Happy Thanksgiving!! Every thanksgiving it's the same conversation over the menu with the family chef... "Absolutely Mom, serving biscuits, stuffing, sweet and mashed potatoes make perfect sense, why wouldn't it?" If I run 10 miles each day for a week I should be even-steveo.
I thought I would share the post below as I am sure you are battling the same mind over mid-section dilemma. This post has nothing to do with physically overeating however it does have everything to do with the maniacal ways we mentally overeat with repsect to how we run our business. Don't get stuck in these trenches.
11 Ways To Be The Biggest Loser
1. Quit Taking Risks
It doesn’t take long for things to grind to a halt if you simply reduce risk to zero.
2. Be Inflexible
Inflexibility is one of the fastest ways to lose both customers and employees. That’s what happened at Coke for years as company leaders came to think of the drink and the green bottle as a single unit.
3. Isolate Yourself
Isolating yourself is fun. If possible, build your own Taj Mahal in the corner office.
4. Assume Infallability
To start, never admit a mistake. If you assume infallibility, then you can blame others for whatever goes wrong. Letters to shareholders are wonderful examples of this.
5. Leave Folks Wondering If They Got a Fair Deal
Play the game close to the foul line and it’s easy.
6. Dont Take Time To Think
When you make a decision without taking time to think, you’ll enjoy the gravity of bankruptcy combined with the thrill of a carjacking.
7. Rely on Experts and Outside Consultants
Top to bottom, your people will feel trusted and valuable. Plus, having consultants on board allows you to take your eye off the real business.
8. Love Your Bureaucracy
If you want to get nothing done, make sure administrative concerns come first.
9. Send Mixed Messages
It’s so boring when you say the same thing over and over.
10. Fear Tomorrow
Chicken Little is one smart bird. By staying focused on looming failure, you can almost guarantee it.
11. Lose Your Passion for Work & Life
Bonus item! Forget about the pursuit of happiness. Your keywords here: Be realistic.
—Adapted from The Ten Commandments for BusinessFailure, Donald R. Keough, Portfolio. Executive Leadership Vol.24 No.12 Dec. 2009
See you in the trenches - vmsteveo
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
3 Reasons To Uncover Customers’ Needs
If it’s important to be user-friendly, and if the highest form of user friendliness is user-centric, then why aren’t you doing it? That’s the challenge posed by Dev Patnaik and Robert Becker, cofounders of Jump Associates. They do “need-finding,” which is part of their user-based business design. Patnaik and Becker offer three reasons to uncover your customers’ needs:
1. Needs outlast solutions. If you focus on a solution, you’ll constantly try to improve that solution. But if you focus on a need, you’ll be open to looking beyond a particular solution and inventing a better one. Cassette tapes, compact discs and MP3s are a series of solutions developed to satisfy the need for portable music.
2. Needs suggest a road map for product development. Exploring needs will give you an idea of what new products should be developed. Even if the capabilities aren’t there yet, you can plan for hiring the necessary talent and making the necessary investments.
3. Addressing needs prevents workarounds. People get so used to compensating for design flaws that they aren’t even aware of what they’re doing. Procter & Gamble had to visit customers’ homes to see them unconsciously wiping drips from bottles of laundry detergent. The company redesigned the spout to catch drips. Similarly, neither OXO nor its customers realized that conventional measuring cups force you to raise the cup to eye level so you can read its measurements. OXO cups now let you look straight down to see the quantity. To start moving toward user-friendly designs, ask “who” and “what” questions,
including:
Who uses something like this now?
Who wants one?
Who told someone else to buy it?
Who installs it?
Who pays for it?
Who sells it?
Who fixes it?
What’s not working?
What do you want?
What’s missing?
What patterns do you see?
What opportunities are there?
What could be better?
—Adapted from “Outside In,” Damien Kernahan, Fast Thinking. – Execleadership.com Vol. 24, No. 10 Oct 2009
See you in the trenches – vmsteveo
1. Needs outlast solutions. If you focus on a solution, you’ll constantly try to improve that solution. But if you focus on a need, you’ll be open to looking beyond a particular solution and inventing a better one. Cassette tapes, compact discs and MP3s are a series of solutions developed to satisfy the need for portable music.
2. Needs suggest a road map for product development. Exploring needs will give you an idea of what new products should be developed. Even if the capabilities aren’t there yet, you can plan for hiring the necessary talent and making the necessary investments.
3. Addressing needs prevents workarounds. People get so used to compensating for design flaws that they aren’t even aware of what they’re doing. Procter & Gamble had to visit customers’ homes to see them unconsciously wiping drips from bottles of laundry detergent. The company redesigned the spout to catch drips. Similarly, neither OXO nor its customers realized that conventional measuring cups force you to raise the cup to eye level so you can read its measurements. OXO cups now let you look straight down to see the quantity. To start moving toward user-friendly designs, ask “who” and “what” questions,
including:
Who uses something like this now?
Who wants one?
Who told someone else to buy it?
Who installs it?
Who pays for it?
Who sells it?
Who fixes it?
What’s not working?
What do you want?
What’s missing?
What patterns do you see?
What opportunities are there?
What could be better?
—Adapted from “Outside In,” Damien Kernahan, Fast Thinking. – Execleadership.com Vol. 24, No. 10 Oct 2009
See you in the trenches – vmsteveo
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