That old unavoidable question: what's the big idea?

That old unavoidable question: what's the big idea?

What really happened at Western Electric's Hawthorne Works site in Cicero, Illinois, between 1924 and 1932? We may never know for sure. The evidence from its experiments is disputed, and any conclusions drawn from them remain controversial.

What we do know is that big claims are still made for the "Hawthorne Effect", the idea that small changes to people's working conditions can improve their performance. (A more sceptical interpretation is also possible. Maybe workers just do better when their managers are paying attention.) Some see the Hawthorne Effect as a Big Idea. Others regard it as a bit of a joke.

The proof of a big idea is in its execution. Some colleagues and I are currently carrying out a mini Hawthorne experiment of our own. I am writing this column at my temporary desk, located in what the office planners have called a "swing area" (not as exciting as it sounds).

The move has gone down well. We have a new perspective on life - or at least on each other. Out of the corner of my eye I can see everybody else working away with great dedication. At my old workstation when I looked up all I could see was my dangerously disorganised bookshelf.

The move brought to light a dusty old box which had clearly been left in one of our cupboards for years. On it was a label with the words "Thought Leadership".

Quite right, you may think. That phrase ought to be banned, and anyone caught using it ought to be locked away and left to reflect on the stupidity of their actions.

Not everyone can be a leader. It follows that not everyone can be a thought leader either. But that does not stop many professional service firms from claiming that they (alone) offer thought leadership on certain issues.

Does the term mean anything? Last week I chaired a discussion on the subject, and saw a smart presentation by TLG, the communications consultancy. With the help of the Henley business school, TLG came up with a useful definition. Thought leadership, they said, is "the ability to develop and communicate pioneering and rigorous ideas that are relevant to society and influence people's behaviour".

Sounds good. We could do with some of that right now. Is anybody providing it? Maybe Dov Seidman and Andrew Shapiro are. Mr Seidman, who runs LRN, a company that helps businesses develop ethical corporate cultures, has joined forces with Mr Shapiro's GreenOrder, which has advised, among others, DuPont, Pfizer, JPMorgan Chase and most famously General Electric ("Ecomagination") on their attempts to become sustainable businesses.

Mr Seidman and Mr Shapiro have latched on to the concept of "outgreening", a term coined by LRN and popularised by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times. "The old strategies for success - outmining, outdrilling, outconsuming, outspending - no longer offer a sustainable competitive advantage," Mr Seidman says. But you can outgreen the competition. This is not simply a question of changing light bulbs. It is about changing mindsets. Think of it as a 21st century version of business process re-engineering, only taking place under a green banner.

Is this thought leadership? "Thought leaders reframe things," Mr Seidman says. As a concept, outgreening certainly does that. The idea that we as individuals should be trying to "save the planet", or at least save a glacier, is overwhelmingly daunting. But outgreening is a corporate strategy that can be broken down into separate tasks. It allows employees to see that through their behaviour they can make a difference.

In his book How , published last year, Mr Seidman explained why he feels behaviour (as opposed to the more fashionable management notions of engagement or motivation) is the key to organisational success.

"You can coerce employees with carrots and sticks or by simply telling them what to do," he says. "But that comes with a cost. Values and beliefs are free. If you can inspire people so that they are working for something in which they believe, based on fundamental values that they share, you will get the performance you want. You will have established a deeper sense of connection that goes way beyond 'engagement'," Mr Seidman says.

And this is another route to sustainability, he adds, because: "Nothing is more sustainable than a self-governing culture, which can withstand the loss of a best-selling product, the departure of key leaders and crises of all sizes."

Outbehaving is the goal and, Mr Shapiro and Mr Seidman believe, that means outgreening everybody else. A Big Idea? Probably. A "big ask" in a recession? Yes. Easy to put into effect? Absolutely not.

Not easy, but not impossible either. And pessimism (or worse, panic) should be avoided. As (Lord) Nicholas Stern - no relation - explained last week in this newspaper's special report on climate change: "In terms of politics and business and economics this is very young. It's amazing how far we have come in two or three years."

Thought leadership, and big ideas, are rare. But here is a challenging thought for you. Outbehave, outperform, outgreen - or out you go.

stefan.stern@ft.com Read and post comments online at www.ft.com/stern For the latest thinking on management and strategy, go to: www.ft.com/managementblog

(Source: Financial Times)

Sociology videos

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and now quench your thirst!

Here's a site where there are all the videos you need!

David, Dimka, Mary...

...make sure you read all of these...

All those doing AQA Business Studies Unit 1 in January...make sure you read all of these....

Binge Drinking

New Year's Eve is approaching - and so are examinations which may have market failure (eg binge drinking) as a topic....
Just a few sessions of heavy drinking can damage someone's ability to pay attention, remember things and make good judgments, research shows.

Binge drinkers are known to be at increased risk of accidents, violence and engaging in unprotected sex. But the study is the first to identify brain damage as a danger of consuming more alcohol than official safe limits. (Obviously, brain damage affects your ability to pass examinations....)

The research, to be published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, is significant because binge drinking is so widespread in the UK. Twenty-three per cent of men and 15% of women drink more than twice the government's recommended daily limit. For men this means consuming more than eight units a day and for women more than six, according to the Office for National Statistics. One unit is equivalent to 8g of alcohol. That’s about what you get in half a pint of (4%) beer, or in a single measure (25ml) of spirits (40%). A whole pint of (5%) beer or cider contains three units. Two small glasses of wine are another three units. In a recent YouGov survey, 77 per cent of people didn’t know how many units are in a glass of wine.

Work out your units for yourself with this handy sum: Strength (ABV) x Volume (ml) ÷ 1000 = No. of units

E.g. Pint of Stella - 5.2 x 568 ÷ 1000 = 2.95

Binge drinkers aged between 18 and 24 are a key target of the government's alcohol strategy because a minority of people in that age group cause the majority of alcohol-related crime and disorder.

Check out these fact-sheets!

The short term health risks of alcohol include:

• Sexual difficulties such as impotence
• Impaired judgement leading to accidents and injuries
• Slowed breathing and heartbeat
• Loss of consciousness
• Suffocation through choking on your own vomit (aspiration)
• Potentially fatal poisoning
• Anxiety (and how does that affect examination performance?)
  

Drinking heavily also increases your calorie intake, and it is frequently associated with obesity. This in turn leads to increased health risks. Adding 3 or 4 units per day to your usual diet would lead to an increase in weight of around 4lbs in four weeks.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "We know large numbers of people in this country binge drink. This should be a wake-up call to the millions of people whose lifestyle means they get drunk regularly."

Gilmore, who is also the chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance of key medical organisations and specialist alcohol charities, added: "We are all already aware of the immediate impacts of binge drinking: accidents, violence, admission to hospital and unwanted pregnancies. But this opens up the spectre that drinkers who binge regularly may be at risk of long-term brain damage."

The study was undertaken by two experts in alcohol's toxic effects on the brain: Professor Fulton Crews, director of the Bowles Centre for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina, and Dr Kim Nixon of the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Kentucky.

They reviewed previous studies in which rats were used in experiments to examine the impact of binge drinking and then related those findings to humans. For four days in a row the rats were given the same amount of ethanol that someone imbibing 15 units of alcohol - about seven pints of normal-strength beer - would consume in one drinking session. Losses in key mental abilities were noted in the weeks after the experiment had ended.

"It is fair and credible to extrapolate the research findings from tests on rats to humans," said Dr Jonathan Chick of the alcohol problems service at the Royal Edinburgh hospital, who is the chief editor of Alcohol and Alcoholism.

"From this research we can infer that humans who have a few heavy drinking sessions in a row may sometimes undergo subtle brain changes which make it harder to learn from mistakes and to learn new ways of tackling problems because their brain function has been subtly impaired."

The research also suggests that loss of brain function in people under 20 brought on by binge drinking increases their chances of becoming alcoholics in later life, Chick added.

Alcohol-related brain damage is becoming a growing burden on the NHS as per capita alcohol consumption increases. Patients with the condition who do not die early need long-term care, which can cost £1,000 a week, for the rest of their lives.

The findings underlined the need for the NHS to do more to identify and help heavy drinkers early on, Gilmore said.

However, the study also found that binge drinkers who then abstained from alcohol did not suffer long-term brain damage

However, if you're going after the buzz, why not fill the drink with ingredients that carry some benefits?

Pepper Delicious

3 rings sliced red bell pepper

6-8 leaves fresh mint

2 oz Aviation gin

1 oz fresh lime juice

3/4 oz simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water)

In a shaker glass, combine two pepper rings and the mint leaves and press firmly with a muddler to pulverize the peppers. Add the gin, lime juice, syrup, and ice. Shake and strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with the remaining pepper ring.

The benefit: A diet high in vitamin C, carotenoids, and lycopene (all of which are amply supplied in red peppers) reduces the incidence of chronic disease and death, according to a Spanish study of 41,000 people.

Blue

1 Tbsp whole blueberries

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

2 oz Ty Ku, an Asian-inspired liqueur made with sake

1 oz limoncello

2 oz pomegranate juice

In a rocks glass, combine the blueberries and lemon juice and muddle the berries to extract the juice. Add ice until the glass is half full, top with the remaining ingredients, and stir.

Things you can do with beer....

Economics students

Do this - and also make sure you can define the definitions not chosen!

Sociology....

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and

The danger of using stereotypes

The Psychology of Buyers: Customers Have Needs and Feelings

Consumers first and foremost are individuals. The more you see and treat customers like individuals, the more loyal they will be to your business.

You cannot peg individuals into mass impersonal groups based on stereotypes. For example, do not assume that all retirees are interested in gardening, all women are interested in buying shoes, or all men are sports-crazy. These are examples of stereotyping groups of people that can lead to disastrous results in advertising and marketing.

Research supports that mass stereotyping groups of people does not work in the development and marketing of business ideas. Although many corporations still try to capitalize on stereotypes, this line of thinking simply does not work as effectively as the old “mom and pop country store” approach to business: Getting to know your customers as intimately as possible.

If grouping populations like cattle into marketing niches worked, why would major corporations still continue to invest so heavily into studying consumer habits and demographics? If this type of marketing philosophy worked well then anyone with a great business idea could make it simply by targeting. Obviously, this is not so.

Stereotype Myths

For example, stereotype marketing ideologies might focus too much on one group and ignore another equally, or even more important. For example, target only kids for (non-PC) video games and lose access to millions of customers. Nearly a quarter of all video games are purchased by consumers aged 40 and older, and 38% of all video game sales are made by women.

In fact, even when it comes to “men’s” products including sports items and expensive cars, women still spend more than men. According to a study in part conducted by WomenCertified, a women’s consumer advocacy and retail training organization, women spend $4 trillion annually, accounting for 83% of all U.S. Consumer spending – or, an astounding two-thirds of the nation’s gross national product.

Another case in point: Senior citizens have become the fastest-growing population in the United States.; however, mass marketing to seniors has remained somewhat elusive. Several pioneers in the senior marketing industry note that age alone has little to do with the interests of senior consumers. Those who have attempted to cash in on the senior population, simply lumping retirees together by age, have failed, and miserably so.

When it comes to advertising, “marketing” studies that offer only cold statistics may play less of a role than you think in developing successful marketing strategies and advertising campaigns.

Customers can be your best or worst source of advertising. Word of mouth referrals, especially in the age of the Internet, should not be undervalued. And, since consumers are more likely to complain than to compliment, it pays to have customer-friendly and trustworthy complaint resolution practices in place.

It pays to see your customers as individuals, with common needs, but not as groups who, because of stereotype images, have lemming-like behaviors when it comes to making purchases.

The principle of reciprocity

A basic tenet in the psychology of relationships is called the Principle of Reciprocity. This principle basically defines the human need and tendency to want to give something back when something is received. This need is strongest when the gift is given without expectation of return. But even at the lowly (but important) level of simple social graces, a “thank you” (in response to an act of kindness or compliment) is still followed by another reciprocal gesture of accommodation “you’re welcome.”

Not only are we compelled to give something back when a gift is received we are also compelled to not feel indebted to others. The strongest and longest lasting inter-personal relationships are based on the Principle of Reciprocity and this extends far into the best relationships between sellers and buyers.

Marketing Psychology Questions

• How can I make my customers feel as though they are being given something of value so that they do not feel like they are the only ones giving me something (their business)? Can I offer coupons, bonus points, special discounts, or privileges?
• How can I let customers know the best way to “thank” my business for providing them with a positive experience?

Advertising and Marketing Ideas Based on the Principle of Reciprocity

• Be the First to Give Something: Give something, without the perceived expectation of a return, such as a gift, bonus points, discounts, or something exclusive to the customer not offered to the general public. Offer some sort of “gift” incentive upfront, rather than at the end of a sale. Your gift should be offered first, before the buyer’s “gift” of giving you their business. However, to further capitalize on the Principle of Reciprocity offer another incentive when the sale is made for future business or for the customer’s friends.
• Offer Customers Ways to Show Their Support: Tell your customers how they can thank you and help your business grow by including volunteer opportunities, “tell the media,” “link to us,” “email a friend” link options. Or even “submit your story” options. Some companies now offer blogs and forums where happy customers can report or rate their experience with your business.
• Keep the Relationship Going - Thank Your Customers in a Meaningful Way: Include a personalized thank you when the order is sent and whenever possible . Do not just say “Dear Customer, We thank you for your business.” It seems like a token gesture, not sincere enough – this is especially important if you use the services of volunteers or rely on donations to support your organization.
• Be the Last to Give: You first gave an incentive, then the customer gave you their business. Give your customers the option of staying in touch and showing their ongoing support by offering a free newsletter or to be added to a mailing list for coupons, product updates, etc. While this is not a “gift,” and, you are expecting something in return (the prospect of future business) it allows customers who identified with your business to stay connected.

Building Successful Ongoing Business Relationships on Trust

The Principle of Reciprocity describes a human need for give and take in a relationship. In order for the “gift” to have the most meaning, it needs to be offered in a way that seems genuine, without the expectation of return. But in business, there is an expectation of return; therefore, the Principle of Reciprocity should be built on trust by offering incentives to customers, but also by offering customer service and complaint resolution policies that inspire that trust.