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Did You Know is not enough.

More and more we see presentations like this one. I like to call it the Chicken Little phenomenon. The world is changing so fast, we're going to be left behind. Reality is, of course, that the telephone, the internal combustion engine, television, even the Cotton Ginny had as much effect on society, the economy and our futures as the internet. The Internet is already twenty years old. Life has not ended as we know it.

Change is what we make of it. Strategy is how we use time and effort to succeed. The question is not "Did you know"; it is "What does it mean?" and "Why is this important?". Jumping to conclusions - that led to the internet bubble of the '90s. Look how well that turned out.

Life is about to change again

Cute video of girl band playing with gadgets or the first sign that there is an emerging digital lifestyle that's going to complete change your customers' expectations and how you'll have to demonstrate value to them?

Back after a long time away

Well, there was a death in the family and a lot happened, but I'm on the other side of the hill and I'll be posting pretty regularly now. Been co-authoring a book on municipal strategy development. Excerpts are likely to be previewed.

Sorry about the lack of posts

There have been a dearth of posts, I know, but I've spent that last few months dealing with a family illness. I'll be back posting pretty soon.

It's all Greek to me

Okay, this one is a little esoteric.

Thousands of years ago the Greeks laid down the foundations of what we call logic. Logic is basis of how we think and draw conclusions in the Western world. In doing this, they identified several errors of logic that continue to bore first year university students to this day.

There are two, however, that should be of interest to business leaders. The Error of Construction and the Error of Division.

The Error of Construction tells us that you cannot assume that the characteristics or interests of the individuals that make up a group are also the characteristics or the interests of that group. Simply said, a company made up of all hard-working people isn't automatically making great progress. All the individuals may be hard-working, but they could be working hard on the wrong things or working hard against each other.

Conversely, the Error of Division tells us you cannot assume that the characteristics or interests of a group are necessarily the characteristics or interests of the individuals that make it up. So, a company may have a great business plan, but that doesn't mean that it has great managers or even great planners.

Now just because you can't assume, doesn't mean it can't be so. There are companies that make great progress and have all hard-working employees, but it means that this was thought through, planned for and managed to be that way. The error would be thinking that all you have to do is to hire hard-working people to build a great company. You have to give them structure and process, rewards and recognition, strategy and vision to link them to the success of the company.

Also, don't be surprised if a great decision for the company is resisted by its employees. One client decided that it would be easier to lock down the desktops of its workstations to better and more easily manage its computer assets. Overnight, all the pictures of family, handy little shortcuts, even where icons were placed disappeared in favor of a generic desktop. The next morning, management was faced with a minor mutiny by all the support staff. A change might be a good thing, but it needs to be planned, communicated, even adjusted and the transition needs to be managed.

Take it from the ancient Greeks. The challenges of management have existed for a long time.

Nice Backswing, No Follow Through

Nice backswing, no follow through, that's the way a client described his organization. There are plenty of reasons that an organization can plan well, develop ideas well and not implement those initiatives well. The problem is usually that the planning process in the organization is well developed, but there is no implementation process, especially when implementation requires cross functional cooperation.

Typically, then, management meets and decides, "That's a good idea; lets do it". Unfortunately, that's the extent of the implementation process. At the next meeting, someone asks, "Whatever happened to that idea?", and the matter dies at the meeting table.

Implementation is a different activity from planning or idea generation. Organizations that are successful in implementation have a set of tools that they use to carry it out. And to be most successful, these tools need to be customised to each organization's unique culture. The hallmarks of a good implementation process though, are:

1. The process should have visible Executive support and active interest.
2. It respects the nature of authority and accountability. If someone is accountable for a project, that person must have the authority to muster resources, found a work team and lead the work. Conversely, that project should have a budget, a timeline and defined deliverables and that leader should be accountable to that.
3. The project should be supported by frequent and comprehensive communication especially about any changes that affects employees, functional areas or business processes.
4. Successful implementations should be celebrated and the key players should be recognised for their effort.
5. The process has to be in harmony with the business culture. A good business culture not only helps employees make hundreds of correct decisions every day, but should also be the source of trust in the organization. Most implementations are also change initiatives. Change is usually seen as a threat.

Good ideas can be stillborn in your organization unless you have a process to bring them to life. Capitalize on the strength of your culture to empower execution and change and the whole effort will seem natural, easy and successful.

What did I buy these damned machines for?

Many business owners see technology as a neccessary evil that is a potential black hole of cost. You have to have a computer because your customer and vendors want to email you. Your books are electronic. Your employees need tools. But, the system is always down, there is always an update to buy and your IT people speak a different language.

Keep three priniciples in mind to manage your technology and your IT staff:

1. Stability, are your systems secure and running as you need them?
   
2. Predictability, when you make a change to the system, do you know how it will react?
   
3. Exploitability, does technology give you a productivity gain?

There is a tendancy in IT to combat boredom by investing a different set of principles:

1. Upgradeability, are we running the latest version or technology even if it is untested?
2. Expandability, are we running the biggest and latest machines?
3. Novelty, do we have the newest gadgets?

Technology is very seductive to those who are comfortable with it. What is cool and exciting is new and "bleeding edge". Unfortunately, it is also not fully tested nor bug free and creates a little too much excitement for a business environment. The reliable machines that will turn on, boot up and process your work are often a generation behind the suped up box that your network guys are tweaking at home. The software that doesn't crash and is resistant to hackers is an older version than the beta version that IT is "testing". There is a time to upgrade, expand and invest in the new, but these activities are in support of the first three principles of using technology for business.

Bacon and Egg Fry Up or Rice Porridge for Breakfast?

The bulk of my work deals with business culture. It's the core concept for most corporate work and the one that leaders seem to want the most advice about. Changes in the workplace, successfully bringing two or more businesses together, strategic planning, all of these activities are based in managing and enhancing business culture.

Why is that? Think about culture in general. A person who is successfully acclimated to a culture makes hundreds of correct decisions every day without even thinking about it. It starts from what they select for breakfast, what to wear for the day's activities, how they travel to work or school, what language they use to communicate with others to ultimately how they feel about themselves at the end of the day. How well would a business run if each employee was able to make hundreds of correct decisions each day without any other guidance than the prevailing business culture?

Of all of the work I do, this is the most rewarding kind of assignment. They are usually tremendous win-win situations for management, employees and the bottom line. One CEO told me that he now realizes that his job was to manage the culture which he credits with a doubling of his bottom line. Bingo! Here's the Coles Notes on business culture:

1. Executive management has to commit to the culture like Cortez burning his ships on arriving in the New World
2. The CEO or President needs to lead the culture and its development
   
3. Management, at all levels, needs to participate in the finalization of the culture, and be its first converts
   
4. Culture is the result of human interaction accept the time this will take
5. Human interaction is communication, communication cannot be overdone
6. Use culture as the basis of behaviourial management
7. Capture, assign accountability, track and evaluate your implementation steps
8. Be open and transparent

How do you know you need to be concerned about your business culture?

1. You've done all the strategic and operational planning, but you feel you're getting mediocre results
2. You don't feel that you're the first choice for the best employees and you're concerned about staff turnover
3. There is more in-fighting in your organization than taking on the competition
4. You ask a dozen employees, "What does success mean in our business?" and you get three or more different answers or no answer at all
5. You feel that you are doing everything and nothing happens without your personal attention
6. You just acquired a company and it is critical to retain the employees of the target firm
7. You have the sense that there is a lot of activity, even people burning out, but little result to show for it
8. Leaders are blaming followers

One of the most rewarding engagements we were involved in was a client recognized as one of the fifty best managed companies in Canada with a long and successful history. Surprisingly to us and management, when we asked, "What does your corporate vision mean to you?" to their executive and senior management groups we received four different answers. Four different visions of success divided the company into four camps, four sub-cultures, competing with each other for resources, recognition and status. Our task was to coach the CEO in leading an integration of the cultures and ultimately in developing a new expression of strategy. According to him, he has seen results in:

1. Departmental cooperation and capacity
2. Management decision-making
   
3. Management and employee morale
4. Employees stepping up to the plate and making contributions
5. Bottom-line revenue
   

What do you look like at the paddock?

I get a lot of questions from people starting a business and about writing a business plan. Rightfully so, a business plan is a critical document for starting any business. It is the most important piece of communication for investors, your bank, early vendors and shareholders. It is important, though, to understand what a business plan is and is not. A business plan is a snapshot of your business or your intended business at it exists at the time of writing with a snapshot of its financial state (including needs) at that time. A business plan is not a marketing plan, an operational plan or a strategic plan, though it should reference these other plans liberally.

The biggest concern I get is which template should I use for my business plan? The answer is usually, if this is the template that your potential audience gave you, use it. The truth is that all business plan templates cover the same areas sometimes with different headings or in a different order, but essentially the same subject matter. The trap is, though, successful completion of a template is not writing a successful business plan. Too many would be entrepreneurs can't figure out why their business plan doesn't get the interest they expected; afterall, we filled in the template.

Look at it this way. Just because you brought a horse to the derby, doesn't mean that it'll win or that anyone will bet on it. A horse in a race has a standard template. It has four legs, a neck and a back on which is a jockey. Horses that don't meet the template are weeded out before the starting gate. There are no horses in the race with more or less than four legs, for instance. An educated bettor or investor is going to read their racing form - the industry analysis, apply their individual knowledge and experience and then head down to the paddock. There they will size up all the horses, all of which meet the standard template. But, which horse would they bet on? They're going to look for a horse with tight muscle tone, an air of contained power, anxious to run but not skittish. Then, they're going to look at the jockey, a history of winning, able to bring that horse in, knows when to urge the horse on and when to let him run on his own.

These are the things that beyond the standard template that make for a successful business plan. Business plan templates tend to encourage a generic response when you need to be showing more muscle tone. We tend to make business decisions based on theory and process and forget the human element. Don't forget the needs of your audience.

What makes you look good at the paddock?

1. A compelling need in the market place for your product or service.
2. A product or services that satisfys that need.
3. A product or services that can be quickly brought to market
4. An understanding of who your customer is and how you're going to reach him/her.
5. An operational plan that supports getting your product or service to that customer in the most efficient manner possible.
6. A management team that's got the pedigree to get the ball over the goal line.

Above all don't be shy to aggressively answer the number one question in any investor's mind: "If I write you a check, do you know what you're going to do with my money tomorrow morning to create value for me?"

That's how to look good at the paddock.

The Difference Between Real and Feel

I am a business strategist, so what does that mean? Business strategy is golf. You stand on the tee box. You take into account your environment: Is the tee elevated or are you hitting up hill? Where is the wind blowing, at the tee box, at the flag? Where are the hazards that you can see? What does the yardage book tell you? You then select a club, visualize the path you want the ball to take, set up, use the experience that your muscles remember and take your swing. Now, typically you didn't see all the hazards, the wind died as you struck the ball, you hit a little thin or gave it a slice, you hit a sprinkler head. So, you find your ball, re-evaluate the environment, fairway or rough, flat or side-hill, sitting up or in a divot. You might re-evaluate your goals: Can't make birdie but should still make par. You select a club, envision your shot and try again. You go through the same cycle of re-evaluation and fine tuning until the ball is in the hole. Hopefully, you congratulate yourself on a birdie, but you may be planning the next hole to recover from a bogie. Business strategy is follows the same pattern. Evaluate your market, your competitors, your own capabilities, then act. Evaluate your progress, re-evaluate your tactics and goals, then act again.

Now could you write that approach to each hole down in advance? Of course, you could. Would it be the way that you actually play the hole on any given day? Of course, not. Would having thought through the hole help you play it on that day? Yes. Business strategy, like course management, helps prepare you to make better decisions in real life circumstances. Do you know when to try and make the hero shot or bump it back onto the fairway? Chance favours the prepared mind. Thinking about strategy should first and foremost prepare your mind, the plan writes itself afterwards.

So, why does a creature like me exist? A business strategist? For the same reason that the best golf player in the world has a coach, the difference between real and feel. Even Tiger Woods only knows how his stroke feels, he needs a third party observer to tell him what is real about his stroke. This is why world class business hires world class advice. Even the best businesses are constrained by their experience and "feel" of their operations. A third party can bring an objective evaluation and new techniques, even new psychology to help the best perform better. Especially, if you want that ten extra yards or to shave five strokes off your score.

The rest of us, well, we all play better after a lesson or two.

Hello World

This is a blog about the work I do as an advisor to business leaders. My background is more academic than MBA, so I have a belief that ideas get better through sharing them. Hopefully, something here helps someone trying to grow a good business that hires good people and allows them to make a good living.