ifridge & Company RSS Feed

We Build Great Companies

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:36:00 +0000

As you look back to major milestones in your life, each one often boils down to a single moment that made you realize you're on to something amazing. Racing down a volcano has been such a moment that made me realize that the ride of my life has just began. by Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company

Business or Friends?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Aloha. Since I am a working student with ifridge and I never posted before, I am more than happy to start right now here on Maui. Due to the fact that I usually work from Kaiserslautern (where I study), I am not usually in any of our offices. Most of the time I work with the team in virtual space that allows me to be flexible with my schedule but sharing it with the team in real time. by Florian Schenk

A Great Company Starts With A Great Team

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:21:00 +0000

Earlier this month, employees of the ifridge team gathered from all over the world on the island of Maui, some meeting each other for the very first time. With excited faces and a packed agenda, we were looking forward to kick off our annual meeting. Personally, I had no idea of what to expect. I was aware of the content but I didn’t know that this meeting would have such a profound effect on me.

Work Hard, Play Hard, Work Harder...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:02:00 +0000

The title of this post seemed to be the theme of the recent ifridge Village in Maui last week. Our team came together from Germany and the US to work hard and play hard.

Aloha & Mahalo or why China is so close ….

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:17:00 +0000

Two things you should keep in mind when experiencing the island of Maui, one of the beautiful places in world. “Aloha” and “Mahalo” sounds great if you say it but….it´s not just “language” here on this island; it´s expressing the people’s lifestyle of “hang loose.” See Markus’ and Jens’ blogs. by Christian Arnold

Aloha!

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:28:00 +0000

As I am now a week on Maui/Hawaii for ifridge Village and have enjoyed some activities across the island I learned a lot about the Hawaiian way of life. It is the Aloha spirit that defines and characterize a whole ethnic group. By Jens Haack of ifridge & Company

The Power of Shared Experiences

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:03:00 +0000

As we get towards the end of ifridge village 2012 and all the fun, energy and excitement that we have had is starting to become a blur of mental and physical exhaustion. But what I’m sure about is that we will be talking about this event together with each other, and those who join our team, for many years to come. That’s the power of shared experiences: to be come a common language for those who shared in them, as well as a currency for future team members.

Hang loose at ifridge village?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Aloha from warm and sunny Maui. Most of this years ifridge village participants have already spent a few days on the island and started to get used to the island time. We started the week with Hiking, Surfing and Scuba Diving and we adopted the hang loose or shaka sign pretty fast. It conveys what locals in Hawaii call the "Aloha Spirit", a gesture of friendship and understanding between the various ethnic cultures that reside within Hawaii. Depending on context it can also be used to communicate notions such as "all right", "cool", "smooth", and the like. ---by Markus von Aschoff @ifridge

Whatever Doesn’t Kill Us Only Makes Us… Closer?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:46:00 +0000

I have no doubt that everyone is familiar with the old saying, “whatever doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.” It’s a motivating message that teaches lessons about hard work, determination, and persistence in times of struggle. But yesterday at ifridge Village, as we were trekking through Maui’s jungle on horseback in the pouring rain, I came to a realization. When acting in groups, it can be easily argued that whatever doesn’t kill us only makes us closer.

ifridge Village 2012 - Ready for Adventure

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:43:00 +0000

Our 3rd ifridge Village is about to start and as people arrive in Maui, HI from all over the world I’d like to give you a little preview of what is about to happen.

Bringing It Home

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0000

There’s many components that going into a winning team, both on and off the field. As we sit here, days away from the Super Bowl, our thoughts turn to the big topic at hand - game execution. We call it Go-to-Market but I like the term game execution, as it best reflects the situation: get it done - bring home the game! by Stefanie Lightman of ifridge & Company

Think Creatively and Execute

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:14:00 +0000

There are many components that go into a winning strategy. As we follow the season all the way to the Super Bowl, we’ve watched the NY Giants and New England Patriots come together at the right time with all the right ingredients to get it done. They have prepared and know their plays, but now it’s time to execute. by Stefanie Lightman

Building the Winning Team

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:47:00 +0000

You can easily find coaches and executives that can Read the Game but only some make it to the top and win the Super Bowl. It’s not just the players on the field. You need to plan how to get them to play, keep all the resources focused on the goal and have all the infrastructure required. by Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company

Read the Game

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:28:00 +0000

We’re approaching the SuperBowl! The post-season crunch time is like the end of the quarter crunch in sales: closing, closing, closing. There is no second chance, there is no room for error … you either move on or you go home. by Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company

2011 Global Green Ranking - A US Perspective

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:27:00 +0000

Newsweek, Trucost and Sustainalytices have recently published their top 500 “Green Ranking” which includes an expanded KPI sustainability rating of the 500 most strong-selling global companies. The so called “Green Score” is focused on three fields: Environmental Impact, Environmental Management and Environmental Disclosure. This score explains how the largest 500 companies in the world are positioned.

CleanTech is global! - follow up on the Global Green Ranking 2011

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:41:00 +0000

In meinem letzen Blog berichtete ich über das 2011 Global Green Ranking der Top 500 global agierenden Unternehmen und dem erneuten Siegeszug der in Europa ansässigen Unternehmen. What makes the difference? by Christian Arnold

Me and Brad Pitt

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:18:00 +0000

We all deal with disappointment. From an ill-received product launch, to a PR blunder or a missed quarter, sometimes the cards don’t always fall the way we want them too. But these are things that we can change, things that we can control. by Rob Felton of ifridge & Company

Cash is King

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:36:00 +0000

As an entrepreneur you are passionate about turning your ideas into revenues to build and grow your business. Without question, numbers are not as exciting as working with your clients and doing the deals. However to develop a successful business you also need to be on top of the numbers and develop financial discipline. Many Start-ups fail within the first 5 years due to lack of cash. Thus a solid and sustainable cash management to keep up the ability to pay is a ‘must-have’ in the beginning of a business. by Jens Haack of ifridge & Company

Global Green Ranking 2011: Europa - Das Mass aller Dinge?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Aktiver Klimaschutz und ein zunehmendes Bewusstsein der globalen Wirtschaft in Punkto der eigenen Nachhaltigkeitsaktivitäten dienen nicht mehr nur dem Selbstzweck sondern haben sich in kurzer Zeit zu einem echten Erfolgs - KPI (Key Performance Indicator) und Positionierungsindikator des Marktes entwickelt. In ihrem kürzlich veröffentlichten "Green Ranking" der Top 500 global agierenden Unternehmen haben Newsweek, Trucost und Sustainalytics ein umfassendes KPI-Set zur Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung der 500 umsatzstärksten globalen Unternehmen entwickelt.... by Christian Arnold

How to save 50,000 cubic yards of paper

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:25:00 +0000

Christmas time is one of the greatest times in the year. Streets and houses become great, bright artwork, kids are celebrating every day with a little gift and in most industries, the year-end race turns the last weeks of the year into the most successful ones. Beside the rush and the excitement, it is great to take some moments and thank a lot of great people, who were great supporters, great co-workers and great friends. So it’s time for the annual Christmas cards.....

It's About the Future - Happy Holidays

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:59:00 +0000

This year we say thanks to all of you and make a donation in your honor to UNICEF. By making this donation to help children around the world, it’s our way of helping to build a better future. Happy Holidays and much success in 2012.

Free Time - The Lost Feature

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:37:00 +0000

For me the feature of ‘Free Time’ is first of all the freedom to think, to have my mind wander new ways, explore things. And believe me, there is no better place to do that than the home of ifridge, the greatest city of all: NYC. We all know the city for its energy, its raw power and we at ifridge especially love the entrepreneurial spirit. But what most people don’t know, is that NYC is the perfect place to relax and enjoy ‘Free Time’. By Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company

Everything But the Kitchen Sink

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Marketing seems to always be the team that catches those projects that don’t have a clear owner. This conversation made me start to think, should all these tasks really belong in Marketing. Most of the organization is already challenged by resources and budgets and marketing is no different. If our time is spent on these internal activities then inevitably something else will suffer.

Diving into the Unknown

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:29:00 +0000

Sometime around my 14th birthday, my history teacher, Mr. Ostrow, taught me an enormously helpful lesson. My life had just begun, he explained, and the entire first half of anybody’s life should be spent gathering little pieces of information and knowledge. He assured me that if I were to collect enough, as I grew older, I would find imaginative ways to connect all of this wisdom in a constructive and valuable manner. This year I started with ifridge & Company and the journey continues as promised. By Jesse Waxman

New York State of Mind - ifridge New York Moves to Midtown

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:42:00 +0000

Looking out over 5th Avenue, I am motivated by the energy of this great city. With all the growth here at ifridge, it was time for us to relocate into a bigger space, so earlier this week, we made the move to the hustle of midtown. We loved our spot in Astor Place; it was cool and hip and gave you this NYU energy you can only find downtown, but our new space puts us in the heart of the busy business day here in NYC. At ifridge, we help innovators and entrepreneurs fulfill their dream, and it’s only fitting that we now sit next to one of the most famous and historical landmarks, the Empire State Building. Why is this inspiring? Well, beyond the obvious, when the building was erected in 1931, it was the tallest in the world and was designed from the top down. Like many of our customers the focus was on the big picture, but success was discovered when it was carried all the way down to the first level. Next time you are in NYC, please be sure to stop by. We are right in between Penn Station and Grand Central so no excuses, our door is always open.

ifridge NYC Moves Up Town December 2011

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I love my SAP

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:39:00 +0000

Technology is an awesome industry and software is the core of everything. You can create wonderful websites, beautiful apps but there is one thing for certain: SAP is boring. Don’t get me wrong, in my former life we had a great business with SAP and SAP clients but let’s face it, it’s German software. From Intern to CEO Speaking of the past, I ran into Markus Dopp about a year ago. He is the CEO and co-founder of Sitrion. He was also one of the very first people we hired at RedDot - as an intern at the time - to help in our US operations. When I asked him what he is doing and what his dreams are, he had a straight answer: build the greatest company and be more successful than you. Whoa, that’s what I call an entrepreneur! I love my SAP So we kept talking for some time and things became even more interesting. His business is focused on making the life of knowledge workers so easy that they actually start loving SAP processes. Sitrion’s tag line is “I love my SAP software”. Somehow they figured a way to turn all the SAP based processes into a great user experience. They started with Microsoft (Outlook, SharePoint) but he assures me that they can take it to any environment. You can imagine that I had to learn more and so I invited him to our offices to share some of his ideas and his vision. Meanwhile we got so excited about his company that we started to support him in expanding his business. Earlier this year we opened the US office, on the Microsoft campus in Redmond and he was able to close some major deals, taking the US business to a size equal to the European business. As I recall, in my days it took us a couple of years to achieve the same. Isn’t that an awesome story about your own intern that turns into the CEO? Makes me feel old but more in a grandfatherly kind of way :-) I will be certainly making sure that we keep track on how he is doing, and we’ll do our best to support another great entrepreneur.

Old Faithful -A.K.A. LinkedIn, still a powerful tool for sales

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

We have many professional networking options to use out there, but for me living in the world of sales and networking, LinkedIn continues to be my go to site on many levels.

Swopper - Workout for the Knowledge Worker

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:33:00 +0000

Being an entrepreneur means working hard, working long hours and pulling more than the occasional all-nighter. If you focus on the digital world, sitting in front of screen is the daily routine and what that does to your back is well known … at least to the more experienced among us. Enter: Swopper. By Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company

Achtung Baby

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Achtung Baby Or how a b(r)and can teach us four simple things that every marketer should never forget Marketing, Strategy

Meet Us at Gilbane

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:00:00 +0000

The weather is changing, industries keep moving but one thing stays constant ... every year Gilbane holds its annual conference in Boston, and this year is no different. Heading to Boston again makes me think about the event over the years and what fun we’ve had. My first Gilbane show was with RedDot back in 2005. That was the year we took home the CMS Idol. If you were there you may remember us in our santa hats telling the story of “t’was the night before the intranet launch”. Each year the vendors evolve, new features are shown, and new faces arrive but I know I can always run into those old familiar friends and get a glimpse of what’s to come in WCM. Come Meet UsAnd like previous years, we are headed to Boston. Elise and I are looking forward to another exciting event. If you plan to be there, be sure to check out Elise’s panel on SEO & Site Search on Thursday at 2:00pm. Or drop me a note and let’s meet for coffee.Can’t be there? No worries, I will be sure to recap when we get back.

SmartPen - Paper meets Digital

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:31:00 +0000

For the last two years a LiveScribe SmartPen is my companion in meetings. It is basically a pen, a mic and a notebook. But what it really does: it works. I have been testing alternative systems and could never get them to work. Another thing I like is the notebook, which comes in a black leather option looking not unlike the Moleskine notebooks I used to have. Just perfect on a winter afternoon at the coffee house. by Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company

Being Social

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:49:00 +0000

These days’ “being social” isn’t about gathering around the corner or having a 3-way phone conversation, it’s about having a digital dialogue. Almost like having coffee but digital. More importantly it’s about having a social presence where your opinions matter and where your voice is being heard. That is why social media should be a part of every company’s marketing strategy because it gives the company a platform to create awareness, foster demand generation, build engagement etc. by Kiran Mander

TEDx or Children Changing the World

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Imagine you could change the world, what would you do? Last Sunday, on the World Children’s day, this little exercise challenged children at more than 100 events in 44 countries. TEDx youth is the name of this event and I had the pleasure to be invited to talk on one of these worldwide events. My topic was "Do what you want and not what you are told to". Read more .... by Markus von Aschoff @ifridge

HotelTonight - Realtime Booking

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:20:00 +0000

There are two types of travellers: the planner and the adventurer. The planner has the flight, hotel, or rental booked ahead of time and all the details like times and confirmation numbers in their calendar. If you’re one of those, this post is not for you! And there is the other traveller, the adventurer … like me. I always book last minute, have the late-night hotline of the car service on speed dial, and book my hotel in the cab (or train) from the airport. If you’re like that, this is a post for you! by Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company

Business Planning – The Basis for Your Success

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:45:00 +0000

A valid and transparent business plan is an important factor for success in sustainable business development. Regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur or an experienced market player, with a reasonable business plan you not only improve your possibilities of getting funding but also in controlling and monitoring your business. by Jens Haack

ifridge meets 6. IdeenLounge in Wien

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:31:00 +0000

Hier ein kurzes Update, von der letzten Startup-Pitch Veranstaltung in Wien. Die österreichische Startup Szene aus dem CleanTech Umfeld versammelte sich nun schon zum 6 Mal in Wien. Die Veranstaltung stand unter dem Motto von George Bernard Shaw: Die Menschen sehen die Dinge wie sie sind und fragen warum, ich träume von Dingen die nie waren und frage warum nicht! von Christian Arnold

Do I need to shave my Mii beard?

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:07:00 +0000

And other questions about how we present ourselves to the world My daughter posed me an interesting question the other day: “Daddy, why does your Mii* have a beard when you don’t have one any more?” It was a valid question, as I’d recently made a decision to re-join the work force in an office environment again, and had decided that the beard that had spread over my face during the work at home years was no longer appropriate in my day-to-day life. by Rob Felton

The Hamster Wheel

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Can you relate to the image of a hamster wheel? What are some ways we can get off that wheel? But really, we need to get off the wheel.How to find one exciting road where you have the ability to look ahead and not feel you are spinning in circles.

Solar Branche: One Hit Wonder oder Rockstar - Teil II

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:01:00 +0000

Letzte Woche berichtete ich über die aktuelle Entwicklung der Solarindustrie und dem sich andeutenden Rückzug der Produktionskapazitäten in Deutschland. Begründet wird die aktuell schwierige Situation der Branche mit den immensen (globalen) Überkapazitäten im Photovoltaik-Bereich und dem damit in Zusammenhang stehenden Preisverfall (siehe Bild I PV Preisindex). Eine Entwicklung die die Branche zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt noch nicht erwartet hat. von Christian Arnold

All has changed, everything stays the same

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:57:00 +0000

Welcome to the new ifridge website. Almost exactly one year after our last redesign we felt it was time for an update. Our business has developed further, we’ve added many new clients, made lots of new friends and also wanted to give you a better experience around the content you really need for your business. by Daniel Kraft

Solar Branche: One Hit Wonder oder Rockstar - Teil I

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Seit der Einführung des politischen Anreizmechanismus EEG´s (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz) und der verbindlichen Verankerung von Ausbauzielen für Technologien im Bereich der Erneuerbaren Energien (Klimaschutzziele 20/20/20) sieht sich die Solarbranche durch kurzfristige Anpasssungen der Einspeisevergütung in den letzten Jahren einem auf und ab ausgesetzt.

Braintribe

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:07:00 +0000

Torn between being a great technology team and the market requirements for solutions, we worked with Braintribe on aligning the business with the great vision of the company.

Start-up City NYC

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:50:00 +0000

NYC, the home of ifridge & Company is not for everybody, but if you’re serious about business you need to be in NYC. You have access to thousands of clients, the pool of great people is huge and the list of investors you can reach is endless. The bottom line is: if you are not a Valley guy (or gal) you need to be in NYC. by Daniel Kraft

Today is World Paper Free Day and ifridge is participating

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:26:00 +0000

As you might know, we at ifridge live that paper-free day-by-day business so really today is no different. We don’t use printers and print out every single message or email or article. We really believe this is waste of paper. But there are still some areas in business and our everyday life, where the digital alternative is not accepted. And of course there are good reasons to still use paper.

Shaping and Growing an Online Community: Learning from the Practitioners

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:29:00 +0000

Guest Blog by Cheryl McKinnon: My partnership with ifridge & Company has allowed me to continue learning and observing companies in the content management space who really understand the concept of “community”. It's an important topic, particularly as open source technologies rise to the mainstream for WCM and ECM. Successful approaches to community management are maturing in the open source world, and many types of enterprises can benefit from these practices.

Simparel

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 08:46:00 +0000

ifridge created a clear articulation of Simparel’s value-add in the market, along with an evaluation of market opportunity and defined approach on how to reach targets.

RedDot

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 08:46:00 +0000

RedDot looked for new markets very early in their development and moved step-by-step into becoming a global player in Web Content Management.

Acrolinx

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 08:46:00 +0000

Acrolinx looked for a clear vision that would position them outside of their current space and into larger enterprise deals.

It's all in the Follow Up

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:55:00 +0000

Great marketing plans need even better follow up. Often times there are missed opportunities from Marketing campaigns because we are not following up correctly, or at all. How many times have you attended an event or an online webinar and received a random follow up call or email weeks, or months later and the topic is no longer relevant in your mind? Or worse, no follow up at all. I see it happening all the time. I also see that when you have an organized follow up plan that goes along with Marketing’s campaigns, you get prospects on the phone or to respond to emails... The key words in that statement are “follow up plan”. Every marketing campaign should have one, whether it’s a webinar, event, trade-show, etc.Here are a few ideas on how to make following up on marketing campaigns a little more integrated.Follow up messaging:A follow up message should be created specifically for each marketing activity and be ready to send immediately following the event. Two things that will get you ahead right away: quick and relevant follow up.Properly enabling your sales team to follow up:Is your sales team (inside and direct) prepared to talk about your messaging and make the connections back to the marketing events your prospects came to?Taking time to train the sales team on this messaging will enable them to internalize the message and have meaningful conversations with a variety of prospects they are responding to. Prioritizing your follow up efforts:If we are lucky we have hundreds of attendees that need to be followed up on. How do you prioritize this? I like to break it into 2 steps to get started. 1. Target Accounts - They always get priority in follow up. Every rep should have a list of target accounts they want to get into, so if you see them attending an event follow up with them first. 2. Opens or click throughs - Most CRM’s out there let you know if your prospect has opened your email, and in some cases offer even more detailed information like number of times opened and if they clicked through on any links back to your site. Always follow up on these before the rest of your list because they have shown interest and will (in most cases) remember the event and your company. We all know follow up is key, and with an organized approach it can be the difference between making the most out of marketing’s efforts or missing out on them completely.

Genius + Manager = E/Intrepreneur?

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:22:00 +0000

Recently I met the, now retired, CTO of IBM Germany, Gunter Dueck. We had an intense discussion about Daniel’s presentation at TEDx based on my research on “Everybody is Beautiful”. As we know Dueck, he was not shy to speak his mind and called it “all crap”.While our research concluded that a great idea has every chance to succeed, Dueck pointed out that in large organizations not everybody can succeed in bringing an idea to the market. He mainly relates this to his belief that people are either good in developing an idea or in fighting (aka managing) their way through the corporate jungle.... By Markus von Aschoff of fridge & Company.

All Crap or Does Intrapreneurship Really Work

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:21:00 +0000

"That is all crap!" You must love Gunter Dueck for his inability to hide his opinion. I was just reading a blog by Markus von Aschoff of ifridge & Company about how larger corporations tackle innovation when I saw that Dueck called our aproach of Everybody is Beautiful to be all crap. Manager Syndrom kills Entrepreurship Shield Ideas from "Corporate" Good but not Extraordinary by Daniel Kraft, Managing Partner at ifridge & Company

Chutes and Ladders

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Growing up I played a lot of board games, Chutes & Ladders, Sorry, Candyland, and many more. I really enjoyed the thrill of winning and the suspense of the game taking a different turn. If you think about it, these games we played as a kid, were not much different then the experience of building a business. by Stefanie Lightman

Efficient Dynamic

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 07:16:00 +0000

A new car, always an exciting moment. Well, until you start the debate about what car, how to deliver on your own sustainability ideas and most important: the color. Help us out and vote for what should become the new ifridge company car.

Steve Jobs - Thanks & Good Bye

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:23:00 +0000

Today we have to say good bye to a man that brought us all of that. Not a better computer, not a better designed piece of hardware and software but that little extra that makes a difference. I am sure he will be in a magic place. Thanks and Good Bye. - by Daniel Kraft

How a Segway can teach you Strategy ...

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:30:00 +0000

... and other lessons I learned at my recent MIT classes. Do you know the feeling, when you are so deep into an idea, so deep that you can’t understand why the “world” is not as passionate about it as you are? It doesn’t matter if it is a great slide or the next big thing, it used to be very hard for me when the audience seemed to not catch on fire. During my first years in business I had to learn the hard way that the beauty of an idea lies in the eye of the beholder. Last week at my MIT courses we examined this phenomenon in detail ... by Markus von Aschoff, inspired by Segway Driver Daniel Kraft

The Best Kind of Networking

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:59:00 +0000

Elise Segar about how you can combine charity with networking and why you should play in the rain just like kids do.

How to find and nurture the right business idea

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:11:00 +0000

To find the right business idea you need to keep your eyes and ears open to see opportunities and the courage to start. Do what you love and turn your entrepreneurial spirit into a business based on solid research.

Social Workplace - A Reality You Can't Ignore

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:48:00 +0000

Just a few days ago I had the opportunity to present a keynote at a local business event, fibit’11. Together with our friends and long term partner netmedia I spoke about the Social Workplace and why we can’t ignore what change social networks bring into our business. by Daniel Kraft

Sweet Spot Positioning - Does size matter?

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:54:00 +0000

One important lesson I have learned was that competing with the big guys is not necessarily less successful than competing with the often underestimated smaller guys. Because the big guys often relied on their sheer strengths, the smaller guys had to work very hard to find out their strength and the only way to find this out, was to compete with them. The same lesson holds true in my business life. Working with entrepreneurs in growth mode, I feel every day the passion to compete with the big guys and have an impact. While I am very much appreciating the passion to compete, the successful entrepreneurs work hard to carve out their sweet spot to have the most impact. Despite all our in-depth research which went into finding out the best way to get entrepreneurs to their sweet spot, sometimes it is all about winning the competition: Conclusion: It’s not the size of the duck in the fight, it’s the size of the competition in the fight :-)

Dreamforce 11 - The Social Revolution

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:09:00 +0000

I had the opportunity to attend Dreamforce 11 in San Francisco for the first time this year. Dreamforce, appropriately named with all the cool ideas, visions and overall feeling of the event was more than I had hoped. A Social Revolution The theme became a reality, starting with getting registered by a girl standing in the main lobby of the event with her ipad and getting my badge printed that pulled a picture of me off of my Linked in profile, to a full featured mobile app with my entire 3 day schedule on it (amongst other many other helpful things!)… All of the sessions and keynote’s I attended had the theme of social, cloud, and empowering the workplace… Salesforce.com is really doing a great job of integrating all of these areas in a way that is intuitive to not only the Salesforce user, but also the users’ client/prospect network. I was inspired by Mark Benioff’s Keynote and how he (Salesforce) took not just the Salesforce.com users experience into consideration, but the experience of how sf.com users are connecting to co-workers, clients and prospects through social networks like Twitter, facebook and LinkedIn... They took both sides into consideration. This is something that often gets lost with companies, seeing both sides of the equation. Mark had customers like Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry and Tim Campos, CIO of Facebook come up and tell real-life use cases of how their companies are not only using but benefiting from these social integrations as a way to better interact with their users, clients and prospects. To me that’s what it’s all about. Give me a tool that I can use to make me a better contributor internally and also a better sales rep to my clients and prospects. If I can have access to more information on my prospects the sales prospecting experience becomes less “salesy” and more personal / consultative. Cool Integrations! There were many great companies at the event that had very cool integrations into Salesforce.com (too many for me to see them all). There were also many companies at the event who were hitching their car to the Salesforce.com train that really made no sense. I guess this is true for most big technology companies on the up and up… The two integrations that stood out for me were LinkedIn and Pardot. These two integrations made the social and empowering the workplace theme a reality. Having real-time relevant information on a contact or lead is big. Tie that in with having a marketing automation tool that allows you to focus your time on clients that have a need and you have a well oiled machine! Dreamforce ROCKED! Dreamforce wasn’t all sessions and business conversations; we were treated to an amazing private performance by Metallica followed by an after party featuring Will.I.am. Salesforce doesn’t hold back on the entertainment, what a night! All in all Dreamforce was a great learning experience, I took full advantage of my free 30 min session with a sf.com admin to answer some questions we had. I connected with many interesting people and got to see some solid technology that is very exciting. If you have the chance to attend next year I highly recommend it.

Beautiful Summer: Thoughts from the Online Marketing Summit Tour

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:26:00 +0000

Stefanie Lightman on tour with the OMS Roadshow.

Join Our Webinar - Everybody is Beautiful

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:50:00 +0000

Join me as present my session from this summer’s Online Marketing Summit tour in a webinar with the Online Marketing Connect Community. I hope you can make the time to participate as we discuss this exciting topic.Everybody is Beautiful - The Power of Differentiation in a Digital EconomyTuesday, August 23, 2011 12noon EDTBeauty is a relative term and just as much we enjoy it, we have difficulties to really explain it. Just as little details make the difference in human relationships, businesses need to be able to express their unique values in just the right light to build strong customer relationships.In a digital economy businesses have the amazing opportunity to express their unique value - share their beauty in new ways. Yet, as online marketers we need to find the right balance to express “what we do” with “who we really are” as the audience is listening on all social channels.This session will take you on a tour to help you better identify your company’s beauty and to deliver an integrated positioning offline, online and even social. Topics covered during this webinar will include:• Identifying your company’s unique positioning• Translating your unique value - your beauty - online• Leveraging the power of Social to better understand your perceived value The session is based on a whitepaper we published earlier this years.

Analysis of the Dumbphone Market

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:07:00 +0000

According to a recent survey by Nielsen 55% of all new phones purchased are smartphones. Really just 55%? Who is buying all those dumbphones? Keep in mind that this survey was about new purchased phones. This means that about every second person in the US buys a “traditional” cellphone. Given that the sales person or the web team has an incentive to upgrade you to a more expensive smartphone, I have to assume the number of people with the intention to buy ‘just a phone’ must be even higher. Why are they doing this? Are they not smart? Must be an education thing, right?The Artist formerly known as PhoneMaybe there is something wrong with the statistics? It’s called smartphone but I think it should be called something different. I have two of them, one iPhone 4 and an HTC Incredible. Both are great devices but I almost never use them for calls. Sure I have my fair share of phone conversations but considering the overall use of the devices I have a dozen of equal or more important applications like email, Facebook, Twitter, Chatter, browser, time tracking, photo & video, calendar GPS. Maybe we rename it to ‘the artist formerly known as Phone’.Dumbphone vs. Smartphone Analysis Why aren’t We all Smart?But we get distracted from the real question of the dumbphone and who is buying them. There is obviously a major problem when about half of the nation is not smart enough to buy the right phone. What are those people doing all day? How do they update their status or how do they find their way to the next Starbucks. And they must be starving, I doubt there are still places that serve food without the check-in. I can’t believe we spend all that energy debating healthcare while half of the country needs to beg for direction to the next meal.No Kid left BehindI vote for a national plan to provide everyone with a smart phone. The world would be a much better place. Any dictator would fear our ability to mobilize the masses to protest. We would terminate world hunger by providing restaurant recommendations to third world countries. And all that useless spending on education would be obsolete as long they have a reliable mobile access to Wikipedia. With that the kids could move right to the valley to develop an app against teenage pregnancy. Crime rates would drop with the ability to mob your rival gang members on Facebook. No question, the next election is going to be about smartphones.Fordism goes Viral So with all those benefits, why are people still buying those dumbphones? Maybe we need to apply Fordism to the Smartphone market. Legend says that Henry Ford had the idea to produce affordable devises so every worker could buy one. Plus, the basic mobile data infrastructure should be free to everybody, just as we have decent roads covered we should have free internet highways. Maybe with Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola we see a googlization of the smartphone market. Once every worker, secretary or driver at Motorola can afford a smart phone (and a dataplan), all of our great supporters like our troops, our nurses or our teachers (those that could really benefit from being better connected) can also afford one. I am sure we all appreciate them for keeping the country moving while we tweet along.Picture Source: Lime GreensData Source: Nielsen

Do you waste paper?

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:21:00 +0000

International Year of the Forests. Many campaigns have been created to raise awareness to save our forests and I am sure we all love being in the forest; and we love it for giving us a peaceful place to rest and experience nature, with a beautiful variety of creatures and plants. But there is one other thing our forests provides us: wood, which we need for so many things, for example paper.

ifridge Village 2011

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:37:00 +0000

We Are Growing - Join the Team

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:23:00 +0000

A Dash of Human Touch

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 08:50:00 +0000

Which Companies would You Invest in?

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:13:00 +0000

Founder's Syndrome

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:34:00 +0000

The world in your Pocket - Interview with Twitter CEO

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:35:00 +0000

The Dog Days of Summer Prospecting

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:35:00 +0000

You Are Never too Small for Big Marketing

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:25:00 +0000

The Real Story - a Letter from my old buddy RedDot

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:58:00 +0000

Smart Sourcing: What is your buffet strategy?

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Don't Snore - Six Things that make Our Work-Life more Fun

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:30:00 +0000

ifridge & Company founder Daniel Kraft about snoring in the office, hard work and 6 things that make our work-life more fun. Includes a job posting from ifridge & Company.

Meet Me at The Online Marketing Summit

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:44:00 +0000

All easy at eZ

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:54:00 +0000

Summary of Daniel Kraft visiting the annual eZ Systems conference in London, incl. a presentation about Beautiful Dialogue in a Social World.

The End of the Empire

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:52:00 +0000

Daniel having tea time in London, thinking about traditions and why they last while empires end.

Are you still aware ???

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:59:00 +0000

How to become a Billionaire, not just a Millionaire

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:33:00 +0000

Much ado about nothing?

Tue, 31 May 2011 10:15:00 +0000

Guarantee a Standing Ovation

Tue, 17 May 2011 10:12:00 +0000

Simplifying Sales and Marketing Reporting....YES it can be done!

Wed, 11 May 2011 05:00:00 +0000

The Plumber - Why Technology is Needed

Mon, 02 May 2011 18:47:00 +0000

Taking a Wrong Turn and Making it Right

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 01:15:00 +0000

If your current strategy is taking you in the wrong direction, what do you do? As a leader it is most important to do something. The team behind you looks for quick responsiveness as you guide the organization.

Less Investors, More Money: State of the VC Business

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:29:00 +0000

E&Y Report about the state of the VC business. Venture, VC, Investor, New Economy

Why are you here?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Earth Hour

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Inside Sales: 6 things you need to build a strong team

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0000

When I tell people I work with Inside Sales teams, the first thing they usually say is "Oh, you mean cold calling or lead gen" No, I mean Inside Sales. I believe Inside Sales is a critical piece between Marketing and Sales. They execute on Marketing’s messages to customers, and take customers requirements to the Sales team. They ultimately shorten sales cycles and positively impact revenue. Here are a few key ingredients to run an exceptional team that produces results.Make Inside Sales an integrated part of your Sales teamWhen Inside Sales feels like they’re a part of the Sales team they become focused on a common goal: Deals. It’s no longer about how many appointments they set up or how many calls they make. If they are tied to their reps overall number, they are going to make sure that rep has a consistent flow of quality opportunities to work with. I’ve seen the most successful teams work their territories like a mini company, working side by side to get the deal done.Hire people who have phone and direct selling experienceI have interviewed and hired many Inside Sales reps; the one thing I always look for is selling experience. An Inside rep that knows how to sell understands the importance of generating quality opportunities. They also have a better understanding of how customers buy and why. It's one thing to have experience calling on a C-level executive, but another thing to have experience closing one. These reps are also better at listening to customer needs and ask questions that matter.Plan, educate and follow-throughIf you get your Inside reps to understand who they are targeting, who their existing customers are and come up with their own targeted plan it changes the game from being reactive to proactive. Having your Inside reps involved with Marketing and Outside reps in this process is important. At that point they are all on the same page on how to approach their territory. The most important part of this is follow-through. These plans need to be re-visited constantly and adjusted accordingly to be affective. Listen, share and learnOn my weekly team meetings everyone talks about what is working and what is not. There are always reps that are stronger than others, or working different campaign ideas. Sharing that knowledge creates a trusted community. Open communication is crucial, especially in running remote teams. IM or social networks allows us to reach out with a question, advise, or just a “hey your never gonna believe the call I just had!” This support structure allows reps to play to their individual strengths and get advise when needed.Stay focused on customers needs, not latest and greatest featuresIt’s easy to drink the Product Marketing kool-aid and sell the latest and greatest feature. But when you shift the focus from features to customer solutions you begin to think about how you can help your customers. This helps an Inside rep to become a trusted advisor to the client vs. pushy Sales guy. When you listen to customers and understand how to solve business issues, you separate your company from the competition before the first meeting takes place. With that, Outside reps get a head start and can focus on closing.Be their biggest championHaving an Inside team who feels like they are appreciated and an important part of the sales cycle directly affects productivity. Making sure they have what they need from managers, Marketing and Sales is so important. Public recognition on team calls, at sales meetings and of course at the big company meetings gives your Inside reps a sense of pride that shows in their work. They deserve it.Let’s face it, in any Sales organization the bottom line is revenue. When you have a well-oiled machine connecting Marketing and Sales you have a consistent flow of leads, opportunities, and Sales in your pipeline. So yes, I admit it: I love Inside Sales.

Thanks for meeting on the Bridge

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:57:00 +0000

On Tuesday we celebrated the 100th International Women´s Day and the entire team “Join(ed) me on the bridge” for this really important cause, especially for us, who’ve grown up in an equal opportunity society. We were all very excited to participate and although we where at many different localtions, we managed to show our support… around the world. Am Dienstag feierten wir den 100. Internationalen Frauentag. Unser Team war natürlich mit an Bord und unterstütztedie Aktion “Join me on the bridge”. Besonders für uns, die wir in einer gleichgestellten Gesellschaft aufgewachsen sind. Alle waren sehr begeistert Teil dieser Aktion sein zu können und obwohl wir an vielen verschiedenen Orten waren haben wir es alle irgendwie geschafft, zusammen zu kommen … weltweit.Getting Ready: The preparation started early in the day with some of the kids preparing signs for the event. Früh am Tag malten einige unserer Kinder schon Plakate für das Event. Bridge in the Park: Some of us met at the bridge in the local park, followed by some nice coffee and cake :-) Einige von uns trafen sich im Oldenburger Schlossgarten und genossen anschließend lecker Kaffee und Kuchen ;-) Flying on the Bridge: Even on his way to a client meeting Markus took a short break on the “bridge” to the plane to support the cause. Sogar auf dem Weg zu einem Kunden hat Markus noch ein Bild auf der Brücke in den Flieger gemacht um auch seine Unterstützung zu zeigen. Social Bridge: Our friends and Social Workplace Experts netmedia organized the whole thing within hours, thanks to great Social Networking Infrastructure. Unsere Freunde von netmedia machten es innerhalb von wenigen Stunden zur Brücke in Saarbrücken. Großartig. Brooklyn Bridge: Our New York team joined the large crowd gathered on the New York Brooklyn Bridge. Unser New Yorker Team zog mit einer großen Menge zur New Yorker Brookly Bridge.Remote Bridge: Stefanie participated virtually while working on a project. Da Stefanie viele Kundentermine hatte, nahm sie online an der Aktion teil.

Europe has Talent

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:28:00 +0000

Would you have recognized that Mark Zuckerberg was onto something in his early days? I am sure, even if I had met him, I would have never imagined what he made out of his idea. During the last weeks I had the chance to meet dozens of potential European ‘Zuckerbergs’ while presenting at events like O’Reilly’s Global Ignite week, Seedlounge, Echtzeit IX Berlin and Startup Camp Berlin. At all those events I learned a lot from these great minds about new ways of facilitating dialogues about music, bringing the experience of a page-turning book into the web, making meetings impactful, finding a taxi-like ride via a marketplace on your most convenient device, and many more. To have an idea is a great start, to have a product is fantastic -- but it is crucial to pitch it from the very beginning and act fast to make the most out of it. All of the entrepreneurs agreed, that they were focusing entirely on building the great product and cared less about marketing (a typical European quality, as we pointed out at the German American Chamber of Commerce Event). Now being able to show version 1.0, the marketing machine needs more time to start. Don’t get me wrong, it is crucial to work on a product to prove your idea, but the lessons learned from all the people I talked to was about start marketing at the same time. Even if you have no product to show, take a little time and clearly articulate who you are and what you do. By the way, this is the most successful way to get funding in Silicon Valley, like ujam shows. During your startup process, always ask yourself whether you are making progress on delivering your idea AND are you are making progress on pitching your idea?. If you need support on the latter, let us know. We are looking forward to hearing more about your idea.

Join Us on the Bridge

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:29:00 +0000

100 years ago brave women stood up for their rights and Tuesday, March 8th we celebrate all the achievements on International Woman´s Day.

Spread an Idea - Be Beautiful

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:17:00 +0000

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be part of your favorite sports team or have a role in your favorite movie? While I might never play for the Chicago Cubs, I was actually asked to present at a TEDx event earlier this year.

Who's Driving the Bus?

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Effective teams get things done. The science and skill of running effective teams is hugely important in business. Effective team leaders run effective teams. The team leader gets everyone involved, leverages their talents, maintains focus on the goal, manages the schedule and assignments, and is the person you should thank the most if you receive a bonus when the goal is reached.

A Unique Voice in a Crowded Marketplace

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:28:00 +0000

Differentiation once figured out can drive the core of the messaging.

Recharging for Growth

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Sometimes the vision for a company needs to be revisited periodically over the years.

Taking the Next Step towards a Sustainable World

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

How will it be, living and working in the future? This question has been broadly discussed in the global community in the context of the climate change debate. Creating more sustainable energy production, considering global environmental changes as well as energy efficiency, thinking about raising living standards — these are all major challenges for us as a society and for the global energy industry in particular. Let me share some interesting observations from our visit at the “Zentrum Zukunft” (“Future Center”), which is effectively a lab that showcases the latest innovations on how new technologies will affect our daily living at home in the future. We got an sneak peak there on how EWE AG, the owner of the ‘Future House’ and a regional energy company, envisions the future and how they plan to deal with the upcoming challenges in the energy space. Their Future House knows who I am and what I like — it was an impressive experience. It all started with a security system that required an iris scan or fingerprint to enter the house. With my first step inside, the light was immediately tuned to my preferred tone as defined in my personal “welcome” scenario. The mirror in the entrance hall was almost like my personal assistant. It gave me my first glance into all of my information needs and tasks: what has happened with my friends as well as everything that happened since I left, like emails, people that have reached out to me, ToDo´s, housework, grocery list, etc. On a total of three floors we witnessed many additional innovations, that are going to make our first encounters with technology, such as our first car, our first computer or our first iPod, look fairly boring. It will definitely change the way we do things. And most interesting for all the non-geeks: the usability will be so easy, you won’t even see the remote anymore. From a sustainability perspective, EWE envisions energy production to be in close proximity to the end customer. In fact, they believe the customer will be both Consumer and Producer at the same time. They showcased different kinds of decentralized systems all driven by a smart building control system. Photovoltaic, solar panel Combined heat and power generation Fuel Cell Sterling engine Pallets Absorption cooling unit It was amazing to see how much effort EWE has put into this future vision, and how different markets from energy and information technology to communication will be integrated to make infrastructure more intelligent. Following this vision, a reality will bring tremendous change to society and the energy industry in particular, adding a whole set of new competitors like Google, Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom AG. We left inspired, and are even more convinced that there are great opportunities waiting for those innovators who are able to transfer their innovations into sustainable products. On the ride home we already discussed how to build our own portable 50 megawatt power storage; well, at least we could agree that it should not exceed the size of the latest iPhone :-) … And if you’re working on that, let us know!

My First Step

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Just a short while ago, we shared some of our thinking ‘beyond green’, which included my appointment as the person that makes you aware about our thinking and our progress towards a more sustainable future. So let me share with you some insights into how we plan to “Walk the Talk” and encourage you to take this walk with us. Right now I am working on our definition of sustainability, a huge and interesting topic that I am quite passionate about. Originally driven by the “green” thinking it turned out very quickly that this can´t be enough and does not reflect our claim. So I extended my search and thought I’d share my findings: As you can imagine there are vast amounts of information available, yet it seems that there are three major dimensions that do structure and define Sustainability and make it easier to understand. It is called the “three-bottom-line” and you will find Sustainability right there, where those spheres overlap: Source of Picture Environment: This is about the diligent handling with energy sources, caring about our nature and environment. Considering this matter we are already working on our Carbon Footprint and thinking about the consequences for our work as a company. Let me get back to you with details soon. Economy: This seems basically about numbers, about fair trade and fair working conditions. While concerned in the beginning I am actually very impressed by some of our customers and their openness towards this aspect. Society: There is no reliably definition I could find so far. But caring about equal rights and equal opportunities for everybody seems to be an important human goal and topic that we should care about every day. I am not sure yet how to have us as an organization contribute to a more sustainable society but knowing the people behind ifridge makes me hopeful to find a way to add value. Sustainability is much more then “green”, it’s about looking at the whole picture. For me this is the beginning of an adventure and I would encourage all of you to share your ideas, point me to sources you found useful and people you trust in this area. We are all very excited and maybe some of you would like to take this journey with me.

ifridge Takes the Next Step: Adding Sales Strategist

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:23:00 +0000

As you take the Next Step for your business, there is often a strong focus within the strategy that relates to reaching the market. A crucial component of this effort revolves around sales and sales strategies.Many of you asked us to add this to your portfolio … and here we go … I am very happy to welcome Elise Segar, founder of Lucre Systems, and her team to the ifridge family. With more than 10 years of experience in helping companies optimize their sales strategy, drive new business, and improve conversation rates, Elise is the perfect match for all of you that want to take the Next Step with your sales organization.If you are a customer of Lucre Systems, we welcome you to the ifridge community. We hope to meet you in person soon to discuss the possibility of helping you with other Next Steps that you endeavor to take, leveraging the full set of strategic and tactical services of the ifridge portfolio. Elise and the Lucre Systems team will be the thought leaders for ifridge in their field of expertise: Sales! If you haven’t had a chance read some of Elise’s work, we encourage you to check out her blog which includes many useful insights around how to turn a great sales strategy into real deals.

My First TED Event - Nothing Stays the Same

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 10:49:00 +0000

Yesterday, Daniel Kraft presented at the TEDx in Frankfurt and as you may have seen by my recent recent tweets and posts I was really excited to be attending. If you haven’t heard of TED, I highly recommend you explore the great content these events provide. For me, it was the first TED event and having Daniel as one of the speakers made it even better.The theme of the event was “Identities: Nothing stays the same. Not even You!” and each session touched on this idea in various forms. In Daniel’s session he tied this closely to how clarifying your identity as an organization is part of the journey to be successful. Stay tuned and we will post the video as soon as it’s available.Special thanks to Bianca Gade of netmedia for introducing us to the event. The agenda included a total of 9 speakers and the great Ossie Urchs did a fantastic job walking us through the day. Besides Daniel’s presentation there were several highlights: As with all his presentations Gunter Dueck from IBM entertained the crowd by spinning the left-side, right-side brain story, which was a great memory from his appearance at the RedDot Day in 2005. What we now learned was his secret hobby as the author of a vampire novel. Michael Altendorf touched on the sensitive issues of virtual identities and opened my mind to many of the newer trends on the horizon. Also very interesting with a personal touch was Steven Sasseville’s presentation on “A Sense of Identity” which he nicely connected to a personal story of his father teaching him to be himself, enjoying humor and giving lots of room for day dreaming.It was all this talk about identity that made me think about our own identity at ifridge & Company. Since the very first day we have been growing - growing as individuals, growing as a company, and growing with our clients. And with this growth our identity has evolved into a clearer picture for not only us but for those that have been following us through this journey. Of course as an organization we have a clear vision but it’s our identity that really expresses “who we are” and “what we do”. Our identity is defined by the context of our customers, partners and the team and is something we continue to shape together with you, our followers. Let us know how you see our identity, give us this outside-in perspective and continue this great conversation started yesterday at the event.

Beyond Green

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:30:00 +0000

For us ifridge is not just a job, we love new ideas and are excited by the opportunity to help entrepreneurs taking those ideas to a new level. Just as we help our customers to take the Next Step, it is time for ifridge to take the Next Step in our development. In the past year, we have had the opportunity to be part of many dialogues in the extended “green” market ranging from energy providers to thought leaders in clean tech services. For companies in this fast paced market it is equally vital to clearly articulate a vision, strategy and key differentiators - a discipline in the sweet spot of ifridge. To support the growth in the business and to underline our commitment to a more sustainable business behavior we’re happy to announce two new members to ifridge family: Carina will take on the role of Chief Awareness Officer with the clear mission to make us “walk the talk” of a sustainable business. In this newly established role she’s making the team and our customers and partners aware of opportunities towards a more sustainable way of doing business. Christian is joining ifridge as Senior Associate focusing on clean tech and alternative energy. He joins us from EWE, one of the largest energy providers in Germany, where he was responsible for strategy and M&A. His background in one of the strongest economies for alternative energy and clean tech will be a great support for our customers’ plan to capitalize on new opportunities - even beyond green. Please join us in welcoming both Carina and Christian to the ifridge family. We also encourage you to share in our quest to a more sustainable way of business locally, regionally and globally. It might take some time but we believe it is worth the effort and the investment. Feel free at anytime to reach out to us to discuss how we can help you to find your Next Step.

Exceeding Limits, Pragmatically

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:00:00 +0000

I came upon this article about an interesting ad at the Hamburg airport. The agency that created it was directed by the client to come up with an ad that ‘exceeds limits’, and they designed it with only half the letters, such that the reflective floor completed the words and therefore the story. This certainly is clever, but I think it also serves as a good reminder for doing things halfway. Ok, before you think I am nuts, let me clarify. Here, the agency made an impactful ad with only half the letters. In fact, I’d suspect most of you would agree that the ad became more impactful than a traditional ad because viewers really had to look closely to figure out what was going on. (Or actually step further away and look broadly to see the message.) I haven’t been there, but I have to believe travelers were talking about it with one another.Thinking about the goal of ‘exceeding limits’, the word ‘limit’ can be defined as ‘the greatest possible degree of something’ -- and they exceeded that in this case … by going halfway.So, to achieve something more impactful than the norm, maybe you don’t really need to even approach ‘the greatest possible degree of something’ when executing on it. Maybe you can be clever with your business strategy, your marketing plan, your sales enablement, whatever, without overengineering it -- being pragmatic, selective, innovative, and efficient with the resources you do have.I think about this type of approach with respect to enabling sales or channels to sell a solution. I’ve often had people say we need slide decks, FAQs, qualifying questions, data sheets, etc. in order to be ready to sell. This list is often painfully long, and I always question the audience’s ability to consume it all. Do they really download everything and use it? As I noted previously with my ‘Triple Dip Sales Tool’, it is possible that a single, well-thought-out tool might be just the ticket to get sales enabled to find prospects and qualify opportunities.Sometimes the pragmatic solution, the practical approach, the ‘reasonable effort solution’ can tell the best story for your business and get sales as well as your customers focused. It is just important to figure out how to get that biggest bang for the buck. And, if you have determined in advance clear vision and positioning for your business, i.e. Focus, Focus, Focus as one of my colleagues likes to say, every pragmatic tool or marketing initiative you do will have extra impact because it is aligned with all the others and with your overall goals. Do you have something like the glossy, reflective surface in the Hamburg airport that you can leverage to take your rational and pragmatic efforts over the top?

Taking Out the Risk

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:55:00 +0000

When it comes to taking the next step whether personally or in business, it is always promised to be an adventure. But as we all know with any big step comes some element of risk. At ifridge & Company we are inspired by entrepreneurs who are leading their organizations to take the next step and energized by the opportunity to prove success. And we know first hand that the more you can reduce the risk, the better the success will be. We are currently putting the finishing touches on a joint workshop with Bill Forquer of Priiva and I am quite excited to explore this topic further. Bill and I will deliver that workshop over the coming weeks to Vistage CEO groups on the east coast. Each of us have been independently conducting CEO workshops this past year and this joint workshop will be centered around “Taking the Next Step”. As we explore this topic we will take a deeper look at taking out the risk. So how do you take out the risk? If you think about your own organization and the moves you make, you can equate it with a chess board. How you move is one important component but how the other pieces move will have significant impact as well. From the ifridge & Company perspective, we work with many clients during this process and help them understand how articulating a vision and strategy in context of both their internal capabilities and the market factors will arm them with the right plan to move forward. But that is just on piece of the chess board. From the Priiva perspective we apply Game Theory to develop a strategy around not only the individual chess piece but all the other pieces and the potential moves they can make. While there are indeed many factors, we can boil it down into some simpler advice. As you take the Next Step, think about how the following will impact your success. Clearly articulate who you are and what you do. Empower your organization to pitch and deliver against your positioning. Understand the market players and how various movement can effect your game. I am excited to kick off this joint thinking next week and work closer with Bill and Priiva around his thinking on this topic. (link to Bill’s post)

Yes we can, but.

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:27:00 +0000

As I am getting ready to present at the German American Chamber of Commerce in New York this week, we had a chat among the team about the key elements for success in both the German as well as the US market. While the subject can be debated forever, we found two fundamental mentalities of these environments that need to be taken into account selling into them. The American in me always believes in the art of the possible. If you ask a US sales rep “can your product …” you’ll hear the “Yes!” before you finish the question. It is this mentality of making things possible that keeps the country moving. When selling to US customers you need to keep that in mind as they surely will expect you to pitch the bigger picture, the vision … and of course they will make sure a certain reality-discount is applied to your story about your products features and capabilities. Germany is slightly different. The country has the lowest unemployment rate since Eastern and Western Germany were reunited and the economic growth rates are excellent. Yet you find many people complaining. This is not because people are not happy, they are. It is this mentality of making things perfect that leads to amazing automobiles or machinery but also to missed opportunities like the MP3 standard that was invented in Germany and commercialized by others. There is no right or wrong with either way but it leads to an interesting mix when those mentalities meet, e.g. German companies expanding to the US. Our presentation at the German American Chamber of Commerce in New York this week will address some of the dynamics when expanding your business in North America. Looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Power to the People

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 02:00:00 +0000

The beauty of my work is, that we at ifridge get very close great inspiring people. Recently I have worked with a CEO of a very profitable, fast growing company. After the day-to-day tactics he shared with me some of his success secrets. Start with why, put in a cause: A cause is not a mission statement. A mission statement usually says what you do and perhaps how you do it. A business cause is more about the why you do what you do. A cause is big and bold: Such as Microsoft’s decision to put a PC on every desktop and in every home. Let Go: Companies that grow, embrace change, remain relevant and find, keep and grow the right people to ‘let go’. The winning formula is, ‘the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the right seat’. When you let go you’re better prepared to deal with change.Empower the people: How do you get hundreds of employees to think and act like an owner? The answer: People have the universal trait — they want to keep score; they want to be better at what they do. So be transparent and share success insights as well as teach everyone to understand how what they do creates economic value.Become a steward: The most remarkable leaders in the world aren’t leaders at all, they’re remarkable stewards. The best stewards spend 50 percent of their time with customers. Stewards also get rid of superficial distinctions. Stewards are called to make everything better. Stewards are coaches and mentors.Getting into details with him I discovered, that we are helping our customers to establishing these these success secrets. We are working on the cause, we help to set up an infrastructure to let go and we share the strategy as well as impacts of the work continuously to make employees to owners. At a particular customer we are going this route with the goal to double the revenues in 2011... I’ll keep you updated.

2010 Social Networking Birthday Statistics

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:19:00 +0000

When I share my ideas about the Social Workplace with customers and my personal network I often get mixed feedback. While many of my coworkers share the belief in a digital world, there is a considerable sized group that considers the whole move to social networking impersonal and some - mostly quietly - even express fear and uncertainty. What, if not your birthday, is a good moment to check what impact the digitization of “social” has on your life (yes, we had social interaction prior to the Internet). Given that not many take the digital life to such an extreme as I do, this might help you better understand the impact. For your benefit I also included the 2009 Social Media Birthday Statistics. Social Networking Gained vs. DirectThis year the number of birthday wishes that came through social networking channels have dramatically gained share vs. traditional direct greetings. It is important to note that the direct messages actually increased by a healthy 30% but it could not match the 91% increase in social. What this means is that the digitization has lead to a substantial increase in happy moments (people contact me to wish me all the best) without a negative impact on my direct contacts (since even that increased by 30%).Going PublicAnother interesting observation is that people are more confident to express their greetings in public. The number of public messages (e.g. posts on Facebook) increased by 205% whereas the undisclosed (e.g. XING or D: on Twitter) dropped almost entirely. I see the same trend in business. We feel more comfortable to express our opinion publicly in front of our business network because we know that we can achieve more together as a group - plus it doesn’t hurt to let everybody know what I am doing.Welcome Facebook, a Role Model for the Social WorkplaceWhile 2009 showed a wide variety of channels, this year’s analysis shows that Facebook is the place to be. Before you jump to conclusion I’d like to highlight that more than ever, people contacted my directly. So despite the stunning tripled number of Facebook greetings, my direct social interactions with my offline network has also increased. I know this is not what the pessimist in you was looking for but let me spell it out one more time: digital networks are complementing and not replacing offline networks.The Social WorkplaceThe findings are supported by a recent study from McKinsey which confirms my belief of a networked enterprise. Over the last 4 years my friends of netmedia worked with me to develop and evangelize on the concept of the Social Workplace. If an organization manages to connect the people inside and outside of the organization by encouraging them to share, it holds the key to Take the Next Step. See also recent presentation about the Social Workplace (German):

Moving Across the Pond - Meet ifridge in NYC at our evening reception January 12!

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0000

With ifridge headquartered in both Germany and New York, we understand first hand what it means to build a business in new and distinct markets. The team comes from an extensive background of growing international businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s with this experience that we’ve helped many of our clients achieve the same success. If you are embarking on this exciting journey to bring your business to a new market, please join us and other adventurous entrepreneurs at the Deutches Haus where we will share our experience and guide you through best practices. “Taking the Next Step in Approaching the US Market”When: Wednesday, January 12th at 5:30 - 8:00 pmWhere: Deutsche Haus, 42 Washington Mews, New YorkSpeaker: Daniel Kraft, Managing Partner, ifridge & CompanyThe US market presents amazing opportunities and some unique challenges when looking to build a business or expand from a home base outside of the US. Attend this entertaining session and gain: An understanding of the dynamics when expanding your business in North America; Successful strategies to enter and to grow your revenues; Hands-on feedback form somebody that went through the whole process multiple times; and Guidance around cultural differences and the opportunities that come with entering a new market. Listen to real-life cases that demonstrate how to conquer the North American market. Learn how companies have been successful and uncover key areas to explore as you plan this Next Step. We’d love to meet you and learn more about your Next Step. Please contact Dean Lenzotti to RSVP. Event is co-sponsored by The German American Chamber of Commerce.

We Are in the Tomorrow Business

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0000

This week I attended Dreamforce, and on Wednesday was motivated by the address President Clinton delivered to the room of 30,000 attendees. To me, his speech was a mix of inspiration and reality intended to motivate the audience to make a difference. If you were following on twitter #dreamforce10, I am sure you saw us all capture different quotes throughout the talk but the one I keep coming back to is “you are in the tomorrow business”. Being a pragmatic person by nature, I usually think of tomorrow as the true definition - the day following today - but as entrepreneurs, we need to think about tomorrow in terms of the future beyond just tomorrow. Salesforce.com is a great example of a company and group of people in the tomorrow business. Not only has Marc Benioff shaped what the Cloud means to your business, he is building momentum in the organization around volunteerism and leadership. Salesforce understands that tomorrow is not only about providing the next new technology to help our businesses grow but about helping the less fortunate of today prosper to make more out of tomorrow. Meeting other entrepreneurs, the first thing we ask to understand is their vision. We refer to it as the WHY - why do you do what you do? If we are in the tomorrow business as Clinton pointed out, can your vision impact a better tomorrow?

The Adventure Taking the Next Step

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 07:13:00 +0000

Thank you all for the great support during ifridge Village 2010 here in San Francisco. While we still have a ton of individual meetings scheduled for the week, we are already excited with the achievements from the event. Vision in Context “Believing in new ideas and innovation, we help great people make them a reality!” This has been our vision since the start and is at the core of everything we do. The event was a confirmation that as we follow our vision, we are meeting many of you who share a similar motivation. In other words: if you have an idea that you believe in, we should explore. Let us know and we’ll make it happen. Taking the Next Step Following our Vision, many of you asked us about our strategy. The short answer is that we focus on great people and organizations who are ready to take their next step. During the event we spent a great amount of time to build this further and you’ll soon see more details including key elements like “The Power of What”; which includes positioning as the crucial foundation of your work. Further focus areas included Go-To-Market Best Practices to drive demand and Enablement to empower your team to deliver on your promises. Great Team At the end of the day it comes down to great people. We are fortunate to work with inspiring customers and partners and have an amazing team that understands what you require to take your next step and are not afraid of the challenge. Check out the video from one of the many adventures we took on while at ifridge Village 2010. ifridge Village 2010 - Adventure from ifridge & Company on Vimeo. Thank you for joining us for this years adventure. Wishing everyone a successful 2011.

Taking Our Team at Face Value

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 01:49:00 +0000

Over the past years working in virtual teams has become the norm in many industries. We live in a world where we have tools and resources available to stay in touch regardless of location. It’s an amazing advantage when you can work with people around the globe and interact with them regularly even without in-person connections. But wouldn’t you agree that a little face-time is still in order? With budget constraints and the many new tools that are available, I see so many companies assume that the face-to-face time is not a good use of time and budget. User Groups and Sales Kick-offs are now often being replaced by web meetings and virtual training. While I can appreciate that these costs rise as the company grows and finds the best talent around the world, I wonder if we are going too far. The last time I checked we are all still human and getting to know our colleagues through a few regular on site meetings is still a valuable interaction. This week, ifridge is holding our first company meeting. ifridge Village 2010 will take place in San Francisco and our entire team will be getting together to share ideas and prepare for next year. With all the technology we have, why bring everyone together? These few days of strong collaboration, face-to-face discussions, and fun, is what every company needs once in a while to make the rest of the year a success. I am not downplaying the tremendous opportunities we have now to interact on a regular basis due to the advancement in technology, I am suggesting that we don’t replace one with the other. Think about the value that some real personal interaction can bring and find the right time to facilitate.We are quite excited about this event and look forward to sharing the days of interaction that lie ahead.

Welcome to ifridge Village 2010

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 01:00:00 +0000

What an amazing year! On the heals of the greatest crisis and economic downturn our customers and partners continue to demonstrate that entrepreneurial spirit is not depending on the economy or budgets. It’s about believing in your dreams and working really hard to make them a reality. Going into the next year we’re excited to meet with our customers, partners and the ifridge team at ifridge Village 2010. We have an awesome agenda ready for the event ranging from big picture strategy sessions to hands-on best practices. And of course included some adventure as well. Join us at ifridge Village 2010 and meet with like-minded people. Discuss how true entrepreneurial spirit will succeed and network with your peers of founders, investors and the ifridge & Company team. ifridge Village 2010 - San FranciscoNov 30 - Dec 4, 2010Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf 2500 Mason Street, San Francisco, CAifridge Village 2010 is the start and we look forward to seeing the momentum continue, let’s set up a 1:1 session or simply grab coffee and explore your plans for 2011. Reach out to us at any time and we’ll make it happen.

Stuck in a Good Rut

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:00:00 +0000

I like grocery delivery. I started it when I first moved to NYC. It is amazing since it can cost less than non-virtual shopping and is great for big items like cases of beer since I don’t have a car and don’t want to pull one of those wire carts around. I can “Quick Shop”, which means to create a new order from prior orders. This makes it easy to buy a bunch of stuff using my phone in just a few minutes. But I started to realize I stopped looking for new items to buy. I could see myself in 10 years opening the door to receive my ‘Diet Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda (6-pack)’ or ‘Laughing Cow Spreadable Swiss Cheese (6 oz.)’. That sounded somewhat comforting, but kind of depressing. And a bit odd given the fact that I want to try all the interesting foods available here in restaurants (e.g. Mexican street corn with a mojito! Contact me for the coordinates). I love analogies, so here goes. The repeat ordering process at the online grocer functions awesomely, and similarly, there are solid processes and business plans that run successfully within organizations in development, marketing, HR, finance, across the organization, wherever. But even though these processes and plans appear to be running along happily, should they get a fresh look to hopefully make them even better? Sometimes dysfunctional policies like vacation or purchasing can completely aggravate staff, yet they survive like roaches, so it could be unlikely that the good policies will ever be revisited. So on to you: Are there aspects of your business that are stuck in a rut – even though it might be a good rut – that could warrant some fresh ideas? Or have you ever changed a well-functioning process or marketing plan or development process or logo or whatever? If so, with what outcome?

Build Your Own Community - Thoughts from Open Text Content World

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Last week I met up with our client B.Braun at Content World. We’ve been working with B.Braun in conjunction with netmedia on their vision for knowledge management. To give a little background, B.Braun is one of the world’s largest Healthcare suppliers, providing critical products to many medical fields. Their motto, “Sharing Expertise”, is more than just a slogan, this is the promise to customers, partners, and colleagues to share medical knowledge and expertise. With more than 40,000 employees and thousands of doctors and facilities using their products every day, this concept is a major achievement. So here we were at Content World with hundreds of customers working on their own ECM strategy, looking for like minded people to explore new and innovative ways to expand on this exciting knowledge management vision. It occurred to me that what B.Braun needed was to build their own community of people who shared a similar vision and experience. It is inspiring to discuss your vision and strategy with others, and in B.Braun’s case, they are pioneers in sharing knowledge. As we learned at Content World, they are not alone. We found the like-minded people to engage with moving forward to share ideas and learn from. The reality is that we are all inspired by meeting individuals who share a common idea. It brings great comfort that you are not alone in your vision and more importantly, it inspires you to go even further. Back in my early conference planning days we used to have “birds of a feather” round tables at the end of each day. You post a topic you want to discuss and like-minded people “flock” to your table. Today, we could do this inherently via social media. As we continue to find comfort in sharing socially, an in-person meeting can help trigger the first dialogues. I commend B.Braun for taking the initiative and I am sure that the contacts they made will share in an ongoing dialogue. I look forward to continuing the dialogue as this new network of “like-minded” people helps to inspire each other with ideas.

What's Your Grilled Cheese?

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 04:12:00 +0000

I recently noticed a few at-first-glance-odd marketing techniques in NYC. On the subway, I noticed the subtlety of the phone number of this law firm. The fact is, I’d never remember the law firm’s name, but sure enough when I am in trouble I know now the digits to type on my phone to get out of it. Walking around my neighborhood, I noticed these bills posted around. Here is Dan offering painting and plastering services, but he chose to highlight, for those rushing by, the word “Apartment” of all things. At first, I thought these ads were pretty amusing. But they caught my attention, and again, when I am in need of painting and plastering, Dan is the guy who I will call. Then, my friend sent me an article about how a guy making grilled cheese sandwiches markets and distributes them in my neighborhood in a model similar to that used by drug dealers. I know that sounds all indecorous but let me finish. The idea is that by word of mouth and people sharing his phone number, he builds a clientele where people think they are getting something pretty special and covert because the average joe just can’t go pick it up at the nearest vendor cart. Even though at the end of the day it is still a grilled cheese sandwich. Of necessity, I’ve got to try this out, and I will report back here if I serve any jail time. Finally, also in the spirit of sticky marketing, this income tax-divorce-bankruptcy-whatever else you might need place prints these little cards and sticks them all over the neighborhood. Now, you might think, so what? They don’t just hand them out, they stick them in the weirdest locations. But most importantly the cards are laminated and therefore can survive the streets and the weather in their effort to get the message to a prospective customer. Months later, even if they are blowing around the neighborhood, they tell their story. So, the question is, what’s your grilled cheese? Your product, your offering, your solution, your technology – whatever it is – might warrant a fresh perspective on marketing, whether it be to identify the appropriate audience, determine the appropriate method to reach that audience, or simply be sticky enough so that when the people who need you eventually will call you when the time is right. All of the above examples are interesting marketing ideas – I’d argue “fresh”. Some might consider them marketing stunts, but they seem to me to pretty effective and simple. The thing is, each is a unique marketing twist that is pretty much only appropriate for the type of product being offered – it doesn’t really make sense to have customers text message to meet with some secret lawyer to do a divorce. And our target buyer is more or less obvious with these offerings. The examples are especially not instructive when we look at offering a technology, an innovation, something new. Putting some signs out that say “Technology” in big letters with detail on your offering in small letters on bills all over town isn’t likely going to get you to the buyers that you are looking for. But it also is important to stop and first take a look at the buyer, the prospective customer, for this product, this cutting edge solution. Who is this person or organization? Why do they need your offering? How can you find them? You might think that your buyer is completely obvious, but a fresh look might suggest there are other more appropriate buyers, ones where you can be more successful selling your product with less effort. And then once you’ve figured that out, the fun begins, building the messaging, defining the techniques, creating the appropriate version of the “laminated cards” that will resonate with them. This all goes to the heart of ifridge & Company. Our tagline is “fresh ideas for the digital economy”. What’s “fresh” anyway? Usually people can agree that a marketing idea smells “stale” from a ways away. But fresh? You may think you already have this covered, that you have a reasonably fresh marketing approach. All I am saying is, you might want to get a fresh perspective on how you market and sell your product. From people who aren’t living and breathing what you do everyday – this is a good thing. We’ll put our team on it, and we’ll see if we can give you some ideas to freshen it up. The difference between fresh and fresher could be what takes your business to the next level. Come tell us about your grilled cheese.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks. It Can be Done.

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 22:20:00 +0000

Recently we have been working with start-ups and growing companies looking to do more with less. I’m guessing this strategy isn’t very different from your company, or customers you’re meeting and working with as well. One thing we’ve seen a few times now in the ‘doing more with less’ category is traditional Enterprise Account Reps being asked to not only take qualified opportunities and close them, but actually prospect for them from the beginning. SHOCKING, I know! You may be asking yourself, how can I convince my Account Rep to take time away from closing business to spend time looking for new business to close? There is hope, I assure you. One Sr. VP of Sales I recently spoke with asked me about some of the tools I’ve used in the past when running an Inside Sales team to help make prospecting more productive. “What if I just give one of these tools to my Account Reps to shorten the time it takes to get to the right people?” “Well…” I said “you can lead a horse to water…” Sure, you can give your reps all kinds of cool prospecting tools to use. You can tell them about social networking, but without training and a plan of attack these will have little to no impact. I’ve dealt with many Account Reps in my professional career and one thing I’ve noticed in the last couple of years is how resistant to social networking most of them seem to be. I always joked about how we work with cutting edge technology, talk about all of the new cool things you can do with that technology but when it came to the actual reps who were selling it, very few practiced what they preached. We are all realizing fast that traditional ways of prospecting, from using an Account Development team to running Marketing campaigns, may not be available to you or your reps anymore. Perhaps that department is no longer there, or you are now working for a new company where they haven’t invested in those areas of the sales and marketing organizations yet. Or maybe you were lead to believe they existed, and when you signed on the dotted line they somehow disappeared… Not to fear! We have found with an organized approach and follow through you can in fact teach an old dog new tricks. Here are a couple things we’ve found that help Reps who now find themselves not only responsible for closing business, but finding it first. Prospecting Tools: We all know that there are a ton of email marketing tools, prospecting tools and magic software that makes leads appear on your Blackberry every afternoon at 3pm out there. Ok, that last one may be an exaggeration, but you know what I’m talking about. Some of them actually do work and can really help reps make more efficient use of their time. A word of caution, if they sound too good to be true, they usually are. Look for tools that are easy to implement, easy to understand and don’t add multiple unnecessary steps to prospecting. They should enhance whatever system you are using to track leads, or if you don’t have a system they should have one built in. Social Media: If you have read any of our other blog posts then you have heard how much we like leveraging social media to help with prospecting. Here’s the trick; it’s one thing to identify various social media sites and tools to help with prospecting but an entirely different thing to spend some time teaching your reps about these sites, how they work and how to get the most out of them. One more tip, these sites / tools change all the time. Make sure your reps are aware of some of the changes that can help them so they can continue to get the most out of social networking. Time: Allowing Requiring your reps to schedule time every day, or one or two days a week for prospecting is super important. Making it part of their routine and holding them to it is half the battle. Before I wrap up this post I need to add that I do know, and have worked with Reps who understand the power of prospecting. They use social media and generally take an active role in generating new leads/prospects and not just closing them. You can probably imagine these reps are the most successful and can adapt to different environments fairly easily. With a little help you can make more and more of your Reps like this too. Old dogs can learn new tricks!

Make Them Believe

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:40:00 +0000

When you find your purpose in life things become very clear – not always easy, but clear. The scientist that has the vision to eliminate a disease, that mother that sees her daugther having a better future, or in the case of our clients, entrepreneurs and leaders that want to change the world. Those moments – when everything seems so clear you can almost smell the future – fuel your engine for a long time and make you go the extra mile. by Daniel Kraft

Focus, Focus, Focus

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:53:00 +0000

"We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number, so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose, so that we can deliver the best products in the world.”Tim Cook, COO Apple Recently I presented the results of a great project at a townhall meeting to all of the employees of a client. Interestingly enough, it felt like a déjà vu experience, because the tagline of the project – ‘focus, focus, focus’ – was remarkably consistent with some previous projects at other customers. We see the belief, particularly in high-tech environments, that the more people that are aware of a product, the more will check it out and ultimately buy it. This would work fine if the product was suitable for everyone – and the company has a marketing budget big enough to reach everybody. The trick to effective product marketing is to focus your efforts on the segments that are the best fit for your product and to say “no” to the others. You need to figure out and target the segments that have the strongest need for your product and the best understanding of the value you offer. By marketing ‘everything to everyone’, the risk is that the key prospects will never hear from you or when they do, they can’t recognize the great fit your product is for them because it appears to be built for ‘everyone’. Here are four reasons why you should focus your marketing efforts on specific segments: Getting heard is easier in a small room than it is in a stadium – Small companies are at a disadvantage when it comes to visibility in a particular market. The broader that market is, the more resources it will take to be heard above the noise and the more you are going to be head-to-head with the big guys. By specifically targeting smaller markets with a compelling offering, you have the opportunity to become a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Word of mouth works best within communities – The best marketing is the marketing you do not have to pay for. So word of mouth is top of mind for all marketing efforts. You have the choice of a big impact in a focused community or close to no impact with the shotgun approach. Customer examples, references and referral programs are also more effective in these smaller communities. People can see that folks just like them (or companies just like them) are using the product in ways similar to how they might. Make sure that the same message reaches a prospect at least seven times – Research shows that the human mind needs seven (plus or minus two) presentations of information to know and remember it. So instead of coming up with many variations of the same message, try to spread a consistent message over as many channels as possible, even at the expense of it becoming boring to your creative team. So, to summarize, I’d suggest nailing down a powerful message and compelling key differentiators that you can believe in and repeat them again and again – see, I just made this point at least twice in this paragraph. Momentum builds on traction – Acquiring customers is hard work when nobody knows who you are. But after a while your efforts to position your offering and yourself will be successful and you will start to be known in a market. Then customers will begin to come to you rather than you having to always pay to get their attention. A nice effect of this critical mass and playing in a dedicated market is that momentum will accelerate once the tipping point has been reached, which again will be alot easier in a small market. As I am writing this blog, I got some feedback from the client that I mentioned at the beginning – apparently the benefits of ‘focus, focus, focus’ are appearing. We had decided to focus the client’s messages on the benefits that the big competitors would never be able to achieve, like fast time-to-value and leveraging a customer’s existing investments. The result is, this client has been invited to three multi-million dollar pitches just by repeating the message and the key differentiators (at least seven times) to a big channel partner. The story of why this client matters has made its way through the ecosystem of the partner, and the client is now harvesting the fruits of ‘focus, focus. focus’.

A Fresh Look at ifridge & Company

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Today we launched our new Web site, and in keeping with our original motivation, our site is all about open communication, sharing ideas, and bringing together the great minds of our team and the many inspiring entrepreneurs we meet along the way. by Stefanie Lightman

The Courage of Being Different

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:52:00 +0000

Narrowing strategic direction, repositioning product offerings and empowering everyone to tell the story.

Bridging the Gap between Technology & Market

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:48:00 +0000

Knowing your users and buyers helps to make a market.

Empower Your People

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 19:49:00 +0000

Growing a company internationally requires a delicate balance between corporate and local control.

Simparel

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:37:00 +0000

With a growing sales and marketing team, the company needed to keep the new marketing momentum growing while building the team.

Will You Have Success with Demand Generation if There is No Demand?

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:45:00 +0000

In the digital economy that we live in, technology companies are bringing many new “cool” offerings to the market everyday. At ifridge, we are fortunate enough to be a part of many of these early dialogues and see the real passion behind these new products. What I also sometimes notice is the lack of solid market research and market planning that is often overshadowed by the excitement of a few customers or general positive response by the community. If you’ve worked in a larger organization, you are familiar with a more established product marketing/management role. This team is responsible for seeing the product from inception to sales and usually commits to a revenue number associated with the investment in development. Personally I am a fan of the processes outlined by Pragmatic Marketing but more importantly I am a fan of pragmatism. We’ve broken down the preparation into 4 phases. 1) Market Opportunity– What is the current state of the market and the true potential for this offering? In one word, RESEARCH. Due the proper diligence on market definition and sizing, business challenges that the offering will solve, competitive landscape, and current trends. 2) Business Strategy – This part of the process has a few prongs. First, clearly articulate the product definition and its capabilities to meeting the market requirements. Then, assess your company’s readiness to meet the market opportunity from product development to definition. Once established, define your revenue goals, channels and pricing strategy. This part of the process is often where you have to ask the “tough questions”. Are you really ready to attack the market and if not, are you clear on the requirements to get there? 3) Positioning – Further define the offering and the market challenges it solves. Positioning should be iterative, you will absolutely refine along the way. In this phase it is important to identify your key differentiators to provide a unique representation of the offering’s capabilities helping you to win business ahead of the competition. Be sure to move the offering from a technology focus towards the market opportunity by tuning into buyers and segmenting your target customers. And more important, TEST, TEST, TEST. Talk to prospects, current customers and analysts and don’t be afraid to modify along the way. 4) Programs – After all the hard work, you are ready to launch. Interestingly enough, we see companies jump ahead to this stage quickly. It’s where the tangible results are so I can absolutely see the urgency (ie. the revenue). However, if you don’t have the first three phases complete, it is the same as going out for a drive without the engine. Once you’ve built the right foundation, plan your launch and the first set of programs to generate demand. The hard work has been done now you get to focus on the execution. Successful companies have proven that this phased approach works. Each area may have been approached a little differently but the pragmatism works. If you have examples of success by staying on course, I’d love to hear them. Or if you have the “exception”, please share that too. We are all open to different strategies as long as they all warrant the same result - SUCCESS.

Synergy between Sales & Marketing

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:33:00 +0000

Often a big issue with making things happen is getting separate departments collaborating.

Expand Internationally

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:20:00 +0000

It is often difficult to grow in new markets with fully staffed local teams initially, so temporary options can be an effective way to jump start the expansion.

Building a Global Leader

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:43:00 +0000

Taking a careful approach towards international growth can lead to the best end result.

Everybody can Change the Web

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:24:00 +0000

A mission can truly affect the business from top to bottom.

Vintage Can Be Good for Fashion, Not For Technology

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:20:00 +0000

Implementing a best practice approach for ongoing market awareness and demand generation.

Focus, Focus, Focus

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:57:00 +0000

Limited resources requires focus, as well as attention to what sets company apart from its competitors.

Investing in Inside Sales by Developing a Strong Foundation

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:33:00 +0000

“We need to increase our pipeline by 75% in the next 2 months…” “My reps need to be having 10 new meetings a month…” “We have new reps in new territories and need to get their pipes filled…” Typical requests from Sales VP’s... Often times when I meet with companies the VP of Sales is looking to create or fix an Inside team so they can generate new opportunities, increase pipeline, shorten sales cycles - the usual. That’s what Inside Sales and Business Development does, right? Yes, a well organized Inside team will do all that but not before they build a foundation to work off of. A good inside team are not just smilers and dialers who you can hand a list of names and numbers and say, “go get ‘um”! They take an organized approach to developing a territory. They identify prospects to go after that make sense for the company and funnel that into a quality pipeline. They then work with an outside rep to close, or they are closing themselves. All the while continuing to build their pipeline. This is the part of the process that many companies like to skip over and go directly to pipeline filling. Unfortunately this is the most important part and it takes a little time. When done correctly, and a foundation is built, pipelines fill with opportunities that close. So what are some of the steps needed to build a good foundation for Inside Sales? Understanding your solution – Sounds crazy, but you would be shocked at how many sales people don’t truly understand what they are selling and what problems their solutions solve. Being able to articulate a value proposition and use cases to prospects is a big leg up in getting to the right person. Not to mention it allows the sales person to have an intelligent conversation about their solution and ask qualifying questions. Understanding your Buyer – I’m sure you’ve heard of buyers persona’s and learning more about them. It’s a really important step. David Meerman Scott has a great article called ‘How well do you know your buyers personas’ that is worth taking a look at. Knowing whom you need to sell to and why your solution benefits them is crucial. There’s a BIG difference in getting a LLL (low level looser) to pick up the phone, set up a meeting with you and ultimately waste your time, than directly targeting the person you need to sell to. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t ‘augment’ that LLL to help you get to the decision maker sometimes… Test Messaging – I know, you’re probably thinking this is marketing’s job, but really it’s another example of sales and marketing working together. Putting together your messaging in a way that actually grabs your prospects attention is not always easy. If you’re a new company or entering into a new market this can be more difficult. An inside team should have a variety of prospecting messages they can use. Marketing will provide some of this, but much of it will be developed as they do more prospecting. Subject lines in emails, content in those emails, messages you leave on voice mails or with receptionists, whitepapers you send out, webinars you invite people to. All of this need to be tested and adjusted appropriately to ensure the correct message is resonating with the right person and most importantly they are RESPONDING. Target Accounts / List Building – This is one of my favorites. We all have our top accounts or verticals that we want to go after, but having a list of the correct people in these accounts with correct contact information - that’s another story. Many companies have paid big money for lists of companies and names, but in my experience they are on average 25% accurate and VERY expensive. Most companies these days are not paying for expensive lists. That leaves sales and marketing to be more creative about how they build out solid account lists with accurate information. This is another area where I feel a good team effort between sales and marketing is needed. There are lots of sites available that will give us contact info for companies, Hoovers, Jigsaw, est. Unfortunately the info on these sites often is out of date or simply wrong. Having marketing generate leads within your target accounts helps. Even if marketing is getting contacts outside of who you are targeting, it at least gives you good company contact info and builds market awareness. It also lets you know there is some interest there! Inside Sales can build on that by using Linked In, Twitter, Google and my new favorite, Facebook Company pages. *side note -I actually got the name, phone number and email address (and photo) of a CEO of a company I was targeting by looking at the companies FB Company Page*. My point on list building is, we need to be more creative about how we get contact information and it’s sometimes not that easy. It takes time. If this is augmented with marketing it’s much easier and you end up with solid contact info to prospect with. These are just a few steps to help build a solid foundation for Inside Sales. If you invest some time and money to work through them and revisit them regularly you’ll ensure a solid foundation for Inside Sales to work from. Thus, allowing them to focus on building a quality pipeline with opportunities that close.

Creating a Corporate Culture

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:16:00 +0000

The other day I read an article on inc.com about “How to Work more Like a Start-Up”. Since I love a good case study on successful management styles, this one quickly had me engaged. In this story, a CEO enhanced productivity in the workplace by taking the agile development process and applying it to all aspects of the business. This allowed his team to be energized by short sprints to success, staying focused and motivated by reaching regular milestones. Like a good article should, it got me thinking. There is something energizing about a “start-up” work environment. It produces a corporate culture of involvement, focus, and going the “extra mile” while having fun. But this type of culture becomes harder to maintain as your business grows. In my opinion, this “Start-Up” culture does not have such a short shelf life. If you focus on keeping the energy alive, you can maintain this environment even with hundreds of employees. A few things for the management team to consider:State your vision and align your execution. At ifridge, we would call this the “Why” and we see that companies who have a clear vision are more successful than those that don’t take the time to focus. When it comes to corporate culture, as important as establishing the “Why”, is articulating it to the team. People are more motivated when they know where they are going. Alignment gets the entire organization to not only know where they are going but also gain satisfaction from being part of the journey.Stay close no matter how big and virtual you become. Every company has the handful of evangelists. These are often the people who started the company and just being in their presence motivates everyone. As your company grows, make an effort to provide access to these individuals. A combination of face-to-face and virtual meetings will go a long way. Remember that a 30 minute brown bag lunch session every other month can keep up the motivation and moral during the times when visibility is less.Lead & Develop. As executives we often don’t realize how much the rest of the organization respects and admires your success. A small introduction in the hall or email of a job well done can have a strong impact. When you look at where to invest consider a portion towards your people. Offer continuing education, more face-to-face meetings, or even simple “spot” thank you awards. Invest early and see the payoff. Lastly, LIVE it. Setting an example is the best way to lead. Culture can’t be constructed - it needs to evolve naturally. Embracing the uniqueness of the team and allowing everyone’s strength to shine motivates not only that individual but also everyone around them.

WHY !?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:00:00 +0000

When my kids reached the age of about three or four they started to ask us WHY. In the beginning it was about the basic things in our daily life, later they expanded it in almost every direction. by Daniel Kraft

What's Really in a Name

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:15:00 +0000

Recently I was involved in a conversation set out to rename a company. As names were tossed into the ring and opinions of like and dislike were becoming more and more vocal, it made me stop and think -- “What is really in a name?” Whether it’s naming a company or a product, there is this need to come up with the “perfect” name. So I started to research how many of the prominent brands got their name. Of course, the first I picked was Apple (no pun intended). Interestingly, in one quick search I was pointed towards several stories - everything from Steve Jobs having a summer job on an apple farm to a story about it being a last minute suggestion because they were hours from launch and had no name. So I would ask, have you ever looked at Apple as a company and said, “boy that name really doesn’t express their business”. Of course not -- the name is only a piece of the exercise. So of course this led me to hours of reading and lots of smiles to see that so many of the names out there were picked for reasons far removed from the business but made sense to the founders at the time. Clearly I am not alone in this interest, as I found dozens of postings. The most valuable one was of course Wikipedia. It has a List of Company Name Etymologies and there you can study almost any company you can think of. I am not knocking the naming process. In fact, I have been involved in this exercise several time and the energy that comes from finding the “perfect” name cannot be underestimated. More recently I worked on a naming exercise with Stokefire and found the entire process to be very exciting. They approached it from a branding perspective, which is really what the naming exercise should be about. So what would be my advice during the naming process? Three simple rules:1) Pick a name that you can stand behind. Have a reason for the name that makes sense. As my colleague Daniel Kraft mentioned in his recent post, explore the WHY. It doesn’t need to make sense in the context of the company or product but there should be a reason (a thought process) behind the name that can be explained.2) Think global. Regardless of how broad your market reach is, plan for a global audience. Don’t set yourself up to be the next example in a globalization story. We’ve all heard about the Chevy Nova, right?3) It’s not about the name, it’s about the brand you build. Remember you are building a brand not a name. This is probably the most important. If you build the brand successfully, the name will be a success as well. I would love to hear any naming advice that you have, or perhaps you’re now just a bit curious how we came up with ifridge.

The Thing is, I Love it More than I Hate it

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:05:00 +0000

So, last week I completed my second move to Manhattan. The first one was last month, with lots of stuff but no dogs. This time, I drove by myself from Ohio to NYC with my two dogs and a mini-SUV full of more stuff. It started with a positive energy when I took off at 4am, but turned into one of those days, as one of my colleagues at ifridge & Company describes, where “the city got the better of me”. I finally understood what she meant by that expression. After the long day, I started to question (again) why I moved here. Manhattan seriously was the last place I’d ever consider moving; I call it “Crazy Town”. I’ve realized my experiences here have fit into either the “I Love It” or the “I Hate It” category (and hardly ever mundane). To me, it is a city of extremes, as others have noted before. Being analytical and with a love for tables, I thought I would assess things that happened to me (mostly that day) along these two extreme criteria. I love it I hate it It was pleasant enough to drive here from Ohio, after drinking a few energy shots and listening to the awesome Sirius XM satellite radio for the first time … but it is a long 9 hours from my parents now by car, if they want to see the dogs and maybe me Downtown NYC has a charming, non-grid street setup The GPS was outdated and I couldn’t make that left turn before the bridge that I needed to to get to my apartment so I ended up in Brooklyn, adding 45 minutes to a 9 hour car ride My apartment building has a nice loading zone that is such a convenience; I’ve previously seen so many moving trucks park there for hours to unload their contents Oh, it’s actually bike lane, and I got a ticket for leaving the car there unattended. Attempting the move by myself was not the best idea. Taxis are plentiful if you need them to get around This taxi driver on his third day on the job said I would have to give him the directions to my apartment, and then I made a navigation mistake painfully lengthening the trip but couldn’t convince the dang newbee to make a U-turn (he’ll learn) I live in a quaint little apartment with a view of the Empire State Building I live in a little apartment. I continue to miscalculate how much room I have as I am still trying to unpack this load of stuff There is a surprisingly good volume of air from the apartment window air conditioners …that remind me a bit of a takeoff at the airport on every cycle-on and the room swings from hot to warm all day You don’t need to own a car here Doing like many Manhattanites, I carried a broken 7 ft. long piece of my bed back to IKEA in Brooklyn last week, via subway and bus, so I could finish the assembly job; on the plus side, holding it seemed to discourage a randomly screaming bus patron from messing with me My dogs will get to socialize and meet new people while living in an apartment instead of a stand-alone house The dogs hear any little apartment noise from other tenants, or see any other dogs, and bark and run around (uh, Manhattan is not a quiet island) I live in probably the most diverse neighborhood anywhere; it is always colorful and surprising. My neighborhood is especially colorful and surprising, AT NIGHT There are so many interesting food choices in my neighborhood “Seriously, dogs, what did you just eat off the sidewalk?” You can get almost anything delivered here I have no problem with this Not so much It is a bit expensive to live here ($12 for a panini sandwich is just wrong). And not sure if you’ve heard, but the rents are high If I look at these lists, even though they appear to be pretty equal, I have to admit that I already love it more than I hate it. And to some degree, that is all that matters, because the love is pretty awesome. And the “hate it” ones are irritating enough to make you realize you’ve worked hard to earn the “love it” ones. Not a bad thing. So, I started to think about this “love it more than I hate it” conclusion in other contexts, such as how a business presents itself to its customers or makes decisions, because frankly I needed the distraction from the chaotic day. Are there any products or businesses or events that you love more than you hate, and that are therefore strangely appealing? Does the hate make you feel like you’ve worked hard to earn the love? So, the iPhone is a pretty good, useful device (ok, I admit I sleep with it now because at any moment of insomnia I can check Facebook). BUT THE BATTERY CAN’T BE REPLACED AND DOESN’T LAST LONG ENOUGH! This is outrageous! But I still carry on though, suffering, and justify it maybe by the fact that the device is so useful that must be why I keep draining the battery (by noon). Oh, and btw, Apple, THAT VIRTUAL KEYBOARD DRIVES ME NUTS BECAUSE THE BACKSPACE KEY PLACEMENT CAUSES ME TO DELETE MY TYPING EVERY TIME A WORD HAS AN “M” IN IT! I surely love it, but I also hate it! Think about a training course you might take. Is the training more memorable if the course has elements of extremes, of big surprise and delight as well as frustration? Definitely. If the training is just a by-the-book good delivery, do you forget everything on the plane ride home? The fact is too that most business decisions have love and hate elements, more often referred to less interestingly as “pros” and “cons”. A decision can be a great one even if it has ramifications that aren’t so good. The keys are to make the pros (the love) outweigh as much as possible the cons (the hate), and to make the cons as least impactful as possible. Do you have other examples where this combination of love and hate just works or is necessary? Where the polar extremes are the way to go, versus just being ordinary and middle-of-the-road? Where a business decision needed to be made even though it had its love and hate results? Boy, you might even have a personal relationship with these extremes – is it worth it? (Oh, and I was telling a new friend about this post and he said he once had to lay in the street in NYC so he wasn’t shot during a gang fight. Hmm, my “hate it” issues are pretty pathetic. Okay, New York, I love you even more.)

Think Globally, Act Locally

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:20:00 +0000

The other day I was talking to a colleague about an experience she was having with her team members over in Europe. She was struggling because while they were all strong professionals in their own right, they didn’t always see eye to eye on the tactical execution. It got me thinking about this amazing global marketplace so many of us are now working in and how often we overlook the cultural differences that can play a part when interacting across borders. For me, I’ve now worked with several companies headquartered in Europe expanding a presence here in North America. In the early days I too was often frustrated by the constant disagreements in process but when I took a step back I began to see the value of having different opinions driven by our local influences. Culture can have a strong impact on how we do business, how we prioritize and how we interact. Seems simple? Of course if you think about it, this makes sense, but how do you distinguish when these differences are just that, cultural influences. Personally, I have a few things I practice when working with a global team. Take a step back from the issue at hand. We are all human and opinions are just that, opinions. But the delivery can be misinterpreted quite easily. When conflict arises, I take a 24-hour break from the issue. Usually I find after the “waiting period”, that the emotions settle down and alignments happen on their own. Understand the local dynamics. I am just as guilty as the next person of thinking that the way “we do it here” is the right way. But remember, markets are different and best practices vary. I guarantee you will also find some useful practices that work in your own markets. Have a dialogue. Email can be the biggest barrier to communication.Digital conversations can be misinterpreted so easily. Pick of the phone and have a live dialogue. While the digital workplace is one of the greatest innovations we much too often forget about the person behind the e-mail. Feed on the energy. If you have the opportunity to work with many different cultures, enjoy the opportunity. You are getting a lesson that no amount of school could ever teach. Embrace it and ask questions. Learn more about your fellow colleagues and how they operate - it can be an exciting learning opportunity.

Innovationen zu Umsatz machen - was koennen wir von Apple lernen?

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:45:00 +0000

Erfolgreiche Unternehmenslenker aller Branchen erkennen, dass Kosteneinsparungen "nur" helfen in der Gegenwart im Geschäft zu bleiben, aber nachhaltig Käufer zu begeistern bedeutet dass man auch morgen noch am Markt profitabel bestehen kann. Um Käufer konstant zu begeistern sind im heutigen Marktumfeld Innovationen keine Option sondern eine Grundvoraussetzung. Bestes Beispiel ist Apple. Nach einer finanziell schwierigen Phase mit dem primären Fokus auf Kostenoptimierung und einer subjektiven Reduzierung der Käuferorientierung hat Apple mit dem iPod nicht nur den MP3-Player-Markt neu gestaltet, sondern auch die Musik-Branche aus Käufersicht revolutioniert. Aus Sicht der Käufer, was hat Apple mit dem iPod anders gemacht? Vorbei sind die Zeiten, dass alleine technik-getriebene Features die Produkte erfolgreich im Markt verkauften. Das hat Steve Jobs erkannt und hat konsequent käuferorientierte Innovationen auf allen Ebenen vorangetrieben: Produkt-Innovationen Neben der einzigartig intuitiven Bedienführung und intelligenter Automatisierung hat der iPod als erster ein integriertes Konzept für den Kauf und die Einbindung von Unterhaltungsmedien aber auch von individuellen technischen Erweiterungen umgesetzt. Vorbei sind die Zeiten des aufwändigen Suchens nach Updates, Konvertieren von Formaten, etc. Sowohl die Installation als auch die Aktualisierung der Apps sind mit einem Klick bzw. Fingertipp erledigt. Prozess-Innovationen Die eben genannten Produkt-Verbesserungen sind nur durch einen integrierten und intuitiven Geschäftsprozess ohne Medienbrüche möglich. Aus Käufersicht hat man mit einer einmaligen Anmeldung mit wenigen Klicks über iTunes, App-Store, etc. alles zu bekommen, was man sich wünscht und dabei die Gewissheit zu haben, dass alles funktioniert und auch zukünftig funktionieren wird. Denn so einschränkend der geschlossene Apple Geschäftsprozess für manche sein mag, desto einfacher ist es für den Nutzer. Marketing Innovationen Ebenfalls aus Käufersicht hat Apple die Markt-Kommunikation und die Botschaften komplett anders gestaltet als der Rest der Marktbegleiter. Anstatt mit GB, Größe oder anderen technischen Daten zu werben, hat Apple auf "einfache Botschaften" und Lebensgefühl gesetzt. "1000 Songs in your pocket" ist eingängig, verankert sich schnell im Gedächtnis und ist das Ergebnis von einer intensiven Zusammenarbeit mit den "Heavy Usern". Da ein MP3-Player in der Tasche verborgen ist, kennzeichnen die weißen Kopfhörer die Zugehörigkeit zu diesem Lebensgefühl. Organisatorische Innovationen Neben der konsequenten Käuferorientierung ist Apple auch intern neue organisatorische Wege gegangen. Auch bei Apple stehen Agilität, Kostenoptimierung und Gewinnmaximierung im Vordergrund. Großzügige Gehälter scheinen diesen Zielen oberflächlich zu widersprechen, dahinter steckt jedoch ein äußerst innovatives Anreiz-System was die Mitarbeiter zu Mikro-Unternehmern macht. Um allerdings die initialen Kosten für die iPod Entwicklung gering zu halten setzte Apple stark auf eine Auslagerung der Ingenieursleistungen. Nicht mehr als 50 Apple-Mitarbeiter waren Bestandteil des iPod Projekt-Teams. Sieben Billionen Dollar Umsatz in den ersten fünf Jahren bei einer geschätzten Anfangsinvestition von 10 Millionen Dollar sprechen für sich. Was ist der nächste Schritt? Basis für erfolgreiche Innovationen bei Apple war die konsequente Käuferorientierung. Der nächste Schritt um Innovationen zu Umsatz zu machen ist somit, mehr über Käufern und Nutzern zu erfahren und dieses Wissen wiederverwertbar zu dokumentieren. Als Instrument, um die Erkenntnisse der Orientierung zu fokussieren, bietet sich das Konzept der Personas an. Je intensiver die gesamte Unternehmung sich mit den Käufer-Personas identifiziert desto offensichtlicher werden erfolgversprechende Innovationen erkannt und umgesetzt. Apple ist dahingehend weder schlauer noch besser, sondern einfach nur konsequenter und disziplinierter in der Orientierung auf den Käufer.

A Crazy Cake & the "Triple Dip" Sales Tool

Sun, 23 May 2010 12:45:00 +0000

So after reading the story written by my colleague at ifridge & Company, Stefanie Lightman, about the cake she made and couldn't transport, I thought of last year when I had a cake made for my parents' anniversary party. I had a few phone and email conversations with a bakery in Wilmington NC to arrange for the cake (contact me if you need a cake there so I can tell you where NOT to go). After watching all those cake making shows on TV, I was excited about this, especially since I wasn't baking like Stefanie. I had just recently seen some fondant cakes, didn't really know what fondant was, but just knew I had to have it. The themes of the cake were horseshoes (for my father who throws them), and a pillow (for my mother who sews). I was going for a fancy wedding-style cake. And good bakers can do amazing things with cake. Unfortunately... I picked up the cake on the day of the party, and it was nothing what I expected. Besides the obvious quality issues (oh, visible cardboard between tiers, half-inch thick fondant, fingerprints in the fondant from the baker, etc.), the baker (who suddenly wasn't at the shop) had ignored many of my requests for the implementation, such as -- Requested: Two fondant tiers, "Tiffany" blue Received: One buttercream tier, "Smurf" blue (I think they ran out of fondant on the first ultra-thick tier) Requested: Fancy looking horseshoes Received: "Tootsie Roll" looking things (could actually be described more indelicately) Requested: One tier as a fancy pillow with tassles Received: My sister thought it looked like my mother was in some sort of "dance" business All of this reminded me of one my favorite types of sales tools that we at ifridge like to build for organizations, what I call the "Triple Dip" (Seinfeld reference intentional). Unlike many sales tools or collateral items, the "Triple Dip" serves three purposes, to: Educate the sales force about the fundamentals of a product and the selling strategies, Educate the customer about how the product can address their business needs, and Get them talking and figuring out how to work together, connecting the customer to the solution that is offered. Sales enablement and marketing initiatives for products are often considered disparate initiatives, even managed by different people in the organization. This can be inefficient and only scratch the surface on how impactful the programs can be. The Triple Dip provides this efficiency. And can be particularly useful for technology organizations who need to map their technology to the customer's specific requirements. An ordinary data sheet, PowerPoint presentation or FAQ just can't do this. A good example of a "Triple Dip" is the Content-O-Wheel created for Open Text Corporation. Here, in a printed as well as electronically available tool, we consolidated in one structured place all of the ways Open Text aides a SharePoint customer. Not all are relevant to every customer, so the tool allows the sales person and customer to pick the ones that are relevant, and the detail underlying each can provide for an interesting discussion. I've done "Triple Dips" in the form of workbooks that are completed by the sales person and customer together, that can layout a short or long term plan of action applying the technology to the customer's issues. Or "Cosmo"-style questionnaires, where you can evaluate where the customer is with respect to certain business issues by having them answer a series of questions with weighted values, allow the conversation to occur around their rankings and the resulting total. So, I suppose my thinking here is that the cake might have turned out better if the baker had had a "Triple Dip". The baker might have used it to dialog with me about my requirements for the cake, and she could talk about exactly what they do as optional features or what they are particularly good at. She could have presented me with options which made the cake more appealing for me as a cake novice. And we could have ended up with speaking with a common language and documented our understanding of how the cake should be made so I might not have been disappointed with the result. (I'm living a bit of a fantasy here. Actually, I think the baker ended up getting tied up making other cakes, and passed my cake off to her interns. I can just imagine her, covered wth flour, shouting "Horseshoes! Tassles! Blue!" to weakly educate them at the last minute on my well thought out requirements for the cake. And probably would have always disregarded any documentation that might have come from our conversation that clearly laid out my needs.) "It is what it is" as I say, and surprisingly enough, the cake turned out to be the highlight of the party. As my father said after, if it had been a nice, elegant cake, the family would have noted that and the moment have have passed quickly. Instead, it became a running joke for days that got our family talking and bonding (well, at my expense). I still hear about it almost a year later, and my sister bought me the Cake Wrecks book and inserted a profile of my cake in it. Needless to say, however, bad technology decisions of your customer wouldn't have such a happy result. There wouldn't be much for you to mutually laugh about if they buy something from you that doesn't solve their needs. So think about how you might leverage a "Triple Dip" to help your sales people help their customers to figure that all out.

Not My Father's Branding Anymore

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:33:00 +0000

I recently put my house on the market in Columbus, Ohio, USA as I venture to the great land of Manhattan (seriously, it is 3bd/2.5ba, French Country-style, 3300+ sq ft with a truly open floor plan and first floor master, if you know of anyone.) So I needed to do a few projects around the house. One day I decided to paint the rusty entry gate (there is no fence so it is one of those useless but pretty gates). I figured I’d call my father for some advice. He worked for Sherwin-Williams, the great paint company, for over 30 years, so needless to say we didn’t buy other brands, and growing up we knew how to paint a room. My father suggested that I do some sanding with a wire brush (good point) and then put on a coat of metal primer or an acrylic before I put on the exterior paint. I knew I had a boatload of cans of paint down there and figured there had to be some primer. I came across a can of “METALATEX” from Sherwin-Williams, and wasn’t sure what it was used for. I’m not sure why I even had it or what color it was, and the instructions on the back did not provide much clarity – it said something about “commercial” and “industrial” applications.So I asked him, “Hey what about this ‘Meh-tail-uh-tex’? Is that a primer?” He said, “Wait a sec. Do you mean ‘Meh-tul-Lay-tex’?” I said, “Yes, I do, but seriously, is that how it is pronounced? Weird.” Then he says, “Yes. Metal Latex. By the way, you know who came up with that name, right?” Then my heart sank and I knew I had faux pas’d big time.“Uh, you?” I asked. “Yes, remember I was the VP of the Coatings division years ago.” Luckily, he didn’t seem to be too interested in my mispronunciation. And he ended up discouraging me from using it as a primer anyway, so it was a bit of a rat hole. Still, I wonder about that conversation. I’ve known that I tend to pronounce new terms or proper nouns in unusual ways, and this was probably the worst since my father was the marketer! As another example, before I met a colleague once and asked her, I couldn’t get my head around how to pronounce one of her names, which was “Smadahl” (ok, I found out later it is easy as “smuh-doll”, and I now yell it when leaving a voicemail for her, apparently sounding like her uncle). Gosh, I wonder if when I was younger I was going around ordering Diet “Pee-Pa-Sees”?I once had two English-as-a-second-language friends fall out of chairs laughing at me because I pronounce the real name of "Motor City" in Michigan with three syllables – “De-Troy-Utt”. But I still don't agree with them. I think I speak like an 8 Mile native. Thankfully, it is not just me I know. My friend Stephanie admitted that she used to say a certain brand of shoes as "See-Ahh-O", which happens to be the Italian word for goodbye ("Chow bella, Stephanie!"). In this paint case, I had come up with my own wacky way to say it. Or did I? Wait a minute! Where did that second “L” go in the name? Why did my father presume you are supposed to say the “L” twice, at the end of “Metal” and the beginning of “Latex”, even though there is only one “L” and no hyphen? Bold branding, I thought, almost obnoxious if you think about it. Maybe I was right…So, what had I learned?1. It is best not to challenge your father when you disagree with something he did 20 years ago. Just let it go. Of course, I am arguing my case with this post, so this is probably not a good example of that. 2. Honestly, I think my pronunciation of the word provides a more exciting way to talk about the paint. I would even have considered adding an explanation point at the end. Say it out loud yourself using my way, and you will see what I mean.3. I’ll probably end up leaving the paint cans in the basement as a gift to the new owner. Handy. I will miss them.4. Don’t assume people will get your branding or know how to even pronounce it. I think sometimes people spend far too much time stressing about branding, but a few alternative viewpoints from people not in your industry couldn’t hurt in the process. And maybe think out of the box and actually go back to basics instead of names like “Lufsatran” (I just made that up; uh, please contact me if you want to license it). Of course, you might not even care if they mispronounce it.I like the idea of a brand name that has some connection to the product or service in question. I never found out, but the METALATEX coating probably has some use on “metal”, and being “latex” I know it will clean up easily with water (ok, again, we grew up with this stuff), and it is a clever combination of words. But sometimes these names people come up with could apply to a iPhone app, an industrial supplier of compressors, or a new line at Victoria’s Secret, all at the same time. Really? I do like the idea of branding sometimes that serves as a conversation starter. When I tell people I work forifridge & Company, I might get a bit of a “what now??” either out loud or by facial expression if they’ve never heard of us before, and I then get to explain to them what we’re all about (you know, it started with the idea of collaboration around the fridge door as a way to develop fresh ideas). Oh, and with that, they remember us. We’re not “Lufsatran!” and lacking a good story about the name, and we are not mistaken for a new type of brassiere. As a product manager at a software company, I once named a free software module “Livelink UNITE & Atlas” with the “Atlas” part being the free component. Months later, I was told by a customer trainer that he grew very tired of having to explain to “Atlas” administrators what “UNITE” was. I told him I thought that was awesome! “UNITE” was the for-sale product that I wanted to upsell people from Atlas, and his simple explanation of the name at each course was a sales opportunity. Maybe a little confusion in the branding can be a valuable marketing ploy? (Hard to apply metrics to that one.)Oh, and I also like the fact that we say “& Company” at the end of our name. Sure, I am an ifridger that actually works for ifridge, but we also pull from a variety of amazing resources in order to help our clients and these people are virtual ifridgers, like my buddy Elise Smadahl Segar at Lucre Systems (ah, remember her from one of my earlier examples?). Our “ifridge & Company” name tells a story even by the choice of this seemingly inconsequential portion of the name. We could be “ifridge Inc.”, but it is not quite the same, right?All this leads me to ask… Do you have any examples of surprising pronunciations of names that have caught you off guard, or comments about good or crazy brand names?

Flat or Matrix.. Is that Really the Question?

