In today’s big-fat-slow companies there are good cogs and bad cogs—which type are you?  Do you think you are indispensable?  I doubt that you are…yet.
  
Want to become a trusted linchpin that people go to and enjoy working with?   Then you must get Seth Godin’s best-seller Linchpin.  Seth has once again delivered a gift that will allow readers to reboot themselves in remarkable ways.  I recommend you skim it and then reread it slowly—honestly internalizing it, and taking it personally.

Linchpin is a major upgrade to the how-to self-help cook books on the shelves—with Seth taking you on a more realistic journey toward becoming a remarkably invaluable resource. My guess is that becoming a linchpin-in-training is a lot of work—because it is not a cookie cutter deal—you need to do it in your own creative and amazing way.

I know that Linchpin readers will become increasingly indispensable, by reengaging in work guided by their true passions.   I also think that the people who invest in themselves and follow Seth’s sage advice will be a key part of the next-generation of innovators and leaders—because they will become independent thinkers and unique doers as they pursue their life’s work.

When I worked with Seth, and The Group 33, writing The Big Moo we had a lot of fun blending some of our best thoughts on how people can stop trying to be perfect—and just be remarkable.  Now, when I’m Rebooting companies, I focus on three areas that have proven to have more meaningful, systemic and long-term impacts on the performance of an organization: People Reboots, Platform Reboots and Passion Reboots—with Seth’s help you can get started on rebooting your passion now! 

Communicating more effectively calls for tools that help connect and interact with people.  Easy to say—tough to do in meetings.   Every day, thousands of meetings take place—inside big fat organizations—that are painfully regulated by a presenter clicking through a slide deck.  Too often, the real (hidden) agenda for many is to just get through the deck—instead of accomplishing something remarkable.  I’ve been guilty of this as well.  Rather than insuring consistency, with everyone using “up-to-date”  logos and company PPT templates, I find it’s best to be inconsistent.  Many of us use things like flip charts to make things more spontaneous, creative or iterative—but it is not useful enough.

To reboot the same old meeting fatigue, I like to inject even more random tools,  from Power Point (admittedly) and Keynote, to Post Its and flip charts, to audio, video and live web surfing tours,  and my favorite, big white boards (preferably floor to ceiling size) to help visualize and develop ideas more collaboratively.  White-boarding can be more engaging, but you can find yourself loosing people in complex discussions and drawings, because it does not provide the best platform for those who may need more structured discussions and ideation.  What’s often needed is something everyone can gather around to discuss, and—absent a nice fire or a talking stick to pass around—I find maps often do the trick.

 
One group I like is  Maga Maps.  They develop collaborative maps (like this one) that can be hung on the wall, in all sizes, to help a team focus in on what’s important.  Where slides fail to encourage collaboration, maps prompt people to get out of their chairs, gather around a single focal point and participate in an interactive discussion.  I also like to leave the maps up after a meeting—often in the hallways—so people can continue the discussions and hopefully innovation long after the meeting has ended.

Maps don’t have to be fancy and formal like this one—you can simply draw it on the white board before the meeting.  Try using maps for one of your meetings and see what happens to the creativity and energy in the room.  If you are really brave, loose the chairs…and maybe even the conference room!

One of my Reboot Rules deals with keeping your business fun for you and your colleagues.  Without fun–most people at work are simply not happy.  Unfortunately, happy talent is a secret weapon companies don’t invest enough in–especially big fat ones.  It’s not easy to Reboot happiness–until now.  Ted Leonsis has a new book coming out called “The Business of Happiness: 6 Secrets to Extraordinary Success in Life and Work.”    He developed the book with another former AOL’er John Buckley and it will be released Feb. 8 by Regnery Publishing. 

I sold one of my companies, Imagination Network, to AOL and Ted became our Chairman after the acquisition.  I was fortunate to work for Ted as we expanded the new AOL games channels.  Ted is a remarkable mentor, boss and friend and I appreciate his advice—he’s a motivator and one of the top creative business minds.  In the book, Ted gives his take on being happy before, during and after success and how/why happiness needs to be a systemic part of a business. 

But the book is more than just Secrets to Extraordinary Success, it is filled with great stories you will enjoy.  And just as if you were sitting in the cafiteria at AOL having a cup of coffee with Ted, the book comes to life and takes you on an amazing journey with stories about his life, work and passions.  From his early beginings, to the turbulent times that he (and many of us) experienced at AOL—you will be inspired and closer to understanding the business of happiness.

You will have to read the book to get the detail on the  6 Secrets, but here is a teaser to get you started:

1. Your Life List
2. Multiple Communities of Interest
3. Finding Outlets of Self Expression
4. Gratitude
5. Giving Back
6. A Higher Calling

For those of you who have not been as fortunate as me to actually work with Ted, here is your chance….. Pre-order Ted’s book now and enjoy his happiness/success secrets!

 We could use more VC’s, investors and board members like Sherlock Holmes—now more than ever. 

Like me, David B. Lerner did not only enjoy the new Sherlock Holmes movie, but he was also inspired by how Holmes would be a sought-after advisor/innovator today.  In this guest post, The Ideal Venture Capitalist: Top Ten Reasons Sherlock Holmes Fits the Bill, David says he “was struck by the realization that Sherlock would have made an amazing venture capitalist!  ‘What a perfectly silly notion my dear Watson!’, he would no doubt have replied.  But I would have to insist and say that VC’s and Angel Investors young and old would do well to emulate some of Sherlock’s best qualities. Here they are as I see them”: 

1)    Complete and Utter Attention to his Clients:
When he meets with someone, his total absorption in their presence is legendary. (He would, for example, never dare distractedly glance through his mail when receiving a guest- as many a VC are criticized for doing via their blackberrys).  He also is incredibly respectful and courteous to his clients, always responding to their telegrams promptly. 

2)    Immensely Perceptive and Observant:  
LP’s looking for capital efficient managers take heed! Forget about your GP’s spending money to perform diligence on entrepreneurs. With Sherlock as the Managing Director, he can tell you a person’s entire story and background after the first meeting! He takes the meaning of due diligence to another level entirely.

3)    He’s a World-Travelled, Experienced Entrepreneur Himself:
Worried (as Hoegaerden is) about “sub-prime VC’s”? Holmes is no newly-minted, blue-blazered-stiff-of-an-MBA just off the VC conveyor belt with no life-experience. He’s traveled the world, has enormous wisdom and runs the 19^th century equivalent of a garage start-up consultancy with Dr. Watson.

4)    Massive Intellectual Curiosity, Great Erudition:
Here’s a VC who doesn’t rest on his laurels and past accomplishments. He is constantly learning, reading, studying and staying abreast of new trends, the news, the latest technologies. He is the first Western martial artist, a naturalist, an amateur chemist par-excellence and an early adopter of the newest technologies and techniques available.

5)    Loves the Big Idea, Huge Risk-Taker & Admires Disruption:
Here’s a true innovator not content with following the herd and investing in the latest incremental fad. He himself is disrupting the law enforcement industry with his own super-lean startup! The bungling bureaucracy of Scotland Yard and Inspector Lestrade are no match for Holmes’ home-grown operation with a staff of two, (three if you include his landlady, Mrs. Hudson).  He’s confident and capable enough to trust his own vision and therefore is ready to tackle the biggest, toughest, most elusive problems in the marketplace! 

6)    Great Mentor, Coach and Board Member:
He leads by example, has intelligently advised innumerable clients and has helped Watson hone his now considerable skills as a crime-stopper. He anticipates events, predicts how people will react and has a keen sense of danger. Such a mentor could help any entrepreneur with the sales, marketing and hiring process, not to mention with the design of an effective strategic plan. He would make a great Board Member. 

7)    Great Ear for the Customer:
When it comes to understanding the views of the man on the street, no one is better than Holmes. He’s as comfortable in the elegant drawing rooms of 221B Baker Street as he is on the vilest lanes of London, has roughed it in disguise many a time and is known to have eyes and ears throughout the city. He has no allegiance to class, no patience for pomposity and judges a person on their individual merits.

8)    Driven with Enormous Energy:
Here’s a guy who loves his job, pulls all-nighters regularly and will take almost any meeting. He’s relentless and ultra-determined when trying to solve a problem and this is infectious to the entrepreneurs he funds and advises.

9)    High Standards & Innate Sense of What is Right:
Holmes is always very exacting of Watson and those around him, but never more than he is on himself. He takes on each engagement with an enormous sense of purpose and sense of what is inherently right. As many have said, he has his own sense of justice that is at times distinct from the rather blunt and un-nuanced version often displayed by his lemming-like colleagues at Scotland Yard.  A loyal teammate with an unfailing moral compass, he is an enormous asset to the companies in which he invests.

10) Sense of Humor:
Lastly, as Robert Downey Jr. exemplifies so well in the film, Sherlock has a terrific sense of fun and playfulness and mischief- rarely taking himself too seriously. It is always disarming and endears him to Watson and many of his clients.  He is respectful and yet irreverent all at once.

I see a lot 2010 activity in mobile and video–what are your predictions?  Here is a guest post from a good friend and colleague, Kelly Porter of  Woodside Capital Partners with his Top Ten M&A deals for 2010:

Digital media M&A activity is expected to pick up in 2010—big acquirers have significant cash on their balance sheets, share prices are up, and many good acquisition candidates are on the landscape. With this in mind, I’ve put together the following list of 10 interesting Digital Media M&A deals for 2010. Some are longshots, some are slam dunks; all would create compelling new opportunities and possibilities. It’s a list that was compiled in recent weeks over coffee with some of the brightest and most connected folks in the valley. Without further ado, here are the deals we envisioned:

1. Google acquires Roku

YouTube arguably holds the highest potential of Google’s major growth initiatives, capturing about 38% of video viewing on the web and serving more than 1 billion streams daily. However, the average YouTube user watches about five hours of TV daily versus only 15 minutes of YouTube. Moreover, consumers face a firehose of difficult-to-find viewing options on the YouTube site, with some 20 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute. Most important, Google is having trouble monetizing all that video content and YouTube is bleeding significant red ink. Rokuwould address all these issues plus extend the YouTube brand – via Roku’s set-top box. The Roku box currently streams content from sites like Netflixand Amazon VOD to a consumer’s television. Google could rebrand and supercharge the box with lots of cool new search features, interactivity, gaming, PVR functionality, a tier of Google-branded channels featuring popular YouTube content, plus add several tiers of channels from major studios, broadcast networks and cable networks. A freemium model could be deployed, with subscribers getting most content for free, and paying extra for premium tiers. Google could grow a potentially huge new revenue stream, plus the service would be a formidable competitor to the rumored Apple broadband TV service (Apple is reportedly talking to Disney and CBS about supplying content for the service). Some might say that Microsoft already tried this with WebTV; however WebTV never had the massive cross-promotion engines of YouTube and Google behind it.

2. Cisco acquires LinkedIn

Cisco’s pursuit of enterprise communications is important, and LinkedIn would be a natural and powerful extension of this strategy. LinkedIn is growing like wildfire, having nearly doubled its user base in the past two years and launched hot partnerships with companies like Microsoft, RIM and Twitter. Cisco’s acquisitions of WebEx, Tandberg, Jabber and PostPathwould be augmented by LinkedIn’s 53 million members globally, and some very cool and unique new applications could be created using the combined capabilities of LinkedIn and Cisco’s various divisions. LinkedIn’s estimated 2010 revenues are just over $200M and the company’s last fundraisingcame in 2008, with a valuation of approximately $1 billion. For Cisco, with a $138 billion market cap and $35 billion in cash and short-term equivalents, acquiring LinkedIn for a big premium to the company’s most recent valuation (which is what it would take to acquire LinkedIn) would use a relatively small amount of that cash and would create a meaningful strategic extension for Cisco in the social networking domain.

3. Fox Interactive Media / MySpace acquires Pandora

As many music services struggle, Pandora has reportedly skyrocketed to 40 million registered usersand is adding 600,000 new users per week. Pandora has become a bona fide internet behemoth, accounting for a reported 44% of internet radio listening, with half of that listening coming on mobile devices. One of MySpace’s great strengths is the social network’s music presence. In recent months, FIM/MySpace acquired imeem and iLike, but those acquisitions pale in comparison to a potential Pandora acquisition. A MySpace-Pandora combination would create formidable scale which would span multiple segments of the music industry—from coffee shop singer/songwriters to arena rock bands—and provide benefits to music consumers that are not available elsewhere. Pandora would also breathe new life into the MySpace brand, which has been lagging in the wake of Facebook.

4. Twitter acquires Twithawk, TweetMeme, bizz.ly, Skout and TwitJump

Some believe Twitter should sell to a larger company, but they are missing the greater opportunity.  Twitter enjoys massive potential as a standalone company. It is reminiscent of Yahoo! in 1995—a single compelling product, lots of traffic, growth potential and buzz, and poised to dominate several markets—in this case, the markets surrounding all things realtime. These five acquisitions—although all young companies themselves—would extend Twitter in significant ways: business marketing (Twithawk); realtime news discovery and sharing (TweetMeme); realtime promotion, publishing and sharing (bizz.ly); realtime dating/connecting (Skout); and Twitter management tools (TwitJump). Twitter could organically grow these new capabilities from within, but acquiring them through M&A would be faster and would also bring new talent into the company. Most important, these markets would bring new revenues to Twitter, extend its network effects, and broaden its footprint—ultimately positioning the company more favorably for a public offering.

5. Netflix acquires Flixster

Flixster—the movie-info sharing site with about 50 million unique users and a robust social networking core—is a near-perfect strategic fit for Netflix, providing both a marketing benefit as well as a critical social networking component. Netflix, with about 12 million subscribers (up about 28% from a year ago) is spending an attention-getting $27 per subscriber in acquisition costs. Flixster would help bring these subscriber acquisition costs down through its web presence, connection to Facebook and MySpace, and strength on the iPhone, where Flixster is the #1 movie app. Netflix’s future growth lies in adding new subscribers as well as increasing revenue from existing subscribers, and the company’s 17,000-title instant streaming service is a critical strategic component for its future; Flixster would be a core component in growing all of Netflix’s revenue streams. Rumors are recently afloat that Fox Interactive Media / MySpace is eyeing an acquisition of Flixster, but that deal is apparently not imminent. While there is indeed good strategic fit between Fox and Flixster, a Netflix-Flixster deal feels like an even better one.

6. Ticketmaster acquires Eventbrite

Eventbritewould be an excellent addition to the Ticketmaster portfolio, providing Ticketmaster with a new consumer market and Eventbrite with a deep-pocketed corporate parent that offers unparalleled distribution and marketing opportunities. Eventbrite enables an online presence for marketing and ticket sales for fairs, festivals, fundraisers and other events, rocketing from fledgling start-up in 2006 to projected 2009 sales of over $100 million, 3 million monthly uniques and 10,000 new monthly events. Ticketmaster’s savvy CEO Irving Azoff has shown great adeptness in growing revenues from $1.0 billion to nearly $1.5 billion in just the past four years, along with building substantial increases in the company’s free cash flow. Azoff would bring world-class managerial knowhow to Eventbrite’s high-volume, low-margin business. Ticketmaster has had its hands full seeking approval of the Live Nation merger; assuming that merger succeeds in early 2010, Eventbrite would be a solid next step in the company’s strategic growth.

7. DirecTV acquires Blip.tv

Comcast’s TV Everywhereonline initiative—which features about 12,000 titles from about 30 major content providers—was a shot across DirecTV’s bow and pointed to the need for DirecTV to launch a successful online distribution initiative. Blip.tvoffers DirecTV an immediate and valuable distribution channel for online broadcast, plus access to thousands of other programming assets from independent producers (which possibly could be used to program one or more unique channels on the DirecTV satellite TV service). Blip.tv currently manages 50,000+ shows and 3 million+ episodes. Views of Blip.tv programming have reportedly more than doubled in the past year, exceeding 85 million views during December 2009. The company has also attracted an impressive roster of advertisers including AT&T, Best Buy, Nikon, Chevy, Scion, Canon and Samsung. Blip.tv’s offering would need to be modified to distribute programming from major TV networks on DirecTV’s behalf (in order to limit distribution of those programs to DirecTV viewers), but that would likely not be a difficult modification to undertake. This would extend the audience reach for both companies.

8. Bing/Microsoft acquires Bit.ly

Bit.ly’s utility as a URL-shortener is far eclipsed by the strategic value the company brings to search: in November bit.ly shortened some 2 billionURL’s on Twitter, Facebook, email, instant messages and blogs, which means that the company has one of the best windows into realtime search across the internet. Twitter is often mentioned as the most likely acquirer of bit.ly, but an acquisition by Bing is even more compelling given the importance of realtime search to big search engines. Bing has gained impressive market share in the overall search market, but lags in realtime search. Bit.ly has grown out of nowhere in just the past two years to be one of the dominant companies in the social web. Given the growing importance of bit.ly, it would not be surprising to see a heated bidding war between Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft. A key mitigating factor is that Google and Facebook have recently rolled-out URL shorteners of their own.

9. Bing/Microsoft Acquires Foursquare

Called “Next Year’s Twitter”, Foursquareis a fantastically addictive and cool mobile startup that enables a person to share his location with a group of friends. Each time the person checks in from a particular location he or she earns a badge, and the person that checks in most from a particular location becomes the location’s “Mayor.”  It’s this addictive game quality that has Foursquare growing exponentially, a la Twitter. This is a natural add-on to Bing Maps, and would further extend Microsoft into the social web with a mobile extension carrying significant ad sales and promotional opportunities. Given that Foursquare is one of the most exciting private companies on the digital mediascape, the company would command a big premium. Google is another natural acquirer of Foursquare, but a Google-Foursquare tie-up is less likely because of events surrounding the acquisition of Dodgeball, and the team subsequently fleeing Google to create Foursquare.  Twitter could also acquire Foursquare.

10. LinkedIn acquires Yammer

Yammer is Twitter for the enterpriseand has grown rapidly since its September 2008 launch, attracting 50,000 enterprise members so far. Yammer would be an ideal extension of LinkedIn’s reach into the enterprise and would provide new revenue to LinkedIn via its freemium model (companies pay $3 to $5 a head when they upgrade to a premium account). Given Yammer’s market traction and compelling model, it is likely that other enterprise-related suitors like Salesforce.com and Oracle would also step-up in a bidding process for Yammer.

The media/advertising industries have long talked about (decades actually) next generation delivery platforms to little avail.  Now that many magazines & newspapers have disappeared or retreated into sub-par online only versions, there is more pressure to not just showcase the future—but to actually deliver it in a robust platform that is appealing, useful and engaging for the readers and effective for advertisers.  

A critical bridge for them to cross has been the ability to enable access to their content free from the confines of having the reader tied to a computer. With Amazon, Sony, Intel, Apple, Barnes & Nobel (and a host of others) driving down the cost of readers/tablets, the logical next step will be to offer them free with subscriptions (similar to cell plans). When that happens, there will be sufficient competition and critical enough mass to develop appealing and profitable platforms for publishers that make the timely leap. 

