Best Practices Dissemination 1

Building a World Class Brand - The Science of Transforming Perception to Reality

(This summarisation is based on KEVIN GASKELL presentation at the MPC Annual Productivity Innovation Conference (APIC2013))

Business sustainability in the long-run

Roles of leader to transform dreams into reality

1

COMMIT -

making a positive decision

2

CONNECT -

implement the visible process

3

CREATE -

the magic of shared achievement

All businesses have to transform because the world changes rapidly due to new technology, new competition, new regulation and new customer expectations.

The transformation needs to be executed quickly while your company is still profitable, have good cash flow, customers are still supporting you and when your employees are positive about the change.

Porsche (GB) Ltd and

BMW (GB) Ltd are among the established companies which had

applied these best practices in sustaining their businesses.

Highlights

In 1987, Porsche was closed to bankruptcy. This technique of

transforming perception to reality had helped Porsche to be the UK’s

most profitable car company within five years.

While using similar approach, a team of BMW parts department was

formed to challenge themselves in obtaining substantial performances.

This led to four years of record growth as sales improved by

40% and profit gain

increased by 250%.

Best Practices Dissemination 2

“Truth is, that there is a secret to achieving success. It’s not about how good you are. It’s about how good you really, really want to be. And then, it’s about a structured approach

to achieve that.” - Kevin Gaskell

Succeed leaders did it by aligning the team, by getting employees excited and involved, by getting employees about what the company could be and then taking them there. Three steps to achieve this :

1 COMMIT -

making a positive decision

CONNECT -

implement the visible process

CREATE -

the magic of shared achievement

2 3

Leaders to make a positive decision to change the business by pushing the boundaries.

It’s not about taking what they have now and improving it a little bit.

It’s about transforming dreams into reality.

Leaders can only achieve their dreams when they get the whole team engaged, the whole team involved.

Get employees to move together as a team through visible approach.

Leaders to create a culture of performance that encourage employees to be in the team.

Do it in a way employees want to be part of this change.

Best Practices Dissemination 3

1 COMMIT -

making a positive decision

Create the ladder

The steps between where we are now and where we are going to be.

Start with the end in mind and work backwards. That is the vision of success.

Start to think “What will my products be like? Why will they want to deal with me? What’s the special feeling they get when they deal with my business?”.

Prioritise and focus most important targets to be achieved in one year

You are not going to change everything in one year.

Focus on 2 big things per area. Fewer things to do but let us deliver and finish it.

Utilise your budgets according to the areas you want to change immediately. We can not out-spend but we can outthink.

Idea Wall to capture suggestions

Create an idea wall of business plan to invite everybody to contribute ideas. Use this simple technique to transform the company.

Display the idea wall at the centre of the office which invite people including suppliers and customers to be part of the plan.

Ideas are written in the piece of paper so that it can be seen and transparent.

Relevant ideas will be implemented according to areas of prioritisation and budgets availability.

Business plan must be simple

Keep your business plan simple and easy to be understood by all employees.

This is to get people moving together as a team and aligning the team.

Develop the plan on a piece of paper as the visual representation of what you are going to do. This is to make everyone to be part of the journey.

Translate the plan into daily tasks and start to count the days of accomplishment. This will make people alert on what suppose to achieve at the end of the day.

“It’s simply to get people to work together. It’s to give everybody on the team that line of sight. That line of where they contribute to changing the business. To where they help, to where they understand what they’re doing is helping us to take that business from where we are today to where we want to go.”

- Kevin Gaskell

Best Practices Dissemination 4

2 CONNECT -

Implement the visible process

111 competitors +

Nursery businesses at Windsor, UK Why Windsor?

Windsor Castle

Popular place visited by tourists

Elizabethan Walled Garden

Place where Shakespeare

wrote the book

Main lake where the Olympic

rowing

Was the first place in Britain grew a

pineapple

HOW DOES THIS COMPANY DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS?

Provide uniforms to let them proud being part of this change, to build teamwork spirit and brand establishment.

Encourage them to give ideas for improvement.

Pay and treat them at the most luxury shops and restaurants for exposure so that they can serve customers better.

Supply a collection of plants & sundries

Café available that offers fresh food made

in the kitchen using fresh ingredients

picked from own garden

Produces wide range of fruits and vegetables for use in the café and to

sell in the shop

Marque Hire is a beautiful small garden area for

informal occasion situated in nursery

Offers walled garden picnic to

customers

Professional landscape services to

enhance existing garden

Small playground with plastic tractors and a climbing frame to

attract families

Gardening classes to teach children

how to grow flowers & vegetables

All these amazing services came from own staffs

Get to know your employees

Know your employees preferences, motivations, personal life and what is it that they dream about? This is the way to develop a team and bring them to the same path of the journey.

Communicate effectively

Talk to them frequently and listen to their ideas. Share your plan of changes and guide them in transforming your dreams into reality.

Open sessions of discussion

This is to create a space for them to be creative. Give them the chance to drive change and the freedom to help you to build your business. By doing so, they will tell you they know how to do their job better than you because that is what they do everyday.

Job rotation

As you have familiar and know your employees strengths and weaknesses , you should change your employees into different positions. Make sure you transfer them in the right positions. Choose your people as if your life depend on it.

“We built this based on a dream. Based on the belief that we could create something special. We involved the community. And the Queen of England, bless her, last year it was her diamond jubilee so in the town, she has her weekend castle they decided to build a commemorative garden. Guess who they asked to build a special garden? It was DOURNEY COURT KITCHEN GARDEN, these 2 young guys with a dream who now have created something extraordinary. “

- Kevin Gaskell

Best Practices Dissemination 5

3 CREATE -

the magic of shared achievement

Create a culture of performance that encourage employees to be in the team.

Do it in a way employees want to be part of this change.

Start to inspire it. If you can inspire it on your team then they will go out and they will make it happen.

Believe that you will be able to change your dreams to reality. Never stopped believing.

Treat people with respect . It is about saying thank you.

Create the positive energy that all of us need to keep on going.

Be open and approachable, consistent. Let them know that they can come to talk to you at any time.

Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Sometimes, things do go wrong.

Create amazing memories, to make people want to be part of this dream.

Appreciate employees who do something right. Make them the point of reference.

“John Hall. Ex-chauffeur. Now responsible for BMW’s logistics, security, facilities, transportation. He was only a chauffeur. He was an extraordinary guy. And when we created the opportunity for him to grow, created the opportunity for him to contribute to make a change in the business. He took that on board personally. And he drove his career to astonishing levels. He was only a chauffeur.“

- Kevin Gaskell

Best Practices Dissemination 6

Profile of the Speaker

A paper presentation entitled “Building a World Class Brand– The Science of Transforming Perception to Reality’ was presented at MPC Annual Productivity Innovation Conference (APIC2013)) by KEVIN GASKELL. He has the ability to build and motivate a management team and to stimulate staff at all levels within an organisation.

He qualified as an engineer and accountant and completed his MBA before starting his career in the construction sector. From there, he moved into the chemical industry and then the auto-motive sector.

He has wide experiences in transforming re-nowned automotive companies such as Porshe (GB) Limited and BMW (GB) Ltd which at that time were unable to sustain its business. He was also recognised as ‘One of the top 40 man-agers under 40 in the UK’.