The Manager's View

Last week I pointed out that business success requires more than a good plan. I said that the end-to-beginning planning process, if done well, would identify all of the challenges that would need to be dealt with to be successful. Once identified, decisions must be made on how to address these obstacles to a plan’s successful implementation. There are some that will tell you that what will make the difference in these situations are managers that are critical thinkers. Theoretically a critical thinker is someone who is presented with an argument and can determine if it is true, sometimes true, partially true or false. Other definitions can be more detailed but this is essentially the gist of critical thinking. This simple definition assumes that the thinker sets aside emotional issues and any form of bias. This is where the real difficulty lies. To be successful in assessing potential challenges a manager must be completely objective. Let’s take...

In my last post I talked about envisioning the outcome of a business plan and working back to the beginning activities to help in planning. I have used this end-to-beginning process in several business situations and it resulted in some tremendous successes. Unfortunately excellent planning does not offset an entrepreneur’s dogged desire to pursue a business idea regardless of the hurdles that must be overcome. In one instance I started a daily newspaper in a small town that already had a daily newspaper that was owned by a large communications corporation.   The corporate daily had alienated the community and its advertisers so I felt the timing was right for a competing newspaper. I attracted investors based on this premise and told them that only one newspaper would survive. The end-to-beginning planning process was used and all of its elements were incorporated into a Critical Path/PERT planning process. The result was the creation of a newspaper from the ...

I can remember early in my career when I was asked to manage a department that was disorganized and not meeting its organizational objectives. While somewhat flattered, I was also afraid that I wouldn’t be successful. I didn’t have experience in defining organizational problems or developing their solutions. In this particular case I just decided to take an action and see where it led. As luck would have it the early actions raised questions that would require that I do some research into how others had dealt with similar problems. In most cases the research gave good pointers on how to move forward and what next steps might produce results. The next steps usually led to more questions that required further research which led to still more steps to be taken. While this approach moved the project forward, it didn’t provide a list of activities that would focus on improving the department’s ability to function effectively. This approach almost required that I dis...

Having performance indicators can help improve virtually any facet of your business. Determining the business area to be monitored and the type of indicator will vary by business type. For example in retailing, customer satisfaction may be gauged by repeat visits by customers, frequency that merchandise is returned and customer complaints. For airlines, customer satisfaction indicators might include lost luggage and on time departure and arrival statistics. Key performance indicators should provide a gauge of success in achieving internal goals as well as comparing performance with industry averages or industry leaders. Having a comparison to the industry prevents managers from becoming myopic when measuring results.  Some companies produce key performance indicator reports monthly and distribute them with financial reports to managers and senior staff. By combining key performance indicators with financial outcomes a manager is able to get a clearer picture of what...

How can you determine if your company is at risk of attack from a disruptive technology? How can you take advantage of the next wave of business opportunities? Clearly, if you can answer these questions you are well on your way to becoming the next billionaire. Since finding the answers will be challenging it is important to identify a process to review industries and businesses and discover indicators that might identify opportunities. Clayton Christensen’s theories on disruptive technologies can provide some insights. His theories show that disruptive technologies often are created when industry leaders’ products have been improved to the point that a significant share of the market’s customers do not want or need all of the product’s attributes. This allows a new market entrant to provide a lower cost “good enough” product that doesn’t have all of the “bells and whistles” of the industry leader’s product. This new entrant will attract the leas...

How do you grow a business when you simply don’t have the resources to focus on new opportunities? How do you attract new talent that can bring new business without adding a financial burden to your organization? Forming business alliances is an approach that is being used today to meet these challenges. Retail Opportunities A major retail grocery chain uses an alliance to provide sushi bars in its retail stores. The grocer contacted a small sushi catering service and asked if the caterer would be interested in finding individuals to set up sushi bars in the retail stores. In return the grocer would use its buying power to provide sushi ingredients at the lowest possible rate and keep track of sales through its registers. Further the grocery company would subtract the cost of goods sold and simply pay the caterer a percentage of the profit of each sushi item sold. The caterer found a source of individuals willing to set up and man the sushi bars in the grocery stores ...