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With many thanks to friends and clients, we’ve made the top 25 list our 1st month out of the gate!

800-CEO-READ, a leading direct supplier of book-based resources, compiles a monthly list of best-selling business books based on purchases by its corporate customers nationwide. Here are the best sellers for October 2008:

23. “Relationship Economics: Transform Your Most Valuable Business Contacts Into Personal and Professional Success” by David Nour; Wiley.

You can read about the others here…

We recently enhanced our email newsletter distribution system in an attempt to further focus the value we provide to our broad base of constituents based on their individual and often unique preferences. 

Many Fortune 500 companies can’t get this right, so I was amazed at some of our findings:

1. On the positive side, many of the 40,000+ recipients not only opened our newsletter, but read the content, found it of interest and value, and even forwarded a number of items to others – see article on the value of social networking at work
2. Why do I need to know you’re out of the office and won’t be back until next Tuesday at 12:28 AM?!?  We all get way too many emails, and I’m convinced this is one we can do without.
3. The referral to others while you’re out was interesting, if not amusing – “here are 28 different names and numbers for you to contact if you want any of these 117 items on the menu of what I do each day.  By the way, I’ve stepped away for a bio break for 00:02 minutes.”

Read the rest of this entry »

In the New York Times business section last Sunday, October 26th, I read with great interest an article about Jenny Hourihan Bailin who lost her Wall Street investment banking job in a restructuring earlier this year. The article focused on how she’s found her “true north” compass heading – that which really makes her happy. She’s decided to retool and transfer her skills into the non-profit world. Read the rest of this entry »

Integrated Broadband Services (IBBS) recently had me speak at their 2008 User Advisory Council meeting of their top clients.  They also asked me to facilitate a very candid and poignant Q&A session with their top executives.  Below is a kind note via LinkedIn® from one of their new customers, Steve Sizemore, Director of Advanced Services at CMA Communications.

Wonder,

At Relationship Economics®, we believe whether in a turbulent economy or otherwise, it’s our investments in the “favor economy” which will benefit all of us the most!  Check out Relationship Economics (Wiley, September 2008) for more actionable examples of quantifiable and strategic investment ideas in your most valuable business relationships.

what does your agenda says about your company meeting?

I was elated to receive this email – LinkedIn has finally realized that they have the promise and the potential to become a social networking platform, and not simply a “hand-shake” website!

But it didn’t take long to start receiving less than stellar news from each of the apps I tried, which made me ask: do these guys really understand what it takes to succeed in the application arena?

1. It has to work!  Don’t put half-baked stuff up there!
2. Web 2.0 is about self-service – what’s next when it doesn’t work?
3. I’m assuming you get the 1-9-90 phenomenon, so what are you doing to engage big advocates like me to test this stuff before your mass release?
4. Do you have the support infrastructure to support it?
5. You’ll get one chance to create an exceptional experience and unfortunately, today wasn’t it!

I know there are really bright, hard working developers at LinkedIn and each of the respective partner companies, and I commend all of them for extending their reach.

What do you think about LinkedIn Applications?

In an economically turbulent time, does fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) about “the other guy” work?  It seems to be effective in our political process.  How about in the business community?  I often wonder what effect this approach may have on both the short-term Relationship Currency® with that brand and in the longer-run, what about the organization’s Reputation Capital®?

Here is the latest FedEx campaign on the “published reports about DHL’s reduced capabilities…”

What do you think?