by Daria Steigman on July 22, 2010
This recession has not been kind to marketers and other communications pros. Especially at the senior level.
Frankly, I’m not surprised.
Just look at how we typically refer to ourselves. Marketer. Public Affairs Specialist. Writer. Editor. Media Relations Manager. Videographer. It’s all task-based.
IABC has the word “business” in it, but our titles rarely do. And too often we haven’t made the case that storytelling is key to selling widgets (or sneakers, politicians, goodwill, or support for your cause). That communications is a core business function, as necessary to organizational success as product designers and the sales team.
We talk about transparency and authenticity. Our bosses care about sales, opportunity costs, and ROI.
I’ve heard a lot of hand wringing about how communicators don’t have a seat at the table. Yada, Yada, Yada. Feel better?
Now, what are we going to do about it?
The comments are yours.
Note: This post originally appeared on IABC’s Communication World blog.
Photo by Randy Son of Robert (Flickr).
Tagged as:
authenticity,
Business,
Communications,
IABC,
marketing,
PR,
Strategy,
Transparency
by Daria Steigman on May 11, 2010
For years I thought I was an accidental business owner. I mistakenly believed that I’d fallen into business ownership out of a determination to avoid bosses and office politics, which eventually led to an aha moment when I figured out that—yes!—I like the business of running a business.
What really happened was that I identified a market need and the appropriate universe of prospects, created services and pricing, developed a marketing strategy, and got to work selling. In other words, I had a plan.
And that’s the short secret to business success–and the topic of my latest column for IABC’s CW Bulletin. It features wisdom from Tim Berry, entrepreneur, founder of Palo Alto Software, and author of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, who talks about misconceptions about planning and offers three planning essentials.
Read the complete article here.
Photo by w00kie (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business,
IABC,
Palo Alto Software,
Strategy,
Tim Berry
by Daria Steigman on April 14, 2010
Each week I’m highlighting 3 or 4 posts, surveys, and other news that I have read and/or tweeted about that you may not have seen. As the name implies, I think they deserve a second look.
- How Ford Got Its Mojo Back: A must-read post about smart business strategy reveals how Ford CEO Alan Mulally valued employees and used a combination of transparency, energy, and long-term thinking to bring the automaker back from the brink.
- Driving Value in Health Care: “Today’s health delivery system and payment framework does not reward innovation around health management, prevention, and real-time consumer engagement… To truly shift the business of health, we need to drive the right combination of structural change, innovation and use of technology to create a better system–essentially, drive real value for every dollar spent.” Smart thinking around shifting the model.
- China’s First Entrepreneur: The BBC looks at the courage, smarts, and serendipity it took to become China’s first licensed entrepreneur.
Photo by omniNate (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Alan Mulally,
Business,
engagement,
Entrepreneurship,
Ford,
Health care,
health reform,
Strategy
by Daria Steigman on March 9, 2010
I was a little surprised last week by all the attention surrounding Chris Brogan’s day rate. A little of it reminded me of when I started my business and a few (former) friends decided I was really sitting around eating bonbons and cashing trust fund checks. Mostly it reminded me that too many people don’t know how to value their work.
My day rate may not be $22,000, but I do not allow organizations to pick my brain by the hour. My hourly strategy rate is primarily used to establish a retainer or a project fee–both of which build in start-up, research, concepting, and so forth. Not to mention intelligence, know-how, and expertise.
Why would anyone walk into a room and discount that?
Photo by Esparta (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business,
Chris Brogan,
pricing,
Strategy
by Daria Steigman on November 16, 2008
There seems to be an evolving debate in the association world around the value of strategic planning. An August Associations Now article quite correctly pointed out that most strategic plans don’t work; but then the author went on to argue that strategic planning is not an essential business function. Scott Briscoe continued the discussion in a post on ASAE’s Acroynm blog, expressing surprise at the vehemence of the debate and saying that “I thought the idea of strategic planning having lost its vitality and usefulness in favor of a more nimble, open planning process was pretty well set.”
Here’s my opinion: Businesses that don’t plan end up operating in reactive mode. And if we’re going to plan, shouldn’t that process be strategic?
I suggest we dispense with the notion that strategic planning is no longer relevant, and focus instead on what makes for an effective process and what the outcomes should be. Businesses need to have short, medium, and long-range goals and develop strategies and tactics within and across divisions to achieve these. They also need to periodically evaluate their activities and initiatives against their goals and objectives and make adjustments as needed. Businesses also need to periodically assess whether how they view themselves correlates to how others view them–whether their employees, customers, investors, or other stakeholders.
Strategic planning fails when people think the plan is the outcome. It’s not; it’s an iterative tool to help your business stay focused and moving forward. What do you think?
Tagged as:
Business,
Strategy
This recession has not been kind to marketers and other communications pros. Especially at the senior level.
