Strategic Intuition // Coup d'Oeil

The Key Question in a Job Interview

Brent Toderash — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:24:29 +0000

Hiring the right person for a given job can be a bit of a craps shoot for many business owners — and for some HR managers as well. It seems obvious that the most important things you want to answer are whether they can do the job and whether they fit into your team. But those are not paramount.

Guessing again? Integrity, intelligence, suitability to your “fast-paced environment”, expertise, ambition, work ethic… all are plausible guesses about what the most important factor might be in a potential hire. And certainly, most of these are important factors, but none of them are critical for the interview. I’m assuming, of course, that you aren’t going to make people fill out some inane aptitude test or issue some irrelevant quiz about what kind of tree they’d most like to be.

Think about it: the resume should tell you whether or not they can handle the job, and give you an indication about their personality and how well they’ve applied themself in the past. To these points, the interview may have only a few clarifying questions. The real question I think you want to answer is one that hits most applicants from left field, and seems to be most effective when it isn’t asked directly.

Your task as the interviewer is to find out what each applicant is most likely to do when left to their own devices. For a lower-level job, you need to know the person can stay on-task and show some initiative to get onto the next appropriate task when the first assigned one is completed. For higher-level jobs, the question is more critical, because key people can help shape and direct the company — or misdirect it and take you off-course as you quash some internal struggle.

In a prior business, we devised a few different questions to help ferret out the answer, from discussing interests and trade publications or career goals to what we called “the dream job question.” In the dream job question, we would as informally as possible have the applicant describe their dream job or position. Any answer that resembled the job posting too closely was considered void… the exercise necessarily had to push beyond the current situation and into the career in which they saw themselves, perhaps a few years down the road. If the direction they wanted their career to go was a close enough fit for the company, then they were in contention for the job. If it was too far off, the person wouldn’t be a good hire… eventually they’d want to pull in a different direction, or would end up looking for another job that was a better fit for them.

People in any job that allows them some freedom and flexibility will inevitably trend toward doing what they want to do, regardless of what their actual duties are. Figure out what they actually want to do, and you’ll know if they’re a good fit. And sometimes this requires figuring out the answer before they even know what the answer is.

Comments

Quoth toderash:
July 6, 2010

Post: The Key Question in a Job Interview http://bit.ly/cUIFWZ

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Local Commercials can be Pure Gold

Brent Toderash — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:10:00 +0000

Sometimes an ad can be so bad, it’s good — so over-the-top that it just does the trick in spite of itself. And whatever else it may be, it’s memorable. I thought about that as I watched an ad for Cullman Liquidation Center.

Yes, it’s a real business, with the T-shirts to prove it. You can check out the back-story on the making of the commercial as well. And to covers the basics: “Be there, say something.”

In my locale, everyone knows about and remembers Nick Hill and his campy furniture commercials. (He’s a local advertising legend, who would talk to a station and say things like, “Remember that spot we did in the fall of ‘82?”) And if everyone knows, then you could certainly argue that it’s working, couldn’t you?

Comments

Quoth toderash:
May 12, 2010

Post: Local Commercials can be Pure Gold http://bit.ly/9Aho5O

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Classic Television Commercials

Do You Have Any Volcanic Vulnerabilities?

Brent Toderash — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:45:19 +0000

A few weeks ago, nobody who wasn’t living literally in the shadow of a volcano was giving much thought to the impact that a volcanic eruption could have on their lives. Of course, that was before the volcano-nobody-could-pronounce erupted in Iceland, shutting down air traffic in Europe for several days. Would-be travelers were faced with a choice between sitting tight in London (or wherever) and reading a book or sightseeing, or else hopping a train to race south and attempt to fly out of a different airport. For most travelers, it was a relatively minor inconvenience and perhaps a bit of unplanned expense. For the airlines, it would certainly have had a much bigger impact.

Most people aren’t overly critical about the shutdowns… though Richard Branson was an exception (and presumably others like him). Branson called the ban an overreaction; Virgin Atlantic lost $77 Million USD during the disruption. Branson wants the British government to compensate the airlines, whose losses totaled more than $1.7 Billion.

I spent more than a decade in the insurance industry, and I can tell you, people don’t generally think about what could happen very far beyond what probably might happen. As a result, they don’t insure against events which they see as having a low likelihood of occurring, even though those events are usually less expensive to insure against. If the results of such “unlikely” events would be devastating, they’ve just gambled the entire future of their business.

Some events are ones you don’t insure against, but develop contingency plans for. Do you have a single supplier for a critical part or inventory item? What happens if the supplier can’t deliver for one reason or another. Is there another supplier, and if not, then what? A bit of research here can go a long way. And if the alternatives are really unattractive, insurance is actually available for some types of contingencies — like a fire at a key supplier’s warehouse.

Take a cue from Eyjafjallajokull and ask a few questions of your business. Where are some of your hidden vulnerabilities? How would you recover from a disruption in one of these areas?

Comments

Quoth toderash:
April 26, 2010

Post: Do You Have Any Volcanic Vulnerabilities? http://bit.ly/djpKts

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Letters of Reference

Brent Toderash — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 16:01:10 +0000

It should be an obvious tactic, but for most people it’s just an afterthought that occurs too late. I’ve recently started asking each of my clients for a letter of reference that I can use in my portfolio. All are willing and most are even eager to provide one, which is for me a sure sign that the client is happy. If ever one weren’t this would be a good way to uncover and address an issue… another reminder that a wrap-up meeting is a good idea at the end of a project. This is the natural time to review what’s been done, do any training necessary, and plan future steps. My favorite email response though, was this one:

Huzzah! Oh hell yes! Whatever u need! Gotta get back to work!!

Part of that is choosing your timing… like right after the first order arrives through the website, found through a Google search, within the first two weeks of launching the site. (Wish I could get that specific timing on every site launch!) This is clearly a happy client — and one who’s suddenly got some extra work through the new website.

Comments

Quoth toderash:
April 24, 2010

Post: Letters of Reference http://bit.ly/9eoh8O

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Three Weeks in Tweetsville (to April 17th)

Brent Toderash — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:50:38 +0000

The frequency of my tweets has been a bit lower lately, which means I’ve been busy and/or not as close to my PC. Still some good stuff in here though, including a few favorites.

RT @errolmorris: OK. If I must. The best commercial ever made, http://bit.ly/952Eyc. about 17 hours ago
Post: Noted over the Past Two Weeks (to April 17, 2010) http://bit.ly/bCIehl
@JeffreyGroks thanks for the nod!
RT @JeffreyGroks: http://bit.ly/9agizt $quote: Tactics applied w/o effective strategy are the noise before defeat. – Sun Tzu 9:21 AM Apr 16th
Outdated Adjective: “digital”, as in “digital camera”. #redundant, like “non-antique camera”. #language 9:15 AM Apr 15th
Why I love Linux http://bit.ly/auWaly #linux #foss 4:10 PM Apr 14th
Social Media: latest marketing fad to produce increases in product sales with no budget. #socialmedia #marketing #wronganswer! 1:02 PM Apr 14th
The gap between novice and expert is measured by the ability for abstract thinking. 8:48 AM Apr 14th
RT @capricecrane: You can’t run from your problems forever. Eventually, you’ll have to take a car or a plane to really avoid them. 5:24 PM Apr 13th
Post: WordPress 3.0 Beta 1 http://bit.ly/dzQxf1 4:08 PM Apr 13th
I’ve realized that “soporific” is such a beautiful word. Unless someone uses it to describe you. 12:26 PM Apr 13th
It took almost 70 years to get my favorite florist online. http://norwoodflorist.ca 12:02 PM Apr 13th
RT @johnmorgan: Twitter to sell ads: http://ow.ly/1xRef 9:29 AM Apr 13th
@DanSchawbel REPORT: 83% of Gen-Y watched some, most or all of their TV programming online http://dld.bz/abAQ 7:51 PM Apr 12th
RT @gretchenrubin: in 2007, 5000 Twitter posts/day; at bgng of 2009, 2.5 million/day; today, 50 million posts per day. http://nyti.ms/9vxFrZ 8:09 PM Apr 12th
RT @scottmckain: Service faulty, customers unhappy & may lose best product. Let’s…rebrand! AT&T strategy won’t work http://budurl.com/smvp 9:11 PM Apr 11th
Reading _The Godfather Returns_. Fredo just got clipped: ignorance is not innocence. 10:36 AM Apr 11th
RT @tom_peters Frightening thought: What if I start giving 140-character speeches? 9:29 AM Apr 11th
You don’t get to be world heavyweight champion by punching 50 guys once each. How’s your focus? 10:25 AM Apr 10th
RT @thrillerchick: Something to think about if you need to learn about police procedure – http://bit.ly/cFX2Sm | cops & writers 8:42 PM Apr 8th
Post: All Business is Personal http://bit.ly/cRfPc8 9:48 AM Apr 8th
No matter how much you whip a donkey, it’ll never be a racehorse. 8:02 PM Apr 7th
TweetRewind 2010-01-15: Would saying “antique typewriter” be redundant? 11:05 AM Apr 7th
RT @SallyHogshead: Rules are not fascinating. But breaking them, very much so. #fascinate 5:23 PM Apr 6th
@bakercom1- I can assist with web, see http://webriggers.net/ 11:18 AM Apr 6th
RT @timoreilly: IBM has apparently broken a pledge made in 2005 not to assert 500 patents against open source software. http://bit.ly/czEYvR 10:53 AM Apr 6th
Post: Remember Your Existing Customers http://bit.ly/cHwM4T 9:53 AM Apr 6th
RT @garyvee: “I’m so cutting edge I make people bleed” 7:15 AM Apr 6th
RT @abbyt7 i will never view a lowercase “i” in the same way again. http://bit.ly/bpGSeJ 1:46 PM Apr 4th
RT @StartupPro Last tweet on “Seven Tips for Proving Your Business Model” http://bit.ly/aHh8Hf . Before you dive in with the sharks. 11:42 PM Apr 5th
RT @thelock RT @mlpayne: “You become like the people you interact with. If your friends are living boring stories, you probably will too.” @donmilleris 8:08 PM Apr 5th
Post: Noted in the Past Two Weeks (to April 4, 2010) http://bit.ly/acrXXZ 8:58 AM Apr 5th
ShaunaCausey

Mashable’s Choices For The Best April Fools Jokes http://bit.ly/cfezdt 1:51 PM Apr 1st via TweetMeme
RT @MarshaCollier glad I can speak 2 dog! Grunt, Woof & Moo 2U2 – Google Translate Blog http://bit.ly/ceL2Xg | hmm, let me check the date… 12:49 PM Apr 1st
Some people dream… others merely slumber. 12:23 PM Apr 1st
RT @tferriss: “The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.” – Meister Eckhart, 13th-century German theologian 4:23 AM Mar 30th
RT @unmarketing: RT @johnmorgan: Perfection is over-rated. An idea doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be implemented. 9:31 AM Mar 29th
Manitoba is unique. Listening to people speak Franglaise in my local Starbucks. 1:47 PM Mar 27th
Thinking about starting a “not to do” list. 1:27 PM Mar 27th
RT @MarshaCollier: Unhealthiest Fast Food: prview health care rfrm sticker shock http://bit.ly/ax6Tpm | Wow! Can education change behaviour? 12:59 PM Mar 27th
RT @mitchjoel Hey Marketers: it’s not all about Social Media and Digital Marketing (sorry!): http://bit.ly/diINZJ 12:44 PM Mar 27th
RT @estherschindler Awesome Artwork Made with Sharpies http://bit.ly/ciR0Gj 11:53 AM Mar 27th
Do you walk the dog or does the dog walk you? Do you run the business or does the business run you? 11:27 AM Mar 27th
There’s a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in. (Cohen) 9:49 AM Mar 27th

Comments

Quoth toderash:
April 18, 2010

Post: Three Weeks in Tweetsville (to April 17th) http://bit.ly/aG7E6W

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Noted over the Past Two Weeks (to April 17, 2010)

Brent Toderash — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:13:29 +0000

I use Google Reader’s shared items to highlight interesting items that cross my path. You can follow my shared items feed or interact on Google Buzz if you don’t want to wait for the recap here.

