Archive for March 2010

SirAlan has a lot to be blamed for – The Apprentice showed us the ugly side of driven people. Slimy, earless, end-justifies-the-means-bastards covered in the blood of a dozen mid-task cut throats. A show confirming the old folk cliché that business talent isn’t what they used to be. I have always wanted to take each episode (especially that one with the fish stall – arhhhh!) and a group of decent people to review what should have been done – make a short film on what might have been a better approach for the fin haired and over gelled. We could call it ‘Mentor’ and it could be a really useful tool for people learning strategy…but Channel 4 pitches aside.

With learning strategy in our minds the last 2 months have seen us kick off Hive Poly, a collection of lectures, articles and workshops aimed at demystifying the world of strategy, decision making and big business for our nearest and dearest bees. I landed this plum job, having previous as unofficial Head of Graduate Recruitment and Training (HOGRAT) at the old place.

If you were to measure my love of strategy in kilos – I could clearly demonstrate unfaithful infatuation. My office at home is filled with dozens of business books given up halfway through pure boredom. Most having been binned as soon as their predictable lust for lecture-tour-nouvelle-terminology sets in.

I still end up swapping most of the chapters for the fundamentals learned running various dodgy ventures in my youth, or whilst watching my folks and their businesses or from a bizarre hunger for military strategy. This love of all military thinking was discovered when I mistakenly woke up in a lecture on Clausewitz. I also discovered Amy Dinsdale that day – happy days. Clausewitz remained, Amy headed off with some EastEnder from Stoke City Football Club. A lesson in engagement and resources there and then.

Anyway – returning to the point. Planning and teaching strategy is something we have always wanted to do here. In our industry its usual done on the job – or done way too late – shame on us. And as I never found anything that could be cut and pasted; at some point we just had to do it. Getting it right is an illusive goal, where to start? What to cover? Get senior strategists in to talk or MBA style graphs and analyses or buy a market stall and stock it for a week with eager strategy beavers? Learn the old school way with crap products in Berwick Street market.

We took a predictable middle road and kicked off reviewing small local industries (Soho – typically providing court case collateral), their approach to a market, positioning, customer group etc and discussing each case by case amongst a group of us. It has been really interesting for me, watching the tools/terms I use all the time being defined and discovered. I have been forced to give thought to my own clarity. To be party to this new group of critical thinkers and their discussions has been really humbling. I would never get a job here.

Today we have just kicked off on the next bit. Upping the academia, by beginning a series of borrowed Harvard MBA case studies. The Harvard approach is pretty cool, a group sit around in a semi circle and get facilitated agreeing or disagreeing with each other. Educational Gold dust. This week featured a forthright company, a new business opportunity and a pretty big management decision. I was lucky enough to get hold of a film of this case study debate amongst the 2006 MBA graduate class – and the conclusions of the HBS elite and our lots are surprisingly aligned. Except “without the bullshit” to quote one of our most terminological intolerant. Apparently the MBAs termed “bait and switch” strategy is just plain lying, and stupidly short term.

For me, I am getting loads from this, the clear parallels from SEXSEXSEX Ltd. and Harvard, our best and their best is proving really insightful and I hope not a bad way of getting a faster understanding of business decision making.

In an increasingly rich information environment, the format in which information is presented is becoming more and more important. Beauty = Cut Through. But will content be ignored as irrelevant if it’s ugly? Will it be received prejudicially in a positive or negative manner because of how it’s packaged? Does content, in the traditional sense, now play second fiddle to its aesthetic framing? Answering yes to these questions poses some problems . . . The internet is worshipped as heralding the democratisation of knowledge, but is this really the case when money can buy you a slick, good-looking website and potentially a more engaged and susceptible/suggestible audience? As always, we’d love to know what you think.

But, on the upside, this emphasis on impact, interaction and beauty can lend itself to a more easily navigable and digestible information environment. For example, this. It’s a visual, interactive representation of the scientific evidence for popular health supplements. 5 minutes playing with this app reveals more about the evidence base (or lack thereof) for health supplements than 5 days on PubMed. And it looks nice too. I like it.

