"Ten Principles of Customer Strategy" at strategy+business reports that business needs "to create distinctive value and experiences for customers." 

1. Master the art of the possible: developing your own informed judgment about what new technologies will appeal to your customers at just the right time, in just the right way, so that customers become more loyal to you
2. Know your customers at a granular level: segment and use customer analytics
3. Link your company’s customer strategy to its overall identity: aligning the emotional elements of your customer strategy, and all customer touch points including pricing, with the strongest capabilities your company has
4. Target customers with whom you have the right to win.
5. Treat your customers as assets that will grow in value: cultivate long-term customer relationships
6. Leverage your ecosystem: relationships are not just with customers, but also with suppliers, distributors, retailers, industry associations, institutional partners, and government agencies
7. Ensure a seamless omnichannel experience: a consistent look and feel in all customer touch points, including brick-and-mortar, face-to-face, online, voice phone, and mobile
8. Excel at delivery.
9. Reorganize around the customer.
10. Match your culture with your customer strategy.

To what extent are all 10 principles addressed by a company that you know? Explain.

How can a manager become a visible master of these behaviors (10 Principles of Customer Strategy)?

ESPN says that Arnold Palmer is the "father of sports marketing." . . . "In his lifetime, he earned almost $7 million on the golf course. Off it? He made at least 50 times that." . . . "He endorsed Heinz ketchup on a steak, L&M filter cigarettes, Allstate insurance, Pennzoil motor oil, cardigans, dinner jackets and even Japanese robes."

Explain how Arnold Palmer parlayed his popularity as a golfer into a second career in the business world, designing golf courses and becoming a pitchman for everything from luxury watches to beverages.

Why does ESPN call Arnold Palmer, "the father of modern-day sports marketing"?

Millennials cited texting as the most preferred communication channel for receiving notifications from businesses, according to new research from enterprise mobile engagement firm OpenMarket. Furthermore, over 83 percent of Millennials polled citing they open a text within 90 seconds of receiving it.

What are some other key findings from OpenMarket’s survey? (See the infographic above.)

How might a manager use this knowledge to communicate with work group?

Next Generation lists the workplace strengths of Gen X, Y, and Z in the infographic below.

What are generation X,Y and Z's own professional attitudes and skill sets?

How does generation X compare to generation Y?

How does generation Y compare to generation Z?

Explain why generational knowledge is important to a manager.

Credit Repair used information from the U.S. Census Bureau and published the graphics below comparing incomes.

Which demographics earn the most?

How much does your age affect your income?

What is the median income where you live?

How does your level of education impact your income?

Why should you know how much your coworkers get paid?

Why should pay NOT remain a secret?

What is pay transparency?

How much do you get paid?

How does it compare to the people you work with?

Universum’s 2016 Most Attractive Employers was decided by business students in USA.

Which of the employers listed below have you considered attractive?

Why do you think the top 10 employers are so attractive to business students?

If you work for a business not on the list, how might that business get on the list?

Rank Employer

• 1 Google

• 2 Walt Disney Company

• 3 Apple

• 4 Nike

• 5 EY (Ernst & Young)

• 6 J.P. Morgan

• 7 Goldman Sachs

• 8 Deloitte

• 9 Amazon

• 10 FBI

How does Gallup define an engaged employee?

As a manager, how will improve your company’s employee engagement levels?

The "next Industrial Revolution" or the Internet of Things (IoT) has started. IoT is called the "next Industrial Revolution" because of the way it will change the way people live, work, entertain, and travel, as well as how governments and businesses interact with the world.

Business Insider shares these points:

• In total, we forecast there will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020, up from 10 billion in 2015. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion.
• Nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
• Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions. They see three ways the IoT can improve their bottom line by 1) lowering operating costs; 2) increasing productivity; and 3) expanding to new markets or developing new product offerings.
• Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. We forecast they will be the second-largest adopters of IoT ecosystems.
• Consumers will lag behind businesses and governments in IoT adoption. Still, they will purchase a massive number of devices and invest a significant amount of money in IoT ecosystems.

What is the IoT?

How will managers benefit from using IoT ecosystems?

According to the Pew Research, “Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation, according to population estimates recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Millennials, whom we define as those ages 18-34 in 2015, now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51-69). And Generation X (ages 35-50 in 2015) is projected to pass the Boomers in population by 2028.”

Why do many people believe Millennials have the entrepreneurial mentality without the experience (and guts) to be leading entrepreneurs?

Why might Millennials end up being the greatest entrepreneurial generation ever?

Mazlo put together an infographic above about four generations at work.

What generation are you?

What do you want from work?

What motivates you?

Does your boss understand you and your generation? Explain.

We all would like to be more productive. We want to "work smarter, not harder"! One way to do this is to determine the best time of day to do what you do. The infographic above gives you tips on the optimum times to complete a range of tasks.

Explain how you will rewrite your present schedule with more attention to how the time of day affects you.

Scott Steinberg was researching business leaders for his book Make Change Work for You and discovered the key to success may be overcoming, and even using, your fears.

What is your biggest fear?

How is it holding you back?

What can you do about it?

Businesses could not stay in business without customers! So, an important goal of most managers is to improve customer satisfaction. Ritika Puri of Salesforce.com says, 

"Customer satisfaction is one of the toughest, most abstract concepts to capture and measure. Satisfaction is often in the eye of the beholder, and if you’re using a tool like a survey, you’re relying on self-reported data that presents only one side of the story. In addition, “success” is multi-faceted: A customer may be happy overall, but there may be some hidden deal-breakers that are hurting your retention metrics." He recommends measuring success from a few different dimensions and focusing on specific elements that contribute to overall success.

Think of a recent purchase that you made, but were not satisfied with it.

• How much time did you spend on hold with support reps?
• How many support articles did you read?
• How much time did you spend reading each support article?
• How much time did it take to resolve your complaint?
• How many calls did you make until you achieved a resolution?
• How satisfied were you after your calls with support agents?

Everyday, whether you know realize it or not, people form opinions about you. Take control of your brand. I know that you think that a brand is a name, term, design or symbol (or combination of these) that identifies a firm's product. But, you have a personal brand to develop - The Brand Called You.

Watch this video https://youtu.be/rFjQmADRX-k

Have you ever thought of yourself as a brand? What are you doing today to build your own brand equity?