Category Archives: What’s Going On

September 25, 2014 · 9:43 am

The New Year And Business

A shofar made from a ram's horn is traditional...

A shofar made from a ram’s horn is traditionally blown in observance of Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish civic year. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy New Year!  When I posted this last year for the second time I said I was thinking about making this post an annual thing.  I guess it now officially is.  As Jews around the world celebrate Rosh Hashanah, I thought I’d try to put what the holiday means into a business context.

Last night marked the start of the Jewish New Year.  I didn’t go down to Times Square to see if they were dropping a giant knish at the stroke of sundown – probably not.  L’Shana Tova – a happy and healthy New Year to all of you.

One of the things Jews do over the next 10 days (or at least are supposed to do) is to reflect on the year gone by and think about where it took you on life’s journey.  It’s not really as much about looking back in my mind as it is about looking forward.  Oh sure, one is supposed to think about where one strayed from life’s path in terms of dealing with other humans and human codes of conduct.  We get a day of fasting next week to get that sorted out.  But it’s also a time to think about a fresh start.  Which, of course, promoted a business thought.

When do businesses stop and enter a period of reflection?  It’s obvious when they’re changing – witness Facebook last week – but I, for one, certainly wonder sometimes if those changes happen due to the momentum of previous (maybe not so good) decisions or if they’re the result of a pause, some reflection, and a willful thought by the entire organization as to the direction.  Often, I fear, it’s the former.

Jews are to use the next ten days for reflection and repentance.  I like to think of them as ten days of self-improvement.  I’d also suggest that it would do many businesses a lot of good to build the same sort of period into their corporate calendars.  Some do – they call it the budget process – but I think that’s too selective in terms of participants and goals to do much good.  Some smart CEO needs to declare it New Year’s Day for the company once a year and get everyone to do the same sort of professional reflection that many of us do on the personal side.  Identify your sins (figuratively speaking) and atone.  Faulty customer service, weak brand identity, bad employee relations, products that aren’t optimal, fostering an atmosphere of fear – these are all good places to start.

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September 9, 2014 · 12:42 pm

Stand By Me

Every once in a while something happens that restores my faith in how smart businesses deal with their customers.

Wüsthof

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today is such a day and the company is the folks at Wusthof.  Let me relate the particulars and hopefully it brings a smile to your face as it did to mine.  More importantly, hopefully there is a business point that’s helpful in your business.

As you might know if you read the screed, I like to cook.  One very important part of the effort for me is having sharp knives.  Over time I’ve actually convinced the other cooks in my home that keeping the knives sharp makes cooking easier and accidents less likely.  While the knives get honed all the time, every so often they get a real, professional sharpening.  Today was one of those days.

The Mrs. took many of the knives in our collection to the local Wusthof outlet which does sharpening.  Most of our knives are that brand and we’ve been assembling the collection for the last 20+ years.  She gave them to the salesperson who looked them over and said that she wouldn’t sharpen some of them since the handles were beginning to crack and they ought to be replaced.  Since we never put knives in the dishwasher this must have been from normal use (although frankly I never noticed anything).

This is where my faith was restored.  The salesperson informed my wife that Wusthof stands by their knives and she was going to replace all the ones in question.  For free.  After having the remaining knives sharpened, my wife walked out with 5 new knives – easily worth a few hundred dollars – and a shocked smile on her face.  She never asked to have them replaced – we never even noticed anything was amiss other than they needed sharpening.

What is the official knife of me?  What brand will I be recommending?  Duh.  But this is how customers should be treated, whether it’s a high-end knife or something else.  Brand loyalty is a two-way street.  It’s earned before it’s given and you have to stand with the customer, not oppose them.  To any of you who will be receiving gifts from me in the near future, expect something sharp.  To those of you trying to create fans, you can use all the social tools and run all the ads you want.  Nothing can do so as well as one customer having an amazing experience and telling the world about how great your brand is.

Got it?

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August 28, 2014 · 9:25 am

Learning From Silliness

A little good news for a change emerging from all of the silliness that is the Ice Bucket Challenge:

As of Wednesday, August 27, The ALS Association has received $94.3 million in donations compared to $2.7 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 27). These donations have come from existing donors and 2.1 million new donors.

Having known people who’ve suffered with this horrible disease (as well as being a lifelong Yankee fan and admirer of the Iron Horse),  working to beat it is a worthy cause.  That said, there are a few things which we can take away from the videos of the last month which might be instructive in our own business endeavors.

First, let’s think about lemmings.  We humans often behave collectively, like lemmings. Once the pack starts in a particular direction, particularly one that seems appealing, many people just go along.  I’m not sure many of the folks who have participated in the meme gave a lot of thought to where the money was going.  I mean, who looked up the ALS Association’s records?  How much are officers paid?  How much do they pay for fundraising?  What are their lobbying expenses?  Most importantly, how much of the money they receive actually goes to grants and research?

As it turns out (yes I looked it up), they’re a very fine organization on all those counts (you can read it here).  The point is that once something reaches a critical mass, many people will participate even if it’s only due to Fear Of Missing Out, without digging too deeply into the thinking.  In this case, everyone from kids (who I doubt understand the disease) all the way to former presidents went along.

That raises point 2.  How to reach that critical mass.  This challenge happened almost entirely via social media, specifically Facebook.  I think it’s a seminal moment and points out how media has changed.  What implications does it have for marketing?  The big one, besides the use of “new” media to activate a consumer base, is that organic growth bests anything we can manufacture.  The ALS Foundation didn’t start this – a consumer did.  How do we get our influencer bases to do the same?

We can enjoy the silliness of the Ice Bucket Challenge in the face of a horrible disease.  We can learn from it too.  That’s my take.  Yours?

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