David Chan » Facebook

Joint Ventures – A Blueprint for Success

DavidChan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:46:34 +0000

Joint ventures used to be a term that caused a lot of confusion over who, what and why. The “who” related to the parties working together; the “what” referred to the goals of the joint venture; and the “why” was really about the decision to partner rather than to go it alone. These days, creating joint ventures make a lot of sense both offline and increasingly online.

In my most recent blog about the California governor candidates, I pointed out that there is an inverse relationship between marketing spend and Internet “success.” Witness Meg Whitman’s $900,000 investment in Internet marketing and the poor results she’s garnered with Facebook “Fans” and Twitter “Followers” compared to her rivals, Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown.

Joint ventures in this case made a lot of sense. From an offline perspective, it certainly did not hurt Gavin Newsom to get an endorsement from the hugely popular Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton likely pushed Mr. Newsom’s acceptance level in this political battle by several percentage points.

In fact, Mr. Newsom has some 58,000 fans to Ms. Whitman’s 4,500. What is not so obvious, though, are the online joint ventures he created to drive his popularity into the stratosphere … including his one million plus Twitter followers. While it’s possible to grow ones followers and fans organically, it generally takes a lot of time to create that many followers.

Let’s flip the analysis. Over the last several months, I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of celebrity personalities. A common theme always seems to pop up, “doing great, but would like to do better.” This, by the way, is what makes America great … striving for improvement … not just sitting around being happy with the status quo.

When evaluating joint ventures it’s always a great idea to create win / win / win scenarios. Make sure you understand what each party gets out of a relationship. In addition, since these days everyone has limited financial resources and are time constrained, creating a joint venture makes a lot of sense for a very simple reason – shared risk, shared reward.

Let’s take a real example. In creating a new online marketing campaign, we have several requirements for success: testimonials, saleable products, exclusive content, a well known brand, and much more. With limited time and financial resources, the decision to build vs. buy vs. joint venture becomes glaringly obvious – joint venture for those areas where you lack resources or talent and build or buy those pieces which you can control.

Joint ventures don’t have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler they are the more likely they are to succeed. Another simple example of this is obtaining content. Imagine that you are selling timeshares. You can try to create content on your own, but it would be much easier to joint venture with a real estate company. In return for their support, you promote their timeshare inventory.

The possibilities for joint ventures are limited only by your imagination. These days the blueprint for success is to think WAY outside the box. Don’t let naysayers say that it’s never been done before. President Obama didn’t!

The Changing Landscape of Business Development

DavidChan — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:07:22 +0000

Business is done today at warp speed. People are connected not only through the telephone, but also via the Internet, fax machines, cell phones, and, for some, even over satellite transmission. In fact, I was at an event hosted by Leigh Steinberg, where the troops in Iraq had an opportunity to speak live via satellite with a number of celebrities here in the United States. Talk about expediency!

These technologies have dramatically changed the way in which business development is conducted. I remember in the not too distant past that I would pick up the phone, call a business colleague, drive or fly to their office to meet with him / her, sign a contract, return to train and then do the cycle over again to start driving sales. Of course, there are a number steps left out for the sake of brevity.

The business development cycle today remains the same as before, but the tools have changed and the “time to market” significantly compressed. For example, let’s take tools such as Facebook, Plaxo or LinkedIn. The old, physical business card rolodex has been replaced by a number of sleek, interactive web applications. These applications, of course, allow you to instantly find your business associates and their contact details. No more need to search around for their latest information … instant gratification here.

The fax machine as we know it has been replaced with direct fax to and from your email, including the signature page(s). No longer do you need to print out the contract, sign it, find a fax machine, and then send it. A convenient feature of faxing to and from your email is the ability to be anywhere in the world … not tethered to your fax machine.

Let’s talk about training and meetings. In the past, it was almost a certainty that as part of your business development efforts, training and meetings happened in-person. It was hard to imagine having a meeting or training, for example, without a whiteboard or sharing PowerPoint slides. Today, on demand software, such as Yugma, GoToMeeting, or Webex have changed this landscape forever. Not only can your colleagues participate in an online meeting, but one can share PowerPoint slides, collaborate on a whiteboard, switch presenters and even record the meeting for documentation and download at a later date.

While we’re on the topic of online meetings and training, what about hosting a conference call? Not only is this aspect of business development easier, it’s even free. Companies like InstantConference.com or FreeConference.com allow you to set up and record conference calls for nothing, nada. You can even host as many as 150 participants at one time.

And … what about mobile / cell phones? I remember the old days of the “brick” phones. At that time few people could have imagined that a “brick” could ever be a useful device for every day phone calls, let alone business development. Yet, now the mobile device is one of the most productive business development tools of all. It’s especially true given how the device has evolved into the new “computer”. For some, these devices have replaced their need for a regular phone line.

There are plenty more examples of how these advances in technology have changed the business development landscape. The net result has been more productivity for a lot less money.

The Recording Industry … Re-Incarnated

DavidChan — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:43:40 +0000

Every industry has gone through a major overhaul over the last five to ten years. Industries from high tech software; real estate and lending and movies and videos have all felt some level of impact. One of the industries hardest hit is the music recording industry. Internet broadband speeds, digitization of music, and proliferation of MP3 players have all contributed to significant loss of revenue to musicians, songwriters, labels, retail stores, radio stations and more.

Simultaneously, the same events that have contributed to this lost revenue have also compressed the value chain associated with this industry. Now a musician who wants to get his or her music “heard” can just plug in a mike, flip on an electronic keyboard, switch the dial to record and upload to YouTube or Vimeo … Voila, instant “channel”. In this era of digital music uploads and downloads, business development takes on a whole meaning.

But, hold on! Don’t I need a manager anymore? And, what about the Label … aren’t they supposed to help me get my CDs into the record stores? Who’s going to make sure that the radio stations play my music? Who’s going to manage business development for me to make sure I can make money at my craft?

The music industry is walking a slippery slope. Business development in the old days of the music industry was performed by an artist’s manager. His / her job was to get the artist a contract with a Label and get the music into the radio stations. The Label’s job was to press the CD and on and on.

Developing new business today means creating a whole new value proposition in this industry. For example, the major recording Labels are all but gone. CD production is pretty much a thing of the past, thanks to digitization. Internet radio stations and XM radio are eating away at traditional analog radio stations. Even, music publishers are feeling the pinch.

Creating business development opportunities requires thinking outside the box in this new era. As a manager, one should consider how to propagate your artist’s music across multiple Internet and mobile channels. How many “friends” will want to connect to your artist and which ones do you select.

As a music publisher, you can develop business opportunities for your clients through interlinking each artist in your portfolio with each other. In essence, you’d be creating your own Internet music world. That, could in turn, accelerate your clients’ popularity and exposure to more fans.

If you’re the artist, you can take control of your own destiny and business development efforts by creating online profiles for targeted audiences to which you want to connect. Every tool that you’ll need is available online from MySpace to Facebook and YouTube.

The Internet is truly the largest democratic nation in the world. By its very nature of openness and “free speech” anyone has the opportunity to be heard. It’s up to the individual to use the tools and seize the opportunity.