A Manifesto for Being Visionary and Strategic

August 25, 2010

Helen Keller was right when she said, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.”

Everyone, it seems, talks about the importance of having a vision, but very few people have a vivid picture of what they hope their future will look like.

With a commitment to being visionary and strategic, I invite you to join me in believing  that:

  1. The effectiveness of a vision statement can be measured by its ability to inspire us to rally around a shared picture of what can be—and must be—our new reality.
  2. A compelling vision is future-focused and usually threatens those deeply vested in the status quo.
  3. Progress always requires change, but not all change is progress.
  4. Where there is no vision, people perish.
  5. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
  6. Tactics not tied to strategy are nothing more than busywork.
  7. When you and I are not pursuing the same goal, then we are not on the same team.
  8. When you and I focus on the same goal from different vantage points, we have stereoscopic vision that gives us better depth perception.
  9. Every project can be improved by periodically asking, “Why are we doing this?”
  10. We must, as Stephen Covey says, begin with the end in mind.

 

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Posted by Duane Hallock

A Manifesto for Marketing Success

August 18, 2010

Marketing is not as complicated as some want you to think. Good marketing is based upon common sense, though such sense is uncommon.

With a commitment to successful marketing, I invite you to join me in believing  that:

  1. Marketing will flounder when not in pursuit of a measurable goal.
  2. If a product, service or even a person cannot be differentiated, it cannot be marketed.
  3. Marketing will fail unless strategy drives tactics, not vice versa.
  4. Marketing must be based upon the concept of exchanges. Without a quid-pro-quo exchange, we will never have a solid marketing program.
  5. Value can be defined only by the customer, not by the company producing the product or service. (Nonprofit organizations especially have trouble with this.)
  6. The social media revolution is the best thing to happen to marketing in a long, long time, even though the tools for achieving marketing success have forever changed.
  7. Old-school marketers who try to control the message will become increasingly frustrated, disoriented and ultimately obsolete.
  8. You are still functioning in a 1.0 world—even if you’re using 2.0 tools—when you are not creating community and engaging people in conversations.
  9. If we aim our message at no one in particular, we shouldn’t be surprised if no one in particular responds.
  10. Communications comes at the end of the marketing process, not at the beginning.

 

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Posted by Duane Hallock