Category: New Marketing Thinking

London 2012 – As Partnership Race Ends A Relationship Marathon Begins …

Its Only Just Begun..

LOCOG (the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) reports in the FT today that their race to secure £700 million of sponsorship for the 2012 games is nearly complete – with its current roster now including 41 domestic sponsors and 11 tier one partners from the IOC‘s ‘family. With the overall return to the UK economy now projected to be just 0.1% increase – on the back of £9.3 Billion of public sector investment – and in the middle of a deep recession, securing the support of valuable partners is a massive achievement from the LOCOG team led by Paul Deighton. However, as anyone who has managed large sponsorship, partnership and collaborative marketing projects realises – getting the deal signed is not the end –  it’s just the start. As the race to acquire sponsors is nearing its end the relationship and partnership marathon is about to start…

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Will Spotify Kill iTunes?

When iTunes Store launched in 2003 it seemed like a gift from the future, so simple, so efficient so obviously better than other distribution channels. Spotify now changes that future, making iTunes now appear expensive, complicated, restrictive.

Two recent articles in HBR comment on the likely impact of Spotify – and how the launch of the Swedish music service could spell a radical change in the future of the music business, the broader content industry – and even Apple’s iTunes service. Maxwell Wessell points out that Spotify is a classic ‘low end disrupter’ that ironically could now have the same impact upon Apple – that iTunes originally had on the music retailing business – whilst James Allworth suggests consumers could get a shock if the Swedish system changes its pricing..

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Willie Walsh – Planes, Change and Airport Troubles …

There is a whiff of the Mourinho about Willie Walsh and he is not everyones cup of in-flight beverage. He acknowledges that taking the media flack comes with the territory. But in a world where everything is built for speed – a truly global business needs a CEO that is fast and Willie Wash, love him or hate him – does not have a slow setting.

It's a fast business ...

Willie Wash, the CEO of International Airlines Group – the holding company of British Airways (BA) and Iberia –  moves fast. He heads up a fast paced business – each year carrying 49 million humans all over the world in its fleet of 419 jets. Willie Walsh talks fast. He takes questions easily and answers them quickly, peppering his comments with facts, stats and detail. His to do list will cover everything from oil prices to volcanoes, from  tourism to terrorism. And last night he entertained a packed room at Adam Street Club – offering a rare insight into the type of character that leads a global business that employs 56,000 people with revenues north of £14 billion.

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Moss Kanter – On Why Everything Goes Better with Partners

Rosabeth Moss Kanter explained about the collaborative advantage in her seminal essay ‘The Art Of Alliances’ back in 1994 and in her latest blog piece published today she neatly summarises the three reasons ‘why everything goes better with partners’. Over the past month I’ve been involved in many discussions about the role of partners, how best to develop and manage them – and the role of nurturing the most valuable relationships through a systematic programme.

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On Cafe Conversations, Connections & Collaboration

Its about conversation and collaboration. Wake up and smell the coffee..

The historian and philosopher Theodore Zeldin – founder of Oxford Muse.com says a lot with few words; “the kind of conversation I am interested in is one where you start it prepared to emerge from it a slightly different person”. As befits a great mind, this is a deceptively simple insight that contains within it a quite a profound truth. How often in business do you engage in a conversation where you are truly open to the ideas of others?

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Matt Ridley: On The Exchange Of Ideas..

Matt Ridley is one of the world’s great science journalists and the ex-Science editor for The Economist. A common theme in his work  – is the story of how collaboration and the exchange of ideas is the vital ingredient that powers great invention, trade, social change – and (and this is the important lesson for marketers) – commercial  innovation. In the TED video below, Ridley explains the importance of specialism and working together.  It’s an uplifting, fun and positive presentation – with a valuable message. This is something he explores in his excellent book – The Rational Optimist. Ridley points out that businesses manage a whole ecosystem of specialist suppliers, experts and increasingly, in our hyper connected super fast world, accessing those most valuable of raw business materials: knowledge and ideas. Nobody can do it alone.  At Benchstone we believe in the vital importance of critical third party collaborations that need be driven by relationship managers with attention to Fit, Planning – and Momentum. For more information on how effective partnership management and smarter collaboration strategies can sharpen your marketing approach visit Benchstone Marketing

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Collaborate To Innovate – Don’t Just Cannibalise

A very interesting article in HBR, Vicki Gardner highlights recent research from Nielsen showing that most of what is deemed marketing innovation actually just cannibalized existing products and market shares – and that genuine innovation should come from collaboration. As Gardner says; ” Regarding innovation, the numbers indicate that the vast majority of innovation also results in splitting the pie vs. growing the pie — and in some cases, innovation inadvertently shrinks the pie”.

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Tony Hayward – Lessons From Deepwater Horizon

We’ve all had bad days. Famously, even Richard Branson says he has days when he’s bored or feels he has not achieved things. The report is late, the boss is on the phone, the presentation fell flat. But there are not many people in the world who have had to endure the pressure that Tony Hayward, the ex-CEO of BP during the Deepwater Horizon disaster, had to deal with for most of 2010. If you get a call saying you need to meet with President Obama, leader of the free world, to discuss what your company is doing to overcome a massive oil leak – that’s a pretty tough day. If you have to agree to sell 10% of the business assets to help fund a $20 Billion relief fund that will be under massive media scrutiny – that’s huge pressure. And underlying all this, as Hayward was quick to point out, there is an environmental disaster and the tragic loss of 11 lives.
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Solutions For Small Business Partnership No-No’s

As an advocate in partnership marketing it’s just as important for me to point out that not all partnership and collaborative offers are good ones – and that sometimes it is best solution is to walk away from the deal.  As an old boss once wisely told me ‘do not fall in love with the deal’ – but keep a clear idea of what you really want from the relationship. In an interesting piece published in Business Insider in 2010, Venture Capitalist Don Rainey pointed out that small businesses need to just say no to certain partnership deals. I agree with Rainey up to a point but I think some of the ‘no-no’s’  he points out can be overcome with a sharper partnership approach too.

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‘Partnering Is A Matter Of Smarts’ – Says Judith Hurwitz, HBR

Hewlett Packard grew its business using powerful partnerships with Intel (chips) , Oracle (databases) and Cisco (networking) – but as Judith Hurwitz points out in a recent article published in Harvard Business Review (HBR) –  it now needs to revisit and reinvigorate these key relationships to regain its innovative edge.

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