If you look around you will be bombarded with messages, be it in the media, in your work. Messages ranging from 2 words to multiple pages! If it is an advertisement you have everything from the headline to its body copy to its sign off. Recently my former colleague Srini who has become an entrepreneur (Apt Consulting) had sent me a mail giving his company’s introduction and asking for my views on making it more business-like and effective. As I read the paragraph I realized that like on Twitter all I wanted was one line (no more than 140 characters). When I told Srini, he immediately agreed.

Both of us realized that putting what his business does into one line, which answers the questions – “Who are you? What can you do for me? How will you do it different from the others?”  -is the most challenging exercise of all. Cracking that one line would mean positioning his business and giving it that one entry line when approaching his clients.

Having become a fan of Apple and Steve Jobs in recent times, studying his presentations (key note addresses) and reading the book-Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo I also discovered that Steve gives that one line which differentiates his product, defines it and gives his customers a clear understanding of what is being offered. Be it – ‘the world’s thinnest notebook’ or ‘built for me’ or ‘it’s a magical product’, Steve Jobs gives one easy-to-understand description of the product he is launching. Can we apply this to services, ourselves, our job applications? Why not?

• Resume or your CV: Can we give a one-line description that answers what the potential employer is looking for? Ex: Would a recruiter notice- ‘I will drive sales growth by 35% in the personal computing business’ and be impressed or would 2 pages of what the person done impress more?
• Business: A one-line description for your service or product? Why not? Google the best brands and businesses from Starbucks to your local brand and you will find most of them have that one line describing what is special about their business. If you cannot say it in one line, you are no different from those 1000s of businesses out there

Think about a one-liner to describe you. Would people who know you believe it? Would people who have heard of you respect it?

Trust me, it is not an easy task. Companies spend millions trying to figure this out and express it. Maybe finding out what you really do, being honest about it and expressing it simply enough is the key.

Try describing everything you do or you want to sell in 140 characters. Then ask yourself – Does it really say what I want? Does it answer what my target audience wants to know? Does it sound simple enough o be used and broadcast?

As the world stills debates on the future of Apple after Steve Jobs (although he still is Chairman and am susre the product plan for iPhone 6 and beyond is already in place), I look back at my own tryst with Apple.

The day I took a bite of the apple.

I had seen her around. I had heard of her. I had never held her in my hands. I am talking about the Apple Macbook. The Barista in Barton Center (MG road, Bangalore., India) is where I got to lay my hands on a Macbook. My friend Padmaja had got one courtesy her new employer (the only thing I envied about her new job at that point of time).

Steve Jobs and Apple were nothing new to me in terms of name and reputation, but then when it came to a phone I have been a Nokia loyalist, when it came to a MP3 player I had my awesomely large Creative Zen Vision M, when it came to a desktop I had my faithful HP Pavilion, laptop I had my office provided Dell and an Acer netbook too.

Somehow when I held that Macbook in my hand, it was like love at first sight and I desperately wanted one. I became obsessed with getting one. I spoke of getting one and heard all comments from – it’s difficult to use to it’s expensive to –why do you need it?

But then, Apple has always made products you don’t really need but you end up wanting J (In the end they do make the world a better place when it comes to technology). In the midst of all this, the Macbook Pros went out of stock in Bangalore. Doing the rounds of the various Apple resellers and calling up every contact I could, I finally got my beloved Macbook Pro. Within a couple of days I had gotten familiar with it.

The best part was – it all came together, it was easy to setup. It was intelligent enough to figure out what I need and connect without hassle. The wide touchpad (which doubles as a mouse) with its great touch sensitive controls made life so easy. It was fast, it had great screen resolution, easy to use and best of all it did look good.  With this experience has begun my experience of all things Apple. My first bite had left me very satisfied. I hope the taste will continue. Yes, I will have to get that Apple Care Protection Plan to ensure my meager income is not dried up with repairs.

Then I commenced (like I usually do with anything I get passionate about) a study of Apple and invariably Steve Jobs. If Apple took over the world in terms of computing then everybody would have great gadgets but would have paid up a lot for it. Isn’t that better than having paid lesser and then having to spend more upgrading every few months? The magic of Apple seems to stem from its very enigmatic chief- Steve Jobs. Every keynote address of his is like a cultural ritual of the company.  Exciting, planned, dramatic, entertaining and if I were to add-perfect. Just like the products they make. Even though the iPhone 4 leak took some fizz out of their launch during the WWDC  (Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference) I eagerly await its launch in India. Yes, I did manage to use an iPad, thanks to my friend Mukki (of peppersquare ) and was bowled over by its touch interface. When it comes to functionality though, the iPhone is more a priority than an iPad right now. The iPad is a luxury for the couch-ridden.

Apple and Steve Jobs are also lessons in Marketing (another area of interest for me). Be it the keynote address or the carefully crafter marketing, advertising and communication that follows the product launch or the keynote address it is all a lesson in what to do and how to do it. The one-liners that become the product descriptions, the products themselves, which are designed to fit in and work with your own biophysical qualities, are all what make legends. I wonder how a large a team of User experience experts, neuro-physicians and other assorted people who have nothing to do with engineering, coding or technology are a part of the product development.

An email the Steve Jobs responds to becomes the talk of the blogosphere. There are blogs whose content is solely dependent on Apple, its products, news and rumors.  Everything about it in some complex way coming together and building a cult.

Finally, what is it about Apple that makes them stand out as the most impressive technology company in history? They make products better.

You can be sure I will have more to say on Apple and its products in times to come. Incidentally, the Apple logo has a bite taken out of it. Is that representative of all us fans who have a taken a bite of the Apple?

I am bringing the very large topic of personal branding to a very specific relationship. The relationship between you and your manager is a very special one and yet like any other relationship. Now ask yourself if your Manager is your Target Audience then what is your brand telling your TG?

Look at what your TG needs.

-Your manager needs to grow by showing good work done by the team

-Your manager needs team members who take initiative

-Your manager needs team members who do their job well

-Your manager needs team member who learn well, fast and apply it to work

-Your manager needs team members who will build the team’s brand and therefore of the manager

Now, look at the branding you do to your manager

-When you meet your manager are you going with a problem you could not solve?

-Are you going with a solution and making decision-making easy?

-When you make a presentation are you getting your message across or you just doing a ppt?

-Are you ensuring work given to you is handled or does your manager have to follow up?

-Are you giving your manager an opportunity to showcase your work?

-Are you learning fast enough and enough volumes to create a difference?

OR

-Are you doing things that you assess and are satisfied and not the TG?

-Are you looking at giving your TG a reason to buy you or are you looking at your own reasons?

-Are you letting your TG get a clear answer to WHY ME and WHY NOT SOMEONE ELSE?

-You have not figured out WHO YOU ARE and that message is not getting through strong and clear?

I hope what I am trying to say is getting through. While not everybody is fortunate to get smart understanding manager’s you need to realize that managing your manager is nothing but the way you handle your personal brand with your audience. In this case an audience of ONE, your manager.

Remember your manager is a person who also has a manager. Your manager is a person with aspirations, emotions, feelings, dreams, needs and actions. Have you understood your audience? Are you using your personal brand to target your audience? In other words, are you managing your manager ?

The salesperson would possibly say this and be convinced of its completeness. But, for the purpose of this discussion let us look at functions other than sales. Considering most established business organizations have multiple functions that help in running the business and therefore delivering a service/product. Who is Finance’s customer? Who is Marketing’s customer? Who is HR’s customer? Who is recruitment’s customer? Most of these functions would say- ‘we have internal customers’. Is that really true?

Commonly this would be the accepted answer and belief, but businesses have changed and so has the nature of the customer or more importantly the consumer. I have a contrary view. I do not believe in internal customers. A customer is one who pays for a value/service and has a choice of vendor/service provider. In today’s world even a B2B company needs to understand the end consumer. Why is that you may ask?

Today, consumers are directing every bit of product or service. You are asking for a certain kind of mobile handset with features provided by a certain OS. The mobile manufacturer has no choice but to cater. This is an easy example to consider but look at complex businesses, complexity being defined as businesses where the consumer has no direct view of an internal process/system/product. In a bank you very often have no idea who is powering your ATM technology, who is driving your Internet banking service and yet you make your demands and the bank has to make sure its service providers can cope up. So this means the service provider has to keep in sync with the end consumer, consumers like you and me, understand our needs-current and future. So now, for a service provider is the Bank the customer or the consumer the real customer? Gets me thinking and fuels my theory that regardless of the business, it is the end consumer who is finally driving business worldwide. Candidates today choose their employer. Employees chose to stay or leave. Each employee has a role in what the business’s customer gets from the company and has to ask oneself what am I doing to make it better for my company’s customer and many have to ask what am I doing to make it better for my customer’s customer.

Coming back to my original discussion. This means that in a business while any function has its operational goals, objectives and targets what it has to do is cater to the final consumer.

The degree of ‘catering’ will vary by function. But, internal customers have no choice of vendor/service provider nor do they pay for the service/product. So are they really customers? My answer is NO. They are stakeholders, not customers. This means they have a stake in what you do to ultimately satisfy two sets of customers (the Business customer and the end consumer). So HR’s customer is the employee and the customer buying service/product from the company. Recruitment’s customer is the candidate and the customer buying service/product from the company. Finance’s customer is all the other functions that depend on it and the company management/investors. Marketing’s customer is the existing client and potential clients, not the product manager, not the salesperson. In essence this means, within an organization business functions have a stake in each other’s success and therefore have to work collaboratively to allow each function to do what they do best, their profession.

What will this thinking do? I would imagine this line of thinking would ensure professional capabilities would win over internal competition thus improving efficiency and customer-centricity.