As Seen In… 2008 Archives

Here you’ll find a collection of articles published during 2008.

bMighty

Strategy Matters: How To Gather Facts For Tough Decisions
November 14, 2008

By Nilofer Merchant, CEO of Rubicon Consulting

In bad times, it’s tempting to slash costs and cut head count. But acting blindly on those impulses can damage your company more than any economic downturn. Business owners should use their company strategy as the foundation for tough decisions, and making good choices means gathering hard data.

During an economic downturn, consumer product companies often react first and predictably: they cut spending. Such cuts are rooted in fears that customers will stop buying and the conviction that it’s better to cut quickly and hunker down for the rough road ahead. It’s the business version of “fight or flight,” and it causes problems that result in severe difficulty.

First, across-the-board cuts slash everything equally. This makes no sense. Why would you reduce the profitability of your best products by cutting your strongest market segments? Second, though you may cut your weak market segments a bit, you’re not eliminating them, so they’ll continue be a drag on revenue. Tough times are the best time to cut weak products and services, the business version of “survival of the fittest.”

And while some business owners mortally injure their business by reactively slashing and burning, taking a “wait and see” approach can inflict just as many wounds — bleeding out slowly or quickly both have the same result. In either case, business owners abandon their strategy and squander the objective identification of strengths that can carry their company through bad times.

Rather than being reactive, business leaders should take a proactive stance and that requires data, which means fact-finding. Fortunately, there’s a methodology that can help you know what you need to do, and quickly, so you can craft a strategy and get moving: a fact-gathering process framework for thinking about what you learn, so you have the context you need to make better decisions.

The four components of fact gathering:

  • Inquiry
  • Interview
  • Confidentiality
  • Categorize and verify

Though it’s tempting to skip ahead or over some steps — the urge will be strongest for internal groups familiar with a situation or organization — skipping steps will result in a strategy that’s not aligned with the real issues facing your business.

Inquiry

Focus on asking questions. Treat fact gathering like a discovery process and remain open to what you might find and don’t assume you know the answer. Don’t try to find answers; that can limit the discovery process. These questions can help start a fact gathering session:

  • What do we know about what has been done before?
  • Who has been involved?
  • What results did they generate?
  • What do we need to know about why this worked or didn’t work?

Capture the results of these and other questions and be sure to note the source of each fact. For instance, if you identify the 2007 Consumer Software TAM was $X million, it’s important to know where that data came from as you may need to re-evaluate that fact later or gather more information. Tracking sources also increases team credibility in future discussions.

Interview

Gathering information and insight are important steps in the fact-gathering process and interviews are a good tool for soliciting this data. Plus, they also can help you build support for your strategy. Whenever possible, conduct interviews face to face, especially when you’re discussing a complex problem. The additional cues you observe during an in-person interview can provide insights on the factors that influence responses and give you exposure to people across the organization.

Interviews can be a gold mine for discovering things you didn’t know you were looking for. Asking crazy off-the-wall questions signals interviewees that you welcome a wide-ranging discussion and that’s when you’ll get the really interesting input — the interviews may take longer, but there’s a payoff.

Asking for help also can be a productive interview technique. Ask people to help you understand what’s happening. Ask them to share what they think you should know. Ask them what matters most. Asking for help will open doors and that extends to identifying other interview candidates. Ask every interviewee to suggest other people for other interviews and keep track of them — you’ll see patterns that will tip you off to key people within the organization.

Confidentiality

Make sure that everyone you interview understands that you will keep the information they provide confidential. This will free them to speak candidly and give you more opportunities to discover important information.

Maintaining confidentiality does require that you scrub your materials before sharing them beyond the fact-gathering team. It is crucial that everyone on the team respect the pledge of confidentiality and contribute to enforcing it.

Categorize And Verify

You can gather great information, but without a framework to organize it, you won’t be able to use the data, much less share it with others to build toward a coherent strategy. Dividing the data into the following four categories will make it easier to understand and determine what you’ve discovered:


What you know and can confirm — This data will come from many sources, but should only include items that the fact-gathering team believes to be accurate. Anecdotal data provided by multiple sources might be in this category, but a single-source anecdote would not. And make sure the data is current — last year’s numbers won’t do you any good.

