You might do R&D, but are you making time for E&D (Exploration and Discovery)?

We’re familiar with the notion of R&D departments in organisations, where products are innovated and developed. It’s a critical investment that gives businesses their edge. But how about an investment in personal discovery? Increasingly we’re locked down in demanding roles and projects, with no time to just stand back and reflect, free of an agenda. Some organisations have introduced initiatives to liberate staff from this kind of working culture. Google allows staff to spend 20% of time on their own projects as a way of developing talent. A small business I’m working with goes one stage further and encourages staff to develop their own ideas extra curricularly with hobby businesses. Another business I know is visionary in advocating that team member sit back and reflect from time to time, rather than be confined to head-down mode all day.

As well as nurturing talent, taking time to explore and discover can be the source of great ideas, adding value to projects and clients in ways that might otherwise have been missed. It’s in those moments of research or reflection that I get my own inspiration flashes. This month I’m aiming to create more E&D time, whether on train rides, in coffee shop thinking, even spending 15 minutes each morning reading the ‘papers. Whilst the tendency is to say ‘I’m too busy to read the newspapers’, these moments have actually been really valuable in spotting ideas and I’ve identified some tangible client opportunities in this way.
So invest in E&D time in your organisation: it could give your business that competitive edge or be the catalyst for a game-changing idea. Don’t say you’re too busy.

Are You Delivering On Your Promise?

'Business With Personality' proclaims the masthead of 'City AM' the daily paper serving London's financial community. 'Fresh Business Thinking' shouts the website for the conference of the same name.

Nice promises - I like both of them.

The problem. Well, ‘City AM’ is hardly ‘Fast Company’; apart from a couple of lifestyle pages it doesn't have much personality to me. And sure, 'Fresh Business Thinking' had some decent speakers but there was nothing 'fresh' or different about the conference, it was like any other I’d been to.

There’s often a disconnect between a brand’s promise and what it delivers. Business owners get excited by the *idea* of a great market position or the allure of a new look and feel, but they don’t have the right mindset and offering to deliver.

I see it my local high street. Each month seems to bring a new estate agent office promising a new, different offering. They may have a fresh looking office and logo, but if it’s the same offering once you walk in the door, what’s the point?

So if you’re going to promise your business is a game-changer, different or radical, you’d better make sure it is.

Has your marketing passed its ‘best by’ date?

So the world has changed over the last 12 months and so has your business right? Your products and services have changed, along with your team and your clients. And if you’re a one person business, your role and offering has inevitably evolved too. So if that’s the case why hasn’t your marketing kept pace? Why haven’t you updated your website or ads to reflect the changes? Why haven’t you changed your presentation, your ‘this is what I do’ script? Why haven’t you changed your LinkedIn profile, your Twitter bio?

We’re often guilty of not paying attention to our own marketing communications - when our business changes it’s rarely a priority to reflect those changes across our own marketing touch points. But it should be.

I see a lot of businesses where there is a disconnect between what they do and what they say they do; between who they are and what they say they are. The market position is often a long way away from their real offering. Of course, it’s not always easy standing back from the business or organisation to answer the question ‘what do we stand for’? It can be quite a process to bridge that disconnect. That’s what my own business does: we go into organisations and help come up with the answer. Often it involves conversations with a range of stake holders from staff to clients, asking everyone from the front desk up, what does this business stand for? Once you’ve worked that out and can encapsulate that DNA in a market offering, then you can refresh your marketing in a new a strategy.

If hiring experts like The Ian Sanders Company is out of your reach, try initiatives of your own. If you’re a small business owner, ask your team and clients what they think the brand stands for. Be prepared to listen. And if you’re a one person business, take a morning or an afternoon away from your desk and laptop. Pause, stand back from the day-to-day, and think how you’ve changed. And then look at your touch points and tweak your web copy, your profile and messaging.

Because if you continue selling the old message, you really are missing a trick.

Sometimes a lean and raw approach works just fine

I’m just back from a weekend in Copenhagen where our apartment faced this unassuming corner shop. Covered in graffiti, with no windows, and handwritten signs on the door, at first glance, it may have looked permanently closed. But it was very much open; inside it was dark, dingy and the wine bottles dusty.

But despite its appearances, there was a constant stream of people all day long. People came and went with their soft drinks, wine, bottles of beer.

And it reminded me how we obsess about our business propositions needing to be polished and elegant with added ‘bells & whistles’: we must have an awesome website; our logo needs to be stunning; our premises must be well-designed; our fixtures and fittings state of the art. Sure, sometimes those things count.

But other times, enterprise is more basic than that - it’s just about fulfilling a need. And like this corner shop, then, a lean and raw approach works just fine. 

Business Stories : #1 Gibli.com, the knowledge trading website

This week I'm profiling three companies who have developed ideas and products to solve age-old business problems. The first is start-up Gibli.com, who've come up with an idea to help small businesses fill their knowledge gaps.



When pharmaceutical data company CEO Charles Joynson was struggling to find out information about doing business in the Netherlands, his dilemma gave him an idea. What if businesses who had questions could connect with others who had the answers? The result is Gibli.com, a ‘knowledge trading' website where experts can trade their know-how online in the same way people buy and sell on EBay.


The idea was born from Charles’ own struggle to find detailed information to launch a new product, “critically we failed to uncover the key facts that in the end were crucial”, he explained. That was the catalyst for the website which connects businesses with experts. Gibli only launched in April 2010 and the site now has around 150 signed up members with 100 site visits a day.


Talking to potential users prior to launch revealed that many felt there was a gap between sourcing free advice on the internet and paying for a consultant, giving Charles the confidence that there was a niche that Gibli could fill. “They suggested that the free advice on the internet was questionable, and you couldn’t always tell who the writer was. But if you paid a consultant to help you it could cost thousands. So we decided to let experts charge what they liked for slices of their knowledge”.


Charles quickly learnt the importance of assembling a talented team to fill his own knowledge vacuums. “Gibli was one of those projects which needed the input of other talented individuals to create something useful, rather than a single flash of inspiration on my part. In that way I was able to pull resources into the team to compensate for my own weaknesses.” Charles acknowledges the irony in the discovery that if he couldn't solve it on his own, he needed to get help “If only Gibli.com had existed then, I could have solved my own problem!"


The initial idea evolved as he sought contributions from others, experiencing what he describes as a ‘series of little eureka moments’ along the way. His business mentor played a really valuable role; one of her early recommendations was the importance of design to deliver the optimum user-experience. Charles had always been cynical about the value of design in a project but his mentor introduced him to designers who helped visualize the concept, adding a lot of value to the offering.


The expertise he’s brought in has strengthened Gibli's offering, making it stronger than his initial idea. He's now a firm advocate of the need to seek advice from experts. "I now know that if your trust the talented people around you, you will end up with something considerably better than you could have done on your own. And that’s what Gibli is all about".

Simplify Your Message

Often I act as a ‘Clarity Funnel’ for my clients: I soak IN a business’s DNA and then articulate OUT a clear and distinct market position or strategy/idea.

What does that actually mean? For a client I’ve been working with this week, that means visiting their warehouse, getting under their skin, talking to their staff, listening to the business owner and then funnelling all that ‘stuff’ into clear and simple marketing communications that the marketplace will understand.

I love that process and the challenge of funnelling a complex reality into a simple sell.

Too often our businesses, our brands, our personal offerings, are so multi-dimensional we’re guilty of complicating how we describe them. We get lost.

So with all that in mind, I LOVE the simplicity of Shane Mac’s website. A one pager of a few lines communicating his multi-dimensional work life with links to find out more. So simple, but equally so effective. I’m sure Shane’s going to inspire a whole breed of stripped-down websites for consultants and freelancers.

Nice one, Shane. (hat tip to my friend Espree Devora for sharing)

Celebrating making ideas happen

I've met lots of people in the last few weeks who’ve started their own business. Some came up with an idea for a new product or a service, and they made it happen. Others had a dream about quitting their jobs and setting up their own business. They too, made it happen. Each of the businesses has a different story but inevitably success was about being both talented and tenacious, and not giving up in the face of adversity. Like most of us in business, most of their journeys involved a bumpy ride.

But, they did it.

But of course, thousands of business ideas remain ideas. They never go beyond the chat in the pub, the scribble in the note pad, or the random conversation on a flight. For whatever reason(s), the owner of the idea doesn’t suceed in taking it to market.

There’s an obsession with measuring business success by financial indicators; of saying a new business is only successful if they’ve got a certain profit (how about ‘any’ profit?) or a majority percentage market share. But how about another metric? How about the fact that someone came up with a random idea, and that they turned it into reality? That they scribbled an idea on a beer mat in a pub three years ago, that they raised funding and now the resulting company is here today?

I think ‘did you make it happen?’ is a great metric and we should celebrate more the stories of those people who turned their ideas into reality.

