Productivity Bits: Incentives in a Miserable Economy, Xobni comes out of Beta and Blogs for Franchisees

My way of justifying my time and yours in reading my rants, on this blog:

• Paul Hebert from Incentive Intelligence makes the case that incentive programs should change with the market - that the focus should be more on recognition and less on incentives. Noteworthy quote: "Recognition is an act - not an item." This may be the "optimum time to reinforce behavior that contribute to positive attitude, helping other departments, reassuring other employees and taking care of existing customers."
  
  
• Some thoughts from Inc.com on cutting prices in this environment. One cautionary note: when it comes to pricing, the best lesson I remember is the strategy of companies like Four Seasons and Abercrombie and Fitch who try to avoid discounts whereever possible - when the economy does rebound, they're the ones who benefit most from higher margins but also a clearer recognition by customers of their products/services as luxury items. Discounts can also cheapen the value customers see in a product.
  
  
• My only and favorite Outlook add-in is coming out of beta (and got additional funding). Xobni helps you to rethink the way you work with email (Cnet) by mapping out the relationships of the people who pass through your inbox. I reinstalled it last night and the recent updates like the re-index feature are most useful.
  
  
• Richard Gibson from the WSJ notes 6 blogs/web resources for franchisees: Franchise-Chat, The Franchise Pundit, Rush on Business, Unhappy Franchisee, and WikidFranchise. Given that building a business can be an intensely lonely endeavour, joining a community of peers who can understand what you're going through is highly recommended.