Nina Burokas on Better Living Through Brand

It's a Social Media World

In a social media world, rapid response is critical. A couple of recent examples of what works, what doesn’t and how to.

The overall perspective, from Ad:tech's Craig Peters: defensive branding is better titled "Crisis Communications In the Hyperlinked Era of Social Networking."

What works: Aggressively addressing negative brand perceptions – true or false
Example: Senator Hillary Clinton’s Fact Hub: “Cut through the noise and get the facts” (via The New York Times).

The context, from Clinton spokesman Phil Singer: “There’s just been a proliferation of news reporting on the Internet. As such, you’ve got a much faster echo effect when something hits the political zeitgeist, and it’s becoming increasingly urgent to have a mechanism in place that allows you to respond.”

What doesn’t: Going dark.
Example: Whole Foods Market’s Board decision to ban officials from posting messages about Whole Foods, its competitors or vendors on non-company-sponsored Internet forums (via The Wall Street Journal). As discussed during the Evangelism session at the Brand You World Personal Branding Summit, it’s absurd to pull the plug at a time when a company needs it’s greatest fans to speak out on it’s behalf.

How To:
Ad:tech's Defensive Branding 101 Session Summary
Japie Swanepoel’s takeaways from Ad:tech's Defensive Branding session

A closing reality check: from Anita Esterday, one of the waitresses in Clinton’s tipping brouhaha: “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.”

Additional perspective or 411?

Every Video, Mashup, Comment Tells a Story

Three acts in an ongoing play (conversation). Credit to Pete Blackshaw's cgm for the original post, Selective & Arbitrary for a heads up on the riff and odd professor's comment, and BlogPulse for connecting the dots.

Act One: Onslaught ("Dove Self-Esteem")

Act Two: Dove/Axe Mashup (aka Talk to Your Daughter)

Act Three: A Conflicted Response with an interesting close: "which came first, the desire for ['X' (beauty or attraction, however defined)], or marketing creating a hitherto-absent desire for same?"

Walking the Brain

If you share my passion for physical fitness and mental agility (or one of the two), give The New York Times’ Exercise on the Brain article by Welcome to Your Brain (March 2008) co-authors Sandra Aamodt & Sam Wang a read.

The espresso version: Although “environmental enrichment” – computer-based brain exercise programs – has been proven to improve brain performance in laboratory animals, the findings don’t necessarily apply to humans. Also, in terms of the impact on aging, improvement seems to be limited to a specific activity or function, for example, Scrabble or memory.

What has been proven to provide a generalized mental fitness benefit is physical exercise. Exercise improves our “executive function,” a range of abilities that include processing speed, behavior response, focus and working (current) memory. Physical exercise yields three primary brain benefits: (1) reduces age-related shrinkage of the frontal cortex, (2) reduces risk of brain damage due to heart attack or stroke, and (3) stimulates connections between neurons.

Art Credit: Graham Roumieu

A 21st Century Executive Competency

In an age where you are your brand, your online identity plays heavily into the image of you as the perfect candidate. – ExecuNet

According to ExecNet’s “Dealing with Your Digital Dirt 2.5” (via Cindy Kraft’s CFO Coach), reputation management is a 21st Century executive competency. To quote Joe Meissner of Executive Capital Partners, “if you’re supposed to be world-class, I should be able to find something about you online. If I Google you and you’re not there, you’re invisible to the world and that tells me you’re not a player.”

Online Search Statistics:
* 83% of recruiters have used search engines to research candidates (up from 77% in 2006 and 75% in 2005)
* 43% of recruiters have eliminated candidates based on their findings (up from 35% in 2006 and 26% in 2005)

The awareness-action disconnect: although 76% of senior executives expect to be Googled, 22% haven’t done a baseline search on their name. This is particularly odd given a related statistic: 11% of executives fear that their online identity could impact their viability as a job candidate.

Denial is not a reasonable response to changing market dynamics. Especially given that online identity is built – or repaired – over time. Proactively managing your digital brand is a critical action item, regardless of rank, technical expertise or search status.

Gaming the Loser's Game

Directed to those charged with driving growth through innovation, The Economist’s "A Dark Art No More" article highlights emerging thought on innovation as a management practice. Like economics, innovation has traditionally been more art than science. The essential elusiveness of the concept is expressed by one senior executive who argues that it can’t be defined precisely, but “like pornography, I know it when I see it.”  Author (Jamming: The Art & Discipline of Business Creativity) John Kao’s jazz analogy is more useful: “there is no fixed score in any given improvisation, but that does not mean there are no underlying principles either.”

