Lesson: Don’t fix what’s not broken
Coca-Cola learned not to tamper with a beloved brand in 1985 when it decided to re-stage its iconic brand with “New Coke.” The public was outraged and let Coca-Cola know they didn’t want a “new” Coke. They wanted their old Coke, literally a quintessential icon in American popular culture. Coke responded within a few months and brought back “Classic Coke.” Classic Coke sales rebounded. Although New Coke remained on the shelves, it eventually faded from store shelves. Some commentators felt the move to New Coke was a marketing gimmick to regenerate interest and sales in the brand after sales erosion due to the “Pepsi Challenge” taste test campaign. Don Keough, company President, responded to the charge saying “We’re not that dumb, and we’re not that smart”.
Lesson: Expansion may require a bigger umbrella
International Harvester changed its name to Navistar International in 1986 when it sold its farm equipment business and entered the truck, diesel engine, and bus markets. Although the name is “made up,” it broadened the brand and has strong connotations of movement and direction. As a 2013 company report* stated, “Navistar was selected as a name with a strong sound, a resonance to Harvester, and a connection to its root words “navigate” and “star.” It does all of those things and has since become the name of the holding company over multiple Navistar divisions, International Trucks, and MaxxForce Diesel engines.
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With more than three decades of management, executive, consulting and speaking experience in markets all over the world, Miller Ingenuity CEO Steve Blue is a globally regarded business growth authority and ‘turnaround specialist’ who has transformed companies into industry giants and enthralled audiences with his dynamic keynotes. In his upcoming book, Outdo, Outsmart… Outlast: A Practical Guide to Managed, Measured and Meaningful Growth, he reveals why seeking growth and surviving growth are equally perilous, and require different sets of plans to weather the storms. Steve may be reached at www.StevenLBlue.com.
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These days, more people than ever use technology, including mobile devices, to conduct their professional and personal business. Companies of all sizes place incredibly valuable data in cloud-based repositories, and hackers are constantly testing new ways to gain access.
For these reasons, it’s more important than ever to safeguard vital assets with sound cyber security practices – and to remain vigilant to prevent breaches. Here are 10 cyber security tips that can help you reduce vulnerability:
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What can we do to clean up decision-making habits in my workplace? No one seems to know who is making which decisions and it’s driving us all crazy!
StrategyDriven Response: (by Roxi Hewertson, StrategyDriven Principal Contributor)
Leaders get into trouble far too often simply because they don’t have good decision-making protocols in place on their team or in their business. If a decision matters to you, then make your decision matter!
Here are several all too common scenarios:
People keep wondering, “Who is making the decision about…?” and feel they are powerless to do anything in the meantime.
Someone comes up to you and says, “Why didn’t anyone tell me about that decision; it impacts my work?”
Another person says, “Well, if she’d already made the decision, why did she ask me my opinion?”
You hear, “When will he decide – he’s holding up everything at my end!”
There is such a simple way to prevent these and many other ‘dropped balls’ from happening in your workplace. Once you get in the habit of asking these 5 questions of yourself and/or your team, each and every time, you’ll find it could take as few as 60 seconds to get to the answers. Even better, it will save you and others frustration, confusion, hard feelings, lost time and lost profits. Best yet, you’ll gain more respect from those you lead because they can trust you to make decisions well.
5 Key Decision Making Questions
1. WHAT IS THE DECISION that needs to be made? BE EXPLICIT including who and what will be impacted. You need to know exactly what is to be decided. There are often layers of related decisions that need to be made – that’s why you need to start here. When you can clearly articulate the decision, you know what it is – and when you can’t, you don’t. So begin with a lot of clarity.
2. WHOSE DECISION IS IT? Again, you must BE EXPLICIT. This is essential to know and communicate upfront to the people who are impacted. Are you the decision maker? Is it a group? Do you want input or do you want others to make the decision? I’ve often observed that more anxiety is created by not knowing who is making a decision than even the decision itself. And, people lose trust if you pretend their input matters when you’ve already made the decision.
3. WHAT METHOD will you use to decide? Will this be a consensus decision everyone must be able to live with and support? Is it a majority, a plurality, or 2/3 vote, a unanimous agreement, or something else?
4. WHEN WILL THE DECISION BE MADE? The timeline is important for you and other people who are impacted. With a timeline, the decision can be managed well and people can get on with their work. Taking too long or not long enough can be frustrating and create unintended and even dysfunctional outcomes.
5. HOW AND TO WHOM WILL THE DECISION BE COMMUNICATED? This is often overlooked, and yet the success of a decision depends so much on how well it’s communicated. Consider who needs to know, who’s the messenger, how it will be shared, and through what means – in person, by email, over a loud speaker…Often the choice of messenger sends a message all it’s own – is it you, a team, your boss, someone else? The message will be perceived differently depending on the messenger.
It takes a lot of time and energy and sometimes money, to clean up the messes that happen when your decision-making is reactive or ad hoc. I really hope you will make it a point to be proactive in your decision-making because it’s a lot more fun when you are running your life and work instead of letting life and work run you.
About the Author
Leadership authority Roxana (Roxi) Hewertson is a no-nonsense business veteran revered for her nuts-and-bolts, tell-it-like-it-is approach and practical, out-of-the-box insights that help both emerging and expert managers, executives and owners boost quantifiable job performance in various mission critical facets of business. Through AskRoxi.com, Roxi — “the Dear Abby of Leadership” — imparts invaluable free advice to managers and leaders at all levels, from the bullpen to the boardroom, to help them solve problems, become more effective and realize a higher measure of business and career success.
The StrategyDriven website was created to provide members of our community with insights to the actions that help create the shared vision, focus, and commitment needed to improve organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results. We look forward to answering your strategic planning and tactical business execution questions. Please email your questions to [email protected].
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Organizations expend significant personnel and financial resources on well-performed business performance assessments and the implementation of follow-up performance improvement actions. To reap the appropriate return on their investment, executives and managers must carefully select the self assessments to be performed such that they directly support achievement of organizational goals and values while mitigating its most significant risks.
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Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.
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Just ask Mother Google. She is standing by with millions of info-bits and info-bites about you and your business that you (or anyone) can have in a nanosecond. For free.
What is posted about you (not what you have posted about yourself) on Google, or on any social media, is a reflection of how others perceive you. It’s also what others, who are looking for you or what you sell, may think of you once they find you. In short, it’s your ‘RAP.’
The old word is ‘rap sheet.’ It was a police term for a summary of what was factual about your past – your record of events – mostly bad. It was a forerunner to Google.
I am creating and redefining a new ‘rap sheet’ that encompasses both good and bad. It’s not just about ‘what was’ – your 21st century RAP sheet is about both ‘what was’ and ‘what is.’ And just like the old rap sheet – you create it.
Unlike the old rap sheet, the new RAP sheet can help you attract and grow IF you’re aware of your online presence and how that affects and impacts your sales and your business.
The new RAP sheet – or should I say the ‘RAP of sales’ – is broken down into segments that define the process by letter (R.A.P.) and once you read them, you will at once have an understanding and a game plan to improve in each area. You’ll also have insight as to why the new RAP on you can make or break your business.
Here are the RAP elements:
Reputation. Built slowly over time, your reputation defines your present situation and your next sale. It documents how you react, respond, and recover from service calls and issues, and it cements your image both online and in the customer’s thoughts. Your reputation is a reflection of your status in the business world, and a reality check from your customer’s perspective.
DO THIS: Take responsibility for your reputation, and take all necessary actions to build and preserve it.
Attraction. Not the ‘law of attraction’ – rather VALUE attraction. What value-based messages are you sending? What messages are your customers responding to? How are these messages creating a bigger, more responsive, more positive, more loyal customer base? Everything from daily tweets and blog posts to one-on-one customer interactions create your word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse attraction.
ASK YOURSELF: What’s attractive about me and my business? Why would a customer follow me? What do I have to do to create more positive followers?
Profit. Not your profit, THEIR profit. Make certain that every customer knows and understands how they win AFTER purchase, how they use and produce, and how they benefit and enjoy. Concentrating on customer value also has a positive internal effect. When customers are happy and feel valued, it creates a loyalty-base of customers AND employees. Profit is way more than money.
Here are a few companies you can look at as examples of good, mixed, and bad:
BAD RAP: Borders, Blackberry, Yellow Pages, AOL
MIXED RAP: American Airlines, Goldman Sachs, JC Penney, DISH Network
GOOD RAP: Amazon, Zappos, Southwest, Bloomberg
It’s easy to see the RAP of others. It’s often way more difficult (and painful) to see your own.
