GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

Taking Stella to the park the other day I noticed how few kids were out there playing games. Every small kid seemed to be accompanied by their parents and all the adults were on edge checking one another out to make sure there were no pedophiles lurking. In the UK, you can’t even take pictures of kids if other kids are in the picture for fear they will be used perversely. What a tragic set of circumstances.

When I grew up I was outside every day from 8:00am until dark. Playing every ball game imaginable, climbing trees, running around, disrupting girls games of skipping and hopscotch, playing hide ‘n seek, cowboys and Indians, war, tag, jack above, etc., etc. Now all the kids seem to do is be supervised by parents, take no risks, or stay indoors watching dvd’s and video games. This isn’t the way to prepare kids for real life. Kids need to play with other kids. They need to be free without constant adult supervision. They need to express themselves, argue, disagree, compromise, laugh, and let their imaginations run wild. They need to experience adventure and freedom.

The media, government agencies and schools are all to blame. Mamby pambys one and all. They take everything to extremes. They are certainly taking all the fun out of growing up outdoors.

I wish the traditional games could all come back and kids could look after one another. And communities could look after the kids. The Cubs, the Scouts, the Brownies, the Lads Clubs were all great places where we learned about teamwork, about individuality, about decision-making, and about making mistakes. Life is imperfect and so is growing up. It all feels so blanded down to me now. I feel sorry for this generation of kids. We need to bring back exploring, tree climbing, orchard raiding, mischief, independence and the freedom to fall.

Image Source: Scienceandsociety.co.uk

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

Long time readers of this blog will know that my love for most airlines in the US has never taken off. In fact, I’m constantly amazed by the continued indifference many of them have towards the consumer, not to mention the consumer’s resigned acceptance of the service they’re offered.

Not everybody is content to lie down and be trampled on by the commodification kings of the sky. Dave Carroll is an Internet hit after he wrote and uploaded a video to a song called “United Breaks Guitars” about…you guessed it, United Airlines breaking his prized Taylor guitar. Initially complaining, Dave was met with indifference from three flight attendants. A week or so later, he made a complaint which turned into weeks and months to call centers before his claim was inevitably refused. You know the story. So Dave has had his revenge, and another YouTube star was born.

As soon as United heard a public relations storm was brewing, they got in touch with Dave to put it right. Good on Dave Carroll for saying that United “has generously, but late, offered some compensation but would rather see the money go to a charity of their choice.” I’m not sure if Dave needs the money now – he’s gearing up for the second of his three promised songs on the subject, and has more PR for his band than he could have dreamed of.

This is another example of the increasing power of social media. Consumers have the ability to talk back and change things. The effect of Twitter on Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Bruno is another example. It debuted at US$14.4 million at US and Canadian box offices, but fell to US$8.8 million the next day. The consumer is boss and in immediate control.

For their part, United Airlines have said “Dave’s video is excellent, and we plan to use it internally as a unique learning and training opportunity.”

A message to the US airline industry: It’s not about doing things right some of the time, it’s doing things right all of the time, even when you think it doesn’t matter. YouTube, Twitter, and co. say it does matter. Customer relations can be a joyful experience, from both sides. Check out this guy to see how it’s really done!

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

Here’s the second half of my thoughts on Nature’s 10 Simple Rules for Business Survival (read Part 1 here). Send me your views on this list. Also, make sure you pin it up on your wall, your company’s survival may depend on it.

Nature’s # 6. Integrate metrics. Nature brings the right information to the right place at the right time. When a tree needs water, the leaves curl; when there is rain, the curled leaves move more water to the root system. OK, I’m not a big metrics guy. Experience has shown me that a quick decision grounded in intuition often beats the 100 page report and meeting from hell. But I also find inspiration in understanding how the world works, and for that big picture we need numbers – just numbers from a lot of different sources. Smart, revealing, insightful numbers. For example, James Dyson worked through around 5,000 prototypes before coming up with the wildly successful Dyson vacuum cleaner. Let the truth of that number hit you around the head. When did any of us make 5,000 attempts at anything? If all you read are balance sheets, that’s how you’ll see the world and you will fail. Too many factors impact on us for any one perspective to show the way forward. If you think otherwise, ask a banker about subprime.

Nature’s # 7. Improve with each cycle. Evolution is a strategy for long-term survival. The long-term is the only term if you want to survive. Short-term thinking – like the ridiculous obsession with quarterly earnings – has taken more eyes off the ball than a couple of streakers at a football match. The magic mix? Big, long-term ideas combined with the spirit of “Fail fast, learn fast, fix fast”. We can all learn from the frenzied world of fashion. In my first job at Mary Quant, we had nine months to conceive, produce, launch, sell, and then discontinue, a complete line. We got better at it – I promise you.

Nature’s # 8. Right size regularly, rather than downsize occasionally. If an organism grows too big to support itself, it collapses. If it withers, it is eaten. When businesses start there are usually just a few people doing everything. Then there comes a time when more people are on the job than can comfortably fit around the lunch table. Thus middle management kicks in and, as Kurt Vonnegut put it in Slaughterhouse-Five, “So it goes”. Right size is such a great term. The right size of a business depends on the business. This is where business gets specific and where clarity counts. If you want to manufacture cars for the world to drive, your right size is nothing like that of a boutique fragrance. The key though is to know what’s right – right size, right people, right choices – and to take action.

Nature’s # 9. Foster longevity, not immediate gratification. Nature does not buy on credit and uses resources only to the level that they can be renewed. Since joining Saatchi & Saatchi, one of my great pleasures has been the opportunity to speak to the P&G Alumni. These are people who have worked for P&G and believe in P&G principles. Best of all, they keep the P&G flag flying long after they have left the company. They are in it for the long-term and the long-term extends beyond a job at P&G and even their working life. They are an amazing renewable source for P&G that promotes the company, attracts more great people to work there, and connects P&G in rich and complex ways to the communities and countries it works in. Longevity is about making a worthwhile contribution. Gratification is about an immediate sensation.

Nature’s # 10. Waste nothing, recycle everything. Some of the greatest opportunities in the 21st century will be turning waste – including inefficiency and underutilization – into profit. This rule can transform businesses, regions, nations, and people. One area of waste that I take very personally is the waste of human potential. That’s why TYLA – Turn Your Life Around – is very close to my heart. This remarkable program based in New Zealand helps kids at risk start to make positive choices about their lives. We use mentors, fresh opportunities, experiences, support – whatever it takes to transform these young people into hard-working, energetic and joyful citizens. In today’s tough climate, we want every hand to the pump. Waste not, want not.

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

I’ve done the helicopter view of Adam Werbach’s book “Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto” but now’s the time to dig deeper. Right at the front of Adam’s book (and picked up by Fast Company) is a list of Nature’s 10 Simple Rules for Business Survival. In this list Adam draws from nature a tough bottom line for sustainable business. “Nature is far harsher than the market: If you are not sustainable, you die. No second chances and no bailouts.” I’m not usually a fan of rules but these ten make sense to me. They are big-scale – forest-scale. Ocean-scale. Planet-scale. I’ve jotted down my own thoughts on each one. I’ll share them with you here – five this week and five next.

Nature’s # 1. Diversify across generations. This idea has certainly inspired me to write a number of posts here that I’ve called Stella’s World. Of course they are about my and Ro’s first grandchild but they are also about what change across generations can really mean. How few companies have that aspiration! In principle we all want our businesses to thrive across generations, but how few succeed. Adam tells me that fully one-third of the companies profiled in Jim Collins’ “Built to Last” as out-performers, are now under-performers. Think Ford and Citibank. They lost the juice of excitement, wonder and delight and got lost in expectations and self-obsession.

Nature’s # 2. Adapt to the changing environment – and specialize. To get to the future first you have to take on what I call the three A’s – Adapt, Adopt and Act. It’s worked for children, for animals – for all living things and never forget that businesses are living things too. People are often held back by the feeling that the challenges we face are so great that they can’t effect any meaningful change. My response? If you can’t change the situation, change yourself. At Saatchi & Saatchi we have a True Blue sustainability program called DOT. Do One Thing. In other words, don’t take on the world; specialize. Sure, some of the things people chose to change are small, but put them together and we’re talking serious action. Action that can build as we get more confident about Adapting, Adopting and Acting.

Nature’s # 3. Celebrate transparency. Every species knows which species will eat it and which will not. I like to see transparency as opportunity rather than threat. Take the emotional transparency of Lovemarks. You can’t hide love – and few of us want to. Check out Lovemarks.com and see how that community responds to the brands it loves; openly, without hesitation, with pride. When consumers can push a brand like Tropicana to revert to its traditional packaging in just a few months, something’s up. And what’s up is that consumers are in control. They want confidentiality for themselves and transparency from their Lovemarks. No one said it would be easy.

