Brand building is not simple, but it is powerful. A brand is actually a living, complex organism. Brands must stand for something. They must be built on a foundation and idea that supports the product or service in various ways. In order to properly position a brand, you must reject sameness and conformity. When positioning is planned and executed successfully, it elevates a brand above others in ways in which people can’t help but notice and be attracted to it. And also…affi

Be your own boss! Being an entrepreneur these days has become stylish. Many people say the job market is lacking, so why not start your own business? The fact is, many businesses do not make it to 5 years and even fewer get to the 10 year anniversary. My consulting company is celebrating it’s 10th year this year and in this article, I thought I would pass along a few things that might help you if you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business.

Shouldn’t we talk to people on their into our companies rather than on the way out? Instead of trying to locate issues when people are on their way our of your organization, leverage the power of those who have not yet been oriented and assimilated. When employees are in their first 90 days, they are tremendously valuable for insight. They have not yet settled into to how your company operates. They have not been assimilated into the culture yet. The culture has not taught th

Top quality brands are based on the time, work and sweat put into developing them. Side 1: The Brand Promise. This is the focused answer to the customer-based question, “if I engage in a relationship with you, what can I expect?” This answer is the essence of your brand and of your relationship to the customer. Side 2: The Brand Attributes. These are the tangible features that customers experience. It is the essence of how the company delivers the brand promise. Side 3: The B

If the lights in your home come on when you flip the switch, do you really care where the electricity comes from? If the water comes out when you turn the faucet, do you really care where the water comes from? These are questions designed to illustrate how much people care about generic utility brands of products and services. If those providers went away tomorrow and someone else provided the same electricity than before, would you care? A truly great brand makes such a uniq

Blockbuster used to exist because VHS tapes used to cost over 100 dollars. Netflix now exists because they eliminated having to take the product back. Now it’s evolved for the customer to get immediate product without having to go get it or take it back. Redbox still exists because not enough customers have advanced to the technology of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. But they will. The reason your computer keyboard is arranged as it is is because original typewriters used to

Several years ago, Jack Trout and Al Reis published “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind”. This quickly became the seminal work on strategy positioning for brands in businesses. Trout and Reis flipped the script from how the seller, creator and manufacturer viewed the product, service or company to the viewpoint of how it was perceived by the buyer to be of the utmost importance. Like more expertly written works, the book won’t tell you HOW but really focuses on the importa

Here are our top picks for the best leadership & business books for November 2015: Black Box Thinking: Why Some Never Learn From Their Mistakes, But Some Do by Matthew Syed Nobody wants to fail. But in highly complex organizations, success can happen only when we confront our mistakes, learn from our own version of a black box, and create a climate where it’s safe to fail. We all have to endure failure from time to time, whether it’s underperforming at a job interview, flunki

Here are our top picks for the best leadership & business books for November 2014 Fail Better: Design Smart Mistakes & Succeed Sooner by Anjali Sanjay and Kara Penn If you’re aiming to innovate, failure along the way is a given. But can you fail better? Whether you’re rolling out a new product from a city-view office or rolling up your sleeves to deliver a social service in the field, learning why and how to embrace failure can help you do better, faster. Smart leaders, entre

Emotions are powerful. We have to constantly remind ourselves that people are people and not machines. Especially when they don’t behave exactly the way that we would like or in a way that makes sense to us. Happiness, sadness, guilt, laughter and others make up the complete emotional matrix of a person. Sales trainers have for years taught sellers that in order to progress in making a sale, you should “find the pain”. In other words, find the emotions that buyers feel are ho

We need policies. They set the boundaries and create frameworks in which we operate. They can also reflect the philosophy of our organization. We need procedures. They outline the series of steps we use to accomplish specific tasks. These are useful tools in your organization which can provide guidelines in which decisions can be made, helping us to standardize practices, test and improve our services. They also help create greater learning through training and fosters cooper

Here are our top picks for the best leadership and business growth books this month. Low Hanging Fruit: 77 Eye-Opening Ways to Improve Productivity & Profits by Jeremy Eden & Terri Long Every day, thousands of hidden and ignored problems frustrate workers and customers and, in turn, reduce profits.  The key to finding and fixing these problems is to engage employees closest to the work and closest to the customer in new ways so they can contribute their ideas. This book provi

Noted management guru Peter Drucker said “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes…but no plans and no actions.” Your culture is the most powerful factor in your organization, and at most places, the least understood, least discussed and least planned for factor. Culture is the determining factor on how people in the organization respond to new ideas, creativity and enthusiasm. Culture embodies the sense of pride or discouragement in the environment of the

The fact of the matter is, everyone is in sales. It could be in the traditional sense of the idea, and you have a solid product or service that you would like someone to buy from you. It could be that you have ideas, which when capitalized or back by investors could really be effective. It could be that you have been wanting a promotion and more compensation. It could be that you want your children to grow up and be your legacy in a positive and impactive way. In all these si

A young blind musician who was born in 1930 in Jacksonville, FL was destined to make his own music in the business. Although he was talented as a piano musician, he was unable to break through because he sounded too much like the people he was imitating. There was already a Charles Brown and a Nat King Cole.The world didn’t need another one of those. What it would eventually get would be a Ray Charles. Ray mixed up funk, blues, soul and gospel to eventually get something