BoostStrapping

5 Minutes a Day: Business Awareness

The correlations between sports and business are uncanny...and oftentimes trite.  However, I will take a "shot" (hehe - that was a clever reference to basketball) at this anyway. 

What makes Chris Paul so great?  Is it his competitiveness?  His unwavering trust in his teammates?  His smooth, radiant skin?  While it's safe to say "yes" to all three, what ranks right there at the top of that list has to be his sense of court awareness!  Chris Paul knows where everyone is going to be on the court, both on his team (which is why he leads the league in assists) and the opposing team (which is why he leads the league in steals). 

How aware are you of your business?  Assessing the external business landscape and looking internally is a competitive "must do".  The good news is, you can bet that a majority of your competitors aren't do this, and if you are, then you've established a competitive edge. 

So for your 5-minute homework today, ask yourself the following questions.  Yep, they're the old Jack Welch strategic questions, and they work. 

1. What does your competitive environment look like?
2. In the last three years, what have your competitors done?
3. in the same period, what have you done to them?
4. How might they attack you in the future?  i.e. What moves can they make to scare living pulp out of you? 
5. What are your plans to leapfrog over them?  

Your challenge is find which questions you don't know the answer to, and decide on a set of specific actions to get aware! 

-johnny

5 Minutes a Day: Six Sigma Marketing Strategy

As we say at eBoost Consulting, know-how is only 20% of the equation.  Know-why is 80%.  Or is it 90%...? 

Whatever.  We’ll let you argue the numbers.  But this much is certainly true: if you aren’t asking why you’re doing things, then you’re severely limiting the impact of how you’re doing things. 

Let’s take this a step beyond the surface. 

Tell me, what does a top surgeon and an annoying five-year old have in common?  Answer: they ask "why?"  And if they aren’t getting the answers they’re looking for, then I’ll bet you a coffee that they keep asking "why" until they do. 

Can you say “why”?  Good.  Today’s tip is for you. 

Six Sigma – A Compendium.

Six Sigma principles prescribe a set of standards to improve performance, create efficiencies and decrease defects.  Though popularized in the operations functions of numerous companies, Six Sigma principles are effective through all functions, including marketing.  Let’s apply the five phases of Six Sigma methodology to your own business case. 

Define

Define the goal(s) of your strategic marketing plan.  What’s most relevant?  Is it to gather business intelligence?  Develop pricing models?  Counter low-cost rivals?  Reposition the business?  Whatever it is, it must be specific and root-oriented (i.e. tied to your most important business problem).

Measure

What must be measured to track progress towards the determined goal?  A few examples might be (a) profitability, (b) customer lifetime value, (c) conversion rate, and/or (d) # of business leads.  Ideally, make the key performance metric you’re tracking long-term focused.  Otherwise, you’ll fall into a common pitfall which is that your marketing strategy will be more tactical than strategic. 

Analyze

This step translates the key performance metric into key insights that can be relayed into actionable intelligence.  In other words, this step makes the data meaningful.  The process for analysis must be collaborative across all functions to ensure objectivity and productivity.  We recommend bringing in key members from each business function or business unit to participate is seeing what the numbers mean. 

Improve

After deciphering the meaning of the data, the same group should devise scenarios to test that will theoretically improve the data going forward.  The benefit here is that the organization will feel ‘smaller’ with more speed in decision making and agility in business maneuvers.  The result marketing tests should be systematic, with the aim of improving metric performance.  For instance, if you have a goal to counter low-cost rivals by increasing customer lifetime value (CLV), then you might experiment with blogging or sequential email sends to improve CLV. 

Control

You’d think this is self-explanatory but this is undoubtedly the most overlooked phase.  Perhaps most professionals figure that the tests are so bullet-proof that they give control only a cursory scan.  Regardless, you must get this phase right.  Assign leading and lagging indicators to the tests to track progress.  This will mitigate risk of failed tests and instill the imperative of maintaining long-term discipline.

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Conclusion

The beauty of Six Sigma and its principles is that it imposes the sequence that why must come before how, what, and where.  It’s as fail-safe a way of instituting a culture of "strategy before tactics" as any other.  Put it in your place in your company, revisit it often, and witness why this feedback mechanism is a favorite of Jack Welch & eBoost Consulting! 

-johnny

5 Minutes a Day: Strategic Thinking

...plus ruminations on Online Marketing Summit 2009. 

I’ve often said that people tend to focus on the differences between thought leaders’ approaches to strategy rather than the similarities, where the real clues to success exist.  For instance, I don’t think there’s a single successful entrepreneur or business person who contend that alignment, communication, and values aren’t important business principles.  As I’ve noted ad nauseum – Business principles don’t change.  Applications do. 

While attending Online Marketing Summit in San Diego last week, I noted that the biggest rallying cry of corporate marketers this year seems to be, “Strategy before tactics”.  Since this has been something we’ve preached since the inception of eBoost Consulting in 2006, I encourage the chants.  The problem here is that while everyone talked about strategy before tactics, no one taught the audience how to create a strategy. 

Worse yet is the imminent trend that’s inevitable to follow: when something becomes a buzz phrase, you’ll have clueless people popping out of nowhere trying to capitalize.  In this case, it’ll be individuals attempting to teach companies how to strategize when they’ve never done it before.  These faux-fessionals tend to make things too complicated when simplicity exists. 

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

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If you talk strategy, know strategy.  If you don’t know strategy, it’s time to learn.  We’ve waited three years for the industry to recognize strategy comes before tactics, we don’t want to wait another three years for the businesses to figure out how to do it. 

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a lot of time to get it together.  Hence, this new column: “5 Minutes a Day”.  Give me 5 minutes of your time and you’ll work away equipped with a powerful business tool that you can use immediately. 

Today’s topic – Strategic Thinking (using the 3-Box Framework)

One of the biggest goals of any client engagement is to help corporations escalate their thinking around strategy.  This is an imperative in every situation, but especially in downturns when reactive behavior and bad decisions are amplified. 

All else held equal, the best time to invest in marketing and strategic innovation is during the downturn.  Regarding the former, brand reassurance is vital to establish for your consumers.  Research from the past two recessions demonstrate that companies that invest more in marketing in the downturn exhibit heightened – and lasting – customer loyalty when the business cycle hits the upturn.  To the latter, when the economy is in a recession, assets and talent are cheap to acquire and build. 

One of the best frameworks to illustrate how well your company is leveraging downturn opportunities for upturn rewards is the 3-Box Framework (link of VG's video will open in new window), devised by one of my business role models, Vijay Govindarajan, Professor of International Business and director of Tuck’s Center for Global Leadership at Dartmouth School of Business. 

To summarize Professor Govindarajan’s work, your corporation’s projects in 2009 should land in one of the following 3 boxes:

• Box 1: Manage the Present
• Box 2: Selectively Forget the Past
• Box 3: Create the Future

The ideal approach is to achieve balance across all three boxes.  What’s “real” is that in typical reactive fashion, most corporations tend to focus too much of their resources on Box 1.  Potential problems that may occur are (a) your competitors makes a game changing move that renders your corporation obsolete  (b) you will get to the upturn in a precarious and equally frantic position – a position that is seeks to normalize, not capitalize. 

The aim of the 3-Box Framework is to help organizations set strategic priorities.  I’ve found it to help organizations diagnose blind spots in strategic thinking. 

How to put it to work for you.  Note: this is simply an application of the framework that I’ve found works. 

• Step 1: Get a load of bricks. 
• Step 2: Write the strategic initiatives you currently have planned for 2009 on the bricks, one per brick. 
• Step 3: Place each initiative in one of three buckets representing Manage the Present, Selectively Forget the Past, and Create the Future.
• Step 4: Lift the buckets and it’ll be clear which bucket you’ve been focusing too much and not enough on. 

Read the latest HBR to learn how GE uses the 3-Box Framework.  And if you try this out, please let me know how your results turned out!

-johnny

 

Observations on Mentorship

It never ceases to amaze me the power of mentorship.  Starting as an intern years ago at WF and now working as a mentor at eBoost Consulting, I’ve been able to learn from both sides.  Please don’t take this post the wrong way: I don’t claim to know everything, but I’ve seen things that work and things that don’t.  In fact, the impetus for this post is from recent discussions I’ve had with our latest intern class – they’ve inspired me so much that I was motivated to jot these thoughts down.  Throughout this post, I’ll share some opinions I’ve formulated over the years.  It is my hope that the tips presented here will steer you down the right path as a mentor to the next generation of leaders. 

The most critical skill you can teach is critical thinking. 

Theory only works in theory.  Do not push each intern you work with to think the way you do.  Each mentor has a unique style and much of this style stems from life experience.  In business, you tend to run into extroverts who succeed no matter what.  Their ideas on mentorship may not be effective for the person who is introverted and has struggled with people skills his entire life.  One-size-fits-all is a myth in leadership development. 

I’ve worked with people who are the same age, same gender, and had the same number of years of real business experience yet had them both on completely different development plans.  Despite being in the same business, each person was unique in terms of personality, past experiences, strengths, weaknesses, skills and values. 

Furthermore, as an intern, you must carve your own path.  I grew up heavily influenced by Bruce Lee, who said repeatedly, “absorb what’s useful, discard the rest”.  Keep in mind that the process of learning as an intern leads you down the road of becoming a mentor yourself.  Develop your own style. 

Everyone wants to be a master, but no one wants to be a student. 

Successful mentors are perpetual students.  Don’t be tied down to a certain thought process.  To illustrate this point, if I ask ten people, “what is strategic planning?”, I’d likely get ten different responses.  Assuming intelligent responses, all ten would be correct.  You see, there are a multitude of definitions for terms which can be “correct”.  The majority of interns hear one definition and then accept that as gospel for the duration of their business life.  This is a shame.  Just as strategic planning can mean the process of scenario planning, balanced scorecard, game theory, et al, there is a fluidity to business concepts that should be recognized.  Continual learning will give you a holistic definition which will make you a better mentor. 

Don’t fake it till you make it.

If you preach mentorship, then you should know mentorship.  I’m writing this with some biting sarcasm but the message is clear: mentorship is a hot topic that people are capitalizing on.  As a fan of the topic myself, I welcome the interest.  But there are a number of clueless people who talk a big game, but never played the game themselves.  I consider this an affront to the number of exceptional business mentors I had who were actually legit. 

You have to put in “care equity”.

It takes a substantial amount of energy to care.  Most tend to forget this point and simply just want the mentor designation without putting in the “care equity”.  My mentors cared more about me than I did myself.  They saw potential in me when I didn’t.  They saw my weaknesses and stretched me to build on them, even when I expressed displeasure in doing so.  Who does that?  A true mentor does. 

Push the right buttons.

Demonstrating business know-how is important.  Managing the motivations of the person you’re developing is even more important.  When I begin working with someone, I start by getting to know their story.  Where is she from?  What drives her?  What buttons do I need to push to light a fire under her?  Take some time to find answers to these questions. 

I’ve come across some highly intelligent people who do not fit the highly motivated category.  Motivation is a tricky subject.  One person may be motivated by a perpetual chip on his/her shoulder.  Perhaps it’s a need to prove something to their peers.  Another may love challenges.  Whatever it is, you’ll never tap into their best if you don’t know what brings out their best. 

Values before skills pay the bills.

Almost anyone can succeed if s/he has the right work values, believes in the journey, and works their butts off.  Conversely, all the capabilities in the world won’t work if the work values aren’t aligned.  Values outweighs every other factor. 

Love the journey. 

It’s a process – there is no beginning and end.  The mentor and intern dynamic is never rigid – it’s fluid, it’s give-and-take, it’s flexible, it’s reciprocal. 

“You make the call”.

This is the best thing my old boss ever said to me.  It gave me such a feeling of nausea from both excitement and fear.  What an amazing paradox.  I hope my interns feel the same way when I say that to them. 

Final Thoughts

These are my observations and my opinions only – I reserve the right to change as I learn to be a better leader myself.  These tips are conceptual; by nature I tend to gravitate towards the Socratic method in teaching and learning.  But hopefully, you can walk away with a few thoughts to ponder when developing your organization’s next business leader.  It is a process and a terribly rewarding one both ways. 

Have a good night, thanks for dropping by.

-johnny