bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

I was chatting to the CEO of Ricoh New Zealand last week around leadership and I picked up on an interesting point.

He was talking about the little things, make hundreds of little changes and the net effect they had.

You see the little things, firstly they’re hard to identify, so hard to replicate but also the unique combination of them makes the little things a strong competitive advantage.

Reminds me of Tom Peters book, The Little Big Things, an excellent read.

You don’t really need permission to do anything online, if you want to write about a topic, do it, disagree on a point, say so.

Don’t like a topic? Stop reading it.

The internet really is a world without permission, you can do what you want with essentially no barriers.  And this is a world that Generation Z is growing up in, I suspect consumers are going to get much much pickier over time.  Whether that’s for the better or the worse? Too early too tell but it’s definitely speeding up innovation (which is very very cool).

Just keep this in mind, as I suspect this a major point of tension between generations, different expectations of the world around us.

Touching on them, finally asking those hard to ask questions are what moves us forward.

Improves the status quo.  Changes the now.  Makes the impossible a possibility.

Unfortunately too many of us stop asking them after the first couple but just so you know it does get easier, just like failing, you learn to roll with the punches.

Not everyone gets your message, and that’s good, a great community has it’s own language, a way of interacting, it’s quirks.

And it’s those very quirks that make it attractive to those in it; which make it a community, ignore the critics and listen to those who partake.

You have an audience waiting, just talk to them!

This way please, “oh look we have photos of you, would you like to buy one?”

It’s the last and final gasp to grab some value from you after a tourist adventure or visiting a destination, it’s a way for you to remember.  It’s also when your most likely to grab something that symbolises that event.

The gift shop shouldn’t ever be the last we hear from you!

What about post event? 6 months later? There’s a market there.  Getting permission and having an ongoing conversation with those that visit.  Getting them on board and reminding them of the good times, sharing with their friends, sending them a note at christmas saying hey we could send a photo direct to your relatives.

Can definitely be a competitive advantage.

If your people are more brighter, creative, responsive for the same times when your competition are just waking up it’ll make a world of difference.

So why would you discourage napping? Google doesn’t.

They define what is important, what isn’t and we divert our resources to where they get maximum impact.

And sometimes circumstances dictate these rules (as per the video below)….

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6nZY9Bxy0

What it highlights is our capacity to redivert resources to where they’re needed, we just need to set the rules for them to operate within.

Spam is a numbers game, spam enough people and someone signs up, people get more savvy, means you need to spam more people.

Spam really is the result of going by the numbers too much – the more we talk to the more we hope that someone converts.

Given the cost of email is so low it works (if you get enough people).

It really is the result though of a series of decisions, made by the numbers and the numbers only.  Please be cautious marketing by the numbers, remember to step outside them, question the assumptions that build the numbers – often there’s a lot there if you dig into it.  Otherwise you end up in a situation…that’s very spammy indeed.

Read something along these lines:

“they want to cut marketing first, ironically they don’t value it as they sit there in $200 jeans..”

Sorry I don’t have a credit (as the tweet was in passing) – but I think we’ve all seen these conversations go on over the last 18-24 months.

Do not forget the consumer, get back to people, sales & marketing – drive what drives the business.

Had a few emails recently asking that exact question, so I thought best to publish one post and get everyone up to speed.

• Unfortunately I’ve recently been hacked, so some of my websites (bwagy.tv, bwagy.com, thebestideasarefree.com & this blog) have intermittent issues – please excuse interruption to these.  We’re still figuring out how to stop them.
• I’m still doing The Best Ideas are Free radio segment during RadioWammo on KiwiFM (thanks Glenn!), these are added to a YouTube playlist which you can watch at www.bwagy.tv
• Young & Shand is growing very well, we are adding team members (yay!) – you can keep up to date with the goings on over at the Young & Shand Blog (and main site).  We also have put together a digital strategy workbook if you’re keen to have a play.
• My wedding is getting very close (less than two months now) so yay! Very excited, we have close to everything sorted (mostly thanks to Esther who has organised most/all of it). But just forewarning this will mean some downtime on the blog late November/early December.
• Following that, it also means my next book has had to be pushed back from Q4 this year to early next year.  Please stay tuned, it’s definitely a step up from the last one and we now have a very refined publishing system (so I can publish more frequently).
• Oh and also we’ve been doing a This Week in Digital Marketing podcast (very cool) check it out over here, please subscribe and add to the conversation.
• I am going to do more interviews with business people passing through New Zealand – so if you know of anyone (and can help) let me know and I’ll see if we can organise it.  It’s truckloads of fun and you guys of course get the content.

Thanks a lot guys, appreciate everyone for reading,

-Ben

You want to leap in, say something, to fill the silence.  But if you can hang in there a second it can make all the difference.

Talking in front of an audience, going as if to talk, then pausing a couple of seconds draws attention.

Waiting on the response to a touchy question, those few seconds wait pause helps extrapolate an answer.

Responding to a question after a couple of seconds demonstrates a thought out response.

It’s tough but remember that time is often on your side if you know how to use it.

But you CAN plant the seeds so that what you don’t know grows into something that you do know and helps you get where you want to go.

A blog is one such way, share your ideas & perspectives, see where it takes you.

It’s far too easy to slate a decision off as completely stupid without know the context in which it is made.

Far too easy.

Second guess that context, what would the context be for you to make the same decision?

And could that be the exact context they’re facing?

It’s not the goal, it’s more of a by-product of achieving a goal.

Kind of like when Toyota was pronounced the #1 car manufacturer in the world, the CEO was quoting as saying it wasn’t the goal but a by-product of their focus on innovation etc.

Think about this when you see someone is seemingly against you – are they really?

That is, what doesn’t work today may work tomorrow.

I find this all the time, structurally this idea won’t work here today, then six months later it will work.

It’s a good ethos to have, keep it in the back of your mind and you’ll be surprised when the right idea pops up for the right scenario.