After a fourth night of riots in the UK many homes and businesses have been damaged - will insurance cover the costs?

Switzerland and Germany are due to announce an agreement in a long running tax dispute.

Companies do research and development, particularly large ones. This is an investment, one that fails often but is essential to future growth.

The web is R&D in public. So are apps. Not just for tech companies. For any company that is trying to figure out how its customers think and what they want.

We shouldn't be so quick to excoriate those companies that launch interactive tools that fail. In fact, we should be critical of those that don't.

More questions for Rupert Murdoch as investors want to know about NewCorp's financial performance.

Christopher Thornberg, founding partner at Beacon Economics in Los Angeles, explains why the Federal Reserve, America's central bank, has said it will keep interest rates near to zero for two more years.

Beijing faces the challenge of boosting domestic demand, to lessen its dependence on export-led growth.

South East Asia nations have to accept US budget problems and eurozone troubles 'as facts of life' says Asean's Surin Pitsuwan.

China's measures to slow growth in its property market are "positive news," says property developer CapitaLand's Liew Mun Leong.

Stock market rally "could be short-lived" as underlying worries about health of US economy remain, says Economist Intelligence Unit's Robin Bew.

There has been more turbulence on the markets as concerns about the European and US economies continue to affect trade.

Make work play?

Should that really be my goal?

I know some people have a problem connecting work and fun (and therefore by extension, play). We’ve been taught that work implies effort and struggle and discipline and challenge. All of this can be true, AND it isn’t an inclusive list. Work can include meaning and challenge and engagement and fun – when you are doing the right work and doing it effectively.

And, as a leader, part of our role is to help people figure out how to do work right.

Why?

Because it is better for the long term success of the individual and it creates better productivity and results both now and in the long term.

So even if work, well done, can have playful components, there are things we need to keep in mind as we try to create an environment that supports that approach. That’s the goal of this short article — to give you some of those ideas.

Cultural, not an add-on. If you buy the ideas I’ve shared so far, the first thing you must do is realize you are trying to adjust or change organizational culture.  How people view work in your organization is (in part) the ideas and habits they brought with them and (in part) what your organization or team reinforces for them. Remember that people are busy and if they feel that the fun event is now a new expectation or a new task, they may react with more cynicism and resistance. Making work play isn’t something you do overnight; be committed to changing views and behaviors over time.

Organic, not forced. As you introduce ideas, create opportunities for more play, and promote a more playful atmosphere, let it build momentum from the group; don’t take the approach that seems contrived. “OK team, stop working. It’s time to have fun!” is the wrong approach. The goal is integrate playfulness into the work, not make it a new job. Which leads to the next point...

Variety, not one size fits all. All people aren’t created equal, and all fun isn’t viewed the same. Doing something around the Super Bowl to inject some fun will connect with some people more than others. Recognize that the approaches will need to vary and not everything you try will appeal to everyone. So while you’ll make progress steadily, remember point number one. Making work play will take time for everyone (and it is worth it).

Fun, not frivolous. If the hard business reasons listed earlier haven’t convinced you yet, recognize that environmental factors impact significant business issues in a positive way (unless things like productivity and retention and job satisfaction don’t matter in your business). So remember (and help other see) that creating a lighter, more enjoyable atmosphere isn’t just a fuzzy “nice to do” thing – it is real and important to your results. That means that the things you try and the approaches you take must be viewed in the right way. Recognize that while everyone likes to have fun, some will see it as less important. Be patient with them and listen when they feel something is frivolous. In that moment they may be correct.

Meaning, not just parties. Making work play is about an attitude and an expectation and it can (and should) come from more than a party. Can you have parties and events to create a more playful atmosphere? Of course. But recognize that when people are most engaged in their work and having the most fun, it is not because of a great party at work, but because they see the value in their work and know how what they are doing makes a difference.

Challenges and goals, not just events. Goals met call for celebration. Challenges can kick in our competitive nature and when that is well channeled, that can create significant fun and play in the workplace. My daughter’s math teacher promised to shave his head if 100% of the class got above 75% on the final exam. Do you think that caused focus and fun? You bet. Challenges like this can happen in the office too. What challenge with a fun side bet could you place before your team to infuse and invigorate people’s energy and fun?

Led, not luck. A positive, playful and fun workplace won’t happen by accident. While many of the points above point to not overly planning, someone must lead. That can be you or you could recruit deputies to help you create a more fun workplace. If you want the results adding some playfulness can bring, it must be led.

We spend more time at work than in any other activity in our adult lives (except perhaps sleeping). Playfulness is part of what makes us enjoy life and be more human. When properly focused, infusing more human-ness into work will create better results for everyone. It’s more than good leadership and organizational stewardship —it’s the right thing to do.

Go ahead, make work play.

According to the BBC News website:

A blog about the life of an RAF airman currently on tour in Afghanistan has notched up 80,000 hits, thanks to its blend of humour and gritty realism.

The article goes onto look at the attraction in describing war.

Click here for the article in question (by Andy McFarlane).

Click here to view the RAF Airman Blog.

As the CEO of a CRM company, I often get asked the question why CRM systems in some companies don’t get used by the salesforce.  Companies invest thousands of dollars in their CRM system and often find the adoption rate is not what they expected.

Here are the top ten quotes I hear why the CRM system did not get the adoption that was initially expected:

1. “All of this time I spend typing could be spent selling!”

2. “My company now has access to all of the customer relationships I built … which I feel I own.  The company could fire me tomorrow and keep all of the contacts and relationships I've built!”

3. “There is little to no added benefit to me, with lots of value to big brother!”

4. “I'm on the road all day selling … and then am expected to update the CRM when I get home or back to the office after a long day!”

5. “My boss never looks at it anyways, so why should I bother?”

6. “It’s too inflexible and doesn't take into account ‘the real world’ of selling!”

7. “I’ve been the top salesperson for the past 10 years without it!”

8. “The last five we tried failed, why will this one be different?”

9. “This spreadsheet works just fine!”

10. “It provides too much visibility & accountability into what I'm really doing, and I like it better when I can play my hand close to the vest until the end of the month/quarter!”

To address these top 10 "adoption excuses," here are the seven best practices I’ve learned over the years to maximize adoption and usage.

• Make it a productivity carrot.
  The CRM needs to be positioned as a tool that will help the sales organization sell more goods and services so they earn larger commissions.  Sounds simple.   I see many management teams however, using their CRM as simply a reporting stick for their sale teams. 
  
  Tools such as presentation templates, proposal documents, personal reporting tools, task lists, Outlook integration and sales process checklists will improve the efficiency and productivity of the sales team.   Very quickly, you need to demonstrate to the sales team WIFM (“what’s in it for me”).
• Use it to manage your organization.
  If you’re the sales VP, run your meetings and reviews from the CRM, including forecast meetings, pipeline reviews and exception reporting.  Establish dashboards which you share with your sales leaders to show them you personally are leveraging and using the system.  Also ensure senior management is using and benefiting from the system.  Bottom-line, you should lead by example.
• Get the data right.
  A CRM works only if the underlying data is correct.  You need to have best practices to make sure data is consistent, clean and maintained.  Establish drop down fields where appropriate to ensure data integrity.  Each person who using the CRM must take personal ownership of the integrity of the data.
• Train the team.
  It should go without saying, if the sales staff is not trained on how to benefit from using the CRM, it will not get used.  Many CRM vendors like Landslide CRM have comprehensive end-user training sessions that can be leveraged so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. 
  
  The training should reinforce the sales process, organizational terminology, custom fields and other tools to make it contextually relevant.  A role-based training may make sense depending on the size of the organization.  Ideally the training is done as close as possible to the go-live date for the CRM.  Many vendors will customize this training for your organization. 
  
  Sounds simple, but many companies do not have proper training plans to support the rollout of the system.
• Integrate Your Sales Tools
  Many CRM’s include libraries to maintain customer engagement letters, product presentations, price lists, catalogs, contracts, etc.  Make sure the CRM is populated with the current version of all the documents and collateral at launch.
  
• Flow All New Leads to the CRM
  The lifeblood of any sales organization is new leads. Make the CRM the single source of all new leads for the sales team.
• Spread the word.
  Here’s several ways to reinforce adoption.  When appropriate distribute “success stories” of those that have used the CRM effectively to close business.  You may also want to consider contests and spiffs to reinforce adoption.  I’d suggest every job description and performance appraisal within the sales team should include reference to using the CRM.

The ultimate adoption strategy for any CRM is the sales team realizing higher bookings and commissions from using the system.  The seven best practices above will help the sales team realize the CRM is a tool that can truly help increase customer loyalty and help them sell more, which is the ultimate way to deal with the top 10 excuses!

The chairman of Britain's nuclear industry association Lord Hutton tells Hardtalk that the Fukushima accident has 'changed the game' for nuclear power and safety issues will again have to be looked at very closely.

Fifty years ago, the ratio was a million to one.

For every person on the news or on primetime, there were a million viewers.

The explosion of magazines brought the ratio to 100,000:1. If you wrote for a major magazine, you were going to impact a lot of people. Most of us were consumers, not creators.

Cable TV and zines made it 10,000 to one. You could have a show about underwater spearfishing or you could teach people to make hamburgers on donuts. The little star is born.

And now of course, when it's easy to have a blog, or an Youtube account or to push your ideas to the world through social media, the ratio might be 100:1. For every person who sells on Etsy, there are a hundred buyers. For every person who actively tweets, there are a hundred people who mostly consume those tweets. For every hundred visitors to Squidoo, there is one new person building pages.

What does the world look like when we get to the next zero?

It has been four years since the credit crunch of 2007 and as the markets are volatile once more, have we learnt anything from the past?

Smart sellers can use holidays as an occasion to reach out to their prospects via email… especially contacts that have been hard to reach in the past.

What makes a holiday such a great time to check in? They’re events that we all know, recognize, and celebrate for one thing, so you can start off on common ground. At the same time they’re more festive and personal than other days.

They give you an easy reason to reach out in a personalized, non-sales approach to reach those elusive prospects on your list.

Here are just a few good holidays to consider emailing your prospects:

• The Fourth of July - Why not wish your customers and prospects a freedom from stress and worry over their long weekend?
• Thanksgiving - In the same way, why not get in touch just before Thanksgiving to let everyone on your list know that you are thankful for them, and to wish them all a happy day of celebration. And remember that the Canadian Thanksgiving is in October!
• Christmas, Chanukah, and New Years - The December holiday season is the perfect time to thank people for their business, wish them a safe and happy new year, and mention that you'd love to get the chance to work with them in the future.
• Valentine’s Day - You don't have to send anything romantic to let your prospects know that they are "special to you."
• Their birthday, or your own - If you can keep track of your clients’ and prospects’ birthdays, that makes it a perfect time to get in touch with them. I also like to email contacts on my own birthday, to let them know that I'm celebrating and to wish them a great day as well.
• International holidays - If you have international clients, try to remember their special days. Prospects in the UK, for example, might be impressed if you remembered Guy Fawkes Day. The reverse is also true. Make sure you don't send emails about North American holidays to prospects overseas, as it creates a bad impression and could damage the relationship. We celebrate Memorial Day in May, for example, or Independence Day, but our international customers don’t.

Use resources like Chase's Calendar of Events for a list of both international and quirky events, like Chinese New Year or National Ice Cream Day.

The reason these emails work so well is that they're fun, festive, and we’re not asking prospects to do anything.

All we're trying to do is let them know that we’re thinking about them on a special day. These simple emails open up the conversation from an amusing, non-threatening perspective. We aren't giving them any kind of hard sell.

Remember that as you put together your holiday emails you shouldn't be looking to gather leads or opportunities in a straightforward way. In fact, when you do receive responses from prospective clients, my advice would be to keep things light and just remind them that you'd love to get together to catch up.

When they respond to that, then you can move to set a time for the appointment.

The whole point is that the exchange has moved along organically, without being forced or having some kind of ulterior sales motive other than to wish them a happy holiday.

One other thing to keep in mind: don’t overdo it.

Because people tend to be in a better mood around a holiday, and because everyone likes to get a personal note wishing them well, holiday emails tend to garner a much higher response rate than your "normal" prospecting methods. That means as much as 50 to 75% of the people on your list are likely to respond.

Make sure that you have time to follow up on all the responses you do get.

Reaching out via email during any holiday is a great way to connect with prospects you haven't been able to get a hold of, or who haven't responded to other approaches. Just remember to keep things fun and light and let the conversation unfold naturally. Do that, and it won't be long before you have even more to celebrate!

Everything we do, we do because somehow it benefits us.

