The Internet Generation Gap

Now I know who is running the Internet, turning it into Web 2.0, writing all the software, creating useful and sometimes useless, applications. The same people have launched YouTube, FaceBook, Friendster, Twitter, Plaxo and all the international and regional social networks.
Now I know it is not us, the baby boomers. We are too busy running countries and multi-national corporations, law firms, stockbroking companies, quaint little country pubs or lying around the swimming pools in our villas in Spain, Phuket, or Boracay. Some are just retired enjoying a game of golf after breakfast and a snooze after lunch.
I should have come to that conclusion when I first realised that some of the people I know of, a similar age, cannot even operate a DVD/CD player, never mind a mobile phone or a computer. Those who can fire up a computer are using dial-up internet connections and think that broadband can be tuned into on the radio!
No it is not us. It's the kids, the bratpack, fresh from school or university with a degree in computer science .
This fact was slowly dawning on me a couple of years ago but it really banged home when I attended a two day E-Commerce Conference at the Intercon in Makati City, organised by the DigitalFilipino Club. No sleeping under The Times after lunch in that Club! If, as is unlikely, they read The Times, it would be the on-line edition, on their laptops, while they tuck into their beef tapas and fried rice for breakfast.
When I entered the Conference Hall the lights were low and eyes were all peering at laptop computers, connected to the Internet by the hotel's wi-fi(If you do not know what that means, stop reading and go and have a cup of Horlicks).
The full horror hit me when the lights went up for the lunch break. I was the oldest person there by several decades!!!!
Instead of going into a quiet corner to sob, I carried on bravely. At lunch I sat and talked with some of the juvenile participants. I made an important discovery. They are smart, very smart. They are also highly motivated and energetic. Some of them have set up companies for web hosting and design, some have bought or hired servers to host blog sites and on-line directories, some act as freelance consultants, some make a living from blogging on sites which carry advertising.
I was relieved, really, to know that such important tools of modern life are in the hands of smart young people around the world. Imagine how the internet, computers, mobile phones and other portable digital tools would be if left to my generation, the baby boomers. We would still be sitting around with Steve Jobs in his garage, discussing whether Bill Gates was going to take the IBM or Apple route and start up a company he was thinking of naming Microsoft. Bill was right to retire from Microsoft and concentrate on his charitable foundation, that is now clear to me.
I was moved to post this blog after a meeting I had this morning with another two members of the Internet bratpack, who are hoping that I will hire them to improve my websites.
You see, I am trying to hold my own and instead of fighting this technology, embracing it. Try it.

The Importance of Good Account Management

Many businesses rely on orders from a small number of clients. This is often particularly true in the capital goods, defence, telecommunications or infrastructure projects sector. How many customers are in the market for a nuclear power plant?
If you are the CEO or VP-Marketing of such a company you need to consider setting up Account Management Teams to focus full-time on the most important customers. If you do not know the strategy, organisation or Cap ex plans of your key accounts you do not know how to position your company and its products to win orders.

Appoint a mature, experienced marketing professional as VP-Account Management, reporting to the VP-Marketing or even the CEO. Yes, the position is that important!
Give him a free hand to choose his team, either from within the company or by recruitment. Check that they are all good communicators and have strong inter-personal skills.
Give them a written job description that your full top management group has bought into.
The job description needs to contain the following:-
-create strong personal relationships at all levels of the management in the accounts they are responsible for
-gain the confidence of his colleagues in your company so they are content for him to lead the relationship with the accounts and make available to him the resources he may need
-learn about the accounts' strategies, clients, products, financial situation, shareholders, and problems. The Account Managers must become experts about your company's most important customers
-be able to have easy access to their accounts management for meetings, breakfast or lunch appointments for any of your company's executives including the CEO and Chairman of the Board
-be able to obtain inside information, ethically of course, about Cap ex , your competitors and anything else to support you in winning business
-keep all necessary managers in your company briefed on issues they should be aware of
Be aware that the establishment of such teams can initially cause some friction within the organisation, since some managers will have less direct contact with the customer and may resent this. It is important to brief the managers about the account teams and their purpose. Make a presentation to them with all the account managers present. If done well, this will reassure the doubters, and demonstrate that they still have an important task.
The account teams should be well compensated and a bonus system, related to order intake, put in place.
Many major companies and multinational corporations have benefited from the account management style of handling customer relationships

Why You Should Be at Those Company Conferences

Why you should be at those company conferences

Many large companies, especially the multi-national corporations (MNC), invite managers to conferences. Do not hesitate to accept and be there for the entire conference including the social elements. Participate enthusiastically and you will benefit from attending.
When you have read this article you will understand why.
For many years I was a senior marketing executive with an MNC. Its headquarters are in Paris, it has offices worldwide and manufacturing facilities in Western Europe, the USA, China and Australia. My position involved a lot of overseas travel. It was always challenging and often exciting. In my time I met Presidents, government ministers, and the CEO’s and Board members of major businesses.
I attended a lot of that company’s conferences around the world; from Pasadena to Shanghai, from Brussels to Singapore, from Paris to Kuala Lumpur. Additionally, I went to conferences that the company paid for me to attend, to improve my experience, make valuable contacts, and hold meetings with important players in the market. Particularly memorable was the annual conference in Honolulu, every January, in a venue adjacent to Waikiki beach.
The company conferences ranged from marketing to strategy, to detailed discussions of organisation. Every year an Area Conference was held and the President and CEO of the MNC attended and made his own presentation about the company, together with the Area President and other senior executives from Paris and the from the region.
The conferences were usually held in the Ballrooms of 5 Star hotels, in which the attendees had rooms reserved for them by the company. Suites for the top managers, of course, in which I was often called to meetings over breakfast or after dinner.
The presentations were always impressive. A specialist company was hired to design and set up the room. The graphics and the audio-visual aspects were superbly managed. The presenters, all of them, were required to rehearse the day before, and it showed in the slickness of the presentations during the conference.
They usually lasted two days. The first evening after our arrival would be informal, with a cocktail party first, followed by a buffet dinner or sometimes by a barbecue. In, some countries, particularly in the tropics, these events were held around the swimming pool.
The dress code was smart casual, except for the formal dinner on the second night to which VIPs from the hosting country were often invited. I remember being placed on a table in the Shangri La in Singapore with B. G. Lee. He is now the Prime Minister of Singapore.
Often sight-seeing tours were also arranged after the conference was over. I was taken around Beverly Hills in LA and then on to Universal Studios; also around the old parts of Brussels and the Grimaldi Palace in Monaco. These were very relaxed events with plenty of food and beer taken along.
Why are these events important to you, the reader, and the employee of the company?
You will learn about the company you work for. You will hear about its financial situation, its strategy for growth, its senior management team, its products and its problems, some of which you will be expected to play a part in solving. You will learn about the company’s style of management.
You will meet a lot of people there. You may meet the President of the company himself and some Board Directors who, in my experience, are always willing to meet the company’s managers and listen to their opinions. You will also meet many other managers from various parts of the company including head office. Some of the contacts may be very useful to the success of your management later on. Make sure you take a lot of business cards with you. Network your way around at the social events, and ask for a card from anybody you think may be of value. I recommend that, when you get back to your office, you send an e-mail to the contacts you believe may be able to help you at some point in the future. Tell them that you valued the opportunity of talking to them and that you look forward to talking to them again. Use words which will prompt a reply and then you will automatically be added to their list of e-mail addresses.
Meetings are often held in the margins of company conferences and if you think you need to be present then go to them, gatecrash if necessary. Unless the meeting is very confidential, nobody is likely to object. Also be ready for private one on one meetings. Some of my most useful meetings took place in a hotel room over a glass of whiskey after dinner.
Most conferences these days do not take questions from the floor. Mobile phone numbers are usually displayed on screens so questions can be sent by text. Take every opportunity to send in a good question and make sure you include your name and position in the text. Any chance of raising your profile is good for your future in the company.
Some of the sessions may seem irrelevant to your position, but if attendees are expected to sign in, then you had better be there. You may still learn something and make another good contact.
By way of example of the need to network at conferences, I once received a call from the Executive Secretary of a Cabinet Minister in an Asian country, asking if I could arrange for his boss to meet a French government member of the same rank and responsibility, during a forthcoming trip to Paris. I telephoned one of my conference contacts in the company’s Head Office. He arranged the requested meeting successfully and quickly. After the return of my client I received a letter from the Minister, thanking me for arranging the meeting, giving me a personal mobile phone number and a private e-mail address. I was invited to use these details if needed for any problems, business or personal. I once took advantage of that offer!