Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|
Back to Blog
THINKING TOO SMALL7/18/2018 Stop thinking that you do not have the money. You have the money you are using it for other purposes. Stop thinking you do not have time. You have time. You are using your time in things that do no produce results for you. Stop thinking because we do not have the money, we are willing to work harder, the work will be longer, and we are indebted from people. Invest your money and stop saving it to the Reserves. Time is the resource not money. Time spent will not go back again. With money, you can earn it. Don't trade your time for money. Stop begging to be helped. You can help yourself by being independent financially and of others' good vibes. Stop thinking that leadership is setting everything from the top level. Listen to others so you can get their 'yes' without having to repeat yourself all the time. Stop thinking that short cuts are always good. Beware of the short cuts that lead to failure! Stop copying other organizations and people. Ask what makes them successful and create your own terms of reference about success. Learn from what didn't work for them and avoid it like a plague. Stop saying that this is all I can do. This is what you can with what you have. Take it one day at a time. Stop overdoing development. You do not need to be doing everything just because there is a need for it or your organization can do it. That is why there is a thing called Strategic Plan. Stop copying the fad of the day. Those fads and trends come and go and they do not work for all occasion. Work with what is true and evergreen and have been tested and proven to work. Stop showing up with fake actions like reports, feasibilities, plans, experiments to do x,y,z. These are not results! Get to the bottom of things and fix the wheel to keep in moving again. Fire people if you need to do that. Stop cuddling underperformers and non-performers in the organization or network that will never ever rehabilitate. Cut your losses and get a better staff! Stop working harder and stop committing to working harder more. Don't work hard, work smart. If you are working your organization too hard, there is definitely a problem somewhere. People in your organization are working hard already. Adding more work means eliminating some to make room. Your staff are not horses and horses get tired too
0 Comments
Read More
Back to Blog
IT'S A BEAR WORLD7/16/2018 Build a Bear just had a major marketing disaster. Their Get your Age Bear was a big failure.
Thousands were turned away, disappointed moms and kids queueing up for their bears. They should have seen it coming in thousands and they know that they will not be able to handle the overwhelming demand from consumers. This is an ill-thought and ill-executed marketing campaign. It could have been done well if they have segmented the market where they will start the campaign, pre-positioned the inventory and staff needed to run on those campaign days, and then provide an online alternative for parents to get them online and pick up on different days. The chaos will definitely ensue and that any small store in the mall will be totally engulfed. Marketing is the engine of any business. If done well, it can boost up sales, customer support, and increase profitability. When done it a wrong way, it can turn away the precious customer affection that takes years to build and nurture. The CEO apologizing for the disaster the following day is a good mitigation strategy but that it did not vanquish the frustration from the incident. The next Bear the Big marketing event may not get the benefit of the doubt and the marketers may have to grin and bear the consequences. What happens after a marketing failure sets apart good companies. This is where a good PR can save the day.
Back to Blog
START WITH AN EXIT IN MIND PART 27/11/2018 The best metaphor for the process of exiting successfully is like your son or daughter moving out and going to college. The process of finally reaching that age when they need to be on their own and carve out a life without their parents is a scary but a necessary element of growing up and living an independent life.
While as parents, we always one day, know that the inevitable will come. They are no longer kids and their decision must be respected, however, silly or foolish it may sound or appear. Hopefully, the years of inculcating the values do not go wasted and wherever they go and whatever life’s challenges throw at them, they can withstand it. The parent-child dynamics is of course not the same with the development sector. But you get the point. Below is the continuation of the interview with Ben Hoogendorn on successful exit strategies in development. Thank you Ben for sharing your thoughts on this important topic. How to end it with grace? If there is a good relationship based on trust, and knowing everything promised was delivered, ending a relationship is not difficult. It can be sad for all parties but shouldn't be difficult if everything was done according to plan and timelines. Is it really an end or a new relationship? It is not the end (or shouldn't be anyway) but the start of a new relationship. It's almost like a friendship of peers since the new relationship will consist around encouragement, mentoring and sharing about how and where to get access to other training and resources to grow the community even more after the agency exits. It's actually quite a beautiful thing! Other related thoughts One of the biggest issues that keep people locked in chronic grinding poverty is an incorrect and damaging worldview. This is why it is important that development programs are more about teaching and training (including understanding and challenging the worldview) and less about giving things. This is a topic that will take a lot more time to unpack, but it's something that is important to understand. What stood out for you and why? Let me know what you think. |