The Smith Report - Operational Tips for Busy Execs - Weekly

MITX Events – Free Social Media Tools

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There were so many great tips and tricks given out at yesterday’s MITX event I felt the need to blog about my take from the session. Panellist details are here:

Web Sites/Tips mentioned:

  1. Slideshare.com – open an account and start sharing, get your words picked up by the search engines
  2. ACME.com – see who links to you and your Google ranking
  3. Flickr – turn your powerpoints into jpgs and upload your manifesto
  4. Twitter Grader – Explore your ranking on Twitter and much more
  5. Do ...

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The Compelling Arguments for SaaS

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Around $9 Billion of the $284 Billion software market is currently sold using an online method, Software as a Service or SaaS. The online market is growing at 40%, the traditional market at 3%. So what’s all the fuss about? Well I am convinced that buyers of software get a great deal with SaaS but it could lead to seriously reduced margins for the vast majority of software vendors.

The good news for buyers: ...

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Twitter: Why and How I use it

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How:

1. Go to Twitter.com and sign up.

2. Start Tweeting on key messages you care about.

3. Big difference between Facebook and Twitter. On the former you have “friends” who see each other’s stuff. On Twitter you “follow” someone, bit like stalking, and hopefully they follow you but it is not guaranteed.

4. Think of Twitter more as an “announcement’ based micro-blog.

5. I’ve found ...

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Negotiations – A Checklist to Improve the Odds

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Negotiations – A Checklist to Improve the Odds
There are a million books on negotiation but busy executives don’t need a book, they need a cheat sheet! I offer these tips based on buying & selling businesses, negotiating with unions, negotiating with venture capitalists, turning around a software group and best of all winning arguments occasionally with my two teenage daughters! We negotiate every day of our lives: sales meetings, staff salaries, policy changes, vacation locations, budget cuts, acquisitions. Life is a negotiation.
I’m framing this advice around ...

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Strategies to Acquire World Class Talent

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One of the key drivers of shareholder value is the quality of second tier management. Buyers of companies, sponsors of IPOs, and PE & VC companies invest in products, people and markets….. but especially people! As a recent WSJ article put it so well, investing in great talent (as opposed to one superstar) assists in four key areas:

• the creation of knowledge, sources of information.

• insightful and honest feedback.

• provides a critical link to clients.

• allows senior management ...

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Best Industries in Recession – Inc.com suggestions

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Those clever guys at Inc.com pushed out a great little thought provoking piece titled
The Best Industries for Starting a Business Right Now.

So I thought it would be useful to list them and offer a few comments:

#1 Candy – industry grew 3.7% – think niche and value, be remarkable

#2 iPhone Apps – 30,000 apps to date – keep the day job, 95% of these apps will not make money for the developer

#3 ...

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How far can my sales drop?

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I thought my

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XPO New England – Compelling Stories & the Dip

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I had the pleasure of addressing some smart people at the first New England XPO on Compelling Stories and building remarkable businesses. Here is a version of my speech:

Growing a private company is about being the best in the world at something. It’s about defining and dominating your unique market, your micro-market, your sliver of the world.

It’s about Positioning & Performance. Today’s business climate has one upside, there is more time to focus on choosing who you want ...

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Stress Tests for Private Companies

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Much publicity has been given to the stress tests handed down by the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program and applied to the Banking Industry. These tests are designed amongst other things to ensure banks have sufficient capital reserves to trade safely. What about the rest of the population? What stress tests would you apply to private companies to ensure they have a healthy, robust, sustainable future?
Here are a few:

#1: Cash Balances are fit for purpose.
Gold Standard: Under all reasonable ...

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Scenario Planning

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Over the last few weeks it’s funny how certain phrases start to rise to the top of the noise.Three phrases have jumped out at me, economic recovery, behavioural economics and scenario planning. In one sense it’s not suprising, we all want to know the future is better, it has to be!

Economic recovery appeared in Google search results 6,991 times in January, 7831 times in February and in the first week in May – 24,443 times. Another two I ...

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