We're hard-wired for pleasure, baby -- ain't that the economical truth.

Can you imagine having to wait 30, 60 or even 360 days to legally launch a business?

And what if you could shorten that length of time with a bribe?

What about paying a bribe just to get your Internet connection set up in a timely fashion, all on top of the standard fees?

Same thing with your phone system. Your office space. Your office supplies. Your employee benefits package.

We can't really imagine, because even though we have our share of corruption and malfeasance in the U.S., the barriers to launch a business are few these days.

In India and other countries around the world, it's just standard practice to cut through the red tape. Bribery is a economic necessity, part of the biz dev machinery.

Capitalism rules the pleasure center. Fewer regulations are a buzz-kill.

Check out the latest podcast from NPR Planet Money on this subject.

But we're better than that, right?

We bribe incentivize our employees with bonuses and prizes and extra time off -- all on top of their salaries and benefits and standard vacation time and the good feeling they should get performing their jobs.

We bribe "wine and dine" our prospects to close, our customers to retain -- all on top of making the business case to them and servicing them well and the good feeling they should get using our products and services.

What am I trying to say? That by our very DNA we are highly competitive and reward-seeking creatures.

We want it all and we want it now.

Business growth only happens with the right team captains and go-to guys and gals, the closers if you will. The rewards are in the tangibles -- albeit a paycheck bump, bonus or a bribe -- the American dream.

And that's okay, as long as we temper it with humanity and the desire to be a better me.

Don't just call me a cynical idealist, call me to do some business.

We're hard-wired for pleasure, baby -- ain't that the economical truth.

Don't forget though, coffee's for closers only. ABC - Always Be Closing.

(Please note that the following clip is not edited for foul language. You've been warned.)

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

The final in our latest marketing series, but never the finale.

Ah, the magic of three -- the marketing trilogy.

First, we wrote about SEO and “Marketing” Web Sites – Internet Best Practices for Human Resource Vendors.

Second, we wrote about Using Original Content to Generate Online Visibility, Web Site Traffic and Sales Leads.

Now that we've hit part 3 of our trilogy, we're talking about Using Traditional and Search Engine Marketing (and Social Networking) to Leverage Your Investments in Original Content and SEO.

In other words, you need to plan and execute marketing activities.

You may boast a dazzling, search-optimized website brimming with innovative content, but it may still get overlooked long-term without consistent marketing and PR activities. In fact, your rankings are likely to plateau or even drop off.

Marketing should never be stopped and started because of the lag time between campaigns and sales.

One of the most important principles of marketing is persistence. Most marketing experts agree that a target has to be exposed to your message at least six times before it sinks in.

So read our latest article and get to marketing, and don't forget the marketing mix:

• Social media marketing
• Webinars
• Podcasts
• Blogs
• Advertising
• Direct marketing
• Media relations
• Blogger relations
• Online directories
• And oh so much more...

All the kids are doing it.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

It all depends on the hoopla of the night before. And how many people will remember it.

Last week at TRU USA there was a lot of discussion about the power of social media and/or word of mouth marketing (referrals and such) when it comes to recruiting and third-party candidate searches.

No money spent anywhere else.

Very cool, but I was also relieved to discover that these smart folk agreed that marketing activities such as social media were not free -- they take time and staff and that costs money regardless of how "free" the online services are.

Now, Verbal Summary did sponsor a band for our big TweetUp the first night of TRU USA. Aaron Williams and the Hoodoo they were called. They rocked. I drank. I drank some more. I bought their CD. I slept it off and listened to their CD the next morning. And I just listened to it yesterday. I remember that Verbal Summary brought the band in (check out Verbal Summary's service -- very concise and cool).

But is that enough to truly grow a firm long term? I mean, unless you're a content with a lifestyle business, which is perfectly fine of course, how do you grow aggressively on grass roots social media word of mouth long term, with maybe the occasional rock and roll blues band? Can you? And whether you're B2B or B2C, is that enough to shape the way your marketplace sees you?

How many parts online organic to synthesized traditional? And how much should that vary between HR software firms, recruiting services firms, leadership development firms, etc.?

Those are the questions that came up in the San Jose Mercury News article I read yesterday about Google -- Google's word of mouth creates the buzz.

Yes, that's an extreme jump -- from third-party recruiting agencies to Google gigantica -- but the discussion around the marketing mix is the same.

