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Category Archives: Leadership Leaps

At some point you have to leap off the lilly pad. Ways to look at leadership from the top and bottom.

Commercializing Technology – Starting The Business

  By Fred H. Schlegel | November 16, 2006 - 8:23 am | ,
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“You either make it or sell it.” Those are the key first players in a new business according to Michael Ferro, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Click Commerce, Inc. at the Forum –Commercializing Technology To Drive New Business Formation: The Experience of Entrepreneurs. A great insight, one relevant not only to entrepreneurs but any business developing a new category, product or business. Sales ensures a direct connection to the market you are trying to tap. Immediate feedback. Deals done. The Builder ensures a product gets made and delivered with vision & insight. For a new entrepreneurial company this provides the foundation for building. In my own experience, this provides the foundation for larger organizations to ‘go entrepreneurial,’ driving quicker decisions. Cheaper development. Cleaner concepts.

Be a Marketing Persuader Not A Marketing Tyrant

  By Fred H. Schlegel | October 9, 2006 - 8:08 am |
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Effective marketing influences every aspect of your business, not just communication or awareness. However, this is not a command relationship — as in, “We the marketing gods declare the focus group shows we must deliver X.” Marketing tyranny ends with the communication of compelling, yet undeliverable promises that damage brand equity. To avoid tyranny (and its opposite – weeniedom), marketing must act as the gas to energize your company’s efforts to build competitive advantage. From the marketers viewpoint, this energizing creative environment is driven by three initiatives: Drive Interconnected Measurement: As corporate objectives are broken down into department and individual objectives they are reinterpreted within the confines of a given process. Usually this means that across interdependent departments it is difficult to match goal to goal, creating difficulties in communication and support. Facilitate Meaningful Dialog: Communication is no longer a push vehicle driven by traditional collateral, advertising and PR. Marketing must facilitate … Continue reading →

What Path Is Your Marketing Department On – Tyrant, Weenie or Persuader?

  By Fred H. Schlegel | October 7, 2006 - 8:04 am | ,
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Charged with defining and communicating unique product attributes and critical elements of competitive advantage, marketing departments often fork in two directions – Marketing Tyrant or Marketing Weenie. Why do those on the marketing bus turn one way or the other? They are usually driven by the frustration of being responsible for communicating advantage, but not having control over the existence of that advantage. The Marketing Tyrant – “Make the focus group happy or off with your head!” Never a pretty picture, the marketing tyrant behaves as if complete control is theirs (whether in the organizational chart or not). This can lead to the communication of compelling, yet undeliverable, promises that damage brand credibility. It can also drive development that follow, rather than lead, customer behavior. (If your customer has all the answers they probably don’t need you!) The Marketing Weennie – “Our product is a commodityeeee, we’re not doing anything uniiiiiique. Do something … Continue reading →