Publishers have been waiting for and like the reader format because it helps them migrate with the look and feel of paper–though that may be the wrong motivation.  Most migrations start at a “comfortable” level, but it does not always do justice to the power and capabilities of the new technology.  For example, earlier formats failed to supply a degree of interactivity that made the experience more than just a digital version of the printed format. When we developed the first Internet pages in the 90s the migration terminology that kept media types comfortable was referring to home page content as “above or below” the fold.  Well we have come a long way since then and with many publishers still uncomfortable–they must now do a better job at migrating to PC, mobile, tablet/reader and maybe even game platforms if they really want to reach the NextGen mass markets.  

Here is one attempt from Time that I think you will enjoy even if it is a bit comfy:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntyXvLnxyXk

Financial Times released their top 2009 books–just in time for holiday shopping.  There are over 100 titles and many are a bit different than what you will find on the front table of your favorite book store.  Here are some of my picks (by genre) from the FT list that would make good gifts for your colleagues this year:

1.  Fiction:  Brooklyn, Colm Tóibíns
2. Politics/Religion:   The Case for God: What Religion Really Means, Karen Armstrong
3. History:   The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5, Christopher Andrew
4. Science:   The Definitive Visual Guide, Adam Hart-Davis
5. Business & Econ:   False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World, Alan Beattie
6. Food:  The Gourmet, Muriel Barbery
7. Travel:  Blue Skies & Black Olives: A Survivor’s Tale of Housebuilding and Peacock Chasing in Greece, John Humphrys & Christopher Humphrys
8. Art & Photo:  Vincent Van Gogh – The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition, Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten & Nienke Bakker
9. Arch. & Design:   On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square, Marshall Berman
10. Music:   You Never Give Me Your Money: The Battle for the Soul of The Beatles, Peter Doggett
11. Film:   A Century of Model Animation from Méliès to Aardman, Ray Harryhausen & Tony Dalton
12. Sport:   Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi, William Fotheringham
13. Gifts & Fashion:   Thinking Aloud: A Collection of Aphorisms, Simon May
14. Children:   Uncle, JP Martin
15. Teenagers:   Scat, Carl Hiaasen

Here is the complete list with short reviews for each–good shopping!

Our obsession with lists seems never-ending, and I must admit, I tend to find them entertaining, informative and strangely useful.

My Top Nine Lists, covering everything from Rebooting your company to yourself, are designed to provide leaders with simple insights and actionable tools.  I find that you can make a stronger impact in business if you focus on three categories (or less) at a time—that’s why my lists and plans often come in three’s.  Each of my top three categories usually has three actionable tips…a.k.a. “Dean’s Top Nine List”.

Time Magazine’s Top Best and Worst Lists were just updated and seem overwhelming this year–maybe you can narrow them down to your own Top Nine useful lists…enjoy!

Last week I keynoted a CEO association meeting in Silicon Valley and was asked about my chapter in the book Building a Legacy of Leadership , which advises college grads to mashup and reboot their careers. The question gave me pause because it made me think about how I use my advice to hire or promote people.

I like to recruit people with experience from more than one discipline or industry, in order to leverage their divergent perspectives into teams that can deliver extraordinary results. Whether leading an emerging growth company or rebooting part of a Global 2000 corporation, creating the right team is critical to success. So when hiring anyone, from a student fresh out of business school to a business unit President—I look for similar core strengths in people.  Beyond relevant experience and character requirements, I find these traits pivotal to creating a growth culture in companies:

1. Smart—about where our industry is going and what to do about it.
2. Worldly—a global perspective that can spill over into the business.
3. Entrepreneurial—will do whatever it takes, with a client/revenue focus.

4. Hungry—with an innovative streak an ability to outperform our competitors.
5. Curious—about how to do “it” better, and can add value in defined time periods.
6. Dissatisfied—with statusquo and have a need to help drive growth to be happy.