We've touted before that your overall marketing spend should be around 15%-20% of total revenue.

For years Yahoo, eBay and Microsoft have been at 21%-22%. Google around 8%.

Relatively speaking that's still a lot of money. Google didn't gain the market share they currently have by word of mouth alone, you've got to fuel it with:

• Organic and paid search (yes, but many of us can master it)
• Media and blogger relations (facilitating relationships, not spamming)
• Trade show sponsorships
• Scripted product launches (Google's Campfire One -- and what about closer to home with Cirque du Taleo at past SHRMs?)
• TV advertising (Google did a Super Bowl commercial for the first time -- Monster and CareerBuilder, been there done that)

In 2009 Google's marketing spend increased to 9% of revenue. Again, that's a lot of money.

Most HR suppliers don't have those budgets or annual revenue numbers, but there's a lot of the marketing mix that can and should be used, however dialed up and down it becomes.

You're constantly in the starting up, scaling and nurturing mode and a certain level of investment has to be made and a lot of hard work played out.

Enough to drive you to drink.

We were talking about word of mouth, right? How many parts online organic to synthesized traditional?

Like how many parts vodka to how many parts tomato juice? It all depends on the hoopla of the night before.

And how many people will remember it.

Hey, SHRM's bringing in Hall and Oates this year. Time to par-tay.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

The Future is Bright in Detroit...yes, Detroit, and across the country: Part 2

Earlier this week I introduced you to the Future Midwest Conference and recapped the opening session by Joseph Jaffe.

There was so much great information presented over the two days that I can’t possibly summarize it all. But I’ll provide you some highlights and juicy nuggets from a handful of the presenters. One common thread throughout most of the event was that location based applications will only continue to grow in use and importance in marketing, so expect to see the use of foursquare, Gowalla, and others to increase in the coming year.

Tim Shaden of Fluency Media spoke on “Integration – Making it Work in Any Business”. Tim said, “It’s time to become a fantastic conversationalist.” He said you must be a good listener in order to be a good conversationalist. It made me think of our own eBook about social media called Conversation Starters.

Tim provided a case study on integration from the Pure Michigan marketing campaigns. He demonstrated how their various marketing initiatives provided great insight for each next phase: Pay Per Click provided insights for their Email Marketing, which gave them direction in diving into Social Media and other conversation opportunities. The Pure Michigan integrated marketing activities led to it being the #1 visited tourism website in the U.S. – beating out sunny Florida! And it also has the #1 social media program for any state.

Scott Monty of Ford discussed how Ford went Digital – not only with its products like the SYNC system (check out this article in Fast Company about Ford being the next “consumer electronics company”), but also in their marketing initiatives. Ford now rivals Honda in customer satisfaction, which you don’t hear much about in the mainstream media, so they are going directly to the people to get their message out. They’ve gone social with their marketing and use real people to tell their story of new products, new cars, new features, which has helped transform their image over the past few years.

Beth Harte of Serengeti Communications spoke about “Public Relations: It’s no longer about just the media, it’s about the people.” Beth encouraged marketing and PR folks to integrate PR with Social Media because the “publics” have something to say and they want to be heard.

Chris Barger of GM spoke on “Diluting Haterade – The Social Web & Reputation Rejuvination”. Obviously GM has had some public impression issues recently. He talked about the best opportunity for reputational repair is to be on the social web BEFORE you have a crisis. Chris’ core philosophy is that the social web is a tool for listening and engagement, not as much about blasting out your message.

What I loved most is the example Chris gave of how they faced a specific instance of criticism head on. When David Meerman Scott blogged about the problems with GM’s marketing in 2009, the team at GM reached out to David and invited him to their headquarters in Detroit to talk about his criticisms, ideas, ways they can improve, and David responded and spent days with their team.

Chris also encouraged marketers and businesses to “take the high road” when it comes to competitors – give them a shout-out when it’s appropriate, and don’t get into “spitting matches” when a competitor is struggling.

Shiv Singh, VP of Razorfish, and author of Social Media for Dummies, talked about “The Digital Renaissance” and provided some ideas on the “Post Digital Era” that blew everyone’s minds. The idea that in the future social networks will merge into one huge master network and that we will own our and control our social profile is very intriguing. Shiv also suggested that communities will get “real” again, that time spent online will begin to plateau and people will want to engage in more in person interactions. Some interesting stuff to look for in the future.

On Saturday Ken Burbary of Ernst & Young spoke on “Customer Insights & Analysis that Drive Digital and Social Strategies”. Ken said that data is the future of marketing and that data requires analysis to understand it and have it lead to measurable outcomes. An interesting bit of information he shared was that in 2009 more data was generated by individuals that in the entire history of mankind through 2008!

The closing presenters from Egg Strategy, a branding firm based in Denver, talked about “Innovating for your Brands & Consumers”. As business, marketing and sales folks we must remember that the most important thing is meeting our customers’ needs, it’s not about “the brand”. When you determine and need and develop a product/service that you have created something that is relevant. And relevance leads to revenue. So, we must keep at the forefront of our minds that we are meeting needs.

So, how are you communicating with you “publics”? Are you leveraging the social web to listen to and communicate with your customers? How is your product / service meeting the needs of your “publics”?

Keep watching for more good news out of Detroit, and look to apply some of these ideas and strategies in your own marketing and social media plans this year!

Post by Jocelyn Cook

The Case of the Secret HR Supplier Buyer

I lit my cigarette and took a hit. The morning was cooler than I thought even though the sun shone big and bold in the sky. I shivered. Dang it, I thought. Forgot my jacket again.

I looked up and there she was -- a vision of beauty and light in a white jump suit, lit up in the sun's wake.

I hadn't see her for years, but I tried to keep my cool. I stroked my goatee as if I were bored.

"Hi ya' Doll-face."

"Hi Jerry, how ya' been?"

"Swell but not yet swelling," I said nonchalantly. I took another drag on my smoke.

Doll-face crossed her arms across her chest. "Funny guy as always. I thought I'd find you in your office puffin' away on those cancer sticks."

"New law; no more smoking inside. Dang health-nut do-gooders."

Doll-face's smirk morphed to dismay. "Jerry, I'm in a pickle. Software sales are down at my firm and we're having a tough time findin' qualified leads. You know, those elusive HR buyers. Our marketing team's got the visibility and traffic covered with content campaigns, but most the so-called leads we're generating are colder than week-old pike on ice."

Week-old pike on ice, I thought. This is serious. I pushed my hat back off my forehead.

"And our sales team can close but we can't find the right buyers. Can you help us?"

I flicked my butt away and exhaled a smoke ring within a smoke ring within a smoke ring. "Listen Doll-face, if we can agree on my terms, then I'll find these fickle HR buyers for you and do it before you can bat those baby blues."

"Your terms? The last time you said that I lost my shirt, if you know what I mean."

I laughed. "My way or the highway, Doll-face. You know I'll get to gettin' and get it done."

Doll-face frowned. "You know, I can just start using social media more for free and find who I'm looking for there."

I shook my head. "First off, ain't nothin' that's free. Second, do you really think these folks all are online? I'll bet you most of your HR buyers still aren't even on LinkedIn yet."

Doll-face pondered this one. I smiled.

"Okay, Jerry. Let's talk turkey. You know, I've missed you. You're the coolest closer I know," she said, throwing her arms around me.

"Well, Doll-face, I don't call it the Hip-Cat Recruiter Detective Agency for nothin'."

I winked at the camera.

***

And, end scene.

I spent the last two days at TRU USA being blown away by the marketing and sales savvy recruiters have. (Thank you Geoff, Bill and Maha! And Julia *black widow* from BizWerks!)

Good recruiters. No, great recruiters. Recruiters who know how to source, cold call, warm up and close a prospect with nothing more than a paper clip, a rubber band and a phone.

I mean, I dabbled in sourcing and recruiting when I first got into the HR marketplace, but mercy the mad skills they have over my marketing ones. I'm telling you.

I know there are a lot of targeted marketing tools and skills that help with lead-gen, but how many times do we have to talk about 500 week-old pikes on ice versus 5 highly target qualified buyers?

Yes, you still need to have a broad ongoing marketing strategy to generate publicity, traffic, leads and improve your SEO.

But as look for ways to identify new targeted qualified leads, don't forget:

• To build relationships everywhere you turn. Period.
• To nurture that sales prospect pipeline -- the one you generate with ongoing marketing -- and keep marketing to the pipeline.
• To focus on flipping the funnel and spend time nurturing and retaining your own customers and less time neglecting them for 500 week-old pikes on ice.
• To ask your customers why they bought and use that info instead of spending all your time finding out why the others didn't.
• To target your customers' customers and competitors and partners -- referrals within referrals within referrals.
• To use social media to find prospects and influencers and build relationships while remembering that many of your buyers from SMB aren't playing in those channels yet.

And in a world where hiring is still flat, irregular and erratic, why not think about adding out-of-work or struggling recruiters to your lead-gen sales teams?

I know larger companies have already got in-house demo setters and pre-qualifiers and lead nurturers on their sales teams, but for most smaller to mid-size firms I say think about it. It's gonna cost you more, but from what I've seen they'll find the secret HR supplier buyer.

According to Marie Journey, that's the secret sauce.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

The Future is Bright in Detroit . . . yes, Detroit, and across the country: Part 1

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending, along with about 600 others, the first Future Midwest Conference held in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

Detroit gets a lot of national news coverage, like the Dateline special just last night, and the Time Magazine feature last year, that started a year-long blog and story coverage from Time, Fortune, and others in the Time/Life publishing family. But most of the images and representations of Detroit are about what is wrong, the dilapidated buildings (a.k.a. “ruin porn”), problems with the auto industry, crime, etc. I get a lot of interesting comments when I’m at an HR tradeshow and people find out I live in metro Detroit. The response is either one of pity or almost disgust of “how could you live there?"

But there are so many good things happening here that don’t get much attention. Check out this recent post from Urbanophile for “the other side of Detroit”.

Also, there is more to Detroit than the auto industry - there are quite a number of HR Suppliers based in the Detroit metro area as well – companies like Kelly Services world headquarters, Qualigence, nowHIRE, Workforce Software, JobApp Network, Resource Recruiting & Learning Solutions, to name a few.

So, if metro Detroit has positive energy about the future growth of business and economic opportunity, as witnessed at the Future Midwest conference, then shouldn’t the rest of the country?

Future Midwest is a technology and knowledge conference about the rise and importance of the digital era, social media, and how to leverage these technologies to grow your business. So, even though the focus was on Detroit and Midwest business opportunities, the lessons learned can be applied everywhere. Check out this short video from the conference: http://vimeo.com/11021663. There’s a lot about Detroit, but some great social media and digital stats too that can get all business and marketing folks thinking about the opportunities.

The line-up of speakers was stellar and included Joseph Jaffe, author and “Chief Interruptor” of Powered, Jay Adelson, Entrepreneur and former CEO of Digg, Shiv Singh, author of “Social Media for Dummies” and VP at Razorfish, Scott Monty of Ford, Chris Barger of GM, Blagica Bottigliero, blogger and Manager of Emerging Media and Measurement at Edelman Digital, Ken Burbary, Head of Digital Strategy and Social Media practice at Ernst & Young, Beth Harte of Serengeti Communications, and many others.

Joseph Jaffe opened the conference with “Flip the Funnel: How to use existing customers to gain new ones”. The ideas he presented are from his latest book of the same name. He started out asking:

• What if we’ve gotten it all wrong? (in regard to marketing & sales)
• What if we’ve been focusing on the “wrong end of the funnel”?
• What would happen to our businesses if we started focusing on retaining customers instead of solely on acquiring new ones?
• Do you know what percent of your revenue comes from repeat customers and what percent of your marketing budget is invested in those customers?

With most businesses the focus is on acquiring new customers. And the percentage of repeat customers is low. So, for every new customer you are probably losing an existing customer. What would happen if we started focusing more on customer service and transforming our clients into ambassadors? They could become our new marketing and P.R. to grow our businesses. And social media is the key tool to engage and communicate with our customers.

Some very thought provoking questions for any sales, marketing and business owner! I know I want our sales and marketing team to discuss this topic, and read Jaffe’s book!

A recap of some of the other great sessions will follow in Part 2.

Post by Jocelyn Cook

If the message don't match, the ad's gettin' trashed.

We're starting to experiment with Facebook and LinkedIn paid ads to drive leads for our HR Vendor Phonebook, which is a directory of over 4,500 cross-referenced HR suppliers in the marketplace.

It's early yet, and costs are high for PPC advertising per qualified lead, but we're giving it a go.

There are gazillions of potential customers between social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and while the target audiences vary within each, well, there are gazillions of potential customers.

But you need to ensure the ad message and imagery are contextually relevant to those you're targeting.

Like this one that's popped up:

Or this one:

Or this one:

Or this one:

But when I see something like this:

I think, "What the heck?" Scholarships for Dads and I get retro Missing Persons imagery?

Or this one:

Yikes. I'd rather rent the rest of my life.

On the other hand, when I see:

I get pumped and cannot wait for the show!

Remember, if the message don't match, the ad's gettin' trashed.

Sure, I get that spammers spam everywhere and that these sites are working harder at approving appropriate ads and improving their matching algorithms...

Because why would I want to hug a dope-smoking entrepreneurial hipster anyway? Really. I mean, I'm glad they're helping the economic recovery, but c'mon.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Rubbernecking PR and the whiplash ego don't grow the business.

So you're a big HR software supplier with a quality product and you've acquired that controversial firm, the one that used to have a questionable product and a burn rate greater than last year's Station Fire.

The rubbernecking PR campaign turned some heads, but now what? Did lead-gen jump? Revenue?

Most likely crickets started chirping in the smoky ruin faster than you could integrate the controversial train wreck you purchased.

Or maybe you're a new kid on the HR supplier block or a well-established brand that launched a new "bleeding-edge-game-changing" product/service that you're convinced will have analysts and big business media squirming in their seats for more.

More what? The Kool Aid tasted good but did buyer visibility increase? Lead-gen jump? Revenue?

Probably not; I've heard from many a business owner and CEO that big media placements and analyst reviews have their place and value but don't usually contribute to direct growth.

So unless you've got a whiplash ego that likes the quick-stop name-in-lights PR, there is a lot more hard work involved in your marketing and media outreach efforts to generate and nurture potential buyers.

Rubbernecking PR and the whiplash ego don't grow the business.

Okay, you know you wanted me to say it again:

You can't just put dog poop in a box, strap fireworks to it and light the whole friggin' thing on fire and expect to generate long-term publicity, traffic and leads.

It's harder work than you think and can push you to the point of passing out.

Here are some best practices in news distribution and media relations:

• Email your release directly to your short-list of targeted journalists you've been building relationships with (this is key), including local media (media relations). These folks are doing more with much less and are looking for trusted quality sources.
• Email your release to your short-list of targeted bloggers you've been building relationships with (and, if applicable, industry analysts you may or may not have scheduling briefings with).
  
• Do not spam journalists, bloggers and analysts with irrelevant or relevant news -- build relationships first!
• Send your release via a search-optimized Internet wire service - like PRWeb or Business Wire.
• Post the release to your own website's news page.
• Spread the word about your news via your social media networks.
• If you are publicly traded subject to fair disclosure regulations or believe your release has widespread and national news relevance (and you have the budget), send your release through a major traditional wire service.

Remember, you want to distribute your news releases to relevant bloggers, publishers, journalists and your buyers in order to build awareness of your news. You also want to get your release online so it can be indexed, found and shared.

Lovers of the whiplash ego -- I'm not saying stop with the rubbernecking PR. I'm just saying to accomplish the growth you need to sustain your business, you'll need a well-organized and executed news marketing campaign consisting of a number of different tactics.

(You can find more tips in our article titled Making Sense of Your Press Release Distribution Options.)

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

You'd think someone left the water running.

California is in its fourth year of drought, and although it's been wetter so far this rainy season, we're still not out of the woods.

Woods that are still dry and brittle, like many businesses today in California and beyond.

2010 may be wetter in regards to the overall economy slowly improving, but the grass is looking greener and greener elsewhere for top talent -- employees and leadership -- wherever that may be.

Companies have to do more with less and are pushing their talent to be more flexible and self-reliant (great post on this subject from Ann Bares at Compensation Café).

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being on DriveThru HR with Bryan Wempen yesterday and two of the things we talked about were:

• The power of content marketing and lead nurturing -- educating and building credibility with HR buyers to the tipping point of sales conversations
• The fact that employee engagement and leadership development have become priorities for companies big and small

Following up on my last two posts about failed leadership development and successful leadership development, it's no surprise that we've seen such content marketing success with leadership development firms of late (and new business growth as well).

For example:

1. Glowan Consulting Group

You, Inc.: White Paper from Glowan Consulting Helps Leaders Integrate Work and Personal Lives

Managers and executives struggle with the delicate art of balancing work and personal lives, but a new white paper from Glowan Consulting Group spells out how to successfully integrate the two worlds.

2. LeadershipIQ

New Leadership IQ Research Paper Asks, Are SMART Goals Dumb?

A new study just released by Leadership IQ, a leadership development and research company, reveals startling contradictions to the goal-setting status quo.

3. Impact Achievement Group

Transitioning from Independent Contributor to Manager - Four Principles of Successful Management

Independent contributors can often significantly enhance the success of a workgroup or company. Yet the operative word - independent - may work against them when transitioning to a supervisory role, according to Impact Achievement Group.

For these and other related content marketing campaigns, collectively they've generating broad online visibility and thousands of leads from:

• direct marketing email
• house list nurturing
• social media sharing
• and search-optimized press releases.

You'd think someone left the water running.

But isn't that preferable to painting the lawn green and putting up a "For Lease" sign?

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Maybe it should be called Uncivilized

Everything you find on the Internet is true.

Right?

Everyone is personally responsible for their online behavior.

Right?

I wish, but alas, either one is far from true.

I understand it's considered a best practice to have both brand representation and personal representation online when it comes to brand management, social media marketing and recruiting for your company.

But I'm not so sure that's a best practice for me anymore. Yes, we have the HRmarketer and SeniorCareMarketer Twitter accounts and Facebook pages and LinkedIn groups; you also know who we are because we're online for God and everyone to see.

I have a personal issue with those who insist on anonymity and/or hide behind a brand or imaginative avatar. Anonymity breeds bullying and slander, and unless you're a whistle blower, a secret Santa or shopper, or in the FBI witness protection program -- t's more like you have a few drinks, put a bag over your head and jump online to attack.

Loose lips sink ships, Jack.

Anonymity is cowardice, and with incivility seemingly on the rise online and in the workplace, launching new services that allow for unchecked and unverified personal/professional reviews doesn't sound like the best use of development time to me.

However I feel about it, Unvarnished is alive and well in private beta.

Unvarnished is an online resource for building, managing, and researching professional reputation.

Unvarnished reviews are community-contributed, business-focused assessments of professional performance.

The tagline reads: truth in reputation.

Unfortunately reviews of you and others are anonymous and moderated only by the greater community, and whether they like you or not affects the kind of reviews you'll get. I mean, I don't even like the fact that you can anonymously review products, services, restaurants, hotels, you name it. I'm not even sure about sites like Glassdoor anymore that allow for anonymous posts.

I'm calling out Unvarnished only because I saw them profiled on the Today Show yesterday and it unsettled me.

Anonymity may protect you against potential repercussions of your honesty, but it doesn't protect me and my privacy from the repercussions of your bullying slander.

The dichotomous nature of relationship building and personal/professional brand should be synonymous with the very tenants of social media and networking:

• Trust
• Authenticity
• Transparency without anonymity
  
• Mutual respect
• Personal responsibility
• Corporate responsibility

You don't have to like me to have worked with me or for me, but there's a big difference between confronting me directly or via human resources when you feel I've treated you poorly, given you an unfair performance review or harassed you in any way without just cause (of which it's debatable there ever is just cause to harass), and posting hateful untruths or half truths about me online.

Am I just being too cynical this morning? Usually I have more faith in humanity, but when it comes to a service that welcomes anonymity and allows for possible slanderous posts about me and my company -- unsubstantiated -- instead of being called Unvarnished, maybe it should be called Uncivilized. I do wish them the best of luck, though.

Own your opinionated behavior, kids. Online and off. Just sayin'.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Leadership trial by fire and brimstone

I wanted to follow up with a positive leadership post on the flip-side of last week's Nummi/GM/Toyota failure post.

The inspiration comes from a fantastic Fortune article from early March titled Battle-tested: From soldier to business leader.

Two years ago Wal-Mart faced a looming leadership crisis in the store management ranks; their own leadership development strategy outpaced the available talent inside and outside the enterprise.

From the article:

Bill Simon, the chief operating officer of Wal-Mart U.S. and a 25-year veteran of the Navy and Naval Reserves, had a suggestion. What the company should do, he argued at the time, was create a program to recruit junior military officers, or JMOs -- the lieutenants and captains who had recently led soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen.

Regardless of where you fall on the favorable-of-military-and-war scale, the fact is the military is a leadership-training hotbed, particularly in wartime. I've never been in the military but I do have friends and family who have been, including my father who was in the Air Force and who retired a police detective.

According to General David Petraeus, the man in charge of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan:

"Tell me anywhere in the business world where a 22- or 23-year-old is responsible for 35 or 40 other individuals on missions that involve life and death. Their tactical actions can have strategic implications for the overall mission. And they're under enormous scrutiny, on top of everything else. These are pretty formative experiences. It's a bit of a crucible-like experience that they go through."

Recently GE CEO Jeff Immelt gave a speech at West Point called "Renewing American Leadership". In the speech he said that 21st-century leaders:

• Need to be better listeners.
• Need to be comfortable with complexity.
• Must be willing to delegate so that the organization can move quickly.

Even the Army Training and Leader Development Panel concluded in 2001 that it needed officers with two basic qualities: self-awareness and adaptability.

Does this mean that the military is the only place you're going to find:

• Better listeners
• Those comfortable with complexity
• Self-awareness
• Adaptability
  
• Those who take strategic risk and fail with certainty
  
• Those who are comfortable leading self and others

No, of course not, but this definitely provides a LAMEness learn-by-doing framework from which to source future leaders within and without your organization.

Maybe they came from the military, or public safety (police and fire), or another company, or even your own firm (when you weren't looking) where existing leadership trial by fire and brimstone has forged the new millennium of management talent.

Identify them. Nurture them. Train them. Allow them risk and responsibility.

We've lost too many folk to the fire of late.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Don't let the leadership gap bankrupt your company.

Yesterday I had our Saturn VUE serviced. The now defunct company was once a GM gem of quality and reliability.

It didn't start out that way when Saturn first hit the market in 1991, but eventually it became a much better product.

We know because we are longtime fans of Saturn and did our due diligence and research. However, I was a Toyota man until won over by Saturn.

But this post isn't about car-buying behavior or preference. It's about leadership.

Or lack thereof. Failed personal leadership, collaborative leadership and overall leadership.

Yesterday while I sat at the Cadillac dealer in San Jose waiting for the Saturn servicing to be done, working away with free WiFi (nice touch for patrons), not more than 30 miles away more than 4,700 employees at the Nummi car plant in Fremont were working their last day.

On April Fool's Day no doubt. Go figure.

On the way to and from getting the Saturn serviced, I listened to a This American Life production all about the rise and fall of Nummi. I was riveted the entire time. Really.

In 1984, the joint venture between Toyota and GM reopened the Nummi plant after GM had shut it down in 1982. The joint venture was all about a new, innovative to build cars, reducing defects and improving quality and safety. GM's market share had plummeted from almost 50% in the mid-70's to around 30% in the early 80's and kept dropping precipitously.

To quote a UAW leader about the quality of GM cars back in the day: "They were crappy."

But what I never knew was how bad the American Worker and Management had become. I'm not disparaging the UAW or GM leadership; they did that all by themselves. Pathetic, but there was no LAMEness.

When faced with failure, leaders must develop the capacity to:

• Learn
• Adapt
• Modify
• Elevate

The Nummi plant prior to shutting down in 1982 had become Sodom and Gomorrah. It was equated to prison, with the workers held captive by the management man and the management man held captive by the workers.

Alcohol, drugs, sex -- anything you wanted while on the job you could get. The level of production defect in cars? Egregious. Just listen to the This American Life story.

Then the joint venture came about and the Nummi folks were trained in the Toyota Way.

Under the two headings, or "pillars," of Respect for People and Continuous Improvement, Toyota sums up the values and conduct guidelines with the following five principles:

• Challenge
• Kaizen (improvement)
• Genchi Genbutsu (go and see)
• Respect
• Teamwork

Good stuff. The Nummi plant transformation went way beyond expectations. It was a true model of responsible leadership and teamwork with a focus on quality not quantity.

But they couldn't replicate it. Weak and misguided leadership and a staunch resistance to change kept everything status quo for a long time.

Alas, GM didn't get it right until they went bankrupt. They pulled out of Nummi and then Toyota, having GM troubles of their own, decided to shut the plant down.

In fact, it took GM over two decades allow the positive and productive leadership ripple to reach the masses.

Don't let the leadership gap bankrupt your company. Do something about it today.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)