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Archives for May 2008

A Chocolate Box Of Waste

Sometimes the choices put in front of you are a veritable chocolate box of decisions. Strawberry or Coffee; Praline or Brazil? Life is sometimes just far too short to come to a final decision.

The same applies when reviewing the sustainability sections of the major food and drink retailers’ websites. There are food miles; working conditions (both in the UK and abroad); organic, fair trade and ethical considerations… (deep breath)

…. vegan and vegetarian, halal and kosher requirements; waste and packaging; additives, colourings and preservatives … and, of course, the dreaded plastic carrier bag.

Out of these one stands out: packaging. It doesn’t matter how near or far your food’s source or what its moral, spiritual or religious provenance is, it still need to be in something when it leaves the shop.
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Creating a Relationship Brand

What is a relationship brand? In simplest terms, a relationship brand is one that holds widespread appeal among consumers but still allows each individual consumer to experience the brand in his or her own unique way. Relationship brands have an inherent sense of belonging attached to them. In other words, each customer experiences the brand individually but at the same time, likes knowing he or she is part of a larger group who experiences the brand together.

Creating a relationship brand doesn’t happen overnight. For example, look at a brand like Mac from Apple. Actually, Apple, itself, is a great example of a relationship brand, but let’s just look at Mac right now. While still far behind the PC in terms of market share, the Mac has grown significantly in recent years as the marketing team behind the brand realized the value in the relationship customers have with the brand and with each other as part of a group experiencing the brand together. [Read more…] about Creating a Relationship Brand

What is Employer Branding?

The concept of branding for products and services is well known. Employer branding may be the least known type of branding yet is becoming more important to organizations. The reason is changes in workforce demographics. The baby-boomers are retiring and the pool of new recruits is not sufficient to fill the gap. According to an Accenture survey, 60% of CEOs are very concerned about attracting and retaining people. Enter the concept of Employer Branding.

Brett Minchington (The Employer Brand Institute), defines employer branding as “the image of the organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the minds of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders).”

UK based Business Development Practice Ltd. indicates that ideally, the central idea behind the employer and client brands should be the same. At the very least they need to be consistent (see above graphic). But unlike product or corporate brands, an employer brand is not as visible to its target audience.

This looks like this subject is starting to get complex and involved. It could, and companies could wind up spending lots of money and time to develop their Employer brand. I have a suggestion: you may have seen Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Companies To Work For”. The organization that does the analysis behind the selection process is The Great Place To Work Institute. If you make it to this list you have an effective Employer Brand.

The companies on this list realize that it is the intellectual capital, what is in the minds and hearts of people – rather than the buildings, the tools, the financial capital – that has the power to truly differentiate and grow a business – and beat the competition. Therefore, they do what is needed to attract, grow and keep their people. Benchmarking how these got to the list makes sense.

Some suggestions: first look at “Our Model” section. This shows the major dimensions that need to be addressed:

“Trust is the essential ingredient for the primary workplace relationship between the employee and the employer. According to our model, trust is composed of three dimensions: Credibility, Respect, and Fairness. The final two dimensions of the Institute’s model relate to workplace relationships between employees and their jobs/company (Pride), and between the employee and other employees (Camaraderie)”.

This is not quantum physics. It is very straight-forward and not difficult to grasp. Yet too many companies waste money looking for something more esoteric. I particularly like that the Institute says as companies become effective in applying these dimensions the distinction between labour and management fades.

There is more. By treating people well, the companies on the list reap business and financial benefits superior to their peers.

Want to develop an effective Employer Brand? Your first step must be a visit to the The Great Place To Work Institute website.

Thinking About Thought Leadership

It all started with consulting companies, then moved to software/technology companies and now is spreading to all types of companies. Thought leadership, simply put, is giving away content. This could be developed from what your leaders know, case studies or the musings of gurus and subject matter experts you hire.

Why do this? It drives traffic to your corporate website and enhances your company’s reputation as one that buyers may want to do business with. Think of thought leadership as stealth advertising and promotion. The content may not, and some say should not, mention your company. But the association is still made and by sharing your knowledge you build credibility.
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Social Accountability International SA8000 — An Overview

Laser guns were the stuff of kids’ dreams. Brightly coloured beams of light going zip zap between enemies, usually causing them to explode in a cascade of sparks or a frazzle of hair.

This science fiction is nowhere near the truth of the matter, where lasers are much more sedate and used primary for scientific research or industrial use. As a narrowly focussed beam of light, they can cut through just about anything depending up on the power put behind them.

Social Accountability International’s SA8000 is the laser of sustainability reporting.

It is a tightly focussed standard, concentrating solely upon people’s working conditions. Crucially it encompasses both employees and suppliers, essentially forcing a company to review its entire supply chain.

Fundamental structure
SA8000 is based upon a variety of sources, including UN declarations and International Labour Organisation conventions. It is currently under review with an update due to be published later in 2008.

Requirements are split across eight recognised human rights components, including child labour, collective bargaining, working hours and remuneration. A further section details the management processes a company is expected to have in place.

Unlike many other standards, there is no option to self-certify under SA8000. Rather, each and every company facility has to be visited by a qualified assessor.

Brief and to the point
As with all good standards, SA8000 benefits hugely from keeping the actual criteria straightforward and simple. This means the standard itself is contained to four sides of A4, including definitions the standard relies upon.

However this does not impinge upon the effectiveness of the standard especially with the strengthening which is currently taking place.

For instance, under the Forced Labour section a company is currently prohibited from engaging in forced labour or requiring employees to lodge deposits or identity papers with the company.

The draft of the strengthened standard includes bonded and trafficked persons and also prohibits the retention of any salary or other property of its employees.

A similar pattern emerges with the management processes. Here many of the tweaks in the new draft appear to be based upon loopholes management have discovered in the original.

For example, in the section on Addressing Concerns And Taking Corrective Action the original draft required companies not to discriminate against employees who raise concerns about the business’ performance against the standard.

It is easy to imagine how some companies may have forced employees with concerns to raise them in public, thus ensuring that they effectively self-censored for fear of gaining a reputation as being awkward.

The latest draft of the standard therefore includes a further requirement in this section that a company provide a confidential process for employees to raise their concerns through.

The need for expansion
Because of its focus upon working conditions SA8000 tends to concentrate upon businesses, industrial and manufacturing environments.

While this is undoubtedly the greatest area in need of improvement for western supply chains, it would do the standard no harm to widen its appeal to include other bodies such as government bodies and NGOs.

Government bodies in particular are a large driver of a significant proportion of commercial activities in most countries. If they were to start to adopt SA8000 it would go a long way to improving labour standards across the world without the need for regulation.

However for this to happen, SA8000 needs to take the public sector’s concerns into account in the first place.

When it all goes wrong in the FTSE 100

Standard 404

Standard 404 Page

You know how they say you can judge someone by their shoes? It’s often the little things that let us down. FTSE 100 corporate sites tend to be big and complex to match the organisations they serve, but can be seriously underpowered when it all goes wrong.

Being presented with a 404 page is irritating at the best of times, but there are different ways of handling this, and – predictably enough – the FTSE 100 demonstrate the full range of options available.
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