Food for thought: my articles

Earth month: why being green will help you innovate

Marketing & strategy, Social responsibility

April is Earth Month and you can act in your everyday life to make our planet better. See for example 10 Tips to Celebrate Earth Month: http://www.isfoundation.com/news/10-tips-celebrate-earth-month

But the most important for us, market creators, is to be inspired by the planet protection  pioneers to bring innovation at the heart of our management processes.

Look at the solar impulse project of Bertrand Piccard – http://bertrandpiccard.com/news/hawaii-20-years-later-440 . It shows that the impossible is possible. Its inspiring but it may seem far away from our day to day potential.

So, look at the new  Paris ePrix taking place this weekend in the heart of the French capital: http://fiaformulae.com . It’s a revolution in racing sports but also a fantastic reputation factor for the city. Suddenly, the city of Paris, one of the world most acclaimed leaders in tourism, add a green component to her image.

Most importantly, going for green will give you a strategic competitive advantage. This is especially true in emerging markets where green standards are not yet developed. In an excellent article of Harvard Business Review Gregory Unruh and Richard Ettenson gives three smart ways to developing sustainable products https://hbr.org/2010/06/growing-green

Innovation led by societal concern is the key trend now. Don’t wait a minute if you want to take the green path ! Very soon it will not be a competitive differentiation  anymore !

Be inspired !

Unknown-1.jpeg

Believe in the value of “moments” !

Life

Life is demanding, business is tough, time is scarce. But in this busy stuff, we need “moments” !

I believe in the value of “moments” ! We need good moments, exciting moments, lazy moments and self care moments. We can go for meditation, expect peace at a yoga course or listen to our favorite music. But we need for sure to escape. Not only to relax, but also to think. just think. I heard an interview of a great scientist today. He said he walks everyday, alone, in order to structure his thinking. His “moments” are fostering his intelligence.

So, this week, look at your timetable and save moments for you !

And if you can’t do it on a regular basis, book a meeting with a mentor.  If you don’t have one, ask me ! You should definitely try one of my inspiring moment 🙂Unknown.jpeg

5 “MUST DO” if you want to empower your team

Leadership, management & governance

Leading a team today has nothing to do with the old ways. Old-type leadership was about giving orders, controlling subordinates and rewarding / punishing people like kids.

Today, this doesn’t work anymore. At best it’s ineffective and at worst it’s devastating ! The key to success is making your team members great players in the game of business. Look at great sport coaches ? Well, you can be a great coach too. This is how to do:

  • Set the direction: people need to know the purpose of their work. It’s key ! If their only goal is to make a bit of money for life, they will not develop their talent. A good boss is showing the way, making clear what the  trip is about and make people ambitious about it. Restate your vision to your team every month !
  •  Listen with empathy: we spend time on our phones and tablets always waiting for the next notification ! We should listen to our team members more: take time out with each of them, go lunch one to one, have a relaxed small talk at the end of the day. Whatever the time, let them talk ! Use Carl Rogers reflective practice http://www.bapca.org.uk/about/what-is-it.html
  • Sometimes “kick the ass”: being always nice is comfortable. People like you, they’re happy and feel good about working in your team. It’s great ! But comfort leads to sleepiness. We can not be good business athletes if we don’t surpass ourselves. Give a shot of energy to your team regularly. Give your opinion on what is not good enough, invite your team to an unexpected meeting and tell them you expect a better performance. Move them !
  • Keep a distance: a boss is not a friend, authority comes out of some mystery you’re keeping about you. I know a lot of my young mentorees who feel uncomfortable about being in a leadership position for the first time. They try to become friends with their team members. Especially with older ones. It’s not a good solution. You can be nice, have a night out with your team, or whatever team building activities, but you should always be in your team leaders shoes…
  • And above all believe in their ability to succeed… People feel when you trust them. Trusting their capabilities, their dedication, their true person. A number of experiences were made showing that when people feel trusted, they perform better. Look at your team members as people, not as objects. Try to find what is best in them. Tell them when they’re doing something good and show them how they can be better. Use Ken Blanchard one-minute manager method, it’s simple and effective http://www.kenblanchard.com

All in all, leading is a fantastic experience ! It’s great to feel others following you, becoming better and performing as a team under your guidance and with your support.

