Investing in Marketing Produces Higher Firm Value

The power of marketing cannot be underestimated as it results in substantial firm value. According to an analysis of 612 U.S. firms between 1998 and 2008 those that invested heavily in creating powerful marketing departments created long-term shareholder value beyond short-term return on investment (Hui, Morgan, & Rego, 2015).  

Short-term return on investment is a standard marketing analysis where income streams grow based on specific marketing activities. Companies usually assess their marketing by determining the return on investment on specific marketing channels. 

 

Long-term marketing focuses on creating a stronger brand image. The company itself should stand for certain values and underlining characteristics that create its image beyond specific products. For example, Apple and technology innovation and Cabella's and outdoor enthusiasm seemed to be linked in consumers minds. 

 

Each advertising campaign should not only align with the specific product, but also fit within the larger brand. A consistent approach that will reap the highest ROI has solid alignment between products and brands thereby maximizing the short and long-term reach of their marketing approaches. 

 

 Investing in marketing isn't a bad idea if companies are consistently creating short and long-term value. Throwing more money at a marketing department won't fix it if the money is not used wisely to create immediate returns while not neglecting its alignment with the company's long term brand. Maximizing shareholder value is a result of full integrated marketing process that create lasting impressions in consumer's minds.

  Hui, F. Morgan, N. & Rego, L. (2015). Marketing department power and firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 79 (5). 

 

Research Finds that Regular Exercise Protects Against 13 Cancers

If weightless, good looks, and health weren't strong enough reasons to exercise you might consider a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine  that shows that regular exercise reduces risks by up to 20% for 13 different types of cancers. As people got up and moved around 150 minutes a week they continued to protect themselves from future disease.

The study fits with the findings of 12 large U.S. and European Research Studies that contained 1.5 million participants who were tracked from 9 to 21 years.

Moderate to heavy exercise is recommended. When the term moderate is used it doesn't mean high speed sprints and kickboxing class everyday. Something as simple as walking can make a big difference in one's overall health. Other studies have concerned that speed walking may be even more beneficial than jogging in the long run.

When you review the literature you will also find that each more fruits and vegetables also reduces the risk for cancers. Eating the right type of foods with regular exercise can protect your body from generating cancer producing cells.  Matched with regular screenings for common cancers and you should be on your way to greater health and peace of mind.

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Hiring the Genius Within-Novelty and Analysis

How do you know if you are hiring a genius or just a really smart person? According to a paper in Educational leadership geniuses have two important traits that include novelty and analysis when trying to understanding complex ideas (Goodwin & Miller, 2013). Before you offer a big salary to your next job candidate consider the long-term potential of the employee.

Highly creative people think a little differently. They explore all the possible outcomes using divergent thinking and then prune those ideas back to the most reasonable possibilities. Some of these possibilities become good targets for systematic analysis. Both novelty and analysis create higher levels of exploratory knowledge that can be converted into practical results.

While they are exploring ideas they may seem a little like a mad scientist jumping from idea to idea as they consider possible outcomes but this is a necessary step. Each idea connects to each other in a free flowing analysis where the rules yet don't apply. Many of these ideas are searched and explored to create possibilities.

Exploring ideas requires not having any consideration to the right or wrong answers.

This is why geniuses have a hard time giving simple answers when there are other possibilities. Simple questions might have multiple answers and this could leave some scratching their head. That same annoying trait is also what makes them genius and why people like Einstein and Newton were considered idiots.

In today's society the unconventional answer is a sure path to a poor grade.

Once they have a few good ideas a few will get selected for analysis. In this case they spend their time researching and digging into the fine details. They will eventually reach the limits of research and make leaps that become profound breakthroughs. Those companies that gain from breakthroughs can find themselves leaping to the forefront of an industry.

Creative and scientific breakthroughs requires in depth research and study.

