It’s odd how good ideas take you by surprise. I was talking to Ian, our head of editorial, this week about a new executive blog we’re launching for a client, and I asked him how he thought we should handle the fact that the woman whose words we were tailoring was a native German speaker. ‘Not a problem,’ he said. ‘I’ve been a Spaniard in the morning, American in the afternoon and (more…)
Read more
Looking out of my office window in the past month, I’ve been greeted most days by pretty well incessant rain. Here in Britain, it seems like it’s been raining for weeks. In some places, houses are flooded and gardens are knee-deep in water. Yet we’re told the country is also in the middle of the worst drought in over 30 years. Water utilities are desperate to reduce consumption. In many parts of (more…)
Read more
Here it comes. We’re bored with business success. So we’ve decided to give it all away – everything we know – for free, in a single blog. You want to know how to put together a successful response to an analyst firm’s survey questionnaire? We’ll tell you, in the next five minutes. You want to know how to get that woman from Gartner to see your business in its best light? You (more…)
Read more
You’re a realist, right? You know there are things you can do, investments you can make, that will help to make your company and your products more visible to Gartner and the other research and advisory organizations. You know the rules. You’re certainly not supposed to be able to buy research coverage and favorable assessments in Gartner’s Magic Quadrants or the Forrester Wave. But if you had the budget, and the determination (more…)
Read more
Was there ever a day when the thought crossed your mind that your company could do without Gartner, IDC, Forrester, Ovum, and all the rest of them? Was there ever a moment when you thought “We don’t need them”? You wouldn’t be the first CEO or senior manager to feel like that. Sometimes it seems like all the research companies and their Magic Quadrants and Waves do is just get in the (more…)
Read more
On your marks. Get set. Go. When the starting gun goes off, there is always going to be a rush of adrenalin, a surge of excitement, and a striving to get up to speed and do your best. But when the starting gun goes off in relation to a Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) assessment of your company, in many ways it is already too late. Magic Quadrants generally appear once a year. (more…)
Read more
Why does anyone take notice of what analysts say and write? If you ask the people who buy technology why they value the research reports they see from Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and the many specialist firms that have flourished in the last few years, it’s because they help reduce risk. Companies’ futures and people’s jobs depend on getting IT decisions right. It may not always be essential to buy the very best solution, (more…)
Read more
It’s no surprise. For small and medium-sized firms, going through the complete Magic Quadrant or Forrester Wave assessment cycle is always going to be a tense and nervy experience. But after the preparation, the effort, and the waiting, many are bound to end up disappointed. Not everyone can be a Leader. Leadership status would be meaningless if too many companies shared that sought-after positioning in the upper right quadrant. And, though there’s room for more research (more…)
Read more
Albert Einstein is famously credited with saying that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” When it comes to training initiatives, are we all acting insane? According to Neil Rackham (of SPIN fame), without practice, review and reinforcement, 87 percent of skills taught during training will be lost within 30 days. If training initiatives aren’t linked to an associate’s development plan; if managers haven’t (more…)
Read more
So there you are working on your next great presentation. The story you have has the power to move mountains. But how do you get your audience to appreciate the story, understand it, internalize it and, hopefully, remember it? A big part of the answer is the rule of four. Seven? Back in a famous 1956 academic paper George Miller posited the idea that short term memory had a capacity of about (more…)
Read more
