Poop! Poop!
All executive group workshops are looking at how to take cost out of the business, whether these are fixed or variable.
Sharon and I were co - facilitating one of our groups on this subject last week and at supper time when we all break for half an hour, the topic of birthdays arose. I took the opportunity to share the fact that I had a booked time away at Broadway.
After all, we are 50 and 60 years old respectively this month so I thought I’d do the decent thing and celebrate for 24 hours in rural Worcestershire. The quaint old English Crown and Trumpet pub were doing a special offer on midweek accommodation; with the meal all in I figured that £200 plus VAT should cover it.
But one of the delegates, Heidi, Managing Director of Wye Valley Media had heard the word Broadway from her position at the back of the room. “Broadway” she squealed loudly. “Wow!” She went on, “you’ll be able to do a show!”
For a split second my brain said that there weren’t likely to be any shows in Broadway on a wet Monday in March. But another member of the group shouted “You MUST go to Greenwich Village” and then another voice chimed in about “boat trips round the Statue of Liberty”
I held up my hands in protest. There had been a misunderstanding. I glanced furtively across at Sharon, but it was too late. She was standing there, eyes wide, looking for all the world like Toad of Toad Hall after he had seen his first motor car.
Cutting costs? We fly out on 18th March.
Poop, poop.Labels: Taking unnecessary cost out of business
The takeaway
You never know when the stuff you use in your day job may be useful elsewhere.
I was in town collecting a meal on Saturday evening but they were running late.
There were two disruptive couples aged about thirty already waiting on the sofas. They were shouting, singing and one woman was climbing on top of, presumably her partner. The second female said she wanted me to sit next to her and she pulled me down to announce that they were all from Leicester. I said what a nice place it is and that I was working there next week. Her male partner asked what I did.
I replied that I speak on helping businesses so he advised that if I got a proper trade I wouldn’t have to travel round “spouting bullshit”. He started wagging his finger at me and invited me to say just one thing that would help his business.
So I asked his name and what he did. “Painter and decorator.” His wife added that everyone is always very complimentary about his work. I congratulated Nick on this and by now the other couple had calmed down and were listening to the conversation. I asked if he had a card and the second lady said he wouldn’t do anything like that. I asked about a website and the men laughed but one of the females said she had tried to do one for him.
I gave Nick my business card and said that he needed to be able to do the same in this world. They all went quiet and one woman asked “How do you get someone to have the confidence to believe in themselves?”
I said that this was a great question. But just then Sharif arrived with my food.
So I turned to Nick and reminded him that he had asked for one piece of advice. “I want you to listen to what your customers are saying to you, but above all I want you to listen to people that love you and start to take some of their advice.“
I wished them luck and started home. After a few yards someone came running up behind me. It was Nick who put his arms round my shoulders, hugged me to him and said “Thank you.”Labels: you never know when you will be called to use your talent
Love at first sight
Contemporary marketing techniques can sometimes make an impact beyond our expectations.
All businesses need to be marketing all of the time, even when they are being successful. This is because both time and circumstance can change any business model in a split second.
Imagine an arrow that represents your contemporary marketing strategy. Well two of the most powerful ways of honing the tip, the bit that penetrates, are speaking and blogging. If you are authentic and relevant when people hear you or read you, the result can be an instant booking or engagement request.
Then, and this may seem strange, these things come in all shapes and sizes, you have to decide whether you want the work or not.Labels: awareness of the impact you can have and what to do about it
The couple
For SME’s including family businesses, the most powerful and groundbreaking work to generate business success often requires not just the MD, but his or her partner as well.
In one third generation business recently it was clear from the outset that the female MD was very wary of involving her husband. Yet it is at the very first meeting, when you use someone from outside, it is at the very first meeting that the ground rules for openness, honesty and transparency are discussed. After all, her partner was, and is a key player in the management team.
When you clarify the direction of any organisation, the starting point, it is always necessary to involve all the senior players. These are the people that have any form of executive responsibility, whatever label you choose to give them.
If clarity of direction is the place to start, the next stepping stone is to develop trust between colleagues. And yes, those colleagues may well be husband and wife. Indeed a key part of developing high levels of trust between colleagues is the externally facilitated 360 degree appraisal of each member of the senior team, starting with the MD.
In this business that would have meant husband being part of the group that appraised his wife.
This was a very short consultancy assignment. In fact I haven’t seen or heard from anyone in the company since that first exploratory meeting.Labels: Issues when people live and work together