Brands are Bull
Published: April 12, 2010
Source: Doc Searls Weblog
At 11:30pm on April 22, 1978 Saturday Night Live opened with Paul Schaffer, made up to look like music promoter Don Kirshner (whose show ran in most markets right after SNL). What followed was a lesson in branding that we’re still learning. Here’s how it looks in the show’s transcript (sorry, the original isn’t on YouTube): Don Kirshner…..Paul Shaffer Jake Blues…..John Belu...
Nikkei Wants A Closed Web
Published: April 17, 2010
Source: /message
My Note: This is an extreme example of the fact that the newspaper industry really doesn't understand the web. Start doing stuff like this, and it's all over but the crying.
Japan's largest business newspaper, the Nikkei, is outdoing Murdoch. Not only have the erected a pay wall, but they are trying to control all links referencing pages on their new web site: Hiroko Tabuchi, Nikkei Restricts Links to Its New Web Site Japan’s largest business newspaper, the Nikkei, joined the trend of other news sites last week by requiring readers to pay to view its Web...
When a stranger reads your blog
Published: April 16, 2010
Source: Seth's Blog
I had a surreal experience the other day. I was sitting in a coffee shop and watched someone (at the recommendation of a friend who didn't realize I was within earshot) open up my blog and start reading it. Right there, out of the corner of my eye, someone was experiencing me (well, digital me) for the first time.Here it was, my first impression writ large. No fair running over and sayin...
Full Details On Twitter’s Long-Awaited Ad Platform: Promoted Tweets
Published: April 12, 2010
Source: TechCrunch
Earlier this evening, we broke the news that Twitter was about to launch its new ad platform. The news has just been confirmed: moments ago, the New York Times published a report detailing the new platform, which is officially being called “Promoted Tweets”. Update: AdAge has published a report as well. Here are the details outlined in the articles: As we previously described, the n...
CHART OF THE DAY: Email's Reign Is Over, Social Networking Is The New King
Published: April 14, 2010
Source: Business Insider
Writing about this Morgan Stanley chart on his blog, mega-VC Fred Wilson writes: Even though Ive been saying for years that social networking will one day usurp email, its a bit shocking to see that it has. There are some caveats. My kids use Facebook as their primary inbox (they also use gmail). So some of what they do on Facebook is actually email. But even so, it looks...
Four Current Trends That Will Change Marketing Forever
Published: April 15, 2010
Source: Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
The one component that holds most businesses back from getting involved in new media (besides muttering under their breath the wrongly held belief that, This is the way it has always been done) is the concern about going after what is real versus what may well be just a fad. While many companies have capitalized on short-term trends (look no further than the fashion industry), the more...
Making Myself Over
Published: April 12, 2010
Source: Ask Allison
So I have to giggle as I type this - and I realize this might be a trifle of a blog entry, but that's okay - because I remember a few years back blogging about the fact that I was VOWING to try to get myself dressed like a real adult every day. That I was going to kiss my J. Crew sweats goodbye and look like a person my kids wouldn't be embarrassed to have drop them off at school each mo...
Amazon approved for Canadian expansion
Published: April 12, 2010
Source: Quill & Quire
Despite the objections of booksellers and many Canadian-owned publishers, Amazon’s application to open a physical distribution facility in Canada has been approved by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Under Canadian ownership laws, Amazon’s expansion has to be of net benefit to Canadians to receive government approval. According to a government press release sent out this afternoo...
Bacon Baby Formula: Is Our Society Doomed?
Published: April 10, 2010
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
My Note: This is just wrong, in too many ways to count.
The Rise of the Backyard Office
Published: April 7, 2010
Source: Design Milk
We noticed a trend going on these days: offices in the backyard! The convenience of just walking rather than driving to work is too good to pass up. Check out these backyard offices that allow people to get away from the house without really getting away and save the hassles of dealing with traffic, commuting costs, or space rentals. WorkPod by Ecospace is a gorgeous, contemporary backy...
Photo of the Day
Published: April 10, 2010
Source: thechive.com
boy war lead Photo of the Day . On Vashon Island (near Seattle), a tree has a very unusual passenger. As the story goes, a boy went to war in 1914 and left his bike chained to a tree. The tree ate the bike and it remains to this day. More photos here and here. [Source]. Make it Viral. Photo of the Day · icon email Photo of the Day · icon stumbleupon Photo of the Day · icon reddit Pho...
Google Search Rankings Now Consider Site Speed
Published: April 10, 2010
Source: Mashable!
My Note: Somebody's printing a lot of email.
Back in November, we started hearing murmurs that Google was considering whether or not to factor site speed into its search ranking algorithm. In a blog post today, the search giant confirms it is now adding site speed to its list of criteria that could affect your Google ranking.It’s another step on Google’s long road toward achieving maximum speed and efficiency. The company eve...
Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and the long road to the iPad. - By Tim Wu - Slate Magazine
Published: April 9, 2010
Source: www.slate.com
My Note: A tale about the divergent philosophies of two business partners. Interesting to cast it in this light; those of us who favour openness probably all have a Woz moment or two.
In 2006, professor Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law School predicted that over the next decade there would be a determined effort to replace the personal computer with a new generation of " information appliances." He was, it turned out, exactly right. But
Apple and the iPad: It’s 1968 all over again
Published: April 9, 2010
Source: Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog
My Note: This is a good piece; the technology isn't really the point.
I grew up in the 1950s as a first-generation baby boomer. That means that my era was the hippie era — the birth of the counterculture movement in the U.S. After John Kennedy was assassinated, something came over all of us at the time — a profound sense that something was really wrong with the country that the war generation of our parents had given us. And there were just so many of...
Google Search Rankings Now Consider Site Speed
Published: April 9, 2010
Source: Mashable!
My Note: This is noteworthy. Although it's not a huge factor in search results at present, the direction is instructive. Optimized code and hosting performance really do count.
Back in November, we started hearing murmurs that Google was considering whether or not to factor site speed into its search ranking algorithm. In a blog post today, the search giant confirms it is now adding site speed to its list of criteria that could affect your Google ranking.It’s another step on Google’s long road toward achieving maximum speed and efficiency. The company eve...
The End of Bookstores?
Published: April 8, 2010
Source: in over your head
I wonder: Is this the last time I’ll visit a bookstore? It’s about two weeks before the release of the iPad in Canada, and I’m at Indigo reading Do More Great Work (it’s crazy good btw). I saw it on Amazon and wanted it right away, so I picked it up here because I wanted that immediacy– book lovers, you know what I mean. That immediacy required: Going to Indigo.ca Looking up...
You Tell Me: What Are Your "Gap" Books?
Published: April 7, 2010
Source: Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent
You know how sometimes you'll be talking to a group of people and someone will be like, "Dude, how great was that part in HARRY POTTER when such and such happens?" and you're the one person in the world who hasn't read HARRY POTTER and you quietly admit this and they're like, "YOU HAVEN'T READ HARRY POTTER??? What is wrong with you?!?!" Yeah.*We all have our "gap" books, those books that...
re: Digital Discounts (Foursquare & Gowalla)
Published: April 7, 2010
Source: Brand Autopsy
With Foursquare, Gowalla, and other “geo-location apps” becoming the new must-do marketing tool, I hope more businesses follow the lead of an Austin-area Starbucks. A simple handwritten sign acknowledging the loyalty of a frequent customer is all the marketing needed to earn a gleeful shout-out and a simple photo on Twitter. It’s so easy for businesses to turn checking-in wi...
10 Free Social Media Tools Every PR Pro Should Master
Published: April 7, 2010
Source: Social Media Today
I'm always a bit hesitant about writing posts about social media tools. However, on this occasion I think the tools / resources I'm about to walk you through MUST be part of a modern communicator's ar...
Internet Surpasses TV as Most Essential Media
Published: April 6, 2010
Source: MarketingCharts
For the first time, the internet has surpassed TV as the “most essential” medium, according to the latest Infinite Dial study by Arbitron and Edison Research. When asked which they would choose if they must, never again watching television or never again accessing the internet, slightly more people chose TV as the medium they would eliminate. [...]
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Comments

