I think loyalty, like a valued coin, has two sides.

It isn't a bargain, or a business arrangement. I think it is a shared attitude of mind between a population of one or more and a supplier of a product or service. Its value can increase over time, particularly if it is experienced and expressed as an important relationship by both parties.

Well you may think this is flowery stuff if we are talking about a car dealership, but stay with it.

I have been sharing this experience with a Subaru Dealership in Barrie, Ontario.

From its beginnings many years ago to my recent service visit, there has been a rapport and sense of commitment which adds to the strength and value of the relationship.

I booked my next service visit before I contentedly drove away today.

Which sums the case up right there.

However indulge me, let me take you for a closer look.

How did this all start?  We are required to go back a number of years.

It was time for me to look at leasing rather than buying a vehicle. The choice came down to two basics; comfort and safety. All the advertising seemed to suggest All Wheel Drive - this is snow belt country - this would address the safety question. To slide into rather than fold into a car would satisfy the comfort issue.

This pointed me to the Forester.

In truth it was a reality issue. I had completed my mid-life crisis and getting in and out of an ancient sports car wearing goggles and white scarf, well you get the picture.

Little did I know!

But the real story here is about the people involved.

The sales person at the time, Rick Greenside, who subsequently became, and is, the Sales Manager, for obvious reasons, did (and I might add still does) behave like a perfectly decent human being, empathized with me as I struggled with the remnants of my former self. He understood that my refusal to get in a car before I had a good read on the cost was a cunning bargaining ploy, and perhaps privately reading that the false reputation of his peer group was dominating my attitude. Well as I say that was a long time ago, and we have been through the process several times since.

Then there is the service manager. I don't know anything about the car business, but this is a pretty important player in the loyalty development process. All I can say is this service manager is good. I drive away feeling that my loyalty is valued here. 

Tim Venn and his team are tuned into the value of it, and they deliver in spades. That sounds like leadership to me.

As a footnote, the fact is this Forester is a pretty sporty machine for a person my age!

JFC 2012

Would Fagin have spotted an opportunity to develop a chain of 'A Taste of Gruel' outlets franchised across London and perhaps around the world as it was then known? Oliver himself eventually becoming CEO.

A personalized line of silk handkerchiefs as a substitute for paper napkins not yet invented could easily have been the defining lock on the brand.

For what it's worth I doubt if it could have been interpreted as a compliment to the chef given the historical frame of the novel, and since it has already been made into a movie of some note the success of which would make the novel's direction irreversible. To say nothing of the dreadful stuff in the bowl.

To explore and enlarge and re-direct the drift of the story on the basis of a more comely interpretation is as tempting as it is pointless, and would definitely have Dickens thoroughly ticked off.

Well lets do that anyway.

So here we are the chef makes a rash inaccurate assumption of approval of his gruel cunningly read in the moans rising like mist from the mob of wretched kids in the damp hall prompted by Olivers audacity.

Fagin seeing signs of life in the chef, stage left, senses an opportunity wafting in the smell of spilled gruel bubbling on the hot stove and the quixotic expression on the chef's face. Their eyes met.

Five outlets on Fleet Street for starters and a business is born.

Oliver is whisked out of the joint, polished up and blazoned on copyrighted signs hung invitingly over the outlet's entrances as a slightly obese boy smiling into a bowl of steaming gruel.

"A taste of Gruel" - 'for growing lads to make 'em strong for work in the coal pits!' And it spread.

The availability of stolen silk handkerchiefs increased mysteriously, which, as expected, solidified the brand. Generous low interest loans from the coal mine owners and a guaranteed customer base of happy miners and their families moved the franchises across the nation reaching into the mysteries of the Welsh Valleys and even unto the fertile coal fields of Lancashire and Yorkshire and whatever was beyond.

Fagin was made a Baron became very rich, a patron of the Arts and an esteemed founder member of The Guild of Franchises of England". Oliver married three times had twelve children, played himself in the movie, retired at thirty five, and lived happily ever after.

Point being of course, that it is important to say clearly what you mean since the accurate understanding of it has value, otherwise fate could take you into a totally unexpected place. Which may be unsettling for business, but makes for great farce!

JFC May 2011

To comment click Here.

At the personal level he certainly enjoys helping senior citizens work through the maze of their annual tax returns taking a good deal of unnecessary stress out of their lives. He also believes that the volunteer is rewarded considerably for his/her efforts.

The World Volunteer Web, says "Volunteering is the perfect vehicle to discover something you are really good at and develop a new skill. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

John and many others like him enjoy this experience.

John said that from his experience volunteering is very much a measure of a positive sense of community. The fact is many Canadians volunteer at their local hospitals, schools, libraries, churches, shelters, and many places where they can help, which speaks well for our way of life.  He also points out that without this volunteer work the governments, national, provincial and municipal would have to step in with financial support to sustain the well being of many segments of society presently being supported by volunteers.

John points out that charitable giving is a deductible expense against taxes and suggests that "The free labor contribution is just as valuable and should receive some recognition. I recognize that to get a credit for a minimum number of hours per year would have to be in the formula, but I strongly feel that some recognition is long overdue and who knows that token credit might encourage more to volunteer and perhaps further reduce the stress on the government of having to provide quite so much revenue to healthcare as an example."

Many employers give special recognition to their employees volunteering activities in the community, and this kind of commitment brings awareness of community needs to a deeper level. It would seem good business practice to encourage and engage in volunteer work in the community. Maybe there is a solid argument to have government acknowledge and recognize the work of volunteers. What do you think?

JFC Jan 2011

If we really take a close look at this sequence, or should we call it phenomena, we might discover that momentum, the case for doing it again, is a fundamental element in the process. In other words action accompanied by a feeling, call it a "rush", moves us to do more all in a moment.

Well maybe eventually it is repetitious and therefore boring and our interest sags. The energy declines and we eventually stop and look for something else to do.

Proactive Change.

Maybe we can change the way we do it before the rush wanes, before we get bored. We are developing here an argument for the value in proactive change.

Deliberately changing the way we do a thing.

Maybe change is what we fear most and we become entrapped, or feel secure in the comfort of repetition. Proactive change may keep us ahead of the evolving dynamics of our business or at least in sync with it.

A pretty good motivator to stay active is if what we are doing is profitable. To change what we are doing may or may not be productive, so the ability to measure the OLP* of the activity; when the result of energy invested appears to be flattening or diminishing is relevant. When this becomes apparent, and small changes in method have been explored and do not revive the performance, then there is a business decision to be made.

A bit like riding a beautiful black stallion! You need to be as smart as the horse you are riding; he knows a fence too high when he sees one just as well as yourself.

* See the article 'Optimum Level of Performance'

JFC October 2010

Out of the Box thinking suggests the picture on the right.

A container of conventional wisdom, defining boundaries and responsibilities, and one would suppose offering safe haven.

Perhaps the first thing worth thinking about once outside of the box would be to take a good look at the box from this new perspective and to consider if there is a need to re-structure the box.

Here is a suggestion for a re-structured box. Turned upside down it creates a platform that allows for a view of other boxes in a community. Then with a railing around the perimeter of the box as a container, it loses nothing of its necessary value. This now affords a sensory awareness of other boxes in the vicinity and gives the networking dynamics of a community relevancy.

 JFC May 2010

To comment click Here

Indeed what could be next? A repeat? Well maybe, but it does suggest that whilst "Success" as the attainment of a set aim is great it is in fact the end of a process.

In a business setting replication is the eternal expectation!  A process that could eventually challenge motivation and generate a variety of negative stress issues.

Suppose we replace the focus of "Success" with "Excel" for the business model. To excel is to exceed oneself in a previous performance level.  The timeline would need be more flexible when viewed from this perspective, yet there would be a sense of  forward movement towards an Optimum Level of Performance (OLP) whatever the task.  Perhaps not so sharply defined as a Gold Medal but of some significant value none the less.

The variation and evaluation of this OLP become measurable in real numbers and is likely sustainable over time. It could generate personal satisfaction for the individuals involved in much the same way as winning a gold medal every day!  At the very least to find ones OLP is an acheivement in itself.

One benefit of running a business at OLP is you should be able leave it in good hands whilst you travel along the Grand Canal, Venice!

More on OLP in the future.

JFC Apr 2010

To comment click Here

It seems like the myth is still working. Well myths tend to hang around like that.

Success seems to be the aura of these individuals, it is what our latter day Icarus’ believed about themselves. I wonder if ">Marshall McLuhan, in his influential book, Understanding Media had this in mind when he summed it up in his commentary about the movie “Room at the Top” , “the moral being that success is not only wicked but also the formula for misery.” Pretty strong stuff, mind you that was back in the Sixties, when anything was ok, more or less. Maybe he was being prophetic as usual or maybe he did have the Myth of Icarus in mind?

Personal Development.

 One of the real life advantages of owning and running a small business, as opposed to being famous, is that you grow with it. The whole edifice rests on your behavior; it can be humbling and spectacularly satisfying all on a Wednesday afternoon! Whether you grow and the business follows or the business grows and you follow is a moot point. The real point is there is a direct co-relationship between the success of the business and your personal life. I haven’t met a successful small business owner for whom flying too high is a preferred attitude of mind. There is a fairly high failure rate in small businesses, and likely the mental attitude of the owner had a good deal to do with its failure.

The essence of a small business would likely include an acute awareness of the real value of the product or service provided by the business, how it is presented to the prospective customer or client, the internal relations within the company and finally the delivery of the product or service to the client. The loop is complete when the follow-up service generates new business with the client or by referral.. Keeping all this together can be a trick, but if you make it work and become famous you should be able to handle it ok!

 JFC  Feb 2010 

To comment click Here

They fed it humans to keep it placid.

So if you ever wondered why the labyrinth was so enormous and complex, to quote Bullfinch's Mythology, "It was an edifice with numberless winding passages and turnings ">opening into one another, and seeming to have neither beginning nor end, like the river Maeander, which returns on itself", well now you know.

The stress level in the neighborhood was high, no matter what Minos said about the labyrinth being tight, the fear that the beast might get out made for a wretched start to a nights sleep.

They fed it regularly. Like I say this was some beast.

The Problem.

As you can appreciate it this would be no way to run a small business. Having an on-going issue, be it cash flow, overhead costs, slow sales or some way the business is run that needs refreshing, the longer it lingers the more complex the situation becomes. It could lead down a labyrinth.
When the customer fails to get the treatment best for them and best for your business, then like the neighbors of the beast, stress becomes a factor.

Well if it helps, along came the Hero, Theseus, a brave lad, whose girl friend lent him a sword and tied a long piece of string to his belt to help him find his way out.

Off the Hero fearless went deep into the labyrinth, found the beast and slewed it.

The Solution.

The moral being, by the use of s">harp, creative thinking, maybe seeking advice, and keeping your options open you can nip the business problem in the bud and move on.  Most times it is a communication issue, either with an employee or a client.  Here is good advice, sharp creative thinking offered in a very systematic way. 

JFC May 2010

To comment click Here

William James

To comment click Here

"Microtrends is based on the idea that the most powerful forces in our society are the emerging, counterintuitive trends that are shaping tomorrow right before us."

Quotations are from Microtrends by Mark J. Penn, he goes on to say that "With so much focus on teen crime, it is hard to the see the young people who are succeeding as never before."

My guess would be you will find a good number of young people hard-wired to small business. 

JFC Apr 2010

To comment click Here

Minister of State for the Status of Women. National Post.

March 8. 2010

To comment click Here

I do think there is a supporting argument here that working towards an Optimum Level of Performance as a business owner and at the personal level, strengthens this resilience.

JFC Mar 2010

To comment click Here