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It's Banks vs. Families, Who Will Come Out on Top? Q&A With Elizabeth Warren.

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is Main Street's woman in Washington. A professor at Harvard Law School, she's researched the travails of the consumer credit market and the hidden bankruptcy epidemic for over 25 years. Not satisfied with merely publishing academic research, she leaped at an invitation from Senator Harry Reid to take a more public role in reforming the financial system after the credit crisis: She's now the chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, the group charged with overseeing the bank bailouts.

I caught up with Elizabeth Warren at a table outside the Senate Office Building cafeteria, a few hours after she finished grilling Citibank CEO Vikram Pandit at a typically contentious hearing. With new financial reform legislation imminent--"You're talking to me in the 4th quarter of the basketball game," she said--Warren spoke frankly to Fast Company about her hopes, fears, and frustrations.

FC: You said it's the 4th quarter of the basketball game--what's the score?

EW: The economy has been pulled back from the abyss, and Secretary Paulson, Secretary Geithner, both presidential administrations and Congress deserve credit for that. They saved the life of the patient.

That said, the Treasury demonstrated that it was much better at shoveling hundreds of billions of direct grants and guarantees at the largest financial institutions than it was at protecting the real economy. The largest institutions were "too big to fail," but the foreclosure crisis and small business credit slowdown have been "too hard to solve."

FC: I was really struck by your interview last fall with Adam Davidson on NPR's Planet Money. (The shouting match drew hundreds of blog comments.) He seemed to suggest that protecting the real economy, as opposed to bailing out Wall Street, was some kind of marginal issue or a personal issue of yours. What do you think about that?

EW: I think the worldview that America begins and ends with its largest financial institutions is not only wrong-- it is dangerously wrong. Businesses are not America, and America does not exist to serve big institutions. America is about families. People who get up every day and earn their salary to pay their bills and try to make it one day to the next.

I am a bit stunned that, in the depth of the financial crisis, anyone is saying that the focus should be on the Wall Street banks.

FC: And yet it does seem sometimes that the business and economics news focuses on the fact that big banks are turning a profit again, or the stock market is back above 10,000, to the exclusion of foreclosures and unemployment and bankruptcies affecting Main Street.

EW: There's a larger point here about diversity of views. Are you familiar with The Wisdom of Crowds? The underlying insight is that a crowd must be drawn from different points of view to make good decisions. That's how it is that 1,000 people can guess with such accuracy the number of jellybeans in the glass jar. We were actually talking about this at lunch today: If all the people who are providing the input have the same worldview, then errors are built into the system. And those errors are not small. They are seismic errors.

You want the person who has a unique interest in defending the collapsing system as the person to oversee the bailout? That's astonishing!

FC: So let's leap into your role as an advocate for financial reform. The Senate's version of the financial reform bill already passed in the House and is due in the Senate any day now. Senator Dodd has been signaling potential compromises, like housing the Consumer Financial Protection Agency within the Federal Reserve instead of as an independent agency. Paul Krugman said in his column recently that unlike with health care reform, where progressives ought to grit their teeth and pass it, the time has come to actually stand up and say, this so-called financial reform isn't worth supporting. Understanding that final details aren't out yet, can you imagine a situation in which you'd say the same?

EW: Of course. There are already seven agencies in Washington that own a piece of the consumer financial protection apparatus. This is the worst of all possible worlds: a bloated, ineffective, unaccountable bureaucracy.

We need to merge those bureaucracies into a single, streamlined, accountable regulator with autonomy and teeth. If we fall short of that, we will just be recreating one more bureaucracy so that we can all congratulate ourselves that we did something for the American people when the reality is otherwise. That would be a terrible thing.

FC: What kind of assurances have you gotten from the Obama administration about their commitment to real reform?

EW: President Obama has been clear from the beginning that he supports a strong, independent consumer agency. He has put a lot of energy behind it. He has had events at the White House, has spoken about it in public town meetings, and even made the ultimate commitment--talked about it on Leno.

FC: I understand that at one point you pursued an entrepreneurial path to reform the consumer financial products market.

EW: The short version is that I studied the economics of the middle class and I began to see that credit products were becoming increasingly dangerous. Families didn't know how much they were spending on credit and comparison among the products was practically impossible because of all the incomprehensible fine print. It wasn't the products that were priced the best that survived. Instead, the ones that were most loaded with tricks and traps provided the most revenue.

