Award-Winning Business Lessons from The Godfather
April 2, 2012
Aside from “don’t put Fredo in charge,” there are PLENTY of great lessons you can learn from this award-winning film trilogy.
My take-aways?
First, have a plan. When you go into that little restaurant with a guy broke your jaw, know what you want to say and what the outcome should be. Michael stayed calm and stuck to his plan. Bang…winner. (OK – so the bang is a gun, but you know what I mean.)
Second, prepare for the unforseen. Same scene – Michael is being driven by his “enemy” (read: competition) to the location of the meeting. It looks like things have changed. During this ride – there isn’t much dialogue but we know what Michael’s thinking: OK, if this happens, then I will do THAT….and so on. He is very good on his feet – but only because he sticks to his desired outcome. Michael is also very, very good at waiting for the right moment. If it goes bad, he’s still going to ride that train toward his long term goal and hopes he lives to fight another day.
Third, don’t be timid. Sometimes, you just have to take the bull by the horns and go for it. When Michael (The NEW Godfather )”cleans house”, so to speak, he is asserting his leadership in a very obvious, demonstrable way. This is the language of his “industry” – and even though you probably won’t be ordering any hits in the near future — you should not be afraid to approach such “big and defining moments” in your business with the same tenacity and vigor. Don’t be too timid and accomadating – you may get run over. Keep your boundaries in tact and demonstrate leadership when the time is right.
Check out this great article on three more of ‘em….and let me know what YOU think are the best business lessons of these movies. Everyone has an opinion – I would love to hear yours!
Can your perfect client find you?
February 16, 2012
I was talking on the phone with a prospective client last week who was very convinced she had to be on Facebook to market her new business. She is a high-end floral designer who markets primarily to other businesses. She was so convinced that frankly, she almost had ME convinced – but I stopped her. And I said, “maybe we should take a step back. Maybe Facebook isn’t where you should be right now,” (do you hear the needle scratching across the record? yep. me too.).
I began to ask her questions about her target market and then, it all became abundantly clear: she believed she should be on Facebook (because everyone else was), she believed that putting her business there would make her attractive to new clients, and she also believed it would be free advertising. There are so many misdirections, misconceptions and out right lies in that sentence, it’s hard to organize it all – but the bottom line: Facebook may not be the correct TACTIC – certainly, not the FIRST tactic — and you won’t know unless you have come up with the right STRATEGY to find your perfect client.
Once we narrowed it down to exactly WHO her perfect prospects and clients are (events managers at large companies or event marketing agencies, marketing managers at companies, etc.) and WHAT they wanted from her: easy, elegant decorating for high-end events – no worries. We could then position her in the right place to ATTRACT those clients. But until you do that – you can throw a lot of money (also read: time) at TACTICS that won’t work for you.
Next: getting “found” on Google. Stay tuned.
mary jo cranmore
