Lauri Elliott

I had the great opportunity to share about tapping the power in social networks for business and careers with a group of Harvard graduate students on November 19, 2009. It was sponsored by the African Caucus student group of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  I’d like to give special thanks to Julia Mensah for the opportunity.  Below is a summary of the workshop.

I, myself, am a task-oriented person.  This means I travelled the hard road to learn the significance of people in getting results and business success.  My training ground was Africa for the past five years.  While expertise played a part in my success, relationships also played a significant role.

When I started to research the notion of social networks, I learned that social networking was even important for Bill Gates.  When Gates started his firm, his mother used her social connections in Seattle to provide Gates access to key business people.

One of my biggest observations is that social networks are very important when one is initiating a new idea, whether in business or covering social issues.  So, just as we spend time developing the next greatest idea, we need to focus on developing the ecosystem that will support the idea through its lifecycle. 

Cultivating your network is an intentional activity.  It’s easy enough to understand because we know that relationships take work. 

The workshop highlighted practical means for cultivating your network.  For example, sharing useful information with people is a simple, but effective way to provide value to others.

To learn more, you can download Tapping into the Power of Your Network (296) presentation.  You can also listen to a recent radio show, “Power Push:  Using Social Capital for Success.”

This 20-minute BizBrief covers the components of and process for developing a business model.  The business model answers the question, “How do we logically create value,e g., products and services, for our customers?”  It demonstrates how you will execute your competitive strategy.  The business model serves as the core input for a business case, business concept document or a business plan.

The topic objectives are:

• Describe the role of the business model in an enterprise’s strategy and operation.
• Identify customer element of the business model.
• Identify process element of the business model.
• Identify network and channel element of the business model.
• Identify financial element of the business model.
• Identify steps to develop business model.

The seminar is available for online and mobile platforms as a video or audio below.  You will also find links for the seminar slides  and additional resources below.

Seminar Video (MP4)

Seminar Audio (MP3)

Seminar Slides (PDF)

How to Describe and Improve Your Business Model to Compete Better (Draft Document)

Business Model Generation Book

Stakeholder management is one of those areas in which leaders often find it difficult to navigate.  Over the years, I have used a few basic tools when serving as a project or work stream leader.  First, you can check out a series of articles I wrote for TechRepublic almost a decade ago.  Second, I developed a Stakeholder Strategy Tool that you can download from here. 

And finally, check out a presentation I made on Stakeholder Management at the annual conference of the Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA) in 2007.  This speaks of the evolving environment and how stakeholder management is changing, as well as introduces the initial framework on a stakeholder management methodology on which I am working.

I love how the self-publishing industry has evolved over the last ten years, so that people can take more control over their dreams to be authors.  I just spent time helping my mom publish her first book, all for under $10.00.  The process was straightforward and streamlined.  I think it’s a great channel for many who have been waiting to write and publish a book – even those who have already published.

I am not an expert on publishing, but I am good at research and exploration.  After all the time my mom spent writing over the years but never getting to the publishing step, I pushed her to pull together a book on something.  She did an excellent job.  She came up with her first title, “King Commemorations:  A Collection of Activities,” which will be available in a few weeks.

There are several self-publishing houses like CreateSpace.com and Lulu.com, which allow you to publish for no cost. Books are ordered on demand, so you do not have to put much money upfront.  As your book sells, the book is printed.  The buyer pays for the printing, so you do not have to pull money out of your own pocket upfront.

In addition to printing, the services ship, or distribute, the books as they are ordered. The shipping time is reasonable.  CreateSpace.com, which is an affiliate of Amazon, says shipping normally occurs within five days.

They even assign an ISBN number to your book.  And best of all, you keep all rights to your work.   On the downside, the services do not market for you much and they get a royalty on each book sold.  However, the services like Lulu.com have packages you can purchase, which provide more support for editing, marketing, pricing, retail store distribution, etc.  And in general, the more you invest upfront the less royalty the services claim.

If you are like me, I don’t mind doing the work myself.  Plus, in my case, I have a background in technical writing, so I am very use to writing, editing, layout, proofing and printing.

So, how did we do it?  Let me share the steps. 

Step 1: Write and Edit

• My mother wrote, or pulled together, her “book.”
• She and I edited the document several times for grammar and writing style.
• We worked on the layout.  Then, we edited the document again.
• When you have looked over a document several times, you can begin to make errors.  So, my mom had several of her friends, who write well and pay attention to detail, proof the book.

Step 2:  Prepare for Publishing

• We decided to try CreateSpace.com to publish the first book.  We set up her account and the detailed profile for the book.
• For submission, we had to develop a cover for the book, using a template provided by CreateSpace.com.  We also had to submit the cover and content as pdf files that were print ready.  CreateSpace.com provided detailed submission guidelines.
• Once we checked everything against the submission guidelines, we uploaded the files so CreateSpace.com could review and prepare a proof of the book.
• We were notified within one business day about a few, minor errors, so we corrected and re-submitted.  We were happy that we had successfully submitted in alignment with the guidelines.
• The only money spent was to order the proof.  That was just $9.00, including shipping.  The proof was shipped in one day and arrived within three days. I love their efficiency!!
• The proof was good quality.  It brought a lot of excitement, having your writings finally in print!
• We found a few errors in the printed proof, so we made changes and re-submitted.  Each time you re-submit the book you are required to order another printed book proof.  So, this is where you might spend more money, depending on how often you have to re-submit the book with changes.

Step 3:  Publish

• Once we were satisfied with the proof, we approved the proof online.
• The book is now in queue to be published, which takes a few weeks.  People can purchase from Amazon.com or the online store that CreateSpace.com provided.

Just a few additional points.  This process is totally online except for reviewing the book proof, so the more comfortable and efficient you are with the online environment the easier the process will be for you.  But, it’s still a great opportunity for learning because you have a strong incentive to succeed.

Some of the basic tools you will need are a computer, internet, word processor, graphics program, and pdf creator.  Highly useful skills include writing, editing, drawing and/or taking pictures, and graphic design.  But you can always find people to help you with any aspect of the process.

If you have been waiting to write that book, you now have even more control over getting it published.

I’ll let you know how we do on the marketing.

The Personality Orientation Profile (POP) is an instrument designed to measure an individual’s perception of his or her own personality orientation.  Personality orientation is characterized by attitudes an individual holds, as well as behaviors an individual does consistently. 

There are four primary personality orientations based on distinct driving forces.  The distinct driving forces are power, people, perfection and peace.

Download the file from here.