"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
How Starbucks Lost Its Fidelity -- the trade-off between fidelity (the quality of a consumer's experience) and convenience (the ease of getting and paying for a product) is a critical distinction -- and companies caught trying to provide both get crushed. In turn, those at either extreme do well. Here's a link to an exclusive Fortune magazine excerpt from Kevin Maney's book Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On and Others Don't -- Maney has been a favorite tech writer for years. Take four minutes and read this important article -- then discuss with your team where you are on the continuum. Thanks to Douglas Wick, Positioning Systems, for bringing this to my attention.
Power Thank You -- take another 2 minutes and read Keith Ferrazzi's latest blog where he shares Mark Goulston's three step process for thanking someone properly in a note. In fact, print out the three steps and post next to everyone's computers in your office! Here's the link
Why It's Best to Operate a Global Business from Europe -- this is something Hermann Simon discusses in his latest book Hidden Champions of the 21st Century. Because of the way the time zones are constructed, with the U.K. at GMT 0, you can reach all the time zones between 8am and 8pm CET (Central European Time) if you're located in Europe. Personally, I found it particularly challenging conducting business in Asia and Australia from the U.S. However, now that I'm based in Barcelona I'm able to talk with Asia (including India) and Australia in the morning and the U.S. in the afternoon.
EO Barcelona University -- speaking of Barcelona, are any of you attending EO's University next week? My wife Julie and I will be hosting a session sharing tips and hints and lessons learned on our trip around the world with our four children. And I'll be leading a second session on the new "Me" one-page personal planning tool Gazelles created for the EO Injected Program. We're honored that our four One-Page "Growth Tools" will be foundational to the EO Injected Program aimed at EO members with businesses larger than $15 million and/or members in the organization for seven years or more. Let me know if you'll be in Barcelona.
Inside Advantage -- and this note from Brad Skelton, CEO of Brisbane-based Skelton Sherborne, referring to his workshop with Bob Bloom, author of Inside Advantage "Bob helped us cut through the crap and get to the essence of what Skelton Sherborne is all about. For the first time in my company's history, I am confident that we have perfected our brand promise and that our team is behind it." Here's a 2 minute video showing Bob Bloom in action. Nail your Brand Promise from the guy who did it for Southwest Airlines, Perrier, TGIF, etc. -- Bob will be hosting a half-day workshop immediately following the Growth Summit. And here's a link
The Netherlands -- and this from our partner in Amsterdam, Spark Leadership Foundation -- they are hosting David Meerman Scott for a one-day workshop Oct 15. Author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave, they were so impressed by his articulation of what business leaders must do to use Web 2.0 to drive their businesses (as was I), that they are flying him over to The Netherlands. Marketing is critical to growth companies and David shows how to use the modern tools of Web 2.0 to create a worldwide rave for your products and services. Here's a link to more info.
