What is true is that no individual firm can hide behind an advertising campaign; remaining remote and untouchable anymore. The savvy buyer tends to go out in search of the truth, they use Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter and go search for anything you are considering purchasing and the advertising veneer comes off.

There is a massive difference between generating advertising imagery designed to build an interest and creating fake claims for your product that can never be reached. The world has been used to ad-men that make false claims about products and their capabilities. These are no longer acceptable in an interconnected world. Coke has always been the master of imagery and it it claimed that their advertising over the years has significantly impacted American culture; indeed it may have impacted world culture to some extent too, with the drink symbol being found even in the remotest parts of the world. Yet even one of its products “Vitaminwater” was recently involved in a controversy about misleading advertising claims. They have also reviewed their whole approach to digital based marketing when a campaign for another product through Facebook went off-track.

Every company will face challenges about their marketing approach from time to time what is key here is knowing what others are saying about your corporation and its products and responding appropriately. On the Internet it is possible to see the bare naked truth about everyone corporations and people alike. This should be no real surprise as once published on the web it tends to stay around for quite some time.

We live now in an era of increasing transparency. Information flows everywhere and at a faster speed than ever before. I know that as soon as I press “Publish” someone will read this article in New Zealand. The truth is there are no longer any barriers to the information we may use, true or not.

That in itself can be a challenge – lies tend to find a much wider audience than the truth. Anyone is prepared to believe a lie or controversy about a famous brand name, even if it is based on fantasy rather than the truth. Your buyer seeks the truth about your product or your business and using modern Internet tools they will find it, or at least a version they deem as true. We now live in a era where customers making false claims can be as damaging to a product as the advertisers doing it. It is up to the business to manage its online image and address that challenge.

Further reading:

* Closer to the Customer? Do we Really Understand their Needs?
* Does Business Require an Holistic Approach to Marketing?
* Relationship Based Business – How do you measure up?

Learning to delegate is a skill that every new manager must learn, and usually learn it fast. Yet all share one thing in common, they want to jump in and get the task completed, yet delegating correctly is actually better for the business unit, it develops the skills of the whole team and that is important for the success of the manager.

The art of delegation is largely about breaking each job into achievable tasks and entrusting that a group of competent individuals will be able to complete that assignment. Ultimately this depends on having a competent team involved in delivering the project at hand. In this context a project is defined as any block of work requiring more than a simple task to complete it. Projects can last anywhere between an hour and several months or years; typically they last several days and involve any business discipline, even those not typically associated with project work.

Delegation arguably requires a mutual level of understanding of all the things that need to be completed and when they should be completed. It can be postulated that delegation skills are rarely well understood, one of the problems being that an effective problem solver can be that they are ineffective at assigning responsibilities to members of a team that they now run. In part this is because they consider themselves as the only person capable of delivering results. Yet we all know that effective delegation helps reducing the process time and elicits collective brilliance from the team. This it can be seen the heart of the team functioning as a well oiled machine.

Letting go of the details can be a difficult thing for any person in a management position to do. It is all too easy to think that you are the only person that understands all of the details of the task at hand or perhaps it is the belief that no one else can do it as well as us. This, however, is the wrong approach. Asking assistance from others is not demonstrating a weakness, but instead it is a sign of confidence, strong management, and effective leadership. Yet many managers remember how effective they were at completing the task at hand and feel the need to jump right in, yet they should not – the task is one for their team to complete, not for themselves alone. In fact letting go of the details actually empowers the manager to take things to the next level; it is about leadership and gaining an understanding a bigger picture, which always empowers the manager.

As a manager it is important to establish a positive work environment where employees are not paralyzed by fear of failure, the effective manager must act a guide in moving projects forwards.

