Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

Over the 10+ years we’ve been in business, we’ve been lucky enough to gradually stumble upon a formula that provides us our own measure of stickiness with clients, and potential clients, in the electricity market:
1)  We have products, such as NEM-Watch, that have proven sticky products (the manifestation of ideas) in their own right
2)  The way our clients perceive us (in terms of “making the electricity market understandable”) has proven to be understood by many (though not all) people who come into contact with us – as we have been told by those who responded to our recent survey.
3)  In addition, we’ve had some (though far from all) of our communications prove to be fairly sticky.

Given where our bus is headed, we have a keen interest in building on this base to make ourselves much stickier in future – in the above ways, and more

1)  Binary Review

It’s for this reason that this book was of great interest to me…

The Book	What we thought
“Made to Stick - Why some ideas Survive and others Die” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath	… and it did not disappoint

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Perhaps more through good luck then good management, in our early days we put together the NEM-Watch product, which tends to be a product that “sells itself” – by generating a form of buzz.

Note that when I speak of buzz here, I do it within the framework of the industry in which we operate, which tends to have a staid image, as I discussed here.   Certainly our successes are not going to make it to the “Top Viral 100” list, if there is such a beast.

As a company with a small team of staff and a large number of clients, and aspirations to grow our number of clients further over the next few years, I have a keen interest in understanding how we can use principles of buzz to assist us in building up the profile of all of our products.

1)  Binary Review

Hence I found this book and excellent read.

The Book	What we thought
“The Anatomy of Buzz” by Emmanuel Rosen	Thought-provoking

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Ironically, I read this book back in September up in the Whitsundays (yes, home to the lucky bugger who’s got the best job in the world – at least for 6 months).

You see - in the book, Richard regales the reader of his prized Necker Island (in the Caribbean) and of the value it has represented to him and the group.  Might be a few more years, yet, before we can splurge on our own island!

1)  Binary Review

This book was a quick easy read.

The Book	What we thought
“Screw it, Let’s do it”by Richard Branson	.Upbeat, entertaining stories, with some good lessons

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As you would probably expect (the title’s a bit of a give-away) the book is all about such “simple” concepts as:

1)  Don’t plan to the nth degree – just get started and learn as you go (for me, this resonated with what I have been learning about Agile Software Development)

2)  Have fun along the way.

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Following Stephen’s review of the presentation made by Phillip Di Bella, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had also bought us a copy of Phil’s new book “Roasted Passion”.

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Binary Review

The book was a quick read (over and done with in 4 hours flying time to and from Melbourne this week).

The Book	What we thought
“Roasted Passion” by Robert Norton	. . Not a classic, but gets a gong as it has a few good points, and is a quick read

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This is to follow Adam’s post on the Scott Ginsberg seminar, and specifically to follow Adam’s post with some more specific thoughts about what it means to us.

The post was initially made restricted, but I have now shifted some of the more confidential comments to a “part2” restricted post here….

1)  Be Remarkable

(in the truest sense of the word) – as in, present yourself in such a way that other people want to talk about you.

One of Scott’s most telling points (and he had stolen this from others) is that:
1)  If we talk about ourselves, the listener (naturally) assumes it is marketing, and is inclined to switch off.
2)  However, if other people talk about us, then this provides our name/brand some instant credibility, in the listener’s mind.  The extension of this is that the amount of credibility we gain is proportional to the listener’s view of the person talking about us. read more »