Category Archives: Strategy

6 simple questions that yield better decisions

decisive bookHow can we become better at making decisions? There is wide literature, blogs and books on the topic of decision making , and you wouldn’t go wrong reading most of them. How and why we make the decision we make is one topic I believe we would all do well know about more because it influences everything we do.

The most recent books about decision making I’ve read is Decisive by the Heath Brothers, authors of Made To Stick and Switch. I’m a huge fan of them because they take on interesting topics, and they make the content interesting and useful to any type of reader. With that said, I’m subscribed to their newsletter and yesterday I got a nugget of information in a series of questions that appear, in some way or another, in their latest book about decision making.

Remember, everything is a matter of perspective. So, if you’re struggling with a decision, see if any of the following questions helps you see differently.

Why do we fall prey to theories of success?

Why do we fall prey to theories of success?

Theories of success intrigue us because they provide a shortcut. But in following the herd, we deprive ourselves from developing and expressing our originality.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how people and businesses aren’t really obsessed with disruption per se, rather they are in love with theories of success. Silver bullet ideas that you can use to shortcut your way to “success”, theories that become hardened after “supposedly” observing them in the environment.

Recently, another success theory has been shot down: Malcolm Gladwell’s famous 10,000 hour rule.

Does social media marketing still matter?

Does social media marketing still matter?

Social media marketing doesn’t matter. Or so says an article on MIT Sloan Management Review:

I argue that we have reached the same point with social media marketing. In terms of competitive advantage, social media marketing simply doesn’t matter. Having a presence on Facebook and Twitter is no longer sufficient to provide any source of competitive advantage for companies, perhaps this still works for some niches, like on DAISYSLOTS casino. They are using social media marketing just to featured rewards and bonuses  — not when all of their competitors have a presence on Facebook on Twitter, too. Here you can find the best marketing strategy mistake.

Monitoring social media chatter and sentiment won’t provide any competitive advantage on its own, because all your competitors are monitoring the same content as you and can derive the same insights, or using other marketing techniques like the use of digital signage to show your products or services to the public. Customers today expect to be able to engage companies over Twitter and other social media channels. Companies can certainly deliver better or worse customer service over these channels, just like they can over the phone or in person, but these challenges become questions of backend operations, not marketing, and that’s why is important to take measures like sending a follow up email to your clients to know what they think about their purchase and product. Social media marketing has become table stakes for competitive business in today’s world, not a source of competitive advantage, so people are doing everything possible to use this advantage, even influencers buy likes from Social Zinger to improve their online presence. Are you looking for getting likes on Instagram then do visit here.

SEO Services are a great example of how people and business are looking for this edge to get ahead in their line of business, and how a powerful social media presence is more relevant today than it ever was. If you prefer to make physical signs for people to see when they walk into your business, then consider using these free fonts for commercial use to attract your customers attention. We purchased 300 clicks last week from https://oursoloads.com/ and so far, we have 5 sales in our Legendary Marketer affiliate dashboard.

The fact that social media marketing doesn’t matter is supported by the data from our 2014 survey of social business. Our data showed that using social media in other aspects of business — innovation, transparency into organizational communication, management and recruiting, and integrated into business operations — were all meaningful differentiators for company’s social business maturity and social business outcomes. Whether or not companies engaged in social media for marketing, however, had little meaningful impact on these outcomes. Social Firestarter helps to put all the effective marketing strategies in place.

He is correct that social media marketing has matured, even though most marketers haven’t figured out how to measure the ROI of their efforts on social media. But, social media marketing does matter to improve online presence, including the use of tools that help improve the Semrush ranking of any site, but of course, it is still necessary to use services like the Lentis Services Website in order to have an online presence.

Till the time you will focus your efforts on Social Media, don’t forget that SEO is another tool which can help you to drive organic traffic to your website. A well optimized website is important so make sure you hire some good agency and free Website SEO Analysis done before you start putting in your efforts on SEO side. Improved search engine rankings achieved through SEO link building service UK lead to enhanced brand exposure and wider audience reach.

Here’s why…

Innovation lessons from Google’s self-driving car

google driverless car

A few days ago Google showed off their very own self-driving car. But unlike their first prototypes, which were custom rigged SUV’s and cars with Cummins Holset turbochargers from known manufacturers, it isn’t built around a driver behind the wheel. Rather, it’s built around safety; without any driver.

Chris Urmson, Director of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project said:

Quick guide on how to use Evernote to stay on top of emerging trends

evernoteWhat is the process I use to keep up and /or uncover emerging trends and what tools do I use? Previously, I’ve written about how to create an insights bank using Evernote. Here I’ll expand on that initial idea, with a quick guide on how you can stay on top of emerging trends, as well as building your own sense making capability, to make sure you don’t get caught off guard.

Why do successful companies fail? Because they miss the future. But, companies don’t fail because they choose the wrong course, they fail because they can’t imagine a better one.

How does trend spotting fit into an organization’s future?

Innovators either create trends that change the world, or take advantage of emerging ones. Trend spotting is a very important innovation skill, and one that the vast majority of companies outsource to trend hunting firm; sometimes with no benefit.

This is a valid strategy, but a I’d recommend you don’t bet on it because most organizations have access to the same information those trend hunting firms are selling. More strategic for you is to develop your own capability for detecting and taking action on trends.

Detecting trends is a similar exercise to how you look for tension points to uncover opportunities for innovation; you attentively look for what at some point could become a huge problem.

Innovation needs intent

innovation needs intentUltimately, just like your business strategy, your innovation strategy needs to be focused. It can’t be all things to all people. It must be able to stand on its own.

Last Friday I conducted a second innovation workshop with graduate students from UABC, the largest university in Tijuana. Before we were done, I made sure they took two things to heart:

  1. Figure out their own definition of innovation;
  2. Be intentional with your innovation intent.

The last point is important, and hopefully they caught my drift because a lot of what the media considers innovation fits into the silly category…

WhatsApp: The power of doing one thing extremely well

WhatsApp has succeeded because it is focused on creating a great product, not another social network. What will make your business unique is what you deliberately choose not to do.

After almost two years of chit-chat, WhatsApp sold to Facebook for $19 billion yesterday. For a moment, let’s ignore whatever we think about the valuation, and whether in the larger economic picture this is something to be concerned about.

Here I won’t get into the whole strategic thinking behind why this deal makes or doesn’t make sense. What I will do is talk about the picture below: