CEO Bloggers' Club

Casablanca is calling

The more I talk with new people I meet, the more it seems I should remain open to launching a business venture in Morocco.

I have no intention of relocating my company.
I am very attached to the idea of keeping what already exists in France. But I’m oriented to the future and to developing new commercial activities.

I should admit that it’s becoming harder and harder to be an entrepreneur in France.
Frankly, the rest Europe isn’t much better.
(Germany, Spain and even Poland are currently in economic crisis.)

Does too much freedom kill creativity ?

I am wondering whether it would be perhaps a good idea to give some guidelines to publish notes on our blog, as it seems that it is quite difficult for many of you to initiate or launch new debates, except for some regular authors that I'd like to thank for their work by the way.

Then I'd like to get your feedback on two followings idea:

- giving the exclusivity of publication to members of a same country during 10 days, to give us an overview of their local vision of the blogosphere, how big is the awareness around corporate blogging in their country, what are the best local corporate blogs they know, how are blogs mainly used from now, what would certainly not happen with blogs, etc.... Every ten days, the editor team is moving to an other country. All other members can only post comments but are not authorize to publish articles.

- giving the exclusivity to specific topics during 10 days. Everyone can publish notes or just comment, but only on the ongoing topic. Ex.: Blogs and HR, blogs and management, blogs and CRM, blogs to manage crisis, blogs as collaborative tools, best of blogs, what a blog should never be, best books/articles/survey around blog, ...and so much more.

- ... does someone have an other idea ?

The idea is launched, give me your feedback, let's make it together. This is an "open source" blog.

Tinbasher - and a new CEO Bloggers' Club recruit

When I talked to Times (London) reporter Andrew Heavens last month for this article (good luck accessing that if you're not in the UK), I mentioned to him a blog I knew about, Tinbasher, that is solely about sheet metal. I did so not because I am myself a sheet metal enthusiast - Egyptian linen sheets, maybe, but nothing metallic - but to illustrate the point that there are micro-blogospheres within the larger blogosphere, and that businesses should find theirs and engage them. Or, as Frank Kelcz (who held senior roles at publishing companies Bertelsmann, ACE Electronics Publications and VNU in Europe and launched Ziff-Davis over here as well) put it at our day session on Friday, the blogosphere allows for every imaginable specialist publication in the world to exist and thrive if the market for it is there or can be created.

Blog inside

We decided yesterday to use blogs to launch our new brands.
This is mostly the result of the debates initiated in the CEO bloggers' club.

As said before, we are at turning point, where customers need confidence, and the blog is the best available tool to restore it.

As the CEO, I’m the natural blogger of the company: customers need to speak to real people and have personalized communication.
New CEO bloggers have to be reactive, creative and inventive.
This might be the start of a new Renaissance, and we must manage our companies a bit like artists.

Team building

I remember the following definition of management:
1) make people dream
2) master the figures
3) be prepared to say thank you.

Let’s talk about dreams.

Over the last 15 years, I managed teams ranging in size from 3 to 50 people.
For me the ideal size is around 20 people.
I agree with Richard Branson when he suggested to create a new company every time you exceed 50 people.

Blogs and recruitment

Via BL Ochman, I see that this past Sunday's New York Times featured an article on how blogs are used in recruitment (annoyingly, a subscription is required to read the NYT's content). As well as job seekers using a company's blog(s) to get a feel for the corporate culture and whether or not it would be a good place to work, and writing their own blogs as "living résumés," employers are increasingly scouring blogs for leads on candidates. Heather Hamilton, senior marketing recruiter at Microsoft, says that she has found great candidates through blogging, and that she thinks blogs will change how companies recruit. That echoes what Thomas Nelson Publishers' COO Michael Hyatt told me recently:

I think it's a way to contribute back to our industry and recruit new talent to our company. I have had several people write to say, "Gee, I'd like to work for a company that is this forward-thinking."

But the recruitment and HR uses for blogs go much further than the NYT piece explores.

Introducing 4 new members

Alain Hemelinckx

Currently heading Finaref E Business (subsidiary of Credit Agricole) whose mission is
to sell a wide range of consumer credit and insurance products + to gear different
private label cards (La Redoute, Fnac, Club Med, etc...). In the late 90ties, co founder of Web-Age, a leading (at that time) webvertising agency (customers were VW, l'Oreal, Danone, Publicis, Micorsoft,..)

Customers need Romance

The old brands are using “macho” communication.
“Just buy it,” they say.

They are talking to me the old way:
“Do what I say, not what I’m doing.”
But inside, customers are waiting for soft, gentle and sincere words.

The seventies liberated the body.
Today our souls are oppressed.
The system wants to keep our minds focused on the TV screens.
It’s an Orwellian world.

With the Internet, youth is hearing free voices.
They now have the tools to “think different.”

This is the end my friend, the end of a period.
This century might be the liberation of the soul.
Is it a time of awakening?

New brands are coming.
Open the Doors and “Let the children play”

Thanks to Jennifer, Elisabeth and Evelyn.

I don’t remember who said it, but the future of the man is women ;)

One-to-One Marketing a False Trail

Last night, during a meeting with a bunch of interactive marketing and blogging types, we were discussing the power of blogs, brands and crisis. During this conversation, I was struck by the fact that blogging is of the traditional marcom school of one-to-many, not from the newer fad of one-to-one marketing. So, what about one-to-one? Read on....

One-to-one marketing is a false trail for marketing. It is, in fact, built on a base of lies, and the consumer knows it. Therefore, it cannot work (explanation for this claim in a minute). Blogging, on the other hand, is one-to-many. It uses the blog as a lever, an amplifier, enabling one voice to reach many, yet in a personal manner. Done well, blogs create credibility, trust. One-to-one marketing is never personal, and it never creates trust.

Here's why one-to-one doesn't work (I have been influenced by others in this thinking, e.g., Cluetrain):

No logo? New logo!

"To compromise or not to compromise?" Jackie asks. For me, I think there is too much compromise these days.

“No logo,” the book by Naomi Klein, showed that some big companies have turned into economic dictatorships: we are living under a “shut up and buy it” system.

Artists have been aware of this for a long time: as the Punks said, “we are living under a fascist regime.”

The solution is not “anarchy in the UK.” The economic system, money, branding, etc. is not the problem; on the contrary, they are powerful forces. It’s just a question of balance.

We need logos!

Logos are an efficient way of focusing energy, dreams and incarnating the values of a company and of society. There is a place for new brands; those that people can trust.

The war has begun. The system makes you think that there is no battlefield, but in fact, the battlefield is everywhere. It is an economic war without limits.

As CEOs, we have a responsibility to change things: We need a new system. I feel we need to hurry and rebuild before the fatal crash.

How should we change things? By doing business differently and not only focusing on profits. It’s “obliquity.” Profits should be the indirect reward of doing business honestly.

The good news? I think it’s not so difficult.
Just make your business funky.

Rock ’n roll, baby!