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ASIA-PACIFIC LEADER The E-Magazine for Leaders
Business Lessons From Ferrari How to build your brand from one of the world's best
How To Ask For A Pay Rise
The question everyone wants to ask
How To Make Your Meetings More Eective Start making meetings work for you
Teamwork Lessons From Rugby Winning lessons from winning teams
New Zealand Leadership Courses
Email NZ@EliteLD.co.nz to reserve your place today 2
From the editor What's in a name? Whether you have intended to do so or not we all have a brand. It's what people say about you before meeting you. It's what the people who have met you say about you when you leave the room. We all have a brand so what's yours?
In this months edition of Asia-Pacific Leader magazine I look at one of the worlds most famous brands, Ferrari. A brand so successful that their image rights generate â‚Ź60 million a year in revenue and that's before a single car is sold.
I analyse the success of Ferrari and look at business lessons that can benefit anyone who wants to achieve success.
On a personal note I want to send a big thank you to all the team at The Lakes District Health Board in Rotorua. I delivered two workshops
last month, one on communication and another on conflict and I had a great time. A big perk of being a Leadership Coach is being able to travel and see dierent areas of New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region in general. I always enjoy Rotorua and I hope that I get back there soon.
I can confirm that my new leadership book will be released within the next couple of months. You can pre-order the book today and if you are one of the first 100 pre-orders then you will receive the book for only $0.99 USD.
Thanks and enjoy the read
Email: mark@eliteld.co.nz Twitter: Mark_wager
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Inside Asia-Pacific leader magazine
Business Lessons From Ferrari 07
How To Ask For A Pay Rise 10
How To Make Your Meetings More Effective 12
Teamwork Lessons From Rugby 15 Images courtesy of: Image courtesy of Teerapun at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Image courtesy of khunaspix at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Inspirational quotes
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Business Lessons From Ferrari By Mark Wager
Just think of the word Ferrari and what comes to mind? Quality, expensive, fast, exclusive are just some of the common words that are associated with Ferrari. The Italian car manufacturers are one of the most profitable car manufacturers in the world with its chairman Sergio Marchionne stating that the company is worth over 10 billion Euros which is approximately $11.4 billion U.S. Dollars. This is remarkable when you consider the type of product that Ferrari makes.
Imagine if I approached you with a business plan that states that I will make you billions. I'm sure you would be incredibly interested. So imagine if I then explained my plan. Together we are going to make a car, it's not going to be any car it's going to be a car that the vast majority of the population can't afford, the car is also going to have very poor fuel efficiency, it's also only going to have two seats so you can't use it to drive your family around and it's going to have a very small trunk so you can't really use it for your trip to the supermarket. Are you still convinced this plan is going to make you billions? While this plan sounds crazy, at first glance Ferrari has
achieved the impossible and it's down to one reason and that is the power of its brand.
The brand of Ferrari is so strong that it makes approximately €60 million euros a year from its branding alone. Without selling a single car Ferrari makes €60 million euros from companies that want to put the Ferrari logo on sunglasses, T-shirts, posters, calendars and many more items. You name it and just add a Ferrari logo on it and watch it sell. The Ferrari brand is consistently regarded as one of the top three most valuable brands in the world along with Apple and Lego. The quality and marketing of their brand creates an image that people want to be associated with and are willing to pay money to do so.
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If I told you I had a Ferrari, what impression would you have of me? You may think that I'm rich, you may think I'm successful and you will think that I like to drive fast and I'm a bit of a playboy. You may also think I'm flashy and poor with money in order to spend so much money on a car. I don't actually have a Ferrari but in fact, the nearest I have is a small remote control Ferrari model car but I've seen first hand the impact the Ferrari brand has. I remember when I worked in a Finance House in London during the nineties I was in the process of renting a new flat in London and I had to go and see the landlord to pitch my case and explain why he should let the property to me. I was running late so one of the Directors kindly oered to drop me o. He of course was driving a Ferrari. As I excitedly got into the car to meet the landlord I didn't have to say a word because the landlord oered me the flat immediately just at the site of the Ferrari and me in it despite just being in the passenger's seat was enough to tell him all he wanted to know about the kind of person I was and the kind of company I worked for.
The question is what does your brand say about its consumers
The power of a brand doesn't come from the quality of the product or service, the power of the brand comes from what does it say about its customers? Enzo Ferrari, a former racing car driver manufactured the first Ferrari branded car in 1947. His philosophy was simple he believed that life should be lived fast and wanted his product to reflect that philosophy. In essence that is the power of the
Ferrari brand, it reflects a simple philosophy of life which attracts people who also believe in the same philosophy. Look at any marketing campaign that Ferrari releases and you see it's philosophy and the wild horse logo with the bright red colour that is so closely associated with. Ferrari clearly states who it is and what it stand for and waits for its consumers to come to them. When this happens, price almost becomes irrelevant. Last year, sales of Ferrari cars went down but profits actually went up, due to the power of its brand and its ability to raise prices
Your company may never be Ferrari but the lessons from its success are there for all of us to learn. To start building your brand, ask yourself these questions.
What does your company stand for?
What does your brand say about your consumers?
Why should anyone care?
Success in business branding comes from identifying a core philosophy that the business lives and breathes each and every single day. If you decide that today you will revaluate your branding then there's no guarantee where this journey will take you. In the same way the racing car driver Enzo Ferrari didn't know where his journey would lead but he knew one thing. It would be a fun journey.
"Everyone dreams of driving a Ferrari, it was my intent from the start" - Enzo Ferrari.
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How To Ask For A Pay Rise By Mark Wager I received an email recently which a lot of you will relate to. The email was from someone who had been in the same job for a while, enjoyed the role but during the past few years her workload has increased yet her salary remained the same. She wanted to stay in the role but felt undervalued and wanted to approach her boss for a pay rise but wanted some guidance on how to do this. This article covers my response.
I've been in managerial roles for over twenty five years in dierent countries and industries and I've been in many situations when people have asked me for pay rises and on some occasions, I've asked for a pay rise myself. I've seen patterns arise from requests that have worked as compared to ones that have failed. Firstly, I need to point out that every situation between an employer and employee is unique and there's no technique that will guarantee success. However, having been on both sides, what I can tell you is what behaviour works and what doesn't quite work.
The majority of people fail when asking for a pay rise because they fundamentally present the wrong
argument. The most common request is "I feel undervalued, I've been here a long time or I work hard so I deserve a pay rise." The argument is portrayed as a value based position suggesting that a wrong has occurred that has to be fixed. This places the employer in a position that they are accused of not valuing their employee and places the employee and employer on opposite sides of an argument. This is unlikely to succeed yet there is a far better way to approach this.
The argument for a pay rise needs to be viewed as a business case. The relationship between an employer and an employee is a business one even if it doesn't feel like that. Just because people get on well it doesn't change the fact that this is still a business relationship. The employer requires services from the employee and remunerates the employee in exchange for those services. If you doubt this then just ask yourself how long would you carry on working if you stopped getting paid. You are involved in a business arrangement with your employer and now you want to renegotiate the terms of that arrangement.
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The first stage of negotiation needs to make sure that both of you are not opposed to each other so instead of portraying the lack of a pay rise as a wrong that needs to be corrected you must present it as a problem that you have and you require assistance to solve that problem. Imagine instead of saying "you don't pay me enough" you said "I need your help. I really want to stay with our company but I'm finding it diďŹƒcult because there are other companies oering more money for the same position. I'm trying to find reasons to stay. Can you help?" The second statement positions both parties on the same side of the negotiating table which makes an agreement far more likely while keeping the ownership of the issue with yourself rather than delegating it to the employer.
The second stage of the negotiation is to present a business case. Like every business case you have to articulate the return on investment. If your employer spends X amount of money on you then what will they get as a return. This way the discussions become an investment decision rather than a reward decision. Investment decisions will always be more attractive to businesses because the focus is about moving the company forward. Ask yourself why should your employer pay you more? Will you be prepared to perform extra duties or take on more responsibilities? On many cases the employee is already doing the extra work which is an issue because if you are doing the extra work then the employer has already renegotiated your work arrangement and by doing those extra duties you have agreed to that new arrangement without extra money. If this is the case then you need to ask what would be the starting salary of your replacement if they had the same experience as yourself? If it's feasible that your replacement would be paid X
amount extra then it's a sensible business case for you to have X extra money and the employer avoids the additional loss of time, cost and risk of recruitment.
Be prepared for some harsh truths. If you are unable to build a good business case with reasons why you should be paid extra then you may have to face the reality that you don't deserve a pay rise. Alternatively if you are convinced about your value in the marketplace it doesn't mean your employer has to agree with you and if they don't then the reality is maybe your employer may not care about you to the same extent as you care about your employer. The truth is that more often than not, during this process you may find out that another employer may value you more. Never ask for a pay rise unless you are prepared to walk away from what you currently have.
Every situation is very dierent and needs to be treated as unique but overall you will have far more success when asking for a pay rise if you can frame the discussion as a business case rather than an emotional debate and like every negotiation, agreement is more likely if both parties are positioned on the same side of the argument. So next time, instead of asking for money ask for help. If you are working for the right employer then they will understand your position and why they need you and will do everything within their power to help you stay simply because in helping you to stay they are really helping themselves and the business.
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How To Make Your Meetings More Effective By Mark Wager
“If you had to identify, in one word why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word be “Meetings” - Dave Barry What is the biggest waste of time during your working day? If you think meetings are so then you are part of the 47% of the workforce who listed meetings as the biggest waste of their time in a recent survey. Meetings are one of the oldest tools in a Manager's toolbox but it is also one of the most misunderstood and misused. Every Manager holds meetings but very few hold effective meetings. In this article I share some of the techniques that effective Managers use to ensure that their meetings are considered a valuable part of the workday and not a waste of time.
and is no longer effective. If you require information from your team then there are many methods to do this. I know one successful executive who gets his direct reports to block out five minutes at the end of the day to send an email summarising their day. The email is so simple and only takes a few minutes to compose. The email covers three points. Firstly a summary of tasks completed today. Secondly, what results have been achieved today keeping in mind it's one thing to do work but the work is irrelevant unless positive results are achieved. Thirdly and finally, what challenges they have encountered. This should only take five minutes to compose, if it takes longer then they are putting in too much information. This brief summary gives the executive a good idea of what is going on and tells him a lot about the people he has reporting to him.
Meetings are not the only way to get updates Several Managers have meetings as a default function. They block out the same time every week for a meeting for people to share information or to discuss plans. This method is outdated 12
Keep your meetings brief From my experience no meeting should go beyond forty five minutes. If the issue can not be resolved within this time then you either don't have the right people at the meeting or they are not prepared. Information regarding the meeting should be sent out to the participants at least twenty four hours prior and by information I don't mean an agenda, I mean the information that people require in order to make a decision or to provide well thought out comments.
Keep your meetings focussed The mobile phone was voted as one of the top inventions of the past century. It was also voted as one of the top ten worst inventions of the past century. The ability to be contacted at anytime of the day from anywhere in the world is both a blessing and a curse. It puts a lot of pressure on the individual's ability to manage their time and to avoid distractions. If you want your meetings to be focussed then the participants need to be focussed. Turn the phones off. Now for a lot of people that's a terrifying thought but if your participants can't focus solely on the meeting for thirty to forty minutes then either the meeting is not important enough or they are not managing their time well enough and require coaching.
Give people permission to challenge ideas I worked with a leading firm of architects who have an amazing team. I know a lot of Managers who say that their sta are like family but very few actually mean it. This firm of architects did and they have a very close team and everyone gets along well together. In fact they got along too well, they
liked each other so much that there was no conflict. It's often viewed as a negative but every successful team or relationship for that matter needs conflict. If managed correctly decisions are challenged and made more robust, mistakes are avoided and issues are raised and resolved. When I worked with this company the leaders realised that this lack of conflict was preventing progress so together we put in place a solution. At every meeting someone was allocated the duty to find everything wrong with the proposal on the table. The assigned "critic" has full permission to be as critical as possible as long as the focus was on the idea and not people. This ensured that all decisions were robust and far better quality than before.
Make the purpose of the meeting clear I've heard many stories of people who have been to many meetings where they had no idea of the purpose of the meeting even before I walked into the room and unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. Make people aware so that they can prepare, if the purpose of the meeting is to decide something then supply as much information as possible so that any debate can be well informed and constructive. In this way not only will your meeting take less time but will result in better decisions
You too can make meetings eective as long as you challenge what you have done in the past and look at meetings for what they are, an investment of everyone's time to drive the organisation forward. Ask yourself what return on investment you want from your meetings and plan accordingly. 13
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Teamwork Lessons From Rugby By Mark Wager
If you want to see the embodiment of a successful team then look no further than the rugby field. Rugby is a sport within which individual brilliance can only occur as a result of collective work. More than in any other team sport, in Rugby, victory can only be achieved if every member of the team is working together and while individual brilliance can impact a game this brilliance can't occur without the hard work of their colleagues. In Rugby success is truly a collective effort.
Having a successful team is the foundation of success in business. If you have individuals who work hard, work smart and with total commitment to the team then your chances of succeeding in business increase dramatically. The quest to create this winning team mentality is sought after by leaders in offices all around the world yet the answers are right in front of us on the Rugby field. In this article I look at a successful rugby side, analyse their success and show how any team, no matter the industry they work in, can learn from this side in order to create their own winning team.
The Chiefs are a New Zealand side playing in the Super Rugby
competition, two time winners of the competition and are one of the few sides ever to win back to back titles. Currently they are again leading the table and are aiming to reclaim the title. There's no better team to analyse than the side that's currently the best side in the best rugby competition in the world.
Create a cause greater than the individuals
The success of the Chiefs can be broken down into several key areas, the most prominent being their ability to create a cause that's greater than just a rugby match. The Chiefs make special efforts to talk about their history and not just as a team but the history of the ground and the people in their area. The players are not just representing a sports team they are representing a group of people, a community, their tribe. At the entrance of Waikato stadium the Chiefs home ground is The Whatanoa gateway, a carving that symbolises passion, determination and dedication of ancient Maori warriors and is a constant reminder to the players of what the team stands for.
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Business lesson:
People fundamentally seek to be part of something that is greater than themselves. To create a winning team you need to find the core essence of why your team exists and what do they stand for. Give people a reason to care and they themselves will find the motivation to succeed.
Make roles and responsibilities clear One of the hallmarks of the Chief's season so far is their ability to win despite having so many players missing with injury. During their recent wins over the Western Force and the Brumbies there was a total of ten players missing through injury but you wouldn't know by the performances. Every player that comes into the Chiefs setup is quickly made very aware of the role they play within the team, their responsibilities and what is expected from them. This allows for the Chiefs to continue with their fast flowing gameplan despite which players are wearing the jersey on any given day.
Business lesson:
What's your game-plan for success? It's not enough for your team to know what the goal is they need to have a complete understanding of how success is going to be accomplished and just as importantly what is their role and responsibility in your gameplan.
Allow room for creativity
Chiefs have players such as Aaron Cruden and Damien McKenzie who are incredibly creative and are allowed to express that creativity on the field making them incredibly unpredictable and very dangerous to play against.
Business lesson:
An often overlooked element of motivation is giving people the autonomy to be creative within their role. Every day you will face problems that need to be solved and challenges that have to be overcome, instead of providing answers focus on providing your team the tools to problem solve and they will amaze you with the innovation and creativity they demonstrate.
Rugby is all about fifteen people with dierent skills, each of them in a role that best suits those skills working together to succeed. Sometimes success is achieved by the backs throwing the ball around beating the opposition by pace and flair and other times success is achieved by the hard work and strength of the forwards moving the ball forward inch by precious inch. Success in Rugby is like success in business it's about moving forward and this can only be achieved by having a team that has a common cause to believe in, clarity over roles and responsibilities and the creative freedom to find innovative solutions. If you can implement these lessons then no matter what the industry, you will be celebrating success just like the Chiefs.
As the Chiefs opponents can testify it's diďŹƒcult to defend against the unexpected. A chip kick instead of a traditional drive or a quick tap penalty instead of a kick to touch, this element of unpredictability makes it diďŹƒcult for any team to defend against and gives the Chiefs many options in attack. The 16