You Can't Shrink Your Company into Greatness

Some things change and some things stay the same. Just think that 65 years ago in 1954, a film called Executive Suite focused on the boardroom battles of Tredway Corporation, a furniture company, after the founder suddenly died without a succession plan. That former president changed the culture of the company by walking the factory floor and tossing badly made furniture. Now, furniture is certainly not as exciting as tech or social media or search, but for those of you into history, manufacturing was the norm post World War 2.

The movie and its themes, however, are as relevant then as they are today. Check out https://youtu.be/vcEOsGvT0qA which shows William Holden's final climactic boardroom scene where he talks about innovation vs. cost reduction and pride that the workers feel in building good products. Think about today and how corporations act to improve current earnings so the street is appeased. And think about the company for which you want to work. This movie was an expose on the machinations of big business. It showed power struggles, behind the scenes scheming for power and leadership, and the reluctance of one person to compromise his ideals for the good of the company. Interestingly, all the executives felt that they had the best interests of the company at heart.

It came down to is Loren Shaw (played by Frederic March) vs Don Walling (played by William Holden) in the battle between cost savings and accounting vs product quality and innovation. Shaw used short-term accounting gains and cost reductions to satisfy the stockholders. Walling was more concerned about the quality of the company's products, better manufacturing processes, and new products to grow the company and infuse passion into the workers.

Walling's enthusiasm, vision, and his stirring boardroom speech won over the entire board in the end. But you have to watch this stirring performance to appreciate the battle and the climax.

Memorable quotes:

A good movie, to me, has some great memorable quotes and this movie certain has them as well. Here are four memorable quotes as relevant today as they were nearly 65 years ago:

Ø  Stop growing and you die.

Ø  Grabbing for the quick and easy is the sure thing that is just a lack of faith in the future.

Ø  The force behind a great company has to be more than the pride of one man; it has to be the pride of thousands.

Ø  Never ask a man to do anything that will poison his pride or work.

I know I can relate to these concepts and hold the belief that you cannot shrink yourself into greatness by cost reduction and a focus on the present. Being afraid to innovate is the kiss of death. Think about Blockbuster, Kodak, Toys R Us, Radio Shack, Sports Authority, and Borders among others. Some imploded because their business models were obsolete while others did not take advantage of new technology. Yet, others failed to appreciate the seriousness of the competition and failed to react to it.

Lessons Learned:

The themes in the movie from 65 years ago are relevant today. Here are a few takeaways.

1. Stay true to yourself. If you don’t like politics in business, start your own company. If you want to stay in corporate America, you have to learn to play the game.
2. Build relationships around you- in the company for which you work, in your office area, and with suppliers. I used to believe that being the smartest person in the room was the key to success. A lot of people are equally smart. But it is the combination of innate intelligence (IQ), Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and Business Intelligence (BQ) built on a platform of relationships with people that will enable success.
3. Innovation is the heartbeat of business. Innovation can be in products, in processes or even the way people are treated and led.
4. Passion is critical to building a strong company. Every worker should have passion in what they are doing and feel that they can contribute to the success of their company. An engaged workforce where each employee believes they are part owner of the company- and get compensated accordingly- will help a company grow.
5.   Always look to the future. Craft a vision on where you want to be and get aligned to your vision and cause.

C-Level Partners has been established to help executives build value for their companies. Whether the company needs to increase value because the owner wants to retire, or whether the company needs to change because their growth curve has flattened, we can help. Feel free to reach out to me at dfriedman@clevelpartners.net or call me at 949 439-4503 for a free 45 minute consultation of how we can help your company grow. As Satchel Paige said:  don’t look back: someone may be gaining on you.

Do More By Doing Less

Courtesy Huffington Post

Susan Howington, founder and CEO of Power Connections, hosts a meeting of top level business executives from around Orange County. At these round tables she raises a topic of interest and executives discuss and share their points of view. It’s very interesting and engaging and all of us learn from each other.

Recently, Susan brought together a dozen executives with backgrounds in general management, operations, sales, marketing and human resources. Susan started off by reading a recent Wall Street Journal article from January 2018 entitled: How to Succeed in Business: Do Less. That article basically said that it’s best to do fewer tasks and obsess over getting them right. Another study of 5000 executives referenced in the round table, provided insight into how top producers work. In this study, the key to success revolved around mastering selectivity on what was to get done and saying NO to bosses.

It was unanimous within the group that FOCUS is critical to executive success and to a company. It was no longer the norm to work harder. The goal is to work smarter and by working on fewer “priorities” success would follow. This doesn’t mean you forget about everything that is on your list of 50+ activities that need to be accomplished. Rather, this list is maintained. Select the top three activities and then as one is complete you add another to the top three list. Focus is critical. I remember an employee at one of my companies that came to me with a list of more than 100 items and was overwhelmed. I sat down with her and tried to prioritize those 100 into some sequence to get her to focus on the most important. I cannot say it was a perfect success, but we did agree by eventually using pairwise comparison, which activities were on top of the list. And then I told her I would only evaluate her on the top three activities and when those were complete we would modify her objectives and add the next priority. She was not happy but she acquiesced.

During the round table discussion, some attendant questions were addressed:

1. How do you prioritize personal needs with business needs?
2. How do you find what is the most important in the corporate world?
3. How do you say no to bosses?

How do you prioritize personal needs with business needs?

• Executives must balance both personal and corporate needs. We hear about work / life balance and millennials especially want to ensure this balance is maintained.
• Ensure you know what you want to do. Start with a personal vision/mission statement. For example, mine is to build businesses and build the next generation of business leaders. Make sure there is time set aside each week to do one or two things that help support your self-vision.
• On the corporate side, ensure you understand the business strategy and the metrics the business will use to determine success. Then make sure you develop a maximum of one to three things and make sure your results support those corporate metrics.

How do you find out what is most important in a corporate world?

• On the corporate side, ensure you understand the business strategy and the metrics the business will use to determine success. Then make sure you develop a maximum of one to three things and make sure your results support those corporate metrics.
• Market research can be used to determine what is important to focus on. Notwithstanding the corporate strategy and business plan, market research can obtain information on what is important to the customer and how well the company performs on that attribute. The results can be plotted on a Quad map. (See my prior blogs for a detailed description.) Priorities should be given to those attributes that are important to a customer and which are performed well (leverage and maintain those activities) as well as those that are important yet not performed well. Those have to be corrected and might form strategic initiatives for the company.
• Once you determine what is important to do, you have to determine how that task or activity fits on the importance/urgency scale. Certainly if something is urgent and important, it has to get done. However, the key to success is to determine what is important and NOT urgent and prioritize those activities so you have time to do them right.

·     What happens when you have a boss that says, “We will work from morning til night until everything is done,” and then keeps adding more activities and chores to the list? I know I have had those types of bosses. Sometimes you have to say no and it is how you say no that may be critical. Of course you can try to quote Warren Buffet who said: ”The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” In my opinion, you can do this only if you have succeeded in prior projects and earned that type of respect. But what happens when the boss is adamant?

How do you say no to bosses?

• Develop your list of activities and work with your boss to determine the top three things that need to get accomplished.
• Use the concept of SMART (specific, measurable, accountable, responsible, time limited) goals or management by objectives to set up the goal, metric for success, and time when the objective will be accomplished.
• Ask for more time or help to accomplish projects or activities that are important to the boss.
• Note: the participants at the round table suggested that if the boss will not agree on prioritization and other negative cultural habits crop up, that environment could be toxic and it might be time to find another job. Most bosses will listen to reason – at least we hope.

Once these three questions are addressed, you have to execute. Here are some prescriptions to help execute your priorities:

• Use your calendar to block specific time slots, making a meeting with yourself, to accomplish your priorities.
• Answer emails only at selected times during the day, e.g. first thing in the morning, before lunch, and before you leave for the day. Many of us hear the little email tone signaling “you’ve got mail” and we respond immediately.
• Select a personal advisory board to help you keep focused on the important tasks both personally and for business.
• Develop a corporate battle rhythm to focus on those important activities and plan them out on a calendar with the right people in attendance. As a correlate, don’t have meetings without a clear agenda and expected outcomes and don’t invite people if they are really not needed at the meeting.
• Develop executive alignment on strategic initiatives through the strategic planning process. Use a facilitator to help define the priorities. Market research that provides input from customers on importance and performance can be used as the basis for that alignment and the executive team can multi-vote on the most important strategic initiatives.

This blog is only meant to touch the surface of what we discussed and the answers in many companies are probably more complex. Yet the round table discussion was a great start to get us to think about how focus and prioritization will make us more productive. And saying NO to bosses, while scary at times, is the right way to help you, them, and the company to be more successful in the long run.

If you have any questions or want to continue the dialog, contact me at dfriedman@clevelpartners.net or Susan Howington at susan@powerconnectionsinc.com. 

The Pen IS Mightier than the Computer- Sort Of!

Many people who know me realize that I collect pens- fountain pens. Some of my collection is shown on the left.  Last year I went to the LA Pen Show for the first time and it was packed around the mezzanine of a Marriott Hotel.   Today, I received an article from an investment group and the writer, Patrick Wilson, Senior Economic Analyst for Maudlin Economics (@PatrickW) wrote an interesting piece which resonated with me.  I wanted to share that.

As an angel investor with TechCoastAngels (www.techcoastangels.com) we listen to pitches to see which companies are investable for our investor group.  After each presentation we take notes and provide comments- both what we like and concerns.  I recall one time when a colleague was to take notes but he did not have a pen and paper and he had to find his computer.   (Of course, I offered him a pad and pen but he politely declined.)   When I read this article and thought back to my days in school and even the way I do stock and market analysis for investments, marketing, or just learning, it made me realize a few things.

First, as Patrick points out the newest technology isn’t always the best tool for the job nor as helpful as you think it might be. Recall the acronym KISS.   Pens are KISS at the right time and place.

Patrick wrote

For instance, recently I saw a Quartz article on cursive handwriting. Many schools that stopped teaching it now realize that was a mistake. Research shows that writing by hand actually helps your brain work better.

The reasons for taking handwriting seriously are worth considering even if you’re not a kid or a parent worried about education. Anyone can benefit from penmanship’s cognitive benefits, whether you’re taking notes at a meeting or just trying to figure out what you think.

Brain scans during the two activities also show that forming words by hand as opposed to on a keyboard leads to increased brain activity. Scientific studies of children and adults show that wielding a pen when taking notes, rather than typing, is associated with improved long-term information retention, better thought organization, and increased ability to generate ideas.

That matches my own experience. I used to see people at conferences taking notes on their computers and feel a little embarrassed to bring out my paper notepad. But having tried both, I found that handwriting is faster, and I retain the information better.

For all our whiz-bang technology, it turns out that a pen and notepad work better than the latest “notebook” computers and you never have to recharge them. (They’re also hackproof, at least for me. No one else can read my writing even if they steal my notepad.)

I liked the article on several levels.  First, find the right tool for the problem.  If a company is looking to do a marketing campaign, they might not need an Oracle system for a direct mail program but rather Get Response or even an Outlook plug in depending on their list size.   If a company has a large project to manage, should they use Microsoft Project or something like Odoo?  The answer is it all depends on circumstance, complexity, skills of the people using the tools and the like.

If you have questions on tools to be used in business, I would be glad to chat.  Or if you just want to talk about fountain pens we can do that as well.  BTW from left to right, the fountain pens are: Delta Dolce Vita Large, Visconti Cosmo, Pelican 800, ST DuPont Orpheo Palladium, and Waterman LeMans 100.   Contact me at dfriedman@clevelpartners.net or 949 4394503. 

Communications for Strategic Advantage: The Voice of Leadership

                          The art of communications is the language of leadership.    

                                                             James Humes, author and presidential speechwriter.  

I was always taught as a youngster that if you are smart people will listen.  How UNTRUE.  Certainly being smart is important but it is the tone, tenor and communications style you use that makes you real powerful and a person to whom people want to listen.  Think about the people in your life – be it at home or in the office- and see how you react to them in different situations.  Learning the key traits to communicating is both an art and a science.

I had the privilege of listening to Victor Dominguez, Managing Partner of Ligature Group provide a keynote talk at a recent Masters Lunch.  Victor is a communications pro and a “creative” with an advertising background. His consultancy focuses on building authentic communications with people and to move relationships from the initial stages of building trust to forming strategic partnerships.

Here are some of his pearls of wisdom from his talk.  Frankly I wish I learned this as a first time executive as I would have been able to build relationships faster.

      1. There are 10 cultural conflicts which undermine a  company’s success
            a.      Fear
            b.      Blame
            c.      Workaround
            d.      Assumptions
            e.      Backsliding
            f.       Lack of Accountability
            g.      Organizational Silos
            h.      Gossip
            i.       Disrespect
            j.       Chronic Dysfunctional Behavior

    2. Employees can resolve conflict  without special training by focusing on
           a.       Respect
           b.      Trust
           c.       Listening and identifying shared goals
           d.       Advise
           e.      Change
    3.  Align communications with ethics and actions
           a.       Do the right thing
           b.       For the right reason
           c.       Do it the right way
   4.    It’s not about the words you use; it’s about what people hear
   5.    Build trust and respect by
           a.       Asking questions
           b.       Listen actively and purposefully
   6.    Communicating with Millennials seems to be hard but is really easy
           a.     Millennials don’t like BS!
                        i.      Avoid corporate talk
                        ii      Say it straight and don’t talk down to a millennial
           b.   Focus on the end goal to solve a problem
           c.    Recognize them for their results- then again, who doesn’t like kudos and recognition?
   7.    The ability to learn faster than your competition may be the only sustainable competitive                advantage.