What you believe but can’t confirm — Typically, this category includes personal experiences, single-source anecdotes, and subjective impressions. This data is often powerful and persuasive, but unless you can verify it, don’t be swayed from keeping it in the unconfirmed category.

What you doubt — During the fact-gathering process, you’ll unearth bits of information that aren’t quite believable. From strange sets of numbers to goals that don’t sound right to conflicting information, this data should be tagged as questionable. But questionable doesn’t mean unvalued — this data can often help you identify gaps in people’s view of the issues.

What doesn’t fit — This category is the catchall for red herring and corporate myths like the huge sales deal from five years back that became a benchmark for closing deals, but doesn’t have anything to do with the problem you’re trying to solve. Data in this category should be set aside so it doesn’t get dragged into every conversation and bog down your progress.
Key Findings Framework

After you’ve categorized your data, you need a framework for understanding it and communicating it the organization. To prepare your findings, follow these steps:

Set aside time to reread everything in your four categories (everything!)

Create an outline as your reread the data that asks:


  • What did I learn?

  • What does it mean?

  • From the outline, draft a list of key points from your findings

  • Identify at least three supporting facts for each key point

  • Review the sources for the supporting facts — reconfirm and document so you know they are solid

  • Review your key findings with the fact-gathering team to identify any gaps

After you’ve filled any holes in your key findings, share them as a part of a discussion about the “state of the organization.” Report the facts you discovered with specific details; this will minimize dissent about your key findings and may lead to discovering additional data that augments what you’ve already learned.

This fact-gathering phase is a precursor to crafting the strategy that will propel your company forward — the diagnosis that leads to cure — and provides a platform for you to make important decisions.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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SandHill

SandHill.com: When the Best Defense is Growth
September 26, 2008

by Mike Mace

If your business is targeted by a larger competitor, the natural response is to want to play defense - to squeeze pricing, take special care of the channel, maybe do some promotions and guerrilla marketing. We’d never advise you to take your eye off a competitor, but the defensive reaction isn’t always the best way to fight. A larger competitor will expect you to do these things, and will usually be well prepared for siege warfare. They’ll be ready to match your pricing and outspend you in the channel in order to drive you out of the market.

Sometimes the best defense isn’t defending at all, it’s finding ways to grow the market. If your customers are still early in the adoption curve, and especially if there are new segments you can open up, it’s usually more cost-effective for you to bring in new users than it is to defend every inch of the turf you hold today.

This stands normal industry wisdom on its head; it’s supposed to always be cheaper to keep an existing customer than to get a new one. But think about it - if your market isn’t already flooded by competitors, a new entrant can usually get 10% share just by showing up and being different. You should always defend the core of your market, but that 10% at the fringe can be very expensive to keep. If you made the same investment in a new part of the market where there’s no competition, you might be able to grow in the new area faster than you lose people in the current segment.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Optimize
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bMighty

Strategy Matters: 6 Ways to be a Better Leader
September 25, 2008

by Nilofer Merchant

All of us may be leaders of ideas, but many of us also are leaders of people. It’s important that we prepare ourselves for both roles and understand our power and responsibilities. Unfortunately, few of us have been trained about the choices and decisions we must make as leaders.

Choice is an important concept in business. And it’s difficult. Often people are more comfortable generating ideas than winnowing them down to “the one” that meets the need. Our culture supports idea generation, mulling it over, subtracting one thing, adding two more. We’ve all experienced it - an endless trail that perpetuates itself whenever the team unearths a glittering gem and slows the decision-making process to a crawl.

When you show up to lead, choices aren’t personal. Choices can be ethical. They can be financial. They can be strategic and have ramifications for the company that will resonate for years. Choices can also be confusing - all directions are valuable, but as a leader, you’re looking for the single best one. If you want to be a better leader, you must make six choices.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Define
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Nilofer Merchant Selected as Worldwide Innovation Role Model
September 17, 2008

On August 11, 2008, Rubicon CEO Nilofer Merchant became one of a select group of 36 women in technology to be profiled as global role models.

Enabled by the growth of social media, the “IT Around the World” project increases international understanding and demonstrates how important the contribution of women in technology is on every continent.

August 11 was selected because it was on this date in 1942 that Hedy Lamarr’s Spread Spectrum patent was approved. It continues to be the basis of frequency hopping, wireless and mobile communications today.

View Nilofer’s album entry here.

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Business Week

Apple’s iPhone Takes a Toll
August 7, 2008

Rubicon continues to receive mention for the iPhone User Survey, this time in a BusinessWeek piece by Olga Kharif that explains who the winners and losers are as consumers continue to purchase the new, less expensive 3G version iPhone with GPS.

Here’s and excerpt from the article:

“The iPhone doesn’t always completely replace other phones, either. A greater chunk of iPhone 3G buyers are carrying the device instead of a notebook computer and keeping a second cell phone for calling (a third of original iPhone users carried a second phone, according to a March survey of 460 U.S. users conducted by Rubicon Consulting). Here’s why: Chowdhry’s latest survey shows that iPhone 3G users spend 80% of their time browsing the Web and only 20% of their time making calls. That’s in sharp contrast to a typical smartphone, whose users spend 60% of the time making calls. “They should change [iPhone’s] name to an iTablet,” says Chowdhry. “The usage scenario is evolving. People use the iPhone as a PC in your pocket. It’s slightly mispositioned in the market.”“

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Define
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iStockAnalyst

Apple iPhone Takes a Toll
August 7, 2008

Rubicon’s iPhone User Study was cited today in iStockAnalyst’s pickup of the BusinessWeek story.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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bMighty

Strategy Matters: 6 Ways to Strategize Like Enterprises
July 15, 2008

by Nilofer Merchant

Effectively implementing and executing business strategy can be the difference between success and failure. By strategizing like enterprises, smaller businesses can meet their objectives and level the playing field.

Strategizing like an enterprise can make the difference between success and failure for a smaller business. How the actions of the teams in your organization support (or don’t support) your strategy makes all the difference and in whether or not your business moves toward achieving your goals.

Here are six ways that leaders in smaller businesses can use strategy as well as, or even better than, enterprises:

1. What Gets Measured, Gets Done

Measure everything in your business according to your strategy and goals. Theres a tremendous opportunity for you, as the CEO or general manager, to make strategy—related metrics part of everything that happens in the company. Whether it’s a particular scripted style of answering the phone reminding customers of your latest product launch or an enclosure in every product shipment reminding users of your commitment to quality, there’s always a way to build in a reference to your sales support or quality communication strategies. Measure the behavior you want people to do that supports the strategy that leads to goal achievement.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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SandHill

Who’s Making Money on the Web?
July 14, 2008

By Bruce La Fetra

While failure for the high-tech entrepreneur is less likely to result in death, the parallels between the Gold Rush and the current Web-based economy are many. In both cases, participants must to adapt to a new way of life, with new rules. Or rather, no pre-existing, fixed rules.

Silicon Valley’s famous tolerance of entrepreneurial failure has its roots more than 150 years ago in the Gold Rush when more than 90,000 people made their way to California in the two years following John Marshall’s discovery of gold near Sacramento in January, 1848. By 1854, more than 300,000—representing more than one percent of the total population of the United States at the time—had come west in search of fortune.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Define
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Entrepreneur

5 Reasons Why Strategy Fails
July 2, 2008

By Nilofer Merchant

Understanding the ‘worst’ practices helps small businesses do better.

I’ve watched strategy being developed within companies like Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and Nokia. I’ve seen strategy created by individuals. I’ve seen the big suits of Bain and McKinsey at work. I’ve seen it done well, and occasionally I’ve seen it done poorly. Having read more than 100 books that define the best thinking on strategy, I’ve noticed that following the existing methods often doesn’t yield success.

It’s not just the methodology. Here are five reasons strategy fails in small businesses, in midsize businesses, and in large enterprises:

1. The Blame Game

How many times have you seen a strategy move into execution, then fail? Typically, the postmortem involves blame. It was poor leadership. We didn’t execute correctly. We had bad market data. Our customers decided they wanted something else. The timing was off. There are hundreds more, and you’ve heard many of them.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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bMighty

Strategy Matters: 5 Reasons Why Strategy Fails
July 2, 2008

by Nilofer Merchant

Following best practices can help drive a successful business strategy, but understanding what the “worst” practices are is just as important. Here are five reasons strategy fails in small businesses, in midsize businesses, and in large enterprises

I’ve watched strategy being developed within companies like Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and Nokia. I’ve seen strategy created by individuals. I’ve seen the big suits of Bain and McKinsey at work. I’ve seen it done well, and occasionally I’ve seen it done poorly. Having read more than 100 books that define the best thinking on strategy, I’ve noticed that following the existing methods often doesn’t yield success.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Define
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9 to 5 Mac - Apple Intelligence

Motorola Massacre: iPhone Slices RAZR
June 30, 2008

by Andy Space

Apple’s iPhone is already snapping at the heels of Research In Motion and trouncing Palm, but spare a thought for another victim of the invasion — former partner, Motorola.

Motorola’s handset sales are suffering now in the PiP (Post—iPhone) world. A survey by Rubicon Consulting reveals 14 per cent made the switch from Windows Mobile; 13 per cent from Blackberry, 7 per cent ran from Palm - but almost a quarter, 24 per cent, of those surveyed were previously owners of a Motorola Razr.


The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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SandHill

Warning: Don’t Adopt SaaS in Increments
June 27, 2008

by Michael Mace

Like an oyster, software as a service business models are best consumed in one gulp rather than nibbled over time.

We’re seeing more and more clients struggling to integrate online services with their existing software businesses. Most are trying to integrate part of the services model with their current operations. For example, they’ll try to create an on-demand product using traditional engineering practices; or they’ll try to sell services through the same channels as shrink-wrapped software. The companies that do this are experiencing…

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Optimize
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bMighty

Strategy Matters: 9 Ways to Develop Team Motivation
June 19, 2008

by Nilofer Merchant

When the ancient Greeks invaded, they burned their ships so there was no choice but to move forward. By “burning the boat” on your next initiative, you can motivate your employees to contribute to the objective and help your business succeeed.

When we work with teams, we often find that members agree in principle, yet may not support the direction of the company.

How often has this type of scenario unfolded at your smaller business: The company decides to move sales (or marketing, or finance, or any other unit) in a new direction. An announcement goes out, a meeting is held, heads nod in agreement. Then day two merges into week two and that soon becomes month two. Somewhere in there you realize that no one is supporting the new direction. And there’s no talk about it — life goes on just as it did before. It’s as if all the planning, meeting, and strategizing never happened.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Define
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Chief Marketer

Is the iPhone Already Losing Ground?
June 17, 2008

by Rick Ferguson

A March 2008 Rubicon survey of 460 users revealed that 47% of iPhone buyers switched to AT&T from another carrier, and 35% of those switchers paid an early contract termination fee. Rubicon estimates that AT&T has enjoyed a revenue boost of roughly $2 billion from a combination of those switchers and existing AT&T customers upgrading their accounts.

In eight months, AT&T and Apple captured 28% of the smart phone market. They even expanded that market, with 50% of the users surveyed upgrading from other smart phones and 10% choosing the iPhone as their first smart phone.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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PBS

MediaShift: Spain’s National Obsession With Mobiles, Texting
June 13, 2008

by Jennifer Woodard Maderazo

I asked tech consultant and blogger Michael Mace, who wrote a very detailed and enlightening blog post about the differing mobile cultures, why he thought the use of SMS in Europe evolved the way it did.

“Fixed-line phones were hard to get in Europe and expensive, so mobile phone usage took off there much more aggressively than it did in the U.S.” he said. “Prices for texting in Europe were lower than prices for phone calls, so people had an economic incentive to text. In the U.S., mobile service was not as reliable as in Europe, fixed-line phones were cheap, many more people had PCs, and IM was completely free. So texting never became the big force here that it is in Europe (and in much of Asia).”

