March 2009

How to write winning Government Tenders

27 Mar, 2009  1 Comment

The Government is injecting money into the economy to build infrastructure and improve existing assets. The money is to help the economy recover from the global financial crisis.

Who is going to get the Government money?

The answer is businesses that write the best tender submissions. The best tender submissions must be:

  • compliant with the tender’s requirements

  • comprehensive and address all the tender’s requirements

  • competitive in terms of price, service and time

  • convincing in making the decision easy for the panel

  • extraordinary in making the bid stand out from all the others

How are businesses going to win Government  money?

They are going to get help from someone who has:

  • strong knowledge of business and Government

  • analytical and marketing skills

  • experience in the tendering process &

  • exceptional copy-writing skills

So if you know of any businesses looking to win Government business send them to Madrigal Communications. We have extensive Government experience.

Boomerangers, parasites, basement dwellers, bamboccioni, twixters, NEETs, Hotel Mamas

18 Mar, 2009  No Comment

The boomerang generation earned the name because of the tendency of many of its members to return to live with their parents after a short period of independence or pseudo-independence (that is coming home on weekends with their washing and unpaid bills). They are part of the generation that are now young adults born after 1975.

Their parents already have the mortgage, the cars, the white goods, the furniture, the televisions and stereos as well as the well-stocked pantry so the boomerangers have an expendable income for going out, for gadgets, for holidays and for home entertainment. They also have a good deal of free time for gaming, web-surfing and online socializing while their mothers clean and cook for them.

It is an international phenomena, which has attracted an international vocabulary.

Parasite single

In Japan it is the parasite singles (parasaito shinguru), individuals who live with their parents until well into their thirties to avoid the financial stresses and life demands of adulthood.

Bamboccioni

In 2007 the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance defined the large part of the population who were 20 to 30 years old and still living with their families as bamboccioni (big dummy boys). It created a bit of bad publicity for him.

Twixter

Twixter describes the Americans generation seen as being trapped, betwixt (that is, between) adolescence and adulthood. Sometimes also known as basement dwellers.

NEET

NEET is a mainstream acronym in the UK for young school-leavers that are not engaged in education, employment, or training. They also live at home.

Hotel Mama

In Germany the stay-at-home phenomena is known as Hotel Mama, describing the parents’ house where young adults choose to live with their mothers still undertaking the old-fashioned role of cooking, cleaning and washing.

Hikikomori

But the Japanese have extreme boomerangers, the hikikomori.

Hikikomori translates as “withdrawal” and refers to individuals who become hermits in their rooms for six months or longer with no social life beyond their home.

A BBC report describes a case where a boy took possession of his family’s kitchen and refused to allow anyone else in. He had his meals provided and his own bathroom. The family had to build a new kitchen.

The report also provided an academic appraisal of the condition. Dr Henry Grubb, a psychologist from the University of Maryland who is undertaking a study of the hikikomori:

… there’s nothing like this in the West. If my child was inside that door and I didn’t see him, I’d knock the door down and walk in. Simple.

Which may indicate a broader truth that the root cause of the problem of the boomerangers, parasites, basement dwellers, bamboccioni, twixters, NEETs, Hotel Mamas may not be the young generation themselves but the parents who are not helping their children out to face the world.

How to write Government annual reports

18 Mar, 2009  No Comment

What is an annual report?

An annual report is a published document given to shareholders by public corporations as an official disclosure of their financial performance. It allows the shareholders to assess the success of the organization.

How is a Government annual report different?

Government Departments, agencies and other bodies, are also required to produce annual reports. These include the financials but also, more importantly, report on how well the organizations are achieving specific objectives as well as meeting the broader, whole-of-Government objectives such as energy saving, waste reduction, anti-discrimination, etcetera.

It allows the Minister (and the public) to assess a Department’s achievements using key performance indicators to determine whether it has met its objectives.

What are key performance indicators?

To make reporting open and transparent many organizations use key performance indicators – measurements developed specifically to measure organizations’ strategic performance.

These are very important in the Government sector because, lacking in profit measurements, there is a need for alternative measures of an organisation’s success.

How do you normally write a Government annual report?

In a Government department if you get nominated to do the annual report:

  • you ask all the senior people in the organization to report on their divisional performance;

  • you chase these people for weeks;

  • you get their material;

  • you edit it into a compliant format;

  • write the Director General’s introduction;

  • you give it back to the authors for corrections and amendments;

  • you chase the same people for several more weeks;

  • when you get their comments you edit it again;

  • you submit it for approval;

  • make even more corrections; and

  • then send it off to be published with about a day to spare before it has to be presented to Parliament.

For this you make no friends, get no plaudits, and when you are finished you go back to your old job and try to catch up. The only hoped-for benefit is that since you have done your turn the following year someone else will get the job.

How do you want to do your annual report?

You outsource. With a decade of experience and half a dozen different organizations’ reports completed, Madrigal Communications can produce clear and accurate annual reports.

Madrigal Communication’s Director, Tim Entwisle, has many years of senior experience in the Government sector and understands the complexity of Government performance reporting. We will edit the most complicated and difficult prose into coherent and attractive plain English.

Reputation, reputation, reputation

13 Mar, 2009  1 Comment

There is a commonly quoted passage from Shakespeare that reads:

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without deserving [Othello II 3 1420]

But it should be recognized that this was uttered by the arch-villain, Iago, bent on the destruction of Othello’s reputation and in response to the good man, Cassio’s, lament:

Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. [Othello II 3 1416]

Between 1945 and 2000 the average voter turnout in the British elections (which are non-compulsory) was 76%. However in 2001 and 2005 the voter turnout plummeted to 59% and 61%.

Work by academics showed that the negative advertising by the parties about their opponents had not only discouraged young people from voting for the other parties but had discouraged them from voting for anybody at all. The negative advertising had ruined the reputation of all British politicians.

This is important to remember in business too. You have taken a long time to build your reputation and it will not be lost easily (unless, of course, you do something silly to damage it). Your branding, your customer service, and your integrity all build your reputation. But you also take some of your reputation from the industry you work in.

The message? Be as careful with the reputation of your industry as you are of your own reputation. If you criticise your competitors you damage yourself.

At Madrigal Communications we focus on reputation management not just marketing.

Cocooning behaviour

6 Mar, 2009  No Comment

The tightening economy is causing changes to consumer behaviour. Cocooning is a term to describe the trend towards people socialising less and retreating into their homes. The term was coined by Faith Popcorn, a future forecaster, in the 1990s to explain the growth in home delivery, home businesses, and home shopping. However, nowadays there are a few more variations that you should know about.

Carcooning

Carcooning is a form of cocooning where it is the car that becomes the place to retreat.  This leads to new behaviours such as dashboard dining.

Staycation

The staycation is a staying at home vacation instead of a trip away. The idea is that the stay-at-home-vacation is the same as a going-away-vacation except eating out, outdoor activities and relaxing, are done from your home as a base.

Homedulgence

Rather than cutting out indulgences some consumers find equivalent but cheaper alternatives that are home-based. This results in do-it-yourself indulgences such as cocktail parties and inviting guests for lavish dinners rather than going to nightclubs or restaurants.

Caving

Caving describes families who prefer being at home to being elsewhere. This is different to a staycation because it is all year round and is a reduction in spending on external hobbies and recreation.

Hiving

Hiving is different to caving in that it is not social withdrawal but a refocusing of social and worklife to the home. Hiving is a combination of comfort and connection as you engage your friends and acquaintances in your home life.

What does it all mean? Your customers’ behaviours may change. You need to change how you market to them. Contact Madrigal Communications for an obligation-free consultation.