Ever wished for a simple recipe for change?

Beckard and Harris (1987) developed a change formula listing the factors that needs to be in place for a successful change to be implemented.

The change formula: C=[D x V x FS] > R

• C is the change that will occur
• D is the level of dissatisfaction with the status quo
• V is desirability of the proposed change – the end state or vision
• FS is the first practical steps of the change
• R is the resistance to change

The multiplication signs imply that if any one factor is not present – or zero – the equation will add up to zero and the change effort will fail.

Although this formula is attempting to put a very complex matter into a simple equation, I think it’s a great reminder of what to remember assessing and planning a change process.

It makes me wonder…

• How do we create the sense of urgency and the will to change when people are pretty much happy with where they are?
• How can we create a clear picture of what the desired change consists of, especially if the change is intangible as a result of a process designed to discover the end goal along the way?
• How good are we at communicating uniquely desirable outcomes tailored to the individual key stakeholders instead of company strategy?
• Nailing the first practical steps and making them a success is easier when there’s someone to do the job and tell the world about it. Who is pioneering the change? Who is supporting him/her? Who is sponsoring the change in top management?

(written by: Willy Yanto Wijaya)

The 5^th lecture of Managerial Perspective class was given by Mr. Jun Nagamine about the basics and introduction on accounting. The lecture was started with the history of accounting, the three forms in accounting, and the study case of how to read and analyze accounting data.

The history of accounting flashed back to several centuries ago when the Venetian merchants had trade interaction with the South-east Asia through Alexandria. These merchants bought pepper to preserve the meat. Meat was a precious food source since Europe had relatively poor soil and the productivity of the land was very bad. Because of the flow of the revenue and expenses in this trade, the Venetian merchants invented the method to record this by “Double Book Keeping”. This very basic characteristic has even remained till now, with only some modifications and improvement of the complexity.

Basically, accounting comprises three forms: Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement. These three are, as the matter of fact, the essence of accounting. As shown in Fig.1 below, Balance Sheet is composed of Asset in the left-side and Debt as well as Equity in the right-side.

Fig.1. Balance Sheet    (as of …………)

One interesting thing about the balance sheet is the proportion between Debt and Equity. In term of expenses burden point of view, Equity yield heavier burden to the company, however, in case that the company go bankrupt; the equity will yield lower priority of responsibility compared with the Debt (Liabilities). Therefore, if the proportion of the debt is too big, the debt owners will have higher risk of not getting back their money, and thus will inquire higher debt interest rate payments. On the other hand, if the equity is too big in proportion, the expenses burden of the company will be higher (and this means less profit).

The current asset is asset with high liquidity i.e. money. Tangible asset means asset that can be touched (land, building, machinery, etc). The example of investment asset is stocks (which can be purchased from other companies).

While Balance Sheet indicates the monetary condition of a company at a certain time (usually in the period of one year), it doesn’t tell us how the income (profit) and loss happened. Therefore, we need the Income Statement (Profit & Loss Statement) to understand how the profit or loss happened.

Actually these two forms could already give insightful ideas about monetary condition of a company. However, since the developing of more and more complex trade and payment system in modern era, Cash Flow Statement is then developed. This is also because the concept of revenue from a viewpoint of accounting is not the same as the “cash basis” view.

Another interesting topic discussed was about the similar characteristics of similar-type companies. For example, NTT and AT&T (both are telecommunication companies) apparently share almost similar monetary condition in their accounting data. Some investment companies like Goldman Sachs and Nomura have same very small proportion of Tangible (Fixed) Asset. Thus, by knowing the proportions of components in monetary data (accounting) of an unknown company, we can guess what type of company it is, how is the monetary condition currently, and the potential of that company to develop in the future.

Therefore, a manager, willingly or not, is required to be able to read the accounting data since it is the only language which can gauge a company’s performance from the monetary perspective.

A cloudless night, no star would shine
Only light was borrowed by the Sun
Given off by the forced smile of the Moon

Gazing upon the beauty of its slender crescent
The man felt despair, knowing it can never be reached
Through a pool of tears,
The Moon sways in the ripples

Reflecting through sympathy for the man and his foolish dreams
A wish that can never come true

With a slightest touch, the Moon disperses
Only left to continue to cry, the man awaits the return
Of an intangible beauty

I’ve not been someone who has been comfortable with emotions.  I’ve spent a lot of years rather disconnected from feelings.  I avoided the so-called negatives ones such as grief or pain or anger.  I was so disconnected from myself and caught up in self-doubt and self-hate that so-called positive emotions such as love or joy felt like sandpaper on an open wound.

