Marketing Articles About Growth

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New Event! What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan?.

I've just launched the first of a series of marketing, thought leaderships and social media events that I'll be running in Wisconsin in 2009. If you're up for some 'marketing stimulus', I recommend that you check out this program!

The MarketingSavant Group invites you to attend the Marketing Stimulus Plan Boot-Camp, a one-day in-depth workshop that will jumpstart or revitalize your marketing efforts in these tough times. The best companies don't cut marketing spend in a downturn, they do the opposite. They know that even the toughest market conditions still provide plenty of opportunity.

Attend this one-day workshop to refine and revitalize your marketing strategy to help you swim upstream during the recession and position your company for long-term success.

Who: The MarketingSavant Group
What: What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan? Workshop
When: January 27th, 2009 from 8:30 to 4:45
Where: De Pere, WI at the F.K. Bemis Center - St. Norbert College
How Much: $295 early reg / $395 after 1/9/09
Where do I Sign Up: At the Eventbrite website

Marketing managers, sales professionals, business owners, and executives within small to medium sized companies responsible for sustaining profitability and striving growth in a downturn will learn how to:

* Develop a road map for putting frugal, ethical and effective marketing strategies in place immediately
* Understand how new approaches in digital and social media marketing can catapult your company into new market opportunities
* Adapt your marketing spend for today's unpredictable economy
* Adjust prices and promotions without sacrificing market share or brand image
* Focus on accountability and obtaining measurable results from your investments
* Improve strategic and tactical planning with marketing ROI techniques and tools
* Manage your marketing budget and collaborate CFO and CEO

It's been said that "Every adversity carries a seed of equal or greater benefit." This program will help you and your business find the silver lining in those dark clouds by adopting creative, compelling, and low-cost/high-return marketing strategies. We'll discuss and learn new ways to devise new strategies to overcome economic turmoil, and execute new tactics to win, sustain and grow new business.
Bonus Item for Attendees:

All attendees will receive a copy of Marketing in a Downturn: Recession-Proof Strategies for Smart Marketers, a 90-page e-book featuring over 25 interviews with leading marketers, consultants, managers and business owners sharing their most effective marketing strategies for remaining profitable and sustaining growth during a downturn.

Who Should Attend?
* Marketing and communications professionals
* Small business owners
* Channel and brand managers
* Entrepreneurs and start-up managers
* Advertising and public relations professionals seeking new client solutions

You'll Walk Away With:

* Dozens of low-cost and effective ideas that you can implement immediately to jumpstart your marketing in the recession of 2009
* The tools, templates and action plans you'll need to succeed in the world of digital and social media marketing
* An idea packed e-book, Marketing in a Downturn: Recession-Proof Marketing Strategies for Smart Marketers, on how to make the most of your marketing in a recession

Register Now at Eventbrite

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Social media: It's all about risk, resources and rewards..

In countless discussions about social media, digital marketing tools and "what's next," I've determined that it's critical for all marketers to put a framework around their decisions on what tools to use, when to use them and how to get started. I put these decisions into a general "3-R" framework.

Risk: What's your tolerance?
Whether you're catapulting your brand into the social media sphere by simultaneously starting a blog, moderating a customer community and twittering, or if you're simply monitoring social media to get a glimpse of how the world sees you, there's a certain modicum of risk involved. You need to determine how much risk you're willing to take.

Social-media risk can manifest in the following ways:
> Exposure to issues that you'd rather not confront in a Web-based public forum.
> Suppliers and competitors watching your every move and your every flaw.
> Legal ramifications of customers commenting on bugs, defects, recalls, etc.
> Sharing control of your finely crafted brand message with passionate, yet misguided, fans.

Organizations that are ethical, honest, have strong brands and a strong sense of self will prevail and enjoy a low-risk environment in their social media endeavors. However, if your organization is secretive, insecure and does things you wouldn't tell your mother about, then you'll likely find there's simply too much risk for you in social media.

Resources: Do you have them?
This is probably the number one question I hear: "What does it take to do this stuff (blogging, social media, podcasts, etc.)?" For most companies, the cost of technical resources is the least of their worries. In fact, a majority of marketers who deploy social-media campaigns find it's the least expensive part of their budget. It's much more important to have the right people in place to help with your social media efforts. Whether that's a knowledgeable person in-house or a paid consultant, human resources are the most important aspect of putting social media to work in your organization.

Rewards: What do you expect?
Let's be serious. The only reason we're in marketing is to pursue capitalistic rewards. If we really want to pursue social media as part of our marketing - with low risk and few resources - we can certainly have at it. In the final analysis, however, we need to show substantial rewards in order to make it worth our while.

The ROI of social media depends on your overall goals. Most marketers define social-media rewards in the following ways:
> An increase in Website page views from social media sources.
> A larger network of customers and fans on social networking sites.
> Growth in your prospect email database.
> Increased conversation about your company on the Internet.

When considering social media as a component of your marketing mix, remember the three R's: risks, resources and rewards. By vetting your plans against these criteria and asking the right questions, you'll be on the path to social-media success.

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

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New Event! What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan?.

Attend this one-day workshop to refine and revitalize your marketing strategy to help you swim upstream during the recession and position your company for long-term success.

Register Now at Eventbrite

(12/17/08 09:00 PM)

Social media: It's all about risk, resources and rewards..

(10/01/08 09:00 PM)

Small business growth through investing.

Since launching MarketingSavant (my social media/digital marketing consulting company) earlier this year, I've been looking at a number of ways to grow the business, outside of hiring people. By growing the business I mean simply the cash base or revenues from the organization. I was caught off guard when another local consulting business owner asked me "so, what's your exit strategy?" Wow, I just kicked this thing off, what do you mean "exit strategy". Of course, I know exactly what he means, but I'd never really given it that much thought. When you're an entrepreneur or an intrepreneuer (someone with an entrepreneurial spirit inside the corporation), you need to have your own exit strategy. For me, I've chosen to pursue an 'education in investing' strategy to help grow my cash reserves while I grow the business. Yes, I know, the market isn't exactly doing well, but that's precisely the time to get in. I look at the stocks and funds that I'm investing in now and thinking back to when I graduated college in 1999... if I had invested even a modest sum then, I'd be doing quite well now. Which brings us to the one thing that I think investing and marketing have in common (I'm sure there are others...but this one is really important... Faith in the future. As marketers, we're always marketing to the future, with faith in that marketing campaign and it's ability to deliver future value. As investors, we're buying stocks and funds with faith in the company's ability to grow into the future. Marketers and investors unite! Doom and gloom does not serve you...it's the faith in the future that keeps both of us afloat and in business. [Inspired by Kevin's post on 'cracks in the retirement nest egg']
(07/08/08 09:00 AM)

Announcing Jack Tyler Decker. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MANAGEMENT SHAKEUP AT DECKER HOUSEHOLD Jack Tyler Decker Appointed New CEO AUSTIN, TX (MARCH 6, 2008) -- The Decker Household announced today the arrival of its new CEO, Jack Tyler Decker. A 9-month veteran of fast-growth environments, Jack took control of the family startup on Friday, March 6 at 5:42PM CT. In a management shakeup, the 21 inch, 8 lb. 11 oz tycoon appointed Shannon Decker to report directly to him as President of The Household. Shannon's promotion came after hard labor disputes for a few hours just prior to his appointment. Sam Decker, who had worked many years to gain peer status to the new President, has been demoted to special assistant to Shannon and her supporting staff, Kyle and Haley Decker. Jack had started his 9 month rise to control since June 7…or maybe June 8 or 9, 2007-- analysts cannot confirm the date. Jack had an inside track to the position ever since. The new CEO is expected to work around the clock. His duties will consist of sleeping, eating 8 meals a day, and making many daily deposits into plastic envelopes. Shannon and Sam, in their new roles, will act quickly on directions from their new boss to achieve his desired career growth. On the day of his arrival, the CEO wasted no time crying out instructions to her new staff, and was already making small deposits. Jack Decker, with a simple coo and finger suck, immediately got his team to swing into... (03/07/08 09:00 AM)

VP of Marketing Responsible for Shipping & Logistics?. Harry Joiner, a marketing recruiter and good friend, asked me to comment on his blog regarding what a VP of eCommerce or VP Marketing candidate should be asked or should answer regarding shipping & delivery logistics. Here's what I said... As you know, I believe word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing and sustainable growth. So, a VP of marketing candidate needs to have an appreciation for the overall customer experience. Shipping logistics are a huge part of that experience. You can weight the satisfaction and loyalty impact of each part of the customer experience – researching products, buying, receiving and using a product (support). The weight of impact is correlated to the the emotional residual for that part of the experience. Shopping and research is a relatively forgettable experience, unless there is severe frustration. The buying experience is overshadowed with the emotional weight of the receiving and the out of box experience, as well as resolving customer service and support issues (downstream activities). Amazon is consistent with shipping and logistics. Apple and Chumby have great out of the box experiences. So, word of mouth and branding (and thus, top line revenue over the long term) are driven from upstream decisions (great products, packaging) and downstream logistics (shipping, service, support). A great VP of marketing should realize they have to balance between immediate, short term tactics to drive revenue and the sustainable long-term activities that may even be out of his direct control. In this case, marketing... (01/31/08 09:00 PM)

Why, How and Who of Web 2.0. A couple weeks ago I moderated a panel and roundtable for Austin Venture portfolio companies on Web 2.0. As many of the companies were not in the "Web 2.0" bullseye, the discussion focused on the what, why, how and who of Web 2.0. I'll skip the "What" question...here are the some of the other notes: Why? * Analysts read blogs. Reporters read blogs * Empowers customers * Blogs are turning into a trusted media outlet * 78% of online customers trust brands more that have reviews on their site * Marketing (PR) is being Master of Reality (Edelman) * From conversation about your brand, to your brand’s values (ex: Saturn’s findyourdetour.com site) * From monologue to dialogue (how web 2.0 changes marketing’s voice) * Demonstrates your brand’s authenticity * Longer life vs printed articles * Get insight into audience and build relationship * 90 / 9 / 1 rule: 90% read, 9% participate, 1% narcissism (+1% paid participation) * Viral growth via networking and connectivity * Your brand = your Google content * 25% of Google search results is user generated content * C to C marketing (customer to customer) is much more effective * Word of mouth marketing works online because the content is archived while word of mouth marketing offline can be quickly forgotten How? * Keep messaging consistent through channels * Treat online media same as traditional media, but use a different pitch to target each media * Video metadata, and taking advantage of Google’s universal search... (10/30/07 09:00 AM)

The Last Wall is About to Fall at the NYT. Donovan Building Demolition Originally uploaded by Allan M Some newspapers have tried stubbornly to resist giving away their content for free on the Web. But the New York Times is finally about to give up the ship, according to the New York Post. It already gives away most of its stories for free online—all except select Op-Ed pieces on TimesSelect. In an age of seemingly unchecked growth in online ads, subscription walls don't make a lot of sense. And with Rupert Murdoch thinking about taking down the subscription wall at WSJ.com, the Times would not be wise to become the last holdout. Scott Karp explains the disruption occurring in the media world:The new economics of media make charging for content nearly impossible because there is always someone else producing similar content for free — even if the free content isn’t “as good as” the paid content by some meaningful metric, it doesn’t matter because there’s so much content of at least proximate quality that the paid content provider has virtually no pricing power.News and commentary are no longer a scarce commodity.... (08/07/07 09:00 PM)

New York Times' Web Growth Doesn't Make Up For Print Decline. In what's becoming an all-too common theme among old-media companies, the New York Times reported a 5.7 percent drop in overall ad revenues and a 59 percent drop in operating profits. The one bright spot: it's Web properties, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com, and About.com, saw a 23.4 percent rise in revenues. But it's $81 million in revenues only makes up 10 percent of the company's overall sales, and is still not enough to counter the decline in print. Still, operating profits at About.com alone ($8.5 million) represent 38 percent of the company's total operating profits. Web revenues don't have to rise tenfold before Web profits can offset the decline in print profits. But with online ad growth expected to slow at the Times, it could still be a while.... (07/25/07 09:01 AM)

