Strategic Awareness: The Second Leg of the Emerging Leader’s Three Legged Stool
Filed under: Career, Current Affairs, Innovation, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Professional Growth, Strategy, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
One of the things that I truly love about this time we are living and working through is the front-row seats that we all have to some fascinating experiments in strategy. Things happen so quickly and with such widespread coverage in today’s world, that it often looks and feels like a strategist’s living laboratory on Miracle Gro.
A quick scan of the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) on my remarkable e-book reader, Kindle, indicates that Google Plans to Launch an Operating System for PCs and that Kodak’s CEO is Betting Big on Printers. Take a second and comprehend the strategy issues and implications of that last sentence. At least two out of three are staggering (Kindle and Google) and one is either the last gasp of a dying giant or a brilliant move to disrupt an entrenched industry.
There’s more:
As a consumer, I’m in the process of switching phone service providers for two of my family members and the one that I’m moving to cannot get the newest iphone in under a week. Sold out.
Just yesterday, my oldest son approached me about a new application for the iPhone that converts it to a true navigation device like those we buy in our cars from Garmin and Tom Tom and others. Hmmm, wonder how that meeting is going inside those device makers.
We live in an era where the platform is King. Think iTunes and the remarkable and industry-disrupting ecosystem that has sprung up around it. Consider Twitter and how it has revolutionized interactions and network building and how it supported a near-revolution in Iran.
The Three Legged Stool of the Emerging Leader/Senior Contributor:
I make no secret about my belief that emerging leaders…the executives and senior contributors of tomorrow must develop remarkable competence in three areas: leadership, strategy and communication.
Effective communication skills can be taught and with practice mastered. Learning to lead is difficult, and experience is the only teacher, but individuals armed with good philosophical underpinnings and supported by good mentoring and feedback can develop and improve their leadership skills.
The remaining leg: developing a sense of strategy and ultimately developing the ability to see and pursue strategic vectors is the most difficult to cultivate. It’s abstract, it’s creative, it’s often risky and there is little in the way of developmental support for emerging strategists.
Business schools tend to treat strategy as history lessons (cases) or as a sterile simulation game. Both are interesting and even fun, but of little use in my opinion in fostering the type of thinking, experimentation and action that leads to winning strategies.
The strategy events and processes inside corporations are often so dysfunctional and poorly managed that an invitation to be involved can seem like a ticket to the county lock-up. The best outcome is getting out.
Guidance for the Emerging Leader on Developing a Sense of Strategy:
While I’ll stop short of offering a “how to” prescription on developing as a strategist, there are certainly some actions and steps that an individual can take to increase their strategic awareness.
- Study and monitor the many strategic experiments occurring in real-time right in front of you. Is the Kindle the spark that rewrites the publishing business, like iTunes was to the music business? Can a floundering old giant regain its footing on a technology that consumes resources in the electronic and green era? Is Google’s move to an operating system brilliance, arrogance or just plain futile in a Microsoft dominated world? And for that matter, can Microsoft…the strategy giant of two decades ago reinvent itself?
- Think about your business and your products in the context of the most compelling and uncertain experiments occurring in front of you. Do you have a mini-platform option in your industry? If you truly understood your customers needs, what business and products would you create from scratch?
- Quit thinking about your competitors from a mimicking mind-set. In fact, quit preoccupying on their every move. It’s healthy to monitor but it’s better and even to battle, but save some gray matter for rethinking the business in a manner that ensures your competitor is obsolete.
- Beware the Innovator’s Dilemma. If you don’t know what that is, read the book!
- In addition to Innovator’s Dilemma, read: Tuned-In and Inside the Tornado and Crossing the Chasm. You could do much, much worse than base your strategic thinking on the principles espoused in these great works.
- Get involved in shaping, executing and monitoring strategy in your area of influence.
- Ask questions of those around you to better understand your firm’s situation in the marketplace and its strategic objectives.
- Work hard to ensure that your activities connect to the firm’s core strategies.
The Bottom-Line:
The world and the workplace are filled with people going through the motions, taking orders and executing and acting without really thinking. Strategists on the other hand are constantly striving to connect ideas and patterns to needs and value creating activities. Great leaders have a strong sense of strategy. Take responsibility for developing your sense of strategy and for supporting that development in others. You might just find that life and work are a lot more fun and rewarding this way.
The Potentially Profound Implications of Kindle
Filed under: Current Affairs, Innovation, Product Management, Social Satire
Amazon’s remarkable second version of their Kindle book reader has some profound implications for all of us. Here’s a “glowing” review and some speculative thoughts on what this device might just mean for a number of industries.
First things first. I love the Kindle2 and the entire experience that it provides. Over the past month, it has become an increasingly indispensible part of my existence, and in many respects its presence has compelled me to read more and write less. Perhaps a few you of are saying “thank goodness” on the write-less part.
And for those of you who love the feel, smell and experience of a book and cannot imagine reading one on a device, I’m right there with you. Or at least I was. True to the promo copy, the Kindle device literally disappears as you become engrossed in reading a good book or an interesting newspaper article.
And speaking of newspapers, the true test for me was whether this could hold up to one of my other true passions, reading the Wall Street Journal. I signed up for the free 14-day trial expecting fully to bail out after seeing how clunky the experience would be when trying to replace the venerable print format.
I’ve cancelled my print subscription.
I’m actually spending more time with my eyeballs on the Journal as I move serially through certain sections or as I navigate between sections to my favorite features. I didn’t expect to love this as much. I backed up my own informal experiment by giving it to my Dad who became so enamored with the device and engrossed in reading with it, that I kept my eyes on him as he was leaving my house, just to make certain the device hadn’t accidentally remained in his hands.
Oh, and the ease and speed of browsing, sampling and buying books is scary powerful. I may have to call Amazon and place a house limit on my Kindle book account. Samples in seconds and books in under a minute direct to the device. Wow!
Great marketing…a cool device, total portability for my library, an outstanding user experience and a remarkable variety of content immediately at my fingertips, without being tethered to a computer.
A Few Speculative Thoughts: Implications and Opportunities of the Kindle
The combination of Kindle and Amazon is not dissimilar to the iPod-iTunes strategy (device: platform) that Apple used to rewrite the rules for the music industry. Perhaps based on the music industry experience and the well-established Amazon model, the publishing industry has a game-plan to leverage this technology and its distribution platform and still make money. If not, watch out.
If you are a Bricks and Mortar bookstore, beware. If you are in the book printing industry, beware as well.
Is Kindle the lifeline for the newspaper industry? I’ve got news for you doubters out there, if my sixty-nine year old father can learn to use and like reading the WSJ on this device in under 4 minutes, it’s real.
In a fascinating post in the Silicon Valley Insider, Nicholas Carson offers up some math that suggests that the NY Times could give every reader a Kindle for the price of printing and delivering the paper for a year. After year one, it’s pure savings. And while there’s that little detail about ad revenues and making money, this is a real scenario.
The newspapers of the future might just not include any newsprint. If I’m in this business, I’m looking long and hard at how to make money without having the huge costs and infrastructure needed to print and deliver.
Magazine publishers, see also the material above.
Others:
Amazon, what’s your open source model for allowing authors to publish directly to Kindle? The ultimate disruptive self-publishing model? Take it a step further… I wonder what an App store for Kindle might generate? Hmmm.
Implications for libraries? Schools? Students? Another hmmm.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
So many times the allure of new, cool devices wears off and they offer no sustainable value beyond the initial infatuation with bells and whistles. The Kindle seems different. It offers access, portability, a quality reading experience and yeah, a bit of novelty. My crystal ball is as foggy as everyone else’s, but if you are in a business that is around the core being impacted by Kindle, you need a good strategy. Otherwise, that noise you are about to hear might just be your paradigm shifting along with your profit model.
One last comment. The name Kindle is brilliant. The New Oxford dictionary on the Kindle device offers up: v: light or set on fire, special usage: arouse or inspire an emotion or feeling.
This just might be the spark that transforms whole industries and a good part of our daily lives.
What’s the Kindle equivalent for your industry?
Inspiration and Hope: Encouraging Sound Bites in a Challenging World
Filed under: Crisis Leadership, Current Affairs, Customer Service, Innovation, Leadership, Making Decisions, Management Excellence Tips for Tough Times, Quality Systems Management, Strategy
There’s enough negative going around. Here’s a few worth reading that will leave you thinking and maybe even feeling a bit more upbeat.
I’ll Have Fries with that Strategy and Please Pass the Data
Students of strategy and performance excellence might want to take a closer look at how McDonald’s is using leadership, strategy, customer relations and information to successfully beat back the economic doldrums.
I’ve found it easy to ignore this nearly ubiquitous chain as our family has moved a good decade beyond the Happy Meal phase and as I’ve concluded that my calorie quota cannot afford anything in this class of restaurants.
However, a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, entitled: McDonald’s Seeks Ways to Keep Sizzling,” has renewed my interest. The article offers some good insights into doing things right at a time when most competitors are struggling with shrinking consumer purchasing power.
Highlights:
- A senior leadership culture that overtly emphasizes finding good people and providing them room to do their thing, the article showcases.
- The firm’s bold and disruptive (to Starbucks) push into coffee.
- A relentless focus on cutting operating costs by improving efficiency without adversely impacting quality and customer perceived value.
- Investments in new store infrastructure at a time when most might hold off.
- Effective use of the system-wide investment in automation for business and consumer intelligence to grab data, monitor operations and trends and make appropriate merchandising and cost decisions in near real-time.
Regardless of whether your business involved food of the fast variety (McDonald’s prefers to call it Quick Service), there are some great “nuggets” for you in how this global giant is navigating the downturn.
Oh, I might just have to stop by and see if the rumors of good coffee are true.
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Innovation Please:
For an extended dose of hope and encouragement, check out the March issue of Fast Company, where the focus is on the world’s most innovative companies.
I love editor Robert Safian’s “One Hundred and Fifty Nine Reasons (pages) to Cheer” theme and his observation that: “the one incontrovertible truth about this era: only creativity and aggressive innovation in the face of hardship and layoffs and seriously tough choices will fuel a turnaround.” While I might call that “effective leadership,” I won’t quibble with Mr. Safian’s conclusion.
My advice, read this one in small sound-bites on a daily basis and let the ideas and examples of the many innovative companies sink-in, rattle around and prompt some thoughts of your own.
Articles ranging from new product development to fresh perspectives on emerging markets as innovation incubators and the art of setting of modest goals are just a few of the many great and thought-provoking reads here. While it is easy to grow weary of “list” type articles, there are just too many good examples to ignore.
On a side note, I’ve enjoyed Fast Company since its inception in the dot.com boom of the late 90’s, when every issue was jammed full of cutting edge articles and cutting edge ads. It was cool (best word I can think of) to read and feel like you were a part of the Fast Company community, just like it is to be a part of the Apple community today. While not attuned to the current financial status of this publication, given the times we are living in and the editorial focus on finding firms and people pushing the envelope, it might just be in vogue to be part of this community once again.
The Bottom Line:
Take a note from the post today and spread some “can do” and “here’s how they are doing it” wisdom today. Get people thinking “What if?” and then get them focused on talking and trying and creating. Safian is right. Creativity and innovation will fuel the turnaround. If McDonald’s can get it, so can your firm.
No Leadership Training Budget, No Problem. Nine Tips, No Charge
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Professional Growth, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
As someone who is passionate about leadership development, it is heartening to see articles like the one that ran recently in the Wall Street Journal, indicating, “Despite Cutbacks, Firms Invest in Developing Leaders.”
The article highlights the enlightened perspective that some firms and executives have on developing talent during the current tough times. “Despite layoffs and recession-starved budgets, many employers are investing in leadership development programs, hoping not to be caught short when the economy improves.”
Good for these businesses and the leaders. The notion that it is always time to work on identifying and grooming leaders is healthy.
However, if you happen to work in one of the firms that is not as fortunate or as enlightened as the ones highlighted in the article, don’t despair.
You don’t have to have a stinking budget to improve your team’s/firm’s leadership development practices. You do however, have to have your head screwed on straight about this process, and you need to be committed to executing on it as a core, everyday part of your job.
In my workshop and engagement surveys, the number one reason that leaders don’t do a better job supporting professional development is…, you guessed it, “Time.” Fantastically and shockingly, people are willing to admit that they just don’t make time for this part of their job.
All of the training dollars and programs in the world will not make up for the lack of personal commitment about leadership development from you as a leader and from your peers and colleagues.
Leadership development doesn’t start with training, it doesn’t happen in training and it is not the means to the ends. It is context, not core. It offers many potential benefits, including motivation, reinforcement and support for skills development, but only experience gives someone the tools to truly lead.
Regardless of whether you have or don’t have a training budget, do these things and you will increase your batting average for building better leaders.
-Nine Tips for TurboCharging Leadership Development with No Budget:
1. Think about your leadership needs (skills, styles, competencies) in the context of the future, not the present.
2. Think hard about the attributes that you are looking for. Too often, we gravitate towards those that are outgoing and articulate. There are great leaders hidden behind those that seek the stage.
3. As a management group, talk a lot about your talent and their needs. Share insights and feedback on your collective pool of high potentials.
4. A high-potential one year may not make the cut the next year. Manage talent like a portfolio.
5. Share talent across functions to create well-rounded experiences for your high potentials. Make certain that the sharing involves feedback and performance evaluation from the rotational leaders.
6. Design opportunities for individuals; don’t just plunk people into problems. Be deliberate about tailoring opportunity development to the individual.
7. Coach and provide feedback constantly. And then double it.
8. Challenge the people you are developing to do seek out extraordinary ways to strengthen and to gain experience. I have no qualms encouraging a high potential to seek out other forms of leadership and experience by tapping into community needs. You can learn a lot about developing lateral influence skills by working in your community at a nonprofit or at your church.
9. Practice what you preach. Have you taken charge of your own professional development? What’s your plan?
–
Don’t let the lack of a budget keep you from your appointed rounds as a developer of leaders. And if you are one of those hoping to be developed, don’t “boo hoo” your firm’s lack of commitment. You are responsible for you own career. Get on with it.
A Rave Against Miserable Customer Service, Lousy Leaders and Protectionist Policies
Filed under: Current Affairs, Customer Service, Leadership, Organizational Transformation, Performance, Quality Systems Management, Social Commentary, Surviving Lousy Leaders, voice of the customer
One of my favorite, provocative business thinkers, Gary Hamel, says what we’ve all been thinking about in his Wall Street Journal blog post, “Too Many Industries Suffering from Detroititis.”
While the term “Detroititis” is not yet in common use, it isn’t hard to intuit the meaning. A mix of myopic thinking, short-term management approaches and a damn the consumer mentality, all jump to my mind.
Hamel appropriately skewers the U.S. airline industry for suffering from a chronic case of this newly named malady. He also chastises the U.S. government for propping up this industry with a “blatantly protectionist policy” that bars foreign ownership of U.S. air carriers.
Note from Art: this protectionist policy and the adverse implications for consumers and for society speak to the heart of my post: If Ayn Rand Could See Us Now.
The U.S. airlines are easy and deserving targets. It is nearly impossible to find any customer satisfaction, much less enjoyment flying with these broken-down flying bus companies. (Apologies to any bus companies that I’ve insulted.)
More often than not, you deal with ridiculous lines, grumpy attendants and flight personnel that visibly hate their jobs. Most of the customer service practices recently put into place are shortsighted and designed with the carrier in mind, not the customer.
In the vernacular of one of my favorite recent books, Tuned-In, the carriers truly do create remarkable customer experiences. Unfortunately, they missed the memo on making these experiences positive ones.
The contrast between the customer experience on a U.S. Air Carrier and an overseas carrier is stark. Fly Singapore Airlines or JAL and you’ll spend most of your trip in shock over how nice the experience can be. Something will feel very different and out of place. The poor treatment is gone, replaced by great service provided by people that seem to enjoy creating nice experiences for customers.
Other than the cathartic exercise of criticizing the U.S. carriers (of which I have over 1 million miles on), there are a few reminders for all of us in our businesses as we work to immunize our thinking against the deadly disease of “Detroititis.”
- Keep the government out of the business of artificially protecting under performing industries and companies. Hamel is right. If Singapore Airlines wants to compete for routes in the U.S., they should have that option.
- Evaluate what your customers truly think about their experience with your firm and DO SOMETHING to improve the experience. The airlines employ legions of marketing people to fly around the globe and evaluating customer experiences…but nothing seems to come out from this effort other than dumb policies and new fees.
- Fight for the customer like you livelihood depends upon it. It does.
- As a leader, work unceasingly to instill a sense of pride and commitment to customers in your workplace. If your business is a high-contact customer business, every person that touches a customer must strive to create a positive experience. Working a ticket counter at terminal B at O’Hare may involve dealing with thousands of people per day who are stressed and frustrated. Take away a little of their stress and frustration, treat them like humans and show them that you care! Send thousands of people home everyday with an improved experience, and maybe your business will improve. Go figure.
- No one ever wants to talk to someone that they cannot understand and that they cannot hear on the telephone. Stop subjecting us to these horrendous phone experiences. If you are in charge of this area of your customer experience, what the blank are you thinking?
The Bottom-Line for Now:
The people that I don’t get are the managers and leaders responsible for managing and leading the customer service representatives in organizations that clearly have lousy customer service. Fire yourself, please.
The customer experience at Gate C14 starts at the top of the organization. The same goes for your firm. Unfortunately, we can all learn a lot about what not to do from the auto companies and air carriers in the U.S.
Now quit reading and find something that you can do to improve the experience for your customers!
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