We are growing steadily and need new bees. Three new bees to be more specific. We work pretty title free here – with all of us doing strategy, people development, and relationship management. But broadly we would love to open up a tin of biscuits with the following;

Client lead. The wonder of working an hourglass structure is upon us once more. Fancy selling a strategic approach that is truly different? Are you the one that stands shoulder to shoulder with clients working on gritty challenges? We imagine this person to be GAD, SAD or CSD level. Or have come through client side, fancy a hop and be at Group level. We need a good collection of people management skills, diverse healthcare communications experience and a good understanding of ‘the disciplines’.

Writer. Tasked with making it all come alive. Can you write the socks off a page? Take a brief and make it sing for audiences as diverse as kids with HIV to 67 year old surgeons? You should have a few years experience, and a broad portfolio of words, written for all over the place. Be warned you are joining a team with fierce music views from Chicks on Speed to Fiery Furnaces. (headphones will be provided).

Innovation lover. For our rapidly growing innovation company eBee. This person should love doing it differently, be intolerant of the status quo and want to drive innovation. eBee is an elite team of techs, designers and planners and needing a project facilitator. Organisational skills to the forefront, we imagine that this angel be a senior account manager currently, with strong healthcare background and having a tidy few digital projects under their belt. Do you yearn for a life with a research and development budget, and a chance to push back on ‘the usual’? If you are the geeky one stuck in an integrated health agency and fancy the next step into getting specialist – this is your role.

If being a part of something new sounds great, or having daily challenges and getting to grips with a new strategic approach is for you get in contact. We are on track, doing it really well, and would love you to make us better.

Not for you? Do you know someone that any of these might be perfect for; click the share this button below,  get them to tell us it it came via you. In the spirit of win/win – we are offering a couple of flights and a long weekends worth of decent hotel accommodation to anywhere in Europe for any referral that results in a new bee.

This time of the year sees Angelo, Sapna and Naila, wrap up and submit the Accounts for 2009.

It signals the time when Ian, Jas and I get the chance to sit all down to run through the year, in terms of strategy, people and bean counting – what last year saw and what 2010 will bring.

We do this with everyone across the group and it proves a bit nerve racking for us as its an audience and subject we hold dear to to our hearts.

This annual general meeting is fuelled with a healthy stack of pizzas to make sure that no one faints midst the adrenaline fuelled profit forecast section.

To sum up 2009 we bashed together this quick and nasty vid’ from the hundreds of photos collected on the Flickr account – made us all smile hope you like it.

It had been ages since I have experienced a real buster moment;  rolling healthcare, understanding and emotive awareness in one.

I saw this poster a little while ago at Maidenhead Station, took a photo to remind me to hunt around and I have finally got around to exploring more.

The associated film is a hard hitting view on Motor Neurone Disease,  has been banned from TV despite being one of the best eye openers I have seen. It seem a terrible shame when the reality of a disease is shelved for the public good.

Alongside this film and poster  the featured sufferer Sarah Ezekiel has a site showing life post diagnosis and provided me with a great example both of human spirit and inspiration.

Most of you will know our entire business revolves around the concept of consumer empowered medicine. Patient centricity. It comes by lots of names, but fundamentally it’s about the future role of us as determinants of our healthcare solutions.

Many of you will also be aware of our enthusiasm for TED lectures, and particularly the TEDMED series which revolves around medicine. This morning on the train I watched on my smart phone a lecture by Dr Topol, (not of Fiddler on the roof fame), but about the evolution of wireless technology in medicine. It is fascinating and worth 16 minutes 58 seconds of your time. We are already using these types of technology for a client in chronic clinics, but this really broadens our ambition and the tech team are on it now. Hope you like it.

Thursday saw us at another awards bash, this time the OTC Bulletin Awards. We were delighted to be nominated 6 times for 3 brands across 4 award categories, and chuffed to pick up 2 of them. But the night belonged to alli, one of our founding clients, and a brand that will always hold a special place as a result.  6 brand awards. Congratulations GSK and to the other award winners for the night.