Every CEO needs a Final Four

College basketball fans know the winning names in Division I coaching. They are the coaches who have taken their programs to the NCAA Final Four and won. Someone ought to write a good-to-great book about why some coaches can do this, and why others never will. I bet a key finding of such a study would be this:

Winning coaches position their programs to capitalize on good fortune.

In the B2B marketing and branding arena, positioning an organization to win should be the purpose of every business leader. And yet so many B2B companies continue to fall short of this objective, not for lack of desire or having talented players, but for a lack of execution – failing to be in the right place at the right time when the game is on the line.

For the winning coach or CEO, it is never enough to just be in the tournament. Winning means your program and your people have lived up to their full potential.

JB

Greater expectations

We set out each day facing personal and business challenges. Late Friday, I learned that my daughter’s thyroid nodule biopsy came back abnormal. No further explanation would be given over the phone and we have had the weekend to think about it.

Business leaders will set out this Monday counting their blessings as they continue to count the rise of economic indicators. Many have learned the lesson of our times, that people and companies must not be allowed to sell themselves short, but must be guided and encouraged each day to reach their greatest potential.

I will go to work this morning and later we will meet with the doctor to learn our options. And whatever “abnormal” means, it means together we will try each day to achieve our greatest potential in business and in life.

JB

The problem with elevator pitches

If you are networking at the chamber meetings and trying to get into the social media flow, then you know how handy it is to have memorized and rehearsed a speedy business proposition. In about the time it takes to reach into your pocket to dispense your business card, you can by now recite your elevator pitch in such an efficient way as to trigger nods all around the table. You have become like a matador, able to face down the big moment, sharply delivering your value proposition, then deftly stepping aside in time for the next person to take their stab at it.

I on the other hand, stumble to do this.

Our firm helps companies communicate more effectively, so that they can sell more effectively. We are a marketing communications firm specializing in B2B brand identity development. But what does that really tell you? Already, your eyes have glazed over.

It seems characteristic of our overall business malaise that the way we listen to each other has changed. We have learned to communicate and to sell the same way we listen, by way of compressed, digitized sound bytes. So even as we move away from the networking table to a prospective customer’s conference table, we continue to address complex customer problems with thirty-second attention spans.

The business world needs more listeners and fewer matadors.

jb

You want it. You got it. Toyota.

If you still doubt the value or even the legitimacy of branding, watch how readily Toyota recovers from their staggering recall. Unless they continue to mis-engineer their products, all the company must do is extend respect, heartfelt apologies, offer an incentive or two and most Toyota fans will keep coming back. And the marketplace will continue to pay a premium for this brand.

Without branding, the company would be mortally wounded.

Meanwhile, today thousands of mid-size manufacturers across the country will charge through their daily lives with their heads down, keeping their fingers crossed, unprotected by such brand equity. When their recall comes, their businesses will be much more likely to fail, because a similar product manufacturer is right is around the corner.

If you are the leader of such a company and you doubt this can happen to you, ask your customers. Branding beats just keeping your fingers crossed.

jb