David Hall Consultancy

Get back to basics....for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:20:00 +0000

In these difficult economic times it is important for businesses to stay grounded, focused and on the front foot.

As my Christmas present to you I will share two processes that I have introduced into my main clients that have added real value:

1. Alignment
Make sure the key strategic issues are translated into priority actions for your senior people. Then ensure your people focus their time and energy on them. Ask them "take out your diary, what have you been doing this week". A target of 50% of time as a minimum is a good standard. Most businesses find that it is less than 10% when they start off. Chances of success?

2. Attunement
Make sure your key people model and champion the core values of your business. For example, if it's 'delighting customers' or 'treating people with respect' check whether they are doing it. 'Inspect, don't expect' is a good tip in these hard times.

If you get alignment and attunement sorted you are doing well and almost certainly better than your competitors.

Merry Christmas and stay focused.

The easiest way to make money is to stop losing it......

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:17:00 +0000

One of the major challenges facing a number of my clients and most businesses right now is responding to the economic situation in the appropriate manner.

After several years of growth and largess, sales are diving but many businesses have been caught like rabbits in car headlights. How to respond? What to do? One thing is clear, they need to continue with a positive cash flow and preferably profits are paramount. If sales can't go up then costs must come down and in many cases drastically. To enable businesses to make the right decisions they need accurate costings allocated to products or service streams.

Where are we making or losing money? What is a must and what is a luxury we can no longer afford? Some managers are good at growth, others excel when the going gets tough. The problem is that they are usually not the same people.....

So get the facts, identify your winners and cut out losers. Do it now before it's too late! If you're waiting for government policies, better economic conditions or a lottery win you are deluded.

JFDI!

How to improve your business by being consultants to yourselves

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:50:00 +0000

Here is a tried and tested way to improve your business which I use regularly with clients:

1. Select a small team of 3/4 people who are really up for it. Not the 'experienced' nay sayers but younger recent recruits with an open mind, wanting to make a name for themselves.

2. Create an innovation culture. Ensure you join the group as the CEO or MD but not as the boss, as a facilitator. Tell the team you are going to work on the business together and make some significant improvements.

3. Brainstorm for improvements. Where are the opportunities to significantly boost sales, profits, services or efficiency?
Tip: Follow the money.

4. Identify 3/4 areas to focus on which hold potential for significant gains.

5. Get team members to analyse the areas by getting the facts, trends, stats, KPI's etc. What is really happening here?
Tip: No fear or favour, get the facts not opinions.

6. Identify opportunities for improvement. Where are the quick wins? Where will we get the biggest improvement on the business with the least effort?

7. Try fixing problems, installing new rules or solutions.

8. Celebrate success and learn the lessons! Remember to say thank you!

Not rocket science, but if done well can produce results beyond expectations!

Helping people to find and release the passion and drive to really succeed

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:22:00 +0000

In successful people one common factor is personal passion and drive but where does it come from? How can we help people to unleash it themselves? Our research with successful entrepreneurs provides some clues:

- Moving away from failure at school. Many entrepreneurs want to prove themselves to themselves and others having left school with no qualifications.

- Discovering strengths through processes like proper career guidance. What skills have I got that I was unaware of but can exploit?

- Seeing the future and not liking it. My father told me he hated work when he retired and I was determined that would not be me.

- Finding a mentor or friend who really believes in you and gives you the confidence to become the best you can be.

- Finding a passion for a cause or something you want to put right which you pursue relentlessly.

- Breaking the effect of a peer group with low expectations. All my friends at school were going to work on a building site and I was until I discovered on an Outward Bound programme there were people with much bigger aspirations and I could be one of them!

So there it is, the challenge for parents and educators. How can you help people become the best they can be and to live their lives to the full?

How to stay in touch with what's happening in the business world

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:17:00 +0000

If you want to stay ahead of the game in the business world then you need to read 3 things:

1. Financial Times (daily)
Read from cover to cover. If you don't understand the numbers I suggest you read 'How to read the Financial Pages' by Michael Brett.

2. The Economist (monthly)
Keeps you in touch with what is really happening in the world from a neutral not British bias perspective.

3. Harvard Business Review (monthly)
All the latest thinking in best business practice and new innovation in business and management.

Does it help reading these publications? My friend Gerard Egan reads them and predicted the 2007 financial crash and moved his money into a safe haven as a result! Not even the bankers could do that!

So yes it works!

Entrepreneurial Advice from Ajaz Ahmed

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:06:00 +0000

Ajaz Ahmed, founder of Freeserve, gave a magnificent presentation about his experiences of being a successful entrepreneur at Hull University recently. Here are some of his insights for entrepreneurs:

- A quote from Ted Turner 'Do the obvious before the obvious becomes obvious' inspired him to persist with Freeserve when the going got tough.

- Keep control, don't just be an investor.

- Systems give you control of quality and consistency.

- A Hovis advert which shows a retiring man with a clock motivated him to do his own thing and not wait to get a clock in a corporate business.

- Think like a retailer - all industries can be made much more efficient and that's a major opportunity.

- Be your own PR manager. Send e-mails which contain some controversy direct to editors - it just works!

Thanks Ajaz!

Goal Directed Energy

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 06:32:00 +0000

One of the many myths about being an entrepreneur is all you need is passion, energy and obsessive commitment and you will succeed........ but this is only half of the equation.

Successful entrepreneurs direct their passion, energy and commitment like a laser beam focused on moving towards their vision. The vision is always the entrepreneurial process:

1. Find a customer problem
2. Create a solution
3. Sell it to the world

Passion and energy unfocused is like a man without reason..... a busy fool. So here is the entrepreneurial recipe for success:

1. Find a customer problem, create a solution and sell it to the world.
2. Create a vision for what this looks like as a successful business.
3. Focus all you energies and resources onto delivering your vision.
4. Stay goal directed, don't get detracted by energy vampires.

That's it. Job done!

Management as a profession?

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:55:00 +0000

Recent research suggests that 95% of problems in organisations can be attributed to poor management. So what can be done about it?

An article in the 1st September Financial Times argued that a potential solution was for management to operate more like other professions, such as the medical world. Typically, doctors make fact founded decisions based on the latest evidence which often includes probabilities of success or failure. Contrast this with management which normally makes decisions on gut felt "experience" at least perceived risk.

What would managers do if it were there own money they were spending? As a client of mine told his team who wanted to invest in a very risky option "if you want to play in the casino, make sure you use your own chips not mine".

A start point for managers making better decisions might be to ask "what would I do if it were my money"?

Doctors share good practice and research which builds up the overall level practice. Managers usually keep good practice to themselves as they see it as potential competitive advantage.

So management is far from being a true profession in the traditional sense but if 95%of problems are caused by managers, we surely need to do something about it?

Innovations in Efficiency

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:12:00 +0000

One of the major challenges facing a number of my clients and apparently many UK businesses is driving efficiency in order to maintain margins.

Actually, businesses seem to have 3 strategic priorities right now:

1. Winning work
2. Efficiency
3. Maintaining the culture, spirit and disciplines

In this blog I want to focus on innovations in efficiency. Most businesses have taken the lower hanging fruit by reducing overheads and external costs via their supply chains. The challenge for many now is to review their own internal processes and practices to cut costs by becoming more efficient.

Some of the innovations I have been working on with a number of clients that have produced some significant gains have been:

E-Procurement
Electronic procurement reduces the cost of purchases on average between 20-30% above normal traditional buying methods.

System Slippage
Getting teams to review existing systems in high value areas to validate systems and reinstall where they have slipped. This has produced multi-million pound savings in a number of companies.

Value Gap Analysis
Finding out what customers really value in your offer and reduce costs in areas not valued. This process not only reduces costs it also enhances win rates when bidding for new work.

Zero Based Budgeting
By focusing on the essential costs bottom up i.e. what must we do? This reduces overhead costs significantly.

So the insight for me has been it is possible to be entrepreneurial and innovative even in difficult times when reducing costs.

