Should your company have a Facebook Page or a LinkedIn Group? What about apps? Should your company have an app on iPhones, iPads and Android devices? I don’t know, but chances are the answer is no.
The real question is do you need these tools to engage and service your customers, or are you jumping onto a technology bandwagon? Technology bandwagons are deadly. Too many companies are diving into technology projects, because they don’t want to be left behind.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to deliver a presentation titled, “Selling is Dead: The Rise of Brand Relationships”. I was speaking at an event hosted by the Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating (CIPH), which is a group of manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers in the industrial valve and plumbing sector. And they are acutely aware of the technology pressures and forces hitting their business.
My message to them was avoid technology bandwagons.
We’re all pressured to change
The pace of technology today is astronomical. The advancements we’ve seen in the Internet, mobile technologies and social media over the past decade are equivalent to the acceleration of transportation between 1900 and 2000.
In 1900 the average travel speed in the United States was eight miles an hour. That’s a little faster than walking. The average person walks around at three miles an hour. Fast forward to 2000, and technology accelerated the rate of human travel to seventy miles an hour. That’s a big jump.
In the span of a century technology accelerated our rate of movement by close to nine times. That’s astonishing. But think about all that’s happened in the world of communications, mobile technologies and the Internet since 2000. In terms of communications we’ve moved from walking to flight in less than a decade.
No wonder companies are feeling pressured to keep up. They see the growth of social media, mobile communications, websites and all the other tools and just feel overwhelmed.
There’s always a flavor of the month
When you feel like you’re being left behind the natural reaction is to catch up. And this is where the technology bandwagon trap resides.
In the 90′s and early 2000′s e-commerce was all the rage. Companies were building complex e-commerce sites, because they thought all their customers would be doing their purchasing online soon. But most of these projects failed, because companies lost site of the tools and forgot complex products and services don’t sell themselves. They require human intervention.
Right now social media is the hot topic. Facebook raised close to $20 billion dollars in its IPO today with $6.8 billion coming back to the company. It generated this much money, because in 2012 social media is a big deal. But it leads to a question, should your company jump onto the social media bandwagon?
Get the data first
Popularity is not a reason to invest in new technologies.
Before you jump onto a technology bandwagon get the data first. Study your customers. Study how they buy, and understand which tools are influencing them.
For example, when you look at your customers’ buying patterns is social media influencing them? If so, how? If not, why? Get the data, then build the strategy.
(Image credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen)
May 18th, 2012 
Posted by Jeremy Miller
Your company’s social media policy, or lack of one, reveals a lot about its culture. Is yours open and collaborative, or closed and restrictive?
I find it shocking when companies lockdown their firewalls and implement policies to prevent their staff from using social media. It clearly demonstrates a lack of trust. I saw this in the late 90′s while in university.
During the summers I worked in IT support. One of my big projects was to lockdown the firewall to prevent ‘the guys in the back’ from accessing inappropriate content. We installed tools to prevent users from accessing porn and gambling sites, but we also configured it to prevent people from accessing personal email, IRC, discussion boards and a host of other sites.
All this time and resources went into creating proverbial horse blinders. The executive team did not want anyone wasting time ‘playing’ on the Internet. They felt locking it down would create a more productive and focused workforce.
I saw the opposite. The Internet prohibition created a division between staff and management. The staff clearly saw they weren’t trusted, and acted accordingly.
Punitive social media policies are misdirected
Trying to prevent employees from using social media on company time is futile. Even in 1997 and ’98, preventing people from using the Web was exceedingly difficult. Today, well it’s next to impossible. With smartphones everyone has the Internet in their pockets.
The real question is why does a company need to lockdown access to social media? The general perception is employees shouldn’t be playing on Facebook, YouTube or Twitter on company time. But locking down access to the Internet isn’t the solution.
Employees that waste their days on social media are a symptom of a greater problem, an HR issue. You need to fix the job, the employee or both. A one size fits all social media policy isn’t going to solve a structural HR problem. It’s going to exacerbate it.
The time wasters are going to find other distractions, solitaire anyone. Meanwhile everyone else is restricted, which can backfire and materialize in a host of other HR problems.
Create a culture of collaboration
Restrictive social media policies set management up to be parents. Instead of worrying about employees goofing off, embrace the tools.
Social media isn’t going anywhere. It’s a primary platform of communication like the phone and email. Lift the prohibition on social media, and use it to enhance engagement and collaboration.
Engage your staff, and ask questions. How can these tools improve communication, learning, collaboration and teamwork? How can they improve and develop the corporate culture? How can they better serve both employees and customers?
Often our greatest strengths are our weaknesses. They’re two sides of a coin. To break the misuse of social media, embrace it and focus on its strengths. Get everyone involved, and prove that these tools make for a stronger, more productive team.
Trust your employees. It’s that simple.
(Image credit: Marcus Miller)
April 3rd, 2012
Posted by Jeremy Miller
Steve Jobs wrote, “I hate it when people call themselves ‘entrepreneurs’ when what they’re really trying to do is launch a startup and then sell or go public, so they can cash in and move on. They’re unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business … build a company that will stand for something a generation or two from now.”
Steve’s quote resonated with me, and was the inspiration for a talk I delivered at the Canadian Association of Family Enterprises (CAFE) yesterday. Family businesses have some of the most impressive entrepreneurs, because they build businesses that thrive for 25, 50 or even 100 years. Which in itself is nothing short of remarkable.
I was really excited to give this talk, because I’ve grown up in a family business. My parents, Donna and Marcus, founded an IT Staffing firm in 1989, and I joined their business in 2004. I am very grateful to work with my parents’ company, because they’ve taught me what it means to be an entrepreneur.
Create a culture of entrepreneurship
To grow through the generations requires a culture of entrepreneurship. In this market and in this economy the pressure on businesses to change and adapt is at an all time high. The strategies and value propositions that made the first generation successful won’t remain relevant forever. To maintain growth, family businesses must continually rethink and reposition their businesses for the times.
I faced these immense market forces head on when I joined my family’s business. During the 90′s and early 2000′s my parents’ company did very well, but when I joined the business in 2004 the market had changed. The tech boom was over, the dotcom bubble had burst and Ontario was coming out of a mild recession. The strategies that had worked so well for my parents were no longer applicable, and we had to change directions.
2004 was a painful and stressful year. It’s hard to see your business collapsing around you, and not knowing how to turn it around. And it’s really easy to get caught up in the past, and try to claw back to what you had. But to grow requires change. My parents taught me “it’s not about the business you’ve built, but the business you’re building.”
Their simple phrase summed it up. Growing through the generations takes more than knowing how to run the business, it requires leaders that are continually building and evolving business.
Develop next generation entrepreneurs
Developing next generation entrepreneurs is a core responsibility of the first generation. Too many founders don’t let go and hold onto control for too long. This is a mistake. If a founder holds onto control for too long they’re cursing the next generation to be caretakers, not entrepreneurs. Caretakers are great at maintaining the strategy and persevering, but they lack the essential skills of repositioning and pivoting the business. And if the next generation can’t pivot, the business won’t survive.
Every family business has an opportunity to develop next generation leaders. My advice to CAFE’s audience was to immerse their next generation leaders in the strategic direction and planning process of their businesses. Get them involved in making critical decisions, and make sure they have the skills to rethink, reposition and lead their businesses for the next 25 years.
There’s no guarantee that the strategies that are working today will be relevant tomorrow. Actually, it’s a safe bet to assume they’ll be displaced in the not too distant future. Technology, markets, globalization and lots of other trends are moving too fast. This means next generation leaders need to think like entrepreneurs, and always be building for the future.
What’s your take?
(Image credit: phill.d)
March 30th, 2012
Posted by Jeremy Miller
Brands have a shelf life. They need to be refreshed every three to seven years depending on the industry to stay relevant and desirable. I wrote about this idea a couple weeks ago. Yet it begs the question, why must a brand be refreshed?
Brands are updated for two reasons: relevance and reflection.
Relevance: Stay current
Wisdom suggests a consistent brand is a strong brand. I agree, but this needs to be put in context. Using the same ad, logo, tagline and value proposition for fifty years doesn’t mean a brand is consistent.
Established brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonalds and Nike all go through regular updates. These updates don’t mean the brand has fundamentally changed. Rather the updates help the brand stay relevant. Since the 1950′s Coke and Pepsi have each had seven logo updates. McDonalds runs new slogans and campaigns every couple of years like “Put a smile on” to “Every time a good time” to “I’m lovin’ it”.
These updates are not created in a vacuum. They build on the brand’s heritage, rejuvenate it and keep it going. There are key aspects of the brand that are held onto like the McDonalds’ Golden Arches, but other components like the core messaging, themes, imagery and presentation all require regular maintenance.
Reflection: Businesses aren’t static
The second major reason to update a brand is to reflect changes in the business model. Businesses don’t stand still, because they evolve, change and grow. As the services and capabilities of a firm evolve so too must the brand.
You can see big brands like Apple and Oracle updating their brands to reflect changes in their business models. Apple started out as Apple Computer, but in 2007 they dropped “Computer” from their name. They updated their brand, because they weren’t just a computer company any longer.
Oracle has gone through similar changes over the years. They’ve changed their name four times: Software Development Laboratories (SDL) to Relational Software Inc. (RSI) to Oracle Systems Corporation to Oracle Corporation. Each name change reflected a change in their business, their products and services, and their go-to-market strategy.
Reflection is probably the most important reason to update and refresh a brand. Businesses are evolving at an incredible pace today, and their brands have to keep pace. Otherwise the brand loses its meaning and impact.
Everyone evolves
It’s easy to think brands don’t and shouldn’t change when you look at well-established brands like Apple, McDonalds and Nike. If you aren’t looking carefully it seems like they’ve always been this way, but that’s an illusion. They’re always changing.