So I thought at first that my academic research will be enough. I will publish a law review article and surely the world will change--that didn't happen. So I wrote a couple of popular books about it--The Two Income Trap and All Your Worth. But it still didn't change the world.

The PEW Charitable Trust then got in touch with me and asked what ideas I was working on. And I told them: I'd like to build a private, market-based solution. I want to build an Underwriter's Laboratory to certify credit cards.

The whole idea behind the current model is, "I will hold something shiny in front of your eye, 3.9% financing, and the way I'm going to make money is on tricks and traps that I've buried in the fine print: $29 there, $49 there, triple interest rate, double cycle billing, over and over and over ... ."

So the idea was to take an independent group that will say here's a clean, clear industry credit card. It was called the Clean Card. So Pew said, we love this. They took me out to San Francisco to meet with the head of a very fancy bank consulting group. We put together a proposal and many of the executives we met with just loved it.

They loved it at the first meeting and at the second meeting. It was almost as if you could see the CEOs thinking, "I'll have my picture on the cover of Business Week for transforming this market." They were saying, "We want to be part of this! We want to be the first movers, we want to be America's Credit Card." Then we come back for the 3rd meeting after the numbers guys have taken a closer look, and they say, "We can't do this." As one VP put it, if people really understood how much a credit card cost, they wouldn't use it and the bank would lose too much market share.

And one of the issuers took me aside and said, "We get that our business model is unsustainable over the long haul, but no one of us can jump first. We all have to move together. If we all move together, we'll be fine competitively, but if one of us moves and we lose market share, then the ones who issue the dirty cards will control this market." So it was literally on the plane on the way home from the meeting with the issuer that I realized how broken the market is and started thinking about a new agency in Washington.

FC: Ok, so you've concluded that the market is broken. Now you've come to DC and are working in the midst of biggest credit crisis the country's ever seen. What are you going to do if we finish out this crisis and still the market's not fixed?

EW: If America can't come out of the crisis and repair the broken consumer credit market, then this government really is broken. The lobbying over this bill is enormous, and it's all on one side. It's one thing when insurance companies are on one side and doctors on the other. This one is exclusively big Wall Street banks who have a tremendous amount of money to spend on this to protect their revenue stream.

FC: So even though you can call Vikram Pandit on the carpet and get him to answer a few questions, his lobbying staff is hard at work behind the scenes to make sure nothing changes.

EW: The money is all on one side and the votes are all on the other. So, that's what we'll find out. It's banks vs. families. And we'll see who comes out on top.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cElizabeth Warren www.thedailyshow.com

(03/11/10 09:00 AM)

OK Go Ditches Label Over YouTube Embedding Rights.

OK Go

How many times does a band have to take the music video world by storm before its record label gets that its members might know a little something about music videos? We may never find out, because OK Go, the band in question, has just ditched EMI, the record label in question, largely due to that very problem.

OK Go rocketed up through the indie rock world in large measure due to the band's brilliant, lo-fi music videos, which have spread like wildfire on YouTube. But EMI, in a misguided attempt to wring every penny out of the band's success, decided to block embedding on the YouTube videos--meaning the videos were unable to disseminate out through music and pop culture blogs, news sites, and personal blogs the way they did before the restriction. And that's not a minor detail: the band saw a 90% drop in views when that restriction went into effect. As in, 100,000 views one day, 10,000 views the next.

OK Go isn't a band with huge hit radio singles; they're a journeyman power pop act that puts out reliably excellent, not blockbuster, albums. Music videos are the band's way of making themselves buzzworthy, and it works: their homemade videos have achieved a level of popularity nobody could have predicted. So when the label makes their videos less popular, it means, in no uncertain terms, that less people out there know about OK Go, which means less people can buy albums and tickets for the hard-touring band's shows.

It's a ridiculous decision from the label, and the band was never shy about voicing discontent, even in the most public way possible. Singer Damian Kulash wrote an op-ed that appeared in The New York Times, a letter to his fans that appeared, among other places, in Gizmodo, and the issue came up in just about every interview the band gave. Now, the band has taken the final step: leaving EMI, and forming their own Paracadute Recordings label to release future (and a re-released version of the current Of the Blue Colour of the Sky) music.

[youtube qybUFnY7Y8w]

The very first change? The band's explosively popular (and completely mesmerizing) Rube Goldberg-gone-berserk "This Too Shall Pass" is now embeddable. And the band, which despite a Grammy award has never been a huge seller, is seeing results: since the videos have become embeddable, digital album sales tripled and digital tracks sales have jumped more than sevenfold.

In a press release from the band, Kulash makes it clear that the choice, if not the actual act, to split was an easy one:

"We'd like to thank the people who have worked so hard on our behalf," said OK Go singer Damian Kulash, who will discuss the band's departure from the label on NPR's "All Things Considered" today. "And we'd like to thank our fans for making this choice an easy one for us."

It's not totally clear if this means every OK Go video will be made embeddable--EMI may still own the rights to those videos, so the famous treadmill video for "Here It Goes Again" as well as the band's other videos are still blocked from embedding. But at the very least, this means the next huge OK Go smash video will be open for all to see.

[OK Go]

(03/11/10 09:00 AM)

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Surviving in the Job Market: An Interview with BriteTab’s David Rogers.

Jobs--or lack thereof--are the one thing touching almost everyone in the current recession. How many of your friends, acquaintances and family members have lost a job in the past several years? How many have found new work? If responded "none"... Read more

(03/01/10 09:00 PM)

Soothing the Tax Headache: An Interview With Outright.com.

Welcome to tax season. If you're a small business owner, those words might induce a shudder. For many of us, tax season means scrambling to itemize, catching up on stray expenses, and rushing to send contractors and employees the right forms at... Read more

(02/18/10 09:00 PM)

Losing 15lbs Eating Only McDonald’s: An Interview.

If 2010 gifted you with a spare tire of the corporeal kind, welcome to the club. More so if you want to work and diet that extra weight off. Every year, Americans spend billions trying to cultivate a decent figure. In that sense, Doug... Read more

(02/17/10 09:01 PM)

Video Interview: We Suck Less. ... (01/28/10 09:00 PM)

Entrepreneur Magazine Interviews Boulder Entrepreneurs (and a VC). ... (01/20/10 09:00 PM)

My Interview with Jason Calacanis on TWiST #35. ... (01/18/10 09:00 PM)

Mike Wallace Interviews Ayn Rand About Objectivism. ... (12/31/09 09:00 PM)

Practical Guide to Social Media.

Practical Guide to Social Media

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Practical Guide to Social MediaThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with OpenForum (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes The above podcast is an interview I conducted with OPEN Mic, hosted by Monocle editor Tyler Brûlé, as part of a social media special. Guests also include [...] (12/17/09 09:00 PM)

How to conduct a successful interview for writing print or online articles. Conducting interviews well is vital to every journalist's job and a necessary skill for most communications and writing professionals. Being effective about getting information for your work can save ... (12/13/09 09:00 AM)

Some Video Thoughts on Social Media.

Some Video Thoughts on Social Media

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Some Video Thoughts on Social MediaThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing The video below is part one of an interview I did with TurnHereTV. TurnHereTV is a monthly series of interviews with the thought leaders in small business marketing, online video, technology and marketing. Each month they interview a different personality to get their thoughts on [...] (12/07/09 09:00 PM)

Recruiting Executives and Industry Experts for Qualitative Research. Your studies are not appropriate for participants found on purchased lists, and the participants will take part in a series of in-depth interviews. So how do you find your interviewees? (11/24/09 09:01 PM)

Proving values-based business is the most fruitful. I was recently interviewed for Gennefer Snowfield's Philanthropy In 5 series at TriplePundit.com on the subject of values-based business and aligning philanthropy with strategy. You can read my responses on my business blog. (05/21/09 09:00 AM)

Podcast: Interview on lead generation with Dave Stein. I was was recently interviewed by Dave Stein, CEO and Founder of ES Research Group, and author of How Winners Sell (a great book by the way). During the interview we talk about the following topics: What works to get... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

How to Select and Optimize Outsourced Teleprospecting Redux. If you're too busy to listen to my podcast or simply prefer to reading over listening, Sridhar Ramanathan, whom I interviewed on how to select and optimize outsourced teleprospecting partnerships, posted his the talking points on his blog. Pacifica Group:... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Building a Marketing Funnel and More Lead Management Tips. I was recently interviewed for an article on lead management by Chris Koch who works for ITSMA, the Information Technology Services Marketing Association. In the article titled, "Building a Marketing Funnel and Other Lead Management Tips," I give the following... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Podcast: How to Optimize Teleprospecting Vendors. More companies than ever are using third party providers for teleprospecting and lead management operations, however there is little information on how to select, engage, and measure these vendors who will add that essential human touch. I just interviewed Sridhar... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

How an 8-Year Old Became Co-CMO. I have to share this story…it’s about how my son got offered the job of Co-CMO for Bazaarvoice.Last week we had kids-at-work day. I brought in my 8-year-old son Kyle and 11-year-old daughter Haley in for half a day to experience my work. They were very excited, however, I had a number of meetings and conference calls. During these meetings my daughter colored, read, and ate ice cream. My son, on the other hand, walked the halls and started offering advice to our employees. Soon, our Partnerships Director suggested he interview for a job. So, Kyle typed up an introductory letter and started interviewing with our recruiter and several Bazaarvoice managers. I still have no idea this is going on. Soon Kyle gets into Brett’s office (our CEO). Brett interviews him and soon realizes that his skills of giving “tips, advice and opinions” on things like pricing and how to sell products align well with marketing. So he offers him the Co-CMO position -- actually senior to me -- paying $50/mo and 100 shares! In the video below I compiled some clips that I and others collected that day, showing his interview with Brett and examples of the advice that he was giving me and our VP of Business Development, Brant Barton. None of this is staged for video, we just captured what was happening. He came up with all of this himself. It doesn’t stop there. He collected 15 business cards and since Wednesday he’s been emailing my employees... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

The 5 Stars of a "Rockstar" Employee. When you say an employee is a “rockstar” you are saying they will have a great future. They are excelling in their job – that’s a given – but to be a rockstar is to say their career is expected to shoot up like a rockstar’s record on the charts! They will scale, and are competent and trusted enough to do well in almost any job. Obviously you want to be a rockstar and you want to hire a rockstar. So what does a rockstar look like? How do you interview for them?On the plane to San Jose this week I started thinking about this, as we’re doing a lot of hiring at Bazaarvoice. In my career I’ve worked with hundreds of people, interviewed a few hundred, and hired over 100 people. A minority of these folks (say 10%) were rockstars, a minority I’d never hire or want to work with (another 10%), and the rest are in the middle. From my perspective, these are the characteristics I saw in the top 10% whom I’d be honored to work with anytime. The 5 stars of a rockstar…1) InitiativeTo me, maybe because I see what entrepreneurialism and change leadership can do for an organization, this is the most important characteristic. I’ve posted on this before with my 12 career tips, about taking initiative outside your "triangle" and taking bigger risks.Rockstars must have initiative because someday they will call the shots, and as such they need to be trusted to uncover what... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

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)

Cool! A glimpse into the life of Norm Abram.

You can file this post under "things most people reading this blog don't know about Dana." I'm a huge fan of woodworking, tinkering, welding and anything mechanical. My "real" dream job is to be a high school shop teacher. No shit. Really.

So, I was pretty excited today to see a glimpse at an upcoming interview with one of my "TV heroes", Norm Abram of the New Yankee Workshop and This Old House. Oddly enough, I had a chance to see Norm, live and in person, as a small coffee shop in West Virginia this year. Wild!

Anyway, for those of you that have even a passing interest in home renovation or things relating to woodworking, this article on the Wood magazine blog is a great bit of insight into the life of Norm Abram.

*** By the way, most of the "marketing related" blogging is moving over the MarketingSavant.com site, while this blog will soon morph into a blog that's more about Dana's speaking engagements and such.

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Cool! A glimpse into the life of Norm Abram.

(12/31/08 09:00 PM)

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)

How an 8-Year Old Became Co-CMO. I have to share this story…it’s about how my Son got offered the job of Co-CMO for Bazaarvoice. Last week we had kids-at-work day. I brought in my 8-year-old Son Kyle and 11-year-old daughter Haley in for half a day to experience what I do at work. They were very excited, however, I had a number of meetings and conference calls. During these meetings my daughter at colored, read, and ate ice cream. My son, on the other hand, walked the halls and started offering advice to our employees. Soon, our Partnerships Director suggested he interview for a job. So, Kyle typed up an introductory letter and and started interviewing with our recruiter and several Bazaarvoice managers. I of course, still have no idea this is going on. Soon Kyle gets into Brett’s office (our CEO). Brett interviews him and soon realizes that his skills of giving “tips, advice and opinions” on things like pricing and how to sell products align well with marketing. So he offers him the Co-CMO position -- actually senior to me -- paying $50/mo and 100 shares! Fortunately I make a little bit more than that. In the video below I compiled some video that I and others collected that day, showing his interview with Brett and examples of the advice that he was giving me and our VP of Business Development, Brant Barton. None of this is staged for video, we just captured what was happening. He came up with all of this himself.... (08/17/08 09:00 PM)

