Sep 27, 2009 | Change, Leadership, Management
A short while ago I found myself in a fairly robust debate about the merits or otherwise of the various industry “marketing & R&D” bodies that have inhabited Australian agriculture for decades.
Dairy, meat, Horticulture, grains, all have, or have had, a range or bodies regulating and collecting levies for the so-called collective good of the “industry” .
It struck me towards the end of the conversation, which was getting a bit heated, particularly about the recent removal of the single wheat marketing desk, that the positions we were all taking bore the hallmarks of an argument that had happened many times, the various pros & cons recited almost by habit by all concerned.
Whilst they were expressed as considered views, informed by facts, what they really were, on all sides, were recitations of a view expressed many times by rote from within the boundaries of a point of view that was unlikely to change under almost any circumstances.
Next time you find yourself reciting a mantra, go back to the basic facts, consider who benefits, look at the location of margin and profit, and then think about the view you are comfortable with, genuinely informed by the facts.
Sep 24, 2009 | Innovation, Management, Marketing
Seth Godin is once again ahead of the wave with the launch of Brands In Public.
The logic is simple, today, you cannot control the conversations that occur about your brand or business, they happen across the myriad of access points to the web, so the next best thing is to assemble the conversations at a common point, and give yourself the opportunity to participate.
Brands in public gathers the conversations, and offers a point of intersection between these conversations and the brand owner. At least, you then have a place at the table to counter the nonsense, put forward the facts, and perhaps add a bit of steerage to the process.
Wonderful idea, so obvious with hindsight, executed with simplicity.
Sep 23, 2009 | Marketing
Green marketing, Eco marketing, carbon aware marketing, food miles marketing, Cause marketing, all are segments of “marketing” that have potential appeal to an “aware” group of consumers that just a few years ago would have been lumped together, and considered to be “tree huggers” or “loonies.”
Reaching these small but committed groups of consumers, and engaging with them is not possible in any cost effective way with mass media, it requires the communication tools of the 21st century to engage with, and be relevant to the emerging consumers of the 21st century.
It has always been the case that individuals were all different, it is just that branding evolved as a means to communicate to similar “masses” in the absence of being able to communicate with individuals about what made them an individual, a market of one.
Nothing has changed except the tools.
Sep 22, 2009 | Management
Seth Godin a short time ago wrote a post on priorities, goes to the heart of the dilemma we all face, sorting our own version of The priority list .
Then Tom Fishburne reflects Seths observations in one picture.
What more needs to be said, or drawn?
Sep 22, 2009 | Change, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
There is a growing trend driven by the difficult times for management to set very big goals (Big Hairy Audacious Goals… BHAG),and hope to create the focus necessary to achieve the BHAG outcome.
Often however, the opposite appears to occur, as those in the organization charged with the execution of the plans simply do not believe the objectives are achievable.
Sometimes this is just that the objective is divorced from the reality of the competitive environment, sometimes it is simply a failure of leadership, but most often, it is just that the goals emerge from wishful thinking that puts off difficult decisions for a bit longer.
JFK said in 1961 “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon, and returning him safely to earth. ” This is probably the most famous BHAG of all. It is a statement in a single sentence that contains the three elements of a successful BHAG. It creates the vision of where we want to go, the measures of success are clearly articulated, and everyone recognised the resources necessary to achieve the task would be made available, because the President had committed himself to the goal.
No room for wishful thinking or bland leadership in that statement, and it was achieved. Would it have been achieved, had any of the three conditions been missed? Probably not, because it would have just been the wishful musings of the President.
