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Are Transferable Skills & Experience more important than Industry Expertise?

Breakout growth companies are usually started by industry outsiders. They change the rules and thrive on destroying the old ways of doing things. As they grow, and hire, founders don’t surround themselves with industry veterans – that would not be a recipe for disruption and innovation. As the saying goes about amazing innovative companies… “too dumb to know it couldn’t work”

Does this apply to hiring practices in other companies that are not the ones shaking an industry to its foundation? In this Forbes article, , the case is made that thinking (and hiring) like the founder of Amazon, may bring benefits in tackling innovation, and competing with game-changing competitors.

Target Marketing: Are there job opportunities with mobile coupon companies?

In a recent NY Times article , a number of companies in the mobile coupon business were featured.  Although each is using different approaches and technologies, they all are based on the concept that a cellphone is a handy place to get a bargain.

Zavers promotes the business benefits of developing actionable marketing based on the data collected with their solution. This value proposition would apply to any data rich loyalty or couponing program.

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8coupons describes themselves as a fun and easy way to save time, money, and trees by getting the best, up-to-the-minute deals on your phone”

I suspect that there are at least 100 other companies in this space contending to organize the retail or grocery industry, and perhaps collect a small toll along the way.

For job seekers, an opportunity exists to help companies like Zavers in a few ways; with their technology needs in developing their solutions, as a marketing analyst  for their value-added services, and in sales.

Here’s why today is the best time to join the Financial Services business!

Today is the best time to join the Financial Services business!

  1. Clients are unhappy. If you call a prospective client with a simple and safe investment such as a deposit, they will listen and give you an appointment, because their current financial adviser has either stopped calling, or is explaining why portfolio values are down. They might switch, but 2 years ago, it would have been impossible to compare yourself against their broker’s success with the client portfolio.
  2. The advice you give today , and the products you recommend today, are more likely to make clients $ tomorrow. The most successful brokers, planners and advisers don’t try and pick winners, they follow a system and rely on others to make those tough decisions. Fact is whoever is selecting and packaging product for you today has a better chance of being right, as the tide of the market rises.  The investments that focus on the stock market, which is currently low after a 50% correction, will likely do well in coming years.
  3. Where you work is important! Who you know, historical performance, projections no longer carry much weight with clients. What counts is knowing you are personally service-oriented, that you can be trusted, and that the company you work for has survived the credit crunch and is getting stronger, (not just barely surviving or still losing money)
  4. The potential market is huge! Most people have trouble saving money. They carry credit card balances at very high interest rates, and they have the wrong kind of life insurance. Ignore the tv commercials about wealth management; the vast majority of clients need basic help to solve these problems.
  5. Hard work and honesty is respected today. Today, financial success is measured in lowering your risk and credit exposure, eliminating debt, understanding exactly what you are investing in, saving carefully for your future, and having independence. If you are ready to work hard and be straight with people… Today is the best time to join the Financial Services business!

- Frank Abrams is the founder of zenPeak Inc. , helping companies find and retain peak performers for high-trust and high-integrity positions.

Wal-Mart’s dirty little secret that 379,000 people know about

The time has come for companies to start investing resources in online image insurance.  Companies can’t protect themselves from having an employee who is rude, or a washroom that is dirty.  Its impossible. But they can step in and act quickly to limit damage.  Or they can wait until negative stuff appears in a newspaper, or on TV or on YouTube.

What companies want to prevent is the short shrift – unfair attacks that are allowed to gain strength, or legitimate complaints that fall on deaf ears – a neglected unhappy customer who starts to influence a lot of others, because they aren’t feeling the love.

Instead of spending money on “buzz” marketing where people fake interest in a product or service, or instead of camouflaging a corporate voice in an online network, how about showing pride and stepping into the fray in a transparent fashion.

Here is a link to a flickr album that has been viewed by 379,000 + people.  It has pictures of a dirty Wal-Mart store. Are all Wal-Marts dirty? – no.  Hmmm Its hard to tell from the comments.

http://tinyurl.com/6mutkr

Next post, I’ll start a series on which Social Networks companies should use, why and how.