by Corey Rosen, John Case and Martin Staubus (14900)

Building a successful equity company, however, isn’t just a case of letting employees buy stock and then living happily ever after. To realize the true benefits of this concept, employees have to see themselves as owners and create a different kind of workplace that aligns with that perspective. That means the culture of the organization must change and evolve as well. Furthermore, employees have to learn how to run the business differently if their ownership is to have any practical impact. Unless all three of these elements are present, employee ownership just won’t deliver any tangible benefits.

The three essentials of an employee equity business model:
1. Size: Enough equity that it will impact on the employees’ finances.
2. Culture: Employees must be encouraged to think and act like owners.
3. Understanding: Employees must understand business disciplines and commit.

More than just another option in the human resource department’s kit bag of benefits, employee ownership has the potential to comprehensively transform ordinary companies. When employee ownership is combined with participatory management, businesses often move into and stay in high-growth mode. Employee ownership turns up in a very large number of influential and successful companies. Perhaps this isn’t just a coincidence.

Equity

by John L. Nesheim (14800)

When a company has an unfair advantage in business, it’s no longer required to compete against everyone else on a level playing field. Instead, it loads the dice in its own favor, and makes success more likely. Unfair advantage is the “magic elixir” or the “secret sauce” of the business world. Entrepreneurs live for it, venture investors scour the world looking for it, the top employees are attracted by it, the media love covering it and investors pay handsomely to get a part of it.

Quite simply, everyone and every organization needs an unfair advantage in order to stand out in this intensely competitive world. Finding, enhancing and then harnessing an unfair advantage is the holy grail of the business world. It is the engine that drives the growth of business start-ups and turns them into world class enterprises.

The Power of Unfair Advantage

by Jon M. Huntsman (14700)

To get ahead in business and stay there long-term, reconnect with and live the values you first learned as a child and that you’ve probably assumed no longer apply in business.

For most people regardless of their culture or upbringing, the values they learned as children were:

1. Before you act, always stop and check your moral compass.
2. Compete aggressively, but always play by the rules.
3. In leadership roles, set a good example.
4. Always keep your word, no matter what the consequences.
5. Surround yourself with advisors who will say no when needed.
6. Forget about revenge. Move onwards and upwards.
7. Treat everyone with respect — customers, employees, etc.
8. Always operate your business as if your name is on the door.
9. Give something back to the community. Return the favors.

There never needs to be a disconnect between the values you have in your own life and what you do at work. You just don’t have to cut corners, fudge the numbers or cheat in large ways or small to stay competitive. What’s needed most is that you reconnect with and live the values you had as a child.

Winners Never Cheat

by Robyn Waters (14600)

Contrary to generally accepted wisdom, new trends aren’t always spotted early ultra-hip types who are much cooler than everyone else. At the very best, these people help keep a business up-to-date with what’s going on in the world. They’re trend trackers. Instead, you need to become a trendmaster — someone who initiates a new trend and translates it into ideas and concepts that make sense for your own company and customers. The good news is everyone can become a trendmaster by adopting the right mind-set and by applying the A-Z tools and tricks of the trendmaster trade.

The Trendmaster’s Guide

by Arthur Rubinfeld and Collins Hemingway (14500)

In particular, there are four phases involved in growing a great retail business:

1. Aspire to become a national / global brand
2. Prepare to expand right from the outset
3. Build your brand prominence by locating astutely
4. Maintain brand leadership by pushing the envelope

Retail businesses are great because they allow you to control your own destiny and to express your creativity. When you create a new retail business from the ground up, you build a market presence that is highly valuable. To get to this stage, however, a holistic approach will be required. You’ll need to conceive of a profitable retail concept and fine-tune your ideas in your local market first. Then you’ll need to understand how to expand from one market to another until you grow from one market to dominance and presence in regional, national and ultimately international markets. As your enterprise grows and evolves, you’ll need to keep your brand fresh and vibrant by continuing to innovate and try new things.

Built for Growth

by Rita McGrath and Ian MacMillan (14400)

A “Market Buster” is a game changer in the world of business. It is defined as a powerful strategic move that alters the competitive landscape in such a way that it puts your company firmly on the road to high growth.

There are five overall strategic themes and forty strategic moves within those themes that all marketbusters use:

1. Change the customer experience: Make it simpler, faster or better for customers
2. Reconfigure products, services: Make your offerings appreciably better
3. Redefine business and metrics: Change how customers do business with you
4. Anticipate future industry shifts: Exploit changes before competitors can react
5. Create a new market space: Trigger the emergence of a new market

To trigger rapid growth for your own organization, don’t try and reinvent the wheel. Instead, decide which strategic theme and which strategic move within that theme you want to use, and focus on executing that strategic move exceptionally well.

Market Busters

To persuade effectively nowadays, you have to learn how to persuade electronically using Internet technologies. This is such an important source of information for business people that it is rapidly becoming the first place people turn for new ideas. If people can’t find you when they need your product or service, you’re missing out on a lot of business.

The key areas to get up to speed with in terms of using electronic media to persuade effectively are:

WebsitesHave a website which matches your persona and the image of your company. Effective websites:

Blogs Web-based logs that are easily edited. Blogs give you an outlet for your ideas and a place where others can comment. Blogs can create exclusive access to you in a way that the people you’re attempting to persuade will find very alluring and compelling.

Teleseminars There are Internet-delivered seminars that people can participate in from their own computers rather than having to be there in person. Teleseminars are great for persuasion because they combine audio and visual components. Previously run teleseminars can then be made available through your website for others to view. The more information you pack into your teleseminar, the greater the potential value it will have.

Podcasting Effectively this is a do-it-yourself radio show broadcast over the Internet. People can download what you’ve put together to their digital music devices and then listen to it at whatever time best suits them. Podcasts can be set up to whatever level of professionalism you decide, so it’s important to have podcasts that enhance your image as an expert in your field. Podcasting is very tightly focused, but is emerging as a key persuasive technology of the future.

by Alex Wipperfurth (14200)

Companies like Starbucks, eBay, Palm and Red Bull have built multi-billion-dollar valuations without using any conventional advertising campaigns. Far from being lucky breaks, the success of these and other companies demonstrate the smart approach to building a business and a brand in the 21st century is to do what can be termed “marketing without marketing.”

More specifically, these brands create the illusion that success is happening serendipitously as driven by the users rather than as dictated by the corporation. This is good, because it means the user base feels like they’re in control of the brand. Consumers who instantly and automatically reject traditional marketing as being too intrusive respond well to the invitation to help shape what their favorite brand will mean in the future. This is the essence of marketing without marketing.

The key to building a brand nowadays is to let the market hijack your brand. The more marketplace involvement you have, the better — even if that takes your brand off in unanticipated directions. What you’ll ultimately end up with is a brand experience that is richer, better, more genuine and therefore more sustainable than anything you would have consciously developed yourself. Have the confidence to let the market decide how your brand evolves.

Brand Hijack

In theory, good negotiations are win-win. The reality is, however, superior persuaders can craft an arrangement that is not optimal for either party and yet which both sides find acceptable. It doesn’t really matter which party feels like they have “won” or “lost” as long as everyone understands and agrees with the reasons for the conclusion reached.

Ideally you want to begin the persuasive negotiation process from a position of power and authority. To do this, you need to be fully informed about:

The key steps in negotiating persuasively are:

1. Let the other party present their proposal first and you may be pleasantly surprised to find they are offering more acceptable terms than you were going to ask for in the first place. This is great, because the negotiation is over before it even starts. It also lets you adjust your pitch to suit.

2. Test your assumption about what is truly negotiable and what is not by asking some questions and posing some scenarios for the other party to respond to. Stress that different is fine as long as both parties are fine with that.

3. Once you test something, put the idea on the back burner and agree on inconsequential items first by looking at the areas you know you will be able to agree upon. Build some momentum.

4. Don’t respond to emotional issues but acknowledge them openly and keep focused on the key issue at hand. Remember, you can always walk away if necessary so mention that if they keep dwelling on irrelevancies.

5. Lay your cards on the table openly and succinctly and make sure the other party knows precisely what you’re asking for. This is a time for clarity, not ambiguity. This often breaks an impasse. For example, if you disclose that accepting their offer would bankrupt you, obviously you’re not going to do that. They need to know where you stand.

6. When you’ve come to a tentative agreement on the best way to move forward, reiterate what the next steps will be and clarify what each party will do. Don’t assume that they view things the same way you do, but be very specific about what needs to happen next.

7. To seal the agreement, continue to persuade meaning do something tangible to follow up. Have dinner with them. Give them some kind of gift or sample. Acknowledge their contribution to your negotiation.