Seatree Business Consulting Ltd.

Poor Lindsey Stone. One silly photo wrecked her life for awhile. Have you encountered any haters or bullies online? You know, those nefarious idiots who delight in personal attacks, simply because they can do so anonymously. Whether your online presence tells your own personal story or that of your company or product, that story is your brand, and it can be easily damaged by haters. How to protect yourself? Seed the internet with positive stories about yourself or your compan...y. Get your message out there, framed in the way you want it framed, loud and proud. That is how you build a brand, whether personal or corporate. Google notices relevant, consistent, quality content and will reward you with a higher ranking. And you will push the negative stuff to the fringes where, one hopes, it belongs (unless you actually deserve to be publicly shamed!) ... Poor Lindsey Stone. The story below is a cautionary tale, plus a how-to on reputation management ... (you need to skip by the first third of the article, which is tangential) to get to the interesting stuff about poor Ms. Stone. http://www.theguardian.com//internet-shaming-lindsey-stone

New Year, New Opportunities, Blah Blah Blah? Seriously. What will you DO this year? That's all you really need to know. You will get there by dedication and hustle. You will succeed if you learn from your mistakes and find solutions. There is no other way to move forward. DO IT NOW.

Somehow, marketing communication seems contrary to good manners. We are taught to be humble and not brag on ourselves, but good marketing communications tell a story loud enough for our prospective customers to hear and forcefully enough for people to believe what we are saying. This is a form of bragging and boasting and self-promoting. Sounds terrible? Actually, few of us would be here today if one of our parents hadn't successful promoted himself or herself to our other parent. People say that bragging is bad manners, but little gets done between people if we do not promote ourselves in some way. Business people can take comfort in this truth, and can then look for ways to promote more effectively, knowing that this will contribute to their increasing success.

Tesla has broken ground on a huge battery manufacturing facility in Reno and is ramping up to build millions of cars in the coming ten years, anticipating growing demand for electric vehicles. However, the falling price of oil threatens to derail their projections. People who would buy the coming low-priced models to save on fuel costs will be less inclined to do so if gas is cheap. A large part of business strategy involves trying to predict broad future trends and then deve...loping products and services to meet the needs of future customers. Blackberry did this spectacularly ten years ago, when they anticipated the demand for email services on mobile phones. This one insight (followed by successful execution) minted a whole bunch of new billionaires and birthed the "smartphone" industry. In your business, are you actively planning to meet the probable/possible future needs of your customers? One way to do this is to devote a percentage of your resources to new product/service development. Google famously lets staff spend 20% of their time on the development of new products outside their current product line. Business is all about anticipating the needs of customers. The history of business is littered with the wreckage of businesses that stuck with old business models and failed to adapt to changing needs (Following its success with email phones, Blackberry failed to understand the demand for apps and was therefore crushed by Apple and Android). Make "future dreaming and planning" an official structured part of your business. Everyone on your team should be charged with the task of helping to discover and invent the future. Hold annual retreats and quarterly meetings to figure out what you need to do to evolve. Put energy into exploring new ideas and new ways of doing things. Try to understand what will make the lives of your customers better in a year or in 3-5 years. By doing so, you provide your business a mechanism to change and adapt. You will breathe new energy and new life into your business and open new doors of opportunity.

"Even if you are on the right track, You’ll get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers

"You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong." Warren Buffett

When We Were Kings Entrepreneurs and top-level executives have something in common: both groups have the power of kings (or queens, depending on your gender) to choose the direction in which they want to go and then execute the plan. No matter how large or small the business under your direction, you are constrained only by the regulatory environment, economic realities, and your own vision or lack thereof. This is the reason why capitalism attracts so many of the brightest a...Continue reading

Market Research For Market Leadership Does market research cause "analysis paralysis" or does it really help firms to develop more successful products? This article looks at the folly and costs of ignoring market realities and provides a practical framework for an effective approach to research that will help to prevent analysis paralysis while increasing the odds of success in the market. MAKING THE CASE FOR RESEARCH...Continue reading

Using Pricing As A Strategic Tool Do you base product prices on the cost of production or the market's perception of value? This article looks at ways to make pricing a strategic rather than a purely financial decision and to break out of conventional paradigms and explore possible new revenue models. STRATEGIC PRICING...Continue reading

What It Takes To Close The Deal Whether you want to close a major account sale or raise venture financing or convince a star executive to join your team or enter a new partnership, you face the challenge of overcoming doubts and misgivings and winning the agreement of decision-makers. This article describes what it takes to get to "yes" and ensure that the deal, whatever it is you are working on, will have the best chance of success. GETTING TO "YES"...Continue reading