StrategyDriven » business

Standards and Expectations – Defining Performance Standards, part 1 of 8

StrategyDriven — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:03:25 +0000

Standards and expectations define how work is to be performed; providing guidance for the consistent, efficient, value-based execution of tasks. At the outset, developing a comprehensive set of performance standards often appears to be an overwhelming and daunting task as employees within even the ’least complex’ organizations perform countless different activities every day. However, it is not intended that performance standards be developed for every conceivable activity. Rather, standards should be formulated for those activities reflecting organizational values, implementing corporate strategy, and presenting significant risk. The documented basis behind this finite set of standards provides the guidance needed for employees to make rational judgments about the conduct of less significant activities.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 21e – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy from the Inside Out

StrategyDriven — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:16:20 +0000

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 21e – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy from the Inside Out explores how businesses employing a consultative sales method realize dramatically increased revenues. During our discussion, Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy From The Inside Out: How Complex Selling Really Works and Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

the five decisions individuals go through before making the final buying decision
how to bring other team members into the sales process and the benefits of this practice
determining the right number of client needs identification interactions before presenting a solution balanced with the client’s desire to hear the solution given their time investment
role of the sales professional in orchestrating solution presentations made by client personnel

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable selling skills insight Duane shares in Sales Strategy From The Inside Out and this special edition podcast, please visit his company’s Sales Training or Sales Management site. To discover why this selling skill is so effective at maximizing sales productivity, purchase Duane’s book: Sales Strategy From The Inside Out.

Complimenting Sales Strategy From The Inside Out, are Duane’s four other books on the consultative sales process including:

Read a Summary of the above Sales Books.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast 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

Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy From The Inside Out, is Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based strategic sales training company that has trained and certified more than 350,000 salespeople in more than 3,000 groups in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has written five sales books, personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions and continues to engage in the business and art of the strategic sales process. Read Duane’s full biography and the history of Action Selling Sales Management Training.

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The Dos and Don’ts of Networking

StrategyDriven — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:09:57 +0000

Do treat everyone you meet with respect.
Do ask questions of other people about their business.
Do try to meet 3-5 new people at every event.
Do carry business cards wherever you go.
Do follow up when you meet people you want to get to know better.
Don’t talk too much about yourself or your products or services the first time you meet someone (don’t sell).
Don’t stand or sit with people from your own company.
Don’t arrive late or leave early.
Don’t think meeting someone one time makes them part of your network.
Don’t talk about religion, politics, or the economy with those you just met.

About the Author

Thom Singer is the author of six books on the power of business relationships and networking, including: Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships (New Year Publishing, 2007), The ABC’s of Networking (New Year Publishing, 2007), Some Assembly Required: A Networking Guide for Women (New Year Publishing, 2008), and Batteries Not Included: 66 Tips to Energize Your Career (New Year Publishing, 2009). He also writes the Some Assembly Required Blog and is the creator of the free online Networking Quotient Quiz (www.nqquiz.com). Singer has over 18 years of sales, marketing, public relations, business development and networking experience in the business community, having worked for several Fortune 500 Companies and AM LAW 100 law firms. He regularly speaks at corporate seminars around the country teaching professionals the importance of cultivating business relationships to further their careers. Singer also leads training sessions as “The Conference Networking Catalyst” at large multi-day seminars focused on helping people make lasting connections with those they meet at the event. For more information about Thom Singer, visit http://www.thomsinger.com.

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Top 5 Networking Tips if Your Company is Going Through Layoffs

StrategyDriven — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:18:08 +0000

Stay positive. Regardless of if you get laid off or stay in your job, your attitude will have an impact on your future. Try to look for the positive and find ways to cheer up others who might be having a tough time with the changes.
Start networking early. If you wait until you get the pink slip you will have missed the opportunities to forge strong relationships. If you only network when you need something (like a new job), then people will see you are one sided in your networking. Show up and try to help others with their goals before you need their help.
Do not say bad things about your company. If your company is experiencing tough times, do not be gossiping inside or outside the business about what is happening. People are always cautious about those who gossip and spread bad news. They worry about what you say about them when they are not in the room, and this will not lead them to help you later if you are in search of a new job. Who would want to hire someone who tells stories all over town about their last employer?
Be visible inside the company and around town. Out of sight is out of mind. Hiding in your cubicle and thinking that by being invisible will help you keep your job might backfire. Doing good work and completing your projects is very important in tough times, but do not rationalize that that is all you have to do to stay employed.
Make sure you have your resume and LinkedIn profile up to date. Do not wait until you are laid off to update these critical job seeking tools. Make sure that you have everything up to date so that you can immediately use them if you are suddenly laid off.

