Tag Archives: Experience

How Do You Build Meaningful Social Media Participation? Seven Thought Starters

Situation: A company has built a good online community. Between their site and newsletter, they are contacting tens of thousands of executives weekly. The CEO constantly seeks new ways to encourage active participation in the discussions. What have others done to effectively build regular participation in discussions? How do you build meaningful social media participation?

Advice:

  • Know your audience and focus on topics that engage people. For example, one company does a semi-annual compensation survey. This generates great response when the results are published.
  • Another company has found that they learn more from mistakes than they do from success. People love to talk about business blunders, particularly if the discussions include well-intentioned humor.
  • Reach out to individuals with interesting backgrounds, experience and situations. Encourage them to post, or feature them in a discussion.
  • Another company sends out weekly emails with titles and synopses of articles posted in the last week. This enables newsletter recipients to quickly scan topics and click on those of interest.
  • A common challenge is filtering posts which are trivial, self-promoting and lack relevance to the focus of the site.
  • The bottom line is that there is no magic bullet. Social networking sites are rapidly evolving so it is important to continually seek creative additions. This takes time, work and investment.
  • Consider your own experience. What has drawn you to a social networking site? What have this site done to effectively build regular participation in meaningful discussions?

Thanks to Ken Ross of ExpertCEO, Inc. for his contribution to this article.

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What are Best Methods to Develop Your Staff? Three Thoughts

Situation:  A CEO wants to build her team, identify leaders within the company, and develop managers. How have others done this? What are best methods to develop your staff?

Advice of the CEOs:

  • A valuable resource is “First Break All the Rules” by Marcus Buckingham. Among Buckingham’s findings are that great leaders are different from great managers. Good leaders are outgoing and goal-oriented whereas good managers are people-oriented. Expecting good leaders to be good managers and vice versa is not effective. Only the exceptional individual exhibits both sets of talents. The traditional business structure assumes that talented people will want to “move up” the organizational chart. The reality is that some people are very good at a particular level of responsibility, and are happiest with this responsibility.
  • How do to enhance your team’s leadership and management capabilities? Evaluate your team for candidates who possess the qualities of leadership or management. Tailor your training to enhance the natural strengths of your candidates. Draft agreed upon written responsibilities and performance objectives with each of your candidates. Regularly follow up and provide feedback. Establish trial projects for new candidates that will allow them to experience additional responsibility, and allow you to see how well they perform. Make small steps at first. If the individual demonstrates talent, make successive steps more challenging.
  • Look at your organizational chart. Does it provide room for both leaders and managers? Does it provide room for the skilled role player who thrives in a particular role? If not, how will you fix it?

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How Do You Effectively Manage Your To-Do List? Five Recommendations

Situation: A company recently downsized. The CEO and sales staff are overburdened by administrative and business development tasks. What’s the best way to bring to add resources to support sales and infrastructure? How do you effectively manage your to-do list?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Look at what hats you and others are wearing. Wear the hats that fit best and take off the others. If an activity is not core to company success, off-load it. For example: look at your bookkeeping, shipping and receiving, records and basic correspondence. These are necessary, but don’t generate revenue.
  • If your core businesses are sales and service, is one more profitable than the other? Can you outsource pieces of the less profitable activity short-term?
  • Where do you want to be personally in the next two years? On what roles do you want to focus? Build a plan to transition yourself into these roles. The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber is a quick read that outlines the process.
  • You may not need to bring in a high level operations manager. Consider hiring an office manager to help organize both you and your business development staff. For a smaller operation, this person can take care of phones, bookkeeping, shipping and receiving and routine correspondence. This will allow executive staff and sales to focus on growing and servicing customer demand.
  • During the summer months hire high school or college summer interns. They provide an inexpensive source of labor, high levels of energy and creativity, and are eager for work experience. Some of these individuals may become future employees.

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How do you Boost Value in a Commodity Market? Five Suggestions

Situation:  As a result of the technology revolution, products in established markets have become commoditized. For example, advances in medical technology has driven down price while increasing incidence and prevalence of diabetes has driven up demand. How do you boost value in a commodity market?

Advice:

  • Taking a broader view of the market is critical. Analyze the entire customer experience, not just your segment of the market. Assess markets and industries surrounding your primary offering and look for un-served opportunities and gaps. Where you find opportunity, elevate your offering to the next level by integrating your product as component. Create a compelling advantage but avoid unnecessary adaptation of your existing product or service. Can your technology become part of a broader service offering, or even part of a personalized solution? Are there opportunities to move higher up in the value chain?
  • Begin your transformation at the first signs of commoditization. Being first brings a huge advantage.
  • Once you identify an unmet need, consider working with related industry groups to create new standards addressing these gaps. Implementing the resulting standards will give you a new competitive advantage against your competitors.
  • Find other applications for your product or service. Consider new applications for the components used in your current offering. Find new customers outside of your historic customer base. Consider alliances with other companies experienced with the new opportunities you find.
  • Within your own organization begin a process that routinely analyzes the customer experience and general needs beyond your current offering. Working with an outside consultant can help by adding a new perspective.

Thanks to Dirk Boecker for his contribution to this discussion.

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How Do You Focus Company Competency to Support Growth? Eight Thoughts

Situation: Both in the case of a start-up, and when an existing company adds a new business unit, one of the biggest challenges is supporting rapid expansion during market launch. Talent necessary during the product completion phase may not be sufficient to support this growth. How do you focus company competency to support growth?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Bring in “been there, done that” expertise to support the current team. You want to add individuals who have experienced both success and failure in similar markets, and in both larger and similar sized companies. Hire people who can be transformational, not someone who can simply occupy a box.  Give them a chance to do more, add to their toolbox and they will in turn help the company achieve its goals.
  • A wide range of past experience with multiple employers is now seen as a benefit, whereas in the past it may have been a liability. It brings more knowledge and experience to the company.
  • Among people with highly diverse resumes, how do you tell performers from non-performers? Focus on what they did to transform their past company. Did they build alliances, make change happen or improve the organization during their incumbency? Look at how they did it.  Chances are this is a very leverageable skill. Look for doers – people who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves will make the biggest impact in the organization.
  • Look for people who possess “strategic humility.” Individuals who aren’t afraid of mistakes and foster an environment where the boundaries are continuously pushed. The enemy of ‘good’ is ‘perfect’. The best companies consistently make ‘good’ decisions.  If someone makes a mistake, allow them to own up to it, learn from it and move on.
  • Look for the ability to assess, develop, plan and mobilize resources to execute the plan.
  • Use LinkedIn to identify people with whom an applicant worked in previous jobs to conduct independent reference checks. People don’t provide individuals who will give them a poor reference as their references.
  • Also use LinkedIn to identify candidates for open positions.
  • By adding resources with these traits to your team, you will markedly improve the likelihood of your company’s success.

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How Do You Find A-Players? Six Strategies

Situation: An early stage company will be staffing-up over the next year. In the past the CEO has recruited individuals with big company experience and solid resumes, only to find that they had difficulty transitioning to the hands-on responsibility of a small company. How do you find candidates who are highly experienced but who can also excel in a small company environment? How do you find A-players?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The best candidates are not in the job-search pool. They are currently working but open to a change with new challenges. Some will wish to return to a more hands-on situation.
  • Let people know that you are looking for “the best” and have a great opportunity. Create some buzz. Go to your network and ask, “who do you know?” Don’t be shy!
  • Look for achievers – individuals with proven performance in companies of the size that you plan to be in 12-18 months and who are interested in the excitement of building that company. Check their references carefully.
  • What can the company do now, while seeking the right people? Use contractors and consultants. These people are more entrepreneurial, self-starting, and self-accountable. Monitor their work. If they are good, add them to your team as permanent employees.
  • Develop a milestone-based personnel plan as part of your business plan. For example when we hit Milestone A, we will need an operations manager. When we hit Milestone B, we will need channel or market development expertise.
  • Conduct case studies of how other companies in your or similar spaces have facilitated their scale-ups. What worked? What didn’t? Why?

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How Do You Expand Business Internationally? Five Suggestions

Situation: The President of a company wants to expand its business in Europe, but has limited resources, particularly in terms of personnel. What have others learned from their international business opportunities? What has worked and what hasn’t? How do you expand business internationally?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Hire a Business Development person to develop your European business. You want to find an individual who has experience working with international partners as well as their clients.
• Allocate budget not just for the individual hired, but also the travel budget to fund extended trips.
• Plan for time to train existing and interested international partners to sell or service your offering.
• Hire an individual who is at least minimally comfortable with the language or languages of your prospective European partners. While most European business people are fluent in English, they appreciate foreigners who at least make the effort to speak their language.
• Network with local and online resources to identify both potential customers and allies in Europe who can assist you. LinkedIn is international and a good way to search for both customer and partnership opportunities. Check your local Chamber of Commerce for others who are engaged in international business and network with them. Utilize networking organizations such as the Alliance for Corporate Growth which has chapters around the country and internationally. Connect with the International Trade Administration’s U.S. Commercial Service. They specialize in promoting export opportunities for American companies. Partner with a venture capitalist who has European contacts and who may be interested in supporting your efforts.

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How Do You Improve Morale and Performance in a Professional Services Company? Four Observations

Situation: The CEO of a professional service company says that his employees have been through a lot of stress over the last few years. He wants to improve company morale to boost performance and is interested in how others have done this. How do you improve morale and performance in a professional services company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Manage Morale and Employee Feedback – In times of economic change and adjustment, it is important to have a good handle on what employees are thinking about their jobs and the company as a whole. The use of anonymous surveys administered via computer or a neutral 3rd party generally yields more objective and honest feedback than 1-on-1s with the CEO. They offer employees an opportunity to anonymously share their concerns, and to offer constructive feedback on how to boost company performance.
  • NOW is the time to act – whether the economy is positioned for a rebound or another dip. Employees have dealt with a lot over the last few years and may be starting to look at opportunities outside the company. Therefore, it is important, right now, to put programs in place to:
    • Retain high performing employees, and
    • Communicate to employees what the company is doing to position itself for growth so that they see a bright future for both the company and themselves as employees within the company.
  • Professional services are people-to-people businesses. Focus on relationship building to increase market presence. Recognize and reward employees for their efforts to build new relationships with clients. Use these as examples to inspire other employees.
  • Many more women have entered and become an important component of the workforce. Conduct group meetings to compare the experiences of male and female sales people in relationship selling situations. These will differ between purchase decision makers in different markets and situations where one gender vs. the other predominates. Sharing experiences offers the potential to learn from and to support each other as well as to improve performance. Ask employees how these meetings should be conducted and whether they prefer same or mixed gender meetings.

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How Well Do You Know Your Target Audience? Five Points

Situation: A CEO and her team manage a growing and profitable company. She is interested in what others have done to expand their market presence and penetration. In discussion, other CEOs have been curious about her company’s marketing capabilities, and how well her team knows their customer base. The essential question that they ask is “How well do you know your target audience?”

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Become a thought leader:
    • This is Inexpensive because the company is already a leader in its field.
    • Marketing through thought leadership allows the company to get its message out with fewer resources than push marketing efforts.
    • Thought leadership adds credibility and educates the customer.
  • Qualify the need and/or the perception of the need. If there is no need, there is no sale.
    • It’s perfectly acceptable to ask clients about their challenges and needs.
    • Ask them to measure the need on a 1-10 scale.
    • Ask the client to play out the scenario without an adequate solution.
    • Ask the prospect how they have worked with others offering similar services to your company’s and how did that go?
  • Ask your customers to help.
    • Develop a Customer Advisory Board to test a new product or concept – a “Blue Ribbon Panel”.
    • Write a paper together with them to highlight the findings.
  • Use common sense, but:
    • Set measurable goals and listen to enough people to get more directed feedback.
  • The company’s internal staff is also a target audience.
    • Integrate departmental cultures to assure that they don’t clash.
    • Conduct collaborative off-sites to encourage cooperation and support.
    • Create processes for all departments and staff.

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How Do You Reduce Risk When Outsourcing? Three Points

Situation: A CEO is looking at an outsourcing opportunity in Asia. If a suitable partner is found, this will be the company’s first experience with outsourcing. What is the experience of others who have outsourced either parts or assemblies to a foreign supplier? How do you reduce risk when outsourcing?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Outsourcing to a foreign supplier is not low risk.
    • Find another CEO who has experience in outsourcing.
    • Consider hiring a consultant who specializes in foreign outsourcing.
    • Once a promising opportunity has been identified, select and put in place a trusted individual on-site who can stay abreast of developments and issues and who can alert the company on both potential opportunities and problems.
  • Execute key initiatives by treating this opportunity like a customer’s project.
    • Prioritize.
    • Set project time in percentages or dollars.
    • Allocate an appropriate budget.
    • Institute an appropriate job/project tracking system for outsourced projects.
    • Hold people just as accountable as if this were a project for a customer.
    • The internal “customer” should be just as demanding as an actual customer.
  • Reduce the risk in staffing.
    • Identify requirements.
    • Agree on expectations, then delegate and trust.
    • Two way communication is critical.

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