Management Expert Blog
May 5, 2008
12:29 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
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Posted by Tim Manners
My daily online missive may be called "Cool News" but sometimes the stories I write about are anything but cool. In fact, every once in a while the news is the opposite of cool.
That was certainly true of a news item I picked up from the May 5th edition of the New York Times. The story was about how the number of supermarkets in New York City is declining even though the need for supermarkets there is growing, specifically in low-income neighborhoods.
That may not sound like the stuff of tragedy to you, but it is a real hardship for Della Dorset, who is in a wheelchair. Della used to be able to scoot across the street to get her groceries. But that store has now been demolished, to make way for a housing development and other types of retail.
So, now, as David Gonzales reports in the Times, Della has to navigate her electric wheelchair "several blocks uphill ... returning home with plastic bags dangling from the handles and nestled between her feet." I mean, can you imagine?
But the issue here is not limited to just Della. Supermarkets are disappearing from low-income neighborhoods because their margins are thin, the rents are going up, and price competition from big-box stores is intensifying.
In many cases, as David Gonzales writes, the supermarkets are replaced by discount stores and pharmacies where the food is processed and the beverages are sugared. No fresh anything in sight. The result, according to Amanda Burden, the city's planning director, is "a health crisis in the city."
At this point I could start to rant about the lack of corporate social responsibility in the supermarket business. But there's no news, cool or otherwise, in that.
Instead, I'll point to another story I found a couple of days later, also in the New York Times, this one by Tracie McMillan, about how some inner-city folks who do not have access to fresh fruit and vegetables in supermarkets are growing their own -- organically.
Among them is Karen Washington, who grew up in Harlem and lives in the South Bronx but dreamed of being a farmer since she was a little girl. She's been realizing that dream since 1985, not only growing her own organic crops in a nearby vacant lot, but in such abundance that she sells her excess at a local farm stand she helped establish.
"It's not about making money," says Karen. "We're selling so that people in our neighborhood have good quality. There's no Whole Foods in my neighborhood." To put it mildly.
As unlikely as Karen's story sounds, it is far from unique: "This urban agriculture movement has grown even more vigorously elsewhere. Hundreds of farmers are at work in Detroit, Milwaukee, Oakland and other areas that, like East New York, have low-income residents, high rates of obesity and diabetes, limited sources of fresh produce, and available, undeveloped land."
Karen is now working on starting a full-blown farmer's market as well as an urban farm school, where she says she hopes kids will learn that tomatoes don't originate from supermarkets.
Now, how cool is that?
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Posted by Nick Rice
The more I learn about small businesses, the more I’m surprised about the shaky foundation on which they build their businesses. Owners risk so much for their yet they often put themselves at greater risk because they choose not to market consistently.
Overwhelmingly, when people discover that I’m a marketing coach they proudly state, “I’ve built my entire business on referrals. I’ve never had to spend a penny on advertising.” And my response is typically, “That’s great, advertising rarely generates a big return for service businesses anyway. And I applaud you for providing a service valuable enough to get people talking. So tell me, how do you get referrals on a consistent basis?” That’s when they usually stop dead in their tracks. They realize that referrals are not predictable; they realize that they are not in full control of their own business--and that's a scary discovery for a business owner.
Now let me be clear; referrals are great! They are vital to your firm’s growth. They are the easiest business to close and they are typically less price sensitive than other buyers. You should ALWAYS strive to do your job well enough to get people talking about you and your services to friends and colleagues.
That said, the ideal client mix for a professional service business is 50% referrals and 50% new business. And by new business, I mean clients that would not have otherwise come to you without encountering one (or more) of your marketing tactics. So what’s your percentage? How much of your business do you ultimately control?
Referrals are going to happen (or not) when you provide service beyond expectations. Referrals are next to impossible to control. You can’t magically turn on the referral switch and get new business when you need it. So while they are great business; you shouldn’t let referrals totally control your business. You need to proactively grow your business in addition to working with referrals.
You need a reliable system in place for generating new leads and attracting new clients. By balancing referrals with proven marketing strategies, you can potentially double your business if your current mix is 100% referral-based.
Just for a minute, assume you keep your current level of referrals and you elevate your new business marketing efforts to get closer to the ideal 50/50 split. What would that mean for your business? What would that mean for your personal goals?
Having a marketing engine that consistently creates more opportunity than capacity allows you to choose better clients and better projects.
What I’ve discovered is that most people simply don’t understand how to market their business. They’ve never had any training (other than a few books) or they simply get distracted by the details leaving their big plans to collect dust. In addition to referrals and advertising, there are many more marketing options.
BNI is "the world’s largest referral organization.” Each week thousands of businessmen and women around the world get together to proactively drum up referrals for their business. Earlier this year, they asked their members about their marketing strategies. Here are the results (in order of weight as of March 2008):
BNI Marketing Strategies
- Referral Marketing - 41.6%
- Direct Marketing - 17.6%
- Web Marketing - 9.9%
- Direct Mail Marketing - 5.8%
- Email Marketing - 5.5%
- Print Ads - 4.8%
- Other - 4.2%
- Public Relations - 3.8%
- Telemarketing - 3.1%
- TV/Radio - 2.8%
So even in BNI, a group that purposefully built to generate referrals, members are still spending over 50% of marketing efforts on other strategies. But here’s the kicker, BNI members are missing out on some of the most effective marketing strategies available for professional service businesses.
Just look at the focus on direct marketing, direct mail, print ads, and tv/radio; those strategies are basically marketing number games. The response rate for those strategies is so low you need tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of contact names on your prospect list to make it worth your time and effort. We’re talking about a 1-3% response rate on those strategies.
If you’re in a professional firm, you are selling your knowledge, expertise and ability to solve client problems. Chances are you have hundreds, maybe thousands, of people in your contact list or address book–no where near enough to play marketing number games. Not to mention, it’s very difficult to explain the value of your intangible service offering with traditional advertising. You need a different approach; you need different options.
I've seen 11 proven marketing strategies. You should select the top three to five strategies that are best suited for your unique goals and personality. These are “big bucket” strategies that can have hundreds of different tactical executions apiece. The 11 strategies include (in alphabetical order not effectiveness):
1. Advertising (paid placement of message, incl. sponsorship)
2. Articles & Publishing
3. Direct Outreach (one-to-one direct mail, email, phone calls)
4. Keep in Touch (newsletters, auto-responder email)
5. Networking (events, lunches, committees, Board of Directors
6. Online (SEO, banner ads, webinar, registration forms, blog)
7. PR (earned media/press mention)
8. Referral (Word of mouth, viral marketing)
9. Speaking, Presentations, Workshops
10. Special Events (host seminars, open house, customer events)
11. Strategic Alliance / Joint Venture
Let's take Networking for instance; as an overarching strategy, you can network at local Chamber events, professional groups, church, alumni clubs, civic organizations, and online networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook. You can join boards, country clubs, mastermind groups or service clubs. But, to take advantage of networking (or any of these strategies), you need a plan. You simply can't show up and expect to get business.
Each of these marketing strategies has been proven to work. But some are more effective than others. Notice that advertising and referrals are both solid strategies; but they’re not the only options you have "get your name out there". And I like I said before, mass marketing tactics like advertising works best with businesses with mass market appeal. The very nature of a service business has a targeted audience.
The small business owners I talk to want a tangible return on their investment of time, money and energy into marketing. Everyone has unique goals, but one of the most common goals that I encounter in professional service partners is the desire to be seen as an “expert” in their field. They want to elevate above their competition and be recognized as a leader in their industry. If this goal resonates with you, one of the most potent combination of marketing strategies you can employee is Writing, Speaking, and Networking.
