Stop the line and fire the middle managers!

The Japanese have always been ahead of the game when it comes to production. The Toyota Way is a method of lean production that puts quality at the heart of everything and any staff member is allowed to 'stop the line' if they feel quality has been compromised. Another new(ish) concept is agile marketing and management. Agile development has been borrowed from project managers, particularly those involved in IT projects, and adapted for use by businesspeople and marketers. Jim Ewel, a fellow marketing blogger says:

"The goals of Agile Marketing are to improve the speed, predictability, transparency, and adaptability to change of the marketing function."

The key principles of agile marketing are the ability to implement change quickly, trusting staff to have the knowledge and ability to get their tasks done, continuous learning through feedback, and perhaps most interestingly the acknowledgement that you might fail, that's okay, but you shouldn't fail the same way twice. Again, learning and using feedback are ways to avoid this.

These are all business concepts that would work for any marketing orientated organisation and we can learn from them, however, what happens when a different kind of organisation adopts these principles?

Well, it can be an amazing success as I was delighted to read today in the national press!  My local hospital, Hinchingbrooke in Huntingdon, was taken over as a NHS franchise by a private equity health organisation in 2012 after extensive problems had been revealed. It really was a failing hospital - in terms of health care and its appalling finances. Now, it has been named as the top hospital in the country for care and will make a profit of £2 million this year.

Thankfully, none of my family has been treated there so far but we dropped in recently to use their cafe and to pass the time before we picked up our daughter. We were amazed that this was what an NHS hospital could look like. It looks like a cross between IKEA and a Premier Inn. High gloss, calm, clean, comfortable chairs, an environment that makes you feel like a human and not a prisoner unable to escape from the harsh lighting and sterile conditions. We had our frothy coffee in the Costa Coffee that looked identical to a high street branch!

The reason for this transformation has been running the hospital like a John Lewis partnership. Everyone has a say and the ethos of the hospital was based on a group discussion with 1,200 of the 1,700 staff - 500 didn't turn up but were invited. The front line staff who are responsible for delivering care are now empowered to solve problems in their wards immediately and without the need to get approvals from long chains of middle managers like standard NHS hospitals. In fact, the middle managers have been stripped out and the board is made up mostly of clinicians.

Queues in A&E have been reduced as computerised systems flag up patients who have waited too long - similar to systems used in Argos where the CEO used to work. Motivation is now high, staff are happy and patients even happier. The feedback process is constantly monitored and testimonials are pinned to the notice boards.

Quality is at the heart of patient care and the Toyota Way has been implemented too... anyone involved in patient care can say 'stop the line' if they think a mistake has been made which to date has stopped failings such as swabs or instruments being left inside patients after operations - something which happened in the days before the takeover.

The reason this change has been so transformational is that the business experts have concentrated on fixing the finances and delivering systems that can sort out major issues like queues or poor quality. They have given everyone empowerment and the chance to make the changes that are needed to put patients first. And they have sensibly demonstrated that clinical decisions should be taken by clinicians. Is it rocket science? No, not really - just good business practice applied to a different kind of organisation. The big question is why is this not applied to every NHS hospital in the country? The answer to that, dear reader, is politics and that is not a question I feel qualified to answer.

The Ball was IN!!!

The hayfever’s kicking in, the weather is on the turn (well, ok, ish) and the days are definitely longer so summer is coming and therefore so is, much to my delight, Wimbledon.

Nearly 12 months ago, I was glued to the telly as Andy Murray finally ended Britain’s 77 year wait for a home-grown champ and he did it in style in straight sets.  For his coach, Ivan Lendl, this was the culmination of a strategy to turn Andy from a contender to a double grand-slam winner worthy of the world number 1 spot one day.  Despite winning his first slam (US Open) in 2012 and an Olympic gold, THIS was the one that mattered.

As the nation expects, he should successfully defend that title in 2014, but he’s not scaled the dizzy heights since that emphatic win over Novak Djokovic.  He’s had back surgery, struggled with his form and dipped to the world number 8. 

Now, there has to be concern over his motivation in preparing for such a title defence with all those issues playing on his mind and doing it without the support and guidance from Ivan Lendl after their partnership recently ended. 

After one recent drubbing, Murray admitted his coach was missing – “that’s a big part of my team”.

There’s rumour aplenty surrounding his next manager and any prospective coach needs to recognise the core aspects of motivation which come in varying degrees in each person (based on David McClelland’s Needs Based Model):

•         The need for achievement – clearly seeks achievement is the main aspect, but also the attainment of realistic but challenging goals, and advancement. There is a strong need for feedback as to achievement and progress, and a need for a sense of accomplishment.

Lendl and Murray were a good partnership and were very much in tune and both could tolerate each other’s nuances – Lendl, like Murray, had also lost the first 4 of his grand-slam finals before winning the maiden one and was able to offer advice based on experience.  Murray will need strong inner motivation to climb back up the rankings and win more grand-slam tournaments under intense media scrutiny given his recent lapse.  These challenges will get harder – younger players coming to the fore as well as the stranglehold the top 3 players have.

•         The need for authority and power - this driver produces a need to be influential, effective and to make an impact. There is a strong need to lead and for their ideas to prevail. There is also motivation and need towards increasing personal status and prestige.

Lendl recognised Murray’s need for an element of control in aspects of his game and his career but Murray respected his coach and allowed him to advise.  He is the best male British tennis player of at least a generation and now the determination and drive has to be there to get better– he achieved the seemingly impossible and now he has to do it again.  But what next and how?  Common sense suggests he needs a coach who had to stage a comeback himself to at least address that. 

•         The need for affiliation - has a need for friendly relationships and is motivated towards interaction with other people. The affiliation driver produces motivation and need to be liked and held in popular regard. These people are team players.

Previously a lot of negativity was expressed in the press about Murray’s personality and his handling of interviews and personal appearances.  Under the guidance of his team including Lendl he has worked more with the media and invested some time in winning fans.  Tennis, at the top at least, is a team effort 24/7 and Murray has recognised the importance of those in his team and, as recently as today, said he is keen to make the right choice, and not opt for a quick fix.

You cannot be serious!!

Tennis pundits in the past have praised the pairing of Lendl and Murray.  Murray had finally channelled those emotional outbursts into his game and adopted a less frenetic demeanour on court.  If the rumours are true and Murray is considering John MacEnroe (who won 7 grand-slam titles and was one of tennis’s more colourful characters) as a coach, then we could see some smashing (that is raquet-smashing) tennis this summer. 

Fabulous – pass the pimms!

Who's in charge in the kitchen?

My husband and I are avid fans of BBC’s Masterchef each year, and it inspires us to try all things culinary although we are not even vaguely good at it.  After each attempt, the kitchen looks as if we’ve just survived a hurricane and we use every pan in the kitchen to create one titchy soufflé.

However the subject of leadership cropped up during one recent episode which showed Ping Coombes being part of a team of three cooking food for the cast and crew of EastEnders and she was elected to be the team’s captain.

Her team members were Jack and Michael, the former is a 22 year old confident but calm talent with real inventive flair, and the latter is older at 30, is quietly spoken, dependable and sticks to his roots (he basically does our kind of food but it’s more posh). 

From the off, Ping was demonstrating not only the speed and skill needed to produce 60 main courses and desserts but the leadership skills needed to execute the project and motivate her team.  Cooking at this level is an art.  Being able to get someone to do what you want because they want to do it makes leadership an art form too (as Eisenhower famously quoted).

In the main, effective leaders:

Don’t issue instructions.  Instead, where appropriate, they take charge. 

Ping agreed the tasks with Jack and Michael beforehand and then drafted up worksheets to keep everyone on track.  She also took responsibility when things were tricky and put things back on track when they went pear shaped (no pun intended) – all vital things when you have both time and resource pressures. 

Are good motivators, inspiring people to take their lead and getting the most from existing resources and they are passionate and confident.  Leaders also recognise the skills of each team member and how they can be best used.

Jack was on pastry (and he’s ace at it) and Michael indicated was given a less creative job of preparing the fish for the main and he, to our amusement, said “it’s got to be done I am the only who can be trusted with such an expensive, quality ingredient”.  OK, he probably wanted a sexier job at that time, but for the sake of the team he got stuck in.

Have the energy, determination and resilience and bring initiative and competitive drive to the team. 

Ping has this in spades and the personality to go with it.  She appeared to have the trust and respect of her team members.  Both are vital in leadership

This evening hubby was again feeling creative in the kitchen.  Whilst I languished on the sofa with a glass of wine, he produced chicken Ballantine with shiitake mushrooms with a red wine reduction and steamed samphire.  That’s roughly translated into sausages, gravy and veg. 

Whilst I ignored his shouts for sous chef assistance (he wanted me to wash up a pan I think), I am hungry to expand this blog into one about gender and get you cooking up a storm.  Are women better than men at leadership?  Who is better at stepping in and getting their hands dirty?  Who is more likely to be focused on themselves rather than on the team?  Who is more likely to write it down so everyone has a clear plan to follow?

If you watched this Masterchef episode and noticed the other team's performance, you may get a clue as to my answer to those questions........!

I don't care what it's called... just give me the drugs!

Woke up today feeling dire (cough cough) so I instantly reached for the medicine cabinet to find anything resembling Nurofen. In our house, we call anything that fixes headaches, fevers and pains Nurofen but the reality is that it's only my husband who will cough up a few quid for the real deal. I am a bargain shopper and am totally sold on Tesco's copycat ibuprofen tablets for 32p! They do the same, they look the same, they taste the same, but I save about £1.40.

Once a drug patent expires and the pharmaceuticals company has recouped the cost of R&D, other manufacturers have the right to manufacture and market a generic drug like ibuprofen under their own brand name like Anadin Ultra or without a brand name like Tesco's own label version. Sometimes the inactive ingredients may vary making one better or easier to absorb than another but in most cases, there is no difference at all.

So why do customers still pay more for an expensive version of the same drug just to contribute to the manufacturer's marketing and profit margin? It can be down to education - not knowing that the formulations have the same efficacy. It could be because those customers are not price sensitive. It's probably because they believe and trust the advertising claims and that they like the brand, its values and its packaging. And it can also be about heuristics: I always buy this brand and I have confidence in it. You can also think about when that purchase is made... in a relaxed shopping situation where you can browse the list of ingredients and make a price comparison, or running into the chemist to grab a solution to your blinding migraine - in that case, an instant decision may be made on which packet you trust to cure you the quickest. Regardless of the generic competition, Nurofen is still the fastest growing analgesic brand globally and leads the pack in the UK, Australia and New Zealand - the drugs work and so does the branding.

"Good Morning, Customer Care has arrived at this station"

Like many of you I am sure, I had to wrestle my way around London during the recent tube strike.  It was busy, extremely so, at times, but the London Underground stations that were open and where trains were running were generally staffed by helpful staff and volunteers in high-vis jackets who were helping weary commuters complete their journey.

As I was an unprepared commuter (dead phone battery, no newspaper and certainly no book), I was more acutely aware of the automated announcements seemingly being made at every few seconds.

Customer care on trains I guess is all about getting people to their destination in a timely fashion.  As commuters we hope for regular services in a safe clean train.  So that’s it isn’t it?  Well, no of course not as that was before our expectations were augmented to include the need for timely, accurate information and some comfort and lots of other key “touch points” along the way.  The new “through trains” on the Circle line (and others) certainly meet some of those comfort needs aplenty – space, air-conditioning and no closed carriages so now crowded suddenly feels quite…..well, comfortable!

The other need we have is for timely information – especially in an age obsessed with speed.  There is of course a big uproar about closing ticket offices (hence the strike) but actually I refer to the automated information being given below ground.  It reminded me that now we’re in the age where  we are now, frankly, bombarded and I lost count of the number of announcements made during my journey.  Why is it necessary to have such an assault on the senses?  Is it because it is:

• ·         an integral part of the customer service (because everyone needs this information all of the time) so more announcements mean we are fulfilling that need? 
• ·         avoiding the need to have lots of staff (good for productivity and hence profitability) but we have to have visibility so we need lots of announcements?   
• ·         to obviate the problems with humans doing customer care (ie. can be difficult to manage and control how well and frequently messages are transmitted).  Without automated messages, train drivers would have more opportunities to practise their audition for Britain’s Got Talent.  We could end up with this type of thing (which I do love)   "Ladies and Gentlemen, I do apologise for the delay to your service. I know you're all dying to get home, unless, of course, you happen to be married to my ex-wife, in which case you'll want to cross over to the Westbound and go in the opposite direction".

My theory is, in the main, it’s because we now provide customer care in an age where speed is more important, certainly in the case of travel!  It’s easier to standardise information into announcements and keep them coming to ensure the message gets out than it is to provide the human touch.   It misses the point of good customer service though – which is accurate and timely.  

As we’re using technology we should be able to avoid errors such as being on the last east-bound Jubilee Line train, and listening to announcements about connections we couldn’t make because of closed stations – all of which were in the other direction. 

Once I was finally on my over-ground train home, I was subjected to more automated announcements whilst seated in the so-called quiet carriage.  “Ping Pong” came the sound every time we arrived at a station  – only this time they’d not pushed the switch to reflect the train was now going the other way. 

Health and safety is such an important issue to cover off too.  We must ensure we say stuff repeatedly “just in case”.   At my local over-ground station, we’re reminded not to skateboard or cycle on the platform and not to leave bags or parcels unattended which is fair enough you could argue.  Perhaps it is also important to remember about slippery platforms in wet weather but regularly indicating the “adverse conditions” is a bit OTT when it’s drizzling a little.  This is the UK after all.

I remember reading an article a few years ago now about how train travel customer service was full of waffle and fluff, littered with charters and codes of conduct.  Commuters were “customers”, “clientele”, “clients” and “patrons” and this particular author mused he simply wanted to be a commuter again.     Discussing my journey options with humans in high-vis jackets in Marble Arch ticket hall was a bit reminiscent of the old commuting days I thought.  So if we went back to the land of the commuter, would that reduce automated announcements?  Thanks to technology leading the way, that’s probably a destination we’ll never get to.

Don't be castaway: survival of the fittest

Watching  Bear Grylls’ The Island last night with the husband shouting ‘use the spectacles and the sun’s rays to make fire’ at the group of castaways made me think about survival. 

Sometimes it does feel like you've spent an eternity adjusting this and improving that and still you can’t make it spark. You know it’s possible, you know the theory, you listen to the advice and rebuttals from your critics and supporters but you just can’t get it to work.

Survival in marketing is often about difficult decisions that need to be made about our combination of products / services that we provide for customers. We might need to make some adjustments. We might need to pass them onto someone else to see if they can create that spark. We might need to throw it all away and start again, or just give up (as hard as that might be).

We call this portfolio analysis and it helps us to understand what stage our products or services are at in their life cycle – can we stop declining sales and rejuvenate the offering? Should we be launching new products? Should we be selling them at all? We also need to understand where growth is coming from, how we can manage fluctuations or seasonality in demand, and where there is risk and opportunity – such as a gap in the market or in our portfolio.

There are a variety of tools available to help us with this process (links to tutorial sites I like are provided for your info):

The Product Life Cycle - examines where your product is in its life stage and whether you need to act to stop it falling into decline (compare to other products in your portfolio to understand its implications).

Ansoff’s Matrix – helps you examine the way your business can grow through its products / services and markets.

The Boston Box – helps you to identify where to invest time and money to support a product / service based on market growth and share.

The McKinsey and General Electric Matrix – looks at the level of market attractiveness and competitive strength in a 9 cell matrix for an organisation’s business units.

Positioning Maps – establishing the positioning of a brand based on key characteristics of your choice. These should be based on research with the axis representing a scale for best indicative results, however, they are also looked at on a more subjective set of dimensions when data is not available.

So, don’t be castaway gazing at the dying embers of your leading product, or constantly on the back foot struggling to survive and keep your product alive, the fittest survive because they know the strengths and weaknesses of their portfolio, how and where to adapt, and how to keep on moving forward by constantly learning, gathering data, and reassessing the combination of products / services they provide to their customers.