Guest Speaker: How to Predict the Future

Guest Speaker: How to Predict the Future

A good sense of timing is key to success. Fortunately, it's easier to see the future--and to plan for it-than you may think.

Right on schedule, the digital cameras and pocket computers with the specs that we needed became available last spring. Our software development project was completed on time, and so we introduced a new, portable reading machine for the blind this past July.

Today, there are on the order of a thousand blind people reading all the print they encounter as they go through the day. Other companies have taken notice and are starting to develop competing products. As a result of our technology forecasting, however, we have a nice jump on the market.

To what do I owe this exquisite sense of timing? The simple truth is that timing is key to success as an inventor, so I've spent the past 30 years studying the rate by which information technology advances. Being an engineer, I gathered data on technology trends in different fields and built mathematical models. What I discovered is that understanding the timing of technological change is not as mysterious as most people think it is. In fact, I found that the models were surprisingly predictive, and today I have a group of 10 people at the Kurzweil Cos. helping me gather data and build these models.

The common wisdom that you can't predict the future is not all wrong. We can't predict specific things, such as whether Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock will be higher or lower three years from now. But within information technology there are meaningful patterns.

The evolution of information technology follows such exquisitely smooth exponential trajectories, in fact, that I can say with confidence that all information technology doubles its price performance and capacity pretty much every year. If you ask me the cost of a MIPS (million instructions per second) of computing in 2010, the cost of sequencing a base pair of DNA in 2012, or the spatial resolution of brain scanning in 2014, I can give you detailed figures and they are likely to be accurate. This has proved true for computation for more than 100 years, going back to the first data processing equipment used to automate the 1890 census.

One way to think about the patterns in information technology is to look at science, where we see other examples of remarkably predictable effects resulting from the interaction of inherently unpredictable phenomena. The laws of thermodynamics provide an example.

The path of each molecule in a gas is modeled as a random walk. Yet the properties of the overall gas, made up of many chaotically interacting particles, is predictable to a high degree of precision. Technology evolution is, similarly, a chaotic system with remarkably predictable properties.

There's another wrinkle to keep in mind. When I say that information technology doubles in price performance and power each year, remember that the rate itself is expanding at an accelerated rate. It took three years to double the price performance of computing equipment in 1900, two years in 1950, and we're now doubling it every year.

At today's exponential rate, doubling every year means multiplying by a thousand in 10 years and a billion in 30 years. But with the rate of acceleration continuing to grow, we will actually hit the billion mark in only 25 years. Consider the pervasive influence of information technology in today's world and multiply that by a billion in a quarter century--while we shrink the size of both electronic and mechanical technology by a factor of 100,000 in the same time frame--and you'll get some idea of how revolutionary information technology will be in the future.

All sorts of industries will be affected, beyond what we think of conventionally as computing. Take energy for example. Today, it seems like an area of grave concern, with implications from global warming to pollution to geopolitical instability. The fact that demand for energy is projected to triple within 20 years heightens our worries. Based largely on the 19th-century technology of fossil fuels, energy is not what we would consider an information technology. Not yet anyway. But when we have fully programmable nanotechnology, through which we can reorganize matter and energy at the molecular level, then we will see a revolutionary transformation.

Here's what I mean: Today we produce 14 trillion (about 1013) watts of power, 78 percent of which comes from fossil fuels. We have, however, plenty of energy in our midst. About 1017 watts of sunlight fall on the earth, or roughly 10,000 times more energy than we regularly consume. Solar panels today do a poor job of capturing this energy because they are inefficient, expensive, heavy, and difficult to integrate with building materials. Today production of solar power costs on average $8 per watt, much more than other energy sources.

The economics of solar power are poised to change dramatically, however, as a new generation of solar panels made with nanomaterials comes of age. Developed by a series of venture-backed companies eagerly jockeying to disrupt that $1.9 trillion worldwide oil industry, these innovative panels are projected to drop in price within a few years. And whether or not any of the known businesses now developing them are successful, once we have full-scale molecular nanotechnology-based manufacturing, we'll be off to the races.

At this point, energy will become an information technology dominated by massively parallel, computation-controlled molecular manufacturing processes. In 20 years, I believe solar panels will be as inexpensive as a penny per square meter.

We will be able to place them on buildings and vehicles, build solar energy farms, and incorporate them into clothing for powering mobile devices. Converting 0.0003 percent of all sunlight hitting the earth, which will be feasible at that time, will let us meet 100 percent of our energy needs two decades from now. In yet another welcome change, we will be able to store the energy in nanoengineered fuel cells that will be tiny and widely distributed, a great improvement over the centralized, dangerous energy storage facilities we rely on today, such as liquid natural gas tanks.

Most discussions of global warming make no mention of the ability of nanotechnology to solve this problem within 20 years. Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth never mentions nanotechnology, which in my view is a rather big oversight. The inclination to project the current rate of change into the future, what I call the "intuitive linear view," is hard-wired in us.

The reality is that transformative changes happen faster and faster today. The telephone took 50 years to be adopted by a quarter of the U.S. population. The cell phone did that in thirteen years. Only five years ago, most people did not use search engines. Just three years ago we did not hear the terms "blog," "podcast," or "social network." And three years ago, people thought that it was impossible for a business to make money on Internet advertising. Today, we have Google, a company with a $157 billion market cap that does just that.

