A fabulous experience that Jeff Jarvis had using Twitter that demonstrates why we can’t ignore the potential of social media in the future. Catch it on the link below:

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/04/29/the-twitter-flight-well-train/

Just another way of grabbing opportunities and networking with people?

Rules for safety issues are critical. Rules created to ensure transparency are vital. Any other rules tend to inhibit our customers and people. They reduce customer options, they restrict peoples ideas and create boundaries that don’t add any value.

Instead, unnecessary rules increase complexity in a world crying out for simplicity and freedom of choice. Often they are designed to control, keep people in check and assert where the ‘real’ power supposedly is, the organisation/business.

A recent visit for a meeting to a hotel could not have amplified this better. A ‘telling off’ on leaving for holding a two-hour meeting for four people in the lounge area was an outstanding example for sheer arrogance. Of course, we should have booked a training room for half a day (the minimum time allowed), and at an exorbitant cost, how stupid we were!

The real question they should have been asking themselves was why all the lights we on in a room with large windows, on one of the sunniest days in the UK. Hey ho, you can’t win them all.

All companies have evolved and shaped rules over time. Some of them will be essential; a lot will be completely unnecessary. Going over the main rules in your company and asking the question, does this rule control or facilitate added value to our customers and staff isn’t too bigger deal and it could really change your emphasis and perspective.

I’ve mentioned these before but if you are prepared to be challenged, want a different perspective or an insight into what is really happening, you can’t go amiss with these books:

The Long Tail - Chris Anderson 

Tribes - Seth Godin

Futurewise - Patrick Dixon

Beyond Branding - Edited by Nicholas Ind

Building Great Customer Experiences - Colin Shaw and John Ives

The Brand You 50 - Tom Peters

Certainly worth the time and effort!

You can now follow me on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/annholman

Thankfully, I only have 140 characters to use so it’s updated three to four times a day. If you like what you read, don’t forget to sign up to follow me!

Be careful, be very careful. If you have been scaling down your operation to squeeze out more profitability or to reduce costs thats fine. Its good business sense. However, it needs to be coupled with a little risk taking in developing other areas. Not recklessness, just considering opportunities that erases fierce competition.

A huge leap in your marketing effort. Creation of an attractive product offering, or development of the customer experience that knocks the socks off your customers.

Not doing both is tantamount to shooting oneself in the foot twice. All you’ve done is actually not move forward, you’ve just battened down the hatches!

If you are a creative, knowledge based, service orientated business, click on the link below and read Chris’ story on how he has created a business over the last 279 days. Packed full of ideas, it doesn’t matter whether you are looking at a full time writing career or not! Most of us will have to move down the route of a social media strategy anyway. His website/blog is good too!

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/files/2009/04/279days.pdf

Speaking to a number of small business owners the other day, they commented on what had changed over the last few years. In particular, was the lack of interest in the technical aspects of their product. People’s buying behaviour and motivation had shifted. Interesting….

One even ventured to say that the product was secondary now and that customer service was more important. The technical stuff, to many people, has become irrelevant perhaps because products are so good now, quality a minimum standard and the perceived risk isn’t in the product anymore but the company. The difference between a one car and another is marginal really.

That strikes home. If that’s the case what business are you in? If you are a printer, are you a print company anymore? If you make signs are you a still a sign maker? If you are a training company, are you a trainer or imparter of knowledge? If it’s the latter, your marketing should mention it!

If I can get what you do from anywhere, how does the fact you are a printer make you add value to me? Look at Estate agents, consider newspapers, scan the retail market to see why people are having this problem. They haven’t answered the question; what business are we in? They haven’t understood that their product is common. It’s not scarce and there business model reflects that.

Now this is demonstrating how different a hotel can be. Go to the exceptional magazine ‘Wired’ to take a look:

http://www.wired.co.uk/photos.aspx

Small businesses need smart people. It’s not longer permitable to recruit potential employees who aren’t at the top of their game, or at least will be, in the next 3 years. To compete and be world class (nothing less will do) small business owners are going to have to step back and get the best in the market. They no longer have the control, the power and all the answers. Nor are they the most intelligent or creative.

Small businesses will be required to operate more like a European football club, a baseball team and, perhaps, even an English cricket team (heres hoping!) Think about it, the technical skill is with the player’s, the innovation in delivery is on the pitch. They execute the plan. The players are paid more. They are the best in their field, they are expertly skilled in their game and they dictate a premium for it, because, they simply win or lose matches. But they are the best in the business.

Okay, a hell of lot of preparation and strategy goes behind that success, but the small business owners role will be very much be like this in the future. Recruiting the best players, attracting and keeping people at the top of their game and employing the cutting edge innovators. Whilst their role becomes less technical, their task becomes more inspirational. An amazing skill set based on leadership skills not creating the next software program, or designing a logo or cutting someone’s hair.

Being able to facilitate, motivate, corral, drive people towards a common goal and promote a culture thats truly entrepreneurial will replace the skills of control, organising, developing products and doing!

Seth Godin mentions that 90% of our business will come via word of mouth or digital marketing by 2011. Couldn’t agree more. Wrote something similar myself on 3rd April. To see his full blog click on the link below:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/04/sixty-to-zero.html