7. Funny—injecting fun and humor where helpful to humanize the seriousness of  business.
8. Teamers—who love working together on the mission, creating and communicating as a group.
9. Passionate—for the industry, brand or product…with a non-workaholic life balance that is motivating. 

For another perspective, here are some people traits you may want to avoid.

I am often asked how CEOs and CMOs can demonstrate market leadership while faced with cutting back in a down economy.  It can be easier than you think–much easier than trying to stand out during heady times. So why don’t more leaders take advantage of slow times to break out, rather than staying with the herd?  Why is brown cow behavior, as compared to a remarkable Purple Cow, still the norm after all we have been through and with all of the management learning that has been accumulated in the post-industrial business era?

Herd management mentality is a powerful draft to be stuck behind for sure.  Of course cost cutting in tough times is a requirement–but it should not be what drives strategy!  For those with the courage to take advantage of downturns by branching out and leading your organization or brand toward a bolder future, now is a good  time to make a move.  How?  I recommend investing in areas where your competitors are not and borrowing ideas from other (often unrelated) industries.  But do it soon before you find yourself following, instead of leading, the herd again.

What else can be done? Here are some simple Reboot ideas to consider:

Focus on Clients & People
1.   Business Travel:  Everyone has pulled back, so strategically increase your travel spending on those in your organization who are best able to touch and listen to clients/prospects.  This old United Airlines TV commercial may inspire you.  Still no travel budget?–see # 3 below.

2.  Client Engagement:  In good times everyone wants to party. Instead, have mini/personal breakfast, lunch or dinner parties with your clients and find out what they are struggling with now and how you can help them more in the future. Still no budget? Send them something, like a unique gift to get the conversation going.

3.  People Acknowledgement:  It always seems harder to reward and celebrate key people in tough times—-it is not.   Acknowledge and reward people now–they will appreciate it and may be more likely to stick with you when the good times return.  Not sure what to reward? Start by recognizing those people who use their own frequent flyer miles to visit clients/prospects/partners.

Upgrade Products & Partnerships
4.  Service Improvement:  Can’t get funding to build the next breakthrough? Then fix/improve what you offer now.  Some clients love helping you with this in slow times and may appreciate your relationship more.

5.  Product Development:  Innovation doesn’t always cost money, try collaborative improvement contests and (my favorite) co-development through partnerships.  Still no funding?  Try pruning back an old product/department and use the savings to immediately fund (before it evaporates) something new. Do so before your competitors get the same idea.

6.  Acquisitions:  A smart thing to do in a down economy is to find good deals-because it is a buyer’s market…better hurry though.  Can’t stomach an acquisition, consider aggressive partnering or take a small stake in a company so you can get moving now.

Elevate Brands & Conversations
7.  Advertising:  When everyone is cutting back on ad spend, it’s easier to stand out.  Snuggle should win an award here.  Take advantage of lower ad costs and more digitally targeted advertising and promotions.

8.  Communications:  Develop a stream of branded communications with clients/prospects using multiple forms of social media, WebEx’s/video conference and, yes, even targeted email.  Don’t just broadcast information. Take the time to set up a long-term listening platform with consumers or a more direct/robust two way conversation platform with B2B clients.

9.  Thought Leadership:  Time to reboot your content and take thought leadership development seriously.  If you want to go beyond white papers that are not often read, create a new knowledge/learning platform for your industry using audio, video and images.  Invest for the long term and jump into the center of the conversation or better yet (my favorite) create a new category for your industry to talk about. The more you invest in your content platform, the easier it will be to execute on items 1-8 above.

Of course it is not enough to just zig because your competitors are zagging.  This can be hard strategic work that goes beyond quick fixes or reactionary tactics. Or, you can just execute a couple of new categories and not worry about the long term ramifications.  Whichever track you take, make bold moves that will position your brand ahead of the pack both in the downturn and for when the recovery finally emerges.