Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: Turkey and Istanbul
I was only in Istanbul, Turkey, for 3.5 days. To some extent, I feel like I’m still there or perhaps it’s just my heart that is still there. I watch the news closely. I have Turkish colleagues who are engaged in the protests. My journey and mission was cut short due to the protests. What’s this all about?
Imagine if the President of the United States started bulldozing 600-year old trees to build a shopping mall in New York’s Central Park, the Boston Common or San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Do you think there would be a backlash? Of course! And, that is what is happening in Istanbul.
Gezi Park is a small park in the middle of Taksim Square in the heart of downtown Istanbul. It is an oasis in the hustle and bustle of the downtown. The Prime Minister unilaterally decided to implement his plan and began the demolition of Gezi Park.
The reaction from the protesters is predictable and understandable. It’s a complete outrage. But, it’s peaceful outrage seeking a reversal of this decision.
The Turkish PM has lost all moral authority on this issue due to his response, arrogance, sense of entitlement and contempt for those who do not agree with him.
In an effort to demonize and polarize others against the protesters, the Turkish PM claimed that protesters entered a mosque with their shoes on and drank beer inside the mosque while tending to injured, a fact disputed by the Iman who runs the mosque. This shows a PM trying to polarize people using lies. It’s beneath his office.
The PM has put forth an angry, violent response against his own citizens with water cannons, tear gas, and more, actions that have resulted in rebukes by the European Union and have contributed to more protesters coming forward. I don’t know how the police can do this to their own people–”just following orders” I guess.
Tear gas was fired directly into a hotel Saturday night, a violation of international law.
3 rival soccer clubs’ fans who despise each other in normal life have come together as one to help the protesters with support. They have years of experience combatting the police. For these groups to come together would have been thought unimaginable.
The protesters include all religious groups rallying side-by-side–it is a wonderful thing to watch.
Today (Sunday, June 16th), in a staged, partisan rally, the PM sought to rub his “victory” in the faces of those evicted from Gezi Park by force the evening before. What a man!
Istanbul is one of the world’s most magnificent cities. May cooler heads prevail. May the protesters be safe from government-inflicted violence.
The following link will help you see more about what is going on in Istanbul
Thought for the week:
“Apps need to be opinionated. Too flexible and users won’t know what to do.” -Jason Calacanis at Launch 2013
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: my first trip to Istanbul, Turkey
The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy taught us “there’s no place like home.” I’d like to add, “There’s no place like Istanbul!”
I’m just back from Istanbul where I attended the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network annual global conference co-sponsored by Intel. I was also invited to keynote the Endeavor Istanbul entrepreneurial conference, an event postponed due to the on-going protests. You know you’re not home when:
There are metal detectors at all hotel entrances
Internet access is quite unpredictable
Your passport is examined three times at the airport prior to boarding a return flight
The protests in Istanbul remind me of protests in the U.S. back during the Vietnam War. In Turkey, it is simple: the people don’t want a historic park replaced with a shopping mall in the downtown area. And, they are letting the Prime Minister know.
The Prime Minister sees this as an attack on his authority (and ego). His announcement is the genesis of protests that have triggered a violent government response that is only adding fuel to the very protests he wants to stop.
Leadership means getting buy-in from, not ignoring, stakeholders, even those who didn’t vote for you or won’t vote for you in the next election. The Prime Minister does not know how to come to a more feasible solution without appearing weak.
He’s not leading. He’s infuriating a large segment of his own population. The emperor has no clothes yet his advisers don’t seem to want to share the news with him. He won’t thrive but I believe, ultimately, the Turkish citizens will.
I really enjoyed Istanbul, the food, the people and the Turkish entertainers. I can’t wait to return.
Thought for the week:
“Don’t let your past steal your present. Attitude & focus are critical factors in your success. Don’t surrender them to yesterday.” - Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: experiencing your own company
How can you accelerate growth if you firewall yourself and your company off from those who want to reach you?
Don’t you just love the voicemail systems that have just about every option in the galaxy but the one you want–to speak to another human being about a problem that isn’t on the menu? Would you like to hear our menu again? And, again?
Just this week, I overheard a receptionist at a multi-billion company refuse to put a call through to an executive when the caller was unable to provide a specific name. I’m sure she’s just following orders but really? Is she a receptionist or in the call prevention business?
When I asked the CEO to call his start-up company’s phone number last week, he learned that the receptionist puts his callers into a directory system wherein callers would have to enter his correct name on their keypad to match a listing in a directory to find a his voicemail box so they can leave him a message. Sounds like fun, right? People who need to reach him call him on his cell. Yet, his business card provides a company phone number that is the equivalent of a black hole. He didn’t know what dysfunction someone might encounter.
Have you ever tried to speak to a human at Google about a problem? Good luck with that! Google doesn’t want to interact with customers or prospects. I asked a question of a sales guy who knows me and he merely gave me a URL to answer my question. And, what happens if your question isn’t covered in the Frequently Asked Questions section? What if you don’t know what the right keywords are to find assistance? It must not be that important.
The Japanese employ the concept of “gemba” which means “go to where the work is.” To me, this means understanding what happens when customers, employees, stakeholders, suppliers try to interact with your company.
Only by doing this can you be certain of what’s happening on the other side of the transaction.
Thought for the week:
“Do not waste a minute living someone else’s dream.” - Michelle Obama
Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: fighting the status quo
My consulting practice is about accelerating growth through change. Occasionally, it feels like some would prefer my practice be more about “accelerating growth by preserving and maintaining the status quo.”
If you are about preserving and maintaining the status quo, you don’t need me. You can do that on your own.
There are implications of inaction. Have you taken a few moments to consider the implications of your status quo?
If the area you are responsible for is suboptimal in fulfilling its essential value to the company, ask yourself,
What is my legacy going to be?
When I am ready to move to a different company or area within my current company, what legacy will people ascribe to me?
Did I move the needle on the business? Or, did I pretty much support the status quo?
Did I produce measurable, value-laden, important business outcomes or can I merely report that we worked hard?
As my mentor, Alan Weiss, teaches: “We are here to make waves.” He’s right. Businesses that thrive eschew the status quo.
Thought for the week:
“The faster you build trust, the more likely you are to increase deal velocity.” – Dave Gardner
Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: entreprenership
When President Bill Clinton was elected to his first term in the White House, his key political strategist, James Carville, brought laser-like focus to the campaign by coining the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid.” This mantra ensured campaign staff focus for the duration of the campaign.
When I coach entrepreneurs, I encourage them to adopt the mantra “it’s about the customer.” An entrepreneur should be asking how they can:
address a need in someone’s life differently and better than others before them?
create engagement such that customers become addicted to their offerings?
get customers telling other customers about their experience with your product or service?
have customers sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for “what’s next?”
For Apple and the late Steve Jobs, it was all about the customer. Consider the iPhone. People in major metropolitan areas put up with AT&T’s dreadful cell phone coverage for years just to have an iPhone. Today, 50% of robberies in New York are iPhones stolen from people as they walk down the streets.
It’s not just about your product or service. If you focus on your customer and what they will crave, you will thrive. Conversely, if you aren’t providing a customer experience across all customer touch points, that will undermine your business and create opportunities for competition to steal market share and your customers.
If you want to thrive, make your mantra “it’s about the customer” and then do what’s essential to create an incredible customer experience through everything you do.
Photo Credit: Flickr by Stitch: Istanbul Grand Bazaar
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: social media
I had to fly from Silicon Valley to Austin this past week and decided to:
Fly American Airlines for the first time in a few years (other airlines currently offer non-stops on this popular route that American pioneered back in the early 1980’s)
Use American’s mobile app for check-in, boarding passes and getting through security
I was really disappointed in the Android mobile app. I needed to get paper boarding passes for 3 of the 4 flights as I could not retrieve them via the mobile app. I did manage to get through security both times using the mobile app–it could have been a disaster to be sent back to the ticket counter to get a boarding pass!
I knew this result wasn’t up to American’s standards and wanted to speak to an executive about my experience. I believed that my insights could help them improve a situation I was convinced they weren’t aware of. I won’t bore you with all the details, but, here’s an executive overview:
I emailed customer relations who put me in touch with the web services team within one hour. Great!
The web services team told me I needed to speak to the third-party developer of the mobile app and gave me a phone number to call. This wasn’t what I wanted and I find it impossible to believe American would want me to speak with their technology vendor. I called as instructed. When AppleCare answered the phone, we both got a quite a chuckle as I knew Apple hadn’t built the Android mobile app on my Motorola Droid 4 phone.
I was then told to call the travel desk. I was given the main phone number for American. I tried 3 times and was never able to connect with a human being via their automated call system–hello?
I sent a Tweet: @AmericanAir I’ve invested nearly an hour to try to reach a human today to provide feedback about your Android mobile app…no success.
The social media team reached out to me within minutes. I provided more detail and my contact information. Within an hour or so, the gentleman responsible for the Android mobile app called me and I was able to give him information about my mobile experience. He learned about issues he was completely unaware of. He was very appreciative for my insights. I am confident my input is going to help them get closure on these issues. I’ll be watching and listening. And, now I know how to follow-up with him should I have issues in the future.
There is good news here. One, I was able to accomplish my mission to help American Airlines learn about usability issues with its Android mobile app and two, American Airlines restored my faith in them via their social media team who really shined! The social media team rapidly connected me to the right person and got that person to call me the same day.
There are lots of lessons in this short piece IF American chooses to go through this blog post carefully. Perhaps the social media team will help by making sure the executive in charge of customer experience sees this. Frankly, it would have been a lot easier for me to just give up on this issue, but, that’s not what I am all about.
For my readers, I ask you to consider do you really know what it’s like to contact your company should a customer have an issue? It is easy? Or, hard? If it’s hard, it will be hard for your company to thrive.
Thought for the week:
“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.” — Marilyn vos Savant
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: big company syndrome
You know your company is plagued with big company syndrome when:
There is little or no sense of urgency.
The smallest unit of time is 1 year.
If it can’t be done in a year, allow 2 years or maybe 3.
There is always next week, next quarter, next year, next decade.
Incrementalism is favored over actions that move the needle for the business.
You study, analyze, and ponder for years without solving well-known problems.
You invest huge amounts of capital on information technology to solve a problem that no one can articulate well.
You are more concerned about getting to a perfect solution than rapidly implementing a solution that might be “good enough.”
Decisions can only be made at the highest levels of management.
People have little faith that their ideas are valued when senior management consistently overturns the recommendations of people on the front lines.
Your people think they are part of a team with well-defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities for each member when, in reality, they are part of a committee with poorly defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. [What if a professional baseball or football team played like a committee rather than a team?]
Smaller, more agile competitors are running circles around you but you believe they’ll ever be a threat.
Your leadership is internally-focused with a passion for revenues, margins, market share, stock price and continually fixing what is wrong about the business but has no real passion for the business they are in, e.g., the products, the customers, driving innovation, etc.
Employees and customers feel as though they are treated with indifference.
Employees are risk-averse and cling to the status quo.
I don’t see how a company suffering from big company syndrome can thrive. Do you?
Thought for the week:
”There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit at the typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: the power of focus
Thank God It’s thisMonday and not the last.
When people were attacked at the Boston Marathon, it ignited a singular focus to find the perpetrator and bring him or her to justice. At the end of the week,
we see the result of the focus on one goal
we see the result of incredible collaboration from thousands of people who have never worked together on a project like this before to produce a powerful outcome in just over 4 days
we witness the euphoria of a grateful citizenry
we feel relief
The contrast is stark: In a few days, we’ve felt the horror of the attack and sheer jubilation as a result of the suspects being neutralized.
To all who played a hand in getting us to this point, thank you. To our first responders and good samaritans who jumped into action, thank you very much.
And, finally, to all who have been impacted by the horrific event, know that you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Thought for the week:
“In your quest for the riches, don’t forget to enjoy the richness of what you already have.” - Rajesh Setty
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: appealing to self-interest
Recently a high school in California faced an usual problem: The girls had started kissing the mirror in the restroom, leaving hard-to-remove imprints. Joe, the dedicated janitor, appealed to the principal for help. The principal immediately announced that the mirror kissing must stop…or else.
The kissing increased. Girls who had not really considered kissing a mirror suddenly saw the appeal. At the end of his scholarly rope, the principal called in a consultant, who brought sage advice to the situation—as we always do.
The consultant suggested that the principal meet with the president of each class in the girls’ restroom to discuss the situation. Initially the principal asked for both their empathy and cooperation in addressing the problem. Then he announced, “I think that once you understand how difficult the girls are making Joe’s job, you’ll use your influence to convince your classmates to stop kissing the mirror.”
To demonstrate the arduous task of cleaning the mirror. Joe took a toilet brush, dipped it in the toilet, and then scrubbed the mirror. That was the last time he ever had to clean the mirror.
Too often we try to effect behavior change by presenting our wants and needs while simultaneously ignoring those of others.
Consultants know better. People change—when they do change—for their reasons, not ours. If we pinpoint their motivations and fears, we take significant strides in the direction of our goals.
When we don’t, we end up with toilet water on our kissers.
Note: This guest post comes courtesy of my good friend and colleague, Linda Henman, Henman Performance Group.
Thought for the week:
“Worrying is like praying for the things you don’t want.” - Source unknown
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: taking the temperature of your business
Are your employees happy and excited about your business?
How is your employee turnover?
Are potential employees excited about the prospects of working for you?
Are you internally focused or customer focused on everything you do?
Are your customers loyal, enthused and delighted about the opportunity to do business with you?
Is customer retention high?
Are your investors excited about the future or worried about your viability?
Are industry analysts upbeat or writing doom and gloom stories?
Is your business growing, shrinking or stuck?
Are you excited about getting up every day and facing your world? Or, is your head just not in the game?
As a leader, are you and your team inspired to take action or in the doldrums worrying about how your life will play out?
It is important to confirm the answers to these and many more questions. You shouldn’t guess about the answers. You must assume your competitors are thinking about and addressing these issues.
The best practice is to have an independent third-party dig in and help you understand where things stand. For a modest investment, you can either confirm what you believe to be true and/or learn about gaps have yet to appear on your radar screen. This will help your business thrive.
”I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” - Thomas Jefferson 1816
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: business execution
How many business owners or department heads are bogged down with urgent, short-term issues while neglecting important, strategic issues? A show of hands, please.
If there is no operational framework for a business or department, leadership will be reactive to the problems and issues that arise. It makes the company people dependent rather than process dependent to not have the “this is how we do it here” all figured out.
Without an appropriate operational infrastructure, there will be ad hoc solutions for every project and with every team. That’s not the formula for great business execution.
For operational infrastructure to be valuable, it has to:
be tailored, lean and highly responsive
provide a clear message that “this is how we do this here”
support the essential needs of the business without being overly burdening
provide execution control to monitor progress and support collaboration within the team and externally with partners and customers
be at an investment level that offers a solid return-on-investment
add demonstrable value.
Taking action to ensure your operations infrastructure is adding value is key to thriving.
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: how to destroy Dell
Dell is attempting to go private. In Saturday’s news, there is word that the private equity firm Blackstone may be making a bid for Dell and may be attempting to recruit Mark Hurd, the former CEO of HP, to be president should the deal go through.
While Mark Hurd did positive things for HP’s stock during his tenure, his sole focus was wringing every scintilla of cost out of the company. He was responsible for no new, significant innovation and left a horror story behind that HP is still trying to dig out from under. HP’s merger and acquisition activity of the last 10 years has largely been written down to a fraction of the original investment value. He left a deeply demoralized team when he resigned due to personal improprieties. Mark Hurd joins Carly Fiorina and Leo Apotheker in undermining the spirit of the company.
Now, after all the talent that could have made a difference at HP has long since left the company, HP finds itself with flat-footed with little bench strength as it engineers a turn-around. This formerly “A” company is left with mostly “B” and “C” players to run the show.
The worst thing in the world for Dell employees and customers would be for a private equity firm to take over Dell without Michael Dell at the helm. Add Mark Hurd to that mix and the party will be over. I don’t see how Dell can possibly thrive under a traditional private equity culture. Remove Michael Dell and Dell becomes just another company.
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: when preparation meets opportunity
My good friend and colleague, Chad Barr, shared a video depicting the wonderful pianist/vocalist Billy Joel working with a class at Vanderbilt University. A student, Michael Pollack (after offering a brief statement about his musical “chops”) asks if he can accompany Billy Joel on one Michael’s favorite Billy Joel tunes, “New York State of Mind.” After a second or 2, Billy Joel simply responds, “Okay.” Here’s the video:
I hope you took a few minutes to watch it.
This video depicts what happens when preparation meets opportunity. You get one take. You rise to the occasion or suffer a crueler fate. Musicians do it. EMTs do it. Firefighters, doctors, Olympics athletes all do it.
When your number is called, you’re on stage and ready to go with a moments notice. You may have prepared for months or years. You are in the moment and not just playing the piano but putting on a show for an audience. One take. No “do-overs.” And, what a show that video depicts.
Yet, when you consider the auditions for a show like American Idol, thousands and thousands are whittled down to 20 in a relative heart beat. For 99.9%, preparation did not meet opportunity. And, that’s not how you thrive.
