The Final Frontier

We are embarking on the greatest business revolution in 4 generations. It affects our whole economy.

The biggest change in ownership since WWII is starting now and will continue through the next 15 years. More than one half of small and medium business in the American economy are owned and managed by Boomers, and will have a forced change of ownership.

Who are they? Many current business owners have their personal fortunes, the scorecard of their careers, tied up in their businesses. They must find a way to get the money out of the business or assure its continuing viability, or have an unsuccessful retirement.

Do you know business owners in this situation – can’t figure how to get their money out? What do they need? Owners are looking for credible solutions.

We find that the keys to past success are usually the owner’s point-of-view and the culture of the company. We have found that outside solutions seldom work, they aren’t credible to the people doing the work, and they often have never worked elsewhere.

How do you begin creating a solution to a new problem? You should probably start with a common definition of what you have and what you want. Just defining those two often shows available solutions that were previously ignored.

We worked with owners of a technology distributor who wanted to sell the assets of the organization, had a figure from a recent audit, and hoped for a quick sale around that figure. We talked with them about what are the assets? In addition to office equipment and inventory – what else -  entity and name, customer records, sales process, industry knowledge?

Asked what they wanted, the owners said quick sale at top dollar. Which is primary – speed or price?

As our conversation expanded, the owners defined what they were selling (the complete entity, but retaining another separate corporation), had identified potential buyers (their knowledge of the industry could be useful to the buyer for transition), and that a couple of years was OK to get a better price.

Just getting the conversations and revelations took 90 days.

For a nonprofit teetering on the knife-edge of solvency, the conversation lead to determining a merger was a desirable choice strengthen the organization and keep the mission programs operating, then find partners, complete the combination of the two entities. The entire process took almost 3-years.

A contractor got 100% of their revenue from government contracts when we began the conversation about getting money out for the owners. What do you have, what do you want? The results over an 8-year period was to increase government revenue threefold, reduce government contracts to less than 30% of total billing, and to sell the organization for several multiples of its initial value.

A successful future begins with a conversation.

Rules of the road? Click: Selling Out 

Focus

I REALLY like sitting down first thing in the morning and powering through ten or twelve tasks neatly written on my three by five card. That’s a feat of traditional productivity mastery. 

But that doesn’t happen every morning. There’s a lot of set up to get to that point, figuring out what to do, what the steps should be, and improving them.

Trying to figure a course of action to make some software work better can involve thinking, and writing, and searching, and talking, repeated several times. Fixing is the fun part!

Yesterday I was talking to a warrior who has created a complex process for getting optimal results. When it works. And it’s not working any more. 

Now, nobody cares. He admits something different is needed, but it’s so seductive to do it the way he used to. Even though he knows it’s not going to work. 

In science, we have a scientific method to investigate phenomena. We’re not supposed to fake data, and then attack anyone who points it out. But we do. 

Having focus is not enough. We need the maturity to generate the right focus. Because paybacks are hell. 

Sales Lab’s Rainmaker 19, Foam Ball is 300 seconds of enlightenment at The Capital Technology Management Hub, 6:30 pm on Tuesday, April 9 at Teqcorner, 1616 Anderson Road, Third Floor, McLean, VA 22102. Rainmaker 19 Foam Ball will be immediately followed by our headliner presentation, Tom Cooper, BrightHill Group, Are You Too Busy To Plan?

The Carriage Return

Why is it that training is the last item considered in planning for change, and the first item to be scrapped when the budget gets tight?

Change drives  progress – and when we change, we need to learn how to use the new tool or features to achieve better results, greater speed, or use less resources. However, we often breeze through any training with a 'yeah, yeah, yeah' attitude and get little of use or recall.

As a boy, I was given a hammer and immediately set about making nails in the shape of a number 7. It's a hammer – how much training could you need? A carpenter showed me how to start and finish pounding a nail and I was then building wooden things.

When the personal computer came into the office, and the IBM Selectric was moved behind the desk, secretaries would create documents with hard returns at the end of the line – just like with the Selectric: type, type, type, type, clunk. The training consisted of reading a manual with the first 50 pages devoted to installing the software and the last 50 pages listing commands (it was a DOS program back then). The secretaries would learn how to create documents, letters, and notes – but insisted on using the Selectric for envelopes and labels.

When a new procedure is introduced in a team, typical training consist of documentation of the procedure and a walk-through of a simple example. Rarely are the training materials created by someone familiar with the actual work being done and users find it difficult to visualize how the new procedure fits with the old way of doing things. Therefore the users come up with their own interpretations and work-arounds.

A quick look at the hammer and PC examples illustrate there is a cost to inadequate training – nails and wood are sacrificed to bent nails and hammer-head scars; editing the PC documents requires considerable time and effort: adding or removing a word means changing the entire document because of the carriage returns on each line.

