Why Customer Experience? Why now?

Kerry Bodine at Forrester, in a great blog post, writes that “For decades, companies have been promising to delight customers, while simultaneously disappointing them in nearly every channel. That tactic won’t cut it anymore. Why not? We’ve entered a new era that Forrester calls the age of the customer — a time when focus on the customer matters more than any other strategic imperative.”

Here are 3 reasons why now:

• Commoditization has stripped away existing sources of differentiation. Competitive barriers of the past like manufacturing strength, distribution power, and information mastery can’t save you today – one by one, each of these corporate investments has been commoditized.


• Traditional industry boundaries have dissolved. Companies in every industry find themselves competing with new types of competitors – automakers with services like Zipcar, newspapers with Google News, travel agents with Expedia, and the entire retail industry with Ebay.


• Customers have more power than ever. With online reviews, social networks, and mobile web access, it’s easy for your customers to know more about your products, services, competitors, and pricing than you – and to share their opinions of your company with their friends.

Related articles

• Excerpt from Forrester's Outside in (Manning, Bodine, Bernoff) (serve4impact.com)


• For Customer Experience, "Just OK" Is Not OK (fastcompany.com)

Are we big enough to apologize for firing people because of our incomptence, not theirs?

When I read this I was stunned. It is the right thing to admit this, but I have never heard anyone say they fired people and it is because of their own incompetence.

I must confess. I am in the same boat here. Some of the people I've fired were incompetent. Some weren't and I was the problem. In a big organization, sometimes it doesn't seem to matter. To the people it happens to, it does matter.

So here is the challenge. Go back through the last few years. What percent falls into one group or another?

Then think through. What can I do to prevent that from happening next time?

As the year ends you think about your life, your accomplishments, your failures. In my case, as a tech entrepreneur I was thinking, not about the thousands of people I hired in my life through my companies and who did well and sometimes very well, but about the people I have had to fire. These people come in two distinct groups. The ones I had to fire because they were incompetent and the ones I had to fire because I was incompetent.

With the first group I am at ease. But this post is dedicated to the second group. The ones I had to fire because my start up didn't take off as planned. Like the first employees at Fon, we had to fire half of them only to hire others three years later. Like Fon took off, but later. It was hire, fire then hire again. Before at Jazztel the same thing happened: we hired too many, we then had to lay off hundreds and over time Jazztel has gone to an employee count that is at its highest ever. For both Fon and Jazztel, 2012 has been the best years of their existence but this is little consolation to the people I had to fire at the time. To those I owe an apology. My only excuse really is that the life of an entrepreneur is one of trial and error, and in my quest to build great companies I have to give things a try, and sometimes I am dead wrong. And people lose their jobs because of that. And they have families, mortgages, plans, and they suffer.

So here it is: this is an apology to all of those I had to fire in my life because I screwed up, because I failed, because I was incompetent. I am really sorry.

via An Apology | LinkedIn.

How should we measure results for our customer strategy?

Let's talk a little about customer measurements. 2 measures have gained traction in the last few years. One is Net Promoter Score and the other is the Customer Experience Index. We are beginning to experiment in using them. They give us a basis of comparison to public data that is common to many companies today. Please let me know if you have questions. I’ve also included links to additional resources for each one. There is a great book on the Net Promoter Score.

Are we willing to say "no"?

Now this is pretty big I think. And … I agree that we rarely pay attention to it. We must have a focus and that requires saying no to certain things, certain clients, and more.

Self control is the ability to say no, in the face of temptation, and to take sustained action, despite the difficulty of a given challenge. At its heart, self-control requires the ability to delay gratification. More commonly, it's called discipline, or will. Without self-control, we can't accomplish almost anything of enduring value. And we rarely pay much attention to it.

The Skill that Matters Most - Tony Schwartz - Harvard Business Review

What if we focused on building this skill? What results would be different for us?

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How long does it take to change culture?

Think about this. Is it any wonder change management initiatives are so challenging.

Cultural change takes six months per layer in your organization. If you have eleven layers, you won’t live long enough to get anything done.

— Mike Capone, CIO, ADP

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How can we build a culture of learning?

As leaders we should be about the process of learning all the time. Creating a learning culture is not always easy work. How can we build learning activities into our daily routines?



Here is a very good list via Learn From Others | Lolly Daskal.

Exchange roles: Learning is a two-way street. Connecting and exchanging with key stakeholders around shared development challenges catalyzes considerable results.

Collaborate: When we realize we don’t have to acquire knowledge on our own. Collaboration and sharing make it twice as rich.

Find the smartest person in the room: Who’s the local expert on what we need to know? Who’s been in the department or organization the longest and has a long-term perspective? Who has the deepest well of experience for us to draw from?

Mix it up: Engage in multiple levels of learning. Hone your expertise in one area while you’re taking your first steps in another.

Build a support team: It can be hard to see for yourself how your work is paying off and where it might be falling short. Having a support team of trusted people allows you to get feedback and direction.

Read the past: Read and experience as much history, biography, and autobiography as you can. Learning the past leads us toward the future.

Invest in yourself: Take a risk and do something out of your comfort zone. It’s okay to fail. Its okay to take a chance. Start with small steps and build from there.

We learn when we read, what we hear, how we see, the way we discuss, and where we experience our lives.

Most of all we can learn from what we teach others. The purpose of learning is growth, and our hearts are eager for actualization.

Learning is a practice, not an event. Leadership and learning are invaluable to each other.

Make learning inspirational enough for us to dream more, learn more, do more and be more.

Lead From Within: There is a magnet in our heart that attracts growth. Allow the magnet to focus you— to learn from others and lead you deeper into inner growth.

Related articles

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• Thinking and Learning (sophisticatedfinance.typepad.com)


• You're Never Finished Learning (michellesmotivation.com)

What do you need to know about persuasion?

If you have never read the classic book Influence by Robert Cialdini, you really should. But you’re also in luck, because the Influence at Work team just released this summary of the six principles of persuasion that the book covers. Spend 11 minutes watching this video - it’s well worth your time.

http://youtu.be/cFdCzN7RYbw

No time to watch? Here’s my summary of the principles and how they apply to people working for a good cause.

1. Reciprocity - People tend to return a favor, thus all those annoying address labels charities send out as a fundraising ploy.

2. Scarcity - Perceived scarcity fuels demand. “Only four memberships are left” prompts action!

3. Authority - People will tend to obey authority figures. What expert can attest to the value of your organization?

4. Consistency - If people commit to an idea or goal, they are more likely to follow through. It’s why pledging is a great option for people who aren’t ready to take action.

5. Liking - People are easily persuaded by other people whom they like. That’s why you want your champions spreading the word about your cause among their friends and family.

6. Consensus - People will do what other people are doing. That’s why it’s great to show who is taking action for your cause - others are likely to conform.

How effective is self promotion?

We all try, to some degree, to promote ourselves. That's why we're all experts at picking out the self-promoters, shameless or otherwise. And that's why self-promotion is rarely effective.

There's a much better way. Here's a story told by the comedian, actor, and author Albert Brooks in Vanity Fair about an appearance on "The Tonight Show:"

There was always that last two minutes where Johnny was asking people, "Thank you for coming--what do you have coming up?" And during the last commercial break Jack Benny leaned over to Johnny Carson and said, "When we get back, ask me where I'm going to be, will you?"

So they came back. Johnny said, "I want to thank Albert. Jack, where are you going to be performing?"

And Jack Benny said, "Never mind about me--this is the funniest kid I've ever seen."

And it was this profound thing. Like, Oh, that's how you lead your life. Be generous and you can be the best person who ever lived.

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What is going away? That is where things are going.

Some days it is hard to fathom the speed at which things are changing. But changing they are. Seth Godin has some good advice on figuring it out. This makes perfect sense.

What is going away frames where things are going.

We remove shelf space as a limiting factor in books.

We remove the cost of polycarbonate as a cost factor in CDs.

We remove paper as an expense in magazines.

We remove the number of channels as a limiter in the broadcast of TV.

These are not small changes. These are revolutionary shifts in what’s scarce and what’s not.

If you are still organized around them, you will fail. If you embrace their removal, you’ve got a chance.

via When you focus on what’s being removed, it’s easier to understand the revolution - The Domino Project.

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• Seth Godin's Kickstarter campaign for new book beats $40k goal in 3.5 hours (paidcontent.org)


• SETH GODIN: Here's The Problem With Competition (businessinsider.com)

What do you do when they don't understand?

 

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] English: American entrepreneur, author and public speaker Seth Godin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

 

This is a great point. And technology really helps solve the problem. My blog writing tool (Wordpress) has plug ins that recommend links, tags, photos and related articles for me. It is improving my writing (I hope). What used to take a long time to do manually is now speeded up and I can focus on what I want to say.

Many sources, from textbooks to websites, take the position that if you don't understand a concept or a nuance, it's your loss. I think that's an strategic failure on the part of the writer. (I'll give scientists and other professional writers a pass.)

Just recently (a decade or so) we opened two doors that change the way we communicate: we can link now, which means that any time you're worried you've hit something too complex, you can easily link to more data and more explanation, and second, you can keep writing. Length (given appropriate organization) is no longer an issue.

At the same time, there's an onus on the reader to look up words and references that are easily found in a search engine before giving up.

Ikea, then, should quit trying to jam nonsense instructions with no words on tiny sheets of paper and should instead post videos or detailed instructions in native languages online. Annual reports should get significantly longer (with better hyperlinked indexes), not shorter.

No one is going to read the whole thing, ever again. But we need to make it much easier to read the part of the thing that someone really cares about.

via Seth's Blog: What do you do when they don't understand?.

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Guest Blog: Jeb Dasteel (Oracle) - Are Customers Feeling the Love?

Are Customers Feeling the Love?

Guest Blog: Jeb Dasteel, Chief Customer Officer, Oracle

Oracle is not just the world’s largest business-software company; it’s also a disruptive force in hardware with its market-leading Engineered Systems. With more than 390,000 customers spread across 145 countries, Oracle has its hands full. The challenges and opportunities will only intensify as the company continues to introduce powerful new technologies across every one of its product lines, including Fusion, Oracle Cloud, Social Applications, x86 & SPARC Engineered Systems, Oracle Database 12c, and Oracle Solaris 11.

In that context, success for Oracle means success for those customers by finding ways to infuse cutting-edge technologies into every facet of how the biggest organizations in the world operate, plan, and execute – and doing so smoothly and non-disruptively.

Against this broad landscape, I sat down recently with Oracle President Mark Hurd to talk about leadership, teamwork, and customer focus – all of which are becoming indispensable as the interplay between global businesses and their core technology partners becomes not only more strategic but more intimate.

 “We make a significant effort at Oracle to focus the organization on making customers successful in how they deploy Oracle technology and transform their business through IT,” said Hurd. “Technology is complex and our customers run complex businesses. So, fundamentally, our job is to simplify the technology and enable our customers to systematically improve their business operations and also go after real change that can transform how they compete.”

To achieve that objective, Hurd said, Oracle has to have more than just great technology—it also needs “to have the right mindset throughout the organization to truly partner with our customers.” On top of that, the company needs to have superb processes and discipline for engaging with and delivering value to customers, and Hurd said he believes Oracle has developed a unique approach to deliver just that.

“We’re very good at driving commercial transactions,” said Hurd. “Tens of thousands of them every year. Underlying that, we’ve got to have a very consistent way to build and manage relationships. And that’s not an abstract concept of relationships between organizations. I’m talking about people: a relationship between a CEO, CFO, CIO or other top executive and the Oracle team.”

Oracle breaks that process into three parts: listening to customers; responding to their needs, concerns, and business aspirations; and then collaborating with them on the adoption of leading technology that will help them be successful.

Hurd elaborated on each of those steps:

Listening: This includes transactional surveys on how well the company executes specific business processes and obligations; product surveys covering 15,000-plus products; relationship surveys that evaluate account management; dozens of advisory-board meetings each year; and a range of engagements with the nearly 1,000 Oracle user groups encompassing 500,000 members whose aim is to enhance the customer experience.

Responding: “We start with analytics – much like what we tell our customers to do,” Hurd said. “The analytics help us identify key customer feedback themes and then set priorities on how to address those themes.” These analytics include not only the normal customer satisfaction and loyalty measures, but also analysis of customer engagements and how they correlate with satisfaction and loyalty. Oracle extracts from those analyses 10 “customer feedback themes” that are refreshed every six months, with established programs to improve each.

“We also look at addressing individual customer issues very consistently and very fast. Our Support organization is the best in the world,” Hurd said. “We have reactive processes, knowledge bases and tools, and proactive mechanisms that anticipate issues before they even hit the customer.”

Collaborating for Customer Success: “This is really the core of our customer engagement model,” Hurd said. “It gives us the insight and means to manage relationships and truly partner with customers to mutual benefit.” As a result, Hurd and Oracle are able to apply a customer segmentation strategy that “determines exactly how we invest in the success of individual customers – across a very large number of accounts.”

In turn, that model allows Oracle to leverage many different account team resources: key account directors, team leaders, client advisors, and support account managers—all focused in unique ways and applying different sets of skills to help customers be successful. “We have a sophisticated account planning process that looks at the overall customer relationship across a rolling three-year time horizon,” Hurd said. “The account plan is a collaboratively developed approach to assuring the customer’s longer-term objectives are met at the same time that Oracle’s objectives are met.”

So are customers feeling the love? Yes, according to Kim Hammonds, CIO of The Boeing Company. “Oracle is focused on our relationship, but more importantly – they are focused on our business. Our job in IT at Boeing is to use technology to drive productivity, growth and value for our customers. Through their customer focus, Oracle has gained an understanding of our business, our challenges and our technology strategy so they are focused on our needs and our mutual success.”

Procter & Gamble is as well, according to Filippo Passerini, Procter & Gamble Group President of Global Business Services and CIO. According to Passerini, “In the past couple of years Oracle has step-changed their relationship with us. Traditionally focused on pure sales transactions, they are now bringing the right products, skills, and customer-focus to the table, with our success as the objective. It’s a true partnership.”

Are newspapers losing relevance as a news source?

Last week, mobile ad network Mojiva published the results of a survey regarding news consumption of smartphone and tablet owners in the United States. The results of the survey among 2,000 mobile device owners show that computers and television are the primary news source for most respondents. Meanwhile only one percent of smartphone and tablet owners consider newspapers their primary news source. Now that online sources deliver news 24/7, newspapers appear to have lost relevance as a news medium. To avoid obsolescence, newspaper publishers should embrace their new role and focus on in-depth analysis rather than news delivery.

 

http://www.statista.com/markets/14/topic/113/books-publishing/chart/765/primary-news-sources-of-american-tablet-and-smartphone-owners/

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• Is your eCommerce mobile? (businesstechnologypartner.wordpress.com)

What trends should we avoid right now?

We all love to focus on the hot trends. We think that will lead us the promised land of disruptive technology.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="220"] English: Disruptive Technology Graph (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

A good focus may be to avoid some of the "hot trends" and focus on so basics that increase our top line.

Here is a potential list to avoid:

• QR Codes


• Big Data


• BYOD


• Gamification


• Consumer Internet Companies

Check out why in this thought provoking article via  5 Trends to Ignore in 2013 | Inc.com.

Don’t Make These Mistakes With Cloud CRM Solutions

There is a huge movement to cloud solutions for the world of CRM. Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics can make easy and cost effective to implement solutions. There are still pitfalls to avoid. This is not your father’s CRM anymore, so don’t make these mistakes:

Trying to develop the “perfect” solution. Cloud CRM brings increased agility and flexibility, making it easier for organizations to tweak and upgrade the system after it is deployed. Unlike in the past, organizations don't have to deploy the perfect CRM solution all at once. Instead, they can deploy a “good-enough” system at first — as long as it is positioned so that the organization can quickly iterate and add improvements after deployment. One of the companies I talked with recommended, "Your organization should not focus on building the perfect solution, but rather on building a decent and sound solution that puts you in a position to quickly and easily improve it after deployment."

Spending too long on key decision points. Be prepared to make decisions quickly in order to drive development sprints, iterate quickly, and plan on the fly. But even though "agile" means that things get done faster, many organizations remain stuck in a traditional planning mentality. "To do agile well, you need to be able to make decisions very quickly and not spend too long on any one decision point." In order to achieve this, organizations must establish governance boards and project teams that represent interests from across the organization and have decision-making power to approve development plans and changes.

Not using information worker personas to guide development cycles. End user personas — similar to marketers' personas for consumer segmentation — are high-level overviews that illustrate how and why a typical user in a specific job role uses the CRM system and what benefits that user will receive from it. An implementation specialist at a professional services firm told me: "You need to consider how to make it easier for the end user to use the system. How can you make this system an improvement on their day-to-day life instead of a distraction?" Another advises: "Use stories to guide development sprints. Make sure that these stories represent the whole business for everyone who is going to touch the system."

Not having the right skill sets. Skilled business analysts (BAs) will become increasingly important as solution governance makes the shift from a focus on application installation to a business-centric process improvement. An IT leader at a financial information services company said: "We always need more BAs. This is a much more important skill set for working with SaaS solutions. We don't really need developers — that skill is less critical now.” BAs need to be skilled in business analysis, but also be trained in soft skills like facilitation, negotiation, communication, and collaboration.

via Don’t Make These Mistakes With Cloud CRM Solutions | CustomerThink.

 

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iPad eclipses iPhone launch

When Apple introduced the original iPad in January 2010, many analysts were sceptical whether the new device could replicate the iPhone’s success in establishing a new product category. Two and a half years and 100 million shipped iPads later, the answer has to be: yes!

Not only has the iPad redefined (or reignited) the tablet market, it even eclipsed the iPhone in terms of launch sales. In the first ten quarters after the iPad’s launch in April 2010, Apple shipped 98.16 million units of its popular tablet. During the same period after the iPhone’s launch in 2007, Apple shipped 33.75 million units of its popular smartphone. I.e. the iPad outsold the iPhone 3 to 1 in its first two and a half years on the market, making it one of the fastest consumer electronics launches ever. 

The recently launched iPad Mini could give iPad sales another boost, as the entry price to Apple’s tablet products dropped from $399 to $329.  This chart shows cumulative global unit shipments in the first 10 quarters after the launches of Apple's mobile gadgets: the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.



http://www.statista.com/topics/847/apple/chart/753/apple-s-mobile-product-launches/

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Who are you not reaching today?

Here is a most relevant question.

Who are you not reaching today? The people and the number is huge relative to your potential business partners or customers. You know it is true. The times are changing. It is no time for business as usual.

Who will keep you in business tomorrow? Now think about it but it is the people you are not reaching today.

Avoiding the big sucking sound of a time waster

We've all been there. Whether it is said explicitly or not, the clear message of the project is "I'll know it when I see it." When you hear or sense this you hear the big sucking sound of a time waster coming on. Invariable it creates an endless cycle of, "hmmmm not quite right." If the architectural drawings, high-heeled shoes or ad campaign doesn't meet their unstated standards, you're back to doing it again.

Sometimes you can make a handsome profit on all the fees you charge to redo things that indulge the ego of the customer, but more likely than not, your time is wasted until they're happy. If you have a client who feels the same way, you can work together to save time and money by being clear with each other about what's wanted. I think helping a client say what they want before they see it is a worthy endeavor.

Here are some good ideas from Seth Godin on how to avoid all this.

1. Do it on purpose. When engaging with a new client, intentionally create an environment where personal taste is described in advance, and as much boundary-building as possible is done when it's cheap to iterate, not at the end when it's expensive.


2. Demand benchmarks. The world is filled with things that are a lot like what you've been asked to create. So mutually identify them. Show me three other websites that feel like what you're hoping to feel like. Hand me a hardcover book that has type that reads the way you want yours to read. Walk me through a building that has the vibe you're looking for...


3. Describe the assignment before you start. Using your words and the words of the client, precisely state what problem you're trying to solve. "We're trying to build something that does a, b and c, and not d..."


4. Then, before you show off your proposal, before you hand in your work, restate the problem again. "You asked us to do a, b and c at a cost of under X. What I'm about to show you does a, it does b and it does c... and it costs half of X." This sort of intentional restatement of the scope of work respects your client by honoring their stated intent, at the same time it focuses your work on the stated goals.


5. Make a decision about whether you want a reputation for doing this sort of focused work. If you do, don't work for clients who don't buy into the process. Over time, you'll earn the kind of clients you want.

via Seth's Blog: Avoiding "I'll know it when I see it".

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Crossing the Innovation Chasm. Does CIO stand for Chief Innovation Officer?

Why does the Innovation Chasm exist? As a CIO, you have been charged with protecting your organization’s valuable assets, and with providing a reliable and stable infrastructure. As a result, you have become the “CI-No”:

• “No, we can’t buy that application you saw in an airplane magazine.”


• “No, we can’t have a new Web site built in two weeks.”


• “No, we can’t do that because it will expose our customer data.”

You could be the CI-No because you were the only game in town: if the business wanted access to technology, they had to come through you. That’s not the case anymore. One of the byproducts of the perfect storm is that the business can now access technology directly from the Cloud without your involvement, and without your knowledge. It happens in companies of all sizes, in every industry, regardless of your IT or security stance. When business has access to that technology, it widens the chasm.

IT has to up its game, and smart CIOs are on a path to help the business use technology to innovate both what they do and how they do it.

Here is a great visual of how to align with the CEO.



via Crossing the Innovation Chasm.

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Which mobile platform should you pick? Android, iOS, Windows 8 or HTML5?

The last month has introduced much new food for thought if you are trying to decide which mobile platform to build on first:

Thirty days ago, you were probably thinking to start with iOS, not just because of the launch of the iPad Mini but also the preponderance of Apps in iTunes

Then Microsoft launched Windows 8 (and the Surface), driving a full-court press to get developers to build apps for the Windows Store

A few days later, IDC came out with the latest numbers, showing Android was crushing everyone, with a 75% market share of new phones sold in Q3.

As a result, some declared that iOS was going the way of the Dodo–until last week, when iOS (especially the iPad) crushed the competition in online purposes purchases on Black Friday.

It has definitely been an eventful pre-Holiday Season in mobile.

With all these different metrics and shifts in leadership, which platform do you pick? The market share leader (Android)? The eCommerce leader (iOS)? The one most familiar to enterprise (Windows)? The one most open of all (HTML5)?

If you are Fortune-500 company with a big mobile budget the decision is easy: build on several. If you are smaller, you probably can only build one or two at most (or at least one to start on first). Which one do pick?

Question 1: What is the (Intended) Usage Pattern of Your Customers?

Question 2: If You ARE Building an App, What Are Your Customer Demographics?

Mobile Wallets are gaining traction

The potential of mobile payments is enormous: there are 1.3 billion active credit and debit accounts in the world, but more than 5 billion active mobile phone accounts.
In Africa and Asia, financial transactions via mobile phone are a widespread way to overcome deficits in banking infrastructure.

In the western world, the growing adoption of smartphones and the technological progress have given rise to the idea of mobile wallets.

This chart shows key facts about mobile wallets: adoption, benefits and opportunities.



http://www.statista.com/topics/982/mobile-payments/chart/739/key-facts-about-mobile-payments/

Guest Blog: Andrew Jackson (BravoTECH) - Candidates Have a Shelf Life

Today's guest blog is from Andrew Jackson. Andrew has spent the last 30 years building and managing technical service companies.   In 1996, he co-founded Bravo Technical Resources, Inc. (BravoTECH) an information technology professional services firm headquartered in Dallas. BravoTECH has experienced award winning growth with BravoTECH employees currently performing IT assignments across the United States. Andrew received a BSBA from Illinois State University and was recently inducted into the ISU School of Business Hall of Fame.

Andrew has been chairman of the board of the following organizations: Texas Association of Business Dallas and Ft Worth Chapters, the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas and the Dallas and Ft Worth Chapters of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. He serves as a mentor on the Associate Board of the Cox School of Business at SMU, and has been a member of the Dallas Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM) since 2002. He Just completed his sixth term as SIM’s VP of Conferences and Seminars on the SIM International Management Council.

Candidates Have a Shelf Life

Do applicants for your technical positions have a shelf- life? You bet they do, and right now the shelf lives of top candidates are getting shorter as demand for skilled technical professionals is increasing. An unemployed or under-employed technology worker can find three to five viable career options in just a few days.

Many employers are finding that qualified candidates who had expressed an interest in their firm are gone by the time they finish their traditional, often slow-paced hiring processes.

BravoTECH has worked with hundreds of clients to help them expedite their hiring and onboarding processes in order to secure illusive A player candidates. Some areas that should be evaluated and can often be improved are:

1. Number of interviews for a single position. Consider condensing the interview process by using group interviews. If numerous people are needed for a hiring decision, schedule multiple interviews on the same day.


2. Background investigations. It's wise to perform a basic background check before making an offer, but unwise to delay a hiring decision while waiting days or weeks for results. An option is to make offers contingent on receiving positive background check results.


3. Departmental inefficiencies. If other departments are involved in your screening and interviewing process, make sure they have the same sense of urgency as your team. Make sure they are aware of how soon you'd like the new position filled and how the new hire will contribute to helping your department meet its goals.


4. Process and quality control. Believe it or not, some firms have totally automated or outsourced the applicant screening and selection process or they have empowered low level administrators to do the work. As a result, some very good applicants never make it to an interview. Make sure you know how your firm is screening and identifying potential candidates and if you do use an automated, external or non-technical person to screen applicants, allow for an exception policy so that candidates or services can protest an unreasonable deletion from the process.


5. Drop unproductive, old school beliefs. One such belief is that you must interview three applicants for each position before making an offer. Instead, when you find a the right candidate, make a decision. Don't fall prey to analysis paralysis. By the time you look at the third applicant the first may be off the shelf!

Finally, remember that applicants are individuals who have expressed an interest in, not made a commitment to your firm. Their career options will grow the with the passage of time. Don't let processes keep you from hiring your share of the A Players who will likely not stay on the shelf for long.

It is an iOS and Android developer world

The dominance of Android and iOS in the mobile landscape is evident. Despite all their efforts, RIM, Microsoft and others are currently only competing for third place. Not surprising at all when you think about it. I think the big question is whether RIM will survive at all. Unfortunately, it doesn't look it.

This chart shows that app developers are increasingly focused on developing for Android and iOS, while other platforms are gradually losing developer support. The problem for RIM and Co. is that they see themselves trapped in a vicious circle: users go where the best apps are and app developers go where the biggest user base (and ultimately the money) is. So for them to turn the tide and claw back market share from iOS and Android will be extremely difficult at best.

Related articles

• Apple's (AAPL) iOS Accounts For 65% Mobile Web Traffic (wallstreetpit.com)


• Why the Latest Version of Apple iOS Is More Important Than Google Android (fool.com)


• Android, iOS and Windows Phone all increased their U.S. smartphone market share (feldmanfile.blogspot.com)


• So long, RIM, and thanks for all the phones (slashgear.com)

Why open social collaboration platforms will disrupt the enterprise market in 2013 and beyond

I think this is spot on and I suggest you read the whole article. Social and open are not just the latest big thing. It is real and you will regret it if you don't "get it". In the year 2017 you and your career will regret it if you don't get on board now. Open is happening now and it is not just the future.

It is definitely not just about the technology. It is all about how people want to work. It is all about our corporate culture and strategy. It is all about the process of change and real adoption.

The majority of businesses aren’t run efficiently and employees lack the tools and equipment necessary to do their jobs. Quite a wide sweeping statement, I know. But I’ve also been in the trenches. And I realize it’s not for lack of trying. I’ve worked with companies who hired consultant after consultant to help with productivity recommendations, workflow suggestions and overall team building — all in the name of doing better business. These investments never quite had the impact leadership hoped for.

Why?

Because they lacked a fundamental commitment to launch an entire culture overhaul (more about this later). Not necessarily “cleaning house,” but changing the WAY people work individually, collaboratively and publicly. The key lies in this trifecta, partnered with the right people on board.

via Why open social collaboration platforms will disrupt the enterprise market in 2013 and beyond - Brian Solis.

Related articles

• It's Not Just HP And Autonomy, The Enterprise Software Space Is A Giant Stinking Mess (techcrunch.com)


• Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch to stay on the disruptive edge (businesstechnologypartner.wordpress.com)


• Have you changed your routine today? (funkychickenmedia.wordpress.com)


• Team Building in the Early Days of a New Startup (davidcummings.org)

Are "A" players always promotable?

We've all been there. We have an amazing mid manager. They really get results. We promote them. They crash and burn. We all feel bad about it. How did we go wrong?

I am a big fan of Topgrading. Brad Smart is the guru. There is another way that prevents this scenario. Here are his latest thoughts.

Almost every leader I’ve interviewed has promoted people who were high performers in their current job, but failed when promoted. Years ago a popular business book was The Peter Principle (by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull), a book that painfully documented how common it was to promote people to their level of incompetence. “She earned the promotion” made sense decades ago, and for years after The Peter Principle was released companies were more cautious -- people were NOT necessarily given promotions because they “deserved the chance.”

But in my recent experience, too many companies have fallen back into the Peter Principle trap and need a reminder.

Read more

Related articles

• #1 Leadership Skill; 4 More; Cheating System; 3rd Edition Topgrading (verneharnish.typepad.com)


• Hiring Talent - Topgrading Webinar Friday June 22 - 2pm ET (verneharnish.typepad.com)


• VC Brad Feld: Startup hubs need to be led by entrepreneurs (geekwire.com)

Is your eCommerce mobile?

As we are approaching the most important days of this year’s holiday shopping season, many experts are predicting that mobile devices will play a bigger role than ever in the hunt for Christmas gifts.

Consumers are using their smart devices to research products, check prices and more and more often to actually make a purchase. According to comScore data, 1 in 10 e-commerce dollars spent in the third quarter was spent via smartphone, tablet or another mobile device.

With ever-growing adoption of smartphones and the huge popularity of tablets, it can be safely assumed that the percentage of mobile purchases will grow further in the future and retailers are well-advised to embrace their mobile audience.

This  chart shows quarterly retail e-commerce sales in the United States and the percentage of sales made through mobile devices.



http://www.statista.com/topics/871/online-shopping/chart/726/e-commerce-sales-in-the-united-states/

 

Related articles

• 'Mobile Thursday' Shopping via Smartphones and Tablets Will Nearly Double from Last Year (hispanicbusiness.com)


• Mobile Thursday? (adweek.com)


• Holiday Shopping Tidbits and Forecasts (fatwallet.com)


• Shopping Online Means Shopping Anywhere (hispanicbusiness.com)

Want to be more relevant? User experience is the key

It’s not every day you have Jesse James Garrett stop by to talk about the state of user experience (UX) and its role in the future of business. But, we were fortunate to have him visit the set of Revolution to talk about the importance of people and experiences and how UX deserves the attention of the c-suite.

The author of The Elements of User Experience and Co-Founder of Adaptive Path, Garrett has literally written the book on user experience. When we think of UX though, we often think of web, software and product product development. UX however, also represents the keys to relevance and innovation. In our discussion, Garret shares how research, psychology, behavior and design can open the doors to meaningful creativity for design and product experience strategies. But more importantly, he shares how executives across the organization can learn from the UX team to improve services, business models, and overall customer relationships.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QoYzFyp3Ezk#!

Related articles

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• User Experience: Remember, when it comes to UX, the U comes first. (digitalsurgeons.com)


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Is it too early to think about 2013? Some questions for personal strategic planning

I know it may seem early but 2012 is winding down. Resolutions may not be the most useful exercise to go through. At least thinking through some really good questions might bring some focus to 2013.

It may not be all about planning but it could be about a better focus. Some of that could be thinks to stop doing. Here are some great questions to begin thinking about for 2013 via 4 Questions to get 2013 off to a roaring start | Escape From Cubicle Nation.

To do this exercise, I suggest getting nice and comfortable, and grabbing a paper and pen. Answer these questions:

1. I am at my very best when …

What conditions bring out your very best work? What kind of work are you doing when you are kicking major bootie? What people bring out your best work? Without overthinking it too much, brainstorm the factors that bring out your best work.

From this list, circle one thing that you will AMPLIFY in 2013.

2. These things drove me crazy in 2012 …

Have you been spinning around with the same annoying patterns in your head? Do you have any people in your life that make you nuts? Are you sick and tired of feeling sick and tired?

Brainstorm the things that have really made you batty this year.

From this list, circle one thing that you will ELIMINATE in 2013

3. I really want to make/do this in 2013 …

Is there an experience you are dying to have next year? Do you want to run your first marathon, write your first book, have your first baby or make your first product? Brainstorm the things or experiences that you would love to accomplish next year.

From this list, circle one thing that you will CREATE in 2013

4. Even during tough times this year, I appreciated …

Even the most optimistic life coaches have really crappy days. Life can be hard sometimes. If you had a whopper of a year, what are some things that you appreciated as the proverbial doo doo was hitting the fan? Brainstorm the big and small things that kept you grounded in 2012.

From this list, circle one thing that you want to APPRECIATE in 2013

 

Do you have the right strategy?

Michael Jarrett, INSEAD professor, on the most important imperative for your business. Great 3 minute video. Much execution of strategy fails. We need to start with some core questions to succeed.

1. Do we have the right strategy?


2. Do we have a fair and open process to create the strategy?


3. Do we use great project management skills to execute the strategy?


4. Do we treat it as a real initiative to win buy in?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCo6WN_Q2GU&feature=g-user-u

Guest blog: Vinay Nadig - Have you checked on the health of your Operating System lately?

Vinay Nadig is my guest blogger today. Vinay's mission in life is to help people practice leadership as a daily behavior and enable themselves and their teams to achieve exceptional outcomes.

Vinay has spent more than 2 decades building companies, delivering value, serving clients, sometimes failing and ultimately succeeding on his own terms.  From a serial entrepreneur, to the leader of a business unit in a corporation, and entrepreneurial positions in technology startups, Vinay constantly “lives leadership daily.”   Vinay is usually engaged with a select group of client companies, doing meaningful work to help them grow the next generation of leaders.  On occasion, he works with motivated individuals who wish to take their performance to the next level and live exceptional lives.  He enjoys speaking at conferences and company events and discussing his opinions on his blog.

Vinay lives in the Dallas, TX area with his wife and two children. Here are his thoughts.

Have you checked on the health of your Operating System lately?

i.e. Your Core Operating System - the "software" that helps your leadership behavior.....

No, I don’t mean your version of Windows or Macintosh or Ubuntu.  I am listening to Daniel Pink’s Drive on audio, and he talks about the “operating system” for motivation (and the fact that it is outdated to fit today’s workplace).  It is fascinating and provoked me to apply it to the area of my particular passion – that of daily leadership behavior.

I believe that each of us has to design, build and polish our Cores – and the concept of Operating Systems (OS) fits right into this!  What kind of Core have we built? Do we think it is sufficiently refreshed to keep us relevant today?  Are there parts missing?  To wit:

• Is your Operating System Open Source or Commerical? – {Are you in this for purely monetary rewards or a longer term sustainable objective? Listen, be honest – both models obviously work in the computer industry}.


• Does your Operating System perform fast and reliably under peak loads? – {Do you have a Core set of competencies that you rely on to execute at exceptional levels, especially under pressure?}.


• Does your Operating System support a large number of applications? – {Do you know how to enable, rather than direct and control?  Do you know how to play well with others?}.


• Does your Operating System try to occupy a lot of space and features and try to gobble up single feature tools? – {Are you able to rely on your peers//teams//bosses and trust them to perform their roles as you perform yours?  Or do you have to do it all and always be at the forefront?}.


• Can your Operating System be upgraded smoothly, with a minimum amount of loss to existing features and capabilities? – {Do you have the capacity to continue refreshing your Core, learning new skills, while retaining an unflagging Core?}.

So, take a few minutes and reflect on your Core.  You will be able to figure out that “upgrade path” as the technology mavens are always talking about – only this time it is your own internal “software”………

You can connect with Vinay:

Twitter:  @vinaynadig

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/vinaynadig123

Blog: http://www.leadershipdharma.com

iPhone App on AppStore: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/leadership%20dharma/id504547135

iTunes Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/living-leadership-daily-daily/id506808286

Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch to stay on the disruptive edge

There is no doubt technology is disrupting the traditional business models. Customers are in charge and they are plugged in. No one of these may be right for you but you should be spending time researching which are the right ones and leveraging them. You can either disrupt or be disrupted.

 



 

So here is a good list to start with via Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch - Brian Solis..

 

1. Social Networks from Facebook to Twitter to Google+ and how they’re connecting to influencers and businesses (note: pay attention to nicheworks as well such as Path and Instagram.)

2. Geolocation check-in services such as Foursquare and Facebook location updates to share locations and earn rewards or opportunities for discounts

3. Crowdsourced discounts and deals including Groupon and LivingSocial and what’s valued and why

4. Social commerce services like Shopkick and Armadealo and how they create personalized experiences that are worth sharing

5. Referral based solutions like Yelp, Service Magic (now HomeAdvisor), and Angie’s List to make informed decisions and how shared experiences can improve your business, products, and services

6. Gamification platforms such as Badgeville and Fangager, and why rewarding engagement improves commerce and loyalty

7. How your consumers using mobile devices today and what apps they’re installing. Also, how they’re comparing options, reviewing experiences and making decisions while mobile?

8. The online presence your business produces across a variety of platforms such as tablets, smartphones, laptops and desktops. You must realize how consumers are experiencing the online presences you create and whether or not they deliver a holistic and optimized experience for each platform.

9. The consumer clickpath based on the platform consumers are using. Are you steering experiences based on the expectations of your customers? And are you taking into consideration the device or network where the clickpath begins and ends? Are you integrating Facebook F-commerce and m-commerce into the journey?

10. The expectations of connected consumers, what they value in each channel and platform, where they engage and how your business can improve experiences and make them worthy of sharing.

 

Related articles

• Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch (sazbean.com)


• Top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of November 10, 2012 (sazbean.com)


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As CIO, is your best business partner the CMO?

When CMOs and CIOs collaborate, the relationship puts the business at a competitive advantage. Technology provides the muscle to make sense of the explosion of data now at our fingertips, as well as the tools that can interpret those results to better discover what customers want. When the CMO and CIO share a focus on the customer, the power to drive business growth is potent.

Better insight from customers can drive serious growth in our companies, at least according to a recent study by IBM of over 1700 CEOs. But today, acquiring and interpreting customer data inherently must involve both the marketing and IT departments. In fact, recent research conducted by the CMO Council, suggests that this process should start with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the Chief Information Officer (CIO).

One of the key challenges CMOs face is figuring out how to partner with other internal functions. But given that today's CMO is often the main connection between the consumer and the company, a strong relationship with the CIO can allow them to leverage technology to better understand those customers.

And although there are a myriad of analytical tools for generating this kind of information, CMOs are struggling to convert data into consumer insight they can use. A recent study (also from IBM) indicates that more than 70% of CMOs feel they are underprepared to manage the explosion of data and "lack true insight."

With this in mind, there is a growing need to identify how CMOs and CIOs can use the technology that's on-hand to ease this process — which will ultimately drive growth for the entire business. Below are four suggestions for building this power partnership in your company.

Find Common Ground - Differing incentives is one of the biggest barriers to an effective relationship between marketing and IT.

"There is an interesting intersection between risk management and innovation that emerges in the CMO-CIO interface." ~~Gene Morphis, former CFO of CVS and David's Bridal 

It's the ultimate intersection between those who are often tasked with driving change, innovation, and revenue growth (marketing) and those who need to ensure that there aren't any issues or risk with technology, information, and systems (information technology). It's up to the CEO to ensure that marketing and IT are on the same page in terms of both innovation goals and risk management.

The best way to overcome this kind of incongruence is to start by understanding — and respecting — the conflicting incentive structures of each department and working collaboratively to find common ground. In some instances, it may be necessary to align the CEO on a plan, but a united recommendation between the CMO and CIO has a better of chance of success.

Put Business Needs First, Infrastructure Second - While it seems intuitive, companies often mistakenly focus first on creating the infrastructure, and then focus on figuring out what to do with the data afterwards. David Norton, the prior CMO of Caesars Entertainment, suggests that "data infrastructure should follow an understanding of the business questions. For example, something as simple as deciding how to look at the data — hourly, daily, weekly — can influence how you organize the data." If the CMO works with the CIO to outline the data that they need to understand customers, the CIO can better ensure that the data infrastructure will be aligned with ultimate business needs.

Understand the Customer Holistically - Data can spring from a number of places: loyalty cards, purchases, social media behavior, website analytics, surveys, etc. And new technology can integrate these disparate sources of customer-related information. But this is a barrier for most companies.

"The challenge that we find with most of our clients is that they do not have the internal capability or bandwidth to focus on integrating customer data to generate superior insight. Yet, this assimilated perspective is precisely what is necessary to move ahead of the competitor's level of customer understanding." ~~Dr. R. Sukumar, CEO of a fact-based research and consulting firm

Even when firms effectively get a holistic customer view, they often lack the staff or bandwidth to act on it quickly. This is why they frequently turn to external partners to help fill the skill gaps needed to integrate, analyze, and use insight to drive business results. These external partners typically have the technology and expertise needed to successfully generate and leverage in-depth customer data.

Apply Tools that Everyone Can Use - Historically, data analysis and customer research has been reserved for only a few skilled employees (typically in marketing research) who can navigate technically sophisticated systems. But now emerging are technology-enabled reporting portals that enable multiple users in marketing — even the tech novices — to analyze customer research themselves. For example Dr. Sukumar's company, Optimal Strategix, is one of many that has developed such a universal tool, and he agrees, "Gone are the days when marketers had to get their information from a PowerPoint presentation that marketing researchers or consultants provided." The CMO now has the ability to be more hands-on with the customer information that is typically reserved for the CIO's team.

Related articles

• Birth of the Chief Marketing Technology Officer (atomthought.com)


• Five Questions Marketing should ask the CEO (demandmetric.com)


• The Introduction of the Gen X CMO (actionableinsights.covario.com)


• Unspoken in the IBM Global CMO Study: Content and people required to engage a million customers individually (starkscommunications.com)


• Does the Rise of the CMO Threaten CIOs? (pcadvisor.co.uk)