May 12, 2014 | Change, Management, Social Media
Courtesy Geoff Roberts. http://timelessimagelab.com.au/
When my kids were young, stuff always headed towards the floor. If it happened to be a piece of bread, it always landed buttered side down, so we had the “3 second test”
Story to the kids was that it took the bugs 3 seconds to move from the floor onto their piece of bread, so if we picked it up within the 3 seconds, the bread was OK.
Seemed to work.
These days, the 3 second test applies elsewhere, to websites.
I have watched many people log onto a site, either directly, or via a search list, and it seems that if their attention is not grabbed within 3 seconds, they have not been engaged, they are gone.
This is really no different to skimming a newspaper, remember those?.
A headline, a great photo, and layout made our eye stop, and we spent an extra bit of time absorbing the “gist” and perhaps engaging more deeply in the story, reading the detail, feeling something, and perhaps taking an action.
As a relevant aside, Fairfax chopped 30 photographers last week.
A great photo is an eye stopper, one of the ways that they can be differentiated from the drab piccies done with by amateurs with phones that inhabit websites and social media particularly. Just when it is becoming increasingly obvious that visual is taking over, a medium struggling to stay relevant cuts a key source of relevance.
Use good photos in your communication, particularly on your website. The modest investment will pay you back in spades.
May 6, 2014 | Change, Management, Marketing, retail, Small business
Courtesy High McLeod @ Gaping Void
Retail has changed, very quickly and in a fundamental way, but not for everyone.
Retailers, the blokes with the bricks and mortar still hold sway in most markets, but to varying degrees, and can continue to do so if they are as smart as they have been in the past.
Consumers no longer have to go down to the store to buy much of their stuff, their store increasingly is in the palm of their hand. That is fine for cameras, refrigerators, and perhaps baked beans in a can, but not so good for fresh produce, meat, fruit & veg, and dairy, categories that are driving the profitability of supermarket retailers.
If we know anything, we know new models will come to light.
In the past, producers needed retailers to break down their bulk product, whether it be jeans, baked beans or refrigerators, and sell to consumers, but now consumers can go direct. So, it is not just the retailers who face change, it is the producers.
Held to ransom for years by retail that in effect sold them retail real estate while selling to the consumers, suppliers have some leverage back, and a few of them are game enough to love it.
The question both needs to answer is how they can best meet the needs of the newly empowered by information, consumer, who does not really care who supplies them the product, it is just about the convenience, choice, delivery and price of a transaction.
Looked at from this perspective, the retailer has a role to play in the relationships consumers have with brands, and suppliers, but they must make their money from a different model, one that relies on the manner in which they “touch” the sales process, rather than being the one solely in charge.
Sales leads that come from social media and the web are still just as likely to generate a sale in a physical retailer as they are on the web, and given that web sales are still a small proportion of total sales, using the web should be a seen as an opportunity, a bonus, not a threat, as Tesco in Korea has demonstrated.
It is perhaps telling of the times that the ACCC is mounting a case against Coles for beating up on its suppliers to improve its earnings. Nothing new there, but Coles management has an obligation to maximise earnings for shareholders.
The horse has bolted.
SME’s in the Australian food supply chain are now a rare breed, killed off my the high $A, retailer housebrand strategies, the scale of multinational competition, and poor management. The two retailers seem to have realised that without local supply, their long term options are limited, and so seem to be softening their short term demands in recognition that the sustainability of the food production value chain is in their interests.
PS Earlier today, after the initial publication of this post, I became aware that Big Sister Foods had been put in the hands of the administrators. While Big Sister is an Aussie company, part of that small club of natives, it spent 20 years as a part of Reckitt & Coleman in the 70’s and 80’s. Sadly I am not surprised, as their current website is about the worst I have ever seen, perhaps indicative of the declining state of the business.
Apr 3, 2014 | Branding, Communication, Management
Talking with a couple of mates over a beer recently, one of whom has a successful boutique recruitment agency, we found ourselves reflecting on the changes in word usage that had occurred over the last 20 years, and how we had contributed to the changes, most of which we did not feel were improvements.
A few examples.
“Gay”. A friend of mine at school was named Gaye, lovely girl, great fun, bet she has changed her name.
“Like”. It actually used to mean something, rather than acting as a tool of verbal punctuation.
“Green” used to be a really nice colour, not a political label.
The kicker for me was “passion”.
I have been guilty, there are several posts over the years talking about how important passion is, so I have made a contribution to turning this word into a management cliché
Do we have to be passionate about everything? Cooking. Suddenly we have to be passionate about cooking, when sometimes cooking is just to refuel, and jobs. A quick look at any jobs site will tell you that to be considered you must be passionate about your job, the mission of the enterprise, collaborating with others, and so on, Sometimes, a job is just a job, it pays the bills, keeps the kids occupied , and with luck delivers some intellectual and emotional support.
“Passion” has become a cliche, and has an unfortunate simile, Pretentious.
If you really want someone to be passionate, to make the emotional investment you are seeking, you had better give them a very good reason, because passion is a very private emotion, not given easily.
Mar 20, 2014 | Governance, Management, Small business
Cash flow is the lifeblood of every business, from the one person micro business working out of their garage, to the largest multinational. To call it “Lifeblood” sounds like a cliché, but the thing about clichés is that generally they are true.
Working as I do with small businesses, cash is a priority, and whilst I concentrate on the strategies and marketing planning and implementation, there is no point going there unless the cash flow is robust, or in the case of start-ups, has been sufficiently considered to offer confidence.
Unfortunately, the owner/managers of most SME’s are lousy at cash flow management.
Amongst the first questions I ask after engagement, and quite often before , are:
- How do you manage your cash flow? and,
- Can I see your debtors reports?
In response to the first, I am looking for:
- The management routines, preferably daily, but at least weekly review of cash and its management, with forecasts, action points and outcomes recorded.
- A calendar that identifies the timing of expenses and expected revenue. I also want to be assured that the calendar is a part of the review process, not something wheeled out once a year during the budgeting process.
- A rigorous process of following up debtors. You do not have to be aggressive, rude, or inconsiderate of the debtors position, but it needs to be regular, informed, and be a key part of the CEO’s management agenda. It should include escalation points that reflect trading terms, after which increased pressure is applied to debtors. This may vary with the customer, for example chain supermarkets routinely do not pay inside 60 days, but generally, once a debt goes beyond about 75 days, experience tells me that they become very hard to collect without cost and significant effort.
- Clear, simple, and up to date Trading Terms that are articulated and applied consistently.
- Immediate and clear follow up processes to manage customer discounts and claims, particularly where cooperative promotional activity is present or where there is an imbalance of relationship power, as there is with chain supermarkets.
In response to the second, I like to see the debtors report, clearly broken into appropriate categories, logically, 30, 60, and 90 days, pulled off the top of the desk, or out of the “favourites” list indicating that they are a document in constant use, updated and maintained.
Cash is too important to the left to the accountants to manage alone, it needs to be a key priority for the boss, that way, everyone else knows it is important.
Mar 17, 2014 | Communication, Governance, Management
Trust is a word that keeps on coming up, everywhere.
Increasingly in a complicated world we are looking for those we can trust, to do business with, to have as friends, or just to share a cup of coffee.
I have just completed a project of chain re-engineering that did not deliver all the hoped for outcomes, but during the debrief process, the word “trust” and its foundations that in this case proved to be a bit fragile, loomed large. Similarly, a friend of mine is selling her house, retiring to the south coast, and she appointed an agent from a small number in her local area, and as it happens, one of the unsuccessful bidders was also a friend of mine, someone who I would get to sell my house, when the time is right, because I trust her.
Got me thinking about the components of trust.
It seems there are four headline components, which is good for me as a consultant, as I can conjure up a quadrant and deliver it as a deep intellectual exercise. However, the reality is that it is common sense, just like most consultants quadrants, but common sense that paints a picture, that delivers a perspective, and makes you think.
- Engagement. You do not trust those with whom you have no experience, who have not earned that trust. You may think they are trustworthy, but would you confide your pin number to them?, there is a difference. Engagement of the type that generates trust happens over time, is a two way process shared equally by both parties, and is devoid of ambiguity and hidden agendas.
- Integrity. It becomes clear over time that the positive behaviour that builds trust is not just for the benefit of the chosen few, but is based on a “personal code” of some sort that extends to those not closely engaged. The individual or enterprise concerned consistently puts the interests of those with whom it interacts above its own short term interests, and it acts the same way to everybody, irrespective of their status. They “walk the talk,” always.
- Operational excellence. This sounds business-like, but is just as applicable to individuals. Summed up it simply means that they never over-promise and under-deliver, what you get is what you saw and at least what you expected, but usually is more than you could have reasonably hoped for.
- Fit for purpose. The product or service is the right one for the purpose for which it has been delivered, and there has been an effort to ensure that the purpose has been defined sufficiently by both parties to ensure that the product was the right one for the circumstances.
Back to my chain exercise. When I look at it dispassionately, the parties had insufficient opportunity and incentive to build the trust in each other that was necessary. Individually, they trusted me, as I knew them all, spent considerable time articulating the process, and have a history with several, but they did not know each other well enough to offer the real trust we were looking for.
And to my two friends who did not do business. The house seller went with an alternative that offered an up front incentive, it seemed to reduce the cost of selling. When the process is over, her house of 30 years which is the only substantial asset she owns has been sold, I suspect she will wonder if the agent delivered her a buyer that just made his life easy, a cut price, quick and easy sale that delivered him an easy commission, in return for the added costs he incurred up front, all wrapped up in the clichés of the real estate agent. Had she trusted my agent friend, it is quite possible that she would have delivered them a buyer, just the right buyer who wanted the house because of what it was, not because the price was great, the cash benefit of which would have been to dwarf the up front saving that was made.
During the research for this post I put “trust” into several dictionaries, and the options for a definition are many and varied, according to the context. No wonder we have difficulty.
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.
