High Context Consulting

Archive for March, 2008

March 26, 2008

Firing by E-mail

I responded to a press inquiry this week about whether firing people by e-mail is a good practice. After picking up my jaw, I responded with the following:

Any executive who fires employees by e-mail should be fired from the closest available window. It is management by cowardice, pure and simple.

There are three reasons why firing by e-mail is a bad idea:

It is inhumane. Anyone losing their job, no matter how deserving, should be shown the respect and basic decency of it being done in person by someone in authority. (This is reason enough not to fire by e-mail.)
It creates risk. E-mails can easily be sent to the wrong people or at the wrong time. Either error can spur employee behavior and actions that will be harmful to the company. It is rare for someone to be terminated too soon or mistakenly when done in person.
It is too easy for the firer. Firing should be a last resort outside of extreme cases. Sending an e-mail allows the executive to terminate someone in the abstract rather than facing them personally. You are more likely to make the right decision if you are willing to deliver the message to their face.

Terminating employees is something every manager has to do as part of their duties. When termination is warranted, have the guts to do it in person. It is the right thing to do as a human being and as a good manager.

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March 25, 2008

Social Value

Kevin Holland doesn’t care about your Twitter tweats. I’m with ya Kevin. I posted last year that the only interesting use I saw of twitter was as a mini travelogue posted by a friend traveling Cuba, using SMS to get around limited and heavily filtered internet access in the country. Now that was some compelling text written for the medium.

Any online media you publish has to provide value. The same goes for social media, where you are hoping to facilitate connections and collaboration among people. The value may be personal, professional or some mix of the two but it has to be there to maintain audience and participation.

Focusing on value is a cornerstone of how I work with clients and Kevin’s post shows very well why that is critical. It is too easy to chase after the shiny new toy instead of making a realistic assessment of the value you can create with it.

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March 21, 2008

Fear of litigation is the mind killer.

Hullabaloo over social media legal issues rears its head yet again in the association world.

Here is the deal folks: if your association tends to get sued or investigated over the comments of your members or staff every few years, then sponsoring participatory media activities may enhance that risk. For everyone else, get over it.

I am not a lawyer, therefore I can actually offer common sense advice about the online world.

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March 12, 2008

Measuring ‘Completeness’ to Encourage Action

LinkedIn has been doing this for a while and I just noticed it on Slideshare as well: alerting users to the completeness of their profile.

LinkendIn Status Bar
LinkedIn

This strikes me as a very subtle yet effective way to get your users to provide more information about themselves in their profile. Who doesn’t want to get to 100%? If there is underlying value to the user, it should really accelerate completion of user profiles by raising awareness and granting some Pavlovian eye candy as well.

SlideShare Status Bar
SlideShare

If your site invites your members to submit profile type data, you could do worse things than to add a percent complete status bar to your interface.

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March 10, 2008

Going Global by Going Small?

Data from the end of 2007 show that about 20% of the world’s population have access to the Internet while around 50% have cell phones.

What does this imply for how potential customers will be viewing your site, especially in the developing part of the world where cellular networks leapfrog land lines? Checked your site in a cell phone browser lately?

Relatedly, below are the slides from the presentation on global web strategy I gave last week at ASAE’s International Conference. Thanks to the 100+ people in the session. Great audience with very good questions. Also, my thanks to the SHRM contingent for playing along in a surprise case study of their efforts!

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about addressing international audiences with your web presence.

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March 4, 2008

Your Global Web Site

Ever since a Brit invented it in Switzerland as part of a European scientific organization, the Web has been intended as a global medium.

Once your site is live, you immediately have access to a global audience that is only going to grow and diversify further in the future. I remember being amazed by the immediate flow of e-mail from around the globe that I started receiving once my name and address were listed as a resource on a new site that launched in 1995.

Yet, most organizations completely ignore the potential for addressing global audiences and their unique needs. The web is an often efficient way to grow your customer base around the world but it will only work effectively in that role if you develop a strategy for why those audiences will receive value from you.

I am speaking on this very issue Thursday at ASAE & the Center’s International Conference in Washington, DC. You can see the program agenda on their site and I have posted my session description below.

If you have any questions you would like addressed during the event, be sure to post them here or send me an e-mail at david@highcontext.com.

(As an aside, with all of its global initiatives, why does ASAE give the International Conference short shrift with an anemic web presence? Seems rather short sighted to me.)

Making your Web Go World Wide: Global Web Site Strategy

The Web is a powerful vehicle for establishing and enhancing your global presence. Maximizing the contribution of your web site to your international strategy takes much more than translating a few pages of content. This session will zero in on these key issues:

Defining global strategy in terms of the Web

Common strategies and design patterns for global web sites

A decision framework for evaluating which approach best supports your goals

Leave this session with a clear understanding of how the Web can support your association’s international goals and how to make it happen.

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March 3, 2008

Nickels and Dimes

The Washington Post wrote on Sunday that most banks hide the total list of all fees that they charge customers. All fees are not listed on most sites and agents were unable to get a full list of fees when they requested one in person at a branch.

Since the advent of ATM fees, many, many banks have realized they can nickel and dime (or dollar and twenty) their customers without losing many of them if they make the fees non-obvious or hard to avoid. This added millions to the bottom line but what a way to treat your customers. It leaves a huge opportunity to differentiate your company by treating your customers as valued business instead of cash trees to be shaken for spare change.

Even the cellular companies are starting to clue into this. Most of the major players have rolled out unlimited talk plans for around $99/month. AT&T even offers a truly unlimited data plan to go with it (most others charge extra fees over a certain amount of bandwidth used). These plans only make sense for people who talk a LOT on their phones. These are also some of the most profitable customers they have as well. Why not treat them well with a plan that eases their mind about no additional fees while also making good money for the company. That’s the kind of dynamic you should look for.

Amazon’s Prime membership is another example of this virtuous circle. Prime members receive free 2-day shipping on their purchases: the more they buy from Amazon the more valuable the membership. Nice dynamic!

Look for those virtuous circles in your own company or organization when considering pricing strategy. Money given to you should be in exchange for value, not as an involuntary ransom or tithe.