Be Different or be dead

May 8, 2023

4 exciting breakaway moves to leave ‘the herd of sameness’

4 exciting breakaway moves to leave ‘the herd of sameness’.

The herd of sameness.
The undifferentiated mass where everyone’s the same.
Where compliance rules.
Where conformity reigns supreme.
Where risks are avoided.
Where no one stands out.
Where commonness and average describe its constituents.
Where momentum from the past defines its direction.
Where innovation is missing in action.

What I mean by ‘breakaway’.

▪️divergence.
▪️radical change,
▪️sudden attack or movement,
▪️’violent’ exit away from the herd.

For those of you who have followed my work—books, blogs, podcasts—you know that I advocate choosing a journey that others don’t.

Finding a way forward that serves others in ways that others don’t.
Discovering your ‘sweet spot’ in a world where copying runs rampant and originality is a lost art.

Some might say that’s what ‘pivoting’ is all about.

No it’s not.

A pivot is a change of direction from the past. It’s an incremental move away from past momentum. It’s a shift making use of the competencies that have been developed in the past.

A breakaway move is disruptive.

It reinvents the playing field by virtue of the move you make. It dismisses the past in terms of reliance and usefulness; it isn’t used to inform the future.

I took a startup to A BILLION IN SALES by creating these 4 breakaway moves intended to create something NEW that could drive miraculous performance.

Move #1. BE DiFFERENT!

▪️Don’t COPY.
Copying what others do keeps you in The herd of sameness. Look for ways to CREATE, not copy. Purge ‘best in class’ from your vault of business tools.

▪️Avoid CLAPTRAP.
Stop thinking of yourself as faster, better, best, leader or #1.

“We provide the best customer service.” is pure conjecture offered by the company spewing the words.

Start thinking of how you can become The ONLY One that does what you do in satisfying what is compelling and relevant for people.

▪️Shed ASPIRATIONS.
Ground yourself when it comes to defining what makes you special. A helium-filled 10,000-foot aspirational declaration doesn’t help convince people to do business with you.

“We are in business to save our home planet” may make the organization feel good about itself, but it does little to make it perfectly clear why they, and no one else, should have your business.

The ONLY Statement puts precision to your promise. It’s clear, measurable and understandable. It’s your Ground Zero.

Move #2. EXECUTE!

Academics and other so-called ‘experts’ have convinced us that the strategy is the critical element of high performing organizations.
They preach that the Plan must be elegant—by using their quantitative toolset—and it must be ‘perfect’—by accurately predicting the outcome of the Plan.

As a result, we spend 80% of our time trying to get the Plan absolutely ‘right’ in an imperfect world with stochastic events relentlessly bombarding us.

Stop! My experience in marching to A BILLION is that EXECUTION is the planning element that needs more attention than the Plan itself.

Get the Plan ‘just about right’ and execute it flawlessly is the real prescription for unbelievable performance.

My Strategic Game Plan is based on the view that a perfectly workable Plan is to ‘head west’.

Start executing. Learn from how well you’re executing. Learn from any unpredictable events—‘body blows’—that have rocked you. Adjust the Plan. Keep executing.

Move #3. SERVE!

Actually, the leadership herd of sameness is large and growing.

Most leaders are rote practitioners. They follow the leadership pedagogy promulgated by theorist academics and HR pundits who all espouse the same fundamentals.

Tactics of leadership are encouraged as the things leaders should do in order to transform themselves into ‘great’ leaders.

And so, tactics dealing with communications, delegation, team building, planning and others rain down on the leadership crowd with everyone getting washed with the same soap.

This is a BIG problem in my view.

Tactics should always be informed by strategy; tactics without strategic context serve no productive purpose other than satisfying the ‘expert’ pushing the tactics under their definition of ‘the right thing to do’.

My leadership guide was always to enhance the ability of the organization to EXECUTE! our Strategic Game Plan pristinely and hence improve performance and results ever higher.

My prime focus was to embed myself in the workplace—I call it ‘Leadership by SERVING Around (LBSA)—asking one simple question: “How can I help?”

