Surely, one of the hottest gadgets of the last decade? The
iPhone, re-defining the way we use a phone on the move, camera, MP3 player, wicked user interface and apps to die for. The O2 supply monopoly has at last been broken with Apple doing deals with both Orange and Vodafone to market the phone to their network customers. Initially, to get an
iPhone, you were charged just shy of £1,000 in monthly contract and handset costs by O2 (they sold around 1m units), that cost has to come down as Apple recognise to continue to expand their market, they need to open up competition.
There is a fly in the ointment though. The deal that Apple have done means that only Orange will be able to market it up to Xmas, whilst Vodafone will have to wait until the new year. The Vodafone CEO – Vittorio Colao – has already conceded that losing the initial
iPhone exclusivity deal had impacted their business, they lost around 159,000 customers last quarter alone, so we’ll have to wait and see what they come up with. One thing I do know is that Apple have a real stranglehold on their supply pricing, you only need to look at I-Pod pricing to see that. If they apply the same stranglehold to the
iPhone, then the excited buyers who have been busy
Twittering about it today, may well be disappointed. Initial expecations are that the tariff may be reduced by around £5.00 per month and the handset may come down around a £100, we’ll see.
No, not your annual industry sit down, where you chew the fat about what’s wrong with the world.
What I mean is, what parts of your business model are the same as everyone elses? Do you do the same as they do, but cheaper, or better or faster? Or, do you look at your industry convention and see how you could do it differently? Think low-cost airlines for starters. Ten years ago, the idea of paying for food on flights, unallocated seating, web only booking and strictly enforced luggage allowances would of been unheard of.
Here we are now, with a brand new industry of low cost airlines all offering it and creating a new convention. Greeting cards. Previously purchased from a dedicated card shop, now available on-line and fully personalised. The music business, once run from record shops, now run via servers. Get my drift? If you consistently think about matching conventions of your own industry, all you’ll ever do is compete for a slice of the industry cake. By re-defining your industry, offer or target market, you make the cake bigger.
There’s been a big hoo ha in the media today around the issue of education. The
CBI have launched a major report into funding for further education (you can read the news release
here or visit their specialist Education website
here). On the same day The
Lib Dems have re-instated their aim for everyone to access further education for free (with a price tag of around £12.5bn around the proposal, it makes for an interesting debate).
The
CBI make some interesting points and they’ve got the
National Union of Students going, they described the
CBI report as “offensive” and “hypocritical”, oh dear. Wherever you sit on the subject, at least we’re beginning to have a proper debate around it. What’s clear is that it will be difficult to go back from the current charging model back to a “free” model. The UK does need to raise its game. It spends less on education as a percentage of GDP than many other major countries, even the USA, where there is a culture of private funding. Business wants more engagement from the academic sector, more graduates with relevant degrees and a sense of collaboration to increase market advantage in an ever globalising economy.
If the politicians, business and the NUS got round a table to thrash things out, I think it would be a good thing, a great debate to start and everyone could learn something from each other.
Meetings. They can be the death of you. Further up the ladder you go or bigger your business gets, the more of them you have to attend. Most people sigh and groan at the prospect of some meetings. Why? Because they are a talking shop, regularly political and often poorly managed. So, here’s my top tips for running better meetings.
- Understand why you are meeting. Do you need to meet in the first place or will a phone conversation do? Use Webex or a similar service to cut down travelling.
- Make the outcomes clear. What decisions do you need? From who?
- Do your teas and coffees 5 minutes before, start on time.
- Have an agenda. Time limit things where possible.
- Keep the numbers small. Fewer people means more productivity.
- Have a start and end time. Don’t let it drift.
- Circulate as much stuff in advance as possible, particularly background reading or key powerpoint slides.
- Use Powerpoint as little as you can. Not everything has to always be formally presented.
- Get clear, assignable outcomes and actions.
- Follow up and make them happen.
Many years ago I used to work alongside a Japanese executive that regularly used the word “ketsuron.” This basically means conclusion. He preferred that you showed your conclusion slide in any presentation before anything else. By doing this, if it was a simple decision or recommendation, then he often made the decision on that one slide, without seeing all the detail. However, he often went back to the detail to check whenever he felt the conclusion required further analysis. It always stuck with me, the idea of “ketsuron” and summarising is a great skill. Try it the next time you meet, it feels like a human Twitter conversation at first, however it does save time in the end.
Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills was on
Radio 4 this morning, being interviewed about Labours “wise spending, not big spending” public statement. In a tense interview with diehard
Today programme interviewer
Jim Naughtie,
Mandelson -in prickly form – came under intense pressure to use the word “cuts” rather than rhetoric like “re-budgeting, a new reality, new challenges, re-planning and re-prioritisation,” you can listen to the show
here.
Lord Mandelson said that the government faced”tough choices,” but missed a golden opportunity to talk plainly and take the “tough choice” himself.
I think the mood with the general public – and business – is for some honesty and plain speaking. Most people I know prefer for less management speak and more plain speak, particularly if there is bad news. Dressing it up in rhetoric simply confuses the issue. A quality moment came at the end of the interview when political correspondent
Nick Robinson came back to
Lord Mandelson responding to a point which he had raised in a recent interview regarding a quote that
Robinson cited from the Prime Minister. In a brilliant reply,
Robinson cited the exact date and time of the quote in the House of Commons (he blogs about it
here), ouch! Best bit of radio I’ve heard in ages.
JJB blew the whistle on Sports Direct today. The
OFT (Office of Fair Trading) referred them to the
Serious Fraud Office following an alleged
cartel in the price of various sports goods. So, is it game over? Part six of
The Enterprise Act (2002) and
The Competition Act (1998) are effectively the rulebooks for this activity. They impose severe penalties on any business found to operating any kind of
cartel and it can lead to a fine of up to 10% of your European turnover for any business convicted of it. However, for anyone that jumps out of the line and blows the whistle on a cartel, the
OFT can afford immunity. In this case, JJB are to get full immunity from the fine and in return they must fully co-operate in the investigation, it will be a worrying time for Sports Direct.
You only need to look into any high end part of the consumer goods market, luxury watches, high end road bikes or designer clothing to see that questions do still need to be asked. Prices can be the same to the penny across regions, market sectors or store chains. The
OFT has finite resources and tends to look toward market dominant businesses in large sectors (40% + market share) for their investigations which means that many businesses who undertake such activity, get away with it. However, one important point to note is that the
OFT can divide up markets into smaller and smaller parts in order to prove market dominance, so if you have a large part of the high end part of a market but an overall small share (such as a premium brand), you will still be considered to be a dominant player if investigated. Pricing regulation is very clear. The market decides and the only price you can control is the price of your own invoice, not a third parties.
Earlier today, I was watching Twitter as journalists broke the news about Apple’s latest developments in real time, they were all at a conference in London. It made me think about how information is so easily shared in todays digital world and whether anything is secret anymore? Micro blogging platforms such as
Twitter enable “instant” news and search to spread across the globe. Traditional methods of communication – such as press releases – are redundant as journalists
Twitter out their feedback on product launches in real time (you can see the Apple feed
here if you’re interested). So, where does the
Chatham House Rule fit in to todays high speed, information driven world I wonder?
Devised in 1927 and last refined in 2002, it refers to meeting participants anonymity and saying things off the record. With millions now having access to mobile data/telephone, a phone is now like a gun in a holster, ready to fire at any time of the day or night with an update or photo. Any piece of juicy gossip or information is passed on in an instant as people race to “break” news first and increase their followers on whatever social media platform they’re using. Nothing is off limits. I guess you just need to be more cautious and specific when discussing things you feel are confidential, nothing feels “off the record” anymore. Talking of records, today is my 200th post. Apparently, if you last more than 3 months at blogging, you carry on. If not, you give up. This is my eleventh month now so all being well I’m through the worst. Thank for continuing to visit, I’ve had visitors from over 50 countries since I started which is far beyond my expectations. I’d encourage anyone to have a go, starting is easy and as long as you stick with it, it can be a rewarding way to share information (that you want to share of course) with others.
I met with the Bank of England today. Their regional representatives meet with businesses like ours to provide feedback into the monetary policy committee, prior to them setting interest rates. I find these meetings really useful, as you can benefit from the
Banks makro view of the world. They are meeting hundreds of businesses – of all sizes – during each quarter to gather qualitative and quantitative feedback to aggregate back to the committee. It allows the MPC to hear a wider view from across the economy to support the many pieces of leading data they review, in order to come to a decision. There’s an important lesson for all us here. Just looking at the numbers isn’t always the answer, you need some good narrative behind the data in order to be objective, otherwise you can quickly jump to conclusions. For a business like us, our “qualitative easing” (get it?) of information into the Bank allows them to make better decisions which ultimately can lead to more business for us through a strenghened economy. I’d encourage any business approached by them to meet with them and share their numbers.
The great and good of the business world were out last night at an excellent function hosted by Insider Magazine and their editor Michael Taylor. Gathering to celebrate all that’s great about the North West, with the central theme being around leadership, there were some very well known regional faces in the room. My evening started with a good chat with
Imran Hakim, inventor of the
i-Teddy and
Dragons Den favourite. Imran was a successful businessman before
Dragons Den with an optical mini-empire, he’s a typical entrepreneur with fingers in lots of pies and plenty of opportunities bubbling, interesting guy.
As the evening went on, I met plenty of other CEO’s and MD’s of big business in the region. Another interesting individual was my namesake who runs a large prestige car dealership in the North West. It was great to understand how the conventions of a non-competing industry work, someone to stay in touch with and a very fun and stimulating character. The event was topped off by ex-politician and now Dyson Director
Sir Richard Needham. He had some excellent stories of his past as Minister for Northern Ireland but his most compelling points were raised regarding his time at Dyson. A standout line was “Dyson goes where the technology takes them.” That is, they invent things first, like the high speed motor, then decide how it can be used. Example being the Dyson hand dryer which came as a result of a mini high-speed motor they invented. This focussed strategy keeps them on track and their profits are expected to be up 50% this year.
I’m glad these type of events still happen. It’s a great environment to meet stimulating people and hear new things and one of the many things that makes Manchester great. Top job Insider.
It’s been a busy news day today. BP have struck oil in Mexico, American companies laid off 300,000 people last month and the CEO of DSGi has taken a 25% pay cut. So much to talk about. However, one story that did catch my eye was about BA now awarding much coveted airmiles on discounted economy tickets. A sign of the “hard” times perhaps. In the old economy (as I’ll call it), the idea of status was everything. A Platinum this, a Gold that. Money bought you the Willy Wonka ticket in airline travel as you were whisked away from the “ordinary” people.
Budget airline travel changed all of that and the concept of “excessive” spending is not di rigeur anymore. People with money, now practice “stealth wealth,” that is not flaunting it in the same way as perhaps in the past. So, BA’s decision (on the face of it) looks right. However, you will need to take around 300 economy flights a year to benefit from the Gold status, so – in my view – not a lot has changed. BA continues to struggle to win share on anything but their cash cow routes, the old addage that BA is a cut above just doesn’t wash anymore as business travellers experience great service on competing airlines. Other airlines have caught up and – in some cases – overtaken them. I think a new strategy is needed, a new USP and it needs to be deeper than a shallow gesture on airmiles.
