In short, the theory says that for a business to be truly able to measure it’s success, it must look at more than just it’s traditional (financial) bottom line, and make a contribution to the environment and society as a whole.

I strongly believe in the merits of the theory and very recently I have started implementing strategies for achieving triple bottom line success into our iPhone app development business and our air conditioning business.

We are very proud to be working with the Department of Health and Ageing in Canberra, to create an iPhone application for their Drug Awareness Campaign. Amongst our team, we all feel strongly about our responsibility to use our skills and resources to help ‘at risk’ individuals avoid using drugs, and avoid putting themselves in situations where drugs may be present.

After some analysis of our current business practices, we also realised that our air conditioning business could – and should – be doing more to assist the environment. In short we have implemented measures that will significantly reduce the amount of wastage, and chosen to only stock the most energy efficient air conditioning units.

We expect these decisions to have a minimal negative effect on our financial bottom line, and the additional ‘good’ we do will certainly offset any small losses.

Tiger's last victory was at the 2009 Australian Masters, here in Melbourne.

I am a golf tragic. I am the  guy who gets up early every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning throughout the USPGA tour season to watch Australia’s coverage. I play Yahoo Fantasy Golf with some mates here in Australia and North America, and every chance I get I hit a course in Melbourne to hone my limited skills.

Like all other golf fans, I am asking the questions… When will Tiger start winning again? What  changes need to occur before this can happen? Will he ever win another major? Is he THAT much worse than he was, or is everyone else THAT much better?

I’m no technical golf expert, so I am not going to insult my readers’ intelligence by attempting to describe the subtle differences I have noticed in his swing over the past 18 months.

I believe that Tiger has to stop apologising.

3 weeks ago in Dubai he was fined for spitting on the course after missing a putt. He apologised to the press, the Euro tour and even offered a rare tweet to apologise to all of his fans.

Last week he was terrible in his first round loss at the Accenture Match Play, he apologised for losing his temper.

Why go to such an effort to let us all know how sorry he is? Does he want to salvage some respect from the world between now and the end of his pro career? Does he want sponsors to love him again?

Newsflash… none of this matters if he start winning again!

Tiger, just do whatever makes you feel invincible, like you used to. Superheroes don’t spend their days apologising, treading lightly, kissing babies or helping old ladies across the street! At least Tiger Woods the superhero didn’t.

I’d like to see Tiger grit his teeth, thump his chest, give his haters the finger and kiss a blonde porn star before teeing off on the 1st tee next week… WE DON’T CARE! If it will make him feel invincible and larger than life like he used to… then I want to see him DO IT!

Bottom line, I believe that a lot of his issues are in his head. He has lost the feeling of being the invincible man of steel, and until he believes he is a winner again, he won’t be.

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The marketer would have expected that customers would visit their website, and if they had a well designed site, they would have attempted to capture the email details of each visitor to enable ongoing email marketing.

How times have changed!

Now we want our customers to find us on Facebook. But why?

1. Most internet users spend more time on Facebook than they do anywhere else on the internet.
2. We don’t have to ask for something as intrusive as a traditional ‘opt-in’, where we ask for a name, email and/or phone number.
3. We can communicate as regularly as we like and we know that our communication WILL BE READ as it will appear in the news feed of our customers… unlike the thousands of unread emails that must be sent to get one person to open it.

Don’t all go out and destroy your websites just yet… but keep in mind that a combination of social media with traditional online marketing will get you better results.

Oh, and don’t forget that internet users are real people… so the ‘Real World’, offline or analogue marketing techniques that have worked just fine for hundreds of years… still work!

One of my most naturally talented sales staff had failed to meet his performance target for three straight weeks. This team member had not approached me for help or advice, he had been spending less time in the office and more time working from home – as my staff are entitled to do.

“He’s not interested in doing the hard work necessary to achieve results” I thought of my problem. The solution to my problem seemed obvious, but thankfully I confided in one of my business mentors before I took the action I thought to be appropriate.

I was promptly told to stop blaming other people for the problems that I had created within my business, and to take some responsibility.

“MY FAULT? How the hell is is my fault that he’s a lazy shit?” I responded.

“Why is he being lazy?” I was asked. “Why would somebody go to the effort of starting a new job and then all of a sudden decide to be lazy and stop giving it 100%?”. I couldn’t answer these questions, which in itself highlighted a major deficiency in my managerial skills.

The more I thought about it, of course it was my fault!

I chose to hire this guy. I chose to give him the level of support, training and attention he has received. So it was up to me to help solve his problems… not up to him to help solve mine.

I arranged a meeting with the staff member in question and told him that for the next 30 minutes, we were going to work together to solve any problems that he had which were causing him to be unhappy at work.

“What is preventing you from being happy and successful in this role? What can I do to help solve your problems?”

It turns out, that he needed some structural sales training and some more documentation to take to his sales meetings – but that is not the point. The point is that I took an active interest in solving his problems, rather than expecting him to be able to solve mine.

By solving his problems mine were quickly solved too, as he achieved 200% of his target this week, and more importantly enjoyed his week much more and felt a sense of ownership over his role.

Next time you feel upset about something, ask yourself…

“Whose fault is it?”

and then

“Who is in a position to fix it?”