ThinkingSparks

Hostmanship (and a book give-away)

I am smitten with the concept of Hostmanship! Services marketing has always really fascinated me to no end because the employees in the business have such a great impact on how a business and brand is perceived and experienced. Very often in marketing the focus is on advertising or promotion, which to me is an important part of marketing,but not the whole picture.

What I like about Hostmanship is that when explained as the "Art of making people feel welcome" you instantly get it. Everyone has at least some inkling of what making people feel welcome, is all about. Even if you may not be very good at it yourself.

The second thing I like about the concept of Hostmanship is that if you apply it to other businesses than those in the hospitality industry, it still holds up. You can apply it if you run a hospital, a gym, a nail studio, a networking group, consultancy, sell cup cakes, or an art gallery. It doesn't really matter what you do, you want to make your guests a.k.a. you customers feel welcome.

The third thing I like about Hostmanship is that it fits so well with anything I know about services marketing. It resonates with me and I think the authors say it so much better than dry theory.

Jan Gunnarsson wrote the book with Olle Blom and there is a world of experience behind the concept of Hostmanship. Check out Jan Gunnarsson speech at TedX Maastricht. If you are not into video, check out their company's PDF About Hostmanship.

We received three copies from Jan Gunnarsson to give away. Enter the sweepstakes before Sunday March 11th, 8 AM (Amsterdam time that is). The whole world can play.

Jan Gunnarsson - "Hostmanship: the art of making people feel welcome" from Hostmanship on Vimeo.

The bathtub method

I do not have a bath tub. A shower suffices to keep me clean and usually I do not have the time nor the patience to take baths. A couple of weeks ago I was staying at my brother's house and in order to find some peace and calm from the 3 boy household I withdrew into the bathroom.

Not only was it physically cleansing but also mentally. I never realized it was so totally relaxing and such a source of new thinkingsparks. While in the bath I had tons of ideas, which of course I thought were all brilliant:-) and some are on its way to be executed. Also I did not only have ideas for myself but for others too.

Photo credit: "Tubby Tub by Albionbathco.nl".

Some years ago as part of my master in philosophy of management & organization I took a class in methods of philosophy. The goal of such methods is to create room for reflection in organizations. All fun and interesting methods that do work. I found that the bathtub method works for my one woman organization. (It is hard to have a Socratic dialogue all by myself, after all.)

What do you do for quiet, reflection and inspiration?

Chance at a $ 25.000 MBA scholarship

Along with other people I am one of the sponsors of the "The Minority Talent Scholarship for the Americas" offering a chance to do an international MBA at Nyenrode Business University (founded 1946) in The Netherlands. For more information check out the link.

This year we could not give out the scholarship as no students applied for it. I am asking to the readers of this weblog to help us in finding eligible student for the coming year and please forward this information. The deadline is less than two months away.

Of course people could always chose to (not) attend NoBS, but then they would miss out on the experience of going to business school in a beautiful castle in The Netherlands.

Male and female brainpower…

“You: The owner’s manual” (a book on the human body) states that women’s brains are better equipped for analyzing complex situations and that men’s brains do a better job at problem solving. A really interesting fact as it generated the following three thoughts:

1. Men and women need each other within organizations to analyze and solve the problems the organization faces.
2. If that is really the case why are so many organizations headed by men? By themselves they do not have the full potential of brainpower. And if ego's get in the way, listening to others is out.
3. Surprising fact as I thought that women would be the more practical problem solvers.