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March 30, 2011

Are Your Business Strategies Random Or Connected?

When you market your business make sure you plug into the right circuit.  You want to design your business like a network of connections that all tie together.  If you are a B2B technology firm that helps develop complicated platforms and integrated architecture for international business distributors, know who you are and what you do.  Design your business to stick to the model you prefer to perform.  Do not jump around looking to make money in areas of service you do not prefer to perform.  Stick to knitting, is the traditional term.

As you define what business you are in make sure you keep working on your strategies to support what your business does.  It sounds elementary, but many good business models make this simple mistake.  They tend to drift around a little bit to 'test' some areas of revenues they think they may want to add to the model of their business efforts.  Sometimes they feel as if they are missing something.  When this type of thinking occurs, usually the marketing plan gets a little bit damaged.

In fact, many good businesses have a really good grip on doing what they do best.  Many of the good business models hire the right people to fill in with the right skills needed to service the right stuff they do.  Often times these models need to reach out and market their wares to increase sales and shares.  Some of these good models do not handle the marketing of their wares very well.  Sometimes they try to build a clever advertising program and send out a series of messages that do not accurately depict who they are and what they do.  Good business models make this mistake more often than they are willing to admit.

It is not uncommon to see this type of marketing mistake occur in a dysfunctional designed business model.  A business model designed 'at random' has the strong probability to produce a disjointed marketing plan.  Strategy sessions flash all over the place to try and capture too many 'popular' business trends and ideas that distract the model away from becoming tightly designed with a driven purpose.  Too many on and off again procedures inhibit growth and maturity.  A business that is not well connected with all of its moving parts is a business operating on random strategies.  Marketing successfully to the marketplace with a model designed in this format is a very dangerous and expensive affair.  Chances to plug into the business with a message that helps the customer find and use the offers made is a risky step for a randomly designed business to approach.  This statement is so prophetic many business owners miss the value in its depth.  If your business is well connected with all of its parts, your marketing plan is much easier to design for success.  What you need to do to reach who you want is so much easier to target when your model is strategically connected.

If your B2B technology firm is working internationally bound with distribution companies who are struggling with delivery and production issues on synchronization, you know what to do, where to get it done and who to help you to do what you do best.  If a friend calls and asks you to help one of his own friends with the redesign of one of his shopping malls in New York City, you will gladly give him a referral to someone you know who does that kind of work.  When the time comes to reach out and market your model to increase customer shares, you will not present an advertising plan that suggests your business works well on the redesign efforts of shopping malls in America.  You will present the things you are doing well and stick to those things as you send the message to new customers about what you do and where you do it.  It seems so simple.  Yet, I watch great business models make this simple mistake all of the time.

I do not even know the key players of the models as I wonder what the heck they are trying to do.  Sprint uses its CEO as its face of change in its efforts to try to tell the consumer who they are and what they do.  Do you get it?  Does the customer get it?  Do you actually see what Sprint does and completely understand who they are and what they do?  I am not convinced.  Are you?  Look at your phone, is it a Sprint phone?  How well is that marketing plan working?  They spend a great deal of money trying to increase their market share.  Is what they are spending matching what they are gaining?  I am not convinced and I do not know their numbers.  I might be wrong...but I do not see the connectivity of their model with the cost of the messages they are spending to send.  They do not appear well connected; professional yes, well connected, no.


March 29, 2011

If Your Life Was A 24-Hour Clock, What Time Is It?

At Midnight, It All Ends!
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.  Period.  End of debate.

We want to avoid absolutes.  We want some debate.  We feel as if we have gained control when we are able to debate a subject.  We do not feel we have any control when we discover that "no" really means "no" or when "yes" really means "yes".  Furthermore, we like "yes" better than "no".  "Yes" gives us permission.  "No" restricts our movements.  He dislike restrictions.  "Yes" is usually our best answer when we are searching for permission.  Usually "yes" does not force us to accept something we do not like.  We prefer the answer "yes" more than we care to hear "no".  In the world of absolutes, we prefer to hear "yes".

Given this truth, if we ask permission to do something, "yes" is our preferred answer.  We want permission.  We want allowances.  We want options.  We want choices.  To ask someone for permission the best answer we are searching for is the answer, "yes."  Taken a step forward, if we ask someone whether or not we are annoying them and their answer is "Yes", we want to find out why.  In this case, "yes" does not become the best answer we want to hear, unless of course, we are given room for some debate.  Under this circumstance, we prefer that the answer "yes" opens up the gates for debate.  We want to find out why they feel we annoy them.  We do not want to treat this rejection as an absolute.  We need room to move.  We need debate.

It is easy to see how we prefer to avoid absolutes.  We want to examine deeper why someone felt we were annoying them.  We need to examine the options, the excuses and the justifiable reasons why we are being rejected.  We want to develop some room for protective debate.  We need to debate their view.  We want to avoid their absolutes.  Absolutes do not permit us to exercise our desire for control.  Absolutes give us no options.  Having no options leave us with no control.  We want options.  We want control.  Options give us the idea that we have some control.

When someone offers us unsolicited advice, we can become offended.  Who do they think we are?  What gives them the right to tell us an absolute that might be totally wrong?  The debate begins because we want more options to help them to understand us better.  Furthermore, why do we need to do what they want us to do?  Who made them God?  We consider their advice as being something similar to an absolute.  Remember, we are not hot on absolutes.  Absolutes remove our sense of choice.  They limit our desire for options.  Keep in mind that it is our desire for options that allows us to control our lives and gives us this wonderful feeling of self control.  This is where most of us find meaning in our life.  Therefore, when someone offers unsolicited advice for us to do something other than what we are already doing, we consider it to be an unwanted order...an unwelcoming mandate...an absolute.  We do not take absolutes kindly.  We will likely do just the opposite to show them how much control we really have.  Even if doing the opposite actually hurts our station in life.  We do it anyway.  We want control.

