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.

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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!     

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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." 

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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.

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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!

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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.

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It's not easy to find a new book that can influence profound change, if that's the type of reading experience you like. So we've compiled a list of 5 books with the potential to change your thinking about your life and/or organization. Each of these books offers you a perspective that just may jump start your next brilliant idea, elevate your work results, or simply make you feel great about yourself. 

1. Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

This is a terrific collection of contrarian thought from the founders of 37signals. The authors are not at all fans of business-as-usual and doing things because, "Well… that 's how we've always done them". Consider a few choice passages from this spirited book.

“Unless you are a fortune-teller, long-term business planning is a fantasy”

"Pour yourself into your product and everything around your product too: how you sell it, how you support it, how you explain it, and how you deliver it. Competitors can never copy the you in your product."

"I don't have enough time/money/people/experience." Stop whining. Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantages in disguise. Liminted resources force you to make due with what you've got. There's no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.

“There are four-letter words you should never use in business. They're not f**k or s**t. They're need, must, can't, easy, just, only and fast. These words gets in the way of healthy communication”

2. The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World by Frans Johansson

If you believe in an ordered universe where everything is pre-ordained and happens for a reason, this provocative book will challenge you to the core. This author's premise is that your life is shaped by a sequence of random events. But the good news is you can learn to better spot those important – sometimes invisible – events and use them to your great advantage.

This book is filled with stories of success that, if not for a chance moment, would never have existed. Think about how you met your spouse, how you discovered your current job, where you happen to live, etc. Johansson's thesis is that by in large, those important aspects of your life didn't come about through your controlled and careful planning, but rather from chance moments, events, impressions and insights which he calls "click moments".  As counterintuitive as this idea may seem, after reading several of his examples, you may change you view of your life, of the things you own and of the people you know. Learn to spot these new moments in order to gain more out of your life.

3. Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

I admit. I was naive. Before reading this book I had a fair amount of trust in the journalistic process and the dissemination of news. But after reading Trust me, I'm Lying, I'm seeing high profile blogs and what passes for business news in a far different light.

Holiday was a marketing and PR guy who had a talent for manipulating the media in order to manufacture news to the benefit of his clients. Basically, he created fake news stories at the blog level that ended up being reported by the national media, and that media benefited his clients who were in the middle of it all.

Apparently, he's now reformed and this book serves as his confessional. It provides great insight to the news process and to the little-known art of creating PR. Without resorting to the questionable tactics of Holiday, there are interesting lessons here about the relationship between blogging, the media industry, and the resulting PR. That knowledge can increase your skill for creating a legitimate public relations campaign can be built to the benefit of your organization.

4. The Flinch by Julien Smith. 

The lessons of this curious book apply to both your personal life and to your company or business life. The "Flinch", as Smith explains, is that lightening quick reaction brought about by fear that stops us from doing things that may be beneficial to us or our organization. It applies equally to individuals and groups.

The flinch is your real opponent. Behind the flinch is pain avoidance, and dealing with pain demands strength you may not think you have. There was a time when the Flinch was necessary to preserve our life – because we needed a lightening-quick avoidance of real physical dangers – a reflex. But now that lightening-quick reflex prevents some of us from doing things outside our comfort zone and keeps us from growth and prosperity.

Individuals and organizations experience Flinches that invoke a fear of a certain kind of person, a kind of racism or xenophobia, or a fear of new technology, or new ideas. After thoroughly examining the nature of the Flinch, Smith provides the reader with some very interesting exercises to experience and to tame the Flinch. 

5. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek 

I was first introduced to this book by a TED conference video by Sinek. He starts the talk asking: How do you explain when others achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? Why is Apple consistently so innovative? Why did the Wright brothers, with little funding, no press, and little formal education, become the first to fly? Out of all the sufferers of the pre-civil rights movement, why was Martin Luther King the man that rose to such prominence and to lead the movement?

The theme of this book is an exploration of the most powerful motivator of all: The WHY. Sinek proposes that those with the strongest and most well articulated WHY will rise to the top. Going into great detail about the Wright brothers, successful companies and popular cultural figures, he convincingly demonstrates the power of starting with WHY. Most people want to start with the what or the how, Sinek makes a great case for why those aspects of a company, product or movement are very weak motivators as compared to starting with WHY.

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These points of resistance are most often misunderstandings of how the barter process works. After all, it is more complicated than a normal cash sale – but also much more financially rewarding.

So we asked Jonathan to put together a white paper that briefly examines these points of resistance in order to make it easier for the head of corporate real estate or other sponsor to introduce a barter solution within their organization. It's a terrific piece and should be must-reading for anyone considering barter as a solution to impaired properties or unwanted lease space.

Click here to download and read the white paper.

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Seth Godin's most recent book, The Icarus Deception continues his departure from authoring breakthrough marketing books by creating an ambitious work on individual achievement and personal greatness.

The title of this book refers to the legend of Icarus and the warning he was given by his father Daedalus not to fly too close to the sun with the wax wings created by his father enabling both of them to escape prison.

The word Deception in the title ties to the second, lessor known, warning Icarus was given. Godin laments that we are only taught the first half, that of not flying too high. Yet, Daedalus also warned his son not to fly to low – too close to the sea – because the water would ruin the lift in his wings.

The deception is that while most of us grow up believing in the dangers of flying too high, Godin reminds us that it is more dangerous to fly too low. The result of that ingrained fear of flying too high is that we settle for low expectations and small dreams and, therefore, guarantee ourselves far less than we are capable of. Godin admonishes each of us to find our art – a term he uses to describe anything we are capable of creating. Your art could be a new way to think about your company's next product line, a new business venture, or your jazz quintet's upcoming concert.

The Icarus Deception is an inspiring collection of insights from Seth on thinking differently about our lives, our "art", and the potential life offers each of us. Here are a few examples:

• "The safety zone has changed but the comfort zone has not. Those places that felt safe – the corner office, the famous college, the secure job – aren't."
• "Creating ideas that spread and connecting the disconnected are the two pillars of our new society, and both of them require the posture of the artist."
• "Seizing new ground, making connections between people or ideas, working without a map – these are the works of art, and if you do them, you are an artist, regardless of whether you wear a smock, use a computer, or work with others all day long."
• "Correct is fine, but it's better to be interesting."
• "What's scarce is trust, connection, and surprise. These are three elements in the work of a successful artist."

The video interview enables Godin to further illustrate his ideas. I found it particularly interesting to hear him talk about the frequency with which he gives birth to new entrepreneurial ideas and how he evaluates their success or failure.

Click here to watch the interview.

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So, we just updated our team video so that you can get a better feel for some of the members on our senior team. We’ve been growing and adding some top talent, so click below to watch and listen to a collection of the best minds in the barter business.

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