EYE OPENER

Kiki's blog

18 May 2008

Welcome

Hard times

As we flip from one season to another it reminds me just how volatile life is. From the seemingly endless confident boom of recent years to all of a sudden, talk of us paying the price of imported deflation from China, and a lax attitude to borrowing. All churned up with too much testosterone in the stock markets, hedge betting on future commodities, ripping the poor off with high interest housing loans … the list goes on. So as we teeter on the verge of stagflation what can we do to stay buoyant and upbeat? Stay thankful for what we have rather than what we lack would be a great start.

The past month presented many small wisdoms as well as some great events. I attended the closing conference for the South East Women’s Mentoring Network, and facilitated the commencement proper of Barclays “Let’s Talk … Green Business” programme. I also enjoyed an opportunity to talk with NatWest about how they can better support women in business, and took part in an entertaining interview with John Farrell of Glastonbury (Internet) Radio as to why we should be taking the green agenda more seriously. And in a tongue in cheek way, I was featured in Robert Craven’s The Directors’ Centre April Newsletter as ‘consultant of the month’. Thanks Rob, love-u-too!

 

Little pearls

 

One of the ‘small wisdoms’ was (again) reiterated, ie that great customer care is the route to keeping and increasing your customer base even as the economy starts to falter. As people’s discretionary spend drops perceptibly, small businesses are waking up to the fact that taking customers for granted is more deadly than a poor pricing strategy. Competing on price is a mug’s game, but service complacency is worse. To illustrate the point, I was rung by the MD of a very good herbal products company who (on being asked) told me that turnover was dropping so he was personally getting on the phone to good past clients and asking what could he do to get them back. He reminded me that his product was effective, a fact that I’d forgotten as I was more taken with the idea that the company was indifferent to me as a consumer. He put that right, sent me some free product and now I’m a customer again.

Another ‘small wisdom’ came from talking to a small hairdresser. When I asked why she hadn’t got her shelves packed to the gun whales with expensive product, she replied “It’s about avoiding the pounds gathering dust, and concentrating of giving a great, but fast cutting service!”

The final ‘small wisdom’ this month is the importance of product and service innovation. Pulling back too much on taking a punt on a new idea is a lost opportunity. One of my business coaching clients, The Totally Insured Group Ltd is a fab little company who have innovated a fantastic new product called Security Delay Insurance (SDI). Much more difficult and challenging for all small companies is robust testing, marketing and brand building.

 

Making a difference

 

I am pleased to be invited by the stunning Kath Temple of the Lifelong Learning Company to write a business column in her soon to be launched “Happiness, Energy & Spirit” monthly magazine. Kath tells me I’ll “… be in good company - our celebrity columnists are Michael Neall, Paul McKenna's coach and Dr Robert Holden, who runs The Happiness Project, and has just been on Oprah Winfrey!” Should be fun!

Finally, "live every day like you think it's your last because one of these days you're bound to be right!" Leo Buscaglia

Apropos of nothing very much, here is a clutch of amateur mobile phone photos captured in my free moments ... nature's 'stuff for free' ... it helps keep me focused and appreciative!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18 April 2008

Welcome

As spring struggles against a winter that just won’t give up, it reminds me that I’ve travelled to Scotland twice in the last few weeks. It’s been a fab experience both times despite the frequent snow flurries. First outing was to attend the New Start Scotland business expo in Glasgow on 14th March as the keynote speaker for Barclays, delivering shortened versions of the highly successful ‘Bright Marketing’ and ‘Let’s Talk … Profit’ seminars. The day was great fun and the Barclays team were great, very energetic and engaging. They dropped the business suits, taking an informal approach and mingling with punters, keeping to the old adage of ‘no barriers to communication, we make it easy for people to buy from us’.

I also met a number of interesting businesses exhibiting, and was able to forgive one of my talks being drowned out by the irrepressible noise coming from the seminar ‘tent’ right next door. It turned out to be Mick Jackson of WildHearts http://www.wildheartsinaction.org/ whose life was transformed by tragedy during a high altitude climbing expedition. His ‘damascene experience’ led him to set up an office supplies company that offers competitively priced products, full e-procurement, next day UK delivery and ALL the profits to the WildHearts Foundation to support poor communities in the developing world.

 

Customer Care in the Spotlight

 

After this week’s angst on Radio 4 about the perceived decline in ‘customer service’, I am pleased to present A Tale of Two Hotels for whom value for money and customer care is excellent, but delivered in two entirely different ways.

During my 2nd recent visit to Scotland we stayed at the fantastic An Lochan hotel in Tighnabruich, Argyll. Wow - customer care really delivered by a family firm! Fabulous views and contemporary décor, a warm welcome, lots of lounging about space in front of open fires, complementary tea and coffee, and high quality locally sourced food including shellfish from local diver Mary on her days off from teaching!!!

I couldn’t fault this little hotel (which makes a change) as the attention to detail kept revealing little surprises. The An Lochan brand is small but perfectly formed, and certainly delivers the necessary 5-10% difference from the competition.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a very different way The Causeway Guest House in March, Cambs is another good example of great customer care and the application of the KISS principle: keep it very simple stupid, keep it very clean, affordable, and deliver the Best English Breakfast in England!

 

 

 

 

Great customer care in hotels and restaurants has to be more than a quickie contemporary make-over. Attention to detail, willing, well-trained and knowledgeable staff, and great food - whether basic or stylish - is a must. The ability to be sensitive to the customer experience is a rare commodity indeed!!

 

More Traveller's Tales

 

We constantly hear about the importance of IT in running small businesses, however I’ve come across some amusing and head-scratching examples of some businesses … ‘just not getting with the IT programme’.

• Conversation with a B&B in Lowestoft: “Do you have Wi-Fi?”, “Yes, just bring your laptop and we can plug it into the wall.” !!!

• Conversation with a venue manager in Guildford: “You confirmed you’d provide full PowerPoint (presentation) equipment, could you take me to where it’s set up?”, ... “Here it is, just plug your laptop into this socket in the wall.” !!!

I hope you have a more enlightened Spring!

 

NEXT TIME:

 

New product innovation, health and well-being in business, women's enterprise, going Green in Business, and maybe, just maybe ... a bit of tittle-tattle. OOooooh!

11 March 2008

Welcome

The last few months have been very hectic and as spring approaches it's good to look back and ponder on some of the great people I've met or had the privilege to listen to:

• Kevin Spacey who spoke at the World Entrepreneurship Summit (WES08) in London early January 08 - this guy is awesome (Swimming with Sharks is one of my all-time favourite films, a stark reminder of the lethal mixture ambition and amorality). He spoke about his amazing work in London's 'theatre-land' in helping to engage young people and provide subsidised seating (front row no less) to disadvantaged kids. More importantly he described his relationship with his patron Jack Lemmon who exhorted him (on becoming 'successful') to "... send the lift back down, as there's someone down there just waiting to be invited up into the room". I wonder how many of us regularly 'send the lift back down' so that we can give a helping hand to someone who needs a bump up the ladder of life?
• Nell Merlino who spoke so effectively at the Prowess Annual Conference in February 08 - her campaigns have made a phenomenal impression the US (including the Take Your Daughters to Work campaign). She described an awesome project called Make Mine a Million Dollar Business where business women in the US are being supported and encouraged to grow their business. Imagine 1 million, one million $ business women on Capitol Hill! No paucity of ambition there, wouldn't it be great if we could do the same for women in business in the UK?
• Robert Craven of The Directors' Centre who entertained and tickled an audience of 140 at the pilot of Barclays 'Let's Talk Green Business' in Liverpool at the end of February 08 - candles got snuffed, teddies chucked around the audience, and lots of lightbulbs switched to green in participants' heads. Robert's 'a pal o' mine' from Warwick Business School days and I shall be looking forward to taking these fantastic ½ day events forward on his and Barclays' behalf.
• Sean E Nuzum is a budding young entrepreneur at the University of Southampton, full of life and ambition. Coaching him reminds me that there is still a world of possibilities out there ... just waiting to be corralled, made sense of and actioned. Taking thoughtful, well-researched and focused ACTION is the only way up!

Other cool 'happenings' included:

• Empowerment for Women event in Slough on very cold and rainy evening in Slough at the end of January 08 - nearly 80 women turned up for a 2½ hour session from me on how to change their lives in an evening. This included top 10 top tips, or Power Points plus an opportunty to review where and how to move things on in their lives. Getting everyone (well, mostly) swinging their hips to Barry White was an 'eye-opener' in itself. Great fun ... 'a very inspirational experience and presentation' was one participant's comment.
• Warwick Business School Alumni Forum in early February 08 - where I was invited along with two other Alumni, to present our thoughts on risk management. It was an interesting event from my perspective, not being a risk management 'expert' but from having encountered significant 'risk' being an erstwhile Chair of an Audit Committee for a health authority. Anyhow, despite being guinea pig Alumni presenters we got good feedback from the event. Our powerpoint presentations can be seen on the WBS Alumni website.
• Negotiation Skills training for women on the South East Women's Mentoring Network (SEWMN) programme - I piloted this highly interactive workshop in mid-February 08 (and a shorter version at the Prowess Conference). Feedback was very positive and I enjoyed delivering this as much as the participants seemed to enjoy the event. More to follow as the SEWMN continues into Spring and early summer.
• SEWMN - talking of which, I am also a mentor on this programme and am supporting (for free) two fantastic women, Karen and Clare. It feels good to be 'sending the lift back down' and helping others to achieve their goals in life. I sometimes wish I'd had that when I was an office cleaner all those years ago, but ... that's another story ...

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From time to time we will feature opinion pieces, reflections and 'free stuff' - all of which will be designed to stimulate interest, support learning and provoke action.