At agencies, we all try to do right by our clients, but, as I discussed in “Bending Over Backwards,” it often leads to doing wrong by us (and, eventually, our clients too). This goes for “internal clients” as well.
By internal clients, I’m referring to the established relationships and expectations inside the company that are delivery-centric. [...]
Bob, a friend of mine, works for a company that continually cycles through periods of strong revenue, followed by periods of strong losses.
His associates are all diligent in their work and the company has enjoyed a solid reputation for quite some time. Everyone appreciates the strong profits coming in when times are good. And during [...]
Food on the table.
Clothing. Shelter. Happiness?
Stats say: not so much.*
* According to salary.com 4th Annual Survey of Job Satisfaction:
“The most interesting result from the 2008 survey was the evidence that employers were out of touch with their employees’ satisfaction levels and were overestimating the tough economic environment as a deterrent to job seeking,” said Nicholas [...]
I once had the pleasure of attending a workshop by Ken Berg, director of the Birmingham Boys Choir, wherein he made a profound statement about the motivation for performance. To paraphrase:
Music is one of the few endeavors left in life where the truth is important. There’s little room to fudge on the placement of a [...]
..and I don’t mean Peter Firestein, although he’s a great person to know.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one:
Peter is a fabulous widget-maker. He knows widgets like nobody’s business, inside and out, through and through. His widget designs have elevated the company brand and profits have soared.
In fact, things are so good that the company [...]