Ando | Something Foolish, Something Creative and Something Generous
Benjamin Graham* hoped every day to do “something foolish, something creative, and something generous.” At first I was just impressed by how rounded those goals are. But then I started thinking about his framing; his goals were based on a day’s activities. Not a week or a year, but a day. While we will always [...]
Do you understand your talent?
The world under values you. It certainly under values your skills and the expertise you bring to your business. In most cases, your strongest assets are yet to be noticed by your boss. If that’s the case, it may be your fault. A senior member of one of the worlds largest beverage groups reminded me [...]
FROM THE BULL
PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH – I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU! “We need to do some out of the box thinking from the get-go with sufficient granularity in the drill-down phase to ensure our value-added strategy is consistent with our core values and beliefs.” This statement was actually made by the CEO of a $400m company to his [...]
Where are you going?
Zoolander doesn’t lack self awareness. OK, maybe he crosses the line into self absorbed. I often wonder how good Zoolander would be if he could actually turn left (we all know Zoolander is an ambi-turner (can only turn right)). Might be time to set himself a new set of goals. So what is awareness? Surely [...]
Ask yourself the tough questions.
Are you asking the hard questions? Have you overlooked a simple important factor of making a business successful. The sound of a dripping tap. You know the one, late at night when all is quiet. Drip. Drip. Drip. It is an annoying isn’t it. We get up and turn off the tap and 9 times out [...]
Profiles: Paul Higgins from Oakley
Name: Paul Higgins (Vice President: Oakley Asia Pacific) My Brand (Business): Oakley, Arnette, Revo, Fox (sunglass), Oliver Peoples, Paul Smith (sunglass), and Mosley Tribes. My Generation: Definitely X, but dabble in Y from time to time. Hey, it’s part of my job! Profile: As Vice President of Oakley Asia Pacific, Paul Higgins manages the Oakley brands across Japan, China, India, [...]
belief.
People don’t often believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.
Life Change Experiment: by Geoff Barker
So what kind of idiot gives all there worldly possessions away to total strangers, in a hair brained scheme to get more out of life! Well that would be me. Yes I realise it sounds nuts and your first instincts are to assume some religious or hippie motivation but the truth is it’s really nothing [...]
Reactive bites.
How do you turn up to interviews? Sales meetings? Board meetings? Do you sit where you think you are expected to sit? Does your conversation follow a call sheet? Do you wear exactly what you are supposed to wear and answer questions safely? This is called reactive. There is an alternative to this. Its called [...]
FROM THE BULL: Boss your boss
“Boss your boss just as soon as you can; try it on early. There is nothing he will like so well if he is the right kind of boss. If he is not, then he is not the man for you to remain with – leave him whenever you can, even at a present sacrifice, [...]
Why are you here?
For want of a better word, we had a breakthrough last week with a client (Steve Webb… he wanted a mention) who was having trouble with team motivation. Three weeks ago, I asked Steve to have his team before every meeting make a simple statement. “Why am I here”! He implemented an email to his team [...]
FROM THE BULL: Getting interesting
Let’s face it most companies are dead boring and they are certainly not curious. Because they are boring and not curious, their products and services (and probably people) are, by extension, boring and their customers know it. They don’t need to be. It is the curious people who force progress and make companies endure and [...]
Not for discussion.
Working for a large corporate it amazed me how often I heard the words “that’s not for discussion”. Generally followed by the comment “we should have”. I recently counted a sales director use the words “we should have” 21 times in a 45 minute discussion. Yeah, ouch. What’s not for discussion? Quitting your job, standing your ground [...]
Runnin Fools
A few weeks ago we talk about guy #3. How their is something special about the 1st guy & 2nd guy. However it is generally guy #3 who makes it a movement. In saying that, someone has to start. Someone has to decide to take the lead. We all know their is no points for [...]
Profiles: Glenn Chandler
Name: Glenn Chandler – Creative Director Brand: Clemenger Proximity Sydney Profile: After studying Graphic Design and Photography at university, Glenn worked as a designer and art director in a number of small agencies in Sydney. Escape presented itself in the form of an offer to work as an art director at McCann’s in Bahrain, on [...]
Creating more than we capture
I read an article today stating only 30% of people graduating from Uni with a marketing degree are being placed in a marketing role and only a few more have actually been placed in a career of choice. Following this I had a conversation with a colleague who was bored with his job and looking for a change. Its not an easy market for brand managers or marketers and we need to do a lot more today than brand ourselves on-line through social media or “send in a resume” to be successful. There are a lot of good people today getting a lot less than they deserve.
FROM THE BULL: Change.
From the bull
“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great” (John D Rockefeller)
Weekly post from the Bull before he heads off to pasture.
