As the last part of our series exploring some magical company moments, as found as grainy photos in our smartphone… Another Awards Doo Pic, this time for the Entrepreneurial Exchange Awards one year later. This is ‘Business’ and ‘Friendship.’
One of the nicest things about business is working with great people. We’ve been so, so lucky to have met some wonderful people – people who have given advice, helped with challenging problems, opened doors, been our clients, our partners, our collaborators, but most of all our friends.
With the loft being a very open-agency with so much on the go all the time – it is very much in our interests to get on with just about everybody. In fact, we train our staff to only see the good in their ideas when designing and it’s very much how we feel about people – everybody’s different but we’ve met very few people who aren’t good in some way or another.
This shot was taken at the end of an awards doo where we hosted a table for the very first time which was an amazing experience. Clearly not letting any of the wine go to waste, every person in shot is a client but more than that they are all very good friends many years on. A magical moment and one that shows that business and friendship can be combined and combined well.
A lovely way to end our series, thanks for following…
Benedetto
Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.
‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.
He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.
His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder and Creative Director of the loft, a branding consultancy in Glasgow.
He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.
Some of the organisation’s we’ve had the pleasure of working closely with over the years..
Brand Values (done well,) will help any organisation build a stronger rapport with their customers, improve relationships with employees, help win new contracts, provide guidance to all types of leaders and so much more. Over the years, we’ve worked with a number of different companies to help them create values – management teams, sales teams, development teams, admin staff, etc.
We’ve done it all, from interviewing highly engaged people who would talk to us all day, those who take ‘values’ very seriously, to talking to some who can’t really get away quickly enough.
What we’ve found is that ‘getting buy-in’ for values is every bit as important as ‘creating-them’ in the first place.
Here are a few different ways to make that happen…
Engage Everybody, Absolutely Everybody
’Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.’
Everybody should be heard. It’s just so brilliantly useful in so many ways. For a start, it’s an act of good will to everybody in the company, it demonstrates that you do care and you genuinely want to hear more about what they think about the business, you’ll learn so much more about the people in your organisation too.
Finally, all of the anecdotes you’ll pick up will have tremendous value later on in the process, with potential for marketing ideas, sales messages and in finding ways to communicate your newly created values with future employees.
Build on Successes
Build on what’s working. Give your teams the opportunity to tell you what’s working and what they are generally doing well. Great ‘values and behaviours’ are often built from ‘the ground up.’ Your team will appreciate the opportunity to communicate what they are succeeding at.
Finally, there will be every opportunity for habits or traits developed on the factory/office/shop floor to become a form of company policy. A Brilliant morale-booster for everybody.
Ensure Management/Leadership Teams are Fully Bought-In
Make sure leaders are fully bought into whatever is agreed upon. If a company is going to document their brand values, it has to be sincere. Not every single person in a company is going to agree with absolutely everything that’s written down but leadership/management teams really have be fully on-board or there will be a lack of authenticity when those same leaders communicate something they don’t really believe in, to customers, staff or even shareholders.
Walk The Talk
Writing brand values down is one thing, living up to them is so much more important. Authenticity is everything so look for opportunities to sponsor causes which relate to who you are, support events or seminars that chime with what you believe in and look for collaborations wherever possible to further find ways to breathe life into those wonderful values you’ve created.
Practical Please
Having lofty, high-minded and noble values is brilliant. As long as you can give 2-3 examples about how you live them on a practical basis. This gives them more weight and once again help with the most important part – getting buy in from your own people and customers too.
Go Beyond The Obvious
Honesty, integrity, trust, etc are great values and ones that should really be the foundation of every relationship in business (and life too for that matter.) However, in many cases, they are the baseline of our expectations, so see if you can go a little bit further. If you really want to use them as part of your ‘Values.’ Look for ways to be even more thorough in telling us how your company is especially trustworthy, honest or high-integrity.
Get The Language Right
‘Values, Vision, Mission Statement, Purpose Beyond Profit, Beliefs, Actions, Behaviours, Who We Are and What We Do.’
Values are mainly there to help persuade and influence behaviours on a large scale – don’t miss the opportunity to be imaginative with the terminology too. It will give you one further opportunity to win hearts and minds with customers, staff and others.
We created ‘Values & Mission Statements’ for ABM Intelligence. Or as we eventually called them ‘Who We Are & What We Do.’
Celebrate Them
Once you’ve created them – celebrate them – wherever and whenever possible. Have them created as a mural in the boardroom, illustrate them as part of your company website, write them into your tender documents, etc.
Properly thought-through and authentic values have real weight. Take every opportunity possible to make them commercially work for you and your organisation.
We hope that handy little guide, helps, creating values is so much fun. If you’d like to find out more about this or any of our other brand consultancy services, drop us a line.
Friday morning was a very special day as we spent a wonderful morning interviewing Colin Robertson CBE of Alexander Dennis in our latest LOFTCAST video podcast.
Colin has done an absolutely incredible job as CEO of Alexander Dennis over the last 13 years helping to turn the company into one of the world’s most successful bus and coach manufacturers. He’s helped increase Annual Turnover almost 400% to £631million, opened the company up to new markets, transformed product development as well as aftermarket support. He’s won numerous awards and been acknowledged by her majesty the Queen herself.
Quite simply, Colin is one of Scotland’s top business leaders.
On Friday morning, we covered business growth, leadership, manufacturing, bus & coaches and of course – dealing with COVID-19.
At the end of our conversation, we managed to get in its of questions from all you budding entrepreneurs, business leaders and even bus & coach enthusiasts.
We think this one is going to be very special and we can’t wait to share it with you…
‘Resurgence’ is the new video podcast for entrepreneurs, business owners and organisational leaders that are looking to thrive, not just survive, at the end of the current crisis. In this series, we are bringing you interviews with some of our top business and organisational leaders and looking at what they’ve done so far, how they are preparing for the future and how they are looking to turn this crisis into something positive for the people they serve.
In our latest interview, we talk to award-winning entrepreneur, investor and current chairman of 4icg Brian Williamson. In an incredibly wide-ranging interview, Brian goes into business pivots, gap-funding, talking to investors, post-work environments, re-imagining business propositions, leading during challenging times and how calm seas never made a good sailor. In his talk ’necessity, the mother of all invention’ he explains how the current crisis can potentially be the starting point of something great for entrepreneurs, business owners and leaders. A great 35 minute watch for anybody looking to thrive.
The series is brought to you by Glasgow-based design and branding agency – the loft. Important Messages
These are some of the key messages from the interview.
Necessity is the mother of all invention
Narrow The Chasm – when looking for gap funding
Present the light at the end of the tunnel when talking to banks.
Your exec summary has to set someone on fire.
Investors don’t have time to read 38 pages – but they may do – if the exec summary is exciting enough.
The exec summary should be the most exciting part to read and rest of plan is validation of that summary.
People want to be fired up by the business opportunity and the person’s passion.
You have to be objective driven with remote working.
Involve employees with the objective of the business and how they fit in.
We want the output, but we tend to measure the input.
Being output driven is where we want to be. We’ll have more output-focussed minds which is what we want.
We’ve been trained to being input managers.
You’re really solving your customer’s problem or helping them to grasp an opportunity. You have to put yourself in their shoes.
You have to understand the challenges of the market.
If you can understand the market, you can shape a solution.
You need to understand the market and that means finding out what people want.
There is nothing better than 10,000 people telling you what they want.
Calm seas never made a skilled sailor.
I’ve been through 5 recessions and many company challenges, in each one, I’ve come out stronger on the other side. There is a great amount of learning to come from this.
Out of the crisis comes solutions – to new problems.
Your business can be part of that solution.
That’s where the opportunity lies – there are more problems than we can shake a stick at right now.
Interview tic-toc
0 Mins | Introduction of LOFCAST and Brian Williamson by Benedetto
2 Mins | Working from home, 2-3 times greater productivity. Geting used to issues with businesses and support. Whats coming out the other end?
3 Mins | Incredible 4icg Pivot – fast action, 24/7 response, morphing premises to safe working environments, shielding vulnerable people (Incredible speed.)
5 mins | Importance of extending cash runways to de-stress yourself and establishing control. How long can I last and create choices.
7 mins | Asking for increased credit terms.
8:30 Mins | Rotating staff to make ‘furlough’ more effective.
10 mins | Success in apply for CIBLs Loans, keep the bank informed of what you’re doing during bad times and present GAP funding appropriately. (Narrow The Chasm.)
11:30 Mins | Banks are reasonable people, but present light at the end of the tunnel
13 Mins | Present the business plan as a story, vision is all-important, it has to be exciting. 14 Mins, Summary has to be exciting with business plans, regardless of the current climate.
14:30 mins | Importance of telling the story in technical and human manner. People waant to be fired up by business opportunity and person’s passion for the business.
16 mins | Other big moves – implementing remote working for other companies. Being objective driven when managing staff. Harder but possibly more effective.
17 mins | Radicalised thinking post-virus, working with London investors chasing him as opposed to him chasing them, speed of movement is now truly remarkable.
18:30 mins | 4icg’s 4-day work-week, negotiating terms with unions in the past, importance of genuine productivity,
19:30 mins | Empowering employees in where they fit in and to communicating the difference they can make.
20 mins | Importance of focussing on output as opposed to the input. Importance of being output driven
21 mins | Are we really being productive or just being busy? Input managers and possibilities of being more output-focussed.
22 mins | 4icg’s legendary pivot for small business’s looking to digitise their offering, back to basic principes – you’re basically solving your customer’s problem.
23 mins | Understanding the market and shaping a solution, how restaurants have successfully pivoted,
24 mins | Helping restaurants re-bound after COVID-19, 4icg’s new product offering
25 mins | Advice to pubs/restaurants and travel agents – planning when the future is so uncertain.
27 mins | Likelihood of more localised holidays for citizens, people want to travel somewhere with their own transport,
28 mins | Travel industry needs to understand the client’s needs now, package holidays,
30 mins | Updated safety and security for health and beauty salons,
31 mins | Making clients feel comfortable, Peer-to-peer learning with the IOD.
32:30 mins | Roosevelt quote – calm seas never made a skilled sailor, being through 5 recessions and challenging times with clients, comes out stronger every time.
33 mins | Always come out stronger on the other side, reflect on what’s happening in society, hackathons to stimulate creative thinking, innovative products to deal with COVD challenges.
34:30 mins | Your business can become a solution to that problem.
35 mins | Ideal environment to find creative solutions to these problems.
‘Resurgence’ is the new video podcast for entrepreneurs, business owners and organisational leaders that are looking to thrive, not just survive, at the end of the crisis. In this series we are bringing you interviews with some of our top business/organisational leaders and looking at what they’ve done so far, how they are preparing for the future and mainly how they are looking to turn this crisis into something positive for the future.
In our latest interview, we talk to experienced international business leader, entrepreneur and storyteller Bob Keiller. Bob gives an absolute tour-de-force on the importance of values, purpose and knowing your organisations ‘Why.’ He shares his thoughts about innovation, why it is so important at this time and gives some practical suggestions about how you can make that happen. Finally, he makes a call to businesses to be bold and ask themselves, what else can you do? An absolute must-watch for leader of organisations of any size – with a little extra something in there for charities. Comes in at a lovely and compact 20 minutes too.
These are some of the key messages from the interview.
In some ways we can do more
Wisdom comes from experience – none of us have experienced this before.
Your first obligation is to survive.
Look at simple things like credit management, cashflow and customers. Do what you need to do to survive
It’s a good opportunity to go back to basics and reaffirm your why and your how.
You can always change the what, but understanding the why and how of your business is really important.
Innovate – no point in thinking things will get back to normal – it might but it might not!
What skills have we got, what talents have we got, what resources have we got, what knowledges and experiences have we got and what can we do??
We need to test things, we need to try things
As the leader of the business, you won’t have all the answers, but the best place to find a lot of the answers is from the team
Remember what we’re all about, remember what we are doing this for?
Let’s concentrate where we started the journey and where are we headed?
It’s dead easy to read a book but doing it is what really matters.
Culturally – how do we step up the environment that people bring forward ideas that we can collectively develop together.
What else can you do?
We’re not in the business of knowing the answers but we sure are going to go out and find what the options are.
Getting your message across has always been a key aspect of business.
