Why I Am Hooked Up. Reasons You Shouldn't Ignore Twitter.

LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter are not a passsing fad suitable for media, marketing, IT or recruitment professionals, as many sceptics judged at the begining. On contrary, more and more people and businesses realized the need to join and participate.  So why should YOU use twitter on top of your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles?

Beeing on twitter enables you to join a community of your choice, getting up to speed with news, and latest developments in the World, either from respected official channels –professional magazines, newspapers, business and political authorities, progressive Companies or from the tweeting community itself. Never before you could get so close to the gurus in their field, who’s  tweetstreams ideally consist of 80% professional and 20% private news, comments, evaluations, blogs.

You either create the content yourselves or you distribute (re-tweet) interesting news. Twitter is a great partnering and influencing tool. You can even steer an upheaval by tweeting, as Wael Ghonim did in Egypt (more in the blog post http://bit.ly/gU66z0) . The news travel fast and quick, the support can grow rapidly. 

One of the biggest hurdles at the beginning is to choose the relevant people and publishing houses, you want to follow. Your followers will recruit from those who are attracted to the similar topics. The easiest is to study the list of contacts somebody you admire follows and start to follow them as well. Only then you fully get hooked up with tweeting world, when you actively join in. Give this experience a week and you may be surprised about the value twitter brings you instantly.

The challenge of contributing is to learn to engage with your audience. Many celebrities are tweeting random quotes but never interact with the audience (is it really them who is tweeting?). The authenticity is lost and credibility as well. The line what ‘s hot in the world or in your chosen area gives you idea what similar minded people think about. Tweet words limit (140 letters) enables to focus your thoughts, also in direct e-mails, no time lost for the reader.

Twitter despite its growing registered accounts base of more than 200mil. worldwide, is still waiting for more widespread usage especially outside the United States (LinkedIn with 100mil. users WW, Facebook 643mil.WW). Language choice could be a challenge especially in countries with small English speaking base as they are limited to get to the WW twitter trending topics – except if they do not live in Egypt (voices in Egypt have special section).  Specific solutions were found for Germany, France and Italy, via @twitter_de (287t followers), @twitter_fr (388t followers), @twitter_it (312t followers).

If twitter is about speed and snapshot view, inviting you to get deeper in topics that interest you, and about learning and sharing with people you may not know personally, Facebook is mainly about updates exchange with your close family, friends and colleagues, as you have to (unlike in twitter) accept them in your network if you do not decide to go for the Company / Brand FB pages.

Professionally you cannot stay up to date without your LinkedIn account - for reputation building while nurturing your professional network and being connected with key people throughout your career evolvement.  

The more you interact with people on all three social media sites, the more thoughtful you are about your content, timing and target group relevance, the wider your reach will be and the stronger your personal/professional brand will become.


For inspiration about the power of Twitter check following sites:
@Zappos (1.8 mil. followers), @SouthwestAir (1.1 mil. followers), @CocaCola (0.236 mil. followers), @jack_welch (1.3 mil. followers), @tonyrobins (1.9 mil. followers), @mashable (2.2 mil. followers), @wired (0.8 mil. follwers), @tedtalks (0.37 mil. followers), @ThisIsSethsBlog (0.07 mil. followers).




Note: Twitter celebrated last Monday, March 21st its fifth birthday. From official Twitter Blog that day: "Twitter users now send more than 140 million Tweets a day which adds up to a billion Tweets every 8 days—by comparison, it took 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day to reach the first billion Tweets. While it took about 18 months to sign up the first 500,000 accounts, we now see close to 500,000 accounts created every day. All of this momentum and growth often pales in comparison to a single compassionate Tweet by a caring person who wants to help someone in need."

What the King George V. In 1934 Understood Better Than Today´s Managers

It is not enough to be just on the wall in the framed picture.  Each leader, the King or the CEO, has to get closer to the crowds. He has to be like an actor, talking to the people, having „own voice“. Be that the nation or the Company, both need a leader they all could stand behind. They need a voice that unites them.

Seeing the Oskars´ winning film King´s Speech this week I was awakened to observe an interesting parallel. Early 30th the radio started to be widespread and the King understood its impact on the masses. Nowadays the social media play that role. But how many progressive managers use meaningful conversations around their brands and companies to link themselves to the hearts of people?

In the movie "King´s Speech" Prince Albert, The Duke of York (later the King George VI) heartbreakingly got beyond his weakness of being a stutterer and thanks to his perseverance learned how to talk to the crowds with passion and intensity, fluently.

What will it take for the leaders nowadays to break the „ceiling“ to the future, to increase the understanding about social media conversations around their brands? What will it take for the leaders to „FLUENTLY“ start to speak with „ordinary“ predominantly young people on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn?

Interesting facts regarding social media development worldwide:
Trends In Social Media Europe / Worldwide

Statistics on Low Social Media Understanding

Lesson From Japan: Seize Each Moment, There May Be No Tomorrow

Japan Earthquake followed by disastrous tsunami proved the old true – we have to live our lives fully at present, there may be no tomorrow.

We would never expect this to happen, even in our biggest nightmares. Japan is highly civilized country, with all the emergency plans, with all the sophisticated technical and electronics equipments in place. Still the Mother Nature shows us how vulnerable we – the human beings – are.

 It is not a punishment for some wrongdoing for Japanese people, but they have to take on their shoulders its burden now. Those who survived have to find the strength to cope with loosing family members and friends, their homes, jobs and places they felt connected to. They may be left out homeless, starving from lack of electricity and basic food supplies at present. Regardless how much fortune they have gathered in the past, regardless how much valuables they have collected. They are like “naked”, just with their memories from the past and the hope for better days to come.  

 It is never too late to say your family and friends how much you love and care about them. It is never too late to say thank you to those who deserve it. It is never too late to start to seize each moment of your life to find YOUR way to happiness.

You have to act now. Because nobody can be sure what the future brings.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” James Dean

“CARPE DIEM (Seize the Day)! “Horace

How To help Japan from the Czech Republic (according to server: Novinky.cz) ?

Salvation Army: SMS - DMS ARMADASPASY sent to Tel. No. 87 777 or bank transfer 475 335 533/0300, variable symbol 222.

Czech Red Cross - bank account 222826/5500, variable symbol 999.

Czech Doctors without borders  : bank account 2101050700 / 2700, variabilní symbol: 99

Steve Jobs’ Most Relevant Quotes, You Never Dare To Forget

I have been impressed with Steve Jobs’ last week’s speech on the launch of iPad 2. He came, though seriously ill. He put his passion into the show, despite his energy being exhausted by fighting illness and media speculating about his near death. He shined as always. The lasting standing ovations belonged to his well deserved reward.


I admire Steve Jobs for his leadership qualities. I am not so hard on his people skills gaps as some others may be (people at Apple are said to be at constant fear of losing their job). But Steve still attracts the best employees and he enthuses them to do great work for him. Apple stands for something for them. Apple has a reason for being that isn’t just about making money. Steve is a type of genius, artist, who has made his mark in the history and he could never be so successful without some of his unique personality traits.


What the great leaders do and Steve Jobs masters better than others?

VISION AND PURPOSE

      “Our customers want to know who is Apple and what do we stand for, where do we fit in this world. What we are about is not making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that well, we do that better than anybody in some cases. But Apple is something more than that. Apple at the core, it’s core value is, that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.” 1997, Jobs’s speech to employees

“The goal was never to beat the competitors, or to make a lot of money, it was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little greater.”

PASSION  

“I am willing  to tear down walls, build bridges, and light fires. I have great experience, lots of energy, a bit of that “vision thing” and I am not afraid to start from the beginning. “ Steve Jobs’ resume

“Unless you have a lot of passion about this, you are not going to survive. You are going to give up. So you’ve got to have an idea or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about, otherwise you’re not going to have the perseverance to stick in through. I think that’s half the battle right there.”

COURAGE

“I have always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they are harder. They’re more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.”

 “I looked to my hero Bob Dylan for inspiration. One of the things I admired about Dylan was his refusal to stand still. Many successful artists at some point in their careers atrophy: they keep doing what made them successful in the first place, but they don’t evolve. If they keep risking failure, they are still artists. Dylan and Picasso were always risking failure.”1998 for Fortune magazine

INVENTIVE SPIRIT

“Innovations has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” 1998 for Fortune

“Process makes you more efficient. But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.” 2004 for Business Week

PERSEVERANCE & PERFECTIONISM

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”     

“When you start looking at a problem and think it’s really simple, you don’t understand how complex the problem really is. Once you get into the problem… you see that it’s complicated and you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That’s where most people stop, and the solutions tend to work for a while. But the really great person will keep going, find the underlying problem, and come up with an elegant solution that works well on every level.”

DISCIPLINE AND DECISIVENESS

“Everything just got simpler. That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. We’ve got to focus and do things we can be good at”.” 1998 for Business Week

“We look at a lot of things, but I’m as proud of the products that we have not done as I am of the ones we have done.” 1998 for Wall Street Journal

INTEGRITY AND CHARACTER

„You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.“ Jobs Stanford Speech 2005

„Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.“ Jobs Stanford Speech 2005

„Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.“ Jobs Stanford Speech 2005

Once Steve Jobs said: “I want to put a ding in the Universe.” He certainly did.

Do not miss the video on his appearance in March 2011:
Steve Jobs Standing Ovations March 2011


The Beginning of Steve Jobs' Greatness / Video from 1984

Note: When the quote source not mentioned, than appeared in the book "Inside Steve's Brain" by Leander Kahney.

My other blog devoted to Steve Jobs and his mission: 
Steve Jobs Journey Toward Success - Another View 

The Art of Forgiving in Highly Competitive Business World

I have heard it many times before: „You have to forgive people for what they have done to you, even if they were driven by evil, non-ethics behaviours, damaging you or the work you have done.“ Easily said, but I have never understood: "How come I can be so generous to somebody who is mean to me?" Studying many clever books I have got the idea.

