Business As Usual

Do you know the origin of this catchy phrase?

I always thought it to be a typical corporate America’s invention of the late 20th century. Amazingly, it dates back to the first world war time, as I found reading a wonderful historical book – “Shopping, Seduction & Mr.Selfridge” by Lindy Woodhead. A copyrighter for Mr.Selfridge’s column in newspapers invented the saying and the famous store owner liked it so much, that he often used it….

“when one of his staff, Herbert Morgan, came up with the phrase ‘Business as Usual’, nothing was changed. It summed up exactly how Selfridge felt about his business during the war. He used the slogan so often that it became a catchphrase, famously adopted by Winston Churchill who in November 1914 declared: ‘The maxim of the British people is business as usual.’ Selfridge, a great fan of his fellow Freemason, was delighted.”

Excerpt From: Woodhead, Lindy. “Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge.” Random House Trade Paperbacks

Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge

Closet organizers, Hong Kong style….

… And the prize for the stupidity in hotel business goes to…

“The Challenger Sales”

Those of us working in B2B sales know that there are very few good books on the subject. I am reading a book sent to me by a sales consultants company right before the holidays: Matther Dixon, Brent Adamson, ‘The Challenger Sale’.

Of course, these days everyone looks for ‘what is next after the Solutions Selling’ and tries to bend it towards their pet project or concept. What I liked about The Challenger Sales is some good stats illustrating the fact that the relationship-based sales becomes passe in a collective decision-making environment and professional procurement practices of B2B. And yes, it helps that the authors understand the value of a statistically valid sample and offer an actual description of the research project than presenting a handful of related cases as an illustration to the state of the union, as many do.

It shows that those who do not hesitate to challenge the customers to improve their processes using figures and well developed business cases sell the most.
‘We like our account manager very much but honestly, spend more with your competitor’, becomes a trend.
An important point though is that requires actually thinking and using the real customer data, not a handful of standard business cases or an empty promise to provide an expert advice or building a solution after all components are bought by the client. Everyone who ever lived through a new ERP implementation would agree passionately.

The reason why I won’t recommend the book more broadly is that it’s pretty watered down. For me brought up on Russian textbooks it’s a rather common complaint about American business books in general. Many of them tend to spend way too many words to describe one or two ideas per book, worthy of a chapter at most. So The Challenger Sales is right in the middle of the trend – it keeps selling when you have already bought the concept. But it still creates a good foundation to discuss B2B sales trends and set the training goals.

The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation

*
Links to other business books that I liked .

Zappos: getting rid of job titles

Those still looking for their way in a maze of the matrix organizational structure beware: there is a new threat on the horizon.

American online retailer Zappos, the one-time favorite of shoes addicts, announced that it gets rid of the traditional organizational structure.. That’s right: a new form of organizational structure free of the firm reporting and titles is coming.

The system, known as Holacracy, removes all titles and managerial roles, leaving nearly every employee on equal footing, organized in 400 “circles” (groups) that will be tasked with projects.

It is easy to imagine a flat structure in a start-up and Valve introduced an even more flexible organization for two hundred people. But it will be really exciting to watch how Zappos implements it in a 1500-employees company.

The changes are aimed at making the team more productive and entrepreneurial, and while it may not fit any size or business model, I am pretty sure that some elements of it can be leveraged in other environments. Zappos has taken non-traditional routes before. They were one of the first companies introducing free returns and later offering a $2,000 bonus to those who wanted to leave after a week of intensive training. It takes guts to pay to avoid hiring people that may be wrong for the culture and spirit of the company. And people who have guts can benefit from the freedom offered by Holacracy.

Being a great believer in task forces, flexibility and project-oriented form of organization I am going to talk about this case next month when I get the leaders of my global sales team together.

What do you think about Zappos’s experiment?

My 2013

…flew very, very fast!

I met Colin Powell.

My second book was published in Moscow and hit the bestseller mark on Ozon.ru.

My husband and I rode horses on Jamaica and segways in Prague.

.

And we listened to music in the Golden Hall in Vienna and Carnegie hall in New York.

*

In CEVA we survived the financial restructuring, opened two Centers of Logistics Excellence in Florida and Singapore, started and grew our consultancy practice (the Tiger Team), went through downgrades and upgrades by S&P and Moody’s, posted two good quarters since that and signed a lot of new clients,

.

*

And there were plenty of good books,trips and meetings with old and new friends. And this year is about to end with only 3 days left!

*

Netherlands

Australia

India

Thailand

Turkey

Israel

Prague

Hong Kong

Jamaica

Marcel

Dubai

Singapore

Happy New Year to all of you and wishing 2014 to be better than the previous year!

Vacation is binary: you are either on vacation or not

I snapped the selfie above getting dressed for the concert yesterday and plan to keep here shamelessly as a reminder to stay on a diet through holidays. Because today is the first day of my end-of-year holidays and I am still desperately trying to get to it.

A wise person told me that there is no such thing as being on vacation except for a few calls: ‘it’s binary – you are either on vacation or not’.

Well, technically my vacation did start today. And I had a great experience listening to my friend Jean Healy singing on stage of Carnegie Hall with Essential Voices choir and New York Pops yesterday. If that fails to kick you right into the holidays mood, I honestly do not know what else will! They were sparkling and bubbling. And Ashley Brown sang all-Christmas staples with grace and cheer and humor.

But then an accident happened in one of the countries and I just had to run a quick check on whether a major client of mine was affected. And a planned departure of an executive from our company kicked things in motion with notifying customers and colleagues who may get upset. And just a couple of emails on budget…and here we are in very binary mode: half a day spent on anything but vacation plans.

I worked very hard for the rest of the day to salvage the holiday cheer – had lunch with a dear friend, borrowed a handful of books from our local library, all chick flicks and mystery novels that I missed over the last few months, cooked mahi-mahi and seafood green curry for dinner, worked out watching the last revenge episode…yet, I am still fighting the urge to check the phone and read every single work email that pops up.

That’s a New Years resolution in the making.

I wish all of my friends a small but valuable thing this holiday season: have a real vacation! A binary one. Just vacation and nothing else and a great mood to match it!

The joy of sponsoring a winner

We sponsor a winner! The U.S. team swept the two-man bobsled World Cup podium for the first time ever today in Lake Placid. And the U.S. women’s bobsledders continue medal streak with 2-3-4 finishes in Lake Placid World Cup. All the best of luck to the US Bobsled athletes from their friends and sponsors at CEVA!

It is the first time in my long life in Marketing & Sales that I made a decision to sponsor a sports team. These opportunities are rare and few in B2B marketing. Yet, CEVA is making strides in sports logistics – from London marathon to transporting sleds. And we also felt that the cultural match is huge: the US Bobsled team is so dedicated to being great in everything they do (in logistics we call it Operations Excellence) and the sport is so global and uniting people in many countries that knew it will resonate well.

What we did not know is how much it would! When the press-release about CEVA sponsorship went out, I heard from dozens of my colleagues including the countries you would hardly associate with snow sports – from India to UAE – cheering for the team.
People plan ‘cheer for CEVA sled’ parties, ask for the timing of TV viewing (which we are about to publish on the internal site to respond to so many requests) and wish the US Bobsled team to continue their winning track. They have to protect their 2010 gold at Sochi Olympics early next year.

And the news today say, we sponsored a winner! The U.S. team swept the two-man bobsled World Cup podium for the first time ever today in Lake Placid. And the U.S. women’s bobsledders continue medal streak with 2-3-4 finishes in Lake Placid World Cup.

All the best of luck to the courageous athletes of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (USBSF)! We in CEVA are cheering for your success!

Cooking fish on Bosphorus

There is only one small island on Bosphorus – between Europe and Asia – and it houses some of the best restaurants and a swimming pool. It used to be a private sport club of Galatasaray, for its members only, but now it is open to public. I should admit, the news of going to dinner by boat sounded much less exciting in December, with the chill and the anticipation of snow in the air, than it would be in summertime. But Turkish seafood is one thing that I would never turn down. And at Balyk restaurant they have a special way to cook it.

The word ‘balyk’ actually means ‘fish’ in Turkish – while in Russia it is used just for the salted sturgeon. It’s a huge sea-bass cooked whole in salt at the table that is the main specialty of this place. Wrapped in foil it is then covered by a paste of flour and salt and egg-whites right at the table and sprinkled with alcohol. Then the waiter brings up a match….

Once the fire dies, the salt turns into a cast and has to be broken down by a hammer. The cement-like pieces are taken away then and the foil is torn. Cooked in just a few minutes the sea-bass is delicious and soft, much softer than the traditional Mediterranean salt-crusted fish is.

And the waiting for the boat to take you back to the European shore feels just a bit warmer.

Home, sweet home

I am finally back home for three whole weeks! Just sent out my passport for Indian and Chinese visas for 2014. So, I am definitely staying put and do not want to see another airport, plane or border control this year!

This weekend Israel brings in military vehicles to clean up the streets from snow – a national disaster. And Egypt experiences the first snowfall in 122 years – there is something to say about the global warming! And we in Connecticut just lit up the fireplaces and enjoy the view. 

And some procrastinators like me are finally getting to writing up all these Christmas cards…

So, what’s on your reading list for holidays? I have a few financial reports to read and a couple of business books to catch up on, but right now I really look forward to finishing ‘The Moneyball’ and catching up on all the missed series episodes…

Snow in Istanbul

… this is not the usual weather you would expect to see in Turkey.

They say, the snow came from the north – from Russia. I almost feel guilty!

I woke up in the middle of the night because of thunder and lightening over the Bosphorus. Never saw a thunderstorm with a snowfall. Now and then the skies clear up, I could even see the Blue Mosque far away on a hill in the breakfast hall window. And then the snow started again. I wonder if I am able to reach my customers and get a flight out to Brussels later today.