Important thoughts on “doing good while doing well”

Come on!  It’s happened at least a few times in your career…someone disagrees with you about a topic that you’re passionate about and you commit to proving them wrong.  For me the challenge recently came from a close colleague and friend whose opinions I hold in high regard.  He’s successful, very well read and smart but does not believe that today’s corporations will ever embrace corporate social responsibility (CSR) at an enterprise level due to the lack of influence these programs have on improving a company’s bottom line.  Should the impact to a company’s bottom line serve as the deciding factor for whether to implement a CSR program?  Before a company will invest in a campaign or event that has a non-profit benefactor and important cause (children’s cancer, homelessness, world hunger, etc.), should that company’s ability to generate brand recognition, new customers and ultimately revenue be evaluated before a decision is made? 

To kickoff 2012, this month’s blog is going to switch gears a bit.  We’re going to “shelf” discussions about data management, search and CRM and look at what organizations can do after the project has been delivered and the customer confirmed “happy”.  Always having a passion for CSR, I was recently inspired by an article in the Harvard Business Review titled “The For-Benefit Enterprise”, by Heerad Sabeti.  I’ll admit that I’m not a regular subscriber to this publication but was moved by the cover of the November issue as it was titled “What Great Companies Do Differently – They create value for society, solve the world’s problems, and still make money, too.”  The article focuses on the development, benefits and growth potential of what it calls a “for-benefit” enterprise.  According to the HBR, a for-benefit enterprise is one that “generates earned income but gives top priority to an explicit social mission, or it has a commitment to a social purpose and reliance on earned income.”  While some might say this definition is synonymous with that of a non-profit (that was definitely my first impression), as you read through the article the line that for-benefit companies “toe” between those that are for-profit and those that are non-profit becomes a bit more clear when you start to look at the “secondary characteristics” (HBRs description – not mine) of a for-benefit enterprise.  Some of my favorites from the article included; inclusive ownership – rights allocated among stakeholders in accordance with their contributions; stakeholder governance – decision rights regarding information and control being distributed among stakeholder constituencies; and my absolute favorite, fair compensation – employees and other stakeholders are compensated in proportion to their contributions (let’s face it, the dedicated folks employed by non-profit organizations are grossly underpaid).  So what does all this mean and why did I get so damn excited by what this article had to say?  It gave me hope.  It gave me hope that considerations or steps towards finding harmony between that which is for-profit and that which is non-profit are being taken (and seriously too – it’s in the HBR for the love of (fill in the blank)).  So what now?  Armed with the knowledge of for-benefit enterprises and a hopeful outlook that this model is something large corporations can embrace, fate presented me with another opportunity that fueled my excitement.

 I’d like to introduce you to Nikki Yuen.  I was introduced to Nikki by a colleague and friend that is an executive and Grant Thornton and also recently impressed by this young lady’s passion for CSR.  I was explaining to Rob that I wanted to switch gears with my next blog and write about CSR to which he quickly responded “I have someone you have to meet!”  He continued to talk about a young lady (and newer employee) who had already made an impression on him with her professionalism and passion to “do good while doing well”.  After meeting Nikki myself, I couldn’t agree more.   As we sat in Starbucks, she described her experiences as an intern and the impressions that programs like Corporate Service Days had on her.  She described the satisfaction she gained from going into an elementary school and not only doing maintenance projects but also learning about other cultures.  She explained the mission of organizations like the Center for Economic Progress, and given her accounting background how great it was that she was in a position to help the individuals that this non-profit supports by providing tax and financial services to low income families.  Before we departed she said something that I will (and hope) to never forget.  In talking about her new job at Grant Thornton and what she aspires to do with her career Nikki said, “as a company so focused on client service – why aren’t’ we asking what we can do to help?”  By “help” she meant help others in need – marry what an organization does best (manufacture goods, provide services, etc.) and follow that path towards filling a need for those desperate for the assistance.  According to Rob, this concept needs to be taken seriously on a global scale – a point to which I couldn’t agree more.  So why did Nikki impress me so much to the degree that I’m writing about her?  She gave me hope.  She gave me hope that if a 22 year old, young professional can carry a CSR torch so proudly and hold it high – that the background noise I hear about CSR initiatives being a “fad” and something that will not be sustained is well….”bunk”.  I’m confident that sea of Nikkis exists out there and are in a position to change the world.

So where does an organization start?  Is it possible to combine the structure of the new “for-benefit” enterprise and passions of people like Nikki and find a way for organizations to not only “do good while doing well” but do great and demonstrate a direct, positive impact to their bottom line?  Companies like TOMS (with every purchase of shoes a pair goes a child in need), Balega (a sock company that shares a percentage of every sale with their Lesedi Project, which means light and enlightenment – this project focuses on educational programs for children in South Africa, the interactive home page of their website is very cool www.balega.com), or DSM (a chemical company that partners with the World Food Programme to distribute DSM’s vitamins, nutrient mixes, and fortified foods to malnourished people around the world) – are ahead of the curve and doing great things while their organization’s financially thrive.  It’s possible. 

Staying true to my technology roots and being aware that there are amazing programs being implemented by technology companies around the world, my challenge is to determine how to increase the focus on CSR within these organizations and advance their outreach and impact to mind blowing levels that were never thought reasonable (or profitable) before.  As I stood tall on my soapbox while chatting with my CSR nay saying friend that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog, we debated the levels to which for-profit organizations will embrace CSR in the future.  I committed to finding a balanced, profitable and thoughtful way to motivate organizations to take CSR programs more seriously after which he closed with: “Sharan, I look forward to you proving me wrong on this.”  Don’t worry– I won’t disappoint.

 Working with customers is a personal business.  Addressing each client’s need and continually validating their decision to choose “you” out of the sea of competitors available out there, is the only real way to maintain a long term and healthy relationship.  This focus is even more important when prospecting for new clients.  Remember, you’re at a disadvantage even before you start pitching your value proposition.  Most likely the customer doesn’t know your company and very often doesn’t know you – not well enough to trust you that is.  The stack of books, articles, videos and websites targeting the “next new way” to find the perfect client is an immeasurable tower; but just like the game of Jenga if you select the wrong piece, the flood of information that you should have chosen can come tumbling down around  you forcing you to lose the game.  So what do you do – how do you determine the next brass ring of strategies to service and support your clients?  One answer is to try something new – step away from the tower and get personal.

Those of you that have been following my blog are all too familiar with my passion for the curators of the world.  It’s particularly strong for those of you that appreciate the power of gathering, organizing and managing information in the spirit of making it available to others.   I recently met someone that not only epitomizes the role of the information curator, but does it in a way that is very personal and sets the stage for what should be a best practice for curators around the globe.

I’d like to introduce you to Peter Savage.  I don’t know him well but was recently introduced to him and was inspired and impressed by his approach towards information capture and curation.  Peter and his (very kind) wife Deborah life in Baltimore, MD in a historic home that was built in the 1800s and whose floors, walls and beautiful moldings feel like they’ve been soaked with stories from the past.  It was during my tour of the home that I was brought into their library and introduced to the bookshelves that stand floor to ceiling brimming with curated information that Peter has collected over the years.  These shelves were packed with books of different flavors and grouped nicely by subject. 

Now I understand this doesn’t sound like anything extraordinary however, upon further review you’ll find many of the books pulsing with data in the form of newspaper and magazine articles that Peter has found, archived by topic/subject and strategically inserted between the pages of the book that it most relates to.  For example, Peter pulled out a book on Latin American art and showed me a series of articles tucked within its pages that he had come across over the years.  Whether it was from the Times or New York Magazine or elsewhere, each article spotlighted an artist or one of their pieces that was covered in this book.  I have to confess that I had little interest in Latin American art prior to meeting Peter, however after seeing the scores of pages and articles that he had taken the time to keep and almost savor, I was fascinated by what they contained and wanted to know more.  The focus of our conversation flipped from “what a beautiful book and great find from your vacation” to “what is it about that artist’s painting that you found so special?”  I was hooked.  Peter’s passion and interest in the stories and sometimes even logic behind “why” he ripped a page out of the newspaper and filed it in a particular book in his collection was contagious.  It was personal and provided a connection to a person whom I had just met and was paving the way for future conversations about the information that he cared most about.

