Some years back, the CEO of Jewel Tea Company referred to himself in a Harvard Business Review article as The First Assistant to his direct reports. By that, he meant that he saw himself as the person to whom his department heads could turn for support in accomplishing difficult or unusual projects and that he could stand in for them when they were ill or on vacation. Do you operate in this manner? Should you? While sounding supportive this approach also contains inherent risks.
When running my advertising agencies, I initially thought this was a good approach. It would allow me to keep a good eye on the business and to develop close relationships with my colleagues; they would feel supported and appreciated. However, as I look back on that style now, I also see the risk of becoming more operational than a CEO should; it can distract from his responsibility as the visionary and strategic leader. It can also risk undercutting company department heads in the eyes of their staffs or, in our case, clients. And, it forgoes the opportunity of providing leadership responsibility and experience to their own number ones when they are ill or on holiday.
Philosophically and on the surface, the idea of the "Servant Boss" has much appeal. But the risks also need cosideration before adoption of the style!
Want to comment? Visit www.blog.gps4management.com. Would love your thoughts!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
CAN MAKING "FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND" HELP YOUR BUSINESS?
Recently, I have been following the thread of an interesting article posted on BizNik by Miles Austin. He calls the process of commenting on group discussions,web articles, blogs and the like as leaving "Footprints in the Sand". The reason for his title lies in the continuous washing away of such comments and blog postings by the sheer volume of internet commentary and the difficulty of making a footprint which will be visible for more than a few hours. Yet, we are all urged by the social media gurus to participate in this dialogue in order to build awareness and respect for our businesses. Does it work? Is all the time it requires worth it? Does it pay off?
I don't know if there is a definitive answer to this issue. I have certainly heard of successful examples where participating in social media has paid off but, in a seemingly greater number of cases, I have heard of failure.......either because the commentator got tired of continuing to write with little apparent return or simply because there there really weren't any leads or sales or even inquiries after months of diligent postings.
My suspicion is that the answer largely depends on the nature of one's business. If one is engaging in e-commerce with fairly low priced products or services for sale, I can see it succeeding. Conversely, for the businessman with but a few clients at a time who is not seeking multi-transactions, it may be too time consuming or even irrelevant to continue the effort.
Your thoughts? Post your comment at http://www.blog.gps4management.com/
I don't know if there is a definitive answer to this issue. I have certainly heard of successful examples where participating in social media has paid off but, in a seemingly greater number of cases, I have heard of failure.......either because the commentator got tired of continuing to write with little apparent return or simply because there there really weren't any leads or sales or even inquiries after months of diligent postings.
My suspicion is that the answer largely depends on the nature of one's business. If one is engaging in e-commerce with fairly low priced products or services for sale, I can see it succeeding. Conversely, for the businessman with but a few clients at a time who is not seeking multi-transactions, it may be too time consuming or even irrelevant to continue the effort.
Your thoughts? Post your comment at http://www.blog.gps4management.com/
Saturday, May 1, 2010
PRE-MORTEM.....HUH? WHAT'S THAT?
Someone recently used this term, Pre-Mortem, on a Linked In discussion I was following. It was meant to describe a way of looking at one's business in order to identify potential weaknesses which could lead to trouble unless fixed. It is an interesting term and an interesting approach to trying to fool proof one's business by stepping back from it and viewing it as an outsider might.
Another approach to fool-proofing your business is to set up a panel of a few marketers to act as competitors. Ask them to probe your operation for gaps which they could capitalize upon if they were running a competing brand. We did this a few times in my advertising agency when one of our clients was about to launch a new product. Our task was to find weaknesses in the product as conceived which competitors could take advantage of and, also, to identify opportunities which we had not yet thought of for exploding the growth of our brand.
These are interesting and valuable exercises to undertake particularly for a new company about to launch its products or services into the marketplace. Do you have any similar methods you would like to recommend for bullet proofing your business?
Another approach to fool-proofing your business is to set up a panel of a few marketers to act as competitors. Ask them to probe your operation for gaps which they could capitalize upon if they were running a competing brand. We did this a few times in my advertising agency when one of our clients was about to launch a new product. Our task was to find weaknesses in the product as conceived which competitors could take advantage of and, also, to identify opportunities which we had not yet thought of for exploding the growth of our brand.
These are interesting and valuable exercises to undertake particularly for a new company about to launch its products or services into the marketplace. Do you have any similar methods you would like to recommend for bullet proofing your business?
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