10 posts tagged “business”

Jerry Flint in Forbes is one of the most intelligent motoring industry commentators in the world today. I pretty much agree with his latest column on saving GM. Highlights:

The issue is not whether there can be a rescue at General Motors; the issue is whether the current management can save it. The record is not good. Since 1992, GM’s U.S. market share has fallen steadily—from 34% that year to 19% in May. Many of GM’s leading executives are from the finance side of the business, but the financial failures are numerous. The company wasted $2 billion on an investment in Fiat and many billions more on the Delphi spin-off. Management also wrecked GMAC, its car loan subsidiary, by lending mortgage money to people who could not pay it back.

   And:

Unlike some commentators, I do not think GM’s problem is that it has too many divisions. It is shifting Buick, Pontiac and GMC to common dealerships, which means some divisions are becoming more like individual models rather than full-fledged brands. It causes less public relations damage and legal liabilities to leave Buick with a few models, rather than endure the type of bad publicity it endured a few years ago when it phased out Oldsmobile.
   I think that GM made a big mistake and did a great disservice to itself and to its dealers when it recently announced that it was looking for ways to unload Hummer. Yes, the biggest Hummers are gas pigs, but Hummer is a strong brand to put up against Jeep. It was a mistake, too, to cancel production of the Hummer H4, a smaller vehicle to compete against the iconic Jeep Wrangler. Just because consumers are flocking to vehicles that are more efficient does not mean that they do not want exciting, macho, sport utility vehicles.
   Russia has plenty of oil and enough wealthy people for vehicles such as Cadillac Escalades and Hummers. Why can't GM step up its export business to such markets?

   Jerry Flint also believes that Bob Lutz and many GM folks can lead the company to recovery. This might be worth a post on the main blog.
   Incidentally, I have been told that Condé Nast Portfolio published my letter to the editor about the US auto industry.

[Cross-posted] Yves Saint Laurent’s passing is such a shock to the fashion media because he was the world’s greatest couturier.
   When we broke the news on Sunday night at Lucire, it was obvious that we were marking the end of an era.
   The casual observer might say that the end occurred in 2002, when Saint Laurent retired to his house in Marrakech. But while he remained alive, there was always that link to one of fashion’s pure geniuses.
   Saint Laurent, perhaps like Mozart, did not have formal training when he created clothes for his sister and mother. He was talented enough to be accepted into the Chambre Syndicale. When he created the trapèze look at Dior in 1958, he was not following some great marketing-trend projection. Nor were brand advisers present with studies about liberating women when he gave the world le smoking or the safari look.
   It was only with hindsight that we, the media, made the connections for him, hiding the real inspirations that he had in his quest to become France’s greatest couturier.
   The great irony is that as his influence grew, so did the YSL brand, which meant his name became so tied up with marketing, business, financial projections and trend forecasts.
   While that brought Saint Laurent wealth, it was always clear that he was happiest simply being a créateur. It was a sign that it was better to preside over a genuine maison de l’amour than seeing if money bought happiness.
   His passing perhaps marks the demise of a pure couturier who drew from something within, finding the essence not only of his muses, such as Catherine Deneuve, but of himself.
   Today’s couturiers, while incredibly talented, are also more calculated and savvy. Saint Laurent could leave the calculations and savvy to his lover and company president, Pierre Bergé.
   I am not saying one method is better than the other. But I do miss that era where we praised Saint Laurent because he was simply so good at what he did, setting the Zeitgeist for the simple reason that he did not watch the Zeitgeist.
   Today’s designers, such as Gaultier and Ford, and even to an extent Saint Laurent’s contemporary, Lagerfeld, have a more balanced outlook, which obviously have kept them away from the down sides of Saint Laurent’s behaviour: his severe depression and his reclusiveness, especially during the 1980s.
   It is also Yves Saint Laurent the recluse, the victim of school bullying, the man who saw himself as a latter-day Swann, that also makes today’s story all the more compelling. But again, it hides that single-minded desire, one which few of us would dare to do because we know of its personal cost.
   When President Sarkozy made him an Officier of the Legion d’Honneur, the title of ‘hero’ wasn’t inappropriate for Saint Laurent.
   He is a hero for that reason, and he has set the bar so high that it will take an extraordinary person to beat his record.
   The Proust connection—Saint Laurent as Swann, by his own reckoning—does point to how he saw himself, cast out by society. It is invalid, because we are all the poorer now.
   We have lost one of the purest designers; one fewer great figure on whom we can not only report, but bask in his genius.