The pace of change is already so fast that the world will be a very different place by the end of the three-year planning cycle of typical business projects currently under way, let alone the six- or seven-year venture capital horizon. In my own technology projects, we bake into our development and business plans projections that call for the rapid advancement of technology, on a quarter-by-quarter basis. One pleasant result of doing this is that we often find that today's difficult tradeoffs dissolve within a short period of time. With the doubling of price performance each year in every kind of information technology, you just need to wait a short while to find that you can have your cake and eat it too.

The past is an accurate guide to the future only if we take these exponential progressions into account. But relatively few people do. We see what is right in front of us and expect that pace to continue. But a studied look at history shows that progress is exponential, not linear, and the difference is profound.
Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, the co-founder of the Kurzweil Cos., and the author of five books, including The Singularity Is Near.

How to Collect from Anyone Even Enron Last One

22. Don't wait for a reason to call. Foresight's Nettie Morrison monitors the business press. She does that not only to stay alert about potential mergers (and bankruptcies) among her company's customer base but also to have an excuse to pick up the phone and chat up a client. For example: A client might be in the news because it is debuting a new product or having a strong earnings quarter. Morrison calls to congratulate the customer and winds up shooting the breeze, and as a result she develops better relationships with her customer contacts.

Come to Terms

23. Work with difficult customers. Your company has its own procedures for billing, but they should be secondary to those of your customers, insists Kadet. If your customer, as a rule, does not pay vendors in less than 60 days, then prepare to accept that -- don't start harassing the customer just because your terms are net 30. Similarly, be a perfectionist when it comes to following customers' instructions. Is the shipping address different from the billing address? Should you enclose a separate "shipping invoice" document with your regular invoice? Does the customer have unusual rules such as enforcing its "do not ship after" dates? You must comply -- if you want to keep the customers. After all, if you don't go along with their system, you're virtually guaranteeing a nonpayment.
24. Learn to improvise. You like to get paid within 30 days, but your customer expects to pay within 60 days. Does your cash flow have to suffer? Larkin Enterprises' Cullen Williams suggests altering your pricing structure. Perhaps you ask for an initial deposit. Maybe you make your first bill larger than it normally would be. Or perhaps you offer the customer a discount for paying in 30 days. The important thing is that you learn to match your expectations with your customer's needs -- without crippling your own business.

25. Don't hesitate to negotiate. Your company needs cash. Your customer does too. Is there a middle ground where you can meet? Negotiating a payment schedule is one idea. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. You can ask a late-paying customer to commit to giving you half now and the rest next week. Seeking a smaller amount might make it easier for an accounts-payable employee to cut you a check. And partial payment today is always better than no payment tomorrow.

26. Ask for the oldest first. Another test-driven tip from Tracy Wald: If a customer owes you for more than one invoice, you should start by looking to collect on only the oldest invoice. "Asking for all of them at once can seem too insurmountable," he says. And the collecting "tends to get easier once you've gotten the oldest one." Plus, he adds, by asking for payment on only the oldest invoice, you are subtly currying goodwill with the customer, who'll appreciate your leniency in not demanding the entire debt.

Protect Yourself

27. Think like a landlord. Maybe you are so eager for business that you will welcome any customer. At the same time, a prospective customer may strike you as the type that may prove to be an unreliable payer. One thing you can do, simple as it sounds, is request a deposit before beginning your work. How much you request is up to you -- there are no rules here. It's simply a case of striking a balance between pleasing customers and maintaining your cash flow.

28. Think like a retailer. Last year, for the first time since he's been in business, Rolf Albers began accepting credit-card payments. That may seem unremarkable, but Albers's customers are not consumers -- they're corporations like Lucent Technologies, Emerson Electric, and other makers of telecommunications and electronics equipment. So Albers, accustomed to receiving corporate checks, never thought he needed to accept credit cards. But he noticed that the following scenario happened a lot: A customer's employee would be in the field wiring up business phones and would suddenly discover that he needed a part. The installer would call Albers directly -- as opposed to going through his own company for the part -- which would allow him to complete the job on the same day and not disappoint his customer. The installer would typically say something like, "Just bill it to my company." And Albers, wanting to please his own customers, would comply. But that led to all sorts of collection disputes and problems. Typically, installers would forget to tell their companies that they'd needed the extra part. So now Albers accepts credit cards from the installers and contractors who work for his large customers. That way, the installer or contractor can still get a part immediately, but now it's the installer or contractor who is facing the cash crunch. Albers gets paid right away, albeit minus the credit-card merchant fees.

29. Follow the money. You're in payment discussions with a CEO. You're thinking that you've finally knifed through the red tape and made your way to the person who has the authority to pay you. Don't be fooled. Sometimes even CEOs have little choice about where their company's money goes. Some CEOs, for example, face dire financial consequences if they don't periodically pay down their credit line. Other CEOs don't even call the shots -- they might be indentured to a group of equity investors with a majority share of the company. That scenario is especially common if you deal with high-tech start-ups. In either situation, include the company's powerful financial entities in your collection efforts. For instance, let's say that the contact person at your customer's company breaks a promise to you. When you follow up with that person by E-mail, "cc" not only the contact's supervisor or CEO but also the company's banker or investors. If taking that step seems severe, then don't do it -- but you can certainly threaten to do it at a later date if the customer continues to break its commitments.

30. Be enterprising and relentless. We'll conclude with another tale from Tracy Wald's adventures in collecting. Wald has actually gone so far as to look up home numbers in the phone book and contact delinquent payers at home. He says he's called at "ridiculous hours" of the day. "Those are measures of last resort," he warns. "But it's not unreasonable to expect to be paid if you met their commitments."

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HOW TO COLLECT FROM ANYONE, EVEN ENRON!!! (2)

Make Your Visit Count

10. Enlist your allies. Visiting a customer to collect a check may seem like trying to snatch a hostage from enemy territory. It needn't be that way, especially if one of the customer's employees is satisfied with your work. Tracy Wald usually has a good relationship with his clients' project managers. When Wald is looking to collect, he and the project manager will sometimes visit the accounting department together, with Wald playing the role of "bad cop" and the project manager playing the role of "helpless victim." "I'll bring the project manager down to accounting," says Wald. "Then I'll get him to say, 'It's not that I don't trust you. But Tracy says work will have to stop if he doesn't get a purchase order.' "

11. Always bring backup. When you visit a customer, make sure that you come armed with specific documentation to support what the customer owes you. The last thing you want on a collection visit is a dispute over the amount of the bill. You also don't want to hear customers say that they either lost or never received the invoice that you had sent. Cullen G. Williams, CFO of Larkin Enterprises, heard those and other excuses the first few times that he visited his company's largest customer. But each time he had backup on hand -- time sheets signed by the customer's managers, which showed that Larkin employees had worked a certain number of hours on specific projects.

12. Remain calm. "You have to be dispassionate about it," Williams advises. "Don't raise your voice, and don't make it personal. Be very bland. Use simple, nonthreatening sentences." Williams speaks from experience. His first visits to one customer came on the heels of some heated interactions between CEO Larkin and some of the customer's employees. Larkin, as co-owner of the company, understandably had both a personal and a professional stake in the large collection and was unable to remain dispassionate about the collecting process. So when Williams took over the task, his job was to diffuse "the harsh past" and make it clear that he'd do "whatever was reasonable to comply with the customer's requests," which meant, in this case, supplying backup documentation "10 times" over, he adds.

Use Phone Etiquette

13. Show some sympathy. Just as you refrain from getting mad in face-to-face encounters, it doesn't pay to lose your cool on the phone, either. But how can you remain calm when some faceless administrator is giving you the runaround? Nettie Morrison of Foresight -- an administrator herself -- has mastered the art of phone empathy. "I say to them, 'I know they're not paying you to chase around invoices,' or something to that effect," she says. Showing that you understand where people are coming from helps to mollify them and possibly even win them over as an ally.

14. Call before the due date. Remember when fax machines were first used and it was common to call just to confirm whether someone had received your fax? When it comes to invoices, no matter how they were sent, the same protocol still applies. It's best to make the call before the invoice's due date -- not only to confirm its receipt but also to ensure that the customer's accounts-payable department has all the supporting documentation it needs to cut the check.

15. Get a commitment. When you've got someone on the phone, always try to get a specific date by which you'll get paid. That is a good rule to follow, both during an initial call for a missed payment and in response to a previously broken customer commitment. Answers like "soon" or "next week" aren't acceptable. If the customer is dodgy about dates, calmly mention what you plan to do if you don't get paid on time. What should you say? You can refer to "the authorities." You can mention the idea of halting work on a project. And you can use statements like "You expect us to ship on time, so we expect you to pay on time," says the Brenner Group's Kadet. "Use that statement often," he adds. However, when you say things like that, be sure to maintain an even tone. And remember, your customer signed a contract. Don't be afraid to refer to it. Constantly. "You must create an expectation within their A/P department that you will call and insist on payment within the contract terms," says Kadet.

16. Keep a journal. Take detailed notes of every collection conversation you have. Record the date of the conversation; whom you spoke to; the specific commitment the person made to you; and finally, what you ever-so-calmly threatened to do if the commitment was not met. Then, after the actual phone discussion, E-mail your notes of the conversation to your customer contact. That will (a) serve as yet another reminder that you are determined to get paid and (b) create an additional record of the conversation in your (and your customer's) E-mail accounts.

17. Follow up wisely. If a customer reneges on a commitment to pay, you'll need to consider whether you should follow up on your threat. Keep in mind that your goal is to get paid as soon as possible. Sometimes giving a customer a second chance is the most effective thing to do. Before you follow up on your threat, ask if the customer is in any way dissatisfied with the services you've rendered. "I bring that up, especially when I know they're thrilled," says Tracy Wald. If your customer claims to be happy with your services, then you'll have another reason to act surprised when you ask -- for the second time -- why you haven't yet been paid. Perhaps the administrator that you're dealing with is new to the job; perhaps your contact person just came back from vacation. Regardless, you'll have to make one of two choices: get a second commitment from your customer, or take the action you initially threatened to take.

18. Let the punishment fit the crime. If you decide to follow up on your threat, remember to be as professional as possible with your contact. Don't act as though you're out for retribution. Instead, remind your contact of the commitment he or she made and subsequently didn't keep. Explain that you're not trying to get anyone in trouble -- you're simply trying to get paid. One "punishment" many of our veteran collectors suggested was to E-mail your contact and "cc" his or her superior. The message would only restate the nature of the broken commitment. Here is another instance where it helps to have phone documentation. The E-mail message should also say something about what you will do if the bill remains unpaid. Allude to work stoppages and -- if you're working your way up the company hierarchy -- to other employees at the company whom you might need to "cc" on future E-mail messages.

