The Wealthy Business - by EnergizeGrowth

Nothing Makes Us Stronger than Tough Times

My EnergizeGrowth NOW book project gave me an incredible opportunity to hobnob with today's greatest CEOs, authors, and speakers.  Jim Cathcart falls squarely in that category.

When we recently connected, we learned that we shared something in common.  We both hear the same question from our audiences, prospects and clients:  "What are you telling people who are having a tough time in the current economy?"

Jim eloquently shared these seven strategies with me.  They summarize my thoughts exactly.  I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read them and take them to heart. 

1. Increase your discipline

2. Spend more of each day in business building (sales)

3. Be more vigilant

4. Up-Serve your existing customers

5. Build learning into all the gaps
6. Stay humble
7. Increase your gratitude

Unfortunately, most companies skip or ignore at least two of the seven strategies.  I find that items #1 and #3 are generally the toughest for people to address or practice. 

Click here for the full article. It's worth three minutes of your time to take his sage words to heart and see which ones are worth exploring in your organization.

After you read this article, send me your comments. I want to hear from you after you ponder these questions:

• Which of the seven strategies are you doing brilliantly?
• Which are you avoiding or ignoring altogether?

If you respond, I will send you a bonus chapter from my upcoming book as a gift.

My mentor Alan Weiss often talks of the 1 percent solution. In other words, if you improve your operation by 1% each day, in 70 days you are twice as good. Think how much
you can improve your company's growth potential by just improving in ONE of these seven areas this year.  Make it your mantra. You may be pleasantly surprised by what miracles appear.

President Barack Obama said it most eloquently in his inaugural speech on the frigid yet welcoming steps of the White House, January 21, 2009:

"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibilty - a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the worlds, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm i nthe knowledge that there is nothing so satisfing ot the spirit, so defining of our chaaracter, than giving our all to a difficult task."

Go on. You're tough enough.

P.S. Again, here is Jim's article:

http://cathcart.com/index.php/2008/12/intelligent-motivation-tips-for-tough-economic-times/

The Inauguration and Your Business - The Hidden Link?

What does the Presidential Inauguration Have to Do with Building a Wealthy Business? -- Only Everything

A journalist from a reputable New York based publication recently contacted me. He wanted to know my opinion about whether it was sensible for business leaders to allow their employees to watch the Presidential Inauguration. What would be the impact on workplace productivity?

After I recovered from my frustration, I realized he was asking the wrong question.

The first question he should have asked was, "what is workplace productivity?"  And, once we agree on what it is, "how can the Inauguration help or impede productivity?"

In my upcoming book, I spent countless hours interviewing successful companies who have implemented sustainable business practices.  These practices have proven to have a direct impact on the productivity of their employees.  One of the reasons for their success is that they focus on business endeavors that inspire and uplift other people.

This principle -- focusing on business endeavors that uplift and inspire other people--takes its inspiration from another highly influential political strategist – the Dalai Lama.   He reminds us that interdependency is an essential part of our flat world:

“The need for love results from the profound interdependence we all share with one another...The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes... Inter-dependence, of course, is a fundamental law of nature...In today’s materialistic society, if you have money and power, you seem to have many friends. But they are not friends of yours; they are the friends of your money and power. When you lose your wealth and influence, you will find it very difficult to track these people down...That is the moment when we learn who is really helpful and who is completely useless. So to prepare for that moment, to make genuine friends who will help us when the need arises, we ourselves must cultivate altruism!"

Nearly ten years ago, several companies who ostensibly had tons of money and power raised our awareness of corporate responsibility (or a lack of it) by getting caught in scandalous activities.  Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, and Adelphia were just a few infamous ones. 

According to Seventh Generation CEO Jeffrey Hollender, "Enron's disgraceful demise was a potent--if ironic--argument for the notion that 'doing good' is good business."   Hollender continues by reminding us that "the meltdown in the stock market and the credit markets...has drained the swamp and exposed the rot at the core of our financial system.  We now see that the Ponzi-like scheming on Wall Street rewarded those who destroyed value; that our obsessive consumerism is ultimately unsustainable."

Obsessive consumerism in the workplace can often appear as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Even when your company is reporting record profits and rapid new customer acquisition, you may be a hotbed of poor employee morale.  You may be ignoring a key element of developing a truly wealthy company--inspiring a sense of pride and ownership among your teams and business allies.  Stay aware of the warning signs, such as sudden attrition of your best performers, persistent customer complaints, and unsolicited concerns from employees who fear retribution.

As you consider this upcoming monumental day--possibly the most significant Presidential inauguration in our lifetime--ask yourself two questions:

1. How can my company practice kindness and generosity by allowing my teams to witness this event? 2. How will these small actions truly impact my company's wealth in the long term? 

Perhaps the next generation of journalists will help us re-define productivity once and for all.

Enjoy January 20th and the historic events surrounding it.

Copyright 2009, Lisa Nirell.  All rights reserved.

How Great Business Ideas Fail

Here's a quick post that demonstrates what happens when your strategic plan ignores your customers and market need. 

Check out the quotes from GM's Rick Wagoner, Alltel's Scott Ford, and Sirius' Mel Karmazin.

http://blogs.bnet.com/ceo/?p=1607

What do these quotes have in common?  All three CEOs allowed their bravado to overshadow market need.  They crossed over the line from confidence to arrogance. 

The question to consider is: What are you doing to create a sustainable business, and how much are you engaging your clients to help your plan succeed?

 

http://blogs.bnet.com/ceo/?p=1607

Branding at Any Stage: How to Energize your Brand in 2009

Your brand is the sum total of all “touch points” and experiences that EVERYONE has when they interact with you.  Whether you lead a rapidly growing million dollar services firm or a mature, well established $14B bank, the need for branding is just as critical. 

The challenge is that it is often hard to read your own label (your brand) from

inside the bottle (your business).   

Without an objectively designed brand statement, you cannot consistently and confidently express and demonstrate your value to the market.  When you cannot demonstrate your value, you will consistently struggle to attract enough of the “right” clients.  In addition, you will never be able to tap into the emotions that cause clients to buy from you.

Here's how two companies on different ends of the size spectrum are energizing their brands.

 Shawn Solloway, President of EXIT Marketing, saw a great need five years ago.  He wanted to build a company that was focused on helping clients whose messages were getting lost in the advertising clutter. EXIT Marketing’s mission is simple: To end bad advertising.  

Solloway saw an untapped market opportunity.  He observed that during the creative development stage, many advertising agencies focused very few resources on refining their clients’ messaging so that it was truly engaging.  Unlike other agencies, EXIT offers a level of creative that cuts through the tremendous ad clutter and engages customers. Doing this gets clients greater results faster. Emotionally engaging messages are remembered more easily. People remember what they feel. Through doing this, less media spending is required to get desired results.

EXIT Marketing’s focus on developing their own brand has paid great dividends—but not initially.  Prior to undertaking a branding initiative, they pursued virtually every opportunity.  Says Solloway, “We developed an initial marketing plan for a startup firm that offered health screenings for executives who wanted a convenient, private, country club setting.  We were very excited to have this potential prospect.  Later, when we delivered the plan, he came back and deleted anything that was original or unique. He walked away from that plan review meeting, and we didn’t hear back from him.  The worst part about not knowing our ideal client during that time in our company history was that we created a negative ambassador in our local business community.”

Times have changed at EXIT Marketing.  Now, when Shawn’s team meets with new clients for the first time that do not match their ideal client profile, they politely decline and refer them elsewhere.  Just five years after founding the company, Solloway has enjoyed forty percent revenue growth within two years.

Umpqua Bank, another branding success story, demonstrates that creativity and innovation can even energize companies who dwell in notoriously conservative industries. Compared to the other bank CEOs that our team interviewed in 2007, Umpqua Bank’s Ray Davis was one of a handful who wasn’t ashamed to use the term “marketing.”  His current book, Leading for Growth, outlines his secrets to success.

When it comes to branding and strategy, Davis says “I get most of my ideas from companies that have nothing to do with banking.  But most of my competitors in the banking industry, bless ‘em, don’t try to learn from other industries…You could walk into a Gap store and know that’s where you were even if you didn’t see the signs.”

In 1995, Umpqua Bank invented the “bank store” concept. Instead of comparing themselves to banking leaders, Davis reached out and benchmarked their brand against brand leaders such as Starbucks and Hewlett-Packard.  They even brew their own blend of coffee for customers who stop by their stores. 

Davis’ relentless commitment to branding has paid off.  In spite of the banking industry downturn in 2008, their stock traded at a 25%-40% premium compared to other community banks.

Remember--you will find brand inspiration in many places, often from outside your own industry.  After you view your brand from outside the bottle, it will be safe to remove the warning label. 

Copyright 2008, Lisa Nirell.  All Rights Reserved.

Increasing your Value through Values

The CEOs of Seventh Generation, Beryl Companies, SPUD, Zappos, and Jeld-Wen Development inspire me to help more companies increase their values by embodying their values. 

Our business and personal alues determine the way we run our lives and “how we do things” at work.  They are defined as the unique ways of being that guide our decisions, form family bonds, and define our communities. 

Your values may fall into several categories, such as:
• Health and wellness
• Financial
• How we treat others (community, family, employees, suppliers, etc)
• Contribution (to community, family, planet, clients, etc.)
• Service (to community, clients, employees, church, etc.)
• Achievement
• Recognition
• Quality (products, work environment, communication style)
• Professionalism
• Fun
• Decision-making style
• Learning environment
• Sustainability

When I work with companies, I have discovered that the most effective organizations invest a significant amount of time establishing their values.  When they do this, they find an almost immediate increase in profitability. 

This method of doing business was evident when our firm worked with a Jeld-Wen Development, a large real estate developer.  CEO Jerry Andres approached us because they were facing new pressures to sustain growth. They had launched several key strategic initiatives:  Three new communities in the Western United States and Mexico, a new brand, and companywide reorganization.  This was a lot of change for a 400-employee organization to absorb. Teams began experiencing unsteady progress towards their five-year, multi-million dollar “Big Audacious Goal.” (BAG).  That’s when Andres enlisted our help to ensure the leadership team was prepared to face these changes.

By conducting interviews and surveys with their key executives, I quickly discovered that they lacked a clear understanding of the company’s core values – a situation that was causing some costly project communications breakdowns for new employees and managers.

In addition to completing leadership surveys and consultations, I helped the client refine their core values. Together, we built a strategy to get the entire organization to adopt these values. According to Andres, “We once had 23 core values which we called our Operating Principles. Now we have four.  Today, the company’s four key values are responsibility, quality and value, golden rule and relationships.  Everyone can remember and recite them.”   These values form the foundation for Jeld-Wen Development’s success.  According to Andres, “To lead a successful company you have to articulate as clearly as possible what your vision, mission and core values are.   I used to be a football coach, so I like to tell people I’m still coaching, except the game is different (Cascade Business News, 2007).”

Jeld-Wen’s experience is not unusual.  According to Edgar Schein, a noted organizational development professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, most other management consultants he has interviewed and studied consider shared values to be critically important for healthy organizational development and sustenance.

Some compelling research further encourages us to take our values seriously.  In their seminal book Corporate Culture and Performance, Harvard Business School professors John Kotter and John Heskett surveyed over 200 companies across more than 22 industries for 11 years (beginning in 1990).  They found that firms with a strong corporate culture based on a foundation of shared values outperformed the other firms by a huge margin in the following areas:

--Revenue grew more than four times faster
--The rate of job creation was seven times higher
--Stock price grew twelve times faster
--Profit performance was 750% higher

This research supports one of the many reasons why I guide companies toward reaching consensus on values. Establishing agreement on certain basic, action-oriented, guiding principles regarding how they're going to do business helps an organization create a scalable framework of discipline and decision-making.

What 4-5 core values will drive your business growth this year?

The New Rules of Strategic Growth Planning (or, Free Your Mind for 2009)

2009 is going to be a breakthrough year for many of us. 

The breakthroughs will not necessarily be about maximizing revenues, because getting rich is not every business owner’s ultimate dream.  For some truly Wealthy Companies, improving our environment, fostering a great culture, maximizing cash flow, or creating more free time may have greater value than acquiring more material goods. 

Before you sally forth into the new year, consider some basic Wealth Building rules.

Rule #1:  Welcome confrontation. 

When I work with growth company CEO’s, I ask them to stop doing certain things that no longer serve their business.  For the first time in their company’s history, they will be developing a written growth plan. 

One of my top clients averted the development of a business or marketing plan for 20 years—and still grew their organization to $16M in revenues.  Our EnergizeGrowth™ planning process helped them get more focused, improve cash flow, and expand globally. 

Rule #2:  Procrastination and paralysis are part of the journey.

Hay Group research presents a compelling argument for improving your action orientation and resilience.  They teamed up with La Sorbonne and tracked the successes and failures of 100 of the largest European mergers and acquisitions. Their survey revealed that more than ninety percent of corporate mergers are deemed a failure.  They found that the management of intangible assets and the role of leadership are often ignored during the due diligence process. “Intangible assets”—which Ocean Tomo LLC claims comprise a full 73 percent of a company’s valuation—include a company’s  organizational structure, agility, and governance,  brand identity, client loyalty, and human capital (such as leadership, engagement, employee productivity, and level of team commitment versus compliance).

Understanding change management is an essential skill to help you successfully navigate the legal, business, financial, integration, and personnel issues that result from growth, mergers, or exits. 
English poet William Blake once said, “Execution is the chariot of genius.” Many merger and acquisition experts agree that it is easy to announce a major change such as an acquisition.  It is another thing to actually celebrate a successful integration two years later. 

Rule #3:  You will only see results if you write down the ideas you want to implement.
People often submit cool new ideas to me.  Many of these ideas never see the light of day. One participant in my recent Portland workshop wanted to share her new company strategy with us. She prefaced her question with “Here’s what I’m thinking about.” I stopped her right away, and said, “When you have written down your idea, come back and we’ll listen.” Although her business had taken an entirely new direction, she would not take fifteen minutes to record her thoughts. How could anyone in the room--let alone her most trusted peers--ever help her move forward?

Rule #4:  Know your risk tolerance.
It is easy to ignore the risks associated with the change our growth plans represent.  Most of my clients are natural born optimists.  Unfortunately, it’s easy for visionaries and optimists to think big, set several lofty goals at once, and then lose interest before they ever complete them.

Here is an example from a software client I worked with several years ago. They hired me to help the worldwide leadership team develop an action plan to close some major sales their top customers.  After our successful planning session, Alex, the CEO, addressed the group.  She announced a comprehensive plan to turn the company around.  She then proceeded to present a thirty-six point turnaround strategy.  The strategy was very resource-intensive.  Furthermore, it distracted them from their number one priority—growing and retaining their customer base.

Within one year, this distressed firm was sold to a holding company for pennies on the dollar.  Alex’s high-flying strategy never left the runway.

Rule #5: Ask the right people for help.
Start by designing the profile of the perfect advisory team.  Consider these traits: Be sure they have consistently launched or managed profitable businesses.  They should communicate with empathy.  One of the most basic human needs is the need to be accepted, and corporate leaders are no exception.  Great advisors are tuned in to what motivates others.  They are decisive.  And finally, they tell the truth -- no matter what.  The Dalai Lama says: “A true friend is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear.” So is an effective advisor.

Given the changes afoot in our world economy, it is time to start thinking differently about strategic marketing planning.  Understanding your own limitations is the first step to protecting yourself against the biggest economic threat of all – yourself.