The Welchway-A series of Podcasts.

Belwo is a site containing a very helpful series of Podcasts delivered by Jack & Suzy Welch.

As you remember, Jack Welch was the CEO of GE. GE experienced consistent growth in profitability, market share and stock valuation under his leadership. He now provides a podcast each week in Business Week on a variety of management issues. Take a look at the wisdom he imparts, with his wife, on many issues confronting the modern manager..

http://businessweek.com/search/podcasts/welchway.rss.

What Marketing Is and Is not -Know the Difference

Knowing what Marketing Is and Is Not and knowing the difference is the first step in creating a successful campaign.


Marketing, according to some marketers, is just a fancy word for selling. It's more common sense and patience than anything else. It's a process and not an event.
Marketing is any contact that your business has with anyone who isn't a part of your business. .



Marketing is the art of getting people to change their minds.
Many business owners think marketing is a bunch of things that it isn't, such as the following:

1. Marketing is not advertising. Don't think that because you're advertising, you're marketing. There are more than 200 forms of marketing. Advertising is one of them. If you're advertising, you're advertising. You're doing only one half of 1 percent of what you can do.


2. Marketing is not direct mail. Some companies think they can get all the business they need with direct mail. Mail-order firms may be right about that. But most businesses need a plethora of other marketing weapons for their direct mail to succeed.


3. Marketing is not telemarketing. For business-to-business marketing, few weapons succeed as well as telemarketing. Telemarketing response can be improved by augmenting it with advertising. But don't kid yourself. Marketing is not telemarketing alone.


4. Marketing is not brochures. Many companies rush to produce a brochure, then pat themselves on the back for the quality of the brochure. Is that brochure marketing? It's an important part when mixed with 10 or 15 other very important parts, but by itself? Forget it.


5. Marketing is not the phonebook. Many companies run a phonebook ad and figure that takes care of their marketing. In 5 percent of the cases, that's the truth. In the other 95 percent, it's a disaster of marketing ignorance.


6. Marketing is not show business. There's no business like show business, and that includes marketing. Think of marketing as sell business, as create-a-desire business, as motivation business. But don't think of yourself as being in the entertainment business, because marketing is not supposed to entertain.


7. Marketing is not a stage for humor. If you use humor in your marketing,people will recall your funny joke, but not your compelling offer. If you use humor, it will be funny the first and maybe the second time. After that, it will be grating and will get in the way of what makes marketing work--repetition.


8. Marketing is not an invitation to be clever. If you fall into the cleverness trap, it's because you don't realize that people remember the cleverest part of the marketing even though it's your offer they should remember. Cleverness is a marketing vampire, sucking attention away from your offer.


9. Marketing is not complicated. It becomes complicated for people who fail to grasp the simplicity of marketing, but marketing is user-friendly to guerrillas. They begin with a seven-sentence guerrilla marketing plan, then commit to that plan. Not too complicated.


10. Marketing is not a miracle worker. More money has been wasted by expecting miracles than by any other misconception of marketing. Marketing is the best investment you can make if you do it right, and doing it right requires patience and planning.


11. Marketing is not a website. And if you don't know marketing in the first place, you're going to lose a lot of money online. The web helps with the job, but it's not the whole job.
Marketing is an opportunity for you to earn profits with your business, a chance to cooperate with other businesses in your community or your industry and a process of building lasting relationships.


Adapted from Jay Conrad Levinson who is the Father of Guerrilla Marketing. His books have sold more than 20 million copies and appear in 54 languages.

Interviewing Questions

Behavioral Scientists tell us that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Situational type interview questions can be strengthened by anchoring them to actual past behaviors. These are some behavioral questions in which the leader/manager is asked to recall specific actions, with rich detail; they have taken in job related situations.

Tells us about a time when your judgment was tested in a crisis. How did you act and what did you act on?
Can you share some examples of when you were a catalyst who brought groups with polarized opinions together so that all voices were on the table?
Tell us about a high-performing team that you’ve built. What made it high performing?
Please share some examples of your ability and willingness to be decisive, Can you tell us about a time when a lack of decisiveness got you into trouble. In retrospect, what would you have done differently?
Can you give some examples of how you overcame resistance to bring about needed change.
Give us an example of how you brought about a more favorable cultural change.
Give an example of how you dealt with a particular situation that threatened the viability of the company.
Do you have some examples of how you improved the communications within a company.


In addition, situational questions are good ways to evaluate whether the leader/manager can handle difficult situations likely to be encountered on the job. Some examples are:

1. What are the first few things you’ll do to raise confidence among all the company stakeholders.
2. How will you create an environment for innovation within your leadership team?
3. Describe how you will create a more participatory democracy and give people the opportunity to influence decision making.
4. What would you do to create an ethical climate in the workplace?
5. Describe how you would deal with a product recall.
6. How would you deal with a drop in stock share value.
7. What would you tell shareholders about the current and future prospects for the company.
8. How would you deal with a serious breach of security?

These are just two types of interviews-Behavioral and Situational-that will give the interviewer a good grasp of a candidate’s suitability for a leadership role in your company. Please send me your list of behavioral and situational questions.