Further reading:

* Leadership and The Fine Art of Delegation
* Delegation: The Problem Solver Becoming The Manager
* The Effective Manager: Empowering Your Staff to Harness Their Strengths
* Delegating is Especially Difficult When Things Go Wrong
* Controlling The Success of The Delegated Task

Once you take on managerial responsibility it is necessary for someone else to be given the detailed elements and for you to move on to other responsibilities. Yet that in itself can be quite a challenge. In a recently published article (Leadership and The Fine Art of Delegation) I stated “The art of delegation is largely about breaking each and every job into workable components and entrusting that a group of competent individuals will be able to complete the work”

Letting go of the details can be a difficult thing for any boss to do. We often try to do everything because we think that we are the only person to understand the full scope of the problem. This largely is about having a team that is motivated and goal driven. Sure every team has its arguments and petty jealous challenges and the new manager is less likely to spot them than the seasoned one.

In “Delegation: The Problem Solver Becoming The Manager” – I observed that the problem solver has a serious challenge as a manager “because their normal mode of work is to identify solutions, then shift gear and fix the problems”. as a manager they have to trust others to solve the problem that they have identified, eventhough they can possibly solve the problem much faster by themselves than delegating the problem. Yet delving in rarely makes this individual an effective manager.

Actually this can be an opportunity to put into place the right frameworks to resolve problems, something that you wished were in place before becoming a manager. This is about putting in place effective procedures that lets everyone know what is happening at the same time. This framework is a part of the challenge of moving the whole business forwards. The effective manager should think about empowering their staff in order to harness their strengths so that they can become the new problem solvers.

From a management perspective in order to become a better manager this usually means increasing your skills as a leader, coach, teacher and most importantly, a motivator. Few problem solvers think about these aspects when they are solving problems, yet they are powerful tools in the hand of the problem solving manager. Ultimately the manager must takes on this responsibility on behalf of their team in order to improve their effectiveness. In addition they must know what their limits are, know when to say NO!

one of the key elements here is that we all have to learn how to communicate better. This is an ongoing challenge that we must regularly focus on. It is perhaps one of the reasons that drove me to join Toatmasters; the perennial challenge of improving how to communicate. I never considered myself a bad communicator yet I knew there were areas that I needed to improve in. In reality communications will be one of the biggest challenges of our lives.

In reality we have to let go of one set of detailed problems in order to understand a new set of problems. The details and the challenge do change – we enhance our own capabilities and we grow.

For me 2010 has been a real foundation year, a year that by itself will not look that great, yet a year that is the bedrock for future achievement. Did I become rich during this year? No, but I survived and have built a number of things which will be shaping the future for me and my family.  Just a few highlights that must be included are:

☺ Assisted my son in finalising and publishing his first novel

☺ Collected my on-line articles and compiled my own book

☺ Co-Founded a Social Media consultancy

☺Completed my Competent Communicator award at Toastmasters (started in 2009)

☺ Purchased a new home

I had hoped to add to that list other significant advances, yet they will have to wait for a future time (and I am passionate about many of these so I know they will ultimately succeed).

Currently I am passionate about leveraging my skills in global corporate consulting in order to assist small and mid-sized corporations succeed whether with their Social Media or marketing or through deployment of Business Intelligence solutions, or in the area of corporate risk. Whist at first these do seem to be diverse areas in which to be creating a consulting practice, yet they are linked.

Social Media is on the surface a marketing tool, yet in reality it is an holistic tool that has so many diverse uses. Customer services is an important aspect here, none the least because social media is a great tool for building trust. Whilst many aspects of Social Media cannot be measured in the true Business Intelligence style there is a specialist form of intelligence called social media intelligence and this is an area where I am able to assist my customers in building a listening post that acts as a foundation for their social presence.

Much of what we achieve is about helping others succeed. This is one of the reasons why I have spent much time with my son in assisting with publication of his first novel; eventually getting it self published. We have had many successes, but are still looking for a partner who can help us open further markets in the books world. An in respect of helping others succeed and seeking someone to act as a mentor for in order to assist them is achieving their own greatness.

We are always looking for new customers, so if you feel that we can assist you then please call on 289 296 4089 (new number) and we shall be pleased to assist, or send me an email.

We have a few more days till Christmas and the New Year will therefore be very soon after, but I would like to wish you all seasons greetings:

But I would like to leave you with a question – What does the future hold for you and in what way has 2010 been a superb foundation year for you? Please add your own comment here or answer the associated LinkedIn Question.

