February, 2010

February 10, 2010

Welcome to the ELC On-line Newsletter!,

"The road to hell," as they say, "is paved with good intentions." My intention is to get this newsletter out on the first week of the month. Oh well, perhaps I can claim I'm refusing to be held hostage to a schedule. Still, I hate missing a goal, even a self-imposed goal. Maybe that's even worse. Which reminds me of another saying: "Never confuse being busy with being effective." I admit to finding myself being overwhelmed by the trivial many instead of paying attention to the significant few tasks I have on my plate.

Some of it has to do with disciplining myself to not get sucked into the black hole of Social Media on the internet. I'm setting limits to keep myself at a safe distance from the event horizon! But it is a sign of the times that Social Media Marketing (for me that's branding NOT selling!) has become part of my life and so like e-mail, I have to make sure I don't get sucked in to a huge time sink. See "Signs of the Times" to the right for some links to more information.

This issue also provides links to information on a colleagues thoughts around strategically reviewing our business models to be sure they are "fit" for survival. Remember that Darwin's theory is often misunderstood, it's not "survival of the fittest," but rather survival of the adaptable. We must adapt to new circumstances and economic realities.

And we can't have a newsletter without "Keeping up with Zerbe." So we track him down and find out how to Read the Tax Tea Leaves.

Enjoy!

Dave Kinnear

CEO, dbkAssociates, Inc.

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OODA

Observe, Orient, Decide and Act - begin again.

Some years ago I learned about the military system of thought process they tagged OODA. This training system is used for special forces, seals and fighter pilots. The purpose of the training was to make sure that the individual and/or team did not stick to the original plan when that plan was "busted." Instead, they were taught to adapt to the new situation.

It wasn't long though, before I started using MAPI - measure, analyze, Plan, Implement (repeat again) as a system for continuous improvement. It seemed to be more accessible to the business folks. I know there are other systems with the same goals. I was reminded of all this when my friend and mentor Dwight Frindt posted information about the OODA Loop on his Facebook page.

What I like most about these systems is that the goal is to make sure we do not stick to our old ways. Instead, we are encouraged to re-read the situation and make adjustments in order to make sure the end goal is achieved. In BPR, the goal was an improved process; one that was more efficient and effective. And often, when we rebuilt a process, we found the best of intentions had unintended consequences that required making additional changes. If we had not been willing to go around and around the loop many times, we would not have had an effective change initiative.

What I like about the OODA loop is that, as Dwight pointed out, it keeps you and your team focused clearly on the objective, or mission, recognizes gaps between desired outcome and "reality." It keeps us from sticking to a failed plan.

So what does this all have to do with our situation today and taking advantage of the opportunities at hand? Though we may not all understand how the economic changes affect our businesses, there seems to be consensus that things have changed significantly and are not going to go back to the way they were. Albert Einstein is reported to have said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." While going around these loops will not guarantee new thinking, it will often lead us to recognize that we have to find new ways of viewing our challenges. As long as we can recognize the need for fresh thinking, we can go about finding others to help us and to bring new ideas into the organization. If we blindly stick to a failed plan, do not seek new ideas, views and context for our situation, then we are highly likely to fail.

As I often do, I leave you with some questions. How will you make sure to imbue your team with a desire to implement effective change in your organization? How will you implement OODA or MAPI loops to build a culture of continuous improvement? How will you fight the tyranny of the Status Quo?

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Richard Munro - Relevant Business Model?

My network of trusted advisors has taken years to build. Richard Munro was one of the early contacts I made that has proven to be incredibly important for my clients. Richard brings a wealth of business experience to his work with clients and is now adding value with articles and blogs. Here is a recent article he has posted on Google's Knol concerning our business model going forward.

Is Your Business Model Still Relevant to Survive?

I have worked with many owners of small and medium sized companies to help them overcome operating and financial problems to improve their revenues, profitability and valuation, and sometimes to help them turnaround and survive.

It's not surprising that most of these companies have faced similar issues to the broader US business community.  The impacts of the recession over the past 18 months have taken their toll on most companies including revenues down 30% plus, loss of major customers, increased competition,  operating losses despite severe cost cutting - the list just goes on and on.

In many cases these are family owned and run businesses, and have been profitable often over an extended period of time. They had reported healthy profits during good times when new business washed in over the transom, existing customers provided steady business, it wasn’t necessary to have a well defined sales and marketing plan and operating disciplines and cost controls became soft. Read More . . .

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Book Reviews

Bounce by Keith McFarland

The subtitle of this book is “The art of turning tough times into triumph,” and could not be timelier. Calling the 2008 and 2009 “tough times” could be the understatement of the decade. In the preface, McFarland states as a universal truth that, “It’s often during life’s most difficult times that we discover our most critical hidden strengths and that we forge our most important capabilities.” Certainly we can use some strengths going into thus new decade – hidden or otherwise. But what causes that resilience, that ability to bounce back? Read more . . .

First, Best or Different by John Bradley Jackson

At the time of this writing, John Bradley Jackson is the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at California State University in Fullerton (CSUF). I have had the pleasure of working with him and his students at the center; a wonderful experience.

Jackson writes in a conversational style that is easy to read and to understand. His grasp of the need for focused marketing along with his up to date knowledge of how technology has changed our ability to market, will be invaluable to both new and experienced marketers. The layout of the book is also simple, comprising some 106 short chapters, some but one page, making it easy to read in "spurts" if you must and also making it easy to get back to information you want to review. Read more . . .

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Keeping up with Zerbe

Reading the tax tea leaves.

One thing is sure, rates for the wealthy are going up.

Here’s a little irony: It’s easier to predict what is going to happen 13 months from now than in the next month.

Democrats are likely to allow parts of the Bush tax cuts–namely, lower rates for those earning more than $250,000–to expire after Dec. 31, 2010. President Obama ran on this, and there’s no reason to think he has changed his mind, especially with the deficit
(and Democrats’ spending plans) growing and growing.

Read more . . .