Mike Stopforth

How to Avoid a Brand Crisis in 48 Hours

Mike Stopforth — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 08:27:01 +0000

When Victor Dlamini and I launched social media crisis consultancy 48 Hours late last year, we had no idea how enthusiastically the offering would be received. The response exceeded even our optimistic expectations. It became clear to us immediately that this was a service that corporate executives – and specifically those in marketing and communication – desperately needed. Off the back of the launch’s success and subsequent client engagements, the Nedbank IMC conference invited us to present our ideas around online crises.

The following is a transcript of our presentation, titled How to Avert a Brand Crisis in 48 Hours:

Why Online Crises Happen

The big shift from print and broadcast media to online channels, coupled with the ubiquity of social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others, has significantly accelerated the speed at which information can be disseminated to millions of people around the world.

Someone – a customer, an employee, or even a curious bystander – can post something that quickly goes viral and leads to crisis. Once this happens, not even the source of the message has the power to reign it in. Gone are the days when the time it took for a story to go from the journalist to the editor to the printing press bought businesses time to intervene and block a story. By the mere click of a button on a smartphone, decades-old brands have seen their reputations decimated. In this new world of democratised mass publishing, every business should consider itself a candidate for an existential crisis. As such, every business should be crisis ready with access to the resources and expertise to manage this crisis should it occur.

Given the many examples of well-publicised online crises, we have to ask why so many companies are still so vulnerable to crisis and, when it strikes, why they seem so unprepared to respond. One of the most glaring weaknesses is that even as the internet and online platforms have become the de facto marketplace, many companies still behave as if online channels are the outlier and their brand predominantly exists in print or traditional broadcast media. Companies under-invest in their online presence, or when they do invest, it is one-directional, designed to tell the world about themselves but not to listen and respond to what the outside world is telling them. When a negative post starts to gather steam and portend trouble for an organisation, it is telling that so often, the company is blissfully unaware of the threat to their reputation and their business.

This is what led us to the founding of 48H. We observed that so many otherwise outstanding organisations were not fully geared for the fast-moving world of online media and the rapid speed at which it can become a full-blown crisis, spilling over from online platforms and turning into lost sales as consumers sentiment sours against the target of the online attacks.

We’ve all seen how an offending advert or a poorly imagined post can lead to a real-life picket. And we tell our clients when we first meet them that if a crisis is not sufficiently managed within the first 48H, you’ve likely lost control of the narrative. That’s why our motto and promise is crisis averted. As a result, we’ve been able to steer clients away from disaster and bring them back to a sure footing.

The Value of Perspective in a Crisis

No two crises are the same, and as such, there is no playbook or one-size-fits-all solution to how to respond. We do know, however, that the first few decisions you make are the most critical.

As marketers, we’ve spent countless hours and enormous amounts of money ensuring our brands and their messaging come across in the best possible light. We wear rose-tinted glasses. Everybody thinks their baby is beautiful, right? The truth is that online crises often expose the less attractive parts of the business behind the brand – the proverbial pig behind the lipstick. Because we wear rose-tinted glasses, perspective matters in moments of crisis perhaps more than anything else. If you respond to a customer in a public forum like a parent whose child has been insulted, you’re guaranteed to make the situation worse.

You have to ensure you have someone in the room, early in a crisis, who can maintain perspective and work with facts over feelings—someone who can read the label from the outside of the bottle. So often, a potential crisis is made a real crisis by kneejerk responses. We land up pouring paraffin on a tiny spark, and in so doing, broadcast our internal dysfunction on the most public platform possible. Half of the challenge for brands in social media is just avoiding making your complexity your customers’ problem!

The best way to unwind complexity is with sincerity. Often, a serious crisis is best addressed with a sincere apology rather than an emotional, defensive response.

The Power of a Sincere Apology

Ultimately, people buy from people. As a result, companies like Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola, and others have invested heavily in hiring brand ambassadors that embody their brand’s values.

CEOs and Founders have become global icons and influencers. But, unfortunately, it also means their actions face scrutiny, especially in an interconnected world. You only need to look at the events of recent years, where big multinational companies were all but forced to take a stand on the issues that define our time – like the Black Lives Matter movement or the Time Is Up movement.

Language matters, but actions matter even more. As an organisation’s leadership team gather to tackle a sizeable crisis, it is key to remember to remain human and empathise with the perspectives of this diverse audience. Online citizens are adept at reading between the lines, and they will quickly detect a half-hearted apology or a grudging acceptance of responsibility. Sincerity can play a decisive role in how quickly the crisis is resolved.

In our work, we remind clients that they should not make promises that seek to make the problem disappear in the short term. Because the Internet has a long memory and empty promises make the crisis worse. We always guide our clients towards the path of sincerity, truth over gloss, and it is a moment of delight when they see the impact of a sincere apology. Empty promises and apologies make crises worse, not better.

Planning to Fail

Another way to prevent a crisis crippling your business is by expecting one to happen and planning accordingly. Rather be prepared for a crisis and be pleasantly surprised than fail to prepare for one and find yourself scrambling to adapt in your most vulnerable moment.

On the walls of our offices are maps that show people where to go in the case of a fire or emergency. Sadly we don’t treat brand crises the same way. Preparing for an online crisis is all about preparing your people.

As social media platforms have evolved, so has the role of the community manager. Some organisations expect their community managers (whether they’re internal or based at an agency partner) to be experts in content creation, copywriting, design, media planning, SEO, analytics, reporting, influencer engagement, customer service and crisis communication.

Expecting all of this from one person is a recipe for disaster.

On more than one occasion we’ve seen crises because junior community manager was not empowered or adequately trained to do their work. Tragically, when the dust settles, the powers that be often blame these junior individuals rather than acknowledging their failure to prepare adequately. The other “evil” that results from this is that if you are lucky enough to find a social media community management unicorn that can do all of these things, often they don’t have an established career path and land up leaving to a competitor with all your institutional knowledge and wisdom stuck in their brains – leaving you to start from scratch.

If social media is a strategic imperative for your brand, you need to acknowledge a few things.

There are proactive and reactive functions – i.e. conversations you (the brand) initiate and conversations you respond to (initiated by your online audience).
There are engagements that happen in social media you can plan for or anticipate, and engagements you can’t plan for or anticipate.

Combining these two truths produces a model for defining four strategic focus areas you should clearly define and resource for:

Planned proactive engagement – these are conversations you initiate and can anticipate. Planned proactive engagement encompasses all your scheduled, briefed calendar content. This is the function of an agency partner or internal content creation team, and the toughest decisions really are what content to promote and when.

Planned reactive engagement relates to all your first-line customer service responses – the sorts of responses that you would have outlined in a contact centre FAQ. This should be performed by a response-focused community manager, leveraging scripted, structured responses to ensure on-brand messaging and efficiency. You have no excuse to get these first two wrong! These are the basics.

Unplanned reactive engagement is the stuff you have nightmares about. These are complaints or mentions you could not have planned for or anticipated. If you are a brand that practices humility, critical thinking, and a fair dose of introspection, they should be minimal. It is a senior function, highly integrated into business and other functions like PR or corporate comms, and should be governed by a strict triage and escalation process. But, of course, the worse you are at this, the better for Victor and me, so I probably shouldn’t be telling you this.

The final quadrant is unplanned proactive engagement. This is the magic. This is Nando’s responding in a matter of minutes to a political announcement in a way only they can do. But we make the mistake of thinking this sort of engagement happens on the fly. It never does; it takes years of brand development, preparation, repetition and bravery to identify these moments and capitalise on them when they happen.

A failure to acknowledge the complexity of the opportunity for brands in social media is a breeding ground for crises. And while you might not be able to solve all of this overnight, there are some things you can do right now…

What To Do Next

The first thing is that it is no longer advisable to entrust your online presence wholly to agencies. If your leadership is not spending enough time online, then your organisation is at a higher risk of an online crisis because spending time online means that your core team understand what’s going on in the most dynamic media spaces today.

Just as the CEO and Chairperson used to spread the weekend newspapers over brunch so they could stay connected to the real world, so too does today’s leader have to spend time online. In short, organisations have to be prepared. At 48H, we have helped our clients stay calm and guide them through the nerve-wracking process of managing a crisis. One of the things we always advise against is underestimating the complexity of a crisis.

A single press statement may have sufficed to fend off the first hint of a crisis in the print world. But in today’s world, complexity is guaranteed. So once the crisis turns into a trending topic, we advise that a focused team is assembled, including subject experts, including well-trained spokespersons.

Breaking the Social Media Spiral With Better Thinking

Mike Stopforth — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 08:26:23 +0000

Can we use moments of pain, adversity and uncertainty to develop better thinking? Fear reduces our cognition to the lowest, crocodile-brain, common denominators. How can we avoid these traps?

When a crisis strikes, the quality of our thinking and decision-making matters. Without firsthand information, panic spreads like wildfire. As a result, we find ourselves unable to think clearly while buried in a deluge of disorienting and disturbing images and sounds from information that is often incomplete or incorrect.

South Africans are reeling from days of protesting, rioting, theft, violence, and looting across the country. There are many reasons why this is happening, and I don’t want to debate them. I don’t want to investigate the roles various people and institutions have played. Nor do I want to attempt to predict what might happen as a result of it. However, I know its effect on me and the people I love, and I need to find something constructive to take out of it or go mad.

Those of us not caught in the violence, patrolling the streets to protect our businesses and homes, or standing in queues to find food, have spent most of the last week buried in our devices. Flicking from Twitter to Instagram to Facebook to news sites and back. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, as if our existence depended on consuming pixels and megabytes.

Can we use moments of pain, adversity and uncertainty to develop better thinking? Fear reduces our cognition to the lowest, crocodile-brain, common denominators. How can we avoid these traps?

Fear and envy fuel social media

This behaviour doesn’t happen by mistake; it’s by design. Assumption, conjecture, misinformation and vitriol overwhelm balanced analysis. Social media deprioritises high-quality information for clickbait, and mainstream newsmakers compromise on quality because they rely on advertising and subscriptions to support their broadcasts. Deep thought and consideration don’t pay the bills.

We seldom go back after an event like this and evaluate the claims we read, shared, or made. If we took the time, we might be shocked at how few came to pass or were based on fact. Yet, knowing this, I do the same thing time after time. It’s a compulsion, an addiction, even. The data I chose to form my view on the topic was a fraction of the complete picture, but it played a huge role in making sense of the experience. Hindsight is 20/20 vision, but there must be a way to use these patterns and lessons to prevent this emotional and mental spiralling. A personal playbook, if you will.

There are some important and powerful questions that I have started to ask myself. The skill will be quietening myself to ask them in the midst of the chaos rather than after it. I need a tool for analysing my responses to information and a guideline for wading through complexity. I thought I’d share my initial ideas for your consideration and feedback:

How confident am I that I have the full picture?

The early moments in a crisis are always uncertain. A shortcut to cushioning that initial shock is choosing information sources that have done some fact-checking and analysis for you. Start forming ideas about what is happening with these. A source in the middle of the political spectrum might take longer to publish but is less likely to push an agenda. If your go-to sources lean far left or right, they’re likely filtering certain information and leading your thinking astray. Or, at the very least, not encouraging you to question your assumptions. Resist the urge to draw conclusions or share news until you’ve done some work to understand the complete picture.

Am I upset about what’s happening to me? Or to others?

In the course of many discussions over the last few days, one dear (and very patient friend) said in response to my panicky outbursts, “Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one’s garden“, quoting Voltaire. In the context of what’s been happening, I took this to mean that my primary concern should be with the things I can control. If I am concerned on behalf of others, the question should be, why? Did they ask me to be? Is it helping them? Is it helping me?

Which of my core beliefs and assumptions are being triggered?

Am I angry? Am I afraid? What am I afraid of? What specific image or sentence or sound caused that emotion? Why might that be? Core beliefs have more influence over how we process information than anything else. They are a lens, a filter, through which we see the world. Sometimes, we share misinformation because it reinforces something we believed long before an incident took place: “ah, you see, this proves my point!”

Identifying these core beliefs, understanding them, interrogating them and using new experiences and information to refine them is a foundational pillar to developing wisdom.

How am I balancing the information I’m consuming?

There are two sides to this thought. Firstly, what sources of information – reliable but perhaps not directly aligned with my politics – could offer me a different perspective on this issue? Secondly, how do I balance my exposure to the information? Am I taking a break? Going outside? Walking around? Switching my phone off for a bit? Simple habits like leaving the phone on ring but in the entrance hall. Or, avoiding checking it at night when you wake up can make an enormous difference to your emotional capacity and mental wellbeing.

I know for many of you reading this, the trauma and stress of the last week will be tough to come back from. Apart from the obvious physical, relational and economic trauma many have suffered, there is an equally devastating threat to the quality of our thinking. These moments and how people manipulate them can set us back decades, erasing years of building respect and trust. I know I have work to do to address my thinking, and I hope the thoughts I’ve shared can help you do the same.

Are Happy Employees Good for Business?

Mike Stopforth — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 08:25:32 +0000

I recently had the pleasure and privilege of talking to Ian Fuhr, best known for starting and growing the Sorbet Group from the ground up, and more recently for his work at the Hatch Institute, on the One-Eyed Man podcast (episode here).

We spoke about the power of inclusive cultures, and the impact happy employees have on the customer. After our discussion, I thought about this statement in light of my experience at Cerebra, and realised it may not be completely true. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that happy employees could be really bad for business.

Now before you think I’m dismissing Ian’s view on this, I’m not. I’m certain he’ll agree with what I’m about to suggest, and that any difference is largely semantic. With that caveat:

It’s easy to make employees happy, and a shortcut or cookie cutter approach to doing so can bear bad fruit, especially in the long term. Rather strive to create a company in which employees can be fulfilled.

Happiness is one-dimensional. Fulfilment is complex. Happiness is a derivative of fulfilment. But so is safety. So is growth. So is connectedness.

As a parent, keeping my kids happy is easy. I need only feed them ice cream and fizzers, and stream Netflix for them all day. They’ll be exceedingly happy, in the short term. But the medium to long-term effects may not only cause unhappiness, but permanent damage. Raising fulfilled children is a much harder challenge.

Hand out exceptional increases, give extra leave, knock off early, and telling everyone they’re doing a great job will certainly make employees happy. But will it be in the best interests of the collective in the long term? Will it be sustainable? Will it really mean your most critical customer interface (your people-facing people) will do better work? I think not.

So how do we create companies that fulfil people?

Google and Oxford Languages tell me that to be fulfilled is to be “satisfied or happy because of fully developing one’s abilities or character.” I think there are five ways conscious and impactful leaders can create the types of organisations that foster individual and collective fulfillment.

Recognise Achievement, Not Existence

You don’t get a cookie for doing your job.

You don’t get a bonus for doing your job.

You don’t get a high five for doing your job.

You get a salary for doing your job.

Creating cultures that reward mediocrity, and recognise simply showing up, will breed mediocrity and people who just show up. Cultures that acknowledge and reward tenacity and initiative bake those principles into behaviour. I’m not suggesting internal competition – that can work under the right conditions. I’m suggesting that magic happens when employees realise that going above and beyond what is expected and explicit in their contracts, is what is also rewarded by you.

Fulfilment comes from achieving more than you thought you were capable of, even if it costs something.

Establish Identity, Not Institutionalism

There’s that wonderful scene in The Shawshank Redemption where Red, Andy and friends discuss the notion if being “institutionalised”, just after senior inmate Brooks, on news of his probation, takes a fellow prisoner hostage in the hope of remaining incarcerated:

Staff crave something to belong to – a sense that the hours and days spent with you, and away from family and friends, are meaningful. But there is a fine line between creating a place where people belong, and where people feel trapped. Parenting has this same tension – one wants to create a space where children feel safe and secure, but also where they understand boundaries and discipline. Too rigorous an environment diminishes individuality and promotes conformity.

One of the most powerful tools I discovered for promoting identity rather than institutionalism is focusing on defining, communicating, and exemplifying relatable values. Values are no use if they are window dressing, but can be extraordinarily powerful if they speak to the brand, the unique DNA of the organisation, and are linked in some way to notion of exceeding expectations that I outlined in point one.

Fulfilment comes from belonging, and sensing you are integral to something greater than the sum of its parts.

Create Parameters, Not Policing

If you want a teenager to do something, make a rule for it. Most of us, especially those with some degree of personality and ambition, love to bend and even break rules.

I used to explain this idea to my senior staff using a football field as an example. The parameters of a football field are extremely well defined, extremely rigid, and completely binary in nature: when the ball is out, play is over. But within those borders, anything is possible. Any combination, any collaboration, any expression of talent. Of course, like in football, there are some rules of the game (usually industry dependent) that are important to understand and recognise, but as long as staff understood the parameters, and the basic rules of the game, they could be free to create magic in any way they saw fit, and often surprised us in doing so.

It’s worth saying that not everybody enjoys this type of environment though. Some people far prefer more rigour and structure, and respond well to micro-management. In my line of work these personality types were more rare, hence my bias to a more open style of management and leadership.

Fulfilment comes from the balance between security and expression.

Build Accountability, Not Adherence

Over the last few decades we’ve become more and more critical of hierarchies and silos, and I think this is a leadership mistake. Flat management structures can be just as disastrous, and especially as organisations grow. I think hierarchies are a natural state for organisations, and extremely powerful if they relate to accountability, and not to power. In Cerebra we would say that sh*t flows uphill – the higher you are, sure, you get the perks, but you also take the most on your shoulders. You can tell so much about an organisation from who it blames when things go wrong.

Fulfilment comes from responsibility and progression.

Create Direction, Not Dictatorships

This is fairly self explanatory and obvious, but without vision – a direction in which to point all the efforts I’ve just outlined – employees will find it difficult to be fulfilled.

Vision must be ambitious.

Vision must be easily understandable.

Vision must be measurable.

If employees can’t imagine their place in your vision, they will become detached and disinvested.

Fulfilment comes from purpose.

What are some of the ways you create a space for fulfilment at work, and what were the characteristics of leaders, managers or workplaces that left you feeling fulfilled?

What Do We Really Mean by Digital?

Mike Stopforth — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 08:22:21 +0000

Is there a word in the business lexicon that we can interpret in more ways than “digital”?

Is digital a thing? A set of things?

Is it a way of doing things? Something you can buy or build?

Is digital an ideal, or a belief, or set of values?

And is this an important question to ask? I would argue yes, extremely so. Too many decisions are made, and too much money is spent in pursuing “digital” for us not to interrogate it.

The technical definition of digital

There is, of course, a technical definition for digital. Whatis.com describes digital as electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes data in terms of two states: positive and non-positive. Is this what we mean by digital in the context of phrases like digital marketing or digital transformation? I don’t think it is.

Digital certainly means technology. Of course, not all technology is digital (a wheelbarrow is technology, but not digital in any way), but it is safe to assume that everything we call digital has some technological component. Is that all it is? It can’t be. If that were the case, then digitally transforming a business would be a case of upgrading to the latest cloud computing solution and buying everyone shiny new laptops. Digital is hardware, but that is not all it is.

Hardware is useless without software. So digital is software, too. Techopedia describes software as a generic term relating to a set of instructions or programmes that instruct a computer to do specific tasks, i.e. all the functional aspects of a computer that do not refer to its physical components (hardware).

Hardware is useless without a source of power. If I can’t turn my mobile phone on, it’s basically an expensive paperweight. Hardware is also useless to its users without the existence of software. I need software installed on the phone to have some interface to make sense of and use the hardware.

Importantly, I don’t need to be an engineer or a programmer to understand the value of hardware and software. For example, I don’t need to understand the inner workings of a combustion engine to use a car. So digital is hardware and software, but that still doesn’t explain the full picture.

Something quite magical happens when we combine digital hardware and software. This is what I believe we’re talking about when we talk about digital.

Indistinguishable from magic

When we say digital, we refer to products, solutions, and experiences that were impossible or even unimaginable without digital hardware and digital software.

Booking a room in a stranger’s house in a city you’ve never visited before without uttering or writing a single word, and paying for it without holding money or even seeing that person, is an experience that would not only have been considered impossible a few decades back but indistinguishable from magic.

Hailing a ride in a stranger’s car, speaking to a device that uses artificial intelligence to interpret your needs, immersing yourself in a version of reality rendered by software and enabled by a headset, using satellites to navigate your way around a new neighbourhood – these are all experiences that were not only barely imaginable a few years back, but indistinguishable from magic.

Disruption is a phrase we use for products, solutions, and experiences created using digital hardware and software that fundamentally shift our paradigms and assumptions. Transformation is a phrase we use to describe a process of equipping a complex organisation for adaptability to stay relevant for employees and customers whose experiences of the world have been changed by digital products, solutions and experiences. Digital marketing is a phrase we use to describe ways to communicate with and sell to customers using products, solutions, and experiences indistinguishable from magic just a few years ago.

Being digital, then, is not about acquiring hardware or software. It’s not about upgrading infrastructure. Instead, it’s a shift in attitude. Being digital is being critical of the status quo, and specifically of legacy thinking, that worked in an analogue time. It’s moving digital from a department to a strategic imperative. It’s building digital literacy and capability in the most senior decision-makers in your business.

In an increasingly digital world, being digital is simply being able to adapt.

Fighting While Moving Backwards

Mike Stopforth — Sun, 31 May 2020 08:23:17 +0000

Most sports have seen their events and audiences grind to a halt during the global COVID-19 lockdown. UFC president Dana White has pounced on the opportunity in typically bold and polarising fashion, broadcasting multiple events under revised conditions. Right now it’s about the only sport fans can enjoy live.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMS) is not everyone’s cup of tea. Much like its enigmatic president, the sport has a healthy and extremely loyal fan base and its fair share of critics and negative press. I have come to appreciate and enjoy the skill and determination necessary to succeed in the UFC and count myself one of those loyal fans.

As MMA has matured, the gaps between competitors has narrowed dramatically. Little separates the top contenders in each weight class. That said, there is one particular skill that often gives athletes the edge over opponents: the ability to counter strike, or to fight moving backwards. The mental and physical strength, balance, conditioning, training and reflexes necessary to deliver a significant blow while on the back foot – while your back is literally up against the wall – is what separates good competitors from great competitors.

This quality also differentiates companies (and leaders of companies) who are able to adapt quickly in the face of rapid change from those that can’t: They can fight while moving backward.

It’s been devastating watching so many businesses around the world take massive strain and in some cases collapse in the face of rapid, unexpected change in circumstances. Without wanting to be insensitive to the economic and human tragedy, it’s worth taking a closer look as no two organisations are the same or affected the same way. We can and must learn from those who had the odds stacked against them – those who were reeling backwards from a flurry of blocks and kicks, adrenaline racing, head spinning and vision impaired – and still managed to land a few counter punches.

I recently attempted to buy some gardening products online from Makro. To say the e-commerce experience was less than efficient would be kind.

The collection process was even worse. I can’t think of an organisation who should have been better prepared to not only survive but thrive (and have significant positive impact on customers and communities) in a national lock down than Makro, and yet they appear to be fumbling around in the dark struggling to keep up. Makro has struggled to distribute and fulfill online orders in the face of increased demand, so much so that they’ve struck up partnerships with a range of organisations who, despite not being able to trade as per normal due to restrictions, are staying afloat propping up Makro and other poorly equipped retailers.

In other words, there are businesses who should have collapsed and yet have adapted brilliantly – fighting backwards to keep themselves in business and the jobs of their employees safe.

The ability to respond to change – your adaptability – appears to have much less to do with what you do, or what you have, and everything to do with who you are (leadership and culture).

What are the characteristics of these leaders, and their organisations?

Firstly, they have a propensity for experimentation and risk. That’s not to suggest that they are irresponsible – but rather that they are willing to step out into the unknown and abandon or at least question some of what they know to be true to explore new frontiers.

Secondly, they are able to think laterally about ways to create value with the resources and experience they have in hand. Everyone talks about how Kodak was unable to respond to a rapidly changing environment and eventually capitulated due to its failure to adapt, but not enough of us talk about Fuji, who should have gone the same route and didn’t. Their story of lateral thinking and adaptation is one that all business leaders should study.

Thirdly, these leaders exhibit a degree of humility. Ego is a massive inhibitor of innovation and progress. The successes of the past often prevent corporate leadership from exploring new ways of thinking about value creation, because they’re trapped in “that’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking. If we’ve learned nothing else in 2020. we’ve learned that what got you here might not get you through the next ten years.

Nothing is for certain anymore, and only those who can fight moving backwards are excited by that prospect.

If you are interested in hearing more thoughts on the adaptability of leadership in the face of change, I recently recorded a webinar on the topic and posted it to YouTube. You can watch it below:

The One-Eyed Man podcast Season One

Mike Stopforth — Fri, 01 May 2020 08:24:34 +0000

Do you remember those heady, idealistic early days of blogging?

I was an early adopter and as such was often approached by colleagues and friends for advice about starting a blog. They would have an idea or a story to tell, had probably registered an account with Blogger or Typepad or WordPress and in some cases had even written their first post.

It was the clicking “Publish” part that seemed hardest for most, and I recall many telling me how concerned they were about what people would think if they “put themselves out there”. In the arrogance of my youth I had never thought twice about pressing Publish, convinced the world desperately needed my opinions on it to keep turning.

Fifteen years later I have learned how powerful the privilege of publishing really is and how potent a force published opinion can be in the world. One consequence of that is a tendency to be far more critical of my own view, and as I grow older, the number of tweets, updates and posts that make it out of draft has reduced significantly.

You’ll understand then that when the idea to start a podcast first crossed my mind, I was more than hesitant. That was a year ago. Firstly, there are a plethora of really good options available: we don’t want for digital content. Secondly, it was really important to me that it was something that added real value, and not just another white dude mid-life crisiscast. Lastly, it was important to me that it grew me as an individual, as a business person, and as a leader.

Nothing happened. I spent months playing with the idea like my cat with hapless mole crickets. I engaged with Gavin Kennedy from Solid Gold podcasting studios in the hope that he would wave a magic wand and tell me exactly what to do, but disappointingly he doesn’t have one of those. He does have a fantastic business, though, and when the time came for me to pull the proverbial trigger, I was extremely grateful for his input and assistance. My real problem is, I’m interested in such a broad range of topics, but not a specialist in any one field. Unless of course cheeseburger-eating drummer flyfisher serial entrepreneurs with a morbid fascination for politics and poker is a field.

It’s not. I’ve checked.

In early February, after messing around for ages, I came up with the name One-Eyed Man and lined up the first few guests. The objective was simple: figure out the secrets to leading in an increasingly complex and uncertain world from the best in the business. Why leadership? Well, I care deeply about the topic, and am convinced the world is in dire need of better leaders. Supply and demand, sorted! The learning curve has been incredibly steep, but I’m so grateful I didn’t wait for the perfect idea to happen. Done is always better than perfect. And thankfully and gratefully, the feedback has been fantastic.

The first season of the show has been dedicated to setting the scene for conversations about impactful leadership with some of the leading minds on the topic in the world today. I didn’t know it at the time, but the show would land up being launched in the middle of a global pandemic, so some of the episodes were geared more toward the unique situation we all find ourselves in. If you haven’t yet listened, subscribe using your favourite platform here.

I have two more exciting season lined up, one focused on social entrepreneurship (altruistic leadership) and one on leading in the sporting world. I can’t wait for both, but am taking a tiny hiatus to prepare them, do some writing, and get a better mic for home use! (The latter shows were recorded from my study and don’t quite have the same sound quality as early ones recorded at Solid Gold.)

What I would deeply appreciate from you, if you have listened and enjoyed the shows, is perhaps a like, a share, a rating on your favourite podcast platform, and even more valuable, your suggestions for guests and topics you’d like me to cover in the months ahead of us. Feel free to pop those and any feedback in the comments below.

Thank you always for your support, and remember, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man (or person) is king (or queen – ha ha).

How SMEs can survive the COVID-19 crisis

Mike Stopforth — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 09:29:40 +0000

This is an unimaginably difficult time for entrepreneurs and small business owners. It’s a tough time for everyone, to be fair, but when you’re balancing the survival of your organisation with the concern you have for your employees, economic uncertainty, and your own well-being, you have a cocktail of complexity and stress.

Add to that the pressure of government regulation and corporate clients who pay suppliers late (or not at all), and it’s clear we’re going to need radical reform and stimuli to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. The only saving grace is that everyone is in this together, and we need to look for support and encouragement to stay committed to identifying possible innovations and solutions in our own businesses that will make us resilient and effective, not just now but well into the future.

These topics have been top of mind for me since it became clear around the beginning of February that we were plunging headfirst into a once-in-a-lifetime global event that would have a monumental impact on business and society. I run small businesses, invest in, coach, and mentor business owners, and mix in entrepreneurial circles. I have had some time to think about how we, as small business owners can use this time as productively as possible to create the bedrock for future recovery and success.

Exploring the role of your values in a crisis

My first opportunity to explore some of these ideas came thanks to serial entrepreneur and global speaker Richard Mulholland joining me on the One-Eyed Man podcast to discuss values, leadership, and what to do when you don’t know what to do.

You can watch the conversation on YouTube as well.

How SMEs can survive and thrive in a COVID-19 crisis

I was then offered the opportunity to join well-known South African entrepreneur, Shark Tank investor, and SME crusader Marnus Broodryk, in partnership with Sasfin, to share some thoughts on tips for SMEs who are feeling short on hope and resources in this lockdown period. I offered the following thoughts:

Look after your mental health – entrepreneurship is lonely and tough at the best of times, but it’s lonelier and tougher right now. Use the opportunity to work on your business with the simple “Start, Stop, Continue” framework. Ask yourself the question, what is the most interesting way to solve the problem I solve for my customers? Know the difference between the business you’re in, and the business you think you’re in!

https://youtu.be/Is62b2Ir4oE
I’ve embedded that video for you in case you’re interested in those, and other practical tips from entrepreneurs in the same position you are:

This is perhaps not 100% pertinent to the situation right now and takes a far more macro view of leadership and impact, but it might be interesting to you if you need some insight in that regard.

Bonus content

Early in 2019, I presented to promotional goods wholesaler Amrod‘s 2000+ clients at the Sandton Convention Centre on the topic of digital and social marketing for small businesses. This presentation was tailored to their audience but may have some useful nuggets in it for those of you looking for ways to differentiate your small business through social and digital marketing.

I sincerely hope some of this helps.

Stay happy and healthy, friends.

Reflections on the 2017 BCX Disrupt Summit

Mike Stopforth — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 11:55:34 +0000

Social instability will get us long before AI does.”

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone use the words innovation or disruption in a boardroom or conference venue in the last ten years, I’d have 0.892 bitcoin. Sadly, there is an inverse correlation between the number of people who talk about innovation and disruption, and the number of people who actually innovate and disrupt.

They are also words that are conspicuously absent from the set of adjectives I’d use to describe South Africa’s corporate giants. In those organisations they appear to be, at best, words used by consultants, experts, and “gurus” in an attempt to leverage fear and paranoia to bill hours at a premium.

I can only imagine, then, how intimidating the task of hosting a disruption-themed conference must be when you are a business the size and scope of BCX. It’s one thing putting together an interesting line-up of speakers and a swanky venue. It’s another, completely grafting your brand to the promise of disruption. It’s more than a tagline. It’s more than a PR stunt. It’s a statement of intent.

So how do you make such a conference relevant and memorable in a world where the political, social, and technological landscape changes on a daily, if not hourly, basis? This was the question on my mind while I took my (rather plush) seat, front-and-centre, just before the start of the 2017 #BCXDisrupt Summit. I had no doubt the big names on the bill (none other than Malcolm Gladwell and will.i.am) would deliver, but I was curious as to whether the “supporting acts” could deliver on BCX’s promise that “you’ll never think the same again.”

Man, was I pleasantly surprised.

While I’m sure everyone in the auditorium took something different from the experience, mine was a stark reminder that technology is just a tiny part of the conversation around innovation and disruption. Reinventing capitalism is innovative. Redefining profit is disruptive. Solving problems that make a million people smarter as opposed to ten people richer is innovative.

Sipho Maseko, CEO of BCX parent company Telkom, who 702 recently dubbed the saviour of Telkom, set the scene with a talk that revolved around the continental contrast – Africa’s rife economic and social inequality – and how technology should be a catalyst for equalising society. It was his address that laid the foundation for the theme of lateral thinking around disruption and innovation; a theme embodied in his ‘things do not have to be the way they are’ mantra. More importantly, I believed he meant it.

Senegalese businesswoman, blogger, technologist, and social entrepreneur Mariéme Jamme then took the stage. She shook the room with the story behind her African-led global movement called IAMTHECODE, which has at its heart the mission of building a generation of 1 million women and girl coders by 2030. Jane McGonigal, University of Berkley Ph.D., NY Times bestselling author and world-renowned game designer, gave us a scientific introduction to the case for video games as a platform for uniting and transforming society with this bombshell: The opposite of play isn’t work – it’s depression. Jane is a remarkable communicator – you can watch her speaking at TED here.