Opinions on the underlying principles - that is, how to nurture innovation - are predictably divergent, with P&G and GE pursuing an analytical approach and Google and IDEO endorsing a more fluid approach. To quote P&G Chairman, President & CEO A.G. Lafley: “It is possible to measure the yield of each process, the quality and the end product.” The counter, from IDEO President & CEO Tim Brown: “A lot of innovation is anti-Six Sigma. You want a lot of variance.”

Although both creativity and execution are essential ingredients, the focus is increasingly on the idea filtering process, or “fast failing.” To quote Insead’s Ron Adner, “Innovation is a loser’s game.” Given the pace of global innovation, failing fast and learning from those failures are critical competencies. Toyota’s Advanced Technology National Manager Bill Reinert captures the required mindset: “We are convinced that we are entering a disruptive future, and we want to be ready for it.”

A Dark Art No More is one of the articles in The Economist's October 13th Special Report on Innovation. Special Report content and reprints.

Related reading: IBM’s 2006 Global CEO Study: Expanding the Innovation Horizon
Business Week Get Creative! Special Report (August 2005)

Keeping It Hot - Debra Feldman on Strategic Networking

Strategic Networking Q&A with - & 3 Essential Action Items from - "Job Whiz" Debra Feldman

1. Being a strategic networker requires more than simply adopting a "pay it forward" mindset. What's your networking philosophy?

Debra: Once you establish rapport, keep up the contact periodically on a regular basis, eg. monthly, quarterly, etc. by exchanging some news or information that the recipient will appreciate and remember you by. Depending on how close the connection is as well as an opportunity to send someone or something relevant their way.

2. What’s the most critical mistake experienced networkers make and how can it be avoided?

Debra: Lack of consistent follow up and lack of a direct, clear focused message that unquestionably says that you are a go to resource willing to offer assistance anytime. Position yourself as not only an eager networker, but make sure they understand your prospective value proposition and what you can do for them and others (eg., she knows how to get gatekeepers to make an appointment for her! Or she can spot and fix barriers to getting a new job just like that!)

3. Given the power of weak ties, what process do you use or recommend for building a diverse network?

Debra: Rely on your connections to generate additional introductions, take them up on an offer to connect you with others and definitely follow up on leads offered – it is good business and good manners.Circle back to the originator thanking them and tell them the results of the interaction they initiated for you.

4. What tool or technique have you found most effective in facilitating the ongoing process of adding value to your network?

It don't mean a thing...

…if you ain’t got the swing. The swing, in the case of personal branding, is not "spin" – as the current Business Week Creating Brand You article suggests – but authenticity. As Valeria Maltoni notes in her Baron Hilton vs. Paris Hilton post, building brand value is not about selling the sizzle, it’s about delivering on the brand promise.

Perhaps the Gen X writer was more interested in cultivating her "skeptical, doubting" brand than providing insight. My pick of her "Make 'Em Take Notice" recommendations: mimic a popular brand. Good advice if you aspire to be a #2.

Runner up for bad advice/attitude (though credit for being on-brand): Trump's comment that most people don't have 'it' [what it takes to be a brand]. The reality is that we all have the potential to be unique and compelling brands.

My counter: forget the superficiality and manipulation and show some emotion. For perspective on jazz, business and life, check out Brand Autopsy’s (John Moore) Jazzy Business Quotes | 4 and Presentation Zen's Jazz & the Art of Connecting (Garr Reynolds).

Image credit: Your Guide to Jazz Guitar

Stickiness, Personal Branding & PR

In her Getting to the Moon with Personal Branding post for Fast Company, Wendy Marx connects the dots between Chip & Dan Heath's "stickiness" concept and personal branding. Stickiness = personal branding is a  simplification (perhaps she was suggesting a link to  "self-promotion", one of the tags?). However, once you've determined the essential details (who, what, for whom and why you), the Heath's SUCCESs formula - simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and story - is the essence of crafting a compelling value proposition. Related links: NPR's The Secret Behind Why Ideas Stick (podcast) and the Made to Stick blog.

