Brands only matter to the people who care about them. Mention the brand name outside of the circle of people who have the relationship and you will receive shoulder shrugs. Mention it inside the circle and you can spark a conversation full of passion and opinion.
Transparency and accountability arrive in the form of a smart phone. Companies can no longer get away with bad bosses, sketchy ethical practice or mediocre working conditions. Everyone has comprehensive recording technology all the time everywhere. The new normal is “how will this look on YouTube?
Do you recall the story of the blind wisemen and the elephant? It’s a great explanation of how the same thing can look very different depending on your perspective. Each of the wisemen is sure that he has the explanation of the total elephant. In fact, they each understand an aspect.
Innovation has to happen whether or not big companies can afford it. As a result, smaller and smaller increments of value are worth more and more.
When Google makes suggestions as you search for a specific name, those suggestions create an impression of the person you’re searching for. It turns out that your reputation is now partly a function of what people search for when they search for you.
Like cramming for a math final after skipping the class all semester, the active job hunter is faced with a sea of conflicting number one priorities, often without the resources required to effectively fill in all of the blanks. Clarity about the next step, self-confidence (in spite of whatever prompted the need to shift jobs), an orientation of accomplishment and a clear sense of “What Do I Want To Do” are the most basic components of this standard recipe for a nervous breakdown. That’s right, people who are actively looking for work tend to be scattered and faking it. Otherwise, the layers of embedded conflict would eat them alive.
I was talking with a colleague about the buzzword problem in HR Technology. Most of HR is discussed in a jargon that has been slowly evolving since the first personnel departments emerged during the depression. As technology began to penetrate the HR Marketplace, buzzwords became a feature of product marketing. As a result, the language is getting sketchier and meaning changes too fast for anyone to be able to agree on anything.
The world of referrals is changing rapidly. What used to be the province of personal relationships and intimate references is becoming a transactional marketplace for contact information. The notion that executives think this is the best source of new employees is balderdash.
You’ve probably heard the oft repeated notion that a brand is a conversation. That’s not exactly right. The core direction is right; a brand is a verb, not a noun. It’s more accurate to say that a company is a conversation. The brand is the set of things that stand for that conversation.
…a company with a fresh new logo, a smart tag line and well chosen colors is a lot like a teenage boy dressed and ready for his first formal dance. Looks good, smells good and makes mommy proud. The rubber meets the road at the curb of the girlfriend’s house. From there it’s about putting substance into the fresh clothes and cologne; it’s passing the girlfriend’s father test; it’s creating a good experience; it might even involve customer intimacy.
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