Riot Point Radio: Recent Episodes
The Riot Point Research Corporation
If you’re considering an IPO and it’s the first time for you (or at least members of your team) then start early. Why? Well you’ll find out why in this short video using a Wardley map. You’ll see the prudence of setting up governance structures way before flotation (not a natural activity for most entrepreneurs), and the importance of having a demonstrable deep understanding of your customer base—you’ll surprised how few have this.
So if you’re going to float, start early and start wisely.
Part 2. Is having a rich owner the only way to win the English Premier League? Watch our Second Opinion as we anser the question with a Strategy Map?
Part 1: Is having a rich owner on the only to win the Premier League? Watch our Second Opinion as we answer the question using a Strategy Map .
For companies who wish to control their destiny by out thinking their competition not out spending them
Busy people lead busy lives so tell them what they need to do clearly, simply and persuasively—-and quickly.
Don’t bore us, get to the chorus..
We need to treat big problems as we hope our medical advisors treat us—-with a clear and agreed understanding of the problem at hand.
In this episode of Riot Point Radio you get the solution the palm of your hand.
This is an excellent example of clear, simple and persuasive communication.
- -You can play the movie in your head.
- You can smell the reason for the nose pinching.
- You can see the disdain on the face.
- You can see the feet shifting to gain distance.
The instruction is clear. You know what to do.
As a leader, your job is to persuade You have get someone else to take a physical action for mutual benefit. That someone might be a colleague, a customer or some other.
Your communication needs to lead action. It’s not there to entertain—leave that to Hollywood. It’s not there to inform—leave that to the BBC. Your communication needs to lead to ACTION.
Did they do it or did they not? That is your only measure of success.
All communication has three components
- Grab; An arresting headline to grabs to attention the person you’re trying to persuade. If it’s good enough, people will read your ‘hook.’
- Hook; Compelling copy (argument) which lays out the promise of the benefits hinted at in the headline. If the headline is punchy enough you might not need copy.
- Payoff; the Call To Action. What physical action does the person need to take in order to access the benefit.
But all persuasive communication plays a movie in the reader or viewer head.
Does this a play a movie in yours?
Think of this ad the next time you’re waiting in line for a coffee—or your next Zoom presentation
If you’re looking for more tips and tricks on leadership and persuasion (and how humans think), sign up for Riot Pointers @ www.theriotpoint.com
Head Office wanted to constrain him, Covid was making internal communications difficult but by using KAI, Jurgen was able to make Head Office happy, employees feel involved and developed—-oh, and he made a whack of profit as a result
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Customer service research is a cost-effective way to drive up sales at ever increasing prices. It’s also a remarkable tool for taking out risks in new product development.And, as a bonus you get customer needs spelt out in customer language. What a treasure trove for executives.
But after early decent yields, they are disappointed when the tree stops producing fruit.
Naturally, they blame the tree. But they’d be wrong. They don’t understand Pavlov and Pink Floyd—-but you can. Listen to this episode of Riot Point Radio
Wrong. It’s their fault.
The most important acronym for your business is not ROI. it’s ABM.
What’s ABM?
ABM is Always Be Marketing. Lack of it can kill your business.
A colleague of mine learnt this lesson the hard way.
Don’t less this tale happen to you
When you solve problems, do you prefer to think out of the box?
In fact, do you take a sledge hammer to the box and pulp it.
If so, then you’re an innovative problem solver (and a muscular one too it would appear) according the Kirton Adaptor Innovator theory or KAI.
Or do prefer to be creative by looking at what's worked in the past, and extending that success by continuous improvement.
Are you the go-to person for building impressive thick-walled, rebar-reinforced boxes.
If it ain't broken, improve it is your motto.
Then, according the Kirton Adaptor Innovator theory, you're an adaptive problem solver.
To be successful we need both styles but, as you'd expect, those of us making better beautiful boxes don't always appreciate a sledge hammer through the front door.
So how should innovators and adaptors work with each other for greatest mutual benefit?
Well you're about to one half of the answer.
In part 1 we heard from an innovators perspective. In part 2 Sandi gives us the adaptors perspective.
We join a conversation already in progress
Sandi, thank you for participating.
If you're interested in the innovators perspective, you'll find a link in the show notes.
If you're interested in knowing whether you're an innovator or a creative adaptor, have a look at the website theriotpoint.com
Or, you can send me an email, iwanjenkins@theriotpoint.com
Well, if you want rapid uptake up of your products, services or ideas you should hit these 3 points,
- Solve an observable (and ideally big) problem
- Resolve it rapidly and
- Benefit of all participating parties.
You’re in the behaviour modification business.
Sounds uncomfortable and vaguely spooky doesn’t it, but think it through.
The sole reason for communication is to get others to commit a physical act.
And here’s a brutal fact: how good you are at getting others to take action will dictate your success.
These two simple exercises will help
Living life as a high-innovator is fun—and tough.
Stimulating and energetic when you’re in your preferred style.
Sapping and claustrophobic when you’re not.
In this episode of Riot Point Radio learn how to reveal the strengths to others, while adopting coping strategies to deal with the less fun parts of life.
Or why you got on like a house on fire with some people, yet others are so irritating and frustrating, that working with them (or living with them) is like fingers nails scratching on a chalk board.
Or why some parts of your business were not great at execution but superb at generating ideas, while others were the reverse.
Brilliant at getting things done, but no deviation please.
Well the Kirton Adaptor Innovator theory may be able to answer these questions for individuals, and for organisations.
Watch this episode of Riot Point TV to learn more
Job interviews: Judging by some recent conversations with a few of you, you’re not hitting the ratios you want. Consequently you’re feeling a little downhearted.
Good.
We’re going to change that today.
If you didn’t get the job, most interviewers won’t give you feedback. Often because they’re embarrassed about such things. Human beings are not set up for delivering bad news, particularly to someone with whom they have some kind of relationship.
You’re going to have test and see what works.
Let me give an analogy.
When a stand up comedian, say Joe Rogan, writes a routine, he tries out in front many audiences, he tests and re-crafts his material.
He’s listening for applause, but he also doesn’t mind boo’s, or silence. That’s good feedback.
He’s out there, probing and observing what happens. He’s not afraid to test stuff and he’s constantly seeking venues for those tests to take place.
With more experience, he gets to know what works and what doesn’t.
But here’s where you have an advantage over a stand-up comedian, you can research your audience and that’s your golden card.
I help companies with their recruitment, and here are 6 things which seem to distinguish the big hitters.
1. Think like a buyer. Put yourself in the other persons shoes. What problem are they facing and how can you solve it? And with the least disruption to their team.
Believe me, it’s only in Hollywood will organisations tolerate a tortured genius. We want talent that fits in.
2. Provide proof that you’ve successfully solved a similar problem.If you’re not sure what their problems are, always remember businesses are trying to do 3 things
- avoid loss
- make more customers
- keep existing customers longer.
If you’re mind goes blank, hold onto one of those lifebelts
3. Confirm something they know, tell them something they don’t. Every top dog wants to feel they’ve inside track and they are always looking to learn more.
Teach one point which will be helpful to them.
4. Agree next steps. Ask what will happen next.
Some interviews will answer
“If you don’t hear from us in the 2 weeks you should assume your application is not proceeding.”
Do not, I repeat, do not, accept this.
I heard one interviewee reply this way:
“I understand that is your process but I always think about this way.
If your family doctor said, “If you don’t hear from us in the 2 weeks you should assume everything is okay.
For the next two weeks you’d hear nothing. What if you missed the call.? Or if you suspect the mail deliverer has a vendetta against us because our Christmas gift to them was too small?You and I would be bitting our nails, pulling our hair out.
Let’s leave it like this. If I don’t hear anything after two weeks, I’ll call you and confirm the application is going no further”
To me that is a more professional way of handling the next steps.
- Follow up. If you really want to ensure your position is well understood, send a post-interview thank you note and bullet points on how you could improve their business performance——with low hassle.
Now I know you’ll be saying, but Iwan,
I don’t do many interviews, how can I practice?
Here’s my response.
You don’t get many interviews, but you do get a lot of opportunities to persuade another person to your way of thinking-and to take an action as a result.
That’s the essence of an interview.
- Grab the interviewers attention- Persuade them to your way of thinking- Get them to an action—offer you the job
So here’s my call to action.
If you think someone will find this information useful, pass it on.
Share the love.
Want to get smiles from your boss and hugs from your colleagues? Impress them with your knowledge and skills. Sign up for Riot Pointers; practical tips and tricks every week.
Been in a presentation so boring that you wish the presenter had given up the will to live?
Or been exasperated by emails which go on and on, screen after screen, but never come to the point?
Or worse, have you feared that ’tis you who is the drab presenter or the tedious typer of text.
Don’t worry, you’re not to blame.
So whose fault is it and what can you do about it?
Well I’ll tell you on this edition of Riot Point Radio
And as children, we weren’t excited by the meat and two veg.
“What’s for afters?” we cried.
Likewise our customers are begging with us, pleading with us, to answer to that very same question.
While we’re boring them with exotic descriptions of the meat and two veg, they’re shouting, “What’s for afters?”
Find out how to answer that question
You take the greatest risk with your brand when you run with the crowd. Every marketing dollar is wasted. Humans are wired to spot the difference. If your difference improves your customers life, tell them--their language. For Riot Pointer tips and tricks every Tuesday, sign up at www.theriotpoint.com
Your marketing materials are salesmanship in print—or in pixels.
It should be selling while you’re not in the room.
Is it selling for you? It’s the only measure of success.
If it’s not selling it’s not working.
If it’s not working, stop it or change it.
The best leadership advice I ever received was practical and yielded results immediately upon application.
From where did I get it?
Well, it didn’t come from a fancy business school. And it didn’t come from a leadership guru.
No, this advice was pummelled, punched and bathed in sweat before it was thrown to me.
What is it? I’ll let you know, without the smell
You should be getting better and more valued with experience. Who wouldn’t want people banging on their door seeking their advice and ideas. Or people placing orders for what you are offering—and happy to pay the higher prices.
But as well as being more valuable to others, your batteries should be being charged continually too. You have to tick both boxes.
And here’s a simple guideline that I’ve seen deliver these results.
If you want someone to do something--your words have to work
To convert prospects into customers or to align your organisation you have to do three things:
- Learn the language of your target audience.
- Use it.
- Check that you’ve used it properly.
Don’t get lost in 'Translation.'
Yesterdays Super Bowl provided further evidence of two things:
-
We can't predict the future
-
We believe we can predict the future.
George knows that logic stimulates thought, but it's emotion that jump-starts action.
Well he didn't, but he does now.
He is in his mid-50’s and by any measure, especially a tape measure, he is successful.
He displays the fruits of his success around his waistline and gives proof to the saying, travel broadens the behind—especially if you’re doing it in business class.
George resolved to keep success on his bottom line, and not his bottom.
“I have to go to the gym,” he said, “but though I can rise an hour before dawn to visit a customer, the thought of pumping out press-ups at 06:00 leaves me stone cold.”
You see, for all the logic on the benefits of exercise, it didn’t put enough fuel in Georges tank to get him lifting barbells while the sparrows were still sleeping.
What happened next? Listen to Riot Point Radio to find out...
I was admonished via email yesterday for not having posted in blog in recent times.
My repost was simple. I quoted David Ogilvy's office memo to Ogilvy and Mather employees. Recently, doing has eclipsed writing.
If your house lights dimmed unexpectedly this morning, or if your car stalled without apparent reason, don’t worry. It was a one off.
The Universe endured a sudden negative energy spike as a force of nature transferred from one dimension to another.
Colonel Donald Pudney has left the earthly parade ground for the last time.
Wool-suited, french-cuffed and tied (at that time), executives can sit cooly for hours in 40C heat but don’t ever extinguish the projector. Nothing brings on a perspiratory flash-flood faster than the prospect of delivering a slide-less presentation.
An executive should be able to communicate her or his strategy in 10 mins or less. They should be able to do so engagingly and with clarity.
Any Executive who cannot do this surrenders their right to admonish sub-ordinates who are similarly fuzzy in their communication of the strategy.
Can’t past the test? Fortunately a remedy is at hand.
If you're in the Greater Toronto Area on Tuesday 6th December join Rosalina and me at an (almost) free workshop on the strategic aspects of digital marketing.
Done properly, digital marketing can give you very loyal, high quality customers. Loyal, high-quality customers lead to loyal, high-quality gross margins.
But digital marketing abounds with sink holes and pit-falls.
This workshop focuses on getting profits and avoiding perils. It will introduce digital marketing to strategic decision-makers, not tacticians.
Here’s the take away for Executives.
Despite your best endeavours, you may have 'defeat devices' installed in your organisation. To ensure this is not the case, you have to engage the source data.
What does this mean?
- Even if your Net Promotor Score is a whopping 80%, you, personally, should still verify the data by engaging with customers.
- Even if your employee engagement surveys tell you things couldn’t be better, you still need to confirm this by walking, talking and listening.
It’s official. Tim Cook has stepped out of Steve Jobs’ shadow.
Under his watch (no pun intended), the stock price has doubled, market capitalisation has gone from ~ $300bn to $660bn, and contribution of revenues from subscription services has boomed.
Cook filled a big pair of shoes—and now he’s using them to walk to a destination far from Apple’s roots.
But at what price?
Apple is about to lose it's key competitive advantage: making us creators and communicators
The Riot Point Research scientists have been incredibly inventive in recent months. We have been trialling and refining a number of new products, and we are now ready to launch the first batch.
All leaders know the distribution of talented high performers is not Gaussian but fractal. For every one Yehudi Menuhin violin virtuoso there are many, many string scratchers.
So how can you spot potential?
I use two heuristics
- Does s/he get the job done?
- Do the most talented workers in the organisation want to work for her/him?
The Ancients knew a thing or two about Strategy.
The early Greeks viewed life as a voyage in which you would head in a general direction. Constantly navigating between Cosmos and Chaos—Order and Disorder with the realisation that winds from both sides could provide useful momentum. But sailing too close to the craggy shoreline of either extreme would lead to destruction.
Contrast this with the modern, titanic, corporate warriors. Insulated out of necessity (internal meetings, financial reviews, presentations to analysts, fear of bad customer feedback), they delegate strategy to staff who, with finger-crossed confidence, report that every future has been anticipated, every contingency planned. This well engineered business will withstand any iceberg. Nothing left to chance.
Or so they believe. It usually ends in tears—or an unfriendly take-over.
So what can we learn?
I was reminded this weekend that opportunities are not like London buses.
You can’t deliberately miss one, confident that another is soon to follow.
When Opportunity knocks, you need to ask yourself one question:
"Does this Opportunity open more doors than it closes?"
You have to lead to succeed.
In an increasingly complex world no individual can solve every problem. In response we form teams, organisations, and even nations. Each of these needs successful, not perfect, leaders.
And here is the challenge.
How can we become successful leaders when humans have no manual?
Answer.
- By working with the grain of human nature, not against it.
- By utilising our collective strengths instead of wasting energy on backfilling our weaknesses.
I was asked by Advantage Magazine to give 7 tips on how to improve productivity in organisations.
All the details can be found on their site here.
Executives tell me, in their more candid moments, that they doubt the value of the ‘employee engagement survey.’
They find it time-consuming and stressful, and most have all but given up on trying to calculate any return-on-investment. No wonder then such surveys have the reputation of being “all pain and no profit.”
So why bother? The answer lies in why we form organisations.
-25'C flashing on the car dashboard always heralds is a fresh start to the day, but the cool temperature didn’t deter the hardy souls I saw jogging as I drove out for my morning coffee.
Yet, if the comments of dial-in listeners on the morning news show where representative of city, a visitor would take Torontonians as feeble-minded as well as feeble-bodied.
Enough. This is winter. This is Canada.
You see, when it comes down to it, we can deal with these parky conditions in one of three ways:
- Complain. Wish things were different but do nothing about it.
- Ignore. Insulate yourself from current conditions and carry on in isolation.
- Embrace. Modify your actions to make the most of the environment, and change as it changes.
Winston Churchill was buried 50 years ago today and throughout the week, revisionist journalists have gleefully (and no doubt remuneratively) been picking over his bones in the UK press.
Churchill was out of sync with the social changes in Britain in almost each of the decades he lived. So how does someone with that track record end up as being the only commoner in the 20th Century to have a State Funeral in St Paul’s?
Because he was successful, not perfect
“How can I get customer insight that is actionable?” Don't rely on that thick, industry-sponsored report for easy answers.
Most market and customer research are too turgid, too long and too expensive. Very few give easily accessible actionable output. I use a method which addresses some of the limitations
The philosophy here is to drive continuous input to fuel continuous improvement —and to do with customer involvement. This means you can have innovation but at lower risk and lower cost.
This interview is a cracker. It powerful, uplifting and heartening—especially if you are a woman in the workplace.
While those of us who work in business occasionally complain about challenging market conditions or a lack of resources, these are nothing compared to the difficulties and restrictions endured by some not-for-profits.
A poor decision in commerce might result to a disgruntled customer, a poor decision in a not-for-profit could destroy the life of a child, with similar consequences to the employees involved.
Those of us in business have much to learn from those in such circumstances.
Cari DeSantis has brought about innovation change in some of the toughest jobs,and shares lessons learnt in this episode.
Finally, she has an uplifting message of young women entering work today.
I hope you enjoy the programme.
Are you hop-skipping delightfully from one good idea to another but never getting things done? Or are you perfecting the present, making a great sailing ship while the rest of the world moves to steam?
I have seen businesses that are so innovative, nothing ever gets completed. They flounder as they flail excitedly from one awesome idea to another. They may not run out ideas, but do they do run out of cash.
Conversely, I have worked with highly adaptive organisations who grow, painstakingly, by tweaking past successes. They make few mistakes, but one day they end up with perfect sailing ship, while the rest of the world has moved to steam.
The Holy Grail is, of course, Delivered Innovation. This requires the best of both approaches but each extreme often sees the worst of each other thus making mutual collaboration difficult.
What can life under fire teach you about setting priorities and leading others?
Quite a lot it seems. It has helped Colonel Donald lead a successful and stimulating life.
Some may have a successful career in the military, others in the public sector or many more in a business career. There are a rare few, such as our guest Colonel Donald Pudney, who have excelled in all three.
He has lived in war zones for extended periods, been head of a civil service, and a director of several prominent organisations. He has valuable lessons to share.
Leaders in organisations have two key roles:
- Defining the common problems for the group to solve; some call this strategy
- Reducing the barriers to collaboration so the group can solve the chosen problem for mutual benefit: some call this Culture.
This first is the glamor-puss getting all the attention but it is the second, Culture, which is the real powerhouse.
But few know how to harness and lead this part of leadership; it is too messy, too abstract, too human. That's about to change.
The leader had self-esteem.
Contrary to popular belief, many business managers lack self-esteem; they are fearful of dissent and it bursts through their leadership style and binds the psyche of the organisation.
Here are some tell-tale signs. If you see a large organisation that;
- was once a leader but is devoid of competitive advantage
- is diverse in population but not in thinking
- hails investors yet hides from customers
- tries to control rather than shape the future
- put numbers before narrative
Last week both Dennis Kimetto and I were in Germany. I was there to conduct a Problem-Solving Leadership workshop, and Kimetto was there to run a marathon. And though my programme went well, it was Kimetto’s performance that made the newspapers.
Dennis broke the marathon world record in Berlin by completing the course in 2:02:57, beating the previous record by almost 30 seconds.
This is a remarkable feat, but remarkable feats in distance running are not uncommon within Kimetto’s, Kalenjin tribe of Kenya. Their five million members have won an incredible 40% of the major international distance races since 1980.
Let’s put this into context: There are 17 American men in history who have run under 2:10 in the marathon. There were 32 Kalenjin men who did it in October 2011.
What is the secret of their success, and what can it teach organisations?
This week I conducted a leadership workshop in China’s largest and most prosperous city, Shanghai. It has been five years since I last visited the city, and there have been two dramatic change in that period.
Dizzyingly tall towers continue to shoot up at a rapid pace. Globally, Chinese contractors are now the masters of modular construction of these structures, and cosmetically at least, the results are impressive. But the quality of the electrical, plumbing and mechanical is far below the sophistication of the outer casing.
The life of the entrepreneur. All goodies and glamour if you believe the business press, but these reports often avoid revealing that (at least) eight out of ten businesses fail within the first three years.
So what makes a successful entrepreneur? It seems they share three approaches:
Had the typhus squeezed the last few ounces of life from his limpid body, Thomas Paine might have felt blessed release.
If his biography had been written soon after he was stretched off that ship in Philadelphia, he would have been deemed a failure.
But thankfully he did survive; the works that he composed in the succeeding year, ‘Common Sense’ ‘Age of Reason’ and ‘Rights of Man’ influenced the formation and direction the current liberal democracies. Many US Presidents quote Paine’s words at their inauguration, and Napoleon is said to have carried copies of Paine’s works while on campaign.
Paine found a way, encouraged by others such Benjamin Franklin, to co-mingle his spiky personality with his grand idea of a new social order and his incredible ability to write for the ‘common man.’
Stout women remove skin from your ankles with their chariots. Old men stop-and-start foot traffic abruptly as they shake hands and kiss their acquaintances. It exasperates some of the younger locals and beguiles some of the visitors, but these are prices of participation in French local markets.
Local markets have always been important in Europe and set to become even more so. And while markets have been at the heart and soul of a town, they may become its lifeblood too.
Imagine having a market where demand is guaranteed (yes, guaranteed) to grow, where competition is limited, and the cost of entry is high.
Too good to be true? Maybe.
But there is a downside. Such dynamics can cause organisations to become sluggish and indifferent to innovation. After all, why should they change?
Norris Zucchet faced such conditions. It turned out to be the most demanding, exhausting and exhilarating 13 years of his career.
What did he do and what did he learn? Grab 15 mins of wisdom in this edition of 'This I have learnt.'
Like any patient participating in a check-up, the leadership team has to be braced for any results arising from an examination. For some, this thought alone prevents an appointment from being made. But for those who do proceed, the feedback provides a prodigious increase in corporate confidence about future organisational health. The process lifts the fogginess on possible routes to growth.
Investigating if there's a gap between culture and strategy is unnerving for some. Participation means exposing ourselves to the brutal truth, and dealing with the consequences of the results. Our corporate bodies are no different.
We can, though, may the process more comfortable.
The 4-hour work week might be attainable if you forward orders of vitamin shipments to a third-party, or have only one employee—you. But if you are dependent on people to collaborate effectively for achievement of goal, here's the wake-up call. It takes time. In fact, the better your team and the bigger the change, the more time it requires.
