bwagy

Don’t you think?

At least says Kevin Roberts (hinting at his next book).

I tend to agree, thanks to The IceHouse along with a group of entrepreneurs we got to sit down with Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide (but thankfully a kiwi!) and talk marketing.

His point comes from a study of 10,000 or so companies and what differentiates the high performers from the pack.  Those that organise like a family, hard working team, caring yet pushing (who pushes us more than our families) outperform the rest.

And nothing is more demanding than a family… what better way to get the most out of your people.

[He also noted, families do change, grow, separations do happen, new family units form.]

Wikipedia defines it quite nicely:

“In retail sales, a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is. This use of this term has extended to similar situations outside of the marketing sense.”

The world is far too transparent now, people will expose these techniques faster than lightening.  However if you’re reading this you probably don’t have this attitude, however I do urge, to check how you manage expectations – you may be doing this… unintentionally.

It’s very basic, obsessively ask quesitons, why, how, what, when, why? and why again?

The ability to seek answers and learn on your feet is an absolute requirement.

The ability to accept that no you don’t know the answer, but you can (and will) find out the answers are much more valuable than ‘knowing everything’.

The ability to leave your ego at the door, accept when your wrong (but to also fight when you’re right) is amazing.

The ability to kill ideas today but realise they may be relevant tomorrow.

Are all excellent abilities to have (and strive for).  If you can master those it makes you incredibly employable, very attractive and well positioned in a creative knowledge economy.

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[ps it also means we'd love to have you on board at Young & Shand: positions are opening all the time (especially for the right people) so do please get in contact if you believe you have something to offer.]