Career: Seven Feats of Intrapreneurship 2015

transcript

A long time ago in a galaxy far,far away....

..in a galaxy far, far away..

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Chandra X-ray Image of SN 2006gy

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Meanwhile, back on Earth..

May 2007At about the same time I went to work for DMC Denmark as a Key Account Manager in the cruise operations department

Meanwhile, back on Earth..

May 2007At about the same time I went to work for DMC Denmark as a Key Account Manager in the cruise operations department

Moving on from my previous job as tour manager aboard cruise ships, this was essentially the shoreside counterpart to that job and a con-venient transition to make

Realizing swiftly that this home-grown, fast-moving company had some structural and procedural issues in need of attention, I used my spare time and the supervisory leeway inherent to DMC to pursue and ‘fix’ these issues

So from the very get-go I embarked on a self-motivated quest to revise, improve, develop, organize and pioneer new products and proce-dures

…a man embarks on a quest!

A quest so successful it would even-tually see me appointed Manager of Marketing & Development with a carte blanche to pursue all the pro-jects I had previously pursued on my spare work time, and to target whatever new projects that may emerge

The following presentation summa-rizes some of the biggest achieve-ments to come out of this quest

…a man embarks on a quest!

I. Digital asset management ................................ II. Brand management ..........................................III. Product portfolio development ........................IV. Website development .......................................V. Staff

training ........................................................VI. Mission &

Vision ...................................................VII. Internal newsletters ............................................

Content

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When I arrived at DMC there was just the one shared network drive

It was a rarely used, disorganized jumble of outdated and inconsis-tently named work files

Digital asset management

Digital asset management I

About as useful and manageable as this apt illustration…

In fact, most managers chose to work off their individual hard drives with their own preferred filing systems and file formats making it hard to achieve any kind of synergy, homogeneity or compatibility

digital asset management |

So I did some online research and learned the basics of digital asset management…

Google Search I’m Feeling Lucky

…and used that knowledge to de-sign a new folder structure that was logical, practical, maintainable and expandable

With the introduction of the new structure, I also defined a new set of rules and definitions for use, main-tenance and expansion of the structure

The new structure resulted in a signi-ficant reduction of time and effort spent ingesting, storing, catalogu-ing, retrieving and sharing digital assets in-house

I coordinated the introduction and file management systems of new internal drives, incl. one for DMC Nordic, accessible by all 4 DMC offices in the Nordic region, and was also dispatched to our Stock-holm subsidiary to help them bring the same kind of structure and effi-ciency to their internal data mana-gement system

DMCSWEDEN

Brand management II

Years of unregulated and uncheck-ed brand usage had resulted in a plethora of variations on the visual branding elements of DMC

Brand management II

Years of unregulated and uncheck-ed brand usage had resulted in a plethora of variations on the visual branding elements of DMC

Not just in the Copenhagen office but between the individual subsi-diaries in Sweden, Estonia, Norway and Chile too

The overall visual brand expression of DMC was indistinct and blurry

Brand management II

To remedy the situation I commisioned a brand manual from a design agency to once and for all establish the proper look of branding elements and logo

Brand management II

To remedy the situation I commisioned a brand manual from a design agency to once and for all establish the proper look of branding elements and logo

I commissioned and distributed new sets of official logos and branding elements (in-cluding rules of usage) to all DMC subsidi-aries and methodically purged the old versions from circulation

Product portfolio development III

Due in part to the previous lack of central digital asset management and the brand diffusion, standard templates for product soft copies did not really exist

There were some vaguely homo-genous templates in circulation, but due to personal preferences in format, style and content, no two managers produced entirely iden-tical proposals

Following my efforts to correct logo usage I also created a series of ready-to-use templates for different product/presentation formats with how-to manuals for usage and dis-tributed them within DMC

This ensured more conformity and a stronger visual identity in the future output of managers

Then I went to work on the pre-exis-ting mismatched DMC product portfolio and converted all usable products to the new formats and expanded the portfolio with count-less new products

This process took years as I was doing it piecemeal alongside my regular duties but eventually I got around to all of it

Product portfolio development

Finally, I devised a product registra-tion system to keep track of the now vastly expanded and diversified product portfolio

Website development

DMC websites of the late oughties were at that point spectacularly outdated and in need of a tho-rough makeover. The only excep-tion was DMC Chile who did have a relatively new flash-based website

Website development

I soon started to advocate for new websites and went about research-ing CMS software, usability, functio-nality and compatibilty, while dra-wing up site map drafts and design sketches

Website development

Once a design agency had been sourced I worked closely with the designers to build the sites from scratch, providing design input and direction, cookie policies and dis-claimers, content generation, pic-tures and more

Coming soon

4 new dmcwebsites

2014Grand re-launch

Website development

As each website was finished I re-mained in overall charge of basic maintenance and updates of news sections, testimonials and staff profiles, using basic Joomla CMS editorial skills acquired in the process

Website development

The new DMC websites I helped create can be viewed here:

www.DMCDenmark.dk

www.DMCSweden.se

www.DMC-Norway.no

www.DMCEstonia.ee

As a service provider in the tourism trade DMC Denmark relies heavily on ‘field agents’ – i.e. guides and freelance hospitality staff – to man and execute large cruise operations

Staff training V

These are the ones in direct contact with the end clients and creating the actual service experience through their performance in the field

Staff training V

Freelance service staff has a high turnover rate, being primarily stu-dents in summer jobs

Staff training V

Freelance service staff has a high turnover rate, being primarily stu-dents in summer jobs

To maintain a high quality of opera-tional service, it is imperative that they are briefed thoroughly before-hand so they can ‘hit the ground running’ in action

Staff training V

To that effect I authored a new 20-page ‘freelancer manual’ consisting of comprehensive and updated versions of all the information pre-viously only communicated orally, piece-meal and with some incon-sistency to freelancers

Staff training V

To that effect I authored a new 20-page ‘freelancer manual’ consisting of comprehensive and updated versions of all the information pre-viously only communicated orally, piece-meal and with some incon-sistency to freelancers

I also produced a companion po-werpoint presentation, highlighting the important points

Staff training V

Both were used for the annual free-lance intro-meeting, where new freelance staff were briefed on du-ties, requirements, expectations and working terms

Staff training V

Both were used for the annual free-lance intro-meeting, where new freelance staff were briefed on du-ties, requirements, expectations and working terms

This resulted in a noticeable increa-se in efficiency and confidence of freelance staff and far less time and effort wasted on mistakes, mishand-led situations and improper proce-dures

Staff training

Guides do not have the same high turnover rate as freelancers, but the challenge remains to swiftly impart a firm grasp of practices, proce-dures and expectations for them to deliver a spot-on performance first time out with guests

Staff training V

Drawing on tour operator procedu-res and my own extensive experien-ce with Shore Excursions, I wrote a guide manual outlining procedures, expectations, contingencies and more for guides to comply with while working for DMC

Staff training V

Drawing on tour operator procedu-res and my own extensive experien-ce with Shore Excursions, I wrote a guide manual outlining procedures, expectations, contingencies and more for guides to comply with while working for DMC

A companion powerpoint presenta-tion with the most important points was also produced

Staff training V

The powerpoint presentation and a revised version of the guide manual later formed the basis for a training course for provincial guides, neces-sitated by a rise in provincial cruise calls and a local guide force largely unprepared for this

Staff training V

The powerpoint presentation and a revised version of the guide manual later formed the basis for a training course for provincial guides, neces-sitated by a rise in provincial cruise calls and a local guide force largely unprepared for this

I hosted successful versions of this course in Aarhus, Aalborg and Ka-lundborg on multiple occasions

Vision & mission

DMC had been around for close to 30 years when I joined and although there was an implied consensus of what the company stood for and where it was going, no one had ever actually put it to paper

Vision & mission VI

Researching different corporate Vision / Mission formats online and refining the desired content with management, I produced an offi-cial Vision / Mission statement with a set of accompanying values that went on to become the official standard for the entire DMC Family

Vision & mission VI

Researching different corporate Vision / Mission formats online and refining the desired content with management, I produced an offi-cial Vision / Mission statement with a set of accompanying values that went on to become the official standard for the entire DMC Family

The statement can be read in its entirety on any of the new DMC Nordic websites

Internal newsletters

DMCCHILE

DMCNORWAY

DMCSWEDEN

DMCESTONIA

DMCDENMARK

Collectively known as the DMC Family, DMC Denmark has subsidi-aries in Estonia, Sweden, Norway and Chile

DMCCHILE

DMCNORWAY

DMCSWEDEN

DMCESTONIA

DMCDENMARK

Collectively known as the DMC Family, DMC Denmark has subsidi-aries in Estonia, Sweden, Norway and Chile

But in the beginning they were very insular entities, with little to no ex-change of information between them and DMC Denmark and no real feeling of ‘corporate kinship’

Internal newsletters VII

To bring the ‘Family’ closer together and inspire unity and exchange of information, I produced an internal newsletter called Family Affairs

Internal newsletters VII

To bring the ‘Family’ closer together and inspire unity and exchange of information, I produced an internal newsletter called Family Affairs

I designed a simple newsletter for-mat, requested news item submis-sions from the Family and authored / published newsletters on a quarterly schedule

The newsletter was launched at the same time as the DMC Nordic con-cept, which combined the DMC offices of the Northern hemisphere with partner agencies in Finland, Iceland & Greenland for greater synergy and convenience, and became a social cornerstone for the strengthening of relations be-tween the Nordic DMC Family members

Wrapping up

Those were 7 instances when I took the ball and ran with it in my DMC career – and with great results to show for it

If you would like to learn more about my career and achieve-ments with DMC, I am always happy to elaborate

Contact

(+45) 50 34 60 66j.lyngsoe@outlook.dk

Jacob LyngsøeJacob Lyngsøe

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