Would marketing be better at HR?

Should HR leaders turn over their internal communications and engagement efforts to marketing professionals?

“According to an executive briefing by the Madison Performance Group — entitled HR or Marketing: Who is Better Equipped to Manage Employee Engagement? — “marketing has evolved particularly fast in using digital media to deliver messages that are more efficient and impactful” when it comes to building a more engaged workforce. … “Some business leaders wonder if marketing shouldn’t also be charged with building and maintaining the corporate connection with employees.” …

Mark Royal, a senior consultant with Hay Group’s Chicago office, marketing professionals do have wisdom to share.They “could provide useful guidance,” he says, “related to segmenting audiences, tailoring messages and leveraging different communication channels that would serve HR professionals well in reaching an increasingly diverse workforce in ways that resonate and motivate.” – Article

According to an executive briefing by the Madison Performance Group — entitled HR or Marketing: Who is Better Equipped to Manage Employee Engagement? — “marketing has evolved particularly fast in using digital media to deliver messages that are more efficient and impactful” when it comes to building a more engaged workforce.

Time for the scissors

Source

The truth about American innovation

“Sure, it was positive that President Obama used the word “innovate” so many times in his State of the Union Tuesday, for example, saying “we need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” But Bruce Nussbaum‘s day-later reaction in the Harvard Business Review argues “harsh truths” President Obama omitted include that very little actual innovation takes place within big business, that the U.S. innovation policy is misguided, and that China‘s “Fast Follower” policy is superior to ours. After a R&D survey showed that only 9 percent of U.S. companies had any product, service, or process innovation between 2006 and 2008, economist Michael Mandel observed, “you can’t be an innovation economy if only 9 percent of your companies are innovating.” - Source

Microsoft desperately needs to …

“I’ll start with a rundown of mergers and acquisitions announced by major Internet and tech companies since the beginning of this year, which, notably, is less than a month ago:

Google acquired eBook Technologies (12 Jan), SayNow and fflick (25 Jan)

Facebook acquired Rel8tion (25 Jan)

Amazon acquired LOVEFiLM (20 Jan)

Skype acquired Qik (13 Jan)

Yahoo7 (a joint venture between Seven Media Group and Yahoo) acquired Spreets (21 Jan)

Groupon acquired SoSasta, Grouper, Twangoo (11 Jan) and GroupsMore (26 Jan)

Zynga acquired Flock (5 Jan) and Area/Code (21 Jan)

LinkedIn acquired CardMunch (26 Jan)

Salesforce acquired DimDim (6 Jan)

LivingSocial bought a majority stake in Let’s Bonus (13 Jan).

Dell acquired SecureWorks (3 Jan)

Concur acquired TripIt (13 Jan)

I could go on for a while, but by now you see where I’m going with this.

Since October 2010, Microsoft has announced exactly zero acquisitions, joining struggling companies like Myspace and Nokia for that dubious honor ….

Then there’s of course Apple, which has been notoriously non-acquisitive ever since the company was founded back in the seventies.

In fact, for the full year of 2010, Microsoft announced only two acquisitions of small companies, namely Canesta and AVIcode. The contrast with rival Google’s M&A activity (roughly 25 acquisitions in 2010) was particularly staggering.” -Article

It’s how you behave when you strike out

Failing well

“Failure sucks. … I’m not sure I’ve read much about “how” to fail, since failure is so depressing and negative. But I’m here to tell you that there is a good way to fail and that there are steps for positively managing the aftermath. I’ve seen it done well, I’ve seen it done poorly and I’ve done it myself, so I certainly have some well-formed views on the topic.” – Article

“in the VC business, if you hit .300, you are doing well. if you hit .400, you are going to the hall of fame. but it is how you behave when you strike out that defines your reputation.” Comment left on above article. – Source

There is no good debt

“author David Bach shares the following about how he responded when someone asked him about “good debt” versus “bad debt”:

Almost automatically, I started giving her the standard answer about how good debts are generally considered to be debts you incur to buy things that can go up in value—like a home or a college education—while bad debts are things like credit card balances, where you’ve borrowed money to buy things that will depreciate or go down in value, like most consumer goods. But then I stopped in mid-answer and looked at her.

“You know something?” I said. “The truth is that this recession has changed everything. Homes are going down in value and people with college degrees are looking for jobs. Forget what I was just telling you. Forget about the idea of ‘good debt’ and ‘bad debt.’ Th e truth is that when you’re in debt, it doesn’t matter what you’ve borrowed the money for. The only thing that matters is whether or not you can afford to pay it back. And if you can’t, all debt is bad debt.”

He follows this up with what he calls the best investment you can make now:

The best investment you can make over the next five years is going to be paying off your debts. So my advice is to pay off what you owe as fast as you can. The faster you pay off your debt, the faster you will achieve financial freedom.

Welcome to the light side, David. ” – Article

Curious George

The leader’s secret weapon

Peter Drucker famously said, “My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.”

“5 Tips

1. Curious leaders stop having all the answers and start having all the questions. The problem with answers is they don’t teach you anything. In some ways, answers end thinking.
2. Curious leaders reflect healthy confidence. Weak leaders don’t ask question for fear of looking weak. If you want to look strong while asking a question say, “Tell me more.”
3. …

Article

Why I don’t sell Kimchi

“Years ago, I put together a really cool plan to get into the artisinal kimchi business (with a tofu sideline, of course). What, you didn’t know there was an artisinal kimchi business? [See] the first draft of our packaging [above]. …

Why did I stop before I really started? Because distribution can define your business. … Just about every business is limited (and thus valued) by its distribution, by the way it is able to get paid for what it makes. Direct mail is different than a salesforce which is different than retailers… And while the food business attracts tons of enthusiastic people, the distribution challenges are significant.” – Article

A “squirrel cage” of overwork

“Europeans pride themselves on their quality of life—but is the quality of life in Europe any better than in the USA?  … [an] analysis conducted a few years ago considered material well-being, health, political stability, divorce rates, job security, political freedom, and gender equality. It found that the United States ranked 13th. The 12 nations that finished ahead of the USA were all in Europe. Ouch!

Many Europeans would credit their high quality-of-life to their nations’ free health care, generous unemployment benefits, and greater emphasis on leisure as opposed to work. Most European nations mandate restricted workweek hours and a month or more of vacation time. U.S. workers have among the fewest vacation days and longest average workweeks in the world. Juliet Schor, a Harvard economist, argues the United States “is the world’s standout workaholic nation” and that U.S. workers are trapped in a “squirrel cage” of overwork. Some argue that mandated leisure time would force companies to compete within their industry by raising productivity and product quality, rather than by requiring workers to put in more hours.” – Article

More spending, oops! Investments

Source

By TC North   Article   

Nine unusual high-performance traits

“1. Willingness to fail. People are willing to fail in order to learn and succeed, and this is encouraged throughout the organization.  …

2. Motivation driven by excitement, not fear. Both individual and team motivation is driven by excitement versus fear. When you’re in fear, you play not to lose.  …

3. Obsessive focus. Leaders are obsessively focused on two things: 1) creating a high-performance culture and 2) being known for one product, service or something that differentiates the company in its market. …

4. Respect. For all team members to be inspired by their leaders and align with the vision and strategies, leaders must be respected. They don’t necessarily have to be respected for every part of their life, but they must at least be respected for their brilliance in vision and strategy. Leaders who are also highly respected for their values and ethics can create an even stronger, values-driven, high-performance culture – the ideal culture.

5. Alignment. To create alignment, people must believe in the vision and in one another. In aligned organizations, trust is extremely high in all interactions, and cover-your-butt, protect-your-turf and “siloing” activities are virtually nonexistent.  …

7. Shared values. Values are shared among all team members and drive all interactions.  …

8. No whining, complaining or excuses. There’s little to no whining, complaining or excuses. People take full responsibility for deadlines as well as their goals and mistakes. This may be the greatest differentiator of all high-performance characteristics! …

9. Meet or exceed. If you implement the above psychological characteristics of high-performance organizations and teams, you’re likely to meet or exceed your critical goals. This is the ultimate measure of becoming a high-performing organization or workplace – you regularly meet or exceed what you commit to accomplish.”

Marketing Babel

“Eager to boost profits and prod shoppers to upgrade, television manufacturers last year offered an alphabet soup of new technologies and TV features. Panasonic (PC), Sony (SNE), and other makers plugged big screens that required glasses to see movies in 3D, though there was scant content available in the format. Later in the year, Sony hyped sets using software from Google (GOOG), forcing shoppers to figure out how Google TV might differ from other Web-connected sets—including other Sony models. By the holiday season, techie jargon like LCD, LED, Wi-Fi-capable, widget-equipped, and Internet-ready became a marketing Babel used to convince consumers they needed to buy new models—often at price premiums of up to 50 percent.

Unfortunately for electronics retailers like Best Buy (BBY), that’s resulted in aisles still stacked high with unsold flat-screens after one of the worst TV sales years in a decade. The plethora of choices—and marketing pitches—simply overwhelmed consumers ….” – Article

Kill the baby boy goats

‘So farmers that provide goat milk to the cheese industry kill the boy baby goats. You can get angry at the farmers if you want, but what can they do? They could raise the prices of goat milk, but someone would undersell them. And people who are great at raising goats can’t switch their farm over to something else. They don’t know how and they don’t have enough money for a capital investment.

We have seen this business problem before. We see it in corporate life all the time. It’s much easier to make money without the burden of a moral compass. Until you go to jail. But also, most of us have our own moral compass and we are always trying to balance ethical problems: feeding ourselves and our families and being the good person we envision ourselves to be. Making real world business decisions requires a constant recalibration of the right and wrong of our own perspective against what’s at stake.” – Article

China’s forex reserves show record leap

“China’s foreign exchange reserves jumped by a record $199bn in the last quarter of 2010, taking the total to $2,850bn and underlining the continuing imbalances in the global economy. Already the largest in the world, China’s reserves increased by 18.7 per cent over the course of 2010, including an increase of $194bn in the third quarter. … the continued strong increases in its foreign exchange reserves will bolster the case of critics who are calling for a more rapid appreciation of the renminbi.” – Article

The 1-9-90 principle of communications

“Politicians call them the base. In the sports world, they are known as fans. Most consumer brands refer to them as loyalists. We call them brand activists, and when empowered by social media, they can help build your brand into a sector leader.

The 1 percent of creators convince the 9 percent of activists who in turn persuade the other 90 percent of the people. It’s the 1-9-90 principle of communications, and it’s the inspiration for this blog. We hope you’ll watch the fuller explanation in our introductory video ….” – Watch video 2:53 minutes

Dilbert – The trickle down theory

American multinationals forced to move to China?

“… the author, Michael Lind, makes the shocking charge that China gets American companies to build factories there through bribes and intimidation.

“American multinationals are not shutting factories in the U.S. and transferring production to China because of China’s superior innovation culture or superior educational achievements. Nor are low Chinese wages the major factor. For the most part, multinationals are pressured or bribed by the Chinese dictatorship into producing in China. In some cases, U.S. multinationals are told they must produce inside China in order to have access to China’s large and growing consumer market. In other cases, multinationals are bribed to relocate production to China by enormous subsidies from the Chinese government.”

I am familiar with the Chinese offering no taxation zones in coastal cities to attract American companies to move, but I have never heard these kind of charges before. Certainly many of the incentives offered to move plants to that country have the look and sound of bribery, nevertheless, the money advantages do not seem to rise to the definition of bribes. However, the Chinese government’s actions of international threats does give a certain credence to the charges. I will see if I can find out more. James Pilant” – Article

Workplace freedom or disorganization?

“What people from one culture perceive as workplace freedom, those from another may view as simple disorganization. … “The perception of autonomy has very positive effects on workers,” she continues. “However, managers can’t simply export North American methods of granting autonomy anywhere and expect them to work. Even in Canada, approaches to giving workers more autonomy need to be constantly rethought as the country becomes more multicultural. People don’t always react the same way to management initiatives as they did in the past.” …

Autonomy can take many different forms. Organizations may let employees set their own schedules, choose how to do their work or even elect to work from home. No matter how autonomy is defined, when people feel they have latitude the results are impressive. Potential benefits include greater employee commitment, better performance, improved productivity and lower turnover.  “Autonomy is especially likely to lead to better productivity when the work is complex or requires more creativity” …” – Article

Apples to apples, inflation would be close to 10%

“… be aware that there are three reasons why inflation needs to be on your radar screen. First, the official inflation numbers should be taken with a fistful of salt. Over the past 30 years, the federal government has made a lot of changes to the way it calculates inflation. It’s taken place under presidents of both parties. Each change in methodology has come with plausible-sounding justifications. But, as if by magic, each change has had the effect of flattering the numbers. Funny, that.

According to one rogue economist, John Williams at Shadow Government Statistics, if we still calculated inflation the way we did when Jimmy Carter was president, the official inflation figures would look about as bad as they did when … Jimmy Carter was president. According to Mr. Williams’s calculations, if we counted inflation under the old system the official rate wouldn’t be 1.5%. It would be closer to 10%.” – Article

Mexico vs. China

“The Mexican economy is getting a helping hand from unlikely allies: Chinese workers whose rising wages are leading more companies to build factories in Mexico. Meco Corporation, a U.S. maker of folding chairs and barbecue grills, is shifting production from China to Mexico after wages at its Chinese operations more than doubled since 2007. …

For the first time since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001 and became an exporting superpower, Mexico posted a bigger gain in U.S. market share than its Asian rival during the first 11 months of 2010.

Mexico probably ended 2010 with just over 12% of the U.S. import market, its largest share ever. Mexican factory wages are now about 14% higher than those in China, the Mexican finance ministry estimates. In 2002, officials calculate they were 240% higher, canceling out Mexico’s natural advantage of proximity. This advantage has also been highlighted by a rise in shipping fuels to two-year highs, making shipping goods across the Pacific a less attractive option.” - Article

Chicken entrepreneurship

“”Chicken entrepreneurship,” as Michael Masterson puts it in his book Seven Years to Seven Figures, is becoming an increasingly popular, and feasible, way to start your business. “I think there are thousands and thousands of potential chicken entrepreneurs out there in the world, dreaming of quitting their jobs and starting their own businesses, but afraid to do so,” he wrote in a recent article.  Running a part-time business comes with its own set of challenges, so you need to be prepared for the road ahead before launching. Whether you’re just looking to generate some extra cash on the side, or you plan to transition your part-time business into your full-time gig, here are a few tips on how to create a successful part-time business strategy.” – Article

Our get out of jail card?

President Obama is absolutely right to focus on innovation and competitiveness in his State of the Union. The United States’ strength and stability depend on it, and they are both areas in which the government has a vital role to play — as history has shown with every expansionary leap in U.S. history from the railroads to the Internet.

But there is one trap associated with this approach that the president and the country need to beware. It is the widely subscribed to notion … often cited by politicians and op-ed writers … that somehow there is something special, some gene in American DNA, that makes us uniquely capable when it comes to innovation. This idea is offered up like it is our ace-in-the-hole, our economic Get Out of Jail Free Card.  …

Take the most important inventions in history. Naturally many of them actually were created in other hotbeds of innovation that existed long before the United States — whether it is the Chinese invention of gun powder or paper, or the Arabic invention of algebra or the printing press, progress somehow muddled through without the United States. If you take more modern innovations however, it is not exactly as though the United States has dominated when it came to the big ones.” - Article

Why are we here?

“We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don’t know.” – W. H. Auden

Thanks to Prof. Luftig for highlighting this quote

Betting your job, mortgage, and marriage

“Anyone in my position has seen somewhere in the low thousands of pitches. Everything from students to entrepreneurs to corporate intrapreneurs. I was struck by this recently, looking at someone present a chart of the size of their market and the rate at which customers would flock to this young venture’s offerings. When I questioned the numbers, he blustered on with full confidence. …

If you’re sitting across the table from professional investors, they will either know those numbers already or find them out soon after talking with you. If your numbers aren’t right, they will simply not take your calls anymore. No more harm done than that.

But if you’re sitting across the kitchen table, betting your job, mortgage, and marriage on those numbers, that’s a different story altogether—and a better test of whether you’re ready to make the leap.” – Article

Professional Arrogance

“I was warned at an early stage in my career to avoid arrogance.  It was a poison many advised.  I did a decent job of heeding their advice.  But like any human being, I took my share of poison pills.  Some people and organizations were hurt by my arrogance.  Some applauded with a knife ready to pierce my back, while others figured I’d find my way back home.  And yes, my arrogance was fueled by my power and success.

Now that I’ve set the context, I’d like you to consider the following:” – Article