Will You Do Whatever It Takes? Courtesy of Spencer LimbChallenges. Problems. Uncertainties. Obstacles. Stress.These words form the lexicon of modern life, where resources - both financial and natural - are increasing being depleted while the demands of work, school and life put a severe drain on our beings. We don't need any reminding to know that we are all damaging our planet at an alarming rate. Attending to customer needs are also increasingly difficult as a growingly demanding and discerning population requests for more bang for the buck.The office is also no longer a haven for lifelong employment. To stay nimble, flexible and focused, organisations are downsizing, rightsizing, and outsourcing in their bid to become cheaper, more cost effective and efficient. Executives and managers have to constantly pick up new skills, multi-task, and juggle increasing responsibilities.How does one stay afloat in the sea of change filled with increasingly tempestuous and tsunami-sized waves?Enter Resilience.In the 2010s, the one human trait that can probably weather the brewing storms in this decade is one which has been around for the longest time.Our ancestors in Singapore have lots of it. We have all heard how Singapore as a nation and an economy was conceived out of a little island of less than 700 sq km in area. We have all been regaled by the tales of how our pioneer leaders carved out a modern industrial park in Jurong out of a swampland. We have also been cheered by how sheer determination, hard work, and a never-say-die attitude have led to our current status as a first-world city that is comparable to most modern ones across the globe.How does one increase one's resilience? A way to look at this is to work on the four variables of one's Adversity Quotient (AQ) by Dr Paul Stoltz, which is a measure of how you respond to adversity (change and challenges). This can summarised by the CORE Acronym, ie:Control: The extent to which someone perceives they can influence whatever happens next.Ownership: The likelihood that someone will actually doanything to improve the situation, regardless of their formal responsibilities.Reach: The extent to which someone perceives an adversity will “reach into” and affect other aspects of the situation or beyond.Endurance: The length of time the individual perceives the situation / adversity will last, or endure.To ride the wave and respond to adversities, it is recommended that one should do the following:Listen to your response to adversity.Explore all origins and your ownership responses.Analyze the evidence.Do something. (source: Stitches)Here are some additional useful tips on managing various forms of challenges:Financially: Especially in this economy, it’s important to plan for the future and really understand how to budget your money... Money is such a big part of people’s stress. The more planning and preparation, they better suited you are for encountering a bump in the road.Mentally: Stress management is a really valuable tool to have. Being able to identify the types of stress and triggers can allow you to better prepare yourself, and even those around you, so that you can maintain your productivity not just at work, but at home as well.Emotionally: Sometimes just taking a break from it all is necessary for your sanity. ... Turn your cell phone off for a few hours, don’t check your email if at all possible, go outside, go swimming, eat something grilled – you get the idea.Physically: Stress and turmoil can actually take a physical toll on you. If you feel achy or seem to be getting headaches often, try adding some exercise into your day. ...the sunshine will do you some good. If you really feel ill, you should talk with your doctor about stress management and possible techniques – like meditation – to help you get through those rough patches.(source: IT Freedom)Do you have any tips on how one can manage adversity at work or at home? The Painful Truth About Branding Courtesy of America's Story from America's Library (CREDIT: Fleischhauer, Carl, photographer. "Branding Iron [35mm slide]." Date Recorded 79/10. Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982, Library of Congress.) It is interesting to note that even after so many decades, marketing professionals and senior executives alike still think that a brand belongs to either of the following:A) A huge ego exerciseB) An exercise in aesthetic and textual superiorityC) A powerful icon signifying the awe-inspiring might of the organisationD) An almighty blueprint of Biblical impactE) All of the aboveWhile the above may be true to some extent in huge companies like Apple (worship the partially eaten fruit!) or Nike (woosh over the swoosh), the majority of company and product brands aren't made out to be half as great as what their creators hoped.In other words, most brands fail in the marketplace. Most often miserably so.Is branding then an exercise in redundancy? Should we just cast away the trusted corporate identity kit, messaging kit, logo kit, and all those pretty pictures and templates that cost an arm and a leg? Not necessarily so. I believe that there is a way to make a brand stand out far more than stunning graphics or witty taglines. And that is to give it away to your customers, shareholders, employees, board members, suppliers and partners.In other words, the true essence of a brand isn't in owning it. It is in disowning it. The more you are able to make your brand a part of your community's lives, the better. The more you can integrate it into what your influencers and followers believe in, the more successful your brand will be. The more willing you are to let others appropriate your brand - albeit in a respectful manner of course - the more spectacular your branding exercise will be.Great brands aren't just the stuff that is conceived in board rooms and executive suites around the world, but the stuff that people make their own. Great brands are malleable, moldable, mashable and mushy. They are the stuff that people rave about (with some clever prompting) without having a doctor's prescription to follow.The next time you are thinking about rebranding your organisation or undertaking a strategic brand positioning whatever, consider how you can involve your most important stakeholders in the whole process. Invest in not just brand evangelism but co-creation, right from the beginning of the game. You will be amazed by the difference which it makes. A Fabulous Night Out @ Bras Basah and Bugis At the kind invitation of Alvinology from Omy.sg, I was invited for a Trishaw Night Tour as part of the Night Out at Bras Basah, Bugis Precinct activity organised by the National Museum of Singapore. Part of the overall effort to inject more buzz and excitement into the Civic District, the activity showed us how much more vibrant and fascinating Singapore's cultural hotspots can be after dark.Helmed by the DJs Jianwen and Kemin from the Radio Station 100.3 FM, the three-wheeled tour was an interesting blend of whimsical fun and wonder through the brightly lit nightscape of Singapore's cultural hub. Commencing at the Bugis Trishaw Park (between Albert Centre Hawker Centre and Fu Lu Shou Building on Queen Street), it ended at the Settler's Cafe at SMU where food, drink and friendly conversation capped off the night on a high.Here's a photographic account of our journey. No prizes for guessing who the real stars of the night were. :)Our nocturnal adventures began at the Trishaw Park area in between Fu Lu Shou Complex and Albert Court. Here's DJs Jianwen and Kemin urging everybody to cheer out loud."Ready? Lights, cameras, and everybody say cheeeesee..."And away we go..."Gentlemen, start your 'human' engines!"Along the way, we spotted these famous 'pasar malam' or night market stalls at Singapore's famous (once infamous) Bugis Village.Here's our domestic tourists making a dash in their trishaws through Queen Street, with spanking new shopping centre Illuma on the left. Notice the whipping out of cameras to capture the action.Friendly banter and chats betwee trishaw riders and passengers alike help to make the time pass by breezily. It was interesting to note how amusingly animated our three-wheeled "captains" were, despite the sweltering while peddling away in the tropical heat and humidity.Careening down Middle Road with decades old architecture on the right and another dazzling new contemporary edifice called Wilkie Edge.Along the way, real tourists - the non Singaporean kind - had a small chat with my wife Tina on what we are doing out in the middle of the road on three-wheeled human powered vehicles. I think she did a convincing job telling them how fun it was!Our curious carriages trundled on to the colourful and charismatic "Little India" area along Serangoon Road and Campbell Lane, where we saw these interesting shops offering garlands of yellow flowers for sale.It isn't just 7-Eleven which is "always close but never closed". These little green grocers were open at night and bursting with fresh vegetables like brinjals, long beans and carrots.We also passed by a serene group of monks and nuns who were walking through the night - a picture of calm in a cacophonous sea of nocturnal bustle.I wondered if they were having dinner in one of the many fine vegetarian restaurants in the region, like this one here.We also passed by what's probably the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple located along in the middle of Serangoon Road. Talk about a spiritual experience!Turning off from Serangoon Road to Rowell Road, we saw a few interesting sights. They include representatives of our foreign workforce, some "ladies" of the night, as well as a karaoke pub located alongside the POST Museum - an oasis of artistic incubation.On the way to Bras Basah Road, we swung by the Sungei Road area (on the left) which is one of Singapore's oldest "outdoor" market where vendors proffer cheap second hand goods for sale during the day.A shot of one of the stall keepers hidden behind his wares. He is either keeping his merchandise or preparing them for the next day.Back along North Bridge Road, with the regal old Raffles Hotel on the left and towering skyscrapers including Raffles City in the foreground.Our trusty trishaw riders - who were the real stars of the ride - dropped us off at Waterloo Street outside the entrance to the new Bras Basah circle line. There, our DJs took over the show yet again and helped organise the crowd.As we crossed busy Bras Basah Road, I couldn't help taking this shot of Singapore Art Museum at night.We next descended into the "underground city" at the Singapore Management University and had some supper and games at Settler's Cafe.A wide assortment of more than 200 board games in all shapes and sizes were available for rent or sales here.Even the menu looked like it came from one of the most famous board games in the world - Monopoly!Some of the event's guests accepting interviews from the roving reporters from Omy.sg as well as the radio station 100.3 FM.At our table, my wife Tina showed that she was quite adept at the game called Ugly Doll, where you had to turn over cards and grab them once three of the same patterned "dolls" emerged.Our wonderful night out ended with DJ Jianwen going through a lucky draw where winners could win tickets to the splendid Egyptian mummies show Quest for Immortality at the National Museum of Singapore as well as free vouchers to Settler's Cafe. Que Sera Sera? Courtesy of College RecruiterOn careers, dreams and aspirations, I think that one's route in life is predicated on a mix of seredipity, sweat and strategy.Serendipity because much of it is rather accidental and unpredictable. Nicholas Nassim Taleb argues this point very well in "Black Swan" when he wrote about how the unknown unknowns may actually exert a greater influence on everything (including life) than the researched and tested. What comes your way eventually may sometimes be an outcome of luck, chance and opportunity, rather than intelligent design or choice.Sweat of course is the other predictor of fulfillment, actualisation and success. While one can hope to strike TOTO or try one's luck at "chance oriented" enterprises (like property speculation, shares, funds, and the IR), the truth is that most people who are where they are now just work extremely hard. Having seen how most of you guys go at whatever you are pursuing in life - 24 by 7 - I am confident that we probably don't lack this element here in the modern and hectic world!Strategy, the final "S", is probably what my previous leadership coach (NHB engaged coaches for senior management about 4 years ago) would have said. I still remembered him asking me what my final career destination would be. I told him that I would like to be a consultant, trainer and a coach - somewhat like him. He then said that I should thus look at how I can embellish my learning and career journey to fit that path, something which I am constantly doing.In a nutshell, its a concoction between what life throws at you, how you take it by the horns, and how you steer it with your eyes still firmly on the end goal. The journey may take surprising twists and turns - sometimes you end up in the most unexpected places - but so long as you are in the driving seat, you can be sure that the outcome will be sweet.As a pragmatist who dreams (an oxymoron?), I believe that what one makes of one's life at work or at play should be more a function of influencing one's surroundings and peers as opposed to being influenced. We can all wait for the perfect job, perfect boss, perfect organisation and perfect colleagues. Or we can make that happen. Free Ideas to Boost Productivity? Courtesy of Learning By DoingTo heed the country's latest call to increase productivity, help entrepreneurs and managers everywhere, and satisfy my own need for intellectual stimulation, I wonder if its useful to start an online forum to discuss ideas to increase productivity.This could be a way for all of us to contribute our share of ideas, innovations, and suggestions towards the national cause. Such a forum could also be used to clarify misconceptions on productivity (for example that we should all work 18 hours a day), or to build upon each other's plans in a (hopefully) constructive manner.We can approach this from various perspectives - as entrepreneurs, managers, workers, shareholders, consultants or customers. Over time, it could form an avenue for the vigorous and robust discussion and debate on the productivity question in an objective and professional manner. To kick off this idea, let me start by proposing two ideas of my own on how productivity can be boosted in the office:1) Reduce the number of meetings that you have to attend a day to those that are absolutely critical. If you do have to attend one, ensure that you contribute to the discussion rather than fall asleep during the lengthy discourses!2) Follow up rigorously after discussions with clients, work associates, or suppliers, with a short email on the key succinct points of the meeting and next steps immediately (or as soon as possible) after the meeting. If possible, nail down deadlines and timelines as precisely as possible, as well as specific accountabilities.What do you guys think of this idea? Why You Should Listen First Courtesy of papershine the art of learningThe fine art of listening seems to be one that is fast becoming lost. It is ironical that in an information overloaded world, people actually has a lower propensity to absorb feedback and act on them.I suppose that this could be an impact of the numerous digital distractions that plague one. With so much available at the tap of a screen and click of a mouse, who really needs to pay attention to the person in front of you anymore?Unfortunately, purely relying on digital sources of information just isn't enough in effective management or the formulation of good policies. You need to have your antennae in the right places, at the right time, with the right people.To be an effective leader and manager, you need to not only put your ear on the ground, but your heart on your sleeve. Whatever you are going to put in place needs to not only get the firm nod of your board members, executives and shareholders, but also your customers and employees. As such, where possible, try to suss out what their views are and to listen actively. This will mean talking far less and paying a lot more attention.According to Wikipedia,Active listening is a structured way of listening and responding to others. It focuses attention on the speaker. Suspending one’s own frame of reference and suspending judgment are important in order to fully attend to the speaker.To be an active listener, you need to put aside distractions as much as possible and to focus on the person in front of you. You also need to try to let him or her air his views as much as possible in a freewheeling manner first. This also entails picking up not just the facts from the conversation, but more importantly, the feelings that go behind it. Body language signals are also important cues to observe.The next time you want to enact a new policy, strategy or edict that will result in a "quantum leap in performance", do consider spending a couple of hours just listening to what people say. By doing so, you can gain the buy-in of your stakeholders and pick up critical points that are crucial in ensuring the effective implementation of your plan. Capitalising on Celebrations Courtesy of eTour SingaporeFestive holidays have always brought much cheer to those in the retail and service businesses, especially seasonal ones like Christmas, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa. Considered peak periods for those in the consumer and lifestyle industries, festive holidays are peppered with numerous promotions and special deals by shops in order to trigger purchases both impromptu and planned. Many retail outlets are dressed to the nines during these occasions, decked in splendid eye-catching and attention-grabbing hues. For small businesses, trying to shout louder and harder the big boys during such festive periods is probably a suicidal mission in marketing. An old mom-and-pop shop located in a sleepy HDB estate just doesn't have the funds to outblast the biggest boys in the business. Are there ways then for small retail and service outlets to survive (and thrive) the festive blitzkrieg? First, focus on providing personalised attention. Caring for your customers is easier for smaller outlets where the volume of foot traffic is less massive than a Carre Four or NTUC Fairprice hypermarket. For example, if you know that a particular customer has a thing for abalones, try to interest her in the latest range from Mexico or Australia. Don't hesitate to give customers a call if you came across a dress, shirt or outfit that they may find intriguing, especially if it suits their body shape just right!Next, look at nicking that nice little niche. Offering a bewildering range of merchandise won't do when you have limited shop space. Instead, think about providing a unique value proposition that the big boys can't do as well. For example, a neighbourhood hair salon could offer a unique "Tiger Year" hair cut, while a convenience store could stock up on favourite heritage brands of food products that grandmothers and aunties favour.One can also look at guerrilla marketing techniques to generate attention. Too many shops focus on price as their main selling point, failing to enchant and amuse their customers in the process. Do something out of the ordinary, like giving out candies to kids when they least expect it - this just happened today to my family today when a hokkien noodle seller gave my 6 year old son two chocolate candies and wished him "Happy New Year". Warming a parent's heart is a far better marketing technique than any amount of advertising. Finally, one should look at building customer loyalty and longevity when looking at providing festive "extras". Give your most valuable customers reason to continue shopping at your place by giving them nice little holiday surprises now and then - an extra neck massage to go with a hair cut, a small packet of Indian curry spices when Deepavali is around the corner, or a few red packets just for regulars.Seek to surprise and delight your customers with the little things that matter - ones that only a neighbourhood shop can achieve - and ride that festive wave! 3 Ways to be Good, Better and Best Teamy the Bee at NHB's Love Me Love Me Not Exhibition (Courtesy of Youth.sg)Anybody who has been around long enough would have heard that old anthem for productivity helmed by the mascot "Teamy" the Bee . Perpetuated by the National Productivity Board in the 1980s (now SPRING Singapore), it goes something like this..."Good better best,Never let it rest,Till your good is better,And your better best!"Of course, improving productivity isn't just about a catchy jingle, now about working 18 hours a day. It is finding strategies to maximise the total value added generated by one's employees while still ensuring that they have enough work-life balance. While mechanisation and automation have been frequently cited as ways to strengthen efficiency in the manufacturing sector, how can one improve output in the service sector? After all, tourism and lifestyle businesses like hotels, restaurants, and retail outlets depend very much on the high-touch element to engender customer delight and repeat business. Will making everything self-service necessitate an improvement in one's bottomline? Well, here are three ideas that you can consider:1) Increase the value of each transaction. When customers at a retail shop enquire about a particular product, don't hesitate to provide your fullest support and following that, to recommend additional products that she or he can consider. One of the chief reasons for the phenomenal success of the Hong Kong retail industry is the understanding amongst retail sales assistants there that one should upsell wherever possible. Of course, this should all be done politely and not in a way that harasses customers.2) Encourage staff to multi-task and reward them accordingly. While Seng Song Supermarket may not quite be the paragon of prestige, they do have some of the most hardworking staff I have seen in the supermarket business. At any one time, staff will be moving around, packing, filling in shelves and ensuring quick turnaround of their inventories. From what I understand, workers there are handsomely compensated by their boss. 3) Invest in designs that maximises customer productivity. Other than conveyor belt sushi joints like Sakae Sushi and buffet lines, service outlets should ensure that directional signages are placed in the correct manner. Carparks at shopping complexes could have clear indications of where that lift or escalator to the retail floors are located, while attractions should have common amenities at locations that are intuitive (as opposed to infuriating). What are other ways can retail and service businesses improve their productivity? Understanding What Productivity Means Courtesy of The Right Time Is NowProductivity, the old panacea of economic goodwill, is making a comeback yet again. Several of our leaders have cited its importance, and the latest budget to be unveiled on 22 Feb will announce measures to boost productivity. I am certainly excited about this outcome as it may be the only way forward in a natural resource constrained economy like ours.In order to understand what productivity is about, let us look at its basic ingredients, which is Value Added. According to Wikipedia,...the difference between cost of materials and labor to produce a product, and the sale price of a product is the value added. In national accounts used in macroeconomics, it refers to the contribution of the factors of production, i.e., land, labor, and capital goods, to raising the value of a product and corresponds to the incomes received by the owners of these factors... (emphasis mine)In very simple terms measured in dollars,Productivity = Total Output/Total Inputs (land,labour,capital, etc)The computation of Value Added can be done in two ways, the addition method and the subtraction method.In the addition method, total value added in any organisation is calculated as follows:Value Added = Net Profits + Wages (including CPF, training costs) + Taxes + Depreciation + InterestIn the subtraction method, value added is derived as follows:Value Added = Sales Turnover - Cost of Goods Sold - Operating Expenses (non manpower) - All Third Party CostsTo find out how productive your organisation is, you should divide the total value added over the resources employed. The most commonly used measure is labour productivity or Value Added Per Worker, ieLabour Productivity = Value Added/No of WorkersThe next category of productivity would be capital productivity, which is a measure of how efficiently your capital assets (land, building, factory, machinery) are deployed.Capital Productivity = Value Added/Total Capital CostsFor those operating in the retail or service sectors where rentals are a premium in land-scarce Singapore, space productivity could be another measure. This could be calculated as follows:Space Productivity = Value Added/Gross Floor Area (ie value added per unit area)Naturally, there is a lot of flexibility in how precisely you want to measure your firm's output relative to its inputs. For example, some may argue that measuring labour productivity in a highly automated and capital-intensive business like wafer manufacturing may not be accurate as the bulk of investments are in machinery. The application of these measures should thus be adapted depending on one's business.Having understood how productivity is derived, one should then look at ways to increase one's total output relative to one's inputs. Gunning for sales growth alone isn't enough if that increase comes at the expense of disproportionately higher third party costs (like rentals or utilities).Similarly, cutting wages isn't the solution - in fact, the whole idea behind the productivity movement is to improve the quality of life for workers and not reduce them. As such, worker salaries and benefits (training, skills upgrading) are considered outputs rather than costs.In my next post, I will attempt to tackle some of the possibilities in raising productivity as well as the issues involved in them.Update: Check out this easily digestible book by my friend Chun See on how employee ideas can yield better productivity. He was one of the pioneers of the productivity movement during its heydays and should know a thing or two about it. The Art of the (internal) Start-up Courtesy of A Fresh Start (up)As some of you may know, I am in the midst of switching portfolios in my organisation and heading to the National Art Gallery, Singapore to lead the corporate services function. Unlike my previous role at the National Heritage Board, this one covers a broader spectrum of responsibilities - from HR, Finance, Admin, Strategic Planning, Policy, Marketing & Communications, to IT. You can say that it stretches from conceptualisation, development, funding, and staffing to communication, reporting and implementation. Due to the start-up nature of the institution (which just celebrated its first birthday), many things need to be put in place. It has certainly been an exhilarating couple of weeks thus far, and I look forward to more excitement ahead.With the switch in focus of my day job, the contents of this blog would also take on a more expansive feel. While my principal chatter still remains largely focused on marketing, branding, PR and social media, there would be occasional forays into the wider dimensions of business like finance, strategy, and people management. Perhaps the first area I would like to explore is that of Intrapreneurialism. Ummm... what is that tongue twisting word all about? Well, according to Wikipedia:..."A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation". Intrapreneurship is now known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches, as well as the reward and motivational techniques, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship...To do so, several factors may be necessary:First, executive and senior management sponsorship is critical. You need to ensure that top management buys in to any new scheme or idea so that experimentation occurs in an environment that is supportive and encouraging.Second, one needs to seed new initiatives while limiting the risks that big hairy audacious projects may fail miserably. Intrepreneurship doesn't mean betting the house (factory or museum) in return for a potentially disproportionate gain. However, it does mean making small gambles now and then when perfect information isn't forthcoming.Third, an organisation needs to have the right culture which encourages empowerment, independent thinking and accountability. Some degree of flexibility is needed in any ideation exercise, and traditional hierarchies need to be subverted to some extent. While a certain degree of control is still needed to mitigate failures, employees should be nudged to venture into new territories subject to budgetary limits.Fourth is the ability to focus on the outcomes of the business as opposed to the processes or inputs. In other words, what is the raison detre of your firm or organisation as opposed to its traditional functions. For example, one could say that a hospital's role isn't just taking care of critically ill patients per se but also promoting long-term health and well-being.Fifth is the encouragement of teamwork and cross-functional efforts in spearheading new initiatives. By promoting heterogeneous groups, diverse views and perspectives are sought. This cross-fertilisation of ideas and experiences could be useful in generating something more radical and game changing. However, special care must be taken to ensure that participants can contribute equitably. Finally, the creation of an intrapreneurial culture can only be done by celebrating successes without despising failures. Inadvertently, there will be some projects that will fare better than others and this is a given. As the saying goes, "failure is the mother of success", and one cannot expect to have one's cake and eat it all the time.To learn more about intrapreneurship, check out this excellent paper written about it. Creating Exceptional Customer Experiences Brilliant Smiles from Bangkok (courtesy of Fred@SG)At the kind invitation of the Singapore Tourism Board, I recently attended a seminar by Dr Lynda Wee of Bootstrap which spoke about creating memorable and delightful customer experiences. Targeted specifically at senior managers in the tourism and lifestyle sectors, the session was full of memorable quotable quotes and smart one-liners, and provided a brief overview of the significance of delighting customers through engineering exceptional experiences.Why Customer Experience?According to Lynda, satisfied customers will buy more, spread the word around, and provide positive feedback. This helps to increase sales turnover and reduce marketing and selling expenses for retail businesses. Loyal customers are also more likely to stay with a company in good and bad times, and they move along the following continuum from browsers --> buyers --> brand loyals. From Customer Service to Customer ExperienceIn the traditional mode of lifestyle businesses, customer service was key. This revolved around the acronym GST which meant:G reetS mileT hankCiting Hertzberg's two factors - satisfaction and motivation - Lynda stated that there is a relationship between the degree of customer happiness and the degree in which they are satisfied and motivated. However, in the new consumer space, customer experience which relates to how they feel takes precedence over service. Customers trust their experience more than what they hear the service providers say, and this is nicely captured by the following quotes:"Companies spend millions creating and advertising their brands, yet the customer's experience is what drives customer perception." - John R Dijulius III"Well done is better than well said" - Benjamin FranklinFour Steps to Customer ExperienceHow then can retailers provide remarkable customer experience? There are four steps:1) Think like the customer and create value.2) Begin with the end in mind. Consider the outcomes, visualise and actualise them through deeds and not just words alone.3) Go over and above what is required or anticipated at every customer touchpoint. We are talking about total brand immersion here.4) Work on the power of one, ie teamwork where all hands work together in a seamless manner.Blending Function with EmotionExceptional experiences comes from the interplay of functional and emotional factors like the:Head - for sensing and observing what the best approach should be. Information should also be given readily.Heart - to embrace a "will do" spirit and look at how everybody is treated humanely and warmly.Hands - to ensure that employees "can do" the task that they are assigned through training, mentorship and guidance.Lynda also created a 4 C Framework that helps to encapsulate the main points in choreographing and creating memorable experiences. These are as follows:Crew ExcellenceThis has to start from the top, with the chief executives and senior managers setting the trail for others to follow. They should walk the talk, focus on the internal customer before moving on to the external customer, and act as role models for their crew to follow. An example is Jonathan Larsen, CEO of Citibank in Singapore, who serves on the shopfloor every Thursday and has computer screens that monitor phone calls and how long individuals take to respond to them.A good start would be getting the right people on the bus, wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats in the organisation. Culture ExcellenceAn example of this is Starbucks (well at least in Singapore), who are in the "people business serving coffee". Some of the knowledge and skills needed to engender culture excellence include coffee knowledge, skills needed to brew a great cuppa, the showmanship involved in handling food and interaction with customers. Two other well known examples are Ritz Carlton ("We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen") and Singapore Airlines ("A Great Way to Fly"). Contact ExcellenceThis would look at the interaction points between an organisation and its customers. It should be clearly mapped out and defined every single step of the way. For example, at Disneyland, experience standards cover key areas like safety, courtesy, showmanship and efficiency. Achieving Contact Excellence is illustrated in its rules of behaviour:1) Make eye contact and smile!2) Greet and welcome each and every guest3) Seek out guest contact4) Provide immediate service recovery5) Display appropriate body language at all times6) Preserve the "magical" guest experience7) Thank each and every guestEven a park cleaner at Disneyland would be required not just to clean, but to learn how to take camera pictures and read maps.Customer Metrics ExcellenceFinally, one needs to have a way of measuring the impact of one's customer experience efforts. This can take the form of feedback forms that measure Customer Satisfaction Index or CSI, mystery audits, focus group sessions, repeat patronage figures as well as bottomline indicators. The Customer Experience ProcessTo conclude, a process map for a company's customer experience journey was shared by Lynda. It looks like the following:Identify sense of purpose --> Define customer experience vision statement --> Define customer experience standards --> Pilot-test customer experience standards --> Revise customer experience standards --> Train/coach and communicate on customer experience standards --> Conduct mystery audit --> Plan & implement Reward & Recognition system (which loops back to the beginning).Do you have any tips on achieving customer experience excellence? Do share them with me! Your Most Important Stakeholders Courtesy of CoverUps.comThere are two things which are absolutely vital in ensuring organisational success:1) Hire the right people.2) Keep them as long as you can (within reason).As Singapore's job market starts to grow yet again amidst the rise in its economic prospects, how does an employing organisation make itself attractive to talented candidates? In addition, how does such an organisation continue to nurture its best officers, groom them and provide them with the best chances for success?There are a couple of suggestions which you may wish to consider:1) Celebrate team achievements rather than individual ones. While there will inevitably be stars in your team (just like there will be poor performers), it is vital for everybody to move as one unit. 2) Network extensively with people in your industry - not just the senior war-weary chaps, but also the younger bright-eyed and bushy tailed ones. To be a magnet for manpower, you need to be visible enough in the right social circles as well as the market for talent.3) Be positive about what you do and willing to share about your work experiences beyond the cursory "I work in the government lor..." The more enthusiasm you show in what you do, the more interest you will generate.4) Get to know what makes your team members tick and find the best way to engage them. Some people prefer the close huddle, football team management approach. Others prefer to have more space to experiment and explore. See what works best for individuals.5) Create opportunities for team members to shine, and never fail to acknowledge good work while giving credit where its due. If possible, placade officers who were directly responsible for putting things in place.6) Engender a sense of ownership amongst team members so that everybody has a stake in what you're doing. Its pointless to have a dream plan when it falls apart due to lack of buy-in and support. Rallying others isn't just a job for the evangelist but the manager too. 7) When push comes to shove, be willing to make painful decisions. The toughest part of work is not the work in itself - even if you're a rocket scientist! It is in managing the fine network of relationships between different parties, balancing between the needs of different players yet ensuring that progress doesn't get halted by barriers.Are there other lessons in people management that you can think of? The Real-time Relationship Revolution The global growth in social networks is attributed to the need to connect (courtesy of Social Hallucinations)After thinking about what's truly different around the world with the increasingly widespread popularity of the social web, one word struck out especially loud and clear.Real-time relationships.People need people, and there are now more ways to converse and collaborate than ever before. We don't only have to hear their voice, but can view their photos, videos, and textual messages at the desktop, laptop or mobile phone. This phenomenon of intense and immediate interaction means that meeting family and/or friends just once a week or fortnight isn't enough anymore. We want to "sense" their presence online when they log onto MSN, laugh or cry at their little quips on Facebook, be drawn into an online debate at their blogs, or just respond with a 140 character (or less) message on Twitter.Real-time relationships fuel the widespread growth and dominance of social technologies. They are the currency of the 2010s where the continued uncertainty of global economics, man-made calamities and terrorism has torn countries asunder. When people's faith in time-honoured institutions and structure-bound organisations are eroded from mistrust, whom do they turn to? Their friends, family members and aquaintances. Nobody's going to just take an advertisement or news story at face value anymore.How does being constantly connected affect the way businesses change?For a start, getting a second opinion is now faster than ever before. Moreover, your customers can seek views not just from one party but a whole host of others, and even chat with them about it. This means that pulling wool over your customer's eyes will be almost impossible.The next thing is that people expect immediate responses. You cannot afford to go radio silent for days or weeks if you want to continue enjoying a customer's patrimony. If you can maintain an "always on" chatline, so much the better (although it drives your employee's work-life balance bonkers... topic for another day).The digital grapevine will also become the place where most buying decisions are made. Smart businesses will know how to get themselves so well-loved that their customers will automatically share the news about the latest product or service voluntarily. Of course, the building of online communities are then an absolute must.Finally, and perhaps most importantly, customers value businesses who stand on the same side. The greater your degree of empathy with your customers, the better. In fact, you should speak from the perspective of your customers rather than your company, and be seen as a champion for customer needs, wants and desires. Help is Still Needed in Haiti By now, we would have all heard about the extreme devastation which has taken place in Haiti as a result of the 7.0 scale Earthquake. Entire buildings and towns have been totalled, and hundreds of thousands of lives may have been lost.Fortunately, we have agencies like the International Medical Corps, which are doing whatever they can in relief efforts right now. As stated in their website:International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, International Medical Corps is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.For the Haiti crisis, you can view a map showing the extent of the damage as well as the work which IMC is currently doing on various sites here.Here's a video from CNN's Larry King Live, showing Dr. Liviu Vedrasco, member of International Medical Corps' emergency response team, describing conditions there.There are several ways you can help:1) Donate or volunteer2) Help to spread the word around! You can embed a widget on your blog or website from this URL here.3) Follow them on Facebook or Twitter.Let's do what we can to help our fellow humans in their moment of greatest need. Infinitesimal Improvements Courtesy of "Shanty" CherylAs we start a fresh new week, I thought its useful to consider for a moment how we can do things differently. It doesn't have to be a huge paradigm shifting, game changing milestone, but just a smallish innovation that defies conventional wisdom. And nope, these aren't New Year resolutions or anything as noble as that. However, they can apply equally at work, at home, at school, at church, or anywhere else.The idea behind this is to gradually improve in baby steps which are less daunting than taking a huge leap into the unknown. They can be as small as replacing an unhealthy breakfast item (say fried bacon) with a healthy one (say a slice of guava), or perhaps slightly larger - like reading at least 15 minutes to half an hour every day. Doing something small and easy allows one to pick the low hanging fruits, boosting one's morale and equipping one towards larger and bolder pursuits in life. For me, I'm going to try to blog at least once every other day, no matter how tired, busy or lazy I feel. Writing gets better the more you do it, and the only way to open that tap is to just keep turning it.If the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, forget about moving the world. Instead, begin by moving that itsy bitsy little obstacle in your life first. Anointing Your Advocates Advocacy Gone Awry (Courtesy of Taejin "TJ" Moon)I chanced upon a brilliant post by Jeremiah Owyang, renowned web strategist and thought leader, on Advocacy Marketing. This new form of Word Of Mouth marketing is different from the traditional areas as advocates are like members of your inner circle - your best customers so to speak.Quoting from Jeremiah:"Companies aren’t trusted, brands aren’t trusted, and nor are your executives. People trust each other, and now they have the tools to communicate with each other using social technologies and mobile with or without brands involved. As a result, trust has shifted to the participants. Many brands, knowing their credibility has diminished, rely on advocacy programs where trusted members of the community are given a platform and encouraged to speak."Examples of effective advocacy programmes are Walmart's Elevenmoms as well as Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional or MVP.The drawbacks of any advocacy programme are the lack of controls over what your advocates choose to say. Advocates aren't your corporate messengers. They cannot be spoonfed with the right scripts to utter be it online or offline. However, they are believers who are not only premium clients and customers, but proud of being so.How does one build a successful advocacy programme? Well, Jeremiah has the answers here (paraphrased by me):1. Get Internal Teams Prepared First. Don't just shoot off a programme without getting buy in from the rest of the staff.2. Find Credible Advocates. These should be folks with a significant network or who are well regarded in their circles. They could be people with a sizeable number of Twitter followers or Facebook friends, or just actively involved in various social clubs and forums.3. Ensure The Advocacy Program Is Above Board. Try to disclose everything as much as possible and ensure that your advocates are visible enough. Shilling is strongly discouraged.4. Ensure It Matches