Gaining customer insight that is quick, actionable and inexpensive

“How can I get customer insight that is actionable?” Don't rely on that thick, industry-sponsored report for easy answers.

Most market and customer research are too turgid, too long and too expensive. Very few give easily accessible actionable output. I use a method which addresses some of the limitations

The philosophy here is to drive continuous input to fuel continuous improvement —and to do with customer involvement. This means you can have innovation but at lower risk and lower cost.

Customer R&D®, Branding, ComplexitySimon Lunt23 September 2016leadership, Customer R&DComment

How to remove the pain and add the profit into Employee Engagement

Executives tell me, in their more candid moments, that they doubt the value of the ‘employee engagement survey.’

They find it time-consuming and stressful, and most have all but given up on trying to calculate any return-on-investment. No wonder then such surveys have the reputation of being “all pain and no profit.”

So why bother? The answer lies in why we form organisations.

Culture R&D®, Culture, Leadership, Problem-solvingSimon Lunt23 September 2016Culture R&D ™, Leadership Comment

At last—A Human's Guide to Leadership™

You have to lead to succeed.

In an increasingly complex world no individual can solve every problem. In response we form teams, organisations, and even nations. Each of these needs successful, not perfect, leaders.

And here is the challenge.

How can we become successful leaders when humans have no manual?

Answer.

By working with the grain of human nature, not against it.
By utilising our collective strengths instead of wasting energy on backfilling our weaknesses.

Simon Lunt23 September 2016 Comment

Avoid shaved legs and let your customers love you

I’m writing this in the studio, and my legs are lovely and smooth.

Well, they’re not really.

They are itchy, and covered in cuts, and you'll ready why in a minute. Plus also a tip on how to avoid the same thing happening to you and your customer—but first a plea.

Make it easy for your customers to love you.

Simon Lunt22 August 2016Leadership, Customer R&D Comment

"If you want action, Talk. don't text."

I was admonished via email yesterday for not having posted in blog in recent times.

My repost was simple. I quoted David Ogilvy's office memo to Ogilvy and Mather employees. Recently, doing has eclipsed writing.

Simon Lunt2 August 2016leadership, Culture R&D ™, strategyComment

Unclogging the River of Goodness so that others can grow

There is a river of Goodness that flows within those who wish to improve the lives of others. Their capabilities are carried to the beneficiaries in a variety of vessels (workshops, writings, reports, interviews), all buoyed along with the aim of improving the lot of the recipients.

However, the actions of others serves to dam or obstruct the flow. These representations of human blotting paper should be rapidly removed, rebuffed or retrained with the appropriate disciplined vigour.

Why the stridency?

Simon Lunt12 January 2014Comment

Management vs Tonga

I was fortunate to play school-boy rugby at a reasonable level, aided in no small part by a maths teacher coach who brought us training by “deploying the science of goals and measurement”, an extremely radical approach some 40 years ago. While most teams were told to simply “go out and play” or “run harder,” we had our tackle count, sprint times, times to ‘break-down’ logged, with appropriate improvement goals provided. This caused some of the less motivated and, shall I say, less mobile players to self de-select, and the overall impact was to produce a more motivated, mobile, speedier rugby team. Naturally, the team did well by local standards, and the ‘scientific method’ was emulated by a number of the local authorities.

Simon Lunt24 January 2012NPS, Narrative, dots and patternsComment

THE FRUITS OF RIOTOUS EXPERIMENTATION

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