Sterling Performance

No-one dies wishing he’d spent more time in the office, says Snakes & Ladders picking up on HBR’s article, ‘When Virtue is a Vice’.

People tend to place a higher premium on work than play. But authors Anat Keinan and Ran Kivetz have done research that suggests you’ll forgive yourself faster for an indulgence today than if you deny yourself happiness for too long.

They asked current college students and alumni how both groups felt about how they’d spent their winter breaks. The alumni who’d not travelled or splashed their cash had lingering regrets — they lasted longer than those of the students who’d spent more freely or studied less diligently.

Likewise, indulgent business people were less sorry about having slacked off as time went by, while those who’d been more conscientious felt twinges of regret over the fun they’d missed.

People who refuse to remove their hairshirts suffer from ‘excessive far-sightedness or hyperopia’. They are what author Tal Ben-Shahar would call ‘rat-racers’, working hard and postponing the fun till later. (There’s a sad end-note to Lord Maclaurin’s ‘Tiger by the Tail’ that should be a cautionary tale to any hyperopic CEO.)

Keinan and Kivetz have a marketing message, too. They asked 57 shoppers to anticipate how they’d feel about two different types of purchase. One would be an indulgent buy to make them feel happy; the other a cheaper item that would allow them to put a bit aside for a rainy day.

Those who expected to feel immediate regret bought the low-end product. The authors suggest anyone marketing expensive goods should try asking consumers to think longer term about how they might feel if they forego an indulgence — “For instance, a travel company might ask customers to consider how they’ll feel about having passed up a family vacation package once the nest is empty.”

It seems pretty manipulative. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see a slew of ’seize the day’ marketing messages as the credit crunch deepens.

He’d said he was going to go at the end of June, and as good as his word, Sir Alan Sugar’s given over the day-to-day running of Amstrad to plain Alun Webber, the managing director.

The Hackney-born entrepreneur founded Amstrad at 21 and last year sold the set-top box business to BSkyB for £125m, netting £34.5m and bringing his personal fortune to an estimated £830m.

Sugar will concentrate on other interests including computer business Viglen, Jersey-based investment vehicle Amshold, and his lucrative (well, in better times) property holding, Amsprop, whose portfolio includes the old IBM building on London’s South Bank and which is apparently run by Sugar’s son, Daniel. There’s also the little indulgence that is Amsair, a private jet company that must be smarting from high fuel prices, if not declining custom from its high-net worth client base.

But Sugar will always have his TV appearances to fall back on and will be back for another round of firings in next year’s Apprentice.

For John Naughton, it’s probably good riddance. He classes Sugar among the corporate world’s “vulgar, undisciplined, ego-maniacal brutes” who allow their businesses to become vehicles for their “infantile personalities”.

Does Sugar deserve such a drubbing? He may not be the most subtle boss on the block, but he represents a charismatic and no-nonsense entrepreneurial type that’s quickly going the way of the Dodo.

Two of Amstrad’s four senior managers have worked with Sugar for a collective 43 years — how bad can he be? And, cynicism notwithstanding, it’s unusual for a tyrant to attribute his company’s success to its “talented and loyal team”.

Egotistical? Possibly. Brash? Certainly. But after Sugar, there’s only Branson to claim the role of big business personality. Doesn’t business need a few larger-than-life characters — or are they part of a model that’s no longer sustainable?

177,000 people, 100,000 acres, 700 acts, 80 stages and 3,000 loos, rain forecast all weekend — it must be Glastonbury.

Now in its 28th year, it’s also the perfect example of a sustainable business and rare proof of good project management in action. An audit last year found that it cost £21.2m to stage, but made £52m in revenue, says Supply Management.

Main costs
The acts: £2.5m
Staffing: £1m
Clean up: £1m
Donations to charity: £1.5m

What it does really well

Buys locally Over half of 2007’s £20.2m spend went to suppliers in the south west and £4.5 specifically to the Mendip region where the festival is held. Local suppliers also keep 800 festival stallholders from running out of stock.

Uses its trusted supplier network It encourages traders to use Glastonbury’s recommended suppliers in a virtuous circle that grows stronger year on year.

Manages waste It composts post-festival waste and shipped the five tonnes of wellies left behind to farmers in Senegal. In partnership with Milletts, it’s giving out £400,000 of biodegradeable tent pegs made of potato starch.

Uses volunteers Music fans will probably be happy to don a green helmet and act as a nuisance monitor if it means access to the festival.

Seeks out low-energy options A wind-powered phone generator offers free, green re-charging for festival goers.

Controls the numbers Gripes aside, the ticket cost (£155 this year) and limits on how many each individual could buy keep it sustainable. (more…)

The Workplace Law Network explains how the draft Equality Bill, ‘Framework for a Fairer Future’, could affect UK employers and their teams.

It aims to “de-clutter” complex discrimination laws and bring them together under the heading of ‘Equality Duty’. It also zeroes in on weak spots in those current rules — ageism, homophobia and disability discrimination are still going unchecked, according to Equality Minister Harriet Harman.

Key proposals

• Employers to report on equality matters such as pay and diversity. (According to Francis Gibb, Harman was pushing for compulsory pay audits.)
• Positive discrimination OK for for women or minority job candidates if it comes down to a ‘tie-breaker’.
• No more ageism in the provision of services.
• Employers cannot outlaw discussion of pay.
• Tribunals can rule for the benefit of not just an individual, but the whole workforce of a discriminating employer.
• The government will investigate how multiple complaints can be brought — say, if someone claims discrimination as a disabled woman.
• Public-sector purchasing will promote the equality agenda through through procurement.

It’s all voluntary — at least for now — so employers’ organisation the CBI is broadly approving.

But all this talk of openness makes me think of Trendwatching’s Transparency Tyranny.

Surely all this disclosure can go too far. Or is it just a case of careful training, so that line managers can handle the tricky conversations that ensue when X finds out that Y is earning more — not because of some unfounded prejudice, but because Y is better at their job.

As entrepreneur John Timpson once said, not everyone is equal. (He even admits to ‘discriminating against drongos’.) But perhaps it’s not the employer’s place to exacerbate those inequalities any more than necessary. As you can tell, I’m on the fence on this one.

But employees up for letting it all hang out can have their say, too, by visiting Glassdoor.com — which reveals what employees think of companies, what they pay and how the CEO is rated.

British consumers are fed up with the high cost of living, according to McCann Erickson’s annual ‘Mood of Britain’ survey, written up in Marketing. And brand managers, marketers and advertisers may need to re-think campaigns to match the shift in sentiment.
The economic situation is now the biggest influence on UK consumers, with the high cost of living as the UK’s biggest gripe — consumers are increasingly concerned as they see it outpacing salary rises.

It’s not yet directly affecting the UK’s love of shopping, but the research into what makes consumers angry indicates that it soon will — and then they will want something different from their favourite brands.

“Attitudes toward debt are changing. The excesses of the ‘living on credit’ lifestyle are becoming more frowned upon and could… soon become as unacceptable as smoking,” says the article.

Other targets for British ire include

• Gordon Brown
• Banks
• The environment
• Crime
• Immigration

How brands should respond

• Add value Brands that offer more value for consumers will earn favour — Sainsbury’s ‘Feed a family for a fiver’ or Lloyds TSB’s AirMiles mortgage. Environmental campaigns should help consumers save money while saving the planet.
• Be sincere Messages need to convey the appropriate level of gravitas, with financial services firms and banks such as Barclays already opting for more earnest campaigns.
• Tout your history Brands with heritage offer the comfort of solidity to consumers. (more…)

Apparently, something called ‘achievement amnesia’ is blighting jobseekers’ chances of getting an interview.

Research by iProfile has found a mis-match between what employers look for on a CV and what job applicants deliver.

Employers consider work-based achievements essential to a good CV. But job applicants spend more time tinkering with the design than working on the content.

They often dash off their CVs in less than two hours and, in their haste, struggle to recollect significant achievements or learning experiences over six months’ old.

iProfile interviewed 200 employers, of whom 73 per cent claimed they’d rejected job applicants because they’d failed to highlight workplace achievements.

They also claimed that applicants who sell themselves convincingly are in a position to ask for higher starting salaries — 51 per cent of employers said a strong seller could ask for five per cent more.

Start keeping a record of career milestones, suggests iProfile (not surprisingly), using new online sites that allow you to update information continuously.

iProfile has a vested interest in changing the way we compile CVs, but it asks a valid question — is the old-fashioned job resume dead?

Is there a better alternative?

Another note on Generation X, this time more positive. They may be the bashful ‘dark-horse’ generation between the limelight-hogging Boomers and Millenials, but X-ers are behind some of the most radical social media businesses in the world.

This is the upshot of the fantastically named book, ‘X Saves the World’, by Jeff Gordinier, reviewed on Wikinomics by Naumi Haque.

Gordinier on YouTube gives a flavour of the book. In brief:

In their quiet, questioning way, Gen X-ers are changing the way the world does business, especially online through Google, Wikipedia, Craigslist — “those companies have altered the face of global media,” says Gordinier, not without justification.

Gen X-ers, rebelling against the ‘macro’ approach of the Boomer, create businesses with a “niche quality, in-betweener, middle-child sensibility”, says Gordinier, contrasting Google’s low-key founders with Apple’s mythologised Boomer boss.

They like to influence their immediate sphere, radiating out from there: Architects for Humanity is a perfect example of the X-er’s “indie philanthropy”.

Gordinier deems the X-er “anti-collective” and not especially motivated by money. Yet the business examples he cites are often both extremely rich (Brin and Page of Google, for example) and creators of sprawling online collectives.

Whether X-ers meant to become captains of industry or not, many have. Now in charge of some of the world’s biggest businesses, they’ll have to tap into Millenials’ sensibilities as employees and customers.

That’s going to be tough if all X-ers share Gordinier’s view of the next generation — “in it for the money” and “completely greedy”. Not a great start to a fruitful working relationship.

Personnel Today reports back from a CIPD conference where Fionna White, Nestle’s head of recruitment, talked about ‘candidate relationship management’, which brought cost-per-hire down to £700 a person.

How she did it: She took £5,000 she’d been allocated for one hire and spent it on developing a Web presence. Called the Talent Pool, the site posts specific jobs, but also allows candidates to submit their CVs, even if there isn’t an appropriate vacancy for them at the time.

HR can then assess submissions as they come in, rather than being inundated with CVs over a month or so. At launch, 300 people registered, 25 were rated excellent and seven appointments were made.

As a concept, the top benefit must be that anyone who registers with this type of site is demonstrating a real interest in the business — so you’ve got an early indication of loyalty. On the minus side, it’s an ongoing cost and without promotion, a fairly passive hiring vehicle. But clearly, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for Nestle.

“We had a case of a candidate being kept warm for a year, and when a job was finally available, we rang them up and they accepted — in effect, a 24-hour turnaround from offer to acceptance. You can’t ask for more than that,” said White.

Web 2.0: Lessons in ROI from Threadless

Plenty of businesses still don’t see where Web 2.0 delivers a return on investment, says David Tebbut at SmallBizPod.

Inc’s profile of Threadless, the online community-led T-shirt retailer whose 2006 profit was an estimated $6m, could offer some insight.

“Our brand is a fun boys’ and girls’ club,” says co-founder Jake Nickell.

Says the article: “Eventually, Threadless-like communities could form around industries as diverse as semi-conductors, auto parts and toys.”

How Threadless excels

• Research and design is conducted in an open source way, via “innovation commons”.
• Customers freely share ideas and receive payment and kudos for winning designs.
• Trust is a core competency.
• It asks a lot of its customers, but it reciprocates — there’s a story about Nickell and CEO Jeffrey Kalmikoff leaving a high-powered dinner to meet up with a Threadless customer.
• It has inbuilt growth potential. Naked & Angry, a promising spin-off, will sell user-designed bags, wallets and dinner services. Threadless is expanding into prints and posters.
• It knows where the brand value lies. It turned down offers from Urban Outfitters and Target.com because the retailers couldn’t tell the Threadless story in their shops.
• Its employees are true believers — 75 per cent of the company’s 50 employees were community members before being hired.
• There are toys in the office, but most people end up working.

Potential hurdles

• Core fans may not applaud the company’s expansion.
• It has painted itself into a cool corner.
• Minority stakeholder Insight Venture Partners could start pushing for faster growth.
• Is there an IP issue bubbling under?

(more…)

Online bookstore All Top Books has done a little survey for BNET on where it sells the most business books in the UK and what they are buying.

The south east of England’s by far the biggest business buyer, accounting for 40 per cent of All Top Books’ business sales.

Its top sellers are:

1. Butterworth’s Employment Law Handbook
2. Tolley’s Employment Handbook
3. Tolly Health and Safety at Work

Admirable as this is for staying on top of workplace legislation, these are hardly going to make for a good beach-side read (assuming anyone’s taking holiday this year).

So what are the recommended reads for the business-obsessed? Businessweek’s compiled a list of MBA-friendly favourites that includes classics such as Philip Kotler’s Ten Deadly Marketing Sins, Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. It’s worth a look.

We’ve added seven more suggestions that are sufficiently riveting to count as holiday reads:

1. The Last Tycoons: the Secret History of Lazard Freres by William Cohan. If you’ve not already read it, it’s probably the closest you’ll get to a potboiler — assuming you’ve read Barbarians at the Gate.
2. What Management Is by Joan Magretta, a tiny classic that is all about management but reads like a breeze.
3. Outsmart! How to Do What Your Competitors Can’t by Jim Champy, for inspirational ideas on how to inject organisational change into any business.
4. The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organisations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World by Peter Senge. The sixth discipline, if you like, and not as heavy as its title sounds.
5. We-Think: The Power of Mass Creativity by Charles Leadbeater, a fun read about the emergence of open source everything. (Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations is another, if this is your topic.)
6. 50 Management Ideas You Really Need to Know by Edward Russell-Walling. A reader-friendly and jaunty compendium of management ideas with historical red herrings to help the medicine go down.
7. Crunch by Jared Bernstein. Marginal Revolution slates its too-populist tone. Enough said. If you’re a bit more economics friendly, try Tim Harford’s The Logic of Life: Uncovering The New Economics of Everything. One reader cut through it in a weekend.

Disagree? Got more to add? Share your ideas.