Field Organizations Run Amok

Jordan Ayan at Media Post offered good advice on how to work WITH field organizations on e-Newsletters.

Mr Ayan defined “field organizations” as divisions, salesmen, distributors, franchisees, etc., and noted that many of them send email campaigns with little control or input from the parent organization.

I’ve been on both sides of this equation. Working for the parent organization that owns the brand, I know everyone in the field thinks they’re a marketing genius and corporate/home office is just there to get in the way.  Working for the field organization I know how long it can take corporate know-it-alls to get out of their never-ending meetings and get something done (for a change)!

Here’s what Mr Ayan suggested would encourage field organizations’ marketing initiatives while mitigating the “collateral damage” (including CAN-SPAM violations) they can cause:

1.  Let field organizations know your objective is not to shut them down, but to understand what is working, to facilitate implementation of best email practices across the organization, and perhaps even to provide some tools to make doing the job easier.

2.  Audit their list practices. In some cases, the lists field organizations have built are far superior to anything a corporate entity can do because of their proximity to the customer. In other cases, it could be a CAN-SPAM nightmare waiting to happen. This is especially true if they are operating without an effective opt-out process, or worse yet, with no opt-out process at all.

3.  Determine if you can facilitate the email process. The key word here is facilitate, not control. If a field organization feels that you are trying to control them, they will start trying to figure out all the ways to work around you. However, if you make it easier for them to do something that they have already found is effective, you may find that you have a large fan base.

How about it, readers?  No matter which side of the fence you’re on, what works well and what’s a bust?  Do tell.

Green Investments and the US Labor Market

A new white paper released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reminds that the U.S. economy lost 5.1 million jobs over the past 15 months.

With a nod to the Obama administration’s commitment to a cap and trade plan for carbon emissions, the paper warns that, nevertheless, new federal investments are needed to provide economic benefits that “go beyond the primary one of emissions reduction.”

Promising Conclusions

The EPI concludes  that a commitment of $100 billion annually in new public investments over the next decade would yield:

• Approximately $160 billion in additional output annually for the next two years, which translates  into approximately1.1 million net new jobs created.

• An increase in the relative wages of those 70% of U.S. workers without a four-year college degree by almost 0.5% each year that the increased commitment to green investments persists. While modest, this amount does represent a wage increase for high school graduates that is roughly 40% as large as the entire increase this group has seen since 1979.

• An increase of approximately 100,000 in the number of unionized jobs in the United States (even in the unlikely case that all of the jobs supported through this new spending merely displaced currently existing jobs).

Writing Prompts:  Financial, Environmental, Services, Consulting

• Respond to this EPI conclusion based on your own data and experience:  “In the short run, any investment that can be done quickly to help meet the challenges of undertaking serious carbon emissions abatement will have welcome near-term macroeconomic impacts. And over the longer-term, these investments will provide a payoff in the form of climate change mitigation, energy independence, and economic gains from energy efficiency.  In the longer run, dedicating more resources to ameliorating global climate change will actually lead to a mix of industry employment that nudges back against the forces that have generated ever-greater wage inequality for most of the past 30 years.”
• Support or refute this EPI claim: “Each dollar of infrastructure investment—broadly defined—provides on net about $1.59 in additional economic growth, making it about 33% more effective than generic tax cuts and literally 10-15 times more effective than most business tax cuts. In short, infrastructure spending, including ‘green’ investments, is about as good economic stimulus as there is.”
• This week the cap and trade debate drew comparisons to the earlier Acid Rain Trading Program, which was established in 1990 under the Clean Air Act.  The administration said it “delivered huge benefits—to the tune of $120 billion a year—with an annual cost of only $3 billion a year. The acid rain program is a trading system comparable to a carbon cap-and-trade program.”  If you were in business during that time, reflect on the similarities and differences between the Acid Rain Trading Program and cap and trade.
• A new project of the Sierra Club, National Resource Defense Council and others, called “The Reality Coalition,” takes on the premise that there is such a thing as clean coal.  Is there such a thing as “clean coal”?
• Reflect on how the administration’s proposed Green Investments and cap and trade plans would directly affect your business or that of your customers.

