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

This Annual Report issue 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 – Doing Your Best Work on Deadlines: Mobilizing the Energy for Best Business Success

We just had the first live TV musical play extravaganza on television after a 50-year hiatus. The production was The Sound of Music, starring Carrie Underwood. This TV special got a lot of attention because it was unique live, just like opening night of the Broadway show on which it was based.

Truth is that throughout the 1950’s (the Golden Age of Television), there were comparable live TV extravaganzas on the air every night of the decade.

Many of them were consistently great. They were live, in real time. They had top talent behind them. They were well rehearsed. They had the adrenaline of “going live,” and they shined with luster.

Among those crown jewel TV moments were:

  • Our Town, starring Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint.
  • Requiem for a Heavyweight, the premiere of Playhouse 90. It was written by Rod Sterling and starred Jack Palance and Ed Wynn.
  • The Petrified Forest, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Henry Fonda. In it, Bogey reprised the 1930’s Broadway hit and movie that launched his career.
  • The Ford 50th Anniversary, a two-hour musical starring Ethel Merman and Mary Martin. This was the first TV special and set the tone for thousands of others since.
  • The first Beatles appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” where the whole world was watching. The Beatles topped that by composing All You Need is Love while they performed it on a global telecast.

I have those any other live TV gems on DVD. I watch them to experience the magical energy of live performances. Many of us remember writing the college theme paper the night before it was due. We recall compiling the case notes or sales projections just before the presentation meeting.

The truth is that we do some of our best work under pressure. We might think that the chaos and delays of life are always with us, but we handle them better when on tight time frames.

Before you know it, you’re on deadline again. Even though the tasks mount up, you have a knack for performing magnificently under deadline, stress and high expectations.

This is not meant to suggest putting off sequential steps and daily tasks. Learn when deadline crunch time is best to accomplish the optimum business objectives. I’m a big advocate of Strategic Planning and Visioning. Every company needs it but rarely conducts the process because they’re knee-deep in daily minutia.

I know from experience that planning while going through the “alligators” is the most effective way to conduct the process. By seeing the daily changes resulting from the planning, companies are poised to rise above the current daily crises. I recommend that diversity audits, quality control reviews, ethics programs and other important regimen be conducted as part of Strategic Planning, rather than as stand-alone, distracting and energy diverting activities.

Those of us who grew up working on typewriters know how to master the medium. You had to get your ideas on paper correctly the first time, without typographical errors and with great clarity. The first time that I worked on a computer was when I was 40 years old. I took that typewriter mentality with me when I had to compose a brochure and do the desktop publishing graphics in the same two-hour window where I was learning how to work on a computer.

There were years where I kept the typewriter on the work station next to the computer. When I had five minutes to write a cohesive memo and fax it off to the client, I wrote it on the typewriter. Though I wrote all my books on computers, I wrote the modern technology chapters on the typewriter, to make points to myself that the readers could never have grasped.

In mounting your next strategic Planning process for your company, go back and analyze what elements from the past can be rejuvenated as your future. That’s a trademarked concept that I call Yesterdayism.

With planning and organizing, you can meet and beat most deadlines without working in a pressure cooker. Don’t work and worry yourself into exhaustion over every detail. Sometimes it makes sense to move the deadline to the 11th hour. Having too much time to get projects accomplished tends to breed procrastination.

Here are my final take-aways on the subject of doing your best work when on last-minute deadlines:

  • Learn what working style goes best with you.
  • Care about deadlines.
  • Prioritize the real deadlines, apart from the artificial or self-imposed ones.
  • Review the work that you’ve done on tight deadlines. Analyze what makes it different.
  • Know your own strengths and limitations.
  • Work on your own timetable.
  • When working with teams, determine the best compromise working tempo.
  • Get Your ‘to do lists’ in order.
  • Evaluate your progress.
  • Remove the distractions to doing your best-focused work.
  • Ready… Set… Be productive.

This article was written in one hour, just before the impending deadline.


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 – Achieving the Best by Preparing for the Worst: Lessons Learned from High-Profile Crises, part 4 of 4

Thinking Through the Strategies

Crisis management is so much more than handling of the media. A major oil company had a plant explosion and proceeded to do a good job of communicating afterwards. Unfortunately, the follow-through never transpired after the media coverage died down. Thus, lawsuits flew in the company’s face.

My client (a different chemical company) later had a similar explosion. The chief legal counsel called and stated that we did not want the fallout as from the other company. We therefore mounted a full-scope crisis management initiative that focused heavily on after-the-crisis help for the victims and their families. The goal was to keep litigation from occurring, which was met. At a later news conference, OSHA announced that it was assessing its smallest fine, as a result of the forthright way in which my client had handled the crisis.

Another energy industry client operated coal mines. The irresponsible actions of two employees thrust sludge from the mines and into the Cumberland River, which subsequently contaminated the water supply of three cities. The State of Kentucky filed suit, seeking criminal charges against the company.

Working closely together with legal counsel, our recommended crisis program posed an alternative to a worst-case sentence. The program, approved by the judge, consisted of TV and newspaper apology statements, plus the assurance that safety-environmental training would be provided to employees. An investment of $50,000 effected a reduction of the fine from $2 million to $500,000 and reduction of the charges from criminal to civil. Sustained follow-up communication with employees, customers, the court, regulators and opinion leaders ensued.

Another client was a large urban shopping center. Rapes occurred in the parking lot during the Christmas shopping season. Neighboring offices began e-mailing their friends, concerned that the center was unsafe.

Our strategy to address the crisis was three-fold. We engaged senior citizen volunteer corps and criminal justice students to wear Santa hats and serve as holiday escorts, assuring safety but not appearing as armed guards. Secondly, we initiated safety training that expanded to help home owners avoid accidents. Thirdly, the communications process served to glean research data that we needed to upgrade the center, its tenant mix and security issues. The common denominator was open communications with customers, where other retail centers try to stifle mention of incidents.

The process of strategy development is not esoteric. It is common sense, with an emphasis upon ideas that work and are easy to communicate. You always draw upon successful elements of other client crises. I had a restaurant chain attacked by an auto incident. Its family customer base was uneasy for their safety. We took the shopping center escort idea and translated it to senior citizen door greeters, armed with friendliness and the latest serving suggestions. Coupled with armed guards in parking lots, the approach was to reiterate the friendly, homey atmosphere, in contrast to the stereotype of sterile chain eateries.

There are three aspects to Crisis Management and Preparedness. First, qualified business advisors conduct Crisis Communications Audits. This securing and evaluation of programs needed or in-progress has enabled corporate management to make informed decisions, take swift action and avoid possible litigation.

Next comes Crisis Planning. This becomes a coordinated committee, with multiple departments and professional disciplines represented. What-if scenario planning is similar to the processes utilized in overall company strategic planning and visioning. The crisis plan must be part of the bigger process, not an adjunct or afterthought.

Finally comes Crisis Training. Activities include media-spokesperson training, field and operations staff training, coordination of corporate response and message points, community liaison, collateral materials writing-production, video archiving-production, media relations, monitoring and expert testimony. The crisis teams need to be prepared.

Crisis planning and strategies should be intertwined with security issues, financial goals, workforce empowerment and many other corporate dynamics. Elements which Crisis Management and Preparedness Plans should address, per categories on The Business TreeTM, include:

  1. The business you’re in (core business). Protection of intellectual property, materials, business continuity and core business production information. Prevention of theft, leaks in proprietary information and delays in deliverables.
  2. Running the business. Protection of physical plants, equipment, office files and other supplies. Prevention of unnecessary downtimes, spoilage, stoppage in processes and theft.
  3. Financial. Protection of fiduciary responsibilities and financial assets. Prevention of theft, embezzlement, accounting fraud and overpayments.
  4. People. Protection of human capital, knowledge bases of workers, executives, company safety and the work environment. Prevention of unnecessary employee burnout.
  5. Business development. Protection of company reputation, partnerships and alliances, marketplace intelligence and customer interests and relationships. Prevention of leaks in customer information and losses in company market position.
  6. Body of Knowledge. Protection of status and utilization of organizational working knowledge, management’s activities and relationships with regulators. Prevention of strains in company relationships with others and attacks from outside the organization.
  7. The Big Picture. Protection of the overall organization, compliance standards in the organization. Prevention of loss in quality, purpose or vision.

In times of crisis, take assessment of damages, and investigate the truth. Never exaggerate, speculate, or withhold information. No statements should be “off the record.” Provide complete answers, and respond to media requests for additional information in a timely manner. Failure to return calls implies something to hide. Maintain accurate records of all inquiries and news coverage.

The best way to build bridges is to seek out community opinion leaders and stakeholders before times of crisis. Educate them of your activities. Offer tours or community visitations to facilities. Provide printed information on your business… and a video, if at all affordable.

Test crisis plans during simulated drills, using qualified outside strategic planning consultants to evaluate results. Company officials should take these simulations seriously. The military does, terming them “war games.”

Part of being prepared is being engaged in routine activity. Have a plan in force, and be sure that every employee has a copy. The binder containing the plan should include easy-to-read fact sheets and backgrounders on company operations, current phone numbers, and a delineated line of authority (from company resource people to the spokesperson)

Crises can have many liabilities upon companies, including loss of profits and market share. Inevitable spin-offs include government investigations, public scrutiny, and a tarnished image. This causes loss of employee morale and, as a result, company productivity.

Crisis management and preparedness can minimize negative impacts of any emergency. Going through the planning and implementation is a quality assurance process that strengthens any company. Crisis communications means banking goodwill for those times when the plan is called to the test.

Crises of one sort can and will happen to every company. They can be turned from disasters into opportunities to project corporate strengths. The manner in which a crisis is handled often wins praise for companies whose positions are improved in the public eye. Those who are prepared will survive and thrive.

Defining Moments in the Corporate Culture

Volatile business contractions, uneasy economic climate, plant explosions, health care crises, hostile corporate takeovers, governmental shakeups, and financial failings are crises that upset the routine of business life.

Some jolting incident puts every organization into a reaction mode. The consequences of miscommunication in a crisis can be devastating to all involved. By dealing with the unexpected, preferably before it occurs, companies can bank public goodwill that may be useful later. Playing catch-up means that you have lost the game.

It is the responsibility of corporate management to practice effective Crisis Management and Preparedness. Management must study practical experiences of what can go wrong, put a crisis team into place, understand the workings of news media, identify community opinion leaders, and predict potentially harmful or controversial situations. Learn from those who were successful, those who failed to achieve the desired effects, and those whose corporate credibilities were damaged by inaction or the wrong actions.

Return to part 1 of 4.


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 – Achieving the Best by Preparing for the Worst: Lessons Learned from High-Profile Crises, part 3 of 4

Effective Crisis Handling, Case Studies

Crises can and will happen to good organizations. Most often (85% of the time), they can be heeded, planned for averted. There is an art to Crisis Preparedness. It must be included as part of a formal Strategic Planning and Visioning process. So also should diversity, branding, quality, marketing, re-engineering and other important processes. No single facet of planning should be done out of sync with the others.

There will also be those unplanned crises that nobody could have predicted. The same planning process that nurtures Crisis Preparedness can and must also accommodate for Crisis Management. Many of the elements of planning strategies can be taken off the shelf and implemented when extreme danger presents itself.

The City of New York had conducted planning for multiple contingencies. Having done so put the city in the position of responding to the unthinkable on September 11, 2001.
Some of those events that had profound impacts upon us recently are examined in this chapter. In this section are examples of crises that were handled well, thus increasing public trust and respect for their organizations.

Product Recall, Tylenol. Several deaths occurred as a result of tampered Tylenol capsules. The company’s swift recall of product from the shelves and the timely response of the company CEO were part of the crisis plan that was in place well ahead of the tragedy. Johnson & Johnson quickly put its crisis plan into action and subsequently drew good reviews for its open communication with the public.

Tylenol mobilized public support, with the company also positioned as the victim. Seeking to facilitate U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the tamper-proof caplet, a public awareness campaign was waged. The next phase in restoring public credibility to Tylenol was the reintroduction of new product to the shelves, done in such a way as to restore consumer confidence and increase market share. This is regarded as a premiere textbook case of quality crisis management.

Product Contamination-Damage. Unrelated cases but both well handled involved Perrier Water and the Girl Scouts of America. Ground substances in localized batches of Girl Scout Cookies were contained effectively, thus having no adverse effect on the organization’s fund raising activities. Contaminated quantities of liquid resulted in a worldwide recall of product. Activities included crisis communications, grassroots lobbying, dealer relations, issues management, and the recently-completed successful market reintroduction of the product. Perrier utilized media opportunities to advocate for environmental protection and sought to educate consumers about product purification processes.

Reclaim Company’s Good Name, Chrysler bankruptcy. Going to the government and asking for bailout loans is quite chancy, as the airlines have learned recently. Automaker Chrysler was at an impasse in the late 1970s, facing competition and marketplace dominance from imported autos. From top to bottom, the corporate culture was overhauled. Fresh approaches were taken to getting out of the hole, putting emphasis upon quality in workmanship and moving the company forward. When so many companies today put forward a “branding campaign” and call it a change in focus, I laugh. Chrysler was one of the few to totally rethink and retool. Their success should be a beacon to companies striving to make the long way back.

Rebuilding Through Stakeholder Coalitions

Saccharine. In 1977, the federal government banned saccharine, claiming that it caused cancer. Producers of the product teamed together to form the non-partisan Calorie Control Council of America. Its members included physicians, researchers, diabetes support groups and nutritionists. The coalition fostered healthy lifestyles, rather than attack the government bad directly. The national credibility restoration campaign included crisis management, re-educating the public on the need for artificial sweeteners as part of healthy diets and government relations activity. By organizing business groups with citizens into CCC, this effort coalesced grassroots support, which caused Congress to overturn a U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban on saccharine, thus restoring the product to the market. Research denying its link to cancer and other promotional health aspects of the campaign served to return saccharine to credible common usage and create a wider market share for its uses as artificial sweeteners.

Maquiladoras. In the early 1980s, Laredo, Texas, was faced with a 28% unemployment rate. Devaluation of the Mexican peso and slumps in energy and ranching economies had taken tolls on a city whose population was losing faith. The decision was made to unify the community and actively go after manufacturers to relocate to the area.

Maquiladora is a Spanish word which means “made by hand.” The program offered tax advantages to assembly line manufacturers who either left northern factories or added additional installations on the Mexican border.

This unified business community effort, in response to a dire economic crisis, resulted in 63 major factories being built in Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, occupied by General Motors, Ford, Sony, Hitachi, JVC, 3-M, Stokeley Foods and others. The Maquiladora program lowered the unemployment rate from 28% to 13%. This industrial development program carried the theme, “You Can Believe/Puede Creer.”

Columbine. Following shootings at Columbine High School, the City of Littleton, Colorado, was in the media spotlight. Still a relatively new community, its right hand and left hand still were not fully acquainted. Uniting to bravely face the tragedy, the community found inner strengths and mounted a visioning program. Infrastructures were put in place. Quality of life issues were addressed. Economic development and community stewardship programs emerged. Out of the ashes of a school massacre came a community that created and nurtured strategies for the future.

Anti-Defamation League. Following shootings at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles, California, the Anti-Defamation League of America came together and launched positive community educational initiatives. Random acts of violence are certainly threats to all, and the ADL built broad coalitions in order to sensitize, educate and further bond communities. Inspirational forces like that built by ADL and other groups are most effective when they add constituencies outside their normal scope, building consensus of opinion and the strength of wider resources.

Continue to part 4 of 4.

Return to part 2 of 4.


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.

Risk Management Best Practice 5a – Monitoring for Organization-Wide Performance Risk Associated with Large Capital Projects

StrategyDriven Risk Management Best Practice ArticleLarge capital projects represent a significant investment on the part of an organization and can therefore impact, either positively or negatively, the company’s financial position, if not its viability. Consequently, executive and manager attention and financial support may be disproportionately applied to the capital project(s), particularly in the event of overruns, at the detriment of problem resolution at the organization’s other operating assets.


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