The Right and Left Brain Blog

We continue to hear dreadful news about the economy, jobs, housing, and the auto industry and the need for change. While there is some hopeful news about the stimulus package, good deeds like the U.S. Airways miracle and continued profitability of some strong companies, there is a feeling that our country, organizations, and individuals are not responding enough.

I argue that we continue to discuss legal, political and economic solutions rather than the deep rooted philosophical issues. This is evidenced by some of the following:

• Executives are still into excess rather than change. The President and the press had to embarrass Citi into canceling the purchase of a $50 million plane and the President of Merrill Lynch remodeled his office for $1 million while the company was imploding. What is worse is they try to justify these abuses and lay workers off rather than understand the realities and needs.

• We lack a real understanding of the problems and the impact of potential solutions. For example, while there is lots of talk about cutbacks, there is little about lending, investment or innovation. For example, if every American household went out and spent an extra $500, it would generate over $50 billion of new spending, which gets multiplied throughout the economy and creates stronger companies and less unemployment.

• We tolerate the lack of respect by people like the Governors of New York and Illinois in making Senatorial appointments a mockery. This is exasperated by the press, who loves the news opportunity, rather than being embarrassed to support this trash. As an example, the press was rampant with totally unsubstantiated stories about Caroline Kennedy’s potential affairs.

• Everyone is disgusted with health care and it isn’t just money. Doctors hate the bureaucracy, patients hate being ignored, misinformed or not informed at all, and hospitals just seem lost in terms of keeping costs down and providing service. In the meantime, there seem to be no goals to improve efficiency, service and prevention, which could dramatically improve the whole system.

• Finally, we have an insane culture that creates circumstances where even kids’ sports coaches allow excess training rules where even one athlete dies or run up the score to 100-0 against a basketball team with only 8 players from a school with kids who all had some disability.

What we need are some drastic and quick philosophical and psychological changes:

• In our corporate, political, and individual decisions, we need to consider the human and cultural impacts of our society. The U.S. Airways rescue is an example of what is needed. It was successful mainly because people were trained, did their jobs, and recognized the roles of the team. They also communicated among jobs, agencies and passengers to focus on getting the rescue done. Communication and teamwork could go a long way in getting things done better.

• We need to rebel and change what we know is wrong. Don’t support companies that don’t practice constructive behavior. Repudiate the people who are raping our society and glorify all the great examples in organizations, groups and the country.

• On a personal level, fully analyze what needs to change and how it can be done. There are lots of ways to save money, be healthier, accept some realities of a less affluent society and be a better citizen, friend and family member.

I will end with a personal example of how we can change. We bought our family a Wii Fit for the holidays. I showed up as overweight and my 7 year old granddaughter offered to help me lose weight. Unfortunately one of her tactics was to do my exercises for me. However the example illustrates key components of any change process: Recognition, goal setting, action and support.

I have been a member of Facebook for a few months and have acquired over 100 friends through a variety of means. This blog is meant to provide the initial perceptions of a 64 year old novice learning about Facebook.

My first comment and recommendation is to learn with a mentor, which I did with Susan Payton at Egg Marketing & Public Relations. I joined Facebook to facilitate my business networking and to find additional outlets for my blog.

My first observation is that Facebook is very easy to use, invite friends, communicate, and meet lots of new people. Most of my friends are new relations that I invited through various searches. One of the interesting aspects is the variety of people you meet and learn a little about. While I find older, business orientated people more interesting to me, the exposure to younger people has been fantastic. Most profiles clearly differentiate people looking for partners, social advocacy, business and/or more intellectual interests.

Facebook is definitely easy and fun. I like the short messages and the ability to find pictures of friends and relatives and find out what people are doing. It also is a great source for what people think about what’s going on in the news, travel and in recreation. You can get instant reviews from people you respect about just about anything. It is simple to both add links and post longer messages.

There are some unexpected side benefits. The quotes are generally great and more members should include them. One example, which is extremely appropriate for the times is: “Never get used to anything.”

All kinds of interesting groups are available with lots of innovative content. There are some nice quick conversations that are both fascinating and fun. The speed and ease of Facebook cannot be underestimated in making the information easy to sort and read when appropriate.

The only real issue with Facebook is the potential conflict between fun and meeting specific goals. There is a lot of talk abut how great it and social networking are for making both personal and business relationships .However I have seen little in the way of goals, measurement and results to validate the rhetoric. In addition everyone portrays themselves as an expert but you read little documentation of results from all the potential consultants.

In summary, Facebook is a new tool capturing millions of new members and participants. The challenge is to continue to learn how to use it and not let it become another here and gone media device. In addition we need to understand the potential of the vehicle and utilize it effectively.

In accepting a Golden Globes Award in 2009, Stephen Spielberg made a comment that has been echoed by many creative geniuses in a variety of ways. It was that with every project he challenges himself to push the envelope by asking “am I going to get away with this?” Similar perspectives are as follows:

• Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker write in The Deviant’s Advantage “Let’s recap our thesis: Innovation-all innovation, positive and negative-begins as a deviant idea germinating in the mind of a person dwelling on the fringe of society.”
• W. Edwards Demming is quoted in a great line about leadership: “It is the ability to drive fear out of the organization so that employees will feel comfortable to make decisions on their own.”
• Billy Joel at a commencement address: “If you love what you do, you’ll always do what you love. And if you’re doing what you love, you’re going to become very good at it.” And this is a country that rewards excellence.
• Emerson: “to believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men - that is genius.”
• The statement by John F. Kennedy, “some people see things as they are and I see them as they could be.”
• Bill Gates and Warren Buffet were in a televised seminar with college students. They were asked about the biggest mistakes they made. Both responded that the opportunities they missed, like Warren Buffet not investing more in Microsoft, were their key mistakes. The openness and seeking out opportunities rather than worrying about making mistakes is what was so impressive.
• In a magazine article about Google an incident was related about a subordinate relating a several million mistake to the president. What was important was that the president was more pleased that the environment encouraged openness about acknowledging mistakes which also resulted in tremendous breakthroughs than the consequences of the mistakes.

These examples illustrate how we are afraid of failure and avoid great ideas that are not slam dunks. It is well known that we are less willing to take risks even if the probability of success says we should in many cases. Think of how many reorganizations and thousands of firings are occurring because companies refuse to face the realities of the current environment. The auto and banking businesses are probably the best examples of not having the guts to make inevitable changes. Google, Facebook, Amazon and other internet companies except Yahoo are examples of companies that have the vision to look forward.

My colleague, Susan Payton of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, blogs about internet marketing. While it certainly has its relevance and place for businesses, I believe there are other elements of a business that can do as much, if not more than internet marketing to grow a business.

Internet marketing experts provide seminars, webinars, online conferences, etc., which are designed to improve response rates, inquires, and conversions at lower costs. If we believe much of what they argue, our profitability would virtually increase in leaps and bounds every month. We sometimes get so excited about web marketing tools that we forget some of the basic marketing tools, particularly for smaller businesses. My experience is that there are some general realities about our marketing efforts that need to be integrated with our internet ideas to achieve better results:

1. The characteristics of your brand, product, price, and marketing are the most important aspect of a great website. Great marketing or web design is hard to overcome a lousy product.
2. Price, value and competitiveness are underestimated in their importance. Consumers frequently use the internet to compare and look at multiple sites. Lowering price and offering free shipping are the easiest and most effective way to increase sales.
3. Better, not fancier, customer service can dramatically affect sales. Responding quickly, empowering customer service, liberal return policies, and operators who are knowledgeable and speak English are more important than gimmicks like 24-7 responses from representatives in foreign countries that have no clue.
4. Being in stock and shipping quickly is a requirement and not an advantage.
5. Clear, concise explanations can have a dramatic impact. Customers want clear information on the characteristics of the products. Understandable text, sizes, specs, dimensions are all critical elements of a product description.
6. Excellent photography is more important than multiple views that are unattractive or redundant.
7. Improving web design with exotic characteristics like flash, videos, long openings etc. can be counter productive in terms of conveying a simple message. For example, if you have a “skip intro” option on the website, it probably shouldn’t be there.
8. Google and its reporting tools are incredible products and do not need supplements if you are a small to moderate user.
9. Great products and excellent brands are more important than SEO in generating clicks.
10. In general, expensive custom products or totally generic efforts are equally disappointing. There are great models and templates out there to purchase inexpensively. However, they need to be tempered with individual analysis and decision making.

In short, basic management and marketing is a fundamental that must be developed before one tacks on exotic internet marketing tools. In addition they may show much better results than all the dog and pony shows of your competitors.

