Beware Navel Gazing or we could call it Brand W***ing

Customers don’t care about navel gazing
‘As better times approach leading operators should not give in to temptation and begin internal brand engagement programmes.’
We have worked with a number of companies recently who have tried very hard to develop their staff so that they can respond to the ebb and flow of the marketplace as effectively as possible. However some companies forget who their real boss is, and enclose themselves in collective navel gazing sessions like some kind of horrific social experiment.
Over the last 3 years, those of us that have remained in our jobs or moved to new ones can congratulate ourselves on surviving the recession. When times were tough we did what we had to do to survive. We wouldn’t want to have to do it again but the experience is certainly one we can put on our career CV as ‘character forming’. Despite recent problems that have dogged the industry there is no doubt that current UK economic growth figures are a little better than expected and although we know it will be a bumpy ride we can be confident that the trend will be towards slightly better times.
So things begin to improve. We make some more money. Let’s pretend things go very well, much quicker than we anticipated, and we make a lot of money. We expand, take on more staff, and cope with the increase in demand. What a wonderful feeling!
Hang on though. What’s this? We’re doing fine and someone on our management team has thrown us a curve ball. ‘We don’t know what we stand for?’
For a moment you think you’ve misunderstood. They repeat their thoughts. ‘The company doesn’t know what it stands for anymore – we’re making money but we’re growing so quickly that we have people all over the place who have no sense of our values, culture and brand message.’
You are shocked. What a tragic situation to be in. You thought that by serving customers well and supplying good quality products you would be okay. That clearly isn’t enough. Your staff need to be engaged with the company ‘brand promises’ so that everyone is, without fail, ‘on message’.
Thankfully help is at hand through lots of organisations who will assist you. They’ll work with your call centre staff, their managers, the department heads and a series of designers through a year long process of brand renewal. Staff will take time out for ‘brand workshops’ mugs, t-shirts and prizes will be given. They will be pumped with the energy to ‘love’ their company more and protect the perception it has to the outside world. To be clear, this is internal only. This is focused entirely on people who are already delighted to be employed by anyone and happen to be employed by you.
You weigh up the options, after all you could simply put up everyone’s wages. Of course, this programme is marginally cheaper, so may actually save you money. Some will say that to get internal brand issues right always feeds through to the customer because the employees will try harder and work more productively. The same could be achieved my incentivising them differently, investing in their development and their careers and not appearing to be wasting thousands on internal navel gazing.
If you truly believe your staff are not representing your company in the right way then that is your responsibility and one that can only be dealt with by genuine intervention between employer and employee. Additionally, if a company is making money at last, then there are a number of much more positive ways to spend it; buying a competitor or a complementary company, developing staff and employing more, and improving your external marketing so that it is more effective.
Customers care nothing for your internal marketing. Do these activities de-crease your complaints? Rarely. Are your staff selling better products, for more money, to delighted customers, because of this process? No. Do some staff live and breathe your internal rhetoric and some completely ignore it, and still manage to do quite well? Of course. Do these programmes wrap themselves around the customer’s experience? Of course not, because if we designed our productivity around the customer’s purpose that would make complete sense wouldn’t it?
One thing we all know is that customers are more careful about spending and more knowledgeable than ever before. We met an agency recently who have customers coming in with lap tops and challenging the staff to match internet prices. How do staff who have been clued up on positive internal messages deal with that situation? What needs to change is the way we interact with the customer, surely, rather than how we interact with our own logo.

Big Company Facism

In the newspapers today, banks currently making massive profits again, are accused of pulling support from small businesses. The other angle is that large corporate companies who rely on suppliers are also engaging in unfair terms to maximise their own profits. We have heard of large companies offering 120 day payment terms. We have heard of companies expecting massive discounts without considering value. We have heard of procurement departments hammering down on suppliers prices in the most arbritary and viscious manner. We have heard of Managers being expected to predict exact revenues (virtually impossible) and being fired when they fall short - or go way over! Now, everyone wants to make a profit, but there is reasonable behaviour and their is total unfairness. This fragile recovery risks further, irreperable damage if those with the money and power use scare tactics and revert to practices last used in the early eighties. Surely the gems of management wisdom developed this century can be rightfully tested in the current climate and basic trust and relationships should still be the mainstay of business for the next 10 years? If that cannot happen then a lack of innovation, creativity and talent will damage business way into the future.

Newspapers, its not just battling the web, its the appalling management of salespeople.

My dear friend returned from time spent with his own business abroad for a few years, and decided to join his local newspaper as a salesperson. His target for his first month was £14,700 he brought in £22,000. They upped next month's target to £18,000 he brought in £20,000, they upped it to £19,000 he brought in £20,000. And this pattern continues, over his first six months he has generated over £20k a month in print advertising revenue. He predicts he will bring in close to a quarter of a million in his first 12 months. Except he won't be there for 12 months. Do you know what they pay him? £17,500 basic salary with a £200 OTE and 4% of anything else on top! Do I neeed to say anymore? This is insanity. They are soon to loose this tremendous consultative salesperson who is helping small businesses deliver compelling messages to their regional customers. The imbalance in the work he does and his financial reward is just moronic. Newspapers are so old and yet so young when it comes to being modern businesses and on the people development front - don't get me started.

The Party Conference Season

Sitting here in bed with my old friend Tami Flu (lovely girl) I have had to watch day time telly, and therefore most of the Lib Dem conference as a consequence. Whilst you admire the aspirations of some of their ideas I'm afraid the charisma by-pass has been administered party wide - except Vince Cable. (Whoever wins the next election should just offer him a job - he's got a brain and can communicate). As for the rest (just heard Andrew Neill call Nick Clegg 'Nick Clog' by mistake!') they're all lovely people but with very little true leadership energy.

As yet none of the parties have addressed the core issues: 1) how to pay back the money we've borrowed without ruining everyone's life, b) how to make sure that the recession can never happen as deeply again and c) who and how should be called to account for what has happened.
I like the idea of a Nuremberg style trial where bankers, credit card companies, mortgage companies and their employees are publicly embarrassed and properly punished for their irresponsibility - and at the same time irresponsible people who borrowed more than they could ever hope to pay back should also be penalised. Sounds cruel, but something big needs to happen to make people realise that we must be prudent in the future.

Additionally, none of the parties have offered any new ideas to help businesses grow in the future and avoid reliance on the whims of the banks. This would force banks to become more competitive with business and bring stability to that area of finance.

I pray that my illness will have me back at work before I have to witness the undeniable charm of Brown and Darling. Cameron at least has a bit of charisma - but he now needs to join up all the ideas into some solid policies - that will throw them into the lead far quicker than anything else...
(he should probably ditch Osbourne too - sorry George!)

French Attitude to Redundancy: Kidnap your boss

I'm sorry but we love this story. Rather than roll over and accept redundancy a French firm are 'holding' their British bosses as hostages. Now we can't condone criminal behavior but we do admire the passion. How sad that the company concerned didn't realise that the energy and belief that their staff are now displaying could have been used to generate business and work. Business owners, we are sure, do not make these decision lightly, and must feel dreadful about letting people go. This may be because they are using outdated thinking and have not considered more up-to-date methods of changing their business model. Many come to these decisions through unsafe data, through made up predictions and unsound forecasts. We wonder how hard they have tried to find alternatives.

9000 jobs cut at RBS? What?

How can any company been 9000 overstaffed? Are shareholders THAT upset about their reduced dividend and falling share price that 9000 people are suddenly deemed unnecessary to requirements? This is pure insanity. No I don't think the government should step in - I think the management at RBS should be made to carry on with the staff they have got and they should be made to come up with a strategy that will keep those people employed. Sounds crazy? Not as crazy and 9,000 good people hitting the streets looking for work.

Management Getting Away With It

Too often we are hearing about organisations making staffing cuts. Most distressingly, managers who are either inept, untrained or inexperienced are staying in roles that they are not suited for and people with potential and energy are being let go. Senior Management are to blame for not recognising ineptitude and are also guilty of not knowing enough about their staff who are actually delivering the work necessary to keep an organisation functioning. Worst of all 2nd and 3rd rounds or redundancies are fatal. If you must do it, do it once, deep, and then carry on. Businesses in a deep recession must change. If you think that management techniques you learnt 20 years ago will help you, you are mistaken. We are in unchartered territory, so we need to learn and try new ideas. The positive spin is that you have absolutely nothing to lose by trying new ideas. The only thing we have to be afraid of...