Viral Change (TM) is the most effective tool I have ever seen for facilitating change in organisations of all sizes whatever their objectives. Leandro Herrero, its charismatic and hugely energetic inventor explains it well on www.viralchange.net.  I am telling you about it here because we have recently been appointed Associate Practitioners of the Viral Change (TM) programme. Contact us and we'll talk you through it - it is truly transformational.  As you can probably tell, we love it! 

I've been having a nostalgic couple of days. I was born in the fifties and went to Lancaster University in the late sixties / early seventies. Lancaster England had an exchange programme with Lancaster Pennsylvania (home to the now famous Amish community). In 1968 some fifty American students came to spend a year here and as a officer of the Student Council I was responsible for making them feel at home in the wilds of the very new University campus with its views over Morecambe Bay.

1968 was the summer of love but it was also a time of great stress in the Vietnam War. Young Americans were being drafted by lottery and our friends would gather in one of the College Common Rooms to watch the numbers being read out on television to see if their number had been chosen. A ‘winning’ number only came up once for our friends. The young man concerned shouted out that it was his number, the room went quiet and in an upwelling of rage the television was picked up and thrown out of the room.

Walter Cronkite was always there on CBS and the BBC took CBS news feeds so we saw him often reporting the dramas, triumphs and tragedies. I admired him because he was brave enough and forthright enough to say what he thought and risk the criticism that came his way. He lambasted the Russians at the time of JFK’s assassination, said that the he thought the Vietnam War was unwinnable and criticised racist bigots. He communicated what a lot of people were thinking in a way that few dared to do – I’ll miss him.

But that was then and now we are looking forward to a post credit crunch world and hoping to see signs of a reawakening in the UK economy. Toyota gave us just that when they announced that they were going to start producing Hybrid cars at their massive manufacturing plant at Burnaston, near Derby. It’s great news. Toyota is now the biggest car maker in the World, has always had strong connections with the U.K. and has now chosen to produce its most innovative cars here. It’s a great vote of confidence from a very successful company. Let’s have some more please – soon.

Richard Morrice

How well aligned are you with your trading partners?

The survey showed that that “six in ten retailers want suppliers to focus on developing their understanding of the shopper, compared to only three in ten suppliers who considered this a priority”…..”Shopper insight is most powerful when retailers and suppliers pull their resources together to gain a joint understanding of the opportunity. However our research suggests it’s still early days and much remains to be done to leverage this joint opportunity”. (Source: IGD – Report on IGD Customer Engagement Supplier Survey 2009.)

At People Energies we have many years of experience in bringing together trading partners to facilitate the identification and exploitation of joint opportunities. Some opportunities are obvious, and some less so, only becoming apparent as the relationship moves to a new level.  Drawing on our learnings, we have developed the Same Page Programme – a dynamic, pragmatic and relationship-building route to positive and profitable supplier-retailer relationships. Click here to download a printable PDF with more information.

For the IGD’s report on its 2009 Customer Engagement Supplier Survey on the IGD website go to www.igd.com

It’s tough I know. We’ve all got used to consistent, steady growth and when that stops (or goes into reverse – often referred to as ‘Negative Growth’ by some economists) we are ill-equipped to deal with it.

The lights by which we have steered our businesses and our private lives are suddenly less bright or even lead us in a false direction. Loneliness and fear stalk the land.

So what should we do?  Here are the options:

1.    Wallow in the awfulness of it all – the ‘things can only get worse’ syndrome.
2.    Ignore it – ostriches do a fair job of this.
3.    Tackle it – remember a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Each option has its attractions and drawbacks.

Option One is quite popular. It allows us to air our views, be cynical in a mildly humorous way about efforts to improve things and there is a certain camaraderie in the ‘we’re all doomed’ camp. But it can get a bit repetitive after a while and doom and gloom embrace people in a clammy embrace.

Option Two has many attractions. If we ignore the problems they’ll probably go away of their own accord. Or be replaced by some more which are even worse. All resistance is futile in the minds of people who follow this route. Sometimes fate rescues them, on other occasions they sink without trace. What is certain is that whatever happens they have nothing to do with it. They are observers not participants.

Option Three is usually the hardest at the outset. It requires an acknowledgement of the situation, a frank discussion of the options and a fair amount of detailed planning. Aficionados of Options One or Two don’t like it at all – for them it is too challenging and a little bit scary.

In our view Option Three is the only way. Know where you are, where you are heading and get talking. Communication is the best therapy in troubled times. Contact us and we’ll help you to make a start – once you are on the journey you will really enjoy it.

 *This is a line from a famous jazz song of the thirties (slightly modified). Be the first to tell me the artist and win a bottle of fine malt whisky!

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Most businesses start small. A few friends sit round a table and say 'Wouldn't it be great if we could set up our own business. No more bosses to answer to, we’d be doing things we really believe in, working with people we really like...’ And they get started and they have a good idea of how they want things to develop, what matters, how people should be treated and what the future should look like. Sometimes they write things down but most of the time it just happens. The business is founded on trust and mutual understanding – there’s no need for a massive rule book. Think of this as the core of the business, its essence and what makes it special. But what happens when the business grows (and most do or they die)? How can the essence of the business that made it strong and attractive be communicated to new people, employees, customers and suppliers? Just as importantly how can the essential strengths be updated and reinvigorated as time goes by?

This is a lifetime’s work. Many people want to work for Google. They see it as funky, fast on its feet and a company that takes on the big boys and wins. But what happens now – because Google is one of the biggest if not the biggest boy on the block?

In the hectic early days it’s important to keep track, to have a plan, share it and up-date it. It will ensure that the essentials are understood, agreed and recorded as time goes on and circumstances change. This is not the barely controlled anarchy that many entrepreneurs in start-ups enjoy, but it ensures longevity and continuity.

But also hold onto the energy, and capture that start-up essence your way. Maybe it’s a communal, “between-ourselves” blog, or a photo album, a collection of jottings (online? in a cardboard box?) about comments or happenings that really meant something to you, that said something about your approach, your aspirations, your values. And although the weeks and months rush by, take some time now and again with your co-founders to look through what you’ve each contributed – those reminders of what doing it your way was all about. Circumstances may change, execution may change, but values endure.

We enjoy working with clients who can see their business as a living entity and enjoy nurturing, challenging and developing it. What makes it doubly exciting is the fact that companies that are cared for in this way appear exciting and attractive to the outside world. Success breeds success.

Have the foresight and courage to examine the culture and fundamentals that made your business a success in the early days and work hard to keep the flame burning –it will keep you warm and allow others to see the path to your door.