Small Business Strategies: Hispanic market is an opportunity

By Rhonda Abrams, USA TODAY

We're in the middle of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, and I've got a confession to make: Although my books have been translated into more than 30 languages worldwide, I've never had them translated into Spanish for the American Hispanic market.

That may make some readers of my column glad.

"Let 'em learn English," I can imagine you shouting.

The truth is, as a businessperson, I owe it to myself to take a realistic look at the opportunities in the large, vibrant American Hispanic market.

No matter how you feel about the hot-button issue of immigration, as a small-business owner you should not ignore the fact that Hispanics in the United States represent a huge marketing opportunity.

Like me, you need to consider reaching that market. And, like me, you don't necessarily need to learn Spanish or translate your marketing materials into Spanish.

About 83% of young Hispanics and 56% of Hispanics older than 18 speak only English or English very well at home, according to Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of Census Bureau statistics. That means you can reach large numbers of Hispanics in English — if you try.

Serving Hispanics can be a great business move.

A businessman I know had a struggling used-car dealership. Then, 25 years ago he targeted Hispanics in his community, including migrant farm workers, when no one else would. He learned Spanish, hired Spanish-speaking salespeople, and extended credit to customers when others wouldn't.

He became a millionaire.

This car dealer learned what many entrepreneurs have realized: Hispanics in this country have a lot of money to spend. The average median Hispanic household income in 2009 was $38,039. While that is less than the $51,861 for white households, it still means Hispanic consumers have money to buy your products or services. (While white is a race for U.S. Census purposes, Hispanic is an ethnicity and Hispanics can be of any race.)

More than 50 million people across the country are Hispanic, according to 2010 Census data. That's more than 16% of all Americans.

It's dumb to write off 1 in 6 people without even thinking about it. And that number is growing and will keep growing regardless of the immigration policies we adopt. By 2050, it is projected that Hispanics will be 30% of America's population.

Generally, Hispanic consumers are young: Hispanics' median age is 27, compared to a median age of 41 for non-Hispanic whites. These younger Hispanic consumers have families and homes, thus they need groceries, clothing and hardware. They also consume a lot of entertainment and gadgets.

If your company's customers are businesses, rather than people, Hispanic-owned businesses represent a huge business opportunity. In 2007, the United States had about 2.3 million Hispanic-owned businesses. And they generated a lot of money, $345.2 billion in gross revenues.

Those figures have almost certainly declined since the onset of the Great Recession in 2008. But Hispanic-owned businesses still have a lot of money to spend on business services, supplies, and equipment. They have to buy from someone.

Hispanics are a large market, but realistically, it's a challenge for a small company to figure out how to serve that market. The best way to get a piece of the Hispanic market is to go about it the same way you approach any other target market: Sit down and devise a marketing plan.

1. Assess your products and services. Is there any reason they are not appropriate for the Hispanic market?

2. Assess your competition. Who is selling your products or services to the Hispanic market now? Can you position yourself better?

3. Look for networking groups. You can join your local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce even if you're not Hispanic.

4. Advertise in local media reaching the Hispanic market. If you don't speak Spanish, advertise in English. Many English-speaking Hispanics read Spanish language publications.

5. Try translating some of your marketing materials or a website page into Spanish. You can hire translating services, hire Spanish-speaking employees or consultants, even hire a Spanish speaking student from a local college.

If you want to be stubbornly anti-immigrant, you can write off this critical market.

And, of course, you can build a successful business without Hispanics. But if you're a smart entrepreneur, you'll at least consider the American Hispanic market as you develop your growth strategy.

Now, can someone find me a good translator for my books?

Copyright Rhonda Abrams 2011.

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?

General-Market Shops Snatching Up Hispanic Business

Posted by Laurel Wentz on 04.26.10

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- After years of trying to convince the mainstream world of the size and importance of the Hispanic market, Hispanic agencies are finding that one group has started to listen: general-market shops. Pressured by cost-cutting clients, general-market agencies are taking on Hispanic shops for a bigger share of the fast-growing Latino market.

MULTICULTURAL: DraftFCB combines its Hispanic team with its general-market team. With 2010 Census data likely to show big growth in the Hispanic population, the fight is likely to intensify as general-market agencies poach talent and specialty shops protect their turf.

The ad industry was stunned earlier this month when Home Depot moved its $37 million Hispanic account from incumbent Vidal Partnership to Richards/Lerma, a little-known Hispanic capability at Home Depot's general-market agency, Richards Group.