Disassembly Line

The April, 2009 edition of  The Atlantic featured a two-page schematic on “The unbuilding of an auto plant” near the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in GA.

The story says, “Closing an auto plant is neither quick nor simple, and for a time, the very process of closure creates its own small economy; ultimately, closures can make way for new beginnings. Immediately after the Hapeville plant was formally idled, about 250 workers returned to begin deconstructing the site; more than two years later, demolition and environmental cleanup are still continuing.”

Don’t I know it.  The story of course ties into raging headlines about the shrinking US automotive sector, but it also took me back to my recent past as an owner of an environmental cleaning company where I earned “blood money” closing down Carolinas-based textile plants.  Blood money?  Yes, according to dictionary.com it’s defined as “Money gained at the cost of another’s life or livelihood.”

I have to say, sometimes plants were at their most environmentally compliant during their final shutdowns.  They often skimped on compliance when they were running full bore, but in order to get certificates of occupancy for the next tenants they had wind down the right way.

Writing Prompts:  Financial, Consulting, Environmental, Services

• With uneven environmental regulations around the world, reflect on operations you’ve seen move to a less-regulated environment and the environmental degradation that ensued.
• If you are involved in any winding down operations now, how are prices holding up for machinery, equipment and scrap?  Do the locations of the buyers say anything surprising about shifting capital across the globe?
• The Ford plant in this story will be replaced by a mix of retail and office space, with some airport parking and hotels.  Is this usually the type of development that moves in?  Should it be?
• What do you observe about the role of local tax and zoning incentives on 1) retaining businesses and                     2) influencing re-development that occurs in situations like this in GA?

Regulatory Purgatory

Professionally speaking, I grew up in the financial services sector.  Literally grew up there (in grade school I did light filing for my father, an insurance agent).  After college I worked for insurance companies, a bank, and LendingTree, a financial services firm.

So believe me when I say I understand the need for compliance when talking about other people’s money and

investments.  Even more so since the 2008 meltdown.

An acquaintance works for a Mass Mutual general agent.  Like most financial services companies, Mass Mutual rules external communications with an iron fist.  As a result, her “original” communications options are limited to transaction requests like “Please send me the street address and phone number of the surgeon who removed your gall bladder  in 2002. “

How’s a financial representative to compete with so many businesspeople in less-regulated professions who send e-newsletters and blog about their work? She does her best to stay in touch with prospects and clients by sending links to holiday cards.  Pretty lame, but keeps her name out there.

Last week she sent this message:  “Every few months, I try to keep my clients and friends up-to-date with current financial issues or critical concerns. Here is the latest. This is not a download or an attachment. It is a safeguarded link.”

Ahhh, I thought, now she’s putting some meat on the communications bone.

Clicking through the link I went to what was essentially a six-slide PowerPoint presentation about how awful taxes are and the stunning conclusion that “The IRS collects more tax than many people want to pay.”

When it got to the teaser line that said “Review strategies that can help you reduce, defer or possibly eliminate current taxation,” I thought I was in for some meaningful information on the next slide.

I was wrong.  The next slide was simply a text box where I was supposed to talk about my taxation vexation so that an insurance agent could follow up within 48 hours.

The whole thing was sooooooo far from meaningful that I think it did her more harm than good to send that one.

Financial Writing Prompts:

I’m interested in the variety of compliance hurdles financial services professionals face.   Wondering whether communications policies are more similar than different from firm to firm.  Here, you can write under another name if need be, so cut loose!

• What are you doing to stay relevant in this social media business environment if all your conversations are recorded and written communications censored?
• What are competitors with other firms doing that you think go over the edge?
• Are any changes in sight?

A Smarter Planet

In the tech section of the BBC news online, I found this interesting article by Brendon Riley, the CEO of IBM in the UK. In it, he makes the point that we can now “infuse intelligence into the way the world works.”  He cites a case study from Malta and observes that their energy grid looks more like the internet.

Here’s an excerpt: “Critically, the digital and physical infrastructures of the world are converging. Computational power is being put into things we wouldn’t recognise as computers. It’s easy to embed sensors in all sorts of ecosystems, from hospitals to supply chains to natural systems like rivers. Almost anything can have a digital presence in a networked world.

