Jill Konrath; Herb Kelleher of Banking; Best Strategy; Newbie Mentality

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Jill Konrath -- author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies, delivers our latest one-hour online seminar. The focus is specifically on how to grab and maintain the attention of "crazy busy people." If you can't get someone to return your initial call or email, you can't progress - and this is applicable to the COO, CFO, HR, and IT, not just the sales and marketing execs. For instance, I use her techniques to get the attention of crazy, busy celebrity CEOs to convince them to come keynote our events -- they work! Use her four techniques to reach anyone in any company, organization, or profession.

Herb Kelleher of Banking -- and what Herb did for Southwest Airlines and the airline industry, Vernon Hill has done for banking. Take five minutes and read this insightful Fortune article on how Commerce Bank beat Citi and all the others in retail banking. He's now doing the same overseas. BTW, Hill has agreed to keynote our 2011 Growth Summit (Oct 18 -- 19)! I want to continue to bring you not only the top business authors, but the most innovative business leaders.

Best Strategy Case Study -- many of you will recognize Commerce Bank -- it's my favorite strategy case study written by Frances Frei, who is my favorite strategy professor at Harvard. What's NOT special, in terms of what you think is a successful strategy, is that Commerce Bank picked a segment of the banking customer population (wanted convenience) and focused on this brand promise. What IS special is that:

They went all the way -- providing a 100% "convenience" solution, including staying open 7 days per week and evenings. They figured out a way to fund it -- and THIS is the counterintuitive part leaders miss in setting a strategy. In the case of Commerce Bank, they offered the lowest interest rates on checking and savings accounts. And they only offered one kind of checking and one kind of savings account.

Therefore, how many of you are willing to go all the way to deliver on a specific brand promise; and are you willing to do something that appears customer UNFRIENDLY to help fund it? Pay $6.95 and read this case study as you prepare to plan your strategy for 2011.

Newbie's See Innovative Strategy Best -- and this BusinessWeek column by Gazelles 200 founding member Mike Maddock, Maddock Douglas which features several Gazelles clients. Scroll to the bottom of his column to the section entitled "The Myopia of Experts" and read his four quick suggestions for maintaining beginners luck in finding the new products and services that blow open an industry -- you can do these in your own firm immediately.

Saving 446 Minutes -- Profit Magazine wrote an excellent article that details how Nurse Next Door, one of the other Gazelles 200 founding members, is implementing Lean -- their reward practices, mistakes, timing, results, etc. One of my favorite excerpts "Nurse Next Door has based the core of its lean initiative on easing workloads to free up employees' time so they could focus on tasks yielding immediate value for clients. A case in point: the firm's overworked accountant, who regularly worked nights and weekends. Analyzing her tasks revealed vast scope for efficiency gains. For instance, it took her 22 steps totaling 686 minutes twice monthly to process billings and payroll. After assessing which steps provided value to clients, the firm has slashed the process to 11 steps taking 240 minutes." Take five minutes and read this article

Nurse Next Door launching Franchise Operations in the U.S. -- FYI, this Canadian-based firm is expanding in the U.S. -- great opportunity in the healthcare services field. Contact Ken Sim, co-founder kensim@nursenextdoor.ca. And they'll be present in Orlando at the Growth Summit.