Living the Brand: It Takes a Village

The ability of an organization to live its brand – that is, to consistently deliver on its brand promise – is crucial to both business performance and brand value. And yet, the operating reality tends to be ignorance or disengagement rather than ownership. For example, a survey by Tom Peters Company (not statistically representative but true to my 20+ years of business experience) found that 51% of employees don’t understand the concept of a brand. Of the 25% that do understand their firm’s brand promise, only 9% actually live the brand. Recent word-of-mouth examples of disconnects between an organization’s brand promise and the brand experience include the W Hotel – Form over Function? thread on BlogHer and a Tom Peters disappointment voiced by fellow personal brand strategist Paul Copcutt. Will there be cases when a brand fails to deliver on its promise? Absolutely. Failure is inherent in the innovation/evolution process. However, a failure to learn and take appropriate action is not.

Although product knowledge and messaging are key (see Krishna De's Talent Magnet podcast for three tips on building your employer brand), I would suggest the task at hand is more fundamental. In terms of the brand engagement statistics cited, the critical action item is commitment to and alignment of values and purpose at both the individual and organizational level. For perspective, see Heartlines' initiative to move from expressed to lived values in South Africa.

William Arruda's riff on the African proverb is apt: "It takes a village to build a brand."

Network Advantage: Women

Women are naturals when it comes to building relational capital, although less effective in leveraging it. For perspective on this dynamic, check out the results of ExecuNet’s Executive Job Market Intelligence Report (executive summary free with registration; via Wendy Terwelp at Rock Your Career).

In brief, women rated their networks higher than men in categories of quality, relationship strength and reciprocity. The key factor: 2/3rds more women than men stated that they actively work on building their professional relationships. Good news? Yes, but the situation is similar to the technology adoption upside noted by Lena West in her Women & Technology Battlecry post on Lip-Sticking. In this case, only 10-15% of women rated their networks as "excellent". The majority of women (and men) rated their networks as "good". Women's highest ratings are in the "relationship strength" category, where "excellent" and "very good" total to 47%, or the same as the "good" category.

Despite a network advantage relative to men, women are still less visible in the corporate C-suite. My opinion is this is largely due to socialization (what and how we communicate as women) differences – a failure to effectively differentiate, focus and promote that translates into a lack of visibility and credibility. That is, women are often not even under consideration for key projects or promotions. Cited in a study on The Gender Equity Gap in Top Corporate Executive Positions, Towers Perrin's Manager of Executive Compensation Research and Development Pamelia Todd states: "There's a problem with women becoming highly paid. But the problem is getting the high-level job in the first place, not getting paid fairly once you get there." The study's authors, Joanne Burress & Linda Zucca, concur: "the significant differences between male and female executives (after controlling for job title, company size, and industry membership) are human capital differences such as age and years of service in their job positions rather than compensation."

Self-Branding & Promotion...the conversation continues

It's impossible to adequately address two complex subjects -  branding and promotion - in the space of an hour and 15 minutes, so the conversation continues online...[BTW, is anyone doing a "What I learned at BlogHer07 wiki?].

I answered the outstanding question regarding a “step-by-step” guide to self-branding in the comments to  Barbara Rozgonyi's transcript of our Self-Branding & Promotion session [her Wired PR Works July archive provides excellent coverage of a number of the sessions]. If you didn't get one of Steph's handouts, it's posted on NextSTEPH (for you twitterers, she was  looking at the BLogHer07 photostream on Flickr when I pulled the link). 

For bloggers putting together an engagement (aka promotion) action plan, Elise Bauer's series of posts leading up to BlogHer06 is essential reading (via BlogHer Community Manager and mommy blogger Denise):

How to Build Blog Traffic - Intro
2-4: Content
3-4: Community
4-4: How to Build Blog Traffic

Additional presentations and perspective on the topic, including a compilation of Elise and Vanesssa Fox's BlogHer07 Technical Tools to Build Traffic session, is at Elise's BlogHer portal.

On brand? Blog on!

Women's Networks that Work

Business Week’s article What Works in Women’s Networks is a must-read for anyone with a human resource, innovation or revenue mandate. The authors’ statement - that corporate women’s networks “rarely provide the skills or exposure that women need to rise in the ranks” - often applies to association and regional events, as well.

What’s at stake? Women represent the fastest growing segment of the labor market and are, potentially, the dominant economic and political force. A few U.S. statistics (1):
* Women account for over half of the gross domestic product
* Women make up over 50% of undergraduates, earn 50% of the bachelor's and master's degrees and over 40% of the doctoral degrees
* Women make up 50% of the workforce
* Women represent the majority of voters

In order to achieve their potential, women’s organizations and events must serve as more than social gatherings or PR - they must be designed, financed and managed as critical business initiatives.