Nature’s # 4. Plan and execute systematically, not compartmentally. Every part of a plant contributes to its growth. Anyone who has been in business understands the damage caused by silo thinking. Community is key. All of us are better than some of us. In Peak Performance we demonstrated the power of inspirational leadership and teams. Groups of like-minded people working together to overcome all odds and achieve impossible goals. At Saatchi & Saatchi we sum this up in our spirit ‘One team, one dream’. And our dream? “To be revered as the hot-house for world-changing ideas that create sustainable growth for our clients.”

Nature’s # 5. Form groups and protect the young. Most animals travel in flocks, gaggles, and prides. Packs offer strength and efficacy. This is a fantastic rule and the best argument ever for playing in teams. Most young people aren’t educated into creativity; they are educated out of it. At Saatchi & Saatchi we give people an elastic-sided sand box, a problem, a deadline, and we get out of their way. To make sure they reach their full potential we have some older folk around to guide, mentor and run protection when it’s needed. Usually it’s not needed because what they want is responsibility, learning, recognition and joy. All that they get.

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

One of the unwritten rules of Lovemarks is don’t get stuck in the commodity quadrant, the realm of raw products and raw actions. For service industries like travel, this is unforgivable, which is why I will only fly on an American airline out of desperation or duress.

For land based industries which originate in the commodity zone, global integration has laid down hotly contested conditions that demand re-positioning. How to climb the value chain onto a premium rung as value gets redefined around rising standards of quality and sustainability? The answer lies in an end-to-end story of value that turns the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Being from New Zealand, where the sheep outnumber the people (see the comedy horror movie Black Sheep for the dark and ridiculous side of this), I’m excited to see the unveiling of Laneve, a new wool brand from Wool Partners International, a joint venture headed by top business leader, Theresa Gattung, and an old mate of mine, Iain Abercrombie. This luxe evolution of the Wools of New Zealand brands brings the attributes of the wool itself right to the fore.

Here’s how the story stacks up. New Zealand produces 30% of the world’s strong wool (used mainly for carpets), it’s the highest quality but we’re not leveraging this scale and quality advantage. Prices paid to farmers for wool have steadily fallen for two decades and incredibly are now well less than half what they were 20 years ago. This has led to New Zealand sheep numbers halving over that period (from 60 million to 30 million). New Zealand needs agricultural diversity – and sheep are low impact on the environment. In the US only 3% of carpets sold are wool, the rest synthetic (i.e. made from petroleum based products). The synthetics guys have comprehensively outmarketed wool, which used to be the dominant fibre for flooring. Wool ought to be a marketers dream – it’s a sustainable raw product which makes beautiful end products, in a world crying out for authenticity. Bringing that story to the fore and directly connecting producers and consumers is what Laneve (from Laneus, which is Latin for wool and weave) is about.

Laneve’s fibre integrity is woven in its farming practices, animal welfare, sustainability, traceability, and environmental standards; issues that are right up the brand street of high-end American consumers. By setting a critical supply standard and tracking the wool only from accredited growers through scouring and spinning right to the finished product at point of sale, the commodity trap gets sprung.

Wool Partners already has direct deals with U.S. carpet makers for launch at trade fairs in the northern winter, and there’s more in the works. It’s a sustainable story you can follow that delivers through the line. Laneve is pumping in the premium, and that’s the new game that really matters to New Zealand.

Image Credit: Rangoli Rug by Nani Marquina, made from New Zealand Wool.

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

FREE is an idea I’ve played with before. Now Chris Anderson, the brilliant editor of Wired and Long Tail advocate, has turned his attention to the four letter word that is shocking business people everywhere. I remember back in the day when sixties radical Abbie Hoffman titled his most famous publication “Steal This Book.” What a title! It was a book about free – what was free and how to get it. What Hoffman considered worth getting for free says a lot about the times. We’re talking free sandals, free communes, free smoke bombs, and gardening for free ‘herb’. Hoffman’s book even came with its own stolen Library of Congress catalog number! But while the idea of free is old, what is new is the way the digital world has made free a global phenomenon.

Chris Anderson’s book “Free: the Future of a Radical Price” is less ambitious than “The Long Tail.” It’s more a journey through the digital world of FREE than an attempt to discover what it means or how it will change anything. As the recent demonstrations in Iran have shown, texting, tweeting, and ‘free’ journalism outdid the newspapers in terms of instant access to what was going on. This free media doesn’t mean that newspapers have to pack up their tents, but it does mean they have to evolve.

My bet is that FREE will turn out to be like many other revolutionary phenomena and it will live in an And/And relationship with other technologies. The music industry is turning itself inside-out to cope with the free downloaders by getting faster, more flexible, and more responsive. Music is a tough, competitive business. Talent sparks everywhere, the barriers to entry are low, and choice is, for all practical purposes, limitless. No wonder FREE rocked here first and only now has newspapers, magazines, and books, in its sight.

Of course, FREE is a big part of human nature. Ask mothers who bring up children. Ask the millions of people who help out those who are less well-off. We live in a capitalist age but we need it to be the Capitalism of Inclusion. A world where people look after those who are close to them and watch out for those who fall along the wayside. With FREE opening up communications and creativity, sharing, and social networks, I believe it is helping to make the world a better place. The debate around FREE uncovers its potential to bring out the best in people. I believe we are already seeing this online and offline. FREE to a good home? Sounds perfect to me.

Image credit: Wired

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

No one in their right mind would suggest that an economic collapse was just what we needed, but sometimes, tough times do throw up opportunities we don’t hear when the bulls are roaring. I remember back in the 1970s, New York was a very different city to the one we know now. It had a gritty edge and the sense that anything could happen if you stepped beyond the lights. As the economy of the city collapsed and bankruptcy loomed, businesses folded or moved on to more congenial locations, leaving behind vast tracts of abandoned buildings and empty store fronts. One by one they were reoccupied, and very often by artists.

Downtown, the Bowery and SoHo exploded in a buzz of creativity. The subway, if you had the nerve to go down there, was a living gallery of graffiti art featuring the poignantly funny chalk drawings of Keith Haring on blacked out notice boards. As each train roared into the station, it was like watching a rainbow rocket past. Above ground, artists like Haring took advantage of empty stores and cheap rents to start their own enterprises. Haring called his the Pop Shop and it gave me the same charge of energy and enthusiasm I had seen and lived with in 1960s London.

I am certain we will see this same spirit blossom in the present crisis. One person’s empty space is someone else’s chance of a lifetime. This is certainly happening in London, a city that has been savagely hit by the current downturn. A number of artists have grabbed at empty shop fronts to create temporary exhibitions. It’s the pop-up store concept in a different guise – opinionated, focused, passionate, committed. It’s also an opportunity for local Councils to return some space to creative people to use as studios, sound recording suites, and practice rooms. Good times have the unfortunate effect of squeezing these essential creative resources out of the centre of cities. Let’s welcome them back. Our ability to see opportunity rather than threat, and work to our strengths rather than succumb to our weaknesses is the way to get through these tough times. Best of all, it will inspire into the optimism we need to sustain us on the other side that we call the future.

Photo credit: Keith Haring’s Pop Shop, New York, circa 1986. Photograph by Charles Golfi Michels.

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

In the race to create a sustainable world, designers will be key players. I’ve always been a big design fan and I salute the new sense of purpose now apparent in every aspect of this industry. It’s becoming more experimental, more challenging, more ethical, and more exciting without losing its core functions – to stimulate ideas, change behavior, and offer help and hope.

Sustainability brings a whole new set of issues to the design table and a grandiose challenge was recently issued by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In a blaze of publicity, Sarkozy invited 10 architects to project 20 years into the future and come up with some ideas for the world’s most sustainable metropolis.

The Italians, Bernardo Secchi and Paola Vigano, came up with an extraordinary idea that upturns urban conventions. Instead of starting with hard infrastructure (roads, subways, walkways), they started with the existing waterways of Paris. The Seine is an icon of Paris but there is a less well-known network of canals, rivers, and waterways. There are already efforts underway to renovate this 81 mile network, but Secchi and Vigano had even grander designs on it shaped by a fantastic metaphor: the sponge.

Sponges are living creatures that shift and change with conditions and survive on a constant flow of water through their bodies. What a beautiful idea. A city that flows, grows, and responds. A city that is more inclusive. A city that attracts ideas found in the natural world. So often designs founded on compelling metaphors are the ones to capture the public imagination.

“Renovate the canal system” or transform Paris into a sponge. No contest. Projects to improve sustainability, or based on sustainable principles, often fail the inspiration test. That’s one reason why at Saatchi & Saatchi we have bonded with Blue as a motivating spirit. As Japanese designer, Fumi Masuda has pointed out, the job ahead is not to “sustain society as it is, but change society for sustainability”.

That means inspiring people. The concepts of the 10 architects will be publicly displayed, debated, tested, and challenged in true French style. Paris to the Channel as a single city, Paris as archipelego, Paris as an eight-petal flower, a Paris of urban fields, Paris as sponge.

Photo credit: St. Martin Canal, Paris, by Jeff Polaski. Sourced from Photo.net

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