BEING DIFFERENT CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

I’m sorry it has been such a long time since my last post.  I’m back in the saddle again now.

In my strategy classes I often use the example of a “Noodle Joint” as a means of trying to get students to think about how, if they were in the noodle restaurant business, they would go about beating the competition.  (This exercise works really well in places like Hong Kong and Singapore - but it translates well here in Australia too).

I ask them to imagine that they are running a Noodle Joint and that competition in the area is fierce.  How would they compete?  What strategies would they use?

Usually I get a swag of responses that include:

 

1. More advertising
2. Cheaper Prices
3. Better decor (more attractive)
4. Faster service
5. Happier staff (friendlier service)
6. Special promotions (get in a movie star to promote!)
7. Different flavours 
8. Begin another business - get into DVD sales!
9. etc.

It can be a lot of fun when the students get involved and there have been some really kooky solutions to the problem - but then I make it a bit harder.  I tell them that their business is just surviving.  That the market is saturated, and all the neighbouring Noodle Joints have slashed their prices almost to the point of being at cost, and that throwing money at the problem (e.g. redecoration and increased advertising) is not an option.  To make matters worse, there is little to differentiate between dishes on the menu of the various restaurants and any new innovation in terms of dishes is quickly copied and adopted by the competition.

What now?  What strategies will you use to compete now?  How will you maintain sustainable competitive advantage?

It’s usually at this point that the class goes relatively quiet.  Even when I get them to break into groups and try and solve this problem, students seem to have a problem coming up with a workable solution.

Well, here’s a solution: Take what you normally do and get very good at it.  Make a big fuss about it.  Involve your customers in it.  Get emotional buy-in.

In my last trip to Singapore, I was lucky enough to be taken to a Noodle Joint in Smith Street (also known as “Food Street”).  My colleague took us from our hotel, down into the train system where we changed two lines, and up into “Food Street”.  We were then hustled along past rows and rows of Noodle Joints and other food places - many of who had touts out the front trying to solicit our business - to number 19.

My first impression was that the restaurant was unremarkable to look at:  although it had many photos of customers on its walls.  It wasn’t until I looked closely that I saw that all the customers were dong the same thing:  they were standing in the kitchen with the same man and they had what looked like a large spool of rope between their outstretched hands.

We took a seat and waited for someone to come over and we duly ordered.  The menu wasn’t all that remarkable, and the prices weren’t all that special - I was seriously wondering why we had bothered to trek such a long way in the heat and humidity of equatorial Singapore in July.

Then came out the Master Chef.

I’ve never seen noodles made by hand before.  All I can say is that it is this magical process of taking the dough and by ‘throwing’ it around and stretching and kneading and playing it gets turned into long, silky noodles.  It was fascinating to watch.

And then came the good bit:  I was invited into the kitchen to have my photo taken with the Master Chef and my very own noodles. 

I’LL INSERT A COUPLE OF PHOTOS HERE ONCE I GET PERMISSION FROM EVERYONE THAT THEY ARE HAPPY TO HAVE THEIR IMAGES ON THE INTERNET

Not very long later we were eating the very noodles that we had seen being made in front of us.  We were involved; we were thrilled; we were keen to tell others about it so that they could also experience it!

After lunch we were talking to the Chef about how he did it and we asked him how business was going etc..  One of the most interesting things he said was that he would love to open another restaurant - even though he was doing very well with just one.

“Do you think you could compete in another market?”, we asked.

“I love the competition” he said.  ”Of course I could make it work”.

Now, here was a man that was competing in one of the most cut-throat industries that you can imagine and was-doing-very-nicely-thank-you-very-much.

It goes to show that all it takes is a bit of imagination, a flair for being able to exploit a capability and to involve customers in the experience to be different.

Has it made a difference?  Of course it has.  There were hundreds and hundreds of photos on the wall of happy, smiling customers, and of they are anything like my colleagues and I, each of them will have been just as thrilled as we were.  I personally know that I have recommended this particular Noodle joint to hundreds of students in Singapore, hundreds more in Hong Kong and Melbourne and when a friend told me that he was off to Singapore with his family for the Grand Prix, I said he just HAD to go there for lunch.

Now I am recommending it to you.  Even if you don’t et there - go and watch how it is done.  Think about what you do in your business that is ‘normal’ to you, but would be really cool to someone else.  See if you can find a way to exploit it.

