"Eat two cookies and call in the morning."

Been running ragged at work (or everywhere), keeping up with multiple business demands, making up for lost time, and feverishly planning for 2011?

When everyday life is crammed with back-to-back meetings, laughable improbable deadlines and same-old-same-old hotels in various snowy or gray cities, it can be such a pleasure to take a few days off to catch our breath for the ones ahead.*

Wishing you happy holidays.

*After you're done shopping, traveling, greeting long-lost relatives and guests, and preparing gifts and food, that is.

Ask yourself for something new

What's more refreshing than a new start?

Here are just ten "to dos" – small and big – any of which you can employ to make 2011 an exciting year, professionally and/or personally. Everything you do to grow in one way likely helps you grow in other ways, too. Or so I've experienced.

In fact, I've done or attempted at least four of these in 2010. Perhaps four more in 2011?

•Question some of your own assumptions. It's harder than it sounds.*

•Take on a challenging project at which you're not confident you'll excel – probably keeping some form of safety net such as associate support or a long-lead deadline, just in case.

•Learn accounting or bookkeeping skills you've always brushed over.

•If you typically drag yourself to work when you are sick, stay home, for heaven's sake (I could use this piece of advice myself).

•Read a "for Dummies" book about a topic that holds some interest for you - (oh, don't scoff, it's a pretty good series).

•Marry him or her, if he or she is the life partner you want.

•Learn some relevant business acronyms: VAR, COGS, MSI... or invent a new one that resonates.

•Make a new friend, find a new mentor, let go of a friendship that no longer works.

•Take a class, in a physical classroom or online.

•Save some (or more) of the money you earn.

Other ideas? Happy holidays. Happy upcoming new year.

*Ask any liberal or conservative.

I hear you want to be a thought leader.

It is easier said than done, of course. But, if you are in a position in business, government or another sphere in which being inspirational or trendsetting is key, it may well be worth the effort. (Plus, some people would rather lead than follow, no matter what.)

A thought leader is somewhat snidely defined by Wikipedia as "business jargon for an entity that is recognized for having innovative ideas." (This link leads, nonetheless, to a good article that is worth a few minutes if you're interested in the topic.)

Being a thought leader goes beyond a few light bulbs of inspiration. It involves having an in-depth understanding of some key aspect (or many key aspects) of your field. These may include the technologies, people, and trends involved, and the direction in which this field may be going. A thought leader also has opinions on which way things should be going, and these are generally (optimistically!) based on more than quick judgments. Typically, a thought leader also knows what others have been saying and feels no compunction to be in lockstep with the other thought leaders, nor to disagree with them. Being a thought leader takes nerve.

There's also (hello? anyone out there??) the issue of being heard over the noise. How can one be a thought leader if one has no followers? If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear... It's pleasant to think that some thought leaders would express their opinions because of a clear intellectual or ethical compunction to do so, even if no one or hardly anyone is listening. Even if there will be no book sales. Or speaker fees. But most leaders want followers. Being a true thought leader eventually demands that you have (although not so formally named) "thought  followers".

There is also the question of forum. A thought leader can start small. She can be the manager of a group. She can give seminars, write articles, give speeches to small groups. She can blog. Being a thought leader demands that you find a medium or multiple media in which to express your insights.

But most of all, the thought leader needs insights. Vision. Education. Breadth. The person most likely to become a thought leader has all these. The thought leader also enjoys a clarity of thought process that, while not an infallible defense against errors in tactics, strategy or advice delivered, allows cool reassessments and logical course changes when required. Generally, that clarity of thought will also inhibit the leader from speaking about an opinion until he is PRETTY SURE that opinion is valid. This is not always the case. Take Pat Robertson's many quotes.

A thought leader need not always be followed. Should not always be followed. That alone is a reason either to become one or to focus on being an independent thinker, sifting the insights of many, swallowing none of them hook, line and sinker.

Three career myths that matter today... and the grains of truth within

With unemployment still high, many professionals set adrift from previously apparently stable jobs and new grads pounding the pavement (or the keyboard) looking for work until their shoes wear thin (or their fingers hurt), contemporary "wisdom" about careers deserves a hard second look.

The myth: Do what you love and the money will follow. Oh, please. We may all wish it were true. The fact is, you can love doing something a lot, but if there's no demand for your service, your product, art, or ideas, and you can't build that demand... the money, most assuredly, will NOT follow.

The grain of truth: Your enthusiasm for your work likely means you'll work harder and do a better job than you'd do if unenthused. Good performance obviously contributes to success. Plus, your own energy communicates and helps create enthusiasm in others around you. Nonetheless, don't quit your day job to market those handpainted dog bowls... not yet.

The myth: There is no loyalty among employers toward their employees. Especially in businesses in which you are "more than a number," your dedication, abilities and contributions do count. Decisions about promotions and raises are flavored by employers' regard for hard-working staff and their feelings. What's more, many employers do agonize over layoffs and even terminations "for cause".

The grain of truth: It's business. When it comes down to brass tacks, employers and managers have to look at the bottom line, at trends and at your performance. Loyalty will not trump business considerations in most cases. And in some big companies, decisions about your future are made by number crunchers who don't know you from Adam.

The myth: You need to decide early on what you're going to do with your life, career-wise. Really? One of my associates went to medical school in her 40s, another to law school, and both started successful second careers. Another began as a commercial photographer and made a 180 degree turn to a long and rewarding career in public service.

The grain of truth: It's great to head off to college with a major and a career path in mind, or to get a first job that sets you on a ladder to dizzying heights. There are other ways to go, but they can be more difficult. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, career changes today "can entail major costs in retraining and pay cuts – plus, in the current job climate, the risk of not finding employment." While this sounds unappealing, staying in a stultifying career for, oh, 30 to 40 years, could be a lot worse. Bottom line: it's your life, and you want it to be as fulfilling as possible.

Five ways to determine whether customers like your company

For the cynical reader: Yes, it does matter if the customer likes your company, at least in the long run. Companies that are disliked (check out the 10 most disliked companies in America) pay for their unpopularity in a number of ways. There were few lines at BP service stations this spring and summer, even though station owners were far removed from the decisions that precipitated the environmental disaster.

Okay, likability is in many ways separate from business results. Most of us work with a few companies whose names we could use as a curse! Factors including pricing, convenience, product quality, the mass or lack of competition a company faces, and others compete with and sometimes trump the "nice" factor.

Nonetheless... it matters. How is your company doing?

1-Do customers communicate both their satisfaction and their dissatisfaction to your company and its staff? Praise and happy customers are great. Constructive criticism, especially in terms that indicate customers would genuinely like to continue doing business with you, is just as important. Constant angry feedback, on the other hand, must not be construed as a positive.

2-Do customers exit stage right as soon as a viable alternative appears? Not good. If they work with you solely because you're the only provider of certain computer chips or fresh bagels, that's scant protection from new competitors.

3-Do customers who've stopped doing business with you (perhaps because they've retired, moved or changed focus) often keep in touch in some way? Outstanding...

4-What is the daily tone of your customer interactions? Friendly? Curt? Listen carefully.

5-Have you asked or surveyed? "What's our reputation among our markets (or in our community)?" "How are we doing for YOU?" "Would you recommend us?" Make it easy for customers to tell you - online or off, in writing or in person - what they think.

It's good to know.

The onus is on the applicant.

We've been reviewing resumes. If the right person applies, we may have a position available. Admittedly, the bar is high. And we've had a lot of applicants. Over 100 so far for a single job.

But here's the thing. I'll bet van Schouwen Associates is like a lot of companies right now, in that we're not looking for just anybody who can fill a seat and perform some tasks. vSA staff is high-performing. Always, and these days especially, anyone who joins our ranks must bring stellar skills, a certain sparkle and the get-up-and-go to get really challenging work done on really snappy deadlines.

When the cover letter says, "I am looking for a position with a growth-oriented company that allows me to further my career goals," do we jump up and down with excitement? When the resume blats, "achieves marketing goals within budget and exceeds corporate expectations", guess whether an interview will happen?* When the email announces that the applicant seeks a sales position (which this isn't), how does that come across?

Savvy employers want more than ever from employees and applicants because we face a wild business environment. If a company like ours doesn't find the right applicant, it may not hire at all. At vSA, we know full well that some of the resumes we just put aside required a lot of effort on the part of the applicant, and that the cover letters are heartfelt. We've all been there.

The challenge is to get into the head of the employer. We admire an applicant who addresses our real concerns, which may variously include ramping up quickly, being well-versed in up-and-coming industry sectors, writing like a star... etc. We also admire an applicant with a personality.

So that's the input we sometimes wish we could offer in the "no thanks" email we send to many applicants. Because we do mean it when we say, "We wish you well in your career search."

*No.

"My boss says we're being bought up by a European company and nobody is supposed to know."

Social media can be an excellent marketing tool for your company. It's also a venue in which your employees are spending a lot of time, and every so often, someone makes a comment such as, "We deliver cold pizzas every Saturday night because it's just too flippin' busy" or "Rumor has it my boss is leaving the company - but he doesn't know it yet." Also every so often, an employee lets the competition know, in no uncertain terms, that they "stink" - or worse.

If you haven't established a clear, written social media policy for your company, you can call your employees to task when and if you catch these indiscretions, but the responsibility for any damage done lies also with your firm.

Just as your company has, ideally, established standards for brand use, for dealing with the press, for giving (or not giving) employment references, for use of company computer systems and more, you must also establish standards for employees' use of social media as it impacts your company.

Certainly, standards include the basics: don't talk online about confidential company matters, don't reveal new products, don't discuss litigation, don't harass or badmouth management or coworkers, don't flame the competition – but there are many other considerations as well.

As a firm that has long been involved in supporting clients in developing and managing their messaging, vSA knows that the power of social media can be used for good or harm - even inadvertently. ("Facebook, are you a good witch or a bad witch?") We work with clients to help assure everyone at their companies with access to a keyboard knows what's okay and what's not in terms of promulgating company-related information that could pop up on Google for years to come. We'll share more on this topic in upcoming blog posts, and are available to consult with clients regarding both their focused use of social media and risk management techniques.

Five best uses for a microsite

[caption id="attachment_916" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Simonds International Microsite, www.neveryieldtosteel.com"][/caption]

Why develop a microsite when you already have a corporate site? There are a number of situations in which a microsite can be an unbeatable marketing tool. Here are five best uses for a microsite:

1-You are running a specialized promotion or contest. Examples may include: an offer that you're making in specific geographic regions and/or to specialized market segments. For example, one of our clients created a B2B promotion for just a few southern cities in which sales had been lagging. All sales and marketing outreach led small business owners from these cities to a microsite that offered business tips and allowed firms to compete for regional recognition... all while promoting our client's best products for small businesses.

2-You have a new Web application or service that deserves its own Web presence. Examples include: training, certification, relevant calculators, product life cycle assessments, competitive comparisons, product specification/product selectors/e-commerce, or specialized product catalogs. The sky is the limit here!

3-You are running a specific advertising/marketing campaign and want to test its success in bringing respondents to your landing page - a microsite allows you not only to track responses but also to continue the conversation or even clinch the sale on the spot.

4-You want to communicate actively with customers and prospects, creating a special place for them to speak or be recognized, through vehicles such as customer-focused case studies, awards, testimonials, Q & A, real-time communications, or other personalized content that develops and sustains relationships between your firm and your customers.

5-You want to entertain, engage or inform customers and prospects on a site that does not overtly promote your products, brand or services as the main corporate site may do. However, consider that you need to plan to "hook" these prospects at some point, so some (even subtle) branding and a link to your main company site are often in order; this is also an important consideration for search engine optimization (SEO).

Your thoughts and experiences? We'd enjoy learning from you.

Hot day kick start – for rainmakers only

It's a hot summer day. So sometimes what's obvious eludes us. After all, the sidewalks are steaming.

Here's an example from my own role as rainmaker: vSA offers strategic marketing. GREAT, I think to myself. PR with a new emphasis on interactive, really sharp Web outreach, innovative sales tools, advertising... and lots more. Cool.

BUT.

What does a prospect care about marketing, really (perhaps not much). It's my job to light the fire by determining SPECIFICALLY how vSA can improve the prospect's situation and life.

As in... vSA bolsters sales, builds market share, helps create thought leaders. vSA makes companies more visible than their competition so they LOOK BETTER than their competition, SELL MORE than their competition, and WIN in a dog-eat-dog economy.

Furthermore, we help make our individual clients ever more successful as executives or business owners. vSA can help them make more money as well as enable them to go home on time more often – feeling good – so they can ride their bikes or float in the pool.

After all, it IS hot out there.

Naptime has been canceled.

As I compose this post on a lovely summer afternoon, financial headlines include phrases such as "market swoon" and "U.S. Economy Is a Complete Disaster".  That's arguable, but nonetheless, it's no time for business professionals to close their eyes, not even for a moment. Here's why:

We're doing it all. Productivity continues to be high, because there are fewer people doing more jobs, working longer hours, coming up with better ideas. If we don't remain at the alert (or if we don't hire back some of those people we've ushered to the sidelines) production will fall and our ability to respond to opportunities quickly will drop.

Prospects and customers say "maybe" and "no" more easily than they say "yes". We must stay on our toes to give them reasons to move forward with us. They'll save money. They'll save time (which is money). They'll be more productive (which is money). Or they'll feel happier (which is more important than money sometimes, eh?). Get to yes. Argue with the going wisdom of the day, with the "we have no budget" or "we're not planning to do that until 2011" or "we have a supplier already." Invite your prospect to look at a situation through new eyes and improve results.

We're operating in a new environment. Picture yourself trying to perform everyday tasks in a weightless environment. Your cereal floats away. You can't move from here to there the way you used to. Doing business today is similar. People don't often pick up their phones unless they expect your call. They may make decisions by doing research online rather than talking to people like you. They do without, or they do things themselves. (How many major corporations have taken to creating their own sales materials, for example, or simply have no current materials? Oh, there's nothing more impressive than the sales rep drawing the new automation system on a frayed paper napkin at Burger King to show to a key prospect, I'll tell you!) Take the time to dream up new ways to help your prospect, and to speak to his or her real concerns, which are very likely different than they were two years ago.

Since you're wide awake anyway, walk away from the lagging crowd. Think for yourself or find a fresh new adviser or partner with whom to share ideas. Figure out how to develop, value, sell, and build market share for your product or service. Learn about the new tools and techniques, motivations and buy signals that work in a strange new world, even as the pundits wring their hands and your competition slumps in its seats.

By the way, coffee helps.

One question every person in charge should ask

There is not much of a silver lining to the Gulf oil spill, but people in charge – whether entrepreneurs, executives or longtime business owners – can garner valuable wisdom from one of the many mistakes that made the disaster more likely.

Potentially, busy with the severe recession, the financial sector bailout and the fight for a national health care plan, the Obama administration missed at least one ball it should have been keeping in the air: effective regulation of the oil industry in general and of deep-water drilling in particular.

The potent lesson for those of us in charge? There's a question we should ask ourselves often, and that we should grant ourselves the mental space and creative license to answer: What am I missing?

It's natural and tempting to get on a track and follow it, or to create a plan and execute it without taking the time and energy to step to the side and take stock - frequently. Are you missing opportunities? Not alert to certain dangers? Letting issues, people, money, or projects slide while you deal with everyday urgencies and tempests in a teapot?

It's true that people in charge have many of their best ideas while driving, showering or taking a vacation. Extend that freedom of mind into your everyday routine. Assign or put aside routine tasks to facilitate your own creative thinking. Read a business book on a new topic. Ask yourself if there's anything on your mind that you're not dealing with (it's often right there below the surface). Access your right brain.

What am I missing? I'm glad I asked myself. I'll ask again. And again.

Compelling selling.

Some people love the process of sales. For the rest of us, it's a challenge. That challenge is heightened during difficult economic times.

Following are some of the lessons our sales team has learned through experience, trial-and-error and the wisdom of others:

First, make sure you're selling something worth buying. Give yourself a break! Some people can sell ice cubes to citizens of the frozen far north, but the rest of us will do a lot better marketing something that has value to the prospect... even if the prospect doesn't know it yet.

In a tough economy, be ready to highlight the immediate benefits, cost savings opportunities, time saved, and other at-the-ready positives your product or service offers. Why? When money is tight, people tend to think short-term. Even corporations think short-term. In some cases, they feel they can't afford to do otherwise.

Stop talking. That's right. Learn about your prospect. What is s/he working on, concerned about and planning? Know this, and your sales message can address relevant needs.

Once again, stop talking. Once you've made your pitch, be quiet. Let your prospect ponder your offering, even let your prospect feel it's his/her turn to speak up. A little awkward silence at decision-making time can be a good thing.

Don't sell on price, but don't be insensitive to cost issues. In the end, cost will nearly always be a consideration. Just don't make it your selling point. Unless, of course, you have nothing else.

Be willing to follow up. We've all been subjected to fire-hose sales pressure. It's unpleasant. If what you're selling is of value, you can afford to be consultative. If you can't close the sale that day, ask when you can check in again. Sure, you may lose momentum... assuming you ever had it. Learn to know the difference between a prospect expressing genuine interest and one who is merely being polite to put you off.

Even if your prospects are thinking short-term, you shouldn't be. Someone who's interested in your product but not in a position to buy may be ready later. Too many salespeople drop the ball and lose longer term prospects.

Be likable. Despite online shopping, phone voice mail trees and other impersonal ways of doing business, personality still matters. When people are working with others, they gravitate toward those they like. Overbearing, single-minded and pushy aren't characteristics that come to mind when we say "likable." Consultative, warm, engaging, and having good listening skills are. Why does it matter? Because you want your prospects to take your next call or respond to your next email. You want their referrals. You want their business.

Painfully obvious PR from the man in charge.

"And I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar; we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick," proclaimed our president this morning in an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show.

Some people may object to this remark because it is coarse. I object because it is disingenuous and clearly the brainchild of a media relations team. "President Obama! The American People think you're an effete intellectual. They think you lack emotion. They want to see you get mad!" And, "The American People do not want to hear about experts or scholars. They want you to get out there and KICK ASS!"

President Obama, polls or no polls, please speak with your authentic voice. Work with BP, work with everyone who can help clean up this terrible mess, build some regulations, kick some ass if necessary, but don't talk to us as if street fightin' is your way of life. Get real.

The oily truth.

It's the financial markets meltdown all over again, but this time we can smell it, slip on it and watch the Gulf of Mexico sicken. The two catastrophes have a lot in common. As a nation, we've been lulled too far toward  allowing the free market to police itself in high-risk industries. It's not working very well, is it?

BP CEO Tony Hayward admitted Thursday that the company was unprepared for an accident of this magnitude. In an interview with The Financial Times, he acknowledged that BP "did not have the tools" at hand to stop or contain the spill when it occurred six weeks ago. Of course, BP still doesn't have the tools.

I'm an entrepreneur and a fan of business, on the whole. It would be splendid if corporations could be relied upon to consistently behave in the best interests of the public. But they don't. The argument that an unbridled free market is the best option for the economy (let alone the environment) is proving itself hollow. The recent Great Recession and continuing questionable recovery has cost individuals, families, businesses, schools, and state and local governments dearly. We can thank short-term thinking, greed, hubris, and extraordinarily weak regulation of the financial markets for a good deal of what's ailed us since 2008. Now the largest oil spill in U.S. history highlights the same maladies.

We're deep drilling when we don't have either the comprehensive engineering preparedness or the truly at-the-ready remediation tools to prevent destroying our oceans, shores, fisheries, tourism, and more. We are deep drilling with weak safety regulations, some of which were disregarded in any case. Aren't we any smarter than that?

Leaders – business, government and community – must sear into our brains the truth that next month, next year and the next decade are at least as important as our immediate profits, trades, deadlines, and triumphs.

Three reasons you should meet with that marketing consultant who's been calling

[caption id="attachment_809" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Don't try to manage complexity in a vacuum."][/caption]

I know. You have no time. Your marketing budget is spoken for, or maybe you don't have much of a marketing budget this year. You already have a marketing firm. You don't want to suffer through a high-pressure sales session. It's easy to come up with reasons NOT to meet with that marketing consultant who requests your time.

But there are at least three reasons why you SHOULD meet with a good marketing consultant.

1) Marketing has changed drastically even in the last two years. If you've been trodding more or less the same path for the last couple of years, there's a better-than-even chance you're not up to date on something you ought to know: how to use social media press releases to improve your Web site rankings, how to narrow-cast your updates to immediately support sales efforts, how to cut expenses by leveraging new interactive advertising techniques, how to direct mail to smaller audiences for better results... and lots more.

2) A good consultant will clue you in to very specific programs that are working for other companies. Maybe you'll learn something new about affordable search engine optimization (SEO), advertising on Facebook, targeting top prospects by holding private events during trade shows, customer loyalty-building programs, opt-in email campaigns, company blogs, or who-knows-what. You'll get the inside scoop quickly and painlessly.

3) Networking with people who have services you may someday desire – even if you don't want them today – is forward-thinking. To be an executive or business owner with vision, you need inspiration. Personal relationships provide a source of inspiration you'll get nowhere else.

Remember, you can set the ground rules for this meeting. For example, prior to agreeing to meet, specify: You have 30 minutes. You're not in the market to buy services today. You'd like this to be a discussion rather than a sales session. You name it.

Have a great meeting.

Thinking short-term?

If you're like many US company executives or entrepreneurs in 2010, you bet you are. And for good reasons.

-Shareholders are demanding results after a tumultuous run
-Cash flow is... eh
-You're itching to hire, to grow revenues... in short, to do what companies do best

Even as you focus on the immediate, you're no doubt aware that you mustn't lose sight of the more distant horizon (the cross country drive vs. the drag race). How can you align the two?

-Don't accept today what you don't want to live with tomorrow. Cutting your prices, appealing to a less-desirable customer or client echelon, conducting down-and-dirty marketing and sales campaigns... these choices may allow you to meet short-term goals, but if they harm your firm's market profile or long-term prospects, think twice. In fact, think about Wall Street investment firms and how some of them look to the public today (thanks in some measure to basing bonuses and such on short-term results).
-Even when you're generating the quick buck or the immediate sales, have your five-year game plan not only in mind but also in writing. Where does your company need to be? What is the path from A to B to C? Post Great Recession, it may be time for a new marketing plan, perhaps even a new business plan. Talk with us.
-Get some help. Create an advisory board, talk with a well-reputed business growth consultant, watch what's going on in your industry and similar industries. Remember that 2013 will look as different from 2010 as did 2007. Conditions are changing as we speak.

We welcome your perspective, either as a comment to the blog or through a private email to our offices.

Navigating the arithmetic of economic recovery: A guide for mid-size businesses

[caption id="attachment_783" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Synergy and momentum matter."][/caption]

Just as there is arithmetic to recovering in the investment market, there is a logic and arithmetic involved in business recovery. Specifically, it's often easier to lose ground than it is to win it back.

In the investment market, if you lose 40% of your $10,000 investment, you have $6,000 left. When that remaining investment adds 40%, you have... $8,400. What a bother.

Similarly, a recession can create business losses that are challenging to recoup... and they aren't all strictly in the numbers.

For example, a large business customer may pull its business "temporarily" during a recession. Getting that customer buying again can be an uphill battle. Getting the customer back to or above its previous level of purchasing can be even tougher. During the customer's hiatus, it has probably been courted by your competition, with great deals, low prices and - gulp - perhaps a fresher approach.

Many businesses reduced their marketing and hence shrunk their visibility during the last difficult quarters. Now they need to regain what they've lost in terms of being "top of mind" - ramping up marketing will require serious, insightful and ongoing effort now if it's been shelved or minimal in the last year or two.

Were your engineers busily designing the next great thing during the slowdown? Great - you can come out shining. However, if the malaise meant that R&D was stalled and that even the best minds in your company were dulled by lack of sales and incentive, it's time to refresh your approach and your offerings, because your competition will or has done so already.

Has the sales team been keeping in touch with all its customers and prospects, or has it, as in the infamous sales saga of Glengarry Glen Ross been waiting for the "good leads" and better times? There is no time NOT to be selling.

Today... while the past certainly affects your firm, days gone by matter now primarily as a lesson. Starting today, you have the need and you've absorbed the arithmetic. You know that a concentrated, energetic and smart effort distinguishes the companies that will soon regain their momentum and reach new heights from those that will not. This is true even if your revenues are down, your staff is reduced and you've borrowed money. It will take more work and more applied intelligence to gain ground than it took to lose it, just as it does in the investment market.

How is your company addressing the recovery? Please comment or email us privately with your thoughts.

The courageous consultant

Maybe it's because the business climate is hardening, or perhaps it's because vSA as a company has reached the ripe old age (25) when we're much hungrier to do what's right for a client than simply what's expected. But in either case, we're encountering an increasing number of situations in which we feel called upon to give our clients answers to questions they may not have asked.

Typical issues include the continuation of business models as well as sales and marketing programs that have become limp remainders of what they used to be. Very basic examples in the sales and marketing arena have symptoms that include dependence on non-working outreach: large commitments to print industrial directories or yellow pages, networking through local chambers and other organizations that haven't updated their thinking or memberships in years, cold calling for rareified services, and keeping salespeople who cost more than they bring in. More problematic instances involve selling products that have become overly expensive compared to foreign knock-offs, perpetuating processes or technologies that are being washed over by tidal waves of newer ideas, and trying to get more and more work from fewer and less prosperous customers. The most intractable problems are faced by companies struggling to sustain a business service or product line that is – well, today's typewriter. Products are becoming obsolete faster than ever. A glance into the computer graveyard in vSA's storage room (or perhaps your own) is ample testimony to this reality.

The need for tough solutions and big shifts in business practices has altered vSA's work as well, making it harder and yet more rewarding. Marketing is certainly enjoyable when we bring exciting new sales and opportunities. Today, rewarding and fun strategic marketing has married the stern face of business consulting. This partnership has become crucial because when clients call upon us to develop programs to build their sales and market share, we occasionally see that structural changes to their business processes, model or offerings are required before outreach is appropriate. Our work begins further upstream, supporting change to meet the spoken and unspoken needs of the client's prospects, customers and other influentials.

So, that's where the courageous consultant comes in. Just like a physician telling a patient that change must start with quitting drinking, losing weight or controlling his mood swings, vSA professionals do the right thing by helping clients build or rebuild for the wild and crazy future. In those cases, we don't simply put a bandage on the client's offerings and start marketing whatever we've got. Not when the stakes are so high for our client.

Neither here nor there

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Telecommuting, flex time and virtual business models are all the rage. Outsourcing projects rather than committing to long-term staff additions is popular now, too. No surprise there. The current state of the economy (I can barely wait until we're no longer using that phrase quite so often!) demands efficiency, forces uncertainty, and makes available some stellar candidates with whom to work. In other words, a lot of great people are out of their former 9-5 salaried work routines. Even the 2010 census work is moving faster than expected because of the availability of outstanding temporary labor. Oh, that's not much of a silver lining, perhaps, but there it is.

These new ways of working bode well for some businesses, and for some individuals. Streamlined processes, virtual meetings, work from anywhere (okay, let's not text from a moving car - work from almost anywhere) are a boon for the highly motivated, organized and talented. But what about everyone else?

One of the concerns many thought leaders express about the new economy is that it yields work for the best, brightest and most driven (now including all that consulting, flexible positions, telecommuting, and other non-traditional arrangements). It also continues to offer a range of service work that, at least for now, requires a human presence (from health care to fine cooking). And there are still a number of U.S. manufacturing jobs, although that number continues to dwindle.

But what else? There's a gap, likely to continue broadening, where there used to be more jobs for the rest of the workforce. As the economy continues to shift, what happens to the worker who needs the structure of an office to maintain motivation? The person who shows up for the assembly line? Where are the jobs for the capable person willing to work steadily all day or night but simply not constituted to come up with lots of big ideas, manage time completely independently or work alone? If you've ever been an employer or a manager, you know that these people make up the majority of many a workplace – that's the way the world is and probably always has been.

This week, Time magazine's article The Workforce: Where Will the New Jobs Come From? provides hope that there will be new jobs. That's good. But for any leader or citizen who hopes to see the economy truly thrive again, there's that other question, not so easy to answer. Will there be enough jobs for the great majority of working class and middle class Americans who do well working for a company, who respond to expectations set by management and who would like to put in a good day's work for decent pay, then head home to their real lives? That's a lot of people, and we all need to put our imaginations to work to make sure our economy continues to fully employ and value what continues to be the majority of the population.

Continued funding programs for better roads and bridges? Encouraging young people to go into trades such as plumbing or electrical work, in which shortages are predicted? Putting more adults in the schools to work with the kids? Opening more child care centers, which require staffing? Offering real live tech support? Human cashiers at the supermarket?

What could work and be valuable? What do you think?

Fortune worried about reading...

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... and I'd like not to be worried. After all, for me, the smell of a Barnes & Noble is nearly aphrodisiac, and I consider the buying, reading and piling up of books and magazines my birthright. I confess to not having a Kindle or similar device yet, but I know that's coming. To me, format matters, but content matters more. That's why I found Fortune's cover story The Future of Reading particularly thought-provoking. I can't believe it... could it even be possible... that people will ever lose interest completely in reading? Let it not be so.

Fortune, of course, is speaking largely from a business perspective, especially regarding journalistic concerns. I noticed that I couldn't find the text of that March 1 lead article, which I first devoured in print while waiting at my allergist's office, online as I wrote this – since it's this week's issue, Fortune would no doubt like us to buy the magazine and thus support the advertising. I certainly understand this. After all, a great deal of vSA's work is in public relations, media relations in particular. If there is no revenue, there will be no publications. Plain and simple. Fortune, and even Broom, Brush & Mop magazine - difficult as it is to believe – are not mere labors of love.

Here's my educated guess, based on the cosmic and not-so-cosmic shifts I've seen in my decades on this earth and at my desk (including the door-on-file-cabinets that served as my vSA desk in those first daring years of entrepreneurship): Reading will not die. The stature of Amazon and my beloved Barnes & Noble are evidence to that. Sadly, small bookstores and publications large and small have suffered and will continue to do so. The media will continue to adapt, with false starts and many casualties, to new models for advertising and other revenue generation. More and more of our reading will be done on notepads and online. People will continue to love video in all its forms, and many – okay, most – will prefer it to the written word.

But there is a magnetism to writing and to reading, and, despite the challenges of doing it well, there is a certain simplicity and joy to creating stories – just think, most children compose tales and essays as soon as they can wield a crayon or navigate a keyboard. We love our news (both the important and the supremely trivial) and we relish our rehashing of information, much of which will continue to be in the form of articles, opinions and other text.

Fortune, by the way, agrees, by and large: Reading – somehow, someway – will live on. What's your take?

Sent box: Important client emails. In box: Salmonella, it's what's for dinner.

[caption id="attachment_730" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Will it matter if I send or delete?"][/caption]

So much work, so little time. On a good day, we'll reach out or get back to five or ten clients and prospects with consulting documents, articles, interactive marketing efforts, design comps, and estimates. Plus, we'll respond to several dozen more clients and associates about business-related matters, and initiate contact with a few companies we'd like to get to know. Much of this happens by email.

Some days, what we get back bears so little resemblance to what we send out that we must naturally assume that our emails got scrambled and sent to the wrong recipients, and that in return, we're getting emails meant for someone (who???) who wants to know:

I See Website You Need to Meet

Work from Home for $10000/month!

Start Your Heart Automatically

There are only a few reasons I can fathom for this disconnect, the first being a technical glitch so mysterious that even the most universally admired computer wonks (and you know who you are, don't you?) can't figure it out.

The second is that vSA works at a pace so much faster than ordinary humans that our missives shoot out almost as if into the future, and it therefore takes some time for our recipients even to receive them. Asynchrony of time, we'll call it.

The third, less likely, is that our clients and prospects are variously busy; occupied with other, even more urgent projects; or, in rare cases, disinterested in what we've sent. While this is difficult for us to imagine, we've heard from other professionals that they've had the same impression.

It's sort of like parallel play among small children - I email you what I'm thinking about. You email me what you're thinking about. The emails are like two ships passing in the night. This year, some of our marketing programs are fun - really fun. We're hoping this transitions the ships passing in the night to ships honking, waving and shouting words of affirmation to and fro: "This is great! Gotta do it again!"

I'll be waiting at my in box, smiling.

Complacency vs. strategic planning and action

Are you tired of hearing the words, "No one could have predicted..." and variants thereof? I am, because the consequences of people in positions of responsibility not thinking outside the box and not planning and initiating appropriate action are often extreme. Here are just a few examples that should be etched into our collective memories:

Predictable given the mood of the public-Scott Brown's election and the resulting likely (if temporary) demise of comprehensive health care reform: Putting your personal politics aside for a moment, imagine you are President Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid - it's okay, it's just for a minute. Obama should have become more involved, and Congress should have moved faster - before the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority.

Predictable given geological and infrastructure facts-Haiti's disaster: Construction with few building standards built on a fault line. An airport with such small capacity that only a few planes can be there at any one time. Add one (predictable) earthquake and we have the tragedy we see today. Worst thing? It could happen again.

Predictable given economic facts and indicators-The collapse of the housing market and the too-big-to-fail banks and our subsequent economic woes. As I've mentioned in this forum in the past, my father, a retired schoolteacher, accurately predicted the housing market collapse a couple of years before it happened. It's hard to believe bankers, economists and politicians lacked the same data.

Predictable given clearly inferior engineering combined with neighborhoods below sea level-By now, what we knew and didn't act on following Hurricane Katrina should be obvious. But guess what? We still haven't fixed the problem with the levies, even as we rebuild below sea level in New Orleans.

Those are political issues that affect the world. Complacency and inaction are enormous factors in business, too. Consultatively, vSA always urges business leaders to step outside the box to think the big thoughts and then to act on them as needed. We all know how easy it is each day to pursue the latest deal, address the most recent 200 emails and just try to stay afloat keeping up with the urgent. However, it is hardly cliche to remember this: Do not overlook the important in favor of the merely urgent.

Thoughts, examples, strategies?

Dangerous complacency

I hope Martha Coakley will win the Massachusetts Special Election today, I really do.

As I voted for her this morning, I was struck by a feeling that she needs all of us to pull her feet out of the fire and that, to some extent, she has earned this close race through her lackluster campaign. This is not to say she won't be a good senator - she's been a good attorney general. She simply isn't experienced as a politician running for election, and she appeared to somewhat take this election for granted once she'd cleared the primary.

To the Coakley campaign, Scott Brown probably appeared at first  to be an upstart without a chance. Martha Coakley's campaign missed the mood of many Massachusetts residents - residents tired of the bad economy, worried about what health care reform will actually mean to them and impatient with the Obama administration. Brown painted Coakley as an insider and himself as some odd combination of good lookin' cowboy and down-home neighbor. In fact, he's more conservative than is a match for Massachusetts. Boston.com published a January 10 article citing important examples: "Last week he embraced waterboarding. Last month he expressed skepticism that climate change is being caused by humans. He has even denounced two national proposals that he supported in Massachusetts as a lawmaker - mandatory health care coverage and a cap-and-trade system to cut global warming gases." Great.

Martha Coakley, I hope you win... despite yourself.

Perspective

Every once in awhile, something happens in the world that is so immense that it jars us out of our daily routine. The earthquake in Haiti is one of those events. It puts into perspective our daily travails: business concerns, stress, minor disagreements with family, and that ten or twenty pounds we want to lose or gain.

Of course, many people here at home and globally struggle with serious issues, too. For those of us whose worries are not so dire, this is a good time to remember that we are empowered to help - to support people in Haiti and everywhere whose lives are truly a day-to-day struggle. In the instance of Haiti, consider an online donation to the Red Cross or to Clinton Foundation fund for Haiti Earthquake Relief.