I understand the need for us all to be properly informed and it’s a purpose which the media serves particularly well. However, we also need to be aware that the media is required to generate sales and it is rare that good news will achieve that.
Mark Miller from Miller Communications Group often relates the story of a young boy starting in the newspaper business running excitedly into his Editor’s office to say that he has a great story about a dog biting a man. The Editor turned to the Cadet and said something along the lines of: “That’s not news son…when a man bites a dog, that’s news!” And so, everyday ordinary news items are not really what the media aims to report on.
And we all need to keep this in mind when we constantly read, watch or hear about the doom and gloom surrounding the current economic crisis. I recently had a conversation with Allan Pease who is appearing as a keynote speaker in our recession busting seminar in August and Allan told me that he simply refuses to participate in this recession but if he was given more notice next time he would think about participating in it then. This is a great attitude to adopt.
Obviously, everybody is feeling the instability of the current economic climate in business. We all understand that we are not in boom times however I can say that every single one of my clients is either maintaining their market share or in some cases increasing it. This occurs by simply refusing to listen to the doom and gloom merchants and also by making sure that strategies are in place to deliver on exactly what your customers are looking for from your business.
Remember it is the basic things that are going to make a difference. By delivering phenomenal service, maintaining high standards on products or services and continuing to ensure that team members have a positive service outlook, we can rest assured at the very least of maintaining our current market position.
It is important to make sure that we address issues such as cash flow and to cut unnecessary expenses where possible but it is equally important to make sure that cutting expenses is not the sole focus of our business management strategy. Although there is a lot of uncertainty about the recession and our current economic climate, the one absolute certainty is that it will end and clear skies will return. Let’s make sure that when that happens we are all here to enjoy it.
Kind regards, Mark.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Don't Believe the Hype!
At the moment the newspapers seem to be full of gloom and doom articles about the coming recession and even most of the business blogs are talking about recessionary times ahead. The interesting thing about these times is that tightening business markets present the most wonderful opportunities. Whilst your competitors are focussing on maintaining a "batten down the hatches" mentality you may find that they are cutting back on the very things which have given them the competitive edge over time.
There is no doubt that these times call for a close observance of cash flow and expenditure but there is similarly no doubt that focussing on those issues alone can see you running the very real risk of being left behind. In these times businesses which focus purely on financial issues will often forget to deliver the superior quality products and or services which have put them in good stead in the past. Clever use of the resources which you have available to you however, may very well put you in the position of being able to take advantage of the inaction on the part of your competitors. So whilst I would encourage you to keep an eye on the bottom line, I would also encourage you to spend time, effort and resources making sure that you continue to deliver your usual or even higher quality of product and or service and that you spend time, effort and or resources focussing on delivering phenomenal customer service.
As tightening markets start to even out the playing field with respect to price and range, businesses which are able to deliver superior customer service will stand out from the crowd and continue to thrive and prosper. History has repeatedly shown businesses that focus on customer service and on spending time on developing their business in tightening markets often secure a larger market share than they had previously when times were good.
Some businesses won’t survive these times but then again some businesses don’t even survive in good market conditions. There is no doubt that the tightening market will sort the performers from the pretenders. Now is the time to make sure that you and your team can perform and deliver exactly what the client is looking for. Remember if you can survive this market then you will be in the box seat to take advantage of the conditions when they improve.
Businesses which have focussed on cutting expenses, cutting service, cutting product and generally diminishing what they can make available to their clients will have to play catch up from a market share perspective once the business economy improves. If you don’t want to be playing catch up then you need to make sure that you stay in the race now.
Regards, Mark
There is no doubt that these times call for a close observance of cash flow and expenditure but there is similarly no doubt that focussing on those issues alone can see you running the very real risk of being left behind. In these times businesses which focus purely on financial issues will often forget to deliver the superior quality products and or services which have put them in good stead in the past. Clever use of the resources which you have available to you however, may very well put you in the position of being able to take advantage of the inaction on the part of your competitors. So whilst I would encourage you to keep an eye on the bottom line, I would also encourage you to spend time, effort and resources making sure that you continue to deliver your usual or even higher quality of product and or service and that you spend time, effort and or resources focussing on delivering phenomenal customer service.
As tightening markets start to even out the playing field with respect to price and range, businesses which are able to deliver superior customer service will stand out from the crowd and continue to thrive and prosper. History has repeatedly shown businesses that focus on customer service and on spending time on developing their business in tightening markets often secure a larger market share than they had previously when times were good.
Some businesses won’t survive these times but then again some businesses don’t even survive in good market conditions. There is no doubt that the tightening market will sort the performers from the pretenders. Now is the time to make sure that you and your team can perform and deliver exactly what the client is looking for. Remember if you can survive this market then you will be in the box seat to take advantage of the conditions when they improve.
Businesses which have focussed on cutting expenses, cutting service, cutting product and generally diminishing what they can make available to their clients will have to play catch up from a market share perspective once the business economy improves. If you don’t want to be playing catch up then you need to make sure that you stay in the race now.
Regards, Mark
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Neuro Linguistic Programming
Neuro-linguistic programming refers to the ecology question. Essentially, that ecology question says “When you are determining which action you should take then there are three ecological questions that you need to ask. They are:
1. Is it good and safe for me?
2. Is it good and safe for others?
3. Is it good and safe for the universe?
This concept can be equally applied to business and, in particular, the way in which we manage teams. In determining the actions that we will take for the direction of the business and the processes that we will adopt in relation to the management of the team, the expectation of the team, the review and performance appraisal of the team, and the direction of the business at large then a similar approach ought to be considered.
In some circles this approach is known as TBL or Triple Bottom Lines. Simply, it is the three P’s they are:
1. Profit
2. People
3. Planet
In essence adopting a direction which keeps in mind those three P’s as the basic and underlying criteria for determining a course of action is a certain why of ensuring not only recognition as an individual leader but recognition for the business as a leader in its field or within the business community generally. So, the simple question can be asked at the fork in the road, the turning point or the critical decision making time and that is:
Is it good for profit?
Is it good for the people?
Is it good for the planet?
If the answer to this triple P question is “Yes” then the direction is an appropriate one to take.
1. Is it good and safe for me?
2. Is it good and safe for others?
3. Is it good and safe for the universe?
This concept can be equally applied to business and, in particular, the way in which we manage teams. In determining the actions that we will take for the direction of the business and the processes that we will adopt in relation to the management of the team, the expectation of the team, the review and performance appraisal of the team, and the direction of the business at large then a similar approach ought to be considered.
In some circles this approach is known as TBL or Triple Bottom Lines. Simply, it is the three P’s they are:
1. Profit
2. People
3. Planet
In essence adopting a direction which keeps in mind those three P’s as the basic and underlying criteria for determining a course of action is a certain why of ensuring not only recognition as an individual leader but recognition for the business as a leader in its field or within the business community generally. So, the simple question can be asked at the fork in the road, the turning point or the critical decision making time and that is:
Is it good for profit?
Is it good for the people?
Is it good for the planet?
If the answer to this triple P question is “Yes” then the direction is an appropriate one to take.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
File Away
Everything that happens in our life, every moment and every person we encounter has an effect on our life. These events and people shape our experiences and those experiences in turn shape who we are. The end result of course is that we bring who we are to what we do and that is as true for those in their own business as it is for anyone else.
Who we are then, affects how we relate. It shapes our perspective on the world, our view. It supports our opinions, our ethos and our strategies. In business, it affects our relationship with clients, team members, suppliers and even fellow business operators.
The truth is not how our experiences and life contents have shaped us as much as it is about how we use that shaping. So it is about looking forward, taking the experiences we have had, the people we have met and the lessons we have learned and actually using all of those to shape our future from this day forward.
Rather than living as a passive player in the game of life, we can take the experience we have (both good and bad) and shape it to make the person we want to be, the business we want to have and the future we desire. This is a process of taking each experience, wringing it out and taking each drop of lesson from it and then using that lesson how we want. In that way we choose to learn from each experience, to grow and develop and that ability will have a profound effect on those who you deal with. In a way there is no longer good and bad experiences, they just all become experiences.
I had a friend tell me how much she hated a certain person’s name because the name reminded her of someone who had betrayed her years before. The lesson my friend took from that experience was to associate the name with the betrayal and to hate the name for evermore.
This was a bad experience which had shaped her future. Perhaps the lesson to have learnt from the experience was to have been careful with trust rather than to dislike a name. This is a classic example of learning to take the very best lesson from an experience and to not allow the experience to shape us in an unhelpful way.
What we can do is to learn to place those experiences in the filing cabinets of our mind and to reach in and use the particular lessons to help us to deal with future hurdles.
Happy filing, Mark
Who we are then, affects how we relate. It shapes our perspective on the world, our view. It supports our opinions, our ethos and our strategies. In business, it affects our relationship with clients, team members, suppliers and even fellow business operators.
The truth is not how our experiences and life contents have shaped us as much as it is about how we use that shaping. So it is about looking forward, taking the experiences we have had, the people we have met and the lessons we have learned and actually using all of those to shape our future from this day forward.
Rather than living as a passive player in the game of life, we can take the experience we have (both good and bad) and shape it to make the person we want to be, the business we want to have and the future we desire. This is a process of taking each experience, wringing it out and taking each drop of lesson from it and then using that lesson how we want. In that way we choose to learn from each experience, to grow and develop and that ability will have a profound effect on those who you deal with. In a way there is no longer good and bad experiences, they just all become experiences.
I had a friend tell me how much she hated a certain person’s name because the name reminded her of someone who had betrayed her years before. The lesson my friend took from that experience was to associate the name with the betrayal and to hate the name for evermore.
This was a bad experience which had shaped her future. Perhaps the lesson to have learnt from the experience was to have been careful with trust rather than to dislike a name. This is a classic example of learning to take the very best lesson from an experience and to not allow the experience to shape us in an unhelpful way.
What we can do is to learn to place those experiences in the filing cabinets of our mind and to reach in and use the particular lessons to help us to deal with future hurdles.
Happy filing, Mark
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Creating Change
One of the first steps necessary to bring about change is to acknowledge where you are in the present moment, and what you have in the here and now. This may mean having to take stock of the things that tend to ‘anchor’ us in our current habits. These anchors may be positive or negative and they may occur in both our private and our professional lives but they are the things in our life that ‘keep us doing what we keep on doing’.
In order to bring about change we may need to take the following steps:
1 Become aware of the ‘anchors’ that support our current habits;
2 Create the new habit which we want to learn;
3 Make new anchors to support the new habit.
Remember, habits are something which we have created! As such they are something which we have the power to dismantle. It is a matter of remembering that we are stronger and more powerful than the habit itself. Once we acknowledge that and accept that as true then we can create the change we seek.
Sometimes the hardest part is to work out what it is that anchors us to our habits. Anchors may be visual, auditory, kinaesthetic or even olfactory (it's why the smell of fresh coffee makes you want to buy a cup). Once we take the time to figure out the anchor, we can take the time to create a new one, change old habits and bring about real and lasting change in our lives.
Martin Dominick from K9 Centre.com assures me that an old dog CAN be taught new tricks and I have to agree!
Cheers,
Mark
In order to bring about change we may need to take the following steps:
1 Become aware of the ‘anchors’ that support our current habits;
2 Create the new habit which we want to learn;
3 Make new anchors to support the new habit.
Remember, habits are something which we have created! As such they are something which we have the power to dismantle. It is a matter of remembering that we are stronger and more powerful than the habit itself. Once we acknowledge that and accept that as true then we can create the change we seek.
Sometimes the hardest part is to work out what it is that anchors us to our habits. Anchors may be visual, auditory, kinaesthetic or even olfactory (it's why the smell of fresh coffee makes you want to buy a cup). Once we take the time to figure out the anchor, we can take the time to create a new one, change old habits and bring about real and lasting change in our lives.
Martin Dominick from K9 Centre.com assures me that an old dog CAN be taught new tricks and I have to agree!
Cheers,
Mark
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