Seth Godin
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
ISBN: 1591841003

This is a synopsis only.  RESULTS.com recommends you buy the original book.

 

Do $100 speaker cables sound better than $10 cables?

Is a Mercedes 15 times better than a Toyota to justify being 15 times the price? Rationally - no.

But - the sound the Mercedes door makes when it closes tells a story – a story that appeals to the world view of their target customers. This story of quality and workmanship is something their target customers think is worth talking about and spreading to other people who share their world view.

People don’t buy the functional benefits – they buy the story that appeals to their emotions.

People buy SUV’s because of the story (the way it makes them feel) – not because it rationally makes sense.

People drive Toyota Prius – not because of the mileage, but because of the story Toyota has marketed to them, and the statement it makes about them as owners to others.

People don’t buy what they need (commodities) – they buy what they want (brands).

They buy bottled water with Fiji on the label because of the way it makes them feel (emotions).

Most companies still make the marketing mistake of promoting product / service superiority. It’s not the utility of the product / service (better / faster / cheaper / etc) that matters – it’s the story you tell – it’s how you make them feel.

The $80K Porsche Cayenne and the $36K VW Toureg are essentially the same vehicle.

In blind taste tests – people prefer Pepsi. But people drink the brand – not the contents – and Coke is still #1.

The exact same wine in 2 different bottles, one with a premium label and price tag – the other one with a budget label and price tag. In blind taste tests when asked which one they prefer the taste of, people claim to enjoy the premium version more.

In taste tests organic food does not taste any better in tests. It does make organic consumers feel better about purchasing it however. Wholefoods sells organic foods at inflated prices. People don’t shop there for the food. They shop there because of the way it makes them feel.

You can’t spend money and hope to change people’s minds with advertising or campaigning.

Facts are irrelevant. What matters is what the customer believes

To succeed marketers must tell great stories. A great story:

• Makes a promise
• Is trusted by those that share that world view
• Is not aimed at everyone

In marketing, you need to tell great stories that spread or you will become irrelevant.

If you have to water down your story to appeal to everyone, it will appeal to no one.

Your story must appeal to the “world view” of the target customer (the beliefs / biases / lens / filters - through which they perceive things). Don’t try to change peoples’ world views – you can’t – you need to find something they already agree with and market to that. You need to reinforce a bias they already have.

People tend to ignore (filter out) information that contradicts their worldview, and look for information that supports it.

Don’t market to the majority. It’s at the edge where you will find customers whose worldviews are unfulfilled. Find a neglected world view and frame your story to this group of customers - in a way you can reach them cost effectively.

Make your story “remarkable” = (able to be remarked about) = worth talking about by key influencers in this group (thought leaders / “sneezers”). Keep your story simple and easy to spread.

 

The process:

• Target a group of customers who share the same world view
• Market your story to appeal solely to that world view
• Make it easy for the story to spread
• Everyone in your company and everything you do must completely embrace and “live” your story – so it will be believed
• The result = you create a new market which you “own” 

People only notice stories that are new and different. In a world of information overload and infinite choices – consumers make snap judgments. First impressions influence our decisions – you don’t get much time to tell a new story.

Once people have made a decision based on first impressions – they stick with it – regardless of new information that might prove them wrong (about people, products, companies). People don’t want to be wrong, so they stick with their first impression.

Amazon.com has told a story and worked hard to build a great reputation for customer service. They so exceeded expectations that their target customers started spreading this story about Amazon. If they do mess up now, people tend to forget it as a random event, because it does not support their world view of what Amazon stands for. As a result, it’s now easier, not harder for Amazon to maintain its great reputation. People believe it because they want to believe it.

Be authentic. If your marketing is cool, your location is cool, but your products and services aren’t – you won’t get talked about for long. Everything counts!

If you want to grow, you must do something worth talking about = remarkable (= the purple cow concept)

Whilst your story may not be rationally “true” – you must NOT be fraudulent. You must not harm anyone. You must do the right thing by people. “The cigarette preferred by doctors” (Phillip Morris) and encouraging mothers to use milk formula rather than breast feeding (Nestle) - is both inauthentic and fraudulent – and both companies were exposed as such.

You must be authentic and keep your promises. Your marketing won’t work for long if it really is a lie. Once fooled, a person will never repeat your story to someone else.

As per the book “Purple Cow” - you need to be remarkable. That is you need to do something worth remarking about. Remarkable products and services are worth talking about – not hype filled advertising. You need to build your entire organization around providing the experience that supports your story. You need to sell it to yourself first!

