First 100 days

Before you start (or even before you accept your new role) working for "your" new financial services brand, you'd like to get an objective, no holds barred view on how consumers experience it. Consumer-oriented information sites like CIAO are springing up everywhere.

Maybe you can't ask for the market research just yet, and you certainly haven't got £15,000 to spend on a survey....but fear not, just two clicks away you can get a semi-quantitative consumer perspective on most high street brands.

Or at least the perspective of what Malcom Gladwell would call the mavens.

So, imagine you have been offered a job with a well known banking brand, and want to get the unvarnished truth: try: banks for example and you will see 200+ consumer comments on your employer's products and services, for your brand and each of your competitors...

Aah. The power of the internet

Posted by jonathan at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There is no doubt that in general most of the successful marketers and general managers that we have worked with, hit the ground running on Day One.

To do this successfully you should:

• switch allegiance as soon as you resign. Start to think of yourself as an employee of the new organisation well before you arrive – indeed many need to feel this transference before resigning in order to know that the choice of role is correct
• attend key meetings at your new organisation three to four months before you start the role!
• make sure you look at their products, stores, branches and that of their competitors. Experience being a customer – immerse yourself
• talk with people who currently work in the organisation – start networking
• we even know of some extraordinarily successful people who start running the company/doing their job before they even get there...

Posted by lindsay at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 100 days research points out that you need to 'start the job before you start the job'.. ie start figuring out your plan well in advance. Arguably this starts from the moment you start investigating the company.

But consider the first interview. This might be the first time you have the chance to really find out about where your potential new role fits into the organisation, what the challenges are, why they're hiring, and who you might have to deal with.. The nuggets you pick up in this first hour can be so important - not just to persuade / dissuade you about the job, but to help you start figuring out your likely gameplan, not to mention helping you say the right things in interviews 2,3,4.....

So some serious do's for first interviews:

1. Get some frank opinion about the nature of the job - are you being brought in to keep a sinking ship afloat? fix problems ? or create the next step change?
2. Get the interviewer's opinion on the history of the business, and their hopes / aspirations for the future
3. Find out the names of the key players - knowing who's doing what will help you with your plan, and ensure you appear in the know in further interviews...

And, on a lighter note, here are some not so serious don'ts...

Posted by shuvo at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the percieved fast pace of change, and the marketer's psyche that lusts after fresh information...marketers too often ignore the body of past knowledge...

'Back data' and past research can give the new marketing hire all they need to hit the ground running in F100D!

In most cases, any piece of research has a limited life within an organisation, and is often focussed on a key task, issue or deadline. Once this is passed or resolved, somehow the research dies, and in many organisations uncomfortable findings are glossed over and forgotten.

In a pre-hire phase, past research reports reveal more than their specific objective, especially when read with other reports, so patterns, repeated concerns and issues are highlighted.

As soon as you arrive at your new desk, time for reading and reflection is scarce, so use pre-hire time well, by immersing yourself in a selection of past research reports. You will certainly hit the ground running, you may well avoid re-commissioning research, and you will certainly save yourself time.

Furthermore, you will establish your intention in F100D to be driven by facts; not speculation. The new team will then know you will expect evidence to back up any assertions or points of view, and your first discussion can be more focussed on consumer and brand issues that really matter.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you will have a background and frame of reference that allows you to see through the myriad of powerpoint presentations, and persuasive points of view to which you will be subjected in your induction programme!

Posted by jonathan at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)