WANTED: The Business Renaissance Man

WANTED: The Business Renaissance Man

Richard Branson once said that his biggest motivation was to “…keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had – everyday I’m learning something new.” Learning in business, just like learning is school is necessary. At the same time the education and learning that you do, it requires a return on investment (ROI). This ROI is based on getting valuable information in the form of a practical education with real world application – this is the next required step in educational evolution.

Engage! Through Efficient Meetings

Engage! Through Efficient Meetings

Are your meetings a seemingly endless parade of status updates? Do your meetings always get side-tracked by irrelevant topics? Do you always have back-to-back 1-hour long meetings?

If you are anything like me and the majority of American’s you are always trying to do more during your eternally scarce work resource – time. Shorter attention spans, more multi-tasking, more interactions, more global teams, more team rooms, more projects, more high priorities, more strategies, more decisions, more initiatives and at the base of all of this – more meetings.

To create more efficient use of time and communication for every aspect of what you are doing “more” of is the thoroughly efficient meeting. Create shorter, more engaging meetings, loyal employees or co-workers, and enthusiastic attendants. This isn’t aimed to transform every meeting into a motivational speech, but simply establishing a better use of resources during what is considered to be one of the most highly unproductive times of the day – meetings.

Engage Externally When Branding Your Product

Engage Externally When Branding Your Product!
Effectively Communicating Your Product Value to a New Generation

“It is not the employer who pays the wages – employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.” –Henry Ford

Consumers want engaging encounters and companies want to find ways to captivate product consumers. Engrossing customers in your marketing message could make the typical customer experience anything but. To do this your products have to excite your customers. No longer will the one-sided marketing conversation with customers on the “whats” of your products be enough. Customer interactions must advance to the next level, requiring a connection with customers (see Young Professionals – New Employees, Same Problems). Building off of traditional marketing methods, a new form of marketing is required to begin engaging an evolving market. This new counterculture market wants information, connections, customized/personalized experiences and involvement. This market repays this connection with deep loyalty and consumer insight.

How do you engage your customers, convey your product message and market effectively to key customers now?

Engage Internally Starting at the First Handshake!

Engage Internally Starting at the First Handshake! Hiring the New Generation of Employees

Everyone comes to work needing something to learn. This is especially true with the newest generation of employees. There are unique hiring dynamics for Generation Y – especially for entry level positions – and to build a great work force, you must understand the generation you are hiring. To have a successful hiring practice, it requires due diligence and commitment to create an engaging workforce.

If you are hiring for a Generation Y, entry level position you need to realize they will not have much experience. As a whole, Generation Y comes to the work force with 4-5 years experience behind previous generations at the same age. This requires more difficult more intricate dissemination between candidates to look forward the biggest thing that separates candidates – passion.

Confrontational Intelligence

Confrontational Intelligence to Create Accountability

In our time, if you are afraid of confrontation, you are not going to thrive in business.

Confrontation does not necessarily mean throwing down with another or yelling at another, nor should it lead to conflict or negativity. When problems overlay confrontational situations, conflict results. These problems can be eliminated through confrontational intelligence.

Strengthen a Brand by Blogging: Best Corporate Blogs

Strengthen a Brand by Blogging: Best Corporate Blogs

After reflecting on my last post on why all companies need a blog (see Why All Companies Should Have a Blog), I thought that great examples would be necessary. Companies with effective blogging, create brand awareness, engage customers, build on innovation, and drive digital research while differentiating and building its brand, credibility and trust (also addressed in Product Launch Perfection – Promoting the Pitch). Effective blogs should convey a specific message and branding, whether it is to prove competency and expertise in a new field/product/service or to gain a new audience, there should be a mission and a vision for corporate blogging and the following companies are some great examples on how blogging can gain and audience and transfer that message to build a brand.

Every Company Should Have a Blog!

Don't Have a Blog? What you are missing.

Business is evolving. Business is moving from hard copy to digital, from catalogs to PDFs, from pamphlets to YouTube videos, from face-to-face meetings to conference calls. This is not new, but companies need to transition with technology. Business evolution is paramount in order to stay relevant and grow with a changing market and business structure (for more on Accepting Innovation). There are a variety of technologies to enable the transition to digital marketing to create the perfect global message and to build brand awareness for your product. One key overlooked innovation is the Corporate Blog.

Creating That Golden Moment - Value Driven Work

Creating That Golden Moment - Meaning and Value Driven Work

Your career is in a natural state of entropy.

In following the second law of thermodynamics, entropy (the measure of randomness) will never decrease as the number of variables continuously increase over time. With the constant expansion of variability, a sense of meaning can also be lost. This loss of meaning in your work may cause you to only go through the motions at work, while avoiding any negative repercussions. Your job may seem like an endless stream of meaningless busywork which is constantly multiplying and being thrust upon you. Worst of all, you may feel trapped in your job for whatever reason. This may be the case for you, or your employees. Fortunately, through specific actions you can remediate the situation to reengage yourself or your employees.

Creating Happiness at Work

Creating Happiness at Work

I believe that finding what is truly important is done when external expectations, ego, fear and failure are removed.

Unrealistic expectations lead to unhappiness. Whether it is social standards, expectations from colleagues and parents, or social comparisons, these expectations cause a discrepancy between reality and perceived truths. Not all expectations are bad, as they push mediocrity, drive one forward and motivate, but that is only the case when those expectations are done inwardly and realistically. Once you look externally to compare to others, overvalue personal pride, fear failure, or fear being embarrassed, expectations are distorted in a way to create a discontent.

Young Professionals – New Employees, Same Problems

Young Professionals – New Employees, Same Problems

I am a Generation Y, Millennial, Generation We, Global Generation, Generation Next and Net Generation employee.

Young professionals are called by a variety of names, but one can be certain that the next generation of employees bring a new set of challenges and advancements to the workplace. Much research is being done to characterize and categorize the individuals born after “Generation Xers” in the early 1980’s to the early 2000’s. Investigations are being done to learn the traits and values, the wants and needs and the identity of this group. These studies are targeted to simplify and learn the similarities and differences from previous generations, how to market them, how to inspire them, how to engage them and how to relate to them. I will challenge the central issues identified, offer insight and propose solutions to answer many of the burning questions of this new workforce, the Millennials.

Advancing Change in the Workplace

Advancing Change in the Workforce

In analyzing challenges and obstacles at companies, I noticed that the fundamental issues have revolved, in all or in part, around change. Typically these changes are a shift of focus by management. Whether it is strategic change, operational change, organizational change, management change, product change, focus change or any other kind of change. As change is a typical and even necessary part of business, learning how to adapt to change and improve the change process are imperative in moving an your organization forward.