Be Different or be dead

November 26, 2010

Why amazing cultures are not created by one thing

Source: Unsplash

There is no silver bullet in changing the culture of an organization, just as there is no single brilliant idea that will guarantee the survival of an organization in today’s world.

No single solution or idea that will suddenly, overnight, protect it from demise.

Rather, cultural change is a game of inches, where the objective is to get as many people in the organization trying as many different approaches as possible, and achieving fast increments of progress along the way.

What happens is that the passionate actions of a few individuals begin to infect the masses; more and more change activity is created and a new momentum begins.

This sustainable new momentum, in turn, defines the new culture of the organization: a culture that embraces creativity and innovation, and a business that can look forward to a long and prosperous life.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.26.10 at 08:00 pm by Roy Osing
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November 25, 2010

Why your business plan should focus on 3 limited things

Source: Unsplash

Why your business plan should focus on 3 limited things.

If you try to boil the ocean you’ll lose; if your business plan focuses on 3 limited things, success awaits.

So, here you are. You have completed your business plan for your new business and now you must determine the tactics you need to see your brave idea turn into reality.
You start with a clean sheet of paper and decide to brainstorm on all the things you need to do to implement your new plan.

Good idea? Well, it can be, or it can create a lot of activity but little movement forward.

It’s ok to create a list of possible actions that you feel should be taken, but then you must purge the list down to the critical few actions to focus on that you believe have an 80 percent chance of achieving the results you want.
You simply don’t have enough resources and bandwidth to do an effective job on 25 things you have on your brainstorming list.

Multitasking is deadly when you are trying to implement the game plan of your ‘new baby’

If you can’t define the critical few actions necessary to achieve progress towards your business plan goals, it indicates that you really don’t understand your strategy and the specific execution levers are necessary to get you going.
Spend time debating this issue because if you merely throw possibilities at the wall and then try to implement every one of them, your energies will be spread too thin and you will be unable to move forward.

Determine 3 things (or maybe 4 or 5, but not a dozen) that will produce 80% of your business plan results and get on with them — Roy’s Rule of 3

Spend time on Roy’s Rule; it will pay off handsomely for you.

Beware of Yummy

Once you’ve defined the few critical things that you believe will get your startup off the ground, be prepared for distractions that will pull you away from your game plan. This always happens as you learn more about what your strategy means, and when others find out what you’re up to and present you with added opportunities.

If you have more than three priorities then you don’t have any — Jim Collins, Author

For example, you’ve decided on the customer group you want to target and out-of-the-blue comes someone who is not a target customer reaching out to you to ask for your attention.

They want to explore adopting your product solution and of course they have questions that they need answers to which will take time and effort on your part to accommodate — they will drain your scarce resources.

This happens all the time. A client of mine decided to focus on the Vancouver market where access was easy and market growth was attractive. Then they received a call from an organization in South America who found out about their innovative solution and wanted to explore partnership opportunities with them. Clearly not on strategy. But oh so tempting to chase!

‘Yummy incoming’  is the over-the-transom stuff that comes up that we are tempted to chase

Another client developed an innovative wireless technology for a particular application in the security market segment. When other companies learned of their plans, they reached out and presented them with other potential applications for their technology.

The CEO was delighted with the additional interest and decided to evaluate these new opportunities but in doing so diffused the efforts of his team and reduced the focus on building the security solution. The end result after about a year of toiling over at least a half dozen applications was nothing advanced. The security opportunity faltered and investors pulled their funding. Yummy was the instrument of their demise.

What do you do when Yummy appears and has the potential of pushing your business plan off the rail?

How to beat Yummy

Here’s how to keep Yummy from diluting the effectiveness of your business plan:an action plan to consider.

— Give yourself one day — no more — to do a quick and dirty evaluation on whether or not Yummy has any potential. It’s important that you maintain the discipline to not burn endless resource cycles on the possibility that there could be a significant opportunity vis-a-vis your current focus but you have to make the call fast so the impact on your current momentum is minimized.

— If you decide to chase Yummy, go back and review your business plan. If Yummy looks like it has potential, change the focus of your business plan.
If you decide to try and have it both ways — trying to stay on your original path and also chase Yummy — you won’t succeed in execution your business plan and you probably won’t do a decent job chasing Yummy. 

You can’t have a handful of number one priorities as a fledgling company. Multitasking is bad news for most organizations but it’s deadly for startups. And don’t for even a moment think you have the luxury of taking on additional resources to implement Yummy. You don’t.

— Explore whether or not the organization representing Yummy is prepared to contribute resources to evaluate the potential of their idea and to help implement it if it turns out if it offers as much value as your current strategy. They may be willing to partner with you in the development of their idea and in the go-to-market action plan in return for a piece of the action.

Remember, every minute Yummy consumes your time is a minute less you have to spend on the focus you’ve decided on to execute your overall strategy so resist the temptation to deviate from it without compelling evidence that you will be better off doing so.

Chasing stuff is not healthy. Busyness may be comfort food, but remember that you created a game plan to avoid eating it

Successful businesses focus on limited priorities in their business plan and don’t chase things that are interesting and cool but are clearly off strategy.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.25.10 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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November 22, 2010

Why is learning about customers so damn important?

Source: Pexels

Traditional market research doesn’t go far enough.

Periodic studies can’t keep pace with the changing needs of your FANS and everyone uses it.

Customer learning, on the other hand, is a continuous process of learning what your customers want, desire and covet.

And it is a core competency of your business which should never be outsourced.

What’s the key to customer learning? It’s all about LISTENING; REALLY listening to what people have to say.

Pay attention to their words and the results are remarkable; give it lip service and you are doomed.

Here is a brief guide on how to be an effective Listener:

LOOK — them in the eye. Don’t Grin ‘em. Give them your undivided attention. Show that you CARE about what they have to say. Lean forward.

LISTEN — Really listen! Ask questions to clarify. Take copious amount of notes. Don’t interrupt them when they are speaking. It’s about them not you.

LEARN — This is a moment of strategic opportunity; don’t miss it. Discover a secret. Look for hidden VALUE that you can create for them; latent Happiness you can generate.

What’s the ROI on Customer Listening?

LOYALTY — Your FANS will stay with you and tell others how terrific you are. Advocates & addicted followers create annuity streams for you.

LEAP — Beyond the herd who still compete by incremental product feature creep. You will achieve Distinction; Remarkable.

LEAVE — ‘em in the dust. to achieve true separation from the herd. And a clear unique value proposition that others will simply not be able to replicate.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.22.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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November 18, 2010

Why an aspiration can actually kill your ability to compete

Source: Unsplash

Why an aspiration can kill your ability to compete. Aspirations keep your head in the clouds even though results are achieved on the ground.

An essential component of building a business plan for your organization is declaring how you intend to compete and win against the competition.

This is all about deciding what you will do to convince targeted customers to do business with you and only you.

Unfortunately, most organizations come up with competitive advantage claims that describe what they aspire to do, rather than laying out detailed, specific and concrete reasons for people to buy from them as opposed to others

Meaningless claims like these pervade the marketplace:

▪️‘we provide the utmost in service and selection’

▪️‘we offer the best quality anywhere’

▪️‘we provide top notch service’

▪️‘we have been in business for over 50 years’

▪️‘we provide a wide range of services’

▪️‘we provide the best network in Canada’

▪️‘we are the most technologically advanced company in our business’

▪️‘we have people who care’

These types of statements might pass the helium-filled vision test, but they do little to stake out a claim that will communicate precisely what the organization intends to do to differentiate itself from their competition.

They do little to set customer expectations in terms of the behavior they should expect to see and the experience they should expect to enjoy. What exactly do they mean?

Every customer is likely to view the clams differently. Each employee would likely have a different definition of what each means; a big problem when it comes to delivering on the claim.

Consistency is required, not everyone doing what THEY think the claim means.

They are simply too general and at too high a level to be meaningful.

So, examine your competitive claims. Declare your position in compelling precise terms using the ONLY statement.

Leave aspirations out of the strategy room.

Get specific. Create a competitive claim that clearly articulates how you are different from the herd.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.18.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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