Archive for March, 2009

New business model? How about an honest one!

March 28, 2009 at 8:22 pm · Filed under Culture Vultures, Disruptive Behaviour

Stimulate, Innovate, Stimulate, Stimulate – cash, cash, cash

Apparently the solution to get us outta this place………………..or is it?

Isn’t the best innovation to come from challenging the status quo and stimulation to accelerate the change taking place. Aren’t we just saving what was poor and ineffective from before? How does that help? A recent article in HBR added some more perspective.

The real problem isn’t stimulus, it’s responsiveness. We’re trapped in a zombieconomy: one full of brain-dead organizations who are about as intelligently responsive as Homer Simpson. ( ie focussed on their proverbial do-nuts)

Want better clothes? Don’t ask the Gap. Want better software? Don’t ask Microsoft. Want better cars? Don’t ask Detroit. Want better music? Don’t ask record labels. Want better healthcare? Don’t ask big pharma. Want to hold on to your money? Don’t ask a banker. Welcome to economic Bizarro World.

The economy has gone catatonic. Unresponsive corporations are just the tip of the iceberg. Markets can’t allocate. Investors won’t invest. Banks can’t value, or hold onto anything of value. People don’t trust, much less consume. What’s going on? The real problem isn’t how or what we stimulate – but that almost none of our organizations could respond in the first place.

Yesterday’s institutions have left today’s organizations unable to respond to an increasingly turbulent world. Today’s organizations need a responsiveness upgrade. To that end, we need a new kind of stimulus: an institutional stimulus, not just a financial one, that makes our lame, brain-dead, zombified organizations more responsive. Gap, Detroit, Microsoft, big pharma, record labels, banks, evil corporations of the world – hello? Anyone home? We can stimulate trade from here until Doomsday – but without more responsive organizations, today’s failure to create new industries and renew old ones will simply recur at an accelerating pace.

Money, value, and wealth are an outcome of having responsive organizations in the first place. So how responsive are you?

* * *

Are you redefining the economics of ownership? Ownership has its own costs and benefits. Here’s an example of costly ownership: companies building patent portfolios purely for the purposes of deterring competition. Who can develop better kinds of ownership that create value for everyone? Advantage will flow to those economies – and companies – who can. Just have a look at Tullis Russell group who transferred ownership to employees in 1994 and are flourishing in a tough market in tough times.

Are you redefining the economics of contracts and standards? How do we know today’s contracts are inefficient? The sheer size and growth of the legal industry is an existence proof that contracting is becoming more and more costly. Whoever can invent better kinds of contracts for the 21st century will realize a tremendous advantage. Just ask Google – who redefined advertising by tying payment to action, redefining the terms of a stale contract which still based payment on sheer volume.

Are you redefining the economics of governance? Today, governance of economic organizations has devolved to cronyism, back-slapping, and glad-handing. Boards are happy to look the other way when CEOs line their pockets. CEOs are happy to look the other way when board members invite their bffs to join the board. Toxic governance has poisoned industries as disparate as autos, pharma, apparel, finance, and housing. New rules for the structure, composition, roles, and tasks of senior managers and boards will redefine the economics of governance. Advantage depends on doing so – when we can reinvent more efficient ways to manage managers, new value is created: just ask any open-source community, where everyone’s simultaneously a worker, manager, and de facto board member.

Are you redefining the economics of management? Today’s financial crisis isn’t about money: it’s about management. Bankers mismanaged our money catastrophically – because they were too busy managing their bonuses. Advantage will flow to those who can redefine the economics of management – for the simple reason that, unlike bankers, they will be able to create greater amounts of more durable, lasting value. Responsibility, accountability, and transparency aren’t just buzzwords – they’re the keys to radically altering the costs and benefits of management.

* * *

How do you score on the scorecard? If you’re redefining even a single one of the activities above, you’re hitting the ball out of the park. Most companies fail to even register a score, because they’re focused on seeking advantage through better products, services, business models, or strategies – instead of building responsiveness through better institutions.

Of course this isn’t the answer, its only part of a solution to true business differentiation, competitive advantage and genreation of wealth.

Adpated from The responsiveness scorecard in HBR

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Innovation Diagnostic

March 26, 2009 at 10:28 pm · Filed under Tools

On the old DTi website exists a diagnostic tool to determine your innovation status.

Largely anecdotal, but do take the test even if it only gets you to think of the enabling factors to exploit ideas.

Try it… click here

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Act Small, Think big

March 15, 2009 at 8:46 pm · Filed under Disruptive Behaviour, Simple Things

If you act small and think big, you are too small to fail. You won’t need a bailout because your business makes sense each and every day. You won’t need a bailout because your flat organization (no matter how large it is) knows about problems long before they’re too big to deal with. – Seth Godin

What does this mean in practical application

Thinking big means expecting everybody to use their creativity every day towards improving customer experience and teamwork. Acting small means trying out minor adjustments to our processes, making minor changes workplace or looking for small time-waster situations and taking steps to improve.

Thinking big means that “zero” is a reasonable expectation for defects, accidents, equipment breakdowns and excess inventory. Acting small means noticing and correcting the smallest of the chronic flaws and deviations in processes before they become larger sporadic failures.

Thinking big means imagining innovative new product and services for the markets. Acting small means going to the field and interacting with customers actually using the product or service and humbly reflecting on these lessons learned, even when it means reversing cherished decisions on technology, marketing direction or milestones on product road maps.

Act small: produce in small lots
Think big: aim for 100% on-time delivery and customer satisfaction

Act small: go to personally check out the situation
Think big: believe that perfection is worth pursuing through tenacious follow-up

Act small: give cross-functional teams of 5 to 8 people a few days to make many small process improvements rapidly
Think big: set breakthrough goals before such kaizen events and expect double digit-improvements in safety, quality, lead-time, productivity, space and inventory

Act small: ask co-workers and subordinates for ideas
Think big: make the realization of their ideas the best part of your day

There are far more small businesses in the world than big businesses. The largest of organizations are but clusters of smaller, informal groups. We have outsized challenges today that require thinking sized to match them. We can think big, but act quickly no matter how small the good of that act may be. The collective impact of our many small actions has far more impact than the big thinking of the most powerful institutions.

Act small: do what you can do today.
Think big: dream of what you can do with all of your todays

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Stop-Start for ideas

March 14, 2009 at 10:22 pm · Filed under Favorites, Ideas

Stop working.

What? Yes, well kind of. I have always found in my that some of my best ideas, greatest accomplishments, come not from spending more time at work but from time away from work. I was always fortunate I worked in international sales so found myself with time to work outside the business. I maintain a diverse level of interests, both because I love learning but also because it helps me succeed. I often find myself applying what I learn from reading a book on, say, brain science or parenting or underwater basket weaving, directly to my business. There are no new ideas; only old ideas used in new ways. You don’t need to quit your job, of course – you can start by just taking a lunch break. Try it; you may come back more relaxed and with a completely new perspective.

Start asking questions.

When times get bad, we stop asking good questions. The answers seem so obvious and pessimistic that we fall victim to assumptions. But now is the time to be inquisitive and start asking the right type of questions. Your brain is a prediction machine — if you ask the right questions, you will usually get some surprising answers. The best questions are prospective and start with how, why, and what (as opposed to retreating questions like “how did this happen,” “why me,” and “what in the world is going on”). If all seems hopeless, then try asking different questions.

Stop/Start ideas

So next time you invest in yourself and you travel, have a meal… wonder what problems this business has; question the service; could your experience be better? Develop a passion and understanding for anything business related. Ideas will flow in a way you wont be able to contain.

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Remember whats important

March 14, 2009 at 9:50 pm · Filed under Sell it to me, Service Ace, Simple Things

When times are fraught and you attempt to do more to drive your business into the light, its pays to remember whats important. Keep things simple and focussed in 2 simple ways.

You’re only as good as how well you delivered on your customer’s last request. -  Great service day-to-day is what you need to be in the game. Standing above the fray when customers need you most – that’s winning it. B2B business depends on category buyer relationshiops based on performance management. Get the basics right, Quality, Delivery. Cost is a relative measure, understand your customers drivers. It is to reduce their BOM? Do they have cost KPIs. Know then and understand how you can respond. You may have to take a hit on revenue, but if you can maintain your margins you can also get increased share and/or  increased commitment.

Understand what’s strategically important vs. what’s nice to do. I’ve learned some things the hard way like your customers are always making trade-offs — and you’re only one trade off away from being replaced by a competitor. In times like these, you need to get to know your customer’s business almost better than they do. Use their definition for “strategically important,” not your own. Keep the bulk of your people focused on what your customers are doing – and what’s being done to them. Will changes such as consolidation, customer trade-down, a management shuffle or regulation force your customers to reassess their business? Probably. Can you evolve your relationship with your customers from transactional to consultative? Definitely. Prioritise the issues, question everything and ensure you have executive alignment.

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Innovation is….

March 11, 2009 at 10:15 pm · Filed under Says who?

“Innovation is creating something before people know they need it.

The process involves building upon the work of others — i.e. “copying,” grinding it out, and deleting what doesn’t work to jump to the next curve.

Innovation isn’t a lightning bolt of inspiration in the middle of a muse.

More often than not, it’s a process of grinding, cogitating, and doubting. There truly is no shortcut to innovation.

Over the course of a career, you come up with dozens, if not hundreds of ideas, and reject most, try some, and you are lucky if a handful succeed.”

— Guy Kawasaki

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If there was 1 question!

March 11, 2009 at 9:24 pm · Filed under Service Ace

What would be the one key question that your business should ask its customers?

Most companies start conversations with customers by asking

“What don’t you like about what I am selling you?” or

“What do you need?” or

“How can I get you to buy more of my stuff?”

These questions aren’t bad (well, maybe the last one is…at least its to the point), but they tend not to provide overly useful guidance to innovation decisions.

Instead, seek to understand the problems customers are facing that they can’t adequately solve today. And probe to understand the “why” behind any response. Digging into the why almost always illuminates innovation opportunities.

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Getting to Yes

March 11, 2009 at 8:39 pm · Filed under Culture Vultures, Favorites

Someone once said “Innovation isn’t about saying ‘yes’, it’s about saying ‘no’ to everything but the most essential features.”

lets think about that……

Innovation is all about delivering value to a customer.  At the core of this is the notion of saying YES.

  • YES, I can make possible for you what others have not.
  • YES, I can improve your experience and lower the cost to you at the same time.
  • YES, I can not merely meet your basic requirements, but I can also delight you not by exceeding your expectations, but by redefining them.

Of course, it is important to say yes to the right question.  This is why the first step of any innovation initiative must always be to understand your customer, your market, your product, and your capability.  By listening carefully, you can identify the true, unmet need that your customer has and be able to map your innovation goals to filling the job the customer will hire your product to perform.

Having this focus on customer needs and aspirations will allow you to say yes to innovation and not waste time saying no to things that aren’t relevant.

Remember the man from DelMonte?

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Collective Creativity – Pixar style

March 10, 2009 at 7:36 pm · Filed under Culture Vultures

Ive had the personal privelage of visiting Pixar just as Finding Nemo was being ‘mastered’ and worked with the creator of Pixarvision, David DiFrancesco. The process of how to make sense of the collective creative chaos always fascinated me. Ive come across an excerpt from an HBR article that may be of interest to those of you equally fascinated.

When it comes to producing breakthroughs, both technological and artistic, Pixar’s track record is unique. In the early 1990s, we were known as the leading technological pioneer in the field of computer animation. Our years of R&D culminated in the release of Toy Story in 1995, the world’s first computer-animated feature film. In the following 13 years, we have released eight other films (A Bug’s Life; Toy Story 2; Monsters, Inc.; Finding Nemo; The Incredibles; Cars; Ratatouille; and WALL·E), which also have been blockbusters. Unlike most other studios, we have never bought scripts or movie ideas from the outside. All of our stories, worlds, and characters were created internally by our community of artists. And in making these films, we have continued to push the technological boundaries of computer animation, securing dozens of patents in the process.

While I’m not foolish enough to predict that we will never have a flop, I don’t think our success is largely luck. Rather, I believe our adherence to a set of principles and practices for managing creative talent and risk is responsible. Pixar is a community in the true sense of the word. We think that lasting relationships matter, and we share some basic beliefs: Talent is rare. Management’s job is not to prevent risk but to build the capability to recover when failures occur. It must be safe to tell the truth. We must constantly challenge all of our assumptions and search for the flaws that could destroy our culture. In the last two years, we’ve had a chance to test whether our principles and practices are transferable. After Pixar’s 2006 merger with the Walt Disney Company, its CEO, Bob Iger, asked me, chief creative officer John Lasseter, and other Pixar senior managers to help him revive Disney Animation Studios. The success of our efforts prompted me to share my thinking on how to build a sustainable creative organization.

What Is Creativity?

People tend to think of creativity as a mysterious solo act, and they typically reduce products to a single idea: This is a movie about toys, or dinosaurs, or love, they’ll say. However, in filmmaking and many other kinds of complex product development, creativity involves a large number of people from different disciplines working effectively together to solve a great many problems. The initial idea for the movie—what people in the movie business call “the high concept”—is merely one step in a long, arduous process that takes four to five years.

A movie contains literally tens of thousands of ideas. They’re in the form of every sentence; in the performance of each line; in the design of characters, sets, and backgrounds; in the locations of the camera; in the colors, the lighting, the pacing. The director and the other creative leaders of a production do not come up with all the ideas on their own; rather, every single member of the 200- to 250-person production group makes suggestions. Creativity must be present at every level of every artistic and technical part of the organization. The leaders sort through a mass of ideas to find the ones that fit into a coherent whole—that support the story—which is a very difficult task. It’s like an archaeological dig where you don’t know what you’re looking for or whether you will even find anything. The process is downright scary.

Then again, if we aren’t always at least a little scared, we’re not doing our job. We’re in a business whose customers want to see something new every time they go to the theater. This means we have to put ourselves at great risk. Our most recent film, WALL·E, is a robot love story set in a post-apocalyptic world full of trash. And our previous movie, Ratatouille, is about a French rat who aspires to be a chef. Talk about unexpected ideas! At the outset of making these movies, we simply didn’t know if they would work. However, since we’re supposed to offer something that isn’t obvious, we bought into somebody’s initial vision and took a chance.

To act in this fashion, we as executives have to resist our natural tendency to avoid or minimize risks, which, of course, is much easier said than done. In the movie business and plenty of others, this instinct leads executives to choose to copy successes rather than try to create something brand-new. That’s why you see so many movies that are so much alike. It also explains why a lot of films aren’t very good. If you want to be original, you have to accept the uncertainty, even when it’s uncomfortable, and have the capability to recover when your organization takes a big risk and fails. What’s the key to being able to recover? Talented people! Contrary to what the studio head asserted at lunch that day, such people are not so easy to find.

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10 habits of a highly desirable leader

March 6, 2009 at 11:20 pm · Filed under Disruptive Behaviour, When the going gets tough

What practices are going to ensure that you lead your busienss through these tough times? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Listen to the Cry for Accountability

Leadership is accountable to investors, shareholders, regulators – but most significantly we are accountable to our customers and our people. 

2. Get into the trenches

Break down the walls of hierarchy, flatten your structure, walk the floor get amoungst your people.

3. Get emotional

Let people know what matters, you have passion and you are looking for passionate behaviour

4. Chase the rainbow

As everyone else cuts, slashes and burns, their horizon is the here and now. The horizon is an invitation however close it appears, and there are opportunities.

5. From Me to We

The power of an oragnisation is in its people, Harness it, ask for solutions and acknowledge the source of them.

6. Nimble feet

Agility, speed of response, fail frequently-fail cheaply. Say no more

7. Keep it Simple

Always best if you want others to understand what you are doing, especially your customers.

8. Ask the right questions

Know what you want to achieve, ask the questions that will deliver it.

9. Adapt to the new work order

Think global, act local.

10. Yes we can

Of course we can.

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