Roland's Thoughts: A Marketer's Blog

Start with the customer

2010-07-26T23:01:00.004-04:00

The original posting of this article is here.
Be sure to check on the current issue of Explode Your Paradigm here.

In my role as a business consultant I have the opportunity to review numerous business plans. What I enjoy is getting an in-depth look into a wide variety of businesses and meeting some fantastic people in the process. A common denominator is that most owners are extremely passionate about their ideas, they are often technical experts in their field and they are developing a new product or service that they claim is better than all or most of the competition. As part of the plan they often describe how their product or service is better, how they will promote and sell it, how they will price it and what level of market share they will achieve over the first few years on the market. Many plans then dig deeply into specific tactics such as which publications to advertise in, how often ads will be run, when the sales force or outside contractors will be hired to sell their product, how will they be trained, and how much everyone will be paid. They do a good job in describing the marketing mix of product, place, price and promotion but they miss a critical piece.

Many never answer the question who is the target customer and why will they buy your product or service?

“If you build it, he will come” a line from Field of Dreams is often misquoted as “If you build it, they will come.” In real life if you want to develop a product and/or start a business you cannot assume the customer will come. Your customer must be placed in the center of your plan and everything must be built around them.

The GREAT business plans I have reviewed talk about the target customer FIRST!
Who is the customer?
How do you define the customer (age, sex, demographic, income level, likes/dislikes, family status etc)?
What are their needs?
What is a particularly painful need that they need to solve now? Why?
What are they currently using to solve it? Is it working? Why or why not?
Are they willing to pay for something new to solve their problem?
Is the end customer the decision maker or are there other players that make the ultimate “buy” decision. (I.e. if Medicaid (or other third party payer) does not cover your product will the customer buy it?)
How many of them are there? (I.e. how big is the market?)
Where are they located? (I.e. how concentrated is the market?)

Only after a need is established is a solution offered.
What is your product?
What benefit(s) does your product or service deliver that will fulfill your customer’s need(s)?
How do you know it will work?
How do you know your customer will buy or use it? (I.e. have you asked them?)
Who else is critical to the purchase decision? (I.e. your customer may trust their stockbroker to recommend a particular mutual fund to purchase)
How do you inform and influence all customers that are critical to the purchase decision?

Now learn how your customer acquires information, thinks and acts.
How does your customer or customers get their information to support a buying decision?
(I.e. Newspaper, mail, magazines, TV, radio, conversation with a representative of the company, Internet, word of mouth from friends/family)
How does your customer rank the various sources?
How does your customer use the various sources?
(I.e. does your customer use search engines on the Internet to find information or do they go directly to a website? Do they perform their own searches or are searches done by others?)
How much information does a customer need to make a buying decision?
Does your customer want to communicate with you before or after the sale? If yes how will they like to communicate? (Phone, email, online chat etc)
Is your customer willing to tell others about a product/service they find meets their needs? Will they become advocates for your product?
How do they do that? Where will they do that?

Now construct the “story.”
What critical customer needs does your product/service solve?
Why should the customer care?
What is your brand “promise” to the customer?
What things are keeping you from delivering on your brand promise?
How will you overcome these obstacles?

Now write the plan!
Tie the marketing mix (product, place, price and promotion) into what you know about the customer.
What is your message?
How will you deliver your message to the customer?
What tools will you use?
How do you define success?
What metrics other than sales will tell you that you are on target?
What obstacles are you most concerned about? What is your plan for overcoming the obstacles?
What resources do you need to insure success?
What is your plan for acquiring these resources?

Make your plan a great one by starting with the customer. If you don’t know how your customer will respond then take the time and ask. In many cases a small amount of qualitative research should give you the ammunition to justify or modify your assumptions. A solid story will attract the resources and set the stage you need to be successful.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Your CMO and CFO need to talk the same language

2010-07-08T12:53:00.002-04:00

The original posting of this article is here.
Be sure to check on the current issue of Explode Your Paradigm here.

The CFO (Chief Financial Officer) has a difficult but rather straightforward job. In most cases they need to recommend to their senior management how to best allocate resources across the business. Unless you can print money these resources are limited. The highest priority projects/tactics get funded, the rest are left on the table for another day when business conditions improve. The difficult and in many cases political process is how to prioritize one project over another.

The CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) is in charge of building the brands that will generate awareness, interest and sales of the company’s products and/or services. The CMO and marketing team put a plan together and then go through the process of convincing the CFO, the CEO and others in management to fund it.

The rest of management put together similar plans for the components they are responsible for. The CFO often asks that each requestor compute an ROI (return on investment) for each tactic. This analysis of dollars returned for each dollar invested provides a scale in which one project can be compared to another. A business development project with a 400% rate of return may be rated higher than a capital improvement project with a 200% ROI. There are many other factors that need to be considered such as the projected level of risk involved with each project and the time horizon to get to a payback however this is a way for dissimilar projects for be compared in a similar language.

A problem is that this method of evaluation works well for an “exact” science. If a company is considering a capital expansion the construction cost is known, the expected savings are estimated and an ROI can be calculated. If the company is considering developing a new product the research and development costs, development timing and the projected sales are estimated and an ROI computed. The same can be said for increasing the number of sales representatives, replacing a fleet of cars with newer ones, or lease vs. buy decisions on equipment or property. But how do you determine the value of a brand? How does increasing advertising spend or increasing the size of a sponsorship compare with the tactics mentioned above?

What many marketers will argue is that marketing is an “inexact” science. A quote often used “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half” (Lord Leverhulme, British founder of Unilever and philanthropist). We all know that marketing is needed but many marketers are unable to compute the return on their marketing spend and communicate it to the decision makers in the company in a simple way. As a result others in the company may look at marketing spend as a cost of doing business rather than an investment in the growth of the company. When budgets need to be cut marketing initiatives may be at a disadvantage because the CMO has no way to document effect on sales.

I hear leaders of marketing organizations complain the CFO just doesn’t get it. It is not that simple. How do you quantify a relationship? We need to build our brand. They just need to trust me.

I hear CFOs complaining about marketing. What do we get for all the dollars we are spending? How do I know their programs are working? I’m supposed to believe that most of the sales will come in the last 25% of the sales cycle, how do I know it will happen? Are we on target? Why should I increase the budget?

It is like Mars and Venus. We need the CMO and the CFO to speak a common language.

So where do we start? Lewis Carroll wrote “If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there.”

My suggestion is before you look at next year take a good look at the sales that you currently have. Ask yourself where are these sales coming from? Reorders from existing customers, referrals to others from existing customers (without you having to ask for them), direct sales from your sales force, calls into your customer service group, advertising campaigns (TV/radio/Internet), email, your website, trade shows and others? In many cases it could be a combination as leads may come in as a result of a one tactic, the lead is processed and nurtured by others, which after a period of time results in a sale.

Put a value on everything you do. If a sale was made for $50,000 that resulted in a $25,000 profit after the cost of manufacturing how much was spent by sales and marketing to get that sale. Where did the lead come from, how was it processed, how long did it take?

There will be a number of assumptions that need to be made. Marketing is not an exact science. The result will be all of your sales broken out by tactics used to acquire, nurture, close and service the business. My hunch is that you will see that some of the tactics are extremely profitable. A relationship with an existing client while relatively low in cost to service may result in huge gains in sales. On the flip side cold calling by sales representatives can be extremely expensive while sales uptake is slow.

Make a list top to bottom of all of your sales and marketing tactics and rank by return on investment. What tactics are working for you? What tactics are not? If you can shift some funds from the less effective tactics to the more effective ones how will that effect sales?
A quote attributed to Lord Kelvin is “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Measure everything you do. Your method of measurement will improve as members of your team realize the new rules under which projects are evaluated and approved.

A story comes to mind of a man that asks a woman for a dollar. The woman hands the man a dollar and man gives the woman two dollars back. The man asks the woman for another dollar and the process continues for a while the women making a 200% return on her investment each time. Finally the woman says how much money can you make for me and the man replies how many dollars do you have? It is obviously not that easy but the man (in this case the CMO) did not have a hard time getting money from the woman (the CFO) as long as they both knew, understood and were comfortable with the expectation.

The man and the woman were talking the same language.

Now how does all the effect your business going forward? I’ll discuss this in a future post. I’ll leave you with two points:

1) The advance in technology including Web 2.0 tools allows you the freedom to track in real time how successful your marketing tactics are, where your leads are coming from and how they are nurtured. Lord Leverhulme’s comment that half your advertising dollars are wasted is no longer the case! This means that throughout a campaign you have the tools to measure and take actions to expand what is working and change what is not. I will discuss what some are doing and how they are using it for their advantage.
2) Steven Covey says “Begin with the end in mind.” Once you know where your sales are coming from now plan for them by tactic in the future. How many leads will you need at the front end of the sales funnel to guarantee an outcome? How many leads will each tactic be expected to generate? That allows you to manage your sales at every part of the sales funnel rather than just at the end when you see the revenue. Another data point the CMO can use to help the CFO understand what he or she is doing.

More later.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

The World Changed!

2010-07-02T16:06:00.004-04:00

The original posting of this article is here.
Be sure to check on the current issue of Explode Your Paradigm here.

I had lunch with a friend from my “Spinning” class recently. He had worked as an engineer for RCA Records in the late 60’s / early 70’s. RCA paid for him to go to law school at night. He received a law degree from Indiana University in 1974 and went to work as a patent counsel for RCA & GE Consumer Electronics. In 1987 GE sold the consumer electronics division and the RCA brand to Thomson Consumer Electronics. He eventually rose to become the General Counsel at Thomson and had the opportunity to live and work at their Paris headquarters for 4 years. He left Thomson in 1997 and worked for a private law firm for 10 years retiring in 1998.

What a career and story. At one point in his career my friend was in charge of managing and licensing to others hundreds of RCA patents. I remember as a child there were few companies that could hold a candle to the innovative power of RCA. I can still remember the picture of Nipper the dog staring at the gramophone with the inscription “His Master’s Voice.”

As many of us know RCA is now a shell of what it once was. Under Thomson the brand faltered, quality suffered, and competition increased.

I asked my friend, “What happened. How could a brand and a company that defined innovation fall from grace?” He explained that during the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s the company invested heavily in videodisk technology that did not pan out. It also built a lot of me-too products. Sony, Panasonic and others were developing better products at a lower price point. Brand loyalty decreased. Market share decreased. The brand (and the consumer electronics department) entered a death spiral that it could not recover. A few years ago Thomson sold the brand and products to a Chinese company.

My friend said the world changed and RCA could not keep up.

A quote that is one of my favorites is “The only thing that is constant is change.” About the only thing we can guarantee is that the world will be a different place in 5 years. In some markets it may be totally different next year or next month. It is a given the world will change and we need to keep up or we’ll found ourselves on the outside looking in like RCA.

So what should we do? What can you do now to keep your company competitive?

My advice to many clients and potential clients is to ask how do you compete? Are you (or your company) known for innovation and innovative products and services or are you a fast follower competing on price? If your company is known for innovation you need to be constantly thinking of how you can improve your products and services. You need to ask what will happen if your competition can sell their product for 50% of your price and/or the key technology that you are using to differentiate our products becomes worthless. What would happen if your customers were able to buy from you (or your competition) in a totally different way (think shopping on-line vs. going to brick and mortar stores, or think automatic downloading of movies instead of going to a video store to rent them)? How would this affect your business? How would you compete? You need to brainstorm solutions. You need to plan for change.

Sometimes the more successful we are today that harder it is to plan for change. A common argument is why spend valuable resources to improve or replace something that is working? How can you fault an executive team that is growing sales and profit?

In many cases the best time to plan for change is when things are going well.

I can guarantee that the world will change. I also guarantee that innovators in your marketplace are planning for that change. How you respond is up to you. If you are or want to be known for innovation how much of your time and budget are you spending on defining and leading your market?

Will someone say in a few years that the world changed and you could not keep up?

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

Look at it from a different perspective

2010-06-28T11:25:00.001-04:00

The original posting of this article is here.
Be sure to check on the current issue of Explode Your Paradigm here

I did something last night I had never done before. My wife and I participated in the NITE Ride, a 20 mile ride through Indianapolis that began at 11:00 PM at night. Wew were joined by about 3000 others many of whom have been participating in the ride, conducted annually by CIBA (Central Indiana Biking Association), for years. I rode through streets and through places that were very familiar to me and that I had ridden around and through for years. What was amazing was I did it at night, with the assist of a small headlamp (until it broke half way through the ride) and a blinking tail light. The surroundings were the same but everything was different. There were policemen on every corner holding up traffic allowing us to pass. Volunteers pointed out potholes and other obstructions and where to turn. Looking ahead was a ribbon of a hundred or so blinking red lights. Looking back, well you didn’t want to look back too often, you may run into a pothole. I came away with a new appreciation for the city of Indianapolis, our police department, and the volunteers that made the event possible. I learned that something very familiar can become even more exciting when looked at from a different perspective.

In a scene from Dead Poets Society John Keating (played by Robin Williams) has his students eat with their non dominant hand. He asks what is different? What challenges does this create. How do you see the world differently?

So what can we learn? What was reinforced to me last night is to look at obstacles, opportunities, and basic responsibilities from a different perspective. You may come up with insights and ideas that you never thought possible.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Prepare for the Unknown

2010-06-28T11:17:00.002-04:00

The original posting of this article is here
Be sure to check on the current issue of Explode Your Paradigm here

What would you do if you knew there would be a major earthquake in China sometime during 2012? Before you say “I would not travel to China in 2012” let me tell you that you are currently in charge of operations of a global trading company that has a large distribution hub in Beijing.

What would you do today or in the next 6 months if you knew that this earthquake could cripple your Asian business? That was the question Dr. Mahender Singh from MIT asked a number of us attending a supply chain conference recently.

After we got through the “how do you know?” questions Dr. Singh asked us to push the I believe button and move on with the exercise. The group decided to get all of our experts together, analyze the problem, suggest alternatives and recommend a solution. We built another distribution center in Australia to handle the load in case the China facility was knocked out.

Well January 1, 2013 came and the predicted earthquake had not happened. You get a call from your CEO stating that your efforts cost the company millions of dollars without a return. Never again would you be trusted. Not a good day ……………

6 months later in July 2013 H1N1 flu pandemic hits China. The entire county is quarantined shutting down trade in and out of the area. Your facility in Beijing is shut down. The distribution center in Australia is not affected however and is able to handle the increased volume. Your company survives and in fact grows by selling to your competitor’s customers that cannot get shipments from China.

Your CEO takes you out to dinner and you get a promotion. If you had not planned for the expected earthquake that never happened you would have not been ready for the unexpected pandemic that did.

Dr. Singh said we need to plan for the known and prepare for the unknown. We are reasonably good at planning for the known. The issue is in many cases we don’t spend the time and the energy to prepare honestly for the unknown. Who would have known that an oil well would explode in the Gulf of Mexico and the resulting spill would foul hundreds of miles of beach and thousand of square miles of fishing grounds. How do you get yourself ready for the future?

The secret according to Dr. Singh is to start with the future, such as the earthquake in China, and bring it back to today. If we know the future what will we do about it today to help get our business ready? As part of your strategic planning exercise create a number of catastrophic scenarios and seriously figure out what you would do.

This was standard practice when I was in the Navy as an officer on a submarine. We would start with the “what ifs” and work backwards to determine the “what do you do”? It took a lot of time and we had many things to do that we thought were much more important. Not doing the exercise was not an option. First we were in the military and we had to do what we were ordered to do. Second we were driving a US warship that was powered with a nuclear reactor. If something happened we had to be perfect. The exercise was successful. We made mistakes, we learned from each other, we were prepared and if any of those unexpected scenarios happened we were ready.

So what can you do to get ready for the future? First, block out time for the exercise. Get away from the hectic day-to-day (i.e. turn off the cell phone) and get your leadership team off site. Dr. Singh asked three questions to help get the discussion started:

1. What are your forks in the road (major decisions that need to be made, short, medium and long term)
2. What are your hidden assumptions? (what are the sacred cows that no one discusses but should in order to fairly evaluate the future?)
3. What are your sensors in the ground? (Facts & trends that may be favorable or unfavorable to your business model)

One last thing. Have fun. Use your innovation and creativity skills. Get to know how your leadership team thinks. Participate fully – it is OK to make mistakes. Think differently – stretch your imagination. Celebrate success.

When the unexpected happens, and it will, you and your team will be ready!

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

A new website - the blog is moving!!

2010-05-12T14:49:00.007-04:00

Over the past few days I finally have had time to get out the textbooks, arrange my thoughts and publish the website for EYP Advisors LLC. Now the blog, my biography and the story about what I and my team of networked professionals are trying to do is all in one place at http://www.eypadvisors.com/!!

This blog has been copied and renamed Explode Your Paradigm. All future posts can be found at http://eypadvisors.com/?page_id=12

I would very much like to thank my good friend and website guru Carol van Almelo for helping me upload my database and pictures and create my logo. Her willingness to help me is greatly appreciated. More information about Carol can be found on her website at http://www.rock-away.com/

Please check out the new site and let me know your thoughts. I look forward to your comments.

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

Believe what they do, not what they say. Is Eli Lilly really committed to innovation?

2010-04-30T14:31:00.013-04:00

I had lunch with Bernard Munoz recently. Bernard has worked at Eli Lilly for over 29 years. Over his career he helped run Lilly affiliates in Portugal, Austria and France while with the Elanco Animal Health group. More recently he is working as an advisor in the corporate strategy area at Lilly Corporate Center in Indianapolis.

We met at a business function a couple of weeks ago. Bernard introduced himself as a consultant in “disruptive innovation.” I worked at Lilly for over 10 years. I learned a lot about pharmaceuticals, about marketing, about how to build a business in places like Japan and Eastern Europe and about the value of a robust process. What I also learned from Lilly was that change happens slowly in a large company. The fact that Lilly now had an internal consultant tasked with to bringing change to the organization was invigorating. We agreed to meet again to discuss.

Over a plate of Greek food I learned a ton about the current happenings in the pharmaceutical industry.

Bernard has been intrigued with innovation his whole life. His passion is beginning to be noticed by others. In December 2009 he published a paper in Nature Review titled “Lessons from 60 years of pharmaceutical innovation.” He followed the number of new molecular entities (NMEs) that have been approved since 1950 and looked at the changes year to year both in the number of new entities approved and the expense to make it happen. From 1950 to 2008 the FDA has approved 1,222 new drugs. On average the number of new drugs approved each year over this period is roughly the same. In 2008 21 NMEs were approved.

He documents that over the same period the cost of developing new drugs is rising at the exponential rate of 13.5% per year. Same number of products out each year, costs rising exponentially. If nothing changes this is an unsustainable situation.

Many large pharmaceutical companies estimate they need to produce an average of 2–3 NMEs per year to meet their growth objectives. The paper states that none of them has ever approached this level of output. The historical level is close to 1 per year. Bernard’s research points out that statistically the chance to getting to this level with the current pharmaceutical industry’s business model is very low.

There have been a few spikes and troughs over the years. Bernard’s conclusion is that this may have been more a function with the number of companies with applications outstanding. The more companies, the more applications, the more approved NMEs. His paper goes on to demonstrate that M&A activity in the pharmaceutical industry actually negatively affected the number of NMEs approved. In his words 1+1=1.

Bernard argues that we need to increase the number of companies developing NMEs. A larger number of companies accelerate the acquisition of knowledge creating what economists call a spillover – an industry wide benefit that enables all companies to be more effective. He also argues that the pharmaceutical industry needs to fundamentally change the way they develop new products.

Bernard and William Chin, formerly a colleague at Lilly and now at Harvard Medical School published a paper in Science Translational Medicine also in December 2009 titled “A Call for Sharing: Adapting Pharmaceutical Research to New Realities” that points out that today’s innovation increasingly stems from the aggregation of numerous small contributions. The authors argue that companies should compete in areas that offer a viable return on investment, and share where pre-competitive collaboration helps all of us discover new therapies more efficiently and effectively. The authors issue a call for the pharmaceutical industry and governmental agencies to “join hands and intensify sharing in order to help repower pharmaceutical innovation.”

To summarize the pharmaceutical business model is broken and it needs to be fixed. This is something many of us in the industry have been discussing for years. Costs are increasing, pricing pressure is increasing causing sales revenue per NME to decline and the number of new products being developed is not keeping pace with what is required. How much longer will investors continue to support pharmaceutical research? How can we keep the engine that is driving a large section of the economy alive and well?

Bernard told me he has been getting calls from groups in industry and in government requesting information about his ideas. Momentum is growing for change.

Great news - don't you think? Well here is the rest of the story

A senior executive at Lilly told Bernard Munoz this week that his job was being eliminated as of September 7, 2010!!

It is no secret that Lilly is facing patent expirations on a number of their most popular products. The company is cutting jobs. I have friends who have left the company and others who are looking over their shoulder not knowing if their job will be there tomorrow. What concerns me is that it appears Lilly has eliminated the position of a successful executive that has made and is making a name for himself discussing how to move the pharmaceutical industry forward. Lilly could have a voice at the table and they are choosing to turn it down.

