The challenger model.

Are you sometimes annoyed when you hear certain words used so often they seem to be devoid of all meaning? I’m thinking of course of words like “tired”, “stressed” and “challenging”. We hear them all the time and they very soon descend into the category of cliché.

They annoy me too and they are a particular danger in the world of work, especially in consultancy where I spend a lot of my time. Business jargon is all too easy to slip into and the risk of failing to communicate with clients is a very real one.

So my challenge to everyone in business is to rise to the challenge of either finding another word which still has some life in it. If that’s not possible then simply find other ways of keeping your communications fresh, original and therefore effective.

In other words, get outside the comfort zone of depending on the norm and get some originality back into your thinking.

Of course, this doesn’t need to apply only to the field of communications. By adopting a challenger model for all business activities it’s possible to continually break new ground and “move things on to another level”. You see what I mean – it’s so easy to forget and just use the first phrase that comes to mind!

As I’ve said before, a particularly useful tool in business is a review and I would suggest it has some value in this discussion. By stopping to carry out a review of your business you give yourself the opportunity to analyse what’s happening and put some checks and balances in place to stop unhelpful trends.

We are none of us perfect of course so the discipline of an exercise can help most of us to self-correct and keep to the script. In this way we can ensure we are keeping to plan and improving our businesses in line with our own growth targets and overall objectives.

All of this can be easy to say of course and yet very difficult to achieve in reality.  By constantly guarding against the danger of falling into the comfort zone, we give ourselves a better chance of creating something worthwhile and exceeding the expectations of the most demanding client.

As you all surely know, there’s always a simple expression to cover all eventualities in business and in this case I think it might be “no pain no gain”. At the end of a busy day, make that extra phone call or ask that question that’s been on your agenda for far too long. You never know, that action might be the one that makes the vital difference to the performance of your business.

So next time you find yourself slipping into a familiar and comfortable rut – jump out quickly before it gets too deep and find yourself  another route!

Same old stuff?

What does “status quo” mean to you? Is it a famous rock band, a bit of Latin text from your schooldays, or is it something to be avoided like the plague when it comes to business?

I’m thinking about questions like this as I’ve just participated in the IoD North West regional conference on the theme of Disruption. Treated to glittering presentations by companies like Uber, Salesforce and Metro bank, I was reminded forcefully of the value of original thought, albeit outside the proverbial box.

I don’t expect all of us to break the mould in quite the way Uber has and grow globally with eye-watering speed to dizzying levels of turnover. But equally I’m sure we can all take something of value from a study of such businesses.

Even if it means you simply avoid getting your business stuck in a rut then it’s been worth the effort. Most people work hard at promoting themselves but if you stop to think about it, digging hard once you’re in a rut can only be counterproductive. You simply get stuck in at a very much deeper level and it feels like the lights have gone out because you’re at the bottom of what is now an exceedingly deep rut. Oh, and it’s also just become a whole lot harder to get out of your rut as you’re now surrounded by vertical walls which are impossible to climb!

I suppose the crux of the problem is it takes a bit of bravery to shake the market up and challenge the status quo. It also takes guts to spend time outside your traditional area of work and do the hard thinking that ensures your new idea doesn’t simply get laughed at or ignored.

I know Disruption is a theme that’s on the lips of just about every business guru these days but in reality it’s been around for ages in one form or another. Anyone can do it and as many of the extremely young entrepreneurs today show, to them it’s very natural and intuitive. Follow your ideas with passion and pursue your instincts – you may be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Work hard at removing barriers, challenge your existing business model, network with new people to get different angles on old questions – the very process of doing these things may be all you need.

A useful summary of the four limiting factors we encounter when we try to break out and do something new could be these: habits, attitudes, expectations and beliefs. It’s more than a five minute job to set about changing all of them but I would suggest a very good first step would be to admit to yourself that they’re not set in stone.

A review is always a good place to start working on a business – starting small doesn’t preclude you from thinking big when it comes to the crunch.  I’ll bet that guy from Uber didn’t shirk from doing his homework and prep – probably started in the back of a black cab!

Step forward…

Recent events have proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is considerable value in stepping forward when you’re in business. You might think that sounds crazy – why give away time when we all know that “time is money”! We’re all fighting for survival and the best piece of advice on offer is do something for free – how can that be?

For me, it’s all around creating the right impression and letting people get a glimpse of the real you.
If you stop and think about it, volunteering is a great way of doing just that. By offering your services for free you are demonstrating a passion for the cause that goes beyond the petty requirements of a commercial transaction. This is something you’re prepared to do, come what may. You’re not even going to pause to strike a deal because that would delay you getting stuck into the fray.

