Areas to consider when planning your long term goals

April 16th, 2008 by Klaus Wiedemann

Dustin Wax over at Lifehack.org mentions a few interesting aspects to consider when contemplating your “Where do I want to be in 5 years from now?”-question.
He uses the business approach of an “individual development plan” and applies this thinking also to the private/personal space.

When you plan the conccrete steps how to reach your goals step by step, he suggests to consider these areas in your planning:

• Courses and workshops: From formal university instruction to extension classes to one-off events like seminars.
• Reading: Books, magazines, websites, newsletters, trade journals.
• Networking: Don’t neglect the value that building
  connections within your current niche or your desired one can bring.
  Figure out who in your field is worth following, and how to get close
  to them.
• Mentoring: A special kind of networking; consider asking a leader in your field to “take you under their wing”.
• Ride-alongs/shadowing: Hands-on experience is
  invaluable. Ask to spend a day with someone whose knowledge and skills
  you admire, learning their work from their perspective.
• Outreach: Form or join a group devoted to your topics.
• Reassignment/move to a new job: Ask your employer
  to shift you into a different department or position, or find work that
  better matches where you want to end up.

I just would add you should reserve the required time well in advance to avoid your short-term priorities are dominating your calendar. Budgeting time and scheduling time-slots in your calendar can help you with that.

--> Posted at April 16th, 2008

Why Professionals Need to Compete Globally

April 14th, 2008 by Klaus Wiedemann

The answer is simple: if you don’t, you will be in trouble.

Get me right: I am not saying that you as an individual professional need to chase business all over the world. But, you need to be aware of your global competition. With high-speed Internet, well educated and trained people are available and reachable all over the world. Unlike last century, where low paid blue-collar work tended to be outsourced (or off-shored) to developing countries such as India or China, this is happening in the 21st century with white-collar job as well.

For example, More than 75 Percent of Financial Companies [are] Now Offshoring, Saving $9 bln a year.

Seems like tough times ahead, especially if you consider some of the aspects presented here (a pretty nice presentation, but lacks in my opinion a proper citation of the sources. Anyway, some good food for thought, if you take it with a grain of salt):

So, what to do? In my opinion, the outlook is not as bleak: Although competition is global, professionals have an invaluable advantage when competing locally against global competition: Trust, reputation and transaction costs.

What do I mean by that? Outsourcing and offshoring comes with transaction costs for your customer: more travelling to set up remote operations, more controlling and supervision. Because your customer does not know your fellow competitors from another continent yet: He is not familiar with their culture, he can not judge easily on their reputation. He still needs to build up trust to lower his transaction costs. This is the main (if not the only) entry barrier professional from a different country or continent face (no matter where they reside).

Therefore, in the 21st century, it is essential for a professional to focus on a few things:

• Reputation: This is what helps a customer to decide. In the knowledge business most professionals are in, this is probably the most important factor. Knowledge is not tangible, and selling a service is just a promise for a future delivery. But it’s not only reputation about your knowledge. I would rate the reputation about your (business) ethics as even more important. We believe that the ethics of the ancient Samurai can provide some guidance here.
• Professionalism: Once you got the contract, make sure you deliver what you promised: on time, in budget, in quality, and in a professional way.
• Your personal and professional network: This is where your reputation ressonates, and this is also where your potential customers refer to in order to get recommendations for service providers: “Do you know somebody good at… ? Can you recommend me someone who…?” Here, they know, they get services for the lowest transaction cost: recommendations from people they trust.

Trust is the currency of the 21st century, and your network is your bank.

Treat it wisely.

--> Posted at April 14th, 2008

How to keep control in a dynamic world

November 12th, 2007 by Sandra Lenz

In the 21st century with its parallel projects, changing locations and a highly dynamic work environment a tool is needed that makes it easy for you to keep control over your time. Keeping control puts you in the driver seat. You can shape your daily business and your private life the way you want it to be.

DAISHO is the next generation software for Goal, Time and Contact Management. It’s a strategic weapon, which meets exactly the challenges of our century. It’s a software which puts you in control, not somebody else.

We are happy to announce that DAISHO 1.2.1 is now available.

With DAISHO you can…

• easily track your goals
• plan your work capacity goal-oriented and on a long-term basis with time budgeting
• manage your goals and activities effectively with the context concept
• save time
• create and cultivate your social network successfully
• get started immediately

The software is based on P2P functionality and is a pure Java application.

For more information view the Guided Tour. DAISHO is made for professionals of the 21st century.

You can try DAISHO 30 days for free. Please feel free to download it here.

If you buy DAISHO now, you will get all upcoming versions for free.

Keep control with DAISHO!

--> Posted at November 12th, 2007

Do You Sell Love Or Money?

November 4th, 2007 by Klaus Wiedemann

Interesting question, isn’t it? I found this nice categorization over at IttyBiz. Naomi Dunford argues that you are either in the business of selling emotions (e.g. sex, safety or even envy – that’s the love category) or selling money. Here, you are selling your customers a monetary gain (making money or saving money).

Naomi Dunford heavily argues not to mix these categories when trying to sell something, as this would weaken your position.

Although it might seem to limit youself to have just these two categories, I think posing this question forces you to rethink your marketing positioning. Food for thought on a rainy day.

Which business are you in?

--> Posted at November 4th, 2007

Networking – the basis for your success

November 1st, 2007 by Carmen Schubert

In today’s work environment, business opportunities quite often originate from one’s personal network. Therefore, it is essential to carefully foster your social network to ensure this source of business opportunities is not drying up. As business coming from your personal network is quite often not direct business with your contacts but rather personal referrals and recommendations, it is important to foster your network also from a strategic point of view.

See it as a continuous process, based on the following questions:

• What do I want to achieve?
• How do I get there? What actions do I have to take in order to achieve my goal?
• What resources (human, capital, etc) do I need?
• Which people (influencers, decision-makers) do I know?
• What is their role “in the game”?
• Am I well connected in my target industry?
• What do I have to do in the short-, mid- and long-term to improve my position?

More …

--> Posted at November 1st, 2007