As school districts across the country have come clean about their real graduation rates in recent years, there has been anecdotal evidence from both colleges and businesses of the need to put newly minted high school graduates through a series of remedial courses to tune up their academic skills before they can handle first year college coursework or move into the ranks of workers.

George Winship, editor of The Anderson Valley Post in California writes about how public school failure financially impacts California citizens. Read the rest of this entry »

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 In most small companies sales and marketing is the responsibility of the same person. Often the person in charge has been with the company for some time and what they know about sales and marketing has been learned on the job. Sales and marketing are joined at the hip. In fact your strategic sales plan should be an outgrowth of your strategic marketing plan. Although there are multiple marketing objectives such as investing in customer relationships, building community, establishing your company as content expert in your field, etc., the fundamental purpose of marketing is (drum roll, please) to create sales opportunities.

It is amazing to me how many companies operate without full understanding of the answers to the following questions. So what are the key questions that should be answered for successful sales and marketing to occur?

1. Who is the customer?
2. What problem does our product solve for the customer?
3. How do we reach the customer? Read the rest of this entry »

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photo credit: kobakou

This past week I was privileged to spend a few days with a client and their customer evangelists at the company’s annual User’s Conference. More than most companies who usually pay only lip service to listening to their customers, this company actually walks that talk. The result is a unique partnership between a company and it’s user community.

There was a tangible feeling of shared ownership in the product as well as the relationships between company and users. The users were there to learn more about the product and to give their input into the company’s strategic goals and objectives.

Not only did the company listen, but they created multiple opportunities (formal and non-formal) to listen to the advice of their customers and to thank them. What is remarkable is that the company is so open to having difficult as well as positive conversations with their customers. They really want to know when they get things right and when they get things wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

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Originally, the video posted below  was a presentation for high school students. Since it’s first showing in 2006, it has been seen by millions of people around the world thanks to the viral nature of video sharing. The new version updated last year has been seen by several million people as well and both versions continue to circulate on the Internet.

It is thought-provoking, awe-inspiring and a little bit scary. This 2.0 version is 2 minutes longer than the original but there is no fluff. Among other things, it puts the impact of rapidly growing technology in easy-to-understand terms. Whether you are a K-12 publisher, a K-12 educator or just an interested party, there is plenty to chew on here.

After you watch the video, check out the Shift Happens website wiki for some excellent follow up questions. These are terrific questions that can apply to work teams, strategic planning, education reform, curriculum design, municipal green initiatives, you name it.

We talk a lot about teaching students 21st century skills. These skills are more than just technology skills. The ability to think critically and work collaboratively on a business or social problem will be part of a citizen’s basic toolkit moving forward. Watch this video and you’ll understand why.

What do you think should be in a 21st century toolkit?

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The K-12 publishing market has different drivers than the trade market, no question, but as trade book publishers have been  struggling for some time with dramatic shifts in their sales channels, in some ways they are well ahead of education publishers in learning how to best communicate with their readers online.

In a  recent post at Booksquare, a blog about the book industry, Kassua Krozser has this to say on one our favorite topics - why publishers should add blogs to their websites:

While there is no way for publishers to control the message about their books — the discussion is happening in too many places on too many levels — publishers can participate in more proactive ways. Rather than worrying about the future of reading, why not use today’s technology to entice readers and remind yourselves why you joined this business in the first place?

In educational publishing, the quality most of us share whether publisher or educator is a fundamental excitement about helping kids learn. Perhaps one way to overcome any reluctance about blogging as a K-12 publisher is to push beyond the discussion of the product to the reasons why we do what we do for a living and check our view of the world from a higher altitiude.

We all believe that in some small way we are contributing to the educational journey of teachers and students in this country. What gets you up every morning?

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