Jennifer was quoted in a press release announcing Planar's new PlanarView™ Visualization App.
At the end of the day, when the final numbers are tallied and the results are analyzed, it is all business. And it's all people. It is both.
Every morning I unlock my computer with the keystrokes that I used to use to reboot it in case of terminal errors. CTRL-ALT-DEL were the keystrokes of triage and now they are “hello.” Maybe it’s a sad commentary on our world where “that was a disaster, let’s try again” is how we greet the day or maybe it is Microsoft’s way of reminding the computers that if they get sentient and go Terminator on humanity, we still remember how to do a hard reboot. In fact, we’ve been practicing every day.
At the end of the day, when the final numbers are tallied and the results are analyzed, it is all relationships.
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Much has been written in professional and personal development circles about the importance of doing things that scare you. Tackling projects that take you out of your comfort zones. Roles that challenge you to grow. This has been the justification for exhilarating thrills like climbing Mt. Everest or life-changing moves like leaving an abusive relationship or embarking on a new career.
I have never thought of myself as a risk-taker. I generally had a “big fish, small pond” mindset. I liked to tackle projects that I believed I could do successfully. I have prided myself that my hobbies, my relationships, and my work are not drama-filled. I don’t even like horror movies. Alas, I am missing all the tell-tale signs of a risk taker, so I figured I wasn’t one.
Until now.
I now see that I am just a different type of risk taker and here are three things I am learning about managing risk.
1. Sometimes it’s the stop-watch, not the altimeter which measures the risk
It might not be the altitude of the mountain that is the risk, but the speed at which you are trying to ascend or the number of hills you are climbing at once. When I get overwhelmed or scared, it is generally not because of the enormity of any individual task or commitments I have made. It is rather because I am trying to do them all at once. I scare myself in this way regularly and I know I am not alone. Recognizing that deadlines and commitments, served up simultaneously, adds stress and complexity to otherwise reasonable tasks, is important to acknowledge. Those of us who rush to do more can give ourselves permission to recognize the risk for what it is and pull back or lunge forward as necessary.
2. “But isn’t multi-tasking bad?” is a trick, and surprisingly personal, question
Behavioral scientists say multi-tasking is a fallacy and that this lack of focus costs organizations millions of dollars a year in lost productivity. I respectfully, I don’t believe it. Maybe for some it is a bad thing. Making people work outside their natural work style can certainly backfire, but for me, it’s the only way. Experience has taught me that when I multi-task I accomplish more. I achieve better results. I think more clearly. I make connections between things that lead to new insights. I remain more open to ideas from others. I have certainly had professional failures and disappointments, but throughout I have found that action itself is a source of energy. The busyness isn’t the secret sauce, but it is certainly in the winning recipe for me.
3. Managing risk is about knowing your risk tolerance
You don’t gamble, what you can’t afford to lose. Whether you are analyzing the risk of an investment portfolio or contemplating bold moves in your career, managing risk appropriately requires an appreciation of risk tolerance. My risk tolerance has to do with judging my commitments against my priorities. Despite my multi-tasking ways, or perhaps because of it, I am a big believer in looking at my life in chapters. There is a time and place for everything. The good things need to find more time and space in my schedule and attention, crowding out things of lesser importance or urgency. Avoiding the fallacy that tasks or priorities are permanent or immovable.
Ralph Waldo Emerson summarized it well when he said, “Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age. It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’” So, you might just scare yourself busy.
This article was published on LinkedIn.
There is the new thing. And the new, new thing. The previously new thing is now not so new (borderline old). There is the new that makes the news. There is the new that is so new it’s stealthily secret. We are obsessed with the new. New is piling up everywhere.
Seth Godin sited a survey in a presentation on which students were asked if they wanted to be a CEO of a global company, president of a non-profit, or the personal assistant to a famous singer or actor. And over 40% of the respondents said “personal assistant.” He described that the role of a personal assistant is close enough to the action to have bragging rights and to be part of the fun, but far enough away as to avoid the responsibility and vulnerability that comes with being in charge.
Are you afraid of responsibility? Do you select roles where you are supporting others, implementing their ideas, or working their priorities? Teamwork is critical and collaboration important, but do you work on teams to avoid personal accountability for the results of your actions? Are you quick to blame others when things are not successful? Are you comfortable and confident enough in your skills and opinions to advocate for them?
As Theodore Roosevelt said in his speech “Citizenship in a Republic” given in France in 1910, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
See you in the arena!
You might feel unqualified. If you feel that way, consider it a good thing and get set to grow.
It’s in the background. Always on. Always flowing. Taken for granted. Doesn’t need to be mentioned.
Digital marketing is just marketing.
Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising is just advertising.
Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality might just be…reality.
A lot has been written about consumer-centric marketing in recent years. The desire to provide relevant content and position the brand in the context of that value. Seth Godin’s permission marketing principles. The move to personalization. The emotional attachment that brands should create for their customers. Across all communication channels and at every customer touch point.
Today’s empowered consumer doesn’t just want to be educated. They don’t just want to be engaged. Frankly, they want to be super heroes. They want to be the heroes of their own story and the brands they choose reinforce this perspective. They want to call a car whenever they need it, like the Batmobile, and the adoption of Uber and Lyft is evidence that the on-demand concept is appealing. They want to have their whims indulged. They want their news personalized and curated. They want to keep up with friends of their choosing.
As marketers we have a responsibility to build the customer experience into the core of our company’s DNAs and into every medium or channel through which we communicate. So, how can customers be granted super powers in our marketing?
First and foremost, today’s buyers must remain in control. Our terms of service, privacy policies, product quality, production practices, and priorities must align with what customers want. We start with our integrity when building trust. I know that many customers might relinquish control without a second thought, but it’s our job not to let them do themselves harm.
Secondly, we create opportunities for customers to have power on a scale that they couldn’t have without us. Today’s savvy consumers are impressed with nothing less than super human strength and the ability to fly. They want to see their name on a can of Coca-Cola. We help them place a message on a personalized M&M. We can put their picture on a billboard in Times Square. We can put a mark on the world. One that is unique to them.
This can be part of the product or service we are selling or it can it be something we do in our marketing. The distinction between the two is blurring and so is the customer’s experience of the brand across all the touchpoints, so marketing has a leadership responsibility. For instance, the new iPhone camera takes beautiful, high resolution photos and video. Why not build on the out-of-home ad campaign we have seen where photographs from iPhone users are printed on subway signs and billboards with the caption “taken with an iPhone” by creating a YouTube/Vimeo/Flickr style platform for sharing videos and photos taken with iPhones and have those images featured on the Apple site, social media, and digital billboards and in homes as an Apple TV screen saver?
Next, we can connect customers visibly within the community. We can give them something to brag about and some connection to their idols and friends. It starts with sharing features, but goes beyond that. We as market leading brands need to make our consumer constituents heros among their peers. We can provide customers street credibility or expand their influence. It’s the Apple sticker in the Macintosh boxes on Volkswagens across the country or the look of a teenager wearing Beats headphones by Dr. Dre around his neck. I see this as a gap in store and airline loyalty programs. Members with elite status aren’t given rewards that are visible to the community of other shoppers or guests that undoubtedly share other circles of influence.
It is also a limitation with the nearly ubiquitous category of hybrid cars. Imagine hybrid cars connected with a gamification system that allows one driver to compete with others for fuel efficiency. Similar to how FitBit users can track steps on a leader board. Imagine how many more fuel efficient cars would be sold with this kind of gamification?
Consumer fashion brands do this well by offering sponsorships or free product to highly influential individuals, but could that scale to something that other brands could do even if they don’t have a celebrity endorsement program or a full-scale newsroom? I imagine so, if we were creative in our marketing.
Lastly, we can give customers a mission. As marketers, we give our customers an opportunity to be involved in greater causes and the power to benefit others with their super powers. This is what Whole Foods has done with the wooden nickels for “bring your own bag” rewards or Starbucks involvement in (Red). You could allow customers to donate a perks to non-profits of their choice. Loyal customers could be allowed to pick charitable giving campaigns from their favorite brands. Customers could donate their photos from their Hawaii vacation to be featured in the advertising or on the website of the visitor’s bureau for the State. At Planar Systems we recently offered our customers and employees an opportunity to participate in a fun run in Portland, to benefit a local alternative high school. This example of the “do well, by doing good” approach which is growing in importance and influence among our customers.
With a purposeful emphasis on integrity, giving users power, community connections, and missional marketing, we can transform our customers into the super heroes that will not only show us loyalty, but will attract others to us.
This article was published on Frost & Sullivan's Digital Marketing e-Bulletin.
Warning: contagious idea factory. Prolonged exposure has been known to lead to elevated heart rates, provocative insights, a profound sense of possibility, and remarkable achievement.
I heard Brene Brown speak recently and she proposed that courage and comfort couldn’t co-exist. If you are comfortable, you are not acting very courageous. Where are you on that spectrum? What are you willing to give up to get what?
When my company reorganized several years ago, we went from a business unit structure to a functional organization, and I was considered for a position that would run marketing as a member of the executive team.
As part of those discussions, I negotiated to have the role include both traditional marketing functions, such as advertising, PR, events, and sales tool development, but also product strategy in the form of product management and road map planning. Why? I had three reasons:
1. MarCom Is A Pink Ghetto
As a female executive, I was sensitive--sensitive to my observations and the reputation that marketing (and human resources, by the way) had of being places where women got stuck in their careers. Careers focused in these areas resulted in professionals who were often pigeon-holed and excluded from real participation in the business strategy.
I am not sure who coined the phrase, but I had heard it applies here: the pink ghetto. It's a place where women are seen as a support function for other more “important” roles, such as sales, finance, or R&D--roles typically held by men, at least in the technology industry. I didn’t want to get stuck and had worked throughout my career to gain broad experience that made me a better business person, not just a better marketer.
In my role, which combines both go-to-market and market requirements, I have broad impact on the company, and my team is able to impact the direction of the business overall.
2. Marketing Is The Center Of The Hub
Being responsible for products, I am at the center of creative ideas and cleverness. I get to work closely with R&D to determine what can be done and the relevant and high-value applications of technology. I get to work closely with the sales team to determine how to aim them and equip them to capture the market potential of new offerings. My team and I get to be in the center of the hub and are tasked with combining what can be done with what should be done to create new possibilities for the company.
3. Customer Empathy Runs Deep
True innovations are grounded in customer empathy. Understanding the customer problems is the foundation of “solutions,” which companies are so anxious to talk about but execute so poorly. And that customer understanding not only affects the products we bring to market, but how we market them.
This may involve creating sales tools that require a deep understanding of the product in order to simplify the customer experience and accelerate the buying process. Without responsibility for both the product road map and marketing communications, this connection would be more difficult to make and would cause “marketing” to be less strategic and more reactive, instead of leading the charge of innovation in the marketplace.
This article was posted on CMO.com.
"We all want to be treated like insiders." - Chris Brogan
“Without a purposeful toolbox of culture, behaviors, and management training, you get drift and inconsistency.” – Andrew Quinn
It’s like an axle out of alignment.
Marketing ROI has never been sexier… or more possible.
With today’s data analytics, digital marketing spend, and marketing automation systems, the opportunities are ripe for changing the ways that we approach marketing and its management.
Direct marketing professionals are ahead of the trends here, having focused on response rates, revenue generation, and list management long before these things rose to their current level of popularity.
See Also
- How to be a champion of data-driven decision-making
- Business Analytics: How small businesses can use 'big data' (Part 1)
- Why big data analytics is no longer just for big companies
There are new positions showing up in marketing organizations to address this need, ranging from marketing operations managers to marketing data scientists. CEOs across industries are now learning a whole new set of acronyms (like SEO and SQL) as the CMO and CIO are working more closely together.
This change has very real implications for the marketing organization overall. People who were attracted to marketing and have performed exceptionally well in their previous roles might make a smooth transition to the new world of data accountability.
Here are three ways to help:
Demystify Data
Wanting to make data-driven decisions is all well and good, but if the data that would drive those decisions are not easily accessible, then the effort is for naught. Make sure that the metrics you want to see are available to your team.
This requires the insight to be in data form (that is, systems and report structures in place) and for the team who needs the data to have permissions to access it. I have heard of organizations where the marketing organization wanted to measure lead-to-opportunity conversions, but didn’t have access to the CRM system from which this data might be pulled.
This article was published in the Puget Sound Business Journal, Denver Business Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, as well as other American City Business Journals.
“Success is making those who believed in you look brilliant.” – Dharmesh Shah
This is the first year ever that my family is going to be out of our home country during the holiday season. Although not everyone will travel to exotic (and warm!) locales during this traditional vacation-laden time of the year, but there are three reasons why everyone should consider taking a proper break during the holidays.
It sounds strange for me to defend the value of a vacation, but the statistics are pretty alarming: US workers simply don’t utilize their time off. I assume it is similar worldwide. Vacation hours, even the “use it or lose it variety,” go unused. And in the modern era of always-connected, device-toting knowledge workers, even days of PTO can be consumed with email, texts, and keeping tabs on projects.
1. Vacations are a release valve.
We recently say the hosts of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters in a live show at a local theater. While explaining how they caused a household water heater to explode magnificently, Adam Savage made a poignant observation. “Water,” he explained, “boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Unless it’s under pressure. Then it gets stupid and forgets to boil.” It is this expansion effect that can lead to magnificent explosions as the air trapped inside the water heater compresses and then releases.
I think we humans are the same. Under pressure, we can get stupid. We can get harried and stressed. We can do our own form of expansion as the negative parts of our personality, like our impatience or intolerance, are amplified. We forget what we were designed and gifted to do. What otherwise we’d do without thinking about (like treating strangers or co-workers with a degree of kindness), we forget.
Vacations can be a bit of a release valve. After all, pressure only builds in a closed system (like that of a sealed water heater). If some air can escape, then the water can return to it’s normal operating state. That is the hope of a vacation. To make people less stupid.
2. Vacations provide perspective.
Sometimes getting away from something can provide you a whole new perspective and a new set of solutions to draw from. Marcel Proust has been quoted that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Many professionals in creative fields, find it useful to step away from their problems or work, to take a walk, work on something else, or even goof off a little, only to return to the work refreshed and ready to see the solution that might have been in front of them the whole time.
Although there is a temptation to get things “wrapped up” before leaving the office for the holiday, it might be wise to leave some tricky problems waiting for your return in January. You’ll return with new eyes and have a better chance of coming up with a better resolution than you might have under the pressure of deadlines in December.
3. Vacations allow us to appreciate normal
Despite the fun of the vacation and the excitement of news sights and sounds, there is always something nice about coming home again. Sleeping in your own bed. Being able to wash clothes and eat at home. The space to spread out after being cooped up in a hotel room or a car (a “little too much togetherness” at times). Sometimes getting away allows you to better appreciate “home,” even if you don’t travel far. The familiar routines take on new comforts. The places and people that you took for granted now seen through new eyes of gratitude.
So, whether you are fleeing the country for this season or staying close to home, I wish you a very merry and warm holiday! I will be seeing you and the world with new eyes this coming new year and I wish the same for you.
This article was published on LinkedIn.
The truth is a gift. Accept it. Cherish it. Re-gift it.
Modern buyers are allergic to the old ways of marketing. The unsolicited emails, direct mail, the interruption-based advertising. If not allergic, then they are immune. In any case, the old ways don’t work anymore. And we must find a new way.