First 100 days

Clearly, marketers, like many others, increasingly make their job selections based on social and ethical values. They’re dealing with customers, many of whom are now concerned about the operating values of the parent company ‘behind the brand’. An even larger consumer segment care about the social, ethical and environmental impact of the brands they buy. So, it’s interesting to see Ethical corporation’s is making the link between the ‘First 100 Days’ theme and social responsibility. Writer Mallen Baker applies the lessons of the research to the newly ensconced CEO. He points out that it’s critical for CEOs to demonstrate quickly they are committed to corporate responsibility and are working towards a ‘truly embedded values culture’. The same applies to the newly arrived marketing director…he must seek to understand the values of the organisation and build a clear values driven culture. Mallen also calls on newly appointed managers to assess social, ethical and environmental factors as part of their 100 Day risk assessment plan. His comments raise an interesting challenge for marketers. How to incorporate issues of social responsibility within their pre-plan? And how to make build a marketing strategy which respects the values of customers and a wider society?

Posted by Editor at 2:55 PM | Permalink

Love at first sight may not work for most people, but it is evidently true that first impressions do count. In particular I have found that the impressions a new leader makes in his early days stay with them for some time to come. Make a positive first impression on the people around you and you are swimming with the tide; make a negative impression and you are skiing uphill - for some time to come. So, think about how you come across and make the effort to let people know that you are really interested in them and in what they do. Incidentally, this is not just about how you interact with your own team or direct reports; it is about how you interact with everyone connected to what you do. In most organisations the power of the informal network is considerable and as the newcomer you are by definition not part of it of this network. They will be talking about you! So your behaviour to one is quickly translated into behaviour to all. Think of it as dealing with the Borg Collective (for those Trekkies out there!)

In this connection it is worth looking at a couple of books. One of these is Daniel Goleman's "Primal Leadership" (along with Bovatzis and McKee). Lots, if not all, of this is great reading but in this particular connection pay attention to the concept of "resonance". This is the ability of the leader to perceive and influence the flow of emotions (including motivational states) between themselves and others that they work with. An essential element in resonance is of course a high degree of self-awareness, including the ability to perceive and moderate the effect one is having on others.
The second book is Steven Covey's "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". Look in particular at the section on "empathic listening" (which is habit 5, I think). The point that Covey makes most powerfully is that it is not simply enough to try and see things from someone else's point of view. True empathic listening comes when one can actually feel what the other person is feeling. Covey calls this "sensing", and others might use the word intuition. Some people I know just seem to have this, almost as a gift. But it is something that you can consciously set out to do and can practice. Worth reading the book (or that part of it) for further guidance!
Any other good reads in this area that anyone would like to recommend?

Posted by david at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's great to see that first 100 day accountability is migrating from the political arena into the management arena.
And actually being debated at Davos.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. This form of accountability is pervasive as our report explains.

In fact, in many ways CEOs have it easy compared to marketers, for several reasons:

1. Marketing budget allocation is by no means automatic.
2. The marketing function is increasingly diffuse.
3. The role of the function is unique to each corporation
4. The reputation of the function remains poor
5. The flamboyant personality of marketers often conflicts with fellow board members

It is ironic, at a forum whose theme is 'the creative imperative', that the role of marketers (Sir Martin Sorrell excepted) is being largely ignored...

Posted by Editor at 5:49 PM | Permalink

Archie Norman talked this morning about the importance of the ‘first 100 days’ to the CEO on the BBC’s Today programme, and highlighted the need to demonstrate leadership immediately through active engagement.

He highlighted the challenge of not ever fully knowing from the outside what you are getting when you land on day one, and the need to ‘find the truth’ by getting out and understanding the business by walking the floor

He also advised against imposing ‘magic formulas’ and avoiding presumptuous conclusions.

The interview makes clear is that there are common denominators to the challenges faced in the first 100 days for any leader - whether leading a function, or an entire corporation.

Here's that report in full. (The relevant section is 7 minutes and 30 seconds through).

Posted by Editor at 10:36 AM | Permalink

Good to see the on-line and off-line worlds picking up of the First 100 Days idea...
Brand Republic reran a piece that appeared in Marketing magazine.

In Marketing Week, Alan Mitchell said:

"It's not surprising that separate research in the UK by Oxford Strategic Marketing and executive search specialist Hunter Miller finds that 60 per cent of marketers discover that the realities of their new job are very different to the initial descriptions. There are a lot of subtle and probing questions that need to be asked.

And what about our own answers? What should we promise to achieve in that first 100 days? Most of the advice from blue-chip marketers is not to rush at it like a bull at a gate, in a vain attempt to change the world, but to spend the early days listening, learning and adapting - to build the internal network and win internal allies (see www.first100days.co.uk)."

Referring to the First 100 Days roadmap, Mitchell comments:

"We can't avoid organisational jigsaw pieces changing shape and creating friction. It's how progress happens. But we can build a better, common understanding of exactly what is going on. Slowly, it seems, we are developing some tools that can help us do so."

Marketing Week's wider analysis is available over at mad.co.uk.

Posted by Editor at 3:19 PM | Permalink

Most organisations who responded to the latest survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development reported that they use external executive coaches, and over a third reported that they will use more external coaches in the future. However, most companies also acknowledge that one of the biggest challenges in using coaches is to ensure that coaching is linked to the business objectives. Coaching does seem to have become a bit of a fashion item or symbol of “executive status�, but used properly a coach can be a major and very positive intervention in executive development.

Personally, I believe that external coaching does have a positive role to play in executive development – well, I would say that wouldn’t I – and in particular I believe that a good executive coach can be a key element in supporting the success of a senior executive as they seek to establish themselves in a new role.
I have recently been working with an executive just appointed to a big regional role. There are three elements to the work that we are doing.

These are:
• Job Content
• Transformational Leadership
• Sustainability

The first of these is self-explanatory, but is in my experience often overlooked. The reason it is overlooked is that the best coaching takes place when the coachee opens themselves up to a need to develop and improve. Doing this implies vulnerability, which is precisely what most new appointees are in fact desperate to avoid showing – viz many of the other blogs around this site. The value of an external coach in this situation is that the coach carries no threat to the longer-term security of the new appointee; maybe unlike a new boss or new colleagues on the board! It is not the coach’s job to come up with the answers to the new challenges, but it is the coach’s role to help and support the new appointee as they explore these challenges and formulate ways of overcoming them.
Most appointments bring with them a big step up in responsibility; and often the most significant of these is about raising one’s capability as a leader. Moving on to the board of a company with shared leadership responsibility for the whole enterprise as well as personal leadership responsibility for a complete business function is often a complete transformation from what has gone before. It requires transformational leadership. And once again it is sometimes difficult to admit to a sense of vulnerability about this transformation to close colleagues, to the CEO or even to the HR Director. On the other hand a properly established and professional coaching relationship can support much of the support that is needed.

Finally Sustainability. I had a boss in the Middle East who said to me about two months after I arrived – “For goodness sake, remember this is a marathon and not a 100m sprint�. In other words, I had started off at a pace that was only sustainable over the shorter term. For the sake of personal well-being and, in my view for the sake of the business too, we should all work at a much slower pace than is generally the case today. However it is simply not possible to run at marathon pace in a new role, and having started at a sprint the expectation builds that the sprint is what you will keep on doing. So personal sustainability becomes an issue. Part of this is quite simply about physical energy – good health and stamina are at a premium; but a large part of it is also about emotional energy, and this is the part that tends to get overlooked. Once again, a properly established coaching relationship can provide much needed emotional support, and can provide the space to rebuild emotional energy, confidence and self-belief.

So, when you have that new contract in your sticky hand and before you actually step into the new role, speak with the new boss and HR Director about getting coaching support. It will pay off – in the short term, the medium term, and the long term!

Posted by david at 9:54 PM | Permalink

The First 100 Days (F100D) research identified eight critical success factors for a successful first 100 days.

We summarise them as follows:

1. Hit the ground running

62 per cent of respondents agreed the realities of a new job can be different from the initial job description....

“Be consistent from day one. Don’t take a honeymoon period.� said Andrew Mullins from News International.

F100D actions: Develop a pre-plan. Do your own mystery shopping. Assimilate historic research. Meet colleagues. Learn everything possible about the brand and its customers.

2. Suppress the marketing psyche

70 per cent believe marketers with an FMCG background find it hard outside of an FMCG environment and fail to adapt quickly...but this doesn't stop their flamboyant apporoach.

“Don’t try and be too clever, ramming marketing theory down other people’s throats.� Chris Harris, Nokia, Vertu.

F100D actions: Recognise that marketers may be psychologically different from other board directors. Establish your personal fit for the role before you start.

3. Resist the ‘Quick Wins Itch’

Our senior marketers were clear that it is a characteristic of successful marketers that they hold their nerve and resists the pressure for a rapid wrong solution. 60 percent of respondents said that too many marketers pursue immediate change, rather than listening and learning. Humility and common sense are required.

“Three months of your activism is not going to save the company� said Ian Ryder, Unisys.

F100D action: Recognise the need to build a sustainable vision as well as fix problems. Consciously plan the balance of your efforts.

4. Build the role of the whole marketing function

78 per cent of marketing directors agreed that marketers could communicate customer objectives in a way the business could understand. For many, this was deemed to be their primary function.

“It should not be ‘marketing’ director it should be ‘competition’ director.� Nick Fell, Cadbury Schweppes.

F100D actions: Assess the health and role of the marketing function as an early priority. Your goal is to build a marketing function that’s fit for customer purpose.

5. Recruit internal allies

74 per cent agreed that a collaborative approach with the sales director was the single most important relationship.

“Take control of how internal people understand what you are doing.� Chris Thomas, Impaq Group.

F100D actions: Talk the language of commercial success that is understood by your new company.

6. Adapt your personal experience to the corporate culture

“You can’t carry a model around. You must focus on what the problem is.� Tim Seager, Scottish Courage.

F100D actions: Conduct rigorous business analysis to determine marketing requirement. Don’t make assumptions.

7. Build your front bench rapidly

70 per cent of respondents agreed getting the team right was the first priority for a new marketing director.
Building the capability must be done in parallel, or indeed ahead of the strategy and tactics.

48 per cent of respondents also said that focusing on the immediate team and team members was more important than organisational structure per se, suggesting that it is individual talent that matters above 'process'.

"Find your front bench quickly and then build the support on your backbenches. The quickest route to failure is not having the right resource." Andrew Blazye, Shell.

F100D action: Assess your own capabilities as a leader and teacher in plugging the skills gaps you have identified.

8. Treat your advisors as partners

While it makes absolute sense to review your external resource, this should be done with an aspiration to fully exploit their capabilities and link them to your objectives. It is a mistake to judge on past experience alone.

“Don’t itch to change the ad agency. It’s rare that the only source of the fault is there.� Anon. !

F100D action: Make sure you lead and ‘own’ the strategy development. But be man/woman-enough whatever help you need to get the job done.

Posted by Editor at 1:46 PM | Permalink

Whatever your opinion of the 'nation-rocking' David Cameron, Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal shows just how critical the first 100 days can be in a genuinely transformational situation.

While much of the New Deal would subseqently unravel, FDR was able to secure the mandate for radical structural change in his First 100 Days.

'Spinning' the mood of the nation with his introduction of 'Bank Holidays' as a desperate mechanism to prevent a run on the banks, he famously declared 'we have nothing to fear but fear itself'. With cross-party support form congress FDR was able to cut the budget by 10% at a sweep.

Instead of spending his way out of recession, he chose resource reallocation, targeting resources to the areas where they would have greatest impact on future producitivity, and greatest impact on collective confidence.

While his political legacy is tarnished by subsequent economic events, and the necessities of war-time preparation, FDR was able to supply sufficient impetus to kick-start the economic recovery process and give confidence back to a downtrodden nation.

Posted by Editor at 12:37 PM | Permalink

I have some strongly held views about what executives should do in the early days of any role, based partly on personal exprience as an HR professional and coach and partly on general observation of leaders moving into challenging roles in other walks of life.

There is a lot of "stuff" out there that can be read, and I will try to make some links to this later. I will also pull together a few stories of folks whom I have helped in their early days. However as a start (and as my first ever "Blog") I wanted to lay out the elements of what I have found to be most important to executives as they enter into a new role. This stands true for individuals moving into an organisation from outside as well as for internal appointments, although in the former case more care needs to be given to understanding the organisation and more of that later. And incidentally I acknowledge that I take an idealistic view of how to make this happen, and have struggled with organisations for years to implement that idealistic view - but it is worth the fight!

Point one: Stop doing your old role before you start your new role.

Make sure that you get a proper ending, from both a professional and personal perspective, and then try and take a break in order to establish mental and emotional freshness--only then start your appointment.

Point two: Know yourself.

Be clear about what you bring to the new role that you are proud of - skills, leadership capabilities, experience and hold on tightly to your self-esteem. It will be tested!

Furthermore, reflect upon who you are as a leader; know how you are seen by colleagues, bosses and reports; understand what shadow and light you cast on those around you. If you have not done so already, consider doing a personality inventory such as the MBTI in order to build this self-awareness.

Point three: Get to know the organisation.

Of course you will invest time in researching the business - that is table stakes. But also think of building a map of the organisation that shows formal structures, decision-making processes, informal power structures and relationships (the dreaded "p" word), culture, climate and the impact of the external environment. This is a very conscious exercise, and takes some time - but it is worth it.

Point four: Plan your influencing strategy.

Ask yourself what the key objectives are that you have in the role, and work out whom it is that you will have to influence. Get to know them, what they are like, how they like to work, how best to influence them. And make a conscious plan for how you are going to do this.

Point five: Establish yourself as the leader of your team.

Be clear about who you are as a leader, and right from the start express your leadership with complete authenticity. Be clear also about how you want your leadership to be seen by other parts of the organisation, such as peers and the next level up. Be authentic!

Point six: Understand the task.

Then, and in my view only then, get on with being clear about the nature of the business task that faces you; the content of the role, the objectives and the context in which your own role contributes to the business (desperately important in matrixed organisations and more on this later perhaps); the metrics that apply to the role. Define success with your boss and make it tangible. And so on.

And with regard to all of the above - look for help and support.

More at another time.

Yours aye
David Thomas

Posted by david at 10:21 AM | Permalink

Welcome to the web-site: 'First 100 Days' - a site designed as a source of inspiration and debate for marketers...and general managers heading into the first 100 days of a new role.

The site reflects the thinking of site sponsors, Oxford Strategic Marketing and Hunter Miller, but we are seeking to connect our thinking to the world....

We see inspiration everywhere...

1. Corante
2. Marketing Sherpa
3. All Marketers are liars

Posted by Editor at 4:54 PM | Permalink