19. Use guilt, not anger. To achieve your aim -- getting paid -- it's important to get the name of all the people you've talked to, especially if they've made a commitment. "Once you get that commitment, whoever you talk to will feel guilty when you call back," says Wald. "They've made you a promise, and I've found that they'll do what they can because they don't want to be thought of as someone with no integrity. It could be the owner, a clerk, anyone." What's the proper way to react if your contact lies to you? With disappointment rather than anger. "It's just a sigh, mostly," says Wald. "Then I say, 'I told my boss you guys were going to pay, and now I'm going to look like an idiot.' And after saying something like that, rather than being pissed off at them, I ask for their help."

20. Avoid the owner. One of Wald's axioms about collections is: "I normally choose not to collect from people who are spending their own money." He's found that entrepreneurs are less likely to pay up promptly because it's their own dough they're parting with. Rather, he prefers to have collection discussions with someone other than the business owner.

21. Never give up. If you have no choice but to deal with the owner, then you have to make like a salesperson. Do everything in your power to get past the receptionist just to get the boss's ear. First, make sure that you talk to an actual person, as opposed to leaving messages. "I will talk to anyone," says Wald. "I start to really talk at length and explain my problem to the clerk or receptionist. Then, when I've finished the explanation, I just ask them (after learning their name) if, when they see a certain person, they could simply explain how important it is to me that they call me back." Of course, business owners receive calls all the time and expect to be screened from anything that's not at the top of their agenda. In some cases, you may have no choice but to wait on hold. Wald says he once waited on hold for four hours just to reach someone. "I had the phone on hands-free so I could still type and go about my business," he says.

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HOW TO COLLECT FROM ANYONE, EVEN ENRON!!

How to Collect from Anyone (Even Enron)
Thirty ways to get paid within 30 days.
By: Ilan Mochari
COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE: marielafernandasgro@gmail.com


Not a day goes by that Bob Fisher doesn't thank his lucky stars for Nettie Morrison. But this past March 21 he was particularly grateful that she worked for him.
That was the day that Foresight, Fisher's 50-employee software company in Dublin, Ohio, received a $1,635 check from Enron. The very Enron that, 109 days earlier, had filed for bankruptcy.

Yet the check, which fully covered Enron's renewal of a one-year licensing contract with Foresight, came to Morrison, the company's accounts-receivable specialist, as though it were business as usual.
How did she manage to wrest payment from Enron when so many others couldn't? Preventive diligence. Enron had been a Foresight customer since 1997. Beginning almost a year ago, when the news of Enron's accounting irregularities first broke, Morrison spoke to her Houston contacts almost weekly -- even though the contract didn't expire until February 2002. Using her internal connections, she worked her way to the Enron employee with the power to pay up. By starting early, maintaining good relationships, and remaining persistent, Morrison got her payment.

If you've been a player in the small-business arena this year, you know that getting paid at all, let alone on time, has become a tough assignment -- even if your customers aren't going bankrupt. Consider what happened to Rolf Albers. One of his big customers had the audacity to "declare a no-payment period," he says. "For the 25-day period between May 15 and June 8 they were simply not going to cut any checks."

Albers isn't alone. Of the small-business owners who responded to a recent Inc.com survey about collections, 61% said getting paid was more difficult this year than it was last year. We can't rectify the economic environment, but we can help on the collection front. Thanks to the assistance of such collection veterans as Morrison, Albers, and others (see "The Collectors," below), we've assembled the following list of 30 collection tips. Can we guarantee you'll always get paid within 30 days? We wish we could. But follow these road-tested rules, and you're bound to see some real improvement.
Here is n° 1 to 9.

1. You do the math. Foresight's invoices contain the following phrase: "If paid by September 30, your cost is x; if paid after September 30, your cost is y (invoice amount plus interest)." Morrison found that specifying what the amount of interest would be -- as opposed to merely stating that 1.5% of the charges would be appended every month -- made a huge difference in how quickly customers paid up.

2. Stay consistent. "The language on the invoice should match the language on the contract the customer signed," says Tracy Wald, chief financial officer at consultancy Leonhardt Fitch. That way there's no excuse for customers to claim confusion over precisely what they are being billed for. That is especially important if you sell an unquantifiable service like branding, as Wald does.

3. Work off milestones, not months. Avoid billing at monthly intervals if you can. After all, you're not the phone company. It's far better, says Wald, to tie your billing milestones to tangible deliverables. For example: At some point during a project, you and your team give a major presentation to a client. Don't wait until the end of the month to bill for it. Instead, use the presentation date as a milestone in your billing cycle. Which relates to ...

4. Stagger your billing. Don't mail your invoices on a set schedule. When possible, try sending them out so that customers get them a day or two after receiving your product or accepting your service. That makes your job a whole lot easier when following up with collection phone calls. If you've followed tip #2, your customers will have the perfectly worded invoice in their hands when your service or product is still fresh in their minds.

5. Don't let last be least. The hardest check to collect is often the last one, since that's when the job is complete and your negotiating power is reduced. So Richard Larkin, CEO of staffing company Larkin Enterprises, is careful about when he mails out his final invoice. He plans for it to arrive while his workers are still at a job site. If his customers take too long to pay, Larkin has the option of pulling his workers off the job before they complete it.
Practice Applying Pressure

6. Know your customer's stress points. If you can't directly pressure your customer, then pressure your customer's stress points. Larkin does that in extreme cases by calling for work stoppages. Many of his customers are general contractors who have been hired by large utility companies to build or overhaul a power plant. He knows that if the general contractor isn't paying him, then he can threaten to cut off the contractor's supply of employees. The utility then gets upset at the general contractor, because without Larkin's employees, the contractor usually fails to meet the utility's deadlines. And Larkin also knows that contractors can rarely afford to alienate their large customers.

7. Take legal action. If things get really bad -- if a customer breaks a promise about making an ultralate payment, for example -- then Larkin places what's called a "mechanic's lien" on the utility's property. That's when the utility (again) gets angry at the general contractor. "It tends to cause a rift between them," says Larkin, who adds that for both parties the prospect of a mechanic's lien is dreadful. "Just the threat of it usually accomplishes the mission," he notes. According to Bob Edinger, contract manager at Larkin Enterprises, the cost to file a mechanic's lien is minimal.

8. Revoke privileges. Rolf Albers of Albers Manufacturing Co. has been in business for 23 years. One thing still baffles him: "If I went to Sears today and wanted to buy a refrigerator, they would make me pay today, in one form or another," he says. "But a small manufacturer with no track record can call me, wanting $1,000 worth of equipment, and they think they can wait 90 days to pay. It's a stupid system, but that's the way it is." So Albers does his best to prevent his customers from taking advantage of "the system." If a customer gets too far behind in payments, Albers immediately converts that customer to COD status going forward. Unless it's one of his big customers. In that case, "they pay when they feel like it," he says.

9. Just drop by. If you don't receive a scheduled payment, you might call your customer and ask, "Where's the check?" Whereupon your customer might say: "It's right here. It's going out in today's mail." To which, all our experts agree, you should always, always reply: "Don't bother sending it. I'm going to be in the neighborhood today. I'll pick it up." That simple tactic might be the most effective collections procedure out there. Larkin says he once visited his biggest customer, an international energy goliath, and came away with a $3.8-million check. Albers recalls walking out of a customer's office with a check "in the $10,000 range." Richard Kadet, a veteran CFO who works for the Brenner Group, also recommends making collection visits, especially for large invoices. And it doesn't always have to be the CEO or CFO who makes the visit. "For out-of-the-way customers, your salesperson in that territory can personally go for it," he says.

Have your say: marielafernandasgro@gmail.com

HOW TO START A MAILING LIST!!!!!

How to Start a Mailing List
By: Mitchell Friedman

E-mail lists can enable you to generate awareness and, more importantly, build mutually beneficial relationships with key audiences.

Two main categories of mailing lists exist: those others create and manage, and those you create and manage. This column looks at the latter.

You can quickly and easily set up mailing lists using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, Eudora, Yahoo, Hotmail and other popular e-mail software and services. It's simply a matter of following the instructionsprovided.

If you envision creating larger lists or prefer not to deal with administrative tasks such as removing bad e-mail addresses andmanually adding new people to the list, consider services such as bCentral List Builder, Yahoo! Groups, and Topica. These servicesenable you to set up and oversee mailing lists quickly and easily.

It's a relatively simple task to set up a mailing list, regardless of which option you choose. But more must be done to get the mostbenefit from your list. Begin by answering the following questions.

What's the purpose of the mailing list? First, decide whether you have worthwhile information to communicate. Second, determinewhether e-mail is the best tool for communicating this information.

Are the individuals in your audience e-mail savvy? Do they want to receive information from you via that channel or via anothermeans? Is e-mail the most efficient and effective means for you to disseminate that information?

Who is the audience for the mailing list? Customers? Vendors? Business partners? Media? An effective mailing list -- or any formof communication, for that matter -- can't meet the needs of all audiences. You need to focus your content to have a chance atsucceeding in your communications efforts.

What content will you offer, and how will you present it? You not only need to determine what to include on your list but how oftenyou will disseminate information, how to secure it from appropriate staff, and how to present it in a format suitable for e-mail.

In other words, you'll have to develop a schedule for collecting, developing and formatting mailing list content. You'll need to consider offering mailing list subscribers options for how they want to receive information, as plain text or as an HTML document.

How will the list be promoted? The possibilities are endless. You can mention it on your Web site, in your signature file, on your letterhead and packaging, and in any other communication directed at your target audience: e-mail, brochures, business cards, pressreleases, articles and voice mail.

Will the list be used for announcements or discussion? You can use a mailing list to send press releases, product details and other materials to subscribers without offering them the option of contributing to the list content or talking to each other. These lists are often referred to as announcement or distribution lists.

However, you might wish to create a discussion list that allows subscribers to exchange ideas.

This alternative might be attractive ifthe list consists of individuals for whom the ability to interact with colleagues is essential.

Mailing lists used for discussion purposes typically demand more active management. Such mailing lists tend to suffer when members send incendiary messages or when they fail to stay on topic or otherwise don't contribute constructively and substantively.

