Page 1
Newsletter Header
1
FirstCuts 2009: Issue 33
Framework Consulting Inc.
Inside Editorial
2
Article
3
Tips, Ads and Links 8
Editorial FirstCuts - a source of provocative ideas for Caribbean businessthinkers
Article Overcoming the reluctance to go online.
Tips, Ads and Links The audio podcast of this ezine is about 25 minutes long and can be found at fwconsulting.podomatic. com.
3389 Sheridan Street #434 Hollywood FL 33021, USA PO Box 3109 Kingston 8, Jamaica phone: 954-323-2552 phone: 876-880-8653 fax: 509-272-7966 francis@fwconsulting.com www.fwconsulting.com
Page 2
Editorial While I typically focus on topics that have to do with Framework Consulting's charter to focus on "the toughest people issues in the Caribbean," you may find that this month is a bit of a departure. Or is it? The issues that stand in the way of us exploting internet technology to its fullest have nothing to do with bandwidth costs or security. Instead, they are all tied up with the risks that our executives are unwilling to take. If you are an executive and your secretary prints out your email for you to read,
then the contents of this issue are a challenge to upgrade your skills so that you can provide the kind of leadership your company needs. Actually, that applies to ALL executives who aren't doing the basics that I describe in this issue! Francis P.S. Don't forget that you can listen to this entire issue by going to our podcast page: fwconsulting.podomatic.com
Newsletter Header
2
Caribbean Companies and the Internet When I moved back to Jamaica four years ago, I did so only after several years of continuous experimentation with Internet-based tools. Starting in 1997, I created a strategy to spend more time in the Caribbean and less time in the United States, while being mindful of the need to return to Florida periodically to take care of my U.S.-based company. What I discovered over this eight-year period was that it became progressively easier to do business remotely, thanks to changes that the U.S. federal government, the Florida state government, and banks and other institutions were making. By 2005, there was little business that I actually had to do in person, as the barriers to doing business remotely made it easier for me to conduct business via the Internet. Thankfully, I could finally trust these new systems to the point where I could be away for months at a time, doing business from any location in the world. Since then, it's only become easier, as the Internet has allowed me to transform my daily business life. In companies around the world, similar transformations are rapidly underway. Page 3
What has struck me here in the region is how little business our companies are doing on the Internet (apart from email), and how much our regional professionals still rely on meeting someone in person. The
What I discovered... was that it became... easier to do business remotely, thanks to changes (in the) US government... (and in) banks
standards, very, very small. And during this recession, these markets aren’t big enough to sustain all the companies that desire to do business. The potential of our companies and their brands remains untainted, and the intelligence of our people is undiminished. But as we complain about the price of LIAT and Caribbean Airlines tickets, we’re disregarding the opportunities we have sitting on our desks, locked up in web pages, email addresses, and social networking sites. And it's not as if the picture is a static one. If UWI, or any other academic institution, were to offer a 12-week programme in ecommerce, my advice would be to avoid it. There’s no way that it could be current by the end of the 4th week, let alone the 12th week. Things would have changed dramatically in that short space of time.
result is that our reluctance has placed us at a significant disadvantage with respect to the most developed countries—where new norms, practices, and communities are being created between professionals who only know I find that merely keeping one another online and fully up with recent changes believe that they’ll never meet in person. The truth is that we’re being left behind, and our companies are becoming overly focused on familiar local and regional markets. These markets are, by world
Newsletter Header
3
requires a major effort, and gaining a good understanding of the opportunities that these changes create requires even more time. To illustrate how much can be done, and how fast things can change, consider the publication that you’re now reading or listening to. FirstCuts has been around for a little more than three years, and this is the 33rd issue. Here are some of the innovations I’ve introduced since the first issue, and the approximate issue that first employed each innovation: • Issue 1 – Used AWeber.com for the first time to manage the mailing list (US$20 per month). • Issue 5 – Hired an editor whom I’ve used on every issue. She lives in the United States, but I’ve never met or spoken with her on the phone. We connected through Elance.com, and she charges me about US$100 per issue. • Issue 20 – Launched a podcast of each issue for free download (US$9 per month for hosting). • Issue 25 – Started using iStockphoto.com, a service that sells pictures (US$1.20 per picture). • Issue 27 – Advertised the release of each issue on Facebook and Twitter (free).
Page 4
• Issue 28 – Created a sign-up page on the new Chronicles blog using video (webcam cost US$90). • Issue 29 – Downloaded and taught myself how to use some open source software for laying out newsletters and ezines (free).
This is just a single area in which our Caribbean companies seem to miss the boat in the ways they connect with their customers.
region, and there are only a tiny handful of business ezines produced on a regular basis. Yet, the research shows that ezines are one of the most costeffective ways to reach out to an audience of potential buyers. This is just a single area in which our Caribbean companies seem to miss the boat in the ways they connect with their customers. What can we do to catch up with many of the best practices that are currently being taken for granted by companies around the world? I think it boils down to a need to create a long-term strategy, experiment with new technology, build online trust, engage in ecommerce, and market to all potential customers in cost-effective ways.
• Issue 30 – Switched to Issuu.com and Scribd.com as the delivery mechanisms (free). As I compile this list for the first time, I’m truly surprised. These innovations were not planned when I launched FirstCuts, and I had no idea that it would evolve so quickly. But here's the stunning fact: I did nothing that any company in the Caribbean could not have done also. However, I’ve noticed that very few ezines exist in the
Newsletter Header
4
Learning Internet Essentials Taking the Long View When I lead strategic planning efforts, one of the essential exercises that executive teams undertake is developing a 30-year plan. In essence, I ask them what they’re building for the company’s long term, after most of them will have retired. (It’s a bit like asking them what they want to be remembered for.) I even ask solo professionals the same question, because a company that’s created to pay the rent now is very different from one that an owner intends to pass on to his or her children. Along the same lines, a company that intends to be the biggest in Barbados in 30 years is very different from one that intends to be the biggest in the hemisphere. Each one would think about the Internet very differently, for example. Each company needs to determine its goals and, at the same time, how Internet technology is likely to make an impact. At the same time, there are hardly any companies that won't be affected by new technology. And chances are good that someplace, somewhere in the world, there is currently a new development that will change the face of your business. While you can't Page 5
know exactly what or where that is, to ignore its possible There’s no excuse—regional existence is to court disaster. companies need to place themselves on the cutting A good strategic plan should edge if they’re serious take into account all that’s about not just surviving, but known about the industry also planning their future. In and the disruptive the beginning, this may technologies that are mean doing a lot of Google searches that bear no fruit whatsoever, but patience is required to find and use the necessary information. (In my own business, I was inspired by McKinsey Quarterly and Harvard Business Review to do something for regional companies.)
Unfortunately, “establishing one’s rights as a victim” isn’t exactly a corporate best practice. Neither is an “ability to protest wrongdoing.”
Experimenting
In addition to finding the right information, companies must also be patient about finding and adopting the latest tools. But learning how to use currently in development. them takes time, and you may need to overcome Fortunately, the Internet some natural resistance itself has made it easy to toward new thinking. find companies that are implementing best practices I recall, back in 2005, one of around the world. If I sell car the earliest conversations I parts, for example, it’s not ever had with a colleague too hard to find a company about blogging. We both that’s using the Internet in wondered what on earth a an innovative way. Their blog was, and whether it example is probably a good was something that we predictor of where my should use in some way. No company will have to head one we knew at the time if it’s to remain competitive. could answer the question, and we certainly didn’t The good news is that it’s know anyone who was becoming progressively actually blogging. easier to replicate what the best-in-class companies are A similar conversation doing. occurred a few months ago Newsletter Header
5
about Twitter. The descriptions of this messaging service were vague, and I simply couldn’t map this tool onto anything that I already knew or understood. It all seemed quite foreign to me.
started to teach myself Twitter when I realized that it had significant business potential, and I read some early reports about the results that other professionals were producing.
In both cases, I struggled and eventually overcame significant conceptual and habitual hurdles to get to the point where I now use both tools almost every day. There were many times when I thought about giving up. At those moments, I just wanted to dismiss both tools as a bunch of “foolishness.” Thankfully, I persevered, and my business has benefited immeasurably.
CEOs who routinely put their hands on new technologies can ensure that the companies they lead are increasing the odds that they’ll be around 10 or 20 years from now.
This is very much the same spirit in which Caribbean executives need to approach new tools. These new tools have strange names, and they are doing more than just replacing services that already exist. Instead, they’re creating entirely new grounds of communication that have simply never existed, and they’re generating brandnew industries altogether. The only way to begin to appreciate the reasons why, for example, a CEO should consider using both a blog and Twitter is to actually try them both in order to understand how they work. But being adventurous with new technology isn’t just a matter of improving your personal knowledge or satisfying a curiosity. I Page 6
Trusting Our unique history has generated significant distrust between businesspeople, and one of the problems that local managers have is that they’re unable to determine how to trust people via the Internet. Too many are stuck in an old practice that’s outlived its usefulness: “I have to see you before I know that I can trust you and therefore do business with you.” This old thinking keeps managers and executives stuck with limited networks or with business contacts that are limited to people they’ve met in person, the vast majority of whom happen to
reside in the Caribbean country.
same
The fact is, there are ways in which skilled networkers “check out” other people on the Internet and determine whether or not they can be trusted. They use a combination of explicit cues, such as Facebook and Google, and more subtle cues, such as the website’s design and the location of the server’s IP address. They also look at the quality of correspondence that takes place and who else may have done business with that person in the past. Many of these factors come down to little more than a certain instinct or “feel” that only comes from browsing thousands of websites over time. Along with this second sense, there’s also a willingness to trust and to do business for equal gain. This willingness exists, even though it may mean that mistakes are made from time to time. What online businesspeople know is that they may sometimes end up trusting the wrong people, but that’s just one of the costs of doing business. Fortunately, there are increasing safeguards in the form of social proof. I encourage (and sometimes require) that my business partners across the region use Elance.com to transact business. One of the reasons I use the service is that it includes detailed reviews of past Newsletter Header
6
project performance from prior clients. This gives me a powerful way to provide feedback publicly—and a way to increase the odds that the people I hire are vetted by others. It’s quite similar to the seller rankings on eBay, which you can use to determine if a vendor can be trusted before placing an order. By and large, my personal experience has been overwhelmingly positive, and I’ve gotten better over time at determining whom to do business with—and whom to avoid.
Ecommerce-ing Beyond the issue of trust lies the bigger question of buying and selling on the Internet.
The problem is that CEOs who are personally afraid to use their credit cards online are probably also afraid to pioneer their companies’ use of ecommerce. Their fears can thwart the right strategy from being created, as they fail to become savvy users of online payment systems. It’s a little like designing a product for a local store without ever having actually shopped there. The lack of direct experience only increases the risk that when implementation becomes a necessity, the top managers will have to rely on others because they don’t understand enough of the customer’s experience to do a good job.
At this point, despite the noise created by the media, Internet fraud is a rare phenomenon. For every US$100 of credit card business done each day in 2006, for example, there were 7 cents of fraudulent transactions. That’s less than 1% of all transactions. From the point of view of most businesspeople, that’s an acceptable risk, especially when using proper safeguards that reduce the odds of being a victim of a crime. However, to watch the news is to hear story after story of people being ripped off, and it’s not surprising that many businesspeople are afraid to pull out their credit cards to do online transactions. Page 7
Marketing
with potential buyers. There are certain basic concepts and terms that all managers need to understand before they attempt to market and advertise on the Internet. At the end of 2007, I signed up for my first Internet marketing training programme, and I can tell you from my own experience that it was an eye-opener. I was shocked by the level of sophistication I found. Only then did I understand that the marketing that had reached me, resulting in my joining a mailing list or purchasing a product, was not haphazard. I saw for the first time that it was purposely designed to produce some specific results at each step of a sales process. I started trying it myself, and I began offering products and services to audiences outside the Caribbean. I discovered that the learning curve was steep, and there were no shortcuts. I also saw that many of the choices I made could not be outsourced to others—I needed to make some critical decisions at all steps along the way.
To do ecommerce well, it’s important to know how to The fact is that Internet find and create relationships marketing is much easier to with the right customers. conduct than ecommerce. But in my experience, Managers who regularly use Caribbean companies still the Internet as customers have a long way to go to are at a distinct advantage take advantage of over those who don’t, technology that will become because the former group a de facto part of their daystarts to develop a feel for to-day lives in the next few how to communicate online years. Newsletter Header
7
If pressed, I’d have a hard time coming up with more than a handful of companies that have a regular online mailing list. Of those with lists, I’d have a harder time thinking of one or two that keep in regular touch with me as their customer. As far as I know, none are doing targeted advertising, let alone any actual sales. These activities are accepted as basic in the
best companies, yet few of our companies have the vision to see that they can compete at this level and perform at acceptable standards.
All it takes to provide this kind of futuristic leadership is the courage to be the first—and the willingness to make some mistakes along the way. Those who remain paralysed in old business The good news is that, while methods are likely to the gap exists, better tools discover that they’re fast are coming out every day moving toward extinction. that will help companies bridge the gap. Also, better FC training is being released all the time to help shorten the learning curve dramatically.
Tips, Ads and Links Podcast: Remember, each issue of FirstCuts is recorded as a podcast and can be found at the following clickable link: http//fwconsulting.podomatic. com A great deal has been happening recently at my time management website. In addition to a new report, there have been videos and audios available. I am building up to a product launch in the next few weeks of MyTimeDesign 2.0 -- an opportunity to upgrade your time management system, starting with the system you are using right now. See 2time-sys.com A long-established magazine BusinessSuite - has gone completely online and I wrote
the cover story for the most recent issue (October 2009.) Hopefully this will be a regular outing -- we'll see! Click here to be taken to the article. Framework Consulting was recently featured in a couple of articles in the Jamaican newspapers that were quite complimentary. Also, I had an article published in the Trinidad Newsday. To see these articles, simply check out the Framework blog, which is the home of all our Caribbean consulting publications. Click here to see the articles.
FirstCuts © Copyright 2009, Framework Consulting, except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint only with permission from copyright holder(s). All trademarks are property of their respective owners. All contents provided as is. No express or implied income claims made herein. Your business success is dependent on many factors, including your own abilities. Advertisers are solely responsible for ad content. To subscribe, send email to firstcuts@aweber.com. To contact us with questions or feedback, send email to newsletter@fwconsulting.com
Past issues of FirstCuts can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/pw7fa
A monthly compilation of critical links for Caribbean managers.
8