P&g salon professional business network live 2011 provides inspiration

The P&G Salon Professional Business Network Live event 2011 offered delegates an inspirational mix of speakers from peace campaigners to award winning chefs.

Hosting the two-day conference and pushing home the relevance of every speaker, was Alan Austin-Smith, founder of the Fantastic Hairdresser. Alan welcomed delegates, quickly followed by a warning "Good is not good enough anymore!"

As always the event was designed to send delegates back to their businesses fuelled with enthusiasm to be better than good.

Any salon owner or hairdresser sitting in the audience for Jeremy's presentation who though their goals were hard to attain would have been given cause for thought. Jeremy is responsible for spearheading a campaign to have an international day of ceasefire established and recognised by the United Nations.

An independent film maker, and former actor, Jeremy decided to set himself the goal of establishing a day of World peace in 1998. His dream was to create a day when war across the globe would stop for just one day, allowing aid workers to reach civilians without risk and, potentially, saving millions of lives.

Jeremy left school at a young age with no qualifications, thinking himself "useless". But he has proved himself to be far from this, with Peace Day now officially recognised by the UN as 21 September.

So how did the child actor with no qualifications manage to achieve this seemingly impossible goal? "I totally focussed on the process, not the result," said Jeremy.

In September 1999 Jeremy founded the film project Peace One Day to document his efforts. Through the film he was able to gain invites from some of the world's most influential figures, including the Dali Lama. Such invites helped Jeremy persuade British Airways to provide him with free lights around the world to meet with leaders and peace keepers in a bid to spread his message and promote his cause.

In 2001, Peace One Day achieved its primary objective. United Nations General Assembly resolution was unanimously adopted by UN member states, formally establishing an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on the UN International Day of Peace, fixed in the global calendar on 21st September.

Jeremy stressed to delegates that film had been incremental to his success, with his own films helping to spread the message and act as an introduction to powerful people around the world. "It doesn't mater now that I'm not famous. Every time I have a meeting with someone like the Dali Lama I film it and use that as an introduction to the next person," he said.

Two overwhelming messages came out of Jeremy's presentation - no goal is unachievable, and film can be a powerful tool in promoting a message, so don't underestimate its vale to your business.

"The customer doesn't always come first". This might seem like an extra-ordinary ethos, but the former chairman of John Lewis shared with delegates the company's philosophy that the team comes first. "Loyal staff equal loyal customers," said Sir Stuart. 

Stuart offered a short history of the John Lewis Partnership, from its origins in 1864 as a modest shop in the then unfashionable Oxford Street, London. It was actually the son of the founder, Spedan, who decided that the best way to motivate staff was to make them all partners in the company. Spedan had to wait for his father, John, to die in 1928 before putting his plans into action, but his ethos has remained at the heart of the company ever since.

Under the scheme all partners receive a share of company profits - all 76,500 of them.

It's a structure that is obviously paying off, with John Lewis and Waitrose - its supermarket brand - regularly voted the UK's favourite retailers.

Stuart stressed that it wasn't all about profit sharing. "It's the whole concept of employee engagement that businesses need to look at," he said. "It's a way of thinking that any business can easily achieve. We do not employ mercenaries who come to work just to earn money. I think people crave to be associated with something, yet this is something businesses owners don't always use. Most employees want to be associated with where they work. If you create a sense of pride then you will create a sense of "we" rather than "they".

Stuart offered a number of example of how staff (or partners) had put the good of the customer before their own convenience. At the company's Edinburgh store, staff suggested doing away with lunch breaks, and replacing them with morning and late afternoon breaks, as this would mean more staff were on hand during the busy lunchtime periods. 

Said Stuart: "The partnership's ultimate purpose is the happiness of its members, through worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business."

Independent brand consultant, Alex, spoke to delegates about creating loyalty through social media. 

The former head of online for the Virgin Group first told delegates: "Social media is not a revolution. Do not think that social media will save your business - it's about complementing the amazing things you are already doing."

The first rule of social media, said Alex was to remember the following: "Social networking is not and will never be about connecting people with brands, it's about connecting people with people."

The secret to a successful Facebook page, or similar, said Alex, was to build up a voice and a personality. By doing this big results could often be achieved with minimum outlay. 

Alex used the example of a small Mexican restaurant in Islington, London which used social media to promote a burrito-eating competition in aid of charity. The campaign attracted plenty of competitors, including an on-line food writer from a major national newspaper. The competition received coverage in every national paper in the UK and the restaurant has now grown to a chain of six.

Alex was also quick to stamp on the concept that young people don't listen. "Young people are listening, we just need to talk to them differently," he said. This means using the platforms they use to communicate, he said, including mobile phones and social media.

"For social media to work, you have to make it part of your business," said Alex. "Have your phone on you all the time and tweet continuously."

Tony is P&G's global shopper based design specialist. He offered delegates a fascinating insight into how consumers make decisions about what to buy. 

"Human's have a limited attention span," said Tony. "Human's can only take in five things at anyone time, if they see too much they see nothing."

The thrust of Tony's presentation was: "If you want people to notice something, you have to make it different from everything else around it."

In terms of retail displays, this could include having a brightly colour unit for new products or products being supported by a promotion; of a unit that a section framed in a different colour to the rest of the display to draw attention to a particular range, said Tony.

Tony also advised delegates to ensure they kept any promotion message simple, and use images. He shared shopper research which revealed shoppers did not look at special offer banners in supermarkets that contained lots of words and no pictures. "People process pictures 10 times faster than words." He said.

Pioneering chef, Heston held delegates enraptured with his presentation. While few salons could hope to be as high end as his - the set menu costs £170 for one, excluding alcohol - there was plenty to take away about creating theatre and offering clients an experience rather than just a service.

While Heston's business, The Fat Duck in Bray, now attracts a staggering 33,000 booking calls per day, it started small and remained small in terms of size - catering for just 42 people during any one sitting.

It must have come as a surprise to many present to learn that as recently as 2004 - the year the restaurant received its third Mitchellin star - cashflow for the business completely dried up. Heston was investing so much in creating an unforgettable experience, there was no profits to be made. "I was about two days away from going bankrupt. I was so blinkered about being driven by what I wanted to achieve to think about profits," he admits.

Although he also told delegates: "I like working in a world that isn't driven by money."

Heston even removed a table recently, worth thousands of pounds a year in revenue, in order to provide a better service to diners.

Obviously no salon owner can afford to be so relaxed about profits - Heston is now able to fund the restaurant through other projects, including his books and TV appearances - but his attention to detail, and commitment to creating an experience using every human sense - proved inspirational to everyone present.