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.

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.

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.

A Positively Inspiring Presentation

For once I remembered to check the programme for the Cambridge Science Festival in time to select at least one event to attend.  In the past I’ve heard some fascinating talks and taken my children to take part in some excellent hands-on demonstrations at the annual festival. I’m always annoyed with myself in the years when I miss out because I’ve not checked the programme early enough.

This year was an exception. Chris and I went to listen to a lecture by Nick Baylis on Tuesday night. Not only is Nick’s approach to positive psychology refreshingly pragmatic and useful – his style of presenting is relaxed and easy. I left wanting more information so have bought his latest book, Learning from Wonderful Lives, and so far have had to resist the temptation to start dipping into it before I finish the ones I already have on the go.

That’s pretty tough so I’m off to catch up on my reading now…

Please don’t buy a goat for Christmas

How many Christmas cards have you had from suppliers and associates? And how many e-cards have you got so far? And this is just the start…

Personally I’d rather get an e-card from a business than an envelope through my door. I’m all for using electronic communication instead of chopping down trees to say Merry Christmas. Anything that reduces the impact on the environment is just great with me – it makes absolute sense.

I get a little bit uncomfortable though when I keep getting messages to say that a business has donated a goat, bought a water pump for a village or paid for school shoes for a third-world child in place of spending the money on Christmas cards. I guess in the big scheme of things, this is a better option, but if you really care – why not just do it all year round? Why wait for Christmas? If we support a good cause at Christmas, does that mean we can ignore the problem for the other 11 months of the year?

Call me a cynic, but I don’t remember which of my suppliers sent me a Christmas card last year and I’m pretty sure you don’t either. I certainly don’t remember which ones donated a goat in my name. So why do companies send cards? They’re not personal – they’re a poor substitute. I'm really not that bothered if my business contacts don't send me a Christmas card. To me, Christmas is about family and giving something back - Its not a marketing exercise.

As an alternative to donating a water pump/goat/shoes at Christmas, why not consider:

-          Supporting the charity of your choice all year round

-          Supporting them because you think its important – not so you can send out a press release about it (the exception to this is if you can create a benefit for the charity by doing so)

-          Giving them time or services instead of just writing a cheque

-          Donating a percentage of your products, services or profits to charity

-          Don’t send any Christmas cards – not even an e-card.

-          Send out a positive message on an electronic greeting at a different time of year – one that highlights an issue, raises the profile of a charity or fills a need in some other way

-          Challenge your customers to join you in supporting a cause

-          Spend the next 10 days coming up with 12 great ways you can give something back in 2008 – one for each month of the year

-          Share your ideas so more people follow your lead.

Your customers are much more likely to value the personal touch:

Call as many customers as you can to wish them a Merry Christmas. It gives you a chance to catch up with what’s happening in their lives. As long as you keep it brief (or even leave a message if they are just too busy to talk) they will value the fact that you took the time. If you don’t get to speak to all of them, call the others in January to say Happy New Year.

Instead of following the pack, spend some time thinking about what your customers would really value, or how you could give something genuine back to them or the community at large. Do something different this Christmas.

Drop me a line to tell me what you’re doing in place of sending a Christmas card to your clients. Even better, share your ideas for 12 fabulous ways of giving back in 2008. I’d really love to hear about it – vandy@msainteractive.com

Trust your intuition

At the recent Cambridge HR Summit we treated the delegates to a couple of sessions of glorious song from Collegium Regale – the choral scholars of King’s College. It was a slightly ‘out there’ decision to take, given that there wasn’t any obvious link between the choir and the conference theme (aside from the fact that both live in Cambridge).

Some people had expected to hear classical choral music and feared it would be rather dry. Most people couldn’t work out why the choir was on the programme – that was until they heard the first piece. And then they ‘got it’!

The choir picked just the right pieces from their repertoire. The post-lunch session ended with an uplifting rendition of ‘New York, New York’ which sent delegates back into the afternoon’s learning sessions with energy and bounce.

Absolutely the best comment I had was, “…the choir is fantastic! It’s like a palate cleanser for the brain”. Perfect. That’s just what we wanted from them.

Do something completely different next time you’re planning an event, meeting or away day. Our instincts told us that the choir would make the event memorable and would provide delegates with something completely different from the workshops they were attending.Go with your gut reaction.

See what I found ...

I was in the lobby of The Perse School in Cambridge and saw this poem. This school has a well-deserved reputation for academic excellence. There are situations where focus on academics alone can sometimes imply a lack of balance. How good it was to see something that clearly focuses on the all-important softer skills of human interaction.

Although the text is particularly applicable to young people, it struck me that, simple as the message is - its relevant to all of us.

See what I found

Some new corners of myself

Hiding away, tucked out of sight,

Untapped, untried, I found them

While reaching out to others.

I wonder how much more of me

There is to discover

- Anon

Taking a Risk

A couple of months ago I read Seth Godin's blog about hard work. I love the 15th item on his list:

Putting on a conference

or - Taking a risk and making the conference interesting

This is exactly what Judith and I aimed to do when we started planning the first Cambridge HR Summit six months ago. We asked ourselves why a place like Cambridge shouldn't have a world-class HR conference. Then we decided to make it happen. Seth's point is well made and seems absolutely obvious - but if so, why doesn't everyone do it? Perhaps its not so easy to do. There's no single correct way to achieve excellence - but we chose the one we're most comfortable with. Every element of this conference is one that we can get excited about. Here are a few examples of what we think is interesting:

• Our keynote speaker is a lady who not only changed the world - she did it without shouting about it. Early in her career Dame Stella Rimington DCB, former head of MI5 didn't believe that women couldn't be field operatives. That was the beginning of her transformation of the organisation that most people associate with James Bond (007).
• We've chosen workshop speakers who are different and push the boat out. For example:
  • Steve Boast, head of organisational development at HM prisons who says he has some of the most challenging customers in the world. I can't wait to hear his approach to dealing with his 'difficult customers'.
  • Richard Ellis head of CSR from Alliance Boots will lead the workshop which will uncover whether its possible for an organisation to be carbon neutral. And he should know - Alliance Boots have been leaders in the environmental awareness stakes.
• The venue is amazing. Magdalene College, Cambridge has managed to combine state of the art facilities, beautiful design, fantastic spaces for informal networking and intimate workshop rooms. And along with all of this modernisation, they've still managed to retain the traditions and ethos of centuries of imparting knowledge.
• And then we became a little self-indulgent and booked these guys to perform at lunch time. We chose them partly because music enhances learning, but also because every time I hear them perform (and that is one of the perks of living in Cambridge), I can't help feeling utterly inspired.

We've got a few more surprises up our sleeves as well. But if I told you now, that would spoil it.

There's no guarantee that just because we're passionate about these things that everyone else will be too. But we sure as hell wouldn't be looking forward to sharing all these aspects with delegates if we weren't inspired by them. In my view, that's a pretty good first step towards moving into the right hand column in Seth's list.