Free Marketing Wisdom Report 2007

Marketers from 110 organizations contributed test results and lessons-learned stories for our fifth annual Wisdom Report, including: BMW, Motorola, GMAC and Savvy Tot:

* Email campaign segmentation tests and results
* Blogging, podcasting and mobile marketing tips
* Search marketing tactics and offline advertising
* Web site design and social networking done right

Click here to get your free 2007 Wisdom PDF

globeandmail.com : Decision making:

Decision making
Video games: More than child's play for leaders
VIRGINIA GALT
From Friday's Globe and Mail

Nuclear power plant managers are hardly your stereotypical video gamers.

Yet, there were a couple of dozen of them recently, alternating between elation and meltdown over an educational video game that Ontario Power Generation Inc. asked them to play as part of a leadership-development exercise.

Their mission: to turn around a failing technology company. As the day-long gaming session progressed at OPG's plant in Pickering, Ont., the competing teams clustered closer around their computer screens, decibel levels rising as they shouted their delight, or dismay, over each advance or setback.

Grownups indulging in child's play? Only in part, says Judy Wood, an OPG manager specializing in organizational effectiveness who sent the workers to play.
There is a serious intent behind these play-and-learn sessions: to teach managers to become better decision-makers through computer simulations where, as in life, every choice has a consequence, Ms. Wood says.

The immediate reward for players: successfully advancing to the next level of the game.

The longer-term reward for those who master, and later apply, the strategies and lessons learned: the prospect of taking their careers to the next level.
Employees tend to absorb more by actually working through problems than by sitting through dry lectures on theories of managing change, Ms. Wood says.

The technology allows players to test their analytical, decision-making and management skills in “a safe environment” — safe in that there is no risk to the bottom lines of the organizations that employ them if they make a mistake, adds Dan Ondrack, a management professor and academic director of executive programs at the University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management.

OPG is among a growing number of companies that now supplement traditional management courses with video games to enhance the skills of their executives and fast-track the next generation of leaders.

The technology has also been incorporated into leadership-development programs at companies including Bombardier Inc., Royal Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

The United States Navy has used video-game simulations to increase the ability of its leaders to make the right decisions under time pressure, as has the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United Nations and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Rotman and other business schools were among the earliest adopters, reinforcing classroom lessons with video games that simulate real-life business scenarios.
The use of video simulation as a management training tool is still so new there have not yet been any conclusive academic studies about its effectiveness.

But there is no question about its growing popularity. “Video games have captured the attention of training professionals, and are emerging as an increasingly popular training tool,” according to a discussion paper by researchers Janis Canon-Bowers of the University of Central Florida and Karin Ovis of George Mason University presented this year at the annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Deborah Hurst, a professor in the centre for innovative management at Alberta's Athabasca University, has used the technology in her on-line MBA courses.
“The students really develop a new level of insight. They just come back [after playing the simulations] and are able to discuss things on another level and they love it. It just provides a little variety into the learning environment.”

The North American executive-training market is served by a handful of “boutique players.” There is not enough money in leadership development simulations to attract the big gaming companies, such as Nintendo Co. Ltd., says Lawrence Suda, chief executive officer of New York-based Palatine Group, which developed a project-management simulation for NASA.

However, the big video-game companies have certainly primed the niche market for simulations as an adult training tool, he says.

“We have this new generation of people coming into the business field who have played these games, and they don't want to just sit still and listen to all these people talking about leadership and management,” he says. “They want to actually have some hands-on experience. They want to be promoted faster, and they want to have challenging assignments faster.”

In the change-management game at OPG, teams chose from 50 tactics in their race to save the fictitious tech company from insolvency and return it to profitability. Their success hinged on identifying the problems, developing a strategy, making a compelling case for change and getting buy-in throughout the ranks.
Among the lessons learned: to create the sense of urgency needed to make the necessary changes, do not bring in the chief executive officer midway through to make an upbeat speech.

Click on that bring-in-the-CEO option and, immediately, shop supervisor “Ralphy Jones” pops up on the screen, saying: “I guess I can relax now, I was getting worried.”

The sense of complacency that sets in after the boss's don't-worry speech threatens the success of the turnaround attempt, says James Chisholm, co-founder of Toronto-based ExperiencePoint Inc., which designed the game.

Players also decide when and if to fire “resisters” to the proposed changes. (Hint: Pulling the trigger too early in the game can backfire and create anxiety throughout the organization.)

They decide whether to shock their virtual employees into compliance by presenting the worst-case scenario if they do not participate in the turnaround effort. (Worst-case scenarios have a surprisingly galvanizing effect).

And they call the shots on rewards for good performance. (Frequent offerings of such recognition are always a good strategy).

Back in the real world, simulations “have become an integral part” of the training and development strategy at computer services company Electronic Data Systems Corp of Dallas.

Combined with traditional class-room lectures, on-line courses and podcasts, the simulations give participants a feel for actual problems they will encounter. Before they log off, players are debriefed on what they could have done differently and where they were successful — “things to think about when you are in that circumstance in real life,” says Dave Arcemont, vice-president of global work force management for EDS.

Mr. Arcemont himself has tried his hand at an adapted version of the project-management game first devised by the Palatine Group for NASA.

The game plays out over four days, taking participants through all the complexities of managing a major project — in this case, landing a spaceship on Mars — from start to completion.

It is just one component of the “advanced project leadership curriculum” at EDS, which aims to take talented employees from the point where they can manage a single project to a level where they can manage “multiple global projects at one time,” Mr. Arcemont says.

“I believe, and what we have seen through our measurement and feedback sessions with participants, is that simulations really accelerate learning by modelling real-life experiences.”

The simulations draw on business-school theory for their content and video-game technology for their fun factor, he says.

Clearly, it takes much more than the mastery of a game to rise through the ranks and become a more influential player in the real world, Palatine Group's Mr. Suda says.
“That's what we tell them upfront. We can't guarantee success, but we can set you up for the probability of being successful. Even in a simulation, as in life, there are elements of luck,” he says.

“Some people get lucky, and some people can do all the right things and be unlucky.”
But, hey, that's reality.

The outlook remains bright for Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses in 2007

globeandmail.com : Small Business:

Outlook remains bright
Canadian Press
Toronto

The outlook remains bright for Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses in 2007, say two separate economic reports released Wednesday.

The first, a Scotiabank survey, suggests that small-business owners in B.C. are the most optimistic about the Canadian economy, with 38 per cent saying it will improve over the next year.
Nationally, about 28 per cent said they believe general economic conditions will see a boost in the next 12 months. But Canada seems to be on an optimism upswing.

Last year, fewer small business owners said they expected the national economy to deteriorate, dropping to 23 per cent from 45 per cent of those surveyed a year ago.

Nearly half of respondents said the economic climate would likely stay the same.
"Small-business owners have indicated their optimism about Canada's prospects in the year ahead and that will go a long way toward reinforcing the economy's forward momentum," said Scotiabank deputy chief economist Aron Gampel.

In Western Canada, many small companies are benefiting from work they do for the booming energy sector, especially the natural gas industry in northeastern British Columbia and the oilsands of northeastern Alberta. High metal prices have also spurred growth in mining companies across Canada.

Heading eastward from B.C. and Alberta, some provinces are a little more pessimistic. In Quebec and Atlantic Canada, only 22 per cent of those surveyed predict a bright immediate future for businesses.

Even if not everyone is boasting about Canada's growth potential over the next year, about 46 per cent believe their own businesses will see increased growth during the period.

Another 47 per cent expect their business's results will stay the same, with the remaining seven per cent predicting lower results. Those numbers were equivalent to last year's responses.

A second study by TD Bank's economics department also suggested Wednesday that prospects remain positive for small- and medium-sized enterprises.
The study found that despite the deteriorating outlook for the U.S. economy, the Canadian small business sector is poised for continued growth. That's because most businesses of that size don't engage in as much international trade as larger firms and will likely be insulated from the U.S. slowdown.

A small business is one that employs less than 100 workers, while a medium-sized business employs between 100 to 500, the report said.

"Most SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) are concentrated on the domestic economy with particularly large footprints in health care, construction, and consumer and business services," said senior economist Derek Burleton, who co-authored the report.

"The good news is that these domestic areas of Canada's economy should hold up well over the next few years, supported by a strong labour market, an increase in government spending, relatively low lending rates, and cuts to small business income tax rates implemented by severalprovincial governments."

The TD report, however, warns of "regional variations in conditions" facing SMEs, noting that central Canadian businesses are more closely tied to the country's beleaguered manufacturing sector than their counterparts in Western Canada.

Meanwhile, Scotiabank's annual review of small businesses asks owners about their concerns and priorities for the year ahead, as well as possible trends.
Respondents most frequently mentioned concerns with the financial, government, labour and competition issued, the bank said.

Financial issues, like taxes, fuel prices, and interest rates were named as major issues by 60 per cent of those polled.

The survey results are considered accurate within 4.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

TNS Canadian Facts conducted the survey using the firm's online financial panel. E-mail invitations were sent to 3,158 members of the panel, made up of more than 32,000 Canadian Internet users who have agreed to participate in survey research from time to time.

In total, 573 on-line interviews were completed between Aug. 17 and Aug. 31, a completion rate of 18 per cent. Small business owners were defined as those who were an owner or a partner in a business with annual revenues under $5 million.

They also had to derive their primary source of income from the business and be involved with the business on a full-time basis. Final data were weighted by region and business revenue to reflect the small-business population in Canada.

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The new executive: Chief Networking Officer (CNO)

by Octavio Pitaluga

I have once written about CNO - Chief Networking Officer and debated if this position would be suitable for the new corporate world where long term relationships and win-win partnerships are gaining more and more importance on daily basis. I entitled myself Chief Networking Officer and created a new business - Net-bridges - offering services on business networks coaching, training and executive networking events. In the meantime, I was very glad when I discovered that there are a growing number of professional CNOs worldwide. I decided to interview a pioneer in the field, Selma Prodanovic, CNO of brainswork (TM).


What was your previous experience before you become a CNO?

After studying international marketing, I worked in Headquarters for Central & Eastern Europe of worldwide advertising networks where I developed our offices but also coordinated the market entries of 25 different multinational clients in 15 countries. The most fascinating part of my work was to connect with individuals within the worldwide network, and locate transferable knowledge and experience on each specific client. By the way, one of my favourite contacts was in your home country Brazil.

Later on, my international work continued as I coordinated the work of film crews while shooting TV commercials for example in Venezuela, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa at the same time. But I also worked in investment consulting, teaching, training, lecturing, strategic marketing consulting and communications. In short, after 15 years of new business development I started my own business end of 2003.


What motivated you to become a CNO? When/how did this happen?

I am a passionate networker and I am personally devoted to progress achieved through networking and brainsworking.
I lived in several countries in Europe and Africa, and was educated in four different educational systems, so while moving from one country to another, I had to learn already as a child, how important social networking was, especially when starting from scratch.
The interest in networking started as a personal conviction - every one of us can make a positive difference, but it works best if we make our diversity connected - and later on it developed to be a professional and academic interest.
Also, I did not have a "straight" career. This seemed to be a disadvantage at one point because I did not fit in the already existing "boxes" but then I realized that exactly this diversity of experiences and people I met, is my biggest asset and greatest strength. I enjoy connecting these various aspects of my life and business. My passion for networking culminated when I started brainswork™ the creative business development group now already working in three continents, and became Chief Networking Officer.


What's your routine as CNO?

I spend part of my day at the computer managing contacts and preparing content for clients, and the other lecturing in networks, meeting network members, or participating in networking events. I consult more than a dozen various networks worldwide, but also consult and coach individuals and companies on how to profit from networking and to be more efficient. I am currently working on various research projects, developing a course on business networking with an international university, preparing a book, writing articles, or giving interviews as this oneJ.
It is important to note that my primary business is new business development, and networking is on one hand a tool I use to efficiently and successfully reach my business goals, and on the other hand, simply my way of being.


Who are your major networks today (please mention some industries and level of contacts, e,g., airlines and Marketing Directors)?

My network includes international top management and government officials but also contacts I made in my kid's kindergarten (which turned into fantastic business cooperation). I love the variety of my networks which gives me the freedom to choose both the people I work with and the projects I work on. In general this approach delivers top results which mean happy clients, who then lead to more recommendations, and more business… Although I have an international and very diverse network, and clients ranging from USA to Ukraine the majority of my contacts relates to the South-East of Europe, and to entrepreneurs especially in creative industries. I work with innovative technology start-ups, but also work on development strategies of cities and even countries.


How do your work with media?

An efficient relationship to the "mightiest" network is very important. I have direct and regular contact with a relatively small but selected number of journalists, opinion leaders. They need the information I have and I need the impact they can provide - a classical win:win networking relationship.
But today, working with the journalists is not enough. You also have to be aware of independent bloggers, and well connected network members; their number and power is growing. Even many journalists use weblogs, blogs, or podcasts as sources of information or inspiration; not to mention the growing relevance of buzz marketing campaigns.


What is the profile of a CNO?

CNOs must have brainsworking skills. This means they have to be able to use their "networking intelligence", their connected thinking skills, to share and create new knowledge with the goal to foster business development (which also includes personal development, creativity and innovation). It is a person who facilitates and develops communication of all stakeholders. CNOs must have excellent people skills and entrepreneurial spirit.


How does a CNO aggregate value to his/her organization?

The CNO leads and facilitates the development of the social capital (social networks) of a company and works directly with the CEO. The facilitation of both tacit and implicit knowledge exchange, a higher level of brainsworking skills within the company, leads to higher and more efficient both individual and overall business performance. On corporate level it could mean: more turnover and less costs; more efficiency through synergy effects; easier new client acquisition / business development; better and longer client relationships; more efficient knowledge sharing & management with all stakeholders; higher intrapreneurship skills; more innovation and creativity; more positive and inspired environment; easier sharing of company values and building a sense of community; easier recruitment of high potentials; better reputation & image transfer on clients

How well does the corporate market understand the CNO position today in Europe and worldwide?

Business today is more and more about people's relations. The relationship a corporation has with their consumers in Europe will also influence the relationship this same corporation has with consumers in Brazil. Why? Because consumers talk to each other directly more and more, be it through weblogs, blogs, or on-line networks. This is a small world. The management far too often sees employees only as statistical data and forgets the individuals behind. We need to better understand people’s relations and realize the force behind it. We need professional networking skills.
Let me give you an example. Imagine the quite, introvert employee in the last corner office, a good worker but with no power within the corporation. And now imagine this same person is a 5.000+ contacts networker within an online network. Due to technological advancement and the development of online networks, this is possible. If we assume that each person has a social network of 500 contacts (family, friends, school friends, former colleagues,..), your employee can reach 5.000 x 500 people! Imagine the power and the potential consequences.


Is CNO position getting popular in Europe and worldwide? What´s the trend?

Yes, it is gaining importance, and I am positive we will see an exponential raise of CNO is the next 3-5 years.
I started as CNO in 2004 and at that time it sounded a bit strange. Even in November 2005 at a Vienna Hub round table on networking with professional networkers like Bill Liao from OpenBC, I was the only CNO. In January 2006, OpenBC appointed a CNO, and today the number of networks and companies relying on CNOs is growing. Exceptional networkers existed long before the internet, but the profession itself is developing only now.

Free web seminars featuring top authors and business leaders

Just thought you might be interested in this amazing resource. No catch! It's perfect for people that don't have enough time (or don't like) to sit down and read.

Archives
http://main.placeware.com/demos/web_seminar_archive.cfm

Partial List of Speakers:

Brian Tracy (Author and Presenter)
Bo Burlingham, Inc. Magazine (Editor)
Donald Trump
Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind (Author)
Dr. Ken Blanchard, One Minute Manager (Author)
Scott Blanchard, Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest (Author)
Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubnerm, Freakonomics (Author)
Steven Little, The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Growth (Author)
Tom Peters, many many books (Author)
Tom Sant, Persuasive Business Proposals (Author)
Zig Ziglar (sales guru)

Fyi, I have NO affilation to this site or the contents. Just thought it was a good resource.

Regards,


Tats

Art as a Role Model for Business

By Linda Naiman

As organizational life becomes increasingly complex, chaotic, and confusing, leaders are searching for solutions outside the traditional spheres of business. We cannot find all the answers to our problems in the world of the rational, logical, and scientific. We need to bring other competencies into the equation: creative, artistic, imaginative, symphonic, and mythic. These competencies have been largely ignored in contemporary organizations. There is growing awareness, however, that they are vital to organizational success, and consequently the arts are emerging as a role model for business to adopt.

All great art pushes boundaries beyond established norms and thus can teach us about aesthetics, ambiguity, diversity, chaos, change, courage, and complexity. (The arts encompass the visual art forms of drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, electronic media, design, and video, as well as the performing arts, which include dance, story telling, poetry, music, film. and theatre.) Brandweek (1998), a publication for marketing and branding professionals, notes that "to understand the process of creative genius it is valid for business people to look at the model of the artist. The business of the artist is to create, navigate opportunity, explore possibility, and master creative breakthrough. We need to restore art, the creation of opportunity, to business."

A growing number of companies in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada are using the arts to enhance organizational performance, including: American Express, BBC, Boeing, British Airways, Coca-Cola, IBM, Kodak, Lever Faberge, Pfizer, Shell, and the World Bank. Canadian and US government agencies are also using the arts as a tool for transformation in leadership development initiatives. Learning Lab Denmark (www.lld.dk) is being funded by the government of Denmark to study what business can learn from the arts.

What can business learn from the arts?
Deborah Jacroux, a work/life consultant with the Microsoft Corporation (USA) says, "Over the years the logical/analytical left brain has dominated business decision making. Skills that utilize intuition, inspiration, and active imagination haven’t found a home within the corporate world. Many employees have equally separated their love of creativity and the arts, and a chasm exists between their right and left brains. The arts convey stories and the opportunity to enter a place where all is possible. The major obstacles corporations currently face such as diversity, cross-group collaboration, and work/life balance, can all be met with an increased focus on the arts.

What is art if not the enactment of diversity? All art, whether the visual arts, spoken stories, or the grace of dance, expresses the rich variety of authenticity of culture, a tapestry of humanity already painted for our eyes to read as symbols and understand with our hearts. Work rises from the soul and sculpts our future using creative imagination. Corporations of the future that understand the creative impulse within the human spirit will be the leaders of tomorrow."
Businesses today want to break away from their limitations, aim higher, and be a creative force for the greater good of the world. We need the transformative experiences the arts give us to thrive in a world of change. In ancient cultures, the mystery schools put students through initiations to overcome fear, learn something about their true nature, and gain self-actualization (self-mastery). The arts give us a taste of the mystery and help make sense of the world.
The arts take us on adventures in creative expression that help us to safely explore unknown territory, overcome fear, and take risks. We can transfer these learning experiences to the workplace. Art-making has an alchemical effect on the imagination. It teaches us to think in symbols, metaphors, and to de-code complexity.

Mining Group Gold
In my own work with organizations, I’ve noticed that a shared art experience in an environment of trust and freedom, enhances our sense of belonging, and creates a crucible for deep conversation from which emerge caring, camaraderie, and genius-level thinking. I call this process mining group gold. Participants in my seminars have observed that:

"Art can be part of the process of bridging gaps/polarities."
"Art creates a different kind of conversation than the verbal/ cerebral one of the workplace."
"Painting was an experience of listening with other senses."
"Art gives us new ways to experience each other."
John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox PARC and director of the PAIR program, (which paired artist with researchers at PARC), says, "The artists revitalize the atmosphere by bringing in new ideas, new ways of thinking, new modes of seeing and new contexts for doing. This is radically different from most corporate support of the arts, where there is little intersection between the disciplines…

There are three ways I look at [the impact of an art experience]. One is the notion that engaging in these types of activities evokes deeper responses, deeper emotions. It brings forth many of the tacitly held beliefs and assumptions that you have. So think of it as evocative of the tacit knowledge. The second is that focused conversations are built and fused together around evocative objects that concern problems that the researcher has on his or her mind. I have said very often, it was the researcher that had the real problem, but the interaction with the artist actually made a big difference. The third concerns the power of simplicity. Simplicity prior to complexity doesn’t mean much. But simplicity, after you pass through the wall of complexity, after you have marinated in a fully nuanced reading of the situation and then rendering it in very simple ways, is extraordinarily powerful."

Knowledge Creation
"Hearing something 100 times, is not the same as seeing it once." Chinese proverb

Art teaches us to sharpen our senses and perceive the world in new ways. Using art/imagery to visualize information is an effective means of knowledge creation. Equiva Services, a support services company for joint venture companies formed by Shell Oil Company, Texaco and Saudi Refining, established a learning lab to study successful new economy companies. Participants in the study embarked on field trips to learn how these companies leverage creativity and high performance. Once they completed their information gathering, their next challenge was to synthesize their findings, and make sense of it all. Participants made sculptural models incorporating words and images to give form to their ideas. Their artwork sparked inquiry, dialogue, storytelling and reflection among the group.

According to Nick Nissley and Gary Jusela researchers involved in this project, these sculptures were the structural capital that “led to the telling of stories about how the energy of imagination and knowledge from the participants’ field visits could be harnessed into intellectual capital.” Using art to visualize information and ideas is a simple and powerful way to make knowledge explicit. The art process made visible what it takes to operate in the new economy. (Equiva ASTD 2002)

Improv as a model for organizing chaos
Jerry Kail, senior OD consultant, LexisNexis, uses the principles of Improv to guide his work in what might otherwise be a chaotic environment. He says, "Actors, especially improvisational actors, have been training their minds for centuries to deal with the unanticipated or, rather, to ‘anticipate surprise.' All of the learnings of improvisational acting apply to learning soft skills in the workplace... It’s very common for me to facilitate the work of a group of people who haven’t worked together before and who aren’t located in the same city, country, or hemisphere. Their challenge can be equated to that of an improv team: to jointly create a coherent narrative from little more than ‘Here’s the goal. Figure out how to get there.' ...Team members must identify promising directions to follow, accept offers for exploration, relate all the various stimuli to the emerging narrative, strike out into risky areas, relinquish trying to control the ultimate outcome, and ultimately create a coherent result that incorporates as many of the threads as possible. In the best improv and the best business teams, there are no stars, no upstaging. The team is the star."

"Unfreezing" the Story
Theatre is also being used by organizations to explore problems that might be difficult to discuss, especially if the situation is emotionally charged. Having professional actors 'playback' the story, externalizes the situation, and makes it safe to discuss. Lena Bjørn, co-founder of The Decapo Theater (Denmark) says "We often work with companies in a period of transition. I think basically what we can do with the theater is to open up the dialogue. Maybe it has never been there; maybe it has been frozen for some reason. We activate their issues but we do it in a safe way because we come with this fiction. Theatre can effect a kind of relief because we use a lot of humor—Ha-ha! Look at what they are doing. It's like us. So we can bring relief by being able to look at our-selves and we can bring reflection."
Art is a means to learn about ourselves and our relationships with each other, to uncover truth, knowledge, to sense emerging futures, to encourage dialogue that embraces many points of view, and to develop skills in logical and conceptual thinking —crucial for achieving success in any endeavor.
For organizations to flourish, we must create environments that foster creativity in all its diversity. We must bring together multi-talented groups of people who collaborate and orchestrate the exchange of knowledge and ideas that shape the future. The question to ask your organization is “What can we learn from the arts that we can apply to business?" A growing number of organizations in business and government are doing just that!
This essay was adapted from Orchestrating Collaboration at Work: Using Music, Improv, Storytelling and Other Arts to Improve Teamwork, by Arthur B. VanGundy, and Linda Naiman. (Wiley/Pfeiffer/Jossey-Bass, 2003)

© Copyright 2004, Linda Naiman & Assoc Inc. All rights reserved.

Linda Naiman BFA, is founder of Creativity at Work, a Vancouver BC consulting coaching and training group, at the forefront of transformational change in organizations. Linda may be reached at 604.327.1565 or through www.creativityatwork.com.

Linda's book "Orchestrating Collaboration at Work" is available for sale through the www.creativityatwork.com site.