Reinventing Your Organization

Basic Business Cents

Are you in the business of manufacturing buggies or people movers? Most industry-changing innovations come from without the industry. Why? Because companies are so focused on their competition that they lose focus on the needs of their customers.

You can never win a race by following the leader, yet we do it all the time in business. We spend too much time studying the competition; trying to anticipate their next move. We should be aware of competition and their trends, but we need to spend more time studying the customers, desired customers, and their trends. There is no substitute to holding dialog with your key customers. They may not know their real needs in the future but you will not know that until you talk to them.

Many organizations today find themselves in a mature or declining industry that does not bode well for the future. It may be that the more important aspect of the business is that the leadership is mature and not providing fresh direction.

Imitation of your competition may be the sincerest form of flattery but it will not get you ahead. “If you want to get ahead, you have to get ahead” said W. Edwards Deming. You need to challenge conventional wisdom of how to run your business. You need to develop a creative plan for the future.

As with any plan, top management needs to share an articulated aim of the organization around five years forward. This is easier said than done as it requires stepping out of your comfort zone and think outside your usual framework. By asking difficult questions of yourself and agonizing over the proper answers, you can stretch your imagination and develop an inspiring, compelling, and memorable aim for all employees to strive toward. Some examples are:

1.     What business are you in?

a.     What business should you be in?

b.     How are you differentiated from your competition?

2.     Which customers do you desire to serve in 5 years?

a.     What will be their wants and needs?

b.     By what means will you reach them? On-line sales or promotion? Electronic word-of-mouth? Some method not yet available or thought of?

c.      What will be the required delivery method and in what time?

3.     What do you have to create to satisfy those needs?

a.     Is the technology required in view or does it have to be invented?

b.     In what areas do you need to build your skill base to be successful?

4.     How can you be financially successful meeting those customer needs?

a.     Do you have a financial projection for the next year by month including cash flow?

b.     Do you have sufficient cash capital to carry out your plans?

c.      What are your expectations for profitably for the next five years?

5.     In what way can you define your market so that you can dominate?

6.     What changes are required in hiring, compensating, communicating, and treatment of employees?

7.     Are you having fun?

Once the aim is shared and enthusiastically accepted by all employees, then a strategy can be developed to reach that aim in the 5-year time frame. Involve all employees as each of them possess a good brain and can contribute good tactics and strategy. They are closest to the work and probably closest to customers. By participating in the development of the strategy, all employees are more likely to execute the strategy. They will help management keep everyone’s attention focused on reaching the aim in the planned timeframe and achieving success.

All work is a series of processes that need to be constantly improved and innovated. Business strategy is no exception. The first organization to act on a new idea usually reaps the benefit. All we want is an unfair advantage and we can get that with creative planning.

Successful Public Speaking

Basic Business Cents

So you have been asked to give a talk; are you excited or apprehensive? It doesn’t make any difference if you prepare and rehearse properly, you will become comfortable with your ability to effectively get your message across. It doesn’t matter if your talk is 5 minutes to your church group, 20 minutes to Rotary or Lions, or an hour key-note address to a large crowd, the home-work is the same.

Harvey Mackay, author of Outswimming the Sharks, said, “The best way to sound like you know what you are talking about is to know what you are talking about.” It is important to research and study your subject so that you can develop a focused message that will be a valuable take-away for the audience. But it may be more important to research and study your anticipated audience. Ask yourself what are they interested in and what are their expectations. Relate your message in terms of benefits to the audience. They are not there to hear how smart or how eloquent you are, they are there to hopefully hear something that might be useful to them.

A secret weapon in speaking is to create a mind map that can be visualized. Start by dividing your talk into three main points you wish the audience to remember. Place them in three circles on a sheet of paper and add additional points radiating from the appropriate circle. If you try to put your talk into a standard outline form, you force your brain to think serially and it just doesn’t work well that way. Thoughts come randomly and they can be placed on the proper circle as they come to mind. Keep audience interest by adding stories or anecdotes to emphasis points throughout the talk.

Having done this in your preparation, you will be surprised at how you remember this map in the delivery of the talk. You will find that you may not need notes, or at least only this one page. When finished with this map, you have the body of your message detailed and only now it is time to develop the introduction and conclusion. A professional speaker once told me that the audience will only remember three things after your talk; the introduction, the conclusion, and the stories. This is rather disheartening after you have studied your subject so hard but there is probably more truth to it that you might like. This only emphasizes that your stories must be relevant and properly enforcing key points of your message.  Stories and anecdotes keep the audience interest and, properly used, reinforce key points of your message.

The introduction should be a “grabber” to get the audience attention. The conclusion should be a memorable one-line summary of your key points that leaves the audience on a high note.

Next comes rehearsal- practice, practice, practice. When you think you are ready, ask a friend to listen to you or tape yourself so you can listen and learn. Practicing out loud is important. When you become satisfied and comfortable with your talk, you are ready for the delivery.

First of all, remember to teach and not preach; the audience will appreciate you more and you will be more effective. Pay attention to your appearance and personality. The audience will feed off of what they see of you. If you look like you are having fun, they will have fun. If you appear dismayed, they will be also. Put a smile on your face; be confident, and enthusiastic. Be animated, energetic, gesture, and be alive. Maintain eye contact and talk to the audience, not at them. Be engaged with the audience, ask for questions if you like, or use other means to get them involved. Any talk worth listening to, is worth learning by the speaker, so don’t ever read your talk. If you use slides, remember no more than three lines per slide and no more than three words per line. Use slides to emphasize points, not as an outline to follow.

The talk may be over but not your effort. Write a hand-written not to the person responsible for your speaking opportunity. Take time to criticize your performance and list what you can do to improve next time. Obtain email addresses of attendees to expand your network. If questions were raised and you are not satisfied with your answers, follow up with a short email containing further thoughts.

You prepared well by studying your audience and subject, you developed a mind map and rehearsed so you did not need notes, and you were comfortable in your delivery. You are now an effective and successful public speaker.

Improve Your Decision-Making Process

Basic Business Cents

I have a friend who used to become so stressed when faced with a decision at work that he became physically ill. His doctor finally advised him to resign from his position and he retired early. That is an unusual case and most of us are much luckier when faced with decisions.

You make many decisions every day. Some are easy, some are challenging, and some are difficult. Some are of little consequence, and some are very important. Some of you find making decisions easy and some find it very stressful. No matter the conditions, higher quality, more timely, and easier decisions can be made with a standard process that you follow on a regular basis. Acronyms are sometimes useful in aiding our memory of the steps of a process, such as the CADET Decision-Making Process.

C. Classify the Type of Decision. Some decisions must be made instantly because time demands an immediate decision. In this case, you must rely on your experience, intuition, and training and make the best decision that you can. When you have more time, you can categorize your decision into one of three types. If it is of little consequence, you can again use your experience, intuition, and training and make the decision and go on to more important work. If it is more important or challenging, then walk through the CADET Process in your mind and make the decision.  It is useful to make a chart of the pros and cons of the decision, either on a flip chart or white board if in a group, or simply on a plain sheet of paper if by yourself. If the decision is critically important, then research the problem necessitating the decision and analyze the data collected on the consequences of various decisions.

A. Identify and evaluate Alternative Solutions. You might go to the people directly involved with or affected by the decision and brainstorm all possible alternatives. Two to ten heads are usually better than one.  More than ten begins to diminish the effectiveness of the time used and quality of input. Collect data on the problem requiring the decision. Good data always simplifies decision-making. Again, talk to the people involved and evaluate alternatives and their consequences. It is possible to do research on what others have done, both inside and outside your organization, when faced with a similar decision.

D. Make the Decision. After you are satisfied that you have sufficient data and input from the people involved, don’t procrastinate. You are probably being paid to make such decisions and not for waffling. Waffles get eaten. Remember the maxim attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

E. Execute the decision. It is wise to communicate the reasons for the decision to the people involved and to management. Remember, don’t just tell them, discuss it with them to make sure they understand and agree.

T. Test the impact of the decision. If possible, implement on a test sample and support your theory used in making the decision. If the results are positive, roll it out across the organization. If not, reenter your decision-making process armed with what you have learned. Whether or not you implement on a test case first, monitor the results to ensure you are achieving what you desire. 

Learn all you can from your experience with the CADET process to improve your decision-making ability for the future. As with any process, regular use will improve your comfort and ability to get results, improve your skills, and increase your usefulness to your organization.