Lewis8

This article details how to achieve blogging ROI.

Let Your People Go

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I don't always agree with Tom Peters: That said, he is a business genius and a visionary guru that more of us should pay attention to. And I don't mean by reading his books and by nodding yes to his brilliant insights. I mean we need to do what he recommends when he calls for blowing up the current business model, which goes back to the Industrial Revolution. It is heavy with bureaucracy, leaden with middle managers and based on a structure that places barrier after barrier in place, blocking the best ideas of employees and destroying their motivation and passion for making a difference. Today's business model kills innovation. If that model were a human, it would get life in prison or the death penalty for murder.

I wrote Lead With Your Heart because I believe the current model is failed. I call for a new model but unlike Peters, I don't think we can blow up the current model but instead need to change it in steps. Why? Business Boards of Directors and Executives like the security of today's business and are rewarded for creating valuation today instead of building a company for tomorrow. I believe that philosophy will doom most of today's behemoths if they don't begin restructuring for tomorrow's customers, who today are represented by the generation we call the Millenniums, with Gen Y leading the way.

In order to survive the expectations of the new generations of consumers, we first must understand them. What are their wants and needs? Here is a slice of their expectations pie:

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Gen Y Wants More

According to an article at CNN.com called Generation Y: Too demanding at work?, young first-time hires in their 20s expect and want more benefits and perks out of college than did their counterparts from previous generations. Based on a recent survey from CareerBuilder.com and Harris Interactive, the story claims that "Technology is largely responsible for the shift in expectations." And this is causing a generation gap of understanding between twenty-somethings and their older employers.

The survey reveals that Gen Y workers want "better pay, a flexible work schedule and company-provided BlackBerrys and cell phones" and that "87 percent of hiring managers and HR professionals say Gen Y exhibits a sense of entitlement that older generations don't."

Is this really about entitlements or is it more about differences in experiences and a sign of misunderstanding and poor communications between generations? If the latter, this would not be the first time that generations have talked past each other.

Is the Daily News Relevant to Our Lives?
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As I sometimes do, although infrequently, I took CNN.com's Quick Vote survey yesterday, and it got me thinking that those who make editorial assignments and choose what we hear, see and read, don't seem to understand or care what is important to their public.

Here is the Quick Vote: Do you pay attention to endorsements when deciding which presidential candidate to vote for?

Yes 11% 8054
No 89% 66976
Total Votes: 75030
Yet the headlines at CNN, MSNBC and FOX, as well as the New York Times, featured Joe Lieberman and the Des Moines Register endorsing John McCain.

As a former journalist, I can say from that POV that a media person's most important job is to inform the public on things that impact their lives, such as elections. But if CNN's unscientific poll holds any truth, endorsements don't impact many people's lives, and I tend to agree. They matter little in this information/conversation age, where we can access more information than ever before. That leads me to believe that endorsements are important to media decision-makers, even if they aren't to us. And we all can name other headlines that don't add or subtract anything from our lives.

Customer Experience Differentiates Businesses
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More than any other factor, customer experiences differentiate competitive businesses. Products and services cannot, as customers expect products and services to be good to great, so unless your products and services are beyond great, all you can achieve with them is to either meet customer expectations or disappoint customers. Price is only a differentiator for those who shop price, and they are not ideal customers for most businesses because they reduce your margins, and they do not become loyal customers or brand evangelists. That leaves us to create incredible customer experiences, which aren't as hard to imagine as you might think.

Here are three examples of customer experiences that happened this morning. Each of these stores provide consistent and good experiences, giving me no cause to shop elsewhere.

Energy: Is Wind A Good Business or Environmental Investment?
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English Pravda shouts Offshore wind farms to power every home in Britain by 2020; a Stanford research team eyes offshore wind farms for California; Madison Gas & Electric gives us the facts about their wind farm; and Cape Cod continues to battle about a proposed wind farm off its shores.

For utility and energy businesses and for Americans and environmental groups, the primary questions are:

Is wind energy the best way to spend money today and get a return on investment tomorrow?
Is wind energy a environmental boon or bust?

In Britain, it is projected that wind farms will generate enough offshore electricity to power every home in the country by 2020. That means a reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions. It also means Britain's coasts are changed as wind turbines rise out of the sea to dot the skies and form navigational challenges to sailors. And although the British Wind Energy Association, a trade body which represents the country's wind and marine energy industries, welcomes plans for more offshore wind farm sites, it also questions the optimistic projections made by government. Furthermore, wind generated power is more expensive to generate than its coal- or gas-generated counterpart.

At Stanford, a research team concluded that the ocean not far off the Northern California coastline is the most promising spot for an offshore wind farm to generate power. They identified the sea off Cape Mendocino, roughly 150 miles northwest of San Francisco, as their top pick. They predicted that wind turbines there could supply 5 percent of California's electrical power needs.

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Always Tell the Truth, not A Version of the Truth
During my three-plus decades in business, I have attended hundreds of manager meetings and listened to lots of smart people share smart things. I learned a lot from them. But every once in a while, something would pour from another manager's mouth that made me wonder if he or she left their brain at home that day. They certainly left their values tucked away in yesterday's pants.

The one comment that stayed with me the longest came from a Director of Public Relation's whose media campaign regarding the launch of a new product seemed well thought-out, except for one line in a press release due to hit the street later in the day. It announced a delay in a new product launch. I commented that the reason given wasn't true.

"It's a version of the truth," he replied.

Build A Culture for Success
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Companies that lead with their heart understand that to achieve success and profitability, the culture must be built based on shared values and a passion for those values.

When Howard Schultz bought Starbucks in the late '80s, he had a vision of a different kind of company. A company built on values and passion for everything it said and did, which was shared by other executives such as Howard Behar.

Walk into almost any Starbucks store and watch employees interacting with the customers. You will see happiness. It comes from what Starbucks calls the Third Place Experience.

Enter the headquarters building and you will see more of the same, as well as the stress and the angst that comes from working in any business. Since its founding, Starbucks has made billions of dollars. Starbucks, however, does not exist solely to make money nor do they measure success only in that way. In fact, Starbucks does not exist only to sell coffee. Its lifeblood is creating an experience that results in happiness, even though they don't use that word to describe it.