Three practices that work:

1. Get customers in the act.
Case in point: GE Women’s Network
Key success factor: Using the network as a regional connection hub for key stakeholders

2. Tackle real business problems.
Case in point: Best Buy’s WOLF
Key success factor: Tapping the network to address core business issues such as women-centric innovation and the retention of women employees

3. Bridge the gender divide.
Case in point: Deloitte’s WIN
Key success factor: Provide a benefit to both women and men; for example, using "Women as Buyers" study results to improve internal communications and sales effectiveness

1 - Sources: Catalyst Research and Lusk-Moore & Associates

Google Goes to Harvard

The first interactive Harvard Business Review case study is - a sign of the times - "We Googled You" (via fellow Reach strategist Miguel Coelho).  The fictional case:

Hathaway Jones CEO has found a promising candidate to open the company's flagship store in Shanghai. Should a revelation on the Internet disqualify her now?

What's on page 9 of your Google results?

Technology Adoption Upside

The good news is that more than 70% of the women business owners surveyed in a recent study (1) leverage technology to achieve profit, innovation, quality and efficiency goals. Indeed, the study found that women business owners are as likely as men business owners and more likely than women in general to be willing to adopt new technology (Center for Women’s Business Research; via Lena West, guest blogging at Lipsticking).

However, in her Women & Technology Battlecry post, Lena highlights the upside potential: only 24% of women business owners consider themselves advanced or leading edge technology adopters. The remaining respondents fell into one of the following categories:
    51% : “average” rate of technology adoption
    15% : technology adoption laggards
    10% : trailing the adoption curve

The key takeaway, as West notes, is the opportunity for 76% of women business owners to improve their business performance through better use of technology. Her challenge: let’s step up our collective game.

What’s the action item?
Join Lena and women business owners for a discussion of how to leverage technology to improve your visibility, credibility, impact and revenue potential.

What: Women & Technology Brass Tacks Roundtable Discussion
When: Wednesday, July 11th, from 4:00-5:30P Pacific
Dial-In Information: + 1 218 486 1300
Bridge Number: 405772

1 - Solutions and Sophistication: Comparing Women and Men Business Owners' Use of Technology was conducted by the Center for Women's Business Research and commissioned by IBM.

On Courage

Demonstrating courage and a tolerance for risk is critical in all aspects of our lives. Given the pace and complexity of our world, we need the courage to make decisions with limited information, the courage to envision possibilities, and the courage to honor our values and culture while embracing change and new ideas. To quote Anais Nin: “Our lives expand or recede based on our ability to be courageous” (via Cindy Solomon, Creating Courage).

One of the statistics Cindy cited was particularly compelling: 86% of people surveyed who were 65 or older or terminally ill indicated that they wished they had shown greater courage in their life.

I’ve been wrestling with the concept of courage for a few weeks. My friend Jenny’s mother died of cancer recently. Jen was with her mother when she died. The edited version is that her mother fought to the end. This was a woman who was 5’7” and weighed less than 75 pounds. She was physically incapacitated, her quality of life was virtually nil, and yet she kept fighting.

The question I would pose is what are you willing to fight for? All of us are in a far better position to achieve our objectives than Jen's mother was, and yet we sometimes simply abandon our dreams without a whimper, much less a battle. What haunted me about this situation is that there were a couple of goals on my 2007 list that I had summarily decided were unrealistic. I have since reversed that decision.

A follow-up question: are you fighting for what’s important to you? In the February issue of the Harvard Business Review, there’s a case study that involves a female executive who is struggling with classic parent/promotion issues. Although she’s effective in her current role, she exhibits a disturbing lack of initiative in reconciling her conflicting priorities. One of the commentators lays it on the line: “she isn’t displaying the most important qualities needed in a senior manager: decisiveness, a knack for proactively identifying and solving problems, an ability to prioritize, and courage.”

Courage is not inherited. It is not something that is awarded or bestowed. It is, to quote Ruth Gordon, “like a muscle…strengthened by use.”

Art credit: Julie Paschkis, Courage. Limited edition prints available at www.artforallofus.com. Paintings are available at Grover Thurston Gallery. Books are available at www.allforkidsbooks.com or amazon.com.

