Everyday Influence

Confessions of a Million Mile Traveler

I used to wear my airline status like a badge of honor!  A road warrior…in the truest sense.  I once survived 18 time zone changes in two weeks (traveling across Asia, U.S. and Europe) and was still able to walk off the plane (once finally home) fresh and ready to entertain.  I am a million mile traveler! 

This year, I finally reached the pinnacle of United Airlines status:  ‘Global Services’ membership. United’s Global Services program is an invitation only program for its most loyal customers who bring in a significant amount of revenue each year to the airline.
 
I think that most business travelers covet the idea of reaching elite levels of status as a traveler.  There are many great benefits to airline and hotel status and I think that United Airlines and Starwood Hotels have the best programs in their industry.  Status perks include: shorter lines at the airport (check-in and security); free upgrades (airplane seats and hotel rooms); bonus points that can be used for free trips and upgrades; and much better attention and customer service during your trip or stay.  This all makes life much easier for the weary ‘road warrior.’

I achieved my 1 million mile status as a result of hard travel over the last eight years.  The most I traveled in one year was 260,000 actual miles.   I know people who log many more miles than this per year and have reached well over three million miles traveled (to-date).  United Airlines used to name planes after these sick individuals.

My reprieve from travel came in September of last year.  In an effort to help my company control expenses I abruptly stopped all business travel and have not traveled for work since (six months).

I have not been home for more than four consecutive weeks at any given time, in the past eight years.  When I stopped traveling last September, I literally went through withdraws!  My body ached, I could not sleep, stress seemed a bit higher.  It was tough. 

My job has global responsibilities with team members in Russia, Germany, South Africa, U.K., Canada, Brazil, China, Singapore, Japan, India, Australia, etc.  Travel has always been a big and important part of my work.  It is very difficult to manage teams and programs when you have no real context for how business operates in different cultures and countries.

For the time being, I (like many colleagues in the industry) am subjected to working in a new ‘virtual reality.’  I spend a lot of time on the phone, in video conference calls, and planning and attending virtual events.  It is not ideal, but it helps to stay connected to people and business.  I also must admit that advancements in video conferencing are unbelievable. Cisco’s Tele-Presence system is absolutely amazing.

After the first four weeks of being home I began to appreciate just how much sacrifice I have made over the last eight years of my life for company and career (both of which I very much love). 

But now that I am home I clearly see the toll that excessive travel had on my life – physically, mentally, and socially.  The advice that is given to many people who travel is to sleep, drink (water) and eat when you can.  Because outside of these three staples in life while on the road - you are working.  This leaves very little time for anything else that contributes to quality living.

Although my current hiatus from business travel is not ideal or permanent, it is very much welcome.  Over the last six months I have regained positive energy; I am physically stronger and more healthy (dropped 15 pounds); I have time to think thus giving me more clarity on important issues; I have reinvigorated my social life reconnecting with family and friends who I have neglected for many years; and I am able to give my wife time to be more social with her friends (as apposed to being locked down at home dealing with daily homeowner issues and pets).

I have made adjustments to my work day (hours) which allow me to stay connected to colleagues and team members in Europe and Asia/Japan; and some times I work a European schedule altogether (11pm to 9am PST).  

So as the economy goes through its reset/renewal…so does my perspective on work and life. 

I very much look forward to getting back to business as usual.  One of the great things about my job is that I do get to travel and work with amazing people in different countries and experience important cultures.  I am a lucky individual to have such a great opportunity.   But as I do ease back into a routine schedule of travel, I will do so with a new perspective on the importance of life at home. 

What are your confessions as a business traveler?

Leadership: Making the Tough Decisions

Business leaders and managers at all levels are faced with making 'tough' decisions on a regular basis.  This is especially true in today's economic environment.

I have always been fascinated by the process that leaders (both good and bad) go though in making the ‘tough call.’

As an example, I have worked with some leaders who base their decisions on raw emotion (usually the bad leaders); others are gifted with great insight (based on experience) and let intuition be their guide; others base decisions purely on facts; and most good leaders that I have worked with make decisions based on a combination of facts and intuition.

In today's economic environment, there are very few historical precedents or experiences that can fully support a decision that many business leaders are faced with.  There are certainly good lessons that can be derived from history, but very few business and political leaders today have first hand experience in leading through the type of environment that we are in today. 

What about the facts?  Given the rapid and constant change we have experienced over the past four months, many facts become outdated as quickly as they are presented. 

So what to do?

Below are three basic steps that I have come to appreciate as I have grown in my professional career.  These are derived from both my own experiences and from working with great leaders over the years.

1. First, it is important to understand the 'core issue' associated with the business challenge that you are dealing with and gather as many facts and insights surrounding the issue as possible.   At this stage in the process, it is important to separate ‘facts’ from ‘opinions.’ 

As a leader, you are often presented with 'facts' that are presented to support a specific argument or point of view - which by default make them adverse.  This is not to say that these adverse or 'position-based' facts are not valid, but they seldom represent a fully informed view of the core issue that needs to be addressed.

2. Second, it is important to look at your decision options from all angles and perspectives.   Many tough business decisions will have a broad affect on your business which might include: brand; reputation; relationships with employees, customers, partners, governments, etc.   It is very common to overlook the total impact that a tough decision will have on your business.  This is why it is important to consider many options – as you weigh the impact and trade-offs that most important decisions will require. 

As a leader, this is where intuition and experience play a big role. 

3. Third, it is important to ask a lot of questions.  This will help you to understand the options on the table as you make sense of the facts and sift through potential agendas/motives of people involved.  Asking the right questions also helps you to measure the risk and impact that your decision will have on your business and with key relationships. 

You may even consider speaking with trusted representatives from affected internal or external groups (customers, employees, partners, etc.) to get their perspective.  This interaction will also help secure support and buy-in (by all parties) of your final decision once you are ready to communicate.

The ‘tougher’ the decision the more challenges you can expect to face as you communicate and implement.  You will need to be prepared to help affected parties understand the rationale behind the decision and even share some of the alternatives considered and why you chose a different path. 

These are three ‘basic’ steps that I have found to be helpful in making good and informed decisions.

If all else fails, you can always resort to the good ole’ fashioned coin toss!

Additionally, here is a link to a great paper that I recently found called MAKING TOUGH CHOICES: A SIX STEP PLAN FOR MAKING TOUGH BUSINESS DECISIONS authored by Phil Thompson a business lawyer in Canada.  This paper outlines a good and complimentary blueprint for decision making with a bit more detail and additional perspective.

SAP University Alliances – A Standard for Experience-Based Community Design

Today SAP announced the launch of the SAP University Alliances community.  I am honored to have responsibility for the University Alliances program as part of the larger Industry and Influencer Relations organization, at SAP.

 

The newly launched SAP University Alliances community is an advanced portal (hosted on the SAP community network) designed for the academic population worldwide (faculty and students) to access the latest academic resources that bring real-life SAP knowledge and skills into university classrooms. It provides a forum for SAP to deliver higher education content supplied by SAP and community participants, including interactive academic resources, such as course lectures, case studies, exercises, demonstrations and videos; thought leadership forums; and community blogs. The community is designed to facilitate faculty and student collaboration and contribution, job posting and search, as well as networking with SAP customers and partners. Skills development and career opportunities for university students, professors and other community participants are the central focus of the site.

 

Through this effort, SAP University Alliances member faculty and students now have the ability to collaborate and interact with an active group of 1.5 million SAP customers, partners and employees that make up the larger SAP community network.

 

The new community is a central component of the long-standing SAP University Alliances program that today works with nearly 900 member campuses in more than 40 countries supported by 3,500+ professors and university faculty who provide 185,000+ students first-hand experience with SAP software each year.  Our goal with this community is to dramatically increase the number of universities that participate in the University Alliances program to bring 1,000,000+ students into the greater SAP ecosystem over the next three years.

 

The announcement today represents a great milestone not only for SAP University Alliances but also for SAP’s Industry and Influencer Relations program, as a whole.  As I discussed in a blog post last year (The Evolution of Industry and Influencer Relations at SAP – Part Two), universities play a unique and important role in the global economy and represent perhaps the most strategic component of the larger Industry and Influencer program design.

 

Today’s announcement is the result of tremendous effort and milestone that will benefit not only SAP but also our larger and very much valued ecosystem of customers and partners!

Customer Loyalty in a New Economy

Companies around the world have been working very hard to adapt their businesses to a new market reality that has quickly taken shape over the past four months.  The impact of the recession and the abrupt changes in the economy are forcing companies to streamline their operations to manage cost and control cash.  At the same time there is increased pressure to accelerate sales and revenue through new and redesigned products and services - supported by highly competitive pricing and discount scenarios.   Surrounding all this is the consumer. Companies are fighting to retain and extend relationships with their most loyal customers - where in many cases they derive 80% or more of their revenue from.  It is a struggle on all fronts.

 

Given that I am among the many affected by the economic storm - I have been thinking a lot about the consumer challenge.

 

Current economic factors have reduced ‘wallet size’ for many consumers (corporate and individual) forcing trade-offs when it comes to how and where they spend their precious dollars.  This has disrupted the business models of many companies that manage their businesses based on predictable buying behaviors derived from historical demographic models and customer profiles.  In today’s economic environment, all rules have changed as consumers are defining new criteria when it comes to their views on ‘must haves’, ‘nice to haves’ and ‘can do withouts.’

 

As a personal example, I get my hair cut every 5-6 weeks and have been loyal to the same stylist for the past four years.  Her rates have nearly doubled in the last year and although I can’t do without a haircut on a regular basis – I am faced with a conflict of loyalty vs. a new sensibility in how I spend my money and the value that I receive in return.  After all, it is just a haircut, right?  Now I guess I could go longer without a haircut and see the same stylists (just less often) but vanity and a crazy calic suggests that would not be a good thing.  So I am making a trade-off on loyalty - and will start seeing a new and less expensive stylist.

 

Another personal example is how often my wife and I frequent our favorite restaurants and how often we use other services (gardening, house cleaning, etc.).  In these cases, we have decided to maintain loyalty to our favorite restaurants and service providers BUT have cut our number of visits and frequency of service.  This means loyalty wins…but they still get less share of our wallet (for the time being).

What I am experiencing as a consumer is a shift in priorities that will indefinitely affect my status as part of a ‘purchasing demographic’ that eight months ago would have suggested different behaviors.  Nothing has changed in our month-to-month financial situation (knock on wood).  However the conditions in the market around us and the ‘hit’ to our long-term financial plan (retirement and investments) require short-term changes to compensate for.

In times like this, many products and services are rapidly commoditized as competition drives down price in a world where there is an abundance of choice.  In some cases even loyalty (a primary virtue of customer relationship management) can become a commodity.  As a business, if you operate in a world where you have no price-to-value differentiation and you are loosing loyal customers - chances are good that you have become commoditized!

 

Now back to me.  Is there anything that the businesses that I have been loyal to for so long can do to affect my new purchasing sensibilities?  Sure.

 

It’s all about the fundamentals, baby!  In order to secure my loyalty in the first place, you need to establish trust and value in the quality, consistency, and reliability of your service/products.  Pretty basic, huh? With high trust and value I will continue to spend money on products and services and in some cases spend even more money to support the health of your business.

 

It is completely understandable that businesses must also make trade-offs as they manage their costs.  As long as those tradeoff’s don’t compromise the quality, consistency and reliability that I have grown accustomed to, I will remain a loyal customer.

 

This requires that businesses establish relationships with their customer(s) and understand what is important to them (as a loyal customers) so when trade-offs need to be made (to operations, service, materials/ingredients, price, etc.) the boundaries of trust and value in the social contract that made them loyal in the first place – are not tested.  It also requires good communication and engagement.  Show appreciation and empathy.  As an example, the manager and head chef of our favorite restaurant visits with their patrons twice a night to hello, thank them for the business and sometimes offer a free desert or a drink.

 

Every consumer has basic needs that can be addressed by any number of vendors and services providers.  Maintaining customer loyalty may be the most important thing to surviving this current economic storm.