6W for Business

I have been monitoring a few marketing sites and find it very interesting that so called educated marketers of some predominant centers of higher education would ask such a question on their LinkedIn or FaceBook site such as this one; “What’s the best strategy in developing a business marketing plan?”

What? Did I read that right? Your asking complete strangers, maybe your competition how to create a business marketing plan and this is what you spent 2 – 4 years learning. Okay, that seemed a bit over the top, almost a rant, but it is happening all the time in the virtual realms. One of two things is happening; one, the initials at the end of their name aren’t real or they were not listening in the lectures, right? Maybe, but as I communicate with some of these people, I find that they are simply looking for a clearer process then the institutional classic mechanism that worked 20 years, however, is not working well in this economy or in this digitally social world.

I pass on six words that were gathered at a think tank session on the subject of “How to Gain Market Awareness.” In two days 52 people boiled down years of lectures, presentation, white papers, professor’s opinions and wisdom passed on by market and brand gurus.

Einstein said it better than any market research or professor could explain, “Make it simply, not simpler.” with this in our minds and much consumption of adult beverages an Aha moment struck the crowd.

Defined Purpose, Clear Value, Shared Return.

It is this thinking that helps establish all communications, marketing strategies or even business plans. You must have a strong reason for what you are doing. A well defined purpose for your actions. Then you must establish a clear value for all parties, not just your bottom line. Know what value your offering or relationship has on your target and keep true to that and true to yourself. Finally, establish what the ROI of the relationship will be for both parties. What does the target gain from interacting with you and what will you gain. If in this equation a negative emerges, readjust, realign, redesign your plan. Period.

Organizational Alignment

A while back, a few years back, a business group were discussing when does a business begin to fail. Is it when external conditions are unfavorable or is it when the internal struggles create a hostile organization?

My reply… Yes!

Both conditions do happen, but I believe that the latter is the largest affect in business collapse. When organizations do not agree, envision or understand who they want to become… Stop. I saw that eyebrow go up. Yes, what a company or organization wants to become. Strategic planning is long-term and with long-term planning an organization must clearly understand who they want to become, because everything around us changes. People change, demands change and the consumer changes. If you are not planning for these changes and envisioning the type of organization that will deliver in this change, then close the doors and turn out the lights when you leave tonight, because standing still in traffic is no place to be.

Everyone in command must see the future “We” or at least have a very good idea of what that “We” will look like based upon who your customer will be. If everyone is moving in different direction, soon the organization will be stretched so far apart that any ability to adjust to market changes will be lethal. The external affects the internal and vise versa. Everything happens at once. Mismanaged companies don’t see external change and thus cause the consumer/customer to follow others that do.

Alignment of thinking and communication is critical to survive. Alignment is a daily practice. Everyone must understand who they are, who they serve and what changes have happened since yesterday if tomorrow can bring success and growth.

Woolworth believe they would always be Woolworth. Grandpa Pigeons could not see themselves in the future. In some cases, companies knew or where afraid that they could not see themselves in the future, because either the product they made or the customer they served would no longer exist unchanged and opted to be bought or closed. History is filled with such sad stories of misalignment.

The secret to business success, as I see it, know they self and thy customer today and tomorrow. Deviate from that and you know the rest.

Open Seating/Open Thinking

Attending conferences, conventions, seminars and workshops, I am always amazed (actually not) that the sessions that advertise creative thinking and innovation discussions look like every other meeting at a conference. Power Point screens at the front of the room, podium off to one side, tables and seating lined up like rows of potato furrows ready for plowing. Uniformity of class and rank. 60 minute sessions, 10 minute gaps and 15 minute breaks. Designed by drones for drones. These scheduled, over organized, space constraint sessions are what I like to refer to as the killing fields of open thinking.

Creative thought, open discussions and idea collectives require flow, not form. Here is a great idea to try at your next “Idea” session that happened completely by chance and or due to the mistake of some absent minded planner. Apparently, the seating and tables that were to be set up for the morning session, had been overlooked by planners or the banquet crew the night before. What a nightmare for the presenter right?

No, not if you are a session leader on creative thinking. Our session leader quickly made light of the oversight and with a bit of improvisation and crowd recruiting, he orchestrated the assembly of the room, yet not to any normality. He defined an area in the front of the room as his performance spot and announce that the room had one rule when it came to seating. There wasn’t any. Seat how and where you liked. And we did just that.

