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Can You Create A Mission-Driven Focus in a For-Profit Business?

Jul 1, 2008

Leaders from the top on down in Not-For-Profits hold an unfair advantage over their erstwhile counterparts in the For-Profit world. Managers in Not-for-Profit are driven by a powerful sense of purpose that delivers meaning and context for even the most mundane of activities. As one young Not-For-Profit manager in my recent Leadership Mastery workshop indicated, “I can’t imagine not having the mission to inspire and energize me everyday.”

My question: Can For-Profit organizations replicate the motivational and contextual power of “The Mission” through other proxies like goals, strategies, bonuses and targets all focused around competitors, financials and metrics like market-share and compound annual growth rate?

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The Project Management Discipline of Strategy Execution

Jun 23, 2008

Strategy execution is where value is created. The best plans are worthless unless they are backed by a group of people that understand their roles and accountabilities and that have the information they need when they need for rapid decision-making. Execution never takes place in a straight line and without setbacks. In fact, the setbacks are powerful learning experiences that a good team will leverage as it adapts and responds to internal and external factors.

A large part of the solution in my opinion is treating execution like a high-order program comprised of a series of projects to be managed. Ask a good Project Manager how to successfully pull of an execution program and I suspect they won’t need to interview 1,000 companies.

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Yeah, “Why Don’t Managers Think Deeply?”

Jun 16, 2008

Professor James Heskett highlights GE CEO Geoffrey Immelt’s recent pronouncements that he is: looking for managers to think deeply about innovations that will ensure GE’s longer-term success. He has vowed that he will protect those working on the breakthroughs from the “budget slashers” focused on short-term success. (Professor Heskett also reviews the book Marketing Metaphoria and the perspectives of the authors: Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman on why managers don’t think deeply.)

As I leader, I’ve wrestled with this topic for years, and have worked around and with many individuals perfectly content to let their days unfold in a transactional nature, with no time to think deeply or even strategically. Days pass into months and months to years, and still these individuals prefer conquering the issue of the moment versus wondering whether they are even working on the right issues.

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The Leader’s Challenge: Recognizing the Need for Change

Jun 15, 2008

I believe that it is important for organizations to develop competence at translating marketplace and macro-environmental changes into appropriate changes to better serve stakeholders. No easy task, especially considering the “noise” that we all face in this era of accelerating change, time compression and growing complexity.

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Did Anyone Get the Memo on How to Act During a Slowdown?

Jun 11, 2008

You don’t have to look hard to learn about the impact of rising fuel costs, including layoffs, plant closings, cutbacks, service reductions, fare hikes and new user fees. These headlines and many more just like them blare from the tv and radio or jump out at us from the front pages of our morning newspapers. However, what really amazes me is how hard you have to work to find examples of companies and leaders that received and read the memo on surviving, improving and even prospering during periods of economic difficulty.

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Tuning In to Leadership (and much more) With A Great New Book

Jun 9, 2008

Tuned In presents a six-step process for creating a resonator: “a product or service that so perfectly solves problems for buyers that it sells itself.” The examples, approaches and ideas for realizing resonators and for supporting the creation of an organizational culture that institutionalizes the requisite thinking and processes are the heart of the work. The steps: find unresolved problems, understand buyer personas, quantify the impact, create breakthrough experiences, articulate powerful ideas and establish authentic connections offer powerful and practical guidance for marketers and executives everywhere.

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Preventing Product Launch Failure: Watch Out for the Pitfalls!

Jun 8, 2008

G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Viton writing in the Innovation Engine column at BusinessWeek online, offer a sobering look at the Ten Reasons Your Next Launch Will Fail. From the propensity of companies to create solutions for unknown problems (Science Run Amok) to the recurring theme of teams convincing themselves that they can’t miss (Death by Consensus), this insightful and witty column offers some priceless guidance for marketers, product and project managers and executives everywhere.

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Seven Suggestions to Consider When Creating A New Market

May 26, 2008

If you’ve ever worked in an organization or on a team that got caught up in the quest to create a new market you know that the experience is all consuming and exhilarating. I offer a number of leadership and management suggestions that might prove helpful on your own journey of market creation.

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Bad Bosses, A Walk with Dante and Your Leadership Legacy

May 21, 2008

Ask a room full of mid-level managers to talk about great leaders that have supported them and you get a few nice stories. Ask them for examples of bad leaders and bad leadership practices and you may have to run for high-ground as the trickle of mildly repressed memories turns into a torrent of frightening anecdotes described by individuals with a far-away look in their eyes and a tone tinged with revenge in their voices.

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