Israel Business Management

So, I have started a new job, which has left me less time for blogging. I will not let this die, but I will not be able to post with the same frequency, at least for the next few weeks.

Going through the onboarding process in a new company (HR, training, meeting new people, learning new processes, etc.) gives some new thoughts to posts for the future.

I love learning new things - whether products, companies or meeting new people. It gives a new frame of reference to the experience and thoughts that I have had up until now.

The new experiences together with my history and previous endeavors will lead to more posts about my thoughts on the business world, in general, and the Israeli hi-tech market, specifically.

I can share this to those that are looking for a job in today's tough climate - there are jobs out there. Remember, that you are selling a product - you. The customer is the company that you are interested in joining. You need to be diligent in learning all you can about them, so you understand their needs and how you, the product, can help them meet those needs.

More details to come on the new job, but I am not yet ready to share all the wonderful details.

Last week, Tadiran announced its intention to move its manufacturing out of Israel to China or somewhere else in the Far East. The days of cheap labor in Israel are officially over.

Companies are looking for methods to survive the economic downturn and the laws that are on the books and the ones that have been proposed make it hard for companies to justify continuing to have labor intensive jobs done in Israel.

The local goverment and the cheap labor markets have made the decision easy for any manager.

So, what can be done?

The Knesset, first, needs to admit that there is a problem. Until that happens, there will be no resolution.

Once that takes place, the government can give tax breaks to companies that bring jobs back to the local market, like the repatriation tax break that was passed in 2004. This may jumpstart the local job market, by increasing the amount of jobs that are available today. A company may now see some cost benefit, due to the tax incentive.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry can start a "Buy Blue and White" campaign to promote goods that are made by local labor to Israelis.

The government can pass incentives or law to only allow government procurement from Blue and White companies.

Would you buy Blue and White, even if it costs a little bit more?

Let me know your answer and any other ideas you have of how to insource more jobs to Israel.

The dollar has dropped significantly against the shekel in the past few months from over 4 shekels to the dolar down to 3.8 currently.

What does this mean? It means that when Israelis go to the US to do shopping, they now have more buying power as their shekel has gained strength against the dollar (and US goods are all priced in dollars). It means Israelis can afford to travel more as the prices of most airlines are in dollars (except for El Al Airlines) and the prices have actually dropped as the shekel got stronger.

But is it all rosy?

The answer is clearly no.

When the dollar drops, one of Israelis biggest industries, tourism, takes a hit. Because the American visting Israel is only getting 3.8 shekels for every dollar he changes, he can buy less than he could last year when the dollar was over 4 shekels.

So, the tourists may choose to go elsewhere, where the local currency is not as strong against the dollar. Or, they may just choose to stay at home.

Companies with their headquarters in Israel, but have sales offices in the US, also suffer. Last year when they sold their goods and then changed the dollars into shekels to pay their expenses here in Israel, the dollar went further than ot does today. So, a company has to sell more in dollars today to make up for the difference in the exchange rate. All because the expenses in Israeli are paid in shekels.

Exporters have been hit hard as they also have the same costs they had before, but get less when they trade in the dollars.

So, as the government struggles with what to do to help the local economy, those Israelis looking to travel to the US, should have more fun shopping, knowing that they can buy more stuff this year than last.

I have been on the road for the last week or so. It is very interesting to see how the world has changed due to the Internet and the economy.

I stayed at a Hyatt last night in a room booked on Hotwire. The room rate was around $70, but if I had tried to book it directly, it would have been $150+ per night.

The Internet has commoditized most of the items we buy. Plane tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, groceries, etc. All of these can now been researched online to find the cheapest price.

The economy has driven us to search even more carefully on the Internet. Where some people may have given their business to a travel agent, now, a buyer can do the research by themselves and save even more money by cutting out the middle man.

What is next?

In the past, we have had posts about Twitter and other social networking sites. The question that was center of mind was how does this apply to business.

It seems that an Israeli firm is ready to answer that question.

TwitterAnalyzer, an Israeli start-up, helps individuals and businesses get useful data about who is following them, what countries are they from and has useful graphs depicting activity.

Think of it as the Google Analytics for Twitter. Today, every web site is using Google's tool in some fashion (though other paid for tools may be used for incremental information.) Twitter Analyzer could be the same for Twitter (and there is no reason to assume that it would stop there - each social networking site would be the same.)

With a tool like this, businesses can start to take advantage of social networking, as they will have actionable data for their marketing department to analyze. The company can then tailor its social media message to the visitors and the geography.

Social Networking may have just gone corporate...

Are we seeing the end of the recession, have we hit the bottom or is the worst still to come? Looking at recent headlines in Israeli business newspapers, it is still difficult to tell.

Cisco announced earlier this week that it would be laying off 700 additional employees in their corporate headquarters and an unreported number from Cisco Israel.

Flash Networks announced that they will be laying off 25% of their workforce. Is that a generic sign of economic weakness or is it specific to the telecommunications industry?

SanDisk reported a profit for the first time in a year, but gave a grim outlook to Wall Street.

The mixed news makes it hard to see what the future will hold.

I believe companies will play conservative with minimal hiring, keeping a firm hand on any variable expenses and continue to look towards a brighter future. We have not hit the time (yet) for loosening the belt and further hires (on a grand scale) with economic growth.

But, I am optimistic that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

How well do you know your customer?

Last night, I flew EL AL Airlines from Tel Aviv (Ben Gurion Airport) to Newark Airport. While on the plane, I had a lot of time to think about building customer profiles.

Airlines have a lot of information (or potentially can have) on their customers.

They can grab credit card data (at time of purchase or confirmation) and save that data to ease the pain of buying an upgrade or a ticket for another flight.

They know the types of meals I like or want. So, when enhancements to that particular menu are made, the airline can broadcast the message to only those that need to know or want to know.

Airlines know what seat I like to be in. How can they use that information? I'll admit that I am having a hard time with that (aside from the obvious ease of choosing a seat or online check-in).

Airlines can even profile the customer based on their previous habits - do they like flying during the day or prefer red-eye flights? Are there specific destinations that are traveled to more often than other countries and cities/ if so, maybe a cross-sell to another partner (rental car, hotel, tour guide, specials on entertainment in that locale, etc.)? They know if I check in baggage or not (am I a light traveller or do I bring every option for wardrobe changes). Maybe they can offer specials on baggage fees.

It is clear that airlines have a lot of customer data and they use it. How much data do you have on your customer and how are you using it?

You have made the decision to have a corporate blog. Why? Probably because every competitor in your particular market space has one and you do not want to be left behind.

Let me ask you a question before you get started on your blog.

Are you commited to its success?

I am sure that you, without hesitating to think, have said yes.

But, do you realize what the commitment is to make a blog successful?

1. You need valuable content. If you intend to regurgitate the same material that is already on your web site, then you will not succeed. The readers will quickly learn that they do not need to wait for a blog posting, but can search the web site for particular content.

2. Regular postings. Though every day is not a requirement, you do need to commit someone in the orgnization to ongoing posts. It is easy for a company to say that they will do this at the start of the blog, but as time goes one, it does become more of challenge.

Solution: One of the ways to solve #1 and #2 is to develop an editorial calendar, with both dates when specific content will be posted and who the writer or contributor will be.

3. How will people find you? The same ways that you promote your web sites are used to promote the blogs, though the names may chnage slightly, but without ongoing commitment to optimization of the blog, it will fall behind the blogs of the competiton.

Solution: Highlight the blog on your web site. But, do not just rely on this. Submit the blog to Technorati and other blog-specific search engines.

4. Tie it back into to the web strategy. What are goals for your corporate web site and how does the blog tie into that strategy? Are there cross-links back into content-rich areas in the web site? Do you offer links (that may open a new tab or window) of vendor-neutral blogs or web
sites?

The decision to start the blog is an easy one to make, the commitment and investment to make it a success is much harder.

Recently a group of articles have been published about how Israeli companies that have been acquired have been successes. The successes cited include XIV and Diligence (acquired by IBM) and B-hive Networks (acquired by VMware).

It makes it seem so easy to have a company, sell it and have it integrated into a larger entity successfully.

However, it is not so easy.

The acquiring company needs to find a suitbale company, not only in the area of the solution and the price range, but culturally as well.

From a financial perspective, 50% of acquisitions end in failure by fiscal metrics (though some have estimated this number to be as high as 80%).

When the acquiring company fails to retain the acquired company's staff (especially when the acquisition is for intellectual property), they have paid a lot of money for nothing.

It could be that the acquired company was small and the employees liked working for small companies. The new company, being larger, will not be suitable for them.

A good integration plan will address this issue and others. The acquiring company is spending a lot of money on the purchase, but usally there fails to be a well-defined plan for integration.

These are questions that need to be answered, including:

• Leadership - This needs to be defined to prevent struggles for power both within the acquired company and the purchased entity.
• Accountability - Who is the person/body that initiated the acquistion and is that person/body going to be held accountable? When is accountability measured? How will accountability be measured?
• How does any new product or solution introduced by the combined company advance the current solutions by the stand-alone companies?
• How is communication to the new employees being carried out? Is it bi-directional?

These are just the start for a plan for the integration that will lead to a successful acquisition. How are you planning for and integrating your next acquisition?

Maybe it is time to rethink business and strategy. Given the world economy and the current rates of unemploment across developed countries and the fact that the recession surprised most business leader, maybe it is time to rethink what we do and how we do it.

This is the start of what will become a series of posts that will focus on the changing business environment that we live in.

Today, we can focus on the workforce.

We have seen layoffs in big corporations and small companies. People are trying their hands at starting their own companies. The workforce has expressed their dismay at their treatment (especially those that were long-term employees) during the economic distress. They have had salary and benefit cuts. Finally, they have been dismissed and laid off.

So, while those that were laid off start their own companies, the current employees are being asked to do more with less.

I believe this is the trend that we will see even as the economy bounces back. Companies will not replace what they have deemed to be fat, they will be more prudent with their hiring of middle management and want to keep their revenue per headcount at its highest.

This means there will be less jobs available and competition will be high. (This is the same trend we saw after the burst of the dot-coms).

It will mean that companies (by and large) will be prudent in investing in their future growth, in order to protect profitability.

Outsourcing will continue to be a trend. This will mean even fewer jobs in the US and even in Israel, but more in India and China.

It is always difficult to see what is coming around the corner. But, these are a few of my predictions for human resources.

Though the title of the blog is Israel Business Management, I reserve the right to bring up other topics and today is one of those days.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend the induction ceremony at the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (IJSHOF). The IJSHOF is located on the campus of the Wingate Institute in Netanya, Israel.

The ceremony is held every four years to coincide with the Maccabiah Games, currently going on all over Israel (and adding to the traffic that is just typically a part of life.) So, the honorees could really have been inducted from 2006 until now. The inductees included Jason Lezak, the swimmer that gave Michael Phelps a huge assist in the quest for 8 gold medals in Beijing by overtaking the French swimmer in the anchor leg; Mitch Gaylord, the gold medal gymnast from the 1980s; Maury Allen, the famed sportswriter.

So, where does the pride come in?

First, I, personally, get a special feeling of pride when Jews accomplish feats outside of academia. Sure, I also feel pride when a Jew wins a Nobel Prize, but there is something added when the accomplishment is not tied to books. So, when there are famed Jewish athletes being honored for their sports accomplishments, I get a special feeling of pride.

Second, one of the inductees was Keren Leibowitz, a gold medal Paralympic swimmer. A clip was shown of her winning one of her gold medal races in Sydney and the awarding of her gold medal with the Hatikva, Israel's national anthem, being played in the background. Each time I hear the song at a sports event, again, that feeling of pride swells inside of me.

Third, on a personal note, my maternal grandfather, Haskell Cohen, was very involved in sports and Israel. He is also enshrined in the IJSHOF himself. It always gives me a sense of pride seeing what he worked for during his life and how much things continue to flourish in Jews, sports and Israel.

There were two athletes in attendance yesterday that I had to meet (though one I had met before):

Tal Brody, the legendary Israeli-American basketball player, who made aliya from the US and led the Maccabi Tel Aviv team to its first European title. There is not a middle aged or older Israeli who does not recognize Tal's famous quote, after beating the Russian basketball team. "We are on the map and we will stay on the map. Not just in sports, but in everything." This quote continues to be paraphrased or quoted, even as recently as last weekend by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Dolph Schayes, the Hall of Fame NBA player, who had retired as the leading scorer of his era. Dolph is famous for his two handed set shot, at a time when the NBA was moving to jump shooters. He later became the supervisor for the referees in the NBA. Dolph also coached the USA Maccabiah team in 1997, when his son, Dan (later an NBA player himself) played center.

Separately, both of these men referred to my grandfather as the reason they got involved in the Maccabiah and, ultimately, with Israel.

As an American who has chosen to live in Israel, I know that my grandfather, though he passed on 9 years ago, looks down and feels pride at his grandson's home in the Holy Land.

With Haim Shani being named to a post in the Ministry of Finance, there is no clear successor to the CEO post at NICE Systems. Globes reported that there has been no right-hand man to Shani, so there will be many candidates mentioned over the upcoming months.

This has highlighted the importance of succession planning in a corporation for its executive management.

Companies have spent millions on plans in case of a disaster hitting their networks on business continuity. If so, why do companies not spend more time on planning what happens if one of the key executives is lost.

Sounds far-fetched...

Let me give you two examples:

One, the driving factor behind disaster planning for a lot of companies was September 11, 2001. When the planes crashed into the Twin Towers and into the Pentagon, there was a loss of business continuity. That led to disaster planning. But, companies, like Akamai, also lost key executives. What plans were in place for replacing those executives?

Two, we were on track to hit our quarterly number and all that was left was a signature of the CFO, which he assured us he would give after the weekend. The CFO died in a tragic para-gliding accident that weekend. I wonder if they had a plan in place for succession.

These are just two examples that highlight the need for succession.

Succession planning is needed for both large and small companies alike.

Obviously, succession planning allows companies to identify the replacements in case of an executive departure or loss.

But, it allows for preparation. Coaching and mentoring should be an integral part of the succession process. This can be formally (for example, management courses) or informally.

It needs to be part of the annual review process in HR. This will allow the plan to always stay current.

Make sure the identified successors are involved in the process. Too often, companies feel that they do not want to involve the successor. I am not sure what the fear is. But, if the successor leaves because he/she does not see their career path, you will have to start the process again.

There are many other factors and details to succession planning.

Haim Shani was an Israeli CEO held in the highest regard. I find it disappointing that he seems to have missed out on such a key strategic mission, like succession planning.

Recently, there has been an advertising campaign on Israeli radio, alerting companies to new proposals making their way through the legislative process. The proposals have to do with unions and how a company must allow representatives of a union access to the employees (if at least a third of the employees show interest). There is also a proposal that prison terms become mandatory if salaries are not delivered on time.

You can see more details on the proposed laws here.

Are these laws good for business overall? Does allowing unions almost free access to employees improve the economic situation? Does it help management-worker relations?

I believe that if Israel is to be successful, it must be a free market economy and not one overloaded with union and government involvment.

There are a number of reasons for this:

1. A number of years ago, Israeli labor was inexpensive to that in the US. That allowed work in areas like technical writing to succeed here. As the salaries here have risen and work has been found at cheaper costs in places like India, Israel has begun to lose these markets. Take the diamond business in Israel, where cutting used to be done locally. But, today, the Indians can do it far cheaper, so the nature of the diamond business has changed. So, the cost is no longer a driving factor in global business operating here. The factor is the "brain power" that is found here. There are very smart people here that can offer different values to companies than just cheap labor. But, is that enough to keep these global enterprises operating here if unions and government impose fines and jail time.

2. Unions can be good for certain businesses at specific times and in specific industries. But, there are downsides. Just look at the car companies in the US, where the unions were an albatross around their collective necks and the unions continued to feed off of the car manufacturers until it was too late. Only when union management realized that the companies were going to disappear and obviously in the process hurt those that supported the unions, did they come to the negotiating table to talk about concesssions. What industries will be destroyed in Israel if unions are given carte blanche to the work floor.

