Small Business

It’s the way that you do it

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by Peter Switzer

If you can communicate, you can even ‘sell’ Latin to a teenager!

Thinking outside the triangle. Yeah, that sounds original and it just might get you in enough to read the next line.

Of course, the cliché is connected to a box or square, though a successful Audi car commercial once encouraged some of us to recommend thinking outside the circle.

I used ‘triangle’ as a marketing device as writers/educators should try any stunt to maximise the knowledge hit. (That’s my view and I will argue to the death of my opponents the legitimacy of this position.)

With apologies to the likes of lateral thinkers like Edward de Bono, in business as in life, it certainly does pay to think outside the conventional limitations of average thought. And ‘pay’ is the operative word.

Recently, I learnt that an old mate of mine who I taught with at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in the early ‘80s picked up the prestigious award for being Australia’s best university teacher. His prize was a cool $75,000.

Not bad for a bloke who has simply done what he likes the way he likes for most of his professional life. Of course, not everyone liked what he did, but few of his critics were students. I recall there was a fair bit of disquiet in the School of Economics at the UNSW when Geoff proposed to boost our approach to teaching economics.

Many of his colleagues could not see the need to utilise the difficulty of a golf swing to explain some complicated concept that now escapes me. Geoff was respected for his motives, but his means were not initially greeted with open minds.

History recalls, well at least the way I recall it, that he was one of my few colleagues who would praise my efforts in trying to educate Clive Robertson on Channel 7’s Newsworld. Though I must say, Associate Professor Bill Rao often referred to my rude reports on Triple M, however he usually blamed his son or daughter, who he was driving to school, for him being tuned to Uncle Doug.

Selling ‘stuff’ whether it be a fat-destroying pill, the music mix of great radio stations or the qualities of finger-licking hamburgers and their connection to remote economic theories always depends on getting the attention of the consuming public.

When Bryce Courtenay came up with the first Louie the Fly commercial for Mortein and Ken Done thought the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge in happy, bright colours could work, they took a risk with their big sell.

Now, don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to like any of the methods used, but when it comes to selling a business, which pays owners, employs workers and sometimes even satisfies consumers, it really is an important thing to do.

Both my sons enjoyed Latin in Year 7 because they were introduced to it by a teacher who really knows how to teach. When it comes to education, it is unquestionably crucial to captivate your audience, and just about any harmless stick is acceptable to ensure it happens.