Of the 7 items listed I know that early in my career I violated several of these tenets.   Thankfully I have learned from my mistakes.  The good news is that many younger executives and even more “mature” ones should pay attention to these pearls of wisdom as the combination of smarts and communications skills will make you more effective faster.

Do you agree or disagree with this blog?  Let me know and please like it and share it as you see fit.

The 7 Cornerstones of StreetSavvy℠ Leadership

The topic of leadership has come up more and more in the past month through articles in the popular press and streams on my LinkedIn page. I have commented on several articles – and even commented on the comments – because I think some of the information and concepts are either too simplistic or incorrect. For example, I read one article that relayed the one leadership skill that could change a company from good to great. It was click bait to me but I clicked …….. and commented about its incompleteness!!!!

Leadership has many facets. When you read the leadership gurus like Peter Drucker, Warren Bennis and John Maxwell, they talk about leaders having influence and followers. That is certainly true. For a more current view, I like John Maxwell’s thinking on leadership because he has a more integrative approach covering 21 indispensable qualities of the leader, and 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. He, too, touched on many components of leadership and his insights are excellent. But I don’t believe even he goes far enough.

I want to add to this thinking by talking about StreetSavvy℠   Leadership. This is my take, not from merely studying others and codifying what I observed, but also because I lived it and had both successes and failures as a leader. Regardless of your position in the organization, you will have both success and failure as leader. Witness the rise and fall of luminary leaders such as Jeff Immelt who took over GE and is struggling with the growth of the company. And let’s look at leaders who were successful in one company but failed to capture success in their next company … or vice versa. 

I am a NY Yankee fan and remember when the Yankees hired Joe Torre. Torre was not a good manager with the Mets, Braves and Cardinals and compiled records marginally below .500. But with the Yankees, who saw something unique, he was able to win 4 world championships and 2 additional pennants. Granted, they had great players (competencies) in that era as well but Torre was the leader and a lesser manager might not have been as successful.

StreetSavvy Leadership blends theory with reality and execution to garner results. It is leadership within the context of the company and the environment in which the company operates. Leadership without positive results in business is being a pretender. StreetSavvy Leadership means doing things differently than before to grow your business and protect against mediocrity. StreetSavvy Leadership looks at data and transforms data into knowledge and gives that knowledge to the right people closest to the decision point and trusts them to make the right decision. It means setting the right vision and ensuring alignment among all members of the exec team and throughout the organization to execute effectively and efficiently.

Here are the 7 Cornerstones to StreetSavvy Leadership:

1. Set actionable vision. The vision has to be credible and recognized to be eventually achievable even if there is no clear path to that end. Recall when President Kennedy said: our vision is to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Vision is achieved by looking at the 3 Cs – customers, competitors and competencies – and ensuring that the company knows the best way to grow relative to these three components. The vision may be such that one or more of the three C’s must change over time.
2. Keep a mindful eye on the environment and adjust. Within this construct is a concept called PEST – political, economic, social and technology changes. The leader needs to watch for changes in all of these factors and be prepared to manage responses relative to the shifts in some or all of these factors. Clearly the leader doesn’t do that on his or her own, but tasks different groups or select individuals to keep a watchful eye.
3. Build a sustainable team.  Unless you are a one person company, leaders have to hire, train, manage, and motivate people in their organizations to achieve success. I recall one definition of leadership is to get ordinary people to extraordinary things. That is partially true. The StreetSavvy Leader understands that a strong team needs to be built and that employees want to see a solid career path. That encourages loyalty and ensures that the top employees rise to the top. However, there is a time and place to hire from the outside and not merely from the competition. If every company in the industry hired from a competitor, eventually all companies will regress to the mean, ceteris paribus. However, the StreetSavvy Leader might hire from an entirely different industry or for entirely different skills to ensure that the company doesn’t become too internally focused and can challenge its own prevailing wisdom. Training, shadowing, mentoring and other assignments make the employees well rounded. A formal program for top 10% of the execs should also be in place as both a reward and expectation of future success. IBM for many years and GE have successfully established internal programs to supplement the training of the top tier executives.
4. Establish the right culture. Would you want to work for a leader who sets a punitive culture such that if bad news is given the leader goes ballistic? Or work for a leader who fails to recognize the success of individuals in the company yet accepts the kudos for him/herself? I worked for one boss who liked to yell at people who brought bad news to the executive meetings. I realized many years ago that I would rather meet that bad news head on and ask the executive who brought the bad news for prescriptions to manage the impact of the bad news. That reinforces the concept of responsible management and ensures that each person in the organization has the obligation to find solutions to problems.
5. Practice open book management. People need to feel part of the organization. Ideally they should feel like part owners and have the opportunity to own a stake in the company. To do that I am a firm believer in sharing the financials and metrics that the company uses to determine success. Once these metrics and financials are shared, it would be incumbent for the executive and managers down the line to work with their people such that each person in the organization understands their role in creating revenue or managing cost. By doing this, each person can see how their job affects the success or failure of the company.
6. Live the 5F Factors. There are five factors that characterize the StreetSavvy Leader. They are Focus, Fast Afoot, Fluidity, Flexibility, and Fast Failure. The business world shifts quickly and these five F factors enable the leader and the company to be nimble and take advantage of opportunities.
7. Seek self-improvement. I personally have never been satisfied with who I am and what I can be. Executives have to continue to improve functional skills but also should improve in their understanding of business issues. Unfortunately, in the business world, I have seen too many CEOs and other high ranking executives believe that once they hit that lofty pinnacle, they can stop improving. Self-improvement takes place on many levels. Executives can and should continue learning by participating in peer groups, reading various business journals and biographies of successful leaders, and even self-improvement books. Having an executive coach and advisor can help as an external sounding board and someone who is not fearful telling the emperor so to speak – that he or she has no clothes. Three sixty and employee survey results which should be shared with the team can be used to help the executive understand his/her style of communications which may affect the organization’s growth. And to understand the business, what better way to do that than becoming an undercover boss or walking the production line or working as a customer service rep or front desk employee or even a bellhop or maid. I don’t believe these are radical ideas and they should be considered if you want to improve to eventually be a StreetSavvy Leader.

Jimmy Dean said: You cannot change the wind but (a leader) can always adjust his sails to reach the destination. How true. StreetSavvy Leadership reflects the Jimmy Dean quote. It is something that can be learned and if used correctly I believe it offers the best chance of success for a company. I would be glad to hear your thoughts. Feel free to comment, share and repost and let’s continue this dialog. My email is dfriedman@clevelpartners.net.

5 tools for the StreetSavvy Business Executive to Grow a Business.

I just read an article in CBInsights regarding a post mortem of more than 200 companies that failed.  It made me think if there is a way to prevent failure or provide insight into potential failures and errors that could be prevented and corrected a priori. 

To that end, we have developed a series of 20 tools that can be used by the StreetSavvy Business Executive that can help diagnose problems and provide data upon which better decisions can be made.   Over the next several weeks, I will share 5 tools per week for our readers’ use. 

Let me reiterate the definition of a StreetSavvy Business Executive.  It is a person in charge, normally in the executive suite, that has responsibility for a program or function or department, and who doesn’t follow the crowd.  Their goal is to find opportunities- call them blue ocean or impulse events- which prevent their business entity from regressing to the mean of mediocrity.  Following the crowd is not in their DNA.  They want to create their own path to success and by so doing, distance themselves from the crowd.

There are many tools, constructs, and paradigms we, at C-Level Partners, use to find solutions to complex problems.  We are glad to share those with our readers in our blogs, seminars and other media.  To that end, we put together this collection of tools and a brief description that we use to help companies.  Here are the first five tools. Feel free to provide comments and “like” them and share with whomever you believe can use them.  And feel free to contact me at dfriedman@clevelpartners.net or call at 949 439-4503.

PRASE℠     

This is C-Level Partners basic way we analyze problems. It is like a super gap and it is a very disciplined approach to solving complex problems. This methodology is applicable in any situation where value creation is inhibited.

Problem definition (description of) the current state and why it is insufficient

Root cause identification (what is causing the problem or constraint to achieving the goal)

Analysis of the desired future state (what it will look like when a problem is fixed or constraint lifted)

Steps needed to develop specific prescriptions and priorities to get from “here” to “there” (people, process, technology and governance)

Engage in an action plan based on priorities, organization, delegation, and follow up to achieve your goal state)  

Side-by-Side Matrix. 

