3 tips on managing the ripple effect

I was at a well attended networking event and overhead two conversations which couldn't have been more different.


The first conversation was between two women, talking about their colleague who'd just given birth to her first child.  Mum was feeling fit and proclaiming it would soon be business as usual with her back at her desk.  There was an element of indulgent scepticism in their critique of this new mother's intentions.


The second was a woman talking about her mother's terminal illness and how they wanted to ensure that this last Christmas would be her best one ever.  Her mother was similarly determined that it would be business as usual and wasn't letting the illness prevent her from her usual Christmas routine.  There were murmurings of support from the people around her.

The ripple effect   

This led me thinking about how changes in our personal lives, and when it happens, inevitably impact on our working ones.  Even when we're focusing on business as usual there will be a ripple effect and how as managers, as leaders we cope with the changes that arise.


With these two cases there's the obvious processes and procedures that we go through, some enshrined in law, some just good practice.  Any good management tome will take you through the classic models and help you factor in various scenarios about appropriate leave, dealing with workloads etc.  What it won't help factor in is the individual's response to the changes they have been faced with and the organisational impact of that. 




Here's 3 tips to think about when change comes into your environment.

1.  Everyone's view of the world is different.

Even though it appears that we share the same experiences, our interpretation of those experiences will each be different depending on our backgrounds.  Our emotional responses to those experiences will also be different, so it figures that our behavioural responses will similarly be different.  What works for one maternity returnee won't necessarily work for another.  What support you put in place for one person dealing with a family death won't be the template for every other employee facing that situation. 

2.  Adjust your response

Be aware of your own reaction and then put it to one side.  To make the most effective impact in a change scenario requires emotional intelligence.  To engage with emotional intelligence requires an element of 'standing in their shoes'.  Unless and until you do that and listen with all of your senses you'll only be at the edges of helping people cope with change.

3.  It's about more than the individual

Because we're not hermetically sealed even for those that return with the outward air of business as usual, things will have changed and that will seep into their work.  It might be obvious, it might be hidden; either way colleagues will pick that up and react to it in their own way.  There will be a subliminal shift as the workforce settles into a new view of the world.  Stay tuned to those shifts and  you can help direct them to a positive outcome. 


Simple yet complex.  Which is only right because that's what human behaviour is all about.  Sitting underneath that simplicity is a complexity which provides a rich hinterland of opportunity when handled well.  When the opposite is the case...


The key then is to be aware and develop the skills required to manage the myriad of behavioural responses people will have regarding change.  As you look to the future what conversations will you be having and with whom? 


To find out more about how mtc2 ltd can help you manage change, go to our website www.mtc2.co.uk

How to Survive Black Friday

If you're starting to plan for Black Friday today, it's too late.  You've missed the boat.  Coming up with something off the hoof today is a sure-fire recipe for failure and here's why.


Marketing

Black Friday isn't a one-off in that it's not going to be a panacea for a poor trading year.  Doing a blitz campaign a few days before will raise a modicum of interest but if it's not part of your annual marketing campaign and integrated into the rest of your trading plan it's ultimately worthless.  If you're participating in Black Friday with good effect it takes time to decide the best marketing approach, to research your customers and market segments, to determine what marketing channels you're going to use.  Having a solitary flash on your website doesn't constitute an effective and efficient marketing strategy.

Supply

Are your stock levels adequate?  Are your supply lines and distribution channels secure?  Have you chosen the correct items to be part of Black Friday?  Yes, there'll be the big ticket items such as sofas, TVs and white goods; what about smaller items?  Some outlets are offering greatly reduced cups of coffee for example.  There's the service industries too.  I've seen half-price membership of associations for today.  The latter is easier to manage, in that it doesn't require a physical transportation of goods but just because something is small, such as the cups of coffee, don't be fooled into thinking there's no need to consider your supply lines and distribution channels.  If you run out of coffee beans or paper cups, or the queues stretch around the corner because your staff can't cope with demand, you'll seriously damage your reputation.  If you're providing an on-line service, are the systems secure?  Can they cope with tens of thousands of people wanting to log-on to your website at the same time?  If you've not planned for all of this, your Black Friday offer will crash.

Customer expectations
It's always about managing customer expectations.  If the website crashes you've lost them not just for Black Friday; you've lost them for Christmas, New Year and Easter trading.  You'll remember the chaotic scenes from last year with mob frenzy as customers piled into the shopping centres.  Black Friday had been hyped to such a degree that it raised completely unrealistic expectations of what was available and how it could be obtained.  What's your strategy for managing expectations?  Of course, if this is something you've just thought about today, that won't be a problem because your customers won't know about your offers and won't have expectations.  In the case of the stores featured last year however the staff were overwhelmed.  Which leads us onto...


Staffing
It has to be part of your larger strategy that you've anticipated the customer demand by carefully managing expectations, your stock levels are balanced against that demand, you've got the marketing right and now you need to ensure you have the correct staffing levels to effectively manage the buying process.  This equally applies to on-line trading.  Ensure they're adequately trained in customer care and managing crowds if it's a physical activity, and managing phone or internet queries if it's virtual.  It takes time to recruit additional staff and to train everyone.  You have a responsibility to ensure the safety of your staff and exposing them to mob frenzy with inadequate staffing levels or training isn't the best of moves.


Pricing
What is your pricing policy?  Have you segmented your pricing appropriately?  If you run an incentive scheme, will this change for Black Friday?  Whatever policy you have it has to comply with the law so if you've said it's been sold for £x for x weeks previously, then make sure it has!  Be canny about your pricing.  If you've priced it too low and generate extreme levels of demand how is that going to affect your cash flow and profit margins?  A few years back a well known company got it spectacularly wrong and it nearly brought them to the brink of closure. 


Post Black Friday
It doesn't stop once Friday is over.  Inevitably there'll be customers who bought in extreme haste and will regret their purchases.  They'll want refunds, whether they're legally entitled to or not.  Keep your focus on after sales customer care and ensure your returns policy is water-tight.


And finally, the ultimate survival tactic is not to participate.  There's a recorded backlash this year with some shops closing down today, others are giving money to charity rather than offer discounts.  Some report that actually all it does is shift customer purchase from one part of the year to another, it doesn't actually add to their profit margin in the longer term.


And of course, there's Cyber Monday in just a couple of days!




For more ideas on how to manage your business go to www.mtc2.co.uk

TalkTalk: a 21st century nightmare

Every company's worst nightmare has come true for TalkTalk.  A sophisticated attack on their IT systems have compromised their operations, stolen data and to compound the misery, incurred enormous reputational damage to their brand.

The CEO, Dido Harding has been high profile in an blitz of disaster management and steps have been put in place to reassure their customers, as best they can, of TalkTalk's efforts to protect customers over the coming months.   What they can't explain at time of writing, was whether the data was encrypted.  What impact will this have not only on their systems, but also on any potential criminal charges against them is unknown.

The impact on their bottom line and on the shareholders' reactions is also yet to be seen

It's the worst of all worlds.

So what comfort is there for them?  Is there any?

So far, in what has been made public, is a classic response.  Get the CEO out there, show the face, show concern, show what's being done now and in the future.  Save the essential notifications to various agencies and analysis of the problem for the back office boys, keep those as private as you can, protect your intellectual property.  Deal with the press and understand their agendas, appreciate how they might report and ensure the message you want to get out there gets heard.

In the longer term there will inevitably have to be changes. 

A full analysis of what went wrong might result in personnel changes: the CEO might decide to fall on her sword, particularly if it's seen over the coming days that she's not handled things well, or the axe could fall further down the operational line.   On the other hand, if she has handled it well after the furore has died down she might decide that with her reputation high she can move on to bigger and better things.

The IT bods might agree that they were as protected as they could possibly have been bearing in mind the complexity of IT systems and the sophistication of hackers.  They would be fooling themselves though if they stopped there for now a weak point has been identified they should reconsider their scenario planning and think beyond current circumstances. 

There will be changes in how TalkTalk promote themselves, changes in the conversations they have with all types of stakeholders.

Will they do all of this though or will there just be a knee jerk reaction and the changes are inadequate so at the core nothing really happens?

TalkTalk has entered one of the worst technological nightmares for any successful and growing company.  Let's hope they come out of it well.  Unfortunately for so many companies, and maybe even for TalkTalk, the resolution falls well below expectations.


To find out more about how mtc2 ltd helps you manage change go to www.mtc2.co.uk

A fresh new start to our blogs

We're going to lay our cards on the table.  We've been prevaricating.  It's taken a while for us to get our heads around this particular blog about fresh new starts.  There was an excellent tip given to us by a sublime speaker that in any good story there should be a beginning a middle and an end.  Taking that advice on board let's kick off with...

Once upon a time...
There was a highly successful television company who scanned their environment like every good company should do and realised there was a big problem heading their way.  It wasn’t a problem that hadn’t arisen before, or one that they’d not responded to before but this time there was something different in the air. This company had a great reputation in the industry and its output had improved so that its customers, the viewers and advertisers, were relatively content with their lot.  A major stakeholder though had different ideas. It wanted, or so the TV company thought, to completely change the funding model and thus the Directors hunkered down to consider a bold, radical plan.

After 33 years they would change their on-screen identity.

The change caused furore.  Some people described it as utterly confusing whilst others called it brave and bizarre.  Most wondered why they had done it.

Yes, you’ve guessed it.  It’s the Channel 4 rebrand.

Creativity takes centre stage

The Channel 4 in-house creative agency took three years to come up with something that would prove that Channel 4 wasn’t like any other TV company.  It was dynamic, bold and could take risks. They wanted to shout out to government, who once again is talking about privatisation that the new identity depicted a “public service remit focussed on innovation, diversity and taking creative risks.”

We’re doing what you want us to do it seems to say, so leave us alone.

Is it the correct response to a threat?  The viewers certainly don’t seem to think so.  An iconic brand which gives instant recognition and generates unconscious emotions of satisfaction, quality and yes, ownership has been thrown out.  Channel 4 now have to start from scratch and make new connections with their viewers and advertisers.  What central government thinks about it is harder to discern.

A rebranding disaster?
It reminds us of the arguments for and against the branding for London 2012.  Few liked the logo when it was launched but people got used to it and it seemed to work with multi-platform use.  Channel 4’s new logo will only be used for TV viewers however and one wonders whether this will go down the route of the BA rebrand of their tailfins, and quietly be forgotten.   

At the moment there’s no end to this story.  It’s a waiting game as to whether the rebranding works both in terms of viewer adjustment to the ‘brave new world’ and government’s acceptance of the status quo.  What it illustrates however is the difficulties associated with any change.

Quite rightly Channel 4 have scanned their environment, looked at the risks incumbent within that environment and responded.  Whether that response will have the desired effect is yet to be seen.

It’s a waiting game.   
Change is complex 

What else can be done to make the outcome more certain?  There will obviously be the back-room discussions to which we’re not party but we suspect that will have far more influence on the privatisation argument than a new logo.  Perhaps what’s more interesting for us is the effect this rebranding will have on the culture of the organisation, its employees, supplier and customers.  

But that conversation is for another time.  Over the coming months we’ll be posting blogs that will give you insights into the wonderful complexity that is change.  We hope that you’ll enjoy that journey with us.  

If you want to find out more about how mtc2 ltd can help you manage change get in touch through our website www.mtc2.co.uk or email info@mtc2.co.uk