You cannot “out yell” someone who already owns a story. A boring “me too” story is not worth a 2nd look.

Once people have bought a story, persuading them to switch to an alternative is like telling them they were wrong – and people hate admitting they are wrong. Don’t try to outdo a leader. Find a different customer with a different world view. Create your own category and story.

If you tell the right story you will automatically become a purple cow. A purple cow is not about simply being different – its about being remarkable – able to be remarked about – to be doing something meaningfully different that is worth talking about

Crossing the chasm: Go to the edges first. Be extreme in your storytelling. Win a loyal following. Then gradually make it more palatable to more mainstream audiences who are persuaded to buy from you by your loyal customers through their own storytelling (not by your advertising).

 

John Spence,
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 0470494514
 

This is a synopsis only.  RESULTS.com recommends you buy the original book.

The key to business success, based on the author’s work with thousands of organizations (including GE, Microsoft, IBM, and Abbot Labs), is tied to the disciplined application of the Six Principles of Business Success:

1. Vivid Vision
2. Best People
3. Robust Communication
4. Sense of Urgency
5. Disciplined Execution
6. Extreme Customer Focus

Application of these principles may be simple, but not easy.  It requires leaders with a passion about their business and its success, persistence, practice, and perspective to see patterns and trends that others do not.
 

Vivid Vision

Whether you lead two people or 2,000 it is critical that you have a clear, compelling and extremely well-communicated vision of where the organization is headed and what it stands for.  The mission (or purpose) is why the company exists, the values are the guidelines for behavior, and the vision (BHAG©) provides a vivid description of where the company will be in the future.

The key to Mission, Values and Vision (M/V/V) is not just creating them, but they need to be communicated and applied throughout the organization.

Ideas for bringing M/V/V alive in the organization include:

• Rewarding employees for demonstrating the values.
• Using M/V/V in the recruiting process by creating specific interview questions to identify alignment to them.Communicate repeatedly these elements in company newsletters, presentations, and signage.  Create fun posters, apparel and other items that reflect M/V/V.
• Audit how well the company is living its M/V/V through customer or employee surveys.

Best People

The success of your business is directly tied to the quality of the people you have on your team.  Many companies say, “Our people are our most important asset,” but very few have put in place a system to make talent management a key strategic advantage.  With the right people in the right culture, success and profitability will result.
Attracting talent is a strategic commitment that will take ongoing time and effort.  Leaders should maintain a roster of great people for every position, whether the position is currently vacant or not (talk to people now who may fill a position five years from now) and spend time identifying and keeping in touch with these individuals.

The best talent is attracted to a strong culture, and an organization with clear M/V/V.

Talented people demonstrate the 5 ‘C’s – Competence, Character, Collaboration, Communication and Commitment.

Hiring the best talent is not enough.  Once hired, people need to be highly engaged in the organization.  Engaged employees is the single greatest driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty, and overall company success.

Engaging employees requires a clear and compelling M/V/V, along with giving them an environment where they can progress and contribute, and establishing leadership that is authentic and approachable.
 

Robust Communications

Communication breaks down in many organizations at two levels, interpersonally and organizationally.

Strong interpersonal communication involves open dialog, building rapport, active listening, awareness of body language,  and a willingness to engage in constructive conflict.   Constructive conflict is difficult and requires courage and honesty.

Robust communcation at an organizational level builds from the interpersonal.  Leaders must model strong interpersonal communication skills, while being authentic and brutally honest in confronting reality and communicating the decisions and strategies moving forward.
 

Sense of Urgency

In business today, speed rules.  If you cannot move quickly the competition will - not to mention that customers hate waiting and are becoming more and more conditioned to instant response.

Speed requires making decisions, often in an environment of imperfect information.  To make good decisions …

• information must flow easily within the organization.  There can be no ‘hoarding’ of information, knowledge or learnings, and it must move without friction.
   
  AND
   
• intended results or outcomes must be clear.

With these components, all employees can make decisions about their priorities; deciding what to do and, more importantly, what NOT to do.

Bureaucracy can be the enemy – seek to eliminate hierarchy, bureaucracy, inefficiencies and any activities that do not add value, serve customers, or make employees more effective.
 

Disciplined Execution

Many companies have grand ambitions, but only about 10% of businesses can effectively execute on their strategic priorities in a disciplined and thorough manner.   Urgency and discipline can exist together and must be balanced.

Disciplined Execution requires:

• Systems and processes that align to strategic goals.
• Individual objectives that tie strongly to corporate objectives.
• Mechanisms for continuous improvement or innovation of processes.
• Give people the resources, tools and training to perform well in their roles.

Extreme Customer Focus

At the end of the day, the only critic whose opinion counts is the customer’s, and the company that owns the “voice of the customer,” owns the marketplace and will outpace the competition.

Know the ‘moments of truth’ for your customers – what are the key points where the market interfaces with your company?  Determine how to make each of these moments a highly satisfying interaction, and recognize that front-line employees are typically the most important element of these interactions.

Characteristics of great service include reliability, professionalism, empathy, responsiveness and ambience.

 

Blue Ocean Strategy - W Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne

   

 

Competing for the Future  -  Gary Hamel, C K Prahalad

   

 

Competitive Strategy- Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors  -  Michael E Porter

       

Confronting Reality- Doing What Matters to Get Things Right  -  Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan

     

 

Create Your Own Future - Brian Tracy

 

 

Double Double - Cameron Herold

   

Execution - Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Ram Charan

What the world's greatest managers do differently

Marcus Buckinghamand Curt Coffman
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0684852861

 

This is a synopsis only.  RESULTS.com recommends you buy the original book.

 

How do you measure and grow your human capital?

Financial statements do a poor job of measuring the true value of a company.  A great deal of your company value is tied up in your human capital – the hearts and minds of your people. 

The Gallup Q 12

Extensive research by Gallup has discovered 12 statements that are be the most powerful predictors of employee engagement.

The teams with highest engagement scores had:

• increased sales growth
• increased productivity
• increased customer satisfaction
• fewer accidents
• lower staff turnover
• less staff absenteeism

Each question is rated on a scale of 1 - 5

(1= strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral / no opinion, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree)

1. I know what is expected of me at work.
2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.
7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
8. The mission/purpose of the company makes me feel my job is important.
9. My co-workers are committed to doing quality work.
10. I have a best friend at work.
11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
12. In the last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Research shows, it is the employee’s immediate manager who is the critical player in building an engaged, productive workplace – not pay, benefits, conditions, or even charismatic leadership

The best thing the business leader can do create a great company is to hold each line manager accountable for what their employees say to each of these 12 statements. 

 

The Difference between Leaders and Managers

The difference between managers and leaders is more profound than most people think

A leader is not a more advanced form of manager. Both roles are vitally important – they require 2 very different strengths. 

Great leaders look outward:

Key role = rally people to a better future

Great managers look inward:

Key role = find out what each individual’s strengths are and capitalise on them

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM	WHAT RESEARCH SHOWS
Management is not as important as leadership	Managers are the prime catalyst for superior employee performance
Management is a stepping stone to leadership	The core strengths of great leaders and great managers are very different
Hire staff based on experience, intelligence, and determination	Hire staff based on talents / strengths
Set expectations by defining the right steps	Set expectations by defining the right outcomes
Develop people through promotion – climbing the corporate ladder	Develop people by helping them find and specialise in roles that "fit" their core strengths
Provide more pay, perks and prestige the further one climbs the corporate ladder	Create heroes in every role. Provide more pay, perks and prestige for levels of achievement in each role
You can be anything you want if you work hard enough	You are naturally "wired" to be exceptional at certain things only. The key is to understand what your core strengths are
The key to success is to fix your weaknesses	The key to success is to play to your strengths
Treat people as you wish to be treated	Treat each person differently according to their needs
Spend time with struggling staff members	Invest most of your time with your most productive staff members
There is no "I" in team. Focus on team performance	Great teams are built around individual excellence and specialisation
Annual performance appraisal focused on "areas for improvement"	Performance appraisal every quarter focused on results and how best to leverage the employee’s strengths in the future
"Familiarity breeds contempt". Don’t get too close to your employees. Keep them at arms length	Managers must understand employees strengths, and be aware of the practicalities of their personal lives as they impact performance
Poor performance can be overcome with willpower and training	Tough love. Do not tolerate poor performance. Find them a role that matches their strengths or quickly terminate

 

The 4 Core Management Activities:

1. Select for Talent

Selecting for talent is the manager’s first and most important responsibility

Understand the 3 categories of talents / strengths:

1. Striving = the “why” of a person (what motivates them)
2. Thinking = the “how” of a person (how they make decisions)
3. Relating = the “who” of a person (how they relate to people)

• Study / interview your current top performers in each position - how they strive, think and relate
• For each role Identify at least 1 critical talent from each of the 3 talent categories
• Use this as the basis for recruiting and interviewing for each role
• Do not compromise on these talents – no matter how persuasive the candidate’s resume or personality  
• Talent trumps experience, intelligence & determination
• Ask questions that elicit past examples of specific behaviours
• Clues to talents / strengths = SIGN
  • S – Success – you are good at it
  • I – Instincts – you have the urge to do it
  • G – Growth – you love learning about it
  • N – Needs – it meets your needs - you feel a sense of fulfillment 
• Use profiling tools to provide objective measurement

2. Define the Right Outcomes

• Standardise the “ends” rather than the “means”
• Enforce only those steps that correlate with prescribed standards of performance
• The customer is the ultimate judge of what is a valuable outcome – ask them!
• Realise that employees will not do things exactly the way you would do them.
• Let employees leverage their own unique styles to meet measurable outcomes
• Select for talent / strengths in the 1st place and you will need fewer rules
• Create measures for all outcomes
• Hold people accountable for achieving measurable outcomes

 

3. Focus on Strengths

• Cultivate each individual’s strengths and manage around their weaknesses
• Manage around weaknesses by providing a support system, a complementary partnership, or change their role to match their strengths
• Don’t try to fix their weaknesses
• Everyone is different – and their strengths / talents are resistant to change
• Help them become more of who they already are
• Confront poor performance immediately
• Check - Is it a talent issue or a training issue?
• Check - Is the manager pushing the right buttons?
• Terminate the staff member early if you have made a hiring error

4. Find the Right Fit

• Help each person find roles that enable them to do more and more of what they are naturally wired to do
• Encourage world class performance in each role
• Promoting people can lead them to failure. Traditional career paths are traps
• Management / Leadership require specific core strengths
• Instead, create “heroes in every role” – i.e. alternative career paths
• Make every role, when performed excellently – a profession with associated prestige, pay and perks
• Create levels of achievement (ala lawyers – junior associate – associate – senior associate – junior partner – partner – senior partner)
• Broadband (overlapping) pay rates – i.e. senior salespeople earn more than junior sales managers
• Make specialization and excellence in a role more attractive in terms of pay, perks and prestige than seeking promotion 
• Celebrate individual successes

Customer Research – What customers really want:

The 4 Step Hierarchy to increase Customer Satisfaction

1. Accuracy 
   Did I get what I expected?
    
2. Availability
   Are you there when I need you?
    
3. Partnership
   Are you on my side?
    
4. Advice
   Can you help me to learn?

 

4 Keys for Effective Performance Appraisals

1. Simple   
2. Frequent
   • One on one manager meetings with direct reports
   • Minimum of 1 hour performance appraisal per employee per quarter 
   
    
3. Future focused
   • What “could be”, rather than focus on past mistakes 
    
    
4. Self Measurement  

• Staff track their own performance and learnings = self discovery
• Get them to prepare answers to the following questions prior to the meetingWhat results have you achieved? 
  • What have you learned?
  • What relationships have you built?
  • What do you think you are good at?  Why?
  • What parts of your current role do you enjoy?  Why?
  • What parts of your current role are you struggling with?  Why?
  • How can we manage around this?
  • What would be the perfect role for you?
  • What would you be doing?
  • Why would you like it so much?
  • What will be your main focus for the next 3 months?
  • What do you want to learn?
  • What relationships do you want to build? 
• During the appraisal, honestly tell them what you think about each of their answers to each question and add your comments to each of their answers.

Interviewing for Strengths:

• What made you want to apply for this role?
• What do you think you are good at?  Why?
• What parts of your current / previous role(s) do you enjoy?  Why?
• What parts of your current / previous role(s) do you struggle with?  Why?
• What would be the perfect role for you?
• What would you be doing?
• Why would you like it so much?
• How often do you like to meet with your manager to discuss progress?
• Do you tell people how you are feeling, or do they have to ask?
• What is the best praise you ever received?  What made it so good?
• Who was the best manager you’ve had & what made this relationship work well?
• Have you had any really productive work partnerships?
• What made these relationships work well for you?
• What are your future personal development goals?
• What skills would you like to learn
• What challenges would you like to experience?
• Is there anything else you want to talk about that might help us work well together?

 

 

Focus - The Future of Your Company Depends on It - Al Ries