10 important things I have learnt in 24 years working to date

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3 Years after started at company I am with today.

  This month it is 24 years ago since I started working at the company I am with today. And about 30 years in all I have been working.


I was reflecting on some of the big things I have learnt over the years about how I have been managed, and what found works.


Here they are:


(1) Only recruit people that you believe and will want to work for eventually. The danger many make is to hire people focused on today, but you need to think about who has so much potential that one day they will be your boss. Remember, they will be grateful to you, so hopefully nice to you on the way up!


(2) Never put work before you and your family. Ever. They are more important that your job. Spend time with them. Enjoy them. Do not plan to do it "one day when things slow down", as that day may never come. 


(3) Always be kind, friendly and interested in the people around you. The receptionists, office services, canteen people, finance clerks. They will make your life a dream, or subtly make it hell. In my career it is these people that have got me out of a hole, stepped up when needed. 


(4) Have fun. The best ideas come out of teams and people that are having fun. Enjoying life, enjoying work and are excited and stimulated. It is not just a job. If the fun stops - leave


(5) Think about what your legacy will be. What will people across the organization remember, admire and thank you for. It may not just be something directly in your job specification. Make sure you leave a positive mark.


(6) Make your team believe they are part of something special and amazing. It is not just about sales, share or profits. What are you trying to do that makes a difference in the world. There is a saying that people will remember you for how you make them FEEL, not what you did. The best bosses and leaders I have ever had have done this.


(7) If your boss is a dick to you, they probably are to everyone. Speak up. Just chose to who and when, and make sure you have documented examples.

(8) Stand up for what you believe is right, and even if everyone else around you is not ethical or fudging the lines, do not do it. The good guys always win in the end, a saying from my Mother than I believe and have seen.

(9) Focus on what you can do or influence. Not what could be or should be. People spend too much time waiting for leaders to led. Focus on what you can do or influence and make it happen.

(10) Take informed risks. Doing what others do will do nothing more than keep you in middle of the pack, the people that win will always lose some and win more. Followers never win a race. Ever

Steve Jobs: Things I learnt #2: Making people feel they are part of something important and visionary story telling

I was at an internal training session once about PR and building powerful story pitches for the media. Other than being an enjoyable day (on an area that I used to think was a lot of puff and not really worth spending time on and now am a big convert to) there was one thing that really stood out for me.

One of the trainer / panel members was talking about building stories and how the key is to find something that is dramatic, sticks and resonates personally. 


He used the example of Steve Jobs and how good he is at telling powerful and memorable stories. Stories that grab people and motivate. He spoke about how Apple in the early days while still a small start-up had been trying to recruit someone from Pepsi to be the CEO. 


After many attempts by head-hunters to convince the chap, Steve Jobs gave him a call and asked:

“Do you want to work the rest of your life on selling flavoured sugar water, or on something that will change the world”

Hard to resist and it stuck in the guy’s mind and he moved. It was motivating, personal, compelling and short and snappy. Just like any great headline and copy should be.


There are a few things we can learn from this:


(1) importance of creating short, snappy and memorable story for PR and consumers,


(2) even more important is having a short and snappy way of capturing what you as a company and brand are trying to. Specific enough, but also open enough to encourage innovative and new thinking


(3) making everyone that works in your company or brand feeling they are part of something important and significant.

Love it.

Steve Jobs. What about him and his view on brands inspired me and I try to live by in marketing

The loss of Steve Jobs to the world is a big one. He was creative, inspirational, demanding and changed the way we think about and use technology.


Not only am I an Apple products addict, but have been inspired by and used his approach to brands and what they should be. 


The video below (with text of the speech below) is one clip of him talking to Apple employees that not only shows how a visionary product should think, but constantly stresses something that a brand must be: more than just benefits and features (which need to be good) - but something more. You have to have a belief about the world around you, and then focus on that. It inspires people in and outside the company. It make them feel they are part of something special.

The summary of his message is: We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. 


The full text of his speech:


“For me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It’s a very noisy world.


And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us. 


Our customers want to know “who is apple? What is is that we stand for? Where we fit in this world”. 


And what we are about isn’t about making boxes for people to get their jobs done – although we do that well. We can do that almost better than anyone else can in some cases. 


But Apple’s about something more than that. Apple at the core, it’s core value, is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That’s what we believe”

This is the amazing TV ad that they made that captures the sentiment of "we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better". Clearly he should be in this ad. As he embodied this more than anything:

Despite what some people think, advertising can't make you buy something you don't need.

Circa 1986

I have always liked this ad, that I believe appeared in the mid-1980s by the American Association of Advertising Agencies. I assume at the time there must have been some debate about what advertising is, or is not, making people do.

This was a very hot topic through the 1980s as governments wrestled with what to do about smoking, and a lot of debate and arguing went on at that time about if advertising made people start or stay smoking.

The manufacturers argued that there were other social and peer pressure factors that made people start smoking. They argued it had nothing to do with advertising. Advertising was, they argued, about brand share once people had made that decision. And also smoking was not illegal.

They lost the argument as smoking advertising in most markets was banned.

So coming across this ad again made me think about why do advertisers advertise.

Here are some thoughts:

To make people aware of your product or offer. Advertising is a way to let people know what is new, different or available

To change beliefs and attitudes. I do believe that this is something that advertising does. This is why we see both brands, governments and organizations use it to try and change attitudes and behaviour

To change image. Advertising is used to reinforce, evolve or establish an image for a brand. Hence also the extensive use of celebrities in ads..

To cause a reaction. Any advertising that does not cause a reaction is a waste of money. You do it as you want people to do something, usually purchase.

I am not convinced that advertising gets you but something you don't want, but can make you buy more than you need probably and change brand choice.

But one key reason I like the ad is that it makes people think about what advertising is for an does, and how they interpret and act based on it.

French gymnasts are at it now! Naked men taking over ads?

Athena uses French athletes in their ads

The new book called Brand Washed by Martin Lindstrom, the marketing guru and prolific writer, has also spotted that we see to have more and more shirtless and semi-naked men in ads - and asking why.


In his pre-publicity he asks: Is the entire population of men gay? And goes on to say "Well if one should judge the question based on the pack design of Calvin Klein, Armani or BOSS underwear, the full page spreads for colognes or the front cover of Men's Health, the answer would be yes. So, for Brandwashed we initiated the first fMRI study ever conducted on why these images of half-naked men appeal to straight men. I won't reveal the answer but it is food for thought – not only for what these ads are going to look like in the future but also at our wives' and girlfriends' dinner tables."


I will let you know the answer and his thoughts once read the book!


But seems there is some sort of cultural trend, but also they work!


Athena uses French athletes in their ads

A video about the making of the ads, where all the crew also end up making the ads without clothes on: