You couldn’t be more wrong, Mr Ranting Penguin.” With a line that wouldn’t seem out of place in the latest Wallace and Gromit movie, Peter Mandelson entered the blogosphere.
Making his presence known on an online political forum this month, the already ubiquitous Secretary of State for Business made clear his intentions to also become a regular in cyberspace. As America welcomes its new Communicator in Chief to the White House, it’s not surprising politicians round the world are scrambling to raise their online game too.
With the winter temperatures tumbling, your team may well have turned to cold-calling as a way to drum up a bit of new business. A recent guest at one of my speednetworking events was a friendly chap who makes his living from such activities, so I wasted no time in asking him for tips. He began by sharing his favourite method: laughter. A chortle as a call is connected, he explained, puts the recipient immediately at ease. In my view, this would take practice, lest the hapless victim thinks that they are the butt of a mean joke. The other pearl of wisdom concerns voicemail success. The advice is this: state your name and number, before communicating just how relieved you are to get through. Halfway through the next sentence, hang up. No goodbye, no main message. Just hang up. Nine times out of 10, our guru reckons, curiosity gets the better of people, and they call back immediately. You can rest assured that your Growing Business columnist would never attempt such a dirty trick.
Heated debate will be warming the cockles this month at the Intelligence Squared Festival on Climate Change. But green issues have taken a back seat this year as we weather the financial storm. Famed for their great debates, IQ2 will, I hope, be forcing us to face some of the more tricky questions of the day. Business leaders welcome plans for a third runway at Heathrow in the same week they unveil their latest environmental schemes. As a country, we frown at our colleague’s jet-setting carbon footprint, while devising ever more creative ways to attract tourists. Let’s hope in 2009, that snappy sound bites will be replaced by proper conversations.
In The Seven Day Weekend, Ricardo Semler wonders why we entrepreneurs don’t take more time to go to the cinema on a Monday afternoon, given that we are more than happy to be beavering away at the weekend. The Brazilian maverick would get on well with Julia Hobsbawm, who this month releases The See-Saw, which contains 100 recipes for work-life balance. When conquering this old chestnut, we always hear that we ought to spend more time relaxing. What doesn’t seem to get explored enough is the magical effect that time off can have on our working life. Gary Player admitted that the harder he practised, the luckier he got. Which brave entrepreneur would admit that, within reason, the less they work, the more successful they become?
In a move that will further delight our Ricardo, SeeSawing Julia is hosting an intriguing gathering next month, starting on a Sunday. ‘We Are Names Not Numbers’ will be a symposium on individuality and creativity in business and society. The event will be held at Portmeirion, where cult TV series The Prisoner was filmed (“I am not a number, I am a Ranting Penguin”). Sadly, as the Chatham House rule applies, any juicy sound bites I pass on cannot be accredited.
Which reminds me, I heard an unbelievably shocking piece of gossip from a senior politician yesterday. Leaning towards me at a business event he lowered his voice, and said... Click!