About the Author

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Tactical Execution Best Practice 4 – Eliminate Redundant Work

StrategyDriven — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:09:18 +0000

Whether in an economic recession or boom, resources are always limited and redundant work always an unnecessary resource expenditure. Yet no matter how hard leaders try to eliminate redundant work, these practices seem to reappear; often the result of well intentioned actions to correct a performance deficiency or misguided adherence to a legacy practice. Therefore, all leaders from the C-suite to the shop floor must relentlessly wage an ongoing war against unnecessary duplicate work.

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New Century Leaders

StrategyDriven — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:15:19 +0000

What kind of new world leaders should we expect?

Here is one magnifying and surprising solution. I believe we need to teach future business leaders that in our carbon and capital constrained world it is now mission critical to refine all the tools of business to compete on price, quality and social needs. Masters of business administration must also become masters of social needs – from avian and swine flu to energy and environmental matters. I believe this boils down to training to compete for resources and the best minds, while teaching some cultural restraint and leadership skills.

The Surprising Solution: Creating Possibility in a Swift and Severe World
by Bruce Piasecki

The world today is more swift, more severe… and has never been more full of opportunity.

The rapid wave of change is sweeping outdated strategies away quicker than ever before, but those who can get in front of this wave will achieve untold success and customer loyalty. And the solution for how to get in front of this wave is as inspiring as it is surprising.

The Surprising Solution describes the revolution in business in which the corporations that can best address environmental and social issues by creating superior products will thrive and profit in this new world. Discover how to take hold of this vital new force in business and improve both the world and your bottom line at the same time.

“The Surprising Solution is a must-read during this time of economic turmoil.”
- Steve Percy, Former CEO of BP America and Coordinating Lead Author of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

This new century leader must become a Social Response Capitalist, profiting from new forms of energy, new means of mobility, and exceptional and available kinds of information technologies. I want leaders that can produce solutions for multinationals as well as the many key small innovators we need in renewable energy.

Consider the recent rash of corporate and financial abuses, and the sheer ethical stupidity of some strategies and actions.

I am now convinced that businesses that rule by the brute force of technical and terrain advantage alone will slip in their competitive advantage. It takes the grace, force and wit of a diplomat to gain permission to grow. Life as we know it, and society as we expect it, are not possible without such realignment.

I believe the ultimate definition of a trusted new century leader is someone who can embed social values into products in a strategic and consistent way.

I believe that those who can embody these values will thrive in what I call the S-Frontier, where the severity of global markets, and the swiftness of information dominate normal business planning and decision-making.

The leaders we can trust often develop a vivid track-record of achieving such surprising results. Their new products never stray from being efficient, safe, convenient, and affordable.

CREATING SOCIAL RESPONSE CAPITALISTS

I now view three prevailing themes of leadership as boundary conditions for achieving success in today’s S-Frontier. Social Response Capitalists need to:

Demonstrate a remarkable tolerance for discomforting information, and then thrive on constant learning. These attributes allow them to balance the three competing imperatives of lowering price, improving quality, and responding to emerging social needs. They can sense what the needs of society will be in the near future and quickly adapt corporate strategies in order to engineer new products that can then reshape the market for their goods and services.
Achieve power through applied common sense. These social leaders know when to ignore the signals of distress emanating from their own corporate staff and Wall Street. I describe this uncanny ability as “knowing when to play by the rules, and when to change the game,” and a unique combination of panic and resolve. Applied common sense means being open to input from a vast array of sources, but still being smart enough to know how to ignore the sirens screaming all around you about your corporate strategy and do what you know is right.
Recognize that their new business models and social goals need wide circulation. Their need for spreading the word often takes on a missionary zeal. Baseball great Yogi Berra once quipped: “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Like plants that disseminate plenty of seeds to ensure survival, social capitalists are on a mission to spread the word about new paths of growth. They are infusing their firm with a new sense of social purpose beyond finance alone, and they want everyone, rightfully, to know about it.

Such is the stuff of the best corporate strategists. They find something fabulous in complexity and challenge, identify and secure the changes that must be made to adapt to the market and the social needs, then share its meanings and value in a visible and highly social set of ways. They apply the newly discovered value in a systematic and relentless way across the company. In a way, social response capitalists are like Archimedes when he said give me a lever large enough and I will move this world. In the end leadership is always about taking the intelligent risks to make the needed lasting and possible.

About the Author

Bruce Piasecki is the President and Founder of the AHC Group Inc. (www.AHCGroup.com), which since 1981 has provided general management consulting and leadership benchmarking workshops for a range of corporate affiliates and clients. His latest book is The Surprising Solution: Creating Possibility in a Swift and Severe World. To read Bruce’s complete biography, click here.

