In April, I’ll be Chairing a really unique meeting, perhaps the first of it’s kind in the NW of England.  In one room, we will have a live audience, an audience of people linked in via video-conference and an audience of people attending via virtual world avatars, all in real time.  At the same time, it will be streamed to the web, live via Twitter and also invite people to participate via SMS.  It will be multi-platform.  It’s ambitious and being co-ordinated by Corporation Pop on behalf of Northern Net.

The theme of the discussion is “The Death of Distance.”  That is, distance should not be a barrier to holding back business.  In a globalising world that has its foot hard on the accelerator, finding new ways to connect with people have to be explored.  Distance is – in many cases -  irrelevant. Markets and people are a connection away.  Video conferencing is still considered a luxury for many businesses, however, costs are coming down, bandwidth is improving all the time and technology is becoming more accessible.   What really interests me about this discussion particularly is the role of avatars in bringing people together.  What role does a virtual avatar play vs. a real person staring into a camera?  Does this de-sensitise or improve the communication experience? I’ll aim to get these questions explored.

Virtual worlds are already being used by many large organisations to connect people, particularly in universities where they can be used in virtual learning environments.  As more and more businesses chase the sun, that is, take advantage of high speed broadband and fibre optic networks to baton pass work around the globe, virtual worlds and workspaces will become more commonplace.  I – for one – am really looking forward to the challenge of pulling it all together on the night and participating in real life aswell as having a virtual avatar working in synchronicity (Mrs Jones might be a tadge concerned that there’s a clone of me, she’ll argue one of me is enough!).

What can small companies learn from big companies?  Cliches aside (speedboats and oil tankers and all that), I think there is a lot to learn.  One of they key things is about preserving time to think and plan for the future.  So many small businesses, often live from day to day, week to week, month to month.  Focused on the here and now, lighting and fighting fires based upon the weeks objectives, such as the need to collect cash, pay the bills and deal with anything that pops up in real time.   That’s totally understandable, it’s a big rough and tough world out there.

Big companies have the same problems.  They do need to do all the same things (arguably with more resource to cover it all off).  However, preserving thinking time is something within everyone’s capability, big or small.  By having a clearer end game, even at a basic level, it can concentrate and focus your thoughts.

You can be more ruthless with your time, your investments (capital or people) and how you structure the business.  By identifying a clearer end game, you can then work on the stepping stones to get you there.  “Doubling sales” for example, may require additional working capital to invest in stock, it may require a bigger warehouse, an additional salesperson, an extra production line, a new computer system.  The point is, if you are working towards something, you can be clearer about how to get there.

This was backed up by some recent research we’ve done at work.  It clearly identified that the number one investment that SME owners could make for their business was in “thinking time”.  Creating a plan A and a plan B.  So, if you have neither, get some thoughts down.   Apply some big business thinking time to your small business and I guarantee you will get to your objectives sooner.

Speaking to a roomful of executives at Old Trafford today (second time in a week), I focussed on Time, Attention and Trust as they key things that they need to pay attention to.  As the people responsible for deploying shared services in their organisations, I argued the case against the “dark forces” of too much process control and reporting.

Too often, initatives are deployed in businesses which fail.  I know this as I’ve been there.  I’ve made the mistakes, got the battles scars and the T-shirt.  Making or breaking a new initiative is as much about the time and investment you make in people as it is the brain power you put into process re-engineering.

In life, we are battling with lack of time, low levels of attention and low levels of trust.  It’s a conseqence of life, we’re working longer hours than ever before, life is not about work/life balance anymore, it’s about work/life blend.  Breaking through into peoples thinking, is all important.

To win the hearts and minds of our customers, we have to stay relevant.  To re-invent processes, bin others, test, refine and improve.  Large scale, enterprise-wide initiatives can be years in deployment from original design.  You have to wonder, whether they are still relevant, years later.  Change takes time.  Time is in short supply.  What do we do?

Stay relevant.  Build pictures of our customers.  Add value.  Intervene at optimum moments.  Move up the value chain.  Make ourselves indispensable.  Listen on social media.  Be clear about our benefits.  Stay passionate.  Connect people.  Break conventions.  Look outside our industries for inspiration.

