Basically, the Web and the Internet are Brand U paradigm busters. For example, they’ve changed the balance of power between buyer and seller. The buyer is much more powerful. Think of supply and demand. Where’s the supply and where’s the demand? Think of the employee as the Brand U buyer and the employer as the …
I paid my dues! I worked 50 hours last week! I bailed out my team! My company, church, school, government owes me. How many TV shows can we watch that glorify the victim mentality? For the last two decades, the entitlement and victimization mentalities drove many. So and so owes me because I’ve been stressed, …
Not too many years ago, if we worked for a company straight out of school and kept our noses clean, we were ensured employment as long as we wanted it. My first employer viewed ‘womb to tomb’ employment as its major employee benefit. There’s a new employment and social contract in the workplace. Recently, this …
William Bridges, a profound thinker of work, said, “when you look for a job, you are looking for something that is fading from the socioeconomic picture because it is past its evolutionary prime.”[i] In Job Shift and other books, he calls this ‘de-jobbing.’ He makes the critical distinction between a job and work. A job …
The only management practice that’s now constant is the practice of constantly accommodating to change. William McGowan, MCI Chairman Work, careers, and jobs now shift like quicksand. The destruction of traditional jobs, the emergence of Brand U careers, the role of new work rules, and the fundamental changes of work can’t be ignored or dismissed. …
“With Spain under pressure to conform to the shorter lunch break habits in most of the 14 other countries in the European Union, its traditional workday – with its three-hour siesta break to eat and sleep – is disappearing.” Why? The siesta is a big issue in Spain because the midday snooze is another example of …
Much of the rapid organizational transformations including indiscriminate downsizing over the last several years have been senseless. Approximately 62% of companies in one survey didn’t even look at other methods for reducing costs before getting rid of people. Many followed the reengineering herd to downsize people instead of changing fundamental processes or growing the business. …
With more people having access to business information, markets are becoming more efficient and effective. To remain competitive, companies are forced to rethink every aspect of their business and their basic assumptions – their business models of pricing, demand, delivery, inventory management, marketing strategies, and branding. The competitiveness paradigm discussed in the last chapter infects …
Over the last several years, your employer may have downsized, restructured, rightsized, transformed, teamed, and refocused itself. This may mean different things to you. You’ve been asked to do more with less. Your friends have been fired. You’re working longer hours. Your bosses are making stupid decisions. You’re getting paid less per hour than last …
A competitive world has two possibilities for you. You can lose. Or, if you want to win, you can change. Lester Thurow, Management Professor When change is all around you, this is the time to take ownership of your work and life. This is the goal of Brand U’s. Adapt to the change and do …