Objectivity and Passion

Words: 163
Reading time: 33 secs

Martin Johnson would be a great coach for the England rugby team if he was less passionate and more objective. Objectivity allows us to stand back, coolly weigh up the facts presented to us and then make a value-free assessment of the situation before us.

Martin Johnson would also be a great rugby coach if he was less objective and more passionate. Objectivity is all very well, but to convince and inspire others you need to truly care about the team, their performance and their place in the world. Without passion all the objectivity in the world lacks the necessary spark of desire.

Both of these statements hold a kernel of truth. We have to care enough to use our time and our talents to improve the results we are getting and our efforts to improve will be better informed by a degree of objectivity.

Balancing detachment and commitment is the key to leadership enhancing any endeavour whether it be either rugby or business.

Business Fundamentals

Words: 420

Reading Time: 1 min 24 secs

The vast majority of businesses begin small. Most begin with one individual using a particular technical skill, be it plumbing, printing, legal, web design, or any one of a host of other talents. Sometimes the enterprise is helped by the offer of work from a former employer, but when that dries up the business must compete in the marketplace with everyone else.

It is at this point that the single-skill approach suffers. Being a great plumber is only part of making a living in a plumbing business. Some of the other skills needed include marketing, sales, finance and self-motivation. Without those skills being appropriately exercised customers will not come and the technical skill, whatever it is, is destined to waste away from lack of use.

Now, being a great plumber, printer, solicitor or whatever is no guarantee that you will be equally talented where marketing, sales, finance and self-motivation are concerned. Some dabbling may yield partial results, but those will necessarily be limited and the enterprise will quickly hit a ceiling. Indeed, it is almost guaranteed that all or most of this skill set will not be available to you, because you have not had the opportunity to acquire and practice the necessary techniques.

However, all is not lost. Having a particular technical skill proves you have the ability to learn and master certain methods and systems in one area that can be mapped across into other functions. We all have multiple abilities that seemed tough to learn at the outset, but we now take for granted, like walking, talking, swimming and driving in most cases.

If you have the nerve and the self-belief to set out in business for yourself the need to learn more about how that is done successfully will come as no surprise. These are not natural, instinctive skills, but they can be learned by trial and error. Yet few of us have the time or the money to make all the mistakes required for such a long and wasteful study.

Despite that fact, judging by the number of businesses that are struggling at any one time, many still take that route even though it is demonstrably easier and cheaper to learn from those who already have the proven skills and are willing to share them.

More savvy members of the business community make use of workshops and seminars, like those provided by H&H Business, to add the missing ingredients of success. They are a shortcut to early success and save an awful lot of time.

Simple management

Words: 425
Reading Time: 1 min. 25 sec.s

What actions yield the best financial results when dealing with an economic downturn?

That’s something we would all like to know – always assuming that an economic downturn calls for actions different to those at any other time.

Bruce Tulgan of RainmakerThinking, Inc.® reports finding that cost cutting, innovation and increased supervision were the three strategies that yielded the strongest financial results in 2009.

Well, that’s wonderful! If that’s all we have to do to get great financial results then all our problems are solved. Or are they?

Bruce’s results are drawn from a survey of more than 1,000 managers selected from participants in RainmakerThinking, Inc.’s ® intensive two-day management seminars.

Managers that implemented these actions were found to be the most likely to report that their bottom line financial results (at the level closest to the manager’s control) in 2009 were “good,” “very good,” “better than expected,” or “much better than expected.”

There seems to be a number of weaknesses here:
1) The survey was only of managers, not of workers or financial analysts;
2) All those managers had been trained by RainmakerThinking, Inc.®;
3) Other actions taken by managers who were not participants in RainmakerThinking were not examined;
4) The assessments of financial results were entirely subjective; none were quantified;
5) Corporate benefits or detriments other than financial ones were not looked at;
6) The organization conducting the survey had a direct interest in its outcome.

Besides which, cost cutting and innovation should be high priorities in any company, irrespective of the state of the economy. Had these managers helped create the crisis in their companies by their lack of effectiveness when times were better?

And managers reported that it was their supervision that made a difference – not actions and dedication by a neglected workforce concerned about continued employment that would have happened anyway, without the managers.

No surprises there then. It’s the usual error – we always think we have had a disproportionate effect (hubris) when it’s everybody else that has made the major difference. The higher the individual is in the organization or social grouping, the more marked is this effect as a general rule.

Business suggestions:
1) Start from a position of scepticism;
2) Beware of too much simplification;
3) Ask, “Who says?”;
4) How much interest has the researcher in the outcome of the research;
5) Check for what’s missing;
6) What else could have caused this?
7) Look for a control group comparison;
8) Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler (Einstein);
9) Nobody has all the answers;

10) Bosses need the workers; the reverse is not always true.

What comes first - seeing or believing?

Words: 349 Reading Time: 1 minutes 10 seconds

Relatively few businesses seek any form of outside consultancy or coaching.

In 2009, according to the Office for National Statistics, the UK economy was made up of 525,000 sole proprietors, with another 1,382,000 enterprises employing between 2 and 10 people and another 20,000 enterprises with between 11 and 49 employees.

Of all businesses (2.15 million) 348,000 were under two years old and a further 316,000 were between two and four years old.

Clearly, with so many small businesses and so many new businesses there is benefit to be had from seeking professional help, especially as approximately one in fifty six businesses will have failed in the same year. So why is this assistance ignored?

Aside from issues of ignorance and concerns about cost I believe the main reason is belief.

For any personal or corporate change to take place, first there must be a change in belief. If any part of the old Henry Ford adage is true, it’s the second part, “you can’t if you think you can’t”, because if companies are convinced of their own inadequacy they are unlikely to attempt any change.

In the unlikely event that they do make an attempt, they are unlikely to persist, taking any early lack of success as proof positive of their initial doubts rather than recognizing this as almost inevitable during the first stumbling steps on the road.

Shifting belief takes work, which probably acts to deter most people. When our beliefs change, so will some of our values. And that tends to scare people. What they more easily embrace is surface pattern change rather than deeper belief work. It has the attraction of seeming to yield early results.

But, perhaps unsurprisingly, the pattern change rarely sticks. Why would it when it is unsupported by underpinning beliefs? Unfortunately this probably leaves the enterprise worse off than before.

To break through this debilitating condition what people and businesses require is a meta-shift – a shift in their belief about belief and the role it plays in their success or failure.

However, I am sure none of that applies to my readers.

Learning from our mistakes

Words: 78 Reading time: 16 seconds

We spend needless time worrying about mistakes, mainly because we have been programmed during our formative years to concentrate on correcting our errors, rather than maximising our successes. What we have rarely been taught – but what we must quickly learn for ourselves in business – is that mistakes are the inevitable corollary of success. Unless we are making mistakes we are missing opportunities; we are not trying hard enough and we are forgoing huge, valuable and irreplaceable learning.

When learning doesn’t help

Words: 575 Reading time: 1 minutes 55 seconds

It doesn’t matter much who you marry because they will turn out to be someone different anyway – or so they say. Business is just the same. Whatever you thought you were getting into will turn out to be something different in reality. And whatever your business is like today, next week, next month or next year it will have changed.

That’s life, but instead of successfully taking ourselves through it, we often sabotage ourselves by using three rules we learned at school. And these three false rules are at the heart of people feeling isolation, something I meet so often in clients.

The first rule is: there is only one right answer. This rule has everyone chasing the golden key that will unlock the secret of success. That the next book, course, or seminar will contain the Holy Grail and they will receive that great big tick of approval they have been seeking ever since attending nursery.

Unfortunately, in the power politics of the classroom, what is denied to virtually all pupils is the hypothetical nature of knowledge. Even 1+1=2 is an hypothesis and true only under certain conditions, as far as we know. The square root of 4 is either +2, or -2, or some other answer that we don’t know, but may exist.

The second rule is: focus on your weaknesses. Do you remember taking test and getting a mark of 18 out of 20? Pretty good! But what the teacher had you focus on was the two answers she thought you had wrong – not the eighteen answers you had correct. We can spend our whole lives looking in the wrong direction, trying to address minor faults instead of maximising our talents by doing even better the things we can already do well.

All those lives wasted and wrecked as a result cannot be counted. Imagine a Paula Radcliffe, or a Michael Johnson, or a Carl Lewis being told that, while they were quite good at running, they needed to address their weaknesses in the shot putt, or English composition, or historical dates. Would they have then developed into the outstanding athletes they subsequently became? Of course not! They would have been mediocre at whatever they did instead.

The third rule is: no cheating! Everyone must find the answer for themselves. The testing and examination regime placed constraints on leaning across to see what your neighbour had written on her answer paper. Inevitably, that has carried across into our working lives.
* Who has not worked extra, unpaid hours rather than ask colleagues to help?
* We have all sat through that awful, boring, stammered presentation by the HR Director when everyone knows that his deputy would have done it twice as well in half the time.
* And we men have all struggled to lift things that were really too heavy for us, but we refused to wimp-out and ask for a hand. Some of us have even injured our backs as a result.
*In business we sit in isolation, struggling with a situation beyond our immediate area of expertise, rather than pick up the phone and ask someone who knows.

So, day-by-day, week-by-week these well-learned axioms stand in our way, simply because we let them. Our parents, our teachers, our peers and our role models may have initially introduced us to these rules, but it is us that perpetuates them even though we are now fully grown and cognitive adults.

