Ep. 24 - Marketing and Business Development Fundamentals, Iben Falconer, SOM
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Marketing In Times of Recovery. And I’m your host Ayo Abbas, a built environment marketing consultant who delivers strategy, awesome content and campaigns for leading built environment firms.
I first heard today’s guest on a podcast last year and she has been on my wishlist ever since. She is Iben Falconer from SOM and she’s based in New York.
In this fascinating interview we touch on:
how large firms handle and manage marketing and BD,
her quest to demystify business development and how she’s working on a long-term strategy to embed BD across their global firm.
how she leads their global marketing and BD team and what it’s like to start a new role during a global pandemic.
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This episode was recorded on Thurs June 03 2021
Resources
Abbas Marketing
SOM
Transcript.
Ayo Abbas: 0:05
Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of Marketing In Times of Recovery. I'm your host Ayo Abbas, a built environment marketing consultant, who delivers strategy content and campaigns for major firms. I first heard today's guest on a podcast last year and she has been on my wish list since then. She is Iben Falconer from SOM and she's based in New York. This is a fascinating interview as we unpack how large firms handle and manage marketing and BD. Iben's quest to demystify business development, how she's working on a long term strategy to embed it across her firm. We also touched on how she leads her marketing team, and what it's like to start a new role during a global pandemic. If you like the show, and you're listening on Apple, Spotify, make sure you hit subscribe button, and also give us a five star rating if you can, because it really does help more people to find out about us. Anyway, this episode was recorded on Thursday June 1 2021. And now I'll stop talking so you can settle down and enjoy the show.
Iben Falconer: 1:11
My name is Iben Falconer. I'm the Global Leader of Marketing and Business Development at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. So, I have been in this role since August of last year (2020). And I lead a 35 person global team, primarily located in our larger marketing and business development team in our larger offices. But we work globally, it's great. It's a great group.
Ayo Abbas: 1:38
And in terms of the marketing and BD team, what kind of things do you cover?
Iben Falconer: 1:43
It's a good question. So, I would say our team is primarily focused on working on things like proposals and qualifications, packages and marketing collateral to support meetings with with potential clients, that sort of thing. But we're also getting more and more involved with creating and implementing our business plans and getting more involved with supporting and partaking in, I would say broader business development activities.
Ayo Abbas: 2:14
Fantastic. And in terms of your roles, you started in August 2020, which is obviously a global pandemic. How was that?
Iben Falconer: 2:23
I mean, I it's funny, I was talking with a friend yesterday, who also started she's in a new role in a marketing role. And she started two months ago, and we were kind of trading war stories is maybe too dramatic. But trading notes on on how it went. And I said, you know, both of us had the, we're lucky enough to start a way into the pandemic, where everyone had gotten used to Zoom where some of the all the complexities of working from home, not that they're gone away, but we're at least all we're used to them, and we kind of settled into our new routines. So, I joked that I would rather actually have started mid pandemic, rather than two months before. So you know, imagine get starting two months before and you think, you know, what everything's going to look like and then all of a sudden, everyone's working from
Ayo Abbas: 3:12
home. Yeah, yeah.
Iben Falconer: 3:14
So, in a way that has, you know, there's always a way that it could be harder. And so I think, I think that you know, it was it was actually it was it was okay, I it shifted how I thought about engaging with my colleagues and my team because I knew I had to be much more deliberate about getting to know people and getting to know people virtually. So,I that was very clear. In my first two months, I really prioritised that having meetings getting to know the the leadership broadly across the firm, where we didn't necessarily have an agenda. It was really just a get to know you session and frankly, I'm, I'm still doing those, there's still there's still we're a 1200 person firm, there's still lots of people for me to get to know.
Ayo Abbas: 4:01
And how do you get to know someone.
Iben Falconer: 4:03
Well, you know, it's funny, I, maybe because we've just all gotten used to everything being over Zoom. I don't think it's actually hard to build rapport. As long as you are intentional about taking that time and saying Okay, I know we might have an agenda for this meeting, but let's take 15 minutes or it doesn't have to be so formal about it. But let's just also have some time in the beginning where we're just talking and then the other thing about of course, people working from home is that you can their lives encroached upon. Yeah, like I don't like what I'm telling you. Find you kind of thing and, and you know, my kid would pop up, you know, anyone who was at 9am call with me, my daughter goes to daycare, but usually around 9am so usually there's like a little head that pops up at some point here and likes to say hi to my colleagues. Yeah, she's she's three, but she knows the word colleagues because I talk about my colleagues. A lot. Good word. It's a big word for a little, little person, but I use it a lot. I talk about them a lot. Um, yeah, I think I think I don't know, it's the same way. I've always thought about business development here. This is going to segue quite gracefully. Similar thing about business development, which is nice that you're not just having a conversation with a potential client. Because you want them to hire you. Like, yes, that's a goal. But the real goal is to connect with them as people and so on any call I'm having with my colleagues. I want to get to know them as people, I want to understand how, you know, what matters to them, what's challenging for them, how they worked with my team in the past, how that's gone, what we could do better, you know, what's, what's standing in their way, and then have like, really interesting conversations about that. But really, I want to know, what they're like and if we were in an office, I would have that sort of stuff usually happens over, you know, a cup of coffee in the kitchen, and you kind of chat about, yeah, what you did over the over the weekend, and I just, I tried to still do that on these calls. And that means sometimes they take a little bit longer. That's fine, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah. And you asked
Ayo Abbas: 6:18
something about watercooler that moment, yeah. You asked
Iben Falconer: 6:21
How does that affect you getting to know like working globally. I mean, one thing that I've observed which is quite interesting is under normal circumstances, I would be visiting all of our offices every every year. And obviously I didn't do that I've been to none of our offices not even our New York office. And what it has meant though, is that I've actually gotten to know the global team equally well. I think if we had been in person I would have gotten to know our New York marketing business development team very well very quickly. And it might have I might have held back on or we all might have held back a bit on making those relationships with my team in Chicago or my team in London. Because of we'd have been oh well let's wait until Let's wait until I visit and then we can have coffee and get to know you all that stuff. But because I've been doing this with everyone, I have made a point and it's been really enjoyable to to get to know you know everyone at this kind of in the same level. But what I'm very aware of is that I don't get to know so I have a group of really smart managers who report to me. And they have for most part they have their own teams. I haven't gotten to know those teams as well as I would have liked but I've been trying to make a point of having we've been calling them coffees but it's just a Zoom meeting. Because everything's a Zoom meeting but just kind of a chance just to have fun. Yeah, and talk with them and get to know you conversations with that group as I have with as I've gotten to have with the with the managers
Ayo Abbas: 8:09
But I guess having such a kind of open agenda must be quite refreshing for people isn't it because you're used to meetings being quite I guess linear? That's kind of how you run them right but having a wider discussions and then just going wherever that discussion goes must be quite freeing in a way right?
Iben Falconer: 8:25
Yeah, and of course I also have meetings where it's like well yeah, we have you know, things we need to decide. But I also I tried to intersperse that with meetings where it's just kind of like 'Tell me what's happening'. I had a call the other day with our director who runs our interiors practice and just kind of checking in like what's working what's not, how can I be of help? How can my team be of help? And it was just very open ended. And to have those over time and to be able to come back to it like Oh, I remember you told me that that this issue we're still working on that I haven't totally figured it out but we're chipping away at it in these three ways is nice. It's a big it's a shift for me because I come from being very client facing, very much leading the business development efforts for a certain market. And, so I would always my deadlines I would be very aware of our proposal deadlines. You know when we're meeting with that particular client and and now my winning you. Yep. Yeah and now my my projects are like one year and five year projects and so there's a different template which is a change. It's a welcome change, but I also sometimes I do miss the you know, there is deep satisfaction of putting together a strong proposal and sending it out the door and being like, cross that off the list. I did it. Now I can go home. Yeah, so I do.
Ayo Abbas: 10:06
I was gonna say, but is that hard? Is it harder to motivate yourself in this way? Because you haven't got those pressing deadlines? Or do you make fake deadlines? You know what I mean that kind of give yourself that kind of.
Iben Falconer: 10:18
I guess I don't know so much big deadlines, I have to divide my big projects have sub-smaller projects, and I need to be pushing forward and say like, Okay, this is the thing that I need to do. This is what I need to do this week to move that project forward. So it's Yeah, it's, it's a different kind of, yeah, a different kind of time management. But still, it's about tasks and tactics towards larger strategies. Yeah, and to not look back on my weak. Yeah, smaller milestones. I look back on the weekend sale? Did I did I move things forward the way I wanted to? And some weeks Yes, definitely. Other weeks? Oh, no, I got stuck on something.
Ayo Abbas: 11:07
The way it kind of works, how do you lead a team globally from you're in New York and you've never met? And are there any specific things that you do to kind of build that rapport? Or is it mainly having one to ones with people and things like that, or
Iben Falconer: 11:19
It's the combination of one on ones, you know, connect is people, just as I would do with any with anyone else, but also, I have found, especially in my first month. I'm reliant on the team that I manage every day, that for them to do the work that they know how to do. And to bring their talents to their, to their role, I was very reliant on them in a particular way, when I started, which was to help me understand the organisation. And to help me to understand how decisions are made and and, you know, who, who does what, and who works on what project and that sort of thing. And they were, you know, I was coming from often with questions, like, explain this to me, how does this work and, and also, it wasn't identical in every office. So, it was, you know, really kind of helping, they were a little bit of translating the office for me. And so that was, I think, was very intensely the way it was in the beginning on now, after I've been here for a few months. I am also really reliant on them still for that, but also because we are starting to make some changes in our organisation, how we structure ourselves, how we do work, what's the makeup of our team? We're starting to make some changes there. And I yeah, it's really important to me that they have buy-in into those changes, and they don't feel like those changes have simply been laid out. Oh, you know, from on high. Yeah, no, and I know this is the biggest organisation I've ever worked for. But I know I had friends who've worked in offices of larger firms and and sometimes I heard I remember this a friend, I won't say she works for, at the time, she was working for an engineering firm. And I won't say who it is or what firm, but she was in the US office of a non US engineering firm. And she said, you know, we're getting these kind of decisions, these kind of new materials that are being made. Yeah, that are coming from the the main office, and they don't really make sense for our market, but we're being told that we need to use them, and it really stuck out in my head like that. That was a very bewildering experience. So, it demotivated her. And she's a very bright person, and good at her job. And so it's been really important to me that yes, we are in our team. Yes, I am the leader of this team. But good ideas can come from anywhere, and good ideas that are actually effective need to have buy in from the team. So I look at our managers and say, this is what I'm seeing. This is a problem. And I think and here's my hunch on how we could fix it but tell me what you think poke holes in my theory, challenge it or add to it, improve upon it. And tell me because I really, if we're going to do this, if we're going to make this change I wanted it had all of you and it needs to work for you. And it needs to then be supported by you. So that is also something that I've been really intentional about. And even when we were setting the priorities for our team, I said, this is what I'm this is what I'm seeing. Here are the top 10 or 10 things that we could work on. Will you help me prioritise it based on what you feel you're seeing? Yeah. And I enjoyed it. And frankly, I think they do I you know, I think but I also think we're getting we're getting better strategies from that, because it's been tested, at least mentally tested by some of the people who were closer to their markets first.
Ayo Abbas: 14:59
Well I think that's the thing, isn't it? When you look at things as a global strategy, it's like, how can ever thing be global, when you're looking at the built environment, we all work to different RIBA stages. You know different building standards build different, you know, and it's, you're dealing with so many different climates, you're dealing with so many different material , you know, there's all these differences, and it's kind of like, you want a global strategy but there also has to be, I gu ss, local sensitivities in there Yes, definitely. And those guys are definitely gonna be the b st people that can sort of turn round and go, actually, that doesn't really translate well here . And this is what's going on So yeah, and
Iben Falconer: 15:31
And we have listen to that, right? We can't just be kind of so certain that one way works, I think, particularly I'll give you just like a very small example. But I think it's revealing how to make sure that our marketing collateral exists not only an eight and a half by 11, but also in A4 Oh, my goodness. Letter. Yeah, Letter or A4 and it's something that it's so little, but it means a lot to our teams, and our team in London, our team in Hong Kong. We can't just have materials that look good in one shape, and then just like, oh, let's just squeeze it and make it a little skinnier. And then it's, it'll be the same or even with, with spelling, right, I mean, this, you know, I was very aware of this when I when I worked at BIG because I was in the US office. And and so you know, Copenhagen was the headquarters and, and when we first opened the office in New York, my colleague, who oversaw who was involved with our business development in Europe, outside of the Nordics, who was British, he had done he was, you know, of course, everyone in Denmark speaks English very well. But he had written a lot of the text and checked it. And there was a lot of there's not so much Britishisms. But there was British spelling. And yeah, there's a lot of extraneous use. Or neighbourhood.
Ayo Abbas: 16:57
You guys use Zs or zees as you call them. Right. Right.
Iben Falconer: 17:04
Yeah. So and, and I, you know, it was really important to us landing in the US that we be seen, you know, we aren't trying to fool anyone telling us that I think that we're all Americans, but we don't want to, there's moments for being foreign is to your advantage. And there's moments of being foreign, it's not to your advantage. And so being very intentional about that. So we've actually, we've been having the same conversations. It's the reverse here, because we're an American firm. And, and they're so colleagues in London, you know, yes, we need things in A4. And yes, we should probably be using British English for our materials.
Ayo Abbas: 17:38
Difficult, though, isn't it. But also, I mean, I worked for an edtech company for a year, and we had offices in the US as well. And one of the things that came across was like, they were like, we produce a brochure, they go, actually, we don't just need one side, we only like things really short in the US, which is, which was completely different, which I hadn't heard of. This is a length and the size difference, and it's like, oh, okay, that's another thing. Like, yeah, we keep it short.
Iben Falconer: 18:04
These Americans have very short attention spans. No, I think there's also Yeah, there's how you talk about projects that, you know, wanting to also seems really important that our, our projects in, you know, I'll just keep using the UK that those that we can talk about them in a way that makes sense for a British audience, that they that there's I mean, I wouldn't say there's like vast cultural differences between the US and the UK. But there's enough that if we if we don't just remind ourselves that we have to think about it, you can, you can miss stuff. And you can come across seeming like you don't like, oh, if they don't understand this difference in language, maybe they're not gonna understand this difference in culture, this difference in how and how we work. And I mean, I will say that one thing that's incredible work another global firm, yes, we're based in the US, but we are our my colleagues are wildly global, you know, people are people are from all sorts of places, all languages,. It's so kind of anywhere we'd work, we have someone who probably knows something about the area, because that's where they're from. So that, you know, it's not like a total translation process. It's just, important to us that on the on the marketing business development side that we are being respectful of that and mindful of that.
Ayo Abbas: 19:27
Yeah, I think I'd say it's just a fine balance, isn't it of just being aware, really. I guess one of the reasons that you were brought into your current role was to strengthen the whole role of BD. Can you explain what you're doing in this area, or who your long term vision is, or their long term vision is for the firm and the business development area and where you're looking to take things for how?
Iben Falconer: 19:48
Yeah, happy to, so my goal for our goal for business development marketing at SOM is we want to be as excellent as business development and marketing as we are at architecture and planning and engineering, we know it SOM is a firm that has incredible pride of, of thought and of craftsmanship and incredibly and the legacy of the work that we that we do our buildings and our projects stand the test of time. Yeah. And that's because there's just extremely talented, thoughtful, long thinking people who work here who work on those projects. And it is our goal, that we are just as thoughtful and strategic and careful and curious, as we're as excellent at business development and marketing as we are at design. And that that has actually been something that's it is, in a way easy to rally around, because people at SOM are very proud of the work that they do. So, that I think has resonated with a lot of people. I would say, just going back to your question, and what are what are we working on? A lot of what I found in my career, and this isn't this isn't specific to SOM, but just working with architects and planners and designers in general, is that there's a lot of mystery around business development. There's a lot of, you know, people, it's like someone has a magic wand and they wave it and projects appear. And I think that that is deeply harmful to a profession. That is a professional services, right that we we only work if someone has engaged us to work. Of course, they're speculative projects. Of course, there's research, yes, but for the most part, the bulk of our work is done with clients. So if I think that as a profession, there, there isn't enough conversations about what business development is, and like high level and what it is, like low level, what are the small day to day? Yeah. And so I define that, for me, business development is everything that we do to get work. And so that is an incredibly broad definition. That's everything from Yes, it's proposals and RFQ or PQQs, yes, it's marketing collateral. But it's also relationships. Really, it's relationships, and strategy and storytelling is how I've really defined it. So it's about the relationships that we that we have with people and the ones that we want to have. It's about the strategy, how are we going to get there? What are we going to? What are the steps to get in front of it? And then it's about storytelling? How do we engage people in, in the work that we do through how we talk about how we take them through it? So yeah, okay, so we're now Where do I take it from there? I think it's really important to demystify that, and to have conversations about where work comes from. And I think sometimes one thing that gets is misunderstood about what we do, as a business development marketing people is that, you know, they say, you know, say, oh, we'll hire someone, and then they'll tell us the strategy. And I think a really, really good business development person isn't good, because they have all the answers. It's, they're good, because they know how to ask really good questions, and they know how to stay, to take the answers to those questions, and to build out a roadmap of, like, action of implementation.
Ayo Abbas: 23:43
I think the thing is, you also equip your equipping them as well, with with those skills, aren't you? Because in some ways, you want to harness the whole firm, right? So that as warriors going out to actually do BD, right,
Iben Falconer: 23:54
Yeah. Architecture. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean architecture is is prim rily, you know, in the doer sell r model. There are other firm that there are some firms that have that have different models, but I think, you know, the dominant one is doer seller. I say that, I think it is a
Ayo Abbas: 24:10
I think when I worked in-house a lot where people good model, as long as we are ery clear about its strengths and its weaknesses. And he strengths are that the people who are selling, they know the work, they can speak very specifically to the what it take to get a building built or, r to get a masterplan created and adopted. But its weak esses are, there are two primary weaknesses. And that to me is bandwidth. And, like time, and he competency and comfort and confidence in the seller aspect of it. And so if you don' address those two, then then the model doesn't work. So that s also what we're having conversations about here is what can e do to be very open and hones about bandwidth? And how much t me should people be spending on it and doing what? And then the competence competency and and confidence in how how do you make sure that people feel prepped and ready to go and that do isn't just mean that they have like a marketing brochure in had. I think that's the other challenge is that people don't fee ready until someone has giv n them a deck and then like ok y now I'm just gonna go out I h ve this deck I can now I'm ready but that's that's half th battle right? Yeah, I mean, hat's not necessary but not sufficent. would go I really need a brochure before I have a brochure I can't really do BD or I can't really have that conversation and you like you could just pick up the phone. But it is isn't it and I think it's a bit of a crutch in a way that people are kind of like oh I need this before I can do this. And it's like actually you could just have a conversation on what you've just read or you could just share an article that you've seen or there's lots of kind of different things you could be doing which could be classed as BD but I think that traditional I've got something in my hand that can go out now to somebody which is Yeah, I think it's that emotional thing as well.
Iben Falconer: 26:20
Yeah, I do think it becomes it can become a crutch. And also I you know I think about you know when I'm having conversations with my colleagues about this it's not fair because they are they are deeply expert in what they do for a living. So, it's very important to me to never be seen as dismissive of their concerns or like I don't care I'll just buck up and just go do it just call someone. But to really understand like psychologically like what is what is holding you back and let's let's talk about that. Yeah, so it's a little bit like being a I guess a coach or like a peer. That's an important role that I want to play for my colleagues at SOM just as I would say, if I ever had a question about how you design a building. I want to be able to go to them and have them explain to me Oh, you know, this is if there's a certain building type that I want to understand I want to be able to have that conversation where they explain it to me. And similarly, I want them to come to me where if there's anything that they have concerns or questions about. To equip people not only with you know, good thoughtful marketing collateral, but also the recognition that as human beings they already have a lot of the qualities that it would take to be effective at business development. Especially as designers I mean, this is the thing that always blows my mind is that design Okay, some there are some egomaniac designers out there who would who would happily design without ever talking to the client. But the really really good architects let's just say we're just like an architect they they ask good questions right when you when you come in and you're trying to understand the brief and you want understand what the clients goals are like you're asking them questions you're tell me what's important to you tell me what's not working right now. And this is very curious mentality and so I we talk a lot about how do you bring that curious open mentality to business development. So, if you're meeting with a potential client for the first time, it's not just about you yammering on about the projects that you've done. It's also about mostly about you building a relationship with the client understanding what matters to them and then pulling you know, pulling some examples out based on the things that they've said are important to them. Rather than coming in with some like prescriptive slide deck or lecture at them like I already made this so I'm going to talk about it no matter what you say is important to you, I'm just going to show you this. And that also, that's where it can really become a crutch. And again, so I guess the tapping into that latent natural curiosity that I think good architects, planners and engineers have and say like, let's bring that to business development.
Ayo Abbas: 29:18
That's so true. And I did an event last week for BuildUp! which is like an architecture marketing group I'm in, and we had some architects talking and there was talking small practices and they were talking about where they work comes from. And they were like, you know, when we look back over the past year for our first year, a lot of it is all linked to cycling. So, we've people we've met on like, you know, charity cycle rides, we go to cycling events and like they were literally like, all our work is linked to cycling. But working doing something they're passionate about. Yeah, and then they're building relationships. So you know, I think that kind of thing is where people think it's something else but it's not it's this is how it works.
Iben Falconer: 29:54
Yeah, it was showing again, like showing up as a whole person and then natural and then relationships will naturally be formed. And then if there and then finding a way, I guess maybe that's the thing is finding that way is how do you parlay that into into work? And it can be tricky, right? Not everyone's extracurricular passions will clearly line up with with business development opportunities. And that's okay, too. Sometimes it's just good to have an extracurricular interest. But how nice when and how nice when it does, and how insightful that they were able to see that about everything else. Yeah, that's cool.
Ayo Abbas: 30:30
Yeah. I mean, they were a small practice, but they set up their own CRM. So they they tracked everything. So you know, he I was like, I'm so impressed. Because it was like, yeah, honestly, I was like, Whoa, I need to get back on doing that. So how do you get people fired up to want to do marketing and BD?
Iben Falconer: 30:54
Well, I guess there's, there's both like the carrot and the stick model, right? Like, there's, you know, right, the stick is that we have goals, and we need to meet them globally. So like, we've just got to do it. And that probably works for a certain percentage of our of our group. I guess the others I, some people, it's not terribly hard to get them. Well, let's see, when we think this through, how do you get people fired up? I guess I guess I just go back to what I was saying before is that, I think by demystifying it a bit by showing them that it's not some foreign thing, it's not some like, performance, they have to do. t I don't know if it gets them fired up but I think it's more about relieving anxiety. How do we relieve anxiety about business development, we show them that it's not a it's not a form of performance that they have to do. I also think really making things bite sized, and focused. Who are we trying to have a meet with? What do we want to happen in this meeting? How did the meeting go? What is our follow up? What is our next step, the kind of really breaking things down? And yeah, that helps, again, because that's, going back to the challenge of the doer seller model is that most of the people that I'm working with, well all of whom I'm working with are very busy. But their head is in their project and their projects as it should be. That's what makes them really good at their job is that they're very, you know, they are 80 to 90% of their time they're spent working on our specific projects. So the other challenges. Yeah, when they, when they raise their heads up, and they have some time, whether it's five minutes, or half an hour or half a day, how do we make sure that that they know what to do with that time. What's the thing they can do in five minutes? What's they can do in half an hour? What's the thing they can do in half a day? And that is what I'm also shifting for our team is I want our team to be kind of at the ready, I want our team to be creating beautiful, convincing, enticing marketing collateral, yes. But I also want them to be keeping us thinking about those medium and long term goals. And so that when someone's like, I have some bandwidth. They go okay, remember that you had test, that was the thing you were going to call, you're going to call this person, you are going to set up a coffee with this person. And and they're going to be ready with when when people have the time that we're ready with an action, something they can do.
Ayo Abbas: 33:42
But I love it. I love the way that you said that actually, when you said like the five minutes, if they've got half a day and actually turning the task into that because then you suddenly go, actually I've got a two hour wind w here, right? Okay, this is w at I can achieve for you. And hat's really, lovely because you've given them a shopping menu, aren't you? Righ ? Well, it does work.
Iben Falconer: 34:01
And so I'm chuckling because I gave a presentation in the spring where I said that too often we think about business development and like the activities is there's kind of two they're too rarified. So, I gave the analogy of you know, going to a fine dining experience where you don't even you're not even ordering ff the menu, you're being tol what you're going to have. And I said something like I don't hat can't be the way that we d business development can't just have five things that people can do. And so I said, I recognise I'm speaking to a glo al audience, but anyone who has spent maybe a little time in theUS and can pretend that they’re not a food snob perhaps they’ve been to this restaurant called the Cheesecake Factory, which has a menu which is abo t like an encyclopedia, and it's and you can get every kin
Ayo Abbas: 34:48
It's amazing though, I've been to the one in Vegas of food it's like you want to Jamaican jerk chicken. There it is. You want like Thai food. There it is. Italian food like it's it isn't. It is an absurd m nu.
Iben Falconer: 35:02
Exactly what you need when you go to Vegas and and so I sit down I was like this is we need to have this expanded menu of business development activities so that when you have time we have something that you could do. And that all helps us move this kind of towards this larger goal of x, you know, it's. So that's something that I think is a new, a new way of thinking about it.
Ayo Abbas: 35:27
And you can have prizes where you give people like vouchers for the Cheesecake Factory?!
Iben Falconer: 35:34
with everybody like, I don't understand what she means like, yeah, whoever reaches thier sales targets gets to have dinner with me at the Cheesecake Factory!!!. I did however learn that when I gave this presentation that that one of my colleagues who works a lot in the Middle East told me that there is actually a Cheesecake Factory I think I don't know if you said it was in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but somewhere she was like, there is one. You're welcome, like Americans greatest export products.
Ayo Abbas: 36:05
Anyhow, I mean, American portions are huge, though. That's the only thing. So on to my final question. So what one tip would you give to business leaders looking to make their mark in this crazy year of 2021?
Iben Falconer: 36:26
Yes. And that was the one where Oh, I know, my thoughts. I was thinking about this the other day when I was reading this question. I think my recommendation would be use this kind of craziness, this kind of insanity as a point of resetting, and of not panicking, but of saying what have we learned from this year that what do we need to be doing forever now going forward? I have a lot of conversations we're having a couple conversations with partners here SOM where they've asked, well, is this you know, would we have a different strategy in a crisis year than we would in a non crisis here? And I said, No, like a lot of what I'm talking about here are business development fundamentals like these, these are good habits and good practices that would serve us in good times and in bad. So I think using this year as a time to say, Whoa, there was so much uncertainty, so much unsteadiness, so much trauma. But how do we use it as a place to kind of reset and say this is these are good habits going forward? So I mean, I've heard people say, like, never never waste a good crisis. I mean, that's a very privileged thing to say, right? But, and then I recognise, you know, some firms have, have not weathered this, a lot of businesses haven't weathered this. So I recognise the privilege of that statement, but I think to use it as a as a reset. And a place to establish good habits would be the the, the advice that I would get
Ayo Abbas: 38:09
Fantastic, thanks so much, even that was brilliant. And thank you for your time today and for doing the interview. Thank you so much.
Iben Falconer: 38:15
My pleasure was fun to do.
Ayo Abbas: 38:23
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