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“Who you are is a direct consequence of what you do!” -  Brigadier Bruce Scott, gold medalist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Conduct autopsies, without blame.

"When you conduct autopsies without blame, you go a long way toward creating a climate where the TRUTH is heard. If you have the right people on the bus, you should almost never need to assign blame but need only to search for understanding and learning."

- Page 78, Good to Great by Jim Collins

By Mark Fox, Wizard Academy adjunct professor

I used “Peel the Onion” a couple of years ago with one of my clients. She sells pigs for a living – not exactly rocket science.

“So what issues do you want to work on today in our creative thinking workshop?”

“We need more sales!”
(Never heard that one before)

“Why do you think sales are not growing like you want them to?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Does your competition provide a better product or service?”

“No, in fact even our competition will admit we have the best bloodline and breed of pigs on the market. All of the review magazines rate us number one; in fact, we have the highest customer retention rate in the business: 98%. The 2% of customers that actually leave us leave because they got out of the pig business all together or the owner died!” (FYI – yes, there are pig review magazines out there.)

“Well let’s peel this onion back a little. If you have the best product on the market what is stopping you from getting more market share?”

“Customers just don’t want to switch providers even when they know we can offer them something better.”

“Why?” (keep peeling)

“Well it is the risk of switching to us. The average herd is about a $250,000 investment and they feel the risk in switching is too great. If they switched to us and our herd acquired a disease or something the loss could financially ruin them. They can’t afford that kind of loss.”

“Does this ever happen with your pigs?”

“No never. We have the best breed on the market.”

“Never? Really? Never?”

“No. Never.”

“Then why don’t you eliminate the risk for them? Put your money where your mouth is. If you are so confident that your product is superior and that there is literally no, or at least a very remote risk of illness, why don’t you guarantee potential customers that you will pay the $250,000 if anything happens.

Promise to replace their herd with the herd of their choice if they get sick.”

“No one in the industry offers anything that radical.”

“Why not be the first and dramatically differentiate yourself  then?”

To their credit, and my joy, they implemented this policy. They are quickly gaining market share. I don’t mention the company name at their request; they want to turn the industry on its head before the competition knows what hit them.

From the Editor: Guarantee $250,000! Courage and commitment, are just 2 of the ingredients required if you wish to boom your business.  Do you have them?

About: Mark L. Fox is a leading authority on teaching practical creative thinking techniques for business.

Mark has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering with an MBA. Having held top management positions in Rocket Science, Aircraft Hydraulics, Engineering Services, Customer Service, Software, and e-Business, Mark has an extremely diversified background. He has held positions ranging from Management and Operations to Sales and Marketing and Research and Development.

Some of Mark’s unique accomplishments include increasing e-business sales 600 percent in one year, receiving NASA’s highest recognition of “Launch Honoree” at the age of 23, and being the youngest person promoted to the position of Chief Engineer on the Space Shuttle program at the age of 31. Mark was also the Chairman of the “orbital debris” committee and an eight-time collegiate “All American” in Marksmanship. Mark also designed and built a 10,000-pound rocket, built his own airplane, and flies hot air balloons.

 "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." - Thomas Paine

When it comes to marketing and advertising, I no longer enter into debates or arguments. 

"You want to be a good archaeologist... you've got to get out of the library!" - Indiana Jones, from the movie Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

But only if you live up to them every day. 

By Mike Dandridge, Wizard Partner and Instructor at "Fight the Big Boys and Win"

Word of Mouth Today Travels at the Speed of Light or at least at the speed of text messages and emails and the Internet. There is an old adage that even bad publicity is good. Not any more. Ask Tom Cruise.

People aren’t just interested in value. They’re also interested in Values – as in the values of the companies and individuals with whom they do business.

In the first decade of this new century, “Core Values” have replaced the “Mission Statements” of the nineties. Core values are those unchangeable principles that define the character of an organization or individual. Integrity, performance, quality, safety, and transparency are examples of core value words. But, this isn’t a wish list of what you would like for customers to believe about you. Remember, customers believe what you do, not what you say.

Core Values are those unwavering standards that you would defend even if it cost you money. For instance, if you declare “customer satisfaction-guaranteed,” as a core value , then you will give an unsatisfied customer their money back even when it’s clearly their fault that the product or service failed. There are no, “yeah, but’s” or “what if’s.” If you aren’t willing to guarantee customer satisfaction even if it costs you money, then it isn’t a core value. Choose a different one.