Category: Business Strategy

  • After Email Verification Service, What’s Next?

    After Email Verification Service, What’s Next?

    Using an email verification service prevents you from doing anything that might harm your reputation, much like the fact-checkers who checked every Time Magazine piece before it was published in print. However, validation is just a tiny component of the whole process. You can do more to keep your subscriber list clean.

    Email Verification Service, Make sure you get your emails in the appropriate form first.

    Buying a list of email addresses is a waste of time and money. Addresses collected in this manner are likely to include spam traps and also other email addresses that are unfriendly to the sender’s reputation. Expand your email list by obtaining the approval of new subscribers via sign-up forms, as described in our article. To get you started, here are some ideas:

    Second, double-check your subscribers’ intent by using a double opt-in process.

    You may verify your subscribers’ email addresses and interest in your brand by using double opt-ins. You must email the subscriber asking them to validate their email address if you use a double opt-in instead of an SMTP ping. A bounce is likely to occur if the email address is incorrect. Use the dual opt-in approach after your other validation tests to reduce your bounce rate dramatically.

    Plan ahead of time to eliminate dormant customers using a “sunset policy.”

    Subscribers that aren’t interested in your content aren’t worth your time or money. These dormant emails may end up as spam traps. It’s safer to eliminate them from consideration than to put yourself in danger. Maintaining up-to-date contact information on your email lists helps you avoid falling victim to spam and boosts your open and click-through rates. That’s fantastic news!

    Protecting your sender’s reputation and reaching the intended audience are the primary goals of effective email validation. To avoid email bounces, it’s essential to do email address validation as soon as possible. To create a good connection with your subscribers, you must first verify that they are authentic.

    When it comes to converting subscribers into repeat customers, how do you do that?

    Your transactional emails may be one of the first ways you may communicate with a new subscriber. You may have received this email due to a recent transaction, a double opt-in message, or some other reason. First impressions count, so don’t blow it! Additionally, please don’t overlook the chances to establish connections with subscribers to turn them into repeat clients.

    What should you look for if you want to use an email validation service?

    There are a wide variety of services available for validation. Your objectives and budget should guide your decision-making. Find out what services each supplier provides and whether there are multiple service levels available before making a final decision. In addition to checking to see whether they have what you’re looking for, you should additionally do an investigation:

    • Whether or not the service can manage the number of emails you need.
    • It’s how soon the bulk validations are completed. Will you get a return report in a few hours or a few days after submitting your list?
    • Does the real-time validation work as promised for customers?
    • How well does the service’s software work with the sign-up forms you use?
    • How to deal with integrations. Will you be able to quickly and also easily do bulk email checks and sync the results with your contacts database?
    • How reliable are the findings of the validation service? How do they ensure that the results are accurate?
    • Is there any feedback from other consumers regarding how well the business performs? Can you tell me whether you’re getting the help you need?
    After Email Verification Service Whats Next Image
    After Email Verification Service, What’s Next?
  • Teamwork and Collaboration in Strategic Planning

    Teamwork and Collaboration in Strategic Planning

    How to explain Teamwork and Collaboration in Strategic Planning? Company teammates and they existed given to work on the value of strategic planning. Initially, we noticed some of us expressing a complete dislike of the topic and thought it was a difficult one.

    Here is the article to explain, Teamwork and Collaboration in Strategic Planning!

    Little did we know, the process of working on the topic and what we learned from; turned out to be a blessing to us all, unlike what we first thought. Most importantly, our team was able to achieve our set goals and learned a lot from the assignment. The process involved several activities required for the realization of the seminar. When working in a team, good collaboration is a key element to reaching the desired outcome; which is what we tried to do. It is also vital that each member should commit to doing his or her part of the work.

    Definition of Teamwork;

    Teamwork is about galvanizing a group of people towards a common objective; while simultaneously addressing the head yet appealing to the heart. Teamwork and collaboration are also about bringing the best out of each individual in the pursuit of a collective goal deemed worthy of being realized.

    Therefore, according to Jon Katzenbach (a published author and consultant who is best known for his work on informal organization.); “a team is a small number of people with complementary skills; who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable”.

    Team collaboration and contribution;

    From the moment the assignment stood announced and that groups existed made, we had our first face-to-face meeting; which stood followed by more contacts via emails. We also set up a WhatsApp group chat and had three more face-to-face meetings before the seminar, including one before the presentation itself. It was a great pleasure for me to be part of the team and to work on the topic that; we initially didn’t like but turned out to be a blessing.

    As we worked, each member showed appreciation for everyone’s contribution to the preparation of the seminar. As we continued to work together; it seemed to me that some people lacked humility in the way they collaborated in the team. At first, I thought there was a lack of unity in the group; but we quickly resolved the issue and included everyone in the group decision-making process. Some tensions arose during some of the discussions we had as we prepared the seminar; but, numerous efforts were made not to allow conflict or enmity within the teamwork and collaboration.

    Strengths and weaknesses;

    The teamwork and collaboration stood composed of very knowledgeable people with a diversity of backgrounds. Everyone worked for the success of the team by offering support and guidance where it stood needed.

    However, one problem I experienced during this process was that the team’s workload existed not fairly distributed. My impression was that I had to do a lot of work and some did little. This frustrated and also worried me because I thought we would get fewer marks because of that. Although I did not complain to avoid confrontations, it negatively impacted me. But, I continued to work harder so that everyone could benefit from it.

    What is the Importance of teamwork in an organization?

    A challenging business climate needs to engage by effective teamwork. It provides an opportunity to come together and establish a common ground for the fulfillment of specific objectives. Empathy, appreciation, and encouragement are some of the critical ingredients of effective teamwork and collaboration. The vision must be bold, stir the intellect, and yet move the heart. What is at stake needs to be spelled out.

    Alcorn (2006) defines a team from 1886 which defines a team as; “work done by several associates, with each doing a part; but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole”; In a simple context, this means that a team is a collective whole of people that work together so that they are more productive. The key for any organization is to possess a team that can define using Alcorn’s provided definition. A team isn’t a team simply because a company pulls a group of workers together and calls them a team; but, instead of is a result of careful planning, hard work, and constant tweaking of team processes continuously.

    In today’s competitive world where every organization is striving to gain the best position in the market; the concept of Group Development and Teamwork is steadily gaining importance. Individual decision-making has taken backstage and paved the way for team management approach for problem-solving and decision making; which has been productive for the organizations. This strategy not only benefits the organisation but also the individual employee, hence it’s been rapidly adopted by businesses.

    More to know;

    Management Professor Tracy McDonald states that “The teamwork push probably started in business in the late 1970s or early ’80s with the advent of quality circles [employee problem-solving teams],” she says innovation, creativity, and change have been some of the main drivers of team success and since the past 30 years, organizations have embraced this concept with welcoming hands.

    Yuki Funo the Chairman and CEO of Toyota motor, states that the “Toyota way is the way to number 1”. One of the principles of the Toyota way is to ‘add value to the organization by developing your people and people can develop by molding them into exceptional individuals and teams to work within the corporate philosophy.

    Nippard B. creator of a Facebook group (teamwork ladder) on teamwork states that; “more than 80% of fortune 500 companies subscribe to teamwork and collaboration. Teamwork brings success no matter how you define victory”; Groups and Teams facilitate the organization to achieve a competitive advantage; because groups increase responsiveness to the organization’s customers, employee motivation, increase creativity; and they have also been capable of helping the members of the organization to enhance task performance and experience more satisfaction with their work.

    Team Responsiveness to Customers:

    It has been a priority for organizations to be elastic and readily responsible for the continuously changing needs, behavior, and desires of customers. Being reactive to customers often requires different levels of the hierarchy departments to combine their skills and knowledge. For example, at the lower hierarchy the employees such as sales representatives of a car company, are the people; who are closest to the customers and are aware of the customer needs.

    But their job in the organization is to just make sales of the cars and they cannot instill the desired changes into the car; which is in the field of the research and development department. Making the change a higher level of the hierarchy requires such as research and development experts; and other members who can come together and create a group or a cross-functional team with diverse skills and capabilities that will enhance the responsiveness to customer needs.

    Managers need to understand the need and set up the appropriate cross-functional team that will carefully determine what type of expertise and capabilities exist required to be responsive to the customers. This information is very vital for forming teams. A cross-functional team is the best solution that’s aligned to any business needs can help you improve your efficiency and respond to customers more quickly. The needs of a customer stand focused on forming such cross-functional teams and a satisfied customer is always an asset for any organization.

    Employee Motivation:

    Kreitner R. has defined motivation as “the psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction”. Groups and teams exist formed to increase the productivity and efficiency of an organization. To do so Managers have learned that increasing employee motivation and satisfying team members are the best way to achieve an organization’s strategic objectives. It is also about the motivation of members of the group to stick with each other and oppose leaving it.

    Being motivating to the team members and giving them the experience of working with other creative members in the organization is very inspiring and leads the team members to be more creative in their work and helps them to be more productive and increases their work effort.

    All the ideas generated exist directly contributed to the final result and in the success of the organizational goals; and, hence the members of the team feel personally responsible for the outcomes or results of their work. This satisfies the statement by Dwight D. Eisenhower that; ”Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.”

    What do we have to know?

    I learned what strategic planning is and how it differs from traditional business planning. A lot of importance existed given to the value of strategic planning within a secular world, the church, the Bible with some theological perspective. For me, the most significant finding was that, in the secular world, the strategic planning process first started with Goodstein et al. They suggested a nine-stage sequential process; which, although initially designed for the corporate world, has had a significant impact on the Christian world.

    I felt delighted after finding those who first wrote about; strategic planning and how their work changed the business world we know today. Subsequently, I also learned how strategic planning helps organizations become proactive in how they address unexpected or unpleasant situations. Instead of waiting for problems to arise and thinking of solutions to them, organizations can anticipate and have contingency plans before implementing their strategic plan.

    Hence, it helps organizations move from being reactive to being proactive. In the Christian context, it all started with the first work on strategic planning in a Christian perspective by Malphurs. Like for the secular world, he suggests a nine-step strategic model that helps churches develop and implement a modern-day church strategy for the benefit of God’s Kingdom.

    Conclusion;

    As done by many organizations in the secular world, churches also adopted a similar approach to strategic planning that suits their needs in this ever-changing world. One may ask if this concept is even Biblical? Should the church be adopting such a strategic approach? The answer is that, yes, the church can use this concept. However, the way churches implement strategic planning mustn’t be incompatible with the Scriptures and God’s mission and commission for his people.

    Through this assignment, I have significantly developed my skills in working with others and improving as a person. During the seminar, we used a polling tool to interactively and effectively engage with the class. I did my best to work hard and produce quality work for the seminar.

    Teamwork and Collaboration in Strategic Planning Image
    Teamwork and Collaboration in Strategic Planning
  • Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Jobs and Roles Essay

    Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Jobs and Roles Essay

    Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Definition with their Jobs and Roles Essay; A Chief Learning Officer’s main job is to grow an organization by developing a process of learning. This role continues to change, morph, and evolve as things change; such as the overall economy, increase in globalization, and growth of technology.

    Here is the article to explain, Definition of the Chief Learning Officer (CLO), with their Jobs and Roles Essay!

    This evolution requires organizations to learn faster or face the reality of not being able to survive. Companies that implement ongoing learning objectives can reinvent themselves and adapt to change proactively; while stagnant organizations are often reactive in strategy and are unable to catch up or adjust to the changing environment. Learning needs to happen quickly, affordable, and clearly for a company to get a competitive advantage over others. Companies need to be able to learn from success and failures to manage change and turn these opportunities into improvement. Some common themes of learning companies include knowledge or data existing continuously transferred, stored, and collected throughout the organization.

    Employees must also have access to the information and data that are important to the company’s success. A corporate climate exists that encourages, rewards, and accelerates individual and group learning. It expects and embraces change and uses adversity; such as a downturn in the economy as an opportunity to learn from it and come out of the adversity stronger and smarter than its business counterparts.

    Definition of the Chief Learning Officer (CLO);

    A Chief Learning Officer is a senior executive who has existed appointed the task of directing and managing learning, performance improvement, career development, talent management, and organizational knowledge functions at the highest level. They are in charge of moving their company into the future by constantly managing a changing environment; staying in tune with the latest technology, acquiring information through learning programs; as well as maintaining communication with other corporate leaders; such as the Chief Executive Officer to remain an important part of the company’s success.

    Companies have continued to experiment with new ways to improve the training and retention of their employees to stay competitive in a changing market. Over the past twenty years, organizational learning has become very important to companies in their effort to adapt to change and remain competitive. With the emergence of the “C-level” title for various leaders of organization functions; the Human Resource Development field has created a new title, Chief Learning Officer, or CLO.

    Who they are? Jobs and Roles;

    Steve Kerr, CLO of Goldman Sachs and former CLO of General Electric, stated that when he joined Goldman Sachs; he had to spend his first few months on the job convincing division heads that; he was not there to teach classes or implement typical training programs; rather he was there to talk about business challenges that faced managers so that he could better understand where learning was necessary. Communicating and speaking to managers and employees in their easy-to-understand language is crucial to gaining credibility. Kerr went on to say that CLOs cannot talk in terms of learning models and different academic theories because clients; who are buying your product don’t talk that way.

    Instead, CLOs should talk about business and relate the process of learning solutions to the way managers think out in the business world. Kerr uses a car manual metaphor when discussing how to learn to communicate with internal clients. The front of the manual usually discusses technical terminology such as drive trains, manifolds, ABS systems that many people do not understand. He goes on to state that what people do understand is the troubleshooting guide at the back of the manual that describes what might be wrong when the car won’t start. He says that CLOs are the troubleshooters of an organization. Like the auto manual, CLOs have to troubleshoot in terms that people understand.

    Skills and Quality;

    Leadership is a paramount quality for any executive; but a CLO is hired to lead the organization down a new and rugged path of learning that includes changing technology, global workforces, and lower budgets. One of a CLOs main responsibilities for the company is to show the way for the company’s learning strategy thereby improving the bottom line. The Chief Learning Officer stands expected to make the right decisions when it comes to learning strategy and direction; as well as lead the company to reach its overall goals by committing to a plan. Just as important as being a leader in the need for the CLO to develop other leaders within the organization. Passing leadership skills onto management through development programs is a way for an organization to become more efficient and aligned.

    Bill Kline, CLO of Delta Air Lines says; “Number 1: If you want to be strategic, you know the details of your business”. Thinking globally across the enterprise is the responsibility of the CLO; while thinking tactically exists left to the other different business units. A CLO’s job can be difficult due to only having so much input into the overall performance of a company. For example, a CLO existed hired by a retail giant and stood asked to raise store sales from year to year as well as increase staff retention. This particular CLO had influence over the organization and a seat at the board room table; but, stood still let go due to the fact the economy had dropped and the product lines were not up to par.

    Influence;

    This is an example of a CLO only having influence over the inside of a company and cannot control what happens externally. CLOs can also prove their importance by focusing time on processes that will help the company meet quantifiable objectives. A CLO could areas of focus on leadership development; for example, or a focus on multiple aspects of organizational learning; such as human resource development and management themes such as training and development.

    It is not only important to have a CLO who can have the vision and develop strategic plans; but, it is also sometimes required that they can generate revenue for the company through learning initiatives. The ability to generate income or save the company money is one of the main ways a CLO can add value to an organization. An easy trap that a CLO should be aware of is buying into so-called “flavor of the month” programs. Just because one program works for a certain company doesn’t mean it’s a fit for your company. Learning platforms need to be based on the needs of the company, the capabilities of the workforce; the available budget, the company strategy and focus on the area; where the company can get the best return on their investment.

    Trainings;

    Just having training programs won’t cut it in today’s business environment, companies are realizing the need to be a continuous learning company. This is why CLOs are becoming critical to the success of companies. There is no business-wide norm as to who a CLO reports to. Instead, it depends on the size of the company, the level at which senior executives place learning; and the CLO’s ability to relay the need to involve in setting goals and objectives for the company. The CLO title does not automatically imply involvement in strategic decision-making; however, CLOs typically work with senior executives and in most cases have direct contact with the CEO.

    The contact may be a formal reporting relationship or else an informal communication based upon a particular learning initiative. The closer the alignment with the CEO, the more flexibility a CLO typically has with potential resources. If there is a perceived link between the CEO and the CLO; then the CLO has much more organizational freedom to experiment; because the more visible the reporting relationship is with senior management; the more space and opportunity there is for the CLO to try new approaches and initiatives. Resources may be more easily secured and funding may not be a question as the request is being originated from the boardroom. However, not all CLOs allow reporting directly to the CEO.

    Reports;

    Chief Learning Officers may report to a human resources executive which may not necessarily limit their influence or capabilities; but, it does place the CLO at least one rung down on the organization chart from other C-level roles. That one rung may mean that the CLO does not have direct access to information, goals, and strategies regarding the organization. Resources may not be as readily available and the CLO may spend more time trying to acquire support for initiatives and learning objectives. The alignment of learning initiatives and corporate strategy may not be at the forefront of the company’s goals. Although the title of CLO implies strategic influence, it is not always the case.

    The impact a Chief Learning Officer can have on an organization is tremendous; as long as they can overcome the many challenges CLOs face due to the fact; they are a relatively new part of the executive management team. A successful CLO can link learning functions to the strategic objectives of the company; which in turn moves the company closer to achieving overall success in terms of profitability, growth, retention, and adaptability. Financial success for shareholders, executives, and employees is often the goal and mission of a company. However, the added value that a Chief Learning Officer can bring to a company includes improved employee satisfaction, commitment, knowledge, responsiveness, innovation, and quality.

    Target and Goals;

    By focusing on becoming a learning organization the company can often become more efficient regarding talent management and knowledge management via increased employee retention and recruiting. Experienced employees and talented new hires are better equipped to perform their jobs successfully; because, they have the opportunity to develop knowledge, skills, and abilities through various programs and initiatives that a CLO may put into place. This results in a more efficient, streamlined, focused, and driven organization that stands better equipped to meet its current and future goals and is, therefore, more effective. Another way to show how a Chief Learning Officer creates increased organizational effectiveness is to look at the situation from another perspective.

    Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Jobs and Roles Essay Image
    Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Jobs and Roles Essay