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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 13 – An Interview with Michael Dunn, author of The Marketing Accountability Imperative

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 13 – An Interview with Michael Dunn, author of The Marketing Accountability Imperative explores the challenges and solutions to creating alignment between an organization’s strategic and marketing plans and accountability to achieving predetermined marketing results. During our discussion, Michael Dunn, author of The Marketing Accountability Imperative: Driving Superior Returns on Marketing Investments and CEO and Chairman of Prophet, shares with us his insights regarding:

  • what marketing accountability is and how it benefits an organization
  • three Horizons organizations go through in order to achieve marketing accountability
  • landmines and enablers to achieving marketing accountability
  • common marketing performance metrics used by accountable organizations

Additional Information

Complimenting the outstanding insights Michael shares in The Marketing Accountability Imperative and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his organization’s website at www.Prophet.com. Michael’s book, The Marketing Accountability Imperative, can be purchased by clicking here.

About the Author

Michael Dunn, author of The Marketing Accountability Imperative, is CEO and Chairman of Prophet, a marketing consultancy that helps senior executives balance their organization’s short-term business needs against their long-term growth goals. Michael and his organization serve numerous Fortune 500 companies including GE, Johnson & Johnson, Staples, UBS, and American Airlines. To read Michael’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:37 — 48.9MB)

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Celebrating Our First Year… Looking Toward a Bright Future

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Today marks the first anniversary of the StrategyDriven website and what a year we have enjoyed! From a modest beginning on July 1, 2007, we have been joined by 344 registered members and have grown to:

  • 3362 unique monthly visitors – from 54 different countries
  • 10,434 monthly site visits – over 3 visits per visitor
  • 74,993 monthly page views – over 7 pages viewed per site visit

Our website has grown too, now offering insights on strategic business planning and tactical execution through:

  • 147 principle, best practice, and warning flag postings – covering 24 management and leadership categories
  • 19 episodes of the StrategyDriven Podcast
  • 5 whitepapers and
  • 7 models

As a community, we are fortunate to have had several of our members share their insights with us through posted comments including:

Finally, we have been complimented by many reviewers and websites linking to us including:

  • Small Business Trends Radio (www.SmBTrendWire.com)
  • EatonWeb (portal.eatonweb.com)
  • Cision (baconsblog.typepad.com)
  • Podcast Alley (www.PodcastAlley.com) – ranked number 2 or 3 of over 2000 business podcasts in four of the first six months of 2008
  • and over 100 other websites linking to StrategyDriven

Goals for Our Second Year

Seeking to be strategy driven, we have established the following series of goals for our second year. In addition to maintaining the high level of quality you, our readers and listeners, have come to expect, we are committed to providing:

  • 2 new members’ only categories
  • 4 new whitepapers
  • 4 new models
  • a templates area with 4 new templates

Additionally, we will heighten our focus on tactical execution, namely, the management and leadership practices needed to effectively execute the organization’s strategy on a day-to-day basis; creating a more aligned and accountable organization. Management and leadership focus categories will include:

with at least 5 new postings or podcasts in each category

To expand the depth of experience and breadth of perspective offered, we’ll incorporate the insights of additional business leaders through:

  • periodic podcast interviews with management and leadership experts – at least 10
  • 3 articles written by each of at least 2 new contributors

Finally, we’ll seek to grow our community; helping an increasing number of executives and managers create aligned, accountable, and successful organizations. This growth will be reflective of:

  • 1000+ registered members
  • 7500+ unique monthly visitors
  • 25,000+ monthly site visits
  • 200,000+ monthly page views
  • Podcast Alley ranking of 1, 2, or 3 from among all business podcasts for at least 8 of the next 12 months

Thank You!

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our readers and listeners, for helping to make our first year a successful one! We truly value the time you spend with and the insights you offer to us and look forward to the continuing journey ahead.

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief and
Director, Communications and Marketing

Leadership Inspirations – Success and Accountability

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“To succeed as a team is to hold all of the members accountable for their expertise.”

Mitchell Caplan
Chief Executive Officer, E*Trade

StrategyDriven Diversity and Inclusion Forum

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“Diversity and inclusion exists when members of an organization act in a manner that recognizes and respects individual similarities and differences such that employees feel they and their work are valued and meaningfully contribute to the mission of the organization.”

StrategyDriven Contributors

Remaining relevant in today’s hyper-competitive business environment requires the full engagement of an organization’s workforce and the retention of highly talented employees. To accomplish this, leaders must capture the passion and commitment of subordinates by providing them with work that has a meaningful impactful on others and is quantifiablely measurable and rewarded; all while connecting with them on a personal level. Similarly, individuals need to connect with their peers in a way that makes them feel their contributions meaningfully add to the team and the organization’s overall success. Simply put, individuals seek to be valuable to and valued by their organizations; limited only by their abilities and desires. Without this sense of value and connectedness, a job becomes nothing more than the means to a paycheck, productivity declines toward that which is required to maintain employment, and attrition rises as employees seek more fulfilling work; all at great cost to the organization.

Gallup researchers found that within the average organization:

  • 29 percent of employees are engaged; working with passion and feeling connected to their company
  • 56 percent of employees are not engaged; putting in time but not energy or passion into their work
  • 15 percent of employees are actively disengaged; acting out their unhappiness and undermining the accomplishments of engaged employees

This research also showed that engaged employees are more productive, profitable, safer, create stronger customer relationships, and stay longer with their company than less engaged employees.

Source: Gallup Study: Engaged Employees Inspire Company Innovation, Gallup Management Journal, October 2006

Increasing workforce diversification challenges all members of an organization attempting to satisfy the individual value proposition. Differences in age, race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation to name but only a few, influence what makes individuals feel valued. Studies have shown the degree to which an individual feels valued by his/her superiors and peers in large part defines his/her work engagement and the subsequent value offered to the organization. Thus, the challenge is a circular one best solved by fostering an organizational culture that respects and embraces diversity and inclusion.

Focus of the Diversity and Inclusion Forum

While there exists a natural association between diversity and inclusion and organizational accountability, this forum will focus on the principles, best practices, and warning flags associated with establishing and maintaining a workplace environment that respects and values individual differences in order to earn full employee engagement and commitment to the achievement of the organization’s goals. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to enhancing workplace diversity and inclusion.

For additional information on creating a positive, motivating workplace environment, visit the StrategyDriven Employee Engagement Center of Excellence.

Articles

Principles

Best Practices

Warning Flags

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor Articles

StrategyDriven Podcasts

StrategyDriven Podcast – Video Edition

StrategyDriven Podcast – Special Edition

Documents

Tools and Templates

Resources

Books

Reports

Training Courses

StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 1 – What is a Strategy Driven Organization?

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Episode 1 – What is a Strategy Driven Organization? introduces the StrategyDriven Podcast series by examining…

  • what makes an organization strategy driven
  • do strategy driven organizations really exist
  • what actions can executives and managers take to create a strategy driven organization
  • why should an organization work to become strategy driven

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (20.7MB)

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About the Contributor

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal 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.