Recently in Strategy Category

I don’t think anyone can argue that Barak Obama made history this week.  While the popular vote was no landslide, unlike the electoral college, Obama had several strategic game changers during election campaign that separated him from his opponent. So it should come as no surprise that everyone is now writing about how organizations can use the same tactics and strategies and apply them to their own organization.  Here are just a few articles and blog posts worth reading over.

Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators - Harvard Business Publishing

What Newsrooms Can Learn From Obama - Recovering Journalist Blog

How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama - Harvard Business Publishing

BNET: Obama’s Communications Moving at Warp Speed

While the use of technology will was not the only game changer in the Obama campaign, it played a significant role in my opinion.  His campaign strategically found ways to connect with his constituents by allowing them to campaign on his behalf through myBarakObama blogs, using text messaging for updates, using YouTube to let video messages go viral, and use of his ever growing email database. 

While I certainly can’t dissect his entire campaign strategy, he also brilliantly executed an integrated marketing strategy.  He took the concept of “small is the new big” by asking for small donations from individuals, not the maximum from them at once.  Additionally, he asked his database of volunteers and advocates to do small things such as calling friends and strangers about his campaign, which resulted in a huge workforce. 

I think Obama executed two strategies extremely well during his campaign.  First, he brilliantly used social media to empower his followers. Jermiah Owyang, a Forrester analyst on Social Media, researched and found stats on how Obama and McCain used social media.   While Owyang won’t draw any correlations to the use of social media to his win, Obama commanded the use of the Internet. I believe it was that use of technology that helped, if for nothing else, give him exposure to a larger population of voters. McCain followed suit by participating in the same space, but I believe the generation gap of a 70+ year old using MySpace and Facebook wasn’t as authentic as a 40+ year old.  In fact to compete with Obama’s “MyBarakObama”, McCain launched McCainSpace using social network took Kick-Apps.

Obama’s second strategic win was how he treated his volunteers, and that was with respect and authenticity.  He would send a message (or tried on several occasions to mixed results) to his volunteers and donors informing them of what he was going to do next before he would do it to the media.  He understood that by informing this audience first he not only respected that they want information, but knew that they would spread that message beyond what the media could accomplish.  However, by informing his volunteers and donors first he also put transparency on his campaign and that, in my opinion, is a level of authenticity that builds trust.

And Obama’s not done either.  Change.gov launched yesterday getting not only himself ready for the next four years, but informing the American people as well.  As technology evolves, going back to the U.S. Mail distributing pamphlets to America back in the beginning of our country to TV bringing a face and live debate to every home to the Internet, our public officials and government will change as well.  If Obama uses the Internet as much during his presidency as he did during his campaign, change won’t be just that an African American is at 1600 Pennsylvania, it will be how he has enabled the entire country to speak to him to make changes the American people want.  

Ah, and you thought you were going to see a post of genius did you?  Well, not yet. That's the topic of a presenation I'm giving on Thursday to a group of State Bar communications staff.  I have a few things in mind, but what are your thoughts?  Still room to tweak my presentation.  Add your top 5 in the comments. After the presentation I'll be posting the slides and notes. 

Day one had a great line up of speakers and content. Day two looks like it will be no different.

Here is my Twitter Stream which I will be updating during the day. I'll then recap later.

Full Twitter String
RSS Feed

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Online Community Sites of Note:

Dell Community
IdeaExchange by Salesforce
Real World New Cast Member by MTV
IdeaStorm by Dell

Updated: 3:45pm

I'm at the Forrester Consumer Forum in Chicago today and tomorrow. I'll be writing my thoughts and observations on the content from the conference here.

So far there have been some great speakers. The theme of the conference is around the online world, social integration, advertising, and how your company can understand and take advantage of this medium. The format of the Forum is pretty cool. Short presentation on targeted topics, then a "coffee talk" type Q&A with the speaker (literally two chairs with an end-table on a stage w/ two large video screens on each side). The dialog is great and personal to those in the audience.

Kicking off the conference was Forrester Vice President and senior analyst Charlene Li. Charlene does a lot of her research around the social technographics. Who is using the social tools, how, and to what level of participation.

