Description
Business Intelligence Strategies And Trends For The Successful Business
IDEAwatch
Ti ps f or Gr owi ng Your Bus i ne s s
continued on page 3
ENTREPRENEURSHI P
May 2012
Beware the Entrepreneur’s Recoil
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Strategies and Trends for the Successful Business
Are you the same entrepreneur you were when you first
started, or have you lost something along the way?
by Jonathan Fields
I WAS RECENTLY giving a keynote before
a room full of entrepreneurs and from the
audience a voice yelled, “Why are you tell-
ing this to us? We’re not the people who
need to hear this. This is a waste of time.”
Pin drop….
Beyond the fact that a good percentage
of the eyeballs in the rows in front were
rolling, it was my frst
offcial keynote heckle.
I was talking about
mindset and entrepre-
neurship. More specif-
cally, how we need to embrace uncertainty
and recognize the creeping emergence of
decision-making based not on optimism
and opportunity, but on fear and the
desire to prevent loss.
My friend in the audience was bothered
because he’d assumed that, in a room full
of successful entrepreneurs, this simply
wasn’t an issue. They all got where they
got by taking risks. They were the ones
without fear. The idea marauders, innova-
tors and envelope pushers.
And, indeed, when they started, nearly
every person there was. But what about
now? What about a few years into their
ventures?
One of the biggest misses in the
entrepreneurial process and mind is the
assumption that mindset and willingness
to embrace risk and creativity are fxed
traits. In fact, the more successful most
people become, the more they abandon
the very mindset that fueled their success.
I call this the “entrepreneur’s
recoil.” Here’s how it works:
When you are just starting out, espe-
cially if you’re earlier in life and you don’t
yet have signifcant responsibilities, it’s
much easier to be hyper-creative, to inno-
vate, put everything you have on the line
and take risks. Because you have very
little to lose. At least very little that isn’t
fairly easily recoverable.
So when you start a business, you
adopt a do-or-die, all-in mindset. You
come up with and are open to crazy ideas
in the name of creating breakout busi-
nesses. And you’re willing to act on them.
Because, beyond ego, even if you fail, the
fall really won’t cause that much pain.
But, then something happens. You suc-
ceed. You begin to build a real business.
You have offces, assets, overhead, inven-
tory and employees. People and families
are counting on you to pay their rent and
send their kids to school. Your own family
begins to expect a certain lifestyle. And
so do you. You get comfortable. And, along
with your success, you now have the per-
ception of so much more to lose if you fail.
Instead of continuing to take risks, your
mindset begins to shift into what famed
psychologist and winner of the Nobel
Prize for behavioral psychology Daniel
Kahneman calls loss aversion mode.
Rather than being driven by what you
can build, create and have, you are over-
whelmed by a fear of losing what you’ve
already amassed. Being an entrepreneur,
and innovator, an artist or a creator
does not make you immune to the often
irrational pull of loss aversion. Because,
as Kahneman’s research points out, it’s
simply a part of human nature.
There are two problems with this when
it comes to creators and entrepreneurs:
1. The switch from seeking gain to loss
avoidance cultivates a strong negative cre-
ativity bias that makes us say no to inno-
vative ideas. Ones that come from our own
minds, as well as from those around us.
And ones that, embraced, could have been
key drivers of innovation and growth.
2. Because we set the tone as entrepre-
neurs, when we pull back, stop innovat-
ing ourselves and rebuff innovation and
creativity from employees, we create an
idea-killer emotional virus that destroys
the very culture that got us where we are.
? If your salespeople are always
giving discounts in order to get the
sale, chances are you’re paying com-
missions on revenue and not proft.
The problem with paying on revenue
is that a discount has little impact
on a salesperson’s commission, but it
can have a big impact on your bottom
line. In order to base commissions on
proft, you’ll need to share variable
profts with your salespeople. This
action in itself will often result in
them pushing higher proft products
since that would result in higher
commissions. It also reduces unneces-
sary discounting. In addition, consider
setting commission tiers. For example,
once transaction proftability exceeds
a target level, offer a 50% bonus. This
raises the payoff for pushing for even
more proft.
Source: blogs.hbr.org
? How long has it been since you
researched competitors? While
it’s unproductive to be constantly
concerned about your competition,
it’s smart to schedule some time
once or twice a year to investigate
other offerings similar to yours. Don’t
just look at the same factors each
time. The longer you’re in business,
the more you’ll understand about
what’s important to your customers.
Maybe you’ll spot trends you’d better
catch up with, identify customers
that you’re better equipped to serve
compared to the competition or have
fresh insight on how to pitch your
unique advantages.
Source: www.yudkin.com
? Make a memorable impact on
people you talk with at network-
ing events by asking for two business
cards — one for yourself and one to
pass on to a friend or colleague. You’ll
be remembered as the person who
asked for an extra card to pass along.
Source: www.constructionbreak.com
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Ti ps f or Gr owi ng Your Bus i ne s s
Business Intelligence Report 2
Should you promote from within or
hire outside talent? While business own-
ers often hire outside talent in order to
bring new skills and perspective to the
company, they may get more bang for
their buck by looking at their current
pool of employees.
According to Wharton management
professor Matthew Bidwell, “external
hires” get signifcantly lower perfor-
mance evaluations for their frst two
years on the job than do internal workers
who are promoted into similar jobs. They
also have higher exit rates, and they are
paid “substantially more.” About 18%
to 20% more. On the plus side for these
external hires, if they stay beyond two
years, they get promoted faster than do
those who are promoted internally.
Bidwell notes that external hires need
about two years “to get up to speed”
External hires get paid more, but perform worse
in their new jobs, including building
relationships. During that time there is a
much greater risk of being let go, mainly
because they may not develop the neces-
sary skills and thus will not perform as
well as expected. Then, too, they might
decide to leave voluntarily.
While doing his research, Bidwell
noticed that people hired into the
job from the outside often have more
education and experience than internal
candidates, which is at least part of the
reason they are being paid more. He
explains that “when you know less about
the person you are hiring, you tend to be
more rigorous about the things you can
see,” such as education and experience
levels. And yet “education and experience
are reasonably weak signals of how good
somebody will be on the job,” he said.
Source: Knowledge@Wharton, Mar. 28, 2012
Ne ws a nd De v e l opme nt s Af f e c t i ng Toda y ’ s Bus i ne s s NEWSwatch
Management experts have long touted
employee buy-in as the key to organiza-
tional change. Yet new research suggests
that when new rules seem bendable
or changeable, people are more likely
to revolt. Alternatively, when rules are
defnitive and absolute, people are more
likely to support them.
This response may be a coping mecha-
nism, claims Gavan J. Fitzsimons, the
study’s co-author and a professor of mar-
keting and psychology at Duke Univer-
sity’s Fuqua School of Business. “If there’s
no chance you can change the rule, it’s not
really functional to have those feelings
of resentment, because you’re going to be
miserable,” he says. “But when there’s a
small chance it can be reversed, a back-
lash could lead to the outcome you want.”
Business owners should make deci-
sions authoritatively and broadly. For
instance, if you want to change the sales
team’s pay structure from commission to
salary based, don’t make exceptions, says
Aaron C. Kay, an associate professor of
management and psychology at Fuqua
and a co-author of the study.
But that doesn’t mean you have to
leave employees out of the decision-
making process, says Fitzsimons. You
can gather input from workers before an
important change is made. Just make it
clear that your decision is fnal.
Source: Inc., April 2012
Study: Lay down the law on company policies
The new federal JOBS Act was
recently signed into law and will make
it easier for small, private companies
to raise capital. According to the law,
startups can raise up to $1 million a year
by pitching to thousands of small-dollar
investors online with little disclosure
beyond a rough business plan. They can
also raise up to $2 million if they provide
audited fnancial statements.
Up until now, startups that seek to
raise capital on crowd-funding sites are
limited to offering only token gifts —
such as a mug or T-shirt — in return for
contributions. Under this new law, they
can offer equity.
Investors with incomes or net worth
How the JOBS Act will impact raising capital
below $100,000 would be restricted to put-
ting up just 5% of their annual income, up
to $2,000. The cap for wealthier investors
is 10% of their income or net worth, to a
maximum of $100,000.
Private companies, which are currently
limited to 500 investors, will be able to
take on as many as 2,000 investors before
triggering securities regulations.
Though crowd-funding is designed to
ease the process of raising cash for start-
ups, some professional early-stage busi-
ness investors worry that the new rules
might boost the costs of capital by making
later-stage, and much-larger investments,
that much more risky.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Mar. 29, 2012
? Make the most out of Facebook’s
new timeline format. Even though
Facebook’s new layout forced busi-
nesses to update the look of their pages,
the new format does offer advantages.
For example, timeline is a great tool
to tell stories to your fans by allowing
your company to showcase its history,
achievements and growth in a chrono-
logical order. Also, since some updates
are more important than others, the
format allows you to highlight an
update, which expands it to full width
and increases the size of the update.
You can also pin posts to the top of
the page. This feature can be used to
send fans to the place where you want
them to go. Pin updates that are a part
of contests, sweepstakes or any other
call to action. Finally, the tabs that
used to appear on the old format will
be referred to as “apps” on the timeline
format and have a bigger thumbnail,
which can help foster engagement.
Activities like contests, sweepstakes
and RSVPs can be run using apps.
Source: www.smallbiztrends.com
? Boost creativity with the color
green. If you are fnding it diffcult
to come up with a creative solution
to a problem, try looking at plants or
something green on your computer.
New research published in the Person-
ality and Social Psychology Bulletin
suggests a glimpse of green appears
to activate the type of pure, open
mental processing required to do well
on creativity tasks. The researchers
found this effect with different groups
of people, different tests of creativity
and differently designed experiments.
Participants exposed to green outper-
formed those exposed to white, gray,
red and blue, respectively, suggesting
there is something unique about the
color as a creative catalyst.
Source: www.miller-mccune.com
? Help customers feel the results
of your product in advance. People
buy when they can envision them-
selves owning, using and enjoying
what you sell. You can help them form
these positive mental images by ask-
ing the right questions; for example,
“How would this help you if you
owned it?” or “How much do you think
you’d save if your waste percentage
decreased by 15% this year?”
Source: www.ithinkbigger.com
Business Intelligence Report (ISSN 1091-9597) is published 12 times a year by DBH Communications, Inc. The intent of this publication is
to provide business professionals with informative and interesting articles and news. These articles, and any opinions expressed in them, are for
general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or business. Appropriate legal,
accounting, financial or medical advice or other expert assistance should always be sought from a competent professional.
Copyright, 2012, DBH Communications, Inc. All rights reserved in all countries. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial
or graphic content in any manner is prohibited.
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Ti ps f or Gr owi ng Your Bus i ne s s
P.O. Box 22337
Kansas City, MO 64113
[email protected]
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Business Intelligence Report 3
continued from page 1 Beware...
F o r e c a s t i n g t h e Ch a n g i n g Bu s i n e s s En v i r o n me n t TRENDwatch
Millennials were supposed to be the
next golden ticket for retailers, but eco-
nomic change has pinched their spend-
ing. No group was hit harder by the
Great Recession than the 70 million con-
sumers between the ages of 18 and 34,
also known as Generation Y. The wealth
of this age group is down 68% since 1984,
their careers have stalled, they have edu-
cational debt at about $23,000 and an
estimated 24% have moved back home to
live with their parents. Almost a quarter
of them describe lives of fnancial des-
peration, not having enough cash to buy
basic necessities. A reported 20% have
postponed marriage for fnancial reasons,
while 22% have put off having a baby for
similar reasons.
Millennials’ lackluster fnancial state
has disappointed clothing retailers,
movie studios, home improvement chains
and car manufacturers that hoped for
better. Additionally, with the Internet
as their guide, they are pickier and less
brand loyal than their parents. They also
came of age amid eroding respect for
institutions, including corporations and
brands. They crave authentic products,
such as TOMS Shoes, which donates a
pair of shoes to poor children for every-
one one it sells. The Millennial credo is
“buy less and do more.”
Getting 18- to 34-year-olds in the door
increasingly means offering discounts
and sales promotions, so companies that
want to attract them are forced to cut
prices. The hope for these companies is to
stay relevant and be patient as they wait
for Millennials’ eventual return.
Source: Businessweek.com, Mar. 26, 2012
Cash-strapped Millennials pinch their spending
It breeds loss-aversion, fear and scarcity,
which is death to innovation and expan-
sion.
So, what do we do about it? If you’re
an entrepreneur, or you work with an
entrepreneur or a team charged with
innovation, create a monthly mindset
circuit-breaker check-up. Take a step
back, preferably leave the offce and take
a few key creators with you. Maybe get
out into nature and ask a big question:
“Am I operating from a place of cre-
ative opportunity or loss aversion?”
Be honest, and task your team with
a “no-repercussion” opportunity to call
you out on a shift to a prevent-offense
when they see it. Because very often the
person least well equipped to notice this
shift is you.
Most important, never assume that
the mindset that got you here is the
same as the mindset that guides your
efforts today. It may be. But, for many,
once you’re sitting atop a mountain of
success, possibility long ago morphed
into fear.
When you see that, own it. Then do
something about it.
Jonathan Fields is a former private equity
attorney turned lifestyle-entrepreneur, blogger,
marketing consultant, speaker and author of
the book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt
Into Fuel for Brilliance. He writes about the
crossroads between family, passion, entre-
preneurship, social media and marketing at
JonathanFields.com.
Despite the popular belief that baby
boomers will continue to work well past
the traditional retirement age of 65,
those born in 1946 are retiring in droves,
according to Transitioning into Retire-
ment: The MetLife Study of Baby Boom-
ers at 65.
The study reports that 59% of the frst
boomers to turn 65 are at least par-
tially retired. A full 45% are completely
retired and 14% are retired but working
part-time. Of those still working, 37%
say they’ll retire in the next year and on
average plan to do so by the time they are
68. Half of those who are retired say they
retired earlier than they had expected.
Of those who retired early, 4 in 10 say
they did so for health reasons, although
the majority of respondents consider
themselves healthy. Almost all retirees
say they like retirement at least some-
what, and 7 in 10 are very satisfed with
their retirement.
Source: Workplacemag.com, Apr. 11, 2012
Boomers already retiring in droves
? Get more qualifed job applicants
by making it easy to screen out the
unqualifed. Start by making your
career advertisement as specifc as pos-
sible. Reveal the good points as well as
the negative ones. Talk about the skills
needed, what a typical day is like, what
kind of hours and anything about the
job environment that might be help-
ful. If you scare people away with the
negatives, then it means you scared
the right people away. Of course, some
people won’t bother to even read the
description and will send in a resume
anyway. To screen them out, instruct
the candidates to answer some specifc
questions in their cover letter, such as
“What are your greatest strengths?”
or “How would you handle a situation
where (insert situation)?” The lazi-
est applicants can’t be bothered with
this, so they will just skip to another
position to apply for. You can also just
delete all emails from people who apply
but don’t follow the instructions.
Source: www.openforum.com
? Look at your email campaigns
on a mobile phone. Recent studies
show that 27% of marketing emails
are opened on mobile devices, an
increase of 36% since last year, and
includes both consumer and business-
to-business messages. What’s more,
emails on mobile phones are rarely
saved for future access on a desktop
computer. Therefore, it’s extremely
important to optimize your email
content for mobile devices.
Source: www.internetretailer.com
? When giving referrals, make sure
your positive commentary isn’t too
enthusiastic. It could actually refect
badly on the person you are trying to
send business to. For example, let’s
say you tout enthusiastically about a
friend to someone. The person meets
your friend and is impressed, but not
that impressed. Now you have set
your friend up to be “less than” in the
other person’s eyes. Try to stick to just
the facts and let people form their
own opinions.
