| "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" is the creed of the successful. Keep a list of potential goals you’re inspired to pursue. Have it accessible so you can continuously add to it as potential goals arise in your mind. Then, periodically, look at your list, and take note of those goals that call out to you for consideration to take action on now or at some point in the future. By doing this you will stay engaged in completing your present goals while pondering your bigger future. We’re meant to live in the here and now while aspiring to our bigger future. Onward and Upward!  |
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Keep a list of goals and take action
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Take appropriate risks and Plan
Your Cornerman Daily
Learn to embrace appropriate risk as your partner in opportunity. Appropriate risk is aspiring to an objective just outside your reach that could be achieved if you prepared properly and the timing is right to pursue it. By making these two key filters a standard process in determining whether you will or won’t pursue an objective will create more abundance in your life for all the right reasons.Onward and Upward!
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Professional service firms are being rocked to the core - they have to change to survive
The business model of professional service firms are being disrupted to the core! It's foundations are being rocked.
From accounting, legal and advertising agencies.... no-one is sacred.
The digital economy has arrived and one has to adapt to how it operates.
Gartner has written an outstanding white paper on this supported by research contribution and review were provided by David Willis, Saul Brand, Mary Mesaglio, Daryl Plummer, Marcus Blosch, Chris Howard, Bard Papegaaij and Lee Weldon.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3rdm5ekne9uruyf/algorithm-economy-292457.pdf?dl=0
Below is my summary of the paper
"In the digital era, the economics of connections describes the creation of value through increased density of interactions between business, people and things. "
You no longer have to own assets to create value. You need to develop and nurture relationships.
Value Will Come From Sharing, Providing and Leveraging Critical Capital Assets .
Airbnb and uber are case in points
Communication and connectedness through distance, based on shared values and interests is available - but there is still nothing like face to face relationships . People are tribal - they like to belong - however, the physical and virtual worlds are blurring
Roles — In the economics of connections, economic agents could take on any role, such as:
- An operator completing a discrete task
- A consumer seeking to acquire information, goods and services
- A provider seeking to offer information, goods and services
- A broker seeking to connect consumers and providers (referron)
- A combination of any of these roles.
Compensation — In the digital era, a different compensation method may accompany each different role. Work can be free, based on an exchange of similarly valued work, plain old currency, a bitcoin, a point system.
Will there be "jobs" (living @just over the breadline")
Will there be independent operators?
Wil there be a new paradigm?
- How will people interact?
- How will they trade there products or services?
- What currency will they use?
Kpis in the connected ecosystem
- reduced time to complete a process,
- ability to gather and process larger data volumes with higher quality,
- sentiment analysis and net-promotor score.
- Engagement of clients
- Satisfaction of clients
Sharing
In digital business models, enterprises create an ecosystem of independent parties sharing assets and resources.
In areas ranging from ride sharing and hoteling to funding and development, innovators and entrepreneurs are taking a different approach to how they manage their assets.
They have a sharing mindset.
A mindset of giving. A mindset of generosity. A mindset of working together for the benefit of the client.
We are developing an ecosystem of players and capabilities to deliver an exceptional client experience.
Sharing and giving is not charity - it's good business. An abundant mindset will grow an ecosystem. It creates leverage and leverage creates growth .
Tesla understands this
Tesla Motors has shared for free its patents on superchargers with the general public.
Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, understands that the more others invest in and advance the technology, the stronger the electric car ecosystem grows.
A robust ecosystem, especially one using Tesla standards, makes Tesla cars more valuable. This is not charity but good economics. It was a calculated business decision that builds and leverages the ecosystem. Tesla has shared these patent assets to leverage the future ecosystem assets owned and delivered by others.
Providing these assets free to the "network" multiplies the value of other Tesla assets.
This is a core principle in the new economic model of connections.
Several other principles are needed to make this model work:
Experts and service providers, engineers and professionals can be shared
Rating
Allowing customers to rate the quality of the providers increases the transparency of the ecosystem and spurs ecosystem health, continually improving provider quality needed attrition.
In many models, providers also rate customers, creating an open system of value exchange between provider and consumers as peers.
Governance and professional standards
As an ecosystem grows, it often needs more governance or more detailed qualification requirements that go beyond ratings to identify providers that are not behaving appropriately. Trust is a key component of these ecosystem-centric digital business models. Professional associations and educational institutions will still play a massive
Relationships vs transactional - being able to understand customers needs
Economic Agents need to understand the customer needs or "an opportunity" and then identify the best resource in the ecosystem to refer.
Once an opportunity is complete, another opportunity is created providing more opportunities to service.
As long as people are breathing, opportunities will continue to occur!
The transaction / or servicing of the opportunity is a given - the expertise, professionalism,product or machine needs to be available to provide that awesome service.
A transactional mentality must give way to one of relationship , influence and facilitation.
It's about being able to understand the environment and provide the capability for different process permutations to emerge spontaneously based on the customers needs.
One will need to leverage their connections dynamically to derive the best value in responding to the specifics of the exact situation as it unfolds.
It means understanding the ecosystem and investing to capitalize on unanticipated, serendipitous value.
Recommended Actions:
Invest in technologies that will give them the speed, agility and analytic capabilities to effectively exploit business moments (such as complex-event processing, real-time offer engines and ultra-low-latency middleware). (Referron? )
Be part of an ecosystem of people that you know like and trust, so as to give a brilliant service wowwing the connected customer!
www.bbg.business
BUSINESS BUILDERS GROUP BOARD APPOINTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Following an impressive start for the Business Builders Group (BBG) in 2016, (0-100 members in 5.4 months) , BBG has appointed Greg Kay as Executive Director BBG Australia.
Greg brings substantial experience and leadership insight to the role gained through more than 25 years of executive management in the professional services sector, with a strong focus of building referral based business, says BBG Chairman Ivan Kaye
“We were particularly impressed with Greg’s reputation as a sought after key strategic adviser and for his hands on experience in assisting business owners position their businesses for growth particularly through referral networking,” said BBG CEO Geoff Hirsh.
“The appointment of an Executive Director for Australia is a key milestone for BBG and we look forward to working closely with Greg as he leads BBG Australia into an exciting new phase and builds value for our members and their customers in the years to come” concluded Geoff Hirsh.
Pictured below – Business Builders Group (BBG) Australia Executive Director Greg Kay
3 cool innovation insites
“ Sometime over the next decade your company or organisation will be challenged to change in a way for which it has no precedent.”
-- Gary Hamel in The Future of Management
“ innovation doesn't have to be disruptive to be significant .”
-- Anthony James
There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. .There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination.
Sun Arzu - the art of war
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Get your pitch right
Whether you’re managing a large corporation, a medium-scale business, or a small start-up, pitching to influencers, partners, investors and customers requires a strategic and tailored approach. Get your pitch right to distinguish your business angle from other market players and disrupters.
In Australia, we have a tendency to be humble about our successes, relying upon the quality of the product or service to ‘sell itself’. However, this isn't enough. To make your pitch stand out from the rest, you need to communicate your ideas with passion and confidence.
Research shows that the first 20 seconds of a pitch will make or break the audience’s interest. This is the ‘elevator pitch’ — the crucial moment where you distinguish your business from the rest. Here are my top 5 tips for getting your pitch right:
1. Articulate your vision with confidence
When you stand in front of people you are selling to, you need to articulate your vision and approach clearly, confidently and concisely. Use succinct, simple language; avoid obscuring your message beneath unnecessary jargon or complex technical terms.
2. Tell an unforgettable story
From the written word to the spoken word, you need to tell an unforgettable story that captures the listener’s attention and holds it. Think about what makes your approach distinct and different. To tell a story that stands out from the crowd, leverage originality and flair, and align your story to the key outcomes and strategies of your organisation.
3. Know your audience
Tailor your material and presentation to the requirements and expectations of your audience. This will ensure that people understand who you are, what you’re trying to achieve, and how your business specifically can help to solve a problem. A personalised approach will drive an emotional connection and deeper engagement with your audience.
4. Step up and differentiate yourself
Australian leaders have a tendency to be modest — but to successfully ‘sell’ your ideas, you need to talk confidently about your achievements. You need to explain exactly how and why your business is relevant to the market. Don’t be shy about your successes; present them with confidence.
5. Be genuine, engaging and enthusiastic
It all boils down to this: you can’t fake passion. To create an outstanding pitch, you need to be passionately and wholeheartedly dedicated to your cause. Self-belief, passion and drive are fundamental to this. If you truly believe in yourself and your ability to bring others on board with your business, they will believe in it, too.
Read the full article in The CEO Magazine.
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Can you create a business you love…on your terms?
It’s every entrepreneur’s dream: identify a market niche and have the business idea to mesh perfectly with that opportunity. Start a business with people you trust. Grow it from three people to over 50 in 10 years, in a market that is booming and vibrant. Then sell to a global behemoth.
What next?
For small business marketing mentor Sarah Denby-Jones, exhaustion (understandable). A young family (exciting). An opportunity to assess what she wanted next for her career and her lifestyle (enviable). “I’d proved what I could do, and didn’t feel the need to repeat the same experience,” she explains. “I was ready for a change, with the focus very much on my family and on rebalancing my life.”
#SurfaceLife - Sarah Denby-Jones Small Business Marketing Mentor https://youtu.be/5nX2MR3yWDE via @YouTube
Her decision was to move to from London to Sydney, with a clear initial objective built on her recent success in the UK: regroup, re-energize, recalibrate. It was only after she had fulfilled these personal objectives that she started to consider what the next entrepreneurial move might even be. “I knew I wanted to share my own experiences with people starting their journeys for the first time. I’d walked the path they were on or were about to start, and my experiences meant I could help them. In particular, I wanted to develop the idea of having the freedom to strike that balance, and to help others in business do the same.”
As she notes, businesses change fast, and disruption and innovation can appear at any moment. Small business owners especially can struggle to decide what’s important and relevant whilst staying true to their purpose. That’s where Sarah comes in, working as a mentor and strategic advisor to her clients.
“It’s sobering to remind ourselves that around 30% of startups or small businesses fail to survive beyond two years, often as a result of the initial idea being unsustainable in the medium term.
“At the same time that figure improves markedly for startups with mentors – 70% of these companies last beyond five years. There are few things in a startup’s life that can double your chances of success, but having a mentor is one of them!
“So I challenge my clients’ thinking and strategies, I take them back a few steps, work with them to help them identify the core of their businesses, and what drives them. We focus on these foundations, and on getting them right. It’s too easy to focus on the tactics and the tasks of the moment, but if you’re operating on foundations that are weak or wrong, you are bound to fail.
“And no business owner deserves to fail.”
Marketing is Sarah’s passion. “It’s my fundamental position and belief that marketing is about everything that you do. Once you’ve found your space the magic is in the details of the experience you create, and in how you connect on a human level. It’s about the culture, systems and structures that you put in place that pulls everything together to support your growth. These are your foundations, and they support the proposition you take to your customers.”
Sarah now works with disruptors. “Successful companies are now ‘fast’ rather than ‘big’ or ‘small’, size matters little if you can scale, and it’s technology that lets you scale,” she says. “When I started in London in the early-eighties, accessible technology was still in its infancy. We were anchored to desks with large PCs if we were lucky, we had secretaries if we were really lucky, and phones connected to walls with cables! So you actually had to have an office in a building. It was inevitable that our clients then were large companies, many leaders in their segments by definition. Much of our work was around changing strategy and the way they went to market. It was like turning proverbial tankers mid-ocean. We did it, but it took time.
“Technology has changed everything. I’m still in awe about what I can do because I can remember what it used to be liked!
“So being able to run a business from something as compact and as powerful as my Surface Pro 4 is just so cool! I can operate my business with clients from home or on the move. Its mobility is important because it lets me run my business on my terms, and means I strike the balance I seek in my life. I can work at home on product development, and meet with and engage with clients, with everything to hand.
“One thing about the Surface that I do love is the note-taking. I think and express myself with diagrams and hand-drawn schematics. Being able to do so with the stylus on the screen, and then to share and discuss new ideas with clients, is very powerful and very important and fundamental to how I work.”
Working with small businesses, and successfully growing and selling one of her own, gives Sarah Denby-Jones first-hand insights into what creating a business actually means. “It’s difficult to turn dreams into reality, and every business starts with a dream. Each entrepreneur’s path to success is different and you move along your path by learning as you go. I work with entrepreneurs who seek to create purposeful and profitable businesses. The passion and purpose will sustain you through the tough times and define your success, the profit is your reward.
Her one message for entrepreneurs is, “Leaning into your strengths is one of the most powerful things you can do, not least because you end up doing what you love, as well as playing to your skills.”
As to the future, Sarah sums it up this way: “I want to work with extraordinary people who want to put a dent in the universe, who believe they can do something different, however big or small.”
Contact Sarah Denby-Jones at online or find out more about Surface for SMB’s.
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