2009 May

"A principle isn’t a principle unless it costs you something".—Bob Goldstein, former P&G Vice President of Advertising Today is the first day of the work week and as usual we ended the day with our company meeting.  There's only a small number of us, so we can be efficient with the 45 minutes we've allotted. As usual, each team member spent a few minutes touching on the more complex, urgent, or higher-profile tasks facing them this week. Sometimes they relate those tasks to specific...

A little recent planting (yay! spring!) inspired me to consider the parallels between a healthy plant that's long overdue for transplanting, and organizations reflecting on "here" and considering how to get "there." How Might A Plant Resemble A Company? A Brand? The beginning was rife with struggle. Maybe even odds against. They both started small and were nurtured and protected throughout critical times. They both need precise amounts of key elements: fuel, disposal systems for waste (think...

"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgment."--Will Rogers I heard this inspiring quote for the first time in February, mentioned by my friend and counselor Sam Meers at a gathering I wish could have happened at some far, distant time in the future.  As it is, we were saying good-bye to a friend, a man who was bigger than life. Even as I heard Sam speak those words, they crept into my head and quietly spoke to me for months.  I'm finally writing about them because...

Gotta Speak the Language Last week, I was in Des Moines, IA attending a marketing conference sponsored by the Iowa Banker's Association titled "Blue Ribbon Banking: Marketing for Success."   At Ovation, we're considering our sales strategy for the bank vertical and this local conference provided good timing. My banking experience is limited to the typical consumer relationship, so I thought it particularly important to visit with bank marketers in hopes to better understand their pain points. ...

Tell Me Something I Don't Know, Already. The sentiment on the street remains cautious, conservative, and even scrappy. Businesses everywhere are feeling the shock waves which still reverberate from the crumbling financial and real estate empire which began 18 months ago. There's no arguing that belts have been tightened, expense reports and expansion plans scrutinized, and sacrifices made in the interest of staying protected, controlling cash flow, and mitigating exposure/risk. As consumers,...