Sizzle! Posts

Are you asleep at your business wheel?

by Kas Kunz

You really put in the hours and push, push, push... to make things happen in your business. You have the endurance to keep going — right? With market conditions you just have to stay on top of things!

In fact, you find yourself at times not being able to concentrate and take in what others are saying, there are moments when you're a little incoherent in your speech... realizing all you've accomplished in the last hour is to stare, because mentally you're sluggish... and you have this odd sensation your head is bobbing... sound familiar?

Karen Dillon, the Deputy Editor at Harvard Business Review, wrote a post on the HBR Editor's blog, about the myth of the tireless leader. Her points below are ones to give some serious thought to and how it's affecting your ability to have a successful business.

• Unfortunately, the myth of the tireless leader is just that--a myth. The ugly truth about sleeplessness is that it's linked to obesity, diabetes, depression and, yes, increased mortality. Forgoing sleep doesn't make you a hero. It makes you ineffective.

• In fact, getting that rest isn't a waste at all. They'll do better work. And you'll be a better leader for having let them sleep.

How does your personal effectiveness impact your business and a key customer — your internal customer? Who is your internal customer? — Your employees, co-workers, associates, colleagues, partners, etc.

Do you really want yourself and fellow co-workers and employees to make vital and on going day-to-day business decisions when at your least effective? Creating an internal culture of balance so your workforce can do an exceptional job is priceless. It's a marketing advantage for your business.

What are some of your experiences when 'sleep deprived' decisions were made?

Do you associate tech savvy, online, and social media with a young audience?

by Kas Kunz

Currently I exchange emails with family members and friends that range in age from junior high to almost 90. They’re all comfortable in sending attachments, downloading photos, sending videos, links to things they want to share, and doing other activities on the computer that's past being a novice. It's all driven by a desire to communicate, to stay in touch, because of distance — living a couple hours away to across the country from each other.

You can find Web sites and online communities geared towards specific age groups such as Grandparents.com to children's Web sites that are sites for young children's museums located in a number of major U.S. cities, and community sites geared towards parents. There are social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook that initially started out for the teenagers and college students. Now these social sites have a wide range of adult age groups using their service. What does this mean? At this point in the life of the Internet all age groups have a place to hang-out if they so choose.

It's a natural progression for age groups to shift and change with different services and how we view and use technology as we grow older. As new communities and services are introduced online and if it's one that catches on there are early adopters who try it out — then word gets around and its popularity grows until it becomes something the population at large starts to use. The more frequently they're used the more successful it's deemed. It ends up being used for personal and business or geared towards one or the other.

The driving factor regardless of age, personal or business is the desire to communicate, to make a connection. The reason the Internet was created — to make it easier to share information. What is unique right now is the age at which a person's experience with today's technology began and what's the benefit for them to use it.

The company Accenture for the past two years has been conducting research about the usage patterns of various types of consumer technology products and services among U.S. consumers. The goal was to determine if there had been any changes in usage between Baby Boomers (age 45 and older) and Generation Y (ages 18 to 24). Here are a few interesting trends their research uncovered:

• Baby Boomers are embracing consumer technology applications nearly 20 times faster than the younger generation;
• Generation Y's cravings for consumer technology applications are leveling off;
• Boomers increased their rate of reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67 percent year-over-year. That's nearly 80 times faster than Gen Y (1 percent);
• Boomers posted a 59 percent increase in use of social networking sites — more than 30 times faster than Gen Y (2 percent).

To find out more you can download the full PDF article here with their findings by Kumu Puri on Accenture's  2009 Consumer Electronics Usage Survey.

Technology and Internet services we use today has been with us long enough the 'age factor' is becoming less of 'the point' to think about. The point has become more of what, how, and where are the different age groups using it and why.

Share with us your thoughts on these findings.

Slow down. Look around. Observation is a powerful business tool.

by Kas Kunz

Why take the time to look around, to observe the responses of others and tune into your own experiences with businesses, services, and products you use? What's good? What isn't? Why encourage others within your company to do the same and share and talk about them on a regular basis? How does this affect your prospects and customers?

It's easy to become oriented and focused on the company solely from an internal perspective. This often leads to inaccurate assumptions about the expertise and knowledge prospects and customers have in regards to the company's products, services, and industry. It creates unnecessary missteps and road blocks to new opportunities.

Learning to pay attention and share experiences and observations can give you good insights into what your customers could be experiencing. Don't get caught up in negative rants, but use all the experiences as a way to look at your company from an outsiders perspective. Does your internal company perspective and external perspective of prospects and customers match? 

Cultivating a view point that leads to a prospect and customer oriented focused perspective keeps your company in-tune to potential new products, services, and markets.   

Using the power of observation and first hand experiences can put you back-in touch and keep you connected.

What first hand customer experiences have you had and observations you've made which changed the way you do business for the better?