The ‘gold’ I discovered from my breakaway move for the most part was what had to be done to remove the mud and grunge in the organization that was preventing effective execution: ‘dumb’ rules, policies, processes, systems and procedures that didn’t enable strategy execution, they prevented it.

Drawing a direct Line of Sight for people between their specific job responsibilities and the strategy was another SERVING Leadership role I played. Simple reason why it was important: if people understood exactly what they had to do to effectively execute the strategy, chances are their actions would deliver the strategic outcomes expected.

LBSA didn’t make me a ‘better’ leader, it made me a DiFFerENT leader from everyone else in ways which were required to drive performance through the roof as we marched to A BILLION IN SALES.

Move #4. DO-IT-YOURSELF!

There are certain tasks that should be delegated, but there are also some things the leader should do themselves regardless of what the books say.

’Strategic Micromanagement’ is my way of describing the fact that certain tasks associated with the execution of the organization’s strategic imperatives should be owned by the leader. No delegation. Period!

Audacious breakaway leaders NEVER delegate the stuff relating to the execution of their strategy.

These are some of the actions I took personally.

▪️ I ‘put my fingerprints’ on architecting ‘The Customer Moment’, the customer engagement process required to deliver amazing service experiences. Defining the behaviors required to ‘dazzle’ a customer were led by me. I took on the job of ensuring the organization knew what ‘Moments’ looked like, and trained everyone to deliver them.

▪️ Selling the organization’s Strategic Game Plan to employees was MY responsibility. I didn’t delegate it to anyone. It was my way of hearing first hand what people thought of the journey we decided to take and what they needed to fulfill it.
I had to answer the tough questions about why we chose the path we were on and how we were going to be successful.

▪️ I took on the role of ‘Strategy Hawk’ for my organization. It was my personal responsibility to monitor how effectively our strategy was being implemented and what remedial actions had to be taken to get us back on track when our results strayed from objectives.

▪️ I personally participated in the recruitment process for frontline managers and, on occasion, frontline employees as well. Panel interviews were held with potential candidates and I played an active role asking questions and selecting who got the job.

My objectives were twofold: first, to ensure that people in positions ‘close to customers’—I consider the frontline manager to be one of the most important positions in any organization—had the right Leadership By Serving Around skills and attributes and, second, to model the interview dynamics—questions and probing—for the other managers in the room.

Frontline people are key to executing a strategy; I wanted my fingerprints on the frontline recruitment and selection process.

Conclusion

Inertia plagues the ability of organizations and individuals to achieve superlative levels of performance which can only be achieved by a desire to breakaway from the momentum of the past.

My breakaway roadmap worked for me, and I guarantee it will work for you if you trust it.

✔️ BE DiFFERENT!
✔️ EXECUTE!
✔️ SERVE!
✔️ DO-IT-YOURSELF!

Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

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‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 5.8.23 at 07:00 am by Roy Osing
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May 1, 2023

Why being imperfect FAST! is the secret to amazing business growth

Why being imperfect FAST! is the secret to amazing business growth.

Imperfection is the engine of innovation—trying different things. And in my experience perfection—however defined—is not needed to win.

We didn’t get to a BILLION in annual sales by being perfect in the classical sense. Check out the audacious ways we got there.

While you’re intellectually seeking perfection, you’re not DOING anything!

Pondering perfection is an excellent way to do nothing and fail.

You need to create your own version of perfection, that will be the solution—inelegant and messy probably—that works for you.

— What do you mean when you say a business needs to imperfect ‘FAST’?

Rarely does anyone achieve unbelievable success after one attempt; they will seldomly ‘get it right the first time’.

You will have to make many ‘tries’ before landing on something new that will work.

Failure is an essential ingredient of innovation. So ‘fail a lot’ is a strategic imperative.

Success depends on the number of tries you make (so many variables at play in a highly complicated and unpredictable world), which means that making many tries FAST is essential.

— How does being imperfect FAST make an organization different?

