Man City Victory (Image: IvanYee)

This analogy is about soccer. The value of a good analogy can be to find fresh perspectives and see things we’re used to looking at in a whole new light. Since the news here is still awash with Manchester City’s victory I thought it was ripe for a good analogy. Most professional sports could be seen a microcosm of the wider business world, but for this case we’ll concentrate on football.

Manchester City won their first Premiership title in 44 years. It’s amazing what you can do with just over £1billion, say the more cynically minded. But you can’t escape the obvious, for any company resources can make the difference. These clubs are companies, they compete for the premier league and other cup titles, but they also compete in the lucrative Asian and global markets for fans to sell merchandise to and for pay per view sports income. The better their football, the bigger their potential revenue.

As in any sector, that wealth of resources still needs to be well managed otherwise you’ll come up short against more experienced opposition.

That One Thing That Made All the Difference

In the second half of the season commentators kept using the phrase, “will that be the goal that decides the title?”. This was always irritating. It reminds me of the person cramming that last bit of info into their heads before an exam, when the truth is that it was the little bits of work and attention to detail in the previous months added up that really made the difference. It was the 30 or 40 goals before that ‘crucial’ goal that allowed them to be in that position at all. They all build upon the others. That said, in City’s case when the chips were down and all was on a knife edge when all seemed lost, it was 2 goals in 2 minutes of extra time that turned an unexpected defeat into a title victory. (View Video Here)

That’s the tangible numbers; a company either makes money or it doesn’t, a team scores goals, wins matches and get’s points or it doesn’t. Like in a startup, underlying all this, the less tangible element is character. Essentially it’s most of the things listed in Rudyard Kipling’s stirring poem ‘If’. You can have lots of good helpful numbers behind you, but if you don’t have fortitude, ability to raise your game when all looks lost then you won’t succeed.

Many have, with some justification, labelled Man City as a team of mercenaries, lacking the character to maintain a realistic title challenge. Yet all along, in between the marquee signings, City have quietly assembled a strong spine, filled with the kind of players capable of inspiring their team when they don’t happen to be winning 3-0.

The Importance of Leaders In Sport & Business

Alexander The Great

If you had to pick one incident in the season it was Utd loosing to City 1-0 in April. You get the impression that if Utd had remarkable characters and true leaders of old such as Roy Keane or Brian Robson to rally them they may have got a result, but they didn’t. Yet I saw Vincent Kompany, the City captain shouting, corralling and marshalling his men to the crucial victory. As someone said beside me at the time said, “he got so fed up, he had to go up and score the goal himself”.

It’s Not All Predictable and Plain Sailing

2011/2012 was one of the most remarkably dramatic and entertaining seasons of the Premiership because it was littered with inconsistencies and surprises in results and players’ form, when lesser teams pulled out greatness and beat better sides. Both Manchester clubs were the main contenders for the title and both had their ups and downs when they stalled, were expected to triumph but didn’t. At one point City looked to be running away with demolishing the competition. Then in March  a bad run of away form, Utd lead the league and their main rivals by eight points and it seemed all in the bag when Arsenal beat City 1-0. But they crept back, pulled themselves together and closed that gap, finally winning on goal difference on the final day.

How often in business do we look like we’re making a great start but then something slips, something unforeseen happens and it allows our competitors ahead of us, it takes a while for us to adjust and bounce back? How often the opposite, when we start poorly like Arsenal, dropping to the relegation zone, only to make good and work all the way back to finish third? The vision and the ability to stick with your beliefs, or to change your tactics, to know what’s flexible and on what you won’t compromise makes the difference. Every team or business has their surprise defeats and setbacks, it’s what you learn how you deal with them is key.

All About Timing

But what about timing? Being in the right market at the right time, or playing the right team at the right time? Arsenal were back on a good run, they’d beaten fierce rivals Spurs and beat Milan 3-0. If Arsenal had played City two weeks later when City where lifting out of their slump it may have been a very different story. On the day they deserved to win, over the season they weren’t the better team however and I can say that as an Arsenal fan.

Many Startups are Like Wigan

Roberto Martinez (Image: Hindleyite)

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez, with little resources or options just kept believing. Defeat after defeat he just kept believing that how he set out the team was right and things would turn good for him sooner or later. They were written off at Christmas by many pundits to be relegated, no great escape this year. Then suddenly they beat a load of top tier teams, Arsenal, Man Utd, Newcastle and were safe.

So many startups and entrepreneurs struggle, work their asses off and get little in return. Again and again you keep going knowing that you’ve quality on your side and sooner or later you’ll come good. You innovate and alter some tactics but you know you’ve a solid base and a good product. Martinez used what little resources he had extremely well, was endlessly positive and constructive, kept motivating his team when others would have crumbled, may have changed some tactics but stuck to his principles and in the end was rewarded.

The mixture of character, talent, timing and a little luck, over a long stretch the truth comes out. As 19 premiership titles winner, Man Utd manager Alex Ferguson rightly said after his team lost out, “it’s a long hard season, and by the end of it, teams are usually in the position they deserve” ie. if you’re first you deserve it, if you’re last and relegated you probably deserve that too overall. But remember there’s always next year…

Why Sport?

Why watch sport? Because when it’s good it’s theatre that unfolds organically, that no one can really predict, with twists and turns. It’s about best laid plans coming to the fore brilliantly or falling to pieces in misery. The great unrehearsed drama, we have intentions, plans and strategies but it all changes when we meet our opponents, a lot like business and a lot like life.

Like Sport, is that not why we ultimately enjoy running our businesses; for what the challenges drag out of us and the eventual well earned and hard fought for victories?

Click to View Full Image

In this week’s SelfAssemblySites web news round up: the test to gauge how addicted you are to Facebook, ten ways to motivate anyone, the new and beautiful Google+ iPhone app, the Oatmeal describes how to fix any computer and a Ted video shows us how to make choosing easier and more profitable.

iPhone Google+ (Flickr: charliecurve)

Psychologists Develop Tools to Measure Facebook Addiction

Psychologists in Bergen, Norway have created a method of gauging Facebook users’ addiction to the social network. The studies show younger people, women and those less socially confident have increased likelihood of over use. Read the article.

10 Ways to Motivate Anyone

Geil Browning argues that greater autonomy and control is important for employees but disagrees with many thought leader such as Daniel Pink that all extrinsic motivators such as raises and bonuses are bad. When you understand an employee’s thinking and behavioral preferences, you’ll be able to maximize his or her enthusiasm, what moves one will leave another cold. This will help you get your workforce aligned and moving in the same direction, and you’ll see incredible returns. Read the article.

New Google+ for iPhone Begs to Be Touched

“We’re embracing the sensor-rich smartphone (with its touchable screen and high-density display), and transforming Google+ into something more intimate, and more expressive,” Google senior vice president Vic Gundotra said. What’s new? A load of updates including larger profile pictures, sharper fonts, +1 image overlays and other user interface and visual elements that make the experience feel more fluid and enjoyable. Read the article.

How to Make Choosing Easier & More Profitable

We all want customized experiences and products but when faced with 700 options, consumers freeze up. With fascinating new research, Sheena Iyengar demonstrates how businesses and others can improve the experience of choosing. Author of The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar studies how people choose, what makes us think we’re good at it, and how often less truly is more.

This Video Shows You:

• How to Link to a YouTube Video
• How to Embed a YouTube Video & the Most Common Mistake People Make
• How to Embed a YouTube Video the Right Way
• How to Embed Videos from Vimeo & Other Video Sharing Websites

View video here or Click on ‘YouTube’ in lower right corner to view on YouTube with time stamped chapters

The Key Mistake Not to Make

If you add the embed code in the HTML editor, and then switch back into the Visual editor, sometimes your video embed code disappears. Stay in the HTML editor, hit Publish or Update to make it go live, and only edit that post or page in the HTML editor from then on – so make adding the video the last thing you do.

More Like This

If you’d like to get more videos like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel here and to our blog RSS feed here.

App Company (Image: dilbert.com)

In this weeks SelfAssemblySites Web News Round Up: Dilbert’s app company, a top VC explains how to build a killer value proposition, things Pinterest aren’t telling you, business intelligence comes to amateur sport, Facebook IPO share and an explanation of what an IPO actually is.

Pin It (Flickr: DrJohnBullas)

Top VC Explains How to Build a Killer Value Proposition

Michael Skok recently lectured to a group of students and aspiring entrepreneurs as part of a series of talks at the Harvard Innovation Lab and here are some of the key ideas. He examines the DNA of a value proposition by stripping it down to its foundational elements and reassembling it. Essential reading for anyone wanting funding. Read the article 

4 Things Pinterest Isn’t Telling You

Pinterest has quickly become a major player for social media referrals and business, especially if you’re in the design, travel or retail sectors. The site refers more converted traffic than LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ combined and is the sweet spot of demographics for many companies. But there are some things that Pinterest seems to be less than forthcoming about. This you may want to know. Read the article.

Krossover Makes Coaches & Athletes Smarter with Business Intelligence for Sports

A startup called Krossover is making what used to be prohibitively expensive suddenly affordable. Amateur, high school and college sports teams can now get fully indexed game footage within 12-36 hours of uploading. This includes searchable film, box scores, shot charts and drive charts, and thorough analytical reports for every player on the team. The service also auto-generates a game recap story and a highlight reel, allowing the footage to be properly edited and syndicated to news sources. Read the article

Facebook Sets IPO at$28 to $35 a Share & IPO Explanation Video

Facebook announced the price for its initial public offering at $28 to $35 per share Thursday afternoon. The company will offer 337,415,352 shares of Class A common stock at a yet-unspecified date. Facebook is set to become the most valuable U.S. Internet company at the time of its IPO, which could take place within weeks. The record is currently held by Google, which was valued at $23 billion when it went public in 2004.

Read the article & watch the video below

MySpeed Demo Screenshot

Review of Enounce MySpeed

MySpeed from Enounce lets you change the playback speed of Flash video without any loss of audio quality. (No chipmunk sound.) It’s like speed-reading for video. It works with all flash streaming video, saves you time, and for me creates greater engagement with video content. It basically allows you to take control of how you want to best view video online.

We often get asked about what tools we use most to enhance our work and time using the web. This is probably the one I use the most. I’ll  be using MySpeed at some point every single day that my computer is turned on. Like many great advancements it’s surprisingly simple but its impact is immediate and a complete change, moving from one level of passive engagement to more customised and active engagement.

Click bottom right to view on Full Screen, or click ‘YouTube’ to view on Youtube page with Chapters.

Why I Like to Use MySpeed

Here are a few simple reasons:

• Reduce the disruption & impact of advertising
• Speed up video to allow faster consumption, less chance for mind wandering increases concentration
• Allows Skimming through less important info to focus on more important content
• At only 1.5 times normal speed, you will save 20 mins on a 60 mins video
• Slow down to better understand or learn eg slows people speaking too quickly & helpful learning a new language
• No loss in audio quality, there’s no pitch change called ‘chipmunking’.

At Enounce MySpeed‘s home page you can find a free trial for you to test it out yourself.

There’s two versions of the product. We’ve always been content with the standard level which is a very keenly priced $29.99. There’s a more intense version but the standard one has always suited our needs. Both are the same price for the Mac or Windows versions and there are free upgrades for life.

For a tool I use everyday it really is extraordinary value. If you’re like me, and watch a large volume of streaming video online every week, it might suit how you use the web. The amount of irritating ads I’ve skipped through but used to have to sit through before MySpeed are numerous. There are countless amounts of training videos that went from good to great simply by improving on the delivery speed and pace thanks to this little gadget.  I can’t really recommend it enough and that’s why it’s my most recommended tool for using the web better.

Skynet (Image: xkcd.com)

In this week’s SelfAssemblySites Web News Round Up: Charts detailing Apples monster second quarter earnings, LinkedIn’s impressively different new iPad app, the NYC startup that’s building stories from the social media noise, and the story of how one man beat a patent troll.

Gopogo Screenshot

Apple’s Latest Ferocious Quarter in 4 Simple Charts

Apple’s second quarter earnings are out and they made pretty impressive reading. The world’s biggest public corporation were just short of doubling profit from this quarter in 2011, to $11.6bn. The most remarkable insight was that Apple could have stopped selling everything on January 4th and still made more profit than Facebook for the entire quarter, scary stuff. Read the article and view the charts.

Gopogo Let’s You Create, Share & Discover Location Based Stories

With so much social sharing going on, much of it just gets lost in the noise. NYC startup Gopogo are addressing this problem, with a geo-location platform for recording, sharing and discovering connected experiences. So a user might walk around a city visiting art galleries, cafes and other places of interest and create “Strings” which tell the story of their day through geo-tagged chronology, with photos, videos, and commentary. They can discover the experiences of others, by location, theme, or areas of interest. Read the article.

LinkedIn’s Surprisingly Slick New iPad App

When LinkedIn revamped its mobile apps there was roughly the same reaction. Being used to the LinkedIn web interface, we weren’t expecting the professional network to roll out this type of modern, pared-down yet full-featured offering. This is the company’s first foray into tablets, and the wait has paid off. The deliberation and attention to detail shows, from the clean-as-a-whistle homescreen to the trendy slider interface for quickly browsing industry news. Read the article.

How I Beat A Patent Troll

Don’t negotiate with terrorists; patent trolls have done more damage to the United States economy than any domestic or foreign terrorist organization in history, every year

Drew Curtis, the founder of fark.com, tells the story of how he fought a lawsuit from a company that had a patent, “…for the creation and distribution of news releases via email.” Along the way he shares some nutty statistics about the growing legal problem of frivolous patents. View the Video Below.

Money on the Table (Flickr: Casey Serin)

Yesterday my Google alerts brought my attention to an article which made my jaw hit the floor. I shouldn’t have been so surprised but it was the extreme extent of the statistics that amazed me, it may amaze you too.

(Note: SMB’s or Small and Medium Businesses is the term used in the US, in the UK & Ireland they’re referred to as SME’s, or Small and Medium Enterprises.)

SMB Digital Scope analysed over a million small business websites across 14 countries, with the majority of 700,000 of them in the US. Here are some of their key findings:

• 74.7 percent of SMB websites lack an email link on their home page for consumers to contact the business.
• 65.7 percent of SMB websites lack a form-fill (contact form) option to enable consumers to request information.
• 93.3 percent of SMB websites are not mobile compatible and will not render successfully on mobile devices or smartphones.

As you go through the data, it becomes pretty clear that while the world is shifting to a social, local, mobile — or SoLoMo — orientation, most SMBs are just not there yet.

Priorities

For me that statement might be jumping the gun. In an ideal world small businesses would be aware of all these technologies and right up to date with using them, but that’s never going to happen. As a small business ourselves we know how our time, attention and resources are always stretched. There’s always an opportunity cost with every decision of what to spend our time doing.

As I mentioned in a previous article, the Theory of Constraints, you try and work on the things that are the greatest barrier to your success and avoid the ‘bright shiny object syndrome’ of distractions. So initially mobile ready websites could be seen as being a luxury, way down the list of priorities and that’s assuming that ‘mobile’ fits with your business. It may be more important to a local restaurant or plumber to allow their customers to browse their offerings online than it might be for businesses who have to explain the benefit of their service. So since it’s a luxury, a hassle and an investment of time it should go way down the list of priorities. Or is it such a hassle?

Context

Phone Now (flickr: greggoconnell)

The analysis says 74.4% of SMBs lack an email link on their homepage. I initially read this to mean they lacked an email address on their homepage, which was what astounded me. That would be a truly unfortunate. But I think the statistic means a clickable link to open an email window to quickly contact the site owner. I used to have one on my old art dealing website and every week it attracted at least one new spammer. Under the guidance of a friend I changed the link to an image of my email address and the spamming decreased massively. So could that statistic be out of context?

It also presumes that an email is the optimal channel to direct your potential customer. What if they don’t want an email address on their homepage? If you’re a plumber who’s out plumbing all day, it’s inefficient to be trying to email responses from your smart phone. The more efficient and relevant call to action might be that of many restaurants, ‘Phone Now’. I’m not saying the statistic is completely misleading, but there are plenty of situations where you don’t ideally want customers to email you. Or maybe you want them to take a few more steps first.

Ironically the article where the statistic is shown doesn’t appear to have an email link on its page because it doesn’t want you to contact them, there’s no benefit to them. They want you to read it and share it, maybe click on an advert occasionally. But not email them. Otherwise they’d have to devote man hours in having someone reply to you.

Low Hanging Fruit

Low Hanging Fruit (Flickr: MikeCogh)

However accurate or slightly out of context the statistics are, they do suggest that many SMB’s aren’t managing to do some of the very basics right. On our Sas Planner Course in the very first video, Things a Good Website Should Have, we state the basic requirements. These are the foundations of what makes your site of value and fit for the visitors’ purpose. This is the tick box stuff, without even getting into the rudimentary strategy.

• A Professional Appearance
• Contact Information
• Clearly State Products or Services
• Clear Calls to Action

You can have multiple calls to action, but one must be more dominant than the other. You need to tell people exactly what you want them to do. “Call Today”, “Sign Up”, “Get a Quote”, “Buy Now” and so on. SMBs do need to consider if they’re pushing their customers down the best path in how they engage with them.

Think about it, 65.7% lack a contact form. This is a basic function in the standard Contact Us page. When it’s not there it means a site visitor who wants to contact them doesn’t and just leaves.

To continue with the plumber example of earlier; he might prefer to direct their client to a customised contact form rather than an email. The contact form does not just have to ask for name and address it can do more. By asking key question, he can go some distance in diagnosing the extent of the problem by what they fill in on the form.  If it’s well designed, the plumber can save both himself and his customer plenty of unnecessary back and forth. It could be far more efficient than a vaguer, open email which lacks specifics. Also the contact form could generate different auto-responder replies due to the input.

How many potential customers have the businesses in that 65.7% let get away, when they so easily could have been brought at least to the next stage via the contact form. If we assume that a contact form suits the business model of even half of that statistic that means in the US alone there are over 229,000 small business websites loosing who knows how many customers each day to this ridiculously simple error.

That’s the lowest of low hanging fruit. It takes a lunch break to clarify and put on your website. But the difference it could make is truly significant.

Plugins: The Solution

Plug In (flickr: katerha)

We recommend the Contact Form 7 plugin to our members. There are dozens of decent contact form plugins, but we choose this one because of how flexible it is. You can pretty much turn it into a small survey, with the option of drop down list boxes and choices of how people convey their information through your form. It also supports ‘captchas’ and other spam filters.

That’s all even before going near the cutting edge of SoLoMo. Yet with WordPress, the next step is far simpler than it might seem. If you have a WordPress site you can just go to the plugin page and search for ‘mobile’ and 514 results display. There are dozens of options with faq’s and screen-shots available, all wanting to make a mobile ready version of your website. In that mix it’s likely there’ll be a few that will do a great job on making your website mobile ready. (We’ll do a run down of the pros and cons of the better mobile options in the near future.)

Beyond the Basics

After you’ve got your basics in place, you need to move to the next level. As Steve Garth argues it’s all about leads. You need a way to capture leads and to generate leads. This can be as simple as a contact form in your side bar, a newsletter sign up box, or an over lay asking a few simple questions and their email address. Or depending on the business it could be a free pdf download of a gift, the “top 10 things most people don’t know about x”, as long it’s relevant of course. Those options are worthy of their own white papers and e-courses, let alone another blog post.

The bottom line is, show expertise but focus it on the benefits to your visitors. But mostly give value to your SMB customers and they should respond well to you. Be clear about what you do and tell them precisely what you want them to do next.

As long as the basics are in place you can grow steadily and not risk leaving so much money on the table from simple errors.

"Entrepreneurial Dream" (Image: Dilbert.com)

In this week’s SelfAssemblySites Web News Round Up: Apple to have greenest data centre in the world, how to get Google to buy your startup, 5 Tips on Mobile Advertising for Small Business, the Khan Academy teaches kids genetics for National DNA Day and Dilbert’s entrepreneurial dream.

Green Apple (Flickr: ReillyButler)

Apple Vows to Build The Greenest Data Centre in the World, “100% Renewable Energy”

Apple has broken ground on a brand-new data centre in Prineville, Oregon, one that the company is billing as even more environmentally friendly than the Maiden, North Carolina, facility that powers its iCloud. When the Maiden complex is completed, it will have biogas fuel-cell plant and a massive solar array that will collectively generate 12 megawatts of energy, or 60% of the data center’s requirements. But the plans for Prineville are even more ambitious. Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said that Maiden will soon be “the greenest data center ever built, and it will be joined next year by our new facility in Oregon running on 100% renewable energy.” Read the article

Want to Get Bought by Google? Google VP Explains How

David Lawee is Google’s vice president of corporate development, the latest in his string of high-profile positions at the search giant. As the company’s M&A leader over the past several years, he has been responsible for some of the company’s biggest acquisitions. He also started and sold four companies himself as an entrepreneur so when it comes to being acquired or making an acquisition decision on the other side of the table, few are more qualified to advise startups on how to get bought by a tech giant like Google. Read the article.

Mobile Advertising: 5 DIY Tips for Small Businesses

Going mobile makes sense now more than ever. According to a recent Borrell Associates Inc. survey, 48% of SMBs said they are “somewhat likely” or “very likely” to incorporate mobile into their advertising spending this year. But navigating the self-service market can be tricky. Here are five tips on what to consider. Read the 5 Tips

National DNA Day: Khan Academy Makes Learning About Genetics Fun for Kids

Educational non-profit powerhouse Khan Academy has announced a partnership with personal genetics testing company 23andMe to “promote the importance of genetics education.” Specifically, this means that Khan Academy’s website now has educational videos produced by 23AndMe on topics such as Genetics 101. It is aimed at kids, but most adults could probably learn a thing or two. Read the article and watch the video.

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link

Broad Chain (Flickr: Nilfanion)

This is the main underlying principle of TOC or the Theory of Constraints. You know when that clever little improvement you made to that process seemed to work at that moment, yet didn’t speed up your overall project at all? Can you remember a time when you put a lot of effort into something in one area only for a  small problem in another area to reduce, block or delay your expected result?

If so, then this little piece of handy management science might be helpful to you.

Dr. Eliyahu M Goldratt is an Israeli physicist who moved into management theory and consultancy. The theory was aimed at large scale manufacturing in particular. However the fundamental principle behind TOC could be of benefit to many people and in many areas of their lives, not least the running of their businesses or websites.

Most business owners ask ourselves, ‘what are all the great things we could do to improve our sales/be more awesome?’. It’s a positive thought, looking outward and upward for untapped opportunity. So in our own case of SelfAssemblySites, to improve sales we could say

1. We could do a big drive and marketing push on Facebook
2. We’ve been neglecting our YouTube channel, we should release 5-10 videos to increase traffic from Youtube.
3. Pinterest stats show it converts better than Twitter or Google+ so we should really put more resources into building that up

On quick review Pinterest appears the best option. We could dive in and get moving on it immediately. Or should we?

All of these things could be positive for our organisation but implementing any of these, fundamentally misses an important point. They don’t seek out, identify or address the single greatest limitation that slows us getting to our objective. Let’s return to that in a moment.

Unstupid Thinking

Bottleneck (Flickr: bjora857)

Blogger at ‘Unstupid Marketing Newsletter‘ and big time TOC advocate, Linus Rylander put it like this with a really apt analogy. Let’s say in a car assembly line each process takes 3 minutes. So installing the seats takes 3 minutes, the dashboard takes 3 minutes and so on with 20 other parts. Then suddenly installing the rear window takes 9 minutes, now you have a problem. Everything behind the rear window process gets backed up and delayed. No matter what improvements you make to all the previous steps in the chain it won’t matter. You can install the seats twice as fast but you won’t have the benefit. You still have a limitation in the channel, a bottle neck. The output of the whole system will only be every 9 minutes.

That’s the point of maximum leverage, the point where each small improvement will really be felt. You can either find ways to reduce the process to 3 minutes. Or go another direction and create three bays for installing the rear windows thereby allowing an output every 3 minutes.

Theory of Constraints says that once you identify the main thing holding you back, you divert any and all resources, time and manpower available to clearing that constraint. All improvements in any other area won’t add up to the same as reducing or eliminating this one core problem, so you better direct everything toward fixing it.

Remember there is only one main thing at a time holding you back. The theory goes that there’s always one more detrimental than another. Concentrate on that one thing, then the next one and so on, until you have flow in your assembly line. It creates a practical method of continual improvement.

Don’t just take my word for it. Dr Goldsratt’s client list is impressive; Ford, Motorola, General Motors to name a few. At Boeing he achieved a 75% reduction in lead time, a 60% reduction in WIP inventory; and a 150% increase in throughput and an on-time delivery rate that approaches 100%.

TOC Plays Well With Others

This could be seen as a sub section of the 80/20 princple; a small number of factors create a disproportionate effect or result. 5% of your clients generate 50% of your profit on the positive side. On the negative, only 3% of your clients result in 50% of your complaints, frustration and general trouble. Author of the 80/20 Principle  Richard Koch, would be in line with Theory of Constraints in thinking that removing that 3% disruption will lead to a lot more free time and resources to take care of your better clients. Koch generally focuses more on the positive small things that have a big effect, but also suggests that reducing the power of the negatives are important too.

Critical Path (Image: Jeremy Kemp)

TOC is also a little similar to Critical Path Analysis in project management. When worked out, you can see which porject tasks can be done in parallel to each other without too much trouble if they’re running late or early. Crucially it also highlights which are the critical points of most damage to progress should they get delayed or stalled. It allows project managers to take appropriate action to reduce delays and problems in those areas.

So the primary benefits of the TOC way of thinking are that they highlight the greatest constraints that are stopping you doing what you want to be doing. They change your direction and focus of thought from all the things you can do, to reducing the key things holding you back from moving forward. (I know it’s based in management, but if it’s not part of a self-help book empire already, I’ll soon make sure it is!)

The secondary benefits are that they help you separate that which will have a noticeably positive effect in moving you forward and that which are really just the ‘bright shiny object‘ distractions. It helps you put your energy into work that will see greater returns.

Finding Our Limitation

In the case of the SelfAssemblySites example above, we now shift to look at the big picture. With this viewpoint it becomes clear that the single greatest limiting factor in achieving our stated goal of increasing sales, is not traffic but the text and layout of our Join page. We could gain significant benefit in even slight improvements and that’s why we’re working with a copywriter on that page.

So what’s the single biggest bottle neck holding you back?

Click to View Full Cartoon

In this week’s SelfAssemblySites Web News Round Up: the Oatmeal’s tips on getting more Facebook Likes, Google+ gets a makeover, how to scale a $1billion startup from Instagram, your Facebook account archive has been expanded and humorous positive psychology with ‘The Happy Secret to Better Work’.

Google+ Gets More Visual UI Upgrade

New Google+ Layout

After little tweaks here and there, Google+ gets a significant makeover for the profile page, Hangouts, photos, and more. For example, there are some subtle yet significant changes to the navigation, differentiating it more from Gmail, you can also fruther customize the side ribbon or remove it among many other alterations. But is the design a little too reminiscent of Facebook?  Read the article.

How To Scale A $1 Billion Startup: A Guide From Instagram Co-Founder

Instagram was bought by Facebook earlier this week for $1 billion, so usually when that happens it’s worth listening to the story of how the founder got there in his own words. Recently Mike Krieger gave a presentation at an Airbnb event for employees and members of the network, part of a regular series called the Tech Talk. The subject was “Scaling Instagram.” Read the article and view included Scribd Presentation.

Your Facebook Account Archive Now Includes Friend Requests, IP Addresses

Lately Facebook has updated its “Download your information” feature, and has included several new categories. The feature, which can be found in Facebook Account Settings, was first introduced in October 2010, enabling users to download an archive of their entire account history. Read the article and view the bonus, ‘The Evolution of the Facebook Profile‘ Slideshow.

The Happy Secret to Better Work

Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard.

He is also the CEO of Good Think Inc., where he researches and teaches about positive psychology, researching positive outliers, people who are well above average, to understand where human potential, success and happiness intersect. He clearly and humorously describes to organizations how to increase happiness and meaning, raise success rates and profitability, and create positive transformations that ripple into more successful cultures. He is also the author of The Happiness Advantage.