Teddy Eddy

My daughter was given charge of the class teddy last week and became completely engrossed with him. He was part of nearly every sentence – Teddy Eddy this, Teddy Eddy that. They were instantly joined at the hip: at the dinner table, in the bathroom, washing hands, cleaning teeth, bedtime story and, of course, in bed itself.

This OTT passion was completely out of the blue and somewhat overwhelming. You honestly couldn’t hold a winning lottery ticket with more fervour than she did with this scruffy bear.

Seeing it, I was reminded of meeting an excellent facilitator, Pammy Johal of Backbone. Pammy is a captivating individual and exactly the sort of person you’d want to be stuck in a lift with. Our conversations have run into cycling. She’s confessed she’s mad on her four bikes; they’re her babies.

To calibrate her self-proclaimed madness she told me about her selling an old Trek bike. She bumped into the lady that bought this bike from her a couple of years later in the supermarket. “How are you enjoying the bike?” Pammy asked. “Dunno really. It’s at my sister’s. I think it’s in her shed,” came the unwelcome reply.

Pammy was so desperate for her (former) bike – her offspring – to be with a family that loved her, she wrote the lady a cheque there and then to buy the bike back for the original sale price. The beloved Trek was repatriated.

Yes, these are two extreme examples of passion but what if you could get your teams feeling and acting 10% of that level toward your products, your services, your clients? What would 50% look like?

Drucker’s infamous dictum goes along the lines of, ‘Business is all about finding and retaining customers.’ A fraction of the passion shown above would have your clients returning every time – the trouble is fostering it certainly isn’t child’s play.

How are you enabling your team to be passionate?

Gordon Ramsay is a business hero of mine because he’s built an empire through incredible hard work coupled with non-pretentious quality. His book, Playing with Fire is one of the most inspiring business reads you could pick up.

Jamie Oliver is in exactly the same league but perhaps with a little less showbiz. I’d argue he’s also more altruistic and the TED folks clearly agree with his fight against obesity. They’ve awarded him $100,000 and “one wish to change the world.” Well, if I were on such a wishful mission, TED is certainly the group I’d like to curry favor with.

$100k is small change for a millionaire who asked the government to invest $1billion on school dinners, but its a massive hat tip for heroic work. Bravo Jamie.

At their best, blogs offer insight and intelligence, none moreso than Seth Godin’s daily brain dumps. Seth goes futher than most in that he often throws out free business ideas and free ebooks.

I’ve not had a chance to digest all of his latest offering but it looks similar to his usual fare: short, digestable, direct and thought provoking. Even better is the fact he got 70 odd important people to contribute “important ideas… including Tom Peters, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried…”

The thoroughbred race horse, See the Stars, has retired and there’s a book out to celebrate his achievements called One Blazing Summer.

Apparently, the real test of such a horse is in its three-year-old year and See the Stars was spectacular in his. He raced every month for six months and won the lot, including the triple: the Guineas, the Derby and the Arc.

He has plenty more racing in him but retirement is the call from management. Why, when there are winners’ cheques on the table? Stud value. He’s 85,000 euros a ‘go’ and he will ‘go’ a hundred times a year!

Ignore morals and ethics for a moment and indulge a silly but interesting thought: what if that human stars put themselves out to stud? What would Pele, Tiger or Lance exact? Forget sport and think about a Bill Clinton or a Steve Jobs gene pool up for sale. Really crazy only-in-America stuff, eh?

Sir Steve Redgrave, Michael Jordan, Pele, Michael Schumacher, Tiger Woods, Muhammed Ali, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer… etc. They’re all great, but the greatest?

No, sir. The world’s foremost sportsperson is alive and well and out of retirement. Lance Armstrong starts today in the world’s toughest race (absolutely no question about that one!). He’s won it a peerless seven times and this year looks set to be among the toughest and most exciting he’s witnessed.

Allez Lance. Allez LIVESTRONG, and Win Susan.

Watching the news it’s hard not feel empathy for workers in Visteon and elsewhere who have lost their jobs and almost certainly a huge chunk of their pensions. But as value is evaporating and the FTSE remains volatile, are we right to cease pension payments and avoid some of the heartache?

If you try it and you’ll probably be told something like, ‘You’re buying units at a lower price right now. When the market turns, these lower price units will have a potential benefit to your pension plan.’ Your financial advisor would call it ‘Pound Cost Averaging.’

Well, the house that Brown built is crumbling. People are hurting and businesses are under extreme pressure. Now that we all know this, what are we to do next? Join the Euro? Take to communism? Spend more and save less – or is it borrow less and save anywhere other than a bank?

As intolerably blame-ridden as Brown is (noticed how Blair has remained Teflon-protected throughout – luckily we’ve got Sir Fred to pin it ALL on, eh?), somehow I doubt voting for Cameron’s Blues is the magic wand we’d like. Regardless, he’s surely going to get a chance to show us all he’s not just the Yes Man we think he is in the next election when Labour will most likely lose by the same huge numbers that brought them into the driving seat in ‘97. Perhaps that’s when Pound Cost Averaging will pay off?

Photo credit: Mark Hillary

The second installment of The Apprentice airs tonight at 9pm. That’s another dose of entertainment for 8+ million viewers but a huge shot of pain for scores of real employees.

I know plenty who would say how the show appears to have a spell-binding influence on supervisors, managers and leaders across the country as they emulate the OTT attitude, ethos and aggression of Big Brother in suits.

If your boss’ only business coaching input is from this show and they believe life should be more like it, I feel for you. Tell ‘em to watch Mad Men instead.

Like The Apprentice it’s: contagious, on the beeb, equally outdated (set in 1960s), full of business daring-do, stars several of wrong-uns, and has plenty of out-of-hours issues.

It’s truer to its business theme, far less voyeuristic and much better all round.

The Old (Barrichello), the Pretender (Button) and the Skint (the Brackley team) have pulled off a spectacular one-two in Melbourne to kick off the Formula One season.

Continuing the B fest, they’ve shown:
Belief – evidently they kept working hard when a full closure was more than likely.
Brains – the clean sheet of ‘09 regulations allowed them to show innovation beyond McLaren’s and Ferrari’s dreams.
Bravery – in the management buyout (and subsequent cut backs).

Brawn GP, now a euphemism for ‘Giant Killer,’ really have shown us it all this weekend.

Commentators said the grid was turned on its head. That’s untrue as the back of the pack looked all too familiar. But the midfield have undoubtedly caused the former front runners a major headache. To the victor go the spoils. Well, perhaps a Virgin.

Side quote: The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius (Sid Caesar).

Photo credit: cbc888

7 ultra marathons (31 miles each) on all 7 continents in 7 consecutive days. Ouch.

This is no cakewalk. I’ve done a couple of marathons and know a little of the pain involved, but this is on a different scale altogether. It’s beyond evil. It makes your Land’s End to John O’Groats stuff look like a trip around Marks & Sparks.

The courage, will and stamina of these guys is truly inhumane.

They’re doing it to raise money for several charities and you can support the spectacular here.

Some purchases in life fall to the mundane. Regardless of how soft my toilet roll is or how easily the diesel flows from the pump, my heart beats at the same rate.

But some shopping can be a much more emotive affair: the pride of a dad’s first pram; unpacking a new Mac; the smell of new running shoes; freshly laid carpet at home; the sound of a new golf putter. All can hit you with a lot more gusto than buying postcode credits for your website.

It’s not news to you that some brands, not just product categories, can make that difference as well. MP3 players are pretty simple machines in today’s superconducting world but few would argue it’s easier to be impassioned about a new iPod, than a £9 Sweex.

And I’m feeling much the same about this bike. I could’ve bought six other brands, all with very comparable machines but I’m drawn to Specialized. They’re arguably the BMW of the bike world but they’re not the obvious choice for the layman. Chavs haven’t heard of them and the masses won’t be interested even if they do stumble into a store that carries them. High prices should be enough of a barrier for that.

If Stephen Fry were buying a commuting bike, I could easily see him on this:  technical enough for Steve Jobs (our Fry is an all-out Apple geek) but understated with a hint of performance about it.

I might be thinking (or is that feeling?) totally different about it if Beckham’s seen riding one and sales go intergalactic. But for now my heart feels secure knowing my bum gets to work a couple of times a week on my Apple-esque bike.

Unlike the frost, I hope my high isn’t short lived.