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Welcome to Clear Thoughts from
Uncommon Clarity
Strategic Thoughts - Quality is NOT a Strategy |
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Quality is not a strategy. Books, strategic
planning
websites, and executives may all provide
numerous
examples to the contrary, but quality is
simply not a
strategy. Nor is process improvement. Nor
productivity
gains. Nor employee development. Nor improved
marketing. Even growth is rarely a strategy.
If these are typical outcomes of your strategy
formulation process, your operational focus is
overpowering your strategic thinking. You
can't expect
significant gains by mostly doing the same
old things
a little better.
Protect your strategy and strengthen your
ability to
execute by avoiding confusion between strategic
decisions - the stakes in the sand - and the
on-going
operational decisions that will continuously
evolve
your ability to deliver well and satisfy your
customers.
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For help in developing a strong strategy
with great
possibilities for growth and profitability,
call us at 413-
527-3737.
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Customer Thoughts - Is Top Service a Top Priority? |
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Maybe you have no competition and never will.
In that
case, skip this article.
But if there is any other place your
customers can turn
to satisfy their wants and needs, you had
best focus
on their experience. The more average your
products,
the more important the customer experience.
Just what is that experience?
- How easy are you to find?
- What happens when they call you? Do they
get an
answering machine or a knowledgeable
individual? If
they get an answering machine, how many hoops do
you make them jump through? How many times
would you like to listen to your message and
menu
options?
- How quickly do they get good answers to
questions about your products?
- How quickly do they get responses to
calls and
email messages?
- Are those responses complete or do they
have to
go around and around?
- Do you help them determine whether your
product
will really solve their problem?
- Do you help them anticipate problems or
provide
that perfect little bit of expertise that
will make things
go smoothly for them?
- Are they clear about what they can expect
at each
step of the way when doing business with you?
- If your product doesn't measure up in
some way,
how are things resolved, by whom, and how
quickly?
- Do you make it easy for them to buy from you
again, whether through easy reorders or
reminders or
occasional contact?
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Book Thoughts - Made to Stick |
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Remember the story that changed Halloween? The
one about the razor blades in apples dished
out to
trick or treaters? In Made to Stick
- Why
Some Ideas Survive and Others Die,
brothers Chip
and Dan Heath reveal the characteristics that
etch
such stories indelibly in our memories. Never
mind that this story never happened.
This fascinating, fun and easy to read book
models its
message about memorable messages as it traces
and demonstrates those essential characteristics
using the acronym SUCCES:
- Simple - it takes 1 nanosecond to
comprehend the evil of the razor blades
- Unexpected - razor blades belong
nowhere near apples
- Concrete - evokes an instant,
visceral
reaction as we imagine costumed children
biting into
those big, juicy apples
- Credible - spread from neighbor to
neighbor, we all believe someone we know read
it in
the newspaper
- Emotional - pain, especially pain
inflicted
on small, helpless, adorable children, takes
the cake
for generating emotion
- Stories - this one's been told and
retold,
like any good story
Whether you are interested in marketing,
advertising,
compelling strategies, writing, teaching, public
speaking, communicating, changing the world, or
simply telling stories, the explanations,
examples and
exercises in this book will help you clarify
critical
concepts and pulverize prosaic prose.
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Parting Thoughts - Upcoming Events |
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Leave the Competition in the Dust! and
Better, Faster, Cheaper are courses open
to all that I will be teaching at Westfield
State College
this fall. Contact me or check the WSC
catalogue or
website for more information.
I will present Decisions! Simple Fork or
Source of
Torque? to the Women's Partnership of the
ACCGS on September 19th. We will examine the
three components of any decision and see that we
usually skip two of them. In addition, we
will learn
specific techniques to improve decisions,
conquer
indecision, and squash those decisions that
demand
you make them over and over again.
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Ann Latham
If you enjoyed this edition of Clear
Thoughts, please forward it to others who
may
be interested.
© 2007 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.
We encourage sharing of Clear Thoughts in
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Reflective Thoughts - Boundary Waters Lesson |
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With no Internet, cell phones, or email, I
expected
some kind of tectonic shift. It didn't
happen. Eight days
of paddling and portaging in the wilderness
on the
Minnesota-Canadian border with my family felt as
natural as it did when I was a pre-Internet
teen. Just
peaceful, beautiful and normal.
Wait! There was a revelation! To keep our packs
manageable, we planned the food down to the
ounce.
We paced ourselves carefully and finished the
last
morsel at the last meal. Every one of us
could have
eaten double, but we still felt strong,
energetic and
happy.
So why is it that we eat so much when
relatively
idle at home?
Habit. Our routines pave the way to habits
good
and bad. The wilderness provided a new routine
without pavement.
Uncommon Clarity helps organizations improve the
strategies and systems that make people
productive,
processes reliable, and customers happy.
Please contact us for help
in achieving your business objectives.
- Ann Latham
413-527-3737
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