Posts Tagged ‘Business’
In The Cross Hairs – The Middleman
Never before has the been a time in business where a threat so strong has immobilized business owners and their management teams. Ignorance has never been a place to hide behind, not paying attention doesn’t work either. The reason nothing is happening, CEO’s are protecting their bonuses, middle managers are fighting to keep what they believe is entitled to them. This movement, this new second industrial age has been known and talked about for many years, here, and in the board rooms. But very little movement to accept or adopt keeps fear as the motivator to do nothing, to do what has always been done.
Some 25 years ago, the Internet was born, it opened the door to a brave new world, a world that brought even more confusion on top of what we already have, the pile got bigger. The pile (fear) is bigger, it’s enormous, because we chose to be spectators, we were convinced we didn’t know what to do, so we did nothing. I’m speaking to the masses in big business, those who adopted, who chose to act on what they could see, they are down the road, enjoying the fruits of their labors.
The Internet, for all intents and purposes, has removed the need for the middleman, the Internet put customer and product together without the need to be sold by that so-called person in the middle. Our BS protectors work better than ever in this new industrial age, this new or second industrial age. If we are going to act like the Industrial age of the last 150 years, we might as well name this new revolution the 2nd Industrial Age, it might ease the pain of big business. But make no mistake, the middleman is in the cross hairs, there is very little need for them, unless they can reinvent themselves to take part in a new role.
If you’re that person, the middle man / woman, find a way to get of the way, stay out of the cross hairs. If you choose to do nothing, your world will come crashing down around you. It doesn’t have to, because you have the same opportunity to go build something great, you have the tools, the brain power, and you need very few resources, what are you waiting for, now go!
The Social Currency
How many times have you said, someone once said, but I can’t remember who. Then it becomes, as I’ve always said….once you claim it to be yours, the thing that someone once said, became research. The truth is, we should always give credit to whomever said the thing you decided to rip and make your own, integrity then becomes the word damaged if you don’t.
If you plan on building a brand, a business, or a reputation, you will need the sacred social currency, trust. Without trust, you’ll find it almost impossible to acquire true fans, which means the tribe won’t follow you. So always name the person, give the credit to its rightful owner, if it’s you, then you can say, as I’ve always said, and I’ll have to say, as someone once said if I don’t know who you are. Become known, share your wisdom, and protect yourself from being the someone who once said.
The social currency is trust, but you’ll only get it through transparency and giving credit to those who deserve it, the fastest way to lose it, keep taking credit for something you didn’t say or do.
Future Of Business – What Kind Of Business
Considering all that is changing, how business is changing, how global and yet how locally our businesses must be, does your business line up with that future? Is your business social, or is it traditional? Does your business advertise on the Internet as part of its marketing mix, or do you stick with traditional modes of advertising. There are many questions to ponder when starting a new venture, but the main questions is, what kind of business, what structure, what type, and will it meet the needs of the economy.
The new economy is a connection economy, how does your business connect consumers, how do you connect to other businesses. Just using social networks is not connecting, depending on how you use them, most use them as another channel to yell, flood, to do what you’ve always done. You use them with a traditional mindset, it’s not connecting, it’s telling.
The traditional way, meant you had to have ads in the yellow pages, maybe you ran radio commercials, and you mostly used Newspaper. You never had to consider the Internet as part of your mix, and most still don’t have a clear understanding of how it works, and how to you use it for business. Today you have to think about where to best spend your time & money, adding the Internet as another way of enticing consumers to your business, to buy. But consumers act differently online, or do they?
More than ever , there is much to consider, it’s not black & white as it was back 30 years ago. The Internet is 25 years old, and brings with it challenges, and incredible opportunity. Asking yourself if you’re on LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus is the new normal today, knowing what to do on them, and how to leverage them, is not normal, not like Radio, TV, and Newspaper. But you’re already figuring that out aren’t you.
Business is getting much more complicated, it’s causing you to rethink what kind of business. Traditional or The Connected. And what does a connected business model look like, it’s the Open & Free Business Model. And that you can learn here on owengreaves.com.
More Than One Way
The Internet is cluttered with programs and ads claiming their way to build a brand, is the right way to build a brand. I’m here to tell you, there’s more than one way. Many claim their system is the right way, the best way, the way that works. One of those might be true, but let’s get real, there are so many options to build a brand, so many tools, and marketing companies to use, so many ways, one person could never try them all.
Personally, it comes down to a couple of things, and its old school. Be persistent, and never quit.
If you stick with your strategy, your plan, and you always deliver, or ship. You will eventually have built a brand, you don’t need to buy every program that claims it’s the best way to build your brand, or claims to be the easiest. You can, but it still boils down to hard work, and being there everyday, showing up, shipping, delivering, it works, and is the truest way to know you did something. If you blogged everyday for a year, you eventually would have built a brand, because you shared, you were maybe helpful, you solved a problem, or maybe, you just informed your reader of something they never heard of, thought of, or new before.
That’s the beauty of building a brand, or sharing your work, you never know who is interested, or even likes what you’re doing. The most important part is, you’re doing it. The world needs you, it needs to hear from you, it wants to hear from you, no matter what your product or service might be. Writing, music, photography, the list is endless, whatever you’re passionate about, and you want the world to know about it, then put out there for the world to consume it.
No matter what you choose, there’s more than one way to build your brand, find the way that fits you best, and yes it will take time and effort, but do that, pay that price.
The Future Of Business – The Resume Part 2
I happen to be married to an HR Manager who disagree’s with my earlier post, she claims that resume’s, traditional resume’s are the only way to hire in certain industries, I disagree of course : ) Her argument is for those who are labor workers, those who drive forklifts, work in warehouses, drive pallet jacks, stock shelves and so on. If you believe resume’s are the only way, then you’re right.
Let’s talk about this traditional way for a moment. I’m going to do a very high-level view here, not much detail, but you’ll get the idea I hope.Let’s use a warehouse job scenario. Someone submits a résumé to your HR office, it goes in a pile for review, you’re holding job fairs (that cost money), you have a staff person give the résumé’s a once over, and those resume’s are short listed. Once you’ve decided who is on the short list, you call them in for an interview. Keep in mind, you know nothing about the candidate, other than what’s on the resume. You then arrange an interview, if the candidate is a good candidate, by whatever measurement you’re using, you go to the next step. Yes or No, are you going to go further with the candidates after the first interview.
Typically, once you’ve decided to offer a person a job, whatever it might be, you do a background check on them, you are now going deeper on your financial commitment. On average, once you’ve decided to hire a full-time employee, it costs your organization around $10,000, and they haven’t worked a minute, you just hired them. And you still know very little about the person you just hired, you still don’t know if they can meet the job description, and or physically do the work. Sure you have 90 days to decide if they are a good fit and will keep them on, but you’ve just spent good money after bad.
I would recommend to the warehouse to set up a website that runs candidates through a serious of questionnaires and tests. This site does low-level training while they are applying, for the purposes of knowing more about a candidate long before they even get an interview. Yes, there is an investment in building the online tools, but it’s a one time investment, you’re not paying or investing large amounts of time and money.
By directing job seekers to your website, you save your HR staff time, and you don’t waste time interviewing poor candidates. Aptitude testing, job related testing, and how to do certain job activities online can tell much more about someone than a piece of paper ever will.
If we are going to change the way we do our work, we must change the way we look and think about the work we do. It’s a paradigm shift, it’s not easy, but if you’re willing, you will be seen as a problem solver that saves time and money.
