The Corner Office

There’s an astounding spectrum of professionalism in small business. Some almost effortlessly put customer’s needs and problems first, while others let their drama and dysfunctions dictate how they do business. Like it or not, customers get dragged along for the ride.

No matter how good you are, making customers jump through hoops dealing with your issues is no way to get repeat business in a competitive market.

My dentist spent countless weeks getting a new bridge done just right. We had all kinds of problems with temporaries coming lose and cracking and the lab messing up. It took way more of her time than it should have, including working through lunch and coming in on her day off. But you know what? She never once complained or put herself first. She just kept thanking me for being so patient.

My wife and I are regulars at a local - some would call it boutique - supermarket. The prices may be a bit higher than Safeway, but the head of the meat and seafood department will only recommend the freshest fish to us because he knows my wife’s picky about that sort of thing. And it’s not just a relationship thing. He treats everyone that way because that’s how the store does business.

That’s because they make business with me - the customer - about solving my problems, instead of making me - the customer - deal with theirs. And that makes it very easy to overlook the minor inconveniences of doing business with them.

The same goes for B2B. I’ve stuck with quite a few vendors for many, many years for that same reason. A PR agency, a Web development company, an executive coaching firm, a production company, even a small business insurance agent. Sure, they’re all competent; you’ve got to be just to make the cut. And one or two may even be among the best at what they do. But I’d stick with them even if they weren’t.

On the flip side, I’ve worked with vendors and contractors that were so dysfunctional, so finicky, so difficult to work with, that I would inevitably find myself jumping through one hoop after another to support them. They could be the absolute best at what they do and I still wouldn’t hire them again or send referrals their way. I’m sure they get repeat business from some customers, but frankly, I don’t know who would put up with that crap when there’s plenty of competition.

And that’s really what it comes down to. These days, customers are busier and more stressed than they used to be. And there are way more choices and competitors than there used to be. B2C, B2B, it really doesn’t matter. If you’ve got a small business, getting the job done at a reasonable price is no longer a competitive advantage; it just gets you in the game. If you want repeat business, if you want to outpace the competition, you need to focus on solving customer problems while making sure they never have to deal with yours.

That will make the difference.

If you’ve never won a big contract or huge piece of business, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s an incredible feeling; like a burst of adrenaline that lasts for as long as the business lasts. But that’s sort of the problem with adrenaline, isn’t it? When it’s gone, you feel like you’re dead inside. And when a company loses that one big deal, that’s exactly what can happen.

At 4:05 pm EST on Monday, solid state drive maker STEC announced its third quarter results. Revenues and earnings were up considerably, beating the company’s previous guidance. All good, right? Not exactly.

Buried way down in the fifth paragraph of the earnings press release, came a whopper:  

“One of our customers entered into a $120 million supply agreement with us for shipments covering the second half of 2009. We recently received preliminary indications that our customer might carry inventory of our ZeusIOPS at the end of 2009 which they will use in 2010.”  

The next day, STEC’s stock was down a whopping 39 percent on volume of 32 million shares. Turns out the customer referenced in the quote, EMC, accounted for 15 percent of STEC’s revenues last year. Sure, STEC had 329 customers in 2008, but just two of them - Smart Modular and EMC - accounted for 50 percent of the company’s total sales. Read the rest of this entry »

The first time I was considered for a CEO position I actually got the job, which surprised the heck out of me. When I asked the executive recruiter why I was chosen over what I thought were more experienced candidates, one of the things he said was that I had “CEO presence.”

Admittedly, I’m not 100 percent sure what that means. But I have worked with hundreds of CEOs and other executives, so I thought I’d take a stab at what constitutes “executive presence.” Whenever I attempt this sort of thing, the results are often counterintuitive, if not downright surprising. This is no exception.

For example, executive presence has nothing to do with polish, poise, sophistication, or even use of body language and gestures. In my opinion, executives with presence are just as likely to not posses these qualities. Most of them can be learned anyway, but why bother?

In this day and age, executive presence comes in many shapes and sizes, but I think I managed to boil it down to its essence - the 10 qualities or aspects that work across the board.

Here’s another conclusion some will have a tough time swallowing. I don’t think any of these qualities are easy to learn or practice. I’m sure you can cognitively develop and improve some of them, but not by much. Not that anyone’s born with them; they develop over time with experience and maturity. Read the rest of this entry »

When hotelier Chip Conley posted pictures from his Burning Man trip on his Facebook page, some of his employees complained that they were inappropriate for a CEO. We’ve covered the fracas in A CEO’s Dilemma: Should I Take My Burning Man Pics off Facebook? Now we want to hear what you think about social media sites blurring the line between work and play. Where do the boundaries lie in each of these scenarios?

