Link: http://archives.subscribermail.com/msg/3191ef2c489d409d885fe5ce4695fe78.htm

After the layoffs and budget cuts, now what? Are you living up to your brand promises or are you falling short on customer experiences? This edition of the TP Times focuses on sustaining your organizational brand and the power of values and brand. The lead article below is written from the belief that when the focus is only on the bottom line and people are ignored, the organizational brand suffers, as customers lose sight of what you stand for, and they no longer trust what you can deliver.

What About the Brand?

The news is full of stories about downsizing, job evaporations, and budgets being slashed into shreds. After all is said and done, what happens to the brand? Did it survive? Or is it bruised and battered? Leaders in the organization are responsible for the integrity of the brand, and they have to pull their heads out of the financial data long enough to assess the current state of the brand and of their talent.

We know that, when there is a shift in the organization as strong as this economic shift has been for many, the brand can become diluted if no one is asking, "What about the brand?"

Let us not forget that in the center hub of organizations is the talent, and, by the way, the talent is the brand. It is the talent in an organization that brings its brand to life. If the talent are no longer happy, if they are concerned about their own welfare, or they've hunkered down to stay out of sight, the brand may be on its last breath as well. And when the brand is struggling to survive, the impact is on the customer experience. The talent may become non-caring and cynical and these attitudes can permeate into how the customers experience the brand.

When there have been strong shifts in the organization, then the organization must recalibrate itself and set the organization back on course. We believe that organizations can best do this by taking these steps:

1. Revisit the ambition or goal of the organization and connect people to it.
2. Managers spend time on the front lines talking to people and getting a handle on the issues.
3. Re-state the brand promise and ensure that everyone knows how his or her job affects the promise.
4. Take a look at the changes in the organization and assess the impact on the brand and the impact on the customer experience.
5. Design a course of action to put the brand back on track.

A brand bruised and battered can have customers headed towards the competition, which is exactly the opposite of an organization's aims. In tough economic times, it would serve an organization best to focus on keeping their current loyal customers/clients. Now would be the time to re-think how to make the brand truly distinctive in the marketplace.

Excellence can be achieved when the brand, the talent, and the customer experience are in alignment.

If you want to know how your organization is doing, and if it needs some recalibration, take a look at our Excellence Audit.

Valarie Willis
US Keynote Speaker,
Facilitator, Consultant

Tom's core message: "To put the marketplace customer first, I must put the person serving the customer 'more first.'"

Tom says: "There is no great 'external focus' unless the bedrock great 'internal focus' is in place. ... I contend that the bedrock of finding and keeping and co-creating with great folks is not about clever tools to induce prospective 'thems' to 'shop [live] with us,' but a 99% internal effort to create such an exciting, spirited, entrepreneurial, diverse, humane 'professional home' that people will be lining up by the gazillions (physically or electronically) to try and get a chance to come and live in our house and become what they'd never imagined they could become!"

Subscribe at http://www.tompeters.com/your_world/join_the_fray/

Greetings ChangeThisistas,

We here at 800-CEO-READ, the caretakers of ChangeThis, are pleased to announce the release of our new book, THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME: WHAT THEY SAY, WHY THEY MATTER AND HOW THEY CAN HELP YOU, hitting the street tomorrow.

More than ever, business people are looking for books with solutions to problems. The trouble? Thousands of business books are published every year. Far too many for any reader to sift through single-handedly.

Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten of 800-CEO-READ are the most respected experts on business books, and now they have chosen and reviewed THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME — the ones that deliver the biggest payoff for today's busy readers. At the end of each review, Jack and Todd also direct readers to more books, both inside and outside THE 100 BEST. And sprinkled throughout are sidebars taking the reader beyond business books, suggesting movies, novels, and even children's books that offer equally relevant insights.

This book is for anyone, from entry-level to CEO, who wants to cut through the clutter and discover the brilliant books that are truly worth their investment of time and money. This is your guide to the books that can help you weather this uneasy economic climate.

To buy THE 100 BEST, visit us at: http://800ceoread.com/100best. When you buy our book from us, you’ll get a free copy of our annual magazine, IN THE BOOKS, and a CD of us talking about the book and its beginnings.

To learn more about the book, visit 100bestbiz.com to find a free download of the introduction and two reviews, inspirational posters, and a variety of other resources for your use.

Many Thanks & Best of Days,
The ChangeThis Troupe at 800-CEO-READ http://www.changethis.com/

Link: http://acetalentnet.com.au/enews/newsletjan09.html

Happy New Year!!! Trust you've enjoyed a easy landing into 2009? The Team at aCE talentNET is back on deck and looking forward to a successful 2009... we are doing our bit for business confidence by not focussing too heavily on the doom and gloom that surrounds us at every turn in the media. As far as we are concerned the Learning & HR environment in 2009 will be about delivering on projects in pipeline, ensuring the biggest bang for buck when it comes to training spend and effectiveness and securing quality resources to delivery forecast projects on time and within budget (our prediction is that many of these projects will continue to be technology driven).

We have sourced some interesting reading for you as you ease back into things, but particularly I draw your attention to the Enterprise Learning, Recruiting and Talent Management 2009: Predictions for the Coming Year, research report by US based Bersin & Associates. Whilst the report is based on US research and predictions there is not doubt that this will have some flow on effect to Australian companies or for any of you in alliance with US (and Asian?) based parties. Key findings and predictions are as follows:

1. Budget Cuts will force the restructuring of HR and LandD
2. LandD Budgets will be cut, forcing Organizations to refocus training spending
3. Leadership, Career and Capability Management will emerge as keys to success in 2009 and beyond
4. Succession Management looms as a critical issue for 2009
5. Needs of the Multigenerational Workforce will become clearer
6. The Talent Management Systems market will grow then consolidate
7. The LMS Marketplace will grow, then shift to Talent Management and Learning 2.0
8. Social Networking and Learning 2.0 will arrive
9. The Heavy Focus on Performance Management will continue
10. New Recruitment Tools and Strategies Will Replace the Résumé

Finally, “the Business of Talent” Will Be More Important Than Ever

To get more information read the Report Executive Summary in more depth.

All the best to our Talent Network for a year of challenge, productivity and personal success!

Deirdre

Deirdre Gruiters is the Executive Director - Consulting for aCE talent NET, or in other words, aCE talent NET's Corporate Talent Agent. She is also an internationally published author as a result being featured in the July08 edition of "Consulting Ahead" India. So if looking for Organisational Development resources is what you're needing to do, then Deirdre and the team of aCE talent NET know how to find them. Ask anyone of our continually satisfied clients

Link: http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/generationg/

Another priceless offering from trendwatching.com, especially given the highly publicised times ahead, coupled with what you actually want to be doing... plenty of food for thought...

Has there ever been more urgency for corporations to ditch the greed and embrace generosity? It's something that countless individuals have already started doing, of course: giving is the new taking, and sharing is the new giving. And yes, we do realize that this month's Trend Briefing is massive, but in this business climate, can you really afford not to spend some time figuring out how to get a little closer to your customers?

GENERATION G | "Captures the growing importance of 'generosity' as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy—and while that same upheaval has them longing more than ever for institutions that care—the need for more generosity beautifully coincides with the ongoing (and pre-recession) emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers.

In fact, for many, sharing a passion and receiving recognition have replaced 'taking' as the new status symbol. Businesses should follow this societal/behavioral shift, however much of it may oppose their decades-old devotion to me, myself and I.”

If the recession is hitting you where it hurts, and your budgets are tight, GENERATION G may feel like too costly a trend to capitalize on. We beg to differ:

Not all GENERATION G projects and initiatives are costly. Often, it’s a case of mindset, of attitude, of being creative, of finding the right partners, without spending millions. In fact, many of the services and projects highlighted in this briefing didn't cost the world.

Those projects that do involve serious money should be paid for by shifting funding from any kind of bland, non-relevant, non-interactive, and above all, non-generous ad campaign you’re planning to run this year. Hey, if others—in all the examples above—can do it, so can you.

Not infusing your company’s or brand’s mindset with a heavy dose of generosity will eventually cost you much more. Like, seeing your brand go bust. Which makes any kind of expenditure on generosity a bargain.

Joining GENERATION G as a company or a brand is not really optional, it’s a fundamental requirement if you want to stay relevant in societies that value generosity, sharing and collaboration. Joining obviously entails more than adding a social responsibility or sustainability department; it means adopting a generous mindset that permeates every interaction with your community, with your employees, with your customers, with, wait for it, your ‘stakeholders’. Nothing more or less than a holistic approach* to generosity and business.

The benefits?

It doesn’t hurt that in turbulent times like now, generosity will find an extra-appreciative audience, and certainly won't be forgotten.

Not only will your customers be more appreciative, they'll also return your favors by being more willing to spread the word about you. And being more willing to collaborate with you, co-creating or co-inventing or co-improving. Which would get us to CUSTOMER-MADE. See, we told you this would be an umbrella trend.

And last but not least, to manage a company with a caring, generous mindset can actually be good for your soul, too ;-)

indeed! read on...

Link: http://www.sixfigures.com.au/advertisers/resources

Six Figures has recently produced the Executive Job Market Confidence Report to gauge this market segment's confidence in the current job market and their intentions to move locally, nationally and/or internationally for job opportunities.

The findings show that for high salary earners the lure of interstate and international work opportunities is still very high. A key finding was that while quality of the employer's leadership played a significant motivator for attracting and retaining talent locally (as found in our previous survey report What You Need to Know About Attracting & Retaining High Salary Earners, October 2008), this was not the case when it came to interstate or international moves.

A copy of both reports can be found at http://www.sixfigures.com.au/advertisers/resources in the Reports & Whitepapers tab.