Being different can make all the difference.

Jason.

ps.  I just want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Margaret Heffernan AOM who guided us to this fabulous restaurant and Dr. Alan Montague  for being such a fantastic lunch companion.

Posted in Business, Marketing, Strategy. Tags: differentiation, lunch, noodles, Singapore, Strategy. No Comments »

HOW TO THINK: AN APPROACH TO SOLVING DIFFICULT PROBLEMS

June 12, 2008 — jasondowns

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.  I have to: my PhD is in ’strategic thinking’.  So what is the best way to solve difficult problems?

Well, that depends on the nature of the issue, how much information you have, how familiar you are with the problem, how quickly the problem changes - a whole host of things…

But, let’s assume for the moment that you have a particularly tricky organisational problem that you want to solve.  Let’s also assume that you are not looking for a quick fix to some symptom, but that you want to solve the root cause of whatever issue it is that you have.

One approach is Concept Mapping.

Concept mapping is an approach that combines both cause and effect thinking and also allows for expansive ‘brainstorming’.  Think Mindmapping - but on steroids.

Concept mapping relies on the scientific method of thinking: reductionism and relativity.  Its real advantage is that you can start with a problem and begin to break it down into its component parts.  You can then look at the component parts and see how they relate to each other.

It might be easier with an example:

 

The above concept map was whipped up by my class to try and understand the relationship between an organisation’s environment (both internal and external) and what might cause an organisation to suffer from a lack of innovation over time.

The important thing to remember here is that they only had a very short period of time to draw this up - and even though it is incomplete and that it could do with some revision, the process encouraged a lot of discussion which was extremely valuable.  The map helped them to learn not only the “what” but also the “why” of the problem.  The result: the students were able to see how some of the dynamics were self-reinforcing and propose tentative solutions to problems that were yet to manifest.  They were engaging in strategic thinking.

When creating a concept map, often the hardest thing to do is NOT jump ahead to the solution, but to slowly, meticulously and patiently STEP your way through the problem.  By slowing down, and mapping the relationship between various factors you actually are forced to consider the assumptions that you make in your decision making process.  This can be really valuable.  By slowing down, you can actually consider all the issues, not just the main one.  You might find that by looking at the relationships between components that you can solve a much larger organisational issue with much less effort and far more elegantly.

The secret is to think:  ”If this, then that”.  

Example:  Let’s say you want to lose weight.  Even though you know what it is that you need to do, (exercise more/eat less) you still can’t get around to doing it.  Why?

This is where concept mapping can help.  The stating point is “Overweight”.  That is the ‘what’.  Overweight (leads to) less energy.  Now in a Concept map, you would draw this as follows:

This is a cause and effect relationship.  It shows the way in which you begin to construct a map.  You start off with a problem and you move forward to see what the effect is.  Your next branch would emerge from “Lack of Energy”.  It could looks something like:  ”Lack of Energy” (decreases) “Motivation”.  From “Motivation” you might have another branch that changes the problem.  E.g. “Motivation” (can be increased by) “Outside forces”.  ”Outside forces” (can consist of) “Motivational speakers”"Personal trainers”"Friends”"Inspiring videos” etc.  The important thing to remember here is that you can have multiple branches coming off of a single node.  See below:

This is by no means a finished map - you should be able to see how it can continue to be expanded as you look for issues that can lead back to helping you solve the original problem. 

Most people only think of problems linearly.  Of course problems are usually a lot more complex than that.  Often relationships exist that are hidden from plain sight even though they are in ‘plain sight’.  For example, one of the issues that our overweight friend might be facing but doesn’t ‘realise’ is the lack of safe lighting in their area - so they don’t exercise after dark.  Once something like this is mapped out, then they can start to think about ways to solve that issue (join a  gym, exercise at luchtime, join a group etc).

Concept mapping is a good way to sit down and begin to think through all the issues of a particular problem.  It forces you to consider all issues.

HINT:  I do all my concept mapping on paper.  I use a Moleskine diary and pencil.  Maps can become messy, and often when you begin considering relationships, you may begin to edit those relationships as you gain more insight.  Nothing beats pencil and eraser for this.  Computer programs are cool-and-all, but by taking your problem ‘analogue’ (I often go to a favourite cafe to do all of my SERIOUS thinking) means that you are not trapped in the same environment that causes most of your problems.  Get a fresh perspective.  Go ‘offline’ and take a pencil, paper and eraser with you.  Go somewhere different.  The beach.  The mountains. The park. You’ll be surprised at what a difference it makes.

Let me know if you found this post interesting and that you would like to hear more about different thinking approaches.  Also, if you are interested in the software that I used to create the maps in this post - let me know.  I can point you in the direction of the website where you can download it for free if you are and education provider/charity etc etc..

Jason.

 

Posted in Decision Making. Tags: Concept mapping, decisions, maps, mapping, problem solving. 2 Comments »

THE BASIC ‘BUILDING BLOCK OF VALUE’: EFFICIENCY.

April 24, 2008 — jasondowns

It’s been a bit over a week or so since I’ve written, so it’s definitely time to get back to it.  Sorry, if you have been wondering where I went.

A while ago, I wrote about the need to be focussed on what the customer wants - to be responsive to their needs.  Today, I want to talk about why it is also important to be efficient in everything that you do - and it’s not just about saving money!

The reason that you are in business,or you are thinking about gettting into business, is to create value for your customer.  

I know, I know…  the ‘real’ reason that you are in business is to ‘make-a-heap-of-cash-and-to-quit-working-for-the-man-and-live-a-life-of-luxury-on-the-French-Riviera’ right?

Wrong.

Unless you come up with the next big thing chances are it’s going to be a lot harder than you think to get to that life of luxury. The good news, though, is that there are few things that you can do in order to do well.

Being efficient in everything that you do can be a really good way to gain an advantage over your competitors - but it can be short lived if your competition notices what you are doing and tries to copy your methods.  That doesn’t mean that seeking to be efficient is a bad thing, or a waste of time:  it isn’t.

Consider this:  You are manufacturing widgets (or some other thing that your customers value) and you find a way to be more efficient in the process.  Let’s say that you find a way to re-organise your office so that information flows more evenly through the office and there is less chance of important messages being lost.  Because you are getting messages more quickly, you are able to deal with problems faster.  Recovery from mistakes is faster; and you can improve your communication with your important suppliers, customers and others.  Since you are now able to get in contact with your customers in a more timely manner, they like you more - and feel more comfortable with either keeping their business with you, or maybe even recommending you to their contacts, friends and family.

It can work for service organisations as well.  I recently instituted a policy where I only look at my email twice a day - at 11am and 4pm.  Since I get to work at 8am, I have three hours of uninterrupted time to get the most important things in my day out of the way - the things that I absolutely need to do in order to get me closer to my goals.  At 11am, I fire up my email client and I answer ALL of the emails that are there.   Normally I have about 25 or 30 emails waiting for me, and I can burn through them fairly quickly - typically in less than 1/2 an hour.  If there is one there that requires a lot more work, I shoot an email off to whoever wrote to me to tell them that I’m working on it offline and that I’ll get back to them later. I then schedule that task into my day and I close own my email client.  

I now have another 4 1/2 hours before I get interrupted again.  With such a big chunk of time, I can get a lot of work done.

The results have been astounding.  I am getting a lot more done in my day and I am focussing on each task individually which means that each task gets done to a higher quality.  My customers (the people who are paying the bills) like it more.  They enjoy the fact that things are getting done.  Progress.

It hasn’t been easy, but my colleagues (those that have noticed anyway) have come to learn that if they email me after 4pm that they won’t get an answer before 11am the next day.  My students, similarly so.  In fact, it has been such a success that I have set up an autoresponder to inform anyone who emails me on a Friday that I won’t get back to them until Monday at 11am.  I don’t even check my emails on Friday or over the weekend and since I don’t physically have to be present in my office to do my job, I often work from home on Fridays where I can get complete uninterrupted time to focus on my research.  I get so much more done this way.

The result?  Research gets done.  Work gets done.  Everyone knows that they will get an answer from me as soon as it turns 11am or 4pm and they are happy.

Competitive advantage through being efficient.

What efficiency measures do you put in place to ensure that you have a competitive edge?

Posted in Leverage, Relationships, Strategy. Tags: advantage, efficiency, email, lower costs, service. No Comments »

HOW TO SMASH THE COMPETITION: Step-By-Step

April 8, 2008 — jasondowns

I am constantly surprised by the fact that most people (and this includes businesses) don’t continually invest in those things that give them a sustainable competitive advantage.  What do I mean by sustainable competitive advantage?  I mean smashing the competition and while they are down, making sure that they don’t get up again without you having something to say about it.