Interview tic-toc
0 – 1:30 Minutes | Intro of Bob Keiller.
3 Mins | What’s Bob Keiller been up-to? Speaking to lots of people, trying to help, had to re-package training sessions into smaller modules (2-hrs, etc.)
4:30 Mins | Different context with this one, very little certainty, some sectors have been harmed badly.
5 mins | Advice is simple – first obligation is to survice, face the difficult decisions, do what you need to survive.
5:30 mins | Good opportunity to get back to basics to re-affirm your why and how.
6 mins | Sometimes running a business is like flying a plane, time to take stock and check what kind of condition it is in.
6:30 mins | Innovate, things might or might not get back to normal, mode of thinking what skills, resources, talents you’ve got and what can you do – rather what can’t you do. This can open up opportunities.
7 mins | Importance of trying things and testing. Importance of innovation and leadership. Harvesting potential answers from the team and use that as a primary source of answers.
8 mins | Values, danger of charities is that they sometimes lack focus and occasionally become more diluted.
9 mins | Importance of getting back to main purpose of the business – what are we doing this for? Who are we doing this for? Getting back to the core purpose.
10 mins | Getting back to the core purpose and values,
11 mins | To pivot or not to pivot, some businesses that have seen a huge increase in business.
12 mins | What else can a company be doing in terms of innovation? Can services be provided in a different way, importance of selling and marketing.
13 mins | Getting services out there and telling a compelling story is important.
13:30 mins | Useful resources for businesses having to innovate for the first time.
14 mins | ‘The lens organisation’ pulling out proposals and craft a few number into business opportunities and prototype with limited resources and time.
15 mins | Culturally – how do we step up the environment that people bring forward ideas that we can collectively prototype and test. Contact the Lens team to find out better how to do this?
16 mins | How would Bob run a sports club, etc?
17:30 mins | David Lloyd gym’s innovation in the past during crisis.
19 mins | Final thoughts, importance of communication, how do you get the message across?
20 mins | Most marketing and comms is pretty ineffective right now. Time to get better at communicating what you’re doing, etc.
‘Resurgence’ is the new video podcast for entrepreneurs, business owners and organisational leaders that are looking to thrive, not just survive, at the end of the crisis. In this series we are bringing you interviews with some of our top business/organisational leaders and looking at what they’ve done so far, how they are preparing for the future and mainly how they are looking to turn this crisis into something positive for the future.
The first of our interviews is with Dr Iain MacRitchie, Scottish entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of the incredible MCR Pathway programme. In this wide-ranging interview – Iain gives some wonderful guidance for leaders in how to best look after themselves/their teams, why knowing your purpose, vision & mission has never been more important and also the steps MCR Pathways are taking to turn this crisis into a form of lasting change that will help them realise their vision to help every care-experienced and disadvantaged young person in the country gets the same education outcomes, career opportunities and life chances as every other young person.
Important Messages
These are some of the key messages from the interview.
We’re in the same storm but we’re experiencing it in different ways.
Take care of the staff – there is nothing we can’t overcome – we are going to get through this.
Most importantly for us, we kept the focus of the main reason we exist – we need to support the young people.
When facing a crisis, being very calm is an absolute prerequisite – which is hard – crisis brings adrenaline.
You have to get calmer in crisis and really deal with your adrenaline.
Take care of yourself first and foremost, you can’t take care of anybody else – if you haven’t taken care of yourself.
As a leader, you have to take leadership, you have to be the one that pushes. It’s a constant communication, it’s constant.
Get yourself in order, be decisive and then do stuff!!
Make stuff happen but take care of people along the way – they will have challenges along the way.
Let’s make sure everybody is included and nobody is left behind.
We’ve done things in timescales that were unheard off!!
One of the things I love about this – is that it does show that we can respond to need, it does show that we can take care of those that need to be taken care off.
There are things we can now build on – there is absolutely zero excuse for leaving anybody behind.
Every organisation I’ve worked with from 5 people to 5000 people have a challenge to stay focussed.
When doing scenario planning – what is the purpose of your organisation?
Every organisation from 5000 to 5 people – have a challenge to stay focussed.
