Forget creating customer loyalty and focus on building friendships with customers

I’m not talking about the glib friendships companies try to encourage by inviting their customers to be friends or fans on Facebook, but rather intimate and deep relationships that come from having a vested interest in the people that make their business possible. I recently came across a study by Michael Argyle and Monika Henderson at Oxford University on friendships. They identified a number of universal rules, which they published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. The rules included: Friends must provide support, respect privacy, share aspirations, dreams and be tolerant of other friendships. It is my belief that any company could use these rules as a framework for their customer experience and engagement framework.

You can read more of my thoughts on this issue in the white paper I wrote called Onions and Parfait: Why customer relationships no longer need to be a thing of fairytales and pirate stories.

Today I came across a great example of the third rule in action. Gwilym Davies co-owner of Prufrock Coffee at 140 Shoreditch High Street, and the current World Barista Champion, has come up with the “disloyalty card.” The idea is simple, you get a stamp on a card for visiting eight different quality focused coffee shops. After visiting the eighth “friend” (actually his competitors) He will say thank you by making you a cup of his own coffee for free. There is no catch Gwilym just wants people to try different quality coffees.

So swing by Prufrock Coffee shop grab a card, enjoy your tour of the best cafes and coffee shops around Central and East London and then go back to Prufrock for your free cup where you can compare notes with one of the best baristas in the world. Pure customer experience genius at work. Superb stuff!!

Examples of Tremendous Business Leadership

I came across a fantastic post today that provides excellent leadership and company case studies. Here are some of the headline learning’s I’ve taken from this article:

- reward your staff during tough times: During 9/11 SouthWest announced a $179.8 million profit sharing payment to employees.
- Be human, approachable, genuine and transparent: Toyota’s CEO Jim Lentz appeared on a Digg Dialogg (an often hositle forum to corporate companies). The questions were asked in order of votes made by digg members, and none were filtered.
- Be humble and challenge the “nasty” stuff about your industry even if it means retaliation by the established players. Consumers will appreciate the honesty and reward you
- Don’t pay yourself excessive salary. Jim Sinegal CEO of Costco figured he shouldn’t be paid more than 12 people working on the floor. See also my colleague Graeme’s post A Radical Proposal for Executive Pay
- Trust your staff – At a time when the idea of “business blogging” was brand new (and usually feared), IBM encouraged their 320,000 employees to start company blogs. IBM leadership drafted a corporate blogging policy that encouraged employees to be themselves, speak in first person, and respect their coworkers.
- Perhaps the simplest but most powerful… always listen first, and speak last.

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The future of money

For years banks and credit card companies have held a strangle hold over the movement of money and charged exorbitant rates for doing so. Now this is changing and fast.

Michale Ivey the founder of Twitpay has devised a system, using code that PayPal made available to him, that allows people to make payments using tweets. The way it works is you include the recipients’ username in their message. For example, posting the update “@johnsmith twitpay $10 for lunch” would deliver the cash to that Twitterer’s Twitpay account. Simple and brilliant!

Hundreds of engineers and entrepreneurs are now revolutionising the payment industry, attacking the payment ecosystem and seeking out ways to pull down the stronghold the banks and credit card companies have built.

Here are some examples:

- Square, a new company founded by Twitter cocreator Jack Dorsey, lets anyone accept physical credit card payments using an attachment on their iPhone, any other a smartphone or computer by plugging in a free sugar-cube-sized device — no expensive card reader required.
- A startup called Obopay, which has received funding from Nokia, allows phone owners to transfer money to one another with nothing more than a PIN.
- Amazon.com and Google are both distributing their shopping cart technologies across the Internet, letting even the lowliest etailers process credit cards for less than the old price, cutting out middlemen, and figuring out ways to bundle payments to sidestep the credit card companies’ constant nickel-and-diming.
- Facebook appears to be building its own payment system for virtual goods purchased on its social network and on external sites.
- Apple has given iTunes developers the ability to charge subscription fees through their applications, making iTunes the gateway for an entirely new breed of transaction.

About 20 percent of all online transactions now take place over so-called alternative payment systems, according to consulting firm Javelin Strategy and Research. It expects that number to grow to nearly 30 percent in just three years.

This is going to revolutionise the way we use money eroding the monopoly that banks have. Serves them right for causing the Great Recession I’m looking forward to the day that we can all bypass banks. Zopa is another example of the new breed of talented companies that is reshaping the world of finance. Zopa is a lending and borrowing exchange where real people sidestep the banks to get a better deal. I’m going to research and write an article on innovative companies that are changing the world of finance so what this space.