Happy to forward toolkits on any of these process and share my experiences of applying them in practice.

It's good to talk.

Lessons from the News Of The World Saga.......

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:48:00 +0000

The recent revelations about the behaviour of News International, The Met police et al reminded me of importance of creating and managing a corporate culture.

Culture is the way we do thing here. It is enshrined in the values, hopefully established by the top team, which then 'ensures' people behave in the way the organisation prefers.

Values are often thought to be the 'soft' part of business strategy, woolly and not important. So many organisations prefer to focus on profit, sales, EBITDA, cash etc. Actually, values are hard in two ways, hard to think through and hard to embed, but if you get them right; they create the profits the business desires. This is culture as an asset.

Typical business values are:

- Treat people with dignity and respect
- Honesty and integrity in all our dealings
- Delight our customers etc.

So what we see in the current debacle is a culture by default, one that was clearly either not designed or managed effectively.

Culture that does not serve the business is a liability which can drain the balance sheet and even kill a business.

So what are your business values and are they an asset or a liability?

Business Alignment and Attunement

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:52:00 +0000

Increasingly in my consulting work with clients I have become to realise that my approach is helping them to get alignment and attunement in their business.

Alignment is the golden thread of the link between customer problems, my client's solutions and then internally the strategy, plan, individual objectives and time spent on the priorities. When things are in line and connected the business usually succeeds.

Key alignment tests are:

- What is the strategy?
- How do your objectives link to it?
- How much time do you spend on delivering the objectives?

Answering these questions is the key to productively, efficiency and effectiveness. This is the head or rational part or what we do.

Attunement is the heart or how we do it.

The key tests are:

- Does the business have a stated culture, values and ethos?
- How far are they shared across the business and are they non-negotiable?
- Can people deduce the values from the way the business behaves?

So a recipe for success is getting alignment and attunement in your business. How does yours measure up?

The Entrepreneurial Potential Report

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:33:00 +0000

It has never really been possible to objectively assess Entrepreneurial Potential in people - until now!

Professor Peter Saville of Saville Consulting and I developed the Entrepreneurial Potential Report to enable individuals and organisations to assess their entrepreneurial talent.

Peter discusses the Entrepreneurial Potential Report in this podcast http://www.savilleconsulting.com/podcast.aspx using our friend Ajaz Ahmed, who started and grew Freeserve, as a case example.

If you would like to assess yourself or your people contact Lynn Bradshaw lynn@davidhalluk.com

The Power of 'Mindset'

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:40:00 +0000

I read a great book on holiday which is one of those that comes along every 10 years and challenges your thinking.

'Mindset' by Carol S Dweck is a game changing book.

Mindsets are the views people have of themselves which they can change.

The fixed mindset is people wanting to prove themselves over and over again. They believe their qualities are carved in stone and cannot change. Everything is somebody else's fault not theirs, therefore they stay the same and unfulfilled.

Growth mindset people believe they can cultivate their basic qualities through application and hard work. They enjoy challenges, relish learning, recover from setbacks and grow as people. Simple but very powerful stuff.

Get the book, have a read and change your life.

Good luck!

The Recipe for Business Success

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:24:00 +0000

Fasten your seat belt - here goes....

1. Develop a 3 year business strategy: mission, vision, values, products, markets.

2. Do a S.W.O.T. analysis on the strategy. What do we need to really focus on to deliver success?

3. Identify 6 (no more) key strategic actions from the S.W.O.T.

4. Allocate actions, timescales and milestones to individuals.

5. Review progress on actions monthly - a non negotiable meeting!

6. Check that champions are focusing enough time and energy on their actions.

7. Keep going!

Build your business by getting the basics right

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:16:00 +0000

I am staggered by the number of businesses I have dealings with who do not understand the basics of doing business. So soap box time, here goes.....

1. Always return calls and e-mails promptly even if the answer is no!

2. Turn up on time for meetings.

3. Treat customers as you would your best friends.

4. Seek to delight customers by doing that bit extra and surprising people.

5. Send personal hand written thank you notes.

6. Keep up your network contacts, don't just call people when you want a favour.

7. Treat all contacts with dignity and respect.

There are lots more things to do to build a business but these are a good start point.

Suggestion..... send this list to the people in your network who drive you crazy!

Practice Mental Rehearsal

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Wed, 11 May 2011 09:05:00 +0000

One of the findings from our Entrecode research programmes into habits of successful entrepreneurs is the power of mental rehearsal.

Mental rehearsal is rehearsing an event or decision before it happens in your mind and asking what ifs..... and thinking them through. What if this happens - what will I do? What if they do that - how will I respond? The process is very powerful in complex interpersonal situations i.e. selling, negotiating, appraising etc.

Some entrepreneurs ask "what would 'X' do in this situation?" 'X' could be Richard Branson or someone else they value.

Mental rehearsal is one of the techniques we call purposeful practice which is how people develop their talents.

Try it.

Lessons from Football

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:05:00 +0000

Recently I listened to Johan Cruyff explain why he believes Barcelona F.C. are a stronger team than Real Madrid. His view is that Barcelona take a broad stakeholder stance seeing themselves a part of the community including sponsoring UNESCO. Whereas Real Madrid, particularly under Jose Mourinho, are only really interested in winning in any way and almost at any cost. Football, Cruyff argues, is not simply about winning, it should have a more noble purpose including being fun, pleasing fans, contributing to the community and be played in a sporting manner.

"The European Cup semi final was watched by billions of people worldwide and footballers and managers have a responsibility to behave in a proper manner and be role models for young people" said Cruyff. "Barcelona is for the people, Real currently is about Mourinho's personal ego".

The lesson for me from listening to Cruyff was that it reminded me that a business has a responsibility to balance its stakeholder interests, customers, employees, and society as well as shareholders - the Barcelona way. Just making money for shareholders and banks is much less noble or inspiring.

Barcelona demonstrates it is not either noble purpose or success - you can have both.

Innovation Insights

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:49:00 +0000

1. 95% of all the innovations in products and services in the last 100 years have come from entrepreneurial firms employing less than 20 people.

Lesson: if you need to innovate employ or act like an entrepreneur!

2. When you put entrepreneurs together in a team and ask them to innovate the results on average are 6 times expectations.

3. Entrepreneurial Innovative Behaviours:

- Break rules
- Trial and error
- "Seek forgiveness not permission"
- JFDI!
- Seek inspiration from outside your industry
- Use customer problems to drive innovation

Innovation - Done!

3 Common Strategic Priorities

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Tue, 03 May 2011 11:56:00 +0000

One of the things about being a consultant is that I get to see patterns in businesses that may be helpful to others. One pattern I have noticed is that most businesses (apart from the basket cases) have very similar strategic priorities.

These are:

- Win work
- Drive efficiency and cost
- Maintain their core culture

So the questions you might ask in your business are:

1. Are these our priorities?
2. If so, who is driving them?
3. How do we assess our progress towards them?

The Benefits of Customer Insight

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:47:00 +0000

Most of my clients reckon they know their customers really well. My experience is that they don't and in difficult times this is an opportunity.

Two tools to gain real customer insight are the customer perception survey and value gap analysis.

Customer perception surveys conducted properly always create new insights which can be translated into new business opportunities. Value gap analysis reviews the things along the customer journey from initial enquiry through to paying the bill that customers value and will pay for.

The insights are:

- are we selling the value customers want?
- Do we deliver the value well?
- Can we cut out things they don't value and reduce our costs?

Both these tools add real value to businesses. Contact us for more information on 01430 425541 or e-mail david@davidhalluk.com

The Business Growth Dilemma......

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:13:00 +0000

I have consulted with a number of companies over the past few years and have noticed a pattern of problems they face in trying to grow. They develop a recipe for success which enables them to grow to a level. Their recipe gets embedded into their culture and they enjoy a period of success.....

Then they want to kick on and go to the next level and try to achieve that by doing more of the same. The dilemma is they have created a way of doing things which usually needs to change but their culture is so fixed it cannot change. What made them successful now holds them back. This can be seen particularly when they are trying to enter new markets or develop new products.

A solution that works is to introduce new processes that enables them to behave differently as a business. These include:

Conducting a customer perception survey in order to identify strengths and weaknesses that can be leveraged or addressed.

Building a new business generating system including networking, intelligence gathering and being entrepreneurial in winning work.

The concept of working on the business as a team in order to challenge and change it.

Finding and empowering their entrepreneur within.

Changing the strategy and culture, particularly values.

The key is that the leaders of the business must act as role models and champion the new desired processes and behaviours.

When businesses take these issues seriously they can grow successfully.

Want to be like the best businesses in the UK?

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:23:00 +0000

I am very proud that my No.1 consulting client over the past 30 years Keepmoat have become one of the most successful businesses in the UK.

Keepmoat track record:

Past 7 years profit 10% (nearest competitor 3%)

Less than 20 businesses out of 3 million in the UK including Keepmoat have improved profits by a minimum 10% every year, 10 years consecutively.

Average profit improvement in the UK over 10 years is 3.4 times. Keepmoat 24 times!

If you want your business to become as good as the best call me for a discussion on how to do it.

David Hall Consultancy Ltd
01430 425541

Customerising Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:38:00 +0000

Back in 1992 I researched how 30 businesses in the North East of England undertook marketing. I discovered that they did not use traditional formal marketing methods as taught by business schools.

Their approach was much more informal and personal based on networking, building customer relationships, growing by solving customer problems and above all doing that bit extra and delighting customers.

This insight was so different from big business marketing I coined a new phrase to describe it; customerising.

I discovered in 2000 that customerising is the way entrepreneurs start and build successful businesses yet customerising is still not part of business school marketing programmes - why?

Maybe that is because really successful small entrepreneurial firms are too busy making money to be concerned with the 4 'P's, the marketing mix and all that marketing jargon.

Perhaps business schools and academics should go and look at what successful entrepreneurs actually do as I did 20 years ago.... they might then be able to teach their students something useful.

How effective CEOs earn their money.......

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:33:00 +0000

The average tenure of a new CEO is now less than 5 years and 40% last less than 2 years......

So how does a CEO add real value to a business?

In my view they have four things to focus upon and do well:

1. Set the strategy of the enterprise

What business are we really in? Where are we going? What do we need to focus upon to create success?

2. Pick the right people capable of delivering the strategy

Easier said than done sometimes.... but CEOs should not compromise on this task. The problem is that really high performers are around 0.1% of people...... where are they?

3. Set and champion the preferred culture

You get culture by design, or by default if you don't manage it.

4. Prioritise and focus on the key strategic actions that will deliver the strategic goals

Usually there are 4/6 key things to do well.

These priorities apply to both private and public sector organisations.....

It's called LEADERSHIP.

Entrepreneurs..... Myths and Realities

noreply@blogger.com (David Hall) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:47:00 +0000

Myth 1 - Entrepreneurs are risk takers

Reality: They do take calculated risks but spend a great deal of time and energy trying to minimise the risks.

Myth 2 - Entrepreneurs are born not made

Reality: They often serve an apprenticeship acquiring skills, contacts and experiences often over 10 years to enable them to start their business. This is purposeful practice.

Myth 3 - Raising money from the bank is the biggest blockage

Reality: 80% of start up capital is from personal savings, 30% from family and friends and only 15% from banks.

Myth 4 - Any good idea can be turned into a successful business

Reality: Entrepreneurs understand the difference between an idea - something they are passionate about - and an opportunity - something which solves a customer problem.

Myth 5 - Starting a business is risky and often ends in failure

Reality: Most businesses that end simply cease trading, they do not fail. Less than 2% actually go bankrupt.

Myth 6 - Entrepreneurs are egotistical, independent and want to be their own masters

Reality: Entrepreneurs are egotistical, independent and want to be their own masters!

There, entrepreneurial myths, sorted!