LEADERSHIP - January 2012 Leadership is the key influence of people in all aspects of life... Hello Welcome to a new year with many new TE membership benefits for you... View over 20 recent interviews, videos and articles on Leadership HERE In This Edition: LEADERSHIP - January 2012 Leadership Research A Great Leader is a Servant Executives and Roles Available NOW Top 2 Leadership Interviews of 2011 Total Executive TV Register Now* Test Your Brain Search by Subject Leadership Research Picking People who Perform Total Executive have interviewed over 500 innovative SME owners and recruiters for corporate, enterprise and government to learn where leaders are selected and the key to future competitive advantage in Australia and overseas here A Great Leader is a Servant A Great Leader is Inspiring Desmond Tutu talks about ultimate leaders who inspire and serve here Executives and Roles Available NOW BREAK OUT OF SCHOOL... Get ready for accelerated change... Here are a small selection of the executives and roles Total Executive have access to NOW EXECUTIVES AVAILABLE: International CIO/CEO - experience financial sector with top 200 - focused on transformational change with technology HR Manager - Social Sector - Previously Corporate CEO - understands how to lead and motivate people Successful Entrepreneur - looking for concepts for VC and take to market Forex dealer - looking for a change Retired chairman of global supply chain organisation - ready to network many more ROLES AVAILABLE: Operations Manager - Sydney Digital Communications Analyst - Brisbane Business Development Manager - Asia Pacific General Manager - Wollongong Production Manager - Sydney Director of Communications - Melbourne many more We now have over 250 businesses, corporates and enterprise considering the executive members within the Total Executive network for future positions available in Australia and overseas For further information on any of these executives or roles above - OR, to confidentially discuss future roles Contact Us Top 2 Leadership Interviews of 2011 The top 2 Total Executive Leadership Interviews of 2011 as judged by Total Executive members were: Influence More Powerful than Control John Denton - Managing Partner of Corrs explains why "It's all about Influence rather than Command Control" here Responsible Leadership is about Creating a Legacy Paul Thorley, CEO Capgemini talks about the future of business and developing a legacy here To learn more about our leadership interviews that were runners up click here To discuss how our leading providers are improving organisational culture - for executives and their staff - Contact Us You can now benefit from Additional Benefits with your Total Executive Membership Contact Us for these services below... Complimentary Cultural Alignment Analysis here   Member benefits when booking events - including these events here   Complimentary Vision Assessment here   Save 30% off Business, Trade and other Publications here now   Save money and time with Global Executive search for contractual and full time engagements here   Complimentary Business Analysis here   Your complimentary 2012 subscription for peers and partners is available now here Total Executive TV Have you been enjoying Total Executive TV? Check out our growing video library here Register Now* Your peers and colleagues can currently register for complimentary 2012 Total Executive membership here saving $495:00 Test Your Brain Have you tested your Brain lately? Test your level of reaction skills here View a history of Brain Tests here Search by Subject Search the Total Executive Knowledge Bank by key subjects we cover here

You are receiving this membership newsletter because you have previously been a client when we have introduced you to publishers, coaching organisations and other companies providing services supporting executives and their staff. Or, you have been in communication with one of our team and confirmed that you would be interested in learning more about Leadership, Sustainability, Responsibility, Technology and/or Communication via our newsletter. If you believe you have received this email incorrectly, you may select to unsubscribe using the link below   Email: Info@TotalEXEC.com.au  Phone: +61 (0) 408 844 009 Total Executive Suite 102 370 Kingsway Sydney, NSW 2229 Add us to your address book Copyright © 2012 Total Executive All rights reserved.

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The Latest Total Executive Membership Newsletter has been released with new benefits for members Have you subscribed to Total Executive yet? Complimentary membership is currently available saving $495:00 Subscribe here

Hello  Welcome to our Monthly Membership Newsletter with a variety of NEW Exclusive Total Executive Member Benefits and Interviews for You Link to this newsletter online here Leadership Interviews Leading an International Organisation Tom Gorman - CEO, Brambles explains how to lead an international organisation over more than 50 countries here Is it a Good or Bad Time for Executive Transfer? James Allen - MD for Stanton Chase Australia provides insights here To discuss how our leading partners are improving engagement and direction - for executives and their staff - Contact Us Your Total Executive Membership Benefits Grow You can now benefit from Additional Benefits with your Total Executive Membership... Save 30% off Business, Trade and other Publications here now   Save money and time with Global Executive search for contractual and full time engagements here   Complimentary subscription to Executive magazines as shown here Your complimentary 2011/2012 subscription for peers and partners is available now here Leadership Articles What Leaders can Learn from The Rise of The Planet of The Apes Some interesting comparisons here Put Staff Down Cleverly to Increase Creativity Research shows that creativity can be improved through a clever put down here Are you Screening more than Your Employees Learn why and how you should screen more here CEOs favourite Lies Learn what they are here The importance of Networking at Executive Level Learn why it is so important here Do Nothing and Achieve More Great ideas here Attracting Talent Learn how to attract talent and build your business here View dozens of recent leadership articles here Communication Skills Beyond The Brand 'Culture' is the new competitive edge to marketing - view more here Build Exposure via LinkedIn Build exposure and increase web traffic using LinkedIn here Monitor what Others Say about Your Business Online You can be the eyes of the mirror as shown here It is OK to Lie to Your Boss When is it OK to lie to your boss? - learn here Get FAST relevant responses to your email This newsletter does not follow these rules - ARE YOU? - learn here Social Media Comes of Age Learn how social media, communications and security are working in harmony here View dozens of articles on communication here Learn how Total Executive can support your Communications (internally and externally) here Technology Knowledge The Power of Web 3.0 Learn how to design the transcendent web here Cloud Computing and Information Security Learn what is really the case with Cloud and security here Retail Banking and Apponomics Learn how banking is changing here Make your website Mobile and Tablet Friendly Learn how to do it cheaply here 5 things you Need to Know about the iCloud Learn what is most important for your business here Fight the GOOD IT Fight Learn how to fight the Malware here View dozens of technology articles here Total Executive Interviews and Reviews What an Australian Marketing Award Winner thinks about Marketing Reg Bryson - Founder of Brand Council talks about how marketing is changing here Questions to Ask at the Informational Interview Learn what you should be asking here 6 innovation lessons from eBay Learn new ideas from eBay's think tank here Australian Safety Innovation Attracting global attention as shown here View dozens of interviews and reviews with leaders here Total Executive Exclusive Educational Benefits* Total Executive members have access to exclusive benefits with coaching, education and mentoring, like those shown here Contact us to discuss exclusive benefits for your staff and direct family members Upcoming Events with Exclusive TE Member Benefits*... Your Total Executive membership entitles you to receive exclusive benefits when booking and attending conferences, events and forums. To book any program below with Total Executive benefits simply reply to this email with your contact details... we arrange the rest for you. LEADERSHIP For the Real World Complimentary Breakfast about the latest skills in leadership engagement for Total Executive Members available here To have your event promoted Contact Us Register Now* Your peers and colleagues can currently register for complimentary 2011/2012 Total Executive membership here saving $495:00 Test Your Brain Have you tested your Brain lately? Test your memory here View a history of Brain Tests here Search by Subject Search the Total Executive Knowledge Bank by key subjects we cover here

You are receiving this membership newsletter because you have previously been a client when we have introduced you to publishers, coaching organisations and other companies providing services supporting executives and their staff. Or, you have been in communication with one of our team and confirmed that you would be interested in learning more about Leadership, Sustainability, Responsibility, Technology and/or Communication via our newsletter. If you believe you have received this email incorrectly, you may select to unsubscribe using the link below Email: Info@TotalEXEC.com.au  Phone: +61 (0) 408 844 009 Total Executive Suite 102 370 Kingsway Sydney, NSW 2229 Add us to your address book Copyright © 2011 Total Executive All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend

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Hello  As part of your 2011 membership provided by Total Executive, we occasionally have exclusive invitations to unique leadership workshops, forums and events... The complimentary information sessions and networking options described below are hosted by Social Leadership Australia - created for leaders who are looking for new methods to work beyond the limitations of formal authority and create lasting solutions to entrenched problems... If you are not in Sydney at these times, we recommend you invite your senior colleagues and peers. Look forward to seeing you there. Kind regards Grant Leaders need to see the real world - not the inside of a classroom. Why would you send your best people into a refugee support centre,  public housing estate … or a remote Aboriginal community … or a prison to learn about leadership? This is what Social Leadership Australia does with over 500 leaders from Government, NGOs and Top 500 companies each year and here's why: “Extraordinary …a once in a lifetime experience … the most challenging and most valuable development experience I’ve had in my career.” —Simon Terry,  General Manager, NAB “Without a doubt the best post-graduate program that I’ve ever attended. I got enormous value out of my MBA but this was much deeper learning.” —Rod Douglas, CEO, SuccesSystems The Sydney Leadership Program. Challenge yourself. Change your world. Join us for breakfast or evening drinks and hear Robbie Macpherson, Head of Social Leadership Australia, explain why a dynamic leadership program that combines the Adaptive Leadership model with teaching in the community is having a bigger impact than most other classroom based approaches. If you are working with increasing complexity and change; if the toughest issue you face is actually beyond your four walls; if the projects you are driving require cultural shifts or changes to values and behavioural norms, then Sydney Leadership just may be one of the best professional development opportunities you have come across. Download the Sydney Leadership information brochure HERE. Join us for a complimentary breakfast or evening introductory session Breakfast Session: Tuesday 6th September 7:30am to 9:00am Stockland Learning Centre - Level 2, 133 Castlereagh St Sydney OR; Evening Session: Wednesday 21st September 6:30 to 8:00pm The Benevolent Society - Level 1, 188 Oxford St Sydney Bookings: Call (02) 9339 8057 Or, email Leadership@bensoc.org.au It will be great to see you there. Yours sincerely, Robbie Macpherson Head, Social Leadership Australia Limited Bookings Available...   To book or invite one of your senior staff - simply reply to this email with your preference of breakfast or evening session, OR Email Social Leadership Australia HERE To discuss involvement in future Total Executive programs please Contact Us

You are receiving this membership newsletter because you have previously been a client when we have introduced you to publishers, coaching organisations and other companies providing services supporting executives and their staff. Or, you have been in communication with one of our team and confirmed that you would be interested in learning more about Leadership, Sustainability, Responsibility, Technology and/or Communication via our newsletter. If you believe you have received this email incorrectly, you may select to unsubscribe using the link below Email: Info@TotalEXEC.com.au  Phone: +61 (0) 408 844 009 Total Executive Suite 102 370 Kingsway Sydney , NSW 2229 Add us to your address book Copyright © 2011 Total Executive All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend Update your profile

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Hello With Your Total Executive Membership you have access to the largest executive network in Australia including Yourself and 15,000+ Total Executive Members Our extended network via our partners We are often asked if we provide recruitment services? That is not our standard business - though we know and partner with the best providers... And we have introduced some of our clients to executives with specific skills in Australia and overseas through the Total Executive membership network. How well are you connected given serious employers who are recruiting are aware of the information shown HERE We highly recommend you register and upload your CV with: Executives Online Six Figures (It costs you nothing and these are two of the top executive recruitment networks) Contact Us - we provide additional links to future employment and contract options Kind regards Grant Are you connected with the most innovative executive search network in Australia with options of international engagement? Executives Online delivers fast-track executive resourcing - Interim Management, Project Management, Change Management and Permanent Executive Recruitment. Their services are unique - you will be contacted if your skills match new positions and contracts available. They have been helping senior executives be placed QUICKLY into global positions. Why are they so successful? - They are FAST and they Save Companies Money in their recruitment processes. Their database is global, multi-sector, specialising in low cost, fast-tracked recruitment of all management and C-Level executives, both interim and permanent. We recommend you register now so they can consider you for a large volume of upcoming executive positions - it costs nothing and only takes a moment. REGISTER HERE Six Figures is Australia's leading jobsite for Executives, Senior Professionals and Professionals. The site provides an untapped source of talent for savvy hirers with Complimentary Standard Job Ad Postings and paid Featured Job ads. You should also REGISTER HERE for their complimentary membership.

You are receiving this membership newsletter because you have previously been a client when we have introduced you to publishers, coaching organisations and other companies providing services supporting executives and their staff. Or, you have been in communication with one of our team and confirmed that you would be interested in learning more about Leadership, Sustainability, Responsibility, Technology and/or Communication via our newsletter. If you believe you have received this email incorrectly, you may select to unsubscribe using the link below Email: Info@TotalEXEC.com.au  Phone: +61 (0) 408 844 009 Total Executive Suite 102 370 Kingsway Sydney, NSW 2229 Add us to your address book Copyright © 2011 Total Executive All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend Update your profile

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"This movie - Rise of the Planet of the Apes, through it's engagement with creatures emotions via the very clever replication of eye contact has the ability to impact the psyche of the human race and encourage a change for the better"

Grant Crossley, founder Total Executive

Are your leaders connecting with the inner desires of your staff - a willingness to connect with our environment, community and nature...

How are your leaders engaging staff?

Are they communicating sincerely - looking them straight in the eye?

Are they still tied up with the antiquated historic style of management - ruling by Carrot and Stick?

So your staff always need to watch their back...

Do your leaders leave staff distant?

Wanting to start an Uprising?

Or, do your leaders engage with compassion...

Encouraging engaging conversation...

Building an environment of collaboration

Is your business encouraging engagement with community, staff and our environment as is an underlying theme for Rise of the Planet of the Apes?

Think about how your leaders are engaging with staff? Do they need a helping hand?

If so, Contact Us to discuss Responsible Leadership

And make sure you check out this Movie of The Year:

http://www.apeswillrise.com/

All images above sourced from http://www.imdb.com

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Hello  Welcome to our July 2011 Membership Newsletter with a variety of Exclusive Total Executive Member Benefits (highlighted below)* for You Clarify Your Identity Clarify Your Identity before starting your Mission Hans Tempel - CEO of Mercedes explains how your first step is to Clarify Your Identity in order to lead from the front here To discuss how our leading providers are improving engagement and direction - for executives and their staff - Contact Us Escaping the COLD* During the Cold it is time to Invest in the Warmer Climate Far North Queensland have had their experience of tough times - Now executives can support the north. View some ideas available where Total Executive membership benefit offers are available as shown here A couple Great places to stay where Total Executive can help provide the best deals for your family and staff include: Port Douglas - The Sheraton Mirage Details on what they have to offer are here Cairns - The Sebel Details of what they have to offer are here Much more of what is available in the region is shown here Executive Survey* You can Help Enhance the Relationship between clients and providers - then view survey results Join the hundreds of executives who have helped provide a platform of engagement between clients and their providers globally here Leadership Articles Is Anger a Symptom of Depression? Rhondalynn Korolak talks about how depression can result from anger turned inwards here View dozens of recent leadership articles here New Home for Consultants* Do you work SOHO? Consider a new complimentary service option... Consultants in Sydney now have access to offices where they can collaborate with fellow consultants, benefit from complimentary services and more... To discuss benefits available for Total Executive members further contact us Communication and Technology Articles When is it Time to Sack your Customer? Selective Marketing is on the right foot and ready to boot! Learn more here View dozens of articles on communication here Fight the GOOD IT Fight Learn how to fight the Malware here View dozens of technology articles here Total Executive Interviews and Reviews What Executives are Thinking about Leadership Kelly Magowan, CEO of Six Figures talks about how executives have been starting to protect People rather than protecting Profits here View dozens of interviews and reviews with leaders here Total Executive Exclusive Educational Benefits* Total Executive members have access to exclusive benefits when studying, like those shown here Contact us to discuss exclusive benefits for your staff and direct family members Upcoming Events with Exclusive TE Member Benefits*... Your Total Executive membership entitles you to receive exclusive benefits when booking and attending conferences, events and forums. To book any program below with Total Executive benefits simply reply to this email with your contact details... we arrange the rest for you. LEADERSHIP For the Real World Complimentary Breakfast about the latest skills in leadership engagement for Total Executive Members available here Relationships are built through Communication Each of us have a distinct method of communication Book with exclusive Total Executive benefits here View the full programme calendar here To have your event promoted Contact Us Have you Trained your Brain Lately? How is your Information Processing? Measure your Mind Here View many more Brain Training Exercises here Register Now* Your peers and colleagues can currently register for complimentary 2011/2012 Total Executive membership here saving $495:00 Search by Subject Search the Total Executive Knowledge Bank by key subjects we cover here

You are receiving this membership newsletter because you have previously been a client when we have introduced you to publishers, coaching organisations and other companies providing services supporting executives and their staff. Or, you have been in communication with one of our team and confirmed that you would be interested in learning more about Leadership, Sustainability, Responsibility, Technology and/or Communication via our newsletter. If you believe you have received this email incorrectly, you may select to unsubscribe using the link below Email: Info@TotalEXEC.com.au  Phone: +61 (0) 408 844 009 Total Executive Suite 102 370 Kingsway Sydney , NSW 2229 Add us to your address book Copyright © 2011 Total Executive All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend Update your profile

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Hello  Total Executive occasionally have exclusive invitations to unique leadership workshops, forums and events... The complimentary information sessions and networking breakfasts described below are hosted by Social Leadership Australia - created for leaders who are looking for new methods to work beyond the limitations of formal authority and create lasting solutions to entrenched problems... If you or your colleagues in Queensland Australia would like to attend, please have them contact us and we will look after the rest. Look forward to seeing you there. Kind regards Grant Why would you send your best people into a public housing estate … or a remote Aboriginal community … or a prison to learn about leadership? That’s what we did with more than 200 leaders from Government, NGOs and Top 500 companies in 2010 alone. And this is the sort of thing they had to say about it: “Extraordinary …a once in a lifetime experience … the most challenging and most valuable development experience I’ve had in my career.” —Simon Terry,  General Manager, NAB “Without a doubt the best post-graduate program that I’ve ever attended. I got enormous value out of my MBA but this was much deeper learning.”  —Rod Douglas, CEO, SuccesSystems I’m writing to invite you to come along to one of our forthcoming information sessions about the Queensland Leadership program and discover how Social Leadership Australia’s unique approach to learning is delivering some of the most powerful leadership development programs in Australia. Queensland Leadership is our flagship leadership development program in Queensland. Each year it brings together a cohort of up to thirty high-talent, big-thinking individuals from across the business, government and not-for-profit sectors to learn what it means to exercise real leadership—leadership that works beyond the limitations of formal authority, leadership that helps create new, lasting solutions to entrenched problems. If you are working with increasing complexity and change; if the toughest issue you face is actually beyond your four walls; if the projects you are driving require cultural shifts or changes to values and behavioural norms, then this may be one of the best professional development opportunities you have come across. At the heart of Queensland Leadership is the Adaptive Leadership model developed by Ronald Heifetz and his colleagues at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  Having worked almost exclusively with this model in all our programs since 2002, we at Social Leadership Australia are some of Australia’s foremost Adaptive Leadership practitioners. But we take this model to a new level by bringing the learning into the community, because we believe leaders need to see the real world, not the inside of a classroom. A comprehensive information booklet about Queensland Leadership is available on our website: www.benevolent.org.au/leadership Join us for a complimentary breakfast on one of these two dates: Thursday, 28th July 7:30am to 9:00am The Benevolent Society, 9 Wilson Street, West End, Queensland OR Thursday, 11 August 7.30am to 9.00am The Benevolent Society, 9 Wilson Street, West End, Queensland Contact Social Leadership Australia to discuss further and book: amandam@bensoc.org.au or 07 3170 4618 Yours sincerely, Robbie Macpherson Head, Social Leadership Australia Limited Bookings Available...   To book or invite one of your senior staff or colleagues in Queensland - simply reply to this email with your preference of breakfast session, OR Email Social Leadership Australia HERE To discuss involvement in future Total Executive programs please Contact Us Email: Info@TotalEXEC.com.au  Phone: +61 (0) 408 844 009 Total Executive Suite 102 370 Kingsway Sydney, NSW 2229 Copyright © 2011 Total Executive All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend Update your profile

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View the latest Total Executive newsletter for June 2011 below with lot's of benefits for members... Hello Welcome to our June 2011 Membership Newsletter with a variety of Exclusive Total Executive Member Benefits (highlighted below)* Complete our survey on Improving Partner Connections here The 6 C's of Leadership The 6 C's of Leadership - Jon Scriven - Qantas Group Executive of People and Corporate Services Learn how to have good conversations and the five critical things to know about building high performance workplaces here To discuss how our leading providers are improving engagement and direction - for executives and their staff - Contact Us Executive Survey* You can Help Enhance the Relationship between clients and providers - then view survey results Join the hundreds of executives who have helped provide a platform of engagement between clients and their providers globally here Leadership Articles Creating Individual Futures - A New Perspective on Career Management Charles Brass talks about how a new breed of consultant and counsellor has emerged in the recruitment field here View dozens of recent leadership articles here New Home for Consultants* Do you work SOHO? Consider a new complimentary service option... Consultants in Sydney now have access to offices where they can collaborate with fellow consultants, benefit from complimentary services and more... To discuss benefits available for Total Executive members further contact us Communication and Technology Articles Designing Connected Brands Is your brand connected with the customer? Learn more here View dozens of articles on communication here IT is about creating new products, Not just Cutting Costs A global CIO study shows the web has enabled many businesses and corporates to develop new products and profit centres using IT as explained here View dozens of technology articles here Total Executive Interviews and Reviews Is Policy our Roadmap? Graeme A Kraehe AO, chairman of Bluescope and Brambles talks about the carbon tax here View dozens of interviews and reviews with leaders here Total Executive Exclusive Educational Benefits* Total Executive members have access to exclusive benefits when studying, like those shown here Contact us to discuss exclusive benefits for your staff and direct family members Upcoming Events with Exclusive TE Member Benefits*... Your Total Executive membership entitles you to receive exclusive benefits when booking and attending conferences, events and forums. To book any program below with Total Executive benefits simply reply to this email with your contact details... we arrange the rest for you. MULTIPLIERS: How the Best Leaders Inspire their Team Liz Wiseman explains how multipliers get more done with fewer resources in: Melbourne Sydney Brisbane Relationships are built through Communication Each of us have a distinct method of communication Book with exclusive Total Executive benefits here View the full programme calendar here To have your event promoted Contact Us Have you Trained your Brain Lately? Do you avoid Distraction? Measure your Mind Here View many more Brain Training Exercises here Register Now* Your peers and colleagues can currently register for complimentary 2011/2012 Total Executive membership here saving $495:00 Search by Subject Search the Total Executive Knowledge Bank by key subjects we cover here Email: Info@TotalEXEC.com.au  Phone: +61 (0) 408 844 009 Total Executive Suite 102 370 Kingsway Sydney, NSW 2229 Add us to your address book Copyright © 2011 Total Executive All rights reserved.

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Why A Framework?

Green ICT – sometimes called Green IT – is a much-discussed topic, in the ICT industry and beyond. The problem is, it means different things to different people. There are too many definitions, and not enough definition.

This lack of definition has made it difficult to measure the effectiveness or the extent of an organisation’s implementation of Green ICT. As the old saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. And you can’t measure what you can’t define.

To many people, Green ICT is only about reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the ICT function within the organization. ICT is a significant consumer of electricity worldwide, on a par with the airline industry. Therefore it makes sense, as emission reduction becomes desirable and even mandatory, that ICT users should look at ways of reducing the energy consumption of their systems.

But there is more to Green ICT than that – which is why Green ICT is becoming an increasingly important issue. Green ICT goes beyond the ICT function and the ICT department – in many ways ICT, and Green ICT, is a central enabling technology to many aspects of sustainability. In very many cases ICT provides the measurement tool, the data repository, the reporting mechanism and the mitigation techniques that make sustainability possible.

Green ICT is becoming an important issue for many reasons. Data center power bills are soaring as electricity prices go up and new server technologies pack more and more processors, which consume more and more power, into less and less space. Water cooling is making a comeback to handle the heat dissipation issues. At the same time tough economic circumstances are putting a greater focus on running costs, and power consumption as a component of those costs is becoming more visible. Reporting requirements are becoming more stringent and there is an increased awareness across business and society of the unsustainability of many current consumption patterns.

ICT as a low-carbon enabler is an important component of the Green ICT Framework. It is not enough simply to reduce ICT’s carbon footprint – to make a real difference, ICT must be harnessed to greater purposes.

This process includes...

Equipment Lifecycle

This pillar covers the acquisition and procurement of ICT equipment, and disposal or recycling at the end of its lifecycle in an environmentally responsible fashion.

ICT equipment, like all other equipment, passes through a lifecycle. It is manufactured, sold (and for every sale there is a purchase), used and often reused, and then ultimately disposed of. That disposal may mean it is discarded or destroyed, but it may also be sold or given to another person or organization, where it has another lifecycle contained within its larger lifecycle.

End User Computing

End User Computing is that part of the ICT process which the end user controls. There are four areas – personal computing (desktop), personal computing (mobile), departmental computing, and printing and consumables. For each of these there are a range of different technologies and techniques that can reduce the organization’s power consumption and carbon footprint. End User Computing is especially important because, as the only part of ICT that exists outside of the specialized ICT function, it has the greatest effect on the wider green attitudes and behavior of the organisation’s workforce.

In many organizations, particularly larger ones, there is a significant amount of computing that takes place in end user departments away from the control of the ICT department.

Printing and Consumables

Printing is one of the largest consumers of resources in the IT function. There are a number of factors, of which the actual power consumption of printers is just one. Printers are very inefficient users of energy. They are usually left on, and consume significant amounts of energy even when idle. But there are many other factors which, while they do not directly affect the organization’s power consumption, have a significant effect on the environment.

Enterprise Computing

Enterprise Computing is that part of the ICT function controlled directly by the ICT department – typically the data center, networking, software development and outsourcing. In organizations large enough to have a data center, the effective management of the equipment within it and its environment can be one of the most important aspects of Green ICT.

Data Center ICT Equipment

The two most important types of ICT equipment in the data center include servers (including mainframes) and storage devices. Servers are usually the biggest consumers of power, and that power consumption continues to rise as more powerful processors are used inside them, and as the number of servers proliferates.

The average power consumption of a rack of servers has increased fivefold over the last ten years.

Data Center Environmentals

Quite apart from the ICT equipment in the data center, there is the issue of the data centre itself. The data centre’s non-ICT infrastructure can quite easily (and most often does) consume more power than the ICT equipment within it. There are three main aspects:

Networking and Communications

Communications – the “C” in ICT, plays a significant role in modern ICT. There are a number of green issues specifically to do with communications. These include:

Outsourcing and Cloud Computing

Outsourcing has been one of the big issues in ICT since the industry began, with computer bureaux, in the 1950s. The issues have evolved as the technology has evolved. Ultimately, all outsourcing is a make vs. buy decision. Is it more effective to make or do something yourself, or have someone else build it or do it for you? The equation keeps changing, depending on a number of factors.

In ICT, outsourcing discussions have traditionally centered around the issues of cost and capability. The cost argument usually runs along the lines of the outsourcer having economies of scale that are unavailable in-house, and the capability argument along the lines that the requisite skills are not available in-house.

The rise of sustainability as an issue has added a new dimension to the ICT outsourcing debate. Many facilities management companies are now highlighting their green credentials and building energy-efficient data centers that they say will enable users to lower their overall carbon footprint.  That may well be the case, but the traditional make vs buy arguments still hold. One key issue with outsourcing, and one that is overlooked surprisingly often, is that of measurement. It is impossible to tell if outsourcing is a good deal or not financially if you don’t know the real cost of what is being outsourced. Similarly, you can’t tell if an outsourcer is going to reduce your carbon footprint if you don’t know what it is to start with.

Recent complication to the outsourcing debate is the emergence of cloud computing, where processing takes place in the “cloud” – somewhere on the Internet far from the user. Cloud computing is not necessarily outsourced, but it very often is – making the debate even more complex.

Software Architecture

Computer systems consist of software running on hardware. Indeed, it is often argued that the software is the system, and that the hardware is simply an enabling technology. Most discussion about Green ICT refer to hardware, but software is also a factor.

The software architecture often determines the hardware architecture, which in turn may have a significant effect on the amount or type of hardware used – with all the consequences of the energy consumption of those systems. The way software is developed and used is significant – code can be efficient, or it can be “bloatware”. Systems can be developed from scratch, adapted or borrowed (with “objects”) from other software, or purchased off-the-shelf. Each approach has consequences for energy consumption.

ICT as a Low-Carbon Enabler

It is generally agreed that ICT is responsible for around 2 percent of the world’s carbon emissions – mainly through the usage of electricity to run the hardware, much of which comes from carbon-emitting power stations. That means that even if the carbon footprint of the entire world’s ICT function was halved, overall emissions would fall by only 1 percent.

The real potential benefits of Green ICT are in using ICT as an enabling technology to help the organization, and the wider community, reduce its carbon emissions. That is covered by the fourth pillar of the Framework.

Governance and Compliance

Many organisations nowadays are conscious of the desirability of being a good corporate citizen. Increasingly, that means acting in a green and sustainable manner. Publicity about climate change and related issues has greatly raised the profile of sustainability, and virtually all organizations are attempting to boost their green credentials. In some cases they do it because they are forced to, in some cases it is a case of “greenwash” or paying only lip service to environmental matters. But in many cases the organization’s management sincerely wants to do the right thing.

There is now an increased awareness that, when it comes to the environment, everybody is a stakeholder, and that good corporate governance also includes good environmental management. Green ICT is in many ways a management and governance issue. I

Teleworking and Collaboration

The term “teleworking” covers a range of technologies and practices that have to do with working at a distance or working remotely. Varieties of teleworking include telecommuting, teleconferencing and videoconferencing, and telepresence (a form of high-resolution videoconferencing).

Collaboration tools and techniques enhance the capability of a group of people to work together. There are a great many ways to do this, but all of them entail being able to share documents an processes and information, making their business processes more efficient (see below) and reducing the need for physical contact. In that sense, collaboration is a teleworking, with all the benefits of that process.

Business Process Management

Business Process Management (BPM) is the process of improving the ways an organisation or an individual does things – making them more efficient, with fewer steps or greater effect. The term is used in both a specific and a general sense. The specific sense refers to a management discipline called BPM, which typically identifies five phases: Design, Modeling, Execution, Monitoring and Optimization. In the general sense, BPM refers to the overall process of managing and improving business processes. ICT has a major role to play in improving most business processes. It provides both the tools for modeling the processes and many of the enabling technologies for execution.

Business Applications

Most organisations run a number of ICT-based business applications. The range varies greatly depending on the industry sector, but typical applications include Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Many organizations also run more specialised or even custom applications specific to their industry, or to provide them with competitive advantage.

ICT is very important in each of these applications, which are essentially specialized business process management exercises. Managers seek greater efficiencies in every phase of every process. The fewer times and the shorter distance physical items have to be moved, the better. The fewer transactions that need to be made, the better.

Very small improvements can have a significant effect, because of the scale of the operation and because of flow-on effects further up (or down) the supply chain. Green ICT has a very important role in improving the efficiency of many industrial and commercial processes specific to individual industries, such as the manufacturing process, electricity distribution, and engineering and construction. Every industry has unique processes which can be made more efficient through the application of ICT – and efficiency means green.

Carbon Emissions Management

Carbon Emissions Management is an emerging discipline which focuses on the management – and ultimately the mitigation – of an organization’s carbon emissions. This includes the use of ICT systems specifically designed to reduce the carbon footprint, rather than doing so as a byproduct of greater efficiency. A key ICT application is Carbon Emissions Management Software (CEMS), which provide a compliant and consistent format for presenting greenhouse gas emission data to executive management and regulators

As the carbon emissions regulatory framework continues to evolve, CEMS is becoming an increasingly popular tool to manage the carbon emissions lifecycle. The market will continue to mature and will most likely consolidate around major technology vendors and a smaller group of niche or vertical industry players, and CEMS products will become a functional component within many organizations’ application portfolio. Envirability has researched the CEMS market, and written a major report on the background to CEMS and how to select and implement a product. See www.cemsus.com

Resource Sources:

[i] Williams, E, (2004) Energy Intensity of Computer Manufacturing - Environmental Science and Technology, 38, 2004. Iowa City. IA, USA ACS Publications

[ii] www.epeat.net

[iii]  http://ewasteguide.info

[iv] Koomey, J.G. (2007) Estimating Total Power Consumption by Servers in the U.S. and the World Stanford CA, USA. Retrieved 13 January 2010 from

http://enterprise.amd.com/Downloads/svrpwrusecompletefinal.pdf

[v] Gantz, J. (2009), The Diverse and Expanding Digital Universe, Framingham MA, USA. IDC

[vi] www.corpgov.net

[vii] www.itgi.org

[viii] www.telework.gov

[ix] Philipson, G., Foster, P. and Brand, J. (2010) CEMS: A New Global Industry”, Sydney, Australia. Envirability.

Source:

Graham Philipson
Envirability

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Competitive advantage through people has always been a goal of modern leadership and becomes more critical as product and price differentiation narrow.  Traditionally, the role of creating more skilful and focused people has been given to HR and training.

Research tells us that classroom training (whether it be real or virtual) is only appropriate for 15% of development needs  (Rummler 1995).  Not only does this cause concern about the use and abuse of training events, it also raises the tantalising question of what is appropriate if training is not?

The broad answer is workplace rather than classroom development.  To explore this more closely, the researchers seem to indicate that regular interaction, rather than one off events, leads to enhanced skills and increased performance.

The diagramme above has been created as a result of applying a range of performance improvement techniques to varying organisations over a 20-year period (www.prosell.com).  It indicates that with a “clean sheet of paper” (i.e. no preconceptions or bad habits, as with new starters or new roles), people can more easily accept, in a training environment, that specific skills and approaches are correct and need to be mastered.

With individuals that already have a perception of what is right and wrong and in some cases extremely entrenched opinions, a different approach needs to be used.  Not only do we need to explain why new skills are needed, we also need to sensitively reassure people that they and their (old) skills are not redundant, but need to be adapted and updated.  If we are attempting to change behaviour, as opposed to initiating it, coaching is shown to be a more effective tool.

In order to develop further the rationale for this model and the positioning of coaching, we need to be familiar with the relationship between management intervention and performance/behaviour change.

The US organisation Technikron conducted research into the level of intervention needed to drive behavioural change.  (Technikron work with performance measurement and feedback systems in contact centres.  The research was conducted in 1997.)

They concluded that to change behaviour the manager needed to interact with the individual, on average, 2-3 times a week.  This raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of more traditional performance management tools, such as annual appraisal and performance reviews (Appraisals – A Good Investment?  Prosell Research, 1993).

Whereas we accept that most good managers talk to their people more often than just at appraisal time, our experience tells us that this is not a series of regular interactions which are carefully planned to reinforce changes in behaviour and provide input (coaching), when needed.

Coaching also has greater impact in terms of immediacy of resolution and as such, should be a primary development tool.

Danger of re-training 

There seems to be growing evidence that organisations accept that people will go through the same training (level and subject matter) at regular intervals (apart from compliance training).  This implies a number of unhealthy traits within the organisation:

• there is no consequence for not applying skills in the workplace; and

Once this becomes accepted practice it also has an impact on the quality of training delivered.  If people are not measured in their application of what they have learnt, then the training does not need to ensure comprehension, let alone competence.

The other major implication is centred on who is nominated for training in the first place.  Research suggests that the primary reason for training is performance discrepancy or skill weakness.  Those with skill weaknesses or areas for obvious development are not those who implement training well and willingly in the workplace.  There is clear evidence that, “those who need it most use it least” (Dettaman and Steinberg, 1993).

Questions must therefore, be raised about both the economics of re-training and the validity of the practice.

The Skill Development model and its implications

The model opposite shows that individuals go through three stages when acquiring skills.  Typically, the first and last stages, those of awareness and application, are workplace activities and in the main, management responsibilities.

The two figures on the left hand side of the model above illustrate important points.  The 35%-40% marks the point where people end up after training (on a competence scale of 1%–100%).  This means that the majority of the acquisition of competence takes place in the workplace.

This is broadly accepted within the training fraternity.  Whereas training allows people to explore new ways of doing things and hopefully exposes them to “best practice”, it does not create experts.

If expertise is acquired in the workplace and not the classroom, then we must accept that specific things need to happen in the workplace.  Primarily, people need to be coached and given feedback on their competence.

Our 20 years experience tells us that, proportionately, the following time and effort needs to be expended to successfully take an individual through the skill development process:

• Awareness     25%
• Practice         35%
• Application     40%

The second figure (5%-9%) is where the research tells us people end up if nothing is done in the application phase.  This is typically between unconscious incompetence and conscious incompetence.  This typically happens with 4 – 5 months.  This is a startling figure and perhaps explains why many people in business have a cynical view of the value of training.  It seems they are right.  Without specific application strategies, companies are wasting between 91 and 95 cents of every dollar they spend on training.

Practice and Feedback

It is commonly understood that people develop skills through one primary mechanism, practice and feedback.  Conventional training tends to be squeezed for time and it is inevitably the practice sessions that are sacrificed.  Too much content and not enough practice creates uncertainty in application, through issues of confidence and competence.  If a person cannot, through practice, feedback and practice again, achieve a point of competence (“I have practiced this to the point where I feel competent to do it in the workplace”), they have no confidence in applying skills.  The implications of this are that many people (over 75% in one study) actually avoid applying skills trained because they have no confidence that they will be effective.  Those organisations that use coaching as a development tool do not seem to face these issues.

Near and Far Learning

Noted behavioural scientists, Detterman and Steinberg, published a book in 1996 entitled Transfer on Trial.  The book focused on the issue of learning transfer (the measurable transfer of learning and skills from classroom to workplace).  Their research had concluded that 86% of training did not transfer effectively.  There were a variety of reasons for this – measurement, support, feedback (all key components of coaching).  They also spoke about the difference between near and far learning as a critical issue.

Far learning means completing exercises which are broad, generic and explore our understanding of principles.  Detterman and Steinberg’s research concluded that people found it difficult to relate broad principles to specific work situations – and as a result did not apply skills effectively.

Near learning produces significantly better results.  Near learning is practicing the specific skills needed, through customised and intelligently constructed exercises, so that the individual is practicing exactly what they are being asked to do in the workplace.  Coaching is the ultimate example of near learning – it says to the individual, “We are going to practice this until you feel you are doing it effectively and then evaluate as you do it live”.  As a result it is significantly more effective in ensuring learning transfer.

Performance Management and Coaching

Performance management practices (appraisal, review, goal setting, etc) all become uncomfortable, bureaucratic exercises if those responsible cannot add value and direction through coaching.  If neither party feels value is being added by the other, then both parties view the process as lacking in worth and tend to avoid it.

This also is reflected in a more serious deficiency that is commonly observed in management practice.  If a manager cannot rectify a performance deficiency they seem to imply that this is not their responsibility but solely that of the individual.

These situations end up with a management style of “I point out your weaknesses and you have to fix them”.  If one considers the fact that research tells us that the main reason people leave jobs is dissatisfaction with the way in which they are managed (Institute of Directors, UK survey, 2001), then managers’ inability to coach and develop may be having a much more serious impact.

Conversely, a good coach does more than just coach.  In order for a coach to be effective they must have a reasonable grasp of:

• Performance management;
• Motivation;
• Counselling;
• Development and support;
• Evaluation and feedback;
• Performance measurement;

Feedback also tells us that competent coaches add value to staff and have much better relationships with their people.  Creating a competent coach therefore, also creates competency in a number of essential areas.

Edward Johnson, one of the founding members of the Johnson and Johnson empire, was famously quoted as saying, ‘Leadership is cause, all else is effect.’  Leaders of people must all be aware that it is their behaviour, not the training department, which determines whether your people will out-perform the competition.

References

Douglas Detterman and Robert Steinberg, Transfer on Trial: Intelligence, Cognition and Instruction, Ablex Publishing, 1993

Geary Rummler and Alan Brache, Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space in the Organisation Chart, 2^nd ed, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 1995.

Source:

Peter Fullbrook, Founder, Prosell

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When it comes to e-mail, there is not a lot of things that shock me anymore.  I have seen inboxes with 28,000 e-mails in them. I have seen people who send e-mails to themselves to remind themselves that they need to action an e-mail already in their inbox. I have seen people who have given up and just deleted the lot!  But in a recent workshop on e-mail management at one of the big four banks, a participant shared how his team had been involved in a project to reduce the size (and therefore cost) of their mailboxes.  All of the support and maintenance for these was outsourced, so the costs involved were very tangible.  In the end, by decreasing the size of 100 mailboxes in the team, they have created a saving of $20,000 to $30,000 per year!  Staggering!  Imagine that across the broader organisation of 22,000 mailboxes.

That must be a drop in the ocean though, compared to the actual cost of e-mail in productivity terms.  Another recent conversation with a senior management team within a global financial institution uncovered the fact that these senior managers, who all wanted to spend more time with their people or working on strategic initiatives, were spending up to 5 hours per day just on e-mail.  They were drowning in a sea of CC’s, distribution lists and inbox noise.  And what about the cost of overfull and messy inboxes, the cost of searching for that critical but elusive e-mail you received last month, the cost of spending the first half-hour of the day deleting enough e-mail in response to the dreaded “Your mailbox is full” message.

E-mails cost time, and not just the recipient’s time, but also the sender’s time.  If the e-mail is internal the organisation may pay twice, if it is not adding value!  My goodness, I thought that e-mail was meant to be making us more productive.  The good news is though, it still can.  Although e-mail volumes have shot up for most workers, and become a large contributor to long hours and stress, it is still a fantastic way to communicate, and get information from A to B (or B, C,D and E all at once).  The trick to making e-mail work for you, rather than you working for it, is in understanding its traps and applying a set of principles to managing it.

The common e-mail traps and how to avoid them

E-mail is a core part of modern work life, and whilst it has improved the speed and efficiency of communication enormously, it comes with baggage attached (excuse the pun).  The common e-mail traps that I encounter with workers across the board are:

Making e-mail # 1 – E-mail has become our prime focus during the workday, and often outside of core work hours too.  We must remember that it is just a part of our role – a tube for getting information from one place to another.  It is not the main game, and not what we will be measured against come the end of the year.  We need to learn to make e-mail management a part of our day, to deal with it at regular intervals, and then to put it away to focus on our priorities and commitments. 

• Turn off e-mail alerts and alarms, they are just distractions from other work
• Check e-mail at regular intervals, between 3 and 6 times per day
• Check handheld e-mail devices at appropriate times, but turn off when it is time to focus

Too many e-mails – 30, 50, 100 per day and counting.  I recently worked with two poor souls who were getting over 1000 e-mails per day! Ridiculous!  Many feel that they cannot control what is sent to them, but with some concerted effort and creativity you can slash the deluge to a more manageable flow.

• Get off unnecessary distribution lists and e-mail subscription lists
• Discuss your expectations with your team about when and what to CC you on
• Set up e-mail rules to automatically delete or move (file) informational e-mails
• Send less e-mails (you will receive less as a result)

Overfull Inboxes – Messy, overfull and back-logged inboxes cause stress, delays, confusion and rework.  Many workers use their Inbox as a to-do list, and the act of checking e-mail is often an advanced form of procrastination.  The inbox ends up as an unruly mix of stuff you have not looked at yet mixed in with existing e-mails that need action, or should be deleted or filed. For the truly in-control e-mail manager, the Inbox is a delivery dock.  And just like the delivery dock of a supermarket, it should be cleared, to zero, weekly, if not daily.

• Set up a simple filing system (1 – 10 folders) to keep necessary e-mail

Poorly written e-mail – One of the stresses associated with e-mail is the irrational feeling that we need to respond to every e-mail.  We know this is not true, but it feels that way sometimes.  But, even with the percentage that we do need to respond to, time can be saved by learning to compose e-mails in a clear, efficient manner.  The clearer your e-mail is to the reader, the more cut-through you will have, and the more likely they are to action your e-mail in a timely way.  Remember, your e-mail for them is probably just one of 100 that day.

• Write clear subject lines with impact – most people scan, so stand out from the crowd
• State any actions required and due dates in the first line or two of the e-mail

In a world where time is money, and human resources account for the largest chunk of any organisations overheads, it seems a no-brainer to get better at managing the effect that e-mail has on our productivity.  Rather than organisations putting pressure on staff to work longer hours to get things done, why not focus on helping them make their core workday more productive.  The savings could be huge, and I promise you, everyone will be happier!

Source:
Dermot Crowley - Founder
Adapt Training

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Hello  Welcome to our May 2011 Membership Newsletter with a variety of Exclusive Total Executive Member Benefits (highlighted below)*

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Scan the World for Strategic Advantage via Innovation

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Keys to Successful Entrepreneurs in Eastern and Western Cultures
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The Dharmesh Test is a quick, simple set of yes/no questions to gauge the likelihood of long-term success of a SaaS (Software as a Service) company.  It is inspired by the highly popular “Joel Test” for measuring software development teams.  [Disclosure: I am an angel investor in Joel’s company Stack Overflow]

Now, if you know me, and you know Joel, you know that I'm no Joel.  He's smarter and is a better writer.  So, why did I have the audacity to write the "Dharmesh Test"?  Because I'm passionate about SaaS companies and have spent the better part of the last 6 years studying them and learning from folks that should have written this article.  And, I've taken what I've learned and applied it to my own company, HubSpot -- which is doing very well and scores a respectable 13/16 on the test (yes, I've got work to do).

This is alpha Version 0.80 of this test.  Will be iterating on it based on community feedback.

The Dharmesh Test: 16 Questions For Better SaaS Companies

1. Is there exactly one version of your software that services all users?

Or stated differently, have you resisted the temptation to have custom code for an individual customer or small group of customers?  Ideally, in steady state, the same master code-base would be servicingall customers.  Any customizations are done through application configuration or via APIs and plugins.  If you have different versions running temporarily to test new versions with a subset of customers, that’s fine.

2. Do you have a free trial?

Not only does a free trial increase your likelihood of getting more customers, it often improves the simplicity of the product.  Many companies can’t have free trials because the product is just too complicated and requires too much human assistance to really “try” it. That's a bad thing.  Freemium (where you have a free version of your product that's feature-limited, not time-limited) counts too. 

3. Do you track key metrics like CAC, LTV and cancellation rate?

CAC = Customer Acquisition Cost. This is the total sales expense and marketing expense (salaries, programs, etc.) over a specific period (lets say a month) divided by the number of customers acquired in that month.

Cancellation Rate / Churn Rate:  A percentage calculated as the number of customers that cancel in a month divided by the number of customer at the beginning of the month.

LTV =  Lifetime Value of a customer.  Based on how long the average customer is expected to stay (a function of cancellation rate) and the average revenue.

The reason these numbers are important is simple:  They are the key metrics that will help you drive a SaaS company.  It answers questions around how much capital you need, how much you should be investing in product, whether customers are generally happy (or not), etc.

Example:  KissMetrics gets this stuff (because that's what they do.  And, if you're not yet reading David Skok's For Entrepreneurs blog, you should be.  Brilliant material on this topic.

4. Are your prices published on your website?

It is decidedly sub-optimal if people have to get a custom quote or talk to a human just to know what your price is.  Increasingly, the market values simplicity and transparency. If you’re not providing easy access to information, potential customers will go elsewhere.

5. Can people start paying you (become a customer) without interacting with a human?

The way of the world is frictionless web sales.  There's nothing quite like the joy of having your revenues go up and 4:00 a.m. in the morning on a Saturday -- without anyone having to talk to anyone.

6. Do you make more money from users that are getting more value?

Is there some “variable” component to your pricing?  Do you charge based on number of users, storage, frequency of use or some other metric?  If you have the ability to make more revenue from customers over time (without having to upsell them), that’s high margin business and very desirable.  By the way, the ideal state is when there are "in product" upgrade paths.  Customer reaches a certain limit and "upgrades" (starts paying you more) without you having to do anything.

7. Does your application have a simple, clean API (Application Programming Interface)?

The web is not just about connecting static websites — it’s now about connecting applications.  Without an API, your application is an island.  It’s unlikely that you will be able to meet all the needs of your customers.  An API allows you to integrate with third-parties (and they to you) to deliver a more complete solution for the customer. These kinds of integrations are also great ways to spread the word about your product (the more people that integrate with you, the more reach you have).

8. Can customers export their data out of your system?

To get more people to use/buy your product, you need to reduce not just the barrier to entry, but also the barrier to exit.  The product should be what keeps customers to stay with you — not data lock-in.  If you try to use data lock-in, fewer people will pick you in the first place.

9. Can you deploy (and rollback) a new version of the software in one-step without downtime?

This is to measure the effectiveness of your technical operations and software release tooling. Companies that have easy ways to deploy/rollback software tend to have more confidence and release more often.  Companies that release often tend to do better than those that don't.

10. Is there an online community where users can interact with your team and with other users?

Ideally , everyone in your company should be interacting with customers.  Especially developers.  And, customers should be able to talk about you (even if it's negative) online and interact with other customers.  [Note: I'm not talking here about "automatic" online venues that form -- but something that you are actively fostering and encouraging]

11. Do new developers commit code on their first day at work?

This is partly to measure how difficult your development environment is to setup and what controls you have in place.  If it takes 4 days for a developer to get their development environment setup, something's wrong.  If you’re too scared to have a rookie commit code to production, because it might bring the entire system down, something's wrong (you haven’t built a strong enough safety net yet).  It shouldn’t be that easy to break your system.  [Nod to Eric Ries for this one].

Example:  Cheezburger Network doesn't show new employees where the bathroom is until they've committed code.

12. Do you release code to production at least once a month?

This is to check whether or not you’re agile.  The challenge these days is that everyone thinks they’re agile, so asking "are you agile" is ineffective.  The proof is in the pudding.  Real agile teams release code — frequently.  Everything else is secondary.

13. Do you maintain a centralized backlog of new product ideas, bugs and issues?

Ideally, not only would you have a central database of ideas, but you'd provide the ability for customers to submit ideas and vote on other people's ideas. 

14. Do you regularly run A/B (split) tests?

Great SaaS companies are great at testing and deciding with data.  You should be running regular tests (as in several times a month).  Example tests: Should we remove this feature (does anyone care?).  Should we increase our price to $75?  

So, how did you do?  Given that this is "alpha build 1" of the test, what additional questions should I have included?  Are there any that you think aren't relevant that should be removed? 

Example: A company that does this really well is FreshBooks. If you run into Mike McDerment, ask him about how they built their product to facilitate testing.  (He probably won't tell you, but doesn't hurt to try).  I also think SEOmoz (hi Rand!) does a great job at this.

15. Do you invest in design and user experience?

Customer expectations (even for B2B companies) are high on the web.  Having crappy design might be OK if you happen to have a product that people can't help but use -- but most of us are not in such forgiving circumstances.  Great design not only helps you attract customers, it helps you keep them -- and get referrals.  Profitable design is when you spend effort in design that is centered around your business objectives. 

Examples:  I like Campaign Monitor a lot.  Heck, even their API documentation site is beautiful.  But there are other examples.  There's the ever-popular 37signals

16. Does your company or product have a personality?

This is the squishiest of the questions -- but it's important.  Great software companies today have a personality and a voice.  They're distinctive and remarkable.  Whether it's through their blog, through the copywriting in the product (like error messages), or through in-person interactions, some companies just have personality.

Examples: Take a look at Wufoo or ZenDesk does.  Quirky?  Yes.  Effective?  Absolutely.

----------

So, how did you do?  Any questions you think are unimportant and should have been left out?  Any you'd add?

Source

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Performance●Productivity●Profit

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Performance●Productivity●Profit

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Companies can transform the attitudes and behavior of their employees by applying psychological breakthroughs that explain why people think and act as they do.

Over the past 15 or so years, programs to improve corporate organisational performance have become increasingly common. Yet they are notoriously difficult to carry out. Success depends on persuading hundreds or thousands of groups and individuals to change the way they work, a transformation people will accept only if they can be persuaded to think differently about their jobs. In effect, CEOs must alter the mind-sets of their employees—no easy task.

CEOs could make things easier for themselves if, before embarking on complex performance-improvement programs, they determined the extent of the change required to achieve the business outcomes they seek. Broadly speaking, they can choose among three levels of change. On the most straightforward level, companies act directly to achieve outcomes, without having to change the way people work; one example would be divesting noncore assets to focus on the core business. On the next level of complexity, employees may need to adjust their practices or to adopt new ones in line with their existing mind-sets in order to reach, say, a new bottom-line target. An already "lean" company might, for instance, encourage its staff to look for new ways to reduce waste, or a company committed to innovation might form relationships with academics to increase the flow of ideas into the organization and hence the flow of new products into the market.

But what if the only way a business can reach its higher performance goals is to change the way its people behave across the board? Suppose that it can become more competitive only by changing its culture fundamentally—from being reactive to proactive, hierarchical to collegial, or introspective to externally focused, for instance. Since the collective culture of an organization, strictly speaking, is an aggregate of what is common to all of its group and individual mind-sets, such a transformation entails changing the minds of hundreds or thousands of people. This is the third and deepest level: cultural change.

Linking all of the major discoveries in programs to raise performance has effected startling changes in the way that employees behave

In such cases, CEOs will likely turn for help to psychology. Although breakthroughs have been made in explaining why people think and behave as they do, these insights have in general been applied to business only piecemeal and haven’t had a widespread effect. Recently, however, several companies have found that linking all of the major discoveries together in programs to improve performance has brought about startling changes in the behavior of employees—changes rooted in new mind-sets. Performance-improvement programs that apply all of these ideas in combination can be just as chaotic and hard to lead as those that don’t. But they have a stronger chance of effecting long-term changes in business practice and thus of sustaining better outcomes.

Four conditions for changing mind-sets

Employees will alter their mind-sets only if they see the point of the change and agree with it—at least enough to give it a try. The surrounding structures (reward and recognition systems, for example) must be in tune with the new behavior. Employees must have the skills to do what it requires. Finally, they must see people they respect modeling it actively. Each of these conditions is realized independently; together they add up to a way of changing the behavior of people in organizations by changing attitudes about what can and should happen at work.

A purpose to believe in

In 1957 the Stanford social psychologist Leon Festinger published his theory of cognitive dissonance, the distressing mental state that arises when people find that their beliefs are inconsistent with their actions—agnostic priests would be an extreme example. Festinger observed in the subjects of his experimentation a deep-seated need to eliminate cognitive dissonance by changing either their actions or their beliefs.

The implication of this finding for an organization is that if its people believe in its overall purpose, they will be happy to change their individual behavior to serve that purpose—indeed, they will suffer from cognitive dissonance if they don’t. But to feel comfortable about change and to carry it out with enthusiasm, people must understand the role of their actions in the unfolding drama of the company’s fortunes and believe that it is worthwhile for them to play a part. It isn’t enough to tell employees that they will have to do things differently. Anyone leading a major change program must take the time to think through its "story"—what makes it worth undertaking—and to explain that story to all of the people involved in making change happen, so that their contributions make sense to them as individuals.

Reinforcement systems

B. F. Skinner is best known for his experiments with rats during the late 1920s and the 1930s. He found that he could motivate a rat to complete the boring task of negotiating a maze by providing the right incentive—corn at the maze’s center—and by punishing the rat with an electric shock each time it took a wrong turn.

Skinner’s theories of conditioning and positive reinforcement were taken up by psychologists interested in what motivates people in organizations. Organizational designers broadly agree that reporting structures, management and operational processes, and measurement procedures—setting targets, measuring performance, and granting financial and nonfinancial rewards—must be consistent with the behavior that people are asked to embrace. When a company’s goals for new behavior are not reinforced, employees are less likely to adopt it consistently; if managers are urged to spend more time coaching junior staff, for instance, but coaching doesn’t figure in the performance scorecards of managers, they are not likely to bother.

Some disciples of Skinner suggest that positive-reinforcement "loops" have a constant effect: once established, you can leave them be. Over time, however, Skinner’s rats became bored with corn and began to ignore the electric shocks. In our experience, a similar phenomenon often prevents organizations from sustaining higher performance: structures and processes that initially reinforce or condition the new behavior do not guarantee that it will endure. They need to be supported by changes that complement the other three conditions for changing mind-sets.

The skills required for change

If a company urges its employees to be ‘customer-centric’ but paid little attention to the customer in the past, they won’t know how

Many change programs make the error of exhorting employees to behave differently without teaching them how to adapt general instructions to their individual situation. The company may urge them to be "customer-centric," for example, but if it paid little attention to customers in the past, they will have no idea how to interpret this principle or won’t know what a successful outcome would look like.

How can adults best be equipped with the skills they need to make relevant changes in behavior? First, give them time. During the 1980s, David Kolb, a specialist in adult learning, developed his four-phase adult-learning cycle. Kolb showed that adults can’t learn merely by listening to instructions; they must also absorb the new information, use it experimentally, and integrate it with their existing knowledge. In practice, this means that you can’t teach everything there is to know about a subject in one session. Much better to break down the formal teaching into chunks, with time in between for the learners to reflect, experiment, and apply the new principles. Large-scale change happens only in steps.

Second, as the organizational psychologist Chris Argyris showed, people assimilate information more thoroughly if they go on to describe to others how they will apply what they have learned to their own circumstances. The reason, in part, is that human beings use different areas of the brain for learning and for teaching.¹

Consistent role models

Most clinical work confirms the idea that consistent role models, whom the famous pediatrician Benjamin Spock regarded as decisive for the development of children, are as important in changing the behavior of adults as the three other conditions combined. In any organization, people model their behavior on "significant others": those they see in positions of influence. Within a single organization, people in different functions or levels choose different role models—a founding partner, perhaps, or a trade union representative, or the highest-earning sales rep. So to change behavior consistently throughout an organization, it isn’t enough to ensure that people at the top are in line with the new ways of working; role models at every level must "walk the talk."

The way role models deal with their tasks can vary, but the underlying values informing their behavior must be consistent. In a company that encourages entrepreneurial decision making at low levels, one middle manager might try to coach junior employees to know how to spot a promising new venture; another might leave this up to them. Both, however, would be acting in line with the entrepreneurial principle, whereas a boss who demanded a lengthy business case to justify each $50 expenditure would not be. But organizations trying to change their value systems can’t tolerate as much variance in their role models’ behavior. If entrepreneurial decision making were a new value, both of these middle managers might have to act in roughly the same way in order to encourage their subordinates to make bold decisions.

Behavior in organizations is deeply affected not only by role models but also by the groups with which people identify. Role modeling by individuals must therefore be confirmed by the groups that surround them if it is to have a permanent or deep influence. (Most teenagers could tell you a lot about this.) Say that a well-respected senior leader is waxing lyrical about making the culture less bureaucratic and even conforming to the new regime by making fewer requests for information. If the sales reps in the company canteen spend every lunchtime complaining that "we’ve heard this a thousand times before and nothing happened," individuals will feel less pressure to change their behavior. Change must be meaningful to key groups at each level of the organization.

Putting the approach into practice

The case of a retail bank shows how these four conditions can coalesce to change mind-sets and behavior and thereby improve performance. But though we have grouped the actions of the bank under the four conditions, it didn’t apply them in a neat sequence. As in any change program, there was much disruption and risk. Nonetheless, basing the program on four proven principles gave the CEO confidence that it would eventually succeed.

A few years ago, this CEO took the helm of a large European retail bank that employed more than 30,000 people. He set several targets: doubling the economic profit of the bank, reducing its cost-to-income ratio to 49 percent (from 56), and increasing its annual revenue growth from the current 1 to 2 percent to 5 to 7 percent—all within four years. But retail banking is almost a commodity business. No financial-engineering shortcuts or superficial changes in practice could win a competitive edge for the bank. It could meet these performance goals, the CEO realized, only by galvanizing its people to deliver far better customer outcomes at a much lower cost. That meant changing the culture of the bank by transforming it from a bureaucracy into a federation of entrepreneurs: managers would be rewarded for taking charge of problems and deciding, quickly, how to fix them.

The story of change

First, the CEO developed these insights into a story that would make sense to all of the bank’s employees, top to bottom, and would persuade them to change their behavior in line with the new principles. His principal technique was dialogue-based planning, a refinement of double-loop learning (see sidebar, "People want to develop," for a different technique). First, he drafted a top-level story of the way he perceived the bank’s position and refined the story with the help of his executive directors. Each of them in turn developed a chapter of the story relevant to his or her direct reports; the human-resources director, for example, explained how she would improve the system for identifying potential highfliers and redraw their career paths so that they would spend less time in low-impact jobs. Every director assigned responsibility for each "deliverable" in the story to one member of his or her team. Each team member then had to develop a performance scorecard setting out what he or she would do differently to meet the new goals.

The directors and the CEO then met again to retell their chapters and to get feedback from one another. Each director shared the amended version with his or her subordinates, who in turn retold the relevant part of the story to their own direct reports, and so on down five levels of the organization to the branch managers. At each retelling, the emphasis was on making the story meaningful to the people listening to it and to the groups to which they belonged.

At every level, information flowed upstream as well as down. Part of the story told by the director of retail operations, for example, was the customers’ desire for faster banking processes. One thing slowing them down, according to the staff of the branches, was the document imagers, which broke down, on average, every three days. Ordering a new imager thus became a detail in each branch manager’s story, and the branch staff could translate the top-level story—"our customers want faster operations"—into a practical result that also made their lives easier. At each level of the organization, an employee heard the relevant version of the proposed changes from his or her immediate boss, the person widely regarded as the most effective communications channel.²

How could the CEO know that people really bought into his story? The secret, he felt, was to ensure that it described how life would be better for all of the bank’s stakeholders, not just investors and analysts.

Reinforcing systems

The most dramatic structural change at the bank was eliminating 20 percent of its managerial jobs. The hypothesis, later proved correct, was that doing so would remove a swath of useless activity, without any falloff in performance. All of the bank’s managerial jobs were terminated, and managers were invited to apply for the remaining 80 percent. Applicants knew that they had succeeded if they were invited to a dialogue-based planning session—another way of signaling the importance of the process. Unsuccessful candidates left the bank. The goal was not, primarily, to improve the bank’s cost-to-income ratio; on the contrary, the cost of laying them off was quite high. Rather, since fewer managers now had to make the same number of decisions, this move was intended to force the survivors to make them more quickly.

Those managers who consistently ranked in the lowest level were asked to leave the company

Simultaneously, the bank’s performance-management process was sharpened. Under the old system, managers were rated from 1 to 5 each year and remunerated accordingly. On average, 84 percent of them got a rating of 3 or more, though the performance of the bank was hardly as good as those results would imply. It injected reality into the process by introducing rankings within cohorts. To reveal the true relative performance of the bank’s employees, a manager assessing ten people, say, could rank no more than three as top performers and had to put at least one person in the lowest level. The ten directors evaluated the top 50 managers in meetings chaired by the CEO. The bonus for gaining the first rank was increased to 20 percent, from 10. Managers in the lowest rank, who would formerly have received a bonus of 5 percent, got none at all. Those who consistently ranked in the lowest level were asked to leave.

Skills for change

There was more drama to come. After four months of developing the new strategy with the ten directors, the CEO realized that only five of them were committed to change and equipped to see it through. To ensure that his bank had the right skills to change its practices and culture, he replaced the other five with new directors, three of them outsiders.

Meanwhile, the top 50 managers spent two days at a skill-development center where their leadership abilities—in coaching and decision making, for example—were assessed, and each drew up a personal plan to develop those talents. The company began to assess the performance of its people not just on whether they "made the numbers" but also on the leadership dimension. One manager who had consistently won high bonuses was known to be hell to work for, a fact acknowledged by the new measurement scheme: he was paid the lowest sum appropriate to his post. This news, which traveled fast on the grapevine, underlined the message that leadership really counted.

Consistent role models

Dialogue-based planning ensured that leaders at each level of the organization were "singing from the same song sheet." Their planning sessions were high-profile events where they themselves started modeling the new type of behavior that the bank wanted its staff to adopt. The CEO’s enthusiasm also inspired employees to behave differently. He convinced them that although change would take a long time and would be very hard to achieve, his passion for improving the life of everyone involved with the bank was heartfelt.

Both messages came through strongly in the way he reshaped his executive team. The five departing directors left just as the most disruptive changes were starting, and the work of the remaining five became even more intense during the six months it took to find replacements. It would have caused far less chaos to search for them while leaving the old team in place—and in the dark—but the CEO’s conscience told him not to do so. Besides showing other managers that there was nothing soft about the change program, his approach demonstrated his integrity and his respect for the needs of all of the bank’s people, even those he didn’t want to keep in the long term. In such a large-scale change in behavior, the leader’s character and integrity matter enormously.

The outcome

The bank, which is now two years into its four-year improvement timetable, is about halfway toward meeting its targets for reducing its cost-to-income ratio and increasing its revenue and economic profit. This achievement is a sure sign that behavior is heading in the intended direction throughout the bank. Does it prove that mind-sets too are changing? No numerical evidence is available, but from close observation we can see that the culture really has evolved. The bank isn’t a comfortable place to work, but the focus on performance is far stronger, functional silos are being broken down, and people treat every task with far more urgency. A small but indicative example: average queuing times in branches have dropped by over 30 percent, largely because branch managers can count on their employees to work a more flexible shift system by making the most of part-time work and temporary cover. The imagers are working as well.

It is neither easy nor straightforward to improve a company’s performance through a comprehensive program to change the behavior of employees by changing their mind-sets. No company should try to do so without first exhausting less disruptive alternatives for attaining the business outcome it desires. Sometimes tactical moves will be enough; sometimes new practices can be introduced without completely rethinking the corporate culture. But if the only way for a company to reach a higher plane of performance is to alter the way its people think and act, it will need to create the four conditions for achieving sustained change.

People want to develop

Workshops that draw on transpersonal psychology, a progressive branch of the discipline, can speed up cultural change and make it more enduring.¹ Transpersonal psychology suggests that the innate desire to develop and grow infuses human beings with energy. Employees will not put sustained effort into a new kind of behavior if they have only a rational understanding of why it matters to the company; it must mean something much deeper to them, something that they know will have an effect on their personal growth.

Giving them an emotional connection to the new behavior can trigger that shift in perspective. The workshops help to change behavior by establishing these connections and thus giving change a personal meaning for participants. When large numbers of managers go through such transformational workshops within a brief time frame, small group by small group, the graduates create a critical mass of individuals who willingly embrace the new behavior and culture so that both are more likely to be sustained.

The format and off-site setting of such workshops generally resemble those of other corporate get-togethers, but their content is unusual. Facilitators experienced in applying the principles of adult learning and transpersonal psychology to business use conversations, role-playing, and reflection to help participants tap into their rational and subconscious hopes for the future. These hopes may contrast uncomfortably with the current work of the participants—both what they do and how they do it. The contrast can unlock a deeply felt need for change.

An international energy company, for example, had tried for years to make "people development" a core value and discipline. It was succeeding only among the few managers who already believed that they should serve as coaches and counselors. Many managers saw themselves as bosses rather than teachers. To get the 1,000 most senior managers to adopt a "coaching" mind-set (and some other positive cultural attributes), the company put them all, 30 at a time, through a three-day transformational workshop, starting with the executive team.

The rational case for the importance of people development to the company’s strategy and operations was easily stated. Creating an emotional connection between the managers and the new behavior was harder. The workshop leaders asked people to discuss, in pairs, the following question: "When were you mentored in your career?" Participants had good memories of the defining moments of mentoring that had helped them achieve their current positions. They remembered the people who had the courage and interest to give them the hard feedback or encouragement they needed. Then the facilitators asked, "Whom have you mentored? How does it feel to help others develop?" These questions too prompted memories that evoked strong positive emotions.

But transpersonal psychologists think that getting individuals to have an emotional response to a required new form of behavior isn’t enough to persuade them to adopt it permanently. It must also help to satisfy their innate appetite to grow. When they view the new behavior’s meaning from this completely different perspective—not as the fulfillment of an external requirement but rather as a way of satisfying a personal need—they are unlikely ever to give it up.

The facilitators stepped up to this level of meaning when they asked the energy company’s managers, "When you leave this company, what do you want people to say about you?" Given the opportunity to think about this question, few were content to answer, "I made the company richer." Many hoped to be remembered for the difference they had made to other people’s lives, for caring enough to help their colleagues grow. Many also realized that a big gap separated what they would like to hear, on the one hand, and what their coworkers would actually say, on the other. Often those closest to retirement, with the most to offer as mentors, felt this gap the hardest. They realized that developing other employees would satisfy their own personal aspirations, not just the company’s.

After every manager had been through the workshop, the group ranked leadership development as the second most powerfully experienced value at work (exhibit). Eighteen months previously, leadership development had received no votes. The proportion of employees who said that they had received good feedback and coaching rose to 80 percent, from 30, while 75 percent said that the behavior of their managers had changed significantly. The new values would have failed to take hold if in addition to giving employees an emotional connection to behavioral change the company hadn’t implanted the other three conditions necessary to achieve it: appropriate skills, supporting structures, and role models. The workshops helped to promote all of these conditions as well.

—Gita Bellin and Michael W. Rennie

Notes

Gita Bellin is an independent consultant, and Michael Rennie is a director in McKinsey’s Sydney office.

¹Transpersonal psychology developed in the 1960s, when Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof, and others began integrating the classical Asian traditions of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and yoga into their theories and the practice of humanistic psychology. To develop the workshops described here, the authors have also drawn on ideas from cognitive, behavioral, and gestalt psychology; neuroscience and quantum physics; emotional intelligence; and adult learning.

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The developing world’s rapidly growing middle class, which includes about two billion people in a dozen emerging economies, spends $6.9 trillion a year. McKinsey research suggests that, during the next decade, their annual spending will rise to $20 trillion, a very big market indeed—twice current US consumption, in fact.

Such consumers will give early winners in the consumer product sector a chance to gain lasting advantages. Consider what happened in Europe and the United States at similar points in their development: in 17 product categories, McKinsey found that the 1925 US market leader remained the number-one or number-two player for the rest of the century. These companies include Kraft Foods (Nabisco), in biscuits; Del Monte, in canned fruit; and Wrigley, in chewing gum. To learn more, read “Capturing the world’s emerging middle class” (July 2010).

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Bryan Derballa for The Wall Street Journal

A Gap store's 'buy one get one' deal, or BOGO, offers 60% off a second item.

Tick-tock, watch the clock, stores are telling holiday shoppers.

Looking to inject a sense of urgency into the holiday shopping drill this year, many major stores are running their own versions of the online "flash sale," cutting prices, in some cases for just a few hours at a time.

While many holiday consumers refuse to pay full price, retailers are trying to outdo one another by encouraging shoppers to spend more, but without giving away the store. Elizabeth Holmes discusses some of retailers' most popular discount tactics.

It's Math Time for Shoppers

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See how well you understand some of the types of deals retailers use during the holiday season.

• More photos and interactive graphics

Limited-time offers are just one item in the battery of sales events, "savings passes," buy-one-get-one-free offers and volume discounts that retailers are letting loose at the height of the December shopping season.

Companies want to outdo rivals and encourage shoppers to spend more than they might have otherwise, but without giving away the store. The stakes are high, with holiday sales contributing as much as 40% of annual revenue and 50% of annual profit.

With harried shoppers hard-pressed to do the math, retailers put a lot of psychology into their holiday prices. They decide which numbers will be most enticing, and whether "50% off" sounds better than "buy one get one" offers—known as "BOGO," in industry parlance.

Gap Inc., for example, offered 50% off everything in their stores until 10 am on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The next day, it was selling kids' clothing for flat prices of $5, $10, $15 and so on. That meant girls' tulle skirts, with a full price of $29.50, were available for $15 on Saturday—25 cents more than on Friday, when they cost $14.75.

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Bryan Derballa for The Wall Street Journal

At Macy's flagship Herald Square store, a percentage-off promotion—30% off plus an extra 20% off—doesn't add up to 50% off.

Similarly, at Gap's Old Navy division, jeans promoted in previous years at 50% off the full price of $29.50 were promoted this year at $15. "The lift in sales is significant," says Tom Wyatt, Old Navy president. "The customer can see [the price] from 20 to 30 feet away."

That was a switch for shoppers accustomed to buy-one-get-one-free deals and steep percentage discounts. In the past few days, Gap has been combining BOGO and percentage-off, with "buy-one-get-60%-off-the-second" offers throughout its stores. And late Tuesday, Gap announced on Facebook that from Dec. 15 through Dec. 20 it will take 30% off everything in stores plus a "bonus deal" each day.

A few major retailers have found ways to buck the discounting trend, making the most of signs that consumers may actually lift holiday spending this year following two years of thrift. SaksInc. is discounting cashmere sweaters and fall designer fashions for the holidays, but it also is running fewer sale days and offering fewer and smaller discounts, says Stephen Sadove, Saks chief executive. At American Eagle Outfitters, men's flannel shirts are priced at $29.95, up from $24.95 last year, according to Wedbush Securities retail analyst Gabriella Santaniello—an example of a retailer trying to "go to certain areas, or categories, where they feel customers will pay" fuller prices, Ms. Santaniello said.

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Bryan Derballa for The Wall Street Journal

American Eagle Outfitters offers a flat price with a BOGO spin.

But in most of the mall, it's an all-out bargain war, with stores carpet-bombing shoppers with deals. On Monday, at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., Aeropostale Inc. was promoting discounts of up to 70% on its teen apparel. AnnTaylor Stores Corp. has been offering 30% off all full-price merchandise in recent days, compared with an offer this time last year of 40% off one full-price item.

Retailers count on buyers' cognitive shortcuts to spur sales. A recent study showed that when shopping in a store, by catalog or by website, people are likely to spend more when they see high prices around them, on items completely unrelated to what they want to buy. And merely setting prices with the number nine at the end, whether it's $1.99 or $99.99, can make consumers feel they got a deal.

"People tend to be cognitive misers," says Jeff Galak, assistant professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. "You don't have time to process every single digit that comes your way. So you use the left digit of a price."

Flash sales—taking a page from members-only fashion websites like Gilt Groupe and ideeli, which surged in the recession—are one way stores limit pain. Last Saturday, starting at 6 a.m.,J.C. Penney ran "7 hour steals" offering cotton bath towels for $3.69, reduced from $7.99, and 70% off gold and sterling silver jewelry. On Monday, Gap Inc.'s Banana Republic stores were offering 40% off full-price sweaters from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time. Meanwhile, teen retailerAbercrombie & Fitch gave online shoppers until 8 p.m. eastern time Tuesday to qualify for a $25 gift card by spending $100—an offer that the retailer last year was extending from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Timing discounts to expire makes shoppers feel lucky, says Prof. Galak. "Exclusivity is really what drives it," he says. "People feel like they're getting a deal."

These kinds of sales are hard for stores to execute, with frequent price changes likely to confuse customers and require more manpower. Kohl's Corp., which changes its promotional offers several times a week during the holidays, has installed all-electronic signs in 100 stores showing prices that are updated automatically through corporate headquarters. The intent is to let customers know exactly what they will pay without eating up a lot of employees' time, says Kohl's CEO Kevin Mansell. ("The response we've had from consumers is spectacular and the improvement it's given us, in terms of productivity on payroll, is dramatic," Mr. Mansell says.)

For consumers, though, evaluating deals isn't easy without a calculator. Shoppers at J.C. Penney last weekend qualified for a "JCP cash" coupon by spending more. Discounts of 20% were expressed as $10 off a $50 purchase, $15 off a $75 purchase, and $20 off a $100 purchase. With much of the store on sale, it would take a lot of purchases to hit the dollar marks.

In one Black Friday ad, Sears promoted wool coats priced at a flat $39.99, a radar detector at 50% off and a refrigerator with an impressive $1,300 off. The big number is eye-catching, says Frank Luby, a partner at Simon-Kucher & Partners, a Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm. Retailers seek "bigger, more impactful, context-specific numbers," he says, even when the math works out the same.

F.Martin Ramin/The Wall Street Journal

So many ways to save? Retailers are bombarding shoppers with deals.

Offers that encourage volume purchasing—whether it's two-for-the-price-of-one or discounts that escalate with money spent—play into consumers' determination to get the best bargain possible. Macy's Inc. calls them "multiplier deals" and uses them only on sales-event days during the holidays, says Martine Reardon, executive vice president of marketing and advertising. "You don't want to overuse a good handle," she says. "The customer gets tired of that. The novelty wears off."

With these kinds of offers, retailers are saying, "I want to plant in your mind the idea of buying larger volume," says Sean Ryan, a partner at management-consulting firm A.T. Kearney. Percentage discounts may not have that effect.

There's something a touch absurd about holiday bargain hunting. Retailers love to promise "savings," even though they really want shoppers to spend more. Consumers, meanwhile, often buy more than they need to get the "savings," forgetting that the best way to save money is to walk out of the store.

"Perhaps one of the most serious socially irresponsible things marketers do is discounts," says Robert Schindler, professor of marketing at Rutgers University-Camden's school of business. "Marketers are playing on our weakness, to our detriment."

—Karen Talley contributed to this article

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Recently I had an interview with Michael Ullmer, Deputy CEO of NAB (National Australia Bank) who explains Responsible Leadership is first and foremost about doing the right thing.

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Sometimes in organisations people get bound up and make things too complicated.  But if you sit down and discuss a particular challenge - forget about the policies and procedures - and ask if you were to solve this by just doing what you feel is right - what would you do?

It is interesting how framing it as simply as that often allows people to identify insightful ways of solving a problem that also meets the policy requirements, without being distracted by the minutiae.

Many large organisations struggle with such a simple notion.  You could ask whether the banking industry would have the current public relations challenges if issues were viewed through the lens of 'doing the right thing'.

The second dimension of responsible leadership is that it drives long term sustainable growth in shareholder value - this is something I believe very strongly.

This is not an altruistic perspective - this is about doing what is in the best long term interests of shareholders.

So while responsible leadership may have altruistic components this alone is not sustainable from a business perspective.

Looking at the current situation in the banking industry, many have been turning a tin ear to the legitimate complaints from external constituencies.  This may lead to a new regulatory overlay that can damage long-term value for shareholders.  Whereas proactively 'doing the right thing' has the potential to get ahead of the curve, enchancing reputation, and thereby creating long term shareholder value.

For example, NAB, by removing unpopular fees like those on unauthorised overdrafts, has improved relationships with customers and increased engagement with our staff, leading to increased advocacy for our brand.

As a result, a year down the track, we  have seen a very significant increase in net new account openings.  There has also been a significant lift in the volume of mortgages we are writing.

We are doing the right thing by our staff, investing heavily in development of our leaders in a holistic way – as individuals and in context of what is relevant to us as an organisation.

One program has been ‘The Leader Within’ run by Manfred Kets de Vries from INSEAD to see what motivated people as leaders and what their true beliefs are.  This has had a profound impact on staff as they discovered what future they wanted from their roles.

This is about getting people to align their true inner feelings and drivers with the organisational objectives.

Two years ago we introduced the Enterprise Leaders Program for our top talent where we have assembled a faculty of professors from the leading business schools to build capacity to drive value at an enterprise level.

We have also worked with the Benevolent Society to introduce into our development programs elements addressing ethical leadership and engaging with the community.

This is about developing people, as individuals, through formal learning, mentoring, coaching and the like, and importantly working on specific projects that build capability.

We have graduates working on community projects supporting organisations such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to address key strategic issues that develops their skills in complex problem solving, project management and teamwork.  At the same time, the community organisations get access to skilled resources that help them take their organisation forward.

So to me, responsible leadership in a business context is about taking a long term view and recognising that doing the right thing by your customers, community and staff is key to delivering long term sustainable value for shareholders.

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