This will be the last week Cicero reports from the TSSB with its malfunctioning lifts. We are moving.
Cicero is going to remain a State apparatchik for a wee while yet but he is moving to a new TSSB from the end of this week. Obviously the location of this building cannot be revealed for reasons of national security but you can be assured that in this location the lifts will work and that every whim of tired and stressed apparatchiks of the State will be well catered for in a non taxpayer subsidised sort of way. This place is so secret that from now on in this column it will be known only as a Very Top Secret State Bunker or VTSSB for short.
Thought you might be interested.
It seems that last week’s words lacked their accustomed bite and satirical barbs. This was not intended. Nor was it an example of Cicero backing down after provoking the ire of the breeders and baby incubators. Cicero tells it as he sees it each week. There is always the intention to provoke and stimulate. Never to cause real personal offence and upset.
Now let us start this week with a quiz.
Who can remember these advertising slogans as seen on TV ads and guess the right brand?
‘Beanz means xxxxx’; ‘ The future’s bright, the future’s xxxxx’; A xxxxx a day helps you works rest and play; ‘For hands that do dishes’; ‘Vorsprung durch technik’; ‘The world’s favourite airline’ ‘The Bank that likes to say yes’; ‘A taste of paradise’.
We could play this game all week if you want and for those really interested and looking for a reminder of these classic strap lines you will find the answers at the end of this week’s words of wisdom and insight.
And now who can tell us what strap line today goes with each of these brands or its successor?
Well done if you get all right or even close. And given that Cicero does not know either then there are no answers provided here on the current slogans.
But that is not really the point. This is not an advertising trivia quiz but some thoughts on the propensity of great brands and their Marketing Grands Fromages to switch and change brand slogans with the speed of an MP flipping their housing arrangements. Surely it should not be like this?
Imagine the shock, pain and horror when a Marketing Grand Fromage finds out through research that a long redundant slogan is still instantly recalled by consumer groups and the new slogan in which a multi pound and multi channel advertising campaign has been invested is not.
When Cicero was a Marketing Grand Fromage in charge of managing advertising slogans the agencies would constantly urge a change of positioning and strategy on a basis that the current ones were showing signs of wear and tear. Really? Tyres show signs of wear and tear but in Cicero’s experience consumers rarely tire of a great advertising slogan backed up by great creativity. Agencies and Marketing Grand Fromages get fed up long before the consumers even notice.
And of course any new Marketing Grand Fromage assuming responsibility for a brand wants to make a mark, a difference, get noticed. So, what does she, or he, do? They change agencies and with this change comes a new look, a new positioning, a new strap line. Even if the brand does not need it.
Brands are meant to endure. They are meant to offer consistency. They are meant to be about a promise. They are not meant to be about one night stands but a relationship. How can you be all this when you chop and change what you stand for?
It is difficult to do great and successful marketing in today’s multi channel media market. So much easier to do when there was only one, or even two, commercial TV stations and when newspapers were bought and read on a daily basis. Think of all the ways we consume media today. Surely this is a call for far greater consistency and longevity. Never ever under-estimate how difficult it is to break through the noise, the clutter and the buzz to build a slogan that is recognised, remembered and resonates by and with the target market.
Sure there will be times when there will be a real business need to re-build your positioning, your brand and your slogan. These times are a lot rarer than you think, and should be driven by the needs of the brand and the business not the ego of the Marketing Grand Fromage.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And for hands that do dishes and need something else to do to stop meddling, go try something else to help you work, rest and play.
Is it only me……who thinks that this is no way to fight a war?
Cicero is bemused and perplexed. Now Cicero is no military man in the mould of Pompey, Caesar or Scipio but not having any real knowledge of a subject has never before stopped Cicero from passing comment, enlightened or otherwise. Yet Cicero is hugely surprised by how much notice we have given the enemy of our intentions in Afghanistan.
Now it might only be me but since when have we started to tell our enemies pretty much when and where we were going to attack. In World War 2 prior to the Normandy landings, our side took every possible step to conceal where and when the landings were going to take place, to the extent that a decoy army was created to help convince the Germans that we were going to attack somewhere else. We did something similar in the Falklands even though the Argies knew we were coming. In the first Gulf War Storming Norman learnt from Hannibal to dupe the Iraquis from where the attack was going to come.
Now it seems we send an invite to the Taliban telling them when and where we are going to attack, be there or be square. We even have American leaders telling the Taliban that if you stay quiet and out of hair for about 18 months then we will take our ball home and be gone.
Does it never occur to these military geniuses, as it occurs to Cicero, that all the Taliban have to do is be as far away as possible form the battle zone on Saturday at 3pm when it all kicks off and then hide in their caves until the White Man has gone and then they win?
The world is indeed a funny place.
Have a good week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
How many did you get right? Heinz Baked Beans; Orange; Mars Bars; Fairy Liquid; Audi; British Airways; TSB; Bounty.
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Saturday, 20 February 2010
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Fly me to the moon
Cicero has observed that despite last week’s considered thoughts on child cruelty and abuse, young children are still being seen in early hours of morning accompanying mum and dad to work. Never fear. Now that the toothpaste is leaking from the tube, it cannot be long before Super Nanny, aka the government, sets up and enquiry, a database and an Authority to regulate this behaviour. You mark Cicero’s wise words.
And lest you doubt the importance of secrecy in the TSSB let the following true tale highlight for you how seriously the TSSB is maintained.
This may surprise you but you as a taxpayer pay for someone to check our desks in the TSSB at the weekend. It is known as a Security Sweep. (Presumably a Security Sooty is seen as demeaning and not at all appropriate).
Anyway last weekend Security Sweep and Security Sooty inspected Cicero’s desk for breaches of security. Of course Security Sweep and Security Sooty have to justify their existence and their lucrative weekend working, and having failed to locate contraband security papers, as if a Marketing Head Honcho would have access to documents of such great import, confiscated an old notebook full of Cicero’s doodlings and claimed it as a Security Breach. Presumably it gives an insight into the man’s diseased and warped mind.
Seriously this notebook contained nothing of significance but it was deemed a Security Breach. Presumably with a terrorist attack deemed likely at some point in the future and at some undefined place, these doodles were a short step away from being blown up.
Hopefully you are now assured of the lengths the State go to maintain the TSSB as a TSSB and not just a SB. You can sleep easy.
Now quite a few years ago John Kennedy, sometime American President, went on a visit to NASA’s headquarters in Florida. After meeting with all the Head Honchos, Luke Skywalker wannabees and engineering geeks with brains the size of planets, he was introduced to an elderly black woman.
‘And what do you do?’ asked Mr America
‘I am helping put a man on the moon’ replied the elderly lady
‘And how do you do that?’ asked Mr Handsome
‘I keep the toilets clean’.
Cicero was reminded of this conversation when communing in recent days with one of his many friends who works for the National Nanny Service, sorry the National Health Service.
A similar question was asked of said friend who told Cicero that she was a project manager with the National Nanny Service which meant that she managed projects. Note no word of helping make people better. Or keeping people healthy. Or even helping others nanny us.
If we compare the NASA answer to the National Nanny Service answer there are two things worthy of note and please start to consider how you would answer this killer question.
Firstly, the NASA toilet cleaner told the President what she did first and not how she did it. And I guess that is not how many of us would answer that question. We would focus on how we do it not the purpose of what we do.
And secondly, note the complete alignment of purpose throughout the organisation. How many of us can say that the businesses we work in offer such a clear sighted, single minded and inspiring view of its purpose? Damn few probably but what is stopping us as individuals developing our own clear sighted, single minded and inspiring answer should we ever be introduced to the American president?
In Cicero’s simplistic world, and sometimes simple is best, there are only 2 types of people in any business-those who serve customers and those whose job it is to help and support those who serve customers. If you are not in either of these groups you should not be there.
The National Nanny Service should not want people to manage projects. It does want people whose job it is to help doctors and nurses keep us fit and healthy.
Not everyone can be a Luke Skywalker but we can all help the Luke Skywalkers in our business fly to the moon.
Is it only me…….who hates to be told that someone is only following orders?
It has often been said that Cicero has a problem with authority. Cicero would dispute this but given sometimes what we all have to put up with from petty bureaucrats and power crazed apparatchiks it is often no wonder that from time to time frustration might boil over.
From time to time, well quite often actually, Cicero is often faced with being asked, and often told, to do something which defies logic and common sense. For example Cicero was asked last week in the course of his duties to complete a form to provide information that had previously been supplied in non form format.
Now not unnaturally Cicero questioned and challenged such non value adding bureaucracy and requested the rationale for such stupidity. Typical responses to such reasonable challenges range from ‘its procedure’ to ‘it's what I have been told to do’ to ‘I am just following instructions’.
Is it only me who thinks that such responses are what led to concentration camps and the gas chambers?
Nothing riles Cicero more than coming across people who probably know that what they are being asked to do is insane and can probably see the reasonableness of Cicero’s arguments but who no doubt think that they preserve their roles in life by lobotomising their instincts and all rational and logical thought.
So if you want to annoy Cicero all you have to do is sustain and defend petty bureaucracy. Even better. Wear a high visibility vest when you do it. But that is a whole new ball game.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
And lest you doubt the importance of secrecy in the TSSB let the following true tale highlight for you how seriously the TSSB is maintained.
This may surprise you but you as a taxpayer pay for someone to check our desks in the TSSB at the weekend. It is known as a Security Sweep. (Presumably a Security Sooty is seen as demeaning and not at all appropriate).
Anyway last weekend Security Sweep and Security Sooty inspected Cicero’s desk for breaches of security. Of course Security Sweep and Security Sooty have to justify their existence and their lucrative weekend working, and having failed to locate contraband security papers, as if a Marketing Head Honcho would have access to documents of such great import, confiscated an old notebook full of Cicero’s doodlings and claimed it as a Security Breach. Presumably it gives an insight into the man’s diseased and warped mind.
Seriously this notebook contained nothing of significance but it was deemed a Security Breach. Presumably with a terrorist attack deemed likely at some point in the future and at some undefined place, these doodles were a short step away from being blown up.
Hopefully you are now assured of the lengths the State go to maintain the TSSB as a TSSB and not just a SB. You can sleep easy.
Now quite a few years ago John Kennedy, sometime American President, went on a visit to NASA’s headquarters in Florida. After meeting with all the Head Honchos, Luke Skywalker wannabees and engineering geeks with brains the size of planets, he was introduced to an elderly black woman.
‘And what do you do?’ asked Mr America
‘I am helping put a man on the moon’ replied the elderly lady
‘And how do you do that?’ asked Mr Handsome
‘I keep the toilets clean’.
Cicero was reminded of this conversation when communing in recent days with one of his many friends who works for the National Nanny Service, sorry the National Health Service.
A similar question was asked of said friend who told Cicero that she was a project manager with the National Nanny Service which meant that she managed projects. Note no word of helping make people better. Or keeping people healthy. Or even helping others nanny us.
If we compare the NASA answer to the National Nanny Service answer there are two things worthy of note and please start to consider how you would answer this killer question.
Firstly, the NASA toilet cleaner told the President what she did first and not how she did it. And I guess that is not how many of us would answer that question. We would focus on how we do it not the purpose of what we do.
And secondly, note the complete alignment of purpose throughout the organisation. How many of us can say that the businesses we work in offer such a clear sighted, single minded and inspiring view of its purpose? Damn few probably but what is stopping us as individuals developing our own clear sighted, single minded and inspiring answer should we ever be introduced to the American president?
In Cicero’s simplistic world, and sometimes simple is best, there are only 2 types of people in any business-those who serve customers and those whose job it is to help and support those who serve customers. If you are not in either of these groups you should not be there.
The National Nanny Service should not want people to manage projects. It does want people whose job it is to help doctors and nurses keep us fit and healthy.
Not everyone can be a Luke Skywalker but we can all help the Luke Skywalkers in our business fly to the moon.
Is it only me…….who hates to be told that someone is only following orders?
It has often been said that Cicero has a problem with authority. Cicero would dispute this but given sometimes what we all have to put up with from petty bureaucrats and power crazed apparatchiks it is often no wonder that from time to time frustration might boil over.
From time to time, well quite often actually, Cicero is often faced with being asked, and often told, to do something which defies logic and common sense. For example Cicero was asked last week in the course of his duties to complete a form to provide information that had previously been supplied in non form format.
Now not unnaturally Cicero questioned and challenged such non value adding bureaucracy and requested the rationale for such stupidity. Typical responses to such reasonable challenges range from ‘its procedure’ to ‘it's what I have been told to do’ to ‘I am just following instructions’.
