Nilofer Merchant: April 2006 Archives
Here you’ll find a collection of blog entries published during the month of Nilofer Merchant: April 2006.
Travel
By Nilofer Merchant on April 22, 2006
I’m about to go on vacation for a bit. When I travel, I become invisible, if I want. I do want. I want to stay in my room and read a book, or sit by the river while the sounds…
Demotivating things need to get tossed first
By Nilofer Merchant on April 20, 2006
Questions for all of us leaders of organizations and teams, inspired by my CEO coach. I am sometimes asked about the latest techniques to motivate employees, customers, partners. Sometimes it is useful to turn the question around and ask why…
Ecosystems now matter
By Nilofer Merchant on April 19, 2006
I know I’m becoming more of an introvert. I now think about things that happened 2 weeks ago and assign meaning to them. Or does that mean, I’m pondering. Hmmm. Well, anyways, that’s the context to my writing about Software 2006…
American Apparel in Los Gatos
By Nilofer Merchant on April 17, 2006
There’s been some flack in Los Gatos about whether to allow an American Apparel store to open up in downtown. The primary concern is that a big mall-type outlet store will join a town’s historic, quaint business district and make…
Small Business Marketing: Clarity on Customer is Key
By Nilofer Merchant on April 13, 2006
While I work with many mid to large size software firms in my day job, my other hat is being CEO of a small company. A small company with many, many competitors. Because consulting has no standard definition, anyone can…
Fighting with 4 Swords: The Art of Competitive Play
By Nilofer Merchant on April 10, 2006
Rubicon has a defense practice, which we would love to call “Fighting With 4 Swords: The Art of Competitive Play”. Unfortunately, that’s too long to put on our business card along with our other 3 practices (define, design, optimize). So…
The Customer Experience: The Design Moment of Truth
By Nilofer Merchant on April 9, 2006
Business 2.0 ran an article this month on their ‘2nd annual bottom line design awards’. The article promised to “go beyond surface beauty to single out objects that look good not just in pictures, but also on their makers’ income…
While I’m at it, employees need care too
By Nilofer Merchant on April 3, 2006
The customer point of view is one often written about in this blog and others. I wrote about customer nurturing last week. In essence, we need to take care of the customer, make sure to treat them well, stay in…
Sales model is critical go-to-market piece
By Nilofer Merchant on April 2, 2006
Getting caught up on reading as I nurse a cold today. An article worth highlighting. On page B10 of this (3/28/06) Tuesday’s WSJ, there was an article on marketing strategy that made loads of sense. Two audiences might want to…
How is consulting different than therapy?
By Nilofer Merchant on April 1, 2006
A client asked me this question during what was our consultation meeting: “How is consulting different than therapy?”. Great question, isn’t it? So while I came up with some rational response at the time that seemed to be plausible, I…