Passions, time, and sidelines

A video from HMC Architects in California, which has discovered a way to measure -- and manage -- passion in its marketing initiatives.

A few days ago, I reported in this blog how a California architect discovered a way to predict the success of its project proposals by measuring passion. I can now name the architect here. With some precision, HMC Architects calculates the actual time that the Principal in Charge of any proposal spends on it -- the greater the time spent, the more likely it is to succeed.

Here is the relevant passage from the upcoming SMPS Marketer article. (You can read the first article in the series here.)

When a project passes through a rigourous “Go, no go” evaluation and it is time to prepare the formal proposal, everything including management and marketing time is tracked through project coding.

“We're finding that when the Principal in Charge spends more personal time on the proposal, it has a much greater chance of success,” says Doreen Lamothe, HMC's Marketing Administrative Manager. “If the principals care, if they have passion, they'll spend the time to ensure the proposal is right.”

Conversely, a principal who doesn't care or is just trying to crank out the work, might tell the marketing department: “Use boilerplate material, as I don't have the time to write the project approach,” says Lamothe, who works closely with Tracy Black, HMC's Vice President of Corporate Marketing.

These projects have a much lower chance of success: Unless the Principal is actively involved in the process and cares about it enough to invest time and energy for it to succeed, the proposal will likely fail.

The HMC story is a wonderful example of how to measure seemingly intangible things like Passion effectively, but it also raises an important secondary question. If we measure our own time, how productive would we discover we are?

These issues come to fore as I set up evaluation systems for new sales candidates who are earning income guarantees during their evaluation process. We've never been big on detailed reporting and micro-management, but I realized that if we are paying daily (or hourly) guarantees, it is reasonable to know what we are getting for the money.

One challenge, of course, in intellectual activities is that contemplation time is often quite productive. So, for sales representatives, can be time spent on the golf course or in at a hockey game (if you are with key current or potential clients, or people who can refer business your way).

In fact, it can be a kiss of death for your success when you start "pounding the pavement" or the phone, or the email, in a desperate attempt to round up leads and business. Potential clients run for the hills when this happens.

Nevertheless, the HMC story may provide clues about what to do, and what not. Assuming you have a healthy business development model, you will obtain leads through a variety of sources. When it is time to pitch the work, your most senior leaders need to be fully engaged in the process because they really care about it, not because their clock is being watched. But you can still measure how much time they spend at it.

I'm also aware that I have in the past -- and continue to spend now -- far too much time on unproductive activities because my passion takes me to wasteful places. A few years ago, the time wasting involved gaming Air Canada's Aeroplan program (resulting in some really strange and short time/long distance trips -- like flying to Guatemala, Hong Kong and Singapore, each for a day!) I also spent countless hours researching an online Internet scam, tracking down leads in South Africa, Australia and Vanuatu.

Both of these activities I rationalized as having business value, and to some extent, they did. But they weren't necessarily the things I should have considered as business priorities.

Now I wonder if I had a detailed time charge system, like HMC, and counted the hours spent on these initiatives against their real cost/revenue, would I be shocked by how little I gained for how much work? Yes, I had passion for this stuff, but passion doesn't always pay.

Then of course, there is this blog. It requires about 30 to 50 minutes a day, every day, or, roughly 2.5 hours a week, or 125 hours a year. If I charged back that time at the hourly rate I should be paid, would it make sense to continue?

For most readers, indeed, these numbers would be discouraging, which is why few people blog daily, or if they try it, they quickly give up. Paradoxically, I don't think your time saving would be that great if you decided to blog weekly or twice weekly; if you spend more time preparing each entry and worrying about the details.

But, for me, the blog matches my passions (writing), real skills, and some absolutely valuable immediate and long-term marketing objectives. It has earned this company the top Google spots on key words like Construction Marketing which are translating to meaningful leads and business opportunities. In other words, it is worth continuing because even if I charge out the time at a high hourly billing rate, the return on effort now is rational from a business perspective. And I enjoy the work.

HMC appears to have the ideal business model. Proposal submissions after all are only approved for follow-through if they pass a rigorous "go, no go" test. Passions which don't have business validity will be removed from the story. Then, once the go-ahead decision is made, the Principal in Charge's passion can be funnelled to something that serves the overall best interests of the practice. And the PiC knows that it is worth persuing the passion, because indeed the company as a whole has decided it is worthwhile.

Now, I wish I could bottle this level of management discipline into my much smaller business. I might not have the opportunity to chase my passions in Vanuatu, but sure would achieve much better results in growing the company if I could through the day focus them on activities which really help the business to grow and thrive.

The Renovators Guide

What should you do when you are presented with an apparently tempting business opportunity which doesn't fit within your business plan? Do you forget your plan and grab the opportunity, or do you say "no thanks" and walk away? In some cases, you'll find the answer is bluntly straightforward -- it doesn't match your markets, skills and resources, and you really don't expect to make any money on it. Then it is easy to say 'no'.

