Business Trends

Force Field Analysis (FFA)

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Force Field Analysis – Lewin, Kurt

According to Kurt Lewin “An issue is held in balance by the interaction of two opposing sets of forces – those seeking to promote change (driving forces) and those attempting to maintain the status quo (restraining forces)”. Lewin viewed organizations as systems in which the present situation was not a static pattern, but a dynamic balance (“equilibrium”) of forces working in opposite directions. In order for any change to occur, the driving forces must exceed the restraining forces, thus shifting the equilibrium.

If you need to outsource, do this analysis first.

Changes in the Way We Work

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Predictions for 2010: Five Changes in the Way We Work – Tammy Erickson – Harvard Business Review

Recessions unquestionably leave a mark on the way we work. The approaches companies use to respond to difficult business conditions don’t only affect the company — they leave a lasting impression on the workers (and the workers’ teen-age children, who draw conclusions for their career strategy based on their parents’ experience).

Read this short post.

Now think about it.

A Social Marketing Success Story – Ford

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How Ford Got Social Marketing Right – BusinessWeek

There is an awful lot of aimless experiment in the digital space these days. A lot of people who appear not to have a clue are selling digital marketing advice. I think the Fiesta Movement gives us new clarity. It’s a three-step process.

• Engage culturally creative consumers to create content.
• Encourage them to distribute this content on social networks and digital markets in the form of a digital currency.
• Craft this is a way that it rebounds to the credit of the brand, turning digital currency (and narrative meaning) into a value for the brand.

In effect, outsource some of our marketing work. And in the process, turn the brand itself into an “agent” and an enabler of cultural production that is interesting and fun. Now the marketer is working with contemporary culture instead of against it. And everyone is well-served.

“We’re All Temps Now”

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Very good BW article.  Ignore at your own risk.

The Disposable Worker – BusinessWeek

You know American workers are in bad shape when a low-paying, no-benefits job is considered a sweet deal. Their situation isn’t likely to improve soon; some economists predict it will be years, not months, before employees regain any semblance of bargaining power. That’s because this recession’s unusual ferocity has accelerated trends—including offshoring, automation, the decline of labor unions’ influence, new management techniques, and regulatory changes—that already had been eroding workers’ economic standing.

The forecast for the next five to 10 years: more of the same, with paltry pay gains, worsening working conditions, and little job security. Right on up to the C-suite, more jobs will be freelance and temporary, and even seemingly permanent positions will be at greater risk. “When I hear people talk about temp vs. permanent jobs, I laugh,” says Barry Asin, chief analyst at the Los Altos (Calif.) labor-analysis firm Staffing Industry Analysts. “The idea that any job is permanent has been well proven not to be true.” As Kelly Services (KELYA) CEO Carl Camden puts it: “We’re all temps now.”

Know Thy Customer

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There’s a lesson in here for insurance marketers too.  We are witnessing human behavior changes in consumption and spending on a mass scale. This time, it’s really different.

Hard Times Have Younger Floridians Catching the Early Bird – NYTimes.com

Many restaurant owners, on Florida’s east and west coasts, now report seeing behavioral changes that remind them of the generation that survived the Depression. In addition to coming in early for specials, they said, more customers have been using coupons, sitting down only after studying the menu and wasting less food.