by Fronetics | Feb 6, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Here are three tips for creating a content strategy that will help advance your business goals.
If we’re adamant about one thing at Fronetics, it’s creating a documented content strategy. But, as a recent Harvard Business Review article suggests, many strategies fail because they are not actually strategies.
This begs the question: what constitutes a real strategy? According to Freek Vermeulen, associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School, “A real strategy involves a clear set of choices that define what the firm is going to do and what it’s not going to do.” The keyword here is “clear.”
Here are three strategy-creation tips to help you create a clear content strategy that aligns with and furthers your business goals.
3 content strategy tips
1) Show your work.
Just like in high school math class, arriving at the right answer isn’t enough — you need to communicate the logic for how you got there. As you create or refine your strategy, take a step back and examine the reasoning behind each choice.
Says Sly Bailey of the UK publisher Trinity Mirror, “If there is one thing I have learned about communicating choices, it is that we always focus on what the choices are. I now realize you have to spend at least as much time on explaining the logic behind the choices.”
Understanding the reasoning behind each of your choices allows you and your team to fully believe in your strategy, and ensures you carry it out optimally.
2) Trickle down doesn’t work.
Many implementation efforts fail because executives see strategy creation as a top-down process. On this topic, Stanford Professor Robert Burgelman writes, “Successful firms are characterized by maintaining bottom-up internal experimentation and selection processes while simultaneously maintaining top-driven strategic intent.”
In other words, while you need top-down strategic direction, this will only be effective if you simultaneously empower your employees to create bottom-up initiatives that meet the strategic intent.
3) Flexibility is key.
Another source of failure for implementation efforts is the institutional unwillingness to change habits. “People are often not even aware that they are doing things in a particular way and that there might be different ways to run the same process,” says Vermeulen.
It’s important to identify and effectively work against the bad habits that hamper your strategy’s effectiveness. As Vermeulen describes in his book, Breaking Bad Habits, “There are various practices you can build into your organization to make it work.” This often involves identifying key processes, and asking, “Why are we doing it this way?” If the logic isn’t clear (see above), this process is likely a good candidate for change.
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by Fronetics | Jan 24, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Companies in the supply chain and logistics industries should take note of these top social media trends in 2018.
While we don’t know what 2018 has in store for companies in the supply chain and logistics industries, we do know change is coming. That is true not only in terms of the economy and your business, but also for the marketing tools you use. Of course, ever-evolving social media platforms are an important part of that.
We already know that Facebook News Feed will be making some big changes this year. What other platforms or types of media will be hot? What will your industry peers and competitors be trying in 2018? As we dive into the new year, it’s important to be aware of the social media trends that will dominate the next 12 months so you can incorporate them where you are able.
As always, good content will be as important as ever. With over one million new-data-producing social media users each day, high-quality content is the only way to stand out from the masses. But we also think you should pay attention to a few social media trends that we have highlighted in the following video. We’re certainly planning to adjust our strategy and those of our clients to consider these things.
As you start to strategize for 2018, and beyond, be sure to consider these social media trends in your content marketing plans.
Top social media trends for 2018
Make sure to follow our blog for our monthly social media news posts to stay updated on the latest platform updates. And feel free to reach out to us with questions or if you would like to see a certain social media trend covered on our blog.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Dec 21, 2017 | Blog, Strategy
Resumes are hard. Always have been, always will be. It’s hard to write and talk about yourself. It’s even harder to boil years – or even decades – of experience and accomplishments into a few short pages of text and visuals.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
You’re probably more focused on your job than keeping a resume updated, and if a few years pass in between the times when you need a resume, you often find that resume trends have changed, and it’s hard to know how to format it, what to include, and what to leave out. It’s easy to feel lost because, of course, resume writing is one of the toughest tasks of any professional.
Let’s revise that slightly: it’s easy enough to write any old resume, but it’s difficult to craft a document that actually boosts your credibility.
A recruitment firm like Argentus is something of a resume clearing house. We see them all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We see resumes that have up-to-the-minute style, as well as resumes where we have to brush off the cobwebs as we double click on the attachment in our inbox. We’re frankly bored of the latter. That’s why we’re doing a new miniseries on the Argentus blog, called The Quest for a Better Resume. We’re going to dive into some key aspects of resume writing and give examples to help you craft a resume that wows hiring managers and, hopefully, us!
In the first installment of this series, we gave some tips for boosting your resume’s style, which is something that sadly doesn’t get enough attention in fields like Supply Chain and Procurement.
