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Special Insights from Kneko Burney, CEO of Change3 Enteprises, included.

In Operations Management, best practices will tell you NEVER operate your production resources at full capacity.  I know – doesn’t make sense.  But, here’s why: when 100% of your resources are used to deliver your orders – it means you cannot make mistakes nor can you do vital activities like maintenance and repairs without stopping the entire production line. 

So, what exactly does this have to do with marketing?  Well, the same philosophy is true.  If you are using sales people to do marketing – guess what: they are not selling.  As such, your marketing department should not operate at full capacity.

Why shouldn’t I operate at full capacity?

1.  There is no direct correlation between increased production and increased productivity.  As with studying all night before an important exam, simply counting the number of hours studied as productivity would be wrong:  adding more hours of labor to a project does not necessarily produce an improved result.  While the field of economics may point to examples in the manufacturing industry, a marketing organization – with completely different inputs to production – cannot be managed in the same manner. 

Simply creating more email campaigns or producing more webinars may signal increased production, but the ROI of each marketing piece may drop, as fewer leads, engagement, or KPIs are recorded.  In this case, increased production does not lead to increased productivity.

2.  Focus on quality, not quantity.  A total commitment to quality is not a new concept.  Spearheaded by Japanese industry since the late 1970s, and later giving way to ISO 9000 and Six Sigma methodologies in the 1990s and 2000s, a focus on continuous improvement and a commitment to quality has been empirically shown to

• Reduce product and service complaints
• Support premium pricing
• Engender morale
• Increase overall productivity and profitability

Therefore, an organization, including a marketing team, should instill a total commitment to quality in every task, no matter how large or small. 

However, this concept is particularly difficult for today’s senior marketers operating in a complex media landscape with multiple platforms, channels, audiences, and endpoints all seeming to vie for importance and attention.  ‘Don’t we have to be where our clients are – everywhere?’ is often a question I am asked.  The answer is No, if there do not exist sufficient resources to produce the level of quality needed to meet the demands of a client or prospect. 

3.  Companies need to create a safe haven for experimentation and creativity -- and mistakes.  Entire industries, including technology, media, entertainment, and even pharmaceuticals, have built huge businesses on ‘mistakes’ in production that occurred even though they were never meant to happen in the first place.  Such mistakes are later productized and monetized.  If a company is operating at full capacity, with restrictions on activities not central to the business at hand, there are no resources left over to experiment and discover the next product that just might become a blockbuster.  While Google has long been known to famously allow its employees ’20 percent time,’ or one day a week to pursue side projects (the company has recently sunsetted this policy), time to pursue projects can indeed deliver results to the bottom line.

Final Thought:  Not operating at full capacity does not mean a lack of efficiency.  Today’s marketing professional may struggle with this concept, but satisfied customers will take notice of the resulting quality. Since all marketing should tie back to revenue, your team will easily be able to measure the results of this strategy. 

Inject the human element into your organization and decide what tasks should become more efficient and what others could be discarded. 

Want more info?  Expand your horizons with additional reading. 

ChangeU: for your independent study…

• Applying Lean, Six Sigma, BPM, and SOA to Drive Business Results: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/abstracts/redp4447.html?Open (Lean Six Sigma unites tools and techniques from Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to produce real results.  Business process management (BPM) technologies and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) contribute  to accelerate improvements and results.  This IBM® Redguide™ e-book publication is intended to help companies that are leaders in their markets or are looking for new ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors.)

• Google’s 20 Percent Rule: http://www.slideshare.net/amitmakhija81/google-25631794 (From a Marketing Operations Manager at Microsoft, a look at the pro’s and con’s of Google’s ’20 percent time’ rule.)

We’ve all had boring jobs at one point or another, but companies have quickly realized the importance of harnessing – and profiting from – the creativity of their employees.

Of course, in certain businesses, day-to-day creativity is expected.  But in industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, transportation, and energy, companies are realizing that some of the best ideas can very well emanate from within.

While Google has long been known to famously allow its employees ’20 percent time,’ or one day a week to pursue side projects (the company has recently sunsetted this policy), time allotted for employees to pursue projects can indeed deliver results to the bottom line.

Here are some considerations for jumpstarting your organization’s focus on harvesting new, business-building ideas:

Start online, before going offline.  Take it to the community:  post an announcement via your company’s online community, and target champions – managers or whole departments – whom you are certain could serve as positive representatives of the initiative.   You need not engage the entire company at first either – perhaps just certain groups in the online community first, then gather relevant feedback which you can use to further promote the program.  People prefer to see results first before jumping headfirst into uncertain waters.

Create an incentive program for creativity.   The prize needs to be more than just an online badge or a trophy given out at the All Hands Meeting at the end of the quarter.  If an employee’s idea leads to real business results, a financial incentive will speak volumes of the senior management’s commitment to motivation, morale, support, and the future of the business.  Engage the PR department for additional out-of-the-box ways to motivate employees, and how such results can be communicated effectively.

Don’t just talk the talk:  show results.   New employee programs are often greeted with a yawn.  Once launched, continue to communicate the progress of the program via your company’s online community and in small meetings, capturing the lifecycle of an employee’s idea as it becomes a reality.  This will incentivize other employees to join in and generate even more ideas.

IBM is another company that is a proud proponent of employee innovation, whether or not such innovations make it out the front door.  Each year, at the company’s annual Lotusphere conference (renamed Connect), the most exciting part of the conference – at least for me, as a former industry analyst – was the personal tour I would receive of a handful of ongoing projects developed by researchers at IBM labs in Cambridge, Mass., Tel Aviv, Sao Paulo, and other cities.  Always staged in a windowless room far away from the main conference sessions – no cameras or recording devices allowed! – I learned of diverse projects, including one aimed at monitoring employee social media usage and another that seemed to serve as an internal Kickstarter-like crowdfunding campaign platform.  I would later learn that the social media usage product, while not a formal IBM offering, was piloted at a few clients for evaluation.  Kudos to the IBM researcher who developed it!

Final Thought:  Your employees are your best resource for new business.  Motivate, inspire, and most importantly, compensate them for delivering creativity and profits.  It’s just good business, in addition to good karma.

Want more info?  Expand your horizons with additional reading. 

Want Help? Contact our team today

ChangeU: independent study…

Centre for Innovation Studies, Imperial College, London

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/innovationstudies

Articles related to the study of the innovation process and the impact of knowledge creation.

Harvard Business Review’s 10 Must Reads on Innovation

http://hbr.org/product/hbr-s-10-must-reads-on-innovation-with-featured-article-the-discipline-of-innovation-by-peter-f-drucker/an/11363E-KND-ENG

Books on innovation, including articles written by Peter Drucker.

How To Innovate:  A Step By Step Guide

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/30/smallbusiness/how_to_innovate.fsb/

From a reporter for Fortune Small Business, a guide on planning and adopting innovation in an organization.

See my perspective on identifying leaders on your team in my latest blog post on LinkedIn. 

Here is an excerpt:

Over the years, I have made a practice of "throwing" my employees into the fire of "you can do this!" My philosophy is simple: in order for my organization to grow, my employees need to become leaders as well - because I can't do everything myself. As such, just about everyone on my staff needs to muscle up and learn to lead in their area of expertise.

Visit LinkedIn to read the full post.  

Today, it is not unusual for workers to have multiple job titles during the span of their professional career, due in part to advances in technology and changing job descriptions. To mitigate the transition from one job to the next, many of these people turn to temporary staffing agencies as a way to learn new skills, increase their networking opportunities, and help them stay relevant and employable during a down economy.

As a result, savvy business owners and managers are changing their hiring strategy to include both permanent and temporary employees, in order to meet their objectives and develop an effective workforce.

Let’s consider some of the advantages and disadvantages of each type of employment.

Benefits of hiring temporary employees:

• Access to specialized skills - The traditional ‘temp’ talent pool has evolved from the general laborer and receptionists, and now includes people that are highly skilled in virtually all industries. This gives you access to almost any specialized skill you need to quickly complete one-time projects.
• Lower cost - Get manpower at reasonable costs without having to pay for expensive benefits packages. Generally, it is more cost effective to hire a temporary employee for short-term assignments. Similarly, if you are using an agency, you won’t have to bear the cost of recruiting, testing, doing payroll and tax deductions, because the temporary employee is employed by the agency.
• Evaluation without commitment - By employing potential perspective candidate on a temporary basis you can evaluate their performance while on the job. The benefit here is being able to see how effectively the candidate will perform without having to make a long-term commitment.

Disadvantages of hiring temporary staff include:

• Loss of in-house experts - Using temp workers is an ideal solution if your business has specific jobs that require special skills, however, it doesn’t allow your own in house staff to upgrade or acquire new skills. The nature of your business and how often you require specific specialized skills will determine if it is worth having an onsite expert compared to using a temp for each special project.
• Additional costs - Depending on the position, using a staffing agency to find a qualified temp worker could be more expensive than recruiting a new employee. Most staffing agencies require a fee to use their services as well as a percentage of the temp worker's salary. Therefore, it is important to fully understand the agency’s compensation structure and fee schedule.
• Disruption in workflow - Each time you hire a new temp worker, they have to be brought up to speed with how your company operates and of course the specifics of the assignment. This constant ‘starting over’ process is disruptive and could greatly impede the progress of some projects.

Benefits of hiring permanent employees:

• Loyalty - Investing in a permanent employee is an investment in their loyalty, which translates into more productivity because they are personally invested in your company’s success. This also creates a willingness to wear multiple hats to achieve the goals of the business.
• Seamless workflow - Permanent employees do not have to ‘restart’ for every new job assignment, as they are already familiar with projects and your business processes, which ensures the workflow is consistent and uninterrupted.
• Stability - As a fixed part of your staff, permanent employees offer you a welcomed level of predictability and stability, allowing you to be more strategic when making long-term plans.

Disadvantages of hiring permanent employees:

• Limited skill upgrade - Although permanent employees develop expertise in their respective fields, they are often limited on the time and resources required to learn new skills. This challenge is compounded when employers use temp workers to complete tasks that require specialized skills instead of training their in house staff. Unfortunately, this leaves permanent workers and more importantly, your business at a disadvantage when a new application or technology is introduced.
• Higher expenses - Insuring permanent employees can be expensive, especially for small and new businesses with limited working capital. With permanent employees comes extra overhead, i.e. processing benefits, payroll, providing training and tools, and the rental fee of the space impacts the total cost of employing permanent employees.
• Recruiting efforts are expensive and time consuming - Finding the right talent for your workforce is a time consuming and costly endeavor. Diverting time and resources required to list open positions, screen candidates, and interview them can stall projects and reduce productivity.

Final Thoughts
Developing an effective workforce requires the same energy in planning and consideration as it does in creating a business plan or digital marketing plan. The reality is that both types of employment have varying degrees of benefits and challenges. As such, whether you choose temporary or permanent employees, or a combination of both, defining your company needs is the first step in successfully creating and managing an effective workforce.
 

ChangeU: For your independent study ...

White Paper: The talent shortage continues - How the ever changing role of HR can bridge the gap http://bit.ly/1xVonjD
Bureau of Labor Statistics http://stats.bls.gov/
6 Unique Ways to Build a Better Talent Pool With Social Media | The Staffing Stream http://bit.ly/1zw22uX

Various personality types and work style differences are naturally a part of any workplace but when you add in 12 different countries, 4 time zones and six different languages you know that you have a truly unique team that will inherit particular challenges.

At Change3 Enterprises we thrive on the diversity of our ‘delightful experts’, we know that the rich array of skills that our team contribute to our collective work adds to our ability to deliver unexpected solutions to our clientele. 

Creating a ‘Dream Team’ Takes Work

The short answer to how we manage as a cultural, linguistic and personality diverse team is that we work at it each and every day. It does get easier as we learn how to navigate the biggest challenges that we face, however we always need to work consciously to ensure that we are not leaving anyone behind.

The key takeaways from our experience so far include:

1. Comprehensive communication:  Sometimes we take communication for granted. Create strong processes that ensure that briefs are exceptionally clear using simple language and jargon free;
2. Regular meetings: Emails are not the same as face to face chats. Schedule regular meetings with key groups to keep people on track.  When people work in isolation at home these catch ups help to create a strong bond between colleagues;
3. Walk in your colleagues shoes: Cultural differences take on many forms and often encompass important religious beliefs. It is a wise move to take a breath and hop over to your workmates shoes to resolve points of difference. It is only when we truly understand their circumstances can we respond appropriately and compassionately;
4. Understanding personality types: By understanding how each person works the best it is possible to utilise their skills to the max. If workers are not producing what they are capable of, this can be a simple reason why.

How Do We Know?

One of the most powerful assets that any company has is its people. Recruiting is often a lengthy and expensive process and it is always recommended to focus on retention rather than attrition – where possible.

With this in mind we developed an online application process that helps us hire delightful experts that fit perfectly into our unique culture and environment. It also enabled us to get to know each other a lot better, which led to developing a thriving organizational culture. Read more about this subject in this blog post written by our CEO, Kneko Burney.

Because it has been so successful for us we now offer this service to you our clients. Please contact us for a chat about how we can help you get to know your team.

We Need Your Help

Does this sound like a team that you would like to work for? We are growing at an astounding rate and are looking for talented people to join us. Have a look at our vacancies here and if you can see yourself there please apply!