Social media, SEO, marketing and writing
Strategic partnerships can create unique branding opportunities for your company, which may help open up new market opportunities for your products and services.
To strategically position your “brand” to a higher level of market recognition, use this worksheet to identify related companies, products or services that you you may be able to partner with. These are your core strategic partner prospects.
Did you know that successful communication is consistently cited as a critical factor for affecting successful change? The right amount of timely, meaningful and consistent communication–targeted to key stakeholders–increases understanding, adoption and commitment from those who are involved. To reach that level of buy-in, it’s important for organizational leaders to have a solid understanding of stakeholder awareness, attitudes and beliefs, expectations, readiness and openness to change–followed by communication that resonates with their needs and concerns.
Most companies want change implemented with the least resistance and with the most buy-in as possible, so communication is critical. For this to occur, change must be applied using a planned approach that addresses all relevant constituents so that conversion from one type of behavior to another organization-wide will be as smooth as possible .
According to Kathy Stershic, president of Dialog Research & Communications, a San Francisco Bay Area change management communications firm, successful change management initiatives that her company has been involved with help to “bridge the gap between where companies are and where they need to be.”
A change management project on the right track can answer challenging questions such as:
Stershic says that to achieve the required outcomes, it’s important to take the time to assess a company’s business requirements, bring focus to key business questions relevant to the situation, gather intelligent information, cull out key issues and insights, and then assimilate the learnings into actionable plans that address the need – whether it’s to fix a problem or to exploit an opportunity.
Here are ten useful change management definitions:
Dialog Research & Communications helps business leaders communicate effectively through change—blending senior business expertise with Fortune 500-proven tools for objective Stakeholder Assessment, Communications Planning and Implementation, Workforce Readiness and Change Leader Assessment. Partial client list includes Adobe, Cisco, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Ford Credit and Xerox.
Contact Information:
www.dialogrc.com
kathy@kstershic.com
It’s been said that preparation is perhaps the single most important part of successful negotiations. To that end, here are three PDF worksheets to help make your next negotiation your most successful yet:
In their 1993 editorial essay “Where are the Theories for the New Organizational Forms?,” R.L. Daft and A.Y. Lewin forewarned us about technology’s impact on the corporation when they wrote “Computer-mediated communication technology is becoming the backbone of many organizations, supplanting the formal hierarchical structure to achieve coordination and manage relationships within and between organizations.”1 These writers were speaking to the impact technology has had on businesses prior to the pervasive adoption of the Internet. The Web further compounds the complexities of these new organizational dynamics.
Many businesses will face an uphill battle in their attempt to alter the status quo. That’s because existing organizations are stitched together like fine tapestries –– every piece of thread is unique, yet each holds its place in relation to the whole. If a thread were to come loose, there is a real threat that the fabric will unravel. That’s one of the reasons why executive management is so indecisive about the Web. They are not quite sure what to make it –– is it a thread, a tapestry, a sewing machine or textile factory? But businesses do know one thing: the Web will have an impact on their business and their organization which must be dealt with.
Businesses aspiring to “webify” their efforts will face tough decisions about how far they want to integrate the Web into their companies. Fundamentally there are five key components to webifying an organization:
1. Differentiate yourself from your competitors (if you can’t, you are only selling an alternative)
2. Create viable products or solutions (passion for a product or service is instantly recognizable and highly contagious)
3. Keep in touch with old friends and business colleagues (and never burn bridges)
4. Focus on target markets (niche markets are less saturated and are usually more open to new ideas)
5. Join a business organization and network (what better way to bond with someone new than to size them up and shake their hand?)
6. Give something back to your community (good deeds are rewarded eventually)
7. Fulfill your promises / follow up on what you say you’ll do (some day you will move on to ther things but your reputation will follow you wherever you go)
The article was written by Jon Samsel and first published in Buttom Up—The Magazine for the High-Tech Start-Up, in May 1999, when forward-thinking Fortune 500 companies had buttons like this on their websites. 
The Groundhog Day Phenomenon: A Lesson in Customer Convenience
If we can assume that online customers demand something more from a company doing business on the web, why is it that so many companies put so little effort into getting to know what their online customers need? What’s so hard about identifying a site visitor, listen to what they have to say about conducting transactions online, and delivering an online experience that meets those expectations?
Two words explain this phenomenon—power shift. Most companies till placate their customers rather than rather than treating them like business partners. That’s understandable. Businesses are not used to interacting with their constituents any other way. But technology has empowered the consumer to interact with a company across many mediums in ways they have always wanted to. This shift in power from companies making decisions about what’s best for a customer to customers demanding that role for themselves makes an online transaction much different from the same experience occurring offline. Old venues push, sell or haggle to preserve some control over the customer’s impulses, questions or anxieties. In a connected economy, businesses respond to customers’ desire for information, then enable rather than control the eventual interaction.