Skillful list management creates a supportive, productive environment. Be sure to consider the ongoing commitment this role requires when allocating resources to Internet public relations activities.

Is membership in the list open to anyone, or is it restricted? You might wish to allow anyone interested in a list to subscribe to it.But some lists, such as those just for customers, will be exclusive, so you'll need to evaluate each request to join. Again, such a taskadds to the work of managing the mailing list.

Will the list be moderated? A mailing list moderator plays the role of traffic cop, receiving messages subscribers want to post to the list and determining whether they are appropriate.

This role allows you to remain tuned in to what's important to your subscribers and to build relationships through the conversation. The alternative is to create an unmoderated list.

Other list management options include offering subscribers the option of receiving a digest of messages posted to the list during acertain period of time. You might also wish to create a searchable archive of all mailing list content, which benefits current as well asprospective members.

Once you've got the ball rolling, follow these guidelines:
Be concise. Write in short paragraphs and provide summaries of longer articles. Include links to additional information for thosewho want it.

Create a welcome message that is immediately sent to subscribers. This message should include the list's purpose and targetaudience, frequency, appropriate topics for submissions, and contacts for questions about list content and technical issues.

Create an opt-in mailing list, whereby you invite people to subscribe - rather than simply adding them without notice. It's to your distinct advantage to send information only to subscribers who have chosen to receive it, rather than alienating people you've added indiscriminately.

Make it easy to subscribe and unsubscribe from your lists. Always include information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe in all mailing list messages. Subscribers often don't save or can't easily find your introductory message that includes list directions. Or,hopefully, they've forwarded the message to someone who's not currently a subscriber but who decides to join.

Assure subscribers that their e-mail addresses will not be sold or used for any purpose other than list-related communication.

Be true to your purpose, audience and content. In other words, give your subscribers what you promised and, presumably, what they value.

The Internet is overflowing with mailing lists clamoring for subscribers. By following these guidelines, you'll stand out, attract a loyal following of subscribers, and be on the way to creating a list that meets your public relations goals.

REUNIONES DE TRABAJO, Factores de Conflicto!

¿Por qué tantas reuniones de trabajo son eternas e improductivas?
Discusiones, peleas e largas horas de trabajo improductivo... ¿Cuáles son los principales factores que destruyen la eficacia de las reuniones de trabajo?

Por Julián Lichtmann

"Nuestras reuniones de equipo gerencial son un desastre. Ya no sé qué hacer. Somos todos profesionales exitosos y de distinguida trayectoria. Pero cuando nos juntamos, nos transformamos en una máquina de perder el tiempo", me dijo Ramiro, gerente de recursos humanos de una pujante empresa. Luego, prosiguió resignado: "Nos quedamos en la oficina hasta altas horas de la noche. Nuestras reuniones son eternas y de pobres resultados. El problema es que hay personalidades muy fuertes y graves problemas de comunicación. Especialmente el gerente comercial, cuando empieza a monopolizar las reuniones, y a discutir con..."

Para diagnosticar el problema y encontrar posibles soluciones, Ramiro me invitó, dos semanas más tarde, a sentarme en una mesa ovalada de un elegante salón, junto a él y el resto del equipo gerencial, cuatro hombres y dos mujeres.

El siguiente es un resumen de cinco obstáculos que identifiqué durante la reunión.

1) Ausencia de un facilitador: Si bien la reunión era formalmente presidida por Mario, vicepresidente de la compañía y gerente de marketing, éste no actuaba cuidando el diálogo del equipo ni parecía capacitado para ejercer dicho rol.Todas sus intervenciones, al igual que las del resto de los gerentes, estaban sesgadas por sus propios intereses y perspectivas particulares. Las personas hablaban sin sentirse comprendidas. Se generaban así desacuerdos sin salida.

2) Falta de "reglas del juego"La reunión abundaba en interrupciones constantes (mensajes de texto, llamadas a celulares), varias personas hablando al mismo tiempo y el dominio de los más extrovertidos.

3) Expresiones de deseo vagas no traducidas en compromisos: Los participantes manifestaban pensamientos interesantes. Nadie, sin embargo, logró durante el transcurso de la reunión integrar alguno de ellos a alguna propuesta de acción. Se expresaban ideas como "es fundamental mejorar la comunicación entre la gerencia de producción y la gerencia comercial para que ésta explore nuevos mercados realistas para nuestra capacidad de producción". No obstante, en ningún momento de la reunión se propuso quién iba a hacer qué y cuándo para avanzar en esa dirección. Los presentes parecían más preocupados en decir algo interesante que en integrar las diversas voces en la toma de una decisión legítima y productiva para todo el grupo.

4) Falta de claridad sobre el proceso de toma de decisiones: Cuando alguien planteaba un tema, no siempre estaba claro si estaba consultando a los demás, meramente informándolos, o bien involucrándolos en una toma de decisión compartida. Esto generaba malentendidos y conversaciones extensas e inútiles.

5) Personalización de desacuerdos: Ante opiniones divergentes, la conversación se convertía en una puja por quién tenía la razón y quién estaba equivocado. Así, el debate se polarizaba en un antagonismo competitivo, resolviéndose eventualmente las diferencias por votación.

6) Minuta improductiva: Una secretaria tomaba nota de todo lo expresado en la reunión, generando así un documento que nadie leería. En definitiva, aquel equipo gerencial dilapidaba gran parte de su energía en reuniones improductivas. Pero, desde luego, no son los únicos. Es probable que usted también se sienta identificado por esta clase de dinámica grupal.