Not all geniuses will perform under all circumstances. They need the right type of environment and something to focus on. If they don't have a focus they will bounce around looking for different things of interest. Their efforts aren't as funneled into productive pursuits that will reap financial rewards. Because geniuses are internally motivated money is helpful, recognition is wonderful, but there must be an established interest in the work.


Goodwin, B. & Miller, K. (2013). Creativity requires a mix of skills. Educational Leadership, 70 (5).

What If You Could Improve Performance and Decrease Stress?

What if you could improve your performance while decreasing stress? It would be the best of both worlds. I have seen people who believe that if they work harder and faster they can get more done and get that promotion. This isn't how it works in real life when one seeks to move to the highest ranks of an organization they must engage in a paradigm shift to be truly dynamic. Living in the present can change your fundamental outlook on life that filters into our work performance.

When we are trying to move up the ranks we can become bogged down in our own thinking. We start to worry about all the details and try and make them perfect so that we can achieve our goals. The problem is that most companies don't expect perfection or lots of busy work from managers...but they do expect you to manage people effectively and use your brain to get meaningful work done.

Think of the term "frazzled". I'm sure at some point in your life you have met a manager who is frazzled and tries to do and control everything within their department. They can get so busy they don't take their time and get easily frustrated by others. Worse! They might not even pay attention to their employees and other problems related to retention and motivation start.

Living in the present means the manager focuses on the tasks in front of them while not necessarily forgetting their long term goals. Achievement of objectives is through lots of little baby steps. Trying to manage every detail is impossible and leads to poor outcomes. It is necessary to do each of the baby steps well and let them accumulate to the accomplishment of your goals.

The process of focusing on each task helps improve the outcome on each task and in turn the entire project. It also ensures the manager isn't bogged down with many other minute details they may not have control over anyway. The advantages of living in the present isn't easy as it is about fundamentally changing the way you view the world by riding the wave versus trying to control it. 

A few advantages of managing in the present:

1. Improves listening skills

2. Improves thinking skills

3 Allows for creative problem solving

4. Improves enjoyment of each moment

5. Improves interpersonal skills

6. Encourages proper delegation of responsibility

7. Focus improves

8. Motivation rises

9. Personal skills are integrated

10. Reduced stress

Study Shows The Get Rich and Get Poor Economy

People have been complaining about the economy as far back as we traded with shells. Mostly, we love to complain just to complain and in many cases we have refined it to an art form. According to information released by Pew Research the middle class incomes are declining while at the same time some have risen into the higher income brackets. We are moving into the Get Rich and Get Poor Economy.

Middle income households declined from in 203 out of 229 U.S. metropolitan areas between 2000 and 2014. Likewise, it did become easier for some people to climb up the income ladder. Middle class shrunk from 55% to 51% of the population. Upper income people increased from 17% to 20% while those in the lowest incomes increased from 28% to 29%.

Overall the medium income dropped 8% further showing that most Americans are loosing their financial power. Those that improve their positions versus those who lose their position are likely based on their education and field of work. If skills are updated and people have gained a solid education they can jump to higher paying positions. Those that do not update their skills are losing ground.

We can also understand these numbers to be a broader implications that while the country is doing well in some respects we have to do a better job at competing globally. We must create a more global economy that is capable of support the rising high-knowledge occupations that create specialization as well as general employment opportunities that keep the middle class thriving.

America is special and a land of opportunity because the average person can make it into the middle class with reasonable effort and education. That is changing. As the middle class declines and increasingly out reach for most people there will be growing discontent between those who have and those who have not. Two different countries emerge under the same governmental umbrella.

It is important for government, business, and labor leaders to consider the broader implications of a weakening middle class. They will need to find a way to overcome the need to draw foreign investment to create jobs but also keep those wages solidly middle class with a descent standard of life.  A rethinking of the economy and how we compete may be inevitable as throwing the same old tools at the same problems seems to be losing ground. It may require hedging the changes in technology and metro infrastructure to create competitive environments where income growth and solid wages can be found.

