1. School = Homework/Testing
2. Sports = Practice/Games
3. Toyota’s PDCA = Planning/(Do/Check/Act)

We grow up thinking it is a necessity? What happens?

Where does your Company fit in?

Dr. Robert Charente of ITABHI Corporation developed the principles of lean development (LD) in the early 1990’s as not only a strategic as well as tactical business approach for the creation of change-tolerant business software intensive systems, systems that can rapidly adapt to or help in the creation of business change. He sets these lofty targets in his developments:

• 1/3 the human effort
• 1/3 the development hours
• 1/3 the time
• 1/3 the investment in tools and methods
• 1/3 the effort to adapt to a new market environment

Why the 1/3 targets? These goals are meant to challenge status quo thinking. Without audacious goals, ones that seem impossible to reach business managers won’t bother to think about the issues of software development in entirely different ways.

Could your marketing achieve 1/3 targets? Could you achieve them while providing more value to the customer? Can you think about your marketing in a totally different way?

Bob Charente expanded the thoughts of Lean Development to these 12 principles:

1. Satisfying the customer is the highest priority.
2. Always provide the best value for the money.
3. Success depends on active customer participation.
4. Every LD project is a team effort.
5. Everything is changeable.
6. Domain, not point, solutions.
7. Complete, don’t construct.
8. An 80 percent solution today instead of 100 percent solution tomorrow.
9. Minimalism is essential.
10. Needs determine technology.
11. Product growth is feature growth, not size growth.
12. Never push LD beyond its limits.

You can read an expanded version of these 12 principles on the ITABHI Corporation website.

Lean Development focuses on the creation of change-tolerant software. Setting up this model for marketing could be quite interesting. How flexible, how change- tolerant is your marketing? Why are you marketing the way you do? Is it the way that your customer wants you too?

Photo Credit by hanneorla

Mike has a new website up and running to start the new year: http://mosterling.com.

Kaizen in the Office Environment –

Mike is also the co-author of The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service and Technical Environments

Related Podcast: Kaizen in the Office Environment

Related Posts: Kaizen Search on Business901 Website

Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important (Their Thinking – A goal that makes all the difference. Failure to achieve this goal renders any of our other achievements inconsequential.)

Discipline 2: Create a Compelling Scorecard (Their thinking – You are not really serious about the goal until we start keeping score.)

Discipline 3: Translate Lofty Goals into Specific Actions (Their Thinking – Goals will never be achieved until everyone on the team knows exactly what they’re supposed to do about them.)

Discipline 4: Hold Each other Accountable – All the time. (Maintaining commitment to the goal requires frequent team engagement and accountability.)

This is one of the best descriptions of how an execution system should be developed that I have come across. However, the one quality that I have found in successful organizations that can implement a new process is a company that is already committed to continuous improvement.

Continuous improvement companies understand that not everything is right to begin with, it is just the beginning. They realize market conditions, new information that is uncovered, external and internal conditions will all affect the process of implementation. They are not looking for perfection. They know that is will come in time. These types of companies are very adaptable and seek to improve the process in small loops or in mini-PDCA cycles.

As you develop, your Kaizen plan, make sure that you look at two deliverables. One of course is the project or the problem that you defined. The other is the process. If you look and separate the process from the product, it will be much easier to make decisions. It also will allow you to continuously improve the process you use for future Kaizen events.

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Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you offer. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and, if done right, helps build loyalty and trust with customers. As a result, you generate more sales and more profits!

The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, permission-based email list. Marketers call contact lists their "goldmine" because it can generate much of their sales revenue. If you’ve built up a list of opt-in subscribers that are qualified and interested in what you have to offer, then you’ve completed the first step and are on your way. Now it’s time to "mine" for gold!

Below you’ll find several list-building and retention ideas that will help you get the best results from all your email marketing activities:

1. Provide useful, relevant content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be of interest or use to them.

2. Add a subscription form to every page on your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If it doesn’t look cluttered, you may want to include more than one on some pages. For instance, if your opt-in form always appears in the top-left corner of your site, you may want to add one at the end of your most popular articles.

3. Add subscription forms to your social media pages. Make sure that you don’t waste this valuable source of revenue opportunities. Integrate your sign-up forms with Facebook and more!

4. Make it easy for readers to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it’s not necessary, don’t include it here. You can always survey them once they’re customers! We do recommend that you provide a link to your Privacy Policy however.

5. Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form. (Note: If you don’t have one, put the words "privacy policy generator" into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form to use.)

6. Provide samples of your newsletters and Ezines. This lets potential subscribers review your materials before they sign up to determine if it’s something they’d be interested in.

7. Archive past newsletters and articles. An online library of past newsletters and articles is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can increase traffic to your website through enhanced search engine positioning.

8. Give gifts subscribers can actually use. Offer an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list! Write an ebook or provide a PDF business report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don’t limit yourself to offering gifts to opt-ins. Give them out when your readers fill out a survey, provide a testimonial, success story, or a great product idea. Let them know when they can expect the next gift offer. Everyone likes to get something for free! And if you pass out "goodies" throughout the year, your subscribers will feel truly appreciated − and that’s good for business!

9. Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find your content interesting, amusing or informative, they’ll probably share it with their friends. This can be a great source of new customers, so make sure to remind them to "pass it on".

10. Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. If you’re happy to share your content with the universe, then why not! Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you’ll get new subscribers, and more traffic and links pointing to your site.

11. Include a "Sign Up" button in your newsletter. If you’re using plain text instead of HTML, be sure to provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint them online. Make it easy for them to subscribe!

12. Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal − to acquire opt-ins and build your list. Think of it as a mini-sales letter to go along with your subscription or opt-in gift. It should feature a strong headline and a couple of powerful benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up! Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and promote your offer using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo. Now that should make a splash!

13. Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put one or two strong testimonials from satisfied customers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video) is more "believable" and inspires more people to action. To further enhance believability, get permission to use actual customer names, locations and/or urls (Don’t use "Bob K, FL"). Add a note inviting others to participate. After all, it’s free publicity!

14. Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with prospects and potential customers, and creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or WordPress.

15. Post on other blogs. Post thoughtful comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in pages. Also comment on others’ blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers, and get your brand out there!

Learn more about Get Response.

You can get a feel on how it works by just evaluating your microwave. To improve heating in the microwave, halfway through the cycle you turn the package over, turbulence. If you are on a lower power level, the food takes longer to cook, time and temperature. Even a dishwasher, frying pan, washing machine, dryer or even a carpet cleaning machine follow these basic principles of Time, Temperature and Turbulence.

Can marketing make sense out of these principles? Certainly!

Time: Remember the old saying about frequency and being there day in and day out. This certainly has merit and is still a very important part of marketing today. When most people or even organizations finally get down to the decision making time, inking a contract or writing a check, the safest choice many times wins. Having a well established brand makes you the safest choice. What does it take to have a well established brand, TIME!

Temperature: I equate temperature to how well you address the need. Not only do you need to provide a service or product that addresses their need but you must clearly demonstrate that you do. Review a few jobs that you have lost in the past that you truly felt like you were the best solution. Typically, you will find that it was lost to a well established brand. They were the safe choice. Why? You did not identify clearly, without question, you were the best solution. Clarity – will make you HOT!

Turbulence: This is my favorite, causing a lot of agitation or maybe better said commotion about your product or service. Word of mouth, Gigantic Sales, Star Power and uniqueness are some of the ways to increase turbulence. You have to give people something to talk about! Create a stir!

These are very basic definitions but it is looking at all three of them at once that is the key. Examples:

1. Lack time (Time): You will have to spend a lot of time in addressing a well defined audience and making a really hot offer!
2. Lack Uniqueness (Temperature): You will need a longer time to market the product, you must be the tortoise and have some Star Power (testimonials) making you the safest choice.
3. Lack Proof, Testimonials (Turbulence): You have to take the time to develop the customer’s confidence in your product. It will need to be a much more personal sale.

Time, Temperature and Turbulence works out to be nothing more than math in the engineering world. In marketing, there are many creative ideas that can be spawned using this trio as a guideline. However, it still comes down to math.

The Marketing Equation: Time x Temperature x Turbulence = Prospects

Algebraic rules:

1. Equations are always in balance:
   1. A increase in any one will result in an increase in prospects.
   2. A decrease of any one will result in a decrease of prospects.
2. Product of the numbers is the same, no matter the order:
   1. The order should not be relevant
3. Any number multiplied by 0 is 0.
   1. If you do nothing in one area, you will get nothing.
4. One multiplied by one is one.
   1. Staying at the status quo will keep you right there.
5. Any positive number multiplied by a negative number becomes negative.
   1. Mistakes are really tough to overcome.
6. Two negatives = A positive
   1. Ok, my theory is blown!

Photo Credit: by jmv

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