My First Trip To Istanbul, Turkey

Photo Courtesy of Flickr, Moyan_Brenn

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

What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

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Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here. I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

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Fighting The Status Quo

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

What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

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Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting http://www.gardnerandassoc.com © 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe. Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

It’s About The Customer

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

Thought for the week:

“No idea works, until you do.” – Robin Sharma

 

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What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

American Airlines Social Media Rocks!

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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What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Big Company Syndrome

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:

1. There is little or no sense of urgency.
2. The smallest unit of time is 1 year.
3. If it can’t be done in a year, allow 2 years or maybe 3.
4. There is always next week, next quarter, next year, next decade.
5. Incrementalism is favored over actions that move the needle for the business.
6. You study, analyze, and ponder for years without solving well-known problems.
7. You invest huge amounts of capital on information technology to solve a problem that no one can articulate well.
8. You are more concerned about getting to a perfect solution than rapidly implementing a solution that might be “good enough.”
9. Decisions can only be made at the highest levels of management.
10. People have little faith that their ideas are valued when senior management consistently overturns the recommendations of people on the front lines.
11. 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?]
12. Smaller, more agile competitors are running circles around you but you believe they’ll ever be a threat.
13. 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.
14. Employees and customers feel as though they are treated with indifference.
15. 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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What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

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Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

The Power Of Focus

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 this Monday 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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What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Appealing to Self-Interest

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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What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Taking The Temperature Of Your Business

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.

Here are two Fast Company articles about this:

Filtered Water Is Good; Filtered Information, Not So Much

Are You Excited About Your Business Execution and Collaboration?

Thought for the week:

 ”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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What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

How To Destroy Dell

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.

[Note: I encourage you read why Dell is poised for a strong comeback in my highly-acclaimed Fast Company article If I Sell You My Company Will You Respect Me In The Morning?]

Thought for the week:

“The problem with the world is the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” - Charles Bukowski

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What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

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Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Marrisa Mayer Earns $1.1M Bonus

Here is the news reported yesterday in nbcnews.com:

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer received a $1.1 million bonus for her first five-and-half months running the Internet company, during which time the company’s stock gained 46 percent…

The 37-year-old Mayer is eligible for an annual bonus of up to $2 million. Yahoo adjusted last year’s bonus to reflect that Mayer spent less than half the year as CEO.

I’m really happy for her.

She is taking action, challenging and changing the status quo, making tough decisions, and restoring shareholder confidence.  She is leading Yahoo out of the abyss.

This is what leaders and change agents do. I continue to wish her and her team well.

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Dave Gardner

Marissa Mayer Orders Telecommuters To The Office

There’s been a huge outcry–mostly negative–about Marisa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, ordering telecommuters to the office by the first of June.

Most of what I read is missing the critical point that Yahoo must do this due to a failure of leadership, a failure of management to hold telecommuters accountable for adding value to the business.

I’m certain most would agree that morale at Yahoo the past 10 years has been pretty abysmal. There’s not been a lot for employees or investors to get excited about. The trend line has been down. There’s been substantial turnover in key executive leadership.

When morale is low, low productivity follows.

Many reports suggest that employees who work from home are highly productive and even more productive than employees who are in the office everyday. I can’t argue with that point. But, telecommuters have to be managed. Anecdotes I’ve read in the media about Yahoo suggest that leadership and oversight has largely been absent.

Does Yahoo’s decision portend the death of telecommuting? Absolutely not. It is simply a step necessary to get Yahoo operating together. Surely, this will be disruptive to some employees and their families. Some will leave the company because of this. And, that might be a good thing. I’m sure some accommodation will be made for some employees. And, once the company is banging on all cylinders again, telecommuting may again be granted as a privilege to some.

As Ronald Reagan taught us, “Trust but verify.” If you don’t hold people accountable, you run the potential of ending up in a very dark place.

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2013 Dave Gardner

Leadership and Hurricane Sandy

Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” that helps you and your company thrive!

This week’s focus: leadership

After the devastation of Hurricane Sandy this past week, we witnessed great collaboration between President Obama and Governor Christie. It was a sight to behold given the U.S.’s toxic, highly-polarized climate between these political archrivals.

In corporations, we often see polarized behavior undermining progress towards specific business outcomes. Effective leaders break down polarized behavior and get people focused on the objective at hand.

The focus must be on agreeing to clear objectives and, then, focusing on what needs to be done to address the objectives. Too often, conflicts persist and fester over whether an objective is appropriate. At some point (preferably earlier rather than later), the appropriateness issue must be put to bed.

In President Obama and Governor Christie, I observed two leaders adopt a laser-like focus solving the urgent and important problems of Americans in great distress. Neither man had to give up his soul to accomplish this. Both set aside today’s partisan issues for another day.

Has the relief effort been flawless? Certainly not. Given the population density, this disaster has been an order-of-magnitude or more challenging than what we might expect for a comparable storm in a less densely-populated area.

If there are polarized issues in your organization, can you find a path to get beyond the polarization so you and your organization can thrive? If President Obama and Governor Christie can do it, we all ought to be able to do it–even without the national stage.

Thought for the week:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

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Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2012 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Is your business people dependent or process and system dependent?

Keeping track of projects, meetings, tasks and conversations without appropriate tools and technologies can be a nightmare. You can either stand tall or spend your life endlessly chasing details, missing appointments, suffer poor business execution and lose information buried in emails that everyone on the team can benefit from.

The challenges collaborating with others within your company and even people outside your company can ultimately undermine your effectiveness and efficiencies.

Quite simply, you are either process and system dependent or people dependent. If you’re process and system dependent, please stop reading now. If you are people dependent, read on.

You may be getting business done today but lack process coherency, communication and efficiencies that you can gain by having processes and systems that align well with your individualized needs. And, as your business grows and evolves, will your processes be robust enough to support your business?

Here are some important questions:

• What if there was a way to implement a technology platform that reflects the way you and your team actually need to work rather than adapting the way you work to a tool that only partially addresses your team’s needs?
• What if these tools and processes not only worked well within your company but allowed you to invite people external to your organization to participate and collaborate with you?
• What if these tools and processes could be customized or personalized for individual teams or work groups without having to go to I.T. for assistance?
• What if this tool cut down on email interactions yet allowed for group interaction easily and transparently?
• What if this tool could allow you to link specific documents to tasks, work groups, deliverables, etc., using a myriad of different document repositories?
• What if these tools and processes allowed you and your team to execute with much greater precision?
• What if these tools and processes ensured you could determine the status of issues that are pertinent to you or your team in just seconds?
• What if these tools and processes could be implemented within a few days, not weeks, months or years?
• What if these tools and processes required a minimal technology investment?

At this point, I hope I have your attention. A typical project follows this sequence:

1. Identification of business process needs and priorities.
2. Define work spaces and specialized applications to support the teams that will be using the work spaces.
3. We sit with your team, get an understanding of your current processes, identify process breakdowns and areas for improvement.
4. We look at your processes, simplify where possible, and examine how the processes fit together.
5. We create the work spaces and processes to align with your individualized process needs.
6. Invite team members to join the work spaces.
7. Configure the work spaces and applications to meet team needs. Team members participate in this process.
8. Training and orientation—business transformation begins—just days after you started!
9. Support change implementation and process improvements.

Without appropriate tools and processes, you do not have the insights you need to manage your business effectively and efficiently. If you can’t monitor your work-in-process, you can’t manage your work-in-process. If you can’t manage your work-in-process, you can’t manage your business.

We can help you close your business execution gaps quickly and efficiently and leave you to use these tools without being reliant on us.

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2012 Dave Gardner

Might gamification make your company thrive?

Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” which is offered to help companies thrive!

This week’s focus: gamification

I’m just back from the Gamification Summit 2012 in San Francisco. If there was ever an expression that fails to connect with its essential essence, it might be “gamification.” The Chief Scientist for Salesforce.com, PJ Rangaswami, opined that many people who could have benefited from attending the summit likely didn’t simply because of the name.

My big take-away is that gamification is about offering and giving people status, incentives and rewards to realize better work performance and incentivizing desired behaviors and business outcomes. Rewards can ranges from a Starbuck’s gift card, cash rewards, dinner with the CEO, the opportunity to be part of a team of your choice, a 3-day weekend, etc.

