Arik has a culture of delayed flights, NTA is outdated and tacky the same way 4 out of 5 Nigerian bankers really don't love their job and it shows on  customer experience!



At a company called Zappos, new employees (who are usually broke) are offered $2,000 to quit after the first week of training if they decide the job isn’t for them. No one really does. What’s Your Corporate Culture is our daily discussion for today on all HBC platforms.

 

Now back to corporate culture: Take for example; Twitter employees are known for their midnight rooftop meetings. Chevron is known for its well paid staffs with healthy work conditions that encourage breaks. Facebook is known for its stock options for employees and easy workflows with everyone (even the CEO Mark Zuckerberg), working in the open office space alongside other employees. It’s an attempt at a flat organizational culture using the buildings and space itself as touch points to promote a sense of equality among the staff. Sahara Energy is known for its swag and trendy branding. Google is known for its hangouts, their employees have free meals, trips and parties.

 

Our employees at Hexavia are super smart yet exciting; they never work anywhere else after here, as the internal mentorship and structure helps them to set up their own businesses. The participants and clients call themselves Hexavians who take ownership of Decoded. Joining in with a great team, now that’s a whole tribe and nation we are subliminally building with Decoded and HBC. Today we are talking about Corporate Culture.

 


Read today's discussion "How To Create a Corporate Culture onhttp://www.hbc.org.ng/2016/04/26/1289/

Let's help Nigerian businesses grow

#MotivationMonday on HBC. Today, we explore  *shyness and the Introverted*. This is dedicated to the Monitoring Spirits here.  People who follow threads here but hardly respond. Hexavian Book Review, The Book, Quiet by Susan Cain. who's read the book?

We had a a chance to review it at The Outliers,  a very private book reading and book club in Parkview Ikoyi over the weekend and I thought I should write about it so everyone can benefit too.


Quiet is a direct comparison of Extroverts, Introverts and Ambiverts (guys who sit on the balance. The pivot between Ying and Yang). 


I wish Fani Kayode read that book a few years ago, I wish Dino Malaye and Fayose can read it now and then pass it on to Donald Trump. Quiet. I urge everyone to read it now that they can,  It is a  New York Times bestseller titled QUIET: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking,


The book reveals one of my biggest secrets, secrets shared by all public figures and extroverts (it is on how after all the noise we make, we value our "me' time for retrospects. After all the openness and interactions with the limelight, we always find a cave to recharge our expended energy). It's a book on creative energy and solitude.  Solitude creates creativity, and a a powerful tool for entrepreneurs. Spiritually, it creates an ambiance for God to talk to us. Listen in it.


Solitude is key. The world is full of noise, which is the cause of conflicts and battles.However, some of the greatest battles will be fought and won in the chambers of your soul, mind and heart.

My mentor, the late Chaz B will always quote Proverbs 4:23, "Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life" . Introversion is something we should all be at times. At least for half of the time. At least know how to admire or tolerate people who are. This is because, at least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Michael Jackson, Dangote, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.



Silence can be golden, it’s a sleep that nourishes the soul. However, I am extrovert with introvert tendencies, I guess that makes me an ambivert. The truth is, I was never really shy. I was actually way more talk active growing up. To me these days, my concept is, when you feel you have said a lot, have nothing else to say, else say nothing. And even when I feel like I have a strong point to still make, I just take action in silence. Silence could be a very loud way of saying “I’m tired of explaining to people who don’t care to understand” . So I just did it.



In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. Research has shown that there's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas. Also introvert shouldn't suggest being dumb or boring. It actually suggests depth. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

I urge everyone to read this New York Times bestseller QUIET: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking, I wish Fani Kayode read that book a few years ago, I wish Dino Malaye and Fayose can read it now and then pass it on to Donald Trump. Quiet.

 
1.Business and life is a subtle war. And a war has a series of battles. Choose your battles careful, learn to lose some battles to silence, just so you can win the war. 

2. In the words of Aristotle, "it is the mark of a superior mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it". Good morning.

©Eizu
08035202891

Source : HexavianBusinessClub, www.hbc.org.ng
 
Go Further Ahead.

Cc lalasticala

I will be sharing exclusive contents from one of the biggest branding and strategies gurus in Africa, Eizu Uwaoma. You can post your questions or additions to help businesses build their brands and profitability. Please this thread is for serious business owners who want to move their business to the next level. Looking forward to your contributions too!