The Passion Principle

“Making success last takes a level of tenacity and passion only love can sustain.”
- Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery & Mark Thompson, Success Built to Last

Passion is the new differentiator. To excerpt from Success Built to Last: “if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’ll lose to someone who does.” Larry Bossidy, author (et.al.) of Execution and Confronting Reality, calls love “a competitive imperative”. According to (retired) Brigadier General Clara Adams-Ender, “you can survive without loving it, but you will be second-rate…not knowing why you’re there will take your power away.”

Get your (or give a) dose of passion and perspective at a 35% discount: WITI/Wharton School Publishing joint initiative.

Related links:
Knowledge@Wharton: SBTL Co-Authors Mark Thompson & Stewart Emery on How Successful People Remain Successful (4/06); Excerpts from Lasting Leadership: Lessons from the 25 Most Influential Business People of Our Times (10/04).

800-CEO-Read Interview with Larry Bossidy (10/04)

Art credits: Big Headed Girl, by Tom DePue, Nancy Dick, Mark Kregal and Artist in Residence Wendy Minor; Passion Works Studio. PBS Documentary on PassionWorks: A Story of Flying available on DVD or check your local listings.

It's Showtime!

There's something about the energy of a standing room only crowd that gets you on your game. A good thing, that! There's a significant difference between a 5 minute Toastmasters speech to an audience of 25 and an hour presentation at a conference of hundreds (ok, our pull was probably only 100). In addition to the group dynamics at the recent Women and Technology Summit, it was a recent article in The Toastmaster that helped me manage that transition. Ed Brodow's article Acting Techniques for Speakers provides 10 acting tips that are highly relevant to not only speakers, but communicators in general. Key takeaways:

• Improvise - Know your material well enough to let go and be spontaneous.
• Make it personal - The key to storytelling isn't the words, but the experience; capture and convey the emotional impact.
• Passion - Be a passionate advocate for your point of view.
• Develop Your Style - "You need to be yourself but slightly 'larger than life.'" - Patricia Fripp
• Manage First Impressions - "Match the audience's energy and come out a little higher." - Marianna Nunes

Any seasoned speakers willing to provide input/expertise?

Personal Branding Do's & Dont's

It's a case of best laid plans. I had submitted my "Personal Branding Do's & Don'ts" as an article for publication in the Fall issue of WITI's (Women In Technology International) Savvy magazine. The idea was to compliment my presentation with Brandego's Kirsten Dixson on Digital Branding, but it was my prior submission on podcasting (.pdf download at the end of post) that went to print.

An excerpt - just the "Do's & Don'ts - was posted to Branding Personal as Using Personal Branding to Control Your Destiny. Here, with/for context, is the full text. I welcome your input/comments - either here or at Branding Personal. /nb

The technology industry has always been volatile. At a bon voyage party marking Marconi’s exit from the North American market (our layoff en masse), one of the engineers wore a tiered headdress of 7 baseball caps representing his prior employers. Given the hyper-competitive nature of a global economy, no sector or position is sacred. The only way to control your destiny is to create it.

In order to assume responsibility for your future, you have to have a vision and a plan to achieve that vision. It sounds obvious, but the fact is that a number of women are simply going with the flow. For example, in the Summer Issue of Professional Woman’s Magazine, veteran newscaster Connie Chung’s response to a question regarding her future goals was “I really don’t know what my future goals are.” And she’s not alone. At WITI’s Las Vegas conference in July, Cummins VP and CIO Gail Farnsley admitted to having no plan for her career. However, she cautioned that was no longer a realistic approach. Relying on the kindness of strangers or the luck of the draw is not a viable business model. If your goal is to maximize your impact and achieve your potential, you must take individual responsibility. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a solopreneur or a corporate professional or executive, building a brand should be the foundation of your business or career plan. For perspective on personal branding, consider the following Do’s and Don’ts.

Do’s

• Build a solid foundation for your brand that incorporates your vision, values and passions.
• Validate your brand attributes by obtaining anonymous feedback from clients, partners, colleagues, friends and family. Update on an annual basis.
• Articulate your unique promise of value in terms that are relevant and compelling to your target audience.
• Compile a composite profile of your target audience.
• Build a communications plan that incorporates all of the above elements.
• Live your brand.

Don’ts

• Try to be everything to everyone.
• Assume social networking sites are anonymous or that any digital communication will remain private.
• Assume impromptu remarks or off the record comments will remain off the record.
• Assume your work speaks for itself or that management will deliver on future commitments.
• Undermine your brand with poor execution or conflicting or inconsistent messaging.
• Loose control of your brand.

Download podcasting_make_mine_to_go.pdf

Open Source Mentality

Interested in what 765 CEOs from 20 industries and 11 geographic regions have to say on the topic of innovation? With the publication of it's Global CEO Study, IBM continues to raise the collaboration bar and generate significant differentiation and thought leadership value. Bravo!

Is collaboration in your DNA? Take IBM's innovation assessment for perspective and insight.

Technology-Evolution Gap

For all its glitz and swagger, technology, and the whole interactive revved-up economy that goes with it, is merely an outer casing for our inner selves. And these inner selves, these primate souls of ours with their ancient social ways, change slowly. Or not at all.

-W. Brian Arthur, from How Fast is Technology Evolving?" via How Women Can Beat Terrorism

On Sustainability

My recent travels sensitized me to the implications of terrorism on my vision to drive exceptional, sustainabile business results on a global scale. Terrorism is not only a political, military and social issue, it is a critical business constraint. In order to achieve the commercial potential of a flat world, we must address the issue of sustainable development. As Curt Weeden notes in the Prologue to his book How Women Can Beat Terrorism, dealing effectively with terrorism requires that we address the conditions that foster and encourage terrorism; namely, poverty and hopelessness.

To quote South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, "A global human society based on poverty for many and prosperity for a few, characterized by islands of wealth, surrounded by a sea of poverty, is unsustainable."

What's Your Point of View?

Dashing through London’s Heathrow airport recently, I was exposed to HSBC’s Point of View campaign. Their saturation of the space is over the top, but the ads resonated with me. Two points in particular are absolutely spot-on: the potential in different points of view and the imperative of a global perspective, executed locally (“the world’s local bank”). Inspired concept and execution.

Always On versus Flow

The reality of globalization is that we live in an “always on” world – especially online. However, from an individual perspective, that standard is neither practical nor desirable. If you’re suffering from information overload, an addiction to your BlackBerry, Treo or other communications device or general organizational paralysis, I recommend Inbox Zero, Merlin Mann’s series on personal productivity. His tips are spot-on, his humor refreshing and my empty Inbox (one month and counting) is proof that you can break out of an “always on” mentality and get back into the flow.

Here’s the essence of what worked for me:

1. Set up an In Process folder with three subfolders, Archive, Follow-Up (or use the Follow-Up flag) & Priority.
2. Move all Inbox items greater than 60 days old to Archive (set date to delete) and move remaining emails to In Process.
3. Cull the strategic, revenue-impacting emails from In Process and transfer to Priority. Commit to addressing daily or weekly.
4. Unsubscribe from all but essential communications that can’t be RSS’d or otherwise read online.
5. Check email at limited intervals and respond based on priority, not necessarily the senders sense of urgency (or tactical use of “!”).
6. Clear Inbox and Priority daily.

Developing Creative Leverage

No matter which new media emerge and which old media fade away, one factor remains crucial: the power of applied creativity to move the market in your favor.

The premise is deceptively simple: creativity can be a powerful tool for gaining competitive advantage. However, like any big idea, the proof is in the execution. In Juicing the Orange, Fallon Worldwide co-founders Pat Fallon & Fred Seen share their extensive execution experience (both successes and failures) across industries, geographies and media. The authors distill their insight into a 7-step process for making creativity both actionable and accountable:

1. Always start from scratch.
2. Demand a ruthlessly simple definition of the business problem.
3. Discover a proprietary emotion.
4. Focus on the size of the idea, not the size of the budget.
5. Seek out strategic risks.
6. Collaborate or perish.
7. Listen hard to your customers (then listen some more).

An expanded review will appear in the Fall (October) issue of Women In Technology International’s Savvy magazine. Savvy's Editorial team welcomes your input on books and ideas that matter. Send your comments to the Editor: saraf at corp dot witi dot com.

As always, I welcome your comments below. If your thoughts are off-topic, please route them via email.

The Decisiveness Factor

A decision today is often twice as worthy as a decision tomorrow. There is a deep opportunity cost of not deciding.

– Unstuck, Keith Yamashita & Sanda Spataro

For more on diagnosing your stuck and getting unstuck, visit the authors’ web site.

Side Order of Attitude

Occasionally inspired, often profane, Hugh MacLeod’s Gaping Void cartoons are oddly engaging. For those who can relate to his distinctly SWM voice, the “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards” widget is available to add to your web site or blog in either a filtered or unfiltered (“adult language”) version. If you prefer a more selective experience, you can opt for a starkly cool alternative business card or "blog card" featuring one of his cartoons.

From Engagement to Community

ARF’s position on engagement was the most refreshing take-away from the ARF AMS Symposium. As expressed by ARF Chief Research Officer Joe Plummer, the imperative is “to move beyond reach and frequency to involvement, building on the theoretical [my edit/opinion] concept of co-creation, and focusing on the relationship between the brand and consumer” (via AdMap editor Roderick White). My take is that the critical challenge for mainstream or “established” media is understanding what it means to be customer-centric. If your perception is that the role of media is simply to deliver an audience for ads, it’s a long way to community.

Related article: Advertising Age: ARF Reveals Working Definition of Engagement

Trash Talkin' the Blogosphere

From the Advertising Research Foundation's Audience Measurement Symposium (ARF AMS), Day 1:

"If bloggers achieve fame, the first thing they do is move out of the blogosphere." - Jeffrey Cole, Director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future

An alternate perspective, from Tom Peters Forward for Naked Conversations: "Biz Blogging...WORKS. It is of...MONUMENTAL IMPORTANCE. (Or can be.)

A point of Cole's we can all agree on: "Convergence is real."

Invention Knowledgebase

Searching for inspiration, perspective or collaborative contacts? Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center has launched MIND (Modern Inventors Documentation), the first database focused exclusively on invention-related documents and collections. Collections span the fields of art, medicine, science and technology. Users can search from over 60 subject categories, including Art & Culture, Business, Computers (including collections from Intel & IBM), Energy, Photography & Film and Writing Technology. For example, there are 22 entries under Women, including Nike’s advertising from 1976-1992. To contribute to the database, contact Alison Oswald at oswalda@si.edu.

Come & Get Your Ohana!

Looking for an effective alternative to an alpha management style? Join Imua Outrigger Canoe Club July 30th for our 11th annual Corporate Challenge. The official state sport of Hawai'i, outrigger canoeing is all about teamwork. Or, as one of our steerswomen puts it, "it's all about the intention". Competitive? Absolutely. But in a inspirational, versus destructive, sense.

One of my fellow paddlers (Thanks, Jess!) sent this write-up of a coach's rally prior to last weekend's race:

The men gathered around Uli. He spoke, “This is a spiritual sport, been going on from year to year for hundreds of years, passed down from generation to generation. You feel it in your blood, this sport cries to your soul. I’ve been paddling for many years, I know. I’m so proud of you guys. When you get tired or lose your concentration – and you will - pray to whatever entity you recognize, ask for the strength to continue. If you want to, pray to me (smacking his heavily Hawaiian-themed tattooed chest several times) I will give you everything I have.”

And all you "Type A" teams out there...think you know how to "keep it hot"? Bring it on! Let's see how well you perform against your ohana-powered competitors.

Uli concluded with “Above all, have fun, cause if it ain’t fun, it’s not worth it.” Bring the family. Bring your friends. Ping me with any event or sponsorship questions. Aloha!

Media Relations Refresh

TEKgroup has published the results of a survey of journalist preferences for accessing news (via Sally Falkow's Website Content Strategy).

In addition to Sally's points, key takeaways include:
-74% of journalists consider information on brands important/very important
-E-mail/Online Newsroom is the preferred method to receive information (99%) or pitched stories (97%)

However, given that:
- 92% of journalists think that access to press releases is important/very important,
- 70% visit a company's online newsroom often/very often, and
- 85% want only news that interests them,
I was surprised that only 18% were inclined (Important/Very Important) to receive news via RSS feed. Any thoughts on that point?

Also seeking input on this odd statistic:
Only 16% of journalists surveyed were comfortable/very comfortable on contact after visiting online news room. Is it a learning curve or a design issue?

Related content: PRSA's updated Tips for an Effective Online Newsroom

The Collaboration/Innovation Dynamic

Sally Falkow captures the essence of digital influence in a recent Website Content Strategy post:

It is all about the conversation.  Learning to listen to the conversation is your first step - then learning how to deliver content in a way that makes you a participant in the conversation.

What I find particularly interesting about the Generation C and Customer-Made trends referenced are the implications from an innovation standpoint. Wouldn't it be exhilarating for collaboration to be the 2006 word of the year?

Be the Change

Heads up: The Smithonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation has issued a call for papers (full details below) on "Inventing America: The Interplay of Technology & Democracy in Shaping American Identity." The deadline for submissions is June 9.

Related thoughts: Extract of Reuters CEO Tom Glocer's speech at day 2 of the We Media conference in London (via BuzzMachine): Contrasting Technorati statistics (5 million new blogs in the last 5 months) and falling participation in elections suggests not that the people are apathetic, but that people feel they are unable to impact the political process. "People seem to feel that they are getting more investment in blogging….than they are by simply going to the polling place." Cut to Jeff Jarvis' net net: "Is citizens' media becoming a proxy for civic participation?"

Mass vs. Niche Marketing

Inspiration and perspective c/o Seth Godin (with some liberties):

Mass marketing works best when it assumes that everybody in the entire chain is just plain average. Or even a little bit less. Niche marketing, on the other hand, can thrive if it starts with the assumption that average products by average people for average people is just not your thing. Be picky. Make great stuff. Work with amazing people. Remember, though, that your sales expectations have to be in line with your niche mantra.

Blogging for Business

If you don't find BusinessWeek raves and community engagement compelling, consider the business development implications of blogging: BlogWriteforCEOs' Debbie Weil notes that Forrester principal analyst Charlene Li's blogging translated into $1 million of business (via ProBlogger). What's the hurdle rate for your marketing initiatives? Are any of your business development activities generating a ROI in excess of 500%, much less 500,000%*?

For additional blog effectiveness metrics, check out Jason Stamper's ROI of Blogging.

If you feel the numbers game misses the point, you might appreciate James Governor's perspective (via Jason Stamper): "Ask not what a blog can do for your corporate bottom line, but what it can do for you. If it scales you, and you're already effective, then its also scaling business effectiveness. Successful Global Microbrands are indelibly associated with people. It's people, not infrastructures, that can now scale in fairly unprecedented ways. Blogging is a part of that phenomenon."

For an introduction to blogging for business, check out my Business Case for Blogging article for The PowerMark Group.

*Simplified ROI calculation: (Income-Investment)/Investment, expressed as a decimal percent (i.e., .10 = 10%). To illustrate, given income (revenue) of $1,000,000 and an investment of $179 ($14.95x12), the calculation is (999,821/179)x100=558,559%

Acceleration Delivered

Testing concepts in real time and access to a communal knowledge base are two related and compelling aspects of the blogosphere. Bloggers will be your greatest fans and your harshest critics, and there's significant value in that fact. It's called acceleration. An example I benefited from recently: Anthony Lilley (writing for Media Guardian) calling out the BBC's head of journalism Mark Byford on his use of "audience" versus "community", and the mindset implications; for example, talking to versus engaging in conversation (The best & worst of dotcomery, via BuzzMachine). Reading Jarvis' BBC2.1 post prompted me to review a blogging best practices series I had compiled for a client. As a business tool, the blogosphere excels in translating individual insight into a shared learning experience. Acceleration delivered.

The Price of Mediocrity

Is nothing sacred?! The French Agriculture Ministry recently authorized vinters to flavor their wines with wood shavings, a cost-saving technique that is common outside France but abhorred by purists (AP via The Los Angeles Times). The author of a wine report commissioned by the ministry held "We have to make wine for consumers, not wine that producers dream of." I disagree. My opinion is that the reform will undermine the classic strength of French wines, undermining France's reputation as one of, if not the best, wine producing regions of Europe. Without differentiation, it's a commodities game. To quote Nicolas Ronceray, "When you put wood shavings in wine...you can no longer speak about 'aroma', you must speak about 'odor', like you would for a chemical product."

For the advertising equivalent of this trend toward mediocrity, see Lisa Francilia's observation in my Food for Thought post.

Kosher Communications

It's a classic case of working the edges: kosher cell phones (via Los Angeles Times). An Israeli subsidiary of Motorola successfully launched a cell phone for the ultra-Orthodox community that bears the seal of approval from Israel's rabbinical authorities. The phone has been reduced to the core calling functions; there's no Internet access, text messaging or camera or video functionality. Sex line and associated phone numbers are blocked, and a team of rabbis maintains the list (over 10,000) on an ongoing basis - a simply brilliant example of influencer engagement/collaboration. Beyond the ultra-Orthodox niche, the concept has broad applicability to conservatives of Islamic, Christian and other faiths. Perhaps this or similar products be on the radar of our own guardians of decency, the FCC.