Communication! Communication! Communication!

Communication! Possibly the most important word in the business language - and, sadly, most often neglected.

I began my management career training with Marks & Spencer and it was a very thorough grounding. I worked for weeks or months at a time in every area within a store including opening up at crack of dawn during my warehouse attachment so that food deliveries could be taken in (not my favourite job, me not being a morning person but imagine the shame of oversleeping on the day! Thankfully it never happened.) I also worked in the kitchen in the staff restaurant as well as the more obvious stints as department supervisor and office and stockroom assistant. I then progressed up my chosen career path which at that time was Staff Management and Training. All of this was supplemented by courses outside the store and these covered a wide range of subjects. The one that always stuck in my mind, however, was the one on communication and its importance and it is a huge subject because communication is so vitally important at all levels.

It's a favourite hobbyhorse of mine but I make no apology for that because it is so very important. The area I want to explore today is the use of newsletters. Let me be very upfront and say I am a great fan of newsletters. They are a good way of communicating with staff especially if you have a business with lots of sites scattered about and they are also a good way of keeping your company in your customers' sights. They don't have to be flashy or cost a lot but they are effective.

Whilst setting up a new personnel and training department for a national fashion chain when I moved on from M&S, I was asked by the Board of Directors to create a company magasine for the staff. This was my first experience of the medium. We produced quite a substantial magasine every quarter and it was distributed to all the branches and all Head Office departments. It was a great success. We would put articles in on the forthcoming season's range or the end of season sale according to the timing of issue. We had a 'Hatched, Matched and Dispatched' page. If we were opening new branches it was a good opportunity for a good news story and a nice way to welcome a new team of staff. If we had to close a store, it was a good way to say a public thank you. Where we ran sales competitions it was also a handy way to recap on the progress of the particular sales drive, encouraging everyone to do even better and when we invited staff to send in items to be included it was amazing what response we elicited. The whole thing made people realise that they actually belonged to something and that was important because it is easy for people either working in a branch or alone from home to feel isolated at times.

I also used the technique effectively when running an area for a major oil company but this time it was with the emphasis very much on business matters. Each month I would write out to all my business principals and it worked very well.

For one thing, I could not physically get round to see each of them every month but they always had that contact from me aside from phone calls in the normal day to day business.
Secondly, it was a very useful way to remind everyone about topical issues.
Thirdly, I found it a useful way of flagging up forthcoming events/promotions/issues that I would be talking to them individually about so they had the opportunity to give consideration to them prior to my visits.

Then there are the newsletters sent out to your customers. How often you send them and how you slant the content obviously depend on the nature of your business. Hotels, for example, can provide information about forthcoming seasonal offers, changes in key members of staff and perhaps give details of refurbishment being carried out or completed. The scope is tremendous and it is a very valuable marketing tool.

If you haven't considered utilising this before, perhaps now is a good time to think about trying. This is also one area that I can provide experience and expertise at low cost.
Give it a try! I hope to hear from you.

What's it All About?

It's the obvious question after all. When I advertise, I say 'Book your Company's Health Check with the South West Business Doctor. It could make a difference to your bottom line in 2008.'

People ring me up and so very often they are pretty cagey. 'How much is this going to cost me?' is often foremost on their minds. There is a limit to what can be achieved on the telephone; I do believe that it is very important to see who you are dealing with whether or not you pursue the matter. So I will arrange a brief introductory meeting (for which there is no charge) the purpose of which is to give Business Principals the opportunity to assess me and decide whether I am a person with whom they wish to do business and for me to get an initial feel for the business in question and assess firstly whether or not it is a business that I feel I can work successfully with and then, to assess how much work will be needed to complete a proper assessment.

I can then outline a proposal which will include my fee.

If a company decides to proceed, we set a schedule and agree a time for me to return to present my findings. A full written report is provided.

Where we go from there depends entirely on the business concerned.

Naturally in some cases it is a case of thank you very much and goodbye. Some, all or none of my recommendations might be implemented. However, there are often areas that businesses feel are worthwhile being followed up on and where I am qualified to help them implement them we work out a plan and my fees are calculated accordingly.

I'll enlarge on some examples in future blogs but to give you an idea, I have considerable experience of handling advertising and marketing campaigns and I also devised and implemented staff appraisal systems for a national fashion retailer with over 200 branches nationwide. This was supplemented by the introduction staff training programmes which resulted in the company winning training awards.

My main concerns are for small to medium sized companies in the South West. Whilst I have worked for major corporations, I can tell you that living and working in this area for over twenty years, I am acutely aware of the particular challenges facing businesses here. It makes economic sense to handle some issues on a project by project basis. You don't want a Sales and Marketing Manager or a Training Manager or an Advertising Manager - but a piece of one might be of benefit!

As to how I define 'the South West' - to me this is primarily Devon, Cornwall and Somerset but I do also have a working knowledge of Avon, Dorset and Wales where I worked for a time.
However, if you fall outside of this area, don't feel that you can't contact me or participate in feedback (once I have set up this facility aside from my private email address!). Many business issues are universal and all contributions will be welcomed.

And We're Off!

This being my inaugural blog, I feel that perhaps I should have a glass of champagne to hand. Anyone who knows me will be very surprised to learn that I haven't! People who know me well will also be somewhat surprised to see that I have launched myself into the ether or cyberspace or whatever the correct term is. I don't mind admitting that I have surprised myself. I have always said that I was to IT what pigs were to flying but clearly that isn't entirely true. And doesn't that tell you something that everyone should relate to? Namely that the only limits to our progress, as individuals or in business, are the ones we impose on ourselves.

I'm not sure quite how true this is but it is a story I heard a long time ago and it really struck a chord. Apparently, the aerodynamics of a bee are such that it can't fly, however, nobody has told the bee yet so because it assumes it can fly - it does.

In business it is very easy to dismiss new ideas. 'That might be O.K. for other companies but not for us.' 'We haven't got the time or the money to throw at that.' Excuses abound. But actually, we can all embrace new ideas scary though they may be.

Maybe this would be a good time for you to rethink ideas that have been dismissed previously. Maybe you have a pet project that has been sitting on the back burner just waiting for 'the right time to do it.' Maybe it is a project that I can help you with. Maybe not.

There does come a time, though, when it is not enough to think about things, you have to grab the proverbial bull by the horns and dive in. I can tell you that for me, doing business analysis and offering advice and where appropriate, helping implement recommendations, comes entirely naturally. Creating and launching this blog? It feels like I've grabbed a whole herd full of bulls!