StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 35 – An Interview with Robert Kolb, co-author of Corporate Boards

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 35 – An Interview with Robert Kolb, co-author of Corporate Boards explores the motivations, conflicts, limitations, roles, and ethics of corporate boards; answering the often asked question of why Boards and their members behave the way they do. During our discussion, Robert Kolb, co-author of Corporate Boards: Managers of Risk, Sources of Risk and Professor of Finance and holder of the Frank W. Considine Chair of Applied Ethics at Loyola University Chicago, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the Board of Directors’ role in managing upside risk
  • how companies deal with the risk of diminished Board independence that occurs when the CEO is also the Chairman of the Board
  • what time-inconsistent misconduct is and why it occurs
  • why compensation plans may encourage executives to engage in exceedingly risky merger and acquisition deals and the actions Boards take to mitigate this risk
  • the Board’s role in establishing executive compensation, including those mechanisms that result in unduly rewarding failure
  • who the Board of Directors should serve… just shareholders or a broader group of stakeholders that includes shareholders, employees, the environment, and society

Additional Information

Robert’s book, Corporate Boards, can be purchased by clicking here.

About the Author

Robert Kolb, co-author of Corporate Boards, holds PhDs from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in philosophy and finance and has taught at the University of Florida, Emory University, the University of Miami, the University of Colorado, and Loyola University Chicago, where he currently serves as Professor of Finance and holds the Frank W. Considine Chair of Applied Ethics. Robert is the author or co-author of more than 50 research articles and 25 finance texts on topics, including financial derivatives, investments, corporate finance, and financial institutions. Robert recently edited the Encyclopedia of Business, Society, and Ethics. He also founded Kolb Publishing, Inc., which published finance and economics university texts and was acquired by Blackwell Publishing, now part of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. To read Robert’s complete biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:59 — 48.1MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 32 – An Interview with Nilofer Merchant, author of The New How

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 32 – An Interview with Nilofer Merchant, author of The New How explores the transformation of the traditional, top-down approach to strategy planning and execution into a collaborative process proven to be significantly more effective. During our discussion, Nilofer Merchant, author of The New How: Creating Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy and Chief Executive Officer of Rubicon Consulting, shares with us her insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the definition of business strategy
  • why input from those lower in the organization is needed when formulating the organization’s strategy
  • why being the ‘Chief of Answers’ is harmful to the planning process and what can be done to avoid assuming this role
  • why it’s important for everyone within an organization to understand its strategy
  • the ‘First Principles of the New How‘ and why they are important to strategy development and execution

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Nilofer shares in The New How and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from her websites, www.RubiconConsulting.com and www.The-New-How.com.   Nilofer’s book, The New How, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Nilofer Merchant, author of The New How, is Chief Executive Officer of Rubicon Consulting, a strategy and marketing consultancy designed specifically to serve the needs of technology companies. Nilofer has honed her unique collaborative approach to solving tough business problems while working with and for companies such as Adobe, Apple, Nokia, and HP. To read Nilofer’s complete biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:18 — 54.0MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 28 – An Interview with Ken Blanchard, author of Leading at a Higher Level

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles published on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 28 – An Interview with Ken Blanchard, author of Leading at a Higher Level examines how world-class leaders create a compelling vision; ensuring their employees know who the leader is, where they are going, and the values that will guide the journey. During our discussion, Ken Blanchard, author of Leading at a Higher Level, Revised and Expanded Edition: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations and Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the value of focusing the organization on the ‘Tripple Bottom Line’
  • the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of a high performing organization
  • what the High Performing Organization (HPO) Scores model is and how it can be used to identify organizational performance improvement opportunities
  • using Situational Leadership to foster improved individual and team performance
  • establishing and reinforcing individual accountability
  • what differentiates servant leadership from traditional leadership approaches and why this approach is so powerful
  • benefits of developing and communicating a leadership point of view

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Ken shares in Leading at a Higher Level and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his website at www.KenBlanchard.com.   Ken’s book, Leading at a Higher Level, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Ken Blanchard, author of Leading at a Higher Level, is Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, a global leader in workplace learning, employee productivity, leadership, and team effectiveness. Ken has had a profound impact on the practice of management around the world. His bestseller, The One Minute Manager, has been published in 27 different languages and sold 13 million copies. His 17 business bestsellers include Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service, High Five! The Magic of Working Together, and The Secret: What Great Leaders Know – And Do. To read Ken’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:23 — 47.3MB)

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MacroScope: Big Picture Perspective Takes Your Business Further

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StrategyDriven Big Picture of Business ArticleIt seems so basic and so simple: Look at the whole of the organization, then at the parts as components of the whole and back to the bigger picture.

The Big Picture of business is a continuing realignment of current conditions, diced with opportunities. The result will be creative new variations.

Business must review, revise and reinvent itself for the 21st Century. The great mistake is thinking that tomorrow will be the same as today. 90% of all firms are out of business by year 10. 70% of businesses cannot or should not grow any further.

Companies spend so much time rearranging small pieces of their business puzzles that they neglect long-term Strategic Planning and miss potential successes. 98% of companies have no real plan of action and meander toward uncertainty and perils.

Each year, one-third of the U.S. Gross National Product goes toward cleaning up damages caused by companies that failed to take proper actions. The costs of band-aid surgery for problems and make-good work cost business six times that of proper planning, oversight and accountability. 92% of problems stem from poor management decisions.

98% of all organizations – including major corporations, small businesses, public-sector entities and community groups — have no real plan for where they are going or how they will get there. Of the two percent that do, their plans usually consist of sales goals, lists of projects to be completed, trite slogans that pass for mission statements, or marketing hype.

Organizations stop growing because they have failed to make investments for the future. Rather than plan to grow and follow the plan, they rationalize organizational setbacks, excuse poor service or quality, and avoid change, all the while denying the need for change and avoiding any planning. Too often, they rely on what worked for them in the past, on buzzwords, and on incomplete strategies. I’ve also seen businesses in which a paralysis creeps in, keeping them from doing anything at all.

To benefit from change and to grow, each organization may take these actions in order to move forward:

  • Understand where you’ve been and where you might go.
  • Research trends and spot opportunities.
  • Heed messages from the marketplace telling them of changing market conditions, new global business imperatives, new partnering concepts, recognition of new stakeholders, and other changes outside of their influence that may profoundly affect them.
  • Put more focus upon running a successful organization.
  • Get a qualified business mentor.
  • Identify the company’s stakeholders and work with them.
  • Predict and benefit from cycles in business.
  • Broaden the scope of your services.
  • Find creative ways to collaborate with other companies. Collaborations, partnering and joint-venturing are the major business emphasis for economic survival and future growth.

A growth plan or strategic plan is a must for any organization that intends to survive and thrive in today’s rapidly changing business environment. Take a big picture business approach by looking at the whole, then at the parts as they relate to the whole, then at the whole again. Plan to grow, and grow by the plan.

These are the basics of Big Picture business growth strategies:

  • Know the business you’re really in. Prioritize the actual reasons why you provide services, what customers want and external influences. Where all three intersect constitutes the Growth Strategy.
  • Focus more upon service. Dispel the widely-held expectations of poor customer service. Building relationships is paramount to adding, holding and getting referrals for further business. Retaining 2% of customers from deflecting has a bigger impact on your bottom line than cutting 10% out of operating expenses.
  • Plans do not work unless they consider input and practicalities from those who will carry them out. Know the people involved, and develop their leadership abilities. Plans must have commitment and ownership.
  • Markets will always seek new and more profitable customer bases. Planning must prepare for crises, profit from change and benchmark the progress. “More of the same” is not a Growth Strategy. A company cannot solely focus inward. Understand forces outside your company that can drastically alter plans and adapt strategies accordingly.
  • Evaluate the things that your company really can accomplish. Overcome the “nothing works” cynicism via partnerships and long-range problem solving. It requires more than traditional or short-term measures. He who upsets something should know how to rearrange it. Anyone can poke holes at organizations. The valuable ones know the processes of pro-active change, implementation and benchmarking the achievements.
  • Take a holistic approach toward individual and corporate development. Band-aid surgery only perpetuates problems. Focus upon substance, rather than “flash and sizzle.” Success is incrementally attained, and then the yardstick is pushed progressively higher.

Management and leadership activities must be fine-tuned to the company’s Big Picture. Vision is an organization’s way. Corporate culture is the methodology by which they successfully accomplish Vision.

For companies to succeed long-term, the Visioning process begins with forethought, continues with research and culminates in a Strategic Plan, including mission, core values, goals, objectives (per each key results area), tactics to address and accomplish, timeline and benchmarking criteria.

Corporate Visioning goes beyond the Strategic Plan. It sculpts how the organization will progress, its character and spirit, participation of its people and steps that will carry the organization to the next tiers of desired achievement, involvement and quality.

Both the Strategic Plan and the Visioning process must be followed through. This investment is one-sixth that of later performing band-aid surgery on an ailing organization.

Key Messages to Recall and Apply Toward Your Business:

  • Understand the Big Picture
  • Benefit from Change
  • Avoid False Idols and Facades
  • Remediate the High Costs of Band-Aid Surgery
  • Learning Organizations Are More Successful
  • Plan and Benchmark
  • Craft and Sustain the Vision

About the Author

Hank Moore has advised 5,000+ client organizations worldwide (including 100 of the Fortune 500, public sector agencies, small businesses and non-profit organizations). He has advised two U.S. Presidents and spoke at five Economic Summits. He guides companies through growth strategies, visioning, strategic planning, executive leadership development, Futurism and Big Picture issues which profoundly affect the business climate. He conducts company evaluations, creates the big ideas and anchors the enterprise to its next tier. The Business Tree™ is his trademarked approach to growing, strengthening and evolving business, while mastering change. To read Hank’s complete biography, click here.

Ideas Are the Easy Part

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One of the best aspects of my role as Fahrenheit 212’s COO is that I’m the first person candidates meet when they’re interviewing for a job. No matter how many people I interview, I am constantly astounded by the ideas they bring to our conversations. Amazing, amazing ideas with clear market opportunities.

Drinks that prevent hangovers.

Athletic clothes that go beyond wicking and actually hydrate.

A service called Dial A Mom that would provide all the services you want when you’re sick –making doctor appointments, picking up your prescriptions, even sending chicken soup. And the best part is the business would be staffed by actual retired moms. They would get paid for doing what comes naturally and sick people would get what exactly what they want at exactly the right moment. Genius!

The point is, great ideas are everywhere. Online, off line, even in a line at Starbucks, today’s culture consists of people who are constantly dreaming up new things that should exist. And as a result, I think most readers would likely agree that the old adage is true: ideas can indeed come from anywhere.

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About the Author

Pete Maulik is Partner and Chief Operating Officer at innovation consultancy Fahrenheit 212. He is instrumental in the development, evolution and actualization of clients’ innovation efforts. His experience includes leading innovation projects in the alcohol, technology, FMCG, software, beauty, financial services and hospitality categories. Pete is responsible for unleashing the potential of the Fahrenheit 212 organization. This includes finding world-class people, giving them a structure in which they can perform at their peak and ensuring Fahrenheit 212 is delivering transformational innovations on every project.

Pete has spoken on the power of bringing creativity to business at Columbia Business School, Pace University, American Marketing Association’s Quarterly Meetings, The Art Director’s Club of New York, ESSEC and Fordham Business School.

He holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard and an MBA from Columbia Business School.