Preparation

"It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared" (Whitney Moore Young Jr.). As the economy shifts under us, moving from one phase to the next, some preparation for what might be ahead will promote our chances of capturing the opportunities that will be there for the taking.

We may be sure that opportunities will exist, whatever the circumstances.

If house prices continue to fall there will be bargains available to those willing and able to take advantage of them.

If oil prices continue to rise then oil reserves, previously uneconomic, will become worth drilling and refining.

If food shortages spread, then more land will be brought into cultivation, farmers will prosper and agricultural land values will increase.

It’s an open secret: in good time and in bad opportunity consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different. Preparation consists of dreaming what might be and devising contingencies to deal with that situation should it arise.

Most situations will not actually occur. Those that do will not be exactly as we planned. Nevertheless, the fact that we have been thinking ahead makes us better prepared, sooner than those that have just waited to see what turns up before they react, if they ever do.

In business we often find ourselves wrestling with current demands and misadventures. Our days are spent fire fighting, leaving no time to worry about tomorrow. However, this approach, while apparently sensible and seductive, will mean we continue to fight those fires day after day. Being busy will be no protection when the roof caves in.

With the future in mind it is often easier to spot opportunities as they arise. Without that mental preparation the chance goes unremarked. We are familiar with this phenomenon from our own experience. Having bought a new car we immediately notice how many other similar cars there are on the road. Before making the purchase we were totally unaware.

By way of illustration:

Sarah has just left the house after a blazing row with her husband. She was taking a quiet walk to calm down when she notices an unusual funeral procession coming along the road towards her. At the front is a large black hearse and 20 yards behind this is a second black hearse. A solitary woman is walking behind the second hearse with a large, well-groomed Rottweiler dog on a lead. Behind the woman are 50 other women walking single file.

Sarah is very curious and goes over to the woman with the dog and says, “I’m sorry about your loss.”

“Thank you,” says the woman, “you’re very kind.”

“I know it’s a bad time to ask,” says Sarah, “but whose funeral is this?”

“It’s my husband's funeral,” replies the woman.

“So what happened to him?” asks Sarah.

The woman replies, “My dog attacked and killed him.”

“And who is in the second hearse?” asks Sarah.

The woman answers, “My mother-in-law. She was trying to help my husband when the dog turned on her.”

A poignant and thoughtful moment of silence passes between the two women.

“Can I borrow the dog?” asks Sarah.

“Go to the back of the line,” replies the woman.

Creative Marketing

As professionals we know we need to market ourselves and our businesses. However, for some of us marketing is, like Churchill’s Russia: a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

One simple definition of marketing might be “the techniques used to attract and persuade prospective clients”.

A more far reaching definition might be “the management process that anticipates and identifies customer requirements and devises an appropriate offering efficiently and profitably”.

Yet, whatever way one defines it, the whole process seems fraught with uncertainty while taking the spectral form of a bottomless pit for money and resources.

But, on second thoughts, does the gloom in this picture owe a large measure of its murkiness to the artificial separation of marketing’s black art from everything else we do?

Is marketing truly some arcane, ritualistic necromancy wholly divorced from the daily round?

Do its witches and warlocks have to conduct their cabalistic practices in dank and dingy corners for it to be fully effective?

Or can we bring some of its brighter, more benevolent aspects to our every day dealings?

In delivering services to our clients it is obviously impossible to separate us as a person from the product we provide. Thus the way that we interact with prospects, patrons and the public at large carries a marketing message.

Either we are smart and courteous, or shabby and slipshod.

Either we are calm and concerned, or we are distracted and dismissive.

Whatever our attitude it conveys a clear message, whether we wish it to, or not.

Since we are unavoidably committed, cross-examined and condemned to some form of marketing then it can only be beneficial to pay attention to the messages we send, lest by inattention we send the wrong ones.

It also gives us scope for inventiveness and having harmless fun while doing so. And, as Peter Drucker pointed out: "Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two basic functions: marketing and innovation” so we can legitimately and judiciously combine them.

Here is a simple story illustrating one woman’s lateral thinking when marketing her business:

Bernie was in New York on business. On his 3rd night, he went back to his hotel room feeling quite miserable. Although the trip was going well, business-wise, he was feeling very lonely and missing his wife Sarah.

He casually picked up the Gideon bible from his bedside table and opened it. On the first page, he read: -

"If you’re sick, read Psalm 18."

"If you’re troubled, read Psalm 45."

"If you’re lonely, read Psalm 92."

That’s it! He stopped there, immediately turned to Psalm 92 and started to read. How surprised he was, then, when he got to the end of the Psalm, to see someone has written: -

"If you’re still lonely, why don’t you call Fifi on 202-123-7659."

Well…"if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing here?" (Robert Townsend).