(Time to read this Blog is about 3 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “There’s more money lost through indecision than wrong decision. We often overcomplicate problems as an excuse to not make a decision.  What important decision are you avoiding …and what will you do address them?” 
    …Donald Cooper.

2. Quick Biz Tip:
    
   Don’t fall into the ‘research trap’:  Many businesses spend huge sums of money on ‘customer research’ to find out exactly what their customers want.  Then, when they deliver that, they wonder why customers don’t go “WOW”.
    
   What they don’t realize is, they’ve fallen into ‘The Research Trap.’  It works like this.  When we ask people what they want, they only tell us what they expect.  But, getting what we expect is not “WOW”…it’s just, “That’s nice.”
    
   “WOW” is getting more than we expect.  It’s the delight and joy of having our expectations exceeded.  That’s “WOW”.   So, here’s the breakthrough insight….
    
   ‘We do research, not to find out what we should do…we do research to find out that which we must exceed!’
    
3. The good and the ‘not so good’ of indoor farming. Indoor farming uses one-tenth of the water required to grow similar crops outdoors.   But they don’t often talk about their energy use.
    
   For example, most greenhouse-grown tomatoes in North America have a carbon footprint six times larger than field grown tomatoes.  They could cut their energy use in half if they adopted Dutch greenhouse technology.  The question for your business is, what technologies and best practices, used elsewhere in your industry, could improve your efficiency…and what will you do to make it happen? 
    
4. This week’s fun fact. In spite of being the ‘mounted police’, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) has North America’s largest fleet of police cars.
    
5. London Drugs refused to pay $25 million to cyber attackers. London Drugs, a chain of 79 stores in Western Canada refused to pay the huge ransom to cyber criminals who hacked their Head Office systems.
    
   Because some employee information was hacked, the company will pay for 24 months of Credit Monitoring & Identity Theft Protection for all employees. 
    
   What are you doing to secure your systems from cyber criminals…and what’s your pre-thought-out Plan if you get hacked?

6. Ford is losing more than $100,000 on every electric car sold. According to Bloomberg News, Ford’s Electric Vehicle Division is expected to lose $5.5 billion in 2024, which is more than double the loss from the prior year.

Now, to this week’s important topic:

6 Tips on how to use my Blog articles in your business:

1. Forward my Blog to your management and supervisory Team when you see an article that will be helpful. Or, even better, have your managers and supervisors sign up to receive my Blog directly by going to donaldcooper.com.
    
2. Use relevant Blog articles as the subject for your next Management Meeting. Send the Blog item to all participants at least 4 days before the Meeting and ask everyone to come prepared to contribute.  Hundreds of our Blog readers around the world do this on a regular basis.
    
3. If you sell B2B and have a regular Blog or E-Newsletter that you send to clients and prospects, you can include any of my Blog articles that will be helpful. All we ask is that you properly attribute the article to me, including my email address.
    
4. When you read one of my Blog articles that you know will be helpful to one or more of your clients, forward it to them with a note saying, “I thought this Article from Donald Cooper will be insightful for you.”
    
5. If you have a family member or friend who is studying at a Business School or College somewhere on the planet, suggest that they sign up for my Blog (donaldcooper,com) and read it every week for some real-world learning that will give them a real leg up.
    
6. If you’re a manager in your company, or want to be, take the ideas from my Blog each month and discuss them with your boss with suggestions as to how those ideas can improve performance in some key area. Suggest an implementation Plan.  Commit to outcomes.  You’ll look like the sharpest person on the Team.    

That’s it for this week…

Stay safe…live brilliantly!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.