Friday, July 25th, 2008
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
The other day, a friend and I were chatting about accomplishments and how they impact people differently. They can either hold a person back, or help a person move forward. The choice is up to each of us.
If we focus on the accomplishment and judge future actions by its scale, the accomplishment can become an anchor that hold us back. It can prevent us from trying new things, things where we might fail.
At the other extreme, some say to “let it go.” It seems to my friend and me that, taken literally, they are forgetting to learn from experience.
Doesn’t it make more sense to learn from accomplishments (and failures) and to use the lessons learned in other areas? If so, accomplishments (and failures) can help us move forward and move in many different directions. At that point, it is just a matter of deciding on the opportunities that are of greatest interest to each of us.
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
When Connie Customer looks at a potential supplier, what does Connie want and need to know?
Reverse the roles for a minute and put yourself in Connie’s shoes. What would you want to know if you were looking at a potential supplier?
At the end of the day, the thing you want to know - the ONLY thing you want to know - is that, if you select the potential supplier, the potential supplier will help you meet your business goals.
In order to reach this conclusion, you will probably want to look at a variety of things such as:
- Does the potential supplier work with customers that are like you?
- What has the potential supplier helped these customers do?
- How has the potential supplier worked with these customers?
- When issues arose, how did the potential supplier deal with them?
- What results did the potential supplier help the customers achieve?
Past experience of a firm is not a guarantee of future results. A supplier may have been great in one context for one customer, but might be unable to help a different customer or the same customer achieve a different goal.
Now that you know what Connie needs to know, what can Connie do to make sure that the potential supplier helps Connie achieve her business objectives?