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20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter

I’ve become a big fan of twitter. For me it is a great example of how people want to share ideas and connect, it’s a huge social triumph. Every day I find new and interesting content and connect with very interesting people. It’s a great ideas portal and I hope someone is capturing the ideas and innovations that spring from this amazing phenomenon. The trick is to find the interesting people and cut through the riff raff of people telling you what they had for breakfast! Forbes magazine’sHalle Tacco (@halletacco) has written a great article based on research undertaken by Harvard Business Review on women twitter users and lists 20 inspiring women to follow. Interestingly she says that women are less loved on twitter and that men have 15% more followes even though there are more women users on twitter (55% to 45%). Men are also twice more likely to follow another man than a women and women are 25% more likely to follow a man than a woman…Personally I’m off now to follow all these 20 inspirational women they sound great!

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Connect with customers like you do friends

In my most resent article Onions or Parfait I put forward the proposition that companies should use new social media innovations to build relationships with customers akin to those of friendships. I strongly believe that customers want to engage in a open two-way relationship with companies that show a willingness and expend effort to build relationships. I just came across an example of 5 big brands that are using blogs, facebook and twitter to do just this. In a post by Attraction Marketing Starbucks, Zappos, Vitamin Water, H&M and Coke are identified as big brands that are actively using social media to build friendships and not just sell products.

I’m not surprised to see Zappos in this list. Zappos are innovators in creating connections with people inside and outside their organisation. I regularly use Zappos as a case study in my presentations and workshops. You can discover more about Zappos here:
Keeping employees motivated during a recession
Zappos hits one billion $ in sales
Zappos – delivering WOW through service

Zappos makes for an awesome case study in the corporate boardroom so if you are looking for ideas for your next meeting or proposal to your boss visit their website or email me and I’ll gladly offer my insights

You can read the article on Social Media 5 Big Brands below

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Best performing CEO’s in the world

Morten T. Hansen, Herminia Ibarra, and Urs Peyer have written an excellent article in the Jan-Feb 2010 edition of Harvard Business Review.

A lot of people have blamed short-term thinking for causing our current economic troubles, which has set off a debate about what time window we should use to assess a CEO’s performance. This article contains the first ranking that shows which CEOs of large public companies performed best over their entire time in office and the results cover close on 2,000 CEOs worldwide.

It may come as no shock that Steve Jobs of Apple tops the list. However, the ranking does contain a few surprises with some relatively unknown faces at the top. The inverse is also true: Some obvious candidates in terms of reputation don’t make the top 50, or even the top 100 or top 200. In fact, the list overlaps very little with lists of the most-admired or highest-paid CEOs.

Here are some of the headline findings:

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Tesco launches world’s first zero-carbon emission store

Tesco sometimes takes a few knocks in the press. Most recently for not allowing people wearing pyjamas into their stores and another for asking a father, for safety reasons, to leave a store because he was balancing his six-year old child on his shoulder. Frankly I don’t want to shop were people are running around in their old flannel pyjamas (it’s never going to be sexy French lace nighties) so I for one applaud this decision and as for the dad with his kid on his shoulders, sure it’s petty but we have a government obsessed with health and safety rules and a big brother mentality. So no need to shoot the messenger in this case the Tesco security guard.

Over the past 18 months I’ve become a fan of Tesco. As a company they have achieved incredible results in a very competitive industry. Tesco have streaked ahead of their competitors over the past 20 years because they understand what their customers want and shrewd management and marketing have kept them ahead of the competition. At the end of last year I had the privilege of being invited to do my Mind the Gap keynote presentation on generational marketing at the Tesco Marketing away day and I got further insight into Tesco, you can read about these insights here.

This week Tesco launched the world’s first “zero-carbon” emission store as part of its bid to be a carbon neutral company by 2050. The shop, in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, is timber-framed rather than steel, and uses skylights and sun pipes to cut lighting costs. It also has a combined heat and power plant powered by renewable bio-fuels, exporting extra electricity back to the national grid. In addition the refrigerators – one of the biggest blackspots for food retailers trumpeting their green credentials – have doors to save energy and harmful HFC refrigerant gases have been replaced. The new store, cost 30% more to build, but it uses 50% less energy, and with oil costs on the increase the business case sells itself.

To coincide with the Ramsey opening, the supermarket chain said it intended to spend more than £100m with green technology companies, although Leahy was unsure of the level of supermarket’s current spend on this.

Tesco has been at the forefront of the grocers’ race to be green. The UK’s biggest supermarket has provided £25m of funding for the University of Manchester to set up a sustainable consumption institute, and has a 10-point community plan, with pledges to increase local sourcing and to consult local communities in an attempt to be viewed as a good neighbour.

Will the next generation live to be 1000 years old?

Anthony Atala asks, “Can we grow organs instead of transplanting them?” His lab at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is doing just that — engineering tissues and whole organs (bladders and, soon, kidneys) using smart bio-materials and cutting-edge techniques.

Watch his amazing short video on TED MED

Marketing and product development for Boomers

Appliance makers GE and Whirlpool have been quick to recognised to economic power of the silver tsunami (or baby boomers over the age of 50!) and are making great strides in product development. The Wall Street Journal in it’s article Home Appliances to Soothe the Aches of Aging Boomers provides a few examples:

- Whirlpool now offers washing machines with large knobs that make louder-than-usual noise when they’re set. They also offer a pedestal beneath Whirlpool dryer reduces stooping when removing laundry.

- At GE’s consumer and industrial headquarters in Louisville, designers use “empathy sessions” where members of the product-development team tape their knuckles to simulate impaired dexterity. GE’s Engineers and designers have been very busy “boomerising” their products and now proudly offer:
- Ovens with easier-to-open doors and automatic shut-off burners.
- Stoves designed to prevent boil-overs.
- Stoves that you don’t have to reach far into – to prevent boomers from stooping awkwardly, losing their balance and burning themselves on the hot stove!
- Fridges with brighter LED lighting to improve visibility
- Dishwashers and washing machines that allow users to put in an entire bottle of detergent a few times a year rather than a smaller amount for every load. Supposedly the machines are designed to reduce confusion and make housework less of a chore, as GE neatly puts “particularly for older consumers”.

All of these new product designs are great for “old people” but try telling baby boomers that you are selling them a product that will remind them on a daily basis that they are OLD! I’d like to meet the marketer who is able put a positive spin on this marketing message because I don’t believe it exists.

Baby Boomers may be getting old but one of their core values is that of youth and vitality. Designing a product that reminds them they are old is not going to win you any points. Rather companies need to be developing products that enhance boomers lifestyles allow them to enjoy themselves and frees up their time to go skiing (spending their kids inheritance) GE may be taping up the fingers of their product designers but they are failing to use the “empathy sessions” to help get their designers into the heads of baby boomers so that they can understand what drives them and makes baby boomers tick.

The Silver Tsunami – Baby boomers are responsible for more than 40 percent of retail spending, companies need to pay attention to this.

Boomers control over 75% of the personal net wealth in the UK and yet most marketers and companies choose to target families and young adults. Another problem is that companies treat people over the age of 50 as one globular market segment, and they have been using similar marketing messages for the past two decades. Those that fail to recognise how much this market is changing and why are in for a shock. The main reason for changes is that baby boomers have arrived in droves. Baby boomers are those people born after WW2 and 1964. They experienced the economic boom of the 60’s and the moon landings. They are very different from the Silent Generation, those people born before the boomers, between the great depression and 1944.

Booz & Co have written an article highlighting how many companies are missing huge opportunities by not recognising these differences. Authors Richard Rawlinson and Natasha Kuznetsova also believe that “For most companies confused about how to reach older consumers, a good place to start is a cultural shake-up of the marketing organization, which should include the addition of an entirely new set of skills…In short, more gray hairs are needed among brand managers and external collaborators such as agencies, re search firms, and media planning organizations.

Employing aging marketers is a good solution our research shows that boomers respond best to marketing campaign and products when they have been designed by boomers for boomers. Another way is to train younger marketing staff to have generational empathy and to see the world through the eyes of Baby Boomers. Our Mind the Gap presentation and workshops provide this very solution. By giving marketers insights into the values and driving attitudes of people from different generations we’ve achieved fantastic results. For one client we increased total company revenues by 300%, for another we increased sales of key product line by over 70%; and for a leading bank we doubled response rates for a direct mail campaign targeting a saturated market.

