Why?

We find that there is a general and rather universal sense of value, and frequently it is accurate. However, it is oftentimes verbalized in language that identifies why the organization or the product is important versus why it is important to the customer, employee, donor, or respective stakeholder.

Think of value as a prism. Depending on the plane, the view is different, and the value proposition must be clear from each vantage point.

It would be easy to say that value propositions have to excite and inspire. They do. But a value proposition is more than just a selling statement – why you should buy a product, service, or idea – no matter what you’re selling.

A great value proposition doesn’t leave people asking ‘why?’ and instead moves them to ‘why not?’ Instead of trying to decide ‘why’ to do something, the compelling and intriguing question will be ‘why not.’

It’s about benefits – to them.

So the questions you should be asking should run along the lines of:

What compels us to move our business in this direction?
What will I gain by using this product or service?
How will I grow if I work for this company?
What impact will I have if I give to this organization?

 Asking questions is fun. Clarifying answers, even more so.

What’s your value proposition?

• Breakfast of champions
• When you care enough to send the very best
• When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight
• It takes a licking and keeps on ticking
• Melts in your mouth, not in your hands
• Let your fingers do the walking
• Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.
• Have it your way

Of course, it made me think of the Crawford & Ria slogan – the junction of enterprise and culture. Okay, so it’s catchy. But is it clear? Sometimes you can be too close and not really see or be objective about what you’re trying to convey. It’s about having too much information.

The junction of enterprise and culture is the spot where creativity and analytics come together. The point is that our work focuses on using the characteristics of the whole brain to achieve results. What’s that mean? It means problem solving by drawing pictures and by writing out sequential steps. It means looking at differences and looking at similarities. It means looking at cause and effect as well as identifying correspondences.

What does this mean to our work? Well, we work with organizations to create strategic plans and train and develop staff, board members, and volunteers. We lead change management efforts and provide coaching. We also help develop strategic communications and marketing and public relations. We approach all with creativity and analytics. We employ a variety of methods to facilitate meetings, cultivate ideas, and distill information.

In short, our method is at the junction of enterprise and culture.

So why enterprise and why culture? Enterprise because of business and the notion that it is logical and analytical. Culture because it connotes the arts and creativity and happens to be an area of expertise. And frankly, because it sounded good to the ear and we loved the word choice.

It may not be as strong or memorable as ‘Have it your way’ but we like it. Do you?

How often has that been the answer to a question? For me, many times. The truth is, I like to think about it, about things, about possibilities.

An unrestrained mind left to wander can and will travel interesting paths and reach unplanned destinations. So can a mind on a deliberate journey.

A few years back, I was thinking about thinking as part of the problem solving process. I recall coming across an idea generating exercise to brainstorm new uses for a paper clip. I remember it as being quite fun. My list isn’t handy but the process is.

Find some time to think.

Think:
…about how to do things differently

…about how to use things differently

…about how to say things differently

…about how to make things differently

…about how to sell things differently

…about how to price things differently

…about how to market things differently

…about how to reward differently

Then change the word differently to efficiently to better to faster to — well, you get the point. And while you’re at it, get in the habit.

Just think!

Websites have become the most important advertising tool for many small businesses, and social media has created multiple new channels to drive traffic and business to them. But advertising still lingers, and Google affords and makes it affordable to seek out individuals who are seeking for something specific.

The AdWords Small Business Center was created to help those using Google advertising on three levels based on their experience: beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and it has five main components:

Write great ads
Encouraging the simple and sometimes overlooked benefits that create eye-catching ads, such as ‘free shipping’ and ’24-hr service.’ Google also offers advice on writing headlines and calls to action, and it reminds business owners to link ads to relevant website pages.

Choose the best keywords
Aligning key words with searches to reach the right customers. Interestingly and requiring further investigation, it suggests using negative keywords as a filter.

Adjust bids and budgets
Offering greater analysis to determine which ads are really driving business to you along with all the relevant information to understand buying and bidding.

Improve your website
Ensuring that your web design is consistent with your business goals and that the content matches the pitch.

Track your results
Supporting the truth that ‘what gets measured gets managed.’ Google offers a variety of analytics.

Each of the five areas has a ‘get tips now’ arrow and offers a sneak preview of the assistance they offer, and the Center includes a blog, a discussion forum, and a help center. Additionally, there are links to AdWords Online Classroom and AdWords Seminars, and the Google YouTube Business Channel and Google Business Solutions sites are featured.

Google has certainly become an engine for small business.

Surprisingly, when ‘small business support’ was entered into Google, none of the company’s offerings were listed in the top search results. The same was true for ‘small business resources’ and ‘small business solutions.’ Perhaps they’re working on a Big Business Center.

Appropriations Update

Discussions in Congress on FY 2011 appropriations continue. On September 29, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) before it adjourned for the mid-term elections. The CR will fund the federal government through December 3 at FY 2010 levels for most federal programs. Some appropriations committees have made progress on FY 2011 spending bills noted below:

National Endowment for the Arts: For FY 2011, the President proposed $161.3 million, which represented a $6 million decrease from the $167.5 million Congress appropriated in FY 2010. The House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee has approved a $2.5 million increase for the NEA, bringing NEA funding to $170 million for FY 2011. This is a noteworthy increase given the current discretionary spending freeze in place.

Arts in Education Programs at the Department of Education: The President’s FY 2011 budget proposed consolidating a number of programs, including the Arts in Education programs, into a new funding category called Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education. The proposed consolidation has been rejected by appropriators in Congress. The Senate Appropriations Committee has preserved the Arts in Education programs by including $42 million for FY 2011, and the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies has recommended level funding of $40 million.

Corporation for National and Community Service: For FY 2011, the President’s budget requested $1.416 billion, a $266 million increase from the $1.149 billion Congress appropriated in FY 2010.

Educational and Cultural Exchange Programs at the Department of State: The President requested $633.2 million for FY 2011, a decrease of about $2 million from FY 2010. Most likely the majority of those funding dollars will go to the education programs with a minimal amount to cultural exchange. In FY 2009, cultural exchange programs received $9.1 million.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

These are Thoreau’s words, and they have inspired Nicola’s newest body of work titled “Edge of Awakening” opening this Friday, September 10^th at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston.

The work “explores neither awakening nor its opposite, but the uncertain worlds between the two where each person must choose among possibilities. Those choices, those points of decision, visited and re-visited, both discover and invent the nature of our lives.”

Flash back.

In a conversation with an old friend about regrets, Nicola pondered what he would lament with the passage of time.

“Not being an artist.”

He couldn’t come up with reasons not to jump in and try it. His friend encouraged him. The old stereotypes of starving artists living under bridges, the impossibility of success, and that it was unthinkable as a full-time existence weren’t enough to deter him. The future was his. No remorse.

Two years later, Nicola had the same conversation with the same friend. While he had been “dabbling,” he hadn’t really committed himself to his art and couldn’t shirk the responsibility of answering to ‘Why not?’

Flash forward.

Nicola is where he wants to be and where he is most comfortable: the art world.

He began by showing his work in restaurants and coffee houses about 12 years ago. His first break came shortly after when he was asked to exhibit in a gallery, and it wasn’t long before he had his first solo show.

In 2009, he participated in Transparent/Translucent, curated by Wade Wilson, at the Museum Gallery at the University of Texas in San Antonio. A museum show!

Not bad.

Many variables have contributed to Nicola’s success, but the one that he points to and laughs about – a strategic plan. Music to my ears.

Once Nicola had launched into painting, another of his supportive friends urged him to develop a path with clear goals. He had an MBA. He knew about this stuff. When he was at the University of St. Thomas, he used all of his projects and case studies to focus on art, but now, it didn’t seem important.

When he was awarded a grant from Creative Capital that was spearheaded by DiverseWorks, that all changed. “The first thing they said was that we each needed a strategic plan,” he laughs. “There it was again.”

Nicola says that it forced him to start putting things in writing, to articulate what he wanted from his life and his art. “Once you start putting things in writing, they come to fruition,” he continues. “You put it out there in the universe, it’s pretty amazing, you put it out there and you get a lot back.”

One of his goals: To be in a museum show within three years. It happened in two.

Nicola has participated in numerous exhibits in the United States and Italy. His relationship with Gremillion & Co. Fine Art has been incredibly rewarding, and this is his second solo exhibit at the gallery.

Nicola’s work is organic on many levels. Themes include the displacement of people, the redevelopment of communities, and the sustainability of water. His earlier works can be viewed on his website.

Of his new series, “Edge of Awakening”, Nicola says, “Art is a venture into worlds that are often only discovered in the attempt to represent them to yourself and others.”

He prefers to paint in series, “exploring multiple ways of saying not the same thing, but similar things, related things—things that are in process and could go in a multiplicity of directions. The possibility of awakening is also the possibility of remaining unawakened. Our lives are more circuitous than linear, living in more than one environment, a step forward, a step back, moving through a land with no clear boundaries whose silence we interrupt with both our words as well as our marks of paint, discovering and inventing our futures.”

The circuitous part of Nicola’s life makes him an active member of the Houston community. The world according to Nicola is not bound by his studio walls.

With Writer’s in the Schools, Nicola teaches students about art and music and helps them articulate what they see. He creates visuals of their words for discussion and also asks their opinion of his other paintings. He enjoys getting out and interacting with the students. Don’t be fooled. He smiles, “I learn so much from the students as well.”

Over the last year, Nicola has generously donated his artwork to help raise over $19,000 for non-profits and their efforts. In 2009 for example, he was the featured artist at the annual Art for Arthritis benefit and auction, which helps the Arthritis Foundation improve lives through leadership in the prevention, control, and cure of arthritis and related diseases.

He also enjoys working with other artists. In 2008, he collaborated with Dominic Walsh Dance Theater in designing and creating the set for the World Premiere of Terminus, which is being revived this season and presented on October 21 through 23 at Zilkha Hall. In 2009, Nicola and fellow artist Divya Murthy created two site-specific installations at the Art League Houston, and each November he participates in Dia do los Muertos at Lawndale Art Center.

And there’s more.

Nicola is a huge supporter of the Houston theatre and arts community. He gets out and visits galleries to support other artists and to see what they’re working on.

He admires the work of local artists Michael Arcieri and Patrick Palmer. Both also have studios at Winter Street Studios where Nicola spends time wielding his brush. The Chilean artist Roberto Matta has had a profound influence on his work, and Nicola has spent significant time studying his paintings at The Menil Collection, which has a large body of Matta’s art.

Nicola believes that music influences art, and it is a big part of his process. He’s been told that rhythm can be seen in his work. Again he smiles (he does that a lot). In his studio, you’re apt to hear everything from opera to rap. He loses himself in the sound and emerges astonished at what he’s produced on the canvas as a result.

“Once I dedicated my life and went into my studio and began painting full time, I have found the possibilities endless. Once I opened my mind to the creative side, I had all of these ideas,” he says.

Nicola’s “Edge of Awakening” exhibit will be on view at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston through October 9^th. To view more of his art, visit the gallery online, read his blog, and click through on the links below.

Here’s to you Nicola! Cheers!

Nicola Parente’s Website

Nicola Parente’s Blog

Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston

Tony developed an online music appreciation course titled Sound Reasoning – introductory, for adults – and we share it with you here.

Sound Reasoning concentrates primarily on Western classical and modern music, and the concepts that are introduced apply to music of any style or era. Tony’s goal in developing Sound Reasoning was to cause the listener to contemplate and ask questions about any piece of music in order to create a richer and more comprehensive understanding. This applies to music which is familiar and that which is unfamiliar.

Here are some additional features of the course according to Tony’s summary:

1. Sound Reasoning is completely listening based. No ability to read music is required.
2. The course assumes little or no musical background. A minimum of terminology is invoked.
3. Musical examples are interpolated directly into the text.
4. The course is interactive. A “listening gallery” with exercises follows each module, so that you may practice and refine your listening skills.
5. The modules may be studied in sequence or individually.
6. You may easily print a .pdf of any module. Sound Reasoning is designed as both a stand-alone, self-paced course.

Sound Reasoning was created thanks to an Access to Artistic Excellence Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Innovation Grant from Rice’s Computer and Information Technology Institute.

Tony is an Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He earned his degrees from Harvard University and California Institute of the Arts. His honors include a Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress; grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, the Houston Arts Alliance, and the New England Foundation for the Arts; and fellowships from the Tanglewood Music Center, the Wellesley Composers Conference, the MacDowell Colony, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Colony.

His chamber opera, The Birth of Something with a libretto by playwright Will Eno, was premiered by Da Camera of Houston in February 2006.

He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Houston-based contemporary music ensemble Musiqa, which has been awarded national grants from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and the Argosy Foundation Fund for Contemporary Music.

Tony was awarded Rice University’s Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize in 2001.

And, he’s a great guy, an inspiration, and a great friend.

Photo: Beryl Strewski

League of American Orchestras
Association of Performing Arts Presenters
American Craft Council
American Association of Museums
Chamber Music America
Dance USA
Institute of Museums and Library Services
Opera America
Poetry Society of America
Theatre Communications Group
American Federation of Arts
The Creative Capital Foundation

1. We provide organizational development and strategic communications consulting. Think strategic and organizational planning, integrating communications throughout your organization, training, coaching, leadership development, and general management consulting.
2. We write and produce publications on key business topics. Think strategic planning, creative leadership, problem solving, and so on. The first monograph on strategic planning will be published and on sale soon.
3. We write a column titled The Amp to showcase the junction of enterprise and culture. Think how the arts and creativity can be used in commercial business, the need for analytics in arts organizations, measuring nonprofit impact, professional development as a result of creative endeavors, and the like. If you have column ideas or would like to offer an article that you’ve written, please get in touch with more information.