MBA Geek

Interesting post today on Richard Branson’s blog by one of his colleagues who talks about how innovation was the key component behind making the Virgin brand so successful. My favourite line is right at the bottom:

One of the key things I have learnt from Richard over the past 15 years or so is always challenge. Challenge your business to innovate by asking the unaskable, challenge industry norms and always ask, why? And then more importantly, why not?

I concur with Jayne-Anne, who wrote the post, about how innovation is sometimes lumped together into the same camp where technology lives; but in reality can apply to anything that disrupts the status quo. Anything that prevents a process from following the same linear motion that has been running for days, months or years has the potential to provide you with competitive advantage. Don’t get me wrong, there’s always risk attached to change. But without change, challenge or questions a business stagnates, ends up living in the past and is doomed to failure (The recent demise of Woolworths is a case in point here). You can read the whole post by Jayne-Anne Gadhia here.

So, the question is .. when was the last time you were disruptive?

I came across a great post today by Danny Demichele, an Internet Marketing Consultant, who puts together a good argument how troubled times could actually have a positive impact on an online business. Here are 10 factors that you need to look out for:

• Gas – The cost of travel mean more people shop online
• Price Comparisons – The Internet makes comparison easier leading to more online purchases
• Advertising Efficiency – As marketing budgets get squeezed more money is pumped online into trackable advertising
• Less Big Brand Advertisers – As big brand advertisers shrink they budgets, smaller organisations get more space
• Previous Brand Reluctance – Manufacturers will allow more retailers to sell their products
• TV Shows – More TV shows will move online opening up advertising possibilities
• Investment Dollars – As more people move online, more money is pumped into the Internet
• Lower Overhead – Online businesses are typically cheaper to run that traditional models
• Less Taxes – Avoiding local taxes by shopping online
• Virtual Services – Helping customers reduce their costs

Danny is an SEO Consultant who focuses on internet marketing consulting and has a pretty rich background in Internet-based organisations. His website also has weekly tips to help businesses success, so look out for them after you read the post.

Interesting post on Link4Business talking about “How to succeed in business”. Here are some points that the author makes:

It appears that great entrepreneurs have 5 key qualities that help them succeed in situations that others may fail…

1. A desire to succeed – not having an employee 9 to 5 mentality. They want to go that extra mile to succeed and will do whatever it takes.
2. A positive Mental Attitude – both towards themselves and their business. They see opportunities where others see obstacles, their cup is always half full and disappointments don’t get them down. They look forwards, not backwards.
3. A commitment to hard work – they’re not afraid of hard work and the commitment needed to succeed.
4. Patience – Rome wasn’t built in a day and as well as being committed they have the patience to see the job through, taking it step by step.
5. Persistence – challenges and problems will reveal themselves along the pay but the successful entrepreneur will persist with their ideas and not give up or change direction.

I thought that made interesting reading, especially as a know a number of entrepreneurs that fit the points above like a glove. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling live event video streaming or swimsuits, the desire to success coupled with the other points above are critical to make sure you arrive at your final destination.

Guy Kawasaki, a popular entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and blogger used to contribute, till recently, to a blog for Sun Microsystems. In his final post he outlines five important lessons he learnt along the way. Here are his recommendations:

• Focus on cashflow: Profit is important, but if you cannot keep your business afloat, then it really doesn’t matter.
• Make a little progress every day: It’s extremely rare that something comes along and blows everything away. Practically all successful businesses were built one step at a time.
• Try stuff: The more things you try the more you learn and the better your chances of discovering/creating something outstanding.
• Ignore schmexperts: Schmexperts are the totally bad combination of schmucks who are experts–or experts who are schmucks.
• Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn’t do: Whether it’s a customer or an employee if you’re not happy to do it, why would anyone else be?

Those are just the highlights, you can read the entire post here.

It was with interest that I read a post by Seth Godin about his Policies, Biases and Conflicts. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t really concerned about whether he had any commercial bais in his posts. I consider myself intelligent enough to distinguish between an empty recommendation and real praise for a product or service. However it was interesting to watch someone who in my opinion really manages to keep his blog purely about ideas and concept trying to explain this to his readers. I’m not sure what prompted the action but he obviously felt the need to spell it out for his readers. I hope it doesn’t catch on really. Bloggers *are* open to public scrutiny, but at the same time, their blog is their domain and I think it’s cheeky to expect someone to explain their reasons behind their every action.

Readers of this blog will know I’m a great fan of Seth Godin, a marketing guru who has published numerous books and is also a world renowned speaker. I managed to find a video of a talk he gave at Google last year. It’s full of great ideas and excellent advice, so here it is for your viewing enjoyment:

Great huh?