The Other Side of Moore’s Law

The conventional concept of Moore’s Law is that the power of technology doubles about every two years, but the impact of the mirrored, or reverse, side of Moore’s Law has greater consequence. Promised advantages of Moore’s Law are options to take advantage of increased benefits. There is nothing optional, however, about the mirrored impact—it’s an uncontrollable rate of decay in value.

Technology is so embedded in products and services today that the reach of Moore’s Law extends deep into our economic system shortening the lifecycle of any given product or service. The consequence is that the long-term value of a given “thing” (product, process, or service) is near zero. The enduring value of a “thing” is in the ongoing capacity to evolve it—moving from one lifecycle to another. Without the capacity to continually innovate, update, redesign, and replace the “thing” will have a short life and quickly wind up in the graveyard of outdated companies, products, and ideas.

I have admittedly stretched the application of Moore’s Law, shown below, to convey its more general influence now that technology has become a direct, or indirect, component of most goods and services:

The observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future. In subsequent years, the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled approximately every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore's Law, which Moore himself has blessed.

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A beautiful Nashville lawyer, an inheritance at risk, a devastating storm and wine to kill for—The Claret Murders, a new Mark Rollins adventure.

Recession Opportunity

Recessions are periods of opportunity for the prepared company.  The sound strategy is a contrarian one—going against the herd.  Increase spending during recessions. Build dry powder during booms.

The majority of businesses, including your competitors, react to an economic downturn in the same way.  First, they are usually unprepared.  They immediately look for discretionary expenses that can be curtailed immediately.  Investments in plant and equipment go first.  Employee travel goes next including sales-related travel—advertising follows quickly, as does exhibit events.  In other words, they hunker down.

Excellent companies aren't surprised by a recession.  They understand that business cycles are a fact of life.  They don't suffer from a lack of corporate memory because they have built into their strategic plans several tactics to prepare for, and respond to, economic recessions.  While others curtail marketing activities, they increase them, including advertising expenses.  Rather than shrink their sales force, they snap up quality personnel laid off by others.  Rather than cancel exhibit events, they increase their footprint on exhibit floors.

For the prepared companies, recessions are bargain periods when companies can get the best deals for expanding facilities, adding or upgrading equipment and systems, and provide one of the best climates for hiring top-notch people.  However, it is a company's increased investment in marketing that pays off the most.  Companies that do, come out of recessions with increased market share and financial strength.

It is the recovery and boom periods that are best suited for consolidating your gains and strengthening your financial health and operating performance.  During these periods, you prepare for the next downturn by developing "dry powder"—emphasizing improved planning, workflow efficiency, and the overall performance metrics.  This is when you want to invest in dry powder and equipment, systems, and facilities that will improve workflow efficiency and performance.  But you do not want to fall into the trap most companies will construct for themselves.  Most companies, including your competition, respond to boom periods by overreaching and overextending.  They increase financial leverage, deplete cash reserves, exhaust lines of credit, and max out borrowing power.  When the next recession hits, they will have no choice but to conserve cash—and that means hunkering down, including drastically reducing marketing expenditures.

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A beautiful Nashville lawyer, an inheritance at risk, a devastating storm and wine to kill for—The Claret Murders, a new Mark Rollins adventure.

Integrity

Excellent companies have integrity.  Integrity comes down from the top.  The leader has to have it and expect it from everyone on the team.  An individual who is known to possess integrity is said to carry weight with people in general; thus the pound sign is regarded as a symbol for integrity and honesty.  People with integrity can be trusted. 

You can’t just go through the motions.  That isn’t integrity.  A concern about customers can’t be satisfied with self-serving surveys or frequent flyer programs.  Common Courtesy, treating customers as The Force, caring has to be real, deep-seated, and sincere.  People resent a lack of integrity.  They know when you are just going through the motions.

Every person at a cash register will ask you, “Did you find everything you wanted?”  Very few really care about your answer.  Almost none of them will take action in response to a negative answer.  The most common answer by the cashier is “After you have checked out, you can go to our customer service desk to tell them.”  In short, they have been trained to go through the motions. They have not been freed and authorized to solve your problem as a customer.

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A beautiful Nashville lawyer, an inheritance at risk, a devastating storm and wine to kill for—The Claret Murders, a new Mark Rollins adventure.