So what can be learned from this?  Beyond a topic that I believe is blog worthy, what is really the advantage or benefit from taking a personal approach to the information you share?  Think about how you sell and promote your company’s product and service offerings.  Marketing designs colorful or clever collateral about what your organization does and (hopefully) how they can help solve your customer’s problems.  You ship off these PDFs and then they die on the vine with the rest of the “stuff” that’s out there.  I’m not saying that this type of information has lost its value – just its impact. 

One can assume that Peter didn’t wake up and fill his shelves with stacks of books overnight.  It took time, patience and focus.  From what I understand about Peter’s collection, it’s primarily made from books on art, politics and history as these are his passions and therefore how his information curation becomes personal.  Start today and decide what your initial focus should be.  Chances are your organization has a long list of products and services you can offer to customers in need.  Pick one that you’re most passionate about and begin to make your messaging personal.  Tell a story about when you were personally involved in the delivery of a project and what it meant to you and your customers (in lieu of a garden variety case study).  Begin building your own library of articles and books that can complement that marketing PDF and for which you have an affinity for.  Similar to my own surprise and interest in Peter’s passion and what he had to say about Latin American art, your clients and prospects will be more drawn to what you have to say if you’re personally invested in it.  Take the image of the bulging book from Peter’s shelf and its binding striving to keep the additional articles of insight and interest all in one place and create your own book.  Most likely it will be a virtual book of sorts (nothing against your shelves Peter), but still something that you authored/created in lieu of someone on a marketing team and as a result it will mean more when it’s shared. 

 The English writer William Hazlitt said, “A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.”  Take your passion for what you do, sell or manage and don’t be afraid to get personal – take it from a new Latin American art fan, you never know where it can take you.

The Deadly Denial of Good Content Management Strategies.

 Perhaps it’s the influence of Halloween or the result of some very honest conversations that I have had with my customers; regardless of the origin I’ve been inspired to lead this blog with something that should frighten and concern you. Think about your web site.  Think about your employee and customer portals and the impressions that your user community gets the first time they visit one of these locations.  Are they finding value with your site?  Have they had a positive experience and used their valuable time wisely by investing in keystrokes that take them deeper into the bowels of content contained within your site?  Mooooooooaaaaaaha.  Is their experience a sweet or scary one?

 As our review of Steven Rosenbaum’s book Curation Nation, comes to an end I’m thrilled to close things out with one of the most relative concepts of  the book so far.  In the final chapters, Rosenbaum introduces the idea of content strategy and the value a content strategist can provide to both IT and business teams.  We meet Kristina Halvorson, the Founder and CEO of Brain Traffic – a world renowned content strategy consultancy located in MN.  I’ve never met Kristina, but based on Rosenbaum’s introduction and the fascinating insight captured in the book – she’s definitely on my list of folks I’d like to hang out with someday.  Halvorson’s not afraid to challenge people on asking scary questions; “Who among us is asking the scary, important questions about content, such as, what’s the point?  Or who cares?  Who’s talking about the time-intensive, complicated, messy content development process?  Who’s overseeing the care and feeding of content once it’s out there, clogging up the tubes and dragging down our search engines?”  This is where it gets good; “We appear to have collectively, silently come to the conclusion that content is really somebody else’s problem – ‘the client can do it’, ‘the users will generate it … Do you think it’s a coincidence, then that Web content is, for the most part, crap?”

Guaranteed you’ve spent quality time on sites that are full of piles of things left behind by pet owners in parks.   How did the experience make you feel?  Did you want to return to site or recommend it to someone else?  Most folks would be frustrated and then forget that the URL ever existed.  What if this URL is yours?  Now that’s scary.  Rosenbaum follow’s Halvorson’s candid quotes with something that really hit home for me as I’ve had numerous conversations with my clients about this very topic and have done so (admittedly until this point) with IT blinders on.  Rosenbaum says, “Content has, for the most  part, been left as an oversight after the technologists have built the platforms, the designers have done the wireframes, and the Flash designers have made everything all so … flashy.  Content therefore, is often just an afterthought.”  This concept hit me like a freight train as one of the solutions my company provides is enterprise search (clear throat – MS FAST Search for SharePoint).  While there are many reasons why folks want to improve their user search experience, I can’t have a conversation about this topic without talking about data quality.  More than 90% of the time it’s an issue.  Everything’s disparate, we have little to no control over what’s being created and posted, it’s outdated or hard to access as it takes too much effort to machete your way through the, well, crap – yep, these are just some of the things that are shared with me when I talk to my prospects and customers.  I’ve often thought that my client’s angsts stemmed only from aggressive growth or a lack of governance, but both Halvorson and Rosenbaum are right as it’s more than that.  After the architecture and design is in place, people stop asking (if they ever even started), “who cares?”

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“Winning starts with beginning” – Robert Schuller

 As Mr. Schuller, an American clergyman born in the 1920’s has simply stated – you can’t win or excel at something unless you actually commit and start at its beginning.  While this concept can be applied to just about anything, this blog is going to continue its review of Steven Rosenbaum’s book, Curation Nation and focus on some pretty cool examples of how organizations are taking their information aggregation and data access to the next level.  This one will be fun.

If you’ve read my previous blog entries you know that data curation is about taking the sea of data and information sprawl that surrounds us each day, and providing a platform that allows for organization and additional value to be wrapped around each byte.  We want to keep our customers and employees engaged and ensure they turn to us for expert advice and trusted information that will ultimately result in long term relationships. We’ll win with these folks if we can begin to gather and organize information that’s meaningful and easy for them to leverage – period.

In preparation for this blog I stumbled across a company that’s doing a great job of leveraging Rosenbaum’s concepts of data curation.  They’ve taken their own information, added input from the outside world and then wrapped it all in a nice package (including video) that provides an interactive and interesting web site you want to return to.   Before announcing this winner, I’d like to turn to Curation Nation and highlight some concepts that will help you understand why these guys have received my vote.

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Navigating at the crossroads of servicing your customers

Innovation is how we advance.  Whether it’s from an individual, corporate or societal view, time spent innovating new ways to improve the lives of our families, employees and our customers is time well spent.  That said, how do we start down the innovation and improvement path?  How does a company for example, come up with innovative ways to better service their employees, customers and even prospective customers?  Standing at this place, the crossroads of new idea curation, can be uncomfortable for most.  The direction you point your wheels, and choose to travel towards can take you to an oasis or a dead end at the edge of a cliff.  With all due respect to Dr. Peck, the “road less traveled” may not be the best route when innovating.  When it comes to investing your time, energy and budget you don’t have to start from scratch (invent) to be successful, just reinvent.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, reading Steven Rosenbaum’s book Curation Nation has become a wonderful, tangential journey for me as it’s filled with amazing insight and anecdotal information regarding data management in today’s world.  It details how we can empower ourselves and those around us to take advantage of the flood of information that surrounds us every day.  As I read through the book I found Mr. Rosenbaum’s effort to introduce us to some of the country’s first curators (b.t. before technology) extremely interesting as he begins with DeWitt Wallace, the father of Readers Digest.  Wallace worked in the publishing industry for a few years before enlisting in the army and getting wounded in WWI.  During his recovery in the hospital he began reading American magazines which fed a wonderful epiphany – Wallace asked himself “how can people with little to no time on their hands ever benefit from the numerous publications and articles that he had read – how will they find time to read everything?”  He returned home and continued to spend his time reading scores of magazines condensing and “digesting” each article along the way.  After falling in love and partnering with his wife on his idea for a new publication the pair decided to publish the magazine themselves (after receiving 12 separate rejection letters from publishers).  Imagine their amazement then they returned home from their honeymoon to find 1300 one year subscriptions at $3 each.  A star was born; allow me to introduce you to the world’s most notable data curation publication – Readers Digest.

If DeWitt Wallace was the father of Readers Digest, then Henry Luce was definitely the papa of Time Magazine.  Similar to Wallace, Luce born the idea of Time Magazine circa early 1900’s – an idea developed with a college classmate Luce decided to curate stories that were tied to world’s news and events.  Time was intended to be the one stop shop for folks who wanted to be well read but did not have the time or more importantly access to the articles and information that were detailing what was taking place in the world, including everything from business to politics.  Time magazine now has a domestic audience of over 20 million and a global audience of more than 25 million.

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 A formula for servicing clients and information in today’s world

 One doesn’t typically associate a 33 year old rap star with information management, however back in 2008 the New York Times published an article in their music section that used this exact title and delivered a story inspiring the association.  Ludarcris’ recent concert was being reviewed, an event during which he brought hip-hop artists from the 80’s and 90’s onto the stage and delivered a type of live history lesson of the evolution of the music that he is now so famous for performing.  The reviewer shared, “A cavalcade of guests emerged to take the stage for a few moments each, a showcase of New York hip-hop history with a devoted fan (Ludacris) as curator.  It turned the show on its ear.”  Why did this part of the show make such an impact?  How did it elevate the experience of thousands of fans that had paid money to see him?  What made this act memorable enough to share with the readers of the New York Times?  It added value.

While value is definitely a notable word here and something which business leaders strive to provide to their customers every day, the focus of this blog (and probably at least the next 2) is going to be on what it takes to create and deliver that value, well.  The job description we’re looking to fill is that of “Curator”.

In his book Curation Nation, author Steven Rosenbaum does a marvelous job of describing the next big wave of innovative thinking regarding the creation and access of data.  His theme is focused on reaching beyond the traditional ways of compiling and sharing information to add depth, meaning and clarity to the tsunami (his term, not mine – I just liked it) of data that overwhelms us every day.  We access data from the internet, intranets, portals and email and attached to each of these outlets of information we have links and advertisements and access to chat windows – all pushing data onto our plate to process.  The mix of data is not always meaningful or relative or even correct, resulting in major indigestion for the end user.  Rosenbaum shares, “curation…is about adding quality back into the equation and putting a human filter between you and the overwhelming world of content abundance that is swirling around us every day…curation is about adding value from humans who add their qualitative judgment to whatever is being gathered and organized.” I took this definition of curation and drew a little formula at the bottom of the page:

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 “Walk a mile in my moccasins and you will know my journey.” – Cherokee Indian Proverb

How much more would we understand about each other if we swapped shoes with another person and saw how they experienced life, if we walked a mile in their moccasins as the old saying goes?  While literally I’ve never done this, figuratively I have and it definitely opens your eyes.

In business, this idea is best applied to our customers; the people we seek out, court, service and who help us keep the lights on.  How often do you consider your customer and really view the value your product or service offering provides from their perspective?  My guess is not often enough (if at all) because what most of us do is focus on the point at which your customer comes into contact with your company.  What should you say about your service at during your initial meeting or what should you ask them regarding their pain?  These garden variety questions can become more meaningful by thinking about why your customer is talking to you in the first place, what was the trigger or what has been taking place in their daily work lives that lead them to believe you can help?  Investing your time to understand this question will provide not only large, but immediate returns towards building customer loyalty as you will have them “before hello” due to your understanding of their needs.

Queue the sales scenario: Your logistics company has just launched a marketing campaign targeting medium sized companies, announcing your new international transportation service.  People begin to respond and one week into the campaign your two strongest leads are manufacturing companies that are looking to distribute their product overseas.  The first company has just fired their previous transportation partner and is looking for someone new as soon as possible to help them ship to Japan.  The second company is in the process of refining their product for consumption in the Middle East and is evaluating transportation solutions.  These leads are captured in your CRM system, after which your corporate sales process takes over and your salespeople begin to contact each lead; they present the new international service PowerPoint via a web meeting, forward a questionnaire for the prospect to complete that will provide you more details regarding their transportation needs, and then schedule a face to face meeting where their transportation requirements will be reviewed and a proposal delivered.

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 When presented with the opportunity to implement an enterprise level project – the first critical step is preparation. While this may seem obvious, failure to clearly establish the goals with the key parties involved can be disastrous. Despite its importance – this vital first step is often overlooked. It’s human nature to make assumptions, and sometimes it’s just easier – but assumptions about preparedness are risky and often occur when people inaccurately assume the key stakeholders of a project are on the same page.  While difficult to guarantee, project success is a combination of organized preparation and  stakeholder alignment.  The earlier your preparation begins, the sooner your project’s success will arrive.

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