3. I was involved in layoffs in two of the more difficult countries in Europe - France and Italy. I can say from first-hand experience that it is hard to dismiss employees there during a layoff, so that the overall company can survive. In some companies, they have tried to close their operations completely and outsource the local market sales and support to 3rd parties, just to avoid the anguish and cost of dealign with the unions.

So, when the government steps in to make laws of this type, does it ultimately help the working population or is it just looking at the immediate situation with a lack of regard for the big picture and bringing more business to Israel?

Your home page is one of key pieces of real estate that your company owns. However, I bet, the executives agonized longer on the hanging of the logo on the building or the wall than the web page.

I see too many companies and marketing executives that seem to miss the fundamental principles of the home page. This is the "lobby" before the visitor enters your offices. It needs to be efficient in getting the visitor to the location that they desire.

You have many types of people that visit your web site. Let's take a look at a few.

• Existing Customers - These people are looking to one of the following: Buy more (maybe some type of peripheral, like a slip cover for a cell phone already purchased), need support in getting the item to work, need to have the item fixed, need to download new information or a latest version, etc.
• Potential Customers - They may need product information, they may want to see how customers like are currently using the product, or they may be ready to buy. Make sure you move them efficiently to the next stop on their journey.
• Press/Media/Analysts - You want these folks to feel special. they should have their own section, where a press kit is available, graphics that might be needed in an article or report.
• Investors - They want to know how the company is doing, so make sure they can find your financial information easily. Of course, if you are a private entity and do not want to share, you probably still want to have an email address for investors to contact you.
• Partners - This group makes you money by selling your solution for you. They break down into two groups - existing and potential. Each audience needs its own information. Make sure that there is an application or email for the potentials to get in touch with you. If it is too difficult, they will go to the next vendor.

This is just an example of how a home page needs to used effciently. Have a look at your home page. Is it laid out in a way that these groups can find their way easily and efficiently?

In reading this article in The Jerusalem Post, which talks about the LA Dodgers and their sponsorship of the Maccabiah in Israel this summer, I started thinking about corporate citizenship and why corporations feel the need the sponsor pet projects. Are the corporations expecting a return on this investment or is it altruistic?

Obviously, there are companies that spend their money on lobbying government for items that benefit them: immigrant issues (for cheaper labor), corporate tax issues, emissions enforcement, etc.

Those items are certainly not done only in the interest of the common good. The companies ceratinly can benefit from those issues, when laws are passed or amended.

But, what about corporations that support Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, Catalyst and others?

There is even a for profit company that offers services on good corporate citizenship. It is called GoodCorporation. They themselves donate 5% of their profits to deserving organizations.

Cisco's CEO, John Chambers, says that the definition of capitalism is changing. The successful companies and individuals need to give back and it is indeed the right thing to do, but is also fundamentally good for business.

In a country, like Israel, where over 21% of the population lives below the poverty line (Source: CIA World Factbook), is enough being done by Israeli businesses to meet the responsibilities of a good corporate citizen?

The rest of that quote from John Kenneth Galbraith is "when you don't want to do anything."

Too many companies become paralyzed by the amount of meetings that are on a schedule and by the amount of people that are at each of them.

So, how can you run a meeting more effectively:

1. Invite only those necessary to the meeting. Too many meetings include people that are not involved in the decision making process that will go on at the meeting. Let the people execute.

2. Define the agenda. Although most meeting invitations are sent with a subject line, very few come with an agenda. So, you may have a general idea of the topic of the meeting, but you cannot prepare adequately because you have not received any action items to prepare.

3. Send materials out before. The people want to be prepared for the discussion and decision-making process. Let them review the meeting materials, so the meeting can be as productive as possible.

4. Start on time. This has become a problem in corporations. People live by their schedule, so be cognizant of the clock. This gives you the maximum amount of time and you do not lose people that may be needed at the critical closing moments of a meeting, due to them having to leave.

5. Make sure everyone has a chance to voice their opinion. I have been in many meetings where the "squeakiest wheel" convinces others of the "correct" choice by screaming over the others at the meeting. By ensuring everyone has a time to speak their mind (you may want to set a time limit).

6. Leave the PC, BlackBerry, iPhone, insert your own device here - back in your office. Only the person that has to show a presentation or something critical to the meeting should have their device. The other devices become a distraction to both the user and those around them. By leaving the devices out of the room, the attendees will remian focused on the task at hand.

Send me your ideas for making meetings more productive.

As companies look for their new employees, they look for people with integrity, teamwork, intelligence and the ability to get things done (execute).

But, there are other qualities that companies need to have in their salespeople. I can think of three distinct qualities that are mandatory.

1. Drive: I had a colleague that enjoyed having the potential recruit for a sales position pick him up at the airport, when he arrived. If he saw the applicant in an expensive car, it was a plus in this hiring manager's mind. He believed that sales people are driven by money and if they had an expensive car lease or big mortgage, the sales person was not going to be distracted by internal corporate politics or sit on the side to come up with execuses. They needed money on a monthly basis to meet their lifestyle.
2. Understanding: A sales rep needs to understand the customer's needs. I separate this from intelligence, as there are many intelligent people that do not have the patience to sit down with a client and hear their needs. Only then, can the sales person apply a solution to that customer's problem. At times, I have seen intelligent people that have lacked the ability to understand the challenge crash and burn in a sales post.
3. Trustworthy: You hope that your relationship with each and every customer will be a long one. In order for this to happen, there has to be trust between the sales person (representing the company) and the client. If the sales rep is not honest in what the company can deliver, the customer will inevitably bolt for another vendor. A good sales person sees the current deal as only one part in the overall customer relationship.

If you can find a sales person with these qualities, you will certainly have no problem growing your revenue, even in a down economy.

There has been much surprise over President Obama's involvement in Israel and the cities in Judea and Samaria. The reason people are surprised is the President has stated that he wants to allow countries to solve their problems themselves and to govern themselves without US interference.

So, why Israel? Though I have tried to keep this blog apolitical, I would like to take a look at this from a business perspective.

After all, President Obama is the CEO of the USA and should be planning the strategy and managing the country, while focused on only the top priorities.

So, is a country, like Israel with 7 million people, his biggest priority?

Obama has a national economic crisis, the Iranian and North Korean threats of a nuclear nature, a healthcare system in shambles, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.

So, is Obama focused on the wrong items or is he too inexperienced to know that there is a finite amount he can deal with at any one time?

I do not know the answer, but if you are an executive, are you trying to do too much or are you focused on the right strategic tasks right now?

How many different companies have touched the computer that I sit at as I type this blog entry.

The obvious ones are HP (the manufacturer) and Office Depot (the retailer). But, there are so many components that are built by different companies and even the completed solution from the time it left HP until it made it to me touched at least a distributor (or an importer, in this case).

A number of years back, Andy Grove stated that vertical integration was the new way of the world. Vertical Integration was the same thing that my mother told me years ago - anything that you are going to do, do to the best of your ability. Andy believed in this and if you could not do it well, you should partner with someone else that can do it in a world class fashion.

Today, people have looked to outsourcing as part of this strategy. Experts can reduce cost and deliver the goods at a cheaper price point then some company that does everything.

Vertical Integration is the multi-partner strategy that companies need to embrace. Your solution, no matter how broad, is only a piece of the customer's needs.

Let's take my computer as the example. I needed a new PC, as my old one passed on to a better place (I hope). So, I went with an HP laptop. It met my price point and had the performance features I wanted and needed.

HP certainly has done a good job of multiple partnering. They use Intel for a processor, NVIDIA for a graphics card, Microsoft for the operating system, Altec for speakers, etc.

HP designed the solution, managed the manufacturing and delivered a quality product.

But, after I got it home, I still needed all sorts of software, which had been on my old computer, and trying to use migration software for applications is dodgy, at best. I needed to install software like MS Office. I had a DVD of MS Office 2007, but had no idea where my license key is/was. I needed to find it on the dying system. I had to find all sorts of other utilities that I like or need.

HP's view of multi-partner is good, up until the point of delivery to the user, but they still are not completing the whole solution as the PC is just one part of my overall home computing experience: router, DSL modem, printer, other PCs.

As a vendor, do you think about just how to get your solution into the customer's hands, maybe the logistical part of the solution? If so, you probably are already using a multi-partner strategy, maybe without realizing it?

But, what happens when you or your partner walk off site after installation of your product/solution? Do you know how that completes the customer's needs? Are there other partners that you could include in the process to do a better overall job for the customer?

Maybe with a multi-partner strategy, "the more, the merrier" is really the new world order.

Well, never say never. I am sure that someone will point out to me that there have been successful companies that have taken "short cuts" on a process and been successful.

My premptory response - that is the exception that proves the rule. I would hardly call the "short cut" a strategy. Like the Hail Mary pass in American football, it may work once in a while, but you never see a coach call the Hail Mary play in the middle of the 1st quarter. It only comes into play when a team is losing and has only one option left, the short cut to victory, the Hail Mary.

Sometimes the process can seem long, but one of the things that following the process does is build repeatability. If you take a short cut, you may or may never find it again, but following a well-thought out and defined process will produce the ability to repeat the results time after time (at least until market dynamics will change and you need to redefine the process).

Process comes about because of agreement of many people from different points of view. We had mentioned, in an earlier post, that one of the dangers of employees all attacking a problem the same way, but process should come from all people coming at a problem from a different angle.

Once consensus is reached, then the process can be put into place and executed upon. Refining it will require testing and modification based on results.

Now that I have finished my tirade, here is an example of a Hail Mary that worked, when Doug Flutie was in Boston College (and it is still the exception that proves the rule, just look at how shocked they all were when they scored):

So, last week, we focused on the employers that are making a mistake by ignoring those that bring qualifications and experience beyond the job description and opening they are looking at today.

Now, let's see how you can fight the label of "overqualified":

1. Do not give up. If you have received a response from an HR person in a company that you are overqualified for a specific post, try getting in touch with someone else in the company. We will discuss in the future methods for finding the executives. The HR person is doing their job - they are looking to fill a specific post, not to look for jobs that may not yet be available or a post that does not exist.

2. Explain in more detail. There are a number of valid reasons why you may want this job. You may be looking to get involved in a new industry, but from the job title, this may look like a step back. For example, a number of years back, I worked with someone, who had been a vice-president of sales in tools and plumbing. He now wanted to "crack" into the hi-tech space and was willing to, therefore, take a pay cut and what appeared to be a demotion, but for him and his career path made sense. The company hired a great employee, willing to give it his all, teach from his experience and they paid less than market value.

3. Develop a skill-based CV. The standard chronological CV has titles that stand out (usually in bold typeface) and this might scare off the HR contact. Focus more on the skills you have developed that are in line with the posted job.

4. One of the major concern that the hiring company has is the expense of hiring someone that may leave if they find a better post that matches their level and career path. Make them feel that you are a loyal employee that is not going to leave at the drop of the hat. Point to any extended employment you may have held at a single company.

5. Be honest. The same way you are expected to be honest in your dealings with the hiring company, you have to expect the same from them. So, if you can get to the hiring manager, ask him/her how you can convince them that you are right for the job.

I look forward to your comments.

Overqualified - one of the dirtiest words in the English language. The word that an experienced job seeker never wants to hear.

You see a posting for a job that looks perfect for your personality, for you skill set and even for where you feel you are in your career and personal life. It is the "dream job".

The response from the company's HR department (as I will give executives the benefit of the doubt in today's blog entry) is, " We are sorry. You are overqualified for this job. we will keep your CV on file and be in contact if we have a relevant opening in the future."

First, in a court case in the US, the term "overqualified" was determined to be a "code word for too old. This would be age discrimination and companies need to be very careful where they are using the term overqualified.

Second, from a piece of white paper with black text, can you really tell that the applicant is overqualified. In the case of a former CEO applying for a janitorial services position, I can agree, but in most cases, without at least a phone conversation, this is very hard to tell.

In fact, I would define overqualified as three things (according to the HR rep's view):
1. Made too much money in the current or last job

2. Has too much education (we want a BA and this is a PhD)

3. Has too many years of relevant work experience

Word of warning to the HR rep: You could be missing out by coming up with assumptions from the above.

Let's look in more detail:

1. Made too much money in the last job - maybe the person is not looking for more money. Maybe they need to cover their expenses and would take an alternative form of compensation (equity, options, commission on sales, etc.)

2. Has too much education - The key question is do they meet the minimal requirements for this job. After that, you may be able to hire someone that can help in more than one area. You may be able to tap into a theoretical system from their schooling that you have not thought of.

3. Has too many years of relevant work experience - Do not assume. Maybe the person is looking at a change of pace, so you can get that experience for a lot less than you would think. Maybe they are now going from a single life to a married on and therefore, would like less work pressure. Maybe they have had a lot of work related travel and now would like to be at home with the kids more, so you can get all that experience for the same price as someone that does not have the relevant background.

This is just from the employer's view. In the next post, we will look at what you, the applicant, can do to help minimize the chances of this happening to you.

As Michael Jordan's famous quote goes, "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life."

Arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan realized that to succeed, you have to fail. But, to fail, you must be willing to take the chance.

When you have a tough decision to make, what is the process in your company? Do you, as a senior executive, agonize over that decision? Do you invite the executive team to help in the process and, if so, how much are they involved?

Do you find yourself with a slow trigger finger, where you are unable to make the decision?

It is a necessity in companies to clearly define the process for decision-making, so you can figure out who should have the ball with the game on the line and who will, hopefully, make that shot.

Analyzing the steps in the process will help make you a better decision maker under pressure and going through the process will reduce the chance of a miss in your decision.

Let's look at the steps:
1. What is the decision that needs to be made? For Michael Jordan, this was whether he would step up and take the shot or pass to one of his teammates?

2. When does the decision need to be made? Again for MJ, this was dependent on the clock and how much time was remaining. If he waited too long, the buzzer would have sounded and the game would have been lost. Too early and the other team has a chance to win the game with a shot at the other end of the floor.

3. Who needs to be involved in the decision making process? For the Chicago Bulls, this was the team on the floor (5 players) and the coach.

4. Think of any alternatives or what if no decision is to made - This is a challenge in the NBA. It is binary. You score, you win. You don't, you lose. Business may offer alternatives to this decision that were not yet considered. This is where "thinking outside of the box" comes in.

5. Communicate and implement the decision - The Bulls team returns to the floor, inbounds the ball and Michael Jordan hits a jumper of Craig Ehlo for a win. Click here to see it in action.

How do you handle decision-making?

We always learn new things, so when I heard that there are a number of vendors that are looking at new ways to categorize and prioritize their sales leads, I was interested in understanding further.

The method that was always the most logical to me was take a lead that was going to close the fastest and assign it the highest priority. Then, came the sorting method by size of the opportunity. The bigger the deal, the more resources may get assigned (pre-sales, executive sponsorship, etc.)

Now, I am hearing about other methods being used, like vertical markets.

The more I thought about it, especially in a down economy, this makes sense. Despite what a client may tell you about the budget approval or your sales rep about a specific deal closing imminently, according to this system of prioritization, this is not weighted to these metrics.

Instead, you can gain a vertical market proficiency that will give you repeatability in selling over and over again to that one market. This will involve an analysis on your current forecast and the closed deals (that you won and even some that may have been lost).

Focusing on one vertical market can also help identify the ones that have money according to the media or analysts and you can adjust your spending accordingly.

For example, you may find that your product or service answers a need of companies in insurance and they may have budget, whereas finance may not have any budget dollars this year.

How do you categorize or prioritize your leads?

Now, all technical issues have been solved and the comments area under each blog entry is working. Please leave your feedback.

In discussions with a senior executive of a public company last week, I learned that they were looking for a sales executive, but wanted someone specifically with direct sales experience and they would not even consider someone who had worked in sales, but only through a channel (indirectly selling to a client through a reseller, OEM, consultant or some 3rd party).

This started me thinking - is sales one category or do areas of expertise matter?

I believe that sales is all about understanding the needs of the client and finding a way to solve those needs with your product or solution.

If this theory is true, then it should not matter whether you have sold to an end-user directly or sold to the needs of the partner and convinced them to sell your product/service.

The end-user wants to make sure that their needs are met, they can pay for the product or service from an existing and approved budget and that the support will be there after the sale to help them with any issues that may arise.

The reseller wants to know that their clients (existing and new) need this product, they need to make sure that there is margin in selling the product (that they can pocket some money on the transaction) and that the vendor is there to support the product or service if any issues arise.

Does that seem to be so different that a sales rep experienced in one area would not be able to adapt?

The process is the same:
1. Identify the right person in the client or partner
2. Identify the needs of that person within the larger organization
3. Fit your product or solution to the needs of the client or partner
4. Work the pricing or margin to meet the requirements of the client or partner, respectively
5. Support the client or partner in using the product or service

So, are companies limiting themselves by only looking at sales people with experience in one route to market? Are they missing out on that great sales person that could sell ice to the Eskimo just to look for someone with the right type of CV or resume?

The phenomenon of the remote worker or virtual employee is one that cannot be ignored. The high cost of a physical office is a huge expense on a corporate balance sheet. Finding the best talent may fly in the face of hiring locally.

I recently spoke with a CEO, who claimed that his business was successful due to their virtual office structure. It did not allow for people "dropping by" to say hi during the day or "water cooler talk".

On the other hand, I have worked with managers that felt if the employee was not in the office, they could be doing anything. I have a fundamental problem with this as you must trust your employees. If you cannot trust them, there was a problem in your hiring process.

In today's global economy, can you afford to only have people that are working in your facility?

I look at this in two ways:

1. Can you manage the remote worker?

Companies have had managers managing employees that are not seated in their eyesight for years. If you had a sales manager that had local sales teams in multiple countries, they had to be managed remotely. This brought about challenges of communication and collaboration. I believe tha email, cell phones, Microsoft SharePoint (a collaboration system) and more have made this much easier.

A skilled manager still knows how to motivate an employee not in the headquarters. He/she can write emails that require action to be taken and can then analyze that action for results. The manager is a leader that does not require eye contact, but can still instill the feeling that the employee will want to follow him/her into the market.

2. Can the worker work in a remote setting?

First, I do not believe this is for everyone. It requires discipline and scheduling.

The employee must make their own work space in the home, where they cannot be disturbed. I remember running a conference call a number of years ago and hearing a dog barking in the background. My immediate response was how would a customer or partner feel if they had heard the dog barking in the background.

Some people will tell you that you need to get dressed for business each day. Though I am more of the laid back dress mode, I could see how some people can gain from this discipline.

In yesterday's post, we mentioned the use of webcasts within a call center setting. This can be a great tool for those working from home as well. Use the virtual tools to create the illusion of the office, where traditionally someone would meet you.

There is so much more to add to this post, that I will break it into multiple blog entries over the next few weeks. I also believe that if you learn to be a good remote manager, your local management style and skills will improve as well.

Is selling over the telephone for you and your company? In today's world of globalization, can you afford to hire sales people from around the globe? Do you have the necessary infrastructure to support multiple languages in multiple countries? How can you get to the required number of leads and sales needed to grow and hit your targets for this year?

One of the benefits that Israel has to offer is the multitude of people that speak multiple languages on a mother-tongue level. Those that have come here as olim or were born to those that had come here from their native countries. We can use this to our advantage on the global playing field.

But, managing telesales and building the infrastructure is not easy.

1. Measurement - There are two philosophies about measuring telesales. One is quantity - the number of calls in a day or talk time. The other is quality - how many of the calls lead to closed business. I believe a combination of both is necessary. Sales reps should be held to a minimum number of dials and talk time, but you cannot sacrifice the quality of the calls just to hit the allotted time on the phone. They also need to be accountable for closed business as well.

2. Working hours - It is imperative for your folks on the phone to call the clients during the local business hours. This may seem obvious, but the easiest times to catch someone without getting their voice mail is when the person first arrives in the office to start their day.

3. Infrastructure - How will you show the client the value of your product or solution? Today, with WebEx and Microsoft LiveMeeting, you can demonstrate the value over the web easily and with little cost. If these cannot be used, do you have a trial version that can be downloaded and used by the client? Do you have some type of pre-sales technical support that can help the client through the trial process? Without making this simple for the client, you will have a longer sales cycle than necessary or will not succeed at all.

4. Defined Process - Are your telephone based assets selling or just setting meetings for your sales team? At what point do you move from the phone to the field? Is it a size of a deal? You will need a string operation person for this task and it must be backed up by a system (like Salesforce.com).

5. Training - Just like any sales force, the reps need ongoing training. Listen to their feedback as well as they are a frontline group touching many customers. You will get a return on your investment of training through this invaluable feedback.

Call centers can be very beneficial and profitable if run correctly. Are you running yours correctly?

Over the last few weeks, there have been a number of articles written about finding a job and how to hunt for employment in these tough economic times. Some of the lessons below are first hand experiences, some have been from people I know and some are just a collection.

1. When hunting, make sure to be thorough in your work. If a company asks that you refer to a job code or the title of the position in your email, make sure you do so.

2. Make sure you can do the job - Living in Israel, a lot of jobs are for those speaking Hebrew. If you cannot speak Hebrew, do not apply. The same holds true for jobs asking for Mother-Tongue English. Do not waste your time or the company's time.

3. Sound professional - When responding to a job ad, make sure that your letter is laid out like a business letter, like we learned in our elementary school years. Do not start with a "Hi" or any other informal greeting.

4. Make sure you attach your CV. There are plenty of times that people hit the "Send" button on their email only to realize that they did not attach their CV first. This frequent error can cost you the hiring person considering you for a job. Take your time and do it right.

5. Have multiple versions of your CV. Though you may know what your ideal job is, that opening may not be available now. If you are in marketing, have separate CVs that address Marcom, branding, lead generation. If you are in sales, maybe one for account management and another for business development.

6. Consider different formats. Though a lot of people use a chronological CV, a skills (or milestone) based CV may be best if you have held jobs in multiple disciplines over your career. Use the one that is best for you.

7. Keep your CV focused. In Israel, employers, in general, do not want to see your hobbies or skills unrelated to the job. Focus on how you can make their company better or more efficient.

8. Make your cover letter compelling. Most potential employers will not make it to your CV unless the cover letter (or email to which the CV is attached) "sells" you to the company. Do not restate your CV in the cover letter. Instead, focus on the requirements that were listed in the ad and how you can fulfill those corporate needs.

9. Use spell check before sending out the cover letter and CV.

Good luck.

Yesterday, Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, delivered arguably the most important speech of his life. The address was focused on three key areas of his policy: Iran and its nuclear capability, the economic crisis and the peace process (both with the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world at large). Each word was measured and considered before being inserted into the text of his speech.

Bibi had to speak to multiple audiences with various wants and needs: the Americans - wanting to hear how Netanyahu would tackle the settlement issue, where President Obama has stated that no settlement building is allowed (inlcuding "natural growth); the Arabs - would Netanyahu use terminology about a Palestinian State, which he had not done before; the Kensset members outisde of his coalition - to hear if the peace plan would have any difference from what had been laid out by former goverments; and the members of the coalition and people that voted for him - would he stick to his stated beliefs and writings that any Palestinian entity would, in short order, end up as a violent neighbor to Israel.

Though in business, we try to segment our markets, so our messaging can be more conise and clearer, do we analyze and weigh our words in our messages?

Take a press release for example:
Does your heading and sub-head attract the reader, journalist or client?
Do you get your key message(s) across by the end of the first paragraph?
Are you handling too much material in one release?
Is all supporting material (client quote, company executive's quote, analyst quote, etc.) below in the following paragraphs as proofs?
Is there a call to action (maybe the web site, phone number, etc.)?

If you think about every word and how it can be taken by the client or customer, you probably can fine tune your messages for your key market segments.

The economy is tough. There are a lot of people out of work. Companies have had to trim benefits as well as personnel.

But, yesterday, Globes ran an article that stated "50% of workers in high-tech and 57% of workers in manufacturing and construction reported a difficult work environment as a result of the crisis." Those employed are reporting that they have worries about retaining their jobs.

How can a worker that is constantly worried about job security perform their job adequately? At this time, we need them to do more than an adequate job to make up for those cuts in personnel we have made.

What can a manager do to make the employees feel safer and concentrate on the task at hand?

First, communicate clearly. It may not come as a surprise that there are layoffs coming, but you still need to tell the workforce why the cuts are needed. After all, the people being dismissed are friends, neighbors or even family. Make sure that all managers downstream have the same message.

