Can losing control online actually benefit your business?
Social media guru's the world over will tell you that if you want to get into social media do your best not to own your content. This is a difficult concept to understand. Control is all we know. How can something benefit me if I don't make sure it does? Well this...
Relearn to Relate
This article was first published by Graeme Codrington in 2004, and has now been updated to reflect the post-recession realities of our new world of work. The world is changing. We all know that. But what is it changing to? And who will have the competitive advantage...
Change has changed
One of the major reasons that interventions, training and change processes don't work as effectively as we would like them to, is that we fail to take the time to create the necessary framework of understanding at the start of these processes. Simply put, we do not...
Beware What You Tweet!
On my way back to SA yesterday I read an interesting front page story in the New York Times. Titled, ‘Rand on Twitter Turns Briton Into a Criminal, and a Cause’. It is the account of how a certain Paul Chambers (26), thwarted by a snowstorm at his local airport that...
Surprise! Creating experiences for your customers
For many years now, we've been telling our clients that one of the keys to connecting with younger customers (Generations X and Y) is to add an experience to your offering. No longer are the traditional "Ps" of marketing (product, price, placement and promotion - and...
Mind the Gap: Generations @ Work
This is the original submission as published as the Keynote feature in the Journal for Convergence (ISSN 1606-6162), Vol 5 No 4. "We can't seem to keep our bright young things". This is the common complaint of businesses around the world these days. Talented...
Tracking Your Brand on TV and the Radio with text
With so much TV and radio out there, I've always imagined tracking what is said about your brand must be an expensive task. Unless you have voice recognition software monitoring every channel, the only other way to get real time information on who's saying what, about...
Crowdsourcing pays dividends and builds customer partnerships
Every business has customers who are convinced they can design a new product that is better than the product they are being sold. So the question is why not let them? Crowdsourcing is an innovative research methodology that allows customers to help design the products...
Gen Y rewards companies that take Corporate Social Responsibility seriously
Companies need to be making Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) a priority and fast. A research study by the strategic planning and consumer insights division of AMP Agency shows that 61% of Gen Y feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world. The...
Nine key workforce trends for the next decade
How the next few years will shape the future of the workplace in unprecedented and astounding ways. I was recently asked to contribute to a discussion about the most important forces that will shape the next decade of work. I think the following nine trends are going...
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...
Delivering Happiness… a path to profits, passion and purpose
This post follows on from a previous post that I wrote about Tony Hsieh's (CEO of Zappos) new book called Delivering Happiness. The team at Zappos is great and I've had the privilege hosting a podcast with the CFO/COO of Zappos Alfred Lin. Alfred has facinating...
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...
Herding Cats: Building customer partnerships, not customer loyalty.
This is an article I was asked to write for a conference organiser in support for our keynote presentation by the same name Herding Cats. My business partner Graeme Codrington will be presenting this presentation at Loyalty World in London on the 16 November 2010 You...
@HeathrowAirport Twitter – a great case study for customer connectivity
Not many companies get how to use Twitter. @heathrowairport does! Bottom line Twitter and all other social media platforms are about building relationships with customers and entering into a dialogue. Check out @heathrowairport on Twitter. What impresses me about what...
How (not) to do business like Jack Welch
Since leaving GE, Jack Welch has refused to retire gracefully or quietly. He has continued to stay vocal and keep his profile in the media, especially by writing and disseminating business advice. I suppose one shouldn't begrudge him this - after all, he was branded...
“Plane” and simple customer experience that delivers
At JetBlue, an airline, you can pay an extra $50 to get a seat in the Exit isle so that you get more leg room. Once on board your purchase is positively enforced with a sign saying "Stretch you're in an EVEN MORE LEGROOM SEAT" This simple piece of communication...
The Potency of Mass Collaboration by guest blogger Dawna MacLean
This is a post by Dawna MacLean, a person of immense talent and passion. She has repeatedly developed and implemented successful business strategies that have resulted in sustained revenue growth, increased margins, decreased operational costs and improved customer...
Delivering Happiness delivers new insights into customer experience
Recently I read the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh's new book called Delivering Happiness. Now I've been a big fan of Zappos for the past three years, have blogged about them several times and often make reference to the great work that they do in my presentations. So I...
South African Linkedin Research Report
Linkedin is a great network to take part in. It aids business relationship building, employee recruitment, and idea sharing. I have found that being a part of this network has opened up opportunities to profile myself in a professional manner online and start...