Source: www.sherrylowry.com
doc_545656054.pdf
Business Intelligence Strategies And Trends For The Successful Business
IDEAwatch
Ti ps f or Gr owi ng Your Bus i ne s s
continued on page 3
ENTREPRENEURSHI P
May 2012
Beware the Entrepreneur’s Recoil
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Strategies and Trends for the Successful Business
Are you the same entrepreneur you were when you first
started, or have you lost something along the way?
by Jonathan Fields
I WAS RECENTLY giving a keynote before
a room full of entrepreneurs and from the
audience a voice yelled, “Why are you tell-
ing this to us? We’re not the people who
need to hear this. This is a waste of time.”
Pin drop….
Beyond the fact that a good percentage
of the eyeballs in the rows in front were
rolling, it was my frst
offcial keynote heckle.
I was talking about
mindset and entrepre-
neurship. More specif-
cally, how we need to embrace uncertainty
and recognize the creeping emergence of
decision-making based not on optimism
and opportunity, but on fear and the
desire to prevent loss.
My friend in the audience was bothered
because he’d assumed that, in a room full
of successful entrepreneurs, this simply
wasn’t an issue. They all got where they
got by taking risks. They were the ones
without fear. The idea marauders, innova-
tors and envelope pushers.
And, indeed, when they started, nearly
every person there was. But what about
now? What about a few years into their
ventures?
One of the biggest misses in the
entrepreneurial process and mind is the
assumption that mindset and willingness
to embrace risk and creativity are fxed
traits. In fact, the more successful most
people become, the more they abandon
the very mindset that fueled their success.
I call this the “entrepreneur’s
recoil.” Here’s how it works:
When you are just starting out, espe-
cially if you’re earlier in life and you don’t
yet have signifcant responsibilities, it’s
much easier to be hyper-creative, to inno-
vate, put everything you have on the line
and take risks. Because you have very
little to lose. At least very little that isn’t
fairly easily recoverable.
So when you start a business, you
adopt a do-or-die, all-in mindset. You
come up with and are open to crazy ideas
in the name of creating breakout busi-
nesses. And you’re willing to act on them.
Because, beyond ego, even if you fail, the
fall really won’t cause that much pain.
But, then something happens. You suc-
ceed. You begin to build a real business.
You have offces, assets, overhead, inven-
tory and employees. People and families
are counting on you to pay their rent and
send their kids to school. Your own family
begins to expect a certain lifestyle. And
so do you. You get comfortable. And, along
with your success, you now have the per-
ception of so much more to lose if you fail.
Instead of continuing to take risks, your
mindset begins to shift into what famed
psychologist and winner of the Nobel
Prize for behavioral psychology Daniel
Kahneman calls loss aversion mode.
Rather than being driven by what you
can build, create and have, you are over-
whelmed by a fear of losing what you’ve
already amassed. Being an entrepreneur,
and innovator, an artist or a creator
does not make you immune to the often
irrational pull of loss aversion. Because,
as Kahneman’s research points out, it’s
simply a part of human nature.
There are two problems with this when
it comes to creators and entrepreneurs:
1. The switch from seeking gain to loss
avoidance cultivates a strong negative cre-
ativity bias that makes us say no to inno-
vative ideas. Ones that come from our own
minds, as well as from those around us.
And ones that, embraced, could have been
key drivers of innovation and growth.
2. Because we set the tone as entrepre-
neurs, when we pull back, stop innovat-
ing ourselves and rebuff innovation and
creativity from employees, we create an
idea-killer emotional virus that destroys
the very culture that got us where we are.
? If your salespeople are always
giving discounts in order to get the
sale, chances are you’re paying com-
missions on revenue and not proft.
The problem with paying on revenue
is that a discount has little impact
on a salesperson’s commission, but it
can have a big impact on your bottom
line. In order to base commissions on
proft, you’ll need to share variable
profts with your salespeople. This
action in itself will often result in
them pushing higher proft products
since that would result in higher
commissions. It also reduces unneces-
sary discounting. In addition, consider
setting commission tiers. For example,
once transaction proftability exceeds
a target level, offer a 50% bonus. This
raises the payoff for pushing for even
more proft.
Source: blogs.hbr.org
? How long has it been since you
researched competitors? While
it’s unproductive to be constantly
concerned about your competition,
it’s smart to schedule some time
once or twice a year to investigate
other offerings similar to yours. Don’t
just look at the same factors each
time. The longer you’re in business,
the more you’ll understand about
what’s important to your customers.
Maybe you’ll spot trends you’d better
catch up with, identify customers
that you’re better equipped to serve
compared to the competition or have
fresh insight on how to pitch your
unique advantages.
Source: www.yudkin.com
? Make a memorable impact on
people you talk with at network-
ing events by asking for two business
cards — one for yourself and one to
pass on to a friend or colleague. You’ll
be remembered as the person who
asked for an extra card to pass along.
Source: www.constructionbreak.com
IDEAwatch
Ti ps f or Gr owi ng Your Bus i ne s s
Business Intelligence Report 2
Should you promote from within or
hire outside talent? While business own-
ers often hire outside talent in order to
bring new skills and perspective to the
company, they may get more bang for
their buck by looking at their current
pool of employees.
According to Wharton management
professor Matthew Bidwell, “external
hires” get signifcantly lower perfor-
mance evaluations for their frst two
years on the job than do internal workers
who are promoted into similar jobs. They
also have higher exit rates, and they are
paid “substantially more.” About 18%
to 20% more. On the plus side for these
external hires, if they stay beyond two
years, they get promoted faster than do
those who are promoted internally.
Bidwell notes that external hires need
about two years “to get up to speed”
External hires get paid more, but perform worse
in their new jobs, including building
relationships. During that time there is a
much greater risk of being let go, mainly
because they may not develop the neces-
sary skills and thus will not perform as
well as expected. Then, too, they might
decide to leave voluntarily.
While doing his research, Bidwell
noticed that people hired into the
job from the outside often have more
education and experience than internal
candidates, which is at least part of the
reason they are being paid more. He
explains that “when you know less about
the person you are hiring, you tend to be
more rigorous about the things you can
see,” such as education and experience
levels. And yet “education and experience
are reasonably weak signals of how good
somebody will be on the job,” he said.
Source: Knowledge@Wharton, Mar. 28, 2012
Ne ws a nd De v e l opme nt s Af f e c t i ng Toda y ’ s Bus i ne s s NEWSwatch
Management experts have long touted
employee buy-in as the key to organiza-
tional change. Yet new research suggests
that when new rules seem bendable
or changeable, people are more likely
to revolt. Alternatively, when rules are
defnitive and absolute, people are more
likely to support them.
This response may be a coping mecha-
nism, claims Gavan J. Fitzsimons, the
study’s co-author and a professor of mar-
keting and psychology at Duke Univer-
sity’s Fuqua School of Business. “If there’s
no chance you can change the rule, it’s not
really functional to have those feelings
of resentment, because you’re going to be
miserable,” he says. “But when there’s a
small chance it can be reversed, a back-
lash could lead to the outcome you want.”
Business owners should make deci-
sions authoritatively and broadly. For
instance, if you want to change the sales
team’s pay structure from commission to
salary based, don’t make exceptions, says
Aaron C. Kay, an associate professor of
management and psychology at Fuqua
and a co-author of the study.
But that doesn’t mean you have to
leave employees out of the decision-
making process, says Fitzsimons. You
can gather input from workers before an
important change is made. Just make it
clear that your decision is fnal.
Source: Inc., April 2012
Study: Lay down the law on company policies
The new federal JOBS Act was
recently signed into law and will make
it easier for small, private companies
to raise capital. According to the law,
startups can raise up to $1 million a year
by pitching to thousands of small-dollar
investors online with little disclosure
beyond a rough business plan. They can
also raise up to $2 million if they provide
audited fnancial statements.
Up until now, startups that seek to
raise capital on crowd-funding sites are
limited to offering only token gifts —
such as a mug or T-shirt — in return for
contributions. Under this new law, they
can offer equity.
Investors with incomes or net worth
How the JOBS Act will impact raising capital
below $100,000 would be restricted to put-
ting up just 5% of their annual income, up
to $2,000. The cap for wealthier investors
is 10% of their income or net worth, to a
maximum of $100,000.
Private companies, which are currently
limited to 500 investors, will be able to
take on as many as 2,000 investors before
triggering securities regulations.
Though crowd-funding is designed to
ease the process of raising cash for start-
ups, some professional early-stage busi-
ness investors worry that the new rules
might boost the costs of capital by making
later-stage, and much-larger investments,
that much more risky.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Mar. 29, 2012
? Make the most out of Facebook’s
new timeline format. Even though
Facebook’s new layout forced busi-
nesses to update the look of their pages,
the new format does offer advantages.
For example, timeline is a great tool
to tell stories to your fans by allowing
your company to showcase its history,
achievements and growth in a chrono-
logical order. Also, since some updates
are more important than others, the
format allows you to highlight an
update, which expands it to full width
and increases the size of the update.
You can also pin posts to the top of
the page. This feature can be used to
send fans to the place where you want
them to go. Pin updates that are a part
of contests, sweepstakes or any other
call to action. Finally, the tabs that
used to appear on the old format will
be referred to as “apps” on the timeline
format and have a bigger thumbnail,
which can help foster engagement.
Activities like contests, sweepstakes
and RSVPs can be run using apps.
Source: www.smallbiztrends.com
? Boost creativity with the color
green. If you are fnding it diffcult
to come up with a creative solution
to a problem, try looking at plants or
something green on your computer.
New research published in the Person-
ality and Social Psychology Bulletin
suggests a glimpse of green appears
to activate the type of pure, open
mental processing required to do well
on creativity tasks. The researchers
found this effect with different groups
of people, different tests of creativity
and differently designed experiments.
Participants exposed to green outper-
formed those exposed to white, gray,
red and blue, respectively, suggesting
there is something unique about the
color as a creative catalyst.
Source: www.miller-mccune.com
? Help customers feel the results
of your product in advance. People
buy when they can envision them-
selves owning, using and enjoying
what you sell. You can help them form
these positive mental images by ask-
ing the right questions; for example,
“How would this help you if you
owned it?” or “How much do you think
you’d save if your waste percentage
decreased by 15% this year?”
Source: www.ithinkbigger.com
Business Intelligence Report (ISSN 1091-9597) is published 12 times a year by DBH Communications, Inc. The intent of this publication is
to provide business professionals with informative and interesting articles and news. These articles, and any opinions expressed in them, are for
general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or business. Appropriate legal,
accounting, financial or medical advice or other expert assistance should always be sought from a competent professional.
Copyright, 2012, DBH Communications, Inc. All rights reserved in all countries. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial
or graphic content in any manner is prohibited.
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Business Intelligence Report 3
continued from page 1 Beware...
F o r e c a s t i n g t h e Ch a n g i n g Bu s i n e s s En v i r o n me n t TRENDwatch
Millennials were supposed to be the
next golden ticket for retailers, but eco-
nomic change has pinched their spend-
ing. No group was hit harder by the
Great Recession than the 70 million con-
sumers between the ages of 18 and 34,
also known as Generation Y. The wealth
of this age group is down 68% since 1984,
their careers have stalled, they have edu-
cational debt at about $23,000 and an
estimated 24% have moved back home to
live with their parents. Almost a quarter
of them describe lives of fnancial des-
peration, not having enough cash to buy
basic necessities. A reported 20% have
postponed marriage for fnancial reasons,
while 22% have put off having a baby for
similar reasons.
Millennials’ lackluster fnancial state
has disappointed clothing retailers,
movie studios, home improvement chains
and car manufacturers that hoped for
better. Additionally, with the Internet
as their guide, they are pickier and less
brand loyal than their parents. They also
came of age amid eroding respect for
institutions, including corporations and
brands. They crave authentic products,
such as TOMS Shoes, which donates a
pair of shoes to poor children for every-
one one it sells. The Millennial credo is
“buy less and do more.”
Getting 18- to 34-year-olds in the door
increasingly means offering discounts
and sales promotions, so companies that
want to attract them are forced to cut
prices. The hope for these companies is to
stay relevant and be patient as they wait
for Millennials’ eventual return.
Source: Businessweek.com, Mar. 26, 2012
Cash-strapped Millennials pinch their spending
It breeds loss-aversion, fear and scarcity,
which is death to innovation and expan-
sion.
So, what do we do about it? If you’re
an entrepreneur, or you work with an
entrepreneur or a team charged with
innovation, create a monthly mindset
circuit-breaker check-up. Take a step
back, preferably leave the offce and take
a few key creators with you. Maybe get
out into nature and ask a big question:
“Am I operating from a place of cre-
ative opportunity or loss aversion?”
Be honest, and task your team with
a “no-repercussion” opportunity to call
you out on a shift to a prevent-offense
when they see it. Because very often the
person least well equipped to notice this
shift is you.
Most important, never assume that
the mindset that got you here is the
same as the mindset that guides your
efforts today. It may be. But, for many,
once you’re sitting atop a mountain of
success, possibility long ago morphed
into fear.
When you see that, own it. Then do
something about it.
Jonathan Fields is a former private equity
attorney turned lifestyle-entrepreneur, blogger,
marketing consultant, speaker and author of
the book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt
Into Fuel for Brilliance. He writes about the
crossroads between family, passion, entre-
preneurship, social media and marketing at
JonathanFields.com.
Despite the popular belief that baby
boomers will continue to work well past
the traditional retirement age of 65,
those born in 1946 are retiring in droves,
according to Transitioning into Retire-
ment: The MetLife Study of Baby Boom-
ers at 65.
The study reports that 59% of the frst
boomers to turn 65 are at least par-
tially retired. A full 45% are completely
retired and 14% are retired but working
part-time. Of those still working, 37%
say they’ll retire in the next year and on
average plan to do so by the time they are
68. Half of those who are retired say they
retired earlier than they had expected.
Of those who retired early, 4 in 10 say
they did so for health reasons, although
the majority of respondents consider
themselves healthy. Almost all retirees
say they like retirement at least some-
what, and 7 in 10 are very satisfed with
their retirement.
Source: Workplacemag.com, Apr. 11, 2012
Boomers already retiring in droves
? Get more qualifed job applicants
by making it easy to screen out the
unqualifed. Start by making your
career advertisement as specifc as pos-
sible. Reveal the good points as well as
the negative ones. Talk about the skills
needed, what a typical day is like, what
kind of hours and anything about the
job environment that might be help-
ful. If you scare people away with the
negatives, then it means you scared
the right people away. Of course, some
people won’t bother to even read the
description and will send in a resume
anyway. To screen them out, instruct
the candidates to answer some specifc
questions in their cover letter, such as
“What are your greatest strengths?”
or “How would you handle a situation
where (insert situation)?” The lazi-
est applicants can’t be bothered with
this, so they will just skip to another
position to apply for. You can also just
delete all emails from people who apply
but don’t follow the instructions.
Source: www.openforum.com
? Look at your email campaigns
on a mobile phone. Recent studies
show that 27% of marketing emails
are opened on mobile devices, an
increase of 36% since last year, and
includes both consumer and business-
to-business messages. What’s more,
emails on mobile phones are rarely
saved for future access on a desktop
computer. Therefore, it’s extremely
important to optimize your email
content for mobile devices.
Source: www.internetretailer.com
? When giving referrals, make sure
your positive commentary isn’t too
enthusiastic. It could actually refect
badly on the person you are trying to
send business to. For example, let’s
say you tout enthusiastically about a
friend to someone. The person meets
your friend and is impressed, but not
that impressed. Now you have set
your friend up to be “less than” in the
other person’s eyes. Try to stick to just
the facts and let people form their
own opinions.
Source: www.sherrylowry.com
doc_545656054.pdf