Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

The summer break was a good time for a bit of rest and reflection, especially given the down-and-up year we had in 2011.

Naturally for me, part of this time was spent with a couple of books borrowed from the growing office library – a couple others much harder going than this one here:

The Book	What we thought
“Great by Choice Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All” by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen	More food for thought

Having previously read “Built to Last”, “Good to Great” and “How the Mighty Fall” by Jim (and others) I was not disappointed with a few more points of insight the authors have added with this latest piece of analysis. read more »

As we gear up for an intensive recruitment effort to find our new General Manager for Initiating, Opening & Sustaining Client Relationships (which others might call a GM for Sales and Marketing) it was timely to see this “8 ways to build customer loyalty” article posted on Inc.

Maintaining a high retention rate is critical to our business, and something we’ve done reasonably well over the past 12 years – but there’s always room for improvement (it’s not 100%).

These 8 pointers will be another useful reference in the months ahead…

We have no department for Sales and Marketing.

Though 2 very busy years has elapsed, not much has changed (in that respect) from when I drew this diagram back in early 2010:

It was obvious to us, then, that we first needed to overhaul our department for “Discerning, Developing and Delivering what the customer wants”.

This took some time, but we have done so (as such, that side of the organogram looks very different now). As alluded to here, we’re starting to see early signs that clients are being delighted with product upgrades again.

Given that we’re now gearing up to make our first hire at the top of our department for Sales & Marketing, it was a good coincidence that I happened upon the article “Ending the war between Sales and Marketing” published in HBR back in 2006.

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Had almost reached the end of this book and was thinking that (whilst it did contain some worthwhile information), it did not totally do it for me….

The Book	What we thought
“Know-How: the 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t” by Ram Charan	Solid, not stellar – but the letter’s worth reading!

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…and then I reached his “Letter to a Future Leader”, included at the end of the book (p265) …

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In ”The Profit Principle” the authors make the challenging statement that:

“The only reason to go into business is to make money. …
If you’re lucky, you’ll make that money doing something you love.  If you’re really lucky, it will also lead to some greater good – but don’t let delusions of grandeur get in the way of your profit and loss statements”
(p92 in my copy, my emphasis added)

This statement, on the one hand, is very sensible – but, on the other hand, is a direct challenge to many others who empathise that a business must have a purpose that is more than just making money, if it is to be sustainable, and successful:

(a)  Jim Collins calls this “more than profits”;

(b)   Daniel Pink talks about the importance of Purpose.

(c)  Jason Baptiste notes that if entrepreneurs “got into entrepreneurship first and foremost for the money” then they “are in the wrong business”

Hence there is an apparent paradox between these two points of view.

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This is a brief post to follow on from the first update, provided 7 months ago.

I’ve made this post as we’ve had inquiries periodically over the intervening period, asking whether we’re going to be kicking off the recruitment process soon.  Hence for those others who might be interested, this post is to keep you updated.

The short answer to the question is “not just yet”!

I am very keen to have this person onboard, as he/she will be a key contributor to achieving the ambitious vision we’ve set for the business.

However we’ll be generating a higher ROI through 2011 if my focus remains elsewhere for a little while longer… read more »

A whirlwind trip interstate this week to see some existing clients, and some potential new clients, provided a few hours on the plane to catch up on some reading.

Amongst the things I read was “What brain science tells us about how to excel” by Edward M Hallowell in the December 2010 issue of HBR.

Given we have set some ambitious goals in terms of where our bus is headed, and that I have learnt (the hard way) the value of getting the right people on the bus, and in the right seats, I read this article with great interest.

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We’ve had these books in the library at work for a couple of years.

Some time ago some of the guys who were working with us at the time had a read and gave their reviews. Unfortunately the core message was lost in translation – hence, I did not (at that time) form a favourable opinion of the books.

More recently I’ve started reading through them, and found they are well worth a read.  In my view they don’t form the whole picture of what needs to be considered (more on that later), but they do provide valuable insights.

Rather than review each separately I have grouped them together here.  I’ve only read two currently, and so might update this post later, whenever I have had time to read the others.

“First break all the rules” by Buckingham & Coffman	“Now Discover your Strengths” by Buckingham & Clifton	“The One Thing you Need to Know” by Buckingham	“Go put your Strengths to Work” by Buckingham
	Have not read it yet		Have not read it yet

Frequent visitors to the blog might be asking yourself “Why so many book reviews”? – if so, see here…

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