Posts

The Big Picture of Business – Diversity is Important for Business

/in /by

This year is the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I was on the committee that wrote that legislation.

Diversity is most important for business, the economy and quality of life. I have conducted many diversity audits of companies. I have seen corporate America embrace diversity in many practices, including the workforce and suppliers.

Several years ago, we realized that specialized positioning and communications are necessary for social harmony and a global economy. We are a diverse population, and the same ways of communicating do not have desired effects anymore.

Diversity is about so much more than human resources issues. It means making the most of the organization that we can. It means being anything that we want to be. Diversity is not about quotas and should never be perceived as imposed punishment. By taking stock and planning creatively, then we can and will embody diversity.

The premise of multicultural diversity is ambitious and necessary to achieve. It is a mindset that must permeate organizations from top-down as well as bottom-up. If not pursued in a sophisticated, sensitive way, good intentions will be wasted.

The following pointers are offered to companies who communicate with niche publics:

  • Seek and train multi-cultural professionals.
  • Contribute to education in minority schools… assuring that the pipeline of promising talent can rise to challenges of the workforce.
  • Design public relations programs that embrace multicultural constituencies, rather than secondarily appeal to them after the fact.
  • Interface with community based groups, sharing in activities and civic service… to learn how communications will be received.
  • Realize that minority groups are highly diverse. Not every Asian knows each other, nor speaks the same language. There are as many subtle differences in every ethnic group as the next. Thus, multicultural communicating is highly customized.
  • Realize that multi-cultural communications applies to all. Black professionals do not just participate in African American community events. Cultivate communicators toward cross-culturization.
  • As media does a good job of showcasing multicultural events, note it positively. If thanked enough, media will continue to shine the light on multicultural diversity.
  • Sophistication in the gauging of public opinion will result in a higher caliber of communicating. The demands of an ever-changing world require that continuous improvement be made. Attention paid to writing and graphics quality will enhance the value of multicultural communications.

The old theory was that society is a Melting Pot. That philosophy evolved to the Salad Bowl concept. In either, one element still sinks to the bottom. We must now see it as a Mosaic or Patchwork Quilt. Each element blends and supports others. Diversity is a continuing process where we keep the elements mixed.

People believe that they are now thinking differently and creatively about diversity issues. In truth, they are really rearranging their existing prejudices. To be diverse and united, societies must be sealed with common purposes.

We can be diversified and unified at the same time. We can remain culturally diversified. We still can and should work together as a society. We all hold cultural values. One set is not better than another.

Look at the issues and how they affect the total person. Actions are always required. Good intentions and political correctness are not enough.

It is short sighted to ignore changes in society. It is good business to recognize opportunities for practice development. In the Chinese culture, every crisis is first recognized as a danger signal and always as an opportunity for overcoming obstacles.

Every professional must embrace a set of ethics:

  • Things for which each professional holds himself/herself accountable.
  • Holds benchmarks for Continuous Quality Improvement.
  • Realistically attainable goals.
  • Contains mechanisms to teach and mentor others.
  • Continually re-examines and adds to the list.

There are many good reasons why diversity relates to your livelihood:

  • Embracing diversity is politically correct.
  • Society will make increasing demands that you address these issues.
  • It makes good business sense.
  • It opens your services to additional market niches.
  • It embodies the spirit of open communications, the basis of winning companies.
  • This process creates more job opportunities for multicultural professionals.
  • And it is the right thing to do.

Quotes About Diversity

“What is food to one is to another bitter poison.”
Lucretius

“Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.”
William Cowper, The Task

“Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy.”
Mao Tse-tung (1956)

“No pleasure lasts long unless there is variety to it.”
Pubililius Syrus

“It were not best that we should all think alike. It is difference of opinion that makes horse races.”
Mark Twain

“Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices. Just recognize them.”
Edward R. Murrow (1955)

“Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common. Celebrate it every day.”
Proverb

“When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”
President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), honoring poet Robert Frost at Amherst College

About the Author

Hank MoorePower 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 Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

The Big Picture of Business – Cut the Weeds: Focus on Priorities and Strategy, Avoid the Time Zappers

/in /by

One of the by-products of being high-profile is that you get hangers-on. Most mean well and want to associate with someone successful. Some are groupies, and some are outright users. The art is to discern and marginalize the weeds from your path.

One mean-weller kept hounding me. He wanted to introduce me to people to form “strategic partnerships.” Turns out that they were people with their hands out, thinking that somebody (anybody) could magically open doors for them. I tried to set boundaries with that person. He would not respect perimeters.

One of his ‘strategic partners’ called me and conferenced in the introducer. This was not a scheduled conference call, and I felt blind-sighted. Neither one asked if this was a good time to talk or apologized for calling with no warning. In a rapid-fire sales delivery, he proceeded to talk, starting out selling stock in a venture, then shifting from one idea to the next. I patiently listened and tried to get away. This person had already called me weeks before but could not remember who I was or what I was all about. This was a ‘dial and smile’ sales call, and it was one-sided and self-focused, all about him.

The caller then announced that he had a time commitment and that I had one minute to state my case. I explained that they had called me and that I could not tell my ‘story’ in one minute. I said that if he did not remember talking to me before, then that was the problem. He challenged that it was my obligation to ‘make a difference,’ defined as me giving time and money to his pet causes. I suggested that they turn their attentions elsewhere. The caller then got hyper and talked all over me. I stated that I wasn’t interested in his projects and needed to end the call.

People who hound and use you in business are out for whatever they can get, from whomever they can get it. If you resist, they will go on to the next warm body. This is why I have a problem with networking: some are users and others are used by them, while others don’t know what they are doing.

One must be resolute in protecting their most valuable and limited commodities: time, knowledge and resources. Weeds are everywhere, crying ‘gimme.’ One can never cut all of the weeds down because they re-grow elsewhere. I’ve learned the hard way the value of prioritizing time and focusing on the people and projects that matter.

Questions to Ask About Weeds and Networking

  • Is the person making the request a true friend, a business associate or just an acquaintance? Who are they to you, and what would you like for them to be?
  • Will there be outcomes or paybacks for the other person? Will there be outcomes or paybacks for you? If there’s a discrepancy in these answers, how do you feel about it?
  • Are there networking situations which are beneficial for all parties? If so, analyze and align with those situations, rather than with the fruitless ones.
  • What types of ‘wild goose chases’ have you pursued in your networking career? Analyze them by category, to see patterns.
  • Is the person requesting something of you willing to offer something first?
  • Are the people truly communicating when they network? Or, are hidden agendas the reason for networking? Without communicating wants, it is tough to achieve outcomes.
  • How much time away from business can you take? How does it compare with the business you can or will generate?

Cut the weeds by seeing your time for networking and volunteering as a commodity. Budget it each year. Examine and benchmark the reasons and results. Set boundaries, and offer your time on an ‘a la carte’ basis. Associate with those who feel similarly. Show and demonstrate respect for each other’s time. Be careful not to pro-bono yourself to death.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower 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 Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

The Big Picture of Business – Visioning Scope: Applying Vision Toward Your Organization’s Progress

/in /by

Visioning is the process where good ideas become something more. It is a catalyst toward long-term evaluation, planning and implementation. It is a vantage point by which forward-thinking organizations ask: What will we look like in the future? What do we want to become? How will we evolve? Vision is a realistic picture of what is possible.

7 Steps Toward Strategic Vision

  1. Analyze the company’s environment, resources and capabilities. Determine where the Big Picture existed before, if it did at all. Crystallize the core business in terms of viabilities to move successfully forward to some discernible point.
  2. Clarify management values. Usually, management has not yet articulated their own individual values, let alone those of the organization. This process helps to define and develop value systems to create success.
  3. Develop a mission statement. It is the last thing that you write, not an end in itself. In reality, the Mission Statement is rewritten several times, as the planning process ensues. The last draft of the statement will be an executive summary of collective ideas and works of the Visioning team.
  4. Identify strategic objectives and goals. I ask clients to do so without using the words: ‘technology,’ ‘sales,’ and ‘solutions.’ Businesses fail to grow because they get stuck in buzz words and trite phrases that they hear from others. Technology is a tool, which feeds into tactics. Sales is a tactic, one of dozens of tactics which an organization must pursue. Tactics feed into objectives, which feed into goals, which feed into strategy, which feeds into Vision.
  5. Generate select strategic options. There are many ways to succeed, and your game plan should have at least five viable options. When the Visioning program matures and gets to its second generation, you’ll find that winning formulas stem from a hybrid of the original strategic options. Creative thinking moves the company into the future, not rehashes of the earliest ideas.
  6. Develop the vision statement. It will be action-oriented and speaks from the facts, as well as from the passion of company leaders. It will include a series of convictions why your organization will work smarter, be its best, stand for important things and be accountable.
  7. Measure and review the progress. By benchmarking activities and accomplishments against planned objectives, then the company has a barometer of its previous phase and an indicator of its next phase.

7 Biggest Visioning Challenges

  1. Settle the organization’s short-term problems. Otherwise, they will fester and grow. Many organizations fail because they deny the existence of problems, proceed to place blame elsewhere or hope against hope that things will miraculously get better. Unsolved problems turn into larger roadblocks to growth.
  2. Never let the vision lapse. Keep the vision grounded in reality through benchmarked measurements. Keep the communication open, and the people will keep the enthusiasm alive. Renew the vision every five years with a formal process, thus including newer employees, the latest in business strategies and, thus, the advantage over emerging competitors.
  3. Effective visions are lived in details, not in broad strokes. If the mission evolves from the process, then so do the goals and objectives reformulate by changing tactics. The smallest tactics and creative new ways of performing them tend to blossom into grand new visions.
  4. Be sure that all sectors of the organization participate. The Big Picture cannot be top-down, nor can the embracing of corporate culture be only from the bottom-up. The Visioning committee should represent all strata of the firm.
  5. Periodically, test and review the process. Understanding why the organization ticks, rather than just what it produces, makes the really big gains possible. Success is a track record of periodic reflections.
  6. Never stop planning for the next phase. The review and benchmarking phases of one process constitute the pre-work and research for the next. From careful study (not whims or gut instincts) stem true strategic planning.
  7. Change is inevitable and 90 percent positive. Individuals and organizations change at the rate of 71 percent per year. The secret is in benefiting from change, rather than becoming a victim of it.

Your company’s future relies on your people sharing this vision. Determine if your team understands your vision, if they can see the possibilities, if they know how they fit into the picture and if they are motivated toward action.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower 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 Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

The Big Picture of Business – The Fine Art of Failure: Benefiting from Mistakes to Assure Success

/in /by

Success and failure… it’s a matter of perspectives. Out of every 10 transactions in our lives, five will be unqualified successes. One will be a failure. Two will depend upon the circumstances. If approached responsibly, they will become successful. If approached irresponsibly, they will turn into failures. Two will either be successful or will fail, based strictly upon the person’s attitude.

A 90 percent success rate for a person with a good attitude and responsible behavior is unbeatable. There is no such thing as perfection. Continuous quality improvement means that we benchmark accomplishments and set the next reach a little further.

Throughout our lives, we search for activities, people and meaning. We venture down roads where we find success. Other activities bring us failure… from which we learn even more what to do to achieve success the next time. We learn three times more from failure than from success. The longer that success takes to attain has a direct relationship to how long we will hold onto it.

7 Degrees of Failure… Plateaus in the Learning Curve

  1. Education-Growth – Didn’t know any better. Made some dumb mistakes, based upon incorrect assumptions, insufficient information or lack of sophistication to “see beyond the obvious.” Beginning to learn better approaches by analyzing the wrong ways of doing things.
  2. Evolution – Tried some things that worked and some that didn’t work. Beginning to understand that things do not fail without a reason or cause. Learns constructively from trial and error. Visualizing patterns of failure… as barriers to success.
  3. Experience Gathering – Circumstances within and outside your control caused the projects to fail. Learns which external factors to trust and which cannot be controlled. The importance of research, due-diligence and marketplace understanding surface.
  4. Grooming – The team let you down. Learns what you are capable of doing. Learns who to work with and in which capacities. Success-failure is a function of seizing-creating your own opportunities. No individual or organization can have success without experiencing and learning from failures.
  5. Seasoning – Understand outcomes before they transpire… and the myriad of failure-producing factors. Most people and organizations fail due to never having control over certain ingredients, improper planning and the inability to change.
  6. Meaningful Contributions – Attitude is everything, affecting the approach to problems. Develop attitudes, behaviors and skills as the motivator to create bigger successes.
  7. Body of Knowledge – Develop profound insights and life-long perspectives into the teachings of success and failure (learning three times more from failures than success).