A spot of good news from the pageant world. More good news comes from pageantry than bad, based on what I see. Many of the contestants get a leg up into the areas they want to, thanks to the profile. Others form business networks. Don’t believe the gossipmongers and the sour grapes you might read elsewhere (as I say to the negative bloggers, I was there).
   For instance, the two Wellington-based contestants, Samantha Powell (who won Miss Universe New Zealand) and Rebecca Connor (Miss Wellington) have formed an alliance and this is particularly good for Rebecca’s business.
   Both Sam and Rebecca went to Miss New Zealand to have a bit of fun and to make connections, and this has allowed them to look a bit further than just the pageant, and at their careers.
   This release was sent today and I have my doubts on whether some of the mainstream media will pick this up, since it’s not negative enough. It’s not as big as some of the news posted to the groups that I am sending this to, but it’s a nice piece that deserves an airing.

Miss Universe New Zealand spurs cooperation between former rivals

Wellington and Auckland, May 21 (JY&A Media) Miss Universe New Zealand 2008 Samantha Powell will be getting support not only from the pageant and its sponsors, but from her former rival, Miss Wellington—Rebecca Connor of About You Artistry (www.aboutyouartistry.com).
   About You Artistry, a company specializing in make-up, is owned by Miss Connor. She has agreed to do Miss Powell’s make-up for publicity shots, photo shoots or print work whenever possible during her reign.
   Miss Connor was voted Miss Friendship by her fellow contestants and was in the top five at the 2008 pageant.
   ‘I had a great experience at the pageant and made some true friends,’ says Miss Connor. ‘I really want to support Sam in her bid for Miss Universe and during her year representing New Zealand.’
   Val Lott, director of Miss Universe New Zealand, says the cooperation between the former rivals is an example of the many positive outcomes found in pageantry.
   ‘Many of these girls go to the pageant as a professional choice, to forge not only friendships but create new networks,’ she says.
   Jack Yan, publisher of Lucire, who was a judge for Miss Universe New Zealand for the last two years, says Miss Connor’s entrepreneurship and willingness to reach out to a fellow contestant are examples of the positive effects the pageant brings.
   He says Mlles Powell and Connor are examples of contestants who are ‘keeping it real. This is why they both did so well in the pageant.’
   The Miss Universe New Zealand pageant was held at the Novotel Ellerslie on April 20. Samantha Powell will contest Miss Universe in Nha Trang, Vietnam on July 14.
   Miss Powell represented the Horowhenua at the national pageant.

[Cross-posted] I didn’t do as much witness work for my legal clients during 2005–6 and I was interested to see from a former client a letter from a large New Zealand law firm’s partner. I won’t reveal any specific information, of course, but let’s say it’s from a firm I did have some dealings against in the 1990s and I considered their statement of defence pretty amateur. I have considered their marketing to be very amateur, too—all style and no substance.
   Or perhaps their brand or marketing consultant actually did a perfect job—they expressed the firm honestly and accurately.
   The letter, with all the Our refs and jargon, lacks a salutation. There is no Dear or even an Attention: it launches straight in to the correspondence.
   This may be very nice for text messaging but it has no place in what is considered acceptable commercial correspondence.
   Perhaps once texting, or some evolution of it, becomes the dominant form of communication—which places us roughly between grunting and Morse code—then business correspondence may evolve toward the demise of the salutation.
   Until then, this merely illustrates the arrogance of the legal profession and how it has fallen even further out of step with its clientèle.
   Lawyers need to remember they represent certain parties and that those parties—the ones that pay their bills—have brands that need to be protected, not destroyed through callousness.
   The effects on culture are wide-reaching. Imagine singing the song ‘Dear John’ without the words Dear John. It kind of sucks with the lyric-free bits in the verses.
   How about answering a phone without a ‘Hello’?
   When I relayed this to one regular client, a practising attorney who is around my age, he was surprised. He has received such letters, too, but he agrees with me on this topic.
   There is what some people call a simplified letter, where there may be no salutation and the words Attention: Dispatch Department (for instance) may take its place. These are acceptable—just—when the recipient is unlikely to be known by the writer, but I have always adopted a Ladies and Gentlemen in such cases.
   I realize that the niceties of I remain or even Your loyal and humble servant have disappeared in New Zealand but this development of the missing salutation is worrisome.
   At best it is disrespectful to the recipient, which may be what the law firm wanted to convey—but disrespecting others is merely a sign of an absence of self-respect, showing that the firm itself is without merit.
   Yet the writer of this letter has not forgotten his valediction—I imagine he has retained it because that way he can put his own name down the bottom and see it in print.
   After all, with no salutation, surely there is no need for a valediction? My most casual emails, where I am firing off an internal memo or a quick response to some people, do lack both. I simply end the text with an em dash and my initials and I encourage some members of my team to do the same.
   Commerce does not function with people acting selfishly. It only works with mutual respect—and that includes people who may disagree with one another.
   So, for all those who have forgotten the components of an acceptable letter in modern business practice, here is a link. It is not geared to a general audience, nor do I agree with all of it, but following its components will certainly present a letter which hide how years of law school and legal practice have failed various members of the profession.

Condé Nast Portfolio November 2007

Every now and then, there’s a magazine that captures my imagination. In 1988, it was Autocar; by the early 1990s, it was Wired, then Fast Company by the end of the decade. Now, the magazine (other than any I publish!) is Condé Nast Portfolio.
   I’m annoyed that, like Business Week, Portfolio is next to impossible to get in New Zealand, though Advance can count on me as a subscriber now. As a business magazine, it is intelligently written and beautifully presented: think of it as Business Week meets The Atlantic Monthly. Design-wise, it’s a tad over-ornamented and olde worlde American, but that text typeface is beautiful and I could read it all day. It is intelligently written, but not in an inaccessible way—like the Atlantic.
   Lucky Yanks can subscribe for a dollar a month whereas I have to pay the full US$60 to get them Down Under, but at around NZ$7 an issue, it’s not a lot to ask. Postage alone won’t cover that seven bucks, and I should know.

Anita Roddick was an inspirational lady. Here are some quotations from her last interview in The Daily Telegraph.

On the US wealth divide
It’s a society that is absolutely separate, it’s a gated community living next door to a society that is impoverished, a gated community living next to ghetto—you see that all the time and it will happen here—the two poles of our society.
   Everything is here for the wealthy. You can hide your money away in tax havens, you can find ways of making more money.

The global credit crunch in the US
It's like that fresh flesh: I want it now, you know I can’t work for it, I can’t be an apprentice, I can’t look up to it. And people are living longer. The elderly don’t want kids in their home. Everybody’s staying at home and there’s not a work ethic that I’m seeing. There’s got to be more creative ways of finding jobs and getting skilled or finding jobs that are worthwhile and you don't have to be skilled for.

B-school
This notion that to be in business you've got to go to a business school: it’s crap. Because business schools only shape you to be a very efficient person working in a very traditional system—but the most exciting things are what’s being done untraditionally.

L’Oréal and the Body Shop
I’m thrilled with it, absolutely bloody thrilled with it. I think they’re going to do amazing things. I think they’ll be able to—with the research companies that they’ve bought—not the product companies—of completely eliminating animal testing in the future. It will not be part of the industry. Because they're doing cell culture testing—they’re making their own cells and their own skin. Every ingredient, every food product will be tested.
   For me it’s been a wonderful gift because a company that is a strong understanding brand bought it. The alternative was that a group of financiers would come in and asset strip it—they wouldn't give a toss for anything.

Outsourcing
We’re not a manufacturing country anymore. But I think you get people to understand the story behind what they buy—to make that one jump and say what's the real cost of something, if everybody got another 25pc for the garment they made then you wouldn’t get this big social dilemma.
   I remember going to a sweatshop area in Nicaragua, and it was quite a modern factory but there was no place to eat or have half an hour off. And the women were walking some 3 miles to work every day. And I walked back with them, and they were living in cardboard huts. One woman said to me, whatever you do tell them all that we want to do is move from slavery to poverty. They were forced to take contraceptive pills, they were thrown out if they had a grey hair and this is nothing compared to what goes on in Bangladesh.

The futility of “marketing”
We never had a marketing department for 20 odd years. Every year we were getting awards for our marketing, and we didn’t know what it was. The minute we brought in marketing as a traditional thinking—cover your trucks with messages, environment human rights etc, went out the door.
   We had an enormous amount of humour. I remember on Mother’s Day we had a message saying ‘God couldn't be everywhere so he created mothers’. We were doing really quirky things that got people engaged.

   There’s more on Dame Anita Roddick, DBE today in Lucire, along with a related op-ed from yours truly about her leadership.