Successful training is best done hands-on by the user with a meaningful project, followed by practice. A useful help resource is an on-line user forum supplemented by a subject matter expert. Continuing use completes the training.

If we do not provide sufficient training the users make up how to operate the software in ways that are limited and inefficient, reducing its effectiveness and expected productivity gains.

Want to rely on the informal 'expert' or invest in a trained and experienced team?

Hull Speed – Limits of Change

Over the last 25+ years in all sectors of the economy, we've been changing management/leadership structures, the tools and technologies to do the work, and the headcount of workers at all levels.

Initially the changes had impact very quickly – on production or operations and on the bottom line or budget.

As we continued to make incremental changes, the effect was progressively less. In many cases we are at the point (or rapidly approaching it) where the next change will have no positive effect. Let me say it again: change now has little to no desired effect.

Why?

Picture a boat – when under way it creates a bow wave as the hull displaces the water and a stern wave (wake) following the boat as the water fills in where the hull was.

Each hull has a maximum speed that it can travel through the water – and no amount of additional power or sail can make that boat move faster. There is a physics formula to calculate the maximum hull speed, but simply put, when the bow wave and stern wake meet the boat has reached top speed.

A similar effect has been happening as we make continuous incremental changes. The initial modifications and work-arounds eliminate inefficiencies and create productive gains. With successive changes we run out of modifications and work-arounds and are limited to swapping one task for another (analogous to the bow and stern waves converging). The current change is possible ONLY at the cost of forgoing an existing task or process.

Just like modifying the design of the hull can change its maximum speed, making dramatic changes to the organization can have a major and lasting effect. Possibilities include:

• engaging the Doers in the process of change – tell them the goal and get their help to reach it
• Apply the principles of disruptive innovation (remove features, sell cheap, exponentially increase market reach) to reinvent the organization
• shift from a service-based entity to a platform-based entity – make heavy use of technology and automation to provide information, routine answers, intake and output of documents, filings, and reports, and use staff to address the small percent of complex situations which arise.

Do you see situations where hull speed, disruptive innovation of government as a platform would make a positive impact?

Nuvo Quo

Change. It's unsettling and exciting. It's evolutionary and inevitable. It's widely initiated and frequently resisted.

Alvin Toffler, in his 1970 book Future Shock, says we can only take so much change before we hit overload and shut down mentally to additional change – like a sponge reaching its saturation point.

The pace of change has increased dramatically since Toffler defined Future Shock, and our capacity to adopt change has evolved also – but limits still affect us.

At a recent meeting, the facilitator did an observation exercise in which one person altered their appearance and the other tried to identify the changes. A few minutes after the exercise, the facilitator noted that most individuals reversed the changes – returning to the comfort of the pre-change conditions. The illustrated principle – after change, people strive to return to status quo (the old normal state) – they try to re-establish what was before.

Simple examples of this tendency – New Year's resolutions, diets, personal development training... a strong pull to return to the old way.

So what happens in an organization when the changes have eliminated the status quo for the individual? They will make up a new story – new rules – a new norm – to replace the no longer available status quo. They create nuvo quo - a new normal state – to guide them in their roles. Nuvo quo helps the person regain the feeling of control of their environment. There is no coordination with mission or vision of the organization as the individual develops a New Normal state – to mitigate the uncomfortable feeling of change overload. Communication of nuvo quo to the leaders of the organization is virtually unknown.

Conflicts develop between what the individual is doing and what the organization expects the individual to do - “Just doing my job (as I define it)” versus “not doing your job (as documented in the position specs)”. An employee of a transportation agency boasted in an external meeting that he had the ability to completely shut down an entire sector of the transportation industry country-wide with just the flick of a computer key – wonder if that's part of the ops plan for the agency and under what controlled circumstances?

Have any examples of Nuvo Quo after a change in the organization? Please share.

This may be of interest -

How you can benefit from the strongest economic opportunity in the history of the world!

Association Of Information Technology Professionals (AITP)

Thursday, January 12, 6 – 9 pm

Alfio's La Trattoria,

4515 Willard Ave, Chevy Chase MD 20815

2011 – Observations From the Front Lines

This year's collection of Ah-Ha moments in no particular order.