Second, be honest. Let the employees know that a certain percentage is being cut (and as above include the reasons why), but beyond that, no other cuts are expected (if performance stays in line). Once, the cuts have been made either you or the in-line managers should meet with their teams to enforce this message. If you do not do this, your superstars may bolt for other companies before they think the layoff can hit them. And remember, good people can always find jobs or promotions. Average people stay in jobs where they can hide.

Third, make them feel wanted and appreciated. Although, it may sound simple or even childish, after a round of layoffs, I once instituted a quarterly MVP (with and award plaque and gift certificate) and an honorable mention (free dinner for the employee + 1). Yes, this is a small token, but it was different than any other group at that time and our productivity was the highest of any division.

We live in a difficult situation, but our companies greatest assets, the people, need to be treated well to produce at the expected levels, or if motivated correctly, exceed our wildest dreams.

Yesterday, CalPERS, the largest pension fund in the US, announced that it will be increasing its investment into venture capital. The percentage now stands at 10% and will grow to 14% of its assets.

This is good news for companies here in Israel looking for a first round of funding or additional money from the VCs. CalPERS has invested in many of the local Israeli VCs. Now, that CalPERS has commited to increased funding, the VCs should benefit and the money should drip into the local market of start-ups.

It is also a good indicator that the economic crisis may be coming to an end. CalPERS is looking to get in on the bottom of the market and the lowest possible valuation of these companies. Investments made at the lowest point, obviously, generate the highest rate of return.

We will have to wait and see if other large players in the market follow suit.

Companies are always looking for new sales channels for their products or services. Almost every industry relies on some type of channel to deliver or sell the product.

Insurance has agents to sell the policies. Car manufacturers have dealerships. Food makers have supermarkets. The IT industry also has a channel - agents, distributors and resellers.

What are the key advantages to a channel?

Low Cost - The cost of hiring and maintaining a direct sales force is prohibitive for most start-ups and mid size companies. Using a channel means they only make money when you make money. They typically take an upfront margin on the product or service sale, again leaving you with minimal cost.

Market Penetration - The channel should be used to get into the market faster and get to more clients than you could possibly do through your sales force. With more "feet on the street", your company will gain more branding opportunities and potential clients.

So, what does a channel want from a vendor?

The obvious answer is the product or service, but what else do you need to supply?

Training - Just as you would educate the internal sales staff, you will need to train the channel on your product, the market and your differentiators from the competition.

Margin - Obviously, we are all in business to make money and the channel is no exception. How much money can the channel make on selling your product or service?

Support - If your product requires support from the vendor, the partner will need some way of receiving this support as well. You probably want to set up a unique number for the channel. This allows them to receive priority as well.

Leads - Today, the channel wants to see that the vendor is supplying something other than just the product or service. Can you provide leads to the channel that they then will close into sales?

Remember that a good channel program requires constant retooling. A profitable program will take up to 8 quarters to create and build.

There have been a number of times in my career, where an employee has come up with a great idea or an improvement on an existing idea that helped boost revenue or cut unnecessary fat.

I like to call this acting like a consultant. It is a fantastic way to get more out of the existing staff. I think this is also a benefit of hiring multi-talented people.

As employees, we sometimes lose our way in the forest and only see the trees. Our day to day work dulls us to the point where we find it hard to come up with that next great idea.

Companies engage with consultants because as they are unattached, they can be objective and can have a very fresh outlook on an "old" business.

The problem with a consultant is they have no "skin in the game." They are paid for a specific function and usually leave before execution. If they are there for the execution, they are not the accountable party. After all, they came up with the novel idea; it must have been someone else that ruined it in the execution phase.

It is management's job to get the most out of the employees and this is one way to maximize the investment in your workforce. Encourage them to give you great ideas and reward them once they do.

For the employees, if we can think like a consultant and and then take action like an employee, we can grow businesses faster and more profitably.

Over the last few days, I have heard that, here in Israel, employers desire employees to be extremely focused or experienced in a specific area, instead of broadly experienced.

On Rusty Mike Radio last week, there was a discussion (that can be heard here) about finding employment in Israel. The interview was conducted with Chaim Emet, the founder of IsraEmploy.

Mr. Emet made it clear that Israelis want the person to have the experience necessary for the job, but that anything more is not necessarily desirable. Through discussions with local job placement agencies, I have heard his words echoed.

For me, this has come as a surprise. I would think that companies would want employees that are well-rounded. They can access the resources that the employee possesses, but may not be the reason for which they were hired.

It is crucial that companies can conduct an audit of those talents and experience that the organization has on staff, but could be overlooked. This can be done by executive management or an outside consultant. The result is a good overview of all talents that are inside of the company and can be used effectively.

Another key point is that grooming an individual for a senior executive position means that the employee must become comfortable and experienced in all facets of the company. Without this type of effort, CEOs would not be able to understand, change and fix departments within the company, never have been exposed to each group's challenges and day to day operations.

I believe that people with rich experience can be used in companies to their fullest, if the management team is open-minded and not threatened by these individuals.

Let me know your thoughts.

In order to make up some of the deficit in Israel, one proposal is to levy VAT (Value Added Tax) on all purchases made by tourists in Israel. Currently, tourists are exempt from VAT on purchases of products and services. The current VAT rate for locals is 15.5% (but this may soon go up to 16.5%).

Yesterday, Globes reported that, according to the Tourism Minister, Israel will net about NIS50 million next year as a result of this proposal. However, he stated that the GDP will lose about NIS2.4 billion due to loss of jobs, as tourists look for cheaper alternatives to coming to Israel for a vacation. This will also mean a loss of 290,000 visitors and 12,000 tourism related jobs.

This got me thinking. How many times do we make a decision for the short term benefit of our company, maybe just to hit a quarterly goal? Do we think through how this may impact the long term health of our business?

I believe that it was Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM, who said that he would not go back to working for a public company, due to the impossible task of reporting quarterly numbers and the long term health of the company.

Think about the pros and cons of each decision. Yes, a price cut may get you a deal this month, but when other clients find out that you succumb to pressure, can you possibly demand higher prices from them? Does that change the average transaction size for your deals? Does that mean you have to sell more units? Does that mean hiring more people to still net the same amount of revenue? How does that impact your business plan?

Obviously, this is just a simple example, but each short term course change can be very damaging to the long term health of your corporation.

Israel is in the middle of its largest ever Home Front Command war drill. Today, the air raid siren sounded and each citizen was supposed to react as if it were a real war, instead of just an exercise.

It made me think of significant events and planning during the course of business. How many times do we hear the "siren" during business and how do we react?

Some companies have the discipline to write a business plan. Others have well-documented processes for everything from hiring employees to the issuance of a press release. But, how many take these plans off the shelf to validate them and see how real performance matches to plan? Are the processes run through and tested for efficiency?

Who should be in charge of this activity? If the board of directors has been chosen carefully and is active, they should be demanding it. Any investor in the company should be asking for these details. Certainly, the executive team should be carrying this out.

Does your company hear siren and act or just ignore it?

In past entries, we focused on strategy and plans. I find that too many times CEOs have little to no focus on driving the business, but instead get distracted by the latest buzz word or fad.

As yesterday's post focused on the social media and Web 2.0, I thought that we would focus on how easily a company can get sidetracked by social networking, if it is not an integral part of the strategy.

Over the last 24 hours since the last post, I have heard of one Israeli company where the CEO wants the whole company to be trained on Web 2.0. While I encourage ongoing training and education for your staff (which we will speak about in the future as a critical investment for your company), I am quite sure that the development staff's time will be better spent on the company's future products or services.

In the case of this particular company, there is no dedicated headcount to developing social media, but the CEO wants to train the entire company. This shows that the CEO is trying to grasp at the latest fad, but without it being core to the corporate strategy or even dedicating the appropriate investments of headcount and money. If you want to succeed at any business initiative and it is core to the corporate business, it must be funded.

This company, if serious, would hire a consultant or full-time employee for social media. They would plan before acting as we laid out in yesterday's post.

Plan for your business needs, execute the plan and stick to the plan. Do not get off course with buzzwords and fads. You will never succeed this way.

