Schlagwort-Archive: Management

Implementieren leicht gemacht – die Kunst einer erfolgreichen Umsetzung von strategischen Programmen

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In meinem Blog habe ich schon öfters das Thema Veränderung, neudeutsch Change Management, angerissen. Im Grunde genommen geht es für mich vor allem darum, wie man einen Veränderungsprozess in Gang setzt und auch erfolgreich abschließt. Dabei ist es egal, welche strategische Zielsetzung man verfolgt: mehr Marktanteil, mehr Kundenorientierung oder eine höhere Innovationsrate. Es ist immer eine Herausforderung, die hären Ziele des Top-Managements umzusetzen.

In meinem allerersten Change-Management-Projekt traf ich auf absolut perfekte – so meine damalige Einstellung – Startbedingungen. Der Leiter des Bereiches versammelte seine Mitarbeiter zum Kick-off, stellte meine Kollegin und mich mit den folgenden Worten vor: „Dies sind (…); Die beiden werden uns helfen, in der Logistik besser zu werden. Jeder von ihnen kann sich jetzt aussuchen, ob er mitmacht oder sich gleich nach einem neuen Job umschaut“.

Ein deutlicheres Management-Commitment kann man sich fast kaum wünschen. Ich habe erst im Verlaufe des Projektes gemerkt, dass der Bereichsleiter unter der harten Schale ein sehr kompetenter und mitarbeiterorientierter Mensch war, der jedem Weiterlesen →

Fri-Day/Book–Day: auch an den Geheimnissen erfolgreicher Unternehmen interessiert?

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Am Freitag ist das Wochenende nicht mehr weit weg und vielleicht fragt sich der eine oder andere Leser meines Blogs – gerade an verregneten Wochenenden – ob es nicht eine kurzweilige, aber trotzdem lehrreiche Literatur aus dem Managementumfeld gibt. Ich finde es immer wieder interessant, dass zwar ziemlich viel geschrieben wird, aber trotzdem die wirklich interessanten Bücher schon relativ alt sind. Meist sind es wegweisende Werke gewesen, die Generationen von Praktikern und Theoretikern nachhaltig beeinflusst haben. Beginnen möchte ich mit einem Buch von Adrian Slywotzky und David Morrison: The Profit Zone: How Strategic Business Design Will Lead You to Tomorrow’s Profits.

Schauen wir uns doch kurz den Klappentext an:

The book that answers the most fundamental question in business: Where Will I Make a Profit Tomorrow? Why do some companies create sustained, superior profits year after Weiterlesen →

DJing, management, and marketing – what is your big plan?

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djing big picture traktorA few weeks ago I promised you a bunch of exciting articles on these three major topics.But before we start to dive into the details, I´d like to give you an overview of the process as a whole. It´s a simple one, but it holds lots of useful ideas and success factors in those four boxes being:

POSITIONING

This is about how to find your focus as a DJ/producer, about distinguishing yourself from all your competitors with regard to tracks, sets and your whole exciting image.

CORE COMPETENCIES AND VALUE CHAIN

The Standard competencies are pretty much well known to every DJ and producer: how to operate your controllers, work with effects and synthesizers, how to find cool tracks and create great sets etc. But there´s a lot more to it, like developing a competitive marketing strategy to communicate your capabilities, building up your own successful brand name and the whole complex of selling and sales as a DJ.

GAP ANALYSIS AND ACTIONS

Though GAP analysis is among the most well-known management tools, it is very often misunderstood and applied poorly. This topic is for you to get straight on your priorities, and the actions and activities leading you to your goals. In other words: Stop dreaming about your career, go and get one!

MONITORING AND OPTIMIZATION

Nearly every DJ I know spends a lot of time after a gig musing about his or her performance, were the transistions fine and the crowd happy? But what about all the other issues I mentioned so far, how can they be analyzed? This is neither difficult nor complex as I will show you with a few simple aproaches, thus making your path to the hall of fame a short and straight one.

Stay tuned!

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When Worlds collide or the structured DJ

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logoDjingWith summer going on – and especially a REAL summer like this one – it seemed my usual sources of inspiration were running dry. But then, all of a sudden, after discussing with a fellow DJ who happens to be a master student of mine, the idea was there, bringing together my favourite three topics: marketing, DJing and management.

We were talking about the life and career of famous acts. Now if you look at those people´s vitae, it very often seems that their career is mostly a mater of sheer luck – being in the right place, having the right contact at the right itme. Would they also be famous if their contact with an important producer had happened two weeks later? Maybe, but maybe not!

Now you could of course say, that´s life and so on, but I´d like to show you a different approach, starting with this very article. Bringing together management and marketing knowledge with the beginning career of a young and ambitious DJ. Very often you´ll hear that is impossible, you can´t combine creativity with structure, but that is exactly what all those successful(!) people working for advertising agencies do all the time. Producing a creative idea for a product campaign they integrate customer information, potential benefits with a lot of advertising psychology. Only following this road you end up with the great examples of advertising like the Marlboro Man, Frito Bandito, the Old Spice campaign…

Which brings me to another interesting similarity between artist and companies. In fact a DJ is a one man/one woman brand: offering a product, having a certain image and specific core competencies, communicating messages and negotiating deals. But compared to successful businesses most DJs DO NOT spend much time with structuring their path to success, it´s rather a mater of luck or none such. If you look into the „How to“ books of DJing you´ll find a lot of information on transitions, beat matching, building a set and so forth, but nothing about how to differentiate yourself from other DJs and how to make yourself attractive for club owners.

But who ever said that structered marketing approaches, working so well for companies, do not work for an artist? Stay tuned!

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Play only what you love and strictly go for it during every gig! Part 2.

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logoDjingINTRO (125 bpm): Last week my first english post went online, here ist part 2. You remember, I wanted to share a few moments with you…

#1 It was during our University open door event, I was the main act –as a DJ- for the after party. For this I had prepared a very moderate, not too wild House set of old Chicago House and some contemporary tracks. I started to play, people started to dance, everything seemed ok. After a while my co-DJ teased me “Dare to speed up a bit?”, which I did playing Hinz & Ruhmhardt/Doch. The crowd liked it and so I tried a bit more, Alcatraz – Giv Me Luv (Nicole Moudaber Remix). Then Mattew Jay/Javes and this game continued throughout the night: I gave them my favourite music, they loved it and it was the perfect rave for a perfect night. Which I never would have guessed when the evening started.

#2 This happened at an event second to last weekend, where I was booked to play directly after the main act, who happened to be a quite popular German hip-hop DJ. Of course I had asked the promoter my standard question, being “Are you aware of the kind of music I play (completely non-commercial, that is)?”, to which he replied he was, having seen me at that above mentioned University event. Still I was mulling over what to play for more than a week, wanting to please the –rather senior- host without getting off my track too much. I even prepared alternative sets to be ready for everything. Then, driving to the location that night, I had an epiphany: Of course I would play “my” Techno. Maybe a bit risky, but when life gets boring – risk it. Taking over then from the hip-hop main act I joked to him how my music would empty the dance floor in a few minutes. I made my start with  Joseph Capriati’s The Gallery (Original Mix). I love this track, and – to my great joy – so did the audience, people rushed TO the dancefloor and we shared a marvelous 90 minutes. Afterwards the popular hip hopper came to me to compliment me for a great (hard) set that he would not have dared to play on such an event.

So you see, the message is quite clear: Concentrate on what you really love, if you say yes to everything, you get to places you never wanted to be!

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Play only what you love and strictly go for it during every gig! What managers could learn from DJs and vice versa. Part 1.

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logoDjingLast week I read an interesting article about the habits of successful people. This article was full of bright and absolutely excellent recommendations, but to me one vital aspect was missing: You should only commit to those things you really love! Let me show you that managers and DJs have quite many things in common.

Steve Jobs said something similar his famous commencement speech: „You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.“ What has that to do with DJing? Well, over the past two years I met many DJs, playing all kinds of music, just for making money with it. Very often they didn´t even have a special liking for their music, it was just business. Exactly like a lot countless managers who will do everything just for business, money and their career.

When I had picked up Djing again in 2013 after a long break of 25 years, my mentor DJ told me to play few commercial EDM for my very first gig – only 10% of the entire set. I complied, but hated it and decided for myself from then on to focus on House and Techno, the music I love. Unfortunately that dramatically reduced the locations in my area that would let me play, but in the end I found a club where I´m now a main act once a month. I´m very aware of how lucky I am to be a professor for marketing and sales at Deggendorf University in the first place, so don´t have to feed my family on my income as a DJ. But still this was the perfectly right decision for me, as the two moments I would like to share with you will prove. And it will show you how much Djing has indeed in common with managing, with regard to choosing the right career path. Stay tuned! Second part next week.

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Wie man dumme Sprüche und sinnfreie Werbungen vermeidet: die Rolle der Eigentümer und Führungskräfte

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In meinem letzten Eintrag habe ich mich mit der verunglückten Werbung des Bundesgesundheitsministeriums zur Organspende beschäftigt. Da liegt doch die Frage auf der Zunge, wie so etwas zu Stande kommt? Es mag sich vielleicht etwas arg einfach anhören, aber es hat sehr viel mit den Einstellungen der Geschäftsführer, Eigentümer und Marketingleiter zu tun. Bei sehr vielen Firmen hat die Werbung einen sehr geringen Stellenwert, gewissermaßen nach dem Motto: „das machen wir so nebenbei, ist ja sowieso nur das bisschen Text, der notwendige Flyer, eine lästige Pressemitteilung oder die Information auf der Homepage„.

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