As 2011 draws to a close, I’d like to ask a few questions of you.  They’re not hard, well they shouldn’t be.  Just a few straightforward questions to get you thinking about quality and quantity of the time you spend.

We’ve got plenty of time haven’t we? Or have we?  Average life expectancy in the UK is 82.  Remember that averages are an average of everything though.  For example, 1 in 100 people never see their 20th birthday, 1 in 20 people live to be over 95.   Somewhere amongst all of that data is you and I.

Life is short, when you turn 40, you’ll wonder where all the time went!  I’m talking from experience, a young head on maturing shoulders is how it feels.  Consider these 10 questions when you get a moment to yourself: -

1. How have you stretched yourself physically, mentally and spiritually this year?  The body needs nourishment of all three.
2. What has been your greatest achievement and why did it mean so much to you?  Replicate that feeling.
3. Who have you unconditionally helped?  Fantastic nourishment for the soul.
4. What one thing holds you back from achieving greatness?  Change it.
5. How much of your time have you spent reacting to things rather than creating things?  In today’s busy times, too much time is spent reacting to things.
6. Have you any regrets about how you spent your time thus far?  How can you change that?
7. Are the people that you surround yourself with the type of people that you view as quality?  Quality breeds quality.  Surround yourself with people that will programme you to excellence.
8. Are there any changes that you feel you want to make to your life? Home or work?  Do something!
9. Who do you admire most?  What qualities do they have, which you would like to emulate?  You can start right now.
10. What is your legacy?  Do you know?  Most people say “make a difference” – so why don’t you!

Point is this.  Treat every second, every minute, every hour, every day as an opportunity to create – do something.  Not based upon what you have achieved in the past, but what you want to create in the future.  Set yourself up, mind, body and soul to achieve them.  Be unconditional in your support for others, give generously and you will navigate more closely towards them.

Wishing you a prosperous future. You don’t need a New Year to start creating, you can start right now.  On any defined second, of any day, of any year – point is – do it now!

I had a long drive in the car today.  I love this time of year, a couple of days before we break for Christmas, everything goes quiet.   The mobile, the e-mail, the problems!  On my run in the car, I had one journalist interview for about an hour, then nothing else. Bliss!

I spoke recently about Alpha/Beta thinking, view this slideshare to see what I talking about. My drive today was mostly Alpha time.

I got thinking about how you should compare your own development to that of technology.  The example that came to mind was music, which has always been a great love of mine.

My musical journey started with a turntable and vinyl records.  When I was about fourteen my dad got my sister and I Sony Walkman portable cassette players, with orange headphones.  At the time a technological breakthrough.  We used to walk through Bracknell town centre, listening to tape cassette of the Top 40 from the previous Sunday -pirating old school style!

Only a few years  later, something called “CD’s” started to hit the news. Allegedly holding a full album of songs with studio quality on this disc the size of a saucer – no way!  I had to have one.

I set my goals on a Technics stereo system that I’d seen at John Lewis, which did everything – turntable, amp, radio, tape cassette and CD player.  I saved for a whole year,  stashing away every penny from my Saturday job at Waitrose until the day when I got this system from John Lewis.  My pride and joy, which I still own to this day (now with updated turntable which converts my vinyl to digital).  I still have every LP from my teens too, some classics there.  Wake me up before you go go….

Then something called MP3 got mentioned.  Music didn’t exist on vinyl, cassettes or CD’s anymore, you could download and never see it.  Just pressing a button – magic!  My first incarnation was a digital river MP3 player, then the i-Pod and we’ve all never looked back from that.

So, on to my point.  In that time,  in twenty-five years, at least four major iterations of  single technology have taken place.  Vinyl, Tape Cassette, CD and MP3.  Each time, we (the buying public) have upgraded to the latest version.  The music sounds the same, however the delivery technology has changed.

So if we update our technology in this way, are we updating our own technology (cognitive programming)  in the same way?

You hold on to pre-formed thoughts and actions from your programming growing up and often revert back to those in the present day as the basis of your decision making and action.  Like using the logic from a 1980′s Commodore computer.

Thinking back in my life, 20′s, 30′s and 40′s have all been distinctly different for me, each decade have seen improvements in my knowledge of self.  In terms of my own personal development, I’ve taken this much more seriously in the past decade.  It’s during that period that I realised most that my programme (thoughts and actions) was out of date and I was still bound by the cognitive distortions of my early years.

By reading, networking, reflecting, digesting and learning, my software has been updated.  I’ve kept pace, not got left behind.  I better understand my own development pathway, like a technology roadmap.  I’ve recognised which bits of my metaphorical software were redundant, which bits were good and what new bits I needed to add.

It’s never too late to update.  I think I’ve learned more in the last ten years about myself than at any point in my life – literally.  If I were to graph it, it just keeps going up and up.  Point being, learning is lifelong.  So, what are you doing about you?

What’s the last book you read?  Which cognitive distortions kick in based upon the way your parents raised you, past experiences or pre-formed behaviour? Which bits about your personality would you like to change most?  Because it can all be changed.  All that is requires is your courage, openness and desire. Software gets a patch update, so patch yourself, update your own firmware.  Do something to evolve.

Merry Xmas and  have a Fantastic 2012

As I sign off for the seasonal break, I’d like to thank you all for continuing to visit the blog.

It pleases me no end when people mention to me that they read the articles I write and how much it has helped them, in different ways – it’s a real buzz.  Blogging takes time and is a big commitment, once you’ve started, you shouldn’t stop.  I never thought that the blog would be read by so many people across the globe.

In closing, I posted this blog three years ago, I read it every year as it reminds me of how we should all be grateful for what we have at this time of year and the importance of friends and time.

Have an amazing 2012 – Phil

Today I spoke at an event in Chester and galloped through a metaphorical buffet table of ideas, trends and insights to an audience of business hungry SME’s.  Just a small portion of the things I touched on were: -

Liquid Fear.  Fear is everywhere right now, at a structural and personal level. Don’t let it trigger fight or flight thinking in you or your innovation may suffer.

Averages.  Even though the economy is struggling to grow at a pace, if all you ever do is consider that “flat” is what everyone is doing to judge your performance – you’re wrong.  An average is made of superstars and under performers.  Be a shining star in the game of average.

CTRL+ALT+DEL – It’s an amazing time for the world and we’re in it, right here, right now as all this structural change takes place in the way we run our lives.  Someone set the reset button and it’s important we all update our software to run today’s programmes.

Plural Working.  People are much more open to earning income from multiple sources.  The concept of being wedded to one company is “so yesterday.”  This may have a big impact on staff working practice, location and cost.

Make your competition irrelevant.  Do things they can’t do.  Understand that if they are big, they make lack agility.  Introduce new initiatives to stay one step ahead of them.

Be authentic.  As a person, as a business.  Stay true to what you’re all about, don’t dilute, be yourself.

Have the courage of a lion.  Tough times require tough decisions.  Back yourself, call the big shots, be bold.

Counting it all up, I covered about fifty points in rapid succession today, covering everything from innovation, trends,  leadership and change.  It was enjoyable to cover a lot of different things, a little taster of a lot of things as opposed to a “big meal.”

It seemed to work.  What struck me most was how there is so much to talk about, so much change, so many new things, new challenges and we have to constantly stay up to date with all of these things, aswell as do the day job.

It’s all there for the taking.  Tough times see some of the business ideas launched, you have to look for the opportunity, put in some hard yards thinking and get implementing!

Ask a room full of people whether they have more free time now then they did five years ago and rarely do you see a hand go up.

Time, Attention and Trust are all in short supply, we’re optimising every moment, catching up, organising, on top of our other competing demands.

So, if this is now the convention of life – work/life blend, rather than balance, how should you change your business development approach to your customers?

Circles

Life seems to have gone full circle.  Being a proud Generation X, I’ve been schooled in the the importance of personal relationships.  During the late nineties and into the new millenium, businesses went a little CRM crazy, defining relationships by database fields.  It was all about your system.

Compare that to now.  Ten years on, we’re now talking about the importance of one to one, not one to many.  Traditional media continues to find ways to justify itself and social media has created hundreds of millions of individual voices.

Relationship building is becoming about the balance of how frequently you listen combined with how frequently you communicate (reception+transmission) at a one to one level.

Where are you FRoM?

If people are time starved, then traditional methods of reaching out to them may be less effective.  You’re networking events may not be so well attended, your e-shot open rate may be a fraction of a percentage, your direct mail may be directed to the re-cycle bin.

Using applications to stay front of mind (FRoM) with your customers and network are key.  Blanket bombing them with mailshots is a guaranteed way to put yourself in the “less relevant” box of their thinking.

Working smarter with tools like Linkedin and Twitter to create a simmer effect in your relationship isn’t hard.  Primarily it means that when they have a problem, you’re aware and – more importantly – you’re in their field of view as a potential problem fixer or trusted advisor.

Completing some training with a professional services company on Friday, I hit this point home.  Quite often, interventions by the professional services sector are event driven.  If you don’t have proximity to your clients (in range to listen) at their point of need, then you may well find a competitor through the door.  Use the technology that exists today, to make that job easier.

I’ve had personal experience of this over the years and it’s a timely reminder that you have to stay in regular, relevant, contact with the people that are important to you, if you wish to be the person they talk to in their moment of need.

Being part of a multi-national, people assume (wrongly) that you have a bottomless war chest for commercial sponsorship.  It’s just not like that.  Like any business, we have finite resources, strategic goals and a target audience to play for.

Having seen hundreds of requests over the years, there is a common theme that runs through them – a poor business case.  So many people send me poorly thought out sponsorship proposals because they’ve had a good idea and want someone to back it, without ever giving due consideration for the person signing the cheques.   Here’s five tips to get your approach right.

1. W11FM.  This is an acronym for “What’s In It For Me” (or us).  No benefit, no sponsorship.
2. What evidence can you bring of the audience that will see the sponsorship.  Viewing statistics, visitor numbers, participants.  ”We’re hoping,” “we’re soon to have, ” “we estimate,” don’t give a potential sponsor a lot to work with.  Talk specifically about what you do have.  Industry data, demographic data, supporting evidence.
3. How are you going to activate the sponsorship?  It’s not enough to say we have XXXX followers on Twitter and XXXX facebook likes – so what.  What specifically are you going to do to get the audience engaged and how are we going to get value for the money you are requesting?  Make a clear proposal as to your proposition.
4. Research the company you are approaching.   A blanket bomb request for sponsorship will fall over.  Understand the business you are targeting.  Download their corporate report, look for clues about their target market and see if there are any crossovers.
5. Personalise the approach.  Mock up a logo, an image, an advertising hoarding.  Bring it to life.  Many people are visual and tying up the opportunity with images and words will help you stand out.

Everyone loves a gong.  It’s the ultimate feelgood factor for recognition of a job well done.  A new product, a staff initiative a successful initiative.

Over the years, I’ve been on many a judging panel and been surprised and shocked at the variance in entries from hopeful participants.  So, here are ten things you should take care of: -

1. Ensure that you have answered all the questions that the judging panel are asking for.  I see this so often, entries which do not meet the criteria.  Create a checklist and ensure everything is covered.
2. Don’t just copy and paste text from your website into your award entry.  Each entry, should be crafted for relevance, text that is copy and pasted sends a message that you can’t really be bothered.
3. Keep it brief.  It’s not a competition as to how long your entry is, it’s about it’s quality.  Think like a judge.  Judges have to sometimes read hundreds of entries and a really long submission will elicit a heavy sigh, particularly if it begins to ramble.
4. Don’t bend the truth.  Keep it factual.  It’s surprising what judges know about, particularly if it’s for an industry award.  They will tend to be experts and can spot a rat a mile off.  A whiff of a mistruth and you’ll be discarded.
5. Drive out your USP (unique selling point).  Ask yourselves what really sets us apart?  What one message do we want to leave this judge with that will stick in their head relevant to the category?
6. Don’t state the obvious.  If you’re entering a green award, resist saying things like “we take our environmental responsibility really seriously (yawn).  Doesn’t everybody?  Think, what things will everyone be submitting and how do we do it differently?
7. Get a fresh set of eyes to read the submission.  Quite often the same person(s) is in charge of the end to end process of completing the award entry.  When they think it has been done, ensure it gets passed to someone else to do a fresh look/edit of the whole thing, particularly for spelling mistakes.
8. Meet the deadline.  People still miss deadlines and expect their entry to stand.  An awards deadline is there for a reason, work to it.  If you miss it, expect not to be judged.
9. Don’t add loads of attachments.  Tempting as it might be, don’t just upload big powerpoint files.  Make your written entry stand out.  Only add attachments in support (such as an image/advert example) if you are submitting on-line and you can’t include the information in the entry form.
10. Use bullet points.  Entries normally go through a pre-judging stage.  Use bullet points in your submission as much as possible to allow a judge to scan it and make a mental ticknote in their mind.  If they get the headlines, they are more likely to delve into the detail.

Pitching to a CEO takes a certain approach and so many people still get it wrong.  Particularly if you haven’t met the individual, you need to take a structured approach, as they may be one of a number of different personality styles.

Remember an executive generally has competing demands on their time, a short attention span (haven’t we all), a passion for their people,  a brain full of ideas and competing priorities, a desire to make a difference.

Here’s 10 top tips to enhance your chances of success and impact when presenting to a CEO in a business pitch.

1. Send as much information beforehand.  Establish credentials before hand to save time in the meeting and a management summary of the key outcomes you need for the meeting.
2. Look them up on Linkedin.  Find out a little about them and see what you can learn about their history.  If they’ve come through a twenty year career at IBM, then approach them in a highly structured way.
3. Get to the point quickly.  CEO’s have a million and one things on their mind and they hate waffle.
4. Work to an agenda.  It gateposts where you are and keeps things firmly on track.
5. Ask for commitments to action.  CEO’s are often action driven and want to make intervention, don’t be afraid to ask when you need something done, they have the power and resources.
6. Follow up quickly.  Don’t leave it.  Get followed up and stay front of mind.  If things might take a little longer for known reasons, ensure that you still drop a regular note with progress.
7. Remember that the direct reports to the CEO will not want to be shown up.  Do a pre-briefing with them as to your approach and ask for any pitfalls/commentary in advance.
8. No surprises.  If you have a “drop the bomb” moment in your presentation, then that can he high risk and de-rail your meeting.  Grease the skids with any key issues to allow the CEO to gather all the information they need pre-meeting.
9. Get to know their assistant.  Be courteous to the person who works most closely with them.  If you have an assistant, get them to connect peer to peer with their opposite number on Linkedin.  It’s amazing what you can achieve that others may not be able to by having an assistant on your side.
10. Be on the metrics and know what strategic objectives the CEO is working to.  If it’s not relevant and aligned, well costed and with clear outcomes, you wont be impactful.

Ever heard that old cliche “leading is like being a conductor of an orchestra?”  Well, I’m hear to tell you it it is.  How do I know?  On Monday night this week I was fortunate enough to sit next to Internationally renowned conductor – Sir Mark Elder CBE.

Elder (64), musical director at the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, candidly answered some questions I had about the old adage of comparing a conductor to a leader of a business.  Elder is really charasmatic, intense, highly articulate and one of those people you wish you got sat next to over dinner, luckily I did!

He was able to draw so many parallels to business, he really ought to get on the speaking circuit!  However, this man is about “personal and artistic chemistry” and striving for new levels of excellence from the orchestra he leads and in his own ability to conduct music.  There was so much to capture, I didn’t get everything, however here are some of the nuggets that I managed to scribble down: -

• His first big leadership challenge came in 1979 when he had to wrestle an orchestra to his way of thinking.  At the time he was a new fledging conductor and respect had to be earned.  He was home grown within the orchestra and quickly begain to tackle the key issues of underperforming players.  He faced the brutal truth quickly that to be excellent, he needed excellence from everyone.  After a long period of working with resistant individuals he had his “if you can’t change the people, change the people” moment, he summarily issued notice to those underperforming players.  For this step, Private Eye magazine described him as “Mark the knife.”  Years later, that tough decision paid him a huge dividend as he was able to replace them with high performing players.
  
• He learns the name of all the major players in the orchestra before conducting them.  Even if hosting an orchestra for one night, he ensures that he knows who the key people are and addressed them by name.  This ensures that he wins the orchestra over quickly to work with him, realising that the performance relies on “feeling, hearing and understanding.”  A connected orchestra, with mutual respect, play better.
  
• He describes himself as a “stayer”.   In all his conducting positions over the years, he has always had a big picture in his head and articulated that vision to the orchestra.  Communication of that vision ensures that the orchestra never remains stale and continues to pursue the big picture, not just the one off performance.
• Orchestras conventions can be different from country to country.   Conducting an orchestra in America, is different to Italy, is different to Japan, is different to the UK.  Elder recognised he has to “flex” his style for each orchestra to get the most out of them, the same way leaders in business should do with their teams.
• A chain of command is important to get the right results.  The orchestra is broken down into sections, each section leader is responsible for it and the players within it.  Elder communicates with those section leaders if he needs improvement, they then get the performance from their players.  This chain of command ensures clarity of communication and feedback.
  
• The importance of courage.  Elder came back to this word time and time again.  He needed courage to dismiss the underperforming players at the start of his career, courage to take on new pieces of music and cites courage of your convictions.  Leadership is exactly the same, it takes courage to make big decisions, sometimes in the face of adversity.
• Accepting responsibility for your own errors.  I asked Elder whether someone pulls him up when he makes a mistake?  He was quick to answer, “If I know I’ve made a mistake, I immediately accept responsibility for it.”  The hallmark of any great leaders is to have humility, apologising and admitting your mistakes builds empathy with others.  Leadership isn’t about being perfect, it’s about being you, with all your vulnerabilities displayed.
• Leading the orchestra isn’t about being a robotic conductor, it’s about “the balance between brain and heart.”  Elder has real panache.  You could tell that when he talked, always choosing words carefully and answering questions with a real honesty.  You warmed to him immediately as he articulately re-told humourous stories, kept eye contact – like a tractor beam and articulated his vision for the Halle orchestra, which he leads.  There’s an important lesson there, which is to be the real you in your life.  To show compassion, care and empathy in the workplace alongside all the other excellent technical capabilities you have.

I could have talked to Sir Mark Elder all night, he’s such an interesting character.  Witty, charming, super-intelligent and statesmanlike.  Back to my earlier point, he’s make a fantastic conference speaker as I’m sure he’d conduct a room with the same passion and results that he conducts an orchestra.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery or so the saying goes.  This gave me a few laughs on a short break to Tenerife this weekend when I came across the following: -

1. A Michael Buble tribute act called “Michael Bubble”
2. A restaurant called “Gordon Ramsey’s” offering a three course dinner for €8,95 – their logo was exactly the same as the famous chef – “Gordon Ramsay.”  I did look twice thinking I was about to have the cheapest fine dining meal ever!
3. A Ghanaian looky looky seller (fake watches etc) wearing a Tesco “Here to Help” T-Shirt and badge – he even had Tesco carrier bags if a customer made a purchase!

There is so much talk about innovation today, that it’s easy to forget that imitating or copying a product and trying to improve it is also a tried and tested way of starting a business.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you rip off a major brand owners trademark – you’ll get into serious trouble for that – however significant markets exist for commodity products, where operationally efficient businesses can drum up significant revenues just by doing something better or introducing a complementary product into an existing customer base.

It’s widely acknowledged that in the seventies and eighties that many of the Japanese consumer electronic brands, took existing technology and bettered it.  They reverse engineered products, found ways to either improve them of their manufacturing processes and then launched them in the market, often with another 100 flashing LED lights for full effect!

Many of those brands are now household names – Sony being a great example of a brand that did it well and then went on to bigger and better things, like the Sony Walkman.

So if you’re thinking to try and find ways to expand your business, it doesn’t need to always come as a result of an innovation.  Five ways to further increase revenues could be: -

1. Pick a feature that is the current big thing in the market and see how you could better or improve it (subject to patent).
2. Establish other products that your customers might already sell, that you may be able to supply (always a good one if your customer wants supplier consolidation).
3. Consider how technology you might have developed could be used for other things.  Dyson do this really well, think how they have introduced hand-dryers and vacuum cleaners using their powerful motor technology.
4. See how your competitors might be deriving revenues from complimentary goods and services that you might be able to offer as up-sells or cross-sells.  Classic example for TV’s would be HD cables and cabinets.
5. Consider adjacent marketplaces to your current offering and see if you could move sideways into an adjacent market, rather than trying to do something brand new in a market you may not have expertise in.

Innovation doesn’t always have to be the next big thing, the most radical idea or a game changer.  Small improvements plus complementary products can also increase your capacity to do more business.

This week saw me click over three years as a user on the Twitter platform,  how time flies.  It’s become part of my everyday business life and an essential part of my personal growth and network development.

This blogpost is not going to be one of those “reasons to be on Twitter” blogs, hopefully the world is over that one.  I do however want to share some outcomes, experiences and learnings that have come to bear over the last three years to encourage others: -

Early Days (Followers 0).

• A bit random  Not really knowing how best to use the platform.
• Not having a genre.  Tweeting all sorts, business and personal.
• Following anyone that would follow me back.  No particular selection process.
• Bit too focused on numbers of followers and how to acquire more.  A zero sum game.
• Used the basic web interface.  Found it frustrating and missed so much good content.
• Exchanged messages with a lot of people that I knew who had early adopted it – it meant I got to know a few people better.
• Sent too many Tweets.  Didn’t realise that if you “machine gun” tweets out, it adds nothing.

Mid Term (Followers around 1,500)

• Switched to Tweetdeck –  it all made a lot more sense.
• Set up search columns.  Realised the tool is much more powerful than just following people/follow backs and could be used as a live “google search” on the terms I wanted.
• Saw the potential for personal learning (following great people and their insights), following journalists (trends) to see what is new in technology.
• Realised that it’s better to create a genre for my account.  Business, Leadership, Innovation, Environment, Sales, Marketing, Trends,  Social Media.  Keep it focused on those elements, less about me, more about them.
• Accepted that followers is about engagement and influence.  People will come and go as there tastes/jobs/lives change.  Follower numbers are fluid, as I follow/unfollow, people will follow/unfollow me.
• Realised it could be used to effectively drive traffic to websites and blogs –  providing the content has been filtered, is of good quality and enriches your audience.  My blogposts are my own unique thoughts, not content from others.  The more people see it and agree with it, the more likely it is they’ll stick with you.
• Started unfollowing people.  Realised that there is no benefit to having Twitter followers if you have nothing in common with them or  never interact with them.  Otherwise, they are just meaningless numbers.  Actively began to disengage with some followers, happy that my follower numbers may reduce – they didn’t, they’ve continued to grow.

Now (Followers around 3,600)

• No focus on followers – just on good content to share.  Review everyone that follows me to see if I can learn anything from them.  I don’t target followers, have a number in my head or see it as any kind of popularity KPI.
• Still a big focus on personal learning -  Seeing what’s hot, new, changing.  Using that to develop insight for personal development or company direction.
• Supporting Corporate and Personal Reputation.  Being accessible as a business leader within a large multi-national brings opportunities to our door first.  Great outcome as you can have first refusal on exciting initiatives.
• Filtering.  Using search columns and interesting people to see great stuff and share it.  I don’t send anything out unless I have personally read it and see it of value.
• Network Development.  Twitter is my trawler net of contacts to meet in person, then add to my Linkedin network.  My ratio of Twitter followers to Linkedin network is around 6:1 and continues to grow.  That’s where I can distinguish who is an “associate” relationship, rather than someone I consider to be of longer-term value.
• To develop insight around individuals or businesses.  To start/develop conversations with people to assist in the development of intelligence for business development purposes or opportunity engineering.
• To stay in contact with people in my wider network and underpin relationships.  A chance meeting becomes much more meaningful when you can refer to something that has recently happended to the third party.  I use filter columns in Tweetdeck to track important people, like a “live” electronic little black book.
• Housekeeping.  It’s important to regularly review who has gone inactive, what your last 10 Tweets say about you if someone looks at your feed (delete stuff if you think it stepped outside your genre), thank people for RT’s and mentions, review the profiles of people that follow you to ensure that they fit your desired  intention for your Twitter feed and – more importantly – keep the feed going with some regularity and frequency.