cadenceblog

Peter Drucker Quote on Leadership

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” - Peter Drucker

I saw this quote  plastered across one of the walls at the Toronto Board of Trade yesterday.  I've always been amazed by the wisdom of Peter Drucker, and never come across a more admirable approach to leadership.

I first become acquainted with Peter Drucker listening to BusinessWeek - Climbing the Ladder, a podcast by Executive Editor John Byrne. At the end of his podcasts there is usually a short reading from one of Peter Drucker's books. 

If you are looking for best practices on business effectiveness such as setting the right priorities, making better decisions, and contributing more effectively to your your organization, consider reading a classic -  The Effective Executive: The Definite Guide to Getting the Right Things Done.

Mixed Media Strategies

Zentation is a tool you can use to upload your slides and sync with your video which I posted previously about. Another web 2.0 site for presentations is slideshare (but there is no video, just slides).

I was browsing Zentation today and came across this brief and entertaining presentation:

Mortality and User Experience - 5:53 5 min talk on why I think of user experience as something sacred.  Given at the first Ignite event in Seattle, WA.

Viewing this presentation reminded me of an article by John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing about content and a mixed media strategy where he states:

"On the web, it’s simply not enough to write hard hitting sales copy and call it content. Content, content that educates and builds trust, has become much more active than that and requires a strategic view to be truly effective."

Duct Tape Marketing - Monthly Marketing Leadership Teleseminar Series

John Jantsch of  Duct Tape Marketing will be interviewing some interesting folks such as Guy Kawasaki, John Battelle, Michael Gerber, David Allen, Tim Ferriss, and Seth Godin.

 I am excited because John Jantsch is one of my favourite marketing leaders, along with many of the interviewees.  For more information visit Duct Tape Marketing.

 I had the pleasure of attending a half-day referral marketing workshop with John Jantsh earlier this year. I’ve also read parts of his book, and listen to his podcasts. If you are a small business and are looking for practical marketing advice, ideas, strategies,  and a system, I highly recommend you check out his book “Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide”,  blog, and podcasts. 

 

The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging ... And When To Use Each One (from slideshare.net)

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Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2008

As an IT B2B Marketer, you can't ignore the trends in IT. I heard a comment last week about Gartner releasing a report of the top 10 technologies for 2008. Right away 4-5 trends came to mind, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) being one of them.  I found this interesting article today about  SOA from IT Business Edge, describing whether SOA was idea, an ideal, or a trend.

That prompted me to finally have a look  at the list - Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2008. The findings were released at the Gartner Symposium/ITexpo in Orlando, Oct 7-12, 2007.

If you haven't seen it yet, just for fun write your own list and see how many you get right. It won't necessarily tell you how smart you are...just how good you are at following the trends in the industry. The being smart part will be figuring out what trends will turn into real demand and whether you have a play in the market.

The IT Crowd

And now for something completely different! This is for those of you that love the geeks, are a geek, were a geek, worked in IT, or are amused by absurd hilarious British comedy. I recently come across this post at boingboing, about the second season of  "The IT Crowd":

"The IT Crowd is the nerd sitcom about sysadmins from Graham Linehan, creator of the convulsively, piss-yourself funny Father Ted. The US adaptation of it that NBC picked up is reportedly not so hot, but I loved the Brit version and was immensely pleased when it got picked up for a second season."

I jumped into an episode on youtube, and had to see more. I've now seen the full two seasons, and I found it delightfully funny.

I especially love the performance of Richard Ayoade who plays Maurice Moss.  Here's an interview with Richard discussing his character:

It isn't officially available in North America, there is a DVD released in the UK. There are some episodes on youtube, also there is a link at the bottom of the boingboing post.

Sales and Marketing Alignment Webcast

Looking for research and commentary about sales & marketing alignment,  I think you will find this webcast presented by the American Marketing Association (AMA), called For Better or Worse. Marketing and Sales Conflict Can Actually Produce Positive Results useful. It was presented today, but you can view it anytime.

"AMA and University of Florida will debut the findings of a recent Marketing and Sales Alignment survey that amazingly shows how conflict between marketing and sales departments, if managed well, can actually contribute to more positive results."

Some of the things mentioned seem intuitive or obvious by experience but it was good to see some research behind it. Sometimes we feel emotional as marketing or sales folks...and we know there is a difference in perspective, but don't know how to dig through the emotions to the real problems. This webcast identifies very specifically different mindsets and values  between sales and marketing (according to the study) that bring about such conflict. It also provides insight into what can be done to resolve them. It also talks about how some amount of conflict is good, and can lead to positive change for individuals, the groups, and the business as a whole.

You'll see  characteristics and mechanisms of best practice companies in terms of aligning sales and marketing such as joint meetings, cross functional teams, use of coordinators, job rotations, and tradeshows.

Watch this webcast for more information on this research.

Also, visit the AMA Marketing & Sales Alignment site for more information, webcasts and shows on Demand Generation, Sales Effectiveness, and Customer Messaging.