Archive for June, 2008

Oticon, Inc., one of the largest manufacturers of hearing aids in the world, had a challenge ahead of them as to how they should market their state-of-the-art new hearing aids. Their products now used a Blue Tooth technology that allowed two hearing aids to communicate with one another, and created a surround-sound effect for the wearer.

The leadership throughout the world thought that, given the technology advancements, the marketing of Blue Tooth would be a great competitive advantage compared to the competition.

The manager of the US market thought otherwise.

His experience was based on a conversation with a test subject, the father of one of their management. When asked, after a trial period, what he thought about the product, the father replied, “I can SEE better.”

It’s not a typo.

The newer surround sound technology, Blue Tooth technology, that now bridged the two hearing aids together electronically, enabled listeners to get a sense of where the sound was emanating from, and in turn, enabled the user to pin point where to look.

This minute affect is huge when one’s life without the product requires the individual to scan their surroundings to find out where a sound is being generated from. It’s the difference between thinking you hear a horn blaring from above versus knowing the horn is sounding from a car approaching you at high speeds. I’d take option number two.

This was an advantage so unique that someone was willing to invest USD $3500 for a single hearing aid and $7000 for a pair, because they considered it worth the money. It’s like getting your hearing back.

The US Leadership saw this as an advantage and contrary to all others, focused on the surround sound with the belief that most people in the age group that would use the product don’t have a clue what Blue Tooth is anyway. It’s not their generation. Besides, today few young people even know what Blue Tooth is, even if they do use it themselves.

Do you know how your cell phone works and what type of technology is within the casing?

The marketing strategy paid off big time, with a surge in sales driven by a customer benefit while the Blue Tooth strategy did not. Obviously, the rest of the world converted to the surround-sound model.

For a $300 million dollar business, there are many lessons.

1. Scoping and testing the product is not the end all. One must also listen and know the client to see what they don’t see. No pun intended.
2. There’s a significant loss when a poor decision is made, even with a great product.
3. When management does not create the right strategy, not only are profits lost but opportunity losses are incurred.

I just loved the SEE better.

In February 2008, I saw a phenomenal play on Broadway that I would recommend you see if you have a chance to visit NYC. It’s called the Farnsworth Invention, and it’s the story of the race to invent-create television in the 1920′s and 1930′s.

Without giving you the storyline and ruining the play, I’d like to mention a quote that hit me at the very end of the story. It was:

“I burned his house down so he wouldn’t burn mine down first,”

Made me think.

Think about how this statement depicts and mirrors many moments in our lives.

In the story, there are many parallels; one being that the CEO of RCA destroyed another individual in the process of building and protecting his empire. Both a link between industrial espionage, competitive intelligence, theft, and ethical issues facing those in management.

Similar to the Detroit 3 purchasing technologies or destroying technologies that would have harmed their business and in doing so hurt “real people” in the process. As we face the energy crunch/crisis today, they and we are paying price for those destroyed technologies.

Personally, I hope, I’ve never consciously or unknowingly harmed someone in such a manner.

NOTE 1: I’ve read some reviews that say that the author took too many liberties with the lives of the two characters, so I’m not saying everything in the play is true. But the message I got from it to apply to real life is a potent one…and still, it was a great play. http://www.thefarnsworthinvention.com/index.html

Link to the website http://www.farnsworthonbroadway.com/

NOTE: Other plays I’d recommend…the short list.

Avenue Q – One of my favorites. Sesame Street on steroids.
Chorus Line
Wicked
Hairspray
Spring Awakening – only because the writer wrote the play in the 1800′s and it’s still relevant today.
Curtains

I hate to use a phrase that’s been beaten to death…How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

It means that when if you do things right, and take steps in the right directions, you’d be amazed at what you can do.

For example, I just looked at a list of interviews I’ve done, and it has more than 1200 names. The interviewees come from talks I’ve done for MetaMatrix Consulting Group, for published articles and to-be-published books, NYNSA, our New York State chapter of the National Speakers Association, and several telecasts. In addition to the usual work I do as a consultant and speaker, from that list I have developed over 90 phrases on David’s Quotes on our website, and according to the blog list…over 300 blog entries.

The funny thing is I did not do 1200 in a week, 23 in a day, 90 over a weekend or 300 in an afternoon. I just did one at a time. Like the phrase from a popular kids’ Christmas program, “Put one foot in front of the other…and soon you’ll be walking ‘cross the floor…”

The key is, it’s a state of conditioning to be persistent. Ironically, if you start by thinking about doing it all at once you’ll fall into inaction and do nothing. If you just start…the successes just roll in.

During one of the New Product and Service Development class sessions that I teach at NYU, the students and I were discussing how new product and service development gates should ELIMINATE ideas that just don’t fit an organization. One student threw out a completely wild phrase that I loved. In her understanding, she said the tool used should eliminate suggestions such as,

“Throwing bowling balls out of a hot air balloon.”

Now that’s an idea I had never thought of doing. Now, even though a phase gate tool should eliminate ideas that are wrong for an organization, it’s not that even wild ideas don’t have merit and should be explored.

In the case of the flying bowling balls, I get that this type of thinking could drive some really new and innovative products and services. Just hopefully in the process no one gets killed.

Mmmmmmm….can you see how all ideas have merit. It’s just a matter of perception and timing.

It’s funny how we shift our teaching skills depending on the individual and the relationship you have with them.

While skiing yesterday, a relative managed to get a 10-year-old cousin on a black diamond trail that’s way above his skill. Enter relative #3, who tried to skill him down the mountain by teaching him to ski. The poor kid tumbled and stopped several times in just 50 feet.

I decided to use another strategy,

Teach with simple rule. Rule number one was to follow my turns. Rule number two was to “Turn on the mountain.” Translation: make the turn on the top of the bump/mogul. It’s where most skiers don’t turn and ironically the top of the bump is where the snow always remains. These two simple strategies had him skiing down the mountain.

I taught and lead the way.

Now think about the normal strategy by management and leadership. Teach and do a small trial run, and then turn your employees out on their own. Done too quickly and without enough preparation, you’ve set the stage for failure. Like the young boy who was placed in a position on the mountain without the proper skills to navigate his way down, preparing him with even a simple rule enabled him to ski down the mountain with relative ease and more comfortably.

Take the empowering process a bit further, and give people a heads up on what to expect. Using the example of the boy on the ski mountain, I thought it best to warn him of up coming events far into the future.

“Not now but around 3 more bump runs, there will be a straight away. I want you to be prepared for these two new rules. #1 You’re always skiing, and #2 Keep going straight.” The mechanics don’t matter to you as a manager, however, the outcome does.

My young cousin was prepared, and when I reviewed the rules again, he had memorized them in just a short time frame. (When your back’s against the wall like that, you tend to have a pretty sharp memory.)

The next day when we started skiing, the first words out of the boy’s mouth were, “Can we do like yesterday?” Wow, from a situation that could have potentially shot down this kid’s desire to ski, a few simple bits of information empowered him and motivated him to want to do even more.

The people that you lead and manage are often just as needy as the 10-year-old kid, possibly holding apprehensions and challenges that their previous leaders have given them. Take the time to simplify and show them what needs to be done and then hold their hands for a longer time than you would have normally done. Not micro manage. Guide.

When I knew that the boy could handle the ropes, I let go. And that’s exactly what you will do when you know the time is right for your staff.

The added benefit is that next time, when there’s a challenge in the future, your people will follow your leadership, because they will trust that you will get them where they want to go.

“There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.”

Albert Einstein

Although we’ve seen the car/boat creations of the past, the day has finally come where a car and a boat have been merged into a somewhat affordable product. It can drive on land then convert to a boat and travel on the water.

The whole transformation only takes 12 seconds and can travel at over 30 MPH! If you wanted to, you could pull a water skier, it’s so fast.

If that’s not enough, they’ve done the same for ATVs, calling the product an Amphibian Quadbike. Another product, called the Humdinga, is designed for rough terrain. Get this. The Humdinga can hold 5 passengers and travel at 100 MPH on land and 40 MPH on the water.

Just like in the movies, the wheels come up and the jet propulsion kicks in.

Check it out yourself at http://www.gibbstech.com

It’s always a good idea to use some sense when you’re planning improvements, even if you do think you’re smart.  Sense, in my opinion, trumps smart any day.

I visited the “new and improved” buildings at a ski resort…a resort whose management should have known better.  The improvements were a fiasco.

Millions spent on a new building and the mountain says they misgauged the needed size. Are you kidding me? The ski mountain hires experts in the field to give them the guidance and direction while taking on a huge infrastructure project. The demolition of a ski lodge used for catering and the development of a newer, larger and efficient building. Additionally the lodge was to be so large that a second, very old building was also to be torn down and this facility was to fulfill the additional seating capacity of both buildings.

Wouldn’t you guess? The experts were wrong.

Not only does the building not fit the needs of the previous building because the owners and experts did not account for growth, but it’s not even close to meeting the needs of the second building.

The costs of such errors are huge.

They’re about to invest in another building to make up the difference in an inconvenient location, they have to manage the older building for at least another two years, customers are inconvenienced, employees now have to work two and soon three buildings, a 5-year plan is now six, utilities and extra maintenance on the 40 year old building continue…yada, yada, yada.

Mind you, these guys were Paid to Think, and while I’m no expert in the field of seating capacity, the first time I walked into the structure I said to myself, “Too small.” Not good.

How could all parties have made a better decision? Extrapolate growth alone along with the seating numbers, and then a 30% because in most ski resorts the tables are so crowded that everyone is standing around looking for tables. The thirty percent is because 50% is too steep and the 10% is not worth the effort. The thirty is because a building lasts for 30-40 years and they want to grow.

Besides, the 30% is less than they are paying for right now.

A very successful organization just started to shift to using Disney and Harley as examples of how they, in turn, should act towards their employees and their customers. For Disney, the mystique is that they run an absolutely perfect ship. Harley is about customer loyalty and putting a tattoo on your body.

To a large degree, management knows that both companies are like humans, they’re not perfect and don’t run as smoothly as everyone thinks. When you pull back the curtain, like the Wizard of Oz, there’s just a human pulling levers.

From the perspective of management, however, they know that the employees in their firm don’t know this, so their approach is to put the organizations on a pedestal and then watch the employees attempt to live up to such high expectations.

My take is quite different.

I’ve had several trips to Disney, and even though it’s a great company, things have gone wrong. I’ve waited for a room for hours with my family only to be forgotten. Rooms were not cleaned when expected. The lines for children have been horribly long. Any adult or kid should be able to figure out that 1.5 hours on line is a long time, even if you are snaking through the building.

So what happens when reality reaches those on the front line? Will they trust future management? With a little bit of honesty, some huge issues may be avoided in the future.

The lesson: aim high, but be realistic and honest, too.

I’m often asked, “Don’t you wish you received a portion of the profits-revenue-sale?” Meaning that if I raised a client’s revenue by $57 million, I should get a portion of the money earned. To this, I always comment that I always try to remember what was happening in my life at the time in which I accepted the deal.

Let’s say, I had a personal goal, a free day on the calendar, a request from a friend, and desire to be in a market. I then make the best choice I can, given the conditions I’m facing. Seven months later, the world may have changed and where in one case I received stock options, in the other case, I received nothing. Both, according to this philosophy, allow me to move on and not dream about fixing yesterday.

The next time you’re in the middle of a project that you initiated, a job you requested, a trip that turned sour, or any other situation, the best way to remain sane is to sit back and say to yourself:

“I made the best decision I could make at that time in my life. I now have the choice to make different decisions today and in the future.”