I’m a little unconvinced when someone says they are a professional and all they do is push buttons.
I guess, in a way, they are a professional in that strict (rather, restricted) category of pushing buttons.
But the real professionals, the ones that get paid more, get talked about, get sought after go beyond the button-pushing.
They bring art and invent new buttons (the metaphorical ones that others carry) and they push them because they’re professionalism is designed around finding the edge and then ideating or innovating beyond the boundary.
Pushing buttons is all well and good, but it’s not what the world demands. If anything, it’s what the world is optimizing (or automating) away from.
The most important component of the business plan is the potential market size.
Without confidence and facts in there being a market available to you – and a sizeable one to support not only the sustaining of your business but the growth and development of it too, then everything else is either an uphill battle or waste.
This is the problem with marketing driven organizations. They market regardless of the market capture rate.
On the other hand, this is where the success lies in market driven organizations. They market where the need is, where the volume is, where the share is.
You can argue that there is a vast sea of potential customers… you can design the best rod and reel and lure… you can situate boats and fishers across the entire water… and you can use GPS that tells you there are fish under the water – but, and this is the big but: if they’re not hungry…
Figuring out if fish are hungry (and then figuring what they are hungry for) isn’t easy, but it’s essential if you plan to run a thriving business.
How can a brand be generous? After all, it’s vital for any kind of loyalty, any kind of magic, any kind of meaningful change.
Generosity can be giveaways, free samples and freebies, but the generosity that really impacts is the spirit and soul of generosity.
Generosity is both a personal and shared experience.
Generosity is working in a way that’s a role model for others. Generosity is working in a way that gives to your employees (because you know the better you treat your team, the better the team treats your customers and the better your customers treat your business). Generosity is about adding value where there was none (regardless of whether you charge for it or not).
Generosity is the idea that things can always be better and every day is spent finding the truth in that.
And one quick reminder of why generosity works? It’s rare. It’s scarce. Your competitors aren’t doing it.
There’s no blueprint or map to generosity; it comes from within.