1.
Cordialism
How the best companies lose their flavour.
Erik Vermeulen
Behavioural Economics Strategist
#cordialism

2.
What we’ll cover today…
How we lose
our flavour.
Getting the
flavour back.
The HR /
Marketing
Partnership

3.
What do you think when you see…

4.
What do you think when you see…

5.
What do you think when you see…

6.
What does history tells us…?

7.
“The world is changing very
fast. Big no longer beats small.
It’s now the fast beating the
slow.”
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO News Corp

8.
Companies today are most worried
about…
EXPERIENCE & ENGAGEMENT
People will judge your organization by the
experience they or an acquaintance have with
your brand 90% of the time and only 10% or less
by the marketing messages they’ve heard.

9.
Companies today are most worried
about…
EXPERIENCE & ENGAGEMENT
Companies who SAY that they’re great at
customer service often aren’t. The same
goes for the message “our people are our
most important asset.”

10.
Companies today are most worried
about…
EXPERIENCE & ENGAGEMENT
This represents the internal and external
duality of successful companies in the
experience economy.
Engaged employees provide the best
experiences.

11.
No marketing campaign will convince
someone you’re great at service when
they’ve had a lousy EXPERIENCE
from a disengaged employee that
demonstrates the opposite.

12.
How do
we lose
flavour?

13.
Your Company

14.
Your Idea

15.
Your Ideal Mix

16.
Your Growth
• More people
• More systems
• More processes
• More control(s)
• Different backgrounds
• Different behaviours
• Different goals
• Different motivation
• …

17.
Reputation = Experience - Expect

18.
Your diluted Flavour

19.
Why is company culture
important?

20.
In 1995, the
average person
had 27
connections.
In 2015, the
average person
will have
415
connections.

21.
Right now, Gen Y outnumber
Baby Boomers,
96% belong to Social Networks

22.
68% of customers
leave because of poor
employee attitude

23.
41% of customers are
loyal because of a good
employee attitude

24.
70% of customer brand
perception is determined
by experiences with people

25.
Your marketing department
does not own your brand or
your culture, it belongs to the
collective behaviour of your
employees.

26.
Delivering a consistent
experience
Training
People &
Behaviour
Business
principles
New Product
Development
Internal
communications
Annual Report
Website
Packaging
look-and-feel
Special
promotions
Customer
Communications
Billing
Experience
Office design, e.g.
Experience Centre,
Call centres
Product line
alignment
Retail outlet
design
Signage & Way
finding
Collection
points, pre-paid
kiosks
Employer
Brand
Leadership
behaviours
Service
standards
Marketing &
Communications
Products
& Services
Environments
Naming
After sales
service

27.
The HR -
Marketing
Partnership?

28.
Discovery Health
“When you need us, we're there for you”
Promise: Consistent support and peace of mind
Look & feel: Caring, modern, simple
Why successful?
Has the highest ratings for claims-paying ability
Largest and most secure brand – leverage their size to deliver access to quality
healthcare
How differentiated?
Empowers its customers to have a healthier lifestyle by providing them with the
necessary tools through its trendsetting wellness programme, ‘Vitality’
Offers unique products with better benefits and claims lower prices than its
competitors
Brand Learning: Discovery maintains consistency throughout the brand, a caring feel,
and provides more than just ‘healthcare’ to its customers. Their high claims-paying
rating proves that they make good on their brand promise
28

29.
Experience Spectrum
REACH CHOCOLATE HAPPY FAMILIES STANDARDS WINNING
Tangible
Intangible
PHYSICAL
CHARACTERISTICS
What it is
FUNCTIONAL
CHARACTERISTICS
How it performs
BRAND CHARACTER
How it expresses itself
EMOTIONAL
CONNECTION
How it makes you feel
EMOTIONAL
PROJECTION
What it says about you

30.
Success = Growth = Employees
Engaged employees work with
passion and feel a profound
connection to their company.
They drive innovation and
move the organization
forward.
Actively
Disengaged
employees aren’t
just unhappy at
work; they’re busy
acting out their
unhappiness. Every
day, these workers
undermine what
their engaged co-workers
accomplish.
Not Engaged
employees are
essentially “checked
out.” They’re
putting in time —
but not energy or
passion — into
their work.

31.
Success = Growth = Employees
10% of employees
are poor performers
10% of employees
are top performers
The other 80% are
fence sitters and
just get on with
being “vanilla”
Who do you want
influencing your new
employees?

32.
HCM Performance Drivers
Internal
Service
Quality
Wellness
Engageme
nt
Strategic Design
HR Policies and Procedures
HR Automation:
• Forecasting
• Staffing
• Scheduling
• Succession
• Culture / Process
Alignment
Employee
Engagement
Employee
Retention External
Employee
Productivity
Service
Value
Customer
Satisfaction
Customer
Loyalty
Revenue
Growth
Profit
Growth
Market
Share
Attitude / Loyalty
Knowledge / Skills
Build Relationships
% Growth
Customer
Testimonials
1 year
5 Years
Service concept:
• Consistent
• Intentional
• Different
Value to customer
Better than last visit
Better than competition
Lifetime Value
Retention
Repeat Business
Referral
Strategy & Compliance
Recruit for Talent
Talent Development
Talent Retention
Reward

33.
>Employees = >Diversity

34.
Flavour? What flavour?

35.
“The goal is not to do business with
everybody who needs what you have.
The goal is to do business with
people who believe what you
believe.”
Simon Sinek

36.
Brand
strength
Challenge
Building advocacy
5 Advocacy
I believe in what we do and I
recommend our brand
4 Action
I know what I can do to
support our brand
3 Ability
I have the skills and
knowledge I need
2 Attitude It makes sense to me
1 Awareness I know what we stand for

37.
“We change behaviour by framing what
we want people to do into something
that is relevant to them.”

38.
The ‘new’ culture should not be
seen as ‘new’. It should be seen
as a business case that rests on
doing what’s required to meet
the future demands of our
clients.

39.
5 ways to
get your
flavour
back.

40.
1. Get the right people on board
(achievements are useless without context)

41.
MEN WANTED
For a hazardous journey.
Small wages, bitter cold, long
months of complete darkness,
constant danger, safe return
doubtful.
Honour and recognition in case of
success.

42.
2. Give people PURPOSE
(beyond pleasing)

43.
Yesterday, today, tomorrow…
The way people define themselves has changed.
Very long ago: Man / Woman
Long ago: Hunter / Gatherer
Recent: Skills (industrialisation)
Today: Career
Tomorrow: Meaning people add or create.

44.
The Golden Circle
WHY?
At Apple we believe in
challenging the status quo, in
thinking differently. Making a
dent in the universe.
HOW?
To challenge the status quo, we
make sure our products are
beautifully designed and easy
to use, and user-friendly.
WHAT?
We sell computers, laptops,
cellphones, tablets etc that are
highly stylised and consumer
friendly.
WHY HOW WHAT

45.
3. Get people ENGAGED
(get them to give a damn)

46.
21%
Engaged
41%
Enrolled
30%
Disenchanted
Significantly lower
on all three
components of
engagement
High scores on
rational and
motivational
components, but
low on emotional
That’s only 1 in 5
Global Workforce Survey
8%
Disengaged
Completely
disconnected
rationally,
motivationally and
emotionally
Global Results (based on rational, emotional, motivational): Based on a global survey of 90,000 employees in 18
countries and Tower Perrin’s database of 2 million annual responses in 40 countries
46

47.
“You can’t sell it outside if you can’t sell
it inside.”

48.
SHEER DRIVING PLEASURE
BEAT THE BENZ

49.
GLOBALLY CONNECTING
PEOPLE
HIP GEEK

50.
Perceived Control
Perceived Progress
Connectedness
Vision / Meaning

51.
The Partnership Model
Glee
Fee
ME
See
Flee
WE

52.
4. Provide the correct
BEHAVIOURAL FRAMEWORK
(something to do)

53.
What we allow will continue.

54.
? Company goals determined by EXCO that
will result from behaviours.
Life Skills / Values / Motivation / Attitudes
Vision, Mission and Values that are corporate
focused, but individually applicable.
I am / I do
?
A set of behaviours / Actions that guide all
employees at every level of the organisation.
I am / I do
?
Increase in goal-directed Actions
Strengthening the underlying behaviours lead to positive actions
towards achieving the company goals.
In order to achieve high standards of success, you are
required propel yourself forward towards your goals.
?

55.
Values

56.
Goals
Average companies give people
something to work on, innovative
organisations give their people
something to work toward.

57.
BEHAVIOURS
Reputations are the result of what
people in the organisation
consistently do.

58.
“By aligning what we say we do, with
what we actually do, we positively
influence what our customers think and
feel.”

59.
5. RECOGNISE performance
(something for doing good)

60.
Market
Norms
Social
Norms

61.
Cordialism
THANK YOU
Erik Vermeulen
erik@erikvermeulen.com
@ErikMVermeulen
#cordialism