"Coulda, shoulda, woulda..." That's the usual response we get from my husband whenever someone in the family looks in retrospect at something that didn't turn out quite the way they had hoped it would. If we had studied harder, we could have received a better grade. If we had waited just a little longer, that suit, television, snow-blower, or computer would have gone on sale and saved us some money. If we had handled that presentation better, we would have landed that big project. The sky's the limit when it comes to situations where we might have done something just a little sooner, faster or better and achieved a entirely different result.

Think about this for a minute. Had you assumed at some point in your business planning efforts, that a long, drawn out recession could hit, and given some thought to ways you could, or should, react, do you think your firm coulda, shoulda, woulda fared differently when it actually did happen? How might you have planned for your biggest client or customer leaving you for a competitor? What might you have done when a major customer stopped paying your invoices on time? What if the cost of lumber, drywall, hardware or insulation suddenly spiked? What if fuel prices doubled, tripled or quadrupled? How might these things affect your business, and what might you do them in order to stay in business?  Too often we blindly roll along from day to day, thinking that life is fine and our business is doing well -- until one of these things actually occurs. Then, we enter scramble mode, trying, or at least hoping, to get things back under control.

All of these things, and more, have occurred over the past several years; in many cases with devastating effects. Too many organizations were hit by the shock and awe of it all, never having thought a recession of this scope and magnitude could actually hit their businesses. They had not created an emergency plan to address major changes

I'm a big fan of Jack Stack, CEO of SRC Holdings Corp. (formerly Springfield Remanufacturing Corp.), in Springfield, Missouri. The organization started in 1983. Stack and a dozen partners banded together to buy a floundering division of International Harvester to save its employees jobs. Today, SRC employs over 1200 people in 17 business units.

In an interview (No More Etch-a-Sketch Planning) in the December, 2001 issue of Inc. magazine, as the US faced an earlier dip in the economy, Stack shared that his company routinely plans for recessionary times. "We've been planning for a recession for the past 19 years. For 18 of them we looked pretty stupid. Now we look smart." Always planning for the hard times, or at least talking about them and how the challenges might be addressed could be the difference between a company's survival or destruction.

Scenario planning can make a major difference in an organization's ability to cope with significant changes to your business environment. It can put you in a position to better understand and manage risks that could realistically confront you in the future. Think of the process as asking your leaders a series of 'What if?' and 'Then what?' questions/ What could seriously affect your company's ability to grow and succeed? What if the cost of oil quadruples? What if incandescent light bulbs become illegal? How might these things affect your business or your suppliers' businesses? You might want to give some thought to some of the things that could plausibly become reality in the not too distant future and how those changes could affect your ability to succeed. Pre-thinking your options can assure your continued growth in spite of hurdles and barricades thrown in your path.

Visualize -- Analyze -- Strategize

In the real estate industry, a builder’s brand hasn’t always been considered important; while today there are large regional and national builders, many companies are smaller local operations, still home-grown businesses that are sometimes family-owned and operated. Both types of builder can still benefit from attention to their brand.

Builder branding and the fundamental qualities that create a positive brand are important because they demonstrate a focus on the fundamentals that can help a builder stand out in an active marketplace.

First impressions are everything.A prospect visits a builder website or sees the community signage. They enter the sales center, they read literature on the company and the community, they meet a sales representative. That’s where their brand impression starts. From that point on, a concentration on what the brand does best for the customer—not for the bottom line—is what will ring true and create positive associations that not only influence the buying decision, but will result in valuable repeat business and referrals.

A positive attitude can work wonders.Has the builder created a work environment that values personal initiative along with corporate loyalty? Does the on-site team (sales, construction and customer care) feel properly treated, respected, and compensated? These may seem like obvious questions, but they are exactly the type of fundamentals that are the foundation on which a builder’s brand is established. If employees feel like an integral part of the process of building and selling homes, they will communicate that enthusiasm to buyers.

Value stands out.More than anything else, what buyers appreciate from their builder is good value for their money, and a perception of value is a powerful attribute to attach to a brand. Flooring is one specific feature where working hard with the contractor to find just the right mix of options at a competitive price is a major selling point. MBK executives worked hard with flooring partners to set prices that beat what a homeowner would pay for a comparable product from a big box retailer, enabling buyers to purchase a higher grade of flooring than they would have expected. That’s a solid, tangible value that a builder can provide to customers to improve customer ratings and enhance the brand image.

Try for the personal touch.Throughout the construction process, buyers should experience their builder not as just a company name on a contract, but as a group of dedicated people supporting an exceptional brand. MBK has been able to improve its customer satisfaction and reputation by assembling a community team for each development that brings together key personnel—a representative from sales, customer care, the lender, flooring designer, escrow, and the project’s superintendent. Buyers have the opportunity to meet this team before the building process begins, which puts actual faces and personalities to the builder’s brand and enables a level of one-on-one customer service that’s rare in the real estate industry.

In home building, the only way to expect a referral or repeat business is to consistently do the right thing for customers. That is also the only way to ensure a positive, lasting impression for a builder’s brand. In that sense, best practices drive best results.

Expert Shares Tips to Gauge Whether Your Business is Taking the Wrong Approach

I remember when the Internet first gained prominence and it became apparent that having a website was essential for any commercial enterprise. Back then, web designers were not plentiful and few people thought to hire a professional to create a site. They felt that ANY web presence was better than none at all and they found people they knew who were “into the whole Internet thing”to help them.

As a PR professional, when I saw a website that didn’t represent people well or looked amateurish, I’d ask who created it. Invariably, I’d get answers like, “My nephew did it,” or “I bought Web Design for Dummies and did it myself,” or “My son has a friend who just graduated with a degree in computer science.”  While those days have passed for Web sites, I’m afraid I am seeing the same thing happen with regard to social media.

As social media has become an integral element of all mainstream media,some people regard it the same way they used to regard websites – as a good addition to their marketing tactics, but not so essential that they need to approach it with a professional sensibility. As with any marketing outreach, social media done badly will actually set a person back rather than move him forward.

Here are some tips for people to gauge whether they’re taking the right approach or heading down the wrong path:

• My Daughter Does That For Me – If your daughter is a college graduate with a broad-based education that includes a degree in mass communications, I’d say you may be on the right track. However, if she’s 18 and her primary qualification is that she has Twitter and Facebook accounts, I’d say you need to reevaluate your choice of marketing personnel here. Just because she’s your daughter and can use Facebook and Twitter, doesn’t mean she has the skills necessary to market a business using social media.

• I Hired a College Intern – While college students may be part of the social media generation, it doesn’t automatically qualify them to do social media for you. Unlike traditional media, which is a communication to a broad audience, social media is one-to-one marketing outreach. You are communicating directly to individuals and anyone who has ever posted an opinion in an Internet forum knows the online audience is not to be trifled with. Understand that your reputation is on the line. With the variety of questions and comments you will receive, it is critical that they’re handled with care and professionalism to avoid any repercussions to your name and brand. A social media marketing professional is an astute communicator who ensures each time the right tone, caring and message is delivered for maximum return and keeps your audience engaged. This dynamic is crucial for the success of the program.

• I Got 11 New Followers on Twitter This Week – Of course, building followers is important, but you’ll never make a social media campaign work with the onesy-twosy approach.For myself, my company and our social media clients, we have a monthly benchmark for building followers. Now, this benchmark is not a gross number, but a net figure after we have weeded out spammers, chronic friend adders, and marriage proposals from men in foreign countries, and yes, I’ve gotten a few of those.

At the end of the day, social media is serious business.  Done right, it can create a base of thousands of followers.  Done wrong, it wastes time and energy and, most important, gives people the impression that social media marketing isn’t important. In fact, it has become one of the most critical and fundamental components for any marketing strategy, which every company needs to put in place.

As design professionals, we love nothing more than to both appreciate and critique the work of our peers. Success and failures of built projects are valuable design tools revealing the results for design and programmatic assumptions. These are just some of the reasons I jumped at the opportunity to tour the new University of Southern California (USC) adjacent student housing project, West 27^th Place and its neighbor, University Gateway. Invited by one of our firm’s clients, I was eager to form my own opinions about Los Angeles’ latest off-campus student housing communities. 

Located a half a mile from USC’s campus, West 27^th Place opened its doors to students in August 2011.  Not even six months old, students seem both satisfied and enthusiastic about the 161-unit (410 beds) apartment community. Similar to University Gateway, USC’s solution to student housing demands in 2010, West 27^th Place is a mixed-use housing community and includes 22,000 square feet of retail space as well as a wide range of amenities. However, there are two main design decisions that set West 27^th Place apart from its competition; its upscale amenities and boutique size.

Less than half the size of University Gateway, West 27^th Place has quickly impressed students. The apartment community consists of a combination of studios, one-, two- and four-bedroom units renting rooms to both single and double occupants. On average, a one-bedroom unit rents for $2,500 per month, roughly $400 dollars more than a similar unit in University Gateway. The price increase is justified by several factors. Residents boast about their community’s swimming pool, spa and state-of-the-art fitness center. Club and billiards rooms over look the interior pool courtyard and feel exclusive to the residents who live there. The plush amenities carry into the individual units as well. Granite countertops and individual washer and dryers put the apartments ahead of its competitors. Talking with a few students, we were surprised to hear that it was design considerations like natural light that appealed to residents. Though there is a continuing struggle between supply and demand for student housing around USC, our tour proved that students still have preferences and, along with their parents, they are willing to pay for them.

Unlike the positive reviews that West 27 Place has received over the past few months, a 2010  article published in the “The Daily Trojan,” describes the disappointment by student residents shortly after the opening of University Gateway. Though the project offers its own spin on amenity spaces and is much more convenient to the campus, residents still had negative feedback. Students described unfinished living conditions, poor lighting, limited parking, and poor management response. During our tour, we found the biggest difference between the projects was the size.  University Gateway is an eight-story building with triple the number of units and beds. This design factor may be the largest cause for the poor reviews. With 1,650 beds available, it is simply unrealistic to assume every student was going to be ecstatic about heir housing decision. Housing options continue to be limited around USC’s campus. Students saw University Gateway as a solution to their housing needs. Most students signed leases without seeing a finished unit.

What West 27^th Place and future off campus housing developments do for students is offer them choices.  Some choices will come with a bigger price tag, but they at least will allow students to prioritize their preferences. Not every student is the same and on a campus with over 17,000 undergraduates and nearly 19,000 graduate and professional students, this is also a good lesson for developers to think variety. West 27^th place is an excellent example where by focusing on a few design preferences, the project is actually strengthened and distinguished from its competition.