The more I was thinking about that “nasty” person, the more I have accumulated my anger inside myself. The more I tried to escape, the more I was trapped. The fact that I refused to forgive meant that the burden lied on my shoulders not on his ones. The wounds on my feelings, when not dealt with, became inflamed. Only when I started to pay attention to my negative emotions and deal with them in positive way, I could free myself up.

I started to define the new meaning of forgiveness for myself – by forgiving I am actually not agreeing with that person behavior, I am not supporting his or her wrong-doing, I am not forgetting what he or she has done. I am just not enabling them to control my life. I am just not going to live their own nightmare. Because I am sure that those who are causing harm to others were themselves hurt in the past.  They are neither happy nor they live a fulfilled life. Their wrongdoing will reach them sooner or later anyhow.

Forgiving is opening a way for own rich positive life.

Forgiving is one of the most difficult things, especially in the very competitive and tough business world, but when mastered well, it can bring us up to the new heights.

„ Forgiveness is primarily for our own sake, so that we no longer carry the burden of resentment. But to forgive does not mean we will allow injustice again." Jack Kornfield

 „The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the atribute of the strong.“ Mahatma Gandhi

„The stupid neither forgive nor forget, the naive forgive and forget, the wise forgive but do not forget.“ Thomas S. Szasz (Hungarian Professor of Psychiatry)

„People With Passion Make You Feel Better“

You will always remember them. You will adore them. You will try to follow their professional path for your own inspiration. They care. They trust. They breathe their passion. They share themselves with this world. They bring you up when you feel down, even if they may not know you.

That‘s why they are successful. Role models. Immortal.

„Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.“ Mark Twain

Passion and inspiration are linked together. Are you following your dreams and desires instead of your rational plans? Have you identified your inspirational gurus who make you feel good and multiply your passion to the new hight?

Don‘t waste your time. 
This is YOUR turn now to change the world for the better!
For your own fulfillment.

„Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.“ Mark Twain

“Our Youth Makes FEAR History,”

We do not want to be just the Mubarak’s „Those noisy kids on facebook’. We believe that “Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it,” the speeches and tweets from Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian activist, Google marketing executive,  after his 12-day disappearance, blindfolding and interrogation, re-energized the Egyptians in their final quest for „the dignity that comes with being actors in a nation’s destiny rather than its pawns“. His extremely human leadership attracted many ordinary Egyptian men and women , who saw in him their own son, ally or companion, crying publicly during a TV interview for the death of people that died during this upheaval. Wael Ghonim inspired many people to remove their fear of personal persecution or even death.  

Ghonim showed his nation that they should not anymore fear the Regime, represented by its dictator Hosni Mubarak: „Because the only barrier to people uprising and revolution is the psychological barrier of fear. All these regimes rely on fear. They want everyone to be scared. If you manage to break the psychological barrier, you're gonna definitely be able to do the revolution.“

Fear has become too much frequent experience for many people nowadays. Not just on the political level. I have observed many people experiencing fear in their ordinary lifes – much more simple than life or death, freedom of speech or prison.

They are in fear for their circumstances and future. They are in fear of failure on personal or professional level. They become paralyzed. Fear can be an internal message giving alert to an actual or probable threat. But most of the time it is simply an anxiety about things or situations that haven't happened yet and may be unlikely to happen at all.

Mastering fear requires bearing thinks as if it is impossible to fail. Imagining that behind every failure there is the potential for success, and if we give up too soon, we may never know what wonderful thing we could have accomplished. Only when we remove the fear from our thoughts, we put our energy full speed into doing meaningful things and we may actually start to change the world.

Fortunately Wael Ghonim understood this.

View: Wael Ghonim CNN Interview from Feb 11: Facebook To Thank For Freedom!

P.S. Snapshop on Wael Whonim usage of social media for organizing an upheaval:

Wael Ghonim, 30 years old Google's regional marketing manager for the Middle East, changed the way revolutions are made. Ghonim among others credits Social Media sites – Facebook and Twitter for enabling the revolution that resulted in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak.

Wael Ghonim had been running since June 2010 a popular Facebook page, speaking against police brutality, with 400,000 Egyptian followers. He has named it after Khaled Said, a businessman who died in police custody in Alexandria last year. This page played a crucial role in organizing the protests. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians started collaborating content. Up to 60,000 people within hours shared on their walls particular video. Internet and namely facebook helped to fight the restricted media world.

In one of his last tweets on Jan. 27, Ghonim expressed his strong passion against the current regime. "Pray for #Egypt. Very worried as it seems that government is planning a war crime tomorrow against people. We are all ready to die," he wrote

After he was released from prison on February 7th, shortly after his TV interview,  at least 130,000 people have joined a Facebook page titled "I delegate Wael Ghonim to speak in the name of Egypt's revolutionaries"

On February 11th, when Mubarak disappeared from the country and all Egyptians celebrated end of his dictatorship regime, Wael Ghonim expressed the credit not to himself, but to the Egyptian nation: „I’m not a hero, you are the heroes, you are the ones who stand on this square.“

****

Sustainability of Management Job At Present

Hot topic today - partially due to economical crisis. Too many of my LinkedIn contacts have within last few months changed their job titles. Becoming consultants, experts or investors instead of CEOs/Board members. The leadership market is changing. One can observe the cheaper and younger replace the more expensive and the experienced. Another can view fixed costs cutting at any price as a short-term gain for the Company winning over long-term benefits, overemphasized financials to non measurable values the experienced top leaders bring to the Company.

Each situation is different. The outcome however is the same. I see many talented leaders, who have successful track record of delivering great financial results and developing people, currently looking for new opportunities, not fully utilizing their potential, despite being in their "best age" (40-50).

For the talented leaders this may just be a nice long-time dreamed break from high-speed life and from lasting frustration that has built up over years due to their low influence on local results thanks to increased International HQ decisions. The Universe may be giving them time to rethink life values and career objectives, to re-launch their personal brand. These people understand the principles that brought them to the top and thus they either excel in similar top job again or they start their own business ventures. Their "star" will shine again soon, even stronger. The time in between is for them just a test of their patience to search for the next opportunity and a test of perseverance to find one.

On the other hand the leaders who got their top jobs by co-incidence and luck, who did not build their success themselves,who always played it safe or "win what I want at all costs", feel totally lost. They have never known what are the key pillars of the Company growth they may have inherited. They have hardly at all added significant value to the Company, to their teams or to the society they live in. They have not learn the ability to excel. They victimize themselves. They feel born for the job, that is why they demand it back. They know well how to take, use and manipulate, their big life lesson is to learn how to give, contribute and build. Most of them try to avoid this painful excercise. Their arrogant behavior destroys even the last few opportunities that have opened in front of them.

For progressive leaders the year 2011 should be bright again! The leadership jobs will be again in demand (see more in the attached research from BlueSteps Company). It is a high time for everybody now to do the homework and prepare for the promising future!

Blue Steps Research

Tony Robbins: "What stops us all from moving forward? Fear. Fear can destroy our psychology and immobilize us from taking action. The secret is learning how to use fear instead of letting fear use you!?"

On-Line Fast Track for Success

Speed and timing are critical. Competition never sleeps. Competitive advantages are stolen quickly. The civilization itself is nowadays put on the fast track. Like it or do not. What worked several decades ago, is considered the “Age of Dinosaurs” today.  To reach 50 million people, it took radio 38 years,  13 years for TV, 4 years for internet and 3 years for iPod. Only 9 months were sufficient for Facebook to engage with 100 million people. The technological advancements, since Facebook started in February 2004, accelerated everything even more. From over 610 million Facebook active users nowadays, about 200 million access through their mobile devices and about 75% live outside the United States. We can continue with statistics for Twitter or LinkedIn. However they are not as important. The key for leaders is to understand how they can use these existing trends for their profit. For the benefit of their Company as well as for the benefit of self.  

Many Companies in the Eastern Europe have not yet adjusted themselves. A lot of them have forgotten they have to evolve with the ever changing environment. What worked for engaging with consumers and for networking in the business world several years ago, does not work today.

The truth is that a lot of Eastern Europe’s CEOs and management team members themselves have not still established an account on the social media networks for their Company or for themselves. Or they do not actively exploit it. They prefer to live comfortable life based on their historical routines. They start to loose their edge, but they do not worry. They can still live comfortably. At present at least. But what about in future?

If CEOs want to drive their Companies forward and enjoy their highly paid jobs, they have to stop worrying about being publicly exposed due to bigger transparency. They have to put their audience - being it consumers, customers or business partners - in the first place. They have to dissolve their fear to make the first step. They have to inspire the Company and its employees to change. Nothing more, nothing less.

Leaders of the future have to build their new vision for on-line presence and start to feel the urge to do something about it. NOW!

P.S. There are of course positive examples as well :-). Check them out:  http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-pages/brands/czech-republic/

And fresh new opportunity to use LinkedIn for Companies:
http://www.linkedin.com/share?viewLink=&sid=s248861528&url=http%3A%2F%2Fon%2Emash%2Eto%2Fh97Nii&urlhash=uwUv&pk=nhome-chron-split-feed-items&pp=18&poster=24694257&uid=5438189677066584064&trk=NUS_UNIU_SHARE-title

How to Avoid "Killing" Yourself During the Process of Change

Changes can change the status for the better or worse. How do we make sure we drive change that delivers our progress?

The other day I was running a workshop with a team of people who were going through a tough time, while their company was taken over by a new owner and their personal future was unknown.  People were asking themselves “Why does it happen to me? ” Some of them were not happy, blaming everybody for the outcome, tired of not having what they thought they deserve, being frozen to do anything and waiting for a miracle to happen. The consensus of this group was clear. They needed a new vision – not just for the new Company, but for themselves as well. They needed a reason to wake up in the morning to go to fight for their Company, for their brand, for their market share and for their own future. They wanted open communication, consistency and honesty from the management team. The “do-ers” wanted to hear from somebody concrete steps to move forward, the “visionaries” were hungry for official go ahead for freedom to define the new rules of the game themselves.  They all wanted to be included, listened and managed with respect regardless of the fact if they were on the list to be fired.

People naturally reject changes that are forced on them. As the takeover situations become more and more frequent , the need to adopt to new conditions instantly arises. The key is to know that there is always a new opportunity awaiting us, regardless if we know about it or not. It may be in the acquiring company or outside. We have to believe in it first. We have to realize, that we will be rewarded with this new job only at a time when we overcome our fear, when we take the whole situation as a new exiting adventure – when we finally start to do something about it.  The sooner we will mentally give up the old circumstances, the sooner we will find the new opportunity. The visualized happiness from the new opportunity will bring us even faster towards fulfilling it.

The question, if we will be in the end personally successful or not, depends who we are as a person and how much desire we have to succeed despite tough times. We have to realize, that the success comes from us, from within. We have to stop relying on others to lead us throughout uncertainty, as well as to stop being dependent on the luck maybe coming to us. We have to take charge of ourselves, of our destiny.

Everybody had at least once woke up and realized the world around him has - without recognizing it - slowly but surely changed. The old opportunities no longer existed.

Changes are natural regardless if we expect them or not.  The way we drive change shows our maturity and readiness to accept even bigger challenges in future. We cannot wait until the effects of change reach us. We have to be in the driver seat ourselves. Finding new ways is not always risky.  Be creative!

ü  “Going into the dark of unknown is better than waiting where nothing is left.”                           Spencer Johnson, M.D.

ü  “The gate to change is unlocked from the inside.”  Dr. Morris Massey

CEOs Need Inspiring Vision in Company's Turnaround

Big or small companies regardless need clear inspiring vision when finding themselves in performance trouble. Each economy and each enterprise has its periods of ups and downs. Only those survive long-term, which master the art of learning from mistakes.

Companies can never think they can stand still at one place, even though it feels very comfortable at the beginning. The down times provide Companies opportunities for studying what worked in the past and what could work better. The closer companies are to the reality, the faster the growth path can be found. Mistakes Companies have made during good times come back to them during bad times: Living large and consuming reserves, being overly focused on internal processes, on approvals, personal interests and on mistakes covering, being obsessed with own successes and thus loosing the track of consumer, not enough benchmarking with competition and with ever changing environment or simply just responding to coming ad-hoc demands vs. creating the opportunities upfront themselves by constant innovation.

The better the leaders master the downtimes, the longer companies can stay next time up. In times of performance trouble leaders have to visualize the success they want to achieve. First for themselves, then painting it to everybody. They have to think back at times when they have felt victorious, and remind themselves what principles they have used on their way up and then put exactly the same passion to their new goals. They have to be inspirational and motivational in their new mission to restart the Company for growth.

If the leaders have clear meaningful vision, if they are able to listen to external hints and to involve the team into the process of defining how to fulfill their new vision by concrete steps and actions and if they stimulate the excellence of execution, the path to follow this vision will appear itself. It will appear exactly at a time when they decide to see things differently. It will appear exactly at a time when they will be able to color the vision persuasively for self and others. It will appear exactly when they will help everybody to overcome their fear of change.

Only those thrive who value the good times as well as the bad times. Only those thrive who see the down times as opportunities for restarting the growth. Only those thrive who are not scared to act and to manage the change. They fulfill their vision. They attract new opportunities. They win better quality people. And last but not least they obtain a gift of personal satisfaction of doing the right things right.

P.S. I am happy to help your company to manage the turnaround, as well as to advise on painting the new isnpirational vision and on change management (More at: http://www.janabudikova.com/)

How to Inspire to GIVE MORE in Retail

Someone once said: „Retail is detail.“ But what detail should we have in mind when we talk Retail? Retail experts have clear answers: You can only be successful, if you manage several factors in the same time, if you multi-task, if you pay attention to smallest practical solutions. You have to be operational as well as strategic. You have to balance external and internal priorities. You have to create new opportunities and wisely manage risks…. I have one decisive addition to all of that:  You have to engage the whole team to tackle the priorities together with you.

Successful retail companies understand that they need to put service mindset as the top priority. They unite their employees around their Company’s distinctive vision, mission, strategy and plan. They understand that employees’ engagement brings rewarding way forward. Personal leadership with passion and its ability to be contagious to people motivation drives their success. It can never be just the leading role of the CEO. It is about his/her ability to create an atmosphere of sharing and learning environment. It’s about believing that employees are able to enrich the Company’s purpose in this world.

Easily written, difficult to implement especially in bigger corporations. Few years ago I have thought about how to pass to the whole organization our new consumer oriented mission, we have created with my management team to restart the growth: “At Tchibo We Give You the Best, Because We Give YOU More“. Having in mind the audience (180 shop assistants out of 340 total employees), with desire that this should be lived by everybody without me daily supervising it, I have painted a picture everybody could understand. I have summarized the desired behavioral result in a detailed mission statement that was empowering each department, each employee or each shop assistant, encouraging them to bring new ideas, motivating them to take responsibility for their (shop) operations as well as for the impact they make on consumers. Everything was supported by a visual - internally used symbol  – kind of stamp of smiling coffee, symbolizing we are not just about coffee, we thrive to provide our consumers more than anybody else. Not just coffee and consumer goods. Smile and greetings, consumer first mindset were to become the corporate standard in our shops. This idea itself would not be enough.

I have asked the department heads to summarize with their teams how they want to contribute in concrete steps to the new mission statement, how they want to GIVE MORE to the consumers, to the customers externally as well as to the other departments internally. Then department leaders presented how their teams want to support the shop assistants in their task to DELIVER MORE quality experiences to consumers.

The critical factor was the way I have chosen for spreading this new mission statement out among shop assistants. I have taken the knowledge of the Chinese Philosopher Confucius (551BC – 479 BC, China): “What will you tell me, I forget. What will you show me, this is what I will remember. What you will let me do, this is what I will understand.”

I have asked the shop assistants themselves to define and document on film, how they want to change themselves to start to GIVE MORE to consumers, based on everything they have heard. They felt enlightened by the fact that somebody was treating them with respect and trust. They started to “play” with us and presented back advertising films demonstrating top class consumer experiences they want to start to provide, with concrete examples.

I was astonished twice. First, I have seen everybody got the message and we all are united and want to go for it, secondly I have realized even big groups of people with different educational backgrounds can start to breathe for the same purpose, if they strongly believe in it themselves.

The financial results were visible shortly after we have launched this internal program. We have over-delivered our KPIs, while especially the shop performance improved significantly, despite starting economical crisis.

If YOU put all your belief in your people and in the success you want to create together, if you visualize together with them the desired outcome and “what is in it for me” i.e.for them, your employees will start to DELIVER MORE not just because they are asked to do it, but because they will have a passion to GIVE MORE. This passion will stimulate uniqueness. This uniqueness will differentiate your company from your competition.


P.S. I am happy to run workshops with your teams to stimulate the passion to GIVE MORE, so that you can DELIVER MORE ! (more at: http://www.janabudikova.com/)

The Power of Being Grateful

The more grateful we are the more of the good things come to our direction. Even to you personally. Not just during the Christmas time when you aim to give your family or friends something back. It starts with two simple words – THANK YOU, said in silence or out loud, meant with all your heart.

I myself realized I have a bunch of things I can be grateful for. However the positive effect of transforming my mind from complaining about situations I got into, to finding something positive I can be grateful for, brought the first fruits only when I have intentionally started to practice it. Every spare time. Every night before falling asleep. It took a while but soon it started to work. I have attracted in my life more positive things, situations and people than ever before.

I have met great leaders who eventually transformed to my core clients. They have one same thing in common; they thrive to improve things for the better, not just for themselves, but for their entire companies. They have the courage to drive changes to bring their companies to be the best in class. They care about their people. They are true professionals and pleasure to work with.

THANK YOU! I would personally like to thank Jarda Rasa from ABRA Software, Renata Stastna from Axial, Bohuslav Bohunek from Trend Marketing, Dita Stejskalova from Ogilvy PR and Jarda Jira from GfK for being such a great clients!

THANK YOU ALL who read this blog which aims to inspire and provoke thoughts. I really appreciate your regular visits. I am very encouraged and grateful to see the growing viewership from all over the world. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Successful Year 2011!

P.S. Rhonda Byrne (the author of The Secret, and The Power) on Gratitude:

"Do not worry at all about negative thoughts, and do not try to control them. All you have to do is begin to think good thoughts each day. Plant as many good thoughts as you can in each day. As you begin to think good thoughts you will attract more and more good thoughts, and eventually the good thoughts will wipe out the negative thoughts altogether."

"Remember, if you are criticizing, you are not being grateful. If you are blaming, you are not being grateful. If you are complaining, you are not being grateful. If you are feeling tension, you are not being grateful. If you are rushing, you are not being grateful. If you are in a bad mood, you are not being grateful. Gratitude can transform your life. Are you allowing minor things to get in the way of your transformation and the life you deserve?"

Why Is The CEO Role Not Always Attractive?

This may surprise you. Or may be not. Depending on your personal desires.  It was definitely an eye-opener for me, when I have recently started my lecture to Top Students at the University.  “I do not want to be a CEO, I really do not want that role”, said many students in one voice. “Because it is so much stressful to lead others. Because you do not have your work-life-balance. Because being a CEO you lose yourself. You lose your comfort“.

For a second I have stopped breathing. So what do you like to do? This should be a group of future leaders, how come they do not give themselves stretched targets? How come they dismiss the opportunity without at least considering it? Why they do not want to pretend they have the CEO hat for about four hours ?

The mood in the room changed the more I have talked about the art of business strategy and creativity needed in its implementation, the more I have honestly answered their questions related to personal journey towards the CEO job. I have shared my failures and victories. I have talked about my determination, courage and perseverance, never giving up. I have stood there - in front of the students’ eyes wide open - talking about the need to stay honest and true to self, true to own values and principles, not minding to be different , with a strong need for improving the world for the better.  

