Sep 7, 2009 | Uncategorized
Reacting to something takes little thought, it is easy.
Responding to something is harder, it takes thought and usually some resources
Initiating is really hard, it requires you to be prepared to be wrong! This is always hard, as it often leads to questions that invoke the power of hindsight in the questioner, and if he/she is your boss, what then?.
This simple thought, “what will the boss say if it is wrong?” is enough to stop 95% of people from initiating anything, and some of those who do grasp the nettle, do get fired. Not comfortable.
As Thomas Watson, the founder and first chairman of IBM said, “The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate” so initiate something today, despite the risk, it will make your day!
Aug 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
There is a growing trend, perhaps driven by the difficult times for management to set very big goals, the “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” proposed by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book “Built to last”, 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 to recognise and allocate the necessary resources, but most often, the BHAG is just wishful management thinking that takes the place of the hard analysis and challenging leadership that goes with out of the box development.
The lesson is to develop audacious goals within a framework of communication and consultation in the business to develop the buy-in from the operating level people and then, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal can be a hugely motivating factor, and has a chance of being achieved.
Jun 28, 2009 | Uncategorized
No secret in being right, just be prepared to be wrong, and be prepared to accept the responsibility for being wrong, then learn from it.
Thomas Watson Sr was spectacularly wrong when he said “there is a market for perhaps 6-8 computers in the world”, but IBM went on to create the industry, ride the wave, and then reinvent itself after almost dying, and today is still a dominating presence.
Orville Wright in 1900 said “not in a 100 years will man fly”, got that wrong by 99 years, and Bill Gates dismissed the internet before recognising the mistake and radically changing Microsoft’s strategy virtually overnight, and accepting in a memo to all Microsoft employees he had made a mistake, and asking them to join him in fixing it.
When you are prepared to take a considered chance, you will get some wrong, and people forget, you will get some right, and nobody notices, and you will get a few spectacularly right, and everybody thinks you are enormously smart, and perhaps a bit lucky.
May 8, 2009 | Marketing, Uncategorized
In a recent blog I mused about the business model of the newspaper industry, wondering if it could survive , given the inroads of the web. It is also reasonable to ask if the e-paper can survive without the paper version.
How hard wired is the behavior that leads to people relating to the paper version, and is there a mid point like Amazons Kindle?
The brands that the e-papers are seeking to leverage are all the result of the old version, none have so far made anything of a dent in the task of building a newspaper brand in cyberspace.
I think this tells us something about the manner in which humans like to relate to brands, preferable if they are physical in some way, the impact of a tactile experience with a product imprints the brand better than an “e-experience” alone
May 4, 2009 | Uncategorized
This post follows up on the thoughts posted yesterday. Considering where the responsability for management failure lies, I started thinking about the experience currently being wasted by those unwillingly sitting on the sidelines, for any number of resaons.
Tough times call for tough minded decisions, informed by the wisdom of experience, not just the numbers and economics.
Many of those now fronting organisations are products of the last decade of good times, they have not seen the tough ones, at least from a perspective of having the responsibility to make the decisions.
The experience and wisdom to manage the current difficulties is sitting around wondering what to do in their semi retirement. The batch of baby boomers, born 1946 to 1952 are often underemployed and bored, early retirement, winding down towards retirement (often unwillingly) or having been impacted by the substantial removal of management layers that has occurred in the last 15 years has affected them to a disproportinate degree . Unlike their fathers, they are looking to another 25 years of life, and many are unused to inactivity, and are looking for outlets.
As young adults they were the most active and intellectually inquisitive generation in history, questioning the status quo in ways that shocked their parents, Vietnam, Rock n roll, and feminism to name the three most obvious manifestations of this energy.
What makes you think they are now happy to sit on the verandah and watch the grass grow? Why not seek their wisdom, after all, they have seen a few recessions in their time.
Apr 27, 2009 | Uncategorized
The rules of the game have changed, marketing is about the engagement of customers.
My definition of marketing, is” the recognition, building, protecting and leveraging competitive advantage”
Engagement by consumers in the brand proposition is what that is all about.
No longer is average stuff for average consumers, marketed with “noise” good enough, the product (be it physical or a service) must be some combination of new, different, offer a unique solution, be beautifully designed, or simplify, to somehow engage customers so they can see value beyond the cheapest price.
