In 1979 the Bee Gees album Saturday Night Fever, captured every available global music award, was the highest selling album in the history of the world and made falsetto butch. One in three people in Australia owned the album and the other two professed a desire to buy it with their next pay cheque. Their sound was all encompassing, they were so successful, that something had to give. That something was a fall from grace as Punk Rock and Big Haired Rock pushed the Bee Gees aside. They were burdened with a backlash to the popularity of their music but no one could deny their talent or genius and although they took years to reemerge, their capacity for brilliance was never doubted.
Like the Bee Gees in the disco era, for the last decade, a certain company has changed the landscape of music, telecommunications and mobile computing with such unequivocal innovation and creativity, it made them the most popular brand on the planet. An unstoppable trendsetter, an arbiter of originality, a money making machine with so much cash it could buy whole countries and small island nations. A company whose products could all fit on a small coffee table that went onto become the most valuable company in history. A company that now finds itself out of favour with the market and curators of current trends.
Critics and Shakespeare warn us that "too much of a good thing" will ultimately spoil our taste for more. Too much chocolate at one sitting, too much Saturday Night Fever, too much Apple in our lives. These shifts in sentiments are usually advocated by external influencers, editorialists, critics, analysts, stock markets and social commentators who are looking for the next best thing to come along. This critical predilection wants to negate the popular view and in the instance of chocolate is way off the mark, just as it was with the Bee Gees and just as it will be with Apple.
The Bee Gees ended up selling over 220 million copies of their recordings, had over 2,500 artists record their music, with their most popular composition "How deep is your love", in airplay by 400 artists alone. Regardless of the peaks and troughs of the music business, the talent that lay within the group could not be denied and their standing and stature is unimpeachable today. As with individuals, this allegory applies to the world of business. As of December 2012, Apple had sold over 350 million iPods, over 320 iPhones and over 120 million iPads to go along with over 10 billion songs sold on iTunes and over 15 billion apps downloaded from the Apps Store. Like music, peaks and troughs in the business world abound with only the most assured and tenacious companies surviving and Apple certainly has a catalogue of hits to reach the top of the charts again.
The question of whether "too much of a good thing" is bad for you remains unanswered for many accessories, accoutrements, appliances and chocolate but one fact remains undeniable, talent, creativity, innovation, genius and artistry will endure in the long run. As Apple navigates it's way through a period of uncertainty caused by market fickleness, they need only look at the talented, brilliant and determined who have trod the path previously to know the future is up to them and history will record their success.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, Stayin Alive, Stayin Alive.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
Women in uniform.
In 1978, Shirley Strahan and Skyhooks sang about them in the title song, "Flying to my hometown on a 747 / Stewardess made me feel like I'm in heaven". This was a view of flight attendants, propagated many times in songs and verse, cliched in comedy scripts and whenever talk about air crew occurred over a beer. Times change and the attitude towards flight crew involved in mid air emergencies and heroic landings tells a different story. Times change and it's no longer about the exotic destinations, coffee, tea, chicken or beef but rather about how customer service is delivered in a difficult environment, along with the look and feel of that customer service to deliver on a brand message. The substantial outlay Qantas is making on the new uniform range, released this week, goes a long way to show how important that look and feel can be for an airline.
From the first United Airlines uniforms that had more in common with nurses and comfortable shoes to today's fashion montage of veils, pill box hats and designer apparel, airline uniforms have become more than appropriate clobber to mess about in the galley at 30,000 feet. They have become symbols of brand and nationalistic identity, while showing the strength of an airline. Qantas understands the power of the uniform, the power of the visual as captain and crew walk through the airport, the demonstration of credibility and integrity implied by the sharp lines and the corporate colours.
The uniform will be distributed throughout the Qantas workforce but for the ones wearing it on board, the image and message needs to be the strongest and most obvious. Reasoning why, you'll never see Miranda Kerr modelling a baggage handler uniform. The Qantas on board uniform is a strategic decision built around a strong brand, built around a corporate identity and creating a comfort for passengers around capabilities in emergencies, a comfort of familiarity and customer service. There is nothing casual about the uniform, it's not meant to be, it's about a message Qantas staff are trained and ready to be of service in all situations, while maintaining the highest levels of deportment and style.
In the business world, uniforms are universally accepted but the delineation between someone in a 7 eleven polo and a corporate aviation outfit are chasms apart in identity, capability and skill, something Qantas wants to make pointedly clear. While airlines and the uniform wearing entities of military, health and police et al convey very obvious messages, your daily business and casual attire have the same ability, to your advantage or disadvantage.
From the obvious brand advertising of designer gear, telling people you have money to spare or fashion sense, to the chic and sharp world of big business, there is still an argument around, "you are what you wear". With this in mind and the psychological view of 7 seconds to make an impression, what you wear and how you wear it becomes important on many levels if you want to achieve in certain areas. Is it time to send some of your wardrobe to St Vinnies?
From the first United Airlines uniforms that had more in common with nurses and comfortable shoes to today's fashion montage of veils, pill box hats and designer apparel, airline uniforms have become more than appropriate clobber to mess about in the galley at 30,000 feet. They have become symbols of brand and nationalistic identity, while showing the strength of an airline. Qantas understands the power of the uniform, the power of the visual as captain and crew walk through the airport, the demonstration of credibility and integrity implied by the sharp lines and the corporate colours.
The uniform will be distributed throughout the Qantas workforce but for the ones wearing it on board, the image and message needs to be the strongest and most obvious. Reasoning why, you'll never see Miranda Kerr modelling a baggage handler uniform. The Qantas on board uniform is a strategic decision built around a strong brand, built around a corporate identity and creating a comfort for passengers around capabilities in emergencies, a comfort of familiarity and customer service. There is nothing casual about the uniform, it's not meant to be, it's about a message Qantas staff are trained and ready to be of service in all situations, while maintaining the highest levels of deportment and style.
In the business world, uniforms are universally accepted but the delineation between someone in a 7 eleven polo and a corporate aviation outfit are chasms apart in identity, capability and skill, something Qantas wants to make pointedly clear. While airlines and the uniform wearing entities of military, health and police et al convey very obvious messages, your daily business and casual attire have the same ability, to your advantage or disadvantage.
From the obvious brand advertising of designer gear, telling people you have money to spare or fashion sense, to the chic and sharp world of big business, there is still an argument around, "you are what you wear". With this in mind and the psychological view of 7 seconds to make an impression, what you wear and how you wear it becomes important on many levels if you want to achieve in certain areas. Is it time to send some of your wardrobe to St Vinnies?
Friday, April 12, 2013
20 cents is not a lot.
I recently spent time browsing in one of the many outdoor emporiums that have sprung up around the affectation for the great outdoors. Churches to all things khaki and camouflage, filled with everything needed to survive the back yard tent and beyond and the first place I'm heading when the "big one" hits, although I'm less clear nowadays what the "big one" really is. The survival ingenuity contained in this one store is enough to keep mankind safe for the next millennial. To survive forever takes a lot of money and price tags indicating only the truly committed need apply bring new meaning to retail euphoria and the customer experience required to throw your plastic on the counter. As I passed the register I noticed a young girl had just bought a $3000.00 backpack and was asked if she wanted to pay 20 cents for a bag to carry it home in? Okay I jest about the $3000.00 price tag but you know it wasn't cheap and here she is being accosted by the checkout clerk for a trifling. The incredulous look on her face said everything about the excellent customer experience she had just enjoyed, sunk into a mire of mediocrity.
She had not walked off the street on impulse to spend hundreds of dollars, she had researched her requirements, she had checked online, she had spent time in-store trying on assorted backpacks and was obviously enjoying the experience, until now. Tantamount to running the greatest hundred metre final in Olympic history and falling down one metre from the finish line or hearing the funniest story ever and then leaving out the punch line, total customer service is not 99% or close enough. Especially when a penny pinching initiative like paying 20 cents for a bag is the last thing you remember leaving the store.
This store obviously prides itself on the layout, the merchandise and the training it has afforded the staff, yet to have all that outlay compromised by a decision likely made by someone in finance, long removed from the shop floor impacts their brand integrity.
The store mission statement "keep people safe, comfortable and confident to travel and explore what the word has to offer to them. With a Core Purpose to inspire and enable people to live their dreams of travel and adventure" sounds hollow when the bottom line seems more important, even at 20 cent increments.
There is so much wrapped up in customer service, that lives as long as the product is viable, the ring or beep of the cash register is one of the least important events to occur in the timeline of a customer. Backpack girl could become a zealot for the merchandise and the seller, she could be a poster child for happy trails to her circle and bring business to the hiking haven, yet what is the last thing she remembers? 20 cents isn't much but it's enough to make a significant purchase lose its shine, lose it's excitement and make someone think twice about repeat business. Are your customers worth more than 20 cents?
She had not walked off the street on impulse to spend hundreds of dollars, she had researched her requirements, she had checked online, she had spent time in-store trying on assorted backpacks and was obviously enjoying the experience, until now. Tantamount to running the greatest hundred metre final in Olympic history and falling down one metre from the finish line or hearing the funniest story ever and then leaving out the punch line, total customer service is not 99% or close enough. Especially when a penny pinching initiative like paying 20 cents for a bag is the last thing you remember leaving the store.
This store obviously prides itself on the layout, the merchandise and the training it has afforded the staff, yet to have all that outlay compromised by a decision likely made by someone in finance, long removed from the shop floor impacts their brand integrity.
The store mission statement "keep people safe, comfortable and confident to travel and explore what the word has to offer to them. With a Core Purpose to inspire and enable people to live their dreams of travel and adventure" sounds hollow when the bottom line seems more important, even at 20 cent increments.
There is so much wrapped up in customer service, that lives as long as the product is viable, the ring or beep of the cash register is one of the least important events to occur in the timeline of a customer. Backpack girl could become a zealot for the merchandise and the seller, she could be a poster child for happy trails to her circle and bring business to the hiking haven, yet what is the last thing she remembers? 20 cents isn't much but it's enough to make a significant purchase lose its shine, lose it's excitement and make someone think twice about repeat business. Are your customers worth more than 20 cents?
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Super Connectors.
We all know them, they are followed by thousands on sites such as LinkedIn, CNN Money, YouTube and Facebook. They tweet and we listen, they post and we read, they ask and we answer, they pin and we get out the photo album. They aren't your colleagues at work, nor one of the boys at the local, they are the super connectors, people with such a wide range of relationships, they are able to link disparate social, economic and corporate platforms, giving them scope to change people's lives. They unlock doors, bring the right people together and hopefully do it all for the right reasons, for the super connectors without agenda are the gems in a mountain of coal, the needle in a hay stack and someone you should know.
The now famous Nebraska experiment by Dr. Stanley Milgram in 1967, proved the world is small and easy to connect, even without the use of the net. He created the "six degrees of separation" notion that is now likely closer to three degrees of separation. Milgram sent a letter to a few hundred random people in Nebraska with instructions the letter be forwarded to an anonymous stock broker in Boston, whom they did not know. Each person sent the letter onto someone they knew, who they thought was more likely to know the stock broker. One third of the letters reached their destination after an average of six mailings but what was most surprising was the majority of letters passed through the hands of the same three Nebraskans. Three Nebraskans who even then, without the use of today's technology could be counted as super connectors.
From conferences to seminars through meetings and forums we hear about the people who network the best, who have that ability and confidence to mingle and not mangle in social and corporate circles. They don't have to be close friends, in fact they are likely to be on the fringes of your circles as theorised by Malcolm Gladwell when he discussed the 1974 study by sociologist Mark Granovetter assessing a group of men in Newton, Massachusetts and how they found their jobs. Granovetter found 56 percent of those surveyed found their current job through personal relationships, with only 19 percent using traditional job-searching routes, newspapers and executive recruiters and 10 percent applying directly to an employer. What was also surprising is, of those in the study, only 17 percent saw their personal contact often, like good friends, 55 percent saw their contact only occasionally and 28 percent barely met with their contact at all. Considered a seminal work, Granovetter's findings have been confirmed again and again via continuous research and today are more relevant than ever because that super connector you seek isn't likely part of your family circle or one of your work colleagues. It's because your close relationships exist in your world and know the things you know and do the things you do, that the importance of knowing someone from outside the circle, with more connections and accessing different information becomes paramount.
The value of these super connectors lies in the way they do business, helping others achieve because the noise around networking has always been about individualism and what's in it for me. Being that guy at the party is something a lot of us want but sometimes it's just easier knowing who he is. With more than a billion people, one in seven on the planet, connected via the plethora of networks, the importance of knowing a super connector, or even someone who knows someone who is a super connector has become important if you have aspirations, ambition or just want to change the world. Let me know if you know someone like that, I'd like to change the world too.
The now famous Nebraska experiment by Dr. Stanley Milgram in 1967, proved the world is small and easy to connect, even without the use of the net. He created the "six degrees of separation" notion that is now likely closer to three degrees of separation. Milgram sent a letter to a few hundred random people in Nebraska with instructions the letter be forwarded to an anonymous stock broker in Boston, whom they did not know. Each person sent the letter onto someone they knew, who they thought was more likely to know the stock broker. One third of the letters reached their destination after an average of six mailings but what was most surprising was the majority of letters passed through the hands of the same three Nebraskans. Three Nebraskans who even then, without the use of today's technology could be counted as super connectors.
From conferences to seminars through meetings and forums we hear about the people who network the best, who have that ability and confidence to mingle and not mangle in social and corporate circles. They don't have to be close friends, in fact they are likely to be on the fringes of your circles as theorised by Malcolm Gladwell when he discussed the 1974 study by sociologist Mark Granovetter assessing a group of men in Newton, Massachusetts and how they found their jobs. Granovetter found 56 percent of those surveyed found their current job through personal relationships, with only 19 percent using traditional job-searching routes, newspapers and executive recruiters and 10 percent applying directly to an employer. What was also surprising is, of those in the study, only 17 percent saw their personal contact often, like good friends, 55 percent saw their contact only occasionally and 28 percent barely met with their contact at all. Considered a seminal work, Granovetter's findings have been confirmed again and again via continuous research and today are more relevant than ever because that super connector you seek isn't likely part of your family circle or one of your work colleagues. It's because your close relationships exist in your world and know the things you know and do the things you do, that the importance of knowing someone from outside the circle, with more connections and accessing different information becomes paramount.
The value of these super connectors lies in the way they do business, helping others achieve because the noise around networking has always been about individualism and what's in it for me. Being that guy at the party is something a lot of us want but sometimes it's just easier knowing who he is. With more than a billion people, one in seven on the planet, connected via the plethora of networks, the importance of knowing a super connector, or even someone who knows someone who is a super connector has become important if you have aspirations, ambition or just want to change the world. Let me know if you know someone like that, I'd like to change the world too.
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