Why? I think it is much better to participate in the discussion and be a part of potential solutions rather than wonder what will happen.

John Lechleiter, the CEO of Eli Lilly and Company, in an editorial published in the Wall St. Journal on May 14, 2009 wrote “U.S.-based private industry is the heart and soul of this innovation drama, investing $58 billion in research and development for new medicines in 2007 alone…. Biomedical innovation is not incompatible with the health-care reform goals of universal access, quality improvement and cost control. On the contrary, without new, more effective medicines -- along with new devices and diagnostic tools, and better treatments and surgical techniques -- it will be impossible for larger numbers of Americans to obtain better health care at a manageable cost.”

I think Lechleiter gets the message that Munoz and Chin are preaching that industry, universities and government need to come up with creative solutions to get better medical solutions to the marketplace. I don't know if the message is flowing down to his staff. I wonder if the bureaucracy at Lilly will wise up and get it before more innovators like Bernard Munoz are forced to do their work outside of the company.

Is Lilly committed to innovation?? The proof is in what they do - not what they say.

If you would like to read either of the papers referenced above please follow the links or send me an email at rjbydlon@earthlink.net.

I am interested in your thoughts. Please comment below.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Game changing innovation needs a risk-taking environment

2010-04-28T14:53:00.005-04:00

In the April 26th Indianapolis Star Michael Goldsby the executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center at Ball State University wrote a very good My View column titled “The game has changed for entrepreneurship.” Dr. Goldsby, an expert on the field, makes the argument that currently policy makers and companies view entrepreneurship as primarily composed of small business startups and that this is a mistake. By only looking at small business we are missing a large segment of the economy since continuous improvement coupled with continuous innovation is the magic formula for a company’s success. He states that companies of all sizes need entrepreneurial thinking to compete successfully in the 21st Century and suggests that schools must craft curricula to teach creative problem solving and innovation that can and will be used to drive innovation in small and large companies.

I agree with everything he is saying. Problem solving, how to effectively manage risk, and more importantly how to think creatively are critical skills that should be taught in every management school in the country. I also add that we won’t succeed in converting our medium to large companies into entrepreneurial powerhouses until we seed and grow a culture with current company management that promotes rapid experimentation and accepts short term failures as a learning event to prepare for long term success.

So why is entrepreneurship composed of mainly small business start-ups? I think a small company is an ideal climate for entrepreneurial thought. The stakeholders are usually willing to bet the farm and risk their jobs and financial wealth on an idea. Successful entrepreneurs have passion and are able and willing to focus on the key success factors for getting a product or service to their customers. The management team is a critical piece of the puzzle. Successful management team members are judged not on what they have done in the past but what they can contribute in the future. Each member must be willing to roll up their sleeves and participate in multiple tasks for the venture to succeed. It is OK to fail as long as information is learned. Timelines are short. Milestones are measured in weeks or months. Who knows where anyone will be in 5 years. The key is to enjoy the moment. If the basics are done right success will follow.

So how does a large company foster an entrepreneurial culture? Many years ago I started my post MBA career at a large company here in Indianapolis. At the time one of the selling points to join the company was that it was managed by consensus. I got an excellent education in business and worked with some of the best individuals I know but one thing I learned very early on was that consensus did not promote or reward risk taking. If 100% of the decision makers had to agree that an innovative idea was worthy of a risk before it was approved there was usually one member willing to kill or postpone it until one of our competitors tried it first. Decision makers were worried about failure. Some found it was much easier to go along with the status quo than try something different and find him or her knocked off their career track.

That is not to say that entrepreneurship in large companies will never happen. 3M is known for spinning off numerous companies based on internally developed technology. Apple over its lifetime has continuously reinvented its product line to lead the field.

I agree with Dr. Goldsby that if large companies in Indiana embrace the role they play in an entrepreneurial society the entire state will thrive. The challenge is how can we encourage them to do so.

The first thing is that the company must make a long term strategic decision from the top down that in order to promote game changing innovation they need to accept diversity of thought in their organization and also provide a safety net for entrepreneurs that try but fall short of a goal.
Second they need to cross pollinate by hiring or contracting with individuals from businesses outside of their traditional environment to provide input to product and/or business development teams. A pharmaceutical company could benefit by hiring someone with a consumer goods background, an airline could hire an individual with an expertise in promoting widgets who also flies a lot, a company wanting to compete using social media should add a few 20-something employees that text their friends rather than call them. These new members should encourage companies to think outside the status quo and consider non-traditional change.
Finally companies should not expect to change overnight. Mount Everest is not climbed in a day or even a week. The process takes months and involves conquering numerous milestones to get to the top. The road to game changing innovation is littered with hazards. Successful companies are the ones that do their homework, provide a supportive environment, take calculated risks and allow their employees to spread their wings and enjoy the process.

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

BizTown – the entrepreneurs of the future!

2010-04-23T15:29:00.004-04:00

I had the opportunity recently to be a mentor at the Junior Achievement BizTown. For about a day I watched as 100 entrepreneurs created and ran a “town”. They came from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some came from families rich in financial wealth, others qualified for school lunch programs. Some were taking many of their classes in Spanish or French, others were Hispanic where English was their second language. What the students (the citizens) discovered was the joy of learning how business worked and how one business depended on others. They got along. They had fun. What I learned was that I can learn a lot about life from a group of 5th graders.

For those of you not familiar with BizTown it is a simulation where about 80-120 students run a town and all of the businesses that make the economy run. There are businesses that make and sell interesting things, there are banks that loan money to the businesses and collect interest on the loans, there is a power company that sells utilities, there is a newspaper company and sells advertisements and produces and sells an actual paper, there is a radio station with DJs that sells air time to businesses in the town for commercials, there is a post office (FedEx), a Steak and Shake restaurant where students can buy popcorn and soda, the Peyton Manning Wellness Center where students go for medical checkups and learn how to eat healthy, and a city hall where the mayor and police keep the peace. Each company has a payroll. Each company pays taxes. The employees are paid with checks, they pay income taxes, they cash their checks at the bank where they receive a small amount of cash and deposit the rest into their checking account. They use the checking account to pay for the interesting things sold at the retail stores.

This all happens between 9:30 AM and 2:00 PM. Each day a different group of students enjoy the opportunity at the facility. A group of five JA staff make sure the town “runs” correctly. Adult mentor volunteers assist in each business to answer questions. The student citizens make the decisions, do the legwork, sweat a bit and have a lot of fun.

The day I was there we had students from the International School, Saint Phillip Neri and Saint Anthony. Most of the citizens were in 5th grade. Over the previous few weeks each student had filled out a resume and had interviewed for the job they wanted. Each business had a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) along with 4-6 supporting roles. Each student had a job description so they knew what was expected of them before arriving.

Our citizens came from much different backgrounds. The International School of Indiana is a private school in Indianapolis. According to their website http://www.isind.org/ the yearly tuition is $13,050 per year. Students pick a language track in either Spanish or French and learn most of their coursework in that language. Saint Anthony is an inner city school supported by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. The average family income is $14,000 per year. Approximately 90% of the student body is Hispanic and most of the students qualify for free school lunches. Very few of the students pay tuition. What I found fascinating and encouraging was that all of the student/citizens regardless of what school they were from participated as equal members. They all worked hard, they communicated, and the system worked.

I’m sure many of the students learned a lot about business, about teamwork, about leadership and a few life skills like how to balance a checkbook. What I experienced as a mentor was how well the students got along, how well the students were prepared by their teachers for the day’s activities, how well they performed in their roles, how hard they worked, and in many ways how once they understood the rules they policed themselves. I learned that our youth when given the opportunity rise to the occasion.

As a marketer I am often the champion for the voice of the customer. The following are the top 10 reasons for BizTown as recorded in JA BizTown Newspaper by the citizen staff.
1. It is fun.
2. You learn how to be an adult.
3. You learn how to do jobs.
4. You learn how to control money.
5. You learn how to write checks.
6. You learn how to balance a checkbook.
7. You learn how to handle breaks.
8. You learn different jobs.
9. You get to spend money and shop.

….. and the final reason

10. You get two paychecks!

What is the value to this adult volunteer of experiencing entrepreneurial spirit in a group of 5th grade students – Priceless!

If you have an interest please consider making an investment in the future by giving some of your time and/or your financial treasure to support a good cause like JA BizTown. It is worth the effort.

Until next time - All the best!

RolandB

Ducks Quack - Eagles Soar.

2010-03-23T20:23:00.008-04:00

A friend of mine sent me this message today. I cannot vouch for the authenticity. I do know that Harvey Mackay is a very successful businessman, motivational speaker and author from Minneapolis. He is very active with my alma mater the University of Minnesota. The message is a great one though. Thought I would pass it on.

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." Have a great day.

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

Photo credit

_____________________________________________________

No one can make you serve customers well.....that's because great service is a choice.

Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey. He handed my friend a laminated card and said:"I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement." Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said: Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean! As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf." My friend said jokingly, "No, I'd prefer a soft drink." Wally smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice. Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I'll take a Diet Coke." Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card,"These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio." And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

"Tell me, Wally," my amazed friend asked the driver, "have you always served customers like this?" Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, "Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd". "That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."

"I take it that has paid off for you," Harvey said. "It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action." Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles. How about us? Smile, and the whole world smiles with you... The ball is in our hands! A man reaps what he sows. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up... let us do good to all people. Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar.

Have a nice day, unless you already have other plans. SORROW looks back, WORRY looks around, and FAITH looks UP. "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." And while in the storm, give it to God and let Him handle it.

Selling with a System

2010-03-18T09:41:00.010-04:00

This article was originally posted on the Indianapolis chapter of the AMA's website on 3/15/10. Click here to access the article.

One of the advantages of joining the Indianapolis chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) is an invitation to free members only meetings. I attended one recently titled “Selling With a System.” The presenter was Aaron Prickel from Lushin & Associates, a sales training and consulting firm.

As the economy has slowed the rules of the game have changed. Everyone at your company is a salesman and we are all required to climb higher on the tree to get to the “low hanging fruit.”

As Aaron put it, our parents have taught us since we were children it is not polite to talk to strangers and also don’t about money. A successful salesperson needs to talk to strangers confidently and also needs to talk about money early in a conversation in a positive way. Without conscious effort we will fall back into old habits.

The sales process is relatively simple; ask, present, quote, close. The successful salesperson needs to understand the type of person they are talking to, what the buyer is consciously or unconsciously trying to do and finally creating a win/win agreement that both parties will feel comfortable about the day after the sale.

People buy from people who are like them. You need to understand your customer and communicate with them in the way they are communicating with you. Aaron breaks most individuals into three categories:

Dominant – this type of individual knows what they want and is results driven. A successful salesperson will ask a few questions then ask for the sale.

Influencer – a happy go lucky person, talks a lot about themselves and what is going on in their life. A successful salesperson will ask questions about the person, listen, then after a period of time ask for permission to move on

Steady Relater – a cautious thinker, detail and process orientated. A successful salesperson will need to be very patient and move the individual forward slowly in small increments.

Understand the 4 step traditional buyer’s process. Buyers will

Lie – they don’t want to lose control. How many times have you entered a store to buy something but told the attendant you were “just looking?”

Steal – information and time. The salesperson usually knows more than the prospect. When the prospect asks questions the salesperson will think the prospect is interested and will usually answer question after question requesting nothing in return.

Lie again – this time in a positive way. How often have you told a salesperson that you think the product they are trying to sell you is great but you need to go home and think about it?

Hide – Many prospects want to say “no” but don’t want to hurt the salespersons feelings. They will give the salesperson unlimited access to their voicemail and will never call him or her back. The result is that the salesperson will keep the prospect on their active list and invest an increasing amount of time trying to contact and sell them. This is time that should be spent cultivating other prospects.

Successful salespersons will implement a personalized form of the following system

Ask – pain is the #1 compelling reason why people make changes. You build credibility by the questions you ask rather than the statements you make. Get your prospect to share their pain. Then tailor your presentation to helping them remove the pain.

Present – but first set expectations up front with the prospect. Outline a mutually beneficial agreement of what is going to happen.
i. Don’t be afraid to talk about money up front to qualify the prospect. A fair question is how much money do you have? How much are you willing & able to spend on this project?
ii. Start talking about the decision you will be asking them to make before you give them all of the information. (Remember they want to steal time and information)
iii. Don’t tell them everything you know. Your expertise is worth something. If your product/service is a commodity all you can compete on is price.

Quote – Price is never the real issue. Don’t be embarrassed about giving them a fair price. Don’t feel that you need to come down in order to get the business.

Close – Ask for the business. Remember your prospects have a need for approval. Make it easy for them to say “no.” This is counter intuitive since you want the business. If they are going to say “no” you want/need to hear it sooner rather than later. According to Aaron one of the biggest problems in the sales world is delayed closings, those customers that will tell you tomorrow that becomes tomorrow etc.

Talk to your prospects the way they are talking to you.

They are visual thinkers if they describe a picture, look up with their eyes (more on eye movement a bit later), and speak quickly. You may want to respond by saying “ I see what you mean.”

They are auditory thinkers if they describe sounds, look straight and have a slower rate of speech. You may want to respond by saying “I hear what you are saying.”

They are kinesthetic thinkers if they describe feelings such as “I can’t put my arms around it” and look down with their eyes. You may want to respond, “Tell me how it make you feel.”

Looking at the eyes can also tell you a bit more. If a person looks to their left after you ask them a question they are most likely thinking logically and if they look to the right they are thinking creatively. Ask someone (preferably a friend) about where they were last night. If they look to the left they are trying to place where they were. If they look to the right they may be trying to create an answer (i.e. they are lying)

A commercial for Lushin & Associates. They help energize or reenergize individuals or groups of salespersons to get more sales in less hours. If you or your company is in need give Aaron a call. I’m sure he would like to help you.

A commercial for the AMA. This outstanding seminar lasted about 90 minutes and had about 40 attendees. Lots of great information was presented that helped me do my job better immediately and lots of great folks were there to network with. What a benefit!!

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Photo credit - I was looking for an "agreement" photo. Thought this was a great one.

The Time to Invest is NOW!

2010-03-13T16:38:00.007-05:00

This article was originally published at Inside Indiana Business and can be accessed at http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/contributors.asp?id=1643

I was at the monthly meeting of the Venture Club of Indiana recently. The organizers had invited respected entrepreneurs, angel invertors and venture capitalists from around the country to comment on the Top Trends Impacting Midwest & Indiana Business in the Upcoming Year. The panelists accepted questions from the audience and seemed very open and passionate in their responses.

One topic that came up repeatedly was that a recession is a great time for buying companies. The reason is that there are lots of good ideas to pick from and valuations of many companies are relatively low when compared to a booming economy. To prove a point one of the members of the panel asked the audience how many individuals in the audience were looking for money? About 75 hands went up from the group of about 400 individuals. When asked how many people were ready to invest today only about 10 volunteers raised their hands.

I think it is human nature that when times are bad many of us hide in our “box” where it is safe until we are convinced it is safe to come out. However if you look at history a lot of winners did just the opposite and invested in times of turmoil. I read an article recently that stated 16 of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average were started during a recession or down economy. These include Procter & Gamble, Disney, Alcoa, McDonald's, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson. Some other companies that made their start when many were pulling back are Hyatt Corporation, Burger King, IHOP, FedEx, LexisNexis, CNN, and Microsoft. Why did these companies succeed? The founders knew their customers, understood their needs, understood the changing environment they were operating in, and created new products and services to meet the needs. They identified a solution and were not afraid to move forward.

In a recession the reservoir of business is drained to critical levels exposing the rocks on the bottom. Companies set in their ways with aging policies/mindsets are like ships that were able to succeed in good times but are now too bulky and crash into the rocks. This creates opportunities for nimble, flexible companies (visualize a speedboat) to take advantage of the situation and change.

In the climate today here are a few investments to consider to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Market your existing products aggressively. As others decrease marketing and promotional spending keeping your level of spending the same or even increasing it will help you build share of voice in the marketplace. This increased share will give you an incredible advantage over your competition now and once the economy begins to grow again.

Innovate your product line. Has your market changed? Can you come up with a better mousetrap that will allow you to meet your customer’s needs at a lower price point.

Improve your production process. Can you produce more for less allowing you to lower your price and buy market share?

Fill a new market vacuum. How are your competitors responding to the recession? Are they pulling back creating a vacuum that you can fill?

Talk to your existing customers? Are they happy? What are their needs? Identify things your company can do to increase sales to them. A satisfied customer is much easier to sell than a new one.

Entrepreneurs willing to take risks with their time and/or financial resources understand that this is a time to invest rather than pull back. It is what makes them entrepreneurs. This is what separates them from all others.

In summary don’t be afraid to invest now. When the economy improves and your competition climbs out of their box you will be several steps ahead.

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

Photo credit

Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes

2010-01-18T17:06:00.009-05:00

A large article appeared yesterday in the business section of the Indianapolis Star. The piece titled "Lilly changes course as it shrinks its sales force" discussed how the pharmaceutical giant was cutting over 4000 sales positions and how the changes were effecting selected representatives.

The article can be accessed here.

The fact that the pharmaceutical sales model is broken and needs to be revised is not a surprise. Experts in the industry have seen it coming for years. A few years ago pharmaceutical companies in an effort to increase share of voice in the doctors’ office dramatically increased the number of sales representatives calling on doctors. In many cases 3 or 4 individuals from the same company would call on a single doctor. Each representative would give the doctor essentially the same message adding little new information that would help the doctor prescribe the product. The representatives were rewarded on number of calls they made and volume of samples distributed rather than valuable information provided. Information was pushed down to the doctor. Listening to the doctors concerns was discouraged. As a result the doctors quickly became frustrated. They were not learning any new information. In fact the visits were taking time from their fee-paying patients. An increasing number of institutions or physician practices now ban pharmaceutical reps from calling on their doctors or make it mandatory that the rep has an appointment to see a doctor. Doctors view a representative as a distraction rather than an allay.

Times change. There was a time not too long ago when a sales representative visit (most were a registered pharmacists) was appreciated and valued. What happened?

My opinion is that in many pharmaceutical companies the short term goal of selling product at all costs overshadowed and in many cases destroyed the relationship between the company and key customers that had taken years to build. In the past a doctor and an educated representative spent time building a strong trusting relationship by engaging in effective conversation. This meant questions and answers on both sides regarding disease and available treatments. The representative learned about patients the doctor was seeing, outcomes she experienced and concerns he about particular therapies. The doctor learned how a particular treatment worked, details of clinical trials and why a drug should be considered for certain patients and why it should not for others. Quality information was passed. Time was well spent and valued by doctor and rep.

Today doctors are seeing more patients and receiving less income for each patient. The number of products to treat disease has exponentially increased. The time doctors spend to research new therapy is less. In theory the doctors’ need for quality information is at least as high today as it was in the past.

So what can be done? There is a solution but it is not easy and will take time and commitment to implement. Success will be measured over years but disaster can happen in weeks if management loses direction. Pharmaceutical companies need to build back trust with their key customers. They need to understand the patients that use their products and the doctors that recommend them. A doctor will need to see a pharmaceutical company not as a company that demands profit but as a trusted resource that will help him or her get the best possible outcome for their patient.

So how do you start? I think the winners will be pharmaceutical companies that make a commitment to walk in the shoes of their patients and doctors. The company must recruit and train a representative to really listen to and understand the doctors they support. How many patients does he see a day? How prevalent is a particular disease state? How dedicated are her patients to treating their disease? Where are his frustrations? What questions does she have? What information can be provided to make his life a bit easier? How can the rep win the doctors trust? Remember trust will and should be built on the exchange of quality information. Gone are the days when trust was bought by sponsorships, lunches, trips, trinkets and/or grants.

This is how you build a relationship. This is how you rebuild your brand, your company, and your business. It will happen one doctor at a time, one rep at a time. It will mean that representatives will be placed in an area for an extended time to build and grow relationships. It will mean that representatives are trusted to develop relationships and not just to deliver a scripted message.

In the successful pharmaceutical company of the future representatives will decline in number but increase in knowledge and value. Many of today’s reps will find new employment in other areas. A few will rise to the challenge and be rewarded both monetarily and professionally.

Can it happen? I think so but I am an eternal optimist. Let me know your thoughts.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Image: By Jennifer König http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/85155202/flickr?esource=en-us_flickr_photo

Movin' On

2010-01-01T21:20:00.008-05:00

Yesterday 12/31/09 was my last official day as Director of Marketing for ParaPRO. Next week I start a new chapter with EYP Advisors. That story is for a future post. Today I’d like to say thanks to a few people that have helped me in 2009.

Social media expertise. One of my goals for 2009 was to increase my understanding how social media can be used to initiate and grow relationships with key customers. James Burnes, Don Schlinder, Shayna Martin and the team at MediaSauce did a great job helping us understand how our customers were using social media and what we could do to make a real impact. Together we created a living lab and had the opportunity to experiment and figure out what worked, what needed improvement, and how to maximize the opportunities we were seeing. Dr. Itchy and the disease awareness site at http://www.dritchy.com/ are properties other companies will be using as benchmarks for years to come.

A quality article. Another one of my goals was to publish an article on our clinical trial results in a peer-reviewed journal. Julie Aker, Leslie Schuh and the team at Concentrics did a tremendous job assisting Dr. Dow Stough to get the paper published in the journal Pediatrics.

Public relations. Ed West and Debbie Davis taught me a lot about how the media works and how to create win/win opportunities to get our message out.

The team at ParaPRO. No one can get big picture things done if the small things don’t get done. A big thanks to my admin team. I wrote about them in an earlier post.

The ownership of SePRO. In 2002 SePRO, the parent company of ParaPRO decided to take a gamble and invest to license the active Spinosad from Eli Lilly and Company for the treatment of human head lice. Since that time the company has invested considerable resources to complete clinical trials and bring a product to market that will change way head lice are treated. Without management willing to take considerable risk and think like an entrepreneur this opportunity never would have happened.

May 2010 bring you much happiness and success.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Explode Your Box!!

2009-12-17T16:32:00.008-05:00

There has been a lot written and said recently about thinking outside the box, thinking outside the lines, and expanding your horizons. Steve Coats and Tim Heuer wrote a very good book titled “There is No Box” with compelling ideas about why and how companies and their executives need to think differently.

Marketers know that the way to bring attention to a product or service is to stand out from the crowd, do something differently, and deliver a compelling message in a unique way. During a recession when others are pulling back one line of thought is to increase investment in advertising. In many cases not only will you stand out from the crowd but you may be able to buy market share more economically than in times of economic growth. Unfortunately in many companies it does not happen. Opportunities are lost.

Why is it so hard to change?

My hunch is that each of us has a box we carry with us. For some of us the box is bigger than others. When times are rough, such as in this recession, human nature is to go where we are safe. Go hide in our box. Maintain the status quo. Ride it out until things get better.

We are missing a big opportunity. It is time to explode the box. It is time to explode your box and think creatively about the future.

When I was in the Navy we regularly prepared for our job by participating in “war games.” The crew of the submarine would simulate a situation where we would attack the enemy, accomplish our mission and hopefully live to fight another day. We learned a lot about our decision-making ability as a team, about the way we communicated with each other under stress, and about what tactics work and which ones didn’t. Our payoff was the confidence that we would know what to do if and when we ever needed to play the game for real. So why can’t we do this in business? Rather than retreat to our box lets explode the box!

What are the “givens” in your business?

The givens are the absolutes, the critical assumptions that if upset would be game changing. How would you compete if your givens suddenly changed?

What if you lost the patent protection on your best product? What if your best product received a failing grade in Consumer Reports? What if your competitor lowered the price on their product by 50%? What if your competitor figured out how to reach your customer in a new, cost effective way that made your current sales force obsolete?

These examples ask what would you do if your competitor moved first. Another way to look at the exercise is to ask what game changing moves can and should you consider to put your competitor on the defensive and build a sustainable advantage?

How do you get started?

The first rule is to perform the exercise proactively, before you need to in real life. That way you can make mistakes and learn from them. The second rule is to take the exercise seriously, consider performing it off site with few distractions (i.e. leave the Blackberry at the door). Gather your team together and ask yourself what you would do if a game changing event occurred to you and your business? How would you respond? How would you make lemonade out of lemons?

In this day when so many are running scared explode your box, change the rules of the game and have fun!

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

This article was first published in the Inside Indiana e-newsletter December 15, 2009.

Do it with passion!

2009-12-01T15:59:00.005-05:00

I was having lunch with a friend of mine last week. She and her team had written an article documenting a clinical trial we had sponsored. We succeeded in getting the piece published in a reputable peer reviewed journal. The response was positive and one of the authors was invited to present the paper at the annual meeting of a key doctor group. Both events have generated considerable press coverage. All-in-all a very successful project.

We were talking about things we did right. At one point she said many people in her office were impressed by the passion I had for the project. She said it was contagious. They performed better which got others to perform better.

I paused, smiled and thanked her for the comment. Afterward I got to thinking our project succeeded where others had not been as successful. If having a positive attitude was one small piece in its overall success I’ll take it.

I choose to wake up on most days and be excited about what I’m doing. I also like to work with others that feel the same way. Unfortunately there are lots of people out there that don’t feel the same way. I recently came across an article that summarized a survey of over 7,500 employees and interviews with 40 HR and line managers on employee engagement. The report found that 19% of those interviewed are completely disengaged, and 13% are disillusioned and at risk for becoming disengaged. A disengaged employee is an energy “taker” who uses energy and takes motivation down with them. If these statistics are correct and you have a team of 6 members there is a good chance that 2 of them may be dragging you and your team down.

Surround yourself with “Tiggers”
So what do you do? Mindy Grossman, Chief Executive of HSN Inc. was profiled in an article in the NY Times recently. In the article she said
“There are a number of things that are really important to me. One … is that you only hire Tiggers. You don’t hire Eeyores. It doesn’t mean they have to be loud, but I need energy-givers and I have to get a feeling that this person is going to be able to inspire people. Are they going to be optimistic about where they’re going? Are they going to attract people who are like that?”

Unfortunately most of the time we may not get to choose the members or our team. We make the best with what we have.

Make a difference
We do choose every day how we look at challenges and how we treat others. If we treat each other with respect, if we have passion about what we are doing and what our team can achieve my feeling is that the energy spreads. We create “Tiggers” around us.

Leadership begins with you. You choose how you will be perceived by your team. Are you concentrating on the positive? Are you shooting for the stars?

Do everything with passion! You may be surprised with what your team will come up with.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Image: Tigger photo

Measure Everything!!

2009-11-20T14:37:00.004-05:00

I went to a Business Marketing Association (BMA) meeting sponsored by the Indianapolis chapter recently. Jill Snyder (Schneider) and Shawn Herring (Harlan) gave a very good talk on “Revenue Driven Marketing.” According to the presenters in order to defend a marketing budget from cuts all dollars spent must be tied to top line business revenue. If you can’t relate it back to sales don’t do the tactic. The more directly the correlation the easier it is to defend. We as marketers need to be able to say to management “If my budget is cut by $X, revenue will decrease by $Y” and have the data to prove it.

How do you start?

You need to ask before the process begins what is the revenue objective for the year? Then work backwards to determine the number of leads that needs to enter your funnel to make the objective. Remember marketing is in charge of attracting and cultivating leads. Sales closes them.

For example if your company’s revenue objective is $10 Million & the average contract is $10,000 your company will need 1,000 closed contracts to meet target. If on average 1 in 5 proposals close your sales team will need to prepare 5,000 proposals. If 25% of prospects get proposals you will need 20,000 prospects. If 1 in 5 leads are qualified as prospects you will need 100,000 leads. Your marketing team now needs to create a plan that will attract 100,000 leads.

Take your plan and break it down by tactic (i.e. trade show 1, trade show 2, advertising, public relations, email marketing, referral programs, SEO, social media). What is the cost of each? How many leads are expected? What is the cost/lead?

Prioritize your tactics based on cost/lead. What is the most cost effective way to attract 100,000 leads? Which tactics can be expanded? Where are the gaps?

Fund the things that are effective and cut the tactics that are not. A key part of the model is your sales and marketing team needs to accurately track where leads are coming from. Otherwise valuable sources of information will get dropped from the mix.

It is not an exact science!

Nothing is easy especially when it comes to money. The presenters said that this is not an exact science. Many variables are hard to measure. For example what is the value of brand equity? If a current customer orders again or increases a purchase how is that tracked? What is the negative value of NOT attending a trade show or industry event?

Get started

The first time you do this you won’t know the answers. You can track on line with complicated analogs, you can compute on your PC on an Excel spreadsheet or pick something in between. The most important thing is to start. The more Marketing is seen as a strategic partner for revenue generation instead of a cost center the better it is for all of us.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

What is your Mission?

2009-11-11T14:41:00.008-05:00

I was meeting with my communications team a couple of weeks ago. We were discussing the various initiatives we were implementing and the success of each. A topic that generated a lot of discussion was how we determined success. Some things are relatively easy. Success of an advertising campaign can be measured directly by the number of individuals driven to a website. Others are more difficult. For example how do you measure the success of a social media program?

As we discussed tactics and metrics we gradually got into team goals. Each of us, no matter who we were or what role we had, was critical to the overall success of the team. We each had individual goals that would help the team meet a much larger outcome. The more each of us understood the overall goal and how each of us was interdependent with others in the group the better it would be for all. We could help each other. Another example of the sum of the parts is bigger than the whole. 1+1=3.

Many of us have professional goals that are a requirement of the job we have. Many of us have personal goals and have a plan to meet them. Often these can be relatively short term in nature spanning weeks to months.

How many of us have a personal mission that will help guide us personally and professionally for years to come?

Back in 1993 I read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. One of his habits is “Begin with the end in mind.” In his words clearly envision the destination and then use a compass to help you get there.

A tool that Covey strongly recommends is for each of us to write a personal mission statement. This paragraph, poem, document will help us determine what is important to each of us. It will help us as we try to decide what to say “yes” to and what projects or opportunities to decline as we proceed through life. It will help us stay true to our inner self.

Covey recommends taking time to reflect and putting yourself in a setting where you can think creatively and write spontaneously. I was in San Diego and took myself for a few hours to the Torrey Pines Glider Port. I spent a very nice afternoon sitting at the top of a cliff staring out at the Pacific Ocean with Torrey Pines golf course to my right, Black’s Beach below and the occasional hang glider soaring overhead. It is one of the most beautiful spots on the West Coast.

My goal was to trust the process. I really did not know how it would come out but committed to myself to try. At the end of the afternoon as I watched the sun set I had written a passage that I still reflect on and let guide me today over 15 years later. It helps me understand who I am and how I would like to relate to the people that I love and trust. I’ve include it at the end of this passage for a couple of reasons; first so I can find it whenever I need to pull myself back to my basics not letting success or failure derail me from my ultimate goal and second so my family and friends can keep me honest.

Let me know what you think.

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

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PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT

I Roland Bydlon value the freedom
to make decisions,
to take on or turn down responsibilities,
to be creative,
to do things differently, to change.

I value the relationships in my life;
my relationship with Sue, my wife and best friend,
with Tim and Kyle my sons,
with my sisters (and all my extended family),
and with my friends both personal and professional.

I value nature and my relationship with it.

I value my faith and my relationship with God.

With these values in mind I commit myself
to be honest in all dealings,
to smile,
to always strive to be my best and do my best without respect to past situations or future considerations,
to take on new challenges willingly and happily,
to continually strive to increase my knowledge and skill base,
to actively listen and attempt to understand others before acting,
to accept divergent thoughts and actions,
to encourage others to be their best,
and to always strive for a win/win solution.

In order to achieve this mission I pledge to
respect my body, eat sensibly and exercise regularly,
take time to think,
take time to pray,
take time to love,
take time to say “thank you”,
take time to stop and listen to the “whispers”,
take time to plan,
and to avoid boasting to others, for recognition of a mission accomplished comes from within.

My overriding goal is to enjoy the day and to enjoy and appreciate life which is limited in length but is always dynamic and limitless in possibility.

From The Serenity Prayer
“Lord give me the courage to change the things which can and ought to be changed, the serenity to accept the things which cannot and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Roland J. Bydlon
Originally written 9/10/93
Updated 6/18/94 & 9/1/02

A Big Thank You!!

2009-11-03T10:28:00.004-05:00

There is no “I” in “team”. We have all heard it said and it is true. The magic of a team is the sum of its parts. When a team works well the sum is greater than that of any individual piece. Yes 1 plus 1 does equal 3 in many teams.

I have had the honor throughout my career to work with many gifted individuals. I try whenever possible to surround myself with the best people and set goals that will challenge current paradigms and thinking to introduce products into the marketplace in innovative ways.

At ParaPRO the marketing team is charged with some heavy lifting. After the overall strategy is approved the team is tasked with refining it and then developing and implementing tactics to carry it out. Around that team are many other individuals that often are not directly noticed but whose contribution to the success of an effort is enormous. For example we have a group of dedicated assistants that make all of our travel arrangements and handle any and all of our logistics issues. I remember very well a trade show where everything was delivered except one to the pieces of the booth. FEDEX had delivered 5 of 6 cases. Turned out case number 6 was about ready to be loaded on a plane back to Indianapolis. A very capable and valuable assistant turned a near catastrophe into a good story by getting the case rerouted and returned to the exhibition hall in time for the show. Checks have been cut and delivered on short notice when someone forgot to sign an invoice. Laptops have been resurrected when they decided to crash 30 minutes before a crucial presentation. Graphics to support critical efforts and been designed, produced and delivered in short order. Posters, books and correspondence have been distributed to customers as promised like clockwork.

It doesn’t happen by itself. Kelley, Robin, Cathy, Faye, Amy, Joanne, Cory, Bobby and Steve M. just want you to know that I appreciate everything you do. Great job!

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Celebrate the Now!!

2009-10-30T15:54:00.004-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been absolutely beautiful in central Indiana. The maples are brilliant yellow and orange, the burning bush is a bright red, the corn is gold and ready for harvest. I was driving east to work one morning last week under a canopy of tall maples. As I came to a clearing the sun was just beginning to rise, the wispy clouds in the sky caught the reds, oranges and white of the upcoming day. The gold leaves on the trees glowed. I felt like pulling over to the side of the road and just watching the spectacle. By the time I got to work 15 minutes later the sun was higher on the horizon and the fireworks in the sky were gone. As I glance out my window today, many of the trees that were so stunning last week are now bare. Time flies, moments pass saved to memory only or at least until next fall.

I was in an exercise class last weekend. The instructor had just moved here from Israel. He had never seen a Midwestern Fall. There was one tree that was bare along with a number that were in full color. He made the comment, “do they all get like that (the bare one), that’s depressing.” I was thinking yes they all lose their leaves. That’s why we need to appreciate them now while they are in full color. We may need to go a bit slower to take in the full effect. It will be different tomorrow.

How many times have you wished things were like the way they were yesterday, or a year ago? How much time are you spending worrying about what may be in the future? You can't change the past or control the future. The only thing we can control is what is happening right now. How much time have you set aside to enjoy the “now?”

I took a few minutes last week, sat in my back yard and just watched the leaves fall off the trees. I heard sounds I hadn’t heard before; I watched birds and animals I did not know were there. I was in the “now" and if felt refreshing.

A priest recommended to me a long time ago to "listen to the whispers". The only way you can hear a whisper is to slow down and take the time to listen and observe.

Take some time and celebrate the “now” this week. You’ll be glad you did.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Don’t build an El Camino

2009-10-18T22:46:00.007-04:00

Remember the El Camino. The 60’s - 70’s era automobile that looked like a small pickup truck. Turned out it was too small to haul many things around and many said the engine was too small to haul around what it had. This, made for all, car/truck turned out to not be very useful for many.

The reason I bring this up is that a successful product must meet customer needs, be priced competitively and be fundamentally different that other products on the market. People need to be able to remember your product and be passionate enough to tell others about it.

As a marketer we are charged with creating big ideas to make our customers aware of what we have to offer and encourage them to try it. Seth Godin refers to this as a “Purple Cow”, Guy Kawasaki writes about it in “Rules For Revolutionaries”.

But people are fundamentally risk averse. When times get tough they go back to what you know, the status quo. It used to be said, until a few years ago, that no one would ever be fired for buying an IBM.

So this is the marketer’s (and the product developer’s) dilemma. How to implement a plan to significantly differentiate your product or service from the competition while at the same time attracting support and funding from a risk averse management team.

What is a significant change? Like lessons in history change is usually measured well after the product was implemented. A color change, an added feature, a line extension often isn’t enough to change the game and draw customers to your product. On the other hand Apple changed the game in personal computing with the introduction of the Macintosh and then did it again years later with the iPod and the iPhone.

These examples are well documented. Numerous individuals have received millions in consulting fees touting a different way to think about business, to create game changing ideas, and them to implement them. My guess is that most companies have had off site retreats to come up with strategy to make this happen. Still few game changing ideas in established companies are coming to market. If we are going to be a world player and compete with growing economies in Europe and Asia we need to do better.

So why can’t we implement? My hunch is that it may have something to do with an overload of data. We have so much data at our fingertips, available 24/7, that we over react. The teams providing the funding want real time information updated continuously. Investments in programs that in the past needed months to grow are now given weeks or days before funding is reanalyzed.

Marketers and product developers want to (in the words of Gene Roddenberry) boldly go where no man has gone before. CFO’s and others in management many times want to maintain the status quo because that is what everyone is comfortable with. Management (rightfully so in this time of recession) is conservative with their capital and wants assurances we are moving on the correct track.

So how do you go for the fences while keeping the guys with the funding supportive? Times have changed since Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez landed in what is now Mexico and ordered his troop to burn the boats they came in. The only way they were going to get home is to use their opponent’s boats! Now that is a motivator. I wonder what the king of Spain would have done if he received the following tweet, “Burning the boats, Cortez is nuts!!” Would he have pulled the plug and sent ships over to bring everyone back?

Some possible solutions

The parallel path approach
First off I think you need to find a way to take risks while keeping the risk adverse members of management at bay. When I was at Eli Lilly we were tasked with developing an insulin pen. Our work became what is now the HumaPen. We found out through our market research that many of our customers were having trouble holding a traditional insulin pen. It was slipping out of their hands. It was rolling on the floor. Our answer was to develop a “pen” that was ergonomically shaped to fit the contour of the hand. Our competitor made a pen out of stainless steel. Ours was made out of two different types of plastic. Our pen would fit the hand and be “soft” to the touch.

Trouble was – it didn’t look like an insulin pen. Our testing with users was positive but the leaders of the affiliates in Europe were skeptical. We got around the objection by designing a more traditional pen design ALONG WITH THE ERGONOMIC DESIGN. Moving both along in parallel cost more money but kept our “jewel” moving forward. If it didn’t work we could always fall back on the traditional model.

Well the product was introduced and everyone loved the ergonomically shaped pen. I don’t know if any of the affiliates ordered the traditional version. We now had something that was totally different than the competition and it was significantly more cost effective for us to make.

The bridge strategy
Another example comes from the US Navy. The steam ship was invented in the early 1800’s. It allowed man to travel independent of the wind. It was a game changer but the status quo at the time was sail. The Navy would not build steam ships. “Management” has succeeded with sails. What if the steam plant broke? Everyone would be stranded. But a few committed individuals convinced the Navy to build ships with both steam and sail. This bridge strategy served well until steam could be proven.

Market segmentation
A third approach could be to segment the market and try your innovative strategy in a smaller, controlled market first. Once your approach is proven then expand it to a national launch.

Dream big, find a way to implement any way you can to prove the concept, satisfy the skeptics, then expand and conquer. Don’t dilute your concept. Don’t make an El Camino.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Why I am a member of the AMA.

2009-10-09T11:31:00.005-04:00

The Indianapolis chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) recently asked me to contribute to their newsletter. They wanted to know why I was a member and what I got out of the organization. I got to thinking why do I invest my time in an organization like AMA and what are the payoffs for me both professionally and personally? The following are my answers;

1) Why you chose the AMA?
The AMA gathers marketers from many industries (products and services, B to B and B to C) to discuss strategies and tactics that work. Whatever business we are in, mine happens to be pharmaceuticals, we are all trying to determine our customers’ needs and designing unique products and services to meet those needs in a cost effective way.

2) What do you get out of the Indy AMA?
I am meeting some very interesting people. Everyone has a unique story. Many people have similar business challenges that are keeping them up at night. The Indy AMA is a place to meet people to network and pick up nuggets which can save a tremendous amount of time and money.

Every gathering is different. Some have been more valuable to me than others. For example I attended a lunch a couple of years ago where Andy Sernovitz, the author of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, gave a talk. As a result of that one lunch I started a started a blog and launched a digital communication strategy at ParaPRO that encourages our customers to talk to us.

3) What you love most about the AMA?
I really like the events. The monthly lunches, the quarterly get together at watering holes around town, the opportunity to meet energetic, exciting people that love marketing.

4) More about your professional background?
Well I have been involved with starting and growing entrepreneurial companies for about 10 years now. ParaPRO is the fourth company I have directly worked with. If everything goes well and the FDA approves we will be launching a new chemical entity to treat head lice next year. Before that I spent 11 years with Eli Lilly in finance, business development, process improvement engineering, and global marketing. Before that I was a submarine officer in the US Navy. I earned an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BCE (Bachelor of Civil Engineering) from Minnesota.

I love the outdoors. This picture was taken in 2008 when my wife and I visited Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior.

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The editors must have liked my responses. They included them in the newsletter.

Bottom line. We learn from our experiences. Time spent in a good networking organization like AMA is well worth the investment.

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

Introducing Dr. Itchy

2009-09-25T12:19:00.007-04:00

I took a break from blogging for the past few months not from lack of interest. In fact my team at ParaPRO has been working on a number of innovative tactics designed to help us dip our toes in the pool of social networking. As an example we released Dr. Itchy to the world a couple of weeks ago. Dr. Itchy is designed to help school nurses teach their students and their student’s parents about head lice. We found that the “average” elementary school nurse sees in excess of 35 cases of head lice each year. Parents, after finding that their child has head lice, are often emotional. Nurses told us they needed a tool to help them explain to parents what lice are, how to get rid of them and, most importantly, not to blame themselves. Kids get lice. It is not the fault of the kid or of the parent.

Dr. Itchy contains a presentation that the nurse can customize and use to explain what lice are. It contains a letter that the nurse can customize and send home with the child. The nurse can send for and receive a Dr. Itchy poster to help them educate their students about lice. We also created a game that parents and students can play to remove lice and nits. If a few nits are left on the head they will hatch into lice that will lay more eggs and create more lice etc. Try it out if/when you get a chance. My 15 year old son played with it for 10 minutes before conquering level 3. I’m still trying to get there.

Question - What should we offer players that conquer level 3? Plz give me your comments.

We also created a companion site at MyHeadLiceTreatment that contains actual photographs of lice, a section on facts and myths about lice and videos to instruct parents how to identify lice and comb for nits. The site also has a tool that will allow a parent to send a message to the parents of their children’s friends (anonymously if they want) to alert them to check their children for lice if an outbreak occurs.

So why are we doing this? Will it help us sell a product? I don’t know. We don’t have a product yet. What we can tell you is that we want to create quality tools that nurses and parents will appreciate and use. If they like what we have hopefully they will tell their friends/peers. We would like for them to tell us what they think so we can improve the tools we do have. Hopefully we can start and maintain a dialog which will lead to less misleading information and better treatment options for patients with head lice.

Isn’t that what social networking is all about. We think so.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

BTW – I’m still looking for a backhoe for my friends in Honduras. If you have one laying around in the back yard let me know. :)

I'm looking for a good back hoe!!

2009-03-26T11:02:00.024-04:00

I’m looking for a good used back hoe. Well not for me. The equipment is for Sister Maria Rosa Leggol and her children. Sister is head of Sociedad Amigos de los Ninos (SAN) in Tegucigalpa Honduras. She runs two orphanages that care for children that have been abandoned or have parents that are incarcerated. She runs a farm for teenage boys to help them learn life and trade skills. She runs a vocational school for girls that helps them complete their GED and teaches them computer, sewing and secretarial skills. She also sponsors a number of micro businesses that employ local help and generate revenue for SAN and its mission. She is known throughout the region as the “Mother Teresa” of Honduras.

Sister and her boys.

I had the opportunity to travel to Honduras about a month ago. A group of us from our church helped refurbish bathrooms, install water tanks to insure a constant supply of clean water, deliver books and school materials for the children and help wherever we could to make life a bit easier for the staff and children.

There are so many needs.
Over 70% of the population of Honduras lives below the poverty line. About 30% of the population is unemployed. The average wage for a worker is only $10 per day. That said the people we met were filled with hope and willing to work to create a better life for themselves and the children they support

The brick factory
One of the ways SAN is teaching the community to fish is by running a brick factory to provide bricks for construction and employment to the local community. Cielos de Honduras is a for-profit enterprise that currently manufactures over 2 million bricks per year. The bricks are used to build houses on Sociedad’s property and also to sell into the local economy. Sister is providing an engine to teach local residents how to fish and provide for themselves.

The manufacturing process is extremely labor intensive. Soil (a mixture of sand and clay) is dug by hand, transported to a central facility and mixed to achieve the desired consistency. The soil is then poured (again by hand) into an auger and mixed with water. The slurry is pressed through a form, cut with piano wire (again by hand) into bricks, placed on a cart and then carried to an area under a shade where the bricks will dry for up to three weeks. (More pics) They are stacked into a kiln, fired for 24 hours and then after they cool are ready for sale.

The price of a finished brick is less than 10 cents each.

A back hoe
The primary bottleneck in the process is the first step. Workers are only able to dig down about 36” due to the hardness of the soil. This means that much more land needs to be purchased to acquire raw material. It is more difficult to stockpile material. The entire process often comes to a halt during the rainy season because it is impossible to get into the fields to dig soil.

A back hoe would enable the workers to dig down 6 – 8 feet and create stockpiles of material that would keep production going year round. The cost of a used one is about $25,000. The team has an excellent work ethic and mechanical skills and a passion to grow the business for their children and their community but they don’t currently have the financial resources to buy a back hoe.

What we need
What we are looking for is a foundation partner that would be willing to provide the funds for SAN to acquire a back hoe. (Picture of a suitable machine) An ideal situation would be working with a foundation at Caterpillar or John Deere to provide internal funding for a dealership in Honduras or here in the states to donate a machine. (I am trying to find a contact) An alternative approach would be to work with a non affiliated foundation or group that would be willing to provide cash funding for us to purchase a used machine that we can transport to SAN.

Potential Tax Savings
Contributions can be directed to Friends of Honduran Children, a 501 c(3) organization (authorization letter). Therefor any contribution or donation of equipment may be eligible for a tax deduction.

Lets create a win/win and help the children!

Sister and her team have an incredible, heartwarming story. I am sure with a bit of positive public relations this will be a win/win for the donor and SAN. Please let me know if you have any ideas for how to get this done.

The children will thank you.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Ipods and responsibility

2009-03-08T22:38:00.002-04:00

I was at the gym this morning, doing some sit-ups when I thought I heard music. At first I thought I must be working out too hard but I definitely heard music. Stopping I looked around. There was a girl about 30 feet away from me lifting weights listening to an Ipod. She was jamming to the music oblivious to everyone around her.

A bit later I was in the steam room. I had my eyes closed, in my own world and I began hearing music again. Sure enough there was a guy on the other side of the room listening to an Ipod in the steam. I don’t know how smart it is for anyone to strap a battery to his body, put a transducer in his ear and complete the circuit with a bit of water.

The inner ear contains the smallest bones in the body and is the core to balance. The human ear can hear sounds as soft as a pin dropping from several feet away. I’m not a doctor but if I can hear music 30 feet away it can’t be good for the listener’s inner ear.

I wonder if someone will sue Apple someday because they lost their hearing or maybe sue a manufacturer someday because they shocked themselves in a steam room, disrupted their inner ear and now cannot function normally because they are dizzy. A lawyer will argue that the manufacturer should have put a label on the product to warn the consumer “playing at maximum volume may cause permanent damage to the ear” and “do not use this product in a steam room”. The last lawnmower I purchased had a sticker on the casing that said “do not use this mower while barefoot” - duh!!

I wish a defense could be the user of the product should have some common sense and take responsibility for their actions. Caveat emptor – let the buyer beware.

Insurance against lawsuits is big business. We could be using the money we are spending for insurance to protect us against these actions for better things like inventing and bringing to market new products.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

They were all texting!

2009-02-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

I went to the Indiana Pacers – Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game last night. It was a fantastic game. LeBron had 47 points and the Pacers won by 1 point. A great night.

What struck me was the number of teenagers and twentysomethings at the game. There were a lot of them. And also what many were doing before, after and during the game. They were texting! The girl sitting in front of me must have sent 50 messages over the course of the 2 hour game. Using two thumbs she could put words on her i-phone faster than I can type on my laptop.

I don’t know how they watch the game, talk to their friends next to them and keep up with multiple conversations via texting but they seem to pull this multi-tasking off.

The marketer that can join this conversation should have a unique advantage.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

A Venture Idol Experience

2008-11-25T10:48:00.007-05:00

I recently competed in a very interesting, educational and fun contest called Venture Idol. I wrote a article about the experience which was published recently in Inside Indiana Business, a daily newsletter on events of interest.

The following is the full version of the article.

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

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A Venture Idol experience
By Roland Bydlon - Director of Marketing, ParaPRO LLC

Many of us have heard the term “elevator pitch”. You get on an elevator with Bill Gates and you proceed to explain your company’s big idea or reason for existence before he gets off in 60 seconds or less. Think you can do it? I had the opportunity recently to make that pitch in a public forum. The event was the Indiana Venture Idol competition and the audience was over 200 investors and business owners tasked with evaluating and voting for a winner.

I survived the first round and made it to the finals but unfortunately ParaPRO did not win the $10,000 grand prize. What I did “win” was renewed confidence in our message, invaluable exposure for our company and, most importantly, renewed faith in the ability of teamwork to create a result that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Life teaches us that successful businesses are built by people that are passionate about what they do. Research has found that in the best companies the owners, and individuals in sales and marketing, customer service, even the back office are able to distinctly communicate what their company does and how their job fits in with investors, customers, vendors and other employees.

Venture Idol was hosted by the Venture Club of Indiana and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC). It was advertised as a unique, exciting competition that enables young entrepreneurial companies to compete for a $10,000 grand prize – plus the chance to showcase their innovation, market opportunity, and passion before a live audience of leading Angels, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Venture Idol was designed to allow Indiana companies to shine in front of a national audience.

The risk was you could also fail in front of a national audience.

As part of process for getting participants ready for the competition Bruce Kidd and the IEDC paired each entrant with a coach to initially critique the presentation on a one on one basis and then provided a forum where individuals could “dry run” their presentations in a friendly, controlled environment.

When I found out ParaPRO had been selected to compete. I wrote my 60 second and 5 minute presentations. Participants would present an expanded 5 minute presentation if they made it past the initial round. I practiced it numerous times, on my own. Even gave it to my dog, Sadie as we walked around the neighborhood. She was very appreciative. I was confident and ready.

My coach stopped by for our initial meeting. I gave my pitch. He told me I had a great speech. Too bad it was 3 minutes long. My 5 minute talk came in at about 10. My slides were confusing. My talk was missing the mark.

I went back to the drawing board simplified, rewrote, and practiced – now it was on to present to a group of 6 observers most from different backgrounds than health care.

ParaPRO is developing a product to treat head lice. A key benefit we hope to prove is that the product will kill lice and eggs. Parents will no longer have to comb out nits. I went into my story about nits and combing and time and frustration.

One of my coaches commented, after telling me I was way over the time limit, why don’t you just say that ParaPRO will eliminate nitpicking! BINGO! Here was an interesting way to summarize a benefit and get audience participation in a very short period of time. I was comfortable, had a tested message and had weathered the storm. Now I was ready.

The actual event was fun. I enjoyed having the opportunity to spread the word about our product, our company and how we were creating value in Indiana. It was a great day.

It never would have happened without a few individuals (you know who you are) that had the time and the patience to coach a passionate and nervous individual (me) to concisely tell a story that I knew very well but did not have the experience “performing”.

The event was a win for ParaPRO, a win for the attendees and a win for Indiana.

Here are my take aways from the experience:

Develop a message
Practice it in front of smart people
Listen to their feedback
Take risks, spread the word about what you do
Have fun & enjoy the ride

The following are some selected lines from a poem I copied many years ago and have carried with me (author unknown)
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To reach out is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To try is to risk failure.
But the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The one who risks nothing, does nothing and has nothing.
Only the one who risks is free.

Roland J. Bydlon is Director of Marketing at ParaPRO LLC. ParaPRO is a privately held, specialty pharmaceutical company. Their first product, a promising new medicine for the treatment of head lice, is currently under review by the FDA. More information can be found at ParaPRO website

What We Can Learn From The Election Campaigns

2008-11-13T08:30:00.002-05:00

I read an excellent post this morning that was written by Uriah Av-Ron on critical things to do in digital marketing - for that matter marketing in general. Whoever you supported in the presidential election I think you will agree that Senator, now President-Elect Obama ran a very good campaign, connected with his key supporters and raised a record amount of money for his campaign

Mr. Av-Ron offers 5 suggestions.

Maintain a consistent brand message
Use Social Networking and other means to talk to your customers and allow them to talk to you
Address customer pains - keep in short, relevant and consistent
Seek out new market opportunities
Implement strategy with tactics - all tactics must tie back to an overall strategy

Have a plan. Change it slightly if and when you need to but maintain an overall plan, measure the results and stick to it.

I copied the entire article below.

Until next time - All the best!

RolandB

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What We Can Learn From The Election Campaigns
by Uriah Av-Ron, Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 7:32 AM ET

As a U.S. citizen, I am inspired by this election process which culminated in President-elect Barack Obama's historic victory. And as a publicist working in digital marketing, I found a lot of valuable learning experiences from his campaign that are extremely relevant to online marketers.

1. Maintain a consistent brand message
In this election year, when a campaign could edit and upload a video to YouTube in less than an hour, Obama showed a level of consistency of message that is unprecedented. Though the Obama team did respond to challenges and opportunities from Sen. John McCain's campaign, the overlying message of change was consistent throughout.
This consistency was accentuated in the final month of the campaign by McCain's inconsistency following the financial crisis on Wall Street. First McCain stopped his campaign to take care of the crisis, and then flip-flopped by participating in the first debate a week before Congressional bailout plan was passed. Even Obama's even-tempered disposition during the three presidential debates stood in stark contrast to McCain's tempo, facial expressions and pacing.
In reviewing some of Obama's initial online videos uploaded onto YouTube from early 2007 and 2008. The messaging theme of "change" was already evident in these early videos.
By maintaining a consistent message, Obama also managed to deflect some of the challenges to his campaign, including his lack of executive experience and his association with William Ayres.
As marketers, we all too often have the urge to change something -- a tagline, ad creative, a messaging point -- with something newer. But as we can learn from the Obama's campaign, in this case, change isn't necessarily a good thing.

2. Use of Social Networking
We keep hearing that social networking websites are only good for branding campaigns, yet Obama raised much of his $600 million war chest using social networking. That's quite a result for an ad vehicle that's not supposed to generate results.
I suspect the secret here is in inspiring passion. The challenge for most marketers is that the products or services we are marketing don't inspire passion among the masses. But even if our products or services don't inspire passion, we can all find a way to tie our products or services to ideas that do inspire passion. For example, for a client in online publishing, I'm pitching a charity drive where monies are raised and donated to support literacy. A component of this effort should involve having my client's employees become personally involved in a literacy outreach. There is nothing like the inspiration derived from helping a little boy or girl learn to read.
But a charity campaign is only one way. There are many ways to inspire passion in our customers and communities. And as good marketers, it's up to us to figure out ways to inspire passion.

3. Address customer pains
I watched Obama's response to President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address from January of this year on YouTube where he referred to a sagging economy and problems in the banking system. Though Obama didn't make the economy the main issue of his campaign before September, he clearly understood the importance of economy in the election. And of course, Americans were ripe for change.
In contrast, McCain focused on a range of issues including Iraq and earmarks, which did not resonate with enough Americans.
So when was the last time you spoke with one of your customers? I have learned some of my best marketing lessons from conversations with customers. Marketers should speak at least once per week (if not more) with customers.

4. Seek out new market opportunities
The two main ways to increase sales are to (a) increase your share of the market, and (b) to look for new markets where you can increase your sales. But how many of us expected to see Indiana in the list of markets Obama would pursue?
One of the reasons cited for the Obama campaign's primary victory over Senator Hillary Clinton is the presence of an Obama organization in almost every state. Obama used this organizational advantage to win most of the primaries held immediately after Super Tuesday. He then took the lead in the delegate race and never looked back.
Again in the national election, Obama had strong organizational networks in place in a number of states that had voted for President George W. Bush in 2004, including Virginia, Indiana, Florida and North Carolina. These efforts enabled registering millions of voters and encouraging them to get out and vote.
So how can marketers tap into new markets? There are no easy answers here, but it takes an open mind that's willing to look in unconventional places and through partnerships that enable opening new market opportunities.

5. Implement strategy with tactics
In difficult economic times, there is a tendency to forgo strategy and focus on tactics. But the best tactics are an extension and implementation of a properly defined strategy.
Obama focused on a consistent message centered on a strategy of change and utilized defensive tactics to marginalize McCain's challenges in the face of his own messaging.
In the final month and a half of the campaign, McCain focused exclusively on a range of changing tactics in attempt to improve his poll numbers.
Specifically in the current economic climate, digital marketers need to define strategies that will carry them through the next couple of years and develop tactical plans that will enable them to deliver according to the strategy.
In his concession speech, McCain showed his dignity and humility which have characterized the bipartisan spirit of his tenure in the U.S. Senate. Just maybe, that tone, tempo and messaging, minus a Wall Street crisis, could have brought about a different result.
Av-Ron is the founder/partner of www.oasis-pr.com, an Internet & technology-focused PR agency.

Are you LinkedIN?

2008-10-03T16:07:00.004-04:00

I was reminded several times over the past few weeks of the value of LinkedIN or other social networking sites. I reconnected with several good friends from my past. They "found" me over LinkedIN. I had dinner with a old friend last week in San Diego that I had not seen in years. I had breakfast with a fellow submarine officer that is here in Indianapolis.

I'm up to 194 contacts and I am not really trying.

It is a great way to stay in touch with business collegues. You never know when you may need one.

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

A visit to the license bureau

2008-05-05T17:20:00.002-04:00

This is a note I sent to Matthew Tully, the political reporter at the Indianapolis Star today.

I went to renew my driver’s license today. Not a big thing but something I don’t look forward to. The last time, 4 years ago, I stood in one line to check in, waited for 45 minutes, stood in another line to take my eye exam, stood in another line for my picture and another line to pay the bill. The entire visit was over 2 hours of frustration.

I visited the Nora branch today over my lunch hour. There were only about 10-15 people in the office. I was helped immediately. I was out in 15 minutes. The thing that hit me was the mood in the office. Everyone was smiling!! “Tell your friends we have the best branch in Marion County”. The staffer told me.

Wow – things have changed at the license branch.

My profession is marketing. One of the first lessons one learns is if you want your customers to return listen to them and treat them well. I never thought a bureaucratic organization like the license branch would make me smile. I don’t know how the governor and his staff did it but they have created a great organization at the license branch and deserve to be congratulated.

Now how do we get the same spirit into the Post Office?

Roland Bydlon
Indianapolis

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Politicians always seem to promise something and then come up with reasons/excuses why it never happened. The license bureau has been the whipping boy of inefficient government for the 20 years that I have lived in Indiana. I find it energizing that things are improving.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. You just have to look and appreciate the many small things that are improving our lives on a daily basis.

Until next time,

RolandB

Proactive Word of Mouth

2008-04-21T16:55:00.002-04:00

I read a very good article over the weekend on Word of Mouth marketing. It was published in the April 15 edition of Marketing News (American Marketing Association). The article titled “Spread the Word” by Michael Krauss discusses Paul Rand the CEO of the Zocalo Group. Zocalo Group has put in place a series of proprietary templates and frameworks for clients to establish a strategic and tactical approach to word of mouth marketing.

The key principles are: (taken from the article)

Own a position: Articulate an ownable position for your company.
Map the story: Create a sharable story that puts your case forward
Identify influencers: Define and connect with the advocates, including customer evangelists, industry thought leaders, recommenders and determined detractors.
Engage: Engage with influencers online and offline.
Measure: Evaluate the program impacts.
Sustain: Invest only in sustainable word-of-mouth programs.

A key part of this is to make WOM measurable and methodical. Implement regional campaigns some with WOM and others without then measure your results. How much response are you getting and at what cost? There are a number of ways to perform the measurement. The key thing is to measure.

Also interesting that influencers include determined detractors. As the saying goes keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Good advice.

Until next time- all the best!

RolandB

Should Marketing Executives Blog?

2008-03-26T10:10:00.003-04:00

I have been asked by a number of individuals, "why do you blog?" and "how do you find the time to blog?" Probably the best reason is that I blog because I find it interesting. It gives me a chance to experiment with a channel that is growing exponentially. It allows me to participate in a dialog with other interested persons I may not see or touch by other means. I am learning a lot and I think in the long term it will help me professionally by helping me explore ideas for promoting my business and also personally by helping me meet and establish relationships with some very interesting people. Social networking via Linkedin is helping there as well.

I came across the following article by Dan Schawbel titled "Should Marketing Executives Blog? Dan provides good rationale why executives in small and large companies should consider blogging.

If you want to know what people are saying about you (and/or your company/product) you need to be part of the conversation.

Until next time - all the best!

RolandB

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Should Marketing Executives Blog?
By Dan Schawbel

From the board room to the cubicle, there have been very few discussions about the role marketing executives should have when it comes to social media and blogging. At its core, social media breaks down communication barriers within an organization and allows a company to talk directly to stakeholders like never before. It provides an opportunity for businesses to change the way they interact with customers and receive feedback. Social media’s effect on the world of business was once a threat and is now inescapable.

As the size of companies increase, corporate governance over blogs becomes more convoluted. There are a few reasons why this happens. First, enterprises have the largest and most complex legacy processes. Second, they have sustained business growth without ever implementing a social media program, which makes them less likely to switch over. Finally, their labor force is of great mass and spread globally, which makes the message harder to control and blogs impossible to monitor.

Smaller companies, especially startups, have an advantage because they are starting to emerge and develop their businesses and can readily include social media components in order to achieve their growth goals. In each situation, the face of the corporation is directly tied to that of each employee, with an even greater impact at the executive level.

The Truth Comes Out
There is a lot of speculation in the blogosphere about whether marketing executives should blog. One train of thought is that if they were to blog it wouldn’t be authentic or transparent. Some assume the message would read as spin, typically included in press material. People automatically label marketers as people who are just spitting back corporate messages that may or may not be true. Are all marketers liars? Well, one thing is for sure, when you are actively involved and participating in social media, the truth does come out. If you aren’t true to your subject matter, then you and your company will endure bad publicity.

If you think there are no marketing executive bloggers out there in cyberspace, think again. Some are under your radar, while others are out in the open. Randy Baseler, VP of Marketing for Boeing, was one of the first marketing executives to actively blog. He posts about twice a week, with an average of 20 comments per post and about 460 blog reactions on Technorati.com (trackbacks). Then there’s Rohit Bhargava, who is a SVP at Ogilvy and Mather, and owner of the Influential Marketing Blog, which has over 5,000 subscribers and has given him the opportunity to speak at almost every high profile industry event. Both bloggers promote research, thought leadership and advice before even mentioning where they work.

Like Rohit, many marketing executives choose not to dwell on their own corporate template websites. Gary Bembridge, VP at Johnson & Johnson and C. Edward Brice, VP at SAP, choose to keep their personal identity, but also contribute knowledge from their fields. Social media is most prominent in the technology industry, with companies such as EMC, HP, and IBM, who all have formal blogging programs. Marketing executives, such as Chuck Hollis (EMC), Eric Kintz (HP) and Surjit Chana (IBM) have been highly regarded and received by partners, customers, journalists and even competitors. In this way, they have humanized their businesses and their roles.

The Benefits of Blogging
Blogging has been a great decision for marketing executives who don’t understand the basic fundamentals and want to get a feel for how the medium works. Ted Demopoulos, co–author of Blogging for Business, says, “All Marketing Executives should consider blogging. They need to understand social media marketing techniques, and there is no better way than first hand experience. If they don’t want to blog on something related to their profession, they can start a ‘throw away blog’ on an unrelated topic in order to gain familiarity with the medium.“ Aside from an unrelated blog, they can do a private blog or an internal blog, behind the corporate firewall. If the marketing executive isn’t aware of social media, then their organization will suffer.

There are even more benefits for marketing executives. Some of these benefits include positioning power and recognition in both traditional and new media sources. In a recent Brodeur study, over three quarters of reporters see blogs as being helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue. Also, involvement within an organization can help a marketing executive gain visibility or a sales force deliver its message. Social media is a channel where the reader does more than respond to products or new and innovative ideas, they also observe and listen.

I think Jackie Huba, co–author of Citizen Marketers and the blog, The Church of the Customer, said it best, “I see no reason for a company not to blog, unless they’re sleazy. Companies have a unique opportunity in time to speak to consumers in a human voice. Provide understanding, clarity and void of corporate bunk. It’s an amazing time to be in Marketing, Communications and Advertising. There is no reason for a company not to leverage this channel to build credibility, loyalty and add humanity. I write this from an airport while dealing with flight delays, so trust me – a corporate blog and humanity does (and could) go a long way.”

So, the answer is yes. Marketing executives should absolutely blog.

Dan Schawbel is the leading personal branding expert for gen–y. Dan publishes Personal Branding Magazine and Personal Branding Blog. He is also the first social media specialist at EMC2 and has seven years of experience in marketing.

Common Sense

2008-03-25T14:09:00.005-04:00

This news story came out this afternoon. The air passenger rights law was drafted and approved after hundreds of passengers were stranded at New York City airports a few years ago due to bad weather. Passengers were on planes, stranded within site of the gate, for hours without access to food or fresh water after the plane ran out. The airplanes would not go back to the gate because they were afraid they would lose their place in line. People were so mad they slammed the airlines and politicians got involved by passing a state law. It was a public relations and word of mouth disaster.

Now it seems the airline industry got the law overturned. Are these companies more fearful of lawsuits or angry consumers? Seems the fear of lawsuits won.

I’d like to see a gutsy airline guarantee that they will operate as if this law was in effect. Tell consumers that they matter. Then use the pledge as a way to differentiate their service from everyone else.

Which airline would you rather fly on??

It just may work.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

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Court Overturns Air Passenger Rights Law
By LARRY NEUMEISTER (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
March 25, 2008 1:11 PM EDT

NEW YORK - A federal appeals court has rejected a law requiring airlines to provide food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers trapped in a plane delayed on the ground.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that New York's new state law interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier. It was the first law in the nation of its kind.

The appeals court said the new law was laudable but only the federal government has the authority to enact such a regulation.

The law was challenged before the appeals court by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group representing leading U.S. airlines.

A true hero

2008-03-03T16:20:00.002-05:00

I had the honor of attending a party celebrating Don Moreau’s 20th birthday this past Friday. Don is a “leaper.” It was his 20th February 29. If you count the years since the day he was born on February 29, 1928 he was turning 80.

I did not know Don before the event. His daughter-in-law is one of my son’s (Kyle) teachers. My other son (Tim) did his Eagle project in support of HVAF, one of Don’s favorite charities, so there are a couple of degrees of separation between us.

Sue and I went to the event to show support for HVAF and Don. What I came away with was appreciation for a man that will stay with me for a long time.

Don volunteered for the Navy on this 17th birthday in 1945 then spent over 27 years in the Navy then the Army retiring as a full Colonel. Over the course of his military career he participated in World War II, the Korean War and the conflict in Vietnam. After his retirement he settled in Indiana and worked for and with five Indiana governors (both Republican and Democrat). He was in charge of the Indiana Toll Road and the Indiana State Fair for a time. He was the project director to build a monument to honor the Indiana natives that died in Korea and Vietnam. He was the president of HVAF, an organization supporting homeless Hoosier veterans during a critical time in the organization's existence.

The master of ceremonies was Joe Kernan, a former Indiana governor. One of Don's men from Vietnam, Governor Bob Orr’s widow, Don's cardiologist, the current director of the Indiana State Fair, one of Don's granddaughters, a state senator, a representative of the current Indiana governor, a representative of the mayor of Indianapolis and finally Don's son Bill all gave short speeches about Don and what he meant to them.

The common theme was Don stood for integrity, love of family and friends and hard work. Don saw good in everything (every room full of manure had a pony somewhere). Everyone mentioned that Don’s energy and “can do” attitude was contagious. People around him performed better because of him and they were there to thank him.

Finally all the tributes were done. Bill (his son) announced that food was being served and thanked everyone for coming.

They were not going to let Don say anything …………… (I guess they were worried that the crowd would die of hunger – Don was not short on words)

Don stood up; he had been sitting on a chair on the stage, and began to address the crowd. “I don’t need a microphone,” he said, “Can you all hear me.” Of course everyone laughed. Don is at least 6 foot 6 inches and has a booming voice. I want to thank God for getting me here he said. Then this gentleman of numerous talents paused, looked over all of us and said I just want to thank you. I could never have accomplished anything if it hadn’t been for you. (I don’t know if those were his exact words but that was the intent). I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place.

Special mentors of mine throughout my life have told me to study people you admire, find out what makes them tick and copy them.

In this age when the news is filled with politicians trying to destroy each other, businessmen treating colleagues like Donald Trump treats interns and many people feeling teamwork is more about being a survivor than finding a win/win solution I find it nice to know that Don Moreau and people like him still exist.

Happy Birthday Don. I hope I am invited to your 25th birthday.

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

Its share of voice

2008-02-18T10:22:00.002-05:00

I heard a news story recently that Toshiba might discontinue the HD-DVD format. It seems a number of movie studios have decided to put all of their future movies on Blu-ray which is developed by Sony. Best Buy, Netflix and other retailers are going exclusively Blu-ray. Looks like Sony may be on the winning side of this “war”. A few of us may remember the VHS / Sony Betamax battle in the 1970’s that Sony lost.

So what happened?

Is the HD-DVD flawed in some way? Why did Blu-ray (if this news story is correct) win?

A scattering from some recent blogs
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has decided to exclusively sell high-definition DVDs in the Blu-ray format, dealing what could be a crippling blow to the rival HD-DVD technology backed by Toshiba Corp. The move by the world's largest retailer, announced Friday, caps a disappointing week for HD-DVD supporters, who also saw consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co. and online video rental company Netflix Inc. defect to the Blu-ray camp. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9063061&intsrc=it_blogwatch

Blu-ray has won. That’s what everybody is saying ... I find it interesting how this all unfolded. Toshiba backed HD-DVD. Sony backed Blu-ray and put it in the PlayStation 3. The movie studios were split. But Blockbuster moved first and said that Blu-ray was outselling HD-DVD movies, most likely thanks to PS 3 sales growth. Then Warner Bros. announced in January that it would stop making HD-DVD movies and focus exclusively on Blu-ray ... if Toshiba pulls out, a lot of consumers may finally get off the fence and go with Blu-ray. http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/takahashi/2008/02/16/hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray-its-over/

So it looks like Sony put Blu-Ray on the PlayStation 3 and demand for products with the technology went up. The tipping point may have been when Warner Brothers decided to go with Blu-ray

The interesting thing is that Blu-ray may not be the best technology

Unfortunately, Blu-Ray is far from ready for general consumer adoption. Profile 2.0 players, the players that actually do everything they are supposed to (and everything that even low-end HD DVD players did), are few and far between ... [and] pretty much universally suck ... Pirates of the Caribbean and Ratatouille take a full 2 minutes just to load on most standalone players ... Sure, I may buy into Blu-Ray eventually. But it looks like it's gonna be a while before it's capable of doing what it should... http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=455592&cid=22439048

So why is Blu-ray winning??

It appears the marketing team has implanted a strategy that resulted in more positive share of voice for their technology. This resulted in positive public relations which led to exclusivity deals and more positive PR. Blu-ray now has momentum and is viewed as the technology of the future. People want to go with a winner and not get stuck with last year’s technology. The market may have already and decided quickly. As a result Toshiba can’t catch up and may cut its losses. Several financial analysts have said that Toshiba stock went up when word leaked they may discontinue HD-DVD technology they have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in.

The market is littered with superior technology that got trounced. Think Apple vs. Windows.

Depending on your political leanings Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards were both credible candidates for President. Both lost the share of voice battle and had to drop out of the race.

Going forward
As you look at your marketing strategy some good questions to ask may be;
Who is my target customer? How much share of voice do I need to break through the clutter and achieve my marketing objectives? What are the possible tactics and how much will I need to invest to achieve that share of voice? What are the repercussions if my competitor wins the share of voice battle?

Now I have to decide when to replace my one year old HD-DVD player.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

An experiment

2008-02-04T16:15:00.000-05:00

The more I learn about various facets of Web 2.0 and search engine optimization (SEO) the more I am impressed with the power of the Internet to begin and facilitate a conversation with interested customers and also with the ability of search engines to find pieces of data from anywhere on the web.

This is a small experiment to test a theory. The following is a bit of information about a product that we are currently developing to control head lice. More information about ParaPRO and our new product can be found on our website at www.parapro.com.

I am interested how widely and how quickly this page is distributed over the various search engines: Google, Yahoo, Cha Cha etc.

If you have questions about what we are doing please let me know. As always, thanks for reading this blog.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Description

ParaPRO is developing a crème rinse containing a family friendly formulation that is lethal to head lice. The active ingredient is derived from a naturally occurring soil organism and was awarded the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award to recognize its innovation in cleaner and smarter chemistry. The product, tentatively branded NatrOVA™, is currently being tested in FDA approved clinical trials.

-30-

Be specific, concise & memorable

2008-01-23T10:07:00.000-05:00

While skimming the electronic media today I came across an article on visionary leadership. The slightly edited article is included below.

Many people have told me that you need a 30 second “elevator speech” for your company, each product, and even for yourself. The idea is if you get on an elevator with a key customer can you tell him/her what you do and why they should buy your product/service before the elevator stops.

Carmine Gallo takes it one step further. Do it in 10 words or less and he provides some good examples of how a specific, concise and memorable vision has captured hearts, minds and success.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

________________________________________________________

Be a Visionary Leader
By Carmine Gallo

Extraordinary leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, educators, and professionals create an emotional connection with their listeners by articulating a vision so bright, so magnificent, the rest of us cannot help but come along for the ride.

Build a Vision Not a Statement.

Don’t confuse vision with a mission statement. A mission statement is a long, convoluted paragraph. A vision, on the other hand, must be memorable and must have impact. Therefore, it has to be simple and profound. The challenge is, of course, attaining both. So how do you do it? By keeping your vision to ten words or less.

Sell It – Fast!

The folks at Sequoia Capital, the prominent venture firm behind such companies as Cisco, Google, and Apple, call it “the one–liner”: a concise statement that tells people what you do. Condensing your vision into ten words or less reflects your command of the business and your market. As one venture capitalist told me, “If you can’t say it in ten words or less, I’m not investing, I’m not buying, I’m not coming on board, I’m not leasing you space. Period.”
It might sound harsh, but this venture capitalist makes a good point. We all have audiences that we need to influence. Whether they are customers, employees, landlords, bankers, or investors, they want to understand you and your message – fast! They need to “get it” so they can decide whether your company, product, or service is worth exploring.

Articulate Your Pitch – a couple of good examples.

Google - “We deliver the world’s information in one click.”
Cisco Systems - “We network networks.”

It’s the power of your words that will ultimately feed your audience’s imagination and encourage them to back your vision and values. If you can articulate a compelling vision of the world that is specific, concise, and memorable, you will not only have grabbed their attention, but you will have captured their hearts. And where their hearts lead, their minds are sure to follow.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. His book, Fire Them Up! contains insights from top business leaders who inspire through the language of motivation.

Six degrees of separation

2008-01-22T16:56:00.000-05:00

Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. The theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called "Chains." Playwright John Guare popularized the phrase when he chose it as the title for his 1990 play of the same name.

You may be able to jump start your search by knowing people that know high powered people and so on. In theory you can get a message to George W. Bush by knowing someone who knows Governor Mitch Daniels (Indiana) who then will deliver it to Bush. You probably can get a message to any politician in Washington if you know or know someone who knows James Carville and/or Mary Matalin (the political consultants). If you want to reach Peyton Manning you may be able to reach him through Tony Dungy, his coach, or Eli, his brother, or Kyle DeFur the president of the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital.

I bring these examples up because I have recently been experimenting with the social networking site LinkedIn. My son is having fun with Facebook and I have been reading a lot about the value of social networking so I signed up on LinkedIn, a site for professionals, a couple of weeks ago. About a week later I got two messages from individuals I had not heard of for a while asking me to “connect” with them. It was fairly easy, click a link and it’s done. This weekend while exploring the site I came across a tool that would identify names in my Outlook mailbox that are LinkedIn members. The tool provided an easy way to “connect” with any or all of them. I sent out a few messages and in a very short time had over 50 responses!

What makes the site really interesting is the way it helps you potentially contact individuals. You type in the name of someone you would like to meet. If he/she is a member of LinkedIn the site will identify the easiest path to contact them. For example one of your contacts may also be a contact of the person you want to meet. It will also tell you how many “degrees” you are apart.

This should be a great way to start a conversation or at least find out some background information on people you are interested in conducting business with.

Click here for my LinkedIn information and let’s get connected.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Understand your customer

2008-01-17T16:52:00.000-05:00

Rick Bailey and Sam Waterson gave a presentation at the American Marketing Association (Indianapolis chapter) today on best practices in marketing for not-for-profit corporations. Before I get into some of the detail I was intrigued by Sam’s title. He is the “corporate ethnographer” at Richard Harrison Bailey – the agency. I was impressed and needed to look up what an ethnographer did.

eth·nog·ra·phy (ěth-nŏg'rə-fē) Pronunciation Key n. The branch of anthropology that deals with the scientific description of specific human cultures.

It seems Sam studies various sub populations particularly the generation X (32-43 year olds), generation Y (21-31) and millennials (under 21) and observes how they receive and perceive information.

He discussed ‘how do you speak to a millennial?” My ears perked up – I need a few lessons on how to speak to my 17 and 13 year old sons. The typical dinner conversation is
(Dad) “What did you do today in school? “
(Son – either one) “Stuff”
(Dad) “What do you know now that you didn’t know this morning?”
(Son) “Nothing”

It seems, according to Sam, that millennials are much more “cause” driven than their parents or generation X and generation Y that preceded them. He suggested that marketers are selling products (such as jeans in Gap stores) by wrapping their products in a cause. Millennials will feel they are helping starving people in (name a country here) by buying specific products from that area of the world. He said that companies with products helping a distinct cause and a popular spokesperson (i.e. Bono) can do well with this group.

Now how can I turn cleaning the bathroom into a cause? I don’t think this will help much with my teenagers.

A major nugget I did take away is that marketers must really understand their target audience. A private college trying to recruit students actually has several different audiences with many different concerns. Therefore messages need to be targeted and segmented to each group. Students (time rich and money poor) may be looking for a place to spread their wings and try new things. Parents (time poor and money richer) are looking for a safe place for their children that they can afford.

Know your market, segment the message and make it easy for your key customers to communicate with you.

If this were easy everyone would do it. Ask your ethnographer.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Indiana - good for business!

2008-01-16T13:53:00.000-05:00

I had the opportunity to hear Bruce Kidd (Director of Entrepreneurship at Indiana Economic Development Council) and Nate Feldman (Indiana Sec of Commerce) speak at the Life Science lunch in downtown Indianapolis yesterday on business development in Indiana and particularly the Indiana 21st Century Fund.

ParaPRO was awarded a 21 fund grant of $2.1 Million last fall.

Some Highlights for 2007
1) 51 companies have been given 21 fund awards for a total of $65.4 Million since 1/1/06
2) Awards are given to companies with “market changing technologies”
3) 47 are entrepreneurial companies
4) 26 awards were given to life science companies for a total of $33.7 Million
5) The 21 fund is providing leverage to help companies raise additional capital. Companies awarded 21 grants since 2006 have raised an additional $150 Million
6) 44 Life Science companies have been approved for the VCI tax credit and have raised or are raising $80 Million (investors get 20% of investment back as credit on state taxes)

2008 Goals
1) Invest in 20-25 high potential new deals from the 21 fund = $25-30 Million
2) Support 40-50 SBIR Phase One companies and 6-10 Phase Two companies = $5 – 6 Million
3) Approve 60-70 companies for VCI Tax Credit and provide $7-10 Million of credits to investors
4) Create hundreds of new high wage jobs
5) Have a positive impact on our economy and in people’s lives.

More information on the IEDC and 21st Century Fund

The overall theme of the meeting was optimism. A few years ago a variety of speakers both in government and private industry were talking about what we should be doing. Now they are talking about what we are doing, why it is working and how we are going to make it better.

We may not have many natural lakes or mountains or oceans in Indiana. I am proud to say we have an improving business climate and a rapidly growing base of entrepreneurial companies. It is fun to be part of it.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Appreciate the moment

2008-01-10T10:08:00.000-05:00

I was driving into work this morning and heard the following poem “The High Water Mark” on The Writer’s Almanac narrated by Garrison Keillor.

The poem touched me. How many times have we lived through something and did not really appreciate the significance of the event until years later. Only then did we say gosh I’d like to do that again and this is what I would do differently.

I had an opportunity a few years ago to launch a couple of prenatal vitamins using a national sales force. My team at Integrity Pharmaceutical Corporation did a fantastic job and the products were very successful. A key new ingredient DHA is now a staple in both OTC and Rx prenatal vitamins. We learned a lot and as time passed many of us have ended up in different places and looked back at that unique time in our careers.

I have been blessed and now have the opportunity to launch another product in a different area using new techniques. I need to remind myself to appreciate the moment. I wonder what would happen if I just let go and drifted downstream …..

An interesting thought.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

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Reprinted from website.

Poem: "High Water Mark" by David Shumate, from High Water Mark (buy now) © University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004.

High Water Mark

It's hard to believe, but at one point the water rose to this level. No one had seen anything like it. People on rooftops. Cows and coffins floating through the streets. Prisoners carrying invalids from their rooms. The barkeeper consoling the preacher. A coon hound who showed up a month later forty miles downstream. And all that mud it left behind. You never forget times like those. They become part of who you are. You describe them to your grandchildren. But they think it's just another tale in which animals talk and people live forever. I know it's not the kind of thing you ought to say... But I wouldn't mind seeing another good flood before I die. It's been dry for decades. Next time I think I'll just let go and drift downstream and see where I end up.

Goals for 2008

2008-01-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who have been reading my blog. Sorry it hasn’t been updated as often as I would like. Something to work on in 2008.

