November's Expert: Gretchen Standford
Gretchen Stanford has been marketing products and service for the past 12 years in corporate and agency environments. Specially, Gretchen has worked as a Manager of Promotions & Events for Best Buy, a Senior Marketing Manager for Brand Buzz, a subsidiary of Young and Rubicam, as well as a Regional Marketing manager for United Health Group. For the past several years, Gretchen has been working at Aquent, a global marketing, creative and interactive staffing company, where she now specializes in placing experienced marketing talent with top employers in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley.
Question: What is the primary means of communication for managers today?
Answer: In our current economy-induced business environment where corporate downsizing, agency reorganization and non-profit cutbacks have become the norm, managers are busier than ever and with fewer resources. Such managers are looking to maximize the limited time they have at their desks by minimizing the time it takes to get all assigned tasks completed.
Managers are finding the most productive way of accomplishing this is through email. Email allows managers to easily organize and quickly response to a high volume of time-sensitive deliverables and ensures that their programs and project continue to move forward on time and budget.
Though voicemail remains an effective and necessary business communication tool, email allows a manager more flexibility and often quicker response time. In our growing 3G business culture where multi-tasking is a must, managers are able to and often find themselves “managing their desks” while traveling or at home.
If your goal is to share information or simply get a response to time-sensitive question from a manager, your best bet is to compose an articulate and concise message and hit “Send.”