Day 3 - Global Marketing, Successful Negotiating, Diversity and Inclusion... and a little bit of shopping :-)

I had the opportunity to go shopping this afternoon at Harvard Square.  Unfortunately it was raining, but that didn't deter Marie-Claire or I.  Armed with our Harvard Business School umbrellas, we made the trek through campus, across the bridge and into downtown Harvard Square.

So I bought the obligatory Harvard t-shirt and a bunch of books and small souvenirs for my kids.  Check out the official Harvard bookshop:

It was good to get a shopping fix (after all we'd been tied up on campus for a few days), but now back to the reason why we're really here....

The theme for the morning sessions on Day 3 was Global Marketing and we had two case studies to prepare - one on Real Madrid Club de Futbol and one on The Metropolitan Opera.  We were asked to consider whether two of their key strategies were effective.  In the case of Real Madrid, how did buying in Galactico's (star players) ultimately effect their brand identity and business model? In the case of The Metropolitan Opera, what effect did simulcasting live performances in HD through cinemas around the country and the world have on demand for opera and the Met's profits?

My key notes from these sessions:

• What can I learn from Real Madrid as I help one of our brands - Spicers go global? Real Madrid has a local brand strategy and a global brand strategy.
• Always be sensitive to what the customer wants the brand to mean.
• We don't have full control over our brands - accept that the customer co-creates our brands. e.g. even who potential customers see using our brand shapes people's perceptions of it.
• If managed right, different customer segments can exist side by side and benefit from each other. (e.g. Real Madrid's "socios" or life-long followers and the more fad based fans)
• Consider opportunities to roll out new products/brands with an adapted Hollywood movie-like strategy. i.e. cartoons, films, tv, toys, etc
• How does our business best capitilise on the power of superstars and allow us over time to acquire more of them?  e.g. super chefs, super leaders, etc. Are we leveraging that enough?
• The role of superstar talent may further increase in a digital world - thus requiring more attention from managers.
• Strive for an organic brand architecture that creates synergies for all partners.
• You know you have a problem with your business when the average age of your customer goes from 60 to 65 in 5 years. :-)
• The effect of change on marketing:
• Technology changes and creates new bundles of benefits for customers, e.g. shopping for books at a bookstore vs Amazon
• Channels change - When firms adopt new digital technology, market structures often significantly alter, e.g. look at the impact of wotif on the market structure of the travel industry
• Markets change - creating winners and losers and often the winner takes it all (random link to the song for all of you ABBA fans out there)
• These changes in turn affect the challenges of managing customers, brands and talent

In the afternoon's session on Achieving Career Success Through Negotiation, I noted:

• Career success involves negotiating successfully at home as well as at work.
• The negotiations at home set the constraints for the negotiations at work.
• Many women are much better at negotiating on behalf of others than they are for themselves
• Negotiating for career success:
• reduce your own ambiguity (i.e. be clear with yourself about what you want)
• reduce others' ambiguity (i.e. let other people know you are competent and what you want)
• identify and be aware of potential reactions to gender triggers
• search for opportunities to create value for your own outcomes, others' outcomes and your organization
• work in reciprocal feedback loops

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Patricia Bellinger new head of the Harvard Executive Education Program then spoke about her role at BP leading their diversity and inclusion program.

Key notes:

There are different drivers for diversity and inclusion within organisations.

External drivers include:

• market demographics
• competition for talent and business
• business risk

Internal drivers include:

• motivation and engagement
• capturing talent
• compliance/ethical responsibility

Central to both of these drivers are the aims of improving business performance and increasing shareholder value.

"Our goal is to get a disproportionate share of the human talent."

Critical to achieving sustainable change are interventions to processes to ensure meritocracy and changing behaviours to create a more inclusive environment.

Strategic themes for diversity and inclusion:

• global talent identification and management
• driving accountability with senior level leaders
• meritocracy
• global inclusion
• external challenges

Patricia made the distinction between setting targets vs quotas for inclusion... Interesting discussion point.

There are obvious benefits to establishing diversity hubs in the diverse regions of your organisation, rather than the mainstream.  e.g. not the US.

Ideas:

1. Develop a list of high potential people within my organisations and identify how diverse that list is.  Are we fostering diversity?
2. How can I recognise people in our organisations who are coaching/mentoring new leaders so that people feel this is valued?
3. Is there an opportunity to set up role models/groups for diverse segments within our organisations to foster greater participation and attract more talent to our businesses?

Time now to work on my action plan for when I return to my role in Brisbane.  I present this plan to my board of advisors in the morning and they get to critique it!