Either opportunism to chase a sale or chase an opportunity – may not be a bad thing – but it starts to dilute, starts to distract, starts to take you away.
Go back to the beginning – what is the purpose of your organisation – and if you can’t answer that in 1-2 sentences, then you’ve not got the right answer. It can and should be a sentence.
Scenario Planning starts off with absolute focus – what is the focus of your organisation
What’s the purpose of the organisation? What is the focus? What does success look like? What is it trying to achieve?
As soon as you can’t remember something – it becomes irrelevant.
What is the big hairy goal – what do I want it to be and where do I sit in that particular equation? Businesses that fail lose direction and go off-track.
Clarity of need should be in the front of business leader’s mind all the time.
Need first and foremost and think about ways to deliver against that and then communicate it to death.
Everything is going to change – that is opportunity – for me to do it all much better and faster – because there is no resistance anymore.
We have a fantastic opportunity to get it right for society in general but also for the economy
Those that are communicating, those that are out there, are doing great
For those in a rush, we’ve taken the entire interview and broken down for you to go directly to the parts that most interest you…
Interview tic-toc
0 mins | Introduction of series and Dr Iain MacRitchie, Founder of MCR Pathways – supporting over 2000 disadvantaged young people in the country.
1 mins | Dealing with lockdown – sometimes feels like we are two different people at times.
2 mins | Consideration that some of us have it much easier than others, Iain admits to being in a privileged position, but heart goes out to those that are locked down and suffering to a greater extent.
3 mins | Steps taken with MCR Pathways – scenario planning in early February, the consideration of schools closing, get people ready to work from home, clearing the building. Taking practical steps but most importantly prepare people’s mindsets for what was about to happen.
4 mins | Importance of communication to staff, trying to give some form of certainty, the de-stability of facing uncertainty for any team or organisation
5 mins | Communicating to so many different stakeholders, respecting the privacy, inventing a brand-new process, keeping in mind the reason the organisation exists – supporting the young people, moving to a way to communicate virtually.
6 mins | The importance of being calm, of managing adrenaline.
7 mins | Back to basics – how can we reach the young people now the schools are closed? Virtual mentoring in a safe way, asking young people how best to carry on the relationships. Not able to switch to virtual overnight, encouraging mentors and young people to exchange messages (done in the traditional forum of letters called Pen-pal,)
8 mins | Calmness, planning and then going on the persuasion, having to change views on what was possible, the team did a great job on being calm, working towards milestones, had 2-3 weeks to get infrastructure in place, the single objective of reaching young people.
9 mins | Advice for managers and leaders in staying calm – dealing with your energy levels, deal with your body before you deal with your brain, be as relaxed as possible, Iain would blast exercise bike to burn off some excess energy. Mentions to respect the body and the mind.
10 mins | Make sure you pause, reflect, absorb and think – give yourself time to think. Iain works in three times zones – P1 felt like a sprint, no point in burning out, virus isn’t going away any time soon, so must adapt accordingly.
11 mins | Taking time to reflect – what may this look like next month or in 3-4 months’ time, can’t think long term yet, thinking then planning, importance of writing it out down.
12 mins | Writing down objectives, putting together a framework and then sharing that with the team, not an absolute law but a framework. Get the collective engaged and involved in the plan. Iain is an originator of an idea but needs team to buy-in and believe it, ideally to the same level that he does.
13 mins | Underestimating the difference in environment with this crisis, giving people more time to absorb what’s going on – even with themselves, get yourself in order, be decisive and do stuff.
14 mins | Don’t get bogged down in scenario planning, MCR are acting right now in 2 weeks blocks, week time intervals were too tight – months too long, all about reaching the young people, creating an engagement programme which encourages them to continue developing themselves.
16 mins | Some kids don’t have broadband access at home, or devices either, raised funds to bring people online, scenarios quickly identified this isn’t going to change any time soon.
17 mins | Making the current proposition – a permanent part of their offering, constructing time zones in your mind are critical to help your brain think of the now but in the context of the future.
18 mins | People might need time out, supporting over 2300 young people each week – managing to re-engage with over 1300 young people with virtual mentoring quickly, had to work through a lot of regulations, restrictions and barriers but cut through and quickly!!