Here’s a bit more on how you create your own rap:
Your corporate and personal philosophy guides your words, actions, and deeds. Your philosophy is comprised of the principles you live by. Beyond your mission, it’s how you help others and how you live your core values.
Create a culture of comradery and support, communication and truthful information, service and response, and availability and helpfulness. Culture is your long-term essence. Your spirit. Look at all the companies I listed under ‘good rap.’ They all have amazing internal cultures. Not a coincidence.
Treat your people right and they will treat your customers beyond your expectations.
Reputation, Attraction and Profit are THE three words that define your business in the minds, responses, posts, and actions (including purchases) of your customers and prospects. Now that you know the words, their definitions, and their impact, it may be time to do a review – both internal and on Google. Identify your RAP, define it, and make whatever positive changes are necessary to build it.
Your RAP is out there – the question is: what are you doing about it?
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].
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Lessons Learned from Corporate Branding and Rebranding Efforts of Note
/in Marketing & Sales/by Steve BlueLesson: Don’t fix what’s not broken
Coca-Cola learned not to tamper with a beloved brand in 1985 when it decided to re-stage its iconic brand with “New Coke.” The public was outraged and let Coca-Cola know they didn’t want a “new” Coke. They wanted their old Coke, literally a quintessential icon in American popular culture. Coke responded within a few months and brought back “Classic Coke.” Classic Coke sales rebounded. Although New Coke remained on the shelves, it eventually faded from store shelves. Some commentators felt the move to New Coke was a marketing gimmick to regenerate interest and sales in the brand after sales erosion due to the “Pepsi Challenge” taste test campaign. Don Keough, company President, responded to the charge saying “We’re not that dumb, and we’re not that smart”.
Lesson: Expansion may require a bigger umbrella
International Harvester changed its name to Navistar International in 1986 when it sold its farm equipment business and entered the truck, diesel engine, and bus markets. Although the name is “made up,” it broadened the brand and has strong connotations of movement and direction. As a 2013 company report* stated, “Navistar was selected as a name with a strong sound, a resonance to Harvester, and a connection to its root words “navigate” and “star.” It does all of those things and has since become the name of the holding company over multiple Navistar divisions, International Trucks, and MaxxForce Diesel engines.
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Subscribing to the Self Guided Program - It's Free!
About the Author
Top 10 Cyber Security Tips
/in Practices for Professionals, Risk Management/by Bill CareyThese days, more people than ever use technology, including mobile devices, to conduct their professional and personal business. Companies of all sizes place incredibly valuable data in cloud-based repositories, and hackers are constantly testing new ways to gain access.
For these reasons, it’s more important than ever to safeguard vital assets with sound cyber security practices – and to remain vigilant to prevent breaches. Here are 10 cyber security tips that can help you reduce vulnerability:
Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:
Subscribing to the Self Guided Program - It's Free!
About the Author
Bill Carey is Vice President of Marketing & Business Development at Siber Systems Inc., which offers the top-rated RoboForm Password Manager software.
The Advisor’s Corner – How Do I Establish a Decision-Making Protocol?
/in Decision-Making, The Advisor's Corner/by Roxi HewertsonWhat can we do to clean up decision-making habits in my workplace? No one seems to know who is making which decisions and it’s driving us all crazy!
StrategyDriven Response: (by Roxi Hewertson, StrategyDriven Principal Contributor)
Leaders get into trouble far too often simply because they don’t have good decision-making protocols in place on their team or in their business. If a decision matters to you, then make your decision matter!
Here are several all too common scenarios:
There is such a simple way to prevent these and many other ‘dropped balls’ from happening in your workplace. Once you get in the habit of asking these 5 questions of yourself and/or your team, each and every time, you’ll find it could take as few as 60 seconds to get to the answers. Even better, it will save you and others frustration, confusion, hard feelings, lost time and lost profits. Best yet, you’ll gain more respect from those you lead because they can trust you to make decisions well.
5 Key Decision Making Questions
1. WHAT IS THE DECISION that needs to be made? BE EXPLICIT including who and what will be impacted. You need to know exactly what is to be decided. There are often layers of related decisions that need to be made – that’s why you need to start here. When you can clearly articulate the decision, you know what it is – and when you can’t, you don’t. So begin with a lot of clarity.
2. WHOSE DECISION IS IT? Again, you must BE EXPLICIT. This is essential to know and communicate upfront to the people who are impacted. Are you the decision maker? Is it a group? Do you want input or do you want others to make the decision? I’ve often observed that more anxiety is created by not knowing who is making a decision than even the decision itself. And, people lose trust if you pretend their input matters when you’ve already made the decision.
3. WHAT METHOD will you use to decide? Will this be a consensus decision everyone must be able to live with and support? Is it a majority, a plurality, or 2/3 vote, a unanimous agreement, or something else?
4. WHEN WILL THE DECISION BE MADE? The timeline is important for you and other people who are impacted. With a timeline, the decision can be managed well and people can get on with their work. Taking too long or not long enough can be frustrating and create unintended and even dysfunctional outcomes.
5. HOW AND TO WHOM WILL THE DECISION BE COMMUNICATED? This is often overlooked, and yet the success of a decision depends so much on how well it’s communicated. Consider who needs to know, who’s the messenger, how it will be shared, and through what means – in person, by email, over a loud speaker…Often the choice of messenger sends a message all it’s own – is it you, a team, your boss, someone else? The message will be perceived differently depending on the messenger.
It takes a lot of time and energy and sometimes money, to clean up the messes that happen when your decision-making is reactive or ad hoc. I really hope you will make it a point to be proactive in your decision-making because it’s a lot more fun when you are running your life and work instead of letting life and work run you.
About the Author
The StrategyDriven website was created to provide members of our community with insights to the actions that help create the shared vision, focus, and commitment needed to improve organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results. We look forward to answering your strategic planning and tactical business execution questions. Please email your questions to [email protected].
Business Performance Assessment Program Best Practice 11 – Identify Risk-based Business Performance Assessments
/in Business Performance Assessment Program, Premium/by Nathan IvesHi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.
Sign-up now for your StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription for as low as $15 / month (paid annually).
Not sure? Click here to learn more.
Don’t need a subscription? Buy access to Business Performance Assessment Program Best Practice 11 – Identify Risk-based Business Performance Assessments for just $2!
About the Author
I know you love your business. Do your customers?
/in Customer Relationship Management/by Jeffrey GitomerWhat’s the ‘RAP’ on you and your business?
What do you mean you don’t know? YOU CREATED IT!
Just ask Mother Google. She is standing by with millions of info-bits and info-bites about you and your business that you (or anyone) can have in a nanosecond. For free.
What is posted about you (not what you have posted about yourself) on Google, or on any social media, is a reflection of how others perceive you. It’s also what others, who are looking for you or what you sell, may think of you once they find you. In short, it’s your ‘RAP.’
The old word is ‘rap sheet.’ It was a police term for a summary of what was factual about your past – your record of events – mostly bad. It was a forerunner to Google.
I am creating and redefining a new ‘rap sheet’ that encompasses both good and bad. It’s not just about ‘what was’ – your 21st century RAP sheet is about both ‘what was’ and ‘what is.’ And just like the old rap sheet – you create it.
Unlike the old rap sheet, the new RAP sheet can help you attract and grow IF you’re aware of your online presence and how that affects and impacts your sales and your business.
The new RAP sheet – or should I say the ‘RAP of sales’ – is broken down into segments that define the process by letter (R.A.P.) and once you read them, you will at once have an understanding and a game plan to improve in each area. You’ll also have insight as to why the new RAP on you can make or break your business.
Here are the RAP elements:
DO THIS: Take responsibility for your reputation, and take all necessary actions to build and preserve it.
ASK YOURSELF: What’s attractive about me and my business? Why would a customer follow me? What do I have to do to create more positive followers?
Here are a few companies you can look at as examples of good, mixed, and bad:
BAD RAP: Borders, Blackberry, Yellow Pages, AOL
MIXED RAP: American Airlines, Goldman Sachs, JC Penney, DISH Network
GOOD RAP: Amazon, Zappos, Southwest, Bloomberg
It’s easy to see the RAP of others. It’s often way more difficult (and painful) to see your own.
Here’s a bit more on how you create your own rap:
Reputation, Attraction and Profit are THE three words that define your business in the minds, responses, posts, and actions (including purchases) of your customers and prospects. Now that you know the words, their definitions, and their impact, it may be time to do a review – both internal and on Google. Identify your RAP, define it, and make whatever positive changes are necessary to build it.
Your RAP is out there – the question is: what are you doing about it?
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author