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This is the third edition of m-news. Subscription
numbers are increasing every week (sure, the price is right!) and the
feedback from readers has been excellent. Thank you.
M Power is a consultancy which empowers organisational and individual performance. m-news
covers related themes – six quick snippets about business,
organisational and individual effectiveness, communication and public
relations.
Communication empowers.
Karen Morath, managing director, M Power
The ‘quick six’ for September are
1. The value of a corporate reputation
2. Tips for business people from Robert Gottliebsen
3. Work we're proud of
4. How well do you receive bad news? Take the Titanic test
5. September 11 reflection
6. This month's book review |
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1. Survey reveals the walk doesn't match the talk on CSR
An
Ernst and Young survey of 1000 of the world’s biggest companies reveals
that nine per cent of the 71 per cent of companies which are embracing
corporate social responsibility (CSR- the new buzzphrase), don’t
understand how it is relevant to their business.
The
companies claimed that stakeholder pressure drove them to pursue CSR
strategies focussing on ethics, the community and the environment. Yet many of those companies don’t successfully engage with their stakeholders.
Effective stakeholder relations are essential to organisational performance. It
is great to adopt the latest management ideas like CSR (but what does
it say about our corporate life when having values and demonstrating
them is apparently a ‘new’ idea?) but they need to be part of the
inside of an organisation before they can be seen from the outside. Consumers and investors know the difference between talk and walk.
M
Power can conduct a stakeholder relationship audit of your
organisation, applying the principles of two-way communication,
perception management and CSR. Audits establish realistic benchmarks on which to build. We earnestly recommend them. |
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2. Tips for business people from Robert Gottliebsen |
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If you have a reverse in your business or your career, face it.
Financial statements have their place but there is no substitute for looking around in a business to see what the risks are. If there is no stock and few customers in a retail business, things aren’t good, despite what the books might say.
You can find out more about a business by spending half an hour in its call centre than you can by doing anything else.
Robert Gottliebsen was speaking at the September Hume Business Breakfast.
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3. Work we're proud of |
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M Power’s workplace spelling and grammar workshop
is an opportunity to improve the written skills of the people in your
department or organisation in only three hours.
We’re proud of it because we believe it meets a genuine need in the workplace. People leave the session much more confident about their written communication than when they arrived.
The workshop is interactive and fun but don’t take it from us. Here’s what “they’re saying” about it.
“VACC engaged M Power to run a Workplace Spelling and Grammar training session for our managers and personal assistants.
The session was succinct and to the point, relevant to all who attended and was enjoyable and fun. There was an abundance of questions and discussion, which exemplified the interest and interaction of those who attended.
I would not hesitate to recommend Karen Morath and M Power for this training and to use her again in the future at VACC.”
DAVID RUSSELL, Manager Corporate & Public Affairs, VACC
For more information or to book this workshop for your workplace, contact M Power on (03) 9817 4111.
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4. How well do you receive bad news? Take the Titanic test |
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Some people are so focused on achieving an
outcome that they dismiss anything they perceive as negative or
destructive. Or they mutter management speak like ‘don’t bring me
problems, bring me solutions’. As a result, the people around them avoid being the bearers of bad news. But you can’t fix problems you don’t know about so if there is bad news out there, you need to know. Would your crew tell you that your beloved Titanic was about to hit an iceberg?
- If people take you up on your ‘open door policy’
are you likely to snap at them, feel confronted by them or make them
regret they challenged you? Y/N
- If bad news does reach you, do you assume it is an isolated problem? Y/N
- Do you rely on your direct reports (the
people whose careers you influence) for your information about what is
going on in the company? Y/N
- Rather than getting out and asking
questions of customers and staff, do you spend most of your time in
meetings and on the phone? Y/N
- Do you insist on slick PowerPoint based rehearsed presentations from your direct reports? Y/N
- Having received bad news, do you think it is best to do as little as possible and just ‘wait and see’ what develops? Y/N
How well did you do? The more times you answered yes to these questions, the faster your Titanic will sink.
Source - quiz inspired by an article by Scott Kirsner in Fast Company.
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5. September 11 reflection |
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In his (always) wonderful column in Saturday’s
Age (7/9/02), social commentator Hugh Mackay told us our response to
S11 should be to “live as if there is no tomorrow”. Others wrote thousands of words that said a lot less. |
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| 6. This month's book review |
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I-Cons, The Essential Guide to winning and keeping high-value customers. By Ross Honeywill and Verity Blyth. Published by Random House Australia 2001.
This book is that good I really should read it again. It is a book for people in business of any type and for students of life. It is essentially about consumer behaviour but with a 21st century perspective. The
authors break ‘the market’ into two clear ‘consumer types’, using the
degree to which they have embraced technology as the differentiator,
and discuss the individual needs of these groups of people in the
marketplace. The book helps you to decide if your customers are
‘I-cons’ or ‘traditionals’ and shows how to give them what they want
once you know.
© M Power 2002
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