Put Your Business On A War Footing | The Melting Pot Newsletter | Issue #80
HOW TO MAKE REMOTE EMPLOYEES MORE PRODUCTIVE
Unprecedented. A word we’ve heard a lot recently. It’s been used to describe the restrictions to daily life, the scientific response and the nature of global reaction to Covid-19. It’s also true of the economic fall-out of this crisis. An unprecedented impact that’s likely to last far longer than the epidemic itself and be even more devastating.
People need to get real and stop underestimating how bad it’s going to be. There’s every possibility we’re going to end up in a global recession that’s deeper than the financial crisis. This is the time to act. The government may be supporting your business by paying wages and offering loans, but this won’t last forever. At some point, it needs to stand on its own two feet again. Anything you can do now to push out your ‘time to death’ will be time well spent.
I’ve been here before. When I took over as MD of IT Lab, our time to death was three months. The financial crisis had just hit and small businesses in London turned off all discretionary spend. Our project income went from £3m to zero.
That’s exactly what I saw last week with my MSP clients. Businesses suddenly reliant on monthly recurring revenue from customers that can still pay. In a falling market, IT Lab had to cut its costs and win new business. And that’s exactly what we did. Through a massive effort, we re-modelled our offering, increased prices by 50% and our Net Promoter Score® rocketed from -2 to +55. It’s amazing how a crisis can galvanise an organisation!
Let me quickly share with you some great examples of best practice I’ve seen recently. One of my clients, Etch UK, have written a business continuity plan, getting questions from their remote employees and ironing out any ambiguities. Another, Six Degrees have introduced daily huddles rolling up to the CEO and Zoom coffee morning sessions between 10 and 11 am where remote teams are encouraged to chat about anything that isn’t work-related. This deliberate sharing keeps remote employees together and makes them feel less isolated
But there’s no doubt that the biggest challenge everyone’s facing at the moment is loss of momentum and productivity. At a time when huge effort is needed, employees are suddenly working in chaotic home environments surrounded by idle, bored children. And the sun’s come out!
In the face of all this, how on earth do you make remote employees more productive?
How To Sell More Things At A Higher Profit
How is your branding? Do you have a branding strategy in place? Who is in charge of your branding, or have you passed it to the marketing department to deal with?
Marty Neumeier is in a league of his own when it comes to branding. With over 24 million views on his slide deck, he is an authority on the subject. Marty is an author and a brand consultant in the area of brand design and innovation. He’s written books on branding and, in addition to his work at Liquid Agency where he does CEO branding, he also has a company, Level C, which trains people in five levels of brand strategy.
In this podcast, Marty discusses what is brand, the history of marketing, what it might mean for a CEO of a business thinking about their brand and how branding isn’t marketing. He focuses on overlaps with customer experience, and what some stepping stones might be to create a customer tribe. As well as how to get your customers to feel something about your business, and how to use your brand to shorten your sales cycle in order to sell more things at a higher profit.
“Branding is about getting more people to buy more stuff for more years at a higher price. The secret to profitability. It’s a long term investment in your company… If you want your company to last, you need customer loyalty. And the really good thing about branding is that brands last longer than customers.”
Recommended Podcasts
Real conversations and practical advice for everyday leaders. Sit across the table from one of the foremost experts in leadership and business. In his simple and approachable style, Pat tackles every topic related to the world of work (and some that aren’t). From culture to teamwork to building world-class organizations, Pat brings his wisdom, humor, and insight together to provide actionable advice for leaders everywhere.
Recommended Articles
THE FOUR STEPS YOUR COMPANY MUST TAKE TO ENSURE YOUR DATA IS PROTECTED
Amid COVID-19, your organization has likely moved, or increased, communication and file sharing onto virtual collaboration platforms. While the pivot is invaluable and essential during these times, security threats will increase dramatically. With unprecedented digital working, organizations need new methods of securing their virtual environments.
HOW CEOS CAN LEAD A DATA-DRIVEN CULTURE
While businesses across the world are trying to make more effective use of data, analytics, and AI, a key impediment is holding many of them back: The lack of a culture that truly values data/analytics capability and the superior decision making that can flow from it. Yet as we’ll describe, it’s possible to create a data-driven culture and accrue the competitive benefits that result.
HOW TO LET YOUR EMPLOYEES JOB CRAFT
The way jobs are designed can make the difference between someone finding meaning at work or feeling meaningless. As the line between consumers and employees continues to blur, people are seeking solutions that complement their personal health and well-being and are reaching for a better life.
Recommended Reads
SCALING YOUR TECH BUSINESS BY DOMINIC MONKHOUSE
Calling all CEOs, Founders and Managing Partners! Learn valuable scale-up strategies in a brand new book by the UK’s top tech industry business coach, Dominic Monkhouse. Dom has a track record of scaling-up award-winning technology businesses, including two UK based companies from zero revenue to £30 million within five years. Now he is sharing the secrets behind his success in a new book, FREE to all Melting Pot subscribers. The download will be available very soon. Watch out for your copy!
Transform your life with tiny changes in behaviour – starting now. People think when you want to change your life, you need to think big. But world-renowned habits expert James Clear has discovered another way. He knows that real change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions – doing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes early, or holding a single short phone call. He calls them atomic habits. In this ground-breaking book, Clears reveals exactly how these minuscule changes can grow into such life-altering outcomes. Along the way, he tells inspiring stories of Olympic gold medalists, leading CEOs, and distinguished scientists who have used the science of tiny habits to stay productive, motivated, and happy.
MEANINGFUL ACTION FOR MONDAY
Recognise that your role is now Chief Energy Officer. Now, more than ever, the times call for tough minded optimism. Whilst you don’t want to paint an overly rosy picture, you need to lead. Put together a business continuity plan. Reassure and build confidence that everything’s going to be ok. Celebrate small successes and take it day by day. It’s going to be exhausting and draining. People will be asking you questions and you won’t know the answers. But if you keep your cool and create an environment of transparency, you will get through this.
Leading in times of unprecedented uncertainty – Virtual Summit – 6th to 7th April 2020
Outthinker are offering all readers of the Melting Pot a 30% discount on tickets for this important summit (enter the code: scalingdm30). It will assemble some of the world’s foremost business thinkers who have volunteered their time to share cutting edge ideas to help us navigate forward. From across disciplines – economics, leadership, marketing, strategy, culture, organization, technology, operations – you will hear from and personally interact with the creators of the cutting-edge ideas most critical to navigating through the turbulence of the coronavirus epidemic. 100% of profits from sales for this summit will be donated to non-profit organizations helping the most at-risk communities and populations dealing with the virus, from children who no longer have access to hot lunches, hourly workers no longer with income, and the elderly most at risk medically.