That’s all been changing this past year or two.  I’ve been opening up more and more to feelings and the experience of them.  I’ve been reconnecting.  Poetry writing has been a huge part of this – how could I create a feeling with a poem if I wouldn’t let myself experience what that feeling was like?

The other day I was with someone who is more connected to herself – emotionally, physically, spiritually – that anyone I’ve ever met.  There was just a moment, just a second, in our conversation when our eyes connected and I felt as if a hand had reached out and just brushed against my cheek.  It was so sweet and so beautiful and so real that thinking about it nearly brings tears to my eyes.  It’s amazing to me how things we often consider unreal or untangible can feel so real and tangible – when we open ourselves up to them.

Love’s Touch

A hand – so real, yet unreal
Unseen, unheard
A touch as gentle as a raindrop’s kiss
Brush of love
Tender
Achingly sweet
A wave of energy
Bold in strength – almost tangible to touch
Yet gentle comes the rush of light
One heart to another
Unseen, unheard
A touch as real as the floor below
Golden lights
Shimmer on strands that stretch
Linking one to one to one
Til all are one
Love’s invisible caress
Intangible yet tangible
Touch of love
Achingly sweet

Como la noche que termine por descubrir que tú no eras TÚ y sin embargo Yo sigo siendo YO. [..]
Como aquella habitación de verano. Como lo que escondía aquel biquini. Como el momento en que te lo quité. Como el sexo. Como cuando huímos. Como cuando ya no te volví a ver. Como cuando desapareciste. Como cuando terminaste de olvidar. Como cuando no sabías quien era. Como ahora.

Cuando empecé a respirar. Cuando te besé en la puerta de tu casa. Cuando me pilló la lluvia en la calle. Cuando nace un día de Noviembre. Cuando me pierdo en mi balcón con una guitarra. Cuando no hay nadie a 30 km a la rotonda. Cuando amanece y aún puedo seguir contándolo.

Se me presenta ante mí intangible. Puro. Sofisticado. Moderno. Pero al fín y al cabo, tu corazón se me presenta ante mí, muerto.

MONUMENTS TIED TO THE SKY:
ANCIENT ASTRONOMY AND ITS GLOBAL HERITAGE

On Thursday 10th December 2009 at 6.30pm in The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL

We would like to invite you to this year’s ICOMOS-UK Christmas Lecture and Wine Reception, in association with The Royal Institution of Great Britain:

The lecture will be given by Professor Clive Ruggles, Chair of the International Astronomical Union ’s Working Group on Astronomy and World Heritage.

In today’s brightly lit world it is all too easy to forget just how overwhelming the dark night sky would have been to human societies in the past—a prominent part of the observed world that was impossible to ignore.

The objects and cycles seen there were vital to people striving to make sense of the world within which they dwelt and to keep their actions in harmony with the cosmos as they perceived it.

The Thirteen Towers, Peru

For the archaeoastronomer, certain ancient monuments provide tantalising glimpses of long lost beliefs and practices relating to the sky, although they have to be interpreted with considerable caution.

In this lecture Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the University of Leicester, will describe some major new discoveries made in recent years, focusing on his own ongoing work in Peru, Polynesia, and prehistoric Europe.

Clive is Chair of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Astronomy and World Heritage, which is working with UNESCO and ICOMOS to help identify, protect and preserve the most outstanding manifestations of global cultural heritage relating to the sky. Clive is also President of the Prehistoric Society, and President of IAU Commission 41 (History of Astronomy).  His books include Skywatching in the Ancient World: New Perspectives in Cultural Astronomy, edited with Gary Urton (Colorado, 2007), Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth (ABC-CLIO, 2005), and Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland (Yale UP, 1999).

Admission (including wine and mince pies after the lecture) is £15 for ICOMOS-UK or The Royal institution of Great Britain members.
Admission for non-members is £18 and for students it is £10.