The 5 Stars of a "Rockstar" Employee. When you say an employee is a “rockstar” you are saying they will have a great future. They are excelling in their job – that’s a given – but to be a rockstar is to say their career is expected to shoot up like a rockstar’s record on the charts! They will scale, and are competent and trusted enough to do well in almost any job. Obviously you want to be a rockstar and you want to hire a rockstar. So what does a rockstar look like? How do you interview for them? On the plane to San Jose this week I started thinking about this, as we’re doing a lot of hiring at Bazaarvoice. In my career I’ve worked with hundreds of people, interviewed a few hundred, and hired over 100 people. A minority of these folks (say 10%) were rockstars, a minority I’d never hire or want to work with (another 10%), and the rest are in the middle. From my perspective, these are the characteristics I saw in the top 10% whom I’d be honored to work with anytime. The 5 stars of a rockstar… 1) Initiative To me, maybe because I see what entrepreneurialism and change leadership can do for an organization, this is the most important characteristic. I’ve posted on this before with my 12 career tips, about taking initiative outside your "triangle" and taking bigger risks. Rockstars must have initiative because someday they will call the shots, and as such they need to be... (07/22/08 09:00 PM)

George Carlin's last interview... . My friend Jeremy sent me this link: George Carlin's Last Interview. The guy was a genius. h/t to Jeremy. (06/25/08 09:00 AM)

Why did Tata buy Range Rover and Jaguar?.

As a fan of both Land Rover and Jag, this is a great video interview with a couple of academics on their perspective on how well this acquisition will pay off.

From: ChristianSarkar.com

From a marketing perspective, Tata would be wise to engage the active fan bases of both brands during this process!

(04/23/08 09:01 PM)

Which Proposal Would You Rather Evaluate?.

What do you see when you review your own proposals with an eye toward how they actually look (as opposed to how they read)? Do you have page after page of text without anything to break up lengthy series of paragraphs? How enticing can that be to the real reviewers who are going to decide whether or not your proposal will make the cut? Reading a proposal is not like reading a fascinating book. Because the language and content of a proposal is often dry and boring, you need to do whatever you can to get reviewers' attention and to make them want to keep reading. One of the best ways to do this is through the use of relevant and attractive graphics.

Some time ago, my friend Heidi wrote this post on "Getting Started With Proposal Graphics." She gives some good pointers about how to think about and use graphics in proposals even if you are not sure exactly what graphics you are going to use.

Now The Proposal Guys blog has an interview with the principal of a graphics design firm that specializes in proposal graphics. Years ago, such firms probably didn't even exist. But these days, we often have a limited number of pages in which to tell our proposal story and increased competition for funding. Thus, we need every edge we can get. And good proposal graphics in combination with a well-written proposal can give us that edge.

One of the things that I like best about this article is the graphic at the very top -- "which proposal would you rather evaluate?" If this doesn't make a compelling case for the use of graphics in proposals, I'm not sure what does.

So get out your crayons..

(04/18/08 09:01 AM)

Marketers and Automobile University.

I remember listening to a Zig Ziglar tape (yes, this was a while ago, college perhaps...~10 years ago) where he brought up the terms "automobile university". I've never forgotten that term and as I'm speaking to more and more diverse groups of marketers who tell me that they 'simply don't have time to read', I'm inclined to recommend that they too enroll in Automobile University.

Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar coined the term "Automobile University" to describe how time spent in traffic can be used to educate yourself on a variety of subjects. Using audiobooks in your car is a great way to learn almost anything from finance to philosophy, literature to languages. In a year, the average driver can learn about as much as a college student attending a year's worth of classes.

What's that, you ask? Well, if you're looking for the how-to, you can certainly read this super-helpful piece in e-how. Although, I think that by stating books on CD or podcasts and books on iPod are the likely the best learning devices for time-starved marketers and that listening to any of these in your car on the way to work, to a client or in the airport/on the plane is the best way to keep up on what's new in marketing.

The next question I get is "what should I be listening to?" Well, here's a few ideas:

1. Why don't more marketing authors release their books as audiobooks? Now, I'm not sure about the market dynamics of this (perhaps it's cost prohibitive?) but when you look for books with "Marketing" in the title in the audiobooks section of iTunes, you find only 39 titles. So, that's one place to start. Now, not every great marketing book has "marketing" in the title, but look at that list of books you should read that you've been sitting on for a while and see if you can't find a few of those in iTunes and download them.

2. There are GREAT marketing podcasts out there. There are over 200 podcasts on iTunes that are some how related to marketing, business or PR. You can only choose a few and still keep up a sane listening schedule. Here are a few good ones:
.....Joseph Jaffe's podcast
.....Duct Tape Marketing with John Jantsch
.....any of the other 200 or so podcasts in iTunes that trip your fancy

3. The AMA Marketing Matters Live radio show and podcasts. Great guests, a great host and solid interviews. Always timely and always helpful. A must listen!

(04/04/08 09:00 PM)

Key Personnel Blurbs.

That's what I'm working on now as part of the Staffing Plan that I'm writing for my client's recompete proposal. I always find it kind of amusing when I have to do this, because writing blurbs is the first thing that I was assigned to do when I was learning to write proposals about a billion years ago. Although they are boring to prepare, good key personnel blurbs are critical if you want to have a winning proposal.

I've talked about blurbs in an earlier post and also provided an example of one. For this particular proposal, I have to prepare blurbs for several key people. Each blurb is about one page long but may eventually need to be shortened to 3/4 of a page due to space constraints. When writing each blurb, I keep a hard copy of the person's resume on my desk and go through it several times. My objective is to identify the types of work and activities that the candidate has performed that are similar to the work that will need to be done for the proposed project and that meet the evaluation criteria set forth in the RFP/RFA. I then try to summarize, paraphrase and emphasize each key person's qualifications, skills and experience with the aim of pursuading the proposal reviewers that this individual is indeed the best-qualified person to perform the work.

Some people's resumes don't contain enough information for a good blurb. In those cases, you or someone else on the proposal team may need to interview the candidate to gather more specific information. Most likely, the resume may need to be re-written as well.

Writing blurbs may seem like an easy task, but it's not. It's time-consuming and it's often difficult to make someone sound like they are the most wonderful person in the world. But that's what a blurb is all about.

(03/11/08 09:01 AM)

20 Articles on Social Commerce & Word of Mouth. I haven't kept up the pace of posts here compared to previous years. Part of this is because it's been an exciting, busy year. But the other cause is my writing time is fractured between this Decker Marketing blog, our company blog (Bazaarblog) and writing other articles / columns. So, I thought I'd point you to articles I wrote elsewhere over the past year or so that you might find interesting... Some of my columns on iMedia Connection: The Big Idea Behind Social Commerce How to Market Social Media to Execs Get Web Analysis Fundamentals Right Positives About Negative Product Reviews Other articles / interviews: Word of Mouth and Your Business: Bridge the Gap Bazaarvoice's Sam Decker on Fueling WOM Implementation Social Commerce Interview with Sam Decker Sam Decker on Customer Centricity and Culture Selected blog entries from Bazaarblog: Why Customers Write Reviews Can Customers Trust Online Reviews? The NPV of Reviews 16 Insights from Ted Leonsis (AOL) Summary of Answers for "What about Negative Reviews?" New Frame of Reference: Value is in the Quality of Co-Creation 18 Customer-Created Marketing & Merchandising Tactics 10 Clues You have a Marketing ROI Culture "Operationalize" Customer Centricity A Story of Customer Centricity: Discovering Your Customerrs' Perspective Defining Social Commerce The "Waggle Dance" and 7 Steps to Reaching Customer Centricity (12/26/07 09:01 PM)

Be Competent, Curious, Creative & Entrepreneurial. I was interviewing a candidate the other day and we agreed on something that is a truism. The resume is 5% of the equation to hiring great people. I once hired a Web Producer at Dell who was responsible for the Systems / PC portion of the web site (multi-billion dollars of online business). She never bought anything online and didn't own a computer at home. But...she was competent, curious, creative, and entrepreneurial (meaning she took initiative). She analyzed metrics, came up with new ideas (curious/creative), could articulate and prioritize those ideas (competent), and quickly execute. She knew how her role impacted the business and customer and took initiative to maximize that opportunity. She turned out to be, in my opinion, the best Web Producer Dell ever had. But her resume didn't say that. My two recommendations: Hire an interview people based on these factors -- general competence, curiosity creativity and entrepreneurism (proof of taking initiative) Be those things yourself to move your career forward I once talked with a COO who said his job was to 'fill the voids'. I'd add to that and say it is also to identify the voids. Any employee can recognize existing gaps when something is broken. Few people identify strategic gaps that are unseen. Few employees are 'maximizers'. So, the few that are stand out! Managers especially should identify the missing opportunity for the business, take initiative, be the leader, pull together people and resources to get it done, and follow through. In... (10/02/07 09:00 PM)

It's Been a While. A Few Updates.... Wow...am I overdue for writing on my blog or what!?. It's been busy since the last post. Lots of traveling, tradeshows, etc. We raised $8.8M at Bazaarvoice, after becoming a profitable company several months ago and launching in the UK. We launched several new capabilities and have been hiring (interviewing) like crazy. Some other things keep me busy such as leading Austin Texchange, the Board of WOMMA, contributing magazine columns, and being an advisor to a few companies. My first blog priority has been to our company blog at www.bazaarblog.com (around social commerce and word of mouth). My 4-year old Decker Marketing blog has suffered. But now, after completing our biggest tradeshow of the year and an overdue vacation, I'm feeling a bit refreshed... Rarely do I share a "personal update", but this is a big one...we're expecting our third child! In March we will have a 10 year old, 8 year old, and a newborn. It will be like starting over! My wife and I talked about it for two years and talked to a lot of families who had a big birth separation with no regrets. My friend, Thom Singer, is the youngest in a family of 8 kids (I think). He said it was a great growing up with older brothers and sisters, and reminded me that our older kids are built-in baby sitters. My wife and I were anxious at first (we'd lose our newly-gained freedom from baby care), but now we know what we're doing... (09/26/07 09:01 PM)

Six Must-Ask Interview Questions. http://content.monster.com/articles/3478/19162/1/home.aspx?WT.mc_n=MNL000283 (08/03/07 09:00 PM)

Tips for CIO / CMO Relationships. Forrester just published an in depth research paper titled Partnering for Success: The CIO - CMO Relationship They interviewed me months ago for this paper based on my experience working with IT in startups and Dell. Bottom line: the most important aspect to good relationships is open and frequent communication. Here was the sidebar on my answers to these questions:How can CMOs and CIOs build a more effective partnership? In my experience, there are four key principles for a culture ofeffectiveness: 1) agreement and accountability, 2) face-to-face work with no “over the fence” mentality; 3) open communications andsharing of plans and results; and 4) investment by the CIO, CMO, and their employees to build relationships. What can marketers learn from their IT peers? Marketers can learn that IT is interested in how its solutions impact the business and customer, and, by sharing this, IT is more invested in their work and have a better understanding of requirements. IT thinks in terms of architecture and how things are done. It needs to fully understand the spirit, intent, and detailed requirements of what needsto be done in order to avoid missteps. The more that marketing shares with IT, the better.... (07/18/07 09:01 AM)

Disruptors Video: Turning Bits Into Atoms (Desktop Factory). This week's New Disruptors video is up. I visited Desktop Factory, an Idealab startup in LA, and interviewed CEO Cathy Lewis as well as Idealab CEO Bill Gross. Most people probably remember Idealab from the 40-some Internet startups it launched in the late 1990s. Those included some duds like eToys. But also some major home runs like CitySearch and GoTo.com (which pioneered the concept of paid-search advertising, became Overture, and was eventually bought by Yahoo). I was surprised to learn that Idealab has a lot of atoms businesses these days (as opposed to bits businesses), including Desktop Factory. Desktop Factory is developing a 3-D printer for the masses. It literally prints out three-dimensional objects made from a gray plastic powder. Most rapid-prototyping machines cost $50,000 and up. When Desktop starts selling its machines later this year, they will cost $5,000. And they eventually want to get them down to $1,000. Not only will more businesses be able to use 3-D printers to iterate their designs faster, but consumers will be able to afford them too. I'm sure this will be a niche business at first, but I can also imagine all of those Second Lifers printing out their avatars and all the virtual clothing, buildings, and vehicles that they already design online. Gross and Lewis want to encourage users to share or sell 3-D CAD designs online, so that people can find objects online to download and print as well. Watch the video. (Full transcript after the break):... (07/06/07 09:00 PM)

"50 Who Matter" Radio Interviews. I recently did a long radio interview on an Atlanta-based talk show called Technology for Business Sake. The topic was our July cover story: The 50 Who Matter Now. I talk about how the list was put together, and discuss some of the people who made it, including Steve Jobs, the Fake Steve Jobs, Susan Decker, Michael Moritz, Arrianna Huffington, and Mark Zuckerberg—and those who didn't—like Bill Gates and Kevin Rose. (Rose, as it happens, came in No. 9 in our reader poll, after attracting an impressive 295,314 votes. We decided to put Digg CEO Jay Adelson on the list, instead of going with the more predictable choice). I also did a WSJ Radio interview on the same topic. I start about a third of the way in.... (07/05/07 09:00 PM)

10 Mistakes Managers Make During Job Interviews. http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/careerArticlesPost.html?post=138 (06/26/07 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)

My Interview on Invincibelle.com!. Invincibelle.com just put up an interview they did with me. Check it out here and then check out the rest of the interesting interviews and site features. It's a very cool place and I am honored to be included. Invincibelle.com... (06/14/07 09:01 AM)

Favorite interview questions to ask?. I'm getting ready to interview some people and was wondering what are some of your favorite interview questions? Ones that I really like to ask are: 1.) Tell me about the last 3 books you read 2.) Tell me how you handled a difficult situation at work? 3.) What moment are you least proud of? 4.) What moment are you most proud of? Sort of typical, sadly, however I'm looking more at generating a conversation... (04/27/07 09:01 PM)

A Little Creativity, Please? . I write about it a lot, and talk about it all the time with clients. Being creative is possibly one of the most important aspects of success in the sales profession. Listen to my interview with Clayton Shold of Salesopedia... (04/06/07 09:01 AM)

How to Put Customer Oxygen In Your Company – FREE Teleseminar (2/22/07). On February 28th at 4:00PM CST, Linda Ford of Ford Business Consulting is interviewing me in a teleseminar titled How to Use Customer Oxygen to Breathe New Life into Your Business! This is a a topic I feel very passionate about, and have written about in my blog and DM News. I’ll share principles and learnings from my experiences in four startups and 7 years at Dell leading change initiatives and customer-centricity strategy. Topics include: Why customer feedback isn't enough How your culture will change if customer centricity is real What works (and what doesn't) to get customer oxygen into your organization How to get everyone in your organization focused on the customers' needs How to make your business more successful by putting your customers to work And learn about the Peacock and Woodpeck (verbs) I believe customer-generated content can drive more than merchandising and marketing strategies. It can impact multiple layers in the culture and company strategy. I believe that only happens by operationalizing the customer voice in your employees day to day and showing operational results. Listen in to hear more. Register here and put it on your calendar. And post a pre-seminar question here.... (02/20/07 08:59 AM)

Career Tip #7: Connect to a Visible Brand. Sometimes it's helpful to have something recognizable on your resume. My first interview with Dell in early ‘99 was for managing Dell’s Small Business site. I was a finalist with someone who had no online experience. But, she had worked at Coca Cola and Deloitte. So, the small business division ended up choosing her. Fortunately, they liked me enough to refer me to the Consumer division for a peer position. I was hired and enjoyed a prosperous career at Dell. What happened to her? Well, long story short, she didn’t receive her two year appreciation certificate. Did you go to a well-known school, work for a well known company, work on a visible project, or work for a well-respected person? If so, you have an advantage. This is a tip that goes under the “do as I say, not as I do” category. Prior to Dell I helped launch and grow three startups you probably n ever heard of (User Group Connection, ThirdAge.com, Telepost). I appreciate what I learned from these companies, but the names didn’t help open doors. I’ve seen less talented people get through the door because of the brands listed on their resume. As unfortunate as that is, it’s an obvious advantage considered for a job or promotion.... (01/15/07 09:00 AM)

Just like other bloggers. So, why does Hugh have so much traffic? Consider this thought from an interview we just did: It's so easy for a blogger to try to be like other bloggers, merely because there's so much input available. Resist!... (08/26/06 09:03 PM)

What happens to radio?. I did an interview with Mark Ramsey about the future of radio. Here's a little squib about the four ways I think the medium might go: Scenario A: Everyone has Wi-Fi or WiMAX in their car. Once that happens, we're... (08/23/06 09:01 PM)

What Basic Information Goes in a Press Release?. In addition to the news itself, your press release should indicate where your company is headquartered and who to contact for more information ; or to set up an interview. Both of those things, along ...

(08/22/06 09:00 PM)

Fun at Work. Being connected and engaged at work increases productivity - Lori RichardsonMy fellow All Business blogger, Lisa Haneberg, who is a great management consultant and author of the new book, Focus Like a Laser Beam, interviewed me on the power of... (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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