ChangeThis
ChangeThis is our weekly series of essays from today's thought leaders that are meant to evoke conversation by bringing forth new and unique ideas.
ChangeThis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Substitution Economy: How Small Changes in Our Day-To-Day Spending Can Shake the World.
By James Marshall Reilly
"We are, to some degree, what we buy. Or at least we can become a bit closer to who we want to be based on the products we use, consume, and wear. As consumers our brand alignment can function not only as a means for public self-identification, but also as an important source of self-affirmation. The brands we purchase can become, in a sense, our personal position statement. Each of us can define ourselves publicly, and we can simultaneously feel good about who we are privately, as a direct result of our consumption patterns."
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Blog / ChangeThis
From Dropouts to Fully Functioning Adults: What's Missing in Our Efforts to Fix America's Public Educational System
By Steve Rothschild
"Young people pay a high price for not graduating high school. Drop-outs earn substantially less than their friends who have diplomas—when they're employed. The recession is tougher on them: their unemployment rates are higher than the rest of the population. Their risk of going to jail is higher, too. The rest of America also pays a high price for this awful situation: in lost talent, in lost taxes, the costs of social services we provide, and the costs of dealing with crime. And we can't even say that the whole world is in the same boat. We rank 8th from the bottom in a comparison of high school graduation rates among the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But we don't have to accept this travesty. We can teach young people the attitudes and skills they need to succeed in school and in life. And we can make it worthwhile for schools make the effort."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Generating Repeat Business
By Porchlight
"For any enterprise to thrive, you cannot underestimate the importance of repeat business. The vast majority of senior executives believe that providing good customer service is sufficient to obtain return customers. However, focusing on the service interaction alone is not always enough to generate repeat business; it's building an emotional connection that becomes the loyalty glue."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Make Social Media Sell—Now
By Porchlight
"The 'social media revolution' is over-hyped nonsense. The real business opportunity is to become more relevant and meaningful to customers in ways that create sales. Few will question the impact social media is having on people's lives. From assisting political revolutions to simply reconnecting us with old friends, social media is touching our lives in meaningful ways every day. But with all the stories you're hearing about the power of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social networks, the one question you may be asking is 'how can my business actually make money with social media?'"
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Blog / ChangeThis
Shift & Reset
By Porchlight
"I am angry. There are real problems facing the world, and we, as a society, are not doing enough to address them in the right ways, not the ways we know are possible. The old way isn't working, and we know it. We continue to reward the same behaviors we have rewarded in the past while expecting different results. We profess interest in really doing things differently but settle into routines that are comfortable and safe, and we are fooling ourselves. There are lots of excuses for not making real, demonstrable changes in the way we live, work, and how we interact as individuals and engage in groups/communities. I have heard them all. I have used many of them myself. But they are bullshit. All excuses are. A person either truly, deeply, genuinely cares about changing things or he doesn't. You can step up and do what it takes, in whatever way you can, or you need to acknowledge your limits and accept the results. What might be possible if we were really committed, as individuals and as a society.
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Blog / ChangeThis
GROW: How to Change the Narrative of Business
By Jim Stengel
"It's time to change the narrative of business. From a winner-take-all tale, no-holds-barred, no matter what the cost to individual firms, investors, the economy, and society, to doing business on the basis of what I call brand ideals, shared ideals of improving people's lives. Wider adoption and leveraging of brand ideals would be the best medicine the economy could possibly get. Instead of inflating a bubble that would sooner or later burst with tragic consequences for everyone, it would trigger and sustain unprecedented growth in every sector it touched. Make no mistake, however. The business case for brand ideals is not altruism. It's self-interest and mutual interest. In addition to its wider positive impact, a devotion to brand ideals will do more for your own business and career than any other factor. Maximum business growth and high ideals are not incompatible. They're inseparable."
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Transcendent Leadership: How to Lead Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime
By Les McKeown
"What if your leadership role just felt, well... right: demanding, yes, but fun too; challenging but controllable; intense but invigorating? What if with every step on the ladder of leadership you felt more comfortable, more 'in the zone,' less stressed, less pressured? What if each successive leadership role brought out more of what makes you you, rather than asking you to compromise your core values, bury your deepest wishes, hold ransom your dreams? Having coached and advised hundreds of leaders, I know this isn't a pipe dream. From frequent observation, I know that it's not only possible to be relaxed, fulfilled and energized by leadership, it is in fact precisely how the most consistently successful leaders operate.
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Blog / ChangeThis
It Really is As Simple As ABC: What Leaders Can Learn from Masterful Orators of the Past
By Porchlight
"Millions of meetings and presentations occur daily. Each of these presentations is meant to drive 'someone' to do 'something.' And what do the vast majority of these presentations have in common? Unfortunately, they usually fail to get anyone to do anything. There are so many noble causes led by charismatic, effective leaders, yet it is still difficult for many of these leaders to establish a clear message that resonates and connects with their audience, not due to the content or nobility of cause, but because we are all subject to information overload. But, masterful orators have succeeded in every generation, and one factor that has not changed over time is the ability of a master orator to captivate and move audiences, to attain levels of success that many thought were unachievable at the time. And each of them mastered the ABC's of communication."
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The Promise of Entrepreneurship
By Porchlight
"We are made to believe that when it comes to business success, bigger is always better. In our super-sized, consumption-oriented culture, not even small business is exempt from the pressure to grow for growth's sake. We fixate on top-line revenue growth and increasing numbers of employees and locations. We pepper entrepreneurs with questions such as, 'What are your plans for expansion. What's next. How many cities will you go to. ' instead of asking what their goals are or why they started their business in the first place. When talk about growth we focus on speed, not sustainability. When we talk about success we focus on size, not satisfaction. So much so that entrepreneurs doubt their own success and skill if they aren't pursuing the largest form of their business possible. We've talked with countless business owners who run profitable ventures, make a good living, enjoy what they do every day, and have significant impact in their industry—but who also hesitate to call themselves successful.
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Blog / ChangeThis
Does Your Customer Really Need You? Lessons from Zappos
By Joseph Michelli
"For those of you not familiar with Zappos, the company is an online retailer who defied the odds and built an Internet empire, initially as a virtual shoe store and now expanding its inventory well beyond shoes alone. Zappos has always charged top dollar for its products and has succeeded primarily because the leadership innovated an experience that consistently exceeds the expectations of customers, vendors, and people who simply encounter the brand. ... Unlike other failed online vendors from the "dot gone" bust, Zappos invested in both the delivery infrastructure and the corporate culture necessary to produce customer evangelists. To help you appreciate how Zappos might serve as a provocative benchmark for your customer experience, let me give you a few highlights from the 5 principles outlined in The Zappos Experience"
Categories: changethis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.