Apr 8, 2014 | Leadership, Marketing, Strategy
Often I find myself engaged in conversations with those running small businesses who believe they have discovered the next big thing, the idea that will change the world, or at least their business.
It can be as simple as a tweak to an existing product that enables it to be used in an adjacent market, to a patented idea that they believe will change the world, the 3 questions I always ask remain the same:
- To whom will it add value?
- How will it add value?
- By what means can you unlock that value and make a return as a result?
Whilst answering those questions can be time consuming, and sometimes confronting, and is often an evolutionary process, they constitute the core of strategy development,
So often I see a solution in search of a problem posing as strategy that it makes me shake my head in frustration, when a bit of discipline in the way tasks are identified and managed can go such a long way. These are 11 tasks you can set yourself to help the process of answering the “big three” along.
Mar 25, 2014 | Customers, Leadership, Sales, Small business
Many years ago, pre-digital, I gave time to a sales rep who rang up and promised to bring in some samples of brand new products from Europe that had changed the dynamics of the market segments they were in. I presumed that all contained the stuff he sold, but the pitch was persuasive.
The upshot was that he brought in some examples that were at best mundane, that I had seen before, were not innovative in any way, and that I was not interested in hearing about. Then I had to be rude to get rid of him and his lying pitch, but was further subjected to a stream calls, letters, offers, and promises from him and his superiors that “spoke ” to me as if I was a red hot prospect, desperate to throw myself at their shitty product.
He wasted my time, misled me, and then continued to irritate by trying to waste more of my time and presumed a relationship that did not exist, and that I would not have, and I have never forgotten the lesson.
Don’t waste peoples time!
The older I get, the more intolerant I seem to get when someone consumes that most valuable of all our resources, time, and I was pretty “bolshie” 25 years ago when this happened.
Whilst today everything moves so much faster than before, our time is if anything more valuable, but the presumption of those who want our attention seems to be that we all have plenty to share and usually waste.
One of the most effective sales people I have ever seen made appointments for 10 minutes each. He promised not to take more than the 10, and to deliver something of value while he was there, and he always did. No coffee, no chat about last nights football, straight to the point in 10 minutes or less, and any more time spent was entirely at the discretion of the appointee, he was always ready to leave, having delivered his pitch.
He valued peoples time and attention, so he got more of it.
Are you asking your people to waste not just their time, but that of those with whom they are paid to interact?
Mar 24, 2014 | Change, Leadership, Personal Rant, Strategy
Until I was about 10 years old, I lived in a little cottage at North Avalon, and used to walk to primary school through the sandhills, along the beach, then to school, and back. It sometimes took longer than it should have, as there was simply so much to see and do.
Those with children who have been to a farm nursery will understand the joy, the wonder of it to those kids, yet, this is not a normal part of our landscape, as it was just a very few years ago. This connection to the world around us has been replaced by apartment blocks, video games, and concern about the safety, both physical and emotional, of our kids.
Somewhere along the line we have lost something, real engagement with the natural world has been lost, replaced by coverage by David Attenborough.
Imagine the urban landscape that included again, those opportunities for the production of a bit of food for the family, and neighbours, how much reconnection might occur?.
Man is a social animal, and at some level we all understand that the most powerful motivator is recognition, not money, so social collaboration when enabled and recognised can change the world.
Look at what had happened with the town of Todmorden in Yorkshire, England, the productive gardens in our own backyard, have the potential to again be social glue, a force for the benefit of us all.
Problem is, the short term, financially driven mind set that dictates the usage if land around out cities, as well as in them mitigates against this opportunity to once again create the enablers of the production of social glue, and our children and grandchildren will be the worse for it.
Mar 21, 2014 | Governance, Leadership, Strategy
Simon Sinek
For 35 years as a corporate manager and consultant I have been an advocate of, amongst other things, personal accountability, marketing ROI, extensive use of data in decision-making but without eliminating the wisdom of individuals who have “been there, done that”, socialising businesses with various digital platforms, turning your supply chains around so they become demand chains, and much more.
Many of the 1,100 odd StrategyAudit posts to date have as the core idea the notion of “doing” something rather than just accepting the status quo.
It is only in the last few years that I have come to realise that while the advocacy was based on good solid reasoning coming from domain experience, technical expertise, and common sense, it is not enough by itself.
I have spent lots of time articulating various cases for change considering the “WIFM” (What’s in it for me) question explaining why the proposal was in not only the best interests of the individual, but of the organisation, but fell short of connecting into the reasons the organisation exists, why it deserves the commitment of the individual. Lots about commercial survival, innovation being the only sustainable competitive advantage, the commercial and personal value of simplicity and transparency, but little, as I said, about the big “Why” question.
Now, in a homogenised, connected, and integrating world, little is more important than articulating the ‘Why” . Spend the time to watch Simon Sinek’s seminal presentation, your competitors almost certainly have.
Mar 7, 2014 | Governance, Leadership
Everyone knows the optimist sees the glass half full, and the pessimist sees it as half empty, but few see the other options.
The technologist sees the shape as sub-optimal
The engineer sees the variation of material in the glass as an affront to his efficiency
The designer sees the glass as twice the size it needs to be
The production manager wants more glasses
The marketer thinks the glass just needs to be bigger, with a better name
The innovator is keen to find another way to introduce liquid into the glass
The accountant just bitches about the costs.
The entrepreneur sees a great opportunity in glasses
The salesman points out that people buy less glasses when it rains, which is why his sales are down
Leaders find ways to bridge the gaps between these perspectives, and have everyone working to a common goal.
Feb 27, 2014 | Leadership, Management, Strategy
Some things we can predict with great accuracy, simply because we can quantify almost all the variables that come into play. The path a bullet will follow when fired, how long it will take a brick to hit the ground when dropped, and how much fuel it will take to do 10 laps of Mount Panorama racetrack flat out.
It is when you start to introduce unquantified variables, as distinct from unquantifiable variables, that things get exciting. A strong gust of wind will change the trajectory of a bullet, and a prang on Skyline and subsequent braking and weaving will alter fuel consumption, but the impact of both can be reasonably accurately forecast if they are included in the variables considered.
It is the random events that really cause trouble, the kangaroo that jumps out half way down Conrod, the quick-handed apprentice that reacts to the brick heading for your toes and does a diving catch, these things cannot be reasonably forecast, are random events, but have a profound impact on the outcome.
The point of the story is to again confirm the old adage that strategy rarely survives the first contact with the enemy, so the more agile you can make your reaction to the unpredicted and just plain random, the more likely you are to come out on top.