Conclusion?  We do not like absolutes.  They tend to kill off our sense for having options.  We want more control in our lives than having no options.  Absolutes are too narrow for us to accept.  So when someone says the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, we want that statement to become open for debate.  It sounds more like an absolute instead of an option.  We prefer to skip over the absolutes.  We would much rather circle our options.

Except for one thing...life and death.  These are the areas where we accept absolutes.  We accept having been given life.  We allow many debates about how we were given life, but life itself is an absolute.  We accept that.  We are alive and that is an absolute we can accept.  We know we came from somewhere, that is an absolute.

We also die.  That, too, is an absolute.  We accept death as an absolute.  Death will happen.  These are not subjects we will debate openly.  We accept them.  We may have modified what they represent, life and death, but we know they exist and we know and accept that they will occur.  The physical events of life and death will occur to us and we accept these absolutes.

Let's examine the absolute of death.  We know it will happen to us someday.  This truth is an absolute.  However, we will comfortably open up the debate by examining the when, where, how and why subjects of the arrival of death.  What and who are already accepted.  What happens is that we will die.  Who it happens to is us.  What and who are not debatable.  "Who" is us and "what" is death.  We only have when, where, how and why remaining to debate...and we freely debate those.

What if we treated when, where, how and why...like a regular clock?  What if the clock we used only had 24 hours to run?  When we were born that 24-hour clock began to run.  When we die, the clock stops running.  What if we are only given 24 hours on our clock of life?  These are the rules.  Each life gets 24 hours to do everything they do in a lifetime.  Under these rules, what time is it in your life?  Is it 10 A.M., noon, 5 P.M. or is it nearly midnight?  Let's open up the world of debate for the remaining hours we have left to live.

Let's examine our personal 24-hour clock and see what time it is in our life.

March 28, 2011

In A Business Heart, Everything Is Competitive.


Driving on a boulevard that has street lights running on a timer, the business owner will try to 'hit' every one of them without stopping.  The business owner will either slow down the pace or speed it up a little bit to make sure each stop light can be 'hit' without having to come to a complete stop at the red light.  The owner will even roll very slowly at the end in order to win!  It is not considered cheating.  As long as a complete stop did not occur, he wins.  It is a competitive thing.

When reading the mail the owner will find some of the material useless, wad up the paper into a small ball then turn and try to make a basket into the garbage with the waste.  It is a competitive thing.  The owner might even go through the plant and round up a couple of the other business associates to head downstairs for a cup of coffee during break time.  They will use a carpet line on the floor in the hallway as a marker to pitch coins from 20 feet away to see who comes the closest.  The associate whose coin lands the furthest away from the make-shift line buys this round of coffee.  Some comments, maybe some yells and growls will highlight the last pitched coin as it almost wins!  It is a competitive thing.

Owners are competitive by nature.  Everything they seem to touch is a bit competitive.  Business owners are sometimes very bad movie partners.  They are always trying to figure out what will happen next in the movie.  They get excited when they are right with their predictions.  They will even describe who's celebrity voice is being used in animated movies and commercials.  Everything to them is a game.  Business owners usually dominate conversations.  They always sound like salesmen.  They are trying to convince, convince and convince.  It is a competitive thing.  In a business heart, everything is competitive.

March 27, 2011

Are Your Business Methods Held In A “Day-Tight” Compartment?

I have sat in the passenger seat of many automobiles in my life.  Whatever the reason for being the passenger on these automobile trips, someone else did the driving.  I usually do the driving.  One thing I notice when I am the passenger, not every driver uses the same techniques.  In fact, some are kind of scary.  Some do not pay attention as much as I think they should.  I recall thinking about trying to convince a few of the drivers to allow me to finish doing the driving.  My goal was to make sure we arrived in one piece.

Automobile driving is a lot like building a business.  We do not get into the automobile without really knowing where we are going.  However, we do waste some trips.  Some of our trips were not as worthwhile as we first thought they might be.  Other trips were so quick we do not even remember taking them.  Occasionally, a trip is so good we wonder why we have not taken this one before.  Some trips are not very much fun at all.  Some we take because we have to, not because we want to.  Some of our trips included passengers we do not really like.  Also, some of the destinations we drove to were not the ones we really enjoyed.  Once in awhile, we got lost.  I remember driving many times when an accident nearly happened.  I remember being surprised and having to quickly react to avoid a terrible crash.  I remember falling asleep when I was at the steering wheel.  I remember getting mad at the other drivers and doing some stupid road rage stuff to get even with their stupidity.  I remember turning around because we realized we forgot something.  I remember turning around because we did not like where we were going.  I remember fighting and arguing with my wife while I was trying to drive.

I remember thinking how mad I was when the government said I needed to wear a seat belt.  At the time, that rule just seemed like too much.  I have driven too fast, too slow and too reckless to be proud of managing my automobile very well.  I have used my cell phone while driving my car.  I shave, brush my teeth, talk on the phone, eat food and drink coffee while I am driving.  I have driven vehicles that were dangerous to drive.  I have driven vehicles that were difficult to drive.  I have driven on roads that were not very safe to navigate.  I have driven in weather that should have caused a tragic wreck.  Guess what?  Operating a business includes a lot of these same characteristics.  Driving an automobile is a lot like building a business.  They are very much the same in a lot of ways.

One of the things drivers do not do when they get behind the wheel of their vehicle, they cannot function safely by treating the trip as if they are the only ones on the road.  Drivers must share the rules, the road and the spaces they use with other people and other things.  The trip always has a ton of obstacles in the road.  Drivers must learn how to navigate those obstacles.  Sometimes a driver needs to go west for a bit in order to end up somewhere in the east.  They cannot just drive straight east through some farmers field that has not been made into a road.  They must stay on the pavement even though it may wind around the wrong direction for a few miles before it leads back into the correct direction.  Drivers cannot navigate their vehicles well in a 'day-tight' compartment.  Sometimes it will take 162 miles to actually travel 91 miles to a destination.  Sometimes it will take 6 hours to arrive at a place that should have taken about 3 hours to do.  Obstacles simply got in the way.  To drive successfully requires the person behind the wheel to operate outside of a 'day-tight' compartment.  Drivers need to become more flexible.  A driver cannot safely hold the freeway speed at 65 miles per hour while going through a construction zone.  They cannot go 65 miles per hour next to standing workers who are flagging along side a bumpy 'make-shift' detour.  Staying in a 'day-tight' compartment would be foolish and dangerous driving.

Business owners need to understand this rule.  Drivers usually get it.  Business owners often miss it.  The roads to success in business have many hidden obstacles that business owners often ignore.  Warning signs are everywhere but owners sometimes refuse to read them.  Many owners have the foot down on the gas and believe the fast speed they are driving in their business is the best way to operate.  They become enclosed into a 'day-tight' compartment.  I have watched many owners drive their businesses at full speed right through some of the bumpiest roads anyone could endure.  They also experience a tragic business wreck.  It may be a wreck that easily could have been avoided.  Business methods do not need to be held in a 'day-tight' compartment.  They need to be flexible.

March 24, 2011

Why Do We Reject Good Advice?

Habits can be a very good thing to have.  Fishing for compliments can become a very good habit.  If our habits protect the work we are proud of doing, we will continue to do more of what we like to do.  We like to do what feels good to do.  We also like to do for others what others seem appreciative for us to do.  These kinds of patterns rule our lives.  We tend to rub up next to the things in our lives that feel good.  Life can be otherwise nasty at times so we prefer to remove anything from our lives that represent patterns that are contrary to helping us feel good.  We want to feel good.

We develop habits that are more likely supportive to the patterns that will help us feel good.  Sleeping in late feels good.  It can become a problem if it interferes with our working schedule, but it feels good.  Eating a chocolate candy bar feels good.  Having six of them each day feels good, but can eventually challenge our budget and health.  Drinking a good beer or a great glass of wine feels good.  Drinking a few of them in a row feels better, but every night this pattern can do some serious damage.  We like to do things that help make us feel good.  It is one of our great desires.

When we get home from a long day at work we do not like to walk in and have someone complain to us about something we forgot to do before we left for work in the morning.  That does not make us feel good.  We reject patterns of this nature.

We tend to gravitate towards the things that help us feel good.  We work our patterns in life to become more familiar and more closely associated with getting around those things that help us to feel good.  These efforts eventually become our leading habits.  We do them over and over and over until they occur without our 'official' thought process.  They become involuntary for us to do.  We no longer need to think about them for us to do them.  They 'just happen' because they help us feel good.  Our mind develops a complicated support system to honor the things we know will help us to feel good.  Our mind will creatively find all kinds of ways to make the things we like to do become common habits to how we respond to the changing things all around us.  Our complicated mind will protect us from the things that interfere with any of our 'feel good' patterns.  All we want to do is feel good about what we are doing.  We are not necessarily interested in whether or not it is good for us to do what we are doing, just as long as it feels good for us to do.

This kind of approach to life can take over our patterns of knowing what is right and what is wrong.  We can actually do some very wrong things and justify why it is alright for us to do them.  The line between right and wrong can get so faint that we will decide to do the wrong things on a continuous basis and feel good about doing it.  We smoke cigarettes and do not even give it a thought.  Everything smoking does to make us feel good produces mental results that help us to justify why its alright to feel good about doing it.  That is easy for me to say because I am not a smoker.  I have my own vices, however.  I can live life just fine without ice cream, but I indulge in it more often than I should.  A gallon of ice cream will not last in my house for more than two days.  The same would hold true if I bought two gallons at a time.  Two days, that's it!


March 23, 2011

Smart People Also Fail In Business.

Really Smart People Can Fail In Business
I have had the pleasure to work for, with and around some very smart people.  Some of those smart people have impressed me so much I cannot believe they have had trouble producing excellent results in their business affairs.  Smart people can and do fail in business.  If they do not fail, many struggle with their business models constantly.  It happens.

One of the brightest people I have had the pleasure to share in business experience has struggled to win in his business model for the best part of the past decade.  I have met a lot of really bright people in my business walk.  This particular business owner is one of the brightest.  The characteristic that sets his wisdom so far out in front of the other really smart business owners is his ability to know what to do well before a trend has turned itself into a reality.  He possesses the uncanny skill to 'see' what needs to be done well before the trend has arrived.  Very few business owners have exhibited his level of accuracy of knowing where to be on the coming trends, well before they arrive.  He also knows how to properly arrange and prepare his business model to take full advantage of his insightful skills.  His excellence on this particular set of skills is unparalleled.  It has always amazed me how he can define where a trend in his industry is headed and how well he designs his model to capitalize on that change.

So why does he struggle so much in his business affairs?

First of all, I will lay money on the fact that if we were on current speaking terms, he might deny that his business model is struggling.  Even though he has excellent skills in some areas of business savvy, other areas of great need are null and void.  The challenges his business faces in the areas he carry's the most weaknesses are costing him a wonderful chance to make it big in the business world.  This type of leadership plagues even the best operators, including the ones who have the most intelligence.  Really smart people can struggle in the business world.

If you are one of the really bright people in this world and you own a business, how do you know if your business model is struggling?  How do you know if what you are doing is the right thing to be doing?  When do you accept the recession as your fault for failure as opposed to accepting some other reasons?  Let's examine some of these 'hard-to-come-to-terms-with" scenarios.  If you are really smart, you will find this post kind of uncomfortable.  Smart people might consider this post to be kind of elementary.  They might find this subject kind of offensive.  If so, I urge those really smart people to push through it and read on.  It might be good for them to get a little more humble and begin working on the voids in their operational style which are simply killing their business opportunities for better success.  The truth remains, really smart people can and do struggle in their business models.  Unfortunately, really smart people also have some of the highest levels of denial I have ever witnessed.  Maybe that is why they struggle so much.  If you are really smart and you have been struggling in your business for a long time, you might be one of those business owners who is beginning to get irritated with this particular post.  Push through it.

March 21, 2011

Are You A Short-Cut Master?

We already had a little chat about the dangers of being able to multi-task in an earlier post. (Multi-Tasking, The Troubling Gap.)  Sometimes we get going too fast doing multiple tasks trying to keep up with the unhealthy pace we believe we should be producing.  If we catch ourselves producing that fast moving pace we start performing short-cuts to maintain that pace.  Short-cuts are a dangerous way to perform great levels of customer service.  The risk for losing valuable information is very high when we start using short-cuts to perform tasks quickly.  Slow down, do better work.  The customer is in a hurry, but they will be more wicked off when you foul up their completion expectations.

Do you find yourself becoming a short-cut master?

Stop it.

Short-cuts are guarantees for lost items, incomplete information, missing tools, misplaced keys, mislaid mobile phones, important messages forgotten, inadequate messages, forgotten promises and many other routine duties that get left undone because the effort to complete them was shortened by skipping some important steps.  Here is how it happens.  Some customer at the sales counter says, "Give me a call when you get those new hydraulic tools in stock."  You are talking on the phone with someone else when that happens.  You nod your head in agreement to the customer at the sales counter because they look like they are in a hurry to leave and it 'fit' well to offer a "short-cut" agreement.  They leave believing you are going to call them when the hydraulic tools you have on order come in.  A few minutes later you end the phone conversation with the other party and hang it up.  You walk away and make no note of the request the hydraulic customer made while you were on the phone with another party.  You were trying to multi-task and do two things at once.  Two weeks later they come in to check on the arrival of the hydraulic tools and two of the three that arrived have already been sold to someone else.  You forgot to make a note to call them.  In fact, the head nod you gave them when you were preoccupied on the phone did not do a very good job of customer service.  They seem unhappy about how this deal happened, but they go ahead and ask you to order in the other two missing tools for them to see.  They call you by your name when they thank you for re-ordering it.  You do not want to offend them by asking them their last name, so you do another 'short-cut' by waiting until they leave and ask one of your employees for their last name.  Your employee says, "All I know is his name is Bill and her name is Andie.  I do not know their last name!"  Great, another 'short-cut' headed for doom.

Are you a short-cut master?  Do you do things like this in your business?  Do you write notes of importance on the palm of your hand?  Do you lay the wireless phone down when you are done with it or do you take it all the way back to the sales counter and return it to its base?  Are you a short-cut master?

Do you perform multiple tasks every day by touching a little bit on them here and there, adding a short-cut or two so you can get more done?  Or do you designate specified time slots set aside to do routine tasks so they can receive proper attention?  Do you open the daily mail while you are working at the sales counter and answering customer phone calls?  Do you try to research customer requests for more information while posting your accounting duties onto your spreadsheets?  Do you design your next advertising campaign while you are on the phone handling a tough customer service call?  How many short-cuts have caused you to deliver incomplete work details that have hurt your leadership and your overall business performance?  I suspect more than you are willing to admit.  I know for a fact I have performed many short-cuts that have haunted my quality of production.  Short-cuts can and do kill quality work.  Are you a short-cut master?  What can you do to improve in this area of your leadership?  It may be hurting your customer service rating.  It may be hurting your leadership posture with your staff.  Dropped balls get very aggravating when the customers express their dissatisfaction to your employees.  Customer do not always pass their complaints on to you.  Your employees do not always pass on the expressions customers share.

Are you a short-cut master and unaware of the damage your trail is producing?


March 20, 2011

We Measure Breaking Rules By Degrees.

We break rules all the time.  However, we do not consider ourselves as rules breakers.  We modify the rules to fit our particular circumstances.  We fudge a little bit on following the rules.  It is alright to fudge on the rules, depending upon the degree of fudging we accept.  We measure breaking rules by the degree we permit on each circumstance.  Each of us has developed our own set of personal standards we allow.  Some degrees of permissions for breaking the rules are too much to accept, while others are allowable.  We all use different yardsticks for the allowance levels we permit for our rule breaking circumstances.  We measure breaking rules by degrees.

Nobody follows the rules, in complete purity.  Everyone has driven their automobile faster than the speed limit, at some time in their life.  They broke the rules.  However, if you did not get caught or cause an accident, it is allowed.  I have never heard a story about how someone broke the rules of speeding, never got caught and immediately went to the police station to turn themselves in.  We accept rule breaking by degrees.  The degree of interference to others was low enough to ignore how we broke the speeding rule.  It becomes an excusable degree of rule to break.

We also excuse ourself when we break rules by claiming rules are meant to be broken!  This philosophy is standard practice.  It is alright to break rules because they do not always apply to us.  We can escape guilt by making rule breaking acceptable; by degrees and by permission due to the 'exceptions' we use in the 'rules are meant to be broken' philosophy. 

Automobile driving provides some of the best examples.  The "No Parking" signs are one of my favorites.  I was visiting a business associate this past week and noticed a small, rural tire shop located next to a hardware retail store.  The tire shop had a two car (bay) garage door closed.  The weather was very cold.  On the two bay garage door were two large signs, each posted "No Parking Please."  The tire shop employees were inside the doors working on two cars.  The doors were closed to keep the inside shop warmer.  As we were chatting outside from across the street, an automobile pulled up into the driveway of the tire shop and parked right in front of one of the "No Parking Please" signs.  The driver got out and walked into the hardware retail store.  A few minutes went by and the garage door to the tire shop opened up.  One of the cars inside the tire shop was completed and the employee was getting ready to back the finished automobile out, but noticed he could not.  Someone obviously had parked in his way, exactly in front of the "No Parking Please" sign on the door.  The tire employee was not happy.  You could see his unhappiness in his body language.  He decided to march inside the hardware store to see if the owner of the car was inside shopping next door.

You see, the main parking lot for the hardware store was full of customer cars parked near the front door of the hardware shop.  The weather was nasty outside and the only parking spaces open close to one of the hardware store doors was the one in back, next to the tire shop.  The driver who parked in the wrong place on purpose was only trying to shorten his walk to the back door of the hardware store and avoid as much of the nasty weather as he could.  The driver of that particular car thought he was 'privileged' enough to park next to the rear door of the hardware store and used the tire store driveway.  The nasty weather allowed the driver to justify his 'degree of acceptance' for breaking the rules.  It was nasty outside and nobody seemed to be around, so why not park there?  The degree of injury appeared low.  The signs on the garage door are rules meant to be broken and he felt the signs certainly do not apply to him.  He felt he had special circumstances.  He believed he was allowed to break this "No Parking Please" rule.

Shortly after going into the hardware store, the employee of the tire store came out of the hardware store with more emphasis on his troubled body language.  Right behind him was the driver of the car.  Neither the employee nor the driver appeared to be in cordial moods.  As upset about moving the car as the driver was, I suspect the tire guy asked the driver something about being able to read.  My associate and I giggled at the exchange process the two were having with their body language.  Happy would not be an accurate description.  The driver all but 'peeled out' and did not return to the hardware store.  It was very clear the driver of the parked car was not happy either.

What does this all mean to your business success?

March 14, 2011

Entitlements, A Recipe For Ruins.

Entitlements.  The rules of the road that support how entitlements work are not designed to support how most people are expected to earn their way through life.  Entitlements operate under different rules.

Entitlement procedures work in the opposite direction of how the majority of the population earns a living.  The common flow of earning money, with respect to the laws of compensation, usually run against the grain of how entitlements work.  In fact, the money behind the financial support for entitlement programs comes form the hard work others are producing, via the laws of compensation.  It is one of the key reasons why entitlements carry a piece in their formula that can become the recipe for ruin.  "Expectation" becomes the piece that 'ruins' the entitlement effort.  It also 'feeds' the process for producing entitlement support. 

Popularity drives many markets.  There is a right time and a wrong time to feature hula hoops.  There is a right time and a wrong time to feature disco clothing.  Popularity contributes a lot of momentum to how certain products and services will be received by the consumer.  Just because a major department store invests millions of dollars in disco clothing purchases right before Easter Sunday does not mean they are entitled to actually find enough customers who will purchase all of those items.  One does not guarantee the other.  The major department store is not 'entitled' to successfully sell the disco clothing 'just because.'

Entitlements are a "funky" ballgame.  Most entitlement arrangements are a recipe for ruins.  The methods and formulas that produce entitlements rarely include reasonable criteria that respect the pure laws of compensation.  Entitlements also fall short on securing proper checks and balances that rule how money works well within the laws of pure compensation.  In fact, the rules used to engage entitlements commonly violate the laws of compensation.  Entitlements can easily become a recipe for ruin.  Yet, we all want some of its action.  We all want some of the 'free' money, some of the 'free' benefits it proclaims to produce.  We all quietly want something for nothing.  We feel as if we are entitled.  I catch myself hoping for one of those wins!  

Did you know 'money' is a product?  'Money' enters the marketplace just like any other product consumers buy.  Money has a cost.  Money carries with it a margin of profit.  Money works just like shoes for sale.  Money can be bought just like shoes are purchased.  You can buy and sell 'money', and some do.  We can buy money with time; loans and employment do this method.  We can also buy money with capital.  If we have a ton of capital, we can find someone who will sell us money at a discount.  We can shop for a better buy on money!  Did you know this?  It is true.  Money is a product.

Usually however, most buy money with the transfer of our time.  Most people buy money with the time they transfer and this has become the most common vehicle that represents the medium most use to collect money.  We receive money with how we use our time we offer for trade.  When we give our time to the holder of the money in a fashion that meets how the holder prefers to transfer the money, we get paid.  Sometimes we forget this process.  We sometimes feel as if we should describe to the holder how they should be giving us the money they hold.  We will actually believe how we have the right to define how we will perform our time to still receive what they own.  It is not unusual for people to want to receive more money than what we are willing to give to receive it.  It is a natural thing.  I will define an excellent example of the ruins entitlement can produce, with more, and use it to expose millions of similar efforts placed around all of us, unnoticed.  The example will illustrate how we quietly use the laws of entitlement to kill the laws of compensation, prolifically...unnoticed.  I know I am guilty of wanting a lot of 'free' money.  I help to push the process along.

March 13, 2011

Communication, The Gap Of All Gaps!

How narrow are the communication gaps in all the levels of your business relationships?  The more narrow they become, the better the results.  I think most business owners and leaders already know this truth.

Several years ago I heard a cute story told to the congregation of my church by a wonderful minister who has passed on.  It turns out to be a classic joke from days past.  His sermon centered around the issues we face when communication breaks down.
 
A judge was interviewing a woman regarding her pending divorce, and asked, “What are the grounds for your divorce?” She replied, “About four acres and a nice little home in the middle of the property with a stream running by.” “No,” he said, “I mean what is the foundation of this case?” “It is made of concrete, brick and mortar,” she responded. “I mean,” he continued, “What are your relations like?” “I have an aunt and uncle living here in town, and so do my husband’s parents.” Frustrated with how the interview was going...the judge said, “Do you have a real grudge?” “No,” she replied, “We have a two-vehicle carport and have never really needed one.” “Please,” he tried again, “is there any infidelity in your marriage?” “Yes, both my son and daughter have stereo sets. We don’t necessarily like the music, but the answer to your questions is yes.” “Ma am, does your husband ever beat you up?” “Yes,” she responded, “about twice a week he gets up earlier than I do.” Finally, in more frustration, the judge asked, “Lady, why do you want a divorce?” “Oh, I don’t want a divorce,” she replied. “I’ve never wanted a divorce. My husband does. He said we can’t communicate anymore!”


The story reminds me how easily we sing songs we hear on the radio only to find out later we were using the wrong words.  When the correct lyrics are heard, we notice how well they fit compared to the ones we were using.  Once we get the right words, the song makes more sense!

Great communication...wow, what a difference maker!  Poor communication...wow, what a difference maker!  No communication...wow, what a huge difference maker!  When you want to make a difference with your business model, which level of communication would you choose; great, poor or none?  How is your choice working out for you?

Are you ready for the work we need to do on improving your communication skills?  Is your business ready to improve its communication skills?  What do you think your customers would say if they were asked if your business needs to improve its communication skills?  I know for myself, I struggle the most with this particular subject more than I care to admit.  Communication has always been a key reason for things going wrong.  I also know that the deeper the challenge, the more the likelihood the communication had a larger gap. 

March 12, 2011

Your Business Will Reprimand You, And Does.

More than once I have been asked to share what I think about the pizza a small pizza shop owner made.  I have refused to offer my opinion.  I do not tell the owner, I just refuse by skirting around the truth.  I do not want to hurt his feelings "point blank."

I know that honesty is the best policy.  I also know that sometimes being honest will destroy the receiver of the bad news.  I do not have the right to destroy the spirit of the pizza cook.  Instead of telling the pizza owner his pizza is not as good as I have had in this region, I might ask him if he plans to do all of the cooking, 24/7?  I might ask, what about your customers?  Good restaurant owners make a point to wander about the dinning room and greet, socialize and make sure its patrons are receiving the proper special treatment.  How are going to do that and cook pizza's?  I also know that if I do not come straight with the pizza owner today, eventually, his boss will.  His business is his boss and it will reprimand the quality of his pizza.  His business will struggle and that is the worst kind of reprimand.

Many owners of struggling business models do not consider the business as their boss.  What's more, many owners of struggling business models do not recognize when their boss is reprimanding them.  It is no different than if I had immediately told the pizza owner the taste of the pizza was not as good as others in his region.  He would likely become offended and simply not change a thing.  You know this to be true.  It is like telling your Mother and your Father they should have raised their children better!  The shortcomings of the child would have to be admitted!  Guess who that child is?

Your business is and always will be your toughest boss.  Your business does not care if failing hurts your feelings.  In fact, your business does not care if you do not care.  It will reprimand you in every way you deserve to be reprimanded.  And does.  Have you noticed the clues?  Does your boss reprimand you right now?  Is your boss telling you the pizza does not taste good?  Is your boss telling you your staff is offensive?  Is your boss telling you the customer service you provide stinks?  Is your boss telling you the products you offer are outdated?  Is your boss telling you the selection you offer is short of good?  Is your boss telling you the prices you set are not as competitive as they could be?  Is your boss telling you the customers do not get it when they respond to your marketing efforts?  How is the relationship you have going with your boss doing lately?  Your business is your boss.  It will reprimand you and likely is busy at work doing that right now.  Are you listening?  Is your growth developing better business results?  Or is your boss busy pulling the rewards away from you right now?  You know the answer to that last question...but are you listening to it?  If I tell you your pizza is not as good as the others in the region, what will you do?  How will you react?

March 11, 2011

Multi-Tasking, The Troubling Gap.

Several years ago I heard a cute story told to the congregation of my church by a wonderful minister who has passed on.  The story reminds me how easily we sing songs we hear on the radio only to find out later we were using a couple of the wrong words.  Then one day we somehow Google up the lyrics of that song and discover two key words actually say something other than what we had always been singing.  Now the song verse makes sense!

We live in an extremely busy world filled with more demands than a person can layer to complete in the time allotted for appropriate success.  We learn how to become multi-tasking workers.  We try to do more than one task at a time with each single step we take.  The need to become more efficient in order to squeeze out more profit has developed a faster paced work load with multiple layers being touched at the same time.  Multi-tasking well becomes the standard for increasing productivity.  If you do not believe it, just pick up some regional help wanted advertisements.  The higher up the pay scale for the jobs offered, the more they include in the description the need for the person they hire to be able to multi-task well.  It seems to be included in the description as a method of "disclaimer" for the business doing the search.  They want to make sure the applicants understand they will be doing more than one job, with a single job pay structure, but responsible and accountable for performing the position offered as if it was more than doing one job.  It is.

We have arrived to a time that not only allows, but requires, workers to be able to function well as they try to stuff 60 pounds of work into a can that should only hold 35 pounds.  It is what it is.  Millions of people have learned how to accept and become multi-tasking employees.  The sales clerk at the front register doubles as the phone receptionists, the PBX operator, the manager of the price adjustment report of the showroom products no longer on sale in the company advertisements, the monthly billing statements envelope stuffer, the manager of the safety committee and the store janitor.  In order to succeed, multi-tasking is a must.  I am not a fan of this process.  I also practice it at high rates of speed.

For every leader of any business segment, please do not forget what gaps in communication will occur when you are managing a highly-demanding, multi-tasking work environment.  The more the tasks mount for a single worker to perform, the less the quality of work becomes.  The pressure for getting it done becomes more important than doing it well.  Leaders, do not miss this process!  Learn how to accept and manage multiple mistakes.  They are a by-product of trying to stuff 60 pounds of work into a 32 pound container of time.  Mistakes will happen and they will grow.

March 10, 2011

The Art Of Chasing Pennies.

How much does a penny cost?

I have asked many employees and business leaders that very same question.  How much does a penny cost?

Sometimes we can get a penny so close to our eyes that we block the view of a dollar bill on the other side.  I have witnessed this business mistake more than what should ever be experienced.  There are some simple monetary rules that apply here.  Unfortunately, business decisions often forget to apply these simple monetary rules.  Those who are "in charge" or "responsible" for managing the profitability of a business often get so consumed with squeaking out every cent of profit, they miss the cost they expel to bring that cent home.  There is an art that must be learned and practiced to help decision makers in business to properly manage the profitability of each penny.  It is an art.

I am of sorts, what they might call a "penny pincher."  I watch every cent as if it was the last one I might ever see.  It is an obsession inside my character make-up.  Most business owners have the same affliction.  As a boss, the employees get tired of hearing about every missed opportunity to save a penny.  I can assure you many of my past employees still tell stories about examples that exhibited my penny pinching ways.  I always figure if a person cannot manage a penny well, how can they truly believe they can manage a million well?  Patterns are patterns.  Be very careful how you develop your patterns.

March 9, 2011

Face It, Success Is Very Fickle.

Business owners should take note of the comedian who is a situation comedy television star and literally crashing his life right in front of all of us to see.  First of all, pray for him.  He truly needs more help than what any of us can offer.  Currently, our best effort to offer is to do what we should be doing, correctly.  Pray for him.

Regarding how and what to learn from this terrible human episode is our next step.  We should try to learn something worthwhile from others mistakes.  We are standing at the crossroads with a lesson unfolding in front of us.  Are we paying close attention to the lessons?  Or are we getting wrapped up with the sensationalism?

Humans are some of the best operators who continue to fail at learning good lessons from mistakes others make.  Humans tend to have the need to repeat what others have done, only to find the same failing results others experienced.  Somehow, we need to make the same mistakes.  We are so persistent at making the same mistakes others have done before us.  With regards to the one the comedian is destined to perform, I think this one should be avoided, what about you?  It looks ugly.

March 8, 2011

Give Me An Example Of Critical Thinking?

Complex Motions Include Critical Thinking!
Complex motions are not simple to do.  They require more thinking than a single thought.  Human beings possess the ability to practice complex motions.  It is one of the great things about the potential for human beings.  Human beings can acquire the skill to see, think and manage multiple duties at the same time.  They can perform these types of complex multiple activities every single day without even giving much thought to how they are being done.  Your employees are very capable of performing much better than they currently are and definitely much deeper in critical thinking.  They drive an automobile, don't they?  What daily activity can become more routinely demanding for critical thinking than managing the complexities of the highly distracted roadways in this day and age?  Your employees can easily perform complex and critical thinking.

Some do not have that much faith in their employees.  Some readers may actually believe their employees will destroy their business if they were given the right to perform complex responsibilities.  Not true.  Just in case it is true, however, get a new employee.  You are paying a liability, your weak employee, to remain dangerously alive on your payroll.  This post is not a message for removing good people from the payroll of your business, however.  On the contrary, it is a message that defines how your business may be under-utilizing the skill potential of your current staff.  Your business is only as good as its weakest link.  That weakest link is the benchmark of your business quality.  Some business qualities are higher than others.  Some business models get a lot more out of their willing employees than other models.  Some business models employ a lot of people who routinely perform complex motions and do so happily.

Can one business succeed in getting its employees to perform complex motions, critical thinking, routinely and willingly while others do not?  Can one business enjoy high levels of critical thinking while another business has trouble performing the simple basics?  Can a business discover how to perform the art of critical thinking?  Can this type of thinking become very important to the success potential of a business model?  Can a business owner invest time into developing a staff that easily practices critical thinking?  Can the practice of critical thinking come from the bottom up?  The answer to all of these questions is, "Yes."

How does a business owner identify critical thinking?  What does critical thinking look like?  Give me an example of critical thinking.

March 7, 2011

What Happens When The "Give & Take" Pendulum Has Nowhere To Go?

"England swings like a pendulum do.  Bobbies on bicycles, two by two.  Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben.  The rosy red cheeks of the little children."  An old 1966 Roger Miller song.  One thing is for sure, pendulums swing.

In Roger Miller's song he refers to England as a country that swings from one cultural mood to another.  Some call them "mood swings."  "Mood swings" is a popular phrase to describe how easy it has become for people to accept a "manufactured excuse" for allowing people to behave with "less restraint."  We put up with them because we need something from them in return.  The "Law of Give and Take."

I have been introduced to people and warned about how they have the ability to exhibit some "mood swings."  He is a good business leader, but be careful, he has some terrible "mood swings."  The warning comes with the implication to accept this lack of restraint as "our part" of the giving in the pendulum swings give and take developments.  It is sold as if our tolerance for their lack of restraint is a bargain.  We accept "mood swings" as a friendly term.  The truth remains, that leader does not respect us enough to restrain from permitting flashes of impropriety to interfere with our desire to build good relationships.  The "Law of Give and Take" begins its motions.

We learn to take some of the bad with the good.  However, we need sufficient good from those leaders in order to permit us enough desire to "give" more tolerance than we usually provide.  In order to continue to do business, we must provide the "give" portion of this relationship that appears to be swinging toward the "take" side of the pendulum.  When someone has a terrible "mood swing" and decides to share it with us, they have begun the "take" side of the pendulum swing.  We learn how to tolerate this lack of restraint as the "mood swings" unfavorably tilted to the "take" side of the pendulum.  We build invisible pendulums of tolerance, swinging from one side of "give" to the other side of "take."  The "Law of Give and Take" begins to swing like a pendulum do.  What happens when the "give and take" pendulum has nowhere to go?

March 6, 2011

People Want To Be "Wowed!"

Once in awhile I catch a really good documentary on the television.  The ones I seem to find most captivating are the historical pieces that actually changed history.  I find myself glued to the screen when I discover how history was turned by some simple event that given any other time in history to occur, may have simply happened without notice.  A piece of history given in this fashion simply "wows" me.  I am one of those people who like to be "wowed."

I will not likely be caught spending a weekend afternoon watching a NASCAR race event on the television.  For millions of NASCAR fans, I am not in your entertainment circle.  Even though I respect the passion people find in a particular sport and the interest generated for the lives of the people who "drive" any sport, I somehow skipped the NASCAR craze.  I have close friends that can describe the details of a great race 23 years ago.  I might recognize a name or two when they relish that race with their companion NASCAR friends.  The belonging and connectivity is beautiful.  I, however, could not generate the same flavor of passion for NASCAR.  Even so, being removed from the obsession, I will wait up longer to see a spectacular crash involving a NASCAR race earlier in the day.  If I am up late checking out the first part of the evening news, planning to go to bed right after the headlines...and they flash a tantalizing piece of a spectacular NASCAR crash...I am waiting up to see the 'rest of the story.'  If the news reel is spectacular enough, I will Google it again to see it over and over.

We like to be "Wowed."

So what does this characteristic mean to our business model?  How does it fit?

March 4, 2011

Quit Searching For Leaders, They Pick Themselves.

A Great Place In The Yard To Watch The Stars!
I love to work in my yard.  It has never been considered working to me.  I love to landscape and design new ideas to flow through all the other things I have going on around my house.  I can go out in the morning to get started on some projects of trimming and tidying up.  I can get lost doing those things and 5 hours later my wife will ask me if I need something to eat.  I lose track of time when I get into my yard.  It is one of my favorite "babbling brook" applications for leading me to some sense of balance in my life.  My yard is not work, it is truly therapy.

I have a couple of old shovels in the shed.  They have had some serious use.  I even broke the handle on one of them digging some larger rocks out of the ground.  I was using the old shovel as a lever to loosen the rock as I impatiently dug out the hard soil around it.  I would slam the shovel head into the hard soil, just under the edges of the large rock and put all of my weight down on the handle to try and wiggle the rock from side to side.  If I could loosen the rock this way, I could make the digging a lot easier to do.  Oops.  I heard the handle crack at the junction where the metal shovel head and the wooden handle meet.  My favorite shovel might have begun to break!

I pulled it out to see what the damage was.  It was a pretty good crack!  No more heavy duty shoveling with this favorite guy!  His days are left only for the light weight dirt moving.  I called in the duty of my second shovel.  It did fine to finish my work.  Second is now my number one shovel.  I also know that I cannot use shovels that way anymore.  If I do, I will be relegated to buying shovels more often than I need to.

I noticed that both of my shovels are designed exactly the same.  I never noticed that before.  One was more worn than the other, however.  Both will do exactly the same work.  Both will change nothing about how I spend time in my yard.  Each shovel will lead me to the digging success I need to do.  Shovels pick themselves to do the shoveling work.  Shovels do not cut branches down when I prune my trees.  Shovels dig when I need to dig.  Shovels also have limits.  My second shovel will live a more successful life because I recognized how I abused the first one.  I do not want to buy another shovel.  The second one will be the one that will finish my life's shoveling needs.  I have come to trust its limits and will respect what it can and cannot do.  I am the impatient operator who killed my number one shovel.  Man, I hate the truth!  I killed the leader.

March 3, 2011

The "Shield", The Three C's Of Good Business.

Great Website, Great Business Tool.
I once served on a Small Business Administration (SBA), http://www.sba.gov/, committee.  The SBA in our region was facilitated through a local community college.  This committee was arranged by the local community college.  The committee was comprised of a few appointed 'local' business owners arranged together to serve one purpose.  The purpose was simple, spend some time with the people who had approached the local SBA about wanting to start a new business.  The prime responsibility of the committee was to help encourage these new business owners and share with them the things they may or may not expect to see when they begin work on their start-up business.

Looking back on the experience I recall one telling pattern I had noticed.  The attitude of the individuals was going to be the determining factor for whether they were going to make it in their start-up or not.  I remember some of the folks I met and the ones with the best attitudes seemed likely to appear as having the best chance to succeed.  I have moved away from that environment long enough now that I do not believe I could re-visit those start-up folks and be able to see who made it or not.

However, we have heard the phrase that "attitude is everything."  It is.  The attitude of the business leader will likely drive the business to its success.  The business success will need good math leaders, it will need good decision-makers and it will also need a leader with good people skills.  So many important skills and attributes will be needed to help contribute to the overall success the business will experience.  Everyone of those needed skills and attributes will operate under one umbrella of respect.  I call this umbrella the "Shield" which becomes the protection provided by the three C's.

March 2, 2011

Turn Bad News Into Good News.

A few years ago I was reading a book.  It was written by the wealthiest man in the world.  Inside the book was a small segment covering the key commandments for business.  I wrote those few commandments down on a small piece of paper.  I carried that list with me in my business work, where ever it took me.  I still use those commandments in my efforts today.  I figured if they are good enough for the wealthiest business owner on the globe, they certainly could fit into my world just fine.  As far as I could see, none of those commandments would violate my test for meeting the legal, ethical and morale rules I practice.  So I adopted them.

One of those commandments listed in that book is a technique I use quite often.  In fact, prior to adopting that commandment I noticed how much I was using it before it was actually labeled as a commandment.  My normal design of the characteristics I naturally possess included the art of practicing this particular commandment.  I had not actually separated this feature of my general make-up as being some kind of single commandment.  I had not previously considered treating this characteristic as a single technique of style.  When I noticed it placed on that list of necessary business commandments, I began enhancing it in my own compilation of management style.  It was a revelation to me that this wealthy business owner considered this characteristic as a recommended commandment to adopt.  It encouraged me to become better at doing what was quietly part of how I already was doing some things.

Turn bad news into good news.

The commandment described how bad news would surface in a leaders walk.  The commandment would define how bad news could help.  The commandment would define how bad news would bring with it an equal to or greater benefit if handled like good news.  My natural abilities are heavily leaned towards the slant of half full, on just about every challenging discovery.  I rarely look at tough news with a negative eye.  I can likely count on one hand how many big and bad news events in my life have truly overwhelmed my work at the time they occurred.  I constantly face big challenges with an open approach and a level head.  They are what they are.  My wife says I have a 'special gift' in that department.  Maybe, maybe not.

I know I was facing tough issues with a constant approach to resolve what could be resolved.  I did not know how to turn them into good news, however.  Turning bad news into good news is something altogether different than what I was doing.  I was close to the commandment but falling short of exposing its benefits.  I was not trying to go the extra mile with bad news and convert it into good news.  I had to develop this new approach better than what was currently part of my style.