How to combine your sales force in a merger.

McKinsey has published a paper on how to survive a merger and combine sales forces. By involving employees and customers in the integration process, it is possible to retain critical staff, generate momentum with key accounts, and increase customer satisfaction. If you are in the process of approaching an integration, can you risk loosing these key elements by doing a botched job?

We have identified four steps essential to facilitating the successful integration of sales operations. At the top of the list: understanding the importance of sharing information about the integration process with customers and the sales force. Many companies take the opposite approach and are surprised when postmerger revenue fails to meet expectations. In addition, the combined sales team must quickly win prominent accounts to build momentum and generate internal confidence in the merger. The executives running the integration effort must also recognize that, as important as sales reps are, essential support people must be identified and retained. Finally, senior managers should review the merged portfolio of customers and make tough calls about those that are worth new investments and those that might be shed or given less attention.

Networking for successful managers:

Herminia Ibarra, Programme Director of INSEAD exectuvie courses, argues why managers fail at networking.

Ibarra says many managers tell her they just don’t have the time to network or that they consider it unsavory. If you want to succeed you need to make the time.  She says managers should delegate more in their day jobs and schedule networking into each week to make it a habit.  “A lot of people who are not very good at this may feel, initially, that they are wasting time.  They’ve gone to that conference, to those meetings, to this networking event, and what do they have to show for it?  They have less time to do the bread-and-butter day job. However over the longer term or even over the mid-term, those are the contacts that really pay off.”

Ibarra goes on to point out three types of networks.

1. Operational: involves cultivating the relationships with people you need to accomplish your job
2. Personal: an afterthought for many busy managers, also are a way to develop important social skills for many professionals and may be the first place you turn when you start thinking about changing careers.
3. Strategic: the toughest but most essential if managers want to become business leaders.  Ibarra explains that contact with peers and with senior executives in your field is vital and she encourages managers to look beyond their industry as well.  This allows managers to share ideas about best practices in management, learn new approaches and keep close tabs on developments in business and technology.  It helps managers to see the bigger picture and create their own visionary approach.

Video – Harvard, Finance: What Managers Need to Know

It is frightening that managers may not have this basic understanding but it is a great starting point. Excellent differentiation between finance and accounting. As a prioritization of focus for future entrepreneurs this is useful but I hope anyone with P&L access has a deeper understanding and not just getting away with skimping on homework.

How mass media should learn from its true consumers

The Harvard Business Review’s Peter Merholz recently picked up on a blog post about how mass media today doesn’t know who its customers are.

A key point brought up is that in mass media, readers, watchers, and audience are the product which are served up to the actual customers, the advertisers.

So how will mass media actually engage their audiences, instead of trying to shove “advertiser-friendly” crap down their throats? Their first step should be to listen to their customers.

The primary mistake being made in mass media according to Peter is in classified listings targeting advertisers instead of the social media content. Market gains will be made by engaging the increasingly powerful audience, refuting existing assumptions, and working with customs as they engage with the content. Market domination will come from a multichannel approach to facilitate a pathway to customer interests through a holistic approach without being everything to everyone.

Examples include that of Craigslist. It is simple and ugly, but no one can displace it in the market. This is due to one simple reason, it is designed for the consumer, and trusted by the customer. It was designed with the audience in mind.

The paradigm shift in mass media will be the movement away from the advertiser to serve the audience its true customer.

How to emerge from the recession

Too many US companies today are still suffering whiplash from the economic shift. As mentioned in a previous post they are focusing on day to day survival as opposed to new market realities.

Long-held assumptions are about to change and will be shaped by an evolved market demand and altered business models. Some Fortune 500 companies have already started adopting governance reform and task teams to get a head-start on anticipated change.

As a director, you must demonstrate to investors, your customers, and the general public that you are actively managing key business decisions that will make or break your organization when the new market order emerges. Do not wait until the economy is fully recovered and have people start asking you why you did not start preparing for growth now.

To do this you must:

1. be prepared to explain how your board came to agree on compensation packages,
2. start building risk management practices into business process and your operating plan so the recent turmoil does not occur again,
3. be transparent in your messaging to the market, it is a new market.

Harvard Tips of the Day – Week in Review

While we recommend you subscribe to Harvard’s Management Tip of the Day, this is a weekly list of what we feel are the most appropriate tips.

• Don’t Put Out the Fire, Let it Burn:
  • While painful, recessions ‘seem’ to be part of the life-cycle of every economy. Don’t fight them but but prepare to use them as an opportunity to become more agile and resilient.
• Reinvent Your R&D for Emerging Markets:
  • Now is the time to figure out how entice tomorrow’s markets like China and Brazil by using R&D to address societal needs that affect the masses who will soon be dictating market direction.
• Measure Inputs, Not Just Results:
  • Don’t rely solely on financial metrics and let the analysts run you business. Influence the inputs that drive those results and stay ahead of the curve.
• Think Green to Fight the Next Recession:
  • While the current one is not quite over, look at what companies are doing to survive and take lesson for the next round. Some companies are excelling through this economy, figured out which ones those are yet?
• Before You Call It “New and Improved,” Be Sure It Really Is:
  • Stop wearing out the meaning of this phrase, before using it make sure it’s something customers want and evaluate new innovations through their eyes, not your efficiency consultant.