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.

]]> http://www.getcomfortableltd.co.uk/blog/?feed=rss2&p=218 0 http://www.getcomfortableltd.co.uk/blog/?p=212 http://www.getcomfortableltd.co.uk/blog/?p=212#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:54:40 +0000 admin http://www.getcomfortableltd.co.uk/blog/?p=212 I have just finished reading Predicatably Irrational – The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. I enjoyed the book although personally I think in places it is rather predictable and that some of the findings seem fairly rational to me!

The format of the book also can become a little repetitive. Every chapter is basically, I thought this or questioned that, so I did an experiment with some MBA students, and here is the result that you were not expecting (or sometimes expecting in my case!).

The areas I found most interesting were around people’s perception of price and how this can be dramatically altered by creating a different environment or a different set of benchmarks for what the price should be. The exploration of why things hold more value once we own them, and why price is different to cost were also interesting. Less interesting were some of the chapters around human behaviour, which to me were fairly obvious conclusions – we are animals and therefore sometimes we don’t behave to a mathematical pattern which is entirely predictable. The observations about honest and human behaviour are also interesting but again in my view perhaps not so radical. More interesting was the research around our decision making and how peer groups can affect that. Overall some useful stuff, (from the perspective of a Norwich marketing consultant) particularly when considering how to stimulate sales or build a new proposition for potential customers, but not as exciting as Freakonomics!

So, you open your fridge and someone has left some Coke and some cash.  If you are thirsty maybe you will take the Coke, but if you need some cash, you still don’t pinch what’s in the fridge.  Predicatably Irrational…… you tell 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?

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.

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!

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.

1) Having a clear and compelling vision championed by someone or by a group of people is an essential aspect of leadership.

2) Leadership is not about authority, it is about having the vision and believing in it 100 percent

3) Understanding the historical context which has led to a present situation is a critical part of moving that situation forward in any meaningful way.

4) Problems or challenges are undoubtedly more complicated and complex than they appear at first. Good leadership often requires an ability to quickly understand and absorb the detail.

5) Negativity in any environment is highly corrosive and damaging to momentum

6) Change does not happen over time, it happens in a split second. It may take a long time to build up to change, and it may take a lot of energy to avoid changing back, but change itself happens very very quickly.

7) Providing opportunities is the most effective way of creating positive change

You cannot make a leader, you can only put someone in an environment where they have the potential to be a leader.

Without a doubt the most important thing I have realised from the course is the value of opportunity and choice. It ‘s been good fun, but what to do now is the question!

When I think of great leaders, I think of Winston Churchill, Earnest Shackleton, Nelson Mandela, J F Kennedy, and Ghandi. What seems to unify all these great people, and all the other great leaders there are in life, is having that vision, sticking to it, relentlessly communicating it, and pursing it without compromise indefinitely.

Ernest Shackleton

.

I have only read the first three chapters of the book, but I like the easy to read style and language, and the relevant examples that make it easy to translate his ideas into story’s people know and can relate to.

Personally I am not sure that you can build a brand in 30 days – even if they are spread over a longer time period. That is because I don’t think one person can build a brand. I think brands are built by consumers, consumers who pester customers to buy on their behalf – even if that is just another part of their own conscience, and customers who demand more from their brands. Perhaps more products, features and benefits, perhaps better packaging design, perhaps better language or tone of voice which suits them, or perhaps a simple demand that the brand pulls itself together! The greater the enthusiasm with which consumers and customer do this, the more powerful your brand is. I have been privileged enough to manage some great brands – but I never thought I owned them or built them. I did some stuff to keep them in good shape, to keep them engaging with their audiences, and to keep them relevant. Perhaps I did help in some small way to build them, but I was only a small part of an architectural team, the people who did the building were the guys how bought the products, who emailed me when my products weren’t quite good enough, who mentioned the irritations in something that wasn’t quite right, who said when they did or didn’t like our advertising, and who pointed out when a competitor was better than us.

I like Simon’s book and thoroughly recommend it, and I shall be writing more about it from a different perspective in a couple of weeks, but if you don’t own a brand (apart from you own – watch out, this is going to be Simon’s next book!) you can still help to build one. Choose the product you love – enthuse about it to your friends, find out more about it and how you can help it to grow…. what do you get in return? A small emotional stakeholding in something that as it grows and you see it appearing in more places you will be proud of!

The process of making news is interesting. Information comes into a news room from all kinds of sources, about all kinds of things (business, politics, economics, marketing, Norwich, Norfolk, the UK, celebrations, people, history, etc etc), sometimes by investigation, sometimes by a third party, and sometimes just through observation. News can come from twitter, from a press release, from a phone call or email, or from a spokesperson. Every potential piece needs to be assessed and this is where the editing and production team have such an important role. They must consider if the piece is newsworthy to the audience, have they got the relevant facts and figures, the different perspectives of the story, and where does it fit into the programme format. Above all the editing team and producers must seek to protect the integrity of their programme and reporting, perhaps even their brand.

In any business this would be challenging. In most of the businesses I work with information typically comes from the same familiar sources in the same format – the source and format of information received by a news reporting organisation is rarely the same. If this doesn’t make the challenge big enough, you often have only a few hours to pull your entire product or presentation together. Again, in the typical businesses I work with, a presentation would take some weeks to build and the information that underpins it would have been analysed for several months.

Whatever you may think of the media in the UK, I think we should at least acknowledge the great accomplishment that is a news at six, or a news at ten, every day, every week. It’s never late – it’s never not half an hour, and there is usually something of interest in there somewhere!!!!