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Boost Your Brand - FIND THE PERFECT PERSON TO GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT!

Boost Your Brand!!

Inventor Michael Boehm's instincts told him the concept he had been shopping to various manufacturers—-a portable contact grill that cooks food items faster and more healthfully-—had great promise. So why couldn't he find a corporate partner to help take the product to market?
It was 1993, and Boehm had spent a year fruitlessly searching for someone to buy into his idea. Rather than back-burner the grill, he decided what the concept needed--not only to land corporate backing but to resonate with consumers--was some star power.
The rest, as they say, is history. Boehm targeted boxer George Foreman to be the spokesperson for the concept. "I knew he ate two burgers before every fight and that he and his sons were all burger freaks," he says. "To me, he was a perfect fit to represent the product."

After checking out a prototype of the grill, the Foreman camp agreed it was a good match, and the heavyweight signed on to represent the product. Soon thereafter, with Foreman's muscle behind the grill, Boehm found a company, Salton, to take it to market. Now, 14 years after Salton rolled out the George Foreman Grill, it has sold a whopping 100 million units.
The Foreman grill has become a textbook example of how enduringly valuable a high-profile spokesperson can be when that person is carefully selected and wisely deployed in the scheme of a marketing strategy. It's also proof that investing in a "name" pitch person isn't just for large corporations with deep pockets. Having a celebrity spokesperson "can work for small companies, and it can work for large, established brands," says Jay Lenstrom, CEO of the Radiate Group, a Chicago-based network of marketing agencies. What's more, "it can be done on less than a shoestring" budget.
For a small company seeking to get out from under the shadow of larger competitors, having a name pitch person can be an equalizer, according to Estella Ferrera, whose family owns Oggi's Pizza & Brewing Co., a chain of restaurants that for several years has used football star LaDanian Tomlinson, running back for the NFL's San Diego Chargers, as its celebrity face. "It tends to make us look bigger than we really are," says Ferrera, director of sales and marketing for Oggi's, which has 20 restaurants in Southern California and Arizona. "Having L.T. as our spokesperson has made our advertising stand out more and given us more credibility."
When the spokesperson relationship works the way it's intended, "you get instant recognition and tremendous recall for a product," says Lenstrom, whose firm matches clients with celebrity talent from sports and entertainment circles.
A name pitch person can provide a major boost to startups with zero name recognition as well as to more established companies and brands. But not every venture needs--or can afford--one. "I think it's an endeavor worth exploring," says Andrea Sullivan, executive director of client services at Interbrand in New York City. "It's important to go through a fact-based analytical process to determine whether it's the right answer for a business."
Usually the decision to pursue a name spokesperson comes down to money. "Sure, it can pay off," says Janet Rickstrew, CEO of Denver-based Tomboy Tools. "But the price tag can be unrealistic for some companies, especially in the first few years of business." Tomboy Tools has used celebs such as Leslie Segrete of reality home-improvement television fame to tout its line of woman-oriented tools.
Before you reach for the stars, here are some tips for how to go about evaluating your options and finding the right pitch person.
Define expectations, budget and time frame. How long do you want your relationship with the pitch person to last? How much can you spend? How extensively will the person be used? All that should be discussed beforehand, Lenstrom says.
Do your homework. Look at companies, brands and products comparable to yours that have used a pitch person, Boehm suggests. Why were some successful and some not? Sullivan says it may be worthwhile to invest in modeling software that projects how various spokespeople will affect sales.
Be sure values, ethics and personalities jibe. A pitch person should embody the personality of a brand or product, and vise versa. Make an effort to get to know the person you're targeting, Ferrera suggests, so you're comfortable that he or she is the right fit. "You want someone who has the same values your company has." Having a pitch person with strong community inclinations resonates more with consumers today, Sullivan says.
Don't settle for just any celebrity. "It should seem like a natural partnership, not a disingenuous, forced alignment," Sullivan says.
Evaluate with your head, not your heart, Lenstrom advises. You might be a huge NASCAR fan, but that doesn't make your favorite driver the right pitch person for your company.
When shooting for the stars, aim high. If you believe a certain person is ideally suited to speak for your company, it can't hurt to ask about his or her availability.
For businesses whose market is strictly local, think local celebrity. No need to break the bank for a national name when someone in the community, such as the local high school football coach, will suffice.
Look for someone with charisma. "Ask yourself, 'Do they have the characteristics to grab and maintain someone's attention?'" Boehm says.
Find someone willing to go beyond the call of duty because he or she has genuine interest in your product/brand. "If your spokesperson won't make the effort to know your product, your chances of hitting a home run are minimal," Boehm says.
Weigh whether to hire an outside firm to help in the search. As Boehm points out, it's no guarantee of success. "You can pay a firm tens of thousands of dollars to find a spokesperson for you, and the results can be less than desirable."
If you opt for the do-it-yourself route, leverage your contacts during search and outreach. Well-placed family, friends and business associates can get you in the door.
Know the risks-—and have an exit strategy. Two words: Michael Phelps. By aligning with a person in the public eye, a business or brand and its spokesperson become inextricably linked. Trouble for the spokesperson generally means trouble for the business or brand. Be sure your company has a contractual "out" for cases like that, Lenstrom says.
Be a creative, flexible deal maker, and you can land a big name on a small budget. Some luminaries are open to doing deals in which they take little or no money upfront but gain a stake in the company they're pitching for, according to Lenstrom. Others, such as Tomlinson, might be flexible with financial terms if the company agrees to support a charitable cause that is near and dear to them.
Once you've landed that pitch person, it's time to put him or her to work. Here are some suggestions for getting the most out of your investment:
Be aggressive. "We used L.T. in everything we could think of," Ferrera says, from print, radio and TV advertising to place mats, to-go cups and even the restaurant voice mail. Use them to make a splash at trade shows, national sales meetings and community events. Experiential promotion can provide higher impact at a lower cost, Sullivan says.
Craft the campaign carefully, Ferrera says. "Make sure your brand doesn't get lost. It's easy for a spokesperson's stardom to overpower your message."
Channel the spokesperson's inclinations and passions to mutual benefit. "The spokesperson, if they're good, will have their own ideas and they'll let you know what they're comfortable doing," Boehm says.
Use the spokesperson in social media. Facebook, Twitter and the like provide high-impact, lower-cost promotional avenues. Plus, observes Sullivan, "brands that invite more conversational relationships with consumers are the ones that are most successful today."
Finally, prepare for the public to hold you to a higher marketing standard. Says Sullivan: "Once you go down that road [using a high-profile pitch person], people expect it from you."
That's generally a good thing, because it means you're getting noticed.