Global Senior Director of Social Media and Video at LEGO (how’s that for a job title), Lars Silberbauer, talked us through LEGO’s remarkable social media success. He highlighted some of the mechanics he and his team use to achieve LEGO’s status as the world’s most engaged brand on social platforms. He dropped a few gems, including one that I’ll definitely be stealing and using at Cerebra: Don’t create a campaign, create a stage.

My good friend Richard Mulholland then took the stage, and in true Rich fashion, blew us all away by carpet-bombing us with truth missiles. I have seen Richard speak hundreds of times, but this was, without a doubt, one of his finest moments. Richard challenged our assumptions about futurism, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”, and the notion of there being nothing artificial about Artificial Intelligence. I realised mid-way through his talk that I hadn’t taken enough notes, but only because I was so mesmerised by the content and delivery. If you want to see more of Rich, sign up for his newsletter or check out his channel on YouTube. It’s gold.

My personal highlight for the day was Rapelang Rabana. Rapelang and I have crossed paths before during her journey with Yeigo, and I was thrilled to see her dominate the stage at #BCXDisrupt. Her ability to combine the complex worlds of business, politics, and society with unmatched levels of clarity and poignancy is seldom seen or heard in corporate South Africa. Some of her pearls:

We only win when everyone we touch along the way wins with us.

The world needs to see profit differently.

Sustainable profit and impact is a byproduct of the right combination of innovation, shared value, and great execution.

The world doesn’t mind you winning as long as you’re not the only one who does.

Rapelang tied a neat bow on Sipho’s original message that we can build businesses that make money and do good, and that these concepts are not mutually exclusive. She also dominated the panel discussion (despite being flanked by none other than Malcolm Gladwell and will.i.am). She dropped a soundbite that reminded us all of our context, and the priorities we should hold closest to our hearts, when she said that social instability will get us long before AI does.

I did not envy Ian Russell, the dynamic CEO of BCX, who was expected to close off the afternoon following a lengthy panel discussion – a bit of a hospital pass! But Ian did an exceptional job of putting BCX’s promises into practice, mentioning a range of initiatives and commitments the business is making to transform business and society through sustainable and meaningful technology solutions. BCX also pulled a classic Kansas City Shuffle when Ian announced that Rapelang would be joining the team as Chief Digital Officer – a massive coup for the organisation. I am genuinely excited to see what Ian and Rapelang, as spearheads of the organisation, could mean for the role of BCX in the market in the future.

All in all, BCX Disrupt was a valuable and insightful experience. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have attended the event, and look forward to future iterations.

The Best Business Advice You’ll Ever Get

Mike Stopforth — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 13:49:25 +0000

I posed the question of what’s the single best piece of business advice you’d ever received to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn recently. There were some great answers, so I’ve collated and listed them here. Sorry if I didn’t manage to capture them all. If you have a gem that’s not here, please add it to the comments. Enjoy!

Also, if you want to check out the responses on Twitter, just click through to the embedded tweet below:

“Don’t charge less than your time is worth.” – Sheena Kretzmer

“When someone shows themself to you, believe them the first time!” – Helen Nicholson

“Everyone’s replaceable.” – Cindy Visser

“Pick the one thing in the world that you can be the best at. Focus on doing that.” – Warren Moss

“Surround yourself with people smarter than you.” – Lebo Sekere

“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” – Candice Burin

“Business is a contact sport. Translation: it’s about relationships.” – Rosella Dingle

“Integrity is everything.” – Annie Brookstone

“Start as you intend to finish” – Juliet Hazell

“Don’t die.” – Aaron Marshall

“It’s worth what someone will pay for it.” – Jo Eyre

“Decide what you’re not going to do.” – Templar Wales

“Don’t just lead people; take them on the journey with you.” – Amanda Sevasti Alves

“Get everything in writing.” – Sue Rutherford

“Foster the relationship first.” – Lisa Cohn

“Just start.” – Leisl Algeo

“The reason you don’t like it is because you’re not the target market.” – MJ Khan

“Focus on what you are doing, not what your competitors are doing.” – Justin Sampson

“Choose the right partner!” – Gina Pocock

“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you succeed.” – Amy Johnstone

“Don’t make assumptions, be obsessively curious! – Brad Shorkend

“Start with what you have.” – Lauren Winchester

“Everything sells eventually.” – Stuart Goodwin

“Never burn your bridges.” – Margaret Allison, Karen Heydenrych

“Know what business to say ‘No’ to.” – Prudence Spratt

“Business would be much easier if it wasn’t for staff and customers.” – Pierre Cassuto

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Heidi Custers

“Measure twice, cut once.” – Thomas Otter

“Be careful of the heads you stand on, on the way up because they’re attached to the ass you’ll be kissing on the way down.” – Goodwill Moyo, Tyrone Selmon, Lee-Ann Shepherd

“Customers buy from people, not companies.” – Jonathan Miller

“Trust your gut.” – Tami White

“Write a contract assuming you will end in acrimony … then put it in a drawer and hope you never have to use. Contracts are for the breakdown of a relationship, not the managing of one.” – Raymond de Villiers

“Do what you love. We all choose to work and where we work, so you might as well enjoy it.” -Heike Meyburgh

“Know what you don’t know.” Nick French

“Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it.” – Nick French

“Don’t have an open-door policy with closed ears.” – Candice Holgate

“Each word matters, pay attention to them in everything you do, from emails and public talks to conversations.” – Erik Hersman

“Simplify to amplify.” – Charlene Meltz

“Everything is a sale.” – Ulrico Grech-Cumbo

“Only we can make we.” – Motheo Moleko

“Your competitor’s margin is an opportunity.” – Steve De La Cour

“If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you’re not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later.” – Lauren Hamilton

“Remember to have a sense of humour about these things.” – Fred Roed (via Louis Janse van Rensburg)

“If you are the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” – Conway Buckle, Rob Fenner

“Never come to a meeting with just problems. Always have at least two of your own solutions to spark a positive conversation/outcome.” – Cliff Drysdale

“Your people are your business. Look after them.” – Cherise Rogers

“Do you really want to work with these people?” – Grant Fleming

“Stop talking.” – Fred Baumhardt

“When you listen, don’t formulate a response. Formulate the response when the person is silent.” – Jonathan Hoch

“If you can’t be early at least be on time, but never be late, because you know what they say about the early bird.” – Gerhard de Wet

“Find out how your client’s boss is measuring your client, then work with your client to meet it.” – Giuliana Schoeman

“Always be curious.” – Allen Shardelow

“Great leaders serve their team – it is not the other way round.” – Mark Dodds

“Remove barriers for your team to allow for their own success. You will build unwavering trust and credibility as a result.” – Allan Hoffmann

“Breathe.” – Marcia Garcia Eugenio

“Hire for aptitude and get out of the way.” – Ross Saunders

“Be yourself.” – Derek Abdinor

“The deal is not done till the money is in the bank!” – Allen McClinton

“Receiving advice is more important than giving advice. Always.” – John Noakes

“Don’t take things too personally.” – Herman Degener

“Perfect is the enemy of done.” – Dasia Lutova

“It’s not a great business if you give it away.” – Jonathan Beare (via Stephan Pretorius)

“You can’t get better if you don’t get going.” – Justin Sanan

“Hire for attitude first.” – Jessica Matthysen

“Everything takes twice as long and costs three times as much.” – Chris Wishlade

“Listen carefully and ask your client what is their biggest challenge?” Alan Morrissey

“Working SMART is knowing when to work HARD.” – Xolani Mdoda

“When you have to choose between malice and ignorance, always choose ignorance. People are too busy doing their jobs to mess up yours; always assume the best intentions.” – Maggie Fox

“You can never learn from what you don’t do, so do it and learn!” – Thato Nhlapo

3 Steps To Combatting Idea Inertia

Mike Stopforth — Tue, 17 May 2016 13:53:41 +0000

Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything.

Many would argue the inherent value of ideas. Personally, I believe ideas in and of themselves are worthless. An average idea with even the tiniest first step taken is immeasurably more valuable than a phenomenal idea coupled with zero action.

Derek Sivers, entrepreneur and all-round smart human, has expressed this more succinctly than I ever could. He sees ideas as a multiplier of execution:

One of the privileges of my position at Cerebra, and my profession as an entrepreneur, is that I connect with hundreds of ambitious people of all ages and walks of life looking for advice on how to develop their ideas into commercially viable businesses.

These people fall broadly into three categories; those who want to but can’t (due to a lack of resources), those who want to and are (to a greater or lesser degree), and those who can but don’t (due to idea inertia).

I’m not the first person to coin the phrase – startup CEO Alex Baldwin talks about his notion of idea inertia here. For me, idea inertia is having the means to convert ideas to execution, but lacking the initiative or inclination to do so.

I find this incredibly frustrating to witness. Good people with extensive means, networks, intellect, and competency who consistently fail to launch.

I posted Snaps (Snapchat: mikestopforth) on the topic a few days ago and got a response from a friend saying that one of the biggest drivers of idea inertia, in her opinion, is fear. I agree, but I believe that fear is a symptom, not a cause. The causes of idea inertia are deeper psychological speed bumps that require deliberate introspection and action to overcome. I have identified three steps to doing so:

Step 1: Don’t be comparin’

So many great ideas get stuck at the gate because you are comparing apples with oranges.

“I have this great idea for a game app, and I want it to be as big as Angry Birds.” We compare our ideas with one-in-a-zillion successes, and doing so makes it impossible to ignore failure from the outset. While you obsess over making it perfect, your idea moves into a state of rigour mortis because you’re stuck in analysis paralysis.

Be humble enough to know how average/good/great your idea is, and honest with yourself about what success looks like. Making the wrong comparison dooms it to failure from day one. (Note: the very best ideas have no comparison. They’re still worthless though.)

Step 2: Ditch the chip on your shoulder

“I could make it work, but the whole industry is on a downward curve / the rand is diving / those other folks will steal my idea / there’s no hope for this country …” I hear a lot of this. Good people with great ideas who will find any excuse to blame some external force for why they can’t start.

While many of these excuses have some legitimacy, they pop up after this person has already approached me to pitch the idea. If the excuse is big enough to derail the idea, ditch the idea. If it isn’t enough to derail the idea, figure out why you’re hung up and ditch the chip on your shoulder.

Step 3: Credit check

Harry S. Truman is recorded as saying:

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Less common but no less damaging to the progress of good ideas is a concern about who will get the credit if, and when, the idea comes to life. I understand this concern – we believe our ideas are our DNA – and in many cases, our egos are strongly tied to their potential success or failure. But a failure to launch because you may have to share or even defer credit at some stage is nonsensical.

If you believe you have a great idea, and you have the resources (which includes a network that has resources) to bring it to life, take that first step. Getting from A to B is far easier than even trying to explain Z, and will get potential supporters on board in no time. Being able to map out your idea and constitute point B is a challenge in its own right, but well worth the exercise. Do something.

And if that isn’t enough to get you motivated remember this: the chance of you having a truly unique idea in this day and age is so insanely remote, that you can safely assume that at least a hundred people scattered around the globe have the same or similar idea as you at around the same time.

Zuck was not the only person thinking about a global social network. Page and Brin were not the only people trying to solve search. Elon is not the only guy thinking about space travel and clean energy transport.

While luck often plays a role in the outcome, the person that executes fastest – and best – almost always wins.