An outlet for musings, observations and futureneering from the company helping you to transition into the connection economy
The caption reads, “It’s about a building with 88 stories and a boy with just one”.
Samsung built one of the tallest buildings in the world in Malaysia … but their marketing is also about communicating a story – that they connect with life. This is how companies are going to have to market to keep alive … they need to create stories.
In our Bright Young Things workshops we assist companies in identifying points of gravitation that draw talent into their hallways, offices and boardrooms. Typically, remuneration is listed as a primary gravitation point. However, we believe that this is no longer the top attracter of talent. Fortune (Europe Edition) January 2006, in profiling the 2006 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, argue that one of the resultant effects of globalisation is that companies have to push their “employee-pleasing ways further than ever” … beyond remuneration.
Regarding the 100 Best Companies:
* In 2001, 33 companies in the Fortune list paid 100% of employee’s health-care premiums. Today only 14 do so.
* Since 2005, 27 of the 100 companies have reduced what they pay towards health-care.
* The number of employers offering defined-benefit pensions has dropped from 40 to 27 in three years.
Why does America’s best talent then choose these companies over higher paying offers? It’s partly because the companies are skilled at finding staff-freindly ideas that don’t cost much. Some examples:
Continue reading ‘100 Best Companies to Work for in America’
The other day I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine (he’s from Sweden and is living here in London) - being an open plan office everyone soon joined in. We were having a casual chat about holiday plans for the year … and I was enthusiastically suggesting that he go to South Africa for his next holiday - listing all the amazing and wonderful sights and experiences! His reply: “Well, sure … as long as I can take a gun.”
This sparked a heated and google-fuelled discussion amoungst the office as we looked up crime stats for SA. Sadly, everything they found on the web pointed to South Africa being one of the top 3 “most dangerous countries” in the world. The rape/hijack/murder stats were not encouraging. We were up there with Columbia.
I tried to explain that it’s really not as bad as they think. I was just home in September - and sure, we have crime (let’s not gloss over the facts) - but stats are easy to mis-interpret. I was quick to jump in with the info that Graeme had posted recently … and yet to no avail.
As a South African living abroad I am positive about SA - both present and future. However, it’s very difficult to promote a positive image of my home when there is still such negative information and attitudes floating about.
It makes me wonder about the power of the internet and the WWW - sure there is loads of information available - but how accurate is it? Are we being fooled into believing everything that Google delivers as “truth”?
The stats that everyone was reading re SA were 5 years old - but no one bothered to actually look at the source of the information. They just accepted it at face value. Have we stoped questioning and thinking for ourselves … and are we letting “Google” do it for us?
E-ZINE ARTICLE, FEBRUARY 2006
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Dr Billy Coop
Classic marketing courses still use the traditional marketing mix, or 4 Ps, as the basis for teaching. The critical question, however, is this: how relevant is the traditional marketing mix in a world that is in a state of dynamic and constant change? Furthermore, and more importantly, where does the brand (both the internal and external brand) fit into the marketing mix, and how does the classic marketing mix apply to the changing customer?
In his book Basic Marketing, A global-Managerial Approach, Professor Jerome McCarthy states that there are many possible ways to satisfy the needs of target customers and that there are numerous variables that impact on the ability of an organisation to satisfy these target customers needs. McCarthy says that it is useful to reduce all the variables in the marketing mix to four basic ones namely, product, price, place (distribution) and promotion. His classic diagram depicts the customer shown as surrounded by the four Ps, but not being part of the marketing mix, but rather the target of all marketing efforts.
Continue reading ‘The “Myth of the Mix”’
E-ZINE ARTICLE, FEBRUARY 2006
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by Pete Laburn
The recent death of renowned business leader Dr Anton Rupert has saddened South Africa and the business world. Here was a man of stature, real substance, who was undeniably successful by any measure. With estimated assets of USD 1.77b in 2004, Forbes business magazine ranked him in the top 500 wealthiest families in the world. But on being asked in an interview last year if he thought himself as a successful man, he answered that he would rather be remembered as a man of worth. “Successful people,� he said, “did well for themselves, whilst the people he admired did well for others�. One wonders how many other so-called business leaders live by similar values. No doubt a large number would claim this philosophy but how many would live it out each day. If you counted on your fingers the leaders you have been exposed to, or know, who actually live by this credo, would you get past one hand? I doubt it.
The root of the issue here is not that only a very few humans are genetically coded to exhibit these wonderful attributes but rather that people who really do value significance and worth higher than material success are not ‘corporate heroes’ – they don’t make it onto the corporate high fliers list – because its not what the corporate world really wants. Their obsession is with short term return to greedy shareholders, and that doesn’t permit the time, investment in people, the community and society at large, that encourages and fosters this kind of significant leadership, and men and women of worth that leave a sustainable legacy. Why are these individuals heading today’s businesses not putting significance before success? Sadly it seems that significance is about others, and success is about me. Significance is a ‘giving thing’’ whilst success is a ‘taking thing’. And any leadership guru will tell you that true leadership is 99.9% giving of yourself, your time and talents to the benefit of those who choose to follow you.
Continue reading ‘Desperately Needed - Leaders of Worth’
The March GenerationWatch is here - we incorrectly linked to this post from our March ezine.
E-ZINE ARTICLE, FEBRUARY 2006
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Dr Steve Griffiths offers a light-hearted review on the latest Generational research and comment to be posted on the Internet.
Blame the Boomers
“The baby boomers are the greatest parasite generation that ever lived on this planet,” says A. Magnus from the United States. [1] He carries on his attack, “They took the wealth of a nation and stuffed it down their over-medicated gullets while systematically stripping its infrastructure and collectivizing its society under big government. Name a single contribution they made to the posterity and achievements of this country besides outsourcing, taking the dollar off gold, enabling a Trotskyite takeover of the GOP and signing musical acts like Britney Spears.”
This month, in GenerationWatch, there is something of a backlash against Boomers. Perhaps it is the political climate in the UK and beyond - what kind of world do we live in where the leader of the Conservative Party is a Gen Xer? - but those of a younger generation seem to be rueing the fact that they have not learnt as much from Boomer ‘mistakes’ as they should have done. Abby Lovett, a 27-year-old Chicago ad agency rep, putting in 50-plus hours a week to build her career: “No one is happy. Everyone is overworked, overstressed. No one’s spending the kind of time that they want with their kids or their spouses or partners. And I think part of that can be attributed to the Boomers.” Steve Rubens echoes a growing distaste for the Boomer legacy. “There’s a disconnect between the younger generation and anyone over 45 or so. Something happened; I don’t know when. But they don’t really listen as much as they think they do. They just go with their agenda.” [2] Anthony DeCurtis, a 54-year old rock music journalist sums it up well when he says, “There’s a fear that there’s going to be nothing left - that they’re going to be picking up the pieces for this six-decade party we had, cleaning up the mess,” said DeCurtis, 54. “There’s some truth to that, I guess.” [3]
E-ZINE ARTICLE, FEBRUARY 2006
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by Keith Coats
When it comes to the Australian cricket team there are very few neutrals: You either love them or hate them. However, regardless of which side of the fence you happen to be, the one thing that you cannot deny is the fact that they are, without fear of contradiction, the number one side in the world in both forms of the game. The Australian brand of cricket is professional, ruthless and bold. They would rather lose trying to win than play for a draw. And win they do, with a consistency to be admired and one that is unmatched by their rivals. In developing their winning culture, they have transformed the way test cricket is played and have become the benchmark for the chasing pack.
But cricket, as with life, is seasonal. The Australians have not always enjoyed their current dominance, having wrestled the crown from the West Indies in the early 1990’s. Embedded in the rise and ascendancy of the Australians are some valuable lessons for leaders everywhere. These insights are succinctly encapsulated by the life and career of former captain Steve ‘Tugga’ Waugh, in his excellent autobiography, Out of my Comfort Zone (ISBN 0-670-04198-1).
By the time Waugh inherited the captaincy of the test side from Tubby Taylor in 1999, Australian cricket already enjoyed worldwide dominance. Getting to that point had entailed putting in place a very deliberate process. It was a process that required patience, commitment and consistent application, all of which were fuelled by the desire to be the best. Steve Waugh’s character and leadership epitomized these characteristics that marked the process and in so doing, provide lessons for leaders everywhere.
Waugh described the role of captain as one that required him to be an advisor, mentor, friend, psychologist, mediator, spokesperson, politician and selector. Today’s corporate leader can identify with the multi-facetted role and nature that is contemporary leadership. In the emerging Connection economy leaders are required to assume many roles and any reluctance or refusal to recognize this reality, results in a one dimensional leadership in which the leader’s impact and effectiveness are diluted. Dexterity, flexibility and an ability to recognise what role is required are skills that are integral to savvy leadership. The normal corporate environment is a cacophony of diversity that demands of leaders the ability to respond in a variety of ways. This requires leaders to exhibit a great degree of emotional intelligence, understanding and sensitivity. It could be an interesting exercise to make a list of the various roles you as a leader have been required to play over the past four months and then to examine your performance as you have done so. Valuable questions then include: Which roles require further development? Which are the roles that energize and which have been the ones that have drained energy? What roles are needed, but are missing?
