Have you ever wondered how difficult that is for some people and entire organisations?
In the search for productivity gains, reduced overhead, faster closing times, delighted clients and so on, that one little step might be the difference between a lousy and a record year, a client walking or staying, a promotion or a bonus and another disappointing year. What is holding you back?
If you think “scale” gives your largest competitors an easy ride, think about this. I met recently with a subsidiary CEO of a global insurance monolith. Standing at his 17th floor corner window, he began to regale me with his recent success: three acquisitions closed, loss-making businesses back into profit, and then stopped, stared at me, and whispered in a hushed tone that another of his fellow divisional CEOs is trying to steal his most profitable portfolio company. He asked my advice about his alternatives: accept it gracefully, fight like hell internally or structure an external trading relationship that might frustrate the move.
I am not kidding, when I say to circumspect entrepreneurs, why are you so fearful of your large competitors hurting your business when they are busy fighting their own?
How accurate do you find fellow investors, clients, business partners and so forth in offering attractive opportunities (risk and reward) for your business growth? My presumption here is that they are genuine in seeking your serious commitment and offering meaningful reciprocal value.
If your response is “moderate” or “low”, it might just be that you have done a poor job at continually educating them about how your business works, and what is immediately useful and relevant, right now.
Not that they are “cheap”, or in someway, damaged, which I find a lot of people conclude wrongly.
In the current public spat between the activist investor, Voce Capital Management, the Board and Mark Watson, CEO of publicly-listed Bermudan insurer, Argo Group, the spendthrift allegations include the co-mingling of personal and business interests. One in particular was the “vanity sponsorship” of a Formula E racing team, a Volvo ocean race team, and an Americas Cup Team. A mismatch between Argo’s ideal buyers of its’ products and services, those sports, and the “return” for Argo’s stockholders.
Let me reverse this question, name me a corporate sponsorship of a sport or cultural event by a publicly listed firm that didn’t originally commence with a CEO or powerful figure, who had a strong personal or emotional connection?
That doesn’t make wasting stockholders money right but I could list endless sponsorships, past and present, JLT and Aon with Newbury Racecourse, RSA Group with Cricket Ireland, Hilton with McLaren Formula 1, Deutsche Bank with the HK Art Fair. It is a very “grey area”, where the Heads of Sponsorship and Marketing can “dress” up the return on investment to positively impact their key constituents because there are very few people with real skin in the game or accountability.
