail I would likely get from this hackneyed inclusion. (Best practice tip: Never send an email to several people unless you put the recipients in the blind carbon copy [BCC] field.)

A couple hours went by, and then I got this gem:

From: Jessica G.

To: (Me and everyone else on the original list)

Subj: Recall: April Specials from Donatos Catering

Jessica would like to recall the message, "April Specials from Donatos Catering".

Oh, Jessica. Poor lass. I feel your pain. How many of us have wished, at one point or another, that we could recall an email we'd previously sent? Unfortunately, the Internet (and, in many ways, life) doesn't work that way. Generally, once you hit "Send" it's sent. I suppose you could try calling each of the recipients and asking them to "Please disregard the email message I sent to you and hundreds of other people seven times this morning."

In the end, however, you're probably better off just forgetting it and hoping that the rest of us do, too. I hate to think of the ill will that was created toward Donatos Catering by this unfortunate turn of events, but people generally have short memories and will (eventually) forgive and forget.

(So you should probably stop sending me the message about recalling your message. Three times is enough.)

Web Review: Vimeo Shows Off Creative Pedigree

2009-03-03T10:23:00.000-08:00

Most people are aware of video-sharing site YouTube. In fact, it would be hard to have missed its meteoric rise as a household Internet name. But there are other sites out there providing similar services, some of which are just plain better.

In this article, I explore the world of video sharing online and call attention to two sites you should know about: Vimeo and blip.tv.

[Read the article]

[Visit Vimeo]

[Visit blip.tv]

Web Review: Uncrate great stuff

2009-02-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

Uncrate is a blog that provides a daily email digest featuring the absolute best in random stuff for men. Think cars, watches, clothes, gadgets, books, food... if men will like it, the best of it is found on Uncrate.

[Read the review of Uncrate]

[Visit Uncrate]

Great (and slightly) random things from 2008

2009-01-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

I can't help it... I see these compilation and retrospective lists (things like "Top 20 Viral Videos of 2008" or "21 Worst Business Bloopers of 2008") and while I don't think that I'm all that interested, I feel compelled to read them. May be some sort of psychological fear of missing out, I don't know, but I thought I'd create a list of my own for the final Indianapolis Business Journal article of 2008. (Though, as it turns out, it's actually the first article of 2009.)

Anyway, here goes:

See the "Great But Random, 2008" list.

Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar

2008-12-19T14:50:00.000-08:00

It's been an interesting week. I had the opportunity to have a heart to heart with a friend and longtime client yesterday who asked for a little more... A little more attention, a little more time, a little more responsiveness. Our conversation reminded me how difficult it can be to manage growth and expectations at the same time.

When I received this story from my sister today, it was yet another reminder that we *all* play a role in delivering exemplary customer service... all we have to do is do it. No one can make you serve customers well. That's because great service is a choice. Best-selling business author Harvey Mackay tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point:

I was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing I noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for me.

He handed me a laminated card and said:

"I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement."

Taken aback, I read the card. It said:

Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

I was blown away. Especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside: spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you Like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."

I said jokingly, "No, I'd prefer a soft drink."

Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."

Almost stuttering, I said, "I'll take a Diet Coke."

Handing me my drink, Wally said, "If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."

As we were pulling away, Wally handed me another laminated card. "These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio."

Then he advised me of the best route to my destination for that time of day and let me know that he'd be happy to chat and tell me about some of the sights or, if I preferred, to leave me with my own thoughts.

"Tell me, Wally," I asked the driver, "have you always served customers like this?"

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.

"He had just written a book called "You'll See It When You Believe It." Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck; be an eagle! Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.'

"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cars were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."

"I take it that has paid off for you," I said.

"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today; I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the cab driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

[Note: Thanks, Nancy, for trusting us enough to have that conversation. And for reminding me that the Rare Bird's success has been due in no small part to soaring like eagles, not quacking like ducks. -Jim]

Focus on the message to survive the recession

2008-12-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

"Cutting your marketing budget to save money is like stopping your watch to save time."