Structured Planning

Structured Planning:While planning is a continuous and dynamic process, that doesn’t mean it lacks structure.  It has to have a starting point; and then it is dynamically adjusted and communicated as conditions change, assumptions are adjusted, and temporary targets are replaced with new ones, etc.  The Structured Planning icon above conveys that one cannot develop operational plans or budgets without having a strategic view that those operational plans and budgets support.  Structure is a critical part of the planning process, and the one I have followed over the years involves nine main areas to be addressed—and continuously readdressed—by the planning team in the order listed.

Nature of your enterprise (business, division, group, etc.):  What it is and how it operates today:
History of the business (outline of important events); Organization, key management, committees; Billing methods and collection methods; Products, services, expense recovery method; Description of the market; Recruitment; Marketing, networking, referral practices, sales methods; Client intake methods and standards; Competition and market share; Quality control and client satisfaction.

Historical performance: Five-year financials which benchmark comparisons of key performance indicators such as days of inventory, days to collect bills, margin percentage, customer satisfaction—the key success drivers for your particular business, department or activity.

Environment in which you operate:
Economic conditions; Labor force; Technology; Governmental issues; Nature of market and competition.

Opportunities/Capabilities (SWOT):
Our strengths; Our weaknesses; Threats; Our best opportunities such as: new products to existing clients-same products to new markets-new products to new markets-performance improvements.

Assumptions:
Economic; Labor force; Technology; Governmental impacts;Nature of market.

Objectives—Mission/Strategic Thrust:
Mission, goal and/or objective; Main things required to achieve objective; The main opportunities and the risks and/or weaknesses that require action; Strategies for achieving those main things; Tactics or programs to implement or support strategies.

Policies/Procedures (changes or new ones needed):
Existing policies requiring change, New policies needed.
Strategies/Programs Summary:
Main things for success of each strategy; Tactics (programs) to implement strategies; Key indicators (measurements) of achievements.

Priorities and Schedules:
Programs; New processes; New assets or resources; Measurement capability.

Organization and Delegation: Organization Chart; Who is responsible for what? Job or position descriptions.

Once the overall strategic plan is developed, each major department or group should go through the same planning process, and that planning process becomes input into the firm-wide plan.  Which comes first the chicken or the egg--the strategic plan or the operational plan, the enterprise-wide plan or the segment plans, etc.?  The answer is each is shaped by the other over time.  Since planning occurs continually, it is impossible to tell.
 
Planning is a discovery process.  Sometimes it is a discovery of the obvious and sometimes it breaks new ground.  The one thing you can count on is that we are far more likely to get there if we know where we are going and how we are supposed to get there.  I refer to that as I65 North.  I65 North is a reminder that the business is a journey and that leadership’s job is to get all of the firm’s people traveling in the same direction.  Planning gets the team playing from the same playbook.  It prepares the team for the future, equipping it to capitalize on its opportunities. 

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.   For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.

Measurement Improves Performance

 Measurement improves performance, and successively higher standards or goals result in successively higher achievement.  It is the idea so frequently evidenced in athletics by the announcement, “It’s a new record!”  Excellent companies use goals, and excellent companies keep raising those goals.

 
The most important set of measurements to develop are the organization’s KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).  These are the top line metrics that must be achieved for the enterprise (or supporting unit, division, plant, department, group, etc.) to meet its objectives.  KPIs can be both financial and qualitative, but should be highly correlated with the top priorities of the firm and the firm’s business model as developed during strategic Planning. Furthermore, if there are more than ten KPIs you probably have too many.  That goes for the KPI at the enterprise level or the KPIs for any of its supporting components.

 
My son was part of the Colgate-Palmolive finance team from 1992 to 1997.  He reports that they managed their entire worldwide operation with 10 Key Performance Indicators.  The first thing every business unit’s general manager would review when presenting to the CEO would be their results against those 10 KPIs.  The rest of the meeting was spent explaining how they achieved their goals or why they did not meet them.  It’s hard to believe a huge Fortune 500 company could manage a global operation using 10 measurements of success, but it’s true—and it was VERY effective.  Colgate is one of the most reliable businesses when it comes to consistency and predictability of revenue and earnings growth, and their KPI system is a key element of success in this regard.

I spent a good portion of my career working with law firms.  For them, KPIs included such metrics as leverage, effective rate, productivity, realization, days to bill and collect, client intake, closed cases, etc.  Whatever the nature of a business or organization, its success depends on certain main things and those main things should be the subject of your KPIs.

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It's Nashville...with a devastating flood, abeautiful lawyer, a deadly secret, and wine to kill for--The Claret Murders, the latest Mark Rollins mystery adventure.

Eyes Forward

You are not going to get where you want to go looking in the rearview mirror.  Excellent managers keep their Eyes Forward.  They want to know how they are doing, not how they did.  The traditional tool for gaining that knowledge has been MBWA, Management by Wandering Around.  Wandering Around meant you were in touch with your business as of that real point in time.  You were experiencing, up close and in person, the Event Horizon.

Event Horizon is a boundary in space/time beyond which events cannot be observed.  It is real time.  It is how things are right then!  Except for personal experiences from MBWA, every other piece of information available to that traditional manager was looking backward.  The manager in the late 1900s suffered from information overload, but all of it was out of date.  For centuries management was been at a disadvantage because their information systems only told them about events occurring well in the past.  It was all about events that had already occurred.  By the time it got to the manager, it was too late to take any action that would change or improve outcomes of events and transactions reported upon.

 
Times have changed.  Management by Wandering Around has taken on an entirely new meaning.  Now we can “wander around” through technology and social media.  Excellence companies are hungry consumers of technology that will put them closer to the Event Horizon.  They use social media, blogs, websites, and cloud-based tools to have real time contact with customers.  They track, in real time, customer Internet reviews and comments about the company's products and services as well as the products and services of competitors.  Using technology and wireless communication facilities, excellence companies can and do operate at, and sometimes just over the edge of, the Event Horizon.  Technology, including trend analysis, forecasting, real time tracking systems, and social media monitoring, can show us what will occur if we fail to take action now to alter the future.  Information guides an organization to its targeted goals provided that information is timely, relevant, accurate, comprehensive, and navigable.  And today’s Executive Support Systems (ESS) do just that.  They gather, analyze, and summarize the key internal and external information.  They provide the modern executive with aircraft cockpit-like command and control—with instruments showing the status of all key metrics necessary to “keep the plane in the air” and accomplishing its mission.  Excellent companies keep their Eyes Forward and never go second class when it comes to technology that puts them at the Event Horizon.

 

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.   For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.

 

Luck Favors the Prepared



 



Change (especially uncertain change) is the stuff of opportunities—provided you have developed a way of thinking that prepares the firm to take advantage of whatever the future brings.  The French scientist Louis Pasteur said it in one short sentence: “Chance favors only the prepared mind.”  If Pasteur had been English, the quote would have been, “Luck favors the prepared mind.”
 
When consulting with a midsize law firm a few years ago, I suggested that the partners adopt the practice of meeting monthly for a half-day session where they did nothing but think about things that could happen and then thinking about how they could happen differently.  The mission would be to identify strategies that would allow the firm to benefit rather than suffer from these events.
 
Suppose, for example, that a member of the law firm is arrested for unsavory activities unrelated to the law firm.  What steps should the firm take?  Suppose a major local corporation with significant legal needs loses its general counsel unexpectedly.  How could the law firm respond in a way to take advantage of the situation?  Suppose a single-payer health system is adopted by the U.S. government.  What problems and opportunities occur if Mexico nationalizes American businesses? How would the firm respond to another Enron?  What happens if outside investors are allowed to own U.S. law firms?  Suppose a major client of the law firm contemplates moving its headquarters to a state where your firm doesn’t currently practice?  How should your firm respond to a news release that a major U.S. corporation is relocating its headquarters to your area? What if events similar to those that destroyed Arthur Anderson occur with respect to a U.S. mega law firm?
 
Could the firm have anticipated the events involving Big Tobacco, the rise of the overnight letter business, the advent of Amazon.com, or the wave of refinancing sparked by falling interest rates?  Could the firm have been better positioned to take advantage of Sarbanes-Oxley?  Is the firm prepared for the next Katrina? Does the fact that 3.6 million Americans will turn 65 in 2012 open opportunities for your firm?  Can the firm take advantage of a major changing of the guard in corporate America?
 
If the firm follows my suggestion, that “thinking outside of the box” exercise is likely to become the firm’s vehicle for rapid response to real-life events which will position the firm to capitalize rather than suffer from uncertain future events.  Chance, Luck, Opportunities—whatever you call it—it can best benefit those who are prepared.  Practice prepares a business team to take advantage of events that surprise others. 

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.   For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.

Previous issues of Newsletter

If you are looking for previous issues of The Language of Excellence newsletter; you can find the links on http://www.i65north.com. Select the tab Language of Excellence.

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, and Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.   For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.

Count the Teeth

Planning is not an intellectual forum for speculating on the determinable.  The Teeth icon is a reminder of the story about two Roman citizens debating the issue of how many teeth were in a horse’s mouth.  A slave overheard the debate and suggested they count the teeth.  They killed the poor knave on the spot for upsetting their enjoyable debate.
 
The excellent manager should insist that the teeth be counted not debated.  Who is buying our competitor's products and why are they buying theirs, is a question that can be answered by counting the teeth—don’t speculate!  Counting the teeth often means asking for answers.  When you want to know “how to do it better” or “what customers really want,” counting the teeth means asking.  However, you only get answers when you listen.  Too often organizations ask in an effort to validate their own view.

Do you really think those political surveys we receive in the mail are designed to get our input?  Excellence in management means asking—and listening to—customers, employees, vendors, etc. 

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Novels by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, and Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.   For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.

The Long Tail Strategy

In modern times,enterprises have had business models that have been heavily influenced by the law of Disproportionate Results—the 80/20 rule.  In the world of brick-and-mortar, 80% of results were traditionally derived from only 20% of the activity—sales, inventory, paperwork, jobs, space, etc.  Management’s job involved constant diligence to eliminate low yield or nonproductive activities.  Unfortunately that often meant a decline in service and a slow but relentless movement toward sameness.  It was as Toffler had predicted a world of unlimited choices—all the same.  You can have anything you want as long as it is within the 20% of alternatives that 80% of the population wants.

The 80/20 rule is still important when dealing in tangibles but something important has happened.  No longer does the 80/20 rule dominate.  It is called the Long Tail, and it is the new dog on the block.  In the digital world, the right side, or tail end, of the bell-shaped normal curve goes to infinity without ever reaching zero.  When the cost of maintaining inventory, handling transactions, and distributing products or services drops to near zero, the Long Tail of the bell curve becomes as rewarding as its center—the center that used to account for 80% of all activity.  Today you can have any song, any book, and any video—even though they, long ago, became no longer economically feasible to keep on store shelves.

 
Today’s excellent businesses look for opportunities to operate in the Long Tail while being mindful of the 80/20 rule in other aspects of their business.  Nor does one's product or service have to be digital to gain some of the benefits of the Long Tail.  The key is to reduce the cost of maintaining inventory, handling transactions, and distributing the product or service.  When these cost are reduced, the Long Tail benefits become realizable.
 
When it comes to sustaining their financial success, we have seen printer manufacturers shift their emphasis from hardware sales to the profitable revenues produced by selling the ink used by that hardware.  The ink has low inventory and distribution cost when compared to those costs for the hardware.  We see coffee services shift from relying on the profitability of the coffeemakers to the revenues produced by selling the coffee used by the coffeemakers—the coffee having a lower inventory and distribution cost.  Excellence companies look for ways to capitalize on the Long Tail while being considerate of the 80/20 rule. 

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Join me January 22, 2013 for a glass of claret.  I will be at Parnassus Book Store in Nashville signing the new hard cover edition of my novel, The Claret Murders. In keeping with the main character’s reputation as an epicurean, there will be also be caviar to go with your wine. We will have a lively discussion, some readings and prizes--one of those will be a thirty year old claret from my private cellar, a 1982 Chateau Sociando-Mallet.

Blue Ocean

Blue Ocean

Creative excellent managers don’t accept the prevailing rules.  They don’t settle for coloring inside the lines.  They look for ways to reinvent how the “wants and needs” of customers and prospects can be satisfied.  They look for opportunities to increase benefits that have so far gone unsatisfied.  They look for ways to reinvent how products and services are delivered.  Today there are successful businesses that no one could even imagine a few years ago.  Peter Drucker would say they created utility where there was none.  Thomas Edison did that when he created the electric light, the phonograph, and moving pictures.
 
W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne gave this strategy a name.  They call it the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS).  They call traditional businesses Red Ocean businesses.  In the Red Ocean, traditionally, businesses compete with other businesses for the same customers to fill the same need.  They compete in the same ways.  It is a game of one-upmanship—for one business to gain market share, another has to lose.  The Red Ocean is one where businesses ebb and flow in terms of competitive victories and losses.  In the Red Ocean no business will consistently succeed.  Leadership styles are transient.  Successful strategies do not continue in perpetuity.  Applauded leadership methods fail with changing circumstances.  The Red Ocean is a place where victories are only marginal improvements.
 
Under the creative excellent leader, a corporate team looks for opportunities to stop playing the Red Ocean game with all the other wannabes.  They create a new market, a Blue Ocean, where they are the only player.  It is the notion of reinventing the business, but kicked up a notch.  For example, it isn’t a matter of just reinventing how existing products or services are provided to existing consumers.  Instead, it is a matter of reinventing how the needs and wants of those customers are satisfied and inventing ways that those who currently don’t take advantage of a particular product or service can get the benefits.  With the Blue Ocean Strategy you reinvent the market, not just the business enterprise pursuing that market.  You break out of the box where everyone competes for the same business.
 
A pure Blue Ocean is an entirely new industry, created by bringing in neglected potential customer segments through offering them compelling buyer utility not currently offered anywhere.  Making the breakthrough to a pure Blue Ocean is not something every group—no matter how creative and how exceptional—will achieve.  But the constant effort to turn the water Blue is a mark of the excellent manager.  Imagine, for example, the impact on the hotel/motel business of breaking away from the fixed check-in and checkout time.  Why is that standard? Why can’t hotels operate like rental car companies—check in any time and check out anytime.  The fixed check-in and checkout time is an example of practices that become industry standard practices that do not serve the customer. Practices that reduce the customer's benefits should be the enemy of the excellent manager.

PayPal, Stamps.com, and Bazaar Voice are notable examples of Blue Ocean companies and so was Southwest Air who eventually changed how airlines compete.  So were FedEx and Starbucks.  Amazon is changing how people shop and read books.  A creative telecom carrier in Africa is creating a Blue Ocean by launching products that allow money to be transferred between mobile users across all mobile telephone networks.  Africa is a country where mobile devices, solar power, and wireless communication are transformative; and telecom carriers are in a position to bring brick-and-mortar-type services to the masses.
 
Kim and Mauborgne are the authors of the book Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant.  It was the product of years of research by the authors and collaboration with fellow faculty and students at INSEAD.  The French graduate business school and research institute, INSEAD, is considered one of the world’s best.  It is particularly known for its influential alumni—a global network of business intellect and power.
 
Gabor George Burt, a graduate of INSEAD, is one of the apostles of BOS.  His blog, http://blueoceanstrategy.typepad.com is a valuable supplement to the original work of Kim and Mauborgne.

In my Novel Mark Rollins’ New Career and the Women’s Health Club the main character, Rollins, reinvents the fitness center into a unique Blue Ocean business.  The WHC, as members call it, also serves as the “Bat Cave” for this modern day avenger and has continued to play that role for three more Mark Rollins adventures:

Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker
Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer
The Claret Murders: a Mark Rollins Adventure

Common Courtesy

What kind of enterprise do you want to be?  What kind of company can get the right people on the bus?  What kind of organization can have customers who like that organization?  What one zero tolerance prerequisite should be maintained within the organization?  The answer is “CC”—common courtesy.  Achieving and maintaining excellence depends on successfully installing that quality throughout the organization—the quality of caring and showing it.  Customers accept nothing less.  If they don’t get it, then if they have an alternative, and eventually they will, they will take it.  The same is true with the organization’s best people, best vendors, etc.  Remember we are always judged by others, and “CC” is the gold standard.

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A beautiful Nashville lawyer, an inheritance at risk, a devastating storm and wine to kill for—The Claret Murders, a new Mark Rollins adventure.
 

 

The Force

 

In Star Wars, the Force flowed throughout the universe influencing all things.  In business, the customer is “The Force.”  Customers—and customers only—produce revenues and decide if a business will have the opportunity for results.  All else is cost!  Customers are the only source of revenue.  Excellent businesses are above all else customer oriented.  They press the flesh; they show the flag; they ask, and they listen.  They like their customers and their customers like them.

PS:
On January 22, 2013 starting at 6:30pm I will be signing my books and reading from the latest Mark Rollins adventure, The Claret Murders, at Parnassus Books in the Green Hills area of Nashville.
For more information go to http://www.parnassusbooks.net/event/author-event-tom-collins.

Playbook

Playbook

Do plans need to be in writing?  Yes, but in a form that serves its purpose.  That is not as a bound volume that resides on a bookshelf never to be referenced once the creators have “finished” their planning task.  It is a communication vehicle—best conveyed in words, phrases, short paragraphs, charts, key performance indicators, and pictures.  It should be in a form easily changed and updated.  It should not be burdened with the niceties of a literary quality.  Its purpose is to have every member of the team guided by the same “playbook.”
 
In this age of advanced communications and technology, the playbook should be maintained as an integral part of the enterprise’s internal systems.  Those internal systems should serve as the enterprise’s command and control center.  Their purpose is to empower members of the team by giving them the clarity needed for the confidence to make decisions and take action on the frontline.  Management is about achieving objectives through others.  It follows that maintaining and refining the “playbook” is job one for the leader.  In today’s world, the “playbook” isn’t one thing—it is the leader’s blog, the organization’s intranet site, it is periodic video conferences or planning retreats, it is the business’s key performance indicators, its bonus, commission, and reward plans.  Wherever possible, words are better than phrases, phrases are better than sentences, sentences are better than paragraphs, and paragraphs are better than pages.  That is because the excellence company communicates so frequently and so clearly, that words and phrases become triggers conveying much more extensive content.  The use of words and phrases makes the job of constantly communicating, refining, and changing the dynamic plan easier. 

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A beautiful Nashville lawyer, an inheritance at risk, a devastating storm and wine to kill for—The Claret Murders, a new Mark Rollins adventure.

PLANNING

PLANNING

Planning is a circle of activity—a dynamic continuous process of setting and revising temporary targets and developing strategies and tactics for achieving them.  Any endeavor or enterprise can be accidently successful for a short period of time—they can have their Andy Warhol fifteen minutes of fame.  However, it is even more likely that they will simply fail without ever achieving their fifteen minutes of success.  The important question is what do purposely successful companies do that sets them apart from the rest of the pack.  The answer is they intentionally do five things: 

1. Engage in the planning process 
2. Set goals and objectives 
3. Develop plans for achieving those goals 
4. Prepare their team for opportunities and contingencies 
5. Measure progress and hold people accountable 

Only a few organizational teams achieve excellence.  Or in Jim Collins’ vernacular, only a few go from good to great.  As for the rest, either they don’t plan at all, or the production of “the plan” (a well written an attractively bound document) has become the goal itself.  The problem, of course, is that the best thought-out plan resting on the bookshelf serves its purpose about as well as a broken watch tells time—it shows the correct time twice every day.  Some general is said to have barked “all plans are good until the first bullets are fired. Then it all goes out the window.”  Plans produce targets based on assumptions.  Assumptions are inaccurate estimates about the future.  Thus planning for the future would be impossible if it were not so absolutely essential for survival and success; therefore, the purposefully successful enterprise’s most important plan is the plan to change the plan.

 

Planning is a continuous ongoing process.  It is not some bound book.  The plan shapes the decisions and actions of the team by establishing temporary targets—and the team’s actions and decisions made on the front line change the plan.

 

It is a dynamic process illustrated in part by the Opportunity Wedge.  As time advances on the future, assumptions become more accurate.  Decisions and actions made on the front line close in on a target that moves from a Cone of Uncertainty to a clearer target.  For such a dynamic process to work it must be a state of mind, a way of thinking and communicating, where the team is nimble and quick on its feet, constantly adjusting and refining the plan to changing conditions and expectations. 

 

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, and Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.   For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com.  Ebook editions are available on Amazon for the Kindle, on Barnes & Noble for the Nook and in Apple iTunes' iBookstore for the iPad.  Paperback editions are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores.

Can They; Will They?

Can They and Will They in This Environment with Our People

What makes hiring so difficult?  We are each individuals and there is no such thing as one for one substitution.  The question that has to be asked about each individual is “Can they do the job?  Will they do the job?”  If the answer is yes, you still have to ask, “Can and Will they in this environment with our people.”  The can part is the easy part.  Will they is harder to answer.  In this environment with our people is hardest of all.  Unfortunately, the best of us is unlikely to score better that 50/50 when it comes to the hiring process.  But the job of picking the people who will do the job in this environment with our people is so important that it calls for investing in the process.  There should be multiple face-to-face interviews involving multiple people in the organization.  Use of professional personality testing and systems that predict success should be a standard practice.

The first step in the process for filling any job is that you have to know what you are looking forEvery job has a picture—it requires a certain prerequisite KASH and there are traits even including appearance and lifestyle that are best suited for success in the particular job environment.
 
When it comes to management positions, most companies consider three choices for filling the job.  There is the best mechanic and the logical choice within one’s own organization, and then there is the unknown candidate who can come from either inside or outside of the organization.  Because one is the best mechanic doesn’t mean they have the skills required for the management position.  Usually the best salesman, for example, doesn’t make the best sales manager.  The typical advice is to keep your best salesperson selling.  Put them into a job they are not qualified for and everyone loses.  You lose your top salesperson and gain a poor sales manager.  The rest of your sales team loses under poor leadership.  Eventually you will have to terminate the poor manager, or they will voluntarily leave to return to what they like and do best.  Perhaps even worse is the logical choice decision.  Just because someone’s seniority makes them next in line is no way to select the best candidate for the job.  The only right way is to select the best fit of the choices available.  The excellent manager must pick the candidate best matching the success-orientated job’s picture.  Look internally and also look outside the organization.  Remember “A” level people want to work with “A” level people.
 
I emphasize the importance of using technology and making the investment in systems that test and provide you with predictions regarding the fit of candidates in your environment and with your people.  But face-to-face interviews are still an essential part of the process.  Interview questions should be "Why" centered.  Why the past history?  Why the present situation?  Why the future aspirations or objectives?  Past, present, and future aspirations are predictors of the future but only if the answers to the question “why” are in harmony with the job requirements.  The fact that a candidate had a paper route as a youth has a different implication, for example, if they did so only because a parent insisted.
 
The success-oriented company doesn’t wait for job candidates to come to them.  They find them.  Determine the best fit and sell the job to the selected candidate.  The concept of selling the job is important.  In all sales, the buyer must understand how the benefits will enable him to achieve his objectives, and they must understand the price to be paid.  Satisfied customers are not oversold or misled as to features or price.  The same holds true in making the job sale. 

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, and Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.   For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com.  Ebook editions are available on Amazon for the Kindle, on Barnes & Noble for the Nook and in Apple iTunes' iBookstore for the iPad.  Paperback editions are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores.

Right People on the Bus

Right People on the Bus

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, called it “getting the right people on the bus.”  He spent years researching the difference between most enterprises and those that in his judgment made the transition from good to great.  His conclusion would not have been a surprise to Steve Jobs, who changed the world as the leader of Apple.  The key is having the right people.  Jobs explained that “A” level people want to work with “A” level people.  In the typical environment, “A” people go in search of “A” opportunities; “B” and “C” level people begin to become the norm over time as “A”s leave.  That is why in a turnaround situation “getting the wrong people off the bus” to make room for “A” level replacements becomes the first job of management.

How do you get the right people?  It isn’t easy.  Involve your “A” people in the selection process.  Use an employment testing service.  Hire successful people.  But be prepared to get mistakes off the bus fast.  It takes time to assemble an “A” team.  It is like fine brandy; your team has to be distilled over time.  You have to hire carefully and refine by removing and replacing those that don’t fit. 

 

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, and Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.   For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com.  Ebook editions are available on Amazon for the Kindle, on Barnes & Noble for the Nook and in Apple iTunes' iBookstore for the iPad.  Paperback editions are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores.