Is it only me who thinks that such responses are what led to concentration camps and the gas chambers?
Nothing riles Cicero more than coming across people who probably know that what they are being asked to do is insane and can probably see the reasonableness of Cicero’s arguments but who no doubt think that they preserve their roles in life by lobotomising their instincts and all rational and logical thought.
So if you want to annoy Cicero all you have to do is sustain and defend petty bureaucracy. Even better. Wear a high visibility vest when you do it. But that is a whole new ball game.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Friday, 5 February 2010
And now for something completely different
Last week if you recall we spoke about how the eco-mentalists and Green Gestapo had taken to producing their own dodgy dossier of scientific tosh and made up data to try to explain wonky weather. It was interesting to note that in relation to other choleric spleen splitting diatribes you might find here from time to time, that the eco-mentalists and the rest of the interfering Greens have stayed very quiet. A reaction was expected. None came. Perhaps these people have been shamed by their antics and have decided to lie low until the furore has died down. Perhaps.
Is it too much to ask that they will go away and admit they were wrong? Doubt it.
And news from the TSSB. Two lifts down last week but fortunately one continued to work. Otherwise it would have been hell. You cannot expect state employees to strain every sinew to maintain and protect you without a lift.
And now for something completely different….quite literally.
The need to innovate and be creative in these dark times is stronger than ever. And creativity and innovation can be about new products and services to grow income or to improve delivery or to better manage costs. All can play this game even those of Cicero’s friends whose job it is to help those who help others to maintain systems and things for those who provide back room support to doctors and nurses to look after us better. And surely an organisation like this could do with some lean thinking.
But how to do creativity?
The danger with traditional creativity is that it looks for interesting solutions which require new assets or long term investment; that it arises from blue sky thinking with no constraints; that it develops wide ranging and radical ideas based on complex solutions.
What is needed now is Lean Creativity. Lean Creativity, and Cicero is going to trademark this term, keeps one eye on time, cost and quality. It sweats existing assets to their maximum potential. And most crucially Lean Creativity is about being quick to market with little and clever ideas and solutions.
Cicero has been thinking long and hard about Lean Creativity and how it might be introduced, even in the TSSB where lack of investment makes thinking lean a pre-requisite.
And in applying Lean Creativity here are 8 questions to think about to get started.
• How can you re-build the core elements of your product or service to make it perfect for your customer’s right now?
• Can you make the real value of your product and service stand out from the crowd?
• Is it as easy as possible for your new customers to do business with you and then come back again and again?
• Have you ensured that each and every touch point helps your customer access your product or service?
• How can you create and recommend options for customers to help them focus their decisions and simplify your operation?
• Can you get your customers to help you deliver the offer and ensure they love the experience?
• How can you capitalise on your partnerships to leverage a better offer and experience for your customers?
• What can you do for free which will have a lasting effect on your customers by giving away what incurs little or no cost to you but provides great value to your customers?
You don’t need to be able to answer all 8 but at least some of them will be a start. And even those helping improve the nation’s health should be able to apply the principles of Lean Creativity to come up with something completely different.
Surely even our health professionals so fond of preaching to us about our heating habits cannot object to something lean.
Please share how you get on.
Is it only me….who thinks that this is a blatant example of child cruelty?
As you will know Cicero gets up in middle of night to rush to his TSSB to toil for another day to maintain your personal security and protection. Every day Cicero is part of the great salatariat that pours into our great metropolises like wildebeest traversing the Serengeti in search of food and water. And Cicero is struck by the not inconsiderable number of very young children forced to join this daily route march wrapped in swaddling clothes and wheeled in their buggies through the throng in the winter gloom and seasonal chill.
Cicero does not think this is right and is amazed that mums and dads and even society at large is prepared to accept such wholesale cruelty and neglect.
Sure these kids are not being beaten or neglected or abused in the same way as many other kids might be. Sure their every material need is being catered for and hopefully they are being watered and fed as the manual requires. And sure they will be loved as much as children are supposed to be loved. But is it only me who thinks that disturbing the sweet slumbers of infants and then transporting them across town when the sun is barely up through a crowd of morose and uncommunicative giants, which is how the commute herd must appear to them, is a kind of acceptable middle class neglect and abuse?
No doubt these infant commuters are being taken to nursery or pre-school dumps in our town centres so that the materialistic middle class aspirations, ambitions and lifestyles of their striving parents can be maintained. These days no one is prepared to make a sacrifice unless of course you are a toddling tot forced without your consent or engagement to sacrifice your sleep and time finger painting at home with either or both of your parents so you can learn how to commute with the best of us. Admittedly you learn more in your first three years of line than you will do for the rest of your life, Cicero excepted of course, but do we really think it’s ok to use this development period to teach our children how to commute, how to squeeze into the tiniest of space, how to endure 30 minutes with your face stuck hard up against a smelly oxter? Surely there is far more to life than this. Do you think this is an acceptable way to treat kids?
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Is it too much to ask that they will go away and admit they were wrong? Doubt it.
And news from the TSSB. Two lifts down last week but fortunately one continued to work. Otherwise it would have been hell. You cannot expect state employees to strain every sinew to maintain and protect you without a lift.
And now for something completely different….quite literally.
The need to innovate and be creative in these dark times is stronger than ever. And creativity and innovation can be about new products and services to grow income or to improve delivery or to better manage costs. All can play this game even those of Cicero’s friends whose job it is to help those who help others to maintain systems and things for those who provide back room support to doctors and nurses to look after us better. And surely an organisation like this could do with some lean thinking.
But how to do creativity?
The danger with traditional creativity is that it looks for interesting solutions which require new assets or long term investment; that it arises from blue sky thinking with no constraints; that it develops wide ranging and radical ideas based on complex solutions.
What is needed now is Lean Creativity. Lean Creativity, and Cicero is going to trademark this term, keeps one eye on time, cost and quality. It sweats existing assets to their maximum potential. And most crucially Lean Creativity is about being quick to market with little and clever ideas and solutions.
Cicero has been thinking long and hard about Lean Creativity and how it might be introduced, even in the TSSB where lack of investment makes thinking lean a pre-requisite.
And in applying Lean Creativity here are 8 questions to think about to get started.
• How can you re-build the core elements of your product or service to make it perfect for your customer’s right now?
• Can you make the real value of your product and service stand out from the crowd?
• Is it as easy as possible for your new customers to do business with you and then come back again and again?
• Have you ensured that each and every touch point helps your customer access your product or service?
• How can you create and recommend options for customers to help them focus their decisions and simplify your operation?
• Can you get your customers to help you deliver the offer and ensure they love the experience?
• How can you capitalise on your partnerships to leverage a better offer and experience for your customers?
• What can you do for free which will have a lasting effect on your customers by giving away what incurs little or no cost to you but provides great value to your customers?
You don’t need to be able to answer all 8 but at least some of them will be a start. And even those helping improve the nation’s health should be able to apply the principles of Lean Creativity to come up with something completely different.
Surely even our health professionals so fond of preaching to us about our heating habits cannot object to something lean.
Please share how you get on.
Is it only me….who thinks that this is a blatant example of child cruelty?
As you will know Cicero gets up in middle of night to rush to his TSSB to toil for another day to maintain your personal security and protection. Every day Cicero is part of the great salatariat that pours into our great metropolises like wildebeest traversing the Serengeti in search of food and water. And Cicero is struck by the not inconsiderable number of very young children forced to join this daily route march wrapped in swaddling clothes and wheeled in their buggies through the throng in the winter gloom and seasonal chill.
Cicero does not think this is right and is amazed that mums and dads and even society at large is prepared to accept such wholesale cruelty and neglect.
Sure these kids are not being beaten or neglected or abused in the same way as many other kids might be. Sure their every material need is being catered for and hopefully they are being watered and fed as the manual requires. And sure they will be loved as much as children are supposed to be loved. But is it only me who thinks that disturbing the sweet slumbers of infants and then transporting them across town when the sun is barely up through a crowd of morose and uncommunicative giants, which is how the commute herd must appear to them, is a kind of acceptable middle class neglect and abuse?
No doubt these infant commuters are being taken to nursery or pre-school dumps in our town centres so that the materialistic middle class aspirations, ambitions and lifestyles of their striving parents can be maintained. These days no one is prepared to make a sacrifice unless of course you are a toddling tot forced without your consent or engagement to sacrifice your sleep and time finger painting at home with either or both of your parents so you can learn how to commute with the best of us. Admittedly you learn more in your first three years of line than you will do for the rest of your life, Cicero excepted of course, but do we really think it’s ok to use this development period to teach our children how to commute, how to squeeze into the tiniest of space, how to endure 30 minutes with your face stuck hard up against a smelly oxter? Surely there is far more to life than this. Do you think this is an acceptable way to treat kids?
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Friday, 29 January 2010
How the mighty fall
Cicero is pleased to report that he is still here.
Despite last week’s tad controversial thoughts on how to improve airport security while making it easy, straightforward and hassle free for the majority of us to continue to fly, the world has not ended nor the roof caved in. Although it is understood that there are teams of hit men form the sub polar regions out looking for your guide, your muse and your mentor as we speak. Hopefully you will continue to hear words of wisdom and profound common sense next week.
Strangely Cicero is still awaiting the call from those charged with airport security requesting his advice, hints and tips. It can only be a matter of time.
For some strange and bizarre reason, Cicero has been spending a lot of time recently thinking about Sir Fred Goodwin, the erstwhile Head Honcho at Royal Bank of Scotland. This is not some bizarre fetish for Celtic bankers that is being exposed here but a curiosity to understand what drives the mighty who have achieved greatness onto fail, and in Sir Fred Goodwin’s case, to fail mightily.
As the Homeric tradition teaches us, was this yet another case of Icarus flying to close to Jupiter’s winged chariot while Daedulus watched?
At the heart of business failure is hubris, a pride born of success. Your previous success as a business and as a leader makes you arrogant and complacent. You become insulated by success and fail to appreciate the extent to which luck plays its part in your success. Consequently you over-estimate your own capabilities.
Is any of this ringing true for you, Sir Fred?
And from this flows the undisciplined pursuit of success. The discipline you have exerted to this point, whether it be financial, operational or creative, you start to abandon. Extravagant decision making follows. See ABN Amro, purchase of.
When you see this going on around you, when a business starts to build fountains, marble colonnades and statues, get out and get out quickly. Hubris is now at epidemic proportions.
Still with me, Sir Fred? Note Sir Fred, a sure giveaway, unless you acquire such monikers for humility these days.
From this point on decline although not inevitable has set in and it will take a strong leader with humility to spare who can prevent this. Negative data starts to be discounted and the positive accentuated and spun to great effect. The business and its Head Honchos are now in denial and blame is assigned to external factors. See also British Prime Ministers and their Chancellors.
The business with decline apparent will start to grasp at straws taking more and more risks searching for that magic bullet, which rarely exists, to provide the route to salvation. Each knock back, each failure, each false dawn, will erode financial strength and organisational spirit and morale. The end is nigh. And as we have seen the decline and the end can happen at frightening speed. See Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, any government owned UK bank, Iceland, Leeds United.
Could Sir Fred, or any other corporate Icarus, have avoided his, or her in these enlightened times, fate?
Yes. The answer is not to think of you as a great leader. To do so is the kiss of death for any Head Honcho and the business he, or she, leads. Head Honchos must demonstrate real humility. It is not about them, it is about their business. Head Honchos who succeed take responsibility for their results rather than the credit for the good times and blaming external events for the bad. Rise and fall are both self inflicted and both are within our own control.
And so the next time you see a Head Honcho feted and celebrated and garlanded, and enjoying it, you can be sure that company is doomed, certain that the mighty are about to fall. You mark Cicero’s fine words.
One last thought for all us budding leaders. What applies to Head Honchos also applies to leaders throughout the business who are not quite Head Honchos. Personal decline and business decline is down to what we do to do to ourselves. You have been warned.
Is it only me…..who thinks that the eco-mentalists have been lying to us and who is pleased their lying theories have been exposed?
If you are an eco-mentalist or a fully paid up member of the Green Gestapo you might like to stop reading at this point.
For if you are one of these, you must these days feel like an atheist arriving at the Pearly Gates to be greeted by St Peter saying to you ‘you must feel a proper Charlie’. It is now clear that for years you have been wearing the Emperor’s new clothes. And for years you have played fast and loose with the facts to exert enormous, and substantially fraudulent, influence on governments and on all our lives. I hope you are hanging your heads in shame.