My New Marketing Manifesto

I'm regularly asked for my top tips to make a business more successful - what can give businesses the edge in the marketplace, what makes them stand out in the crowd? Whilst this is what I get paid by clients for, I decided to put together a free one-page download, with my top ten tips.


I've called it 'The New Marketing Manifesto: Ian Sanders' Ten Damn Effective Tips To Raise Your Game'. You can READ & DOWNLOAD it as a PDF at Scribd here.


I don't promise any dramatic new ideas here, just common-sense tips that I know will work for your business.

The thrill of seeing your ideas out on the shelf

What is it that motivates you through tough times in business? Is it the money you’re earning or perhaps you enjoy working with a certain bunch of people? When I was working hard writing my books, it was the thought of seeing the finished product on the shelf that helped drive me.

Chris White is an entrepreneur who has a led portfolio of creative businesses including product development company Bluw, creative agency Bluw Creative and digital architects Bluw i. His most recent business is Karrot Entertainment, a business developing intellectual properties for the kids and family market. I spoke to him on the roof of the Karrot building in South East London to ask him what’s motivated him:

If the video above does not display, watch it on YouTube here

It’s All About Choices

There was a ‘handyman’ at my house yesterday doing some maintenance, minor repairs, decorating – all those things that have accumulated at the bottom of my to-do list. Most of that I could have attempted myself but you have to make choices about what you do, and what you don’t do.

Because, of course, it’s all about Time.

In managing time it’s all about decisions. Whether to read that blog post, whether to click on that link. You get bombarded with hundreds of choices every day, so you have to be ruthless. No more so than online, where you can spend (or is it ‘waste’?) hours on places like Tweetdeck. And the thing is there’s no sure-fire way of knowing what’s going to yield value. That blink-and-you’ll-miss-it tweet could change your fortunes in an instant, open your mind to something new, give you a business opportunity. Or not.

Similarly if you – like me – are one of the growing number of one-person business units, then you need to make judgement calls all our lives. Do we configure that wifi network ourselves, or outsource to an IT expert? Do we design that presentation template or hire a designer? Write that copy or hand to a copywriter?

Each of those choices has a cost implication, but like my outsourcing to the handyman, I may be a few hundred pounds poorer, but I’m richer in time. And whether that’s time to work, to play with my kids, or just to chill, it really doesn’t matter.

I made the choice.

Rip Up The Rule Book

Virgin Media Pioneers is a new initiative here in the UK to help young entrepreneurs ‘make their ideas happen’. It’s an online space where people can get help to develop their idea, pick up new skills and create their own network. The Virgin Media Pioneers Programme is a joint initiative between Virgin Media and Enterprise UK. I’m getting involved in the project as a mentor, giving advice: here’s my first video for them, reminding people that to be a success in business you don’t need to follow the rules, it’s more important to do it your way, and be the smartest not the biggest. 

if the video above does not display properly, watch it on YouTube here

Giving Your Small Business An Edge

I’ve just started writing some posts for BNET, ‘the go to place for management’. So if you like my blog posts here you might enjoy the series for BNET with advice to give small business an edge in fast changing markets. My first post ‘Rip Up Your Five Year Plan’ has just gone live.

Creating Rapid Opportunities From Random Ideas

Being enterprising is about creating opportunities, often out of nothing. These are the opportunities that don’t appear on any plan; they’re more likely to arise from a chance mention in a lift or from an idea you had in the shower.

You just need to be tuned in to what your client’s needs are, and good at reacting fast.

I emailed a client congratulating her on an industry award and suggesting an announcement out to their clients. We’d need to be quick. I assembled a copywriter and designers, got a print firm on stand by and a few days later, a special edition newsletter landed in the in-trays of their clients. It was a great success. Then last week another client mentioned – in passing - an upcoming conference where the management team needed to communicate key messages to staff. “Why don’t you do something on video?” I suggested. We came up with some ideas, filmed and edited this week and the results are now sitting on dvd, just 10 days after that notion.

There was no brief for these projects, they were unplanned (and unbudgeted). But if your ideas are good enough and you can be quick at execution, there’s a stack of unforeseen opportunities out there.

It’ll take innovation on your part, flexibility and vision on your client’s - and sweat from everyone. But it’s always satisfying to come up with a random idea and see it come to fruition just days later.

Don’t Do 'Shopping List' Marketing

I passed the window of a small business yesterday; as I understand it, a two-person operation. Across the windows it had a list of all the services on offer. And when I say ‘a list’ I mean a long list. The first three or four services were conceivably within their core expertise but I would guess that the next 10 or 15 were ones that would be outsourced and sub contracted. Now if you’re a bigger company that’s fine, but for a two person business is it wise advertising such a diverse breadth of services?

I think their likely business model of being enterprising in maximising their revenue streams is okay but my question is over their marketing and market perception. If you’re starting out and trying to get a reputation of expertise – especially for a very small business - it’s more effective to shout about the three or four things that you live and breathe, the talents that are genuinely part of your dna. Avoid positioning yourself as a ‘we do everything’ company; don’t pretend to be something you’re not.

Success will more likely be about authenticity and genuine talents rather than offering a shopping list of everything a client might want.

The Idea Moment

More and more of us are trading – and competing - on ideas. From ad agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi to one person companies, we’re all in the ideas business.

But of course ideas aren’t an easily-produced commodity; there is no proven production line for churning out genius game-changing thoughts.

You can spend a whole day, a whole week - or even longer -searching for ‘that’ solution, for the clarity of vision on a project. And still, you might get nowhere, sitting frustrated, manacled to your desk, laptop or notepad, scratching your head.

But all it takes is for one single, simple, short moment of clarity to get *it*. Not always a ‘eureka’/ light bulb moment, not always that jaw-dropping but nonetheless you’ll get it. That solution, a wow product idea or instant solution to a problem will suddenly appear with the instant realisation that this can make a significant difference to your business or career.

The Idea Moment is difficult to define. It’s like scanning the screen or searching across a landscape and not seeing anything. And then suddenly… like a silver lining to a cloud, a glimpse of late sunlight on a cloud-filled afternoon, you get ‘it’; that return of investment, that moment of clarity as all becomes clear. Not even a minute, just a split second of the recognition that it’s a good idea, is enough.

If ideas are important in your business, know what currency of ideas-generation gets results. Know what makes a good idea and do whatever it takes to create and sustain more and more of them.

Think about it.

10 Things I Know for 2010

So as we approach the end of the year, the web is full of predictions & tips for the New Year. Me? What I’m offering up below is not full of jaw-dropping revelations. Just a simple Top 10 List of Things I’ve learnt in running my own business and working with businesses in the last 12 months. And these themes will continue to inform how I work with clients in 2010. Whether you are a small business owner, a department head, a solo-entrepreneur, whoever - I hope it resonates.

1. GO FOR IT. Forget over-planning, focus instead on actually delivering your projects, websites and products. Over-analysis can paralyse your business so don’t spend months deciding on your new brand name, or days and days plotting financial projections before launching a venture, often it’s more important to just go for it.

2. HARNESS DIGITAL TOOLS. “Digital tools”, “social media”, I don’t care what you call it but you have to be on top of the tools that work for your sector, for your message, for your audience. They’re pretty much free and they can be harnessed for enormous value. Don’t just use them to pimp your products, use them to build relationship with the marketplace, to listen and engage with people. I’ve made such a great bunch of contacts via Twitter this year, it’s a great way of expanding your network.

3. POINT OF DIFFERENCE. I make no apologies for banging on about this for the last 12 months; this is what marketing is all about. How is your product, brand, idea, offering different from the rest? Then tell the world about your difference.

4. KEEPING PACE WITH CHANGE. So you, your team, your business, your product has changed over the last 12 months. Question: has your marketing, your language of communication and your sales messages kept pace? If not, update them.

5. COMPETE ON SERVICE. Okay so hardly a new one, but it *still* counts. Are your beating the competition on service, on intimacy, on attention to detail? Because that’s where you can win. We like dealing with people who are nice guys and treat us well. That simple.

6. WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY SELLING? I still see so many businesses put the emphasis on selling what they make rather than sell the benefits of what they make. Missed opportunity. Sell what your products and services can do for your customer - sell the applications, not the software.

7. COLLABORATE. A personal goal for me for 2010. We have to recognise that however ambitious and talented we are, we often need other people to help achieve our goals. Find partner companies, new teams, like-minded souls to inject fresh passion and talent in to your projects to achieve game-changing results.

8. GROW DIFFERENT. Business growth doesn’t *have* to be about adding more stores, adding more staff, growing bricks and mortar premises, getting a bigger warehouse. There are smarter routes to business growth. Building intellectual property, building brand equity, growing it online. Keeping the operation small, but building your niche, offering more add-ons, charging clients more (and this route can be lower risk too).

9. FACE TO FACE. Communicate externally with clients and internally with your staff/ teams. Don’t let human relationships deteriorate. For the business that’s got “too busy” to talk to its staff, sit down and have that weekly 08.30 meeting; for the company that let clients lapse, come up with some initiatives to keep in touch. And don’t keep relationships virtual; invest the time and train/rail miles to sit down with clients and teams face to face (Twitter just ‘aint the same).

10. BE REACTIONARY. If you suddenly spot an opportunity, be flexible enough to react to it. If your business model is broken, fix it. If your marketing sucks, change it. If your offering is tired, reinvent it. Be open minded about opportunities, don’t get entrenched in rigid plans. Don’t run away from change, embrace it like crazy.

Five Big Lessons From Small Shop Keepers

Convention was that if you were thinking of launching a small business you should look at big business for inspiration. Now with many big businesses failing that's being turned on its head as the business world looks at the small independent shop keeper to learn lessons for success: when global brand Starbucks rolled out its new store concept recently it resembled a local unbranded independent coffee shop.
A successful independent shop is what enterprise is all about and recently I've been chatting to neighbourhood coffee shop owners, barbers and shop keepers. Here's what I've learnt:

1) TIME. Success is about putting the hours in, and being patient – it won't happen overnight. From the coffee shop owner putting in 12 hour days to the barber on his feet all day, you have to invest hands-on time in your business. Many people I spoke to didn't even have hire staff for the first 6 or 12 months, keeping the operation lean whilst building revenues and a reputation.

2) CONTROL. Everyone I spoke to stayed across the whole operation, especially the details. From knowing they need to budget £10 a week for window cleaning to checking the utility bills, these proprietors keep their eye on everything.

3) NICHE. The successful guys are filling a niche in the market. The coffee shop that roasts its own beans on the premises is the only one in town. The barber shop that cuts men’s hair for £10; that's what he and his team do. And it's what people queue for, 6 days a week. No-one else around is providing that damn-simple offering; he's not trying to compete with the £30+ hairdresser visit with complimentary cappuccino.

4) SERVICE. Tom Peters quotes a Chinese proverb in one of his presentations: 'Man With Unsmiling Face Must Not Open Shop'. Dead right. These guys are going the extra mile. Welcoming customers, engaging with them. Offering free coffee samples, providing a venue for community groups, discounts for pensioners.

5) WORD OF MOUTH. Sure, social media and on-line will help buzz marketing but success here is about good old-fashioned word of mouth, something every entrepreneur aspires to. We get good service, we talk about it, we spread the word.

Stamp Out Workplace Apathy!

I walked past a newly opened clothes shop yesterday morning and saw a woman sitting at the counter. She was looking down, deeply engrossed in reading a book (and nothing wrong with reading a book, but there’s a time and a place).

But I couldn’t help thinking - hasn’t she got better things to do? Tidying up the stock. Changing the window display. Writing emails to customers. Coming up with ideas to fill that shop. Something proactive? Even sweeping the floor?

Okay so maybe she has a bad boss or no one to mentor her (or maybe she is the boss). But there’s no excuse, it’s about using your initiative. Wherever you work – and especially in a competitive job market - I can’t believe someone has ‘nothing to do’, there’s always stacks of things that you *could* be doing, whatever level you’re at in an organisation.

Success – and survival - in the workplace in 2009 is about ‘upping your ante’ to be better than the next guy, so whether you’re working in a business or an employer yourself, take the initiative and beat apathy.

Think Reinvention

If you're looking for ways to reinvigorate your business or your career, Think Reinvention.

In this rapidly changing world reinvention is a powerful way to consolidate your strengths, keep fresh and stay ahead of the game. But reinvention is not about marketing hype; it’s about staying authentic - taking a look at your organisational, personal or brand strengths from a fresh perspective and repositioning your offering to maximise potential.

Here's my 90 second video on the subject:

Being Direct In Business Relationships

Like any relationship, business ones can get muddied if neither party is clear about what they want or what they are looking for. That can lead to misunderstanding, frustration or conflict.

Being direct upfront about your expectations or requirements can save a lot of grief later on. Whether you’re having an initial meeting with a client or sounding out a supplier, let them know what you’re looking for and/or ask what they want from the relationship.

Tell them what you want:

‘I’m looking for a new supplier’.

‘I’m looking for a new client’.

‘I want to work with you’

‘I’d love a job with you’

Don’t waste time playing games.

It’s like the approach John Chambers, CEO of Cisco takes to meetings:

Meet Mr Chambers in the flesh, and the small talk lasts for about five seconds, until he asks: “What do you expect from this conversation?” (The Economist Aug 29th)

You might think that’s brash. But at least it’s focused. No room for ambiguity.