Rick Ross on Business, Software and Life

Interesting Business Posts #1

This collection of posts is comprised of three excellent reads from the Harvard Business Review blogs.

Motivation

The first post takes note of an interesting phenomenon regarding motivation. The author underscores the results of an experiment with a related personal experience.

Who's more motivated? Someone paid at their regular rate, someone asked to work at a discounted rate or someone asked to help as "a favor".

While the post will be of interest to all leaders, this one's essential for nonprofit execs. For them it contains a gem of a practical tip. 

A Story About Motivation

Metrics

Metrics must be used with caution. Without careful consideration and design they can introduce unintended bias.

The author of the next article puts it this way:

"As humans, we're hard-wired to infer causality from correlation: when the numbers go up, we tend to take credit. But when the numbers go down, we tend to blame someone or something else."

The article concludes by describing three valuable ways to avoid common mistakes when formulating metrics.

Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics

Consumer Behavior

This collection's final post describes how product labeling affects consumer behavior. How did customers react when Starbucks began publishing calorie information about its offerings? Read the surprising results in the article linked below. Note that it's labeled!

Calorie Labeling at Starbucks (727 Words, 6 Minutes to Read)

The Genius of Simplicity

"Text “Haiti” to 90999 to give a $10 donation". Genius! Credit the Red Cross with leveraging the power of simplicity and convenience. Their strategy is resulting in a highly effective campaign to help those devastated by the recent earthquake in Haiti. 

On the surface, the campaign might seem unremarkable. It's when you consider the roads not taken that the effort becomes extraordinary. They managed to hold-off complexity and over-analysis.

In most organizations, response to a major crisis would require a meeting of top executives. These are usually people who have demonstrated exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills to climb the career ladder. Each desires to add their mark to the final result.  

While in this case the decision certainly made pre-crisis, imagine the discussion: Why $10? Let's make it $25. Shouldn't we offer different size donations? Why only one? What if donors don't want the charge on their phone bill? What if they want to pay by check or credit card? Many people don't use text messages! We're going to alienate important demographic groups!