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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Evergreen summary
Noah Fleming
Cultivate the Enduring Customer Loyalty That Keeps Your Business Thriving
4.4 (25 ratings)
21 mins
9 key ideas
Audio & text
What is Evergreen about?
Evergreen (2015) is about keeping your business fresh and staving off stagnation that threatens its survival. Fleming outlines a philosophy that puts customers at the center of a company’s strategy, challenges conventional business wisdom and offers concrete advice for building long-term profitability.
About the Author
Noah Fleming is a strategic marketing expert. He blogs for Fast Company and contributes to The Globe and Mail’s business section. He’s one of just 36 people worldwide who’s accredited to teach Alan Weiss’s Mentorship Program and Growth Cycle.
Table of Contents
Evergreen
summarized in 9 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 9
Character, community and content are the three Cs that power an evergreen business.
Bringing a Christmas tree home in the middle of winter is a beautiful feeling. Outside, most of the trees are bare, but you have the scent of sharp green pine in your own living room. That sense of renewal and fresh life are essential in business, too. Isn’t there a way to build a more evergreen company, like that Christmas tree?
In the following blinks, we’ll show you exactly how to create an evergreen business by following the three Cs: The Character is the company bedrock, which sustains the Community, a group that benefits from the firm’s Content.
Character, the first C, refers to the brand’s identity and personality. This is more than just the company’s story.
Here’s what we mean by “story.” You know those guys who started building computers in their garage? They were both named Steve and their company was called – what again? Apple.
You might have also heard about a kid who got bitten by a spider on field trip. When he woke up the next morning, he had extreme climbing abilities. Who’s that again? Spiderman. That’s character.
The next C is Community, and it’s about harnessing the human desire to connect with others. By instinct, we seek out people who share our interests, beliefs and values. Accordingly, companies should help build or nurture communities which are aligned with their brand.
Take the software developer, Adobe, which has several different communities online, serving as platforms for thousands of users to discuss the software and learn from each other.
And as for the last C? Content refers to the company’s products and services. This is the core return customers get for their money, but it’s also much more. It’s the customer service, marketing, logistics – all the intangibles that keep the company running.
So now that we’ve sketched an overview of the three Cs model, let’s find out how they work.
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Best quote from Evergreen
Fascinating characters are the crux of every compelling story.
—Noah Fleming
Who should read Evergreen
- CEOs and marketing executives at small- and medium-sized businesses who want to rethink their customer relationships
- Sales directors seeking new ideas
- Start-up founders who want to build their business right
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