Category Archives: Business

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Let’s Talk About Hats!

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Well you’re either reading this because you just love hats or the silly title pulled you in and I have just one paragraph to get you to stay.  Well here goes!  Have you ever seen a hat with an instruction manual?  Well, in a bit of an homage to Canada where I am for about 10 days, let’s talk about the Tilley Hat.  More specifically, the brilliant marketing and customer loyalty enjoyed by the brand.  Read on.

Tilly Hat

Tilley Endurables, as the manufacturer of the eponymous hat is nothing is not customer focused.  They compete in a space that is seriously crowded.  There are dozens of similar products on the market and yet there is something of a mystique about the company that other firms just cannot match for all the money in the world.  What is it?  I call it authenticity.

The brand is authentic.  If there is one takeaway to be gained from the four page instruction manual every Tilley hat includes in the ‘hidden pocket’ it is that a brand can gain global recognition by being authentic in its approach to the product and its clients.

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Are You Happy?

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Some people just strike you as happy, don’t they? I’m not talking about an artificial super sweet happy. I mean an outlook on life where the glass is half full and lemons are sent for making lemonade. Abraham Lincoln once said, “A person is generally about as happy as he’s willing to be”. Watch this TED Talk video, one of my favourites. Shawn Achor shares some business reasons why we should all be willing to be just a little bit happier.

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3 Simple Rules for Great Companies

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I splurged the other day and bought the April 2013 issue of the Harvard Business Review. At over almost $17 it is not your typical checkout counter purchase. It puts a real dent in your wallet. However, you can also gain immeasurable insights into business and how to do it better. That was the promise I read between the lines in the cover story teaser – “The Three Rules for Success”. Want to know more? Read on.

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The article is a look behind the data of companies that traded on the various US exchanges between 1966 and 2010, a number that amounted to over 25,000 firms. What the authors, Michael E. Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed, wanted to get at was to understand what truly great long-term successful companies had in common versus the flash in the pan, the flavour of the moment.

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What Comes First: Goal or Aspiration?

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My son asked me an interesting question today. What is the difference between a goal and an aspiration? I did as any self-respecting dad in the digital age would do. “Have you Googled it,” I asked? “Yes,” replied Ryan, “but it is very confusing.” Looking closer at the definitions I could see what the problem was, and I gained an insight I think is worth sharing. Read on.

Steady wins the race

First, the definitions, using the Oxford Online Dictionary.

GOAL:  The object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

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12 Service Values Ritz-Carlton Uses (And You Can Too)

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This past weekend my wife and I had a 24 hour ‘stay-cation’ for our anniversary at the beautiful Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman.  My companies Massive Equipment Rental & Sales Ltd and Fireworks Ltd work on property often, but it is always nice to unplug for a bit and stay as a guest.  The act of unplugging from the daily routine is powerful psychologically as a reset, a recharge, and a preparation for the next big push in our personal or business lives.  While there I saw so many aspects of service – I call it ‘Perfection, Perfected’ – that went above and beyond the norm.  The thought came to me that the best way to thank the team at the Ritz-Carlton for the wonderful service my wife and I experienced was to write about it, and to illustrate how this service can help you in your business.  The 12 points are not the proverbial rocket science, but they work.  As a leader of an entrepreneurial organization you would do well to read on.

Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman

Service is EVERYTHING to the Ritz-Carlton.  It is what defines the chain in their very competitive niche.  This is not to say that other firms that offer similar products do not have as a goal top-level customer service.  They do.  But few execute this as well as the Ritz-Carlton.