Thought for the week:
”Do yourself a favor and take a risk this week. You may be surprised what happens when you abandon the comfort zone and embrace the adventure.” – Hal Croasmun
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: how to stand out in the crowd
The Launch Festival 2013 concluded in San Francisco this past week. Approximately 50 companies stayed in stealth mode waiting to reveal to the world what they were all about in front of angel investors, venture capitalists, fellow entrepreneurs and the media. Each company had a problem of how to stand out in a big crowd and attract the attention of potential investors.
While some may have thought it’s all about “them,” like it or not, they were being compared to identify which value propositions, teams and ideas had the best chance of disrupting a current marketplace and create huge upside for the founders and investors. For example, which among the 50 is the next Yammer which launched at the Launch Festival 5 years ago and sold to Microsoft for $1.2 billion last year?
How could companies have prepared better and attracted more investment money? In no particular order:
Too much focus on the technology; not enough focus on ”who wants to buy and why.”
If you are tackling a complex problem and your solution to that problem appears complex, you aren’t ready to bring your offering to the world.
Entrepreneurs reliant on external data sources need to understand risks of sharing out of date data. Customers will abandon your solution if they show up for a cancelled meetings or events.
Not enough attention on what potential investors care about, e.g., business model, monetization strategy, current revenues (if any), margins (current or anticipated), and, the team. Exasperated judges had to ask.
Unprepared for judges pushback (objections)–need to anticipate potential questions and objections and have cogent responses, preferably preemptively. If you are caught flat-footed, it undermines you and your solution.
Assume the judges don’t know more about your market potential than you do. You live it; they don’t. Judges were incorrect about several market assumptions and got away with it as the entrepreneurs let them.
Stand up for your convictions when you know facts are on your side. Be humble when the converse is true.
Most offered very little insight as to “why” their solution was going to be a game-changer and be widely adopted.
When will tech companies learn that the “best” companies don’t win–it’s the companies that market, sell most effectively and get serious traction via end-user adoption that win.
Most firms clearly needed assistance with marketing and with connecting their solution to paying customers–the “if we build it, they will come” school has been disproven time and again.
If it’s likely the judges have little expertise in your industry or with your solution, you had better educate them in 30 seconds or less or they will make you feel like you don’t understand your market and total addressable market.
There were a lot of interesting companies at Launch 2013. Sadly, many more of them have the potential to thrive than probably will.
Thought for the week:
“Anybody can have a great idea. Few people can execute. Focus on that!” - Dave McClure, 500 StartUps
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: manufactured crises
When the Sequester occurred on Friday, we heard the media share all the things that would be negatively impacted in our lives. Barack Obama and his cabinet heads were particularly vocal about the “major impacts” ahead.
For example, tax returns may be processed slower, there will be fewer TSA folks at the airport, air traffic controllers will be laid off at airports without commercial flights, defense contractors will be impacted, the Blue Angels won’t be able to fly, an aircraft carrier may need to stay in port, etc. Golly.
The Sequester’s impact on Federal spending is an across the board 2% reduction totaling $85 billion. Corporations know a 2% cut will cause inconvenience but not major disruptions or dislocation of services or support. We’ve heard little from any of the industries impacted. Why? Because there isn’t a crisis ahead. This is a speed bump and a not a very big one at that. This was a manufactured crisis.
Companies face bigger crises everyday via margin leaks that erode 2% or more of their profits. These crises are the result of business execution inefficiencies that haven’t been addressed appropriately, new initiatives with unclear outcomes, customer experiences that leave customers treated with indifference, and leadership continually distracted addressing failure work instead of strategic issues to support growth.
We have to be careful about which “crises” we pay attention to so as to not be distracted from those things that are really important in our businesses. This is the key to thriving.
Thought for the week:
3 Simple Rules
If you do not GO after what you want, you’ll never have it.
If you do not ASK, the answer will always be NO.
If you don’t step FORWARD, you’ll always be in the same place.
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: business execution
The grounding of the Boeing 787s due to the fire danger associated with the lithium-ion batteries continues to be a costly, brand-damaging problem. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, announced at the time of the grounding that these aircraft would not fly again until they are “1,000 percent safe.” [A bit of hyperbole in that statement, Mr. Secretary?]
Boeing wants to get the fleet back in the air as quickly as possible and keep production and deliveries moving. The solution they have offered the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): a better fire containment box and improved venting for the lithium-ion batteries so if and when a fire occurs, it can be contained to the battery unit itself.
Is Boeing nuts? The answer is better fire suppression? Wrong answer, Boeing!
The right answer is a design that eliminates the risk of fire that has been thoroughly tested, qualified and implemented in each 787 before each plane is allowed to return to the skies. You know it, the FAA knows it, the airlines with 787s know it, and so does the flying public.
At an Association for Corporate Growth Silicon Valley chapter dinner meeting this past week, I moderated a panel called “Transportation of the Future.” I was honored to have Dr. Sujeet Kumar, CTO and co-founder of Envia Systems on the panel to discuss lithium-ion battery technology. He told the audience that the 787 lithium-ion battery is built using the wrong chemistry and is an inappropriate design prone to the very problems Boeing and its customers have experienced. The good news: Technology is available today to eliminate the risk. The bad news: It’s not apparent Boeing is looking for solutions outside its current design.
Boeing: Fix the problem the right way and restore our confidence in your brand and your wonderful 787 aircraft that the airline industry needs.
Thought for the week:
“To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.” – Sir Richard Branson
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: innovation
I attended a media/analyst event and heard a company claiming to be “the best” in their product category. That sounds like the hoopla you’d expect at this type of event. But, such a claim without substantiation is weak.
It’s not enough to merely proclaim you are the best. It’s far more important to back that up with how you’ve been able to achieve best-in-class capability. What makes your solution unique? Is there a “secret sauce?”
In this specific instance, it would have been easy to believe that “best in class” was derived from a hardware product simply being combined with Microsoft Windows 8. Yet, when I probed further, the uniqueness was derived from 3 or 4 other companies providing deep intellectual property and capability that would be very challenging for a less capable competitor to duplicate. That’s what I was looking for.
If you are the best, don’t just tell me. Explain to me what it is about your solution that makes it best. Doing this will help your company thrive.
Thought for the week:
“A ‘stuck’ business, whether entrepreneurial in nature or a Fortune 500 company, is one that fails to grow predictably every year, every quarter, every day. If you’re being carried along by the marketplace, then the moment the marketplace dries up, your business is going to dry up, too, because you’re not in control of your destiny. In good times, stuck businesses don’t even realize they’re stuck!” – Jay Abraham, Sticking Point Solution
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: business execution
It is said “speed kills.” In business, lack of speed combined with poor execution is a killer.
When a company is terribly late getting to the marketplace, it better be much more than a “me, too” product.
Example: Has any tablet manufacturer even come close to approaching the demand or appeal of Apple’s iPad? No. Yet, it’s out in plain sight for all to behold and reimagine. Yet, nearly 3 years after its launch, it is by far, the preferred tablet in the marketplace.
When HP came out with its WebOS tablet, not only was it late to market, it was a brick with poor performance and lacked the ecosystem iPad owners enjoy. HP killed the product 30 days after launch further tarnishing its brand. Lack of speed combined with poor business execution makes this a case study for years to come in business schools.
I’ve often said no product is better than a bad product. If a product isn’t ready for the marketplace or won’t captivate your customers, why bother? It won’t help you or your company thrive.
Thought for the week:
“We’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge.” -Rutherford D. Rogers
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Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!
This week’s focus: Super Bowl 47 Winners and Losers
Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens for a terrific season and Super Bowl victory. Well played.
Winners: Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson & The Sandy Hook Choir, the Jeep ad with Oprah Winfrey honoring those who serve in the military, the Dodge Ram ad with the late Paul Harvey honoring farmers, the Best Buy ad with Amy Poehler, the Budweiser Clydesdale ad, and, finally, the Taco Bell ad about senior citizens partying. Bravo!
Losers: San Francisco 49ers, the New Orleans power grid.
The Big Loser: Go Daddy for an uncomfortable, pointless, brand-damaging ad. I’m no prude, but personal displays of affection such as that depicted in this commercial are despicable and made me and my wife cringe. I turned away from the TV. In working with a client last year, I found Go Daddy to be professional and competent. This ad undermines Go Daddy and its brand. While Go Daddy’s goal may have been to get people talking about their brand, I’m not sure they will get a positive outcome they were looking for. They certainly face an uphill battle attracting female entrepreneurs to use their services. And, I wouldn’t use them for any reason.
So, some advertisers thrived and others crashed and burned. And, so it is every Super Bowl.
Thought for the week:
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” - Michael Althsuler
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Interesting notion! RT @blogging4jobs: if base your hire only the best interview, you are likely hiring a narcissist #neuro#shrm13140 characters 1 day ago
Posted by Dave 
