How To Stand Out From The Crowd By Using the “Role Of 3”

How often are you introduced to someone and you quickly forget their name? Or you attend a meeting and shortly after cannot recall what was discussed?

Research by Dr. Art Markman (University of Texas) has shown that your memory of an event (introductions, business event, a meeting, hockey game, car accident, etc.) is organized around three separate things that you experienced during that event. This is because your brain can typically only pay attention to three “sub events” at one time and then tends to organize all of your memories around these sub events.

Dr. Markman calls this the “Role of 3.”

Ancient Advice For Modern Business

Niccolò Machiavelli lived in the late 1400’s in Florence Italy. He was a true renaissance man who has been called the father of modern political science. He was a historian, politician, humanist, writer, diplomat and philosopher.  He was also the author of Il Principe which was translated into English many years ago and is still widely available electronically and in hard copy as The Prince.

Although Machiavelli was “characterized by a duplicitous interpersonal style, a cynical disregard for morality and a focus on self-interest and personal gain1” (and this description is quite complementary compared to some of the other things written about him), I was curious about his writing as it is often quoted in modern business literature.

So, I recently spent some time reading The Prince and discovered that it was similar to the torture we were subjected to in high school when we were forced to read Shakespeare!

Besides the old English prose, there was a lot in the text which I didn’t agree with. However, there are some interesting points that I think apply to today’s business.

Do Your Employees Care About Your Customers?

What does customer service look like in your business? Do your employees care about your customers are they just “doing their job”?

It is critical for your business survival and growth that your employees truly care for your customers rather than treat them like just another generic transaction.  A customer service mindset must be purposefully built and nurtured in your organization rather than being left to chance.

I recently traveled to Houston for some business meetings. When I arrived at the airport and got my rental car it was pouring rain. By the time I got onto the Southwest freeway at 5:30 PM it resembled a large parking lot and not a freeway! After fighting the traffic for about an hour, I pulled off the freeway at Lakewood and had dinner at the Café Express.

After dinner, I jumped into my rental and drove to the hotel (Sugar Land Marriott) without incident. When I arrived and popped the trunk to get my luggage, there was nothing there! Someone had broken into my car at the restaurant and stolen my luggage! Fortunately, I had my computer with me in Café Express so it never got stolen but everything else did.

Why Does Your Business Exist And Why Should We Care?

That which costs little is less valued.Miguel de Cervantes

 

In today’s world of hyper-connectedness and hyper-competition, it is really easy to yield to pressure and lower the prices for your products or services so that you can win the “super strategic” project or order. The problem with going down this road is that you now have set a new price expectation or ceiling on your prices. In effect, you have told the marketplace that your services or products are really not worth what you’ve been asking in the past.

A great example of this would be MP3 players versus iPhones or iPods. The first MP3 players sold at a premium because they were a new product with a new and growing market. But it wasn’t long before other electronics manufacturers saw the opportunity, created competing products and the price wars began. MP3 players had become a commodity.

How To Set, Monitor and Reach Your Business Goals

Are you on track to meet your business’ financial targets this year? What are your current monthly run rates? Are your expenses too high for the revenue you are producing? How do you know? Did you set financial goals and targets for the year?

One of the most important aspects of a business leaders’ role is setting the overall direction for their organization. Part of the overall direction that an organization requires is to have clearly established financial targets. Once these targets are set, the leader’s job is to track the performance against the targets and to strategically lead the organization to meet or exceed the targets.