The guerrilla marketing creed is that it’s possible to achieve conventional aims (like sales and profits) using unconventional methods (like investing energy in your marketing and not just more money). When it comes to marketing, the missing “secret sauce” is usually all their time getting in position to start marketing when in reality they should be just getting into action. Energy, passion and enthusiasm can cover up a lot of gaps in your marketing know-how.

Guerrilla marketers take the time to decide where they want to do business. They don’t even attempt to be everything to everyone. Instead, guerrillas focus on one part of the marketplace and serve that segment as well as possible. When it comes to marketing, knowing where you don’t want to play is just as important if not more so than knowing where to play.

Guerrilla marketers also view marketing as an investment rather than an expense. For example, if you spend $3,000 to generate an additional $5,000 in new business, your marketing hasn’t cost you anything. Marketing that works is an investment, and when marketing works well, the return on investment can be impressive. It’s only when marketing is done wrong and doesn’t work that it becomes an expense Guerrillas focus on developing and using marketing that works.

A marketing plan, the ultimate result of this 30-day process, offers a simple strategy or set of strategies, a marketing calendar, an evaluation system, and a selection of weapons and tactics that give you complete control of your marketing.

–Jay Levinson and Al Lautenslager

Have you ever wondered why you don’t have all the clients or customers you need? Many times it’s because you can’t decide where to begin marketing, you aren’t sure where to put the pieces together, or you can’t stay motivated and focused. You are capable of doing many of the things required for effective marketing, but the real question is, will you? Action is what guerrilla marketing is all about. You start by formulating a set of simple, effective things to do consistently to address today’s marketing challenges.

–Jay Levinson and Al Lautenslager

Most people in the business world are too serious. They’re so focused on making money they don’t even give themselves permission to smile anymore. If you can come along with a product that just strikes a whimsical note and makes them smile, that little spark of enjoyment can enable your product to be much better received.

Take, for example, a new bathroom accessory collection designed for Target. This is a set of cup holders, tub accessories, bath mats and toothbrush holders with a common theme. A talented twenty-something industrial designer, fresh out of school, was assigned to come up with some new ideas for a collection to be styled specifically for children. She attacked the assignment with gusto, and came up with a collection called “Beneath the Bubbles” Each piece of the collection was whimsically styled like sea life. There was Wally the Whale, a blue tub-spout protector. Crabby the Crab was a toy bag that attached to the walls of the bathtub. The centerpiece of the collection, however, was Stan the toothbrush holder. Not only did Stan hold two toothbrushes in his rounded starfish arms but there was also a button in the center of his tummy that children could push to make Stan sing. Stan’s song went for about a minute—which just happened to be the amount of time the American Dental Association recommended children should brush their teeth for.

When the collection was presented to buyers, they were a little bit skeptical, but the designer’s enthusiasm won them over and proved to be somewhat contagious. They decided to take a risk on the collection, and it turned out to be a genuine home run for Target. Grandmothers everywhere rushed to buy the collection for their grandkids hoping to encourage them to brush their teeth more often and for longer.

Enthusiasm, like laughter, is infectious. Go spread some around. Infect as many people as you possible can. You’ll be amazed at the change in the environment!

–Robyn Waters

If you can’t get excited about your own products, just imagine how uninspired and unenthused your customers must be feeling.

–Robyn Waters

Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator, and change has its enemies.

–Robert Kennedy

To succeed at reengineering, follow these guidelines:

1. Always start with the customer and work backwards
2. Move fast
3. Tolerate risk
4. Accept imperfections along the way
5. Don’t stop too soon

In short, reengineering is the opposite of business as usually.

Taking each of the guidelines in turn:

1. Always start with the customer and work backwards
Business processes exist solely for the purpose of creating a satisfied customer–they have no other valid reason to exist. Therefore, reengineering at its very heart means a realignment of the company’s resources towards the goal of meeting the needs of the customer.

From an internal perspctive, the best way to generate enthusiasm for a reengineering program is to set ambitious goals that stretch and challenge the organization. People won’t be motivated to abandon the familiar and adopt the reengineered processes unless they are inspired by the vision of what the company is becoming. Provide that spark of motivation.

2. Mover fast
Reengineering is a dramatic, radical process. It simply cannot be undertaken slowly or deliberately. Reengineering must be achieved quickly and decisively–otherwise the forces of internal resistance (for the way things have historically been done within the company) will overwhelm and impede the process.

Reengineering must be done at speed–the faster the better. Experience has shown there is generally a 12-month window of opportunity for a successful reengineering initiative.

3. Tolerate risk
Change–and therefore progress–always involves risk. Therefore, in undertaking reengineering, the people who are by nature risk-averse will feel disoriented and disfranchised.

Experience has shown probably the only way to offset the fear of change within an organization is to demonstrate dramatically the greatest risk of all comes from sticking with the status quo. If people can be convinced “business as usual” probably means being unemployed very soon, they’ll suddenly develop a voracious appetite for trying something new.

4. Accept imperfections along the way
No reengineering program ever emerges full-blown right out of the box. Reengineering is always an iterative process–where something new is tried and expanded on if it doesn’t. That means there will be partial failures along the way as a normal, expected part of the process.

The key is not to avoid mistakes but to learn from them and move on.

5. Don’t stop too soon
Many organizations suspend reengineering when they see the first sign of success. Others stop at the first hint of a problem. Both actions are equally damaging to the long term success of the organization.

The true breakthroughs always require perseverance and patience.

We believe that reengineering is the only thing that stands between many U.S. corporations–indeed, the U.S. economy–and disaster.

–Michael Hammer & James Champy

Not all trends are relevant, so you’ve got to translate them into something meaningful for your customers.

There re actually vast oceans of trends out there waiting to be picked up on. There are tone of good ideas, loads of information and inspiration by the bucketful available in the world of business. However, not all of these trends will be of equal importance to your customers. To make a trend relevant, it’s got to do something your customers actually want and need.

For example, everyone knows cell phones have become quite sophisticated. LG Electronics of South Korea decided to develop a cell phone that was on-trend for customers in the Arab world. They came up with the Qiblah mobile phone that uses GPS technology to always point to Mecca. The phones can even store text from the Koran and will beep when it is the appropriate hour to offer prayers. This is taking technology and using it intelligently to provide a product with features customers will value highly.

Good research into trends must include finding a way to translate technology capabilities into a meaningful advantage. Put another way, great trends are always consumer-centric. You have to listen to what your customer genuinely needs and then translate the capabilities of modern technology into features they will love. Do that consistently well and customers will be singing your praises far and wide.

Avoid literal translations of any trend concept or hot idea. It’s hard to differentiate yourself when you merely copy what’s already out there. Think about how a musical score translates notes and sounds into emotions. There are a limited number o notes, but musicians have been arranging them into endless versions of original music for centuries.

–Robyn Waters

Writing Stories for Maximum Impact

The key principles of writing stories for maximum impact are:

The results of the reengineering program were:

Case Study #2–Ford Motor Company

In the early 1980s, Ford looked at its 500-person accounts payable department closely.

It was soon realized that the majority of each employee’s time was spent tracking down discrepancies between purchase orders, shipping receipts and invoices. Ford decided to reengineer the entire parts procurement process.

Therefore, the steps Ford took were:

The results of Ford’s reengineering program were:

Study #3-Hallmark

Hallmark totally dominates the U.S. greeting card industry. Despite its success, the company decided to embark on a reengineering program with the objective of reducing the time lapse between noting a new niche market to serving it with a card on the retailer’s shelf. (At that time, it took 2–3 years to get a new line of greeting cards from concept to market. The company was making about 50,000 revisions to designs each year, and Hallmark had no accurate way of finding out what was selling well and what was not).

In essence, Hallmark looked to reengineering as a pre-emptive competitive strike rather than as a response to a bad situation.

To reengineer, Hallmark took these steps;

1. To reduce new product development time to 1 year
2. Produce products buyers and retailers would love
3. To reduce costs with improvements in quality

1. Captured sales data at the point-sale.
2. Communicated actual sales data throughout the company.
3. Formed cross-department groups to develop new cards.
4. Eliminated entirely old style review processes.

Case Study #4–Taco Bell

In 1983, the Taco Bell subsidiary of PepsiCo had fewer than 1,500 restaurants and $500 million in total sales. The company had stalled, with little or no growth over the previous five years.

To reengineer, Taco Bell did these things:

As a result of these reengineering programs:

Soul is one of those concepts that, like beauty, evaporates when you try to define it, but like beauty it is instantly recognizable when you meet it.

–Charles Handy

A good trend has soul—an undefinable element of energy, excitement, excellence and desirability.

Products with soul somehow mean more than what they are. There’s an extra something there that you can’t quite put your finger on but that makes them easy to fall in love with and highly desirable. Similarly, a tend with soul connects with people at a special level, and lifts products from the ranks of mediocrity up onto a pedestal of sorts.

Interestingly, products with soul can be big or small, cheap or expensive, elegant or simple, useful or frivolous. Some examples of products that have soul would include the Hummer, the Mini Cooper, the iMac, the iPod, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, In-and-Out burgers, OXO garlic presses, Breitling watches and even Jones Soda. All of these products attract enthusiasts who rave about them far beyond the realms of their functionality. The presence of soul somehow these products a life o their own.

Can you find soul in your product or organization? If you’re not sure that you’ll know it when you see it, then go out of your way to hire people who will. People with soul follow their bliss. They can turn walls into doors. They are authentic, passionate, optimistic, and driven to deliver the best products and experiences possible. Their rarity makes them easy to identify.

–Robyn Waters

Reengineering initiatives typically lead to a business organization with these characteristics:

1. Business processes are simplified rather than being made more complex.

2. Job descriptions expand and become multi-dimensional.

3. People within the organization become empowered as opposed to being controlled.

4. The emphasis within the organization moves away from the individual and towards the team’s achievements.

5. The organizational structure is transformed from a hierarchy to a flatter arrangement.

6. Professionals become the key focus points for the organization, not the managers.

7. The organization becomes aligned with the end-to-end process rather than being focused on departments.

8. The basis for measurement of performance and compensation moves away from activity towards results.

9. The role and purpose of the manager changes from supervisor to coach.

10. People in the organization no longer worry about pleasing the boss–they focus instead on pleasing the customer.

11.The organization’s value system transforms from being protective to being productive.

Reengineering is not solely about creating new business processes–it focuses on creating a new company.

Taking each of these points in turn, in a reengineered company:

1. Business processes are simplified rather than being made more complex.

Companies that reengineer invariably end up dismantling departments and instead put together process teams that handle work logically rather than within the artificial department constraints. Inevitably, the process team approach will be more logical and make more sense than any other approach.

Process teams within a reengineered organization can be of any shape or size. The work to be done dictates the optimum size and structure of the process team–not any artificial constraints, preferences of the managers or external factors.

2. Job descriptions expand and become multi-dimensional.

Before reengineering, a worker may perform one task repetitively all day every day, without ever giving thought to the big picture perspective of what is being created.

After reengineering, the worker is part of a process team that has full responsibiliy for the entire process. In that situation, every team member has an appreciation and familiarity with each step in the process, and will more than likely be required to perform several of those steps at different times. Thus, work becomes multi-dimensional, more rewarding and more closely linked with the end result. There’s ownership in the process output.

3. People within the organization become empowered as opposed to being controlled.

Reengineered companies don’t want people who follow the rules–they value employees who can set their own rules to achieve results. Therefore, reengineered companies look for employees who are self-starters, self-disciplined and who are motivated to achieve.

Another way of looking at empowerment is to consider what happens when a supervisor visits an employee. In a traditional company, the real work screeches to a halt while the employee focuses on satisfying the supervisor. By contrast, in a reengineered company, the employee is thinking, interacting, using judgment and making decisions on the basis of what will create a satisfied customer. The supervisor becomes a resource towards that objective.

4. The emphasis within the organization moves away from the individual and towards the team’s achievements.

Reengineering effectively removes the artificial boundaries put there by department structures. Instead of being focused on a single aspect of the delivery of value, a process team is formed that assumes total and complete ownership of the process.

Teams may be structured in many different ways:

5. The organizational structure is transformed from a hierarchy to a flatter arrangement.

In the team environment made possible by reengineering decisions are made on a consensus basis rather than by a manager. That has the indirect effect of reducing a manager’s role–and their need to be part of the loop.

Invariably, organizational structure is less of an issue at reengineered companies than industrial-age organization. Equally, that leads to a flattening of the traditional management structure. With work being organized around processes and teams, the organizational structure becomes a secondary issue.

6. Professionals become the key focus points for the organization, not the managers.

Reengineering will always change the boundaries between different kinds of work. In the past, the past, the roles filled by the manager–checking, reconciling, monitoring and tracking–would most likely have been at the center of operations.

After reengineering, the creation of value becomes the main focus point. As such, the people who do that most effectively will become the center of focus. Teams will do whatever is required to maximize the efficiency of professionals with the skills applied.

Overall, it’s a more positive approach to business. Invariably, mush of what managers did in the past was unproductive but considered necessary to maintain order. Reengineered teams have a totally different approach people are working because they’re motivated to achieve.

7. The organization becomes aligned with the end-to-end process rather than being focused on departments.

When a process team assumes responsibility for performing a job, the organization as a whole becomes focused on results rather than activity. There’s also a greater sense of completion and achievement for the workers because they can identify directly with a result they care about. That also encourages growth and learning for the team members.

8. The basis for measurement of performance and compensation moves away from activity towards results.

Instead of being paid for their time, workers in a reengineered company are paid for their results achieved. Most often, this tends to be structured as a base salary and a performance-based bonus–which can grow to a substantial level if outstanding results are achieved.

In reengineered organizations, performance is measured solely on the basis of the added value created. The compensation system recognizes and rewards that value creation process.

In the reengineered business environment, advancement from one position within the company to another is not given as a reward for previous results. Instead, it’s entirely ability driven.

9. The role and purpose of the manager changes from supervisor to coach.

Process teams don’t need bosses–they need coaches. A boss allocates work. A coach helps the team solve problems, and facilitates achievement by providing the requisite resources and other inputs. In short, managers in reengineered companies take pride in the accomplishments of the teams they are responsible for assisting.

10. People in the organization no longer worry about pleasing the boss–they focus instead on pleasing the customer.

In the industrial-age companies, the average employee’s attitude was: “My boss pays my salary and determines whether or not I get promoted. Therefore, I’ll concentrate on keeping him happy.”

In a reengineered company’s process team, the attitude becomes: “Customers pay my salary. I’m not paid just to turn up. I get paid according to the amount of added value I create. Therefore, to make more, I’ve got to create more satisfied customers.”

11. The organization’s value system transforms from being protective to being productive.

In a protective organization, every manager wars with every other manager over issues like blame for problems, jurisdiction, fault and allocation of resources.

In a productive, reengineered company, everything in the value system is centered around the creation of customer value. Everything is aligned with and judged by that criteria alone:

Changing corporate value systems is always going to be a big part of any reengineering program.

Most companies that have successfully navigated reengineering programs find there are five key roles that need to be filled:

Leader
↓
Process owner
Reengineering Team
↑ ↑
Steering Committee Reengineering Czar

Ideally, the Leader will appoint the Process Owner, who will convene a Reengineering Team to reengineer the process, with assistance from the Czar and under the auspices of the Steering Committee.

The Leader–must be a senior executive of the organization who has enough clout to cause the whole organization to turn itself upside down and inside out while reengineering occurs. The leader must also be a consensus builder–persuading people to accept the disruptions reengineering will bring.

The Process Owner–will usually be a senior manager (often with line responsibility) who has prestige and credibility. The process owner will make reengineering happen at the individual process level. Most often, process owners are already intimately familiar with one of the functions involved in the process that will undergo reengineering.

The Reengineering Team–carries out the heavy lifting. These people actually get their hands dirty figuring out the nuts and bolts of the nuts and bolts of the reengineered process. The best teams have between five and ten members–a mix of outsiders (people who don’t currently work in any of the functions being reengineered) and insiders (people who do work in those areas).

The Steering Committee–is a broadly based collection of senior managers of the organization who:

The Reengineering Czar–is responsible for management and coordination of all the reengineering teams working within the organization. In effect, the Czar keeps hands-on tabs on the state of play in each reengineering initiative, and provides that perspective to the leader. The Czar acts both as a resource to each reengineering team and as a custodian of the bigger picture issues.

The key points to keep in mind about this structure are: