Tag Archives: Strategic management

October 10, 2013 · 10:19 am

I Wonder…

When I talk about meeting new people or potential new hires, I always look for two things which are related to one another. The first is how curious that person is while the second is how they translate the results of that curiosity into cogent thinking. I suppose when I’m hiring I push this second point a little and try to get at how that thinking translated into action (and results). Both of these things come down to that person’s ability to wonder.

The Thinking Man sculpture at Musée Rodin in Paris

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s nice to respect the thinking that got a business or individual to where they are.  For some businesses, continuing to move forward on the basis of the usual patterns of thought can work.  For many, however, it won’t.  Markets change as do market conditions.  More importantly, the technological changes of the last decade and a half have ripped apart and rebuilt almost everything we thought we knew about how to interact with those markets.

The best way to approach business today is with a strong sense of curiosity.  We need to use one phrase a lot:  “I wonder…”  I wonder what would happen if we skipped a trade show and used the money to throw a golf outing.  I wonder what would happen to our sales if we took money out of TV and put it into search and I wonder if the drop in our unaided brand awareness is a big deal.  We need to maintain a mindset I try to foster in brainstorming sessions.  No idea is a”bad” idea.  Maybe some aren’t feasible as expressed but perhaps lurking inside that idea is a nugget of innovative thinking brought about by wondering about a topic.

Ask questions.  It’s a great social media strategy, by the way, since your audience is probably wondering about some of the topics that might help your business grow.  As an aside, it’s an important mindset for us to maintain as people – and citizens – as well.

If you can find a minute or two today, start wondering.  Ask questions.  Don’t dismiss the answers you get out of hand no matter how unfeasible or silly they might seem.  Start a sentence with “I wonder…” and see where it leads.  If you get a chance, tell me how you made out, because I wonder what you think!

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , , ,

October 9, 2013 · 10:42 am

Faulty Instrument Readings

I’m not a pilot (although I’ve played Flight Simulator a bunch). One of the things pilots are told is to trust their instruments because sometimes our eyes or other senses deceive us while flying. Things such as graveyard spins or spirals result, and I’m very sure that anything with the word “graveyard” is bad when using in conjunction with flying.

X-Plane 10 Flight Simulator Zero panel

(Photo credit: Wanderlinse)

Business analytics today are exactly the opposite of flying.  You see, there are so many things that can go wrong  – a misplaced space, code missing or in the wrong place – that going by what the “instruments” tell us alone can be fatal.  I’ll go back to a point I’ve stated before – we need to figure out what we’re trying to investigate and why before we ever look at the numbers.  That lets us process the information we’re going to receive in context so we can make decisions.  Knowing your web traffic is up is relatively useless.  What it should prompt is a response into both “why” and “what of it?”  That requires using your eyes and your common sense.  Let me give you an example.

You launch a campaign to increase sales using Search Engine Marketing – pay-per-click ads to use a less-fancy term.  You’re smart enough to make sure you have conversion tracking installed – a method through which you can assess how many people who come to your store via your fancy new campaign actually buy something.  Your developers check the code and make sure it’s in the right place and that the beacon fires when the appropriate action is taken.  However, no one ever does what a real-world user would do – click an ad and place an order – to make sure that the “instruments” are picking up the action properly.  As a result, you think, based on the reporting, that the campaign was a tremendous waste of money since it resulted in no sales.  Your instruments just crashed the plane.

Had you used your eyes and common sense, you’d have seen that the ads generated a lot of traffic and based on your history, some percentage of that traffic that stayed on the site (non-bounced visits in tech speak) does convert to sales.  Since that didn’t happen here, maybe something is wrong.  Click an ad and place an order – did it register?

There is a tendency to trust the instruments but unlike the gauges on airplanes, the gauges we use in business are relatively new and far more prone to error.  We can’t let faulty instruments over ride the business acumen we’ve developed over the years.  That can be a fatal error.  You with me?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , , ,

October 3, 2013 · 8:52 am

Cell Phones And Car Keys

I did a dumb thing a little while ago. I lost my car key. I had another one at home but having only one is a bad idea because apparently one can lose them (ahem). It’s one of those “smart” keys – as long as it’s in (or on, which is how I lost it) the car, the vehicle will start. Since I was due for a regular service anyway (which is where I’m writing this post) I asked the dealer to replace the lost key with another. Want to guess the price to do so?

$275.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t pay $275 for my top of the line mobile phone. “But your phone is subsidized”, you say. “The cell companies do that to get you to pay for the service.” Exactly the business point and it applies to your business as well.

I don’t know what the key costs to manufacture – it’s a chip, a battery, and a case, basically.  Let’s be generous and say $50.  The woman at the service desk said “it takes an hour to program” as if there’s a coder in the back frantically assembling the software.  My guess is they plop the fob into a holder attached to a computer and it’s done pretty quickly.   But I understand the cost/value equation.  Why do they charge that much?  Because they can.  It’s not as if you can go on Craigslist and find a cheap key.  The issue isn’t can they, but should they?

I bought the car for $31,000 a few years ago.  I’ve spent a fair amount in regular service with them (the car has been worry-free otherwise!) although I could have gone anywhere to get an oil change and new filters.  And now, when I do have an issue, they’re choosing to maximize their profits instead of saying “let’s forego the easy $100 because this guy is a loyal customer and he’s going to have to replace that car in a year or two.”  Their short-term thinking is influencing my long-term thinking.

I know we’re all in business to make a profit.  My job is to help companies to do so.  One model – the cell model – is to tie you to the company by making it easy to become a customer and to make sure you’ll buy highly profitable services through subsidies.  I’m not sure that’s right for a car company – I don’t see them subsidizing your purchase so you’ll buy services.  However, doing the little things that build loyalty do that as well, and there is nothing that feels better when you do something totally stupid than a brand that lifts you up, dusts you off, and helps you fix it in a way that makes you feel good.  I realize the dealer didn’t lose the key.  The question is are they going to lose the customer?

Does that make sense?

Enhanced by Zemanta

3 Comments

Filed under Consulting, Huh?, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , ,