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.

Marketing Words

Words are at the heart of almost every form of marketing.. Choose words carefully, and sales will follow. Make the wrong choices, and customers will tune you out.

Check this list of the most overused words eroding the quality of today's marketing.

1. Care: "We care," "caring for you" and "from people who care" are all versions of the same weak promise. Typically, you'll find these phrases in health-care, insurance and financial marketing. They prompt prospects to wonder how the promise will benefit them and in what ways this caring attitude is manifested. But because the word itself is so overused, prospects may not pay attention long enough to learn the answer.

2. Solutions: The great love of technology marketers, this word has been beaten to death. So many companies promise to have the solution that the word is no longer credible. Since most customers or clients believe their challenges are unique, it's hard for them to specifically imagine how these solutions will be delivered without lots of additional information from the advertiser.

3. Results: Though not truly a naughty word, results has been overused and represents a highly general, fairly toothless promise. When confronted with the promise of results, most prospects will want proof. So if you choose to use this word, be prepared with testimonials and other support.

4. Amazing: How many "amazing" breakthroughs have you seen advertised today? Are most of them really amazing? Probably not. This superlative makes something sound too good to be true. Use it with caution and be ready to back it up with plenty of details.

5. Needs: It seems like every advertiser these days promises to meet our needs. But most are short on specifics. This tired promise elicits a ho-hum response because we already expect the things we buy to meet our needs. Why else would we buy them? Strengthen your selling proposition by detailing how your product or service will do a better job of meeting needs than what your competitors offer.

6. Quality: Just as we expect products and services to meet our needs, we also expect high-quality merchandise. Consumers believe quality should be a given. What makes your product of higher quality than others? Tell consumers the ways you ensure quality, and you'll put some teeth into this bland promise.

7. Turnkey: Marketing that promises a "turnkey solution" is likely to be met with skepticism mixed with a touch of fear over the prospective loss of control it suggests. Prospects must trust that your company will provide stellar performance every step of the way. That makes it essential to use specifics and take sufficient space or time to tell a complete story.

8. #1: It seems everyone is claiming to be No. 1 at something. Whether it's price, delivery, convenience or savings, marketers are claiming number-one status with very little proof. And that has damaged the effectiveness of this claim. Plus, being No. 1 is all about you and not about the advantages you provide to the customer. Use words that specifically detail how your number-one status translates into a higher value for the customer, and everyone wins.

(Source: Entrepreneur, July 2008)

An Aging Workforce

An Aging Workforce (“The Brain Drain”)

Take a look at these statistics about the Aging Workforce:


The percentage of U.S. workers 55 and older is rising

2006 16.8%
2016 22.7%

While likely successors will be on the decline in the next eight years

Age 55.64 +30.3%*
Age 35-44 -5.5%*
Age 16-24 -1.1%*

Projected percentage growth or decline 2006-2016
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Few managers have taken steps to retain professionals nearing retirement age. These are some of the methods that progressive managers have established to cope with the Aging workforce:

Flex schedules 19%
Part-time options 12%
Contracting retired employees 9%
Bonuses for staying on 8%
Delayed retirement plans 4%
No steps taken 60%
Source: Survey of 233 professionals May-June 2007

Based on the above statistics, it has become clear that growth in the number of older workers will soon surpass growth in the number of those just starting out. In particular, in my field of Information Technology, there has not been an influx of new talent. According to the Computing Research Association, computer science enrollment dropped 14% each year between 2004 and 2006.

But, in a survey conducted by Buck Consultants, only 42%of the respondents said that the aging workforce was a significant issue. So it seems that many businesses are content to watch their boomers leave the company.

Some companies, however, are taking steps to capturing the knowledge that is lost when the boomers leave the company. For example, Tennessee Valley Authority realized that 30 to 40 % of its workforce would retire over the next five years so it developed a process to determine which employees possessed unique, undocumented knowledge; to assess the risk or losing that knowledge; and to find ways to capture it through retention, documentation, mentoring, training and the sharing of expertise.

One of the most important things is to assess the value of the knowledge and skills that are walking out the door. Then build a database to capture documentation and lessons learned. A powerful tool is to offer long time staffers new challenges, new benefits and new roles to keep them longer and available to transfer knowledge about their job. Another is to involve older workers in mentoring younger workers to make knowledge sharing a priority.

Obviously, it is clearly important for managers to assess the value of the knowledge and skills that could be walking out the door and do something about retaining the aging employees and developing plans to capture their knowledge before it is disappears into retirement.

Funny ads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRiYkwtBK34

Podcasts

A podcast is a series of digital-media files distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.

http://www.jobdig.com/podcast/listen.php?180 is an excellent site containing a series of management podcasts. Just click the "Hideout XSPF Music Play" toolbar to activate. The site hosts a variety of Podcasts dealing with many management issues, such as delegation, providing feedback, communications, etc. Take a listen.