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Self Assessment Program Best Practice 7 – Be Prepared from the Start

StrategyDriven — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:35:23 +0000

Self assessments aggregate huge amounts of data in order to provide a very few high value insights. (See Figure 1: Data Refinement and Consolidation Model below) As an assessment progresses, evaluators often feel increasingly overwhelmed by the volume of data they must sift through, organize, and analyze. Time seems to slip away and pressure to find the key insights mounts; making the objective appear to be that of finding a needle in a haystack with only a moment’s notice. To be successful requires thoughtful, deliberate preparation.

How to Prepare for a Self Assessment

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StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation Episode 2 – Profile of the Effective Leader

StrategyDriven — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:22:59 +0000

StrategyDriven Leadership Conversations focus on the values and behaviors characteristic of highly effective leaders. Complimenting the StrategyDriven Management & Leadership articles, these conversations examine the real world challenges managers face every day that are not easily solved with a new or redesigned process and instead demand the application of soft leadership skills to achieve a positive outcome.

Episode 2 – Profile of the Effective Leader introduces the profile of an effective by exploring the personal traits and behaviors exhibited by these remarkable individuals.

Additional Information

Click here to download a list of the principles, qualities, attributes, and competencies of an effective leader.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation 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 Leadership Conversation!

About the Contributor

Howard T. Dickens Jr. is a Principal Contributor at P Enterprises and Host of the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation. A dynamic public speaker, facilitator, and training consultant, he has shared his insights with hundreds of executives and managers at all organizational levels; helping them develop motivational leadership behaviors, cultural competence, and the ability to manage workplace conflict. To read Howard’s complete biography, click here.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 23 – An Interview with Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership

StrategyDriven — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:22:48 +0000

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 23 – An Interview with Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership explores how how executives and managers can transform their organizations through candid, meaningful dialogue with each other, their employees, and their customers. During our discussion, Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst “Best” Practices of Business Today and Founder and CEO of Fierce, Inc., shares with us her insights and illustrative examples regarding:

what Fierce Leadership is
developing and using ‘squid eye‘ to recognize business practices that challenge individual and organizational success
engaging in ‘mineral rights‘ deep dive converations to gain full understanding of a situation including one’s personal contributions and impacts
the six worst ‘best’ business practices and their Fierce Leadership alternatives
how to promote Fierce Leadership and Fierce Converstations throughout one’s organization

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights Susan shares in Fierce Leadership and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from her organization’s website at www.FierceInc.com and her books’ websites at www.FierceLeadership.com and www.FierceConversations.com. Susan’s book, Fierce Leadership, can be purchased by clicking here.

Complimenting Fierce Leadership, is Susan’s book, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time. Fierce Conversations 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 voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast 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

Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership, is Founder and CEO of the global training company Fierce, Inc.. For over two decades, Susan has helped executives at companies such as Microsoft, Coke, Starbucks, Cisco, and Google transform their companies by teaching them how to engage in more vibrant dialogue with one another, their employees, and their customers. She is a globally recognized thought leader, the bestselling author of Fierce Conversations, and recipient of the 2008 Stevie award for Entrepreneur of the Year. To read Susan’s full biography, click here.

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StrategyDriven Podcasts Receive Top Honors in September

StrategyDriven — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:31:52 +0000

The StrategyDriven Team would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the third place ranking for the StrategyDriven Podcast and the fourth place ranking for the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation podcast from among the over 2600 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in September!

In each episode, co-hosts Lucas Ives, Nathan Ives, and Howard Dickens present a richer and deeper exploration of the principle, best practice, and warning flag articles found on the StrategyDriven website. Their discussions identify benefits, define implementation methods, and provide examples to help leaders increase alignment and heighten accountability within their organizations.

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. With your support, our community of listeners and readers has grown tremendously in the past several months. Please help us continue to grow by recommending the StrategyDriven Podcast to family, friends, and colleagues who you believe will benefit from listening.

Additionally, please consider voting for us monthly on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast improves our monthly ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, grows our community.

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

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Complimentary Resource – Protecting Your Brand Online: The New Marketing Imperative

StrategyDriven — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:17:32 +0000

Protecting Your Brand Online: The New Marketing Imperative
by MarkMonitor

Learn the key strategies for protecting hard-earned brand equity and revenues.

There’s no question that the Internet is an ideal venue for marketing, but along with the advantages come risks. Because the online world has seen so little formal policing, it’s ideal for the ‘hijacking’ of brands online. Scammers have realized that the value and power of your brand is very good for business – their business. Whether the illicit activities are aimed at diverting traffic to competing businesses or stealing directly from your bottom line, they all have the effect of eroding brand value and devaluing your marketing investments and revenue.