First we have the eco-mentalists sexing up their facts, their e-mails and their dodgy dossier of spurious scientific tosh to support the argument that the weather was warming up. Guys, there are people in government who would be proud of you. Next time we want to start an illegal war we will know where to come.
And as if that was not bad enough it now appears that the UN Nobel prize winning climate change team got a key fact wrong. It now seems that the Himalayan glaciers are not going to disappear.
What else have you got wrong? What other tosh have you been peddling? What else has been distorted and made up?
Is it any wonder that many of us now believe that the eco-mentalists, relishing their 15 minutes in the low carbon footprint spotlight, are perpetuating a conspiracy to exaggerate the effects of climate change, global warming, or whatever wonky weather is being called this week.
Now that your lies, your frauds, your scientific hyperbole, have been exposed, is it only me who wants the eco-mentalists to get out of our lives?
Stop influencing governments to us tax back to the Stone Age in the name of eco-mentalism. Let me drive a 4x4 if I want to; get a plastic bag in the shop for free when I need one; fly whenever and wherever I want, subject of course to the airport stasi concluding that I am not going to blow the plane from the sky.
Wonky weather happens. It has been happening for millennia. It will happen for countless more millennia. And there is nothing we can do about it. It happens. Get over it.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Despite last week’s tad controversial thoughts on how to improve airport security while making it easy, straightforward and hassle free for the majority of us to continue to fly, the world has not ended nor the roof caved in. Although it is understood that there are teams of hit men form the sub polar regions out looking for your guide, your muse and your mentor as we speak. Hopefully you will continue to hear words of wisdom and profound common sense next week.
Strangely Cicero is still awaiting the call from those charged with airport security requesting his advice, hints and tips. It can only be a matter of time.
For some strange and bizarre reason, Cicero has been spending a lot of time recently thinking about Sir Fred Goodwin, the erstwhile Head Honcho at Royal Bank of Scotland. This is not some bizarre fetish for Celtic bankers that is being exposed here but a curiosity to understand what drives the mighty who have achieved greatness onto fail, and in Sir Fred Goodwin’s case, to fail mightily.
As the Homeric tradition teaches us, was this yet another case of Icarus flying to close to Jupiter’s winged chariot while Daedulus watched?
At the heart of business failure is hubris, a pride born of success. Your previous success as a business and as a leader makes you arrogant and complacent. You become insulated by success and fail to appreciate the extent to which luck plays its part in your success. Consequently you over-estimate your own capabilities.
Is any of this ringing true for you, Sir Fred?
And from this flows the undisciplined pursuit of success. The discipline you have exerted to this point, whether it be financial, operational or creative, you start to abandon. Extravagant decision making follows. See ABN Amro, purchase of.
When you see this going on around you, when a business starts to build fountains, marble colonnades and statues, get out and get out quickly. Hubris is now at epidemic proportions.
Still with me, Sir Fred? Note Sir Fred, a sure giveaway, unless you acquire such monikers for humility these days.
From this point on decline although not inevitable has set in and it will take a strong leader with humility to spare who can prevent this. Negative data starts to be discounted and the positive accentuated and spun to great effect. The business and its Head Honchos are now in denial and blame is assigned to external factors. See also British Prime Ministers and their Chancellors.
The business with decline apparent will start to grasp at straws taking more and more risks searching for that magic bullet, which rarely exists, to provide the route to salvation. Each knock back, each failure, each false dawn, will erode financial strength and organisational spirit and morale. The end is nigh. And as we have seen the decline and the end can happen at frightening speed. See Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, any government owned UK bank, Iceland, Leeds United.
Could Sir Fred, or any other corporate Icarus, have avoided his, or her in these enlightened times, fate?
Yes. The answer is not to think of you as a great leader. To do so is the kiss of death for any Head Honcho and the business he, or she, leads. Head Honchos must demonstrate real humility. It is not about them, it is about their business. Head Honchos who succeed take responsibility for their results rather than the credit for the good times and blaming external events for the bad. Rise and fall are both self inflicted and both are within our own control.
And so the next time you see a Head Honcho feted and celebrated and garlanded, and enjoying it, you can be sure that company is doomed, certain that the mighty are about to fall. You mark Cicero’s fine words.
One last thought for all us budding leaders. What applies to Head Honchos also applies to leaders throughout the business who are not quite Head Honchos. Personal decline and business decline is down to what we do to do to ourselves. You have been warned.
Is it only me…..who thinks that the eco-mentalists have been lying to us and who is pleased their lying theories have been exposed?
If you are an eco-mentalist or a fully paid up member of the Green Gestapo you might like to stop reading at this point.
For if you are one of these, you must these days feel like an atheist arriving at the Pearly Gates to be greeted by St Peter saying to you ‘you must feel a proper Charlie’. It is now clear that for years you have been wearing the Emperor’s new clothes. And for years you have played fast and loose with the facts to exert enormous, and substantially fraudulent, influence on governments and on all our lives. I hope you are hanging your heads in shame.
First we have the eco-mentalists sexing up their facts, their e-mails and their dodgy dossier of spurious scientific tosh to support the argument that the weather was warming up. Guys, there are people in government who would be proud of you. Next time we want to start an illegal war we will know where to come.
And as if that was not bad enough it now appears that the UN Nobel prize winning climate change team got a key fact wrong. It now seems that the Himalayan glaciers are not going to disappear.
What else have you got wrong? What other tosh have you been peddling? What else has been distorted and made up?
Is it any wonder that many of us now believe that the eco-mentalists, relishing their 15 minutes in the low carbon footprint spotlight, are perpetuating a conspiracy to exaggerate the effects of climate change, global warming, or whatever wonky weather is being called this week.
Now that your lies, your frauds, your scientific hyperbole, have been exposed, is it only me who wants the eco-mentalists to get out of our lives?
Stop influencing governments to us tax back to the Stone Age in the name of eco-mentalism. Let me drive a 4x4 if I want to; get a plastic bag in the shop for free when I need one; fly whenever and wherever I want, subject of course to the airport stasi concluding that I am not going to blow the plane from the sky.
Wonky weather happens. It has been happening for millennia. It will happen for countless more millennia. And there is nothing we can do about it. It happens. Get over it.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Friday, 22 January 2010
Eeny, meeny, miny,mo
Salvete, amici.