Market research comes in many forms, shapes and sizes.  There is one tool that can be utilized more in market research and that is the side by side matrix.  This enables the business executive to collect data on two or more dimensions to get a broader view of attributes important to a constituent.  Not all survey vehicles offer this type of system yet Survey Monkey to a degree and QuestionPro offer very good templates and tools for use in conducting this research.   When coupled with the Quad Maps (because they visually depict answers in two dimensions, the results can be very powerful.  From Question Pro (www.questionpro.com ) here’s the construct of the side-by-side matrix.

While these questions may be easy to frame, think about categorizing questions.  For example, we categorized questions as customer service and support, retail experience, web experience, product breadth, sales reps, and other categories.  Within each category we subdivided the questions to get some more granularity.  

Using this tool and plotting it on a “quad map” is ideal to visual what you can leverage and what strategic initiatives need to be put into place.

For one wireless company using this research, the company was able to realign its strategy and marketing budget.  The results showed the company what was important and for those activities that they performed well, the marketing plan was able to leverage those positive attributes.  For other activities that the customer deemed not important, the company reduced expenditures.  And for those activities that the customers said were important but where the company fell short, initiatives and corrective actions were put in place.   The system worked well and the implementation of the results helped put the company on a new path to growth and propel the company to market leader position. 

Quad Mapping

A quad map is a simple tool to determine what to leverage, where to focus, what to watch and what to ignore or spend fewer dollars on.  We normally couple the Quad Maps with information attained through the side-by-side market research.

Business executives can break down questions into functional areas such as customer service, product breadth, store design, pricing and other categories.  Customers, suppliers and even company employees can answer the questions of importance and performance using the side-by-side matrix mentioned above.  

Those areas that are important and for which performance is poor can be thought of as potential strategic imperatives that the company or entity needs to undertake to correct.  Those attributes that are important and for which the entity performs well should be leveraged and emphasized.  Those items that are not important for which companies perform well.

Spider Diagram

Another simple yet powerful tool for use in positioning and competitive analysis is called the Spider diagram, because when you look at the graphical plot it looks like a spider web.

Attributes are indicated on the spokes and the length of the spoke reflects the scale e.g. from 0-10 (highest)  

A critical assessment of your brand, in this case, vs. the competitive brands can provide information on where to focus because your brand is better and where you might need improvement.

It was interesting to see this system used in the 2016 NFL draft as positional players were compared by using spider diagrams.   

SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A SWOT analysis is a tool that can be used to help the business person make better strategic decisions and develop plans that will be effective against the competition.  It can be used as a complement to Spider Diagrams.

Normally Strengths and Weaknesses focus on internal attributes of the company e.g. competencies, resources, reputation, brand, customer service and similar items.  Opportunities and Threats normally focus on the external world although many companies can conceivably find both threats and opportunities internally.  Threats include competition, regulation, and social changes, changing workforces, governmental policies and similar items.  Opportunities are noted where the company can make inroads e.g. a new market, or where new competencies, alliances and technologies can be obtained to provide an advantage in the current markets, expand product lines or increase sales. 

Most SWOT analyses are broken down into a two-by-two matrix, with one box for each of the four components but can be extended to include a SWOT comparison for multiple competitors. 

Here are two templates that can be used.  This first one is for the company itself and the second one is for a company relative to its competition. 

Note that competition should be considered as existing competition i.e. direct competitors as well as indirect competitors and potential competitors.  

We hope these five tools are good additions to your toolkit and will help you get data upon which to make decisions and to make the complex problems a little easier to dissect and address.

Do You Have What it Takes to be a Visionary?

Do You Have What it takes to be a Visionary?

Visionary. (noun). A person with original ideas about what the future will or could be like.  These visionaries will change the world for the better over time. Who are those visionaries around you?  Do you – or they – have what it takes to be a visionary?

Visionaries come from different walks of life and professions. But generally, they are activists, artists, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and in, general, non-conformists. All have a different view of the problems they face. All have changed the world. We know who visionaries were in the past. Here’s a short selection of some of my favorites: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Gandhi, Walt Disney, John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk.

I decided to give my perspective on the characteristics of a visionary. This is not a well-researched statistical piece; it is based on what I have read and observed in my 30+ years of business and worldly experiences.

1. Open-mindedness. This refers to one’s ability to keep an eye open for new thinking and not be closed to new ideas just because they are different. In fact, actively seeking out new ideas would be ideal.
2. Values diversity of thought. Sometimes surrounding yourself with people from the same background provides a very narrow focus and homogeneous solutions to the problem. I like diversity of people and diversity of thought. That is how I like to construct cross-functional and matrixed teams and I find it amazing to see the robustness of decisions and options.
3. Action oriented.  There is a difference between a dreamer who thinks about a different world and a visionary who sees the different world and puts a plan in action to get to that point. If Martin Luther King’s Dream Speech just shared the dream of one world with all people created equal change would not have occurred or occurred as fast. Rather, he put into place activities that began to implement his dream.
4. Conviction.  If you are a visionary, you might be treading on existing ideas and values. Many people don’t like change. So visionaries have to have a firm conviction that they are right in seeing a new world even when many shun those new ideas.
5. Persistence. Coupled with conviction is the characteristic of persistence. Being visionary challenges prevailing wisdom and the road to change is fraught with difficulty, roadblocks, and potential legal and regulatory restrictions.  A visionary accepts those challenges and preseveres. A significant amount of energy comes from the visionary’s followers.
6. Inspiration.  We all know of inspirational and charismatic leaders. I used to think that inspirational leaders were vocal and can get a crowd excited by rhetoric. I was wrong. To be inspirational the visionary needs to deliver clarity in the new world order and be articulate in explaining the benefits.
7. Clarity. A fuzzy vision doesn’t work because with change, people must “see” and believe in an end result. Think about JFK’s speech on Sept 12, 1962 to 35000 people in Rice Stadium in Texas wherein he said “We choose to go to the Moon! .. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win..”  This was not a fuzzy vision of space travel but a clear goal and vision of space exploration taken with first steps to land a man on the moon in a specific time frame. And, of course, in 1969 I watched as we landed a man on the moon.
8. Boldness.  Along with clarity, the vision should be bold, something that is not just an incremental improvement but a major change, a major shift in the way things are done. Sometimes we call this a BHAG – a big hairy audacious goal. Boldness with conviction is critical because it rouses the energies within people to achieve success.
9. Risk-tolerance. Along with risk tolerance is the lack of fear of failure. Thomas Edison said that “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”   He framed his end product in such a way as to give him the will to succeed. By positive thinking that he is closer to an end result, he was able to maintain his work ethic and develop the electric light bulb.

Are you born with these characteristics or can you learn them?  My personal belief is that there is some internal encoding of these characteristics in your DNA but that family and environment coupled with some good mentors and influencers will solidify these characteristics.  Reading biographies and auto biographies can also help understand the thinking of visionaries.

There may be other characteristics of a visionary and you can certainly add to this list.  When you attend entrepreneur events and innovation conferences think about how these apply to the people who present and the people whom you meet.  Then imagine you, the reader, having these characteristics and the opportunity to change the world.

C-Level Partners is dedicated to helping companies achieve value creation through revenue growth and margin improvement.  We can also help with your innovation plans, advisory services and helping establish a framework for innovation (see our blog on this subject at http://clevelpartners.blogspot.com/2016/10/how-to-institutionalize-innovation.html).  Or feel free to call me at 949 4394503 for a complimentary analysis.

How to Institutionalize Innovation?

I am an innovator by nature. I am always trying to do something more, to try something different, and for the companies for which I worked, to move them ahead of the competition. And I have been at the forefront of innovation thinking for quite some time through my associations with the Product Development and Management Association in the past, an angel investor with TechCoastAngels, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at UCI’s Applied Innovation.

I have been asked by clients and start-ups if a company can institutionalize innovation. The answer is simple: You bet. And you have to have a culture and management that supports innovation.

Let’s step back for a moment. First, do you know the difference between creativity and innovation? Creativity is defined as the spark generating a new idea. Innovation takes the idea to a new level and the essence of innovation is implementation through execution. Now with that out of the way, can companies figure out a way to create innovation in their company? To me the answer is clearly YES! How do you do that?

What are the categories of innovation? Here’s one list that I put together and depending on the company and their goals, there may be other categories. For innovation to take place, it should be put in the context of the company’s strategic and business plans.

1. New products and services, ranging from line extensions, to new-to-the-company products, to new-to-the-world products.
2. New ventures putting companies together in different ways to solve a problem.
3. New market development such as paint companies introducing anti-bacterial paint for hospitals and children’s rooms. (Also can be classified as a new product.)
4. New business models – for example the SaaS model replacing ownership of resources.
5. New partnerships such as GM and Lyft or Apple and McLaren for autonomous vehicles.
6. New business practices like Home Depot implementing Velexo’s one button installation for new technology and equipment.

There are several models that can be used to define the architecture of innovation for a company but let’s take a simplistic approach. For each of these categories, I believe we can define five different ways the categories can be analyzed and the driver of innovation can be investigated. These areas include: customer, competition, competencies, technologies, and processes.

• Customer. Think about how you can develop new ideas. One concept is to make sure marketers and developers talk to customers on a regular basis. In Japan, engineers routinely visit customers to understand how they work with their current products and ask questions on what else is needed. Another thought for integrating customers into a company’s product development cycle is to include customers on internal development teams as we did when I was at Connexion by Boeing. Or set up a living lab where customers can play with new concepts and ideas as I believe Ford has done in the past as it designed new cars and continues to do with their new designs.
• Competition. Looking at the competition can give insights into what is possible. Perhaps you can build off of what the competitor is doing and does it better, faster, cheaper by using new technology or developing new processes. Tools such as Spider Diagrams and SWOT analysis can provide perspective and focus.
• Competencies. I like what Intel does and how they go about innovating. They are not afraid to make their current products obsolete and in fact, they are always thinking two steps ahead. Their competence is engineering skills. But even Intel misses the mark and has left opportunities for others in the mobile chip area such as AVAGO/Broadcom, NXPI (in the process of being acquired by Qualcomm), Skyworks and others. Companies can focus on building their competencies in various ways such as partnerships with schools/universities, labs, and even smaller, more nimble companies. An attendant benefit which we often see is that the larger company buys the smaller company because of the smaller company’s unique competencies.
• Technologies. This, to me, is the kingpin for growth. I am probably biased as I am a technologist by training who converted to marketing and to being a business executive. Technology, above all, provides corporations the opportunity to think about the Art of the Possible. Technology can be developed internally as it used to be at Bell Labs or IBM, or can be acquired through licensing deals with universities, individuals, or start-ups.
• Processes. Companies can look at new processes as a way to innovate. Think about ways to do self-service support for various products and services. What if a car dealer set up a few bays to enable customers to do their own repairs using their equipment and their parts? Think about Sears which has a fleet of service vans and can set a new process such that when a customer orders a washer/dryer the customer can push one button to have it installed. This is process change enabled by new technology, e.g. Velexo, which benefits both the customer and the company.

What are we missing from this model? The key requirement for innovation in a company is when senior management drives innovation and sets a standard and goal for innovation to take place. This includes the reward and recognition system that encourages innovation and makes heroes out of the innovators. Companies like 3M encourage people to spend 10% of their time developing new products. Think about the classic story of Art Fry innovating not only a product but a market based on glue that did not bond well i.e. post-it notes! Or think about how Google encourages self-directed teams to form to develop new products and services. They recognize that most of these new ideas will not be commercialized although there will be substantial winners along the way.

And let’s not forget how companies can set a metric for the number of new products that should be developed and the revenue obtained from those new products so they can sustain growth. Can anyone say Newell Rubbermaid a formidable product developing Fortune 1000 company whose brands such as Lenox, Sharpie, Sunbeam, Dymo, Oster and a slew of others?

Finally, let’s look at a few ways companies can execute their innovation program: Here are just a few ways that we have seen in the past and have participated in over the years.

• New product advisory boards to generate new ideas on features and products.
• New channel management advisory committees where companies can leverage their channels view of their customers and work with the channels to develop unique products and services using a common platform.
• Appointment of a new product czar or growth leader to be the focal point for new ideas. In one of my prior assignments I formed a small organization called Ideation and Feasibility (IF) with the goal of “adopting” ideas from outside the industry to our industry.
• Product/service roundtables that meet once every few weeks, but certainly on a recurring and regular timetable and that would include cross-functional members from technology, marketing, account management, IT, and perhaps other groups as needed. Each member will have specific roles and even track specific competitors. Think about using Dropbox or some other common storage area for posting what the competitor is doing. Better yet, how about a “war room” where the group can track what customers and competitors are doing?
• Participation directly or through Corporate VC or business development functions in entrepreneurial activities such as the angel investment groups like TechCoastAngels and venues such as UC Irvine’s Applied Innovation where the corporation can invest in or participate in other ways in new start ups. This might be particularly true of innovations in the life sciences and cyber security areas.

In a future blog I will cover how to evaluate such opportunities in order to drive profitable revenue growth. In the meantime, if you want to discuss this topic feel free to reach me at dfriedman@clevelpartners.net.