We do hope you will join us on the 10th December, 

For more information and a booking form please contact:

Camilla Massara
Events Co-ordinator
International Council on Monuments & Sites UK

Tel 020 7566 0031
E-mail: camillamassara@icomos-uk.org

A city buried underneath

Glass floor divide

Fogged by epic breaths

Knocking fists; heart beats on their ceiling

Reaching for my ignorant attention

These people see the truth

Drawing me in with unseen eyes

Glaring attraction but the source is not visible

Crash into the glass and beseech the world

una noche perdidos,

en lo absoluto de la oscuridad,

en lo abstracto del pensamiento,

en lo intangible del ser.

pensamiento o poema del ‘94.

todos estos poemas son propiedad de arturo jara ©ajara, 2009.

Inte ma3e ybga il zman kilah i7san

Originally uploaded by N S R

If any seemingly “intangible service or program” that you are offering or purchasing promises an increase in productivity, customer service, product quality, sales or the like– measure it. If the service or program cannot promise results linked to business performance, reconsider it.

It is important to expose any fantasy related to the application of services such as coaching, consulting, and training.  Clearing out  delusions and examining motivation, supports accountability for both buyer and seller  — ensuring inspirational and truly powerful results.

All programs should produce a demonstrable increase in business performance that exceeds the cost of the program (Results – Cost)/Results = Return on Investment (R.O.I.).

Before the program begins, obtain a baseline number of the performance measures (e.g. productivity, customer satisfaction, employee retention, product quality, or sales). Only track a measure that is clearly linked to the overall success or profitability of the business.

Convert information such as customer and employee satisfaction scores into a dollar amount. Similarly, cost of the program can be translated into a “score.” The goal is to have two like numbers to use in the R.O.I. formula.

Determine how often the measure will be revisited. Immediately following the program and quarterly or semi-annually checkpoints are typically good.

Share and discuss the results to keep the door open for further inquiry into how the program can impact the performance measure.  Maintain effectiveness as the measure of truth.

Considering only the cost of a program is like a viticulturist paying more attention to the bottle than to the wine. When measurable results are integrated into program implementation, the delivery of substance over form is ensured.

This post is a retread of an article written under my non-pen name, Brenda Rarey ~ co-authored with Diana Petrochelli ~ published in the Houston Business Journal.

Steel Jeeg has been in my mind since I was a young boy; now from a 2D Japanese cartoon made by the brilliant minds of Go Nagai and Tatsuya Yasuda, it took the third dimension on my Mac thanks to Autodesk Maya.

More renderings here. Just click on the images to get a wider view.

Jeeg as a toy.

Jeeg pointing at you.

Jeeg with a smaller replica of it self.

Of course we have a crisis, people lose jobs, companies go bankrupt and all explained on the basis of greed, lack of regulation and wall street walking on clouds. Some people argue that the good times was just an illusion. Well, if the economic growth, wealth creation and the excess profits of the last few years were an illusion, shouldn’t then an illusion’s fall and demise also be an illusion? That’s the only logical conclusion you can make if you accept the premise of the illusion.

So it wasn’t an illusion and we have a real crisis which means we did have real growth and wealth creation. Is it simply changing hands now in which case the crisis is a process of wealth reallocation and ensuing disruption? Or is wealth actually destroyed at a level below the one that existed before excess growth building began?

Physical wealth in the US, Europe and Asia is not being destroyed. We are not experiencing a World War. With the exception of oil depleting and a climate changing, bridges, roads and buildings are still in place. So the major destruction is mainly happening to the intangibles. That’s why prices fluctuate like crazy.

Isn’t the creation of intangibles, however, infinite? If you look at history and also believe in human nature then you must accept its ability to create new intellectual words out of old ones.

I am optimistic. To those who argue previous wealth creation and economic growth was just borrowed time and an illusion, I rest my case.

Crisis? What crisis? It’s just an illusion!

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Two of my very favourite things in my life are music and fragrance.  Music has been something I have loved from day one, and I never looked back: ever since I was little my mum and I would dance around the living room to Whitney Houston, Belinda Carlisle, Kool & The Gang records (on vinyl! Somewhere in my bedroom is Mariah Carey’s very first single “Vision Of Love” on vinyl, which I imagine might be worth some money!).  We’d sing along to Bon Jovi, Lionel Richie and the Pointer Sisters in the car (on cassette), and as soon as we had MTV I knew that my ideal vocation was a pop star.  I think by force of habit (I was singing long before I got my first Mariah Carey album, which was at age 12) I made myself a decent singer, and once I was 13 I broke through at my school singing anywhere and everywhere, making myself a little celebrity status and signing autographs at school (it was a stressful time with gossip and rumours, but also a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the renown.).  I did concerts, dance competitions, displays and random other stuff, and I made myself my own brand… it was good training for the real world!  But primarily, I did these things because I love to sing, I love to dance, and I have always enjoyed these things.  To sound corny, they make me feel free and allow me to escape the monotony, depression and pain of everyday life, and the fact that I seem to be genuinely talented (though I need occasional reassurance from my friends, now that I don’t do performances very often, that I’m not secretly shit – they are always supportive of me ) is a bonus.  But writing songs, making my own music, and singing along to everything is such an intrinsic part of who I am, and it’s something that can’t be taken away from me (unless you rip out my larynx) because it’s intangible.  It’s the air I breathe, the way I control my voice, the years of daily practice… it’s nothing tangible.  It’s more ethereal and spiritual to me.

On the other hand, my love of fragrance is something much more recent in comparison.  Though I realised, leafing through the Avon catalogue tonight, that I have had fragrance in my life since the age of 15, when I used to buy their cheap n cheerful classics Black Suede, Modern Balance, Mesmerise… I can’t remember what my first “proper” fragrance was (I know my mum bought me CK Contradiction when I turned 17, but I don’t know what the first one I bought for myself was), but I have always loved Black XS, Dior Homme and A*Men, and despite working at a perfume shop for a year and a half and coming into contact with all the brands and all the scents a guy could want, those are still probably my favourites (along with a couple of others )!  I think there is something so captivating and seductive about someone who smells intoxicatingly good, it’s like an addictive allure (wading into Bai Ling territory there…).  Although a lot of fragrances have a ridiculously long list of notes of which most normal people can only smell two or three, there is something mysterious about the way certain aromas or elements (well, they’re actually aromachemicals, but we can pretend it’s something more organic and exotic ) are combined to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.  And again, it’s something that travels on the wind, something subjective that triggers individual reactions and desires, something that is unique to each person and which suggests something primal about who that person is (and after all, the fragrance someone wears can tell you a lot about them! Perfume SAs around the world can vouch for this ).  I think that is why both of these things are so important to me, because they come from within, they are both things which are at once intangible and primal, and they are an opportunity for us to expose the essence of who we are.

Well the diet/exercise plans are in effect and running, it’s probably only worth updating it at a weekly level for now.

I’ve been debating my long term career goals for a while, it’s time to start thinking about the future and setting some plans. I don’t hate my job, but I don’t really love it anymore. I probably sound a bit arrogant here, but it’s big fish little pond complex. I could probably stay here forever and keep getting recognition and be paid fairly well, but it fails to light that fire under me that I crave. This job has driven me to complacency, where deep down I’d rather be much more masochistic about it and have my ego smashed and my limits tested daily.

Unfortunately in this economy and due to the atrophy caused by complacency I doubt I’d be able to just hop to another position elsewhere. I’ve decided to go back to school to specialize in an emerging subfield that I think has a lot of promise for me. I’ll snag my MS at the not too hard to get into local research university and see where I can end up if I want to get a PhD.

I feel a little off about getting another Masters. I just finished a more business oriented degree through work that is probably only worth it’s paper in very similar industries. It really helped to open my mind and some doors at work to get me where I am, so it was probably worth the marginal effort. That was for my career and this one will be for me I suppose.

Along with this decision comes another that will have to be made soon. Living in the city will make going to school and my social life moderately easier, but will make my commute a pain. The increase in cost of living and commute probably isn’t worth it, as the public transit to and from the city is fairly reliable. The city or the suburbs? My lease is expiring on Sept 30th and school will start around then, I guess the clock is ticking. I have the money to put a decent down payment, but I could invest that elsewhere. It’s time to make a decision that will actually change my day to day life, this is getting serious .

Courtney Putnam from The Healing Nest wrote a post about manifestation that I consider a superb way to start stimulating my thinking for the summer. Actually, this is timeless “advice,” and Courtney offers it with such disarming humility and humour that one could almost miss how expertly it is written.

Courtney makes a salient connection between the “intangible” imagination where our dreams and intentions reside, and the way our hands, our whole physical being, in fact,  help us embody those dreams.