All brands evolve, because businesses evolve, customer relationships evolve, experiences evolve and expectations evolve.
What are you doing to keep your brand relevant?
(Image credit: Robert Mehlan)
March 8th, 2012
Posted by Jeremy Miller
Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over-and-over again, and expecting a different result. It’s very logical advice, but I don’t think many business owners are heeding it.
Lots of companies stagnate and decline, because they hold onto old strategies for far too long. It’s a strange dynamic. It’s not that these businesses are failing, rather they are stuck in a kind of purgatory. The businesses are making a profit and doing good work, but they never quite live up to their full potential.
It’s surprising how easy it is to get caught in these plateaus. And at some point every company hits a plateau that stunts their growth. Typically these plateaus are at $1 million, $5 million, $10 million, $25 million and $100 million in revenue. The company has a growth spurt, and then in or near one of these revenue thresholds the growth tapers off.
Executive teams wrestle with these plateaus all the time. They try hiring new sales people, or introducing new products and services. They look for options to find growth and get more customers to buy their services. But even though they struggle, their efforts often don’t kick start another growth spurt.
The common explanation for why companies plateau is the business doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the next level. You can’t be a $25 million business with the infrastructure of a $10 million business. So consultants advise companies on how to put in the appropriate infrastructure for sales, operations, finance, human resources and management. They show companies how to build up their systems so they can pop up to the next level.
The problem with the infrastructure argument is it’s too simplistic. Yes, a company needs to have the appropriate infrastructure to grow, but it takes more than that. Each revenue plateau requires a new strategy, and often times a radically different one.
For example, adding more sales people is not a different strategy. It’s just a tactic to get more coverage. It’s a very effective tactic, but you use it when you’ve hit a growth spurt that you’re trying to accelerate. But if the business is stalled and stuck in a plateau, hiring more reps isn’t going to have the desired results. That’s when a change in direction is required.
In the book The Lean Startup, Eric Ries describes these changes in strategy as pivots. Ries argues that a business must constantly evaluate whether to persevere with their strategy or pivot. If your business hits a wall or gets lulled into a plateau you have a choice: keep up with the current strategy, persevere, or change directions, pivot.
Deciding to pivot is easier said than done. It’s hard to accept that the things you currently do well are actually holding you back. And it’s even harder to throw out infrastructure and resources you’ve already invested in. But that’s exactly what has to happen. Growth is created through innovation and active experimentation, not holding onto the strategies of the past.
Persevering with a strategy is a very viable option, but the question is for how long. When you’re stalled at a plateau for a year or two it’s time to reevaluate your strategy. It’s time to pivot.
What’s your take?
(Image credit: Tony Bowden)
March 1st, 2012
Posted by Jeremy Miller
Brands age and mature, and if they’re not maintained they fall apart.
You can see the aging process every time you redo your website. Typically a corporate website needs to be overhauled every 4 years. It starts looking tired in the third year, and dilapidated in the fourth. But the challenge with a new website project is it’s just the tip of the brand.
Your website is a very visual component of your brand. It’s easy to see when it’s out of date. But as soon as you start updating the website plenty of other branding projects start to popup. It’s a little like home renovation. You start with your kitchen, and soon your renovating the whole house.
Website overhauls follow a predictable trajectory. As you work on the site design you make some adjustments to your logo and identity – that triggers redoing all your letterhead and business cards. Then you rewrite all the copy on your site with a refined value proposition and better stories – that triggers redoing all your brochures and marketing collateral. Then you look at the executive biographies and they need work too – that triggers a photo shoot and new copy. What started as a $15,000 to $20,000 project can quickly balloon into a $100,000 plus rebranding project.
Plan for your brand’s shelf life
An outdated website is a symptom of an outdated brand. Your value proposition, identity, marketing collateral, points of view and go-to-market strategies all need regular updates.
Brands typically need a tune up every 3 to 7 years depending on the industry. For example, the software and IT sector changes a lot faster and more frequently than the construction industry. But regardless of the pace of an industry’s change, all brands need regular maintenance to remain relevant.
What’s the shelf life of brands in your industry? Gauge how quickly your marketing strategies age, and identify the optimal cycle to re-energize and tune-up your brand.
Values are static, brands are not
Even though your brand ages, your values don’t. They’re static. John Smale, former CEO of Procter & Gamble said,
“There are some important things that haven’t changed during the course of this company’s life and that is the basic character of this institution. Our values. The things that reflect our basic principles … These are the things that make P&G a great company. And these are the principles that will last, in my judgment, as long as this company lasts through the ages.”
Be careful to protect your company’s core values and beliefs as you polish and reinvent your brand. It’s easy to question what you stand for when you’re constantly examining your branding and marketing strategies.
Products change, competitors change, brands change, but values don’t. They’re the foundation of your brand, and they give it strength as you renovate your brand every few years.
(Image Credit: jptoto)
February 22nd, 2012
Posted by Jeremy Miller
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