Posted tagged ‘Leadership’

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Branding and Gaining Control of Your Business in the Age of Twitter

March 19, 2009

Today, I received a really provocative and interesting challenge. A business that makes kitchen gadgets has lost its leverage with its customers and wants to know how to get that leverage back.

The kitchen gadget industry is really quite interesting. Inventors create and design products. These gadgets need to solve a problem and be very easy to use. Once they have created a prototype and tested it with some audiences, these inventors then take their products overseas to be manufactured. Some of these inventing companies protect their products with patents and sometimes they don’t because the patent will not afford them enough protection to prevent others from copying their products with minor alterations in design.

But now, the business environment is even worse for these companies.

It wasn’t that long ago that the inventing companies could sell these products to lots and lots of stores. But then the industry began to consolidate. Soon, it became apparent that if you wanted to sell to your target market, the only way to do that was to sell these products through superstores like Wal-Mart, Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

This is a problem though for these companies. Because these distribution channels are so large and dominate the marketplace, these department and superstores can dictate the margins and the way these products go to market. The inventing companies must tolerate and accommodate the requests made of them because upsetting one of these large companies could doom the product.

The question that was posed to me today was how to help these companies build a presence so that alternative channels for identifying products that need to be invented can be identified, products and related concepts could be tested faster and better, and alternate marketing channels could be developed.

This seemed particularly fascinating to me so I agreed to take this on.

Here’s my plan.

I think that this is a serious and meaningful strategic question for our times so I’ve decided to be public about it and write about it in this blog.

I am also identifying and approaching a cross-section of friends and colleagues to provide insight. They include one of the fellows accountable for building communities for a large software developer, a PR firm, a specialist in search engine optimization and web site development, my mentor who is an expert at identifying market targets, a senior advertising exec at large advertising company, my son who is one of the founders of TeenTechBlog www.teentechblog, my wife who is a stellar teacher and master chef… and you.

I would like to invite you to join me in this research. If you are interested, please e-mail me at david_blumenthal@msn.com. I plan on speaking on this topic in six weeks and if you assist me, I will share my session with you.

The journey promises to be a lot of fun.

Categories: Sales, Strategic Plans
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Technical Support is Never Just an Expense

March 12, 2009

Over the last two days, I’ve been engaged in a very upsetting conversation about technical support.

As a follow up to verify that a client’s technical issues were resolved, an employee discovered that from the client’s perspective, one remained open. When that issue was reported to senior support management by the employee who had contacted the client, it was greeted with an e-mail response that the issue had been closed a month earlier and an attachment with a copy of the resolution. The employee responded that the issue was, at least in the mind of the client, still open and a request was made to contact the client once again.

The manager balked saying that the job of the team was to close issues and once an issue had been closed, it was the responsibility of the client to speak with his colleagues and discover the resolution so no additional call would be made.

While this issue was being brought to the attention of departmental leadership by the employee, a lead developer weighed in on a different matter. He explained that there is always a consequence of adding features and functionality. When we add features, he explained, the software becomes more complex and the clients invariably ask more questions and support is further challenged.

More on the conclusion of the story in a moment, but first, an important digression.

All of our clients have choices. If we are simply and only measuring closed calls, our measurements are insufficient. Closed calls do not lead to client retention. Client satisfaction does.

I spoke with a colleague at a very large company and asked him what his company measures. Their measures include days elapsed until there is a solution and top ten call generators. They expect a spike in tech support calls when they release a new product but the top ten call generators tell them what they need to fix to reduce the call volume. Incidentally, the costs associated with addressing these “top tens” are charged back to the group that made the product. That’s one way to make sure that they get addressed.

A percentage of customers are also called every day to verify issues are resolved. They also count numbers of calls per support-paying customers. They view these customers as their best and most important customers.

One of his most interesting insights was that his company is moving to do all support in live chat. He noted that Google and Amazon already do all of their support via e-mail. This allows these companies to track the issues and the conversations with much greater ease and accuracy.

His company, however, is moving to live chat. Live chat provides the benefit of tracking the conversations and topics but keeps the human dimension in place. Sounds like a forward thinking approach.

Now back to our story…

With no place to go on this issue, the employee contacted the client and shared the documented resolution with him. Turns out closing the issue was premature. The proposed solution did not work as expected and the issue needed to be reopened. The client was right.

As to the developer, he was reminded that without releasing enhancements periodically, the software would become stale and the company would lose clients and share. Additionally, when clients learn that enhancements are being made to a product, the will begin to suggest additional way to make the software even better. This, by the way, is usually a good thing.

Technical support is not an expense. Done right, the client experience is enhanced. Market share grows and the business booms.

In these challenging economic times, it’s a lesson worth revisiting again and again.

Categories: Hiring, Leadership, Strategy
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Talented Rookies or Experienced Pros?

March 8, 2009

One of the ongoing debates in many organizations is whether to hire young, unproven talent and develop them or engage experienced, savvy but more highly salaried professionals. There is an answer, and of course, it is that it depends on the situation.