Because it leads to more innovation. A constant stream of tries will eventually create something truly special that raises performance to astonishing heights.

An ‘imperfect FAST’ culture sets the organization apart from others who are stuck in the ‘perfection seeking mode’ and making little progress.

It inspires employees so an adaptive organization culture is nurtured.

— What are the benefits of being imperfect FAST?

▪️It aids in the execution of your strategy.
▪️It ‘keeps your feet moving’, on your toes to take a turn when your plan isn’t working out the way you want.
▪️It avoids the impossible task of taking copious amounts of time seeking a solution that doesn’t exist—perfection.
▪️It effectively prepares you to deal with uncertainty and unpredictable change.
▪️It feeds the innovation organizational value. You can’t be innovative with the belief you can find a silver bullet that will miraculously do the job for you.
It doesn’t exist.

Speed is a competitive advantage.

▪️First mover advantage with imperfection makes you standout and puts you ahead of the herd.

— What actions can an organization take to be imperfect FAST?

✔️ Leaders must declare that it’s ok to be imperfect. That the number of ‘tries’ is the innovation journey that will define ultimate success.
✔️ Embed ‘tries’ in performance plans. Everyone should be expected to try new things. Trying must define the culture of the organization.
✔️ Celebrate ’triers’ constantly. What a great way to make trying matter. Have fun with it. Recognize trying heroes.
✔️ Create an ‘Imperfectionist Club’. I’m thinking the ‘Cult of Triers’ would be an excellent way to kick this journey off. Start small and build the cult to include the entire organization.

In a world of imperfections, why do we constantly try to be perfect?

Doesn’t make sense to me.

Want to stand out from the crowd and win?

Be imperfect FAST!

Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 5.1.23 at 06:56 am by Roy Osing
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April 10, 2023

3 simple things entrepreneurs do to make their new idea a winner

3 simple things entrepreneurs do to make their new idea a winner.

There is a plethora of good business ideas out there being produced by many smart people.

The challenge, however, is how to make your idea a successful one. The one new idea that people salivate over. The one that captures their imagination and takes their breath away.

Successful entrepreneurs understand the principle that to win, their idea needs to stand-out in the crowd and it needs to:

Create VALUE that is RELEVANT (something people care about) and UNIQUE (something that ONLY you do).

1. Create VALUE — What your new idea DOES for people. The benefits you give to people. The emotion you elicit. The memories and experiences you create with your new idea.

Value has little to do with technology and the whiz-bang things it can do. If technology doesn’t evoke emotion or satisfy a craving, it’s worth nothing.

Delivering value does NOT involve flogging your product or service to the masses. If you want to intrude on and interrupt people, choose this strategy.

But you won’t last long.

2. Create Value that is RELEVANT — Talk to the critical few things that are important to your target customer. Things they care about.

Things that evoke an emotional response. Speak to them directly and intimately.

Avoid the temptation to push your agenda to the crowd. This is a lazy marketing tactic with no positive return on investment.

Sure, your message might illicit a positive response from a few people, but the more likely outcome is that most of the crowd will be annoyed that you injected yourself into their space, or will ignore you.

Speak to what people desire not what you want to flog.

3. Create Value that is UNIQUE — Providing something in some way that no one else does. Be the ONLY one that does what you do. The ultimate manifestation of being unique is the ability to create the ONLY Statement.

“We are the ONLY ones that…” is the claim you need to create for your new idea. It cannot be like anything else in the market if it is to succeed.

You don’t want to be best, #1 or excellent. These are CLAPTRAP aspirations at best and give your audience no specific reason why they should but your new idea as opposed to someone else’s.

Most organizations have a competitive claim that is vague and grandiose with little clarity in terms of why their new idea is unique. Don’t go there.

Here’s an ONLY example that I like:

“BCI Marine is the ONLY complete service partner committed to delivering solutions to grow a boat dealer’s business.”

Don’t fall victim to the grim reaper and risk failing like many in the entrepreneurial herd.

Break-away.

