Burke Alder - Leadership and Business Blogs
LEADERSHIP LOUNGE™
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The other day, I was scrolling through my Apple Note App and came across leadership notes I took while listening to Carine Clark speak at the Grow Data Driven Summit a few years ago. Carine’s topic was about leadership principles she wished someone would have told her early in her career. Her words and advice were a breath of fresh air.
The other day I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed and came across a video that highlighted 10 life lessons from Albert Einstein. Many of us have been inspired by his scientific life and have learned E=MC2 in our physics classes. Here is a little about his life before we discuss his 10 life lessons.
Today, I heard Jeremy Andrus, CEO of Traeger Pellet Grills, give the opening keynote at Grow's Data Driven Summit in Park City, Utah. His keynote was inspiring as he discussed strategies and tactics he uses to drive maniacal execution with his team.
So what are the secrets of the most productive people? Is it working more hours, staying later at work, or putting in more time towards a certain activity? Actually, the most productive people in the world make the most of their time. They are able to find the productivity zone often. They feel the daily adrenaline rush of getting things done. So if it's not working longer, what is their secret?
The other day I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and came across some inspiring leadership and business advice from Greg Butterfield. Greg Butterfield has had great business success in his life. I have been lucky enough to have spend time with Greg through out my business career and take away great advice each time we talk.
Thinking about these two important leadership characteristics, I am reminded of a story one of my friends told me about Arabian Horses. "It has long been said that horses in Arabia go through a rigorous selection process. To live in this hot, desert climate, one depends on unfailing obedience and loyalty of his horse. The horses are tested in order to select the very best.
Do you have a brand positioning statement? A business at any stage needs a strong brand positioning statement. This statement needs to be known by everyone in the organization. A clear statement helps marketers and companies rise above the competitive noise and articulate the value they provide to their target audience.
Last week (February 28 - March 3), Qualtrics held their annual customer conference called the Qualtrics Insight Summit at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. This conference attracts the best customer experience leaders from around the world. The line up of world renowned speakers is impressive and inspiring. Omar Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer, Beats by Dre, inspired the audience from the stage on day one with his keynote, "Your Product is the Experience: Why Beats By Dre Isn't Just About Headphones."
In my last blog, I discussed 6 rules to create a competitive advantage and win. In this week's blog, I want to cover five marketing positioning strategies that will help you differentiate your product/service and carve out your spot in a competitive landscape. These five positioning strategies will help you focus your company and help you create market value. As you watch TV commercials and marketing strategies unfold in competitive markets you'll see one of these five positioning strategies at work.
As I have built companies, there has always been competition. As you build your business or your brand there will be competition both direct and indirect. I've had to learn to embrace the competition and use it to make our company and our products/services better. There is one truth I've learned through the process, competition makes you better. So how do you compete and win when your competition has more capital and resources than you do?
For this week's blog post, I'm going back 7 years to an experience where I learned the importance of internal marketing. I was a Director of Marketing at AtTask now Workfront. Over a quick few years, we had acquired some great enterprise customer logos. For most of the company, they where just awesome logos, but we know that each of these customers had awesome stories to tell and we wanted to tell them. We developed a internal product marketing strategy to change this.
Over the past 12 years of building startups, I've learned that the X factor to growth and success is found in the team. The successful teams have clear metrics that show if they are winning or losing daily. They have the ability to develop strategies that drive results. They execute those strategies with passion to win and determination to quickly remove the roadblocks that stand in the way. Here is a matrix to help you determine if you have the right people on your team to drive big results.
One of my favorite articles is, The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Walter Isaacson is the author of the best-selling biography of Steve Jobs. The book is based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues. Over the many years since the passing of Steve Jobs, there have been hundreds maybe thousands of blogs that have been written about him. This is one of my favorite articles on Steve Jobs because of the how much time Walter Isaacson spent with him.
In a previous post, I discussed the top 10 questions entrepreneurs and product leaders should ask before they build products. Now that you've answered those 10 questions, built your product, and found product/market fit. How do you continue product innovation? How do you disrupt a market or change an industry? Easy right? Innovation is a big buzz word. To succeed with innovation, make sure you understand 10 challenges that stop product innovation.
Successful companies build products that solve pervasive problems that people are willing to buy. Whether you're an entrepreneur or product manager inside a fortune 100 company, let me suggest ten questions you should ask prior to your build. These ten questions will help guide your product development process. The best products in the world solve real problems with simple solutions people are willing to buy.
