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September 2015 -

Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Business & The Future of Work

Telling It Like It Is

25 Sep

By

Business OperationsDigital MarketingMarketing

Telling It Like It Is

September 25, 2015 | By |

“It is what it is.”

I have literally been in countless situations where if someone would just tell it like it is, say the truth, be real, everything would be so much easier.
Whether it is in a business meeting, your relationships or self reflection, the truth shall set you free.

This comes easy for me and my personality matches the bluntness & transparency of my conversations, but I realize this is not easy for many people and when being very direct & honest comes from someone who is not comfortable with such a delivery it can seem awkward.

In my experience though, being open and straight forward with information is more efficient, more effective and builds immense trust.
I personally feel it’s all good if someone thinks I’m weird or awkward, but if they trust me when I present them with information or a solution, that is powerful!

Individuals who are amazing with people could do this so well and meld “brutal honesty” with savvy charisma that generates a receptive and understanding recipient. Again, in my experience I’ve seen those types of individuals use their skills to manipulate & mystify information more than deliver truths and that is unfortunate. Hopefully my experience is so limited that it is anomalous. Unfortunately it is likely not an anomaly as evidenced by virtually every political reporter on major networks and CEOs all over the world.

I’ll keep pushing to have everyone just Tell It Like It Is, because “it is what it is”. 😉

Uber Vs Taxi in St. Louis

18 Sep

By

Business OperationsFuture of Work

Uber Vs Taxi in St. Louis

September 18, 2015 | By |

Uber has been trying to break into the St. Louis marketing for a while now and have been unsuccessful to this point.
There is a vote tomorrow on whether or not they will be allowed in.

There have been many heated debates over why St. Louis is not allowing Uber to enter our market.
I want to give my opinion on this here and it likely won’t be popular with many of you.

Uber isn’t needed in St. Louis.
It’s not that I don’t think Uber is “cool”, has ease of access through technology and helps individuals generate extra income.
But what I am saying is that St. Louis doesn’t need more paid drivers.

St. Louis has a clean, robust and affordable public transit system and compared to other cities very light public foot traffic throughout the city. This is a very different picture from NYC, LA or Chicago where people crowd the streets and the city footprints are very large. It is hard to get a cab and takes for ever to get from place to place no matter what mode of transportation you decide to take.
I have never once had an issue getting a cab in St. Louis when I needed one.
They are affordable and accessible.

What bringing Uber into St. Louis will do is dilute the use of cabs to the point where the existing cab drivers cannot be sustained and they will lose their jobs. The driving services will be spread across many individuals who will put a couple hundred extra dollars in their pocket each month, but will have totally displaced a number of professional drivers.

Simply put the demand is not here in St. Louis in business terms. It will be cool to use for a while, but will have a larger negative impact overall.

Why can we not implement the efficient technology into our existing cab infrastructure?
Why fight so hard for Uber? Is it really that great?

I’m Looking to Invest in a Crowdfunded Idea

15 Sep

By

Business OperationsMarketing

I’m Looking to Invest in a Crowdfunded Idea

September 15, 2015 | By |

***I’M LOOKING TO INVEST***

What I am looking for: Someone who has an idea that they are extremely passionate about and has the potential to be funded on a site like Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

What I can offer: I have a background in successfully building small businesses, designing & manufacturing products, marketing products and services online and generating revenue. I have the capital and knowledge to put your idea in front of a ton of people in a way that will clearly communicate why your idea is so awesome and get them to donate and fund your idea. Then I can lend my experience in sourcing and manufacturing to help produce the product and bring it to market, fulfilling your “funders” orders and growing the product outside of the crowdfunded platform.

Please serious ideas only! I want to work with people who are passionate about an idea / product and desperately want to see it come to life.

You can contact me here: http://johnbracamontes.com/contact-me/
Or message me, tweet me, etc.

10 Sep

By

Business OperationsFuture of Work

The Future of Work – Freedom and Flexibility in the Workplace

September 10, 2015 | By |

The work we do today is very different from the way work was done 50 years ago.
Why would we continue to build structure in organizations around systems that do not apply to the type of work that we do now?

We can bring flexibility and freedom to the modern day workplace that will allow all of us to successfully build and create on our own terms. In return we will generate a greater return in what we produce. Better creative, better analysis, better production, better everything.

I will be putting out videos on topics that address the opportunities available to us in the workplace, what we need to understand and where we need to go in terms of organizational transformation.

This is the Future of Work!

Alternative Hiring Methods

07 Sep

By

Marketing

Alternative Hiring Methods

September 7, 2015 | By |

I recently read a Harvard Business Review article that spoke of alternative hiring methods and found a few very interesting points.

Traditionally we have used behavioral & personality tests that are long and arduous. Most people hate taking them and they are a one size fits all solution. This is great for scalability, but is likely turning off many high potential candidates and has become even less accurate over time.

What is being introduced into the talent identification process today are:
1. Behavioral Analytics
2. Web Scraping
3. Gamification

The behavioral analytics method is not new, but becoming more widely used and easier to implement with simple ways to digest the data and make sense of what it means. This data applies to internal candidates and is used in creating ideal candidate profiles for the companies them employ it.

Web scraping is used to find publicly available information on a candidate. That can be the things they have liked, shared, said, connected to and things that their family and friends have liked, shared and connected to. This is a way for them to assess cultural fit and predict with decent accuracy the IQ of a particular person.

Gamification is used to make the vetting and application process as frictionless as possible. They are literally using games and game like features to assess a candidates problem solving skills and give choices that will bring a deeper insight into a candidates likes, dislikes and work style.

Gaining this type of insight is great, but what you will find with many of the employers utilizing these methods is that the data is used to squeeze as much out of current employees and is in great contrast to the working environment of the company itself. Let’s be real, a large company using a game to assess a candidates characteristics and portraying a fun and progressive atmosphere through a portal or app is many times the complete opposite of that inside the walls of the workplace where more data is collected to ensure they are working hard, harder, hardest.

Not that this is bad, but it does raise concerns to the value of privacy and brings back images of “Big Brother”.

Is this intense focus on vetting candidates a good thing? I think so and truly believe it is in the best interest of both the company and the talent.

Is the intense focus on behavior and productivity a good thing? To a point, but that should be second, third or tenth to the focus on providing a quality product or service. Making sure the outcomes for your customers are met or pleasantly exceeded should be first on that list and that may mean sacrificing the “Big Brother” mentality / actions.

You can read the full article here: https://hbr.org/2015/06/3-emerging-alternatives-to-traditional-hiring-methods

What is Digital Strategy

05 Sep

By

Marketing

What is Digital Strategy

September 5, 2015 | By |

“Digital Strategy is the process of defining an organization’s goals, opportunities, vision and initiatives for the purposes of maximizing the business benefits of digital initiatives to the organization.”

How is this done?
1. Identifying the opportunities / challenges in a business where digital assets will provide a solution
2. Identifying the unmet needs / goals of the customers that align with those key business opportunities / challenges
3. Developing a vision on how the digital assets will fulfill those business and customer needs, goals, opportunities and challenges
4. Prioritizing a set of digital initiatives which can deliver on this vision

This can include the Website, Apps, Mobile, Tablet, Kiosks, Signage, SEO, PPC, Display, Email, Social, Retargeting, Video, CRM, Automation, Brand and more.
Within each of those listed there is opportunity and challenge.

A solid Digital Strategy will return huge dividends on business and marketing efforts.