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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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: (more…)

If you’re reading this, chances are your business or company is struggling. I know mine is. But this isn’t my first recession and it won’t be my last. Over the years, I’ve learned to look at down cycles opportunistically. No, I’m not on drugs. Down markets are absolutely the best time to retrench and take risks.

Here are 10 classic CEO quotes that matter now more than ever, along with my takeaway that can help your business today in today’s economy.   

“You have to pretend you’re 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can’t hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure.”

Andrew Grove, former CEO, Intel

Takeaway: Come up with an idea, a strategy, a plan, and act! Now.   (more…)

Interbrand just released its annual list of the world’s top brands. What, if anything, does that mean and should you care? Well, that depends. Consumers just look at the list and say, “Hey, Coke’s still number one; that’s nice,” or “Look at Google climb the chart!”

But if you work for Pepsi, Ford, or IKEA, you might have a completely different take on it, especially if you analyze multiyear and competitive trends. You see, there actually is a way to determine the relative value of a consumer brand in buying decisions. Intebrand’s Brand Value metric is based on three factors:

• Branded product profitability
• Brand influence on customer demand at point of purchase 
• Brand loyalty - ability to secure ongoing or future customer demand

Keep in mind, this is not simply a function of marketing, advertising, PR, logos, names, or anything of the sort. It’s a measure of how the branded products are doing and will continue to do in the marketplace.

For example, nobody would argue that the ascension of Apple’s brand in recent years is for any other reason than that the company makes breakthrough products. That said, nobody’s going to tell me that Coke’s an intrinsically better product or tastes better to more people than Pepsi. Does Colgate really make better toothpaste than Crest? You can ask the same question of Nike and Adidas, UPS and FedEx, the list goes on and on. (more…)

Some of us search for truth. Others are on an endless quest for the meaning of life. I’m not quite so demanding. I just want some answers to a few things that are bugging me. 

• Like when you tell telemarketers you’re not interested, why do they keep talking until you’re forced to hang up on them? And why do they keep calling back again and again? Exactly what kind of business model is that?
• And can anybody really taste apple, blackberry, and mango when they drink wine? How about violet, tobacco, and leather? Have you? For real?
• How were Lou Gerstner and Mark Hurd able to turn around zillion year-old, $100 billion plus companies like IBM and HP when dozens of CEOs and boards - like at Sun, Sprint Nextel, Nortel, Dell and Motorola - haven’t a clue?  (more…)

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It’s Friday before a holiday weekend, but that’s still no excuse. If you’re still working and reading, I’m still working and writing. Besides, where are you gonna go for a pithy business blog on a day like today, huh? That’s right, The Corner Office. So, here’s your reward - for both of my readers today:

Top 10 “Short Business Lists”

1. Safe banks. Actually, I like TD Ameritrade … and maybe Wells Fargo. 
2. Bug-free software. No such thing.
3. Profitable airlines. Southwest. Nope, not Ryanair.
4. Underpaid big-company CEOs. Hmmm.
5. Canadian technology companies. Research In Motion.
6. Failing fast-food companies. ???
7. Biotech firms researching new antibiotics. Lousy ROI; too bad for us.
8. Management gurus with management experience. My pet peeve.
9. Internet resellers that communicate over the Internet. I mean real-time. Seriously.
10. Out of work lawyers.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Got any short business lists? Come on, try it; it’s fun.

In any case, have a great Labor Day weekend!

If you look back over your career, it tells a story of opportunities pursued or missed, advice taken or ignored. Why choose certain paths and not others? What determines which advice to follow? Who knows, but one thing’s for sure. Advice given at a time when you’re receptive can change your entire career … but only if you’re listening.

In How Events Shape Your Career: Are You Paying Attention?, we received over 130 comments and emails from BNET readers offering advice that changed their careers. I plowed through them all to come up with the best of the best. 

As for the criteria, I looked for advice that I believed would be most helpful to a broad range of business and management folks. I tried to avoid the obvious stuff we’ve all heard a thousand times, and also eliminated public quotes, since this is about personal advice, not pithy quotes from famous people.

There were dozens of great ones, but here’s my top ten plus some amusing honorable mentions at the end (user names in parenthesis): (more…)

Ever get a call or an email from a new client and, well, it just doesn’t feel right? I mean, red flags go up, your spider sense starts tingling, the hair on the back of your neck sticks up? You know something’s not quite right but you’re just not sure what it is.

But still, times are tough and you need the business. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve got bills to pay, I tend to cut potential clients a lot of slack. Lately, if it even looks like I’m in any way “screening” a potential client, even the slightest bit, my wife looks at me like I’m some kind of moron. You know what I’m talking about.

So, if you’re a consultant, salesperson, work for yourself, or are in any kind of service profession, these four questions will help you deal with potentially problematic clients. I’ve been around a long time and, IMO, Business Pundit hit this one out of the park. (more…)

Recently, my wife and I went to one of our favorite restaurants in Half Moon Bay, California. The experience wasn’t what we remembered; we waited 30 minutes past our reservation before we were seated, and another 15 minutes for bread and water to appear.  I started to reflect on how common such experiences are - and not just in restaurants.

Few businesses are able to avoid the “success ruins everything” syndrome. Some firms overexpand and fail to maintain consistent standards, a fate that has befallen numerous restaurants and celebrity chefs that have spread themselves too thin. Others lose sight of their quality and performance standards in the push to grow quickly. Toyota, which built its reputation and economic success on its quality and design processes, recently admitted that it had let those standards slip in its quest to become bigger than GM. Toyota’s newly appointed CEO promised to return the company to its roots, fixing its quality problems and reinvigorating its technical innovation. (more…)