6 New(er) Drivers of Growth

6-Drivers-for-GrowthThere was an interesting article on Inc.com titled “Up Next: The Greatest Era of Entrepreneurship and Small Business The World Has Ever Seen“.  It points out six trends that will drive growth and entrepreneurship:

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  1. Micro-entrepreneurs.  If you’ve sold on eBay, Craigslist, or Etsy, used Uber or Airbnb, or used a service like TaskRabbit, you’ve experienced micro-entrepreneurship.  Some estimates state there are as many as 15 million micro-entrepreneurs
  2. 3D printing:   3D printing redefines what it means to be a manufacturer.  The article shares the story of a teen who made a prosthetic arm for a few hundred dollars (vs. $50K)
  3. Crowdfunding.  To date sites like Kickstarter, have raised $3,000,000,000+. With crowd funding, capital is available to all.
  4. Free failure:  Between micro-entrepreneurship platforms, crowd funding, and free or inexpensive hosting and cloud-based platforms, the cost to try is almost zero.
  5. Boomers:  By 2030, there will be 70M people over 65 and a lot of them will keep working.
  6. Internet for all:  Today, 2B have access.  In 10 years, most of the world will have access.  That’s 5B more connected customers and companies.

 

standardMay 14Tom SalonekIT

Asking for Support to Get Things Done

VotingIf you need cooperation on something, ask for support before you go public. People want to follow thru on commitments.

In 1987, a social scientist named Anthony Greenwald asked voters on election-day eve if they’d vote.

100% said yes.

On election day, 86.7% of those asked went to the polls compared to 61.5% of those in the “control group” who were not asked.

standardMay 12Tom SalonekCommunication

Communicating Good vs. Bad News

good-vs-bad-newsWhen communicating good vs. bad news, use the following approach:

  • Have good news?  Share it has it happens.  Research says we like winning.  Winning $5 twice feels better than $10 once.  In business, if you have good stuff to share, share it has it happens.
  • Have bad news?  Bunch it up.  Research says we don’t like losing. Losing $10 once versus $5 twice isn’t as good.  In working with others, if you have bad stuff to communicate, before you share it, ask, “What else should I know?” Have one conversation to cover all bad news.
standardMay 5Tom SalonekCommunication

Lessons on Learning

School-EnglandIn a recent article in The Economist, my favorite magazine (minus any that report on realty TV ;-)., has a great article entitled “A very British business: Some lessons from the success of Britain’s elite private schools.” The article notes three areas where business could learn a lesson from (essentially) K-12 schools in Britian:

  1. “The first is that ‘tradition’ and ‘innovation’ need not be mutually exclusive.”  In short, you can be in a business and still have enough vision to innovate/re-envision the business.
  2. “Performance measurement isn’t something performers are scared of. “I had a call today with a former long-term client.  His son is looking at attending a boot camp.  I shared to ask for scores and placement rates at program completion.
  3. “…insiders can make the best revolutionaries.” In the article, it shares that effective transformers can come from inside a business.  I agree.

 

 

standardApril 30Tom SalonekHappy Employees

The Four Fundamentals for Success in Life

The-Number-4Dan Sullivan, the person behind Strategic Coach, many years ago stated the four fundamentals for success in life:

  1. Show up on time
  2. Do what you say
  3. Finish what you start
  4. Say please and thank you

He goes on to say, and I agree, that while many other pieces are required for success, continually skip one of the above and success in life will be hard.

 

standardApril 23Tom SalonekLeadership