Archive for the ‘Strategizing’ Category

People claim to hate change, but if that’s true, why do they enjoy going on vacation, finding a new favorite restaurant, or getting a tax rebate check in the mail?
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Change Through WSPs

If your staffers don’t like change, then you’re doing something wrong. People resist workplace changes, because these changes tend to be perceived as unexpected, disruptive, and negative. But you can do something to improve all that…

The Power of Wildly Successful Projects™ (WSPs)

Leaders who build a track record of Wildly Successful Projects reach organizational goals that earn them the trust of their staffers and make gaining buy in and cooperation on future projects a breeze.  Here’s what every leader and manager needs to know.

First, whenever you introduce a change such as an initiative or project, a software program, a standard procedure, etc. take proper action to avoid making two common mistakes:

1. Think through the new change completely, from strategy to tactics and execution, before you introduce it. Too often, leaders introduce ideas that lack substance or a plan for their completion, and as a result, those ideas fade into the ether. People waste time trying to figure out what to do with your ideas, and when enough of those unfulfilled ideas go unrealized, staffers lose confidence in what you have to say.
2. Finish one initiative before beginning another. Studies show that the number of projects that people can work on successfully at any given time is two projects; more than that overwhelms labor and maxes-out resources. Don’t confuse a task with a project. Striking a balance for you and your employees ensures that projects are completed and that your crew enjoys success on the job.

Contrast these two types of managers. Manager 1, Kate, attends a conference, returns to the office excited to share a list of new initiatives with her staff, but the staff already have several unfinished projects on their plates. She drops the ideas on employees’ laps and leaves it up to others to figure out the details.

Manager 2, Kyle, returns from the same conference, but instead of rushing to share all his ideas immediately, he does some research over the course of the next week to be sure that he introduces a single best idea that will positively impact his staff. He explains that the ROI on the project will earn the firm $200,000 over the next year, and that end-of-year bonuses will come from this initiative. Already, even before he has laid out the tactical plan, you can already surmise that this idea has greater potential than Kate’s idea to become a WSP.

Mimic Kyle’s approach to change and watch how workplace resistance to change is replaced with an eagerness for future changes. When you develop a reputation for introducing WSPs, people will love change.

The success of every leader or manager relies heavily on his or her ability to sell…but not as you might assume. Obviously, every business requires sales of products or services to remain operational, and a president or executive doesn’t need to conduct actual product sales if they have a sales force to do so. But I’m not referring to the types of sales that are marketing related; I’m talking about one’s ability to sell their ideas, initiatives, track record, or organization’s potential to others. My experiences with decision makers indicate that most people who hold top-level positions have never taken even a single sales course or recognize the critical impact that their lack of selling skills plays in their lives…both personally and professionally.

In order to get what you want—acquire a new building for expansion, secure a major client, advance your personal career, lock in on competitively-priced goods, and so on—leaders and managers need to pitch their sale to vastly different prospects using a variety of different angles. That doesn’t mean you need to be a super salesperson, just that you need to sell to bankers, employees, managers, officials, vendors, and other people in different ways and on terms that work for all parties. And that requires an awareness to offer something of value to others as well as to possess certain skills of persuasion.

If you’ve been lucky enough to carve a successful career for yourself and to build a strong organization, you can still improve your results by honing your selling skills. I find that when decision makers simply become aware of the strides they can make by upping their ability to sell, they seek out opportunities to grow and develop. They pick up a book on sales, they search out sales courses, and they spend more time observing the techniques used by their sales personnel to name a few. What can you do today to pitch yourself, your ideas, and your organization to create more certain and rewarding wins?

“Companies in the rich world are confronted with a rapidly aging workforce. Nearly one in three American workers will be over 50 by 2012, and America is a young country compared with Japan and Germany. China is also aging rapidly, thanks to its one-child policy. This means that companies will have to learn how to manage older workers better. It also means that they will be confronted with a wave of retirements as the baby-boomers leave work in droves.” (Source The Economist)

So what does this mean for decision makers like you? Two issues. First, in terms of rising up the management ladder, great opportunities are available for innovative thinkers who continually self-educate and build upon their leadership strengths. Are you armed with the right and best mental tools, processes, education, skills, etc. to be able to go beyond the basics of leading and managing others? The winners of tomorrow are building their management ‘tools kits’ today, because they know that in tomorrow’s world even more so than in today’s, they’ll be forced to CREATE opportunities, not just capitalize on existing ones.

Second, in terms of succession planning and building current leadership teams within today’s organizations, the aging workforce means that you’ll have fewer qualified candidates from which to fill open leadership positions, so you need to start  building the leaders of tomorrow now rather than expect to pull these candidates from the currently fast-evaporating pool.  What systems and processes do you have in place to hire the highest-potential candidates, empower others to work independently, achieve results through others, and most importantly, to attract prospective leaders who THINK in ways that capitalize on and create new opportunities?

This issue of the aging workforce–and specifically, the aging leadership force–doesn’t have to be a negative challenge. In fact, taking steps now can give you great advantages over two kinds of competitors: individuals who are vying for the same job positions as you are, and organizations that your organization competes with in the marketplace. In a nutshell, begin with acquiring mental management tools for yourself and then teaching them to others. Here are three examples to get you started:

1. CPM and Ghantt charts that help leaders organize projects, inform and direct the activities within projects on a time line and according to budget, and keep projects on target for completion as planned.

2. New product and service development tools which help you in the selection of best product/service ideas and pull together cross-functional groups to provide input and support throughout the development of the product and service to outpace competitors.

3. Strategic planning processes that structure the ways in which you and your leadership team(s) strategize to move your organization forward not only today, but into the future.

Of course, you probably already have some ideas floating around in your head about other options, too. The key is to formulate a plan and act on it now. Don’t wait, the opportunities arising from the aging-workforce issue are here for the taking.

When I was a kid, sitting down to have a bowl of Cheerios was not an uncommon breakfast meal.

What we’d do is pour a bowl of PLAIN Cheerios and then sprinkle, or should I say dump, sugar all over the top to sweeten the cereal.  Most of the sugar fell to the bottom, so we’d scoop up what we could in the last few bites. So many kids did this!

Last week, I opened one of our kitchen cabinets and discovered a new product that brought back this childhood memory…General Mills’ Frosted Cheerios.  I believe an eternity has passed since my days of pouring sugar on Cheerios, and now finally, pre-sugared Frosted Cheerios have made their way onto store shelves…even at a time when consumers are looking for natural foods.

Think about how this “new” product has been sitting smack in front of management for years and years and years.  Sometimes you don’t have to look far to find new products, product extensions, product improvements, etc.  You just have to keep your eyes open.

Trust is the foundation of any good business relationship or alliance. Typically, parties enter into these relationships with high hopes and with a level of trust and respect for the other party. However, trust can easily be lost if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain or if you become difficult to work with.

I realize that I’m mentioning an obvious point, here. After all, of course you build better relationships when there’s trust. But just because something is obvious doesn’t mean that it is a standard. Take this case in point.

Two allies are working together on a 2-year project that is already 1 year past due. The reason for the blown deadline is that one party won’t listen to the other and works independently without consulting with their ally. As a result, pieces of the project are completed incorrectly, and the work has to be undone, redone, and resubmitted.

The party that is responsible for the delays sends an email to the other ally, stating that they need the other ally to trust them. Huh? How is it that one would expect to be trusted just simply by asking for it. They lost the trust over the course of the project by not fulfilling their obligation to do the job they agreed to from the start.

Seriously, trust isn’t something you can ask for; it’s something you have to earn. Good effort and rationalizing mistakes won’t gain trust, either. You have to hold up your end of a deal, fulfill your commitments, meet deadlines, pay up as you promise and so forth in order to earn, gain, or keep trust.

No one wants to be in a situation where they have to raise revenue quickly, but sometimes  that’s just a reality that decision makers have to deal with.  When a past client who does business in a service industry was facing a cash crunch due to price increases from two major vendors, the only solution he could come up with in two month’s time was to push his sales people to sell more contracts. After we spoke a bit longer, he admitted that he’d done the math and that in the back of his mind, he had serious doubts about the sales team’s ability to bring in the targeted funds in the time frame that he needed.

I suggested that he try instituting a nominal price increase to all his clients. He was concerned, stating that he had a client base of 4000 contract holders, and to make such a move would mean that he would have to have reps visit each client to rewrite their contracts, plus, he feared their negative reaction. But that was his assumption, not his challenge or solution.

We took a closer look at the client base and came up with a solution that would assuage his concerns, bring in the revenue quickly, and address any clients who might call to complain. He sent via regular mail and email a notice to clients that they would see a slight price increase on their next billing cycle. For clients who had small contracts of say $40, the price would move to $42. For clients of $400, the price would increase to $420 and so on.

Still worried that he’d have an onslaught of calls, he manned up anyway and braced for the worst. And then….nothing happened. A few dozen customers called and they made what ever arrangements necessary for the new amounts to be remitted. In the end. the client pulled in tens of thousands of dollars of additional revenue per month without much work.

I credit the success of this business owner’s across-the-board price increases to the tactics which included: a pricing model that would cause the customer to say to themselves “who cares,” a well written letter and email campaign, staffing for the ‘just-in-case complaints,’ the right name for the increase, and an accounting system that had no flaws in posting the increase.

There’s always a solution to every challenge. You just have to be willing to open your mind to new ideas and to swirl those ideas around ‘cyclonically’ until you find the best solutions to your challenges.

Have you considered what your organization’s order qualifiers and order winners are? Nearly 3 decades ago, London Business School professor Terry Hill introduced the concept to manufacturers, describing qualifiers as basic characteristics that an organization, product or service needs just to be able to compete and function in the marketplace. They do not cause you to stand out, but they’re essential. Then there are winners. Winners, as their name suggests, are those unique, distinguishing stand-out characteristics that give organizations, products, services, etc. the edge over competitors. For example, they prompt consumers or distributors to buy from one company over another.

Did you know that Jones International was the first full online accredited university? Do you care? Probably not. But their situation is worth noting for the lesson that it teaches. In the 1990′s when online was new and exciting, being the first meant something. Today, being online and first might be a winner only if the organization is developing new and different strategies and tactics to keep them as an industry/sector leader for other winning reasons.   When organization such as Phoenix University and other schools became online resources for education, the public began to see online education as a qualifier. For Jones to retain its winner status, it would have to develop new and innovative winners.

The Madonna Inn, located in San Louis Obispo in CA is a fascinating hotel whose leadership apparently (fortunately) didn’t get the memo on the concept of standardization.   The hotel houses 110 creatively decorated rooms, and each room is different.  My favorite is The Madonna Inn’s Caveman Room; if you’re looking to get away Fred-Flintstone style, this room may be for you.

Caveman Room

Just think of the thought processes planners who developed this project as a fun way to differentiate their product from competitors’ offerings.  If this group’s members were working with an idea bank–electronic or manual collection of ideas–I can’t imagine how creative the ideas were and how much fun they must have had determining the criteria for building their hotel’s rooms. Fun and creativity aside, they still needed a solid process to bring their ideas through the project’s stages and to completion. Just in the early stages, they must have been thinking for a long time about what should they build.  Then they had to ideate about the theme of each room.  What would the theme look like, the selection of the wallpaper or bed style, and more.

This is a perfect example of how often sub ideation occurs within the bigger idea’s ideation.  The broadest ideation includes the type of hotel.  Then sub-ideation occurs where planners are asking about what types of rooms to include, and then even further ideation includes the details for each room. Finally, planners must coordinate the tactics (plans) and the execution of those tactics. Wild!

Madonna Inn Website

Alliance with goals that are out of sync.

When you’re looking to build an alliance with another party, or if you’re already involved in some type of alliance and you’re not seeing the results that you want, be sure that the goals and objectives of each party are either the same or at least complementary, or else trust is lost and rarely regained at a later juncture.

I recently read a newspaper article that told the story of a politician asking for a favor for an agency to help out a failing bank without identifying that the politician’s best friends are investors in that bank; without being honest about his goals up front, trust was lost. A baker supplies baked goods to the planners of a road race with the expectation that the bakery would be placed on a preferred vendor list. When the baker realizes that the planning committee withheld their policy prohibiting donors from being placed on a list of this type, the baker loses trust in the nonprofit organization. A principal agrees to a union contract knowing full well he’s leaving the next year. This sets up a no-win situation for the unknowing incoming principal, who will undoubtedly have to fight the terms with the union every step of the way when he takes his position…the actions of the outgoing principal have set the stage for trust issues and future failure.

Goals that out of sync and that may lead to trust issues arise from a number of starting points:

1. Parties make assumptions that they and their prospective allies understand each others’ goals.
2. Parties are not clear about their own goals upon entering into the alliance.
3. Parties assume that their plans and/or statement of goals are detailed and clear, but in fact, one or both are so unclear that discrepancies are not caught.
4. Individuals within a party don’t know each other or the industry well enough at the onset.
5. One or both parties agree to do one thing, but in reality, they actually do another.
6. Parties select the wrong type of alliance (Ad Hoc, Consortium, Project Joint Venture, Joint Venture, Merger, and Acquisition), so both parties begin the alliance under a veil of  misunderstanding, preventing any goals from being achieved.

Trust is a huge factor when you’re in an alliance with another party. Be sure that everyone is up front about their goals and objectives, their expectations of their allies and of themselves, and what they’re willing to contribute and what they expect to extract from the alliance so that trust remains in tact from start to finish.

While I personally don’t agree with many of the tactics used by credit card companies, I do give the leadership credit for being creative in finding new opportunities to make money.

Their new tactic, used to combat The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009  (see below), is to bring back annual fees that may be as much as $100 per year depending on the individuals previous payment record.

And the current administration thought they had the bankers beat at their own game.

The bankers approach is to targeting all customers.  Those with high risk, low risk or carry no balances. The rational is that a bank makes no money on customers that don’t carry a balance or pay in full.

Brilliant thinking.

The bankers know pay-in-full consumers won’t cancel their accounts because they fear being labeled a possible credit risk .  They understand that during the recession over 90% of small businesses use their credit cards to finance their business operations to purchase inventory, travel, and to pay bills.  They too won’t cancel. High risk candidates need the card or risk losing credit all together.

Ironically, terminating a card for generating fees might also negatively impact your credit score.

If you want to read more on the story, check out. Newtelegram.com This is not the complete story.  I could not find any site carrying the entire story I read in my local paper.

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 which is intended to halt abusive practices by credit-card issuers that keep consumers mired in debt. When it goes into effect in February, it will:
restrict interest-rate increases during the first year;
restrict rate increases on existing balances;
increase notice for rate increases on future purchases;
preserve the ability to pay off on the old terms;
place limits on fees and penalty interest;
require fair application of payments;
provide sensible due dates and time to pay;
protect young consumers;
restrict issuance fees on fee harvester cards
require enhanced disclosures.
SOURCE: Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports