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16 Great Free Business Tools

DID YOU KNOW ... that only 12% of the Internet's content is reachable by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.  The other 88% of what's on the web is behind log-ins and registration fields -- so the major search engines cannot "spider" it.  Simply put, Google only gives you the tip of the iceberg.

As an executive recruiter and executive search firm owner, I use special software tools that enable me to access much of what's on the "Deep Web."  Very often, my candidates are the most thoroughly prepared candidates in any given executive search.

My approach to executive search is simple:  Find, recruit, and motivate a small, diverse handful of previously successful, business-oriented candidates -- and educate the hell out of them.  Mostly, I use my powerful web search tools to help my candidate's prepare for job interviews.

However, sometimes I use these tools just for fun.  For example, today I used one of my tools to dredge up 16 freely accessible articles from the Harvard Business Review.  See for yourself ...

1. Growth as a Process
2. How to Play to Your Strengths
3. Leadership in Your Midst - Tapping the Hidden Strength of Minority Executives
4. They're Not Employees, They're People
5. The Perfect Message at the Perfect Moment
6. Schizophrenia at GM (by Jack Trout)
7. Competing on Analytics
8. Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance
9. How Strategists Really Think
10. Outsourcing Marketing
11. Why Satisfied Customers Defect
12. Managing for Creativity
13. Your Company's Secret Change Agents
14. The One Number You Need to Grow
15. All Strategy Is Local
16. It's Time to Retire Retirement

If you're pressed for time, marketers MUST check out articles # 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, and 15.  If you are in HR, be sure to read articles # 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, and 16.  Notice # 8 is on both lists.  I have bolded in red my personal favorites.

Technorati tags:  Business  Tools

Online Retail and Ecommerce

What's the difference between online retailing and online media?  Don't look now, but for fans of Home Depot -- the line just got more blurry.

In an unusual move to subsidize its online business, Home Depot has begun to offer prime product placement on its homepage.  Click here for a demo.

According to Nielsen NetRatings, Home Depot's website is visited by 4 million shoppers each week, nearly 90% of whom own their own homes.  And now "Vendors can communicate their stories via video," according to HD's Director of Online Marketing, Greg Foglesong.

Three things are interesting about this:

It makes Home Depot a media company -- allowing it to compete with Martha Stewart and HGTV.  This is right in line with Todd Herman's recent comments on Beet.TV.  Pay very, very close attention to what this guy is saying -- and consider thoughtfully how this trend might effect your company (and your job) in 5-7 years.

It takes CPG multichannel merchandising to a whole new level.  In the past, CPG companies like Heinz, Colgate, Coke, and Rubbermaid were unable to reach their end users in a way that could measurably and immediately stimulate demand for their products.  Yes, they could run newspaper ads or feature coupons in the retailer's store environment -- but they couldn't actually tweak their promotions on the fly.  This changes all of that.  Shorter customer feedback loops will increase product development velocity, and that will change the nature of how products are launched and sustained.

It enables new entrants to make inroads into a competitive category much more quickly.  For example, two weeks ago I had a dream that I became rich after inventing a curiously strong, Altoids-like toothpaste called "Bully."  If copied by the likes of Publix and Walmart, Home Depot's move would allow similar niche consumer products to find a wider audience almost immediately.  And the clickthroughs of niche product ads will provide real-time market research to the retailer that there is a strong demand for high-intensity products like Bully or Jones Cola.  Retailers always follow the money, and rolling waves of colorful, clutter busting, here-today-gone-tomorrow niche products could easily impact our society in new and unforeseen ways.

I agree with Rupert Murdoch, who thinks that we are in the top of the second inning of the Internet era.  These are exciting times to be a marketer, and that excitement will be a good thing for marketing candidates who take the time to understand how the latest web apps can interplay with traditional marketing strategies.

Resume writing: "Are you a winner?"

I received a resume today from a guy who's a former NFL player with the NY Jets and Oakland Raiders.  I freaking love that.  Why?  Because it shows that ...

1. The guy understands the Law of the Farm.  You can't cram on the farm.  Plan.  Sow.  Nurture.  Reap.  That's the deal.  Season after season.  Overnight sensations don't exist.  It's the same way in life.  Wanna play in the NFL?  Dream about it.  Sleep in NFL pajamas.  Have heroes.  Play Pop Warner.  Dream about it some more.  Play in middle- and high-school.  Get your ass kicked.  Get right back up again.  Do wind sprints until you puke.  Keep dreaming.  Play college ball.  Etc.  Eventually, you blossom into a real ball player.  That doesn't happen over night, and neither does the ability to bring in a good crop.  That mentality is indispensable in building a business.
2. The guy knows how to win.  Winning takes self composure -- which, ironically, requires selflessness.  Winning takes humility so that you can take your ego out of the game and get into "the Zone."  Humble people lack the fear of being humiliated, and that enables fearlessness.  Winning is about being able to see yourself in the third person -- if you see yourself at all.  Winning and excellence and humble service to others share a common thread:  They are all selfless states. That mentality is indispensable in building a team.
3. The guy is adaptable.  He didn't buy-in to all of the rock-star adoration that people drip all over ball players and then fail to adapt in the real world, where workaday stiffs like us scrape out a living.  He went from NFL player to faceless Wan Administrator without bitching.  And now, he has actually done something with his white collar career, and his NFL career is just a footnote on his resume.  John Wooden was right:  Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.  That mentality is indispensable in building a life.

What about you?  Are you like this former ball player?  At what activity have you excelled in your own life?  Is it on your resume?  Are you approaching your own career with the same level of passion -- for the love of the game?  Or are you living in the past?
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"If you wish to be considered (passively and discreetly) for a significantly better career opportunity, simply upload your resume into my database. Your information will not be shared without your prior knowledge and consent." -- Harry / (678) 795-0900