Yes, sometimes learning is over-rated.

Customer care is a dog’s life

Words: 444 Reading time: 1 minute 29 seconds

A dog is our best friend, because he wags his tail instead of his tongue – or so it is said. If you are engaged in customer service, as we all are in one way or another, there may be a lesson to be learned here.

Looking at the way that we, our colleagues or our company greet our customers – which end of the dog are we?

Companies that greet their customers with genuine energy and enthusiasm are as rare as the Kihansi spray toad – a species now extinct in the wild.

Companies persist in making so few people available to deal with their customers that, perpetually, “All our operatives are busy at the moment.”

And we then expect us to hold on a premium rate 0871 number.

Read that again, it’s not a typo.

People like us run companies and people like us are customers. It’s bizarre that as we pass from one side of the divide to the other we consistent elect to mistreat our alter egos in ways that we ourselves object to.

My heart-sinking phone call for help is declared “important” but that apparent recognition is not matched by any perceptible effort to make someone available to receive it.

Cashier positions are unattended at lunchtimes when a flush of peak demand can be expected.

Show me a supermarket on a busy Saturday morning and I will show you unattended tills.

And why are petrol and diesel pumps now so routinely unattended that we fill our own tanks without a second thought, despite high levels of unemployment among the anxious, but aspiring young and the keen, but chronically low-waged?

There seems little doubt which end of the dog currently greets our customers. While it’s true that some companies spend time and money dreaming up schemes to encourage and build customer loyalty (the dreaded ‘card’), the very same companies – and a host of others besides – spend even more time and effort “saving” dollars by doing the opposite.

A senior buyer from a major UK brewer told me recently that his company had worked out that a cost saving of £1,000 was equivalent to an increase in sales of £39,000 and such savings were seen as easier to accomplish – hence the focus on cost-cutting.

He failed to explain what the impact would be if, in saving £1,000, he also lost £39,000 or more of sales as a consequence of poorer quality in either product or service.

Of course not, with the way we train people in narrow skills and structure companies in tight little boxes that’s hardly his problem.

The great thing about the dog is that the tail and the tongue are connected. It’s a model we would do well to imitate in business and in life.

Lessons from the Life of Plants

Words: 830. Reading time 2 minutes 46 seconds

At this time of year most of the plants in my garden are working hard to produce the seeds of future flowers. Nature has them all focused on just one thing – reproduction: leaving enough of themselves to ensure that future generations survive.

And to us thinking, sentient human beings nature appears to be profligate.

The humble dandelion produces between 54 and 172 seeds per head and a single dandelion can produce more than 2000 seeds. Some estimates suggest that annually dandelions produce more than 240 million seeds per acre.

A typical sunflower will have between 260 and 800 seeds per flower head, depending on the growing conditions and a typical geranium will have about 5 seeds per flower and between 40 and 100 flowers per plant.

So, how come we are not knee-deep in dandelions, sunflowers and geraniums? Because seeds are like our ideas, efforts, experiments, trials and initiatives – some are successful; many are not.

If you are not seeing failure, you are not trying hard enough
Obviously a certain proportion of the seeds will not survive the journey from parent plant to place of germination. Many will be broken, burnt, waterlogged, eaten, aged or decayed along the way.

Some seeds may not even be viable (have life in them) to begin with. This is why many plants invest a lot of energy into seed production - to produce many, so multiplying the chances for the few.

And we would do well to recognize that success to failure ratio in Mother Nature and be aware that we could do a lot worse than imitate some of her ways.

Just because we plan, develop a strategy, set SMART goals and visualize our outcomes does not mean that we will always succeed all of the time. As Dwight Eisenhower pointed out: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

Nature's manual for maximizing outcomes

Nature adopts a variety of strategies to improve the chances of successful germination. How many of these could we adapt to foster our own dreams and desires?

1. Plants have evolved -in most cases- methods of dispersing their seeds. This means transporting them to a place away from their parent, ensuring that some of them will find suitable conditions for growth elsewhere, where there is less chance of competing with their siblings for space (finding new markets).

2. Some seeds and seed-like fruits are carried by ocean currents. Such seeds are of the kind that can float for a long period without absorbing sea water and establish themselves finally in tidal mud or on beaches (waiting for favourable economic conditions to materialize).

3. Animals and birds disperse seeds, too. We often see them in late summer and early autumn with numerous seed-like fruits adhering to their hides or feathers (using a surrogate sales force and word-of-mouth marketing).

4. A variable proportion of seeds of many kinds of plants resist prompt germination. One example is the uneven ripening and shedding of the fruits of some grasses, such as the giant foxtail (test new ideas in series, rather than in parallel).

5. Many legumes, such as the clovers, produce a variable proportion of seeds with impermeable seed coats, which may resist germination for long periods (give ideas time to mature and develop, rather than getting carried away, releasing them before they are fully worked out).

6. Some species produce pods in which one segment remains indehiscent—closed—and the seed within it remains dormant for a long time, as in cocklebur (Xanthium), for example (where an idea has scope for variations and enhancements, start with the basic model instead of diluting the market and, possibly, increasing start-up costs).

Gardeners and nurserymen also give nature a hand by selecting for certain characteristics and using only seeds from plants that are seen to be disease and virus free. They also save only from straight varieties, in other words not from any hybrid varieties that have been crossed with other material.

The initiates we elect to trial should be similarly selected.

The story of Brython the Bean

The great thing about cultivating your own seed (ideas) is that you can actually improve your selection with a little bit of thought to what you are doing. The late Brython Stenner from Glamorgan, South Wales, even though only a keen amateur, quickly became a legend in his own life time. His thinking was that you should select only the strongest, healthiest plants, those that consistently produced the longest and most filled pods along the row. Does that sound obvious? It does now.

Because of one amateur’s dedication, the 'Stenner Strain’ bean is the only bean that is consistently winning on the show benches today. They not only look good, they taste good as well.

So, even with careful preparation and nurturing, be prepared for less than 100% germination with all your schemes.

Do not be hugely surprised if some things take longer to come to fruition than others.

And, as Robert Louis Stevenson remarked, “Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

Everyone nods

Everybody nods.

In the years leading up to the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720 there was an increased potential for foreign trade. Consumerism was on the rise. Wealth and luxury were no longer reserved exclusively for the aristocracy.

The company was promised a monopoly of all trade to the South American Spanish colonies.

Everyone agreed that the future was set fair. Everyone nodded.

But through a web of deceit, corruption, and bribery that included both company and government officials it was grossly oversold. The trading concessions barely materialized; the company had a very shaky commercial basis.

The company’s share price fell from a peak of £1050 at the end of June to £175 by September 1720, devastating institutions and individuals alike.

The bursting of the bubble, which coincided with the similar collapse of the Mississippi Scheme in France, ended – temporarily – the prevalent belief that prosperity could be achieved through unlimited expansion of credit.

In the later 1990s the new internet sector and related fields were the place to make your fortune. Everyone nodded.

A combination of rapidly increasing share prices, individual stock market speculation and widely available venture capital created an environment in which many of the internet based companies dismissed standard business models. They focused on increasing market share without regard to the bottom line. That would take care of itself.

These companies expected that they could build enough brand awareness to charge profitable rates for their services later. The motto "get big fast" reflected this strategy.

But the bottom line didn’t and the companies couldn’t. The dot-com model was inherently flawed.

Even if the plan was sound, there could only be, at most, one network-effects winner in each sector. Yet there were a vast number of companies all with the same business plan for the same respective sector. Therefore most companies with this business plan faced inevitable failure. In fact, many sectors could not support even one company powered entirely by network effects.

The dot-com bubble crash wiped out $5 trillion in market value of technology companies from March 2000 to October 2002. Add to this the write-downs by the venture capital community which, to name but three, include at least $280 million for kozmo.com, $160 million for boo.com and $65 million for MVP.com.

And so we come to recent times. The bankers announce they have found a way of lending the same money many times over and, even if it is lent where there is a high risk of default, it’s still safe. And everyone nodded.

However, these events and those like them down the years are merely the tip of the iceberg. These are just instances of high–profile, bizarre and reckless conduct. There is just as much perverse, incomprehensible and destructive business behaviour to be found in everyday dealings.

For example, a recent, cash-strapped client who offered 90-day credit to his customers because, “that’s what this industry does.” Everyone nods.

For example, a business acquaintance who cut back on his sales and marketing expenditure in anticipation of a fall in customer volumes (everyone nods) happily reporting that’s what actually happened.

For example, a company, anxious to have its employees engaged with the business (everyone nods), commissions a consultant to conduct a survey in order to discover what its people think.

For example, the business that is doing things in the same way as its competitors (everyone nods), yet expects a result that will show them as being exceptional.

The human animal is tribal. That is not the same as having a herd instinct. We can think independently if we chose; we are more likely to succeed if we do.

In 1841 Charles Mackay published his book "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds", often cited as the best book ever written about market psychology.

In May 2004 James Surowiecki published The Wisdom of Crowds.

In the light of subsequent events, perhaps Mackay had it right after all.

Believing Is Seeing

We are so lucky. As consumers we are blessed with so many offers of help and assistance – so many that it’s difficult to choose between them.

· You can’t get better than a Kwik Fit fitter – they’re the ones to trust.

· Halifax will pay you 60 times more than the others could.

· L'Oreal – because you’re worth it.

…and, if all else fails, there’s always the DFS sale.

Aren’t these companies good to us?

In business we are equally fortunate. Wherever you turn there is someone offering to do it cheaper…or faster…or bigger…or easier. Just about anything you might – just possibly – regard as a problem can be instantly fixed by picking up the phone and inviting the Merlins of the market into your business.

Whether it’s finding more clients, getting your invoices paid, dealing with your staff, or optimising the internet there are a plethora of individuals, partnerships and companies ready and waiting with sure-fire panaceas.

How could you go wrong?

Likewise, if it’s your business itself that’s the problem, then never fear. There are any number of know-it-alls prepared to tell you how you should run it. Hell, for the right amount of money paid in advance, they’ll even do it for you.

In the quiet of the wee, small hours I sometimes wonder how we mortals so often get it wrong when gold-plated success is so easy to come by. Were we out of the room when they handed out all of the answers?

I doubt it.

Before those outside our business can even hope to make a contribution two things have to happen:

We have to believe that the suggestion they have to offer will actually work for us, and

We have to believe that particular firm or individual is the right one to work with us.

Whatever the ‘fix’ is, we have to buy into it ourselves, mentally and financially, before opening the door. Unless we first experience that mind-shift the ‘fix’ is likely to be doomed before the project even begins. Hesitancy in accepting the proposed solution is probably behind most of the failed consultancy projects. And most consultancy projects fail.

There is a threat to any business from someone who thinks they know better than you how to run it. Maybe they do know better, but it is still your business. However good their ‘fix’ is on paper, you will modify, undermine, sabotage and destroy it – perhaps subconsciously – if your pattern of beliefs do not shift accordingly.

So crucial are your beliefs and associated values that it would make most sense to start with those first, before you call the Merlins. At the end of the day you will probably find you can do without the outsiders, because you will have much better ideas yourself.

Migrating Your Business

Faced with the plans, goals, targets and objectives necessary to migrate our business, from where it is to where we want it to be, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Indeed, it is so easy to become overwhelmed that some people actually end up doing nothing at all, paralysed by those daunting challenges.

Of course, such people are not totally inactive, far from it. They give the appearance of being the busiest people in the office as they collect mounds of data and reams of analysis about all the challenges they face.

However, there is no outcome, for they never reach a conclusion. All that activity is merely a smokescreen, a security blanket, a substitute for the action they should be taking, but never get round to.

When faced with overwhelm one remedy is to take a lesson from the animal kingdom. Since autumn is approaching the goose sense used during their annual migrations is a lesson as powerful as horse sense.

When you see a flock of geese heading south for the winter, you will notice they fly in a characteristic "V" formation. That way, as each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. The "V" formation adds at least 71 percent greater flying range, for the flock as a whole, than if each bird flew alone.

Who else do you know that is heading in the same general direction as you? What opportunities exist to draw on their experience and leadership? How can you and your firm use their “slipstream” to help ease the hard work sometimes needed in order to make any headway? Would you really like at least 71 percent greater flying range?

However, do not expect such assistance to be entirely altruistic.

When the lead goose gets tired you can expect it to rotate back into the following flock while another goose flies point. Depending on circumstances, resources and the skills required sometimes that goose will be you. That’s because it makes sense to take turns doing demanding jobs.

You will also hear the geese behind honking to encourage those up front. Note that the honking is there for encouragement, not criticism. When you honk from behind – figuratively speaking – what is your intent? And is that intention realised?

Finally, when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshot, and falls out of the formation, two other geese fall out with the injured bird and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly again, or until it dies; and only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation to catch up with their own group.

How many businesses have the corporate sense to offer mutual support in the face of economic ills, market malaise and the continual sniping from Government and financial institutions? And is yours one of them?

Perhaps the humble goose is not quite so silly after all.

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).

Why Me?

Once upon a distant time in the here and now a seeker journeyed through the furthest regions of the earth to find a teacher rumoured to know the secrets to happiness, success, and well-being. When the seeker arrived at the teacher's mountain-top retreat, he eagerly awaited his audience with the reclusive teacher. Finally, his moment came.

"Why have you come?" the teacher asked.

The seeker proceeded to list problem after problem he was facing in his life. After listening patiently, the teacher sighed.

"I am afraid I cannot help you with your problems."

"Why not?" asked the puzzled and disappointed seeker.

"Because the gods have decreed that we all carry fifty-one problems with us at all times. Even if I could help you solve the problems you tell me of, they would only be replaced with fifty-one more."

The teacher paused to allow the full significance of the idea to sink in.

"I may, however," the teacher continued, "be able to help you with your 52nd problem."

"What's that?" asked the seeker.

"Your 52nd problem," replied the teacher, "Is that you think you should not have the first 51 problems."

The 52nd problem is not confined to our fabled seeker. I think most people in business would welcome fewer problems. Many would go further and wish there were no problems. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?

Probably not: man is a solution seeking animal and when problems become too few, or of insufficient size, then he (or she) will manufacture some challenge to fill the vacuum. If not, then the market will do it for him. If your sector was problem-free and life truly was a cushy number, then other firms would push their way in seeking this Sylvania for themselves. The problems would multiply and the natural balance would be restored.

Problems are essentially opportunities in disguise. How well you cope with them will determine how well you do in business and in life. Problems are not something from which we should flee. Rather they are things we should embrace.

A leader faced with an almighty challenge is afforded reward and recognition when that challenge is eventually overcome. A leader handed an easy life reaps no honour; success is expected. For him there is only the yawning chasm represented by muffing an easy shot and failing to capture what everyone else saw as a gift.

It is an entirely different proposition to have a sufficiency of problems, yet be tempted into making even more for yourself. This is particularly attractive when the problems you do have are chronic and familiar. In such circumstances either the problem fades into the background and is hardly noticed, or there is seen to be little kudos in dealing it. If collecting cash has always taken 90 days at your firm there may be little enthusiasm for reducing it to 30 days. There may even be some opposition to disturbing the status quo and ‘upsetting’ certain clients.

Whatever you circumstances where problems are concerned – too few, enough, or too many – the basic approach is the same: rather than engaging in the self-pity of “Why me?” pick the one problem whose solution, or easement, would have the biggest impact on your business. When that one is solved, or temporarily stalled, work on the problem with the next biggest impact. Have no more than six problems, ranked in order of impact, on your list at any one time.

This is not a new idea. It was first put into practice by Charles Schwab, President of Bethlehem Steel in the 1900’s. The idea is simple, but don’t let that deceive you. There are still plenty of opportunities for distractions. The real achievement is in recognising the potential diversions and resolutely refusing to get sidetracked.

It Takes Two to Tango

Employee engagement, in various guises, is among the new buzzwords of recent years. To be more accurate, it’s a repackaging of old ideas by the consulting industry. Under a shiny “NEW” label the consultants have found yet another way of exploiting corporate insecurity and thereby picking its pockets.

There appears to be only circular definitions of what constitutes an engaged employee. The CIPD defines employee engagement as “a combination of commitment to the organisation and its values plus a willingness to help out colleagues (organisational citizenship). It goes beyond job satisfaction and is not simply motivation. Engagement is something the employee has to offer: it cannot be ‘required’ as part of the employment contract.”

In short, an engaged employee is any employee who is engaged. It’s a matter of attitude.

Today’s employers are encouraged to recruit for attitude; train for skill when searching for new employees. That approach saves the job of instilling an attitude seen as ‘right’ by the employer in question, but it only goes so far. Whatever attitude is exhibited during the recruitment process it will only be retain if the employee’s circumstances are conducive.

To a large extent that depends on the employer, but it can equally be affected either by changes in the employee’s private life, or by shifts in their personal beliefs and values. Over the employee’s private life and over beliefs and values the employer has little or no control. And rightly so. An employment contract is an exchange of time and skills for money and associated benefits. It is not entry into a closed religious order.

Most of the literature on this subject talks about measuring employee attitudes and conducting regular employee attitude surveys. Any organisation that needs to do that has to raise an immediate red flag in its own mind. If concern for the attitude and mindset of employees is not part of the daily interaction in the company, if senior management has actually lost touch with how employees think and feel, then there is an immediate problem.

Organisations that have a high proportion of employees who are unengaged or disengaged are offered various approaches to reverse that situation. These include:
• giving the opportunity to feed views and opinions upwards
• keeping employees informed about what is going on
• seeing that managers are committed
• having fair and just management processes for dealing with problems.

Perhaps more telling – and rarely mentioned – is the sobering process of the organisation examining its own value as expressed in its formal and informal manner of doing things. What message is the organisation really giving to its employees (and its customers)? Can people be reasonably expected to sign up enthusiastically to such a message?

This search for paragons of virtue among employees has an interesting parallel in the education sector. In England, when a pupil truants from school, we ask what is wrong with the child. In France, they ask what is wrong with the school. If you are an employer looking for greater engagement then be prepared. If it is absent then the cause may lay uncomfortably close to home.

The Source of Stress

A recent Whitehall report on stress claimed that high-pressure jobs which cause chronic stress can dramatically increase the risk of a heart attack (Independent, 23 January). Unfortunately, the report would appear to have the causation hopelessly muddled. The possibility that its findings could lead to tougher guidelines for employers on reducing stress just perpetuates the confused thinking.

