THE FOUR - THE HIDDEN DNA OF AMAZON, APPLE, FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE

Amazon

Jeff Bezos (CEO)      -           3rd richest Bank in the world after #Warren Buffet and Bill

Gates.

-           Amazon market capitalisation is 432.9b more than the combined value of Walmart, Coach, Nordstrom, Gap, Tesco, Ikea, etc.

Apple                                    -           Most profitable company in the world.

                                    -           It satisfies two (2) instinctual needs

                                                -           emotion and closer to ‘God’ appeal

                                                -           makes you be more attractive to the opposite sex.

                                    -           The cash in hand of Apple is almost the GDP of Denmark.

Facebook                -           The population of the world is about 7.5 billion. 

Facebook has 1.2 billion people on its platform.

-           Facebook/Facebook Passenger/Instagram – most popular application in the US.

-           One (1) of every six (6) minutes online internet is spent on Facebook.

-           One (1) of every five (5) minutes spent on mobile phone is spent on Facebook.

Google                      -           It’s modern day ‘god’.  No institution has the trust

and credibility of Google.

Five (5) Largest Market Capitalization

            2016                                                  2017

            ExxonMobil              $540b             Apple              $794b

            General Electric       $463b             Alphabet        $593b

            Microsoft                   $355b             Microsoft       $506b

            Gte Group                 $331b             Amazon         $429b

            Bank of America      $290b            Facebook       $414b

-           Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook engaged in an epic race to be the operating system of our lives.  The body framework – brain, heart and sex appeal – bears directly to the extra-ordinary success of the brand.

-           42% of US households have a gun

-           52% of US households have Amazon Prime

-           70% of high income earners in US have Amazon Prime.

-           Google speaks to the brain, and supplements it, scaling up long term memory to an almost infinite degree.

-           Amazon is a link between brain and our acquisition fingers – to acquire more stuff.

-           Facebook appeals to our heart.

-           Apple stands alone – a luxury brand that appeals to our need for sex appeal.  People used to be focus on what you wear or eat but now is what you text on – Iphone.

-           Facebook and Google combined control 51% of global mobile ad spending and its market share grows daily.

-           44% of USA and most of the world turn to Facebook for news – Facebook is now a news company.

-           Luxury purchases like Apple products are irrational which makes it the best business in the world.  In 2016, Estee Launder was worth more than the world largest communication company WPP.  Richmond, owner of Cartier & Van Cleff & Arpels, was worth more than T-Mobile.  Lois Vinton MH commands more value than Goldman Sachs.  It goes to say that luxury purchases are related to brain, heart and sex appeals. 

-           The Digital age is Heraclitus on steroids.  Change is a daily constant.  Curiosity is crucial for success.  Agility is the new found term for fast in the new digital economy.

-           What worked yesterday is outdated today, forgotten tomorrow and replaced by a new tool or Tech we never heard of.

-           The Telephone took 75 years to reach 50 million users.

-           Television took 13 years to reach 50 million households.

-           Internet reached 50 million people in 4 years.

-           In Tech era, Pace is Faster

-           Microsoft – 22 years to reach a billion users.

-           Gmail – 12 years to reach 0ne (1) billion users

-           Facebook – Nine (9) years to reach one (1) billion users.

Therefore, trying to resist tide of change will drown you.

-           Successful people in digital age are people that go to work everyday, not dreading the next change but asking “what if we did it this way”?  Adherence to process or how we have always done it; is their Achilles’ heel of big firms and recipe for career failures.  Be the guy who comes out with practical ideas worth discussing and trying.  Play offense.  For every four (4) things you are asked to do, offer one idea you were not asked to do.

-           Take advantage of the project, know everything, be obsessed.

-           Go to College – meet like minds, interact.  College is a brand name.  In digital age, smart is sexy.

-           Education in the digital age is now too costly, its ripe for disruption.  Do something about it.

-           Certification is also important in digital age.

-           Get to city – GDP are determined in cities.  Pimp your career.

Concluding

In a democratic society, the existence of larger centres of private power is dangerous to the continuing vitality of a free enterprises.

The four horsemen (Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook) manifest god, love, sex, appeal, consumption and add value to billions of people’s lives each day.  However, these firms are no concerned with the conditions of our souls, and will not take care of us in the old age, nor hold our hand.  They have aggregated enormous power.

Power corrupts, especially in a Society infected with what the Pope calls the “idolatry of money” There firms avoid taxes, invade privacy and destroy jobs to increase profit because they can.

It took Facebook less than 10 years to reach 1 billion people, now it’s a global communication utility, with move to becoming the world biggest advert company.  It is a company with 17,000 employees valued at about $500 billion.  Disney, a hugely successful media traditional company commands about $181 billion market capitalization and employs 185,000 people.

Giants of industrial age, GM Motors, GE, IBM – employ thousands of workers.  Their investors/executives get rich though not billionaires but their workers, many of them unionized, could buy houses and motor boats and send their kids to colleges.

The four horsemen employ 418,000 people (about the population of Minneapolis in US) with a total capitalization of about $2.3 trillion.

That is the USA millions of angry workers want back!  They tend to blame global trade and immigrants, but the Tech economy and its fetishization, is as much to blame.  It has dumped enormous wealth into the laps of small cohort of investors and incredibly talented workers – leaving much of the workforce behind.

It is dangerous for the Society, it hollows out the middle class, which leads to bankrupt towns, feed the angry politics of those workers who feel cheated, and underpins the rise of demagogues.

Each of these horsemen dwarfs both the Manhattan and Apollo projects in intelligence and Tech capacity.  Their computing power is near limitless and ridiculously cheap.  They inherited three (3) generations of research on statistical analysis, optimization and artificial intelligence.  Each horseman swims in data we haemorrhage 24/7, analysed by some of the most intelligent, creative and determined people who have ever lived.   This is the greatest concentration of human and financial capacity ever assembled.  The horsemen should use this to cure cancer, eliminate poverty, explore the universe, and not sell another fucking phone.

Heroes and innovators of yesteryears.  Created and still create jobs for thousands of people.  Unilever has $156b market caps and spread over 171,000 households, so is intel with market caps of $165b spread over 107,000 households in USA.  

JUDGEMENT IN THE FRONTLINE

Front line officers in most organisations are the richest and untapped source of ideas and innovation.  They are closest to customers and understand their need best.  They possess the know-how to solve operational problems. 

In most work experiences, innovation often times comes from the bottom.  The closest to the problems are in best position to proffer solutions to solve it.

The Turtle Tank Story – A Life Lesson

An operator of an Aquarium in San Diego (USA), said something very instructive.  If you buy a young turtle and put it in a small aquarium, it will only grow to the size that fits the tank.

Employers have boxed their employees with rules, bureaucracy, hierarchy that stunted their personal growth and organisational contribution – Turtle Tank Syndrome.

Top executives fail to ask for ideas and her dismissive of suggestions from front line officers.

Single mistake by front line officers can be transmitted via tweeter in a second, destroying the brand of such company.

Fostering leadership judgement and innovation at front line cultivates enhanced customer relationship, employee engagement and creation of long term value for the organisation.

Front line officers are the heart and soul of the organisation.  Top management must stay in direct contact with front line officers and use their information/data analytics to define and refine organisational customer strategy.

We all must know in specific terms what we do that impact our customer patronage; if we don’t, we have no business being an employee of that company.

QUIET LEADERSHIP

It’s a reflection of Carlo’s time in football and his thoughts and philosophies on what it takes to be a leader in this profession as a football coach/leader.  Values like resect, loyalty, value of money and hard work and the importance of relationship and family.

