Category Archives: Culture

World famous outside New Zealand

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When people ask me where I am from and I say “New Zealand”, a look of awe comes across their face.  I am proud to promote my country and everything that comes from there and I am not alone.  In a recent survey of over 12,000 expats (by Kea and Colmar Brunton), 98% actively promote New Zealand (NZ) and recommend it as a destination to their overseas networks. The story of the New Zealand brand and their advocates holds lessons for other countries and companies.

100%Pure

The tourism New Zealand campaign of 100% pure has done a lot for the image of New Zealand as a clean, green and adventure filled country.  The Lord of Rings trilogy and the adventure tourism promotions add to this. What may have seemed like a difficult market, being as far away as possible from anywhere, many New Zealand companies are taking this image to their advantage as they launch themselves in international markets.

The story of a premium vodka from NZ

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One company that pioneered a number of marketing initiatives (many controversial), was 42Below. Their quirky use of the New Zealand brand helped take their vodka global. At a time when New Zealand wine, fashion and movies were succeeding globally – vodka was not a product that came to mind when people thought of NZ. But Geoff Ross did not let that stop him, as he set out to create the purest vodka in the world – from the purest country in the world.  He understood that branding was what would differentiate his product from the established vodka brands and that the New Zealand brand would help him do that. Often described as “New Zealand in a bottle”, 42Below pitched itself as The premium vodka to the elite cocktail set. And it worked. 42Below became so popular that in 2006 it attracted an $138 million buyout from Bacardi.

World famous outside New Zealand

worldfamous

Kiwis have a saying – “World famous in New Zealand“. Now associated with the L&P advertising campaign (a drink only well known within NZ), the phrase is used to describe individual products and ideas that could be famous, but have only managed to make it big in NZ. A disadvantage of size and distance for NZ has meant that historically this was a common occurrence, but in the connected and networked world of today it no longer has to be that way. Now, you can be world famous outside New Zealand.

The New Zealand Story

In 2012 the New Zealand government commissioned three government agencies to develop “The New Zealand Story“.  This initiative was put together to help local companies compete in the global marketplace by providing a consistent New Zealand narrative, a narrative not exclusively tied to a tourism campaign. Presented in three chapters – open spaces, open hearts and open minds, The New Zealand Story provides assets and story kits to help New Zealanders talk about our unique attributes in a consistent and meaningful way.

What more could we do?

We could stop at helping create a consistent brand for New Zealand to take our products globally – but we could also be braver and go further. Recently I discovered a presentation by Derek Handley’s  from 2011. Listening to his Big Idea for how we could come together as a nation and do something that would benefit both New Zealand and the world.  How we could be brave and take a leap as a collective to change our world and at the same time provide a platform for talented kiwis to bring their talents back home. This coming together to contribute to a collective action, whether that be to free us of a dependance on oil or something else entirely, is something I know many New Zealanders across the world crave. This talented pool of individuals with a connection to home, want to contribute and want to be a part of this New Zealand Story.

We all know that it is not just visuals and values that make up brand New Zealand.  It is the pull that comes from being from a place you are proud of.  For 42Below, it was the expats who proudly bought out a bottle of vodka at a dinner party, for Derek’s idea it is bringing together the people who could make a difference towards a common goal. By bringing together this network of connected individuals to share a New Zealand story and spirit, we can impact a change that goes beyond the Pacific and throughout the world.

The easier it is for New Zealanders everywhere to connect with New Zealand and with each other, the more they can act in a purposeful way towards a common goal. You then make it possible to develop more stories like 42 below, or Big Ideas like Derek’s.  You make it possible to become world famous outside New Zealand from within New Zealand.

Finding your purpose: A reflective practitioner works out loud

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Work Out Loud I was speaking to a friend the other week who wanted to start her blog. She had purchased a domain name, figured out her platform, created some graphics, but she was afraid because she didn’t know what to write about.

She told me, “I have so many ideas and interests that I don’t know which one to pick. I really need to find my purpose first.  I can’t blog until I know what I want to be and then I will have a central theme and then I can start. ”  How long do you think she had been searching for this elusive purpose?  A year!

Like my friend, it has taken me longer than it should to start blogging.  I made the same mistake of thinking I needed a purpose first. Conventional wisdom would have us believe that we should all know what our purpose is and luckily some of us do. But for those of us that don’t, don’t let that stop you like it stopped me. The trick is simply to start. Like I told my friend, “Take the pressure off yourself, it is only in the doing that you will find it”.

So what did I do?  As someone who works in collaboration, social media and community building – there is no one word that describes what I do, let alone blueprints to follow. The practice is constantly evolving. So I have learnt to reflect, learn, and adapt as I go along. One way to do this, is to use your blog as part of the reflective process.  This habit of reflection, processing, and articulation helps form my thinking and allows me to work in such a way as to solicit feedback and ideas.

The Reflective Practitioner:  Reflect on Action

The-Reflective-Practitioner-9780465068784

This concept is not new. In his 1983 textbook The Reflective Practitioner, Donald Schön explains to us in 300+ pages the importance of reflection in learning. This book used mainly by health professionals and teachers, guides practitioners to build up a collection of examples and actions they can draw upon in practice.

Schön defines reflective practice as the practice by which professionals become aware of their implicit knowledge base and learn from their experience. He talks about reflection in action and reflection on action. Reflection in action is to reflect on behaviour as it happens, whereas, Reflection on action reflecting after the event, to review, analyse, and evaluate the situation. And… “knowing in action” to describe tacit knowledge.  

http://graysreadinggroup.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/the-reflective-practitioner-by-donald-schon/

Reflective practice, though recognising the value of private reflection, opens up for public scrutiny our interpretations and evaluations of our plans and actions.  We subject our assumptions, be they personal or professional, to the review of others.  We do this not only before or after an event, but learn to inquire even in the heat of the moment.

http://www.global-leader.org/Reflective%20Practice%20Article.pdf

Learning is a conversation: Work Out Loud

mkhmarketingA more accessible way of looking at this, is to turn to the work of John Stepper or Jane Bozarth and say we should Work Out Loud.

Working Out Loud =  Narrating Your Work + Making it Observable

http://thebryceswrite.com/2010/11/29/when-will-we-work-out-loud-soon/

As professionals we are constantly learning from our experiences. By opening these experiences up for feedback, we not only build credibility and reputation, we increase our network and get better at what we do. Writing not only about what we did, but sharing why and how too. Helping not only ourselves, but those within our network.

Working Out Loud starts with making your work visible in such a way that it might help others. When you do that – when you work in a more open, connected way – you can build a purposeful network that makes you more effective and provides access to more opportunities.

http://johnstepper.com/2014/01/04/the-5-elements-of-working-out-loud/

These reflections help build a repertoire and evolve the practice. Start sharing your work and in the sharing the purpose will come.

It’s not just for people.

This is true not only for people, but for communities and organisations too. By offering our experiences we can learn, process and evolve on the journey. In a previous post I wrote about the KEA community. This community may already know their purpose, but by having meet-ups and network events, hosting online discussions and connecting like-minded people, KEA can evaluate where they are having the most impact. By writing about these experiences and involving the community in those learnings, they evolve and continue to get better. Every organisation can do this.

Rather than waiting for your purpose, like my and friend and I did, try blogging as a reflective practice. Simply Work Out Loud and invite feedback from your network. By working in this way you start to better understand yourself and what you do.  And you never know, you may just find your purpose along the way.

Corporate Communities: from offstage to centre stage

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Corporate Communities: from offstage to centre stage

What would your company be like if the customer community was at the heart of your business?

Instead of community management being an extra thing that you do, what if the company empowered the community and was core to everything you did? A small company from San Francisco does exactly that and their example holds lessons for companies of all sizes.

LyftCommunity

The Lyft Community

Lyft is a realtime ride-sharing service that’s grown its business via community building. According to Lyft co-founder John Zimmer:

Building community is what drives me and makes me so happy to work on this… We’ve really invested in this sense of community.

It is this community focus and the distinct characteristics within the community that is setting this company apart from its competitors.

As Director of Community Engagement, Emily Castor acts as the linchpin in the Lyft community. Reading through Lyft’s blog and social media channels, you’ll find the usual content: customer feedback, press articles, safety information. Mixed in though, are photos of people, fun games, and lots of visual links (pink is big and there are moustaches everywhere). These visual identifiers and overall sense of fun connect the community and create an identity that people want to be part of.

And their customers see it too as evidenced in this quote from Nithya Anantharaman.

I have both Lyft and Uberx installed on my phone but I think of Lyft first when I need a ride.

Lyft’s passionate and loyal customer base is also starting to be very handy.

Fending off the competition

The collaborative ridesharing industry is a competitive market and the company with the largest share is Uber. (NB Look out for Uber in NZ soon.)
With a current valuation of more than three times that of Lyft and backers such as Google Ventures and Jeff Bezos, Uber has the funds to take on Lyft and engage in competitive tactics. Tactics such as anti-fistbump Facebook campaigns, poaching of drivers via mobile billboard ads and offering customers free rides.

Uber founder Travis Kalanick is happy to state he thrives on this competition:

Competition is fun…You have to be a fighter, you have to be a warrior, and if not, you should go do something that is a little less disruptive. I’m bringing it, I’m not sleeping.

Zimmer’s response?

By focusing on community, we’re able to attract the highest quality drivers. It makes sense that our competitors would try to recruit them as they try to catch up in peer-to-peer…What we are doing with community, the peer-to-peer model, and sitting up front is resonating.

To compete against companies that have more resources or more market share, you may need to do things a little differently. For Lyft that means promoting their secret weapon, their community.

Celebrating Lyft drivers

Lyft has recently launched the “Lyft Creatives” initiative that highlights the individuality of the Lyft drivers themselves. Meet some of the drivers in the video below to see the passion.

Organising for a purpose

It is not just other ride-sharing competitors that are threatening Lyft’s livelihood, regulations and the risk of being outlawed are serious concerns too.

In August 2012, the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) sent Lyft and other ride-sharing companies cease and desist letters. Emily Castor wrote to her community and asked for help and the community responded with community stories, campaigns and pep rallies. When things got really competitive, it was the community that fought back.

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As the battle with city officials continues for both Lyft and Uber, these loyal evangelists just get stronger.

Transparency and Safety

Aside from the competition and the threats, the community also helps with something more fundamental – promoting an element of trust and safety. At the core of the Lyft platform is a two-way review system which allows customers to choose the driver they want and drivers to choose their customers.

Thanks to our two-way rating system, our community stays safe and positive for everyone. Just as passengers are able to rate drivers, drivers are able to rate passengers at the end of every ride. You can give a five star rating to great passengers, and reserve the lower star ratings for passengers you want to flag in the system. If you rate someone three stars or lower, you’ll never be matched with them again.

With everyone accessing the service through their Facebook accounts and the transparency of the review system, people are able to decide for themselves how “safe” someone is. Add that to the very visible pink moustache on the front of the car and the breaking of the ice with a fistbump when entering the car, each of these elements and rituals add to a feeling of safety and one of belonging to the larger community. For a ridesharing company designed to connect strangers, this community vibe becomes vital to their survival.

These are just a few examples of how Lyft has embraced their community as the core of their company. While some companies view their customer community efforts as just another support channel, Lyft shows how a broader view of community is good for customers, good for employees, and good for business.

What would your company be like if the customer community was at the heart of your business?

The journey to becoming the most globally connected nation in the world

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Posted by in Community Building, Culture, engagement, New Zealand, Social Networks

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My social media feeds were all a buzz recently with the success of Lorde at the Grammys.  People I am connected with were proud to see another NZ success story. For such a small nation, I find that New Zealanders have a strong sense of belonging and pride.

In a recent survey it was found that expats are just as included in the pull of “brand New Zealand” as those back home. So how can New Zealand as a country benefit from this want from people across the world to be a part of the New Zealand success story?

KEA

One organisation that aims to help New Zealand become the “most globally connected nation in the world” is KEA (Kiwi Expat Association).  And with 1 million expats you can see why they would want to.   KEA was founded by Sir Stephen Tindall and Professor David Teece in 2001 and has quickly grown to be a vital link for expats to “home”.

 The vision we developed at KEA was for New Zealand to operate as a globally connected nation of 5 million people, rather than a geographically isolated country of 4 million.  It’s a vision that favours the “brain circulation” over the “brain drain” argument where expats are concerned; that an engaged network of expats could be part of the “soft infrastructure” on which New Zealand builds a globally competitive economy.  And there was always a belief that embracing our expats in this way would help bring many of them home sooner rather than later, with a good number of highly productive years left in the tank.

Ross McConnell
http://www.kinfolk.co.nz/blog/a-battle-for-the-ages/

The organisation hopes to reach and motivate expatriate Kiwis to increase their contribution to New Zealand.  And why wouldn’t they?  Just as alumni of large Ivy League universities work together to benefit each other – why not a country?

The upside for New Zealand as an alumni network, as a country, if you like, is that there are hundreds of thousands of Kiwis that have done incredibly well overseas that really do want to help the country, want to help these folks that are trying to network into different parts of the world.  We really need to reach out to them more and do the Yale, Harvard thing and use the power of our networks.

