Last night, I was at our local "Retail Resort" (yes, they actually call it such; rustic design, lots of fake evergreens, and the security guards are dressed as park rangers!). This mall is in the second-highest-income zip code in Colorado, which abutts the highest-income zip code.  The stores tend to the swanky, high-end brands; there's even a Tesla auto showroom.  

There is also an Apple Store on the main level, and a Microsoft Store on the floor above.  I'm sure I must have broken a zillion mall rules, but my cell video cam "accidentally" shot short video of both stores.  I'm cutting a comparison together to post here.  As a former Microsoft employee, their store just made me sad.  It's so weak, so unfocused, and such a copycat attempt to cash in on Apple's deft retail touch.  



Stay tuned...

 TABATHA Coffey’s Tabatha Takes Over premiers tomorrow on Bravo.  This woman is in my pantheon of modern-day gods and goddesses; she is the Mars aspect of business in a female-dominated industry, and she is one tough boss.  Tabatha goes into underperforming hair salons and whips them into shape, a reality TV model perfected by Gordon Ramsay with Kitchen Nightmares and other shows. She’s steelier in the salon than Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen!

Hair salons and spas have a lot in common.  Although I haven't worked directly with hair salons, I was fortunate to partner with the esteemed spa industry expert, Nancy Griffin, for a few years before she sold industry insider site SpaTrade.com to American Spa Magazine. Nancy has a lot of the same toughness and practicality that Coffey exhibits; one thing I adored about working with Nancy was that she was ruthlessly matter-of-fact about the foibles and follies of spa owners -- who, like hair salon owners, tend to still be more mom-and-pop operations than major chains.    

The biggest point Nancy Griffin made to me, along with her colleague and friend, Peggy Wynne Borgman (president of Wynne Business Sps Consulting, whose company provides the best Spa Director management training courses available anywhere) is that when you ask spa owners what sets their business apart from the competition, the answer is most commonly "our customer service is the best".  No, it's not.  You cannot use customer service as your key differentiator if (a) every competitor also claims it as what makes them better, and (b) if it's a baseline expectation of your customers!  Can you imagine Sprint's CEO saying "what sets Sprint apart from other carriers is that we really do connect your phone calls" -- ???

That's why I love watching Tabitha, and Ramsay as well:  they don't let small business owners give them any BS about "what makes them special" -- and they call the owners on very fundamental issues of mismanagement, like demanding basic hygiene.

Tabatha has a new book out, and I grabbed a few excerpts from her Web site -- how can you not admire this sort of honesty?  Talk about knowing who you are and being comfortable in your skin!

Excerpted from  http://tabathacoffey.com/book:
 I always made it a point to say what I needed to say in order to accomplish what I needed to accomplish. Anyone who has worked with me knows that I don’t suffer fools easily and that I won’t hesitate to speak my mind. The irony of people’s reaction to my candor is that I just say what most people want to say but don’t have the balls to say. I tell the truth.

If, along the way, I’ve been called a bitch for being honest, I haven’t taken this personally. I developed a thick skin very early in life.

So I reclaimed the word “BITCH” as someone who is Brave, Intelligent, Tenacious, Creative, and Honest. And because I am all of these things, I now proudly own the title…

Bravery—Mine is derived from being a risk taker, personally and professionally, and from always being willing to face my demons head-on.

Intelligence—I’m no idiot. Despite having left school early to pursue my career, I’m well read, well traveled, street savvy, and I’m a successful businesswoman with a strong gut instinct. What’s more, unlike many women who don’t want to appear intimidating, I never downplay my intelligence. I believe women can be both smart and beautiful.

Tenacity—If I’m really passionate about something, I never give up. I’m like a pit bull with a bone. I have always battled for what I want and what I believe in, and if I have to dig deeper for the energy to keep going, then that’s what I do to achieve my goals.

Creativity—If I didn’t have this quality, I certainly wouldn’t be writing this book! I thoroughly enjoy expressing my creativ- ity in all aspects of life, whether I’m experimenting with a new haircut, sporting a new couture outfit, or adapting to a new challenge. Creativity keeps me engaged and makes my life that much more interesting while I am coping with whatever comes my way.

Honesty—I think I’ve already covered that, haven’t I? It is the key trait that makes people perceive a woman as a bitch—it intimidates people and rubs them the wrong way. Although this reaction is often due to sexism, women are more than capable of being intimidated, too. For me, honesty is saying what I think to the people around me, but it’s also about being honest with myself. If I can’t do that, then I can’t be honest with anyone.

The more I thought about my own positive spin on the term “bitch,” the more I realized that, on some level, everyone would like to be a little braver, or exercise a little more intelligence, or be a little more creative, or tenacious or honest. The truth is, all of us, women and men, have an inner bitch. We just have to choose how much of it to let out and when.

New Year, new quarter, new objectives – do you need to set a brainstorming meeting?  One of the big challenges can be if you’re trying to include groups in multiple locations for a single session.  There are many great tech tools that enable you to connect via video, online whiteboard, audio and PowerPoint – but the tools, while important, are not all you need.  I’ve had to run sessions like this in different US cities as well as with offices located in different countries, and it takes more thought and preplanning to make brainstorming work effectively if you don’t have everyone in the same place, let alone taking into account any time zone or cultural differences. The book “Gamestorming” by Sunni Brown provides great ideas for the actual meeting content; but here are some other tips to keep in mind: 

• Preplanning is essential – you need more structure when groups are not together
• Give each team prework to accomplish. Use the “split groups” necessity as a positive instead of a negative: give each group tasks to complete and then share with the rest of the team
• If all team members don’t know each other well, have them wear name tags. Do everything you can to familiarize the team members prior to the brainstorming
• If possible, have each group GO OFFSITE to a video conferencing room – it helps remove distractions. Video makes it a lot easier to interact.
• Make sure you have the same resources available to both teams (ie, books, notes, reports, etc.)
• Have a team leader at each location; but only one overall Moderator – Moderator should be skilled at managing this kind of meeting
• Think up icebreaking activities that can help build trust (just google “meeting icebreakers”) – but here are a bunch of ideas: http://insight.typepad.co.uk/40_icebreakers_for_small_groups.pdf
• Have a backup planned in case your online tools go down. (It DOES happen!)
• Keep the group size manageable: max of 8 – 10 at each location (4 – 6 seems ideal)
• Make attendance mandatory if at all possible. If time zones are way off (ie, meeting in San Francisco and Dublin), try to schedule two sessions: one that’s easiest for each group (since one group will get to work early, and one will stay late)
• Stick to a firm schedule (especially for breaks and start and stop times)
• Don’t let the “Main Office” group dominate the meeting
• Structure the session so there’s time at the end to summarize and clarify next steps
  

Good luck! this can be a fun and informative experience if you plan it well.

My husband and I were watching the evening news tonight, which is something we very rarely do because we get most of our news from online sources (though he's also a radio junkie).  This story comes on to one of our local Denver area stations:  a local company that provides products specifically for dogs, made a very generous donation of dog oxygen masks to the local fire department's rescue squad.  Great video, and actually a pretty long story (slow news day, I think).  The image of a sweet Golden Retriever being cuddled by a fireman as he adjusts an oxygen mask over doggie's muzzle is coupled with a voiceover stating that this will now allow the fire department to provide help to pets "in distress" from smoke inhalation at a house fire.

This company sells products specifically for homeowners with dogs, and it's a pretty significant investment if you use their product.  What a smart donation, right?  Directly helps animals AND the local community (that didn't have the budget for this sort of thing) AND also showcases the product and company in  beautifully positive light.

So....

I Google the company.  I find a national Web site with no news feed or press area.  (I think the donor was a local franchisee, but I'm guessing).  I google everything I can think of to try to find the company -- zip..  I DID find the story had been picked up by all of our local TV stations.  Nothing popped up for the actual company office in Denver.  

Then I tried social media -- Facebook, Twiter,  LinkedIn -- nothing, nothing, nothing  The company has a Facebook page staked out -- zero content.  On LinkedIn, there are franchisees in Florida and San Francisco -- zip in Denver.  

This is so puzzling to me!  Animal lovers are a passionate bunch -- they tend to vote with their wallets when companies do GOOD THINGS that help animals.  I'm not even naming this company because honestly I'm so embarrassed for them.  They did a great thing, and yet they have made it IMPOSSIBLE for anyone who find out about that donation to connect with them -- and connecting for a big-ticket pet investment that requires wiring and construction... well... to me, you drive sales by CONNECTING with potential customers.  

This company did a kind and compassionate thing with their donation -- and they totally blew the opportunity to be accessible to potential customers.  Strange to see nowadays!

I am just about finished with the book Different, by Harvard Business School professor Youngme Moon.  Has to be the best business and branding book all year.  She writes about what it takes to break free from the herd and create a category-breaking product.  I'n going to have to write a few posts about this, because there is so much great info in this book that I am stunned.  She writes about Sony's Aibo, the robot dog -- we bought Aibo for our daughter Brenna in 2000, and it was an amazing piece of hardware and software.  Buggy and glitchy as hell -- but the truly brilliant thing Sony did was to sell it as a PET -- and as we all know, pets are quirky, they have their own personalities, and they don't always listen to you. Hence, people were more than tolerant of their quirky little "pet" -- they loved it.  We sure did!  Other category busters include the Mini Cooper (sell a little-known teeny-tiny European car into the U.S. market that was dominated by huge Escalades, Explorers and other SUV roadhogs), and Pull-Ups (parents want their kids out of diapers by age 2 -- but they'll happily keep them in "big kid" disposable "underwear" until age 4!) and much more.  Brilliant analysis of how human brains need to categorize things -- and how deft marketers can flip that on its head.  think RedBull -- it tastes utterly disgusting, but it gives you wiiiiings!