Posts Tagged ‘intention’
The Key To A Great Product Story
As an entrepreneur or business leader, you will inevitably be asked how your product or service is different from your competitor’s. Often this question comes from someone who isn’t even a potential customer (but that’s another story). Our fallback position is to lead with features and benefits. We describe tiny, incremental improvements we’ve made in…
Read MoreWhat Are You Here To Do?
When Deborah Thomas, newly minted CEO of Ardent Leisure, was asked if she knew how to operate a roller coaster, she probably gave an inward sigh along with her considered response. “I’m not here to operate the roller coaster; I’m here to make sure that people queue up and want to spend their money to…
Read MoreCompany Culture And The Ripple Effect
By the age of six months, a baby begins to understand that his actions can affect his environment. It’s amazing how as adults we quickly unlearn this. As business leaders when we talk about shaping or changing company culture we sometimes forget to own the fact that we are the culture. Culture is not something…
Read MoreShortcuts Are Overrated
A map works even though the cartographer hasn’t described how every step should be taken. We get to where we want to go when we have a good reason for going there. Tactics are useless without a strategy. Shortcuts are overrated. Results take time. Why hurry? Image by Franco Folini.
Read MoreThe Purpose Of Clever Packaging
If you love chocolate as much as I do you’ve probably heard about the Mast Brothers scandal. The artisan chocolate makers are accused of not being completely transparent about their process when they launched in 2007 and of pulling the wool over customers eyes with “clever packaging”. Transparency aside for a moment, because of course…
Read MoreMeaningful Work
We’ve all witnessed a version of this in action. The speciality restaurant vowing to serve free range, grass fed and organic. The gift shop committed to selling local and artisanal. The designer who refuses to work with fast food companies. Uncompromising—until they think about scaling or they hit a bump in the road of their…
Read More7 Steps To Becoming A More Strategic Marketer
As marketers we spend much of our time and energy on tactics. We agonise over the creation of lead magnets, spend countless hours honing sales pages and perfecting social media promotions. How To Become A More Strategic Marketer 1. Take a long-term view of your business, one that doesn’t require you to go for quick…
Read MoreThe Power Of Customer Context
There’s a tiny hole-in-the-wall florist in the heart of the city, close to big office buildings and the cafes where people meet for breakfast and lunch. If it were an ordinary florist it would be the kind of place people would walk past on their way to somewhere else. The neighbouring florist’s made-to-order, elaborate, cellophane-wrapped…
Read MoreWhat Can You Build Upon?
You have just 20 minutes. What’s the most valuable thing you can do with them? It probably isn’t checking your LinkedIn updates, responding to housekeeping emails or listening to one more podcast about productivity. Checking and updating may feel like work but they aren’t things you can build upon. If you can’t look back at…
Read MoreHow To Optimise For Customer Delight
“You’re here for the Valium?” blurted the dental receptionist as they arrived. The young man looked blankly at her and then at his mother. He was about to have three wisdom teeth removed under local anaesthetic. He had arrived early to be prepared for the procedure and dutifully took the 20mg of Valium given to…
Read More