A lot has been written about this subject and most of it quite angry and in the style of “the unacceptable face of banking”. Bob Diamond new CEO of Barclays as ever to the fore.
But the accumulation of wealth seems normal enough and actually quite healthy. Indeed over time the spending of individual wealth on great art, music, buildings or sport (because that’s where money tends to end up) has been a good rather than a bad thing.
What needs more study is whether bonuses actually work.
Anton Surorov, a Russian economist, shows the problem with human relationships based on reward systems is there’s no going back. Once you say 'do this and you get x', the agent to whom this is said will only do whatever it is if given x or, more likely, start negotiating to do it only if given 2x in the future. Mr. Crow are you reading this?
So far, so bad.
Neuroscientist Brian Knutson takes us a stage further forward. MRI studies of the brain show that when people anticipate getting a reward the activation in the part of their brain called nucleus accumbens is identical to that a drug or alcohol addict will display.
So once on that bonus treadmill you are hooked.
Worse than that, such activation predicts behaviour one would seek to avoid in employees: “both risky choices and risk-seeking mistakes”.
Intuitively many of us know the reward structures we have in place today are not aligned to performance…would Wayne Rooney play better football if paid more? Would Tiger Woods play worse if paid less? (Well we actually know the answer to that in the Ryder cups of the past which may tell us something interesting about his highly addictive nature.)
The big question is about what really motivates people, what really transforms their performance. Look no further than Daniel Pink’s book “Drive” on this subject which I really recommend.
Monday, 13 September 2010
Monday, 6 September 2010
WHEN YOU STOP BELIEVING THE TRUTH
Matt Ridley’s piece in Tuesday’s Times is deeply shocking (“This discredited science body must be purged”). It’s to do with the wilful bias and distortion of global warming evidence. In a week tarnished by gambling, the Pakistanis and cricket and now this, nothing will quite be the same again.
I for one will stop believing virtually everything I’m told.
And so should you because no-one, not the church, men of “honour”, seekers after truth, scientists and philosophers is above cheating and mendacity it would seem.
The impact of this on our lives and our education is potentially horrific and grist to the mill of, for instance, that large vocal minority of creationists in the USA (only some 20% or so I believe but I distrust that figure now). If so many scientists are liars, what price “Big Bang”?
And this is a very black day for the green movement.
As Matt says “I have concluded that global warning will probably be a fairly minor problem…”
But he only goes part of the way towards dismantling a whole edifice of scientific chicanery.
From the death of David Kelly to the Himalayan ice caps who’s to believe?
Not it would appear scientists whose agenda is no longer to discover the truth so much as to make their point; more advocates than explorers; more purveyors of fiction (or worse “faction”) than fact.
It’s a sad story. Just give them a hard time, accuse them of fabrication and stop relying on them. That’s their penalty for cheating us.
Read his article
I for one will stop believing virtually everything I’m told.
And so should you because no-one, not the church, men of “honour”, seekers after truth, scientists and philosophers is above cheating and mendacity it would seem.
The impact of this on our lives and our education is potentially horrific and grist to the mill of, for instance, that large vocal minority of creationists in the USA (only some 20% or so I believe but I distrust that figure now). If so many scientists are liars, what price “Big Bang”?
And this is a very black day for the green movement.
As Matt says “I have concluded that global warning will probably be a fairly minor problem…”
But he only goes part of the way towards dismantling a whole edifice of scientific chicanery.
From the death of David Kelly to the Himalayan ice caps who’s to believe?
Not it would appear scientists whose agenda is no longer to discover the truth so much as to make their point; more advocates than explorers; more purveyors of fiction (or worse “faction”) than fact.
It’s a sad story. Just give them a hard time, accuse them of fabrication and stop relying on them. That’s their penalty for cheating us.
Read his article
Monday, 30 August 2010
ENTHUSIAM ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH
When I’m mentoring people I preach the importance of energy and enthusiasm. Yes, you have to believe with great passion in what you do, say and sell.
But you also have to know your stuff, really know it.
I suppose if a charity salesman on the street is called a “chugger” (charity + mugger) then one phoning you is, I guess, a “phugger”.
And I was “phugged” thus a few days ago:
PH: Hallo Mr Hall? As you know Age Concern and Help the Aged have merged to form Age UK. Isn’t that great?
Me: How big does that make the business in revenue terms?
PH: I don’t know. I’d have to come back to you on that. But we do such fantastic work like helping old people and that.
Me: How? And what % of the income actually goes to good works as opposed to administration costs and general overhead?
PH: I don’t know. I’d have to come back to you on that one too. But can I tell you about a new scheme we have. You pay just £1 a week and that entitles you to participation in a lottery and you could win prizes –like £10,000 at Christmas – just imagine winning all that money.
Me: But this is gambling. It’s wrong, immoral and totally un-Christian (this an inspired thrust on my part). You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
PH: Oh dear but it goes to good works like….
Me: Like?
PH: I’d have to come back to you on that.
Am I being a bit mean?
The poor guy had been dropped in it and had not been trained. So my gripe is with Age UK not with him.
In common with many other businesses more money spent on staff training and less on so-called marketing would be a much wiser investment.
However enthusiastic you might feel about what you do, the first need is to know your stuff backwards and then to learn how to pitch a great story. There is no substitute for the hard work of learning and understanding your script.
But you also have to know your stuff, really know it.
I suppose if a charity salesman on the street is called a “chugger” (charity + mugger) then one phoning you is, I guess, a “phugger”.
And I was “phugged” thus a few days ago:
PH: Hallo Mr Hall? As you know Age Concern and Help the Aged have merged to form Age UK. Isn’t that great?
Me: How big does that make the business in revenue terms?
PH: I don’t know. I’d have to come back to you on that. But we do such fantastic work like helping old people and that.
Me: How? And what % of the income actually goes to good works as opposed to administration costs and general overhead?
PH: I don’t know. I’d have to come back to you on that one too. But can I tell you about a new scheme we have. You pay just £1 a week and that entitles you to participation in a lottery and you could win prizes –like £10,000 at Christmas – just imagine winning all that money.
Me: But this is gambling. It’s wrong, immoral and totally un-Christian (this an inspired thrust on my part). You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
PH: Oh dear but it goes to good works like….
Me: Like?
PH: I’d have to come back to you on that.
Am I being a bit mean?
The poor guy had been dropped in it and had not been trained. So my gripe is with Age UK not with him.
In common with many other businesses more money spent on staff training and less on so-called marketing would be a much wiser investment.
However enthusiastic you might feel about what you do, the first need is to know your stuff backwards and then to learn how to pitch a great story. There is no substitute for the hard work of learning and understanding your script.
Monday, 23 August 2010
SOAP, HATS, TIES AND PIES
Robin White, the one time ad man, invented the term “advertising archaeology” by which he meant delving into the past to find a brand’s DNA. And it’s true that some of the staples of the past that are dear to the nation’s heart have been mislaid rather than forgotten or renounced.
On the come-back, for instance, are Spam and Wall’s Ice Cream.
But here are four that are about to hit the headlines – and remember you read it here first.
Soap. The real thing. A lump of cleaning foaming perfumed purity. A Knight’s Castile. A Palmolive. A Pears. A Wrights Coal Tar. Baths you see are coming back. I sometimes have both a bathe and a shower. A shower to wake me up, a bath in which to think and in a bath I need a lump of soap to play with.
Hats. Fedoras make you look like an actor or a secret agent. They also stop you getting damp around your neck when it’s drizzling. They say you can lose up to 30% of your body heat through your head in the cold because that’s where the most skin area is left uncovered. So hats are cool. Or rather vice versa.
Ties. Symbols of the fat cat, bloated plutocrat or wage slave. The first thing the genuine entrepreneur discards. The SME equivalents of a commando’s underpants. They’re slowly coming back as mood creators. A cheerful, colourful tie signals a happy person. They also set you apart from the tieless throng of fat cats, bloated plutocrats and wage slaves who are trying to stay in fashion.
Pies. In January of this year the Daily Mail noted a Nielsen statistic in this £230 million market; “Pie sales in Britain have soared to a 30-year high with an extra 17million sold over the past 12 months.” Better quality, more variety, OK (as with everything) in moderation. They are also great value and trophy sales flags of the mighty recession busting Greggs, Britain’s largest specialist retail baker with 1,400 outlets. Pies are the new sushi.
So keep an eye on quality items slipping out of fashion and wait for their bounce back. You can’t keep a good brand or product category down for long. Take Old Spice, the men’s fragrance, which thanks to the social networking campaign of Isaiah Mustafa is making a come-back.
Remember – it’s never over till the fat lady sings…talking of which look out for the return of well rounded divas…
On the come-back, for instance, are Spam and Wall’s Ice Cream.
But here are four that are about to hit the headlines – and remember you read it here first.
Soap. The real thing. A lump of cleaning foaming perfumed purity. A Knight’s Castile. A Palmolive. A Pears. A Wrights Coal Tar. Baths you see are coming back. I sometimes have both a bathe and a shower. A shower to wake me up, a bath in which to think and in a bath I need a lump of soap to play with.
Hats. Fedoras make you look like an actor or a secret agent. They also stop you getting damp around your neck when it’s drizzling. They say you can lose up to 30% of your body heat through your head in the cold because that’s where the most skin area is left uncovered. So hats are cool. Or rather vice versa.
Ties. Symbols of the fat cat, bloated plutocrat or wage slave. The first thing the genuine entrepreneur discards. The SME equivalents of a commando’s underpants. They’re slowly coming back as mood creators. A cheerful, colourful tie signals a happy person. They also set you apart from the tieless throng of fat cats, bloated plutocrats and wage slaves who are trying to stay in fashion.
Pies. In January of this year the Daily Mail noted a Nielsen statistic in this £230 million market; “Pie sales in Britain have soared to a 30-year high with an extra 17million sold over the past 12 months.” Better quality, more variety, OK (as with everything) in moderation. They are also great value and trophy sales flags of the mighty recession busting Greggs, Britain’s largest specialist retail baker with 1,400 outlets. Pies are the new sushi.
So keep an eye on quality items slipping out of fashion and wait for their bounce back. You can’t keep a good brand or product category down for long. Take Old Spice, the men’s fragrance, which thanks to the social networking campaign of Isaiah Mustafa is making a come-back.
Remember – it’s never over till the fat lady sings…talking of which look out for the return of well rounded divas…
Monday, 16 August 2010
THE ART OF THE PUT-DOWN, or the 'Bon Mot'
The relevance of this to marketing or to presentation is that all of us are forever seeking the simple and crushing meaning of the universe; our very own “42” as it were.
If only we could find our own “Reassuringly expensive” or “Because you’re worth it” we should succeed.
Dream on…
The smart line is seldom enough unless like Oscar Wilde that’s all there was, a never ending volley of smart one-liners. Or if you’re Lord Saatchi what he calls the two word equity (see Stella Artois above).
But in its time it was devastating.
Example, Harold MacMillan having just stood down as PM meeting a young historian Simon Schama who tripped and fell flat on his face in front of him to be greeted as he blushing arose by MacMillan saying:
“Gratitude understandable; prostration quite unnecessary”.
Or Dorothy Parker going through a doorway ahead of a rival who muttered “age before beauty” and without pause Dorothy riposted:
“No, my dear, pearls before swine”.
But this is not about smart lines alone, it’s about a mastery of the English language possessed by only a very few writers like Frank Skinner in the Times and comedians like Michael McIntyre.
My recent favourite was in Bombay proving the Indians have really got what we once had. It was a poster beside a road which said:
“Impatient at wheel, patient in hospital.”
QED.
If only we could find our own “Reassuringly expensive” or “Because you’re worth it” we should succeed.
Dream on…
The smart line is seldom enough unless like Oscar Wilde that’s all there was, a never ending volley of smart one-liners. Or if you’re Lord Saatchi what he calls the two word equity (see Stella Artois above).
But in its time it was devastating.
Example, Harold MacMillan having just stood down as PM meeting a young historian Simon Schama who tripped and fell flat on his face in front of him to be greeted as he blushing arose by MacMillan saying:
“Gratitude understandable; prostration quite unnecessary”.
Or Dorothy Parker going through a doorway ahead of a rival who muttered “age before beauty” and without pause Dorothy riposted:
“No, my dear, pearls before swine”.
But this is not about smart lines alone, it’s about a mastery of the English language possessed by only a very few writers like Frank Skinner in the Times and comedians like Michael McIntyre.
My recent favourite was in Bombay proving the Indians have really got what we once had. It was a poster beside a road which said:
“Impatient at wheel, patient in hospital.”
QED.
Monday, 9 August 2010
AMAZING HIDDEN TALENTS
“Come to the edge
We can’t. We’re afraid
Come to the edge
We can’t. We’ll fall
Come to the edge
And they came
And he pushed them
And they flew”
(Guillaume Apollinaire)
I did not expect to quote poetry let alone French poetry.
But I guess M. Sarkozy will be pleased if he reads this….and if he does I hope he takes note.
But I think it captures what it is which inhibits most of us from trying to be a great presenter, a creative thinker or someone who is ambitious to try something difficult or new.
I mentor people. The objective is always the same. To push them over the edge and then watch them as they discover they can fly. It is less a tribute to my skill and judgement and more a testimony to their leashed talent that when I decide it’s time to push them, their spiralling flight always amazes them and makes my own heart stop at the sheer brilliance of nearly all human beings.
Helping people realise just how talented they are and how much closer they are to the level they aspire to, is hardly drudgery.
The trick is to do two things.
1.Understand the potential of the person.
2.Enable them to feel the confidence and sense of purpose to express that potential.
As simple a magic trick as that.
And as amazing.
We can’t. We’re afraid
Come to the edge
We can’t. We’ll fall
Come to the edge
And they came
And he pushed them
And they flew”
(Guillaume Apollinaire)
I did not expect to quote poetry let alone French poetry.
But I guess M. Sarkozy will be pleased if he reads this….and if he does I hope he takes note.
But I think it captures what it is which inhibits most of us from trying to be a great presenter, a creative thinker or someone who is ambitious to try something difficult or new.
I mentor people. The objective is always the same. To push them over the edge and then watch them as they discover they can fly. It is less a tribute to my skill and judgement and more a testimony to their leashed talent that when I decide it’s time to push them, their spiralling flight always amazes them and makes my own heart stop at the sheer brilliance of nearly all human beings.
Helping people realise just how talented they are and how much closer they are to the level they aspire to, is hardly drudgery.
The trick is to do two things.
1.Understand the potential of the person.
2.Enable them to feel the confidence and sense of purpose to express that potential.
As simple a magic trick as that.
And as amazing.
Monday, 2 August 2010
YOU'RE LUCKY TO BE A WOMAN (EXCEPT IN BRIGHTON)
The press release last week of the four new strategic directors for Brighton and Hove Council struck me as odd as all four were men.
I have been a strong believer in the benefits of diversity in creating a strong team and whilst I have no doubt the four guys were selected for their individual merits I doubt if they’ll prove to be a compelling “team”.
The point is diversity leads to creativity and creativity overturns the traditional and outworn. Besides which surely a council would want to be vaguely representative of its voters’ interests or the other 50% as it were.
Tom Peters, who is one of the more stimulating management thinkers of our times has a strong view about why, possibly, all of the appointments should have been women:
“It is my fact based conviction that women’s increasing power – with their leadership skills and purchasing power – is the strongest and most dynamic force in the American Economy today – this is even bigger than the internet.”
Women are bigger than the internet….. but not in Brighton and Hove they aren’t.
But then, look around the boardrooms of Britain – the supermarkets, banks and insurance companies - and women are a rarity.
Let’s face it business is still a boys game and however liberally minded you are seems likely to remain so. Talking of which it’s not just business - only 7 out of 57 Lib Dem MPs are women.
So Brighton and Hove may have got it wrong but they are in good (male) company.
I have been a strong believer in the benefits of diversity in creating a strong team and whilst I have no doubt the four guys were selected for their individual merits I doubt if they’ll prove to be a compelling “team”.
The point is diversity leads to creativity and creativity overturns the traditional and outworn. Besides which surely a council would want to be vaguely representative of its voters’ interests or the other 50% as it were.
Tom Peters, who is one of the more stimulating management thinkers of our times has a strong view about why, possibly, all of the appointments should have been women:
“It is my fact based conviction that women’s increasing power – with their leadership skills and purchasing power – is the strongest and most dynamic force in the American Economy today – this is even bigger than the internet.”
Women are bigger than the internet….. but not in Brighton and Hove they aren’t.
But then, look around the boardrooms of Britain – the supermarkets, banks and insurance companies - and women are a rarity.
Let’s face it business is still a boys game and however liberally minded you are seems likely to remain so. Talking of which it’s not just business - only 7 out of 57 Lib Dem MPs are women.
So Brighton and Hove may have got it wrong but they are in good (male) company.
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