#AskPeshev 147: Are You Value-Driven?

What do you value the most as an individual? As an organization?If, at this point of your business, you still have not made up your mind or put together your core values, stop right there. There's no use moving forward with nothing to steer you in a clearer direction towards your business goals. Reflect. Gather. Immerse. Build. This newsletter highlights my latest blog post, 10 Reasons Your Business Needs Core Values, and this week's top stories around the web.I hope to guide and help you move forward and become value-driven. 🚀 Mario

 Business Strategy CIO: Why Must CIOs Invest in Business Analysts to Obtain Better Project Outcomes?According to the PMI Pulse of the Profession report, inaccurate requirements as a result of poor or missing business analysis processes are the second leading cause of project failure (39%), the first reason being changes in an organization’s priorities (41%). There’s no second thought that the requirement’s quality largely determines the end-product quality. Today’s organizations are recognizing the value of business analysis more than ever, ensuring sufficient pre-project analysis is performed to align project, program, and portfolio investments to the strategy, goals, and objectives of the organization.Read more… Management Forbes: How To Use Change Management To Execute A New Marketing VisionChange is in the air. Between the Covid-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation, organizations and workplaces have been changing dramatically to cater to new needs and improve their outcomes. These dramatic changes are happening—and when they’re not, they likely should be happening—in marketing management, too.Read more… Recruitment The National Law Review: Using EQ to Shape a More Successful Hiring ProcessIf an organization's values, ethics, and behaviors form the framework of workplace culture, emotional intelligence (EQ) is the glue that holds it all together. In the past few years, we have observed that both candidates and clients are placing a greater emphasis on emotional intelligence in the interview and selection process. Candidates are mission-driven and are selecting organizations and roles based on the organization’s commitment to social change and causes. Similarly, clients are employing emotional intelligence as a factor in interviews as an EQ fit is increasingly a predictor of a successful fit between candidate and client.Read more… Marketing Entrepreneur: Inconsistency is a Content Marketing Poison, But It Doesn't Have to BeYou've got great writers. You have a reputable brand. You spend time, money and effort on your content strategy. So why aren't all those efforts paying off? There are many reasons why content marketing strategies fail to see a positive return on investment (ROI). But one of the most nefarious culprits is also one of the least acknowledged: inconsistency. Why is inconsistency such a content marketing poison and what can your business do about it?Read more… Sales Entrepreneur: 5 Ways to Use Texting to Grow Your Sales and MarketingYou need customers' attention, and text messaging is one of the best ways to get it. Most texts are read instantly, and typical response times are within a couple of minutes. No other channel has that kind of consistent engagement. Once you have customers' attention, you can do myriad things to improve your sales and marketing and grow your business. Below is a breakdown of five:Read more… Featured Stories of the Week Mario Peshev: 10 Reasons Your Business Needs Core ValuesI’ve been quoted in hundreds of roundups on all sorts of management and leadership questions—from ways to build resilience (Forbes) through identifying toxic cultures (Inc) to warning signs for new hires (Small Business Trends). While looking for the “Philosopher’s Stone” (or the next “Golden Rush”) is a normal human trait, there’s a deeper problem to identify first. There are endless “right” answers. When I speak about company culture, management traits, or building effective teams, I always refer to the ideal individuals as “proper human beings”. My definition is broad, but it taps into core principles such as honesty, integrity, passion, care, loyalty, teamwork, dedication, and determination.Read more…LinkedIn: How Hard is Building a WordPress WebsiteThere are certain buzzwords like cloud, AI, Web3 etc. that get thrown in at various shapes and forms, and it's impossible to fully gauge or assess (especially when used for selling premium solutions OR clickbait for automated tools). WordPress, powering 43% of the web now, falls in the same bracket - with over 7,000,000 freelancers and contractors providing WordPress services. That said, over 85% of them (I ran an analysis several years back) provide turnkey solutions, selling templates and platforms, and anything in-between. Which is totally fine - except for the dilution of terminology around "development" or "design" services. So every time a question around scope/estimation of WordPress work comes up... "it depends".Read more…