Sterling Performance

They steal your watch to tell you the time: the old saw about consultancies still rings true. A Management Consultancies Association survey says 28 per cent of organisations are dissatisfied with the consultancies they’ve used. Tim Phillips, director of Moorhouse Consulting, offers an insider’s guide to getting top service:

• Define the work
  Consultants cannot second-guess what you want. Without clear guidelines, they might make up their own objectives. Think about commissioning a feasibility study to firm up the scope for the work.
• Build a sizeable package
  Bundle up and shape tasks to create a significant and interesting package of work worthy of your dream team’s skills. Remove work that can be done in-house or by less skilled contractors.
• Craft attractive roles
  Have roles that will suit both experienced and junior consultants so you get a mix of talented people who can strategise, innovate and implement at the coalface.
• Target those who will value working with you
  Carefully select the type of firm you invite to tender. Make sure your work is high on their priority list. Unless you need the global reach or broader service offering of a big firm, select from specialists that will value your custom more.
• Meet before choosing
  You may have been offered a fantastic solution on paper but it must be a good cultural fit with your business. A face-to-face meeting is the only way to ensure you have that all-important chemistry.
• Question the junior
  At the selection interview the salesman will try to do most of the talking but they won’t be doing the work. Direct your questions to the most junior consultant to get a good indication of whether or not this is your dream team. If you don’t get the answers you want, ask the firm to offer you people with different or advanced skills or experience.
• Call on the subs
  If you encounter problems, tell the engagement manager early. If they are worth their salt they will bend over backwards to resolve your issues. Be specific about the outcomes you want. Otherwise, you may just get a new face and little else.
• Location, location, location
  Don’t place consultants on their own in the broom cupboard — they need to be on-site, part of your team, and have access to vital information. Set this up from day one.
• The art of clientship
  Make one person accountable for the consultant’s work and ensure that person has sufficient authority, time, knowledge, and passion to succeed.
• Make your consultant redundant
  Wouldn’t it be great if your team could do the consultant’s job next time? Create joint consultant/client teams. You’ll get on-the-job training for your people — but make sure you have contractual cover so they don’t poach them.

When it comes to leadership, do nice guys finish last? Are the two mutually exclusive? Professor Jean-Francois Manzoni at business school IMD seems to indicate as much in “Big Ego Leadership“.

People want to work for someone who engages employees and listens to their ideas. But Manzoni questions whether there’s evidence to suggest a “nice” leader is more effective or appreciated. Indeed, your nice leader, he says, may have trouble prioritising or making hard decisions.

Leaders need to be “organisational architects” who translate the business processes into strategy. They set the culture but must also be able to mobilise stakeholders, within and outside the business, and juggle their often divergent expectations. They may have to make decisions that result in winners and losers.

“All bosses face decisions that are difficult because they involve some degree of uncertainty and/or entail negative consequences for some individuals, hence requiring some degree of self-confidence, independence and personal drive,” writes Professor Manzoni.

But decision-making is a fact of life, not just the life of a leader. Do we overplay the importance of the charismatic leader? After all, the idea of the chief executive as ‘leader’ is pretty new: before it became a byword for red-tape, “management”, Drucker-style, described the top brass.

Likewise, our business heroes are not low-key managerial types but brassy bosses, many of whom we only know about thanks to TV. This seems to be the upshot of a survey by software firm Kashflow.

Virgin Group’s Richard Branson takes top honours as the entrepreneurs’ entrepreneur, with Bill Gates at number two. But the subsequent eight is a scattergun list that includes two of TV’s Dragons in third and fourth place, alongside TV empress Oprah Winfrey and ex-Dragon Duncan Bannatyne.
Clearly, there was little consensus: Steve Jobs was in sixth place but that was just 5.4 per cent of the vote. But that still doesn’t explain how Ryanair’s combative Michael O’Leary, gained more votes than ‘Sage of Omaha’ Warren Buffett. Nice guys really do finish last.

This is the most important — and most difficult — part of a manager’s job. Author W J King’s advice is to keep it simple:

1. Have the essential facts to hand: your decisions are more likely to be correct. Some, though, believe that anyone can make a decision with the relevant facts, whereas the skill of a good manager is doing without them. Find the balance by asking yourself: “Am I likely to lose more by giving a snap judgement or by waiting for more information?”
2. Make up a code of principles, policies and rules in advance. These will ease the decision-making process.
3. You don’t have to be right every time. It’s healthy to expect mistakes and take a few good risks now and then. There are few mistakes that cannot be turned into profit somehow, even if only for the experience. Equally, though, consider the consequences: don’t be coerced into a mistake that creates wreckage for your business — and you.
4. If a decision’s difficult, it’s likely the pros and cons are pretty well balanced — and the net loss cannot amount to much. It may be more important to arrive at any decision promptly than to arrive at the best decision ultimately. Take a definite position and see it through.
5. It is futile to try and keep everyone happy when decisions involve incompatible points of view. Give everyone a fair hearing but once everyone’s said their piece, deal with the matter decisively, even if it means stepping on someone’s toes. Otherwise, everyone will end up dissatisfied and many will think less of you for straddling the issue.

Still on the fence? Ask yourself:

• Does the idea expedite the project or will it only produce delays?
• Is it fair and above-board?
• Is it in line with custom, precedence or policy? If not, is there a good reason for departure?
• Does it align with a previous decision or understanding? If not, is the change justifiable?
• What are the odds? Can we accept the risk? Very often, the potential gains outweigh the worst possible consequence.

“The Unwritten Laws of Business” by W J King and updated by James Skakoon is published by Profile books.

What’s the best — or worst — business decision you’ve ever made?

Recent events show how far we have gone from a country governed by Parliament to one ruled by out-of-control civil servants.

HM Revenue & Customs is crying “tax-avoidance” to make a really big change in the UK’s tax law. You can search the budget speech and the Treasury 200-page summary and not find this change. Try Release 63 and read it slowly — it’s all about tax avoidance.

For as far back as I’ve searched, UK tax law has allowed individuals and companies to offset losses on one trade against another trade’s profits. This was to encourage people to fund up businesses as sole traders. Say someone funds a fishing boat and rents it to fishermen. In some years, there will be good catches, in others not. Or someone could fund a wind farm where, until the blades are turning, losses are inevitable.

This was the most basic form of venture capital — people take unlimited risk and generate commerce and employment. Under the cover of “tax-avoidance” HMRC is pretty well banning all of this for individuals and because it’s “tax-avoidance”. It is doing so retrospectively and without consultation.

HMRC will of course continue to fully tax any profits. The Revenue cannot tell me what volume of abuse exists or what volume of relief is obtained. But it surely could have dealt with it less painfully.

So farewell to the most simple form of support for new and volatile businesses. Tidy and easy for HMRC. If we stop all forms of enterprise, there would be no tax avoidance — much more simple for HMRC.

Second, a short piece in the “Sunday Times” tells me that new powers announced last week were to allow the Pensions Regulator to insist that pension schemes are topped up and not simply bought and sold for profit. Who could possibly object? Never mind that there was no need for new powers — the regulator already has enormous clout.

Under cover of Robin Hood-like probity it is now seeking powers unrelated to the stated need, most notably a Draconian power where a pension liability could be assessed without evidence of unscrupulous behaviour.

The regulator is doing away with the test of good faith, which it says is an intolerable hurdle. Companies could then be arbitrarily assessed for enormous liabilities — without even an appeal process. You could do nothing wrong and suffer an enormous penalty without process or appeal.

This is in a section of the law originally said to be a moral hazard provision. The law could now deem a business guilty without trial or appeal, with dire consequences for any company caught in the net.

This being done retrospectively, using the fiction of pension funds being ripped up in takeovers to justify the absence of proper process. Spin is a polite word for this. Deceit would be closer.

Seeing red-tape? Share your views below.

Vodafone’s pledge to halve its CO2 emissions by 2020 shows enlightened self-interest.

Nice as it is to be green, it also “makes business sense”, as Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin said.

InterfaceFLOR, a flooring manufacturer, made a similar, albeit more ambitious, commitment. Its “Mission Zero” programme aims to eliminate any negative environmental impact the flooring manufacturer might have by 2020 — and has just earned the business a Queen’s Award for sustainable business practice.

Its sustainable ethos mean it’s more likely to encourage customers to conserve its products than rush out and buy more, which doesn’t seem to make business sense. Yet the past 12 months have been one of the most successful in the company’s trading history, according to InterfaceFLOR UK’s operations director, Steve Martin.

It’s the same story for ScotAsh, a carbon-free building material specialist and another Queen’s Award recipient for sustainability. “People used to buy our product because it’s good anyway. But recently, they are more aware of the green agenda and what it means for their business,” says Peter Quinn, managing director.

A joint-venture between building materials giant Lafarge and Scottish Power that extracts carbon from waste ash, ScotAsh has developed with sustainability at its core. But when asked what’s made them successful as ‘green’ companies, Quinn and Martin offered simple ideas any company could retrofit:

• It’s up to the business leader to set a vision, then galvanise and inspire people. That means sharing celebrations with the team, getting people involved, being consistent.
• Invest in training. Service is a differentiator at InterfaceFLOR, so it has its own three-level training-programme.
• Demonstrate cost savings. Since 1994, InterfaceFLOR has saved $372m in energy and waste reduction. It has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent and cut its waste costs by 34 per cent. These are measurable results any investor will understand.
• Make the green agenda integral, not just a nice-to-have. Give someone responsibility for assessing your business’s environmental impact. “If there’s one secret to our success it’s that we’ve really integrated it into the business,” says InterfaceFLOR’s Martin. If you hire a consultancy, look for accreditation by organisations such as the Carbon Trust.  Create an environmental policy.
• Enter awards. The process requires that you scrutinise the business and may expose areas for improvement. Accolades are morale-boosting for employees and make them proud of the place they work. They also set a benchmark and differentiate the company from its competitors, especially in public sector tenders.

Where next? Visit the Carbon Trust for more on energy-saving and efficiency loans. For free advice on running a cleaner fleet, contact the Energy Saving Trust.

Success is subjective: to some it is about money, to others power. To a few it may even be about gaining immortality.

Whatever it means for you here are 25 success tips to try out for size:

• You are almost certainly more talented than you’d ever imagined. It’s your duty to make the most of these talents.
• Money matters. It gives you choices. But never be ruled by money. It may be a cliché, but you can’t take it with you.
• Doing things you believe to be worthwhile will make you feel and be successful.
• Try to enjoy your own company. If you are a leader then you’ll spend quite a lot of time by yourself.
• Always give those above you honest feedback. Too few do. They’ll value you as one of their honest barometers.
• Flex your muscles. Try new things. Get out of your comfort zone. You are unlikely to get better there.
• Have a plan and set yourself milestones.
• Decide when you need to move on from everything you do. The emancipating effect of knowing that you have an exit plan will be extraordinary.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously.
• Failure is a great teacher. Don’t be frightened of it, learn from it and get better. And don’t blame others when it happens.
• Learn to see things from every point of view. The key to spectacular, breakthrough success is turning a convention upside down.
• Avoid negative thinkers. Life is too short to be gloomy. (more…)

There has been much debate about ‘British values’ over the last few years; what do the British stand for, what are our core beliefs and how do we ensure that immigrants to the UK embrace these values?

Chief among these values must be self-deprecation. Because if you looked at Britain’s national papers or listened to the average conversation down the pub, you’d get impression that we poor Brits are living in the worst country in the world. Everything in Britain is bad, nothing works — we can’t do anything right.

Yet when it comes to British brands, the public is less critical. I recently oversaw a process to identify the strongest business-to-business brands operating in the UK for the Superbrands organisation. To my surprise the outcome of the survey — conducted among 30 UK experts and over 1,500 business professionals — sees a top 10 dominated by British stalwarts such as the BBC, BP, GlaxoSmithKline, the Rolls-Royce Group, the FT and even British Airways (the survey predates the T5 debacle).

These brands have hardly performed flawlessly. Need I highlight BP’s problems in the US, or BA’s travails, even pre-T5? Yet we give British institutions the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it is time to start viewing our country more positively. Just as BP, the BBC and GSK are still are great brands in spite of recent troubles, Britain, while imperfect, has a stronger reputation than some would have us believe.

In a survey by leading nation brand expert Simon Anholt, which tapped the views of 30,000 people across 35 countries, ‘brand Britain’ has fallen for the first time in years to second place in the league table of country brands — it narrowly lost the top spot to Germany. Anholt foresees Britain regaining the top spot in the next set of results.

On the whole, the world regards us positively. And if we are talking truly global brand success and loyalty, then bow to the true international brand champions — the English Premiership and its constituents. With well over a billion people from Dubai to Shanghai tuning in to watch premiership games, the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool are a branding phenomenon.

My plea is that my fellow countrymen view our country as we view many of our top brands, not with rose tinted spectacles, but fairly. It is not as bad as the “Daily Mail” would have us believe.

How do you view ‘brand Britain’? Let us know by posting your comments below.

Bashful salespeople are failing to engage buyers, says a DDI global sales survey, “Is the Sales Force Delivering Business Value?”

The French and British are most ashamed of being in sales, while the Germans are the least, says the survey. It also identifies the qualities buyers most value in sales people: ability to advise on products or services, market knowledge and trustworthiness.

Price matters to most to UK buyers, who rank price negotiations on a par with trustworthiness. Overall, 19 per cent of those surveyed felt sales expertise was worsening, with poor communication skills and a lack of engagement with customers just a couple of complaints.

Building relationships has become crucial. Says one UK respondent: “Once a rapport is built with a customer, then anything can be sold.”

Yet the survey found that less than half of UK buyers felt they were building partnerships with salespeople.

Instead, British buyers consult the Web for decision-making. The UK leads in internet use for buying decisions, with 72 per cent checking the Web before consulting a sales representative. (more…)

Welcome to BNET UK, the one-stop shop for busy managers in search of fresh thinking and practical advice on all areas of business.

A week ago, you may have noticed the addition of our new UK blog, Sterling Performance, and the BNET UK team hopes you will enjoy our dedicated coverage from a local team in the UK, on top of the in-depth resources found across the rest of BNET.

Looking for the secrets of sustained growth? Check out our coverage of JC Larréché’s new book, “The Momentum Effect”.

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There is an old joke about a tourist in Rome who stops an old man on the street and asks, “How do you get to La Scala?” The old man replies, “Practise, practise, practise”. There is no easy way to become a top performer. It takes energy, focus and hard work. The best performers are all the product of what scientists call “deliberate” practice — about 10,000 hours of it if you want to get to the top of your field.

Practise makes perfect
Harvard Business School’s case method simulates the realities of the business world. Students who graduate from these types of programmes tend to perform well because they have practised the behaviour of business. The really good ones make sure to carry on this practice when they get out into real situations.

Continuous improvement
Everything you do at work is a skill that can be improved upon. If you keep that thought uppermost in your mind, research shows that you will approach the way you do your job differently. You will process information more thoroughly, take a longer-term view, focus on the connection between your behaviour and your performance, and you will actively seek feedback on both of them.

Feedback
Feedback is essential to performance. Once you know how you are doing, you can decide what to do differently to get better results.