Sep 3, 2009 | Leadership, Management, Sales
Negotiation is a daily activity of most managers, almost irrespective of the size of the organisation, and the industry it sits in. On many occasions, a conversation may not be seen as negotiation, as it lacks the adversarial background that highlights a negotiation in progress, but if the conversation has an objective, it has in its nature some elements of a negotiation.
This was highlighted recently in a conversation with a client preparing for a friendly merger, where the outcome had been agreed in principal, all that was left was the “how to” bits, so below is a list I developed for that conversation, in no particular order.
- Any conversation that seeks an arrangement where both parties believe they have done better than their “walk away” point is a negotiation, recognise it when it happens.
- Failure to neglect or understand the other sides priorities and what drives them to participate in a conversation that is really a negotiation is a fundamental one.
- Do not let price hide the other factors that contribute to a successful outcome, particularly the emotional and psychological ingredients. A negotiation is a “climax” moment in a relationship, if there has been no work on the relationship, it follows that the climax will be sub-optimal.
- Allowing established positions to get in the way of sensible and creative compromise that serves the best interests of both parties is a common mistake.
- Early in the process of determining the nature of the negotiation, establish your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)
- Processing information that emerges during a negotiation purely from the perspective of your inherent bias can prove to be fatal to achieving any outcome.
Sep 2, 2009 | Leadership, Management, Marketing
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, it is probably a duck.
How easily some of us can be led to believe that what we are looking at is something other than what we see.
The old saying about the duck has never been truer than in the recent collapse of Bernie Madoff’s empire. Billions were invested by many otherwise sensible people in the mistaken belief that one investment business could consistently outperform the market under all circumstances.
Madoff conned people over an extended period, creating a “Ponzi” (to Australians, pyramid selling )scheme that became so big, and so successful at attracting new funds that most refused to believe it could be a Ponzi scheme
If it too good to be true, it usually is, irrespective of the hyperbole that may accompany it.
Sep 2, 2009 | Marketing, Strategy
Customers do not always fall into the easy demographic segments so favored by marketers. They think, and react to a range of stimuli that have little to do with their age, sex, family situation, education, where they live, how much they earn, and what job they do.
Each consumer is a market of one, and they must be won over by your brand and product offering, so make sure you really understand why they behave the way they do.
So called “new media” offers a channel to communicate with consumers individually rather than on mass, this does not make it easier than the old “mass media”, if anything it is harder, and it is certainly different.
Aug 31, 2009 | Leadership, Marketing
Isn’t the marketing job done by the Canterbury Bulldogs on Hazem El Nasri about the best branding game in town at the moment?
Forget that he is an athlete, and that his personal credo appears to be beyond reproach, Canterbury have done a great job of branding for the man, the club, and the game after a low period that has called into question the survival of the game as the main football code in this part of the world.
There are many alternatives to league, all of them competing for the hearts and minds of players, supporters, sponsors, and perhaps most importantly, young players mums. Their concerns have been adroitly addressed by the brand strategists who have executed beautifully over the last 6 months, culminating last weekend.
It would have been a perfect finish had the young bookend been sufficiently marketing savvy to have passed to Hazem 3 minutes from the end, with the line open, rather than taking the try himself. What an opportunity missed!
Professional marketers spend their lives looking for sources of competitive advantage, then building and defending them. They use the quantitative tools that identify segments, targets, strategies and opportunities, but to be successful they must not forget that marketing is more about the heart than the head, but you need both.
Those who carried this exercise got it right, recognising that marketing is a science, except where it is an art.
Aug 27, 2009 | Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy
The world will look different when it emerges from the crunch, as we appear to be doing currently.
The globalization and connectivity of the world are trends that will not go away, and the chaos of the last 12 months will have enabled trends at the fringe to build momentum much more quickly that would have otherwise been the case.
Consider the acceptance, even demand, for increased government intervention in business, something that would have been impossible a year ago, the growth of twitter over the same period, the role pro-active networking of supporters using the web played in the success of the Obama campaign, and the explosion of sales of “green” cars like the Toyota Prius, and Honda’s equivalent at premium prices during a financial meltdown. All examples of disturbance at the periphery of activity which became full blown disruptions at the core in a very short time, motivated during the economic chaos by people seeking new ways to understand and deal with what was going on.
Building adaptability has become a key survival skill, taking lessons from the natural world where many small “experiments” at the fringes builds the capacity of the species to survive as the environment changes around you. It may be that Peter Drucker‘s maxim that the only core competence needed by an organization was innovation has been reinforced, as all the literature on successful innovation cites the ability of an organization to run many experiments as a key component of innovation success.
Anyone thinking the post crash world will look like the pre-crash one needs to think again.