2016 Spring Global Education Conference

2016 SPRING GLOBAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE
May 13-14, 2016
Los Angeles, United States of America

Enquiries: conference@uofriverside.com
Web address: http://www.uofriverside.com/conferences/education-conferences/global-education-conference/2016-spring-global-conference-on-education/
Sponsored by: University of Riverside

CALL FOR PAPERS

- Submission of an abstract, topic of interest or proposal will be accepted for the purpose of registration.
- Time schedule to be determined later after all the papers have been received.
- 30 minute presentation per paper
- Approved and Peer Reviewed papers will be published in on-line proceedings.

TOPICS

Abstracts of research papers in 150-200 words are invited from academics, Administrators and Ph.D. scholars/Post Graduate students on contemporary issues in Leadership and Management befitting any of the conference tracks mentioned as under. Topics of interest for submissions include, but are not limited to:

- Academic Advising and Counseling
- Art Education
- Adult Education
- APD/Listening
- Acoustics in Education
- Environment Business
- Education Counselor
- Education Curriculum Research and Development
- Competitive Skills
- Continuing Education
- Distance Education
- Early Childhood
- Education
- Educational Administration
- Educational Foundations
- Educational Psychology
- Educational Technology
- Education Policy and Leadership
- Elementary Education
- E-Learning
- E-Manufacturing
- ESL/TESL
- E-Society
- Geographical Education
- Geographic information Systems
- Health Education
- Higher Education
- History
- Home Education
- Human Computer Interaction
- Human Resource Development
- Indigenous Education
- ICT Education
- Internet technologies
- Imaginative Education
- Kinesiology and Leisure Science
- K12
- Language Education
- Mathematics Education
- Mobile Applications
- Multi-Virtual Environment
- Music Education
- Pedagogy
- Physical Education (PE)
- Reading Education
- Writing Education
- Religion and Education Studies
- Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
- Rural Education
- Science Education
- Secondary Education
- Second life Educators
- Social Studies Education
- Special Education
- Student Affairs
- Teacher Education Technology in Education Cross-disciplinary areas of Education
- Ubiquitous Computing
- Virtual Reality
- Wireless applications
- Other Areas of Education

Enquiries: conference@uofriverside.com
Web address:
http://www.uofriverside.com/conferences/education-conferences/global-education-conference/2016-spring-global-conference-on-education/

Decoding Your Employee's Needs for Greater Performance

Employees come to work willingly seeking advantages to raise the quality of their lives. In classical economics employee labor is based on productive and leisure time. Employees productive time can better be enhanced by decoding their themes and applying them for greater commitment and performance. The decoding process requires active listening and pattern watching to determine overall beliefs and motivations.

Each of us comes to the workplace with certain beliefs and motivations. We may not realize it but we create patterns in our behavior that help show the world what our actual intention is and what we are seeking from our environment. In some cases employees may not even know what they are seeking on a conscious level but continue to exhibit certain behaviors over and over.

Managers have the patience to watch, listen and learn from their employees will find that they can understand these patterns even better than the employees themselves. Watching from the outside is much more objective than watching from the inside the pattern. As managers learn more about the employees workplace behaviors they begin to understand the employee better.

Most companies simply push for standard ways of motivating employees through traditional job allocations and rewards. The system is based on the Industrial Era where people were herded together and asked to complete relatively simple tasks. As society progresses into the Internet Era greater individual consideration and differentiation will be needed.

Highly intellectual workers are a different sort of breed. They need to have the right environment and conditions to work at their maximum. If your just pulling a lever it doesn't require much thought but if you are inventing new things and developing highly complex projects the subtleties of performance will play a bigger role. Increases in intellectual workplace capacity accompanies greater self-direction.

This direction makes the commitment between employee and employer much stronger. The commitment becomes long-term and there is an opportunity to see and watch these patterns develop. An astute manager can see these patterns and then develop better motivating factors that help the employee perform better. Decoding is a process of understanding the models employees use to understand their environment and what beliefs and motivations help them do their best.