Today, we’re going to dive into the Content side of things and help answer: if you’re a professional in Procurement, Supply Chain, or any of their related fields, what exactly should go on a resume and what doesn’t belong there?
Read on to hear our advice!
Resume Content:
Supply Chain and Procurement professionals make their careers by extracting relevant insights from complex sets of data. So it makes sense that they’re often skilled at loading their resumes up with valuable content – even if their resumes lack visual panache. The resumes we see tend to be stronger from a content perspective than an optics perspective – but there are still common shortcomings in terms of what people choose to write on a resume.
So when it comes to content, what does a bad resume look like?
Obviously, the worst resume is one that doesn’t show that the candidate has any relevant experience, or one that misrepresents that experience. But let’s take it for a given that you’re a professional with a solid background, trying to communicate the breadth of skills and work experience that you’ve accumulated:
- A bad resume tends to be overly stuffed with buzzwords. It tends to talk a lot without actually saying anything, full of words like “self-motivated,” “detail-oriented,” “team-player” – qualities that you shouldn’t have to put on a resume. These kinds of qualities are “table stakes” for getting an interview. They should be self-evident when the hiring manager speaks to you in person – on a resume, they come across as empty.
- It might tend to contain irrelevant experience, or show a lack of focus. This flavor of resume tries to be all things to all people – the resume equivalent of the job seeker who applies to every job we have, without tailoring their resume to one particular niche. We get that often people do have a wide variety of experience – some professionals at the director or VP-level have touched on every aspect of the Supply Chain, from inventory management to procurement to distribution. But you should tailor your experience to the role for which you’re applying.
- It talks about “duties fulfilled” instead of accomplishments. We’ve blogged a lot about how important it is to create an accomplishment-based resume. Bad resumes tend to read like job descriptions instead of describing what the person has delivered to their employers.
- It has extra info that isn’t relevant. Trends are always changing in terms of what info your resume should (and shouldn’t) include, and it can be hard to keep up. But as of late 2017, headshots, marital status, personal info, and links to multiple social media profiles are distractions from what’s important.
With these common shortcomings in mind, what approach should Supply Chain and Procurement professionals take when trying to write a resume that impresses?
- Show, don’t tell. This old writer’s adage is also the best rule of thumb both for avoiding buzzwords and packing your resume full of impressive accomplishments instead of squandering the precious few seconds that a hiring manager will dedicate to your resume. Don’t just say that you’ve “increased cost savings,” show the amount of money that you’ve saved, and how you did it. Speak in terms of numbers: how many people did you oversee? What size of budget were you responsible for? Don’t just say you have “exceptional communications skills,” show it by presenting a resume that’s concise.
- Include the meat, not the fat. As recruiters in Procurement and Supply Chain, there are a few pieces of vital information we’re looking for when assessing a resume – beyond the accomplishments we mentioned above: if you’re in Supply Chain, what aspects have you touched on? (e.g. inventory management, logistics, warehousing, distribution, sourcing). What software do you have experience and skills with? (e.g. SAP, ARIBA). If you’re in Procurement, what categories have you purchased in? (e.g. raw materials, information technology, marketing, etc.) This is key information that sometimes gets lost within long bullet-pointed lists of “duties.”
- Less can be more. Similar to how white space is important from a visual perspective, concision is key when it comes to content. Try to write your resume with more action verbs and fewer adjectives.
If you’re like us, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of the resume advice floating around the internet is distressingly general – shouldn’t it be obvious that resumes need to avoid typos, grammatical mistakes, and incorrect contact information? So hopefully these tips give a bit more detail about how to approach a resume’s content in a blue-sky way.
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by Fronetics | Dec 4, 2017 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
Making the shift from doing to leading can be challenging for any supervisor, but great leaders need to master the skill of delegating.
Delegating is a true skill set. Some leaders find it very difficult to let go of the control over daily tasks. They spend their time focusing on mundane details, instead of passing the work to their qualified team members.
To be an efficient leader, you must develop the skill of moving tasks off you plate. Delegating is a great way of encouraging your team members and creating new opportunities for their professional growth and development.
“True organizational productivity requires engaged, informed personnel willing and eager to work toward the organization’s mission and vision. And it all starts with a simple concept that’s amazingly hard for some people to implement: letting go of control,” writes Laura Stack for Vistage.com.
And though letting go of control can be very difficult, the increasing pressure of having all the responsibilities fall on you can have major impacts on the quality of your work. If delegating doesn’t come naturally to you, practice! In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Director in PwC’s Leadership Coaching Center of Excellence Jesse Sostrin suggests three practical tips for easing into the art of delegating.
3 tips to master the skill of delegating
Choose the right people
If you want to save time and focus on leading your staff, you need to have a strong team behind you. A large part of feeling comfortable delegating is having trust in the people that support your efforts. Knowing you have smart, capable team members allows leaders to be confident in the work that’s taking place. To get the most out of delegating, set up a reporting structure and make it known that you’re available for help. Then step back and give your team the space to do their jobs.
Inspire their commitments
Fully committed team members understand how their work is contributing to the big picture. “Once you’ve defined the work, clarified the scope of their contribution, and ensured that it aligns with their capacity, carefully communicate any and all additional expectations for complete understanding. This is crucial when you have a precise outcome or methodology in mind,” writes Sostrin. Make your expectations challenging, yet achievable. And always keep your door open. Open lines of communication are key in ensuring your team understands your expectations and is committed to the work.
Stay engaged, but not involved
Being too involved can lead to micromanaging. Being too hands-off can lead to missed opportunities to offer support and help. Finding the balance between the two is crucial in being an efficient delegator. You need to find the spot where you can offer support but give your team the space they need to feel confident in their own abilities. Not sure where that sweet spot is? Ask! Some employees will appreciate a little more guidance, where others will want to figure it out on their own. As you practice delegating, you’ll get to know your team better and learn the best ways to support them. And never shy away from sharing praising when a task is done correctly.
Delegating is a must for saving time and money in any office. However, delegating is much more than just assigning tasks. When done correctly, it creates opportunity and empowerment for your staff, as well as yourself. It will take a bit of practice, but it’s never too late to start mastering new skills.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Nov 30, 2017 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
More and more companies are leveraging digital technologies to keep extra tabs on their employees, both in the office and at home.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
As part of our efforts to chronicle the ways the workplace is changing, we recently wrote about how more companies are adopting formal work from home policies. More organizations realizing that these policies – and other alternative working arrangements – can help them attract and retain top talent in a thriving job market. Working arrangements are becoming more flexible, but today we wanted to write about another countervailing trend.
The rise of digital communications (and applications like Skype, Google Docs, and Slack) has enabled work from home policies that let workers collaborate in real time across big geographic distances. Now, an article in the Guardian by Olivia Solon details how more companies are leveraging other digital technologies to keep extra tabs on their employees, both those who work in the office and those who telecommute.
Companies have long monitored their employees’ email, and blocked certain websites from company networks (as well as, of course, monitoring their physical presence in the office). But Solon writes about how more and more high-tech pieces of software are encouraging companies to monitor their employees’ screens, keystrokes, social media posts, private messaging, and even face-to-face interactions. As Solon puts it, “today’s workplace surveillance software is a digital panopticon” that makes employees assume they’re being watched so that they’ll stay on task and avoid any kind of distractions.
(For those who don’t know the reference, the Panopticon was an architectural design for a prison made by philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century in which a central guard tower, shadowed under darkness, kept watch over a circle of inmates who weren’t able to see at any given moment whether they were being observed.)
These technologies include Crossover’s WorkSmart, which bills itself as a “Fitbit for how you work” and offers managers a numerical score after measuring employees’ keystrokes. It also uses remote employees’ webcams to take photos of them every ten minutes and make sure they stay on task. Another technology named “Wiretap” – charmingly enough, for employees who don’t see themselves as criminals – measures the number of emails an employee sends, the number of times they open documents, the programs they use, and their keystrokes, alerting supervisors about any deviations from their normal numbers. Teramind, another employee surveillance solution, measures the amount of switching between applications that employees are doing, supposing that a high amount of switching signals a distracted employee who needs to be reprimanded. Another service, Qumram, monitors employees’ personal devices, including messaging apps like WhatsApp, to make sure that they aren’t discussing anything untoward.
It’s a new level of penetration into employees’ activity and private lives, and it all raises some interesting privacy and employee management issues. On the ethics front, it kind of comes down to this: does the idea of your employer taking a picture of you through your webcam every ten minutes give you the creeps?
Everyone has different opinions about the privacy aspects of these technologies, and whether it’s good for employees’ mental health to have all their computer activity monitored. But we’re interested in discussing these technologies from an employee management perspective:
From our perspective, what’s dangerous about this isn’t necessarily the technology itself – and believe us, it’s truly disconcerting to see one of these app’s founders literally saying “big brother is watching you,” (seriously, read the article!). But from our perspective, the issue is really the larger ethos of extreme micromanagement that this technology serves.
It’s reasonable for companies to want to protect their data. It’s fair for them to want to keep an eye on what their employees are doing – they are the ones paying for the time, after all. But the idea that an aggressive focus on every keystroke is going to improve white-collar productivity? To us, that’s specious at best. From our perspective, companies thrive when they trust their employees. They succeed when they grant them the autonomy to go above their “assigned duties” to find new projects, new lines of business, and new efficiencies – not when they obsessively monitor them to ensure those duties are being carried out.
Micromanagement often leads to loss of trust, a dearth of creativity, burnout, and high employee turnover. Is all of that worth it for the opportunity to catch an employee “stealing” ten minutes of the day to check social media, or use the bathroom if they’re working from home?
In our opinion, it’s not.
It’s telling that a lot of these software solutions use language that treats employees like children or criminals. Solon quotes the CEO of Awareness Technologies, who says “if you are a parent and you have a teenage son or daughter coming home late and not doing their homework, you might wonder what they are doing. It’s the same as employees.” Is it? Employees are people that you’ve vested with your trust. They’re people you’ve specifically hired because of their skills and creativity. They’re the critical success factor to your organization. So why should the assumption be that they’re up to no good? Isn’t it better to hire with trust in mind, and measure results to see if each employee deserves that trust?
The evidence is pretty clear that companies innovate when they treat employees like adults. Is it a coincidence that some of the most innovative companies in the world, including Google, Uber and 3M offer employees enough freedom at the office to work on non-assigned projects, and even nap?
There are legitimate reasons for this kind of surveillance: in parts of the financial industry, these solutions can prevent insider trading. They can also help monitor sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior. When you’re talking about management style, a certain amount of micromanagement is inevitable, even warranted. But in our opinion, these kinds of total digital employee surveillance schemes will most likely result in an atmosphere of fear and distrust in the workplace, which is the opposite of a productive environment.
But what are your thoughts? Do these heightened employee surveillance systems encourage excessive micromanagement, or do you think they stand to make workers more productive? We’re open to all perspectives and experiences. Let us know what you think in the comments!
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by Fronetics | Nov 22, 2017 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
Employees are much more than people you employ — they can be your best brand ambassadors.
There are many benefits to having employee brand ambassadors, and one of the biggest is the rise in peer influence in B2B buying. But the benefits don’t stop there. There are the increased social media reach, growth in brand engagement, and elevated employee performances.
But companies can’t force their employees to become brand ambassadors. To be truly effective, the shift from employee to brand ambassador must happen organically. But there are ways to help. Here are 3 ways to use your employees as your greatest marketing tool.
3 ways to cultivate brand ambassadors
1. Create a work environment people enjoy coming to.
One of the best ways to get employees to speak honestly and positively about your brand is to have employees that enjoy coming to work. Make sure that your office is an environment that promotes a positive culture. Being flexible, recognizing a job well done, and offering opportunities for professional growth are ways to cultivate satisfied, productive employees.
When an employee feels valued, s/he is more likely to promote your brand. Opportunities for professional development and recognition for hard work may seem like small gestures, but they contribute to happy employees. This breeds the most effective brand ambassadors.
2. Improve employee engagement.
The more excited your employees are about their jobs, the more engaged they will be. And what’s more, companies with highly engaged employees see a 20% increase in sales and a 10% in customer ratings.
Improve engagement by encouraging open lines of communication with your employees. Make sure they are in-the-know with company happenings. Encourage their feedback. Work to implement suggestions employees make to improve processes. If you want employees to invest in your brand, you must build the bridge between being an employee and feeling like a part of the team. When employees feel like an insider, they are engaged with your brand and will naturally want to promote it.
3. Provide incentives.
When you have employees that are passionate about your brand, it’s important to find ways to recognize the work they’re doing as brand ambassadors. The obvious incentive is money, but that’s not always the best way to encourage your employees.
Ever heard of motivation crowding theory? This theory states that extrinsic motivators, such as monetary incentives, can undermine intrinsic motivation. If you have happy, productive employees that want to rave about your company, don’t squash their excitement by throwing money at them. This could turn their passion into more work.
There are lots of other incentives that will keep your employees dedicated to being brand ambassadors. One of the easiest to implement is recognition. A shout out on your social media pages or recognition in a staff meeting can go a long way. Other options include product giveaways or discounts with your vendors. Get creative! The incentives don’t have to be expensive, but a little motivation can go a long way.
Don’t miss out on one of your brand’s greatest marketing opportunities — your own employees! Help your team make the leap from employee to brand ambassador, and watch how the shift benefits everyone in your office, including you.
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