From Presenter to Facilitator
Not all presenters need to train and not all trainers feel the need to facilitate, so how do you know which to do? And when you’ve decided that, do your staff have the relevant capability?
In a short series of blogs we’ll look at the lack of understanding of facilitation; where it should be applied and how you transition your current presenting cohort into valuable facilitators.
This has been derived as an academic exercise, this is a real case study of creating delight for a client.
If you’d like to know more ahead of the blogging, then get in touch in the usual way.
There is great content on YouTube to liven up presentations or make important points. However accessing YouTube during a presentation is a risky strategy. So this is what has worked for me as a Mac User. You’ll be using Safari as your browser, so there’s an easy way to download YouTube videos. Open the page with the movie and press the “cmd” key and the letter A, this makes the Activity window pop up. If you’re also accessing other websites, you’ll see a list of them, just scroll until you find the YouTube page and click on the arrow to show the details about what is being watched.
There will be an element with a file size size is over 0.5MB (most of the time, over 5MB). Double-click on it (even if it is still loading), and Safari will download it. When the download is over, navigate to the file in Finder (which will probably be called get_video) and add the extension .flv to its name. Now you can play it with VLC and it’s downloaded to your Mac, to use as you choose.
Friday October 15th, 2010
We are told that the British are a very fair minded people. In fact the old European joke about Heaven and Hell is a good example; Heaven is where the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian, it is policed by the British and organised by the Germans. Hell on the other hand is organised by the Italians, policed by the French, has British chefs and the lovers are German!!
A hearing in the House of Commons yesterday offended absolutely that British sense of fair play. Sir John Chadwick suggested that a person who has money invested in a financial institution should not get full restitution even when HM Government has accepted it failed to regulate properly. The basis for not recommending full compensation was that even if investors had known the faults in the finance house, he believed 75-80% of them would still have invested anyway (breathtaking). So the amount of compensation due is for only 20-25% of the investors, but since he didn’t know who would and who would not have invested, he recommended that the compensation pool be spread evenly across all investors. So if you had £1,000 and had lost £400 pounds Sir John Chadwick was saying you should not have got your £400 pounds back but that you should get £80-£100 back, what a disgrace!
So that brings us to the way that your business treats its customers. If you are desperately poor at this, you will end up with a customer pressure group formed, be dragged through the courts and end up a pariah. But that is really getting it wrong! In these days, where more of us are going to be seeking to deal with a shrinking pool of customers then the way you deal with the ones you have, has to be superlative, special. So ask yourselves the question, what have you done to improve your customer’s experience of dealing with you or your business? If the answer is nothing, then ask yourselves why your sales and margins are not going to fall!!
If you think your business is that good, lay down a challenge. Ask us to judge your customer experience, and we’ll do it and report on it AND we’ll do it for FREE between now and 12th November 2010. Call me on 07967 564 562 to discuss this no-strings offer.
Monday October 11th, 2010
I know this is a bit of a cliche but I heard this from a Hedge Fund manager, I’m not sure whether he was trying to impress or whether he was illustrating the pointlessness of the word “should”. However, do you really appreciate what is being said here? Fundamentally he is saying that we should only be worth what we produce/contribute/save. Whereas, up until now we have tended to reflect our worth in terms of what we think our home or business is worth.
For the retiring baby-boomers this will not really be a shock, I’m sure that they have been boggled by how much they now appear to be worth compared to what they have saved at the bank or in pensions etc. For some people the appreciation in the value of their home will have exceeded their lifetime earnings – just think about that – their house is worth more than their take home pay in their lifetime – how can this be?
Well the explanation is buried in the new Wall Street film. Not well dealt with, but nevertheless it is all there. If banks offer you lots of 
money, at little cost, to buy something that is expected to be worth lots more tomorrow, it is highly likely that you will borrow the money to buy houses, businesses etc. However, I am asking the question, what is the basis of expecting it to be worth more tomorrow? I am answering that it will be worth no more than the value it brings to you. Whether that is replacing the cost of rent with a house or whether it is the prospect of future profits from a business. The market might add froth to that value or it might force a discount to the real value, so whatever you’re investing in, know how much froth your buying or why you’re getting a discount.
For those of you looking to sell your businesses, you should be able to calculate what the business is worth to you. If you’re having difficulty working this out then you need to meet the money man in our team and he will help you build a picture.
For those of you who think that none of this is important, I’m presuming that your pensions are on track and gold-plated, what do you mean “what pensions?”.
I know a lot of people do not have a lot of time for the Strategy stuff. It either gets labelled as too complicated or not relevant enough in the day-to-day. Well today it is Friday, so just give yourself a moment to think. I’m asking you to think about 2 issues that will be at work with your customers. First is, they are getting older. What impact does that have on your business? Second thing is that the people replacing them are buying different things and buying them in a different way, what are you doing different to meet them?
So that was a challenge that we were asked to meet with a client. Their customers were mainly nerdy older guys who bought over the counter and used their purchases in their sheds late at night, in dim light and with failing eyesight. Their potential new market were geeky, profligate web users who want it now, whatever the cost.
So what did we do? We ran a series of workshops, these looked at the issues and their associated risks. We brainstormed alternatives and brought in external thinkers and potential customers and came up with a road map of how to address the needs of the new business mix.
The aging customer base continues to get what it needs but because the frills have been dropped, they can have the product cheaper. Now, margins are lower but profits are higher with this segment.
The new folks well they are being addressed by a brand new website designed for the market segment. A promotion has created a link to universities by sponsoring a prize for engineering innovation. This has allowed them to build links quickly with a completely new generation and guess what, the products the company sells are useful if a student decides to go after the prize.
Do yourself a favour, unlock your business’s potential and give us a ring!!
Wednesday October 6th, 2010
As interesting as the Prime Minister’s speech is going to be to the Conservative party conference, there is one thing and one thing only that should be occupying the minds of small businesses – where are next year’s sales coming from? In a project we have recently undertaken, for 2 smaller businesses, it has become clear that marketing spending was out of control. It was there to support sales people who were little more than overpaid order takers. I had a boss who used to describe these people as the “coffee and bourbon brigade”. They would visit a client, have a chat, take any orders they were given but do nothing to stimulate new sales.
Source:Daily Telegraph; Photo: Eddie Mulholland; George Osborne
So, if you’re paying for marketing or paying for a sales team, make sure you know what you’re paying for. We analysed why people bought from these businesses. Turned that into a repeatable sales process; created a sales training programme and bob’s your uncle, marketing costs down, sales up and that is in a recession.
Give me a ring and I’ll let you know what the business owner did with the increased profit!!
Wednesday September 29th, 2010
An interesting new book by Professor Vijay Govindarajan highlights the challenges to companies in realising the benefits of innovation. Not only do businesses have to come up with the new ideas, but they to implement and execute them. The book expands on the experience of Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb and founder of GE, who claimed that invention was 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. In other words, it was getting the idea to work that took the effort.
However, I disagree with the solutions in Professor Vijay Govindarajan’s book which fly in the face of experience and pragmatism. He believes a company should create a separate entity in the company. The role being to move ideas from concept to implementation. WRONG WRONG WRONG. The people 
who work in big companies don’t join them to do this stuff and even if they do, they worry far too much about their career. They perceive cocking something up on a project could be their death knell. I am not arguing that this is right, it is just that it is true.
It is for this very reason that innovation is best delivered by a team selected and managed to implement the given opportunity. How many times have you seen operational managers snowed under by projects that receive neither their due interest or support.
I have direct experience of this with a new technology start up we supported. Obviously, as they were a new business, we could not charge a fee so we agreed to take shares in the company instead. In return we built the plan to finance the company and take the technology from the bench to pilot stage. We have done this 3 times, 2 have succeeded one has not.
We want to make innovation work for our clients. Perhaps we could find an innovative way for us to help you. Ask me I won’t bite (or charge you)!
Wednesday September 22nd, 2010
Companies I have worked with have often found that recruitment is one of the hardest things to get right, consistently. We often have to hire in a rush and normally when everyone else is trying to recruit too. Then there is the current dilemma, everyone is worried about the impact of the impending spending review and holding off recruiting, when there is a plentiful supply of young people out there looking for work.
So, the other day after I bumped into 
Yasmina Siadatan, Lord Sugar’s latest apprentice, I thought I should look into this whole area, as it may be an opportunity going begging for employers. Lo and behold, what did I find? Another opportunity going begging!!
Did you know that all the training costs are met? Even over 19s National Minimum Wage is only £2.50 per hour and their development plan is one which is devised to contribute directly to the direction of your business, organisation or department. Modern apprentice, easy to recruit, cheap to train, low-cost to pay and there are a whole range of modern apprenticeships covering the widest range of businesses. What are you waiting for, or do you just prefer a more difficult life?
Contact me now and we’ll see how we can help you identify who and what you need. Now means NOW!!
Those of you who know me will, I hope, recognise me as a pragmatist. Do what you can and do it well, seems to be an approach I can deliver that produces tangible benefits. However this can mean missing out occasionally on the benefits of going for the “stretch” goals. Now my argument is that the risk of trying to over-deliver and failing is too high a price for a client to pay. My belief is that one should aim to deliver what makes the client happy.
I adopted this approach on a Stag weekend I organised recently, in my capacity as “best man”. It was reasonably safe to book a city centre hotel in the UK which everyone could reach easily. I could organise meals, activities and nights out that could flex with people’s ability to attend over the weekend. Well, all went well, people who wanted to attend could afford it and everyone enjoyed themselves, particularly at the tank driving and battle at www.armourgeddon.co.uk
However, I am plagued by the question – could I have done a better job, if I’d taken a few more risks? The comedy club at www.thehighlight.co.uk was risque without being risky!
So that brings me to the question … do you want it on budget, on time and good enough or would you risk schedule, resources and cost-overrun for a more innovative implementation?
Please comment!!!!!
When I saw the front of a popular car magazine this morning, I thought it cannot be true. Bugatti have brought out a more powerful Veyron, a full 200bhp more powerful than its predecessor. Which lifts the top speed by an incredible 27 Km/h or in old money about 17 mph.
It is so obvious to ask why did they bother? Why push so hard to raise the top speed from an eye-watering 253 mph to and ear-bleeding 270 mph? You already know the answer – because they can!!
This brought me to another discussion I had only this week, about when should you invest in your business? Particularly, larger capital equipment investments. Do you invest when it is quiet, or invest when it is busy? When you are busy, why would you want to bring production down and suffer larger opportunity costs than during quiet times? Durrrrr. Yet up and down the land investment decisions that will yield higher production efficiencies are being deferred. In case of what? Probably just in case a recovery never comes and they go out of business? In which case, you might as well start packing up now!
These aren’t difficult concepts, it is not like trying to explain the new movie Inception. 
However it may well be that the planning and preparation requires that extra effort to fight against the dead hand of custom and practice. If you think I might be able to help prepare something with you, I’ll see what I can do. Suffice to say we’re having some real impacts in our credit constrained world at the moment.
Of course, if you think this is the wrong time to invest, I’d love to hear from you!!