In business, one of the most important skills you must have if you want your brand to grow is emotional intelligence. This is the ability understand the emotions of your customers and use them to your advantage. With this you can transfer an emotion or evoke an emotion in your customer through you product such that the product becomes more of a necessity. For example Coca-Cola came up with the share-a-coke-with strategy. Infact it got so serious that if your lover did not buy a coke for you with your name on it, you relationship was in trouble. In their advert they showed a young boy buying one for a girl with her name on it and like a balloon that just popped, she fell. Coca-Cola was only playing with our emotions. A coke makes friendship stronger.
So look for specific emotions you can trigger in your customers through your product. Is it excitement, nostalgia, love? Find it and use it to your advantage. Young people would love stuff more energetic and hip while the older ones prefer solitude.

Let's go further ahead.
Eizu©

Cc lalasticala

Who listened to Michelle Obama's Speech at the conventions a few days ago.

Look, my take away is, whether as Boyfriends and Girlfriends, Husbands and Wife, one person in a relationship can not and should not be significantly smarter, more intelligent than the other. This is one of the reasons why we encourage the recent trend of couples who attend the Masterclass together, just so they can also together be a part of the HexavianBusinessClub together. We need not just strong people, but strong families with strong core values and success.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZNWYqDU948

Whether it is Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Munroe, Jay-z and Beyonce, Bonnie and Clyde, Michelle and Obama, Will smith and Jada Pinkett, Julius Caesar and Cleoptra, Bill and Hillary Clinton are just my case study out of the not so many people who have succeeded in being brands of both success and love as their lifestyle explains how a complete life requires you having someone that can complement your drive without a decline. To them, a great marriage and career can be merged, and also as a great marriage and relationship isn’t far from having a smart, skilled and successful partner who loves and respect you so much without being too mushy to the point of complete dependency, perhaps its best to have someone that can complement your speed, success and swag.

See http://www.hbc.org.ng/2016/07/08/professionals-in-love-we-need-more-power-couples/

Cc Lalasticala

Following......

PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING
PACKAGE YOURSELF

Champagne in a zobo nylon?

How dare you!!!

That's what you do every day without knowing it.
You have value, but you sell without "packaging" it right. You try to sell without a brand?
That's not wise...

My dear, create a brand!

People always ask me WHAT REALLY IS A BRAND

Hmmmm…
"It’s the difference between a bottle of water and Eva, a singer and Wizkid, a watch and a Rolex.

//A brand is a legal business cheat that helps you win without competition. It creates irrationality between product, market and price, and people will happily pay more for it//

UNIQUE is the only English word, as an adjective without a superlative. Yes, unique is very unique. It cannot be modified.


So unique has no superlative, say "uniquer", or "more unique" or "the uniquest"

That's what you should be, unique!

You should be so unique that no one can create a superlative of what you do.


That's what truly is a Unique Selling Point, #USP.

So

Have you found out why you weren't chosen for that deal, or job?


Also, on a brighter note there’s always one major reason people love you. Perhaps if in business, why customers buy from you. But do you know it?


You just need to identify it, then highlight as a front end, every time before you sell... #ValueProposition #USP

If you know it, protect it.

For Louis Vuitton, it's the exclusiveness and luxury. So for this, they'll never do promos or discounts. As a matter of fact, at the end of every year, they burn their unsold merchandise. They won't even donate it to charity.

For Nike, its brand association. So Nike never talks about their commodity or its benefit in their adverts, they talk about the athletes E.g., the Jordan by Nike Air (highlighting Michael Jordan)...


Now, to you, what is your Unique Selling Point?

What stands you out?

Why should I choose you over others?

In Hexavia we say, a high Brand Equity is directly but irrationally proportional to your Market Share Index (it blows it up!)


"Like a Rolex is not just another watch, A brand is not a just a thing, it’s an alluring experience. It’s your unique identity created by perception that is noticeable and stands out. It has to be created on purpose. And its systematic creation is

THE BRAND STRATEGY.

Whether in Life, War or Business, strategy is everything. Don't ever live without mastering it!
Don't miss this again!

Eizu©
Hexavia
www.hbc.org.ng

*Improvement Tuesday*
_Lessons I took away and my views on the American Debate last night_. *smiling*


Trump got trumped by Clinton through calmness. Clinton understands diplomacy and at that level of the campaign, it is definitely needed. The truth is, the best price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. She kept at that, and kept referring to the questions asked.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about leadership, also about quiet and about conflict management. I wish he read it. Trump is real. I really like him, especially his guts, but no, not as a president. He is pretty real. But truth be told, at that level, you don’t need to be real, you need to be diplomatic and political. Running a business and sitting in board meetings over the years with people twice my age (some of which were among those that wrecked this country) I stumbled upon a fact through experience, as you become more successful or climb higher, learn to talk less, especially if those around you are less truthful. As you climb higher, for others, they change, I mean their masks start to fall off, people become more diplomatic, and everything becomes more political. Trump needs a class on politics.


Donald Trump might have had a cold, or on something. He kept sniffing. Trump drinking a lot of water and sniffing his nose hundreds of times over might also be a show of discomfort by body language. Intellectualism isn’t his turf. I actually don’t think any of them are, but Clinton is better with her mind. Trump wasn’t in his element. All she needed to do is keep him that way all through the debate and she did. If you let Donald Trump play on his turf, which is media and mass appeal, you’ll be in trouble because he understands word play, bravado and ridicule more than facts, diplomacy and intelligence. Ridicule is a weak man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage. Trump didn’t get a chance to show his ridicule a lot.

Lately, I’ve been reading one of the most powerful books ever written, it’s called Rules for Radicals by the controversial Satanist Sail Alinsky and as weird as the book is, he broke this down by saying "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." Clinton just had to make sure Trump didn’t play well on getting the people to enjoy his bravado through overwriting it with intelligence and put togetherness. Mindfulness is a powerful part of emotional intelligence. And she has it. She also played to the gallery on non Americans like us who feel threatened by Trumps careless statements on foreign policies. She kept reminding us of strong ties America has with foreigners (NATO, Arab nations etc) as against what Donald Trump has been saying. In Saul Alinsky’s book, he broke down a key concept that says “One of the factors that changes what you can and can't communicate is relationships. There are sensitive areas that one does not touch until there is a strong personal relationship based on common involvements.” She kept involving others and don’t forget that the world is now more global village than ever, so our views and emotions as non Americans count more in this election than ever and she has us. Don’t forget that the poll results come from the opinion of others, including us.


One more thing, he needs to manage his inner camp well. He needs to talk less. I don’t think he listens well to his inner circle, if he has. The world has too many details of him. He needs to tighten his lose ends. He needs to form better allies. He is losing too many friends. And they are becoming enemies. That in itself is a distraction. Look through history, whether boardroom politics or straight fights, and you’d realise that the deadliest wars are fought by former insiders. The worst kind of enemies comes from people who were once friends.

For more details on managing conflicts, diplomacy and team, please visit http://www.hbc.org.ng/2016/07/19/introverts-and-their-power-of-quietness/

You are full of wisdom. This is the best thread I've come across on Nairaland and I'm so following it!




P.S
Please follow back.

*Business Lessons on Trump Election Victory*

When I went to bed Americans were voting, when I woke up to exercise I turned on the TV and saw that Trump was leading & doing well in Hillary Clinton’s areas as seen in Obama’s last election. I was not surprised while many people panicked and markets caught the flue. But politics will be politics, what can business learn from Donald Trump’s victory? I have learnt the following lessons:

*Disruption Comes Like a Thief*
I have read many opinions, mostly Robert Reich’s posts. Everyone was predicting an easy victory for Hillary Clinton. Polls and predictions saw no Trump victory even the Wall Street. That is how disruption is like, when you are the disruptor you will be given statistics, historical data, future projections & even prophecies. All this enough to make you give up but keep pressing on, your vision is unique to you and nobody else. When it is fulfilled, you will stand tall and look at all the naysayers sink into oblivion.

*Never be intimidated by Experience*

So the guy with 20 years’ experience crushed you at a debate. Heck the crowd liked him and so you must be feeling small? No, a thousand times no. Trump was intimidated by experience, looked lost on the stage of debate which he lost while Clinton pumped her chest and said this is our turf, rookies will not make it. But Trump kept working brushing aside the threats. Today he has made more than 20 years’ experience bow, so can you. When they wave Honours Degrees, MBAs & PhDs at you do not wave back, your strength is not that but elsewhere.

*Consumer is Always King*

The US election was sold to many people worldwide, I resisted jumping in on many posts about Hillary vs Trump. In the eyes of the world, Clinton was president. The world from Africa, Europe, Australia & Asia tried to think for Americans & tell them how to and who to vote. Clinton rode on that wave of billions pressuring Americans. Trump told his story to the people that mattered, the Americans. Yes his story might have appeared racist to some of us because it excluded us and advanced only American agenda. Trump put the right value proposition to the consumer and they bought into his brand.

*Your Competitor’s Weakness is not Your Strength*

I must agree, Donald Trump had many things coming out of the cupboard which weakened him. His brand was toxic to a cursory look & some Republicans even disowned him. The democrats rode on that wave of his weakness. They forgot they needed to make that weakness their strength. If you see a competitor fail to fill a market gap do not rejoice but fill that gap otherwise it becomes useless glee not convertible into revenue.


Remember the bible says wisdom cries out on the streets (Proverbs 1:20), this is that wisdom we must always be on the lookout for. Congratulations to Americans, they have proved to us that disruption will always trump tradition.

By Bella Victor