Charlie Williams

As my old boss used to say, "cutting your marketing budget to save money is like stopping your watch to save time." It seems to be common knowledge among both business owners and marketers that a recession is the absolute worst time to cut your marketing budget. While knowing what not to do is important, it's better to know what you should do.

To help, a recent Knowledge@Wharton article offered some helpful advice that's worth considering: "The first reaction is to cut, cut, cut, and advertising is one of the first things to go," says Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader, adding that as companies slash advertising in a downturn, they leave empty space in consumers' minds for aggressive marketers to make strong inroads. Today's economy "provides an unusual opportunity to differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd," says Fader, "but it takes a lot of courage and convincing to get senior management on board with that."

But as Wharton marketing professor Leonard Lodish points out, weakened demand causes the cost of many of these services to go down. "If your company has something to say that is relevant in this environment, it's going to be more efficient to say it now than to say it in better times," says Lodish.

Most interesting, however, is recent research that demonstrates just how powerful this economic downturn can be for companies that take advantage of the environment. According to the article, "a McGraw-Hill Research study looking at 600 companies from 1980 to 1985 found that those businesses which chose to maintain or raise their level of advertising expenditures during the 1981 and 1982 recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered. Specifically, companies that advertised aggressively during the recession had sales 256% higher than those that did not continue to advertise."

Some key concepts for success:

Craft messages that reflect the times and explain how you can benefit the consumer
Without dwelling on the economic conditions, realize that certain products require a straight-up approach; be authentic
Focus on a goal-oriented message that helps people plan for the future
While some can craft messages based on price, choose value instead
Luxury products should appeal to emotion, highlighting the escapism, emotional release and comfort in difficult times
Regardless of the tactic you choose, stay true to your brand

Other gems await... Be sure to read the entire article for more.

Succeed in business: get the equation right

2008-12-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

"I now get as much satisfaction from the challenges of keeping my restaurant fresh and exciting as I did from cooking. It is now more than twice as busy as it was and growing at 20% a year–teeming daily with regulars and newcomers."

Jonathan Rapp

There are enough gems in this short two-page article to keep any business owner churning through possibilities and thought for some time, but the one that grabbed my attention may be the simplest (and should be the most obvious):

Start with what the customer wants and go from there.

This BusinessWeek article is about New York restaurateur Jonathan Rapp and his journey building a sustainable enterprise in the small town of Chester, Connecticut.

He left New York thinking his experience and reputation would be enough to succeed in the small town. He quickly learned otherwise. Says Rapp: "By Year Two, the trouble signs were too numerous to miss. Numbers were declining for both customers and revenue. There was a persistent drumbeat of criticism of virtually every aspect of the restaurant, except the food. No matter what we did, we couldn't shake the perception that we were too expensive, too “New York-y” (a nasty epithet here), and on top of that, had inconsistent, aloof service and a menu that was too limited."

He thought of selling, but after running the numbers realized he had nothing to sell. Quitting was also an unfavorable option, so he chose to take stock and try to turn the enterprise around. "I realized that I had the equation backwards," said Rapp. "I was making decisions based on what I wanted. In our own minds, we were the best restaurant around—but the fact was, we weren't connecting with our customers." Marketing Guru Seth Godin is fond of saying that you shouldn't create a product and then find a market for it. Instead, you should find out what the market wants and then create that product. This sounds like sage and obvious advice, but Rapp's story illustrates how easy it is to overlook it in practice.

So he fired his 'talented chef' that wouldn't adapt, formed a focus group of customers, and really dug into the community vibe of the small town. Specifically, he:

Remodeled the restaurant to be cozier and more comfortable (less New York-y, to be sure)
Began asking his customers what they wanted from a local restaurant
Changed hours to be more accessible to when customers wanted to be customers (opening for lunch and dinner)
Began communicating with customers on a regular basis to let them know what was happening in and around their 'community' restaurant
Began collaborating with local artists, businesses and even other restaurants to create events and to reinforce their image as a member of an unique, thriving village.

But the best idea may be the purest, something Rapp calls "Dinners at the Farm." Dinners at the Farm is "a summertime series of outdoor dinners that we put on in the fields of local farms. The food, 100% locally produced, is cooked from scratch on our bright red 1955 Ford fire truck kitchen. Each dinner benefits a local agricultural nonprofit. Over the past two seasons, we have donated $28,000 and purchased over $50,000 worth of food and wine from local producers. More than 150 guests show up on any given night."

The short article is worth the read.

Hold on to your hat... and maybe everything else

2008-11-19T09:10:00.000-08:00

From the "Isn't It Obvious?" news desk comes a story about the retail outlook for holiday sales:

Web retail spend has lowest growth rate since 2001
Signaling a difficult holiday shopping season ahead, online retail spending last month rose just 1% -- the lowest rate of increase for the segment since 2001, according to data from comScore. "I think it's clear that consumers have less disposable income and as a result, ecommerce is going to suffer," said comScore senior manager Andrew Lipsman. "I think it's safe to say we aren't going to see growth rates anywhere near to what we've seen in past years."

The story actually appears in the Wall Street Journal and requires a subscription to read in its entirety, but the rest of the article probably seems obvious.

Web Review: train your brain with FitBrains

2008-11-17T08:11:00.000-08:00

Look, we all lose brain function over time and there's nothing you can do about it. Or is there? Research suggests you can not only slow down the degradation that comes with getting older, you can actually expand your mental skills; even while you age. FitBrains is a tool to help you do just that.

[Read the review of FitBrains]
[Visit FitBrains]

Sneak Peek: Harvard Health

2008-10-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

For the past few months, we've been working on a very cool project for Harvard Health, a joint venture between Harvard Medical School and StayWell Consumer Health Publishing. In a nutshell, we're completely overhauling their entire e-commerce system, including overall site design, merchandising, administration and functionality.

Additionally, we're working with their Texas-based fulfillment company, Strategic Fulfillment Group, to provide a direct connection between our custom e-commerce platform and their fulfillment functions. This will allow seamless integration for customer access, order history, order & payment processing and insertion. All things that weren't possible in the previous iteration (built by another company.)

The image here is a sneak peek at the new site design which should be coming online in about a month. More details to follow...

Web Review: Hulu.com helps you love TV again

2008-10-13T12:22:00.001-07:00

Seems like I'm hung up on one-word domains... This month we take a close look at Hulu.com, a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp provides ready access to a wide array of TV shows and full length movies. Think DVR in the cloud and you've got it.

[Read the review of Hulu]
[Visit Hulu]

How to communicate (even if it's bad news)

2008-10-06T05:53:00.000-07:00

"It doesn't matter if you're running a Fortune 100 company, a newly minted startup, or a photoblog that just happens to be seen by millions. This is how you communicate."

As a little sneak peek, I'm intending to write a web review article for the Indianapolis Business Journal on The Big Picture soon, but they came to my attention today in a way that can't be ignored.

A quick primer: The Big Picture is a photoblog hosted and maintained by The Boston Globe. Each day, Boston Globe web developer Alan Taylor compiles a set of photos related to something in the news and presents them with captions on the site. Big, amazing, high-resolution images that work hard to tell a compelling story. A very simple communication tool, beautifully realized.

Today I noticed, in addition to the recent photo additions, a message from Alan. "Just a brief note," he started, "three things to mention." Two of the three things were a new feature and a teaser for a very important upcoming entry. Sandwiched between them was this:

"A second ad position has been added (yes, I know, I know) but I wanted to be upfront about it, and not sneak an ad in. It's below the photos, above the comments - I'll never put ads in amongst the images - please feel free to give your feedback here in the comments. Just so you know the rationale: the bandwidth bills must be covered. In a single day, last month the entry on Hurricane Ike was served up over 1 million times. The 28 images on that page add up to a bit more than 5.2 megabytes. Multiply that a million times, and we (The Boston Globe) ended up serving nearly 5 terabytes of images for just one entry from one blog in less than 24 hours (not counting the HTML or the thousands of comments). And we topped one million daily pageviews at least five times last month."