New Zealand is a year behind on Life on Mars, and I note from a TV One ad just now that Derren Brown’s Séance will air next week. I know we are necessarily behind the UK on British programmes, but I don’t remember us being this far behind since the 1970s. A three-year-old show? What is happening? Now with Cold Case, Without a Trace and other American shows on One, is this the end of the British influence on our networks?
   And people wonder why TVNZ as a whole is doing so poorly. It’s simply not delivering what people want. I can say that with some more authority, having been an insider.
   Incidentally, having left Good Morning, my theory has been proven right: my profile is up. The results are in: May saw eight press mentions across the company—up on 2006, but down on some months in 2003–5 where we were seeing something written about us at least daily. (The idea that appearing on TV regularly enhances your profile is, I can now say, bollocks.) It is reaching the levels (measured in column inches and mentions) it was at before I began on the show; indeed, we seem to be returning, as a company, to pre-2004 levels, before we made some bad hiring decisions. I do seem to have rid myself of the negative influences in my life—and Good Morning, and whatever sickness TVNZ has, were the last.
   I love being proved right—it was a good lesson, reminding myself to stick to my guns, remembering that sort of magic that helped us get an international clientèle to begin with, and exposing me to seeing a bad organization that wasn’t paying me to fix it. It’s not every day I have that opportunity: while I have seen ill organizations, I am usually called in after they have realized they need help. TVNZ has not got there yet and, in recent memory, is the only first-hand example I have of an organization I got to see over a period that wants to stay in its funk. It had more often been a management-textbook theory.
   As to my personal profile, I believe the slip in press mentions was due to an energy mismatch here at work in 2005–6 and the fact that appearing on Good Morning took me away from building my media appearances doing the things that mattered to me as a CEO. From a personal-brand standpoint, it was not authentic, to coin a phrase from Johnnie Moore. Not that that was the intent: I had been promised by the network that I could promote Lucire, most of all, through the show. That promise, as those of you who listened to my voice post last month, was not kept.
   Furthermore, I cannot see, with hindsight, how the ‘You’ve Got Male’ segment was a dignified forum for a company leader. I say this with respect to men like Paul Sinclair, with whom I regularly stay in contact.
   When I think of interviews I have had with CNN or the BBC, the show went against the image I had built up as a businessman.
   As each week passes, I feel more comfortable with my decision to leave Good Morning, and the positive consequences are coming up more frequently.
   My main regrets are endorsing the show to friends, getting caught up in it. I should have recommended that Laural and Sharaine Barrett not appear, though it was a good excuse to catch up in Wellington. Jennifer Hamilton of Avidiva reports no increase in profile, bookings or ‘Oh, I saw you on …’ since appearing on Good Morning.
   You may see me on C4 in mid-July (to be confirmed), and there may be some news that could net some television attention in late June–early July. The key is to not get sucked in to negative organizations or be around negative people as part of my routine—and if I have to appear on a TVNZ network, then it must be totally in line with my real job and personal mission.

Firing an email off to Vodafone, after they told me via text (sic):

From 17May we're improving our systems for u.There may be delays in bills, plan changes & balances.See vodafone.co.nz/changes or the letter to yr biz next week

   Now, I respect the right of people to use cells. Secondly, I believe cellphones are necessarily evils in emergencies, or for those parents who want to be reached by their children. I, personally, have found them useful in courting. But I do not see any necessity for them in any other context, certainly not for my working environment when I am in my city.
   But do not send me coded messages that I have to decipher! Thus:

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Two things, both related.
   I know you’ve some changes ahead with your system upgrade. But you don’t need to text me [number censored] about it. Unless you are prepared to text in English (you know, where the pronoun is you, not U; where there are spaces after full stops—that crazy stuff which makes messages comprehensible). 
   But to be really honest, I’d just rather not hear from you through a cellphone at all, when your letter of the 11th does the same job.
   If you could, please just keep me on your paper mailing list. I detest cellphones, and I see them only as an occasional evil where I am forced to make calls when travelling. The last thing I want is for a cellphone to be an advertising medium, when I do not permit that with my regular telephone.
   Secondly, I note that when you texted me with news of this system change, I could not reply or see your number. Please can you modify my settings accordingly? I have no wish for people to know my number, otherwise they will begin replying to or calling me on it.
   I have been told by your people that putting 0197 in front of numbers will hide mine, but I have tried this with text messages, and none of them will go through.
   If it's at all possible, a blanket hiding of my number to all and sundry would be ideal, please. I could find no setting on the phone to do this, so I assume this is done on your end.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Jack Yan

   If email wasn’t full of spam that could be filtered out, then I would have suggested they email me with changes, but I doubt I would receive their messages.

[Cross-posted] Witnessed today, two potential brand gaffes. I keep finding these with Ana, who is interning with us.
   As we drove past Lower Hutt KFC, we noticed a window cleaner. Not weird. Except he was part of the guys in uniform—probably one of the lads behind the counter usually—and he was on the second storey, with no harness or any safety equipment. Not a good look. KFC may or may not be good for your health, and probably the latter if you are dangling outside the second storey doing a Frank Spencer.
   Meanwhile, a van for some computer-geek outfit—Geeks on Wheels, if I remember the name right—was parked outside the Mt Vic tunnel today. A few folks do this, to catch passing traffic and get some brand exposure. Not only can I not remember the name correctly, I understand the van was parked there five hours ago.
   Lads, if you are going to use the ‘A’ Team van as a billboard, move it after a while. Otherwise, some people might think you were stuck on a job for five hours.
   Finally, I hear that a major supermarket chain forces its check-out folks to scan 18 items per minute. Any fewer, you get told off. This one is hearsay, but Woolworth’s was named. Next time you shop, ask behind the counter if they do this. I have had nos from New World and Pak ’n’ Save. However, I have not shopped at Woolworth’s in New Zealand since November 1993, ever since they denied me service due to my race. (The story gets worse. I may fill y’all in one of these days. I’ve been biting my tongue for a long time.)
   If the 18 target is true, then all I can think of are sweatshops. This is New Zealand, for Chrissakes, and we expect a bit of friendly banter, not some kid trying to break a Guinness record to prevent his supervisor from abusing him or her.

I was pleased to learn through Simon Young’s Leadership blog that Idealog, the magazine which yours truly endorses in a big way (and have done since it began), has hit a 12,221 circulation here in New Zealand. In a small country, that is a hit, especially for a business magazine. The Jack Radar is faultless.
   I am glad the Idealog folks thought highly of my comments, too, and I hope I helped in some way to get them to this circulation. A few weeks ago, I noticed they used something I wrote (‘it is the strongest début issue of any magazine I have ever seen’) as a quotation to help promote the magazine. Being facetious, I started a blog post below, but was afraid people would not get the humour and thought I was being a braggart:

   Idealog, the business magazine that I have waxed lyrical about, has talked up its sponsorship of the Australian version of Dragons’ Den here. I was chuffed to note that the folks there have quoted me as an endorser, followed by Kevin Roberts.
   Bit like when my friend and colleague Charlie Ward began his coffee-table books on branding: I wrote the first one, Kevin the second one.
   And Beyond Branding: How the New Values of Transparency and Integrity Are Changing the World of Brands predated Lovemarks: the Future Beyond Brands by a year.
   Thanks, Idealog, for getting the order correct. It is nice to lead the pack on an endorsement list as well. At least you blokes know who is first with these ideas, and inject them with a dose of forward thinking.

   I am glad I didn’t post it, because on the magazine’s subs’ page now, they have put Kevin before me, darn it.
   Oh, guys, how come Kevin and Robert Roydhouse have their company names underneath theirs and I get ‘Publishing entrepreneur’? Ahem, I do own a few companies, and I would have thought the Medinge Group directorship could be a fairly marketable claim. Ironical the only brand expert there doesn’t have his company brand mentioned. But small matter: your success is what I am raising a glass to: well done!
   Idealog’s success illustrates that people are interested in business, especially entrepreneurship—and Māori in New Zealand are among the most entrepreneurial races in the world. I imagine we have to be self-starters, since we aren’t going to get that much help from government.

Speaking of serving, I have seen my three mentoring clients now. Each has an interesting business, and I seem to fit in perfectly. The ideas are not obvious—if they were, these business people would have tried them already. All I am doing is opening eyes, not telling them how to run their businesses.
   Three months ago, I wrote:

I volunteer for government bodies and tell them I will provide my exporting, branding and marketing knowledge for free. I am, after all, still the only active antipodean at Medinge. My record is pretty sharp. But, as with my lament over exports, no one has ever taken me up on my offers.

   Since the exporting bodies do not want me, I am doing the next best thing: through the mentoring programme, all my clients would not mind exporting. You can’t keep good Kiwis down, no matter how hard some of these government departments try. Idealog is contributing to that effort, respecting free enterprise and championing Kiwi ingenuity.