Hopefully, you’re getting a flavour of where I’m going with this. In a world where all too many people get bogged down in the detail you’re striking taking a position based solely on your beliefs. That, I believe, is appealing and you may be surprised at the results it can produce.

This can work in a variety of circumstances and is not limited to any particular field of business as far as I can see. Whether you’re a Managing Director, a florist or a policeman we all need to influence our colleagues, peers and “customers”.

If you follow this particular piece of advice you’ll find you are better able to win hearts as well as minds. All too often in business, you see the failed attempts to convert only minds and the heart bit of the equation is ignored as lightweight, trivial or irrelevant.

In fact, I would say that the emotional side of the debate is even more important than the rational. If you are successful in what you step forward for just take a note of how many people recommend you to others. We all love someone who stands up for what they believe in because we secretly wish we had done so ourselves. By endorsing someone’s stand we can do our bit and you would be surprised how many people are ready to do just that for you.

All you have to do is step forward. Just make sure you don’t get confused with another similar expression about one step forwards and two steps back – that’s for other people who don’t have your high levels of ambition!

Northern Powerhouse – rhetoric or reality?

In the business world, if not the real world, there’s been a lot of talk and commentary lately about the Northern Powerhouse. Whether you think that’s a good thing or not is up to you but I would suggest the whole issue is going to increase in visibility very soon. It will likely impact all businesses in the North West in some way or other over the coming years so why not give it some thought at least.

So where does the idea come from and what sort of chance has it got of making a difference?

For me the issue of a North/South divide has always been around and has always seemed something very real and tangible – in a positive way. One of the great beauties of Great Britain to my mind is, and always will be, its huge diversity and regional differences. Whether you’re doing business with a company in Bradford, Birmingham or Bath, you are dealing with that diversity and doing so to the benefit of all.  Long may that continue.

But what happens when the economic imbalance becomes so great as to threaten the very survival of one of the parties involved? When all the action, jobs and overseas investment are in London there is a real danger that the great Northern cities will enter a dangerous phase of decline. Surely that is the time to at least consider taking some action.

 We don’t have the space here to go into all the arguments but there are plenty of debates going on all over the region for getting up to speed. My point is simply this – take some responsible ownership, look for example at the pros and cons of a high-speed rail link to Crewe or consider the benefits of Liverpool Super Port from your own commercial point of view and get involved.

Because of the nature my work, I know for certain that there are plenty of businesses here in the North West who simply don’t know what the Northern Powerhouse is or what it’s attempting to do to ensure our economic prosperity. The simple concepts of economic collaboration or targeting of growth can easily be obscured behind the very labels designed to make them accessible. We need to be smarter than that and cut through jargon to make a difference.

Ignore scepticism, take political bias with a huge pinch of salt but don’t waste the opportunity to derive some benefit from what’s readily on offer. It may take some effort to penetrate the fog but the reward will be there for the benefit of us all.

Opinion polls – what’s the point?

I guess you know which opinion polls I’ve got in mind, unless you’ve been on Mars for the last few months.

How could the opinion polls have got the general election result so spectacularly wrong? There was a trend between all the pollsters so well-defined it was impossible that it was wrong. Even the most experienced of commentators started their interviews from the premise that no single party was ever going to win a majority. And yet, with the benefit of that very precious commodity hindsight we now all know that was completely wrong!

But do you think any pollsters will shut up shop as a result of the debacle. Yes, I doubt it too. We all want to know the future as early as we can and we’re prepared to do what we can to get into that privileged position.

To some extent, I would say that’s how it is in business too. We conduct focus-group activities to try and find out what consumers want. We want to know what fashions are going to be big next year or what type of biscuits our children are likely to be devouring in huge quantities next summer. As with politics, the rewards for getting it right are significant but this election has just given us a crystal clear example of why we shouldn’t put too much faith in our attempts to read the future.

Build it and they will come – words on the epitaph of many a failed business. It’s worth reminding ourselves that customers, in any business, have a habit of doing what they want. You may think you’ve just constructed a world-beating business model that’s bound to make you a millionaire but your future customers may have other ideas.

I’m not saying it’s a futile exercise to try and forecast the way in which your business will perform in the future – far from it. My point would be simply this – remember it is only a forecast and there is no substitute for getting close to the market. In other words, don’t rely on “polls” too heavily – have the equivalent of an election and find out what your customers actually want for real. Talk to them directly and ask them to “vote”. Find out for yourself what is really going on and don’t allow any kind of filter to come between you and your target audience.

Having said all that, there’s another angle in this that might be worth noting. Your soundings may be wrong and your consumers may reward you with unexpected business which you had given up on. Just as they may turn away unexpectedly there is also a very real possibility that your business proposition may be more interesting than even you imagined. So don’t give up on serendipity – we all need a bit of luck some time!

The ups and downs of a campaign

As I write this, the political campaigning of recent weeks is drawing to a close and the UK is about to vote for the next Prime Minister. The TV debates are over for now and the battle buses are presumably parked up somewhere as the support teams take a well-earned rest.

The campaigns have been tiring enough for the public who have been the recipients of so much messaging and so much targeted hype. But, what of the protagonists – what have they learnt from the process before some of them rush onto the next stage? Does a political campaign have useful parallels with a marketing campaign and can we learn anything from studying the way our politicians behaved during the campaign?

In a nutshell, I would say a resounding yes to all of the above. Which of is going to forget the bacon sandwich incident, the Green Party brain-freeze or expressions like “pumped-up” and “hell yeah”? OK, in business we don’t have the luxury often of appearing on national TV to get our message across and most of don’t command a budget the size of a political party. But we are often waging a campaign to raise awareness of who we are and what we stand for. Every time we open our mouths before a client or engage in a dialogue with the object of persuading a client to opt for us, we are on exactly the same path.

So, in my humble opinion, we would do well to heed the lessons of the past few weeks. Perhaps, like me, you cringed every time you heard the expression “pumped-up” or winced when a politician struck a note which was not authentically their own. Maybe you hid behind the sofa when you saw a “life-time supporter” of a well-known football team simply forget what they were called.

Yes, it’s good to identify with your target audience and talk about subjects likely to be of interest and relevance but remember to be honest if you want to be credible.  As we’ve seen time and time again just recently, if you are faking it, there’s a good chance you will be caught out. As I suspect some of our politicians are about to find out, it may well be simply impossible to come back from such a position of having been exposed!

But just in case you think this is just an exercise in politician bashing, I would pay them all a massive compliment for harnessing meticulous planning and prodigious quantities of energy. Surely these are two absolute prerequisites for any business campaign. Having sown the seeds, it is absolutely vital that you have the resources and energy to harvest your results. If you go after a target market you will like as not provoke a reaction – be ready to deal with the tiger you will be holding by the tail!

Be ready for the long run. Whether you’re a politician or a business person, I think you’ll you’re your personal equivalent to marathon training to be very useful.

A different angle on the Election

I am not a fan of the TV political debates as a rule, but I saw and heard enough of recent broadcasts to enable me to update some thoughts on the topic of presenting in business.

Like probably most other people, I was most impressed with the performances of Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood. I think there are various reasons for this which are worth considering from a business perspective.

Like any business person making a pitch to secure a future contract, these ladies presented themselves, their beliefs and their ideas for us to consider, dissect and either accept or reject all that they stood for.

So why it was these two in particular drew such a broad level of support and favourable comment for their performances?

Superficially, you could say it was all to do with appearance. A sharp, business-like suit with appealing colours and coordinated styles produced a strong effect that suggested a well organised individual with the ability to reflect, not ignore the audience’s own tastes and preferences. A small point you may think but for me the person who chimes with his or her audience even before saying a word is simply doing a very good job. It shows that you care enough to bother to dress appropriately, not arrogantly or in a way designed to reflect your perceived superiority.

Secondly, and for me way more importantly, was the way in which they portrayed inner confidence. When a person at the top of their game engages with relish and enthusiasm as they did, then the proposition they offer simply becomes irresistible. In other words, it becomes very difficult for the audience not to admire the performance, watch every detail with close attention and ultimately buy in to the arguments put forward.

In a nutshell, the head and the heart are aligned into a near perfect performance and it is nothing short of a pleasure to watch as the presenter produces a polished and professional display which is extremely compelling to an audience.

I offer these comments of course without any political bias or favour. Each of us will decide on Election Day if these two ladies can be victorious. In the meantime, I think we should be grateful to them for demonstrating so vividly what can be achieved with a carefully crafted presentation delivered with passion and commitment.

Look after what is within and very often that is the secret ingredient which gets you over the line. In a world where we are bombarded with messages and people vying for attention, don’t ignore the difference your inner confidence can make. It’s unique after all so why squander it?