Be Different or be dead

August 1, 2016

Why weird people are desperately needed to keep our businesses alive

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Why weird people are desperately needed to keep our businesses alive.

“The best” describes someone who conforms to rules and expectations more closely than others.

They spell more accurately; answer history questions more correctly and score the highest mark on linear algebra exams.

“The best” does a masterful job of performing their task according to the rules of the day. They colour inside the lines perfectly.

There are certain professions where we want the highest mark. It would not be comforting, for example, knowing the pilot scored a blistering 25% on his aircraft landing test. Nor would we trust our life to a heart surgeon who had a bypass surgery success rate of 4 out of 10.
These types of professions we want the best and need in-the-box thinking and performance.

In business, however, conformance to a set of rules or a set of standard operating rules does not guarantee success. When organizations conform, they all look alike; they are all the same.

They all are members of the herd who are indistinguishable from one another and struggle to gain competitive advantage.

Conformance to a best practice might improve operating performance but it will never create strategic success.

Organizations who consistently succeed are brilliant at not merely thinking outside the box, but creating a new box to play in.

They create a new form with a different set of lines to draw in.

They are masters of contrarianism and going the opposite direction to the momentum of the crowd.

They focus on separating themselves from the herd.

Don’t press yourself or others to be “the best”.

Honour the weird, odd, crazy, quirky, strange, out there, ridiculous and unusual.

Signs of weirdness.

Weird people:

- Find the notion of doing it like everyone else repugnant;
- Hang out with other weirdos;
- Aren’t taken seriously by the crowd;
- Are quite often the target of bullies;
- Are infatuated with technology and the cool things it can do;
- As young students were often In the Principle’s office;
- Hate following the rules;
- Turn out to be leaders of retro fashion;
- Invent their own language to describe the latest trends;

                          ◾️◾️◾️◾️

- Eat way too much pizza;
- Tend to enjoy their own company; they don’t have time for faceless crowds;
- Are fuelled by the art of the possible;
- Chase stuff;
- Aren’t afraid to fail; they do it all the time;
- Ask “Why?” in every conversation they have;
- Don’t use labels to define people. Weird is normal; it’s all they know;

The weird shall - no they must - inherit the earth.

Our future depends on it.

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

• Posted 8.1.16 at 05:08 am by Roy Osing
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July 25, 2016

Why your competitive advantage must be more than just hot air

Source: Pexels

Why your competitive advantage must be more than just hot air.

Most companies struggle with defining their competitive advantage claim. What makes them unique; different from their competitors.

They can’t answer the question “Why should I do business with you and NOT your competition?” in a succinct meaningful way.

There are two traps they fall into.

First, they generally speak to the internal capabilities an organization has (what leadership believes are the differentiators) rather than being explicit about how they compare to others in the market. “We provide the highest quality products.”; “Our people are our greatest asset.” They stress technology.

They talk about their size and claim market leadership.

Second, most competitive advantage statements are high level and aspirational in nature. They are not precise and specific enough to communicate how an organization is special among the choices available.

“We provide the best value.” “We have been in business for 100 years.” “We offer the lowest prices out there.”

The use of helium filled adjectives often abound. Overused and eye-glazing descriptors like: better, best, top, #1, excellent, great, greatest, lowest, most and so on pervade the advertising airwaves.

A competitive claim must declare the difference between your organization and your competitors AND it must be precise enough so that people can “see” the difference.

You can’t see “greatest” for example and you can’t see “most”. They mean different things to different people.

As the solution, create The ONLY Statement as an element of the Strategic Game Plan: “We are the ONLY ones that…” is its form.

ONLY must be brief. If it takes you a page of narrative to define your competitive advantage, you don’t have one.

ONLY never includes the “P” word. Claiming a price advantage is a slippery slope as price can be easily copied and it says nothing about value provided.

“The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about. “ – Seth Godin

A couple of ONLY examples.

“We provide the ONLY solution that permanently stops people from depositing biohazard contaminants through manhole covers”— MUG Solutions, Vancouver

“St John Ambulance is the ONLY provider of First Aid, Health & Safety Solutions Anytime, Anywhere”— St John Ambulance, Vancouver

Test ONLY with your customers to ensure it addresses something they care about, and you consistently demonstrate 24/7. The ONLY Statement works. It can be observed. It can be measured. People get it.

Start your ONLY journey today.

It’s the source of your competitive advantage claim.

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

• Posted 7.25.16 at 04:34 am by Roy Osing
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June 6, 2016

5 vital traits to hire for high performing amazing teams

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5 vital traits to hire for high performing amazing teams.

You’ve heard it a million times. Building extraordinary value in an organization requires amazing people.

You can have the most innovative technology and the coolest products and services, but without the people layer to transform these capabilities into value, they are worthless.

How do you recruit people who will deliver unbelievable performance for your organization?

What do you look for?

The profile of the person you recruit must fit the challenges that organizations face in today’s markets. Intense competition, highly empowered customers, and unpredictability describe the barriers to success and survival.

Recruit these 5 traits to build a team that will stand out from the crowd and raise your performance to unbelievable levels.

#1. Human being lovers — They have a genuine affection for people; they care for others. This makes them extreme team players who will actually do whatever it takes to help their fellow employees to move the collective forward.

#2. Goosebumps story teller — They love telling a story and they have a million of them. They tell their story with such richness and emotion, they take your breath away. They are particularly good at telling stories that illustrate their desire and commitment to have credit go to others.

#3. Anti-rhetorician — They focus on what they’ve actually achieved rather than attempt to persuade and impress through high fog factor language. Results speak louder than intent; they get it and they can prove that they’ve done it.

#4. Driver — An intense sense of urgency fuels everything they do. It’s more than ‘action orientation’; it’s more a natural element of their personal DNA. They don’t tolerate discussing the theoretical benefits of an idea; they want to get on with trying it out to see if it has any practical value.

#5. Un-perfectionist — They are satisfied with getting it just about right and are prepared to change course in the face of unexpected events. They are ‘learn as you go’ individuals who see value in making progress, learning from execution and delivering results.

The academic pedigree isn’t a helpful predictor of an individual’s contribution to organizational performance. It shows what you know not what you will likely do.

And ‘doing it’ is what is needed for success.

’Knowing it’ alone is worthless.

Recruit people with these 5 competencies and you will be able to ‘do it’.

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

• Posted 6.6.16 at 04:30 am by Roy Osing
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May 2, 2016

7 proven ways to make floundering business planning successful

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I have been the “victim” of traditional business planning methods for years.

“Strategic Planning 101” sessions are not fun; more often than not they are painful to sit through as participants are dragged through a pedantic process which can be extremely boring.

It is time consuming. Literally hour and hours of effort are consumed by preparation, in-session presentations from subject matter experts and debate over the most critical SWOT’s.

ISSUE #1 - current planning emphasis is on creating “perfect” strategic direction; how to execute it plays a minor, sometimes non-existent, role.

The process masks itself as a precise science in a world of uncertainty, randomness, unpredictability and imprecision. There is an infatuation with applying the tool set of strategic planning with the belief that the more analysis you do, the more perfect your plan becomes.

Paralysis by analysis is often the result and more valuable time is consumed.

Helium-filled goals attracts much of the attention in terms of what is desired in the long term. The conversation includes this language: “market leader”, “world class”, “number 1” and “pre-eminent supplier”.

Direction setting occupies at least 80% of the time in an attempt to get it “perfect”. It is tight on strategy but loose on execution.

HOW the strategy will be executed in the marketplace gets little attention. It assumes that execution naturally follows the declaration of the new strategic direction strategy. REALLY? When has that ever happened?

Rather than seeing evidence of active use, “meticulously ironed” planning documents sit proudly on managers’ shelves gathering dust.

ISSUE #2 - there is no practical tool set to determine how an organization can truly separate itself from their competition.

Traditional strategy building is ineffective in producing a true competitive advantage claim to separate an organization from “the herd”; to stand-out and be different in a remarkable way that their customers care about.

The process doesn’t highlight the need to do so nor does it provide practical tools. Traditional marketing concepts like product and market leadership, first mover advantage and technology innovation are relied on accomplish this purpose but are ineffective in clearly defining how one company is different than another.

My approach to business planning — I call it my strategic game planning process — process addresses these inadequacies of traditional planning.

It has execution as its primary focus and it provides a practical and proven tool to create effective competitive differentiation.

It’s called a strategic game plan because the objective is to SCORE! The football analogy is quite apt; move the ball towards your opponent’s goal anyway in a series of moves you can successfully execute and get it across the goal line.

The process of moving down field doesn’t have to be elegant. Exploit whatever opportunities the defence gives you and just get the ball in the end zone. It really doesn’t matter if you score with a “Hail Mary” pass or a series of 10 running plays.

7 building blocks of the strategic game plan:

1. Answer 3 questions and you have your game plan — declare your growth goals; choose the customers you intend to serve; determine how you intend to win.

2. Get your plan just about right — rebalance your planning efforts; loosen up on strategy and tighten up on execution.

3. Plan on the run — your game plan is never complete. Start executing; learn what works and doesn’t; adjust as you go.

4. Focus. Focus. Focus — choose a handful of critical objectives to achieve that have the potential to deliver 75-80% Of your game plan. Don’t try to “boil the ocean” and go after too much. Your efforts will be diluted and your progress blocked.

5. Cut the Crap — eliminate the projects and activities that cannot be directly related to your game plan. Crap consumes precious bandwidth you need to do new things. Hanging on to irrelevant tasks will put pressure to add resources that you don’t need and can’t afford.

6. Create your ONLY Statement — cut through the clutter of vague competitive claims out there and declare what you and ONLY you provide that is compelling and relevant to the customers you have chosen to serve.

7. Review your progress at least every 3 months. Keep execution alive and in everyone’s face as the new business as usual.

Out with the traditional business planning process; in with the strategic game plan as the business plan model for the new market realities.

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

• Posted 5.2.16 at 05:24 am by Roy Osing
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