Newsletter topics: Social Media Policy, Presentation Skills, Blogging (a cartoon), Growing Your Business, Branding, Business Reorganization

• Are You Liable? Is Your Company? 
• Presenting With Impact – Tips to Hone Effective Presentation Skills
• Dullest Blog (a cartoon) 
• The Cost of Doing Nothing
• Has Branding Really Changed?
• How To Reorganize Your Company

 

At some point in your career, regardless of your industry, you will probably be asked to make a presentation.  While we may not all be natural-born actors, neither should the thought of giving a presentation cause headaches or night sweats. Here are some simple tactics to help ensure your presentations go off with minimal pain and a maximum impact.

Know the room – Don’t leave the details to chance.  This includes having a handle on the room in which you’ll be presenting.  How big is it?  What kind of layout are you facing?  Are there enough chairs?  Will you have all the requisite markers, whiteboard, and erasers, you might need?  And absolutely make sure you know how to run the multimedia equipment…a great presenter anticipates glitches and deals with them beforehand.

All the world’s a stage – OK.  Maybe you didn’t live for drama class.  Nevertheless, consider your presentation space your stage and ‘own it’.  Don’t stand stiffly on the spot, but don’t wander aimlessly either.  Move with purpose, exactly like you prepared the information you’re presenting, and really interact with your audience.

(continue)    

(continue)  and please comment        

The Cost Of Doing Nothing (or how not marketing now may kill your business later)

by Ethan Mayers

It’s a typical conversation in this atypical economy. Cut 10% this quarter. Or 15%. Or 20%. And even as we’ve glimpsed glimmers of hope suggesting we’ve seen rock bottom and are slowly on the cusp of getting better, business have turned conservative by necessity and stayed that way through learned behaviors. As the Great recession entered the second decade of the 21st century, the art of the deal focused as much on cost savings as new business. Trim the fat, they said. Cut wasteful spending, they cheered. These are arguments nobody can deny. Defining fat and waste, however, varies widely from industry to industry and business to business. Too often, marketing is seen as inessential, wasteful and, worse, unnecessary.

(continue)  

Has Branding Really Changed?

by Mell Depaoli

 

With the growing importance of social media, there is much talk about ‘new marketing’ or ‘branding’ in today’s times.  Although branding has many definitions, one of the most standard ones (by businessdictionary.com) is: “Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retain loyal customers”. The ultimate goal of branding is to create a consistent desired feeling or thought in the client or prospect’s mind when your company or product name is mentioned or visible. 

This leads to an interesting question.  Have the rules of branding really changed or is it simply the tactics to achieve the goal that has changed?

(continue)         

How To Reorganize Your Company: Substantive Long-Term Change (part 1 of 3)

by Donald J. Cecchi

 

Reorganizing Your Company Can Lead To Happier Customers And Employees, And Generate Bigger Profits.  This Step-By-Step Process Will Show You How To Create Change And Avoid Pitfalls.

Are you totally happy with the way your business is being run?  Is it generating the revenue you would like it to? Are your employees as productive as you would like them to be?  If so, don’t bother to read this article.  If, however, you believe things could be better, and if you recognize any of the following events or symptoms, then you have a need to change your company:
• unclear goals and objectives
• lack of communication and information resulting in “the left hand’s not knowing what the right hand is doing”
• a duplication of effort or, its opposite, a gap in procedures
• a fall-off in revenue compounded by increasing costs
• people having to work 24/7
• recurring crises

(continue)         

 

Newsletter Schedule & Archive: Click Here

Bruce Newman is the editor-in-chief of the PI Newsletter.  Contact him at: newsletter@prodinst.com

Click HERE to receive your free subscription to the Productivity Institute's free newsletter. 

 SPECIAL OFFER Become a writer for the PI Newsletter
contact us for details.

What's New:

Founded in 1999, The Productivity Institute (PI) has helped many companies improve their productivity and bottom line by supplying rated outstanding consultants.  This enhanced productivity now includes social media expertise, training and strategizing.