But sometimes situations are more complex, and we had just that challenge a couple of months ago when I learned that the Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association Renovators Council wanted a new Renovators Guide for the public in time for the annual January renovators' show here.

As contract publishers of the associations' internal newsletter for close to two decades, we clearly know the people there, and are knowledgeable and experienced in print advertising. But this is a consumer-focused publication, not a business-to-business publication serving the construction industry, our mandate and focus. In other words, while many of our clients would be interested in the Renovators' Guide, and we had a logical inside track on winning the contract, I needed to decide (quickly) whether we should pursue it.

In making this sort of decision, you should remember one of the simple rules of PCL Construction founder Ernie Poole: "Don't have sidelines." But is this initiative a sideline?

I decided the right way to handle this opportunity would be to set it outside my existing business and so called designer Gordon Keith, who I knew from years within the GOHBA as a competent retail focused designer and marketer. He instantly suggested a third partner, Brian Warren, who has published primarily retail magazines and special projects for years within Ottawa.

We had a meeting and I provided some information about the project and why I thought we had a very good chance of winning the bid, and decided on a three-way-joint venture. Gordon will co-ordinate design and editorial, Brian sales, and I will oversee client (GOHBA) relationships and administer the accounting and billing. The result: Our business is not strained; sales staff are not diverted and editorial and production resources are not forced to absorb an unplanned publication (but our administrative staff will have an increased workload, to some extent, in handling the back-end accounting and paperwork for the project).

Is this a wise decision? In deciding to move forward with the joint venture, I looked at the potential -- the profitable opportunities that could be extended from this simple initiative -- but I also considered the risks; without a place in our business plan, the project could truly disrupt and damage the business cohesion and focus if we pushed forward internally, or, for that matter, extended this initiative too rapidly. But right now, the decision seems right -- if it is an opportunity not in the plan, and it isn't a wild-goose-chase sideline, the best answer, indeed, may be to segregate it and put it into a new business.

Have you ever had these types of choices/decisions? How did you handle them?

Sidetracks and sidelines

PCL founder Ernie Poole set out 11 rules for business -- put down in handwritten form by his son George in 1948. They remain the core of the company's business principals, but could also be seen as a manifesto for any successful construction business.

One of Ernie Poole’s rules is ‘Don’t have sidelines." — Paul G. Douglas Canadian Buildings Chief, PCL (ENR 1/30/2008)

Ah, for a simple but important rule. "Don't have sidelines". This is one of 11 rules set out by George Poole when he purchased the business from his father in 1948, and Poole's Rules are now the foundation of PCL's success as one of North America's leading employee-owned contractors.

I know Paul Douglas from when, several years ago, he was in charge of PCL's Ottawa district office. Unfortunately, I failed to observe the "Don't have sidelines" rule and this proved to be one of my larger business mistakes.

At one point, for example, frustrated with the high costs of airline travel for the U.S. expansion, I made it my 'thing' to study airline fares and systems, to the point I 'cracked' Air Canada's Aeroplan program. I also took some strange trips, including one day excursions to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Guatemala, in First or Business Class, at astoundingly low fares. It certainly made for good stories (which I still share at times) and presumably saved me some money on my business travel, but was it good for business? Not a chance. Beyond the diversion of time and energy this stuff involved, It probably didn't motivate my employees much to be seen as interested in flight rules and variations.

My second major sideline involved fighting an Internet scam. This little sideline took me around the world, tracking down property records in South Africa, and tracing hotel records in Vanuatu. Coupled with the Airline legacy -- I remember a trip to Houston to meet an Internet forum administrator related to the scam-fighting initiative -- I spent countless hours on the venture; only to back off the fight when I realized that this stressful exercise could do nothing good for the future of my primary business, even though at one point, I attributed the hiring of a local publisher (and a quick $50,000 in revenue) to the scam-fighting project.

Sidelines are dangerous, indeed. they consume energy, passion, time, and money, and don't help your business. They also are tempting -- because you can almost always rationalize that they are indeed relevant and helpful; and may provide you with expansion opportunities and diversity.

So, what about this blog? Well, I hope I'm right in assuming that while it provides some of the intrinsic satisfaction of the sidelines I've just reported, it at least is relevant to the business.

We sell advertising and publish newspapers and websites for the construction industry -- a blog focused on Construction Marketing Ideas is clearly on-topic if only because it causes me to constantly think of ways we can do our business more effectively.

But I keep my eyes open now for relevance; practicality, and relationship to the primary business. And, while these days employers cannot over-regulate the out-of work priorities of employees, I won't forget this Poole's Rule: "Do not permit sidelines by employees." I am an employee, too.