Three Lessons In Confidence

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Jun 302010
 

The US electric car maker Tesla saw its shares rise 40% on their first day of trading. Why? Confidence. How so? Because Toyota invested $50m for a 2.5% stake. Toyota are buying so they must be good. Incidentally, Daimler also has a stake. By the way, why have Toyota bought in? Of course they wanted a slice of the action but it is probably as much about trying to restore their damaged reputation in the States i.e. restore confidence.

Confidence is such a fragile thing. The whole banking crisis was essentially a lack of confidence. A lack of confidence that individuals, companies , banks, even countries could repay their debts. Perfectly sound companies had their overdrafts called in because the banks went wobbly.

Lesson 1: Don’t owe money

Lesson 2: People are copy-cats. They will buy when others are buying. They will panic when others are panicking.

Lesson 3: It’s the second person that starts the queue.

Lesson 4: Read the first three lessons again and think about the potential implications for your business.

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More KISSing

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Jun 292010
 

Lat week Nicky Kriel talked about keeping our business language simple and not trying to impress customers by baffling them with complex language. Unfortunately, some business ‘experts’ try to convince us that we need complex processes or business tools. They use buzz words and buzz phrases until we are convinced that they are learned and we are backward. I recall one occasion when I was considered rather backward as I couldn’t see the need for a particular new process.  

For two days a roomful of people – the numbers varied over the two days between half a dozen and twenty – followed this new, ‘business trendy’ process. My colleague who had been running the activity came back at the end of the second day. I enquired of the outcome.  I looked at the results of all of these man hours. In the words of Basil Fawlty, they were stating the bleedin’ obvious. This was one of those satisfying ‘told you so’ moments. As I had suspected, two or three of us sitting down for an hour or so and applying common sense and experience would have reached the same conclusion.

Emperor’s new clothes anyone? Keep It Simple Stupid!

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Front Line Sport

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Jun 282010
 

Well, the football could have gone better yesterday couldn’t it? It is very difficult to know what actually went on in the England dressing room and in team meetings but it is pretty clear that all was not well. I think there is a lesson for any team, including in business. A manager needs to be part of the team and to listen to the views of the team members; after all, they are the people who have to deliver. The front line might not always be able to see the bigger picture but they do generally know best how to deliver their own element of the process.

Anyway, it isn’t all bad. We have two Brits leading the F1 drivers’ championship and we’ve beaten the Aussies in the cricket one-day series. And, best of all, Mark Webber escaped unhurt from his truly horrifying crash in the Valencia Grand Prix. That is the second time in his career his car has taken off and looped the loop. I wonder if he has a pilot’s licence?

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I Did That

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Jun 272010
 

One of my regular walks takes me past a house that has one of the last of the original Minis on the drive. As I walked past last week it was being loaded onto a trailer and it became clear that it had been sold. The buying and selling couples were chatting. I was tempted to go up to them and say that I’d been involved in the development of the final versions. At the time I was also responsible for the product planning of the MGF sports car. I think this may have been my perfect job, looking after two of the most iconic cars in British motoring history. I am immensely proud to be able to say, “I had a hand in that.” And I feel very privileged.

Of course, I keep my counsel in case the response from the owner is, “Was this your idea? What rubbish.”  Or worse still, “Oh, good, perhaps you can tell me how this works or what this does.” No, far too risky to own up. I’ll just enjoy the inner glow.

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It’s All In The Mind

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Jun 262010
 

70-68. 11 hours. 3 days. Yes, you’ve probably guessed we are talking THAT tennis match. So many records broken by such a huge margin that we can confidently say that it is a match that will never be equalled. It was the sort of feat of physical and mental endurance that defies belief. Like Eddie Izzard’s 43 marathons in 51 days. Or Major Phil Packer’s first marathon that took him nearly two painful weeks. These things are not possible. Unless we decide they are.

So what do we take from this into our businesses? Perhaps, when things are tough we need to remember the words of Henry Ford: “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are right.”

Of course, ‘Uncle’ Henry wanted us to think we could only have cars in black. Good to see that the customer got the upper hand in the end.

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