![lazooz](/LaZOOZ/images/logo-eng.jpg) |
Written by ZOOZ
consulting and training | (972)-9-9585085 | info@zooz.co.il
| www.zooz.co.il
|
| Issue 06 |
Hello!
We are glad to
send you the sixth issue of LaZOOZ.
The newsletter is sent
as a free service to thousands of senior executives in
the Israeli market. It is published every
other month, and does not include advertisements.
We tried to keep it short, assuming that
your
time is precious
and the work is plentiful. Those who wish to learn more, will find
links to articles and relevant information sources.
We hope that you will find the newsletter useful. We will be glad to receive any comments and suggetsions.
Pleasant reading!
Ari Manor, CEO, ZOOZ
|
Details
An interview with a senior executive
Michael Illouz, CEO, Teva-Naot
-
Number of employees in firm : 200, plus 300
under subcontractors
-
Number of employees under my direct responsibility
: 10
-
We provide
: Comfortable footwear.
-
I'm on the job for : 6
years. Prior to that I worked for 16 years in Strauss
industries, and managed
Tufinei-Sa'ar in Tefen for two years. I have a M.A. degree
in Human Resource Management in Leicester
University.
I've also taken courses in HR studies in the Technion and
in Business Management in the
University of Haifa.
-
I like on the job
: See how people grow, are empowered,
get up happy and full of energy.
-
Most difficult on the job : When people
feel impotent. I find it most difficult when they tell me "it can't be done".
-
Goals I set for myself:
At Teva-Naot we want to be a leading international
brand from based in Israel. 80% of our sales are for
export, and
we are proud to represent the challenge of exporting from the Galilee in the face of giant international footwear firms.
My personal vision is to make people
feel good. When people feels good, they inspire others. The people
around them get better, and later so do the
city, state and entire world.
-
Our vision: We offer
unique footwear solutions to our costumers, making
them feel free and comfortable, every day and all day
long. When a person walks comfortably and feels
comfortable, it makes his day. We came to this vision
with the help of a strategic consultant from Europe,
who has been working with us for some years. We sat
together - 10 people - corporate managers
and designers and built our vision, values
and strategy. Now we have our own internal bible,
a book 350 pages long. In light of this strategy,
Naot has taken the fashion towards comfort. We
focus on three categories - comfort footwear,
fashionable footwear and outdoors footwear. Teva-Naot
now offers the Israeli consumer the wide range of
collections that we offer
each season abroad, through a chain of 12 branches
we acquired two years back.
-
Original product in our market: Flexy - our own product. It's a line
of handmade, natural-materials shoes, with a
replaceable inner sole made of cork. The sole is
anatomic - taking the negative form of the person's foot,
achieving extra comfort and better weight distribution. In the long run
- it prevents pain and orthopedic problems. Seven
years ago, when we presented it, we were unique in
offering this solution in the world market. It allowed us to make
our big international breakthrough.
-
Sources of innovation :
We have a team of 12 in-house designers,
development and technology personel, as well as German
and Italian consultants. New ideas come from fashion
trends around the world (which are found in commercial
databases), from exhibitions, conventions, looking at
shop windows, consumer reaserch and requests by
distributers and buyers.
- Book recommendation : The Fifth Discipline, by Peter M. Senge.
-
To purchase the book:
The Fifth Discipline
-
Send comments
to
: illouz@teva-naot.co.il
-
Would you like to be interviewed?
: contact us
|
|
Focus
On strategic development in practice
On Public Relations and Strategy
What is
the relationship between public-relations and strategy?
As discussed on the previous issue of
LaZOOZ, public-relations are an
important, and even crucial, part in the area of
Marketing Communication, and therefore supports the
strategy. Using the correct PR makes it possible to
expose the products
and
services of the organization to the world, to develop
investor contacts, to transmit the values
and vision of the organization (externally and
internally - to various
levels within the organization), as
well as to deal wisely with crisis. Still, one
may consider a tighter, more sophisticated and direct integration of
strategy and PR.
Here are several examples of a
fruitful linkage of PR and strategy:
-
The Israeli advertising
agency Zarmon-Goldman believes that PR is stronger
than advertising. Zarmon-Goldman climbed to be among
the leading 10 advertising agencies in Israel, on the
waves of the PR produced by their provocative
advertisements. Censorship bans? Petition to supreme
court is underway? Great - nothing better
for promoting their clients and the agency in the
collective awareness.
-
The recent revolution in the
Israeli Labour Party, promoting the young leadership
to top positions, might prove to be more than a
protest move by the party's younger faction. It may be
a brilliant strategic move. In the USA, the lesson has
been learned long ago - the nation likes a
"Hollywood-style", good-looking president, and if he
plays the sax - it's even better. It started out as a
tactical move, but today a face that looks good on
a TV screen is a strategic asset.
-
The advertising campaign by
Bank Hapoalim, starring Yair Lapid, is more than
another celebrity-based campaign. Beyond the values
that are related to Yair Lapid (credibility, warmth,
friendship), the bank has gained the benefits of
using a top media person. Not only does Yair look
good, and that his opinion as a journalist matters -
the mere fact of hiring him draws the attention and
mentioning of other journalists. In the age of
post-journalism, with a tendency to personal writing,
it is not surprising to see the wave of responses to
the advertising of the bank from his
colleages.
How, then, should one produce
a better integration of strategy and PR? One should examine
the fit to the media when
forming various parts of the strategic plan.
Following are some suggestions:
-
Choose a very "communicative"
vision
: this certainly serves the
internal communication, but also goes a
long way towards being in the headlines.
Therefore, you should make sure in advance that the vision
is understandable and exciting
in the eyes of clients and media. Such
an attractive vision lead Picanti Chain (that
offered cheap food products with a "Robin Hood" type
vision) and Ford (with the initial vision of "a Model T
for each worker").
-
Support
"communicative" products or services
: in
choosing the product and service mix, one should
examine their media and news value. Interesting
features may be highlighted in almost every product,
but more attention will be given, for instance, to
those that have a direct (e.g. Viagra) or indirect
(e.g. fashion) relation to sex. Another example - a
non Cosher restaurant in Israel has a higher PR
potential.
-
Acquire media access: according
to Jack Welch, even the giant General Electric gained
momentum, media attention and free publicity when it
bought NBC. Not every organization can and should buy
media channels, but - as demonstrated above - it is
possible to make "small" acquisitions, such as using a
known media personality as spokesperson.
-
Develop logistic flexibility:
this point is extremely important for small
businesses. According to Al Ries, even if you have an
excellent story to tell the media (be it related to
your vision, a product, a service or a spokesperson) -
you cannot be certain of the timing of the media
exposure. It may even take several years. Therefore,
you should ensure that your organization is lean and
mean before the media exposure, yet ready to grow
quickly when exposure comes and demand grows
exponentially. Among other things, operations,
including manufacturing and supply, should be
pre-planned to transform from small volumes and zero
inventory to large volumes (for instance - with the
help of subcontractors).
-
Somtimes you're
better off...avoiding the radar
: if you are not logistically prepared for
sudden growth, or if you'd like to avoid waking up
giant or potential competitors, you steer
clear of any public relations, and operate
under "radio silence". In Israel, a newspaper item
leads to a TV interview in the speed of lightening,
and if you can't handle the media wave - you shouldn't
start it.
-
For articles on strategy and other
subjects
: click here
-
For information on Proactive PR
Management workshops
:contact us
|
|
Education
A must-read book for managers
Double-Digit
Growth: How
Great Companies Achieve It - No Matter What /
Michael Treacy / Portfolio
Let us
consider for a minute a large public firm from the
investors' point of view. In order to win their trust
(and money), it is expexted to fulfill a very clear, yet
difficult to accomplish, goal: consistently demonstrate
double-digit profit growth rate.
Consistently - meaning for many
successive years. Unswaying. Without surprises.
Double-digit
growth - because for 5% annual
return no one would take the risk of buying stock (there are more solid channels yielding such return).
The reward for firms
that are able to do so is enormous:
high market value, sweeping appraisal, market
leadership and...fat bonuses, year after year. You would not
oppose and of these, would you? But
how to keep such a high standard, even
in years of recession, even in saturated
markets, eben when costumers are more
choosy and prices are
falling?
Double-Digit
Growth
, Michael
Treacy's book, deals exactly with that issue. Treacy,
a highly acclaimed strategic consultant, has analyzed consistently growing firms. His findings are encouraging, and indicate that it is possible to manage a successful "growth portfolio", for years, by using a planned and adapetd combination of five possible growrth sources:
(1)
Preserving existing clients - a
relatively easy direction, recommended for
markets with low costumer
loyalty. (2) Gaining market share -
a demanding and exhausting direction, achievable
through organic growth
(especially with low costumer loyalty), or through
M&A (especially with
high costumer
loyalty). (3)
Controling growing
segments
- the easiest direction, requiring the
ability to predict the
growth of a certain segment (due to deomgraphic changes,
consumer
tastes' shift, or a technological or other
breakthorugh in value to costumer). (4)
Penetrating a related market - if it is
dynamic and expected to grow,
providing you will be able
to lead it (with the help of core competencies), and
maintain leadership through
your technology, contacts and business model. (5)
Invading new markets - through the
acquisition of firms, even smaller ones, in
the new market (to bridge
knowledge gaps), and providing you act like
investors
(carefully examining hundreds of investment
opportunities).
The growth
portfolio, according to Treacy, does not have to consist
of all of these five sources, and it is vital to adapt
it to your own market and business reality. For instance
- most of the growing firms mentioned in his book have
found enough growth sources in their own markets and
related markets, and have therefore not invaded new
markets.
The book
dedicates one chapter to each of these growth
directions, and includes examples, recommendations,
rules of action, and surprising insights. The book's
major flaw is it's limited length, and the lack of
empirical basis for some of the recommendations (or at
least no record of such a basis). Notwithstanding, the
book does carry a very significant message:
consistent double-digit growth is
achievable
:
if you set it as
a goal, if you are measured by it and
if you handle it systematically. Run and buy the
book - investors could not thank
you enough.
|
|
Innovation
Methods and tools for managing innovation processes
Adding a
Dimension
Adding a Dimension is the sixth and final Systematic Invention Thinking tool presented in the column. While previous tools focus on the
components of the product and its nearby environment, this tool focuses on the
variables of the product and the environment, attempting to create new relationships between a set of two variables
The steps for using Adding a Dimension are as follows:
1. Choose an existing product or service
2. List the variables of the product or service and its immediate
environment
3. Examine the relationships between two variables (at least one of which is the
product/service)
4. Create a new relationship (dependency) between the two variables
5. Visualize the new product or service, and identify its benefits and uses
6. Repeat steps 3-5 with other sets of variables, to produce more innovations
Example 1 :
-
Existing product: a watch
- Variables of the product: color and location of dials, brightness of light, type of alarm, color of strap, graphic design...
- Variables of the environment: time, date, country, day/night, age of wearer, color of shirt, personal taste...
-
Improvements that have already been made:
-
Swatch (a collection of watches designed to suit an assortment of personal tastes)
- Changeable straps in a variety of colors (a relationship between strap color and color of outfit)
- Dual Time (a relationship between country and location of dials - e.g.: watch shows "New York time" at the push of a button)
-
Improvements that have not yet been made (as far as we know):
-
Automatic synchronization with local time (according to the country you arrive at, and the local winter/summer clock. Mobile phones already have such a feature)
-
A watch that sings "Happy birthday!" (a relationship between date and type of alarm)
-
A watch with an automatic light when it is dark outside (so that you can always see the time)
- A two-sided watch with a two-sided strap (in two different designs - e.g. digital and analog; dual purpose - regular and cooking timer)
Example
2
:
- Existing service: a gym
- Variables of the service: type of equipment, instructions of use, cost of membership, presence of instructor…
- Variables of the environment: time of day, length of wait, current number of members, height of member...
-
Improvements that have already been made:
- Happy hours (cheaper prices at less crowded times)
-
Personal trainer (pay per hour)
- Instruction of use on each piece of equipment (for working without a trainer)
-
Improvements that have not yet been made (as far as we know):
- Automatic adjustment of equipment (each member gets a personal card with information such as weight, height, muscle strength - and the card fits into the device and adjusts length of bench, number of weights, personalized training instructions, etc.). The device may also record previous training sessions and continue the training program.
-
Training incentives - a member discount or free cafeteria dishes for completing training goals (number of monthly visits, weight loss or other parameters).
-
Replacing instructions (for different exercises on the same equipment).
- Free group trainer (to teach stretching exercises, for instance) when the wait to use the equipment is long.
|
|
Invention
An innovation which
surprised the world market and competitors
Shaving Knife
with Battery
If
innovation management is a form of art,
The Gillette
Company is a master artist. Not only do
employees arrive unshaved to work - to try out new
shaving knifes. Not only has Gillette developed a long
line of breakthrough innovations (dual shaving knife,
triple shaving knife, battery powered shaving knife...).
Gillette also presents its innovation in a regulated and
wise fashion, controlling the pace of innovation in the
market. Approximately every five years it introduces a
new and innovative generation of shaving knifes to the
western countries, while rerouting the
previous generation knifes to third world countries. In
such a way, the "old" production lines gain
several more years of operation. Between each
generation Gillette offers smaller improvements every
year. And the result? Gillette controls 70% of the
world's shaving knifes
market, an enormous, consumer products market, supposedly a highly competative one. And if you think that it is a matter of chance - better think again. The Gillette Company is also the owner of Oral-B, demonstrating a similar predatory presence in the tooth-brush market.
How about the battery powered
shaving knife, then? We tried it out, and definitely
recommend it. It is a regular size knife, with
a battery inside the handle. When you click a green
handle switch, the whole knife vibrates gently and
rapidly. The sensation is similar to a
regular shaving knife, but with the motion and vibration of an electric shaving machine. The shave is not necessarily smother, butm the movement on the skin is smother and faster, reminiscent of a hovercraft. It is very difficult to cut oneself with this knife, as it doesn't get stuck on rugged skin, but hovers over it.
As in the
introduction of previous generations, this latest
generation allows Gillette to raise the price of the
knife. However, unlike in the past, Gillette was wise to
integrate another product with the knife - a regular
Duracell battery. And as you might have already guessed
- Duracell is another brand of the Gillette
family. The only business mistake that Gillette
might have done is that (according to the ads, at least) the battery is good for 6 months. Why make such an effecient product instead of selling more batteries? Don't worry, count on Gillette to offer a knife with a lamp, to increase battery usage. Or, maybe integrate Gillette shaving foam into the knife? Or perhaps even...toothpaste???
|
|
Futurism
Innovation ideas not yet realized
Innovation
ideas
for carpets
The
following ideas were developed using various thinking
tools, and do not exist at present
(to the best of our knowledge):
1. A self-folding carpet (with appropriate springs)
2. A
"writeable"
carpet (combing the hairs in one direction creates lines of opposite colors)
3. A carpet with an air mattress attached below (turn over and use as a bed)
4. A double-sided carpet, with different designs on each side
5. An elastic carpet, to fit room size
6. A carpet
with rubber stickers, to
avoid movement (similar to bathroom carpet)
7. A
warm carpet (like an electric sheet)
8. A
carpet with a design that varies with
time (new color layers that are exposed as carpet is wearing
out)
9. A
double-sided carpet for winter ( thicker warmer hairs)
and summer (smooth and "cool") use
10. A "lego" carpet of several parts, divided
for washing each part in a washing machine
|
|
Move
What's new at ZOOZ
Risk Control
and Business Intelligence
Once in
every few months we get information on
business risks in Israel, including data such
as the Risk Indicator in various markets, and the number
of businesses expected to be in serious trouble or even get closed down. Naturally, every business holds a certain risk, but a sound evaluation and management of the risks a firm exposes itself to, dramatically improves its chances for avoiding or surviving risk situations.
ZOOZ now
offers a new workshop, that provides CEOs, CFOs, CMOs,
sales managers and even field personnel tools for
setting a maximum risk
exposure standard
that the firm allows, as well
as various techniques
for containing the risks, warning signs in
client or supplier behavior and ways of action in
the various stages of the risk.
In addition, the workshop covers principles and
tools for gathering business intelligence for risk-conrol purposes. During the workshop or in the accompanying consulting, the tools are implemented in the firm's own business reality, and principles are adapted to market type, size of the firm, market conditions, etc.
|
|
Efficiency
A tip on effective management
Hebrew Reversed
Hebrew is
not an easy language. Especially if you just typed the
name of a new client in Outlook, and get the English
letters instead ("akuo fvi" instead of
the Hebrew equivalent of "
Shalom
Cohen
"). If you get Hebrew and English text
mixed up several times daily, and you are tired of
mentioning Bill Gates, it's time you install "Hebrew
Reverse" program. It is a freeware, making life somewhat
more bearable. Next time you type a Hebrew word in
English mode by
mistake, you do not have to delete and type over again! Mark the English text, click F10 and you get your soothing Hebrew word or phrase.
The software can also handle backward written Hebrew by using the F6 key. This feature is most useful when trying to copy Hebrew text from some Hebrew websites. By the way - you can always asign other keys to perform these tasks.
-
Download the freeware from this website
|
|
Exposure
A creative
advertisement and its logic
Unification
About 10%
of the ads that win creativity prizes around the world
use the logic of Unification .
The idea is to
produce a surprising combination, or even fusion, between
a symbol of the product's benefit
and a symbol of the product itself.
At a
first look at the Ad in front of you something looks
strange. A second look makes it obvious that it
is a strawberry taste toothpaste.
In such a
manner, Unification
generates a visual
stimulation, making the viewer stop and try and
figure out the "riddle". Thus, the ad gains a higher rating. Latter,
when they've solved the riddle, you've created a powerful, non-verbal,
unforgetable message in the mind of viewers.
One thing to pay attention to when using
unification to create an ad, is that it should create
a real fusion - producing a surprising hybrid, rather
than just have a strawberry on the top of a toothpaste,
or a lion on the carhood of a Peugeut.
|
|
|