An insight from Nicki…

Are you one of the many people, like me, who makes lists?  It’s certainly a great way to remember stuff that would otherwise likely be forgotten. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s almost time to leave mince pies, sherry and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer, so let us take the time to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Rambutan office will be closing at 4pm on Friday 23 December 2011, reopening at 9am on Tuesday 3 January 2012.  If something urgent comes up, feel free to call the office and leave a message or send us an email.  Our details can be located in the get in touch section.  We’ll try and respond as quickly as possible, but hopefully you’ll appreciate us taking a well earned rest… it’s been quite a year!

Hope to see you in 2012 – and let it be another year of good times, busy calendars and furry fruits!

Fiona’s thoughts on building relationships with suppliers

What’s your opinion of suppliers?  I think businesses should consider them amongst their favourite people; an individual or company which aids your ambition to meet deadlines, reach creative potential and be a guiding force through your ideas until completion.  However, as the days on your advent calendar drop away, just sending out Christmas cards to any old printing firm or local designer isn’t going to make an impression.  Instead, by establishing a relationship with a supplier – a task so simply instigated by inviting them for a meeting (or something less formal if you prefer) will improve the chance of greater understanding of your business needs & what they can offer you. Deals will be done and new relationships will be made. All pretty harmless really!

Because, and to use the old adage, a supplier is not just for Christmas… a supplier will help you through every season, by updating your webpage or printing your marketing materials.  If you call on them quite randomly, chances are they will discard you (and your Christmas card) without a second thought.  But who can dismiss the offer of a homemade mince pie and lovely cup of tea in the comfort of your office? [Other snacks are available for non-mince pie fans!]

Rambutan pride themselves on working with locally based companies, who posess a wealth of talents which make us shine even brighter, and we hope they utilise us as much as we utilise them.

The latest from David:

We had an interesting session on the subject of common sense at the Growing for Gold event in York.  In the leadership workshop, we were discussing why some managers find it hard to trust and to delegate to the people who work for them. There were many reasons that the group came up with. Some of them valid and some of them not but all, we agreed, related to the belief that managers had about the people they needed to delegate to. If I was to summarise this belief in one sentence it would be, ‘I would delegate more but my team don’t have enough common sense and they might make a mistake.’  Ok, this was not said word for word but it sums up the direction of the conversation. Read the rest of this entry »

Lucy explores a question which comes up a lot around these parts

I was running a presentation past the bunch recently to get their feedback. The presentation was to be used to demonstrate why we’re quite unique in what we do. At the end, the most valuable feedback was, “It still doesn’t actually tell me what Rambutan does.” Read the rest of this entry »

Craig loves music – it’s such a large part of his life everyday…

Recently I heard a radio interview with a ‘professor of music enjoyment’ (self titled I think). He was being asked why people still bother with the inadequate and outdated sounding, time consuming format of vinyl. He listened and then responded about how listening to vinyl is a listening experience from start to finish, I listened and I was speechless. The parallels between music listening and listening to people each day is massive…

Music is to be enjoyed, un-rushed giving time and respect to the artist and the actual music. Too much of life is rushed. The joy of picking an LP placing it on the turntable, carefully placing the stylus on the album and listening to the first few crackles is romantic, passionate, engaging and draws you in as a listener. The listening experience is enhanced as you have to work to hear the results. Anyone can play an mp3 anytime, to truly listen takes time, effort and commitment.

Thanks to the professor I’ve re discovered vinyl. It makes me stop everything and do nothing except listen. As a listener to truly engage with the source of information is glorious. Music, an ocean hitting the shore, or someone talking – how often do you try to emerge yourself in just listening? How much more enjoyment could you get if you really focussed on listening and nothing else? What difference would it make to you, your business, your family and friends if you stopped what you were doing, and worked at listening?

Just a thought…

The latest from David…

So four people turned up late to today’s workshop and one person was on time but 60 miles to the west. Yet I was told ‘they’d all been sent an email so it’s their fault’. What a blast from the past. In my formative years at Tesco we didn’t talk about communicating or sending…we talked about ‘ensuring understanding’. It was never about what you thought you’d said but what the recipient had understood and done as a result. If people didn’t turn up to a workshop it was your fault not theirs. Communication was, and thankfully still is, about the impact (and action) of the recipient, not the intention of the sender…thanks to today’s latecomers (and geographically challenged) for a timely reminder.

How do you make your customer smile? Is there something small you could do to differently to have a big impact? Recently Jill took a train trip with her four year old daughter…

It was quite a short journey, but my daughter loves trains so for her it was a real treat. The journey itself was quite uneventful (as much as it can be with an over-excited four year old). When we arrived at our destination we went up to the exit which was manned by a smiling ticket inspector. My daughter eagerly handed him the ticket and he said “ooh we have something special for children who are polite and well behaved”. She beamed as he stamped the ticket and handed it back to her. Instead of using the usual ticket stamp, the inspector had used a cut-out in the shape of a heart. My daughter was so pleased and it really made our day! How refreshing.

A belated thought from David:

Crawling into Sheffield on the A57 I was listening to Radio 5 Live and their coverage of the Edinburgh Festival (yes, it was that long ago…!) They were announcing the best and worst jokes of the festival, and the winner of the positive category was a joke about multi-story car parks. It was something like ‘urinating in multi-story car parks – wrong on so many levels’. This made me laugh insanely before I contemplated the vivid image that the words ‘multi-story car park’ throws up for me. You know the one and you know the smell of the stairwell! Read the rest of this entry »

Lucy recaps the day Rambutan spent at the University of York with Ben Hun-Davis, Growing for Gold.

Last Thursday saw a rare appearance of the whole Rambutan bunch at the same place at the same time. Having been invited by the University of York to help them showcase their new Ron Cooke Hub, we designed and ran some taster session workshops that would allow visitors to see the Hub in an innovative way and get some Rambutan refreshment too.

Following a fascinating opening talk by our very own Olympic gold medallist, Ben, we offered workshops on leadership, presenting, time management and listening; all vital business skills and all delivered in 30 minutes (time is money as they say!). In true Rambutan fashion the style of the workshops was interactive and memorable. We got some amazing feedback, summed up nicely by one attendee who commented: “Very inspiring. Fabulous!”

We’d like to thank the University for asking us along. We had a great day!