I have had the pleasure of working with many of Australia's largest construction companies, both as a supplier and consultant. They never cease to impress me and I have learned a lot of my core business philosophies from witnessing the inner machinations of these complex and fast moving animals.

As you would expect, most of these companies are project driven. The project tends to take precedence over all else. They are set up as silos, with their own P+L's, their own incentives and in my experience, this can present it's own set of challenges. This is especially true of most internal plant yards. For non-construction folk, the internal plant yard is the team within a construction company that manages the plant and equipment that is owned by the company.

The plant yard has the potential to save a construction company millions in outright cost, efficiency improvements, risk mitigation and waste reduction. This can be achieved by:

Reducing duplication of purchases between sites.Ensuring owned equipment that is idle is used on sites in favour of either new or rented equipment.Consolidating deals with outside suppliers and ensuring sites stick with supplier deals that take advantage of overall volume pricing.Ensuring all equipment is delivered to the same quality and safety standards.Leveraging process improvements from site to site.Providing a central data collection point that empowers genuine behavioural change and process improvement.Taking a whole of life view to assets, not just a life of project view.Delivering accountability and minimising waste expenditure on sites.Ensuring all equipment is delivered with the correct company livery to assist marketing.

In my experience, there are few instances where the full power of the plant yard is taken advantage of. Also, in my experience, most plant yard staff are eager to deliver more value.

I think the problems are:

Construction companies are project centric. Other functions within the business can be overlooked, under resourced or not prioritised.The plant yard finds it difficult to either articulate or quantify the true value add opportunities, or get them across to the appropriate decision maker.There is a mistrust of the plant yard by the project sites. This can either be a misperception, based on historical experience or because of a site based relationship with a preferred external supplier.Project incentives are aligned to the success of the individual project and sometimes at odds with the long term best interests of the business. For example, buying equipment without taking into account the full cost of life implications to the broader business.The plant yard is not viewed as or does not view itself as a service delivery vehicle and as such provides poorer service than an outside supplier.There are no data collection systems in place to map the equipment behaviour of the broader business to drive smarter purchasing and fleet management decisions.

As well as the above challenges, I have also seen some instances of plant yards proactively pushing themselves forward as a critical and value adding business unit. Select Plant Hire (Laing O'Rourke's plant management team), have made great steps in acting like a genuine external supplier to their project sites. I have seen many instances of them making efforts to forge strong and trusting relationships with the job sites by delivering exceptional service, innovation and having a more transparent and KPI driven culture.

"Select Plant Hire," manages thousands of pieces of plant and is strategically operated to deliver service standards to it's own Laing O'Rourke business comparable with an outside supplier.

Hutchinson Builders plant teams efforts in becoming an objectively expert scaffolding supplier and seeking external assistance to deliver genuine innovation in their sites use of Generators and Power Distribution, is another example of a plant yard more than returning it's own overheads in genuine value.

Hutchinson Builder's industry leading work on reducing emissions and fuel costs on diesel generators is an example of a plant yard delivering literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual cost savings to the broader business.

To be really successful, a construction company's plant yard needs adequate resourcing from management to develop itself into a business unit that the project sites actually prefer to use over external suppliers. A management edict forcing the sites to use their plant yard may work for a time, but it tends to breed division unless accompanied by some agreed to KPI's and service standards.

I think any construction company can turn their plant yard into a value-add powerhouse by following a few simple rules:

Seek external assistance in turning your plant yard into a business unit that could survive as an external supplier both from an ROI and customer retention perspective.Build a long term plan that enables the plant yard to gradually take full responsibility for the various plant categories rather than trying to change everything overnight.Develop financial incentives that foster cooperation between the plant yard and the sites in ensuring the optimum use of your assets.Develop a sub-brand for the plant yard so it is seen by the projects as a separate, accountable entity and also so it develops it's own internal service culture.Ensure the plant yard has the IT systems to deliver and measure asset and service performance. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.Very importantly, seek the assistance of an external survey company to garner objective feedback from the sites on a regular basis as to the quality of service delivered by the plant yard.