It seems that you think that the non appearance of these musings on account of the recent inclement weather was considered by you a pretty lame excuse. How could the populus even consider that Cicero might hide behind the weather? But if you do think that then please accept these humble words of apology.
However given the level of disruption produced by a few snow flakes and the rush to inaction in so many areas induced by the health and safety issues inherent in said snow flakes, it is surely not totally inappropriate that Cicero’s non appearance might be a part of this trend.
Anyway the weather this week has been so much kinder making non appearance inexcusable.
There have also been questions asked about an update on the lifts in the TSSB. Happily, and unlike many other items of the nation’s infrastructure brought to its knees by the recent spate of wonky weather, the lifts have worked magnificently well and all lifts continue to operate satisfactorily. Yes, you did read it right. All lifts are working. One more reason for the apparatus of the state to work at its best on your behalf. Have you noticed the difference? An improvement in your security perhaps? Enhanced quality of public services, maybe?
And before moving on, Cicero would like to thank the devotee who gave Cicero a biography of oneself. It is a mightily good read. Cicero is indebted even though it is very weird reading about oneself in the words of another.
Do you remember Cicero’s Marketing Professional friend or MPF? Last week Cicero was sheltering with said MPF from the inclement weather in a local taverna discussing what makes great marketing.
What a great topic.
For Cicero great marketing is about making choices. It is being clear about what you are going to do and what you are not going to do; who your brand is going to serve and who you won’t; what your brand will stand for and what it won’t.
Anything else is beige marketing. And matt beige at that. It is drab, insipid and uninspiring. It might be done well but it is not great marketing. Quite frankly it is dull.
Great marketing for Cicero means being clear about whom you want your potential customers to be and who they are not. It means understanding their emotional and functional needs and defining and segmenting them on this basis. Great marketing is based on targeting specific clusters of shared needs.
And it means tight targeting. Great marketing is built on keeping the faith and accepting that targeting fewer customers means better results. And this is delivered when the demands of the sales and finance directors for more and more power, in true USS Enterprise fashion are strongly and decisively resisted Sometimes the marketing just ‘cannae take it, captain’. Sometimes great marketing might even mean devoting time and money to excluding people from your brand if it serves the business better.
Finally great marketing is based on a single minded 3 word positioning that eschews triangles, pyramids and wheels. It is being crystal clear about what the brand stands for, a definition that is tight, unambiguous and waffle free, and based on a meeting the needs of a well defined cluster of potential customers.
And that’s it. It’s all about choice and keeping faith to your choice. Great marketing might not be as random or as chancy as eeny, meeny, miny, mo but the principle is pretty much the same.
It seemed to satisfy Cicero’s MPF who returned to his TSSB to start to make his choices.
Is it only me?
It was interesting to see over the Xmas period the international response to the latest potential terrorist outrage in the skies over America. Of course the knee jerk response by all governments, including this one, was to improve security at airports which is rapidly becoming a byword for increased inconvenience and hassle for all. Indeed the level of hassle we are experiencing now when we try to fly is becoming such that it is this rather than the barmy arguments over the effects of flying on wonky weather which might give the eco-mentalists their greatest victory and reduce flyers which they claim are biggest nuisance to our weather. How ironic.
Is it only me who resents the increasing levels of hassle by over officious security personnel at airports when trying to fly?
It is about time that all those responsible for adding layer upon layer upon layer of inconvenient security measures so that they are seen to be doing something, realised that the vast majority of people who fly have done and are doing nothing wrong.
It is about time that they realised that it is not the Eskimos or retired librarians from Nether Wallop or stressed and harassed families trying to reach Disneyland or other continental sunspots that are threatening lives and blowing up planes.
If you really want to protect us all, minimise the hassle we all face and allow us to enjoy the airport experience, might I implore the authorities to look for the tell tale risk indicators, and hassle and inconvenience those who appear risky. Body scan them. Get them to remove their shoes, coats, belts and just about anything else that can be removed. Strip search the risky ones, with rubber gloves if necessary.
If that means we have to be a wee bit non PC, good. I’m all for that. I just don’t like being assumed guilty until some electronic gizmo gives me the all clear. It is frankly annoying, de-grading and hugely inconvenient. And I’m not sure it even works.
If we have computers that can predict the climate is going to hot up decades hence, that the oceans are going to rise 27 inches over the next 47 years and even the thickage of the Polar ice cap 61 years and 8 months hence, surely we can identify those most likely to be willing to blow an airlines from the sky and subject them to a lot of annoying, fruitless, and time wasting hassle and inconvenience.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
It seems that you think that the non appearance of these musings on account of the recent inclement weather was considered by you a pretty lame excuse. How could the populus even consider that Cicero might hide behind the weather? But if you do think that then please accept these humble words of apology.
However given the level of disruption produced by a few snow flakes and the rush to inaction in so many areas induced by the health and safety issues inherent in said snow flakes, it is surely not totally inappropriate that Cicero’s non appearance might be a part of this trend.
Anyway the weather this week has been so much kinder making non appearance inexcusable.
There have also been questions asked about an update on the lifts in the TSSB. Happily, and unlike many other items of the nation’s infrastructure brought to its knees by the recent spate of wonky weather, the lifts have worked magnificently well and all lifts continue to operate satisfactorily. Yes, you did read it right. All lifts are working. One more reason for the apparatus of the state to work at its best on your behalf. Have you noticed the difference? An improvement in your security perhaps? Enhanced quality of public services, maybe?
And before moving on, Cicero would like to thank the devotee who gave Cicero a biography of oneself. It is a mightily good read. Cicero is indebted even though it is very weird reading about oneself in the words of another.
Do you remember Cicero’s Marketing Professional friend or MPF? Last week Cicero was sheltering with said MPF from the inclement weather in a local taverna discussing what makes great marketing.
What a great topic.
For Cicero great marketing is about making choices. It is being clear about what you are going to do and what you are not going to do; who your brand is going to serve and who you won’t; what your brand will stand for and what it won’t.
Anything else is beige marketing. And matt beige at that. It is drab, insipid and uninspiring. It might be done well but it is not great marketing. Quite frankly it is dull.
Great marketing for Cicero means being clear about whom you want your potential customers to be and who they are not. It means understanding their emotional and functional needs and defining and segmenting them on this basis. Great marketing is based on targeting specific clusters of shared needs.
