Archive for August, 2009

Brand Paris (as the most romantic city in the world) is doing well!!!

In the spirit of it still being holiday for some, and Friday for others… I’m giving business a break, in favor of a story…

I love Paris, for more reasons than I could fit in this blog (but I’m obviously biased)! I had the pleasure of being home a few weeks ago, and was not only blessed with great company, but fab weather! Getting off at St Pancras it wasn’t just the rain and the lack of boulevards that made me want to turn 180 degrees and get straight back on L’Eurostar destination Paris, but a small round pink table and two chairs.

Let me explain!

It was a warm Tuesday evening; I was in the Canal Saint-Martin area on my way to have dinner. Walking by the canal I looked up and on one of the bridges I saw people dining.

Canale Sainte-Martin

I had no idea that the restaurants by the canal offered the opportunity to dine on the cute tiny bridges connecting the banks. Despite the fact that I was on my way to one of my favourite restaurants, despite the fact that I had not been there in ages and was really looking forward to it, I felt super envious of whoever was sitting there, eating al fresco, in the middle of what looked like a painting!

As I walked across the bridge I saw a couple sitting at a beautiful little pink table with two pink chairs. What a setting… the canal, the lights, the bridge…amazing! But most amazing of all is that the table did not belong to a restaurant…someone had, to surprise his/her partner I guess, organised a dinner on the bridge. And what a dinner, a three-course meal with wine, real beautiful china, candles…everything was perfect down to the smallest detail (no vacuum packed sandwiches or pack of Tayto in site).

Equally as amazing is that no-one stopped and stared (obviously this is the kind of city where this happens all the time :) ), or that no policeman turned up to inform them that they can’t drink in public, or that they constitute a fire hazard.

I kept smiling, reassured by the fact that romance is alive and well, and living in Paris (qu’elle surprise!)!!!

With citizens like that, brand Paris’ tile as the most romantic city in the world is in safe hands (and if you don’t believe me, ask Google, most search results will give you the same answer, Paris).

Romantic Places

Unless you are sky.com’s travel section, and you award the title to…of course… London…

It seems like I’m not the only biased one here :) .

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2009
08/28
CATEGORY
Thoughts
Uncategorized
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Why can’t the business world be in HD?!!!

What would you do if you were a charismatic and creative business person with a senior role in a global fortune 500 company, and your manager told you you needed to become, well… a little more boring…yes boring!!!

Last week I had dinner with just such a person (let’s call him Steve), who had been told just such a thing, by just such a manager!

How I wish I could tell you I was surprised…shocked, I wish I could tell you I believed this to be an exception in the business world…but I wasn’t surprised, I wasn’t shocked, nor do I believe this to be an exception in the business world.

The same night I was watching live TV (exceptionally I must say) and caught Sky’s ad for their sky plus high definition box, the one with José Mourinho.

jose-mourinho

The ad is very simple, nothing to it really…(well apart from Mr Mourinho of course). All it is is Mourinho explaining how during a game he found himself kicking the ball to one of his players (knowing I guess this would get him sent off, which it did)… he continues by explaining why he had done such a thing…apparently “passion for the game is passion for the game”…in other words he just had to do it!

It made me wonder how great it would be if one could regularly work with people who occasionally (just occasionally) did something ‘because they just had to’ despite the fact that it could get them sent off! How great would it be to regularly work with people who have the kind of love and passion for what they do they would occasionally (just occasionally) be prepared to take a risk! And wouldn’t it be even better if this all happened in a company where they would not get sent off for what they did on the grounds that it was a ‘crime of passion’!

However, this is not a likely scenario in a business world where predictability is a valuable currency, this is not likely in a business world where people don’t like surprises, and it’s most definitely not likely in a world where managers tell passionate people like Steve to be ‘a little bit more boring’!

Steve for what it’s worth I would love to have your personality, energy, curiosity and passion on my team!!! I would not only love it, but I would make sure it would be encouraged, because like the Sky ad says “memorable moments deserve high definition”, and high definition Steve you most definitely are!!!

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2009
08/20
CATEGORY
Organisational Behaviour
Thoughts
5 comments

“What do you do when your client knows more than you?”

I have had a few people ask me this question in the last week or so.

Picture 5

I can think of many instances where you COULD find yourself in that position. Trying to win a new client, trying to break into a new industry, participating in a cross department project meeting where people are talking about logistics, technology, complicated research methodologies, or the latest and most popular…trying to be someone’s business partner…I  think you get the picture.

However I can’t think of any instance where you SHOULD allow yourself to be in that position.

I understand that in today’s ultra competitive world it’s hard to resist trying to be everything to everyone – in the hope of keeping a client or winning a new one. I understand that with all this uncertainty about ones role in the future it’s easy to try to do as much as possible in the hope that something will stick. I also understand that it’s hard to be honest about not having the answer to a client question, or an opinion about a topic.

But the truth is if a client knows more than you, then you are not adding any value to the process/project/meeting…and frankly if you are not adding any value then you should not be there… be it to sell, or to contribute as part of a greater team… and my guess is if it’s already your client, your future with this client will not be long lived!

The thing is whatever you are, whatever you do, and why you are there should not only be clear to the client and everyone in the room (in addition to being recognised and valued), but it should be completely clear to you! For this to be possible you have to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what you do, the value you bring, what your role is, when your skills are needed, and when they are not… trust me when I say answering those questions with 100% certainty is incredibly hard, (try it!!!) but the truth is if you can’t see it, there is no chance of anyone else seeing it!

This is why I firmly believe that companies should have some generalists on their books, people with a broad set of experiences, a lateral way of thinking, the ability to analyse and process on the spot, and to navigate a whole host of topics with confidence and gravitas that only comes from knowing because you have been there, and of course someone who also has the kind of curiosity that would kill the cat!

These people are hard to come by, rarely hired (as they don’t fit a box), their ROI is not always tangible, but to me they are, especially in this environment, the most valuable resource you could have… and they will definitely give you The Edge when it comes to knowing more than your client (so at the very bare minimum, bring them in on an ad hoc basis)!!!!

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2009
08/17
CATEGORY
Challenge the obvious
Organisational Behaviour
THE EDGE
Thoughts
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Rupert Murdoch seem to have the solution to falling profits…hmmmmm…

You may or may not have read my blog ‘Why change when the figures don’t stack up?!!’ So here is a quick summary…why should newspapers change when the revenue from on-line is too small, unless of course off-line revenue ceases to exist.

Apparently Rupert Murdoch has the solution to the industry’s falling profits, and an idea of a business model that will restore his companies’ profits: charging for all on-line news content.

“We intend to charge for all our news websites … If we’re successful, we’ll be followed by all media.”, Murdoch says.

Darn I wish I would have thought of that… but I guess only a global media mogul would come up with something as genius! Seriously Mr Murdoch the truth is that you can’t charge for something just because you want to, or need to! I’m afraid this time the decision is not up to you, and can’t be made in a boardroom…it’s up to the consumer and what they are prepared to pay for!

Reading The Independent this morning I’m enlightened on the subject by different industry experts….

charge for news

Apparently ‘the Jury is still out on whether a sufficient number of on-line readers would be prepared to pay for general news’…. I’m not sure which court room this Jury has been stuck in for the last decade, because in the real world most of us know it’s highly unlikely anyone will ever pay for general news.

Why? Because giving away your primary product (which the entire industry did) is something you sort of can’t take back…! As marketers trained an entire generation of consumers to buy products at a discount, the newspaper industry taught us that general news on-line is free…and I can’t see a way back from that, ever!

Further down I read ‘if you need a piece of information, or an article, and the only way you can get it is to pay for it, then people will pay’ (the general idea being that this would be on a pay-per-article basis)… I’m sure if this scenario was to occur people would … if they wanted it badly enough (and that’s a big if). However I find such a scenario (where the only way you can get a piece of general news is from one source), highly unlikely…have the person who made this statement actually been on the web?

So where does this pay-per-article idea come from? No surprise there, again it’s Apple that makes people salivate…in this case not their amazing designs, but their 79 p per music download iTunes model.

I’m a little surprised at the logic….So because I’m willing to pay 79 p for something I want, value and previously used to have to buy a whole album to get, not to mention the fact that I can enjoy the experience over and over again, I would naturally also be willing to pay for an article covering a general piece of news? I really don’t see the connection…

The article also informs me that ‘Apple created a fundamental buying experience, people don’t object to buying things on-line, they object to hassle’. So by that rational as long as we make it easy for people to buy general news on-line, they will go ahead and pay for it…so it’s basically down to user experience?

We know that’s simply not the case, it’s down to the same thing it always comes down to…people will pay for something they perceive to have value.

So what could that value be? Maybe it’s about bringing journalism to another level, hence adding value to general news and information, maybe it’s about writing specialised in-depth articles, again adding value to general news, maybe it’s about charging for quality analysis around general news (in almost real time), making it valuable to certain people, maybe it’s about aggregating the news, slice it, dice it and add to it in a way that is seen as valuable.

Lets be honest, if Murdoch doesn’t have the answer to that question, why would I? But what I can say is that I sincerely doubt the answer to the problem is to develop a new paying model, this is not what is going to save this industry….. unless everyone decides to charge for news at the same time. But even if this were to happen (which realistically it can’t!!!) then you can be darn sure the prisoner’s dilemma would kick in!

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2009
08/07
CATEGORY
Advertising/Media
Competitive Advantage
Thoughts
2 comments

Your only business requirement should be to focus on customers (people in general that is)!!!

“The truth is in many companies customers’ needs get clouded by business requirements!!!”

I’m having lunch with Alain Tolentino, Director of Product Design & Development at Yahoo!. We’re sitting in Soho talking about the ideal way to run a business.

Alain Tolentino

It’s incredible isn’t it? We speak about customers all day long, we repeat how important they are, we put them in our mission statement, we say we want to delight them, earn their loyalty…and yet…Alain is so right…more times than not customers’ needs get clouded by business requirements, more times than not business decisions are driven by technology (which usually leads to a concentration of features, not experiences), more times than not business decisions are driven by ego and short-term thinking!

Both Alain and I have experienced  technology companies where it’s the product manager’s responsibility to be the consumers voice – the same product manager who has to think of developments in technology, deal with content providers, ensure sales, market products/services, stay focused on the business, and make sure relevant information is shared within the organisation – how much time do you think they have left in a day to understand consumers and champion their needs?!

It’s no different in our world!

I know a media agency whose head of consumer research comes to work before 7AM and leaves after 7PM, not because he loves what he does, but to avoid paying the congestion charge – no risk of him bumping into a consumer any time soon! How do I know this? The CEO told me! Yep he knew and did not think that doing something about it may be the right thing!

I know many large advertising agencies that don’t have a dedicated consumer insight team – I wonder where those agencies get their non-brand centric consumer insights from? Why don’t they? Apparently the business can’t afford it!

I know many brands that after commissioning consumer research promptly put the report in a drawer. Why? Because they know that at the end of the day they have to do what the business requires of them.

To most companies business comes before the consumer (and I don’t care what they say, or what they state in their mission statement)…

This makes no sense to me because surely we are in the business of creating consumers, creating and keeping them!!! If you think of companies that stand out, an obsession with consumers is what most of them have in common (Apple, Waitrose, Tesco, UPS, Lexus).

Not only does this obsession create great products and services, but it also makes decision-making and doing every day business so much easier… Should we invest? If it makes a considerable difference to the consumer, yes! How can we solve internal politics and arguments? Do what is right for the consumer! Which initiatives should we focus on? The ones that benefit the consumer of course! You see the consumer is the best Sat Nav you will ever have and a great broker!

But being obsessed with your consumers is not enough, you need to be obsessed with other people’s customers, and people who are no ones customers.

How? I say hire consumer champions, consumer fanatics, hell just hire consumers and customers  (of all ages, forms and shapes!!!) …To do what? The only brief you should give them is to be the voice of the people internally, to protect customers’ needs and wants…To be just that, consumers, customers, people! Let them spend their days doing what they would normally do, live, shop, use stuff, talk about things! Don’t try to control them, don’t give them any business objectives, but give them the necessary platforms to do what they like to do, need to do as consumers….

Apart from that just watch, listen and learn!!!

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2009
08/05
CATEGORY
Customer Experience
Organisational Behaviour
Thoughts
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