www.viewpoint.net.nz - NZ Transport, Aviation, Logistics & Supply Chain Blog

Never read "Hello Laziness"

In France 1 in every 5 people are employed by the state. Employment and business law is so regulated that growth is minimal. There is little being done to encourage start-up businesses and when a change to labour laws was suggested 1,000,000 people marched (and rioted) against them.

It is against this backdrop that I review the book "Hello Laziness" by Corinne Maier. I brought the book because I thought it was the sort of book I should read before I gave it to anyone (something I will not be doing).

The author appears to be bitter, anti business and discourages employees from taking ownership and learning new things. An example is the first of the authors commandments:

"Salaried work is the new slavery. Remember that work is not a place for personal development. You work for your pay cheque at the end of the month, full stop."

I am glad I don't live in France (from a business point of view).

The irony is that the author would probably say, that as a business owner, I am exactly the sort of person you should be wary of.

Book Summary

Hello Laziness - Why hard work doesn't pay
Corinne Maier

Genres        Business, Being a lazy employee.
Pages         121
Readability   3 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment    1 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

What did you learn today?

I was asked this question by one of my team the other day, and I thought what an awesome question. I had learnt things that day but looking back and reflecting on them helps me cement them in my mind.

What did you learn today?

Did you learn anything? Even something small? If you didn't are you developing as a leader? What would happen if you asked yourself every day? What would happen if you asked different people you work with what they learnt every now and then?

Ask the question!

Hamilton Airport is too taxing

I travelled to Christchurch the other day and now have to pay a $5 departure tax from Hamilton Airport for Domestic Travel. The tax^ is required to pay for the interest charges on the new terminal.

Here are my issues with it:

• The Hamilton airport is a regional airport and is the gateway to the region. The terminal needed upgrading because it was by far the most butt ugly terminal for the size of the region it services. In my view the shareholders (being Hamilton City Council 50% and the other regional councils) should have seen this coming, as the business case either always included this or was so far wrong somebody should go. The value of the airport company jumped $22 million in just one year (69%), slightly more than the $600k in interest payments.
• They are charging me a departure tax for a new terminal that won’t be finished for another 18 months. In the meantime it’s portable toilets outside.
• They have twice increased the car parking charges as well. It was $8 a day, then went to $10 a day and is now $20 a day. I am being taxed twice!
• I really really dislike queuing as it is. Now I have to queue twice once for my ticket and the other time to pay departure tax. No four times. I queue to check in, queue for departure tax, queue to handover more tax to get to the gate, queue to get on the plane.

The board and management team lack the ability to think in an ingenious way. Taxing the departing visitor is dumb. I thought the purpose of the airport increase visitors to the region.

A final note. It takes me 30 mins from home to the airport. To get to Christchurch direct is 1:50. If I drive to Auckland it will take me 1 hour and I get a 1:20 flight time, cheaper flights in bigger planes with more leg space, more frequency and better services and lounges. Hamilton Airport assumes people like me won’t do that.

They are wrong.

Ingenious Rating : 0

Ingenious Rating

I have decided to create an ingenious rating table that I can rate different businesses and ideas that I can see, against my meaning of Ingenious.

Ingenious means providing remarkable and inventive and edgy and customer focused and stunning service.

5 = Ingenious

3 = Very Good
2 = Nice Try
1 = What were you thinking?
0 = Dumb Ass

The table deliberately has no #4 to remind us that there is a huge gap between Ingenious and Very Good. I will post the ratings to different businesses in the comments below.

A quest for an ingenious business

If you buy a Lighter then you would expect it to have gas in it – right? Well when I purchased one from the Oasis Superette  in Papamoa it didn’t. I went back and they put it right for me without blinking. They were really helpful and its an enjoyable experience going to their store.

The service I experience at the Oasis was great, if not very good, better than I had experienced at a dairy or superette in years. And yet it was not remarkable or ingenious (save for the fact that I now tell you about it)

I would go back to that store as opposed to the store 50 metres down the road (and recommend that you do), but I wont drive for 20 minutes to go back the next time I'm in Tauranga

A recently read book by Seth Godin called “Purple Cow” ^ which says the “remarkable is the opposite of very good”, and this has caused me to think about our ^ desire to provide ingenious services.

The America Heritage Dictionary ^ defines ingenious as “1. Marked by inventive skill and imagination. 2. Having or arising from an inventive or cunning mind; clever: an ingenious scheme.”

In business I believe that Ingenious means providing remarkable and inventive and edgy and stunning service.

Ingenious companies care about their customers and are truly creative about meeting their needs. The type of service they provide gets noticed and talked about and ingenious businesses are known to be the experts, the geniuses, the elite, the ONLY place to get that service.

I am starting a short-term quest to post comments on businesses that are ingenious and those that aren’t and why.

What does a Purple Cow have to do with Marketing?

"Very Good" is not being "Remarkable" is the single biggest thought I will take out of the book 'Purple Cow' by Seth Godin. It has significant implications to my business and will drive me to explore being more remarkable and ingenious in the services we provide as I think we are often Very Good.

'Purple Cow' is about making sure that your business is offering remarkable services.

It talks about traditional advertising basically being less effective and in most cases totally ineffective, and then offers insights into making your business remarkable. It is a thought provoking book and is (by default of marketing generally) targeted more towards product development that service based business. A key quote for me is:

"The opposite of 'Remarkable' is 'Very Good'

Ideas that are remarkable are much more likely to spread than ideas that aren't. Yet so few brave people make remarkable stuff. Why? I think it's because they think that the opposite of 'Remarkable' is 'bad' or 'mediocre' or 'poorly done'. Thus, if they make something very good, they confuse it with being virus worthy.

If you travel on an airline and they get you there safely, you don't tell anyone. That's what's supposed to happen. What makes it remarkable is if it's horrible beyond belief or if the service is so unexpected (they are an hour early or comp my ticket because I'm cute) that you need to share it.

Very good is an everyday occurrence and is hardly worth mentioning.

Are you making or doing very good stuff? How fast can you stop?"

Purple Cow - Page 67

Seth recently had an article in the Guardian which he posted on his blog called "How to be Remarkable". It is a great summary of thoughts from his book and blogs. READ IT!

Book Summary

Purple Cow - Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable ^
Seth Godin - www.sethgodin.com

Genres        Marketing, Business, Product Development
Pages         142
Readability   3 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment    4 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)