Nuke business meetings, save productivity

I just launched a free meeting time, cost, and waste tracker app for android and was pleasantly surprised to topic discussed on linkedIn today. The crux of the article is summed up pretty well at the end "The traditional business meeting is broken. Transform it by keeping it timely, concise, and used only when necessary."
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This topic and the recommendations are not surprising, however, what is surprising is that this same discussion comes up over and over again. It's easy to forget the meetings are tools, and as tools they serve a purpose in moving business forward. This is best accomplished when everyone involved knows what the purpose is, and meeting attendees act to respect that purpose.

That doesn't mean that all meetings need to be short. Some of the best meetings are the "brainstorms" that energizes people and gets innovation and creativity on the table. I've seen many of those take a while to get into a creative flow. On the other hand, some meetings serve as an opportunity to berate and belittle others, and those can be severely damaging to the business, personnel, and attitude.

That said, I won't waste any more of your time, but please do check out my time, cost, and waste app.

Does Bullying Ever Work to Motivate Employees?

I've heard that startups sometimes think of themselves as strike teams working as a tight knit stealthy force to take down opponents. Unfortunately, modelling a business on that analogy comes with limitations, as a strike team is never intended to become large thriving business, and the policies and strategies that may have worked in a small strike team break down and give way to intimidation-like tendencies. I was reminded of this in an article about intimidation as a management style.

The story used to make the point is a bit long and drawn out, but it does make a good point. Intimidation does not breed a work force that will stand by you when times get tough. The intimidated will move to better opportunities, while those who have no options will stay behind. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if you foster personal ownership and self-motivation, employees won't see a downturn as a chance to run away, but instead a chance to prove that they were right or that they can make a difference.

I've surely over simplified the article, but it's a good read that can make you think about management and how motivations can impact company success.

Findability is better than SEO?

How do you find things when you don't know what you're looking for?

Source: Chitka.com, June 7, 2013

The obvious answer would be search, and that makes sense, as you can search via dictionary, book index, or via any of several online search engines. The same could apply to buyers of your product or service. Remember, however, to look at the bigger picture - purchasing is about trust. When someone decides to buy from you, they are expressing some level of trust, and whether you like it our not, a product vendor shouting that they have the best product might create awareness that you THINK that you have the best product, but that may not convince someone to buy.

I would propose that the your excellent SEO is necessary, but not sufficient. Generic external links to your site will help the SEO, but external links that are relevant can provide the external validation for your product that provides even more value visitors if they find you via an educational link, an independent third party, or a comparison site. Links of this nature can be earned via hard social media efforts, a PR push, or even participating in online forums or places where your customer might be, such as stackexchange for programmers or LinkedIn for human resources professionals.

So when you look at the image in this post from Chitka.com, where the source article stated "Sites listed on the first Google search results page generate 92% of all traffic from an average search", think about more than just traffic. You want traffic that trusts you and with whom you can build a financial relationship. If you just build traffic without trust, what was the point?