Kinda Busy Time...

It´s been quite a while since I posted my last "article" here.. The reason is that I´ve been quite heavily engaged in work-related activities. In the last 20 days or so, I´ve overseen 2 major projects in 2 different countries, flown with 7 airplanes through 6 airports, been to cca 20 different shooting locations, met around 50 wonderful people--most of them production professionals--slept in 4 different hotels, and lost 1 sunglasses somewhere on the Fuerteventura beach. Shooting of the Roomster campaign. Quite exhausting, yet unforgettable and tremendous experience from which I will benefit quite significantly in the long run.

Believe me or not, I´ve also begun to like "my" car ;). The new Skoda Roomster. True, when I joined Skoda Auto almost a year ago, I wasn´t even 100% convinced that Skoda´s aim to launch a new carline in an MPV segment and expand the brand in areas it had not been operating and had not have any experience whatsoever was the right thing to do. Then I first saw the car itself, I think it was in autumn 2005, and it came to me as I was looking at an ugly piece of design in which 2 completely distinctive concept "sort of" mixed together in one "gestalt". But you know what? I´ve been with this car for quite some months now. I´ve seen it standing in the studio in full light, driving by down and up the hill, parking under the Table mountain in Cape Town, making curves on a reef during sunset in Fuerteventura - with its cornering fog-lights turned on. Having realized it fits perfectly to Skoda brand and the direction towards the brand is heading, I´m now very much happy with the distinctive design of the car, for there is one think I learned some time ago: it´s better to have the crowd devided than to have a crowd that doesn´t care.

Anyway, presenting the car in a way the customer would like to see it and (possibly) like it at first sight, that´s exactly my job. That´s why everything have to fit together from the marketing point of view. From the car´s benefits through its positioning to how it will be communicated and "sold" to our prospects. I can´t tell you more details at this moment, but what I can tell you right away is look forward to a top-notch campaign, with the nicest print and tv ads in the 2006 advertising buzz.

The Hedgehog Concept

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
Archilochus (7th-century b.c.e.)

Basically, human beings are categorized as either "hedgehogs" or "foxes". Hedgehogs' lives are embodiment of a single, central vision of reality according to which they "feel", breathe, experience and think - "system addicts", in short. Examples include Plato, Dante, Proust and Nietzsche. Foxes live centrifugal than centripetal lives, pursuing many divergent ends and, generally, possess a sense of reality that prevents them from formulating a definite grand system of "everything", simply because they "know" that life is too complex to be squeezed into any Procrustean unitary scheme. Montaigne, Balzac, Goethe and Shakespeare are, in various degrees, foxes.

In his famous book--Good To Great--the leadership expert Jim Collins argues that those who built the good-to-great companies were, to one degree or another, hedgehogs. They used their hedgehog nature to drive toward what we came to call a Hedgehog Concept for their companies. Those who led the comparison companies tended to be foxes, never gaining the clarifying advantage of a Hedgehog Concept, being instead scattered, diffused, and inconsistent.

I've been thinking a lot about the material in Good to Great by Jim Collins. I'm wondering if his theory of a Hedgehog Concept, as he calls it, can be used for corporate strategy as well as personal decisions. Collins is sure of it and has devised his own theory built upon the hard and soft data he´d gathered before writing Good to Great.

Here´s the deal:

















"To quickly grasp the three circles, consider the following personal analogy. Suppose you were able to construct a work life that meets the following three tests. First, you are doing work for which you have a genetic or God-given talent, and perhaps you could become one of the best in the world in applying that talent. (“I feel I was just born to be doing this.”) Second, you are well paid for what you do. (“I get paid to do this? Am I dreaming?”) Third, you are doing work you are passionate about and absolutely love to do, enjoying the actual process for its own sake. (“I look forward to getting up and throwing myself into my daily work, and I really believe in what I'm doing.”)
If you could drive toward the intersection of these three circles and translate that intersection into a simple, crystalline concept that guided your life choices, then you’d have a Hedgehog Concept for yourself."

For better understanding, Colling continues by stating the following: "to have a fully developed Hedgehog Concept, you need all three circles. If you make a lot of money doing things at which you could never be the best, you’ll only build a successful company, not a great one. If you become the best at something, you’ll never remain on top if you don't have intrinsic passion for what you are doing. Finally, you can be passionate all you want, but if you can’t be the best at it or it doesn’t make economic sense, then you might have a lot of fun, but you won’t produce great results."

For me, the above mentioned hedgehog x fox theory is not something one has to take for sacred truth. It is clever and provocative though. Take it or leave it. I´d recommend to simply sit down for a while, think, and then try to draw your own three circles. A bit of your time and inwards thinking, that´s all it requires. Good luck!

Hope You Had a Wonderful Christmas

Slowly but surely, this year´s Christmas are history. Here in the Czech republic for example, the 24th will be remembered as the day with the most sent sms messages in the history of our country--almost 60 mil. pieces in total--which makes it cca 6 messages per every single Czech, no matter how old he or she is. Well, as you can observe, we´re indeed no more a developing country. In fact, we´ve become the mobile messaging tiger! What do cultural stereotypes say about this? Foreigners with czech girlfriends or boyfriends, be prepared for everything. One day, your czech partner could propose to you his/her own way - witn an sms :)

Dear friends and colleagues, I hope you spent your Christmas as best as you could, no matter where, no matter with whom.

One hour ago, I got an email from one friend of mine living in Vancouver. This guy has influenced me a lot. In his email, there was one sentence which I found quite...publishable if you like: "this is the time of year where I sit back and evaluate how things went last year, and where I want to go for next year." What do you think? You know I really liked what that guy wrote to me, since it actually made me think that way too...

Rath a Zvěřina by to mohli dát dohromady

Zase poruším své vlastní pravidlo (od čeho už ta pravidla jsou..) a nedá mi to než vyslovit jedno vážné podezření k panu ministru (abych byl korektní) taky "doktoru" Davidu Rathovi, novém českém rekordmanovi v počtu podání žalob na svou osobu během doby co se stal ministrem zdravotnictví. Jestli pan ministr v něčem vyniká, pak je to právě tato "disciplína." Ach málem bych zapomněl ještě na jedno - pan ministr je prvním českým ministrem, kt. se otevřeně hlásí k mnohoženství. Ale to už je jiná kapitola.
Zpátky k Petru Zvěřinovi. Dal jsem si jej do souvislosti s panem ministrem proto, že, jak se mohl národ na ministrově poslední tiskovce po jeho zvolení Pražským lídrem ČSSD, rozhodně "taky voe nepřijel do Prahy na babetě voe." Svého hlavní soupeře v tomto nadcházejícím klání, předsedu ODS Topolánka předem ocejchoval jako "valacha" odkudsi z prd... republiky (Topolánek pochází z Valašska) a podle jeho názoru určitě vyhraje, padž "mí Pražané mi určitě rozumnějí a nebudou volit cizáka, kterého s Prahou spojuje jen to, že si tady koupil byt." Trochu panu ministrovi uniklo, že samotný vůdce ČSSD Paroubek kandiduje v Ústí ačkoliv pochází z Olomóca (což je podle mě na mapě ještě dál a navíc - nemá tam ani ten byt). Aha?!
Zmíněná ekvilibristika pana ministra nese jasný rukopis baviče národa (v negativní smyslu slova) Petra Zvěřiny, který jako první tento těžký, vážný, tzv. "babetový argument" použil jako první a snad na něj vlastní i práva. Zatím jsme se nedozvěděli, kde to pan ministr vlastně bydlí, jestli taky přímo na Václaváku nebo někde jinde. Nedivil bych se, kdyby to ti dva spolu táhli nějak dohromady, leccos spolu mají společného, hlavně přesvědčení, že civilizace končí na pátém kilometru D1 směrem na Brno (a to jsem optimista). Petr Zvěřina by mohl být skvělým ministrovým mluvčím např. Nebo rovnou asistentem, koneckonců "Zvěřina" zní tak trochu jako veterinář :)

Řekl bych, že mu snad i to jeho mnohoženství leze na mozek. Ono totiž všeho moc škodí. A o Rathovi by se to dalo říct dvojnásob. Premiér Paroubek, který si díky Rathovi našel svého předvolebního kašpárka a zlého muže sice zmocnil pana doktora k ministrování, otázkou ovšem zůstává, zda jej tím také neprozřetelně nezmocnil k tomu, aby s ČSSD prohrál jarní volby. Hulvátsví snad bude špatný volební program - i v u nás v Česku. Snad.

Managers, Lead! Or Otherwise Go To Hell.

For the next article, I had been about to hit a completely different topic. But having spent some incredible time with my incredible girlfriend in my favorite city of Zlin, I was on my way back to Mlada Boleslav, driving my car, listening to my self-motivation stuff by Jim Collins on differences between mediocre and truly great companies. I had listened to it many times thus far, yet everytime I put it in the cd player I sort of stumble upon something new, something more relevant to what is going on around me. This time, it was Jim´s take on the leadership capabilities of today´s managers. I played this part several times, and always it stroke me how simple his key remmark was: in case you feel you are the right person on the bus, your contribution to the company is merely voluntary. You know what to do, what your goals are, what should be done and why. You don´t need others to motivate you simply because you be able to motivate yourself accordingly to your own personal values, attitude and qualities. In that case, my gosh, do we actually need a manager who is doing nothin´but "exercising his or hers power"? Ehmmmmm, I DON´T THINK SO. In fact, right now, we are living in a completely new world that is called "the power of choice/the world of many options". Indeed, if you are sitting in the right seat, but on the wrong bus, there is no reason whatsoever why you couldn´t say "enough for me, I´m changing the bus", right? So it that case, as I´ve mentioned above, our contribution to a particular company is merely voluntary. And those right people in the right seats are all volunteers, for at any time they can stand up and go somewhere else. Now WHO is THE GUY who should hold the right people on the bus? Bingo: the manager. And bingo again: is the "power exercising-type-of-manager" the right manager to do the job? NO, it´s not! It´s the leadership type-of -manager. Allright I hear you--how to hell should I judge on what type of manager is my boss like..? A simple solution for that--try the easiest way by asking yourself an easy question: your boss/manager lost his/hers exercising power, would rise a hand for him/her becoming a leader again? Would you like to follow the guy anyway? There you go.
To be fair and realistic, you probably cannot change your own bosses every month. It pretty much depends on how big the company actually is, how the company´s culture works, or just how and if there is any feedback from the people upwards. What you can do at least is adressing your boss by asking the right questions, demanding clear rules, competencies, criteria for success etc. The more you will get your project under your control, the more indispensable you become. Responsibility is the key word. Don´t be scared of it.

Jednoduše jednodušší jednoduchost

Vzpomínám si, a není to zas tak dávno, jak to všechno u nás začlo slovíčkem "nový". Bodejť ne, co jsme taky mohli čekat když byla "nová" reklama sama o sobě. Tedy alespoň ve formě pravidelných reklamních breaků, umísťovaných tak rafinovaně do míst uprostřed těch nejnapínavějších filmových honiček, duchaplných dialogů a milostných scén. Taky si vzpomínám jak po "nový" přišlo "svěží". To už byla skutečná maturita české reklamy. Svěží bylo všechno. Od svěžích myšlenek po svěží pocity. V reklamě bylo tolik svěžesti, že i čeští důchodci se rozhodli chodit později do důchodu.

Letošním frontmanem reklamně-slovních příkrasů zdá se být jednoznačně "jednoduchost", a to ve všech možných podobách, tvarech, komunikačních kanálech. Kopyrajtři se opět spojili s markeťáky aby nám všem usnadnili život alespoň virtuálně. Venku je to dneska "pěknej fičák vole". Supersized porce každodenní realityshow v telce, supersized porce u meka, supersized pracovní povinnosti. Nezapomínejme na premiéra Paroubka, ten je taky pořádně supersized. Jsou ho plná média - většinou doslova - a většinou bohužel. Samo, že si tak trochu střílím gól do vlastní branky - svým způsobem patří Škodovka se svým claimem Simply Clever k pionýrům jednoduše chytrých řešení. Ovšem pozor, my narozdíl od ostatních brandů dodržujeme reklamní pravidlo č. 1: když už plkat, tak alespoň konzistentně. Simply Clever je strategická záležitost, která nepadá s tím, jak se ráno kopyrajtr nebo markeťák vyspí. Kvalita spaní asi nic moc, a tak tu máme "jednoduše jednodušší" kdoví co, "jednoduše volejte levněji" kdoví kam, "jednoduše k dobrému výsledku" kdoví jak, "jednoduše Fiat" kdoví proč (ta firma pořád existuje?) a další a další adepti, kterých zde ještě určitě pár přibude.

Your Boss Is Not A God

And the sooner you recognize it, the better. Look, there´s many bosses in your life. It all started in the kinderkarten. Do you remember what always happening after the launch break? Yeah... Man, I didn´t want to go to sleep only because someone had ordered me to do so. I wanted to do something completely else instead--chatting with other kids, going out for a walk, or juse hanging around the playground. Anyway I swear it was nothing compared to the lunch itself! I don´t know how you guys felt when you were sitting on a small chair behind a small table, eating all this particularly "tasty" dill sauce or boiled tasteless carrot with boiled tasteless potatoes, not being allowed to stand up and walk away until you finished that god damn dish. I felt horrible and helpless, but it tought me a lesson I will never forget: you can´t eat more if you´re not that hungry, even if somebody commands you to do so. Thats right. USE YOUR BRAIN INSTEAD, and use extensively, that means BOTH PARTS OF IT. Be wise. Be realistic. And above all--try to predict. You don´t need a university to figure out what´s happening. Yet, one of the biggest paradoxes in life says you need more than a university to handle things appropriately--simply to react to what´s happening. All the bosses in our lives--from the teachers in kindergarten, our parents, partners, to superior co-workers that sometimes call themselves managers--are no Gods, albeit some of them may be great managers and even phenomenal leaders. If your boss at work sucks, you have to roll with it and behave accordingly to your personal values and character. He or she is definitely NOT the most important person in the company. Guess what--your internal and external customer IS. In fact, those people (internal and external customers) are Gods (well, very little ones, but still...). Therefore, if you are responsible for a project, the first think you should do is to keep in mind the goal of that project. If your boss is not giving you a hand, it is a best opportunity for you to navigate through the process by yourself. Remember that in the end, you are paid for the results, not for managing your own boss. He or she may not be there forever.