globalrush

New Year - new blog

2009-01-09T17:28:00.002+00:00

From January 2009 I'm writing posts on another blog and tweeting here. Please come over and join in one or both of these.

In troubled times don't stick to what you know

2008-07-25T14:03:00.004+01:00

I had expected irate designers to be beating a path to my door for publishing this piece in the DBA Insight magazine. It can't be out yet or perhaps they are more sanguine than I give them credit for.

Even without the credit crunch, oil price rises and global economic gloom, business is in the midst of huge upheaval. The internet is forcing change at a relentless pace and it is disrupting just about about every business type, sector and model one can think of, regardless of organisational size, reputation or brand. Any business that is being run the same way today as it was before the spread of broadband either has it’s head in the sand or is heading for a crash. This is as true for the creative industries as it is for our clients.

Challenges and opportunities

The disruption is such that I confidently predict the creative landscape you think of as familiar now will be almost unrecognisable within two years. Some of the biggest names in the business will disappear before then and as yet unheard of upstarts will become the new stars. How will they do this? By being smarter, faster and more agile than their peers.

Small is big

Big business has sometimes levelled criticism at the design sector for being a ‘cottage industry’. With so many agencies having less than 10 staff and operating largely as lifestyle businesses, there may be some justification in this. In the current mixed up media scramble however, small can be a distinct advantage because it allows you to be nimble, highly specialised and to collaborate with complementary agencies. Some small businesses are exerting disproportionate influence on major organisations by exploiting a high value niche and delivering the services that clients really need.

Think again

The internet cannot be thought of as simply another medium that needs to be factored in to the marketing mix. Digital communication is unlike anything else, it creates an entirely different ecology and its influence is so profound that it enables new ways of operating for business and customers alike. Succeeding in this territory is not simply a matter of developing a new skill set for design businesses - it requires a new mind set.

Jump in

New enterprises emerge almost weekly that are not just variations to the existing order but are a fundamental rethink of a business sector or product category. What characterises those that succeed is an ability to see things differently, the will to defy convention and the gumption to take risks. They can do this because they have understood and embraced the new ecology. They know that people’s expectations and relationships to products, services and brands, has changed forever. They also know how to exploit the gaps left open by those that are too big or too slow to adapt.
Sink or swim

Digital communication technology reduces the cost of experimentation. The barriers to entry for any product, service or system delivered online is therefore also reduced. As this realisation permeates further and further into the business world it will accelerate the pace at which ‘business as usual’ becomes a thing of the past.

What is brand experience?

The implication for the UK’s creative industries are significant. Clients are already demanding solutions that challenge the norm. Understanding that something big is happening, clients are moving marketing communication budgets away from traditional media in favour of online. Advertising budgets are heading that way too at the expense of big ticket media such as TV and press. And what will happen to the practice of branding when value is controlled entirely by customer experience?

Get it

If the UK design industry is to really help clients in uncertain times, adapting to this shifting landscape is a must. UK design agencies need to know how changing client and consumer habits affect their specialism and ability to add value. This is true whatever sub-category of the sector you’re in, from packaging to POS and from Flash game development to intranet design.

Get on

Great designers are problem solvers that create elegant solutions to the toughest challenges. To ensure you can thrive through the bumpy times ahead and come out stronger for it, the challenge is to see things differently, defy convention and take risks.

O2, oh no

2008-07-10T14:34:00.002+01:00

The o2 handling of iPhone continues this week with the botched launch of the th iPhone 3G. I, like tens of thousands of other iPhone users received a text early on Monaday about the imminent availability of the the 3G model. So I'm excited, it's a bargain, it's a faster and some of those annoying imperfections will now be ironed out. Excellent news. Then I read on

'You cannot upgrade from your iPhone, so you'll need to go onto your Mac or PC and log on to....'

This is supremely irritating for 3 key reasons.

1. I am forced to go to the O2 website where the user experience is so awful I try to avoid it.

2. I am reminded that O2 have done absolutely nothing to enable iPhone users.

3. Apple could/should have put in place safeguards against this disregard for user experience before awarding the contract to O2.

Why can't it be another way? Here's a free user experience solution for O2.

1. Create a version of youir webiste that WORKS ON THE DEVICE. It's easy, quick and will stop people like me complaining about you.

2. Allow iPhone users to conduct all transactions with you, including upgrades ON THE DEVICE!

3. Don't force customners to use your website until you have built one that actually MEETS THEIR NEEDS.

4. Here's the toppest tip of all. Ask people OUTSIDE YOUR BUSINESS to help develop your products, services and communications.

Apologies for the uncharacteristic use of CAPITALS.