Up With Their Agenda. The last thing you want to do is to appoint an advocate who has zero interest in what you do.5. Incentivize Them With Special Access –But Don’t Pay Them. These benefits could include exclusive invites, previews, and thank you functions that are limited to the group.6. Hand Over The Microphone –Give Them The Platform. As much as possible, let them say it in their own voices. Anything else may come across as orchestrated and fake.7. Intake Negative Feedback –But Be Actionable. Remember that they are not drawing their paychecks from you. In fact, an occasional critical comment may be more believable than a non-stop flow of praise.8. Provide Them With Communication Tools. These could leverage on what's already available online - blogs, facebook, twitter, youtube videos, flickr photos - or could be customised for your business.9. Define Success Based On Influence And Reduced Cost. Ultimately, the credibility of your advocates are important as well as their influence on their respective followers and networks.10. Got An Idea? Leave a Comment. Finally, engage them as much as possible and encourage them to contribute ideas and suggestions for improvements. You want advocates to be proactively involved in your business and not just be passive conveyors of your corporate spiel.I wished I had read Jeremiah's post earlier as it would have influenced how I would have run certain advocacy oriented programmes. Nevertheless, I believe that the future still lies in third party advocacy by the people whom you rely on the most in any business - your best customers. Anatomy of a Brand Are these brands or logos? (Courtesy of search-this.com)What is a brand? How does one understand the art and science of branding in the digital driven age?First, a brand is not a logo. Certainly, logos represent one dimension in the embodiment of corporate or product brands. However, they are just a visual representation and a signpost rather than the true meaning of the brand itself.A brand is not an advertisement. Like other marketing channels, ads can help to convey your brand promise and the essence of what your brand is about. However, spending heavily on advertising alone will not help to build a strong brand.A brand is also not about groovy graphics, delightful designs or amazing aesthetics. While an inspired looking annual report, "wow!" website or salubrious store layout helps to improve one's perception of a brand, they aren't the be-all and end-all of brands.Oh and very importantly, a brand isn't just a corporate ego exercise. It isn't just an airy fairy concept that is conceived by an organisation's executives and managers with the aim of impressing it's stakeholders. The moral of the story: don't do it for yourself.So what is a brand then?A brand is about one's emotional and mental influence on stakeholders. Its the sum of how much your company, product or service can seat itself deep within the psyche of your customers. The more influence you have on your target audience's decisions, the better.A brand doesn't belong to you. It belongs to them. The greatest and most well known brands in the world are appropriated, adored and adulated by their customers. We call them raving fans.A brand is about how they receive, respond and resonate. It is about how stakeholders absorb, understand and internalise your brand essence, act on it in a favourable way, and spread the message to their peers and contacts.Finally, a brand is about the holistic experience. It happens from the time they first saw or heard your advertisement, called your sales staff, visited your shop, and surfed your website to the time they purchased your product or consumed your service. It is the complete suite of feelings - good or bad - which envelop your customers during every touch-point. From pre-purchase to consumption to post-purchase. Suprising versus Satisfying Your Customers Surprising Them May Be Better Than Satisfying Them (Courtesy of Anthony Cain)In many B-schools, the mantra for marketing goes something like this:Do surveys and profile studies to determine what your target customers prefer.Look at how your competitors are doing it. Better yet, undertake a benchmarking exercise to see what their best practices are.Conduct focus groups and align your product or service towards their wishes.Investigate how customers are using your product at their homes, offices, or 3rd places.Better yet, invite them to become part of your product development team so that everything will ultimately be matched to what their heart desires.Now tell me, what would come out of such rigorous market research? An exciting, breathtaking, out-of-the-box product or service? Or one that just about fits everybody's needs and wants, but fails to deliver that "Wow" factor?Don't get me wrong. I believe that there is a time and place to deepen our understanding of customers. Launching a space-age product when your customers prefer good old traditional methods just won't work. You need to know what makes them tick and what catches their fancy.However, don't be afraid to innovate and create something extraordinary. Many of the world's greatest products or services aren't born from hours and hours of market research. Instead, they are created from the flashes of brilliance by right-brain thinkers who dare to challenge conventions and norms.To be an architect of the awesome, one needs to occasionally veer off the tried-and-tested path. Sure, you should look at those charts and tables, but do also listen to that inner voice coming from deep within your gut. Don't just satisfy your customers. Surprise them! The Crystal Ball of Technology At the kind invitation of HP/Microsoft through Waggener Edstrom, I attended a panel discussion and ideation exercise titled "Future Is: The Online Community Talks About the Future of Things". Held at the Giraffe Restaurant at the Istana Park across the road from Plaza Singapura, it was attended largely by bloggers, tech entrepreneurs, and students with a new media interest.Featuring purveyors of tech like Daniel Tsou of Tech65, Willis Wee of Penn Olson, Nicholas Aaron Khoo of C-Net Asia's Geekonomics, fashion blogger/editor Mina Sunico and Brian Ling of Design Sojourn, the session was a good refresher for me on what's new and what's hot in the world of technology.There were several good points raised during the session which I thought was worth highlighting:1) The relentless march of technology will continue to shrink computers down to ever smaller dimensions while increasing their processing powers. This process of miniaturisation will also come with increased user-friendliness and simplicity in complexity.2) Mina highlighted that the democratisation of fashion journalism - and perhaps food and travel journalism I might add - will result in the rise of the fashion e-cons (electronic icons) as well as the levelling of the playing field for enthusiasts. Examples in Singapore include Fashion Nation, ieatishootipost.sg, Chubby Hubby and Travelerfolio. Generally speaking, most mainstream media players are slow to catch on except perhaps Vogue magazine with its Style.com.3) Despite the progresses in the miniaturisation of technology, there is still a trade-off between the richness of the experience with mobility. True, you can view a blockbuster like Avatar on your iPhone one day, but I can guarantee you that it won't quite be like that immersive 3-D encounter in the theatres.4) Interestingly, there is a backlash against the current information overload as people are leaving the digital world in droves and ambling back to more archaic analog activities. I can certainly vouch for this. Many of my geek and nerd friends who were pioneers in the social media space have now withdrawn partially to more pastoral pursuits. Perhaps what's more important is that people are mixing online interactions with offline get-togethers. Nothing beats seeing somebody face-to-face, shaking their hands, and hearing their voices in the flesh!5) Willis spoke about the iPhone revolution and how it has changed the game. With the iPhone making smart phones ubiquitous (even coffee shop uncles are carrying them now...), it appears that opportunities arise for marketers in the mobile spaces. With 85,000 applications, iPhone has deftly handled its competition from competitors like Nokia, Blackberry, Motorola and Google. Other than mobile ads and mobile apps, the downloading of songs (iTunes), ringtones and games represent a potential market to watch out for.6) Nicholas coined an interesting term for the future: bub pfuse, which stood for Bleak, Uncertain, Bright, Personalised, Fun, Unexpected, Social and Exciting. I like how he balanced between being optimistic about what technology promises in the years ahead as well as its drawbacks for those who are disinclined to go digital.7) On the question of what drives certain technologies to be adopted faster than the rest, it was argued that design, cool factor, value, social acceptance, entertainment, social network effects (ie the more people use them, the greater its utility), localisation and simplification are some key reasons. The adoption of the mobile web in Asia is far more prevalent than the US. For example Google's office in Japan had staff using mobile phones as opposed to laptops or netbooks!8) A new term called Simplexity - simple products with complex functions and usability - was coined. The iPhone probably best embraces this concept, but it can also be found in many day to day white goods like refrigerators, microwave ovens, and food processors.9) Preetam Rai raised a good point about how the use of technology is often coupled to making money. He cited that in Sichuan province in China about six years back, farmers were already putting up photographs of their farm animals on forums to attract tourists from the cities! In addition peer to peer communication technologies like Skype and MSN Messenger were adopted fairly aggressively by countries like Vietnam for business purposes unlike Singapore.Overall I found that the session was a good attempt by HP and its partner Microsoft to encourage greater dialogue and interaction in the social media spaces. While some of these ideas aren't exactly cutting edge, they do help to open my mind about the possibilities which the future brings. Oh yes, there is a great contest called Blog A Trend where you can win cool prizes like a HP Touchsmart PC and HP Minis. Just create a blog post (of at least 300 words), or create a photo story, or produce a video clip about the most compelling vision of the future. Once it's up on your blog, email your post to HP with the permalink to futureis@ waggeneredstrom.com by 28 February 2010. Full details can be found here.Do you have any views on what the future holds for technology?Update: Check out this comprehensive photo coverage of the event by techielobang.com. Imagination versus Pragmatism Dubai was all about the dream without the reality, and landed itself with a huge debt. (courtesy of Bobesh)There are two school of thoughts in marketing. The first belongs to the world of imagination while the second is centred on pragmatism. Do these spheres of marketing always have to sit on opposite poles?Let us look at this in some detail.Everybody knows about the big idea in advertising. Creative agencies stretch their canvasses of imagination - and occasionally their client's budgets - to offer an out of this world