44 posts tagged “will king”

Courtesy Geoff Riley, head of economics at Eton College, I was delighted to speak to approximately 200 young shavers as part of a series of talks to their Entrepreneur Society, headed by co-secretary, Thomas Aedy.  Having gone to school at Kirkley High, a comprehensive school in Lowestoft, Eton is probably as far removed from that place of learning as it's possible to be.  It was great!

I was met by Thomas, a very assured young man (in his suit & tie - the tie came off shortly afterwards) at Eton landmark, 'the burning bush', and then ushered into one the 25 houses, for fireworks and dinner, kindly hosted by housemaster, Mark Fielker, along with Geoff and a dozen or so of the members of the Entrepreneur Society.

I had about an hour in which to try and impart my enthusiasm for what I do - how King of Shaves has grown, why I founded the business, the challenges, the rewards and the importance of being a 'momentum creator'.  We touched on my 'life at the centre of a hurricane brand', the importance of calm (whilst storms are raging around you), why I think companies of the future should be constructed like a wheel, explained Brannovation, Smarketing, Props & Purdo's, took the audience through my '20 second MBA' course and afterwards, answered a series of intelligently framed questions from audience members (attendees were also from local schools, as well as students from Eton).

It was my first 'after dinner' presentation - normally, I try to carry them out in the morning, or at least during the day, but I got two huge rounds of applause, and at the end, Thomas kindly mentioned "I'd been the best speaker they'd had, so far" (I'm sure they say that to all the speakers).

Attendees departed with King of Shaves product, and assorted cans of Red Bull & Relentless - those who were there, will know why these were handed out.

These guys (and girls) are our future - and I hoped my brief discourse on 'Being the best you can be' enthused them to 'embrace change as a constant' - 'knuckle down and build momentum' and most important of all, to 'enthuse, exceed, enjoy'.

Thanks Geoff, and for your blog post too.

Consumer Communities, Digital Dialogues and Shaving. The King of Shaves View. (original blog posting)

I was pleased to be interviewed by Clark Turner, founding editor of top online marketing site, uTalkMarketing.com a week or so ago, and was delighted to

read the article today, courtesy a tweet from one of our followers. If you're in marketing, and want to start to get ahead of the curve in this space, I believe it's worth a read.

You may also have read that King of Shaves is a founding member of the Consumer Forum, i blogged on the site today about the importance of embracing Twitter to connect with your customers, 25/8. Link to that blog here.

Hope you enjoy!

Courtesy Alex Mitchell, Head of Influencer Relations for the IoD (Institute of Directors) I was delighted to speak at their annual Chartered Directors conference on Thursday 29th October, to approximately 80 leading CEO's, Directors & CFO's on what life's like at the heart of a challenger brand.  I was the last speaker (of 6) and took to the stage at about 4.15pm to deliver a session that explained how King of Shaves is thriving by being at the 'heart' of a brand hurricane, how our company is structured (a wheel - always with momentum - always embracing change as a constant) and finally, a brief summary of my SPACE strategy - a blueprint for successful entrepreneurs, or 'momentum creating individuals' - MCI's.

Alex let me know that my talk was particularly well received, with 100% of the attendees rating it 'Good to Excellent' and 65% of the attendees rating it as 'Excellent'.

I was also pleased to make contact with a couple of companies interested in introducing King of Shaves into Russia and India, and was also delighted to make the acquaintance of Mark Swan, a Director at the CAA (Civial Aviation Authority) who gave me his word for 'Money' in my Wheel chart, 'Purdo' (Pounds, eURo's, DOllars).  Thanks Mark!

Many thanks to everyone who came along, I hope you went away with some useful knowledge & insight into life at King of Shaves! 

King of Shaves - Putting Customers First, Proud to be Founder Member of The Consumer Forum (original blog post)

Late last year, at a business awards ceremony, I first met Simon Calver, CEO of Lovefilm, the UK's leading on-line film & games rental company. Simon has driven impressive growth for the firm and it became clear A) he was a really nice guy and B) put his customers first. As we do exactly that at King of Shaves too, when we met again in 2009 (at another awards ceremony, which we were delighted to win) I was interested to hear of his plans for a 'Consumer Forum' - a group of entrepreneurially minded, customer-centric companies, which put the consumer first. His idea was to get together a group of companies, and launch the Forum, which is dedicated to not being 'confrontational' with consumers, but rather, practice 'best practice'. Given we serve up millions of shaves each day, each which must be the 'King' of shaves, I was more than happy to sign up KoS for the forum, along with other like-minded companies such as Ella's Kitchen, Photobox.com, Chemist Direct and A Suit That Fits (a company I talk about in my book on 'How to Grow a Great business in Tough Times'.

The forum launched today - you can visit it here, see our press release on it here and see early Marketing Week press coverage here.

Nicky Springle (who heads up customer care & interaction for me at King of Shaves) and I will post regularly, with examples of how King of Shaves puts customer care & satisfaction at the heart of what it does, which I hope people find useful.

Well done Simon, for getting The Consumer Forum off the ground, and here's to signing up many more likeminded members.

People who are interested in what TCF is up to can follow us via twitter here which is administered by Surinder Gill.

A couple of weeks back, I was lucky enough to be invited for a few days sailing aboard the beautiful Oyster 72, Stravaig of Argyll by my friend Scott. 

I took an Azor S along with me, and after we'd finished sailing (and supping a lovely glass or three of sauvignon), I went swimming in the beautiful azure sea with a snorkel and the new Azor S.  To the left is the lovely pic Scott took of the Azor  with his swish underwater camera (ideal for sea water shaving yachtsmen, our Azor floats by the way - unlike our competitors) and below to the right, a somewhat less attractive one of me, attempting to shave with it, along with our new King of Shaves MicroGel (it's on the launch glidepath...)

It was great fun!  As you can see (that's enough S's for now).  Oh, ok - one more.  Shaveolution is coming.

I met Andrew Goulbourn, Sales & Marketing Director for Ipswich Town Football Club last year, at a dinner hosted by John Ayling of our media buying company, John Ayling & Associates (Andrew worked with John back in the day) and was delighted to speak at a breakfast event for 85 of East Anglia's business people this morning on A) how we're growing King of Shaves against our big spending premier league competitors, where 'money is no object' and what it takes (in my opinion) to be successful in business, by employing my S.P.A.C.E strategy (for more details on this, do buy my book - How to build a great business in tough times, the King of Shaves story.

The enthusiasm and talent in the room was palpable, from Alex & Naomi Tarry, the founders of Best of Suffolk, a fast growing, luxury & self catering holiday company operating online, to Sean Mitchell of Ocean Telecom, Peter Osbourne, General Manager of Ramada Encore (where I stayed the night - very pleasant!), Paddy Bishop of Paddy & Scott's Coffee Roastery (cracking blend) and Kate Bowden Smith of Pier Marketing. Kate also kindly forwarded us details of a press enquiry regarding men's grooming - thanks Kate!

These are all great businesses, worthy of your support and I was delighted to hopefully inspire them to believe that 'by being the best you can be' is the only way to genuinely grow your business, be it in product or service.

And, here's to Roy Keane lifting Ipswich town from their current position, to challenge for the play-offs for the Premiership next May.  Roy, if you want a bit of inspiration and 'how to challenge the big dogs', and win - get in touch ;-)

Thinking about going into business?  Running your own show?  Amazing the world with a new product, maybe destined to be a brand, or service that blows the competition away.  Here's my 20 second MBA course for you, as featured in my book.

It's called the Harvard Rule of 4.

Your 20 seconds starts, NOW!

1.  NO ONE has it
(Whatever you're thinking about doing, secure a USP for it).  ie, "My _______ is the only _______ that ________."  (our Azor is the only razor that bends.  our shaving product is the only shaving product that's an oil/serum/hybrid oil).

2.  EVERYONE will have it
(You're looking for repeat customers, remember.  Anyone can set up a one hit wonder company.

3.  It's priced for PROFIT
(Aim to ensure your GP1 or gross profit margin is north of 50%).

4.  It's priced for SALE
(ie, the sandwich you're selling isn't £4.99 when Tesco are selling theirs at £99p, unless you've made it 'freshly on the premises, like Pret).

Having a book out myself, I was interested to see what would happen with the pricing of the new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol, out yesterday in the UK yesterday.

For a nanosecond, it had an RRP of £18.99.  Bit of profit there.

Then Tesco went for volume, retailing it in-store & online at £7.00

And Amazon.co.uk countered at a super-low £4.99.