The students’ desire to achieve something meaningful in life has suddenly increased. The personally built obstacles in the minds of students have been one by one dissolved.

“WOW, I do not have to be a born CEO, I can work my way towards it”. Or “I have realized as CEO I can have emotions. I can stay myself,” the other student said. “Maybe it is not a bad idea in few years to come to be a CEO, to have the chance to influence others“.

The students’ eyes started to be filled with hope and vision. They started to understand that there is no solution for them to be served on a silver plate. They have to create THEIR future. They have to start to be in charge. They have to fill in themselves the white sheet of paper I gave them in sealed envelopes.

For sure we all cannot be the CEOs, but we should have our goals, where we want to grow. We should put ourselves up on a journey of constant learning. We should allow ourselves to have our desires. We should stop blocking or sabotaging ourselves. The fact that we consistently and positively dream about something means that we have the capacity to make it happen. We should enable our personal potential to be elevated to the next level. To be able to creatively “fly in the sky”, full of new energy and comfort, achieving personal satisfaction.

And my final message to the students? Only those who search will find. Keep looking!

P.S.: “There is nothing honorable on being better than others. The grandeur lays in being better than ourselves yesterday.” Robin S. Sharma

The Invisible Hurdles of Acquisitions

You must have heard about it or you have lived through it yourself. The selected Company is a target for acquisition. Financials are calculated. Consultants and lawyers are paid huge fees. The acquisitions is completed. Now what?


The reality comes into question. The details are not thought through. Synergies from the paper do not materialize. Employees live in uncertainty for many months. Nobody is sure about the future vision, strategy or structure. Original top management is no better off, as the information embargo continues towards them as well. The conquerors do not trust the "old guard". They better exchange them. New management team comes to rule. Neglecting all the good and bad things from previous leaders. Links to customers, consumers and brands heritage are broken. Uncertainty and unclarity begins to prevail.
Why the top leaders did not properly think about the people and cultures involved? Why they did not value the experience and roots of the target company? Why only the "hard" financial risks have been considered?

According to official data up to 70% of all mergers and acquisitions do not meet financial expectations because of people factor. Either the key employees leave and keep the knowledge to themselves or different company cultures stop them to utilize their knowledge and experience. Many top people do not manage to accept the new management style or they struggle with conflicting management objectives. The pain begins. 2+2 equals just 3.

Fortunately there are leaders who put the consumers, customers and employees first. Like Mars acquiring Wrigley or P&G acquiring Gillette. These belong to a small group of about 17% of all transactions that bring ROI back to shareholders. They can be happy not only that the stock price grows, but the brand equities are further built, customers are kept satisfied. The drivers of success of  the successful cases lay not just in their high professional know-how in business and people side. "Gillette and P&G had similar cultures and complementary core strengths in branding, innovation, scale and go-to-market capabilities, making it a terrific fit,"as P&G chief executive A.G. Lafley summarized in 2005. Last but not least they benefited also from the fact that one American Company acquired another. Americans understand their own business language.

It will be interesting now to observe the outcome of PepsiCo acquisition of Russia's Wimm-Bill-Dann Dairy and Juice Company from Dec.2nd at $ 3.8 billion.Will it belong also to the successful 17%? Yes, looking gorgeous on the paper. PepsiCo becomes the largest food-and-beverage business in Russia, and it also strengthens its position in fast growing Eastern European and Central Asian Markets. But how will American direct and transparent, quarterly results driven PepsiCo culture cope with Russian hierarchical, relationships to government based Company mentality?

The value and volume of M&A transaction is much lower nowadays during crisis, however the successful companies continue to look for their targets. Procter&Gamble's CEO Bob McDonald during his September 2010 visit of Romania proclaimed that he is interested in acquisition of Beiersdorf if the price is right (Beiersdorf market capitalization estimated at $ 14.7 - 15.3 billion). Steve Jobs's Apple has according to official declaration from this October available $ 51 billion for acquisition of another company. Knowing Steve's art of making things happen right we will learn soon about the target. He is known for his PR announcements for things to come.

Successful companies understand that if they want to keep the momentum, organic growth is not enough. If they want to further build their competencies and competitive advantage in technology, if they want to expand geographically or just capitalize on synergies, they have to keep looking for their targets. But only if they manage the people side well, they can hope to achieve the desired 2+2=5 effect.

The Power of Fulfilled Promise

Promises should be kept, not only during Christmas. The biggest challenge is to keep the promises that we gave ourselves. Voluntarily. Out of our best intentions. Improving our fitness. Improving our relationships with others. Or improving the way we give back to the society, to those, who are young and deserve our development support or who may not be as lucky as we are. We have to take our leadership, our personal initiative to surpass the hurdles on the way. We have to thrive to overcome our laziness or our hesitance to expose ourselves publicly. We have to be sure we can stand for our word. At any costs. Only then we will be able to look ourselves up in the mirror and feel relieved we have done our job.

Anthony Robbins (50), the American coaching guru, as a teenager lived for a while in poverty. When some stranger came to his family and brought food and gifts for Thanksgiving, Anthony has sworn that if he ever became successful, he wanted to share his fortune with others. Nowadays Anthony always does something nice for those in the need. Especially for Thanksgiving. He keeps his promise.

Bill Gates (55), famous philantroper and owner of charitable Foundation, several years ago joined the worldwide initiative End Poverty 2015. He is so committed to deliver on his promise, that he started in 2010 together with his wife Melinda and with Warren Buffet (80) an initiative ("Giving Pledge") asking top billionaires in the World to contribute at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death. And they were the first role models. Bill Gates donated 30+ billion USD already. Warren Buffet plans to give to charity 99% of his fortune i.e. 44 bil. USD at death. This kind of leadership is revolutionary and unheard of. The fact that Bill means it honestly and does not use it only as a self promo campaign, the fact that the second richest man in the world is ready to share his fortune with others to tackle AIDS, tuberculosis, polio or to fund famine-resistant crops to fight hunger, creates high social buzz. He stands for his word. He started to understand the reason why he had the gift to rule the world of the Rich. Because he can now give back more than others.

We do not have to commit as much as Bill Gates or as Warren Buffet do. We do not have to wait to be 50+. It is sometimes enough if we volunteer our time to the good cause or share just small amounts from our income. NOW. Immediately.

Different people live different lives, give different promises, have different possibilities. But only true leaders create the difference. They demonstrate their determination and are ready to give back to the society, to the people around them and to their family. They show they have not forgotten their roots. They have learned that by giving others they give something warm and nice mainly to themselves. They award themselves with self fulfillment. And they become instantly much more rich.

What promises do you plan to give yourself NOW? Or for the New Year?

Freedom of Speech

Have you learnt to express yourself during your life time experiences? Are you a born speaker of your mind? Are you honest with yourself and ready to stand up for your thoughts? In the end these questions can only be answered by action.Your action. Do it or don’t do it.

This dilemma came to many of us in the Czech Republic 21 years ago. Should we express our opinions and go to Albertov (in the center of Prague) on Friday, November 17^th, 1989 and later next week each day to the Wenceslas Square, when armored carriers surrounded the crowds and police was beating people and filming everybody to assure consequences could be taken? What was the risk of participating for us or for our families? Are we able to stand for our opinions at any price? No-one knew what will be the response from military forces, from secret police or communistic politicians. Many of our parents have already paid their price 21 years before (1968) and thus may not be as optimistic about the outcome. We knew we have just our strong will and naked hands, lighted candles as expression of us being innocent and set of keys to make a symbolic noise. We have had enough of the current system.

Our inexperienced youth and our strong desire to change things for the better gave us the courage to participate in demonstrations and to express ourselves. Freely after so many years of suppression and no ability to raise our voice without punishment . Only an innocent singing of national songs walking home at night with group of friends resulted in being taken over by police and being questionned whole night at the police station, released in the end with a warning to be fired from the University next time. Only an innocent question during lessons of history could cause a trouble, as I realized even myself.  Many teachers themselves were proud to be loyal communists. On the other hand – to my surprise – even some of them were secret heroes. Like the one who was teaching me the subject of Scientific Communism at the University of Economics. He encouraged us already on Wednesday Nov. 15^th, two days before the outburst started, to come with candles to Albertov. He said good-bye, see you there … and do not be surprised if our Scientific Communism subject will not continue next week anymore. He definitely had more insights than many of us had at that time. And he decided to speak out his mind and influence us, the 21years-old students. He transformed himself from teacher of communistic ideas to a leader who realized he has to make up for a mistake he has done when choosing this subject for teaching. He has helped to awaken our inner voice to say we have had enough.

We have expressed the courage in the streets of Prague, but we were scared when we heard from radio (the forbidden Voice of America) that one student was killed. We have learnt only several days later, that that this was just a provocation that should manipulate the masses. But our voices started to be much lauder. We felt the power of the higher purpose. We have represented an idea, a possibility. A possibility to live a normal life, a possibility to fight for the World to be a better place even in the Czech republic.

The outcome of these November days 21years ago are well known for everybody.  We have a democracy with its pluses and minuses. The fact that we can express ourselves anywhere anytime is not anymore a perceived value. People take it for granted and focus more on other - e.g. material things.

Many years passed and some Czechs have forgotten the true status of things that we lived during the era of Communism. They complain about current system and say that it was much better then, when everybody had a job and was materially equal (not true, but verbally often articulated by the Communists). They still continue to vote the Communistic party. To my great sadness.

I wish that the Freedom of Speech and Speeches of Freedom will continue to represent a value for us - the Czech citizens. I wish everybody will appreciate the freedom we have helped to establish.

I wish that people will continue to want to make a diference in this World despite possible negative personal consequences. Because if we are not thriving to make the World a better place, we are wasting our time.

P.S. The fact that I am writing this blog on Nov. 21st, about an event happening 21 years ago, when I was 21 years old, and my father that time had a 21st anniversary of his 1968 Prague Spring participance is really only a co-incidence :-).