SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP
CARL BATES - MANAGING DIRECTOR SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP,
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE SIRDAR SOUTH AFRICA
December 14th, 2011
Networking is one of those important sales tasks that we often fail to devote our attention to. Our sales teams spend time networking, attending events, meeting people and having coffee, but are they at the right events? Are they meeting the right people?
Roger Hamilton, the creator of Wealth Dynamics, believes that everything about business is LUCK. LUCK, of course, stands for Location, Understanding, Connections and Knowledge. Each of these points refers to something very specific about the business journey.
Let us take a closer look at the first statement point, Location. Roger says that we choose where we want to be. We choose the environment in which we operate, and we choose the places we look for business. In the real estate industry, they often say, “Location, Location, Location”. In business, it is exactly the same. If you and your team are not networking in the right locations, business growth will be that much harder.
As part of your planning for 2012, make a conscious decision about where you want to network. Think about who you want your enterprise to connect with and what networks you want to be a part of. Before signing off all of those various membership invoices for 2012, consider which ones you actually want your organisation to be associated with. Consider what value you want your enterprise to get out of it. Write down these objectives and use them as a reference point to review the value you received from each membership at the end of the year.
If you would like to learn more about Hamilton’s LUCK system, you can read more about it in his book Your Life Your Legacy (the Sirdar Global Edition). For more details email us at infosa@sirdargroup.com.
Enjoy the festive season, travel safely and drink responsibly. I wish you an outstanding 2012!
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SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP
CARL BATES - MANAGING DIRECTOR SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP,
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE SIRDAR SOUTH AFRICA
November 23rd, 2011
Cultural integration is such an important part of the overall growth and development of any business, yet often we fail to give it the attention it deserves. The danger is that whether we consciously focus on it or not, every company has a culture. In many cases the culture is ‘unwritten’ and reflects the undertones, or underlying ground rules, that people operate within and abide by – whether management intends this to be the case or not. When new team members join the enterprise they can then learn these underlying ground rules (which often reflect bad habits), and the culture becomes further entrenched.
As part of building an effective team that meets the objectives set by your board and management, you therefore have to think consciously about the type of culture you want to exist in your organisation. This includes everything from how people interact and communicate, what aspects of business are particularly important to you, how the company expects people to be treated (including customers, suppliers and other such people), as well as what values are important to the enterprise when considering specific decisions. Once you have carefully considered all these different aspects, you must define the specific culture your company wants and share it with the team. The culture must be explained in such a way that everyone in the organisation is clear on it.
From here, you can start to implement your organisation’s culture so that it is reflected in everything that your company does. The more effectively that you can define the culture, and where appropriate engage your team in this process, the more effectively you will be able to implement it.
When properly understood and successfully implemented, a clear culture in your organisation can become a major contributor to performance enhancement in your company.
Tags: Carl Bates, culture, performance enhancement, SME, team
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SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP
CARL BATES - MANAGING DIRECTOR SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP,
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE SIRDAR SOUTH AFRICA
October 26th, 2011
Branding is about far more than just a name and a logo, and it is not simply about growing revenue; branding is a complete way of being. A brand must capture the hearts and minds of clients, team members, partners, stakeholders and anyone else who engages with it. However, many of us fail to understand this. We often aspire to the ideals contained within a clever or colourful logo without considering how we can truly implement them. Furthermore, we often limit the concept of branding to our marketing department, and consider it their responsibility to ensure it is effectively communicated.
The reality is that branding is much wider. It requires significantly more attention and the involvement of your entire team. From the way you write an email to the way in which the phone is answered, the way a service is delivered or a customer complaint addressed – all of these actions, and more importantly how they are undertaken, should directly reflect the brand image and identity that you wish to create.
When you consider how you want your organisation to portray itself in these situations, it is important to first determine exactly what it is that your brand portrays. If you have never undertaken a formal branding exercise, perhaps this is something that your company should consider. It is a question of what you are ultimately trying to achieve – if you have a big vision in mind, then a formal branding exercise is probably required. Otherwise, you could start by simply thinking about what it is that you and your team consider your brand to stand for, and then work through examples of how you live up to this in your business already. This provides a powerful reference point for recognizing areas in which the business does not live up to your brand intentions, and you can agree upon actions to address this.
Ultimately, the value of a brand lies in its ability to support the business to create excess margin, over and above what you could have achieved without the brand in place. The stronger the brand and its ability to connect your customers to your organization, the easier this is to achieve.
Tags: brand, branding, Carl Bates, SME
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SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP
CARL BATES - MANAGING DIRECTOR SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP,
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE SIRDAR SOUTH AFRICA
September 28th, 2011
In the Sirdar Management Compass, the first segment is about identifying your market. One of the key elements of this is customer segmentation. A paradox in small business is that small business owners often say that they will take any work they can get because they desperately need to increase revenue, and taking on any work offered seems a logical way to do this. The problem with this is that you become a jack of all trades and a master of none, as they say.
As businesses grow, they become more inclined to focus on specific customer segments to which they believe they can offer a better product or service. In turn, they attract more business because they build specialist knowledge in understanding this specific market and tailor their products and services to this customer. This is not to say that as a business you only have one specific customer segment, you may have several; the point is that they are still clear and focused.
The irony, of course, is that the earlier you choose to focus your offering and market to a specific group, the faster your business will grow. It can seem counter-intuitive on some level. As I said above, it is one of the paradoxes of business.
As we focus on the management elements of business, it is important to be very clear on your customer segmentations. Break your preferred clientele down into different markets, and detail the demographics of the each. Describe the type of people, businesses or organisations that would buy from you in as much detail as possible. If you sell to people, write down what type of people would buy each product. Even if there are only small differences between different ranges, describe them. If you sell business-to-business, describe the type of businesses that buy from you: are they innovative, established, efficiently run or old-school? This clarity enables you to start to consider the different ways of marketing and selling to each specific segment, and in turn, see your sales climb.
Tags: Carl Bates, customer segmentation, Identifying your market, Sirdar Management Compass, SME
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SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP
CARL BATES - MANAGING DIRECTOR SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP,
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE SIRDAR SOUTH AFRICA
August 24th, 2011
A key element of the ongoing growth and development of any organisation is the ability to evaluate performance against pre-determined targets. If performance is not on track, you can then adjust strategies and plans to ensure that your targets are met. Often, SMEs do not make time to reflect on performance evaluation or to set targets. How can you reach the summit if you are not even clear on what mountain you are climbing?
Evaluation and improvement are essential components in the fourth point of the Sirdar Governance Compass, conformance. Governance plays a critical role in setting a company’s direction and ensuring that performance against these objectives is evaluated. The role of a board of directors is to evaluate and improve both its own performance as well as that of the company.
One simple step that you can take to evaluate and improve the performance of your enterprise is to reflect on all the areas of your business. Rank them on a scale of one to ten, with one being bad and ten being at the exact level required to enable your company to reach its objectives. Next, decide on one action point to lift each area of the business by one point on the scale. The Sirdar Management Compass is a great reference point for this exercise.
These activities do not have to be difficult. They are, however, essential if you want to achieve Extreme Business Success.
Tags: Carl Bates, compliance, corporate governance, evaluation, SME
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SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP
CARL BATES - MANAGING DIRECTOR SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP,
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE SIRDAR SOUTH AFRICA
July 28th, 2011
Measurement of risk and its mitigation is one of the key activities that a business should undertake on a monthly basis to ensure its own sustainability. The board of directors plays a critical role in the oversight of the business from this perspective, ensuring a focus on these essential elements of the business’ growth and development. It is for this reason that the elements of risk management and compliance are included on the Sirdar Governance Compass under the third cardinal point, namely, sustainability.
As business owners and managers, we are often so focused on the day-to-day running of our organisations that we overlook the risks our business faces, and fail to implement risk mitigation procedures until it is too late. This could potentially lead to the failure of your business.
In an enterprise where a board of directors is in place and follows good governance procedures, risks are mitigated more effectively. As part of the board process, the directors should consciously consider the various aspects of risk that a company could face. The board can then ensure that management actively addresses these risks, or otherwise agree to be exposed to specific risks where an appropriate risk mitigation strategy does not exist or is not commercially viable.
If you have not yet implemented a board of directors, or if you are a chief executive who is unsure of how to report to the board on the subject of risk mitigation, what should you do?
The first step is simply to consider the ten biggest risks facing your organisation. These could range from losing an important team member or major client to your IT systems crashing. Once you have identified these risks, consider the financial impact that each one could have on your enterprise. Lastly, propose measures you could take to mitigate these risks. These could include updating documentation of the organisation’s systems, widening your client base or maintaining your IT systems more effectively. These actions should reduce the risks and improve the overall sustainability of your business. Update this list on a monthly basis, adding new risks as they arise and removing risks that are no longer relevant. Risk mitigation is critical to business success, so do not overlook this crucial aspect of sustainability.
Tags: Carl Bates, risk mitigation, SME, sustainability
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SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP
CARL BATES - MANAGING DIRECTOR SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP,
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE SIRDAR SOUTH AFRICA
June 29th, 2011
In the governance sense, Accountability for Performance relates to the role of the board in hiring, firing and performance managing the chief executive, managing director or general manager. If you are in your own business, this means – YOU.
It is critical that we ensure that even in our own business we have key performance indicators (or KPIs) against which our performance can be measured, and ideally managed. Yet so many of us fail to do so. If you do not have a board of directors to hold you accountable and to put these in place, it still must be done.
If we struggle so much to put our own KPIs, in place, how do we perform when we have to put in place KPIs for our entire team?
Well, here’s this month’s secret – YOU DON’T.
Use your team to put in place the KPIs for the rest of your team. In other words, set up a KPI structure (and there are many templates available on the web), sit down and work through them for the managers that report directly to you. Then get them to do the same with the team members that report to them.
Before you realise it, your entire team will have KPIs and you will see the results that will flow from it. Performance enhancement, the process of continuously supporting your team members to improve their game, is not something you simply do when they are not performing. It is a key process and task that you should be following all of the time.
Tags: accountability for performance, Carl Bates, entrepreneur, KPIs, laws of extreme business success, SME
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SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP
CARL BATES - MANAGING DIRECTOR SIRDAR GLOBAL GROUP,
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE SIRDAR SOUTH AFRICA
May 23rd, 2011
Distinguishing between product and promise
Last Saturday I spoke at the BIG Entrepreneurs Seminar alongside a line-up of local and international entrepreneurs. It reminded me of how the use of the term ”entrepreneur” fascinates me – I believe in many ways, it is too widely used in the business community.
On one level, it is easy to copy someone from down the street, to open a shop exactly the same as one you have seen elsewhere, to sell a product that you have seen others sell. This is what many of us as business owners do – we simply copy a concept we have seen elsewhere and add nothing unique, no spice, and we wonder why we never achieve the success that we so desire.
Entrepreneurship is about the ability to create and fulfil a promise to your stakeholders, your customers, your team and your suppliers. It is about being able to distinguish between the benefits of your products or service, and the reason why you are making or delivering it.
Too many organisations believe that they are in business because of the benefits of their products. Their products may be the best or the most cost effective, the cleanest or the quickest, the most effective or the most available. Whatever the details of your product or service are, put them aside.
To truly inspire your team and to create a business that attracts the clientele you require to achieve Extreme Business Success, you have to deliver on a promise – not simply make a product.
Remember when bank notes were issued by the banks themselves they were a ”promise to pay the bearer”. Business success is not just about making money – it is about delivering on promises. The bigger the promise, the bigger the business. It is the role of the board of directors to truly understand this and to enable the organisation to create the promise and integrate it into everything that the organisation does.
Tags: Carl Bates, entrepreneur, laws of extreme business success, product, promise, SME
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