You can read more about generational values and generational marketing by following these links :

Detailed introduction to Generations: written by world renown generations expert Dr Graeme Codrington
Onions & Parfait – Why customer relationships no longer need to be a thing of fairytales and pirate stories by generational marketing expert Dean van Leeuwen
Generations in crisis by Dean and Graeme

Invictus The inspiration of Nelson Mandela

Although the movie Invictus is only released in cinemas this coming weekend I was fortunate to get an early viewing this past Saturday and for me the film is simply brilliant. A week ago I’d decided to read Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom, so watching Invictus after having reread the book evoked a number of emotions and I must admit there were parts where I felt very teary. My colleague Graeme Codrington wrote a post below and mentions that today, the 2nd of Feb 2010 is exactly 20 years after Madiba was released. As a South African I find this amazing. Twenty years ago SA was on the brink of a bloody civil war, there are still problems but the SA I know today is a much better place than it was back then. In Invictus, Mandela played by Mr Freeman is portrayed as a man both burdened and blessed by having become a living icon after years of political struggle. Now as a newly elected President, Mandela takes his astute wisdom, insight into people, and incredible leadership to unite a nation still fearful on one another. I still remember clearly the 1995 world cup victory, how all South Africans partied in the street rejoicing the rainbow nation. The Economist has written an excellent review of the film and you can read it below. In Invictus, Mr Freeman and Mr Eastwood to made their sunniest film yet.

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CEOs lose faith in strategic planning, they should look to yacht racing for answers

The Great Recession has made CEOs rethink strategic planning. Walt Shill, head of the North American management consulting practice for Accenture believes that: “Strategy, as we knew it, is dead…Corporate clients decided that increased flexibility and accelerated decision making are much more important than simply predicting the future.”

In my my latest presentation Brave New World which explores the realities of the new world of work and steps companies need to take to become a talented company, I compare strategic planning of today with that of yacht racing. Strategic planning of yesteryear was more like an egg and spoon race. Competitors lined up at the annual starting line, ran in a straight line from point A to point B, making minor quarterly changes (normally to budgets and not strategy!) and once in a while someone dropped the ball (in this case the boiled egg) and pandemonium ensued.

However, for the modern talented company strategic planning is like yacht racing. Talented companies have a clear destination or vision of where they want to get to. But once out of the harbour they recognise that things can change. The course you plotted may head north but you discover that competitors are heading south, do you change your plan and follow or keep track? A weather system may develop causing rough seas on your route, do you tack around the storm or hit it head on? The key for yacht racing is that strategy is emergent! As conditions around you change so do strategy and tactics. The one element that does not is your destiny (vision), how you get there depends on team work (in emergent strategy everyone understands the quest, provides input and is involved in the strategic planning process). Ultimately the skipper (as should the CEO) steers the boat and emergent strategy required bold leadership but the team is integral to the strategy as it emerges.

The days of long term strategic planning are over but that does not mean that strategic process is dead it has just changed. Strategic planning has now become emergent strategic planning.

For more information on emergent strategy and what it can do for your business please contact me.

You can read more about the latest thinking on strategic planning in the Wall Street Journal

Rethinking Marketing and the age of consumer capitalism

In this months Harvard Business Review, Roger Martin writes that “modern capitalism can be broken down into two major eras. The first, managerial capitalism, began in 1932 and was defined by the then radical notion that firms ought to have professional management. The second, shareholder value capitalism, began in 1976. Its governing premise is that the purpose of every corporation should be to maximize shareholders’ wealth. If firms pursue this goal, the thinking goes, both shareholders and society will benefit. This is a tragically flawed premise, and it is time we abandoned it and made the shift to a third era: customer-driven capitalism.

I couldn’t agree more. Information is power and information has now passed into the hands of the consumer. Never before have customers been able to find information on available products and services easier and quicker, and with the rising power of peer reviews brochure style marketing is fast becoming obsolete.

In the new world of work talented companies will rethink marketing. The role and function of marketing will change quickly. Customer experience will be placed at the top of the strategic agenda at board meetings and the CCO (Chief Customer Officer) will become as important if not more important a role as the CFO. Companies that fail to identify this shift and implement these strategic changes risk ending up on the dust pile of corporate dinosaurs.

Are you working for a TALENTED COMPANY, or do you know of examples?

I’m on a quest to find companies that are extraordinary, companies that not only achieve good financial results but also contribute positively to society as a whole. I’m intrigued at how many companies have fallen down in the past few years because a number of very talented people have been behaving badly – think Enron, the financial crisis, Bernie Madoff, Lehman Brothers and the US motor industry to name but a few. Companies have wrongly convinced themselves that they need the best of the best, the most talented people, to succeed and they have been rewarding their “talent” excessively. This has resulted in a bonus culture that is eating away at the fabric and moral code of business.

Rather than build a business around star individuals I believe that companies need to be building talented systems processes and cultures. They need to be focusing on building the star company. I’m currently conducting research to form the basis of a new book about talented companies. if you know of or work for a company that has talented structures, organisational designs, cultures, systems and corporate DNA I’d love to hear from you.

Onions or Parfait – Customer relationships no longer need to be a thing of fairytales and pirate stories

For some companies, customers are like onions, full of layers and potential but difficult to identify through watering eyes. For other companies – those with a deep and intimate understanding of their customers – they are like parfait, rich, rewarding and fattening (in a good way) to the bottom line. Discover how Bill Clinton, Shrek and Donkey plus the fishmongers at Seattle Pike Place Fish Market can help you increase revenue and become a more customer centric company. By connecting with people’s value systems you can transform your customers from onions into parfait, and according to Donkey – an authority on the subject – everyone loves parfait!

Through our research, we’ve identified a method of developing marketing campaigns and customer experiences that connect with people’s driving value systems. The results have been exceptional. For one client we increased total company revenues by 300%, for another we increased sales of key product line by over 70%; and for a leading bank we doubled response rates for a direct mail campaign targeting a saturated market. In this article, Dean van Leeuwen, co-founder of TomorrowToday UK, explores how generational and values-focused marketing can assist your business in building stronger relationships that boost sales and retention.

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Building values into business

Customers have changed, it’s not just the recession and current market turmoil, there has been a values shift in societies attitudes towards business, finance and consumerism. Our research undertaken in TomorrowToday’s laboratory is revealing that values-focused businesses are the way of the future. If you want your business and brand to be part of a new breed of talented companies and not to end up on the rust pile of corporate dinosaurs then your business needs to be built around connecting with people’s values. The new world of work demands that companies focus their organisation around social and personal values and not just corporate values. Corporate values are the old model traditionally involving trust, integrity, honesty and innovation. These values are now only the base level requirements. Companies in the new world need to go deeper connecting with more far-reaching personal values. People seek relationships with companies; they want a place to be heard, a place to be appreciated and a place to connect. New social technologies are allowing us to build relationships with customers previously not possible. Connecting on a personal values level can place you ahead of the competition in winning the hearts and minds of your customers. The bottom line is if you don’t align with society and you get out of step with value changes, then you’re going to destroy shareholder value.

Tesco, a talented company

I’m always on the lookout for talented companies and I think I found one on my doorstep. The company’s name is Tesco and earlier this week I gave our Mind the Gap presentation at their marketing team away day.

I’m a fan of Tesco (and have written several blogs on the company see TPF has lift off and Tesco trains their staff in generational talk) mainly for one simple reason the customer service and experience I receive when shopping there. I love the fact that they have a stated policy of never having more than two people standing at the checkout. As soon as there is a third person, a new checkout is opened, and this policy works! From the Tesco Express around the corner from where I live, to their megastores I have seen it in action without fail. It is a simple policy but its execution is genius and it keeps me going back to Tesco because I hate wasting my time standing in lines, who doesn’t!

Recently I wrote an article called the Talent Reboot and argued that companies need to be focusing on creating talented companies (by creating talented tribes) rather focusing on individual talent (as banks do). It was therefore great to find in Tesco an example of a talented tribe in action. Carolyn Bradley , Tesco’s marketing director, did a great presentation using Tesco TV adverts (from as far back as the seventies) to bring to life the history of the Tesco brand. It was amazing to see the innovative initiatives and strategies that Tesco has launched since the early 1970’s to grow its market share to nearly twice that of it’s closest competitor. What was more impressive was that this growth has been achieved during at a time when Tesco’s competitors market share has remained relatively stagnant or even decreased. But it was by observing the marketing team in action at their away day and later at their office, that it became apparent that there is more to Tesco than innovative ideas, they are been building talented tribes.

The team spirit I observed at their away day was amongst the best that I have ever seen. I was privileged enough to be given a tour of their very unassuming head office and treated to lunch at the staff canteen (I had a very tasty Cumberland sausage and mash). I was able to see how each marketing team had decorated their cubicles with Christmas themes, building mock chimneys for Santa and using fake polystyrene snow. The finance team won the best and most imaginative design supporting the belief that within each accountant there is a creative marketer waiting to break free. The marketing team at Tesco is clearly talented and full of energy. What I observed at Tesco is very similar to what Zappos, America’s most successful online shoe retailer has achieved. Zappos is often used as a case study of a company that has created talented tribes. At Zappos teams dress up to celebrate events, decorate their team areas and are passionate about what they do – customer service.

What Tesco and Zappos appear to have in common are talented tribes and huge commercial success. They are clearly getting the ingredients right and I plan to follow their stories a lot closer.

The Talent Reboot

THE WORD “TALENT” HAS GIVEN BUSINESS A BAD NAME!

The 15th September 2008 is a day that shall remain etched in the annals of corporate history. It’s the day that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt lurching the world economy into the biggest financial crisis since the 1930’s. On that day and ensuing months it became clear a number of very talented individuals had brought the world to the brink of financial disaster. It’s a day that talent gave business a bad name. But there is more to the new talent challenge than just the financial crisis. Over the past decade consultants have been convincing companies that there is a “war for talent”. In this war, you have been told that talent needs to be given what it wants and that companies need to go to extraordinary lengths to provide talent with all the flexibility and freedom it desires. Nowhere has the war for talent been more ferociously fought than in the corridors of the financial monoliths. Banks, investment houses and insurance companies have hired and rewarded the very best. In return the brightest of the brightest have devised very clever and innovative financial instruments that brought the world to the brink of collapse. The reasons for the financial crisis are complex, needless to say. But what if the crisis happened not in spite of talent but because of it? What if companies have been using the wrong strategies and tactics to fight the war for talent?

This article argues that talent is crucial for business success, but that the current focus and direction being taken is detrimental to businesses and society. A paradigm shifts is required. We argue that the new talent focus needs to be built on creating talented companies, not creating talented individuals.

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The age of cheap oil

I’ve just watched a brilliant presentation by Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Movement on TED. He reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out, and proposes a unique solution to this problem — the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to build systems and communities that are completely independent of fossil fuels. Rob makes some powerful points very eloquently and simply. Using a bottle of a litre of oil he highlights that this amazing porduct contains the energy equivalent of about five weeks of hard human manual labour; we can turn it into a dazzling array of materials – medicine, modern clothing and even laptops; we base the design of our settlements, business models and even economic growth on the basis that we will have oil in perpetuity. Yet when we look back over history at what may be called the petroleum interval, it is just a short slither in history in which we have discovered this extrodinary material and then based a whole way of life on around it. Rob suggests that we are now straddling the top of this energy mountain our degree of dependancy on oil now becomes our degree of vulnerability. For every four barrels of oil we consumer we only discover one new barrel. There are 98 oil producing countries in the world, but of that 65 have already past their peak in oil production.

The truth of the matter is that the age of cheap oil is over. in my latest presentation Brave New World I make the point that the world has changed and that there is now a new normal, and I show how over the coming years society is going to be transformed radically to the point that within ten to twenty years the society that we live in will be completely different and that businesses need to be preparing for this reality now. Of the two greatest factors influencing our world, an aging population and the end of cheap oil, are the two key factors that will force changes in the way we live and how we think about the world around us. If you would like to learn more about the Brave New World, and how you can prepare your business for it, please contact me for more information.

The Next Wave or just a ripple?

Earier this month I posted a blog titled Is the bubble set to burst again in 2010? Today in The Times is reporting that the second wave may be hitting earlier than expected. The front cover article titled Dubai in deep water as ripples from debt crisis spread informs of the £14b in value lost by UK banks yesterday as fears spread of a dangerous new phase in the economic crisis that swept around the globe yesterday as traders responded to the shock announcement that a debt-laden Dubai state corporation was unable to meet its interest bill. The latest reports are that the market has recovered some ground but fears still remain on who is exposed the most to this new crisis. Is this the AfterShock from the tsunami that hit the world financial market just over a year ago and will our markets be able to withstand the next wave? Only time will tell but one thing that this new event does reinforce is our view at TomorrowToday that even as we emerge from the longest recession in UK records, there is now a new normal and the world has changed. Only the boldest and bravest companies will survive this Brave New World. Contact us to learn more about the trends we have identified in the New World of Work.

You can read the article in The Times or read on below … Continue Reading

25 “talented” people behind the meltdown

I’m currently researching and writing an article called “Talent has given business a bad name” and came across a really good article in The Guardian In this article Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who led us into the current crisis. Most of these individuals were the top of their class, hand picked individuals – talent who got it wrong! People like Andy Hornby, former HBOS boss so highly respected, so admired and so clever – top of his 800-strong class at Harvard – but it was his strategy, that got HBOS in the trouble destroying billions of pounds worth of wealth and thousands of jobs. The article by Julia makes a for a compelling read and names and shames a number of high profile business people and politicians

You can read the article below or click here to read article at The Guardian
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Nike’s considered sustainability programme

Nike has some aggressive sustainability targets. Nike CEO Mark Parke believes that corporate responsibility is no longer a staff function at Nike. It’s a design function, a sourcing function, a consumer experience function, part of how we operate.

Lorrie Vogel is the general manager of Nike Considered, Nike’s in-house sustainability think tank says that the long-term vision for Considered is to design products that are fully closed loop: produced using the fewest possible materials, designed for easy disassembly while allowing them to be recycled into new product or safely returned to nature at the end of their life. By 2011, 100 percent of footwear will meet baseline Considered standards, apparel by 2015 and equipment by 2020 – creating better performing products while minimizing environmental impact by reducing waste, using environmentally preferred materials and eliminate toxins.

Wikipedia says that the “Nike Considered line utilizes materials found primarily within 200 miles (320 km) of the Nike factory which reduces the energy used for transportation, diminishing the resulting climate change impact. The manufacturing process reduces solvent use by more than 80% compared with Nike’s typical products. The leather comes from a tannery that recycles wastewater to ensure toxins are kept out of the environment, and it is colored using vegetable-based dyes. Hemp and polyester are used to make the shoe’s woven upper and shoelaces. The mid-sole is cut to lock into the outer sole, reducing the need for toxic adhesives. The shoe’s outer sole includes rubber made from recycled factory rubber waste. Considered is part of a larger effort Nike has been undertaking for several years to reduce waste, eliminate toxic substances, and otherwise lessen the environmental impact of the world’s largest athletic shoe manufacturer. The company has a publicly stated goal to “Minimize or eliminate all substances known to be harmful to the health of biological or ecological systems.”

You can read a recent interview with Lorrie on CleanTechnica’s blog and I’ve sourced an excellent MIT case study for you on how Nike is becoming more greendownload an MIT case study, alternatively contact me and I will send you the report

To degree or not to degree, that is the question!

We’ve been noticing a distinct shift in the perceived value that a university degree brings. It’s largely accepted that a degree from an university, especially an ivy league one such as MIT, Harvard or INSEAD can improve expected earnings significantly. This has resulted in a seemingly all out onslaught by young people to get degrees, to the point now where getting a university qualification does not provide the competitive advantage it offered ten years ago. With so many new graduates, instead of providing enhanced opportunities, degrees have now become minimum entrant criteria for jobs at large corporations. And don’t stop with one degree, today’s graduates feel greater pressure to further their qualification with MBA’s and PHD’s. 78% of students are concerned about getting good qualifications. To put this into perspective, that’s more pressure than they feel to have sex, fit in or taking drugs – combined!

The Telegraph has an interesting article on University: was it really worth the effort? and an interesting website called notgoingtouni is encouraging school leavers to pursue apprenticeships as a viable alternative. When one considers the success of people like Bill Gates and Richard Branson who never got degrees you do have to stop and reflect on whether or not university is the best route to ensuring a bright future especially when the Office for National Statistics revealed that 746,000 18- to 24-year-olds are unemployed – a record rate of 18 per cent. It is thought that about 100,000 of those are university-leavers who, despite their degrees, cannot find jobs.

You can read the whole article from The Telegraph below or click on the link.

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Is the bubble set to burst again in 2010?

A few weeks ago I commented on whether or not the recession would be a U or a W (see blog Is the economy in for a V, a U or a W? HSBC Chief thinks it’s a W) Our research definitely suggests that we have entered a new season and that the next few years are going to be characterised by increased volatility. Further evidence is arising to support the notion that those businesses who think things are going back to “normal” are in for a shock. Larry Elliott and Heather Stewart from The Observer write that central banks are relaxed about booming asset markets. But with repossessions rising and jobs still scarce, some fear we’re heading straight for another bust.

You can read the article here or follow the link to The Observer

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Millennial Muddle

Kids these days. Just look at them. They’ve got those headphones in their ears and a gadget in every hand. They speak in tongues and text in code. They wear flip-flops everywhere. Does anyone really understand them? Only some people do, or so it seems. They are experts who have earned advanced degrees, dissected data, and published books. If the minds of college students are a maze, these specialists sell maps, so says Eric Hoover in his recent article in The Chronicle called The Millennial Muddle

The article covers the thoughts of leading authors, covering issues they agree on and disagree. It’s lengthy but well worth the read.

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Don’t miss the 7th annual Loyalty World conference

We’re very excited to announce that TomorrowToday has teamed up with the talented team at Terrapin and Dean van Leeuwen (Co-Founder of TomorrowToday UK) has been asked to present at the prestigious 7th Annual Loyalty World Conference in London on the 4th of November. Along with a number of other distinguished speakers and industry experts including Luke Johnson Chairman of Channel 4 and Risk Capital Partners, this is a unique conference designed to assist you in understanding all the complex elements that go into designing a successful loyalty strategy. The economic crisis is forcing a change in customer attitudes and priorities. The age of consumerism is all but over and people’s buying habits are changing.

Dean will be presenting Mind The Gap – focusing on how we can use people’s values to build stronger customer relationships and hence greater loyalty. He’ll also be showing the audience why it is we don’t always understand people older or younger than ourselves and why achieving customer loyalty often feels like trying to herd cats!

For more information and to register for the event please visit the Loyalty World website

His finest hour

One year ago, Gordon Brown was being hailed by many as the saviour of the world’s banking system. On October 14 2008 Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary of the time, announced a rescue plan for America’s stricken banks. Germany, Italy, France and Spain had just done the same. All the initiatives had something in common: they looked very similar to the move announced a week earlier by the British prime minister, says George Parker of the Financial Mail.

It intrigues me that this is one of the political PR gaffs of the decade. On the face of it Gordon Brown may have saved the world for the brink of a financial catastrophe. Time will tell… Yet he has been unable to capitalise on this and be seen as a leader who acted decisively. Part of the problem is in Mr Brown’s behaviour. Finance is his natural habitat and it is even argued that, at the time of the crisis, he was more interested in settling long-term questions of financial reform than the nitty-gritty of winning a general election.

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Power of Mobile Money

In the early 1990’s I started work for one of South Africa’s largest banks. The most innovative project I worked on was the use of smart card/chip technology to enable people to purchase items using the smart chip inside their mobile phones. I thought it was the best idea out! Back then mobile phones were the size and the weight of a brick, but the advantages of the mobile chip technology in financial services seemed limitless. The project though never gained traction because the bank was concerned about handing over too much power to the mobile phone operators, and eroding profits.

So it was with great enjoyment that I read the Power of Mobile Money article in a recent Economist. This article illustrates the power behind markets and shows how even the poorest farmer in Africa can force bank managers to support one of the best financial innovations of recent years.

You can read the article below or follow this link to The Economist

The power of mobile money
Sep 24th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Mobile phones have transformed lives in the poor world. Mobile money could have just as big an impact

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Big news in Outer space and Cyber Space

Over the past two months there have been a number of huge developments in both outer space and cyberspace. Developments which could change the world we live in forever.

Outer space first…
On the 24th September it was officially announced that water was found on the moon. Chandrayaan-1, India’s first-ever moon probe, detected wavelengths of light reflected off the surface that indicated the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen — the telltale sign of either water or hydroxyl. In an attempt to further confirm these findings and establish how much water is present, on the 9th November NASA crashed the rocket and a satellite into a crater near the moon’s south pole. It will be awhile before all the data from the satellite can be analyzed to determine if there is water on the moon, but if confirmed then this will be equivalent to finding the holy grail of space exploration. Water on the moon would mean that colonisation of the moon would be possible within the next 10 – 20 years.

Cyberspace rockets ahead…

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Is the economy in for a V, a U or a W? HSBC Chief thinks it’s a W

There is a lot of talk about recovery from the recession, greenshoots and even a new bull market. So I’ve been talking to a few heads of business about how business is going. There are a few outstanding results. A Pharma company that we work with is ahead of target for the second year and experiencing double digit growth. Even some of the specialist FS companies and banks that we work for are doing well. But I’m also finding an increasing number of businesses that are telling me that August and September have been their worst trading months ever. It’s almost as if a year on from the credit crisis, the wave that washed over the financial world has receded and many businesses and consumers are viewing the destruction around them and it’s not a pretty sight. During an interview with The Financial Times The Michael Geoghegan, head of Britain’s biggest bank warned we could soon be heading into a second recession and he fears the upturn will be short lived. He believes that the economy could follow a W-shaped trajectory, with the rebound going into reverse and growth retreating back into the red. Our research suggest that he is right, unfortunately we will not be going back to the normal before the credit crunch. There is now a new normal and bold, creative leadership is required.