Archive for December, 2009

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on Strategic Marketing.

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half.” – Lord Leverhulme (1851-1925) British founder of Unilever and philanthropist.

Wash your mouth out with soap…

Lord Leverhulme was correct, but today, his pain can usually be avoided.
I am sure that more than half of British small business people do not really know what marketing is.

Quickly! £950 on Inside Front Cover to win at Cheltenham, 33/1…

So many leaders view marketing as an expense; a flutter; a gamble; a punt. The four-colour ad in the inside front cover of Widget Monthly that yields no business. The trade shows. The brochures. The websites. The disappointment is endless.

Let’s get strategic…

Strategic marketing is about understanding your target market segment (TMS). Who you want to get into bed with. You may have more than one TMS. I have two. A TMS is defined as a group of organisations that buys in the same way. Simple as that. They have other characteristics but that’s the main one. They are interested in what you do, and can be turned on by a well crafted offer that meets their needs, and will pay you for it.
When you do this, you have a target.

Ready, aim, fire…

It’s all about defining the target. You cannot aim if you have no target.  Or if the target is so diffuse and ill-defined, you may well hit it, but seldom in the bull’s eye. Companies spend ages and lots of cash getting ready. They have the finest guns for the firing part. But they have no clear target, so cannot aim. Ready…fire…ready…fire! Dumb.

Strategic marketing is also about clearly stating your Value Proposition (VP) – what is the value you and your competitors bring? Sort out your value proposition – in thirty words or less (this is usually obvious).

Strategic marketing is also about your unique selling proposition (USP)…why should your prospect choose you over all the other guys? Sort out your USP – in thirty words or less (be bold, but tell the truth).

And next on our agenda is…

Put your hand up if you work in an organisation that doesn’t have marketing as a permanent item on your management team or board agenda?

I suspect most of you have your hands up. This is madness. Without strategic marketing you’re winking at a girl (or boy) in a club in the dark. There may be some girls or boys in the club who are interested in you…but it’s likely there’s a more target–rich environment somewhere else in a different club.

Here’s what to do…

Identify a customer you have who delivers about 80% of the value you have ever had from a customer. Not your absolute best customer….because there may not be so many of them. Choose one who is good…solidly good for you. They value you, they pay, and they are satisfied with what you provide not because they are uncritical but because you fit their needs. They buy from you repeatedly. You like them and they don’t treat you or your staff like dirt.

Write down as many characteristics as you can to describe this company – sector, location, how they buy, who does the buying, how important your product or service is to them, what they read, where they go, etc.

You now have a target market segment.

Not tonight darling…

Pursue your TMS with aggression. Have the courage to say “no” to those outside your TMS. They may be smiling at you but your true fit with them is sub-optimal and this will come out sooner or later, usually sooner.

Once you’ve cracked strategic marketing (which you can do at very little cost) it’s on to tactical marketing – how to get to your TMS with your crisp VP and clear USP.

That’s for next week when I’ll explain why in today’s market most companies can avoid Lord Leverhulme’s quandary and how you can measure your return-on-investment on all routes to market – cheaply and quickly, allowing you to stop doing what doesn’t work and do much more of what does.

Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on…

Time Management for Dummies
Write lists…

You must have lists. With everything on them – everything. Work through your lists constantly and try to score out more than you add on.

You must…

…become obsessed with your tasks. Get through the small stuff first, to clear the decks for the big stuff. Please those around you first: do what your boss/partner/child asks you to do. We need to get along with people. Answer the phone when it rings. If you’re serious, get a nice leather binder with all the pages you need – diary, a page for phone numbers, London underground map, metric to imperial conversion charts, international dialling codes….

Well done! You’ve mastered time management for dummies.

Now…

Time management for smarties is different.

This is what to do…

Understand your goals. If you don’t have goals, move quietly away from the computer and call me…NOW.

Once you have goals, then define your High Payoff Activities (HPAs) – they are the critical actions that deliver your goals. Add two more – planning and physical exercise. You should have less than ten in total.

Half full…

When you plan your next week or fortnight, fill 50% of your time with HPAs (including meetings with yourself to do any HPAs that require no one else). Use your diary, or better, an electronic calendar like Office or Google (type calendar into Google).

For everything else, (emails, phone calls, actions collected throughout the day, actions collected in meetings, post etc) process them all as follows:

Decide whether you will  -

* Bin it,
* File it,
* Delegate it,
* Might do it one day, or
* Action it.

For the things that you may do one day, add them to a list entitled “Might Do It Today” Put this page in tomorrow’s slot in a bring-forward file (a concertina folder with 31 slots marked 1 to 31 for each day of the present month and a second concertina folder with 12 slots marked January through December for the months we’re not in at the moment).
If you must…

For those that you must action, and only those, do the following –

* If it will take less than 2 minutes, do it now.
* If it will take 2 – 15 minutes, put “the action” (hardcopy email, handwritten note etc) in your bring-forward file to do it on a specific day (just before it must be done, no sooner). File all associated stuff (email, notes etc) or bin them. Don’t leave anything in piles, in your inbox etc.
* If it will take more than 15+ minutes to do it, schedule time for it in your diary and put “the action” (hardcopy email, handwritten note etc) in your bring-forward file to do it on a specific day (just before it must be done – again, no sooner). File all associated stuff (email, notes etc) or bin them. Again, don’t leave anything in piles, in your inbox etc.

The moment I wake up…

At the start of every day, look at your diary (week to a view) and your bring-forward file. Your diary is your plan. Remember, if you don’t have a plan, you are part of someone else’s plan. And do you know what they have planned for you? Nothing much.

Your bring-forward file for the present day will contain the trivia that you MUST do, and your “Might Do It Today” page of things you may do one day, or may never do, but don’t want to forget about. Each day, you will look at this list and you may decide to elevate one or more of the items to actions which you will then process as above. Once you have done this, put the “Might Do It Today” list back in the bring-forward file under tomorrow’s date.

Do you have piles…?

The great thing about this approach is it gives you clarity and focus. The HPAs get done. They are your number one priority. There are no piles on your desk, piles in your inbox, piles in your head and bits of paper everywhere that cause a general sense of malaise.

In this system, everything has been processed and if it merits your time it will be in your diary or your bring-forward file.

This system is not just for work, it’s for life.

Twinkle, twinkle…

Do this for a month. Then increase the time spent on HPAs to 60%. Do this for a month. Then 70%. That’s probably as far as you can go, but by then you will be spending almost 5 times as much time as most people on your HPAs. You will feel in control, on your front foot, more confident and you will achieve more and more. It’s a virtuous cycle. You have become a star player!

Merry Christmas.

Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on The Truth.

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – Oscar Wilde

Despite this, leaders must deal with the truth.

Ouch!

The government has just slapped a 50% tax on bankers’ bonuses – payable by the banks, not the bankers. This seems to have quietened the thronging mass.

Brilliant politics.

This will do nothing. The Chancellor, despite the stated objective of curbing bonuses, knows his actions will make no difference and is happy for this to be so.

Why?

Because the truth of the matter is that the rock star traders and their complicit bosses have stolen the banks. RBS is making £6 billion in profit in investment banking and paying out £2 billion in bonuses. We could curb bonuses in the banks we own, but the unpalatable truth is that to do so would damage them. This is the truth. The rock star traders have all they need in their heads. They can walk, and routinely do.

How has this happened?

Well, I’m no student of the banking sector, but what I do know is that it all started decades ago with firms like Lizard Frères relocating to New York after fleeing the Nazis in Europe in the 1930s. Lazard invented investment banking. It was owned by the partners. If they made £6b, then it was theirs to do with as they wished. Fine. Their capital. Their risk. Their profit.

Can I play?

Then the normal, staid banks thought they’d get in on this action. In time, as the talent pool mixed, the salaries in these new entrants rose to mimic those in the old, private banks.

Our issue with the bonuses is largely envy. I know.  I am distressed to admit I feel it myself, more than a wee bit.

I don’t care…

But we shouldn’t care about this. The real truth is that, as the governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King has said, “If a bank is too big to fail then it is too big”. This is the central issue and I do not see anyone doing anything about it.

There is some talk of a “living will” to allow the orderly winding up of an ailing bank, but as this requires the intervention of healthy banks, I’m far from clear how this would work if there’s a mass suicide.

We did it once…

We have conditioned the banks to believe they cannot fail, and therefore, if anything, we have increased the likelihood of this happening again.

I don’t care what private organisations do, as long as it is legal. I don’t even care what publically owned banks do. But to manage them with the primary purpose of assuaging our envy is blinkered.

Didn’t see a thing, guv…

The only people who can wrestle back the banks from the employees are the shareholders, the vast majority of whom are pension funds, not governments. But the pension funds won’t do it – they’ll either stick around for the dividends or quietly walk away.

And each morning…

…the horrible truth remains. The banks are still too big to fail and no one is doing anything about it.

I want some truth. I want some leadership. I don’t see it from the government or the opposition. The Bank of England tried and was dismissed out of hand. The church has made some ineffectual noises. The journalists obsess about bonuses.

I don’t mind Darling’s 50% tax. He is in a difficult political position. What I do expect is for our leaders to identify and act on the core truth.

Ah…Mr Bond…

I thought it was only in films that huge corporations controlled the destiny of the world. I thought this was inherently rubbish as governments always had the last laugh – they can legislate.

It is time to start laughing.

Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on…

Leadership

“A leader is a dealer in hope. “ – Napoleon Bonaparte

Being a leader is easy.

There are many leadership models.

It’s primal…

Daniel Goleman’s is one of the best. He refers to six leadership styles in his book “Primal Leadership”:

* The visionary leader inspires; believes in his own vision. Explains how and why people’s efforts contribute towards the dream.
* The coaching leader helps people identify their own strengths and weaknesses and is a counsellor who encourages and delegates.
* The affiliative leader promotes harmony, is friendly and empathetic.
* The democratic leader is a superb listener, teamworker and collaborator.
* The pacesetting leader has a strong urge to achieve, lots of initiative, high personal standards, is impatient, micromanages and is numbers driven.
* The commanding leader says “do it because I say so”; is threatening, has tight control and drives away talent.

Best fit…

For any given situation there is a best fit leadership style.

The visionary leader is great when a radical change is needed. The coaching leader is just right when competent, motivated employees are available and performance improvement can be nurtured over the long term.

The affiliative leader works when there are rifts in the team, or great stress. The democratic leader is superb when consensus is required, and employee input sought.

The pacesetting leader is useful when the team is high performing already. The commanding leader is good in a grave crisis.

It’s not all good…

Two of these styles are generally seen as having a negative impact on the broad organisational climate. Can you guess which two?

And the losers are…

Firstly, the pacesetting leader, because he requires followers of a strange disposition – they need to be competent, and motivated, yet require no empathy, no feeling of being involved and great resilience to micromanagement. This type of follower exists only rarely. If this leadership style is used exclusively, or poorly, as it often is, it is very negative on organisational climate. It is a style that is seldom necessary and never sufficient. I did have a pacesetting boss once.  He was talented for sure. The experience was unpleasant (for us both).

Secondly, the commander, because he drives away talent. Nobody with any real individuality and self-esteem can work for someone who simply required their will to be carried out because it is their will. It doesn’t work with kids, so why should it work with adults? This is the traditional military model of leadership. I used to work with an organisation that recruited ex-officers for their leadership capabilities. It never worked out. Never. Not once.

It’s all about me…

My leadership style is coach. That’s why I do what I do now. I like to think I have developed real vision for my own business, and that there’s room for democracy and affiliation. I have no interest in pace setting and commanding.

We all have a preference for our individual leadership style. Sometimes we assume our comfortable preference must mean that that preference is appropriate, or right. That’s a mistake. Comfort does not equal correct.

Do you feel me…?

And leadership isn’t about you, it’s about the situation, and how to generate resonance with the team. So they feel you. More than hear you…feel you.

It all comes easily to those with high emotional intelligence (which involves four abilities: self awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management).

Sharpen your pencil…

And the great thing about emotional intelligence is that the four abilities are not innate, they are learned.

Leadership is situational – the right kind at the right time, to the right extent. You need to be the right leader for the situation. It’s not so much about what each individual needs – that’s more a management style issue, which I may write about next week.

The kicker…

I said at the start that being a leader is easy. But that’s not leadership.

Being the right kind of leader at the right time is hard. Unfortunately, that is leadership.
Mark