Constant Cogitation - Latest Comments

Re: Developing Good Sleep Habits in Autistic Children

Greg Strosaker — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:07:45 -0000

As I mentioned in the post, I am not a sleep expert in any way, just sharing some tips that have worked (to date) for us. Sorry to hear that sleep issues have re-arisen for your son. I certainly wouldn't jump to any conclusions based on just 2 nights of results regarding the new medication approaches. And, as you know, times of changes in routine (such as the beginning or end of school breaks) often spur some sleep challenges. Best of luck in working through your situation.

Re: Developing Good Sleep Habits in Autistic Children

Doloresdavid50 — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:14:48 -0000

i am a parent of 15 yr old autistic child (son), i had those situations during his early aged. and now he's 15 seems like its going back again, even with his medication, he's up early 2 a.m and this happens maybe 4 times in a week at times everyday, not sure coz he's on vacation school will be this monday for him, im so exhausted having less sleep at night and truly this cause a lot of noise to our family members that at times his dad would just blurted out to send him in homes for kids like him, i understand coz this situations is repetitive and maybe too much for him (he works 6 days a week 6-6) especially, there are times he just cried, some aghression, noise he'd made to his room, that i ended up watching over him until he falls asleep before 5 or six a.m, i talk to his psychiatrist, much so told me to give his medication more at night than in daytime, did that for 2 days now, first night its sucess 2nd night back into one, also coz of less sleep at night he tends to sleep daytime for 3 hrs, help!

Re: Why the US Chamber of Commerce should Stand Firm on their Cap and Trade Position

John Papers — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:51:55 -0000

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article with us.

Re: Seven Leadership Lessons from the Marathon

John Papers — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:48:47 -0000

This is amazing list like the previous one..
Thank you for this post..

Re: Strategic Pricing Using Value Equivalence Lines

moncler — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 04:49:31 -0000

Strategic Pricing it;s hard to understand

Re: Strategic Pricing Using Value Equivalence Lines

Marc Accetta — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:33:22 -0000

Your post made me think of exploring new things in my managerial strategies. Somehow I think I should implement the changes no matter how hard it is.

Re: Developing Good Sleep Habits in Autistic Children

cydonia16 — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:07:20 -0000

Very helpful thank you. I recently used a tempurpedic mattress discount to purchase a memory foam mattress for my autistic son who hardly ever sleeps at night but it had really helped him enjoy sleeping more.

Re: Seven Leadership Lessons from the Marathon

Greg Strosaker — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 20:59:34 -0000

Thanks for your comment Viktor, interesting article. Your comment regarding marathon runners being "goal driven" is why I also think they tend to make great employees.

Re: Seven Leadership Lessons from the Marathon

Viktor Ovurmind — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:57:17 -0000

The link between leadership and marathons is a continuation of the industrial age drive that we are goal driven from a start to a finish line. The athlete's mind is more interesting to me http://discovermagazine.com/20... because then all athletes can be studied in an organic reality.

[v.o.M.]

Re: Book Review – Beating the Commodity Trap

Greg Strosaker — Thu, 27 May 2010 09:55:41 -0000

I agree Jimmy. It is a challenge for many manufacturers to do so, and pricing of services (aftermarket or otherwise) can be a bit trickier, as it is very easy to fall into a "time & material" trap instead of thinking about it from a price-benefit perspective. I'm planning a future post on how to do this (already hand-scratched the notes a few weeks back, in fact).

Re: Book Review – Beating the Commodity Trap

Jim Matorin — Thu, 27 May 2010 06:34:02 -0000

Innovation is always a great competitive tool, but as I have shared with you before, manufacturers need to think beyond products and provide value-added services.

Re: Seven Leadership Lessons from the Marathon

Greg Strosaker — Tue, 25 May 2010 08:52:56 -0000

Thanks Jimmy, I think it's always wise to look at the ways one can generalize the experiences and learnings from one discipline into another (as you did in your post on lessons learned from the great artists). And I haven't checked in on VIA of late to see how it is doing, do you know of any news?

Re: Seven Leadership Lessons from the Marathon

Jim Matorin — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:39:11 -0000

Greg:

I definitely enjoyed how you correlated your experiences as a performance runner to goals of being a corporate leader. Flexibilty is one thing we all need to understand, but also balanced correctly with being resolute. Yes, do avoid distractions like launching new products that are off your core business proposition - VIA.

Jimmy

Re: Seven Leadership Lessons from the Marathon

Greg Strosaker — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:55:54 -0000

Christoffel,
Thanks for your comment. Ironically, just after posting this I realized that I had overlooked the charity aspect as a motivation for keeping to your training. I think of it as a subset of committing yourself publicly but it does have a little more meaning and importance because there are others who will truly rely on you to meet your commitment - great addition!
My company has its European HQ in the Netherlands (near Maastrict), maybe there will be an opportunity to combine a business trip with the Amsterdam Marathon in the future!

Re: Seven Leadership Lessons from the Marathon

Christoffel — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:44:01 -0000

Hi Gregg,
I found your blog through the LinkedIn Marathon finishers group and found your article extremely good and relevant.
What I would like to add from my own experience (and could be labelled as lesson #8) is that running for charity can add an extra stimulus to get you through the most difficult moments in the race. Thinking of all the known and unknown people who have contributed took me through difficult miles and the incentives some people built in gave me that extra energy shot for the remainder of the race.