Quoth toderash:
April 17, 2010

Post: Noted over the Past Two Weeks (to April 17, 2010) http://bit.ly/bCIehl

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

WordPress 3.0 Beta 1

Brent Toderash — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:58:04 +0000

I’ve just upgraded my test blog to WordPress 3.0 Beta 1, with the new default Twenty Ten Theme. It’s yet another beautiful evolution for my favorite CMS, WordPress. That’s right, I didn’t say “blogging engine”.

I’ve been using WordPress as a CMS for a while already, and no, there’s no reason a WordPress site has to look like a blog, or that it even needs to look particularly “WordPress-y,” though a lot of them tend to. The giveaway is often in the post comments area, which a great many themes do not bother to customize very extensively, though they should. (Mine is customized to a degree, even if not extensively.) I had read someplace that in 3.0 it would be easier to customize this part of a theme, but I haven’t dug that deeply. In any event, a theme developer with a modicum of php-chops should be able to hack out a custom look for it even in the old system.

Which brings me to another point… the lists appearing of new features for WP3.0 are much the same, and say things like “In WordPress 3.0, you can create specific templates for every author of your blog.”, something I did for a client several versions ago… again, with a modicum of php knowledge. Now though, it’s becoming easier to do, and that seems to be the real thing with WP releases like this one. It isn’t revolutionary, but it makes it easy to do things that people were already doing, but which took a greater degree of effort. Like building a menu system, for example. This is one area where it could take a fair effort with certain types of navigation schemas. The new release will have this built-in, but the admin section of Beta-1 is not yet completed. The phenomenon of watching how WP is already being used and then adapting it to make such uses easier to achieve is one of the things I like about the WP development community: it shows they’re paying attention to users.

A big change is the merge of WP-Mu with WP. Not sure yet what a Mu-upgrade will look like. The most underappreciated new feature might be the custom post types, which takes you beyond the selection of either page or post, and has already had some examination. It doesn’t look like they’re at all a point-and-click setup yet, but a theme developer should be able to set them up fairly easily for a client once the post types and characteristics of each has been described. Even this is something that I’ve done in the past using categories, but doing this was clearly a hack for the way things will be done now, which in my view perhaps takes WordPress into CMS-land even more than the new menu system does. People shouldn’t be talking about “WordPress-as-CMS” anymore: when 3.0 hits its final release, this phrase will be even more anachronistically redundant than it already is.

A nice change to see is the replacement of the default Kubrick theme with the newly-developed Twenty Ten Theme, which includes a few more theme options which enables bending the theme easily into different looks — though not as many as the beautiful Tarski Theme, which can take a blogger on a low budget a long way toward a custom look with a few swift mouse-clicks rather than shelling out for a custom theme or theme framework. Kubrick had its fans, but I was never really one of them… maybe I’ve come to associate the look with too many splogs. Anyway, it was high-time that the default theme showed off WordPress and what it can do a little better.

So far, 3.0 hasn’t broken any of my favorite plugins nor the framework I’ve developed for my own theme development, but I’ll have to test more thoroughly to be certain. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to the final 3.0 release, and wondering about a couple of projects just in the wings now… presently I’m thinking that I should develop them assuming the 3.0 platform and take advantage of the newest featureset.

Comments

Quoth toderash:
April 13, 2010

Post: WordPress 3.0 Beta 1 http://bit.ly/dzQxf1

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

All Business is Personal

Brent Toderash — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:34:53 +0000

“The Godfather is the I-Ching. The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom.” — Joe Fox (Tom Hanks’ character in You’ve Got Mail).

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the phrase “nothing personal — just business” has entered the business lexicon over the years since 1972 when the movie adaptation of Mario Puzo’s 1962 novel The Godfather. Funny thing is, the movie gives you the wrong impression. I’ve read the novel, and Mario Puzo explains that the phrase is not a sentiment with which Don Corleone would agree. In fact in the novel, only Don Vito Corleone (and later, Don Michael Corleone) seem to properly understand the intersection between what is business and what is personal. The movie places the quote on Michael’s lips, but only if you’d read the book would you understand Micheal’s words to be merely intended to placate his brother Sonny and Tom Hagen, who are separating the two in the discussion about their response to the attempted murder of their father. If you only saw the movie, you’d think this was the philosophy espoused by the Don. It isn’t.

Vito Corleone tells his son Michael that it’s never just business. It’s always personal. This view is perhaps what makes him a good Don, and makes Michael a good Don after him. You want to watch out for people who tell you that it’s nothing personal, just business. At the end of the movie as Micheal is settling “all family scores,” a key piece of dialogue takes place between Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and Tessio (Abe Vigoda), one of the oldest members of the Family, who has just realized that Michael knows who the traitor is.

Sal Tessio: “Can you get me off the hook, Tom? You know, for old times’ sake?”
Tom Hagen: “Can’t do it, Sally.”
Sal Tessio: “Tell Michael I always liked him. This was strictly business.”
Tom Hagen: “He knows that.”

The difficulty is, Tessio is a traitor, and he’s about to get whacked.

Good business never sweeps aside the personal. Ironically, Joe Fox doesn’t doesn’t get it either. After steamrolling over the bookstore run by Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and causing her to close up shop, the following conversation ensues:

Joe Fox: It wasn’t… personal.
Kathleen Kelly: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me. It’s personal to a lot of people. And what’s so wrong with being personal, anyway?
Joe Fox: Uh, nothing.
Kathleen Kelly: Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.

It’s usually the unscrupulous who try to separate business from anything “personal.” Do that though, and you may find yourself about to get whacked by someone who puts more heart into what they do. If it’s not a business partner, maybe it’ll be your customer.

How personal is your business?

Comments

Quoth toderash:
April 8, 2010

Post: All Business is Personal http://bit.ly/cRfPc8

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Quoth JeffreyGroks:
April 16, 2010

All Business is Personal : http://bit.ly/av1pxW – what Vito Corleone actually meant – via @toderash – do read the book

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Quoth cgosimon:
April 17, 2010

All business is personal. http://bit.ly/aLxNIW

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Remember Your Existing Customers

Brent Toderash — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:52:50 +0000

“Oh, you can’t have that special… that’s only for new customers, and you’re already a customer.” Ever heard that line? Makes you want to dump the company, doesn’t it?

Existing customers aren’t as valuable. They’re the bird in the hand that the company would trade for the two in the bush. As an existing customer, an individual is of less value to them — it’s pretty mercenary, like they’ve already got their pound of flesh and have moved on to the next prospect.

Does your cell phone or long distance carrier or your cable company lower rates for you automatically? Or do you have to call and ask to be changed to the newer, less expensive package option?

Offers for first-time customers can be useful, but don’t risk alienating your existing ones with the offer. Those are the people who got you where you are already… and it doesn’t hurt to thank them once in a while.

Comments

Quoth toderash:
April 6, 2010

Post: Remember Your Existing Customers http://bit.ly/cHwM4T

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Noted in the Past Two Weeks (to April 4, 2010)

Brent Toderash — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:56:04 +0000

I use Google Reader’s shared items to highlight interesting items that cross my path. You can follow my shared items feed or interact on Google Buzz if you don’t want to wait for the almost-weekly recap here.

Vast F.C.C. Plan Would Bring Net to More in U.S. - NYTimes.com
Published: April 4, 2010
Source: www.nytimes.com
My Note: NYT piece from a few weeks back - this is important for the place that the FCC is positioning the Internet as compared to other communications media. Probably an early recognition of an existing reality.
The 10-year plan would reimagine the nation’s media and technology priorities by establishing high-speed Internet as the country’s dominant communication network.
Now With Full Profiles « Gravatar Blog
Published: April 4, 2010
Source: blog.gravatar.com
My Note: Gravatar is getting full profiles to go with the global avatar. This one is a no-brainer if you ask me... sign up and your avatar will appear on hundreds of blogs whenever you leave a comment. Nothing to maintain, just increased recognition of your avatar / personal brand.
Greenpeace vs. Nestle: How to make sure your Facebook page doesn’t become a PR trojan horse – Part 1 « The BrandBuilder Blog
Published: April 4, 2010
Source: thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com
My Note: Good lessons in this one - if you're facing an attack in social-media-land, get advice from someone who "gets it". The old tactics are not going to work in this field, chief among those being intimidation.
Stowe Boyd - /message - Facebook Changes Social Contract, Yet Again
Published: April 4, 2010
Source: www.stoweboyd.com
My Note: Proposed new FB Privacy code, cutting to the chase: "You should reasonably expect that we will now or at some point in the future broadcast whatever you tell us to anyone and everyone, who may use that information for any purpose under the sun, good, bad, or otherwise."
Web Ink Now: Social media marketing explained in 61 words
Published: April 4, 2010
Source: www.webinknow.com
My Note: Attention: buy, beg, bug, or earn it. Love it.
You can buy attention (advertising) You can beg for attention from the media (PR) You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales) Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing...
Many marketing and communications professors are criminals
Published: April 4, 2010
Source: Web Ink Now
My Note: Hard to imagine a successful lawsuit in the near term, but there's a strong likelihood that some programs will be damned by irrelevance.
One student literally cried on my shoulder. Sobs and snot. (Really). I had never met her before. She came up to me after a speaking gig to tell me her story. Another student asked: "Why do my professors not know about social media?" Another emailed: "Two years going through an MBA program and Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were never mentioned!" Another: "Did I waste my money on a 19...
What’s your side hustle?
Published: April 2, 2010
Source: Escape From Cubicle Nation
My friend’s teenage daughter informed her the other day that she was enrolling in a nail technician class at high school. The friend, who has been prepping her daughter for a good college education since she was a toddler, was less than thrilled. “Why are you taking a beauty school class instead of an advanced placement academic class? Wouldn’t that be better for college?” “MO...
Brands that fail to fascinate will lose. Period.
Published: April 4, 2010
Source: Sally Hogshead
My Note: I took the F-Score test... "0% of people who took the F score use the same primary and secondary trigger combination as you (POWER and VICE)." Interesting - or should I say fascinating?
Fascinating companies win. They win bigger budgets, more time, better relationships, greater admiration, deeper trust. They can charge a higher price, create more buzz, and garner more loyalty. Brands that fail to persuade and captivate will, increasingly, lose the battle. It’s that simple. You can’t survive if you can’t persuade someone that your message matter...
The Must Have Skill Sets For the New World
Published: April 3, 2010
Source: Social Media Today
What are the skills that you will need to have in the new economy? If you’ve ever wondered what some of these skills are, this post is for you. Skill sets for the new world 1.) Social media an...
Thought for the day: Failure vs. mediocrity
Published: March 30, 2010
Source: Daniel Pink
Most people are more frightened of failure than of mediocrity. It should be the reverse. Failure is a broken leg — painful, but easily fixed. Mediocrity is a creeping disease — invisible and insidious — that disables so completely that there’s often no recovery.
The Cycle of Strategy
Published: April 4, 2010
Source: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
My Note: This is what I keep saying - it's rampant with telcos and cablecos in my region, who reward customer churn with "winback" promotions. Businesses need to reward customers who got them where they are!
ShareThe Cycle of StrategyThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Effective strategy, be it marketing related or otherwise, is what really sets one company apart from another. I’m not really saying that every successful company plans and implements better strategy, in some cases strategy just happens because a market and a product find each other and grow organically. However, small bu...
Publishing books to make money...
Published: March 28, 2010
Source: Seth's Blog
is a little like hanging out in a singles bar if you want to get married.It might work, but there are way better ways to accomplish your goal.If you love writing or making music or blogging or any sort of performing art, then do it. Do it with everything you've got. Just don't plan on using it as a shortcut to making a living.The only people who should plan on making money from writing a...
Looking forward to WordPress 3.0
Published: April 3, 2010
Source: Justin Tadlock
My Note: "social media has way more to do with common sense than it does with rocket science" -- another appeal to get into social media: go and build relationships. Well said.
There’s typically a ton of hype surrounding new WordPress releases, and WordPress 3.0 certainly won’t be short of people singing its praises. This upcoming release might even have more hype than usual because the sheer number of new features will be overwhelming. When WordPress 3.0 is released, it’ll mark the release of several things I’ve been waiting for in the last couple of...
The Digital Marketing Essential Reader
Published: March 26, 2010
Source: Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
Blogs, Podcasts, Twitter and YouTube will only take you so far. If you really want to learn about Digital Marketing, you're going to have to do the heavy lifting. In self-promoting my upcoming full-day seminar on Social Media Marketing (more on that here: Learning About Social Media Marketing), there was a suggested reading list compiled at the end that is worthy of its own unique Blog...
Facebook Changes Social Contract, Yet Again
Published: March 30, 2010
Source: /message
My Note: Facebook's "privacy" policy is looking more like a house of mirrors every day. Next you'll have the option of sharing your data either with []Anyone or []Everyone.
A new set of changes toFacebook privacy system is being proposed. Jason Kincaid at Techcrunch zooms into the most questionable change: Facebook shifted a few months ago into making 'everyone' the default sharing option (see Facebook Wants To Be Twitter). Now, they are shifting the definition of 'everyone' to include third party apps that you haven't explicitly opted into. Jason Kincaid...
Social Media Projects You Could Start Today
Published: March 24, 2010
Source: chrisbrogan.com
If you’ve got the powers that be convinced that social media’s the set of tools you need, or if you’re the one making the decisions and you feel hooked, but don’t really know where to start, I’ve got a few ideas for you that might get you going down the right path. You might want to bookmark this one. I make that really easy with the “Share This” button at the bottom of the...
The Cycle of Strategy
Published: March 29, 2010
Source: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
My Note: Good metaphor for strategy here, as an upward spiral. It's a mistake to think of strategy as static, a one-time document or plan.
ShareThe Cycle of StrategyThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Effective strategy, be it marketing related or otherwise, is what really sets one company apart from another. I’m not really saying that every successful company plans and implements better strategy, in some cases strategy just happens because a market and a product find each other and grow organically. However, small bu...
Creating the Breakout Blog: A Platform Guide for the Pre-Published Writer
Published: March 29, 2010
Source: Guide to Literary Agents
I love Donald Maass. Not in a creepy, stalkerish way of course. Just in a the-man-is-brilliant sort of way. Not only is he a top agent, he's written several books on how to write well. One of my favorites by him is Writing the Breakout Novel. In it, he looks at what it takes to catapult writing into something that doesn't just stand out but breakout to become a best-seller. His targeted...
Insider tips for preparing and delivering a winning pitch
Published: March 29, 2010
Source: The Book Deal: A Publishing Blog for Writers and Book People
A great pitch is often the first encounter in a successful publishing relationship. As an acquisition editor, I listen avidly to every writer’s pitch, hoping each time to find a terrific new prospect for publication. For the uninitiated, a pitch is an author’s brief, face-to-face verbal presentation to an agent or an editor like me, (usually at a writers conference) of what’s wonde...
Looking forward to WordPress 3.0
Published: March 27, 2010
Source: Justin Tadlock
My Note: WordPress 3.0 is scheduled to drop in May - I've been waiting for some of these features for a while now, so I'm anxious to start working with it. But should I delay setting up the architecture for new sites?
There’s typically a ton of hype surrounding new WordPress releases, and WordPress 3.0 certainly won’t be short of people singing its praises. This upcoming release might even have more hype than usual because the sheer number of new features will be overwhelming. When WordPress 3.0 is released, it’ll mark the release of several things I’ve been waiting for in the last couple of...
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