The March of Dimes was founded in 1938 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to eradicate Infantile Paralysis (Polio). With the advent of Jonas Salk's vaccine in the early 1950's the disease was largely eradicated in the Western World. In 1994 the United States was the first nation to be certified "Polio Free." What does this have [...]
Six Blind Funeral Directors - 2nd installment A Rational Approach To The Future Last week we explored the theoretical approach to our future using the allegory of the Six Blind Funeral Directors. This week we explore a Rational Approach. Our first question is: What do we know? We know that our market has changed and [...]
Covid - 19 and The Reinvention of Spring Burials Talking with funeral directors across the nation and Canada I am hearing (as you are experiencing) that you are busy but the services are mostly abbreviated or direct. So your revenue is deeply affected. Many wonder what funeral service will be like after we struggle to return [...]
Several years ago the Funeral Service Foundation commissioned an unorthodox market research project. They retained one of the foremost market research firms - Olson Zaltman - to study the funeral consumer's unconscious thoughts about funerals. They broke the research into two segments: What consumers actually thought about funerals at the unconscious level What consumers actually [...]
"one cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it." Peter Drucker The Cornerstone Assumption of the funeral side of DeathCare is that being nice is the same as being effective. Our "worldview" of being nice people is that we must never, ever make waves or create awkwardness. We run pell-mell from any form [...]
I think I can make a very strong case that funeral service as a profession makes a vital social contribution to society. For me that makes it a noble profession. Unfortunately, the profession doesn't act with nobility as often as so many of us would wish. Not long ago I spoke of Alpha Dogs and [...]
to dismount." Archimedes once said, "Give me a lever long enough and I will move the world" For the last 30 years we have been pushing harder and harder on one and only one lever with diminishing results and it's time we stopped. Many of you, dear readers, know that I have been a bible [...]
I have to admit I tense up whenever someone begins using the Ritz Carlton as an example Funeral Service should use to fashion its own customer service profile. Not that we can't learn some things from the Ritz. We most certainly can! But it is a dangerous recommendation when we fail to "Go Deep" on [...]
There is a way to a better future for Funeral Service. In fact, for those who are willing to closely examine the Sacred Cows I truly believe we will rediscover that we make a vital contribution to society. I say that not only because I have believed it for more than 30 years but because [...]
WHY WE CAN'T AFFORD TO FOLLOW YOUR LEAD ANYMORE Alpha Dogs are frequently those "Type A" personalities that exercise undue influence on others, especially organizations. You find them in every group of people. By their nature and sheer force of personality they tend to cause people to follow their lead whether they know where they [...]
