Creating Strategic Impact – How to Start? Just Start!

Based on Published Article on March 19, 2014 by Mike Brown in Brainzooming

 

Have you been waiting for your organization to really be strategic instead of continually fighting fires?

If so, this story is for you.

Near the start of any presentation, I ask the audience for their expectations during our time together.
One participant at a Creating Strategic Impact workshop for an organization responded to the question with a challenge on how I would customize the content to his organization’s unique situation.

Fair question.

I spent several minutes of the limited time with the group explaining the multiple steps we had taken to tailor the content specifically for his organization. Based on his body language, the answer satisfied him that they wouldn’t be hearing a canned presentation.

How to Start Creating Strategic Impact

At the workshop’s conclusion, this participant was among the first to come forward. He asked a really important question:

“What does it take to get organizations, particularly those outside the for-profit sector, to fundamentally embrace a strategic perspective and begin operating differently than they have?”
My answer was to just START. Today. Or tomorrow at the latest.

I followed with several ideas to get people thinking strategically without them even realizing what was happening.

He responded by saying he was asking specifically about what it takes to force strategic changes at the senior-most levels of an organization such as his.

Given the complexity of the question’s answer and the rush to clear the room so the next presenter could begin, I didn’t get to answer his bigger question.

My answer to his BIGGER question would have been to just start. Today.

Just Start!

Many people want to wait around for strategic changes to happen at the top. The best way to capitalize on change when it does happen, however, is to have prepared YOURSELF and the people YOU can realistically influence to improve their orientations toward creating strategic impact.
While you may not be able to set the overall strategic agenda for your organization, you can find ways to shape strategy in your own little corner of the world.

That can start with small things done repeatedly and consistently to demonstrate you both understand the bigger picture and can take action to bring it about within your sphere of influence.

Creating Strategic Impact Wherever You Can

Some people get off on big picture speculation about what senior leaders are thinking, expecting, and doing.

Yet, at some point, it’s up to YOU to start crating a change.

Inbound Marketing: Informative Video with Frost & Sullivan

Inbound Marketing is the theme & we are taking your calls. Watch this informative video with great tips, including Push/Pull Marketing, with Frost & Sullivan's Marketing Tipster.

Outmaneuvering the competition with your content strategy

You may be interested in Frost & Sullivan's upcoming webinar next Thursday, March 13, on outmaneuvering the competition with your content strategy! Feel free to send this around to any marketing colleagues who may benefit too. Send them here to register.

Some Background: Frost & Sullivan's Rob Butters and Suzanne Schultz will discuss how to position marketing content in order to maximize your initial marketing spend.  This content is highly recommend, as you'll be able to walk away with actionable strategies to implement in your own organization.

 

Check out the agenda here. Don't worry if can't make it next Thursday; Rob will record it and send a copy to all registrants.
 

Here's the link to register again.

 

Happy International Women's Day from Frost & Sullivan

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: Breaking barriers
Based on an article by Author: Maxine-Laurie Marshall

Being a female marketer in a male-dominated industry can be difficult. Maxine-Laurie Marshall sought advice from female leaders about dealing with the most common barriers stopping women from progressing their careers.

March plays host to International Women’s Day so it only seemed right to dedicate a couple of pages to women in marketing. This may act as an eye opener and you will discover some advice you can pass onto your wives, girlfriends and daughters.Women on boards.

In an article published at the end of January The Independent said: ‘Twenty percent of all directors and 25 per cent of non-executive directors are women.’

Things are moving in the right direction. But let’s not forget the aim is 25 percent, and that is still only one quarter and we’re not even at that number yet. So what do women need to do to stand a chance at filling a seat that is predominantly filled by men? “Go for it”, Victoria Park, marketing director at Sapphire Systems, says emphatically. “

Having confidence can help deal with a particularly thorny issue when it comes to women in the workplace: emotions. Having enough confidence and self-belief can help keep emotional outbursts at bay.

While people are in charge of their own destiny, the working environment in which they operate has a major impact. “We must remember the workplace was historically a male sphere, and as such many organisations are still structures in which men have more opportunity to flourish – with inflexible working hours that make balancing a family and career a seemingly distant dream,” says Jane Asscher, founding partner, strategy and management at 23red.

The historically male dominated workplace can also look upon certain female attributes as a sign of weakness. As Alana Griffiths, marketing strategy director at Mason Zimbler, says: “I think at times it can be daunting to operate at a senior level with few females around you, especially if you happen to have a softer skillset. Unfortunately, not all colleagues value a gentler approach, or understand that it isn’t synonymous with weakness.”

In order to promote those internal personal changes – such as an increase in confidence – and give women the strength to push for wider change in the industry, a mentor is needed.

Mentoring
Jonathan Becher, CMO of SAP, believes the lack of females in their twenties with mentors is potentially harming their future career success. If I look at women in their twenties who have business mentors compared to men, it seems substantially lower.”

When thinking about who you might like to have as a mentor or role model, Jen Roach, VP communications, EMEA at SAP says: “Ensure they are prepared to make time for thinking creatively, are confident and engender a collaborative, listening approach. It is better to pick someone you admire and approach them yourself: be well prepared and be able to articulate your case and what you aspire to and how you’d like the relationship to develop with the mentor. In other words you will need to market yourself.”

Women and children
Finally, whether you’re in your early-mid thirties, and regardless of whether you are planning on having a child soon, it’s likely your boss is thinking about it. So is it possible for women to be in a leadership position while having children? “Anything that makes it more practically possible for men to take on the childcare role will free up the possibility for women to continue advancing on their career paths, towards board positions.”

So if career progression and leadership roles are your aim, then some of the changes required to make that happen rest with you. But we all need to act and keep pushing this topic to the forefront, it’s raising awareness and pushing for a change in attitudes.
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Outmaneuver The Competition with your Content Stategy

As marketers you know that content is king. But how do you position your content to maximize your initial spend? And further, how do you position differently by Geography, Vertical, and Persona?   If we outmaneuver our competition, we end up with better conversations from sales to customer, and ultimately better conversion on our spend.  The goal: greater returns and a larger budget for 2015!

This eBroadcast, on March 13, 2:00 PM ET, will run through the key process checkpoints to design a custom content strategy, including:

• Tactics to leverage to support the buyer's journey: Awareness, Consideration, Credibility, and Evaluation
• Cost-effective strategies that won't break the bank
• Specific nuances to consider by Geography, Vertical, and Persona
• Tracking and scorecarding

2014 has arrived. Attend Frost & Sullivan's content positioning eBroadcast and guide the way to an enlightened 2014 content plan.

Click here to register