R U 2 BZ 2 Communicate?

You may have noticed how stupid our smart phones are making us.

Almost daily now, business emails are short, cryptic, text exchanges. This is a clear trend that should set off alarms within today's B2B environment. The trend seems especially pervasive within the industrial manufacturing sector, where our branding and marketing firm's services are focused.

Industrial manufacturing leaders are trying to conduct business via their smart phones, always on the go. They are not reading the full messages you emailed to them, let alone your detailed attachments. They text back to you using vague language. You envision them on their smart phones, hastily tapping away while at red lights in their cars, or they are in meetings. Wherever they are, they are too busy to communicate with you.

No problem, sign of the times: They will communicate back, when they are less busy.

But they do not get back to you. Or when they do, their replies are vague and short-circuited. So you call them, leave a message. You forward your prior email to remind them. You resend the attachment, and their texted or emailed reply conveys they have still not read your communication, because they are too busy.

In this recessionary business environment, industrial manufacturing managers are hampered by thinned out staffs, they are worn weary by insanely long days, and their communications are throttled by haste. Days and weeks fly by before business decisions are thoughtfully made, before initiatives are thoughtfully undertaken. Worse, initiatives occur without proper information sharing and collaboration, without the essential underpinnings to planning, organizing, directing, leading and controlling.

How can an organization communicate to the marketplace, when it cannot communicate within itself? Being too busy to communicate is a peculiar business condition, often exacerbated by the misuse of smart phones and email. But the larger problem is demanding of CEO attention. Poor communication is especially unwarranted when a company's mounting cash reserves could be tapped to restore needed staff and a return to the business of business communication.

jb
www.centrifuge-now.com