Also please note that I am looking to mentor 1 person during the course of 2011. Please email me any suitable candidates. My only stipulations are that they are in the same time zone (EST) and that they speak English as a first language. I wish this to be a Social Media focused mentoring effort, so I do anticipate communicating through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or another medium.

One of the major goals of this existing time is in the way IT departments advance any appreciation of the organisations they are an element of. Each part of the organisation should  be working together with other company departments in plotting a path through the difficulties the business may be facing. Within this context technology departments have got to emerge as they key internal strategic partner for change as opposed to a simple overhead or cost centre.

The known conditions that are a part of our current decline remains throughout most industrial sectors and corporations remain more severely challenged than at any moment since the depression of the 1930′s. To a sizable extent revenue development and reduction of costs have turned into key corporate priorities. For many it may be a pipe-dream to ever return to pre-2008 income and profit levels. The current vision for some organisations may now be modestly a case of developing product sales to a stage that a sustainable income is possible;  after that it may be possible to leverage this as the foundation for steady future advances.

IT executives ought to be securing a relationship with the corporate management, understanding the enterprise capabilities and possibly contributing assistance for crucial change programs which assist your firm to achieve its goals. Three of the priorities in this regard include:

* Knowing the enterprise
* Thinking strategically
* Taking action and being in charge of enterprise transformation initiatives

Knowing the business must be with reference to knowing the desired ambitions in addition to objectives for particular areas and identify methods through which technical solutions is able to help in answering enterprise troubles. Largely this is about automation of things which may otherwise take extensive manual labour to complete. One of the rewards here can be projects that utilize rapid deployment techniques; technology should be capable of quickly delivering answers. Your aspirations at this point needs to be focused on helping the organization with achieving all their aims and objectives, and not on specific technology goals.

Thinking strategically relates to developing a specific knowledge of the company, its ambitions and as a consequence implementing strategic system functions which assist in the achievement of these needs. It is not possible to take your eyes off a changing and developing big picture it is necessary to constantly reassess all projects against these changing goals. Yet at the same time any critical assessment must substitute the focus from IT as being a overhead to becoming a profit enhancing centre of distinction which makes the necessary contribution to the future outlook of the enterprise. The sum total change initiatives should focus on aiding the organisation to strengthen, and attain its objectives.

Responding to and leading corporate transformation initiatives is important since this is an area where IT has built a solid status during many years. Nevertheless what is distinctive at this point needs to be that improvement ought to be business motivated and definitely not technology driven. This represents a key improvement in thinking for a variety of technology management.

But of course the opposite of liking something is not represented in any way. Should we be able to dislike a post? Yet of course there is a little element of social responsibility that needs to happen here. Surely whether you like of dislike something said you should justify your stance or tell the person what you do not like. There is often value in criticising what a person has said – it assists them in learning and growing.

Perhaps the real point here is not disliking something but disagreeing with something said, after all this is merely one person’s opinion that is represented. This is always valid for a debate on any professional subject. The fact that two people can disagree on a specific point is not bad; it merely means there is no general acceptance of the issue at hand. Debate can be good and social media is a powerful place for discussions on any subject. This is one aspect that makes LinkedIn Answers such a powerful part of that network, because it is possible to ask a question in such a way that allows for debate to occur on the issue.

Toastmasters is a respected organisation that assist people through the challenge of public speaking. Part of that process is evaluation and when any person’s speech is being critiqued then both positive and negative points are viewed as a part of the learning process. Thus the speaker learns both what they have done well and what they have done poorly; this helps them through their next project.

Debates are better aired than allowed to fester.

—-

Peter Giblett’s new book “Is your Business Ready? For the Social Media Revolution” is now available on Amazon.

Despite the change to the mega corporation this rule is still an important aspect of marketing. It is perhaps even more important today than at any time in the past because it impacts products that we cannot yet purchase and can impact a prospects future buying behaviour. In the social media world this rule also applies. When the iPhone 4 was released it was only available within the USA, yet people in Canada, UK, France, and in other places wanted the product before it was available on the shelves in their local phone provider. This demand was fueled by Social Media and people’s ability to tell their friend’s around the world about this product through Facebook, Twitter etc.

Saying that in the social media world this rule still applies, it is crucial to understand there is one crucial advantage that can be leveraged, the ability to monitor what is said and reward people if appropriate. People trust their friends (whether off-line or on-line) the most; they even have a tendency to trust the word of a stranger on-line, when that voice seems both genuine and authoritative. What is said can impact future marketing plans for any product.

Most products do not achieve a viral global demand, yet social media is one of many methods by which we can get your message spread out to a wider audience than ever before. As a general rule when someone says something good about your brand then it is appropriate to thank them for their kind words. On some occasions a valuable reward may be appropriate; e.g. a discount airline ticket for a future flight. Generally though the simple thank you carries a lot of mileage; especially from a well respected, global, brand.

It is not just customers we need to thank. The online world is full of contributors and the independent review can become a superb sales asset provided it is timely and focused. The word of a well respected industry expert can be a powerful ally.

Finding these articles is a part of building a social media intelligence capability. With blogs of course the pertinent information can be hidden behind the headline. Most major corporations employ people to analyse press coverage, a natural extension to that role is to peek behind the covers of blog articles.

So far this article has looked at the positive aspects, yet in the real world we also know that people say bad things about us, or even worse take action with their feet. It is the corporation’s response to criticism and bad things that are said on-line that is perhaps more crucial. This is where a slick marketing response is probably the worst approach; it is better to have one of the product designers offer to help the customer. A simple apology often goes a long way, but frequently it is necessary to contact the customer outside of the social media channel in order to turn the situation around. This has the advantage of turning a potential critic into a loyal customer, because some mega-corporation took the time to resolve his specific issue. Remember we live in an increasingly cynical world.

Analysing social media activity about our brand or product should become part of our business intelligence capability. Yet analysing social media has a more personal side. If someone is talking about your product you should be prepared to open a dialogue with that person. They may assist indirectly in your on-line marketing efforts. Flattery will often get you everywhere with people, have the head of production talk to them rather than a marketing person. It is a case of appropriateness. Essentially it is important to create an ongoing relationship.

In this case moving the weekly status meeting from 4pm on Tuesday to 10am on Thursday allowed Alex to leave on-time every week and not miss large sections of his class. It also allowed others in the team to take part in the  the regular friendly football games that evening, boosting their fitness and energy levels.

Leadership is complex and naturally enough it is primarily focused on achieving corporate or business goals, yet often paying attention to the little things can make the important things run smoothly. These days most people are working extra hours and handling more tasks than ever before, but is this a reason for forgetting that people have personal lives and that time off recharges personal batteries.

Staff in the accounting and administration department for one company were forced to work compulsory overtime every weekend for one whole day in order to sort out the accounting mess that had arisen due to a business acquisition and procedural changes. This compulsory overtime lasted for a period of five months. By the end of the period every member of staff was complaining how drained they felt, some even stated that  working the extra day achieved nothing as their productivity was at an all-time low. Such actions may be necessary to solve a specific problem, the accounting consolidation, but there is no reason why the following year there also has to be a repeat performance, just to close the accounts at the year end.

In this case the right procedures needed to be in place to ensure that all the right steps were taken at the appropriate time. We know that there are more complex compliance and regulatory issues that must be managed for any business, but they need to be managed as a part of the normal everyday activities, whether that is by staff or through automated processes is an operation decision to be made. Key here is that doing the right thing at the right time often alleviates the need to clean up a mess later. Again a matter of training for those involved at the coal-face, but it is a question of leadership for the management team.

The key to achieving goals and visions is in managing them through small, yet achievable steps and celebrating each success along the way, as well as learning whatever lessons we can from both our failures and successes. Individual and personal goals, being achieved will help everyone move forward and that is important for the success of a team.

All goals are achievable provided everyone is motivated. Remembering back to our earlier school days obtaining a gold star was a matter of personal pride, particularly when it was on an achievement chart for everyone to see. We are all aware of the challenges facing our organisation. For those in a leading role it is important to both listen and take action when necessary. It is a series of small steps that can often make the difference, and as Neil Armstrong once said “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” What steps are you taking?