Separately, Unilever is doing a pitch to consolidate its Hispanic business that doesn't rule out participation by general-market agencies. "The business should go to whoever pitches it best," said Tatiana Hansell, senior brand manager-multicultural at Unilever.

Since then, Wendy's has started a review of its Hispanic business that requires contenders to forward their information to Wendy's general-market agency, Kaplan Thaler Group, according to a critical statement issued by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies about both reviews.

In a reference to the Wendy's review, Joe Zubi, chief operating officer of Zubi Advertising, wrote in the agency's ZubiNation blog: "One RFP was actually sent to us by the person who heads up the account at the general-market agency. The first question was to describe how well we get along with general-market agencies. If that does not send a clear message that the Hispanic shop will follow the footsteps of Big Brother, I don't know what does. Not to mention that Big Brother can then figure out how best to approach the market and tell the client that they can do it just as well for less money ... does the name Home Depot ring a bell?"

Pitch to 'band together'
Javier Palomarez, president-CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said he dispatched a letter April 14 to the CEO of Home Depot "voicing our disappointment and surprise," and sent copies to the Hispanic Chamber's 210 chapters across the country.

"As a community we have not done a good enough job of banding together," said Mr. Palomarez, who in the past headed multicultural marketing for Bank of America and early in his career developed Allstate's first Hispanic advertising. He said the chamber represents about 3 million companies generating more than $4 billion in revenue, with about 21% coming from businesses that work in fields such as construction, renovation and landscaping and are "great customers of Home Depot."

Although Home Depot represents the biggest Hispanic account to go to the least-known agency, other general-market agencies are gaining traction.

Havas Worldwide is hiring a top Hispanic creative director, Vidal Partnership's Mauricio Galvan, and Leo Olper, chief operating officer of Hispanic shop Lapiz, to build a Hispanic agency to serve Euro RSCG Worldwide and Arnold clients, replacing the moribund Euro RSCG Latino.

DraftFCB has assembled about 55 multicultural specialists at the agency's 1,100-person Chicago office, said Simon El Hage, senior VP-multicultural segments. Integrated in the general-market account teams, they work on multicultural business for the agency's general-market clients such as State Farm, Kmart and Taco Bell, whose Latino account it just stole from Hispanic shop Dieste. DraftFCB has even joined the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies as an associate member.

"Multicultural audiences are the pop-culture creators," said Ken Muench, who joined DraftFCB in December 2009 as senior VP-director of multicultural planning from leading Hispanic agency Grupo Gallegos. "You can't be a credible general-market agency without considering the multicultural segment."

One of the biggest changes shaping the market is the trend toward what many are calling the total market -- a melding of the general market and the growing multicultural market, partly due to the increasing numbers and influence of Hispanic and black consumers.

"Mainstream culture today is not the general market," Mr. Muench said. "It's a multicultural-inspired total market."

Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork

Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork

by J. Richard Hackman

Teamwork and collaboration are critical to mission achievement in any organization that has to respond quickly to changing circumstances. My research in the U.S. intelligence community has not only affirmed that idea but also surfaced a number of mistaken beliefs about teamwork that can sidetrack productive collaboration. Here are six of them.

Misperception #1: Harmony helps. Smooth interaction among collaborators avoids time-wasting debates about how best to proceed.

Actually: Quite the opposite, research shows. Conflict, when well managed and focused on a team's objectives, can generate more creative solutions than one sees in conflict-free groups. So long as it is about the work itself, disagreements can be good for a team. Indeed, we found in our earlier research on symphony orchestras that slightly grumpy orchestras played a little better as ensembles than those whose members worked together especially harmoniously.

Misperception #2: It's good to mix it up. New members bring energy and fresh ideas to a team. Without them, members risk becoming complacent, inattentive to changes in the environment, and too forgiving of fellow members' misbehavior.

Actually: The longer members stay together as an intact group, the better they do. As unreasonable as this may seem, the research evidence is unambiguous. Whether it is a basketball team or a string quartet, teams that stay together longer play together better.

Misperception #3: Bigger is better. Larger groups have more resources to apply to the work. Moreover, including representatives of all relevant constituencies increases the chances that whatever is produced will be accepted and used.

Actually: Excessive size is one of the most common--and also one of the worst--impediments to effective collaboration. The larger the group, the higher the likelihood of social loafing (sometimes called free riding), and the more effort it takes to keep members' activities coordinated. Small teams are more efficient--and far less frustrating.

Misperception #4: Face-to-face interaction is passé. Now that we have powerful electronic technologies for communication and coordination, teams can do their work much more efficiently at a distance.

Actually: Teams working remotely are at a considerable disadvantage. There really are benefits to sizing up your teammates face-to-face. A number of organizations that rely heavily on distributed teams have found that it is well worth the time and expense to get members together when the team is launched, again around the midpoint of the team's work, and yet again when the work has been completed.

Misperception #5: It all depends on the leader. Think of a team you have led, or on which you have served, that performed superbly. Now think of another one that did quite poorly. What accounts for the difference between them? If you are like most people, your explanation will have something to do with the personality, behavior, or style of the leaders of those two teams.

Actually: The hands-on activities of group leaders do make a difference. But the most powerful thing a leader can do to foster effective collaboration is to create conditions that help members competently manage themselves. The second most powerful thing is to launch the team well. And then, third, is the hands-on teaching and coaching that leaders do after the work is underway. Our research suggests that condition-creating accounts for about 60% of the variation in how well a team eventually performs; that the quality of the team launch accounts for another 30%; and that real-time coaching accounts for only about 10%. Leaders are indeed important in collaborative work, but not in the ways we usually think.

Misperception #6: Teamwork is magical. To harvest its many benefits, all one has to do is gather up some really talented people and tell them in general terms what is needed--the team will work out the details.

Actually: It takes careful thought and no small about amount of preparation to stack the deck for success. The best leaders provide a clear statement of just what the team is to accomplish, and they make sure that the team has all the resources and supports it will need to succeed. Although you may have to do a bit of political maneuvering to get what is needed for effective collaboration from the broader organization, it is well worth the trouble.

                                                                      

J. Richard Hackman is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams. The misperceptions that are summarized in this post are explored in greater depth in his new book Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems (Berrett-Koehler, 2011). He is interviewed by HBR in "Why Teams Don't Work" (May 2009) and is the author of Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances (Harvard Business School Press, 2002).

The End of the 'Average American'

"Fifty years ago, the concept of John Doe, an average American in a relatively even society where vast numbers of people had similar consumer needs, was real," writes Karen Talavera at MarketingProfs. But results from the 2010 census—due to be released this summer—will show just how much that picture has changed. For marketers, the message is simple: There's no such thing as an "average American" anymore.

No racial or ethnic segment is a majority in our two most populous states—California and Texas—or in our ten largest cities.

Households headed by married couples are now a minority, down from a two-thirds majority 25 years ago.

Life expectancy is up, and elders often live with children and grandchildren.

"One-size-fits-all messaging isn't going to cut it," argues Talavera. "It will seem wildly off-base and irrelevant, especially if you attempt it in your email and social media marketing—avenues in which instantaneous feedback and listening is expected."

She has advice like this for your online, mobile and social media strategies:

Segment, segment, segment. The more you know about individual customers, the more relevant your messaging can be. Age, gender, location, household composition, marital/family status and ethnicity all matter. But don't forget about life stages like new parents, families with children and empty nesters.

Trust, but verify. As the population diversifies, customers might find themselves in multiple segments, making hard-to-predict decisions. Solicit their preferences with frequent surveys, but compare their responses to demonstrated behavior.

The Point: "Until you dig deep into your customer data—demographics, offer responses, media preferences, survey answers, and more—you may have assumptions about your customers that are entirely untrue," concludes Talavera.

Source:
Do You Really Know Your Customers? Marketing to a Rapidly Diversifying Population
by Karen Talavera

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

Michael Porter's "What is Strategy?"

This 1 minute clip from Micheal Porter highlights his view of what strategy really is!

 

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.

Lakers, NBA are reaching out to fast-growing Latino market

The Lakers just scored a slam dunk in the Latino market.On Monday the team announced a 20-year agreement with Time Warner Cable to create the nation's first Spanish-language regional sports network, with the Lakers as its centerpiece, starting with the 2012-13 season.The groundbreaking partnership is just the latest in a series of efforts by the Lakers and the NBA as they reach out to the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.

"If you're not able to connect with [Latinos], then where's your sport going to be in 30 years?" says Adam Jacobson, a Miami-based marketing strategist focusing on Latinos.The NBA, which has seen attendance drop for 14 of the league's 30 teams this season, has reached out to Latinos since 1995. But it began targeting the market with new focus 16 months ago when it launched éne•bé•a — Spanish for NBA — an initiative of Spanish-language websites and ad campaigns, specially branded merchandise and an expanded schedule of national Spanish-language TV broadcasts.The campaign will ramp up again this week during the NBA All-Star Weekend at Staples Center."We want to build lifelong fans. And you do that by building an emotional connection with your consumers," says Saskia Sorrosa, the NBA's director of Hispanic marketing. "We have a significant portion of our fan base that are Hispanic but we do want to grow that."Consider longtime hoops fan Billy Sanchez, a third-generation Mexican-American. When he got his first driver's license, he knew exactly where to celebrate: at a Lakers game."All I wanted to do was just go down to the Forum, find a scalper and buy tickets," he recalls. "And I did that quite often."Two decades and five NBA titles later, the team has left the Forum for Staples Center and Sanchez, 35, has no need for scalpers because he works in sales for his father's beer distributorship in the City of Industry and they have a luxury suite.

But his passion for the Lakers hasn't faded. "I've been a fan ever since I can remember," he says. "I watch every single game."Early returns suggest the NBA's campaign is working. The league says about one out of six NBA fans is Latino and this season the NBA's Latino TV audience has grown nearly 20%, drawing more than 9.7 million unique viewers on the six national networks that carry NBA games.Viewership is particularly strong when the Lakers play, a fact that was instrumental in bringing the Time Warner deal together. During last spring's NBA Finals between the Lakers and the Boston Celtics, the middle three games were seen in nearly one of every five Latino households watching television, according to Nielsen Media Research, and the audience for the seventh game was nearly twice as large.

"They're a popular team," says Sorrosa, who grew up in Ecuador watching Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls on TV. "The [Lakers] have a legacy. They have Spanish-language radio. They have a Spanish-language website."In fact, a 2009 survey conducted for ESPN found the Lakers to be the most popular sports team among U.S. Latinos, beating out baseball's New York Yankees and football's Dallas Cowboys. And in Los Angeles a Scarborough Sports Marketing poll showed 44% of Latino adults identified themselves as Lakers fans."The big change is that it's moved from the L.A.-born, acculturated Latino to the recent immigrant that's come from Mexico. [He] is wearing the Lakers jersey," says Jim Kalmenson, president of KWKW-AM (1330), the flagship of the Lakers' Spanish-language radio network for 15 seasons. "They've surpassed the Dodgers as the most important local franchise in the Hispanic market.

"Credit much of that to timing. KWKW's first season with the Lakers, when the team essentially bought broadcast time, was Kobe Bryant's rookie season. "Superstars just seem to draw people in from all cultures," Kalmenson says.Yet the Lakers, bucking the NBA's approach, insist they have built that huge fan base by ignoring ethnicity in a city that is nearly half Hispanic. "There's no discriminatory policies against or for any group," says John Black, the team's vice president for public relations.Black calls it a "commonsense approach," where marketing is not focused on any particular community but on the basketball court and through social media sites. A recent survey ranked the Lakers as the fifth most-popular sports social-media entity in the world. (The NBA, with nearly 10 million combined Facebook fans and Twitter followers, is No. 1, Fast Company magazine says.)Still, the Lakers do aggressively pursue the Hispanic market. Even before the landmark TV deal this week, the Lakers were one of 12 NBA teams whose games were heard on Spanish-language radio, and last March the Lakers participated in the league's Noche Latina program by wearing jerseys that read "Los Lakers" during selected games.

Sixteen years ago, the Miami Heat was the only NBA team that had an active outreach in Spanish.Now other teams are following that path.The Orlando Magic set up a Spanish-language phone line, staffed its offices with bilingual employees and is broadcasting 19 games on Spanish-language TV. The Minnesota Timberwolves, in a state with a Latino population of under 5%, extended their contract to offer selected radio broadcasts in Spanish. And in Phoenix, where nearly one in three persons is Latino, the Suns have reached out through Spanish-language ad campaigns, community events and cultural programs on game nights.

These grassroots Latino campaigns have a local impact, but it's hard to gauge their impact in growing the NBA's brand nationally. The league declined to give revenue figures for the Latino market. And ESPN Deportes doesn't even sell ad time exclusively for its NBA broadcasts, instead offering packages to sponsors whose spots will run during a variety of programming, including basketball games.In contrast, the Lakers were the focal point of a lucrative bidding war for TV rights — in both English and Spanish — before settling on Time Warner, a deal that will make the vast majority of Lakers games available on Spanish-language television.The Lakers are clearly an exception, because it is a rare team whose following spills beyond the immediate borders of its local market.And that is paying off in other ways, as well. The NBA's growing roster of Spanish-speaking stars — which includes Lakers All-Star Pau Gasol — helped lure overseas partners such as Spanish banking giant BBVA, which signed a four-year, $100-million sponsorship deal with the NBA in September.

Jose "Pepe" Mantilla, the color commentator on the Lakers' Spanish-language radio broadcasts, also tells about visiting his family in Oaxaca, Mexico, where, in the dusty town plaza, was a weathered basketball backboard with a Lakers logo painted on it. "That's amazing. Whenever you mention the word 'Lakers' people know what you're talking about. Anywhere in the world, anyplace where they speak Spanish.

"Closer to home, Rick Murillo, a 45-year-old Lakers fan from Alhambra, has been a fan from the team's Forum days.For him it's not a question of marketing or ethnicity. Or even winning. It's about loyalty. "My dog's named Laker," he says with a smile. "So I'm not going anywhere."

By Kevin Baxter
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Instead of Avoiding Risk, Prepare for It

Risk management departments are springing up in companies across the globe. They categorize and analyze risk to the company before it happens and in most cases, they create systems and processes to prevent risks from occurring. But the reality is that all hazards can't be predicted or avoided. Instead of simply staving off risk, focus on building resilience so that when the unthinkable happens, you're better prepared to face it. Look at all the risks you face and play out what you would do if any of them were to come to bear. Having systems in place to respond could save you valuable time, money, and resources.

By Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath

Chevrolet celebrates the Season with the magic of Macy*s

Macy's and Chevrolet are teaming up to give you the chance to win the holiday gift of a lifetime. An all new Cruze, a trip to Macy's New York flagship store and a $5,000 personal shopping spree could all be yours.3 Enter now and let Macy's and Chevrolet help you celebrate the season.

To Enter click here.

Strategic Planning Office, the Pivot of New Samsung

Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee has revived its strategic planning office, which can be compared to the entire group's control tower, and appointed Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kim Soon-taek to take the wheel. Many see it as an organization overhaul.

It is said that the office, after a 28-month hiatus, will reinvent the whole group under the motto of rejuvenated Samsung. Also expected is that it will focus on a smooth transition of the control over the conglomerate from the Chairman to his son Lee Jae-yong, chief operating officer of Samsung Electronics and the group's heir apparent.

At the same time, the office concentrates on finding out new growth engines for the next 100 years. To that end, Samsung's executives are handpicking the ones to lead the office with utmost prudence.

The corporate reshuffle is anticipated to give a boost to its businesses that have relatively lagged behind, including biosimilar manufacturing and healthcare. In May, the group announced its five future growth drivers -- solar and automobile batteries, LED (light emitting diode), biopharmaceuticals and medical equipment -- and its ambition to reach 50 trillion in those five alone.

By Kim Won-seok

Search Engine Optimization: You Can Do It!

For quite some time many of our clients have been asking about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is simply doing "stuff" so your website appears early on a search results (page 1 or 2) when someone conducts a search related to what your company provides.

Unfortunately, that is about as thorough an explanation given by "providers" of SEO services. Even worse, that is the extent of the understanding of those that contract out for this service.

Here are some tips and tricks that anyone with basic website development skills can learn and do.

1) To improve your position on a search engine result, ensure your metatags, page titles and homepage text have the key (aka common) words or words that searchers will use to search for what THEY need.
Those should include the goods or services your company provides, the industry and markets your company serves, the name of your business and the location(s) served by your business. The more inclusive and specific the list, the better your position will be.

2) Another important key to getting on or close to page 1 of search results is the amount of links to your site. How do you achieve that? Blogs, social media, partner websites and cooperative linking with other sites will improve your position on search engines.

3) Update your homepage often. Web crawlers like finding new stuff. Web crawlers look through your site for key words and relevancy to searches. Thus when content is changed, it triggers newness. When you add new or change text and key words, your position greatly improves and starts move closer to the top of the list. Why? Websites with old text are thought to be inactive or abandoned. Search engines provide value if they give you useful results. So the search engine's approach is that newer stuff is better and more useful so it gets move forward on the search results list.

If you have any questions or concerns about your current website or your SEO provider, contact us.

Silly String, Now Silly Bands hhhhhhm!

Every once in awhile I am amazed by the creativity of some marketing professionals. Some winners of my "amazement award" are the Cabbage Patch Doll, Pet Rocks, and Silly String. The most recent winner is SILLY BANDS. We never sit in judgement of a product's success. If we did, we would be questioning the judgement of consumers and users. We would never do that. If they (consumers) want to buy it, marketers should market and sell it.

We sell Silly Bands and alot of them. The real amazement comes from how fast they are flying off our shelves. We have all kinds of organizations buying these things from Girl Scout Troops to teachers to restaurants. What the heck is the appeal? It is a rubber band molded into different shapes which is not too flexible. Once you use it for whatever reason, it loses its shape.

We don't get the product appeal but know there was a great marketer behind the buzz. Can anyone tell us the message(s) that started this success?

Let's Be Honest: Microsoft's Mobile Business Is A Fantasy

Every one's excited about the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 software, which Microsoft bulls are hoping will mark Microsoft's return to relevance in the mobile industry.

Reviews of the software have been good, and the only major complaint is that it's a year behind the rest of the industry--namely Apple's iPhone OS and Google's Android.
In the rapidly evolving smartphone world, being a year behind is a recipe for trouble. If Microsoft focused huge resources on the problem, however, it might be able to close the gap.

But Microsoft actually has a bigger problem in mobile, one that could make the launch of Windows Phone 7 irrelevant:
Microsoft's mobile software business model is fatally flawed.

Why?
Microsoft is still trying to jam the square peg of the old PC-based operating system software model into the round hole of mobile. And that game is over for good.
Specifically, Microsoft is trying to charge handset providers a software license fee for every Windows-based smartphone they sell, the same way Microsoft charges PC manufacturers a software license fee for every Windows machine they sell.

Five years ago, before the iPhone and Android, when Windows Mobile still had a reasonable share of the market, this model made sense. Windows Mobile was still a tiny business for Microsoft--hundreds of millions of dollars on a revenue base of $50+ billion--but the concept of handset manufacturers paying for OS software was intact.

Now, however, Google has blown that concept out of the water.
Google gives its smartphone software, Android, away for free. Free is a good price, which is one of the reasons Android is rapidly taking over the smartphone world. Free is also ~$15 less per copy than Microsoft is reportedly planning to charge per unit of Windows Phone 7. But $15 is only $15, you say. It's not like it's hundreds of dollars per unit.

Yes, it's only $15--but it's $15 that either has to come out of the handset manufacturers' bottom line or get passed on to the consumer or carrier. And given the competitive pricing pressure in this business, it will almost certainly come out of the handset manufacturer's bottom line.

Carriers certainly aren't going to pay higher subsidies for Windows Phone 7 phones than they'll pay for iPhones and Android phones, especially if the software isn't state of the art. And consumers almost certainly won't pay, say, $214.99 for a Windows phone when they can get the latest iPhone or Android phone for $199.

So that means handset manufacturers will have to eat the cost. And when you take $15 a unit and spray it across hundreds of millions of units, pretty soon you're talking about real money. At least as far as the handset manufacturers are concerned (it will still be a rounding error for Microsoft).

Meanwhile, the other smartphone model that is working these days is the integrated hardware-and-software model, a la Apple and RIM.

Consumers and carriers DO pay for RIM and Apple software, but not explicitly, because it's included in the price of the phone. And because Apple and RIM have developed the software themselves, they don't have to cover someone else's profit margin in the sale.

In other words, Microsoft's mobile business is now stuck in the middle--caught between free software on the one hand (Android) and integrated hardware-and-software units on the other (Apple and RIM).

A few years ago, when the iPhone launched, Steve Ballmer ridiculed it as being the most expensive phone in history (oops). Then, when Android launched, Steve Ballmer ridiculed it, too, saying that he had no idea how Google possibly expected to make any money giving the software away for free (oops).

Steve's no fool, so we expect that the latter remark was probably just an attempt to get the rest of the world ridiculing Google rather than an actual misunderstanding of what Google was trying to do.

But now Google has done it. And now smartphone handset manufacturers have the opportunity to build their phones around a state-of-the-art mobile operating system that is completely customizable, has a large and growing base of app developers, and is available for free.
And that means that charging $15 a copy for Windows Phone 7 software has become a non-starter.

Meanwhile, Microsoft doesn't want to sell integrated hardware-and-software units because that would inhibit its ability to become a ubiquitous platform (like Android and, more importantly, like Microsoft Windows) that every developer wants to build upon. So the Apple and RIM mobile model is also a non-starter--at least until Microsoft realizes its predicament, throws in the towel, and buys RIM.

Put it all together, and Microsoft no longer has a business in mobile. Which makes its Windows 7 Phone strategy little more than a dream.
(How will this play out? We suspect it will play out by Microsoft deciding to give Windows 7 Phone software away for free. As noted, the business is a rounding error, and charging for a product that the market leader is giving away for free is just a non-starter. Microsoft has already demonstrated its willingness to flush billions of dollars a year down the rat hole of search, so we suspect it will just decide to throw a few billion down the mobile rat hole as well.

Unlike Google, however, Microsoft doesn't have another business that can subsidize the cost of Windows Phone 7. Giving Android away for free works for Google, because the incremental search revenue and profits pay for the investment. Giving Windows Phone 7 away for free won't cause consumers to buy more copies of Windows or Office. And Microsoft can't make the money back on search because its search business is already losing $2+ billion a year.

So this is indeed a predicament...).

BY: Henry Blodget, provided byBusiness Insider August 27, 2010

Customer Service as a Marketing Strategy by Marsha Buehler

Where, oh where, did customer service go?

With a world full of automated phone systems, self-serve Web sites, and overworked and underpaid disgruntled employees, customer service has left the country. When was the last time you picked up the phone and called a company to actually speak to a real person without going through 15 prompts? Many companies actually disable their zero prompt on their PBX system, forcing customers to go through a labyrinth of touch-tone dialing hell in order to get to a real person who can actually help them with their issue.

Where does marketing and customer service come into play, and how do you realize the impact of your customer service (good or bad) to your bottom line?

Customer service plays a large role in satisfied customers who reward your company with loyalty and repeat business. Take a survey of your largest customers and ask them how you are doing as a company in the name of customer service. Times are tough, and time is a precious commodity for everyone these days. The last thing a customer wants is to spend five days figuring out where his or her order is when it was needed one week ago.

Customer service is also a great marketing strategy that should not be ignored. Customer service issues and resolutions should be a main concern of every executive, director, and supervisor and should be ingrained into each and every employee. It is essential this concept gets driven from the top down and should be a considered a high priority.

I once had a mortgage company (name not to be disclosed) that owed me $1,000, and it took me four months to get my money back. This included at least 40 hours on the phone (more than half the time on hold and the other half speaking to rude help desk employees), several certified letters, and the upkeep of a journal with dates and names of the idiots who were supposed to help me before I finally received the escrow payment they were by law supposed to return to me within 30 days.

I finally got creative and went to the smaller bank where my mortgage originated before it was sold to a large conglomerate. I explained my situation to the president. He gave me the phone number of an executive he knew at the unnamed mortgage company. I called and left a long voice mail. Guess what? He actually called me back within 15 minutes. Guess what else? I had my check within three days. It amazed me, but can you identify with the time, effort, and frustration involved?

I could relate to what going postal meant. Talk about a nightmare. Just imagine the thousands of people who went through the same nightmare with just this one company. I can tell you right now I would never do business with that company again. While the experience made a great impression on me as to the importance of good customer service, it also made me realize loyalty and satisfaction are brothers when it comes to business and a must to include in every marketing strategy.

My question to you: Is it time to take a reality check on customer service at your company? Here are some ways to take a serious check of the quality of your customer service.

• Take the time and actually call your 800 number. Does it work? What is their call/resolution ratio?


• Walk through the self-serve process on your Web site. Was it easy or difficult? Were you frustrated? Did you get the answer you sought? If it takes you less than five minutes to get your answer or resolve your issue online you’re doing great. If not, take a closer look at the process. the functionality of your Web site modules, and most importantly, the feedback you receive from your customers.


• Take a closer look at your customer-service personnel. Do they need training? Are they polite? Are they disgruntled or unhappy?


• Take the time to talk to your customers. Ask them how you are doing in the name of customer service.


• Check with your Web site help desk. Are they receiving e-mail complaints about not finding answers to their problems and questions? Does your company have a customer advocate who oversees customer complaints?


• Check with your staff. Ask them for suggestions on ways to streamline processes that would be more effective and efficient for the company and the customer. Less time, more efficiency promotes happy customers and good customer service.


• Check with your order management department. Are customers receiving their products in the promised delivery interval? Do recurring problems with orders exist? Is it a process issue, or is it a training issue? How many complaints are received and resolved? What is the time frame involved in the resolution of issues? Most importantly, does your company track and measure problems and resolutions?


• Check with your product training department. Are there issues with certain products over other products? Do you offer training on your products or services? Do you respond to customer issues regarding a particular product and address it on the production line?


• Find a dedicated person or team to deal with specific customers. This provides a familiar person or team who knows your customers' habits, processes, and histories. Customers respond favorably to someone who helped resolve their issues.


• Do not make promised you cannot keep. Once you tell someone you are going to do something and then do not follow through, you have made a negative impression. Yes, the unforeseen happens, but if it happens too often your customer will go somewhere else.


• Provide training for your employees. One rude employee can make all the difference in the loyalty of your customers. Customers are people, too. They talk among themselves. Keep in mind you never know if you are talking to the person who makes vendor product/service decisions.


• Throw in something extra for the customer when a mistake is made. This shows your appreciation of his or her understanding, patience, and trouble. This can go a long way with customers and encourages a strong allegiance.


• Check your competitors’ customer service ratings and their response time to issues. Then beat it with your new marketing strategy to provide world-class customer service.


• Implement your plan to improve main customer service issues and work your way down to the smaller issues. I cannot reiterate enough that customer service needs to be driven from the top down. A company should always strive to have a perfect record of customer service. The results will be happier customers who will want to return to you because you proved to be a company that has friendly, helpful professionals.
  

The focus on good customer service can be expensive in the training of personnel and with the effort-measuring issue resolution. Your expense and efforts will be worth their weight in gold when your bottom line displays sizable gains. Now is the time to get serious and get a handle on providing excellent customer service.

Why is customer service important to your overall marketing strategy? It becomes not only a competitive edge but makes a decided difference in your industry, and this keeps customers coming back for more.

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.

How to develop a strategic plan, then make it work

by Jim Kendall

Small business owners know there's only one thing tougher than developing a sensible strategic plan: Making the plan work.

Yet Rich Horwath says building a strategic plan and keeping it relevant doesn't have to be so imposing. The process, he says, starts with a good diagnosis, produces a two-page strategy print and includes "a monthly tuneup, maybe a two-hour lunch where just one question is asked: What has changed (that might impact our plan and our business)?"

As you should expect from someone who is president of the Strategic Thinking Institute in Barrington Hills, Horwath is into this strategy thing. What's helpful is that he seems to have a good feel for the planning and implementation issues small and mid-size businesses face.
The process begins with goals and objectives, then moves to strategy. "Strategy is the path that will get us there," Horwath says. First, however, comes a diagnosis, part of the goals-and-objectives progression.

In fact, Horwath puts significant emphasis on the diagnostic process. In the medical world, he explains, a prescription (or strategy) without a diagnosis (for us, the introspection that analyzes the business, its marketplace and its competition) leads to malpractice.

It's not much of a stretch to extend that example to the business world.
"We don't take enough time to diagnose our businesses today," Horwath says. "We need to take the pulse of the business. Use our competitive intelligence. Do some research. We have to think about the business differently.

"How can we approach things differently? What can we add that will add value to our customers' experience? What is our differentiated value?"

Differentiated value could be customer service. One of Horwath's favorite examples is Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which differentiates itself from Hertz, Avis and everyone else in a crowded sector by picking up its customers.

Differentiation for customers "isn't doing the same thing everyone else does a little faster. It is different activities than the competition," Horwath says. "We must find and focus on that differentiation."

With the diagnostics in place, goal setting becomes easier - though Horwath suggests "one, two or three goals at the most."

Then comes strategy development, the building of the path from Point A to Point B.
"It's best to go off-site for a day or two and challenge (the company) thinking," Horwath says. "Dive into new ideas and new insights."
The result should be the strategic plan and what Horwath calls "a strategy print, a two-page blueprint, or summary, that helps keep everyone focused so we're not distracted by each day's e-mails."

An everyday resource that connects the research, diagnostics and thinking that went into the company's strategic plan with resulting actionable activities, Horwath's strategy print is intended to keep the plan alive rather than gathering dust on the shelf.

Questions, comments to Jim Kendall, JKendall@121MarketingResources.com.

© 2010 121 Marketing Resources, Inc.