20 mins | Iain loves how this situations has shown how we can respond to need, that it does show that there are no excuses for anybody being left behind or being able to respond or being able to be taken care off, scenario planning on way out of the crisis.
21 mins | More detail on scenario planning, every organisation Iain has worked with from 5 people to 5000 people have a challenge to stay focussed, opportunism to chase a sale or chase an opportunity takes you down an angle – but starts to dilute, distract or take you away. Go back to the beginning – what is the purpose of your organisation? And if you can’t answer that in 1-2 sentences, then you’ve not got the right answer.
22 mins | MCR Pathway – we are about engaging the young people so that they feel more confident, certain and hopeful about their futures, reaching the young people to give them the support, young people should feel comfortable and secure in that mentoring relationship.
23 mins, common denominator of all organisations should be – what is the purpose of the organisation – what are we trying to achieve? what is the focus? What does success look like? MCR Pathways vision/mission is that they don’t want there to be any difference in education outcomes, job choices or life changes of our most disadvantaged young people relative to others. Have to face into the reality with 3 different mindsets.
24 mins | 3 scenarios in mind – best case/worst case – and how can I deliver on my purpose against those two? Scenarios should be 3, get into your imagination, how can we realise our best case?
25 mins | Hopes of a summer programme for young people with physical mentoring – but preparing for more likely scenario of more lockdowns, schools still aren’t fully back, etc.
26 mins | Both scenarios are planned in some detail – and look/adjust between the two.
27 mins | Don’t want to create a lot of uncertainty around the team, scenario planning does involve a smaller group of people, it is more intense.
28 mins | Clarity of purpose – nailing the purpose down, do whatever it takes to get revenue, revenue comes first!
29 mins | Get yourself in a survival position. Get cashflow, get headroom, get whatever it takes to protect a core of your organisation.
30 mins | What’s your vision for the organisation, what is your big goal? What’s your Mission? Get clear on your vision and your mission then get the mechanics right on the framework to achieve that.
31 mins | What is the big hairy goal – what do I want it to be and where do I sit in that particular equation? Businesses that fail lose direction and go off-track. Business is really simple.
32 mins | Survive first, choices second. Advice to marketeers and communications?
33 mins | Get to what is the needed. What need does your organisation fill? Difference between those in stable household and those that are not. Clarity of need should be in the front of your mind all the time!
34 mins | Many of those in trouble still have customers with needs, pandemic has not changed need, every organisation that survives the pandemic is going to be needed once things return to normal or the ‘new-normal.’ Need is the first thing to keep in mind.
35 mins | Mentoring works, it’s not changing we just have to deliver it in a different way, do everything possible to support those young people when they are locked down, the memory that mentors do care is a profound one to young disadvantaged people, businesses must communicate to customers.
36 mins | Need first and foremost and think about ways to deliver against that and communicate it to death, MCR is fighting to survive just like everybody else, importance of MCR Values – Motivation, Commitment and Resilience.
37 mins | Why can’t we be ahead of the game? Why can’t we be first? Resilience – this is not a sprint, this is a marathon, MCR values are currency to deal with change – imposed on us by the virus.
38 mins | No human being likes change, we like habits or certainty, we have no choice but to change, everything is going to change, country has just borrowed £300 Billion which has huge implications, everything is going to change, however there is an opportunity to do it all much better.
39 mins | Half-full mindset is going to fight the half-empty’s down the track, there is opportunity, going to play a different game in dealing with inequalities, we’ve been able to deal with stuff in a shorter space of time which just wasn’t possible before.
40 mins | This is brand new and that is very good in that respect, we have the chance to get it right for inequality, those things are intertwined.
41 mins | Opportunities with the new economy and get it working for everybody, let’s get going.
42 mins | Companies that have started to communicate well have impressed Iain, local shops have done a great job as well as courier services and front-line workers.
43 mins | Some third-sector organisations have done a phenomenal job.
44 mins | Community/local based organisations that have stood up and responded to demand have been heroic, care workers as well as those delivering essential services, couriers.
45 mins | Sections of public institutions have performed magnificently; the good news is that we know exactly what this country needs to do and should do.
46 mins | Get to the front of the queue and MCR it!