Managing rapid growth with excellence

Can a company achieve rapid growth and maintain an environment of quality and excellence?

This is possible with a strategic plan for anticipating and experiencing rapid growth in the context of your company values. [Read more]

Business 2009 – Times They Are A Changin’

The Setting

To grow in this current economy, businesses will have to learn a new mindset with a new set of realities

and develop a strategic response. They face transitions.

FROM		TO
Complaining how bad things are		Reinventing for success
Waiting for the economy to turn around		Change business model; seize new opportunities
Jobs are lost and not being replaced		Find new ways to accomplish old tasks; entrepreneurs surfacing
Advertising once ruled; old media is dying		Conversations are the new media and expanding virally
Waste overflowing		Conservation new ethic
Greed rampant		Generosity new mantra
Pushing people is a trespass		Pulling engaged participants is natural and sustaining
Attention economy focus on interruption		Attraction economy focus on engagement
Brands were created and controlled		Brands grow organically
Employers searching for talent		Talent searching for right culture
Divide and conquer; do it by myself		Collaboration
Unprecedented growth		Record declines
Security		Fear of the future
Taking things for granted		Being grateful for what we have
Oil economy is dying		Alternative fuels are growing
Health care costs out of control		Health care model will change
Baby Boomers had secure retirement		Boomers look to secure their future

Being Strategic

Business transformation is challenging at best. But a well-formulated strategy can leverage the vast opportunities and provide for an orderly transition.

“Any review of history will reveal that the majority of wealth in modern civilizations is more often than not created during times of significant economic crisis. Opportunities abound for those organizations that are truly strategic…” Dr. John Sullivan, The Economic Downturn.

Here are three lessons from corporate transformation efforts that could help:

Transformation doesn’t come from doing what you are currently doing better. Real change requires honestly looking at your business model in the context of current realities. It isn’t just about doing what you are doing differently. It involves a sharp departure from business as usual — stopping some initiatives, and starting others.

1. Start small. Step-by-step change builds confidence.  Get some early successes before expanding efforts.
2. Invest in the human side of transformation.   Don’t challenge employees beyond their capacities. Invest in building human capital. Engage your team – bring in inspiring, fresh mindset and gain agreement on the need for and the approach to  change

Seizing Opportunities

In face of the above changes, progressive businesses are seizing the opportunities. They are looking to innovate, reinvent and use the recession to build their new business model.

Saul Berman, Global Lead Partner of IBM’s Strategy and Change Services suggested:

“Changing times require new business strategies …This is a time to build future capabilities…. The winners are going to reapply certain assets, curtail some things and free up those assets to invest elsewhere.”

Will your company meet the challenge?

4 Steps to Generate Marketing Capital with Marketing 2.0

It is accepted that social media has transformed the world of marketing, advertising, and sales. The popular business bestseller, Groundswell documents that social media is changing the user, the marketing tools and the mindset of businesses. New media is generating results and return on investment. How does your business gain value from the new media?

Change in Mindset

The challenge for business is that developing a social media strategy requires a fundamental change in mindset. A social trend is growing, as stated in Groundswell, “in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.” Social media decreases the control of businesses and focuses on the relationships — the way users connect and create communities. Therein lays the new base of power in the marketplace.

Integrated Marketing 2.0

Marketing is redefined explains Brian Solis in Manifesto of Marketing Communications,

“It all starts with Respect….Listening, Participation, Media, Conversations, Comments are all marketing.”

Traditional advertising is declining as the dominant force in the marketplace but still plays a critical role in the new mix. A new approach to marketing is needed that incorporates the focus on relationships and reflects a new role for traditional media.

Integrated Marketing 2.0 – leverages traditional, online and social media with business development to create Marketing Capital and generate results. It analyzes your product/service; determines the relative power of each medium; and then integrates them to optimize your results. It is designed to connect users by creating relationships; thus creating communities of engaged and connected users sharing conversations.

Does Your Company Need Integrated Marketing 2.0?

If you ask the right questions you will get your answer:

• Do you want to be considered a leader in your industry?

• Does your target market use the internet to access information, evaluate products or search for a business?

• Are you satisfied the results of your marketing efforts?

• Are you thinking of re-inventing your business model in consideration of the new economic realities?

If you answer YES to any of these questions, your business will gain value and benefit from an Integrated Marketing 2.0 Strategy.

The Next Steps

The development of Integrated Marketing 2.0 is at its infancy. Marketing professionals and the “newly invented” social media strategists are experimenting with the new media – how to measure, monetize and combine it with traditional advertising venues. Here are the next steps for your business:

1. Gain agreement and commitment among owners and senior management to new ways of thinking. This is not easy and requires education to the new opportunities!

2. Assemble Integrated Marketing 2.0 Teams that blend an understanding and experience of the three different media. This might require an outside team to support your current staff.

3. Develop a strategy that uses the power of each medium to exponentially drive the message to a broader market. This requires both training and experience for your staff in working with the new media and evaluating the traditional media efforts.

4. Track and evaluate the results and adjust the strategy. With social media the statistics are available for each media pay. It requires the time to determine the effect and value of each tool.

Competitive Edge

The next three years will see a refinement of Integrated Marketing 2.0 Strategies. Businesses that engage these strategies will increase in their value and realize a powerful competitive edge. If you think and operate with new models, you will realize new results!

For more information click here to download my White Paper on Integrated 2.0 Strategies.