The Most Successful Companies in the World: What Do They Have In Common?

According to Shel Horowitz in this article, here are the top five things the most successful companies in the world have in common:

1. They have a cause, not a wimpy, committee-driven “mission statement.”
   People who work there know they’re part of a big, bold, meaningful idea to fix a problem or make the world better.
2. They let go of things that aren’t working — even entire companies.
   Let go of “yesterday’s breadwinners” and of doing things the way they’ve always been done.
3. They understand that success is not about mere customer satisfaction — but about utterly delighting the right customers…and choosing not to do business with the wrong customers.
   You learn how to utterly satisfy your customers simply by asking them.
4. Everyone in the company thinks and acts like an owner.
   They know — and evangelize — the value of the company, and they know what value they add. They are empowered to make decisions and compensated for the value they add.
5. The leaders see themselves as stewards.
   They share information freely, make themselves accessible, avoid artificial barriers (like fancy offices and fancy suits), and pitch in whenever and wherever they’re needed. In general, they do this out of the public eye; they don’t seek publicity, and they don’t have an exit strategy, because they love what they do.

The Economist: Why PR?

Earlier this year, The Economist published a story on the public relations industry (Do we have a story for you! – 19 January 2006, Print Edition). Here are some interesting thoughts from The Economist:

• For business, PR is an increasingly vital marketing tool—especially as traditional forms of advertising struggle to catch consumers’ attention.
• PR is surprisingly effective, at least according to a recent study by Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest consumer-products group.
• In a recent internal study, P&G concluded that the return was often better from a PR campaign than from traditional forms of advertising, according to Hans Bender, the firm’s manager of external relations.
• Spending on PR in America has been growing strongly and reached some $3.7 billion last year
• Marketing PR – is also sometimes called “brand communications”

Sun Tzi on Strategy

Two great quotations:

The victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

Follow Through Writing

Sometimes, when the going gets tough – writing becomes very perfunctory… and quite dead.

That’s when I tell myself that I need to start writing with FOLLOW THROUGH.

I “bang!” at the beginning, but also all the way through the end. (Too often, good copy drops the ball somewhere along the line)

Value Add!

When something comes into your hands, it should leave better than when it arrived.

That’s what it means to value add.

And that’s powerful. “Value-adders” bring so much, well… value to the process that they become… *ahem* valuable.

Let everything that passes you (reports, news, ideas, etc.) leave better than when it arrived!