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The Big Picture of Business: Yesterdayism… Learning from the Past, Planning for the Future.

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Whether it is a public company or not, every business should fashion an Annual Report. Even if it is a client letter, this gesture celebrates the year, as basis for helping business people to prepare for the future.

People are interesting combinations of the old, the new, the tried and the true. Individuals and organizations are more resilient than they tend to believe. They’ve changed more than they wish to acknowledge. They embrace innovations, while keeping the best traditions.

When one reflects at changes, he/she sees directions for the future. Change is innovative. Customs come and go… some should pass and others might well have stayed with us.

There’s nothing more permanent than change. For everything that changes, many things stay the same. The quest of life is to interpret and adapt that mixture of the old and new. People who fight change have really changed more than they think.

The past is an excellent barometer for the future. I call that Yesterdayism. One can always learn from the past, dust it off and reapply it. Living in the past is not good, nor is living in the present without wisdom of the past.

Trends come and go… the latest is not necessarily the best. Some of the old ways really work better… and should not be dismissed just because they are old or some fashionable trend of the moment looks better.

When we see how far we have come, it gives further direction for the future. Ideas make the future happen. Technology is but one tool of the trade. Futurism is about people, ideas and societal evolution, not fads and gimmicks. The marketplace tells us what they want, if we listen carefully. We also have an obligation to give them what they need.

In olden times, people learned to improvise and ‘make do.’ In modern times of instantaneous disposability, we must remember the practicalities and flexibilities of the simple things and concepts.

Things which Made Comebacks…
Ceiling fans. The jitterbug and swing music. Hardwood floors. Stained glass.

Things the Economy Has Exempted…
Penny arcades. Five-and-dime stores. Full-service gas stations. Free car washes at gas stations. Towels in boxes of detergent. Mom-and-pop stores. S&H Green Stamps and other redemption programs.

Things which the Marketplace Has Eclipsed…

  • Ice delivered in blocks via a horse-driven carriage by the ice man
  • Milk delivered in bottles via a horse-driven carriage by the milk man
  • Going downtown to do all of your shopping
  • Drive-in movies
  • Stores closed on Sundays

The Old Became the New Again…
The original speed for phonograph records, as invented in 1888, was 78-RPM, which engineers determined to be the most ideal for sound quality. In the 1940s, technology brought us the 45-RPM and 33-1/3-RPM records… adding up to the “mother speed” of 78-RPM. The 1980s brought us compact discs, which play at a speed of 78-RPM.

Station wagons of the 1950s went out of style. They came back in the 1980s as sport utility vehicles.

Midwives were widely utilized in previous centuries. In modern times, alternative health care concepts and practitioners have been embraced by all sectors of society. Herbal ingredients and home remedies have gained popularity, and cottage industries support them.

Telephone party lines went out of style in the 1920s. They came back in the 1990s as internet chat rooms.

Corporations have become extended families, thus embracing dysfunctionality, changes, modifications and learning curves.

Schools started out as full-scope community centers. As the years passed, academic programs grew and became more specialized, covering many vital subject areas. Today, with parents and communities severely neglecting children and their life-skills education, schools have evolved back to being full-scope community centers.

7 Levels of Yesterdayism… Learning from the Past… Sources of Insights:

  1. Think They’ve Been There… Haven’t Yet Fully Learned from It.
  2. Saw It Happen… Understand It.
  3. Participated In It.
  4. Been There… Learned from It.
  5. Teach, Understand and Interpret It.
  6. Innovated It… and Teach You Why.
  7. Innovative Then and Now… Still Creating.

7 Applications for Yesterdayism… How to Shape the Past Into the Future:

  1. Re-Reading…Reviewing… Finding New Nuggets in Old Files.
  2. Applying Pop Culture to Today.
  3. Review case studies and their patterns for repeating themselves.
  4. Discern the differences between trends and fads.
  5. Learn from successes… and three times more from failures.
  6. Transition your organization from information down the branches to knowledge.
  7. Apply thinking processes to be truly innovative.

Apply History to Yourself. The past repeats itself. History is not something boring that you once studied in school. It tracks both vision and blindspots for human beings. History can be a wise mentor and help you to avoid making critical mistakes.