Andreessen Rakes in $92 Million on HP-Opsware Deal. Marc, originally uploaded by Gina Bianchini. Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) $1.6 billion acquisition of Opsware (OPSW) announced this morning strengthens its hand in the market for automated data center management software. Corporate data centers are getting bigger and more complex, so software to automate it all is a growth area for HP.The big winner in this deal, though, is Marc Andreessen. Yes, that Marc Andreessen. Opsware was his second startup after Netscape (originally dubbed Loudcloud). At HP's offer of $14.25 a share, he stands to make $92 million off the deal personally (according to Yahoo Finance, he owns 6.5 million shares.) Now, all he needs to do is sell Ning (which he also co-founded), and he'll have a hat trick.Opsware has had many ups and downs since it was formed during the dotcom bubble in September, 1999. As Andreessen notes on his blog:Loudcloud took off like a rocketship, raised $350 million in equity and debt financing, went public in March 2001, and was rapidly nearing $100 million in annual recurring managed services revenue when the entire market blew up and virtually all of our competitors and peers went bankrupt.In September 2002, we did a complete restart as a public company -- we sold our managed services business to EDS and turned Loudcloud into Opsware, a software company based on the core intellectual property developed at Loudcloud. Over the next five years, we executed on our original vision -- automation of large-scale modern datacenters and computer systems.We have become the clear market leader,... (07/23/07 09:01 AM)

Microsoft Plays With P2P TV. Video: LiveStation Demo Microsoft Research (MSFT) and a UK-based company called Skinkers are developing peer-to-peer software called LiveStation for streaming live television over PCs. Think of it as a Slingbox Without the Box. (See demo video above). Except that TV stations would have to sign up to stream their broadcasts over the service. Using P2P networks is the most bandwidth efficient (and least costly) way to deliver video over the Internet. Joost, Babelgum, and Veoh also all use P2P distribution techniques in one form or another. But they all deliver videos that are already stored somewhere (their servers or the computers of their members), as opposed to live streams. I'm not sure how difficult it would be for any of these services to offer live streams as well. It doesn't seem like that big a deal. Joost, for instance, is working on (or already has) the ability to synchronize the streaming of a particular show so that you and all of your friends can watch it at the same time while chatting over Joost. Making that a live stream should be easy enough. The bigger question is: On the Internet, does live TV even matter any more? The TV schedule is a product of the historical limitations of broadcast television, where you have to broadcast the same shows to everyone at the same time. But those limitations are falling away. Even in cable and satellite TV, the growth of pay-per-view and on-demand channels proves that if you give consumers more... (07/06/07 09:01 AM)

How to Harness Word of Mouth (Article from MyCustomer.com). When I got back from London I got a call from Neil Davey from MyCustomer.com, who interviewed me for this article... Quoted from http://www.mycustomer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=133068: Everybody's talking: how to harness word of mouth marketing - 14 Jun 2007 By Neil Davey, editor Word of mouth marketing and customer advocacy have got a lot of people talking in recent years. Studies by the likes of the London School of Economics have found that word of mouth advocacy is a statistically significant predictor of annual sales growth. And this has generated no little excitement in marketing departments around the globe. Nurturing and harnessing this powerful medium has therefore become a growing imperative. As a board member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, and VP of word of mouth marketing firm Bazaarvoice.com, few are more aware of the surge in interest in this field than Sam Decker. Read More --... (06/18/07 09:03 PM)

Balancing The Three Jobs of Growing a Business: Lawn Mower, Plumber, and Contractor . Weeds are growing in the yard…so I’ve scheduled the lawn mower to trim the yard.My wife told me the toilet is leaking at its base. I called a plumber to keep things running.And we’re in the middle of working with a pool contractor to extend our patio to change the usefulness of our backyard. It takes a lawn mower, a plumber and a contractor to run and increase your house investment. It struck me these are also the ‘jobs’ – in essence --to run and grow a business. There are always opportunities to optimize, fix issues, and innovate in your business. This is the natural mix of requirements during growth. Sustained growth is achieved through the art and science of balancing between a portfolio of optimizing, fixing and launching breakthrough strategies. Or rather, being the lawn mower, plumber and/or contractor. In my experience, many people in startups spend their time as a contractor…architecting, engineering, and building new ideas. Inevitably, there are too few people interested in being plumbers to fix problems from new products. Execution to build new ideas is good, but execution to resolve issues is not as good (or not as interesting). And there are few systems and little patience to optimize (lawn mower).. At companies like Dell, employees are operational, executional, financial, superstar lawn mowers. Business Process improvements drove optimization to new levels. The goal is to squeeze every dime of cost out of or every dollar of margin out of existing products, functionality and programs. Occasional... (04/10/07 09:00 PM)

