n 2006, Jeanne Bliss introduced the concept of “Power Core” – the part of an organization that sets the tone and drives the agenda. She found six archetypes: Product Power Core, IT Power Core, Marketing Power Core, Sales Power Core, Vertical (Industry) Core, Customer Power Core. Does one of those resonate? To identify your organization’s power … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday: POWER CORE
Word Nerd Wednesday – CASH COW
When I joined AT&T in the late 1990s, its legacy business – long distance phone service – was in decline. Email was replacing calls in the business world and fledgling wireless carriers were enticing residential subscribers to try cell phones with free long distance as a matter of course. This posed an interesting challenge … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – RED HERRING
“Red herring” is a euphemism for something that gets put in one’s path to intentionally distract or mislead. The first known use was in an 1833 essay by English journalist William Cobbett. The author told the (probably fictional) story of using the scent of smoked fish** to distract hunting dogs from the trail of a … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – WATERMELON
#WordNerdWednesday I had never heard the term “watermelon” in a CX context until recently. Someone at the CXPA Leaders Advance conference used it to describe CX metrics – watermelon metrics look green at the top level but red as soon as you peek below the surface. I loved that, and it made me think of … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – SCRATCH
Have you ever wondered where the phrase “starting from scratch” came from? I hadn’t until an article on the topic came across my feed recently. It seemed perfect for #WordNerdWednesday. “The scratch” is what 18th century folks called the starting line in a race or sport. It was, quite literally, a line scratched into the … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – INCLUSIVE
#wordnerdwednesday Design isn’t my area of expertise, but thought this was a neat example of inclusive design when I found it on BrilliantEarth.com recently. I wanted to share because the more examples of inclusivity we see and promote, the faster it will become the norm. At least that’s what I hope! To that end, I’m … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – USEFUL
#wordnerdwednesday Why haven’t we made more progress in #CX when we have all the tools we theoretically need? When my friend and former colleague Sam Stern lamented this issue in a post last week, I pointed out that most business people still don’t really understand what CX is. “CX definition” is still one of the … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – ROADBLOCK
I come from a long line of stubborn people. I love them dearly, but my family doesn’t like change and they don’t like being told what to do. Perhaps some of you out there can relate. 😉 This used to frustrate me to no end, but when I entered the corporate world I realized they’d done … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – ANUMERIC
Can you imagine a world without numbers? I recently stumbled on an article about people living in what are called “anumeric” cultures. The concept of exact quantity doesn’t exist in their world. Their languages have generic words for “some” or “a few” but nothing more specific. It’s hard to imagine. But it’s true. Numbers aren’t … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – REINVENT
The watch-word from PWC’s annual CEO report was “reinvent.” Almost half of the 4,702 CEOs surveyed said their company won’t be economically viable in ten years if it stays on its current path. Yikes. Other than technology change, the biggest thing driving corporate reinvention is changing customer preferences. This has HUGE implications for CX leaders. … Read more
