Monday, July 22, 2013
' Story Telling ' companies Vs ' Story Doing ' Companies
TY MONTAGUE
Discussions about story and storytelling are pretty fashionable in marketing circles. I have ambivalent feelings about this. On the one hand, as a lifelong advocate for the power of story in business, I find this very encouraging... For all companies, having a story and knowing that stories are crucial steps to achieving success. On the other hand, I'm worried that too many marketers think that telling their story through advertising is enough. It's not. In fact, those that think this way do so at their own risk because there is a new kind of company on the rise that uses story in a more powerful way — and it runs a more efficient and profitable business as a result.
In my new book, True Story: How to Combine Story and Action to Transform Your Business, I call these new companies storydoing companies because they advance their narrative through action, not communication. Storydoing companies — emphasise the creation of compelling and useful experiences — new products, new services and new tools that advance their narrative by lighting up the medium of people. What I mean by this is that when people encounter a storydoing company, they often want to tell all their friends about it. Storydoing companies create fierce loyalty and evangelism in their customers. Their stories are told primarily via word of mouth, and are amplified by social media tools.
(From "Good Companies are Storytellers. Great Companies are Storydoers")
Discussions about story and storytelling are pretty fashionable in marketing circles. I have ambivalent feelings about this. On the one hand, as a lifelong advocate for the power of story in business, I find this very encouraging... For all companies, having a story and knowing that stories are crucial steps to achieving success. On the other hand, I'm worried that too many marketers think that telling their story through advertising is enough. It's not. In fact, those that think this way do so at their own risk because there is a new kind of company on the rise that uses story in a more powerful way — and it runs a more efficient and profitable business as a result.
In my new book, True Story: How to Combine Story and Action to Transform Your Business, I call these new companies storydoing companies because they advance their narrative through action, not communication. Storydoing companies — emphasise the creation of compelling and useful experiences — new products, new services and new tools that advance their narrative by lighting up the medium of people. What I mean by this is that when people encounter a storydoing company, they often want to tell all their friends about it. Storydoing companies create fierce loyalty and evangelism in their customers. Their stories are told primarily via word of mouth, and are amplified by social media tools.
(From "Good Companies are Storytellers. Great Companies are Storydoers")
What's your Flight Plan ?
By Monique Valcour
Embrace the fact that you are the pilot of your career. No one else has direct access to your ambitions, interests and values, and no one is going to take you by the hand and help you create a fulfilling career. The more you practice career crafting, the better you get at it... Pay close attention to developments in your industry and to the strategic direction of your firm. Understand your firm's core competencies — the parts of its operation that drive its competitiveness in the marketplace — and make sure that you play a contributing role. Look for ways to get involved in growth areas... A sustainable career is dynamic and flexible; it features continuous learning, periodic renewal, the security that comes from employability and a harmonious fit with your skills, interests and values. The keys to crafting a sustainable career are knowing yourself — what interests you, what you do best and not so well, what energises you — and being acutely attuned to the fields and companies you're interested in, so that you can identify places where you can add value.
The "follow your passion" self-help industry tends to underemphasise this key point: all of the self-awareness in the world is of little use if you can't pitch your passion to a buyer. A sustainable career is built upon the ability to show that you can fill a need that someone is willing to pay for.
(From "Craft a sustainable career")
Embrace the fact that you are the pilot of your career. No one else has direct access to your ambitions, interests and values, and no one is going to take you by the hand and help you create a fulfilling career. The more you practice career crafting, the better you get at it... Pay close attention to developments in your industry and to the strategic direction of your firm. Understand your firm's core competencies — the parts of its operation that drive its competitiveness in the marketplace — and make sure that you play a contributing role. Look for ways to get involved in growth areas... A sustainable career is dynamic and flexible; it features continuous learning, periodic renewal, the security that comes from employability and a harmonious fit with your skills, interests and values. The keys to crafting a sustainable career are knowing yourself — what interests you, what you do best and not so well, what energises you — and being acutely attuned to the fields and companies you're interested in, so that you can identify places where you can add value.
The "follow your passion" self-help industry tends to underemphasise this key point: all of the self-awareness in the world is of little use if you can't pitch your passion to a buyer. A sustainable career is built upon the ability to show that you can fill a need that someone is willing to pay for.
(From "Craft a sustainable career")
Friday, July 19, 2013
Keeping up with your Quants ( Data Driven Decision Making ) ET 19.july.2013
So what does the shift toward data-driven decision-making mean for you?
This article is based on interviews with executives... Start by thinking
of yourself as a consumer of analytics. The producers are the quants
whose analyses and models you'll integrate with business experience and
intuition as you make decisions.
Producers are good at gathering data and making predictions about the future. But most lack sufficient knowledge to identify hypotheses and relevant variables and to know when the ground beneath an organisation is shifting. Your job as a data consumer — to generate hypotheses and determine if results and recommendations make sense in a changing business environment — is therefore important. That means accepting key responsibilities. Some require only changes in attitude and perspective; others demand study.
You need to understand the process for making analytical decisions, including when you should step in as a consumer, and you must recognise that every analytical model is built on assumptions that producers ought to explain and defend.
As the famous statistician George Box noted, "All models are wrong, but some are useful." So, models intentionally simplify our complex world. To become more data literate, enroll in an executive education program in statistics, take an online course, or learn from the quants in your organisation by working closely with them.
Producers are good at gathering data and making predictions about the future. But most lack sufficient knowledge to identify hypotheses and relevant variables and to know when the ground beneath an organisation is shifting. Your job as a data consumer — to generate hypotheses and determine if results and recommendations make sense in a changing business environment — is therefore important. That means accepting key responsibilities. Some require only changes in attitude and perspective; others demand study.
You need to understand the process for making analytical decisions, including when you should step in as a consumer, and you must recognise that every analytical model is built on assumptions that producers ought to explain and defend.
As the famous statistician George Box noted, "All models are wrong, but some are useful." So, models intentionally simplify our complex world. To become more data literate, enroll in an executive education program in statistics, take an online course, or learn from the quants in your organisation by working closely with them.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
On Job Switching
Many people seem to feel that if the market can't offer them a brilliant
job, there's not much point looking. But you don't need a perfect job.
Every job is a compromise between what you want to get out of life and
what an employer wants to get out of you. Keeping this in mind will help
you challenge perfection-focused thinking and increase your options.
All roles include some uninspiring tasks. While jobs that are a poor match often provide fewer opportunities for autonomy and growth, even they usually reveal some positives. Work is rarely as monochrome as we like to make it. Even if the perfect job existed, searching for one would be a fool's errand.
Detailed reviews with hundreds of clients have convinced me that you don't need a job you love five days a week. Three-and-a-half days out of five seems to do the trick. It's enough space to thrive, learn and feel you're making a contribution. The rest of the working week may be paperwork or dull meetings, but you can live with that...
Take a job that meets half your wish-list, perhaps, but it should be a step towards seven out of 10. Which is enough for anyone. So how do you find your three-and-a-half-day job? Today's market needs cunning. That's a very old Norse word, which before the Middle Ages didn't mean deceitful guile, but special knowledge and skills — the ability to track down what you need in unfavourable conditions when everyone else is hungry.
From ' Three and Half day job " by John Leee
All roles include some uninspiring tasks. While jobs that are a poor match often provide fewer opportunities for autonomy and growth, even they usually reveal some positives. Work is rarely as monochrome as we like to make it. Even if the perfect job existed, searching for one would be a fool's errand.
Detailed reviews with hundreds of clients have convinced me that you don't need a job you love five days a week. Three-and-a-half days out of five seems to do the trick. It's enough space to thrive, learn and feel you're making a contribution. The rest of the working week may be paperwork or dull meetings, but you can live with that...
Take a job that meets half your wish-list, perhaps, but it should be a step towards seven out of 10. Which is enough for anyone. So how do you find your three-and-a-half-day job? Today's market needs cunning. That's a very old Norse word, which before the Middle Ages didn't mean deceitful guile, but special knowledge and skills — the ability to track down what you need in unfavourable conditions when everyone else is hungry.
From ' Three and Half day job " by John Leee
