What's New?

The ALLIANCE Academy has teamed up with marketing executive Andrea Pirrotti. With Andrea, the Academy will bring to the industry thought-provoking Webinars and consulting services that provide practical recommendations for business center operators to maximize their return on marketing investment. Andrea's wealth of experience and proven results of driving revenue/profitability for dynamic companies coupled with her in-depth knowledge of the industry make her a highly valuable resource for learning and training.

Don't miss your opportunity to leverage tools that will mitigate the likelihood of competing on the price death spiral, drive leads "now" and increase the lead to sale ratio. The Academy will announce specific Webinar dates and topics shortly.

Masters of the Academy

The ALLIANCE Academy is privileged to have Tony Freeth on board as one of our Technology Specialists. Tony is an Internet pioneer who has created several companies in this field including the world's first Internet training company, which sold to Worldcom-UUNet in 1997. His extensive training credentials include courses for the Internet Society itself, many Fortune 500 companies, and national government awareness projects during the 1990s. He has also been a European Union Rapporteur for Information Society projects, and a lecturer on Marketing for MBA programs.

His past activities include management consultancy, conference speaking, and being published as an IT industry analyst. Tony has been commissioned by Microsoft, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, and many leaders in their field. At the other end of his endeavors, he has also created companies to "bridge the digital divide" using wireless technology to bring the Internet to rural communities.

Since 2002 he has been part of Phoenix Broadband, whose Medusa System is the world's only specialist product for Center Internet and Infrastructure management, and supports nearly 200 centers across the world.

Tony holds an MBA and has served as a qualified Systems Engineer. Utilize Tony and the Academy in your company training, and enjoy the positive results.

Training that Works

A True Industry Professional Does Not Compete on Price

Maybe the reason it seems that price is all your business center customers care about is… that you haven't given them anything else to care about.

Price will play an important part in the customer's buying decisions, but other factors – such as features, customer support and quality, can easily make up for this.

Wal-Mart can compete based on price. Chances are a business center can't. You can increase your chances for success by setting your price and increasing value. Even more, work to increase the perception of the value your business center and your services delivered. Show your market why your center offers more value than your competition.

When there is nothing to differentiate your business center from your competition, you become a commodity. If you offer the same products or services your competition does, you have nothing unique. If your center serves customers the same way your competition does, you're not exceptional.

When your center is the same as your competition it is commoditized. If you don't want to be a commodity make sure there is something to differentiate your center from everyone around you.

To avoid price competition, you must to constantly think of new ways to add value. Continually ask of yourself, your team, and your clients how we can deliver "Exceptional Service" within your offices.

Frontline team members learn quickly how to incorporate added-value selling with our "Selling Services – Increasing Revenue" workshop and Sales Managers increase their market exposure with the "Marketing Strategies – Local to Global" workshop. These are just two of dozens of courses to improve your center success. Click here to view the Academy's continually expanding course catalog.

Case Study

What's the Big Deal about Employee Engagement?

For several years, employee engagement has been a hot topic in the business center industry. There is mounting evidence that employee engagement correlates to individual, group, and organizational performance in the areas of productivity, retention, turnover, customer service, and loyalty.

Engagement is a new word for a very old thing. Engagement is a new term for motivation, passion and commitment. Are you motivating your people, are you caring about your people, and are you challenging your people?

Engagement is made up of rational and emotional commitment. On the rational side, it is largely about getting enough compensation and development opportunities to make it worth your while. Emotional commitment is the ever-elusive love of your job and love of your manager or organization.

According to a study by professional services firm Towers Perrin, only 21% of the global workforce is engaged, while 38% is disengaged. That leaves 41% who are unsure whether they like their job or not.

Engagement is all about creating a culture where people do not feel misused, overused, underused, or abused. Research data has proven, year after year, that the emotional side of engagement is actually four times more powerful than the rational side when it comes to driving the business outcomes we care about, which are employees who want to stay with the company and employee productivity.

One specific finding is that when employees move from being disengaged to being highly engaged, their productivity improves by 20%.

Creating a culture that values learning, career advancement, and employee engagement is not easy, but it is an essential task in the blueprints for organizational success and employee performance. If productivity, retention, turnover, customer service, and loyalty are concerns of yours, then engage the ALLIANCE Academy to develop a formal program to ensure all employees operate from their own strengths and passions.

Focus On...

Don't Let Knowledge Walk out the Door of Your Business Center

For many business centers, the only planning and preparation being made for a retiring team member is determining how many pizzas to order for the farewell party. Many organizations don't view their employees' work knowledge as something that must be passed on to the next generation of team members. Much like succession planning, an organized knowledge-transfer plan requires long-range thinking, which is in short supply within most organizations, such as office business centers, that are consumed with the day-to-day tasks of running a business.

Capturing the knowledge of a long-time employee can save time when training a new hire because the frequently asked questions can be placed within training materials. Long-time employees may also posses valuable information about clients or partners that would be difficult for a new hire to learn initially. So ask yourself this question: "Has your company created a way of transferring valuable knowledge from retiring employees to other team members?"

Empower your center for continued success by creating a plan for knowledge transference. For a full discussion on how to establish the best plan for your business center, contact Susan Smith at ssmith@theallianceacademy.com.

Insider Tips

Recruiting the Millennial Workforce

All business centers want to recruit the best possible employees. What makes for a great employee at one center, however, can make for a horrible employee at another. It is all about recruiting the best of this generation, and the best of this generation will vary considerably depending upon the organization doing the recruiting and the role that the recruited individual will play once employed by your organization.

That said, what characteristics are shared by the most sought-after Millennial grads of Generation Y?

1. Education is important. They understand that a college degree and more are vital to their success and happiness. Their education will not stop when they graduate with their four year degree. Almost all relish and even insist on substantial training and mentoring from their employers.

2. They prefer to IM and text. Not only do they multi-task and regularly use new communication tools like instant messaging and cell phone text messaging in their daily lives, they prefer it. If you want to win over these candidates and make them a part of your business center's team, then learn how to use your BlackBerry or cell phone, put up a quality MySpace page describing your center's career opportunities, network on Facebook, incorporate video into your job posting ads, publish your instant messaging address, and otherwise make it clear to these candidates that you understand that their needs and wants are different from those of their parents. Do this by communicating with them in the manner that they communicate with each other.

3. They want security and upside. The security they want comes with a good benefits package but they also want to be rewarded for their performance. Give them the opportunity to contribute with meaningful work and invest in them by training and mentoring them at your center, and they will work far more hours and be happier for it.

4. They are who they are. They believe that their personal lives are their business and completely unrelated to their work lives. This is probably a mindset every center's team members should have for a healthy work-life balance.

5. They are brand conscious. They care about what they wear but they also care about where they work. Remember that it is no longer enough that your center is hiring and that they are qualified. They have multiple offers. They need to understand why they should choose to work for you rather than the employer across the street who is offering the same opportunity. The easiest way for you to communicate that is through your center's brand: what does your organization stand for, and by extension, what will they stand for should they choose to join your team? If you do not have a strong brand on-campus or if your brand is strong but not positive, then invest in creating a strong, positive brand before you start actively recruiting.

The Millennial generation is probably the most sought-after, highly skilled, ready-to-hit-the-ground-running generation ever to enter our workforce. We are counting on them despite their vastly smaller numbers to replace the productivity of the massive Baby Boomer generation.

For more Insider Tips, visit the Academy site to access the Training Bytes section.