Podcast
Commanding Business
Hosted by Tim Hamilton · EN
The challenge with growth is that the habits that got you here become the limitations that prevent you from getting there. Growth not only requires us to learn new habits. It requires that we unlearn old ones. I'm Tim Hamilton, CEO of Praxent and host of the Commanding Business podcast. Each week, I interview authors, experts and real world leaders about how they grew their teams, their organizations and ultimately themselves. From leadership to management and marketing to innovation, we'll cover a variety of topics with an aim to uncover actionable takeaways you can implement in your own organization today.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
EP057: Patricia O'Connell & Woo, Wow, and Win
Jan 18, 201700:33:30Tap to summarizeBand-aid strategies for pleasing customers isn't enough to differentiate your business—it needs to be designed for service from the ground up. In today's interview with Patricia O'Connell we discover the importance of service design in businesses that compete today. Patricia shares her journey of discovery in the field of service design and the inspiration behind Woo, Wow, and Win, a guide to service design, strategy, and the art of customer delight. Patricia currently serves as the President of Aerten Consulting, in New York City. Key Takeaways: [1:03] As a journalist transitioning from print to web, Patricia found service design thinking a necessity. [4:30] The big idea behind Woo, Wow, and Win. [7:12] The importance of co-creation. [9:40] The 5 Principles of service design. ● The customer is always right, provided they are the right customer for you. ● Don't surprise and delight your customers, just delight them. ● Heroics should not be required for good service. ● Anywhere you play, you have to play well. ● You're never done. [28:22] The 10 E's of Customer Experience. [31:49] Patricia can be found on Woowowwin.com Mentioned in This Episode: Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight, by Thomas A Stewart and Patricia O'Connell Woo Wow Win @Woowowwin on Twitter Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP056: Thomas A. Stewart & Woo, Wow, and Win
Jan 11, 201700:40:09Tap to summarizeWoo, Wow, and Win reveals the importance of designing your company around service, and offers clear, practical strategies based on the idea that the design of services is markedly different than manufacturing. Most companies, both digital and brick-and-mortar, B2B or B2C; are not designed for service—to provide an experience that matches a customer's expectations with every interaction and serves the company's needs. When customers have more choices than ever before, study after study reveals that it's the experience that makes the difference. To provide great experiences that keep customers coming back, businesses must design their services with as much care as their products. Tune in for our interview with Tom Stewart, an authority on intellectual capital and knowledge management, and an influential thought leader on global management issues and ideas. Key Takeaways: [02:04] Service design is the most important management discipline you haven't heard of. [3:56] Services are experiences, and therefore open to user interpretation. [6:45] It's harder to produce planned outcomes with services. [11:36] Starbucks is a beautiful example of service design, from start to finish. [16:06] The four design archetypes: The Trend-Setter The Classic The Old Shoe The Bargain [19:58] Design your business around customer emotion. [25:33] Critical moments can make or break your customer relationships. [30:06] Providing an omnichannel experience is hard. [32:50] A big city hospital designs the patient experience. [35:16] Growth is the great enemy of strategy. [38:38] How to learn more about Thomas Stewart or Woo, Wow, and Win. Mentioned in This Episode: Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight, by Thomas A Stewart and Patricia O'Connell Tom Stewart on LinkedIn Tom Stewart on Twitter Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP055: Marc Stickdorn & Service Design Thinking
Dec 28, 201600:31:15Tap to summarizeService design thinking is the designing and marketing of services that improve the customer experience, and the interactions between the service providers and the customers. We interview Marc Stickdorn, consultant, speaker and author of This Is Service Design Thinking. Key Takeaways: [1:03] The big idea behind This Is Service Design Thinking. [3:47] How the linear approach can waste two years of your life. [8:01] Silos make an organization easy to manage, but this creates friction. [11:10] The classic trap of change management. [12:43] Adapt the process to the existing culture in small increments. [16:20] Fail early. Fail safe. Fail cheap. [17:54] Effective ways of prototyping and market testing. [24:45] A "Service Safari" requires management to use their product and sell it. [26:41] Becoming a customer-centric organization. [28:21] This Is Service Design Doing is a more experienced approach to integrating service design. Mentioned in This Episode: More Than Metrics This is Service Design Thinking, by Marc Stickdorn This is Service Design Doing, by Marc Stickdorn Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP054: John Mullins & The Customer-Funded Business
Dec 21, 201600:39:14Tap to summarizeIn The Customer Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that scrappy and innovative 21st century entrepreneurs working in companies large and small have ingeniously adapted from their predecessors like Dell, Gates, and the Zieglers. John Mullins is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School and a worldwide speaker and educator. He is a regularly published author at Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. Key Takeaways: [1:05] The big idea behind The Customer-Funded Business book. [3:30] Raising capital is a huge distraction. There is a better way. [6:57] Does Venture Capital funding ever make sense? [9:55] Three out of four VC-funded companies fail to return the capital that goes into them. [12:26] The pay-in-advance and subscription models allow entrepreneurs to collect a customer's money before delivering the product. [16:54] The scarcity-based model uses a limited time offer to lure an immediate purchase. [23:49] The key to a successful service-to-product model is segregating the two offerings. [30:40] Airbnb is a good example of the Matchmaker model. Mentioned in This Episode: Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Business with Your Customers' Cash, by John Mullins, Ph.D. How to Finance and Grow Your Startup Without VC Built to Sell Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP053: Keith Casey & A Practical Approach to API Design
Nov 30, 201600:31:32Tap to summarizeKeith Casey is co-author of A Practical Approach to API design: From Principles to Practice. Former Developer Evangelist at Twilio, his current work with Okta focuses on identity and authentication APIs. Keith is a software engineer focusing on creating open architecture, specifically APIs. His goal is to get good technology into the hands of good people to do great things. Key Takeaways: [2:43] Keith Casey describes APIs from a business perspective. [5:04] Why would a business adopt an API strategy? [7:01] Twilio eliminates the need for a carrier contract and provides enterprises with immediate cost structure. [10:03] Zapier captures an event and then sends the information to another system. [12:48] Jeff Bezos' memo ensured APIs would be part of Amazon's future. [19:23] Salesforce and their development community built APIs to integrate with other systems and platforms. [21:45] The concept of API-First gives users a toolbox instead of a finished product. [25:45] Security implications shouldn't keep a business from designing an API strategy. Mentioned in This Episode: The API Design Book Casey Software @Caseysoftware on Twitter Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP052: Karen Dillon & Competing Against Luck
Nov 23, 201600:44:57Tap to summarizeJournalist, author, and speaker, Karen Dillon is a former editor of Harvard Business Review Magazine, and the former Deputy Editor of Inc. Magazine. She recently co-authored Competing Against Luck with Clay Christensen. Using the Jobs to Be Done framework, Karen Dillon and her co-authors help businesses understand what causes customers to "hire" a product or service. With that understanding, a business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers really want. Jobs theory offers new hope for growth to companies frustrated by their hit and miss efforts Key Takeaways: [1:11] Karen Dillon defines Clay Christensen's Theory of Disruption using a real-world example. [8:02] Can an incumbent company's actions be predicted when faced with a threat from an entry-level rival? [15:57] Karen explains why "likelihood to purchase" is still so unpredictable, even with today's plethora of customer knowledge and data gathering tools. [19:42] Customers make choices based on the Jobs to Be Done in their lives. [21:08] Karen Dillon outlines three dimensions of the Jobs to Be Done framework. [27:03] Trigger events often occur before a customer makes an actual decision to buy. [34:39] The Jobs to Be Done Interview is used to identify a customer's trigger event. [40:58] Karen Dillon provides a tip for marketers who sell business-to-business. Mentioned in This Episode: Competing Against Luck Jobs to Be Done Karen Dillon @KarDillon on Twitter @ClayChristensen on Twitter Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP051: David Hubbard & Technology for Sales and Marketing
Nov 16, 201600:37:12Tap to summarizeDavid Hubbard is a Revenue Growth Expert and CEO of Marketing Outfield. He works with private and public companies to strategically align sales, marketing, and product development efforts and grow annual revenues by 25-50%. He creates growth machines by integrating a company's core values into the customer decision-making process. Key Takeaways: [1:14] Many companies struggle to find alignment between the three revenue-producing functions of product management, product marketing, and sales. [3:31] When companies struggle with alignment, the customer experiences mixed messages in the purchasing decision-making process. [9:11] Technology is causing marketing efforts to be more complicated than ever before. [11:42] Make the most of sales and marketing efforts through integration. [17:28] Align systems to create a growth machine. [24:00] Focus on the core value of the company. [25:33] Making a product successful in the marketplace is the greatest cost a company has. [28:09] Pressure can force entrepreneurs to do things faster than they should be done. [31:00] A good product manager is the most important thing you can have in your business. Mentioned in This Episode: @MOutfield - David Hubbard on Twitter David Hubbard on LinkedIn Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP050: Jim Kalbach on Designing Web Navigation and Mapping Experiences
Nov 9, 201600:36:28Tap to summarizeJim Kalbach is a noted author, speaker, and instructor in user experience design, information architecture, and strategy. He is currently the Head of Consulting and Education with MURAL, a leading online whiteboard for digital collaboration. Previously, Jim has worked with large companies, such as Audi, SONY, Elsevier Science, Lexis Nexis, Citrix, and eBay, among others. Jim Kalbach authored #1 Amazon Business Development Bestseller, Mapping Experiences: A Guide to Creating Value Through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams. Key Takeaways: [1:05] Jim Kalbach never worried about what title was on his business card. His focus is on facilitating big-picture, strategic conversations. [3:36] Jim marries the idea of design information architecture with visualizing strategy in Chapter Three of Mapping Experiences. [5:46] Customer-centric thinking is a fundamental shift in the way business gets done. [8:54] Business leaders can use customer journey mapping, or experience mapping, to create a visualization. [11:04] Blue Ocean Strategy gets to the core of why an organization exists, and what value they are creating. [16:35] Organizations must look at strategy as a creative endeavour. [23:36] Unpacking Clayton Christensen's Jobs to Be Done framework. [29:16] Jim Kalbach's view of Jobs to Be Done has six dimensions and goes well beyond task analysis. [34:03] With business strategy, deciding what you're not going to do is as important as deciding what you are going to do. Mentioned in This Episode: Mapping Experiences: A Guide to Creating Value Through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams, by Jim Kalbach Experiencing Information @jimkalbach on Twitter Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP049: Daniel Burrus & The Future of Global Trends and Innovation
Oct 26, 201600:33:47Tap to summarizeAuthor of the NYT and WSJ bestseller, Flash Foresight, Daniel Burrus is a leading futurist in global trends and innovation. A leading consultant to Google, Proctor & Gamble, IBM, and many other Fortune 500 firms, Daniel Burrus provides strategic advice for predicting forthcoming market innovators and anticipating disruptions before they disrupt. His Anticipatory Organization Model uses the key components of hard and soft trends to identify transformative, pre-active solutions. Key Takeaways: [1:33] To see the invisible and do the impossible, you must start with certainty. [7:02] How a forecaster can separate hard trends from soft trends. [9:45] The three categories of hard trends: ● Technology ● Demographics ● Government Regulations [19:24] Examples of how soft trends can be influenced and manipulated. [22:41] The anticipatory organization must be agile. [25:28] Amazon is using anticipatory techniques along with hard and soft trends to create a new experience for their customers. [29:25] The key is to be pre-active to future known events. [30:48] The next four years will include the transformation of every business market. Mentioned in This Episode: Daniel Burrus @DanielBurrus on Twitter Daniel Burrus on LinkedIn Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
Transcribe →EP048: Bill Halal & Technology's Promise
Oct 19, 201600:35:49Tap to summarizeAuthor of six books, with a seventh in the works, Bill Halal is a Professor Emeritus of Management, Technology and Innovation at George Washington University. As the President of TechCast, Bill Halal and his team study the impact of artificial intelligence, the age of knowledge as compared to the age of consciousness, and future forecasting with a goal of simplifying change at the meso-economic level. Key Takeaways: [1:09] TechCast is a collective intelligence system that collects background data on emerging technologies, social trends, and wildcards. [2:56] TechCast has forecasted that 30% of routine knowledge work will be automated by 2025. [9:08] Bill Halal explains the Age of Consciousness, a great frontier to be explored. [11:59] In the future, the corporation will be redefined as the focus of making money becomes obsolete. [15:39] The future of organizations is one of small, self-contained enterprises. [19:39] A stable economic system less prone to booms and bust is a possibility of the future. [21:00] Universally guaranteed income may allow people's innate goals and interests to emerge. [24:56] How can managers use forecasts to navigate a meso-economy? [27:34] Traditional corporate accounting systems do not include social impacts. [29:00] A successful corporation needs a committed labor force. [30:36] US corporate leaders need a transformation from their single-minded focus on money. [34:40] Find out more about Dr. Bill Halal. Mentioned in This Episode: Bill Halal Bill Halal Books TechCast Global Conscious Capitalism Praxent @PraxentSoftware on Twitter
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