March 3rd, 2010 by Wadds

BBC Strategy Review: BBC 1 – commercial sector 0

Almost every speaker during the last two days at the FT Digital Media & Broadcast conference has spoken of their plans to grow their digital business.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson was the exception. In his strategy review of the BBC set out yesterday he proposed that the BBC pull back its online effort. The review calls for a 25 per cent reduction in the budget for bbc.co.uk and half the number of sections on the site. Savings will be reinvested in the generation of content elsewhere within the BBC under five new editorial priorities.

Whether or not this will be sufficient to pacify critics in the commercial media sector only time will tell. John Ridding, CEO, Financial Times, said that the BBC web site hadn’t helped publishers in their bid to build revenue around news online.

James Murdoch has traditionally gone further. He has been fiercely critical of the scale of the BBC’s free-to-access new web site.

Speaking at the conference yesterday Thomson said that the proposed strategy review will “create spaces for others to fill”.

The proposal also calls for the closure of the BBC Asian Network and BBC 6. Both measures have already resulted in fierce opposition from the audience with a variety of forums, Facebook groups and petitions already in circulation.

By attempting to pacify the commercial sector with its proposals yet also keep its audience onside the BBC has created a smart leadership platform for the ensuing three-month consultation period.

The Financial Times chief media correspondent Ben Fenton has suggested yesterday that the timing of Thompson’s review is incredibly shrewd.

The three-month period of consultation on the proposal means that it has been kicked out beyond the date of the UK election meaning that the BBC charter is unlikely to be an election issue.

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December 3rd, 2009 by Wadds

Hornby and the James May effect: stock up 17 per cent in two weeks

There are opportunities to create value in a market whatever the macro conditions.

James May’s BBC programme Toy Stories featuring Airfix, Scalextric and Hornby has been a shot in the arm for parent company Hornby.

Two weeks ago I tweeted the following.

horny

The shares have risen steadily from 145p to a recent high of 170p, a climb of 17 per cent. Today they are at 161p.

james_may

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October 23rd, 2009 by Wadds

Cassetteboy BNP remix

The BNP’s leader Nick Griffin used the platform of BBC Question Time last night to lay bare his views. The remix genius that is Casetteboy has provided an excellent summary. Democracy is alive and well on the internet.

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August 29th, 2009 by Wadds

MacTaggart lecture: BBC vs News Corporation in the war for online news

James Murdoch set out the battle lines for the future of online news in his MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival 2009 last night.

“As Orwell foretold, to let the state enjoy a near-monopoly of information is to guarantee manipulation and distortion,” he said. The next 18 months will almost certainly see the closure of a number of major national and regional titles close. Circulation and ad revenues are falling.

Newspapers need to start charging for their content on the web. But in the short term this could hasten their demise driving traffic to sites that don’t charge notably the BBC.

“Dumping free, state-sponsored news on the market makes it incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet. Yet it is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it,” said Murdoch.

The BBC is distorting the market for online news as it will never charge for its content because of its funding structure.

The full text of the MacTaggart lecture is posted on Broadcast’s web site.


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June 7th, 2009 by Wadds

Trouble ahead for the TV Licensing Authority as media and distribution channels fragment

You must have a TV Licence costing £142.50 to watch TV in the UK. But the fragmentation of media and distribution channels is leading to some interesting situations:

Confused? I was until I checked out the TV Licensing web site. Here’s what it says:

“[...] if you use any device to watch or record television programmes at the same time (or virtually the same time) as they’re being shown on TV, the law requires you to be covered by a TV Licence.”

There is almost certainly trouble ahead for the TV Licensing Authority as viewers increasingly download programmes from content providers after they have been broadcast. Don’t you think?


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May 18th, 2009 by Wadds

Measuring the National Work from Home Day digital communications campaign

Matt Watson’s Google Map mash-up acted as a focus for National Work from Home Day on Friday. People working from home were asked to mark the day by tweeting a tag (#NWFHD) and their postcode.

twittermap150 home workers added themselves to the National Work from Home Day map during a six hour period. Matt has generated a final Google map that shows everyone’s location. The project generated more than 270 tweets attracting the attention of Sky News’ Ruth Barnett, the BBC’s Maggie Philbin and Rory Cellan-Jones, Oranges’ Matthew Horton and the Independent’s Alex Johnson.

More than 1,000 unique visitors sought out the mashup map on the Speed web site (verified via web analytics and the use of a bit.ly link). It also attracted more than ten pieces of editorial content ranging from the BBC and the Independent, through to independent bloggers.

The project was inspired by the #UKSNOW mashup devised by software programmer Ben Marsh earlier this year. Ben’s map allowed Twitter users to plot areas of snowfall across the UK in real time during periods of heavy snow.

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April 23rd, 2009 by Wadds

BBC in web IPTV service first

apprentice_iptvThe BBC has started broadcasting live feeds via the internet from its major terrestrial channels (BBC1 and BBC2). The service is currently in beta.

The BBC also quietly unveiled a web IPTV application around a TV programme last night. Viewers of the Apprentice were able to watch the programme via the web, predict which candidate would be fired, and participate in a live discussion.

It’s a shame that the Apprentice chat widget wasn’t a live Twitter feed using the #apprentice hash tag but then a moderated channel hosted by the BBC is probably a lot safer than an open Twitter channel.

The Telegraph came a cropper earlier in the week when Twitter users spotted the opportunity to deface The Telegraph web site via its like #budget Twitter stream.

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April 22nd, 2009 by Wadds

Lessons from The Apprentice, Week 4: research key to product design and integrity

Week 4 of the Apprentice (available of iPlayer) saw the teams tasked with designing two natural body products to sell to the public. Again Sir Alan mixed the teams up. Paula leading Empire designed a sea weed based soap and shower gel while Noorul led Ignite which designed a honeycomb based soap and shower gel. Here’s what we learnt.

Research
Again we learn that research and integrity is critical to the success of a product. Neither team gave any consideration to the health benefits or ingredients in the products that they were developing. Clare English in our consumer team has already blogged about this; she recently led the team that won Skinfood so knows her stuff when it comes to marketing beauty products.

Product design
Neither team tested its products until they were about to head out to flog their wares. Ignite would surely have seen significant numbers of product returns and would never have secured repeat business because the honey in its soap melted into a goo as soon as it came into contact with water. Despite this Ignite won the task captilising on Empire’s financial miscalculations.

Team work
Never underestimate the ability of an individual to screw up under pressure. Paula, Yasmina and Ben screwed up in spades by confusing the decimal point when calculating the cost of her ingredients and confused cedar wood with sandal wood. This basic error lost Empire a task that it otherwise would have won. Paula as leader was deemed culpable and was fired. Always double check your numbers. And then check them again.

Business models
Beauty is a high margin business. Products cost pennies to make but with smart gift wrap and good marketing they sell for pounds. Match product integrity with brand and you’ve got a cracking business model.

Management
Managers should lead from the front. Noorul spent his time as team leader five paces behind his team which won despite his poor leadership and inability to sell. Had his team lost then he surely would have been for the chop.

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April 22nd, 2009 by Wadds

Lessons from The Apprentice, Week 3: management and team working

I’m late with commentary on Week 3’s Apprentice challenge (available on iPlayer) but I’m posting this for the sake of completeness.

Week 3 was the design task. The teams were mixed up and the challenge was to create an original piece of personal exercise equipment and flog it to retailers. Debra led Ignite which designed a version of a traditional exercise ball. James led Empire which developed a gym-in-a-box. Here’s what we learnt.

Delegation
James delegated the design of Empire’s product to Ben and had no input in the project until a prototype arrived from the product design company. Delegation is fine, but for a team leader to have no involvement in the key activity of the task is poor. Ignite won the task despite fiddling and meddling from team leader Debora. She’s a strong assertive leader who delegates tasks, but not authority or responsibility.

Team motivation
When James was given the opportunity in the boardroom he voiced reservations about the design claiming that he kept quiet during the task as he didn’t want to demotivate the team. There’s never a good time to share bad news and human nature is to focus on the positive, but good communication is key to motivation and a good leader would have been able to rally a team despite misgivings.

Demonstrating value
Majid was fired because he wasn’t visible enough. In a team task make sure you’ve got a clearly defined role, that you complete what’s expected of you and that you make sure your boss recognises your work. This is applies in almost all aspects of business and is an excellent lesson for anyone in a client service business.

Product design
Maybe it was harsh editing or maybe the teams really did fail to take full advantage of insights provided by retail stores and personal trainers. Both teams arrived at their chosen product routes by luck rather than rational judgment. Research must lie at the core of the design process. Its why Loewy’s product design gurus Seymour Powell have a team dedicated to ethnographic research.

Selling
Lorraine stepped right outside her comfort zone in a bid to sell and did an okay job once she ditched the script and told a story. Debra would almost certainly have had her in the boardroom had Ignite failed the task. Instead she should have been congratulated for her efforts. Selling is a tough skill to learn if it doesn’t come naturally.

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April 4th, 2009 by Wadds

Bogel Bros produces lego animation of The Apprentice

Shout out to Bogel Bros which is again producing a lego animation of each edition of the Apprentice. If you don’t have time to watch the programme, catch-up each week on YouTube with lego versions of Sir Alan, Nick and Margaret and the candidates of 2009.

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April 4th, 2009 by Wadds

Lessons from The Apprentice, episode 2: budgets and product excellence

Week two of the Apprentice (available on iPlayer) was the catering challenge in which teams typically under or over order materials. The challenge required each team to serve canapés at receptions for a pair of law firms in the city.

Here’s what I learnt from the programme.

Management
Both teams sensibly selected a person from their ranks with catering experience. The kitchens worked well. It’s becoming obvious that candidates have all watched previous series before signing up for Apprentice 5. Hesitation is out and quick thinking and decisiveness is the order of the day.

Product knowledge
Knowing your product is critical in sales. Both teams struggled to make a convincing sales pitch because their knowledge was limited. Ten minutes with Jamie Oliver’s Naked Chef or the Nigella Lawson’s Domestic Goddess would have taught the teams everything that they needed to know about producing classy canapés.

Negotiation
Neither team negotiated well. The boys priced on the basis of a single call to an events organiser and pitched in a cost that was ridiculously high and went through a ridiculous pantomime of discounting. Both teams suffered financial penalties after agreeing to discounts.

Product excellence
Seth Godin says either be remarkable or don’t bother. Half measures simply won’t do. Clients of a city law firm do not want to be served by a bunch of hairy, pimply blokes in togas. Crisp black suits would have been much more successful.

After seeing the girls’ team serve up chunks of French stick topped with tomato (served as bruschetta) and a sloppy mixture of tomatoes and courgette wrapped in sweet pancakes (served as bellini) it makes you wonder what team leader Yasmina Siadatan produces in her restaurant.

Both teams produced lousy food. They cut costs and it showed.

The boys’ lost because of a number of failures: their product quality was poor (the girls’ was no better), they didn’t budget their food costs and as a consequence their pricing was ill informed, and they spent precious budget on costumes and room dressings that were unnecessary.

Team leader Rocky Andrews was fired. I had him down as a cert for the final based on his experience owning and managing a chain of 15 sandwich shops in the North East. But it was the right call and in a rare display of humility on the Apprentice Rocky admitted as much. This isn’t the last we’ll hear of him.

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March 28th, 2009 by Wadds

Lessons from The Apprentice, episode 1: focus on profit

The Apprentice is back. 8 million viewers and a lively back channel on Twitter (tag: #apprentice and others) are testament to the fact that the format is as strong as ever.

Episode one saw the 15 candidates split by gender into two teams and set up a cleaning business. Both teams set up car cleaning operations and generated respectable revenues in a single day of trading. The girls (Ignite) made the most sales but the boys (Empire) made the most profit by keeping their costs low. And therein lies Sir Alan’s first lesson.

Here’s what I learnt from the programme.

Focus on profit
There is a reason why the phrase “turnover is vanity, profit is sanity” is a cliché. It’s because it is spot on. In a start-up situation every £1 spent is a £1 that you are further away from breakeven and profit. The most important line in a P&L account is profit, then turnover and costs. It is crucial to keep costs as low as possible.

Business opportunities
Each team succeeded in negotiating deals with businesses that maintained fleets of vehicles. The programme didn’t dwell on this element of the task but it seemed remarkably straightforward. Either the opportunities were warmed up in advance or the show demonstrates the adage that business opportunities abound irrespective of the state of the economy.

Volume versus value
The boys ran a parallel shoe shining operating generating £60 in an hour at St Pancras Station. This is a low value business model that is reliant on volume. But the team chose its location smartly and was able to generate and turn around trade quickly. Had they sustained this activity for a day they would have generated significant revenue and profit as costs were low.

Process
Cleaning cars is not a complex job but without a process and clear roles and responsibilities both teams duplicated activities, ruined work that had already been done, and wasted time. The task of cleaning a car needed to be broken down into small chunks with a person taking responsibility for each and a clear sequence for each activity.

Management
Putting yourself forward as the team leader in the Apprentice is tough. Doing it in episode one is pure madness. Everyone is an unknown quantity and individual skills and strengths are unknown. The team management was poor but the level of bickering and bitchiness was extraordinary.

I can’t wait for next week.

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