... and the difference is....!

Sometimes I think I'm last person on the planet able to figure things out... well now there is -again - something "new" I think I've figured out...
I was going through my old mails this evening - pretending to clean out my mailbox but actually finding some reason to keep way too many of them (I'm interested in a lot of things).... anyway, as I was saying...
I think I've figured out the reason why small service businesses in the USA are more successful (or at least they seem to me to be) than are small service businesses in Germany. Wanna know why? Okay - here's my theory:
SB's in the service branch in the USA are not as stuck in the "I'm the greatest" spin as are the German service SBs. I noticed this in the newsletters I get and just reviewed - one directly against the other, as I have newsletters coming in from service providers from both countries - and they are filling up my mailbox and I wanted to clean it up.
The most interesting difference between the two is that the German ones always seem to talk about how great they are: the boss has this and that degree, has spoken at a zillion conferences, their team has a "deep understanding" of whatever ....
Then the USA service businesses: they, on the other hand, leave out most of that stuff (ok - a little bit of it is in there somewhere - but down at the bottom in the fine print part). They seem to focus more on the other side, the customer need side, of things. Like: "this is solution to what you were worried about" and they give you the answer - directly in that email newsletter. Somewhere down the line, they ask if you need help for particular problem. And like I said, somewhere, down at the bottom in all the fine print, you can find that this person too, has spoken at a zillion conferences and has whatever credentials. But to think of it, this part was actually missing in a lot of those good newsletters as well. Some of them even make a point out of mentioning that they are less from the academic-side and more from the hands-on-side of this particular business.
Another thing I noticed: a lot of the German service SBs put in a teaser question - but to get to the answer to their own question, you would have to hire their services. The US service SB gives you at least an answer to the question they put up.
Maybe I'm being too partial here, and for sure - this is not a representative study, just my own teeny-weeny personal observation - but maybe I'm onto something ....

Bureaucracy: Bureau-crazy

In my efforts to find some statistics I need for a publication I'm creating, I surfed the web and got stuck at a portal for public relations professionals in Germany. It seems like everything in Germany is so bureaucratized that even to become a member of this group of professionals you have to go through an admission procedure. They want you to prove that your business has been successful for over three years, and that your agency makes over €1 million a year (tax statement!). You also have to prove that your offices are representative of your success, that you have all the administrative support you can handle (secretaries, assistants, etc.) and that you have successfully completed big projects in promotions, events, etc. The portal also acts as a brokerage for their members to get access to more new customers/new projects. So no surprises here - only the big agencies get a chance at the big ticket customers. What surprises me is that the sober small agency (=does not reach the above limits) is not allowed to join this elite group (they'll argue that you can become an "associate" or something like that. Whatever that means.) Do the folks there really think that a small agency would take on a program that they obviously do not have the capabilities to carry out? Ok. So next question: why would a "big" agency (=fits the criteria) want to take on small (Small Office / Home Office) customers? They have so much to do taking care of their big-ticket customers, they certainly won't put much effort into caring for a SOHO customer. Yet the SOHOs need all the help they can get. With all the Ich-AGs being started in Germany, all the unemployed turning into self-employed, there is a lot of work for the grasping coming from just this group. Think about it: these SOHOs need to get business announcements out, set up their event at local trade shows, want to see their company name in print in the local papers, etc.etc. This is job creation! It is the SOHO that is a growing market for the PR professional. My call to the PR SOHO and freelancers in Germany: unite! Support the other SOHOs! Give your SOHO customer the VIP treatment they wouldn't have a chance at if they went to these elite agencies. And watch while these bureaucratic-crazy institutions shoot themselves in the foot.

Tea Bags

Still have laryngytis (sp??) - still laying around. I have a request to all product managers at tea bag manufacturers: would you please put the seep time on the little tab of the tea bag? That way, I won't have to take the whole carton of tea bags back out of the cupboard to read the fine print somewhere on the back or bottom of it to find out how long my tea bag needs to stay in the water. Geezzz... life could be so uncomplicated....

Struensee

I have laryngitis (sp?) and am stuck to laying around and watching TV. Watched an old movie about Minister Struensee in Denmark. I was so enamored by the story, that I went to the web to find out if this guy was fact or fiction. He was real. It depressed me (probably due to my not feeling well anyway...) to have to discover (again) that there are so many interesting personalities in history that I don't have a clue about. And then there will be so many more I will never discover for myself either. TV does have a way of educating us - if only the movies made these days were so enchanting. I mean, the final scene leaves you wondering if they really did behead him, or if he got off the hook somehow. The producers of this type of movie today would do some kind of technical magic and make sure the viewer sees how his darn head falls off his shoulders. But it is much, much, much more disturbing to be left wondering what happened. I mean - I went and looked it up on the web, didn't I?

Diomedes - To think

While trying to figure out a name for my Blog, I came up with "Diomedes". Diomedes, as Greek legend has it, fought with Odysseus in the Trojan War. But that is not why I chose this name. I prefer the background behind the name: Dio - or Dios -can mean: "god" or "Zeus", or "thought" or "day". Medes - according to Wikipedia at least, comes from "a tribe of people from the area of "Media". Oops! That's it! And thus I come to my reason for chosing this name: A blog that covers "thoughts, a day, and the media". How fitting!