Insights

What’s the strength of your Brand? Many leaders have fixated on this topic over the past several years as it’s become popular. Brands like Nike, Starbucks, Coca Cola, Marriott, UPS, Apple, Harvard, Intel, and Google are part of our personal and business culture. We all would love to have a brand name that resonates with their level of awareness and consideration.

What if our firm doesn’t make consumer products? Does that make a difference? My quick answer is “Yes.” In Business-to-Business (B2B) a company may have fewer than ten customers, or maybe hundreds or even thousands, but never millions like the B2C folks.

So am I suggesting you drop Branding from your approach and move on to other things that are more valuable? No. But I’m asking you to think differently about how to “March-in the Brand.” The key to the change is the delivery vehicle and how it’s built in B2B with its smaller customer communities. While we live in a real-time culture where changes and impacts are expected overnight, the development of strong and sustained brand in B2B does take some time.

Here’s an outline of some components of B2B branding:

1. Customer-facing channel representatives. When I say “marching in the brand” I’m talking about the #1 impact group in affecting your brand, for better or worse: your customer contact representatives. How prepared are they? How committed and supportive of your products and services? How do they interact, dress, and present? (As an aside, dress is generally sloppy these days, so it wouldn’t take a lot to upgrade. I’m not saying you have to go to uniforms or Italian suits, but some nice pressed dress slacks would be a good start.) Are your representatives heavy handed and high pressure? Are they focused, good listeners, informed, shy from disparaging other alternatives? There are other questions you and your team can develop, but you get the point.
2. Supporting the Channels.  How do your customer representatives receive support? How responsive are you to them? Are channel partners treated as external customers by support? Do your representatives feel pumped-up after contact with others in your company? If your representatives (direct or indirect) are feeling well supported and listened to, how do you think they will interact on your behalf? What impact will this have on developing your brand?
3. Social media.  This is a critical area as many influencers and decision makers rely on social media posts for information. We’re learning that younger buyers/decision makers don’t necessarily have the same brand loyalty of other generations. So if these buyers are a target community, how are you dealing with it? How are you using social media to better connect with a new generation of decision makers? Segmenting, targeting, and positioning (STP) can fit right in to a better focus on social media.  Effective use of social media has less to do with investment and more to do with putting in a creative, disciplined approach to the communities you target.
4. Customer intimacy. This is often thought of during the sales process, but often neglected after the sale closes. After the sale is complete, are your channel representatives providing support? Does support move to impersonal vehicles like web-based self-service, email, or a toll-free hotline? Do your customer service and technical support representatives have good communications skills? Do you know how your customers and targets would like to be serviced and what premiums they would pay for more personal service?
5. Customer correspondence.  This includes proposals, sell sheets, and presentations, and even less formal communications like email. Is the look consistent? Are the branding elements managed or controlled (e.g. email signatures)?  Do they convey the image you’re trying to deliver? How do you know about this if you’re not in on each sale call?
6. Terms and conditions.  Are you easy to do business with? We’ve all done business that is complex but is well organized, understandable, and positive, even if it means parting with a fair amount of cash. I’m not saying to throw out the legal department and have them replaced with creative writers from advertising. I suggest looking into your process to see how you can simplify it and yet have tight agreements that achieve your goals.

These six areas are a good starting point and by no means an exhaustive list of where to improve your image and brand value. They provide a basis for thinking about how you can impact the brand through your people, as you all try to march in a new and improved band – one that has everyone playing on the same sheet of music, that’s well-coordinated, and well-choreographed.

My thoughts turn to the Rose Bowl parade on New Year’s Day, how wonderful the bands play, how crisp they look, how precisely they move. It’s so impressive seeing all the bands and floats pass by that it’s very easy to take for granted the effort that goes into these performances. It’s easy to take our customer touch points for granted as we move headlong into managing our various challenging global businesses. Marching in B2B has as much to do with customer relationships and effective contact points as with advertising and marketing.

Wishing you all the best as you march forward in 2010 and beyond.

United Parcel Service had used this slogan for some time to show how responsive they can support your needs with effective and efficient processes. This is expressed regularly in commercials and their whiteboard website.  As this successful commercial shows, questions are a good way to get us thinking. UPS has long been successful at delivering their promise with predicable and repeatable results which we’ve all come to rely upon. UPS shows with this slogan and the whiteboard campaign how the company can find ways to service the varying needs of its residential and business customers.

This past week, we learned that Scott Brown had won election in Massachusetts for Ted Kennedy’s long held U.S. Senate seat. The chances of this were unthinkable several weeks ago, with Brown’s opponent having a large double digit lead.

So what can Scott “BROWN” do for you? And what in the world happened, anyway?

This question is really about what we as citizens (and possibly in our business lives) can learn from this sea change event. Here are some personal takeaways :

1. You can’t take for granted each vote (or customer) no matter how large your lead (or market share advantage).
2. You can fall out of touch very quickly if you don’t have effective polling (or market sensing) in place. A lead was lost in a matter of days, with a candidate that seemed paralyzed on what to do to counter the underdog’s surge.
3. How effective is your polling (market sensing)? Taking polls (and visiting customers) are all good things to do, but are you really getting OBJECTIVE, CLEAR and UNFETTERED input and not group think? Talking to customers doesn’t guarantee that you fully hear and interpret true needs. In running for the long shot senator position, Scott Brown developed the right message at the right time and took advantage of concerns towards which both parties seemed tone deaf. 
4. Never give up. This goes to those that are not in the lead – be watchful as events unfold and situations occur that can be leveraged. Getting a message that resonates goes a long way to winning. If you’re a market leader, don’t think for one minute that you can’t be overtaken; especially now as we move into a recovery and knowing that customers – like voters – have been affected by the past two years.
5. The message is important. In 2010 the points that resonate are different. The majority of voters in Massachusetts were loyal to Senator Kennedy for decades. Times change, and going through the motions and taking the voters for granted is the kiss of death. Brown’s message was clear. It engaged and resonated with voters. It was fresh, delivered  very well, and in the end it was embraced against tall odds.

There is a lot we can learn from this election, whether we’re a market leader or follower.  You can control your fate if you’re first and foremost in touch with your customers or voters, listen effectively, and then provide a new or restated value proposition, like Brown did. We’re learning from research that that customers and decision makers have been deeply affected by the economy. Thinking that customers will “bounce back” to where they once were some time in 2007 or 2008 is ignoring the fact that times have truly changed. If you’ve significantly misread the situation, don’t be surprised if you’re knocked off your position.

Given all that was riding on this one senate seat election, for the state, the country, our President, key initiatives that were in the works, it’s all the more shocking. Certainly this political change was not about who had the most money and support. A wake up call, perhaps?

Scott Brown focused on his state, its voters, and what they were telling him. He seemed to have worked very hard, traveling many miles, and he effectively translated what he heard into some keen messages. He didn’t have a lot of super support from his party and their internal bias (probably to his advantage).

Executives are like politicians in that they’re immersed in their job and can miss subtle signs. As a leader you’re flanked by your senior team, supposedly armed with wise insights from your market analysts, trade associations, and board of directors. Martha Coakley had higher name recognition and seemed to be flanked by every advantage possible. But in the end she didn’t effectively connect with the people. For market upstarts/followers, you can learn that if you do the right things and don’t give up, you have a chance. If you’re a market leader, you can be too cautious, so for the next stage of growth you need to garner all the things that made your company what it is.

In B2B, we tend to spent very little on voice of the customer and even less when times are tough. We believe that our channels will provide feedback and figure how to overcome any gaps. And the “What Can Brown Do For You?” campaign from UPS is an example of a market leader looking for new ways to connect with its customers and build confidence.

What steps are you taking to learning about your customers? How do you know that these steps will be effective?

Several years ago I first heard about the playbook in an NFL football context when Bill Walsh, the highly successful head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, spoke of it in an interview. The coach was asked why he had these large sheets of paper with him on the sidelines, which was rare as other successful coaches like Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys and Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins didn’t use them. Coach Walsh went on to explain that he boiled down his team’s “playbook” each week, based on the opponent, into a number of scenarios and options that he could call out on game day. He went on to say that in tight pressure-cooker games he often felt so frazzled that he really needed this game day playbook to help him pick the right plays, versus keeping everything up in his head and hoping he would select the right play at the right time. Plus he went on to say that this way he, his other coaches, and the quarterback could more easily be on the same page. Well, we all know about the success of Coach Walsh, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and a number of other players and coaches associated with the Super Bowl victories and success of their era.

Today, those large sheets are commonplace on virtually every sideline for college and NFL teams. Others have followed certainly because of the success of those 49ers, respect for the true brilliance and offensive genius of Bill Walsh, and the fact that it really made a lot of sense because it worked. The playbook and game day sheets helped win games for teams by allowing for better preparation; stronger strategy that plays to the team’s strengths and opponent’s weaknesses; and greatly improved decision making.

Around this time I was running a $200+ million channel for a large global corporation that was growing at 20+% a year. Yet I wondered if a playbook could help me, because we were essentially running the business day-to-day, albeit we did go through the strategic planning drill once a year. So my senior team developed a set of scenarios, both positive and negative, that we could face that year and beyond. Next we developed a number of responses we could take for each situation.  At the time, we developed about 35 scenarios that helped us, which we later added to. Unlike the NFL, we only released our responses and actions to the sales team when we needed to deploy. These deployed actions were like plays signaled-in from the sidelines – plus we provided the sales and marketing leaders with “game day” options that were condensed down from our much larger playbook. And, of course, much of the playbook was vetted with finance and others on the channel leadership team.

On October 19, 1987, commonly referred to now as Black Monday, the Dow Jones fell by 508 points or some 23% and the largest single day crash of the market, even to this day. This event sent businesses into a shock and the demand for most goods and services dropped significantly. Shortly after this our finance team came around to ask us where we could make cuts to our expenses. THIS EVENT provided a great opportunity to use our playbook. The challenge was finding a play that could help us turn around the rapidly deteriorating business conditions. We settled on a key initiative that was called “Steal One” that we felt would fire-up the 700+ channel partners and their customers. “Steal One” was launched within 10 days of October 19th and not without some controversy: this response was viewed as very aggressive and a lot to get done in a short time. When the year was tallied, this channel finished up 16% and was the only one of 18 units in this large corporation to not experience decline.  Interestingly, besides the sales climb, our profits also grew at about the same rate. So we finished a very scary year with resounding success. And in the end we conquered what has since been termed a “Black Swan“ event.

Fresh in all of our recent memories are situations that began to unfold after midyear 2008, and which we’re still trying to climb out of. So ask yourself: How you and your team could have been better prepared for this scenario and others that may occur on the horizon? There’s a lot we can do to gain control of events like these and provide the leadership our teams need. How many companies have something like a playbook where scenarios and various options are documented?

What we can learn from NFL teams like the 49ers and modern day successors, the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts? This is a whole new generation of successful coaches and players that have captured our interest, imagination, and excitement. Would these teams think of going into a year without a playbook?

As business advisors we’ve found that the playbook is useful for those clients that embrace it, and, quite frankly, we wonder why 100% of our clients wouldn’t have one, like in the case of the NFL. Along the way we have helped produce some amazing successes in the past year and worked dozens of playbooks.

The playbook helps avoid the scenario of being totally reactionary. I haven’t found one CEO or other leadership team member that likes cutting headcount and stretching out its payables, to name a few of the items that are normally swung into action. However, when a crisis comes about the CFO is usually asked to pull a rabbit out of his hat by slashing expenses. While some of this may be necessary, I offer to you the playbook that has revenue generation and market access improvement solutions to brace a fall – and possibly even lead to increased profits and market share. It’s commonly referred to as “turning lemons into lemonade.”

Here are some key points to think about concerning the playbook based upon my experience:

• Playbook vs. Strategic planning.  The playbook is something separate from strategic planning, but should be called for in the process. The playbook is a book or document that contains a lot of scenarios and actions that can be deployed and implemented in short order, compared to strategic plans which help guide the business and reflect the megatrends, vision, and mission of an enterprise.

• Playbooks vs. Tactical plans. The playbook is used only in situations or business conditions that are unusual in nature and those that are largely unanticipated. In most cases the playbook is closely guarded by key members of the leadership team.

• Best time to develop a playbook. In the NFL most of the work on the playbook goes on in the “off season” which is typically the 1st and 2nd quarter of each year. It comprehends the thinking of lineup changes and new coaches and supports the personnel and direction of the team. My experience is that playbook work is a parallel and complimentary process to strategic planning and is best done in the 1st quarter of each fiscal year, with some rollover into the following quarter.

• Getting started.  The first playbook is usually the toughest, but it can start out simply and move on from there. We have clients with playbooks that range from 20 pages to 100+ page multi-tabbed binders/electronic folders. We’ve learned that to be effective, the process needs solid facilitation and guidance, with a strong commitment by the CEO for its necessity.

No, I haven’t been spending too much time in the medicine cabinet. Give me a minute and I’ll explain some interesting parallels between House and Fearless Growth and mental pictures of how some of the approaches – and I do mean some –can help our mindset and lead us to profitable revenue growth.

Most of you are familiar with the popular TV series and medical drama House, where a rogue doctor and team take on very challenging cases that – without their effective diagnosis and treatment – will result in the patient dying. This show had the highest viewing audience for its category in 2008 and has continued to pull strong ratings.

So what does House have to do with Fearless Growth? Well, quite frankly a lot! While I take issue with the lead character’s style in dealing with co-workers, patients, and others, his doggedness, determination, and general approach are appealing.

Here are some lessons for those of us charged with diagnosing problems and then quickly turning them around to drive growth:

1. Diagnosis is huge. We can learn from House that getting to the bottom of it is very difficult and takes a balance of having the right team, vigilance, process, and willingness to test out a solution before blindly running with it.
2. Treating symptoms vs. getting to the root cause.  As I’ve stated before in this blog, misdiagnosis is 75% of the reasons why key initiatives fail.
3. Benefits of interacting directly with the patient / market / problem / etc.  While it’s easier on a couple of hospital floors to pull this off, in business direct engagement needs to be done. The best examples of this are in B2C with companies like P&G.
4. Removing the blinders is easier said than done. The folks closest to the problem often find it the most difficult to step back and be objective. In House  we see the interplay with hospital management and others (like family) who find it difficult to step back.
5. Putting the right team together and focusing them on the task.  Getting the right team is essential and having folks that aren’t afraid to voice contrary views. My view is that I accept contrarians as long as they supply constructive suggestions. Having a team that can focus and use a process is invaluable. In the TV show Dr. House uses a dry erase board to brainstorm ideas and get everyone on the same page. In business we have dozens of tools to help facilitate and process for results.
6. Having the determination of a junk yard dog is sometimes necessary. While it’s not your company’s life at stake in each case, a lot is riding on what you deliver. And you don’t want to do your competitors too many favors. Someone once said success is 98% perspiration and 2% inspiration/intelligence.

Some key points of difference from House:

1. High drama and attacks make for good TV but bad business. I believe that the undercurrent of your team’s attitudes to change will be similar to what is played out, if not managed effectively. Others don’t need to be put on the defensive by being attacked. This doesn’t lend well to garnering support. Many of us have heard of poor bedside manner in doctors, which seem to be tolerated. In contrast, these behaviors can kill a lot of business initiatives. Many leaders tend to overplay the sweet music of PowerPoint slides and style over substance. Many folks that never rise above middle management have great content but get killed on style points. Be careful not to shoot down good ideas on a personal or style basis.
2. Making excuses and having too many sidebars is disruptive and affects the credibility an individual or the team.
3. Dr. House is not a team player. Each of us of can relate to people, past or present, who create a lot of dust not worrying about who’s affected. This doesn’t work well at all in the corporate environment but seems to be tolerated in healthcare and with doctors (especially on TV).

House is a good show to use to get your point across and help others on the team to visualize what you want as a leader, with some obvious qualifications. It also injects some fun and comedy when facing tough challenges on an overloaded business agenda.

Let’s bring fearless growth out of the closet and talk it up. Yes, growth is often assumed and understood, but in the end it’s an exercise that most B2B firms file away with their finance groups. So if you’re in a health crisis, do you want Doogie Houser or House on the case?

Has your sales organization or channels lost a step?  This has been a common theme for the past year given the business challenges that most organizations have faced. So the sales team has come under a lot of pressure as they are the front lines of business generation (or lack thereof).

To help your sales organization gain better traction in 2010 you need to look for programs and offerings that better resonate with the customer. By now I’m sure you have been launched a number of actions, so you’ll need to judge how effectively these actions engage both the sales team and customers.

Don’t be afraid to look at additional actions and plans to fire up the business. This is a time to be agile and flexible. I recommend that you begin to look for actions for the next two quarters, obviously adding in real time as necessary.

Teams often spend a lot of time on getting the compensation and other incentive right for our channels. This is all well and good, but nothing delivers like a hot product, promotion, or offering.

Last year I was involved with a client in which half of their channel partners were inactive for at least 18 months. When we spoke with many of these partners, they weren’t totally turned off, just that they had better options for making more money. Once our client found the root causes and put a plan in place, over 40% of these dormant partners woke up and participated with significant orders in a period of 120 days. These orders were the reason our client’s overall business was up 12%, instead of being flat as they had forecasted. 

Because channels are most critical to firing up your revenue engine, I’ll write about various aspects of channels in the coming weeks. Understanding channel issues takes constant pulse-taking, as well as drawing out what customers and channels don’t say as much as what they’re outspoken about.  Careful listening and sorting out the background noise is always the challenge. Being able to step back and be objective about what you’re hearing - instead of assuming others are on board or need to be further corralled into your view - is an important mindset for leaders.

The true sign of effective market sensing is that you’re going to pick some new thoughts compared to prior quarters and years. Best wishes for firing them up in 2010.

What are we to make of 2010? Most reports indicate that the New Year will improve, with it being reported to be stronger in B2B.  Purchases for the past 18+ months have been curtailed with only those that lead to short term revenue generation being prioritized.

If we agree that there is a lot of pent up demand, then it makes sense to believe that 2010 will offer opportunities. For most companies the business plan for the coming year is now baked, with a set of actions ready to be implemented. Here are some points that should be considered as business leaders direct their companies in 2010.

1. Do you have enough ammo? It stands to reason that most of us are a bit gun shy after the past two years, even though we’d be hard pressed to admit to it. As I’ve said before, most go-to-market plans don’t have enough of the right kind of ammo to really take advantage of opportunities. I suggest that you look at the actions you put in place and determine if there’s more that you can offer. Further, it’s wise to convene a team of your key leaders to look at another set of actions that you can layer in when needed, either for the second quarter or starting the second half. Remember that buyers will have a number of anxious sellers with an array of enticing offers. As with most rebounds, many of the major moves come from smaller players in each market or niche rather than from the leaders.  So for leaders, don’t blink; load it up, because it’s time to get going. For players with less market share, it’s your time to make the move.
2. Do you have the right ammo? Determining what will resonate with your customers in 2010 isn’t a matter of resurrecting what worked in 2004 to 2008. We’re learning from our research that buyers are still looking at needs versus wants, because ROI and other key justification analysis will likely stay on the cautious side. This suggests that you should make a concerted effort to test with the customers what will motivate them to act, whether you’ve planned for the actions to kick off the year or not. While customer research and market testing are common practices in B2C, they’re still fairly rare in B2B. In B2B, the marketing team and sales usually sit down to develop actions and then run it by some lead customers. This flat out isn’t voice of the customer (VOC), and it’s very dangerous, albeit convenient and swift. We recommend a third party or someone from the company who can study the need without bias and without attribution to your company, so you receive a clear view.
3. Pumping up the channels. Sales teams have had a tough several months, with feelings of dejection driving the need to hand-hold key customers so that a good dialogue continues.  Besides not making the money they expected, the sales team has likely learned a lot about how their company or vendor partner has dealt with the downturn. Therefore company leaders need to assess and segment the channels by how the channel will view you. Assuming that each person in the channel believes the same things and is likely to respond the same way in 2010 could be a huge mistake. We’ve learned over the years that companies take reasonably good aim at segmenting customers, but it’s rarely done with sales forces or channels. Besides the incentive systems and other rah-rah actions, the sales teams will need a set of actions that really resonate with them and their customers. As fired up as you may be this year, expect sales people to be wary, and maybe not as optimistic as you are with the actions you have put in place. One of the great ideas that several companies have used is to conduct simulated sales calls with new actions with customers, and then use the recorded comments in kick off meetings with sales. In some cases, we’ve had to conduct two rounds of simulated sales calls, the first to test out key actions, followed by some time to refine the actions. Then a second round of well-tuned actions with more positive responses in the customer’s words. While sales people may look at your plans with a jaded view, they do listen and gain confidence when customers support what you’re doing. If this can’t be done in time for your kick off , think about for the next layer or round that you will be developing.
4. Seizing the Opportunities. This is likely to occur when you’ve best prepared at the point of customer engagement.  In a potential rebound your revenue and profit can grow while losing market share and penetration advantage to alternatives in your market. We’re often relieved to see growth occur after a tough spell, but let’s not be lulled into the thought that we’re doing everything we can do for customers and business objectives. You will be better prepared by following the suggestions I have outlined in this post.

It’s really good to feel upbeat and optimistic in this New Year. Let’s just make sure we have everyone in the boat rowing together. I’m not saying to throw caution to the wind, but this is clearly a year for decisive action. This is a note of encouragement to those who are interested in going for it in 2010 in an assertive and systematic way.

So let’s take aim, take the best shots we can and stand ready to adjust on a real time basis.

In the world of the “new normal” there’s likely to be less margin for error, so gut instincts will need to be balanced with the right amount of organized facts and objectivity. I’m not implying that there will be less opportunity to succeed and overachieve, but I am making a general statement that there will be less margin for error.

Experience and success are great, but that sets up us and those that we work with to make assumptions. These assumptions, which may be made up of feelings, can override facts. As all good facilitators know, feelings + facts = solutions.  It’s important to get a balance of both. Too much reliance on facts can stifle new ideas and approaches, and create analysis paralysis. Leaning too much on feelings drives decisions on emotion, and lack of facts can lead to actions that aren’t optimal.

So, you ask, why are you making this point now?

It’s clear that most all businesses have undergone a significant transition. Things are less predictable, actions that worked in the past don’t seem to support, and we’re uneasy thinking the future is unsettled at best. We feel less in control of our personal and business future. So with this pressure and angst, it’s easy to do nothing, or resort to cutting our costs to oblivion.

I propose that we get a good handle and assess the root causes of our business problems (low growth, margin pressure, products launches not taking off, etc.). Let’s use a basic problem solving process of defining the problem and what areas are affecting the problem. There are many other tools and approaches that many of my readers know full well and can deploy. I have a client that often says, “Let’s be hard on the process and numbers, and soft on the people.” This mindset is a good way to look at what needs to get done, as the people in our company are best assets given the right direction, support, and guidance. Business often becomes very personal with leaders temperment being challenged during tough times. I am asking leaders to rise above the human tendancy to let bad feelings roll downhill, and for employees and advisors on their team to offer up support and work double hard to help to follow them.

Using the right amount of facts and process lends well to the effort of getting it right, with less personalization of issues and problems. 2010 will be a year of excellent opportunities. Do you have enough of the right actions and people support in place? Let’s drive our role and business to success and get on the best track in the new year.

You’re saying what? Grow? Considering growth given the still unclear business picture may seem over reaching. But it’s not! Previous economic downturns have demonstrated that some companies, whether small or large, market leader or trailer have capitalized and chartered dramatic new courses for themselves.

Those that have the most to lose are large companies and market leaders that think they have the luxury of time, to wait and see, to make the move. While the “new normal” for each industry and region of the world isn’t etched in stone, we all need to take some action or have a playbook to work the various scenarios we’re likely to face.

As an example, we re-launched a combo hardware and software product to part of a client’s channel in early summer 2009. The key was to gain an incremental $500,000 in the second half of this year. The client has already raised an incremental $2.0 million, which took some significant actions, but well worth it, especially with a higher margin rate than before. This was one of four actions we took; one other is shorter term that’s doing well, and two others will have even larger impacts in 2010 (the client in this case needed a mix of quick-lift and medium term actions). In this case, the execution was easy and successful once we picked the right approach.

The common definition of fearless is: without fear; not afraid; brave; intrepid. We could think of other words to describe it as well. But you get the idea. It’s not about going at it in some half cocked and crazy fashion. It’s really about taking decisive actions that matter, whether short term quick lift or more strategic plays.

Northpoint has had significant success in this realm; from up market to down cycles, we can offer some advice to consider.

I have the following advice:

1. Get the right team in place – whether you’re a small or large company get people on your team that have the passion, drive and ability to think about growth. When you look at your people assess whether they are part of the problem or part of the solution. If you don’t know, they’re part of the problem and you may need to shed them or put them in the back seat on the growth agenda. You need upbeat and positive people. Don’t associate with purveyors of doom.
2. Work on the facts and that which is controllable – all too often I hear about issues with the economy, politics, past problems. While they are factors, none of us really can control their affect. We DO control what we’re all working on. You may say this is being elementary. I wouldn’t raise these points if I didn’t observe this going on every day in some of the most historically successful companies. So let’s put the facts on the table, analyze them, and develop some game plans to move forward.
3. Stimulate thinking – as members of your team enter growth initiatives, they need to know the purpose and expectations of this exercise and what it will need from them. If you/your company have done this before, only to have nothing result of it (and I hear this all the time), then you need to determine how to avoid past pitfalls and put some assurance together.
4. Avoid dysfunctional behaviors – teams are comprised of various types of behavior. Classically success is based transitioning through these phases: forming, storming, norming, and performing. We all get that performing is where our team needs to get to ASAP. But I can tell you from recent experience that when organizations have a problem, they form a team and storm for areas of improvement, only to form and storm on another subject a week later. So they never stick with it long enough to see the benefits. Others in your company see this behavior and take a wait and see attitude, knowing in another week or month something else will be hot. To correct this we need a disciplined approach and having people/personalities that are more norming and performing oriented. We often test for this if it’s imperative to get it right.
5. Pick the right thing to work on – how do you know what the right thing really is? You’re wrapped up inside of your company, industry, or building with a ton of tribal knowledge. So how are you going to assure yourself you’re now taking a fresh approach? You will need to get a balance of what others are doing outside of your industry and points of view internally. If you’re the group leader or President, how can you be sure your subordinates will really tell you what is on their minds? The fact is 90% of folks will tell you what you want to hear. And 90% of the time you will only hear what you want to hear. This is why we tend to continue to go with what we know and really don’t operate with the freshness we need. What’s the definition of insanity… trying to basically do the same things over and over again, but expecting different results?
6. Create a process where good ideas are vetted and developed – there are a number of frameworks and processes for this that will be discussed in following blogs. But in short it’s essential to have methodology that will help you deliver the results in minds. A basic approach is a “waterfall” diagram that shows current state figures and expected state – 12 to 36 months out with a list of the programs, actions with related revenue, or profits associated with each.
7. Getting results – we’ve told that lack of results is often associated with bad execution. But we’ve learned that 75% of actions’ failure is based on misdiagnosis and NOT execution. Most of my clients are very solid at execution; the problem is the actions they choose treat the symptoms and not the root cause. So if you get on the wrong bus, every stop is the wrong stop. This realization really instills the fact that we need to get it right up front without suffering from analysis paralysis. If we get the approach or problem right, then the next focus should be on an effective deployment. We had a client that wanted to launch a new program, but picked a time in late June as most folks were thinking vacation and 4th of July. While their program was solid, their audience on a webinar was less than it could have been. Also to meet the timeline the call was rushed and poorly prepared for – in fact the key benefits and testimonials were way at the end of the call after 80% of the audience had dropped off.

I will continue to write various pieces on the subject of fearless growth and hope you find the information of value. Some of the future articles will have commentary on various events and will look to add some humor along the way. Thanks for your interest and reading.