An interesting business model…

February 24, 2009 by

Recently, I have been introduced to the segment of closeouts and remainder products. This is a segment of business that, to be honest, I was completely unaware of. And yet – it is an amazingly interesting and fascinating business. The amount of money that changes hands and the way that business is transacted is fascinating. It is not something you learn in business school. In fact, if anything, it is something that you study in business school as if it is an “old school” way of doing business. But yet, there is so much to learn from these businesses.

Here are two of the lessons I have learned so far -

Your reputation is everything

In the world of technology, we often talk about reputation online and what it means to a company and a brand.  No more is this self-evident than in this sector of business.  Deals are done based on reputation.  Loyalty far exceeds anything we could have ever imagined and respect for the individual and organization are tantamount to success.  Preserving your reputation is potentially the most important key to success and survival.

Products vary, buyers do not

How can it be that there are loyal buyers to companies, when you cannot be 100% certain from week to week what products that company will be selling.  The reason is – loyalty and reputation.  Customers keep coming back – interested in what you might be selling this week.  I see in it my folks – they are loyal shopper of the Christmas Tree Shops.  I never understood why, but they would go there week after week – to look around and see what might be selling this week.  What brings them there is not the products but the company itself.

So – what does this mean outside of this business segment…

I think these lessons are ones that we can all learn from and use in our daily business lives.  We often debate – is it the product or the people or the company that we should be stressing.We have seen lots of companies that have built success on the back of products and product brands.But now we are seeing companies built on the strength of the company itself and the loyalty to that company seems to be stronger in many cases than the loyalty to the products.In times like these, reputation and loyalty are everything.Think about that.Focus on that. Build a company with that in mind.

Filed Under: The Pulse on Marketing

Where is the focus?

February 20, 2009 by

As I am waiting for a meeting to begin, I am left wondering – where is the focus? Where has it gone? In this current economic climate, it seems like everyone has lost focus.

The spiral downward has been so fast and so deep that everyone is left wondering – should I spend anything? Can I afford to spend anything? Where is the equilibrium point? I speak to clients on a daily basis and most are saying a similar thing at this point – I do not know enough at this point to commit for something in the future – even if it is the immediate future.

In a world of such uncertainty – focus is everything. Find it. Don’t lose it. And Don’t forget it.

My recommendations to anyone leading an organization or a team -

1) Make sure every member of that team has both an individual focus and a team focus
2) Make sure the focus point is clear, visible, attainable, and clearly understood
3) Make sure that you, as the leader, remove everything that could come in the way of that focus – gone are the days where distractions can be commonplace and “free time” is part of work time – focus is key.
4) Rid yourself of anyone who does not have focus or who detracts others from their focus.
5) Find the balance in your messaging. Team members are not oblivious to the current climate and situation – don’t try to hide it. At the same time, don’t paint such a picture that simply your messaging will cause people to lose focus.
6) Be transparent as much as you can. Let people know that the decisions you make will be self-evident and based on performance and focus.

Finally – make sure that focus is the topic of each conversation. Quickly intercept any conversation that loses focus and that starts to create any gray. More than ever, people need to be able to see black and white, and it is the job of every good leader to make sure the black and white point of focus is clear to each and every team member.

Have you found your focus?

Filed Under: General

What is the new model for the IT business?

February 18, 2009 by

questionmarkBeing both a platform and services company in IT and a media company servicing the IT sector, I am often in discussions about the new model for IT and services companies.  There is no question that Wall Street has shunned the pur services businesses – and with good reason.  While in the late 1990′s there appeared to be predictability in this sector, it is clear that at this point the businesses in that sector are not able to have long, predictable pipelines and in terms are always in a shaky position from a long terms perspective.

With that in mind, the apparent obvious answer would be to be more product centric and not service focused?  But wait.  Look at what is going on.  There is no question that the open source movement is having a material impact on the IT product sector.  Look at what has happened in the world of Web Content Management Systems.  For sure, there are many excellent products out there that a company can purchase.  But also look at the open source solutions.  Not bad and getting better all the time.  They have become a definite realistic alternative.  And this is coming from someone who has invested a lot of money into the building of a Web Content Management Solution.

So – then let’s go to a Software as a Service model?  Isn’t that the way to go?  Not so fast.  Look what is happening there?  The low switching costs involved with a lot of these solutions make the long term predictability model very difficult to forecast.

So what is it?  Our opinion, and the trend with a lot of companies these days, is that the model is some sort of equilibrium between all three.  What is the combination, no one knows for sure.  But watch and see and you will see product companies offering more services, service companies offering their services related to product solutions and product derivatives, and everyone testing the waters again in the SaaS model…

Filed Under: General Tagged With: ,

From the desk of Stephen Saber….

February 5, 2009 by

notebookHello all.  This is my inaugural post in my new blog.

My goal with this blog is to provide insights, pass along interesting articles and ideas that I have come across, and post observations I see in the technology, media, finance, or events world.

Also, I plan to post links to articles, webinars, and valuable content that I think would be worth reading or viewing.

I welcome any feedback, shared ideas, and suggestions for topics that might be interesting.

Photo by: Rosa y Dani

Filed Under: General Tagged With: