Dr. Jouko Huju

To begin with it is important to understand that above all a board membership means responsibility, not power. The board is the guardian of the organisation’s mission and it needs to make sure that the organisation lives up to its mission and appraises its performance.  The board members should internalize the feeling of responsibility rather than that of power.

Motivation of people still happens through Pavlovian carrot-and stick incentives.  2500 years ago, the city of Athens gave its citizens a direct voice and an active role in civic governance.  The city rose to an unprecedented political and economic power. The system succeeded in bringing individual initiative and common cause into harmony.  Some may claim that the Athenian model does not provide a simple set of prescriptions for modern managers.  It does, however, offer a window into how sizeable groups of people can successfully govern themselves with dignity and trust and without resorting into a stifling bureaucracy. Being able to contribute to the success of an organisation/company or a whole industry is seen as the most important reason for a board memberships.

The ethics of work motivation theory are important because motivational efforts can exert control over individual moral autonomy. Among other things, motivation usually involves the manipulation of values that motivate individuals to work for organizational ends.  In other words, factors that individual workers regard as valuable need to be channelled or redirected to augment organizational productivity.  The phenomenon behind high level of motivation is the sense of responsibility.

The ethical issue regarding the motivation for work concerns the moral status of the worker (board member). Is he or she an instrument for organizational ends and/or an end in himself or herself? On the former view, the worker’s values are important to management only insofar as they can be channelled in productive ways. For example, an individual who is driven by material wealth can be motivated to produce more of what the organization wants him or her to produce with pay-for-performance incentives, whereas another individual to whom recognition is important may be enticed when he or she is offered an impressive title and opportunities for greater managerial responsibility. On this view, the worker’s values are not important because they are individually valuable; they are important because they are organizationally valuable.

The concept of motivation is invariably linked with the notion of reinforcement or reward. It has been noted in the literature that rewards can come from sources external to the organisation as well as from within. The value and impact of variables like autonomy, satisfaction, the feeling of being in control, and making meaningful contributions, can all come from within, and may serve as powerful reinforcement or rewards for an individual, making him or her sustain the motivated level of work performance. Recognition is considered a reward which comes with successful contribution and active participation to the work.

Motivation can also come from the fact that board members receive an opportunity to serve an organization they believe in, a chance to learn new skills, an opportunity to be with people that share the same values, and the opportunity to forge strong personal and professional connections. In return, they offer the organisation their time, skills, knowledge, and commitment. Burnout and lack of direction, however, can lead to a lack of productivity, a misalignment of board actions and board member values, and general dissatisfaction on the board. For the health of the organisation, it is critical to create an environment that fosters and maintains a high level of board member motivation and accountability.

There are several strategies that can be used to maintain and even increase commitment and performance and thus increase motivation:

• When building a board, align the interests and expectations of board members with the organization. Understand their interest and motivation in serving, and be sure that they understand the challenges and requirements of board service.
• Show appreciation often, in both formal and informal ways. Recognition of board members encourages commitment and high-performance.
• Involve board members in areas where they feel they can use their skills and knowledge and add real value. Make training opportunities available to increase their skills and knowledge.
• Institute an annual board self-evaluation program that allows members to step back and reflect on their own performance as well as that of the group. This can provide feedback on performance and help develop corrective actions.
• Develop individual accountability contracts. Use these contracts to determine strategies for holding board members accountable for attendance, contribution of expertise, willingness to make constructive comments during meetings, etc.

Just a few though to start a thinking process.

Dr Jouko Huju, GMBA Finland
Tel: +358 40 5509310
Email: jouko.huju@gmba.blue

Disclaimer: Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors. In all articles the opinions expressed are those of the author and does not necessarily reflect those of GMBA

“He who makes a trip has a story to tell” is a quote from the German poet Matthias Claudius (1740 – 1815). In today’s business world we call them trade missions, study tours or maybe fact finding trips.

The competition in the boating industry (or any industry for that matter) between various brands, products or services is fierce. The consumers can easily inform themselves over the whole offer of the industry in a matter of hours.  The competition though, that our industry should fear more, are other hobbies and activities. Be it caravans, motor homes, motorcycles, golf or travel, to mention a few.  The need for home renovation or a new car can delay a boat purchase.  We need to present the lifestyle too.

Although the marine industry competes against each other we should also be able to develop some sections together.  The better, more innovative and practical our products are, the better the services and maintenance and the easier the whole chain of a consumer’s boating experience is, the better chances we all have to succeed in increasing the number of boat enthusiasts.

Intercultural, open exchange of ideas and methods can be very productive. Should we close our doors to competition or should we let them in, see and hear what they think?   I think we should be more open. That is what the Finns have been doing for a very long time.

Since the 1970’s the Finnish industry has been travelling the world.  Well, even earlier because the first Finnish joint stand was at the Paris Boat Show in 1946.   We have been to all continents, numerous countries and visited together over 250 boat factories, marinas, equipment producers and associations.  We have been given the chance to learn about production technology, marketing, dealer networks and advocacy to name a few.  This all has been a very eye-opening experience.  Sometimes we learn and can apply new things, sometimes we find out that we do things better ourselves.  But all in all, it raises the bar and helps companies understand what the consumers around the world wish to have and where we stand ourselves.

In January 2022, during the worst pandemic of modern times, 16 people from the Finnish marine industry visited eight producers in Florida.   We had agreed on safety precautions and proceedings.  Full vaccinations, negative tests, full time mask wearing were the requirements.  And by the way, no one contracted the virus.

The demand for production boats at this very moment may be the highest through history.  We have to be able to ensure that the production is flawless and ensure that we are in control of the supply chain, which we are unfortunately not able to do at the moment. The companies know what is needed but there are things beyond their control.

The companies that we saw produce thousands of boats. The biggest number we heard for one company was 15.000 boats!!!  Their turnover was bigger than that of the whole Finnish marine business.  Economics of scale are interesting (and sometimes even frightening) to see.

But we saw a lot, we made notes, discussed and the delegation members returned home rich with ideas. Was the trip worth the time spent (a week)?  Absolutely. The next trip is already in the planning.

I am encouraging all to travel even more. Send your people to boat shows and events.  Even people that normally do not travel. It can be very productive.

Dr Jouko Huju DBA, GMBA-Finland
+358 40 5509310
jouko.huju@gmba.blue

Disclaimer: Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors. In all articles the opinions expressed are those of the author and does not necessarily reflect those of GMBA

The proper use of information made available by media and various organizations depends on the ability to understand the information needs, where to find and retrieve it and the proper evaluation of the quality of the accessed information.

Media and other information providers play a central role in knowledge gathering processes of the companies also in the marine and boating industries. They are a way of communicating information, although the role is somewhat broader than just that. The media, especially trade media, are defined, in most cases anyway, as sources of credible and current information created by journalistic and accountable values. On the other hand, the extremely wide and diverse selection of information and content, especially on the Internet, varies greatly in accuracy, reliability, and thus in value too.

In my view it is of utmost importance though, that you will not take the retrieved data at face value. All data is subject to misinterpretations. To begin with you need to ask yourself, why the data was required in the first place?

Let’s talk about why data is important for the boating industry too.

1. Data=knowledge

Correctly retrieved and interpreted data provides usually indisputable facts. Data will help you justify your arguments.

2. Results

You will need the data to follow and carry out your company’s strategy.

3. Solutions

Possessing the correct data will enable you to more easily assess the cause of problems.

4. Internal advocacy

Illustrating arguments through the use of data will allow you to demonstrate why changes are needed

5. Efficiency

Effective data collection and analysis will allow you to direct resources.

6. Know where you are

Good data allows you to establish benchmarks and goals because it allows you to measure.

To sum up for what purposes the data is needed:

• Finding new customers
• Increasing customer retention
• Improving customer service
• Better management of marketing efforts
• Tracking social media interaction
• Predicting salestrends

GMBA Australia’s MaryAnne Edwards says: “The boating industry is bombarded with information from a huge number of sources. There are many on-line newsletters that simply regurgitate press releases and in some very little journalistic work to verify facts is undertaken.  However, these newsletters do provide information as a basis for further research if it triggers an interest for a particular business. There are also industry surveys produced by various sources that are often skewed as businesses do not want or do not have time to be completing questionnaires, providing financial or sales data for these surveys.  I would always caution companies to take the information they read and then take steps to verify it if they are using it for business decision making.”

Countries often have in market reports on their government websites and generally these are not too bad as governments often have access to data media do not.

The big question is how people in the industry filter all this information and decide what is valuable and based on actual facts.  Also, do businesses have a good understanding of what information they even need to drive their business successfully.

So, in my view, when you read the news, think where it came from, who wrote it, could the writer really have had access to the data and has he/she interpreted it correctly.

I would say that in general the trade press in the boating industry is very reliable and the writers make sure to double-check the information. They then form, with their archives, an important and wide based source of information for strategic planning of the marine industry.

I would still urge everyone to have an open mind and not take anything for granted.

Dr Jouko Huju DBA, GMBA-Finland
+358 40 5509310
jouko.huju@gmba.blue

Disclaimer: Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors. In all articles the opinions expressed are those of the author and does not necessarily reflect those of GMBA

Who is responsible for being vocal about improving boating related services?

