Who’s On The Team? Recently, I was having a conversation with a colleague about hiring a Chief Financial Officer (CFO). We were discussing the attributes of such a hire. After my usual statement that what was critical was to hire a person who shared the corporate values, I added that they needed to be a strategic thinker. He replied that …
Culture Challenge: Peter Drucker famously noted that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” My experience is that Drucker is correct. One of the more straightforward ways I’ve observed that phenomenon is when a large change initiative is launched by management. For example, installing a new, complex, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. While leadership and employees may all agree that such a …
Choice: In today’s world, being found and having a distinct differentiation from the other competitors being found is critical. Unlike in previous years, today’s consumers are usually well educated on our product or service before they call us. They no longer rely on salespeople to bring them information. In fact, many purchasers, even for highly technical products, prefer to educate …
HBR on Retail: An article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR — Jan/Feb 2019, pg 72) suggested that the brick and mortar retail industry is “squandering their most potent weapons” against their e-commerce competition. The author suggests that thehidden advantage is in the store is salespeople. I’m afraid I have to disagree. The rest of the article is fine. I …
Planning: I’m told that Benjamin Franklin said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Planning is critical in order to move an organization toward achievement of the vision. In the same way that a map is not the territory, a business plan is not the way the market is or will be at the time of execution. It is our …
The Chef’s Creation Variety is frequently a positive goal to achieve when doing things such as organizing your life, building an organization, creating a mastermind group, or developing a high functioning team. However, sometimes, we can miss the mark. We can overdo things. I started thinking about this when my wife made a comment while we were out to dinner …
Will You be Disrupted? In the business world, we readily accept the concept that if you aren’t growing, you’re dying. Meaning, you cannot rest on your laurels for any significant length of time. So what about the future? Will you wait to be disrupted? Will you disrupt yourself? Will you be the disruptor to competitors? Garry Ridge, CEO of WD40, …
Not Legally, But . . . I think he has always been wrong, but then, legally, he was more right than I. Friedman once said in a 1970 NY Times Magazine article that “businesses’ sole purpose is to generate profit for shareholders.” The title of that article is “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” My understanding …
Vision: It’s the vision thing. You know, that BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal). That Yonder Star. Trying to put that feeling, emotion and passion into a short meaningful statement is like grasping at smoke. You can’t ever quite catch it. Yet it is critical to do so to make sure your organization knows why it exists. I believe that it …
Recently I read on a leadership blog, that the author felt that an overriding corporate strategy is a “fool’s errand.” Freek Vermeulen reasoned that divisions or business units in larger companies often have widely different goals, products, consumers and even “brands.” Therefore, a one-size-fits-all corporate strategy is impossible to implement and could harm the organization. Well, perhaps we are quibbling over words, …