Dec 16, 2024 | AI, Leadership
The characteristics of leadership we expect from the local nonprofit or sporting club, to the largest businesses in the country, to the Prime Minister, are pretty much the same.
Trust.
We need to trust them. Trust is earned by the behaviour we observe, never just given. It is also incremental, built over time, but is also fragile, and can be brought down in a minute by one bad example. The test, if there is such a thing is whether we believe that the private conversations the ‘leader’ is having are the same as the public ones, and would they be prepared to say those private things on the 6 O’clock news. By this test, many in prominent so called ‘leadership’ roles in this country fail. Dismally.
Dependability.
This has many forms, from delivering on the big promises made, to turning up on time for an appointment with the local hairdresser. In any leadership role, no matter the size, when a real leader finds themselves from time to time unable to deliver, they do not walk away from the fact, they acknowledge the failure, learn from it, and move on. To many, this is the essence of leadership, to me, in it’s simplest form, it is just common courtesy painted on a wider canvas.
Competence.
Someone placed in a leadership role, who is an example of the Peter principal is corrosive to the rest of the organisation. Those being led must believe that the leader is someone they can follow, and learn from. That does not mean they never make a mistake, it does not mean they are never unsure of themselves, or exhibit human frailties, it just means that we believe that they have the wisdom, skills and experience to get the job done.
Humanity.
We are herd animals, we rely on those around us for safety, and security. We have evolved and prospered as a species because we are able to collaborate and care for one another and rely on our neighbours in times of stress and crisis. In short, we care about others. Someone in a leadership position who does not care about those being led, is not a leader, at best they are a manager, dispensable and easily replaced.
When an individual displays these four characteristics, followers just seem to appear.
Header by DALL-E, who cannot be made to spell correctly no matter how hard I try to get its digital brain cells to listen!!
NOTE: Before posting this, I saw I had written an almost identical post a few years ago. While the four parameters are the same, the way I expressed them is a bit different. So, rather than scrapping it, as i have done before when realising i am repeating myself, I elected to post it anyway. Repeating a good idea is rarely a bad thing.
Dec 13, 2024 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media
It’s never been easier to reach potential customers, yet the reality is that most outreach efforts are being ignored. Digital tools have flooded inboxes with a tsunami of generic, unsolicited messages. Once, nearly everything got opened — now, email open rates are as low as junk mail rates.
We are all increasingly wary of scams, which feed the above
Cold calling by phone is similarly suffering.
I would get two or three cold calls a day, none of which get a response beyond a blocking of the caller number.
Text messaging is going the same way, rapidly.
The vital question for marketers is obviously how do you break through this barrier of denial.
Here are four suggestions.
Quality personalised content. This takes time, money, but most particularly intimate understanding of the behavior and competitive context of your defined best customer prospects.
Relevance and timing. Focus on the most relevant communication channel and be very sensitive to the business cycles that impact your best customer prospects. Failure to do both will mean your message will be just another piece of auto-generated blurb.
Authenticity: This is a much used and overused term. Nevertheless, standing out by being real, transparent, and trustworthy in a sea of automated noise is essential.
Value driven engagement. Another of those overused cliches is ‘engagement’. However, it is a cliché for a reason. Providing immediate, clear value in every interaction through the conversion process, building trust at every stage is essential. Your prospect must see the value that makes it worthwhile to move a further stage through the conversion process.
Refining these strategies by continuously testing and improving them will give you the edge over mass produced blurb in the crowded to overflowing inbox facing your prospects every morning.
While this is easy to say, and write in a blog post, it is very hard to do. You need an expert, to direct the process.
Dec 9, 2024 | Communication, Management
From time-to-time leaders and managers must deliver bad news.
Delivering bad news is one of the most stress inducing actions any manager and leader must undertake from time to time.
My technique over the years has been what I call ‘delivering a Sh*t sandwich’.
The bad news sandwiched between two pieces of better news.
For example:
‘Sales are going well and are above budget’.
‘Sales in your area are poor, your colleagues are carrying your short-comings and are becoming very tired of that’.
‘We are sending you to the ‘Harvard improve your sales skills course’ next month hoping it will help you improve.’
This generally works quite well.
The alternative as demonstrated by the following story I found from an anonymous source, is to deliver some outrageous and imaginary really bad news, which then makes your bad news seem like a huge relief in comparison.
“Dear Mom and Dad
I’ve dropped out of school. Bob and I have moved to Alaska. His penal officer has found him a job, and we live above the gas station where he pumps gas. The doctor says my pregnancy is coming along as well as can be expected.
Love,
Jane
P.S. There’s no Bob, I’m not pregnant, and I didn’t drop out of school. But I got a D in chemistry. I just wanted you to read this with the right perspective.”
Note: this last technique also works in reverse.
Rolls Royce no longer display their cars at auto shows. In that environment, they are hugely expensive vehicles, with many very good, and much cheaper alternatives. Instead, they now display at air and boat shows, where by comparison, a Roller is pocket change.
Dec 4, 2024 | Change, Strategy
Too few people running manufacturing SME’s understand in sufficient detail the value of understanding and managing their product portfolio with one eye (at least) on their break-even point and burn rate. To my mind these are critical measures that should be reviewed and interrogated as a standard part of being a responsible manager.
The break even point in a multi-product manufacturing operation will vary depending on the gross margin from the differing mix of sales. This has been to date a challenging calculation, dependent as it is on a variety of variables, particularly the forecast of sales volumes of the product portfolio. However, it is a perfect use case for AI to be deployed, so there is no longer an excuse.
The ‘brother’ of break-even is your burn rate.
Every business has a burn rate, the ratio of cash in to cash out. It is a critical calculation, particularly in a start-up environment.
It tells you when you will run out of cash.
When seeking a capital injection, your burn rate will be one of the first numbers isolated by a potential funder.
A potential investor or lender will always ask two critical questions:
- How are you going to spend the money?
- How long will it last?
The general use of the term is in relation to startups, but it is just as important, albeit not as top of mind, in an ongoing business.
It is really a simple calculation. The ratio of cash you are spending every period, to the cash you are collecting, divided by the cash in reserve. In a crisis, that period may be daily, or weekly, but it is most often monthly.
Startups are inhabited by optimists. Nobody but an optimist would put themselves through the wringer of creating a start up. As a result, it is almost inevitable that revenue forecasts will be inflated, and costs receive too little critical thought. That is until almost too late, at which point the hatchet comes out, and potential funders run for the hills.
Dec 2, 2024 | Branding, Innovation, Strategy
A phenomenon in my local area, Sydney’s inner west.
Suddenly, there are electric cars everywhere from manufacturers I had not heard of a couple of years ago. That is in addition to the venerable brands, Volvo, MG, Lotus, and others now owned by Chinese investors, leveraging brand heritage.
China now is manufacturing very good EV cars at a fraction of the cost of traditional manufacturers. They have established technically sophisticated and innovative supply chains and are discovering and leveraging the benefits of technology. The US, Japan and Korea can only wish for the cost base the Chinese now have across their industry. Chinese manufactured EV’s now control 40% of the biggest market in the world, China.
Central planning pointed Chinese industry towards EV’s, and assisted development, while western manufacturers relied on lobbying and subsidies to maintain the dominance of petrol and diesel. The only real innovation over the last decade they have undertaken has been in racing, particularly F1. The logic expressed was that the innovation would ‘trickle down’ into our everyday cars.
It didn’t work so well with economics, but that lesson has been ignored.
Tesla may have started the ball rolling, but China has given it momentum, and now delivers 60% of global EV registrations, and accelerating.
The acceleration of global EV market penetration, perhaps hobbled only by the shortage of recharging infrastructure, and the time necessary to recharge has come at an astounding pace.
It is a classic case of don’t just change the rules, change the game.
Steve Jobs did the same thing with the iPod, then the iPhone.
The header is by DALL-E, and highlighted the further takeover of the auto industry by using Pirelli, now Chinese owned, on the track hoarding.
When you need to think differently about your strategy, revise your thinking, and figure out how to compete in the future, call someone who has seen it before.
E&OE. This analysis of the comparative costs of EV manufacturing came out a week after publishing the post. It delivers numbers that highlight the problem faced by western legacy car-makers. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/juergenstackmann_544-minutes-worth-watching-ed-conway-ugcPost-7271897558170456065-ETSC?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
