Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Design, Insight, Luxury, Management, Marketing, Professionalism
When I was young, I loved cars.
OK, I still do … but back then, they held a particularly strong fascination.
Freedom. Independence. Status.
Now while there are many cars that are burned into my consciousness – the Ford Fiesta XR2, the Fiat X19, the Triumph TR7 to name a few – there is one that has a special place in my heart.
Not because I wanted one, but because in my provincial mind, it represented the pinnacle of success.
It was … a Ford Granda.
Yes … that tank like thing at the top of this post.
I know … I know … how utterly shameful.
As I said, it wasn’t a car I aspired to owning or driving – besides, I was years off being allowed to drive – but it was the biggest car on the road and in my small, little mind, that meant the driver was doing one of the big jobs in life.
You have to understand that I was entering as period of my life where school life was soon going to make way for the rat race … and while I was good at school, I was crap at exams so I was looking for direction in terms of a job that could one day, potentially let me own a Ford Granada.
Jesus, I was sad.
It gets worse … because I still remember seeing a man drive a BMW 7-Series when they first came out and going up to him to ask what he did for a living as I couldn’t believe anyone in West Bridgford – my home town – could ever have a job that let them buy a car like that.
The irony was it was less about having something that would convey status and success to the outside world and more about setting a goal that would let me think I have done OK in life if I ever got to own one.
Which I didn’t .
The reason for all this is that I recently watched a video for the launch of the MK II Granada.
It’s long, but it’s worth watching for a whole host of reasons.
Part of it is because it highlights how far the car industry has evolved since 1984 interns of technology and what they regard as driver/passenger comfort and sophistication … part of it is because it’s funny to see them make big claims about small features [digital clock anyone?] … but the biggest part is how much technology we still regard as luxury is over 30+ years old.
It doesn’t make me want a Granada, but it does help me feel less foolish rating them in 1984.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Confidence, Culture, Insight, Management
As I’ve written a few times previously, I am not Gary Veynerchuck’s biggest fan.
From rewriting history to celebrating inauthenticity
… Gary seems to be an individual who represents almost the opposite of everything I value.
Of course, given he is more successful than I’ll ever be, you could argue you should listen to him rather than me – but then values shouldn’t be evaluated against what you have, but how you live.
Anyway I digress because I recently read something that I agree with him on.
No … this is not a joke.
It’s the art of delegation.
This is what Mr V said …
I agree with him.
Too many people completely miss the point of what delegation means.
They think it’s about handing over the shit you don’t want to do, but it’s not – it’s enabling colleagues to bring their talent and way of seeing the World into a project you’re working on in a way where they can win on their terms.
That doesn’t mean you have to blindly support whatever they do.
But it is about backing, supporting and encouraging them every step of the way.
Letting them do what they think is the way to win rather than expecting them to redo what you’d do.
To do that, you do have to let go of your ego.
To do that, you do have to have faith in the talent you work with.
To do that, you do have to want to see your team grow and progress.
In essence, you have to open the door to opportunity and let your team walk in and do their thing … it’s not about opening the door for only you to walk in and leave everyone else behind.
Making sure your team feel backed is vitally important.
Giving them the time and space to think, challenge and be challenged is everything.
But most of all, handing over the spotlight to them with your full support is – at least to me – what delegation is all about.
Not keeping things from them.
Not limiting what they want to do.
Not stopping them from forging their own direction and destination.
I know it can be hard, but it’s also worth it because while you are responsible for the standards being produced – doing it in a way that lets your team grow and develop is the foundation of management success … because the reality is when you get to run a department, success should be based as much on what your team achieves as what you personally do.
If they win, you win.
Simple as that.
Maybe there is hope for Mr V after all.
Maybe.
Though ‘a lack of ego’ and ‘Gary V’ have never appeared in the same sentence before and likely never will again.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Food, Italy, Marketing Fail
Cultural appropriation is a big subject these days.
I have to admit, I am torn by it.
Of course, when someone adopts anything from another cultural background and doesn’t acknowledge it’s origins – or doesn’t ensure it is expressed with the respect and context it deserves – then it’s bad [I’m looking at you Gwen Stefani] but I can’t help feel that in some circumstances, it can help build ties between heritages that can encourage understanding and acceptance.
Jesus … I sound like a Ms World contestant don’t I.
If that wasn’t bad enough, it’s all because I wanted to show this photo …
Yes, that really is a pizza with chips on it.
CHIPS!
And it was at Whole Foods.
An American firm using British chips on an Italian cuisine.
If I was Italy, I would see this as a legitimate reason to declare war … but then, based on this campaign from my mate from a few years ago, maybe Italy culturally appropriated pizza from South Korea.
Maybe.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Culture, Experience, Hotels, Management, Marketing, Relevance, Resonance, Service
One of the places I find most hysterical in the World is San Francisco.
Yes … the entire place.
I find it hysterical because it’s often referred to as a liberal, hippy paradise when the reality is it’s one of the most expensive, exclusive and divisive places on earth.
Of course it wasn’t always this way, but the rise of tech has seen so much money coming into the place, that not only is everything hideously expensive, but the service industry – something America was once famous for – has seemingly given up making any effort whatsoever, safe in the knowledge they’re going to get people giving them money for stuff regardless.
No where is this attitude more prevalent than the hotel industry.
Because there are so many people coming into the place – hotels are almost always full.
What that’s resulted in, is even crappy hotels charging rates plush places in LA would balk at.
Case in point, the hotel I stayed in – The Taj – cost more for 1 night than the 2 nights I stayed at the Ritz Carlton at Marina Del Rey.
Which had a water view.
And breakfast included.
What I got at the Taj, was this …
Now I used to have Taj Hotels as a client.
I know their history and the way they approach their business.
Thanks to the Silicon Valley goldrush … the Taj San Fran doesn’t embody any of them.
In fact, I would say the only thing it’s suitable for, is a Martin Parr photo assignment.
For those who don’t know the brilliant Mr P, he is a photographer who specialises in brilliantly capturing the utterly mundane … usually in Britain.
With that in mind, I’ve written him a letter, dedicated to the experience I had at the Taj SF.
Dear Martin Parr.
If you’re looking for inspiration on what – and where – your next photo project could be, may I suggest The Taj Hotel in San Fran.
Not only does it have the depressingly bland interior design qualities of 1980’s middle England that I know you love love, but it comes with the price tag of a modern of Russian Oligarch.
Even when I came back to the room at 2:30am – after a long day at the office – I was reluctant to sleep there, for fear the rundown averageness of the place would do me irreparable damage in the night.
It is a photo exhibition waiting to happen.
Possibly your finest ever.
I even have a name for the shot … Expensive Beige.
You’re welcome.
Rob
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Honesty, Imagination, Innocence, Insight, Marketing, Mum, Mum & Dad, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Relevance, Resonance
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been invited to speak at a couple of conferences – in Hamburg, for the APG, and at ‘Closeness’ in London.
In both cases, I was asked to talk about the importance about empathy – something I’ve been banging on about for centuries.
And in both cases, I felt the best way to do it was to talk through the lens my Mum had taught me … which is the title of this post.
For an industry that is supposed to understand people, I’m surprised how few seem to really understand what that means.
Rather than understand hopes, dreams, fears, ambitions and contradictions … it seems we prefer to focus on the bits that are relevant to our business needs, without seemingly realizing the important role context plays in shaping how we live.
If you don’t get context, you don’t get people … and you don’t get context without investing time.
Not focus groups.
Not ethnographic studies.
But an on-going commitment to going down the rabbit hole of people’s lives to understand how they live and the nuances that separate each and every one of us.
You can’t do this if you want to ‘fast forward’ to the bits you have pre-determined will be useful to you.
You can’t do this if you want convenient answers to ‘sell your campaign’.
You can’t do this if you want answers rather than understanding.
This last point is especially important.
Frankly, understanding is becoming a lost art.
Understanding is built on emotional connection, not intellectual.
Where you leave your prejudices, barriers, filters, expectations and hopes at the door and focus. Asking questions to understand more about what someone is saying than to get the answers you want to your specific challenge.
It’s hard.
It takes real practice.
Because while you may appreciate every person has a story … it can only truly be revealed if you let them do it in their own way, in their own time, in their own words. Which means you might end up hearing things that makes no sense to you, even though it makes perfect sense to them … and while that might not initially seem valuable, you’ll soon realise it’s immense.
But all this takes time.
And takes a real commitment.
However it lets you go back with knowledge that enables you to make work that feels like it was born from inside the culture rather than from a bunch of observers.
Work that is filled with the nuances that makes the audience take notice.
Care.
React to.
Feel respect towards because it shows respect to them.
Or said another way …
Work that is resonant to culture rather than just relevant.
And it all starts by being interested in what others are interested in.
Not for commercial gain, but because you are interested in who people are.
It’s why my Mum is still teaching me how to live, 4 years after she has gone.
And now she is teaching others too.
Thank you Mum.