The Super Bowl and process
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: February 8, 2010
I’ll be posting about the Super Bowls ads this week. (Ralph won’t because he does not watch the Super Bowl). However, as lots of others are posting about the ads now, I thought I would make a brief comment about flexible adaptable processes and the Super Bowl.
As those who watched it will no doubt agree, it was a well-played game on both sides. Few mistakes (well Payton made a big one, but…) and few penalties. The marks of true professionals in any area. Both sides adapted well to the other teams schemes. However, the New Orléans coach appears to have been more flexible and adaptable in his approach to the game.
Not just in the risks he took (4th and 2 from the two yard line and an onside kick to start the second half to name a few), but rather in his willingness to have his team flex to meet the situation. While Drew Brees did a great job, his coach gets my vote for MVP.
Rigid processes don’t work in most dynamic environments. However, ad hoc and flexible are not the same thing. Make sure your processes have a purpose and have enough flexibility to meet those needs … and no more.
Coming next, my take on the oxymoron ad of the game.
Mitch
Ahead of the pack…
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: February 4, 2010
About 10 days ago I posted about the marketplace showing the political shifts in the United States. In a post “It’s there if you pay attention,” I discussed the shift in sloganed merchandise being sold in Washington DC in terms of its content. While he did not mention my blog (oh that he would have), Rush Limbaugh noted the same thing today on his radio show. I like it when we are ahead of the curve…
Mitch
Process management works in places you probably wouldn’t consider
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: February 1, 2010
Ralph spends a fair amount of his non-consulting time working with police and fire-fighters based on some significant expertise that he has acquired through the years. Recently he had the opportunity to use process management techniques he teaches in his consulting work to create a training video for the Fire Fighters Support Foundation. In this free video, Ralph uses Cause and Effect Diagrams and Constraint Analysis to help fire-fighters learn to improve the impact of their “after action reports.”
Well done Ralph.
Mitch
Toyota vs Audi and unintended acceleration
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: January 27, 2010
Toyota has taken the 
unprecedented step of shutting down production of eight of their automobile manufacturing lines until they can figure out what is causing the unintended acceleration of their vehicles. This “automatic acceleration option” is similar to the problem Audi faced with their 5000 model in the 1980s. Audi’s approach to the problem did not result in a factory shut-down, just a decimation of its sales in the United States for many years.
The similarities to how the two companies reacted initially is striking:
- Audi and Toyota both blamed the problem initially on the driver (to mitigate liability?)
- Audi and Toyota both blamed the problem on floor mats
From there the stories diverge. Audi had 107 reported complaints to the National Highway Safety Administration by early 1982. They did not fix the problem until 1986, all the time stating it was not a real problem. Toyota, on the other hand, has reacted swiftly to the problem, even though reports are that they do not know what the cause is or how to fix it … yet.
Will Toyota suffer the way Audi did? I don’t think so. They will take a hit to prestige and bottom line, but their reputation is likely to stay in tact and people are unlikely to stay away from the brand once the problem is solved. Two lessons they are following: Do what Tylenol did when they had their poisoning scare many years ago, and don’t do what Audi did.
Mitch
Is this an effective ad?
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: January 26, 2010
Everybody has an opinion about ads, which is why Marketing people get so much “help” with deciding how to advertise products and services. The ad in question is interesting for a lot of reasons:
- It is entertaining
- It is provocative
- It was forwarded to me by members of the target market who thought it was the “ad of the year.”
All that being said, the question is really will it help sell the product? I don’t know if the ad is actually causing an increase in sales, and the advertiser isn’t going to tell me. However, I offer it here for your amusement and comment if you so choose.
Mitch
The Google phone … a bridge too far?
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: January 25, 2010
The culture of your company affects everything you do. Google is a great company (whether they are getting too big for themselves is another conversation). However, their business model does not include talking with individual customers. They “talk” via the Internet, if they respond at all. And in Internet time (which for the purposes of customer service is not “real-time”).
This culture does not work for cell phone customers, especially if your phone leaves more to be desired than expected in terms of usage. Google has gotten a fair amount of negative press since releasing their Nexus One phone in terms of people not getting the support they need, want and demand from a cell phone provider. But then, Google does not have that culture and by the time they get it right, it may be too late.
Big does not mean you can do anything, it just means you can afford to lose customers for longer. To wit, General Motors took 60 years to go from #1 to bankrupt, but it was a pretty straight line downward.
Mitch
How to fight low priced competitors
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: January 22, 2010
We all face low-priced competitors. Some of them are good and have driven costs that don’t add value out of the process, which forces all suppliers to get better. However, many of them are just hoping they can get some business by offering a low price. And the value they offer may not even be worth that low price. As my friend Ted Steinberg often says when asked how much his services cost, “You mean if you buy them from me, or if you don’t buy them from me?”
The Office Depot is currently running a terrific commercial to demonstrate this point. (That is not the point of their commercial, which is to sell banners and other products, but I liked the content of the story in the commercial and have no comment on its ability to achieve Office Depot’s goals.)
As Roy Field’s, former Group Executive for Teledyne used to say, “If you can’t fix it, feature it.”
Mitch
The dichotomy of the airlines
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: January 18, 2010
Maybe it’s schizoprhenia, who knows. I was getting ready to leave to go to the airport to catch my American Airlines flight to St. Louis when I get a call from a live person telling me the flight has been delayed about an hour and forty-five minutes. Wow, not even a robo-call, but a live person who talks to me. I’m stunned.
I’m sure when I get to the airport the gate agents will remind me by their actions that if it weren’t for passengers they could fly on time; and flight attendants who are there for my safety (which I hope I will never need); and baggage handlers that seem to find ways to make it take longer than you can imagine to get your luggage.
But, then maybe I can remember the guy who called me to save me some time. He was great.
Are you consistently providing the level of service your customers need, want and demand?
Mitch
Search
- Comments on the Super Bowl Ads
- You can still learn a lot from customers
- Toyota vs Audi and unintended acceleration
- What should your pricing strategy be in this market?
- Similar pricing strategies disguised
- You CAN raise prices in a recession
- Walking the talk
- We don't need no stinking brand equity!
- Why is US Airways the worst US Airline?
- Should you bother with customer retention?
- rkenneth: Generational marketing is an interesting topic. As a leading edge boomer, I am repulsed by the ad's "pay-off" scene... but I use Centrum Silver. W
- Mitch/Ralph: I may indeed be a twit and I do not claim to be a journalist, however your outrage is misplaced. Audi did in fact act on an NHTSA demand for investiga
- John LeBlanc: You twit! Audi was completely exonerated of wrongdoing. '60 Minutes' fabricated a story with no basis in fact. Just as you are doing. I hope you d
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