Best regards from The Netherlands – consider the Amsterdam Marathon in October!

Re: Is GE’s Leadership Development Model Broken?

Greg Strosaker — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:09:55 -0000

Thought I'd replied before but now I don't see it, so I'll try again...

Hi Jim,
As I'm sure you know, the incentives for "thinking like your manager" is much greater than that for taking risks or trying new approaches, especially in larger companies. It takes a concerted effort to break this behavior - maybe more than even an organization as effective at change management as GE can manage?

Re: Is GE’s Leadership Development Model Broken?

Greg Strosaker — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 06:16:03 -0000

Hi Denny,
Thanks for your comment and congratulations yourself, I enjoyed reading your blog as well as you focus on an important topic. Funny you should mention the combination of running and marketing as I'm actually planning to start a new running-focused blog to separate the two a bit (with occasional overlap where relevant); I'd like to do more blogging on running but don't want to pollute the core purpose of this blog.

Good luck in the Brand .ME competition!

Re: Is GE’s Leadership Development Model Broken?

Denny McCorkle — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:59:39 -0000

Greg, congrats on being a finalist in the Brand .Me competition! This is the first blog I have seen that combines marketing with running. I love to see your passions! Denny McCorkle

Re: Is GE’s Leadership Development Model Broken?

Jim Matorin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:34:45 -0000

Thank you for a good Corporate American story to start my day. Before striking out on my own, I had my fair share of GE type experiences in the food industry - Unilever, Quaker Oats and Campbell's. The one thing I noticed that was missing and still is missing in my industry is the ability of a leader to improvise. Leaders tend to follow a play book, keep doing the same old thing. Why? They are risk adverse. A contributing factor to why innovation is minimal at best in our country right now.

Re: Strategic Pricing Using Value Equivalence Lines

Greg Strosaker — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:00:17 -0000

Jim, thanks for your comment and I recognize this one's a bit lengthy, but I'm particularly passionate about pricing as I view it as both critical and misunderstood. Services are a special challenge, and the "cost-plus" mentality is often even harder to break as pricing is typically set by hours x hourly rates, and many clients are smart enough to estimate how long something should take. There are some companies in marketing and legal services that are implementing more fixed-fee models (a certain price for a press release, or for a patent filing, for example) and in this case the VEL approach may help set pricing.

Another new model emerging include fee for performance (for example, a marketing agency charging per lead they develop). Technology can play a role in supporting more advanced pricing models as well, by being able to generate real time feedback on usage of an asset or results of a campaign.

And I think your last comment is very typical - in many cases, the first price asked for can and should be higher. Any time someone accepts the first offer, you have to realize that you probably left money on the table.

Re: Strategic Pricing Using Value Equivalence Lines

Jim Matorin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:16:58 -0000

Greg: Thought provoking blog. So much material, I am going to have to circle back and re-read. You are right, when I worked in Corporate America in product managment, I did not spend that much time on pricing since being in food, it was usually dictated by competitive conditions. However, my all time favorite pricing strategy was when I worked on saltines, a story for another day. Now that I am in the service business, I use a lot of
psychology when it comes to pricing focused on the perceived outcome of the services provided, but I want to circle back and better understand how VEL would come into play. One thing I have learned about pricing since being on my own, once I land a project, I realize I could have asked for more.

Re: To Run or Not to Run? There is No Question

jill — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:15:01 -0000

amazing how you've come back so strong. Very inspirational and encouraging as I decide for a new marathon PR (even though its been 6 yrs ). Chicago marathon

Thanks for the post.

Re: To Run or Not to Run? There is No Question

Brian — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:09:57 -0000

Very nice post Greg. Inspiring to newbie and veteran runners alike (I fall somewhere in between at the moment).

Re: A Market Segmentation Example

Greg Strosaker — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:57:32 -0000

I thought I had posted a reply to your comment, but I'm now not seeing it on the blog. If it didn't come through, I apologize - let me try again here.

Thanks for your visit and your comment. You raise good questions. I think that classification can be a helpful, or maybe even "necessary but not sufficient," first step towards a good segmentation. For example, we use classification (by NAICS code) to help us understand, based on government data and private market research, which types of customers are making capital investments in the types of equipment we serve and may therefore be opportunities. We would then move towards visiting some potential key accounts to start getting a sense on how their approaches to budgeting, purchasing, or there general attitudes towards our types of solutions may differ. This how we bridge the gap from "pre-segmentation" to segmentation.

It may not hurt to have some preconceptions about possible segments within a given "class" of customers, so long as you don't let your biases become so strong that you aren't willing to set them aside in the face of new information.

I hope this helps, please let me know if I can clarify this any further.

Re: A Market Segmentation Example

interlingo — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:06:50 -0000

Greg, excellent article! I guess we're one step before this where we are working to get "customer meetings to determine values". Do we do a "pre-market segmentation analysis" to determine who to meet with, or should we start with existing customers? How would this work if we are breaking into new markets where we don't yet have customers? Any advice for bridging the gap between classification and segmentation?