Great Moderates In History?

August 2, 2010 | Author: Ron Baker

Evolutionary biologists have proven that the more adapted you are in your existing environment, the less able you are to adapt to environmental changes. Struggle is good for us. Rigidity is what organizations manifest when they are faced with either superior competition or outdated business...

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It’s up to sellers (agencies) to change pricing strategies, not buyers (clients)

July 15, 2008 | Author: Ron Baker

The history of commerce teaches us that almost every single innovative pricing change has been done by sellers, not buyers. This is because most pricing strategies are often changes in business models — that is, how companies monetize the value they create.

Yet, across the professional knowledge sector we hear endlessly how firms and their clients are going to have to jointly get rid of the billable hour. This is nonsense.

Intellectual capital isn't sold by the hour

Professional firms will have to eliminate the billable hour by changing their...

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Agencies are not commodities

May 27, 2008 | Author: Ron Baker

There is no such thing as a commodity. Anything can be differentiated, which is precisely the marketer's job. Believing that your firm – and the services it offers – are commodities is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you think you are a commodity, so will your clients. How could they believe otherwise? This notion of selling a commodity is a pernicious belief. It leads to price wars, incessant copying of competitor's offerings, lack of innovation, creativity, and dynamism, as well as suboptimal pricing...

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Why agency professionals are volunteers, not employees

February 22, 2008 | Author: Ron Baker

In countless Ignition surveys of agencies across the country, you will read the response "people are our greatest asset" (or "resource"). The problem is, thinking of workers as "resources" is demeaning, implying people are no different from, say, timber, to be harvested when you run out.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the use of these demeaning words is agency managers do not understand the worth of their people because they cannot be measured as exactly as accountants record assets and other tangible resources.

Human capital, not human resources

Humans deserve more respect...

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