Category Archives: Consulting

September 9, 2008 · 8:40 am

The Four Questions

Every Passover, someone at the table, generally the youngest, asks the Four Questions.  For me, these questions do a good job of putting the entire evening into perspective and make everything which follows them relevant to the overall purpose of the holiday.  They are meant to be asked from a child’s perspective (hence the youngest inquires), which is often a combination of innocence and ignorance – without preconception.

I thought of the role questions play while working with a client of mine.  We were reviewing a presentation we’re constructing to raise a funding round and the pitch felt too cluttered and unfocused.  So I asked my own version of the four questions:

  1. What is the problem we’re solving?
  2. Is this a big enough problem that it can support a business that solves it?
  3. Is our solution unique and has anyone ever tried to solve this problem before?
  4. Who the hell are we and why should we be entrusted with anyone’s money?

You’ll notice I didn’t interject any mention of the client’s company or executive team until the end.  Like most things in business, I like to try and keep ego out of it.  Business is, at its core, about problems and solutions. It’s not about you – it’s about your customers (or potential customers).   Odds are if you can answer the four questions I’m asking above, and remain focused on them, your business will be on the right track.

Fortunately, we already had the answers although they were buried deep within the current version of the presentation.  A little editing and a lot of attention to some simple questions, and we’re a lot closer to some funding (we hope!).

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September 3, 2008 · 8:43 am

Consumer Reports

I’ve been reading Consumer Reports for decades and I’ve always found it to be a useful resource.   Today, it helps me blog!

One of my favorite parts of the magazine is in the very back – a page called Selling It.  The page contains “goofs, glitches, and gothcas” – things marketers have done either in error (goofs, glitches) or on purpose to deceive consumers in some way (gotchas).  If I were a CEO and my company or product ever appeared on this page, I’d be making some wholesale changes very quickly.

Typically, the goofs are based on sloppy work – someone didn’t proofread something such as a bust of Thomas Jefferson with a plaque affixed commemorating him as our second president.  I guess the TV series about John Adams had it backwards – he must have followed Jefferson into the White House.  Then there are the ads that promise to “Illuminate underarm sweating for up to 6 months with a single treatment” (Botox) or for an “Insulted Cargo Vest” (I’m not sure who said what to it but they should apologize).

More egregious, in my opinion, are the gotchas – CU catching marketers engaging in deceptive behavior.  Not the big guys?  How about a box of Kellogg’s All Bran that features “real strawberries” on the front but which contains far more “strawberry flavored apples” in the ingredients than the few freeze-dried strawberries consumers are lead to believe would predominate.  As we all know (hey – we’re consumers too!), this kind of thing goes on all the time and it shows a total lack of respect for your consumer.

It’s not hard to stay off this page.  Be honest, be careful, have redundant systems to check the checking, hold people accountable, and if something ever does slip through, apologize, make restitution, and be open.  And most importantly, fix the problem and the system or people that permitted it to happen.

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August 21, 2008 · 8:16 am

You’re In

I used to love hearing the coach say “Ritter, you’re in.”  It meant I was going to get in the game rather than just stand on the sidelines trying to stay warm and keep my head involved.  Ironic, I guess, coming from someone who now works in a profession renowned for standing on the sidelines and kibitzing to the players (best line ever – the commercial – where the consultants look at the client and say “oh, we don’t actually DO anything, we just recommend.”)

I’m thinking about this because I had an interesting experience this morning.  You may have seen the announcement that konnects, a new social network, is having its official launch today.  Like you, I need another social network like a third armpit, but I figured I’d search the Twitter community to see what was being said.  Interestingly, of the 35 (as of this writing) tweets in the last 24 hours on this subject, it seemed as if exactly one was from a person who had signed up and was using it.  The other 34 were either people reposting the announcement or asking for thoughts on the network.

How many blogs do you read that are just that?  Folks who are standing on the sidelines but really don’t have the skill required to play the game?  How many naysayers are there like that in your office – folks who are ready to criticize at a moment’s notice but who don’t move the ball up field themselves?

The perspective in the middle of the field or court or rink or tee box is very different than that from the sidelines.  We all need to get in the game and sweat a bit before we make a lot of noise from the bench.  I understand that it’s all a part of the conversation, and it’s certainly OK to ask questions or seek opinions (and I wish more people did both!).  But I think there’s too much uninformed chatter out there.  Maybe it’s peer pressure to blog/tweet/fill up the lifestream.   We’d all be better off sharing experiences, not just opinions.

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