Now, I don't know how much it costs to print hardback books, but it looks pretty expensive to me.  And I can't see there is much profit being made selling it at £4.99.

Not so much a case of The Lost Symbol, more The Lost Profit.  Looks like eBooks (via Kindle, Sony or other eRreader) will be the future - no print cost, no distribution cost, and you know what - the Author will be able to pocket the margin because the book...

...won't actually need printing.

Batteries (or charge) still required though.

King of Shaves at EDP Future 50 Launch. A fantastic, inspiring event in a great venue

After an enjoyable evening at the final judging round for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009, I left the Hilton in More London Place (near Tower Bridge) and got to Gatwick nigh on 2 hours later.  Roadworks in London.  M4 closed.  Urrgh.

But, I'd booked at Sofitel Gatwick North on a good rate, as I was flying to Palma de Mallorca for a few days R&R aboard beautiful Stravaig of Argyll, an Oyster 72 yacht I chartered earlier in the year in the Windwards, and raced during Antigua Race week.  Bliss.

Checking in at 1.15am, I was confronted with a receptionist saying "You can't leave your car in our car park - you booked through an agency (news to me, I thought I'd used their website) and the carpark is 10 minutes away".  "What?" I said?  "It's off the airport" she replied.  "How do I get back to the hotel?"   Silence.  After a bit of remonstration (I'm not one to get annoyed quickly - life's too short) I paid the extra £66 to leave the car in their car park that I thought I'd paid for already.

Sofitel - #fail as I posted on Twitter.

Waking up at 4am, I was at the easyJet desk at 4.30am.  Huge queues.  "Have you got Speedy Check In" asked a member of staff? (A RyanAir style extra to help you queue jump).  "No" I replied, eyeing the huge queue - no recession going on in Gatwick North judging by the 3 x hen parties and scores of families enjoying a last bit of summer sun.  "Go over there then" she said (2 easyJet desks were manned, but no-one was queueing).

I did.  "Have you got Speedy Boarding?" I was asked again.  "No".  "Well, you can't check in here".  "Why" I said - "I've just been told to come here - the flight is leaving shortly, and as you can see (I pointed out the huge queues at other desks) I've been told to come here.  "Have you got Speedy Boarding?"  "No".

Standoff.

"Look, I'm not being funny" I said, "but, why don't you just check me in?".

Silence.  Eyeballs meet.  Mouth surly.  Miss miserable indeed.  Ten more seconds pass.  "Are you sure you haven't got Speedy Boarding?".  "No".  "How many bags have you got?"  "One".  OK then, but you should have Speedy Boarding you know".

You know what.  I used to enjoy flying easyJet.  Stelios when he launched it, and wasn't Sir Billlionaire Stelios he is now, and was a start-up, challenger brand, democratising aviation for the masses - it was fun.  The staff were fun.  It felt fun to fly.

Now?  Despite me looking forward to 3 days on a beautiful ocean sailing yacht, it was simply not fun.

easyJet check in experience:  #fail  as I posted on twitter.

However, the flight took off on time, I had my Times to read, and as the flight neared its end, fell asleep (I'd only had a couple of hours at the hotel).

Only to wake up in a start as a Steward grabbed the back of my chair to try and bring it into the upright position "Sir, please put your seat upright!".

"It IS upright" I said, more than a bit annoyed.  How rude.  I looked at his back as he moved down the aisle.

easyJet customer experience:  double #Fail

I hope King of Shaves never behaves like this to the customers who keep our business going, our staff in work and able to enjoy holidays and our suppliers busy.  It certainly won't on my watch.  Not now.  Not ever.

With the news about RyanAir making £500m in 'extra's' - well - won't be long before they're a full service airline in all but descriptor, having introduced the very 'stealth' taxes that they took out in the first instance.  The guy who runs it - Michael O'Leary - well - he's a heavy multi-millionaire now, and you know what, I shouldn't think he cares one jot.

And you know what I thought, as I got off the plane having given the steward who tried to get my seat upright

Look out for the guy who sets out to make flying not just affordable, but fun again.

And take on Ryanair, easyJet at their own game.

Sam Branson?  Or even my son, Cameron King.  Halcyon Air.  He wants to be a 'Founder & CEO'.

Just like his Dad ;-)