Blink: You're A Chart. He's A Sail.

Malcolm Gladwell in Blink makes a book out of how people create instant impressions of others.

That's great. But what do you do with the information?

My team recently had great success and great fun with the Topsail Personality Profile created by Steve Norcia and Alex Szabo.

In our roles in new product development, we are constantly meeting inventors, licensees, teams of corporate types, sales people -- you know all those who represent a lot of your business transactions.

Our challenge always is how do you quickly decide what someone is like and establish a good relationship. The Topsail Personality Profile let us do that in a blink of an eye.

The personality profile divides people into four types:

• Chart: Low Assertive, High Responsive
• Sail: High Assertive, Low Responsive
• Keel: Low Assertive, Low Responsive
• Signal: High Assertive, High Responsive

These tools let you assess the personalities in order to quickly establish good relationships.

What this means is that

• Sails give you 90 seconds to explain your business results.
• Signals give you 5-10 minutes to establish a personal, social relationship.
• Keels give you 20 minutes to establish a personal, loyal relationship.
• Charts give you 5 minutes to detail your business experience.
  

The indicators are fun even when you apply them to voices on the telephone, e.g. tone of voice, verbal inflections, speech pace and message.

Which is more important after all: good understanding of the facts and great chemistry or good chemistry and a great understanding of the facts.

If you want to play "let's make a deal," I would choose the chemistry first.

Vegas Show Girls Strip Tesco

Religiously, in England, every Sunday after Sunday school, my daughters demanded to go to the High Wycombe Tesco for tea (the village pub being closed, of course, until later). Then, after they had their scones and darjeeling, we filled the trolley with our weekly necessities.

Now, I read that Las Vegas is going to get its Tesco. So Vegas show girls will soon have their own opportunities to stop for crumpets and coffee after a long Saturday eve. And it's not just Vegas. Clearly, Tesco sees the wild American West as their manifest destiny. Stores are planned for Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles.

Edward Kelly, an analyst at Credit Suisse, said that he believes Tesco's U.S. stores will be a hybrid, bridging the gap between traditional grocers, such as Kroger Co. and specialty supermarkets such as Whole Foods Market Inc. and privately held Trader Joe's, while adding the appeal of mass market stores, such as Costco Wholesale Corp., Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Well, Mr. Kelly has managed to squeeze every single notable retailing format into a single observation. But surely Tesco cannot fill that gap, whether it is as big as the Grand Canyon or as narrow as Jerusalem's proverbial Eye of the Needle gate.

Tesco confirmed last week that its stores would be just 10,000 square feet, making them much smaller than a traditional 45,000 square-foot grocery store. The stores, which are smaller than supermarkets or mass market stores, are to start opening later this year. Hmmnn, sounds similar to the Tesco Metro format in the UK.

How can you be successful in this kind of format? Focus. Focus on what the customers in your geographic really need and really would love to have. Tesco's house has many mansions, and you can bet that, like any very smart builder, they will tailor their offerings. Take a look at Tesco's web site (www.Tesco.com). They sell everything. Their challenge is ensuring they have the right things in their small format. Here is where CPG manufacturers can provide a value-added benefit to their retailing partner, demonstrating their own savvy.

Last September, I wrote about CPG manufacturers letting drug retailers control the shopping souk, pointing out that meeting consumer demand trumps promotions and the use of merchandising forces to supplement poor retail executions on the part of retailers.

I doubt that Tesco will suffer poor execution. I can't see Tesco lurching around the American West and making, at once, both naive and egotistical mistakes like the larger-than-comic-life English Berrybender family in Larry McMurty's eponymous trilogy. Though Tasmin Berrybender is hotter and smarter and tougher than any Vegas showgirl.

Tesco's challenge to CPG manufacturers is for those manufacturers to be able to recommend the right sku's are in the right geography (both in town and on the shelf) for Tesco. Data on placement, turns and inventory won't be enough. CPG manufacturers need to think about the shopper, the shelf and their leadership. In this case, strategy is a plan for resource allocation decisions that will determine the nature of success on the shelf.

I would recommend that manufacturers take the time to study and to develop shopper insights and cogent strategies for working with Tesco. In that way, a real relationship that can build into a real mutually beneficial partnership can be established with the chain and its future shoppers.

This would also provide a wonderful reason to do store checks in the UK in advance of meeting with Tesco's US management. But not for me. I am heading for Las Vegas. After all, Tesco (at this point) is calling its new U.S. stores the "Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market."

Moses' Management Consultant

The other week I commented on the snake's role in the Garden of Eden in regard to addressing his target audience: women.

This week, I got an email from Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz of the Jewish Theological Seminary, commenting on Moses' management consultant. Rabbi Berkowitz writes that, Moses' father-in-law, watches his son dispensing judgment for the Israelites while they are in the desert after leaving Egypt for Canaan. He sees that Moses has established himself as a true leader amongst the Israelites, and he has become the victim of his own success. As a result of failing to establish clear and workable boundaries for himself, he opens himself to the potential for prophetic “burn-out.”

Now Jethro, the “corporate consultant,” helps Moses to change the dynamic. He quietly observed his son-in-law at work, then he issued his critique in the form of a question: “What is this thing that you are doing to the people?” (Exodus 18:14). Jethro’s question forces Moses to be reflective. Moses recognizes the burden before him, namely that the people are coming to him to seek God, and he is their judge for both large and small decisions. After hearing this response, Jethro wisely proposes a plan for success: Moses will appoint "good" (and I do mean "good," after all this is the Bible) assistants who will judge the common cases while Moses will continue adjudicating the major disputes.

The lessons from this story are to be (1) open to the work of knowledgeable consultants, (2) deliberate and sensitive in our critiques, and (3) like Moses, open to the possibility of change and innovation.

Maybe McKinsey, Booz Allen Hamilton, BCG, et al can adopt Jethro as their patron saint.

Dr. Spock Rides To The SuperBowl on Colts and Bears

There have been a number of good articles about the management styles of Tony Dungy, coach of the Indianapolis Colts, and Lovie Smith, coach of the Chicago Bears.

(Public disclosure: I went to the University of Chicago, so I'm rooting for Da Bears.)

It is noteworthy that both of these coaches are African-American, guaranteeing that this year an African-American football coach will win the SuperBowl for the first time (don't you love these win-win scenarios).

Also noteworthy, as my wife points out, is their management styles. We have two coaches (with Smith an offshoot of Dungy's coaching tree, having worked for Dungy in Tampa Bay) who are not chest-thumping, tough-guy screamers. Both men believe that they can direct, lead and motivate their team by calmly giving directions and treating players with respect.

That's like Nelson standing at the Battle of Trafalgar, taking a cannon shot and still leading the navy to victory.

Football players are smart, operate well within systems, make fast decisions and move to close on a point with speed. They seek to differentiate themselves and gain competitive advantage. So, is there really a need to verbally or physically slap these guys upside their heads? Or isn't more effective to get into their heads in the same way that this generation of athletes and executives was raised?

Remember that pediatrician who coached your mom on how to raise you? Dr. Benjamin Spock was the first pediatrician to use psychoanalysis to understand children's needs and family dynamics. To crip from Wikipedia, his ideas about childcare influenced several generations of parents to be more flexible and affectionate with their children, and to treat them as individuals.

Mmmnnn. Sounds like Dungy and Smith. Sounds like good managers who have empathy, know what is right, try to understand their employees' needs, direct them with the best strategies for success and provide appropriate goals and measures. And a good situational leader will change their style and approach depending on the readiness of individual employees.

For a generation of professional football coaches and senior managers raised on Dr. Spock, the lessons their parents brought to the crib are the same lessons that can elevate the performance of the team. Now internalized, those lessons remain some of the best ways of improving productivity, creating a prosperous work place and realizing success.

As I have led my teams and worked with them to achieve our goals, I have seen the personal and real value of listening, respect, dialogue, strategy and result. What seems new in these coaches is what we have been instructed and coached on since the nursery. And if we can bring those lessons into the workplace, we will have achieved a true work-life balance.