Ok it’s been started! A friend of mine, Ton Rodenburg saw a post I made on Facebook about naming my newsletter and recommended I turn it into a contest. So here goes, suggestions can be made here on my blog, on Facebook, or emailed to me. They must be in by January 31 2010.

• Company and Newsletter focus is the connection between Brand and Culture
• Primary target market is the construction industry with 15+ employees
• NO STEALING from other companies—sorry but I am a stickler for honesty!
• It is a monthly newsletter 

If you would like to see the suggestions that already came in, check out the Omicle, Brand or Culture or my Facebook pages. I will do what I can to keep them all up to date!

Numbers seem to be an enigma for most businesses. Very few truly understand what they mean; most guess and some just do not track. Even when you understand what they mean, communicating them to your employees can be an even bigger challenge, as most people are ‘allergic to numbers’.

In Drive Business Performance, Bruno Aziza and Joey Fitts give an example from Scottrade about communicating numbers—which by the way, I HIGHLY recommend the book!  Here is my take on two points they made.

1. Don’t assume the audience knows everything. You know the age old saying about ASSuming so keep that in mind when conveying numbers to your employees and to the market. Keep the presentation simple, clear, and free of jargon.
2. Don’t confine the decision to the prescribed action. Always provide the original graph with the interpretation to increase your credibility. The interpretation should not override the analytics conveyed in the original numbers. Allow the viewer to draw their own conclusions.