Christie Hefner from Playboy had a great keynote on how Playboy has truly been able to leverage the Playboy brand in ways that most companies would drool over. It is amazing how they have been able to integrate new solutions successfully from Print, to TV, to Online, and now Mobile. They have brought the brand beyond the print publication(s) to the real world, and now virtual world with an entry into Second Life. They also have been able to leverage a key demographic and target market by launching PlayboyU, a social space for college students with an .edu email address.

3:45pm
Richard Edelman, president and ceo of Edelmen PRgave one of the most forward thinking perspectives when it comes to PR/MR. It resonates with a lot of what I've been thinking about when it comes to control of messages, brands, and the interaction with your consumers (and in my work, members and consumers). One of the biggest take-aways was the reality of how the traditional media triangle works. It used (and in many corporations still is) to be that a few influencers controlled the conversation and distributed it to the masses. It has touch points of how it got distributed and they all came back to the same message. The internet, and social media such as blogs, ratings, reviews, etc. changes that model. Today if someone wants to have information about some topic, the influencers are now bloggers, customers, like-minded individuals who publish online. Companies have to realize that there is a limited amount of influential control they have left. Now, the mass audience make up their own minds--right, wrong, or in-different.

I also got to attend one of track sessions. It was about how User Generated Content, or UGC, can have a place in corporate strategies. The panel included representatives from Dell, QVC, and Baazarvoice. Each explained how they have taken UGC and integrated it into their company strategies. From Dell's IdeaStorm, a customer feedback site that allows users to rate feedback for popularity, to how QVC uses real-time feedback to inject into their programming. UGC is a tough cookie to crack and how to use it. Let alone if it really does. Many of us have wondered how to make it work. We are fearful of the backlash and if execs can even swallow the fact that they are not in control of what goes on. But that's OK. Rather, we need to find ways that work for us. For example, customer reviews. Having all positive customer reviews on a product page in reality is just product testimonials. You need negative reviews to show authenticity. Companies have to understand how UGC works, it is written by passionate individuals (for good or bad) and it is often intended to help like minded individuals (though companies can listen and learn from them). Monetizing on this type of feedback and content is still a challenge, but models are being formed and success is in the results--more products shipped and more revenue generated.

I'll be updating this more with my notes and perceptions. This is just the beginning so I can pay attention to the presentations and blogging at the same time.

Additional Coverage
Technorati
Forrester Marketing Blog
Flickr

Example Scenario

This article originally was published in the May 2007 issue of LLRX.

You have worked for a large firm for many years and you have made the decision to either go solo or start a small firm. You were used to having access to all your information via an Intranet, file server, and your desktop. You could practice law and let the IT department worry about when the printer jammed or if you got a virus. Now that you are solo, you are the one that has to deal with all those problems as well as practice law.

As of 1:00 today FeedBurner was officially acquired by Google. I had a quick chat to day with Rick Klau today regarding setting up an account with them and was double checking about the Terms of Service when he mentioned that they would be updated at around 1:00 today. So the rumors were true! Yes, it seems they were.

I'm excited to see where this all goes. Google just continues to get bigger, but they are making strategic buys too. I mean just think what the JotSpot acquisition will do for them if they integrate it into Google Apps. RSS is the future of content distribution, and now advertising opportunities too. I believe that RSS subscribers are more targeted than regular website pageviews and traffic. FeedBurner has a great model and it will serve Google well.

Congrats to FeedBurner. They have long been a company I've admired, wished I could have worked for (and now you see why!). You can read more about the acquisition at the Burning Questions blog.
Update: Google's Announcement
Chicago Tribune Story (Free Reg. Req.)

C|Net quietly was playing around with a business management site over the last two years. BNET, the go-to place for management, was born last recently to address the needs of business professionals. It has a great design and some great resources for business professionals from how to manage your boss to career advice. Their weekly podcast, titled Useful Commute, is one to subscribe to covering some great topics. Registration is required if you want to get access to the real goods, but it is free. If you already have an account with ZDNet or TechRepublic you are already set as your login credentials are transferable.

Short answer: continually give them advancement opportunities.

Now the long answer. The reality is that you won't be able to retain all the good talented staff that walk through your door. That's a given. For some reason they won't blend well into the organization or they will a short attention span and hop jobs (let's face it, it's not where employees stick around for 30 years anymore). I guess I can say I'm somewhat unique in that I've stayed at my first company post graduation for over 5 years without leaving, though I've had opportunities to advance. It is those opportunities to do more with my career that has been the key factor to stay longer and will be for employees your organization.

For many, staying at a company is a balance between "real" benefits and intrinsic benefits (job satisfaction, healthy work environment, knowledge expansion). Sure access to the health club is nice, but if I can leave work knowing that I made a difference, improved my work product, and can be recognized for it, I'm happy. That's what keeps me coming back in the morning and not dreading my job come Sunday evening when the thought of "having to go back to work tomorrow" pops in your head.

I hope employers feel that advancement doesn't always mean more money or a promotion. Advancement could include allowing an employee to:

• improve a skill-set
• have the ability to teach the organization a new way of doing business they have researched
• the ability to provide continual feedback to the organization

Employers should also look to:

• present new challenges to employees where their diverse skill-set can solve
• provide clear career path options (nothing is worse than coming to an organization and find there is no-where to go within the organization)

Eventually you will always tap out on what you can do for an employee, but as long as they feel that they can continue to contribute and be rewarded in some way, they will stay. So when was the last time you sat down with your employees and asked them how satisfied they are in their jobs? What can you do to make it better? Maybe you should.

I was recently at Tech Cocktail 3 here in Chicago and I put this site down on my name tag instead of my work domain.  Many asked me, what is From the 21st Floor?  It dawned on me that I really couldn't explain the purpose of this site concisely in a sentence.  I would say it is about looking at things from the big picture perspective.  That is true, but what I'm really trying to attempt (and I hope to get better at) is explaining how I look at things in a holistic point of view.  The "big picture" falls in that category, but maybe it will be easier to explain to others. 

The holistic point of view I see the world in relates to the balance between strategy and implementing actions to meet goals.  How often have you been in a meeting and heard about a new plan or idea that was going to be implemented and you thought to yourself "But what about that other plan we have?"  or "How does this meet our overall goals or work within or strategic vision?"  That is the world I see.  I think those questions all the time, and more recently I start to ask them in meetings.  I guarantee your company will waste more time and money on developing and implementing ideas that contradict your overall company goals than you want to admit.  This will be because you don't have a vetting process for major projects, and more importantly it is because your fellow employees can't recite what the company goals are.  And for the record, it shouldn't be "to make our shareholders money."

So I encourage you to understand what your companies strategic goals are.  Be able to recite it at a moments notice.  Why? Because when you are in project planning meetings or brainstorming sessions you can effectively ask "How does this idea work towards our strategic goals?"  More often than not you will probably get someone to pause and think about it because they hadn't before.

Coming back full circle, From the 21st Floor is about looking at business, goals, strategy, marketing, communications, the whole package from a holistic view--the big picture.

So if you haven't heard about the way cool new iPhone, the impending lawsuit from Cisco, then you've been under a rock for the last few days. So let's quickly get the phone part out of the way first.

WOW! That is one slick machine. I hope it stands up to all it says it can do. The touch screen is amazing and looks very clean. Did you notice they changed up the menu interface (hmmm....no more paying a license fee to Microsoft (update: or Creative...can't remember) on that anymore)? I love how it can change from portrait to landscape view seamlessly. Cingular scored big with getting that deal for the phone. Many hoped it would be a phone that could be taken to any network, but I guess having it be multi-platform (GSM or CDMA) was too difficult (or Cingular said they would pay hefty for the privilege of having the exclusivity). Bet Motorola is kicking itself for not getting in on that deal (not sure if there was a deal to be had, but they have iTunes enabled phones out on a variety of providers). Well, the price tag is enough for me to say "no" at this point, but what a home run for Apple on taking the coolness of having a smartphone and targeting it for the consumer market instead of the business one.

While the iPhone is very cool and will no doubt change the way we look at mobile phones and how we use them, there was also something subtle that happened at CES with Apple that not many are talking about, the name change. I'm very interested in how Apple moved from Apple Computing Inc. to Apple Inc. This is one of those subtle changes that indicates Apple is no longer just a computing company, but something more. Maybe a media company (iTunes, AppleTV, iPhone), maybe something else. But they are definitely beyond just computers.