Charlie Kim, CEO of NextJump, used gamification to drive better employee fitness which they have correlated to better individual, team and company performance. Over a period of several years and numerous fits and starts, they now have 80% of their team exercising at least twice a week in company gyms. Gamification was key to driving this.

The gamification industry is in it’s infancy and a trend worth watching. Gamification is predicted to become a standard enterprise tool by the top Global 2000 companies by 2015, generating about $2 billion in software and implementation services revenue. Current technologies are really tool kits that require implementation assistance and guidance. Implementation should be viewed as iterative process that has the potential to improve over time based on feedback and assessing results.

Will gamification help your company thrive? Properly designed and applied, it just might.

Thought for the week:

“The really idle man gets nowhere. The perpetually busy man does not get much further.” - Sir Heneage Ogilvie

What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

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Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2012 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Obsession with news and market indices hurts businesses

Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” which is offered to help companies thrive!

This week’s focus: leadership

Aristotle Onassis, the late shipping magnate, offers, “We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.”

I’m pretty sure Wall Street and the main stream media do not accept the notion above. Our 24 hour cable news shows and websites do little more than constantly stir the pot of fear, uncertainty and doubt. “The sky is falling, the sky is falling.” Unless it’s not. Stay tuned!

The market indices are little more than a barometer of how we feel about the future. Some days, the mood is up; some days, the mood is down. So what!

Everyone would benefit if they payed less attention to the news and market indices and, instead, maintained a laser-like focus on creating success with their customers, employees and shareholders.

Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. This is the key to thriving.

Thought for the week:

What are the attributes of a successful entrepreneur? See Sir Richard Branson’s list here.

What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

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Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2012 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

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HP Layoffs, Culture and Ambition

Note: This posting is based on my weekly “Thank God It’s Monday” which is offered to help companies thrive!

This week’s focus: business execution

HP will soon be reducing its workforce by about 10%–30,000 people. President and CEO Meg Whitman signaled this possibility back when she discussed HP’s fourth quarter results.

Cutting 10% of HP’s workforce reduces expenses and sends a message to the those employees who remain that the status quo won’t prevail. But, so what? The bigger challenge for HP is ambition, drive and culture. What is HP leadership doing to:

• create a lean, agile, entrepreneurial workforce and culture?
• create a less entitled workforce?
• drive innovation that captivates customers and investors?
• ensure it isn’t a “me too” company?
• build trust and respect lost with it’s employees lost over the past decade?

Ask yourself the questions above in the context of your company. What are you and your company doing to ensure you thrive?

Thought for the week:

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – Ambrose Redmoon

What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2012 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Dave Gardner’s “Thank God It’s Monday” 07MAY12

“Thank God It’s Monday” is to help companies thrive!

This week’s focus: information technology

We often hear that a company is implementing an ERP, CRM, PLM or a product configurator system. Yet, by these very words, there is a lack of appreciation of what is really occurring:

You aren’t implementing an information technology system; you are changing the way work gets done.

By itself, information technology accomplishes nothing. Leverage comes from the integration of people and process with information technology. Most projects focus too much attention on the technology and too little on people and process.

A successful project must be a collaboration between business team (the people who end up living with the efficacy of the business application) and the I.T. team. The joint mission is delivering an application that enables the business team to accomplish its essential mission with greater efficiency and execution control.

Business teams must actively engage with I.T.–their future relies on it. Only through active engagement will the business teams thrive.

Thought for the week:

When my mother died 5 years ago, my father resolved not to die in front of a television set. For years, it’s been hard to get on his calendar–he has one night free each week.

He sings in the church choir weekly, performs ten Christmas pageant performances and a special outdoor 4th of July event each year, sings karaoke, participates in a widows and widowers group, continues to be an avid genealogist, loves taking cruises, and even took up ballroom dancing 4 years ago.

At 86, he won a trophy and multiple blue and red ribbons this past weekend. His trophy-winning rumba performance is captured on this 2-minute video. Enjoy!

What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2012 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Hope Is Not A Strategy

Too often, executives fail to take action when it is clear that action is what is needed. Hope is not a strategy!

• If you’ve got a problem employee, you’ve got to deal with it and either get them well or get them out of your organization.

• If you’ve invested in an IT system and you’re not getting a sufficient return on your investment, you’ve got to take action. It often isn’t the system as much as the IT system not been properly integrated with your people and your business process. The IT system isn’t the process (contrary to what the sales folks said). Microsoft Word can be used to write an effective sales letter but it isn’t the reason the letter is effective. Microsoft Word is just a tool—a minor part of the solution. The same is true for all software.

• If you’re losing market share, you’ve got to find out why and quickly take action.

• If you’re losing employees to your competition, you need to find out why and take action to stem the exodus.

• If you’re company is continually late delivering customer orders or not getting orders right the first time, you’ve got to take action.
• If you’re inventory levels are growing while sales are declining, you’ve got to take decisive action.

• If you can’t turn around customer warranty repairs in a timely manner, you’ve got a problem that will irritate your customers— you’ve got to take action to correct the problem.

• If your customers won’t pay within your payment terms because your products don’t work, weren’t delivered or installed properly, you’ve got a problem that is consuming cash and undermining relationships with your customers. Urgent action is needed.

• If you’re company is more dependent on people than processes that your people follow, you’ve got a huge problem that will undermine your ability to grow and to be agile. People dependency creates a sense of entitlement. You’ve got to take action to correct this.

• If there is an enthusiasm gap between what your customers expect from you and what they experience, you must identify the issues that contribute to the enthusiasm gap or risk opening the door to a leaner, more agile, more willing and able competitor. You must identify and run these issues to the ground.

When the fish in the refrigerator doesn’t smell so good, you don’t put it back in the refrigerator and check it in a few days to see if it has gotten better. It hasn’t. Hope is not a strategy! Be proactive about addressing the known issues in your business.

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2012 Dave Gardner All Rights Reserved

Dave Gardner’s “Thank God It’s Monday” 26DEC11

“Thank God It’s Monday” is to help companies thrive!

This week’s focus: information technology

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of hearing Vivek Kundra, the very first Chief Information Officer of the United States government, speak at Dell World 2011.

Kundra had a thought-provoking story to share of the need for innovative thinking and reinvention across the the U.S. government in terms of I.T. systems and solutions. [Please read this fascinating story in my Forbes.com guest blog post here.]

Michelle Bailey, Vice President at IDC, an industry analyst firm, offers “Kundra is a great example of how the future CIO needs to set a strategy and change the people, not just the technology.”

Vivek Kundra asked the tough questions that needed to be asked and took action. What tough questions are you asking to help you and your company thrive?

Thought for the week:

“Vision without execution is daydreaming.” – Bill Gates

What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2011 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Dave Gardner’s “Thank God It’s Monday” 19DEC11

“Thank God It’s Monday” is to help companies thrive!

This week’s focus: mergers and acquisitions

Up to 80% of acquisitions fail to deliver on expectations. That’s staggering.

For the past year, I’ve been watching Dell acquiring and integrating companies in a far superior manner to what I observe contrasted with companies like HP, Cisco, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, etc.

I interviewed a number of Dell executives to learn about the “secret sauce” that makes Dell’s acquisition process so successful and exciting.

If you’re an entrepreneur (or know an entrepreneur) and you are thinking that your “big payday” will come as a result of being acquired, grab your favorite beverage, find a quiet place and read the following Fast Company Expert Blog post: “If I Sell You My Company, Will You Respect Me in the Morning?”

The best practices in this article will help you and your company thrive.

Thought for the week:

Happy Holidays to all who allow me share my insights and provide value each week via “Thank God It’s Monday.  - Dave Gardner

What do you think? I welcome your blog comments!

___

Dave Gardner, Gardner & Associates Consulting

http://www.gardnerandassoc.com

© 2011 Gardner & Associates Consulting  All Rights Reserved

Note:  To receive an email version of “Thank God It’s Monday” to start your week, please subscribe here.  I would very much appreciate your suggesting to others that they subscribe.

Privacy Statement:  Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.