Here then are lessons that savvy leaders can take from the Steve Waugh story:
Continue reading ‘Lessons in Leadership from Steve ‘Tugga’ Waugh: former Australian Cricket Captain’
E-ZINE ARTICLE, FEBRUARY 2006
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by Dr Graeme Codrington
At TomorrowToday, we are very interested in what companies need to do in order to attract and retain talented staff. We spend a lot of our time working with clients to help them devise plans and processes to ensure that they find and keep the best minds in their industries - thereby greatly enhancing the potential to be the best amongst their competitors.
When we talk about attracting and retaining talent, we often talk (to ourselves and our a clients) of corporate culture, of policies and procedures, of providing space for personal growth and for expressions of creativity, of leadership styles and team dynamics, and of the working environment. We assume, of course, that companies will offer the talented staff at least market-related remuneration packages. There are many clever things that can be done with remuneration, and where our clients need assistance, we refer them to the experts in the field (we have a number of strategic alliances with remuneration consultancies). However, we have not often touched on the issue of ownership, shareholding and high-level, long-term financial incentives.
Continue reading ‘Divide the Income, Not the Profits: A Financial Manifesto for the TomorrowGroup’
-12-09-2005%5Dsa.jpg "SAA")
In the SAA lounge await flight 572 to Jhb. A bit grumpy to boot as who wants to be in the lounge on a Sunday afternoon (missing the finish of the A1 GP round the streets of Durban) anyway!
My flight is due to depart at 17:40. 17:40 comes around and there has been no announcement. Knowing that flight SA 570 has just been called is not a good sign as by anyone’s logic this is an earlier flight and I would guess by some distance.
I go to the lounge desk and ask what is going on only to be told…
“Sorry Sir, your flight has not yet left Jhb”. Unbelievable! Here we are facing at least a 90 minute delay and SAA have not even had the courtesy to announce a delay. I ask why no announcement and am told that they (SAA lounge staff) haven’t received any official notice and that once the flight has taken off from Jhb they will be able to give an eta. Well of course…but how about simply informing us of the situation as it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do the maths as to the extent of the delay? Of course such logic and concern falls on deaf ears and the suggestion that they inform their clients is met with blank stares and no action. So here I sit…still in the lounge…still none the wiser…and longing for the government to stop covering for the shambles that is SAA so that they will be forced to get their act together!
The best of the past few weeks:
The Society for Human Resource Management yesterday released the results of a survey of HR issues - read the summary here (if you are an SHRM member, get the full report here). Its probably no surprise that talent management tops the list of HR priorities in most companies.
The report notes that talent management has evolved from “an administrative process into a continuous organizational practice” that includes succession planning, leadership development, and retention and career planning.
Three-fourths (76 percent) of 203 respondents in the poll said talent management is a top priority at their organization. Among those ranking it a top priority, 90 percent were at organizations with 500 or more employees; 69 percent were medium-sized employers (100 to 499 employees), and 75 percent were small (one to 99 employees).
Continue reading ‘Talent management becomes key component of HR’
The New Scientist of 12 Jan 2006 reports that The Global Crop Diversity Trust, together with the Norwegian government and a global consortium of nations is planning to create a “Doomsday vault to avert world famine”.
The Norwegian government will hollow out a cave on the ice-bound island of Spitsbergen (just over 1,000 from the North Pole) to house a vault that will contain every single type of seed currently known to humankind. The “seed bank” will be designed to withstand global catastrophes like nuclear war or natural disasters that would destroy the planet’s sources of food. It will be available to restart agriculture in the event of a major disaster.
Now, lets just hope that everyone with a key to this environmental Fort Knox isn’t wiped out in whatever disaster the designers are anticipating.
This was just too good to leave as e-mail mass-mailing humour…
Year 1981
1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes
4. Pope shot
Year 2005
1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes
4. Pope Died
Lesson Learned? - the next time Charles gets married, someone warn the Pope.
Johnnic Communications have launched a new ‘citizen media’ site called reporter.co.za.
The website is inviting people to become active participants in broadening the scope of news by reporting on issues that affect their lives. reporter.co.za will be completely free-flowing and the public will decide what news they want to report on, putting the editors firmly in the back seat.
They’re suggesting that,
A new era of innovation in South African media has dawned.
Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t? Certainly it’s clever, and they’re using the interest in blogging to create a space for people to write. I don’t know what I make of it yet. We’ve seen people write of what happens when corporates get their hands on blogging. Well this is one example. I’m going to visit here a while longer to try and work out how I feel, and what exactly they’re doing.
Be interested in your thoughts as I play….
Allan “White Lightning” Donald (AD) was the mainstay pace bowler of the South African cricket side for the better half of a decade . Donald also established himself as a prolific county player for Warwickshire and Worcestershire in England in recent years. In sporting terms he was prime talent (330 wickets in 72 Tests). News24.com report today that Donald is interested in fulfilling a role as England’s bowling coach. Just when I thought the world of sport could teach us a thing or two about managing talent, AD’s potential change in patriot nation poses some tough questions.
Firstly, it was reported on radio that AD was pursuing the position because such avenues were closed to him regarding the SA national team. Whether accurate or not, this spurns me. How can we let prime Talent like AD slip through our hands in such a fashion? We all know that our bowling attack is not the best in the world and we could definitely benefit from his insight and experience.
But then, would we? Do we not run the risk of making our best mechanic a workshop manager, so to speak? It is rare that mechanics make great managers. This also applies to talent in organisations: our Bright Young UPS delivery guys may not become great logistics managers, our Bright Young Accountants may not make great financial managers, etc, etc. But yet we feel agrieved when such great playing talent is not put into the ranks of “manager”?
News24.com:
“Donald is currently employed as a part-time consultant to South Africa’s Academy and the prospect of such a national hero joining England may prompt a more permanent job offer from the United Cricket Board of South Africa”.
If this indeed happens I’ll be upset. Why does it take an offer from a competitior to get due recognition from the company you’re currently choosing to work for? Granted, AD has always had one foot planted in the UK and one in SA.
“How do you deal with a generation that has had their parents take care of all their problems when they face disappointment in the workplace?”
This is a question most HR Managers are asking themselves in the US and soon in SA as
they increasingly have to deal with winging moms and dads. They can expect to receive calls concerning anything from a promotion that didn’t happen, or review that was ‘not a fair reflection of my son’s perfomance’. In the US where Baby Boomers are now having their 20 year olds in the world of work are treating their kids’ employers the same way they have dealt with their Kindergarten Teachers, Baseball Coaches and University Professors.
“Companies are just now waking up to the havoc that the newest generation of workers is causing in their offices.” FastCompany Article
Boomers have been known to be over protective over their children as they seek to give them the best that the world can offer. This new trend of treating employers as school teachers includes making nonstop calls until they are heard, sending nasty emails and threatning legal action. Now this behaviour is not one associated with a majority of Baby Boomers in South Africa but one cannot rule it out.
So before you carelessly fill that review, think of the candidates mom, then make your mark!
Google just launched the beta version of Google Video. It is in beta, and so we can expect something less than the real deal, but having looked at this beta site, one hopes it’s light years away from the real deal.
I only have iTunes to compare Google’s offering with, and disapointingly Google comes nowhere close. My disapointment mostly comes from my growing expectation of the Google machine. I’m starting to expect only fantastic things from them. Instead I am served up ‘Google’ with some video.
But it is still beta. And as this BusinessWeek review of the site suggests:
This one probably should have stayed in the lab a bit longer.
I’m just finishing a good read looking at retail and the power of the women consumer market.
“Power of the Purse� by Fara Warner (get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
The book looks at the power shifts in gender roles statically, and combines this with practical application taken from some of the biggest world brands, ie McDonalds and Nike. They work through the thought process and research that these companies used to get the competitive edge. Although the stats are all USA based. I think in South Africa we are moving into a similar situation at an alarming rate.
In dealing with generational and gender issues, this is a must read for anyone in retail, marketing or even product development, for insight into connecting or tapping into this growing market.
From: http://www.stepstone.com/solutions/talentmanagement.htm
Enterprise Talent Management
Historically, even the largest organizations have been forced to adopt a largely tactical approach to recruiting.
Companies with strong brand recognition operating in well-defined markets could use targeted media campaigns to build awareness amongst potential recruits. However, these were both expensive and lacked long-term impact. Hence most recruitment assignments were and still are driven tactically, starting afresh each time in attracting appropriate candidates.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have led the way in allowing organizations to build a long-term relationship with their actual and target customers. CRM systems show their full potential when used in conjunction with Internet technologies allowing cheap, efficient, interactive and engaging communications with their targets.
These same principles are now being applied to building relationships with Talent, a company’s potential employees. Targeted Candidate Marketing campaigns are used to attract candidates to a company’s talent pool and to educate and inform potential recruits. The talent pool then provides the ripe community of candidates from which to draw as specific recruitment needs arise. Automatic searching and matching technology can be used to create short-lists of candidates against a job profile, and these can feed directly into the recruiting process.
Continue reading ‘Talent Communities - the latest recruitment concept’
Booz Allen Hamilton’s latest Strategy+Business report is on doing business in China. (Read it here).
In brief, they lay out “China’s Five Surprises: A Guide to Doing Business in the World’s Fastest-Growing Economy” (by Edward Tse):
Foreign companies conducting business in China as the country briskly transforms itself into a market economy will succeed only if they can get inside the minds of their Chinese competitors (or partners). Five facets of business in China may surprise most outsiders:
Some info from Dr. Timothy J Sharp (a.k.a. Dr. Happy), http://www.drhappy.com.au, who looks at research into happiness in the workplace.
TIM’S QUICK SUMMARY
In brief, high performing groups within the most successful organisations (1) feel valued, (2) are supported and allowed to think critically and (3) are provided with the resources and given the opportunity to seize opportunities. High performing groups also engage in more “human dialogue” (which simply means they collaborate more and communicate more effectively) and are headed by leaders who know their strengths and utilise the strengths of others.
Combining the experience and expertise available at Sharp & Co. and The Happiness Institute, we specialise in applying the powerful principles of Positive Psychology as well as Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. This includes the key principles described in this fascinating research such as helping individuals identify and utilise core strengths, communicate more effectively and appropriately, and think more optimistically. As a result, we’ve succeeded in helping organisations develop key individuals and build happy and high performing teams.
For the full report, see below:
Dan Pink, in his book, A Whole New Mind (get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net), captures nicely what relevance Story (which I prefer to call Narrative) has in our economy. In my own words:
The information age was all about managing facts. The connection economy (or as he calls it, the conceptual economy) will be about remembering stories.
Narrative is both high concept and high touch. It is high concept in that it stretches our minds beyond linear, binary modes of dealing with information - concepts and values come alive in the context of a Narrative. Through this process Narrative becomes high touch - there is an emotional connection with Story that transcends the connection with plain information.
Image courtesy of www.lowveldnet.co.za
The Economist (14 Jan 2006) carries a report on investment in South Africa. They suggest: “Spend more but wisely” (read the full story here - login required).
Simply put, the article points out that South Africa’s economy is in good shape:
With all this good news, why are many SA firms “so grumpy”, and why is investment only at 16% of GDP (the lowest in the list of comparable developing countries)?
Continue reading ‘South Africa’s prospects’
Although the era of ‘bigger is better’, is not coming to an end any time soon, there is a real challenge for the big corporations as oppossed to the little guys out there.
Today’s customers are becoming more an more demanding, in the world where more and more seems to revolve around the individual. When customers come to your establishment to buy something or for a service, they understand that the business is there to meet ‘their’ wants and needs. Entrepreneurial companies and startups understand this and they bend over backwards to make the customer feel welcome and pampered. Often than not bigger and better companies loose their customers due to the lack of connection with the customer.
Continue reading ‘The challenge for the big guys in the connection Economy’
On 31 January, in just two weeks’ time, the world’s most influential economic police maker retires. Alan Greenspan has headed up the Fed (USA’s central bank) for the past 18 and a half years. And now he retires, to much adulation and acclaim. America’s economy has flown in the past decades. And Greenspan has seen his country through a tumultuous period of change, including the opening up of trade and capital flows with China, India, the former Soviet Union, and many emerging markets, as well as the impact of globalisation and information technology in transforming the world economy.
Like all central bankers, as he does not have that much influence — he can only change short-term interest rates; he has no control over bond yields, taxation or government spending and regulations. His every move has been watched as the biggest stockmarket bubble in history burst in 2000-1, as terrorists attacked mainland America and as oil prices have tripled. But is his legacy going to be a good one? I would like to suggest that it might be a case of short-term fixes having long-term disastrous effects. Maybe it’s even a case of Après moi, le deluge (”after me, the deluge” - see the article for more info on this famous quote).
Continue reading ‘Goodbye Alan Greenspan’