Telecall on Wednesday to Help Grow Business. One of my colleagues, Lisa Nirell of energizegrowth, has launched an exciting program for successful entrepreneurs. This Virtual Seminar series helps you build an 11 step, highly actionable growth plan to attract great customers and focus your teams on your... (04/06/07 09:01 AM)

3 Emotions to Drive Execs to Action. Yesterday I was on a panel for a Forrester bootcamp on Social Media. One of the common questions was how to convince senior management to agree to and resource these new emerging channels and marketing strategies. What moves consumers to action? Emotion. It’s not much different than with executives and managers…you just use data to create those emotions! In my experience, there are three emotions I’ve seen drive executive action: Fear – show the competition is having success with a strategy that you are not. I’m putting this first because fear is the biggest motivator in the human psyche. And the first reaction for executives when they see a competitor doing something successful is to react. I’m not suggesting this is always right, but it’s reality. It’s a call to action event. If a competitor is launching an emerging channel strategy, your executives have to decide to do something or nothing. Use this time to drive a recommended strategy. Excitement – show and prove the revenue impact from such a strategy. Changne resistance is typically due to prioritization and predictability. Corporations, and management in them, have a need to drive predictable growth and mitigate risk. Priorities are driven based on familiarity of strategies that drive confident results. Something that can be proved to drive better results and meet or beat forecast excites executives. Pride – most forward-thinking executives want to be first to market, forward thinking, innovative and cutting edge. Some want this because it is right for the company,... (03/22/07 09:01 AM)

How should Chipotle Invest $.26 per Burrito?. I was intrigued by an article in this week’s BusinessWeek regarding Chipotle’s incredible growth (27% YOY last quarter), despite a relatively small advertising budget. McDonald’s spends $820M+/yr in marketing on $21.5B revenue…4% of revenue. Chipotle spends $4.5M on $882M revenue…less than 1% of revenue. I did the math... if you assume the average meal is $8 (with drink, maybe chips), then Chipotle is serving over 110 million burritos (or burrito bowls, as I prefer) per year. If they decided to spend as much as their McDonald’s parent and competitors (4% of revenue), they could spend an additional $29M in marketing. That’s an extra $.26/burrito they could spend on advertising. Or perhaps they should spend it on something else? I’m not suggesting they spend this money. They are growing 26% YOY and pulling in $41M in net income. They are not ‘growth challenged’. More importantly is the positive business results growing on such a small marketing budget? How does Chipotle do it? They create a great atmosphere, built an eco-friendly company, and invest in great food that is served fast. I eat there once a week -- they give me more food than should fit in my stomach for a decent price, and it comes nowhere near the poor quality of first-frozen fast food. As growth slows Chipotle will face the pressures of a public company, typically to reduce costs. Bad idea…see my post on “Marginalizing Quality”. Or, ironically, analysts may ask for them to spend more on advertising. This is... (03/05/07 09:00 PM)

How Measurement Can Impede Long Term Growth. Measurement and accountability crystallizes movement towards a goal, individual performance, and helps identify employees worthy of merit. Measurement is the language of any organization. The more measures we can hold employees accountable for the better, right? Hold on. There’s a cautionary tale to running a company with an extreme and unbalanced reliance on internal measures. Most corporate measures and employee goals are internally focused, financially-oriented, and functionally silohed. There’s an unfortunate consequence for companies that ONLY focus on these measures. While it’s healthy to manage business with a pragmatic view of financial health, over the long term, a primary focus on these internal lagging measures is not what builds a great company. Can you agree that a great company is one which builds products based on customer needs, strives to delight customers, and generates positive word of mouth as a result? Great companies reinvent and innovate. Now, how many internal measures and key performance indicators directly tie to accomplishing these objectives? Can you identify the internal measures that measure the required cross-functional cooperation to ensure the entire customer delights customers? Sustained-growth companies create great experiences and benefit from positive word of mouth. The Ultimate Question / Net Promoter questions supports this, where Fred Reicheld studied companies with sustained growth and found when customers were willing to tell friends about that company. What companies are you willing to tell friends about? Here are some ideas: Toyota / Lexus, USAA, Costco, Southwest Airlines, Craigslist, Apple, JetBlue, and Amazon. What do these companies... (02/19/07 08:59 AM)

Decker's 15 Career Tips. This concludes my series of career tips, which was prompted by a few friends reaching out to me for advice. I'm sure I could think of more, but these are the first 15 that came to mind...and 15 is a good place to stop. Here's the list with links: Find and Follow Your Passion and Strengths Create Soundbytes for Your Personal Brand It's WHO You GET TO Know Choose Who Your Work For Take Initiative Outside Your Triangle Inform Others Connect to a Visible Brand Learn, Challenge, Fun Feed Others Go Where There's Margin Growth Always Can Do Take Bigger Risks Answer First Show and Know Metrics Never Eat Alone... (02/03/07 09:00 PM)

Career Tip #15: Never Eat Alone. Stealing the Keith Ferazzi's book title and principle by the same name, Never Eat Alone is a great principle for career growth (in addition to personal growth). Early in my career I took inter-office relationships for granted, eating lunch at my desk during those busy dot com days in South-of-Market San Francisco. However, one of my peers always ate lunch with others, and was inviting groups of people to lunch. I had two or three key relationships and she had 20. The relationships she built mattered made a difference in her ability to get things done with others. The better relationships you have inside your organization, the more you can get done…and the more people will talk about you (see Sound bytes tip) or defend you. In addition to inter-office relationships, consider eating with people outside your work. Get new perspectives. Network with people in your industry, and in your city. Your career, whether inside your company or out, is highly dependent on who you know and who you GET to know. Lunch, even if you pay, is worth the investment. I’ve had lunches with former colleagues who wanted to network outside their company. However, very few of them take action on this idea. They get stuck networking within their own company. Yet when they’re ready to move to the next game, they realize they don’t know anyone. Experts believe only 10-20% of jobs filled are ever publicized. Most jobs are placed from relationships. Over half the people hired into... (01/27/07 09:00 PM)

Career Tip #10: Go Where There's Margin Growth. The tabloid paparazzi attacks a story they know will sell magazines. Hence you see five tabloid covers at the supermarket all covering Brad and Jennifer’s break up, for example. Similarly, executives swarm around areas of the company that margin dollars. They will focus there, invest there, and grow that area as quickly as they can. And it is there where you can also find career growth. In any company with multiple product lines or divisions there are some parts of the company that have high margin % and/or high revenue growth (preferably both), and some that don’t. For Dell, for example, there’s high margin and high growth in servers, storage, and service. You find lower margin % and lower growth (yet an unfortunate large % of Dell’s revenue) in workstations, desktops, and consumer laptops. Which divisions do you think will hire more people and the best people? Managers in those high margin divisions are growing their career and learning things other companies want. Are you in a position to help your company grow a high margin category? Can you learn a new skill that helps grow a high-margin category? Remember, the ideal situation is high margin % and high revenue growth. If management is smart, they are trying to grow margin dollars (a.k.a. profits). If only 5% of your revenue has high margin % and is growing slower you’re your overall business that’s not the greatest place to be. But if a high margin % part of your company is... (01/17/07 09:00 AM)

Follow Through in Selling. We all know when a company is going through that growth phase - when disconnects start to happen more frequently between departments, or between customers and the company. The ball gets dropped one too many times - and we say,... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

Ten Worst Internet Acquisitions Ever. "As the market for acquiring fledgling Internet companies heats up, it's worth taking a look at all those acquisitions that didn't quite work out. For every Internet acquisition that's successful there seems to be dozens that die on the vine. So what makes for a really bad Internet acquisition? First, it has to be expensive. No one's going to rake a company over the coals over a few blown $50 million acquisitions. That might sound like a lot of money to you and me, but that's a rounding error to Google. Second, for an acquisition to be lousy it has to contribute little or no long term growth to the acquiring company. An acquisition that doesn't fit with a company's long term strategy and that is quickly forgotten -- that's a bad buy. So, here is my highly subjective list of the 10 worst Internet acquisitions of all time..." (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

Ten Reasons Why You Need a Strong Business Plan. A business plan is the cornerstone of starting a business as well as a significant tool for monitoring the progress and growth of your company. Below are ten key reasons why you should have a business ...

(08/22/06 09:00 AM)

Ch 8 of 'New Rules for the New Economy'. "Innovation is disruption; constant innovation is perpetual disruption. This seems to be the goal of a well-made network: to sustain a perpetual disequilibrium. A few economists studying the new economy (among them Paul Romer and Brian Arthur) have come to similar conclusions. Their work suggests that robust growth sustains itself by poising on the edge of constant chaos. 'If I have had a constant purpose it is to show that transformation, change, and messiness are natural in the economy,' writes Arthur." (Thanks Noise Between Stations!) (08/18/06 09:00 AM)

Banks Expand Services, Perks for Small Outfits. Banks Expand Services, Perks for Small Outfits

By GWENDOLYN BOUNDS

"After a Chicago newspaper featured her small pet-food company, Holly Sher was showered with flowers, congratulatory calls and candy. But the attention didn't come from friends or clients -- it came from banks that wanted her business.

'They promised everything,' says Ms. Sher, who had just purchased Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co., a pet food manufacturer with $6 million in annual revenue. The ultimate winner was Harris Bank, a chain of Chicago banks owned by BMO Financial Group of Canada. Harris sent an account executive directly to Ms. Sher's office with all the paperwork she needed to transfer accounts. The executive gave her his direct phone number and promised to arrange for a substitute contact anytime he went on vacation; he's since brought her Chicago Cubs baseball tickets."

- I have noticed the huge increase in banks catering to small business. Now it makes more sense. Small Business is a growth area for banks and that can only mean good things for Small Business. I recently opened an account at Sovereign Bank that has no maintenance fees, no minimum balance, free online banking and a free ATM/Visa Checkcard. How can you beat that on a business account. Of course there are some limitations (like 100 basic transactions monthly) but in the startup phase it is the perfect way to get set up without incurring expenses. (07/29/06 02:29 PM)

DirectIndustry, or Direct Access?. On the last page of July's Test & Measurement World, there is an interview with Corentin Thiercelin, CEO of DirectIndustry.com. I haven't talked much about DirectIndustry here, but it is a directory targeting world-wide B2B supply.

The interview is typical of what you would expect, with bits like this:

"Google is so exhaustive that it can sometimes lack the order and logic necessary for professionals to compare products and brands effectively. As a search engine specialized for industry, DirectIndustry returns this order to the search, saving professionals time and headaches."

Info-commerce geeks and directory clients who read this blog should find the article somewhat interesting, which is part of the reason why I've posted it. This article leaves me with three questions, however:
1. Is this good content?
I've praised T&MW's content here before, but why this piece? Are engineers interested in the business of directories? The page subject is "Viewpoint, An exclusive interview with a technical leader". The most interesting part may be that Corentin was once a test engineer, which is why his website is lopsided towards test.

2. Is this a play to an advertiser?
DirectIndustry has been running a series of ads in T&MW celebrating their growth and longevity--is this why this interview is here? It's lack of typical editorial relevance smacks of direct access for advertisers. And the interview is all about his company, not really the 'role of the Web in purchasing decisions', as the intro promises.

3. What about loyalty to KellySearch?
T&MW is a Reed publication, which also owns KellySearch.com, a DirectIndustry competitor. T&MW has KellySearch as a tool on its website. Are the editors passive-aggressive towards their forced association with Kelly? Or trying to look unbiased?

What do you think? (07/29/06 02:28 PM)

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