The Manager's View

Have you wondered about the value of bringing in a consultant to help with organizational challenges? Have you thought that these outsiders might not understand the challenges to your organization as well as you do and that the learning curve for the consultant would cost more than any benefit you would gain? As business life would have it, there will be times you will be faced with difficult challenges for which you will need the benefit of advice from someone with experience dealing with similar challenges. Clearly, when the time arises to choose a consultant it will be important to choose wisely. There will be many consultants to choose from. They will come from large and small consulting firms and they will all have unique sets of bias and experience. To help choose a consultant we have developed the following checklist: 1)     Define the challenge. Can you articulate the challenge well enough to begin the search for outside guidance? Clearly...

" The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith."                                                Franklin Delano Roosevelt I have heard a lot of discussion lately about the U.S. losing its competitive edge and falling behind on its ability to stimulate the development of game changing innovations. I think some look at rapid growth in new technological developments from China, India and South Korea and are concerned that economic power will shift to those countries at the expense of U.S. economic growth. Some may look at the ranking of education systems and feel that without improvements the U.S. will fall woefully behind other industrialized nations in the ability to produce a workforce for the new technological age. Still others believe that management focus on short-...

Build a Cohesive Promotion Campaign If you have a new product or business, what is a good way of getting the word out? Advertising is always a good idea but without having a supporting promotion program advertising dollars can be wasted. If money is in short supply it is even more important to develop a promotion infrastructure that can build your business. Here are some steps that can put your business in the forefront of your customers’ minds:        Create a “Bumper Sticker” statement or “Elevator Speech”. This is a simple phrase that explains what you do in a manner that sets you apart from the competition. This phrase is not only to make it easier to tell your customers what your business or product does, it provides a mantra for your employees, suppliers and business associates to use. If done properly it unifies the business and marketing strategies. IKEA for example, in 1982 stated as its purpose, “To promote and support innovation in th...

If you have a new product or business, what is a good way of getting the word out?  Advertising is always a good idea but without having a supporting promotion program advertising dollars can be wasted. If money is in short supply it is even more important to develop a promotion infrastructure that can build your business. Here are six steps that can put your business in the forefront of your customers’ minds:     Create a “Bumper Sticker” statement or “Elevator Speech”. This is a simple phrase that explains what you do in a manner that sets you apart from the competition. This phrase is not only to make it easier to tell your customers what your business or product does, it provides a mantra for your employees, suppliers and business associates to use. If done properly it unifies the business and marketing strategies. IKEA for example, in 1982 stated as its purpose, “To promote and support innovation in the field of archite...

Responsible Leadership Requires the Long Term View I recently read a number of articles on leadership traits. Each article pointed out traits that seemed appropriate such as tough mindedness, empathy, charisma and so on. On a recent LinkedIn discussion traits discussed included being a visionary, having humility and the ability to build trust and confidence. A couple of the articles pointed out that leaders are not born but are created by situations and positions in which they are placed. A leader then could probably be described as someone having the traits necessary to move an organization toward its desired goals effectively. I think there are those who thought Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were great leaders before the downfall of Enron. For a time I am certain that Bernard Ebbers was considered a good leader at Worldcom. What is missing from most descriptions of leaders, leadership traits and leadership in general is the impact leaders have on the larger univer...

Meetings That Make a Difference I have written and spoken about the importance of contributions made by cross-functional groups in business. The reason I believe in meetings with participants from across the organization is because the best new ideas and solutions to old problems come from discussions that provide input from the widest array of viewpoints. Limiting solutions to one or two individuals simply limits the ability to have optimal solutions. As the English philosopher Theodore Zeldin said; “Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don’t just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn’t just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards.” In most organizations pulling a group into a meeting means taking those individuals away from other important work. Some participants will question the need for anothe...

Loan Cash to Corporate Operating Units To Improve Cash Flows In most corporations the cost of money affects the ability to compete successfully. If money has to be borrowed then the financing cost has to included in the cost of operations and ultimately will affect the cost customers have to pay for goods and services. This, of course, impacts the ability to compete in price aggressive markets. There is always a demand for cash in a corporation and there are many ways it can be used.   Every manager will have programs that are deemed important and will be viewed by that manager as being most worthy of being funded. In the budgeting process cash needs are generally forecast based on projected sales and the expenses required to support those sales. When there is a need for cash beyond normal cash inflows, debt is usually employed to fill the gap. A particularly vexing challenge is deciding how to maximize cash usage.   GWR Research developed a system that all...

I was recently asked to write a blog on Blue Ocean Strategies that was introduced by +W. Chan Kim and +Renee Mauborgne in their book Blue Ocean Strategy . Everyone should read the book if they are looking for ways to grow their business by creating uncontested market spaces. The book is an excellent read and gives many compelling examples. If I were to give a summary of the book it would be by using a quote by Wee Willie Keeler, a great baseball hitter in the late 1800s and early 1900s, who said, “I hit ‘em where they ain’t”. At 5’4” and 140 lbs., Willie was a batting champion and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. For businesses, the Blue Ocean Strategy is a study on building a strategy for any business to “hit ‘em where the competitors ain’t”. “Blue Oceans” are areas where there is little competition from rivals. “Red Oceans” are where rivals are congregated, fighting for customers using similar business approaches. A place to begin a “Blue Ocean...

        Five Steps for Developing a Strong Workforce Having a capable workforce is critical to building a successful organization. Here are five steps that can improve the workforce building process. Screening – Assembling the “right” group of individuals for your workforce is important. You can test for competency but being part of a team means that individuals must have personalities that can work together. Assuredly this means that some subjectivity will enter into the screening process. It may also mean that wrong choices will be made and will need correction. The subjectivity and chance for errors can be reduced with the introduction of 10 tips from About.com Human Resources at http://www.humanresources.about.com/od/recruiting/tp/recruiting_employee.htm Defining job responsibilities – even with the “right” personnel, the workforce can be dysfunctional if each member’s responsibilities are not clearly defined. It is management’s resp...