Personnel should always be hired based on the requirements of the job. Here are many of the factors to consider:

  • Is the work time sensitive?
  • Is the work very important and can mistakes be tolerated?
  • Is the work highly technical requiring an experienced mind?
  • Is the management talent available to guide and train less experienced staff?
  • Does the client for whom this work is being performed have an expectation that it will be performed correctly the very first time?
  • Will the individual performing the work have to exercise political savvy in performing the work?

You’ve no doubt noticed that one of the factors not included is cost. This is because it often costs more to have a less experienced and lower salaried person perform the work. Less experienced staff often will need to try multiple times to get it done correctly. Oftentimes, they will need management guidance every step of the way.

When I started my first company, Flash Creative Management, I thought that hiring bright, young people was the way to go. Flash was a service based business specializing in strategy development, business process redesign, and software development to support the client’s strategies and processes. My thinking was that I’d have a greater profit margin between what we would charge the client and what we were paying the staff.

Within a few years, it became very clear that for Flash, this was not the right approach. Our clients were willing to pay a premium dollar for important services done right the first time. And they wanted dramatic results.

Less skilled talent had lower salaries but the cost of rework, management time and – this is very important – the hit to the brand we were trying to develop — were significant.

When we shifted to more “expensive” and experienced staff, our business’ growth accelerated dramatically.

So “situationally” speaking —

If the work is either very important, highly technical or does not allow for errors or is time sensitive or requires political savvy, go for the proven and experienced talent. It will prove to be a very prudent approach that will save you money.

There is a place for young talent as well. They will perform very admirably in an environment where fresh ideas are required. However, it is equally important in order for them to be successful, that a nurturing and supportive environment that is comfortable with experimentation be in place. Management needs to be patient and be willing to guide and train extensively.

Categories: Hiring, Leadership, Strategy
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Staffing Appropriately During a Recession

March 2, 2009

With each passing day, we learn of more layoffs and furloughed employees. Today, more than ever, service and professional organizations need to determine the resources needed to complete projects so that they are staffed appropriately. Not surprisingly, there is a method by which one can accomplish this goal.

To do so, one begins by looking outward and assessing the projects that one wishes to address over a discrete period of time. Evaluate what is a priority or even an emergency project. These are the projects that absolutely must be accomplished for the well-being or growth of the business. Consider how long each project will take to complete.

Then segment the remaining projects into ones that would be nice to complete as they would add some value and then ones that are critical to the growth of the company. Your focus should be to address the priority projects, then the long term growth ones and then the “nice to haves.” By organizing the projects in this manner, the ability to address some of the longer term projects will present themselves as well.

From there, one should assess the type of staff required to complete the project. Do not think of terms of names of individuals within your company; rather, think in terms of roles. This is important because when one thinks of individuals, there is a tendency to not recognize that a particular person lacks a necessary skill or to minimize the importance of that person missing the skill. Make certain that you understand the skills required within each role.

Out of this exercise, a pattern will emerge. You will begin to discover that certain skills are required over the long term and certain skills are needed temporarily. You will also learn, based on the lengths of the projects, whether you need more than one individual with certain skills.

Once the roles have been identified, it is time to inventory the skills of your team. Do you have the right people and the right mix of professionals to complete the tasks at hand? Are their skills mature or do the lack the appropriate experience?

After completing this analysis, you will be in a better position to determine if you wish to recruit or buy additional talent, rent or have a consultant supplement your team to address a short term need, or provide additional training so that members of your team can acquire the skills.

Each of these alternatives has their place within the solution set. A short-term need or the immediate requirement for expertise and depth may necessitate that the most appropriate and economical alternative is using a consultant (the “rent” approach). A longer term or less pressing need may allow for an investment in training and augmenting the skills of your staff.  A need that you believe will be required for years to come may result in your organization pursing the recruitment or buying talent option.

In our next post, we’ll contemplate whether to recruit talent that has less experience and may be less costly or talent that has more experience and a higher price tag.

Categories: Crisis Management, Hiring, Leadership, Sales, Strategic Plans, Strategy
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Types of Measures

February 20, 2009

There are three types of measures:

1. Activity measures

2. Output measures

3. Impact measures

Activity measures tells us how efficiently something was done. It answers questions such as:

  • How long does it take?
  • How productive is the department?
  • How many resources were used?

It focuses us on internal tasks, timing and resources but it is NOT about outcomes. As an example, profitability is an activity measure because it relates incoming revenue to internal operational costs. It measures the efficiency within which resources are utilized to produce income.

You’ll find activity measures are usually used with internal operations groups and frequently these are the measures used for multiple phases of processes

Output Measures emphasize the results of the work rather than the work activities themselves. Outputs tend to be physical products, services and communications that one group sends to another. These types of measures answers questions about what has been produced such as:

  • Does the product meet quality standards?
  • Was the product sent on time?
  • Was the product delivered on time?
  • Was the customer satisfied?

Output measures are about products NOT about production. They gauge quality, timeliness and evaluation by the CUSTOMER or USERS and therefore the measuring source is usually outside of the group producing the output.

Customer satisfaction is an output measure that requires obtaining feedback from outside the organization (this can be a customer internal or external to the organization.) Most output measures are using internal standards. These measures are useful when you are interested in whether the results meet certain standards.

My personal favorite is the last of our set and the one the President and our legislative leaders truly want to cause.

Impact measures ALWAYS require feedback or customer research to develop meaningful measures. So what is the difference between customer satisfaction measures and impact measures?

Customer satisfaction measures what the customer likes. Impact measures what the product does for the customer. It is all about value.

Impact measures answers questions such as:

  • Does the product make the customer more productive?
  • More successful?
  • Do the services make the customer more effective?
  • More influential?
  • Do the products help the customers reach their goals?

These measures require serious examination of the customer because there is no other way to get information about the customer’s productivity, success measures or goals without their input and evaluation.

Most important it shifts the focus to “What do you need from us to help you succeed on your own measures of success?” This type of measure alters relationships and makes what you achieve more valuable.

It makes you realize exactly what is the point of what we do.

Categories: Hiring, Leadership, Sales, Strategic Plans, Strategy, Visioning
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Developing Success Measures

February 18, 2009

One of the more pressing questions asked of President Obama recently was how the American people could tell if the stimulus package was effective. What he was actually being asked to address was the concept of success measures.

In the business world, success measures are what we call “goals.”

Here’s why goals are so important.

  • Goals and objectives are the links between the organizational vision and the new environment.
  • Goals clarify expectations about what needs to be done to help the organization make the transition into the envisioned environment.
  • Goals give direction to individuals and teams for planning and executing change.
  • Goals tell us what we need to do. As such, goals must be measurable.

We measure for a variety of reasons:

  • Tells us if we are winning
  • Defines performance and gives people an observable and quantifiable way to measure progress over time
  • Tells people what really counts and is desirable
  • What gets measured is what gets done
  • Publishing measures makes things change – it shines a light
  • Measures make commitments real – otherwise it may be perceived as a wish or a good idea
  • Forces confusion and misunderstanding into the open by creating an opportunity for alignment
  • Pulls people together

Without goals, we are like Alice in Wonderland as she asked directions of the Cheshire Cat. “Would you please tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t care much where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “As long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation. “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “If you only walk long enough.”

Categories: Leadership, Sales, Strategic Plans, Strategy, Visioning
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Keeping Your Balance

February 16, 2009

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it appears that President Obama is getting quite an education from both the Democrats and the Republicans. This type of education will hopefully result in the President learning how to keep his balance.

The life of a leader is always a balancing act but never more so than during a transition. Uncertainty and ambiguity can be crippling. One does not know what one does not know. Keeping one’s balance is a key transition challenge.

It is essential that the new leader avoid these seven traps.

1)      Riding off in all directions. You must focus yourself on what is important.

2)      Undefended Boundaries. It is important to establish boundaries around what you are willing and not willing to do. Otherwise bosses, peers, and direct reports will take all that you have to give.

3)      Brittleness. The uncertainty inherent in transitions breeds rigidity and defensiveness, especially in new leaders with a high need for control. The likely result will be over commitment to a failing course of action.

4)      Isolation. Isolation can occur because you do not take the time to make the right connections, perhaps by relying on a few people, on “official” information or, by discouraging people from sharing bad news with you.

5)      Biased Judgment. This difficulty manifests itself as over commitment to a failing course of action because of ego and credibility issues, confirmation bias (the tendency to focus on information that confirms your beliefs and filter out that which does not), self-serving illusions (a tendency for your personal stake in a situation to cloud your judgment), and optimistic overconfidence or underestimation of the difficulties associated with your preferred course of action. Vulnerability to these biases increases in high stakes, uncertain, ambiguous situations in which emotions can run high.

6)      Work Avoidance. The leader avoids making a tough call by choosing to bury him or herself in other work. This causes tougher problems to become even tougher.

7)      Going over the top. All these traps can generate dangerous levels of stress. When stress is too high it becomes counterproductive.

To avoid these traps the author recommends following the leadership transition program outlined in this document, creating and enforcing personal disciplines, and building support systems at home and at work that help you maintain balance.

Personal disciplines that should be considered are

  • Planning to Plan
  • Deferring Commitments until you are certain that you have time to fulfill the commitment
  • Setting aside time for hard work by prioritizing and eliminating distractions so as to concentrate on what needs to be done
  • “Going to the balcony” and allowing yourself to step out and distance yourself so that the problem may be perceived in a different light
  • Focusing on the process of influencing others through consultation
  • Checking in with yourself to privately reflect on the situation.
  • Recognizing when to take a break in order to reenergize yourself.

Building your Support Systems means getting your personal office set-up, stabilizing the home front as your spouse and family are transitioning too, and building your advice and counsel network. This network should include people who can guide you on technical issues, such as expert analysis of technologies, markets and strategies; cultural interpreters who will help you understand the culture; and political counselors who will help you deal with political relationships.

Categories: Crisis Management, Hiring, Leadership, Sales, Strategic Plans, Strategy
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