Be inspired !images.jpeg

Megatrend – Urban world: The global consumers to watch

International, Marketing & strategy, Trendwatching

Here is a very interesting report on the future of urban consumption… Read it or keep it and…be inspired !

Urban world: The global consumers to watch

http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/urbanization/urban-world-the-global-consumers-to-watch?cid=other-eml-nsl-mip-mck-oth-1604

Be jazzy this week !

Inspiration, Leadership, management & governance

Capture d’écran 2016-04-10 à 17.12.48.png

Do you know the difference between jazz and classical music ?

Well, classical music is about having a strict agenda and always be the best professional, the best interpreter, with the hope to work under the direction of a great director : no place for improvisation here !

On the opposite side, jazz is about having a clear theme and being able to play around it… A jazz band can play the same tune each night but in fact it’s never the same. You can recognize the theme, musicians know what they are getting to but they innovate at every moment.

Today business is like music, but the environment is so changing that a classical way leads to nothing significant. You should be jazzy : have a clear strategy (strategic choices are your themes) but be subtle and flexible in the execution (that’s the interpretation). Playing that way, you will delight your customers, surprise your competitors and have a clear direction at the same time.

If you’re not sure about what I’m saying, go to a jazz club for 3 nights in a row to listen to the same band. There are a number of them in every city in the world !

Be inspired !

 

 

 

Do you think about your triple bottom line ?

Leadership, management & governance, Marketing & strategy, Social responsibility

Money ! Money ! Money ! The obsession of all managers, company owners, speculators ! Profit & loss. The bottom line ! The obsession of all controllers and finance managers !

Profit is the driving force of the market economy. Some consider it as the final purpose of business and life. Some see it as a measurement tool of business and economy effectiveness. But whatever your opinion about it, times are changing. The P&L bottom line is no more the only one ! 

Look at the success stories of these last 20 years: Google, Facebook, AirBnB,… these businesses grew dramatically because their purpose was to bring new social models. The money making model followed. Actually, they made some years to make money. They looked at the second bottom line: the Societal bottom line. They introduced new paradigms  changing people behaviors everywhere. A number of green companies are putting society first while making profit. B Corps for example, are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency (https://www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-corps)

Once these companies succeed , they also put employees first. They understood that, to keep employees loyal in a  war for talent, they need to make their life at work happy and secure. Sometimes called “new paternalism”, this is also reinforcing the market and economic performance of corporations. They care for the Social bottom line. Read Richard Branson about it: http://www.inc.com/oscar-raymundo/richard-branson-companies-should-put-employees-first.html

Think about the triple bottom line like this:

  • money is the consequence of business performance
  • performance comes from innovation and employee engagement
  • innovation comes out a strong motivation to change the society
  • employee engagement leads to customer satisfaction, hence business performance

So, don’t loose a minute: Care for your triple bottom line NOW Capture d’écran 2016-04-07 à 19.44.54.png

5 reasons why you should stop trying to be perfect

Inspiration, Life

Perfection is what we all thrive for. We’ve been educated with perfection in mind. At school, at home, everywhere, always we were told to be perfect. Perfect child, perfect scholar, perfect girl, perfect boy. We’re also asked to be perfect daughter & son, then perfect mom & dad, perfect sister, brother, friend and life partner. At work it’s the same. Be a perfect employee, perfect colleague, perfect boss ! We all know it’s impossible but we’re running after perfection all our life.

Well ! It’s not impossible, it’s counter productive. Today, being perfect is a handicap !

Trying to be perfect in all is dysfunctional. We focus our limited resources on behaviors that we will never be good at instead of focusing on our strengths. So we become average in all.

Trying to be perfect brings a continuous stress. We’re always struggling to reach a goal with no hope of being successful at it. We run to catch an ever flying bird ! But we go on and on…

Trying to be perfect gets us to care about non important things. We plunge into details to reassure us that we’re good. It makes us loose “the big picture”. In business, it’s a real pity. Thousands of people forget about the important to focus on some stupid details.

Trying to be perfect kills our creativity. Today, creativity is vital. No company or organization will survive without a good deal of idea generation. But more than generate ideas, we need to implement them. Imagine, implement, fail, understand and try again. That’s how we should learn today. By the way, this is how little kids learn to walk !

Finally,  trying to be perfect is boring ! How many days of our life have we spent at school with boring teachers trying to make us good in everything. The more bored we are, the less we learn and the worst we are.

Unknown.png

Forget about your shortcomings and focus on what you’re good at. This is true for people but it’s also true for businesses and any organization.

Be inspired !

So you really want to be customer-centric ?

Marketing & strategy

Many talk about being customer-centric. You too ! But most of the time it’s wishful thinking ! Here are 5 areas to work on. Bind them into a customer-focused program. I can help you for that.

  1. Listen to customers continuously A number of informations are available in the field that never gets up to the top. It’s not surprising. Most of the time, nobody ever asks for front line employees to report customers opinions. Employees are not trained to ask in a proper way. They’re not motivated to be day to day researchers. Who is actually caring for them ? Set up a “customer listening campaign” every year !
  2. Understand customers « needs and wants » to offer the ideal value proposition We are no more marketing products today. We sell solutions, service, image, experience and price is what we sacrifice to get all that. This is what we call “the value proposition”. When did you formalize your value proposition the last time ? How is it different from the one of competitors ? Do your staff people know about it ?
  3. Leave your offices and operation centers to visit customers and take all your staff with you ! Change your “open door day” into a “closed door day“. Go visit the clients facilities, send teams of employees to clients offices to interview their counterpart, teach your boss to go see a customer each week, even if you’re not in sales ! Open the minds of all !
  4. Implement the « reverse pyramid » model of organization Traditional organizational structures come out the army model where people at the top control people below. So, people life at work is commanded by the objective of “climbing to the top”. It’s obsessional and defeating since almost no one is reaching that level. Reverse this and put the front line people, those who are in day to day contact with clients at the top. Management is a supporting role. And the CEO and executive committee should be the most supporting.
  5.  Build close and trustful relationships with customers and work together on problem solving Customer is king is an old saying that doesn’t mean much today. Customers are our partners in value creation. Together with them we should try to work on solutions. They now better than us what are their specific needs and the best way to create value is co-creation. Customer relationship is more than going out dining and drinking with them !

There are a lot more things to do when you want to become a true customer-focused enterprise but this could be a good start. Come to me if you want to start working on it.

Be inspired ! customer-centricity-marketing.jpg

Why whiz kids need an uncle !

Inspiration, Leadership, management & governance, Life

I watched a nice movie in the plane getting me back to Europe. The Intern, with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. It’s the sorry of a old man joining a startup company founded by a young woman.

The Intern

It’s sweet and fun but, moreover, it made me think about 2 things I want to share.

  1. Women leaders need a mentor. They are strong, free and successful but life is not always rosy ! It’s hard for them to be perfect in all. Perfect boss, perfect mother, perfect daughter, perfect, perfect, perfect… Society want them to conform to an ancient role while they struggle to lead better than men. It’s tough and they need to talk to someone neutral. Not a colleague, not even a friend, not their loved ones. Friends and families should be havens where you forget about job turbulence. A mentor can listen, reflect, advise without judging. It helps think clearer and make wiser decisions. This is what Robert De Niro character does for Anne Hathaway.
  2. Every company managed by young guys should hire a senior ! In this movie, Robert De Niro character seems out of date at the beginning of the film. His young colleagues look at  him with amusement. His way to dress, to act, to talk seem of another age. But then, they realize that his experience help them solve number of life problems. They become better educated and better in general. They get wisdom.

Watch the film, reflect and be inspired !12801339_958490804205755_4450148449954357009_n.jpg

Can you position your brand for 20 years ?

Marketing & strategy

Can you position your brand for 25 years ? Or more ? Well Diet Coke did it ! Look at these 2 commercials, one is from 1995, the other from 2013.  Today’s girls are the just the same as those 20 years ago. Same fantasies and same coke !

I told my students today that a great positioning idea should stand for long. Good marketing is about a good strategy first. Making clear choices, choosing your customers, having a strong positioning concept, being strongly different. The rest is execution. And execution is at the service of strategy. This is what these 2 ads show.

Enjoy, ladies !