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3 Steps to determine if a pivot is right for your startup

20 October, 2021

Learning how to adapt is the reality of any successful business, but COVID-19 was perhaps the ultimate stress test. In a matter of days, businesses in industries such as travel, entertainment and hospitality came to a grinding halt due to lockdowns. Many companies couldn’t withstand the shock of the pandemic and the economic havoc it wrought. And in the first year of the pandemic, the US Federal Reserve estimates that 200,000 more businesses shut down than usual.

Others not only survived the disruption, but thrived. Before the pandemic, for example, Instacart was gaining momentum—but the grocery sector was, for the most part, not digitized. All that changed when COVID-19 hit. According to founder Apoorva Mehta, the app saw five years’ worth of growth in just five weeks. Instacart grew more than 300 percent year over year, and its valuation doubled in 10 months—reaching an astonishing US$18 billion.

Others saw the pandemic as a chance to launch new ventures. When COVID-19 dealt a severe blow to a New Jersey-based deli’s event catering service, which accounted for 50 percent of its revenue, the owner transformed his indoor space into a small market stocked with produce and other kitchen essentials. The move was so successful that the owner was able to open a second location.

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Categories: Company Culture Crisis Entrepreneurial Journey

Tags: Apoorva Mehta Bluewater Bob Marsh

Eden Gillott

14 Strategic questions to ask during an internal communications crisis

15 October, 2021

Eden GillottContributed by Eden Gillott, an EO Accelerator participant in Los Angeles. As president of Gillott Communications, a strategic and crisis communications firm, Eden helps companies protect reputations and build trust. We asked Eden how she guides companies to navigate difficult internal communications challenges and minimize brand damage. Here’s what she shared:

As entrepreneurs, we enjoy spending our time building. We build products or services that change the world; we build processes to improve our performance; and we build teams to make our dreams become a reality.

In EO, we are no strangers to overcoming Verne Harnish’s concept of “Valleys of Death.” To overcome these, we know that we need to change. But what happens when the changes required to achieve our dreams aren’t appropriately communicated?

Navigating an internal crisis

That was the situation I found myself managing as I counseled and guided a company in navigating an internal communications crisis recently after turmoil erupted over a surprise change in leadership. Management was criticized for letting the hiring committee select candidates hastily and in secret. The Board approved the choice, and the new CEO was announced without ­explanation or context.

As you can imagine, this didn’t go over well with employees, who immediately began demanding answers. But it wasn’t until key performance indicators (KPIs) tanked that management addressed the issue.

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Categories: Best Practices Crisis PEOPLE/STAFF Public Relations WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Tags: CrisisPR Eden Gillott EO Accelerator eo los angeles Gillott Communications Valleys of Death verne harnish

3 Action steps to bake DEI into your organization’s culture

13 October, 2021

Contributed by Bryan Adams, the CEO and founder of Ph.Creative, a global employer branding agency. He is a prominent employer brand thought leader as well as an author, podcaster and speaker.

They say good things come in threes; diversity, equity and inclusion are no exception. While you rarely hear about one without the others, conflating them would be a mistake. Diversity doesn’t beget inclusion, and even the most homogenous teams can have some equitable and inclusive dynamics. Instead, I like to think of equity and inclusion as the foundation upon which diversity is built.

Leaders play a significant role in setting that foundation. Yet we often hold ourselves back from effecting real change because getting honest about our current state of DEI affairs is too uncomfortable (and, by the way, it should be). We fool ourselves into thinking we can take a command-and-control approach, but such efforts are often misguided and ineffective. A lack of diversity is a cultural problem rather than a tactical one.

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Categories: Best Practices Company Culture PEOPLE/STAFF

Tags: Brian Chesky Bryan Adams Lily Zheng Ph.Creative

5 Ways brands can play to win on TikTok

8 October, 2021

Contributed by Evan Horowitz, an EO Los Angeles member and a recent guest on EO Wonder podcast. Evan is the CEO and co-founder of Movers+Shakers, a creative agency with a mission to “spread joy by connecting brands to culture.” We asked Evan how brands can leverage the TikTok platform. Here’s what he shared:

There’s no denying that TikTok is one of the fastest-growing and most widely used apps today. In fact, TikTok was the most downloaded and highest grossing non-game app globally in the first half of 2021. What’s exciting for brands is that there isn’t a single right way to approach TikTok, and as TikTok expands its capabilities and offerings, brands enjoy even more options to help them grow online.

Here are five primary ways brands can play on TikTok today.

1. Create your own brand channel

Creating a brand channel is a great way to establish your presence on TikTok. We recognize that creating content for TikTok may seem intimidating at first, since the raw and unpolished nature of the platform is vastly different from the curated and highly polished content brands typically create.

One way to “get into the flow” of TikTok (and grow your brand channel quickly) is to get involved in trends. Every week, new trends blaze through TikTok—music, skits, jokes, dances. The value of joining in is twofold. First, TikTok’s algorithm boosts the exposure of videos participating in what’s trending, giving you a boost in viewership. And second, your brand benefits from the “cool factor” from the trend, showing that you’re tuned in.

Brands that are serious about TikTok post content daily, while others choose to test the water with fewer posts. While most posts may not get a ton of traction, the occasional post can go viral. The more content you post, the greater the chances for it to go viral.

Skeptical about the branding power of TikTok? Read 3 Reasons to Reconsider the Branding Power of TikTok, From a Gen-X Skeptic on EO’s Inc.com platform.

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Categories: Best Practices BUSINESS GROWTH PR/MARKETING

Tags: #eyeslipsface eo los angeles EO Wonder Evan Horowitz Movers+Shakers TikTok

Maurice Thomas

How my 15-year side hustle became my lifelong dream

6 October, 2021

Maurice ThomasContributed by Maurice Thomas, an EO South Florida member who is one of the Champions of the new EO OneWorld initiative, a membership platform affiliated with EO’s New York chapter which believes that a diverse EO is a stronger EO. EO OneWorld will add value to EO by attracting more EO members from the Black, Hispanic/Latino(a)(x), Asian and LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurial communities. Maurice is also the founder and president of Thomas Services, Inc. a solutions-based, logistics and supply chain service company.

Are entrepreneurs born or made? As I examine my path to entrepreneurship, I suspect it’s a little of both, or at least it is in my case. Here’s the story of how I came to run my own company.

Back in the early 1990s, I was a married father of two very young children working as an investment banker in a small, boutique firm. Our firm’s owner and CEO was a very experienced businessman—a true entrepreneur in every sense of the word. Having previously worked in some of the largest companies in the world and earned an MBA from a prestigious university, I had no idea what I signed up for, but it didn’t take me long to realize that working there was the best professional decision of my life. We were small and very entrepreneurial in our approach. I was required to learn very quickly, and I was given increased responsibilities no sooner than I showed the capacity to handle them. 

My first entrepreneurial opportunity

One day in early 1993, I was having lunch with one of our clients, who also was a true entrepreneur. He began to describe his latest business acquisition and—suddenly!— the conversation morphed into a discussion around the opportunity for me to start a business designed to service HIS new business. A few months later, I was the owner of a modest, three-employee operation. And so, my entrepreneurial journey began.

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Categories: Entrepreneurial Journey general Inspirational members

Tags: eo new york EO OneWorld EO Soul EO South Florida LGBTQIA+ Maurice Thomas

5 Tips to revamp your performance review process

1 October, 2021

Contributed by Chiara Toselli, head of marketing and sales for Pavestep, a performance management solution that helps businesses effectively manage their talent.

We’re approaching that dreaded time of year: performance review season.

For many companies, it’s the one time a year that employee performance is examined and evaluated.

The problem?

People on both sides of the desk loathe annual performance reviews. For managers, the process feels like a giant waste of time, and is often seen as a check-the-box exercise. For employees, the majority view performance reviews as unfair and plagued with biases.

Most of us understand why people feel this way—annual reviews are grossly inaccurate. If people can’t remember what they had for lunch last Monday, how can a manager remember how someone has performed for an entire year? Short answer, they can’t!

To clarify, I don’t think annual performance reviews should be eliminated. In fact, they can be an appropriate time to address compensation, have formal career development planning conversations, or discuss ratings. However, if performance reviews are the sole measure of how your organization evaluates and develops talent, then it’s time to switch to a more modern approach and focus on feedback that improves performance and motivates employees.

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Categories: Best Practices Coaching Company Culture PEOPLE/STAFF Productivity

Tags: Chiara Toselli continuous feedback core values Pavestep performance review

Why some leaders deny reality with return-to-office strategies amid Delta surge

29 September, 2021

Contributed by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, an internationally-renowned thought leader in future-proofing and cognitive bias risk management and an EO 360° podcast guest. We asked Dr. Tsipursky to explain how normalcy bias and other cognitive biases impact entrepreneurs in determining return-to-office scenarios. Here’s what he shared:

As the efficiency rate of vaccines against the Delta variant slides to 39%, company leaders who implement a normal office return are denying reality. The threat is now indisputable: Delta variant infections and deaths have reached an alarming rate in just a few months. No wonder the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone—including those who are fully vaccinated—wear masks and has begun to recommend booster shots for at-risk groups.

Still, many companies, from large ones to start-ups, and even the US federal government, are pressing on with the return to the office, despite employee resistance. Of those who worked remotely during the peak of the pandemic, over a third have already returned. Most of the remainder are required to do so by mid-autumn. In addition, as schools resume in-person learning, Delta variant cases and hospitalizations are increasing at alarming levels.

Employees’ stance on work arrangements

Results of in-depth surveys on employee preferences around return-to-office plans clearly showed a reluctance for a normal office return even before the Delta surge. Approximately half say they will quit if their preferred work arrangements are not approved. A quarter to a third of employees favored full-time remote work, while more than half preferred a hybrid schedule of a day or two in the office.

Numerous employees have already quit in response to the compulsive plans of their employers to get them back to the office. The Delta surge will lead to more resignations among employees who don’t wish to risk their health with breakthrough infections.

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Categories: Best Practices Crisis HEALTH STRATEGY

Tags: behavioral science cognitive bias delta plus variant Delta variant Disaster Avoidance Experts Gleb Tsipursky Great Resignation mu variant return-to-work transition

4 Tips to overcome the fear of growing your brand online

24 September, 2021

Contributed by Kady O’Connell, founder of Kady Creative, which helps passionate businesses succeed with strategic branding, powerful websites, and click-worthy content. Kady was a recent Dare to Startup podcast guest where she discussed the various processes that go into running a successful startup, including how to handle e-mails, quarterly planning, team communication and more.

As an entrepreneur running a business, you must overcome the fear of growing your brand online. Over the past decade of working with clients to build their brands online, can you guess what’s the number one struggle I see?

  • It’s not about poor time management
  • It’s not about having the right team support
  • It’s not even about having the right skills and knowledge for content creation

The biggest obstacle I’ve identified in clients is the intense fear people have of putting themselves out there. Most times, they are entirely paralyzed into a state of inertia. They have no idea what to say, how to say it, or where even to start.

Can you relate?

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Categories: Best Practices BUSINESS GROWTH PR/MARKETING STRATEGY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Tags: Dare to Startup podcast Kady Creative Kady O'Connell mere exposure effect

Going hybrid? 3 Strategic real estate tips

22 September, 2021

Contributed by Andrew Flint, a co-founder of Occupier, a transaction and portfolio management software helping commercial tenants and brokers manage their real estate footprint. Occupier’s software helps teams make smarter, more informed lease decisions by centralizing the way they work. In turn, teams ensure alignment between their real estate decisions and business successes.

The pandemic-related remote work experiment has been an eye-opener for both employees and employers. However, they don’t necessarily see eye to eye on what it means for the future of on-site operations as teams get back to work.

A 2021 McKinsey survey shows that about half of workers now want to work from home at least three days a week. On the other end of the spectrum, around three-quarters of top-level executives want personnel to be in the office at least three days each workweek. This tug of war between competing needs has had two very different results.

The first (and perhaps least expected) result is the Great Resignation, in which employees are taking their talents to companies that’ll give them more scheduling flexibility. When it comes to going back to work after COVID-19, they’re willing to make a major switch in order to find the balance they want in their personal and professional lives.

The second outcome is a way to get the best of both worlds for all parties: offering hybrid working environment solutions. In fact, the hybrid work model is gaining traction. Yet moving all employees to hybrid isn’t just about keeping everyone’s calendars and expectations up to date. Hybrid work models affect every facet of how work gets done, right down to having a major impact on real estate.

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Categories: Best Practices PEOPLE/STAFF STRATEGY

Tags: Andrew Flint Hybrid Office Strategy Occupier Pew Research Center

How to elevate product design by leveraging neuroscience

17 September, 2021

Contributed by J. Cornelius, an EO Atlanta member. J. is the founder and president of Nine Labs, which helps companies imagine, design and build world-class web and mobile products.

Great design is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.  

That bears repeating: Great design—a product that looks good and works well—is essential for success. Product design in the software industry has matured enough that you simply will not succeed with an ugly, ill-conceived digital product. A beautiful and well-functioning app is just table stakes. And I’ll explain why.

Over the last year, I’ve had multiple conversations and discovered these groundbreaking talking points anyone in product design must be aware of.

Beyond basic software expectations, the reason product success often hinges on design has a lot to do with the basic principles of neuroscience. When customers choose between two competing products with similar capabilities, the better-looking and more intuitive one always wins. 

Understanding the underlying neuroscience of human decision-making will empower your team to make more appealing digital products, a distinct advantage over your competition.

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Categories: Best Practices Technology

Tags: Design ROI eo atlanta J. Cornelius Nine Labs

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