To make a success of internal plant management requires a cultural shift in thinking by management first and foremost. A Plant Yard must be empowered to deliver on a vision with sufficient resources, whilst being held accountable by a transparent battery of KPI's that are agreed to by the project sites. If all of this comes together, the benefits to the broader organisation in cost savings, efficiency improvements, process improvements and waste reduction are material.

I have written in previous articles on the perils of light loading generators. This is caused by incorrectly sized generators or those which are powering intermittent loads. This is a particular challenge for companies powering things like tower cranes and hoists. The generators can sit idling for hours on end. Whilst idling, the engine does not produce enough heat to burn off excess carbon, producing a treacle like substance that hardens and can cause serious and even irreversible engine damage.

The answer to the problem lies in firstly correctly sizing the genset by seeking the assistance of a suitably qualified expert. Even experts however, cannot overcome the intermittent load problem and load banking is often required to prevent engine damage. A load bank is simply a series of heat elements that deliver a dummy load to the genset, thus making it work hard, produce heat and burn off any excess carbon residue. If load banking is done prior to the hardening of the glaze, the generator light loading can be completely reversed.

In applications such as tower cranes and hoists, the light loading requires the generator to be load banked on a monthly basis. This involves an electrician disconnecting the load from the generator, connecting the load bank, performing the load banking test, disconnecting the load bank and reconnecting the load. Obviously this can be a time consuming, inconvenient and costly exercise.

Viking Industrial http://www.vikingindustrial.com.au who were recently engaged by Hutchinson Builders http://www.hutchinsonbuilders.com.au to assist in cost and emission saving initiatives on generators, have fitted Sumo Load Boys to a fleet of tower crane and hoist specific generators.

The Sumo Load Boy is a Plug N Play load banking switch. It enables a technician to plug in and load bank a generator without needing to disconnect the main load. This can be done after hours and has been estimated to save around $1,000 per month per generator in service costs. The technician arrives at site, plugs the load bank into the Sumo Load Boy, switches the generator from load to load bank, completes the load test and then disconnects.

The Sumo Load Boy product is manufactured in Brisbane, Australia. The range currently includes a 400 amp and 600 amp version but there are plans to expand the available sizes in the new year. http://www.sumoboards.com.au

I guess the real question is, where to now for equipment rental in Australia? In reality, as goes the big Orange Bear so goes the industry. A strong Coates makes for a strong rental industry and vice-versa.

The announcement of a new CEO for Coates this week is, in my view, the perfect time to open up some dialogue from those of us in and around equipment rental on why this has happened, what it means and where to from here?

The lack of comms as to the reason for the change is what it is, but in my view the focus on the new CEO’s people skills is a great sign that perhaps the powers that be have become all too aware of a critical factor in rental. It’s a service business, it’s won and lost in the branches. If your people feel appreciated and well treated, that will come across to your customers and a rental company becomes a damn sight easier to grow from there.

Jeff Fraser’s long history as a CFO will undoubtedly have some Coates insiders nervous. The age old “war,” between the bean counters and operational side of rental has always been a source of tension. My most recent personal experience working with a CFO at a major rental player however gave me great confidence that someone with a predominantly financial background can be a pragmatic and powerful foil to what has traditionally been, a sales culture driven industry and certainly someone I think would have made a balanced and inclusive CEO.

Much has been made of the impact of the mining downturn on the rental industry. There has been a material drop in activity, particularly in the West and regional Queensland. This has driven prices lower, and when coupled with the capex frenzy of recent years has created a perfect storm of just too much rental equipment and not enough demand for it. In my opinion however, this is just a symptom of a problem that had been brewing in the rental game for over a decade.

The enormous consolidation of market share in the rental industry B2B space since Coates bought Wreckair has left major B2B customers without a credible full service, full geography alternative for a very long time. You can slice up the pie any way you like when it comes to market share. You can throw in B2C, furniture and car rental and make it look as though there has been broad competitive tension in the market. In reality, the roughly $2bn B2B end user space is where most of the traditional “rental players,” get fed. If you’re a customer of substance in that space, your biggest supplier almost universally has to be Coates.

Getting wallet share from major Australian B2B rental end users has enormous barriers to entry. They operate across a gigantic geography and often in markets with little other revenue stream opportunities. The economy of scale that comes with having a rental business with the right geographic spread of branches is a dramatic advantage. Couple that with the scale of many of their projects, financial horsepower, human resources and fleet numbers and it’s very tough to grow a credible number two. This scale and geography issue is the reason even a foreign giant like United Rental entering the market would either have to buy Coates or roll up six or eight smaller players to be able to present a credible full service offer to the likes of BHP, Downer or Leighton (CIMIC) in a reasonable time frame.

This lack of “real,” competitive tension is no secret inside the industry among rental companies, their suppliers and their customers. The number two B2B player is one sixth Coates size. Basic economics and human nature dictates that an environment like this is less likely to encourage genuine innovation in the service delivery to end users. This, in my view is the real reason the rental industry finds itself in it’s current predicament.

The best evidence for this is the recent rise in the role of aggregators like Plant Miner and I Seek Plant in the rental industry. The fact that these kind of services can exist, let alone grow in an industry in which technical knowledge and application skill are paramount to customer outcomes is an indictment on how the rental industry has failed to keep up with the evolving demands of the major B2B end users in particular, leaving equipment rental viewed as a commodity item by many. This is also why the industry has such a long tail, and so many successful, service focussed privateers who can attain surprising scale quickly.

To avoid the commoditisation trap, the industry must quite simply mature to meet the demands of larger customers. These larger customers are like the Formula 1 division of the industry. They offer opportunity to innovate and develop systems and products that deliver real value that can then be passed on to the rest of the industry. Larger B2B customers need to walk a fine line between consolidating suppliers to reduce costs, and ensuring they have enough credible alternatives to retain competitive tension and keep their larger suppliers honest.

What happens next is really a question of strategy. What I mean by that is fundamentally understanding what strategy is. Michael Porter nailed it when he described strategy as being about “escaping the model of perfect competition and instead creating a strong position for your product or service to garner outsized profits.”

The best test of strategy is to say yours out loud and ask yourself if the opposite is ridiculous. If it is ridiculous, then it’s simply not a strategy. If your strategy is to be safe, the opposite is to be unsafe. If your strategy is to provide the best service, the opposite is to offer the worst service. These are not strategies. They are customer expectations and a ticket to participate in the customers business.

The original decision by Kerry Stokes and Co. to buy Coates was an inspired one, albeit with unfortunate macro-economic timing. Where Jeff Fraser takes the business and by default the industry strategically will dictate whether the hedge funds that have bought up packets of Coates debt for as little as 70 cents on the dollar was equally insightful. Considering Coates market share position, and assuming their current debt can continue to be serviced, I suspect the late entry hedge funds will make their money back and then some. From an industry perspective, Coates is quite simply too big too fail, and there is enough “real work,” starting in the market now to suggest we have seen the bottom.

I’d love to hear others opinions on this but I think one of three things will happen.

1.Coates will sell out to a foreign giant like United.

2. The market will recover and Coates scale advantage will see their equity value rise along with it.

3. Jeff Fraser will implement a genuine “point of difference,” strategy that will mature Coates and the broader industry will follow.

The critical issue from my perspective as someone who remains a lover and shareholder in the rental industry , is that outcomes 1 and 3 will bring with them genuine strategic change that alters the perception of the equipment rental industry into one of a genuine value add opportunity for B2B end users.

Either way, it's certainly the most interesting of times for the equipment rental industry in Australia.

Take a look across the skyline of any capital city on the East Coast of Australia at the moment and you’ll see the physical evidence of our current high rise construction boom. Tower Cranes are dotted across the landscape as far as they eye can see.

Almost all of these cranes, and the personnel and material hoists that invariably accompany them are powered by generators. Those of you that have read my previous posts about generator light loading will be aware of the hidden fuel, capital, rental, maintenance and environmental cost of running diesel generators consistently under 50% of their designed maximum output.

Perhaps the most common application that gives rise to this problem is when generators are used to power tower cranes and hoists. By their very nature, tower cranes and hoists are designed to frequently stop and start. They also product a short and intense power draw as they begin a lift. Most cranes and hoists will remain idle for well over 50% of the working day. By definition, this means the generator that’s being used to power them remains predominantly idle also.

The incidence of serious generator damage from light loading caused in tower crane and hoist applications is almost ubiquitous. It is also rarely discussed, let alone managed. I have seen numerous examples of generators severely light loaded and damaged from long periods of idling in tower crane and hoist applications simply taken back to the workshop, completely rebuilt, and sent right back to work in an environment that will inevitably result in the same outcome over and over again until the generator is irreparable and scrapped.

On top of this, light loading will cause the generator to produce excessive amounts of black, smelly smoke under load. This is obviously an undesirable outcome in built up residential areas and can lead to local authority intervention, bad press and even industrial action.

Unfortunately, due to the stop start nature of cranes and hoists, light loading of the generators that power them is unavoidable. What can be managed however, is the extent to which this light loading is allowed to continue before being rectified on site. Most high rise sites will operate their cranes and hoists for around 60 hours per week. Most preventative maintenance plans for diesel generators will recommend service intervals of between 250 and 300 hours. This means that a generator running a crane and hoist should be serviced approximately once a month.

To ensure the generator is not exposed to the long term damage of light loading, it is important to work in a “load banking,” or “load testing,” regime into this monthly service. Your generator supplier or internal plant team should be able to organise this. It involves taking a trailer mounted load bank to the site, wiring it into the generator, and placing the generator under full load for about an hour. This alone will generate enough heat in the engine to reverse the negative effects of the previous months light loading.

It is also possible to ask your service provider or plant yard to look at installing a plug and play load testing switch at the time the generator is installed on site. This means that the service technician can simply drive up to the generator after hours, plug into the load test switch, complete the load testing and move on with no disruption to the site. It also removes the need for an electrician to uncouple and recouple the generator to complete the test. In most cases, this will save up to $500 per service.

So just to recap, if you use either your own or rental generators to power tower cranes or hoists on site you should:

Seek the advice of a generator professional to size the generator correctly.Implement a preventative maintenance plan to service and load bank the generator on a monthly basis.Consider installing a plug and play load testing switch to save time, money and site interruption during load banking.Request a load test report from your service technician to ensure any and all signs of light loading are addressed before they manifest themselves into costly and often irreversible maintenance problems.

Remember, regular load banking for generators running Tower Cranes and Hoists will:

Optimise your fuel consumption.Prevent serious and sometimes irreparable damage to your generator.Prevent excessive smoke and smell emanating from the generator in built up areas.Reduce the environmental impact of your generator.Ensure your generator will always produce it’s maximum designed power output.

Contact a specialist generator company for more advice on how a simple and cost effective preventative maintenance program can save your site and business tens of thousands of dollars in potential equipment damage, environmental complaints and interruption to site production time.

27th June 2016 SUMO Plug N Play Gear today has proudly announced an exciting amd exclusive distribution agreement with Ranger Integrated. Based in Auckland, Ranger will be the exclusive importer of the Australian made range of innovative electrical distribution boards and products.

SUMO products have been on the market in Australia for over 5 years and are commonplace on many of the countries largest Construction, Mining, Oil and Gas, Industrial and Event Sites. SUMO products are also a staple of equipment rental fleets and government organisations.

SUMO’s success has been built primarily on innovative design which delivers customers cost and efficiency improvements including 12 to a pallet stackability compared to traditional distribution boards which can be limited to two boards per pallet. SUMO products offer unrivalled safety and reliability and a stable of bllue chip B2B clients is testament to the durability and quantifiable value offered by the entire range. With boards avialable from 10 amp to 400 amp, SUMO manufactures both poly and metal type DB’s suitable for all industries and applications.

Ranger Integrated Director Lisa Radford has a long history in power and power related products. She was an integral part of the growth of both the Onsite Rental Group and Ausco Portable Building’s in Australia’s Iron ore rich Pilbara Region before embarking on her own venture Bison Industrial. Bison was sold to the Onsite Rental Group in 2015 and Lisa made the decision to relocate to Auckland and pursue the SUMO opportunity.

“I think the New Zealand market is ready for a new competitor in the distribution board space.” said Lisa, and the SUMO product has a proven track record of competing very well against the current NZ market leader in the harsher climate environments of Australia.” “We are very excited about the support we have received from our Kiwi customers already and we’re looking forward to shaking things up a bit.” Ranger can be contacted on 027 844 8834, 0800 2 RANGER (726437) or on email lisa.radford@rangernz.com.

The real Power of Power Saving money in tough times with your generator fleet

Despite being a “must-have,” in most modern Mining, Construction and Rental equipment fleets, Diesel Generators remain a largely misunderstood beast. There are a plethora of manufacturers, peddling a variety of makes and models of Diesel Generators with names like “Rentpak,” or “Workhorse,” or some other such euphemism for indestructibility. The primary selling feature for enticing fleet owners being robustness, “mine spec,” or reliability. But when it comes to true whole of life asset management, how does an equipment fleet owner decide which diesel generator will deliver best bang for buck?

As with most equipment assets, maximum return on investment for your generator fleet is determined by:


1. What you buy. 2. How you utilise out what you have bought. 3. How you dispose of the asset at the end of it’s life.

SMART BUYING:

Obviously, if you get number one right, it can have a major impact on the outcomes for numbers 2 and 3. When it comes to what diesel generator to buy for your fleet, it helps to have some knowledge of the global generator market. There are really only 3 applications when it comes to using Diesel Generators:

Standby: Mains power exists and the generator is only a back-up.

Prime Stationary: The generator is providing the power but will stay in one place for most of it's life. Prime Transportable: The generator is providing the power but will be moved from place to place, job to job.

Obviously, most Mining, Construction and Rental fleet owners fall into the Prime Transportable category. It is important to note that up to 70% of all generators however are sold into the standby category. Standby generators are generally built to meet a price point as they will not operate many hours. Logically, many, if not most manufacturers design their generator products to cater to the standby market. Often, they will offer modifications to their products such as heavier skid bases and market them under a different sub-brand designed to appeal to fleet owners in Rental, Mining and Construction.

There are in fact, only a small number of manufacturers who operate solely in the Prime Transportable niche. Taking into account whether or not the diesel generator you are considering was built specifically for the rigours of Mining, Construction or Rental can double the useable life of your machines.

After you have comfort that your chosen diesel generator is in fact built for purpose, it is also important to compare the fuel efficiency of the engine offered relative to alternatives. After all, when a generator is running, up to 90% of an end users costs will be fuel. The extra capital cost of a more efficient generator is often paid back in fuel consumption within 6 to 12 months.

SMART USING:

So you’re comfortable that you have acquired a Prime Transportable specific generator fleet with market leading fuel efficiency. To extract maximum return on investment during it’s useful life, you have to ensure your asset management team is armed with the right information when it comes to ensuring the end user understands these benefits. After all, without the end user in your business understanding how to size and spec a machine to a specific application, you will have paid a premium for an advantage that you cannot recover in terms of efficiency and cost reduction.

The key here is training for your asset management team. If you have bought your generator fleet from a manufacturer that specialises in the Prime Transportable space, that training should be easily available and usually free.

There are two key components in developing guidelines for the end user that will enable you to reap for the benefits you have acquired in the purchasing phase. Firstly, sizing. Generators, especially Mining, Construction and Rental generators are notorious for being oversized. Developing some sizing procedures with the help of your generator supplier is crucial in ensuring your end users get the right machine fro the job and don’t burn fuel they don’t need to.

Also, oversizing generators can quickly lead to a maintenance issue known as glazing. Generators that are consistently operated at less than 50% of their prime rating generate insufficient heat to burn off the excess carbon that accumulates in the bore. The subsequent “light loading,” or “glazing,” of the engine can often result in a complete engine rebuild.

The second part of explaining the benefits of your efficient generator fleet to your end user is quantifying your fuel advantage. Once again, your supplier or manufacturer should be able to assist you in providing fuel comparison data that can be delivered as part of your training to the end user. Remember, up to 90% of your cost will be fuel. Even one litre saving per hour on a small diesel generator equites to 730 litres per month. With the right engine selection during the buying process, you can find your self in a position where you have reduced your overall fleet operating costs by 80%.

SMART DISPOSAL:

Most of your advantages in this area will have been derived in the buying process. Prime transportable specific diesel generators can last twice as long and return more than twice as much at the end of their ownership cycle.

Manufacturers that operate specifically in the prime transportable space are aware of this and can often offer guaranteed buybacks at the time of purchase leaving you with the advantage of knowing your total cost of life ownership up front and reducing your disposal risk to zero.

There are refurbishment businesses in Australia and in other South-East Asian countries such as Singapore that specialise in acquiring ex-Mining, Construction and Rental, Prime Transportable specific generators with a view to the lucrative second tier resale market.

Conclusion:

Diesel Generators are already usually one of the higher ROI assets in a Mining, Construction or Rental fleet. Taking the time to consider the true cost of life of the asset as well as the strategic opportunities that exist in renting those advantages to the end user can improve your ROI exponentially. There are independent experts in the Diesel Generator field that can offer unbiased and independent advice on selecting the correct product/s for your fleet. With many major end users going through cost reduction and efficiency improvement programs due to a slowing in some sectors of the economy, a strategic investment in the right diesel generator product can give you an edge in challenging times.

I only bought my first Apple Product about 5 years ago. I had steered clear on purpose. I thought it was "hipster douchebaggery" (trademark) at it’s finest. My business partner, the quintessential early adopter, hassled me incessantly to jump on the Jobs bandwagon. I stoically resisted on principle, refusing to be cajoled into the cool crowd or choose style over functionality.

Then one day, the Hotel I had been booked into in Perth happened to be directly next door to an Apple Store. I swallowed my pride and wandered in. It was as I’d imagined, a shrine to everything I thought I didn’t want to be. I was immediately accosted by who I swear was a 14 year old sales assistant. I challenged him with confidence, “why should I buy an Apple product?”

He answered without blinking, “because you already know how to use them.”

Damn it! Brilliant! You win this round junior. I left the store with a Macbook, iPhone and a desktop. This teenager had just sold me, using the greatest rule in marketing, the Grandma rule. If you can’t explain your point of difference concisely and in a way that your Grandma could understand, then it probably means:

Your potential customers will evaluate you on price alone.Your potential customers will be so confused that they go elsewhere.Your actual customers will not be able to spread the word effectively.You possibly don’t understand your point of difference yourself.

Albert Einstein summed it up perfectly when he said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

The Grandma rule is a fairly intuitive necessity if you’re selling a technical product or service. My own experience in power generation showed me that even the most seemingly complicated subject can be distilled down to a few key things you must know in order to make a smart purchasing decision. In the case of diesel power generators for example, there are only two applications. Firstly, Standby, where the generator serves as a back up and almost never starts. The primary purchasing driver therefore is price. Secondly, Prime, where the generator is the primary source of power. In a prime application, 90% of your cost will be fuel so choosing the most fuel efficient engine delivers the most value. Believe it or not, you’re pretty much a generator expert now so congratulations.

Using your Grandma as a sales consultant can also be beneficial in delivering a value proposition into a seemingly commoditised industry. Take running shoes for example. For as long as I could remember, people chose the colour and brand they liked and compared various retailers to get the best price. Then along came "The Athletes Foot," who brought some science into the equation. More importantly, they employed the Grandma rule to ensure it could be easily understood. I’m almost certainly paraphrasing here but your foot either rolls in, rolls out or is neutral. Depending on your foot, a different type of shoe is recommended. I can personally attest to the fact that the science works. The first day I bought shoes from "The Athletes Foot," is the last day I suffered shin splints.

To me business should always be elegantly simple:

Understand how customers arrive at a purchasing decision and you’ll survive.Be objective about how your business stacks up when compared to others in your space and you’ll be driven to innovate and you’ll do well.Find a way to articulate the reason someone should choose you over your competitors in a way that your Grandma could understand, and you’ll thrive.

I will pause at this point and apologise for seeming ageist. My own Grandma happens to be sharp as a whip and very technically minded. The Grandma rule is merely a metaphor. Take some time today to go and talk to a Grandma about your business. That Grandma can be anyone outside of your industry who is unlikely to have any prior knowledge of it. It may be your husband, your wife, your kids or even your actual Grandma. Try and explain to them in as few words as possible:

What your business does.How customers decide on a supplier of your products or services in a broad sense.Why someone would arrive at the decision to use your business over your competitors.

In my experience, most people are surprised at how difficult this can be. I don’t find it surprising at all. We spend years inside our businesses and industries. We are experts at what we do. There is prestige and opportunity that comes with such expertise, but there is also great risk. Assuming that your customers or potential customers understand your industry or business as well as you do is one of the biggest pitfalls I see when working in or on a business.

It will be tempting for some of you to find a reason why it’s impossible to distill your business into a simple phrase or sentence that eloquently articulates your reason for being. “My business is technical,” “There are a lot of moving parts,” “My customers are educated.” If you find yourself slipping into this trap, I would encourage you to remember that Albert Einstein managed to distill the almost impossibly complex physics surrounding general relativity into a simple equation, E=MC2.

More importantly, take the time to ask yourself, is it a coincidence that this ultimate example of the Grandma rule also happens to be the most famous equation in the history of mankind?

If there was a Noble prize for marketing, Albert would have to be the front runner in my book.

I’ll finish by thanking my own Grandma for teaching me the elegant beauty of simplicity and for somehow getting smarter and smarter every single day.

TWe’ve all worked for and with difficult people. The co-worker that’s never on time for anything, the boss that leaves passive aggressive post-it’s all over the office. Minor annoyances right? But what if you’re dealing with someone in a position of power whose behaviour is far more insidious or destructive? What if you’re working for someone who is a genuine, certifiable narcissist?

I have had a very serious experience with a clinically diagnosed narcissist in my personal life. Learning about how the true narcissist thinks and behaves opened my eyes to the much researched prevalence of narcissistic personality types in the business world. According to the US National Library of Medicine, narcissistic personality disorder is a condition where “people have an inflated sense of self-importance and an extreme preoccupation with themselves.”There are varying theories on the prevalence of narcissistic personality disorder amongst organisational leaders. Despite some negative experiences, I tend to lean towards an optimistic view on the topic. I personally have directly reported to very few narcissists in my career. They tended to be paranoid, bullying, controlling, selfish and extremely vain, but at heart, as with all narcissists, very insecure. Most of my bosses thankfully, have been kind, motivating and encouraging mentors.

Based on my own experiences, a good way to test whether your boss is a true narcissist is to evaluate him or her against the following ten character traits:

1. They’re control freaks: Ever worked for or with someone that focusses on details, or micromanages issues that are a blatant waste of their time? Senior Managers questioning $2 expenses or trawling through phone bills? The narcissist as a leader has a tendency to believe that in a perfect world, every aspect of the business needs his or her special abilities in order to run smoothly. Thus making themselves both a bottleneck and very often a single point of failure in an organisation.

2. They take all the credit, none of the blame: Myself and a colleague once collaborated on a significant strategic piece and presented it to the executive team. Our boss had offered no input or guidance on the contents of the presentation during it’s development, and had not asked to review it prior to the day of delivery. At the conclusion of the presentation, one of the senior executives commented that it was an excellent piece of work, and asked where it had been developed. Our boss immediately interjected by saying it was the result of his years of experience as a Manager. Another senior member of the team then suggested that our implementation timeline for the plan was optimistic. Our boss replied that the implementation timeline was the only piece of the paper he hadn’t been involved in. As farcical as this sounds, it happens all too often with narcissistic personalities. A true leader will always use inclusive language and frame successes and failures as winning together or losing together, or better yet, give credit to his or her team for the wins, and take ultimate responsibility for things that don’t go well.

3. They use derogatory language: Abuse is abuse, full stop. If your boss says something to you that you would take offence to from a stranger at the pub, then you may be working for a narcissist. Using derogatory language, shouting and chastising employees in public settings are all manifestations of a narcissistic leader's need for control and power.

4. They bring no relationships with them: By the time someone qualifies for a senior position in a new company, they almost universally have significant experience in doing similar things elsewhere in the past. A natural by-product of this experience, is the development of strong relationships with staff, customers and suppliers. One of the biggest red flags I look for when working with a new senior person or leader, is if they bring few or no customers, staff or suppliers with them. In general, a narcissist can be adept at superficial charm for short periods, but the inevitable slide into their baser personalities means few of them develop relationships that last the test of time.

5. They divide and conquer: Narcissistic leaders can be very good at masking their own negative impacts on an organisation by constantly undermining staff to their peers, and creating tension between co-workers. Always remember, if a senior person is prepared to gossip about one of your colleagues with you, her she is most likely willing to gossip with one of your colleagues about you.

6. They lie: This, in my view, is the biggest red flag of all. If your leader regularly and blatantly lies, you’re probably dealing with a narcissist. Often the lies can be trivial, but I have seen examples where very senior leaders have heavily embellished their work histories and accomplishments to attain the position in the first place.

7. Nobody privately defends them: Remember, some people are polarising. There are leaders that upset people or have some abrasive traits, but generally, all, most or at least some people will defend them on the grounds of competence or effectiveness. Lenny Bruce once famously said, “the audience is a genius.” If some or all of these ten traits are present in a leader in your organisation and privately, none of your colleagues disagree that he or she displays them, then this is a strong indication you’re dealing with a narcissist.

8. They cannot be challenged: A very big warning sign that your boss is a narcissist is his or her reaction to being challenged on an opinion. A true leader welcomes diversity of views from the organisation. However, a narcissist has a tendency to see such a challenge as an affront to his or her belief that they hold the ultimate knowledge and decision making power. If your boss gets mad every time you disagree with their views, you guessed it, you probably have a narcissist on your hands.

9. They limit subordinates access to the organisations leadership: Ever worked somewhere and had a leader make the attendance group at the senior leadership meeting or board meeting progressively smaller and smaller? This is another manifestation of the narcissists need for absolute control. They simply do not want dissenting views getting airtime, especially in front of their own superiors. This is something that boards in particular need to be very wary of, as they may be receiving a very skewed message about what’s really happening within the organisation.

10. They’re hypocrites: This one is very self-explanatory. Memo: “Dear staff, in an effort to reduce costs, all travel will be limited to minimum fares, Hyundai Getz rental cars (no offence Hyundai Getz owners) and 2 star Hotels. Except for me of course who will continue to sit up the front of the plane for obvious reasons.

The obvious next question is, how do people with these seemingly abrasive character traits get senior leadership roles in the first place? This question actually answers itself. Narcissists have grandiose views of their own abilities and can be extremely convincing at expressing this during an interview process. By the time a true narcissist has the credentials and experience to apply for very senior roles, he or she has become extremely adept at telling prospective employers what they want to hear, and it takes a very skilled interviewer to root them out.

So, what do you do if you work for a narcissist? There are three real options, and unfortunately none of them are easy:

1. Acquiesce and just deal with the negatives that come with working for someone that behaves in this way: This is a tough option. For most of us, if you take sleep out of the equation, work is more than half of our life. In my personal view, spending that much of your life dealing with a toxic leader cannot be worth it, regardless of the financial rewards or other benefits.You will not grow under a narcissistic leader unless you derive pleasure from kissing up to to someone that treats you poorly.

2. Wait it out: Once again, this can be tough. You have the same problems with acquiescence, but often, narcissists get found out by their superiors and are moved on. I would recommend waiting a narcissist out only if you set yourself a date for exit, if the organisation does not act.

3. Get out now: This is always the preferred option. To paraphrase the great Sun Tsu, “A good General knows when to fight, but a great General knows when to run.” Narcissists love to fight, especially when they’re in the senior role. If you wrestle with pigs, you tend to get covered in mud and send the pig home very pleased with himself. There is no chance of a happy life under a narcissist. It truly is better to die on your feet than live on your knees, so in my view, run, run, run as fast as you can.

Senior managers and even boards need to be aware how destructive a narcissistic leader can be to the value of an organisation, and how easily they can fly under the radar. At the end of the day, we can employ people to perform various tasks throughout a business and meander along "getting tasks done." What an organisation should really be looking for from their staff, is to treat them, and remunerate them in such as fashion as to elicit their discretionary effort. It’s this “extra mile,” approach that ends up separating your business from your competitors.

Pay careful attention to your staff surveys and seek advice from people who are skilled at rooting out toxic leaders. Staff engagement leads to customer advocacy which leads to shareholder value. Be wary not to let a destructive leader undermine the culture that’s needed to deliver these outcomes.My own experiences in this area have been rare but very distressing at times.

I hope the above may resonate with some of you who may have experience in dealing with these difficult characters. I’m very interested in everyone’s views and experiences on working for someone who goes a step beyond being a tough boss and into the realm of genuine narcissism.