Mind the gap

2008-05-20T15:13:00.005+01:00

Too many businesses are letting people down. The gap between how they want to appear and what they actually deliver is growing. Yes there are exceptions - Apple, Toyota, Waitrose and a host of web businesses - but so many huge organisations are being left behind because they fail to notice that customers have wised up and are already looking elsewhere.

We are all pretty smart consumers these days. We will not be fobbed off by big brand promises that fail to follow through, poor customer service or processes and procedures that favour machines rather than humans. And when we (in my day job on the communications business) think about this in relation to our own work, it seems clear that a new relationship between business and brand advisors is becoming imperative.

The future work of brand consultancy and client is about getting close to what customers want, and ensuring the business or brand owner adapts to deliver just that. It's an exciting space where the rule book needs to be ditched in favour of common sense built around the human needs of customers and staff. If they get it right there will be no gap between promise and delivery, no customers left feeling they were hoodwinked by canny advertising or staff feeling disengaged and restless.

Brand consultancies are ill equipped to deal with this. In an unholy (if sometimes unwitting) alliance with ad agencies, they depend on artifice and hyperbole for their existence. Both of these 'disciplines' focus too much on the show instead of tackling the thornier, structural issues of their clients' business.

The brand consultancies of the future will be business designers, content strategists and meaningful work advisors backed by rock solid ethics and a balanced view of the world.

I'm so proud that my business has never advised banks, mortgage companies, hedge funds, political parties or estate agents.

Off the rails

2008-05-01T12:40:00.006+01:00

My teenage son again. He travels to school by train and was caught (twice) by Revenue Protection Officers without his season ticket. On the first occasion he'd left it somewhere in his teenage boy life. On the second, which happened to be the last day of term (brilliant strategic planning by the swat team don't you think) he was without it because it was stolen the night before, along with his phone and wallet. As a penalty for this I have just paid the two fines totalling £43 despite having a valid season ticket, which was paid for in advance, covering the days he failed to present it.

Is it just me or this staggering contempt for the customer? What other business would treat a loyal and fully subscribed customer in this way? Will penalising my son (or me) make him less forgetful or less of a target for thugs? Can First Capital Connect not discern the difference between a fare dodger and a season ticket holder?

The customer experience of the average rail user is pretty miserable at the best of times. This is because the customer experience is so low down the list of priorities of the people in charge of the business. Train companies are, without exception, among the most impervious to modern business methods and incapable of adapting to the times. They are opaque, difficult to contact, hard to understand, over priced, deliver a poor quality product and deliberately keep a distance from customers.

At the station where my son leaves the train to go to school they have just installed automatic ticket barriers. This helps First Capital Connect by capturing useful data on passengers and reduces fare dodging. But how does it improve the customer experience? By creating a 100 metre queue of passengers trying to get through the newly installed machines. Brilliant!

Fewer rules

2008-04-24T11:19:00.002+01:00

OK, so I've been too busy thinking about stuff to write but there will be much more here from now on.

On holiday with my family for the last three weeks the unencumbered time together opened new conversations. My 14 yr old son was interested to know what I would do if I were Mayor of London. Undo some of the endless and needless rules we are forced to live with was my reply. We talked about what these might be and he seemed less than convinced.

Then, out of nowhere, a road gang appeared on the road to the house we hired. Without any fuss at all they dug up all the pot holes, coordinated big diggers and tarmac laying plant. Road users simply slowed down and went round them. The whole thing was done in two days. And my 14 yr old commented on how different it would be back in the UK if any road works needed to be carried out. And then he got it.

e-tendering shame

2008-01-28T15:16:00.001+00:00

In the frenetic passage between 07 and 08 I forgot to close this sorry tale. I did get a visit from the Office for Government Commerce . A very nice lady made the day trip to London and tried to use the online system here in my office, in my seat. And guess what? She was lost after two seconds. Two seconds!! I kid you not. She was confused, flustered, lost for words and a little shame faced. She could neither navigate forwards or backwards and the more she tried to find her way round the more painful the whole thing became.

I thought I had scored a victory for those of us interested in usability. How wrong I was. After a number of weeks of so called investigation, I received a follow up so weak, so lacking in responsibility or understanding of the issues I had to give up the fight lest I develop a hernia. And most of it cut and pasted from the contractor's defence of their own system.

So if you have the misfortune to ever have to use the e-tendering system from bravo solution, or hold out any hope that the UK government will ever invest in user experience, then God you help you.

Web 3.0, enterprise 2.0, head swimming 1.0

2008-01-14T15:31:00.000+00:00

With almost 2 year old twins among my 4 kids my home life is like running a second business. Justifiably, to my mind, I am resolutely tuned out when I'm not at work. So returning on Jan 2 was a bit of a shock to the system. I had forgotten how busy we were. Preparing for the first off plan sales at springside and developing the online PR plan to re-launch sanoodi (when it goes beta in Feb) were distant concepts in the fun/food/wine- fuelled haze of christmas at O'Halloran Towers.

