What ITIL Service Managers can learn from a Wall Street Stockbroker who ended up in Jail… September 1, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in business, itsm.Tags: business, ethics, NLP, Sales, success
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WOW – that’s all I can say at the moment. I just returned back into the office after attending a lunch function. The speaker was Jordan Belfort, and I must admit that until 1 month ago I had never heard of him. But I knew this presentation was coming up so I bought his books in preparation of this event.
The topic of his presentation was how to be a successful person in business and in life and not make the mistakes he made.
There are 4 basics that he identified as being the foundation of his successful business:
The Knowledge that we can manage the state that we’re in,
the understanding that we all have beliefs that throttle or improve our achievements,
the strategy to be educated enough to know what we are supposed to be doing,
and the level of standard that enables us to grow at all levels.
Why is this important to us in the IT Industry? Well, first of all I think it’s important for everybody to understand these concepts as they don’t just deal with the business side of a person but also influence your personal and family life.
Second of all, I think that many people in the IT industry can take these wise words and learn from them.
We are like all living creatures; we either grow or die. And I don’t know about you – but I’d much rather grow!
In this email are a number of growth opportunities for you: ways to manage your strategy on reaching your goals. eLearning is a great way to get ahead and absorb the knowledge that you need to make the right decisions in a very short time frame.
This knowledge gives you the power to make the right choice in relation to your current career, or the direction you want to take your IT Department. It might even help you in setting up your own company and be extra ordinary in the way you deliver value to your customers.
So go ahead, don’t limit yourself by thinking that you’re too old, too busy, too technical, too distracted, or whatever you may come up with. Ask the right question: What will make you a better person? What action do you need to take to get that pay rise, or promotion, or new job, or respect, or business opportunity, or…
It might be as simple as signing up for the ITIL V3 eLearning programs…
Ivanka
<<copied from the email newsletter I sent to our clients today>>
The 5 things Wal Mart taught me on how to do business with large companies November 6, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in business.Tags: business, customer, Sales
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This morning I attended a presentation by Mr. Peter Sharp, Snr. Vice President of Wal Mart in Asia and one of the things I picked up from him is this list on how to do business with a large company:
- Don’t become over dependent
Never rely on 1 customer for more than 40% of your total revenue. (I also heard in other presentations a number of 10% – so basically each company should have at least 10 customers).
The risk of becoming over dependent is that anything could happen to that one customer and you lose a significant source of income! Not a risk that savvy business people would like to run. - Profile your customers
Now that you are going to do business with this large customer – where might this path lead? What could happen in the future, what are the growth plans – both for you and your customer- and how do you fit in there as the supplier. - Keep an open book mindset.
You don’t just get trust handed to you on a silver platter – you have to earn it. And earning trust takes time. But this goes for both sides; win-win situations go both ways. You will need to become a trusted partner for the other organization so you can share future plans etc.
- Integrity
Not just for you as the owner of the company or the entrepreneur. But also for all your staff in the company. Integrity has to be top down and bottom up. This is pretty must an extension of point number 3 because without integrity it is really difficult to start trusting you as a person and as a company. - Share best practices to deepen the partnership
Nobody is an island and you can’t do business on your own. It is always about building partnership with your clients, building bridges and learning from each other. Sharing the things you’ve learned and experienced deepens the partnership and this can only be to the advantage of both parties.
I think there is something in here for all of us – entrepreneurs, managers, sales executives and business owners. We never stop learning and we never stop improving the relationships we have with our clients; large or small.
And to be honest – these 5 guidelines are just as valuable for doing business with large companies as they are for dealing with small companies.
Revenue is great, but cash is king! October 10, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in business.Tags: business, Cash, creditor, crisis, economy, management, money, Sales
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For the past 18 months or so I have been trying to have ‘cash’ as our quarterly theme but for whatever reason, it didn’t really work. And to be honest, you don’t want staff members to be only money driven… so we came up with another solution! We didn’t start the business purely for the money, and clients would feel the shift in core values when the company turns to purely a money making machine…
To give you a bit of background: The Art of Service works with the ‘Rockefeller habits’ methodology and we try to have a Quarterly theme to help improve how the business is running. The last few quarterly themes were around internal processes (customer service and client relation) and teamwork. But really, when I look inside, as the owner of the business I know that at the end of the day it is really important to have enough cash in the bank to stay in business.
So a few months ago we started thinking about a cash based quarterly theme. You can’t ask people to just focus on money as that is NOT what we are about… we want to be the Framework educator of choice for IT Professionals. In order to do that we have a strong focus on customer service, on helping people to understand the frameworks and standards so they can grow professionally. The money is a result of this, but NOT the main focus!
So how do you increase cash without being in business for money alone? You look at your cash cycle (taken from the Rockefeller habits):
- How long does it take to close sales? And, how much money is involved in the sales process (COS – Cost of Sales)
- How long does it take to develop the product or deliver the service that was sold?
- How long does it take to receive the money AFTER you delivered the service (as most product sales will be Cash on delivery or pre-payment)
- The sales team is coming up with creative solutions to improve the conversion % and due to our improved relationship with the clients we better understand their procurement processes. We may not quote as early in the process so when we do, the conversion happens a lot quicker. We also looked at different sales channels that may improve the time it takes for people to buy/purchase.
- Our time to market is getting better and better! Being an expert in your field (and recognized as such) really helps with the ability to customize our product and service offerings to our clients in a really short time-frame. We also use different development tools and techniques to improve the overall time to market (think cloud computing, SaaS and web-presence)
- Accounts receivable and debt collection is not just a job for the finance department. Everybody is involved with coming up with ways to shorten the time it takes to get the cash in our bank. Current improvement projects are: correct invoicing, creative payment options, online sales (credit card payment), stricter follow up after payment terms have been exceeded.
The secret to success? Consistency! September 9, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in Uncategorized.Tags: business, customer service, management, Sales, security, the art of service
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This morning I am flying to Canberra to meet a few clients and as so many times before, I had to go through the airport security. And you know what happened?? For the first time ever, my bag was taken from the security belt and had to be searched…. reason: an umbrella!!
Not an issue, I hear you think – this is just another security measure, one of many as this has become a normal part of airtravel. Well, but what about the fact that this umbrella has been in my bag for the last 12 months (at least!) and I have been flying with this bag/umbrella combination at least 10 times now. (last time was last week)
The security guy told me that there had been an issue a few months ago when somebody put a knife in an umrella and this wasn’t picked up and since this incident, the security measures were upgraded to the extend that ALL umbrellas now have to be checked.
That is fine, but why didn’t this happen at the other 9 occasions where I flew with my umbrella in my bag? Why today, and not last week?! I find it very hard to take all these security measures seriously, especially as they are not performed consistently.
So what can I learn from this? How can I use this experience to improve my business? Well, the most important thing that we are working on is building a personal relationship with our clients. People buy from people they trust… and you can’t trust a person who is inconsistent. I can’t expect clients to buy from us when we change the rules all the time. So the secret to success is consistency.
Consistency without being rigid, as our customer service ethos is very high! There is a LOT we do for our clients, to help them with their business, to improve the way we contact our clients and the experience we give them.
So where would consistency be important:
- Invoicing terms (when do we expect payment, and when do we start chasing?)
- Inclusions in the courses (do students receive a certificate of attendance or not?)
- Living up to our promises (we have a pass guarantee for our classroom Foundation course)
- Processes and procedures (I always try to send an email within 12 hours after meeting a person to confirm the action items from the meeting)
Show me the money… please. September 8, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in Uncategorized.Tags: business, cashflow, itil, money, Sales, the art of service
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Maybe I am a bit of a push-over but I hate saying “NO” to clients, employees and business partners. I still want everybody to be happy and to have a good feeling about doing business with me. But I have to learn when to draw the line; sometimes this is easy as it is very clear that the other party is wrong and I am right. (like the time when one of our resellers was caught cheating) That’s when I get very strong and NO comes easily.
However, in other cases it isn’t so easy. I try to have a personal relationship with most of the partners we work with and I enjoy dealing with them. That is what makes it sooooo difficult when one of them doesn’t pay their bills. I know deep down inside that I can’t carry their business and that entrepreneurship isn’t just about revenue but also cashflow. But it is so difficult! They email me with 500 different reasons why they can’t pay me this week and usually I go for it. Yeah, it’s OK.. next week is fine. But this time it is different – this time I am choosing for my company and my employees. When the partner doesn’t pay, I don’t have money in the bank so I can’t pay my employees. It’s as simple as that. (at least that’s what I keep telling myself in order to stay focused).
But what do you do when they play the “guilt” card….. “our clients won’t receive their exams and this will reflect badly on The Art of Service because your name is on the course materials. Can you please send the materials so the clients isn’t negatively affected? I promise that we will pay next week”. That is when it gets really hard as I like these people and don’t want to say no. I would hate for them to be in a situation where you have to go to your client to say that they won’t receive the materials because they haven’t paid the bill…
But I stay strong – No is No and I am NOT bending. The rules of the game are simple: you pay and you get your stuff, end of story!
Now all I need to do is practise that line until I am ready for the phone conference this afternoon… wish me luck!
Ivanka
Chamomile, cough medicine and headaches September 1, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in Uncategorized.Tags: itsmf, Sales, Sick leave
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Yes, it is well and truly Flu season here! It seems that everybody in the office is coughing, sneezing, wheezing and in general feeling sick. I feel sorry for them, but must admit that I am too busy trying NOT to give in to this flu thing that is going around!
Makes you wonder: what is better – going to work to finish the job you were meant to do? Or staying home to get better without interfering with other people’s health.? You will probably say the correct thing; that you’re supposed to stay home so you don’t infect other people. And that you’re right… but when you’ve just spent 3 days at a conference interstate there is a LOT to follow up on! And this usually goes better when you’re in the office…
So I’ve made up my mind – I am guarding myself with liters of Chamomile tea to fight any infection and my husband is cooking something with ginger, garlic, onions and basil tonight as these herbs help with colds, coughs and the overall immune system. Don’t get too close to me … I may not be contagious but I can guarantee you that your nose may be negatively suprised by my medicated state! – as of tomorrow.
I may not smell very nice for the next few days but at least we can follow up on the promises we’ve made to our customers at the conference last week!
Ivanka
