Sqwawqs Issue 5 Apr2018

sqwawqs business life

written by entrepreneurs, for everyone

Improvement

Why the Most Impactful Leaders are Courageous 3 Tips from Warren Buffett on Becoming a Better Person Knowing You, Knowing Me! Why Self-Awareness is Critical to Any Success Looking to Improve? An Honest Look at Your Strengths & Weaknesses is Critical

Why Wikipedia Founder

JIMMY WALES

+

is the Good Guy of Tech Strategy

From the Family Room to The Board Room Scared of Change? Get Over it Already The Networking Disaster

Social & Marketing

How Social Media Has Changed Marketing Snapchat Faces Massive Backlash After App Redesign How Tesla Allocates its $0 Marketing Budget

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sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to Issue 5 Much has been vaunted in the media recently about how the leadership culture in tech businesses needs to be upheaved.

Whilst I agree, it is also important to have a balanced and impartial media, that reports in scale. The leadership culture in tech issue is just one example of how the media as a whole have jumped on a story and effectively bled it to death. Yes it is a story that needs to be told, but a media that herds the same stories like sheep is no good for anyone. Even traditionally highly respected news sources have effectively gone tabloid, ambulance chasing sensationalist headline stories that are all about gaining clicks or eyeballs.

Fortunately there are those in media that still command respect. Jimmy Wales is one of those. Wikipedia is familiar to all. No pay wall, no click ads, no popups. The open source platform has stayed true to its V1.0 goal, in being an unbiased encyclopaedic news source that anyone can contribute to. In this issue, Jimmy chats to Danny Fortson about his career.

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Most people involved in business at any scale are well aware of the value of self awareness and improvement.

We take a look at various angles of what you could be thinking about or doing, to allow yourself a better perspective and outlook, not least including tips from investment guru Warren Buffet.

Technology is changing the ways we do things, it is also changing the way we can strategise our business.

Amongst our tech and social media articles this month, we look at how Tesla has created a brand on everyones lips, without spending a dollar on traditional bricks and mortar media, an astonishing feat when we consider the automotive industry as one of the most competitive in the world.

We also take a look on what has happened in the automotive selling space and how this is ripe for upheavel. What do you do when all your competitors are using the same platforms to advertise, when there are no apparant alternatives? Ripe for 'disruption', but where to go?

Wishing you all a great month.

Best Regards Dean O’Grady Managing Editor

PUBLISHER

Onside Partners www.onsidepartners.com

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor: Dean O’Grady Phone: +1 646 593 8887 Email: cs@sqwawqs.com

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

Danny Fortson, Carl Schramm, Aki Ranin, Azeem Azhar, Phil R, John Jantsch, Santiago Iniguez, Amir Feizpour, Molly Moseley, Yuval Atsmon, Michael Albert Brown, Aiden McCullen, Oliver Yarborough, Dean O’Grady, Palak mazumdar, Frank V Martone, Deborah Weinswig, Andre Garcia Ferreira Pinto, Michael Truschler, Vinny O’Brien, Simon St Laurent, Andrew Keen, David Katz.

ADVERTISING & MARKETING Phone: +1 646 593 8887 Email: cs@sqwawqs.com

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COPYRIGHT

All material appearing in Sqwawqs Magazine is copyright unless otherwise stated or it may rest with the provider of the supplied material. Sqwawqs Magazine takes all care to ensure information is correct at time of publishing, but the publisher accepts no responsibility or liability for the accuracy of any information contained in either text or advertisements. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

Contents Why Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is the good guy of tech 05 Why the Most Impactful Leaders are Courageous

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3 Tips from Warren Buffett on Becoming a Better Person

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Knowing You, Knowing Me! Why Self-Awareness is Critical to Any Success 16 Looking to Improve? An Honest Look at Your Strengths & Weaknesses is Critical 21

05

13

21

From the Family Room to the Board Room

24

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How do I speak up at work? 28 Scared of Change? Get Over It Already

32

The networking disaster that forever changed how we build relationships 36 In the Digital Age, Do More by Saying Less

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Contents Is The Rise of AI And Automation Putting A Premium On Creative/Human Skill Building?

44 Theranos - Will VC Change Following SEC Charges?

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eCommerce strategy does not exist. 16 things I learned at 2 conferences this week 52 Return Policies & the Retail Apocalypse

58

How to Avoid the Hidden Costs of the Best CRMs

62

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47

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77

How Social Media Has Changed Marketing

67

Snapchat faces massive backlash after app redesign

70

How Tesla Allocates its $0 Marketing Budget

73

Digital Transformation: Start At The Beginning Keeping the End in Mind 77 Is a Shakeup Imminent in the Automotive Digital Marketing Space? 82

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Why Wikipedia founder

Jimmy Wales

is the good guy of tech

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Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales

It’s almost impossible to imagine life without Wikipedia — but while other internet titans have made billions, Jimmy Wales’ online encyclopedia remains resolutely not-for-profit.

Richard Godwin meets the good guy of tech.

Jimmy Donal Wales, born 7 August, 1966 in Huntsville, Alabama, also known as Jimbo Wales, is an American internet entrepreneur.

He is the co-founder of Wikipedia, an online non-profit encyclopedia, and the for-profit web hosting company, Wikia.

I cribbed that from Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia page — I’m sure he won’t mind. Wales is unusual among founders of unfathomably popular websites (Wikipedia is the fifth most visited on the web) in that he is a) incredibly nice, b) not a billionaire, and c) presides over a website that doesn’t produce paroxysms of disgust and derision whenever you mention it. ‘We make the internet not suck,’ is how he likes to put it. Those three qualities might be linked, you see.

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While the open-source, community-created encyclopedia that he launched in 2001 has its faults, it is open about them. ‘When most websites talk about community, they just mean the general public,’ he tells me, while busying himself with a plate of eggs and avocado. ‘With Wikipedia, the community actually know each other: they get in fights, they make up, they keep each other in check in a kind and thoughtful way over a long period of time. It requires a lot of nurturing. And it requires that you forget about the way you’re supposed to build a website.’

So it is not perfect, but it works. He cites one particular example that always makes him laugh, which is that the Wikipedia entry for ‘poor Jemima Goldsmith’ features a supremely unflattering picture for someone so glamorous. ‘She just thinks it’s funny. I keep telling her, just give us another photo.’

cont >

W

e’re talking over breakfast at The Ivy Kensington Brasserie, not far from the Notting Hill home Wales shares with his wife, Kate Garvey, and their two daughters, four and six. Garvey used to be Tony Blair’s diary manager and now runs Project Everyone, a campaign to promote the UN Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals), with Richard Curtis. Wales has described his wife as ‘the most connected woman in London,’ and that was certainly the impression you might have had from their 2012 wedding. Alastair Campbell played the bagpipes, the Blairs, David Miliband, Lord Adonis, Mick Hucknall and Lily Cole were guests, as was another Siliconminster power couple: Steve Hilton (David Cameron’s former advisor) and Rachel Whetstone (currently vicepresident of communications at Facebook, who formerly held senior lobbyist roles with Uber and Google). Wales likes to cook, and they regularly hold dinner parties.

Indeed, Wales and Garvey are so at home among the international elite; they met at the Piano Bar at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It remains a romantic place for them both.

‘Now we stay in the same room in the same hotel every year — it’s like coming home,’ Wales says between forkfuls. (The eggs are

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Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales

‘unexpectedly delicious!’ he exclaims.) His voice is less Alabama and more business American with a few Anglicisms thrown in. He’s forthright and funny, a little rough around the edges, like Wikipedia, but this is part of the charm. And no, the other tech CEOs don’t tease him about not being a billionaire. (An old section of his Wikipedia page, since revised, pinned his fortune at less than $1 million.)

‘Launching Wikipedia with no ads, no paywall, was a series of bad business decisions, but that’s how I’ve built my career so far,’ he smiles. ‘I said that to [Google co-founder] Larry Page, and he just laughed and said, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”’

cont >

Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales

Wales is freshly back from Davos, where he spoke about his new site, WikiTribune, which he hopes will harness Wikipedian principles of transparency, community and neutrality for the era of misinformation and alternative facts. ‘I had a stomach bug for the first days, so it was kind of grim,’ he says of this year’s conference. ‘And then the President spoke, and we all had stomach aches. Ha ha…’

start,’ he says.

Since Trump’s election, the public mood has turned against the tech giants: Esquire recently characterized the ‘big four’ tech companies (Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple) as a ‘tax-avoiding, job-killing, soulsucking machine.’ Wales doesn’t appear to disagree with that characterization but isn’t sure what to do about it. He isn’t necessarily in favor of breaking down the n the event, Donald Trump didn’t monopolies. ‘I’m not sure what that means,’ declare nuclear war or call he says. ‘But never mind what I think ought anyone a pussy. ‘He stuck to the to happen, they are under a lot of pressure, script and didn’t say anything and there’s going to be a lot of hard public new. Here are his positions, you policy questions around this.’ He notes can agree with some and disagree that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with others. If he behaved like becoming President ‘might not be a bad that all the time, it would be idea, by the way, if we’re going to have a significantly less frightening.’ billionaire president’.

I

It was the rise of Trump — as well as Brexit — that prompted the launch of WikiTribune in October. Wales is concerned about the collapse of local journalism and a click-based online advertising model which results in stories going unreported.

‘In the past, if you were a boat manufacturer and you wanted to sell boats you’d say: “Well, who buys boats?” It’s men in their early 50s who are having a midlife crisis. So you’d work out what publications we read.

But now they can just follow that demographic around the internet. I can be on the spammiest website or message board, and I see boats. That means quality newspapers aren’t just competing with each other, they’re competing with everything.’

The idea of WikiTribune is to allow a Wikipedian ‘community’ worldwide to suggest stories, collate information, crunch data, write and edit articles. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, he has taken on ten journalists full-time. ‘It’s a

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cont >

Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales

founder Rohan Silva left No10 (that’s David Cameron’s former tech advisor, now an Evening Standard columnist).

He believes Government debates about removal of encryption are ‘insane’: ‘It’s the dumbest thing ever. It makes zero sense.

It’s an incredibly important barrier against cybercrime. The truth is, they had a brief golden era when they could spy on everyone they wanted — and now it’s become What?! I say. That’s a terrible idea. Awkward significantly harder again.’ laughter from Wales. You’ve probably met him a bunch of times, right? ‘I have. He’s a Overall, he sees plenty of reasons to be very sweet guy. But anyway, he’d be a better cheerful. He struggles with smartphone President than Trump — I’m not exactly addiction — who doesn’t? — but sees an going out on a limb there.’ elegant solution in Arianna Huffington’s new app, Thrive, which limits your usage. ‘I Wales has now been in London for about think I need to download that and try it. And seven or eight years and will be eligible for I’m thinking about going on to Twitter and a British passport next year — ‘just when it just unfollowing everyone. And completely will become useless because of Brexit!’ And rebooting.’ Lately, he’s been finding solace he feels very much at home here. Indeed, it in Instagram. ‘You never get sucked into a all seems very cozy, this tech-politics love-in. black hole. It’s just pictures. Friends. Kids.

Are people right to be suspicious of this?

It’s nice.’

He laughs. ‘I’m not really on the inside of lots of things, but I do know all these people.

Often, people have some kind of conspiracy mindset about the elite. They literally have no idea how incompetent we all are.’ Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Wales puts in a word for Jeremy Corbyn. ‘Whatever you may think of him — and I’m not a fan, I’ve never bumped into him at a dinner party in London — he is not part of a Westminster bubble.’

Neither, he points out, is Theresa May. But he suggests that the fact that members of opposing parties might occasionally meet over dinner isn’t such a bad thing. ‘There is a Westminster set, people who know each other socially and so on — and that helps with a bipartisan approach. It’s not as completely broken down as it is in the US.’ Regulating the sector, he says, is ‘an ongoing problem.’ He feels that things went downhill in this country when Second Home co-

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And perhaps you have to see the best side of people in his business. ‘What is interesting is that in 2017 there was the lowest percentage of people in poverty in history. The lowest infant mortality rate in history. It was by a lot of measures the greatest year in history.

I’ve been as guilty as anyone of saying the world is doomed. But it’s not all bad.’

Richard Godwin Writer & Journalist London, United Kingdom.

I am an experienced and versatile feature writer/ columnist for the Times, Guardian, ES, Vogue, Men's Health, Mr Porter, and many others.

Why the Most Impactful Leaders are Courageous

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Why The Most Impactful Leaders are Courageous

When in Rome for Spring Break recently, I was speaking with a friend over dinner about how we've both benefited tremendously from taking risks since our times in high school in Southern California.

For me, I took a risk in studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland this semester while completing majors in engineering and business at UC Berkeley. It was challenging, but the experience of living somewhere new and being a participant in a completely new culture took courage.

Once I begin speaking, locals know I'm not from there. However, this courage has allowed me to grow personally and become a more tolerant and understanding individual. I know I will treasure my time in Ireland for a long time.

For you, taking a risk could manifest very differently. Are you going to ask for help in a class when you're struggling? Will you attend university out of your hometown? Are you going to ask a Vice President in your company for some time to chat?

When faced with a risky situation, each person handles this differently.

Some people turn away. Some run towards the new, exciting situation.

Most people are somewhere on this spectrum.

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When I was interning at Apple last year, I wanted to learn as much as possible from the leaders running the company. I was eager to learn from them, and it was easy enough to send an email asking for time to chat, but I found it was much harder to ask the Vice President of the division in which I worked, when I needed to go up to her in person at her office.

I delayed this task of asking for a meeting for a week until I disregarded the fear and mustered up enough courage to just ask. The VP was very kind, and we had a wonderful conversation about being a leader at a tech company and her journey getting there.

Having the courage to step out of my comfort zone allowed me to meet someone new and keep learning.

Being courageous can help everyone experience new things, meet new people, and create opportunities that did not previously exist.

So, this got me thinking...

cont >

Why The Most Impactful Leaders are Courageous

How can being courageous benefit leaders?

A

leader drives a company or organization forward. My favorite leaders are innovative and inspirational. When leaders step out of their comfort zone to launch a new product category, create a new norm, or lead a global movement, attitudes can shift, and impact can be made. In light of the recent Parkland school shooting in Florida, I feel inspired to see another example of people with a passion coming together to make change in which they deeply believe.

As young people, it can be easy to think our voices don't matter on a national or global scale. However, I think that young people have a unique opportunity to develop a viewpoint on something that matters to them and this becomes particularly powerful when they have the courage to share their voices with the world.

It is easy to think that leaders are out there in the media, running the companies we admire, and that we are just living in their world. However, if you shift your mindset to believe that you can make a difference, your courage can impact others' lives and change the way they see the world.

So, I encourage those reading this article to see themselves as leaders and use their courage to positively impact their communities, organizations, and ultimately the world.

Mark Ansell M.E. & Business @ UC Berkeley | Apple & Microsoft PM Intern UC Berkeley College of Engineering Berkeley, California, US. Junior at UC Berkeley studying Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration, striving to use my experiences to positively impact my communities. Currently studying abroad at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, taking courses in Mechanical Engineering, Business, and Classics.

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3

Tips from

Warren Buffett

on Becoming a Better Person

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3 Tips from Warren Buffett

I recently took 20 Peking University students for a Q&A with Warren Buffett in Omaha. And I thought one of the most interesting parts was his comments on the importance of becoming the best version of yourself.

The discussion started with a question he put to the students. If you could invest in only one of your fellow classmates, who would you choose? If you could buy say 10% of the future earnings of just one classmate, who would you choose? What would you look for?

It's a pretty fun question to think about. Would you choose the person with the highest IQ? The person with the highest grades? The person with really successful parents?

His point was that you would probably not look at such things. You would think about personal qualities. Who is the hardest working student? Who is the one with the best daily habits? Who is the person that everyone wants to work with? His mentioned that you might look for the person who was the most effective. But the point is that the decision would mostly be about personal qualities, not business metrics or test scores.

He went on to talk at length about how you want to become the person that other people would choose. You want to become the best version of yourself, over time. I came away with three sort of lessons/tips on this.

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Tip 1:

Ask yourself "would this person hire me?"

He spoke about his friend Tom Murphy, a Berkshire board member who used to be Chairman and CEO of Capital Cities. He said Tom is someone that virtually everyone likes.

And he is someone Warren said he would basically do anything for. He said Tom is someone that just turns people on.

So how does Tom do this? Why is he so well liked by everyone? It wasn't that clear from his comments. But my take-away was that Tom excels at getting the best out of other people.

Myself, I am not naturally good at this. I tend to be inward focused. But Warren mentioned one trick is to ask yourself "would this person hire me?" I have been trying this for the past week, and I find it does work. In any conversation, it keeps me thinking about how the other person perceives me and if I am helping them. Have I brought out something positive in them? Am I being helpful? Am I acting in a way such that they would be happy to have me on their team or project?

I really liked Warren's point that you want to try and be the person that everyone in class would invest in. And you always want to try to be moving in that direction.

cont >

3 Tips from Warren Buffett

Tip 2: Don’t be someone that turns people off.

Tip 3: You can get there step-by-step.

Buffett raised another interesting question which was: Which one of your classmates would you sell short? That is pretty funny and a great question. He said you would probably sell short the person that turns you and other people off.

He made the point that these are all things you can choose to be in life. They are actually under your control and are not that hard to change. You can be the jerk. Or you be fair. You can be short with people. Or you can be patient. And so on.

These are all qualities you can develop.

And you can also easily avoid the qualities and habits that turn people off.

Of course, as soon as he said this, everyone (including myself) immediately wondered "is it me?". And I also immediately thought of a couple of things I do that probably do turn people off.

The take-away here is maybe you aren't the person everyone would invest in.

But you can definitely avoid being the person people would short. And that is a great question to ask: are you turning people off? With a couple of habits? A lot? A little?

Fortunately, avoiding this is actually pretty easy to do. It's just a matter of not doing certain things. I made a list of things to stop doing on the plane out of Omaha.

He recommended that you start with one habit to change. Just pick one thing, like being more charitable or patient. And the nice part is that the things that you do for others will come back to you. If you put something out like charity and affection, it will come back to you much more. So it's almost naturally easy to change with that sort of feedback.

Finally, he also mentioned you should hold yourself to "high but not impossible standards". Don͛'t try to be perfect. Just keep aiming toward the person you want to be. Basically, he says human behavior is not complicated.

Jeffrey Towson Professor of Investment at Peking University, Author & Keynote Speaker Guanghua School of Management, Peking University Beijing, China I am a private equity investor/advisor, a Peking University professor, speaker, and author. My research is on Chinese consumers and digital China. My latest books are the One Hour China Book, the One Hour China Contrarian Book and the One Hour China Consumer Book. All were (are) Amazon best-sellers. You can find free chapters and my monthly "Recommended China Reading" email list at www.

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jefftowson.com. My investment and advisory work is in healthcare, primarily in the US and China / Asia but also globally. I was previously Head of Direct Investments for Middle East North Africa and Asia Pacific for Prince Waleed, nicknamed by Time magazine the “Arabian Warren Buffett” and arguably the world’s first private global investor. I live in Beijing and New York and am a former caffeine addict.

Knowing You, Knowing Me!

Why Self-Awareness is Critical to

Any Success

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Knowing You, Knowing Me!

‘How well do you really know yourself?’ A hugely significant 95% of us think that we’re self-aware, but the reality bears a stark contrast with 10% to 15% actually knowing who we really are (Eurich 2017). Although we believe that we know the image we see starting back at us from the mirror, the way we position our story on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat, what our co-workers and friends think of us, in reality we spend very little time actually reflecting on who we are or asking people for honest opinions about the impact we’re having on them.

Self-awareness isn’t a new concept – another faddy notion claiming to be the route of all happiness. Plato said, ‘Know thyself’ more than two thousand years ago.

Today, the understanding that knowing ourselves is the cornerstone to realizing our potential is backed by the experience of generations and robust scientific evidence.

In fact, as psychologists, we even believe that this skill is the foundation of human survival and advancement (Eurich 2017).

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t

Knowing You, Knowing Me!

Why Does Self-Awareness Matter?

T

he lack in self-insight that most of us unwittingly have, means we are wandering around with an equivalent of a blindfold on. We may be making it from one place to another, but along the way we’re bumping into things, stumbling over obstacles and taking a really inefficient route to our destination.

When it comes to behavior that means unintentionally annoying people and making a myriad of unnecessary mistakes along the way. On the other hand, taking that blind fold off would enable us to: Work out what we actually want from life - without working out what we want there is no way of getting closer to it.

Understand our strengths in order to start-making proper use of them.

Work on our weaknesses and at the very least mitigate the negative impact they have.

Having better self-insight also improves our social skills, decisionmaking capabilities, ability to deal with pressure, resolve conflict and deal with stress.

Given all of this, it’s unsurprising

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that knowing ourselves allows us to fulfill our potential. Indeed, eminent Psychologist Daniel Goleman explains that selfawareness is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence and success. In his book Emotional Intelligence, Goleman explains how in an organizational setting, once someone has an IQ of 120 or above, it’s emotional intelligence that becomes the most significant predictor of successful leaders.

And it’s not just soft skills that benefit, Dr. Richard Boyatzis a Professor of Organisational Behaviour looked at the profits produced by partners in a number of financial services companies measuring the four areas of emotional intelligence defined by Goleman. He found three of the facets had a massively significant effect on bottom-line results with good self-awareness adding 78 per cent to incremental profit.

Most importantly of all having good self-awareness allows us to thrive. Knowing how to operate at our optimum but also being tuned into our mental and physical needs allows us to know when we need to refuel our body and our mind – leading to better physical and mental health.

cont >

Knowing You, Knowing Me!

How Can You Improve Your SelfAwareness?

K

nowing how your brain works – it’s useful to first understand a bit more about how our brain works before delving into introspection. What’s normal and what’s not but also what’s helpful and what’s not. For example, if you approach self-reflection in a way that’s hyper-vigilant of everything that runs through your mind it will become counter-productive. When it comes to the brain analysis literally is paralysis.

Instead, try to be curious about yourself and your story but try not to ‘judge,’ just observe.

Asking people what they think – ask for feedback from people who know you well and who you trust. Ask them to help you think through ‘What is really important to me? What am I really good at? What makes me unique?’

Knowing about you – it may seem a bit counterintuitive to put this one last, but self-awareness is not purely about self-absorption, it is about knowing about our passions and feelings, but in terms of how they influence and are influenced by the context of the world we exist in. Ways in which to improve ‘internal self-awareness’ include:

Knowing about the world around you – a core component of self-awareness is understanding how our actions impact the world around us, not just looking inward. This is known as ‘external selfawareness’ and can be developed by: Being curious – observing how your actions change and impact things. Also, take note of how other people alter interpersonal dynamics. This is critical because external self-awareness is as important as internal self-awareness.

Knowing what you don’t know approaching a situation accepting of your own inexperience. Not presuming you know the answer, rather asking questions with an open mind and really considering the answers.

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Knowing You, Knowing Me!

Self-awareness and learning about who we are is a continual journey – although the very core of us remains stable throughout life, our preferences, strengths, goals, and passions modify and change as we grow and add to our story. If you make Keeping a journal – not only does the process of writing itself allow the time and the effort to pay attention to that journey, space for reflection, but also the capability it can and will lead you to a far more fulfilled life. to look back and learn from mistakes, at patterns of behavior and their outcomes, Defining You: Discover telling insights to capture what makes you happy and into your behavior, motives, and results what takes that away. to unlock your full potential by Fiona Making reflection a habit – this could Murden will be out in April 2018 (UK) and July 2018 (USA, Canada, Australia be in the form of a journal, or it could and rest of the world). To pre-order a be meditation, mindfulness, going for a walk or a run, saying a prayer – whatever copy go to amazon.co.uk, amazon.com or gives you the space to focus on what Waterstones. It will also be available in WHSmith's UK from April 2018. you’re feeling, how you are, what’s going on for you. Having the space to reflect The book gives you unique access to an on what makes us who we are, our own personal life story is crucial to raising self- online psychometric test providing a full personalized professional report. To awareness. read more by Fiona Murden go to www. fionamurden.com Writing lists or brainstorming - your strengths, weaknesses, what motivates you, what you stand for, what makes you happiest, what makes you mad.

Fiona Murden British Psychologist, performance coach, trusted advisor, keynote speaker, and author.

Aroka Ltd London, UK. A prominent expert on applied psychology Fiona has spent the past 18 years advising leaders of global organizations and ‘people of significant influence’ on how best to fulfill their own and others potential. She has authored a number of papers relating neuroscience and behavioral phenomena impacting leadership, decision making, and everyday life.

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Fiona is also a recognized authority on leadership assessment, unpicking what makes individuals and groups tick. She has advised corporate and organizational boards across the UK, USA, Europe, and Asia Pacific on the behavioral probabilities associated with leadership hires, how to mitigate any risks and the best ways to enable success. She is also a highly sought-after coach, working with a broad range of people from CEO’s and Sports Professionals to Professors and Medics.

Her speaking commitments take her into schools and universities and establishments as diverse as the Cabinet Office, Institute of Directors and the Royal College of Surgeons.

Looking to Improve?

An Honest Look at Your Strengths & Weaknesses is Critical

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n one form or another, throughout the course of our careers, we have all heard this question, “Do you know what your strengths and weaknesses are?” It really is the simplest of questions, but more often than not many of us hem and haw giving a few lame positives and then shuffle our feet as we rattle off some of our weak characteristics. Does this sound familiar?

Looking to Improve?

"Cultivate a deep understanding of yourself - not only what your strengths and weaknesses are but also how you learn, how you work with others, what your values are, and where you can make the greatest contribution. Because only when you operate from strengths can you achieve true excellence."

Throughout my time in the corporate world and now as a career and executive coach I have found that you can learn a lot about people when spending time reviewing strengths and weaknesses. We reveal a lot about our confidence level, the ability to be honest and candid along with demonstrating how willing we are to learn new skills and being open to improving.

The exercise often breaks down barriers and enables people to reveal things about A look at our strengths and weaknesses has themselves. It helps me learn so much more been the subject of many magazine articles, about my clients and then we can explore ways of adapting, refining, or altering their books, and courses. It has also generated current methods, should they want to.

100’s of quotes and been the basis of many motivational posters. Some are pretty More often than not, I need to reinforce straightforward like this one from Ming with clients that they should focus more on Tan: their strengths and not let weaknesses slow them down.

"Build on Your Strengths, Work on Your Weaknesses" To add a bit more to this subject, here is a While this one from Peter Drucker requires a bit more really good article written by Hyma Pillay that appeared on Leaderonomics.com. It’s reflection: called, Why It’s Important to Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses. In the article, she uses two very simple exercise tables that I think makes the process easy to follow. Ms. Pillay’s last sentence is one I believe in, too.

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cont >

Looking to Improve?

"There are a lot of wonderful things you can achieve if you know your true potential and the things you are capable of doing" So, how can you start to evaluate and look at your strengths and weaknesses?

There are many assessments you take to get feedback. I believe 360 reviews are a great way to learn what others may be thinking about your good qualities and ones that need improvement. It is important to approach these honestly and openly recognizing that candid feedback is critical.

A few weeks ago Forbes.com published this excellent summary of, The Best Tests to Help you Understand your Strengths and Weaknesses. It was compiled by the Forbes Coaches Council that is comprised of leading executive business coaches and career coaches. The article started with this statement:

Dean Karrell Career & Executive Coach, Instructor, Business Skills w\ Keynote Speaker Lynda.com New York, US. With more than three decades of senior sales management experience with some major global companies, I have been a dedicated and passionate leader for the 100's of colleagues I've worked with 23 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

"Understanding who you are as a person and the strength and weaknesses you possess can make it easier for you to identify the areas you need to work on to become a more effective leader."

They provided a list of 15 different tests ranging from Emotional Intelligence and DiSC to NeuroColor and Total SDI. My recommendation is to start with the first test they mention, and that is a personal SWOT analysis. It’s what I recommend to my clients, and it is something I utilize for my own personal development. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats review is very often used in business settings, too.

I have a number of courses available on LinkedIn Learning/Lynda.com. In one of the videos, I discuss the use of a "SWOT Analysis ". It is just a few minutes long so please give it a quick view. The focus is on a business situation, but I think it will help you see how a SWOT analysis can benefit you personally, too.

I believe it's well worth your investment in time and money to work with a coach to take one or more of these tests. You can also explore this with your company’s learning and development department who should be happy to assist you.

and counseled during that time. I'm a believer that by mastering the basic skills of business, including planning and preparation, a strong work ethic, and care for others we can differentiate ourselves from our peers and succeed in both our business and personal lives. Those skills combined with enhancing a colleague's confidence to enable them to fully maximize their potential are things I find most rewarding as a coach and a leader.

From the Family Room to the Board Room

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From Family Room to Board Room

I can't help but wonder what the world might look like today if all – not just half – of the world’s great minds over the centuries had been recognized and their full potential tapped. I think about illnesses that might now be distant memories, injustices that could have been avoided and great works of art that may have changed the world for the better. For all these reasons and more, I regard this year’s International Women’s Day’s theme, #PressforProgress, as a poignant reminder of the work still ahead of us to achieve gender equality.

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My own life has shown me that while capability and work ethic know no gender, opportunity absolutely does. I grew up in a large, traditional Italian family in a small town in West Virginia.

The men were entrepreneurial and ran various businesses. The women were the glue – nurturing, feeding and loving family and friends alike.

I was taught to have an open heart and an open mind, but also that there were boy jobs and girl jobs. It would have been unheard of, for instance, to expect the boys to cook or clean. Similarly, it would have been unfathomable to think that a woman would run one of our family’s businesses. Looking back, I realize that what you see is all you know and to think differently can be very isolating. There is no question that what I saw growing up had a significant impact on my drive to understand what didn’t make sense.

Even as a little girl, it bothered me to think I was predestined for certain types of work based on my gender.

Simply being born a boy served as an entitlement.

f

For years to come, I kept assuming that only big, tightly knit, ethnic families like mine held and acted upon these lopsided gender assumptions.

Then one day, soon after I started working at Mylan, 26 years ago, I attended a community event. I was so proud to tell whoever asked that I worked at Mylan (not a family business) until a man responded, “Oh, you must be a new secretary.” While true, I was heartbroken. His statement implied that I couldn't be anything more. At that moment early in my career, I realized that as in my personal life, I was going to have to work harder just for the potential to earn less.

Fortunately, I was curious and confident; I could look beyond what was and dream big. For this, I thank my mom and my dad. Both were instrumental in making me feel comfortable in my own skin. Both let me push myself beyond our family’s comfort zone and its gender-based roles. My parent’s example is why I firmly believe it’s not enough for just women to help women. We need our fathers, brothers, and sons to respect and empower women as equals if the world is to make any meaningful progress.

I notice the effects of stereotypical thinking every day in the business world. Many are obvious. When I became Mylan’s CEO, for instance, I was asked – by men and women

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From Family Room to Board Room

– how I intended to balance being a mom and an executive.

Seriously? What newly minted male CEO is ever asked that question? I decided right then that I had two choices. I could be frustrated by stereotypes, or I could #PressforProgress and try to figure out why they exist and how to change them. I chose the latter.

I started by considering my role as a mother. Science confirms my personal experience.

Consider this scenario: A middle-school girl takes a math test and does poorly. She immediately blames herself and believes she’s bad at math.

A middle-school boy who does poorly immediately decides it’s his teacher’s fault.

Such conclusions speak volumes about our educational system and affect the career paths girls and boys eventually choose.

Chances are good, for instance, that teachers and family will reinforce the schoolgirl’s conclusion. In response, she’ll focus on subjects she does well in, English and history perhaps.

That pattern will continue into college. She’ll major in social studies. Her reward will be a staff job. In contrast, the schoolboy will go on believing he’s great at everything. His teachers and family will concur.

All assume he’ll go to business school and land a line job, the corporate ladder’s true first rung.

cont >

From Family Room to Board Room

Yes, this scenario is oversimplified and stereotypical, but I’m guessing it rings true and illustrates my fundamental point about how assumptions about gender affect the world. Females make up half of its population. If capability and work ethic know no gender, you’d expect to see far more women in everything. That we don’t suggests a terrible squandering of opportunity. That we could suggests the need for more concerted action to rectify a very solvable problem.

The key is to capture the imagination of every mind, male and female, at every age, though the younger, the better. For we know confidence is gained or lost (disproportionately so for girls) at an early age, and we know that curiosity coaxes youngsters from their comfort zones. That’s why I believe we should help children figure out how to navigate against society’s norms and understand the paths to leadership positions. It’s the best way to break the traditions that bind.

Capturing imaginations is why I love challenging the status quo. In fact, anyone who knows me – family members, friends, co-workers and others – will tell you that I constantly challenge them, maybe to a fault. But I simply want to help them learn – as I have learned – that our only limitations are the ones we place upon ourselves.

My journey so far has been very rewarding personally and professionally. It hasn’t come easy or without its share of

disappointment. But I always remember that if you don't want to be criticized, don't do, say or be anything!

My “ask” of everyone reading this article is to look at those around you – particularly girls and women – with a fresh perspective. Is there something you can do to help them “figure it out” and reach their true potential? After all, no life’s outcome deserves to be determined by the gender lottery.

Heather Bresch CEO at Mylan and a champion for better health Mylan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. I'm the CEO of Mylan, one of the world's largest and most innovative pharmaceutical companies. I'm committed to transforming healthcare by challenging the status quo and providing 7 billion people - including you - access to high quality medicine. I'm also a fitness zealot, mother of four, closet chef and eternal optimist!

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How do

I speak up at work?

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How Do I Speak Up at Work?

A common question (especially from women and young professionals).

I get asked often: “How do you have, find, use your voice to stand out or make an impact and to shine a light on issues, like sexism, discrimination, and others?”

While there are consistent best practices in speaking up, the answer to this question can be affected depends greatly by the details: environment, dynamics of a group, confidence, experience and more. These questions often come from individuals (often women) trying to balance being seen as impactful business people while wanting to press for progress in areas of diversity. Here’s a recent example of a related question that came in through LinkedIn’s #YouAsked series:

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“I am a woman in a predominantly male industry. My new company claims they want me to speak up and call them out on their sexism. I've heard this before, and acting upon it has reaped negative reactions in the past. How do women earn respect [without] being labeled combative?” #YouAsked #Equality #MeToo - Laura Slocum, Software Engineer My answer: These are two separate, but related issues.

How Do I Speak Up at Work?

W

First

omen earning respect and not being labeled combative is a big one in and of itself. By definition, if you are being (perceived as) combative, either you believe you are fighting/pushing something that isn’t welcome or they/others feel what you are saying (or how you are saying it) is unwelcome.

Companies should have ‘respect’ as a value as to how people are treated, but on top of that, respect for one’s role, expertise and value is earned through experience, reputation and work over time. My shortest answer is — be authentic to you, the moment and the situation.

Act with deep care and clear perspective, and the positive intention should shine through in most scenarios.

H Second

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ow to bring up sexism as requested by the company without negative repercussions. The answer involves several dynamics: your delivery and timing (immediate, done with care, with a goal to correct), the offenders (overt and reckless vs ignorant and unintentional, tribal and rampant vs clearly isolated), recipients of the feedback (open, genuine desire to listen, learn and grow or not, power to affect change or not) and overall company culture (feedback and candor desired, welcomed, expected, overt mission to address that and like issues or widely permitted sexist behavior). Any change in one of these variables would affect my advice — but generally, even if these variables are negative, low or nonexistent, speak up with respect and with a heart to make a difference.

cont >

Y

You have to look yourself in the mirror each day. You don’t want to be a silent observer and certainly not an enabler of sexism. So that leads you to speaking up, even if your environment isn’t ‘ripe’ for it.

You can frame the feedback with a reminder of the request to be vocal: “I was just in a situation where I witnessed/heard/saw/ experienced exactly what you asked me to call out, and I would be failing the organization (and person, team, etc.) if I didn’t bring this to your attention." I love using that perspective: "I would be failing you if..." Share the facts and offer to be a part of the solution as appropriate.

A technique I use in any situation that feels sensitive in the moment is to ask myself, "when I look back in 2, 5, 10 years… how do I want to be able to describe how I handled this?"

I let that forward perspective guide my present courage — seems to work every time.

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How Do I Speak Up at Work?

Kat Cole COO and President, North America FOCUS Brands Atlanta, US. Executive Leader with broad experience in various stages of organizational growth, development, reorganization and transition, team leadership, culture & communications, conscious capitalism, multi-channel brand extensions, change management, food and retail marketing & operations, PR & media, strategic alliances & partnerships, consumer brand strategy and growth, domestic and international franchising, business and operating model pivots.

Business Advisor: High growth business strategies and teams, Multi-channel brand architecture, executive & professional presence, Bridging and integrating worlds of small/startup thinking and innovation and large, established corporate structures, Social Media strategies to grow business, building effective crosscultural and cross-generational teams and relationships, aligning communication, training, and incentives to drive business results, interpersonal skills to manage strategic implementation of difficult change. Speaker & Facilitator - Change Management, Innovation, Leadership Development, Business Integration (Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Model Transition, High Growth, Hyper Competitive Markets), Executive Presence, Diversifying Your Purpose Portfolio, International, and Domestic Culture Integration. Board Member Leadership, Trade Associations, Industry Groups and Non-Profit Organizations (UN, CGI, WEF//YGL, YPO, NRAEF, WFF, GRA).

Scared of Change?

Get Over It Already

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Scared of Change? Get Over It Already

What Oscar-nominated filmmaker Gigi Pritzker can teach executives about reinventing a company and powering forward

Recently I talked about the importance of speed in business. To stay competitive, an organization must fail fast and forward.

Its leaders also must be willing to rethink and challenge their company vision to keep ahead of emerging trends and business models.

Independent filmmaker and theater producer Gigi Pritzker is a perfect example of an executive who did just that.

In early 2017, Gigi knew she needed a new, bold vision for her 20-year-old media and entertainment company. One year earlier she had changed her company’s name from OddLot Entertainment to Madison Wells Media -- MWM, repositioning it for growth in not only films, TV and theatre, but AR/VR and cross-screen content development. Her first pivotal decision was to hire Clint Kisker, who became her co-founder in the new company and her critical partner on this journey.

Gigi named MWM after the Chicago street corner where her great-grandfather had sold newspapers as a 12-year-old boy to help his family make ends meet. The new name resonated strongly with her, but she knew she needed to do more to transform her company. She had to rethink everything: the business model, where entertainment was heading, the investment targets, and how MWM would integrate new technologies like augmented and virtual reality into traditional forms like TV, film and theatre where she had long-time success.

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cont >

Scared of Change? Get Over It Already

The good news is that Gigi and Clint were hungry to reinvent and challenge convention. They had done a lot of thinking about the future of the entertainment business and believed something really had to be changed to create a company that would flourish in an array of cross-platform offerings & with a new generation of creators. She and Clint had the exact mindset needed to radically change the vision of the company.

Over the course of eight weeks, my firm -- Eagle Vista Partners -- worked with Gigi, Clint, and their team to create their overall brand strategy and organizational design, that included a new brand identity and goto-market strategy for MWM. Additional outcomes later included a new logo design, new name articulation form, a new communications strategy, a new website design and a stronger approach to talent recruitment and development.

So that’s exactly what we did together.

How?

For starters, Gigi allowed herself as CEO to get uncomfortable and question everything about her business.

This is essential to rethinking a brand vision.

Second, Gigi and Clint made it a group effort by including the team in the entire process. Everyone was committed to shaping the vision of Madison Wells Media so that it stood for something powerful. They truly wanted to use the company to not only change the world of entertainment, but to tell stories across any screen, device or platform that would delight and entertain people.

Third, the team worked quickly and boldly. This was especially true when we dove into the Brand Blueprint, my proprietary method for designing the brand architecture and strategy, at a team off-site. Over the course of two days, we iterated and shaped the ideas that defined the company’s vision, values, spirit, action, behaviors, and business goals.

This acted as the foundation that informed the rest of our work together.

Four, we checked the company’s sacred cows at the door.

In order to rethink the company’s vision, the team had to let go of company norms and procedures that were no longer serving it.

Five, everyone got over their fears. When we first started the work together, people were really anxious and worried about making meaningful contributions and being heard. By the end, you could see that they had moved past it and were successfully contributing to the group.

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cont >

A

Scared of Change? Get Over It Already

A year later, the company has never been stronger, has grown in size and projects, and is well on its way-including four Oscar Nominations for their 2016 hit, Hell or High Water. MWM now defines itself as

“a diversified entertainment and media company focused on premium content in film, television, immersive media and entertainment.”

Fast Company named MWM one of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies.” MWM also formed an exclusive partnership with Sony Pictures to create original, standalone VR experiences related to Sony titles, including the film Passengers. Its production work with Jon Favreau – Gnomes & Goblins – will pioneer the world of VR at home and for children, and there is a new slate of films being planned and in production.

MWM is a true success story, and it will be thrilling to see where Gigi, Clint and the team take MWM in the years ahead.

Laura Desmond CEO focused on the convergence of Digital, Media, Marketing & Technology Eagle Vista Partners Chicago, US.

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The networking disaster that forever changed how we build relationships

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The Networking Disaster

Seven years ago our yearold company, YEC, was gaining traction as a valuable membership organization for under-45 founders of multi-million dollar businesses. And then, in a single afternoon, we almost completely screwed it up.

We had invited some Boston-based members to a “networking lunch” in a conference room at a member’s offices. It was the middle of summer, and we had ordered a big, heavy Italian buffet, set up in a generic conference room with stark walls, a conference table, and a white board in the corner — exactly the kind of soul-sucking environment that we all already spend too much time in. Attendance was embarrassingly spare — there were more YEC staff in the room than members. The run-of-the-mill “let’s go around the table and introduce ourselves” exercise took roughly five minutes per person because we had put absolutely no thought into the introduction process. Before long, people were checking their phones, staring out the window, and pushing congealed pasta around their plates.

We looked at each other with growing panic: it was painfully clear that we were destroying our growing reputation as community managers, and jeopardizing the future of our business.

In a desperate attempt to salvage the meetup, we asked them what they liked about YEC and what we could do to improve. They obliged with brutally honest feedback: If you want to compete for our attention, then offer us something remarkable.

cont >

d

The Networking Disaster

The Oasis Effect

D

on’t get us wrong — our “disastrous” event was probably no worse than 90% of the networking events you’ve ever attended. But that’s the point exactly: it just wasn’t memorable.

It taught us that creating remarkable, valuable experiences for all participants should be the goal of anyone curating an event. It doesn’t matter if you’re a CEO hosting a dinner for customers, a VP of sales who wants to motivate the team at a retreat, or the head of a local Chamber of Commerce running a monthly meeting — you’re wasting your participants’ time if you don’t plan, execute, and follow through in a way that makes people feel valued. We learned that the hard way, and those lessons have changed our perspective and helped us build a business that now creates communities for some of the biggest media companies and brands in the world.

Our first step after our big fail was to ask our members for feedback via an online survey. They told us they wanted to meet new people, that they craved unique experiences, and that they disliked too much structure. One of our members was painfully blunt: “Networking for networking’s sake is useless to me.” Ouch.

So we cultivated the art of listening, but instead of asking our members how we could make our organization better, we watched how they interacted on our forums and on social media so that we could anticipate their needs. What conferences were they attending?

What industries were they in? Where were they traveling? What kinds of experiences were they excited about? All of these data points factored into our event planning, and we became much more deliberate about the who, what, where, and when elements of our events. And that meant no more heavy Italian lunches in sterile conference rooms.

For instance, all of our events now take advantage of other people’s real estate in the form of existing conferences, such as SXSW in Austin or the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. By hosting special events at conferences, we get a great cross-section of local members and inbound travelers, creating the kind of collision that is unlikely to happen elsewhere. For example, we’ll hold a private event, such as a whiskey tasting with the goal of creating an oasis, away from the insanity of the huge event. The smaller, intimate setting gives people a way to meaningfully connect instead of being “networked to”.

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cont >

r

The Networking Disaster

Sweat the Small Stuff

R

emember the old adage “don’t sweat the small stuff”?

At our first event, not sweating the small stuff almost cost us our reputation. Now, we sweat the small stuff — and the most minute stuff — 24/7. By the time event day rolls around, we’ve done enough research so that we can achieve our most important goal: to vastly reduce the amount of friction between participants so that they can skip the small talk and start having interesting and fruitful conversations right away. Before every event, we ask each attendee to fill out a questionnaire. What are they hoping to gain? What are they working on right now? Is there a particular type of person they want to meet? Is there a special issue they are grappling with that they hope to resolve? We also let everyone know who else is coming by sending emails with every attendee’s name,

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headshot, and LinkedIn profile, a challenge they’re currently facing, along with a fun fact about them (e.g., he was the seventh-grade bubble-gum champ in northern Virginia!).

If we’re hosting a seated event, we seat people next to someone with common interests, and we add a little intrigue by telling them that the seating is purposeful, but encouraging them to find out why on their own. As for the “let’s go around the table and introduce ourselves” element that we let drag on at our first event — if we do it at all now, we tell people they have 30 seconds. At events that are less structured (and most of ours are), we put forethought into who should be introduced to who, and we make those introductions using simple trigger phrases to help people remember one another (i.e. “Ashley just published her first book.”)

cont >

o

The Networking Disaster

Goodnight is not Goodbye.

Our job doesn't end when our events do. After we say goodnight, we follow up with each participant, sending them another email with a series of questions: Did you get to meet everyone you wanted to? If not, can we make the intro now?

What worked? What didn’t? Okay, we did get something right at our first event — we did exactly this kind of follow up, and the responses smacked us up and set us on the right path.

Smart follow up is probably the most important — and neglected — element of group gatherings.

A good event leaves its participants charged up and ready to take action, but it’s only human nature for us to let our good intentions slide when we’re settled back into our daily routines.

By going the extra mile, we keep ourselves at the center of our participants’ networks, constantly adding water to the seeds that help long-term, meaningful relationships blossom.

Scott Gerber Builder of community-driven programs for media companies and global brands.

The Community Company New York, US. Scott Gerber is CEO of The Community Company, an organization that builds and manages communities for global brands and media companies. He is the founder of YEC, an invitation-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. He is an internationally syndicated columnist, author of Never Get a “Real” Job and co-author of Superconnector (Feb '18). Scott has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Fortune, TIME, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Reuters, Mashable, BBC, NPR, Forbes, The Daily Beast, CBS News, US News & World Report, Fox News, Inc. and Entrepreneur, and has been honored by NASDAQ and the White House.

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In the Digital Age, Do More by Saying Less

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In the Digital Age, Do More by Saying Less

Today we’re telling more complex stories than ever, in newer places, to people who have less time than ever to hear them. Every company must learn to adapt, including ours. At PwC, we are telling the story of a global, digital firm that provides a range of professional services to a broad variety of clients.

write a snappy tweet, however.

It means adjusting to new factors around the way we communicate and consume media coupled with what your audiences are seeking to consume.

We’ve done this by developing a focused strategy that celebrates our value, our sense of purpose and our unique, authentic point of view. It highlights a handful of interconnected areas that best illustrate both our rich legacy and our work helping clients prepare for the future.

We’re showcasing what we do best – helping our clients adapt to today’s business realities post-tax reform - in a new risk, regulatory and M&A environment. We are doing this in creative and cost-efficient If we always tried to communicate ways - advising them on the workforce of everything that makes our firm special, the future, on how to attract & retain the it would get complicated pretty fast. right talent - using the right digital tools in Transforming your communications a rapidly evolving business landscape that approach means more than just learning to is focused on the future.

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cont >

In the Digital Age, Do More by Saying Less

Our communications strategy is rooted in three key areas: Compelling storytelling: The news landscape is more crowded and noisy than ever. People are busy, and our attention spans are short. Breaking through means figuring out the essence of what matters -- not to you, but to your audience. Create a space for them to see themselves in the conversation. For communications professionals, this means learning how to focus your efforts and set priorities. More than anything, it requires you to know who you are and where you are placing your big bets.

Smart, targeted use of emerging communications channels: Driving a tailored and thoughtful social media strategy is key. It’s now where twothirds (67%) of Americans now get at least some of their news. Likewise, YouTube reaches more viewers than any cable channel. These channels are where business is happening. They present an unprecedented opportunity to connect one-to-one with your target audience members, making it all the more important that you are speaking their

Danny Maiello Commercial External Communications Leader PwC Washington D.C., US. Daniel Maiello leads Commercial External Communications at PwC. In this role, he oversees communications for the firm's Advisory, Assurance, and Tax lines and directs all external communications across the firm’s markets & sectors. Prior to joining PwC, he was an SVP & Senior Partner at FleishmanHillard where he led the integrated 43 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

language – whether it be written content, video, imagery, graphics or something else – and making the information available that they are looking for - and when they need it.

Highlighting our authentic purpose: Clients, employees and other key stakeholders want to connect with brands that stand for something. We live in an age of skepticism, and people now more than ever want to make genuine connections they can trust. Just like with people, this trust is built interaction-byinteraction, and can be damaged if every experience and touchpoint fails to deliver on the brand promise.

We’re in a media environment that is rapidly transforming, making it all the more important to reevaluate your brand communications approach with a fresh perspective. This means gaining simplicity and clarity around what your offering is, and learning how to do more by saying less.

brand marketing and corporate reputation practice in Washington, D.C. Before entering the public relations arena, Mr. Maiello worked for CNN for ten years, where he served as a senior producer for CNN’s domestic and international divisions.

There, he produced shows including “Inside Politics” and “The World Today”. In the latter part of his career at the network, Mr. Maiello was also in charge of CNN en Espanol’s (CNNE) Washington bureau where he served as senior producer overseeing production of all news stories, interviews and live coverage of events.

Is The Rise of AI And Automation Putting A Premium On Creative/Human Skill Building?

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AI & a Premium On Creative/Human Skill Building?

AI is everywhere, and there are many things to consider with how it will affect the future of work. This week our community looked at things in a different light by considering how AI and automation will impact creative and human skill building and what skills humans need to develop now to avoid getting swept up by AI.

P

rincipal Consultant Kathi Enderes kicked off the discussion by having people consider where they are on the AI spectrum of perspectives, ranging from doomsday pessimism to incredible optimism. From the feedback of community members, most people are towards the optimism end of things that AI and automation will free up humans to do interesting work and grow their skills in different areas. The question then is what work humans will be doing and what we need to learn and develop to be good at our future jobs.

the technology, AI will never be able to replicate human emotion, so there should always be a need for people to reach out and truly connect with customers and other humans in a way that robots just can’t do.

AI will definitely change the landscape of work, which means human need to build different skills. In the notso-distant future, people will be doing things they don’t do today, and machines will be doing things that humans typically do. We need to prepare now for that shift by expanding our human skills. The community listed a wide range of skills and capabilities that should be Much of the talk around the world developed, including concentration, and across industries is about the effective communication, and impact of AI and automation on jobs. problem definitions from Inside However, most everyone agreed that Sales Representative Carlos Diaz, instead of putting humans out of work, plus things like kindness, empathy, AI will create new jobs in different collaborative problem solving, and a areas. As Inside Sales Renewal growth mindset. As Regional Director Associate Kate Sotomayor said, AI Anshul Sonak said, technology is still technology and often has is revolutionary, but people are hardware problems, software issues, evolutionary. We can always change and other glitches that require human and adapt to find the best skills to interaction to check and fix. Beyond develop.

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T

hese skills will be built a number of ways.

Organizations need to realize the importance of them and work to develop those skills in their employees, especially in ways that help them work better with AI, but the ultimate responsibility of skill building comes down to the individual. If you want to be prepared for a future with more automation, you have to take control of your own skills and develop things that will set you apart and allow you to work better and above new technology.

Head of Consulting Amanda Allisey touched on skills that the next generation of workers will need in order to be successful. She suggested an approach that involves viewing jobs as “clusters” rather than specific careers and then training workers or encouraging them to learn new skills according to a cluster, which will allow

Jacob Morgan Keynote and TED Speaker, 3x Best-Selling Author, & Futurist.

Exploring the Future of Work & Employee Experience San Francisco, US. I'm a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and futurist who explores what the future of work is going to look like and how to create great experiences so that employees actually want to show up to work. I've written three best-selling books which are: The Employee Experience 46 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

AI & a Premium On Creative/Human Skill Building?

them to be more agile in their work.

The approaches to learning new skills and adapting will change based on the type of worker and the type of career.

HR Engagement Business Partner Deana Stevens shared her belief that AI will be more dominant in certain industries and less dominant in others, so a once-sizefits-all approach won’t work. Employees need to be aware of technology in their specific areas to know which human skills are the most important for them to develop.

Perhaps the conclusion of the discussion can best be summed up by Principal & Founder Ariana Smetana, who said that she doesn’t know for sure how new technology will displace jobs, but learning new skills can only enhance our work. If we prepare now and continue to build human skills and creativity, we will be prepared for the future no matter what happens to technology.

Advantage (2017), The Future of Work (2014), and The Collaborative Organization (2012). My work has been endorsed by the CEOs of Cisco, T-Mobile, SAP, Best Buy, Schneider Electric, Whirlpool, KPMG, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and many others.

I frequently speak at conferences and events all over the world on topics ranging from the future of work, employee experience, AI and automation, management and leadership, innovation, the internet of things, and other related themes. In addition I work with some organizations around thought leadership programs and advisory and frequently contribute to media and business publications such as Forbes, the WSJ, USA Today, INC Magazine, CNN, and many others.

Theranos - Will VC Change Following SEC Charges?

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Theranos - Will VC Change Following SEC Charges?

Those of you following any tech news will have read the major announcement by the SEC in March 2018, that charges Theranos, its founder/ CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and former President Ramesh Balwhani with "massive fraud." To quote:

“raising more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, yearslong fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business, and financial performance.�

While originally a darling of Silicon Valley and the media, Wall Street Journal's John Carreyrou exposed their fraud in 2015. This resulted in vehement denials from the company, threats of litigation, and vocal support from prominent valley investors such as Tim Draper. The announcement from the SEC vindicates Carreyrou, and highlights the value of high-quality investigative journalism, along with publications that stand by their staff, to society.

Holmes has been stripped of much of her stock, barred from serving as an officer of a public company for ten years, has to pay a $500,000 fine, and loses voting control of the company. Further, she cannot make 48 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

any profit from the company until over $750 million has been returned to defrauded investors and shareholders.

Holmes did not admit any wrongdoing and will not, from this complaint, face jailtime. Balwhani faces charges in federal court.

To summarize, for defrauding investors she will lose the financial benefit of that fraud, lose control of her company, pay a fine, but nothing more.

The SEC pursues civil actions, while the Department of Justice pursues criminal charges, so jail time is still possible for jeopardizing the health of millions of patients with under-performing bloodtests that informed diagnoses and treatments, among other things.

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Theranos - Will VC Change Following SEC Charges?

development of a product that will produce a solid company and return them 5 to 10x investment in 5 years, but a 'disruptive' technology that will 'change the world' and get them 100x return in 2 years. Investors need to realize that by funding the most fantastical and improbable, that the realistic and viable are often crowded out and never see the light of day. There's millions of dollars at stake here, with a bias to reward those who paint the rosiest picture despite reality, so it's no surprise that those willing to push the limits of truth are found in high numbers. This final point was addressed head-on by the SEC in their release:

“The Theranos story is an important lesson for Silicon Valley,” said Jina Choi, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office.

There's also no word on what this means for those directly impacted due to Theranos' “Innovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the aggressive legal tactics against those who raised the possibility of fraud. Tyler Schultz, truth about what their technology can do the original whistleblower on the company, today, not just what they hope it might do someday.” incurred over $400,000 in legal costs defending himself against what are now clearly valid claims of fraudulent behavior. If that wasn't a direct enough statement to Silicon Valley that they should be aware It's a clear message to any potential whistleblowers out there - keep your mouth that small startups seeking to "fake it 'til they make it" are not too small to be of shut if you don't want a lifetime of debt to notice, they also made sure to say: be the reward for your ethical behavior.

Hopefully, there is a civil suit coming from Mr. Schulz that results in the company fully “The charges against compensating him, and more, for these Theranos, Holmes, and actions.

I've been writing extensively on Theranos since 2016, mainly to use them as a clear example of how the system of venture capital is in many ways broken - that the entrepreneur community is responding to incentives from those with money, the VCs, to tell them what they want to hear in return for that funding. While there are many ethical and diligent VCs, there are those who do not rise to those standards and what they want to hear is not realistic 49 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

Balwani make clear that there is no exemption from the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws simply because a company is non-public, developmentstage, or the subject of exuberant media attention.” cont >

I

had hoped that the Theranos story would result, finally, in Venture Capital taking a long hard look at itself and reevaluating its model.

In Theranos they would realize that the "Move Fast and Break Things" model that seemed to work in social media just cannot be applied to hardware, and healthcare in particular. That they would realize that yes, they were responsible for providing the system of rewards, and failing to provide a system of checks, that would encourage those willing to represent where they might be able to eventually go, as where they actually are. Is the attraction of investing in the next Uber, with all the questionable legal activities too, now something to be carefully considered, or is it a "no-brainer"?

Sarah Cone of Social Impact Capital Tweeted what I feel was the most appropriate response I have read: I don’t need the companies I invest in to be perfect, but I do need them to be honest about where they are at.

Confusion in the deck between where the company could be and where it’s at

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Theranos - Will VC Change Following SEC Charges?

(happens often) gets an immediate pass.

I want to invest in founders that I know can fundamentally see reality.

Which is exactly the behavior any VC should always have exhibited, and I was very glad to see. If I were a Limited Partner, one of the people who puts money into a Venture Capital fund and expects returns, it's the ethical and pragmatic behavior that I would expect.

What about other investors? Maya Kosoff of Vanity Fair spoke to multiple investors for their reaction. Some blamed the company, investors, and board members for not doing their job.

One said that the temptations to cut corners and grow quickly were so large that may have led her astray, while another went further and explicitly said that investors were part of the problem. “I actually think that the V.C. business model has changed and encourages this type of behavior."

While these investors all seemed to say there was a problem at least somewhere in the system, not one went one the record and would be named. Even when there is a statement from the federal agency charged with overseeing investment that there has been massive fraud, a reporter can't get an investor to put their name behind a bland statement like "This is a terrible black-eye for the industry, and we should revisit our practices to ensure this never happens again".

Some were unhappy with the SEC action and were willing to put their name to that. Here's part of the reaction from Paul Kedrosky of SK Ventures, also on Twitter:

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Theranos - Will VC Change Following SEC Charges?

"Many of the things the SEC is whinging about in its complaint will seem painfully familiar to any longtime startup investor or founder - did that! did that! did that! -- and everyone forgets them if you go bust, or you get bought/big.

I'm no Theranos/Holmes fan, but if the SEC is going to start banging startups for hubris and for getting their promise cart before their product horse, well ... let's just hope Steve Cohen does something wrong and distracts the SEC from startups first."

Now I have to wonder that if the federal government came in and enforced massive legal penalties on what I consider "standard operating procedure" of my industry, I might start taking a long hard look at my industry practices before saying it's just "whinging".

Clearly, this behavior is so endemic in the industry that even an egregious example can't make some sit-up and say "Maybe we should review our practices?". Moreover, I wouldn't be sitting admitting that I or any of my investments had been repeatedly guilty of committing many of the acts that had just been found illegal!

Kedrosky makes valid points that investors have a burden of due diligence (more, it's a fiduciary duty to their Limited Partners) and if they didn't do that, then more fool them.

When pitching to investors in the past I have been prompted by them to increase my financial projections again and again until I literally told them "You know it's unrealistic, why are you telling me to say that?" and the answer was "It's not your job to tell me what's reasonable, I want to know what the biggest upside is, and then I'll decide". And they are right - it's up to them to do the due diligence, and decide the level of risk they are willing to take - but in part that due diligence depends on how much the startup is willing to 'exaggerate.'

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That "exaggeration" has been the norm for so long that it has moved from "painting the most positive picture facts allow" to "claiming what you wish were possible as the current baseline truth," and now it's simply accepted in the community. Like seeing an alcoholic waking after their latest blackout saying they'll never drink again, most sober people watching are skeptical.

It seems that, at least in private, the investment community knows something went badly wrong here, but are some convincing themselves this was a 'one-off' and return to their old ways the next time someone offers them a 'drink'?

And there is the problem - as long as there are "Ubers" out there, who, in the opinion of many, managed to use breaking the law to grow so quickly they could afford to fight the legal actions, there will be investors willing to put money in and turn a blind eye. Until there are criminal actions against board members, or VCs themselves, for failing in their fiduciary duty, I'm not sure there will be real significant reform. I hope I'm wrong.

Paul Reynolds Engineer, Entrepreneur, and Technology Commentator Seattle, US. A multi-disciplinary engineer, with over 20 years’ experience developing acoustic, sensor, actuator, MEMS, and wireless power devices, from paper concept through to large scale production. Recognized internationally as a leader in piezoelectric, electrostatic, and ultrasound/ acoustic systems. Capable of building and leading teams to tackle complex engineering tasks, while maintaining an understanding of both business and end-user needs.

Also a technology and business commentator with an occasional blog that covers the less glamorous side of the startup world.

E-Commerce strategy does not exist.

16 things I learned at two conferences this week.

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E-Commerce Strategy Does Not Exist

This week I spoke at two very different events in Dublin (DMX Dublin – Marketing Conference) and Retail Without Borders (Global Marketplace Conference London), and I thought it good to share my 16 observations with you.

01 02 03 02

There is no “strategy” for e-commerce. Consideration needs to be given to a roadmap and adoption of technology, but there is no strategy. Highlighted in part by the acquisition strategies adopted by @Amazon @Walmart @ebay and @Alibaba. They are buying new customers. Regular retailers cannot do this.

Tech has moved fast, but the human interaction or need for physical retailing still exists, albeit through better logistics planning. There is no end to end global solution to international e-commerce delivery. It does not exist.

The days of high double-digit growth for stand-alone websites are gone. There are exceptions @ASOS @Gymshark, but for the most, you need to now lean on global markets for considered growth.

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E-Commerce Strategy Does Not Exist

04 05 a

KPIs will need to change. Because of this slow down in growth, margin erosion is evident. Sales cycles are condensed to Black Friday, and no one is bucking the trend. Or trying to. Growth can therefore only come from expansion – new products, or new geographies.

Investment patterns in technology and business systems and processes will change. Highlighted in a brilliant interview with John Lewis CIO Andrew Murphy. Forget incremental updates; retailers need a total tech reset to survive. Note the word survive, not grow.

“We have to get real. We can’t continue to be seduced by the short term of what is theoretically possible. We have to step back and take a holistic view of the role tech plays for our customers. You have to integrate and make the whole larger than the sum of its parts.”

06 07 02

China is a brilliant, exciting and explosive market but it is exhausting and tough. @Josh Gardner, founder of Kung Fu Data, gave a brilliant insight into what it takes to trade on the main Chinese platforms. He went into great detail as to the level of manual, yes manual, work that you need to do just to play the game.

An example I can recall was within TMall (I think) when you get a customer service pre-sales question through a mini twitter style feed, you have nine seconds to answer, or the customer will bounce to the next best alternative. – nine seconds!!

Two years to break even in China. This is my estimation of how long it will take just to recoup your spend on breaking the Chinese market. Can you sustain it?

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E-Commerce Strategy Does Not Exist

08 09 10 11 02 12

Irish attitudes to marketplaces amongst retail are completely blinkered. We just do not get it. It will hurt us quicker than we think, but the time for planning is now.

Attitudes in general to marketplaces need to change. This is where people go to browse. Plain and simple.

New marketplaces have fresh views. It was so refreshing to see James Storie Pugh of NewEgg talk candidly and let people know that their platform was not for everyone, and also it is not a silver bullet. Marketplaces need to be a core part of a broader strategy, that comes from within the business. He went one step further and showed inventory gaps per category within their marketplace.

eCommerce as a word and expression should be banned and put to bed. IN order for strategies to be holistic and come from within the core of a business, we need to embrace it as a better way to do business – your customers are already there.

Cost reduction is the new sexy, shiny role that tech in e-commerce that people should be taken by the cahonies now. With margin reduction so difficult to avoid, start looking for ways to reduce your costs. You could do a lot worse than talking to @Bankhawk Analytics – watch these guys closely.

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E-Commerce Strategy Does Not Exist

13 14 15 02 16

Direct to consumer (D2C) needs marketplaces. FMCG companies trying to do this stand-alone and not part of a broader strategy, will struggle. AOV is too low, and the point or purchase or the decision point does not demand a “search for brand x, reveal product, look at shipping, deliver and wait” mentality. All that work and you didn’t go to Amazon fresh?

Channel selection is difficult. This will boil down to basics like, all our data is English, and we cannot afford translation yet – go to English speaking marketplaces. “We already sell on Amazon” – it is not the only game in town. What happens when your competitors are there too, and you have done nothing to reduce your dependency. Diversify your marketplace selection fast. First mover advantage and different customers exist on different marketplaces.

I know nothing about Africa. Mall for Africa is solving a lot of the problems from the tech side. And they set a perception of a thriving, vibrant and educated customer marketplace.

Brands and retailers are afraid. Evident in abundance that there is an abyss in terms of information asymmetry. Invert this by talking to people, engaging with agencies and companies and partners who can solve these problems for you – going solo is not the right approach for most businesses. I have never been more certain.

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E-Commerce Strategy Does Not Exist

The landscape for digitally selling your products (see what I did) or services has changed. The technology rate of change is rapidly increasing too. As Moore’s law taught us, that means the cost of it is reducing also. So don’t be afraid of tech, now is the time to evaluate your business, your capabilities, and your objectives and get tech embedded into your business.

Vinny O’Brien Consultant * Owner * Mentor * Lecturer * eCommerce Expert * Strategic Leader * Transformation & Process Specialist Thermo Tents Ltd, Dublin, Ireland.

I help companies design and execute their global e-commerce omnichannel strategies.

My experience is growing businesses operationally and functionally to deliver sustainable growth as part of overall e-commerce strategies. I have worked in various verticals including, automotive, fashion, hard goods & home. I have a strong operational focus with a view to always build with scale and sustainability.

I am a strong networker and try to make meaningful connections, and I try to facilitate new relationships for people within my network where I believe business can be done.

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Return Policies & the

Retail Apocalypse

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Return Policies & the Retail Apocalypse

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oys R Us is the latest victim in the retail apocalypse, but it will not be the last. The biggest challenge is not the Internet or Amazon; it is company policies and their enforcement that is killing retail. The death of retail has been slow and painful. It started long before Amazon was even in business, but it certainly is picking up in recent years, and it will be getting much worse. The same reason that killed so many retailers years ago is exactly what is killing them today. It starts with the CEO or, in some cases, the board of directors (yes I am thinking you, J.C. Penney). Poor decisions have a long tail that eventually kill the best companies. The challenge is at the time they make these decisions; they see the short-term benefits without noticing the long-term destruction. Often penny wise, pound foolish.

The most basic issue that penny pushers look at in most brands is returns. Have you ever returned an item a long time after purchase? I have. At least with LL Bean. I have purchased a lot from them over the years, and most of the time the quality was outstanding. On a few occasions the product failed, and I returned it. The most recent occurrence was last year. A back pack tore apart about a year after it was purchased. LL Bean was fantastic about it. Guess what I did? I purchased more from them. At the time the back pack was purchased, I knew we were paying a premium, but we were paying for the quality. We were paying for the guarantee. In fact, we bought two, and the other is still going strong (and so is the replacement). Now LL Bean, facing financial pressure, is changing their return policy. I get it. Some people have taken advantage of it. The problem is will people pay the premium for products in exchange for the more limited guarantee? I am guessing LL Bean will not be lowering prices for the change in policy. I know it will impact my decisions on future purchases.

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The Wall Street Journal featured a story about returns at Best Buy that may be eye-opening for many who have not worked in retail. For those that have, there will be no surprises. Best Buy, like many retailers, uses a service by a company called Retail Equation. The company is basically a data analysis company that tracks returns and scores them for fraud and abuse. I have witnessed this in use at a number of retailers, and it does not end well. I was at Best Buy when someone tried to return something and the response from the associate? The computer says no, so there is nothing I can do. Ever since that time it has me worried about making any purchase with the company.

I love electronics and have spent a lot of money over the years. In fact, for the past few years, I have been an Elite Plus member of the Best Buy rewards program. One of the perks of this rewards "status" level is a 45-day return window.

I will admit that I have utilized it. I have bought computers that I wanted to work out, but in the end, they did not, and I returned them. I have also bought open box items that I have tried out that did not work and were returned within that window. I am guessing I will not have that status anymore. The problem is not that the policy impacted me. I would hope 60 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

Return Policies & the Retail Apocalypse

Best Buy was smart enough to exclude customers with certain status. At the same time, it is not the WSJ article that will change my behavior. It is witnessing someone have trouble making a return. I would prefer it not to be me, so I will go elsewhere. A dumb move made by more retailers than any of you are aware. The retail experience is built on trust on the Consumer. Trust that they are getting it at a fair price. Trust that the retailer will be there if the product fails. Once trust is broken, it is almost impossible to get back.

Target has been trying to claw their way back in recent years. Many will trace their downfall to the security breach that impacted credit cards, but I will tell you it started long before that. It was also not the purchase of stores in Canada that they had to eventually close.

I personally feel it can be traced back to when they added food to their stores and lost their way with having soughtafter special goods, usually by designers.

They were symptoms of issues within the organization. Around the same time that they brought in food, they hardened their return policy limiting number of days and difficulty without a receipt.

They have improved it slightly since that time, but I know multiple people who had trouble with returns and never went back. This is the impact return policies often have. It is easy to blame the bad Customer, but it is not how the Customer sees it. My first job was with a retailer similar to Target. I remember people returning some of the craziest things, but we took it back. Eventually, that retailer did go out of business. Not long before it did, guess what they did? They tightened their return policy.

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Return Policies & the Retail Apocalypse

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I had a funny experience with Barnes & Noble a few years back. I purchased a number of games and did not open them. I decided I did not need them, so I went to return them. At the time I never returned an item to Barnes & Noble. It turns out their policy is 14 days with receipt you can make a return. I was just outside that window. Funny thing is if you have a gift receipt the policy is 60 days, so make sure you get a gift receipt with any purchase regardless if it is a gift or not. This is an example of inconsistencies with many return policies. At the time I asked to speak to a manager because the items were sealed and fully sell-able condition.

I was told given the typical blow offs that employees have used for years, including severe attitude. I did email the companies CEO. I had a nice dialogue with the corporate office. Of course, their return policy was more designed for books not items like toys and games. They did take the items back and

were very courteous. It is sad that their policy is still the same and I would bet others would not take time to email the CEO. Instead, they would never go back.

This is the story of retail executives killing their own companies. We see it every day, and it is not something that is new. You can look at numerous retailers that have closed over the past 50 years and find the same pattern.

Retail is not difficult, but it all starts with trust. Or ends through the lack of trust. If you are a retail executive, always remember it is better to have them in your store spending money then sending them away angry. This is not brain surgery.

I am sad to see Toys R Us go. I hope someone decides to buy the brand, but like so many retailers, it is the executives that killed the brand all in the name of short-term dollars and cents that led to longterm losses.

Frank Eliason Consultant Frank Eliason LLC Philadelphia, US. Customer experience virtuoso who brings disruptive and transformative strategies to revolutionize Customer service. Drives significant change internally by using the Customer story and leveraging tools such as social media to help Customers, thus deepening connection with them and strengthening a company’s core business.

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My future role will continue to be transformative and be part of my career path toward a Chief Customer Experience Officer or Digital Officer level role to make a difference for Customers and change the future for the company or companies I serve.

How to Avoid the Hidden Costs of the Best CRMs 62 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

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Salesforce added another award for Best CRM Software this week.

Business New Daily’s award could easily leave an Entrepreneur with the impression that launching a great Salesforce instance was quick, easy and limited to the cost of the software seat and a little dev work.

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Hidden Costs of the Best CRMs

However, without expertise, adequate resources and commitment, CRM executions become flawed and more expensive. The best CRM plan requires a soulsearching analysis of your business and pristine clarity of its total cost and complexity.

“Salesforce Makes it Easy…” CRM Nirvana or Fake News?

Companies invest in Salesforce to recognize greater efficiency and faster growth. How many companies end up disappointed, unable to fully implement or manage the changes required to succeed, and burdened with unforeseen costs? The answer may be more than you can find in a Google search.

Salesforce creates its own buzz by investing nearly half of its annual $15 billion dollars of revenue back into marketing and sales. Over ten years, this investment has allowed Salesforce to develop into the most powerful and successful marketing campaign in the history of B2B. What you are unlikely to find on the web or hear in the sales pitch is the complexity, full associated costs, and commitment required to launch, customize and manage the platform to your organization’s needs.

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Hidden Costs of the Best CRMs

Getting ROI Out of Your CRM

Understanding Total Costs

Does your team have the best plan, resources, executive commitment and change-management experience required to succeed? The first step to success with Salesforce is embracing its complexity and ensuring you have the insight and resources required. An important ROI consideration is the on-going cost of the software, administration, custom development and training required as well as the initial disruption to an existing organization. You will need experts to incorporate the add-on applications and to create and manage the business practices that align with the software.

Salesforce applications can integrate marketing, sales, support, business intelligence, and finance. They allow you to manage your organization with maximum efficiency based on timely and actionable data. Applications make the system more compelling, but also more expensive and complex. Dataintensive applications are often sold individually based on ‘units’ of storage and not inherently bundled for cost efficiency. Application expenses are in addition to each employees’ “per seat” cost; prices range from $25 to $300 per month. The most expensive Salesforce seat is the only one with full support.

The budget package is limited to 5 seats for $25 per month; the price jumps to $65 for additional seats. It’s not uncommon for a Salesforce instance with applications and support to cost ~$200 a month.

The size of Salesforce’s own user guide speaks directly to the skills, expertise, and commitment required to make it all work. The “How to Be Successful with Salesforce” user guide is 5,573 pages and uses the word “simple” 139 times.

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Hidden Costs of the Best CRMs

3 Considerations Before Committing to Salesforce: Is your organization ready for change? Be ready to transform both culture and processes. This includes adding experienced professionals required to customize and manage Salesforce. You’ll need to adopt and manage the processes required to win – the processes are not just technical. Sales management will need to adopt practices that maximize lead conversion. Salesforce Admins and Developers are key to your success.

If you can’t hire and manage them, be prepared to hire consulting firms who are equipped to position you for success. Many people “know Salesforce” but few are experts in the entire platform. Look for people with multiple Salesforce Certifications.

Have you considered all the Apps that you’ll need to succeed?

Salesforce built the Salesforce AppExchange, a 3rd party marketplace that’s filled with apps that range from data append tools to contract generators to map plotters that plan sales rep’s driving routes.

Do you understand all the data requirements and costs? It’s possible to manage your Salesforce data within their ecosystem, however, 3rd party data-loaders are recommended for importing and merging large datasets. Data-loaders help prevent duplicate records while enabling mass merges.

Alternatives to Building and Managing CRM Sales and Marketing Technology has made growing a business more science and less art. Lead generation, nurturing and sales conversion is growing more competitive, costly and complex. The last mile to CRM success is the sales talent required to execute and a sales organization’s ability to maximize opportunities are more time-sensitive and difficult than ever.

Do you have an environment that will attract the best sales and marketing talent? If not, consider the alternatives below to mitigate the risk and costs.

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Hidden Costs of the Best CRMs

Three Alternatives to Scaling Sales and Marketing Internally:

1

Marketing Agencies that specialize in lead generation and can deliver leads to your sales team. Quality and conversion rates are a primary concern if you disconnect lead generation from sales.

2

Call / Contact Centers that can deliver appointments and sell.

The quality of the initial contact is a primary concern when considering call centers. The opportunity to either set qualified appointments, or close deals can be easily compromised if they aren’t well nurtured.

3

Less complicated CRM software. Some are specialized in sales or marketing and can enhance productivity without requiring a “transformation.” If you’re just looking for a productivity boost with minimal disruptions, sales technology can play a more limited role and operate successfully without integrating with other parts of the organization.

Unfortunately, none of these options offer an integrated, holistic or strategic approach that can solve some of the issues you may be facing.

A better alternative to building your in-house team may be a partner that can align their interests with yours. When considering an integrated marketing and sales partner, the firm should be able to offer technical expertise, strategic support and execution skills across a broad spectrum of the top sales and marketing acceleration tools. HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Zoho, Pardot, Marketo and many others may offer tools that enhance ROI that are simpler yet as effective for your organization.

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Making a Choice If your business is prepared to make the financial and organizational commitment to Salesforce, it can be transformative. But, if you’re re-evaluating the impact of your implementation, partnering with subject experts can accelerate your access to better talent, proven processes and a faster path to success. Either way, don’t fall for the marketing hype, get informed and understand the true and complete expense associated with your decision.

David Pachter Entrepreneur, Advisor,Speaker JumpCrew New York, US. Advisor to executive and emerging leaders.

Extensive background building and leading high-performing teams.

Focused on leadership, accelerating growth and transitioning to scale.

Executive Chairman of JumpCrew, helping companies scale revenues through targeted social marketing and sales and founder of JumpbyDesign helping leaders accelerate achievement. Former Chairman and CEO of LocalVox, acquired by Vivial in 2014.

How Social Media Has Changed Marketing

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How Social Media Has Changed Marketing

Marketers have used advertising on billboards, newspapers, magazines, and other avenues for decades, but there is a new up-and-comer in the ranks. Social media is changing the way marketers are reaching their target audiences, going from print to online. Word travels so much faster on this platform, and it has a much wider reach than traditional mediums. Businesses have started to really take advantage of the advantages social media can provide. For example, Wendy’s has gained quite a following on Twitter, and have gained a tremendous following. This is gold for companies because it’s almost like a free advertisement. The power of positive word of mouth is underrated in my opinion, especially with the day and age we live in, with one tweet or post on Instagram rumors can spread like wild fire.

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How Social Media Has Changed Marketing

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n the case of Carter Wilkerson, he had tweeted at Wendy’s saying, “Yo @Wendy’s how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets?” This tweet has now gained around 2.7 million retweets and continues to grow. First of all, this creates a more personalized experience for the customers leaving them feeling like a part of something big, and secondly, if this had simply been an ad on a billboard somewhere it would have had that many views in months or even years. This just shows how much faster information is spread as a result of social media. It keeps people connected, and instead of always filling their twitter feed with ads they will simply disregard, it allows them to interact and even laugh from time to time. As a company Customer’s satisfaction and happiness and of at-most importance, so for a lack of better words, Wendy’s sassy

social media presence has gained them a multitude of followers and potential customers.

Wendy’s has had mostly positive feedback from their account, but this is a risky avenue, especially because of the sensitivity aspects. Positive posts travel fast, but negatives ones travel faster!

They a play a dangerous game that seems to be paying off, but not without some backlash. They recently were put on the burner over a meme they had posted, which can quickly sway people to choose to take their business elsewhere. There are many advantages and disadvantages in this new age of marketing, but one thing is for sure, whether it’s good or bad everyone will know.

Abby Milliet Marketing Major and Aspiring Social Media Analyst seeking to work with or around athletes Alabama, US.

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Snapchat

faces massive backlash after app redesign, but is it going to pass?

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Snapchat Faces Massive Backlash After App Redesign

Despite the bright and optimistic outlook from Spiegel, as of Friday, a petition urging Snapchat to reverse the redesign has surpassed 1 million signatures on Change. org. The initiator Nic Rumsey wrote that the update “has, in fact, made many features more difficult to use” and the so-called “new features” defeat the original purposes Snapchat has had for the past years.”

A Tumultuous 2017

Snapchat (SNAP Inc.) unveiled its new app interface last week and was met with massive backlash from its 180+ million active users. The update is the biggest Snapchat redesign in three years and in this dramatic redesign, the dedicated Stories page was dropped, and instead, it has been integrated amongst private messages in a single feed.

The goals were to simplify the app, especially for older users, and more clearly differentiate “social” interactions from “media consumption.” “Your friends aren’t content.

They’re relationships,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in a promotion video in November 2017.

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In 2017, Snapchat struggled with growing its user base due to stiff competition from Instagram. With the ever-so-similar features of the two social media platforms, the design of the app became an order winner to Generation Z and millennials.

Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, launched the first shots of its war on Snapchat in August 2016 when Instagram added a new feature above its feed. Instagram Stories—an exact clone of Snapchat’s 24-hour slideshow “My Stories” feature. The next ambush unfolded when Instagram added fun stickers and drawing tools, hoping users will use the tools in the way Snapchat users turn themselves into dogs with their innovative filters. The most recent update to Instagram has yet another blatantly Snapchat creation: Geo-filters.

While they are still called “Stickers” by Instagram, the filters specific to the location of the user are obvious in its similarity to Snapchat. While the features are becoming increasingly similar, however, there still are fundamental differences in the purposes of the two platforms: Snapchat capturing ephemeral, fun, and goofy moments and Instagram more focused on recording beautiful, filtered photos of experiences.

The Tech Product Redesigns that Angered Millions: A Brief History Spoiler Alert: They didn’t go back.

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Snapchat Faces Massive Backlash After App Redesign

In 2012, Facebook switched from “Walls” to the Timeline format that we instinctually think of today. A poll cited by CNN found less than 10% of Facebook users liked the change at the time.

When Instagram changed its logo in 2016, the Internet went berserk over the new orangepurple gradient button.

The New York Times dubbed it “The Great Instagram Logo Freakout of 2016.”

Snapchat: the comeback Chances are good that the current outrage over the Snapchat redesign will evaporate pretty soon, but what is Snapchat going to look like in the upcoming year?

Industry experts such as Daniel Ives, Chief Strategy Officer at GBH Insights, are optimistic that the redesign is absolutely necessary to dissolve features that were “shunning older demographics and advertisers.” In the new update, Snapchat will give users such as celebrities and media influencers more analytic data in an effort to appeal to social media stars who have migrated to Instagram. The availability of data will make it easier for individual creators to monetize their time and effort, and Snapchat’s ultimate goal is to hit back at Instagram and gain back market shares with celebrities and their massive following.

Snapchat’s recent efforts to increase celebrity metrics transparency and engagement initiatives appear to be paying off as its newly published quarterly sales and user growth, for the first time since going public, surpassed Wall Street’s estimates.

People believe a monumental mistake was made when Netflix split DVD rentals from its streaming service in 2011.

Twitter enthusiasts fought against its move to roll out 280-character tweets for all its users in late 2017. They claimed the only upside was they had more room to complain about it.

Although the app redesign sparked criticism, CEO Evan Spiegel has no plans to go back to the way it was.

“There is a lot of work ahead as we optimize the updated application, but our early observations support the thesis behind the new architecture and the many growth opportunities it provides.”

Emma Yuan Marketing Intern at Synocate University of California, Berkeley San Francisco, US. I am a first-year student at the University of California, Berkeley, interested in the intersection between technology and business. Throughout my experiences, I found my passion in helping social causes enhance their brand images and solve real-world problems. My hobbies include watching film noirs, hiking, cheering on the Seahawks, and playing the piano.

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How Tesla Allocates its $0 Marketing Budget 73 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

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How Tesla Allocates its $0 Marketing Budget

The best things in life are indeed free, which seems to be the aphorism that luxury car brand Tesla utilizes when it comes to disrupting the automotive industry. In a business dominated by marketing campaigns and high advertisement budgets, Tesla continues to operate as one of the most valuable auto companies without dropping a single penny on marketing.

Instead, the savvy automotive company has built its brand through their longstanding preference for fan-driven word of mouth over high-dollar paid advertising.

So how does Tesla continue to build its brand without any paid advertising? After all, it’s no secret that the car you drive has always served as an extension of your character.

Are you a BMW or an Audi person? Are you trying to wow onlookers or are you just trying to get your family from point A to point B? Are you about fuel efficiency or speed?

Regardless, word-of-mouth and free media coverage seems to be enough to fuel demand for the foreseeable future when it comes to maintaining and building Tesla’s brand. Here’s some of what they’ve done so far that every marketing team should be taking note of: 74 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

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How Tesla Allocates its $0 Marketing Budget

Twitter Transparency One of the biggest ways in which Tesla markets its products is through CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter account. Online and digital presence has become a necessity for any brand trying to emerge as a leader within its market. Luckily for Tesla, Musk has no problem using Twitter to speak about his professional endeavors.

There's definitely still some hesitancy from CEOs when it comes to social media, but Musk certainly doesn't fit into that category. In fact, one could argue that Musk's public popularity has a greater impact on his company than any other corporate leader. From talking about his new business ideas during his drive home to live tweeting rocket launches, his posts offer an inside view of what he cares about and is interested in at any particular moment.

There’s a Car in Space Although Musk uses his Twitter as a personal platform to connect with people, he’s definitely not afraid to use it to pull off unique marketing stunts either. Just a few weeks ago, Musk executed a marketing spectacle with the first successful test launch of his Falcon Heavy rocket, the flagship of his private spaceflight company SpaceX. But he didn’t stop there, as he used this opportunity to also debut its payload - a Tesla Roadster driven by a dummy nicknamed Starman - as the first car in space.

While the launch was clearly one of the most breathtaking moments of live streaming in recent memory, it’s the live YouTube feed of Musk’s Roadster circling the Earth that will perhaps generate the biggest publicity boost for Tesla. Musk has been relatively coy about the Roadster’s role in the test flight, tweeting a live stream link with the comment, “Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth.”

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How Tesla Allocates its $0 Marketing Budget

Project Loveday Tesla has refused to do traditional advertising for its electric vehicles, instead relying on its reputation for innovation. Yet, many fans love the cars so much that they've gone ahead and made their own advertisements for the company. This inspired a letter from "green" fan Bria asking Elon Musk to start a contest searching for the best one. And just like that, Project Loveday was on.

The top spot went to Marques Brownlee, whose energetic clip highlighted the Model S’s mix of features from the practical to the, well, bizarre.

The announcement was made simultaneously with Tesla’s big launch event for the Model 3 sedan. Project Loveday is just another example of Tesla’s longstanding preference for fan and press-driven word of mouth over any kind of paid advertising. Not only did this increase customer interaction with the company, but it also generated higher brand awareness across all social media platforms.

Driving Forward As Tesla continues to grow in size and value, will they one day turn towards paid advertisements to promote their products? Or should they continue employing their current “free marketing” strategy?

Sumesh Rawal Consulting Intern at MAZAKALI MAZAKALI / University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley, California, US.

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Digital Transformation: Start At The Beginning Keeping the End in Mind

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Digital Transformation

You’ve heard this story before – “Buy this latest piece of tech or risk losing out to your competitors who do buy it.” You’ve heard it with big data. You’ve heard it with the cloud. You’re hearing it with AI. And whether you’ve invested in these hyped technologies or not your company is still here. So you might be skeptical about one of the newer enterprise technology buzzwords – Digital Transformation.

But you only need to look at the recent announcement by Toys R Us to close all of its stores and layoff 31,000 people to understand the need for digital transformation is real.

It’s not just about losing to an online competitor. It’s about operations and finance too. And it’s not just for the retail industry.

In fact, at the recent Gartner Data and Analytics Summit Smail Haddad, Chief Data Governance & Data Delivery at Toyota Motor North America, observed one of the paramount reasons for digital transformation – your competitors

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are no longer who you think they are. Toyota has seen new competitors that are not the traditional car companies emerge to threaten its car sales. Whether it’s Google and its self-driving cars or Uber reducing the need for people to own cars new threats to its business from digital savvy companies are emerging with no end in sight.

Like a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, business needs to transform into every aspect of themselves into digital companies to survive and thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

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Digital Transformation

What Is Digital Transformation?

Like with many past hyped business terms, it’s easy to stay superficial or look at limited silos when thinking about digital transformation. That’s a losing strategy in an era when competition is being created digital ready. A caterpillar does not just grow wings to become a butterfly. Every bit of its body changes. So too must a company if it’s going to transform into digital business. So what is digital transformation?

Not surprisingly there are many differing definitions. I will share mine: Digital Transformation is the change of business operations, culture, and mindsets from the computer and industrial age

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to a new mindset and operations that connect humans and machines to create exponential change and tipping points.

In the Third Industrial Revolution, we saw the integration of computers of all sizes into business and our personal lives. Computers were not simply a better calculator. They changed operations and culture of every business. Some companies and people adapted early, and some resisted the inevitable change. It is easier to see looking back now than when it first started to happen. Today, at the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution we are in a similar situation where the tools of transformation are around us waiting to be integrated in new, transformative ways.

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Digital Transformation

The Stars Are Aligning for Digital Transformation “The stars are aligning.” Gartner’s Andrew White noted, during his presentation at Gartner’s Data and Analytics Summit. The disparate technologies companies have been investing in over the last decade can now start to be brought together and integrated with the business through digital transformation efforts.

In question and answer session with Ted Freidman, Gartner VP of Research, he highlighted four shifts that are occurring with technology and its use in data and analytics: Value needs to be created at the source, driving the need for distributed systems Self-service analytics and data governance enable more people Disruptive technologies are enabling new value creation points Using metadata to understand your data, how it’s used and who is using it While digital transform and the business results that will come from successful transformations catch the headlines, it is critical to not get ahead of yourself.

Focus first on what will enable that transformation to take place. Scott Taylor and Kevin Burr of Dun and Bradstreet noted a consistent theme through the conference: data governance and data hubs are critical enabling downstream 80 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

uses. Data governance is generally about ensuring the data are trustworthy so they can then be analyzed and used for decision making – both automated and human. Data hubs are the technologies that bring data together, transform it and pass it along to other systems to use in analytics and decision making.

“In a digital organization data flows freely at a rate, scope, and scale we have never imagined before.

We have to know that data is trustworthy before it feeds a system so we can trust the results.” ~ Scott Taylor, Market Development and Innovation’ Systems are computing far more than we as humans are capable of, and can do it in a reasonable, actionable time. Increasingly we are relying on machines to decisions, even life and death decisions. Just think of the information be collected analyzed and adjustments being made when you are flying. But whether machine or human, decisions made on unreliable data can have catastrophic consequences.

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Digital Transformation

Don’t Skip The Beginning to Get To The End It’s very easy to get wrapped up in what your company might look like once it has been digitally transformed. Vendors will gladly show you how their products can be used to achieve that final state vision. Frequently companies begin in the middle of the process. But you’ll never achieve transformation unless

you focus on creating master data first that can flow through your analytics and reporting systems though your data hubs. Master data and data hubs are like the foundation of your house. If it’s not built well everything built upon it will come crashing down.

Larry Boyer Advanced Analytics Leadership, Business Strategy & Change Management, Economics & Finance, Business & Personal Coach Success Rockets Washington D.C., US.

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I am a global executive with over 20 years’ experience partnering with business executives across divisions to help them anticipate and address complex challenges through big data and advanced analytics. My work has focused on standing up new teams and transition existing teams to new business models. I lead change for companies, employees and customers.

Is a Shakeup Imminent in the

Automotive Digital Marketing Space?

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Shakeup in Automotive Digital Marketing Space?

Not that long ago, new car dealerships relied almost entirely on Friday newspapers ads promoting weekend specials along with lists of new and used cars in stock. But the advent of the internet revolutionized how U.S. consumers researched and shopped for cars, shifting more than 50% of car dealerships’ advertising budgets to digital.

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Dealerships that quickly adopted digital advertising saw higher sales and lower per unit advertising costs… but that advantage disappeared when all dealerships subscribed to the same services. As one dealership owner told me, “When I was the only Chevrolet dealer in my town on TrueCar, I was getting customers that probably would not have come to my store. But today, all the Chevy dealers in my town are on TrueCar, so all we are doing is paying a fee for people who would have bought from us anyway.”

Today, it still costs a dealership more than $600 per vehicle in advertising expenses (nearly the same amount dealerships spent on traditional advertising before the advent of digital marketing – and when per unit frontend margins were much higher).

Yet, many digital platforms offer little differentiation among dealerships than the ancient Friday newspaper. With profit margins under pressure from rising interest rates and plateauing sales, dealerships are beginning to evaluate the productivity of each of their digital subscriptions and are cutting those that fail to deliver actual car buyers.

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Shakeup in Automotive Digital Marketing Space?

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he auto retail space is heavily populated with companies promising to deliver real customers for a fee. There are at least 112 vendors selling CRM tools, 87 offering lead management, 75 providing chat services, and 104 offering new and used car leads. There are also more than 300 marketing solutions, data mining, reputation management, e-commerce ‘shopping carts,’ and owner marketing/ equity mining vendors with their own customer targeting and retention tools.

For our purposes, I’ll focus on some of the larger vendors that car shoppers turn to initially. This list includes marketplace sites, like CarGurus.com, Cars.com, AutoTrader.com, TrueCar. com, and many others that have added inventory listings and lead generation to their core businesses like Carfax.

All of these companies have business models that generate revenue from dealerships in hopes of intercepting car shoppers before a car sale. But growth has plateaued, as nearly all franchised dealerships and most larger used car dealerships are already listing their inventory on these marketplace sites, meaning that small (if any) incremental increases in dealership count won’t generate much in revenue.

Moreover, despite traffic claims, over

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90% of U.S. car buyers already use the internet to research a vehicle purchase.

Consequently, these sites are not generating new automotive shoppers for dealerships (vehicle purchase demand is determined by affordability).

Instead, they are battling amongst themselves for ‘screen time’ with the same car buyer who’s visiting multiple sites, a war being unwittingly financed by car dealerships.

Last year, approximately 17 million new passenger vehicles were sold in the U.S., an estimated 3 million, of which, were sold to fleets, leaving a retail market of 14 million (a third of which were leased). According to Urban Science, in 2017 there were 18,213 U.S. franchised dealerships as measured by rooftops. A simple calculation results in 2.1 new cars sold per day per dealership. Assuming that new car dealerships sell about 0.7 used cars for each new (likely greater than reality), that equates to 1.5 used cars per day, for a total of 3.6 cars sold per day in the average dealership – or roughly 108 units per a 30-day month. The average dealership in the U.S. maintains a 70day supply, or 252 vehicles, which equates to a total of 4.6 million vehicles available for sale on an average day in 2017.

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Shakeup in Automotive Digital Marketing Space?

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In the third quarter of 2017, Cars.com noted 4.9 million average vehicle listings from 21,307 dealerships, illustrating that the overwhelming majority of U.S. dealerships’ inventoried cars are already listed on its site. Cars.com is only one of many marketplace sites, and dealerships are discovering that when they also list their inventory on other sites, they are essentially paying for the same customers to view their inventory multiples times. A large dealership group recently analyzed its $2.5 million contract with a single digital marketplace and eliminated $600,000 in annual spend, after the group’s data showed the site provided decreased value. It plans to do the same with its other lead generator vendor subscriptions.

Every lead generator or marketplace site boasts unique visitor traffic in the high tens of millions, but these are meaningless in terms of actual sales.

Cars.com says that it had more than 100 million 'visits' in the third quarter of 2017.

Depending on how many of these 'visits' were comprised of unique visitors, this could potentially equate to more than a third of the U.S. population visiting its platform in three months compared to new and used car purchases of only 7.1 million from franchised dealerships

during the same period. And Cars.com is only one of many such lead generating and marketplace sites, as well as the dealerships’ own websites and those of the automakers that they represent. As these sites become saturated with commoditized inventory at symmetrical prices, coupled with a recycled pool of car shoppers visiting most of them, they prevent any single dealer from gaining a competitive advantage, and thus they become perfectly competitive marketplaces that cannot generate sustainable profits for their sellers (i.e. dealerships). To this end, many dealerships claim that their only motivation to list their inventory on these sites is to simply make sure that their local competitors don’t gain exclusivity in searches.

It is no wonder that dealerships are questioning the value of paying high monthly fees to list inventory on sites that have diminishing conversion rates, commoditized inventories, and soaring costs. Some dealerships are shifting more to traditional media while others are looking at services that provide them with the data and analytics to engage with their customers more profitably.

The automotive digital marketing space is saturated, and a shakeup among the undifferentiated listing services seems imminent as dealerships’ frontend profits continue to decrease.

Maryann Keller Principal Maryann Keller & Associates LLC Stamford, New York, US. As principal of Maryann Keller & Associates, LLC (“MK&A”), my team and I provide advisory services for a broad variety of clients in connection with the global automotive industry.

Honest and insightful advice and analysis to guide clients’ strategic or tactical decisions, backed by decades of industry experience of the firm’s principals, has been our hallmark.

Clients come from the entire spectrum of the 85 sqwawqs Issue 5 April 2018

industry including but not limited to OEMs, suppliers, vehicle remarketers, and retailers. Likewise, investors, lenders, and law firms associated with the industry often seek input and guidance from MK&A to bolster their understanding of the industry and/or provide expert opinions. The firm mostly works at the CEO/CFO level with industry automotive clients or at the managing partner level with professional service firms.