Measuring Up

Energy banks

Energy is a company asset. I don't mean utilities. Electricity and Gas are essential to operations as anyone in South Africa will know all too well at the moment. But what I am talking about is people. The energy that is applied to thought, to problem solving, to customer relations. Its critical to any business, but I wonder how many count it as an asset?

Over the past few weeks I've been working on the concept of Entrepreneurship with Graham Singleton of Make Yourself. We've been discussing a model for a presentation. As we explored what could be done to enhance entrepreneurship within companies, we discovered the links with energy. Its been a great experience working with Graham. His enthusiasm is infectious.

Energy is the life blood of an organisation. Its the fuel that drives both the pace and the quality of growth. But the challenge lies in the intangibles. Some people have it in spades, and others don't have quite the same amount of 'go'. Those that have it can infect others with enthusiasm, but they can also overwhelm. And although its not finite, it does need to be nurtured and sometimes conserved.

Its value is hard to measure - it never appears on the company's balance sheet. But without it nothing happens. Although we can't always control it, we should perhaps look after it - think of it as deposits and withdrawals from a bank. If we keep drawing on it without top ups, we'll start running low. But shared with others effectively, it multiplies rather like compound interest.

Investing in your energy bank could well pay great dividends.

Recruitment pitfalls

A couple of days ago I had a conversation with a friend who has just had a really bad experience with a senior member of staff. The incident has been expensive in two respects - the member of staff has taken that which was not his to take in some significant measure, and there is now the cost of recruiting and training a replacement. The cost of getting a new staff member up to speed is not insignificant. And its almost impossible to quantify the loss of knowledge that goes hand-in-hand with a key person leaving, in any circumstances. His faith in the recruitment process is somewhat shaken at the moment, to say the least.

You'll understand then, why I was particularly impressed when I met Katherine Wiid from Recrion. Aside from the fact that its always nice to meet another South African in the UK, their approach to helping companies get the right people just make real sense.

Recrion doesn't replace recruitment agencies. Instead, the service they provide is a really solid bridge between company and recruitment agencies. Recrion has all the expertise in writing job specifications and interviewing applicants. They're the experts at filtering candidates so clients only see the best of the bunch. How great to be able to save time and money two different ways simultaneously. I was struck that using specific expertise like this not only saves the time spent screening and interviewing the candidates who are less than the best. But it also provides an independent standard for the recruitment process in the business.

Not only that, they've got a seriously cool giraffe on their site!

The Dip is back

Seth Godin's book, The Dip is back on my bookshelf. I'm very happy to lend it out again. Mail me if you want to read it and I'll pop it in the post to you.

Creating Entrepreneurs talk - part 1

I've been asked to speak at the Institute of Directors Annual Conference in Suffolk. The topic is Entrepreneurship and I guess my opinion is considered relevant as East of England Business Woman of the Year Enterprise Award recipient. Public speaking isn't an area where I have much experience. Those of you who know me may well raise an eyebrow at that statement and think ironically about the fact that I talk up a storm - all the time. But speaking in public is quite different to just having a big mouth!

I decided for a number of reasons that if I was going to accept this request I would need to make an investment in getting the final product to the state where it was absolutely the best I could do. Firstly, I know how valuable time is to people who run businesses. I owe it to the audience to make it worth their while to sit and listen to me for half an hour. I also owe it to myself to use this opportunity to develop a killer presentation and the skills to deliver it really well - because then I can do it again in June when I have a second speaking engagement.

Over the past 6 months, I've been working with two great people to get my output to a professional enough level. More about them in a later blog.

For the current presentation I've been researching companies that behave in exceptional ways. And I found it fascinating. I just had to share one of the best stories I've come across:
Southwest Airlines took part in an event which became called 'Malice in Dallas' in 1992. At 61, with a smoking and drinking training regime, Herb Kelleher took on 37 year-old weight lifting head of rival company, Stevens Aviation in an arm wrestling match. And all because they didn't want to involve the lawyers in a dispute over the use of a slogan. If only all corporate disputes could be settled so brilliantly - its worth reading the story.

Its easy to see why Southwest Airlines is one of the USA's top companies to work for when you understand just how far they go to make work fun.

Share a little book

I'm utterly hooked on books. I have been known to place two Amazon orders within 24 hours of each other and I have run out of shelf space in my office - the overflow is piling up on the windowsill. My big problem is that there is something so inviting about a new book, I just can't resist starting it immediately. This means I have varying number of books 'in progress' at any time. I've come to realise that this isn't necessarily a problem - its just the way I read.

In his blog yesterday, Seth Godin asked readers of his book, The Dip, to double its readership by lending it to someone else. Since I've already done that, I can't do it just at the moment, although I'm very happy to do so again and again in the future.

Seth's request reminded me to write about Bookcrossings. Bookcrossings is a web-based system of sharing books and letting people know what books you have available, and where they can find them. The idea of 'releasing' a book into the wild for someone else to read is really cool. Its one of the best ideas I've heard of in a long time. We like it so much that we set up a Bookcrossing drop point in our shop and its been a great success. Customers come in for a coffee or for lunch, browse, pick up a book and take it home to finish it. Our only problem is that in less than a month, we've had to find a second bookshelf. As with Seth's suggestion of lending The Dip to someone else, our Bookcrossing shelves in the shop don't make any money - but they add something special and they spread knowledge and pleasure. That has to be a good idea.

I have to remember to stay away from the Bookcrossings shelf in the shop though - can you imagine how high the pile on the windowsill would be? I'll go and have a browse once I've finished all the books I'm reading at the moment - could take a while.

(I've just checked BookCrossings, and there are two copies of The Dip currently in the wild - one in Montreal and one in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. The book gets a great endorsement from the readers (8 out of 10). So if you're in Montreal or Pennsylvania, you may want to go hunting.)

Getting help with the 'What next? question

Great to see MSA gets a mention in Personnel Today's article on training for before and after 360 feedback.

The expertise that wraps around 360 reviews is a key component in the ultimate result. Making sure the 'What next?' question (or even the 'So What?' question) is properly explored makes the difference between it being a box-ticking exercise, and something that delivers powerful results.

Welcome Aboard

Earlier this month a new "free" 360 review service was launched. Its a DIY, no service, no support, one size fits all product which comes with no advice on how get any value out of the reports. This scenario is a classic case of 'You get what you pay for.'

How many people would be willing to fly on an airplane that had not been safety checked, had an unqualified pilot in the cockpit, no cabin crew and no baggage handling staff - even if it was absolutely free?

Yet somehow, there are still those who would rather save a few pounds than make a solid investment in their people.

Hard to understand.

The Right Questions

Ten times a year I give myself the gift of a day of developing my business skills. As part of a fantastically powerful group called Association of Business Leaders (ABL), I have the benefit of being able to focus entirely on my business issues for a day, and share current issues, problems and suggestions with other members.

The impact of this peer coaching is surprisingly powerful given that the members are not professional coaches. What we are tapping into is the shared experiences and perspectives of a group of highly motivated people who understand the pressures of building a business. Although the industries, business sizes and specific expertise of every member is different, the common thread is the willingness to share knowledge, support a fellow member, and help each other grow in capability, and profitability. This is powerful stuff and every one of us is loathe to miss a single day despite our heavy pressures.

Our speaker this morning was Anne Miller, a highly knowledgeable and enormously talented author, inventor and entrepreneur from Cambridge. Anne has recently published her first book, The Myth of the Mousetrap, in which she unravels some of the critical barriers to getting new ideas adopted. For anyone attempting to build an innovative business, Anne's book is an essential management tool.

It turns out, we learned from Anne today, that its really important, when gathering information to back up a hunch, or provide data as the basis of an important decision - to ask the right questions. So often, we miss some critical nugget of knowledge just because we forget to ask some of the more obvious questions. Anne's example of NASA's Challenger disaster is a poignant reminder of at least one instance where this critical step wasn't included, with devastating results.

Clearly, in most situations, the consequence of asking the wrong questions (or omitting the right questions) isn't catastrophic. But even in our discussion of business issues during our ABL sessions, effective questions provide greater clarity in the least amount of time.

Consider your teams and your organisation's culture. Do you encourage lots of questions? Do you focus on asking the right questions to get the whole picture?

Ask yourself those questions.

What's really at the core?

I just took the leap and converted from Windows to Apple. In between the groans, the gulps and the pained sighs, I do hear the voices of reason that remind me of why I made this decision. I needed something really portable - portable enough for someone with a dodgy back and shoulders who needs to be more productive and takes a fair number of train trips.

I could have stuck with Windows and just bought a more portable laptop. But, my iPhone has been such a good experience, I thought I would look at the new MacBook Air. The sight of the Apple Store in London and the smaller but newer Apple Store in Cambridge was amazing. Its not a shop - its an experience. Apple have very cleverly made enough cool pieces of kit freely available that there are throngs of fans all lined up to play games, check emails and surf the web - and its a continuous stream.

When it comes to the actual buying experience - they have the slickest operation I have seen for a very long time. Its quick, its easy, its packaged to perfection and once you have parted with a pretty hefty chunk of your hard-earned wage, you'll have charming salesmen and women offering to help carry your new kit to your car for you.

Sadly, despite the absolute assurances of solid support 24/7 online and on the help line, and failing that, the services of one of the in-store 'geniuses' - the support I received did not live up to the same standard. Not by a long chalk. These assurances had been delivered when I specifically asked about any potential issues with converting from Windows to Mac.

Imagine my concern when I discovered that Outlook 2003 does not create mbox files, but Apple's mail programme only takes file imports in mbox format. Imagine my annoyance the first time I called the support line only to be told that this was a 'microsoft problem' and that I should therefore call Microsoft. Annoyance increased to irritation when I got exactly the same answer to a second call when the first 'Tucows' free download suggested didn't work. Then imagine the escalation to complete disdain for their assurances when I managed (after 3 hours) to get hold of one of their much talked-about instore Geniuses. Only to be told that he was busy and could not help me. And that all he could do was to wish me luck with my chosen solution. By this stage I had worked out a fairly torturous route to getting my mails across via Thunderbird.

I succeeded in the end, but not before feeling really disappointed in Apple. This is the iconic brand that promises the ultimate experience. What I got was extreme irritation. I was prepared to love their brand. In fact., I already loved my phone and was quite eager to have the same sort of relationship with the MacBook. The trouble with setting high expectations during the sales cycle, is that we expect the same level of service to be present in the support team. Somehow, the disillusionment is all the more intense for the positive build up beforehand.

It strikes me as a real lost opportunity - not only with me, but with thousands of Windows users who might dearly like to swap over to a Mac, but who won't take that step specifically because they dread the prospect of conversion nightmares. When the store Genius said that an Apple employee shouldn't have more than a very limited knowledge of the competitor's product, he was so wrong on so many levels. Competitor knowledge is a real asset to any organisation. In this case, it made all the difference between having a satisfied customer, and having a customer who is writing this blog entry. Worlds apart.
If Apple had Windows experts on tap to help customers make a smooth transition - how many more opportunities would they have to sell their very well designed products? Its impossible to quantify, but I'd stick my neck out and said that its probably many thousands.

Knowledge is the ultimate advantage in today's world of business. Know your market. Know your customers. Know your competitors. Without that, you can't possibly offer a world-class support service. Pity that beyond the shiny outside, I found a pretty rotten core.

PS. to be fair, I have tried their support 4 times in one shape or form. Today (number 4) I had the first positive result sine I bought my laptop. Perhaps people and things are looking up in the world of Mac.

Spread a little Lovemark

I've just finished my first reading of what is, in my view, one of the most engaging business books ever created. I say 'created' because this book is the sum of more than one part (writing). Not only is the message compelling and convincing, the design is exciting and the whole package is enticing and absorbing. Lovemarks was written by Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi who has followed it up with The Lovemarks Effect - now on my 'books to buy' list.

My brilliant designer sister gave this book to me for Christmas and I have been diving into it repeatedly ever since then. I say that I've just finished my first reading because this is a book that I will re-read. I can see that it will be dipped into repeatedly, and parts of it will be gone over many times to extract more ideas for developing our business.  Discovering the Lovemarks website felt like a fabulous bonus.

Expanding on the ideas of what comes beyond building a brand, Lovemarks incorporate elements of mystery, storytelling and intimacy. Once you've read this book, you start to recognise these qualities in the messages created by some of your favourite brands. The Lovemark stories submitted on the site make interesting reading too. Once you've read Lovemarks, its quite possible that you'll never look at brands in quite the same way again. I know I won't.