“You know if you take off your glasses you will do better.” “What?” Mario, my good friend and I had picked up ping pong paddles in the clubhouse of the Hilton Head resort we were staying at. After missing several returns, he suggested that I take OFF my glasses, that they were hindering my perceptions. Off they came and whamo, I started to connect with every volley. Aren”t glasses supposed to help? But what if your learned basics are different than your altered world (with glasses)? The first element in creating Business Charisma is to reconsider your Mission. Oh sure,
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Archives for Strategic Planning
Exits and Enters – What do you do when you have a 88% chance of failure
Two days left in the year. Time to look back, learn from success and set-backs and make plans for climbing that next big challenge. New Years resolutions have a 88% failure rate. So why even make them? The problem is not with the resolutions, but putting enough meat into them to make them work. “I am going to lose weight” becomes a fight against will power. If I just have enough tenacity, drive, and motivation . . .then I can white knuckle it . . . to the new me. But willpower is not enough. Especially with the speed and
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Ice Cream and the Civil War – The Next Steps for Providing the Value that YOUR Members Want
The South attacked from the north. And the North attacked from the south. What insights from the battle of Gettysburg are there for associations? Consider some basic principles. Transactions grow up into Transformation As business matures, and competition increases, most products and services become more transactional. Specialized offerings get more competition, which forces everyone to sharpen their pricing, or get some sort of edge. Eventually products become so generic that the market evolves into a “big box store” or morphs into high value offerings. Consider the overrun of Sears by Wal-Mart (transaction) and Nordstrom (transformation). When you want a makeover
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The New Rules for Branding – Getting Edgy or Getting Lost in the Noise of YOUR Marketplace
The biggest enemy to your business these days is being average. With mass customization, free information, and a tight economy, you need to drive your branding image. What are the new rules for branding? 1 – It must have a plot or a storyline. Think Disney. Chipotle has it’s brown bags with stories on them. Harley is about terrorizing small towns (see previous blog post) 2. It must be unique to stand out. Unless you have a BHAC (Big Hairy Audacious Concept) you have beige, average, pedestrian. 3. It must fill a need or create a new mind set for
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How to Destroy Your Competition – Transactions or Transformations?
Stop looking at your business in terms of getting more orders and instead asked, “How could I help my customers transform THEIR world?”
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You Are Talking BUT They Are Not Listening . . . Understanding and Connecting with the Three Levels of Business Leaders
There are three “languages” in business, which change as you move up and down the organization chart. Unless you are aware of these, you might be talking, but they may not be listening. To illustrate, let’s make a visit to Ye Olde Table Factory. The Table Builder (the worker) Our first contact is with one of the people who are hammering away at building. A conversation with this person is about materials and the processes in putting together raw parts to make the finished product. This person represents the day-to-day tactical work. They are interested in: Getting things done now
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Moving Past Success . . . .to Signficance – the 40/20/40 rule to Business Success
Like Christmas, weddings, vacations, birth of a child, pending retirement, and proms, each carries with it a potential for something big. For something significant. Half the fun is in this planning and looking forward. THIS ESPECIALLY APPLIES TO BUSINESS. Your business.
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David fights Goliath VIA the Detroit Automotive Show – a lesson in Contrarianism and Synergy
The Detroit International Automobile Show 2012. Among the hundred thousand square feet vendor booths, and the multimillion dollar backdrops complete with state of the art multimedia, and eye candy models . . . both male and beautifully coiffed women; sits the center of attention. It is all about the cars. There are cars. Each collection is often changed out each day for maximum exposure. Audi might have a new metallic paint the invites you to touch it’s too-strange-too-be-true finish. That is OK because some t-shirted youth, armed with polishing rags and dust wands wander incessantly to make sure nary a
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Culture – The #1 Job
If your culture has you focusing on the B and C players, then your culture is communicating that you sanction mediocrity. The environment in this organization approves "getting by". The core values scream that you can take your foot off the gas and coast a little here and there.
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When Success is Not Enough – Why Reaching the Summit Only Makes You See So Much More
This is the world where success gives way to significance. It is why leadership takes precedence over managing, because an inspired Thermopylaeian army of hundreds can take on hundreds of thousands.
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