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By Chris Wilson
Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, has shared four key tips for business people operating in the new world economic environment.
Tourism New Zealand's giant rugby ball in London.
Roberts was speaking at a New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) networking event in London at the end of 2008. He is known for his love of New Zealand and of rugby.
So when he was asked to make a keynote address in the Giant Rugby Ball venue set up next to London’s Tower Bridge, it was an ideal opportunity to weave in references to the All Blacks.
Roberts’ first message was that businesses should focus on their core activities.
He conceded that this is very difficult for most companies.
“In the last 10 years, growth was core,” he said, “and there were many things in that environment that are no longer core in this world where value… will play an inordinate role.”
Roberts noted that value has both a pricing and a priceless dimension.
“Dan Carter has a price but he has a priceless dimension too: it’s the way he thinks about the game.”
Roberts listed Saatchi’s own core activities as creativity, insight and an attitude that ‘nothing is impossible’.
He advised companies to “invest in the core like crazy... reinvent that core and ruthlessly eliminate and reduce what’s not core”.
His second message was this is the time to ‘expect the unexpected’ and that 95 percent of it was going to be ‘terrible’.
Therefore companies have to put in place a system to identify problems within a day and execute a solution a day later.
Saatchi had cancelled all of its strategic planning and budget meetings, Roberts said, as they were now, with the uncertainty, ‘a waste of time’.
Thirdly, the speed of decision-making must rocket.
According to Roberts, this places New Zealand companies in a competitive position as ‘this is a way of life’.
“For many European companies, because of hierarchy, bureaucracy, fear and insecurity, it’s not a way of life.
“We’ve got to decide fast, fail fast, learn fast and fix fast.”
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