Category Archives: Professional Services

JTECH Your Way to a True Competitive Advantage

First things first: what/who is JTECH? It’s the former name of a restaurant paging company that eventually became a subsidiary of MICROS Systems. It was founded by a couple of guys from Florida who owned a great restaurant that had too many “walkaways”–people who were not willing to endure the wait for a table seating. In the old days (19990s, mind you!), patrons of their restaurant (like diners in most other establishments) used to have to wait by the hostess stand for an indeterminate amount of time until a table became available. By providing the electronic pager, these guys gave their patrons the freedom–and most importantly, peace of mind–to leave the front door area, relax, and look forward to a sumptuous meal.

But, what of the “true competitive advantage?” To even throw the phrase out suggests that false competitive advantages exist! Don’t they? You be the judge. How many businesses do you know of where price is the main negotiating point in the sales cycle? Unfortunately, way too many. You see, when price becomes the only distinction between a business and its competition, then it is not long before that business enters into a death spiral of decline. At the point that price is all that separates one business offering from another, the battle for customers is lost.

What, then, is a legitimate means of creating a distinctive in the marketplace? Many will argue that Service separates them from others. Alternately, Quality (products) or Experience (Services) are touted as key concepts that persuade one to buy from us versus them. Yet, I have seen over and over (and over !) where these are just words in many situations, without anything to back up the claim–OR anything that is being said that the competition cannot also say!

The original owners of JTECH ended up leasing their restaurant to others because they had found a much better opportunity. It was a great opportunity because and only because they had found a way to monetize the value they had created for restaurants and their customers. True competitive advantage is objective, quantifiable, uniquely claimed, and not a cliche’. (With due thanks to Jaynie L. Smith.)

What was the statement that JTECH developed to carve out such a market -leading position? Of the 50 largest chains who use paging, 100 percent use JTECH! Obviously, they were not able to make this claim Day One. It was something that was earned, one customer at a time.  What absolutely amazes is the recurring bad habit in many companies (and agencies) of developing marketing messages without customer input. Existing customers will tell you why they selected you, what you do better than the competition, and what it would take for someone else to snatch the business away. If you don’t know what your customers would say for each of these categories, you are tuned out. If tuned out, you have no strong competitive advantage positioning!

 

Who Moved My Marketing?

If a traveling salesman from the early 20th century were to be transported in time into modern day, he would have to be astounded at how marketing messages are conveyed. No longer is the day’s work measured by how many individual presentations were made. No–the world has changed quite a bit and we now have access to prospects around the clock through the power of the internet. Printed materials have given away to digital versions, the materials themselves have become flexible tools that are dynamic rather than static, and the information is disseminated through a variety of methods including the ubiquitous social media.

The information in the described value chain is referred to as “content.” The field of content marketing is now the dominant topic in marketing conversations around the world. The infographic below has a lot of messages. Briefly, thought leadership is the goal and may be accomplished through a variety of means. Increased visibility, wider reach, and improved sales are the outcomes of a well-executed content strategy. Credibility is built and enhanced through well-written pieces online that are disseminated via popular applications such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

As you read through the information in the infographic, we suspect it challenges you to think about your own business promotional strategy in new ways. How do you generate content? Who is responsible for amassing it? Through what means do you share your content? Do you have strategies for niche markets? What is your budget (of financial and human capital) for all of this?

Whew! That’s a lot to consider. Think on it. Develop a plan. Get some help if you need to. But, it’s time to stop putting it off. Your company needs a content strategy–because it has become a primary marketing strategy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Management Inbreeding Retards Prosperity

If an organization’s people structure becomes too predictable and inflexible, it can enter into a season of decline. Regardless the legacy of success prior to the institutionalization of processes and preferences, its people can become inoculated to competitive shifts and a corporate “senility” may become omnipresent. Woe be the organization that thinks it can continue to enjoy today’s results tomorrow by only replicating what currently works!

  John W. Gardner, former chairman of Common Cause, likens the aging of a business model to the decline of the Westward frontier expansion. Vitality and enthusiasm give way to tradition and the dream dies with it. Once a management approach becomes entrenched, then, it is susceptible to challenges from every direction. If adjustments are not made, the “weak” are conquered by the “strong” (at innovation.)

The Boston Consulting Group used to do an annual survey to assess the total shareholder return of innovative companies versus their peer groups. Not only was it continually affirmed that innovative companies created greater returns, but the corollary finding was that reinvention of the business model yielded demonstrably higher results than simply changing products or services offerings. Prosperity proved evasive, then, for those management teams who had “inbred” in their perpetuation of what was familiar.

Frederick Kappel, former president of AT&T, during a lecture at Columbia University, cited six dangers of management inbreeding:

  1. People cling to old ways of working even though they have been confronted by a new situation.
  2. They fail to define new goals with meaning and challenge.
  3. Action is taken without studied reflection.
  4. Institutionalized contentment:Business becomes stable and secure, not venturesome.
  5. Old “wisdom” is passed on to new people. Older managers tend to adhere too rigidly to old ideas, to antiquated approaches and methods. Note, they mold the minds of young managers.
  6. Low tolerance for criticism acts to stifle independent thinking.

I remember hearing of a speaker at a turnaround conference who said that the antidote to such mismanagement lies largely in moving people around to different jobs on a regular basis. He argued that a type or rottenness took root when people held onto jobs (positions) for too long. He felt that giving people new challenges, rewarding the hungry “chomping at the bit” with opportunity to test themselves, was a way to keep the organization invigorated. By creating an atmosphere where people have the chance to perform, the whole company usually performs much better!

Too Much? Technology Intrusion @SXSW

The Washington Post, reporting from Austin, provided coverage of South by Southwest 2012. While there were certainly gadgets galore, applications abounding, and technology that teased, today’s article brought up the premise that technology threatens the fabric of our relationships. The intrusion of interruptive “advances” can overwhelm the brain, says Amber Case, a cyborg anthropologist.

Avi Zev Weider offered a documentary for screening, “Welcome to the Machine,” that attempted to ask the question of how inter-human relationships are compromised. Similar to the Matrix film series, there was a strong undercurrent that the network is not always our friend and we need downtime, to unplug and be human and regenerate.

How does this vein of thought factor into our office environments? The tyranny of emails, interoffice communications, tweets, posts, etc can overwhelm even the most resolute worker. I’ve been in many businesses wherein the employees–even department heads–are afraid to walk away from their desks for fear that they may receive a communication to which they do not have the opportunity to respond in real time.

There is something inherently wrong with being captive to the powerful tools that were created–ostensibly–to make our lives better. In working with employees in a number of companies, I have given the employees permission to work strategically on projects, check their messages according to a predetermined schedule, and enjoy the resulting focus, clarity, and peace of mind.

In my own life, it can be harder to set the smartphone down when I know someone may try to communicate with me. The Tweets, email messages on my work email, emails on my home email, text messages from family & friends, alerts that I’ve set up to keep the day flowing, blog updates, LinkedIn updates, etc just keep rolling in and it can be soooo seductive to allow the flow to determine my pace and disposition.

What can we collectively do? Simple, purposeful choices can break the habitual “checking in” that can be so distracting. Determine when you will pick up your cell–make it less frequent than you’ve been observing. Schedule email reading and response time. Most importantly–schedule “think” and “rest” times. Without them, our collective quality of life, contentment on and off the job, and health–physical and emotional–will all suffer.

Spring Colds and Business Lethargy

Have you ever battled one of those seasonal colds that seems to set in just as the quarter changes? The kind that start out innocuously and, within a day or two, take over your body are the worst. With a stopped-up head, compounded by the medicine-induced slowdown of brain activity, perhaps a headache…you simply feel immobilized. Try as one might, even simple tasks require Herculean effort. Truly demanding focus–be it mental, emotional, or physical–wears out and leaves us exhausted.

In business settings, we can experience the onset of lethargy similar to the seasonal cold in cycles not unlike the changing of the seasons. Consider: when you finish your busiest season of the year, the week or so following can be extremely slow and unproductive; or a project comes to a close and your team is worn out; or your work group has just added a lot of new staff and some of your job is now done by others. While all of these situations seem to describe events that lead to a lack of work, what else can lead to job boredom?

Underemployment is a huge contributor to work environments in which employees (and management!) is under-motivated. How does this occur? Usually, when we take a position with an organization, we agree to a certain job description, rate of compensation and benefits package. However, we rarely talk about the career path, opportunity for advancement, and milestones that trigger promotion. If these items are discussed, they are discussed on the front end briefly because we read that we should. How can we keep the topic matter “front and center” throughout our relationship with an employer?

Much of it boils down to culture. Does your organization have intentionality/purposefulness about its culture? Is it “tuned in” to the needs of its employees, or only looking out for shareholder interests? While financial and accounting textbooks encourage us to only think about the “bottom line,” we all know that boring workplaces can be a downer and that culturally blase organizations lose talent, customers, and market share in the long term.

Either join a group that has a culture that values the employee, or be a change agent to help it become such! Speak with your supervisor, HR contact, etc about ideas that you have to enhance employee engagement. It has been our experience that, in many cases, executives have not only heard about progressive corporate cultures within their industry, but would like to have a reason to begin migrating in that direction. Keep in mind–“baby steps” are still walking! Perhaps you will be asked to join or facilitate an employee group to explore ways to make your office a better place to work. If so, you can escape the lethargy and begin to enjoy your avocation. Congrats to all who dare to embark on the journey from “medicine head” to lucidity!