The first, identify your company's stake-holder groups. Usually they are customers, employees, partners, shareholders, suppliers and society. In the case of the first, explain who you are specifically targeting - who ideally you would like to work with. With society, clarify the way you define it.
Next, generate a value proposition for each stake-holder group. This ought to be specific to the sub-group you are targeting and will detail the way you will generate value for that group. Usually there's dimensions of value - financial (cost, volume, margin, ROI, etc.); functional (increasing stakeholder's productivity, providing choice or flexibility, being simple and convenient to do business with, and delivering fast service) and emotional (providing security to generate trust and stimulating a feel-good factor). All of these can be offered in some form to each group.
This value creation for each stake-holder group needs to be balanced by what the business will gain in return - the worth it will extract from the relationship. Select what you are seeking from each stake-holder group, both financially and operationally (e.g. in terms of loyalty, referrals, prioritization, etc.).
Knowing what value you need to offer, and what you hope to get in return, will let you identify what stakeholder-facing capabilities you need in order to execute. Compare the capabilities you need with those that you already must highlight any gaps. You'll must fill those gaps in through organizational re-design, training, process development, systems implementation and cultural alter.
Track the costs and benefits associated with each value proposition, including the investment necessary to complete the initiatives necessary to fill the capability gaps you have identified. Use this knowledge to generate a profit model to manage the inevitable trade-offs among your stake-holder groups. You may not be able to afford all the things you would like to do, but the profit model becomes the means for managing competing interests and the returns provided to each stake-holder group - the output being your financial returns (which are central to the worth proposition to shareholders).
Finally, you need to select a set of key performance indicators. These ought to track how effectively your business is generating value for each stake-holder group and how well you are capturing value in return. This will enable you to create a stake-holder scorecard that provides a 360° view of performance.
Defining the worth created for and from each stake-holder group adds point of view, ensuring that you look at your business from all angles. And by focusing on value creation for all of your different stakeholders, you will be a making a business that is more sustainable - in all senses of the word

BIG multinational firms gave the thumbs up to Singapore's strategy in attracting & retaining companies here, saying that Singapore has plenty of competitive advantages.
The members of a high-powered panel advising the Economic Development Board (EDB) said that the Republic continues to keep its strategy of anchoring foreign firms here & also to extend in to new niche areas.
These include building capabilities in information management & analytics, green manufacturing & becoming an Asian thought leader in finance & economics.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who chairs the advisory council, said that the the fast-changing world provides plenty of challenges & opportunities for Singapore.
The council also reaffirmed the importance of manufacturing to Singapore, saying that Singapore has a key role to play in prototyping new technologies & manufacturing processes.
Members of the council include the chief executives of Procter & Bet Corporation, Micron Expertise Inc & GlaxoSmithKline.

Mix preparation to organize a prosperous future is perhaps the requirement should be met. Later we will certainly be a family. And one day our children will certainly also require cost of living and education expenses are not small. Without a solid financial preparation, we might be able to injure the obligation to guide our children in managing their lives.
Well, one of the preparations can be formulated is a fitting investment activities. Of course prerequisite is: we have adequate savings to be invested. If no remaining savings, or even come up short every month, well then what, then that would be invested? Just a bit of an illusion?
Okay, the spirit. I'm sure you all must have sufficient savings to be invested. Then, the following four alternative investment options worthy of consideration.
Investment Options 1: Franchise. One option is to use a smart investment that your savings as capital to start a business / business. If we are busy working and ndak have much time, then the choices are okay is to start a business through a franchise (a franchise).
Business through franchising is a relatively safe choice because it usually provides a system and standard business processes; also the obvious choice of products. Thus the process to run it will not be as complex if for example we are starting your own business from scratch.
Now, many a franchise opportunity with a relatively affordable capital. Only with a capital investment of about 10 to 25 millions, we can start a new venture. Bids its product range: from home business meals, soft drinks, spa services and education to salons. If we choose the right products, and business location is also strategic, rather big potential returns.
Investment Options 2: Properties. Imagine the dream that tastes delicious this: suppose we have five shops, all in a location that fits, and we rent out each with a value of Rp 5 million / month, then every month we can have a passive income of Rp 25 million in cash.
The question is: where we have five shophouses that? From the sky? Of course not. Sure of diligent effort, beginning with the first shop. If you already have results, buy the second, no results, then buy a third shop, and so on until we have a "farm shop"
The way to begin buying the first shop is simple: take mortgage loans from banks to buy, shop, shop, and then we rented it immediately. Now money is a direct result of our rent deposit to pay off the loan each month. Done dah. In five years it could be paid off credit shop, and officially became ours, we must without too much outside investment funds.
3 Investment Options: Mutual funds. This investment in our core set of good stock to buy through the services of a professional fund manager. We invest funds (minimum of 5 million) to paid to the managers of mutual funds (fund managers). Then by them, the fund bought the stock a good variety (eg, shares of Bank BRI, Astra shares, etc.), with the expectation that stock prices continue to rise constantly.
For the case of Indonesia, investing through mutual funds is one option that is quite jos markojos. Many mutual fund products are capable of rewarding a 4-fold in five years. Forward the process of Indonesia's economic well inshallah. And mutual fund investing is one way that we are able to enjoy economic progress and business in the homeland.
The last investment options: a little old school but also mak nyus. Namely investment gold precious metals. Inevitably in the past five years, gold metal has to be excellent investments. The reason is simple: the world economy continues to gonjang ganjing, and increasingly battered American dollar because their economies are increasingly hobbled.
In such a situation, gold has always been the last port to lean. That's why gold prices continue to step on the gas pol in the last three years.
But not only that. Gold prices will always rise, above the rate of inflation. Thus the value of gold will never go down. In other words, gold investing is one of the safest investments and reassuring.
That is a choice of 4 types of investments are worth considering. Want to be the king of franchising? Want to be a rancher shop? Want to taste the delicious mutual funds? That sounds good. Or if you want to secure peace with gold investments.
Importantly, you can all make an investment for a more prosperous future.

An integration strategy improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes and procedures that help a company function. This strategy includes improving the quality and timeliness of information where and when it is needed no matter where the information comes from. Effective integration strategies utilizes technology and information as efficiently as possible to decrease the time and costs associated with managing information and resources.

Integration of Sustainability Requirements into Marketing Concepts
Marketing theory develops in close connection with challenges of continuous trans-formation in social, economic, technological and natural environment, resulting in new requirements of competitiveness from companies. This development is interconnected with changes in business strategies and organisations, aswell. Regarding our topic it is to point out that citizen and public actions together with legislative proposals have exerted unavoidable influence on shifting business thinking toward a socially responsible marketing. The marketing receives much criticism. Society including consumers expect higher social sensibility and responsibility fromcompanies and marketing, including the offer of high quality and safe products with lower prices. Consumers refuse high advertising and promotion costs, high-pressure selling, deceptive practices, planned obsolescence of products, poor services, unfair competitive practice, excessive mark-ups, etc. Criticism charge marketing practice with too much materialism, not enough social goods, environmental and cultural pollution, as well.
Recent orientations in marketing theory may be depicted by four main tendencies, which provide a framework for sustainable marketing and customer relationship:
1. increasing role of value proposition and added value delivery to consumers;
2. shifting from ecological marketing to the broader concept of societal marketing;
3. adoption of the relationship marketing concept e.g. building of long-run and mutually beneficial relations with key customers
4. building of network cooperation based on partnership with key customers along the supply chain.

1. You should analyze the current business intelligence stack and processes and organizational structures surrounding current BI implementations. Both IT and the business should be involved. Evelson cautions against underestimating this phase, and points out that a full “BI diagnostic” from Accenture contains 1,500 questions against 325 best practices and 75 subject areas.

2. Create common definitions. Without common definitions, a BI implementation cannot succeed. And lack of agreement is a widespread problem in companies today. For example, finance and sales may define “gross margin” differently, which means that numbers will not match—in effect, negating the value of automation. To combat this problem, get subject matter expertise throughout lines of business from front-, middle- and back-office staff. At this stage, IT's participation should be limited to running the project management office and taking ownership of compliance and business standards and policies. Secondly, start small and choose only 10 to 20 key performance indicators and create standards and governance with them in mind.

3. Create a plan for data storage. Many organizations begin with an isolated data mart, since it’s quick and cheap, but consider that this tactic means additional silos will need to be created as additional data storage needs arise, which can grow out of control within a few years. Something else to consider is whether to build and maintain a physical data warehouse or go with the virtual, so-called “semantic” layers to link operational systems. Traditional data warehousing means duplicating data, which means bringing in operations systems in real time will be next to impossible. You can save space with an abstract definition layer, but this is difficult to design, as is any metadata repository. Before even considering which vendors to choose, you must resolve this issue.

4. Understand what users need. The three broad classes of business intelligence users are strategic, tactical and operational. Strategic users make few decisions, but each one can have a profound effect—for example, should we close operations in Europe and open them in China. Tactical users make many decisions a week, and use both aggregate and detail-level information, and likely need updated information daily. Operational users are the front-line employees, such as call center staff. They need data within their own set of applications to execute the enormous numbers of transactions. Understanding who will use BI and for what purposes can show the type of information needed and its frequency, and help guide BI decision making.

5. Choose a systems integrator. Business intelligence implementations require guidance from a partner who has deep experience. Do not outsource the fine-tuning of business intelligence. The process requires a high degree of collaboration among end users, analysts and developers.

The concept of marketing to build a profitable organization satisfaction survey customer needs, and this has helped the company to achieve success in high growth, are at a competitive market. But as for the necessary marketing strategies. Consider such a strategy and product portfolio into account the anticipated move of the competitors in the market.


Price / Bid Business Strategy: A company that followed the skimming strategy of trying to be the first to introduce products with very good performance, selling to the innovator and market segments set premium prices for it. This makes as much profit as possible, then move on when the competition arrives. Prices will likely fall from time to time as the competition. Such skimming strategy contrasts sharply with the strategy, which seeks to gain market share at the expense of short-term profits, and increase prices from time to time as market share gained.

Competitors have certain strengths and abilities. To succeed, companies must take advantage of unique capabilities.
A company must prepare a defensive strategy of potential threats before they arrive. If the shock of a company's competition with the introduction of the product is far superior, companies must resist the temptation to continue with the product mediocre. A company should never introduce products that wear out when the market hits.
Competition may be a response to corporate actions should be considered carefully.

Marketing Research for Strategic Decision Making

The two most commonly used marketing research is for diagnostic analysis to understand the market and current business performance, and opportunity analysis to determine any of unexploited opportunities for growth. Marketing research include consumer studies, studies of distribution, semantic scaling, multidimensional scaling, intelligence studies, projections, and analysis together. Some of them are described below.


Semantic scaling: a very simple rating of how consumers view the physical attributes of a product, and what the values would be the ideal attributes. Semantic scaling is not accurate because the consumers surveyed by an ordinal ranking, so the average is not mathematically possible. For example, 8 is not needed twice as many as 4 in the ordinal ranking system. In addition, each person using a different scale.

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) to discuss issues related to the semantic scale by consumers voting for the pair-wise comparisons between products or between one product and the ideal. The assumption is that when people can not be trusted to report the drive attribute their choice, they can report the similarities between the brand perception. However, MDS analysis did not indicate the relative importance of attributes.

Assembly analysis of the relative importance of attributes concluded by presenting consumers with a series of hypothetical products feature two and ask those who prefer their products. This question is repeated over several sets of attribute values. The results can be used to predict a more important attribute, attribute value combination of the most popular. From this information, the expected market share of a design can be estimated.

Marketing Research for Strategic Decision Making

The two most commonly used marketing research is for diagnostic analysis to understand the market and current business performance, and opportunity analysis to determine any of unexploited opportunities for growth. Marketing research include consumer studies, studies of distribution, semantic scaling, multidimensional scaling, intelligence studies, projections, and analysis together. Some of them are described below.


Semantic scaling: a very simple rating of how consumers view the physical attributes of a product, and what the values would be the ideal attributes. Semantic scaling is not accurate because the consumers surveyed by an ordinal ranking, so the average is not mathematically possible. For example, 8 is not needed twice as many as 4 in the ordinal ranking system. In addition, each person using a different scale.

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) to discuss issues related to the semantic scale by consumers voting for the pair-wise comparisons between products or between one product and the ideal. The assumption is that when people can not be trusted to report the drive attribute their choice, they can report the similarities between the brand perception. However, MDS analysis did not indicate the relative importance of attributes.

Assembly analysis of the relative importance of attributes concluded by presenting consumers with a series of hypothetical products feature two and ask those who prefer their products. This question is repeated over several sets of attribute values. The results can be used to predict a more important attribute, attribute value combination of the most popular. From this information, the expected market share of a design can be estimated.


Multi-Product Allocation of Resources

The most common method of resource allocation is:

* Percentage of sales
* Executive assessment
* All-you-can-can
* Match competitors
* Last year on the basis

Another method is called a decision calculus. Managers will be asked four questions:

What will the sale with:

1. no sales force
2. half of the current business
3. 50% greater efforts
4. a saturation level of effort.

From this answer, we can determine the parameters of the S-curve response functions and uses linear programming techniques to determine the allocation of resources.

The decision algorithm that produces extreme solutions, such as allocating most of the sales force for one product while ignoring other products often do not produce practical solutions.

For mature products, sales increased very slightly as a function of advertising expenditure. But for newer products, there is a very positive correlation.

Model portfolios can be used to allocate resources among the major product lines or business units. BCG growth-share matrix is one of the models.

New Product Diffusion Curve

As a new product diffuses into the market, some types of customers such as innovators and early adopters before buying other consumer products. Product adoption follows a path shaped like a bell curve and is known as product diffusion curve. Marketing strategy must take this adoption curve into account and address the factors that affect the level of adoption by different types of consumers.

Dynamic Product Management Strategies

Two fundamental issues are whether management products to pioneer or follow, and how to manage products through their life cycle.

The order of market entry is very important. In fact, the estimated market share relative to the pioneering brand is the pioneer brand of shares divided by the square root of the order of entry. For example, brands that have entered the third predicted 1 / √ 3 times the market share of the first participants (Marketing Science, Vol. 14, No. 3, Part 2 of 2, 1995.) Rule is determined empirically.

Pioneering advantage derived both from the supply side and demand. From the supply side, there is an excess of raw materials, a better experience for the effect of cost benefit, and channel preemption. On the demand side, there are advantages of familiarity, the opportunity to set standards, and the choice of position perception.

After the company's pioneering benefit, can maintain by increasing the product, creating a standard, advertised that it was the first, and introduce new products on the market that might cannibalize the first, but to prevent other firms enter.

There are also disadvantages to be pioneers. Be the first to allow competitors to jump start technology. Incumbent inertia in developing R & D and may not be flexible as new arrivals. Develop industry pioneer who must bear the costs themselves, and how to develop the potential of industry and size are not deterministic.

Products & Services Strategy

Definition: This component refers to the ability of companies to provide products and services. This includes the range and quality of products / services available on the market, technical knowledge and skills of sales and service staff, and the level of technology incorporated in the products / services and utilized to conduct business.

Improving technology products / services by adding a new dimension to it.
Establishing a product / service to meet the psychological needs of clients / customers, thus providing a greater pleasure, safety or educational value.
Examine each company's technology we employ and identify ways to reduce costs.
Fit with our products / services as close as possible with the market needs.
Make improvements in our organization (structure, activities, systems, job positions, procedures, rules, regulations) that will enhance the development and operation of our technology (including products / services).
Introducing new technologies or improved internally that will improve the function of our own organization.
Fully into the knowledge of all the new technologies that directly or indirectly related to our business.
Identify and adapt to new technologies to better meet the needs of our customers.
Working closely with vendors to introduce new products / services.
Continuously expand and improve the product / service knowledge and technical expertise of our people.
Trying to really satisfy and that there are potential clients / customers.
Making our clients / customers happier by making our employees happier. If we show more interest in our employees, thus making them happier, they will interact better with clients / customers.
Determining what our unique strengths, and develop products / services that include, or incorporate more of this power.

There is a quiet revolution unfolding in your industry — led by some of your smartest competitors. In case you are a manager, you may be unaware of it because you cannot see it in the streets, nor watch it on the news. This new revolution is actually happening inside the heads of the leaders running your rival firms. They call it a mental model revolution. Let us report....
A select group of smart leaders are reframing their mental models — i.e., radically shifting their perception of the world — to conjure up disruptive business model innovations that could rewrite the rules of the game in your industry. They call them the "Reframers." Here are examples of three:
Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo. Nooyi, ranked by Fortune as the world's most powerful woman, is reframing the essence of what the food and beverage industry ought to be — shifting its vocation from feeding people to nourishing them. They is taking a cue from Ayurveda (India's 5,000-year elderly traditional medicine process) which states that "food is medicine and medicine is food." Until now, the food and medical industries have operated separately; Nooyi desires to bridge them by reframing PepsiCo as a wellness solution provider. To deliver this dedication, Nooyi is radically shifting PepsiCo's business model by flipping the ratio between "fun-for-you" products (e.g., Pepsi drinks and Frito Lay chips) and "good-for-you" products (sold under brands such as Tropicana and Quaker). Specifically, Nooyi desires to increase revenues from good-for-you products from $10 billion today to $30 billion by 2020.
Jeffrey Immelt, CEO, GE. Escalating healthcare costs in the West are due to the "more for more for less" (MML) innovation model currently pursued by Giant Pharma and medical tool makers that charge extra money for more resource-consuming and complicated solutions which only a few people can afford. Immelt realized that this MML model cannot be sustained as GE enters the Age of Shortage dominated by eco-friendly and frugal consumers. This insight led Immelt to reframe GE's MML innovation model as more for less for more (MLM) — that is, delivering more experiential value to more people for less economic and environmental cost. Since adopting the MLM paradigm GE Healthcare has developed and marketed several breakthrough products such as the MAC 400, a low cost, transportable CT scanner ECG machine with super-long battery life and Vscan, a small and cheap ultrasound tool that operates as basically as a cell phone.
Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group. A whopping one billion people from across emerging markets are expected to join the middle class over the next decade. Since these Next Billion consumers haven't yet risen to the income level of current mainstream buyers, most companies are waiting before they create and market products for them. But Ratan Tata reframed these Next Billion users, viewing them not as low earners but high yearners who would readily buy quality products that are priced and meet their aspirational needs. That mental switch led him to conceive the Nano, the $2,500 automobile initially aimed at two-wheeler drivers craving for a more comfortable and safe driving experience. Since it was introduced in early 2009, Nano has been a runaway success, forcing automobile makers all over the world to rush to their drawing boards to design a rival budget automobile.
What is remarkable about the leadership of Reframers such as Nooyi, Immelt, and Tata?
First, Reframers dare to query well-ingrained business truisms and industry paradigms. As they experiment with radically new business ideas, Reframers constantly ask themselves "why not?" For example, Tata shattered the century-old automobile manufacturing paradigm: than producing the Nanos in its own factories, Tata Motors will distribute part kits that entrepreneurial small businesses can assemble close to customers. By questioning the conventional wisdom, creative leaders like Ratan Tata help their organizations navigate an increasingly complex business surroundings that places a premium on leaders with a flexible mindset.
Second, Reframers think not only with their minds but also with their hearts. After all, the heart of change begins with the change of heart; as Mahatma Gandhi eloquently put it: "Be the change you require to see in the world." As such, Reframers are erecting what they call a mental (and heart) barrier to entry for competitors. For example, you can bet that leaders at major food and beverage companies are busily hatching new business models to compete with PepsiCo's wellness strategy. But these rival business models won't be sustainable unless the leaders who developed them honestly care about the wellness of consumers. In the dawning Web 2.0 world where authenticity is the new source of competitive advantage, a sincere business model transformation will be more readily accepted and handsomely rewarded by consumers than a disingenuous me-too competitive offering.
Third, Reframers catalyze large social innovation. To borrow from chaos theory, the change in the minds and hearts of Reframers is akin to the butterfly flapping its wings over Hong Kong that can unleash a tornado in Illinois. Even a minor reframing can yield a disruptive business model that can revolutionize not only an industry but whole societies — a giant chain reaction captured in the following formula:
Mental model innovation → business model innovation → industry innovation → social innovation
For example, GE Healthcare's MLM innovation model won't only threaten the industry's well-entrenched "more for more" business model but promises to finally make health care affordable and obtainable to more people in emerging as well as developed economies. Equally, the Nano is not a disruptive product innovation, but a disruptive social innovation as it empowers low-income consumers worldwide and accelerates their social mobility.
In our next post, they will report the way you can also become a Reframer and continuously practice mental model innovation. Meanwhile, tell us about the opportunities and challenges for Reframers in your own industry.How Reframers Unleash Innovation in Their Companies (And Beyond)

Pixar (btw, I enjoyed Toy Story 3) has an exceptional track record for making great animated movies. (Ed Catmull, the studio's president & co-founder, recently wrote an article for HBR called, "How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity.") They don't have access — at least yet — to details of the particular decisions made at Pixar, though some must have been difficult: for example, the decision to make the film Up about a 78-year elderly man who loses his spouse & rides his balloon-floated house to South America.
How did Pixar make that & other lovely decisions? There appear to be several factors going on:
Its managers give its directors plenty of autonomy. The studio prides itself on being "director led" & gives them a high degree of autonomy. "Managers like to be in control," but Pixar fights it, according to an interview with Catmull at an event The Economist put on in March.
Although directors have autonomy, they get feedback from others. "Dailies," or movies in progress, are shown for feedback to the whole animation crew. In The Economist interview, Catmull also describes a more extensive periodic peer review system:

They have a structure so they get their feedback from their peers. \. Every five or three months they present the film to the other filmmakers...and they will go through, & they will tear the film apart. Directors are not forced to answer the feedback, but they usually do — & the films are usually better for it.
Pixar makes use of a system for "postmortems" on the major aspects of movies after they are done. Ed Catmull described it as "like taking cod liver oil," but the company insists on it anyway. In the coursework of the postmortems, the team involved in the film is asked to come up with three things they'd do again & three things they would not do again. Postmortems not only surface the information but also help to prevent the issues from festering among team members. Catmull comments that because people are beginning to game that postmortem system, Pixar is thinking of alternative approaches.
Pixar admits mistakes in other ways. Sometimes, when a film project is not going well, Pixar will "restart" it. Toy Story 2, for example, wasn't going well & had to be restarted. Catmull points to that restart as a catalyst for the articulation of several key values at the company.
Pixar has an extensive schooling program at Pixar University, with over 110 different courses. That is got to improve organizational judgment. & even there, employees are encouraged to make & admit mistakes. Randy Nelson, the director of Pixar University, says, in the book Mavericks at Work: "It's the heart of our model...giving people opportunities to fail together & to recover from mistakes together."
Clearly, Pixar tries to improve creative decisions through multiple means. Individuals still have an important role, but their individual judgment is enhanced by organizational judgment.

Much smarter to build form around the substance of an idea.
Charlie Rose one time asked Bruce Springsteen, "When do you write?" His reply: "When I have an idea." As against when he doesn't have one. What a wonderful use of his time!
John Denver used to say (for you Millennials, he was RCA's second-biggest record seller after Elvis) that, "the songs come when they have a mind to." The idea for "Annie's Song," his largest hit, came to him while he was on a chair lift in the work of a day of skiing.
Springsteen & John Denver were both wise to know that you wait & watch for ideas, you don't force them in to being. Well, actually, you can listen to instances where each of them did try to force it — & got lousy songs as a result.
Steve Jobs was asked years ago about how he planned to compete with the Wintel monopoly. He said, "I'm going to wait for the next giant thing." He didn't say "I'm going to personally generate the next giant thing." Neither iTunes nor the iPod was his idea. The iTunes idea came from a small company called SoundJam MP, & the genesis of the iPod was a design inside the head of Tony Fadell, a tech consultant who went to work for Apple. Steve Jobs's brilliance was in keeping his eyes open for the ideas, recognizing the moment, connecting the dots, & "creating" iTunes & iPod as a technique that worked together, adding Jonathan Ive's designs, & promotion it all incredibly. He wasn't sitting at his table banging his head against the wall trying to force an idea out of the universe.
In fact, to the extent that you are punishing yourself for the shortage of an idea, or torturing yourself to come up with one, you may well miss the idea that is right under your nose, waiting to be acknowledged.
There's three simple rules I have learned about ideation: Look & wait.
Look. For years my company struggled to come up with the right slogan for our AIDS Rides. "Challenge yourself & you will grow." Yuck. "The adventure of a lifetime." Yawn. The more frustrated they got, the more the answer eluded us. Then one day they said to ourselves, "These events are impossible. You require to ride for grueling distances. You require to sleep in a tent & raise immense amounts of funds from your friends. Most people look at them & think, 'Impossible.'" Having admitted the truth, they stared at that word "impossible" for about an hour. & they noticed three words inside there. "I'm" & "possible." "I'mpossible." Our new slogan. It had been staring us in the face for six years. They weren't looking.
& as for waiting...This is tragic but instructive. In 1999 anyone close to me committed suicide. My grief & aching sadness wanted expression, & they found it in music. Ideas for songs about the tragedy started coming to me in quick succession. On long walks. In the automobile. Without me asking for them. They were asking for me. In about six weeks I wrote 13 songs, each of them based on an idea, & each of them better than most anything I had forced while banging away on my guitar in my loft years earlier. & they became my first album.
On top of that, an idea came for a suicide prevention event — called, "Out of the Darkness" — that has now raised millions for the cause. That idea would seldom have come to us sitting in our conference room at Pallotta TeamWorks trying to force an event in to being. It came from a confluence of tragedy & emotion & timing. &, as a result, it was authentic, not a contrivance.
The idea may not come when you require it to, but when it does, it will be right on time. & it will be true to who you are.
So, my advice to you: Go get an ice cream. Go ride your bicycle, or whatever it is you like to do. Relax a small bit. You cannot generate the next giant idea at will anymore than you can make the love of your life walk in to the room in the next half hour.
Look. & wait. & while you are at it, have a small faith — in life, in God, in the universe, in whatever you think in. The universe is pregnant with ideas. Your passion for them is . They don't go where they are not wanted. But ideas have lives of their own. They have their pride. & they don't reveal themselves to the impatient or the distracted.

Managers need to think about social responsibility in terms of externalities. Externalities are economic terms, such as the link above tells you, is to "effect the purchase or use a set of decisions on others which the party had no choice and interests that are not considered."

We believe companies who want to be seen as a responsible must start by addressing those externalities. They must take ownership of their impact. And, because trying to be putting a lot on their plates, their efforts may have to end there.

While this term is still one foreign to many practicing managers, and can be regarded as truly eggheaded by some, we hear more and more from the mouth of the executive - and the activists took them to task. Some leaders actually already started to adopt this approach - or at least suggest it.

Founder and chairman of carpet manufacturer Interface, responding to interviewer questions about the rules. "I actually do not support more government regulation, but I support ... a system that gets the right priority, that internalizes the externality itself, which ultimately depend on market information, people insist that the products they buy are made in a responsible manner."

In New York last fall, we sat in an appreciative audience at the Aspen conference in New York and heard the founder of the green Seventh Generation products provider, run the same terminology. And he will not hesitate to do it again, in its contribution to this debate "HBR special" end of this month.

he is an outlier in several respects. Under their leadership, their company has become famous for their sustainability focus. But both are also practiced in communicating their views to other executives, and do not hesitate to use the language of externalities. This is only the most rational way to discuss what needs to be done.

At least that's what we think. But we also want to hear another viewpoint. In the coming weeks we hope to hear from various types of business and thought leaders we have assembled. We also hope to hear from you. Does your business need a better way to think about responsibility? And if so, what better way?

New shock is normal, and they are not pleasant. For some people this strategy has a tremendous impact, this strategy relies not directly into the hearts of view of who it will get very great surprise, and not easy to get lost.

We have enough to deal with in terms of financial crises, currency fluctuations, technology interfere with, the restructuring of work, shortage of essential drugs, a populist revolt, the pandemic might be, and terrorist threats without adding the devastating earthquake in 2010 and exceptional weather events. Et tu, Mother Nature?

Coping with the unexpected is essential leadership. In any business, the ability to recover quickly separate the winners from the losers, whether they react to fumbles in a game of sports or curve ball thrown by external events. I summarize the challenges of managing volatility in a simple equation: MTBs = or MTBs are the mean time between surprises, which shrinks. MTMD is the mean time to make decisions, which should be fast.

Here are four strategies to expedite response and minimize the impact of interference.

• Reserves. Leaders must know the benefits of alternatives. Even if Plan B is not always able to be trained and ready to go, mental flexibility can prevent rigid specifications and expectations of the bottlenecks for quick redirection. Great innovators are often pursuing a parallel path of development. Great stress the efficiency of the company but to build in slack and cross-train their people, such as Cemex not. Although the trend of the recession-push during this recession is to walk a tight, some overlap and redundancy makes it easier to react quickly.

• Communication. Information must flow quickly and spread virally, whether by email or phone chain, twitter alerts, or buddy system. Social networks in which people feel responsible to adjust the action quickly. Collection and dissemination of data in a short cycle also improves the ability to change quickly.

• Collaboration. human relationships, commitment and resilience helped the company quickly recovered. When people care about each other, have common goals, and feel empowered to act, they can competently and maintain high performance volatility. In a major power outage that shut down airports in the Northeast United States in 2003 (up to volcanic ash, the second worst disasters to hit airlines since the 2001 terrorist attacks), Continental Airlines employees dedicated to their destination on time of arrival and empowering them to conduct almost anything except the safety risk to achieve it. They develop many creative solutions to keep their aircraft flying while their competitors are hundreds of flights were canceled.

• The values and principles. clear standards and values can serve as a guidance system to direct decisions without bureaucratic slowness. People know the right thing to do without being told and without waiting for permission. Of P & G is the first organization to evacuate employees (and their families) from Lebanon after the military action, the general manager of a particular area that the costs will be supported, because P & G values.

Similar strategies to help deal with my colleagues in the fall volcanic ash. When I arrived at the honcho for a global health summit about my canceled flight, a team in Europe has been in high security mode set up Plan B and C. He said, "The crisis like this shows how we can be innovative and creative. This also allows us to show our character in the service of our partners and constituents Maybe we can adjust the schedule and opened to a larger audience .." They did.