Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

Have seen this posted about before, but never taken the time to look – it was an Anthill article “The best three-minute video about leadership you will ever see” that prompted me to hit play.

A bit weird and wacky, but relevant to us – even in an industry that could be thought of as boring:

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Not sure about “the best” tagline – but this video is very instructional, and entertaining at the same time.

Just a few comments:

1)  The Commentator’s Lessons:

The commentator (Derek Sivers) makes these points:

1)  Leadership is over-glorified.  It’s really the “First Followers” who get a movement going.

2)  To be an effective leader:

(a)  A leader must be prepared to look foolish

(b)  A leader must be easy to follow (i.e. what they do must be simple and instructional)

(c)  It’s not an ego thing – it’s not about the leader, it’s about the movement:
i.  Hence the leader must embrace the followers as equals
ii.  The leader may mistakenly get most of the credit, though it really is a team effort.

3)  A movement must be public – make sure people see the followers, not the leader as people follow followers, not the leader.

4)  The video shows an excellent illustration of a tipping point (you might have read the book, but this video makes the transition very clear).

5)  Oh yeah, and we’ll add in one more – the Anthill headline reinforces the power of an effective headline!  How many times did I see the above image before I was suckered in…

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2)  Relevance to Us:

Those who have been following the blog for some time will recognise that I have been brought to recognise that the role of the CEO is simple (in principle) though very hard to master.

A large part of this role revolves around leadership – both internally and externally.

(a)  Internally

If I am the leader internally, then the two key hires I will be making through 2010 will be effectively the key “first followers”.  It will be through which we will build our team, and build the culture, such that we can deliver on our vision for the future.

Those two key hires are:
1)  A General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering What the Customer Wants (Needs)
2)  A General Manager for Marketing and Sales (weird and wacky title still to be determined).

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(b)  Externally

Our Mission for the Company is such (i.e. at the forefront of our industry) that I am required to be a leader externally as well.

For instance, when I arrived back from the UK back in 1998, I found that not many people at all wanted to know about the opportunities present in ”Demand Side Response” in the electricity market.

When I started this company in 2000, I developed NEM-Watch with this potential application in mind, and upgraded the concept to produce deSide ® as a product more specifically targeted at those industrial energy users providing curtailability in the market.

Gradually, our client base has grown (we now supply our software to companies in industries as diverse as aluminium, zinc, other minerals, steel, paper, cement and water).  Gradually, also, we have seen the number of advocates for DSR grown – and are genuinely happy that this has happened (because we see DSR as one of the avenues through which the market can secure significant, sustained benefit).

I know that I was not the only voice for DSR back in those days (so I was not “the” Leader).  Was I a 1st follower or 17th follower?   I don’t really know.

What I do distinctly recall is that it was very lonely promoting that message a decade or more ago, as it seemed that no-one wanted to know:
1)  Not the retailers, who liked things just as they were,
2)  Not the energy users, who (in general terms) were not in a position to consider the changed paradigm that this approach requires.
3)  Not the government, who did not seem to recognise the benefits available.
In summary, it was a hard slog (and still is, to some extent, though there are more followers now)

Have we reached a “tipping point” in the market with respect to DSR – certainly not yet.  I am not even sure that this will eventuate (as DSR is harder for some clients than for others – either in terms of the physical infrastructure of their plant, or because of the management paradigm under which they operate).

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3)  What is “Demand Side Response”?

That’s a good question.

Demand Side Response, is a term for Energy Users offering back into the market some flexibility in terms of when they consume their electricity (in return for a benefit of some kind).

The benefits can be significant, because of the extremely volatile nature of demand (and hence price) in the electricity market.  If energy users choose to curtail consumption of electricity for only a select few hours a year (less than 1% of the time) they can stand to make large reductions in overall cost of electricity consumed across the year (i.e. 10-20% or more):
1)  The electricity supply industry benefits, as this helps to balance supply and demand more effectively, and can help to defer network expansion costs;
2)  The energy user benefits from considerably lower prices.

Here are some notes I have previously prepared to indicate the scale of the benefits available to large Commercial & Industrial clients (i.e. major energy users) who pursue this mode of energy purchasing.

Tags: leadership, Marketing, positioning

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Article Review, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.