With Great Startups It's All About The Execution

Written by:  Martin Zwilling

A startup begins with a great idea, but all too often, that’s where it ends. Ideas have to be implemented well to get the desired results. Good implementation requires a plan, and a good plan and good operational decisions come from good people. That’s why investors invest in entrepreneurs, rather than ideas.

People and operational excellence have to converge in every business, large or small. Microsoft found this out last year when their market capitalization, once at $560 billion in the year 2000, had fallen to $219 billion, allowing them to be passed by Apple at $222 billion, who grew from $15.6 billion during the same period. Both had access to the same technology, people, and market.

So what could have happened here? I found a good summary of the relevant keys to business operational excellence in a new book by Faisal Hoque, called “The Power of Convergence.” His focus is on repeatable practices to maximize business opportunities in large companies, but I’m convinced that these apply equally well to startups:

1.Clearly define your value chain. Your value chain consists of customers, partners, vendors, internal systems, and your own team. Make sure you understand this chain, as well as market dynamics, to drive operational innovations and every decision. Apple has been able to innovate at an amazing pace to define and meet new market opportunities.

2.Visualize abnormal or suboptimal performance. Recognizing and understanding deviations enables a startup or any business to take corrective action quickly. This requires executives and a team that understands the parameters, and is focused on customers, quality, and continuous improvement.

3.Facilitate the power of your team. Startups need to empower their people to take action in the absence of orders. That doesn’t mean abdication in setting corporate policies, which provide parameters to ensure that individuals have to ability to act collectively in the company’s best interest. Steve Jobs has a committed team.

4.Communicate effectively with the team and customers. Communication is a challenge in any organization, but it’s a particular challenge when you’re working in a startup, where customers, products, processes, and the team are new. Most founders forget that communication becomes exponentially more difficult as the business grows.

5.Measure value flow and performance. Measuring performance may seem self-evident, but many entrepreneurs mistake this task as a point-in-time or a one-time event. In operationally excellent startups, performance measurement is an ongoing effort throughout the process chain, not just at the outcome.

6.Define response mechanisms. Anticipating and planning for worst-case scenarios, and having a Plan-B, will enable the quick-response and pivots required to put a startup back on track. Metrics are required for ensuring the return to a known good baseline.

7.Maximize technology architecture and standards. Continuous innovation to maintain your competitive advantage does not mean that you can ignore current architectures and standards. These must always be leveraged produce optimal intended product outcomes.

What every business needs is a convergence of business and technology elements to optimize return and competitive positioning. All too often, entrepreneurs posit a new technology or idea, without understanding that a successful business is a never-ending process of adapting and improving all the elements in a business – especially business model, processes, and people, as well as technology.

Apple, with Steve Jobs, has demonstrated a rare convergence of technology, market understanding, business process, and people. Are you focused on all the right execution principles in your startup to do the same?

Trading Places: A Smart Way to Change Your Mind

Trading Places: A Smart Way to Change Your Mind

by: William C. Taylor

How's this for a neat idea about where to find new ideas and apply them to your business? Maxine Clark, founder and CEO of (publicly traded) Build-a-Bear Workshop, switched companies for a day with Kip Tindell, cofounder and CEO of the (privately held) Container Store. Both outfits are big, fast-growing, passion brands in the ultra-competitive world of retail — although they have little in common in terms of target customers, in-store zeitgeist, or corporate missions. Yet those differences are precisely what made the CEO switcheroo so valuable: When the two leaders spent a day working on the front lines of each other's operations, they encountered all kinds of ideas about merchandising, employee motivation, and in-store communication that worked in one place, and might just work in the other if those ideas were exported to and adapted for the new environment.

To give credit where credit is due, neither Clark nor Kindell had the original idea for this clever exercise in idea-swapping. In fact, credit goes to the editors of Fortune magazine, who were assembling their annual "Best Companies to Work For" issue. Build-a-Bear and Container Store both made the cut (Container Store is a perennial) and the editors thought it would be a neat trick if two CEOs on the list traded companies for a day. They were right; it was a neat trick. But it was more than that — it was yet another example of the power of a whole new mindset about innovation.

I've seen it time and again: Leaders who are hungry for new ideas don't just aspire to learn from the "best in class" in their narrowly defined field. They also aspire to learn from organizations outside their field as a way to shake things up and make real change. Strategies and practices that are routine in one market segment can be revolutionary when they migrate to another, especially when those ideas challenge the prevailing assumptions that have come to define so many market segments.

Which is not to suggest that it's mandatory for CEOs to swap jobs in order to change their minds about how their companies can compete. In its wildly successful "Disruption Day" innovation process, TBWA Worldwide, the legendary advertising agency, uses what it calls the "CEO Hats" exercise to encourage organizations to get beyond their business-as-usual mindsets. Participants search for out-of-the-box answers to important strategic questions by reaching into boxes filled with hats, shirts, and other paraphernalia from breakthrough organizations such as Apple, Virgin, Target, and Southwest Airlines. They wear the attire and try to adopt the mindset of those free-thinking companies as they think about the big questions facing their companies.

"We define possible strategies for companies through the eyes and values and under the leadership of a different CEO," explains Laurie Coots, TBWA's chief marketing officer. "The sheer act of being free to think like somebody else gives you permission to generate ideas that you might not get to otherwise."

It's a fun way to make a serious point: There's no reason to gamble on untested strategies and ideas if you can identify and apply strategies and ideas that are already working elsewhere. Proven insights from one field can become a powerful force for innovation when they migrate to another field. "What better way to 'think different' than to think like somebody else, to wear someone else's hat?" asks TBWA chairman Jean-Marie Dru (and author of Beyond Disruption: Changing the Rules in the Marketplace). "These hats are representative of powerful personalities or company cultures that have proven themselves in the business world. We use the hats to deliberately create a little theater, to get people out of their workaday personae and transport them to a totally new way of thinking."

Indra Nooyi, the change-minded CEO of PepsiCo, has her own language to capture the same phenomenon. She describes the new logic of innovation as "lift and shift." That is, search for great ideas in unrelated fields, lift them out of the context in which they took shape, and shift them into your company. Which is precisely what Kindell and Clark did. According to Fortune, the CEO of the Container store was struck by the effectiveness of Build-a-Bear's "Strive for Five" sales technique — aiming to sell customers five items during their visit. The CEO of Build-a-Bear was impressed by how well the Container Store communicated with its front-line associates — lots of simple gestures that sent big signals through the ranks. Both CEOs vowed to apply these (and other) outside ideas inside their organizations.

Here's the basic message: You can't let what you know limit what you can imagine. As you try to do something special, exciting, important, don't just look to other companies in your field (or to your past successes) for ideas and practices. Look to great organizations in all sorts of fields to see what works with for them — and how you can apply their ideas to your problems. Do you have new ideas about where to find new ideas?
                                                                                 

William C. Taylor is cofounder of Fast Company magazine and author of Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself

The World’s Most Misunderstood Consumer Brands

The process of brand valuation is more an art than a science, or at least that is the conclusion of research done by 24/7 Wall St. The most well-regarded “brand evaluators” rarely come up with similar figures–except for among the very largest brands. Some of their opinions diverge dramatically.

24/7 Wall St. looked at the brand valuations and methodologies of BrandZ, Interbrand, and Brandirectory. The first two list 100 brands each in their public studies. Brandirectory lists 500. Each would defend its valuations which use different “black box” systems for calculating value. That is probably because all three charge hefty fees for their services.

The explanations for their methodologies are even more convoluted.

Here is what BrandZ says: “The brand value published is based on the intrinsic value of the brand – derived from its ability to generate demand. The dollar value of each brand in the ranking is the sum of all future earnings that brand is forecast to generate, discounted to a present-day value. Given the high volatility of financial markets over the past 12 months, the brand value is in some cases high relative to current market capitalization, reflecting true value rather than current market swings.” Where is the heart of that exercise? It is impossible to say.

Interbrands has three criteria: “1) Financial performance measures an organization’s raw financial return to the investors, 2) Role of brand measures the portion of the decision to purchase that is attributable to brand – this is exclusive of other aspects of the offer like price or feature, and 3) Brand strength measures the ability of the brand to secure the delivery of expected future earnings.” Without the exact data that Interband uses and details of how it is arranged to derive a value, it is impossible say how its process works.

Brandirectory describes its methodology this way: “The methodology employed in the BrandFinance Global 500 uses a discounted cash flow (DCF) technique to discount estimated future royalties, at an appropriate discount rate, to arrive at a net present value (NPV) of the trademark and associated intellectual property: the brand value.”

All three brand valuation companies admit that sales play a critical role in brand valuation. All three claim that their forecasts of future contributions of the brands to earnings are part of their proprietary analysis. All link brand value to the overall value of a brand’s parent company.

Again, the most telling part of the comparison among the three firms is that they differ very little on the 20 most valuable brands. Oddly enough, the best way to highlight the flaw in the three valuations methods is to look at Marlboro. Its value is ranked seventh best by BrandZ at $57 billion, 18th on the Interbrand list with a value of $20 billion and 499th on the Brandirectory list with a valuation of $2.3 billion. Marlboro is the primary brand of both Philip Morris and Altria. Altria has annual sales of $24 billion. Philip Morris sales are $67 billion a year. Even in the most cerebral and bizarre world, Marlboro could not be worth as little as $2.3 billion.

24/7 Wall St., to make its point about whether brand values can be fairly measured, looked at ten brands which are ranked high on one of the three brand value lists and much lower on others. We considered the brand value from the lists, the extent to which each brand is internationally known based on overseas sales, total annual revenue, and in many cases the age and durability of the brand.

Each of the brands on the 24/7 Wall St. list is not only a well-known name in the US but also in most places around the world. A review of the BrandZ, Interbrand, and Brandirectory lists leads to the conclusion that most brands are not valued properly. The ten we have chosen are particularly notable because the so-called experts have widely differing views on how much they are worth.

1. Xerox

Interbrand Brand Value: $6.109 billion

Total Sales: $15.2 Billion
% sales international: 46%
Market Cap: $14.2 Billion

The name “Xerox” has become synonymous with photocopiers, as well as the act of photocopying. The company, which has been around for more than a century, invented the first electro-photography plain paper photocopier. Xerox is in the top 200 of the Fortune 500, and remains a well-known brand around the world. The company’s revenue was more than $15 billion in 2010, with just over $7 billion coming in from outside of the United States.
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2. Yahoo!
Interbrand Brand Value: $4.958 billion
Total Sales: $6.3 Billion
% sales international: 33%
Market Cap: $21.4 billion

Yahoo! was one of the first major web portals. Founded in 1995, the company survived the burst of the dot-com bubble and remains valuable today. Yahoo! is the second largest search engine in the US behind Google. Yahoo!, as of 2010, had the largest market share of online display advertising in the world, according to JP Morgan. Of the $6.324 billion the company made in 2010, just over $2 billion was made internationally.
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3. MTV
Interbrand Brand Value: $6.719 billion
Parent Company Viacom’s Total Sales: $13.4 billion
% sales international: N/A
Parent Company Viacom’s Market Cap: $27.2 billion

MTV has grown into an international media giant since its beginning in 1981. According to owner Viacom, the channel reached approximately 99 million television households within the United States in September 2010. On an international level, MTV Networks’ operations reached approximately 635 million households in more than 160 countries in September 2010. MTV has also expanded into film with its MTV Films division, which has produced such popular films as Zoolander and Jackass.
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4. Heinz

Interbrand Brand Value: $7.534 billion
Total Sales: $10.5 Billion
% sales international: 62%
Market Cap: $15.6 billion