As a result, the online world requires closer monitoring and because online brand abuse causes substantial brand erosion, lost revenue, diminished customer trust, and tarnished reputation – marketers may have the greatest stake of anyone when it comes to protecting brands online.

StrategyDriven has partnered with TradePub.com to offer you complimentary one-year subscriptions and/or free trials to dozens of leading business publications. No coupons, credit cards, special codes, or purchases are necessary. Publications are entirely FREE to those who qualify. Click here for more information on Protecting Your Brand Online: The New Marketing Imperative.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 20b – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 2 of 2

StrategyDriven — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:17:02 +0000

Special Edition 20b – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 2 of 2 explores how leaders can enhance their organization’s alignment and accountability through question-based leadership. During our discussion, Gary Cohen, Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners and author of Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions shares his insights regarding:

a process for determining what questions to ask for a given situation
attributes of good questions
impacts of asking too many or too few questions and how to identify when that point is reached
how to incorporate questions into one’s leadership style

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Gary shares in Just Ask Leadership and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his Just Ask Leadership website (www.JustAskLeadership.com) and the CO2 Partners website (www.CO2Partners.com). The values assessment discussed during the podcast can be accessed at www.CEOTest.com. Gary’s book, Just Ask Leadership, 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 voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast 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

Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, is Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners, a Minneapolis based executive coaching and consulting firm. Gary is renowned for his work as the President and co-Founder of ACI Telecentrics, a company he took from 2 to 2,200 employees and a peak of $32 million in annual revenues. Under his leadership, ACI grew at an average compounded rate of over 50 percent for almost 13 years and was recognized as one of Venture Magazine’s Top 10 Best Performance Businesses and Business Journal’s 25 Fastest Growth Small Public Companies. Gary is frequently interviewed on leadership issues by many of today’s leading publications including USA Today, the Washington Post, and Business Week. To read Gary’s full biography, click here.

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Management Observation Program Best Practice 5 – Observation Training, Grading, and Quality Assessments

StrategyDriven — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:05:41 +0000

Management observations profoundly influence the behaviors of those observed. Done well, this tool positively reinforces desired behaviors. Performed poorly, this tool will undermine the management team’s credibility and fosters cynicism towards managers and their performance standards requirements. Therefore, it is critical that those performing these observations do so in a consistent, high quality manner.

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Complimentary Resource – Sales and Marketing: The New Power Couple

StrategyDriven — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:58:40 +0000

Sales and Marketing: The New Power Couple
by Microsoft Corporation

This white paper will review the obstacles to making business development a team sport and then will present best practices around people, process and technology for aligning the sales and marketing organization.

Through insight from thought leader Don Peppers will highlight key elements, including strategy, process, applications, and enabling technologies for bringing sales and marketing closer together. And, they will propose a closed-loop framework for sales and marketing to achieve a collaborative, unified and holistic approach. The result: seamless communication and tracking to produce the most valuable customer relationships.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 20a – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 1 of 2

StrategyDriven — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:01:56 +0000

Special Edition 20a – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 1 of 2 explores how leaders can enhance their organization’s alignment and accountability through question-based leadership. During part 1 of our discussion, Gary Cohen, Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners and author of Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions shares his insights regarding:

what question-based leadership is
quantitative and qualitative benefits realized by those using question-based leadership
how question-based leadership drives organizational alignment and accountability
importance of identifying the decision-maker for a given situation

Additional Information

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast 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

FREE StrategyDriven Trial Membership

Start your FREE trial membership^* and receive:

FULL ACCESS to StrategyDriven’s premium content for 14 days
FREE COPY of a StrategyDriven Expert Contributor book^†
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Strategy – Understanding the Art of War

StrategyDriven — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:34:21 +0000

In business we all have a secret weapon. Strategy is quite possibly the strongest resource in your business arsenal. Regardless of which area strategy refers to – whether it be “communication”, “brand planning” or “sales” – without a clear-cut strategy, you will more than likely not succeed to the level that you expect.

Yes, strategy requires many hours of well-spent time researching the landscape in which you may find yourself. This implies understanding your product or service inside and out; your competitors – a SWOT analysis at this point is masterfully useful – and also defining a clear path to that which you hope to achieve.

It has been proven that those who have a clear vision for their goals achieve them nine times out of ten, whereas those without a vision only hit the mark half the time.

Defining the Vision
The “vision” quite simply put, is that which initially drove and inspired you to take the plunge and launch your idea.