We go to work for the satisfaction (I hope) and because we get paid. We smile at a stranger because it feels good to be nice (and perhaps we'll get a smile in return). We pick up litter when no one is looking because telling ourselves a story about being a good person is worth the effort.

Some people have figured out that charity is an incredible bargain. For the time and money it costs, the benefits exceed what could be attained in almost any other way. A bargain compared to chocolate, or an amusement park visit or buying a shiny new car you probably don't need.

For some, the benefit is in the way society respects the donor. Hence buildings named after Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates. For many, though, hidden charity is worth far more, because the incentives are purer. A donation earns you peace of mind.

I'm fascinated by people who see no benefit in donating to charity, who, in fact, see a negative. My hunch is that for these people, the worldview is: if charity is important, I better give more. If that's true, the thinking goes, then whatever I give isn't going to make me feel good, it's going to make me feel worse... for not giving enough. Easier to just avoid the issue altogether.

I think marketers of causes that do good have a long way to go in selling the public on the core reason to give... don't give because you get a tote bag, or a prize at the charity auction or even a plaque. The scalable unique selling proposition is that being part of the community is worth more than it costs.

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I don’t know about your experience, but I’m hearing so much economic doom and gloom that I think it must be time for me to give up and quit. The newspapers and television networks have convinced me (and almost everyone else) that we’re in a hopeless situation. I really wanted my business to prosper and grow in 2009, but I must be an idiot for believing there is any chance for success. I guess it’s time to turn off the lights, lock the doors and wait patiently for the economy to improve.

Or is it?

Maybe business development professionals everywhere need to answer these four questions (honestly) before tossing in the towel.

1. How does this “recession” actually affect you?

The National Bureau of Economic Research defines a recession as three quarters of falling real gross domestic product. This might be fascinating stuff to some people, but I can’t directly correlate “real gross domestic product” to my sales effectiveness.

Can you?

Even during a recession companies still have to buy goods and services. They may buy different, they may buy less, but they still have to buy. If you can’t convince prospects that what you’re offering is a solid investment with meaningful return, then maybe the problem lies closer to home.

2. Do you really believe you’re on your customer’s speed dial?

Customers are nervous just like everyone else; they’re reading the same headlines that you are. Sitting in the office waiting for them to call you isn’t going to help you meet your goals.

Reach out and contact everyone you’ve ever done business with. Show up with valuable ideas, offer help, look for referrals and ask for their business. This isn’t open season to “call and check-in” but it’s a great time to re-connect and nourish all of your existing relationships.

This may sound like a lot of work because it is. Very few people ever drift into greatness; it requires action.

What are you waiting for?

3. Are you as good as you could be?

Many sales people think that once they’ve taken a professional selling course, they’re essentially done with learning. That may be OK if someday your closing question becomes: Will that be paper or plastic?

Success as a sales professional requires skill, knowledge, attitude and purpose. If you’re not consistently developing yourself in these areas then you’re going backwards. There is no status quo.

There are more development tools available for today’s sales professional than ever before. Books, podcasts, tele-seminars, live training programs, webinars, personal coaches, downloads, sales portals and much more. You can’t wait for your boss or organization to take responsibility for your success. It’s up to YOU!

It takes courage to admit you can be better and confidence to believe you can change. It takes nothing at all to create excuses.

4. How much energy are you wasting on things you can’t control?

The world surrounds us with headlines about inflation, bailouts, credit crisis, mortgage fiasco, recession, debt, jobless claims and on and on.

Are you concerned? I know that I am. But I don’t have much control over what is happening in the headlines, so why get tied up in knots?

This is a valuable lesson I learned as a kid on the farm. It’s a tough life and it sure doesn’t get easier if you worry all the time about whether or not it’s going to rain. All you can do is take care of the equipment, prepare the land, plant the seed, fertilize the fields and wait for the harvest.

And running your sales business isn’t much different.

• Take care of the equipment (invest in yourself)
• Prepare the land (make yourself known in all of your accounts)
• Plant the seed (add value with every contact)
• Fertilize the fields (take care of your customers)
• Wait for the harvest (if you do everything else right, the business will follow)

Speaking of Sales is about finding, winning and keeping customers for life. If that’s part of your job, then you won’t want to miss the next issue.

Until then,

Tim

[Editor's Note: This article was originally published January 22, 2009.]