At a personal level, this means being better, faster, more effective than your co-worker.  At a business level it means being the leader in your industry and always two or three steps ahead.

Today I want to talk about being better than your co-worker, and I don’t mean just a bit better, I mean significantly better and better in measurable ways.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Decide on what is important to be good at and focus on that.  Ditch all the rest.
2. Do a quick search on the net to find out how others who are experts at whatever it is that you want to be like got there, and what tools they used.
3. Buy and read the book/download the tool/ get the DVD/do the course/whatever-it-takes to understand how to do it.
4. Apply.
5. Keep Applying.
6. Apply again and again and again until it is a habit.
7. Keep applying some more.

Chances are, when you first start learning a new skill, or breaking an old habit that you will be VERY uncomfortable about it.  That’s to be expected.  Relax.  It will get easier - the secret is to stick at it.

Below is a scan from some notes that I took the other week when I was attending a colleague’s lecture.  The lecture went for an hour and was on the historical perspective of Scientific Management (not the most interesting of subjects to me, but I wanted to see how my colleagues were presenting in class in case I could learn anything about how to improve my own style).  I sat in the last row, furtherest from the lecturer and tried to keep a small profile.  

As the class filled up, I found myself surrounded by students, some of which had printed out the notes beforehand, and others who had not.  During the lecture I found it interesting to watch who was taking notes and what method they used….

What did I find?  Most just flipped along with the lecture slides on the PowerPoint Presentation and some jotted down a few points: most did nothing.

(click image to make larger etc)

I first learnt about mind-mapping about five years ago, and have been using the tool somewhat sporadically over that period.  Last year, though, I decided to get serious about it to see if it was really useful, or if I was wasting my time.

Here is what I found:

1. Mind-mapping increases my concentration on the topic at hand enormously
2. Mind-mapping increases my ability to recall information faster and more accurately than any other method that I know
3. Mind-maps are personal - it is very difficult for anyone else to read them and understand them - this means that you are an important part of the mind-map.  Without you, the data can’t be easily de-coded (this puts you at the centre of the information dissemination game; a valuable place to be).

The map above covers all the main points I would need to be able to know in order to feel confident in answering a question on that topic in, say, an assignment or exam.  It is contained in one page and not spread out over 60+ slides that were designed by someone else.  Most of all, though, it was created by me using both hemispheres of my brain and as such, the data is locked inside - not forgotten.

I pinned this map to my wall when I returned from the lecture, and didn’t look at it again until this morning.  Upon pulling it down and glancing at it again, all the information came flooding back and I feel super confident that I GET IT!  

What does this mean in terms of efficiency and effectiveness?  It means that I don’t have to spend hours slogging over old notes in a hope that I will remember them when it is important.  It means that all the time that I don’t spend trying to decode someone else’s work (the original  PPT slides) I can spend doing further research or study on another topic to vastly increase my knowledge in this or another related area.

What does this ultimately mean?  It means that because I learnt a skill that makes me far more effective and efficient at understanding new material that I can use these gains to skip even further ahead of the competition.  It means that the competition has to work more than twice as hard - just to keep up.  It means that I have a competitive advantage that is sustainable, and that eery day I practice developing this skill, is another nail in the coffin for the competition.

So, I have a question for you - what is a key skill, competency or capability that you, or your business needs to develop that will give you sustainable competitive advantage?

Find out what it is; learn it; apply it consistently, conscientiously and continually and watch yourself smash the competition.

 

Posted in Data Collection, Leverage, Presentation. Tags: effectiveness, efficiency, mind-maps, skills. 1 Comment »

THE CUSTOMER COMES FIRST - A LESSON FROM SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY KNOWS.

April 3, 2008 — jasondowns

One of the things I love about working at a university is that sometimes we are lucky enough to get world-class people come and give us their time, experience and wisdom.Today, we were fortunate to have Gurcharan Das speak to a small group of us and give us his thoughts on strategy and customer service.

 

Gurcharan Das is probably best known from his time as CEO of Proctor and Gamble in India and as VP and MD of Proctor and Gamble world-wide.

One of the most important things that I gained from his talk was to ask this question:  ”Who is paying my salary?“ 

This question was answered time and time again by stories that he shared that all had a common theme - the customer pays the salaries.  

Now, for those of you who have a strategy background, or who can remember your Strategy 101 class, you won’t be surprised by his claims that there are basically three ways in which you can gain competitive advantage in your market:

1. By having a superior price
2. By having a superior product
3. By having superior service

You can’t do all three well; but you can excel at one of them.  Gurcharan’s argument was that in a globalised and interconnected world where 70% of the economy is service based, that it doesn’t really make sense to concentrate on price or product.  Of course, you have to be good at all three, but it pays to be excellent at service.

 

The problem that we often face is that although you can learn the skills of customer service, it is much harder to learn the attitude.  It’s the attitude of customer service where the real value lies in an organisation.

 

Having a price that is cheaper than your competitor only works if your costs are lower.  This is a strategy that is hard to sustain and is counter-intuitive as cheaper prices (including those that are the result of price wars) come straight off the bottom line.  That’s expensive.

 

Having a product that is superior than your competitors is desirable, but ultimately copyable.  Ask those ‘elite’ companies that licensed their brands to be used in handbags and luggage and fragrances how their overall brand value has been destroyed by cheap copies from places like Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia.  You might have a technology that gives you an advantage today, but in 6 months time, your competitor probably will have it too.  When you are investing millions of dollars on R&D to invent a new technology, a 6 month advantage seems an expensive way to spend your money.

 

So, to gain an advantage, you need to develop a capability in something that is inexpensive yet difficult to copy.  Service to the rescue.

 

Gurcharan was  an engaging speaker, and we were lucky to have him talk to and with us for an hour and a half.  If you would like a copy of my notes on what we covered, send me an email, or drop a comment at the end of this post, and I’ll send you a PDF.

 

Jason. 

 

 

 

Posted in Business, Strategy. Tags: customer service, Gurcharan Das, price vs. product vs. service, Proctor and Gamble, Strategy. 1 Comment »

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THAT YOU STOOD UP AND ACTUALLY APPLAUDED A PRESNTATION?

April 1, 2008 — jasondowns

It is no secret that I love a good presentation.  Something with passion.  Something with zeal.  Something with a message.

Unfortunately, I hardly ever get to see one.

Well, today I viewed a presentation on www.ted.com that had me standing up and applauding at the end of it.

Because (for some reason I don’t understand) the embedding code for the video isn’t working, I’ve provided you with the link here.

Spend the 17 Minutes it takes to watch it.

You’ll be glad you did.   

(Haven’t got 17 minutes?  You can download it for free to your iTunes and from there to your iPod.  What did you think the long train ride to work is for?)

Posted in Presentation, Video. Tags: kindergarten, passion, Presentation, science, TED, the speed of sound. No Comments »

THE FUTURE OF THE MUSIC ‘INDUSTRY’

March 28, 2008 — jasondowns

I’ve posted before about where I think the music industry is going… and it appears that Apple are looking to further expand their efforts to set music free.  

 

There are rumors going around (published by none other than the Financial Times!) that Apple are close to signing a deal that will allow unlimited access ‘for free’ to the entire iTunes library.  Of course, this would mean that Apple would charge a premium for their device (iPod/iPhone) but essentially, you can have as much music as you want for the life of your device. 

 

Now, batteries in iPods do eventually give out, so it isn’t really for free; but it’s close enough.

 

This is just another  example of how the music industry is facing a game-changing development in their industry.  This (among other developments) means different things for different participants in the recorded music industry:

 

• If you were an artist, and all the effort that you go to in order to create music was essentially given away for free what would you do?
• If you are a music fan, and you could get all of your favourite artists tunes for free, what would you do?
• If you are a record company and you sink lots of dollars into an artist to establish and promote them, what would you do? 

 

As you can see,  the answers to these three questions are probably not going to line up in a nice, neat, business-as-we-know-it, manner.  In fact, the answers are probably not even going to be facing in the same direction.  So what is the answer?  

 

Put the music fan at the centre of the business model.

 

The artist makes the music that they want to.  Specific music.  Not music that is ‘influenced’ by ROI required by Music Industry BigWigs.

 

The music fan needs a way to interact with the artist directly.  Just counting the number of downloads doesn’t cut it.  If the music is ‘free’ - then I’m going to download as much of it as I can; that makes me anonymous and not a member of a community.  Just because I downloaded your song, doesn’t mean I like it.  

 

What about coming up with a way of broadcasting a ‘number of times listened to’ chart rather than a ‘most downloaded’ chart?  Go and have a look in your iTunes program:  There’s already a playlist called “Top 25 Most Played”.  

 

Well, free this information - make it available back to iTunes Store as a metric that everyone can see.  Make it available to the record companies.  Make it available to everyone!  The beauty of this is that once you have the information and you know a little about the people who are submitting the info, then you can create sub-charts.  Want to get specific about your music?  Look on the chart of most-played-by -category-of-my-choice to find out what the zeitgeist is in your specific area of musical interest.  Want to know what is the hottest tune in Japan listened to by males from Tokyo who are between the ages of 45 and 49?  There should be a chart for that.  With some basic user information (age, location, sex, whatever), some serious servers and database program (iTunes) and a creative mind - this shouldn’t be too hard.

 

Now, I know that people are still worried about sending their information over the Internet, privacy and all that.  I’m not advocating sending seriously specific information over the Internet, just stuff that will help you to get the best musical experience that you can.  Of course, you should be able to opt out of the whole thing, but if I know that I could absolutely get a top ten chart of the most popular songs in MY PERSONALLY DEFINED CATEGORY, then I’m not going to worry about clagging up my hard-drive with music that I am not interested in I’m only going to listen to stuff that I like.

 

Count me in! 

 

So how can the music industry help?  Well, stop being general for one.  Get specific.  Promote artists using targeted marketing, not broadcasting.  Every artist should have a web-site.  The record company’s job is to get people to sign up to that website.  Get the music fans’ permission to be  contacted about stuff like, oh I don’t know, maybe:

1. Concerts at $100 per ticket, not songs at $0.99
2. Memorabilia at $30 per t-shirt, not digital photos for $0.00
3. Subscriber services for ’special’ events, experiences, involvement opportunities for $premium$.

People pay for that feeling of connectedness.  The record companies should be providing that - not worrying about how the genie has been let out of the bottle with free digital downloads…

 

 

(The original image used in this post can be found here.  It is used under a creative commons licence - for free.  Thank you!)

Posted in Business, music industry. Tags: free downloads, iTunes, music industry, personalised music charts. 1 Comment »

YES, WE CAN. (Does your company have a vision statement? Does it need one? )

March 26, 2008 — jasondowns

I want to talk about the idea of getting your message across.  Of course, this links to the idea of vision for your business.

I know that this video is a little old now, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t provide some good lessons. Have a listen to this speech (it’s only 4 minutes long; time well spent) do you get the message?  If you were going to cast your vote (spend your money, buy this product) would you consider doing a little more research?  Might you at least spend some time finding out a little more detail?

Politics aside (I’m writing from Australia - so while interested in the result I can’t really participate (directly) in the process of determining the outcome) it strikes me that this particular candidates’ message (his vision) rings clear.  I’m all about change.

Now I want you to think about your business, or the businesses that you deal with.  What is their vision?  Do you care? Does your company have a vision statement?  Does it need one? 

(I’m using the word Vision throughout this blog, but often Mission is also substituted.  I could go into a long, boring post about how they are different, but it seems that most businesses don’t understand the subtleties so I’ll stick with convention and not differentiate - sigh.) 

Generally, the purpose of a vision statement is to provide direction; to give people who are interested (stakeholders) an idea of what it is that your firm stands for.  Typically, a vision statement is conceived by ‘people at the top’ - CEOs, Boards of Directors, Small Business Owners, Founders etc.  More typically, a Vision statement is created, photocopied, stuck on a wall somewhere (or on a website) and forgotten. 

What would happen if you put your vision statement out there for all to see?  What would happen if you put it front and centre?  Who would come and listen to you give a short 4 minute speech about what it is that your company does?

Now you might be thinking that it’s ok for a politician to use stirring and evocative language - they have speech writers for exactly that purpose.  But what about me?  How can I do it?  Well, the good news is that it is easy.  Just three simple steps:

1. Tap into your passion. 
2. Tell people what you stand for.
3. Live it.

Pare what it is that you do back to it’s essential meaning.  Cut away all the crap - but most importantly:  look forward.

People (customers) want to know that if they are going to enter into a relationship with you or your business, that you are going to do something meaningful in the future.  They want to know that if they align themselves with you that you (and by extension, they) are heading in the right direction.

The world is littered with bad vision statements; statements that are poorly worded,  or consist of weasel words, or don’t really say anything meaningful at all.

Here is an example of not how to do it:

---

Q: What is Apple’s mission statement? 

A: Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Source: http://www.apple.com/investor/ 

When you read this, do you instantly think of Apple as innovative, design focussed, fun, funky and cool?  I don’t.  Yet their message that comes through in their products, presentations and advertising screams COOL!

If you look closely at the words of Apple’s Mission Statement, it really is only a statement of the things that they have already done - it’s a history lesson, not a statement that points to the future.  Which do you think is more effective: their extremely badly written (and buried) Mission Statement or the words and actions that each at Apple live and breathe by?

If you are thinking of spending some time to write your Vision Statement, don’t.  It would be a much better use of your time to figure out what it is that you actually stand for and then live it with passion.

Disclaimer: I don’t actually own any Apple products - but I’ll be buying one of the new MacBookPro this afternoon. I’m a convert - but believe me, it wasn’t their Mission Statement that convinced me…

Posted in Business, Presentation, Strategy, Video. Tags: Business, passion, Presentation, vision statements. 3 Comments »

HOW TO MAINTAIN FOCUS FOR LONG PERIODS (and how Twitter can help)

March 19, 2008 — jasondowns

Do you wish that you could maintain focus on a task that you have to do for long periods?  

In this post, I share one of the techniques that I have learned in order to be able to be productive for longer.  The advantage of being more productive?  You finish earlier!

As part of my job, I am often faced with marking piles of assignments or examination papers.  These papers, by their very nature, are often very similar  to each other, and it is easy to ‘drift off’ while reading them.  This is frustrating as it means that I have to go back and re-read the paper in order to give an accurate grade and appropriate written feedback.

 The following tip is a proven strategy I use to keep my mind on what I am doing:

When you sit down to do a lot of repetitive work that requires concentration, have a blank pad of paper and a pen nearby.  When you find yourself drifting off and thinking about something else other than what you are reading, stop, jot down the thought, put the pen down and go back to your reading.  The secret is to know that you will review the list later (when you have more time) and anything that is still important on the list you can then put into action if you need to.  Becasue you have jotted down the thought (captured it) your mind can relax about it and it doesn’t continue to drift off as you develop the thought.  You can always come back to it later when you have more time (and mental space) to think about it.

When you first begin doing this, don’t fret if you find yourself stoppping frequently and jotting random thoughts down; just get back to what you are doing immediately.  Over time, you will find that the length of time that you can concentrate on the task at hand increases. 

I use a similar technique when I am out and about and don’t have a pen and paper handy - I use Twitter.  When I have a thought, and it threatens to distract me from what I am doing at the moment, I send a Tweet via my mobile phone or over a wireless network via laptop.  The thought gets captured and recorded, and I can get back to the task at hand knowing that I can review my Twitter account any time that I want.

Below is a recent list of my Tweets (a fair proportion of them are in relation to some research that I am doing - forgive the spelling, many of them were created on the run):

