Archive for the ‘Redefining’ Category

Why is it that when people hear about a corporate bankruptcy, they become authorities on how it could have been avoided? It’s always easy to say you know better than someone else. Especially when you’re parked safely on the sidelines or looking at the situation in hindsight. But do you really know what you would do if put in the same position?

There are a lot of reasons why companies get in financial trouble. Some firms die because they deserve it. They’re mismanaged or they have products that stink. Others are good companies that make one mistake and pay a hefty price. Perhaps they don’t adapt to a market change quickly enough. Or maybe they tried to grow too quickly and ran out of cash. With so many elements to juggle, pinning down the “why” is not always easy for the outsider to determine.

Spiegel filed Chapter 11 in 2003. Spiegel was started in 1865. It’s parent to Lifestyle, Eddie Bauer, and Newport News. Its first catalog was produced in 1905. In nearly 140 years, Spiegel managed to do a lot of things right. When it hit a rocky patch, Joe Blow from down the street knew he could have done better. Really?

Look at the photo-film industry. Kodak offers good quality products. It was kicked in the face with the K-Mart bankruptcy, but managed to sustain the blow. Over the past 5 years, Kodak has made major adjustments to its product line to insure future success. Fuji Photo Film was a heavy competitor on price. The growing use of digital cameras threatened all film companies. Yet Kodak and Fuji were operating while Polaroid filed for bankruptcy.

On the surface, it was easy to see that Polaroid wasn’t adapting to the changing market fast enough. It didn’t offer competitive products. It didn’t market as well as other leaders. But WHY did executives at Polaroid make the decisions that they did? WHY would they “white-knuckle” their niche of instant imaging when one-hour photo processing and digital cameras were eroding their market share? What was going on behind the scenes that ultimately forced Polaroid to file Chapter 11?

Enough about everyone else. Your time is better spent focusing on how you can avoid damaging mistakes. Here are some tips:
1. Be an information gatherer. Start internally and look outward. What are your key deliverables? Are you defining what you really do? For example, are you a trucking firm or in the business of logistics? Canon says they’re in optics. Kodak says they’re in “memories.” That’s a selling proposition, but what do they do? Learn markets, talk to experts, and then make up your own mind.
2. Improve your management skills. Quality. Think BASF: “We don’t make the products you use, we make the products you use better.” Improve yourself to keep pace. Take courses to learn new tools. Read books in addition to magazines and papers. Look at trends and where you’re weak. Focus on one or two areas and not 50. You’ll be stronger for it.
3. Envision a realistic destiny. Make sure the picture you paint is one you can truly believe in. Most executives, owners, and managers can’t do this. If you’re one of them, watch out. This is an area where you can’t be wishy washy. Know where you’re going before you set out on the trip.
4. Be the driver. You can collect data and insight from others, but the direction comes from you. Your role as a leader is to lead, not get “group think” to the point that your company is crippled. As you move forward, you’ll gain new knowledge that might steer you in slightly different directions. Flexibility and adaptability are good. But make sure that you’re leading, not reacting.

You can’t fix a firm from the sidelines no more than you can play a game from the bleachers. When you see what’s happening in the world around you, don’t waste your time on second-guessing. Take what you can as a lesson and focus on your own firm. What you learn will bring solutions and strategies. You and your firm will be stronger for it.

I know someone who spent a good deal of his summer lounging by a pool, vacationing with friends, and overall just kicking back and enjoying life.  Oh yeah, he was a manager, too.  How did he have time to manage his employees and amass so much leisure time, too, you may ask.  He didn’t.  He chose hanging out over working hard, but he had a good reason.

As he explained to his superior, a regional manager for the firm, the “economy” was bad in the area.  He was even generous enough with his time to take the regional manager, who was unfamiliar with the ins and outs of this particular city, on a joy ride through its worst slum…boarded up windows and gang-sign graffiti offered “proof” that the man with a tan couldn’t be blamed for his office’s poor sales.

The vast majority of the beautiful city was running quite smoothly, but the regional manager didn’t get that tour.  He was shuffled straight to the airport before he got a sniff of the truth that his local subordinate opted to darken his tan rather than increase his office’s sales.

Yes, I realize the economy has hit most of us in one way or another.  Some of us have gotten pummeled worse than others, too.  And while sales have taken a hit in many industries, I hope that you’re able to separate reality from perception.

Be careful not to discount your ability to perform on the job because the economy is suffering. There have always been and will always be those who bend with the times and create opportunity.

Also, be fair with yourself. The same assets you brought to your job are those that can help you now.  Don’t forget that you have those strengths and you might just need to change your perception of reality to begin to utilize those strengths today.

Companies like ebay and Amazon.com have to adjust to the economy and the current market conditions to continue to realize healthy profits; and adjust is what they do.  So where are you adjusting what you do to continue to thrive in today’s business environment?

