FIA Conference and FLAME Awards 2010

Well. FLAME has come and gone and I personally feel that all I want to do is find a hole somewhere and sleep for a week.

A fair number of the 700 plus attendees have told me that it was a great success – complimenting everything from the calibre of the speakers, to the new ‘fruit & food grazing’ feeding arrangements.
For me, it was (as always) great to see and meet up with so many old faces - and new. But what really excited me was the attendees’ hunger for knowledge for information on subjects which, even a couple of years ago, would have only attracted enough people for a five-a-side team, let alone pack a room. Topics ranging from applying psychology to our delivery models, to the importance of data, the value of social media and the whole issue of ‘exercise as medicine’ filled session after session.

Thinking about this, as well as the calibre of FLAME Award winners and runners up suggests that there is a real and very tangible sea change in our industry. Everywhere I looked and every conversation I had gave me the feeling that people are taking everything we do and improving it by 50% - whether it’s the graphics on kit or its phenomenal capacity to record and interpret data: whether it’s new programmes which are reaching deeper and more consistently into communities, or the phenomenal work currently being done by a handful of organisations with GPs and health professionals.

Now, this isn’t a cheap plug for the TwentyTen Commission, but there are pockets of excellence throughout our industry; just think of the contribution we could make to the nation (and our own bottom line), if we collated best practice, shared it and used it as a springboard for improving what we do and how deeply we engage with our respective communities. The catalyst to that is the Commission, but the drivers to that are you.

Thinking about drivers makes me think about ‘Movers and Shakers’ ... wait ‘till you see the pics from the Awards ... think Strictly Come Dancing ... then think John Sergeant!
Need I say more ... I don’t think I should, or there will be no greeting of ‘old faces and new’ next year.

Click here to see a sample of the photo's from the event.

David Stalker, Executive Director at FIA

Being intellectually smart isn't enough

I came across this quote from the book, “Primal Leadership, Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee.


“Of all the factors in a company’s control, tuned-out, dissonant leaders are one of the main reasons that talented people leave and take the company’s knowledge with them.”

How many of you lose good people because they’re managed and led by people who have brilliant minds, but can’t make that vital connection with people? How much does this cost the business?

At what point would you like to remedy it?

A co-founder of Talent Smoothie http://www.talentsmoothie.com/, Simon Walker is one of the UK’s leading authorities on Generation Y and how to better understand and lead them. Simon will be giving two presentations at the FIA Conference on July 14th at Cheltenham Racecourse.

Written by Simon Walker

Does big mean your customer service has to suck?

It’s so often big organisations that let us down on customer service, isn’t it. Because their policies are too rigid to fit every circumstance, usually.

So, if they don’t allow the frontline to practise common sense, use some discretion, we, as non-standard customers not fitting the policy, don’t exist and don’t get served.

I’m thinking of the case of the Bank of America customer who was born with no arms, but found himself standing in front of a cashier who said that no, without a thumb print, he couldn’t cash the cheque he wanted to cash. Because that’s the policy.

Bill Taylor, in his Practically Radical blog at the Harvard Business Review (http://blogs.hbr.org/), says that the lesson here is that size, as a strategy in itself, is no longer enough.

Companies get big because it’s a sign of success and it gives them the muscle, the clout, to carry on getting bigger – their buying power increases, economies of scale kick in, suppliers offer them favourable prices, competitors can’t match their marketing power, blah, blah, blah.

But, says Taylor, if you haven’t figured out how to harness the smarts of people that work with you, then you are part of the ranks of ‘big and stupid’ companies. And your days are numbered.

Taylor says: “Pete Carril, the Hall of Fame basketball coach, has a trademark expression that sums up the relationship between size and success. ‘The strong take from the weak,’ he likes to say, ‘but the smart take from the strong.’

“If you can figure out, as Jack Welch [the legendary CEO of General Electric] did, how to add to your company’s muscles without atrophying its brain, then maybe you’re not too big to succeed.”

Written by Phil Dourado

Phil Dourado is one of the UK’s leading analysts and commentators on putting the customer at the heart of business, and uses his insights to help organisations improve their customer focus and get closer to their customers. He is giving two presentations around leadership and customer service at the FIA Conference on July 14th at Cheltenham Racecourse.

The Conference that will take you into the next dimension

Today, I felt as if I was on the flight deck of the Star Ship Enterprise.

Less than a week to go to the Flame Conference and we've just hit the Warp Speed button: the stars have turned into streaks of light: the staff of Star Ship FIA have pinned their ears back and the old bus is rattling as we travel at the speed of light.

I know when we arrive at Planet Cheltenham, the air will be pure and intergalactic attendees (drawn from the four corners of our solar system. The Fitness Way), will be..."Enough!" I hear you cry.

But seriously, as the FIA prepares for the industry's second industry conference, goody bags are being checked, speakers' slides are being double checked and seating plans for the Ball are being poured over.

As for the golf day, judging by the fact that less than 10% of players will be playing off a single figure handicap, whilst over 50% are playing off a 20+ handicap, I can only assume that as an industry, we spend more time at the coal face than we do on the green... or maybe golf is our handicap.

But just like Captain Kirk and all the other starship troopers (or am I mixing my Sci Fi), next week we really will '...go where no man has been before'. The Twentyten Commission's Industry Consultation will be launched. It's ambitious and will have profound implications for ambitions, business planning all seem overshadowed by uncertainty and a certain collective insecurity, it's gratifying to think that we at least, are trying to think rationally about a coherent strategy designed to achieve specific future goals.

But in the short term, some of the country's leading experts will be stimulating us with new ideas for old problems. Think of the power of harnessing those three horses of business- psychology, marketing and communications- and the advantage it could give you.

If your are the Flame Conference next week, I look forward to seeing you.

If you're not...well there's always nest year.

To quote Captain Kirk... I'll spare you. See you on the other side of the Warp Factor.

David Stalker, Executive Director of the FIA