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Picture this: You are a top executive at one of the biggest technology companies on the planet. You spent 30 years working your tail off, climbing the corporate ladder, building your reputation, and it all paid off. You’re set for life; you can retire tomorrow and never have to worry about money as long as you live.

So what do you do? You leak all kinds of inside information on upcoming earnings releases and a high-profile restructuring and spinoff to a friend at a hedge fund who you know is going to illegally trade a million shares on the information and let another hedge fund manager in on the fun, too.

But you’re caught red-handed on tape by the FBI. Poof, it’s all gone. Just like that.

So, can you picture that happening to you? Of course not; neither can I. But it allegedly happened, and not to just one guy, but two. 

One is former AMD CEO and Motorola president Hector Ruiz, who yesterday agreed to step down as chairman of AMD spinoff Globalfoundries. Ruiz, apparently caught in the FBI snare, cooperated with the investigation and has not been charged.

The other is Bob Moffat, an IBM senior VP who has been mentioned as a possible successor to IBM CEO Sam Palmisano. Moffat, who was arrested by the feds a couple of weeks ago and charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, ended his 31-year career at IBM on Friday.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a hot trend and it’s here to stay. Retail marketers at Starbucks, Kraft, and Campbell have discovered that “simple” sells. Products that stress fewer ingredients - food, drinks, cosmetics, even pet food - are outselling rivals, as this USA Today story explains.

But is simple really better, or is this just another fad for health-conscious consumers, not to mention the ever-growing number of people looking for a quick fix so they can continue to gouge themselves on high-fat and sugary foods without feeling guilty? Sure, fewer additives and processing is a good thing, but three simple ingredients - butter, sugar, and flour - will kill you faster than you can say “cardiac arrest.”  

More to the point, tricking consumers with creative marketing is one thing. But will the trend extend beyond consumable products? Is ’simple’ something we should all be watching and considering in our marketing, branding, and positioning? The simple answer to that is yes. Here are …

Five reasons why you should Keep It Simple: Read the rest of this entry »

The most common career mistake managers make is taking a lesser job than they should. Personal issues aside, too many managers and professionals are too risk averse, pulling the trigger on that critical decision sooner than they should.

It’s a common enough story: a friend of mine - a director-level employee at a Fortune 500 company where he’s worked for 20 years - gets laid off. To me, this is a blessed event. After toiling in the agonizingly stifling and stagnant shadows of big-company middle management, he finally has a chance to shoot for a top job at a smaller company where he can really make a difference.

We chat for an hour or so about his options and opportunities, when I finally come to the most important point I want to get across to my friend: 

“Don, under no circumstances should you even consider a job beneath executive staff level.”

“Oh, really?” Don says, surprised. Read the rest of this entry »

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Not only is the writing on the wall - the writing has covered the wall and spilled over onto the floor, the ceiling … hell, it’s everywhere. Big government has come to America. Now what?

Do you suck it up and learn how to live in the new world order? Or is this just a short-term pendulum swing - an overreaction to the financial crisis and eight years of George W. Bush? In that case, just vote the creeps out and play “Don’t Get Fooled Again,” right? Well, not exactly.

You see, there’s new legislation on the table that, when coupled with the bills that have already been rammed through congress, may make it very difficult to get the big government pendulum to stop, let alone swing back the other way, at least in our lifetimes.  Read the rest of this entry »

Language is a relatively effective communication tool. I say relatively effective because, well, let’s face it, it’s highly subjective and open to interpretation. And you know what? We make a bad situation worse by using labels.

Sure, labels are great shortcuts, but they have a big downside. They’re more subject to misinterpretation than if you were to describe what you’re talking about in detail.

For example, telling somebody you’re a “marketing guy” narrows their interpretation of your capabilities to oh, about 500 possibilities. Steve Jobs is a “marketing guy.” He’s also a CEO of one of America’s top companies. My phone just rang a few minutes ago. It was a “marketing guy” offering a special credit card rate. Big difference.   

Politics? Don’t even get me started.

When you’re being interviewed for a job, negotiating with a customer, or speaking with a potential client, do you really want to leave their impressions up to subjective interpretation? Of course not. And make no mistake: people base a lot - even big decisions - on first impressions. Don’t you? Read the rest of this entry »

President Obama’s White House communications folks have launched an all-out war on Fox News. On the surface, this would appear to be a classic PR blunder, i.e. “If you want to elevate your enemy, attack them publicly.” A smarter move would be to embrace them, as in “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

But a closer look reveals the work of a white house desperate to ensure that others didn’t follow in the cable network’s footsteps.

The first salvos came when, according to ABC’s Political Punch:

White House communications director Anita Dunn told TIME that FNC is “opinion journalism masquerading as news.”

“The reality of it is that FOX News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party,” Dunn said. “It really is not a news network at this point.” Read the rest of this entry »

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