7 Kinds of Reunions… obtaining perspective:

  1. Pleasurable. Seeing an old friend who has done well, moved in a new direction and is genuinely happy to see you too. These include chance meetings, reasons to reconnect and a concerted effort by one party to stay in the loop.
  2. Painful. Talking to someone who has not moved forward. It’s like the conversation you had with them 15 years ago simply resumed. They talk only about past matters and don’t want to hear what you’re doing now. These include people with whom you once worked, old romances, former neighbors, networkers who keep turning up like bad pennies and colleagues from another day and time.
  3. Mandated. Meetings, receptions, etc. Sometimes, they’re pleasurable, such as retirement parties, open houses, community service functions. Other times, they’re painful, such as funerals or attending a bankruptcy creditors’ meeting.
  4. Instructional. See what has progressed and who have changed. Hear the success stories. High school reunions fit into this category…their value depending upon the mindset you take with you to the occasion.
  5. Reflect Upon the Past. Reconnecting with old friends, former colleagues and citizens for whom you have great respect. This is an excellent way to share each other’s progress and give understanding for courses of choice.
  6. Benchmarking. Good opportunities to compare successes, case studies, methodologies, learning curves and insights. When “the best” connects with “the best,” this is highly energizing.
  7. Goal Inspiring. The synergy of your present and theirs inspires the future. Good thinkers are rare…stay in contact with those whom you know, admire and respect. It will benefit all involved.

About the Author

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flameis now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

The Big Picture of Business: The Colonel and Me

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Business Know-How Comes From Experience – The Value of Life-Long Mentoring.
 
This article is about:

  • Lessons that I learned to last a lifetime.
  • The value of acquiring and benefiting from mentors.
  • That inescapable quotient of wisdom and life-long learning.

The year was 1959. I was the bright young disc jockey at a radio station. I was being groomed by my mentors to be a White House advisor, which I later became.

Colonel Harlan Sanders entered my life. I was 11. He was 65. I only met him once. He influenced my life. I later reorganized his company. I became him, after a fashion, since I am 65 now.

The Colonel had just founded a fast food empire called Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was heralded as an entrepreneur who was also a senior citizen.

My entertainment mentors were Cactus Pryor and Bob Gooding. The 24-year-old newscaster at the radio station was Bill Moyers. He told me that I must think like a world-class visionary, grow into the role and not just remain a radio DJ.

In 1959, radio stations used to do live remotes from advertisers’ locations. The first which I attended was at the Armstrong-Johnson Ford dealership. The second was at what was the fourth KFC franchise to open in the United States. It occupied one counter at 2-J’s Hamburgers, an established Austin restaurant, owned and operated by Ralph Moreland.

There I was on live radio, interviewing Colonel Sanders about his new business enterprise. Rather than discussing the taste of the food, I asked about his desired legacy and the Big Picture goals of the organization. Already thinking like a visionary then, I asked the bigger questions. I still ask them, while most people are more comfortable in discussing the trivialities.

The KFC empire grew, and a burgeoning fast food industry engulfed it. There became too many competitors, too much franchising, too much hype and just as many who exited the industry as quickly as they entered it.

Fast forward 20 years to 1979. I was retained to come in and analyze the strategy and structure of the KFC corporation, asked to recommend changes and improvements. That’s what I do for businesses of all sizes. I come in after the wrong consultants have given bad advice, after knee-jerk reactions to changing business climates had taken tolls on existing market players.

By 1979, there were other players dominating the fried chicken niche. Nationally, there were Popeye’s and Church’s. Locally, we had Frenchy’s and Hartz. And then there were the players in the burger wars, who were adding chicken items to their menus.

Over at KFC, the Colonel had long ago sold his interest to a corporation and remained on the payroll as a commercial spokesman. Colonel Sanders died in 1979. Meetings commenced at headquarters about the future direction of the company and the product. The corporate owner was a liquor company. Its CEO (John Y. Brown, later to become Governor of Kentucky) asked me to envision the overall future of the fried chicken industry, not just the KFC ‘brand.’

I commissioned focus groups. They verified what I already knew: that KFC had too much of a white suburban image. By downplaying the Colonel on the packaging and amplifying the taste of the food, we had opportunities to broaden the KFC appeal.

I opined that we needed to go after minority consumers and aggressively build stores in inner-city neighborhoods. To test the premise, I staged a focus group dinner meeting at a prominent inner-city church, eliciting ideas and insights. One resulting project was ‘KFC Kalendar,’ an advertising campaign that showcased community events and public service announcements to diverse communities. I wrote editions of the Kalendar for radio and newspapers. Its recognition and success evolved into the national ad campaign: “We Do Chicken Right.”