Five tips for skillful authenticity

Five tips for skillful authenticity

Get more information before making a statement. Making a statement rather than asking a question closes off the possibility that you' ll gain additional understanding and increases the likelihood that you'll be perceived negatively. Don' t jump to the conclusion that your way's the only way without getting the full story.

Raw: That's never going to work.
Polished: I don't have enough information yet to get behind this and see how it will help improve project outcomes. Can you tell me more about what you' re proposing?

Check out any assumptions you might be making. If you think you've made an assumption, ask (and if you don't think you make any assumptions, you've just made a big one!).
More often than not, because of our own filters, what we hear is quite different from what someone has actually said and certainly different from what they might have intended to say.

Get clarity as quickly as possible to avoid tainting the interaction with a misconception made early on.

Raw:You're trying to keep me out of the loop, and you're talking down to me.
Polished: I'm making the assumption that you think I shouldn't be involved in this project and that you think I'm less qualified on this subject than you are. Is that correct?

Raw: You need to do a great job on this project, or we'll all be in trouble.
Polished: In order to fulfill expectations for success on this project, you need to improve our customer relations feedback from fair to good within six months of starting the new approach. Knowing that, is there anything else we need to add to help meet that goal?

Keep everyone focused on the goal and intention. Create common ground on which to share your perspective. This helps people maintain understanding without hitting hot buttons as quickly or ferociously.

Raw: I don't work that way, I have high standards.
Polished: I have some concerns about doing it this way, particularly that our approach will seem rude to customers. I'd like to propose another option that leads to the same goals.

Know the difference between inquiry and advocacy. Much of the time, conversations go nowhere or aren't as productive as they could be, because participants are too busy trying to convince others that their position is the correct one.

Spend time inquiring into another participant's position, as well as sharing why you've arrived at your own position. Remember, your truth isn't the only truth, and you may not even be right. Keeping this in mind helps us be more humble as we enter into conversation with others.

Raw: We can't do that. We have to do what I've suggested, or the project won't work.
Polished: Tell me more about how your suggestion might help us reach our goal for this project, and then I'd like to share more information about my own suggestion.

Set the stage. Demonstrate your authenticity by telling people that you might not have it down pat yet. This comment instantly brings your audience to the table in terms of how you're operating and what they might expect.
Note: Don't use this rule as an excuse to shoot off your mouth about anything. Use it as a guide to your intentions.

Raw: I'm going to say what I'm feeling and thinking.
Polished: Before we get started, I want to let you know that I'm trying to be more authentic. Do all of you feel comfortable with this? (Offer to share examples of your candor.)

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Practical tips for being Assertive

Practical tips for being assertive

Realize that it's all in your head. In situations where you feel you are not speaking your mind, ask yourself why and then ask, "What's the worst thing that couldhappen if I share my thoughts in a civil, clear manner?"The answers to these questions may very well be all you need to calm down and act assertively.Very often, people will see how silly their fears are and that the fears are rooted in their minds, not reality.

Let your intentions motivate your response. Allow yourself to take a moment and identify your beliefs, opinions, and intentions for sharing a thought. The desire to please others often gets in the way of a person'sthinking process and opinion formation.

Be specific. Don't say, "We need that ASAP." Insteadsay, "I need the proposal finished and on my desk by 8a.m. Friday. What do you need to accomplish that?" The more you can avoid assumptions or mixed messages, thebetter.

Don't feign agreement. Don't substitute smiling,nodding, or adopting other body language that suggestsagreement just for the sake of keeping the peace. Disagree actively, but do it in a civil manner! Express disagreement with the idea, not the person -- for example, "I have another opinion, which I'd like to throw on the table."

Ask for clarification. Request more information when asked to do something you believe is unreasonable. Perhaps the explanation will help you understand the request more fully and give you the confidence and assurance to say yes or no.

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