It’s not just about persistence it’s about changing tactics to bring in new business.

On the program Hell’s Kitchen, the restaurant undergoing a business makeover gave away food as a way to announce the reopening of the restaurant. Their marketing tactic was successful, and the next day the restaurant was full.

If you suspect that the economy has become your crutch, toss it aside and take responsibility to walk on your own two feet again.  Adjust strategy and tactics, get creative with marketing and sales, and find ways to revive assets that have been nearly dormant since the downturn started.

Someone’s always doing well…it might as well be you.

Bonuses must have an upside and a downside.  Do a great job and win big enough to make you stay with the firm.  Do a poor job and the bonus and salary structure should reinforce  either changing jobs or rethinking/retooling your career.  Easier said than done.

In the case of publicly-traded firms in the financial sector, all that was created was an upside.  Sell and makes millions, even if what you sell is detrimental to the firm.

Get this.  The APTA wants donations to help promote scholarships in the industry.

The American Public Transportation Foundation
Please “champion” the effort to ensure the future of our industry!
Dear Colleague:

We face a critical shortage of skilled and seasoned employees as thousands of workers from the “Baby boom” generation near retirement. We need to provide incentives to attract the  best of the best of our emerging talent. Your 2009 Champion gift will help achieve that goal, which in turn will helpus plan for a healthy, vibrant workforce. As you know, The American Public Transportation  Foundation provides scholarships for young professionals pursuing careers in public transportation. Your support will make our industry stand out from all the others. Our goal this month is to raise $5000.

….and yet when it comes to making our public transportation system stronger, they have been lacking in leadership.  Industry leaders are no closer to improving the transportation system then they were years ago.

Here is a sampling of what I recommended to the industry at a keynote to APTA’s executives.

US public transportation needs four factors to achieve 10+ % ridership:

1. Universal payment system. (You should be able to use your card in NYC, San Francisco and Atlanta and your own community as a universal pass.) This little switch would enable users to keep only one card in their pocket and most likely try another service around the country.

2. Connectivity of community public transportation systems with other communities (County roads, bridges and infrastructures, link to the next infrastructure. The same is necessary in order to increase ridership. Currently the systems do not connect.) Currently you can’t travel from Seattle to San Diego or Atlanta to Boston without jumping to an Amtrak or another service. It’s like building a bridge only half way and then stopping in the middle of the gorge.

3. Singular transportation guides throughout the system. (There needs to be one universal travel guide so that like airline travel, no one needs to relearn how to use a system.) I know I personally dread trying to figure out the maps in each city. Airlines have one system and so should the public transportation sector.

4. Transportation authorities need to be established. (Today, road and mass transit are at odds over how to use funding. With a transit authority the objective of the organization is to serve the public transportation needs in the best manner possible.) Right now the road and highway industry is 10x more powerful than all the other services so when it comes to funding. They get 90% of the pie even if it’s not the best use of the money to move people in that region.

5. Lastly, the future of public transportation will never improve until the industry moves from viewing that there are two types of users to three. Currently there exists the lingo that there are people with CHOICE and those Without Choice. With choice means they can use alternative forms of transportation, however, if gas goes up $1 per gallon, they might move into the Without Choice category. Obviously these users have only one method to get to work, shopping, visiting the doctor, etc. The group I suggested the industry see in the future is the group with MEANS. These are the people who earn $1 million per year and use the NYC Metro to get to work in the morning. These are the people with political clout and financial capital who would insure that NYC never closes the metro system.

What this means to the industry is “density” must be defined differently. They may get 50 people on the train in a low-income neighborhood and 17 people from the high-income community. The difference is the high-income travelers will make sure that there is a system at all for two reasons. They will be aware of the product AND it’s self serving. Their kids use it every day. (For those that don’t know, the industry looks for density of population to determine service development.)

Wow…I love technology that pushes us to think bigger. If this…then what’s next….!!!! Blood flow to the brain…who would have thought!

Courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architecture in Paris are renditions of future living communities to be potentially built in Dubai.  These “Lilypad” cities rise and fall with the tides.  Interesting considering that experts estimate that water levels will sink coastal land.

The cities will be self sufficient, generate their own power from sun, water and wind while producing zero emissions.  Each city will house 50,000 people, have gardens, walkways, and streets.  Water will be caught in central lakes and then filtered.

Estimated completion date…..at least 90 years from now.  If global warming does raise water levels we may see them sooner than we expect.

In the post-internet boom, the world witnessed a transformation of working arrangements.  Foreign employees of firms such as IBM were laid off only to find themselves returning back to their home counties to live once again.  When business volume increased, employees who were still working knew that they had a friend who used to be in the business who now lived overseas.  Given the cost of living difference, the past employee said, I’ll do the work in my home country and charge you a different rate.  Due to the connective digital lines under the ocean, the work could be easily completed.

We’re now seeing a similar condition, only the employees who are either being asked to work from home or are being laid off live down the street.  Just picture a similar scenario happening all over again, however slightly differently.  Firms such as Nissan Motors are asking employees to work from home because their physical building is too costly to operate.  With advancements in video, audio and virtual private networks, the same individual no longer will have a tangible office to return to.  They are now part of the virtual workforce.

Those laid off will face a similar scenario to the post-internet boom. “Carol has been laid off and already knows our business.  No need to re-hire her.  Let’s see if she will do this job as a part-time, outsourced employee?”  With the rise in unemployment rates and the likelihood that many people will be out of work for a long stretch of time, employees like Carol might jump at the chance to earn income once again, even as a part-timer home-based employee, forever changing working relationships and conditions.

The outsourced and virtual company is no more than a decade away.  Add some holographic meeting space, and we’re going to see this type of dispersed work structure as more common, because of the recession…depression.

As the global recession spreads, so, too, will more decision makers  move employees from physical offices into virtual work-at-home offices.  The trend will mimic that of the post-internet boom in the early 2000′s.

When I awoke this morning I immediately noticed the sun shining through our windows and not a cloud in the sky. I knew today would be a beautiful day for a bike ride along a path that follows the old Erie Canal.

Like other rides, my goal was to bike in one direction for 30 minutes, then return to my starting point in less than 26 minutes. On a previous trek, I reached a barn, cattle, and some boys playing basketball on a cross road. I wanted to get at least this far today. To succeed, I must start with a faster pace in a lower gear.

I set off with my thoughts on the target.

The last time I rode this course I ran across four beavers, one opossum, one rabbit, two ducks, many birds and one snake. The most I’d ever seen in one trip.

Today however my mind was not completely on the trek but more on other challenges I was facing. I hoped my thoughts would not interfere with my speed; I sensed that I was less in tune with nature.

I biked at what I thought to be a faster pace than my last bike ride. As I approached the 30-minute mark, I believed that quite possibly I had not reached barn yet. I pedaled harder.

28:00, 29:00, 29:30, 29:50, 30…the watch gave chirped its command to stop.

I thought that I must have slowed down and not even realized it. How could I have not reached my goal? Didn’t I have enough carbs this morning? A little frustrated I took a drink and started back with the same zest that got me started. Then it struck me. I had no clue where I was and the scenery was different. I was at a place I’d never been.

I had actually kept my eyes so riveted to the road and my thoughts on my challenges that I blew by the old mark by over at least 1/2 a mile. I could not believe it. By taking my eyes off the extraneous and by not limiting myself to what I had seen, I had kept up the pace and overshot what I had expected to be a challenging goal.

On the ride back I had plenty of time to think about this SINGLE-MINDED FOCUS. How often have I let myself stop, because the scenery was familiar, and I had a goal in mind? If I had done this today, I’d most likely have done it before.

While this was going on, I was pedaling like mad to make sure I hit my starting mark on the way back. It was a slightly upward run compared to the first leg, and I was tired from the first 30 minutes.

As the minutes on my watch passed I knew I had to keep on pedaling hard. At 8 minutes I turned up the steam. At 5 minutes I felt that I may not make it so once again I pumped harder. At 4 minutes, no end in sight. At two minutes I became certain that the finish line was ahead, but could I do it in two? At one minute the entire part was an uphill grade. I put my legs into high gear and with 32 seconds to spare, I reached the end.

I had achieved both my marks—outbound distance and inbound return—and realized some life lessons.

If you focus on a goal, be careful you may achieve it.
With the right tools you can you’d be surprised at what you can achieve.
When you put your nose down, you may miss all the wonders around you.
An adventure/experience is what it is.

As I entered the room, my son invited me to meet his new girl friend yet there was no one in the room. Ah, so 1900′s of me.

This is the year 2009 and my expectations were about to be shattered.  His girl was not in the room but 25 minutes away by car and our introduction was via a webcam.

Internally I was laughing at the realization that our 14 year old was truly in the digital age. Skyping and texting the two had formed a virtual and in person relationship that enables the two to share even when they are not face to face. (They met in person and have since spent weekends together so it’s perfectly normal…and she’s a great girl.)

I absolutely loved the new experience.

Recommendation, try to keep as current as possible by watching how kids live, since our youth may be bringing the next generation of ideas to our business environments.  In this case, our teens consider socializing via cam, text, and AIM as normal as by phone.

Would you?

… opens.”

Bet you thought it was an easy quote to finish.  Well, not only is the quote not finished, the original message is completely different than the quote often used to express the fact that opportunities are always opening.

Now here’s the entire quote as said by Alexander Graham Bell.

“When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

Ouch! Such a different meaning!!!!

In the rapid strategizing tool REDEFINING, a key element of great strategy is to create a complete challenge statement.  Here’s an example where the second half of the thought changes the meaning the message entirely.