She asks a lot of questions, Ms. Putnam does, but rather than leaving you hanging on another rhetorical hook, she masterfully maneuvers those queries in the direction of  a very inspiring answer:

Without these wishes and intentions, what are we to manifest? How is manifestation possible without imagination? How are we to transform a guitar riff in our head into music without our little imaginative muses working away inside us? Or what of the poem incubating in your heart or the love you wish to find in your life? Without imagination, dreams, and intentions, how are we to embody what we want in our lives?

And what of manifesting good health and well being? How do we do this? I think we do this in the same way we manifest an emotion as a painting. We imagine ourselves in good health, with calm hearts and minds, with lightness and joy, and we make these intentions visible. We paint them, draw them, state them, draw them on the bathroom mirror, walk them, stretch them, or share them with a friend. In all, we give them a chance to be real.

Web ~ by Carol Wiebe

What dreams are you letting languish, instead of pulling them out of your imagination so that you can “wear them like cloaks and walk around in them?” Courtney recommends applying sequins to those dreams to attract the light, and make manifestation even more likely.

Waiting for someone else to discover us, or validate us, is like trying to use another person’s passport. Your hopes and dreams are your passport, so allow them to show you the way. Encourage them to transport you wherever your deepest desires want to go.

Give them a chance to become real.

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. ~ Anais Nin

Rogers, Carl and Freiberg, H. Jerome.  (1994).  Freedom to Learn, 3rd edition.  Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:  Prentice-Hall.

Using the “Guiding Essential Questions” from the EDCI-886, Philosophy of American Education, Fall 2009 syllabus, I describe some of the “big ideas” from Freedom to Learn.

The Philosophical and Value Ramifications (cont)

CHAPTER 15, Freedom and commitment

“Freedom to learn or choose; self-directed learning:  these are completely untenable concepts in the minds of many behavioral scientists, who believe that humans are simply the inevitable products of their conditioning.  Yet they are terms that I have used freely in this book, as though they have real meaning. . . . I do not pretend that I resolved the age-old problem of freedom and determinism, but I have, for myself, formulated a way of living with it.  I hope my statement will be clarifying to those who are perplexed by differences between the mechanistic-behavioristic point of view in education and the humanistic approach to learning.”  (p. 295)

“One of the deepest issues in modern life is the question as to whether the concept of personal freedom has any meaning whatsoever in our present-day scientific world.  The growing ability of the behavioral scientist to predict and to control behavior has brought the issue sharply to the fore.  If we accept the logical positivism and strictly behavioristic emphases that are predominant in the American educational scene, there is not even room for discussion.  But if we step outside the narrowness of the behavioral sciences, this question is not only an issue; it is one of the primary issues that define the modern person.”  (p. 296)

“One might ask, ‘Why do teachers and other educators need to know these things?’  If we take a mechanical view of teaching, then one skilled teacher is the same as any other skilled teacher.  When a teacher leaves, we replace her with another person called ‘teacher,’ and all is well. . . . In this system, teachers are interchangeable parts.”  (p. 296)

“From the way students are disciplined to the way teachers are evaluated, the method is one of control, reward, and punishment.  So writing both as a behavioral scientist and as one profoundly concerned with the human, the personal, the phenomenological, and the intangible, I should like to contribute what I can to this continuing dialogue regarding the meaning of and the possibility of freedom.  For if we see teaching as a facilitative process in which the individual is valued, then the words freedom and commitment take on very vital meanings.”  (p. 296)

The Individual is Unfree

“In the minds of most behavioral scientists, humans are not free; nor can they as free humans commit themselves to some purpose, for they are controlled by factors outside of themselves.  Therefore, neither freedom nor commitment is even a possible concept to modern behavioral science as it is usually understood.”  (p. 297)

“This view is shared by some psychologists, educators, and other who feel, as did Dr. Skinner that all the effective causes of behavior lie outside of the individual and that it is only through the external stimulus that behavior takes place.”  (p. 297)

The Individual is Free

“The need to have choices in the classroom is just as important in the evolution of healthy individuals.  If all part of a child’s life are controlled, then control becomes the driving force in decisions about teaching and learning.  What is taught and how it will be taught become controlling issues.  After the child’s learning life is controlled for thirteen years in school, suddenly at age eighteen he or she is free to choose.  The newfound freedom comes with little or no prior experience.  If experience is the best teacher, then choosing and freedom are alien experiences for too many students in our schools.”  (p. 302)

BIG IDEA

• a sense of free and responsible choice on the part of teachers and students in schools