The economic impact of boating is huge.  Cities, communities and governments earn in form of taxes and other income.  In my view the question is, if those who earn are investing back to improve boating related services.  The Island Council, appointed by the Finnish Government, commissioned a study (2021) to find out what the real impacts in the economy and employment are.  It is good to remember that Finland has the highest per capita boat density in the world with over a million boats (5,5 mill inhabitants) and a season on max 5 months.  The question is if the industry and boaters are vocal enough to demand better services in return?

The overall findings show that the growing popularity of boating creates a total income of over 400 mill. € in terms of direct spending of boaters. This income employs directly over 2500 people and indirectly another 3800 people. In this country those are big numbers. The biggest shares of spending go to fuel, restaurant services, service/maintenance purchases and groceries.  The boaters from their side wish better waste collection and recycling points, places to empty septic tanks, places to get drinking water and fuel stations.  Fuel is a big problem in Finland’s vast archipelago.  The season is short and all kinds of safety regulations are becoming more stringent. The study shows that boaters want to be responsible and they wish to ensure that boating is environmentally sustainable from all angles.  The newest generation of boaters are busy people and they want to spend their time on water just boating.  They wish to be able to buy most services and not spend time maintaining the boat or worrying about winter storage or engine service.

Boat sales are soaring in most boating countries around the world.  Some say even with production boats the whole production of 2022 is booked. Companies report double turnovers and huge demand. The production at the moment is concentrating on its own problems of delivering what has been sold.  This is only natural. Who is then responsible for making noise about boating related services out on the water?  You might say that it is the boaters themselves.  And the related organizations.  In many countries though, you would need a joint voice of the boaters, the industry and the respective organizations. I also believe this topic should be covered by the media more than it is now.

The pandemic has been a major reason for the increased sales. In many cases the new boaters may expect that boating related services are just as good as e.g. with cars. There may be some disappointments. I am sure there are many working groups and committees dealing with these matters as we speak. The road maybe slow but for a sustainable growth in the number of boaters, one septic tank emptying place, one more recycling station or waste deposit place already make a huge difference. In the North European waters finding fuel stations starts to determine your routes.  To improve any of these a co-operation between private entrepreneurs and regional/national authorities is needed.  In my country a lot of good people already work on these issues.

The question is if the improvements can be done quickly enough to ensure that we can keep all those new boaters we now have.

Dr Jouko Huju DBA, GMBA-Finland
+358 40 5509310
jouko.huju@gmba.blue

Disclaimer: Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors. In all articles the opinions expressed are those of the author and does not necessarily reflect those of GMBA

The average size of marine companies around the world is rather small. They have limited resources for marketing in terms of personnel and funding. In the past years, competition has taken new forms. The digital world has changed the ways of marketing in its various forms totally. The customers can easily and in a short period of time get comparing offers for the same boat or engine or accessory.  Customer relations management, especially managing customer knowledge and customer accessibility, can generate new revenue.

There is an increasing recognition of the importance of managing customer relationships. Marketing has moved from a brand-centered focus to customer-centered  and lifestyle approach. The ability to acquire, manage, and model customer information is the key to sustaining competitive advantages.

The primary motivation for a firm to implement CRM applications is to track customer behavior and to gain insight into customer tastes and evolving needs. Customer relationship management applications facilitate organizational learning about customers by enabling firms to analyze purchase behavior across transactions through different channels and customer touch points.

Firms with greater deployment of CRM applications are in a better position to leverage their stock of accumulated knowledge and experience into customer support processes. In addition, firms with a greater deployment of CRM applications are likely to be more familiar with the data management issues involved in initiating, maintaining, and terminating a customer relationship. This familiarity gives firms a competitive advantage in leveraging their collection of customer data to customize offerings and respond to customer needs.

CRM is a strategic approach that is concerned with creating improved shareholder value through the development of appropriate relationships with key customers and customer segments. CRM unites the potential of relationship marketing strategies and IT to create profitable, long-term relationships with customers and other key stakeholders.

CRM provides enhanced opportunities to use data and information to both understand customers and co-create value with them. This requires a cross-functional integration of processes, people, operations, and marketing capabilities that is enabled through information, technology, and applications. CRM is a strategic tool to create another competitive advantage.

On the other hand, one needs to understand that it is not always easy for a small company to break away from the daily, cash bringing routines for any business development activity.

CRM is a process that addresses all aspects of identifying customers, creating customer knowledge, building customer relationships, and shaping their perceptions of the organization and its products. In general, one can say that more attention should be paid to the customer and the goal should be to get to know the customer better, develop a relationship with him or her. We should not only be interested in closing a deal and that the relationship should cover more than just the moment of closing the deal.

Producing data which helps a dealer to know his customers better is a key competitive advantage. Especially in the case of the rapidly changing marine business, retaining customers by better CRM is an important competitive advantage and a key to future success.

It is important to gain an understanding which components or competencies CRM is generally composed of. The four cornerstones of CRM are:

1. Customer knowledge
2. Relationship strategy
3. Communication
4. The individual value proposition

Knowledge of the individual customer is essential in order, ultimately to develop a long-term relationship and to supply customization. The individual customer information must be used to develop a long-lasting customer-supplier relationship. In other words, a marketing or other type of strategy must be implemented which truly differs from a strategy which merely focuses on stimulation of transactions.

Communication may, on the surface, seem to be a simple task, yet every customer who recalls experiences with suppliers will quickly arrive at the conclusion that the quality of conversation remains somewhat basic. This leads to the conclusion that many companies have no experience in carrying on a dialogue of any substance. This becomes even more complicated when multichannel communication environment is involved. An organization that takes the initiative to get to know an individual customer, to develop a relationship with him or her, and to carry on a dialogue cannot avoid also offering these customers an individual proposition.

There are four process selection criteria of CRM. First a small set that addresses tasks critical to the achievement of the organization’s goals. Second, each process should contribute to a value creation process. Third, each process should be at a strategic or macro level. Fourth, the processes need to manifest clear interrelationships. These cornerstones are very often totally missing from the scope of a marine company’s marketing plan or customer data management.

Customer knowledge relies on the quality of customer data. Incomplete, inaccurate, outdated data will not help us to understand the customer. The quality of relationship data becomes apparent to the supplier from the response it receives to a marketing campaign. The customer database is of good quality if it corresponds to current reality. Further the data needs to be complete, correct and unique. The set-up and maintenance of a database with customer data requires spending and investment. It is necessary for companies to become aware of which expenses must be incurred in order to collect, register and keep data up to date. It is just too easy to register everything that we run across only to find out that ultimately just a small portion of collected data has some value.

Integrated customer knowledge eliminates the unintentional overlap that leads to redundant sales efforts or serial communications among multiple departments. In addition, integrated customer knowledge can better synchronize product development to customer requirements and simplify customer-facing processes. Handling data improperly leads to only a portion of data’s potential value being realized or to a situation where the value of the data is nullified. There is a potential danger that data investments are not incorporated as an essential part of a company’s strategy. Another big challenge for the companies is the insufficient knowledge of available data and the manner in which it can be converted into useful information. The contents of data keep changing in a rapid pace and in many cased the superfluous data are not deleted but still require continuous attention.

Optimal knowledge management means segmenting information before analysis. Failure to do so will prevent us from extrapolating knowledge on specific clusters of customers. Through segmentation we are able to classify and categorize customers based on certain features which will help us better serve the customers. For instance, segmenting customers by their income levels will lead to a richer analysis of predictive buying behavior than simply grouping all customers together.

Communication may make a contribution to the “customization” of the customer contact and relationship management. It can provide us with better customer profile that can assist us in being of better service to the customer. One practical problem is to combine data from different sources.  Traditionally the databases’ strength lies in their ability to supply behavioral data and in term of market research, their suitability is to provide data on customer as a user.  The information obtained during personal contact with the customer serves to further improve the profile. Turning the information into knowledge requires integrating customer data across the enterprise, from the billing to the shipping department, to provide panoramic views of their requirements and activities. Decision support and other business intelligence tools are used to analyze information in order to highlight emerging trends, uncover potential problems, and give customers independent insights.

The competition for customers in the marine business is very hard. It is not only just one marine dealer against another. There is a fierce competition for the consumers’ leisure investments and the marine business has to fight against mobile homes, summer houses, travel, motorcycles and many more. Developing ways and knowledge of how to target marketing communications in a more cost-effective way is now a key factor for many to stay in business. Companies/associations would need to start the planning process with a professional CRM training company. However, it is important that the process is not too long, too costly or too time consuming. Again, a small business is too tied up in the daily routines to be able to spend too much time or travel too far for any training. The stress must be on making the dealers informed about the importance of customer specific approach and the importance of analyzed, segmented customer knowledge. They must also learn how to communicate in a customer specified way and at regular intervals. The big challenge will be to get the dealers committed to another somewhat time-consuming project. A clear advantage in a more personalized training is that it will eventually lead quicker to the development of personal relationships with key customers in a dealer’s own region.

Dr Jouko Huju DBA, GMBA-Finland
+358 40 5509310
jouko.huju@gmba.blue

Disclaimer: Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors. In all articles the opinions expressed are those of the author and does not necessarily reflect those of GMBA