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management consulting

REMOTE TEAMS: 3 Effective Managing Strategies During COVID-19

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

For many CEOs and managers, COVID-19 has catapulted their businesses into a forced global experiment of working from home.

Companies are now scrambling to change the way they conduct business. In fact, how to set up an effective remote working environment for your team has not only become essential, but in many cases, existential.

Case in point: we were recently hired by a multinational B2B brand to help their executive team adjust to this new day-to-day and codify best practices that facilitate remote high-performance teams.

Here are a few tips about what works and what doesn’t when managing remote teams. Hopefully, these will help you to maintain a successful business and keep your employees connected and inspired.

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1) Communicate! I know, obvious, right? But you’d be surprised how often we get wrapped up in our own heads and forget about our people until we need answers.

What’s most important here is keeping a steady rhythm of communication that’s right for your team or company.

For example, daily check-ins with team members help in more ways than one: they allow you to know what everyone is working on, and what direction they’re headed. The latter is key to ensuring projects are done on time. And certainly, the morale boost you can give your remote team with a casual conversation can’t be overstated.

Remember, interaction with your team is more than just communicating. It is about sharing ideas and discussing new projects. Try some team-building exercises, such as having them list a few facts about themselves, or even just talk about their likes and dislikes. The goal here is to get your team to interact in this new remote environment and to know each other better.

One note of caution about emails: It easy for managers to simply rely on emails as their main channel of communication. The last thing you want is for your team to get hammered with nonstop, nonessential emails. Pick your spots.

Key takeaway: the more often you effectively interact with your team, the more trust and sense of collaboration you build, which is essential for achieving goals.

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2) Relate! COVID-19 has taken health officials, governments and all of us by surprise. It has restricted our movements and closed schools. As a result, we are all stressed.

And your employees, who may have never worked remotely, now find themselves having to do it for the first time.

This adds up to being a significant transition and an adjustment for everyone.

As a manager, practice empathy. Try to understand these dynamics from their perspective and anticipate potential problems. Be proactive. Talk to your teams and see how they are doing, and that goes beyond simple work issues. Try to make sure they have what they need to get the job done. Establish regular one-on-one calls with department heads to review any obstacles or challenges they are facing. This could also be very helpful in identifying team-wide problems.

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3) Time Management: As challenging as it may be at times to ensure office-based meetings are productive, doing them remotely can take this challenge to another level. To be most effective, consider the following in your preparation:

* Choose the right platform: whether Zoom, Livestorm or GoToMeeting, the last thing you want to do is frustrate your team by wasting time on something that doesn’t work very well for your needs;

* Set the schedule: it is important to set expected work hours. Create a specific time frame for when employees are required to be responsive and check-in with each other. This can be your normal business day hours;

* Agenda: be sure to have an agenda that you can alert team members to ahead of time;

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* Stick to your plan: keep things moving along. There’s nothing worse than a meandering conversation that’s hard to hear during a video or phone conference;

* Tools: consider using project management tools like Trello to help you track projects and tasks with ease. These allow for your team members to add their tasks onto the relevant projects/boards, ensure tasks have deadlines and create a system where your employees can comment on any project roadblocks;

* Finish: end the meeting promptly and make sure to summarize your key takeaways; and

* Follow up: send a post-meeting email that summarizes these key points in writing

Here’s the unspoken truth: managing your teams remotely can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. The secret is preparation. These challenging times don’t have to be about fear and panic, especially in your organization. Certainly, there’s a lot out of our control, but there are things you can still do.

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You can lead.

And that means creating new structures and routines that enable your employees to quickly adapt to the remote workplace.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or wish to share any comments.

Category: Management ConsultingTag: COVID-19, human resources, internal communications, leadership, management consulting, remote teams

Rethinking Your Competition

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

When It’s No Longer Who You Think It Is

Have you ever wondered why making dinner reservations on OpenTable is so easy while trying to get your cable company – like Optimum or Comcast – to answer billing questions is as painful as pulling a bad tooth?

Apples-to-oranges comparisons like this are quickly becoming the hallmark of how customers are judging brand experiences.

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Case in point: we were recently asked to evaluate customer brand experiences for a leading financial software company. Typically, you’d expect these customers to rate their experiences against their encounters with similar software companies.

But that’s not what happened.

Most customers took a broader view in their ratings approach.

When asked about their brand experiences with our client, customers made comparisons to account monitoring programs at American Express and earning rewards benefits similar to Amazon Prime.

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Customers have begun to expect the same high standard consumer experience across brands. 

Grant it, this is a small snapshot.

But perhaps it offers us a glimpse into a larger movement underway, often referred to as liquid expectations, where customer experiences with one brand seep into their expectations of another. It’s experience based on a much broader view of how they spend their money.

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The implication for your brand of such a radical shift in customer expectation is clear: customers will compare their experiences with your brand to their experiences with OpenTable, Amazon and Starbucks, even if you sell financial software, car insurance or commercial real estate.

In fact, it may no longer just be the direct competitor right in front of you that you should be most worried about.

But what can brands do to meet these evolving customer expectations?

A good start is to redefine your competition.

In our case, we helped our client to identify those companies outside of their direct competitors who are innovating in ways that could be adaptable to expanding their customer service programs.

The idea is not to provide a similar service, per se, but a similar experience which results in a positive brand response.

If you’re a CEO, COO, CMO or brand manager, here are few ways to navigate your customers’ liquid expectations and keep your brand competitive:

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1) Expand your approach: when creating brand experiences, look beyond your industry to see where else your customers are engaging and adapt.

For instance, not only did Uber upend the personal transport industry, but through UberEats, it helped create the on-demand expectation for food from sit-down restaurants. Uber effectively created a more fast and convenient way of accessing this new category.

2) Innovate: customers are now judging brand experiences based on what they see as possible in other industries. As your brand’s manager, consider doing the same. Look to other industries and adapt their innovation as a way of increasing personalized brand experiences.

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3) Don’t fear Disruption: it remains an effective competitive tool. Take charge to reshape these expectations so you can foster greater brand engagement and loyalty.

Consider Vans sneakers, a brand that had been struggling over the last few years. It recently made a pop culture comeback with new online offerings that allow customers to create their own designs.

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The take-away: Customers now crave brands that offer products and services which combine the convenient and intuitive. If your brand is not evolving to meet this demand, you’re only frustrating would-be buyers.

To be more competitive, don’t simply focus on your industry. Instead, actively listen to your customers to determine what they are engaged in; remember, the real competition isn’t next door, it’s wherever your customers are spending the most time and money.

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Optimum and Comcast, are you listening?

Category: Blog, Management ConsultingTag: branding, competition, consulting, customer expectations, customers, management, management consulting

Talk Ain’t Cheap, It’s Priceless

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

 

How Private Equity Can Use Better Branding

Imagine that the former face of your prominent private equity firm is now more famous for lurid emails to his female assistants, losing important deals to competitors and telling everyone that you fired him after he quit.

Suddenly, your house is ablaze and what you say and how you say it becomes the difference between a severely damaged reputation and your firm’s future growth.

While this true-to-life example comes from a recent situation in which I was asked to consult, it highlights why brand building and communications have become more important than ever for private equity firms.

Think about it: if your firm has a strong brand, then you can withstand such reputational crises, fend off competitors and quickly regain a foothold with proper assistance.

Based on my experience, I’ll go further and suggest that a strong brand helps private equity firms source the best deals, raise the most capital and attract the most desirable employees.

It directly translates into higher awareness, greater cache and stronger deal flow. A strong brand can even result in proprietary deal flow, which means fewer of those troublesome auctions.

The downside to not having a strong brand? Private equity firms that ignore branding and effective communications put themselves at risk of competing solely on price (valuation and terms).

And please don’t confuse branding with making a cosmetic fix.

For example, remember when Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management tried to ditch the term hedge fund for the less evil-sounding alternative asset manager? Or when Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital rebranded itself as a diversified asset management company, which came across as sounding so broad as to be meaningless to everyone within an earshot?

These days, due to the proliferation of dry powder and fierce deal competition, it continues to be a seller’s market. So it’s difficult for firms to find quality businesses at price points where their risk-adjusted target rates of return on invested capital are reasonable.

As a result, asset managers face increasing demands from stakeholders. And success is no longer just about returns, but figuring out how to differentiate your firm from the competition and then successfully communicate these advantages to limited partners, portfolio companies, investors, prospects and media.

Getting the best deals is no longer just about competing on price, but on what longer term strategic advantages your firm offers.

This is why private equity firms can benefit from better branding and communications.

Now, how do you accomplish that?

Whether you are in private equity or another business, the process is the same.

To start, be aware of the effective branding trends that are occurring in your industry, and then address them head on.

Here are a few to consider:

1) If you think you are communicating enough with your stakeholders, you’re probably not

These days, your stakeholders, especially investors and limited partners, are demanding proactive and transparent communication.

Don’t be fooled, they know you only call when it’s time to fundraise.

Further, their appetite for information is growing more insatiable. They want information about the portfolio companies in which you invest, from the management teams and competition, to market developments and diversity (an ever-growing concern for those firms whose clients include state and federal pension funds).

2) Differentiate or die

Ok, that’s a bit strong. But since competition is so fierce right now in fundraising and throughout the bidding process, private equity firms must develop and grow their brands or get lost in the clutter.

This means you have to clearly articulate your vision and values to stakeholders in order to win. Capitalize on positive news and demonstrate your expertise to everyone who matters.

A good place to start is refining your investment philosophy and identifying those core values that support it and allow your firm to deliver. Don’t simply focus on what everyone else does – past performance, transparency, excellence. Sure they’re important, but what will really set your firm apart from the clutter are those unique qualities that really position you as different and THE best alternative to the competition.

Also, keep in mind that these qualities have to be based in reality. In other words, demonstrable. Just because you say it, doesn’t make it so.

For instance, consider Goldman Sachs’ odd attempt at rebranding itself as a startup tech company. If Lloyd Blankfein’s pronouncements about being “a technology firm” or “a platform” didn’t convince you, then you had the same reaction as everyone else (Goldman is now a what??).

We can certainly credit them with trying, but it’s hard to create such a quick transformational narrative around a 149-year-old bank as being hip without doing the necessary branding work to get you there.

Don’t make the same mistake. Do the work.

For example, for our challenged PE client mentioned earlier, we conducted objective, third-party branding exercises to hone their messaging and narrative, developed a thought leadership program and identified key differentiating attributes. We then used this information to help reposition our client among its competitors to drive business. 

3) It’s about your portfolio companies, not just you

Certainly, the most effective way your private equity firm can demonstrate its performance is through the success of its portfolio companies. So use these successes as opportunities to articulate how your firm is supporting these investments.

This kind of information can boost deal flow, better position your firm as a leader in its field and help recruit the best talent.

4) Channeling success

Picking the right channels to highlight the value your firm brings to limited partners, portfolio companies and other industry stakeholders is as important as your message.

Whether it’s through the media, your website, thought leadership content, social networks or conference appearances, the question to ask is where are my prospective investors and partners consuming information?

That’s where you should be.

As private equity firms increasingly have to compete for dollars and deals, finding a way for your firm to stand out is now more critical to success than ever.

Branding and communications will enable you to differentiate yourself from the competition, and that means being bigger, bolder and braver in your approach.

Remember, what you say and how you say it matters to your stakeholders.

It’s priceless.

Category: Blog, Management ConsultingTag: branding, competition, consulting, corporate branding, management consulting

Nothing Stays in Vegas Anymore

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

Top 3 Brand Reputation Management Lessons Courtesy of United Airlines

It was the shriek heard around the world.

The seemingly mild-mannered Dr. David Dao being forcibly removed from United Airlines flight #3411 earlier this week.  It was a move that caused United Airlines’ stock to lose $800 million in value on Tuesday, and the company to suffer nearly a full week of severe reputational hemorrhaging.

If you’re like me, you’ve seen, heard and read enough about this sad incident, so I will spare you from any recap. Instead, let’s take a quick look at several lessons from United’s experience that brands should take note of in this digital age of reputation management:

1) Nothing Stays in Vegas anymore. 

If no news is good news, then bad news will travel globally and fast. As humans, we are wired to share stories. And with social media, any crisis can go viral in a matter of seconds. So if something happens, understand that the likelihood is great that someone will have pulled out their phone and recorded it. Brands should adapt their social media policies and practices to accommodate this fact — and this means being proactive on social media when something does go wrong.

2) Forget the lawyers and put people first.

Most crisis teams include attorneys. Rightly so, but there are situations, like in the case of United, where their counsel to refrain from admitting anything is less than useful.  Just re-read United CEO Oscar Munoz’s first statement on Monday. His corporate double-speak – “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers” – failed to address the most important part of his apology, which is acknowledging the violent behavior that led to Dr. Dao’s suffering.  

It only goes to prove that empathy and sympathy go a long way, and even saying sorry can quickly defuse a crisis-in-the-making.  Why? A heartfelt apology can reduce anger and importantly, provide your customers with the feeling that they are being heard.

3) Be Consistent.

If you recall, Mr. Munoz’s first statement was from a leaked internal email intended only for United staff. While it reassured employees, it did little to provide any comfort to an already outraged public. In the minds of United, they wrongly thought they could communicate different messages to different audiences. They forgot a simple truth: in our new world order, everyone is listening during a crisis. You have to assume that what you say internally will eventually become part of the public conversation. So please be consistent in your messaging.

Nothing stays in Vegas anymore, and that has put brands under intense public scrutiny. To avoid United’s reputational fate, own the issue by being proactive (especially on social media), putting people first and ensuring consistency in your messaging. This will enable you to bring any crisis to a resolution in the way you want it to be managed or resolved. 

Category: Blog, Branding & Corporate CommunicationsTag: management, management consulting, reputation, reputation management

Are Netflix, Amazon & Hulu Encouraging Piracy?

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

Try this: close your eyes and think about your favorite Netflix original series.

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Stranger Things?

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch?

You? 

Ok, now if you could get your shows for free, would you?

Don’t worry; your answer is safe here.

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But for the rest of the viewing public, the secret is out: piracy seems to be making a comeback and surprisingly, Netflix may be part of the reason.

That Netflix has become the Godzilla of video streaming services since its launch in 2007 is undisputed. In fact, its stats say as much: Netflix grew subscribers by 17% in the just-reported quarter, for a total of 139 million paying subscribers. In contrast, Amazon sits at 100 million subscribers while Hulu has signed a paltry 25 million. Netflix also announced its plan to spend a whopping $10 billion on original content in 2019, which is more than Amazon, Apple, HBO and the other streaming services will spend on a combined basis.

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With so many programming choices available to consumers, why has BitTorrent traffic (piracy) increased 9.2% in the Americas, 19% in Asia and a staggering 32% across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (2018 Global Internet Phenomena Report)?

The answer has to do with consumer convenience.

In music, we use piracy levels to help determine the health of the streaming market because it highlights a key value proposition for consumers: convenience. 

Think about it.

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Spotify proved that even in a world where music piracy is easily accessible, users are willing to pay for its convenience. These days, very few want to spend time searching sketchy, potentially virus-infested links on the internet just to stream Post Malone’s Sunflower if they don’t have to.

Perhaps, it’s this growing lack of convenience on the part of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon that is at the heart of why some consumers are switching back to piracy.

Where do we see this lack of convenience?

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1) Market Segmentation. That is, there are too many players. 

Let’s say you want to watch Stranger Things (Netflix exclusive), Handmaid’s Tale(Hulu exclusive) and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel(Amazon exclusive).

Getting the picture?

That’s roughly an extra $40 per month to subscribe to all three services. And as streamers continue to invest in exclusive content, we will be forced to sign up for even more services or miss out.

Not very convenient.

And chances are good that this issue will only get worse for us as Disney, Apple and Facebook launch their own exclusive streaming services later this year.

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2) Licensing. No really, it’s becoming a nightmare of inconvenience.

Were you disappointed when Netflix canceled most of its Marvel shows, like Daredevil and Luke Cage?

Remember, Disney, which owns Marvel, is getting ready to launch its streaming service this year (Disney+). And The Mouse not only owns Marvel, but Pixar, Star Wars, 21st Century Fox and part of Hulu.

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So if you were hoping for Moana or any of the new Star Wars movies to stay on Netflix, you probably should rethink your monthly entertainment spend before Disney+ debuts.

Then you have AT&T, which owns Warner Bros. Studios and DC Comics, also planning to launch its own streaming service this year. So it’s not a stretch to imagine AT&T launching separate services to exclusively stream all things Harry Potter and Looney Tunes.

Also, not very convenient.

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Internationally, licensing and distribution of all this programming is even more complicated. Local regulations and certain censorship rules across Europe and Asia, in particular, make content harder to find, forcing consumers to seek out alternatives, like BitTorrent.

THE TAKEAWAY: It’s All About Convenience

Both market segmentation and fragmented licensing force consumers to pay more and makes content harder to find. These combined forces create a perfect storm, effectively making individual streaming services less convenient—and therefore, less valuable—to consumers.

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As a result, the trade-offs of piracy may be appearing more worthwhile.

What to do?

Moving forward, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, among others, would do well to remember that the entertainment business spent the last two decades trying to battle piracy through all manner of heavy handed-tactics and lawsuits, only to realize that offering users convenient services (inexpensive, accessible, quality) was the best solution.

Streaming services need only look to see where people are going for their content.

They’re the customers.

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If not, it may be them walking the plank. 

Category: Blog, Management ConsultingTag: management consulting, netflix, piracy, streaming

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