Good To Great

I have just read the Jim Collins big seller – Good To Great. A few people in marketing , Norwich business people and MBA colleagues, have mentioned the book to me.

I was surprised when I finished reading the book that there is actually quite a lot of criticism about the book. It is true that some of the conclusions such as the benefits of level five leadership are not spelt out in great detail. What exactly is a level 5 leader? Then there is the fact that many of the companies cited as “Great”…….. are no longer even “good” or even in existence in some cases!

But I actually really really rate the book. It is easy to read and easy to understand, and personally I intuitively understood even the conclusions with less clarity such as the Level 5 Leader. The most compelling outtake from the book to me, is the importance of getting the right people to buy into your vision. Jim Collins uses the analogy of a bus…… get the right people on the bus, then let them work out where they should sit, then you can work out where you can go! It may sound strange, or perhaps obvious, but that conclusion helped me to crystallise my thoughts on a number of projects I have worked on in the past and am currently engaged in.

Below I have summarised the books conclusions:-

- Level 5 Leadership: Leaders who are humble, but driven to do what’s best for the company.

- First Who, Then What: Get the right people on the bus, then figure out where to go. Finding the right people and trying them out in different positions.

- Confront the Brutal Facts: Confront the brutal truth of the situation, yet at the same time, never give up hope.

- Hedgehog Concept: Three overlapping circles: What makes you money? What could you be best in the world at? and What lights your fire?

- Culture of Discipline: Being able to stay entirely focused in a changing, challenging environment

- Technology Accelerators: Using technology to accelerate growth, within the three circles of the hedgehog concept.

- The Flywheel: The additive effect of many small initiatives; they act on each other like compound interest.

As a marketing consultant in Norwich I get involved in some of these areas more than others, but I do think they are a robust set of principles to at least influence business management.

Is it ethical to charge for CMS when it is driven by WordPress?

Over the last couple of years I have learnt a lot about building web-sites and seo techniques to raise the profile of a web-site once you have it. One of the most important factors is content and keeping that content fresh. With this in mind I can see why people would want a web-site that has its own content management system so that they can regularly update information, add news, and fresh content as and when they have it. This all seems sensible to me.

I personally love using WordPress. It is very flexible in terms of layout, what you can add, how you can adjust images, the look and feel of posts, and then on the more technical side how you can optimise posts for seo purposes and for easy navigation within your site. It’s also very easy to use and requires no technical knowledge. Another thing that is great about WordPress is that it is FREE, or open source and people call it. You can host a blog on the WordPress web-site in which case the domain name will be yourdomain.wordpress, or you can download the software and install it on your server. Once you have done that you can even receive updates without having to do any technical stuff at all.

The reason why I mention this is that recently I have noticed several software developers offering low cost web-sites which have a full content management system. When I look at these, I realise that actually what they are offering, is a slightly customised front end to WordPress (which is free). Now if a company says “we take free / open source software called WordPress – design a front end for you – and there you have a web-site” and charges a price accordingly I think this is fair and transparent. But what about if a company uses WordPress, changes its name to something different, and then charges you a price, is that fair or transparent?

Open source software is often cutting edge and able to give as good a solution as expensive software. The people who write the software and develop it are not motivated by cash, but by having the credibility of saying “I wrote this, and look how many people are using it”. I do think that the people who have created this kind of software, perhaps without earning a salary for doing so, deserve a fair deal and recognition for their work. So, if your content management system looks like this, then it is almost certainly WordPress.

If everyone knows this, then I think you are probably using a great product, but if you haven’t been told this, perhaps you should ask your web-developer why not? And if you are buying a new web-site, don’t be afraid to ask, what am I paying for, who has done this, where does it come from, and why?

Norwich City Of Culture Bid

What a shame Norwich didn’t win the City of Culture bid. Following the impact in Liverpool, who won the European Capital of Culture in 2008, clearly it would have given the city a great boost at a difficult time. The competition was tough, Birmingham, Sheffield and Londonderry are all great cities. I haven’t been to Londonderry, but I have visited Birmingham and Sheffield many many times and they are terrific places full of culture. That said – so is Norwich. We are smaller, perhaps a little more remote, and at times perhaps a little slow off the mark. On the other hand, we are independently minded, original, entrepreneurial, friendly and welcoming, imaginative, creative, successful, skilled, and knowledgeable. We have a great heritage of buildings, of places, of events and celebrations. We have some great musicians, artists, writers, photographers and actors. We also love coming together and have a history of producing great food and drink in all manner of different ways. Norwich has two amazing Cathedrals, two beautiful rivers, a historic market, a castle, a superb and technically advanced university, and one of the most respected Art Colleges outside of London. We also spent considerably less money on putting our bid together than the other cities did.

Although we didn’t win the honour, I think the process reminded a lot of people just what a special place Norwich is, it got a lot of the arts community in Norwich talking and working together, perhaps marketing Norwich properly for the first time, and it laid the foundations to make Norwich a city of culture not for one year but on an ongoing basis.

Freakonomics!

I have just finished reading Freakonomics. What a thought provoking and interesting read. When I first became interested in Marketing professionally I did dabble a little in economics and this book reminded me what a fascinating subject it really is. The writers describe economics as the study of incentives: how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. It asks the question, what is the precise incentive needed to trigger an exchange between two people? And the scary thing is that the incentive required may not always be what you think it is. By looking at a wide range of topics (including gun crime, sumo wrestlers, education, and the naming of children amongst other things) some unusual comparisons, and some clever contexts, the book demonstrates how deeply you have to look at things to truly understand the correct incentive to offer up to make something happen.

The book is fun in places, but difficult reading in others, perhaps because there is a side of human nature which is disappointing to us all. Easy to read and very thought provoking…. I recommend!

Act On Co2

I have recently completed all six of the University of East Anglia’s Low Carbon Economy courses (part of the Evolve programme). It is a very interesting area in so many different ways. For me there are several topics of great interest and which offer up learning’s for other aspects of business as well as dealing with Carbon Reduction.

1) How do you measure the impact of doing business?

Well is seems to have taken some time, but governments, universities, and power companies have all produced useful calculators to help businesses measure the amount of carbon they produce. Smart meters can help businesses understand when and how they are producing carbon across any resource they may be using.

The more challenging questions are really about at what point does one company’s carbon emission end and another start within a supply chain, and how can all businesses in a supply chain avoid double counting or no counting.

For example, if a business which makes timber doors, imports wood from another country, is the carbon emitted in the milling process the responsibility of the wood supplier, or the door manufacturer?

2) How can you incentivise business?

The easy answer is to tax, right? But sometimes taxing doesn’t work. Either the taxes are not high enough, people refuse to pay them on mass, people avoid them by moving, or people simply pay them and continue as they were.

Carbon trading and reduction schemes are being piloted in Europe, The States, and in South America. Starting with large companies, FTSE 100 in the UK with some exemptions, governments are providing greater incentives to businesses through a credit trading scheme. At first the credits were given away too freely in both volume and value, but this is recognised now and the market is maturing. Furthermore, governments can intervene and buy credits, taking them out of the market and forcing companies in the market to work harder.

It is not a perfect system and it is yet to deliver real results, but it is interesting and it is starting to work.

3) How can you incentivise the public?

Give them stuff for free, right? But sometimes that doesn’t work because if people don’t want something, it doesn’t matter what the price is, they just don’t want it.

So it isn’t about giving people things for free, it is about education. And that is bad news because education takes a long time, sometimes over several generations. Alongside education you need to give people opportunities. Better public transport, better ways to recycle, better cycle lanes, walk ways, smaller smart meters, wider availability of greener light bulbs, more web resources…… it all helps. My learning is that if you educate people and then provide them with opportunities to make decisions based on their own knowledge, they will change behaviour. But it takes time and it is expensive!

4) How do you manage the carbon cost of doing business?

Well just like with any business resources you have or have to buy.
- Cut waste, aim for zero!
- Use more efficient equipment
- Switch to less expensive equipment
- Capture, store, or offset the final costs

It is not easy, and it needs continual focus as with any cost reduction or cost management programme, but if you can get the business culture right along with understanding and consensus, it can be achieved.

5) When tackling a global problem, can countries work independently?

This is something I really wrestle with. How can we make a difference if when we cut back our emissions, other countries like China are actually increasing theirs? Are we actually reducing our carbon in the UK, or are we simply getting other countries to do more of polluting for us? On the other hand, you have to start somewhere, and if nobody did anything, where would we be? I think as a country Great Britain does take initiative in so many ways and by doing this we build skills and knowledge faster than those around us. If we can use those resources to build new businesses or industries in our own country and others, then we get a return which is of great value. The Low Carbon economy is coming, so we need to understand it, be a leader in the discussion, and demonstrate cutting edge thinking to build credibility.

We cannot solve this problem alone, but if we lead, others will follow.

6) What is the tipping point required to get serious action?

We don’t know the answer to that question yet. Our planet is being damaged and our climate is changing, but it is not significant enough or affecting enough of us to create global change. Something will happen that will immediately change people’s thoughts on a global basis but when or what it will be who knows. What I do know is that when humans want to, when they come together with a common purpose, they can do amazing things.

I have touched on many large issues in this post, so do feel free to get in touch if you would like to talk more about a particular point, or would like some more information.

Collaborative Coaching

I like this phrase! I heard it a couple of weeks ago and started looking into the subject. The basic notion is a group of people convened to help someone tackle a problem. A group of people with different backgrounds and different skill sets, but all focused on helping someone solve a problem, move something forward, or answer a question. Where does the coaching come in? Well you don’t have to do it just once, the group can be reconvened at any time to review ideas, developments and progress, and secondly the group is asking open questions, without prejudice or preconception in order to give an independent view and perhaps provoke thoughts and feelings that would otherwise go unnoticed, undiscovered, and not considered in the journey.

As the opportunities for personal development get bigger and bigger the area of coaching is an interesting one. Quality is important; you must choose a coach that is right for you on many levels – perhaps intellectually, socially, and in experience, etc etc. Chemistry is important – you must be honest with your coach and feel comfortable to share anything and everything. I think a coach should be objective, impartial and balanced. I have often been sceptical of substituting reading and structured learning for these softer personal development tools, but I do think they can be a useful part of someone’s toolkit.

To find out more about the specific Norwich Business services I offer, visit my Saturday Kitchen page!

Sustainable Communities

Throughout the general election the national media has led us, or certainly me, to focus on national issues when trying to decide who to vote for. Now before I go any further I want to state that this is not a political blog, (it is about my thoughts as a Norwich marketing consultant) in fact I work hard to try and keep my personal views on politics away from the work I do as I think it can get in the way of positive working and collaboration. When trying to decide how to vote, there is so much coverage about the state of the country’s finances, the challenges in education, the state of our NHS, the need to deal with an aging population, and of course the sensitive subject of our foreign policy in the Middle East. With all this to consider, I find it easy to completely overlook the fact that actually you are not voting for a party to govern as a whole, or for the next Prime Minister, but for a local candidate to represent the community in West Minister, and work on behalf of constituents to improve the local environment for everyone. This means considering a completely different set of issues to decide who to vote for. There is local crime, concerns about street lights being turned off for half the night, the need for better local services for parents with young children, the still pressing issue of dualing the A11 and improving train transport links into London.

Last month I went to an event where I heard from a guest speaker from Inspire East. Inspire East have developed an interesting model demonstrating what they believe is necessary for a sustainable community and I think it is pretty comprehensive. Whilst the model can be used to build a new community or a new community based organisation, it can also be used to evaluate existing communities – and perhaps their strengths and weaknesses. By looking at the relative focus of each aspect of a community as they describe, one could draw conclusions about the culture and society of the community. Interesting stuff!

Although the model is primarily aimed at community development, I also think the model could be used as a template for the key considerations of a board in a business organisation. There are other models and papers that tackle the subject of an optimised board but this is a good start – and I like the colours!

It only takes a micro second to change!

There is much written about change. People who want us to change, things we want to change, and people perhaps we would like to change. Throughout the election campaign we seem to constantly be hearing about the need for change, the opportunity for change, and even when is the right time to change. Businesses are always grappling with change. As markets change businesses have to respond. Even the widest macro economic conditions are always changing, and these affect how markets behave, which in turn affects the way that organisations have to respond. Look at how cigarette companies have had to change their advertising and marketing over the last forty years – changing advertising styles, messages, and even markets. For a more current, more rapid example, look at how banks have had to change their products and branding to reflect both the products that they can actually offer and the reputation of their industry as a whole. Marketing Norwich as a creative centre for the East, as a dynamic business hub just 90 minutes from London, as a city of culture also requires cultural change locally!

There are lots of business books written about change, and often change is described as something that happens over time, which happens gradually. Books often describe how change has to be understood, accepted, the implemented, then reviewed to take a positive outcome from the experience. I have recently been reading a little about the prison service and life in a prison. One of the main objectives of putting someone in prison is to change their behaviour so they don’t re-offend. So does change happen during their sentence, or if successful, does the change occur in that split second that they are released back into community. There has to be specific point in time when they go from being imprisoned to be free. My point here is simply that whilst perhaps it is entirely necessary to have a build up time period to change, and perhaps a reflective period after change, but change itself I don’t think happens gradually, it happens in a moment. Perhaps the trick to successful change is recognising that moment and encouraging it, protecting it, and celebrating it.

Developing your web-site!

It’s over a year since I first started to build my web-site and since then I have learnt a lot. – It is a never ending piece of work, always building, trying to do more, adapting to new ideas and new technology. Keep an eye on my site for some new pages coming soon.

The key themes or considerations on first build are always about “key messages” and getting your points across, but then with time you start considering other factors such as usability, search engine effectiveness, and how to use social media . It all takes time, needs patience, and a long term view.

Being a Norwich marketing consultant I am often asked about how new media fits into the marketing mix – I actually think the question should be how does new media fit into your customers media mix and therefore what is the opportunity

Leading Beyond Authority!

Yesterday was the second day of the Common Purpose matrix course in Norwich. For much of the day we were listening to leaders in the city and the challenges that they are currently facing. Perhaps one of the most interesting topics was the question of how a business built on the reputation of a founder can stretch the ethos and culture behind that individual to represent the whole business as it begins to evolve. Internal marketing and ensuring that people inside the organisation understand the brand as well as external stakeholders have become a growing part of the marketers role. I wonder how many people in large companies understand their brand to be the same as the understanding their customer have?

Other challenges included the quest to continue to focus on Marketing Norwich and to build the World Class Normal For Norfolk campaign, and the pressure of funding that so many not for profit or social enterprise organisations are now facing. It struck me that throughout the day people were not responding to challenges through the constraints that their job roles may typically impose, but instead there was a sense of liberation and freedom to express ideas and put forward suggestions and solutions. Is leadership sometimes compromised or restricted purely by the individual’s perception of where their boundaries sit?