Think about who you look to as leaders. How do you tap into their knowledge? Where do you find them? Chances are you buy their books; or read their articles/white papers; or see them speak at a conference. Experts purposefully select marketing strategies that allow them to capitalize on their knowledge and “thought leadership.” Now, this is just one example. You have to pick strategies that excite you and are best suited to reaching your specific goals. If you can’t get excited about speaking, chances are you won’t actively work your speaking plan.
In closing, I want you to think about your business and your goals. If you have a business built 100% on referrals and it's delivering everything you've ever dreamed of, I congratulate you. But if you have a business dependent on referrals and the stream is dwindling down or you yearn to take the business to the next level, you must become a better marketer. You need to balance your referral stream with new clients. By becoming a better marketer, you can get closer to the 50/50 ideal client mix.
--
Nick Rice
I work with successful business owners who struggle with marketing and want to get more clients with less effort.
Download my free report, "7 Principles of Attracting More Clients" at http://www.nick-rice.com
07:25 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
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Posted by Richard Watson
In recent years, education (and work) have tended to narrow. What do I mean by this? Simply that students are expected to develop particular specializations very early on and that this knowledge-narrowness (fuelled by curricula that are increasingly based on the vocational needs of employers) is carried through to the work environment. Once these ‘job-ready’ students are inside organizations they often narrow their thinking even further until they end up as intelligent idiots – people that know an awful lot about very little.
This is a great shame. For example, according to Howard Gardner, the Harvard psychologist and author, future high achievers can often be identified early by their love of topics, tasks and issues that are strictly non-core or non-essential. Equally, the teachers and leaders that inspire students and staff are often the ones that are irreverent storytellers and distracted mavericks. And of course most great innovations come not from specialists and industry incumbents but from cross-fertilization between disciplines, accidents and wayward eccentrics.
According to Gardner, and others, breadth will be vital in the future. Computers will be expert at data acquisition and logical analysis so it will be the ability to think laterally and broadly and to synthesize large amounts of disparate information that will be the key to success.
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Posted by Tim Manners
It came toward the end of about an hour of conversation, but it was possibly the best quote I've ever gotten in an interview. We had exhausted a wide range of subjects, and to wrap things up, I said, "So, ultimately, what do you hope to accomplish?"
After a couple of platitudes about serving great food at low prices, Jim Adams, executive marketing director of Chipotle Mexican Grill, replied: "You know, there's no excuse to serve crap. There just isn't any. And too many places serve crap."
I might have thought that I had caught Jim Adams in an Obama moment, saying something he believed to be true, but maybe not choosing the best adjectives. However, I quickly concluded that this wasn't likely because Jim had begun his career as a journalist and then spent many years as a public relations man.
Jim knew exactly what he was saying, and he meant every word of it. Maybe he was even hoping we'd highlight his words on our cover (which we did). Anyone who has ever eaten at a Chipotle knows exactly what he was talking about.
One of the first things you notice about a Chipotle quick-serve restaurant is that it smells really good inside. That’s because they’re actually cooking there. You can see right into the kitchen where they’re mashing the guacamole, grilling the chicken and chopping the cilantro.
You hear music—different, interesting, earthy music. It’s loud enough to notice, but not so loud that it gets in the way. Artsy black-and-white photos and a big, flat, wood sculpture are spotlighted against brightly painted walls, accented with rustic timbers and rough-hewn metal.
A young man with a thick Spanish accent cheerfully helps diners make their choices: “What can I get for you?” A customer responds, and he repeats the order: “Chicken Burrito! Black Beans?” There’s a definite energy and rhythm to it: “Next Please! What can I get for you?”
If it’s your first time at Chipotle, you might find yourself slightly off balance. Sure, you’ve heard all the hype. But you also knew Chipotle was a fast-food place and weren’t quite expecting this. It smells good … it sounds good … it looks good … it feels good.
This is the Chipotle experience: A fast-food restaurant crossed with fine dining. Average ticket: about eight bucks. It is the brainchild of Steve Ells, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who opened the first Chipotle as a way to fund a “real” restaurant.
Fifteen years later, Chipotle is arguably America’s most successful restaurant. Its shares doubled in 2007, and while the fast-food category limps along with same-store-sales in single digits, Chipotle’s same-store growth-rate has been in double digits for 10 years running.
Chipotle got there by challenging just about every rule that has governed fast-food success, wrapped in an ethos it telegraphs as “food with integrity.” Apparently, integrity is the best policy.
Nobody enjoys talking about what “food with integrity” means more than Jim Adams who joined Chipotle eight years ago as its public relations director and today presents his title as executive director of marketing and bon vivant.
You can read the entire interview with Chipotle's Jim Adams here.
April 4, 2008
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Posted by Shawn Graham
I don’t know what it is, but I’m a sucker for finding the unique mom and pop shops and restaurants that make one city different from the next. I was in Philadelphia on a business trip when it hit me. I was leaving the hotel when I asked the bellhop if there were any non-franchise restaurants within walking distance. He rubbed his chin as if in deep thought. If memory serves me correctly, it took him a good half minute before finally responding “Hmmmmmm….there’s Magiano’s across the street.” Unfortunately, as un-franchised as it might look, that Magiano’s is identical to the one that’s five minutes from my house in Durham, North Carolina. Much to the chagrin of my arteries, I eventually found Jim’s Steaks on South Street.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m traveling, I definitely don’t want to frequent the same national chains I can visit in my home town. I look forward to finding those off-the-beaten path corner stores that sell stuff that’s unique to that area. But they’re getting harder and harder to find.
Don’t get me wrong. I definitely appreciate the benefits of knowing I’ll get pretty much the same customer experience whether I visit a Home Depot in California or Florida. It just seems like businesses are losing their individuality. I mean, the big box home improvement stores do mix it up…some have the lighting on the right hand side of the building while others have it on the left. But come on, do we really want everything to be a franchise?
Case in point—there’s a bar/restaurant in my home town that was started in a rundown old gas station. Over time, they slowly started to franchise. As they did they hired outside consultants (in my experience, always chocked full of great ideas…right) to help them grow the business. I made it back home not too long ago only to find they had taken away all of the little things that made them “not Applebee’s.” They even changed their menu to the standard T.G.I. Friday’s, Applebee’s, Chili’s look and feel. Just what they needed.
The same thing holds true with new home developments. I appreciate having a consistent look and feel and cutting down costs by making things more standardized, but have you noticed all of the new houses and condos look identical? If you’re not paying attention, you could accidently end up pulling into your neighbor’s garage—ohhhh the embarrassment.
Maybe I’ll just blame it on the automobile or fast food industries as they seemed to spearhead the move to a mass produced, one size fits all mentality. All I know is we’re losing what used to make businesses, and our experiences as customers, unique.
Shawn Graham is an Associate Director with the MBA Career Management Center at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School and author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job (www.courtingyourcareer.com).
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Posted by Marcia Conner
Many of my colleagues recently attended the Web2.0Expo in San Francisco. From over 2K miles away I followed those twittering the fine details, longing for a way to easily get to the West Coast. This expo captivated my attention because the world live web, by its very nature, invites each of us to learn.
Watching party2.0 unfold from afar reminded me of work on invitation leadership from William Purkey, Betty Siegel and John Novak who identify four ways people attend to life.
No Party People
Some people go through life telling anyone who listens, "There is no party." At work they say things like, "I know how this will play out. Why bother?" At home they nod in agreement to the awfulizing spewed on around-the-clock newsTV. They brighten a room when they leave it. Their words and actions intentionally disinvite others, implying people are irresponsible and incapable, while demeaning, diminishing, and devalueing the human spirit. In a live web world, they are static pages without even a contact_us link.
Parties Not For Me
A second group of people mope, "There is a party, but I can tell I'm not invited." While often hard on themselves, they are frequently harder on others: obsessed with policies and unaware of people's feelings, disorganized, boring, and busy. At work they spend more time on us than them. At home the neighborhood Jones' are eternally out of reach. In tech-terms, they're frenetic mailinglists you didn't sign on to receive.