portrayal of the world tinged with fairy dust. The sky is the limit in their portrayals of how consumers can elevate themselves to the status of slick, smart and sexy simply by buying their much touted products. BMW's "The Ultimate Driving Machine" is an example of this.In the world of imagination, marketing's chief role is to capitalise on the possibilities of purchase. By using powerful visual and verbal cues, advertisements are able to tease one's right brain, touching the heart and stirring the emotions. Brands are seen as an extension of one's personality and an emblem of one's own unique sense of identity.The flipside in marketing is the grittier and more realistic world of pragmatism. Purveyors of this discipline emphasise price, utility and value over that of fantasy and make-belief. To get customers to agree to a purchase decision, labels like "Everyday Low Price", "Price Guarantee", and "Lasts Longer than the Rest" are used.Bottom-line marketing as I like to call it can be highly profitable. Just look at how Walmart has grown to become the world's largest retailer by coupling huge inventories with economical pricing. The rise of house brands and private labels have also shown how significant pragmatics can be in the world of marketing.As marketers which school of thought should we lean towards? Do we seek to adopt aspirational desire as our mantra, using visuals and words that captivate customers? Or should we seek to appeal to one's left-brained sensibility, capitalising on the current overriding concerns of how one can stretch one's dollar?I believe that the answer lies in fulfilling both aspects.Great marketing efforts not only tug at the heartstrings but seek to satisfy one's analytic side. While proclaiming how a product, service or experience may transform one's life, it may be useful to also look realistically at the dollars and cents vis-a-vis your targeted customer group.The romance and passion of a sensational campaign needs to be matched with delivering superior service and efficiency at a price point that your customer will swallow. Even the rich and wealthy are drawn towards discounts and promotions every now and then!The next time you design a marketing strategy for your product or service, think holistically about how the imaginative and the pragmatic aspects could sit together. Collectively, they will yield a far better outcome than just focusing on one alone. Adopting Multiple Marketing Perspectives eye see you, originally uploaded by jwlphotography.To succeed in the art and science of marketing, one cannot simply stick to one central approach and hope to wing it come what may. What's needed instead are a mix of both long-term, medium-term and short-term views. The adoption of these perspectives should vary depending on one's vantage point. For a start, one should have a clear long-term vision of the goal and desired end point. What are the overall objectives of one's marketing efforts? Heightened customer satisfaction? Improved profits? Greater sales turnover? Or stronger brand positioning? Deep in the trenches of marketing skirmishes and battles, one should never forget what the end goal is.Next, one should look at the medium-term strategies that are needed to accomplish that. What would be the few projects spanning several months to year that should be considered? These could be the development of new products, refurbishing of shop-fronts, training of staff in new areas, organisation of events, or upgrading of service levels.Finally, one should consider the short-term (or immediate-term) tactics which are the day to day actions needed to close the sales. This is where the rubber literally meets the road, and emphasis must be placed on excellent execution. They would include the placement of advertisements, the interaction between sales staff and customers, how telephone calls are answered, as well as decisions on promotions and deals. These could also be opportunistic and timed to coincide with seasonal peaks.Whenever you are thinking about the marketing actions needed to uplift your enterprise, remember to embrace not just the here and now but the longer-term vision. Be nimble enough to switch perspectives accordingly, but never forget to consider the repercussions of one's action. An example would be the offering of special sales and hot deals. While an occasional offer helps to drive top-line sales, having them too often would end up creating customers who only buy during offers and not other periods. This would punish both bottom-line profitability and long-term business viability.Seeing the trees for the woods is one thing, but missing the bush fire that threatens to engulf and destroy everything which you have built is quite another thing altogether. Being able to sense and react according to long, medium, and short term concerns is necessary to ensure the continued viability of one's business. Transitions in Life Transitions are like the rainbow which appears after the storm (courtesy of pleem1983)Everybody goes through transitions every now and then. Some are overjoyed by the experience. Others become truly terrified. These transformative phases molds and metamorphoses one, changing one either in a positive or a negative manner.Transitions are the rites of passage which marks the end of one stage and the beginning of another. They are the indistinct stages of limbo, where one grapples with issues of identity and self-worth, while gearing up for a new role in life. Like the refining fire of a goldsmith, they can be hot and bothersome. However, they do lead towards a fresh understanding of what one's goals and values are, making one see better in the long road of life.Transitions can be straightforward and easy. Or they can be muddying, confusing and ill-defined. Sometimes, what may start out as a straight and well-lit path becomes a stroll through a meandering path full of pleasant diversions like wild flowers, singing birds and babbling brooks. However, they are an absolute necessity in one's journey in humanity.What are some of the transitions in life? They are phases which mark a distinct change in lifestyle - births, marriages, deaths, promotions, new jobs, new homes, new degrees and so on.Some transitions can be celebratory, like the joyous cheers in a wedding dinner.Others can seem catastrophic, like the silent sobs of a sole breadwinner losing his livelihood.Have you experienced a recent transition in your life? How do you manage the changes that it mandates? The Four Rs of Winning Businesses Competing in a crowded marketplace requires the 4 Rs (Shinjuku courtesy of William Bullimore)What are the most important ingredients in any successful business?Is it the ability to stimulate Recognition deep, far and wide, penetrating into every household (or organisation) in the land?Is it the ability to foster close and positive Relationships with one's customers?Is it the ability to create Remarkable products and services with exciting new offerings that captures the imagination?Or is it the ability to Resolve the headaches and issues that one's customers face?I believe that the best organisations employ a mixture of all four Rs. Here's why.The first R seems to be the most obvious in any business. To gain the trust and respect of potential customers, you need to generate some degree of awareness and recognition amongst your target audiences. Your customers need to know who you are, what you stand for, and the quality of your products and services. Of course, not every company needs to have a brand that is as pervasive as say Microsoft or Coca Cola, but you still need to strike some form of connection with your customers in order to get them to loosen their purse strings.The second R is certainly a key dimension in any business as it is often the heart rather than the head which ultimately makes buying decisions. Clever businesses know that the key to future profitability lies in fostering a close and enriching relationship with one's customers. Maintaining and enhancing customer goodwill will help to generate positive word-of-mouth effect - a key marketing strategy in this day and age of advertising clutter.The third R is an inevitable necessity in today's hyper-competitive marketplace. With such a wide range of product and service offering available in almost every imaginable category, businesses must constantly rejuvenate their product lines to meet the needs, wants and desires of their customers. Just being good enough isn't sufficient to win this war.The fourth R is probably the one that promises the greatest returns for businesses who care enough to make their customer's lives easier. Unfortunately, many business transactions impose a major pain on their customers. Just think about how credit cards insist that you provide a photocopy of your payslip after completing a complex form, or of hire purchase agreements that are full of legalese while you fill them up in triplicate copies. Simplifying things for your customers can be a tremendous step in improving repeat business. It would be even better if you can help them to solve their problems in reaching their customers.When you think about how you can improve your business, consider the 4 Rs - brand Recognition, customer Relationships, Remarkable products, and the Resolution of customer problems. Why Avatar is so Awesome Courtesy of OfficialAvatarMovieBy now, probably half of the world's cinema going geeks would have watched Avatar, James Cameron's latest mega blockbuster featuring blue-skinned 3 m tall aliens battling robot riding humans in a tropical moon. With a huge budget of close to US$500 million, Avatar is one of the most expensive Hollywood productions to date, and initial box office results look promising despite the relentless wintry snowstorms in the Western world. There are many excellent movie reviews available on the web, so I wouldn't bore you with yet another critique of its hits and misses.Let us look instead at some of the ingredients which Avatar has applied that led to its successful opening and made it such a huge global rave.1) Be patient as good things do come to those who are willing to wait. It took James Cameron 15 years to produce this blockbuster, from the writing of the script way back in 1994 to the premiering of the movie in December 2009. Rather than compromise on his movie making standards, James waited till the 3D rendering technology was sufficiently developed before filming and developing his movie. This was necessary in order to ensure that the CGI characters employed in the show looked sufficiently realistic to wow the audience.2) Focus on the few things that matter. Unlike other more prolific film makers, James Cameron was only known for a few big movies like Terminators 1 and 2, Aliens, True Lies and Titanic. With the exception of True Lies, the other movies were all huge hits, and lesser film makers were unable to repeat his success formula when helming the franchise films like Aliens and Terminator.3) Be a perfectionist and never settle for anything less than the best. As a stickler to detail and a self-proclaimed "control freak", James Cameron is probably one who never let a hair (or spine, in the case of the alien monsters) fall out of place. He was relentless in ensuring that every step of the movie making process fell into place, and that every scene is memorable. Such zealousness helped to ensure that there is coherence in both the huge things