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Goldwell MBE Connect
[Tue 02/08/2011 04:23:31]
Widely known among the industry as the benchmark in salon business forums, MBE 2011 dished up a Thai style smorgasbord of industry focused information and inspiration at the 360 degree themed gathering – all amid the soothing surrounds of the Movenpick Resort and Spa at Phuket’s Karon Beach.
In what is considered by many a tricky – albeit tough economic climate, more than 100 bright eyed MBE devotees arrived for four days of information sharing like no other.
Rodney McNamara
Goldwell/KMS Managing Director, Rodney McNamara opened the conference with a few words that payed respect to the true value of their long-term salon partners in the room and the company’s objectives moving forward.
“We at Goldwell have a common objective to grow the industry more than ever and to partner with salons looking for a long-term and mutually rewarding partnership – some of you have been with us for more than 20 years.”
“There’s no denying for the first part of the year the marketplace has been tougher than what we expected and despite a shortfall on our original expectations we’ve stuck 100 per cent to a core vision and continued to invest in our divisions - through education, colour and in projects like Project Runway. We feel more than ever our main competitors are investing in the wider market and as a result have lost their vision for the professional market. Our resources are aligned and we have a detailed action plan for the next 12 months,” Rodney said.
Rodney applauded his team for its dynamic mix of talents and their dedication to the industry before introducing Sales Director Rob McDonald who left delegates with a provocative thought process to a positive attitude. “It’s not all doom and gloom, it’s a matter of action.
“Our business plan for you is very much about creating a roadmap and turning these current situations into positive attitude and application,” said Rob as he introduced the first speaker for the Forum -Tom Potter.
Tom Potter created Eagle Boys Pizza – the largest privately owned Pizza Company in Australia and New Zealand. After finding himself jobless for the third time at 23 he opened his first pizza shop in Albury, NSW in 1987. His story is about change as well as about a family of three generations that had to struggle with the future and evolve. Tom imparted a story of a family in a struggle to strike a profitable business before he moved to Wodonga at 15 years of age to start his apprenticeship as a baker.
“The greatest thing that happened to me is that my first job was my worst job. My employer after two and a half years congratulated me on completing my apprenticeship and then they sacked me. There was a meatworks next to the baker and 50 guys would line up every morning – unemployment then was at 17 per cent,” he said.
Tom then met a motor mechanic, at a football game, who was aware of a bakery in town that had gone broke and this sparked the idea to go into business together – little did he know that this ‘trial and error’ experience would push him to become one of Australia’s largest retailers. The banks would not loan any money at the time, except for a car so they got car loans, sold them and sunk the money into starting a business. After that failed, he then moved to Melbourne and started working for one of the largest companies in Australia – Coles, while having the job of launching bakeries in their supermarkets.
“I’ve never seen such a violent bullying culture from the top down than at Coles. I couldn’t believe the difference between Woolworths and Coles – Coles was the big number one. But Woolworths would sit you down and have a coffee if you visited them while Coles just told you what was wrong,” Tom said.
“Over these 20 years – Coles did a great job of screwing the business completely with things that you couldn’t put your hands on. I then knew I had the skill to build my next business around a culture,” he said.
Fast forward and Tom then moved back to Adelaide to start a home delivery business with a keen mate which morphed into starting a pizza business.
Tom’s message is a great story about wealth creation with an empathic spin on the daily problems and perils every small business owner faces when opening and marketing their business, “It’s a long-term proposition and we are in the position of growing slowly steadily and it’s not a huge race,” he said.
“After franchising with Eagle Boys I then had the enormity of problems – I had to go from being a player to a coach while trying to control the 80 staff and $75,000 in turnover per week. We got to a point where we couldn’t maintain it, we can’t build the chain anymore we didn’t have the company.”
Along the way Tom and his franchisees got involved in price wars, and he was ripped of $45,000 by an internal staff member who almost sent him broke but the lesson came in his ability to adapt – his penchant for going to the stores and seeing what the customers were like and what they like, while acknowledging you can’t be all things to all people – “Discount coupons only bring discount customers – not loyal customers.”
Next up was motivational expert, Mark McKeon - one of Australia's leading work life balance and team cohesion advocates.
Mark was the Fitness and Team Building Coach at AFL team Collingwood for 14 years – the club also outsourced its entire fitness and training function to Mark's team. He acted as Collingwood's Club Runner for the AFL record of more than 250 games and has been a contributor to many fitness and health magazines over the last five years of his speaking career.
His book, 'Every Day Counts' will show you how you can manage a company and still manage your weight – and his approach to business stems from an approach that starts an hour before we retire to bed of an evening.
“I work with people on a whole of life basis – we all understand that adrenaline has a role in our body which is offset by the strong chemicals of serotonin and melatonin – these are the bliss chemicals and the mood elevators. We should have high levels of serotonin and melatonin and lower levels of adrenaline – adrenaline should just be for emergencies.
“When people get too much adrenaline heavy traffic becomes an insult and a stop sign is just a suggestion,” he said.
Mark explained that adrenaline is bad news if you don’t control it and there’s so many of us that wake up at 3am and count down the hours until 5 and finally go back to sleep for the last hour. “Yes, there is good stuff associated with adrenaline but it takes over like a wave and over time you’ll start to go downhill. It is like addiction - drug users first time incredible high but after a while Adrenaline high is well below the level of performance of the drug,” Mark said.
“Stress is not the problem – there’s a big problem and stress is not it. The problem is lack of recovery time,” as Mark encouraged all of us to take our four weeks holiday a year if we want success in business and life. The ‘BASIC’ technique of Boundaries, Accept Reality and Self Confidence became his benchmark for making delegates take responsibility for their professional health.
Capping off day one was an exciting reveal of the new KMS brand by the talented Goldwell Marketing Director Louise Chamberlain and Education Manager Rita Marcon. KMS Australia Artistic Director, Clive Allwright demonstrated the capabilities with some models from the audience.
Throughout its 30 years in the industry KMS has evolved to become a brand that is more than just product and packaging. “The new packaging signifies that it is much more – it’s what we say and how we say it and our new campaign is underpinned by a philosophy of ‘Real People’, ‘Real lives’, ‘Your Style’ – individuality is a big part of our brand,” said Louise.
Guiding guests through an informative presentation of modern viral campaigns that engage real-people with a brand and into the details of brands that have created a community of like-minded fans via engaging marketing strategies – the real point of difference that’s never been done before in the industry eventuated via an online network of end users uploading videos of who they are and what defines their individuality all while sharing the culture of the KMS brand. The new KMS poses the question: ‘And Who are You?’. “It’s not about what we say about a brand, it’s about what they say and that’s the new KMS,” Louise said.
The social community will also enable consumers to win experiences with the brand on top of the opportunity to be one of 20 featured in the television campaign. Louise offset this exciting new vision with key trends into the packaging design. “Packing is about pure colour pigments and slimming down to an honest beauty – consumers can now engage with the simple qualities of the products,” Louise said.
Mixing business brains and countless years of hard earned experience with speakers known for a comedic and upbeat approach to business – not only were MBE guests left better informed, but inspired and equipped to approach their business with an infectious culture. Designing a successful salon culture is something close to the hearts of the Goldwell brand and MBE delegates are now armed with the mentality and methods to design the ultimate life and business and a longstanding business relationship with Goldwell/KMS.
www.goldwell.com.au
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