The Full Monty: Your Most Important Stakeholders - July 2, 2018

Keep your most important stakeholders in mind when making decisions; preparing for the A.I. winter; learning more about machine learning; new mobility options afoot; the 21st century brand economy means direct connections with consumers; GE and journalism; telling your most powerful stories; Amazon steamrolls everyone – vendors, brands, and delivery services; how IGTV will pay for itself; Twitter's most unlikely comeback; gaming addiction is real; how music streaming services compare; new privacy law in California may have wide-ranging effects; just about everyone is breaking the GDPR law; what SEOs do when Google removes organic search traffic; an intro to marketing analytics; the secret to double-digit growth; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the Your Most Important Stakeholders edition of The Full Monty from Brain+Trust Partners for the week of July 2, 2018.

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Top Story

As a C-level executive, you might think the most important stakeholders in your organization are the stockholders. Or perhaps the board. You know – the very people who have the power to fire you. To a certain extent, you might even think customers are at the pinnacle. And in some ways, they are.

But there's one group of stakeholders that plays a even more important role in the way your customers experience satisfaction and how your board derives value.

Your employees.

It's an often overlooked group that is taken for granted. Your employees represent all of the above and more. If you're running a publicly-traded company, they are shareholders. If you create products, they most likely buy those products as well. They own relationships with your suppliers, they may be the front line to customer complaints (whether or not it's their official job). They are your ambassadors through how they share their experience working for your company with friends, family members, and colleagues at other companies.

In short, you owe it to your employees – and to the rest of your stakeholders – to ensure that your employees are satisfied and that their morale is high.

This means constant and clear communication about the vision for your organization and decisions you make that may impact their livelihood. They need to feel as if they're part of something bigger, contributing to something of value. If they feel as if their trust is betrayed or that the organization is moving in a way that is antithetical to their beliefs, the ripples will begin to form, and before you know it, you'll have a disgruntled employee base.

Obviously, you can't satisfy every employee desire or belief, but if you've set out a strong value system for your company – if you have core beliefs and a mission that you regularly share – then there should be no surprises. It's when companies or divisions within companies make questionable choices that violate these beliefs or mission that things begin to go sideways.

And so it should be no surprise that recent employee revolts at Amazon, Microsoft and Google are tied directly to those companies' decisions on some very sensitive areas. Specifically: Amazon's facial recognition software being offered to police departments; Salesforce's contracts with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, following the migrant issues; and Google's contract with the Pentagon for drones. In each case, employees have taken it upon themselves to create a petition for the company to cease such arrangements. And in each case, the companies have backed off. And in each case, the actions specifically countered the mission statements of the companies: Salesforce's mission is in part "to improve the state of the world." Google's mission is famously "do no evil."

So it isn't just external shareholder activists that CEOs need to be aware of. The threat is much closer at hand. The real threat isn't your employees. It's the decisions you make and how you communicate those decisions.

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.

Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ

A.I. experts are worried the field is on the brink of a scenario similar to the dotcom bubble bursting. It’s called an A.I. winter. And, if it happens, it could leave a lot of researchers, investors, and entrepreneurs out in the cold.
Benedict Evans with some direction on how to think about machine learning.
Here's a collection of eight expert-led courses that provides an engaging, no-stress introduction to a wide range of machine learning concepts and prerequisites.
If A.I. begins to think like a human, it might need a therapist, too. Who gets the co-pay?
MIT economist Daron Acemoglu says A.I. doesn't mean we're facing an imminent end of work, but we do need new roadmaps.
Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon all invested in Tact.ai, a CRM system built for salespeople that works on voice rather than text.
Amazon launched an Alexa system for hotels. It will act as something of an automated concierge. Of course, it will be listening to you in your hotel room...

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

Ford, with its purchase and planned renovation of the long-vacant Michigan Central Terminal, has given it a new lease on life with plans for the future of mobility.
Lime is the latest entrant in the electric scooter craze, and this is how it's pitching investors.
Investors in Lime include Alphabet and Google Ventures.

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

Brands with direct connections to their consumers are disruptive, digitally savvy, fueled by data, and will be the growth engine of the new economy. Via the IAB.
If your company is looking to succeed in the digital age, it needs a new playbook. And that requires basing strategy on customer engagement. Because if you build an ecosystem that doesn't effectively meet customer engagement needs by bringing value to them, you'll fail.
Big consulting firms are the agency of the future.
The three C's of customer service success by Shep Hyken. It really is that simple.

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

An interview with Thomas Kellner, editor-in-chief at GE, about the journalistic approach to content at GE.
Infographic: 50 words and phrases for a more powerful social media strategy.
Nancy Duarte shares how to identify and tell your most powerful stories.
As you're preparing your next influencer campaign, consider how you'll gather and utilize information to inform its success.
And if you want people to trust you on social media, consider partnering with a technical or academic expert rather than a celebrity.

The 4th annual Digital Summit Detroit is coming up Sept 12-13. Keynotes
include Chelsea Handler, Scott Dikkers (Founder of The Onion), and Evernote CMO Andrew
Malcolm. Plus over 50 in-depth digital marketing sessions led by brands including
Waze, BuzzFeed, Jaguar, Discover, Salesforce, and more.
Register with promo code MONTY and get $50 off your pass.

Retail Apocalypse

Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.

A ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States makes it possible for states to force retailers to charge tax for items purchased online.
Amazon acquired pharmacy services company PillPack for $100 million. The company sorts and delivers medication, including refills. PillPack’s $100m in revenue is tiny compared to other pharma-giants. But Amazon wasn’t after the company’s revenue, it wanted the company’s 50 licenses (for each state) and innovative sorting service — which will enable resource-rich Amazon to ramp up distribution immediately. The move already put a dent in rivals' stock prices.
Amazon is introducing its own delivery vans, driven by partner companies. But no, they're not competing with FedEx and UPS. Sure...
Kroger is partnering with autonomous driving company Nuro to bring driverless cars to grocery delivery.
How Amazon steers buyers to its own branded products. It's a strategy as old as time: discounts. People want two things, primarily: save them time, or save them money. When you do both (as Amazon does, it's a lock).
Amazon is working the discounts at Whole Foods for Prime members, but the vendors are stuck with the bill.
Kroger is retooling its shelf-stocking operations to remain competitive on price and selection.

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Platforms

News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Facebook is starting to let Group admins charge $4.99 to $29.99 per month for access to special sub-Groups full of exclusive posts. The fees would go directly to Group admins, not to Facebook, allowing them to create better content and experiences for members.
A setting on Android will tell you how much time you're wasting on Facebook. Spoiler alert: too much time.
Instagram hit one billion users and introduced IGTV, a new app for watching long-form vertical video.
Recode argues that Instagram has no business getting into TV until it figures out a way to pay for its shows. Something tells me an old advertising model will be slapped on yet another social platform.
Instagram, through Facebook's recent deal with a number of record labels, is allowing users to add a soundtrack to Stories.
Check out these six Facebook advertising mistakes every marketer makes, and learn how to avoid them.

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter has made a remarkable comeback in the last two years. Once left for nearly dead, it's beating earnings and enjoying a more positive internal culture. How Twitter Made the Tech World's Most Unlikely Comeback.
Twitter still isn't as popular with teens unless you count screenshots on Instagram and Snapchat.
Twitter will require email or phone number confirmation for new accounts, place a warning sign by suspicious accounts, and is using machine learning to find problematic ones in its efforts to clean up bots, trolls and spam.

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Convince and Convert put together a report of the best social media from America's top 50 hospitals. These lessons are great not only for healthcare organizations, but for any regulated industry.
The World Health Organization is adding gaming addiction as a medical condition to the International Classification of Diseases, its highly regarded compendium of medical conditions.

Media

The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

Comcast's Xfinity Mobile service now throttles personal hotspot usage on its “unlimited” plan to 600kbps and caps videos at 480p quality unless users pay extra. Always read the fine print.
Following its acquisition of Time Warner, AT&T is launching a streaming service called WatchTV. A subtle name, considering the next item below.
Next year, people will spend more time online than they will watching TV. I think we passed this milestone at my house about four years ago.
Roku is launching an advertising platform called Audience Marketplace for buyers and sellers, that will use Roku’s own proprietary audience data and technology with trusted third-party data to allow publishers to sell to targeted audiences.
AMC is launching AMC Stubs A-List, a subscription service that will rival Movie Pass and include other AMC-specific perks. Sounds promising, aside from the name.
Meanwhile, here's how Movie Pass stacks up against the competition. The subscription service you choose really depends on your movie-going habits.

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

Spotify, Apple, Amazon, or YouTube? How the music streaming companies stack up. According to the article, Pandora isn’t on the list because "everything it offers—radio and on-demand streaming—is done better elsewhere." Ouch. But true.
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is just in time for your beachgoing holiday: Inside Jaws, from Wondery, who also created Inside Psycho and Inside the Exorcist. A tale of a modest thriller that became an ordeal and then a disaster and then a phenomenon and then a classic. A story of one man, a fresh-faced, inexperienced director who nearly wrecked his promising career and became the most important filmmaker of our era. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.

Privacy / Security / Regulatory

Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.
So many stories in this section this week – more available in our Flipboard magazine.

Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ

The FBI, the SEC & the Federal Trade Commission have joined the Department of Justice in its inquiries into Facebook's personal data practices. That escalated...well, not quickly at all, actually.

Facebook disclosed in new filings to Congress that it had granted some companies and apps access to users' personal information for months after it claimed to shut down access in 2015.
Related: most people don't trust social networks with their data. But they use them anyway. Because what you gonna do?

California has passed a new stringent privacy law, which may pave the way for a larger discussion nationally. It was summarized as "GDPR-light, with some California tweaks to it."
A month after GDPR has taken effect, programmatic ad sales have recovered, but are shifting. Media buyers said many advertisers will move the majority of their programmatic spend away from audience targeting in favor of contextual targeting strategies or direct deals with publishers.

Just about everyone is breaking the law right now, as GDPR compliance efforts are falling short.

Parents: do you really know what your kid is doing on that device?

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

Antitrust experts argue that Facebook and Google's acquisitions have given them dominance in the ad market, with little to no regulatory oversight.
Japan just isn't into sharing. Between tough regulation and popular suspicion, Uber and Airbnb are finding it difficult to gain footing in the Japanese market.
Lyft is following Uber into bike-sharing, with the acquisition of Motivate, the owner of CitiBike and other city-based bike-sharing services.
In its battle with Uber, Lyft's valuation has doubled to $15.1 billion in the last year.
Once Uber began offering a tipping option in its app, Uber drivers saw $600 million in tips in one year.
Uber is testing a new feature that will give riders a cheaper option if they wait longer.

Measurement / Analytics / Data

The future is not in plastics, but in data. Those who know how to measure and analyze it will rule the world.

Search seems to be fading as a hot area for discovery on one hand, but it also matters more than ever. The uber-smart Rand Fishkin explains what SEOs do when Google removes organic search traffic.
Why people make bad charts. And what to do when it happens. Don't judge.
Christopher Penn on Spin Sucks to discuss the finer points of predictive analytics. Particularly how Monty Python helps with predictive analytics.
If you're new to the industry or just stuck, here's a good place to start learning marketing analytics, via BrainTrust Insights.

Mental Nourishment

Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.

The older I get, the more I come to appreciate the wisdom of Mister Rogers. And get teary-eyed at some of the stories he told and that others tell about him. Four Leadership Lessons from Mister Rogers. Won't you be my neighbor?
If you want to be relevant and become an effective leader, work on your emotional intelligence. Interestingly, there's a little overlap with Mister Rogers.
The secret to double-digit growth lies in this one technique.
A look at leaders' calendars: how CEOs manage their time.
America's 20 companies where millennials would most like to work. Ugh! There's that word again.

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Top image credit: Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull (1819) via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Monday, July 2, 2018