Archive for January, 2007

SmartBiz’s Keys to Online Success: Consider Email Outsourcing

SmartBiz RSS FEED January 31st, 2007

Letting professionals handle this vital platform provides many benefits-if the service provider is reliable and secure.

Don’t Leave Your Internet Marketing To The IT Department

SmartBiz RSS FEED January 31st, 2007

Successful Internet initiatives require far more than an understanding of the base technology.

Wells Fargo, National City and HSBC Top Online Banks

SmartBiz RSS FEED January 31st, 2007

Chase Paymentech Ports to Vista

SmartBiz RSS FEED January 31st, 2007

Those Sand Flies

tjpet@aol.com January 30th, 2007

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Tom reads some poems about rain and sand flies. (Apparently an abundance of both at this time.)
2 minutes, 26 seconds.


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Posted by Tom Peters | Comments?

Are You a Master of Paradox?

tjpet@aol.com January 30th, 2007

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Tom talks about the paradox of leadership. (And he talks about sand flies, too.) 6 minutes, 58 seconds.


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Posted by Tom Peters | Comments?

Cool Friend: Brown

tjpet@aol.com January 30th, 2007

Mary Brown and Carol Orsborn are the coauthors of BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer–the Baby Boomer Woman. At tompeters.com, we are glad to add Mary Brown to our list of Cool Friends. She spoke with us about the book, and about her work with J. Walter Thompson's BOOM: The 40+ Authority and Imago Creative, a marketing firm that she founded, the only one in the U.S. specializing in marketing to Boomer women. You can read her Cool Friends interview here.

Though she did not take part in the interview, we'd like to also introduce Carol Orsborn. She is known for her work addressing the concerns of the Baby Boom generation, and she is Senior Vice President and co-chair of Fleishman-Hillard's FH Boom. Carol also operates an online life mastery resource center for women: www.TheSilverPearl.com.

Posted by Cathy Mosca | Comments?

Not Just for Profit?

tjpet@aol.com January 30th, 2007

I was fascinated to hear a recent BBC Radio 4 programme whose subject was social enterprise—a concept about which I did not know much! In essence, these are organisations that set out to make a profit, but then direct that profit at "good causes." Among them are a number of fairly high profile organisations in the U.K. (e.g., The Co-operative Group and Cafédirect).

The story that really caught my attention was about Greenwich Leisure Limited, an organisation that 14 years ago took over 7 struggling leisure centres that had previously been run by the London Borough of Greenwich local authority. They converted the organisation into a worker-led trust and have transformed it into an innovative, high performing organisation, that makes more profit, now costs the council only 20% of what it did 14 years ago, and has become a business model that has been copied by at least 110 Leisure businesses in the UK.

Mark Sesnan, the leader who took the brave step of leaving the relative security of a public sector job to embark on this challenge, speaks enthusiastically about the change in attitudes that he was able to stimulate in his workforce. By treating his people as partners, adults, and fellow contributors he has found that it has converted 80–90% of them into "happy, co-operative people." One indicator of their commitment is that sickness levels in the trust are consistently less than 2% per year, which is exemplary by any standards in the UK!

The various programme contributors contend that social enterprise will be the business model for the 21st century. As one of them says, it's the Robin Hood approach to business! Some might say this is "pollyanna" thinking, but I'm not so sure. I think (almost) all of us are looking for meaning in our work that goes beyond what we pick up in our paypackets at the end of the month. What can we all learn from businesses with a real conscience?

Posted by Madeleine McGrath | Comments?

Pittsburgh, PA - Sr. Quality Assurance Analyst - Elite Staffing & Consulting

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting January 30th, 2007

Elite Staffing & Consulting is looking for a Sr. QA Analyst. Specifically, this individual would be responsible verification and validation of features associated with a release. This individual will also perform occasional testing for specific cus

Pittsburgh, PA - Sr. Java Developer - Elite Staffing & Consulting

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting January 30th, 2007

Elite Staffing & Consulting is looking for a Sr. Java Developer for a Full Time or Contract position. Requirements: Need at-least 6 years of Java / J2EE experience Very strong software design and development skills. Knowledge of design patterns

The Question Is … HOW Do You Break The Habit?

helen@tompeters.co.uk January 29th, 2007

Everything we are discussing here is true!! I admit it, I know it.

I am on board with "the new world of work," with vision, with engaging talent, with the need to obliterate past ways of working, with a customer experience beyond compare. I think everyone contributing to this blog site is, too. So ... why isn't it a done deal yet??? Not the believing it to be true—but the DOING it??

Here are some reflections from my perspective (ex-corporate, team worker, mum, wife, woman in the workplace, forty-something ...)

What we are trying to do in our world of work is to change human habit. How hard is that?? (An ideal thing to reflect on at the end of January, the month of resolutions, et al. Have you kept yours? If so, why, how? If not, why not?)

As I reflect on this, and I apply it to the work aspects of my life, all becomes clear. The way we work, the way business is run, all is based in habits from a bygone (Industrial/Command and Control) era. Globalisation, Technology, etc., removed the need for all those operating systems. Yet as humans in the workplace, we haven't managed to break our long-learned habits yet. And the pace of business means we are always more likely to respond as we always have, rather than in a new and (to us) unfamiliar way.

Old habits die hard: I once moved my waste bin from one place in my office to another, yet it took me a full month to stop habitually walking to the old position with my rubbish ... and how simple is that? Our workplaces are far more complex. We can't often allow ourselves 30 days of getting it wrong in action—though the brain has the desire—before our action finally matches the intent!

So in addition to "getting" the new world of work with its terminology, technology, and new fundamental operating system, we must "get" the core drivers of human behaviour—our own first, and then, those of everyone around us.

Do the leaders in your organisation "get" human behaviour?

Posted by Helen Green | Comments?

Large Scale Service With Small Scale Costs, Part II

SmartBiz RSS FEED January 29th, 2007

The use of home-based customer service agents can improve productivity and cut costs. It's not the right approach for every company, however. Here are the key challenges-and how to meet them.

Seeing Is Believing

SmartBiz RSS FEED January 29th, 2007

Adding video to a website isn't too expensive or complex. It can be a big hit, however: Some companies see a ten-fold increase in responses once they visualize their message.

Doing Business in China

SmartBiz RSS FEED January 29th, 2007

Small Company Storage

SmartBiz RSS FEED January 29th, 2007

Pros and Cons of Metrics

tjpet@aol.com January 28th, 2007

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Tom talks from New Zealand. (The phone connection is a little scratchy.) About the pros and cons of metrics, and design on Air New Zealand. 9 minutes, 34 seconds.




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Posted by Tom Peters | Comments?

Mc Lean, VA - Sr. Management Consulting Executive - Consulting Company- TheLadders Client

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting January 27th, 2007

Job Description More Jobs From Consulting Company- TheLadders Client | Send to a Friend Consulting Company- TheLadders Client Job ID: 751656 Location: Mc Lean, VA Position Type: Full Time Date Posted: 1/26/2007 Sr. Management Consulting Executive OVE

Mc Lean, VA - Sr. Management Consulting Executive - Consulting Company- TheLadders Client

Jobster.com: Latest jobs matching: consulting January 27th, 2007

Job Description More Jobs From Consulting Company- TheLadders Client | Send to a Friend Consulting Company- TheLadders Client Job ID: 751656 Location: Mc Lean, VA Position Type: Full Time Date Posted: 1/26/2007 Sr. Management Consulting Executive OVE

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