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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bMighty

Strategy Matters: Smaller Businesses Move Quickly to Strategic Alignment
June 11, 2008

by Nilofer Merchant

Even seasoned business leaders struggle to put strategy into action, focusing on the “what” at the expense of the “how.” Because smaller businesses have more visibility into the interdependencies, conflicts, resources, and deliverables that often hobble larger organizations, they can move more nimbly to put strategy into action.

Executives at the helm of companies from small firms to large enterprises spend much of their time thinking about how to drive growth. But putting those thoughts into action can challenge even the most seasoned leader. Often executives focus on the “what” of strategy at the expense of the “how” — neglecting the “how” makes success a long shot.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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MSNBC

Smartphones are Heeding the Call of Consumers
June 10, 2008

by Suzanne Choney, MSNBC

Research done by Rubicon Consulting of 460 iPhone users found that about half of them said they had a “conventional” cell phone before moving to an iPhone. Another 40 percent said they bought the iPhone to replace their previous smartphone.

The remaining 10 percent “didn’t replace anything, meaning either that the iPhone is their first phone, or that they carry it in addition to a second phone,” the Rubicon study said.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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TelecomAsia.net

Mobile form triumphs over function
June 9, 2008

By Matt Lewis/Arc Chart

If there was any doubt, a recent set of metrics from two market research firms show that consumers are placing emphasis on the aesthetics of their mobile phones and are increasingly prepared to pay a premium for it.

According to a survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates of almost 20,000 mobile phone owners in the US, the average price paid for a handset has increased by US$9 over the past six months, to a record high of US$101.

In another study by Rubicon Consulting, the firm asked….

The original publication can be found at this link.

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MSNBC

An iPhone for the Masses
June 9, 2008

By Suzanne Choney, MSNBC

“Considering the number of people who are switching from other carriers in order to get the iPhone, that’s a subsidy well worth it for AT&T,” said Michael Mace of Rubicon Consulting.

AT&T iPhone plans start at $59 a month. Rubicon Consulting surveyed 460 iPhone users earlier this year, and found that they are spending an average of $90 a month for their phone service, he said. “That’s $1,000 a year per customer that they’re getting.”

Mace thinks that iPhone pricing might drop even further in the fall, down to around $100.

“A lot of users are very price-sensitive, and getting down to a more affordable price is absolutely critical,” he said. “The iPhone, even at the new prices, is still more expensive than a lot of the smartphones out there. A lot of them are $99.”

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Buzz Marketing for Technology

New Rules of Web Marketing - A Podcast with Rubicon’s Michael Mace
June 2, 2008

Are you really taking advantage of the next-generation marketing opportunities created by the Web?

Many marketing teams are being asked by senior leaders in their organizations why they aren’t using the same cutting edge tactics as some of their competitors. When is it right to use cutting edge tactics? When is it right to use traditional tactics? When and how should you integrate the two?

To answer these questions, Paul Dunay of Buzzmarketing for Technology interviewed Rubicon’s Michael Mace, who runs a Web Marketing Boot Camp to help marketing teams come together, discuss these issues, and learn what Web marketing tactics link best to their corporate strategy.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Defend
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Wall Street Journal

Why the iPhone Means So Much To Apple
May 23, 2008

by Nick Wingfield

While we’re on the topic of Apple, Michael Mace, a principal at Silicon Valley strategy advisory firm Rubicon Consulting, argues that the iPhone is crucial to Apple’s future in a short piece in the firm’s newsletter. That may seem obvious, but it’s actually the blazing growth of Apple’s legacy Macintosh business that’s driving revenue and profits at the moment.

Mace, a onetime Apple executive, parses the company’s most recent earnings report to point out that iPod unit growth has essentially ground to a halt - up only 1% from the same quarter the prior year. (Mac unit growth was 51%.) He adds that it’s risky for Apple to rely on the relatively mature PC market for such a big part of its growth.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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New York Times

Drilling Down: IPhone’s Hold on Users Not Exclusive
May 19, 2008

By Alex Mindlin

Nearly half of iPhone users changed carriers in order to use the device, according to a survey of 460 iPhone users by Rubicon Consulting, a technology consulting firm. The survey found that the average iPhone user was paying $19 more in phone bills than before.

“The numbers are big enough that clearly this thing is profitable for AT&T,” said Michael Mace, a principal at Rubicon. “The big financial leverage is on the people who switch carriers. It’s not like you have to add new cell towers for them; they’re almost all profit. And those people are hard to come by, because you have to switch them off somebody else’s network.”

The original publication can be found at this link.

Practice: Optimize
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Montgomery Research - Perform

Old School, New School …And How They Relate to Marketing
May 19, 2008

By Nilofer Merchant

We all want to be cool and current, but not at the expense of effectiveness and relevance.

We all want to be new school and know the latest hit song (via iTunes). I wouldn’t know what that was without looking it up because what I pay attention to the most are things I already love. While I’d like to be cutting edge, the songs that run through my head are more like “The Way We Were,” if I’m feeling melancholy; “Sweet Home Alabama,” if I feel good; or Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” if I feel, you know, sassy.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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bMighty

Eight Great PowerPoint Myths
May 15, 2008

By Nilofer Merchant

PowerPoint presentations that flood the audience with glittering graphics, brazen bulleted lists, and endless animations may look great, but they often drown out the message. Just because you can use every PowerPoint feature doesn’t mean you should

A friend of mine once told me that the best nap he ever took was during a PowerPoint presentation; I know many of you would concur. Great and PowerPoint — those words are seldom seen together. Memorable presentations provide information, direction, and next steps. Bad ones? They leave you wishing you’d had a root canal instead.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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SavvySugar

Rising to the Top Isn’t Easy or Impossible
May 6, 2008

When you kick off your career with an entry-level gig, getting your career to the place you imagine it can seem like a long, impossible road. You dream of winning the lottery, or if all else fails, moving somewhere that allows you to do minimal work while living on the beach. While these fantasies can help you through your daily grind they’ll do nothing to catapult you up the career chain. Sure some people are naturally lucky in the connections they make or being in the right place at the right time, but most of us rely on a solid work ethic to help us stand out and propel our careers from neutral into drive. The Wall Street Journal recently profiled Nilofer Merchant who started her career as an administrative assistant and at 40 is the CEO of her own technology consulting firm. To see what she says about getting where you want to go in your career, just read more.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Optimize
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Wall Street Journal

How I Got Here: Nilofer Merchant, CEO/Founder, Rubicon Consulting
May 1, 2008

By Elizabeth Garone

Before founding her own technology consulting firm in 1999, Nilofer Merchant worked for a number of the big names in technology, from Apple Computer to Autodesk. Along the way she worked for a lot of different personalities; at Apple alone, Ms. Merchant had 23 different managers. She attributes much of her success to “failing fast” and “failing often” and always getting right back up again. Writer Elizabeth Garone spoke to Ms. Merchant about her journey. Edited excerpts follow.

Full name: Nilofer Merchant
Age: 40
Hometown: Los Gatos
Current position: CEO/Founder, Rubicon Consulting
First job: Administrative Assistant at Apple Computer
Favorite job: My current one
Education: B.S. in Economics from University of San Francisco, M.B.A. from Santa Clara University
Years in the industry: 18
How I got here in 10 words or less: Many companies, many positions, failing fast, and having courage.

Q: As CEO/Founder, what are your responsibilities?

A: Leading an ensemble of strategists, and each of those strategists is responsible for doing transformational client work.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Optimize
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bMighty

Killer E-Mail Marketing: Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse
May 1, 2008

By Nilofer Merchant

Knowing your audience is critical to successful e-mail marketing. Smaller businesses that take the time to know who they’re communicating with do better than those that quickly push out messages just because they can.

E-mail marketing isn’t new. We’ve all seen our in-boxes slammed with spam for a long time. But how can you actually be effective and get results?

