Scott Jeffrey » google

Four Signs That Your Brand Has High Integrity

Scott Jeffrey — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:00:03 +0000

The variations in different brands are as diverse as the men and women who help create them. There are, however, certain qualities all great brands possess.

The singular characteristic that all brands with loyal customers share is high integrity. After all, who would become loyal to a business if the brand were not honest, trustworthy and willing to serve?

Here are four signs that your brand possesses a high level of integrity:

1) Your brand demonstrates a willingness to genuinely serve its customers.

Great companies don’t just create meaningless slogans like “Customer Service Excellence”—they champion customer-centric values as a way of operating every aspect of their business. These businesses go beyond expectations to stand above their competitors. In addition to creating beautifully designed products, Apple supports their Mac User Groups (MUGs) as well as Genius Bar to help educate their customers on how to better use their Apple products.

2) Your brand listens to its customers on a meaningful level.

Corporate leaders of high-integrity businesses leave their comfortable offices and directly engage their customers. Sam Walton used to say, “If you don’t know what to do, go ask the customer. If it’s not happening in the store, it is not important to them.” Costco CEO Jim Sinegal apparently agrees; he visits a different Costco store every day.

3) Your brand exhibits caring awareness and a sense of community with its employees.

High-integrity businesses view their employees as family, not workhorses. Financial analysts criticize Costco for its generosity to its workforce but as CEO Jim Sinegal explains, “We’re trying to build a company that’s going to be here 50 and 60 years from now. We owe that to the communities where we do business. We owe that to our employees, that they can count on us for security.”

4) Your brand cultivates a company culture that reflects what its brand represents.

Companies like Apple, Google, Netflix and Zappos live by certain values that ignite passion in their customers. Because the company’s values are aligned with the customer’s values, customer loyal ensues. Led by CEO Tony Hsieh, Zappos has set a new standard in cultivating a customer-centric culture.

Companies with higher integrity aren’t perfect, but they never settle—they continually strive to improve their offerings and better serve their customers. Instead of playing to the competition, they create and nurture their own unique place in their customer’s hearts and minds.

The Value of Innovation

Scott Jeffrey — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:30:59 +0000

How much does your business value innovation? Is innovation a once-in-a-while occurrence or a continual business objective?

Peter Drucker noted that innovation is one of the only two drivers of business (the other is marketing), yet innovation-driven efforts often get swept into obscurity in an effort to meet the demands of the moment.

To better understand the value of innovation, take a look at one of Wall Street’s most coveted metrics: the Price-to-Earnings Ratio (or P/E Ratio or just “the multiple”).

A publicly-traded company’s P/E ratio is calculated by dividing the stock price (market value per share) by earning per share (EPS). For example, Apple’s current stock price is $168 and its EPS is $5.72 yielding a P/E ratio of 29.41.

The P/E ratio shows how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of earnings. With a multiple of 29.41 investors are willing to pay $29.41 for every $1 of Apple’s earnings.

Higher multiples imply a higher expectation of future growth. While Apple’s multiple is 29.41, multiples for Dell, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard all hover around 15. This means that the market expects Apple to grow twice as fast as its competitors.

Apple, Amazon.com, Google and Netflix all have staggeringly high P/E ratios as a consequence of their customer-centric, innovation-driven businesses. Their higher multiples increase the perceived value of their business today, providing them with a larger pool of capital to continue to fuel innovation efforts tomorrow.

Notice also how these innovation-driven businesses dominate within their respective markets.

It pays to be innovative.

Allowing Ideas to Enter Your Mind

Scott Jeffrey — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:00:47 +0000

Our Western culture is busy. In fact, corporate America has mistaken busyness with business. With an onslaught of e-mails, text messages, phone calls and meetings, there’s no shortage of busyness. There is always something to do.

Little of our daily communication supports the creative process, which tends to favor allowing over doing. You’ve probably experienced a great idea popping into mind as you’ve aimlessly walked through the woods, showered or cruised the highway. It’s the power of allowing at work.

Consider giving your employees space to wander, play and create—even on non-work-related activities. Reverie and play are often the precursor to breakthrough ideas.

Google engineers, for example, spend 20 percent of their time working on whatever they want. Google trusts their talented employees to build useful and innovative things—some of which will become new projects in Google Labs.

The lesson: Sometimes it’s best to focus on allowing instead of just doing.

The Right People for the Right Culture

Scott Jeffrey — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:18:40 +0000

How important is hiring the right people? If you’re trying to cultivate a culture around a clearly defined set of core values, the right people mean everything.