Be AuDACIOUS!

Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 4.10.23 at 06:24 am by Roy Osing
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March 20, 2023

What’s the audacious (but simple) formula to take a startup to a BILLION in sales?

Is there a formula to take a startup to a BILLION in sales?

Yup. But it’s not just about sales. This is not a treatise on sales techniques; FAR FROM IT! In fact sales plays a minor role in what it takes to get a BILLION.

In my seventh book, “Audacious ’Unheard-of Ways’ I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES”, (https://www.bedifferentorbedead.com/blog/item/1328) I share with you the formula I discovered over my four-decade career as an entrepreneur, CMO and president.

I hope you check out my book for the details, but here are 8 snippets I hope will tweak your interest:

1. Business plan — You won’t make a dent in the BILLION if you spend all your time trying to perfect your plan to get your strategic intent ‘perfect’. I will show you how to develop my BILLION business plan that gets your end game ‘just about right’ and focuses on execution as the source to learn and tweak it on the run.

2. Tailor-made solutions — BILLION dollars in sales doesn’t come from a mass market solution marketing machine, rather a healthy mix of mass customized and individual tailor-made solutions with ME-NOW as the primary focus.
I will give you a step-by-step method of doing it based on what worked for me as CMO.

3. Premium pricing — Pricing on the journey to a BILLION is about being a premium price business where the value provided to its customers commands higher prices than the competition. Discount pricing is for commodity players with mediocre sales and margins.
I will share my pricing secrets with you and show you how to play the high-price, high-sales game.

4. Elegant delivery — A key component of the BILLION sales stream is how solutions are delivered to customers. Delivery systems must be flawless.
This is basic stuff. Customers expect to get what they’ve bought in a straightforward way and when delivery systems don’t work their dissatisfaction is often expressed by complaining to their friends or moving to another supplier.
I will show you in simple terms how to flawlessly execute your plan and ensure your customers get what they want when they want it.

5. Caring service — A business that is capable of a BILLION in sales cares about its customers.
They actually have a culture that has moved beyond the normal strategy of providing excellent customer service to one where employees treat their colleagues and customers with the respect and empathy they deserve.
I will explain in detail how I created a service strategy for the organizations I led and the success that I had.

6. Serving leadership — A BILLION in sales comes from frontline functions supported by serving leaders.
They understand that superlative performance and unmatched results come from well trained employees working with the right tools and ‘100 % uptime’ systems and processes and minimal barriers and roadblocks to doing their jobs the way they need to be done.
Leadership plays a vital role in the effectiveness of delivering results by spending time with the frontline and other key delivery systems personnel asking the simple question: “How can I help?” and serving them in any way they can.
My success as a leader came from a blueprint I developed for myself and I’m going to take you through it so you can reap the same rewards as I did.

7. A win-your-business-everyday attitude — A BILLION in sales requires an attitude and culture that takes nothing for granted in terms of customer loyalty. These businesses know that, with so much competition and alternatives for their customers, they must earn the right to serve their customers everyday.
And that if they do much as lose focus on that purpose, they could lose business in a heartbeat.
Employees are coached to assume that their customer’s business is always up in the air and that they must fight for it with every customer engagement.
My approach to building strong teams is unique, and in my book you will learn to not only have a strong turned-on team, but also to do it in an unheard-of way.

8. Reaction DNA — You don’t earn a BILLION by having a strategy that successfully plays out the way it was originally intended; there are always unexpected ‘body blows’ that strike, which requires a business to react ‘in the moment’ to take it in a new direction.
These businesses have reaction as a basic element of their DNA. They absorb body blows effectively, re-vector their strategy and retain their sales momentum.
There’s a formula to create the organizational ability to respond to unforeseen events that shock you, and I will unveil it for you in specific detail.

These snippets only scratch the surface in terms of what I did to successfully take a startup business to a BILLION in sales.

For the full reveal, check out my new book,

Cheers,
Roy
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• Posted 3.20.23 at 07:27 am by Roy Osing
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