Honest, transparent, succinct. Following a classic strategy too often ignored: "Here's what we did, here's why we did it, we hope you understand, tell us what you think."

Folks, it doesn't matter if you're running a Fortune 100 company, a newly minted startup, or a photoblog that just happens to be seen by millions. This is how you communicate.

Well done, Alan!

New Web Review: Mint.com

2008-09-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

We've recently added the web review article about online financial tool Mint.com. If you haven't used Mint yet, I suggest you take a quick look at what you're missing. It's so good, it's hard to imagine how this could be dramatically improved.

[Read the review of Mint]
[Visit Mint.com]

Does Google have a problem with Coupon Mountain?

2008-08-27T05:33:00.000-07:00

"We added the link on July 24. Within a few days, organic traffic from Google dropped more than 80%"

While there doesn't seem to be any official word that I can find, the evidence strongly suggests that Google has a serious problem with Coupon Mountain, on online repository of promotion codes used by several national retailers including Gap, Dell, Nordstrom, Home Depot, Land's End and many, many others.

Each of these retailers has created on online coupon that is submitted to Coupon Mountain. As part of the agreement, these retailers are supposed to put a link on their site that points back. Some do; most don't. One of our clients, Marilyn's Keepsakes, purveyor of wedding accessories and personalized gifts, recently signed up with them in an effort to generate some traffic as we head for the fourth quarter. They asked us to add a link back Coupon Mountain in the footer. We did. Here's what happened.

We added the link for Coupon Mountain at the bottom of the pages on the site on July 24. By the next day, traffic from Google (from organic search results) began to slow down. Within a couple of days (though no one noticed it for awhile), the traffic from organic search results on Google dropped by more than 80%. This trend continued for several days. Thinking that Google may have changed their search algorithm, we began hunting down the cause. We couldn't find any reference to a recent change from Google so we checked the analytics on several other sites to see if they were experiencing a similar traffic decrease around the same time. They weren't.

Realizing that Marilyn's Keepsakes was alone in this regard, we went back through logs to see what changes had been made to the site around the time the traffic began to decrease. We found one thing, and one thing only: the link to Coupon Mountain. We removed the link immediately and waited to see the results on traffic from Google. By the next day, it was climbing. In two days, it was back to normal.

What caused this precipitous drop in both the site listing on Google and the resulting traffic? The link to Coupon Mountain. Why? Well, theories abound here, but since Google seems to be pretty mum on the whole issue all we have is speculation, so I won't get into that. But I do know this: I wouldn't recommend adding a link to Coupon Mountain on any site without being very aware of the possible consequences.

What's going on at Rare Bird?

2008-08-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit, actually. We've added a few great people to the staff, brought on a few new clients, and are working diligently to complete and launch a very cool, completely new e-commerce platform with direct fulfillment integration for a well-known Ivy League university. (More on that later.)

While preparing for a presentation a few weeks ago, I was compiling a list of the sites we've launched so far in 2008. They include (in no particular order):

Angel Learning - Industry leading learning management software

FreePatterns - Free craft patterns of all kinds

CeleryStreet - Eco-friendly products for green living

Horse Fences That Work - Just what it says!

ePatternsCentral - Downloadable craft patterns

Sales Diesel - Ground breaking sales outsourcing provider

Marilyn's Keepsakes - Personalized gifts and wedding accessories

Carrie & Tuck - New product offering from Boatman Geller

Classic Pool & Patio - Custom pool design and installation

Searchlight Reviews - Aggregated customer reviews for small businesses

Tosh Family Dental - Lebanon, Indiana dental practice

Stay tuned, there are more in the works!

What is the value of design?

