Building and delivering the benefits of friendships with customers
All good stories begin with… Once upon a time, there was a man who ran a small, but very successful bacon bap stall at a village’s farmers market. He spent time getting to know his customers and everyone knew him. He was famous for serving the thickest, tastiest bacon...
Researching the Millennial Mind with @carol_phillips
Carol Phillips is someone I follow on Twitter. If you're looking for insights and great thoughts around Marketing and Generational Theory, then she's definitely worth following. This week she uploaded a presentation onto Slide Share titled, 'Researching the Millennial...
To be square or to be Foursquare that is the question.
One of the more intriguing social media platforms and new loyalty programme shaping paradigms is Foursquare. The concept is simple: Download the Foursquare app to any smart phone and “check in” to let friends know where you are. By combining the GPS or geo-location...
The new frontier for business – Intrepid explorers
Business leaders have recognised that in 2011 there will be no going back to normal, in fact there is now a new normal that involves a world where change is the new constant and complexity is the biggest challenge. The big question is how do business leaders manage...
The ‘Next-Future’ is the Smart-Phone
Through TomorrowToday, there are two presentations I do that speak to the future of Mobile Phones, Aftershock and Beyond the Hype. In both of them I'm fairly clear in my own mind on one trend around Mobile Phones - that the 'next future' is the Smart Phone. For me...
The 'Next-Future' is the Smart-Phone
Through TomorrowToday, there are two presentations I do that speak to the future of Mobile Phones, Aftershock and Beyond the Hype. In both of them I'm fairly clear in my own mind on one trend around Mobile Phones - that the 'next future' is the Smart Phone. For me...
50 Facts That Should Change the World
The book by this name, by Jessica Williams was published in 2004 (Sep) - you should not be able to read these facts and stay the same. How you choose to respond is up to you - but you can bet that there are people responding. 1 THE average Japanese woman can expect to...
Why Gen Y is Better at Your Job Than You Are
A number of people have sent this article to me. It's a excellent piece posted on BNET, by Penelope Trunk, the brains behind the Brazen Careerist website. She suggests that some of the characteristics of today's youngest workers will stand them in good stead in the...
Why Gen Y is Better at Your Job Than You Are
A number of people have sent this article to me. It's a excellent piece posted on BNET, by Penelope Trunk, the brains behind the Brazen Careerist website. She suggests that some of the characteristics of today's youngest workers will stand them in good stead in the...
A Unique Period of History
In their book, "The Individualized Corporation", Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher Bartlett (buy at Amazon.co.uk or Kalahari.net) try to help readers understand the emerging reality of a connected new world of work by doing a brief historical review of some of the...
The future for profitability and success
Business world is facing the dawning of a new alliance age / revolution that will bring about a new business model more symbiotic and substantially different from the business model of today. The competitive and changing economic landscape demands a new business...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...