Get off the bench

Benchmarking is the process of identifying best practice in relation to both products and the processes by which those products are created and delivered. The search for "best practice" can take place both inside a particular industry, and also in other industries (for example - are there lessons to be learned from other industries?).  Benchmarking is set by your toughest competitors whether you like it or not. 

It’s everywhere you look and is not just confined to the rigors of running a business.  Seemingly every facet of life is compared and contrasted from school league tables to NHS waiting lists to the world’s GDP. 

It is also a factor in sports at the highest level – not least because there’s a league table and world ranking for pretty much every single sport.

This summer of sport has been a good lesson in benchmarking.  We crashed out of the Fifa World Cup early, lost at the cricket, got beaten by the All Blacks in rugby and, Andy Murray, our lone sporting hope at the end of that depressing list, lost dramatically and unexpectedly in the 4^th round at Wimbledon.  British sport is again in that depressing familiar cycle of hope, a few days of fervent belief with a big dose of optimism followed by the come-down of defeat and resignation.   The managers and coaches in each of these examples will doubtless have reasons why they failed, and a strategy and a plan to turn things around and benchmarking will no doubt play a part as they look to emulate those who are consistently at the top of their game.

However, my concern is a general lack of competitiveness at the start of the race - way down to the seemingly unimportant primary school sports day.  I am limbering up for my daughters’ events this week and am hard in training for the parents’ race…..  We’ve been informed that there are no winners – each child has a valuable contribution to make regardless of their ability and awarding winners’ rosettes undermines children’s confidence. Essentially by having no winners, you therefore have no losers.  To get to the top of any sport starts early – the new men’s Wimbledon Champion didn’t start playing when he was doing his A levels.  Sports stars of the future need to learn the mental toughness required for a win (and a loss) early.

My benchmarking mantra is “adopt, adapt, improve” and we’re never going to be at the top of a league table by adding “running away from defeat” to that.

The positive however, looking on the bright side, is no Prayle is a loser at sport this summer.  Game on!

I think it's all over... it is now (the time to divest)...

The TV wasn't hogged at 8pm last night so I think it's safe to return to the sofa... yes, we came, we didn't score many goals and the England team shuffled off the plane with only a cleaning lady to wave them home... or something like that. I'm not the world's biggest football fan by any means but I would have put the England flag up if we'd got to the next round!

So hope's over for another 4 years and the England team are off to Ibeefa and other sunny climes - probably via yacht because the average Premier League player's weekly pay packet is evidently £250k (BBC, 2013) although football blogger Sameer Arshad researched national match fees and found they were "not much" according to Rio Ferdinand and often donated to charity. However, if England had won the FIFA World Cup 2014, the players would have pocketed £650,000 each as a bonus.

If we were doing a cost benefit analysis on England winning the World Cup, the return on investment would be huge - financial benefits, sponsorship and merchandising, increased match ticket sales, and lots of lovely positive PR and a jolly good 'corporate' reputation: Rule Britannia. But how can we justify this team performance? Here are some very rudimentary statistics from a non-football expert:

Over 3 England games, the average ball possession rate was 53% vs Costa Rica, 48% vs Italy and 62% vs Uruguay making the England team's overall performance 54% effective.

England played 3 games and scored 2 goals, an average of 0.67 goals per match.

Based on England's FA structure fee formula (2012) as quoted by Sameer Arshad (above), England players would have received £1,000 each for a draw (Costa Rica), and £750 for a defeat (Italy and Uruguay). So each player would have earnt £2,500 for a fortnight's play totalling £57,500 for the team of 23 players. Not to forget their home pay for their club sides of £11.5m (23 players working for a fortnight with an average salary of £250k).

At the 2012 fee structure rate, each goal cost us £28,750 in player wages.

The simplified version of this cost benefit analysis of course misses out many income streams and other associated wages / costs and despite my lack of interest in football, even I can see the importance of having a national side and participating in the biggest tournament in the world - particularly when we do well (the London Olympics is a case in point). But there is a case for putting a marketing spin on our World Cup performance, in portfolio analysis, we examine the success of our products and divest the ones that are not performing or giving us a good return on investment. Some we put out to pasture if they're past their best. If we turn the argument into one about people management, sales people earn a basic rate and receive bonuses for achieving performance goals which motivates them to aspire to greater and continued success. If they stop selling, they stop earning commission.

At the beginning of June, I decided we must blog about the World Cup and now I've reached that goal post, it's all over... I don't get the point of football but its management intrigues me. Is it enough to give your fans the dream that one day you'll win (again) or do you need to provide tangible returns? Was football better when players didn't earn as much and were just hungry for the game? Do we need to get our players to work harder for their money? Or is it just a backdrop for sponsorship, merchandising and getting David Beckham into tight white pants... now there's a thought...

Get in and get on with it!

As well questions such as “how much should I write” or “what should I write about” or “when do I have to write it by”, one of the additional questions I get at assessment time is how do I get on in marketing? 

So, in the spirit of a bit of careers advice, herewith my top 10 tips:-

1. Bigger isn’t always better: many believe (incorrectly in my view) that you must work for a big big brand with a massive budget to be viewed as successful.  Whilst that may work for some, in the earlier days of a marketing career in particular, marketing roles in big corporations tend to be pretty routine and lack exposure to marketing strategies.  Smaller firms may give more accessibility and scope to progress.  One of the best marketing roles I had was where I grew the role from nothing into a department, brilliant experience.

2. Know your balance from your breakeven:  finance stuff can be scary and a little boring let’s be honest here.  However, having some idea about numbers is a good thing for marketers.  We get dissed by the finance manager if we perpetually look blank at finance related questions.  If you are not keen on numbers, find someone who is to talk you through the basics of budgeting at least.

3. Make a new friend: in connection with the above, the finance manager (who you are now trying to impress with your knowledge) should be your friend not foe.  Work hard to get to know him or her so that they don’t roll their eyes at your budget.  Get them on side and keep them there.

4. Network: there are some events where you can do this externally and keep your eyes open to opportunities, but networking indoors with people from different levels in the organisation is equally valuable especially when restructuring or redundancies are being considered.  If you’ve been noticed by other managers, that could help.

5. Keep up: keep up to date and stay there.  Your marketing knowledge is a tool that needs to be used and sharpened.  Get to know the latest developments and do this continuously as marketing constantly evolves and change and so should you.

6. Quality not quantity: just because you are first to arrive and last to leave doesn’t make you the next top marketer.  You are likely to be wasting time as no-one can be that effective from 7am til 7pm so focus on what you are doing, not how long you can do it for.  Use time away from the office more productively by doing a course, reading, or attending events rather than pecking away at your pc looking busy.

7. Try mentoring: many in the profession who’ve been around a while are happy to give advice and give your career the once over.  Professional bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing run a mentoring scheme to help you take the next steps.  Don’t ask, don’t get is what my mother used to say!

8. Act professionally: you will get noticed for the wrong reasons if you don’t fit in.  Whilst I am firmly against the idea of everyone being the same (this is marketing after all!), if you stick out like a sore thumb then you won’t get that break.  If it’s a “suited and booted” company then that’s what you should be.  Many larger corporates are like that so if you insist on wearing your beach attire you need to rethink your choice of organisation, or your wardrobe....

9. Enjoy it:  There’s very little point if you don’t.  There are lots of facets to marketing:  branding, communications, planning, design, research etc etc so there’s no reason to get stuck in a rut.  Find what you like to do and move from a job into a role.

10. It’s not about the money:  well it is, of course.  We all need it to function but if you don’t think it’s enough then look around to compare your role with an equivalent one.  Set out what you do and why you’re worth more.  Pick your moment to discuss it properly with your manager.  It may be a “no”, or a “not yet” but ask for a plan as to how you can achieve a higher salary.

So in summary, get the right cultural fit for you, learn new skills including financial ones, pick up hints and tips from those around you who can help, look the part, be professional particularly when it comes to asking for a salary increase and enjoy it.  

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!