 

Star Salesman

Low Goals, Ceremonialism, Change Groups, and the Hawthorn Effect all depend on effective leadership.  The best change managers are Star Salespersons.  They add drama and pizzazz —they practice Management by Wandering Around (MBWA).  They Communicate by Wondering Around (CBWA)—in person, over the net, with posters, with t-shirts & other apparel, in white papers, in books and booklets.  They are the cheerleader.  But they also have to do their homework.  They understand Change and they are prepared for it.  They determine the knowledge required and develop programs to deliver it.  They understand the importance of attitude.  They never force change.  They don’t utter the words “Do it because I said so.”  They involve the people that will be affected by the change in the decision to change and in planning and managing the change.  They reward accomplishing new skills and they stay involved as needed to assure that those new skills become habit.  They are there from the beginning through the Valley of Despair (the bottom of the Change Curve) and the eventual climb to the targeted new level of performance or benefit.

A little advance planning, disseminating the right knowledge in the right form to the right people, ceremonialism, recognizing accomplishments, paying attention to it can pay big dividends in terms of achieving the desired benefit without costly disruption and frustration.

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An iheritance at risk and the discovery of an extraordinary cache of old wines during Nashivlle's history-maiking flood leads to foul play and death in this mark Rollins mystery adventure--avaiable from Amazon.com and e-book editions are available for the Kindle, the Nook and by going to the itunes store for the IPad.   

Management Cycle

Management Cycle

Management is about achieving objectives—be it at the enterprise, department, or individual level.  It applies to life as well as business.  It is a process—planning, organizing, acting, and controlling.  It is a continuous cycle of processing input, taking action, collecting feedback, and repeating the process.  “Nothing happens until something happens.”  When the action significantly effects the organization, its people, it processes and its customers, it requires the specialized steps of Change Management.  But management is more encompassing and requires more tools and skills than just Change Management.  Management is not the same as supervision.  Supervision may be involved in an individual's managerial role but, again, management is more encompassing.

While many modern day jobs do not involve overseeing the performance of subordinates, they do involve a high degree of individual authority and accountability pushing those jobs into the category of management.  These are jobs where the individual must “manage” relationships with customers and with internally accessible resources and specialty areas to accomplish their assigned objectives.  In order to do their job competently they must plan, organize, act, and control continuously processing input, taking action, collecting feedback, and repeating the process.  Thus management concepts apply to these jobs as much as they do to those responsible for organizational groups, units, departments, divisions, companies, or broad based enterprises.

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An iheritance at risk and the discovery of an extraordinary cache of old wines during Nashivlle's history-maiking flood leads to foul play and death in this mark Rollins mystery adventure--avaiable from Amazon.com and e-book editions are available for the Kindle, the Nook and by going to the itunes store for the IPad. 
 

90 Degrees North

North, the North Star, true north—these are symbols for the pursuit of opportunity.  The North Star has guided those in search of new horizons; north is the important point on a compass.  North conveys a sense of upward direction or momentum.  90 Degrees north defines the mindset of the excellent manager—they have an opportunity focus.  They are headed north—not south, east, or west.  They are not focused on problems or on risks—but on opportunities.
 
This is extraordinarily important to understand.  I have heard Presidential candidates who define themselves as problem solvers.  I have interviewed many C-level job candidates quick to say “I’m a problem solver.”  Those that did didn’t get the job.  The thing about problems is when you solve one there is always another waiting in the wings.  The team of the Excellent Company focuses on opportunities and problems get solved as a byproduct.  Their attitude about problems is that not all problems need to be solved and, of those that do, not all of them need to be solved by you.  Where are resources better spent?  Solving problems or pursuing opportunities?

That is not to say that there aren’t problems that have to be solved.  When they arise, look carefully for opportunities that often masquerade as problems or what the problems are a symptom of.  If the problems must be tackled directly, don’t treat the symptoms, define the problem, and solve it once and for all.
 
The distinction between opportunities and problems is related to Effectiveness vs. Efficiency.  Effectiveness is doing the right things.  Efficiency is doing things right.  Right things come down on the opportunity side of the ledger.  Problems are usually related to not doing things right.  Which is more important?  Doing the right things.  Recognizing and targeting the right opportunity, identifying the main thing success depends on, and adopting the right strategy— these are the things that give enterprises the chance to succeed.  Right things open the door; efficiency improves success but cannot create the chance for success. 

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