As the session proceeded, our leader moved through the random encamped group, stopping to ask small groups of people questions based upon his topic. I was amazed how micro packs of attendees worked together in discussion groups of their own making without ever being asked or instructed to do so. Near the halfway period of the session, I became aware that the room had clusters of 5 to 7 attendees per group, sitting in an arc pattern around the area designated as the performance area. When it came time to have discussions, each group would discuss amongst themselves, and then would formalize a single idea to share with the of the attendees in the session. The only thing I was hoping for is that the clock would have broken, because the event was well accepted and very lively.

An open seating plan which includes no seating plan is a great diversion from the normal and also seems to define the same for the thinking and sharing of the group. People are intelligent and can make rational decisions so why create visual uniformity which subconsciously communicates restriction and formal reactions. If more sessions followed this type of approach, imagine the possible outcomes.  Unfortunate for the rest of us, our next presenter was not as free minded and open. Oh well, we dredge on and dream of the possibilities.

The Titanic Decade

Happy New Year and Happy New Decade.

Between 2000 and 2009, the world has seen some incredible, if not, terrible events that have shaken our beliefs of the improbable. From disasters to global effects, borders no longer can contain the changes of our world.

I reflect on the news about the last decade and I am reminded of the builders of the Titanic. Never has a ship been so bold, grand or of such scale before. An engineering spectacular feat that many believed it to be the greatest achievement in history. An truly it was or at least could have been, but because of its greatness and engineering breakthroughs, the builders began boasting its design by calling it “Unsinkable”. As we all know from history, television and film, that was far from truth of reality. On her maiden voyage the fates played their hand and the rest is an epic history story.

So why am I refer to the past decade as the Titanic Decade? First and foremost, it was a time when the impossible became possible. When the unimaginable became reality. From advancements in science and medicine that uncovered mysteries of space, time and matter to some of nature’s unpredictable disasters, 2000 to 2009 became a time when the population of the world was singing the same tune as the builders of the Titanic. Enron, a company too profitable to lose, collapsed, America, the most powerful country was attacked on its own soil, banks, too large to fail, failed. And species thought to be too numerous are on the edge of extinction.

When will we learn that nothing is impossible and that the moment you believe something is unbreakable, unsinkable, too large to fail or too powerful to be vulnerable is when the impossible become possible and the perfect is flawed.

Just as the Titanic had met her fate, so too, let the previous decade be recorded in history as meeting its fate. Let’s move forward and always remember that nothing is impossible, nothing is perfect on earth and that the moment we sing invincibility we fall.

Raise your glass to Probability, Imperfection and growth in 2010 and the following decade.

Are The Fibonacci Calipers The Key?

Over the past few days of reflection, I unearthed some articles that I had stored away many years ago regarding proportions and science. The item that rekindled some interest is the calipers called “The Fibonacci Gauge.” Based on the “Golden Measure” or means of the Phi ratio of 0.618. This unique caliper was developed to assist in creating visually pleasing proportions in art and architecture. The ration is directly linked to the reoccurring ratio in nature.

I presented a set of these calipers to one of my practitioners whom I discovered was an avid painter. She was quite interested how they functioned and how they could be apply to her style of artwork. After some investigation of numerous master artist a quick demonstration of proportional placement and scaling uncovered unique properties of the artwork of the masters’ composition. By applying the calipers to areas in the artwork, the viewer can discover how depth and perspectives are proportioned and even the overall layout and placement of key elements are acquired.

So, the idea. How can we use the Phi ratio or the Fibonacci Calipers in the modern world outside of art and architecture? In the investment world, the ratio is used to track various spikes in stocks or to “predict” rebounds. If the ratio is tied directly with nature and natural phases of life, then consider these questions.

As technology and innovations accelerate exponentially, could the use of the Phi ratio predict or at least project when the next leap of advancement will occur?

What of medicine, could the application of Phi ratios be used in medicine and treatments?

Looking into the growing issue of mental abnormalities such as Asperges syndrome or autism, could the ration determine population predictions or even development phases?

And finally, could the Phi ratio determine absorption rates for educational learning?

Art and science share many common traits mathematically,would it be to far fetched to imagine that a reoccurring ratio found in nature could truly be a clue to unlocking each mystery in life, death and everything around and in between?

Even if you disagree with the science of Phi, at least be open to its possible applications. As I tell my friends and associates I do not believe anything is impossible, only highly improbable. Too many times, the educated and knowledgeable man has told the visionary that it was impossible to do what they are wishing to do.

“Visionaries have great vision and poor hearing. They can prove the impossible is always possible even when they are told its not.” K. M. Dulle the IdeaFreak, I would rather be deaf and still see possibilities, than blind and hear the limitations preached by others.

P.S. Two words that I black out of each of my dictionaries; Impossible and Perfect. How about you, what two words would you delete from your dictionary to help you step up to any challenge?