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Making A Difference – Thoughts, Observations and Opinions
This is Dave Brock’s Blog.
It offers my views on a variety of business, sales, marketing, and leadership topic. My goal is to make a difference for you, the reader, in both your professional and personal lives.
Latest Posts
Seven Ways To Fail Big
I’m still rolling the conclusions of Paul Carroll’s and Chunka Mui’s HBR article: Seven Ways To Fail Big, around in my mind. The article is very interesting, based on research they have done on 750 business failures.They claim that nearly half could have been avoided (not surprising), and that the avoidable failures were primarily the result of flawed business strategies, not poor execution (somewhat surprising).They summarize seven key reasons: The Synergy Mirage, Faulty Financial Engineering, Stubbornly Staying The Course, Pseudo-Adjacency’s, Bets On The Wrong Technology, Rushing To Consolidate, Roll-ups Of Almost Any Kind. Each reason is accompanied with case studies […]
Letting Form Triumph Over Substance
John Gardner book, EXCELLENCE, published in 1961 is an inspirational book. One line in the book has always stuck with me: “Do not let form triumph over substance.” It’s a constant reminder to me, and refocuses me, particularly when I get caught into motions and activity. I sometimes get discouraged, I see so much effort going into form: Saying the right words, writing the proper letter/email, having the right action plan/project plan, doing the right meetings, having the right appearance. On the surface, everything is polished, professional, things look fantastic. Dig a little bit, and you find nothing behind it. […]
Why Manager’s Don’t Do People Management
I’m a great fan of Wally Bock’s Three Star Leadership Blog. This week, he posted a great article entitled “Why Managers Don’t Do People Management.” Coincidentally, I have been reading several articles and market reports about the tremendous growth in the “Coaching” business. These with Wally’s article lead to some real concerns. In our experience, managers are not spending the right amount of time in “people management,” that is coaching, mentoring, developing, and managing performance. Wally cites a study that would indicate 58% of the people responding would believe that managers are not devoting sufficient time to people management. Wally […]
Saving The Lives Of Malnourished Children
I believe in and support the work of Doctors Without Borders. Today, I received an email, asking to support their winning a $1.5 Million grant from American Express. The process is easy and doesn’t cost you anything other than your time and a vote. Follow the link: Saving The Lives Of Malnourished Children. Follow the instructions and vote for their project! I started this blog on making a difference. Most of the time, I focus on business issues. This is a simple way that each of us can have a profound impact on the lives of children around the world. […]
Developing And Maintaining A Sense Of Urgency
Thanks to the Leadership Now Blog for their post on developing and maintaining a sense of urgency. It gives me another soapbox! A sense of urgency is critical to executing any strategy. However, it is important to note that a sense of urgency is different from activity. In John Kotter’s A Sense Of Urgency, he describes much of what is done under the name of speed, urgency, or activity is actually a false urgency which is “unproductive flurry of behavior built on a platform of anxiety and anger.” Kotter describes a true sense of urgency as being externally focused and […]
Sell Using Value Propositions
In past posts and writing, I’ve taken a pretty strong stance on how the concept of value propositions has been misused. Too much of the time, organizations treat it as the static, silver bullet that causes customers to buy. I have argued that value is in the eye of the buyer and to truly present value, sales and marketing professionals need to understand their what their customers value and address those needs specifically. Value is personal, each individual involved in the buying decision is different and the job of sales professionals is to determine and present value for each of […]