And it means tight targeting. Great marketing is built on keeping the faith and accepting that targeting fewer customers means better results. And this is delivered when the demands of the sales and finance directors for more and more power, in true USS Enterprise fashion are strongly and decisively resisted Sometimes the marketing just ‘cannae take it, captain’. Sometimes great marketing might even mean devoting time and money to excluding people from your brand if it serves the business better.
Finally great marketing is based on a single minded 3 word positioning that eschews triangles, pyramids and wheels. It is being crystal clear about what the brand stands for, a definition that is tight, unambiguous and waffle free, and based on a meeting the needs of a well defined cluster of potential customers.
And that’s it. It’s all about choice and keeping faith to your choice. Great marketing might not be as random or as chancy as eeny, meeny, miny, mo but the principle is pretty much the same.
It seemed to satisfy Cicero’s MPF who returned to his TSSB to start to make his choices.
Is it only me?
It was interesting to see over the Xmas period the international response to the latest potential terrorist outrage in the skies over America. Of course the knee jerk response by all governments, including this one, was to improve security at airports which is rapidly becoming a byword for increased inconvenience and hassle for all. Indeed the level of hassle we are experiencing now when we try to fly is becoming such that it is this rather than the barmy arguments over the effects of flying on wonky weather which might give the eco-mentalists their greatest victory and reduce flyers which they claim are biggest nuisance to our weather. How ironic.
Is it only me who resents the increasing levels of hassle by over officious security personnel at airports when trying to fly?
It is about time that all those responsible for adding layer upon layer upon layer of inconvenient security measures so that they are seen to be doing something, realised that the vast majority of people who fly have done and are doing nothing wrong.
It is about time that they realised that it is not the Eskimos or retired librarians from Nether Wallop or stressed and harassed families trying to reach Disneyland or other continental sunspots that are threatening lives and blowing up planes.
If you really want to protect us all, minimise the hassle we all face and allow us to enjoy the airport experience, might I implore the authorities to look for the tell tale risk indicators, and hassle and inconvenience those who appear risky. Body scan them. Get them to remove their shoes, coats, belts and just about anything else that can be removed. Strip search the risky ones, with rubber gloves if necessary.
If that means we have to be a wee bit non PC, good. I’m all for that. I just don’t like being assumed guilty until some electronic gizmo gives me the all clear. It is frankly annoying, de-grading and hugely inconvenient. And I’m not sure it even works.
If we have computers that can predict the climate is going to hot up decades hence, that the oceans are going to rise 27 inches over the next 47 years and even the thickage of the Polar ice cap 61 years and 8 months hence, surely we can identify those most likely to be willing to blow an airlines from the sky and subject them to a lot of annoying, fruitless, and time wasting hassle and inconvenience.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Friday, 15 January 2010
I have seen the future and it works
Happy New Year to you.
Or as the Celtic tribes from across Hadrian’s Wall will say ‘lang may yer lum reek’ which translates as ‘long may your chimney smoke’. Nope, don’t know why either.
And apologies if you rushed to this site last week eager to have your Cicero fix. You must have been bitterly disappointed. Sadly Cicero was defeated by the weather conditions. But now Cicero is back and the year can continue from where we left off prior to the Saturnalian revels. It is good to be back and to commune with you again.
Hopefully you have survived the recent and continuing bout of dodgy weather. This is not the time to be smug and gleeful but there is a degree of shadenfreude to be enjoyed watching the so called climate experts try to explain away the recent snow drifts when we are supposed to be facing cataclysmic global warming. Have you noticed how there is now a distinction being drawn between climate and weather? How much snow needs to fall, how far does the temperature need to plummet, how much ice does there need to be on our cars in the morning, before we acknowledge that global warning is just wonky weather? Given that our meteorologists now have their own dodgy and sexed up dossier to rival Blair’s, it can’t be long now.
But enough of the weather.
Cicero has seen the future and it works.
Regular and devoted aficionados of these musings will know that Cicero has long predicted the demise of monologue advertising as practised by many big brands. And for Cicero the future is all about developing communication programmes which practice the art of 4 C Marketing-communications which encourage co-creation, collaboration, conversation and communities. This kind of 4 C marketing is especially relevant, but not exclusively so, when a brand wants to get down and mix it with the kids or with the yoof, innit.
Now for many marketing directors and their teams it is all about size, the size of their marketing budgets, that is. For with big budgets you can run big expensive glossy advertising programmes that are seen by millions; or you can undertake huge direct marketing programmes which carpet bomb hallways across the land with the precision of a B49 bomber in Vietnam; or have your brand on more street corners than inebriated women on a hen night.
But recently Cicero was privy to a 4 C marketing campaign which reached fewer people than have toes and fingers. And which worked in delivering its objectives. And also in winning a fair few effective marketing awards, which are the best kind to win unless you are a true advertising ab fab luvvie.
The campaign in question was for the RNLI, the people who pull you from the sea when you are on the verge of drowning, who wanted the yoof to become more aware of their work. And it did this by engaging in their world through their influencers and through their channels. It wanted to take them on a journey to show that the values of today’s yoof were indeed closely aligned with those of the RNLI, despite the media portrayal of naughty yoof stereotypes.
And to do this it identified a dozen or so key yoof bloggers and sent them unbranded parcels and hoodies and encouraged them to blog about the ‘mystery parcel’ and to challenge yoof stereotypes. The RNLI was off and running and a viral yoof conversation was swiftly underway, a community formed and the yoof audience instantly involved in the co-creation and collaboration to define the true values of today’s yoof. Eventually the brand was revealed and the experience of the brand and its values demonstrated and brought to life.
This is not the forum to do no more than outline the mechanics of the campaign, you are a busy person with a life to lead, but you will no doubt be unsurprised to learn that the Ciceronic blog was excluded from participating in this campaign, much to Cicero’s bemusement and annoyance.
Did it work? Yes. The content generated by the campaign was seen over a million times, over 11% of yoof audience saw the material and even newspapers covered the developing story. Not bad for the price of 12 packs.
As said above, Cicero has seen the future and it works. And it also just goes to prove that you really can teach an oldish dog new tricks.
Is it only me?
The other day I was sitting at my desk in my Top Secret State Bunker, or TSSB, minding my own business but of course worrying ceaselessly about your safety and security, when the taxpayer funded phone on my State supplied desk rang. It was another apparatchik ringing from his TSSB.