Heinz’s 57 is easily the most recognized brand of ketchup the United States, and is featured on most restaurant and diner tables in the U.S. While it is the most recognizable in the U.S., more than half of the company’s $10.5 billion in annual sales comes from abroad. Besides ketchup, Heinz sells a variety of condiments, including mustard, relish, and horseradish. The last of these was actually the first product Heinz produced.
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5. Kellogg

Interbrand Brand Value: $11.041 billion
Total Sales: $12.4 Billion
% sales international: 37%
Market Cap: $19.7 billion

Battle Creek, Michigan-based Kellogg was founded in 1906, and is responsible for some of the most popular breakfast cereals in the world, including Corn Pops, Corn Flakes, Crispix, Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran and Rice Krispies. Kellogg competes with General Mills as one of the two largest breakfast food makers in the world, producing other extremely successful products such as Eggo waffles and Pop Tarts.
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6. Phillips

Interbrand Brand Value: $8.696 billion
Total Sales: $25 billion
% sales international: ~98%
Market Cap: $31.3 billion

Dutch-based Philips Electronics is one of the largest electronics companies in the world, competing against Sony and Panasonic. The company employs about 120,000 people around the world and sells merchandise in more than 60 countries. The company invented or helped invent nearly every modern form of media storage. Along with Sony, the company has been the go-to brand for the compact cassette, the CD, the DVD, and the Blu-Ray disc. The company also sells electronics, including a popular line of televisions and sound equipment.
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7. KFC

Interbrand Brand Value: $5.844 billion
Parent Company Yum! Brands Total Sales: $11.343 billion
% sales international: N/A
Parent Company Yum! Brands Market Cap: $23.76 billion

Originally founded in 1930, KFC is now one of the largest brands owned by Yum! Brands, along with Pizza Hut. According to Yum!, as of the end of 2010 there were 5,055 KFCs in the United States and 11,798 in other countries. A surprising 3,244 of these restaurants are in China. KFC has restaurants in 110 countries and territories worldwide. In 2010, Yum! Brands had a total revenue of $11.34 billion.
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8. Danone

Interbrand Brand Value: $6.363 billion
Total Sales: $24.2 Billion
% sales international: 75% or more
Market Cap: $28.6 Billion

Group Danone, the French food-products company which markets its products in the United States under the brand name Dannon, had sales of just over $24 billion in 2010. According to the company, Danone is “the world’s leading producer in volume of Fresh Dairy Products.” The company is best known for its yogurts and bottled water. It moved into baby food after purchasing Numico in 2007.
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9. Caterpillar

Interbrand Brand Value: $4.704 billion
Total Sales: $42.5 Billion
% sales international: 70%
Market Cap: $68.2 Billion

Caterpillar is the largest manufacturer of construction equipment in the world, with annual sales of more than $42 billion, more than 100,000 employees and 178 dealers. Caterpillar’s “Cat” brand is well- known among the public and construction firms alike.
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10. Adidas

Interbrand Brand Value: $5.495 billion
Total Sales: $17.03 Billion

% sales international: N/A

Market Cap: $18.45 Billion

Adidas, the German sports apparel company, had sales of just over $17 billion in 2010. The company is the second largest sportswear manufacturer in the world, behind Nike, and the largest in Europe. Parent company Adidas AG also owns the popular brands Reebok and Rockport.

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©2011 24/7 Wall St.

Marketing Excellence Inc getting the word out:Edison International scholarship opportunities

Marketing Excellence Inc has partnered in the effort to get the word out about Edison International scholarship opportunities to as many students as possible.


Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, welcomes applications for the Edison Scholars program, which supports the study of math, science, engineering and technology.The Edison Scholars Scholarship program is a part of Edison's long standing tradition of investing in the future by making the dream of a college education a reality for deserving students.

In celebration of our 125th anniversary, Edison has expanded the program from 75 to 125 scholarships. In addition, we have made changes to our current eligibility requirements. Recipients are no longer limited to attending an accredited four-year college or university within our service territory. The program has been expanded to include attendance at any accredited four-year college or university across the U.S. Each selected high school graduating senior will be awarded a $2,500 college scholarship. Awards are renewable an additional three years for a total of $10,000, provided recipients meet all eligibility requirements.

The Edison Scholars application postmark deadline is March 15, 2011. Please encourage potential scholars to visit www.edison.com/edisonscholars for more information.

Please encourage potential scholars to visit www.edison.com/edisonscholars for more information. And please remember who told you.

Creating Competitive Culture (C3) Conference

Inc., the magazine for growing companies, has partnered with Winning Workplaces to discover and recognize private companies with exemplary workplaces that motivate, engage, and reward employees. Honorees will appear in the June 2010 issue of Inc., and the achievement of these companies will be commemorated at the 2010 Inc. and Winning Workplaces Conference on Creating Competitive Cultures (C3).

The event begins October 27 with pre-conference workshops that delve deeper into one of three workplace topics before a welcome reception in the evening. The next morning opens on the main stage with a presentation revealing the tangible tools for creating competitive cultures before the day culminates with an awards dinner recognizing this year's honorees. The final day of the conference will offer more main stage presentations and more intimate sessions with opportunities for greater networking and education.

At C3, you'll learn about innovative approaches from award-winning companies and extraordinary entrepreneurs, the inspirational tools and processes they deploy to build teams and workplace environments that have a lasting impact on financial results and personal satisfaction. Creating Competitive Cultures presents the newest leadership strategies for developing the best possible company culture, one that results in a loyal, motivated, inspired, and focused team.

Conference Program
The conference runs from Wednesday, October 27, 2010, through Friday, October 29, 2010.

Features:

• Keynote presentations by founders of prominent entrepreneurial companies and business celebrities
• Breakout sessions organized by themes and audience that provide networking and learning opportunities among business leaders
  

Visit the AGENDA page for more details.

Price: Early Bird Rate: $595 (expires 8/31) Conference Rate: $895

Where
All conference events will take place at the Denver Marriott City Center
1701 California Street
Denver, Colorado 80202

Watch for opportunities to engage staff in strategic planning

by Mimi Bacilek • June 8, 2010

Resource-based conversations usually focus on what is spent, by whom and where. They are filled with comparison-speak: who has more, how they got it and how to get more. They focus on the budget, reviewing variance reports and juggling cost-center allocations.

It all keeps the leader focused on the past. Savvy leaders take a future focus by seeing resources as investment commodities: time, information, relationships, talents and passions. Growth of staff capabilities and perspectives is a natural result.

Consider meetings that are the bane of your existence, perhaps where last week's numbers are rehashed and day-to-day problems are solved. Imagine the value staff members gain by attending in your place. They learn meeting processes and etiquette from different types of conversations. With advance coaching, they learn to speak out and up, provoke new thinking and constructively challenge other business units.

Watch for opportunities to engage staff in strategic planning. Send them to meetings where they learn from outsiders and participate in cross-functional teams accountable to different business units. These activities broaden employees' exposure, perspective and experience while the leader exercises coaching skills in the process.

Relationships are investment opportunities, too. Create active partnerships with peers, building robust and dynamic relationships. Connect people to enable improved information sharing and problem solving. Create conversations about how resources are spent or invested. Use meeting time to identify and report on outcomes.

Resources are often wasted when conversation focuses on action plans and task lists rather than results. Require proactive conversations on predictable problems versus applying energy, time and materials to fix them later. Limit "rearview mirror" conversations and focus on future outcomes. Be sure every meeting has clear purpose and that leaders skillfully facilitate to promote valuable use of time and agenda space.

Choose to be a resource investor and enable an amazing future.

If this is how you conduct strategic planning, you may want to think again.

Short, simple but full of lessons.

Mr Smith, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO.The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers.On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning against a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He asked the guy, "How much money do you make a week?"A little surprised, the young man looked at him and said, "I make $400 a week. Why?"The CEO said, "Wait right here." He walked back to his office, came back in two minutes, and handed the guy $1,600 in cash and said, "Here's four weeks' pay. Now GET OUT and don't come back."Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did here?"From across the room a voice said, "Pizza delivery guy from Domino's."

Strategic planners do your research and follow proven decision making processes no matter how simple, inexpensive and "obvious" the answer may be. The results from not doing the research and proper planning could be more costly than you realize.

The 11 Keys to Success

By Julie Jansen, author of "I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This"

In his best-selling book "Emotional Intelligence," Daniel Goleman writes, "There are widespread exceptions to the rule that IQ predicts success ... at best, IQ contributes about 20 percent to the factors that determine life success, which leaves 80 percent to other forces."

Goleman goes on to explain, "These other characteristics are called emotional intelligence: abilities such as being able to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations; to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one's moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathize and to hope."

This book is full of assessments, tools, resources and how-tos to help guide you in finding new work that will better meet your personal and financial needs. No matter which category you fit in, however, unless you are able to demonstrate and master a specific set of life skills and traits, you will find it difficult to find the work you want.

Observing people in the workplace has yielded 11 keys to success. Time and again, it is apparent that those individuals who exhibit these 11 keys and use them most productively are consistently the most successful and well-liked individuals overall. The good news is that most people are born with at least some of these keys or learned them at a very young age, and all of these keys can be developed or learned later in life.

These are the 11 keys to success:

1. Confidence: an unshakable belief in oneself based on a realistic understanding of one's circumstances; a trait that most people admire in others and strive to acquire themselves.

2. Curiosity: being eager to know and learn; always showing interest and giving special attention to the less obvious; always being the person who says, "I want to know more about . . . ."

3. Decisiveness: arriving at a final conclusion or making a choice and taking action; making decisions with determination even when you don't have all the information you think you need.

4. Empathy: demonstrating caring and understanding of someone else's situation, feelings and motives; always thinking about what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes.

5. Flexibility: being capable of change; responding positively to change; being pliable, adaptable, nonrigid and able to deal with ambiguity.

6. Humor: viewing yourself and the world with enjoyment; not taking life or yourself too seriously; being amusing, amused and, at times, even comical.

7. Intelligence: thinking and working smartly and cleverly; being sharp in your dealings; "not reinventing the wheel"; planning before acting; working efficiently and focusing on quality over quantity. (Important note: This is different from IQ, the common abbreviation for intelligence quotient.)

8. Optimism: expecting the best possible outcome and dwelling on the most hopeful or positive aspects of a situation; believing that the glass is half full rather than half empty.

9. Perseverance: having passion, energy, focus and the desire to get results. Motivation, persistence and hard work are all aspects of perseverance.

10. Respect: remembering that it is just as easy to be nice; protecting another person's self-esteem; treating others in a considerate and courteous manner.

11. Self-awareness: a sophisticated form of consciousness that enables you to regulate yourself by monitoring yourself, observing yourself and changing your thought processes and behaviors.

Which of these keys are among your strengths? Which of the 11 are among your weaknesses? Self-awareness, the 11th key, is really the foundation for understanding yourself. If you are not sure how self-aware you are, ask several people whom you trust which of these 11 keys they believe are your strengths and which are not.

Again, while no one person possesses all of these keys in equal amounts, each of them can be developed and improved.

Copyright 2010 Julie Jansen All rights reserved.

PODCAST: What Great Bosses Know

This is a PODCAST on the subject of presenting and presentation delivery. No matter how good you are you can always get better.

"What Great Bosses Know". Click this link to check it out: http://poynter.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-11-05T10_00_15-08_00

Hispanic Business Owners are Different

It is interesting how Hispanic Owned businesses approach their customers. Marketing Excellence recently conducted a Retention Marketing workshop to Hispanic business owners in San Ysidro California. The event was sponsored by the San Ysidro Business District.

During the workshop, it was interesting to note how the owners and senior staff viewed their customers. They all held their customers (and clients) to the highest regard. They shared that when a customer walks into their business, they try to treat them as if the customer was walking into their house. They want to make them feel welcomed and at ease. They were already implementing retention marketing strategies without ever being formally trained or introduced to this business strategy.

The big lesson learned was that they valued each and every customer. They are willing to do what is in the best interest of their customer. They understand that their main purpose is to provide the customer a solution. It could be clothing, furniture, insurance, food products or any other product or service. But they view the transaction with their customers as a "partnership agreement" for future business. They are certainly not looking to make one score or take advantage of their customers. They fully appreciate and embrace the concept of life time value of a customer. Some may argue that this is not really a lesson; this is good business sense. The difference demonstrated by the Hispanic business owners is the PASSION in their execution and business practices.

Retention Marketing Presentation for Small Business Administration

Retention Marketing - Your Current Customer is Worth More Than You May Think!
Location, Dates & Times:
9:00 AM until 12:00 PM August 26, Wednesday SCORE Entrepreneur Center Directions


Companies often forget about a valuable resource -- their current customers. Focusing on getting new customers can be hurting your business more than you think. On average, it costs five times more to get a new customer than to keep a current customer happy and keep them buying from you. Did you know that just one dissatisfied customer will tell nine other potential customers? We'll explore and develop customer retention strategies that will help you grow your business from within and the workshop will uncover:

• Competitive advantages created by customer centric organizations


• "Customer Centric" vs. "Customer Service


• "Defining and measuring customer loyalty


• Building customer centric action plans


• Employee behaviors for improved customer loyalty


• Value of complaints


• Lifetime value of a customer


• Costs associated with the loss of customers


• Value and ROI from customer loyalty
  

Registration fee:$49 Pre-Paid / $59 On-Site

Featuring:
Emilio Vargas II is co-founder and President of Marketing Excellence Incorporated. In addition to over 17 years of marketing and business management experience, Emilio has worked as a marketing and business executive for several distinguished companies including Delta Airlines, Marriott Corporation, and United Parcel Service. Emilio graduated from Saint John's University with a B.S. in Public Accounting and went on to earn two master's degrees from Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York - MBA Strategic Marketing and MBA Organizational Behavior. Emilio is active with several Marketing associations and Veterans' organizations. He teaches marketing, management, and leadership at Alliant International University and the University of Phoenix, and he also serves on the Alliant International University Academic Advisory Board for Marketing and Public Relations.

https://www.scoresandiego.com/workshops.asp?WorkshopID=110

Mexican Consulate recognizes Marketing Excellence Inc for an outstanding professional development seminar

Below is the release by the Mexican Consulate after Emilio and Claudia of Marketing Excellence Inc facilitated a professional development seminar on customer service and retention marketing. Lydia Antonio of the consulate states "We immediately implemented some of the recommendations provided by Marketing Excellence and we are seeing vast improvements."

PERSONAL DEL CONSULADO GENERAL EN SAN DIEGO ATENDIÓ EL CURSO “CÓMO MEJORAR EL SERVICIO AL USUARIO”

17 Jul 2009

El sábado 11 de julio se impartió al personal de este Consulado General el curso “Cómo Mejorar el Servicio al Usuario” con la finalidad de mejorar la atención que se proporciona al público que diariamente asiste a las instalaciones de esta representación.
Este taller fue impartido de manera gratuita por los señores Emilio y Claudia Vargas, Presidente y Vice Presidenta de la empresa de relaciones públicas Marketing Excellence Inc., en colaboración con SCORE San Diego, organización no lucrativa que brinda apoyo y asistencia a pequeños empresarios a nivel nacional.

Cabe mencionar que este curso, además de brindar herramientas para mejorar el servicio que proporciona el personal de esta representación, ofreció la oportunidad para reflexionar sobre cómo mejorar los procedimientos de expedición de documentos y los servicios que se ofrecen al público en general”