Zappos offers new hires a $2,000 bonus to quit after week one of four weeks of paid training. CEO Tony Hsieh explains, “It’s best to know early on if an employee doesn’t buy into the vision or the culture.”

You also won’t last very long in companies like Southwest Airlines, Netflix, Apple, Umpqua Bank, or Google if your attitude isn’t aligned with the company’s core values.

It isn’t easy to find the right people, but it’s impossible if you don’t define what your culture stands for.

With a distinctive, clearly-defined culture your job gets much easier. By being the best expression of what your culture represents you’ll naturally attract employees aligned with your culture and repel those who are not.

Your Chief Culture Officer

Scott Jeffrey — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:00:49 +0000

Every organization has a culture. Members’ rituals, values, beliefs, achievements, attitudes and behaviors express an organization’s culture. Some company cultures are better defined than others.

Does your business have a Chief Culture Officer, someone responsible for managing, maintaining and uplifting the company’s culture?

If you’re a leader in a big business, you may not think it’s practical to have a CCO. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin disagree. They bestowed the CCO title on Stacy Savides Sullivan in 2006. Her job is to find ways to enhance and develop Google’s culture as it continues to grow. Not an easy task. Google has over 20,000 full-time employees.

If you’re a small business owner, you may think you can’t afford a CCO. That’s probably true. But as Michael Gruber points out in The E-Myth Revisited, the entrepreneur wears multiple hats and must manage all the necessary organizational roles that aren’t covered by others. Managing the culture of your organization is your responsibility.

If you’re committed to growing a sustainable business, the organization’s culture is vitally important to the health of your business.

Create an Inspiring Work Environment

Scott Jeffrey — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:19:22 +0000

Do conditions in your workplace support positive, creative thinking?

Most office space feels dead and lifeless. If you don’t create an environment where people enjoy working, how can you expect them to perform at their best?

eBay’s headquarters houses a dedicated meditation room. Google offers healthy, organic cuisine prepared by a gourmet chef. Check out high-rated companies from Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and model their successful environments.

Research has demonstrated that fluorescent lighting collapses the body’s acupuncture meridians and hampers the brain’s ability to think clearly. Replacing fluorescent lighting with full-spectrum, natural bulbs can actually affect the bottom line.

Surround the workspace with plants to infuse more life into the environment. Be aware of wall colors, mounted pictures and paintings, and the use of floor space. All of these factors affect the environment’s appeal.

For more inspiration, check out the “About Us” pages of your favorite innovative companies’ Web sites.

The Lesson: Create an environment that lifts your employee’s spirits rather than drains their energy.

Focus on Your Customers

Scott Jeffrey — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:14:55 +0000

Business owners and executives often make their jobs harder than it needs to be. Without having a clear filter or lens to make business decisions, you might as well flip a coin.

The strongest lens you can look through leads to an obsessive focus on your customers. It doesn’t matter if you’re offline or online, or if you sell products or services—consistent focus on your customers is the best way to effectively grow your business.

Google’s VP of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer explains, “We believe that if we focus on the users, the money will come. In a truly virtual business, if you’re successful, you’ll be working at something that’s so necessary people will pay for it in subscription form. Or you’ll have so many users that advertisers will pay to sponsor the site.”

Revenue is generated as a consequence of serving your customers. Focus on better serving the needs of your customers, not on making the next sale.

Is Your Business Killing Creativity?

Scott Jeffrey — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:00:39 +0000

In today’s hyper-connected, ludicrously-fast-moving global marketplace, businesses are racing to grow big—and fast. Wall Street and private investors alike demand double-digit growth year after year and track it month after month.

Many business owners and executives fail to realize growth results when they set up the right conditions. Profitability and customer loyalty are consequences of a business’s commitment to evolve, innovate and exceed their customers’ expectations.

Ironically, a focus on obsessive growth can often stifle innovation, the lifeblood of a business’s growth and expansion. Just ask companies like Apple, Google, Netflix or any company that thrives in a competitive landscape. Or talk to Microsoft, Yahoo! and Blockbuster to learn how the aforementioned competitors have trampled their market share.

Consider Proctor & Gamble: In 2000, the company issued several profit warnings, sending the stock tumbling to half its value. A.G. Lafley arrives as the new chairman and CEO and shifts their focus to customer-centered innovations. Profits tripled and P&G is now one of the most valued companies in America.

Conducting “business as usual” is a surefire way to make your business obsolete. Innovation and growth requires unbridled creativity to ask questions, solve problems and create an extraordinary customer experience, which in turn requires the proper inner and outer conditions to manifest.

Learn to eliminate the barriers to rapid creative innovation, but first learn to appreciate the Capital of Creativity as the source of your business success.