Business management guru, Tom Peters talks about how to engineer luck in business. Here's our random top 11 from his list of 50:

1. At-bats. More times at the crease = more runs.


2. Try it. Cut the crap and get on with something


3. Just do it. Ready. Fire. Aim. (Instead of Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim.)


4. Hire odd people. Boring folks, boring ideas


5. Don’t back away from passion. “Dispassionate innovator” is an oxymoron


6. Pursue failure. Failure is success’s only launching pad


7. Constantly reorganise. Mix, match, try different combinations to shake things up.


8. Listen to everyone. Ideas come from anywhere


9. Nurture intuition. Trust your inner ear.


10. Open the books. Make everyone a “businessperson,” with access to all the financials


11. Spend 50 percent of your time with business partners & suppliers

I participated in an Experian webinar on marketing approaches to use during an economic slowdown. Presented by Marie Myles, it was a very insightful overview of sound marketing techniques. We all know that the current economic downturn is putting alot of pressure on marketing budgets. As marketers we're having to work harder than ever to justify expenditure and demonstrate how we'll generate a positive return on marketing investment. Key messages were the need to concentrate on maximising sales from existing customers: the importance of retention over acquisition. The importance of focusing on the core proposition of our products and services was highlighted and ensuring that customer service is second to none.

By focus on marketing that drives response, this allows us to segment and target our customers and that ultimately by being measurable ensures we can clearly demonstrate the return from our activity. Experian's booklet on the 12 steps for creating value from marketing is available here

110 miles, twelve riders, three support vehicles and five support crew, our aim: to get to the finish and raise funds for MacMillan Cancer Support. The three big climbs once we got to Wales were challenging, but the downhills made up for it. They were fantastic with over 45mph descents. It rained once or twice and turned really cold when we got quite high up, but nothing dampened our mood.

Pete Brown

In the snappily-titled ‘Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-based Social Marketing’ the author Doug McKenzie-Mohr explores how to influence behaviour change in various communities. The book talks about the successes of using community-based social marketing to identify barriers to behaviour change and then devising strategies to counteract these barriers.

If, as the book suggests, this approach has been shown to have a much greater probability of promoting sustainable behaviour, we’re interested to explore how the same approach can also work in a brand context. McKenzie-Mohr observes that if people observe their peers demonstrating positive behaviour, they are more likely to adopt it than if they were to have this suggested to them in an advertising campaign. It’s not a huge leap therefore to imagine communities adopting new brands or products if their peers and influencers are seen to be doing so!

Watch this space for some updates on clients who are starting to use this new Yes Agency technique.

Amanda McDonald