A great line up of speakers at the Institute of Directors (NW) annual conference at Old Trafford today.  Rt Hon. Ken Clarke QC MP, COO of Man Utd – Michael Bolingbroke, First lady of football Karren Brady, Writer Guy Browning and IoD Director General – Miles Templeman.

Top marks went to Guy Browning and Karren Brady who both delivered great keynotes.  Guy was a master of his art, he had the audience howling with laughter in the first half of his talk.  A very dry personality, delivering incredibly good content, there was a serious message to his keynote, highligthting to us all that leadership is all about communicating.  He reminded the audience that this translates into feeling, thinking and action for the recipients of our words.  He delivered this in a very unique style and he was the perfect- after lunch – speaker.

Karren Brady delivered the last talk of the day, directly following Michael Bolingbroke (who really needs to go on a presentation course in my view – Michael buzz me).  Karren had great stage presence, she was entertaining, she shared lots of anecdotes, she really connected with the audience.  She left the audience with her six key things that she felt they should show in their business: - Leadership, Ambition, Determination, Attitude, Direction and Positivity.

I introduced Guy Browning on stage today as a conference sponsor (see pic).  My key message contained the following: -

• Average performance is made of under/over performance.  Make sure you’re part of the over/not the under.
• If you always face the hard facts in your business, it gives you the ability to be creative all the time (recession or no recession).
• Recessions make leaders think differently, focusing on buttoning down the hatches and hygiene factors.  This can stifle creativity and innovation.
• My business requires other businesses to be successful, we put our money where our mouth is, hence sponsoring the conference.

Overall, an enjoyable day.  Bumped into a few people that I know from Twitter, great to meet them face to face as always.  Met a few new folk.  Helped with some connections for others.  Made lot’s of notes and banged out quite a lot of photo’s which you can view here.

If you give, give, give, you will receive.  That’s my top networking tip for anyone looking to build a high end business network.  By being generous with your time, your advice and your help, good fortune comes back at you.  Just don’t expect anything too quickly, think of it like an IOU with no expiry date on it.

That’s where so many people can go easily wrong.  By pushing too hard, too quickly, you can easily be discarded by key people.  Many networking groups exist where it’s completely OK to do that, it’s “permission based” networking and I’ve heard many small business talk of the immense benefit they get from some of the established networking clubs that exist.

What I have learned however is that to access “C” level leaders, different tactics are needed, a more subtle, less time and ROI dependent approach is needed.  That’s where my concept of giving comes from.  Every meeting can create an opportunity in time, it’s just a matter of how you cultivate it, like growing a flower.   Sometimes you need to know when you may be over-feeding, other times under, sometimes the flower needs sunshine, sometimes shade.

Having observed many people whom I consider to be great at networking over the years, this is the common compotency that binds them all together.  So, give generously, keep giving, then give some more.  In time, your generosity will be handsomely rewarded.

Attending the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference in London on Thursday (held at BAFTA HQ in Piccadilly), it struck me how all politicians seem to be saying the same thing about business in the run up to the general election.  You can almost remove the party and leave the words there, like having the same wine in a different bottle.  Examples: -

• SME’s are the lifeblood of the recovery (Stating the obvious).
• We must reduce the burden on business (How?).
• We must cut red tape (If politicians cut red tape, you generally get two pieces of red tape).
• Importance of broadband for Britain (Yes, but will you please just get on with it).
• How exports need to increase (Even with a weak pound, it’s still not happening how it should).
• Importance of the High Speed Rail Link (Agree, we’ll be around 40yrs behind France when it finally gets delivered).

The only difference I guess between the two major parties is the role of RDA’s, Labour will likely keep, Conservatives will likely abolish.  What the politicians lack – in my view – are the concrete proposals to address some of these issues.  We can state the problems and visions as many times as we want, unless plans and tactics are put in place, you’ll never start the important stepping stones to delivering them.  Business leaders expect a little less point scoring and a little more action planning.

It’s never been easier to make an introduction than now. 50M people are on Linkedin,  hooking up has never been easier, there are a lot of quality people in the cloud.  If you believe in the idea of the six degrees of separation, you’ll quickly realise that social media networks make it possible to meet – within reason – anyone, if you are determined enough.  Last week, I showed a consultant friend of mine how to peel away the layers of a key customers activity on Linkedin, to see who they were connecting with, what groups they were joining.  As we began to dig through their network and used the advanced search to target specific job titles, a world of opportunity began to open up.  As a small boutique business, seeking high-level contacts, we were able to very quickly identify the needles in the haystack he was looking for and they were only one step away from a key mover and shaker he knew.  Ideal opportunity for a referral.

A colleague did the same thing for me today.  We were at dinner together last night, we established that a guy he knew was a passionate road cyclist (my new hobby).  Today, he sent an introduction via e-mail to the both of us, within 10 minutes we were connected on Linkedin.   By connecting, we can now see each others network of extended contacts.  The more people enter your pool of people upon which you search, the greater and more accurate the results and so on.  I will now see his weekly updates and connections, he will see mine, suddenly another layer peels off which may reveal an opportunity for either of us.  It’s not hard, you just need to know you’re way round Linkedin and it’s well worth spending some time getting to know it better, it could be a powerful source of new contacts for you.

Here’s an idea for you, I used it the other week.  When you are hosting a neworking event, say a dinner, collate a short biog of all the people that are attending.  Their name, their company, their Twitter ID, their company website, their Linkedin address.  Stick it all in one document and let people investigate each other before they come.  It gives everyone coming an opportunity to do their desk research, see who interests them, prepare some interesting questions, build a picture of the table.  It takes a little bit longer to prepare of course, however, the people that are coming really appreciate it.  Your guests may also (pre-event)  link up on Linkedin or follow each other on Twitter.  You, by design, will come across more as a connector of people, someone that “adds value”, (aswell as being a terrific host of course).

I’m still surprised at the number of events that I either speak at or go to, where a speaker profile does not include a Twitter ID for example.  I’ve provided mine, asked for it to be published, yet still it doesn’t appear as the conference organisers “don’t normally do that”.  For me, this is just doing the obvious nowadays, saving people time, making it easy for them to connect and becoming the first step in them joining your wider network of contacts.

Short is good. Not for everything, granted.  All depends, of course on the audience, what it is your communicating, it’s technicality, lot’s of different factors.  My point is this.  Attention spans are shortening, drastically, business documentation – where possible – should follow suit.

In Japanese, there is a saying called “Ketzuron”, it means conclusion, in other words, get to the summary, fast!  Which brings me to your business plan.  Can it be shorter, more concise, something that people live and breathe?  My experience is, the bigger an organisation becomes, the bigger the business plan, the bigger the plan, the less effective it becomes as people consign it to a drawer until the day before a management meeting or review.

If you can radically overhaul your plan, simplify the wording or make it shorter, you are more likely to make it matter and have a better chance of people living and breathing it.  Try it, see what happens.

I spoke to a group of salespeople and managers in the Midlands today about how to use social media networks to build a picture of your key customers or potential customers.  Platforms such as Linkedin and Twitter give a new level of transparency to people’s lives, their interests, their movements and what projects they may be working on.

By following people and connecting on these networks, you can use the information for the purposes of engagement and to tailor your approach, whether cold or warm, to make it more personal.  For example, before going to a meeting with a new client, look them up on Linkedin, learn a bit more about them.  If they’re on Twitter, you can get a much more dynamic picture of what they are doing.

Everyone agreed that cold calling is getting harder, as people get busier, over-worked and time becomes precious.  So, moving forward a more tailored approach is needed.  A personalised approach.  An approach with cut through.  This can only be achieved if you have built an understanding of the business you are targeting or the individual.

Social media platforms can provide you with more “Opportunities to Engage” with your customers, to provide more glue to doing business with you.  The more customers you retain and win, the high propensity you have to achieve your “OTE”.