and the small, itty bitty details.4) Never neglect the art and science of storytelling. What I like especially about James Cameron's movies is his attention to the plot. Unlike other film makers who go so overboard on special effects that they neglect the main premise of a visual tale, Cameron puts in sufficient story elements to grip the attention of movie-goers who are after more than just a non-stop slugfest.5) Use your imagination - to the helm! Few people can argue that Cameron's Pandora is one of the most well developed alien worlds modern cinema has ever seen. Paying close attention to every detail - from the colour and shades of the alien beasts, right down to the foliage of the vegetation - the make believe world was painstakingly rendered every step of the way.6) Believe in your ideals and don't be afraid to be moralistic. I know that there were several critics who chastised Cameron for his overly simplistic way of portraying environmental degradation in the movie, or the values of its holier-than-thou heroes. While being ambiguous about the moral direction of a movie may win critical acclaim from the "auteur" class critics, the man-in-the-street may actually prefer to root for the side which he is most familiar with. Cameron's depicting of a handicapped hero is also laudable as it shows how one can triumph against the odds despite facing significant difficulties in life.7)Invest in an avalanche of marketing! I think this is probably the most evident "secret" in Cameron's arsenal. With a whole army of marketers and publicists doing an entire barrage of marketing strategies and tactics - previews, reviews, script leaks, stills, trailers, advertisements in all channels, blog posts, forums, distribution channels etc - Cameron has it made in cornering the market. Naturally, one must have deep enough pockets to do so, and obviously he managed to find the investors who believed enough to splurge.Are there other secrets to Avatar's success? 6 Ways to Strike Gold at Sovereign Hill One of the great things about the award winning outdoor museum Sovereign Hill at Ballarat is the amount of activities that one can participate in. You can either dig for gold, pan for gold in the river, ogle bars of gold in sheltered comfort, experience how miners lived, or frolick amongst "denizens" of a former gold-mining town in the 19th century. While not all that glitters is real gold - for obvious security reasons - one can be fairly assured of having a glowing and goldilicious good time here!Our first stop at the Gold Museum brings us face to face with the 4.4 kg, $250,000 Goldasaurus, a huge nugget of pure gold.The many uses of gold beyond jewellery and coins.The famous story of King Midas immortalised in a diorama at the Gold Museum.Wonder how they made those huge bars of gold? Well, you can visit the gold smelting works here.See that red hot cup heated by the furnace? The man just poured out liquid gold onto a block below.Lucky girl! (too bad she can't bring it home though)Where there's money to be made, us Chinese will naturally gravitate towards them. This Chinese settlement shows how East Asians have settled as far away as Ballarat way back in the 1850s to participate in the gold rush.A Chinese temple was the place to ask for blessings from the gods and deities prior to one's dig.A little shop selling dried foodstuffs in a gold mining settlement.After all that viewing, one can get into some action and start panning for gold.These tourists are all hoping for a free ride home. I can't help noticing how a large majority of them were Asians. :)Onwards to more exciting Indiana Jones adventures at the Red Hill Mine!Our host explaining to us the history behind shaft mining as well as its dangers.After climbing down a few flights of stairs, we were greeted by these "miners" (done through Pepper's ghost effect) excited about discovering a huge vein of gold.The final stop is at the gold mine tour which was a fascinating 45 minute experience down under.This began with a descend into the inky darkness of a mine through a "mining car".As we trudged through the dark, we spotted these outcrops of gold.Our guide explaining how this gun-like drill helped to remove quartz with flecks of gold, which resulted in many miners inhaling tonnes of that unhealthy stuff in their lungs. The sound was also deafening. A miner's life (which was often short) sure was hard!A final ride on a mining train which felt a little like the Indiana Jones theme park ride at Disney, albeit without the animatronics!This wood-fired engine powered by golden flames help to drive, moving the huge pistons and turbines through superheated steam. The City Built on Gold Located northwest of Melbourne city, Ballarat was famous for being a mining town, and the site generated the greatest amount of gold during the Victorian Gold Rush of the 1850s. The city occupies an area of 740 square kilometres and houses an estimated population of over 88,000, and has a mixture of Victorian-era architecture interspersed by modern day buildings. Considered one of the state's premier tourism destination, Ballarat attracts some 1.8 million day trip visitors and about 13% of Victoria's annual 1.1 million overseas visitors.Taking a walk along the streets and roads of Ballarat, one can't help feeling that it has retained much of that old world small town charm of a bygone era, while still modernising itself. The streetscape is vastly different from Melbourne as you may have guessed, and while vestiges of gold-generated opulence can be seen in its buildings, most are classically elegant rather than overtly ostentatious.The Ballarat train station built in 1862 is the first place to check out. One can see that the name Victorian Railways befits the regal look of this building. The V-Line train from Melbourne stops here.Her Majesty's Theatre is another popular stop where some of the state's finest performing arts acts are showcased.The University of Ballarat specialises in the arts, and serves as a landmark here.Our next stop was the elegant Craig's Royal Hotel, decked in Victorian splendour and established during the gold rush period of 1853.Some of the well known guests who is supposed to be staying here tonight. Or are they?At the cafe in the hotel, we decided to break for lunch. I had a delicious salmon baguette.After looking around the cafe, I noticed this rather irreverent looking mug and coaster set!We also walked around some of the sculptures in the city, like this one here which I think had some connection with the wars.As well as the majestic looking Queen Victoria, perched in her rightful place in front of Ballarat's Town Hall along Sturt Street. The building actually had three flags - the Southern Cross used in the Eureka Stockade, the Australian Flag, and the Aboriginal Flag.More Victorian-era buildings such as the famous gold and jewellery shop called the Mining Exchange circa 1887.Of course, not all buildings are centuries old, and Ballarat does have some modern shops.Our last stop is the Art Gallery of Ballarat, an impressive attraction with a collection established since 1884 as one of the best regional collections in Victoria.We spotted this crowd attending the launch of Peter Blizzard's interesting exhibition on sculptures wrought from iron, wood and other materials. (Courtesy of Ballarat Art Gallery)The highlight of the gallery was the display of the original Southern Cross flag. Unfortunately no photographs were allowed, but you can see here that the fabric was already fairly worn. It was postulated that some of the miners may have cut off pieces of it to retain as a keepsake. Shockingly Good Advertisements? As I was walking along Swanston Street this afternoon, a couple of advertisements caught my attention. Both came from the Worksafe Victoria, a government agency tasked to improve workplace health and safety in the state of Victoria. They were both very eye-catching and immediately got the message through.Here's the first from a tram stop shelter:And a second one on a tram which is quite unnerving to say the least. I saw a few heads turn to look at it as people boarded the tram:Graphically painful re-enactments seemed to be the order of the day for their television commercials too. The one below is targeted at reducing musculo-skeletal injuries at the workplace, which fortunately isn't as gory or scary as the posters above, but probably just as painful. The thing about all the advertisements above is that the message is very clear: Take care of your safety at work, or the consequences can be horrendous. What do you think of these ads? Would they work elsewhere? Sovereign Hill Shines Perched atop a hill in the gold mining city of Ballarat in Victoria, Sovereign Hill is an award winning outdoor museum cum heritage attraction which first opened in November 1970. Recreating the essence of a 19th century mining town, the open-air museum occupies a sprawling 25 hectare site that is linked to one of the richest alluvial gold rush in the world. Adding to its authenticity are staff members dressed in Victorian-era clothes who are friendly in an unpretentious manner.Unlike commercially oriented theme parks plastered with sponsor brands, Sovereign Hill charms with realistic portrayal of life in the 19th century devoid of 20th and 21st century logos. Many of the shops also adopt traditional ways of making and retailing heritage goods and services, from blacksmiths to bars and bakeries. What's especially surprising were the multiple layers of experience which one encounters as a visitor, which whisks one magically away to a different time and place.Our day began with a bang as a costumed musket-eer shows us how traditional guns were fired.Wheels were made in the traditional way, using an iron spindle and wooden frame......and they were used in these horse drawn stagecoaches which you can ride on for a small fee.Die-hard jockeys of the Victorian-era can purchase a saddle or horsewhip in this shop.This is the view inside a foundry where gold-plated decorative items, cutlery and utensils were made. The items are actually hand-made using the machines and tools in the workshop.Fancy a beard washing bowl anybody?During the 1850s, the only forms of entertainment in mining fields were wooden bowling alleys like this one, where you have to roll the ball for a looooong distance before it hit the pins. Sorry no Nintendo Wiis or X-Boxes guys.Candles and soaps were also popular in those days, for reasons of illumination in a pitch-dark mine and hygiene (of course).These lovely ladies show you how a candle is made. You can choose to make your own too if you wish for between $3 to $4 per candle.The end products of their labour, resplendent in various colours and shades.The age-old schools in mining towns then looked quite similar to a chapel. I suppose education was really a God-given privilege then.Remember what I was saying about hygiene? It does get rather dank and dirty in those musty mines.Talking about cleverly copywritten posters in "ye olde English", you can make one of your own at this shop here.Along the way, I spotted some domestic animals like this proud peacock here.And a rather slim pig hamming it up in the shade during the hot and sunny day.This three gentlemen provided much needed entertainment by playing many rollicking and lively folk tunes.Miners who haven't paid their license fees must beware of these redcoats marching through the streets.At the end of a hard day, one can either catch a show at the theatre or enjoy a meal and drinks at the United States Hotel. Yes, guys, there are many similarities between this and the Wild West.Honestly, there is nothing quite like an ice-cold golden brew to slake one's thirst after a hard day of digging. Or sightseeing for that matter!Acknowledgements: This trip was made possible through the kind hospitality of Sovereign Hill and the facilitation of my good friend Tim Richards. Do check out his well written post on Sovereign Hill here. Eureka! Its Australia's Golden Moment. Eureka Circle with the emblematic Southern Cross located at the Eureka Stockade GardensWhat is the most significant moment in Australia's history?In the hearts of many, such a moment is represented by the Eureka Stockade, a bloody rebellion of miners against their colonial government oppressors in November 1854. Happening in the gold mines of Ballarat, the tale of the Eureka Stockade is one peppered with values of hardship, courage, determination, and the fight for freedom. What began as a drunken fight leading to the death of Scottish gold miner James Scobie ended up triggering a major skirmish between 276 British military police and soldiers against some 150 men who fenced themselves in with a man-made stockade.While the following deaths of 22 miners and six armed soldiers were tragic, it ushered in a historic change in gold taxation rules which became more equitable to the long-suffering miners who often worked under appalling conditions. More importantly, it sparked off changes which subsequently led to Australia's independence from foreign domination, leading some to characterise this only rebellion as the "Birth of Australia".The first stop in the telling of this tale is the Eureka Centre at Ballarat.Established in March 1998, the $4 million centre commemorates the valour, ideals and sacrifices of those who lived and worked on Ballarat's goldfields.Decked in the colours of blue and white, the interpretative centre told the tale in an experience rich environment."Miners" clad in gold panning for gold in the streams of water at the mines.A miner using a pickaxe to chisel away pieces of quartz, which are inflected with gold. About 1 tonne of quartz or other rocks yield only 15 ounces of gold (or thereabouts).Tools of the trade, which also include guns for protection. Yes, those were rather rough times out in the goldfields, where life was harsh and theft could be a problem.The much loathed gold license of that time costed a whopping 2 pounds for only 3 months. This was a huge amount of money for poor miners, and was applied regardless of their success in digging for gold.Eureka hotel was the site of the fateful murder of James Scobie by James Bentley, which led to the beginnings of a revolt by the miners against the unjust system which they were governed by.A replica of the lifeless body of Scobie, glowing in the illuminescence of electric blue.A giant-sized statue of Peter Lalor, Irish-born leader of the rebellion leading to the Eureka Stockade.The events of those fateful days were captured by this panel text here.More giant-sized statues (which admittedly was a little eerie), depicting the skirmish between the miners and the British soldiers clad in red.Lalor is hurt with a bullet wound while a fellow miner helps him up. While he ended up losing his left arm in the process (medical surgery wasn't very septic then), he did go on to become a member of parliament in Victoria subsequently as a representative of the miners.Unfortunately, not all of them made it......and here's the final tally of the dead and the wounded.A panoramic diorama of the Eureka Stockade with the miners in the middle surrounded by British soldiers and military policemen.A similar diorama of the Eureka Stockade created by imaginative school kids. Personally, I liked this one better.Shards of pottery and other handleables for kids to play with at the children's corner.Finally, souvenirs bearing the blue and white insignia of the Eureka Stockade at the gift shop for one to bring home.Acknowledgements: This trip was made possible through the kind hospitality of Sovereign Hill and the facilitation of my good friend Tim Richards. Do check out his well written post on Sovereign Hill here. Freudian Slipping (Warning: Long and Disturbing) Courtesy of OxfordSEOBlogAs a current student in humanities, I have generated an interest in its various fields like sociology, psychology, anthropology and geography. Being a marketer and communicator, my focus is to see how these wider fields in social sciences influence the outcomes of consumers and markets. By understanding the various dimensions of human behaviours in individual, group and community settings, I hope to devise strategies and tactics that can match those characteristics.After viewing the blockbuster exhibition Liquid Desires featuring Salvador Dali at the NGV, I learnt that much of his art was influenced by ideas which stemmed from Sigmund Freud. Being curious to learn more about Freud's theories and influences - without going too deep into the intricacies of psychology - I picked up a slim volume titled Introducing Freud by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate. Heavily illustrated in a highly whimsical fashion, the book described the life of Freud as well as his major contributions as the father of the psycho-analytical movement.Born on 6 May 1856 to Jewish parents in Freiburg, Moravia, Sigmund Freud lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria. Upon completing his medical studies in 1881, Freud developed interests in histology and neurophysiology and was influenced over the years by various eminent academics like Ernst Brucke, Hermann Nothnagel, Theodor Meynert and Jean Martin Charcot. Various cases influenced his ideas, and the most famous ones include Anna O, Little Hans, and the Rat Man, amongst others.One of his earliest interests was in the condition of hysteria, which was thought to be either an irritation of the female sexual organs, or mere imaginary play-acting by women (19th Century Europe was still very sexist)! Some of his early therapies include the method of catharsis (invented by his friend Josef Breuer), the use of the pressure technique (where one presses one's hand on a patient's forehead and asked questions), and the seduction theory.The most monumental contribution made by Freud was in the area of psychoanalysis, which largely involved the free association technique. This involved mentally disturbed patients being allowed to freely recall traumatic events and to say whatever came to mind. In 1896, Freud also wrote The Interpretation of Dreams, which spoke about his own dream and how it embodied a childhood wish of a death wish aimed at the father and a sexual one at the mother. The most famous example of this was captured in the Oedipus Story which Freud later named as the Oedipus Complex - an incestuous fantasy falling in love with the mother and jealousy of the father.To understand dreams, Freud made two discoveries, namely that "all dreams represent the fulfillment of wishes" and that the "functioning of dreams provides systematic evidence of the unconscious". Dreams often express one's repressed unconscious wish, often in a partial or censored version, and the latent content of the dream can only appear when disguised as manifest content. Manifest objects either suggest penetration (like swords, guns, umbrellas etc) or receptables (like boxes, purses, caves etc) which are proxies for the male and female sexual organs. The "shifting over" of the wish to such manifest objects was called displacement by Freud. Concepts like castration anxiety and penis envy were also suggested then.According to Freud, the mind is divided into the preconscious (which contains all the ideas and memories capable of becoming conscious) and the unconscious. The unconscious mind is made up of desires, impulses or wishes of a primarily physical instinct, and would look towards fulfilling the needs of pleasure - also known as the Pleasure Principle. In publishing Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (yes, he was quite obsessed with that), Freud claimed that the mouth and anus were involved in psycho-sexual development, which first starts with the oral stage followed by the anal, phallic, latency stages (age 6 to puberty) when the sex drive disappears, and the final genital stage (reappearance of sexuality during adolescence).In Freud's world, many neurotic problems are traced to childhood. Fixation or arrested development of the libido may occur, and this could lead to regression and the onset of adult neuroses. Interestingly, he also created the idea that all human beings are bisexual in a certain way and that pure masculinity or femininity does not exist. The counterpoint of the Pleasure Principle was the Reality Principle, which allowed organisms to tolerate delays and deferments of gratification, and facilitated thinking as well as productive work. During the mechanism of sublimation, libidinal energy is redirected towards an adaptation to reality - ie the process of mixing work with play.Considered as a 3rd Revolution (after Copernicus' discovery that the Earth is not at the centre of the Universe and Darwn's Theory of Evolution), Freud's Psychology of the Unconscious states that only a small part of what is mental in conscious, with a large part made unconscious. Freud was also responsible for the idea of transference whereby hostile unconscious feelings were made conscious and "transferred" to the therapist. When this fails, the psychotic cases were referred to as narcissistic, where the ego is directed back to the self and regressed to conditions like megalomania, schizophrenia, and hypochondria.In Mourning and Melancholia (1915), Freud carried this idea further and wrote about the idea of extreme identification called introjection, where one's lost love object is literally "devoured" by the ego, and the patient regresses to infantile narcissism. The death instinct was also covered, where ideas on how all behaviours are used to reduce tension was proposed and the condition of repetition-compulsion, whereby the painful memory is relived again and again in attempts to get back to a condition totally devoid of all energy - death.Freud's final contribution was in the dynamic model of the mind called the Id, the Ego, and the Super-Ego. His ideas here was that the ID (Latin for 'it') is the primitive, unconscious basis of the psyche dominated by primary urges, the ego is the guide to reality which encompasses the conscious mind, and helps to repress the id, and the super-ego is introjected parental authority - a defensive effort which prohibits the expression of Oedipal wishes. Thus, our behaviours are not due to strict moral ideas but due to our renouncing of aggression.From 1902 to 1908, Freud started the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society with eminent followers, the most famous of whom was Carl Gustav Jung who had a famous split from Freud as he felt that Freud extended the idea of sexuality too far. Naturally, Freud's ideas resulted in a lot of resistance during his time, and one can see why judging by how controversial they are. While some of his theories have since been debunked, his main contributions to psychoanalysis were still monumental, and they helped us better understand the complexities of the human mind.