We all hear great employment advice for professionals about dealing with the economic situation. This includes planning, writing a great resume, preparing for interviews, networking, setting goals, networking some more, thinking out of the box, assessing your strengths and weaknesses, blogging, using social internet sites, etc.

While I am not dissing any of these, I believe as a group they may be setting unreal expectations. Specifically, the current job market is challenging the belief that hard work, committed job search and a great job fit will guarantee employment. Over 1 2 million jobs have been lost in the last year.

If you are in industries like autos, financial services, luxury products, furniture, retail, or home furnishings, the job prospects are slim and almost none. Moving from investment banking to health care, internet marketing, energy, etc. sounds much more credible than it is with the exception of technical professionals like accountants.

It may realistically take 6 months to 2 years to find a job in this economy, and the higher the salary, the longer the time. In addition, there are lots of great underemployed or unemployed people out there and companies can do just fine with lower salaried and younger (they don’t admit this) workers.

I believe the issue has changed much more to finding an available position than simply having the right resume or interview skills. Here are some suggestions that do require a total rethinking of traditional approaches:

• Strike a balance between your goals and skills and reality. You shouldn’t abandon your dreams, but may have to settle for temporary lower salaries and/or responsibilities.

• Manage your time in terms of commitment, chasing long shots, focusing and the potential returns. For example, it may be more effective spending time approaching people that seldom return calls than networking with an out of work buddy looking for the same job.

• Consider consulting or being an outsourcing agent.

• Consider starting your own business. This does require a commitment, perhaps some funding, planning and the time to develop and market to clients.

• Consider working on a small base with significant upside for results. I do not recommend working for nothing because clients don’t care as much. However, approaching cash starved companies with new ideas or services with an upside payout may satisfy both needs in the long run.

• Develop packaged services with colleagues that can be implemented in companies with lower cost, faster speed, and better experience. These can include efforts like new products, internet presence, customer service, inventory management, planning and accounting. These kinds of services can also be accomplished across industries.

• Develop ideas for former competitors. Sometimes the limitations of severance contracts are worse than the economic benefits. I am not advocating legal compromises, but am advocating using your skills in the most effective manner.

In general, these suggestions are designed as alternatives to simply looking for jobs that may not exist for 1-2 years. They do require commitment, time, planning and personal effort. Success is not guaranteed but it may be better than tired practices with poor results. They also may help networking and do not preclude taking that ideal job when it is available.

I am a social psychologist who is now a business executive and was fascinated by Gladwell’s Outliers book. His book is one of a few in recent years such as Freakonomics and The Drunkard’s Walk that cause us to challenge our assumptions in both our business and personal lives.

Many of the economic problems in the last year are a function of erroneous assumptions about things like housing prices, incomes and credit. In general, we like to make simple linear assumptions about cause and effect. For example, Gladwell challenges beliefs of those who think variables like effort, IQ, passion, red states/blue states, or socio- economic background are the sole cause of everything.

While Gladwell does a great job in showing the complexity and interaction among factors, he sometimes downplays the importance of some underlying variables:

• In discussing the impact of other variables besides IQ on success, he seems to downplay the fundamental requirement of IQ in many endeavors. The reality is that certain levels are a requirement but not the determinant for success in fields like nuclear physics, getting into Harvard, etc.

• The interesting aspect is who makes it and who doesn’t with the requisite IQ, skills, background, passion and timing. For example, he describes the importance of being born in January for success in Canadian hockey. However, he does not differentiate why only a small portion of Canadians born in January are successful hockey players.

The most interesting aspect of the book, which does not receive enough attention is passion. He argues that success does require effort and talks about 10,000 hours of experience (including some failure) as an important perquisite of success. However, he does not explain why some of us love to spend the 10,000 hours and others are happy playing video games, drinking, watching sports on T.V. etc.

This is particularly evident in the rise of women today in America. They now represent 46% of the labor force compared to 33% in 1960. Given the opportunity in the last few decades, women are simply taking over although they still lag in hard sciences.

There are two obvious implied recommendations from Gladwell and these other books. First, we need to analyze our opportunities and assumptions about our selves and organizations. Second, we should do a SWOT analysis or something like it (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to help determine which and how we should pursue opportunities. In particular, we need to assess ways to take advantage of the struggling economy over the next few years.