Last month I gave a speech on crisis communications at the AMMJE conference in Cozumel, Mexico. I talked about the “crisis” that Cozumel, and Mexico as a whole, was having with the tourism industry being way down. Media reports of swine flu and drug cartels in other areas of Mexico have affected Cozumel severely, as well. One of my suggestions was to take the time to develop scenarios of what might happen in the future, and develop their responses. Rather than operating in a “crisis” mode, be proactive.
I also talked about being innovative and looking at new strategies besides the cruise ship tourists. Who else can they communicate to?
At dinner that night, a business owner’s son asked, “My mom is busy every minute of the day. How can she take time to plan? I am helping her this summer, and I don’t even have time to think about these things.”
Patty DeDominic, a Strategic Business Coach in Southern California, says you have to step out of the office to do such work. “Outside workshops and retreats are becoming more and more popular. You must step back and work ON the business not just IN the business. When you go offsite to do planning you get the big picture and can capitalize on the energy in the room. By getting away from your daily tasks, you can see things in a different light and get a more accurate reality of your strengths and weaknesses, rather than just a one-sided perception that the office is giving you that particular day.”
Karen Duncum, owner of a coaching and training firm in Santa Barbara, recently wrote a column for The Huffington Post on “Put Your Feet Up and Innovate.” She said leaders arrive at big-picture solutions by pulling the plug on their usual routines and doing nothing. “Most of the time executives find themselves bombarded with reports, e-mails, telephone calls, fire-fighting, and meetings. The answer is to engage in what I call passive innovation. I routinely advise my clients to unplug by taking a drive to a park, the ocean, or into the country with only a blank pad of paper and pen. Think of it as a coffee break for your brain.”
Two of her tips in the article for “overachievers to clear their minds and open up pathways for breakthrough thinking” were:
Put on Your Thinking Cap: While you can't force inspiration, you can mentally prepare for a productive session of creative ideas. Setting aside time for the specific purpose of "doing nothing" can train your mind to be open to the process.
The bottom line: We all have an unconscious tendency to sell our mental abilities short by miring ourselves in unnecessarily restrictive, shortsighted thinking patterns. Use mini-vacations for your mind to break free from the forces that keep your untapped creative powers in check. Don't be surprised if you discover your greatest productivity occurs when you're doing nothing at all.
Workshops, such as the upcoming BRANDit four-day workshop in Iceland where I will be speaking, offers just this kind of escape. Not only is it an opportunity to combine work with pleasure, but the striking setting of Iceland is the perfect back drop for the workshop. The inspiration of Icelandic nature is being incorporated into the workshop for the women while they are reinvigorating their own branding. There will be some scenic and remarkable side trips, including a stop at the world famous Blue Lagoon.
DeDominic added, “Sometimes it might take an international location to truly get people to turn off their cell phones and e-mail feeds during the planning sessions. It’s important to be in a quiet environment where you are not distracted and give yourself permission to think totally creatively.”
How long has it been since you’ve taken a few hours, or a few days, to explore how to re-invigorate your branding, your strategic plan and/or business operations? It might be time now to purposefully set aside time on your calendar and make the reservations to get away.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Branding is Not Just For Start-Ups
By Mary Schnack
Your brand is your most valuable asset. How long has it been since you’ve re-vigorated your branding?
How do YOU as the business owner fit into that branding?
The goal of branding is to define a brand that creates an emotional connection between you and your customers. It is not just the traditional “graphic” elements that confirm your brand identity.
As business owners, we represent a big part of that branding. It’s everything—the organizations we join, where we advertise, how we reward employees and for what, where you meet with clients…..how firm your handshake, how thorough your follow-up, how aggressive your sales pitch -- all of these say something about you and about your business. Every action either builds on or detracts from your brand.
The owner is the lead ambassador for the brand. You are identified with your company’s brand, and your company is identified with you.
You may start with your visual and your words, but a brand is built on fundamental sustained behavior. Never lose sight of what makes your business special, promote your strengths and build a brand that targets your core customer base. It becomes part of a business’s anatomy based on how you, the business owner, engages with your audiences—whether they are customers, local community, suppliers, industry colleagues or the media.
“When we started organizing our BRANDit workshop, the first reaction from women business owners was that it must be for start-up businesses,” said Runa Magnusdottir, a certified business coach and the CEO and Founder of Connected-Women.com. “We want women with established businesses to look at transforming themselves from “an ordinary business woman” into a “powerful brand”. Our workshops will help them think unique, think independent, and step outside of their daily business mindset and get creative.”
Magnusdottir and Bjarney Ludviksdottir started BRANDit, offering women business owners worldwide a four-day workshop in Reykjavik, Iceland, to create and reinvigorate personal and business branding. Ludviksdottir will use her experience as a casting director and co-owner of Eskimo Models, an Icelandic modeling agency, to capture each woman’s personality via a new headshot, video trailer and press kit.
BRANDit offers the opportunity to revisit your branding. You can change the direction of your business, add new products or services to your business model, but you never change your core values behind the brand. That’s who you are as a brand. It’s your businesses personality.
You have to communicate that brand promise and in order to do that, you have to know what that promise is inside and out. Just like you re-visit your strategic plans, you need to re-visit your core values and branding. Your brand promises customer service, community leadership, corporate integrity, environmental responsibility and democratic values. The brand is YOU, YOU as a leader. It’s more important than you may think.
Your brand is your most valuable asset. How long has it been since you’ve re-vigorated your branding?
How do YOU as the business owner fit into that branding?
The goal of branding is to define a brand that creates an emotional connection between you and your customers. It is not just the traditional “graphic” elements that confirm your brand identity.
As business owners, we represent a big part of that branding. It’s everything—the organizations we join, where we advertise, how we reward employees and for what, where you meet with clients…..how firm your handshake, how thorough your follow-up, how aggressive your sales pitch -- all of these say something about you and about your business. Every action either builds on or detracts from your brand.
The owner is the lead ambassador for the brand. You are identified with your company’s brand, and your company is identified with you.
You may start with your visual and your words, but a brand is built on fundamental sustained behavior. Never lose sight of what makes your business special, promote your strengths and build a brand that targets your core customer base. It becomes part of a business’s anatomy based on how you, the business owner, engages with your audiences—whether they are customers, local community, suppliers, industry colleagues or the media.
“When we started organizing our BRANDit workshop, the first reaction from women business owners was that it must be for start-up businesses,” said Runa Magnusdottir, a certified business coach and the CEO and Founder of Connected-Women.com. “We want women with established businesses to look at transforming themselves from “an ordinary business woman” into a “powerful brand”. Our workshops will help them think unique, think independent, and step outside of their daily business mindset and get creative.”
Magnusdottir and Bjarney Ludviksdottir started BRANDit, offering women business owners worldwide a four-day workshop in Reykjavik, Iceland, to create and reinvigorate personal and business branding. Ludviksdottir will use her experience as a casting director and co-owner of Eskimo Models, an Icelandic modeling agency, to capture each woman’s personality via a new headshot, video trailer and press kit.
BRANDit offers the opportunity to revisit your branding. You can change the direction of your business, add new products or services to your business model, but you never change your core values behind the brand. That’s who you are as a brand. It’s your businesses personality.
You have to communicate that brand promise and in order to do that, you have to know what that promise is inside and out. Just like you re-visit your strategic plans, you need to re-visit your core values and branding. Your brand promises customer service, community leadership, corporate integrity, environmental responsibility and democratic values. The brand is YOU, YOU as a leader. It’s more important than you may think.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Creating a Business Value and Culture of Sustainability
I stated earlier that I didn’t learn much about sustainability at the World Expo in Shanghai because of my terrific client, Nancy Goshow, co-founder and managing partner of Goshow Architects in NYC. She gave a webinar yesterday for WIPP’s Entrepreneurs, Energy and Environment series titled Creating a Business Value and Culture of Sustainability. Nancy packed so much information into the 30-minute webinar that I would highly recommend people to go listen to it online. You can find archived podcasts of this and other past training sessions on EntrepreneursAndEnergy.com in the Resources section.
Goshow Architects is dedicated to sustainable design for the public sector and is known for its diverse range of green projects in the New York metropolitan area. These are now starting to expand internationally.
Most of us have, by now, started recycling programs and changed our light bulbs. Many have even quit using paper products. (Even me—who HATES to do dishes!). In this webinar, Nancy not only told us HOW to be a sustainable business, but more importantly for what I want to write about here -- how to create a culture of sustainability in our workplace.
Nancy outlined points on creating that culture:
- Inspire stakeholders toward a greater greener future.
- Engage by delegation and collaboration (two heads are better than one).
- Create a Green Task Force supported by a green study group.
- Foster communication up and down within your organization.
- Require accountability and flexibility from all participants.
- Ask all stakeholders to be open and on the watch for new ideas.
- Promote & Maintain an ongoing sustainability conversation with all stakeholders.
She also discussed the triple bottom line: people, planet and profits. Goshow Architects has reached their goal for the triple bottom line this year:
- People: We are a diverse firm of architects working collaboratively.
- Planet: On a variety of High performance green buildings.
- Society: For public sector government agencies serving the public good.
- Profit: We are a very busy firm and we are profitable.
She said sustainability has given Goshow a future focused strategically for success in the 21st century. However, their success has not only been on green design for their projects, but because of the diversity of their people and projects. I’ll be writing more about diversity in the future, and I love to see the importance of diversity tied in with sustainability.
Goshow Architects is dedicated to sustainable design for the public sector and is known for its diverse range of green projects in the New York metropolitan area. These are now starting to expand internationally.
Most of us have, by now, started recycling programs and changed our light bulbs. Many have even quit using paper products. (Even me—who HATES to do dishes!). In this webinar, Nancy not only told us HOW to be a sustainable business, but more importantly for what I want to write about here -- how to create a culture of sustainability in our workplace.
Nancy outlined points on creating that culture:
- Inspire stakeholders toward a greater greener future.
- Engage by delegation and collaboration (two heads are better than one).
- Create a Green Task Force supported by a green study group.
- Foster communication up and down within your organization.
- Require accountability and flexibility from all participants.
- Ask all stakeholders to be open and on the watch for new ideas.
- Promote & Maintain an ongoing sustainability conversation with all stakeholders.
She also discussed the triple bottom line: people, planet and profits. Goshow Architects has reached their goal for the triple bottom line this year:
- People: We are a diverse firm of architects working collaboratively.
- Planet: On a variety of High performance green buildings.
- Society: For public sector government agencies serving the public good.
- Profit: We are a very busy firm and we are profitable.
She said sustainability has given Goshow a future focused strategically for success in the 21st century. However, their success has not only been on green design for their projects, but because of the diversity of their people and projects. I’ll be writing more about diversity in the future, and I love to see the importance of diversity tied in with sustainability.
Friday, June 4, 2010
New Chinese Name
I now have a Chinese name—Mary Mulan. (My African name is Njoki, meaning “one who returns”).
During my stay in China we did a three-day trip to Shang Qui in the Hunan Province. This is where the Mulan Temple is and where that entire story originated. The story became famous worldwide in 1998 when Disney did an animated movie on Mulan.
Doking Foods’ factories are located in Shang Qui, a small Chinese city of 10 million people. Most people I have met in Shanghai have never heard of it—because it’s small by China standards. It also is the hub of agriculture output for China.
Doking was the primary financial sponsor of the Legacies Dinner for the Global Summit of Women dinner in Shanghai which honored the President of Finland. Mr. and Mrs. Liu, who are one of the most delightful couples I have ever met, started the business about 10 years ago.
What really astounded me about Doking is that they are introducing a new organic grain drink in their 92 stores across China. And an etching modeled after my photo is on the cup! They decided to make me the face of this health drink since I am a six-time cancer survivor, a former basketball player and coach and still pretty healthy despite all I’ve been through.
When our train pulled into the Shang Qui station, I was a little dazed after sleeping most of the five-hour trip. But I woke up quickly after stepping out on the platform. Mr. Liu was there with flowers for me and the other women in our group. A banner at least 10 feet long welcoming me to Shang Qui was on the platform and there were photographers everywhere. As we left the station, a lot of city, regional and province government officials were there to greet us, too.
We went to our hotel and I was given a suite. At that evening’s dinner I was honored with gifts and – more pictures were taken! And yes, we did a lot of “cheers” and drinking. The top woman official for the region was at the dinner, too.
The next day we went to the Doking Factory and toured the Shang Qui area. We were given a police escort everywhere so we would not be held up in traffic and yes, there were photographers at every stop.
Doking already had a brochure and video made that had photos and editorial mention of the Global Summit dinner, which had just been two days earlier. They are one of the few factories in China that do not allow smoking on the property.
Besides the Mulan Temple, we went to the Mulan Cultural Park, the city wall and old town and the “Fire House.” It was all very interesting and informative. And of course, that night we had another celebration dinner before leaving the next morning on the train.
Mulan was a warrior from somewhere between the 4th and 6th centuries that went to war disguised as a man so her elderly father would not have to go. Of course, she was one of China’s greatest warriors for the next 10 years and not until her service was over did she reveal that she was a woman.
To be compared to the “most famous and strongest” woman in Chinese history is quite an honor. And at first I was embarrassed by it. But I know it is in fun—and I decided, why not? I have been working for many years to help further the status of women throughout the world. In the last few years, my main focus in this area has been for women in developing countries.
The woman that heads the women’s association in the Hunan Province was at the Mulan Temple to greet us as well. This is not just a group for businesswomen, but for all women. She said that the association helps women with personal issues as well as business issues. She said that many women want to start businesses. I asked her what is the biggest issue overall. I expected something like child care, domestic violence, health care services – something more on the personal front. Her quick answer was “getting capital.” It’s amazing that no matter how different things are, they are still the same. That is probably the primary obstacle for women business owners in the US, as well.
During my stay in China we did a three-day trip to Shang Qui in the Hunan Province. This is where the Mulan Temple is and where that entire story originated. The story became famous worldwide in 1998 when Disney did an animated movie on Mulan.
Doking Foods’ factories are located in Shang Qui, a small Chinese city of 10 million people. Most people I have met in Shanghai have never heard of it—because it’s small by China standards. It also is the hub of agriculture output for China.
Doking was the primary financial sponsor of the Legacies Dinner for the Global Summit of Women dinner in Shanghai which honored the President of Finland. Mr. and Mrs. Liu, who are one of the most delightful couples I have ever met, started the business about 10 years ago.
What really astounded me about Doking is that they are introducing a new organic grain drink in their 92 stores across China. And an etching modeled after my photo is on the cup! They decided to make me the face of this health drink since I am a six-time cancer survivor, a former basketball player and coach and still pretty healthy despite all I’ve been through.
When our train pulled into the Shang Qui station, I was a little dazed after sleeping most of the five-hour trip. But I woke up quickly after stepping out on the platform. Mr. Liu was there with flowers for me and the other women in our group. A banner at least 10 feet long welcoming me to Shang Qui was on the platform and there were photographers everywhere. As we left the station, a lot of city, regional and province government officials were there to greet us, too.
We went to our hotel and I was given a suite. At that evening’s dinner I was honored with gifts and – more pictures were taken! And yes, we did a lot of “cheers” and drinking. The top woman official for the region was at the dinner, too.
The next day we went to the Doking Factory and toured the Shang Qui area. We were given a police escort everywhere so we would not be held up in traffic and yes, there were photographers at every stop.
Doking already had a brochure and video made that had photos and editorial mention of the Global Summit dinner, which had just been two days earlier. They are one of the few factories in China that do not allow smoking on the property.
Besides the Mulan Temple, we went to the Mulan Cultural Park, the city wall and old town and the “Fire House.” It was all very interesting and informative. And of course, that night we had another celebration dinner before leaving the next morning on the train.
Mulan was a warrior from somewhere between the 4th and 6th centuries that went to war disguised as a man so her elderly father would not have to go. Of course, she was one of China’s greatest warriors for the next 10 years and not until her service was over did she reveal that she was a woman.
To be compared to the “most famous and strongest” woman in Chinese history is quite an honor. And at first I was embarrassed by it. But I know it is in fun—and I decided, why not? I have been working for many years to help further the status of women throughout the world. In the last few years, my main focus in this area has been for women in developing countries.
The woman that heads the women’s association in the Hunan Province was at the Mulan Temple to greet us as well. This is not just a group for businesswomen, but for all women. She said that the association helps women with personal issues as well as business issues. She said that many women want to start businesses. I asked her what is the biggest issue overall. I expected something like child care, domestic violence, health care services – something more on the personal front. Her quick answer was “getting capital.” It’s amazing that no matter how different things are, they are still the same. That is probably the primary obstacle for women business owners in the US, as well.
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