Strictly Business

My husband works in interactive marketing, so I tend to learn about new technologies and how to best capitalize on them as he does. He’s been utilizing search-engine marketing for years now, knows all about the latest Mac offering before it goes public and started blogging long before I did.

We recently discussed the concept of a “viral expansion loop” after reading Fast Company’s Cover Story “Ning’s Infinite Ambition.” According to their website, “Ning is the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds.” As users contribute to and create more networks that engage more users that contribute to and create more networks that engage more users...you see the workings of a “viral expansion loop.” Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc. have all benefited as a result of this concept.

My takeaways — regardless of product/service offering or which dimension(s) you do business, we should all recognize the value in consumer networks and power of word-of-mouth messaging. Inspiring customer evangelism by delivering on (better yet, surpassing) expectations EVERY TIME reaps exponential rewards. Perhaps by becoming “friends” with your target, you can gain all of their “friends” in the process.

Also, it pays to pay attention. Ning’s developers recognized a good thing and took advantage of the opportunity to take social networking to the next level. Keep trend-watching, and feel free to comment and share emerging trends/technologies that have caught your attention.

Posted by Jocelyn Gutekunst at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

After spending several months studying the evolution of "consumerism" in health care, I was interested to read the “Medical Leave” article in the latest Fast Company magazine. With costs soaring, consumers have been forced to take more control in their own health management. This battle leads some US citizens overseas.

In his article, Greg Lindsay notes “As many as half a million Americans streamed abroad last year in search of affordable alternatives for hip replacements or prostate surgery. And they went not for the post-surgical tanning but for the savings: up to 90% off the going rates in the United States.”

High deductibles or the lack of insurance is causing consumers to shop more wisely for treatment. It will be interesting to see if “Medical Tourism” will give way to “Globalized Health Care.”

Posted by Jocelyn Gutekunst at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Authored by Dr. Susan Williams, Professor of Management] Doug Stone, author of Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Really Matters (Difficult Conversations) counsels us to “get things out into the open” and have those difficult conversations we’ve been putting off – the roommate who won’t clean up her share of the apartment, the employee who interrupts at every opportunity, or the person who plays loud music after midnight. He asserts that the fallout from people not having these conversations is evident all around us – failed management, poor employee morale, even horrific events like the Challenger disaster.

In his recent presentation at the Executive Learning Networks, part of the Scarlett Leadership Institute at Belmont University, Stone counseled participants to quiet “the voice in the head” and think about the other person’s point of view. Most of these failed conversations are based on our internal voice saying, “I’m right and you’re wrong.” He asked us to inquire of ourselves, for example, “I wonder why she’s doing that?” Assume you don’t know the other person’s motivation and don’t ascribe blame to them. Then you can look for solutions instead of blaming.

Getting clear with yourself about how you feel about certain behaviors is part of preparing for the difficult conversation. Ask yourself why this particular conversation is hard for you. Is it because you have made some assumptions about motivation, or because similar conversations have not gone well in the past?

The three parts of difficult conversations are: “what happened” which deals with the facts of the dialog; a “feelings” discussion that addresses the parties’ emotions; and an “identity” conversation that deals with how this discussion affects our perception of who we believe we are.

Bottom line, inquiring is more important than telling. Stone said, “It is hard to convince someone he is wrong if he feels he hasn’t been heard, so inquiring, actively listening, and really hearing are keys to addressing the issue.” Recognize that difficult conversations are a part of our lives. Search for solutions, not blame.

Posted by Joe Alexander at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

TryXBRL is a new information resource with XBRL-tagged financial statements for over 12,000 publicly traded corporations. The purpose is to educate financial statement preparers and users on new capabilities for analyzing financial data with reduced cost, time, and complexity. So what is XBRL or eXtensible Business Reporting Language and why should you care?

XBRL is revolutionizing business reporting through electronic communication of business and financial data. The old days of accountants issuing static reports which require laborious and costly processes of manual re-entry and comparison to work with the data are coming to an end. Computers can treat XBRL data "intelligently": they can recognize the information in a XBRL document, select it, analyze it, store it, exchange it with other computers and present it automatically in a variety of ways for users. XBRL greatly increases the speed of handling of financial data, reduces the chance of error and permits automatic checking of information. (ref: http://www.xbrl.org/Home/)

XBRL is part of the family of "XML" languages used to communicate tagged data on the internet. The idea behind XBRL is smart data. Instead of treating financial information as a block of text and numbers in a web page view or a PDF file, XBRL identifies each individual piece of data with identifying tags. The tag is based on a standardized list of accounting terms, technically described as taxonomies. For example, the Gross Profit number of $950 million for the 2nd quarter of 2008 might be tagged with “U.S. Dollars”, “Gross Profit”, “2nd Quarter”, and “2008”. These XBRL tags are computer readable and remain connected to the specific piece of data. The power of tagged data becomes important when for example, a comparison is made of gross profit across all industry competitors. Finding the data, comparing, and analyzing the data is much more efficient if it is in XBRL format.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to issue rulings in 2008 mandating that companies provide their financial statements in XBRL format. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has described the benefits of tagged financial statements as “The Promise of Interactive Data”. Stay tuned more changes are coming as accountants leverage technology!

Posted by Del DeVries at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Were you one of the many intrigued by Google’s latest innovations today? “Gmail Custom Time” allows users to send messages one hour, six hours, last night, last week, etc. But use them wisely; you only have ten per year.

What about becoming a “Virgle Pioneer?” Since “Earth has issues,” Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin “will be leading hundreds of users on one of the greatest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.”

Imagine the possibilities. Then check your calendar.

Google has been creating buzz on April Fool’s Day for a few years now. Check out the hoaxes they’ve pulled over the years. The brand has certainly proved clever enough to keep us all talking.

Posted by Jocelyn Gutekunst at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)