Know Your Audience and Be Relevant

Knowing your audience and addressing them directly with relevant content is critical to successful e-mail marketing. Companies that take the time to know who they’re communicating with do better than those that quickly push out messages just because they can. This is part of the change occurring as business moves to Web 2.0 — pushing one message to the world just doesn’t cut it anymore.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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bMighty

Positive Branding and the Customer Experience in Purchasing
March 27, 2008

By Nilofer Merchant

What is it like to buy your product? If a smaller business manages the purchasing experience well, the reward is not only a loyal customer who buys again and is your advocate but also a polishing of your brand. Here’s how…

When some people think of the term “brand,” they may think of the stuff that a PR or a corporate marketing team does to create a tag line. They might think of the pretty slicks full of marketing language that “position” the company. But a brand is (and I know you readers have heard me say this before, so my apologies for being redundant!) more than the fluff. And for small and midsize businesses in highly competitive markets, clear branding helps differentiate your products from your competitors’.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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The iPod Observer

Mace on iPhone: Other Mobile Platforms Pathetic
March 12, 2008

It is as if the entire mobile phone industry was asleep at the wheel for a decade.

So says John Martellaro of The iPod Observer after interviewing Rubicon’s principal Mike Mace. Martellaro’s piece follows:

Michael Mace, formerly with Palm and Apple, noted in his blog last week that the other mobile platforms have such a primitive infrastructure that they appear pathetic compared to Apple. Apple has changed the rules of the game, and that’s the way to attack bigger, stronger competitors.

Mr. Mace is currently a principal at Rubicon Consulting. His background as a Chief Competitive Officer and VP of Product Planning at Palm and VP of Strategic Marketing at PalmSource gives him an authoritative, insider’s view of Apple’s current moves, especially regarding the iPhone SDK initiative.

The original publication can be found at this link.

Practice: Define
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Chief Marketer

Satisfaction is the Key to Customer Experience Design
March 11, 2008

by Harry Max

In the same way hope is not a strategy, customer experience design is not an accident.

Unfortunately, many companies fail to deliver on customers’ tacit demands — their essential needs, which involve how the experience of purchase or adoption or use is experienced.

With a few obvious exceptions, such as dealing with Apple, I’m shocked and amazed when my (admittedly low) expectations are exceeded by a customer experience I would characterize as truly delightful. And I’m not unusual. Most consumers will be delighted if a company even comes close to delivering on a customer experience, not just a product.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Deliver
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Financial Week

So sorry, but running a company means…
February 28, 2008

by Don Frischmann

The art of the apology is something that occupants of the C-suite would be well advised to study and learn

As if being a successful CEO wasn’t tough enough, now you may have to learn a new skill: the art of apologizing. The number of public C-level apologies is growing daily, as Mattel’s Robert Eckert, TD Ameritrade’s Joe Moglia, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Sallie Mae’s Albert Lord and JetBlue’s David Neeleman have joined a very long list.

What’s happening? Have business leaders suddenly abdicated control?

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Define
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Pocketnow.com

Mobile Applications: Dead or Dying?
February 24, 2008

Steve Muller notes, “I just read a very provocative article at Michael Mace’s Mobile Opportunity blog. His contention, backed by some mobile application software developers, is that developing native mobile applications is a dead or dying business.

This is happening because the business model for developing mobile applications is so bad due to the fracturing mobile OS scene, OS companies and carriers trying to control the mobile space via certification and resellers taking big bites of the sales.

He feels that most mobile development will be moving to the Web, where all your device needs is a good browser and you don’t have to kiss the behind of the OS company, the carrier and the resellers. He admits that the mobile Web isn’t the best technology to develop for, but feels better business models and not-ideal technology will trump great technology with poor business models.

And this isn’t just some sky-is-falling, no-nothing yahoo here. Michael Mace was a VP at Palm and is a principal consultant at Rubicon Consulting.”

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bMighty

From Porter’s Five Forces to the Permeable Corporation: A New Business Model
February 13, 2008

By Nilofer Merchant

Web 2.0 efficiencies disrupt old business models by reducing manufacturing and investment costs and decentralizing information. It’s time for the permeable corporation, where success depends upon cooperation and interaction.

