The Dinosaur Behaviour of The Royal Mail Workforce

image thanks University of Chicago

Future business archeologists have discovered what look like the remains of a huge organisational juggernaut that was believed to have last roamed the earth in the early part of the 21st century.

The beast has provisionally be named Royalist Mailastodon.

Speculating on its demise Professor G.Ullibility suggested that the animal failed to adapt to changes in its environment, choosing to behave in increasingly out moded ways. It is thought that it devoted alot of its scarce energy to posturing rather and ritual stand offs rather than develop new ways of living in a changing world.

The scale of the fossil find and the arrangement of the bones further suggests some sort of death wish behaviour. All of the animal finds so far have huddled together and seemed to have simply given up on the quest for evolutionary competitive advantage. "Its like they just went on strike" the Professor said.

What Business Are The Banks In?

via news.bbc.co.uk

The BBC reports that Bank boards are to come under closer scrutiny. In the article it is pointed out that several banking heads have no banking industry back ground and no banking qualifications.

This shouldn't really come as any surprise. The reason this has happened is because business and society have bought into the 'MBA' myth that has historically reinforced the idea that a professional manager has 'transferable skills' allowing them to manage any business regardless of its commercial setting.

General tools, deployed by general managers who all speak the lingua franca of business-ese. The language of 'forces', of 'gap analysis', of ROI, of 'brand equity' and so on and so on.

This 'managerialist' philosophy is 'taken for granted', so deeply embedded that its truth and nature is, for most aspiring managers self evident. It is 'the' way to run a business successfully, because it 'stretches competences' (sic) and wraps ruthless scientific rationality up in the soft velvet of service and relationship rhetoric.

Kurt Lewin said there was nothing more practical than a good theory. The implication of this observation is that the way in which a person conceives of their world determines how they act in it. Chris Argyris calls them 'theories for success', deeply held ideas that determine how problems are defined and solutions created.

So why would a supermarket retailer get a job as a top banker then?

One reason is because he is a 'general manager'. At one level all businesses are the 'same' so they can all be run in the same way. The other reason is because of the answer to that most profound of business questions - 'what business are you in?'

This question will have a senior management team split asunder if they have never pondered on it before. It demands an explanation of what exactly the business 'does'. So what business are the banks in?

Generating ROI for investors (the avowedly Freidmann-esque position)?

The 'Service' business (the deceptive landscaping of the service offer pushed by most banks to disguise the fact that they are aggressive sales led organisations)?

The 'Retail' business (we sell consumable products to individual consumers through high street and on-line channels to market)?

Add the last explanation to the previous two and you have a justification for employing Barrow Boy MBA at the senior level of your banking business!

On the other hand, characterise the business of banking as something rather more profound, something rather more central to social welfare of the country and its citizens, something rather more essential to the working of a modern society, then, the business the banks are in is nothing at all to do with getting the sales team to push the latest 'gee-whiz' offering from new product development, nothing to do with callously casting itself as a friendly service provider who cares for YOUR finances through the journey of life.

What if Banking is a prudent guardian of financial stability, the essential counterpoise to the pull of rampant consumerism with its powerful and persuasive temptations to overstretch the wallet? What if it is about 'saving' to spend rather than 'borrowing' to spend?

Retailers want every last penny from us, because every little helps their profit margins, they don't care if its baked beans or shoes for the kids. The banks should,and the way to do it to have absolute clarity about what business they are in!

Posted via web from Gullibimundi

Every Quantitative Measure We Have Says Robert McNamara Has Died

via news.bbc.co.uk

By his own admission Robert McNamara admitted the gullibility of having blind faith in your assumptions.

Famous for claiming about US endeavours in the Vietnam War that "Every quantitative measure we have shows we are winning this war" His statement is a classic of managerialist thinking that shows just how crazy over-reliance on numerical metrics is when trying to determine social behaviours and outcomes. He came from a school of thought that claimed that only rational scientific methods should be used for determining policy. Take the subjective and the emotional out of the equation and you are closer to the truth.

The fact is Mr McNamara has died. It is also true that his thoughts and opinions live on as fascinating historical perspectives on a diverse and high power career. So has he really died?

His legacy? Whilst maybe not directly attributable to Mr McNamara the 'sanitised' measurement and reporting of warfare is from his time. bodycount, megadeath are just a couple of terms that echo from the past. We might also remember that the term strategic hamlet does not refer to a well earned cigar whilst pondering the latest loss of ground to the enemy!

Posted via web from Gullibimundi

Can Posterous Keep Communication Open In Iran?

via news.bbc.co.uk

I'm trying http://posterous.com/ to see how it makes a difference to my blogging. I picked up information about the site from Steve Rubel. You can read more via this link http://www.micropersuasion.com/2009/06/posterous-is-changing-how-i-think-about-blogging.html What I am expecting to happen is that this post using the Posterous book marklet updates my Twitter and Blogger blog automatically, posts and image and converts urls to links. So let's see!

With a Posterous account once it has been set up I can 'attach' my other social media accounts and then update via e-mail. Neat!

Posted via web from Reasonable's posterous

10 Ways Your Degree Will Improve Your Employability

Is there anyway you can prevent going from this:



image credit Wake Forest University








To This!?














Let's face it. You joined university in the firm belief that a degree would enhance your employability job prospects. Why should you think any differently? That's certainly the impression that's given off from the prospectii and the mantras that a broadcast in all areas of society. Figures are wheeled out to show how you how your earning power in the long run is so much better than someone who hasn't got a degree. Well that's assuming you aren't carrying too much debt of course. And it assumes that are jobs available in the first place!

So how are you going to get a job after graduating especially in a recession?

There are differences of course with regard to the type of degree you have. If you have a degree based on the natural sciences or technology then its probably the case that you had a specific career in mind. The same goes for particular professional services such as accounting and law. It might also be the case that you see your degree as a step on the way to an academic research and /or teaching career. Where things become a bit less certain is with those degrees that cover what might be termed 'managerial' subjects.

There is a paradox with such degrees. They provide a young graduate with exposure to a raft of concepts tools and ideas which can be very helpful to business. The problem is they tend to be 'analytical and reflexive' and when trading is tough businesses want 'doers' not 'thinkers'. Not only that business graduates are caught in a cleft stick. Join a big corporate (even they aren't recruiting as much as they used to at the moment) and when they do you become a very small cog in the machine, you are a front line soldier expected to do the grunt work that the previous tranche of graduate starters now shovel your way. You will be beguiled with promises of career progression, expected to sell your soul and time to the company to find after 5 years you are simply a number in the company's 'Graduate Idol' competition where there is only one winner. On the other hand you can join a small entrepreneurial business. Usually the boss has his ideas and no time for 'fancy college' stuff. It's 'My Way or The Highway'. Invariably the entrepreneur wants to know you can help him sell 'more of his stuff'. You might have a fancy title but you'll have no power and you'll be judged by what you bring in not how fantastic your market analyses are.


So 10 Ways To Get A Job With A Degree:

1. Don't be gullible and expect your degree to get you a job

2. Use your connections in every way possible. Many graduates today come from families who aren't 'connected' in the same way that richer families are so this is a major problem.

3. Do something for a business that shows 'willing'. This doesn't mean being taken for a ride. It means exploiting the phenomenon of reciprocation. Help people and they tend to help you.

4. Volunteer. It might hurt financially in the short term but it shows your committed and it gives the prospective employer a chance to see you in action.

5. Really pay attention to social skills. Deference where its due. Don't go bragging about 'my degree' Earn a reputation as a problem solver and a safe pair of hands.

6. Listen. listen.listen. Offer alternatives and suggestions, not prescriptions and must do's. Forget the typical 'recruitment' and 'HR' advice for interview techniques. Everybody follows those tips so by definition you will not come across as 'different' or 'interesting'. Instead study sales presentation skills. These will enable you get across the reasons why anyone should consider employing you. Check out How To Persuade People To Buy From You for more ideas.

7. Set up your own business.

8. Use your bachelors degree to get a Masters Degree. Re-read 1-7 above.

9. Put the 'subject' of your degree to one side. Ponder on what the experience of higher education has given and translate that into 'benefits' for an employer. i.e.what can you 'do' for them with your research, team work, presentation skills

10. In an interview spend alot of time asking about the interviewers business/organisation. (Be careful not to be patronising or appear as a consultant)Uncover problems and challenges they face, THEN match your skills and knowledge to them as solutions. Use phrases such as 'so am I right in understanding...', 'one thing you might do in that situation is...'

11. BONUS tip. Avoid going into 'super salesman' mode at all costs. It won't wash and it will make the employer's toes curl. If on the off chance you are expected to be table thumping, hard nosed and brash then be very wary of the type of organisation you are getting into. In 9 cases out of 10 business are NOT looking for the next Apprentice In the UK The programme has been criticised in the media for suggesting that success in the business world requires possession of unsavoury qualities. Terence Blacker of The Independent newspaper, for example, said that he believed that the programme falsely linked success with being "nasty, disloyal, greedy and selfish, claims the Wikipedia article.

12 Super BONUS tip. Don't waste your time and emotional energy with recruitment companies. You will simply be treated as their commodity. They are not 'talent' spotters they are 'job' matchers. Do yourself a favour and put effort into direct approach and formal letter. By all means attach a resume/CV, but best of all give something of yourself in a biographic story that aims to connect with your prospective employer, and please don't say 'I liked the look of your web site'

The Lights Are On But Is Anyone At Home?

Today's Earth Hour is set to plunge the world into darkness as a way of drawing attention to the problem of Co2 emissions.

What has been called the 'Big Switch Off' should really be called the 'Big Switch On' as it ought to be something where the light goes on in people's minds about what we are doing to the planet, and how we are jeopordising the future of life on earth.

Should any future space visitor find the Nasa picture above after we have all disappeared it should be in an envelope marked 'This Is How We Did It'

Don't be gullible. Switch your lights off and your brain on.

So We're With Lloyds TSB For The Journey

image credit - The Great British Public









Now we have a 65% share in the Lloyds TSB My bank manager works for me!

I wonder what The Journey will be like now? Will the patronising letters end? perhaps I'll be treated as a customer rather than somebody who can be duped into purchasing insurance policies I don't need.

I am doubtful that the culture and philosophy of this institution will change. A Lloydstsb spokesman on the BBC today, speaking of the merger with HBOS was mute about any consideration for customers. He simply emphasised that it would be a good deal over the medium term for shareholders. Ahah...he means us! I get it now.


Read more:
Rugfish

Social Media and Marketing Mystics

image credit utoldeo.edu

So, what is the truth about social media marketing thought and practice? Does engagement with social media require a new 'paradigm'? does it deliver on its promise?

Cam Beck of Chaos Scenario has posted a thought provoking piece asking if Social Media experts have actually delivered anything for their clients. Are social media marketing people at risk of becoming classed as mystics and soothsayers rather than being regarded as credible business practitioners?

Let me start by explaining my position. I got into the on-line social media world two years ago. My interest was driven by two key factors. I was curious about digital social media as a social phenomenon and I wanted to understand how it applied to the daily practice of marketing (whatever we mean by that).One was a broadly academic interest and the other a management interest. Fusing the two together means that I try and look at digital social media affairs from a 'critical marketing' perspective, not as an outsider (marketing is a wicked and evil profession that promotes consumerism and materialism), but as an insider who has 'done the job' and now researches and educates in the field with an avid interest in new and best practice.

Many of you will be familiar with 'dual process' modes of information processing. In order to think critically about marketing it means that I spend a lot of time in the 'systematic' mode trying to unpack the underlying assumptions people make when they are making their claims for the efficacy of a particular marketing management approach. Warning! doing this a lot can make you really pedantic and you can end up as 'Billy No Mates'. That said, critical marketing is not just about using a marketing method or technique and then assessing what worked, what didn't, and proposing an improved way of doing it. It's being wised up to the the taken for granted assumptions that lie behind what marketing people believe is 'the correct marketing way'

Non-Marketing Managers and management writers often criticise marketing for not being accountable, good at spending money and not too good at demonstrating R.O.I. This is because they are driven by the 'managerialist paradigm'. 'Good' management by this view is objective, rational, planned, logical and evidence based. This view also criticises marketing because it is prone to 'faddism', the sort of conversation that claims 'Twitter is the new Facebook' or 'Collaboration is the new Competition' etc etc. Marketeers who indulge in this line of thinking tend to be information 'splitters', seeking out the differences rather than the sameness and claiming the discovery of something fresh and new that everyone else has missed. They also prey on less critical or informed business minds only too keen get 'that competitive edge'.

Typical of marketing management writers who urge caution when dealing with marketing mystics are Robert Shaw and David Merrick, who recommend maintaining a sceptical gaze when looking at people who claim to possess special insight into the workings of the customer mind and who treat Branding as messing with Barbarella's ogasmatron! Similarly managerialist writers such as Emperor Kotler take great pains to ensure that marketing has scientific credibility, and tend to airbrush out of the picture emotions and perceptions as a crucial aspect of the marketing job. (See how face to face selling and marketing communications are relegated to aspects of the marketing mix in this type of writing)

One of the ironies of being a marketing professional is, like us or loathe us the vast majority of people see us being particularly skilled in social influence. The public face of marketing IS face to face selling and marketing communications! By definition this means we have to be involved in all aspects of rhetoric, the pathos (emotion, perception, experience) the ethos (authenticity and responsibility) not just the logos (method and measurement).

For me digital social media is a crucial dimension of modern marketing that should resist having the soul beaten out of it by the logisticians. Throughout history whatever the organisation, commercial or public service, whoever the trader one man band or big corporate people with something to sell (idea, product, service)have been in the business of connecting with human beings and conducting conversations. Does this mean that it is unaccountable? No! of course not.

Social media marketeers don't necessarily have to deliver a direct 'cause and effect' sales result. They can be measured in terms of influence and engagement. Creating conversational arenas, the tone of the dialogue, the shaping of thought are fundamental aspects of marketing effectiveness too. A social media strategy is about creating a space in which the organisation and its representatives become respected for their thought and opinion leadership. Once social trust has been created then people will trust your products and services. This is not new! How often have you heard people say 'this is a people business you know'

So, in response to the question 'what have you done for me lately social media expert' you will do well if you are an honest broker. You are critical of faddism and mysticism, you ensure there is ethical robustness between conversational claims and product and service feature and benefits and you skillfully construct appealing and dynamic social spaces in the minds of the people you seek to influence.

What do you think?

Read More:
Green Comunications Blogs About 'The Emperors New Clothes

And straight from the hip is...
Wolf-Howl a great post about social media 'b.s.' and false gods and idols. ^5.

Bankers, Big Business and Ferengi Ethics

Recognise the face? Its Quark the Ferengi bartender from Star Trek. Quark has a reputation for being unscrupulous in his commercial dealings. How much does Quark represent the dealings of modern banking and business?

N.Craig Smith Professor of Marketing at Georgetown University wrote a paper in 1995 entitled Marketing Strategies For The Ethics Era

It was published in the Sloan Management Review volume 36 issue 4.

In his abstract Professor Smith says:

"Marketing strategies are increasingly subject to public scrutiny and are being held to higher standards. Caveat emptor is no longer acceptance as a basis for justifying marketing practices..Today, consumers' interests are increasingly favored over producers' consumers can make informed choices, and less capable consumers are offered special protection. The author provides a practical framework - including the consumer sovereignty test - for marketers to apply to their decision making."

Smith suggested that Businesses just like the products they produce could be labelled in a way that showed their attitude and performance in respect of:

Consumer Capability - (is the consumer vulnerable?)
Information - (are expectations and promises realised?)
Choice - (do customers have an opportunity to switch?)

His checklist is elaborated in the paper to include aspects of:
Product Policy - product safety, deceptive packaging, planned obsolesence etc
Marketing Communications - questionable sales techniques, misrepresentation, conflicts of interests, ie pushing products not best suited to the customer, puffery, advertising as hidden perusader.
Pricing deceptive, unfair
Distribution selective, deliberate shortages

How these issues echo today with the 2009 financial crisis. and it is interesting to note the UK Prime Minister's concern with controlling the excesses of The Banking Bonus Culture

Goodwin, McKillop, Hornby, and Stevenson Banking's 4 Messketeers

In parliament today there was Neither Sorrow or Honour for the 4 Messketeers as they tried to explain that they had not taken advantage of their positions, power, authority and customers.

The great and the 'good' (sic) of British Banking were brought before the UK's Parliamentary Treasury Committee today to explain their industry's ineptitude.

Sir Fred Goodwin, Sir Tom McKillop, Andy Hornby, and Lord Stevenson made a feeble attempt at explaining the disgraceful behaviour of policy makers and decisions takers in their organisations, and sought to explain away the societal havoc they have caused with a 'sorry'.

Just how authentically 'sorry' are these bean counters for destroying the innovative ideas, loyalty, and industry of ordinary people? How can they possibly truly relate to what they've done?

I believe there is only one way that they can atone for their misjudgement in a way that is unequivocal and for all to see. These people and their lieutenants might consider Seppuku because that is a clear demonstration of their contrition. The Samurai certainly had a sense of honour.

I would be interested to hear their reasons for not doing this? Is it because they believe that their 'talents' are too indispensible for the resurrection of their industry? That they think that way is hardly surprising when one of the 4 Mesketeers,is retained at £60,000 a month (paid out taxpayers money)to advise Lloyds TSB!!

These people have built their careers on the expectation that people will be gullible and treat their utterances and actions uncritically. For the first time the social influence of social media and networking can bring the full force of public opinion to their ears. No longer can people like this assume they can take advantage of their customers with impunity.

New rules should be brought to the financial service industry that mirror the medical profession. We should have the ability to strike inept bankers off so that they can never operate in financial services industry in any capacity whatsoever for as long as they live. If they consider that to be too long a duration...they have an option of course.

Justin Urquhart Stewart Warns Banking Talent Will Leave UK

Investment expert Justin Urquhart Stewart
has just been on UK TV with a shock revelation that UK banking talent will leave the country if they don't get their bonuses paid Well Justin, just how gullible do you feel the general public are?

I bet, dear reader, your knees are knocking! Oh nooooooooooo what are we going to do? All that outstanding talent leaving our shores. How could they? Don't they realise the nation is in peril.

So tell me, how would you characterise this 'talent' exactly? I guess negotiating bomb proof bonus schemes is a talent, and of course keeping your job despite engineering global financial catastrophe, that's pretty skilful too. Sort of on a par with a surgeon, or a great educator, an innovative engineer, or a great composer don't you think Justin?

Why Are RBS Bankers Getting Bonuses?

image credit DK Images













It seems that the bankers at the Royal Bank of Scotland are intent on paying themselves massive bonuses out of the cash the taxpayer has given them to sort their abysmally run operations.


The jaw dropping arrogance of these people just underlines their sense of untouchability and distance from the 'real world'

There is much talk at the moment of reviewing the management systems and methods of banking practices. I don't hold out much hope for any major impact because the people involved are imaginative and knowledgeable enough to devise methods to circumvent any attempts to inhibit their excesses.

These people see themselves as Rule Makers not Rule Takers They devote a huge amount of intellectual effort into devising and playing systems. Strip away the facade of the Banker and you see them for what they really are.

If asked asked about their 'job' they will explain what it IS that they do, and provide rationally plausible answers in terms of the mechanics of the financial products they devise and sell. They will never tell you what they really DO, because that would reveal their secret. What they DO is devise financial instruments and methods that are capable of general personal wealth using 'other people's money'


This habit is so ingrained in the Banker's DNA that they are impelled to behave in this way regardless of circumstances. How else can any of them explain the payment of performance bonuses in the current climate? "It's just something we 'DO'. We line our pockets with other people's money don't we! Have you got a problem with that? It's all clearly laid out in our psychological contracts you know!"

And, of course, the next move, if the cash bonus is too crass, will be to 'renumerate' by other methods, 'gifts', shares etc. So let's all watch out for this and stop it too.

Senior bankers need to be hauled before a Parliamentary Committee in order to explain their philosophy and to to justify their intended courses of action. They need to behave like the Civil Servants they have now become. They need to explain why they believe it is OK to take advantage of millions of people on top of the woeful mess they have already created. I can't imagine any of them are capable of answering questions in a satsifactory mannner, because the lack any practice in being forthright and speaking with veracity.

Time for some pig farming and it looks like Farmer Brown is getting his pole axe ready

Gordon Bown Angry At Bonuses

How Can The Royal Bank of Scotland Justify Bonuses

image credit the breakthrough













How on earth can the RBSjustify the payment of millions of pounds in bonuses in any way whatsoever? This is a smack in the mouth for the taxpayer. We've been mugged.

If the government permit this then the government needs voting out.

The RBS claim that they will loose 'talent' if they don't pay the bonuses. Is this the same talent that set up miselling schemes, the foreclosure on mortgages, the pushing of current account upgrade schemes?

This news is offensive. It can only reinforce the arrogance of unscrupulous bank executives and condone their ineptitude. They are manipulating the situation to give the impression of their indispensibility and making us all look very gullible indeed.

We are all being taken advantage of. People in the banking profession should hang their heads in shame. They do nothing of real value to contribute to society. They don't make anything, they don't improve people's health, they don't educate, they don't protect.

They should show a huge amount of humility and gratitude that they are still in work. Paying RBS Bonuses is verging on theft.

The Daily Telegraph describes the feeling perfectly when they say "Bankers have descended...into public odium" I agree the paying of these bonuses stinks.

Drug Company or Drug Dealer?

The UK Government are drawing attention to the way in which Drug Company representatives are taking advantage of Doctors by offering 'gifts' as incentives or 'thankyou's' for placing an order. In her recent article Call for end to drug firms' gifts Jane Dreaper reveals how drug companies are enticing Doctors to try their drugs by offering a gift

Where exactly is the difference between this behaviour and the behaviour of street drug pushers?

At the moment the industry code of practice allows:

"drug companies to give small promotional gifts that are relevant to doctors' work, such as pens or surgical gloves."

Just how gullible is the industry?? Have they not read anything of Robert Cialdini's work in influence and persuasion? it is precisely because the gifts are small that they have so much persuasive power!!

The Drug companies are sophisticated commercial enterprises who are clearly familiar with marketing and selling methods. What these small gifts do is tap into a phenomenon known as Reciprocation. This works because no matter how small the gift we feel morally compelled to 'repay the favour' as a way of achieving psychological balance. Not only that once a person has agreed to a small request, they are much more likely to be predisposed to 'up-selling'.Its the same approach that supermarkets use when offering 'taster' samples, or charities do when they send a pen with a donation request. Give somebody an unsolicted gift and they are strongly compelled to return the favour. Do it to enough people and even a small percentage of 'takers' dramatically affects the bottom line.

The real bonus is that the Drug Company sales people are dealing with Doctors. Highly trained professionals such as medical people, accountants, solicitors etc have a well developed sense of their ability to be in control of their decision making. They believe it is impossible for them to be taken advantage of. Chris Argyris covers this in a fascinating Harvard Business Review article called Teaching Smart People How To Learn In the article Argyris explains that professionals firmly believe they are more astute and aware than the average Joe or Josephine and are simply resistant to being duped. They believe they are cognitively 'in control' of the situation and are too smart to be affected by mere sales ploys.

What they underestimate is the emotional, sub conscious effect of techniques such as giving a small gift. Just like the street drug user, they think that they are the one's in control, believing that trying 'just a small amount' keeps them in control. Don't be daft! as soon as you try the sample, accept the freebie you're hooked!

Dr Carol Cooper told the BBC that doctors were professionals and unlikely to be unduly influenced by the drug companies.Accept a small gift and as medical practioners will understand, you take the first step on the 'addiction career path'...Oh dear Carol...they've got you!!!

Nationalise This Utter Banker

Do you need a reason for why we are in financial meltdown? Are you puzzled how expert banking professionals got it wrong? Do you wonder how fat cats get their jobs?


Chairman of Lloyds Victor Blank (was his mother Cheque by any chance??)was interviewed by Sky News's Jeff Randall this morning and in a staggering video interview (see this part way down the link page)he tried to explain his position.

His responses are unbelievable and blood boiling. This is a man who is not used to having to justify anything to anybody. In a series of vague claims and astonishingly out of touch utterances he suggests that Bankers are clearly better than government at running the Banks!, that they can sell us more products (thanks! you mean like loan insurance etc?), they are a better bet for employees (oh? so nobody is being made redundant then)

What is clear from this interview is that this man has never had to justify himself and the value he adds in terms of 'value' for other people like customers and society he has only ever had to justify his 'value'in terms of financial return to shareholders. He has never had to think 'value' through before and therefore his vaccuous claims demonstrate a stupefying arrogance and closed mindedness.

This is a very poor show. The hypocrisy of the man is jaw dropping. They don't want to be nationalised because they don't want outsiders on their boards. Have you ever borrowed money as business from a bank? I have! Over £30m to be precise as a management buyout, and the first thing they insist is that they have 'one of theirs' on the board.

This arrogance and abuse of power runs right down to branch level, where banking administrators have themsleves pegged as commercial experts and start telling you how to run your business. They are not good advisors. They are pen pushing bean counters with a slight flair for math and a keen eye for the short term.

So my view is that he should 'Blank' right off and let a new breed of holistic manager do his job. The senior managers of banks like Lloyds TSB are the same types as the Generals of the first world war. We are the lions led by these donkeys.

Building A Squidoo Lens Portfolio

I've been spending more time recently developing my Squidoo lens portfolio. If you don't know, Squidoo is a site that lets you build information blogs on topics of your choosing. The Squidoo site then monetizes your lens by placing relevant adverts around your content, and each lens is supported by a suit of analytics to help you track your effectiveness.

Think of it as electronic scrap booking. Each lens is made up of modules which are provided for you to add a host of different types of content ranging from your own text, amazon book recommendations, wikipedia content, blog feeds and a whole host of others.

I joined Squidoo some 18 months ago and built two lenses, which sort of lay fallow until the other month. I averaged about 20 visitors a month. I now have over 30 lenses and I'm averaging 170 visitors a week and growing.

There is also a vibrant Squidoo community and ways to cross link to Facebook, Stumble, Digg and so on.

I've really seen significant changes in the visitors to my portfolio after thinking for some time that I'd been a bit gullible in joining. My current top lenses are:

How To Become An Air Guitar Expert

The Border Reivers an ancestry resource about the unique clans that lived on the English and Scottish borders

How To Open A Bottle of Champagne With A Sword

For a quick preview of my lenses you can see them here too My Squidoo Lens

How Do I Become A Success?

Is there a formula for personal success and if there is where do you find it? Once the penny of gullibility drops and you realise that there never was a direct correlation between hard work and success, or talent and success, then the hunt for something else starts.

Many of the Life Hacks that you bump into on the net are ken to persuade us that they have the magic approach, the correct mental attitude, the insight that has been secretly hidden from view until they came along to help.

I've just been reading some more grounded stuff from Kevin Hogan and Steven Reiss which looks at our fundamental human drives.

A key drive involves where you sit in relation to being Competitive or Co-operative. Their information about these two drives is very interesting, and crucial to answering the question 'how do I become a success'. This is because your success is as much about what people think of you as it about about what they think about themselves.

Many people lean towards helping others as the route to get on in life. The 'helpful gene' is buried deep in our DNA and has evolved to maximise immediate benefit by co-operating with potential adversaries. There is a problem with this though.

Competitive people who see themselves as 'Go getters', 'Top dogs', Winners, Hard Nosed, see co-operative people as failures, losers, lacking assertiveness. This means that if you try and ingratiate yourself with a competitive type they will simply regard you as weak. You will not benefit in any way from their success.

Being successful means standing up for yourself and what you believe. This should not be confused with selfishness. You can also use this information to influence and persuade people to buy into your ideas, buy your products or buy your services by checking what 'mode' they are in. If they come across as having a competitive attitude position yourself as competitive too, and show what you 'know, 'have' 'can do' will help them continue to win.

People succeed by looking after their interests first. This enables them to look after other people (should they choose) from a position of strength and abundance.

How Do We Get Into Debt?

People in debt are sleep walkers

No doubt many of us are familiar with this famous quote from Charles Dickens:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery." credit The Quotations Page

So how come something as blindingly obvious to so many people as how we get into debt still results in so many of us struggling to repay credit cards and the like? Have we all been really gullible? Are we really all that stupid? Are we all financially and arithmetically inept?

I guess in some ways we have to take some of the responsibility for getting into debt. I don't mean this is a direct sense though. I mean it in the sense that significant numbers of us have not put any effort into becoming more aware of the commercial techniques that are used to encourage us to part with our money which then leads us to getting into debt.

Much of our indebtedness is due to the manipulation of situation we find ourselves in when we shop. The places we go to buy things are engineered to lower or psychological defences. Our logical faculties are bypassed by appeals to emotional cues. Our conscious decision making is bypassed and our unconscious is spoken to.

Enter any retail environment, and, not withstanding the general societal norms that support 'acquiring things' (materialism and consumerism) we enter a world designed to take our money off us.

Walk through the door and you enter what is known as the 'decompression zone' that open 5 meters between the door and the goods. This zone is designed to ensure that you to change your mind state from an 'in control rational shopper' into a 'less rational consumer'. You are then more open minded to the sensory assault that confronts you, the music that not only implies you are in a different place (club, bar, home) but also something that 'distracts' your rational thought. You pay attention to the music and not to your rational faculties. In this undefended state you become far more open to the myriad of messages that are put to you on promotional material and carefully crafted sales assistant behaviour and messages.

The environment is then designed to 'take you away from stress and towards relaxation' and ultimately happiness. The happier you are the more endorphins your brain releases which are so addictive that you seek more pleasurable experiences, so you go and buy stuff you don't need because you want to look and feel good. Your sense of identity demands it.

So where do you go to get the money you need? The banks of course!. Well...guess what Banks are Retailers They use exactly the same methods as 'ordinary' retailers and so we have a debt fuelling system. The really deceptive aspect of this is that they convey the image that they are impartial advisers The latest UK Nat West Money Sense TV advert actually says that the people you meet are NOT salespeople! Really? dressed in corporate uniforms, meeting you on their premises which are full of sales messages? This is overt situation manipulation. These people cannot be impartial.

Read any basic text on Social Influence and it will explain that 're-framing' or giving a new name to something that makes a new association that disguises the real intent is as old as the hills. Sales people become consultants, become advisers, become 'your friend', who you trust and base your purchase decisions on!

Another 'wheeze' is the advice they give to re-finance loans. So many of us misunderstand debt and its repayment that we are tempted to extend loans. Don't do it! The initial element of re-payment is the interest which the banks make sure they get off you first. By asking you to extend the loan the 'clock' is re-set and you start paying interest again and so if you find you can pay the debt back earlier you are still in hock.

We are not taught 'retail and advertising psychology or financial management' at schools. We should be. The techniques are not 'difficult' they are simply 'off curriculum'

In our modern interconnected fast paced worlds we should be teaching our kids the rudiments of the commercial practices to which they are continually exposed. This is real education. So tell me...how will knowing "Ou est la Boulangerie" or "1066 was the Norman Invasion of Britain" help you in the modern world.

Try telling your credit card company "I know I'm in debt but I can conjugate a verb like the best of them!" I was in debt, I am in debt, I will be in debt, I have debted? I am debting? I will debt? How about a new verb 'debting', referring to the state of being entirely ignorant of the sophisticated commercial techniques applied to gullible consumers?

Remember banks are NOT services they are purveyors of financial products
you will know that talking in your sleep walking will lead to debt.

Is the US Car Industry Taking Everyone For A Ride?

President elect Barack Obama has a golden opportunity to 'encourage' the US car industry to re-evaluate its structure and perhaps more importantly the types of products they create.

Being an industry that is so tightly integrated into the practical and emotional needs of people must tempt it to arrogance with regard to its indispensability.

What a great game that must be. Become so big that government dare not let you go under because of the social consequences! Well looking at it as a layman the behaviour seems remarkably akin to extortion

The BBC write:

The 2008 winner of the Nobel economics prize Paul Krugman said he doubted the US car sector would survive, but that it was worth supporting it in the short term.
"In the end these companies will probably disappear," the economics professor at Princeton University said.


Well if that is the case then maybe Obama should simply turn on the windscreen washers filled with extra strong 'I ain't gullible fluid' and wipe them away.

Lapland Xmas Attractions Having A Laugh At Customer's Expense

The one thing that scammers and con-merchants have is an instinct for 'situation'.


They know that if the circumstances are set up in the right way the normal psychological defences of people can be breached. This seems to have happened twice recently in the UK with two Lapland Christmas 'theme parks'. The first was in Dorset UK where a woman was scammed for £3000. The place was eventually shut down The second is in Staffordshire UK

Both examples seem to take advantage of the 'perfect storm' of Christmas, Credit Crunch and Consistency.

The organisers of these 'theme parks' know that going to Lapland Proper is clearly out of the reach of most pockets at this time. They understand the notion of 'pester power', and they understand the psychological urge that parents have to consistently provide a great Christmas experience for the kids just like last year even though money might be tight.

So, when somebody promises that they can make your kids dreams come true with a Lapland experience they tap into the 'brand associations' that have been created over the years. Just do it it yourself...Imagine...a trip to Lapland to see Father Christmas and his reindeer.
...What happened? I bet you created an image of expectation in your minds eye and that for £25/$15 that would be a price worth paying to see the smile on the faces of the kids. The next thing you do is 'promise' the kids that they're going to 'Lapland to see Santa'

That's when they've got you!! In order to remain 'consistent' you have to 'go to Lapland' and all critical judgement flies out the window. You end up out of pocket embarrased and angry because the 'promise' didn't match the cheapskate reality.

I suggest having the last laugh and do something else.