Sep 27, 2013 | Customers, Innovation, Marketing, Strategy
People instinctively like consistency and predictability, it allows them to be comfortable, and make judgments without too much risk of being wrong because the status quo has been maintained.
Helping out with a competitive pitch recently I was shown a list of the things that had to be covered, a checklist for the expected content of the presentations, a list of largely irrelevant , administrative crap, and we had only 45 minutes.
With some trepidation, we threw out the list, and built a presentation that demonstrated that the agency I was working with had the experience, and capabilities to break the challenges faced by the “pitchee” down into manageable chunks that could be addressed creatively, responsibly, and with a budget that was less than the one nominated, (which we knew was not gong to be forthcoming in any event)
We knew during the conversation that followed that the business had been won, despite the ignoring of the stated ground-rules. The sorts of comments that were made were that our approach had been “fresh” and “creative” and that we had “thought outside the box” all cliché’s, but nice nevertheless. However, what it really demonstrates is the we won because we were different.
Our competitors had followed the rules, and been boring as a result, we were not boring, had taken a risk that with hindsight was not a risk at all, so we won.
So, any time you hear something that sounds like “the client made me do it” translate it as “I did not have the balls or imagination to be original, different, and interesting”.
Sep 23, 2013 | Customers, Lean, Operations, Sales
It is amazing how people adopt to “lean” instinctively, without any planning, or knowledge of the cliches and tools spruiked by consultants (including myself). People are pretty sensible when left to themselves, they do not build waste into a system deliberately. Usually when failure occurs, there is a system in place that fails under pressure, or someones ego is involved.
On Sunday my local tennis club took our turn to have a BBQ at the local chain hardware store (Thanks Bunnings) in an effort to raise the funds to keep our historic grass courts going. Most grass courts have been beaten by the maintanence costs, and have been replaced by various low maintanence surfaces, but there is still nothing like grass, so we hang in there!
It takes about 10 minutes to cook a sausage (cycle time) so when we got going, the cooks organised themselves so that sausages were progressively rolled across the hotplate so that they were cooked by the time they got to the end, at about the time they were stuffed into a bun for a customer. They had a lean JIT process going.
As the morning progressed, and demand increased, the cooks responded by adding a second row to the hotplate, and varying the number of sausages being cooked (WIP)at any time in the second row according to the demand. It still took 10 minutes to cook a sausage, but only a few minutes to adjust the number being cooked as demand changed. This increase in the demand is reflected in what is called, in Lean parlance, Takt time, or the amount of time you have to allocate to a process so that it meets the demand from the market.
Nobody was directing this evolution of this simple BBQ production line, it was just common sense, so sensible people just made it happen. It occurred to me, not for the first time, that the various forms of waste that end up in operational systems are there largely because the demand is not clearly communicated to those running the systems, and so they just cover their arses with inventory, and allow silly practices to evolve and get in the way of demand transparency.
Left on their own, people will instinctively respond to the apparent demand, so why not just give them the information and let them get on with it.
Sep 18, 2013 | Customers, Lean, Marketing, Small business, Social Media
Courtesy Michael Taylor
“5 why’s” is a tool that started life in the Lean Thinking toolbox, but in reality is simply common sense. In effect, make sure you understand the real cause of the problem facing you before you start deploying solutions, otherwise you risk treating the symptoms, not the cause.
It is a tool applicable to any problem or challenge, even the reluctance to engage with social media that I see so often with SME’s.
Following is an edited version of a of a recent conversation I had with a bloke running a successful small business, as he confronted his social media demons.
Bill: I have to get off my arse and start using Social media.
Me: Why?
Bill: Because all my competitors are using it.
Me: Are you losing any business to them, are you generating business you expect, or are you just lonely?
Bill: Don’t know, but I think it is expected
Me: Expected by whom?
Bill: Customers?
Me: Which customers, and what do they expect?
Bill: Not sure?
Me: wouldn’t it be wise to be clear about what you wanted to communicate, and to whom, which might offer some clues about how to best achieve the outcome?
Bill: Probably.
That conversation led into a useful session better defining his value proposition, then considering the tactics to be deployed to reach his best prospects, which included some “toe-tipping” into social media.
Social Media is not a panacea, and it is not a description of one thing any more than a label of “Cars” is a description of all the cars available. You still need to decide what you want to do with it, how much you will spend, and how you will measure satisfaction before you make the shortlist, and eventual choice. It is just pretty clear that in a modern world, just like cars, it is hard to avoid Social Media, it is everywhere.
Sep 5, 2013 | Customers, Demand chains, Marketing
Creating a demand chain out of an environment forged by a competitive and opaque supply chain mentality is no small task.
This change is particularly challenging in agriculture where there is considerable regulatory and interest group oversight and thousands of years of trading DNA pre-digital.
However, why should the agricultural supply chain be immune to the collaborative revolution spawned by the availability of digital data sweeping every other industry. Clearly, agriculture should not, so those who can conceive the future will have the opportunity to own it.
The characteristics of successful collaborative ventures appear to be similar irrespective of the market they operate in. Accommodation to car hire to books, where there is a market that can benefit from information, a logistic chain that is suboptimal, and a supplier base that opens up to change, the characteristics of a successful demand chain are similar.
- They are Transparent. End to end, the availability, costs, and value add is clear to all who can benefit from the knowledge.
- They are collaborative. Each component of the chain recognizes that their individual best interests are best served by serving the best interests of the chain.
- They are consumer centric. Delivering to consumers is at the core of the drivers of the chain. Sometimes this requires re-engineering of an existing chain, in effect innovating the delivery of an existing product or service, but increasingly emerging are value propositions made possible by new technology, driving development of demand chains that would not have been possible just a few years ago, like airbnb, Lyft, and Zappos.
Each of these characteristics adds to the capacity of the chain to reflect demand back through the chain, igniting the activity required to fill the demand.
Aug 22, 2013 | Customers, Marketing
It used to be that marketing power was held in the hands of those with the most money to spend, so could block buy TV, magazines and radio.
News flash!
Those days are gone.
Marketing power is now held by three groups:
- Those with imagination,
- Those with bravery.
Imagination to see something others do not, an opportunity, media, expression of an idea, or just seeing a connection nobody else has seen, and then the bravery to use it. Anthony Weiner, the idiotic serial “sexter” who keeps on running for public office in the US provided such an opportunity to a hot dog seller who painted up his van. People shook their heads when he got “done” a second time, and laughed in derision at Weiner, last they bought a ‘dog, and had another laugh at his expense, and a marketing coup was created.
C. There is one other group with newly found marketing power, consumers. Never before have consumers been able to exercise the power derived from the simple fact that they are the ones who spend the money, the rest of the game is simply a scramble to see how the dollar is split up, as aggressively as they can now.
Forget that power at your peril, and court it with imagination and bravery.
Aug 6, 2013 | Branding, Customers, Marketing, Social Media
Many SME’s do not engage with Social media, or do so at a very superficial level, having a facebook page, and wondering why people do not flock to them with their wallets open.
These are the most common I hear:
• Not enough time
• Just for the kids
• Do not know how to use it
• Waste of effort
• Why would I put my business in the same place as all those stupid cat photos
• I have been successful doing this for a long time, why change now
• I hate sitting in front of a computer, much more important stuff to do
• My neighbor went on it, and she got stalked, why would I want to risk that?
• Nobody I know uses it
• My customers all know about me anyway
• It is just a fad
• My employees will waste the time I am paying them to work for me talking on facebook
I am sure you can think of many more.
Now, here are a four things that will happen as a result of the above:
• Others will control what is said about your brand and business
• You will be failing to communicate with a substantial proportion of (most) products markets. Leaving aside incontinence pads for ageing baby boomers, every product is being discussed on social media, somewhere by your potential customers.
• You will be seen, when you are seen (refer below) as “behind the curve”
• Invisibility equals commercial death, and visibility these days is all about Social media
If that is what you want, easy, do nothing, but Social media is not going away. Many of the ways we communicated last century are, by contrast, going away, so if commercial survival is on your bucket list, you had better get with the program.
