SustainableWork

I just received a nice note from the folks at HR World. Their web site is a resource for business people of all kinds, with a focus on HR work.

They have just chosen this Sustainable Work blog for a special honor. They have included us in a new article titled, "Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs That All Managers Should Bookmark."

Here's what they included in their write up, "Novices can get tips for innovation, startups and emerging enterprises, while established leaders can get know-how on developing sustainable new products and services."

They included some of my favorites, such as Tom Peters, Chris Anderson (The Long Tail), and Seth Godin among many other notables.

Very nice. Thanks HR World!


Link to the HR World article

Labels: entrepreneurship, Long Tail, new product development, Seth Godin, startups, Tom Peters

I've carried an idea around with me for most of 30 years, that I first read in an interview with Ken Hendricks of Beloit.

Ken's business was large and rapidly growing back then. It still is. But Ken himself was well grounded and a straight talker. The point I remember from his interview is that he said he could walk into any hardware store in the country, take one single thing off a shelf, and make a national business out of it.

Ken made billions of dollars with the formula.

I believe that idea is especially true for startups and emerging enterprises, though the kind of scale that Mr. Hendricks worked at is not my focus.

My focus is on the idea that you can create sustainable new enterprises within very small niches by becoming the most knowledgeable about one specific thing in that niche.

Then, network and market nationally from the earliest stages, even pre-launch. In an economy this big, you can usually aggregate a big enough audience to turn the lights on and catch some tailwind.

This is now called, 'Long Tail' stuff after a great book by Chris Anderson. Ken Hendricks, pointed me there 30 years ago, and it still works by whatever name you call it.

When Ken was named Inc. Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year for 2006, there was a great story along with the honor. Ken was a high school dropout who became a billionaire. He has done countless wonderful things for his home-town area of Beloit, Wisconsin.

For those of us who live in Beloit, or pass through often, we know how beautiful that city has become thanks to Ken. The photo above is of one the murals Ken was instrumental in creating for Beloit's waterfront along the Rock River.

Someone said in a newspaper interview, "He didn't build new buildings, he took old buildings and made them into something beautiful."

Ken changed a national industry, working from the region I live in. He did it by focusing. Taking one step at a time. Not taking himself too seriously. Marketing his highly focused ideas nationally from the outset of his enterprises.

Ken died recently from a fall at a construction site at his home.

It is a sad tragedy for his family and friends. Ken's passing is a great loss to all of us in the region.

However, for entrepreneurs everywhere, Ken leaves a legacy that you can take to the bank. In your enterprise life, focus on being great at one specific thing and then do your best every day.



Newspaper article about Ken's life and times. Wisconsin State Journal

"Create Jobs, Eliminate Waste, Preserve Value." Inc. Magazine article about Ken, after naming him Entrepreneur of the Year for 2006

"10 Questions for Ken Hendricks", from an Inc. sidebar story. My favorite is this:

(Inc.) "What is the most overrated skill for an entrepreneur?"

(Ken) "The most overrated skill is skill. Luck is more important. The entrepreneur gets credit for being this genius, when really he was just at the right place at the right time."

Labels: entrepreneurship, Long Tail, marketing, new product development, startups

Chris Anderson closes his wonderful book, The Long Tail, with a set of rules he says comprise the secret to creating a thriving Long Tail business.

Please read the book. Don't rely on my summaries. Because Mr. Anderson is the Editor at Wired and is a Silicon Valley guy, a fair amount of his text relates to enterprises he's familiar with. These often represent really cool breakthroughs in the world of digital commerce.

With self-appointed artistic license, I'm going to cite Mr. Anderson's Long Tail rules and fill in my own take on why these concepts are vitally important for us micro enterprise, citizen entrepreneur types.

Big picture (1): Make everything available.

My take: Within your niche you need to be as open and transparent and as educational as you can possibly make your enterprise. It is in your self interest and the self interest of your enterprise. It also provides the first steps to providing appropriate solutions for the right customers... where all your marketing and commercial efforts should be taking you.

Big picture (2): Help me find it.

My take: Your enterprise and your web site need to glow with usefulness. Make yourself easy to do biz with in every aspect of your organization or perish. This isn't hard. Obfuscating and trying to trick people is far harder, as well as dumber and less efficient.

Then we get the Long Tail 9 rules.

Rule 1: Move inventory way in...or way out.

My take: Knowing what you need to handle and what you need to outsource is mission critical. Surely this will change over time, but it needs to be in the front of your brain at all times. Keep asking yourself, "What is critical that I handle and what can others do better?" What value added piece do you bring to the table? Focus your resources there.

Rule 2: Let customers do the work.

My take: In the digital world they get huge numbers by crowdsourcing. Micro enterprisers can use the same phenomenon to get customers to educate themselves on our web sites first and then provide testimonials after our enterprises have provided them with value.

Rule 3: One distribution method doesn't fit all

My take: Your distribution channels and methods significantly define how you market your enterprise. Draw it out on paper. Think through the consequences. That said, I believe you need to go to market through as many non-competing sales channel as are appropriate. Be transparent and honest with everyone. Start your marketing and distribution research yesterday.

Rule 4: One product doesn't fit all

My take: Make your offering available across a range of needs. Some people need a little bit of your stuff. Some need a truckload. The Long Tail uses the term "microchunking" for breaking up your offer into appropriate pieces. It will help you, and it will help your end users self select their own appropriate entry point.

Rule 5: One price point doesn't fit all.

My take: See above. Making yourself easy to deal with on price and content increases your chances of selling stuff. Multiple price points for entry invite the widest range of potential customers available. You can sort them and grow with them once they are in your world.

Rule 6: Share information.

My take: Your job is to make your end users wish they had more waking hours to absorb all the good info and help you want to share. Do it through every venue you can use, many of which are free or close to it.

Rule 7: Think "and", not "or".

My take: "And" is easier to choose from than "or". Once your new customer has chosen your solution, there are additional benefits you want to be able to offer. Do not pile on here. Just have a good, short list of upgrades to your basic offering available.

Rule 8: Trust the market to do your job.

My take: Society rewards useful solutions. The world is wired up to instantly deliver information, reviews, alternative solutions, and all the other digital word-of-mouth conversations taking place on every subject all the time. You will be put out of business if your offering does not make a valuable contribution to your customer. As you launch, carefully note where those contributions are having the greatest impact. Follow those results, not your assumptions.


Rule 9: Understand the power of free.

My take: Understand that you will do many demos, presentations, product placements, life juggling heroics, distributor circuses, and seminars, all for free. This is your entrepreneurship hazing ritual. Welcome, and get over it. We all do it. Free stuff is a component of what we all do at the beginning of new enterprises. That said, remember that smart marketing leads to cash flow, my friend.


Chris Anderson is in fact, working on a new book tentatively titled, 'Free'. It's a really intriguing concept. The most popular working subtitle discussed on the Long Tail blog is 'Free: How Companies Get Rich By Charging Nothing'. The scuttlebutt I've heard on the radio is that Mr. Anderson may be giving this new book away to people who will accept advertising placed in the book. Copies without advertising would be sold through traditional channels. Not sure if that's true.

That's it for The Long Tail for now. Read or listen to this book.


Chris Anderson's blog announcement about Free with great subtitle suggestions. May 20, 2007

Labels: entrepreneurship, Long Tail, startups

I'm going to keep Chris Anderson's Long Tail info coming. Another post will follow.

"More than 99 percent of music albums on the market today are not available in Wal-Mart. Of the more than 200,000 films, TV shows, documentaries, and other video that have been released commercially, the average Blockbuster carries just 3,000. Same for any other leading retailer and practically any other commodity - from books to kitchen fittings. The vast majority of products are not available at a store near you. By necessity, the economics of traditional hit-driven retail limit choice."

"When you can dramatically lower the costs of connecting supply and demand, it changes not just the numbers, but the entire nature of the market. This is not just a quantitative change , but a qualitative one, too. Bringing niches within reach reveals latent demand for non-commercial content. Then, as demand shifts toward the niches, the economics of providing them improve further, and so on, creating a positive feedback loop that will transform entire industries - and the culture - for decades to come."

Yep.


Read excerpts from The Long Tail

Labels: entrepreneurship, Long Tail

When my start up buddies and I start trying to talk smart, you'll typically hear the phrase "great long tail stuff".

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson is so good, I've always thought of it as the 'White Album' of the new entrepreneurship.

The subtitle is "Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More."

This is really a wonderful validation of the micro entrepreneurship renaissance taking place all over the world. Parts of the book focus on higher tech business models, but the implications for all of us as nurturers of small enterprises are profound.

Do NOT take my summary as remotely comprehensive, but one heartening take away from this book is that there is much more stuff sold in the small niches of the world economy than are sold in the media covered mass market economy

I've had several pieces from the Long Tail ready to post, but I was looking for the right context.

To heck with waiting. A new eMail from a friend reminded me of many other Long Tail truths that need trumpeting. That said here's a good introduction to this great book by Chris Anderson.

"Today we are not so much fragmenting as we are re-forming along different dimensions. These days our watercoolers are increasingly virtual; there are many different ones; and the people who gather around them are self-selected. Rather than being loosely connected with people thanks to superficial mass-cultural overlaps, we have the ability to be more strongly tied to just as many if not more people with a shared affinity for niche culture."

As start ups and emerging enterprises we all can benefit from this newly emerging business model. Critically, we can readily make our contributions into the growing and ever changing fractal niches that exemplify real life economics in the 21st century.

The cost to enter the market as an entrepreneur has never been lower. The cost of distributing our new solutions has never been less expensive. As Mr. Anderson beautifully identifies it, the number of opportunities has never been greater.

More Long Tail thunder to follow.


Chris Anderson's Long Tail site

Labels: entrepreneurship, Long Tail