Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
Blog
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
Stop Assuming You Know Your Customers, Start Listening To Them!
Thanks to one of Fred Wilson’s recent posts, I discovered Whitney Hess, a user experience designer in New York. She was quoted: “In order to survive, companies have to stop assuming they know their customers and start listening to them.” Simple and profound.I spend a lot of my time with business, marketing, and sales executives. Many espouse being customer focused. Many are making good strides, but in my experience we have a long way to go.Whitney’s comment got me thinking. Why is it so difficult to listen to our customers? Why is it so difficult to engage our customers in […]
New Year and Goals
I’ve taken a brief holiday from posting, now am back in full force—partly a reflection of goals I have set for myself, the business, and this blog. Getting started in the New Year had me reflect on setting goals–somehow on January 1, we call them resolutions, the rest of the year they are goals. I am constantly amazed at how casually most people treat goals–particularly those they set for themselves. Rather than repeat what lot of well thought out recommendations and observations, I thought it more useful to point you to some good blog posts on the topic. Seth Godin […]
The Giant Wake Up Call
I’m spending the slow time of the Holidays catching up on neglected reading. I just read (or rather re-read) Peggy Noonan’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal: Who We (Still) Are…A Little Perspective For The Pessimistic “Age Of The Empty Suit.” It’s a great piece, you should read it. In reflecting on the article, I agree with her. Despite the litany of bad news from so many sectors, we have so much to look forward to. In the past weeks, I’ve noticed a change in talking to friends, colleagues, and even strangers. I’ve noticed a much greater thoughtfulness. There’s […]
Remembering Deming’s Lessons—Always Important, But Somehow More So Now
Art Petty reminds us in Management Excellence, about Deming’s lessons and their continued currency–particularly in light of the crises in leadership we face. Every time I read Deming, it seems that he is speaking of issues that are critical to leaders and organizations at this very moment, yet the work comes from many years ago. While many other business guru’s come and go like the latest fashions, Deming’s teachings are always important. There is so much of his work that one can cite in a post. Art mentions his theory of Profound Knowledge and 14 Points as good starting points. […]
What Have You Learned Today?
Nina Simosko wrote a great post at the Slow Leadership blog. She addresses the issue of “can you ever have learned enough.” Somehow, the answer to the question seems obvious, but as she implies, unwittingly, many seem to have stopped learning. There are all sorts of excuses, probably the most dominant is “I’m too busy,” the arrogant ones: “I have such deep experience.” The list can go on. Nina points out: “…thinking that you know it all is a sure sign of troubles to come….” As a consultant, unfortunately, many of the problems I see organizations have is they (and […]
What’s Your Question To Comments Ratio?
Great post at Art Petty’s Management Excellence Blog. It speaks to the issue that too many leaders — and I would expand that to business professionals, tend to talk too much and question—listen—probe too little. The Question To Comments ratio concept is fantastic! Take the time to read and practice his advice!