Incentive - November 2008 - (Page 20)

INTERVIEW cities. The study, which looks at both the overall tax burden and the discriminatory travel tax burden imposed on hotel rooms, rental cars and restaurant meals, is significant, she says. If the difference between two destinations is $100 to $200 per person over the course of a program, the taxes on a 1,000-participant program could be $200,000. “That is a significant impact on the budget,” Beauchine says, who instructed her planners to keep the data in mind when selecting venues. “Especially if the hotel and activity choices are equal, [taxes] can be a tie-breaker.” Needless to say, they use it internally. “At Carlson, we measure monthly,” Beauchine says. One key is drilling down far enough. “You can’t measure engagement by division,” she says. “You must measure all areas. It can boil down to individual managers.” Beauchine’s take on five major incentive-using industries: Automotive: Before the record stock market drop in the week of Oct. 6, Beauchine thought the American automotive industry was “out of intensive care…and in the recovery room,” after slashing budget last year. That’s more precarious now, but she’s seeing the automakers concentrate their energy on crossover vehicles and hybrids like the Volt from General Motors’ Chevrolet brand—a model for which Carlson Marketing planned and managed an internal dealer launch. High Tech: “High tech is a little mixed, but in general our clients are pushing ahead,” Beauchine says. “They are growing, and when they are growing they need our expertise.” Not only have no clients canceled a program, she adds, one that cut a sales and user conference in 2007 restarted it this year. Beauchine’s Own Engagement Much of Beauchine’s work involves guiding clients on basic issues like how to sell more or keep employees happy. So it’s probably not surprising that this theme spills into her personal life. Along with collecting fine and limited edition fountain pens, Beauchine is interested in seeing-eye dogs, a focus that began after a fund-raiser for schools that train dogs as service animals for the blind and give them to people who cannot afford the sizable expense. An animal lover who grew up surrounded by animals— dogs, cats, horses, goats and lambs, among others— she began by adopting a “failed” guide dog, a black lab she has named Eri—“smart” in Japanese. “I found out not all dogs make it through the training program,” Beauchine says, noting that between 30 and 40 percent graduate. “[Their job] requires so much focus, they can’t sniff another dog on the street.” That is the toughest and final stage of the year-long training, and the one Eri flunked. Recently, Beauchine stepped up her involvement, sponsoring Aiko, a female golden retriever who went to a blind diesel mechanic, through the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind in Smithtown, N.Y. The organization has its hands full with its VetDogs (www.vet dogs.org) project, Beauchine says. The program provides free guide dogs to disabled U.S. veterans, and is getting new clients from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I Send comments to ljakobson@incentivemag.com What’s Next “I think engagement is going to really grow,” Beauchine says, predicting that as firms merge and hunker down to wait out the bad economy, the smart ones will focus on engaging employees. “It is intuitive, and it is proven [that having engaged employees] moves to the bottom line.” She points to a 2007 study by professor Alex Edmans of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, which found that companies with engaged employees—those on Fortune’s Best Places to Work list—saw annual returns of 14 percent, while the average was just 6 percent. Carlson Marketing has just produced a white paper on the topic, “At the Heart of Engagement,” where it lays out a Positive Engagement Model that seeks to define and help measure a company’s culture of engagement. It has six categories: Innovation, Mastery, Achievement, Appreciation, Connection and Wellness. Each is broken into three subcategories, and surveys can measure each. Done regularly, this can paint a picture of the success a company is having at engaging its employees—and the areas it needs to work on. Pharmaceutical: “What’s happening there is companies are embracing new commercial models of how to sell” their products, Beauchine says. That means both how doctors come to conferences to learn about new products, and how salespeople can approach those doctors appropriately. “They are analyzing how to go to market,” she says, making the sector quite active. Finance: Several of Carlson Marketing’s brokerage clients have been bought in recent weeks, so the impact on their motivational spending is not clear yet, Beauchine says, but in general she sees lots of opportunity in handling the engagement programs that follow mergers. Still, a lot will depend on the new regulations Congress is widely expected to impose on the industry next year, which leaves room for some nervousness. Telecommunications: “You open the paper every day and see ads for cell phones,” Beauchine says. “All [of those companies] are running incentives for the storefront employees.” The products are similar enough that they largely compete on customer service—both in stores and call centers—and sales. “It is not about purchase, it is about repurchase.” And it’s a busy space. 20 | Incentive | November 2008 | incentivemag.com http://www.vet.dogs.org http://www.vet.dogs.org http://www.incentivemag.com

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Incentive - November 2008 Editor’s Note Headlines Cover Story: Pop, Fizz! Incentive Interview Cracking the Recognition Code Primer Travel News Canada, City Style Potentials Here and Now Cameras: Picture of Innovation The Spirit of Giving Advertiser Index Last Word

Incentive - November 2008

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