KFC was a watershed in my career (at that point 21 years long). It influenced what I’ve preached for the last 30+ years: determine who your stakeholders are. Learn all that you can about your customers, their customers and those affected by them. Extend your business model beyond what it once was and into new sectors. The branding does not drive the strategy but instead is a sub-sub-sub set of Big Picture strategy, which must drive all business disciplines.

Here is some closing wisdom, connecting back to 1959. I juxtapose my advice to some of the records that we were playing on the radio when doing that live remote from the grand opening of that early KFC franchise. These insights still hold impact on the business culture of today. These come from the Golden Oldies music of that era:

  • “Did he ever return? No, he never returned. Yet his fate is still unlearned. He may ride forever through the streets of Boston. He’s the man who never returned.” Song by the Kingston Trio. (Pursuing the same strategies, year after year, yields you the same predictable outcomes and shortcomings.)
  • “And they call it puppy love.” Song by Paul Anka. (Living in a fantasy without viewing the realities of the marketplace sets companies up for failure.)
  • “Higher than the highest mountain, and deeper than the deepest sea. Softer than the gentle breezes, and strongest than the wide oak tree. Faithful as a morning sunrise, and sacred as a love can be. That’s how I will love you. Oh darling, endlessly.” Song by Brook Benton. (An empowered workforce must support the corporate objective, and the art with which it does spells success.)
  • “I told her that I was a flop with chicks. I’d been that way since 1956. She looked at my palm and she made a magic sign. She said what you need is Love Potion Number Nine.” Song by The Clovers. (Research tells us that only 2% of all consultants are real advisers. Most are vendors who prescribe what kool-aid that they’re selling. Business coaches and their ilk are to be avoided.)
  • “Who walked in with Mary Jane, lipstick all a mess. Were you smooching my best friend, if the answer’s yes. Bet your bottom dollar, you and I are through. Cause lipstick on your collar told a tale on you.” Song by Connie Francis. (Ethics cannot be edicted from afar. The ethical conduct of business has a direct relationship on the ability to grow and prosper.)
  • “Hold me tight and don’t let go. Thunder, lightning, wind and rain. This feeling’s killing me. I won’t stop for a million bucks. If it wasn’t for having you, I’d be barking in Harlem too. Don’t let go.” Song by Roy Hamilton. (Sustainability of a growth strategy breeds steady, measured success.)
  • “When you’re near me, my head go goes all around. My love comes tumbling down. You’ve got what it takes to set my soul on fire. You’ve got what it takes for me.” Song by Marv Johnson. (66.7% of all businesses cannot grow any further. Learn when enough growth is enough.)
  • “Venus, goddess of love that you are. Surely, the things I ask cannot be too great a great task.” Song by Frankie Avalon. (Building corporate cultures and successful businesses means making and sticking to commitments.)
  • “Here I stand in my world of dreams. You don’t know how much I care. You don’t know the torch I bear. You don’t know how much I care. Yes and here I stand.” Song by Wade Flemons. (Corporate cultures depend upon real-time conditions, projected outcomes and policies that promote steady growth.)

About the Author

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flameis now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 44 – The Big Picture of Business: Business Leader as Community Leader, part 2 of 2

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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.

Episode 44 – The Big Picture of Business: Business Leader as Community Leader, part 2 of 2 examines the role of business leaders within their communities. During our discussion, Hank Moore, Corporate Strategist and author of The Business Tree: Growth Strategies and Tactics for Surviving and Thriving, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • how business leaders can avoid becoming too politically involved
  • how companies can contribute to the community in a manner consistent with their values without alienating segments of the community
  • the breadth of individuals who should consider themselves business leaders and therefore community leaders

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights Hank shares in The Business Tree and this edition of the StrategyDriven Podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.HankMoore.com.   Hank’s book, The Business Tree, 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

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.

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:27 — 29.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 43 – The Big Picture of Business: Business Leader as Community Leader, part 1 of 2

/in , /by

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.

Episode 43 – The Big Picture of Business: Business Leader as Community Leader, part 1 of 2 examines the role of business leaders within their communities. During our discussion, Hank Moore, Corporate Strategist and author of The Business Tree: Growth Strategies and Tactics for Surviving and Thriving, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the benefits businesses realize through strong community relationships
  • risks business leaders face if they do not cultivate a positive relationship with their communities
  • outward signs of good business – community relationships
  • actions business leaders can take to build and maintain good community relationships

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights Hank shares in The Business Tree and this edition of the StrategyDriven Podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.HankMoore.com.   Hank’s book, The Business Tree, 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

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.

