Have you ever wished you could take a surreptitious peek into your competitors’ operations or decision-making process? What if I told you, it may be easier than you think? I’m not suggesting you hire industrial spies to break into a competitor’s production facility or try to place a mole into their executive suite. The simple fact [...]
I’m always fascinated by company leaders who cannot grasp the value someone with a different perspective can bring to them. It reminds me of that homespun wisdom that it’s impossible to read the label from inside a jam jar. Put another way, unless a CEO or other company leader has managed to become 100 percent [...]
I was excited to open it. The website had been compelling, and the box was beautifully designed. The product was exactly as advertised. And then I saw the sheet. It was a simple slip of paper, containing the assembly instructions, apparently cranked out on the company’s photocopier. The text was skewed on the page, so whoever [...]
If there’s one common theme I’ve been hearing from company leaders during these strange economic times, it’s “we need more people.” And if there’s one lesson I’ve learned, it’s that those companies may need a more strategic approach to find them. You can see the evidence of the struggle to hire everywhere you look, from a [...]
We’ve all heard a photo is worth a thousand words, but if you’re in the business of making or selling products, you might be surprised to learn there’s a better alternative that’s worth infinitely more than those thousand words.Marketing and advertising efforts took a giant step forward when high-quality photography became available. Photos offered not only [...]
The marketing director worked hard on the new campaign and convinced the CFO to budget extra dollars for the launch. It was an exciting promotion with an impossible-to-ignore offer that was certain to boost sales to new highs. Only one problem: nobody told the sales team about it. So an hour after the email blast went [...]
You’re so excited about your new website. After weeks of work, it’s just about ready to launch and the developer needs the credentials for your hosting service. That’s when you remember Larry. Ah, Larry. When you launched the current version of your website four years ago, he was your technology Larry-of-all-trades, overseeing the network and helping [...]
I developed a better understanding of our company’s business model the morning our son and his three-week-old driver’s license crossed paths with another vehicle in a local roundabout. Our car didn’t look too good, but he was fine. The driver who hit him was also uninjured, and her car suffered the worst of the damage. Most [...]
While LinkedIn celebrates its 18th birthday on May 5, few people realize that LinkedIn was launched nine months before Facebook launched at Harvard – making it one of the oldest social networks still in use today. With 55 million companies as members, LinkedIn is clearly a driving force in the economy as evidenced by 61 million [...]
It happens frequently, and it always puzzles me. During an initial conversation with a CEO or company owner, I’ll ask how well their marketing is working. And they’ll reply with something like “I guess okay” or “it seems to be” or “I’m not sure” or even just a shrug. These are companies that invest significant sums [...]
