Judge Smails (aka Ted Knight) once famously quipped in the iconic Caddyshack, “It’s easy to grin when your ship comes in and you’ve got the stock market beat. But the man worthwhile is the man who can smile when his shorts are too tight in the seat.”

There is a great deal of truth in the movies, even in zany comedies, if you really listen to what they have to say.

In the end, Judge Smails was right. It’s easy to sit back, relax, and congratulate yourself on a job well-done when everything is going right. Sales are up? Great. Marketing is driving business to you? Fantastic. Things have never been better. Wonderful. However, when your company’s ship comes in don’t just sit there and take it all in. Sure, enjoy it. But while you are enjoying it it is imperative to take some initiative, prepare for the future, and make your business better by trying to envision ways it could be torn down. In short, prepare for when your pants are too tight in the seat.

Many businesses have now adopted what they call a Legion of Doom: a division within the company that looks for ways to take down the business from within. Those selected then report their findings so that the company may determine what, if any, of the forces could actually manifest themselves realistically thus leading to the demise of the business as they know it. Once this real-life role playing is in effect, it can truly help you to insulate your business by creating systems to address these potential threats well in advance of when they may occur.

…to read this article in full, visit leading US small business resource, Inc.

In my speaking engagements, I often get asked how I decided to focus on culture and employee engagement as the most important drivers for my business.  Did some event trigger this approach?  Did I work somewhere else and then decide that this is the way I wanted to do business?  The answer is neither.  Beryl has been my only gig (at least for the last 27 years).  I guess I just didn’t know any better.

The credit goes to my mom and dad.

My parents are terrific people who managed to keep three boys from killing each other in a very rambunctious household. And while we may have battled as youngsters, the unifying values my parents instilled in us enabled my brothers and I to all go into business together and build a successful enterprise.  I’m the only one still involved in the business, but the key principles remain the same.

Since we knew little to nothing about running a business and had no real professional experience, we decided to build our company on what we did know…and that is directly related to how we were brought up. And like many parents out there, ours had a few go-to sayings that ended up well beyond the Spiegelman house and directly in the culture of our business. Here are some of my favorites and why they’ll be important to your success.

…to read this article in full, visit leading US small business resource, Inc.

So you have dreams of starting a business. You also have a long list of potential downsides of following that passion, including perhaps significant financial and personal costs and a lizard-brain terror of failure and rejection. Poverty, divorce, and shame are hardly small fears, so let’s be realistic, after you have your financial ducks in a row and sit down for a heart-to-heart with your spouse, what can you set against your remaining doubts to balance out your terror and actually make a move towards your entrepreneurial dream?

How about research? Each of us only gets one life’s worth of experiences to learn from, but luckily we don’t have to arrive at the end of our years in order to learn what we’re likely to regret. A professor at the Kellogg School of Management has rounded up the wisdom of others to determine which regrets haunt people the most and which failures end up bothering us less in the long run.

The research team polled nearly 400 Americans about their regrets and found some startling patterns, a couple of which are relevant to entrepreneurs and a few which are not. Romantic regret was the most frequently cited, which may be a healthy reminder around Valentine’s Day but isn’t exactly pertinent to your start-up dreams. Another broad pattern very much is, however. In the long-term, what you fail to do bothers you far more than what you tried but screwed up, it seems.

…to read this article in full, visit leading US small business resource, Inc.

Last month we talked about your organisation’s cultural agenda for 2012. Growing and evolving your organisational culture in the right direction is everyone’s role and responsibility. This coupled with a common purpose and goals are imperative in order to mobilise and synchronise your workforce. So why do find we have employees who behave like they are part of the competition? Why do we have pockets of them within our organisation deliberately behaving like they are playing on a different team to the rest of us within the organisation?

I always thought the competition was on the outside of our organisation and not on the inside, but unfortunately that is not the case in some organisations. So why do some employees take pleasure in game-playing, undermining projects and basically compete head-to-head to make our life difficult? The answer resides somewhere between lack of skills/competence and megalomania or ‘tin god’ personas. The lack of talent of these individuals creates behavioural patterns that creates a diversion and deflects attention onto other people and areas.

I recently read an interesting book called ‘Infinite Talent’ written by Rob Clarke, CEO LearnX Foundation. Rob differentiates between finite and infinite talent. Infinite talent he describes as ‘a spontaneous, genuine experience and is a person’s purest expression of who he or she ultimately is’. This talent is within you; what you observe, how you act and interact.

People who have infinite talent are able to achieve extraordinary things. They have a number of qualities in common; namely:

1. Curiosity – seek to understand, then to be understood
2. Test knowledge through their experience/s
3. Change agent – a catalyst and driver of change
4. Take ownership
5. Deal with ambiguity
6. Be part of the solution

Applying these qualities in your work and personal life enhances your mental agility, positive attitude and ‘can do’ mindset. It enables you to be an authentic cog in the solution wheel. Your mental mindset is what makes you an infinite talent.

Be part of the solution and not the problem in your organisation. Live everyday with a can do attitude. So, the next time someone shares with you all the reasons why something can’t be done, try and turn their thinking around so they share with you ideas on how it can be done. Remember success comes in cans and not can nots.

I will leave you with a quote that resonated with me from Rob’s book and it is from President Barack Obama…’Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek’.

So what can you do to engender a new culture of thinking and behaving in your organisation in 2012?

However, if the platform is relevant to the business’ communications strategy, it is essential that they begin engaging within that medium.

Businesses need to push through their reluctance

Today, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most popular platforms used by businesses to engage with the target audience and build long lasting relationships. Many businesses are reluctant to add yet another medium to the mix of ever growing social media channels. However, there is another platform that has emerged that does seem to be worth a business’s time and effort.

The search engine giant Google jumped on the bandwagon in 2011 and created its own social media platform, Google+ – said to rival Facebook. Several months later Google launched Google+ Pages especially for businesses.

Although we have heard quite a bit from the experts about social media fatigue, the advantages that a Google+ Business Page offers may be enough for a business to push through their reluctance and create yet another fantastic way to engage, converse and bond with their target market.

What are the advantages to Google+ Business Pages?

Every business is different and so needs a different communications strategy. Not all businesses will be suited to the features and benefits that Google+ Business Pages offer, however some advantages of a Google+ Business Page include:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):
  SEO is all about using techniques to drive the right people to your website. These include keywords, back links and valuable content that will help search engines naturally find your site without paying for ads. As Google is one of the biggest search engines and therefore ranks Google+ very high in search results, it makes sense that SEO would be the top advantage for owning a Google+ Business Page.
• Google Services:
  By creating a Google+ Page, an organisation has direct access to all other Google services integrated into the system. Such services as Google Maps, search, YouTube, Android, Chrome and Gmail provide even greater exposure for a business.
• It helps build connections:
  Google+ pages don’t just interact with other pages; they interact with the entire Google+ world. Businesses can add people to circles, +1 comments and photos, add their own photos, edit their profile, host Hangouts and share things.
• Host hangouts:
  Google+ allows businesses to host their own Hangouts – live video chats with other users. Potentially a business could use these hangouts to have meetings with international clients, have expert discussions with potential clients, stream a live question and answer session. With live streaming businesses have even more of a reason to engage with their target audience.
• Circles:
  Circles are a feature on Google+ and Google+ Pages that allow the profile user to create groups of similar people or businesses. This makes it easier for businesses to send out targeted or tailored messages to each individual group.

In a joint release, the groups said the dominance of Coles and Woolworths has led to increased pressure on farmers to provide cheap goods, with the two now set to fight it out over fruit and vegetable prices.

“The result is a mass exodus of farming families walking off the land at the rate of 25 per week,” it said.

According to Food Connect founder Robert Pekin, the milk price war between the two large supermarkets has seen 30 dairy farmers leave their farms.

“The ACCC should be holding the duopoly to account. Predatory pricing practices are not only illegal, but un-Australian. We say to the ACCC, are you prepared to take this on, or are you too intimidated by the duopoly?” he added.

Pekin wants the Australian public to know there is an alternative to the aggressive behaviour seen by the major supermarkets.

“I urge Australian citizens to ask themselves who grew their food and whether those farmers were paid a fair price for their hard work,” he said.

Instead of buying groceries from the large supermarkets, he suggests consumers support their local small businesses, which tend to pay farmers a fairer price for goods.

StartUp House was officially opened earlier this year by Stoner along with the NSW Government’s new trade office in San Francisco.

“The NSW Government is committed to growing our digital sector and this announcement will help Australian entrepreneurs get a foothold in the US market by providing a subsidy to access the co-working space and accommodation at StartUp House from May 2012,” Stoner said.

The 36,000 square foot facility that is StartUp House is a joint venture between Australian entrepreneurs Elias Bizannes and Bardia Houseman and New Zealander Stephen Weir. It offers premium office space and will house 210 desks, a cafe and hostel for early stage companies.

“Silicon Valley continues to be a leading hub for high-tech innovation in the United States and an important target point for NSW technology companies with global ambitions,” Stoner said.

“Helping NSW entrepreneurs link into key global technology centres like Silicon Valley will open access to critical markets, capital and mentoring beyond the opportunities available in Sydney.”

If you’re not from a technical background, attempting to understand “cloud computing” could be both confusing and somewhat daunting. But it needn’t be. Put simply, cloud computing is a way to access products and services securely through an internet connection anywhere in the world.

It has been around for years. Whether you’re accessing Facebook, Amazon, Hotmail, YouTube, you’re using cloud computing. You tap in to huge banks of data through some very complex programs, each of which are hosted on various forms of physical hardware, located elsewhere and sometimes in other parts of the world.

The term “cloud computing” incorporates all of the clever networking, languages, programs and environments that allow us to do this. It refers to our ability to link to computer technologies globally through a modest internet connection.

Why the big fuss?

Whilst types of cloud computing have been around for years, the ability to link to these technologies has only recently started to mature. IT investment is expected to focus on this area in the coming years. Where certain technologies were once out of reach for particular businesses, they are now accessible.

Take software, for example. Traditionally, it came on a disc and you loaded it on to your hard drive. In a larger business it was stored on local servers, where the IT department would have needed to buy and install the software, as well as set up and maintain the servers it ran on.

More recently, however, software that we access through our web browser has become more popular. This can be referred to as ‘software as a service’ (SaaS), and is one of three components classified within cloud computing. Sage CRM.com Cloud is an example of software we host and provide using cloud computing. You pay a subscription for the service and have access to it in a Public Cloud environment. The provider (in this case Sage) is responsible for maintaining that service for you. You may choose to access through a Private Cloud environment. This means you are still accessing through a browser however, your programs and data are located in a Private Cloud environment. A Private Cloud can be referred to as ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS).

‘I’ve heard of Saas, but what else is involved with cloud computing?’

I’ve introduced you to the first component of cloud computing, SaaS. There are two more. The second component is ‘platform as a service’ (PaaS). While SaaS allows access to software through a browser, PaaS offers much more than just buying and installing the software. It allows an organisation’s IT department or IT supplier to:

(i)            Source or build and maintain the platform for the users to work from.

(ii)           Customise the software to fit the organisation’s processes.

(iii)          Develop software for its users.

This can be a complex process. PaaS providers allow their customers to build software and make changes to it using a simple internet connection in an environment they have built, support and manage.

The third component is ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS). Data, hardware, servers and networking components require ongoing maintenance. Providers offer to host products in a central location and provide access to them through a secure internet connection. Huge buildings full of hardware exist worldwide (also known as Data Centres), with masses of virtual and real-life security. They are there to ensure that no one can access those servers but the customers using their internet connection thousands of miles away in some cases. This service is IaaS.

Cloud computing gives IT buyers access to technologies, without the constraints of large upfront fixed costs, space, power or extensive setup times. As technology continues to improve and develop, the ability to access the best products and services from anywhere in the world is also improving and evolving.

If you’d like to get practical, email me Charles.Pludthura@sage.com

Surprising to many, social media is anything but a new concept… it actually spans back almost a decade now with LinkedIn introduced in 2003, Facebook in 2004, and various blogs even earlier. What is new, however, is its overwhelming popularity and continued rapid growth. With over 95 million tweets going out daily, 50 million LinkedIn members, and 750 million active Facebook users worldwide, social media is the fastest growing communication channel, and not just amongst the younger generation. Interestingly enough, 37 percent of Facebook users are over 45 years old, 64 percent of Twitter users are over the age of 35, and 44 percent of all social networking users are between the ages of 35 and 54.

What this means for businesses is that many people, young and old, are sharing and looking for information on social media sites. Therefore, it is in the best interest of businesses to have a plan in place for implementing a social media structure. For starters this plan must include how you plan to use it, how you plan to manage it, and how you engage your internal staff as well as your customer base.

With an estimated 22 percent of all online time spent on social networking sites, it is a trend that cannot be ignored. In reality, more and more people are finding benefits to leveraging social media on a variety of different fronts – from providing product feedback, looking for customer service, or just expressing opinions. While traditional uses of social media were to simply keep in touch and network, this technology became so popular, businesses started to realise this is not just a fad, but a communications channel that they must be equipped to monitor and respond to like any other.

So, how do you decide where to start? What do you need to know? How can you prioritise and manage your social presence? And how does the contact centre fit into all of this? In order to truly understand the power of social media, it’s important to understand the basics, and then understand how each affects the contact centre. To get started, remember the alphabet….

(A) Attract

Kabani: Very few people flip through the phone book anymore to find what they’re looking for. They search online, seeking reviews from strangers and friends alike for products they consider purchasing. Many sites have even incorporated social sites into their product pages, providing users with the ability to ‘like’ a product or share information about it. This not only allows consumers to share their feedback, it can also be free advertising. Keep in mind, most people will research a company before doing business with them, learning what has been said about the company (and its key figures) online. You need to secure your position in the online space to even be a contender in the business world.

Wilson: Building social media into your customer service strategy is most important if you are a B2C business. Adding a blog site with rich content about you increases SEO rankings, making it easier to attract the right business. Other social sites to consider would be a Facebook page or if you are a B2B business, a LinkedIn discussion group. From a customer service viewpoint, these outlets allow your customers to interact with other customers and get feedback, support and ratings on your products and services. The overall goal would be that of self-service and to build brand ambassadors.

(B) Buzz

Kabani: Social media is a seriously underused lead generation tool. The free advertisement of, “Sarah likes Wonder Nail and Spa” to her 1,300 Facebook friends is a way to spread the word about a product and ensure a referral that otherwise might go unnoticed. However, along with the task of creating buzz and getting your name out there comes watching what is said. Monitoring conversations about your brand is one of the most important aspects of social media. Because consumers have been given so much power, responding to ALL feedback is important, but when it is negative, the reaction time needs to be immediate. This also allows brands to capitalise on complaints made about competitors online and leverage their clean brand image against the competitor.

Wilson: The “buzz” gets a lot louder when you do not respond to customer’s negative comments about your brand. Therefore, be sure to develop appropriate metrics for handling social media interactions just like you do with other interactions coming into your contact centre. What should those metrics be? For example, the Average Speed to Answer (ASA) for Social Media should be faster than an email, but slower than a phone call or web chat.

(C) Contact

Kabani: Social “ME”dia serves almost as a baby monitor for consumers. They expect to be heard and responded to (or they will just keep screaming). If you do not maintain that open communication line and accessibility in the consumers’ channels (social networking site, telephone, email, etc.) they will not bother to do business with you. In fact, they may even make it their mission to ruin you. At the same time, take notice of all posts and feedback made. Sometimes just a simple post back to a customer goes a long way when it comes to customer service. The negative will always be a priority, but do not overlook the positive feedback.

Wilson: When looking at “contact” from a customer service perspective, you have to take a different approach than you do with traditional interactions. Very rarely (if at all), do customers interact with your contact centre just to let you know they like your product or service. Let’s face it, customers only reach out to you when they have a problem. In the world of Social Media, your contact centre needs to develop a different mindset – one that adopts a relationship philosophy that responds to the negative or problematic comments as well as the positive ones. Giving customers feedback to let them know you are there and that you appreciate their views helps build brand ambassadors.

(D) Define (your campaign)

Kabani: Outline your specific goals for your social media campaign (i.e. customer service, loyalty, lead generation, awareness, etc.), and work toward them with each post, event, complaint response, etc. Narrowly defining your campaign helps give your brand a stronger online identity, and unites your customers under those characteristics in their social networks. Once you have defined your initiatives, figure out your plan of attack for monitoring these sites. Whether you dedicate resources to do so manually, or implement a social monitoring tool to create a more rules-based automated approach, your social media strategy must include a plan of attack for responding to the channel.

Wilson: Building an outbound customer service campaign can be difficult for many contact centres that have lived in an inbound world – reaching out to the customer base is a foreign tactic. However, defining a social media outbound campaign to post helpful hints, solutions to problems, or product update information will go a long way to building superior customer service.

(E) Engage

Kabani: Why are people participating in conversations on social networking sites anyway? They like the engagement, sharing, sense of importance, and connectivity it gives them. In turn, social media creates a more personal relationship between your company and the customer. Find creative ways to keep them engaged so that they aren’t using your networks as a way to vent only. Having competitions, giveaways, and contests based on content-sharing reinforces that relationship and keeps consumers returning to your online profiles.

Wilson: In the contact centre, engaging with customers is a way of life. As customers call, email, or chat with the contact centre, the customer service reps engage. The same tactic is true with social media – when customers interact with your brand, you must engage with them. For instance, leveraging social site information can help contact centre agents facilitate better conversation with the customer by having insight into their likes and dislikes. This more personalised relationship allows the customer service department to connect with the caller in a different way. Additionally, opening up social sites for support opportunities, helps to create one more communication channel for the customer to reach out to your company.

- Shama Kabani is the CEO of The Marketing Zen Group, a digital marketing agency. Her insight into the social media space is based on her experiences working one-on-one with customers to implement social media strategies for their businesses. Jennifer Wilson is a product manager at Interactive Intelligence focusing in on the social media strategies for the contact centre specifically. The overall concepts that both authors share help to outline some basic guidelines for implementing a social strategy, while leveraging the contact centre to better manage these social initiatives.

The first Pie Face store opened in New York under the David Letterman Theatre on West 53^rd Broadway on Australia Day, and the outlet hasn’t been able to keep with demand.

Homshek, who founded the pie chain in 2003, said he’s always felt the brand had the right kind of potential to go global.

“The amount of international enquiries from prospective franchise owners – particularly the US confirms our belief, and people understand our offering,” he said.

Co-founder Betty Fong said the initial success has meant they’re looking for another store location in the New York area, in the hopes of opening another store by mid 2012.

“We think that New Yorkers will love Pie Face just as much as Aussies do,” she added.

According to Fong, the Pie Face offering was tweaked slightly for the US market, and features gourmet pies, sausage rolls, baked goods and signature ”wakemeup!!!” coffee.

The Pie Face franchise now has 63 stores in Australia, with an average of three new stores opening each month along the country’s east coast.