It is true that for whatever we post there is an element of broadcasting. That new blog post is posted with the intent that everyone interested in our products or services will see it and will be swayed by our viewpoint. We also tell our social media connections in order that we are able to share the knowledge and in itself spread the news. Normally the intent here is to be seen as a thought leader, indeed we are in the process of using the Internet to build influence, improve reputation and engender trust. That element of broadcasting is about ensuring that our message gets out to all that have an interest in the subject.

When we use Social Media to tell our connections about the post then secretly we have a desire to make the message viral; to have the key influencers across the planet sit up and take note. Yet that is also coupled with anxiety of what will happen as a result of the viral message and whether the business can cope with the subsequent order uplift. In reality we know that our message will only be read by a small percentage of those in our network. It is with that small percentage that we are looking to move from a broadcast to a dialogue. Some of our connections will also be kind enough to pass it on to their network, which will add importance to our message.

This is the true impact of social media and our network. We bring all the power of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, to bear in order to spread the word. Through the power of Social Media search the message can be seen by more than our direct network – it can be seen by those who have an immediate need, which can lead to new business connections and an uplift an sales. It is very much about building trust – place a good article, or video, and people will want to see more. When they see more and it all offers similar quality information they will start to trust you which will bring sales.

In addition to the things we post it is important that we are involved in the dialogue. This is the bigger picture. Jumping into the right conversation at the right time will also build trust. This however must add value and should never be taken as a platform to criticise our competitors product. Social Media is above all an ongoing conversation.

Remember that in society at large there is a level of mistrust, a cynicism that every message that put out  is a con designed to separate the fool from his money. We mistrust government and party politics in general. It is through our posts that we seek to differentiate ourselves from these layers in society. We post to blogs in order to demonstrate our openness and willingness to interact with the marketplace at large and be involved in the key debates in the industry. In order to do this we must also be willing to admit our mistakes or errors. In the digital world it is almost impossible to hide anything. Instead we have to realise that the web is a great connector and our openness is an asset for doing business.

“If driven by IT, the decision is more focused on operational and architectural considerations than business requirements.”

This is a comment that seems to have been doing the rounds recently in one form or another. Lets examine more closely to see who should be responsible for project decision making.

Actually the information technology department must always take into consideration a variety of views when making a decision to purchase any software; including:

◊ Business needs

◊ Business processes

◊ Functionality offered

◊ The technology architecture

◊ Cost

◊ ROI

When a decision is made entirely by the business community then this can lead to inconsistencies in the corporate architecture, which can increase operational costs, particularly in solutions where data integration is required, for example the BI solution.

Having worked on a large number of projects over the years there is one one consistent part of any successful project – the views of the business. The author has much experience delivering projects, on one occasion he worked on two simultaneous projects to deliver the same type of solution run at two different corporations having a similar technology architecture. The results of the selection process led to the selection of two different products, all because of the business focus of the selection process.

Tough times do call for strategic decision making, but that does need to be a balanced decision considering all of the factors involved. Purchasing of solutions is never simple, but too many companies fail to perform a comprehensive business process review – the make a sweeping assumption that they must replace their ailing ERP solution. All too often it is the business process itself that is broken, not the system that supports it. Simply replacing the system without fixing the business process will only give short term gratification, within five years that corporation will be changing systems yet again; more dissatisfied than ever before with the level of service offered by their IT department. Yet the basic problem is not an IT one.

Deployments should always be executed in the best interests of the business. The way to ensure this occurs is having business boards control the spending of project budgets. It is through the partnership of business and technology management that there is the right level of sponsorship and intervention. It is not about inter-departmental turf wars, but synergy and achieving broader business goals.

Inter-systems integration can often one of the greatest challenges faced for any specific deployment. Business intelligence is always a crucial factor to consider. BI solutions must be ongoing within any corporation; every new system brings new data, which is required to continue developing the analytical capabilities. Of course any business analytics capability must grow even if there are no new systems being added.

The net result of all this change should always be a leaner and more focused organisation that is able to make intelligent, fact based decisions across the business.