Maybe someone was keen to work with AndreaMckinsey Ltd in the past?

Global Telecom Vendor
UK Director of Strategy
January 2005
Approach: Cold, conversation on the phone
Positioning: Project on Sales & Marketing services market


· Who am I talking to? What are your main responsibilities?

I am in charge of strategy in general, business strategy, customer vision, market research, relationship with consultants. The most important responsibility I have is to work on the development of the business strategy, which means product strategy, marketing strategy, sales strategy and partner strategy.

This is XXX we provide communication products and services to large enterprises and government organizations in the UK. Fixed and mobile devices, enterprise communication solutions, network infrastructure and everything clients require in the communication area.

We have a big range of products and services: among the products we have network infrastructure products, devices, connectivity solutions. Also we do managed services, maintenance and support, integration and consulting.

We look at the whole of the UK. My internal clients are the sales organization, product managers and consultants. Also I have to keep relations with large enterprises, distributors, resellers, indirect channels and independent consultants.

We are 4 people in strategy, our marketing and sales organisation is made of 250 professionals and we have a yearly turnover of £600 million.

I have a personal budget but for more expensive services I need to go back to my internal clients. Our financial year ends in September, but I have budget to implement strategy and seek help on some of the issues now.


· Business Questioning – What do you need to achieve, where is the pain?

The main challenge we are facing is the transition from a digital communication market to an IP based communication market. This is a big change in products set, distribution channel and business model. It all started about 3 years ago and we are more advanced in terms of product range, we are less advanced in terms of service model and distribution model. Traditionally we come from a TDM based voice environment and now we are going towards a software based model. Changing from hardware to software isn't easy. We partner with a number of organisations that provide us with the hardware and we mainly work on software now, sometimes the solutions is packaged as a XXX solution, sometimes as a mixed XXX and Partner solution.

Within the partner organisations and within the client organisations we have traditionally been speaking with Telecom Managers, now we need to change that and identify new decision makers, mainly Infrastructure Managers and IT Managers.

Another problem we are facing is that XXX is used to work within a mature market with an established position, we are used to have established relationships with our partners and clients and our sales model used to be more of a reactive sales model, with the client requiring our services and approaching us. (Actually we are used to have a mixed sales model, in the managed services area we are proactive already).
Because we are entering a new market where we don't have established relationships, we need to be more proactive in identifying and winning partners and new business and we are not used to do that.

We run a number of different campaigns and it depends on the objective. It can be a market awareness campaign, or for generation of prospects or early customers perception. We need to both grow existing business and we need to do a lot of work to win new business.

All these are important issues, but I would say something we really need to do is to work on our partnering model and we would look for a company with a strong track record to work with us. We will also need to generate new business from a new type of people within the client organisation. Everything is going to be critical moving forward.


· Services Questioning – What do you do in house, what do you buy?

In house we have some strong campaign management skills, strong PR skills, some market research specialists, market segmentation specialists.

I can't tell you now, in detail, what specific actions we are looking to take, but generally we need to look at how to reach new contacts, how to get references for new products, we need to test business models.
More specifically we are looking for some consulting expertise in channels: the issue is that technology buying audiences are changing, many of the channels we use are not appropriate any more, we need to establish fresh relationships with new partners. We are looking to do that over the next quarter.

Our budget for external services for the enterprise customers, which are the most important ones, is about £2 million.

Externally we use services for PR management, market research, competitive analysis, collateral creation, web hosting and events production.
PR management is mainly journalist and press relations, market research is a mixture of standard published reports and some more consulting services, especially in analysts hours. When we need advice we speak on the phone with analysts and they charge for the conversation. That tend to cost us a lot of money but it is often very useful.

We will keep current services but we also want to do more focus groups with customers and prospects. We will be working with organisations that provide forums services.

We work with a number of specialists boutiques, covering all the areas I mentioned earlier.
The biggest slice of budget goes to 2 organisations: Y and Z
XXX is one of Y's largest global accounts, we, in the UK, get loads of information in a more cost effective way thanks to our Global HQ buying power.
We tend not to use a lot of consulting services from them, apart from analysts’ hours.
We use Z mainly to get a second view on things and to complement Y.

Because of the relationship we have I am very satisfied with Y and with what I get from them. It is the breath of their expertise, they cover absolutely every market we work in and in terms of help they provide me with and in terms of time effectiveness they are very good. Because of XXX buying power, we get the service discounted, but we don't tend to purchase consulting services because of the cost.

We use Z to get a second view on the market, but now that you ask me, there isn't much I get from Z I don't already have from Y!

We have a gap in focused pieces of research work, something simple, rapid and at a low cost, primary research. We want to find someone that when we need can get us some focused intelligence for £5K a shot. For instance something we need to do now is to see whether it is worth for us to enter the second hand, used digital telephone market or not. We are traditionally strong in the digital market, would that be good for us to enter the 2nd hand equipment market?

New services are purchased for different reasons: this is as the result of customers’ requests, or it can be because of an initiative to establish a position. For instance we have just launched a new product in the data managed services market, to follow the trend of convergence of voice and data.

We are open to new services and service providers, the decision is made between me, the Marketing Director, the Services Director and the Managing Director.

RBS ;-) This is my favourite bank. Why? I don't know.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Global Banking & Markets is a leading banking partner to major corporates and financial institutions around the world. We provide a full range of debt financing, risk management and investment services.

Our approach is built on innovative and flexible thinking, extensive resources and an unrelenting focus on client relationships.

Hi Amber,

You seem to be a cool girl! I am Italian, 28, I like travelling too and my favourite sport is skiing, I was born in the alps, not far from Switzerland.

I've been in London for almost 5 years, I have a new cool job starting on Monday I am excited about and I'd like to meet a nice and pretty girl to go out with.

This is my blog, it's not serious, the girl in the photo is Emuline, my vitual PA, she doesn't exist: http://andreamckinsey.blogspot.com/

Andrea is my virtual name, I picked it because in Italy it's a boy name, in the UK is a girl name, so people don't quite know if I'm a boy or a girl and it's funny and McKinsey because of the strategy consultancy.

I like going out for dinner and cooking at home, I like books, I go to the gym and I like partying.

I like business but I'm not geeky, I am creative but not twisted, I promise!

Bye,
AM

What do you think?

Everything needs to be put in context. We are animals, of an intelligent type sometimes but still with animal instincts. We feel for things, we love, hate, feel guilt, feel shame, feel good sometimes too. Friendship is part of all this, instincts, feelings, nature. If we find someone attractive and we want to be friends it ultimately means they fulfil some conscious or unconscious need. Think people, sex is a form of communication and if you do it means there is something you want to say to the other person. Think!

Joys & troubles of a decision maker: my IDEAL job (almost..) - how can I become a CMO?

I love marketing...

Everything to do with marketing and communication is my job: PR, analyst relations, solutions marketing, alliance marketing, branding, and advertising.

I have internal clients only, I report to the CEO for the European region, my clients include country leaders, industry leaders, I help them understanding business and prioritising. As a company we target Global 2000 organizations, 400 of those are in Europe.

We do management consulting, business process optimisation, system integration, managed services. With regards to management consulting we do internal operations optimisation, billing, CRM, supply chain. We also help clients going to market, this is one of our services too or, for instance, we help them setting up a manufacturing plant in India, off shoring and some outsourcing.

We have a presence in the whole of Europe, we don't have an office everywhere, but we have 14 offices covering the most important markets, we reach the other markets through alliances, we have an indirect channel in place with the 3 large software vendors.

I have 24 marketing professionals in Europe, and I think about 30 sales.

I am not a big buyer, we tend to do everything in house and I feel I am more of a provider than a user.

The company as a whole is facing a European economy which still isn't strong, price pressures, fees per hour are decreased 40% compared to 3-4 years ago, the system integration business is getting commoditised, with management consulting we still make good margins but we lost a bit there, a few contracts are gone, in outsourcing and managed services we can't position ourselves like some of our bigger competitors, we have a smaller scale and we tend to do more of advisory, small scale, in-source, axe management services than large outsourcing deals. We are under pressure for profitability issues, we have recently reorganised with new CEO, CFO, and 3 VPs, and we have streamlined the business and cut costs.

My department challenges are: no brand awareness in Europe, no great budget for major advertising campaigns on the FT or similar, we need to do very targeted small branding campaigns, we need a more focused account centric marketing (this means a market won't be 20 companies, but we will treat each company as a market, increasing account focus and profitability).

We do communication marketing and we go to market by sector. We have: consumer and industrial technology, financial services, public sector, communication content & media. We need to be more focused and very cost effective.

We do pipeline measurement by campaign, we see how many leads get turned into an opportunity, and we use a customised Siebel CRM.

More specifically for field marketing we do pipeline management and track percentage of bookings, for communication marketing we measure on number of hits on target journals, total PR hits in the media and we employ some companies specialised on PR effectiveness measurement that track the company exposure in the press.

We need to grow existing business and look for new one, the SME will be a target in Germany and the US where we will set up alliances, but we need to increase the number of major clients too.

Profitability and revenues are the priority.

We employ strategists, people who can manage a team, people who can manage a project, events, people who can write, telesales related campaign professionals, field marketing specialists who can identify the business.

We do a number of activities, from 1 day hospitality events to 6-9 months major campaigns.

I don’t buy much as I am under cost pressure, I need to do a lot with little, I need to focus resources carefully to maximise ROI.

We buy PR services, writing and printing of marketing material, thought leadership through an association we are part of. I don't buy research as this is centralised.

We also buy offshore support, India based or China based marketing operations support, things like pipeline management, campaign process management.
I am open minded, I don't have a lot of budget but I am willing to learn what there is available in the market.

We use small companies, we do loads in house and we buy research from the usual (specialised providers).

I am pretty satisfied with what I buy, which at the moment isn't much.

There are 2 main decision makers, the European COO and myself.


COOL...!

Decisions, decisions, decisions..

I have to make a couple of very important decisions that might have a big impact on my life and career. I think the best way to handle this difficult and important period of my life is to take some time and carry out due-diligence on the opportunities and, once gathered enough elements to properly understand pros and cons of each potential decision, follow my instinct and GO FOR IT! And then stick to it.

As part of the due diligence process, I’m talking to some people I trust and admire. Their help has already been very useful, they provided practical as well as more philosophical “big picture” tips and ideas.

This from my best German friend, M&A transactional lawyer T.


The Road Not Taken
Poem lyrics of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

My Favourite Entrepreneur is a Marketing guy with a huge Brand - and he's unconventional

Richard Branson, founder and chairman of London-based Virgin Group, didn't breeze through school. In fact, school was something of a nightmare for him. His scores on standardized tests were dismal, pointing to a dismal future. He was embarrassed by his dyslexia and found his education becoming more and more difficult. He felt as if he had been written off.

However, his educators failed to detect his true gifts. His ability to connect with people on a personal level, an intuitive sense of people, was not detected until a frustrated Richard Branson started a student newspaper with fellow student Jonny Gems. The incredible success of the Student was but the start of a richly diverse and successful career.

Despite the difficulties and challenges posed by his dyslexia, by focusing on his inner talents, Richard Branson successfully overcame his difficulties. From his first taste of success and believing in himself, Richard Branson never looked back.

http://www.officepolitics.com

Office-Politics® is the game everyone plays... except you! Who's going to teach you how to play office-politics in the nasty world of corporate sharks and shenanigans? The Office-Politics Game, of course! It's a fast-paced, fun, dilemma based game that may have you shaking your head in disbelief as you learn the inside secrets on how your friends, family and coworkers play Office-Politics.

The Office-Politics Dilemmas have been inspired by the hundreds of letters submitted to Office-Politics.com -- and some 'true life' stories from the news! And the mischief making OP cards (Backstab, Boss' Favorite and White Knight) ensure player's competitive streak will emerge

Ohh boss, I love you so much!

Don't we all love our bosses? I had a BOSS once, who was very powerful and had a huge personality. I loved him and I hated him at the same time. Our relationship lasted 2.5 years and it was very rewarding, both for me (sometimes etremely frustrating though..) and for him (as I was a very profitable resource).

Here one of the last emails (slightly changed for confidentiality reasons)

Dear BOSS,

I hope you are well. I haven’t written to you for quite a long time, since we worked together on the last business development campaign. I have been reading a lot in the past few months, including strategy books (Competitive Strategy – Porter, Foundations of Corporate Success – Kay, books on small business strategy, inside stories of management consultants etc… and I am now on the meaty volume of “Marketing Management” by Kotler), I also attend events on a regular basis and I am always researching the internet for papers, forums and other stimuli.

I often think about BOSS COMPANY, the fact we work for the best tier 1 technology companies and what we do is innovative and intelligent. I have a concern now and I need to try to communicate this to you.

I don’t know what are your plans for the future of BOSS COMPANY, last time we talked you mentioned you weren’t in decision making mood and I don’t know you well enough to understand what your priorities are now.

I have tried to analyse BOSS COMPANY in the most objective possible way (trying not to get involved with emotions too much).
I have loads of ideas about the company, too difficult would be for me to try to outline everything in this email. I know we work in a very fragmented industry with low entry barriers and lots of freelance/small companies as competition; because of this large clients like HP, Nokia, SAP… have a great buying power and they put big pressure on price. I also feel that considering the 4 generic company strategies (invest, hold, harvest, divest) it looks like you probably are harvesting the company?

What is not completely clear to me is where the company is going, in terms of product strategy. It seems BOSS COMPANY is in between a “cost” strategy, working in the commodity market, cheap to produce, very competitively priced (like the SME type of projects) - this justify the use of average contract staff for research -; and a “differentiation” strategy, based on higher value add and creativity (account profiling type of work, real consulting + workshops and potentially other high value services) which requires good skills in the company and which, to mitigate the risk of delivery failure, would justify the vertical integration of primary research and the attraction of new skills, with higher fixed costs, effort on recruiting, training and retaining good employees etc. (This doesn’t work well with an harvesting generic strategy). It seems to me we are now somewhere in between cost and differentiation. According to Porter there is a risk of being “stuck in the middle” and so to lose competitive advantage.

I understand that if you are harvesting, (and looking to divest and exit the industry, or work as a consultant on you own), this strategy could work for now, but if you are looking to stay with BOSS COMPANY, I think something should be re-evaluated.

I have attached a small document that really stimulated my thoughts and that I would like you to have. I think BOSS COMPANY is in the Go-Go stage, as I recognise some traits (see below for attachment, June 24). I welcome any feedback on this. I am starting the SAP project again tomorrow.

---------------------------------------------------------------

What do u do with your boss? Do you talk to him in an honest and direct way when you feel it's needed? I do. I guess it's matter of wording what you have to say in a sensitive fashion.. I think I know how to do it now!

Anyway, thanks BOSS I learnt so much from you...

Internet reputation???

Do you care of what people know about you? Do you like to shine and always seek popularity or prefer to remain in the shade? How many names do you have ;-) ?

I have a great first name I truly love, it's cool and easy to remember. I really don't like my last name though..

Anyway, a good piece of advice, if you care...

"Growing Number Of Job Searches Disrupted By Digital Dirt.

According to a recent survey of 100 executive recruiters conducted by ExecuNet, an executive recruiting network, 77% use search engines to learn more about candidates. Of those who use sites such as Google and Yahoo! to check the background of job seekers, 35% have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online – up significantly from 26% just one year ago."

We all love those networking websites and forums don't we? Or better, we never heard of them and one day we do, we register for a trial period and find out 70% of the subscribers are.. well.. nice people but you wouldn't want to be associated with, just in case..

Do you care?

I am slowly becoming more posh, my clients are very, but in a cool and smart way, not boring or old-fashioned (some maybe, but most aren't). So I do care, but not too much, if u're cool u can do anything you like, right?

Communication: Art or Science?

Communicating with others is an essential skill in business dealings, friendships, family affairs, and romantic relationships. Are you a dynamic people person that can understand others and get your message across loud and clear? YES!

Communication is the process of exchanging information and ideas. An active process, it involves encoding, transmitting, and decoding intended messages. There are many means of communicating and many different language systems. Speech and language are only a portion of communication. Other aspects of communication may enhance or even eclipse the linguistic code. These aspects are paralinguistic, nonlinguistic, and metalinguistic. Paralinguistic mechanisms signal attitude or emotion and include intonation, stress, rate of delivery, and pause or hesitation. Nonlinguistic clues include gestures, body posture, facial expression, eye contact, head and body movement, and physical distance or proxemics. Metalinquistic cues signal the status of communication based on our intuitions about the acceptability of utterances. In other words, metalinguistic skills enable us to talk about language, analyze it, think about it, separate it from context, and judge it.