At the end of Mass this past weekend the server offered the blessing “May all of you achieve your goals during 2008.” My wife whispered to me, “may all of us set some goals in 2008.” She was thinking of our two teenage sons but it got me thinking, what are my goals, both professional and personal, for 2008? I'm thinking of something much more than a new year’s resolution. What do I want to accomplish this year, how am I going to do it, and how am I going to know that I've done it?

I’ve mentioned Kevin Eikenberry several times over the past few months. A few weeks ago he posted a very informative tool on his website. “Make your 2008 Great: 26 Remarkable Questions to Unleash Your Potential. A copy can be downloaded here.

The tool is a list of 26 questions each on its own page. Kevin offers some helpful tips on how to answer each.

This week I am working on the first 13 questions which are reflection questions from the past year. The rest of the month I plan on working on the next 13, projection questions for 2008 that hopefully will help me draft goals and action plans that are challenging and achievable.

My feeling is successful individuals go through this process in some way to build from their past experiences to achieve results in the future. This tool is helping me organize my thoughts much better than if I would start with a blank sheet of paper. It also is a tool I can use throughout the year to gage how I am doing. Try it out and let me (and Kevin) know if you find it useful.

Happy New Year!

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Take control of your schedule

2007-12-14T16:59:00.000-05:00

This time of year many of us find that there are not enough hours in a day to get everything done that we need to. Regrettably the holidays are a time of stress for many rather than a time to slow down, relax and appreciate our blessings and the love of friends and family.

A good friend told me a few years ago that everything in life is a choice. When anything happens to us we (and we alone) choose how to react to it. We can rejoice, we can get angry, we can get stressed, we can ignore something etc. We also choose how to organize our day, what we will work on, how we will prioritize, and what we will put off until tomorrow.

We then deal with the consequences of the choices we have made.

My best days are the ones where I have made time to think through events in advance to plan the day and get control of my schedule. Many times I am successful but there are the days that everything seems to be going wrong. I’m human.

The following piece was written by Michael Stanier, an author and the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year. Michael runs the company Box of Crayons and publishes the newsletter Outside the Lines. He has been a valuable source of inspiration for me over the years.

The piece “For Love or Money? – Figuring out what really matters to you” may help you prioritize tasks and help you choose what to do today, what to delay until tomorrow, what to ask for assistance on and possibly what to ignore altogether.

Enjoy!

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

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For love or money...
My work with organizations, teams and individuals is about helping them do less Good Work and more Great Work.

Easy to say of course, but much harder to actually do.
At the heart of the challenge for us as individuals is that none of us live in a bubble, free of demands of the people and institutions around us. As John Donne wrote over 400 years ago, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...."

And we're all so busy that it's hard to step back and figure out what really matters.
So how do you manage the competing demands of your boss, your family, your clients, your peers, your friends - against what you want just for yourself?

Draw a map
Before you decide on a course of action, it can be useful to step back and get a new perspective on what's going on.

It's like hitting the pause button, a brief stop before our customary rush to the "do! do! do!" which dominates most of our lives.

Here's one of my favourite "maps" to help you see things differently.
Draw a 2 x 2 matrix (a box with a vertical cross in it, so it's two boxes wide and two boxes high).

Along the bottom put "what I want to do" (with one box "high" and one box "low"). This is the "love" part.

Up the side put "what they want me to do" (again with one box "high" and one box "low"). This is often the "money" part, as the "they" are often the source of payment (in money or in appreciation).

Who are your "they"?
This "they" will be different for each of us.
It might be your family, it might be your boss's boss, it might be your clients, it might be someone else.

But do get a specific person in mind - it will make this exercise much easier.
And of course, you can do a number of different maps, each with a different person.
How do you spend your week?

Now is your chance to map out how you spend your week.
Map out all your activities on this matrix. The more detailed you can make it, the more useful it will be for you.
So capture the meetings you go to, the regular activities you have to complete, the one-off activities you need to do, the administration you do to run your life or your job ... in short, everything you can think of.

Are things getting clearer?
This exercise can be useful in three ways.
1. You need to get clear about what you want to do. Unless you know what you love, how can you make it a priority?
2. You need to get clear about what others think is important. So you get to stand in their shoes a little. And what is often most useful about this exercise is that you find things you had assumed were highly important aren't as important as you thought.
3. You get to decide what you want to do differently as a result of this map

So now, what will you do?

Each quadrant suggests a different type of action...
1. You Care [high]/They Care [high]==> Keep on keepin' on! This is work you and they think is important ... so try and increase what's in this quadrant.

2. You Care [low]/They Care [high]==> This is work that needs to be done, but you just need to find ways to spend less time doing it yourself. Can you delegate it? Do it in a more efficient way? Find a way to eliminate parts of what must be done?

3. You Care [high]/They Care [low]==> For many of us, this is work that's hardest to do, as it's low on everyone else's list of priorities. So how can you carve out some time for yourself? How much time are you willing to give yourself to do it?

4. You Care [low]/They Care [low]==> You're probably doing this out of habit or momentum. Stop. Really, just stop. Or at the very least, figure out what is the minimum level of doing this, and do it at that level.

A copy of the chart can be found at http://www.possibilityvirus.com/blog/2007/12/13/for-love-or-money-matrix/

Michael Bungay Stanier is a professional keynote speaker, the author of the best selling coaching tool, Get Unstuck & Get Going ...on the stuff that matters and the creator of Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and The 5.75 Questions You've Been Avoiding. A certified coach and Rhodes Scholar, he works with teams and organizations to help them do less Good Work and more Great Work.

Customer Service is not dead!

2007-12-04T12:22:00.000-05:00

Wow it has been about 6 weeks since I wrote a piece for this blog. In the mean time I have returned from the American Academy of Family Practitioners meeting in Chicago, been to San Francisco for the American Academy of Pediatricians meeting and have traveled to numerous locations talking to doctors and nurses in support of a product we have in development. Also I had to plan for next year. Life is good but very busy.

I know a bunch has been written recently about how customer service is a thing of the past. There are numerous examples of customers being treated poorly in the name of lower prices and lower profits. Just want to let you know the outstanding customer service is not dead. It can make your company stand out from the crowd and have your customers asking for you by name next time.

A couple of examples;

Have you flied on Frontier Airlines lately? Each plane is uniquely identified by the animal on its tail. Each seat has a small TV in front of it. If you want you can watch ESPN or other TV programming or a movie for a small fee. Just swipe a credit card. You can also monitor your position on a map of the US as you proceed toward your designation. They provide free headphones to listen to music. They provide a granola bar for breakfast and/or a small snack for lunch – all with a smile. The seats are not crunched together. All of this and the tickets prices are about the same price as the other carriers.

I stayed at the Serrano Hotel in San Francisco. The hotel is part of the Kimpton chain that has been acquiring and refurbishing hotels in historic buildings across the country. Their motto is “every hotel tells a story”. The Serrano, located on Taylor Street, is intimate and beautiful. The staff is friendly. The little things were not overlooked. They had the soaps and shampoos as many of the finer hotels do but the room also had a plush robe and slippers. They also provided a number of extras such as tweezers, sunscreen, a lint brush, at a small cost. Every afternoon they served wine and beer at no charge in the lobby. It was a time to meet other travelers and exchange stories. All of this at a cost no higher than the Hyatt and Marriott down the street.

Makes you want to come back for more. I’m sure I will.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

A lost opportunity

2007-10-19T11:52:00.000-04:00

I went to a presentation recently on marketing strategy, a topic I am very interested in. The speaker was touted as an expert and had recently published a book on the topic. I was looking forward to hearing what the individual had to say and learning a few nuggets to help me as I create and update my marketing plan.

I was disappointed. The individual had a prepared presentation but no cohesive message. He asked questions of the audience but didn’t seem to relate his story to their responses. He had a PowerPoint presentation with numerous word filled slides containing boxes and arrows. He had an 8 point plan that actually expanded to a 16 point plan because most points had a number of sub-points. He made general comments such as you need “collective engagement with management” but no concrete examples of how to accomplish this. He didn’t offer me anything I felt I could use to help my business today. Lots of talk and glitz but nothing memorable.

Bottom line - I enjoyed the networking opportunity, the group was a gathering of marketing professionals from small to medium sized, high growth companies, but I could have passed on the presentation and speaker. I’m sure this guy knew his stuff and has been successful with clients but he didn’t present his case very well. It was a lost opportunity.

So how do you deliver a memorable presentation?

Stephen Gray, a partner at Rockford Gray a media relations company based in Denver, says you should ask yourself 5 questions before you put your pen to paper.

Who is my audience?
What is my objective?
What visual tools do I have?
What questions am I likely to hear?
What is my “call to action”?

Kevin Eikenberry in his book Remarkable Leadership offers these comments.

The presentation is not about you (the presenter). It is about the audience.
Open with impact - set the context, set your objective, provide the audience a WIIFM ("what is in it for me")
Close with action - summarize what was said. Leave your audience on a high note.
Then design the body. Kevin adds don't include any new information or Q&A in the summary.

When I was in the Navy the presentations were straightforward. The presenters told us the learning objectives were up front, they explained the topic, answered our questions and then summarized what they told us. Many times the topic was dry but you always knew why you were there and what you were supposed to remember.

So what makes a memorable presentation? A common thread in these three approaches is to plan your presentation in advance. Simplify the key messages. Make it personal. Tell a story. Engage your audience. Summarize in a memorable way. Remember the audience is focusing on you, keep the focus there – don’t depend on PowerPoint or other technology to deliver your message. Finally I would suggest asking a sample of the audience privately how they liked your presentation and what they learned. Did they take away what you wanted them to remember? If so, congratulations you have succeeded. If not, figure out how to deliver your message in a more personal way and keep experimenting.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Don't lose your customers

2007-10-11T17:31:00.000-04:00

I was talking to a business associate this morning and eventually we diverged into customer service. His wife had recently been in an automobile accident and he was extremely frustrated with the process that his insurance company was taking him through to pay for his car and medical claims. The accident was not his wife’s fault which complicated things because his insurance was not liable for most of the damage. He had not spoken to the other insurance company. No one had explained to him the process he needed to go through and/or how to get a vast amount of details sorted out. He felt that no one was looking out for his interests.

Here is a customer in need of help but no one was stepping up to help him.

It seems to me that some organizations just don’t get it. A dissatisfied customer will tell 10 of their friends how unhappy they are. Those 10 individuals may not use the company’s product(s) and may tell others not to use them. Right or wrong the company that is perceived to be at fault will need to spend a good deal of money to replace those potential customers with new ones. Much heartache could have been avoided if the organization had a plan in place that empowered their employees to make it right. The now satisfied customer may tell 5 of their friends how customer friendly the company is. The empowered employee will be satisfied knowing he or she helped a customer. Tomorrow the cycle may repeat itself.

The following article came across my desk today. John Tschohl does a nice job of suggesting actions that may turn a customer losing situation into one that will show your customers how much you care. His suggestion to act quickly, take responsibility, be empowered and compensate the affected customer may turn a one time customer into a lifelong one.

When airlines had customer service
I remember many years ago I was taking a flight on Republic Airlines from Chicago to Minneapolis on December 23rd. When I got to O’Hare I realized it was a mess. There was an ice storm in the upper Midwest and many of the flights into that area were cancelled or postponed. Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:00 PM. Around 9:00 PM the agent said that our flight was cancelled due to ice but anyone that wanted to could ride a bus up to Minneapolis. Many of us got on the bus which left at 9:30 PM. It took a while, there was a lot of ice on the road but at around 6:00 AM the bus pulled into the terminal at Twin Cities Airport. I made it home for Christmas. I thought that was the end of the story. About two weeks later I got a check in the mail from Republic for the entire cost of the trip. I didn't ask for it - it just showed up with a note apologizing for the delay.

Well I was hooked. Whenever I could I flew Republic. I told my friends this story and I’m sure some of them flew Republic. Everything changed when Northwest bought Republic, customer service went downhill and the airline lost my loyalty.

I think my ticket to Minneapolis was $150. I don’t know how much renting the bus cost them that icy night. All I know is that over the next 10 years I probably gave them thousands of dollars in business.

Now if only there was an airline with that type of customer service today. My friend’s insurance company doesn’t need to buy him a new car but could they provide an advocate to help him through the process. I think so.

Empower your people & give them the resources to make life a bit easier for your customers. The payoff is big.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

What to do when you’ve made a mistake.
By John Tschohl
Tuesday, 9th October 2007

http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=2443

You arrive at the restaurant 10 minutes before your 7 o'clock reservation and forty-five minutes later, you are finally seated.

The maitre de doesn’t offer an apology, and you are upset. Do you have a right to be? Absolutely. Will you return to that restaurant? Probably not.

Scenarios such as this occur at businesses every day and more often than not leave owners and executives wondering why their repeat business is taking a nosedive.

Instead of taking a good hard look at the reasons those customers are defecting, they invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising to attract new customers—customers who also will defect when they experience poor customer service. And the cycle continues.

John Tschohl, in his book Loyal for Life: How to Take Unhappy Customers from Hell to Heaven in 60 Seconds or Less, takes readers through a step-by-step process in service recovery.

“No matter how good a company or organization is in providing customer service, it’s almost a given that at one time or another they will make a mistake,” Tschohl says.

“How they handle those mistakes is what separates them from the rest of the pack and keeps customers loyal for life.” Service recovery, Tschohl says, “is putting a smile on a customer’s face after you’ve screwed up.

It’s solving a customer’s problem or complaint and sending her out the door feeling as if she’s just done business with the greatest company on earth. And it’s doing so in 60 seconds or less.”

Tschohl, who has been preaching the gospel of customer service for 346 years to organizations throughout the world, has developed four techniques for providing quality service recovery:

1. Act Quickly. “You must acknowledge the mistake immediately,” Tschohl says. “The employee at the point of contact is the person in the best position to successfully implement service recovery. When problems and mistakes are moved up the chain of command, they not only cost the organization more in time and money to deal with it the time delay increases the customer’s level of frustration and anger.”

2. Take responsibility. “No matter who is at fault, you must own the mistake and sincerely apologize,” Tschohl says. “Don’t place the blame on someone else; the customer doesn’t care whose fault it was, he merely wants it rectified. It’s also important to thank the customer for pointing out the problem and for giving you the opportunity to correct it.”

3. Be empowered. “Employees are not making empowered decisions because they’re afraid they’re going to be reprimanded, fired, or have to pay for whatever they give the customer,” Tschohl says. “But empowerment is the backbone of service recovery and organizations that truly want to serve the customers and retain their business must not only allow, but insist, that employees bend and break the rules in order to keep those customers coming back.”

4. Compensate. “You must give the customer something of value, something that will impress the customer and give her the feeling that you really do value her business,” Tschohl says. “Every company has something that doesn’t cost a lot but has value in the eyes of the customer.

An airline can upgrade a passenger to first class. A ski resort can give a free lift ticket. A computer repair store can extend the customer’s warranty by a year.” Service recovery, Tschohl says, can have a major impact on an organization’s bottom line. It can reduce the need for expensive advertising, replacing much of it with word-of-mouth advertising as customers tell their family, friends, and coworkers about the exceptional service they received from you. “Service recovery puts the ‘wow!’ in service and generates word-of-mouth advertising you couldn’t buy if you wanted to,” Tschohl says.

So what should that maitre de have done when you were seated 30 minutes after your reservation time? “He should have apologized and offered you something that had value,” Tschohl says. “That could be a round of drinks or a free dessert, which would have cost the restaurant a few dollars but carries a perceived value of $20 to $25. The magic in service recovery occurs when a frontline employee solves a customer’s problem and does so in 60 seconds or less.

Acting quickly, taking responsibility, making an empowered decision, and compensating the customer will result in customer loyalty that will increase your sales and profits and help to ensure your success in an increasingly competitive world.”

John Tschohl is an international service strategist and speaker. Described by Time and Entrepreneur magazines as a customer service guru, he has written several books on customer service, including Loyal for Life, e-Service, The Customer is Boss, Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service, and Ca$hing In: Make More Money, Get a Promotion, Love Your Job. John also has developed more than 26 customer service training programs that have been distributed and presented throughout the world. His bimonthly strategic newsletter is available online at no charge.

Cooperation in Medicine

2007-10-05T10:53:00.000-04:00

I enjoy attending trade shows. It gives marketers a chance to talk to key customers away from the distractions of their office. Customers are motivated and are usually thought leaders. Many of the players (companies) in a given industry attend so it provides a relatively easy way to see what others are saying in your industry and, maybe more importantly, how they are saying it.

I am currently at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) annual meeting in Chicago. There a number of hot topics here. Many sessions discuss the role of the family physician as the coordinator of care. The discussion is as medicine becomes more specialized and a patient sees a growing number of specialists for various ailments he or she needs one doctor responsible for looking after the patient and coordinating their care. Many doctors here feel that coordinator role belongs to their family physician. The AAFP wants a role. The heated discussion is around who pays for this coordination.

The feeling is that the cardiologist, oncologist, (you name the specialty)ologist don’t communicate effectively with each other, the patient and their family. This is hurting patient care.

Another big topic is what should the AAFP position be on “retail health clinics”. These are clinics set up in a pharmacy, food store, or as independent businesses to help patients with minor ailments. They usually have longer hours than a doctor’s office and accept walk in patients. A doctor or nurse practitioner at the clinic treats the patient and will send a report to the patient’s regular doctor if asked. Some AAFP members see this as competition. Others see it as a continuation of overall care.

In the end the organization adopted a resolution stating “AAFP does not endorse retail health clinics and believes that such health care delivery could interfere with the medical home.”

What does that mean? Are AAFP delegates in favor of seamless coordination of care or are they trying to protect their perceived turf?

There appears to be a need. People are getting sick at irregular hours and find it hard to get in to see their doctor if they have one. Family Practice doctors are overworked. I’m sure Walgreens, Kroger and other innovative companies will continue to offer and expand the service. Retail clinics are not going away.

Seems to me that organizations like AAFP should find ways to work with and help retail clinics. In return there are ways retail clinics can help a doctor grow her or his practice. The winner would be the patient. The pie is big enough for both and will only get bigger.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Die Easy (part 2)

2007-10-03T08:52:00.000-04:00

I sent a short note to Sears yesterday with a link to my post about my DieHard experience. I was curious how they would respond. This morning I received the following;

Dear Roland Bydlon,
Thank you for your recent e-mail correspondence regarding our DieHard battery warranty.
Please be assured that we understand your frustration, and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced.
By sharing your concerns, you have enabled us to address the issues and provide feedback to the appropriate person. Your remarks provide feedback that will enable us to improve our processes and customer experience.
We appreciate your business, and value you as a Sears’ customer. We certainly hope you will continue to make Sears your choice for quality and value
Again, we thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concern.
Beth G.
Sears Automotive Online Customer Care
1-888-819-6963

I must say that while I appreciate Beth G. and Sears sending me a reply they really did not answer my question about why their batteries do not last. If I had a complaint about a washing machine I probably would get the same response with "washing machine" instead of "DieHard battery warranty" in the first line. Maybe when the "appropriate person" reads my message I will get an individualized response.

Lesson: If you compete on service (and I think Sears wants to) then make sure your customers feel you care.

Until next time - All the best!

RolandB

The Die Easy

2007-10-01T22:31:00.000-04:00

The battery in the van died this weekend. Well, almost died. I got the call from my wife “Roland the car won’t start, can you look at it?” I put the key in the ignition and it slowly turned over but I knew something was wrong.

My 2.5 year old Sears Die Hard battery had a 6 year warrantee. I took it back to Sears. Sure enough, the battery was shot. They replaced it and gave me a bit over 50% credit on a new one. The sales associate explained that a “normal” battery lasts for 3-5 years but life can vary based on how the car is used. They replace the battery for free for the first 18 months. After that it is prorated.

Now this is a Die Hard battery. I can still remember the commercials that were on when I was a kid. A frozen lake in International Falls Minnesota. 50 cars all with their lights on. Hours later only one car starts – of course that was the car with the Die Hard. The message was simple and powerful, you got a Die Hard and you never had a problem.

Time marches on. Manufacturers and designs change. Now the battery is “maintenance free”. It never needs water but for some reason it doesn’t last. They still call it Die Hard. Too bad it can’t live up to its name.

Today my Die Hard doesn’t last for 50% of it’s warrantee but Sears has me hooked. I need to go back to get 50% off of a new one. An interesting but costly strategy. So much for Die Hard. They might want to rename it The Die Easy.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Let’s Lead!

2007-09-27T21:19:00.000-04:00

I went into a pharmacy the other day to buy some allergy medication. The form for $4.00 off of the Claritin brand was still not working (see my last post) so I ended up buying the generic. The product I purchased was a decongestant containing pseudoephedrine (Sudafed). It is now restricted and stocked behind the pharmacy counter. I had no problem finding it though. I went to where it should be on the shelf and there was a card that told me exactly where to get it. The pharmacist gave me the product and scanned the barcode on the back of my driver’s license. I paid for the product and was on my way.

It wasn’t always this way. A number of years ago Claritin-D and other decongestants with Sudafed were sold in front of the counter like aspirin. Pseudoephedrine is a key raw ingredient in methamphetamine, a very addictive drug. People began making methamphetamine (meth) in their bathtubs. They would buy a couple of months supply of decongestant in 5 to 10 different stores to get enough raw material for meth production while not raising suspicion they were doing something illegal. They sold the meth or used it themselves. The methamphetamine was killing people and meth production was polluting everything it touched. Much of the production was being done in rural areas such as Indiana farm towns where law enforcement was not equipped to handle the problem. Something needed to be done.

Law enforcement and civic leaders suggested that the State regulate decongestants. they suggested that purchases be recorded and individuals could only buy a reasonable amount of medication that they could use over a 30 day period. Any person buying over a certain amount would be placed on an alert list.

The push back was huge. It seemed everyone found something wrong with the new proposal. Manufacturers did not like it because they thought they would sell less product. They claimed people would not buy their product if it was controlled. Pharmacies did not like it because they would be tasked with keeping records of individuals who purchased the product. Many called it an unfunded mandate. Some in government did not know what to do with or how to track the data that would be created. Some people did not like it because they didn’t want government telling them what to do. Organizations lobbied their political officials. Politicians took a "safe" approach. Nothing happened and the meth problem got worse, much worse.

As time went on meth production affected more counties and more individuals. Families were ruined. Law enforcement was overwhelmed. The cost to clean up the problem, catch and convict the offenders and rehabilitate the addicted back into society was staggering.

A title wave had hit and something had to be done.

Store chains such as Target, Wal-Mart and CVS heard the outcry and began to restrict the product. Eventually politicians could not ignore the problem any longer and 30 states passed laws requiring that products containing pseudoephedrine be restricted. Finally the Federal Government passed a similar law in 2006.

So a law passed and the rules changed. You would think that everyone would take pseudoephedrine out of their products. Most had argued that they could not compete with a regulated OTC product. Some manufacturers did.

Only one problem though – the pseudoephedrine product worked and consumers wanted it.

Manufacturers like Schering Plough, the producer of Claritin-D, decided to keep their formula and vary other things to keep market share. Bright marketers put on their thinking caps and figured out how to keep shelf space and make it easy for customers to find their product.

Forward thinking pharmacies tasked their IT departments to develop scanners to take personal information (and conform to federal requirements) off of a driver’s license automatically.

In the end we found that we can have our cake and eat it too. The nay sayers had it wrong. A good product is still on the market with a minimum of inconvenience to the consumer and a deadly misuse has been controlled.

The reality is that industry did not change until it was forced. Voluntary unilateral change doesn't work. The process never would have happened without government intervention ……….

Now I am not a supporter of excessive government regulation. I feel the private market can and should be able to do most things better than government but sometimes, as in the Claritin-D example, rules need to be made to encourage the market to compete in innovative ways and improve society as a whole.

So what are some other examples of how government can encourage industry?

How about increased fuel efficiency in cars and trucks? We all know we need to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. What if the government would set a goal of 80 miles per gallon by a certain date (2017) and give manufacturers tax incentives for meeting those goals. The goal needs to be a breakthrough – not incremental. If we could get a man to the moon in less than 10 years in the 1960’s my hunch is we could come up some fantastic fuel efficient cars in 10 years. If the carmakers really set a priority on making a fuel efficient and powerful car for the US market I think we could do it. These cars would sell not only in the US but lead the world. Take that Iran!

Another area may be carbon reduction. We know carbon levels are increasing and also know a major source is the burning of fossil fuels. Some people ignore the problem or suggest very minor reductions. Why not go for a real breakthrough target and ask for a 50% reduction in carbon emissions over 20 years. There are processes available today that will take carbon out of the air. We need to make them cost effective. There are resins available now that are sprayed on or molded into precast concrete that cause dirt to react with sunlight and disappear. It is self cleaning concrete! How about a similar resin that when exposed to sunlight will convert carbon to something else? How about a carbon converting resin that can be applied to the blade of a fan. Every household’s air conditioner compressor can now become a pump to pull carbon out of the air. Manufacturers could get tax incentives from the government for building and using these carbon reducing fans. If a company invented such a technology their products would be in high demand. They would hire lots of people. We need to make sure it is a US company, with US workers.

A key strength of the United States is our ability to solve problems. Let’s set some challenging goals, create an environment for innovation and solve them before anyone else. It can be done. Let’s lead.

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

Make sure your website works

2007-09-18T11:55:00.000-04:00

I was doing some research yesterday and needed to look up the ingredients in Claritin-D. I googled Claritin and went to the Claritin website. Schering Plough must have spent a ton of money on it. There is an animation containing 3D pictures of simulated characters telling their stories. All animations direct one to a button that says “take the Claritin-D tour.” This brings up a pop-up window with a bunch of text with another button that says “ask your pharmacist now” but the button doesn’t do anything.

I’m still trying to find out what is in Claritin-D! It took me a few more minutes but finally I found a “read the box” link and got the answers I needed. Whoever designed this site must not feel that the ingredients of the product or the directions for use are a priority.

I see another button “Get a $4 off coupon” Well OK, I buy allergy medicine and occasionally buy Claritin or a generic. I click on the button, get a new screen, and fill out my name, email and mailing address. Under “State” the form has a dropdown menu but no individual states are listed and I cannot type in a state. There are two more buttons “usual brand” and “also tried” and both of those buttons are similarly designed. No brands are listed and there is no way to provide the information. I clicked the submit button and got a reply that my request could not be processed because I have not provided all of the information.

Attractive site, interesting graphics but the information I needed was hard to find. Even then Schering Plough got me to in type my name and contact information but I could not submit it. My time was wasted. Instead of a positive experience I now have a negative experience with the brand.

I wonder how long this form will be posted before they figure out that no one is completing it. What is the return on investment of a negative sales number?

Bottom line. Write down what you want your customers to do on your website. Figure out the simplest way for them to do it. Document how you will know the website is performing up to your expectations. Test it then test it again before it goes live. Once it is live tell your friends. Hopefully one of them will tell you if it doesn’t work.

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Change the Rules

2007-09-13T19:17:00.000-04:00

I follow college football and have been a HUGE fan of the University of Michigan football team since my days as an MBA student. I’ll pull for Michigan over anyone except maybe Minnesota where I received my undergraduate degree. I was shocked recently (along with most of the country) when Michigan, ranked at #5 nationally in a preseason poll, was defeated by Appalachian State (a division I-AA team) in their opening game 34-32. Last weekend they followed this “fluke” by being humiliated by Oregon 39-7. It was the first time since 1959 that Michigan has opened a season with 2 losses at home.

The post game critiques were ferocious. Many announcers / sports writers called for Coach Lloyd Carr to resign or be fired. Some questioned the passion of the team which is usually beating up early season opponents especially at home. The consensus comment was that Michigan was not used to or ready for the “spread” offense.

What happened?

A team with a spread offense thins out the defense by positioning eligible receivers across the entire width of the field instead of packing them in the middle for protection. If the quarterback can get his receiver the ball quickly there is less room for error for the defense. The players are extremely fast and the play is accelerated. Appalachian State runs without a huddle. Michigan’s defensive line couldn’t keep up. Appalachian State got one touchdown, then another. It was 28-17 at the half. Sports Illustrated reported “it was obvious to everyone that the Wolverines had no answer for the spread.” Mitch Albom wrote after the Oregon game “they have played two games now and the defense is apparently still checking into the dorms.” The TV announcers said Michigan liked to play “smash mouth” football. They were out of their comfort zone.

The rules had changed.

Appalachian State and Oregon had proactively changed the rules of the game. They did not try to run up the middle against Michigan's big line or drop their quarterback into a traditional pocket. Michigan seemed unprepared and could not compete.

Why?

Didn’t Coach Carr know these two teams were on his schedule? Didn’t he know they both ran the spread? Shouldn’t he have been preparing for these two games since January? Yes, yes and yes. For some reason either he didn’t do a very good job of planning and/or his team didn’t implement well. He was outcoached. He commented after the Oregon loss “maybe the game’s passed me by.” - WOW

So where am I going with this? How can David kill Goliath or at least create havoc?

As a marketer I try to put myself into the shoes of my customers, my suppliers, my distributors and finally my competitors and then play a “what if” game. I play to win. If I implement a certain tactic how will it be perceived by these key groups? How will they react?

In the military they call it out flanking your enemy. Rather than going head to head against an opponent’s strength (or competing the way everyone else is) figure out a weakness of the opposing army and exploit it. Appalachian State and Oregon proactively chose not to play traditional “smash mouth” football against Michigan. They apparently had a stable of smaller, faster players and used them to their advantage. They took a risk, changed the game and won. Michigan was caught off guard.

Now tie this back to your product, your service, your company or maybe even you as a person. How can you publicize, promote, sell and/or distribute your product in such a way that your competition won’t have an answer for how to compete? Think out of the box. Your competition may be so invested in the current system that they can’t or won’t change until it is too late.

How do you change the rules of the game? It probably will involve taking calculated risks since few companies in your market are successfully doing it now but the potential rewards are huge.

Now I hope Michigan can turn it around against Notre Dame this weekend. At least the Irish don’t have a spread offense. Go Blue!

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

Stay Connected

2007-09-04T11:04:00.000-04:00

I started this blog a couple of months ago after I heard a talk by Andy Sernovitz on word of mouth marketing. The topic that stuck in my mind is that people are already talking about you and your company and products. Your only option is to join the conversation.

I think 80% of the stuff on the web is junk. Many will argue it is close to 95%. It seems like there are many blogs and micro sites that are operating for the sole purpose of selling you something or trying to get you to click on a Google Ad. I wonder how successful they are. There are individuals however that are publishing some very good information about specific topics. It doesn’t take a lot of research to separate the good from the chaff. People will link to a good blog and share the information readily with friends, family and co-workers. Information is spreading with the pace of a wildfire in a windstorm. Some information is accurate. Others is not. For example I find it amazing what some people are doing to treat their children’s head lice. It seems the more frustrated they are the more extreme the remedy.

I’m not that old, at least I don’t think I am (just don’t ask my boys). I like to think of myself as informed on current events and trends in the marketplace. That said if you would have asked me 6 months ago where monitoring blogs about industry trends fit in on my priority list I would have ranked it very low. Heck blogs are for kids. Well not anymore. It seems like there are blogs popping up everywhere on every topic. The scary thing is that one upset customer that is properly connected can create havoc for a company very quickly.

Michael Snyder, managing partner for the MEK group published a very good piece on this topic this morning. His article titled Ignoring Blogs: A Recipe for Reputation Disaster outlines why we must at the very least monitor what is being said about us. Then we can decide if we want to join the conversation and what we should say.

Sernovitz talks about dealing with the negative. The best defense is a good offense. The first point is to know what people are saying. Go where they go and read what they write. People are blogging and most likely they are talking about you. Then show that you are listening. Reply, respond and identify yourself clearly. Many individuals (bloggers) are pleasantly surprised to find out that a company is reading what they write. Convert critics when you can. Treat critics like valuable customers. Finally don’t try to win. Tell your side of the story. People will give you credit for being honest. Maybe that is the last and most important point – be honest. If you are not, people will find out and then watch out!

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Extreme Marketing

2007-08-30T16:05:00.000-04:00

I heard a piece on NPR recently that discussed the rise of “extreme marketing”. The announcer discussed a convenience store that installed a 20 inch plasma TV inside the store to entice patrons to stay longer and buy more products. A KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) initiative was described that provided office workers with a delivered lunch. A spokesman said, “If you smell it you’ve got to have it.”

I don’t know if I would call this “extreme.” Vendors have been giving away popcorn at trade shows for years. The smell of freshly popped popcorn attracts individuals the vendor wants to talk to like food attracts flies. Starbucks has sold millions of cups of very expensive coffee by creating an environment where the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the comfort of an overstuffed couch create an environment for personal and professional gatherings (and lots more cups of coffee).

Maybe “extreme marketing” is rather full sensual marketing. See it, smell it, hear it, feel it, taste it and create an experience your customers want to tell others about. That will create an advantage that will separate your product or service from all the clutter.

Now how do you create an environment to sell a regulated pharmaceutical product? If this were easy everyone would be doing it!

Until next time – all the best!

RolandB

Capitalizing on a memorable event

2007-08-24T13:37:00.001-04:00

I experienced a live example of word of mouth marketing last weekend while in California for a visit. My sister took me to an AT&T store she was working with to see Joe Beimel, a relief pitcher for the Dodgers. He signed a couple of baseballs for my boys and we had a nice conversation. While we were there the store manager took a picture of us from her cell phone and while we were still in the store sent the picture to my sister's cell phone (well this is AT&T wireless). My sister forwarded the picture to my cell phone. I could then send it to anyone. Note all of the AT&T accessories in the background.

Just so you don't confuse us Joe is in the middle. We went to Dodger Stadium later that day and saw him pitch. I’m going to hold on to this picture. If the Dodgers make it to the World Series and Joe wins a key game well …………. I have this picture.

The event got me thinking. How many times have I been to a bookstore, or a sporting goods store or a cell phone store to meet a celebrity and get an autograph? Did the event leave a positive impression? It probably did. Now did the sponsoring organization follow up with me in any way? Most likely unless I bought something right there on that day the organization lost an opportunity to create and nurture a lasting relationship.

AT&T took the picture, sent it to my sister (now they know her email address) and she forwarded it to me. Who knows who I may forward it to? AT&T could make it even easier for me to tell a friend. They could drop the picture into a template with links back to their site or to coupons which promote the products on the wall. They could include a link to information on Joe Beimel. He seems like a great guy. I would think he and the Dodgers would appreciate the publicity. The emails I forward and/or the coupons I redeem can be tracked. AT&T has another way to measure the amount of business they get from this event which may help them justify sponsoring more of them in the future. Sounds like a win/win.

Good luck Joe!

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

The show must go on ………..

2007-08-20T12:04:00.000-04:00

One the things I enjoy doing is to attend the theatre. This past weekend I visited my sister in Los Angeles. She took me to see Jersey Boys at the Ahmanson Theatre on Friday night (Aug 17). Jersey Boys is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The show is packed with fantastic songs, great acting and, as in most shows from Broadway, seamless transition from one act to the next. About half way through the second act the show suddenly stopped. A trap door had opened unexpectedly and one of the lead actors had fallen partially into the hole. We noticed the actor fall but he got off stage and no one realized he was hurt until the next act started without him.

The show stopped for about 15 minutes then it was announced that one of the understudies and an actor in several secondary roles, Eric Gutman, would now be in the main role and another actor had taken his spot. It was a bit different watching Eric in the role of Bob Gaudio, the “magic” had been broken due to the delay and he looked different, but as the play progressed I noticed how well Eric fit into the role. He knew his stuff. This wasn’t the second string. He was good.

Eric’s comments about what happened are on his blog.

The whole incident got me thinking about being prepared for the unexpected. I know my son has been disappointed when he didn’t start in basketball. We have discussed what it means to be a bench player. The 6th, 7th, 8th man needs to be physically and mentally ready to come off the bench to help the team. Well here is a case where the lead got hurt with over 2000 people in the audience and the show had to go on. The understudy was trained and ready. He shifted gears, concentrated on the objective and gave a memorable performance.

The Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared”. We try to teach the boys to be ready for anything. Friday night’s performance brought it all to life.

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

I shall not pass this way again ....

2007-08-15T23:37:00.000-04:00

I’ve carried a card in my wallet ever since my father in law died over 20 years ago.

It is a short poem - I shall pass through this way but once, if therefore there be any kindness I can show or any good I can do for my fellowman let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.

I was reminded of that poem this evening. A story on NPR stated that over 5% of Idaho is currently on fire. The correspondent interviewed a number of people in Salmon Idaho, a town of 3,000 people on the Montana border, and said that rafting on a very famous and scenic portion of the Salmon River was threatened due to fire and smoke.

A little over a month ago my family and I were in that very spot rafting down "the river of no return.” We had a blast.

I’m the one in the back of the boat. According to the NPR story the river and the gorges are still there but the trees may be gone for a very long time.

A friend told me that every time you cross a river it is different than the last time you crossed it.
I shall not pass this way again …

How many times do we stop and really appreciate what we have today, now.

Life is dynamic. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Appreciate what you have today!

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

A Marketer’s Paradox

2007-08-14T15:54:00.000-04:00

Ever have a good idea …. a great idea ……. no one in your line of business has it. Your idea will allow your company to stand out. If it is successful your product or service will soon rocket to the top of market …. every marketer’s dream.

You present your idea to your management team. You ask for money to implement the project. As you look around the room people shift in their seats and catch each other’s eye. Finally a bold individual says, “It’s obvious that you are very passionate about this idea and you’ve given it a lot of thought. If this is so good why isn’t anybody else doing it? What makes you think it will work? Maybe we should think about this for a while.” The group nods and your idea ends up on the “further study” pile.

Seth Godin may call your unique unproven idea a Purple Cow. There a lots of brown cows and black cows. In his opinion cows are boring. In order to stand out a company needs to be remarkable. In a book by the same name he writes “a purple cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable.” Godin says Starbucks and Krispy Kreme are good examples of companies with purple cow ideas.

An observation I've made is it always is easy to look back and see what ideas worked, it is much harder to look forward (and convince others) about the next purple cow idea. If I knew in advance which horse would win I’d be a fool not to bet on it.

Andy Sernovitz writes a very popular blog, “Damn! I wish I’d though of That!” where he shares great ideas. One thing is for sure, a remarkable company needs to keep moving. A purple cow today soon becomes a brown one tomorrow as copy cats race into the arena.

So how do you create a purple cow, get permission and funding from your team to try and to implement it successfully?

That is a marketer’s paradox.

So here are some thoughts.

Understand your customer and your influencers. What need will your new idea meet? What benefit will it provide? Will your customers see the idea as remarkable? Will they tell their friends?
How does your customer communicate today? How may they communicate tomorrow? How can you make it easy for them to tell others about your product/service?
Ask yourself - what technologies are available to help you communicate with your customers/influencers in a non traditional way? Learn everything you can.
Diversify your risks. Your idea is new and innovative. Surround yourself with people who are experts in the process, and the technology you are depending on to implement your idea.
Is what you are doing legal? The first thing your competition will argue is “they can’t do that.” Stay one step ahead of them.
Start something. Keep pushing. Keep the dream alive.

A purple cow example
I was at a seminar recently where I saw a couple of potential purple cows in the same meeting. Bryan Gray and his staff at MediaSauce, a Carmel IN based multimedia company recently hosted a seminar on Web 2.0, an explanation of what is happening in the new interactive worldwide web. The primary presenter, Sarah Robbins (more on her in a minute), is an expert in the technology and is well known in the field. Bryan and Sarah presented information on a number of interesting topics that I might be able to use in the near future. I found out this was the first of a regular series of seminars. The seminar was free.

What made this a purple cow (in my opinion) is that MediaSauce is now an expert in Web 2.0. Need an innovative way to get your message across – use MediaSauce. At least include them in the mix. Have a friend, or a boss you need to educate in this new technology, bring them to the next meeting. I may not be ready to buy now but if I am I’ll know who to call.

Bryan and MediaSauce are taking a gamble. The seminars cost money. Members of the staff are not creating billable hours by attending a seminar. Valuable information is being shared for free. What is the ROI? My feeling is this is a purple cow and once MediaSauce is successful more agencies will be doing it.

The second example of a purple cow is Sarah herself. Sarah “intellagirl” Robbins is director of emerging technologies at MediaSauce. She has a distinctive look.

That’s Sarah on the right.

Her job is to focus on current and future tools of the trade. In her "free" time she is working on a PhD in rhetoric and composition and researching how to teach it in Second Life, an online digital world owned by its residents. Not only does she know about something, she lives it and my guess is that she has a huge network of folks that will help her develop the next killer ap.

A statement your team may make is: Every idea is not a purple cow. Absolutely!! There are plenty of Puk-Green ones out there. Your job as marketing guru is to help your organization separate the remarkable from the boring from the outright bad.

Now how do I use what I learned to help my business? How can I take advantage of this new interactive world? Will doctors and nurses sign on to Second Life to understand a new pharmaceutical product? I don’t know. Wait a minute, what if every inhabitant of Second Life for no reason came down with a case of head lice?? They would need something to get rid of them. On a larger scale what if 40% of them had high cholesterol? Pfizer are you listening. …..

Time to leave the virtual world and come back to reality.

Don’t be scared to come up with ideas that are different. Test them out. Be remarkable. You may be surprised with what you come up with.

Until next time – All the best!

RolandB

A “Can Do” attitude

2007-08-10T15:59:00.000-04:00

My wife and I went to a barbeque last weekend. Admission was free. There was a silent and a regular auction to raise money. We dined on burgers, hot dogs, and Indiana corn on the cob. The event was typical of many that Sue and I had attended over the years.

What made this event special were the attendees. Many had Parkinson’s disease. They were all ages. Some had a hard time walking and/or speaking. Others were less affected. All of the attendees had a common story, Rock Steady Boxing made a significant positive impact in their lives.

Rock Steady was founded by Scott Newman, Vince Perez and Kristy Follmer. (see Scott's original story below) Scott discovered he had Parkinson’s disease during his second term as elected prosecutor of Marion County (Indianapolis) Indiana. A few years ago Vince began working out with Scott and taught him to box. Over time Scott’s physical and mental condition improved. So much so that Scott was able to raise money for and start Strand Analytical Laboratory. I met Scott through Strand. My wife Sue had met Kristy through Rock Steady.

Rock Steady Boxing Foundation was founded to give people with Parkinson's disease hope. This non-profit organization offers a variety of classes designed to motivate and empower members through rigorous, but non-competitive, boxing lessons. The organization offers free classes to those who have Parkinson’s disease. They raise money by offering classes for Executives and Women and by accepting donations.

This brings me back to last Saturday and our table conversation over hamburgers. A gentleman at our table had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s for about a year. He found out about Rock Steady in March and was now attending the program 4 times a week. “It saved my life” he told me. “I could only jump rope 3 reps when I started. I had given up golf, a sport I love. Now I’m jumping rope 40 at a time and I’m playing golf again.” We talked to numerous individuals and their spouses with the same story. They heard about Rock Steady and now they were regulars. Exercise, a compassionate staff, and friendship with the other boxers and made their lives a bit easier.

I don’t know if it is the boxing, the exercise, the movement, or the interest that members of the group had for each other that is so overwhelming and is helping to delay the devastating effects of Parkinson’s disease. Perhaps it is a combination of all of these. I’m not a doctor but it is easy to see that Scott, Kristy, Vince and the members of Rock Steady are on to something very powerful and very good.

Contributions are accepted.

Until next time – All the best!

Roland

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Kristy posted an introductiory video on YouTube

In Scott’s own words, an article from the Indianapolis Star
July 18, 2007

My view: Scott C. Newman
Battling disease, competition with a one-two punch

At the airport on the way to the "Desert Showdown" (World Amateur Boxing Championships in Coachella, Calif.), it hits home with me that my friend could get seriously hurt. And there I'll be, paralyzed next to an empty corner stool, a towel clutched in my hand. Sparring is one thing, but every competitor bounds into the ring intent upon killing the other guy. They will want to finish my friend, sure enough. He's not from around here. They don't know him; haven't even heard of him.

My friend is Vincent Perez, and his opponent won't know or care about what I'm about to tell you. But it began when I was ready to throw in the towel about four years ago, giving in to the Parkinson's disease that was pummeling me into a shadow of my former self. I had hit the canvass. I took to my bed and my cringing self-pity, and I felt sure that my Creator was calling the count over my increasingly lifeless body. I couldn't sign my name. I couldn't type, as I am doing now.

Vincent Perez -- at the time just a favorite acquaintance and fellow self-absorbed malcontent -- stepped forward out of nowhere and said, "I am your cornerman and your trainer. Now get up!"

Vince taught me how to box. He worked me mercilessly five and six days a week, until my body convinced my damaged dopamine-producing brain cells that we could fight back. And fight back we did, with Vince crowning me with abuse, ridicule and occasional faint praise. One of his rare compliments came six months into our slapped-together rehabilitation program. "I could take you into a real boxing gym now, and not be embarrassed to be seen with you."

Prodded by the sheer excitement of not being a disgrace to boxing, we began to plan a boxing facility where I could continue to develop my nearly adequate skills largely in private. Privacy helped because, still affected by Parkinson's, I was prone to demoralizing "freeze-ups," when I would suddenly stand transfixed, unable to recall the muscle memory to pound the heavy bag as I had been doing only moments earlier.
We kept at it, and eventually (with enormous help from a great friend) built something portentously known as "Rock Steady Boxing" on Indy's Eastside.

An amazing thing was happening. I was getting better. Physically stronger, quicker, more flexible, more alert, more confident, able to sign my name and type on a computer. All this, without adding a single microgram of the side-effect-ridden medications for Parkinson's. With every punch, I imagined myself beating my disease into some kind of submission. It's a battle I'll lose eventually but -- thanks to Rock Steady Boxing -- it's going to take a lot longer to count me out.

Rock Steady Boxing last fall opened its doors, free of charge, to all those with Parkinson's who can climb into our full-scale boxing ring. Vince and our other principal boxing trainer -- former world second-ranked boxer Kristina Rose Follmar -- aren't always "nice." We give our trainees the same respect that Vince gave me -- high hopes, constant challenge, a healthy dose of tough talk, but in a jauntily supportive atmosphere. Here, no one is ashamed of his or her symptoms, and all share a commitment to fighting their way off the ropes and "finishing strong," in life as in each round of a boxing match.

Our boxing-based fitness program has already begun to work small miracles for our fighters, who now number in the dozens. Small victories fill us with joy. Like Bill, who stands up so much straighter now. Or Ron, who like many Parkinson's patients doesn't talk much. When I called out a week ago, "See you next time, Ron," he shot back, in full voice, "You GOT it!"

I still can't lay a glove on Vince Perez, which brings me back to this airplane flight, where my hands fly over the keyboard on my way to Coachella. There, roles will be reversed, and Kristy Rose and I will work the corner for one Vincent Perez, Rock Steady Boxing's first sponsored competitive fighter. At age 40, at 138 pounds and in fighting trim, Vince will return to the ring for the first time since his successes 15 years ago as a Golden Gloves champ.

There won't be enough room in the corner of a regulation boxing ring to fit all the people back home who are standing behind Vince. But whether Vince wins or loses, the fighters gathered to compete at a casino in the desert will know, just like old Parkinson's, that they were in a fight.

Steak n Shake – they are listening!

2007-08-08T17:14:00.000-04:00

The home of the “steakburger” has a few healthy alternatives.

I had lunch yesterday with a friend at the Steak ‘n Shake restaurant in Circle Center Mall in downtown Indianapolis. My son had given me a page of coupons from the Sunday paper. My wife had put me on notice that I need to start to eat healthy.

I tried the apple and walnut salad combination (only $4.99 with the coupon). It was fantastic! The restaurant was incredibly busy. During the course of the meal a waitress dropped a tray of drinks directly behind me. I just missed a very cold and sticky shower. My shoes got a bit wet but it was no big deal to wipe them off and move to another chair at the table we were sitting at.

Later the very apologetic waitress came over and offered us both free milkshakes. Well it seems they now have fruit and frozen yogurt shakes. What a treat.

Steak ‘n Shake is doing a few things well.
1) They seem to have heart healthy food that parents may want to eat. I hope the new menu items are successful and stay around.
2) They used a very good coupon deal to get me to try it.
3) Accidents happen. I never asked for any special treatment but was offered some free food to make up for an inconvenience. I ended up trying something I had not ordered before but will most likely order again.

The next time my kids want to go out to eat I may just suggest Steak ‘n Shake.

Until next time – All the best!

Roland

Quotes - Be careful what you say

2007-08-08T08:16:00.000-04:00

I read an article in the paper this morning - I was quoted - My first thought was "did I say that". Sure enough I did but the end result came out different than I meant it. Many of you will probably say "join the club" or "next time don't talk to reporters."

Dana Knight a local business writer sent me an email last week and was looking for ideas for a story she was writing about correlations between TV and real bosses. She mentioned a few to get my mind started. Sam from Cheers, Charlie from Charlie's Angels, Judge Judy, Donald Trump. I started thinking she is missing some good personalities and sent her the following reply.

I’ll have to think about your TV boss question. You may be missing a few good ones. Mr. Peterman and George Steinbrenner (maybe I watch too much Seinfeld). There is always Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. I’m not saying I worked with any of those characters though …..

Her article appeared this morning with this quote
"Roland Bydlon, who works in Carmel, didn't have an answer when asked about his boss, but he did say three memorable TV bosses come to mind: Mr. Peterman from "Seinfeld," George Steinbrenner from the New York Yankees and Mr. Burns.
"I'm not saying I worked with any of those characters, though," he wrote in an e-mail."

Dana quoted me correctly but it just didn't come out right. What I meant to communicate was when you talk to people you may want to add these characters to your list. Now I was quoted for everyone to see. Visions of a current or past business associates calling me up and accusing me of calling him/her a "Mr. Burns" flashed through my mind.

Oh well. In my 20 years in business and as a consultant I have worked with and for a lot of different individuals with very different personalities. Some had traits of a Steinbrenner others had traits of a Mr. Grant on Mary Tyler Moore. What I can say is I have learned something about myself from every person I have worked with and most of the time I have been very glad to have had the experience. I'm not embarrassed about that at all.

Until next time - All the best!

Roland

Computers! Customer Service and EarthLink

2007-08-03T17:46:00.000-04:00

I like to ask “what if”

I usually think big picture. I’ll approach a web designer or an IT expert and explain what I would like to do and why. I’d to design a particular newsletter. I’d like to send out an email that will easily link to. I’d like to create a very easy way for a potential customer to talk to us ….. etc. etc. I seem to come up with the “what’s”. My experts help me with the “how’s”.

I don’t have a clue how they do it. I read a book once on html. Got a few pages into it and my eyes glazed over and I have a background in engineering. I’m just glad over my career I have been fortunate to work with some very smart people.

Where is this going? Last week a bolt of lightning struck near out house. Afterward my home computer would not hook up to the Internet. The WiFi was out as well. No one in our household could get email. There was a crisis. The teenagers couldn’t talk to their friends. My wife could talk to her employer or her clients. She called EarthLink our service provider. They told her she needed a new modem. We ordered it. The new modem came, we plugged it in but it didn’t work. The family looked to me.

EarthLink advertises that there are multiple ways to get answers if your service is interrupted. You could go to www.support.earthlink.net. Well no, I can’t get on the Internet. You could trade real time messages with a friendly Live Chat representative. Well no, still can’t get on the Internet. You can call 1-888-EARTHLINK. OK I’ll settle for that one. I make the call and talked to a computer that asked me what my problem was, didn’t understand my answer, asked for my phone number, and put me on hold. After 5 minutes or so I end up with a real person. Robert was located in India.

Now I have nothing against technicians from India. I just wanted my computer to work. Robert seemed very nice. The first thing he asks for is my phone number. I give it to him but I already gave it to the computer. What kind of modem do I have? I tell him but they should know that – they sent it to me. He asks a number of other questions. We proceed to troubleshoot various things. Sometimes he doesn’t understand me, sometimes I don’t understand him (try saying “wizard” with an Indian accent), he puts me on hold to talk to his supervisor, and he apologizes for the delay. It is apparent he is following some sort of cookbook. We go down a couple of paths. He puts me on supervisor hold a few times. Finally after about 90 minutes he runs out of options and tells me to call Dell, the computer manufacturer. WHAT! the computer is working fine. It is the Internet connection that doesn’t work. I ask to talk to his supervisor. He puts me on hold. 5 minutes later I get a dial tone – I’ve been cut off. I go get a beer.

Next day I make the call get through the computer and talk to a different technician. Same questions. It appears they have no record of my call the previous day, at least this technician doesn’t. This guy is very green, every minute or so he is talking to his supervisor and apologizing for the delay. We get to the same point, the service isn’t working. I finally ask him very nicely for a number in the US that I can use to talk to someone. I’m on hold for the supervisor again. The supervisor finally comes on we go round and round. He finally gives me a number with a 404 (not a free) area code. By this time it is 1:00 AM. I go to bed.

I am sitting around the table next day at work and my computer guru says “sounds like you have a bad external network card” and proceeds to loan me a spare. That night I bring it home. Eureka it works. Still need to get the WiFi programmed so I call EarthLink, again and 90 minutes and 3 technicians later I’m back in business. Tired but online. My wife and teenagers are talking to me again. The next day I get four pieces of identical mail trying to get me to purchase a new EarthLink service. These guys need to get a clue!

So where am I going with this. My computer worked but I was ticked off. Why does EarthLink spend millions of dollars on advertising to get new clients while they have their existing client talk to technicians in India, and have no record of past problems or their current equipment? Why isn’t there a simple way to check the data line? Why is this process so frustrating? Why am I staying with these guys???

A couple of days later I get a call from my wife. “I know you don’t want to hear this but the computer is out. I called EarthLink they think we have a bad networking card”. AHHHH! Needless to say I go to the store and buy a new card. After I plug it in the Internet is still out but all of the modem lights appear to be working (I am finally starting to learn the system). I prepare for the worst and call EarthLink. This must have been when the Twilight Zone music came up or the clouds parted. The technician seems to know what she was talking about, she understood my problem, and I can understood her. We reach a point where she doesn’t know what to do. Instead of putting me on hold she told me her supervisor would call me back. In 10 minutes I get a call from the supervisor. He solved my problem and asked what else he could do for me. I’m back on-line. I’m speechless!!

That’s when it hit me. Yesterday I was ready to blast EarthLink for absolutely lousy customer service. I was ready to tell 50 friends about what happened. I was ready to switch to any other service. Then the Internet went out again (I still don’t know why). EarthLink had a chance to redeem themselves and helped me fix it quickly and professionally. All is forgiven.

The lesson for me is stuff happens, mistakes are made. Often a relationship is judged by how you solved the last problem. Do it well and treat your customers with respect and maybe they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt….. and then write about the experience.

If the powers at EarthLink are reading this though I do have some advice
1) Please give me a way to talk to someone in the US if I need to
2) Please don’t keep asking for information I have already given you
3) Please keep accurate records for each technician to see. If I call back I don’t want to start from the beginning
4) Call me back if I get cut off and keep saying thank you.

Until next time – All the best!

Roland

Take Time to Ponder

2007-07-27T14:53:00.001-04:00

I attended a tele-seminar last week on learning and leadership. The seminar was led by Kevin Eikenberry the head of the Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://www.kevineikenberry.com/), a consulting group in Indianapolis. Kevin runs a number of different programs throughout the year to help “sharpen the saw” (Covey’s term) and to help improve performance.

Kevin’s point is that learning is critical to leadership. The status quo requires no leadership. Being a better leader is equivalent to being a better human.

One of the key areas of learning is to take time to think about an experience after it happens.

Seems intuitive doesn’t it but in this dog-eat-dog rat race where 24 hours is not enough time in a day how often do we plan time to ponder the past and contemplate the future?

After an experience – good / bad / or neutral take time to think and ask yourself:
1) What worked?
2) What didn’t?
3) Knowing what I know now what would I do differently next time?
4) What are the pieces I can get better at?

Most importantly
5) Take action and do something new to continue to grow
6) Take time to ponder and renew the cycle

It is tough to form new habits! Kevin recommends starting small. Take 5-10 minutes a couple of times a week. Ask yourself how can you improve on something that happened yesterday? Brainstorm! Put a star next to an item you will commit to doing today. Did it work? Try it again.

Start small and ask yourself what can I do right now? Slow down. Try it. Do it today.

I came across this quote this morning -
"Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point."
- Harold B. Melchart, C.E.O. Coca Cola

Until next time - All the best!

Roland

To Promote, Educate or both

2007-07-17T10:11:00.000-04:00

As a marketer of pharmaceutical products one of things I deal with on a daily basis is the question how do we can our message out to our key customers, the patients that are in need of our products and their key influencers, the doctors and nurses that help them get better?

Many doctors especially pediatricians and family practice physicians have told me personally that their business is not the same as it was a decade or more ago when they entered practice. Increased malpractice insurance costs on top of other business expenses have raised their costs. Pressure from insurance companies has lowered their revenue per patient. In order to make a living they need to see many more patients per day. Sometimes they only are able to spend several minutes with each patient.

Then there are all the pharmaceutical reps that try to see them ….

Some see a drug rep as an intrusion. Some block reps from seeing them. Some only accept samples signing for them while a representative watches from a distance. Others see them as one information source for new products and therapies. Unfortunately as time time pressures increase the number of health care professionals willing to talk to a representative is decreasing.

In this go, go, go world how do doctors learn about new products and/or new techniques for treating disease? Sometimes from their patients – their patients see an ad and ask for a prescription. This begs the question do patients know what they are asking for? In some cases yes but how many consumers ask for a product solely on the number of times they have seen the ad? How many prescriptions are written to satisfy a customer and not necessarily for medical need? Ads are very expensive. How do smaller companies with limited budgets but innovative products get their word out?

One way companies have been using to educate medical professionals is Continuing Medical Education (CME). This is an educational program (in print, a seminar, a web cast, etc.) that is usually organized by a medical group not affiliated with the sponsor. A pharmaceutical company may sponsor an activity but usually does not control content.

Some have criticized pharmaceutical companies from sponsoring CME. I don’t know if CME is the best way but it is one way to get the word out about promising drugs and therapies. Dr. John Lechleiter, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Eli Lilly (www.lilly.com) wrote a very good piece in my home town paper the Indianapolis Star over the weekend. I’ve pasted it below. Please look it over.

My question to you (the public) is how should we (the pharmaceutical company) educate you on new drugs and therapies? How can a small company get its word out? Doctors don’t like drug representatives filling up their waiting rooms – how can we reach you, educate you, allow you to make informed decisions?

I’m all ears – that’s what makes my job interesting and exciting.

Until next time – All the best!

Roland

My View: John C. Lechleiter
Lilly seeks education, not 'dose of influence'

The Indianapolis Star
July 15, 2007

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707150325&template=printart

The Indianapolis Star as well as scientific journals, legislators and other media outlets around the country recently examined the pharmaceutical industry's financial support of continuing medical education for doctors. This attention has raised more questions than answers, as The Star's June 24 headline ("A dose of influence?") certainly demonstrated.

My goal is to offer some answers and share an insider's viewpoint that draws on the experiences and practice of Eli Lilly and Co.

Pharmaceutical companies such as Lilly are an important source of financial sponsorship for continuing medical education programs. Since medical knowledge grows constantly, doctors are required to complete CME programs on a regular basis in order to remain licensed. And patients, of course, benefit greatly from having doctors who are up-to-date on their fields of practice.

At Lilly, we're quite proud to support CME. Earlier this year, in fact, we became the first drug company to publish an online database of all our grants to medical societies, academic centers, patient organizations and other health care-related institutions (see www.lillygrantoffice.com) -- which includes our support for CME. We earned some praise for this from U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, who encouraged other companies to do the same. We agree that openness is the key to avoiding misunderstandings.

Is it a "dose of influence" with doctors that Lilly seeks by making these funds available? No. It is clearly in the interests of our business that doctors do not stop learning when they leave medical school, but rather stay on top of new treatment options that produce better results. But we do not, and cannot, determine the specific content of CME programs that we support -- let alone influence the subsequent treatment and prescribing decisions of the doctors who attend.

That's because, first of all, our payments are made to the organizers of CME sessions, who in turn are solely responsible for the content of the programs. We don't choose the curriculum or the speakers, so we could not use this funding -- even if we were inclined to -- as a means of elevating our products or rewarding doctors who like to prescribe them. Second, we can't determine which doctors will attend a CME program. And finally, decisions at Lilly about saying "yes" or "no" to requests for CME grants are made by our medical department -- mostly doctors themselves -- without any role for our sales and marketing functions.

Doctors are not weak-willed marionettes; they're savvy, well educated and quite fierce about using their own judgment. Lilly shares a compelling interest in a having a community of physicians with the latest knowledge and skills -- which is why we will continue to support CME as part of our contribution to the overall quality of health care in the United States. But our products will rise and fall on their merits -- namely, their efficacy and safety in the treatment of patients.

Initial Comments

2007-07-13T16:17:00.000-04:00

Just got back from a fantastic vacation. My wife and I have been talking about doing the dude ranch thing for years .... we have been waiting for our boys to get to an age where they will appreciate it but not be too old to be able to punch out. Kyle just turned 13. Tim is 16. We decided that this was the year. We went to a great ranch just outside of Salmon Idaho, a place with more cows and horses than people. The Twin Peaks Ranch gave us a week of horseback riding, whitewater rafting, fantastic food and some absolutely unbelievable hospitality. There also was not a cell phone tower or television within miles. We would recommend the vacation to anyone. Also spent four outstanding days after the ranch experience driving and hiking in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. My only problem now is how do I top this vacation next year ......

Completed reading Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz while on vacation. (No I couldn't totally turn off business while on vacation but I got very close) I met Andy at a presentation he gave to the Indianapolis chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). He is an excellent speaker and his book gave me a ton of ideas that I want to try. He recommends starting a blog .... so here we go. Don't know how long this will last or what we will say. I've seen a lot of things in the military (submarines) , at a large pharmaceutical company (Lilly), consulting and at a number of startups. I'm currently up to my neck (not literally) dealing with head lice. I have enjoyed everything I've ever done so I decided to give it a try.

Send me a line and we'll get a conversation going. All the best!