Evergreen-Partners' blog | learn about corporate trade

How successful leaders think

Think of the last time you were confronted with two alternatives. Nether one was a great choice, but you felt compelled to choose one – the best.

You probably don't have to think too hard since this is a very common scenario. In fact, it is so common that most of us routinely look for the opposite of the less desired option as the only alternative.

It turns out that there is an important skill that can be learned as an solution to the either-or dilemma. In a Harvard Business Review paper written by Roger Martin, the "Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, entitled, How Successful Leaders Think, Roger outlines a thinking method that involves creating a synthesis of two seemingly opposing alternatives. "Martin calls this "Integrative Thinking".

Using Bob Young, the founder of software giant Red Hat, as one example of integrative thinking, Martin shows how the whole of the software industry saw only two methods of distributing software: The proprietary model employed by companies like Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP in which the software is sold but the source code is kept proprietary, and the so-called free software model in which companies sold their software for a very low price and gave away the source code (open source).

Not liking either of those alternative distribution models, Young pioneered a synthesis of the two that allowed Red Hat to go public and become a $1.3 billion company. Great business leaders like Jack Welsh, Steve Jobs, and Bob Young don't lock themselves into an either-or scenario, and this well written paper illustrates the important life skill of creating a third alternative out of a synthesis of the most obvious two and how that ability can be mastered by you.

To read the Harvard Business Review paper, click: http://hbr.org/2007/06/how-successful-leaders-think/ar/1

I listened to it as an audio file. If you'd like to make the most of your 30 minute commute tonight, click here.

Posted on May 22, 2013 by mlake

Posted in Book review, Leadership | Leave a comment

Some observations from the ANA 2013 conference

Our own Mark Ordover shared with us the following observations of the recent ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference in Phoenix.

We just returned from the 2013 ANA Advertising Management Conference in Phoenix. Similar themes seem to resound through the formal presentations and into the various breakout sessions and food breaks.

How can procurement find a place within their organizations to drive a common strategy between both marketing and procurement where procurement is bringing innovation and added value to their marketing partners as well as thoughtful cross brand cost efficiencies?
How can procurement develop trust within their internal organization as well as with their external marketing partners?

Still, the resounding feedback from external agency partners is that many procurement professionals today don't really know what the external agency does, where their value creation is and therefore only focuses on the cost side of the equation. Sopan Shah, Global Leader, Advertising and Marketing Procurement at Nestle had some powerfully simple advice, "Procurement professionals need to build relationships with their external partners by spending time with them! Days, if not weeks, should be spent with the external agency partners to build relationships, understand their work flow, continue to educate them selves in a very fast paced evolution of marketing and media channels." Without a deep understanding of your partners capabilities and their talent pool, it makes it very hard to create a contractual relationship where mutual goals are met and agreed upon!

Another theme that continues to get big discussion is the role of Big Data in today's business environment. Clearly, today's technology enables businesses of all shapes and sizes to collect data on their supply chains, sales, marketing touch points and customers to a level that has never before been available. But the resounding question is, "What do you do with the data? And how to avoid being buried beneath it?" Again, I find the best advice tends to be the simplest! Sandra Zoratti, VP Marketing of Ricoh Production Print Solutions LLC sumed it up the best when she advised "Start small. Use one brand. But start!"

Because of the volume and depth of the available information, you need to compartmentalize the data, maybe using one brand so that the organization can begin to test the data, develop assumptions, strategies and tactics from the analysis and then execute on those tactics.

Clearly, as you wander through the various meetings and discussions, similar issues regarding the roles of procurement within the organization still abound. Can procurement and marketing co-exist and share similar objectives? Who should procurement report to and is it wise to have procurement professionals still so focused on cost regarding marketing?

It seems clear to me, that like a great football team, you need many players on the field to all execute their specific jobs within a coordinated ballet among other individuals to pull off a great play. Same within organizations. Procurement professionals need to help the organization look for efficiencies within purchasing habits across brands and business units, however, they need to evolve within the organization so that their business intellect and relationships enable them to help suggest ways to innovate and add value within the marketing world. Both groups need to train off the same playbook to make this happen.

Lastly, as technology drives change, it seems obvious that the role of the marketing professional within the organization is changing with it. Whether it is data driven analytics that drive decision making or new technologies that continue to change the viewing and spending habits of the consumer, the new world of the marketer is one of dizzying change! In some organizations, the marketing departments are becoming larger spenders on IT than the IT department. Wow! Seems clear to me that there is more than enough here for both procurement and marketing to work together to build the organizations success.

Thanks ANA for another great few days!

Posted on May 9, 2013 by mlake

Posted in Advertising, Procurement tools | Leave a comment

Change your body language, change your life.

You are leading a meeting for a critical business deal. You're confronting your boss over a difficult situation. You're rallying your troops for peak performance. How can you manifest in yourself new-found mental and physical power that transforms your performance to a new level?

An engaging and emotionally charged TED talk given in the summer of 2012 by Harvard professor and researcher Amy Cuddy explains the connection between your own body language and your performance.

Showing us how important body language is to outcomes, she shares her work on the connection between the laungage of our bodies and our performance. You'll be surprised at these simple tweaks that will increase your results.

As Amy says, "Don't fake it till you make it. Fake it till you become it."

Posted on May 8, 2013 by mlake

Posted in Skill mastery | Leave a comment

What do you love about your company?

Yesterday we picked up a reporter query for a story. They asked for a response to the question: What do you love about your company?

A great question – the answer to which every business owner should write down.

So, our CEO, Gordon Zellner submitted the following terrific couple of paragraphs on what he loves about the business.

I love my business because it requires ‘lateral thinking’! What is lateral thinking? I see it as having a creative 360 degree perspective on businesses and connecting things that may not seem obvious; but by connecting the ‘not obvious’ you can create incremental value that also was ‘not obvious’. Most business and business people think and behave sequentially and linearly. This natural approach gets things done in traditional (linear) ways and achieves traditional (linear) results. Lateral thinking and activity adds a third dimension to business opportunity and problem solving and can produce 3-D results!

The business I am in is the Corporate Trade business. We approach regular industries in non-regular ways. For example, the media industry is dominated by brokers (ad agencies) who distribute the product. Rather than participate in this broker-model, we act as a principle investor and take positions in the media marketplace. We don’t just broker client’s money into the marketplace and take zero risk and achieve smaller value creation. We invest our own capital in the media marketplace and take real risk and achieve the higher reward that goes along with higher risk…we share some of that reward with our clients. This contrary approach yields out-of-the-norm results, and that is what I love about our business.

Posted on May 3, 2013 by mlake

Posted in Who is Evergreen-Partners | Leave a comment

Three critical aspects of your job search profile you must fix

Evergreen-Partners is growing, and with that growth comes the need to find great people to add to our team. So we've posted an opening on LinkedIn and been showered with responses. As we review the mountain of responses, we've come to see a repeating pattern of what we consider mistakes being made by people looking for a job. So, consider this our little bit of public service. Here are three problem areas we have frequently seen from candidates, young and old alike.

Are you making these mistakes?

1. A bad photo. In this digital culture, a good online photo is absolutely necessary. If you respond on LinkedIn, you must have a good photo. Examples of poor photos include photos so dark that you cannot see the face; the face is too far from the camera; a side profile shot; an action shot as if the person is caught mid-scene on stage with wild arm gestures; and a blurry or pixilated photo. One respondent has a current big movie star photo for his LinkedIn photo. I guess some may find it entertaining, but not knowing him, I found it odd for a corporate job applicant.

Men are the main culprits of these photo problems. Women seem to do a much better job with their photo. On the whole, women care more about their appearance. But if you're looking for a corporate job, guys, get a good looking professional head shot. Make sure most of the space is filled with your face looking toward the camera with an engaging expression. Hire someone good with Photoshop to make the image sharp, color-corrected, and light-balanced.

2. A messy resume. White space is good. I see a lot of resumes that are crammed top to bottom, side to side with words. As someone who is looking at these resumes, I can tell you that if it is difficult to read, I read less of it. Also, don't submit your resume in Microsoft Word form. Write it in Word, but then convert it into a PDF (Print/Save as PDF). Reading a resume in Word compounds the problems of a word-stuffed document. If the recipient has "Check Spelling as You Type" and "Check Grammar as You Type" turn on (as I do) all those green and red squiggly lines make your resume even harder to read. Use Word for composing, but never for final submission.

3. Warn out clichés throughout your resume, cover letter and on-line profile. "Extremely motivated person with over twenty five years of experience with a proven track record of exceeding sales quotas. Team leader with strong leadership skills and exceptional work ethic resulting in maximizing profitability by building senior level relationships."

If these types of well-worn clichés are in your professional description, eliminate them immediately. These phrases are in most resumes and they tell me that you don't really know who you are and what makes you stand out. Write about you and be specific. If you are stuck, ask someone with whom you've worked to describe what makes you different. They may not give you the perfect final edited answer, but it should provide some fresh material for you to polish.

Unemployment is high and LOTS of people are looking for the job you are seeking. Stand out from the competition by displaying a great looking sharp photograph of yourself accompanied by an organized, easily-read, freshly-written resume.

GOOD LUCK!

Posted on April 28, 2013 by mlake

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

How to master the art of the PowerPoint presentation

Microsoft estimates that 30 million PowerPoint presentations are made daily. If an average of four people participate, that equals 15MM person-hours (22 lifetimes) taken up by PowerPoint EACH DAY! And you've been in a lot of them, right? Is it fair to claim that at least half of them are irrelevant ugly wastes of time?

Well, let's get back some of those wasted lifetimes. Here's a well done presentation we ran across about creating and delivering superior PowerPoints. Created by Alexei Kapterev, he practices what he preaches. The lesson is simple, well-structured, and relevant to most everyone in business.