Getting out of the Quantitative World

The world is highly quantitative – it’s all about the metrics and meeting the numbers. Everyone is counting something – number of customer complaints, number of web visits, percentage increase in sales, and the list goes on and on. With so much emphasis on the quantitative side, the qualitative side gets lost and it is the qualitative stuff that is becoming more important. One reason qualitative information gets de-emphasized is that it is difficult to measure. If we can’t measure it, then it gets ignored. This is one of the fallacies with financial reporting; things like talent, leadership and brand recognition are no-where to be found on the financial statement. But these qualitative characteristics are the real drivers of performance and they warrant more attention in today’s quantitatively obsessed world.  

Embracing UX Design

Growing and maintaining a product now requires recognition of User Experience or UX Design. Even service oriented companies should pay attention to UX Design because the world is so digital and connected – your online presence requires great UX design.  Regrettably, many companies have yet to embrace the concepts of UX design. 

Putting Emphasis on Knowledge Assets

Knowledge workers are a critical source of value and in today’s world of intellectual assets, they represent your only competitive advantage. The fact that so many companies struggle to attract and retain top talent attests to a much deeper problem – your existing knowledge assets are poorly managed. There is enormous waste every day in every company. It stays hidden out-of-sight with too much emphasis on the day to day operational stuff. It has to do with not leveraging your knowledge and people like you should.

BADIR: A Simple Approach to Analytics

The best companies in the world have embraced data analytics. They know how to capture and analyze data for continuously solving problems and improving the bottom line. Unfortunately, analytics is often lacking for less sophisticated or smaller companies. One way to put analytics into your business is to follow the BADIR Formula:

SEO: An Inconvenient Truth

If you expect to get noticed in this global connected world, you are going to have to embrace something called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It seems every year someone declares SEO is dead. Yes, SEO is very difficult and it does require a serious commitment of time and money. But take a hard look at your competition and see how effective they are over the internet. They haven’t updated their website in over six months, they still have fixed tables for presenting content and they continue to ignore the mobile world. Also think about the fact that there are over a half a trillion web sites online. So even if you do just basic SEO, you are bound to realize some big benefits that can help your company in the long run.

In Pursuit of the Micro Moment

For the last few years Google has been spending a lot of time trying to understand something called the micro-moment. The micro-moment is the time between researching a product or service and the time a person makes the buy decision. It is during this slice of time that the brain tells the person; yes you should (or should not) buy this product or service. Understanding the brain and a person’s emotional response during these micro-moments has become very important for marketers. This behavioral approach to marketing is often referred to as Neuro-Marketing.   

Hand Shakes vs. Lawyers

We live in a world where timely execution is critical. Obstacles and delays can be detrimental to many businesses in this fast paced changing world. What helps is when you can trust someone based on a handshake and get things done quickly before having to execute legal agreements. Yes, this may fly in the face of a more cautious and traditional view of business which advocates, get everything in writing and make sure you hire a lawyer. However, this traditional view of business is increasingly not grounded in the reality of how people need to get things done.  

Is This Person Right for Your Company?

It represents one of the most important decisions a company will make – should we hire or not hire this person. Bringing the right person on board goes a long way towards growth and value for any company. So how can you tell if you have the right person? You can start by comparing the person against your culture since this represents an immediate show-stopper. If the person doesn’t fit your culture, then the person is most likely not a good fit for the long-run.

Do You Know Your Algorithms

If you want to drill down to the root cause behind what drives so much value in today’s world, then you need to know your algorithms. An algorithm is a set of instructions that processes inputs and provides some output. Companies that master their algorithms unleash incredible value. Take for example Uber which relies on algorithms to locate available drivers for customers, processes locations and times, and then delivers online progress and statistics of the ride. When you couple algorithms with great design, then you have a value proposition that others will want. Therefore, getting your algorithms right has profound implications on your business.

People Need Coaching - Part 2 of 2

Part 1 of this article laid the groundwork for transforming managers into coaches. Part 2 of this article will focus on what every manager can do to become a great coach. Much of this transformation from manager to coach is rooted in the relationships a Manager has with co-workers. In their book Stop Managing, Start Coaching, authors Jerry W. Gilley and Nathaniel W. Boughton describe nine key components behind a manager-employee relationship: