Dodo Loves Marketing

Law firms are rarely considered cutting-edge organizations, but with their use of graded levels of achievement, they are far ahead of most companies. Although all lawyers are free to choose more conventional career paths—moving into the management of other lawyers, perhaps, or becoming a legal generalist for a corporation—these levels of achievement provide lawyers with an alternative, but equally respected, path to growth. It is a path that offers them both the opportunity to become experts and a simple way to track their progress. ..more

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Even if you thoughtfully examine the match between the employee and the role, you’ve still got a problem. No matter what conclusion you come to, the employee will invariably want to move up. The employee will want to be promoted. Every signal sent by the company tells him that higher is better. A larger salary, a more impressive title, more generous stock options, a roomier office with a couch and a coffee table, all this and more awaits the lucky employee on the next rung on the ladder. No wonder he wants to move up. ..more

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Great managers have to survive in a hostile world. Most companies do not value excellence in every role. They do not provide alternative career paths for their employees. And they do not give their managers the leeway to design graded levels of achievement or broadbanded pay plans. If you find yourself living in this restricted world, what can you do? ..more

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However skilled you are at the work you plan to do from home, your primary consideration in setting up your new business, must be to establish your market. Quite simply, that means finding your customers. In any business, whether you are a plumber, consultant or counsellor, you need customers to succeed. Tracking customers down — and holding on to them — is one of the most difficult challenges for any new business. If it is remotely possible, it is best not to leave your current job, if you have one, before you have at least one or two leads. ..more

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Most people cringe at the thought of giving a speech or chairing a meeting. The limelight is on you and everyone is watching and listening. Who wouldn’t feel at least a bit on edge under these circumstances? While many can muster their courage to get through these events, there are some who find their limbs shaking and their foreheads perspiring at the very thought of the next public speaking occasion. ..more

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Once you’ve done your market research and worked out if you can make a profit from the business, the next step is to take advice. This will not only confirm whether your calculations are realistic, but can take a lot of the pain out of setting up. The good news is that there’s lots of advice available - and much of it is free. What’s more, experts on small businesses reckon that over 60 per cent of small business failures could be avoided if only people took advice in three areas - money, management and marketing.

1 TECs/LECs A good place to start is your local Training and Enterprise Council (TEC), or Local Enterprise Council (LEC) . These can also put you in touch with other helpful agencies; such as your local Enterprise Agency and Business Link. You can find them through your telephone book, Yellow Pages or local library. The Department of Trade and Industry also has a hotline. ..more

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It is a sad fact of life that most small businesses require capital to start up. There are a few businesses which require only the minimum of equipment and stationery (journalism, PR and teaching, for instance), but most will require some form of outlay either for equipment, for stock or both. Then there are other considerations. You may need a budget for advertising, for accountancy and legal fees, or even for adapting your living room.

Before you even try to raise money, it is well worth thinking about the minimum amount needed. If the business is in the fledgling stage, try to keep only to the bare essentials — there will be time for a mahogany desk and state-of-the-art printer at a later, more successful stage. ..more

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Congratulations ! Now you will have to consider the nitty-gritty of arrangements necessary for your new working style to develop smoothly. The union for skilled and professional workers MSF have introduced some guidelines for homeworkers to ensure their health and safety at work. They may be a counsel of perfection — particularly if you are only working at home on a very part-time or informal basis — but they are worth bearing in mind. They include : ..more

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Practical confrontation skills

Being able to stand up to people and speak firmly and constructively to them, is a valuable skill in handling problem people. If you tend to fume and walk away from a confrontation muttering to yourself, ‘I wish I had said . . . !! to that*O#!’, then you need confrontation skills.

Constructively confronting people is a communication strategy which allows you to speak your mind and represent your feelings in a direct way. It is not a strategy of name calling or aggressive outbursts. ..more

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A difficulty in discriminating between our conditioned disempowering conscience and our true empowering conscience, is that what is seemingly right for one particular culture may be viewed as wrong by another. For example, one culture may choose to receive payment from the person accused of causing the death of a family member as appropriate compensation, but this custom of accepting ‘blood money’ could be considered immoral by another culture. Because of different cultural views, therefore, it is important to differentiate between morality and conscience. ..more

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So what becomes of our individual privacy and anonymity in a world where there is an Internet-ready device at every turn we make. Aren’t we being bombarded with enough information and advertising as it is? Are car manufacturers going to “eavesdrop” on our weekend getaways? And who’s going to know that I rode an elevator in Chicago last Thursday afternoon? Is “somebody out there” going to know every TV show-watch? Are we marching toward a privacy nightmare or a service and convenience dream? What is going to keep the car manufacturer from selling your whereabouts to other vendors, or even letting it fall into the hands of sophisticated robbers who could drop by your house while you’re spending the weekend in the mountains? ..more

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As you head into the third and final section of this book, you may still be wondering about what kind of business you actually want to launch. You may have the fire in your belly. You may be in The High- Performance Zone. You may have spent hours thinking about a business plan. But you may still be uncertain about where to go from here. Well, this session on franchising may be just what you’re looking for.

Globally, franchising growth has been explosive.

America has really fueled the explosive growth in franchising. In fact, in America, franchising accounts for ± 42% of all retail business and ± 10% of the gross national product. In America, six million people are involved in half a million franchise outlets. In Australia, on the other hand, franchising accounts for 25% of all retail business. ..more

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You’ve just been offered a plum post as manager of a large division in an international corporation. Before uncorking the champagne and calling all your friends with the news, consider:

Ideally, managers of decentralized operations are expected to act like autonomous, free-ranging, market-sensitive executives—much like the classic entrepreneur. But in reality, you are often trapped in a hierarchical middle, held accountable for profit-center responsibility while, at the same time, chief executive officers and their surrogates violate your autonomy without recognizing it, sometimes even going behind your back to intervene on divisional turf.

If you are offered a division manager’s job, talk to the CEO (it will be the chief operating officer in a very large corporation) and ask, “What kinds of decisions do you see yourself getting involved in?” ..more

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“The manager’s challenge is not to practice management by objectives, but to manage despite diverse objectives,” says Dr. Harlan.

The organization is “a web of tensions,” Cleveland observes. “You have people with opposing viewpoints fighting to get them incorporated into executive decisions. Many managers try to lower the tensions that inevitably result. But that’s like administering a muscle relaxant. When there is no tension in the muscles, nothing much can happen, and the body falls down.” He sees the manager’s role as keeping the tension constructive and functional (so that it doesn’t boil over into personal animosities). ..more

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The workplace is becoming more racially diverse, thanks to affirmative action and increased educational opportunities for minorities. Unfortunately, racial tensions often manifest themselves. These can disrupt working relationships, slow down productivity, dampen motivation, alienate clients and customers, and even invite legal action.

When racism erupts, managers tend to make some common mistakes, like:

• Setting ultimatums. “Some managers simply say, ‘You two will work together or else,’ ” says Maudine Cooper, staff director for the District of Columbia government mayor, Washington, DC. “This approach only makes matters worse.” Forcing a relationship does not change people’s feelings, which are at the root of the problem. As long as they continue to harbor the hatred or mistrust or whatever it is they feel, the problem will tend to persist. ..more
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How do you keep track of who is in your downline? All networkers, when they join a network, are given a personalised number. This number identifies them as belonging to a particular network. You may ask: ‘But how can I keep track of all the people in my downline?’ The answer is that you don’t need to. In network marketing each individual works three levels deep. You are directly responsible for the distributors you recruit (level one), the people they recruit (level two) and the people they, in turn, recruit (level three). That’s not too much to manage. ..more

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