My new thing at South African chain-type and quick service restaurants is to first see if there are more staff than customers at any given time. If there are, I leave immediately and make another plan.
There's something about having a manager, three sub-managers and ten waiters standing around looking as pathetic as ever - three to poke the credit card machine to get it to work, another three to welcome people into the place - you know the vibe.
Look inside a Nandos, it's a shitshow. Three customers wanting something fairly basic, and twelve staff completley spinning in the kitchen - with those operating the cash register always very upset with the sods deep-frying stuff in the back. Every single time... How are they not coping? Go somewhere with one or two staff and 15 customers and presto, shit gets done.
Sunday, 1 April 2012
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Blue
Mercedes-Benz has BlueTec and BlueEfficiency, and VW has BlueMotion.
I don't really care what any of these names mean, but it's sort of interesting nonetheless. Interesting as to why we need to own colours that are in no way otherwise aligned with these brands. But there you have it - it's happening.
If you have to pick a colour though, I guess blue is the best option. Blue feels maybe like a gas flame or electricity or clean energy one way or another - without fighting over green.
Get in early to own colours nearest to green on the spectrum? Is that what's happening here? Interesting to see where things go from here. Like, in general...
I don't really care what any of these names mean, but it's sort of interesting nonetheless. Interesting as to why we need to own colours that are in no way otherwise aligned with these brands. But there you have it - it's happening.
If you have to pick a colour though, I guess blue is the best option. Blue feels maybe like a gas flame or electricity or clean energy one way or another - without fighting over green.
Get in early to own colours nearest to green on the spectrum? Is that what's happening here? Interesting to see where things go from here. Like, in general...
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Human Resources!
Why does no-one understand these people? Are they in fact a species unto themselves? Why are they slow to communicate, why do they leave work early to "miss the traffic", or generally create some kind of progress blockage when you least need it?
I say this out of deep concern for people and business. The value-add tends to be tenuous and erratic, and I have have long been unable to get my head around how any one role could with such blinding consistency be the sore thumb of so many organisations and industries.
For me the problem comes in when, on one random day, you meet an HR person that really knows what they're doing. And I mean in every way knows why they are there and what value they are going to add that day to their company.
I'm writing this because I met one such HR person recently. (I'm not going to say where this happened to me because I just feel that would be unfair). And now, all of a sudden, I feel justified in my past judgements about every time I've met a rotten one. It really was quite an eye-opener. This one event seems to me all the confirmation I need that, while there are gems out there - and all kudos to them - the rest are largely not qualified to leave the house, much less hold down a job of their own or attempt to co-ordinate other people's work-lives for them.
How ironic that it's one of the very few pukka people jobs out there. I'm now even more bewildered than before.
I say this out of deep concern for people and business. The value-add tends to be tenuous and erratic, and I have have long been unable to get my head around how any one role could with such blinding consistency be the sore thumb of so many organisations and industries.
For me the problem comes in when, on one random day, you meet an HR person that really knows what they're doing. And I mean in every way knows why they are there and what value they are going to add that day to their company.
I'm writing this because I met one such HR person recently. (I'm not going to say where this happened to me because I just feel that would be unfair). And now, all of a sudden, I feel justified in my past judgements about every time I've met a rotten one. It really was quite an eye-opener. This one event seems to me all the confirmation I need that, while there are gems out there - and all kudos to them - the rest are largely not qualified to leave the house, much less hold down a job of their own or attempt to co-ordinate other people's work-lives for them.
How ironic that it's one of the very few pukka people jobs out there. I'm now even more bewildered than before.
It's me, it's you...
I will bet my life that this kind of thing is where 70% of real social media spending goes. That and measuring the stats on this activity, of course.
http://itsmebinkels.tumblr.com/
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Monday, 9 January 2012
A man after my own heart
Rob Campbell just said some amazing shit that I'm pretty sure I coincidentally said too this morning at a meeting with Anomaly.
Primarily this:
"Maybe if we just got on with what brands and society actually wanted and needed from us, we’d end producing more great commercially creative ideas than proprietary bullshit."
and this:
"Too many companies care more about the process than what the process delivers."
and this:
"I’m not talking about creative awards or effectiveness papers that have made a ‘degree of change’ sound like the second coming of Jesus … I’m talking about doing stuff that fundamentally – and undeniably – shifts the needle."
Primarily this:
"Maybe if we just got on with what brands and society actually wanted and needed from us, we’d end producing more great commercially creative ideas than proprietary bullshit."
and this:
"Too many companies care more about the process than what the process delivers."
and this:
"I’m not talking about creative awards or effectiveness papers that have made a ‘degree of change’ sound like the second coming of Jesus … I’m talking about doing stuff that fundamentally – and undeniably – shifts the needle."
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Digital pace
The pace of business is working up to a phenomenal pace - faster and more "digital". But where are the results? I see only anxiety.
In an attention economy, tracking and targeting people faster than ever before and generating more clicks than ever before, it's almost certainly only making it harder to keep up - and with what exactly? The type of value typically created today is more incremental and less noticeable as the digital space expands seemingly into infinity. I see little space for genuine competitive advantage.
More pace, more precision, more frenetic promises to engage customers is not going to make the world a better place, I am certain of it.
The time to fix the roof is while the sun is shining. And so, as a strategist, I am therefore relentlessly focused on the message, the meaning of the brand and the product, and equally meaningful innovation. That's my deal.
Oh wait, Seth said that too
In an attention economy, tracking and targeting people faster than ever before and generating more clicks than ever before, it's almost certainly only making it harder to keep up - and with what exactly? The type of value typically created today is more incremental and less noticeable as the digital space expands seemingly into infinity. I see little space for genuine competitive advantage.
More pace, more precision, more frenetic promises to engage customers is not going to make the world a better place, I am certain of it.
The time to fix the roof is while the sun is shining. And so, as a strategist, I am therefore relentlessly focused on the message, the meaning of the brand and the product, and equally meaningful innovation. That's my deal.
Oh wait, Seth said that too
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