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:25 — 37.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Big Picture of Business: Business Strategy – Quotes on Business

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It 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.

Obsession with certain pieces, comfort levels with other pieces and lack of artistic flair (business savvy) keep the work in progress but not resulting in a finished masterpiece.

Should every business become Big Picture focused? Yes. My job is to widen the frame of reference as much as possible. Alas, the Big Picture of business is a continuing realignment of current conditions, diced with opportunities. The result will be creative new variations. Masterpieces are not stagnant paintings… they can be continually evolving works in progress.

Quotes on Business:

“No nation was ever ruined by trade.” Benjamin Franklin

“Trade is a social act.” John Stuart Mill

“The business of America is business.” President Calvin Coolidge (1925)

“There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Milton Friedman, 20th Century U.S. economist

“If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” James Goldsmith, 20th Century British businessman

“The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.” Bishop J. Fulton Sheen

“If two men on the same job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree all the time, them both are useless.” Darryl F. Zanuck, film producer (1949)

“Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.” President Woodrow Wilson (1912)

“The first mistake in public business is the going into it.” Benjamin Franklin

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” Thomas Paine

“If you want to succeed, you’d better look as if you mean business.” Jeanne Holm

“No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or ‘get rich’ in business by being a conformist.” J. Paul Getty

“If I had to sum up in one word what makes a good manager, I’d say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act.” Robert P. Vanderpoel

“The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good, and grabs the new just as soon as it is better.” Lee Iacocca

“Any business arrangement that is not profitable to the other person will in the end prove unprofitable for you. The bargain that yields mutual satisfaction is the only one that is apt to be repeated.” B. C. Forbes

“The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do.” Roy L. Smith

“A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.” John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

“The person who knows how will always have a job. The person who knows why will always be his boss.” Diane Ravitch

“Politics is the art of preventing people from sticking their noses in things that are properly their business.” Paul Valéry

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” Alfred D’Souza

“Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves – to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today.” Stewart B. Johnson

Business

There is a difference between knowing a product-industry and growing a successful business. It is possible for a company and its managers to know much about certain arts and sciences without having the will to pursue them.

These are major areas where companies fail, per branch on The Business Tree:

  1. The business you’re in. They are not in the right business for well thought out reasons. They don’t have a clearly unique product, but instead rally behind ideas that are not fully developed. There exists either an overdependence upon one product or service line, or the company is diversifying beyond the scope of its core expertise.
  2. Running the business. One observes poor controls, obsolete equipment and under-qualified administrative support. Staff is not properly trained or equipped to handle rapid influxes of business. Production and deliverability are strained already…and it gets worse.
  3. Financial. The company is undercapitalized. It may experience unprofitable pricing, poor payables-receivables policies, lack of accountability and excess overhead. There is too much emphasis upon getting rich, rather than steadily growing and improving. Management relies only upon ‘bean counters’ for company direction.
  4. People. There exists a mis-use of company resources, notably its people. Insufficient investment was made toward human capital on the front end. Employees are not empowered to make decisions or take risks. Management remains isolated or unrealistic, possessing limited leadership development and people skills.
  5. Business Development. There exists an overall naivete about the marketplace, reflected by unrealistic sales policies, quotas and sales management. Customer service is not good, doesn’t improve and never is a major emphasis for the company. Marketing is more for ego reasons, rather than a careful strategy. Sales and marketing are not given enough support… especially management’s personal participation. There is a lack of understanding about protecting existing business, entering new markets, new product development or collaborations.
  6. Body of Knowledge. The organization has fought change. It is unable to read the warning signs or understand external influences. Regulatory red tape proliferates. Management doesn’t take the time to understand how the company has grown or analyze the relationship of each branch to the other. The company has set itself up to avoid change…failing to grow without a crafted or shared Vision.
  7. The Big Picture. The company has failed to understand what business they’re really in. They have not planned strategically. Without an articulated, well-implemented vision, business will not evolve because no Big Picture ever existed.

Much of the wisdom to succeed lies within. People under-perform because they are not given sufficient direction, nurturing, standards of accountability, recognition and encouragement to out-distance themselves. Organizations start to crumble when their people quit on each other.

Unhealthy organizations will always ‘shoot the messenger’ when change and improvements are introduced. Healthy organizations absorb all the knowledge and insight they can… embracing change, continuous quality improvement and planned growth.

The level of achievement by a company is commensurate to the level and quality of its vision, goals and tactics. The higher its integrity and character, the higher its people must aspire.

About the Author

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flameis now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.