1. Doing Leads to Understanding – I designed the software architecture for a project and saw clearly how the pieces related to each other. I made changes to enhance its functionality from this structural knowledge.
2. Can't Predict What May Move Readers – In a blog post about the New Normal, focusing on poor economic performance and shifting business structures, the readers' comments blossomed into a lively discussion of what is 'normal' and why it's important.
3. Exponential Focus – When learning something new, initially discovered elements float around independent of each other until critical mass is achieved and BLAM! - these pieces come together for deep understanding and practical application.
4. Sales Is a Conversation With a YES at the End – Gone is the role of being an information resource (buyer can get that from the Internet); now we listen to the needs and share customer stories of situations where our solution filled their need and benefited the customer.
5. Develop an On-line Personality for You and Your Business – Google has added to the kit of social media tools with Google Plus and Google Plus Business Pages, which can showcase your activities, offered products and services, posts about topics of interest and value to create your electronic persona. And all of this is findable by anyone with access to the internet.
6. PowerPoint is NOT Required – Shifting to a value-based handout to guide the presentation creates a more intimate session and leaves useful information (and your contact specifics) in the hands of the attendees.
7. Business and Education: A Necessary Partnership – Business needs a stream of potential employees with a strong foundation ( including reading, writing, math, critical thinking, problem-solving) to train as workers to produce the company's products and services. The education system is responsible for building this changing foundation.
8. The World Has Changed While I've Been Working – It's not job change – it's career redevelopment! Individuals in transition are shocked to find that the job they have just left no longer exists in the job market. Suggestion - look for opportunities to acquire new skills while in your current position.
9. The No Customer Recession – Customers stop buying – businesses cut back (or close) – uncertainty abounds. A mantra of the politicians – create jobs! and they throw money at the problem. When all the smoke and noise has settled, it still comes back to “are the customers buying?”
10. Technological Confluence – Using computers, telecom, and internet has matured and the promised changes have arrived – it is altering how things get done. 'Doc in the box' changed how many people get routine everyday out-patient care; Amazon, Zappos, eBay has shifted buying and trading patterns; tax, accounting, and legal software substitutes standard elements in lieu of a trained professional for simple needs.
11. It's the Same – But Different – In the past, selling a better mousetrap was successful by better meeting a need...this still applies today. Now, as before, things that fill a need sell. What is different is the evolution of the solo and small business developing and marketing the solutions. Perfect example: Phone apps: narrow scope; solves a specific issue; sold cheap (99 cents - $5, or free with ads), delivered on-line immediately, and promoted by word-of-mouth or social media.

What was the best thing you learned in 2011?

Best wishes for success in the New Year.

Come join us for The Direct Economy - How Can You Benefit From The Strongest Economy In The History Of The World? At The Association for Information Technology Professionals (AITP) January 12, 6 pm, Chevy Chase RSVP Here

The Last Chapter

The last chapter of the book on our life has not been written yet.

We may feel that it won't be turning out as we had hoped or expected.

While we were working – the world changed!

• The Internet has evolved and many roles which were staffed before are on-line now;
• Processes which had required labor now use technology and fewer people with lesser skill and experience levels;
• Vast amounts of data, research, information, and content are available by simple searching through the browser;
• Entire professions have been radically changed by an 'in-the-box' approach – e.g., basic accounting, legal documents, family physician.

What do we do now, having seen the significant changes that have evolved?

One action not to take is 'wait it out' in hopes of a return to 1985 – won't happen! Holding on to this point of view is like retiring in place and not telling anyone.

Things have changed – now it's your turn:

• Learn new skills and techniques with application in the new economy – become a doer to get greater depth in what you are learning. Building a website teaches more about planning, design, layout, functionality, and connectivity than it does about writing code;
• Explore the new normal – going beyond the local newspaper or evening news. Read blogs and articles by a variety of writers with differing viewpoints – go to events and listen to the comments by the audience for a richer experience...develop your own assessment of 'what is' and 'what's possible;'
• Be open to a new approach – whether as a provider or a recipient – does the change provide benefit...value...efficiency...access? An example – you don't have two-hours for dinner at your favorite restaurant, so you order solo catering on-line and drop by to pick up your dinner (with all the trimmings) – hot and ready to eat at home...as a restauranteur or a diner, you win using a new approach;
• Find out what is needed and figure out how to provide it – do this as an employee and you may be on the way to redefining your job in a World 2.0 model; as a provider, offering what is needed is an evergreen business goal and a possible new line of service for you.

Even more so with the rapid pace of change today – we do not live in a stagnant environment. Change is dynamic. It is not practical to be in a dynamic setting, trying to remain static (unchanged) – imagine how much energy you would expend in a rowboat at the mouth of Niagara Falls, trying to maintain your position. We must continue to evolve in a dynamic setting – or go over the Falls.

The good news is – our last chapter has yet to be written and, by being engaged, we can greatly influence the story.

Got some stories to further the discussion? Please share.

Join us December 13^th at the Capital Technology Management Hub Launching A Green Technology Startup for Sales Lab’s How to Convey Your Business Personality - Easily, Simply, and For Free!