Quite Leadership

There is power in being calm and measured, in building trust and making decisions coolly, in rising using influence and persuasion and being professional in your approach.  It is born out of the idea that a leader should not need to rant or rage with iron fist, but rather, their power should be implicit.  It should be crystal clear who is in charge, and their authority must result from respect and trust and value creation, rather than fear. 

You earn the respect you are shown, partly through a successful career of delivering trophies (value creation) for players, clubs, but perhaps more importantly because of the fact that I respect those I also work with (building relationships).  This method of leadership must be part of who you truly are! – it is true to our character and an essential element of your personality.  Leadership can be learned but cannot be imitated.

If you really want to know who you are, you have to learn what people say about you when you leave the room.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  To get people to work passionately for you, you need to show them you want them to achieve career success for their own sake!

Real Madrid President Florentino Perez described Carlos Ancelotti as a manager who could keep the superstars of Madrid happy while finding a way to make it work without grumbling in public – what else could a President desire from a Coach?

Being a Coach/Manager

-        You must never think being a former player is enough to be a Manager or Coach.

-        Have fantastic relationship with your players but remain the boss.

-        Everybody has the will to win, but only the best have the will to

prepare to win.

-        Managing competition among players in a big club is also a problem.

-        Nothing is as important as being loved and valued.

-        Sometimes it’s key players in the Team that have to be the leaders or reference points for other players, not the Coach.

-        You have to understand that no matter how insignificant you think your actions or words are, to your staff, you cast a shadow over all aspect of their lives.  Take this responsibility seriously:  take care of your people, don’t abuse your power.

-        Sometimes, a relationship just get tired, it’s time to move on, don’t internalise it, everyone has a cycle, the key is to remain productive in each cycle.

-        Speaking truth to power has to be acceptable behaviour.

-        As a Coach/leader, also find a solution, don’t waste time looking for the guilty.

-        Respect is everything.  It is a daily currency that can go up and down in direct relation to your behaviour and choices.  Take it seriously.

-        Don’t always be obsessed with drawing loyalty from people with whom you work.  Aim to inspire greater performance in the moment and focus on showing you really care about them as people and their professional growth.

-        Mutual trust comes as a formal piece of the relationship pyramid but demonstrate you can always be trusted.

Culture

-       Culture can eat strategy for breakfast (Peter Drucker).  Without empathy for culture, success can still be achieved but it can be fleeting, hard to sustain.

-        In Football world, there are two (2) sets of families:

          -        trusted lieutenants, staff, people, etc, people that have worked

with over the years.

          -        club family – officials, owners, media, etc

-        Learn the language, if no sufficient time, study the culture, it demonstrates a willingness to integrate to a new way of life, and it’s central to understanding the club, the country and its culture.  It enhances your performance on the job.

-        As a player, the jersey you wear represents a people, their culture and way of life, you must respect that and show it on and off the field of play.   For players and Coach, it’s even a measure of professionalism.

-        Cliques are not acceptable, integration is only key to success.

-        Cultural education comes from workmates, players, etc, rather than the Coach

-        You don’t need what you think you want, change can be liberating, don’t resist it for the sake of it.

-        Loyalty is the centre of all relationship, it’s to people, not organisation, for organisation is not personal, it’s only business.

-        Don’t be caught in overlaying the value of loyalty to your key people or lieutenants.  Your people will judge you on how you build a support Team to drive performance, not how loyal people are to you.

Hierarchy

-        Manage expectations from above to protect those you lead from presidential or owners of the club.

-        Never be afraid to delegate – nobody is good enough to do everything.

-        Owners of clubs have egos, treat those egos carefully.

-        Don’t play favourites – this is business

-        Quickest and most effective way to keep your owners and Board happy is to win.  To win, you need to build and nurture best relationship with your talent.

-        Take your owners on the journey with you.  Make sure they understand they are part of the story.

-        Over-communicate the key issues that drive success and manage the “noise” they can create around other areas.

-        Never underestimate the power of instinct in Football.

Talent

-        Players are the most important part of any football club.  Without players, no fans, nothing happens.

-        Managing talent is the heart of leadership challenge in Football – recruiting, on-boarding, training and development and succession is critical to talent.

-        A coach has to convince his talented players to put it’s talent to the service of the Team.  This is how they continue to develop.

-        A Coach must raise the Team to fit the talent of your star player, not diminish it to satisfy the Team.

-        Discipline is key in Football, if there is no discipline off the pitch, there is no discipline on the pitch

-        Recruit to your values and cultural fits.

-        You cannot control talent, you can only provide right information and value creation for them to achieve their full potentials.

-        Recruit to Budget – when you recruit, first take time to understand you recruit as a person, what drives him, what makes him who they are, etc.  Other things can come after.

-        Listening is key, ideas can come from anywhere.

-        For selfish talent – help them understand that the satisfaction of wining as a Team is greater than winning alone.

-        Take unbounding of talent seriously.

-        “Altitude of a Team is very key in Football”.  Even when you are not winning, you cannot control the result, but you can control the altitude.

Product

-        Every business has at his heart, the delivery of the product to the consumer.  In Football, that product is the “Pitch”.  What happens on the pitch drives three (3) basic revenue streams:

          -        Match day – Ticket sales

          -        Commercial sales/sponsorship

          -        Broadcasting – dominates the turnover of elite European leagues

-        Success for big clubs is trophies, for other clubs, it could be avoiding relegation or just remaining in business.

-        Identity is also key.  This is the style of play of the club on the pitch.  To win is not just enough, but winning with style and spectacle, upholding the culture and style of play of the club.

-        Know your business as a Coach or leader.  Those you lead expect nothing less.  If they observe less, they won’t be led by you for long.

-        Let your talent breathe on your problems include them in finding solutions to them.

-        The greatest lie in football is that all payers are treated equally.

-        Remember, there are no great Coaches or leaders.  They are only a great as the talent they seduce and lead and how much permission this talent gives them on a daily basis to deliver their ideas.

Data

-        Trust your instinct, but always embrace data and analytics and any edge they can give you.

-        Your most important analytics are your eyes and brain.  Draw on your experience and don’t get distracted.

-        Embrace data, but as a Coach, your role is to translate it into insights and then be the point person for delivering it to the talent.

-        Clear and frequent communication is always key to success.

-        A Team that wins all the time needs to lose to benefit from the lessons that only defeat can bring.

-        In the world of Football, we should never lose sight of the Target.  The target wasn’t to win titles or trophies initially, but to achieve a certain way of playing – focus, pattern of play, high energy – set pieces, etc., and enjoying doing that.   Once that level is achieved, the trophies and laurels will follow.

-        In the world of Football, there is only one secret, “do I have the ball or not?”  Barcelona opted to having it, but it is legitimate for others not to want it.

-        In Barcelona, they play a possession football, positional play, attacking football, not just for the fun of it, because if you have the ball always, it is impossible for your opponents to attack you.

-        Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win, but the ultimate obligation of a sportsman is to be constant, to always compete to the maximum of his ability and effort.  That is what coaches like Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola have done by changing play patterns, players nutritional patterns, individual players to team players and making them Winners!

-        As a leader, you must be hungry to learn, to search for challenges and awaken new feelings in oneself to achieve the unimaginable.

BOLD: HOW TO BE BOLD IN BUSINESS AND WIN – The Story of “Virgin Galactic”

The future belongs to the Bold.  The world is so crowded that only those who have a significant and dramatically different story to tell will grab the attention of customers.

In a world and age when we have come to expect good level of service and product as given, only an exceptional and memorable experience will earn customer loyalty.

Different breed of organizations are now emerging, they succeed because they have courage, confidence or just sheer chutzpah to pursue a purpose beyond profit:  to engage, entertain and educate their audiences, who see their customers and employees as members of a like minded community, who create and administer cult-like following among their brand – both within and outside their organizations – who are not just different, but dramatically different and who push to the extreme the consequences of their dreaded positioning and strategy.  Virgin Galactic is one of the bold brands.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin has long been thought of as the ultimate “challenger brand”.  It’s business model has been to take on large, established companies in a sector and seek to rewrite the rules, usually in favour of customers.  Being Bold, brave and innovative are in the DNA of the brand and it’s Visionary founder, Sir Richard Branson.

The Brand believes in making a difference.  Virgin stands for money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense of competitive challenge.  At virgin, they always look for the next big things, that may become a major global business.  This approach has led Virgin to create more than 200 branded companies world-wide, employing about 50,000 people in over 29 countries.  Their business spans music, media, mobile phones, travel, financial services, entertainment, leisure, and many others -the latest being Virgin Galactic – the successful flights of Virgin Galactic Vss Eve, the launch vehicle along with VSS Enterprise, the passenger vehicle – represents the opportunity of ordinary people traveling into space, making pace a new frontier for business.

Bold Practices

-       Virgin Galactic aims to fly 600 people in the first year of operation, that is more people than have been in space in 50 years.

-       The Mother ship USS Eve, is the largest 100% carbon composite plane currently in service and is the most environmental friendly aircraft in the world.

-       The passenger vehicle VSS Eve, completely redesigned based on customer feedback about their expectation of space travel.

-       The cost of a passenger flight is $200,000 compared with the Soviet-era passenger seat of $20-30 million.

-       Over 300 customers have registered and the company has over $40 million in deposit, though the first commercial passenger flight is yet to take-off.  Such is the power of Virgin brand.

-       The aircraft will operate initially from the purpose-built Space Port America in New Mexico but can operate from any commercial airport in the world.

-       The name Virgin Galactic was registered before the first flight was ever made.  

        So, let’s be bold.

Culled from:  BOLD:  How to be bold in Business and Win, by Shawn Smith and Andy Milligan

BOLD: HOW TO BE BOLD IN BUSINESS AND WIN – The Story of “UMPQUA BANK”

The future belongs to the Bold.  The world is so crowded that only those who have a significant and dramatically different story to tell will grab the attention of customers.

In a world and age when we have come to expect good level of service and product as given, only an exceptional and memorable experience will earn customer loyalty.

Different breed of organizations are now emerging, they succeed because they have courage, confidence or just sheer chutzpah to pursue a purpose beyond profit:  to engage, entertain and educate their audiences, who see their customers and employees as members of a like minded community, who create and administer cult-like following among their brand – both within and outside their organizations – who are not just different, but dramatically different and who push to the extreme the consequences of their dreaded positioning and strategy.  Umpqua Bank is one of the bold brands.

UMPQUA BANK

The self styled greatest bank in the world, passionately believes, it thinks banking should be like a great retail experience and even calls its branches stores to highlight the belief.

South Umpqua State Bank started in 1963 as a small community bank in South Oregon.  Ray Daus took over as President in 1994 when the bank had assets of $140m and employed 60 people.  Under his leadership, the bank grew to more than 180 branches (stores), 2,500 people and over $12b in assets.

Media outlets like Business Week, New York Times, have repeatedly nominated Umpqua as one of the coolest places to work.  Fortune Magazine has included Umpqua on its best companies to work for list, including November 13 in 2008.

Umpqua has positioned itself very successfully as an integral part of the community and more than just a bank.    It encourages its people to work in community and create store formals that provides a place where customers can come and spend time, not just bank.

It has taken it store promise out on to the street through its innovative “handshake marketing”, which promises “something wonderful will happen to you today”.  Its culture infectious and new employees and acquired businesses have been described as Umpqaulized.

The name Umpqua means “raging water” in Native American dialect, an apt description of the turbulence that hit the financial sector in 2008/2009.  But Umpqua culture helped it grow through the difficult years.

Bold Practices

-       Strip all back room operations from stores so that only things people did was to focus 100% on customer experience

-       New hires were recruited from retail companies and they were trained in the complexes of banking and sent to train at places like Riz Carton (a Five Star Hotel) to learn about delivering services that knocks you off your feet.

-       Empowering people – we hire decision makers and empower them to make decisions that will impact our customers as front desk officers.

-       We are part of our community, our over 2,500 employees engage in a volunteer 40 hours a year of their time to non-profit endeavours with focus on youth/education.

-       Measuring the experience – if you are going to centre our organization on customer experience, you have to be able to measure the experience. It’s called return on quality.  Our people are measured as a team and as individual – great incentives for those who do well and recoach/mentoring to upgrade others to maximize service level.

-       With advancement in technology, most people rarely come to banks now a days, as lots of banking could be done on phone or online, but at Umpqua, we try to create a wonderful experience, so that our customer can say “I think I go to Umpqua Bank and have a coffee while I do some shopping online, while am there, I might cash a cheque or make a deposit” – a significant difference created by our core experience.

-       Our bank (store) design format is very unique, we borrow great idea from best retailer and adapt them to our banking environment.

-       Creating a seamless multi-channel experience – ensure the same culture, the same feeling that the customer get from walking into our store or branch is also felt on the web, in all call centres and it must be delivered through all our channels.

-     The Umpqua brand promise – to make your stop at an Umpqua bank the best thing you did all day.

-       Handshake marketing – an example of this is demonstrated in “random acts of kindness” when a Manager of a store down the street may ask the manager of a fast food restaurant to select two tables daily and ask the manager to pay for their meals, that it’s on Umpqua bank.  Such random kindness spread like wild fire – goodwill to the bank.

-       Get in the flow of social media – The biggest thing about social media site like twitter is that the conversation is going on about your company regardless of whether you participate or not, so we decided to participate.  You must participate to resolve issues and ensure positive tweets about us always.

-       As a company, your visions moves from being a project to how we live, breathe and everyone follow suit – culture and brand are the same you cannot have one without the other.

-       Every single employee attends a motivational moment session every day to inspire us on the job.

-       The branches are called stores and the bank advertises for new hires in the retail space (press).

-       Employees are trained in customer service by customer centric organizations like (Five Star Hotel) Riz Calton Hotels.

-       Employees can spend as long time as it takes to satisfy a customer.

-       Any employee can call the president on any issue.

-       Every employee has to answer the phone with “welcome to the world’s greatest bank”.  People who don’t want to do it can’t join the bank.

-       They mystery shop at branches of other banks, they are thinking of acquiring, to check the culture and customer facing operations.  The Bank has successfully acquired or umpquatized 23 other banks since 1994.

Bold Lessons

-       Look outside your industry – Look beyond your industry to study comparators rather than competitors.  They saw what the best retailers were doing and they applied it to financial services

-       Be the Brand – Walk your talk – Create a branded customer experience.  There is only one Umpque, the look and feel of the store, the technology used they way the employee deal with you.  All of these combined together to create a distinctive customer experience that shouts “Umpqua”.

-       Embracing the digital Media – Understanding the power of the internet/social media and using these as a seamless commercial tool with customers.  Mentoring/ responding to tweets, creating business communities and integrating mobile tech are all important aspects – but first and foremost in the service of the store.

Bold HR Policies

-       Umpqua is a brand the understands the importance of the employee experience and works hard to create a culture that supports the service strategy.  Empowering employees to do whatever it take to satisfy customers, encouraging “random acts of kindness”, and daily “motivational moments”, are all examples of a fundamental belief in the power of the people to differentiate a brand.

-       From running advert in the retail space, rather than financial press, to sending new hires for training to Ritz Carton are examples of bold HR practices mirroring the strategy.

-       Umpqua created a change culture – almost cult like – because if recognized that the only way to differentiate in a relatively commoditized area like banking was through the experience its people could deliver.

        So, let’s be bold.

Culled from:  BOLD:  How to be bold in Business and Win, by Shawn Smith and Andy Milligan