Knowledge Peers

The joys of benchmarking

I can no longer deny it, I am a complete saddo. Because I like benchmarking. Give me a thick book of dense statistics on the fundraising programmes of different charities and I am very happy. At each of the organisations I have been fundraising director, one of the first things I have done (after finding money to invest in growth of course) has been to sign up the organisation to the Fundratios study or the Donorcentrics scheme or, if it’s WWF, both.

Funnily enough, each time I have left a charity, they have stopped participating in these studies. Which can only lead to one of two conclusions. Either I am completely mad or these organisations are missing out on something. Hmm, don’t answer that one...

Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves

I was recently reading about crying at work – good or not? That got me thinking whether it was acceptable to show emotion at work or not.

In my youth, keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of adversity was seen as admirable and to do otherwise was seen as un-English.  One of my favourite ‘Carry On’ film scenes (oh dear, showing my low brow tastes here) is the parody in ‘Carry on up the Khyber’.  The English hold a dinner party, seemingly oblivious to a cannon attack, amongst other things. 

Growth: Time for direct action?

The Government’s “Plan for Growth” was published in March 2011.  When you hear Ed Balls (and others) shouting “there’s no growth plan”, well perhaps they could just go ahead and download it here. When I first read it back in April, my reaction was “good ideas, right direction, a bit thin on substance”.  When we interviewed Mark Prisk, Minister for Business, there was more of the same - see here. Not really a lot to disagree with.

Getting boards to understand the need to invest

I’ve been in the voluntary sector quite a while now, long enough to have seen certain issues come around again and again. One of the hardy perennials that charities still seem to agonise over is whether, and how much, to invest in fundraising and marketing.

Each time I have joined a new organisation as Fundraising Director, I have discussed with my trustees the issue of investment. It has been interesting to see how much attitudes differ on this subject between boards. I have some responses which question the need to spend any money at all promoting the organisation. “Isn’t this money we should be spending on the work?” as one charity’s board member asked me.

Why Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

I was not a romantic teenager.   I didn’t kiss posters of popstars before I went to bed.  Nor did I consume romantic novels and sigh for a strong man to sweep me up and carry me away.  (So it was hugely ironic that I met my husband by fainting into his arms – but I digress). 

I thought Romeo and Juliet were soppy.  And I could never understand the line, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” 

What will shape business in 5 years time?

At a recent Knowledge Peers gathering we had some debate and discussion on what will shape business in five years time. Inherently these tend to be more “strategic” influencers and, with the help of our network, we ran a research poll asking executives to rank their top 5 opportunities and threats in the longer term horizon. If you want to read through the full results and commentary take a look at our Survey Results.

News of the World – an unanswered question

My initial reaction to the recent News of the World revelations was that the people at the top must take responsibility.  I took the view that senior management are ultimately responsible for the organisation’s culture and when there is a serious breach of ethics they should resign.

Could the Private Sector learn from Charities?

Debra Allcock-Tyler wrote in last week’s Third Sector magazine that charities are good at what they do and that businesses should learn from us. This was in response to Nick Hurd’s statement that ‘The sector has to open its mind to absorbing skills from the private sector because it clearly needs more business skills.’ 

Well done Debra for defending charities against this outmoded view that many charities are run by a bunch of sandle-wearing do-gooders who make decisions on the back of a fag-packet (sorry, on the back of a mung-bean packet). I do accept the fact that not every single charity is run as efficiently and effectively as possible but in my experience many work hard with limited resources. 

Mergers - what hope for charities?

“M” for merger is suddenly topical. The Cabinet Office has cut funding for its strategic partners and linked what is left with “encouraging” mergers. 

But in the private sector it is well established that 60% of all mergers fail to deliver shareholder value. If the profit driven sector has such a poor record, what hope for charities? 

In my experience many charity mergers turn out to deliver fewer savings than hoped for because of the complexities of merging two separate and disparate organisations. Boring detail trumps the big vision. Integrating computer systems; coordinating fundraising databases; combining HR records etc – all this is dull but vital. Integrating terms and conditions of employment can mean increased costs because of equal pay legislation. 

Is all publicity good publicity?

Many companies have interesting stories to publicise. Company founders can be hugely important in telling those stories. Consider Amazon. CEO Jeff Bezos is an accomplished showman. In 1999 he personally delivered an order of golf clubs to Amazon’s ten millionth customer, a man in Boston, whilst Bezos’s most famous stunt is probably the tennis match he played with Anna Kournikova at Grand Central Terminal in New York in 2003 to publicise the tennis star’s new range of sports bras available on Amazon (‘only the ball should bounce’). 

The best Cheapflights stories always related to new features on the website such as: a ‘telephone cheat sheet’ which gives you directions on how to ‘speak to a human’ in easy steps; a travel checklist for all the things you need to do before you go; and an analysis of the additional fees increasingly imposed by the airlines for, for example, baggage, fuel and choosing your seat. All these stories received wide exposure. 

Not all our efforts were successful. When Heathrow Terminal Five opened, we sent a team to the terminal to celebrate the opening and, of course to publicise the website. Little did the team know that the £4.3bn Terminal Five was in a state of total chaos. Flights were cancelled, baggage was delayed and even check-in came to a halt. To add to passenger fury, none of the electronic announcement boards functioned either. It was amidst these scenes of anarchy and passenger fury that our enthusiastic and well-motivated PR team arrived. 

Viral marketing is a two-edged sword. The internet - with its blogs, social networks and rapid transmission of information - is not a one-way street which can be ‘controlled’. ‘Google Alerts’ is a free way of tracking what is going on, although its coverage is not universal. There are a number of paid tracking services which are available in order to provide a fuller picture. 

A major risk to any marketing effort is that adverse publicity or comment may appear in search results for your company or brand. So watch out for that and deal with it if and when it does happen. Respond positively and if the coverage is inaccurate, try to ensure that the commentator publishes a retraction. Failing that, make sure that your side of the story is heard fully. 

Recently, the chief executive of Groupon, the rapidly growing online coupon provider which is now apparently worth $25 billion, had to apologise to Japanese customers for a New Year's deal gone terribly wrong. In a subtitled video message uploaded onto YouTube, the company's founder and CEO acknowledged that the company had "really messed up" and outlined steps it was taking to rebuild its tarnished image in Japan. 

The blunder that prompted Mason's apology involved a deal for delivery of "osechi," which is a traditional New Year's meal. Unfortunately, some of Groupon’s customers who paid 10,500 yen ($127) for this particular bargain were left feeling like they had been duped. Many of the 500 osechi sets sold arrived late, while others' meals were in "terrible condition". Groupon Japan admitted the sets didn't match the picture or description provided by the restaurant, Bird Cafe, which was overwhelmed by the volume. 

Angry customers took to the Internet, posting pictures of the underwhelming delivery on message boards, triggering a slew of criticism and bad publicity for the company. 

Mason attributed the latest misstep to similar growing pains that the Chicago-based company has felt in the U.S. "We created Groupon to help enrich people's lives by bringing new exciting experiences to them," he said. And, in a damaging finale he added, perhaps remembering the indigestion caused by the culinary disaster of the spoiled meals: "So when we do the opposite, as we have in this case, it really hurts." 

David is the author of ‘Net Profit: How to Succeed in Digital Business’ (John Wiley)www.netprofitbook.com and the former CEO of Cheapflights Media.