This morning I attended a meeting where the discussion surrounded social media, also known as social networking or Web 2.0. It is important to stress that there is a difference between how social media is used by businesses and how it is used by individuals.

While an individual may use these resources for staying in touch with old friends or relatives, a corporation is looking at the social media as a new PR strategy, an alternate method for customer service and a way to drive more leads.

The question is - Is Social Media the right strategy for your company?

Here are some things to consider:

Target Market - Are your customer or potential clients on that particular network? Or for that matter, are they on any? Recently, I saw that a company was promoting their product line for the mainframe on Twitter. I thought that odd, due to the fact that the nature of the mainframe person is the antithesis of the social networker. They are believers in very centralized systems and not very open to new paradigms. This company may have been better off promoting the products in other ways, while companies targeting young adults would do very well to use Twitter or Facebook, for example.

Time - These social networks require a lot of time to set up and maintain and due to the fact that your audience is global, there is no down time in a 24 hour period. Someone on staff has to monitor and respond to inquiries, "tweets" or solicitations. Do you have the bandwidth to do this? DO you have the budget to have someone full time on this project? Can you afford not to have someone on this?

Results - The question of measurement should be top of mind. What are you looking for out of social media and can it be measured? Then, if you can answer those questions, how will you measure it? I believe these are the toughest questions for business today in dealing with social media. One of the obvious ways to use social media and measure it, is PR. My friend, Alan Weinkrantz, has a presentation online that he gave recently at a conference on this very topic.

Social Media is gaining traction and will continue to evolve over the coming months and years. Do you have an idea of how to use it to your advantage???

My older boy recently had an assignment from his English class to choose a product and build a sales pitch to deliver to the rest of the class. For his product, my son chose chocolate. He did not want me to help in any way at all.

To be honest, my expectations for the sales pitch were around taste and maybe tying in how much he enjoyed chocolate (a reference sale - even though he may not really understand what a reference sale is.)

When I saw the finished product yesterday, I was shocked. He had built a real sales pitch. He had built up the needs - if you have a sweet tooth, you need the chocolate. He had a competitive differentiator - he focused on how his chocolate was healthier than others that are out there. He mentioned Vitamin D as an ingredient for healthy bones and teeth.

My son even built an incentive for the consumer to buy the chocolate immediately - a price reduction for a limited time only.

Aside from reminding of Bill Cosby's breakfast routine, which you can see below on YouTube, I started thinking of how many sales pitches I have heard or how many marketing materials I have read, where there is no focus on the need of the customer, but immediately the company starts with features and technology.

Take it from an 11 year old selling chocolate to other kids, understand the needs of the clients before you start your sales pitch.

As a bonus, here is the Bill Cosby routine - enjoy.

Companies need to think of how they will retain their customers for the long haul. As it costs far less to retain an existing customer than going out and finding new customers, companies need to cater to their existing users. These customers need to hear from your company more than once a year in a invoice asking for a maintenance renewal or a new upgrade that they have to pay for.

Don Peppers and Martha Rogers (who coined the 1 to 1 marketing strategy term) wrote a book about Return On Customer - where they discuss how to get the most value out of your customer in the long run. They focus on using the typical ROI (Return on Investment) formula for the ROI invested in each customer.

How many companies are familiar with how much they have invested to reel in that "big fish"?

In order to focus on each customer, you would need to know how much revenue they bring you and how much it cost you to acquire them or to retain them.

Though it is difficult to go through this exercise, it is very rewarding. Peppers and Rogers have 3 steps:

1. Uniform Tracking - This needs to be in place to track the advance of a company from the point of being a prospect to the time they become a paying client.

2. Marketing Allocation - This should be in place to know the cost per lead (COL) in a marketing program, but you may have to add in cost of a sales rep that may follow up with the client, a pre-sales person that had to fly out to help with a proof of concept (POC), etc.


3. Revenue Allocation - This is the easy part. You should already know how much money comes in from each individual client.

This may sound very complex on paper, but I can assure you that the outcome far outweighs the pain during the research.

Feel free to contact me for help on how to do this.

In last week's post, we focused on some of the challenges that an Israeli company faces trying to break into the US market (it also should apply to other markets as well - but we chose to focus on the world's biggest IT market.)

The New York Times (on May 20, 2009) had an article on the Entrepreneurial Edge of Israeli companies. The article focuses on the goal of Israeli companies. They want to become global brands. The companies that achieve this goal from Israel are few and far between. The article mentions Check Point Software, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Amdocs, but for a country that produces the second largest number of start-ups, three is not a very large number.

What can we learn from the article that can help us achieve those goals?

1. The Israeli companies have to be seen as in the market for the long-term, but today Israeli companies are seen as just people with great ideas. Israelis need to market themselves and the companies better. This will allow the US market to see the companies, not just as acquisition fodder, but as viable brands to buy products from.

2. The article makes a point of stating that Israel and the US have two distinct strengths. The Israeli companies are good at innovation, but American managers are good with strategy and scale. By joining the best of both worlds, companies can succeed.

Israelis need to learn the limitations of the local talent pool and to bring in the outside talent that can make them viable global brands.

One of the biggest challenges an Israeli company has is trying to expand past the very limited geography of Israel. A company that starts to sell a service or product in foreign markets has to take into account cultural differences, languages and added capital for investment.

First rule: Give it time and space. I have seen Israeli companies that pull the plug too fast, even when the business is headed in the right direction. Instead the management changes the personnel ruining what has already been done and effectively starting over.

Second rule: Hire good people. This may sound strange, but instead of following through on the dollars that are already to committed to the expansion, the executives cut the most important asset - the people that will run the new geography.

Third rule: Do not manage from afar. Though you do not want to smother the new operation, you do need to make sure that as a senior manager, you visit the new business. This accomplishes two things. One, it allows you to see firsthand what is really going on. Two, the fact that you are spending money and time to travel to the new business shows the level of commitment to the employees at the home office and to the newly hired remote workers.

Expansion is critical to any business and the limited resources of Israel dictate that global expansion is vital to any company. Just ensure you are managing the new business appropriately.

More to come next week.

With the economy today in a weak state and the unemployment rate in Israel expected to be higher than 8% by the end of this year, it is inevitable that some companies will have to say goodbye to some of its employees.

How can this difficult process be made any easier?

1. Regular reviews - The employee should never be kept in the dark as to where they sit in relative terms to the rest of the team or company. If the employees are regularly reviewed (in a constructive way), there should be no surprises that when the company does need to have a reduction in numbers, the lowest ranked employees are the first to go. I have been involved in small companies, in particular, where there is no review process (not even once a year!) and therefore, employees are surprised when let go (even aside from those economic layoffs).

2. Keep emotion out of it - The layoffs are due to the economy, not due to the personality of the employee. Keep the discussion at that level. Explain in a concise fashion why the company needs to reduce the numbers of employees.

3. No suspense - Once you have the employee in the room, make sure to start the conversation about the layoffs. There will be enough anxiety because of rumors in the organization already. Let the employee know where they stand.

4. Do not leave - Allow the employee to keep the discussion going as long as it is productive. The employee may want to vent or overcome some level of shock (even with the review process, the end may be sudden.)

All people need to be treated with dignity, even those that will not be with the company for mych longer.

This is the most difficult thing a manager has to do (especially as it has nothing to do with the employee per se). Do not make it any harder.

There was a wonderful commercial that ran on TV in the United States for FedEx (the shipping and logistics company).

You can see it here:


How many times have you had a good idea "stolen" by a manager? Now, how many times have you taken credit for one of the ideas or programs of someone on your team? Do you really know who has the good ideas on your team?

If you are taking credit for work done by someone on your team or one of your reports. STOP!!! This is not ethical and can be a career-ending decision if your manager finds out. On the positive side, if you do not take credit for their work, you can look like a mentor and an enabler of a great team and gifted talent.

If you currently manage someone that seems to be taking credit for what others do on your team, this needs to be confronted immediately. This is the opposite of the team atmosphere that you are charged with creating.

What can you do? Make sure that every individual has a task list of the items they are working on currently (they only need to supply you with the top 3 items). This will limit the amount of poaching. However, when they work as a team, it gets more difficult. Have them take notes at their meetings and hand in a version signed by all as the final copy. This will allow you to see how the idea came about and was flushed out.

Your manager is taking credit for your work. This is a little more delicate, but you can CC: his/her boss or send the email of the work as an FYI to his/her boss after sending it to them.

It is critical to remember that you do not want to embarrass your boss in any way. You can save all copies of the work and document everything. Then if your manager's boss ever tells you that he/she took credit for something - you can approach it with some humor - oh, he did (insert laugh), because I would love to show you how we developed that program/plan/project.

More to come on difficult work situations. These are more common then you think.

Today, Globes, the Israeli business newspaper, has an article about how there are currently 11 people seen for each job opening. By the end of the calendar year 2009, that number will grow to 14 people competing for each position.

Though, we can write about how a candidate needs to differentiate himself or herself to be more noticeable from the crowd, I think we will focus today's post on the corporation's viewpoint.

Let's assume for a moment that the "right" candidate is hiding amongst the 11 CVs currently sitting on the desk and that your company has not advertised somewhere that the "right" candidate cannot find you or you have engaged the correct recruiting or headhunting company for this type of job. More to come on this topic later.

So, we are confident that the right person is in the 11 CVs - less than a 10% chance to get this right.

Ask the right questions: First, start off with general questions to get an idea of who the person is. Then, work you way into specific questions that pertain to the job. You want to focus on how the person will fit into your company as a whole and then how the experience the candidate has will make them a fit for this job.

Make the person feel comfortable: Almost all candidates are nervous to some level and the job of the interviewer is to make them feel comfortable enough to answer the questions honestly and with a clear mind.

Take Notes: I had a manager a long time ago, who told his reports to always take copious notes at meetings. Though, I am not sure that every meeting warrants this approach, in a series of interviews that you will do, you will start to forget what made the early candidates stand out and you may even start to blend together some of the traits.

One of my earliest jobs was working for a job placement company in Israel. These are just a few of the tips that I learned to finding the right candidate. Contact me to find out more tips and tricks on how to find that next great employee.

In The Jerusalem Post this past weekend there is an interview with Maxine Fassberg, vice president of the technology and manufacturing group of the giant Intel Corporation and general manager of Intel Israel. Intel is the world's largest chip manufacturer and the employer that was named the Best Place to Work in Israel again this year.

In the eighties and early nineties, people studied Andy Grove (the CEO of Intel at the time) and his innovative management style and techniques. Gordon Moore, of Moore's Law fame, was a co-founder of Intel with Mr. Grove. So, Intel has been a company that we can learn a lot from.

Maxine Fassberg says that Israelis are good at putting out fires, but not good at planning for the future.

Companies need to have their business plan, sure. But, how many Israeli companies have a 3 year or a 5 year plan? I believe that most Israeli companies get distracted by the dynamics of the economy, normal course of business and also some unique bureaucratic issues in Israel.

But, a CEO or senior management in a company needs to remain focused and stick to the plan, if it has been validated and vetted appropriately.

Look at the best companies and learn from them.

One of my friends and a person that I have worked with professionally for many years is Alan Weinkrantz. He is a PR and social media expert focused on Israeli companies in the hi tech space.

In his well read blog, he has an entry about the resources needed internally in a company before running a PR or social media campaign.

First, there has to be a campaign. Again that word - strategy. There needs to be a full plan with a stated goal for the PR or social media campaign. This needs to be measured carefully as well, which brings e to my second point.

Second, the result needs to be measured. A lot of people state a quantitative value for the measurement (and this is the right metric for a lot of things - sales, hits, unique visitors, etc.), but to state that a company wants more articles than the past year is not a good goal. By gaining one more articles, the PR campaign would be a success, but if all the articles were in no name magazines or backwater towns' newspapers, would this really be a success? You need to incorporate both quantitative and qualitative goals - so you can measure the success and ROI on the campaign.

Third, Alan makes a wonderful point over the fact that there needs to be an on staff person who is the contact for the PR or social media agency. I have seen too many times where the hiring company believes that the PR agency should be as much of an expert on the goings on in the company as the internal corporate staff. This is too much of an expectation. They are an outsourced company and need to have access to the internal staff to get any information or data in a timely fashion.

Let me know your thoughts on how you have interacted with your PR agency and was there a successful outcome?

So, now you have a product or service. The next question is what is the route to market (RTM) for you product - meaning how will a customer buy the solution? Will the customer come to you directly and buy from a sales person or from your web site (this is a full discussion for a different time and day) or will they buy it from a reseller, retailer, agent or someone else?

1. How complex is the solution? If the solution is complicated, will require much hand-holding during the sales process or a lot of work for implementation - you may want to sell directly, at the least for the first number of sales (we will speak later about how to correctly enable the partners once you have chosen that (RTM)). If you are selling your product or service based on ease of use and simplicity, you cannot have a long implementation process and you may want to consider using a channel strategy to build more "feet on the street".

2. Make a market vs delivering into an existing one - If you are trying to create a new market or new solution (one not defined by industry analysts or the media), it is difficult to believe that someone outside of your organization will be successful selling the solution. If the channel is already selling similar solutions, they will be successful in selling yours.

3. Expense - In today's economic reality, companies need to judge every shekel carefully. Does the cost of having direct sales people on staff (probably backed by some pre-sales support people) outweigh a discount that you have to give to the agents selling on your behalf. Remember, acquiring the customer is very expensive and the agent may be able to give you access to a new customer for you, but an existing one for them. Also, remember that there is a cost to training and maintaining a good group of resellers acting on your behalf.

4. Trust - A buyer may not trust the marketing material form a vendor, as they assume the marketing material is self-serving. The partner may be a "trusted advisor" of the buyer and may be able to give an "independent" validation to the product or service.

5. Hybrid - Is It Really Greener - A hybrid model of both direct and channel sales can generate conflict. Who owns the client? What if they call on the same client? If a direct sales person is ready to close a deal, but the customer wants to buy it from a 3rd party, how does the direct sales representative get paid? Some companies therefore choose to develop a strategy to go 100% in one direction or the other. Others choose to allow partners to call on customers of a certain size, but block them from larger companies. Others offer "double compensation" to allow for a direct sales person to sell to the client, but the client can then decide to buy however he/she wishes.

There are some good ways to validate and measure what is a better RTM for your business. Contact me for some ways to do this for your business.

How can a company measure the marketing dollars that it is spending? For a start-up or small company, cash is the lifeblood that can not be spilled without getting some type of return. For large corporations, expenses are being held tighter than ever before.

So, in a short period of time, how can the spend be measured?

1. Google Adwords are an easy marketing tool for any company trying to drive traffic to its website or an online trial experience or download. See Google for more details on this Pay Per Click (PPC) program. The advantage of using something like Google for this is the ability to integrate with the other tools that Google provides, like Google Analytics. Your company can increase or decrease its spend by anlyzing the data that is almost in real-time. You can set a limit to monthly spend, if budgets are tightly watched, even if revenue spikes.

2. Gain a true understanding of the return - The way to do this is set a clear goal that can be measured. Is it sales (revenue), is it just lead generation (maybe for partners or even for internal sales staff), or another metric? Brand awareness is very hard to measure for most medium to small companies, so a different metirc needs to be chosen.

3. Plan for follow-up - You are spending money to draw people in. So, now that you have launched a program, what are the next steps with the lead? How are you going to "touch" the potential customer? Email, download of an asset from your site (white paper, picture, file, etc.). phone...You will need a well-defined process to gather your leads and funnel them to a qualification procedure (this could be run by sales or marketing or a joint tele-marketing group.)

4. Do not pull the plug too soon - Just like a development cycle of a product, no matter how much planning you have before your marketing campaign goes into production, there will be "bugs". Those will need to be addressed. This does not mean that you should not plan for what happens when you have a live potential client on the other end of the web, phone or other medium you have chosen. You may say to yourself that you should shut down the program due to these challenges, but I stress that you will never have a 100% perfect run on the first attempt. So, expect some hiccups and continue to fix and measure.

5. Ask for help - There are plenty of online forums of how to build your site to better garner leads. if you have some money, you may want to engage a consultant or firm to help plan and measure the program and its spend.

There is so much more to do and talk about with marketing, but let's stop here for this post.