Naturally I was expecting to discuss important matters of State or at least a review of the body politic. All I got was some chit chat about our respective states of well being. But after a bit we finally moved onto the coup de grace of the discussion and the real purpose of the call and it was…..wait for it…..and I kid you not…..to be informed that I was to be sent an e-mail later in the day to arrange for said apparatchik and myself to meet and to swap war stories and tales of malfunctioning lifts from our respective TSSBs.
Yes, you heard it right. The purpose of the call was to warn me that an e-mail was wending its electronic way to me. How absurd is that? Very, in my book.
Do we do act like this with any other form of communication? It is no wonder that our in boxes are full to bursting each and every day. It is no surprise that server capacity is close to saturation with pointless e-mails like the one I am to receive, with cheap promotions for dysfunctional penile remedies and off colour Tiger Woods jokes.
E-mails were supposed to make our lives easier but I can only wonder at the high level of inefficiency in built to our communication processes if we are constantly making phone calls to warn of the impending arrival of an e-mail. It defies even my logic that it was not possible to conclude our arrangements when we were communing on the telephone instead of waiting for my e-mail missive to arrive which will no doubt generate a flurry of e-mails as we make our arrangements. And all the while my attention is diverted and your security and well being imperilled.
But then of course it might only be me.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus. Semper.
Or as the Celtic tribes from across Hadrian’s Wall will say ‘lang may yer lum reek’ which translates as ‘long may your chimney smoke’. Nope, don’t know why either.
And apologies if you rushed to this site last week eager to have your Cicero fix. You must have been bitterly disappointed. Sadly Cicero was defeated by the weather conditions. But now Cicero is back and the year can continue from where we left off prior to the Saturnalian revels. It is good to be back and to commune with you again.
Hopefully you have survived the recent and continuing bout of dodgy weather. This is not the time to be smug and gleeful but there is a degree of shadenfreude to be enjoyed watching the so called climate experts try to explain away the recent snow drifts when we are supposed to be facing cataclysmic global warming. Have you noticed how there is now a distinction being drawn between climate and weather? How much snow needs to fall, how far does the temperature need to plummet, how much ice does there need to be on our cars in the morning, before we acknowledge that global warning is just wonky weather? Given that our meteorologists now have their own dodgy and sexed up dossier to rival Blair’s, it can’t be long now.
But enough of the weather.
Cicero has seen the future and it works.
Regular and devoted aficionados of these musings will know that Cicero has long predicted the demise of monologue advertising as practised by many big brands. And for Cicero the future is all about developing communication programmes which practice the art of 4 C Marketing-communications which encourage co-creation, collaboration, conversation and communities. This kind of 4 C marketing is especially relevant, but not exclusively so, when a brand wants to get down and mix it with the kids or with the yoof, innit.
Now for many marketing directors and their teams it is all about size, the size of their marketing budgets, that is. For with big budgets you can run big expensive glossy advertising programmes that are seen by millions; or you can undertake huge direct marketing programmes which carpet bomb hallways across the land with the precision of a B49 bomber in Vietnam; or have your brand on more street corners than inebriated women on a hen night.
But recently Cicero was privy to a 4 C marketing campaign which reached fewer people than have toes and fingers. And which worked in delivering its objectives. And also in winning a fair few effective marketing awards, which are the best kind to win unless you are a true advertising ab fab luvvie.
The campaign in question was for the RNLI, the people who pull you from the sea when you are on the verge of drowning, who wanted the yoof to become more aware of their work. And it did this by engaging in their world through their influencers and through their channels. It wanted to take them on a journey to show that the values of today’s yoof were indeed closely aligned with those of the RNLI, despite the media portrayal of naughty yoof stereotypes.
And to do this it identified a dozen or so key yoof bloggers and sent them unbranded parcels and hoodies and encouraged them to blog about the ‘mystery parcel’ and to challenge yoof stereotypes. The RNLI was off and running and a viral yoof conversation was swiftly underway, a community formed and the yoof audience instantly involved in the co-creation and collaboration to define the true values of today’s yoof. Eventually the brand was revealed and the experience of the brand and its values demonstrated and brought to life.
This is not the forum to do no more than outline the mechanics of the campaign, you are a busy person with a life to lead, but you will no doubt be unsurprised to learn that the Ciceronic blog was excluded from participating in this campaign, much to Cicero’s bemusement and annoyance.
Did it work? Yes. The content generated by the campaign was seen over a million times, over 11% of yoof audience saw the material and even newspapers covered the developing story. Not bad for the price of 12 packs.
As said above, Cicero has seen the future and it works. And it also just goes to prove that you really can teach an oldish dog new tricks.
Is it only me?
The other day I was sitting at my desk in my Top Secret State Bunker, or TSSB, minding my own business but of course worrying ceaselessly about your safety and security, when the taxpayer funded phone on my State supplied desk rang. It was another apparatchik ringing from his TSSB.
Naturally I was expecting to discuss important matters of State or at least a review of the body politic. All I got was some chit chat about our respective states of well being. But after a bit we finally moved onto the coup de grace of the discussion and the real purpose of the call and it was…..wait for it…..and I kid you not…..to be informed that I was to be sent an e-mail later in the day to arrange for said apparatchik and myself to meet and to swap war stories and tales of malfunctioning lifts from our respective TSSBs.
Yes, you heard it right. The purpose of the call was to warn me that an e-mail was wending its electronic way to me. How absurd is that? Very, in my book.
Do we do act like this with any other form of communication? It is no wonder that our in boxes are full to bursting each and every day. It is no surprise that server capacity is close to saturation with pointless e-mails like the one I am to receive, with cheap promotions for dysfunctional penile remedies and off colour Tiger Woods jokes.
E-mails were supposed to make our lives easier but I can only wonder at the high level of inefficiency in built to our communication processes if we are constantly making phone calls to warn of the impending arrival of an e-mail. It defies even my logic that it was not possible to conclude our arrangements when we were communing on the telephone instead of waiting for my e-mail missive to arrive which will no doubt generate a flurry of e-mails as we make our arrangements. And all the while my attention is diverted and your security and well being imperilled.
But then of course it might only be me.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus. Semper.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Its snow fun!!!
Due to the continuing adverse weather and for health and safety reasons, Cicero Speaks will not appear this week. Cicero would like to apologiese for letting his fans and devotees down. Subject to health and safety, Cicero will be here next week.
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