November 7, 2023
Positioning.
‘Positioning’. It’s one of those marketing terms you feel you should know. When you’re networking with other business owners you … Read More “Positioning.”
Category: Discipline makes Daring possible
November 6, 2023
Performance
Performance = Potential – Interference. Sometimes. for example in sportspeople, which is where this formula comes from, the interference is … Read More “Performance”
November 3, 2023
Making practice perfect
It often seems like the best kind of training is ‘on the job’. After all what could be better than … Read More “Making practice perfect”
November 2, 2023
Word of mouth
We all know that recommendation by an existing customer is the most powerful and the most sincere form of marketing. … Read More “Word of mouth”
November 1, 2023
Moving
You may have noticed that I’ve moved this blog. Or rather I am in the process of moving it. Because … Read More “Moving”
October 31, 2023
You are a manifestation of your habits
“You are a manifestation of your habits.” That’s what the physiotherapist told me yesterday. And my habits are not good. … Read More “You are a manifestation of your habits”
October 30, 2023
Performance management
Imagine what attending a concert would look like if the orchestra’s performance was managed as if it were a pin … Read More “Performance management”
October 25, 2023
Where does leadership sit?
Here’s an interesting debate on leadership and where it fits, kicked off by Michele Zanini. Not just in the article he refers to, but the comments also.
Everyone can be a leader. Most people are already leaders, somewhere in their lives. Just not at work.
But with all the crises we face, don’t we need as big a team as possible of “everyone in the organization who can make amazing things happen”?
Where does leadership sit in your business?
Where could it sit, if you enabled it?
Discipline makes Daring possible.
October 24, 2023
Shopping around
Marketing a ‘brand’ is all about getting customers to stop looking elsewhere. To shrink each individual’s market down to a single option.
Once a customer trusts what the name stands for, the Promise it makes, that brand becomes their go-to purchase, saving them the time and effort of shopping around.
The temptation for the brand is to take that trust for granted, and chip away at the Promise that’s actually delivered, hoping that the customer won’t notice.
Properly functioning markets are better for customers, better for innovation, better for small players.
It’s part of our duty as good consumers to keep them functioning well.
That means shopping around.
Try it.
You might be surprised by what you find. You might find you’re being taken for granted. You might find a much better value option where you least expected it. The least that will happen is that your favourite brands are kept on their toes.
Discipline makes markets possible.
October 23, 2023
Standard Operating Procedures
I don’t know about you, but that phrase “Standard Operating Procedures” makes me cringe. I completely get why they are needed in certain contexts – manufacturing, engineering, military, – anything where you’re dealing with things, or beings that you treat as things.
But as soon as human beings become part of the equation, there can be no such thing as standard – from either side of the operation.
If you’re a business that focuses on delivering a service to humans, by humans, consistency is what you want, not the uniformity of standardisation. However your service is being delivered, and whoever is delivering it, it should feel consistent with your Promise of Value. Since humans are involved, that inevitably means variation – of the kind that standardisation stifles. The kind that allows your people to over-deliver on your Promise and delight individual clients – even when things go wrong.
So, as you design and document the services that enable your business to deliver though others, remember to empower that ability to vary in your team.
Not only will it make for more delight and flexibility, it will be the means by which you discover new needs and desires in your client base.
In manufacturing and engineering, variation is deviation. But for humans and other living beings, and the businesses that serve them, it truly is the spice of life.
Discipline makes Daring possible.