The power of WOW: How to rock your customers’ worlds

In honor of National Customer Service Week, Business Genome offers a lesson on how to tip the scale in favor of customer loyalty using the power of “wow.” Empathica’s Mike Amos has developed metrics linking the perception of wow with a customer’s intent to return to a restaurant. Zappos’ founder Tony Hsieh (and featured speaker at the recent Inc 500 conference) exemplified the economic strength of an SMB (small and medium-sized company) that recently sold for $900 million dollars. Zappos’ customer service is so over the top that if they don’t stock the shoes you want, they’ll find you someone else who does.

Wow is an approach that brings the customer from satisfied to loyal.

Tough love for bad business ideas: How to advance the extinction of innovative, but unevolved, business ideas

There’s been a lot of sadness communicated over a list of 25 ideas about to become extinct with examples ranging from the US Post Office to milkmen. Luckily, apple pie missed the list. Commentators on the fates of these dying species mourn the loss and wonder how business leaders could have seen the hand just before the plug got pulled. Business Genome views the extinction differently–as a wake up call for business leaders who are avoiding the sometimes unpleasant task of constructing a gallows for their current corporate initiatives that are leading nowhere.

Business Genome offers a 7-step checklist to guide corporate leaders through the task: How to Pull the Plug on Bad Business Ideas. The key to avoiding extinction is not to mourn when it’s too late, but to stick to a discipline of facing facts before the fate is sealed.

Toughen up, stop the bleeding, and move on.

And, do it with a smile. Because after shedding dead ideas, the Phoenix rises, bringing better business ideas.

Umami, the fifth sense for business leaders: How to build a business based on what customers want but can’t tell you

Umami represents the fifth sense in the science of the physiology of taste. Although long-recognized in the East as a flavor sensation that augments the taste dimension that westerners have defined as salty, sweet, bitter, and sour, umami has only recently gained traction in the rest of the world.

Translate the concept of a formerly unnamed “sense” finding a name to the world of business and you have one of the Business Genome’s core lessons on how companies can uncover formerly unnamed consumer preferences. These preferences, sometimes called “latent customer needs”, are elusive to many, yet open a world of opportunity for business leaders charged with developing new products or services with legs in the marketplace. The Business Genome offers the how-to’s of uncovering “customer umami”–the fifth sense for sensing what the market is ready for, but cannot name.

Business School of Rock, aka, you say you want an evolution: How to yield the economic benefits of invention and creation

David Bowie’s Bowie Bonds represented a 1997-style innovation designed to shift the balance of power in the economics of music creation and distribution. Bowie’s original idea allowed individuals to buy asset-based bonds linked to the future value of his songs. Fast forward to 2009 and a new seismic shift in the creative landscape is starting to rumble where the dollars for ideas are up for grabs again–this time with books and their authors. Amazon’s Kindle and a new gadget in the works at Apple both threaten to take the power away from once-secure distributors and publishers. If the current direction of electronic book distribution continues, there may come a day where electronic book distributors outstrip the traditional publishing house’s ability to command the lion’s share of distribution dollars, thereby cementing a closer relationship with the authors. How might that affect the future economics of publishing? Business Genome’s Rules to Avoid Fossilization are the best bet for publishers and others whose lock on distribution will be threatened by new technological alternatives.

QWERTY, the case for new Fundamentals: How to pack a meaner (and leaner) Remington

The QUERTY keyboard was invented to solve a mechanical complication associated with the design of the original typing machines–two keys struck in sequence would cause sticking. Years later, the typewriters of the 1860s have morphed many times to daisy wheels and now to all sorts of gizmos. Yet, the meme of the QUERTY keyboard persists.

Many companies have habits ingrained in their cultures or their operations that also originated because they solved real problems at the time. But, as circumstances evolve, the business leaders who do not adapt are left behind.

Consider the quote from Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, who believes that their relatively recent business model is doomed. Doomed. The innovation of shipping DVDs and now the ability to download movies via the Internet is rapidly giving way to an explosion of technologies and delivery systems that will leave Netflix in the dust if they don’t adapt rapidly to a changing business environment.