2008-08-22T08:25:00.001-07:00

We often field questions and have conversations around justifying the investment in good design. Traditionally, it's been very difficult to quantify the ROI of design. In some ways, the internet is helping to change that.

We've recently had the opportunity to accurately measure the impact of design for DRG, one of our clients in the publishing industry. While re-designing their primary lead generation site, FreePatterns.com, we focused on improving the usability to help members more quickly and effectively address their individual preferences. It's important to note that the design changed dramatically, the function changed somewhat, and the content remained the same.

The results were astounding:

Visits increased by 8%
Pageviews are up by 64%
Time on the site increased by 30%

[Learn more about this project]
[Visit FreePatterns.com]

Daring Greatly: Rare Bird at 10 Years

2008-07-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

In a few days, we'll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of starting Rare Bird. I woke up this morning with the words of Teddy Roosevelt on my mind, which I first encountered years ago in "The Norman Shield," the pledge training manual of Sigma Chi.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

President Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

I'm not certain if "daring greatly" is entirely fitting, but I believe that we have experienced the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and we are spending ourselves in a worthy cause. It's been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next ten!

The World is Flat (and Free)

2008-07-25T04:43:00.000-07:00

"Oh, and I forgot to mention, we're trying to sell a lot of books."

How Jeff Seroy, Senior Vice President of marketing and publicity at Farrar, Straus and Giroux sounds in my head.

My latest "Change This!" update included a notice that the publishers of "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman are offering the audio version of the book for free. Why? Well, two reasons.

They want you on their mailing list. But a free audio version of this recent classic is probably worth a few emails.
They're trying to generate buzz about Friedman's new book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution And How It Can Renew America"

Jeff Seroy, Senior Vice President of marketing and publicity at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, said the purpose of this audio giveaway is to "celebrate Friedman's enormous influence on our lives and times. And in preparation for the release of his new book, a green manifesto and a continuation in many ways of his thinking in 'The World is Flat', we want to enable anyone who hasn't already read 'The World is Flat' to catch up with Friedman's argument and vision for the future."

"Oh, and I forgot to mention, we're trying to sell a lot of books." (He didn't actually say that last part, but you have to know he was thinking it.)

Still, it's a nice offer. So, from now until August 4, you can join their mailing list to get access to three "easy-to-download" sections (Why not just one, I wonder?) and, as an added bonus, shortly thereafter you'll be able to download a pre-release audio excerpt of the new book.

"I'm going to lunch. We're going to win this."

2008-07-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

There has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth in the business community in recent years about the quality of the work force. I've read articles and seen reports detailing the habits of the "millennials," the generation that is exiting college and entering the workforce. Their lack of preparation has been blamed on all sorts of things, from helicopter parents to participating in sports where everyone gets a trophy for just showing up, but I've begin wondering about another possible cause.

There's a radio spot running now for JA Titan, an online business simulator that is part of Junior Achievement. The tool is designed to give students a feel for the fast-paced, constantly changing world of business. The spot is to recruit volunteers to help run the simulations.

The first part of the spot sets the stage of a fictitious company dealing with some of the hazards of business:

Voice 1: "I called this emergency staff meeting together because we need to kick this company into high gear."
Voice 2: "I thought our performance index was high?"
Voice 1: "It is, yes, but the competition is still way ahead in the market."
Voice 2: "Well, what can we do about it?"
Voice 3: "If we sink more money into marketing, these hollow generators will sell like crazy."
Voice 4: "But we can't keep up in production! It may be the year 2030 but our technology is not that sophisticated."
Voice 5: "If we put more money into R&D we could solve our production problems."
SFX: Echo-y Star Trek communicator sound
Voice on Communicator: "The board wants to know what you're going to do here. The news reports say we're slipping... Well?"
Voice of Boss: "Wendy, take another $20,000 this quarter for promotions. T.J., you get nine grand to find a way to make more of these. Warren, tell your line to get ready to triple production. Send out a press release. I'm going to lunch. We're going to win this."

