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How’s Your Elevator Pitch?
One of the first and most important professional communication techniques I was taught in business was the importance of developing an "Elevator Pitch" a very short statement describing what it is that you do. In fifty words or less (about 30 - 45 seconds) you should be able to communicate who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and how people benefit from what you do. What I have come to…
Casting Stones
There has been much written about the life and death of Ken Lay since he passed away. I have long made it a point not to sit in judgment of others as it is very difficult to properly connect the dots from afar. It is my belief that there are indeed at least two sides to every story and that what often times appears in the media as hard news can actually be editorial commentary that may or may not…
The Power of Personal Branding
With as much as 80% of a corporation's net value being comprised of its brand equity, it's no wonder that almost 1.5 trillion dollars are spent on corporate branding initiatives. While most CEOs readily understand the need to build brand equity at the corporate level or for products, services, intellectual property, etc., very few understand the substantial benefits that are created from…
The Name Game: Part 3
This is the 3rd and final post in this series on naming. The first post dealt with how to select a naming firm, the second post addressed the components that go into creating a great corporate name and this post will deal with other venues within the naming field. A lot of focus and attention is brought to bear on the topic of corporate naming as this is the most visible high impact area of…
The Name Game: Part 2
Today's post is part two in a three-part series on naming. Yesterday's post contained advice on how to select a naming firm and today's post will cover the elements that go into creating a great name. Contrary to popular belief all of the great names have not already been taken. So, what are the components of a great name? While the answer varies a bit from industry to industry the following…
The Name Game: Part 1
The disciplines of branding and corporate identity have long been personal passions of mine, and nothing within this genre holds a greater fascination for me than the practice of corporate naming. This post is the first in a three-post series and will discuss whether corporate naming should be handled as an internal initiative, or whether it should be outsourced to a professional naming firm.…
What Really Matters?
I must confess that I'm not a movie critic and I've never written a film review, but I guess there's a first time for everything. I just returned from the movie theatre with my family where we watched Pixar Studio's "Cars". On the way to the movie, I was giving some tongue in cheek grief to my wife about being dragged to an animated film (I'm normally more of an action film kind of guy) On the…
How to Capitalize on a Strong Brand
OK, so you've made all the right moves and built a strong, recognized brand Now what? Don't make the mistake of many companies who rely on existing brand recognition to carry them forward. Rather take your recognized brand equity and leverage it into new strategic partners, broader and deeper customer relationships, and new products and services. The fastest path from brand recognition to brand…
How to Win the War for Talent
Due to numerous requests, I have agreed to post a reprint of an article I previously authored describing the undeniable value of talent in the workplace. Here you go... I am often asked to write or speak on the issues surrounding recruiting and retaining talent. However, most of what I write about are all the phases of the talent management lifecycle that come after the recruiting phase, leading…
The Impact of Globalization on Business
I have traveled to more than 22 countries and have had the opportunity to transact business in various parts of Asia, the Middle East, Canada, Central, and Latin America, Russia, and former Eastern Block countries, India, and the European Community. Conducting business on a global basis has always been of great personal interest to me, and it has also been both a pleasurable and financially…
The Typical Approach to Capital Formation is often the Wrong Approach
The architecture of your corporate capital formation strategy should be engineered by design and should not be something that evolves by default over time. However all too common is the enterprise that organizes itself improperly out of the gate by making the wrong choice of entity, issuing the wrong type, class, and amount of stock or member units, seeking equity investments either from the…
About ready to promote your CFO into an operating or strategy role? You may want to think twice
When the Chief Executive Officer is looking to fill a senior operating or strategy position it is common to consider the possibility of promoting the Chief Financial Officer into that role. After all CFO's are senior executives who typically exhibit sound judgment and are used to being charged with great levels of corporate and fiscal responsibility. From the CFO's side of the equation, their…