“All of this instrumentation generates new data, which advanced analytics can turn into insight – so better decisions can be made in real time.

“This in turn leads to increased effectiveness – simply doing what works, faster.”

Writing Prompts:

Financial Services:

• What companies do you or your firm believe will lead the way in this green revolution?  Does IBM have what it takes?
• Do you believe the claims Mr Riley makes about a smarter planet or is this just corporate boosterism?
• What public-private partnership models for the green revolution deserve emulation?
• Do you know of any studies estimating ROI for this type of initiative?

Environmental & Services:

• What other case studies deserve attention?  IBM promotes the Maltese study because they know it best.
• Is there a downside to the approach being taken in Malta?
• Do you know of any studies estimating ROI for this type of initiative?
• Is it possible that less-developed countries have an advantage on, say, the G20 in implementing initiatives like this?

SPAM “Arms Race”

Confession:  I’m an NPR junkie.  I get a real return on my taxpayer dollar (for once).

Yesterday they ran All Tech Considered focused on SPAM, which is mushrooming across all media, including mobile phones.

In this segment, Omar Gallaga of the Austin American-Statesman said most email (in volume) is SPAM, but the American ISPs have gotten pretty good at scrubbing it before it hits our inboxes.

But the bad news is that the spammers have set up camps abroad, notably Ukraine, where risk of prosecution is about nil. Spammers constantly adapt to anti-spam efforts.  All Tech Considered ran a story-within-the-story interviewing a computer security expert who said “From my perspective, it seems … kind of like the arms race of the Cold War era. We built more bombs. They built more bombs. We built bigger bombs. They build bigger bombs.”

Why this matters to emailers like YOU

Corporate web servers are starting to use “reputation scoring,” which looks at sender, time it’s sent, whether it’s a trusted source aligned with a real person, and other indicators of wholesomeness.  This is why it’s so important to send e-newsletters and other digital media ONLY to people who signed up for it.

Mr Gallaga also discussed “Bacn” which is email that might be useful to you but that is not generated by a real person.

An e-newsletter or social network notification, like who’s following you on Twitter, are examples of Bacn.

The rise in Bacn led to the development of a service called “other inbox“  which separates Bacn from real-people email.  With other inbox  you can open that notice from your bank when it suits YOU, instead of having it glare from your inbox while you’re trying to do the work that generates the check that pays the overdraft.

I want to know who’s using other inbox, which is apparently included with gmail right now.  In your case, does it intuit the Bacn from the real-people-email? Tell me a funny story about what went into your other inbox.

“Global Financial Hissy Fit”

A fellow Twitter-er sent a link to the best thing I’ve read all day:  a blog called “Creative Spark” by Marc Garnault.  In it, he perpetuates the term “Global Financial Hissy Fit” with proper attribution to its originator, Kim Sbarcea .

I selected just ONE extraordinary insight from this posting for writing prompts.

Marc’s Insight

“Everyone knows what everyone is doing now. There are no secrets, so if you’re doing evil you can expect to face some bad publicity. There’s also been a significant movement by us, the consumer, towards companies that have a compassionate backstory. We want sustainable materials, low carbon footprints and community involvement. It’s a major selling point. And, finally, you need good, creative, smart employees, and believe me, they’re not thick on the ground. It’s going to be a seller’s market on those skills, and these people are going to want their skills to go to worthy employers. If they feel like they’re going to be a cog in a corporate money making machine, well, there are nicer machines to be a cog in.

“It’s be wrong to be writing all this in the future tense, because if you look around you’ll see it happening right now. Newspapers are falling through the floor, but the online Huffington Post recently had a record valuation, online shopping is remaining steady but bricks-and-mortar retail is having it’s worst year since 1970, restaurant seating is going through the floor but sales of local organic produce are booming, no-one is buying DVDs but you’re sharing the average torrent you download with 30,000 other people, sales of premium priced Macs are doing fine, but all the generic PCs around them are feeling the pinch.”

Writing Prompts:

Consultants:  What are your most progressive clients doing to take advantage of the rise of global inter-connectedness?  What are they doing with their brands to connect with the “green” consciousness?   For those not on board, what holds them back?

Environmental:  Reflect on the state of greenwashing.  Out the evildoers.

Services:  What are you/your clients doing to retain and nurture the best and brightest?  Are you holding on to talent that isn’t fully billable for the sake of the future of your business?  How are you coping with a great talent pool in this time of retraction?

Financial:  What companies will you encourage clients to buy because of their alignment with this new ethos?

No Green from the G20 (yet)

LONDON (Reuters) – World leaders at the G20 summit disappointed environmental groups on Thursday who said their commitment to fight climate change had been vague.

The leaders reaffirmed a previous commitment to sign a U.N. climate deal this year, a step the U.N. climate-change chief said was useful, though action would be better.

“In mobilizing the world’s economies to fight back against recession we are resolved to … promote low-carbon growth and to create the green jobs on which our future prosperity depends,” said summit host British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“We are committed to … working together to seek agreement on a post-2012 climate change regime at the UN conference in Copenhagen in December.”

Writing Prompts

• Did the G20 get their priorities mostly right or mostly wrong?
• How do you respond to this quote by M.J. Mace, legal advisor to the Federated States of Micronesia?  “If they can mobilize trillions of dollars to create jobs why can’t they do more to stop climate change?”
• A report for WWF and environment think-tank E3G published on Thursday said Britain’s and Italy’s recovery plans did more climate harm than good when road-building was included.  Are other countries “under-accounting” for the full environmental impact of their financial recovery plans?
• Why do you agree or disagree with Steve Howard, chief executive of the Climate Group, (an international environment and business group) when he says ”I have no doubt that by Copenhagen or shortly after we’ll have some sort of broad, global framework. My only question mark is whether we set a high enough level of ambition”?

How Much is Too Much?

Great 18-month case study from Steve Daigneault, Managing Director of Internet Communications for Amnesty International USA.

“Steve concludes: The biggest lessons we’ve learned on this journey is that emails that are highly opportunistic, that can clearly show the importance of the moment, in very specific terms, as well as a clear advocacy strategy, perform leagues ahead of other emails. My feeling is that every email needs to meet this bar, otherwise, email isn’t the right tactic to achieve the stated goal.”

Easy take-aways:

Some examples of crisitunity and theory of change:

• Good crisitunity: Monks are being killed in Burma <crises> and China has the power to stop it. <opportunity>

• Bad crisitunity: Violence against women threatens the fabric of society.

• Good theory of change: China is Burma’s only real ally, and if they pressure the junta, Than Shwe will have to back down. It’s up to us to call on China and make sure that they do. So we’re launching a petition today and broadcasting your signatures through an ad in the Financial Times – with a huge circulation among the power brokers of Bejing.

Bad examples of theory of change:

• Missing: “Global poverty is terrible, and we’ve launched a petition to stop it.

• Impossible: “George Bush has staked his presidency on privatizing social security. So we’ve launched a petition asking him to stop.”
• Obscure: “Climate change threatens us all, and we’re working night and day to stop it. Please contribute to keep our campaign going.”

G20 and the IMF

In today’s BBC News online:

“…in the new Financial Stability Board, which will now incorporate all G20 members, there is the potential for a powerful new global financial regulator.

“Even more significant is the increased power given to the international financial institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who have been subcontracted by the G20 to monitor and run many of their policies.

“IMF managing director Dominique Strauss Kahn was jubilant after the meeting, saying that the IMF ‘is now truly back.’”

Later in the story Mr Strauss Kahn was quoted to say that he believed the G20 was shaping up as the board of governors for the world economy, and said he favored an even bigger grouping to give more representation to poor countries.

Writing Prompts

• How will the decisions concerning global regulation immediately affect your clients?  Your firm?
• How will the IMF’s ability to issue $250bn worth of its own currency, the SDR, affect the products and services you will offer?
• Will international trade be facilitated or hampered by the decisions made at this conference?
• Do we now have a de facto world central bank?  What’s your view?