"I'm going to lunch?!!?" There are so many things wrong with the first 35 seconds of this that I can't even begin to dissect it. For the sake of my own sanity, I'm working on convincing myself that the writer intentionally wrote this to be so hackneyed that business people would hear it and be moved to volunteer in order to provide an accurate, realistic view of life in the business world. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

[More about JA Titan]
[More about Millennials]

iPhone (Non-)Success Dubbed "Conspiracy"

2008-06-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

"Steve Jobs eventually will get old...I like our chances."

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg

The best way to read this article quoting Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is out loud, with more than a little whine in your voice. Apparently, he's a little miffed that Apple created an outstanding product and that about 6 million people decided to buy. The design of the iPhone caused all manufacturers to stand up and take notice, and Apple orchestrated an unprecedented revenue sharing model that really caused a stir, but it still falls short of Seidenberg's notion of success.

When asked by the Financial Times about Apple's chances of reaching the masses with the next generation iPhone, which features a 3G network for faster Internet access, Seidenberg responded, "There goes the conspiracy again. You're declaring them a winner before they've earned it on the field." Uh... it sounded more like a question than a declaration, but okay.

According to CNET's Tom Krazit, "Seidenberg's main contention seems to be that the iPhone isn't a success because it has such a small share of the overall mobile phone market, which is sort of like arguing that GM is more successful than Ferrari because they sell more cars." This would, of course, mean that the iPod is a success and the iMac isn't. Brilliant. (Wait till Seth Godin hears that the only measure of success is selling a whole lot of something cheap.)

So, on the one hand, Seidenberg is peeved that the media is declaring the iPhone a success while implying that it hasn't been successful at all. Let's do a little exercise. Put yourself in his shoes, sit down at the boardroom table, and let's devise a strategy to address and compete with the media-declared "success" of the iPhone. What would you do?

Verizon, for their part, has adopted a novel strategy. "Steve Jobs eventually will get old...I like our chances," Seidenberg said.

[Read the CNET article]
[Read the Financial Times article]

Put Transactional Email to Work

2008-06-11T18:55:00.001-07:00

Speaking in Washington last week, I encouraged the attendees to use the power of transactional emails as a viable means to improve their customer relationships. I noted that these messages tend to break through the clutter and are generally perceived as helpful tools for customers to remain current with the latest information regarding their orders.

To illustrate the point, I suggested that retailers send emails at the following times (as examples):

Order Confirmation

Shipping Confirmation

Customer Service Messages (e.g., "By now, you should have rec'd your order..."

Requesting Feedback (e.g., "Please come back and write a review about your experience..."

Re-Order Reminders

RE-Engagement Efforts

Today I saw this chart from MarketingSherpa that speaks to this very issue. Customers pay attention to these messages, so they can be a valuable tool, but it's important that they are heavy on the information and light on offers.

SIPA Members Sowing Award-Winning Seeds

2008-06-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the office today after being out last week for the SIPA Conference in Washington, DC. I was asked by conference chairman Ed Coburn of Harvard Medical School to come and address the group on "Using the web to drive renewable revenue." I was told by a regular attendee that these members usually vote with their feet: "If they don't think you have anything worthwhile to say, they'll get up and walk out after 10 minutes." Yikes. I'm glad he told me that after I was finished and no one had left...

So there I was, sitting at lunch and talking with David Lee of Tufts University and a Paul Wollaston of Lancaster House, and we happened to be talking about the conference, most notably the willingness of the attendees to discuss – in detail – their successes and failures. I remarked that it was impressive and refreshing to see this sort of open dialogue, especially when some of these members might be sharing this information with direct competitors. "It's truly remarkable," said Wollaston, "and one of the unique things about this association and its' membership. About the only thing they won't share are details for upcoming product launches."

All of which reminded me of a story about a farmer and his strategy for sowing award-winning seeds.

More on the conference as time (and all of these spinning plates) allows.