Archive for the ‘Recession’ Category

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I had a Great 2012 because ..

December 14, 2011
Diary entry

I has a Great 2012 because ....

Well – how did you do?

Did you achieve what you set out to achieve in 2011?

Did you make ambitious plans and fall short of them or did you make any plans at all? – If you did, well done!

I don’t know about you but making plans and actually achieving them is always challenging and at the start of the year I find myself at the start of that loop all over again making promises than often will never materialise!

Last year I wanted it to be a little bit different and I had my own creative and quite practical idea, which was inspired by a book I read called “The Art of Possibility” by Benjamin and Rosamund Zander (a really interesting motivational book by the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and his wife who is an executive coach).

This idea is rooted in the power of visualisation – the principle behind this is that if you visualise what you want to achieve then there is a much better chance of it actually happening.

Here goes ..

Take a pen and paper and simply write your diary entry in advance for your last working day of the year ..

Imagine just before you switch off the lights in the office, before you head out the door to do some last minute shopping and enjoy a well-earned rest, you quietly write your diary entry.

It might go like this..

23rd December, 2012

Wow, that was some exciting and really fulfilling year!

It was a great year because I really achieved what I set out to both personally and professionally and even more besides because of those opportunities that cropped up that I wasn’t even expecting. At least I had my eyes open and when they occurred I spotted them and grabbed them.

I started the year with a few really clear goals including (go for it, be specific – list at least 5!)

I thought these goals were going to be really challenging, but I achieved these as I made a few important changes in my life that were necessary such as (be honest – what needs to happen for you to achieve those goals – your conditions for success).

It wasn’t all plain sailing and I had a few setbacks but I kept a clear focus on my goals, I kept a positive outlook and by digging deep and having a clear belief in myself and my abilities I managed to achieve them all in the end.

I’m glad I kept a positive outlook and kept my eyes open for those genuinely unique opportunities, which I know will only present themselves in this challenging economic climate – it made a huge difference to my business this year, which I wasn’t expecting.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,  2013 – Bring it On!

Your signature (make sure you do this)

Put this in an envelope, place it in your top drawer and have a peep at it on the first day of every month (set a reminder in your computer to do this) and see what happens.

We did this with our full team at the end of 2010 and I can tell you it worked out quite well, thank you very much!

We will do it again this time round – I’ll let you know how we got on in about 12 months’ time.

By the way I’ve just ordered a really nice new car – guess what was on my list last year!

…what are you waiting for?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Business Planning, Personal development, Positivity, PR, Recession, Self Help, Teamwork, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Breaking bread together

November 30, 2011
Fuzion PR

Where will we go to lunch today?

Every Friday the team at Fuzion go to lunch together – we call it Fuzion Friday!

No matter what happens, no matter how busy we are we keep Friday precious and break bread together. Its a time when we chill out for a while, chat about the week, relax, crack a few jokes and simply bond over a bite of grub and yes, if we’re not too much under pressure we will share a bottle of vino.

We started this tradition a number of years back when it was just me, Dee and Ali in the team and somehow we never stopped and now the whole bunch of us go – that’s 9 of us when we are all together! Sometimes we might bring a client along and even the odd brave journalist has been known to join us. When things were very tight financially (when aren’t they!) the crew came to us and suggested that maybe we should stop this practice as it was probably costing us too much.

For us the ritual of sharing a meal together and de-stressing, just for a while every week is too precious and worth too much not to do.  I look forward to it so much – it’s a simple ritual that signifies we have pulled together as a team through another busy week. After all what is the point if we can’t do this?

I have worked in small companies and I have worked in large organisations and for me the most important thing is being happy – we spend so much of our time in work it is vital that we enjoy who we work with and that we enjoy a happy atmosphere together. For the most part my working life has been in good places with a good atmosphere but I have also experienced the total opposite. If that is you then “get out” – it will eat you up.

Now, don’t get me wrong – we do have our moments when we are under stress and everything isn’t Utopia (invoice day!) but to be honest they are more the exception.

I work with a great bunch, I will always protect the positive atmosphere because I just couldn’t bear the opposite – life is just too short to be unhappy at work.

I started this blog to share a particular story with you but realised half way through that the story of breaking bread together was worth a stage all of its own. I’ll tell you the other story next week!

Break bread with your team this week .. 

#WinHappy

Greg Canty is a  parter of Fuzion

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Posted in Positivity, Recession, Teamwork, Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

Responsibility and Timing

November 28, 2011
Grafton Street

We are all responsible

I was chatting to a buddy of mine last week who was all torn up because he had to face the prospect of letting a staff member go due to a series of blunders that had cost the business a lot of money.

Being responsible he knew it was something he had to do, to protect the business but he did feel really badly for the individual and the fact that Christmas was around the corner made it feel even worse.

Responsibility and timing..

Aviva decided that it will move a huge chunk of its workforce from Ireland to the UK to save money and increase profits. Is Ireland a market worth supporting if you expect to do business here?

Responsibility and timing..

FAS senior staff get 5 weeks extra leave to acclimatise to their impending retirement. Has this issue been taken on?

Responsibility and timing..

Should 100% of speculative bank debt be covered by the taxpayer?

Responsibility and timing..

Should the tax office be aggressively chasing interest and penalties for late payments when it is clear there is very little liquidity in the marketplace.

Responsibility and timing..

The Government need to squeeze the annual monetary deficit due to agreements struck with the EU and because our country needs to regain its financial independence – there has never been a better opportunity for sorting out excess, inefficiency, unfair & outdated arrangements and crazy work practices. These obvious but thorny issues must be tackled as a priority and then we’ll be happy to take our fair share of pain.

Responsibility and timing.

Timing is critical and never has it been so critical – if we want to progress from where we are we must all act with responsibility.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Irish Economy, Irish Politics, Recession | 4 Comments »

Have you Stormed the Recession?

September 13, 2011
Perfect Storm

Navigating the Storm

At the beginning of 2009 I wrote this article for a few publications – this was written when “panic” was at a peak and we were all scrambling and desperately trying to find solid ground as the earth was crumbling under our feet:

Storming the Recession (Feb 2009)

Right now the country is gripped not only by Recession, but by Depression. The fear is absolutely tangible with everyone, as we face the storm that is raging all around us.

The money men are telling us to chase our debtors aggressively, delay our creditors as much as possible and cut back on spending.  That’s fine if we all existed in isolation of each other but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this approach will have everything grinding to a halt in a very short space of time.

Instead of this negative approach how about, rather that defence, think attack and work towards ‘Storming the Recession’?

Let’s work hard – carefully but positively; let’s deliver great service to our customers instead of just good service and let’s keep our eyes wide open to spot the unique opportunities that will present themselves in this unique climate – can we allow ourselves to keep an open mind to the many opportunities that are out there?

Your approach to Marketing Activity will be a key factor.

If you cut back on your Marketing activity where will this leave your business? What impact will it have on volume?  Will you fall behind your competitors, lose your footing in the marketplace and could it damage your business in the long term?

Also, if your competitors pull back from their activities does this present you with an opportunity?

Without a doubt business will not come as easy as it has in the recent past.  You will need to be more pro-active than before, as your competitors could well be chasing your customers more aggressively than ever before.  Can your business really afford to hide at the moment?

Accepting that the financial health of business may have changed you should re-evaluate your activities and seek better value from your Budget:

  • Advertising – Evaluate effectiveness & negotiate (never has there been a better time to bargain!)
  • Bring PR into the mix – Achieve valuable editorial
  • Social Media Activity – Telling the great story of you and your business
  • Promotions – Get your message out there through prize giveaways, often this can be achieved with no media cost
  • Direct Marketing – Communicate directly to your target audience
  • Customer Database – Ensure your database methods are in order so you can communicate economically and build customer loyalty through communicating information and offers
  • Cross Selling – Increase business with customers by attracting them to other services
  • Review – Make sure you are recording the results of your campaigns
  • Team Review – All your team should fully understand your objectives
  • Web Optimisation – Ensure that your website is in order and that your prospective customers can find it easily.
  • Business Network – Increase your network of contacts proactively by joining and participating in business networks such as the Chamber

‘Storming the Recession’ is a positive strategy to deal with the current climate.

By delivering great service, operating as efficiently as possible, and by not hiding in the marketplace, you will be in a position to take advantage of the unique opportunities that will present themselves during this period and ride out this storm.

Have you stormed the recession?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

 

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Posted in Crisis PR, Ireland, Irish Economy, Recession | Leave a Comment »

The Three Circles and the Path you Choose

August 28, 2011
Greg and Brendan Canty

Parental advice!

My son Brendan Canty has just qualified from CIT, having completed a multi media course. He wants to work in film in some way and he is also really passionate about music.

How unusual – a 22 year old being passionate about music!

Like every other parent you worry about what your children will do – you want them to find a job, earn a living and in this climate it has never been quite so tough.

“You need to find a god solid job” I hear myself saying..

Well – he has set up his own website operating under the name Feel Good Lost and he has been busy producing videos for bands from all over the world – with the web and modern technology this is all quite easy, apparently!

His last music video was for a “secret” American solo artist who goes under the name Slow Magic and the track he produced was for a song called Corvette Cassette. There is a video producers peer website called Vimeo (this is like a worldwide YouTube for video and film producers), which has just featured this song as a staff pic – at the time of writing the video has been viewed 63,000 times across the world.

While Brendan does some excellent corporate video work for Fuzion and his own clients he excels when he combines his love of music and his film profession. On Friday nights he DJ’s in The Pavilion in Cork combining music and visuals as part of his unique set operating under the Feel Good Lost name.

Slow Magic // Corvette Cassette from Feel Good Lost on Vimeo.

He is following his dream and his passion and it had me thinking about career choices and Three Circles..

In Jim Collins fabulous business book Good to Great (for me this book is a business bible) he talks about companies using a Three Circle criteria as a guide to the activities they should get involved in:

A company should only engage in activities that:

  1. It is passionate about
  2. It can excel at
  3. It can make money from

The basic principle is that if companies concentrate their efforts on activities that meet all three of these criteria then they will inevitably be very successful – this is one of the factors that Jim Collins attributes to the success of what he calls “Great” companies.

If you are looking for a new job or a new challenge how about using the Three Circle Criteria for deciding which path you choose?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Irish Economy, Parenting, Personal development, Positivity, PR, Recession, Self Help | 14 Comments »

The Lost Chef from Sheffield ..

July 11, 2011
The Lost Chef

The Lost Chef from Sheffield!

Walking through the village early in the morning with Bing (the four legged one!) we were met with the unusual sight of a guy approaching us from a distance wearing a white chefs uniform complete with black apron and dragging behind him a big suitcase on wheels and carrying a heavy shoulder bag. We quietly wonder what this guys story is.

Getting closer to the lost chef we make eye contact, nod and greet .. “Good morning”

“Excuse me mate, do you know where the Westfield B&B is?” – He was quite a tall young lad with an English accent.

We had no idea where it was but just had to help him – a quick Google search on the smart phone and a minute later we find the B&B on-line and then call for directions.

In between the Google search and the phone call the young guy explains to us that he is a trainee chef from Sheffield and had just completed his first shift in his new job in a nearby hotel.

He had been booked into the B&B by the hotel if he could just find it!

The poor guy looked lost, lonely and totally out of sorts.

It turns out he had dragged his heavy bags in the wrong direction from the B&B, but it didn’t matter as the B&B landlady informs us that there was a cancellation by a guest of the hotel where he was working and he needed to head back and stay there instead.

He politely thanked us for the help, crossed the road and started slowly making his way back to the hotel.

Working away from home – it is a long and lonely journey ..

To the lost chef from Sheffield, all the other young people looking for work away from home, our sons and our daughters – take care out there, wherever your journey takes you..

Life’s great adventure ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Hospitality, Irish Economy, Personal development, Positivity, Recession, Staff training | 2 Comments »

Bobby Kerr’s Top 10 Life & Business Tips

June 26, 2011
Bobby Kerr

Bobby's Top 10 Tips

Bobby Kerr, from Dragon’s Den fame and successful businessman spoke at the ceremony that took place at MacroomE last week where he presented the Greenshoots graduates with their certificates for completing the inaugural new business programme.

Bobby shared his business wisdom with the new graduates, mentors, trainers and invited guests and gave us all his Top 10 Life and Business Tips:

1.Avoid the begrudgers and those who have a negative cloud over their heads – all they will do is drag you down! Make sure you surround yourself with positive people.

2. Do something you enjoy doing & have fun doing it!

3. Put a priority on your health and your family

4. There is real value out there – negotiate, negotiate, negotiate

5. Be honest and do your work with integrity – never do anything that you will look back on with regret

6. Make sure you have a clear plan – set goals and targets for yourself

7. Be realistic, everything will take longer to work than you thought and will cost more – allow for this from the start!

8. Don’t be afraid to change or adapt your plan – life changes, so should you

9. Network as much as you can, make connections and learn from others

10. Make sure you “stay in the ring” – do what you need to do to survive, things will improve and you need to be one of the one standing when this happens

While there was no rocket science in what Bobby said it was great to hear such basic and practical advice delivered in such a no nonsense way from such a successful businessman.

Bobby endeared himself with the crowd with a simple story about his first visit to Macroom many moons ago –  he had told his dad that he was going to The Mountain Dew Festival in Macroom to listen to the poet Rory Gallagher.

Rory, I’m not sure if you were a poet, but you could definitely play guitar!!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Business Planning, Positivity, Recession, Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

Pessimistic, Realistic or Optimistic – Which are you?

June 6, 2011
Optimistic, Pessimistic or Realistic?

Would you sit next to this guy at a party?

My friend was killing me with his negativity, I was feeling hot, uneasy and uncomfortable.. despite really liking him and not having seen him in quite a while I just wanted to get out of there!

I guess I’ve been accused of the opposite, taking a general optimistic approach to things. For some this can come across as being uplifting and for others it could be seen as being naive and maybe they want to get away from me?

It can be difficult at times when we are surrounded by doom and gloom, bad news, tangible signs of distress and people that are really struggling with things going badly wrong for them and we all have a different way of dealing with this environment.

In the meaty discussion with my quite successful friend I found myself not wanting to be in his company any more as he was sapping the energy from me with his pessimistic view on everything. I could literally feel a cloud creep over us as we chatted.

His big argument when I challenged him about his “outlook” was that he was being realistic as opposed to being pessimistic. In his view I was being optimistic and not realistic!

Of course neither of us were wrong and we agreed to disagree and having thought about this even more I think the real secret is all about adopting a “positive” attitude – even in a pessimistic frame of mind this can be quite powerful.

Even though the environment has been terrible my friend’s business has done really well by him positively tackling the lousy climate and continually adapting, despite his pessimism!

Whatever is happening in your business you do need to get through it “yourself” and part of this is equipping yourself with the tools, attitude and general approach that works best for you.

For me I recognise that part of my own personal armour is adopting a positive approach, which at times can be quite challenging. And yes, I am optimistic about how me and our business will survive and thrive but being realistic I know this will only happen if we work our socks off and continue delivering for our clients.

My medicine?

Even when things are going wrong attack the situation with positivity, be optimistic about your future success but realistic about what you need to do to achieve it. And if the guy sitting next to you is dragging you down with his negativity, pessimism or realism then move on politely..

No one said it was going to be easy!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Irish Economy, Personal development, Positivity, Recession, Uncategorized | 19 Comments »

Are you spending enough on Positive Costs?

April 25, 2011
Doorman

Positive Cost ?

In my accounting days (yes, I know most of you won’t believe it – I was!!) we had a few different ways of looking at the costs of a business.

The most popular of these was a very simple analysis – Fixed Costs, which were those costs that would not vary with volume and Variable Costs, which were the costs which did vary according to volume. This was quite a simplistic model, which didn’t always hold up!

We then had other methods of looking at costs such as Zero Base Costing and Activity Based Costing .. interesting stuff indeed!

Since the recession has kicked in I have witnessed first hand clients being advised to cut back on expenses by the accounting fraternity and often they just do it themselves automatically – the types of costs that get chopped first are those that are deemed to be “unnecessary”, which will typically include marketing &  advertising spend, sales reps, items like training, corporate entertainment, Christmas gifts, staff entertainment  and other “extras”.

On the surface it is easy to figure out why companies would cut back in such a way but you could ask the question: Why spend this money when sales were easier to come by and when it is harder to win business you just abandon them?

Could reduced sales be a self fulfilling prophecy when you cut out certain overheads?

The New Cost Model

Taking the knowledge of my old profession and combining this with what I am witnessing with clients every day I am now proposing a new way of analysing costs.

Here goes ..

There are actually three types of costs:

Negative Costs –   these are the costs that a business is “stuck” with, regardless of volume. It would include Rent and Rates (but not necessarily 100% of these – I will explain that later), Insurance, ESB, etc.

Maintenance Costs – these are the costs of servicing the business that you have brought in. It would such items as staff costs, raw materials, power and delivery costs.

Positive Costs – these are the costs that are all about bringing new business in, effectively the costs, which should have a “positive effect” on the business.

Positive costs are the most important costs of the whole business, they are the elements that are designed to start the engine, the elements that can make things happen, that “trigger” customers to actually place an order.

Positive costs are far reaching and could include surprise elements that you would not expect: the premium you pay to have a premises in a location that will bring in more customers, the cost of washing the car after it has been serviced, the cost of polishing the shoes that have been repaired, the cost of having a receptionist who answers calls promptly and deals with customer queries swiftly.

There could be an element of positive costs to most people overhead in the business – the porter who does “meet and greet” at the door of the hotel, the credit controller who carefully spends time with customers who are experiencing difficulty, the accountant who spends time with customers to understand the business better, the staff party to reward a hard working team and a deliberate initiative to improve morale.

I’m sure with a little effort you will think of thousands of other unexpected examples – all of these elements contribute to bringing in more business and create a “positive effect” on the business.

Of course Positive Costs will include items such as advertising, marketing, graphic design, web marketing, social media activity and even PR!

Positive costs are absolutely essential for generating business for any company – cutting these out may be viewed as a necessary step but it will eventually choke the oxygen of the business.

Recession (or any time for that matter)

Using our new cost model I would suggest the following approach:

Analyse your costs into the different cost categories and work towards –

1. Reducing the negative costs as much as possible

2. Improving efficiencies and work practices so that maintenance costs are as little as possible

3. Spending as much of your overhead budget as possible on positive costs .

I am not for one minute suggesting naive spending – always look for the best value in your positive costs and don’t waste money, making sure they are actually positive costs – that the spend results in increases in business.

Are you spending enough on Positive Costs in your business?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Accounting, Advertising, Business Planning, Customer Care, Irish Economy, Marketing, Positivity, PR, Recession, Social Media, Staff training, Training, Uncategorized | 22 Comments »

Debt Forgiveness or Vulture Culture?

April 16, 2011
Debt Forgiveness or Vulture Culture?

Feeding the vultures?

Reading the Irish Examiner this morning I am struck and really upset by what I am seeing ..

On the cover is a picture of the large queues at the NAMA property auction in Dublin this week – while I am sure there are some genuine people in that queue looking for a break by getting a property they can afford and get their lives moving I am more than sure that their are plenty of “vultures” swooping to pick some meat off the dead carcases of our property collapse.

Consider the steps that lead us to this point:

Step 1 – Property owner (formerly known as bank customer) can’t afford mortgage: bank turfs the loans to NAMA at a huge discount and write off the balance (request money from government to cover the loss – p.s. we have to pay for this). End of problem for Mr Bank.

Step 2 – NAMA take on advisor’s, solicitors, experts of all sorts and deal with the “property owners” at huge cost (the problem is just in another box and we pay the fees). A good friend of mine, a solicitor tells me they all know the biggest game in town is getting a gig with NAMA!

Step 3 – NAMA creatively look for solutions to sort out the property market? Nah – lets just do a fire sale and get rid of the properties for half nothing. What brains came up with that solution?

Step 4 – Chase the original property owner for the deficit (at this stage it is probably much bigger than it ever needed to be in the first place), which they will never, ever be able to clear.

Step 5 – NAMA realise that it has a bigger hole than it thought in the first place – look for money from Government as they have a shortfall (that’s us folks!)

Step 6 – Vultures queue up, avoid buying any property until they come up for sale again in another bargain basement sale. Further devaluation of property prices as a result – yep you get a bigger hole with even more people in trouble..

I know there was a huge reaction this week to talk of Debt Forgiveness (why should we pick up the tab for other people’s carelessness? is the general attitude) but if you look at the scenario above, which we have all witnessed – the original property owner could have made a sensible arrangement with the bank, managed through the current economic climate and ultimately recovered more money than what was ever possible in an auction fire sale.

Possible Result – The deficit would have been a lot less, huge savings would have been made on unnecessary professional fees and the property market would not be further compromised.

Just a month ago a pub quite close to us was closed by the bank – the “owners” could not manage the level of debt as they bought too high. Now the pub is being touted around by the bank  at prices a fraction of what the original debt was – they will never recover the deficit from the original owners and we will end up picking up the tab for the “unnecessary deficit”.

Will the new operators do a better job that the original owners? And what about all the suppliers who get burnt in the shut down scenario?

Debt forgiveness is emotive and really difficult to manage (fire sale is too easy, less messy, inhumane and lousy for the economy = our country) but it must be better than pure stupidity, which we will all end up paying for. It’s time to work hard at brave, practical solutions that have the best interest of the county at heart..

….and besides, why do we need to feed the Vultures?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Customer Care, Irish Economy, Irish Politics, Recession, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

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