7 Benefits of Success, Stemming from Failure

  1. Immediate Feedback – It is far better to succeed or fail. Not knowing where you’re going or how we’re doing causes us to make many more mistakes.
  2. Starting Over – Without being hampered by systems/processes that haven’t worked, you can create as you go. After you’ve done it, you feel richer for the experience.
  3. Learn What Not to Do Next Time – Gives you a clear frame of reference, assuming that you understand factors behind the failure, rather than blaming someone else.
  4. How the Pendulum Swings – One succeeds much more than one fails. By studying swings of the pendulum (likelihoods of failures), one better understands their progress.
  5. Failures Make the Best Case Studies – Case studies of success and failure form the basis for planning, improvement, training and other business practices.
  6. Lessons Learned But Not Soon Forgotten – One succeeds 5-9 times more often than one fails (depending upon the individual’s attitude, resources and insights).
  7. Qualities of Achievements – The more sophisticated the understanding of failures and their factors, the more successful in business and life one will be.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower 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 Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

The Big Picture of Business – Biggest Excuses They Use… and You Should Avoid: Rationales and Reasons Why Businesses Fail

/in /by

Some people and organizations go to great extremes to place spins, rationalize or save face. Often, sweeping generalizations involve making far-fetched excuses or scapegoating someone else.

Criticizing others may be cloaked as a subtle or even polite dialog. Yet, behind these often-voiced expressions lie fallacies in reasoning, the wrong facts, jealousy, animosity, personal self-defeat or cluelessness of the speaker.

When people pose the following questions or statements, there often lurk sarcasm or hidden agendas behind the ‘seemingly innocent’ comments.

Failing to make investments in future company success:

  • I’m building a new house right now. Just took a vacation. Got to send the kid to college (or some other personal reason).
  • We just bought a piece of computer software.
  • Have to make cuts everywhere else to pay for rising production costs.
  • We make a good product… that should be enough.
  • Why must we spend time on things other than our core business?
  • We can dispense with all that employee training and professional development.
  • We just cannot afford to make the investments.

Rationalizing organizational setbacks:

  • We were growing too fast anyway.
  • It was time to pull in our reins and get back to basics.
  • We took a risk once, and it didn’t work out.
  • This hasn’t been our lucky year.
  • If we didn’t have so much (any) competition, then we would be on Easy Street.
  • That was caused by previous management. We blame it on them.
  • We’re lean and mean now… cut out all the fat.
  • Our people just need to work a little harder.
  • Economic forces beyond our control are at work. But, we’re still making money.
  • If our people would think more about what they’re doing, then we would be successful.
  • That’s our problem… people thinking but not doing… people doing but not thinking.

Rationalizing poor service or quality:

  • You won’t get it any better elsewhere. If you don’t believe it, go try to find out.
  • We’re number one in sales.
  • Our people were hired to do their jobs. They know what they’re doing.
  • Nobody has complained about this issue before. The problem must be with you.
  • Quality is our middle name.
  • We’ve got the latest technology.
  • If you can do so much better, why don’t you go try.
  • Profitability is all that matters.
  • Customers are a dime a dozen. They can be easily replaced.
  • We’re running this business for us, not for them.
  • We got an automated phone system to take care of all that.
  • Customer service is as good as it always was. Quality is as good as it ever will be.

Blaming problems upon others:

  • Our consultant told us to do it.
  • We’re waiting to see what (governmental entity) will do.
  • We’re good at what we do. No need to change.
  • People are expendable. If they don’t like it, they can leave. Workers are easily replaced.
  • Our accountant says we cannot afford that right now.
  • Our ad campaign backfired.
  • We’re too worried about _____ (some item in the news… the latest source of gossip).
  • Interest rates are too high.
  • Our lawyer can take care of any problems that arise. Until then, it’s business as usual.
  • Ethics and standards… those are for chumps. Making the big bucks is all that matters.

Avoiding change, denying the need for change:

  • What worked before works now… always will.
  • Things will always stay the same here.
  • Once the PR crisis passes, things will get back to normal.
  • Can’t change the weather or the world. So, why bother trying to change anything else.
  • That’s just the way he-she is. Learn to live with it.
  • Our human resources department takes care of that.
  • We’re afraid of litigation.
  • There’s not a thing that we can do to change things. The status quo is perfectly acceptable.
  • That’s the way the cookie crumbles. That’s life. What are you gonna do about it?

Not engaging in planning for future operations:

  • So what are you gonna do about it?
  • There’s too much talk about planning. We’re just busy doing things.
  • We have a Mission Statement.
  • Money covers up a lot of ills.
  • We have annual sales projections.
  • Good things happen to good people. It will be our turn soon.
  • Surely, things will work themselves out.

Common Sense Retorts to Sweeping Generalizations

Here are some of the common mis-statements that people make. Some do so to avoid addressing the real business issues head-on. Others never had the rationales and their implications explained to them properly.

The savvy business executive or advisor will offer pro-active follow-ups. Trite statements should not just sit as they are made. By responding realistically and with an eye toward company improvement, you’ll be doing colleagues a service. Examples:

This company reflects the character of its CEO. Sadly, that’s true… to extremes. Many companies are ego-driven. The wise CEO is one who listens to others, surrounds himself-herself with smart people and fosters a spirit of teamwork. A good company is not predicated upon one personality but, instead, has adopted a corporate culture that thinks and feels.

Our company has got the most up to date technology. Companies spend disproportionate amounts of money on technology and neglect their people, processes and policies. Technology represents less than 1% of an organization’s pie chart. Technology should be addressed as a tool of the trade… the bigger issues being a cohesive plan of action and organizational vision.

We must be doing something right. Some companies succeed in their early stages because of raw energy. Conditions change…as should the companies. We must encourage colleagues to honestly examine reasons for their initial success and caution them that Continuous Quality Improvement is necessary. Companies must always grow to “the next tier” and not rest upon laurels.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This is probably the worst cop-out. There is no organization that is totally perfect and cannot stand some fine-tuning.

We are a very quality-oriented company. Quality is as quality does. Some organizations pay considerable lip service to quality but are clueless as to what it really is, what it means or how it can be sustained. Quality is a conscious, continuous effort to plan, think, act and measure. Quality is neither a quick fix for problems nor a shortcut to success and riches.

We know what our customers want. This is usually said to challenge suggestions that better customer service might be necessary. Sadly, companies pay mostly lip service toward customer service. They don’t stimulate enough dialog. When you suggest that a more targeted customer focus would benefit all, including their bottom line, management often gets pious, argumentative and confrontational. Or, they just look the other way, while the customers go elsewhere.

Success speaks for itself. People who enjoy temporarily high sales love to crow. To them, monetary volume is the ‘definition’ of success. You should do with business with them because they are a “winner,” so they claim. In reality, no single market shift speaks completely for itself. Sales rankings vary, with various influencers. Many factors contribute toward long-term success, which is a road filled with ups and downs. Everything is subject to interpretation. Organizations must educate consumers, in a pro-active way, on how to best utilize their products-services.

Ways to Avoid Negative Euphemisms:

  • Put more emphasis upon substance, rather than flash and sizzle.
  • Look outside the organization, instead of keeping your total focus internal.
  • Challenge negative comments and make accusers accountable for false claims.
  • Keep communications open and continual.
  • Refrain from making false representations.
  • Abilities to think, reason, take risks and feel gut human instincts must all be nurtured.
  • Take advice from all sources. Do research. Get informed counsel from seasoned advisers.
  • Document and comprehend the reasons for successes.
  • Empower the organization to embrace/embody the corporate culture.
  • Learn to manage change, rather than become a victim of it.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower 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 Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.