Tag Archives: Business

How to deliver exceptional client service

superhero

We often hear companies, including Web agencies, boast about how they provide exceptional client service. But how do they define exceptional? Consider this scenario. You are hired to design and develop a new website for a retail client. The client loves the design, and the pages you develop use the latest in HTML5, CSS3 and responsive design, resulting in a website that works wonderfully across browsers and devices. The e-commerce features of the new website help the client significantly increase their online sales, and the entire project is delivered on time and on budget. Now, is this “exceptional” client service? I don’t think it is. When the client hired you, they expected that you would design and develop a great website. They also expected it would be done according to … Continue reading →

“No” is the new “yes”: four practices to reprioritize your life

good-habits-bad-habits

I was sitting with the CEO and senior team of a well-respected organization. One at a time, they told me they spend their long days either in back-to-back meetings, responding to email, or putting out fires. They also readily acknowledged this way of working wasn’t serving them well — personally or professionally. It’s a conundrum they couldn’t seem to solve. It’s also a theme on which I hear variations every day. Think of it as a madness loop — a vicious cycle. We react to what’s in front of us, whether it truly matters or not. More than ever, we’re prisoners of the urgent. Prioritizing requires reflection, reflection takes time, and many of the executives I meet are so busy racing just to keep up they don’t believe … Continue reading →

How social technologies are extending the organization

ita_hoso11

Companies are improving their mastery of social technologies, using them to enhance operations and exploit new market opportunities — key findings of our fifth annual survey on these tools and technologies, in which we asked more than 4,200 global executives how organizations deploy them and the benefits they confer. When adopted at scale across an emerging type of networked enterprise and integrated into the work processes of employees, social technologies can boost a company’s financial performance and market share, respondents say, confirming last year’s survey results. Read more By Jacques Bughin, Angela Hung Byers, and Michael Chui for McKinsey Quarterly, Nov 2011.

Hardware companies will have to quit the tablet market in 2012

hp-touchpad-5

Because hardware companies like Dell, HP, and Acer have so few advantages over companies that offer content as well, DigiTimes reports that they may be getting out of the tablet game entirely next year. Content companies like Amazon or Barnes & Noble can subsidize their tablets like crazy — they’ll make their money back after the fact as customers buy content to make the tablets more useful. Consider the $200 Kindle Fire — Amazon has no problem selling it at a loss because it can pull itself back into the green with e-book sales. Read more By Dylan Love for Business Insider, 17 Nov 2011.

Not every brand name translates as well into chinese as coca-cola

coca-cola

In China, names have a deep significance. So for international brands looking to head over to the world’s largest market, they have an incredibly important decision to make. There’s a whole business based around selecting brand names for companies that are looking to go into China, reports Michael Wines at the New York Times. There are linguistic algorithms, computer programs and consulting companies devoted to it. It’s more complicated than it looks on the surface. China is home to many widely used dialects, and what appears safe in Mandarin may not translate all that well to, say, Cantonese or Hokkien.

Game-changer: Nintendo’s first loss marks dramatic shift to digital rivals

MW3_4

In computer games there are always cheering winners and blood-stained losers. This week Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, apologised for misjudgments that have led to the company behind the once wildly popular Wii to admit that the Japanese console multinational will make its first loss – ¥20bn (£160m) – in the 30 years it has reported publicly. The midnight queues on Monday, however, will tell a different story, as dogged gamers wait in line for the biggest game of the year: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – a first-person shooter with scenes set in a war-riven Paris and London. Its high-octane action has led some to predict that the title is poised to become the best-selling console game of recent times.

From a social brand to a social business

I spoke at an IBM Social Business breakfast briefing the other week and was tasked with addressing the following question: “Social brand vs social business – is there a correct order of play?” It’s a good question and one that seems to be being asked by clients and the wider industry alike. Luckily it’s also a question we’ve spent a fair bit of time thinking about and working on recently. I think we would argue that while there might not be a correct order of play, there is certainly a preferred order of play – perhaps best conceived as a divide between a ‘Managed’ or Forced’ approach (more on this shortly). Read more By Simon Collister for we are social, 16 Nov 2011.  

Four destructive myths most companies still live by

Myth #1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand. This myth is based on the assumption that human beings are capable of doing two cognitive tasks at the same time. We’re not. Instead, we learn to move rapidly between tasks. When we’re doing one, we’re actually not even aware of the other. If you’re on a conference call, for example, and you turn your attention to an incoming email, you’re missing what’s happening on the call as long as you’re checking your email. Equally important, you’re incurring something called “switching time.” That’s the time it takes to shift from one cognitive activity to another. Read more By Tony Schwartz for Harvard Business Review, 01 Nov 2011.  

Top 10 reasons why darth vader was an amazing project manager

The Sith Lord Darth Vader, of Star Wars fame, often gets a bad rap, particularly in what we all think of as his ‘dark years.’ From a certain perspective his mass murder, brutal oppression, and frequent deception to serve his own ends makes him seem like a pretty bad guy. But if you look past all that to his action, you will find a very capable and effective project manager. In the name of finding silver linings in dark clouds, I’d like to present the top 10 reasons why Darth Vader was an amazing project manager. Read more By Brandon Koeller for Geek Wire, 4 Oct 2011.