Martians Reunited

On a typical English summer evening (torrential rain and moderately chilly), twenty Mars alumni gathered under the shadow of Windsor Castle.

In a world in which almost all global brands are “socially active,” the question is no longer whether Social Marketing is important. Everyone agrees that it’s crucial. The more pressing question is: How can you structure and evolve the global marketing organization so that it becomes Social Marketing Ready?

This week Tom Peters gave a presentation in Sydney which he said was his 'last word on people'. Here we have selected those 50 slides which we thought would resonate most for Martians.

They can be distributed freely provided Tom Peters' authorship is acknowledged and respected. See www.tompeters.com for full details)

The 5 Key Drivers of  Global Marketing Effectiveness -an article from Robert Jan d’Hond's business Effective Brands.

How leaders kill meaning at work - a Harvard Business Review article about the role of leaders in providing meaning and how this affects creativity, productivity, commitment and collaborative working.

Bob Beveridge writes about Diversity on boards and how to improve board effectiveness.

McKinsey articles on women in senior management, marketing, and the employment challenge in the US. 

A selection of new articles from Bain targeted at FMCG: HR in emerging markets, growth trends and competition in private label

Dan Pink using innovative graphics to argue that the key to motivation is job mastery and purpose not money

David Drennan writes about the 12 most important rules for great front-line teamwork

Sam Turner writes about shooting alligators (in the context of quality improvement)

David Drennan writes about the business benefits of employee engagement

David Attenborough analysing the behaviour of dragons in the business world.

Job descriptions are brought out for a new employee, or for job evaluation, but otherwise they sit neglected and forgotten in a drawer.

In part 2 of Producing Actionable Company Goals, David Drennan explores the other three principles - Consistency, Leading by Example and Celebrating Success

Business social media offer companies unique opportunities to engage people and share knowledge and understanding. Lis Long reflects on her experience of working in Martians Reunited

David Drennan outlines some principles for defining clear, actionable company goals

Learning how to negotiate Win-Wins is a must for you and good for your business, writes Paul Jackson.

Paul Jackson writes about the Major Developments of 2009 which have changed the marketing landscape

Why do front-line managers fail and what can be done to avoid failure?  Philippe Bellande writes about management derailers

Paul Jackson, a Board member of the World Federation of Advertisers, outlines the value of advertising in the modern world

If you are starting a new business, there is a new corporate kid on the block  worth considering as an alternative to the usual shareholder company. This is the limited liability partnership.

Mike Smith & Paul Jackson share some conclusions from their new Employer Brand Strength Audit  which aims to help business leaders address fundamental issues of engagement and motivation.  

Many Martians find themselves becoming consultants at some stage in their career. Tony makes some useful and insightful suggestions, from his  experience of setting up SigDiff, for anyone thinking about going down the same track.

Brand equity is now a key business asset and owning, managing, developing and caring for brands is a core business competence. In this lucid and persuasive article, Paul highlights ten key rules for all who own and manage brands.

You control the fate of your company, so why not control its valuation? In this paper James Amoroso reviews ways of ensuring that your company's share price is both fair and stable by offering appropriate communication and financial guidance to the investment community.

CCL Resources on Leading and Building Organisations. Here we give you summaries and links to 45 key articles made available by the Center for Creative Leadership

This chapter from "E-marketing - the essentials" looks at marketing tools for web-based marketing, search-engine-based marketing (SEM) and e-mail marketing.

How to achieve and defend successfully a 90% segment share

The great thing about employee attitude surveys is that they tell you not only what the real problems are, but where they are

Wie man mit innovativen Marktforschungs-Methoden gezielt und nachhaltig zu einem Segmentanteil von 90 Prozent gelangt.

Richard Baraniuk is founder of Connexions (www.cnx.org), a free, open-source, global clearing house of course materials on everything from engineering to ornithology.

This new book from Katherine Woods and Kevin Holligan is a practical guide to successful meeting design. Each of the seven steps contains graphic templates with detailed instructions and tips. You can download and use Step One here.

Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce - and makes a broader point about the nature of choice and happiness.

Consultant and author of ‘Mass customization’, Joseph Pine's books and workshops help businesses create what modern consumers really want: authentic experiences. In this video, he looks at authenticity, what it is and how to achieve it.

The marshallow challenge, a traditional team task, has generated some fascinating research on the nature of collaborative working

Open Innovation has been a hot topic for the last 5 years, and is very much on the management agenda as a way of improving innovation success rates.

Maintaining a diverse and inclusive workplace is critical to an organisation’s future success.  A diverse team operating to its full potential is one of the biggest levers an organisation can have to create competitive advantage.

In a knowledge economy, your Intellectual Property is your most valuable business asset and, like tangible assets, can be bought and sold. Here are a few key things you need to know to secure your rights and avoid pitfalls.

Fly across the United States and you'll see it everywhere you go. Giant white letters spelling out the name of global grocery giant Wal-Mart on the roof of every superstore, town after anonymous town.
Take a moment to consider which corporate chief decided to display the name of his company where 99 per cent of customers would never see it.

This article is about the coaching process, the relationship between coach and client and the benefits of coaching.

It started with a technical advantage - it ended with a great brand. This phrase captures the beginning of the great history of Uncle Ben's, the world’s biggest rice brand.

Managing people and discussions in a meeting is hard enough, but managing all the charts and ideas and agreed actions at the same time presents another, equally tough challenge.  In this chapter from their new book, Meeting Magic, Katherine Woods and Ingrid Uden share some of their principles and techniques.