The Irreconcilable Contradiction

“I trust it will be very clear that I have given two sharply divergent and irreconcilably contradictory points of view.  On the one hand, modern psychological science, and many other forces in modern life as well, hold the view that the person is unfree, that she is controlled, that words such as purpose, choice, commitment have no significant meaning, that the individual is nothing but an object that we can more fully understand and more fully control.”  (p. 308)

“So I am emboldened to say that over against this view of the individual as unfree, as an object, is the evidence from therapy, from the schoolhouse, from subjective living, and from objective research as well that personal freedom and responsibility have a crucial significance, that one cannot live a complete life without such personal freedom and responsibility, and that self-understanding and responsible choice make a sharp and measurable difference in the behavior of the individual.  In this context, commitment does have meaning.  Commitment is the emerging and changing total direction of the individual based on a close and acceptant relationship between the person and all of the trends of his or her life, conscious and unconscious.”  (p. 309)

“What is the answer to the contradiction I have described?  For myself, I am content to think of it as a deep and lasting paradox. . . often frustrating . . . very fruitful.”  (p. 309)

BIG IDEAS

• personal freedom and responsibility lead to self-understanding and responsible choice
• purpose, choice, and commitment have significant meaning in the classroom to both students and teachers

Times are tough, the workload is lighter and many of our professional advisers are asking marketing to source good networking opportunities to enable them to go out and win business. The expectation is all they have to do is attend a networking event, meet someone and then get an instruction for work. If they do not get immediate results they then come back to marketing complaining “that event you sent me to was a waste of time”

What they fail to appreciate is that in order to start selling an intangible product you first have to start building a relationship with a potential client before you even start thinking about selling them a service. You may be lucky and get an immediate instruction but these tend to be rare.The more events you attend, the luckier you get.

The technical competence of the professional is a given and providing they work with a reputable firm it will be the strength of the relationship that will differentiate them from the competition.

At a previous firm, I had a coffee with one of my contacts and they gave me some information that they were not happy with their current advisers. A meeting was arranged and we subsequently gained a new client with a six figure recurring fee. The partner involved congratulated me on introducing the business and said you have only been with us a short time and this is exactly why we hired you. I thanked them for their recognition but told him that I had known the individual who gave the information for 11 years and it just so happened that our firm had benefited from that relationship.

With the surge in the launching of networking clubs over the last few years you could be forgiven if you thought networking is a new phenomenon. I am part of the old school that has built up a network over a number of years using the traditional platforms to network such as lunches, dinners, corporate hospitality events and even what I call good old fashion accidental networking such as the airport, lunch queue or Friday night in the pub.

The one thing in common with all these platforms is that this is done face to face.

Many of us will be familiar with LinkedIn and what a great platform this is if used correctly. However, I am alarmed at the rapid breeding of the LinkedIn Open Networker (LION).This creature is a notorious cyber networker who invites everyone to be part of their network even if they have not met them. I am sure LinkedIn advise you to only invite people you know and surely that is the point. Would you really introduce someone to your contacts that you have not met?

In my opinion there is no substitute for building relationships face to face and when the day comes that we all sit in front of computers building our networks is the day I retire.

Steve Wright
Committee member
PM Forum Scotland

This is the second in a series of five steps to tell the marketing story of your business.  We humans are hard-wired to respond to stories.  We use stories to convey our most important information.  Think about how you learned about your family, your faith, and your nationality.  You learned those essential lessons through stories.  Your marketing is more likely to connect with potential customers when you tell them a story.

Tip #14: It’s not a story without conflict.  Every hero needs a dragon.  What “dragon” does your hero (business) slay for your customers?  Make sure you list the tangible problems you solve, but think about the intangibles (worry, image, time savings) as well.

Spend some time thinking about the value of a dead “dragon” to your customers, and you’ll uncover valuable marketing messages.

For more stories from business owners who have bucked the odds and created successful companies, check out “Profit, Passion and Partnership”—my e-book—at www.30DayMarketingRestart.com

Dec.2, 2007  , Monday

Actions speak louder.  May I add Actions speak what our heart thinks and believes so let our heart speak.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

November 9, 2007, Friday

Tears full of gratitude, full of love, full of joy, and full of presentness!

Fortune now for me is blessing – be it concrete or intangible….(Nov.9, 2007 Friday)

Intangible fortune as in a child-student’s smile, a teenager student’s acceptance, and a parent’s greeting as well as a parent’s criticism- be constructive or deconstructive – warms my heart for its lessons embedded within them and provided my chance to grow. Growth is an endless process. Without the outside force that stimulates me , my box – my world- will never expand. Therefore, I will never have the opportunity to experience my own greatness, my own goodness. With all gratitude overflowing from my heart, I sincerely thank the ABOVE . As Guan Liong Pe ( Uncle Guan Liong) has once said, whatever we have right now is what the ABOVE gives us. Wihout the ABOVE – be God, be Buddha, be Allah, be Jehovah , be …. – no matter how intelligent we are, how creative we are, how successful we are, our physical qualitites are not enough to make ourselves more successful. Francis Bacon’s aphorism like silvery voice resonates (I forget the exact wordings. Sorry, Sir Francis mwah )Great Science makes us closer to God, Small Science makes us farther from God. With the thankfulness in the heart, our energy is contained, we will forever be grounded. No wonder Pops when he was still alive always reminded me to cultivate my heart. He always reminded me that whatever we have and whatever we can’t have are all predestined. The younger I (eight, twelve, fifteen years ago) being defiant, idealistic, materialistic, and cognitive branded Pop’s sayings and Great Men’s aphorisms as platitudes and aged. Now, how foolish I was before. No wonder our OLD sages usually say, the wiser one is, the dumber one will be perceived. The more foolish one is, the wiser he/she feels. heheheheh…….. Now, I tap my regret as my reminder to appreciate the intangible advice of the Experienced Youth and OLD. Everyone is my teacher. I’m more fortunate to realize my shortcomings and to be able to take the change to continue my journey of life.

Tangible fortune, wow. money, money, money…………

No matter how much one earns, one will never get satisfied. Then, I didn’t want to admit that I was one of the people who had that notion – dissatisfaction in heart but contentment in mind.(Dec.3, 2007, Mon.)

¿Por qué nos gustan algunas películas? ¿Por qué recordamos lo que pasó en un pasaje de un libro que nos leímos hace mucho? ¿Por qué nos enganchamos a alguna serie de televisión? Una de las respuestas a estas preguntas es, simplemente, porque están construidas por poderosas historias. Historias que consiguen que nos  identifiquemos con lo que nos están contando -un momento de nuestra vida, una ilusión o simplemente una fantasía- . Esto basta para que esa película, ese libro, ese cuento, se grabe en nuestro recuerdo y se archive para, en algunos casos, toda la vida.

Además la historia que sustenta estas creaciones suele ser simple; amor, guerra, lucha, venganza, malos y buenos. El éxito depende, entre otras cosas, de contar la misma historia pero de manera eficiente y con los acompañamientos precisos, de llegar al espectador/lector.

Como dice Nick O´neill, puedes dedicar mucho tiempo a análisis de márketing online, estudios psico-sociológicos o estrategia de negocios para determinar cómo llegar mejor al cliente, pero no hay mejor vía que el contar una buena historia. Viene a decir que, mientras las técnicas científicas vienen a manipular la respuesta del cliente, un historia hace que surga la respuesta de modo completamente natural.

En este punto, es altamente recomendable identificar nuestra firma con un historia que llegue, de modo que nuestra marca se asociara a conceptos que quedarán grabados en la memoria del cliente.

Y las hay, créanme. Y no tienen por qué ser la típica historia lineal de los clásicos (vía El blog de márketing en Español).“la literatura clásica que citan a un personaje protagonista como figura principal y que parte de una situación que se ve alterada. Una vez superadas las dificultades que las circunstancias u otros le oponen, alcanza un bien deseable y, crecido por la experiencia, disfruta de los bienes adquiridos.” .

Aqui apunto algunos posibles perfiles de “cuento empresarial”;

A.- El héroe; Soichiro Honda, Amancio Ortega o los que “trasteaban con ordenadores en sus garajes”. La historia de una persona que, viniendo desde abajo, se creó así mismo y ahora triunfa ,disfrutando de lo que se ha ganado. Estas figuras dan valor añadido al producto, sin duda, la gente ve más allá del mismo. Honda ha hecho, hace y hará muchas campañas de márketing, pero la mejor vía de llegar al cliente es la historia de su fundador. (Vendemos experiencias).

B.- Las guerras; el enfretamiento correctamente vendido, la historia de una lucha durante muchos años por la superviviencia de la marca. El reconocimiento de los que lucharon junto a él y de sus seguidores. Todo un argumento para una de guerra.

C.- David y Goliath; el pequeño frente al poderoso vende mucho. La gente suele ponerse del lado de los débiles y existen corrientes anti-héroes muy populares que pueden ser aprovechadas. Si se es el grande hay que preocuparse de dejar claro el apoyo y ayuda al pequeño.

D.- Ciencia ficción (moderada); el ¿Y si…? Invitar a que los clientes compartan sueños con la empresa. No hay que incurrir en promesas irrealizables.

E.- Romeo y Julieta; y, por último, las historias más aclamadas y que despiertan más sensiblilidades. El amor, la unión entre firmas para un objetivos común (buena manera de contar fusiones y/o adquisiciones).

En realidad no importa dónde esté ambientada la historia (terreno empresarial o no) sino que la historia sea una historia fuerte, contada desde y hacia el corazón. Considero ésta, una manera muy inteligente de dar un salto cualitativo y cuantitativo en el valor de una marca. Asi que…

¡¡Elijan historia y a contarla!!

]]> http://jagkantygla.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/if-life-were/ Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:57:39 +0000 jagkantygla http://jagkantygla.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/if-life-were/

Well if life were a cookbook, it could indeed be broken up into: -

1. appetiser

2. main course

3. dessert

Shuying Made the Difference!

I believe that right now I am going through the ‘main course’ now, and do sincerely hope that dessert is going to be sweeter. The simplest dish is often the hardest to make outstanding but it is also the simplest dish that is shared with someone special that makes a meal memorable.

A recipe is made up of ingredient, mise en place (recipe within a recipe) and most important is the execution which is mainly the ‘heart’ of the chef and the recipe – the key element that would make it outstanding. In life I believe that it is the same, there are many elements coming into play. After you have found ‘the right person’, you would have to go through some ups and downs with them before you can experience something which is beyond this world. Without heart there can be no total and selfless dedication, I have a great passion for Shuying but that alone does not guarantee that it would work.

However in saying that, if given a chance to rewind the clock and start again I would perhaps only try even more to improve things. Afterall is this not human nature to keep doing better, not unlike the chef who keeps improving his dish.

I’ve travelled the world but I’ve never really sought love, finding it when I least expected it. We often do not find what we truly seek but end up compromising in one way or another. Is really true love unattainable? Has the tangible nature of the modern world dilluted the intangible value of love and affection?

The wealthy feed themselves with rich food, but the poor feed themselves with soul. As I turn myself inwards to find myself, I rediscover some of my fundamental principles and characteristics which the corporate world has stripped me of.

I’ve always lives on a principle of no regrets, however of late I begin the realise all the wrongs that I have done and have been trying to set things right – hopefully it is still not too late.

Hola mujer:

Estás en un lugar, donde debes estar, y al mismo tiempo estás en otros, donde desearías estar.

¿Sabes porqué?

Porque eres un espíritu libre, que al menos mentalmente, no estás encadenada a lo que se encadenan otras mentes y otros cuerpos.

Eres libre como el viento, con la libertar tan vasta que te confiere tu pensamiento.

Eres capaz de separar tu cuerpo de tu mente, viajar a lugares y situaciones donde la felicidad es una posibilidad siempre presente.

Mientras tu cuerpo cumple con el tiempo dedicado a lo inevitable, tu corazón late fuerte pensando en lo bello, extasiándose por anticipado en lo que viene, lo que deseas, lo que siempre te llega, a donde siempre cómoda y feliz te encuentras.

Ojalá y siempre así te transformes, pues al verte, tu rostro proyecta tu fantasía y tu alegría por la vida, la vida que deseas y puedes tenerla, cuando quieras, de una u otra manera.

The best managers know that their challenge is not to perfect people, but to capitalize on each person’s uniqueness. They select for talent, no matter how simple the role. Their first instinct is to trust the people they have selected. And they believe that, with enough thought, even intangibles like “customer satisfaction” and “employee morale” can be defined in terms of outcomes.

However, this does not mean they dismiss the need for steps. They don’t. A manager’s basic responsibility is to turn talent into performance. Certain required steps can often serve as the platform for that performance. These managers, in a survey, described how and when they use required steps to drive performance.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight