Leadership Strategies - Does Your Business have Enough Energy to Win?

One rule of the First Law of Thermodynamics is, "Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.”  If there is an application of this rule in business it is “If energy is being expended on resisting changes to your business, then it is not available for making changes to your business.  When markets are rapidly changing due to economic conditions, business or technology innovations, changing customer behaviors or new forms of competition, companies must be able to redirect energy focused on resisting to implementing positive change in order to win.

Change is difficult.  The default mode of most organizations is to resist change. There are many anecdotes in business that demonstrate this.  I remember when Blockbuster Video’s own board resisted change out of concern for short-term profits, which doomed it.  Businesses that can redirect energy to fast and positive transformation can exploit many more opportunities than enterprises mired in resistance miss.  The challenge for leaders is creating an organization that is not only prepared for change, but willing to implement it.

Change consumes energy, and energy is limited.  That means in order to make changes to keep up with a rapidly changing market, energy must be conserved and stock piled so it is available.  Expending scarce energy resisting intelligent change is a huge waste.  Making investments and taking your business down a path that cannot quickly be undone if the market moves a different direction is also a big waste.

TVchannel-as-a-Service - Why Not? Part 3

This is Part 3/3 in this article series (read Part 1 here).

Too often marketing departments seem to all be using the same marketing plan.  I argue that having your own online tv channel makes a bigger marketing impact and differentiates you from competitors.

Here is how it works.  Identify your target market and create an online tv channel that appeals to them!  Find a fun and knowledgeable person on your team and let them host the channel and interview subject matter experts, leaders, partners, customers, etc., in your target market as a way to provide value to your viewers.

Since it is your tv channel, you can promote your brand and engage with your audiences any way you want.  You can insert 15, 30 or 60 second announcements, how-to-clips or advertisements.  You can encourage your target market to subscribe to videos, podcasts, articles, updates, etc., and to receive weekly newsletters of new programs available on your channel. 

How do you do all of the tv channel production work without your own resources?  Add the resources you need to your monthly subscription.   You can record your own videos and let the services part of your TV-as-a-Service take care of all the rest.

For a more in-depth understanding of a TV-as-a-Service marketing strategy connect with me on LinkedIn and let's chat.

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Kevin Benedict

SVP Strategy, Regalix Inc.

Online TV Channel RegalixTV

Website Regalix Inc.

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

TVchannel-as-a-Service - Why Not? Part 2

Key Takeaways

In Part 1 of this article, I discussed the reasons we designed and developed Regalix.tv.  In Part 2, I am going to share how utilizing a TV-as-a-Service, like Regalix.tv, can be a very effective marketing tool.

In just about every technology conference I attended this year, a third party was hired to set up a temporary TV studio to cover the event.  The video content was usually streamed on various social media channels during the conference.  Once the conference ended the studio was taken down, packed up and closed down.  What about the other 362 days of the year?  Why is having a temporary tv studio at an annual conference a good idea, but not a permanent tv studio?  The answer is likely the cost.  Today, however, there is a low cost TVchannel-as-a-service available to companies.

I propose there is real business value in having a branded, corporate tv channel 365 days a year.  I also propose it is a very cost effective marketing tool.  One 30 minute video interview with a subject matter expert can easily produce over a dozen marketing assets.  Think about how long it would take an SME to write a 6-page paper.  My guess three or four days minimum.  If you interview the SME for 30 minutes, you can get nearly the same amount of content in just minutes.

Each video interview that is recorded, can be used to generate many different marketing assets.  A video interview can generate "key takeaways," audio for podcasts, transcripts for articles and much more.  Clips of the video can be made into bite size assets perfect for sharing on social media.  Still images can be captured and memes created with key quotes from the interviews inviting viewers to watch the entire interview, etc.  Once you have a library of videos, compilation videos can be easily produced which helps optimize the value and ROI.  At the end of each week, a newsletter including links to all new videos on the channel can automatically be generated and sent to subscribers.

How do you create videos if you don't have your own resources?  A TV-as-a-Service offering can provide you with both an online tv platform with your brand, plus the video production services that include video editors, producers, assistant producers and video hosts.  They can produce your content for specific projects, or on monthly retainer that includes defined weekly deliverables and programming.  I use this service.  I record leadership interviews most often from my studio in Boise, Idaho.  I upload the interviews and a video production team immediately edits, adds introductions and endings, names, titles and templates, then publishes and distributes on social media and converts the audio into podcasts and provides me with an edited transcript I can turn into a blog article.  This same service is now available to everyone.

In a world where interactions with prospects, partners, customers and even employees are increasingly digital, having a dedicated online tv channel is an exceptional way to interact with your  target audiences.

Continue with Part 3/3 here.

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Kevin Benedict

SVP Strategy, Regalix Inc.

Online TV Channel RegalixTV

Website Regalix Inc.

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

TVchannel-as-a-Service - Why Not? Part 1

For the last 10 years I have been recording executive interviews and sharing them on YouTube. YouTube worked well as a video hosting platform, but was also annoying.  The look was cluttered and distracting.  YouTube purposely directed my viewers away from my content with their algorithms. YouTube inserted advertisements in my content.  As a result of these annoyances I created a wish list:

• Ability to set up multiple channels
• An Interviewer or channel host profile with social media links
• An Interviewee or guest profile with social media links
• "Key Takeaways," descriptions of where to find specific topics in a video
• Edited transcripts for those that would rather read the interview
• Corporate colors and branding
• Ability to add podcasts
• etc.

When I joined Regalix's leadership team nearly 2 years ago, I was excited to have my own video editing and animation teams, marketing experts, software developers, multimedia experts and social media teams.  I sat down and sketched out my vision for an online TV platform and presented it to them.  They liked it and in January of this year it went into production.  You can view it here - www.regalix.tv.  

