This is a post about change. Winston Churchill said, “There is nothing wrong with change, as long as it is in the right direction.” This is not your typical resignation. You could call this a ‘planned’ or ‘friendly’ departure. During this time I plan to remain on as Bazaarvoice CMO while I help recruit for my successor (one of the reasons for this post), and upon my departure I will be on the Bazaarvoice Board of Advisors to help the company’s continued growth. “Growth means

What a dilemma! You’ve been reading (perhaps experiencing) about recent company layoffs.  I’m guessing most companies are making lay off decision based on roles the business needs, but also employee performance.  It would seem obvious that every company wants to keep their best people. Although I’ve heard of companies that offer voluntary attrition with a healthy severance package. You know who takes that package? The best employees. What’s left at that company? Well…fewer of

Marketers are usually challenged to justify word of mouth social media marketing programs to the finance department. With economic challenges ahead, your job doesn’t get easier. I posed a question on LinkediN question to my marketing peers and colleagues: With the economic downturn, how will you convince the CFO that "social" marketing is a priority? I’ve summarized the 25 answers to the question into these 8 tips: Provide financial leaders with hard facts—give numbers repres

Last week we had kids-at-work day. I brought in my 8-year-old son Kyle and 11-year-old daughter Haley in for half a day to experience my work. They were very excited, however, I had a number of meetings and conference calls. During these meetings my daughter colored, read, and ate ice cream. My son, on the other hand, walked the halls and started offering advice to our employees. Soon, our Partnerships Director suggested he interview for a job. So, Kyle typed up an introducto

Fortunately, I’m homebound with my new son for the next week, but I was able to get away tonight for a dinner at Salt Lick (best BBQ in TX!) with many bloggers who came to Austin for SXSW. Friends made it such as Charlene Li of Forrester and Groundswell, Shel Israel of Global Neighborhoods (Author of Naked Conversations), Bob Pearsons of Dell (runs Dell’s community /conversation / social media team), Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester and Web Strategist, and others. I also met some

I haven’t kept up the pace of posts here compared to previous years. Part of this is because it’s been an exciting, busy year. But the other cause is my writing time is fractured between this Decker Marketing blog, our company blog (Bazaarblog) and writing other articles / columns. So, I thought I’d point you to articles I wrote elsewhere over the past year or so that you might find interesting… Some of my columns on iMedia Connection: The Big Idea Behind Social Commerce How