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The Landscape of Business Has Changed
A special yearly issue of Success Magazine called "The Selling Issue" quoted Scott DeGarmo,"The big money goes to those companies with superior marketing operations. Entrepreneurial companies of today must evolve from being sales oriented to being marketing oriented in order to now win the consumer."Let me explain why it's important to focus on marketing instead of selling. There was a time known as "the days of simple selling." The days of simple selling are generally considered the days before 1980 or, in some industries, before 1990. In this period of selling, it was a lot easier for a salesperson to go in and sell to a buyer. The reason was simply because the marketplace was a lot less crowded.For example, in 1980, if you wanted to buy a Ford pick-up truck, where did you go? You went to the dealership. This was the only way to see your choices and ask your questions. You couldn't go online or to Barnes & Noble and read

ou have the driver's attitude/ knowledge (Intellectual), the driver's physical skill/experience (Physiological) and the vehicle itself (Machine). To win at NASCAR, the driver must possess confidence in her abilities and strategy, she must have mastery of her vehicle and the vehicle must be perfectly tuned to the course.

Intellectual

Developing the confidence to win is the most challenging as it has the greatest number of variables. How does the driver feel today? Is she confident? How are her relationships? Does she have any dependencies? What does she fear? Does she buy into the strategy?

Physiological

Mastery of her vehicle is a function of training, practice, co

Can Ad Agency Creatives Refuse To Work On Certain Products?
So, you've beaten all the odds and you've gotten into advertising as a creative.Why even ask if ad agency creative can refuse certain projects? Why bring the party down? Because it's very important that you know...before you do.The first few weeks are exciting as you're toiling away on 'real' projects as opposed to the months you spent working on your portfolio. And you're thrilled to be working side by side with people who have names that you actually KNOW! It's a rush, no doubt.But suddenly a new creative brief comes up, or a new business pitch surfaces...and it's for CIGARETTES. Ewwew. Cigarettes. You know they harm people. You know what they do to unborn fetuses and to people breathing it in second hand.You don't want to work on it. Now the question is what do you do about it?Here's what usually happens...you can go to your Creative Director and take a firm stand and flat out refuse to work on those dread

This thought was triggered by an article in the February 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review entitled "Breakthrough Ideas for 2005". The article has a brief synopsis of 20 breakthrough ideas for 2005. One of those was subtitled "Seek Validity Not Reliability" and was written by Roger L. Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and director of the AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship.

Reliability versus Validity

In the above referenced article, the thrust was a challenge to corporations to balance the need for process-driven reliability with a quest for validity. Here is a key paragraph from the article, "Six Sigma, CRM, Sarbanes-Oxley, and most other corporate systems have one thing in common: They are reliability-oriented processes. They are intended to produce identical or consistent results under all circumstances, often by analyzing objective data from the past. For instance, a perfectly reliable poll would be able to produce the same result from ten random samples of voters. By contrast, a perfectly valid poll would be able to predict an election's winner." The article continues to illuminate the negative consequences of highly structured processes: loss of creativity/innovation. Here is a table from the article to add more clarity.

While the HBR article illustrates the negative impact of rigidly applied business processes, it does not provide a model to gauge the degree of structure to be applied for a specific business process. The purpose of this article is to provide such a model.

The NASCAR Perspective

Throughout my business education and career, I have tried to liken businesses and business processes to biological systems, thinking of organizations as organisms. Each organism has its own intellectual and physiological functions. This is the traditional model.

With this model, however, I have struggled with the questions of how much process to apply and to what functions? Instinctively, I understand that business processes are critical to success, regardless of the organization's maturity. They ensure efficiency and consistency. Unfortunately, the quest for reliable results through the application of highly structured business processes has a tendency to quash innovative thought.

I submit that "Excellent Companies" have evolved methods for balancing these competing, but essential components for success. They must sense that the traditional view of a corporation, as a "body corpus", is flawed.

The model I am proposing has an additional component: the machine. To put it in the context of NASCAR, you have the driver's attitude/ knowledge (Intellectual), the driver's physical skill/experience (Physiological) and the vehicle itself (Machine). To win at NASCAR, the driver must possess confidence in her abilities and strategy, she must have mastery of her vehicle and the vehicle must be perfectly tuned to the course.

Intellectual

Physiological

Mastery of her vehicle is a function of training, practice, coo

Become A Registered Nurse
Registered nurses play a significant role in promoting healthy lifestyles. They serve as educators for individuals, families, patients, and communities. To become a registered nurse, one should be capable of planning, assessing, evaluating, implementing, and co-coordinating total patient care. These nurses should be ready to work with people in a variety of areas such as hospitals, home health care agencies, clinics and offices of physicians, outpatient care centers, temporary help agencies, outpatient care centers, government agencies, schools, and nursing homes. Key components to become a registered nurse are experience and education; the job requires absolute dedication and patience. To become a registered nurse one should have a Bachelor of Nursing degree from an accredited institution.There are a number of educational programs available to become a registered nurse and an array of career opportunities open to gain experience. The m

CRM, Sarbanes-Oxley, and most other corporate systems have one thing in common: They are reliability-oriented processes. They are intended to produce identical or consistent results under all circumstances, often by analyzing objective data from the past. For instance, a perfectly reliable poll would be able to produce the same result from ten random samples of voters. By contrast, a perfectly valid poll would be able to predict an election's winner." The article continues to illuminate the negative consequences of highly structured processes: loss of creativity/innovation. Here is a table from the article to add more clarity.

The NASCAR Perspective

Intellectual

Physiological

Mastery of her vehicle is a function of training, practice, co

Music Vending Machines
Music vending machines are special vending machines that offer music in return to money. They belong to new generation vending machines. Music vending machines excite the music crazy crowd. They are at the beginning stage of their popularity. They motivate the music market with a new trend. Music vending machines help you listen to or purchase music on the road. They download music in digital format. Music vending machines offer a retail profit of 35%. Some machines offers opportunity to carry back the purchased music by copying the music in CDs or MP3. They also help to download the music to cell phones and iPods.Music vending machines are usually installed in pubs, stores, clubs, super markets, railway stations, universities, sub ways, gas stations etc, all over the country. They help to purchase the favorite song or piece of music, instead of buying the whole music CD. Music vending machines offer western music, pop songs, classica

>table from the article to add more clarity.

The NASCAR Perspective

Intellectual

Physiological

Mastery of her vehicle is a function of training, practice, co

Ten Steps to Build Your Business
There are many people who have become millionaires, because they knew what steps to take to build their business. They developed a system that would increase their customers and sales. Business building has to be systematic, and you must be able to duplicate the process. The following are ten steps that have proven successful:Step 1: Write down your goals. Every successful business person will tell you that you have to write down your goals and review them regularly. This is part of the “see it, and you can be it” process that is also called visualization. You must see where you want to go in order to get there.Step 2: Know your purpose—Know why you are doing what you do and what you expect to achieve.Step 3: Be sure that what you are doing gives you a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.Step 4: Know what motivates you. Donald Trump says that he is motivated by money, and that

how much process to apply and to what functions? Instinctively, I understand that business processes are critical to success, regardless of the organization's maturity. They ensure efficiency and consistency. Unfortunately, the quest for reliable results through the application of highly structured business processes has a tendency to quash innovative thought.

Intellectual

Physiological

Mastery of her vehicle is a function of training, practice, co

6 Secrets of Business Growth Success
The future of your business may become may depend on 6 little growth secrets that many businesses have used in the past though not in a matter that creates rapid growth. So how do you create quicker revenue or profit growth with your business?The days of just helping your customers with solutions to their problems is becoming a redundant saying, it is almost a given. What if you could do something else that they would not expect? What if you could show them "The FUTURE of their business". How can you do that you say? Well there are 6 little steps that can assist you in doing this.Why are these steps important, bottom-line, they will make you MORE MONEY, more PROFIT and save you TIME. Nothing is more important than a business owner's time, just ASK them.Here they are:1. Understand new technologies and how they can simplify your business by creating reports that you can analyze. This is huge, and as software becomes m

Intellectual

Physiological

Mastery of her vehicle is a function of training, practice, coordination and endurance. She has to be familiar with the course, with the performance characteristics of her vehicle, with the track conditions. She has to be capable of executing the strategy on the track.

Machine

Finally, if she has the right mental state and the physical prowess to achieve the strategic objectives - her car must meet the minimum acceptable performance specifications in order for her to execute the strategy successfully.

The Process Matrix The purpose of this exercise is to identify which of the three aforementioned process areas require focus or review based on the maturity of your company and the respective industry. In the traditional model, the operational (Machine) and coordinating (Physiological) processes were treated similarly with maximum structure. The new model allows for a more moderate structuring of those processes that serve to coordinate the organization. This allows for human involvement. It is the freedom to alter intellectual and physiological business processes to accommodate exceptions that produces robust strategies, intimacy with customers, design excellence, creativity, jobs with meaning, corporate social responsibility and ultimately successful companies. Here is an illustration of the process matrix.

Type I Company (new company in new industry)

This company should focus on the Physiological and Machine processes. The industry is new, so the idea was freshly conceived. Now is the time to focus on execution. However, the intellectual processes (e.g. SWOT analysis, Short Term Strategy, Long Term Strategy, etc.) should be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that you are on course.

Type II Company (new company in mature industry)

This company should focus on the Intellectual and Physiological processes. The industry, and therefore the "Machine", has been around. The operational characteristics of this industry are widely known and perfected. Your competitive advantage will come from thinking differently and refining your company's coordination (how you control the machine).

Type III Company (mature company in new industry)

This company should focus on Intellectual and Machine processes. The industry may be new, but a mature company may need to alter its thinking to compete in this new space. It will also need to define core machine processes like production, shipping, delivery, order processing, etc. The maturity of the company is an indication that it has decent Physiological processes (e.g. sales training, employee reviews, logistics, goal setting, communications, prioritization systems, compensation system

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Added for You - Business Process: A NASCAR Perspective

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