Not Going to the Party
A third group announces, "There's a party, I'm invited, and I'm not going." They think, "I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not interesting enough to go the party." Although it may seem counterintuitive, I know several charismatic leaders (and parents) who can only unintentionally invite others. Underneath their confident demeanors, they're uncertain and afraid because when whatever accounts for their success fails them, they don't know how to proceed. If they were software they'd be promising fantastical upgrade flops.
Party Time
The fourth group of people know, "There's a party and I'm invited, and I'm going. I may not be good enough but I might, I may not be with-it enough but I might, I may not be smart enough, but I might." People who intentionally invite themselves and others risk going to life's party. They are the ones who show up time and again; persistent, imaginative, resourceful, and courageous even when the going get tough. They are firm, flexible, and friendly, deliberately choosing fairness over equality and mindfully working toward the big picture rather than swatting at this moment's gnats. At home they are raising adults, not children. At work they appreciate relationships and value divergent perspective. Think social networks at their best.
Leading and learning in this evolving world requires us to personally invite ourselves, personality invite others, professionally invite ourselves, and professionally invite others. We do that through optimism, respect, trust, care, and intentionality.
From this will emerge a fifth group: those who see, "There's a party I can't attend physically, yet people will participate with me as if I were these." Let the cognitive surplus party commence.
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Marcia Conner >> www.marciaconner.com
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Posted by Lynette Chiang
Last post I detailed my 24-hour worryfest over a TurboTax glitch.
It turned out no more sinister than a doh! from deep in the bowels Intuit HQ.
The TurboTax damage control unit are all over me now.
Someone saw my mayday on FastCompany and hit DEFCON 10.
The "Turbo Tax Customer Care Specialist Supervisor", Jodie, jumped on my
advertised offer to phone or email me in Australia and
come to my rescue.
Jodie is the Customer Evangelist (CE) you have when you don't have a customer evangelist.
She's eager to help but naturally, speaks from the stance of we,
Intuit, and you, the customer. No crime in that, but no CE points just
yet.
I'd saved them a lot of angst, she said. After a cue from me ("I would
LOVE you to upgrade my Quicken 2004"), she asked what Intuit could do
for me. I'm no freebie hound, but noted the opportunity for CE points:
Offer reparations first, and let the customer refuse.
It was pretty simple - I need my tax done.
It so happens Intuit offer a service called Personal Pro, the
flagship product in their fleet of tax preparation services. It involves a
human being, hopefully with a CPA sticker, processing your return at the other end, for a
hundred or so bucks.
So I'm going to test drive Personal Pro from a customer point of view, and see how a big, successful corp handles an untrained monkey pushing a button and saying "what
does this one do?"
This is less about being a free ad for Intuit, and more about what makes for a great online customer experience.
TurboTax's online presence is attractive and well written – it hooked me:
http://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/online/personal-pro/
And here's the rub: I can't say the same for their offline communications.
I received a
couple of emails from another part of their damage control unit which
bore little relevance to my experience. This is like a large
company not having a decent note recording system – you've just
finished telling them your life story and the next time you call they say 'que?'
So Copy-Right It!
Here's the email, with suggested CE-style tweaking in []'s.
Dear Lynette Chiang, [Why not just "Dear Lynette"?]
Thank you for contacting TurboTax Office of the President. I do
apologize for the inconvenience, but we were unable to reach you by
phone with our first contact attempt.
[Thank you for letting us know about a possible TurboTax problem. We tried calling you but weren't able to track you down.]
After researching the issue that you are experiencing with TurboTax, I
have found that the e-mail you received was for the Extension Express
program provided by TurboTax. The program is designed to help a
customer e-file a Form 4868 Application for Automatic Extension of Time
to File a U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.
If you would like more information on this program and its features,
please go to Turbotax.com/Support and type in "6004" in the search
menu. That will bring up the Support Article: Use the New TurboTax
Extension Express to Apply for an Extension of Time. Please use that
article to gain more information on the program and its features.
[I see you've tried to use our Extension Express program. You'll
find the instructions at this link: www.Turbotax.com/Support. Just type
in "6004" to display the article 'Extension Express: Apply for an
Extension of Time.' We've tried to explain how this works as best we
can - please let us know if we can make clearer.]
Your willingness to help Intuit improve by taking the time to provide
suggestions and feedback is greatly appreciated. Below you will find a
link to a survey asking you about my performance on today's contact, as
well as any additional comments you may have in regards to the TurboTax
product. Your help will allow us to understand where we can improve .
So we can continue with our promise to provide our customers with the
best support available, please take a few minutes to complete the
survey. Please accept our sincere gratitude for any feedback you choose
to provide.
https://survey.turbotax.intuit.com/TTSurvey/Survey.aspx?s=fb81963f73484fc1b79f5b14d470cbd9&ForceNew=true
[Why isn't this a more digestible URL?]
[One more thing. There's a link to a brief survey below. Can you spare
a moment to fill it in? It will help make TurboTax a better and
smoother experience for all of us. If you need to contact me at any
time, go to this link: www.turbotax.com/feedback]
If you have any additional concerns, please contact me at any time by
calling me at (866) 373-7829, Monday - Friday 8 AM -5 PM PST. Either
myself or another member of my team will be happy to assist you.
Thank you for your time in this matter.
Respectfully,
Anthony C
Customer Care Specialist
Consumer Tax Group
**Please do not reply to this message. This e-mail was sent from a
notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail.
Please note:
If you are in further need of Service or Support please visit us here:
http://support.turbotax.intuit.com.
[The sign-off is important – leave people feeling heard and confident. A full name inspires that trust.
Call me on (866) 373-7829, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm Pacific
Standard Time. I, or someone I've briefed, will be here to help you.
Thank you for trusting us with your tax return.
Anthony Conran
Your TurboTax Customer Care Specialist
PS: Don't hit 'reply' on this message, it's a notice for you only -
call us instead. If you need more help, visit Service and Support here:
http://support.turbotax.intuit.com.
]
Thus, "damage control" English = English as a first, or very proficient second language.
To borrow an advertising dictum: say it straight, then say it great.
Words can mean the difference between 1 "unsubscribe" or 1000; between
being forgiven and being sued.
Former Saatchi & Saatchi copywriter the Galfromdownunder says, a picture may paint a thousand words, but a dozen great words can save you.
09:19 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
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Posted by Marcia Conner
Are you looking for my older Learning Resources columns or Learning at All Levels expert blog posts? While the Fast Company site is being upgraded, much of my content is on a server that's temporarily unaccessable.
Until the content is all moved to the primary site, you can read my older expert blogs on another server and my articles on my personal website blog.
I appreciate your patience and persistence during this change.
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Marcia Conner >> www.marciaconner.com
09:13 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
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Posted by Shawn Graham
I don’t think I’ve used the term since that operations course I took as an undergrad. But this week, I thought I’d dust it off and apply it to the workplace. Is being the last one in the office in the morning and the first one to leave in the afternoon a problem?
If you’re in a client-facing business, there’s an expectation that you’ll be ready, willing, and able to offer your assistance during your stated business hours. With all the time and energy spent on attracting and retaining customers, the last thing you want to do is turn them away when they’re already at your doorstep.
Beyond running the risk of losing customers, frequent absenteeism will hurt the cohesiveness of your team and, ultimately you. Over time, coworkers will either follow your lead and start working fewer hours, or they’ll roll their eyes and resent you for not working at least a 40 hour work week. Either way, at some point things in your department are bound to boil over. I’m not saying you have to become the tardiness police; in fact, quite the contrary. I once worked in a department where we had to sign in and out every time we left our desks for more than two seconds and, trust me, that had an equally negative affect on our morale.
Productivity matters. Bosses are sometimes more lenient on your occasional coming in late and leaving early if you’re hitting your deadlines and churning out great work. But, if because of your absence, others are picking up the slack, this could not only impact your performance review, but could also cost you your job. If you know you’re going to be late on a particular day, make sure you wrap everything up before you leave to ensure everything is on target. If you’re working on a project, ask a coworker to be your backup. Also, and I know should go without saying, but try not to be out of the office when you’re expected to produce a key deliverable. I know things come up unexpectedly that are out of your control and that’s fine. But for the other times, plan accordingly.
Your commute time doesn’t really matter. Again, if you’re in a client-facing business, you need to be there. If your commute is too long, you either need to get up a little bit early or look for a new place to live that’s closer to your office. Commute time usually isn’t a justifiable defense to your customers or to your boss—especially if your boss has a longer commute and still gets in before and leaves after you.
“Do as I say, not as I do.” A lot of times, we mistakenly take signals from the boss about absenteeism. Make no mistake about it--the boss can be the last in and the first out because he or she is the boss. It might not be fair, but with the title comes the benefit. The last thing you ever want to do is defend your work hours by questioning your boss’s work schedule. That is a potential career killer.
As a junior employee, being last in, first out isn’t the best idea. Look for subtle and not so subtle cues from management and coworkers about work schedules and coverage. And, if all else fails, make sure you have a good excuse.
Shawn Graham is an Associate Director with the MBA Career Management Center at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School and author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job (www.courtingyourcareer.com).
11:43 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment
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Posted by Cali Yost
Business leaders, whether they know it or not, are making important strategic decisions about workplace flexibility that will affect their ability to compete and thrive in the future. And in my opinion, a number of them are not making the right choice. Here’s what happened during a speech I gave recently to a group of CIOs…
While the majority of leaders in the room were genuinely interested in about how to develop an innovative flexibility strategy, one person raised his hand and said, “Come on, this is naïve. Maybe flexibility will work someday when I can have monitors in everyone’s home so I know they are working. Plus, I like everyone in the office at the same time. I just don’t think you can get the job done as well any other way. You are talking about something that’s going to work for maybe 5% of my employees. The rest just can’t be trusted to do their job.” I could see a few heads nodding in support.
As I thought about how to respond, another CIO raised her hand and said, “You know, I understand your concern about people abusing flexibility and the work not getting done; however, I will tell you that I have a son in college, and he lives his life completely differently than I did at his age. Everything is virtual. He has great “friends” in other countries that he’s never met before. I do think we need to recognize this reality and begin adapting our organizations accordingly.” I also saw a number of heads nodding in support.of her observation.
There it was, as plain as day: flexibility was either “naïve,” or it was a reality that couldn’t be ignored. I felt as if I were watching the broader cultural struggle between “the way we’ve always done things,” and “the way we need to start doing things” play out in real time.
Which CIOs are positioning their organizations to adapt and grow in the future? In case you missed the video “Shift Happens” (which I mentioned in an earlier blog) a report on the future of work by the UK-based management think tank Chartered Management Institute makes the answer pretty clear. And it’s not the group who think strategic workplace flexibility is naïve.
The report is titled, “Management Futures—The World in 2018,” and urges businesses to prepare for 16 “surprise scenarios that could change their future,” that include (synopsis from guardian.co.uk article):
• “An exodus from the traditional workplace caused partly by environmental pressure to reduce the carbon footprint or commuting and partly by demographic pressures of an aging population…leading to a blurring of the boundaries between family and career,”
• “A proliferation of ‘virtual’ companies, often small community-based enterprises without conventional business premises…(they) would have to compete for employees, who will become more footloose and less inclined to work for an organization that does not allow individuals to tailor the working day to meet their personal requirements..”
What do you believe? Is greater flexibility in how, where, and when the work is done and resources managed “naïve?” Or is it a reality can’t be ignored?