This doesn’t mean that companies like Intel need to dismantle its manufacturing plants, or Barnes and Noble its bookstores. It does mean they need to respond to customer’s desires to also have access to products and services online. Consumers do show strong preferences for conducting certain transactions—like buying books or computer equipment—or conducting other business such as procuring office products, paying bills, trading securities, or booking travel tickets—electronically, rather than in person or over the telephone. Electronic commerce and online self service enables individuals to do what they want, when they want to. It makes things convenient.
Convenience seems to be a consistently underrated commodity. One reason that very sophisticated businesses have underestimated the appeal of the internet is that they do not fully appreciate the value of convenience. Consumers who prefer online interaction do so largely because it takes less time to do than do alternative venues. They also enjoy the 24/7 storefront aspect of ‘anytime-anywhere’ web service. And as the internet evolves, web sites will become even more user-friendly, allowing consumers to spend their time even more efficiently and effectively than with offline mechanisms.
In the 1993 feature film comedy Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays a reporter named Phil Connors who travels to small-town America–Punxsutawney, PA.—to do a story on the infamous Punxsutawney Phil, an overweight groundhog who every year informs the nation whether or not spring will arrive early. Connors reports on the story and somehow manages to survive the day. But something strange happens during the night. Upon awakening the next morning, he discovers that it’s Groundhog Day all over again. It seems he’s trapped in some type of time warp where he’s forced to relive the same day over and over. Each day, the townspeople greet Connors as if he were a stranger, even though the man spent time chatting and interacting with them the previous day. The redundant, interpersonal exchanges aggravate Connors to no end—turning him into a frustrated, angry and suicidal man.
Many of today’s businesses are doing the same things to their customers—they treat them like strangers. This only serves to alienate, frustrate and inconvenience them.
Let’s take this real-world story for example. Our tale begins with a woman who walks into a bank and tells the new accounts manager she’d like to take out a loan. The manager asks the woman to fill out a loan application (a legal-length document that takes her fifteen minutes to complete. Even though the woman has been a customer of the bank for over 10 years and all her personal information is on file already, the woman has no choice but to complete the paperwork. The woman is then told that the bank will call her once it’s had a chance to process and review her loan request. The manager and the woman shake hands and the woman exits the bank.
Instead of waiting for her bank to call, the woman decides to log onto an online bank where she submits an electronic loan application that takes her only a few minutes to complete. The online bank doesn’t need the woman to submit a 10 page application because it has developed an e-commerce engine that pings various third-party databases to append data automatically to the woman’s profile. With little effort, the online bank has just provided the woman with higher customer service than the bank she’s been doing business with for the past 10 years. And, seconds after submitting her online loan request, the woman receives two replies—one via email and one via text message on her iPhone—her loan has been approved! The woman accepts the loan terms with the click of a mouse and the funds are wired into her bank account within a few days.
One week later, the woman gets a call from her regular bank. “I’m happy to inform you,” offers the cheery manager, “that your loan has been approved.”
The woman replies rather dramatically. “I’m happy to inform you that you’re no longer my bank.”
This good humored anecdote is meant to drive home a point. As the internet decentralizes brick-and-mortar industries such as insurance, financial services, travel and real estate—in additional to lines of business such as marketing, sales, manufacturing and distribution—businesses must adapt to the growing expectations of their customers if they hope to keep them. The internet has forever changed what people expect from companies they do business with. Consumers can now demand that businesses treat them more like partners rather than pawns in a rigid, inflexible relationship.
In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character vents his frustration in a way which mirrors customers stuck doing business with companies who still don’t ‘get’ the internet.
“What would you do,” Connor asks, “if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” It’s a quote from a movie but it could easily be attributed to a frustrated bank customer, a novice home buyer, an angry computer purchaser, or a befuddled insurance shopper.
The Groundhog Day phenomenon—treating customers the same old way, day after day—is a losing proposition. Businesses who insist on managing their patrons and prospects in this manor risk losing the one commodity they’ve always counted on—consumers without choices.
Solution sketching is a lot like brainstorming. (I happen to be the world’s foremost expert on solution sketching because I just made up the term three hours ago).
Solution sketching can help unleash your create energies to focus on solving a problem. It starts a lot like brainstorming—a process of releasing your thoughts as rapidly as they come into your mind and capturing them for consideration. By coming up with a wide variety of creative ideas, you greatly increase your change to solve a problem in a bold new way.
A related technique is visual mapping—which is a process of following your natural intuition and freely associating seemingly random concepts so that a patchwork of uncensored ideas begins to develop.
The key to solution sketching, brainstorming and visual mapping is allowing for the free flow of ideas—good and bad—and then sort, edit and prioritize at a later time. Find yourself short on ideas? Got creative writer’s block? Try this simple exercise I like to call Out of Body Visualization. It’s a fun way of placing your mind into unusual situations in order to stimulate creative solutions. It’s like batting practice for your brain!
Many creative artists tend to get hung up on the fine details…editing their creative thought process as they go. This can limit the number of creative possibilities you might consider, but switching your mind from ’solve it now’ mode to a more artistic mode (such as sketching) forces you to focus on an alternative activity, which may lead to capturing thoughts that might normally slip away from your mind.
So without further adieu, here are my five simple tips for solution sketching:
With the rapid emergence of Web 2.0 platforms and technologies, many Fortune 500 companies are now utilizing their websites and digital media assets to create mash-ups, crowdsource, microblog, and publish data in a way that promotes, engages and influences their key constituents. They are doing this by utilizing social media applications, word of mouth communication tactics, and consumer-centric interactive experiences to mesh business goals with constituent desires. The reward for successfully navigating this next media minefield is often a stronger brand, more loyal customers, and a new type of business mindset whereby markets are conversations.
Companies who have already embraced the type of conversations enabled by digital networks seem to have several things in common. Here are 10 of them:
Now that you have your new project idea–whether it’s a book, video game, or some other type of creative project, you will want to go out and sell it so you can get the money and support to bring your project to life. You’ve made your cold calls and leveraged your LinkedIn connections to set up your first pitch meeting. You have one objective: impress those in the room enough to warrant another meeting. Here’s how you do it.
First, size up the room. How many people are there? If there are only one or two individuals, your job will be much easier. Create an intimate space. Make eye contact. Remember, they need to feel your passion. What are people wearing? The gals in suits tend to like statistics, facts, and demographics. The guys dressed in blue jeans and T-shirts with want the creative stuff. Adjust your pitch accordingly.
Second, beware of small talk. Sure, you’ll need to be friendly so people in the room but watch out for conversation traps. Many of those who pitch projects have fallen into a seemingly innocent exchange of pleasantries, then, the trap.
Allow me to demonstrate:
SUIT BEHIND THE DESK: “What do you think of our multiplayer game, Rebel Conquest?”
Panic strikes. You’ve never even heard of the game, much less sampled it. You quickly improvise.
YOU: “It’s great. Very state-of-the-art. Kids seem to really like it.”
SUIT BEHIND THE DESK: “What I meant was, what’s the buzz? The product doesn’t roll out ’til March. Perhaps you’re confusing our game with some other product.”
OOOOPS! Somebody just put their foot in their mouth! Let’s try that scenario again.
SUIT BEHIND THE DESK: “What do you think of our multi-player game, Rebel Conquest?”
Panic strikes. You’ve never even heard of the game, much less sampled it. You answer truthfully.
YOU: “If it’s anything like your last online game, Crash Test Kids, I’m sure it’ll be a winner. But to be honest with you, Mr. So-and-So, I don’t know anything about Rebel Conquest.”
SUIT BEHIND THE DESK: “We have high-hopes for the game. Multiplayer experiences are the future of Super Duper Game Company. I’m anxious to see what you have to show us today.”
Two rules of small talk:
Blow your audience away with a passionate , solid pitch. This takes lots of practice. I repeat, lots of practice. Keep your presentation brief and to the point. Be animated when necessary (flap your arms, grit your teeth, bark like a dog). Use visuals sparingly (your oral pitch should stand on its own).
How to Improve Your Pitch
An NDA is an agreement between two parties to protect the privacy of their ideas when disclosing those ideas to each other, or to signatory third parties.
Here is what a sample Non-Disclosure Agreement looks like:
In connection with your review of certain confidential information created by UltraHip Publishers of America (”UltraHip”), we ask that you read and accept the following conditions on UltraHip’s disclosure of such information:
“Proprietary Information” shall mean all information obtained by you from or disclosed to you by UltraHip which:
(i) relates to UltraHip’s past, present or future research, development or business activities or the results from such activities or ;
(ii) which UltraHip has received from others and which UltraHip is obligated to treat as confidential or proprietary. Proprietary information shall not include information previously known to you or publicly disclosed without breach of an obligation of confidentiality, either prior or subsequent to your receipt of such information. You agree that you shall hold all proprietary information in confidence and shall not use any proprietary information except as may be authorized by UltraHip in writing. You shall not disclose by publication or otherwise to any person any such Proprietary Information. You further agree that at any time upon request of UltraHip you shall return to UltraHip any and all written or descriptive matter including, but not limited to, financial information, descriptions or other papers or documents which contain any such proprietary information, together with all copies thereof.
If the foregoing reflects your understanding, please sign this agreement in the space provided below.
AGREED TO AND ACCEPTED BY:
____________________ ________
(Your name & company) (Date)
____________________ ________
(UltraHip representative) (Date)