I’ve been studying Web 2.0 business models for some time now, and as the new clashes with the old I keep seeing the inherent and inevitable disruption. This is typified and represented by Michael Porter’s Five Forces, a model that defines the forces that influence and shape an industry. But the more I looked at Porter’s analysis, the more I understood that while this model demonstrates some elements of the Web 2.0 industry, this is an industry that is redefining models and requires a fresh analysis and a new approach in order for its companies to thrive.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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Practice: Define
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Rain Today

Paying Good Deeds Forward: Some Silicon Valley Thinking For Your Firm
February 13, 2008

By Harry Max

We hear a lot about competition in business in very graphic terms: stomp on them, beat them, leave them in the dust, take market share, among other like terms. However, the real key to doing great business is to pay it forward. We seldom hear about it, but in my neighborhood - Silicon Valley - it’s a way of life. Here’s how it works.

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Practice: Define
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SandHill

Is Your Business Model Built for the Long Haul?
February 8, 2008

by Bruce LaFetra

Despite public statements to the contrary, most of us know full well that more technology company business models are built around the technology than are built around customer relationships.

The problem is that all technology either becomes obsolete or a commodity given enough time, meaning that centering your business model around a specific technology often leaves you one wrong move away from putting your very business survival at risk. Less thought about, but perhaps even more important is that technology-centric business models limit your offerings and growth potential, so they are associated with lower valuations over the long term.

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Practice: Deliver
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The Pricing Advisor

Segmenting Your Way to Greater Profits
January 22, 2008

Why do software vendors offer so many buying vehicles?

The most common reasons are to give buyers multiple options and because “everyone else” does. The actual strategic rationale for offering a menu of different vehicles and discounts is poorly understood or forgotten within many vendors, yet it represents the difference between adequate and great pricing. Great pricing allows a vendor to discriminate between different types of buyers and charge them different prices. This is not illegal discrimination, but rather about enabling a vendor to take advantage of the fact that different user sets derive different amounts of value from the vendor’s products, and thus are willing to buy at different price levels. Understanding this, and successfully putting it into practice, is fundamental to price optimization. But if it’s so fundamental, why don’t more vendors do it well?

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Practice: Define
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Download PDF of this publication.

AdAge

Nothing Is Insignificant When it Comes to Brand Fulfillment
January 21, 2008

As if being a successful CEO wasn’t tough enough, now you may have to learn a new skill: the art of apologizing. The number of public C-level apologies is growing daily as Mattel’s Robert Eckert, Ameritrade’s Joe Moglia, Apple’s Steve Jobs and JetBlue’s David Neeleman join a very long list.

What’s happening? Have business leaders suddenly abdicated control? Are financial expectations overtaking common sense and good business judgment? Or have corporations lost touch with their customers?

The original publication can be found at this link.

Practice: Define
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The Pragmatic Marketer

Problem Solving: It’s All About Smart(er) Questions
January 18, 2008

A problem is the difference between your current and desired conditions. It can result from new knowledge, or it might come from an unfulfilled dream. When you identify the difference between what you have and what you want, you have defined your problem and can begin to develop a plan to achieve your goal.

How many times have you jumped straight to the resolution of a problem, only to realize later that, if you had first asked questions and listened, you could have come up with a far better solution?

In my experience, the answer isn’t in the solution, it’s in the questions. Smart questions define problems well and lead to a clear vision of the issues involved. When that occurs, it’s easier to run through multiple scenarios to their conclusion and find the best answer that leads to growth and profit.

The original publication can be found at this link.

Practice: Define
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CMP

Strategy Matters: 7 Steps to the Right Kind of Market Research
January 16, 2008

Tapping into your customer base to learn what they need is critical to competitiveness. These 7 steps will help you get there.

Listening to your customers and to the business can be the critical difference between winning and losing. The right methodology, the right data, and the right tools can help you listen to your business — and even smaller companies have more data available today than ever before.

Today, you may glean information from the Internet, occasional market research published online, or stories from your salesforce. That’s a good start. But getting deep customer insights takes more.

Practice: Define
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