	jasondowns Simplicity is best. 03:58 PM March 17, 2008 from web
	jasondowns Is strategic thinking just a power issue? Getting the dominant frame accepted cements your power in the organisation.02:59 PM March 15, 2008 from web
	jasondowns .. a bit, it’s hopless, everyone has thought everything through, Oh well. 01:58 PM March 15, 2008 from web
	jasondowns Disbeleif, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. i don’t beleive the theroy, I’m angray and thik it’s wrong, mayeb I can change it .. 01:57 PM March 15, 2008 from web
	jasondowns I wonder if there are similar stages of the five stages of grief when you are lokoing at researching an area of theory. 01:56 PM March 15, 2008 from web
	jasondowns I think strategically, therefore, I am. (Find the source of the original quote) 11:50 AM March 14, 2008 from txt
	jasondowns You become a strategic thinker when someone tells you that you are, or you assume your own agency. 11:37 AM March 14, 2008 from txt
	jasondowns We have to think differently about power in 2.0 world. Meritocracy? Who gets heard gets power. 05:23 PM March 13, 2008from txt
	jasondowns Melbourne Rocks! What a great autom day. 10:04 AM March 13, 2008 from txt
	jasondowns Mobile tweet. 09:03 AM March 13, 2008 from txt
	jasondowns Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design by John Creswell. 01:26 PM January 22, 2008 from web
	jasondowns …and to envision potential futures significantly different from the present. 09:25 AM January 18, 2008 from web
	jasondowns ….to discover novel, imaginative strategies which can re-write the rules of the competitive game…. 09:24 AM January 18, 2008 from web
	jasondowns strategic thinking is a distinctive management activity whose purpose is: 09:23 AM January 18, 2008 from web
	jasondowns Ask Carlene: websites, blogs etc as academic sources in FRED? Valid? 10:03 AM January 17, 2008 from web
	jasondowns What about a taging system that is democratic and evolves as people review the data? Tags are voted for. Themes emerge. ThinkMap again? 12:09 PM January 16, 2008 from web
	jasondowns “Themes as Tags”? Coding can become more active. Using uber-themes just locks me into other people’s thinking.12:08 PM January 16, 2008 from web
	jasondowns The more I think about it, the more I think I am going to reject the idea of knowledge and thinking as being linear. 11:05 AM January 16, 2008 from web
	jasondowns Themes don’t emerge from the data - they reside in our head. It’s our interpretation of the data through our inner lense that shows themes. 11:33 AM January 14, 2008 from web
	jasondowns Wonders if ThinkMap might be a useful way to present my thesis. (FRED) 05:42 PM January 11, 2008 from web

 

 What tips do you have for maintaing your focus?  I’d love it if you shared them…

Jason. 

 (The image used in this post is from Flickr; it can be found here)

 

Posted in Business, Thinking Structures, twitter. Tags: Business, concentration, focus, tips, twitter. 2 Comments »

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND TWITTER

March 13, 2008 — jasondowns

The quotes used in this blogpost come from the following online resource: 
 Setting the world all a-Twitter - BizTech - Technology - theage.com.au ”

“THINK Twitter,” says Rob Levy. “Immediate, quick, interaction between hundreds of people: ‘Hey! what? Yes?’. One dot, two dots . . . a line. Twitter. Enough said.“

 

I’ve posted before about how in large firms one of the main problems is is that those who make strategic decisions are shielded from the good ideas by layers of management reports.  Well it seems that it is not only the management reports that are getting in the way - it’s the middle-ware and the structures of the organisations themselves that are problems.   

Web 2.0 is all about collaboration, but how do we take the hottest trend of the last couple of years and turn it into something useful for our (music) businesses?  Should we even care? 

The answer to the second question is:  ”Yes”. 

In the same way that people are using Twitter to keep in touch with friends, find out about the latest party information, or just disseminate useless trivia, the Music Industry could use the Twittersphere to keep people in touch with their favourite artists.

Imagine if during the day you got (ir)regular updates in real time from your favourite artist.

Imagine:  ”I’m very excited about the upcoming concert in NYC…“

Imagine:  ”I’ve just completed sound check - the acoustics are awesome!“

Imagine:  ”Hello friends - I’m going to do a ’secret’ gig @ <clubname> after the concert.“

The idea of a record company (or the artist themselves!) using the Twitterface to manage the community of loyal followers.  It would work:  As long as it wasn’t spam.

The Music Industry and record companies might get concerned that the are losing control of the music distribution and retailing game due to digital downloads and piracy. Well, there is one thing that you can’t copy: The Live Experience. People want to be part of a community - they want to be surrounded by others who love the same thing that they do.  The record companies should be giving it to them. 

“But the collision between Web 2.0 and the enterprise has re-invigorated middle-ware, Mr Levy says. As the power and potential of large-scale collaboration, sharing and social networking becomes clearer, “speaking the same language” is no longer just a way to get into the game, it is the game. ”

And that’s it.  What the record companies need to do is change the way that they see themselves.  They used to be boring (but all-controlling) middle-ware.  Now they need to reinvent themselves as helpers, not blockers, of the interface between the artist and the fans. Couple the idea of record companies becoming enablers - spreading the word about the artists that they represent - and the  new 360 contracts where the artist signs over nearly everything to the record company to manage and you have a bright, shiny new business model for the Music Industry. 

The best thing about this model?  It lets the musos get on and do what they do best: make beautiful music. 

Posted in Decision Making, Relationships, Strategy, music industry. Tags: 360 contracts, collaboration, music, music industry, Strategy, twitter. 4 Comments »

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