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:22:00 +0000

Having worked with many large organizations, I can no longer count the number of times I’ve participated in the same meeting. The scenario is as follows. It’s the end of the fiscal year and plans are being made for the upcoming year. Whether the year has been successful or not, restructure always remains a topic. I wonder why structure is the leading dialogue and transparency and communication (which this is often the intention for the restructure) is not the main issue. In general the conversation is the same but it is directed internally versus externally. Internally we get caught up in how to organize departments. Should we be flat or matrixed? Should sales be aligned by territory, by vertical, by key account? Same dialogue different year and way too often the organization doesn’t see the new structure through for a long enough period of time to warrant results. It may take more than a year and if you set to restructure again at the new fiscal year, you may never see success. Enhanced communication and transparency has many benefits but let’s look at the ones most easily achieved. Improved Transparency Having lots of reporting lines does not necessarily solve the issue of transparency. The leadership team needs to understand what is going on in the business but access to this information can come in many ways. I’ve seen a few organizations successfully implement scorecards and dashboards to measure corporate performance. The information is available to who ever needs it from all levels of the organization. Marketers are more familiar with this concept. We've been tracking success metrics and reviewing information in real time on dashboards for a while. I read an article recently that took a new approach to metrics; exposing that it's not always in the numbers. These are the type of metrics an organization can share without getting bogged down in the structure. Shorter Sales Cycle and Improve Market Awareness If you asked an inside sales person what the company strategy was, do you think they would know? Often with strong organizational lines, the communication stops at the highest level. Every person plays a roll in the sales cycle in some way so ensuring that they are all working towards the common goals are key. Here is where the social workplace comes into play. Make it easy for your employees to communicate across the organization, not bound by reporting lines. Mandate that senior executives blog (even if just internally) to share their vision with the entire chain of command. Remember the people out on the front lines reflect your company every day - in front of the customer, talking to vendors, etc.. Arm them with the right information to be successful. A friend of ifridge, Elise Segar of Lucre Systems points out the value of informed outbound communication. This needs to be solved internally first and restructuring most likely isn’t the answer. So what I am proposing is to have the dialogue all year round about moving the company forward and include all levels of the organization. Don’t assume that structure has all the answers. The answers are with the people, now go find them and empower them to be successful through transparency and fluid communication.

Wer fragt, der fuehrt

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:49:00 +0000

Was unterscheidet Angebot, Produkt oder Dienstleistung wirklich von der Unmenge an Alternativen auf dem Markt? Und viel wichtiger: Wie sieht der Markt bzw. der Käufer das Angebot im Vergleich zu anderen Alternativen? Feedback ist bekanntlich der beste Weg, um das eigene Angebot zu verbessern und besser zu vermarkten. Folgende fünf Fragen haben sich auf Messen, bei Kundenbesuchen, in Webinaren, in Telefongesprächen und in der Kaffeepause bewährt, um von Kunden mehr über die eigenen Alleinstellungsmerkmale zu lernen. Wichtig ist Antworten wie: "Es ist ihr guter Service, der sie von anderen unterscheidet." genauer zu hinterfragen, z.B. "Was genau ist guter Service für Sie?" oder "In welcher Situation waren Sie besonders zufrieden?". 1. Warum haben Sie sich für uns entschieden, was waren die drei wichtigsten Gründe? 2. Was ist der Hauptpunkt, den wir besser machen als andere Geschäftspartner? 3. Welchen Punkt können wir verbessern, damit die Zusammenarbeit noch besser wird? 4. Empfehlen Sie uns weiter, wenn ja, warum? 5. Nach welchen Begriffen würden sie googeln, um nach unserem Angebot zu suchen? Wenn der Kunde gerne die Fragen beantwortet, dann empfehle ich noch eine zusätzliche Frage für den Aufbau des eigenen Kompetenz-Netzwerks: Welche anderen Unternehmen können Sie besonders empfehlen und was ist der Hauptgrund? Die Antworten auf diese Fragen sind äußerst lehrreich. Anfangs optimierten wir noch viel, aber nach einiger Zeit war ich immer wieder positiv überrascht, wie oft sich unsere Positionierung mit der Wahrnehmung der Kunden deckte. Was sind weitere Fragen, die helfen die Stärken und Alleinstellungsmerkmale aus Marktsicht heraus zu finden?

Online Marketing Summit - THE Event for Marketers

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:57:00 +0000

The event is called“Online Marketing Summit” but as I attended the sessions and networked with fellow marketing professionals, it was clear that an “Online” focused event is really a “Marketing Best Practices” conference because I challenge to find a strong marketing strategy today that doesn’t wisely incorporate online elements. The attendees range from savvy online marketers who are pushing their company to think outside the box, to the marketer held back by the conservative company afraid of damaging their brand or even better loosing employee productivity by letting them engage in social media. Regardless of where you fall in the spectrum and I suggest most fit somewhere in between, many of the questions revolved around “Buy In” and how to convince the CEO to spend dollars in this fast growing area. Here’s my approach: Be TangiblePresenting ROI from your marketing efforts is no different today than years ago. However, now you have the ability to present who’s visiting your site, where are they coming from, what are they doing, and who’s buying. Start tracking these trends now to have data to look back on months down the road and show value. Teach Them to ListenWhether you have started to engage socially or not, most likely the conversation has already started. I heard in several sessions this week on social media to “Listen First” so help your CEO listen and make them aware of the conversation that is happening around them. A similar perspective can be seen in a presentation we recently delivered on "Taking the Next Step". “Me Too” Can Actually Work When we were younger and you wanted to get something you often said “well EVERYONE has it” and this “me too” attitude was not rewarded. Take this approach to your CEO and show them what the competition is doing. Different than the argument you may have lost as a child, if the competition is doing it, you won’t want to miss out. Baby StepsRemember that not everything has to be done all at once. Present a plan that gets you from where you are today to where you want to be and set milestones and metrics along the way.Online Marketing and Marketing are now synonymous. Taking your company on this journey is part of the job but making it successful is where the rewards are found.

Was haben erfolgreiche Produkt Manager und George Clooney gemeinsam?

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Umringt von Fotografen und mehreren hundert geladenen Gästen schritten wir vergangene Woche über den roten Teppich zur After-Premieren-Party des neuen George Clooney Films „Up in the Air“ in Frankfurt. Fotografen und roter Teppich, eine ganz alltägliche Erfahrung im Leben eines Schauspielers wie auch eines Produkt Managers ☺Aber es gibt noch weitere Gemeinsamkeiten. Eine weitere ist die intensive Vorbereitung und Forschung in Bezug auf Personas. Während George Clooney intensiv recherchiert, um die Persona die er spielt optimal darzustellen, so arbeiten erfolgreiche Produkt Manager ebenfalls intensiv mit Personas.Was sind Personas in Bezug auf Produkt Management und Marketing? Personas sind unsere internen Modellierungen von Menschen, die unsere Produkte und Lösungen kaufen (Buyer Personas) oder benutzen (User Personas). Im Gegensatz zu demografischen Daten in Form von PowerPoints oder Excel-Tabellen sind Personas lebendige Menschen. Insbesondere die hintergründigen Ziele und Motivationen einer Persona bringen neue Impulse für Marketing, Vertrieb und Produkt-Strategie.Warum sind Personas relevant? Produkt Manager sind Meister der Übersetzung. Unser Alltag besteht daraus, Wissen und Informationen für verschiedene Zielgruppen wie Kunden, Partner, Vertrieb, Marketing und Entwicklung zu übersetzen. Dafür sind Kommunikations-Brücken wichtig. Insbesondere für die Übersetzung der genialen Features der Entwicklung in geschäftsrelevante Mehrwerte für Sales, Marketing und Markt sind Buyer Personas die entscheidende Brücke.In zahlreichen Gesprächen mit Unternehmen in den letzten Wochen wurde die Wichtigkeit genau dieser Brücke von Entwicklung zum „Markt“ bestätigt. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen dieser Gespräche und zahlreicher Persona-Projekte haben sich folgende Basis-Personas als Minimal-Brücke bewährt: Economic BuyerDer Economic Buyer hat das Budget und die Entscheidungsmacht im Kaufprozess. Falls der Economic Buyer nicht persönlich in den Kaufprozess involviert ist, so ist es wichtig den internen Champion mit wirkungsvollen Argumenten und Materialen zu versorgen. Technical BuyerDer Technical Buyer beeinflusst die Kaufentscheidung und berät den Economic Buyer. Eine weit verbreitete Fehleinschätzung ist, nur technische Fakten aufzubereiten. Genauso wichtig ist darzulegen, wie der Technical Buyer den Geschäftserfolg und die Management-Ziele mit der Lösung positiv beeinflussen kann. User BuyerObwohl die User Buyer keine direkte Entscheidungsmacht haben, so finden sich in dieser Zielgruppe am häufigsten die Champions, die die Lösung bis zur Entscheidung und darüber hinaus intern „verkaufen“. Obwohl unsere Meinung interessant und wichtig ist, so ist sie doch irrelevant für die Kaufentscheidung. Entscheidend ist einzig und allein, was der Käufer denkt und empfindet. Buyer Personas geben uns die Möglichkeit, wie George Clooney tief in die Persona einzufühlen und unseren Produkterfolg durch darauf ausgerichtete Argumente, Formulierungen und Werkzeuge (z.B. Broschüren, PPTs, Screencams) zu verbesssern. Der Vertrieb hat die Möglichkeit über diese Brücke Erfahrungen aus dem Markt beizusteuern, das Marketing kann die online sowie offline Aktivitäten optimieren und das Management kann transparenter strategische Entscheidungen treffen.Was sind Ihre Erfahrungen mit Personas? Setzen Sie diese ein oder haben Sie andere Instrumente? ´

If It Doesn't Fit, Don't Force It

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:07:00 +0000

The other day, I baked a cake for my niece and nephew’s birthday. And if I can compliment myself, it was one of my better creations. After 8 labor-intensive hours, I had completed my masterpiece only to realize that the cake was too big to fit into the container I needed to transport it to their house. Without thinking, I tried desperately to make the cake fit. The outcome was that all my hard work was no longer the exquisite creation I worked so hard to create; but a broken version tailored to fit the container. Of course when I mentioned my challenge to those not so close to the cake creation, they were full of ideas on how I could have fixed the situation. As I drove to NJ to deliver the crushed cake, I started to think of the similarities of my cake challenge with what so many companies deal with in their corporate development. Building a strategy to take a company forward can be an intensive process and the outcome if most often something you can be proud of. But then, so often we see that the current organization doesn’t “fit” to this new strategy and trying to “force it” (like with my cake) will most often crumble and destroy the creation. What if you didn’t quick try to “make it work” but thought about ways to compromise and adjust to the current climate? What if you sought advise from others outside the organization that may have a different and often fresh perspective? This thinking is often discussed but so often forgotten during the implementation. I’ve read great case studies and articles, like this one from Harvard Business Review, on this very topic. But my cake story reminded me how easily we can successfully plan and let the execution fall short. Successful companies are taking the time to create the perfect organization but recognize that this new approach needs to fit the current situation. And if it doesn’t, don’t force it. Think about alternatives and seek advice and options from those a bit more removed from the exercise. A fresh perspective can go a long way.

Maps meets Picture meets Video and Flys to the Moon

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:51:00 +0000

If you like Google maps, you're going to love this presentation! Presented at the recent TED event in Long Beach. Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. It's not so much about the feature but the actual demo he gives that I like. You can see the fun the team has building those new tools. by Daniel Kraft

Coke Says: Fans First

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:06:00 +0000

Short follow-up on last weeks iStrategy event in Berlin about Social Media and Enterprise 2.0. The Coca Cola Company presented their view on social media with some interesting statements. Social Media Management is a tactic ... not a strategy? While I agree that once established it's used on a tactical level but given the recent move by Pepsi to shift their investment towards social media, I am sure the Coca Cola people have some strategic angle to it. Keep it simple: Spot on! Usability is a key element of todays "technologized" world. When you listen to the comments about the Apple iPad you hear a lot of noise about what is missing from the iPad. Who cares? I am very certain the iPad is going to be a great success because it is simple and fun ... just like social media should be. Always work with the pros. I am sure the advisors love that statement :-) and there have been some good ones at the event (see my comment about Ogilvy). But I have to agree with that statement from own experiences. When my former company entered the space some years ago, we had no idea and had to learn it the hard way. We later turned to Electric Artists and netmedia and got things done. There are many more good ideas from the Coca Cola people, check the full presentation below. You might also see Geert Bestens' perspective. Coke's 'fans first' approach in social communities View more presentations from iStrategy.

iStrategy - Some Feedback

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:26:00 +0000

Just on the way home from the iStrategy event in Berlin about Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media - sharing some of my observations. Overall a good event with real companies presenting real projects. And an international event, over lunch our table had eight people from seven countries. Is it just marketing? The audience seemed to be focused a lot on marketing. While the agenda was somewhat guiding towards this, it was interesting to see that the business impact of social media is still considered a new way of outbound communication and marketing. Making your customers a "partner in crime" is a great approach but if your team is not embracing it internally you'll not be able to execute on all the wonderful feedback you get from the market. It somehow feels like 1999 … "I need a website!" … "Why?" … "Because!" Another interesting quote from the team at Coca Cola: "Social media management is a tactic, not a strategy"... not sure I can agree with that. We are on the way A refreshing openness was presented when Nicole Yershon and Alex Mecklenburg explored a mixture of an internal case study and an Ogilvy marketing pitch. An agency admitting to have not much of a clue but working hard to change was encouraging to see. Cases included the Ford Fiesta Movement and the Japan's soccer "kick" machine from Castrol. Nicole shared some ideas about the Ogilvy Lab and her challenge to get middle management to embrace social media. I think the firm is on a good path, definitely a team to consider if you aim for the marketing side of 2.0 (and have the budget for it). "We are all in the cloud ... ... at least 76% use >1 cloud service today and 90% plan to in 2010". A session by Microsoft turned into a discussion about cloud computing. While everybody in the room was willing to do "cloud banking" (online banking), many had reservations to trust their data to the cloud. Talking about what trigger event would change this and when, didn't reveal a clear answer but the terms 'trust' and 'over time' came up multiple times. Personally I got the impression that the word "cloud" is not helping, once called by it's solution name like online banking, sales management or partner portal the acceptance level rises. Meet the Boss Lars Hilse was the *Boss* we were invited to meet. He did a great job answering all sorts of questions and it turned out that he knows a great deal about the subject. Craig Hepburn covered more of this session. We need more "how" Speaking with some high profile companies at the event unveiled the need for a shift from "what" to "how". Everybody was willing to do something, most even had an idea where to start but many struggle with the "how", especially the "how to get my management on board". And this brings me back to the beginning … approaching it from a marketing perspective is falling short. If you're a CEO and want to succeed with social media, you need to believe in it. Signing off the budget is not enough, take some time to really understand it … you'll learn that it has much to offer. And don't let anybody make you believe you're late ... it didn't even really start, yet. PS: What is with the fish tank? … The hotel had this gorgeous fish tank in the center of the hotel and I couldn't help but to compare it with the state of the industry. We all believe to be so important, being the big fish in the sea … but we have a long way to go. Today social media is nothing more but a preview of what is coming … like the little fish in fish tank makes you dream about the ocean.

Which Came First?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:24:00 +0000

Like the age old debate of “which came first, the chicken or the egg”, I question a newer but yet similar topic “which comes first, the company name or the URL”. Recently I was having a dialogue with an entrepreneur who is starting his own company. We were exploring company names and my first reaction was to open my laptop and connect to Go Daddy because in my opinion, would you really choose a company name with an unavailable URL? Today your web site is as important as the reception area when you first enter your building. Why would you put the entrance to your company behind a different name? So with this in mind we started the search for a new company name. It turned out the first name explored was not available and was in fact already in use by another established company. The company was in another state, but still the chances of confusing future clients was there. We started to develop different combinations of the name to find a URL that fit and that’s when it hit me - would you really jeopardize such an important component like the web address just to keep the name you originally liked? The game has changed for starting a company. Online presence is a priority and building a brand will only be successful if you start with this key initiative in mind. More ideas on winning at this new game are explored in this presentation from Daniel Kraft of ifridge & Company. Your URL is just one of many considerations and opportunities in the digital economy.

Thank You for Visiting.. How May I Help You?

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:49:00 +0000

The company reception area is messy and the brochures are from last year. Not acceptable, right? So why do we see so many company’s neglect their Web presence? Today, our prospects, customers, and partners visit our Web site well before they even make it into the front door of our business. This is not unique by industry. Just as it is expected that you have a front reception that is appropriate for visitors, people expect that your Web presence have the same amount of respect for site traffic. So why would you neglect this extremely important first impression? Now if someone walks into the front reception, wouldn’t you engage with them in a conversation? Ask the reason for their visit; make sure their needs are taken care of? Same again applies to the Web. Site visitors, are visitors, regardless of the medium so why not understand what brought them to your site and more importantly engage them in a conversation that provides them with value for taking the time to visit. As Executives we are tasked to prioritize how to spend money and focus our resources. When you look at where you are spending your marketing dollars I would ask how much is being spent to move your online presence forward. Think first about the experience you want your customers to have when they visit your offices and remind yourself that today the Web is your main area of reception. So deliver a compelling first impression and engage them in a conversation that will help secure their repeat visits in the future.

More (i)fridges

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:39:00 +0000

Thanks for your encouraging support on the launch of our new website last week. While we're still working on some features, we'd be happy to get your feedback.

Great People can Change the World

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:23:00 +0000

No worries, I am not going sentimental but when you start a new adventure you need to say something, right? In fact the header might not say anything to you but it means a lot to me. I recall a conversation I had about two years ago, we were about to launch a new program and I had to internally recruit some people to join me on that. I had nothing to offer, no raise, no promotion, not even a real budget, just my commitment that this is going to be a ride they'll never forget. And believe it or not but we gathered a group of people that truly changed the world - for me. The project ultimately failed, not because we didn't believe in it but maybe because we didn't fully execute on our beliefs. But I now know for a fact that great people can change the world and the dialogues with our customers proves that every day. Many of the team members at the time embarked to new adventures. One became a CMO and social media guru, another one started his own business and one became co-founder with me at ifridge & Company. Working with great people on exciting projects is a real privilege and and we therefore made it the core mission of our new adventure at ifridge & Company ... excited to work with people that are ready to execute on their beliefs. Picture: Cultphotos. Stay tuned for more great pictures.

Der naechste grosse Schritt

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:32:00 +0000

Was ist der nächste große Schritt? Ist der vorherige Schritt ein Fortschritt oder ein Rückschritt? Ist ein Rückschritt vielleicht der Anlauf für den nächsten großen Fortschritt?Fragen über Frage. Gerade im Produkt Marketing gehören die Planung und das Umsetzen vieler Schritte zum Alltag, immer mit dem Ziel, der Realisierung des nächsten großen Schrittes für das Produkt, für die Kunden und für den Markt.Für mich persönlich stehen gerade zwei große Schritte an. Zum einen ist mein großer Schritt diesen Blog als deutschsprachigen Erfahrungsaustausch unter Produkt Marketing Experten zu starten und kontinuierlich mit Leben zu füllen. “Be more social” ist der wichtigste Vorsatz von Marketing Experten und genauso ist es als Produkt Marketer mein Ziel, die neuen Möglichkeiten der Interaktion und des Wissensaustausches aktiv mit zu gestalten.Mein zweiter großer Schritt ist eine neue Herausforderung. Nach mehr als fünf Jahren in einem hervorragenden Team, welches wegweisende Projekte im Web-Umfeld umgesetzt hat und dabei mit „Everyone can change the Web“ bereits vor fast einem Jahrzehnt die Bedeutung des sozialen Austausches im Web erkannt hat, starte ich im neuen Jahr mit einer neuen Aufgabe mit dem Team von ifridge & Company.Für uns bei ifridge & Company geht es immer um den nächsten großen Schritt unserer Kunden. Gemeinsam greifen wir auf einen reichen Erfahrungsschatz von der Strategie bis zur Umsetzung in den Disziplinen Strategie, Marketing, Social Media, Produktmanagement, M&A und Business Development zurück. Aber am Ende des Tages sind es interessante Menschen und spannende Projekte die uns begeistern.Aber so viel zu meinen nächsten großen Schritten. Was sind Ihre nächsten großen Schritte?

New Year's Resolutions

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:02:00 +0000

Every New Year, I make my list of resolutions and prepare for the success of the upcoming year. My resolutions tend to be pretty similar to most of you but this year I looked at them in a different light.

Social Media Birthday Statistics

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:15:00 +0000

First of all, thanks for all the birthday wishes so many expressed yesterday (Central European Time). As you know, that entire social media phenomenon has been my passion for a long time now and it therefore was just time for my very own Social Media Birthday Statistics :-) The most interesting result is that more than two thirds of the people reached out via some sort of social media platform. For those who participated in the recent Social Media Workshops in Germany and Canada this might be an interesting exercise to see the network effect of your online profile and your networking activities. Thanks everybody for participating in this real life social media exercise. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time or holiday season! PS: I am also very proud to present this Social Media Birthday Statistics 100% software free. The blog is (update: was) based on Blogger, the spreadsheet is based on Google Docs, the graphic is an embedded graph including real-time updates (made it static after time passed and no new wishes came in).

Listen, Learn & Execute

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:49:00 +0000

Inspired by the Blog Mother we hosted our first Social Media Workshop. O ver some cups of coffee we went on a journey through the universe of LinkedIn, XING, Facebook and Twitter, and all the other little tools to manage your digital identity. The group consisted of developers and QA engineers, product managers and even a VP. While we all agreed on the need on the need for a digital identity, we discovered some key findings. Keep it Simple: you might impress your co-workers with your perfect worded online profile and all the fantastic buzz words you copied from your company's marketing message. But keep in mind, that most of the people that read your profile have no clue what eDiscovery in a 2.0 World means. Build it Early: it is never toearly to build your network. Working in a 70 people R&D team but having only 40 "connections" is not a good ratio. Just keep in mind: the others also want to connect. Be Yourself: Online is not a different planet, it is just a different format. So be yourself: online and offline, paper and digital. The greatest chance to succeed is to be consistent and authentic. During the discussion we also learned that there are different maturity levels, both for people as well as organizations. While some of us have incorporated the digital world into their life, most of you still try to find your way around. There is nothing to worry about, you're still the majority and there is plenty of opportunity to discover the great opportunities out there. As a little guidance we came up with the following three steps into the digital economy: Listen: there is no need to say anything if you feel there is nothing to say. Simply keep a finger on the pulse. Listen to what your industry people have to say. Turn on your Twitter search, screen the groups and forums and make sure you know what's going on. Learn: "Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal" ... look around. Do you like an idea how somebody crafted his/her profile? Let them inspire you, there is nothing wrong in learning from others. Execute: Make sure you're take this last step! Once you understand how things are working in your community it is time to step up and make yourself visible. Thanks everybody for your contributing to the lively conversations. Social Media might change it's name again but the concept is here to stay. Make the most of the new opportunities and don't be shy to connect!

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:34:00 +0000

I can no longer count the number of conversations I’ve had with fellow marketers about Twitter. For those that have embraced it, the benefits are obvious. For those who have not yet entered this world, it seems to be a confusing concept and hard to recognize the true benefits. I must admit, I sit somewhere in the middle. I am completely in favor of Twitter and follow it with fascination as marketing has now become a 140 character opportunity. And hey, with 10million visitors reported in February 2009, can you really afford to ignore it? Personally, I only Tweet from time to time but as a marketing professional, I see the benefits to be tremendous. To help me realize the true value of Twitter, I needed to break it down to where I would see the biggest return. Think about your organization and what your key marketing objectives are and then align Twitter to help successful reach these goals. Here are some successful ways companies today are using Twitter. Building Community - I follow salesforce. They have a strong community of followers and ultimately salesforce can use this community to drive their business forward. With the recent customer event Dreamforce 09, salesforce now has their over 3,000 followers providing feedback and spreading the word about all the great announcement that were made at the event. Customer Service - Twitter can successfully engage with customers that need help. Zappos has over 1 million followers. As a retailer, customer service is number one. Zappos found Twitter to be a way to connect with customers that live all around the world. Generating Revenue - I recently attended a session by Dell talking about IdeaStorm and their use of Twitter. They cited a substantial increase in revenue that has come from being active on Twitter. Dell uses Twitter to drive online sales and post promotions. Their Dell outlet has over 1 million followers who are the first to know when new offers are available. Prospecting - Do you follow topics relevant to your industry? Imagine if you see a post by someone unhappy with their current solution.Respond with a solution that makes more sense. 140 characters can start a sales cycle. Branding - This is the “soft” approach to Twitter but should not be ignored. Building a brand is hard. In years past it was expensive.Today, you can build a brand by being present. Being part of the social conversation and the followers will come. Other success stories? I’d love to hear them.

Bloom Democratized

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:02:00 +0000

Not too long ago a small group of people started a project to take the corporate memory social. Among many ideas our goal was to build an environment that allows for the corporate memory, represented by the combined knowledge of the people, to be general available in the organization using approaches we learnt from the social media movement. Some may recall the term Bloom. Today I was reading an interesting little blog post from one of the thinkers behind the Bloom idea. Cheryl McKinnon, now CMO at Nuxeo just offered a social media 101 workshop to improve the professional online profiles of those that have been hit be the recent restructuring or are simply interested to learn more about their ID in a digital economy. While this may not make much sense to those that haven't been part of the original dialogues, but I am just fascinated how the spirit of Bloom isn't quitting. It looks that we were right in the first place but our thinking was too narrow. A dream can never fit in a repository. I'd like to offer my support to what Cheryl has started. Did you believe in our idea, than I believe in you and I'd like to make the investment in your digital future. Would you like to learn about the digital economy, you have a profile to review, a blog to link to, an idea you'd like to talk about? Go visit Cheryl at the event or find my online. For those that need local support: I am at Vapiano in Oldenburg on Monday Dec 14 from 6-8pm. Just post a comment on this blog or Tweet @DanielKraft so I know what to expect.

Was I Dreaming?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:41:00 +0000

This week I attended Dreamforce in San Francisco. A long time Salesforce.com user, this was my first experience at this event and what an experience it was.

Can Marketing Start Projects?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Demand generation for me has always been about driving leads into the sales funnel. And qualified leads are considered the ones that have an immediate project and can turn into revenue in the next 6-12 months. But I often question what truly makes a qualified lead. If the definition of “qualified” is to have budget and project requirements than marketing to really no more than casting a wider net than perhaps sales can do on their own. Now don’t get me wrong, this is an important function of marketing and a key measurement to determine success but I want to explore the idea of marketing not always “catching” the projects but being instrumental in starting the discussion.Currently I am working with a company that sells business intelligence solutions. Now this space is quite mature and most of the larger organizations already have a solution in place (and have spent a great deal of money already) so do I just focus on the new businesses, those who are ready to purchase a solution or the ones who already know they need an alternative? I do and sales would gladly take those leads all day long but with that usually comes a nice RFP or some sort of competitive shoot out. So we started to discuss, how can marketing not just capture “qualified” leads but start customer projects and thus generate the “qualified” lead from scratch.Package the pain and provide the band aideWe recently tried a new approach in one of our marketing campaigns. We found a customer who had a pain and used our solution to stop this pain and has recognized results. Now we packaged up that pain and the great success stories and sought out other companies with the same need. In our case, we have a great customer who is a package manufacturer and when we were there on a recent visit, I happened to meet Tara, Tara is the manager of global supplier quality and while she would never be someone who discussed BI solutions, she used the outcome of our solution in her every day job. Tara explained that with our solution she is looking at real time information on supplier quality (a huge pain in her industry) and has already attributed millions of dollars in saving because she is able to be better informed and negotiate better rates with her suppliers.Now, time to find the rest of the Taras in the world. We focused our latest campaign on supplier quality. Subtle messages around BI but more importantly solutions to pain that Global Suppliers around the world are experiencing. The response was overwhelming and I would say that marketing is starting projects. We are helping business find a unique case for BI and starting the dialogue in an organization that may have thought their current solution was just good enough.No doubt this approach will take longer, these are not the “hottest” leads in the batch but we are building a brand among a new part of the business that can be influential and guide the discussion starting a new project. Nothing has closed as of yet but I am optimistic. Stay tuned for some results soon.

Enterprise 2.0 / Make Love not War

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:20:00 +0000

I enjoyed some great days in Boston this week, visiting the Enterprise 2.0 conference and gaining new perpectives on strategy at MIT Sloan. At the E2.0 conference it seemed that Social Media has entered the main stream. Big sponsors includes IBM, Microsoft, EMC, Novell, SAP ... so basically the who-is-who of corporate IT. While not much progress has been made on the product front since last year's event I was very pleased to see my friends at Open Text release their Social Media offering. You may recall that this was originally presented as part of the overall Bloom vision. What I found most interesting about the E2.0 show this year was not what was presented but what was missing: Customer Focus & Strategy. With the economy down and budgets tight, you would have expected everybody to be 100% focussed on the customer, with clear use cases, easy to implement solutions and a solid strategy how to not just implement a piece of software (or to turn on a service) but how to achieve real results. But interestingly the focus was again entirely on products. Sure we need good products but I have to agree with Craig Hepburn from Open Text that we need "more education and understanding". This brings me to my second stop, which was just across the river in Cambridge. I had two exciting days with Professor Arnoldo Hax from MIT Sloan. In his executive training session "Reinventing Your Business Strategy" he presents a remarkably simple and compelling strategy model (the Delta Model) that puts the customer in the center of the strategy. Instead of fighting your competition (war) you should care about your customer (love). MIT Tech TV I wish that concept would also be applied to by all stakeholders in Social Media: focus on the customer, care so much about them, that you even base your strategy on that. I strongly believe that Social Media will have a major (and positiv) impact on the way we do business. The Social Workplace and the Social Marketplace are going to be a reality very soon. But in order to be successful we need put the customers and their needs in the centre of our thinking.

It's All about People - It's All about You!

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:28:00 +0000

Everybody can change the Web This was the RedDot tag line many years before the term Web 2.0 was created. We started in a time when the Web was only for those with technical skills or deep pockets. And now we see a world where the people manage the experience and the best Web initiatives are truly social. You have achieved this! Time to Bloom Most recently I have been driving what I believe to be the most strategic initiative an ECM company could consider. I worked with an amazing team and learned a tremendous amount about not only breaking new ground but this fascinating momentum we have in the Social Web. Bloom is a movement I truly believe in, I see the world Blooming – growing in ways I was only dreaming for when I started in the Web space so many years ago. It is up to You now to deliver on that dream. I believe! The first day I set foot in this company I knew this was going to be different. The people did not work here, they believed in it. Believed in our product, believed in our mission … and after many successful battles believed in me. I will always remember this trust and believe, as it was the most rewarding experience in my entire professional career. It was You that turned me into a believer. Thank You I was privileged to work with some of the greatest people I have ever met. It was a pleasure to work with you every day. It was an honor to fight with you side by side to make this business one of the greatest in the industry. I hope the team continues to prosper and finds the enthusiasm to keep our momentum moving forward but for those that know me I am sure you will also understand why I have to start this next adventure in my career. I leave those that have been so instrumental in my career the wisdom of Yoda: "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." … and for me, now is the time to DO.

Dad, It's Social - 99 Friends since Christmas

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:44:00 +0000

If you still believe that social networking is only for the digital natives … fasten your seatbelt: 5 weeks ago I introduced my father to social networking. I somehow forced him into it as I refused to provide any more family pictures by e-mail, instead setting up a group in Facebook. I was hoping to get him to use social networking to stay in contact and keeping him updated on my travels or family activities. I even got him David Weinberger’s book “Everything is Miscellaneous” as a Christmas present so he’d finally understand what my job is. To give you some background, my dad is a great business man, running his own little business. Starting it from scratch, he’s making a good living based on hard work, a true entrepreneurial spirit and a healthy cautious view of the world. His business has nothing to do with the Internet and he wouldn’t even need a computer other to check his e-mail and to run his 199$ accounting software (I think he is the only German that doesn’t run SAP). So we leave Christmas and a day later - checking my e-mail - I see an invite to a German Facebook-equivalent from my father. Not really paying attention I accepted and forgot about it. Tonight I checked again and he has 99 friends there. Can you believe this? He adds 2 friends a day … by the end of the year, he’ll have more than 700 friends and given his age advantage (he knows way more people than I do) I might never catch him on that. What do we learn from that? Never underestimate your parents … if you can do it, they can do it! By the way, he still calls me for updates and asks about the family and you know what ... I am going to call him tomorrow :-)

The End of an Era - The Start of a Journey

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:38:00 +0000

Time to say good bye. On December 2008 we had to say good bye to one of our dearest friends - the RedDot. In an emotional ceremony all of his fellow co-workers gathered together to share great stories and express their respect for one of the greatest web visionaries of all times. When we had to enable everybody to change the web, RedDot was there for us! When 3,000 companies knocked on our doors to help them with their web solutions, RedDot was there for us! When two Canadian software companies looked for a great acquisitions in WCM, RedDot was there for us. He was always there for us, our great friend, co-worker and admired leader. We have to say good bye now, but we promise that we will keep RedDot in our hearts, we promise to finish what we have started, and we'll make the Web vision a reality while Open Text Blooms." You may have noticed that we have made some adjustments to the branding of the Web Solutions Group. Entering 2009 we decided to focus on the Open Text brand for all teams within the group, including RedDot. This is the final step of a 2 year project aligning the operation. RedDot as a product and dedication to WCM does not go away, in fact as we have become an integrated ECM offering our strength in Web Solutions will continue to grow. RedDot is now the Open Text Web Solutions Group and Web Solutions is a continued focus for Open Text. Many customers may ask, what does this mean for me? Over the last two years we have made excellent progress providing a fully integrated ECM strategy. It turned out that WCM is a strategic component for many of our customers and with a completely integrated approach we allow you to not only to buy a long term path for your organization with Open Text orchestrating strategic success. As a current customer, our dedication continues and our support network is expanding. For new customers, you can turn to Open Text for the WCM expertise we have gathered over the last 14 years with RedDot while joining Open Text in the journey to be Content Experts. Join me as we say our farewell to RedDot as a brand but hello to Web Solutions a strategic component of Open Text's ECM strategy. Share with us your opinion on this journey so we can ensure that your investments in Open Text continue to drive more ROI in the future.

Web 2.0 is Murder on Middle Management

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:07:00 +0000

Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy highlights in this video how they gained value with Web 2.0 and how this is challenging the management.

The Return of the Jedi(s)

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:32:00 +0000

It was the year 2008 and the corporate empire had terminated all innovation, fun and open ideas. Processes and rules dominated every corner of the universe for years and the dark lord of the SOX killed any idea that didn’t return margins within one quarter. Developers were under full control to avoid any creativity. There were no free beverages in the office, Pizza-Friday was a term only known by those that joined prior to the Aspirin-Wars and standard corporate coffee was mandatory in all locations. Just when all fun seem to come to an end a small group stood up for those that had no voice, asked for the unthinkable, requested the impossible and started a project like never before. It was not a product, it was not a solution it truly was a movement. On the back of the last remaining hardcore developers and with the help of those that believed the pure joy of experience has true value, they spread out to all corners of the universe to find those that embraced the free flow of ideas, those that considered a failed idea to be the first step to an even better one and to those that were still carrying that beautiful spirit of innovation. First there were only a few that supported the movement but more and more groups discovered that deep inside they still had this wonderful spark of innovation. Neither economy downturn nor cost cutting was able to stop them and the more people they reached the stronger the force was with them. Forming an alloy of technology, thought leadership and social networking they continued their march to a better world. We call this movement Bloom and I call all those involved true innovators.