Norm challengers of the world unite

Howard Fisher from LINX just posted a comment on Facebook:

“Junk mail just received advertising a presentation says “Simon’s extensive global experience, providing bespoke solutions for clients, ‘challenging the norm’ to leverage competitive advantage. This is achieved via understanding leading agile workstyles and combining them with brand enhancing concepts to create award-winning environments in which to work.” I think I’ll give it a miss.”

When you think about it I know it wasn’t put like this but Norm Challenger could be the name of a bloke. He’d obviously be American. He is either a management consultant or a duck hunter. The latter for no reason other than Duck Dynasty is one of my fave TV progs.

Woa Tref you’re moving off the subject son. No no no don’t worry. It’s just as relevant as any of the marketing blurb in Howard’s junk mail.

Presumably Simon ain’t going to pay to send out good junk like that if there isn’t a business case for doing so. If there is a business case the worrying this is that someone must be dumb enough to buy from his pitch. Norm might do it but he doesn’t sound like he is in the right job, being a duck hunter and all.

We can see from the blurb that Simon designs offices. One wonders whether he makes use of Feng shui. You’d think so wouldn’t you but it just doesn’t say in the spiel. Gone are the days of just making sure the colour scheme was right and the desks at the right height. I’m getting “chill out space”, gymnasium, kitchen with fridge full of free beer, pizza on demand, hammocks above the desks. You get the gist.

Only working in a small office with three people (with a spare desk for expansion) I just didn’t realise there was so much to office design. We could have used Simon when they designed ours. Gets bloomin hot in the summer. I had to nip out and buy a portable aircon unit last year. The original architects still have an office in the building. They are in denial I think.

All I will say, in finishing off this quickly thrown together post whilst I was in the mood is that Simon and his marketing people need to start targeting their mailshots better. Howard is a semi retired engineer. He won’t have much interest in office design and LINX have just moved so they will already have engaged the professional services of an office designer, presumably one of Simon’s competitors. Unless it was indeed Simon himself in which case he was selling to the converted. Doesn’t seem to have been the case though.

Quite a nice office design in the featured image don’t you think? Norm challengers of the world unite.

Howard btw tells me he’s deleted the email now but recalls that it included an offer of free hospitality at the top of the Shard in London. Simon is clearly an upwardly mobile kinda guy – in this case all the way to the 34th floor.

That’s all…