Dr.Gunther Faber of the Health Store Foundation http://www.cfwshops.org/about_team_faber.html
Dr. Gunther Faber is among the world’s leading pharmaceutical industry executives working in Africa. As Vice President, Sub-Saharan Africa, for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and in predecessor firms, Gunther has managed pharmaceutical businesses in all but 3 Sub-Saharan African countries. After retiring from GSK in June 2008 Gunther became the CEO of The HealthStore Foundation where manages all of the affairs of the organization, especially bringing his management expertise to HealthStore’s businesses in Kenya and Rwanda where he has significantly improved business performance in his first few months with HealthStore. Gunther joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1979 with the Beecham Group plc and was appointed as Director of the International Division in 1980. During successive mergers, his portfolio increased to cover pharmaceuticals, consumer health, and manufacturing in SmithKline Beecham. Following the merger between Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham he was appointed as Vice President, Sub-Saharan Africa of GSK. Throughout his career, Gunther has been active in efforts to improve access for the poor to essential medicine and has sponsored and managed many humanitarian projects targeting children throughout Africa. He serves on GSK’s Policy Team on Access to Medicine and was a director of its International Division which covers all countries with the exception of the USA, Europe and Japan. Gunther enjoys extensive relationships at senior governmental and policy levels with African governments and OECD countries and is a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Board of London Business School. Gunther is based in London.
Monday, March 15, 2010
On Ethical Leadership ..another great one on the Jobs and Cameroon Rebuttal
RE: Passionate Leadership According to James Cameron and Steve Jobs
Cameron is a great director, who has met with tremendous financial success but I wonder if he has ever cared to share some of the profits of his ventures with those who contributed to the films in question i.e. actors, technicians, etc. In other words, does "ethical leadership" rank high among his priorities or is he merely concerned with technical efficiency and money and does he assume that he is entitled to all the profits from his ventures because the salaries he pays his team members are justified?Ethics is concerned with morals, fairness, respect, caring, sharing, no false promises, no lying, cheating, stealing, or unreasonable demands on employees and others, etc.Yes, ethics can be taught in a classroom, if the school/university, professor and the students adopt a practical approach in preference to a philosophical one.In business, the bottom line is often considered to be money, rather than anything else. In other words, many leaders follow the stockholder approach, rather than the stakeholder approach (which emphasizes the needs of stockholders and others, such as employees, customers, suppliers, the government, the community, and the environment). Business decisions often concern complicated situations which are neither totally ethical nor totally unethical. Therefore, it is often difficult to do the right thing, contrary to what many case studies will have you believe! Moral values such as respect, honesty, fairness and responsibility are supposed to dictate our (ethical) behaviour, but are often ignored in times of stress and confusion, when one must stand by one?s principles.Business ethics calls for an awareness of social responsibility and this includes addressing social problems such as poverty, crime, environmental protection, equal rights, public health and improving education. Hence the stakeholder theory in preference to the stockholder theory, and the emphasis on public relations, better human resource management and other areas. I write books on leadership, ethics, teamwork, women in the workforce, sexual harassment and bullying, trade unions, etc. and am willing to provide free abridged versions of these books to anyone who sends an e-mail request to crespin79@hotmail.com ? no strings attached.Maxwell Pinto, Business Consultant and Author: leadership, ethics, teamwork, women in the workforce, sexual harassment and bullying, trade unions, etc.http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/Management-TidbitsForTheNewMillenium.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p34hB50lv-8
Cameron is a great director, who has met with tremendous financial success but I wonder if he has ever cared to share some of the profits of his ventures with those who contributed to the films in question i.e. actors, technicians, etc. In other words, does "ethical leadership" rank high among his priorities or is he merely concerned with technical efficiency and money and does he assume that he is entitled to all the profits from his ventures because the salaries he pays his team members are justified?Ethics is concerned with morals, fairness, respect, caring, sharing, no false promises, no lying, cheating, stealing, or unreasonable demands on employees and others, etc.Yes, ethics can be taught in a classroom, if the school/university, professor and the students adopt a practical approach in preference to a philosophical one.In business, the bottom line is often considered to be money, rather than anything else. In other words, many leaders follow the stockholder approach, rather than the stakeholder approach (which emphasizes the needs of stockholders and others, such as employees, customers, suppliers, the government, the community, and the environment). Business decisions often concern complicated situations which are neither totally ethical nor totally unethical. Therefore, it is often difficult to do the right thing, contrary to what many case studies will have you believe! Moral values such as respect, honesty, fairness and responsibility are supposed to dictate our (ethical) behaviour, but are often ignored in times of stress and confusion, when one must stand by one?s principles.Business ethics calls for an awareness of social responsibility and this includes addressing social problems such as poverty, crime, environmental protection, equal rights, public health and improving education. Hence the stakeholder theory in preference to the stockholder theory, and the emphasis on public relations, better human resource management and other areas. I write books on leadership, ethics, teamwork, women in the workforce, sexual harassment and bullying, trade unions, etc. and am willing to provide free abridged versions of these books to anyone who sends an e-mail request to crespin79@hotmail.com ? no strings attached.Maxwell Pinto, Business Consultant and Author: leadership, ethics, teamwork, women in the workforce, sexual harassment and bullying, trade unions, etc.http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/Management-TidbitsForTheNewMillenium.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p34hB50lv-8
Tribes : I need to get a copy ...I am slowly becoming a Seth Godin Fan...I guess.
"Connect people to the vision rather than herd them toward a point of isolated perfection"
I guess thats what Seth Godins Book Tribes is all about..
http://www.amazon.com/Tribes-We-Need-You-Lead/dp/1591842336
I guess thats what Seth Godins Book Tribes is all about..
http://www.amazon.com/Tribes-We-Need-You-Lead/dp/1591842336
A great lead from Asra
We've just come back from an Enterpreneurship Module at LBS ...all of us are rather ruffled ..I guess....looking for more meaning and depth in our lives....Asra ..has sent a great link ...do read through ...
http://blogs.bnet.com/harvard/?p=5957&tag=nl.e713
whats more interesting are some of the comments ..to mention a few..this one from Denise
While I applaud Cameron for breaking new cinematic ground with his amazing visual/sound effects, the bottomline is this best selling box office movie did not win Best Picture. Hmmm ... wonder why?In my book, innovation for innovation sake (without a grander reason or purpose) -- which is the basis of Avatar -- has no real sustainable advantage or benefit. It's a novelty but wears off quickly. Now if you want to talk about a director that is a master at innovation/creativity with a purpose, then Spielberg is at the top of the list.Jobs is very different than Cameron in that regard. Apple's focus on innovation and its relationship to create their own markets is unmatched in the business world. They know how to read their "market's minds" and know their customers' wants and hot buttons better than their customers know themselves. Jobs is a genius in that regard.As far as inspiring by fear, most leaders could not pull that off and get the results that Jobs or Cameron get. First, you have to have the respect of your followers. Second, the overly demanding expectations of a leader must be perceived for the employee's benefit, not a power trip by the leader who is doing for their own ego reasons.
Corcorandenise@empoweredbusiness.com
an author...and this one from a guy called Probotics....
The problem with these observations is that in other leaders at other times they have been exactly the wrong approach. Think of the tyrants, the perfectionists and the grand visionaries that have destroyed your projects in the past. The article is right to discourage relatively inexperienced MBA students from using these as appropriate approaches. Chase perfection at any cost has destroyed uncountable projects and is a classic problem for young consultants. Rule by fear has destroyed entire companies. Wall street is famous for that one, but it's in consulting as well. The cause of Jobs and Cameron's success is no doubt an intricate combination of their skill, their timing, the people around them, the business environment, circumstances, technologies, business cycles and more. Emphasizing only three characteristics ignores that they probably emphasized or de-emphasized those characteristics as the environment demanded. Its the intricacy that makes it dangerous for MBAs - many just don't yet have the depth of judgment necessary to choose when, where and how to apply them.
http://blogs.bnet.com/harvard/?p=5957&tag=nl.e713
whats more interesting are some of the comments ..to mention a few..this one from Denise
While I applaud Cameron for breaking new cinematic ground with his amazing visual/sound effects, the bottomline is this best selling box office movie did not win Best Picture. Hmmm ... wonder why?In my book, innovation for innovation sake (without a grander reason or purpose) -- which is the basis of Avatar -- has no real sustainable advantage or benefit. It's a novelty but wears off quickly. Now if you want to talk about a director that is a master at innovation/creativity with a purpose, then Spielberg is at the top of the list.Jobs is very different than Cameron in that regard. Apple's focus on innovation and its relationship to create their own markets is unmatched in the business world. They know how to read their "market's minds" and know their customers' wants and hot buttons better than their customers know themselves. Jobs is a genius in that regard.As far as inspiring by fear, most leaders could not pull that off and get the results that Jobs or Cameron get. First, you have to have the respect of your followers. Second, the overly demanding expectations of a leader must be perceived for the employee's benefit, not a power trip by the leader who is doing for their own ego reasons.
Corcorandenise@empoweredbusiness.com
an author...and this one from a guy called Probotics....
The problem with these observations is that in other leaders at other times they have been exactly the wrong approach. Think of the tyrants, the perfectionists and the grand visionaries that have destroyed your projects in the past. The article is right to discourage relatively inexperienced MBA students from using these as appropriate approaches. Chase perfection at any cost has destroyed uncountable projects and is a classic problem for young consultants. Rule by fear has destroyed entire companies. Wall street is famous for that one, but it's in consulting as well. The cause of Jobs and Cameron's success is no doubt an intricate combination of their skill, their timing, the people around them, the business environment, circumstances, technologies, business cycles and more. Emphasizing only three characteristics ignores that they probably emphasized or de-emphasized those characteristics as the environment demanded. Its the intricacy that makes it dangerous for MBAs - many just don't yet have the depth of judgment necessary to choose when, where and how to apply them.
Friday, March 5, 2010
On metrics in marketing...
Lets first start with the comment which triggered me to actually paste this on my blog..
"As a strategist with an extensive creative background, I'm not so sure metrics kill creativity, it's just that we don't consider establishing metrics as a part of the creative process (and vice versa). Data - whether quantified or qualified in numbers, symbols or otherwise - is meant to tell stories about the human condition, and all of its associated behaviors (e.g. data visualization). Storytelling is the ultimate form of creativity, and the ultimate form of collaboration - hence strategy, analytics and creative should work in concert. Borne or cultivated out of that are the expressions and touch-points you find within our media palette. True, great experiences are most often unpredictable in nature (as can be behaviors), but we now have the ability to adapt, listen and observe... all of which inform our creativity. And if numbers are the catalyst, then so be it.
If more creatives thought along these lines instead of deferring to yet another silo for refuge from "the system", we might see even more innovation happening within our industry. Then again, the system seems to keep going in spite of itself."
Gunther Sonnenfeld
@goonth
So I need to drop Gunther a mail to thank him for his views...
And heres the article from advertising age ..which got me thinking ...if advertisers hate numbers... why should physicians..medicine is as creative a task as you can get too..
"Every once in a while, it happens. An epiphany -- fully materialized and smacking you between the eyes. Mine came to me on a recent evening while lounging on the couch, recovering from another day of doing the due-diligence dance with my beloved clients. And this one was a paradigm-shifter: Just as video killed the radio star, metrics are killing creativity.
More on this at http://www.sarkissianmason.com
"As a strategist with an extensive creative background, I'm not so sure metrics kill creativity, it's just that we don't consider establishing metrics as a part of the creative process (and vice versa). Data - whether quantified or qualified in numbers, symbols or otherwise - is meant to tell stories about the human condition, and all of its associated behaviors (e.g. data visualization). Storytelling is the ultimate form of creativity, and the ultimate form of collaboration - hence strategy, analytics and creative should work in concert. Borne or cultivated out of that are the expressions and touch-points you find within our media palette. True, great experiences are most often unpredictable in nature (as can be behaviors), but we now have the ability to adapt, listen and observe... all of which inform our creativity. And if numbers are the catalyst, then so be it.
If more creatives thought along these lines instead of deferring to yet another silo for refuge from "the system", we might see even more innovation happening within our industry. Then again, the system seems to keep going in spite of itself."
Gunther Sonnenfeld
@goonth
So I need to drop Gunther a mail to thank him for his views...
And heres the article from advertising age ..which got me thinking ...if advertisers hate numbers... why should physicians..medicine is as creative a task as you can get too..
"Every once in a while, it happens. An epiphany -- fully materialized and smacking you between the eyes. Mine came to me on a recent evening while lounging on the couch, recovering from another day of doing the due-diligence dance with my beloved clients. And this one was a paradigm-shifter: Just as video killed the radio star, metrics are killing creativity.
When the economy takes a nosedive, marketers get nervous. And when sales follow suit, clients stop approving creative ideas and start staring at numbers. No client ever will tell you that the creative way you waded through the fantastically distorted worlds of online branding and social media is wrong. But they can be nothing short of sanctimonious when telling you the numbers don't support the creative. As a result, we have become absolute geniuses in the field of metrics.
Most agencies today are helping clients adapt new technology solutions to better connect with consumers, to use and develop powerful tools that deliver a whole new level of metric sophistication. But have we gone too far? Recently, I had a wicked battle with a client determined to let the numbers fully dictate a new creative strategy.
Thing is, you cannot truly quantify creativity. And in ever-increasing fashion, our clients' (and our own) rote dependence on the dusty world of metrics is exactly why creativity is going to hell. When marketing decisions are based on numbers, we lose completely the desire to "waste" time being creative. And heaven forbid we ever again just go with our gut feelings. Of course, I'm in no way advocating the death of metrics, just a different approach with creativity as the vanguard.
We are forgetting that brand preference is built on emotional connections. No measurement tool is going to change that. Period. What works are creative and strategic communications that seamlessly engage and interact with the target audience. Most important, it's big, new ideas -- not crunched numbers -- that remain in a person's mind long after the initial experience. They are what really make a brand stick with the consumer for current and future recall, and numerous case-studies prove it.
Malcolm Gladwell, describing his theory of "stickiness" in advertising, recounts that some four decades ago "Legendary" Les Wunderman, fearing the loss of long-time client Columbia House Records, sparked a death match with mighty McCann Erickson. McCann, pointing at its sophisticated research and resultant numbers, ran a big, expensive prime-time wash that garnered a 19.5% increase in response to Columbia's pitch. Meanwhile, Wunderman came up with a wildly cheesy gold box/treasure hunt/giveaway deal. But he knew his idea both would connect and engage his target. Well, Wunderman delivered a whopping 80% increase in the markets he pursued -- totally annihilating McCann's numbers.
Undoubtedly it will take a leap of faith to firmly challenge current client methodology. To land safely, we will have to take advantage of uncrowded fields. Social media savvy is not the entire answer. It's time again for big creative ideas; to challenge convention and see what creativity can do for your brand.
Delivering a unique brand positioning is becoming an ever-tougher proposition as marketers continue to rely on metrics. Perhaps the fastest way out of this rut, however, is to always remember that great ideas don't come from numbers -- but they sure as hell can deliver better ones for your clients.
More on this at http://www.sarkissianmason.com
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Pricing as a strategic capability
If pricing isn;t a strategic capability - a contributor to a company's ability to devise and impelement its strategy - it's probably a strategic liability .-Shantanu Dutta
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)