Bleeding edge or leading edge

Do you need to bleeding edge to be leading edge in your marketing strategies?

By "bleeding edge", I mean, far at the tip of risk --testing untried and new concepts, soaring to the heights of creativity and accomplishment to get it right?

The answer is, unequivocally, "No".

Most construction industry marketing is in the dark ages compared to other industry sectors. "Relying" on word-of-mouth, or (far worse), conventional public bidding opportunities, most people in this industry have marketing strategies which might have been common in other sectors a few decades ago.

So, to keep ahead of the crowd -- to be leading edge -- in this industry, we only have to emulate tried and proven methods of other industry groups.

To make the point crystal clear, consider that the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS), the association representing marketers in this industry, only started in the mid 1970s.
Surely, marketers representing other industry groups had their own associations long before then.

You don't need to create a new wheel, or even reinvent an old one, to be successful at construction industry marketing. Just learn from, and copy, the best practices of other industries, and you'll be much closer to success.

The Design and Construction Report is not the first online magazine. But it is the first for the industry. Leading, not bleeding, edge.

About responsibility

Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie at the Ontario General Contractors' Association Annual General Meeting. (Photo courtesy Janis Rees)

The Ontario General Contractors' Association invited Major-General Lewis Wharton MacKenzie to speak at their annual general meeting in Ottawa. Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie established and commanded Sector Sarajevo as part of the United Nations Protection Force UNPROFOR in Yugoslavia in 1992.

With totally inadequate resources, and a confusing (and irrational) U.N. command structure and mandate, MacKenzie structured the media to bring in humanitarian aid and some semblance of order to this chaotic region. According to Wikipedia, his observations are controversial, especially his dispute about claims of Serbian genocide in the region. At one point, opponents accused him of taking money from Serb organizations -- but he responded that his usual speaking fee is $10,000 minimum.

I'm not sure if the OGCA paid Maj. Gen. MacKenzie this fee (but it is quite possible, given the AGM's budget), making the opportunity to listen to him at lunch something of a special, exclusive treat as there were perhaps 100 or so in the room.

He indeed is a great speaker, and his points about leadership and management ring true. Here are some points from his presentation that stick in my mind.

• "I learned more from the three or four bad leaders I had, than the good ones."

• "Leadership is not management. Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things."

• "If you have someone who can do both right, don't let them go."

• "The definition of leadership is getting people to do things they don't necessarily want to do, and have them enjoy the experience."

He also offered some simple tips:

• "Be yourself".

• Practice LBWA -- Leadership by Wandering About. "The more senior you are, the more you are trapped by your in-basket."

• Listen. "I discovered most people who work for me are smarter than me. I listened, implemented their ideas, and gave them the credit -- and I was forever associated with the idea. They got the credit, I got the credit, and the organization was better."

• "If you know nothing about the people working for you, now one thing, what's their passion -- something that really turns their crank -- if you know that, that's the key, and that will allow you to get through to them."

• "Set difficult but achievable objectives."

• Have a sense of humour and be approachable.

And, to me, his most important suggestion:

• "Accept responsibility even when you are not responsible, for the good of the organization."

This concept stopped me in my tracks but is so important I would like you to consider its fundamental importance. MacKenzie said at a public inquiry into an awkward racist incident in Somalia, several officers said: "Yes, I was responsible . . . but" and ended up spending a long time explaining and justifying their situation.

MacKenzie suggests that you need to truly accept 100 per cent unconditional responsibility for your organization, no matter what or who really might have mucked up. This can be painful and superficially may seem unjust, but if you don't, you can never truly lead it. After all, if you are not responsible, who is?

Patient change

Real Change isn't easy, Mel Lester writes. Most successful consultants will describe how their clients are happy to pay for their services, but when it comes right down to the business of changing their practices, nothing happens.

Mel Lester has written a great posting in his E-Quip Blog: The Hard Work of Real Change. He describes the frustrating reality of initiatives to improve/change business practices that fail on the hard rocks of reality -- initiatives which don't go anywhere, really, because managers and employees aren't ready to buy in to the hard work to really make the necessary changes.

Indeed, real change is hard -- it usually takes a life-threatening crisis or fundamentally critical circumstance to force the necessary revelations. People are looking for quick fixes, easy answers, fast and simple solutions, and these people are not just suckers for consumer scams, but business leaders who should know better!

Successful business consultants, in fact, complain about this frequently -- their clients pay for their services, and are happy enough to repeat and give the consultants even more money -- but when it comes right down to doing what needs be done, they don't. It almost is as if, as a client, by paying a consultant's fees, you are really changing, when in fact you are simply throwing away your money on a feel-good exercise.

If you are expecting a magical and fast solution to the questions/challenges in this blog, you will need to look elsewhere. Here are Mel Lester's conclusions:

So what should you take from this? First, set realistic expectations. If reaching your goals is important, consider how much effort is really needed. Then determine if you can commit that much time and attention to it. If not, scale back your goals. False ascents up the mountain of change not only fall short of the goal, but discourage people from committing to future change efforts.

Second, carefully budget time and attention. There's a limited supply. Firm leaders commonly over-commit then under-achieve when it comes to change. Manage change initiatives like projects, defining the tasks, manpower, time, and money needed to get the job done. Don't double-book. Whatever is committed to a specific change effort should be off-loaded somewhere else. Remember people are already suffering from mental overload. To keep the desired change at the forefront of their minds, you have to keep it constantly in the corporate conversation.

Finally, don't make promises you can't (or won't) keep. This is a matter of your integrity and credibility. Without it, you can never build the trust necessary to guide people through the transformation. In the end, trust is the bedrock on which sustained change must be built.

Returning home

In time away -- four nights and five days -- you couldn't call our visit to Colorado a long trip. But we agreed on returning home late last night that, indeed, our time away seemed greater than the actual numbers of hours in the journey. This, to me, means the experiences, variety and learning we accomplished went beyond a typical vacation.

Maybe this is because I've never really combined an intensive business visit with a family break like this. The stars aligned, both in scheduling and spontaneity.

At the SMPS conference, I learned the scale, sophistication, and challenges of the community connected with this blog and appreciated the contributions of SMPS pioneers who, just 35 years ago, realized that an association dedicated to the interests of AEC-community marketing issues could help address the needs and concerns of the industry. Now, SMPS has approximately 7,000 members and a national conference that can attract 1,000.

I began to appreciate more clearly the challenges and opportunities of leadership; and perhaps the biggest problem those of us working in this space need to overcome -- inconsistency meeting ossification. (The latter is a rather big word; I hope I'm using it correctly; I'm suggesting that sometimes we are so trapped into our habits and sameness that we fail to see the world evolving around us.)

Today, after an early breakfast, I'm heading to the gym for some much needed exercise; then to catch up on business and review and implement the projects under way.

Maybe, I found something as well by touching the Lucky Bucket at the Phoenix Mine.

Hi Mark,

Very well written :0) Though their are some of us that aren't "motley."

I met Al about seven years ago. I am an author and photographer and I do the web site simply because I love that Al teaches a little of yesterday the actual way it was yesterday. When I first met him and after spending three weeks with him all day ever day working on an article, I told my daughter this man is either the best liar in the world or has lived an amazing life. Over the last seven years I have given tours, ran the counter, went to the Mining Association meetings, commissioners meetings and many many other duties, I would do anything Al needed me to do. I can verify for you (whether the prize winner was real - yes) and for me, that every thing Al has ever told me was true. Because research is my game and every thing I ever checked on him was proved true. I have been typing the lucky bucket stories and would like to include yours in our book and the typed version for the web site with your permission.

Just an FYI, I checked the official web site for the Phoenix Mars mission, it does not state this fact, but what I can tell you is, Anne Palen who is a business partner and friend of Al's and a lead scientist/engineer that worked on the Phoenix came up with the name the Phoenix, because the project like how Al saw the Phoenix Gold Mine was resurrected from death. Anne did name the Phoenix Mars in honor of Al. Al is also honorary "grandpa" to Anne's adopted children. So knowing these facts it is not so far fetched to believe it was named after the Phoenix.

I personally think the magic of the Phoenix and it's luck as well as lessons lie in it's owner, Alvin Mosch. He is a brilliant but humble man. But I believe you probably saw Al's magic or you wouldn't have written the blog. He does help make it a little easier to believe all our dreams can come true. And one final note, all of Al's "crew" are volunteers and are not paid except any tips they receive, so there are a lot of us that make the Phoenix run, though profit on the tours barely covers it expenses in insurance alone.

I will make sure Al see this, thank you for the very flattering and well written blog.

Jo A. Petit, Phoenix Volunteer

Communications, responsibility and leadership

This image is from an article "Listening First Aid" , about Empathic Listening Skills by Gregorio Billikopf, University of California, Berkley.

Three big words: Three simple principals essential for Construction Marketing success.

Communications: Everything you say, do, write, ignore, express, relate, and decipher affects the marketing process. Little things count. Returning calls promptly, being on time (just a little early, not too early for meetings), respecting cultural sensitivities (in some cultures being 'late' is normal), understanding how and where you listen as well as speak/write are all essential to the marketing process. You need to know your cues.

Responsibility: The Blame Game is deadly. Attacking or disparaging competitors, levelling barbs or insults on others, or failing to accept responsibility for your own blunders or even minor errors will destroy your place in the marketplace much more effectively and quickly than whether your price is low enough.

Leadership: No one needs to be a stereotypical charismatic leader to be successful in marketing, but you still need to have the right mix of self assurance and respect for others to influence them and define/draw out the desired results to succeed. Unless you are a one-person organization, you'll need your team's support. And unless you are marketing/selling to yourself, of course, you won't achieve much in winning new accounts and maintaining/developing new business without some leadership skills.

So how do you develop these talents if you don't have them? I wish I could come up with a magic one size, fits all action, but can't. Then again, maybe one word counts more than any other.

Listen.

The mission statement

This image is from the Mission Statement page of SDC Construction Services -- a Portuguese company that has successfully expanded internationally, with U.S. headquarters in Miami.

So here I am, on Christmas night, in a quiet hotel lobby in Montreal, suddenly realizing that it is indeed time to define the business mission statement.

My influence: A truly influential book, The Secret Language of Leadership by Stephen Denning. Randy Pollock, editor of the SMPS Marketer, sent the book to me as a gift -- it arrived in the mail on Dec. 24 and went into my 'reading bag' as we started our brief Christmas vacation in Montreal.

The Mission Statement has been on the Action List since last year -- every time the due date for this project comes up, I've pushed it back; feeling in my heart that a Mission Statement is corporate gunk-talk; stuff for the people sitting around the table at endless meetings, not really knowing where they are going; or at worst, is platitudes and corporate-speak, designed to sell the business to itself -- and create a mirage image for the public.

But maybe I've had it wrong all along. Have I really thought about WHY we are in business; what our deep objectives are; and what we want to accomplish -- or do we just have a product, a market, and a sales methodology that sort of works, without respecting its implications in the marketplace as a whole.

And maybe the problem is that our existing Mission Statement is okay, but it came from the heart of someone no longer with the business, and is something I just paid lip-service to:

We are the Construction News and Report Group of Companies

We help to secure the ties that bind old and new relationships.

We provide word-of-mouth recommendations in print.

We work as a team to help strengthen your team.

Hmm, not bad, I think, now reading this. But where is the stuff that reaches my heart -- the passion, the desire for good journalism, the objective to build and enhance communities and correct problems and injustices? Where is the guidance, the support, the will to help the subcontractor struggling to find work; or the architect battling to find a place in the marketplace against overpowering competition. (Or, for that matter, how do these values relate to the well-run and successful corporation where solid business practices combine with practical understanding of the business to overtake the competition and succeed in virtually any market environment?)

Maybe I am ready to generate a more meaningful Mission Statement. Let me try this one on for size:

We are the Construction News and Report Group of Companies.

We support communities in the construction industry in achieving ethical growth.

We uplift individuals and businesses in achieving marketing insights and success.

We help to secure the ties that bind old and new relationships.

I'm not sure if this is the right statement; we will need to bounce it around; refine the message, think about the implications, and how it drives our passion. I would like to put more heart, more soul, more spirit into the mission statement.

So why is this so important all of a sudden? Well, I realized in a flash of insight tonight that I risk running a rudderless business, where our salespeople are working for money rather than a larager purpose-- where we are looking for short term objectives rather than long-term values; and I simply realized this won't take us to where we really want to go -- to be a business with international scope, leadership, and quality.

Leadership, says Denning, requires a passionate purpose -- you need to have something meaningful to lead before you can achieve much of significance. Just pushing out our papers (and websites) won't achieve this value. Just 'doing the job' won't achieve the higher level of meaningful accomplishment and greatness to differentiate us from all the other regular businesses out there. And I simply don't want to accept 'okay' as an answer -- good enough is, here, not good enough.

I want to share something beyond business as usual -- to communicate hope, adventure, love and respect. To help people work together; to bring communities to a richer space; to give the industry the tools to grow; to allow the entrepreneur to weather economic storms; to foster understanding and honor; to battle cynicism and blatant greed and hypocrisy. Most importantly, I want to elevate and honour the unsung heroes of our community; the subs who toil in the shadows; the consultants who live behind the scenes and help the big guys do their stuff so well; and yes, to the ethically run and well managed larger businesses who fuel the overall industry and have the capacity to handle the largest and most significant projects.

Now, I just have to boil these thoughts into a meaningful mission statement -- and that is going to take some work in the next few days. I certainly welcome your input.

Can it be this simple?

Consultant Bill Caswell in his latest newsletter outlines three essentials for leadership success. I think anyone concerned with construction marketing can find value in applying these principals. Here they are:

1. Listen
   
2. Learn to defuse emotions
   
3. Gain from the power of the group

"I offer three simple lessons for leaders wishing to have a great company," Caswell writes. "It only took me 30 years, hundreds of books, thousands of hours in the company trenches, millions of dollars and zillions of air miles to figure it out. You can be a lot smarter."

Caswell has taught me that one of the key elements in achieving these three essentials is learning how to hold effective meetings. Properly conducted, meetings can help the business leader achieve the three vital points.

For a copy of the most recent CCC (Caswell Corporate Coaching) newsletter and a free subscription, email Upkar Bilkhu at ubilkhu@caswellccc.com.