Craig Donaldson (Current KEA Interim Global CEO)
The power of networks transcript

But how do you engage such a large community?

In the KEA report in 2009, it was interesting to see that initiatives such as mentorship and job boards did not have the impact that was anticipated.  What would influence people to move beyond passive participation in an online network, to active participation?

Since the report, KEA has been actively using the power of social networks to increase their membership. Increasing their numbers from 30,000 members in 2012 to over 200,000 in 2014.  And with the search for a new CEO, the focus of the organisation is shifting too; moving from adoption of members to more commercial outcomes.  It is all about the “possibilities of harnessing the strength of a globally connected New Zealand and achieving Kea’s greatest imaginable challenge: 1 million Kiwi advocates, champions and story-tellers by 2016.”

Having this expatriate advocate network connecting through storytelling is very powerful.

…storytelling is not just about the transfer of knowledge; it is also a movement designed to amplify the voice of a community (Burgess, 2006). Everyone can participate because everyone has a story to tell.  http://librarydigitalstorytelling.wordpress.com/what/

Celebrating success stories is one way to foster “brain circulation” and limit brain drain. But it’s just one small step. In the next post, I’ll suggest ways that KEA can connect and empower their huge network to do more than just celebrate from afar. By focusing on specific behaviours and tapping into all 6 sources of influence, KEA can turn expats into a powerful network of ambassadors that can help each other and the country as a whole.

How growing companies can (and should) feel small

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I’ve been looking at growing New Zealand companies recently – companies like Xero and Trademe, and they still show the positive signs of the best start-ups. They seem to have a purpose that unifies the people there and creates a positive culture and it resonates in their brand. They have a personality. Or, said another way, it feels like they’re a company made up of real human beings who treat their customers as real human beings.

As companies grow though, those traits can sometimes fade.  Big companies can feel like corporate machines. A place where competition beats collaboration and where personal agendas override a shared purpose.  By growing bigger, these companies risk losing the things that made them special in the first place.

But a few manage to avoid the traps of bigness.  And, In implementing an enterprise social strategy, I’ve seen 5 ways you can grow big and still feel small.  These are seen in the power of CLICK.

The power of CLICK

Be Connected

Be Connected
A sense of connectedness comes from an understanding of how your employees and your customers fit into your company.   As you grow – you want every employee to understand how their role is connected to the customer experience and to your products.  At Zappo’s (an online shoe company in America), every employee knows that their primary job is to keep their customer happy, and they are empowered to make this happen.  They don’t need permission.  Your employees should know what your company stands for – and should feel empowered to make this happen.

Be Learning

Be Learning
When you are a small company, you are continuously learning.  Asking questions and gaining skills.  As you grow, you want to maintain this culture of learning. Companies such as Google are well known for allowing employees time to develop ideas and innovations.  Everybody should always be asking questions.  As new people keep joining, you need to cater to onboarding them and providing a way for them to quickly understand who does what.  Your enterprise social network should be connecting these people to each other. It is the source for questions and answers and curated product information.  But don’t think it is  just for new people.  People who have worked with you for some time, will be upskilling and adapting, as will you.  Empower the entire company to learn and grow together.

Be Interactive


Be Interactive
Every entrepreneur has a personality that they bring to their company. This personality is easy to convey when they are a small team.  But as the company grows, you want this personality to scale.  Think of your Enterprise Social Network, as a virtual open door to your office.  If you want everyone to share and be a part of the company’s collective strategy, then you need to take everyone on the journey with you.  Share what you are doing and why.  Your employees should know your company success stories and be able to own these too.   By being open and allowing people to have a voice, you have the opportunity to open up real conversations.  By listening and interacting – you can respond, grow and adapt.

Be Creating

Be Creating
When a company grows beyond four walls – it is crucial to know what is happening.  With multiple teams, goals and agendas – working collaboratively can help connect the dots within the company.  By embedding a culture of content creation – where knowledge sharing is rewarded and encouraged – you can help people work out loud – and stop the silo mentality that begins to creep in.

Be Kind 

Be Kind.
It really is that simple.  A company is all about people.  Recognise those that are living the values – and sharing the personality that you want to maintain.  This way you can be sure to have the greatest people, and the greatest company.

What now?
Don’t be trapped into creating layers of hierarchy, complex processes and bureaucratic policy.  Prioritise the people in your company, the personality – and it may just all CLICK into place.   😉