Having flown by the seat of my pants into the end of 2007 I had also not really stopped to take stock of where we were, nor considered what would be occupying our thoughts in 2008. Since being back I've been reading great posts on Enterprise 2.0, widgets and Web 3.0. It's only Jan 14 and already my head is spinning with all that potential. Get in a spin too - check out:
Trampoline
RWW
e-gineer

And then lie down

Wit's end on London Underground

2007-11-28T15:25:00.000+00:00

There is a very large transport network operator in London that is increasingly out of step with the people it ferries around. The Londoners I know - and I include all the blow ins from around the globe in this group - are savvy, independent, resourceful and grown up. It takes, after all, a fair degree of grit and tenacity to stick it in the smoke.

On the whole, people in London negotiate and survive a thousand different challenges every day. It's a miracle of cooperation and tolerance. The resilience needed is couple with fair peppering of humour too. Tolerance? Cooperation,? Humour? Is this really the London experience we know and love? Well actually yes.

Which makes it all the more dispiriting to learn that the voice over artist responsible for underground announcements has had her contract terminated for allegedly having a giggle at TfL's expense. So offended were average Londoners that her own site fell over under the sheer weight of traffic, rushing online to listen to her very funny skits delivered in the style of a tube announcement.

They maintain the decision to end her contract was not the spoof announcements but still went on to say "Emma is a bit silly to go round slagging off her client's services."

Witless, politically correct, intolerant and uncooprative. Values you should expect from the world's most famous metro system. 2012 here we come.

Update on e-tendering

2007-10-09T12:31:00.000+01:00

The good people at the Office for Government Commerce have become responded to my concerns about the e-tendering nightmare. They are coming to talk to me about it. I plan to ask the visitor to use the system, unaided, to see whether it is a. useful and b. usable. My hunch is that it breaks every usability guideline ever thought of. More after the visit.

Pay it forward

2007-10-09T11:39:00.000+01:00

I have a thing about value. So many things seem to have a price tag that is disproportionate to the value we derive from it. Why does the cleaner charge more than the experienced Mum that looks after our twins? How come the baby sitter costs more than the night out? Why does GNER charge more to travel on a near empty train just as it's about to leave the station?

We have an intuitive sense of value that makes us feel that warm fuzzy feeling or pinch of anxiety when presented with bill. At least I do. Sculptors talk of us having an innate sense and understanding of scale - a human ability that enables us to perceive an object as pleasing or unsettling because its scale either chimes with our senses or doesn't. Nothing to do with aesthetics - it's more visceral than that. Value works in the same way.

Because of this, I believe there is hugely untapped potential for paying what you think something is worth to enter the mainstream. Yes there are elements of this on ebay and museum entry fees, but what about those rail tickets, holiday lets and, dare I say, consultancy fees?

With this very much in mind, I was delighted with the news that Radiohead are releasing their new album online tomorrow, and buyers can pay whatever they want. I've just paid a fiver. The idea is brilliant, simple, user focused and totally up to the minute, even if the website isn't. Must get my cleaner to check it out.

BBC & 2012 e-tendering nightmares

2007-07-31T17:18:00.000+01:00

My in box this morning included a notice that London 2012 is about to post a contract for a range of communication services. Good news, let's have a look. Following the links I eventually arrived at a page containing some basic info. It looked awful - it was unresponsive, it immediately wound me up, and it didn't deliver anything intuitive or useful. My heart sank - this could only mean one thing. London 2012 have outsourced e-tendering to Bravosolution, possibly the worst bit of web technology in existence.
Has anyone seen, or even worse, had the misfortune to have to try use this piece of @%$* that seems to have been built by nerds who never see daylight in about 1985? I cannot begin to describe what a usability crime it is. And what's more, they have spectacularly managed to bamboozle inept and ill informed procurement people into buying into huge public contracts. Their list of clients is certainly impressive which means that the misery of competing for public sector contracts is now compounded and hugely wide spread.
Apart from the usability crime aspect, I am certain that this system actually works against the very principle for which it is deployed. As , rather than make the process smoother, it makes it much much more cumbersome. So much so that I'm convinced many able, talented business that are capable of adding real value to public services will decline to participate, defeated at the first hurdle by this gross mess.
On top of this, if it could get any worse, is the fact that it completely undermines any commitment to accessibility that any of its customers may have. It does not use standards, favours PCs, of course, and will not work on many browsers. The fact that the BBC, TfL, and now, London 2012 have bought into this in order to find business partners to deliver major public services is, for me, professional negligence.

Death or glory

2007-07-05T14:54:00.000+01:00

I am not a fan of the use of getting 'it' (or not as the case may be). I find it too simplistic and exclusive. It's like you're in the club or you're out. Trouble is, I have yet to come across a better way to describe those that understand the new web, web 2.0, social web or whatever you want to call it. So I use it, I'm in the club, I get it - hell I might even start putting stickers on my Mac Book to prove just how much I get it. Get it?

Someone help me with this though. How can you tell whether someone really does get it without insulting them? I ask because almost every week I find myself answering enquiries from organisations that are about to invest in a new website. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity I agree to meet and we discuss what they have in mind. Quite soon, in at least 50% of cases, it's clear that they don't get and that the journey to understanding is still a long one in front of them.

The dilemma of course is whether to take the assignment and deliver what they want, or walk away leaving good advice that they wise up and catch up before blowing the budget on an inferior solution that will clearly need to be replaced within 18 months?

If we are to accelerate the pace at which the internet becomes the usable, accessible, social & business medium that we want, then clearly we should only produce the work that fits this vision. But walking away from big client with decent budget is not easy, even if the only way out is via the moral high ground. Tough one.

Inside or out?

2007-06-21T15:53:00.000+01:00

A friend and respected thinker in the field, informed me over lunch recently that a client is struggling with social media. His client, a subscription based membership organisation with it's own network of several thousand paying customers, is scratching it's head about a Facebook group made up of it's staff, members, partners, suppliers, students, would be members and competitors.

This group, that sits outside the firewall and therefor any form of control is, by nature, self regulating, informal, human and, above all, FAST.

How long will it be before the people in this new network, that are also members of the client, ask ' why am I paying the subscription to company x when I can get everything I need in here?'

This is another wake up call for the outmoded. Better get their heads together and re-invent.

Two syllables or you're out

2007-06-15T09:31:00.001+01:00

Attending the NMK social media conference on Wednesday I renewed my resolve to post more regularly. Little did I know that back in my day job, trouble was brewing, but that's another story. So I'm late. Again.
The NMK newsletter is always a welcome sight in my in box. However, the conference was a little lacklustre if I'm honest. Technical glitches and a few truly awful presenters diminished what could have been inspiring. Dan Gilmore stole the show with a low key presentation full of wit and wisdom and Jason Calacanis railed against just about everyone and, while he came across as a pain the ass, is trying something interesting with Mahalo.com. .
A number of start ups had two minutes to wow the audience. Most didn't. But what became clear is that, to get your thing off the ground in the social media space you have to have a name with two syllables or you're not in the running. Check out:

Truth in Advertising

2007-04-24T12:32:00.000+01:00

I know I'm not not alone in taking a degree of pleasure watching the ad industry poo its pants over what to do about online. How come this wasn't forecast? They are even bleating about free pitching now which, correct me if I'm wrong, was their creation in the first place.
Anyway, for a glimpse inside the dinosaur check out this very funny film when you have 12 mins to spare.

The new web in a nutshell

2007-04-17T22:40:00.000+01:00

Love the term or loathe it, this video is a brilliant intro to web 2.0.

Things that CEOs should know

2007-04-17T17:29:00.000+01:00

I know that this really isn't a place for wingeing and whining. That's not the intention here. It is, however, fair game to highlight when business lets you down in a big way, in order that they might improve in future. It's a learning thing, a feedback loop that CEOs would do well to take note of.

True life tales will follow.

It

2007-04-17T16:42:00.000+01:00

We have been talking and thinking a lot about how the communications business is changing. Or rather, how new communication opportunities are forcing change on the pillars of our world. The more we think, the more obvious the changing landscape seems to be, and, because so often we work with organisations in a state of flux, how much we have known implicitly for a long time.
The newest member of our development team describes it as 'getting it' or is it, getting 'it'? Whatever it is it's certainly put us in store for a roller coaster ride as we engage in a new conversation with each other and with our clients.
And it truly is a conversation. This is the defining realisation of our era - the emerging understanding that business, education, relationships and all manner of dispersed networks are part of a conversation that is taking place online now, and forever. New products, new communities, new solutions to age old problems, collaborative teaching, learning and research. The crumbling from within of giant brands and oncoming obsolescence of the PR industry. The fact that I'm writing this blog for christ's sake. All this, and more, changes everything now and forever. If I sound evangelical it's because I probably am, a bit.
And yes, there is a degree of playing catch up, for me and especially the organisations I work with. I have reached the first of many summits and the view from here is, at times, too much to take in at once. And I am hugely grateful to big thinkers out there in the blogosphere, others holed up in various enterprises around the world and even some who reside much closer to home in my business and my network.
I am not going to make predictions here in this first post but look forward to looking back from a better world sometime soon.