We have been publishing leadership interviews to Regalix.tv since January of 2019, and now have over 150 interviews published on all kinds of different topics including emerging technologies, innovations, marketing and sales trends, leadership strategies, cybersecurity, distributed ledger technologies, etc.

Today we have over 11 channels in production on different topics.

In my opinion every company and marketing department should have their own online tv channel.  I will argue this point in my next article and discuss what it takes to operate an online tv channel.

Continue reading Part 2/3 here.

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Kevin Benedict

SVP Strategy, Regalix Inc.

Online TV Channel RegalixTV

Website Regalix Inc.

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Strategies for Integrating Product Management and Product Marketing with Micro Focus Expert Joy King

In this interview my guest is Micro Focus’ marketing and product management expert Joy King. We take a deep dive into the value of combining product management, product marketing and field engagement, plus the evolution of marketing strategies and the changing business models that keep us on our toes.

regalix.tv/asset/the-evolution-of-marketing-joy-king-vp-product-management-product-marketing-field-engagement-micro-focus

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Kevin Benedict

SVP Strategy, Regalix Inc.

Online TV Channel RegalixTV

Website Regalix Inc.

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Operating the World's Largest B2B Network with SAP Ariba COO James Lee

James Lee and Kevin Benedict

Any discussion about social and business networks, small world networks, the “network effect” and critical mass is fascinating to me.  In this interview with the multi-talented James Lee, Chief Operating Officer of SAP Ariba, we dig deep into the operations of the world’s largest business to business network, SAP Ariba.  This transcript has been condensed and edited for readability.

Kevin: James, you’re the COO of the largest B2B network in the world. If I’m not mistaken, it’s expected that by the end of the year, there will have been roughly $3 trillion worth of transactions conducted over the network. Wow!  Tell us about your role.

James: We’re very proud of what we’re doing here at SAP Ariba. Mind you, we’ve already surpassed the $3 trillion mark, and we’re looking forward to even more growth! We are also currently the largest procurement cloud solution provider in the world, and now with Fieldglass joining us, we’ve become the leader in services procurement as well.

Evolving Behaviors and Perpetual Change

In the second half of 2019 our customers' expectations have only increased. They want instant, convenient, personalized, customized, predicted, recommended, rewarded and private. They want their own curated lifestyle mirrored back to them. They want control. They want mobile and fast. They desire digital experiences that are simple, beautiful and elegant. They want massive quantities of information – but in bite size. They want to manage their lives from a smart phone anywhere at any time. The want to be able to work from a coffee shop and be 100% productive.

Most of the world has already embraced the digital revolution. Our behaviors are changing. The way we think and act are changing. We constantly reach for our second brains (i.e. Wikipedia, search engines, apps) to access all of the information needed to both survive and thrive in the digital age. Our memories have been altered. We remember how to find information, rather than knowing the information itself.

These changes are rapidly impacting marketplaces, industries and even global economies. We use our smartphones for everything from meeting romantic partners, finding jobs, investing our money, ordering food, paying the water bill, monitoring our health, analyzing our DNA and even finding and buying our homes.

John Boyd, a renowned military strategist, taught that life is a process of adaptation, and that winners/survivors will find ways to exploit change and to adapt to it in order to survive and win. He taught that adapting and winning requires three things:

The Latest Developments in the World's Largest B2B Network with Expert Etosha Thurman

Etosha Thurman

My interview with Etosha Thurman, Head - Global Network, SAP Ariba

Kevin: Tell us about SAP Ariba. What is it? What’s the business value that it provides?

Etosha: SAP Ariba is a brand under the SAP umbrella that’s all about intelligent spend management. The Ariba network is a platform that facilitates commerce for both buyers and sellers.

On the one hand, we work on helping buyers source contracts and operationalize procurement intelligently and efficiently. On the other hand, we also work with suppliers to help them sell better and to effectively and transparently collaborate with customers.

The Ariba Network, on which I focus, is the platform in the middle. Our mandate is to facilitate commerce in every way possible, from helping trading partners connect with each other to providing insights so they can work better together

A Deep Dive with Ericsson's Global Head of IoT Strategy, Rob Tiffany

Last week I was able to track down the globe trotting Global Head of IoT Strategy at Ericsson, Rob Tiffany, to get an update on 5G, the industrial internet of things and other emerging technologies.  It's always a master class in technology when Rob is around.

Watch the interview here!


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Kevin Benedict

SVP Strategy, Regalix Inc.

Online TV Channel RegalixTV

Website Regalix Inc.

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

A Deep Dive Interview with Stephanie Thum, Chief Advisor, Federal Customer Experience, Qualtrics

Earlier this year SAP acquired Qualtrics and added it to their solution suite in the SAP Customer Experience business unit.  I reached out to the ever brilliant Stephanie Thum at Qualtrics to learn more about Qualtrics, and the value it can bring to both SAP customers and others.  Enjoy!

Kevin: First up, Stephanie, tell us a bit about your background.

Stephanie: I am a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP). I've been with Qualtrics for about a year, but I've been working in customer experience for more than 13 years. I started in customer experience as a customer satisfaction executive at Ernst and Young. That was years ago. I eventually became one of the US federal government's first agency-level customer experience leaders. That was during the [Barack] Obama administration.  At that time the president had a multi agency task force on customer experience and I served as an advisor to that task force. I'm also a founding member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), which is the premier professional association for customer experience professionals around the world. I spent time working as part of the headquarters team as well for CXPA just before I came to Qualtrics last year.

Kevin: How do you define customer experience?