July 30th, 2006
by John Spence |
I recently attended the national sales meeting of a high-end boat manufacturer that our firm represents and was delighted to listen as one of their top dealers gave an impassioned speech on the critical need for “congruence” when dealing with their customers. I could not have agreed with him more, and was motivated to take a few minutes to write out my thoughts on what this idea really means in the marketplace and why it is absolutely essential to building a successful company.
At the heart of this concept is the strong belief that every single aspect of the brand experience must be uncompromisingly consistent throughout all touch points with the consumer. From first exposure, to pre-purchase, to the buying event, to product decline and eventual obsolescence and finally to re-purchase — every interaction must fully support the brand promise.
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July 24th, 2006
by Dr. Brian Higley |
I’ve seen first hand the incredible cost of what is sometimes called “Frenzied Doing”, an approach to work (and sometimes life) that promotes the idea that there is not enough time to systematically implement new ideas into the workplace. Frenzied doing is most often present in people who are too busy to think about what they (and/or their teams or families) are doing on a regular basis. Their days are often 10-15 hours of work, work, work – without an end in sight. When people tell them “you need to stop working so much”, they say something like, “I can’t” or “I know, I know – next year maybe.” Sometimes people are proud of this level of constant work, so I want to take some time to discuss the negative impact of Frenzied Doing on the frenzied AND on those around them.
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July 15th, 2006
by Dr. Brian Higley |
We at Excellence Tree consider ourselves to be part of what we call the Purposeful Doing Movement.” This movement is focused on helping individuals and organizations to execute more activities that are truly central to fulfilling their core values and missions – and fewer activities that are not central to doing so. We believe that regardless of our titles within our organizations (CEO, “leader”, janitor, ect.), the the most important thing at the end of the day is whether or not we are frequently executing activities important to our team’s success an extremely high percentage of the time (80-100% of the time). Why is the Purposeful Doing Movement so important right now? Three major answers come to mind right now:
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July 5th, 2006
by John Spence |
I have had a significant number of clients approach me and ask for help in putting together a “strategic” plan or at least some sort of a written plan to help them keep themselves and their staff on course. From small start-ups to divisions of multi-billion dollar corporations many either have not made the time to create the document or just don’t have a clear idea of how to put such a plan together. Although strategic planning can be extremely complex, it is also possible to build a simple, clear and compelling plan that will make a huge positive difference in the effectiveness of your operations.
Let me outline here what I believe are some of the most fundamental aspects of a plan, describe what each is component is, and offer you a chance to do some of the necessary work as you go through this article.
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