Sunday, June 24th, 2007
to the 2007 College World Series Champions and back-to-back College World Series Champion
Archive for the 'Gifts & Recognition' Category
Sunday, June 24th, 2007
Friday, June 15th, 2007
Recognition programs are often one of the first items to be cut when budgets are reduced.Â
The Oregon Scholar Program is a case in point.  The program gave certificates to the top 5% of students graduating from public high schools. It didn’t even give scholarships.Â
Look at the website though. Oregon Scholar Program has been suspended due to budget cuts.Â
How much money do you think that suspending this program saved? What did it cost taxpayers, students, and business?
Technorati Tags: budget cuts recognition cost thinking benefits businessTuesday, June 12th, 2007
With Father’s Day coming up this weekend, many people are likely to be ordering gifts. As a result, it seemed like a good day for us to talk about price and cost.
Suppose that you are buying a gift online. In many case, you incur shipping and handling, taxes, and the cost of a gift card when you buy online. These costs can greatly impact how much you pay.
Let’s consider a $30 item. That is the price of the item. Is that the cost though?Â
Price of item:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $30.00
Taxes:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $Â 2.40Â
Card:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $Â 3.75
Shipping & Handling:Â Â Â Â $Â 8.00
Total Cost:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $44.15
As this example illustrates, the out-of-pocket costs can add 50% to price.  Do the math for yourself at Harry & David.Â
Two issues to watch for when it comes to shipping and handling are:Â
How the cost is calculated. At Harry & David’s shipping and handling is calculated based on the price of the order.  It is an easy way to calculate shipping and handling costs.  If higher priced items require more packaging, special preparation for shipping, refrigeration during shipment, or other care, this would make sense. In many cases, there is little correlation between the care required and the price of items so it is difficult to justify this method of calculationg shipping and handling from a customer’s perspective.
Expedited shipping can more than double the price for shipping and handling. While many customers are willing to pay more for expedited services, doubling the price of expedited shipping can be counter-productive.  Customers may be willing to pay $8 for the shipping, and unwilling to pay $16 for shipping. Firms have to be sensitive to what their customers value.
Higher financial cost may be justified from a customer’s perspective if the perceived value is high enough. The value can come in a variety of forms such as:
Time savings
Convenience
Quality of the items
Performance guarantees
What does this mean for your business? How can you use this information in dealing with your customers and suppliers?
As the Harry & David’s example shows, “price” and “cost” are not interchangeable terms. This explains why, rather than looking at price, organizations often focus on cost or on “total cost of ownership” when they are purchasing products and services.Â
Technorati Tags: father's day harry & david gourmet baskets business price cost comparison valueFriday, June 1st, 2007
At its annual commencement ceremonies, North Central Texas College honored Dionne Dixon of Lewisville with its “Triumph of the Spirit†award. This award is given only in special circumstances, rather than as a matter of course.
Like many of the students at North Central Texas College, Dionne faced a lot of obstacles. In her case, they included poverty, juvenile/foster care, and murders of two siblings.  Hurricane Katrina forced Dionne to flee New Orleans for Texas and she ended up in Lewisville where, this spring, she earned her Associate’s Degree.
The complete story is here.
Dionne’s story illustrates a variety of points that arise in business, at least for me. A few of these points are discussed in this posting.
Change
Dionne’s story points to the difficulty in making changes. Before Hurricane Katrina struck, Dionne probably knew that she needed to make changes. Yet, she didn’t do so. Why?
Even when we are going in the wrong direction, it is hard to make changes. Changes require people to take chances, accept the risk that they might be worse off, and to face uncertainty. Sometimes, that is even harder than dealing with the day-to-day frustrations.
To overcome the attraction of the “status quo,” there are at least a couple different options.
One option is to develop a plan that makes it safe to change. With this approach a slow and steady “growth” towards the goal may be very effective. Often, people overlook evolution like this. It is like going on a walk. With each step, you make a bit of progress. The steps, individually, seem insignificant. When you look back though, miles may have been covered.
A second option is to find a reason to make the change. In Dionne’s case, Hurricane Katrina forced her to make the changes. For many people, job restructuring, retirement packages, family situations, and service anniversaries are three factors that force or encourage people to think about changing. Factors driving change may suddenly arise, or may change suddenly.
Perspective
How we view a situation makes a big difference. Even when the facts are the same, our outlook gives meaning to those facts.
Pessimists see all the reasons not do something and hold themselves back.
Optimists see all the great reasons to make changes and push themselves forward.
Realists see the reasons to make changes, the challenges with doing so, and develop a plan for getting from here to there while reducing the risks.
Recognition
Recognition is often provided as a matter of course. When recognition is provided in this way, it dilutes the value of being recognzed and, over time, people are less likely to use the recognition. Recognition has value when it encourages behavior. Often, there is no one who is truly standing out. In this case, how many organizations recognize people anyway? Does this motivate others who have been doing the same thing and are not recognized?
Technorati Tags: business adversity recognition students change perspective hurricane katrinaSunday, May 6th, 2007
In business networking, sometimes, I encounter people who really help me out. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about two people who have done so for my business.
Frank Kanu
In January 2005, I started networking online. Through that experience, I met Frank Kanu at Genius One. We talked about writing a book on negotiations even. While that didn’t work out, Frank helped me in a variety of other ways.Â
Frank hosts my website and my blog. When I need help with either one, he is happy to help. Frank has a tremendous amount of experience in IT that really makes him a great resource in this area.
He can see both the details, and the big picture. He helps leaders break down their projects and he helps people at a lower level of an organization understand how they fit into the big picture. From what I have seen, Frank is great at helping both leaders and people at lower levels of organizations think about business and learn to ask the right questions.Â
Frank has written a book that helps people ask questions, rather than relying on assumptions. That would make a great graduation gift for anyone just starting out, by the way. If you are already in business, I suggest calling Frank and talking with him about your situation because it will lead to better tips and save you time.Â
I keep telling Frank that he needs to create something that is going to attract people’s attention.  Frank says that too many consultants look good on paper, and miss the mark on results so he just sticks with what he knows, how to help people by providing advice that has value for them…Â
In contrast, Allan has a product that really looks nice, even online.
Allan Gaskamp
In the fall of 2006, I met Allan Gaskamp who owns ID Tags. Allan is a small business owner, just as Frank is. Allan’s business is promotional items. What is a promotional item, some may ask. Promotional items are mugs, cups, glasses, key chains, bandanas, tote bags, lunch pails, pens, pencils, paper, shirts, caps, etc. that are used to grow a business. Â
Over the past few months, Allan has provided me with ceramic mugs and a promotional item.   The promotional item was a demo to see how if people liked it. As it turned out, they seemed to like it. The glass cutting board for meats and cheeses.Â
The cutting board lasted just a few days before it grew feet and walked away. That is what you hope will happen when you buy promotional items.  Be sure that you are prepared to see the item walk away when purchasing promotional items.  While I loved the cutting board that Allan created (shown below), it was too expensive to provide as a promotional item.Â
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If you have a need in an area that either Frank Kanu or Allan Gaskamp can assist with, I hope that you will talk with them and see if there are opportunities for you to work with them.  Both have helped a lot of people over the years.Â
Please use due diligence and good business judgment in selecting suppliers, even when it is someone that I talk about. Our situations, priorities, and critical success factors may be different.Â
Technorati Tags: promotional items branding marketing business networking promotions promote consulting socratic method negotiation communication leadership management lead manage adviseSaturday, May 5th, 2007
In business and academia, it is helpful to recognize people who made a difference. Recognition can serve a variety of purposes such as:
Helping people understand the activities and contributions that are valued.
Thanking people for their efforts, especially if the funding for recognition is limited (and it often is, especially in academia).
Building relationships between the organization and individuals, and among group members.
Retention of participants, whether employees or volunteers.
To be effective, recognition should be:
Something that is valued by the people being recognized, or the group who are desired as participants.
Perceived as reasonable relative to the effort that the recipients have made.
Awarded on criteria that have been communicated to the group in advance.
Targeted to the motivation of the individuals who are being recognized, where possible.
Often, people think of recognition as being financial. Some of the more effective recognition approaches can be based on other approaches such as:
Dinners for group members
Awards ceremonies
Plaque presentations
Prizes and eligibility for prizes
Parking spaces
Attendance at seminarsÂ
Write ups in newspapers
Here is an example of an inexpensive way in which adjunct faculty are recognized at the school where I teach.Â
Are you recognizing the contributions of people who are helping you and your business?
Technorati Tags:  recognition employees  volunteersWednesday, January 31st, 2007
On the way home from school, I heard a radio station giving rave reviews to Secret Spoon.  Someone had sent an employee of the radio station some hand-dipped strawberries. The radio station employees loved the fruit so they commented on the fruit on the air. Â
This actually happens quite a bit, at least in the US. When I was working on my MBA in 2000, one of the students worked for a radio station and said that people sent them food all the time. Sometimes, it actually did get discussed on the air.
 Having looked at Secret Spoon’s website and heard the reviews on the radio, I would probably try it for my Valentine.