The inference is that the jobs in question are inherently stressful. Thus, only by changing either the job, or the way that it’s managed, can the level of associated stress be reduced. A little reflection shows that this is not the case. Stress is an emotional state experienced by a particular individual.

Imagine there’s a woman called Mary who has just taken on a task that’s entirely new to her. She is keen to perform the task well not only for her own satisfaction, but also to impress her boss, to obtain a much needed increase in pay that will help her stave off mounting debt and, finally, to get noticed by that dishy man in the Purchasing Dept. Her first few tries are a disaster. Her workmates laugh at her. She believes she will never perform the task well. Her stress level is rising.

At a different time and place a man called Philip also takes on an entirely new task. Philip considers the task trivial and it is really of no interest to him. He attaches no importance to anyone else’s opinion, he is already wealthy and there is no significant other on whom he wishes to make an impact. His first few tries are also a disaster; he fares no better than Mary. His workmates also laugh at him and, although he believes he will never perform the task well, he is totally unconcerned. Philip is not stressed.

In each case the task in question was identical. The reaction to it and its associated outcomes were entirely different. The task is neutral. The stress experienced only rises when the person concerned attaches particular significance to what they are doing. Someone who is largely indifferent to what happens in any particular set of circumstances is not going to get stressed.

The association between the stress people report and their biological responses found by the Department of Epidemiology at University College London is to be entirely expected. A person’s emotional state feeds through to their physiology and their behaviour. They are inextricably linked. Such a finding merely confirms an interaction that is already recognised and well known.

Earlier results from the studies, led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot and published in the European Heart Journal, showed that those in low-status jobs who were required to follow the orders of their bosses were more stressed, and died sooner, than the hot-shot executives handing out the orders. Again, this is to be expected. Those hot-shot executives are a self-selecting sample.

If you have the ability to become a hot-shot executive, but do not relish the stress you associate with that position, then you unlikely to either put yourself forward for promotion, or accept it should it be offered. Those lower down the hierarchy will include a higher proportion of those already approaching the limits of their abilities, those less mobile in the job market for want of talent and those essaying new tasks and fresh assignments with which they have yet to become comfortable. Professor Marmot’s findings are a glimpse of the blindingly obvious.

Given this set of facts it would be perverse to place the onus on employers to mitigate the stress experienced by each individual in their workforce. Even among those engaged on exactly the same work, in the same location for the same boss stress will vary from individual to individual. Those that care most will be stressed most, other things being equal.

But other things rarely are equal, so is the employer entirely culpable in respect of Mary where the money element of her emotive reaction is self-imposed and outside the employer’s control? Or is the expectation now that employers should hire only those that couldn’t-care-less on the grounds that people with that attitude are less likely to experience stress?

Full and appropriate consideration and nurture of the workforce is in the interest of every employer. Some legislation in some areas is necessary to direct the unenlightened, but the nanny tendency of the British state can go too far, especially when it is guided by questionable science.

10 Top Networking Tips

What makes a successful business? 99% of the time it is not a killer business idea. Those are as rare as hen’s teeth. 99% of the time it is determination, passion and commitment. These qualities work in any business and are quickly and easily communicated during networking.

Networking brings people together. And since people buy from people it is one of the most effective and direct ways of communicating your message.

Here are some additional tips to help you through the process:

1. 80% of life is showing up.
Woody Allen’s well-known quotation applies to networking just as much as it applies in the rest of life. Some of us find crowds oppressive and strangers intimidating so, for us, actually showing up at a network event is a real achievement. For others the network event comes at the beginning of a very full day or after hours of frustrating and exhausting toil. Do we really want extend our work-life any more?

Yes, we do, if we want to continue to build our business and ensure future orders arrive when needed. Showing up at a network event is a critical step in that process.

2. Being self-conscious is normal.
Having made the effort, now what do you say? Even if you have prepared and rehearsed that ‘elevator pitch’ (you did do that, didn’t you?) when you are face-to-face with a stranger, somehow it does not sound quite as good. This feeling gets worse as the noise levels in the room rise and your voice gets louder and louder. Fear not. Feeling awkward is normal. We’ve all been there. It’s even a place that some of us revisit from time to time as we experiment with different approaches. Remember two things:
a. Your companion has no idea what you were supposed to say, so they won’t know if you get it wrong;
b. Be yourself. If you are feeling nervous, lost for words or out of your depth – then say so. The person you are talking to will already have experienced the same thing. The only reactions you are likely to get are sympathy and support.

3. Now you’re here, you may as well have fun.
Networking is about business and it does form part of your marketing, but that is no reason to treat it as a sombre and solemn subject. You are among people with the same aims and aspirations as you have. You could learn something from them. They could even learn something from you.

It may be business, but it’s in a social setting so relax and enjoy it. Take a few deep, calming breathes and jump right in. You will come across more naturally and you will notice a lot more about other people once you overcome the initial jitters.

Forget about yourself, nobody cares anyway. They are all fully absorbed with their own worries – oh, yes they are. And you can help both of you by talking about them (it’s everyone’s favourite subject). Once you start to concentrate on what they are saying you will soon forget about yourself.

4. Be among the first to get here and the last to depart.
Networking events only last so long – usually around 2 hours. Together in one room, for just a short period of time, you have a group of people who are there with the specific intent of meeting you. Make the most of it. Speak to as many of them as possible and allow yourself the time to find out a little about them. Who are they? What do they do? What are their plans? What issues are they grappling with? Where could you help? If you spend as little as 10 minutes talking with each one, just 12 people will fill those two hours easily.

Where possible, position yourself to watch the door out of the corner of your eye. Is a previous contact arriving that you want to touch base with again? Or is an interesting prospect about to leave before you have had a chance to exchange a few words? If you arrive late or leave early you will miss those opportunities and others may then get in the queue ahead of you.

5. Telling isn’t selling.
If your conversations at a networking event consist mainly of you telling the other person what you do, how you do it, the prices you charge and the guarantees you give then you will part company knowing very little about them and nothing about how you might be able to help them. Working out how your business can best meet their needs is your responsibility, not theirs.

Selling consists of learning as much as possible about the other party and finding a way of being of service to them. Initially that may not equate to a sale. It may be a piece of information, a telephone number or a contact of yours capable of meeting their current need. That’s good. That gives you a common point of reference and the opportunity to follow up later to see how things have progressed.

Taking a (genuine) interest in your prospects will rank you ahead of most of the competition and keep you ‘on the radar’. Acquiring good customers takes time; be prepared to invest it.

6. Make friends when you don’t need them.
If you wait until you need someone’s help and then befriend them in order to obtain it you are likely to be found out. Out of desperation you are also likely to find yourself in a worse bargaining position and give away more than is necessary in order to relieve an emergency. Following this approach you will be entirely dependent on goodwill, rather than fair and equal reciprocity (a favour asked for a favour done).

Making genuine friendships, built on mutual interest and warm companionship with nothing at stake, is a much better reflection of the generous person that you are. Approaching another person in an open and honest manner gives you the freedom to be yourself. You carry no hidden agenda and are less likely to provoke the instinctive, defensive reaction: “What’s this person after?”

7. It is not about the business cards you give out.
If you attend a network meeting with the sole intention of giving out as many of your business cards as possible, even to people who do not request one, you may very well succeed. Then what?
a. Those that did not request your card are likely to file it or throw it, which will amount to much the same thing.
b. Those that did ask for your card without you taking any interest in them are probably being polite. The result will be the same.
c. Those in whom you did show some interest and who asked for a card will put it down meaning to call you; lose it under a pile of paper; find it three weeks later; spill tea on it and then sweep it into the rubbish by mistake.

Relying solely on the business cards you give out cedes control to the people who have them. They have busy lives too. It is more in your interest than theirs that they use the card – after all, you are not the only fish in the sea. That leads on to…

8. It is not about the business cards you collect.
Merely scooping up business cards from everyone else in the room will just add to your large and growing collection. I am sure it is a fascinating hobby, but is it taking your own business forward? Once you have someone’s business card…you have to put it to work. Now YOU are in control, so make good use of it.

Add the contact to your database (you do have…?) and programme in a series of appropriate follow-ups. The first need be little more than a ‘nice to meet you’ and a reference to something that came up in conversation between you. Subsequent ones at decently spaced intervals need to offer slightly more, or it just becomes spam. It’s your business, I will leave you to work out what you can offer.

9. Don’t end the evening wishing you had…
…done something, or said something, or met someone that was there. Opportunities in life can be fleeting. If you have spent the money to be here and taken the time and trouble to turn up, then you owe it to yourself and your business to make the most of it.

At a networking event that usually means taking ‘people risks’. It means stepping forward and introducing yourself to total strangers. But the magical thing about that is you need only do it once. After the first time the person concerned is no longer a stranger!

The other bonus is that people who attend networking events do so with the explicit intention of meeting strangers such as you. By stepping forward with a welcome of your own you are already helping them fulfil the purpose they had in coming here. How cool is that as an opening gambit with a potential customer?
10. What would you do next, if you knew you could not fail?

Life is full of surprises. The biggest surprise to me is the limits people impose on themselves. Too often the hobgoblins inside their heads whisper, “Who do you think you are?” and “You couldn’t possibly!” At that point self-doubt creeps in and many a wonderful adventure is stillborn before it begins.We all have wild and wacky ideas, many more than we ever feel happy disclosing. If networking is about getting noticed, if your future means being memorable, then a networking meeting is just the place to spread your wings and be eager to fly!