Leading people is labour intensive. It takes time and energy. It requires passion for that role. If you don't have the appetite, stay away from this buffet.
This CEO of global pharma business was never a shrinking violet. But this year, at his global Town Hall meetings he was positively pugilistic.
The strategy, wrestled for many hours on the 21st floor at Bockenheim headquarters, was failing to deliver. Well, in reality, it wasn't being implemented well enough to know if it could deliver.
The issue was crystallised for the CEO in a conversation late one evening. During post-presentation beer and sandwiches at their largest R&D facility, he exasperatedly asked the Site Manager, "why aren't you implementing the strategy?" To which the long-standing, retiring-in-a-year-after-20-years of service, replied, "why don't you give us a strategy we can implement?"
There are few occasions in business when scales from the eyes, but this was one of them. In one pithy response, the consequences of a mis-match between strategy and culture had been laid a bare.
Large organisations are characterised by the size of their employee population. Engaging the group to co-operate for combined and individual benefits is the single largest challenge of leaders in such in an organisation. In fact, in some ways, it is the only thing they do.
Tom Schmidt has had a successful career within a number of large organisations. In this episode of 'This I have learnt' he shares with us some of his experiences on how to lead others, but also how to lead and develop oneself in order to be a better leader.
"This I have learnt" is series of interviews with successful executives from the private and public sector.
The responses to four questions around setting priorities, leading others, making decisions and giving advice to the younger self, provide powerful insight on how to survive and thrive in a complex world.
Interviews will be broadcast on a monthly basis, and can be subscribed to via this sites RSS feed or via email.
If you have any suggestions on who you'd like to see interviewed, please send their details please click this link or send an email to nominations@theriotpoint.com
In July I will launch a monthly series of videos entitled, “This I have learnt.” It is said that experience is teacher who gives us the lesson after we need it, but with this series, we will short circuit the process.
I will be interviewing individuals who have had extended successful careers in the public and private sector. Some have excelled in both.
Through a short, honest conversation we will hear how each person has dealt with the challenges of work/life balance, strategy, leading others and making difficult decisions. Early recordings have highlighted some commonality in approaches, but also some interesting, particular (peculiar?) distinctions. It makes for fascinating viewing
Meet Carlo Anichini. If you're in London and need a haircut complimented with a case study on Brand delivery, he's your man.
Carlo is an artisan descended from a long line of artisans. His grandfather was a master mason in Florence, a place where they know a thing or two about working with stone. From his mother he inherited an acute eye for design, line and detail.
In addition to being an outstanding barber and a successful entrepreneur, Carlo is also something of a Brand-meister. He is clear on his brand values and executes them clearly, and precisely.
Passing are the days when the baying of an Executive would be sufficient to gather and galvanise the pack. This, though, does not prevent some howling at senior levels for the way things use to be.
The more enlightened and successful Leaders are becoming sophisticated communicators, able to elicit the desired action from their audience. The better Executives have identified a change in the tide.
You cannot have peaks without valleys. The splendour of the rising, craggy, glinty peaks are made more majestic by their contrast to the plunging, dark, soden-moss valleys.
And while plains have their charm, it is the mountain which pulls breath from the crowd.
And as for topography, so for people.
There is a reason why airlines prompt us to pull-on our own oxygen mask before helping others: At a time of stress or demand, when we are needed to serve or support others (family, friends, colleagues, patients, customers) and energy flow will be one way, we had better be in robust physical and mental health.
There is a sub-group in the working population whose environment could funnel them into a jaded and jaundiced view of humankind. If business success has many parents and failure is an orphan, these are the foster-parents.
I am referring, of course, to Project Managers.
The message is starting to sink in. At least with some.
If you bring the voice of the customer to the heart of the decision-making process, you will lay the foundation stone of a resilient strategy.
But this alone is not enough.
Goodness we make things difficult for ourselves.
Before Christmas I participated in a conference on Strategy and Branding. I gave a presentation entitled, “Market-driving vs market-driven: consequences for organisational culture,”
I will amplify the content of the presentation in future articles, but I want to focus on a question which came up in subsequent presentations, and whose answer clearly has implications for the way we drive a business.
What constitutes a good brand?
There is a river of Goodness that flows within those who wish to improve the lives of others. Their capabilities are carried to the beneficiaries in a variety of vessels (workshops, writings, reports, interviews), all buoyed along with the aim of improving the lot of the recipients.
However, the actions of others serves to dam or obstruct the flow. These representations of human blotting paper should be rapidly removed, rebuffed or retrained with the appropriate disciplined vigour.
Why the stridency?
Coincident with the last piece extolling you to manage your health and avoid chronic conditions, the Guardian newspaper published the cost of chronic health care to the UK NHS (hat tip to Dr Paul Davies).
The data is sobering.
Happy New Year to you all.
By the end of February, most of the resolutions taken yesterday (learn a new language, spend more time with the family, lose weight) will lie disassembled on the floor, like a broken Lego model given at Christmas.
The challenge of Resolutions is to break down their contributing elements into behavioural habits, and without the vitamins of resolve and planning, this seldom occurs.
But there is something you can accomplish today.
In an ice storm, precipitation falls as rain but turns to ice upon impact. Ice builds to several inches thick on roads, cars, trees—and Christmas decorations.
The result is startlingly beautiful and startlingly dangerous. Sunlight is refracted through frozen lenses. It is the only light we have. Trees collapse onto power lines and, as of yesterday, 450,000 of the 6 million inhabitants of Greater Toronto were without electricity.
There are days when I tingle enough to power the grid. There is nothing like seeing a client thrive. Nothing. Consuming a dozen Moak coffee espressos with my fingers poked into mains socket wouldn’t electrify me as much as seeing someone I’ve worked with succeed.
And that’s what it was like last Friday while having lunch with Amanda.
A previous post on the ‘5P’s of a buyer’ has been quite popular, and I’ve been asked to explain its origin.
Their roots lie in the fundamentals of problem-solving leadership; how can we work together to solve an issue profitably and to mutual benefit?
Let me illustrate.
Like most of you I have participated in workshops where the opening question is, "why are we in business?" Depending on the group (profit/non-profit), function, time of day and the latest sports scores the answers are variously stupid, prudent, sycophantic or vanilla.
Some regurgitate the latest corporate consumption ("to create shareholder value") while others are more thoughtful ("to relieve stress on pet owners at a difficult time" - a company helping families re-locate their pets to the new home overseas.)
As I write this, I hear children playing hockey in the road.
Growing up in the UK we did not celebrate Thanksgiving but in our school assemblies and church services we did celebrate Harvest Festival, a communal acknowledgment of the earth’s bounteous gifts. The hymns and rural gatherings marked the end of the most active time of the year in agricultural communities, with anticipation (and hopes) that stocks will be sufficient to survive the winter.
For those who have not visited Venice, the “Bridge of Sighs” may conjure up visions of cooing lovers gazing dreamily into each others eyes. The reason behind the name is, however, distinctly unromantic.
A shift in the work schedule allowed me to take a short break in southern Tuscany with some friends.
To my mind, late September is the best time to visit this part of Italy. The majority of the tourists are gone, and the slopping valleys are quiet.
Mostly.
One of the benefits of working with great clients in great businesses is the occasional opportunity to stay in great places. This week past was no exception.
Boston is one of my favourite cities in the USA; the density of teaching establishments, the sprouting of new money, the foundation of old money, the legacy of European immigration and the energy of the recent Hispanic influx provides the City with a culture which challenges the brain and tingles the tongue. Only New York can compete.
In conventional marketing, you provide the recommendation. You broadcast the signal to buy. Peer-to-peer chatter is distracting noise.
Digital marketing is the reverse. Peer-to-peer referral is the signal to buy and your broadcast is distracting, even annoying, noise.
And there you have it. The thrill and the threat, the opportunity and the danger of digital marketing.
You are offered a gamble on the toss of a coin.
If the coin shows tails you lose $100
If the coin shows heads you win $120
Is the gamble attractive? Would you take it?
Your answer gives powerful insight in how best to manage organisational change.
There’s a line that can be drawn from Calais in the North-West to Athens in the South-East which neatly divides to contrasting cultures. Excepting Switzerland, it is not unusual for a communal lunch to extend to two hours in these southern cultures. Now I realise that some will suggest that line also demonstrates an inverse correlation between economic health and lunchtime length, but you have to look at the bigger picture in which the time line conceived stretches to millennia rather than decades.
Now, it may not be obvious from the snapshot, but the two ‘cats’ in the picture revolutionised the Jazz scene (which was THE scene) in the 1950’s. The first large wave of Jewish émigrés to flee Nazi Germany arrived in the USA and, according to data from the US patent office, drove up invention rates by 33%. The primary areas of innovation were chemistry, physics and aeronautics. But despite their sapient, bookish, dress and demeanour, Francis Wolff and Alfred Lion did not patent a novel route for synthesising haloanthraquinones, or indeed anything remotely of technological significance. They did, though, change the face of music through their record label, Blue Note records. Their tale is a successful conflation of interests.
For the next few weeks, a restored Abbaye in the Dordogne is acting temporary HQ for the Riot Point. We are bringing certain projects to a close, and commencing others.
Constant renewal based on past successes (and tolerated failures) is a constant theme, all fuelled, of course, by a motivation to provide value to others and while receiving improvements in self. And we’re making progress. The beams emanating from the library in the photo above reflect the brilliance of some of the new material!
My best clients make a big difference quickly—with resultant improvement in the business performance and the capability of their organisation. This segment of clients share 3 characteristics. They are: 1. Desire improvement. Whether the motivation is positive or negative, they are dissatisfied by the status quo. 2. Have passion for the topic. Whether its their organisation, the industry, or their profession, they love what they are doing; and this gives them the motivation to tolerate the bumps and collisions that happen on the journey 3. "Recruit the best to deliver the best." They select the team who are the best available in their respective fields; employees, suppliers, colleagues.
It is 5:30 am. The sky is gun-metal grey and the humid air drapes heavily over the hilly, densely-wooded country of Northern Ontario. It’s the wrong day to be wearing black nylon. The ‘breathable fabric’ promise on the label fails to deliver. Jason P. is about to put this executive team through their paces. It is the second day of the strategy retreat, and during the next hour we will walk or run through a review of yesterday’s discussion. By the time we reached the finish line, big decisions had been made.
For reasons still to be understood, the wrist-watch industry refuses to die. In fact, the business is doing more than ticking over. Movement, be it mechanical or quartz, continues to be youthfully energetic. The global watch grew by nearly 20% in 2010, and is expected to be reach $45bn in value by 2017. Exports of Swiss watches reached $21bn in the first 11 months of 2012 (source:WSJ) But despite the increasing ability to pay for more expensive watches, the ability to decide what we do with our time is decreasing. More money in the absence of discretion over how we use our time is, in fact, value destruction. How can we address this?
I want to enter the world of narrative research obliquely. In this short note we avoid the theory and go straight to practice. We apply the tools for interpreting narrative research immediately on an important topic—your health. We'll get to strategy and leadership in due course. But first, let's concentrate on getting you stronger, faster and leaner.
I am sometimes asked by staff functions to describe the difference between self-signified narrative research versus other forms of more conventional quantitative and qualitative research methods. And while I happy to provide the relevant discourse (those interested should make a request in writing here) , line managers are far more interested in determining which method brings the most value, most quickly.
In that spirit and over the next 3 weeks, I am providing a three-part series on how narrative research can provide
- customer-based ideas for corporate strategy,
- insight on which strategic options offer the highest return at the lowest risk
- feedback from customers, employees and stakeholders on the effectiveness of implemented strategies
I am not commencing with a discussion and description of research methods. That will come soon enough. We're going straight to, "what can this do for me?"
In Part I we jump straight into a practical application on personal health. This will demonstrate data capture, self-signification and the link between method and strategy.
In Part II you will see a full signification framework in which we capture data for a strategy project, and the use of the method to monitor the effectiveness of the chosen strategy as part of Customer R&D™ project.
Finally, in Part III, I will supply a mini-case study how the method can use a Leadership audit tool as part of a Culture R&D™ project.
I participated in privately sponsored symposium over the Easter Weekend. The 50 participants were brought together to address the topic, “the Challenges of being a Leader in the C21st.” The headily diverse group of executives from the private and public sector ensured the topic was whacked, pulled, pummelled and prodded from a variety of perspectives. During the panel discussion at the end of the day, I was asked whether, in my experience, one positive attribute of leadership stood above all others.
The Six Nations Rugby Championship ended in Europe this weekend past. Natural order was restored with Wales beating England to win the Championship—again. This is the second year in a row where Wales have been winners. It is always good for smaller adjacent nations to be superior to their larger neighbours in at least one aspect of physical, culture or economic endeavour. It provides balance in their mutual dependency, and diminishes the need to display ‘small-man’ aggression.
It is always good to present your research findings to an experienced and expert group, particularly if the material is set to challenge their current thinking. Robust debate is an excellent method for material development; but the dialectic dines best on meaty issues and in the absence of frail personalities. I’d been asked by the CEO of a financial services retail unit to critique the approach to strategy taken by his strategy planning group. Such an assignment often takes on the air of a “tell me which of my children is the ugliest?” inquisition. However you address it, you know it will end in tears.
Here is a minor but amusing example of what happens when some event disruptes a complicated process and makes it complex.
A healthy confident organisation responds appropriately. It relaxes,delegates and trusts teams that 'do'. The focus is doing the right thing.
Frightened organisations focus on avoiding mistakes internally. Their response is to tense the corporate body. They become rigid and more restrictive when they should be doing the reverse—loosening the boundaries (within restrictions), and delegating the capability to front line problem solver.