Mar 30, 2012 | Change, Innovation, Strategy
Evolution happens in most circumstances in the absence of strong ‘anti-evolution” measures, and often even then, generally there is stuff happening at the fringes.
However, rigid barriers hold back change, until like the boy in the dyke, you run out of fingers, and then all hell breaks loose.
Allowing, even encouraging evolution acts as a pressure relief valve.
For some years I worked in the regulated milk industry, it was pretty obvious that the regulations protected a small number of people to the detriment of many, were a barrier to growth, and had no rational economic or social base at all. The problem was politics, not economics, there were a small number of electorates that could swing on the votes of dairy farmers, and we all effectively paid a price to keep them in business.
It was pretty obvious it would end badly, as indeed it did. The costs to everyone were far greater than necessary when the regulations were removed, particularly to those who had survived only because of the barriers. Instead of having time to adjust, those farmers were “killed off” overnight, a tragedy for them, but an inevitable outcome of the sudden removal of significant protection.
In effect, the evolution that was happening on the fringes of the market, and in other regulatory jurisdictions, was disregarded, and it required a bloody revolution, with all the associated pain, to get change.
Just think how much less pain would have been felt in the Middle East had the various autocrats in the region allowed change to evolve, rather than supressing it for years. It is much easier in the long run to encourage evolution.
Mar 29, 2012 | Change, Communication, Innovation, Social Media
It is all a matter of perspective.
Digital marketing implies an application of the existing disciplines of marketing, just tweaked a bit to accommodate the presence in the environment of digital options, facebook, linkedin, Pin it, and the rest.
Marketing in a digital world implies a pivot, the old rules no longer apply, because the world has changed.
Comscore has released their latest research, summarised and commented on in Mike Stelzner’s great Social Media Examiner blog. The impact of on line shopping, our seeming addiction to social sites and the opportunities to find new ways to engage with consumers as they conduct their digital lives, is delivering a host of new businesses, business models, and service opportunities not on the radar just a couple of years ago. Just look at the sudden emergence of cloud computing, the question is not where in the organisation responsibility for operating the cloud interactions should reside, but how can we best leverage the opportunities thrown up by this piece of the digital revolution.
Digital is no longer an option if medium term commercial survival is an objective, weather it be marketing, managing manufacturing, customer relationships and inventory, or just doodling, it is the other side of the inflexion point.
Not every body is there yet, but it will not be long, so don’t be late.
Mar 28, 2012 | Leadership, Management
“Politics” is a dirty corporate word, but “Organisational Dynamics” appears to be OK, and is gaining traction as a cliché.
What is the difference?
Both describe the process of accumulating the wherewithal to exercise influence, and dictate outcomes.
It is a fact of life that those who have control of resources, the money, people, and information, have the power to deliver should they have the intellectual and personal drive to do so, have at some point exercised political power in some form.
We have all seen the individual with organisational power but who could not tie his/her shoelaces without help, and the one who with little formal power seems to be able to get stuff done. Both find ways to influence outcomes using the same resources in differing ways, differentiated only by the innate capabilities of the individual.
Mar 27, 2012 | Customers, Sales
I walked into a retail store last week, the salesperson wandered up, big smile, “How can I help you” he said. Good start, better than the usual “Can I help?” which has as a possible answer, “No thanks, just looking”.
I told him the product category I was looking for, and he then asked “how much do you want to spend?”
Perhaps a logical next question, but the wrong one.
Why should I trust someone I do not know, whose job it is to sell me as much as possible for as much as possible, with the boundaries of my budget?
Obviously, had I said $2000, he would have shown me items at $2100, just a touch over my budget, an easy step up of just 5%, and think of all that added functionality, instead of items at $1000 that may have suited my needs just as well.
What he should have done is ask questions about what job I needed done, which features I needed, and which ones would be just nice to have, did I have brand preferences, and what about the aesthetics?
Had he done all that, he may very well have sold me the $2100 unit, and would almost certainly sold me something, and I have been pleased with the result, but as it was, I thanked him and went down the road.
And we wonder why retail sales are so flat!
Mar 26, 2012 | Collaboration, Innovation, Small business
Blogs, facebook, web sites, and e-books have all bypassed the mass model of publishing, enabling huge numbers of people a creative outlet not available before 2000, but there is still the need for seed-funding. Raising the modest amounts of money to try and commercialise creativity has become a whole lot easier with the birth of Kickstarter, a crowdsourced funding platform for creativity.
Kickstarter is an interesting model. It calls for pledges for a project, a target and a time frame. When the target is reached, the credit card pledges are activated, if the target is not reached, they lapse. In this way, it creates micro finance for creative projects. The social media collaboration between the site, and facebook enables a “fan-base” to be developed, creating a market at the time the pledges are taken.
A challenge to this type of funding being extended to commercial operations is the hold current legislation gives ASIC, intended as a protection against snake-oil salesmen. The same challenge exists in the US where last week congress passed legislation to enable crowdsourcing of funding up to $1 million/year from a small unaccredited investors, and $50 million for established private companies before having to register a prospectus with the SEC.
Both are very good ideas, that should be translated to Australia where SME’s have great difficulty raising money, and the hurdle of having a prospectus approved by ASIC is very high indeed. The potential for growth enabled by access to funding by SME’s has to be substantial, providing a kick to the economy.
