Kent Blumberg

It's all happening at the loo

The smallest details count when you are trying to create a "branded customer experience."  Over at the Customer eXperience Crossroads blog, Susan Abbott has launched a "Bathroom Blogfest" this week.  She and several other bloggers are reporting on the best and worst ladies rooms in their experience.

Making sensible capital investments

Do you prepare proposals for capital spending, or review spending proposals before approving them?  If so, here's a list of ten suggestions I often give to the folks I work with - suggestions which should make proposals more complete and thoughtful.  The suggestions should work for any capital investment, whether for software, hardware, property, equipment, vehicles, or other.

Individual Performance Planning

Monday I wrote about how I view strategic planning, and followed-up on Wednesday with my opinions on business budgeting.  In this post I will tackle the third element of the planning cycle:  individual performance planning.

Are you getting enough complaints?

Mike Schaffner wrote a nice post yesterday about the need to encourage complaints.  The idea:  zero complaints does not mean your offering is perfect.  It might mean that customers have given up on you.  Any real move toward better quality will increase the number of complaints, as your customers learn that it is safe and effective to complain - and that you will listen, acknowledge and act.  Check out Mike's post.

Goldilocks and the three bears on Assertiveness

Michael McKinney reports on research by Stanford Professor Frank Flynn that shows that success comes from just the right amount of assertiveness.  Too much, or too little, and your leadership effectiveness goes down.  Check it out.

Business budgets

Monday I laid out my views on business strategic planning.  Today I will discuss how I see the budgeting process.  As with Monday's topic, I cannot claim to be a scholar of budgets.  However, I've been part of budget planning at levels from the operating floor to the executive suite, and have some opinions about what works and what doesn't.  Here they are.  Let me know what you think!

Basics first, then innovation

"But building an experience before you've nailed down the business is like throwing a tarp over a patch of quicksand. "

Check out this FastCompany.com article for more on getting the basics right before innovating on the customer experience.  Bottom line - a great customer experience will not make up for poor product performance.

Strategies, budgets and performance goals

For many in business, this is the busy planning time of the year. Budgets are set and individual goals are developed for next year.  In my posts today, Wednesday, and Friday I will layout my thoughts three different planning tools - strategies, budgets, and performance goals.  I'm not a scholarly expert on any of these, but I have more than a few years' experience with all of them and I know what works from me.  But, I would love to hear your thoughts - contrary or otherwise.  You know where the comment button is.

Jason Alba says I "get it"

Jason Alba runs a great website called Jibber Jobber.  He blogs about personal branding and job search and recruiting, while his website offers a powerful set of tools for networkers and job seekers.  He calls the website a "personal relationship manager."

Each month, Jason names a "You Get It" winner.  For November, Jason chose me as his example of "how executives can take control of their personal branding and run with it."

Cool.

No need to read all the nice things Jason says about me (unless you are my mom or wife, in which case, here's the link).  But do checkout his blog and his website.

Michael McKinney on "growing people's strengths"

Michael McKinney's post today focuses on growing strengths, as opposed to fixing problems.  He includes a couple of interesting books I'm going to need to read.

For more information on strengths development, see my June 23 post.