Business Lessons from sucessful entrepreneurs and business leaders: LunchLearning.com

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 59 minutes 10 seconds

Metaphor or Facts? Logic or Emotion? Which is the best way to not only reach an audience but have that audience act?

In this excellent thought-provoking talk by entitled “The Science of Communications” sponsored by the AMS Journal’s AMS workshop, we hear from a variety of scientists and communications experts who tackle the idea of how to best communicate scientific discovery to an apparent apathetic world. The take-aways from these various opinions are bountiful, and if you listen all the way through, you’re mind will no doubt be racing about how effective your own efforts at communication are, whether they be personal or business related.

In the video, you’ll hear from American Meteorological Association’s Dr. Anthony Socci discusses the apparent value of “framing” a conversation or marketing message to yield greater adoption of an idea. . .particularly one that is new, or unpopular.

Socci is followed by professor of political science at The University of Michigan, Dr. Arthur Lupia. Lupia discusses decision-making, and how people make those decisions without good, solid information. In the field of politics, as Lupia this issue is endemic, and he talks about the corollaries to the Green Movement.

Molly Bentley, contributor to BBC Science, tackles the idea of how to simplify the extremely complex knowledge possessed by scientists into information that can be digested and embraced by a lay audience. This somewhat comical discussion of how such scientific discovery is presented to the non-scientific community currently, may serve as a reminder of just how many companies try to explain unsuccessfully their own products and mission to customers. It’s a case for technical writing at its best!

There is a lot here in this talk, feel free to skip around a bit, or listen all the way through. There is a lot to learn, and a lot to take notes about if you are a communicator, or even just someone responsible, or interested in, someone clearly understanding, embracing, and acting upon your message.

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 56 minutes 11 seconds

The idea of Avon Products inspires a wide range of thoughts ranging from the image of door-to-door saleswomen and house parties to that of top-line perfumes and men’s fashion. However, two things that generally do not leap to mind is a fashion juggernaut and an enabler for thousands of women across the country. As a company sometimes referred to as ‘The Company of Women’, it is only natural to find a woman standing at its helm: Andrea Jung, currently ranked as the sixth most powerful woman in the United States according to Fortune Magazine. She is a critical piece of the force of Avon and a figure well worth considering.

However, to truly grasp the concepts that drive Avon, we have to step back an era. Before women were even permitted to vote, much less be accepted in the workplace, the original founder of Avon, under the name of the California Perfume Company, decided to work with a predominantly female sales force. The spiritual element, in addition to the business logic, of female independence resonated with the company and proved to be a potent asset.

Maintaining this spirit of supporting women’s independence has done much to encourage the longevity of Avon by pushing them to explore new markets and giving the company a core concept to rally around through the ages. This center on aiding women has pushed the company to enter markets where other companies have shied away from, such as in developing countries, where women are just beginning to enter the economic environment, and grow in times of poor economic growth from people with an entrepreneurial spirit being laid off seeking new opportunities.

This video looks at a variety of elements, from the importance of spirit, constant reinvention, and the capacity to do multiple things at the same time. Whether it’s the ability to look forward at the future without losing sight of what brought you to that point or to strive towards an ideal while remaining grounded in reality, Andrea Jung is a potent woman at the head of a powerful company that has its very spirit geared towards uplifting peoples.

Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 24 minutes 55 seconds

Hello, my name is Alan Chang and if you’ve followed us before, you’ll know that we here at LunchLearning explore a different theme every week and if you haven’t—we do. This week, we’ll be looking at paradigm shifts that have transformed entire industries as well as newborn technologies and platforms that have the potential to bring about change yet haven’t quite matured and reached their full potential yet.

Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora on Twitter), one of the presidents of Google and responsible for strengthening their core business, discusses the gap in technology usage between generations. In addition to giving Google the focus they had lost when they grew, he was a critical piece of the puzzle for a number of other businesses, such as T-Mobile, whose industries had changed dramatically through the years.

Changes in the market are obvious in hindsight, but the secret to their importance, and success in their utilization, is to understand what is a revolutionary product and what isn’t. Mobile phones were once considered an elite product, with only the richest and most important people owning them. Similarly, until recently, as Brandon Shook explored last week, games were considered best for targeting children. Things have changed.

Social networks are rapidly increasing in prominence, visibility as well as importance. However, knowing that something is going to become the standard is not enough. Being able to determine exactly who the winner will be even a few years in advance can make a tremendous difference. Just as the landscape of the internet was different ten years ago, it will be something entirely different in ten more years. Taking steps to capitalize on these changes will strengthen your position.

Within this video, Nikesh Arora briefly considers a variety of areas ranging from viral marketing and interacting with customers to company reach and market research. All of these things, and more, have changed throughout the years and will continue to. Equally important, each of these can be directly attributed to the success of failure of a company. Somebody has to succeed, so why not you?

Think of the past, envision the future!

Reading time: 2 - 2 minutes

Video Time: 59 minutes 01 seconds

Dharmesh Shah (@dharmesh on Twitter) seems to “tell it like it is”. . .and I really love that.

I’ve heard of his work with OnStartups.com and Hubspot, as most likely you have as well, but you most likely haven’t heard some of his opinions about Venture Capital, entrepreneurship, case studies and business processes like pricing, branding, and product execution. …and the attention economy!

His talk from Business of Software Boston, 2008 (started by Joel Spolsky (@spolsky on Twitter) and Neil Davidson (@NeilDavidson on Twitter). is relevant to any business owner, as well as super-candid and energetic. If you’re falling asleep at work today, you’ll enjoy this talk!

Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 48 minutes 02 seconds

There is hardly a more entertaining and game-changing sales “guru,” if you will, than Jeffrey Gitomer (@Gitomer on Twitter). His lesson is relatively simple. . .be yourself, and be creative. . .but his lessons are comedic and instructional at the same time.  It’s a great combination.  His message is particularly unique, because being creative for some, often runs  contrary to sales-process thinking.  Gitomer serves as a breath of fresh-air for both salesperson and prospect. He’s also from Jersey, like me, so if you’re a fan of Gary Vaynerchuck you’ll certainly dig Gitomer.

If you’re not familiar with Jeffrey Gitomer’s stuff, he burst on the scene with his The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, which, in my opinion at least, should be required reading material for every salesperson and sales manager out there. He also runs a sales training program, TrainOne.com which I took when I was starting out in hard-core sales a number of years ago. I would recommend it, particularly for greenhorns.

Gitomer is fond of gags. . .and you’ll notice in this presentation he’s definitely been to a novelty shop or two. Enjoy the presentation. I guarantee you’ll learn a LOT about how you should be selling, if you’ve never heard of Gitomer, and if you have, it never hurts to have a laugh over lunch!

Some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

1. New ways to ask for a referral
2. Why your competitors should hate you
3. The fastest way to make a sale
4. Eliciting good word of mouth marketing
5. Why being liked is THE most important aspect of any sales relationship
6. And tons more new ways of thinking!

From Jeffrey’s bio: Jeffrey gives over 100 public and corporate presentations a year. His customers include Coca-Cola, BMW, Comcast Cable, BlueCross BlueShield, IBM, and hundreds of others.   In August, 2008, Jeffrey was inducted into the National Speaker Association’s Speaker Hall of Fame. The designation honors professional speakers who have reached the top echelon of performance excellence. To date, 191 of the world’s greatest speakers have been inducted including Ronald Reagan, Art Linkletter, Colin Powell, Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar.