I think anyone who’s future depends upon the internet or some form of it must read Winning The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT). And it’s really easy to get your hands on because you can download it for free here:
Winning the Zero Moment of Truth by Jim Lecinski
First are the companies that make bad profits and are still in business in spite of themselves. They may have a monopoly, they may have an oligopoly, they may have been around for years, they may have a government mandate that keeps them in business. They force people to pay with long-term contracts, hidden fees and short-term incentives. They don’t care about your business, they care about the invoiced amount, the automatic withdrawal, the credit card swipe, that’s all. The goal is to make more by doing less.
The second are the companies who are trying to grow. Companies trying to grow can’t afford having people spreading bad word-of-mouth. These companies care about what every customer thinks of them and tries to continuously reinvent themselves to exceed customer expectations again and again. They want to know when they screw up, so they can fix it. Because how else will you grow?
If you know customers are unhappy after they’ve signed a contract or bought what you’re selling, do you think your company is setting itself up for long term growth?
Hint: Not all organization need to grow or have happy customers, that’s of course if external pressure doesn’t force the Continue Reading
In the summer before my final semester of University, we had a Business Students Society retreat one Saturday. I’ll never forget the presentation we heard over lunch. The guest speaker, at the time was a finance prof from the faculty, Mr. Lorne Schnell. The message was based a lot on the book Built to Last (1997) by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras. It was about building a foundation, digging deep down to the core of why you’re doing what you’re doing (why were we on the business students society, and what did we want to create). Start with a foundation, set BHAGS and ensure you get the right people on the bus (from Collins next book, Good to Great).
After that presentation, it led us to the create of our motto for the year, inspire. It turned out to be a changing and very rewarding year on the BSS.
We started our business because ____________ and we will standout in our industry because we believe ____________ . (Start With Why by Simon Sinek)
We will create ____________ market space in our industry to secure our Blue Ocean. (Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim)
In a traditional business life cycle, once a corporation has matured into a large entity, it can become difficult to explore new potential growth markets as the sheer size of the corporation dictates the amount of revenue needed to sustain operations. Essentially businesses get too big to be nimble enough to explore where the next disruptive technology (which will completely revamp their industry) will come from.
A famous quote from business guru Michael Porter goes: “If your goal is anything but profitability – if it’s to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader – you’ll hit problems.” I think Derek Sivers proves this quote wrong. Ever since Derek started the amazing success story that CD Baby became, his goal was never profitability. In his book Anything You Want he hints at what a new generation of entrepreneur’s are focusing on: putting people first and profits second.