There is no need to put the vision together in detail at this initial stage; bulleted lists will more than suffice. Fill out the details once you are comfortable with the general overview of your vision. This will assist you as well as any other potential investors or partners to understand your own goals coherently. It will also allow for you to plan carefully around the existing landscape.

It is important to stay focussed on your idea and vision throughout the initial life cycle no matter how difficult this may be. New ideas will arise as you put thought into practice. Some of these ideas may be feasible, but others might lead you astray. It is important that when such distractions come into play you are ready for them. Understand them for what they are and know how to deal with them. Some find it helpful to employ the services of specialist consultants to steer them through the clutter of these initial steps.

In Japanese philosophy there is a word that captures this phase of constant vigilance, “Zanchin”.

Awareness, determination and perseverance lead to success.

The Art of War
In a competitive landscape with few refreshing new ideas many businesses find themselves at war with one another. That is the true definition of the word “strategy” after all – “the art of war”.

A well known writer by the name of Sun Tzu wrote a book on this principle which is easily adaptable to any situation in which you might find yourself. We are all warriors in the greater scheme of life, fighting to keep our entities afloat and successful.

“People should not be unfamiliar with strategy, those who understand it will survive, Those who do not understand it will perish.” From Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.

Five Elements of Strategic Planning
In his book, Sun Tzu outlines the five elements of strategic planning as he sees them. These elements are;

The Mission – Your vision: the business, the people, the clients and your role.
The Climate – Creating the opportunity. The timing and trends that provide you with opportunity.
The Ground – The area of your business where you choose to compete.
The Leadership – Great leaders inspire followers. Ensure that your leadership style buys into your vision.
The Methods – The way in which you choose to run your business, a mastery of certain skills and processes.

“Until we equal or exceed our opponent’s score in these five elements, we do not challenge or begin our venture or even respond to our opponent.” From Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.

Sun Tzu further explains that it is from here that we advance our position by understanding the five elements of strategic planning. It is the foundation from which we know our strengths and set our goals and vision to overcome our opponent. This is a way to secure success in the challenge before it has commenced.

Leverage Thought Leaders
We are very fortunate that the Internet has made it possible to find and follow the strategies and philosophies of many great thought leaders from around the world.

Although we are not able to speak to Sun Tzu directly, there are many great leaders that have adopted his principles and have built successful empires in the modern world. Google and Nokia are amongst these.

There are many websites that specialise in putting you in touch with the right people in this modern age. Some are so well connected that they are able to bring you a handful of those people and get you guaranteed one-to-one sessions with such gurus of industry.

When it comes to strategy in a competitive landscape, two heads are better than one. Ensure that you follow the basic principles to set the foundation and where possible leverage from the experience of those that have gone before you to build successful business strategies.

Article Source
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About the Author
Shoulders of Giants is an online business resource, showcasing the top business thinkers in various business related topics, such as strategy. These topics are discussed by renowned thought leaders and business gurus such as Mark Earls.

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Management and Leadership Warning Flag 1 – Working Managers

StrategyDriven — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:26:14 +0000

Regardless of the organization, all managers share common job functions and responsibilities including defining and reinforcing performance standards, establishing organizational priorities, and authorizing and coordinating personnel activities and resource use. This work is distinctly different than that of the individual contributors reporting to the manager; setting the manager apart as one who possesses a broader scope of responsibility and commensurate authority.

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Develop A Process For Continuing Business Model Innovation

StrategyDriven — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:40:24 +0000

In recent days, Apple announced that co-founder Steve Jobs would be leaving the company for a time to deal with some health issues. Investors and analysts closely eyed how the stock price responded.

In interview after interview, people wanted to know whether Apple could maintain its cutting edge innovative abilities while Jobs is out of the picture. Isn’t that interesting? Why wouldn’t Apple continue to innovate? Or will it?

Now, ask yourself how well your organization would do in making business model innovations if you weren’t available? Hopefully, it wouldn’t make any difference and your business model would be continually updated without you.

For most organizations, however, that’s not the case. The “solitary genius” toils seemingly alone (or at least doesn’t let anyone else make a decision) in many companies. When that person dies or retires, everyone knows that the glory days are over.

Whatever happened to Edwin Land’s Polaroid?

You get the idea.

Most organizations are led by mere mortals, and they look to create a systematic source of success. A few organizations are blessed with geniuses who can continue to find more successful business model innovations. That blessing, however, turns into a curse if the genius stops delivering or leaves.

While one person does all the thinking, others daydream about what they will do after work rather than coming up with their own business model innovations.

A better approach is to install a process that engages lots of people in proposing and testing potential business model innovations. Examples where continuing business model innovation had been made into day-to-day work are few and far between. Typically, however, when the leader left who had organized the innovation process, business model innovation for that organization ended.

During a time of economic crisis like 2009, most companies will stumble because they will keep doing what they’ve always done . . . even if that approach stops working. Boards of directors will be shouting for better cost controls, for stronger balance sheets, for more influential leaders. And those won’t help if the business model is broken.

Wake up! Smell the coffee.

If you don’t have a process to upgrade your business model by the end of 2009, you are in trouble.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

Have lots of experiments going that don’t cost very much.
Cut off experiments that don’t seem to be going where you want to go.
Share insights into what kinds of improved business models might work.
Watch progress on developing new business models very carefully.
Invite stakeholders to participate.
Consider running global contests to get lots of help from the world’s best thinkers.
Let non-experts have a crack at making improvements, too.
Focus on innovations that will expand the market by providing new reasons and opportunities to do business with you.

Article Source
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://strategic-management.bestmanagementarticles.com

About the Author
Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at http://www.fastforward400.com.

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Self Assessment Program – Criticisms Appear Harsher When Put into Print

StrategyDriven — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:50:24 +0000

Fact or fiction, anything formally documented assumes an air of legitimacy. Combine this implied legitimacy with the stark black and white of the printed words and any identified improvement opportunity can appear overly harsh and critical, especially to those responsible for the performance. Apparent aggressiveness within a self assessment can result in resistance to the evaluation findings; often by those who stand to benefit the most and who must own the corrective actions.

Avoiding defensiveness while still conveying improvement opportunities and their importance is the challenge faced by all assessment leaders. While total resistance avoidance is not realistically achievable, following these few principles will help make assessment findings more palatable and accepted:

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Leadership Inspirations – Commitment

Karen Juliano — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:30:27 +0000

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses.”

Ken Blanchard
management expert and
author of The One Minute Manager

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Succession and Succession Planning – Introduction

StrategyDriven — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:47:34 +0000

Advancement, transfer, retirement, resignation, and termination are all causes of position vacancies. Regardless of the reason for or timing of a position opening, the organization must continue to function through the subsequent transition. Organizations proactively positioning themselves for personnel changes maintain a higher degree of business continuity; realizing a shallower and shorter productivity dip and pursuing performance improvement more rapidly.

Effective succession and succession planning processes enable smooth transitions of power and operational continuity. Performed well, these processes help ensure the proactive identification and development of an adequate number of candidates to fill potential vacancies, careful selection of the right replacement, thorough preparation of the selectee for his or her new role and organization members to well receive the successor, and advanced provisions to support the entrant with the post transition coaching needed for their and the organization’s success.

Focus of the Succession and Succession Planning Topic

Articles in this topic are dedicated to discussing the leading practices of companies that successfully execute succession and succession planning processes; maximizing the new entrant’s probability of success and the organization’s operational continuity. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to effective leadership succession.

Articles

Best Practices

Best Practice – Turnover Checklists [StrategyDriven Premium Content]
Best Practice – Rotational Development Plans [StrategyDriven Premium Content]
Best Practice – Continuing Education [StrategyDriven Premium Content]

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor Articles

The Boomers are Leaving! – How to Create and Implement a Knowledge Transfer Program, part 1 by Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill
The Boomers are Leaving! – How to Create and Implement a Knowledge Transfer Program, part 2 by Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill

StrategyDriven Podcasts

StrategyDriven Podcast – Special Edition

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Leadership Inspirations – Fortune Favors the Prepared

StrategyDriven — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:56:12 +0000

“You better live your best and act your best and think your best today, for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.”

Harriet Martineau
English writer and philosopher

“Every great man was once a nobody prepared for opportunity.”

Dorothy Tode

Everyone wants to win but only a few are willing to put in the preparation and training time needed to achieve greatness. The pinnacle event we often observe as marking an individual or team’s success represents only a small fraction of the blood, sweat, and tears required to reach that summit.

Do you want to win? The truth lies with the answer to another question… Are you doing everything necessary today to make yourself mentally and physically capable of winning tomorrow?

Are you prepared to achieve greatness?

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Succession and Succession Planning Best Practice 1 – Turnover Checklists

StrategyDriven — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:54:46 +0000

Every position in any company will necessarily be different than even the same position within any other organization. These differences stem from the unique organizational personnel, policies, culture, and marketplace positioning and environment. To be best prepared to assume his or her new role, a successor must have a thorough understanding of all of the position’s critical success factors, drivers, and influencers. Turnover checklists leverage the collective experiences of past position holders to help ensure successors receive all of this vital area knowledge.

Turnover checklists represent a powerful transition tool because of knowledge conveyance they support. Founded on the experiences of past position holders, turnover checklists necessarily support transfer that hard won knowledge to the newcomer; knowledge beyond those core data points generally needed by all leaders. While not an all inclusive list, turnover checklists should in general contain information on the following topics:

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Leadership Inspirations – Solving Problems

Karen Juliano — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:28:43 +0000

Albert Einstein is arguably one of the greatest problem solvers of all time. Whether examining a physical phenomenon or business challenge his thoughts on problem solving are timelessly applicable. Below are some of these philosophies:

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

“It takes a higher order of thinking to fix a problem than that which created it.”

and

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”

Albert Einstein
Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics,
Named Time’s Man of the Century in 1999,
and
Best known for his conception of the theories of special and general relativity

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Self Assessment Program Best Practice 6 – Three Whys Deep

StrategyDriven — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:58:25 +0000

Executives, managers, and individual contributors familiar with the day-to-day workings of their organizations undoubtedly know or have contrived the reason for ‘why things are the way they are.’ Beyond this understanding, sometimes at an unconscious level, these individuals will perceive one or more drivers to these organization shaping whys. What remains unseen and unthought of are the tertiary and lower level drivers to why the business performs as it does. It is here that truly useful insight can be gained; insight enabling the foundational changes needed to alter the organization’s direction and propel it to the next level.

To be of real value, self assessments must get to tertiary and lower drivers; otherwise they are nothing more than simple collections of already known data. Assessors should therefore strive to ask three whys deep before drawing their final conclusions on organizational performance.

How to Get to the Third Why

Getting to the third why and its valuable insight can be challenging, after all, these drivers are largely outside of the organization’s collective conscious. Therefore, the following method is offered as a means of third level driver identification.

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Problem-Solving Success Tip: Measure

StrategyDriven — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:52:30 +0000

Measure.

The first key question to answer in starting a problem-solving project is, “How will you know when the problem is solved?” Answer this question in measurable terms before you start trying to solve the problem. As you begin defining your problem, these success metrics help set clear expectations about what will be different when you finish. At the end of the project, the measurements will demonstrate that the difference has been achieved, i.e., the problem has been solved.

To be useful, success measurements must be simple in concept and connected so clearly to the problem that you can remember them easily. As with the description, somebody who doesn’t already know about the problem should be able to read your success criteria and understand them.

The objective in setting success metrics for a problem-solving project is to define the minimum necessary to solve the problem. This is completely opposite to the way we usually set goals. In problem-solving, we want to do everything necessary to solve the problem, but nothing extra.

Once you decide what your success metrics will be, check them with real data. This not only verifies that you really can collect and report the measurements, but also lets you establish baselines. Measure exactly what your performance is before you start analyzing the problem and taking corrective action. The baseline measurements let you confirm that there really is a problem and sanity checks the performance levels you’ve defined as success. You can make corrections if necessary, before you start down a wrong path.

Measure to determine that the problem is solved, but also use measurements throughout the problem-solving process. Measurements can also help you test assumptions, verify root causes, assure tasks are completed properly and report progress.

Bottom line: if you don’t measure, you won’t know for sure. Use measurements to learn and portray the truth – the real truth, not what you wish were true.

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://business-management.bestmanagementarticles.com

About the Author:

Jeanne Sawyer helps her clients solve expensive, chronic problems, such as those that cause operational disruptions and cause customers to take their business elsewhere. These tips are excerpted from her book, When Stuff Happens: A Practical Guide to Solving Problems Permanently. Now also an ebook, find out about it and get more free information on problem solving at her web site: http://www.sawyerpartnership.com/.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 17 – An Interview with Garry Ridge, co-author of Helping People Win at Work

StrategyDriven — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:23:35 +0000

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 17 – An Interview with Garry Ridge, co-author of Helping People Win at Work explores the Partnering for Performance management system and how it engages employees to assess and improve their performance to unprecedented levels. During our discussion, Garry Ridge, President and CEO of the WD-40 Company and co-author of Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A” shares his insights regarding:

the importance of building a “tribe member” versus an employer-employee relationship with organization members
how the Partnering for Performance system engages tribe members to develop their own performance assessments and take responsibility for their own development
benefits of eliminating the manager developed performance assessments, forced rankings, and bell curve performance distributions of traditional performance management systems
steps needed to move an organization, particularly its culture, to embrace the Partnering for Performance system
quantified improvement in bottom line results achieved after implementing the Partnering for Performance system at the WD-40 Company

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Garry shares in Helping People Win at Work and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his The Learning Moment website, (www.TheLearningMoment.net). Garry’s book, Helping People Win at Work, published by FT Press 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 voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast 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

Garry Ridge, co-author of Helping People Win at Work, is President and CEO of the WD-40 Company, the San Diego, California based maker of the ever-popular WD-40, as well as the Lava heavy duty hand cleaners, Carpet Fresh, and 2000 Flushes household cleaning products. Garry teaches leadership, talent management, and succession planning at the University of San Diego’s Executive Leadership program and in 2003 was named Director of the Year for Enhancement of Economic Value by the Corporate Directors Forum. A native of Australia, he has served as national Vice President of the Australian Institute and the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association. To read Garry’s full biography, click here.

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StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation – Coming August 2009

StrategyDriven — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:11:17 +0000

“Strategy Driven Podcasting is TOTALLY AWESOME!!! A MUST RESOURCE FOR EXECUTIVES AND MANAGERS.”
- vnsimon

“This is the most educational experience I have ever had.”
- htdbad3.love

“…definitely a must listen“
- EJMalyn

StrategyDriven is pleased to announce the launch of an insightful new podcast series, the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation. In each episode, Howard Dickens and Nathan Ives discuss the values and behaviors characteristic of highly effective leaders. Complimenting the StrategyDriven Management & Leadership articles, these conversations examine the real world challenges managers face every day; those that aren’t easily solved with a new or redesigned process and instead demand the application of soft leadership skills to achieve a positive outcome.

Look for the first installment of this powerful new series in August 2009!

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Problem-Solving Success Tip: Test Your Assumptions About Everything

StrategyDriven — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:36:45 +0000

Test your assumptions about everything.

Assumptions have a way of creeping into all parts of a problem-solving project. They’re often wrong, which can lead to a lot of wasted effort and even cause a problem-solving project to fail entirely. It’s very easy to take a strongly stated assertion as true, especially if it’s the boss who makes it. Remind everyone involved to be skeptical and on the watch for untested assumptions.

Problem definition. Check the facts first to be sure that you and your team understand the problem the same way, and that you have data to confirm that the problem is important. Testing assumptions about the problem definition could include interviewing participants, collecting measurements, creating flow charts of what really happened, etc.

Organizing your project. Don’t assume that the resources you need to solve the problem will automatically be available to you. Solving a messy problem is a project. Treat it that way by developing a project plan, obtaining sponsorship, getting commitment to participate from key players, etc.

Root Cause Analysis. This is a favorite spot for untested assumptions to show up, especially if you use a root cause analysis method based on brainstorming. Once you’ve got a list of possible causes, be sure to collect data, devise tests or do whatever you have to verify which causes are real.

Choosing solutions. Test assumptions about proposed solutions by answering the questions: “How likely is the approach to eliminate a root cause of this problem” and “How practical is this approach (do I have the resources to actually do it and can I achieve the solution in an appropriate amount of time)?”

Testing assumptions throughout the problem-solving process will greatly improve your chances of solving the right problem successfully.

There is nothing so deceptive as an apparent truth.
- Russell Ackoff

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://crisis-management.bestmanagementarticles.com

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Problem-Solving Success Tip – Use Your Time for Problems That are Truly Important

StrategyDriven — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:36:48 +0000

Use your time for problems that are truly important.

Hard as it may be to walk away once you’re aware of it, just because a problem is there doesn’t mean you have to solve it. Ask yourself and your colleagues, “What will happen if we don’t solve this problem?” If the answer is, “not much,” then turn your attention to something more important. If you don’t know what will happen, find out before you undertake a problem-solving project. It should be clear to you and everyone else involved that the problem is worth the effort-and expense-to fix it.

Quantify the cost of the problem quickly, but as realistically as you can. Include lost opportunity costs as well as real expenses such as staff time to deal with the problem, travel expenses, etc. Use actual costs where you can; estimate where you can’t. Then guesstimate what it will cost to analyze and fix it. Write your analysis down, stating all your assumptions explicitly. Get a colleague to verify that your assumptions and estimates are reasonable. Start with a rough “order of magnitude” estimate. That may be enough to answer the question of whether you should proceed. If it’s not clear, especially if the cost to solve it will be high, do a more careful analysis.

If it will cost more to fix than to live with the problem, or if the number is even close, perhaps your resources (time, people, money) are better spent on other projects. If you decide to proceed anyway, you can do so with a better understanding of what you’re undertaking. On the other hand, if you can demonstrate that the cost of the problem is much higher than the cost of solving it, using estimates based on reasonable assumptions, it will generally be much easier to get the resources you need. You can use your written analysis as a sales tool to help win support for your decision to proceed or not.

We have to learn to distinguish those things that are truly important from those that are merely urgent.
- Jerry D. Campbell

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://crisis-management.bestmanagementarticles.com

About the Author: