Business Minds; the criticality of relevant, optimistic and intelligent thinking

Business Minds; that’s the label of one of the most instigating books I’ve read about conducting business in the 21st century. This unique material is a profound compilation of thoughts and view-points of renowned entrepreneurs, professors and leading consultants globally. (I strongly recommend you get this text)
I extracted a few landmark pronouncements by some of these thought leaders and put them here (though some are paraphrased)

• Warren Bennis: intellectual capital (know-how, skills and innovation) has supplanted capital (traditional resource-based assets) as the critical success factor….
• Peter Cohan: the few firms that persist and ultimately achieve integrated transactions (ERP/ERM and enterprise-wide intelligence) are likely to enjoy a sustainable advantage over those that give up.
• Arie de Gaus: long lived organizations were sensitive to their environment, cohesive with a strong sense of identity, tolerant and financially conservative. What you find out today is that the wisdom of the past has largely been reengineered away rather than appreciated and intelligently referenced.
• Peter Drucker: today, you have to be a partner, not a boss! It’s a democratic relationship.
• Daniel Goleman (The EQ Master): all effective leaders learn to manage their emotions, especially anger, anxiety and sadness. Pontificating and hypothesis, rather than hard data have been the currency of many leadership theorists.

Referencing data from The Hay Group on over 300 executives showed 6 separate leadership styles in use by business executives. They are:

• Coercive: usually demand immediate compliance with procedures
• Authoritative: mobilise people towards a compelling vision
• Affiliating: create emotional bonds in the workplace
• Democratic: aim to build consensus
• Pacesetting: expect excellence all the way
• Coaching: develop people for the future


Leaders who have mastered 4 or more of these styles especially the authoritative, democratic, affiliating and coaching strategies have been shown to have the best climate and business performance. (Seems like a bit of everything is important for success)
Leadership however certainly requires a balanced mix of pragmatism and mental agility.

Another sharp business mind, Dr. Oren Harari in the field of strategy quite accurately remarked that a truly competitive business strategy is:

Coherent: i.e. clear and makes sense to all parties
Deliverable: i.e. execution. It’s practical and can be carried out
Ever evolving: i.e. not rigid. It’s flexible and responds appropriately to internal and external changes in its business eco-system.

After studying the field of competition for a long time, he discovered that:

• Winners do strategy on the run. (i.e. adaptability, responsiveness and flexibility)
• Intangibles are more important than tangibles (brains are more than bricks)
• It’s got to be fun. Strategy should involve informality, humour, celebration and shenanigans at work. After all, we’re humans.

These next two statements I have kept at heart, as they have proven invaluable in every type of business I’ve engaged in.

Companies that catapult over conventional wisdom in order to carve out new value propositions or create new markets are the ones that create sustained competitive advantage.

In business, don’t try to make people share your values, find those who already do!

The following have been identified as major pitfalls to growth in businesses, particularly for the big and global ones. The companies in braces have been negatively impacted at one time or the other by these identified pitfalls:

Lack of a clear mission (ITT)
Underestimating your core business (Medtronic)
Depending on a single product line (Cisco)
Failure to recognise technology and market changes (Compaq)
Changing strategy without changing culture (GM)
Going outside your core-competence (Xerox and IBM)
Counting on acquisitions for growth (WorldCom and Sprint $160b merger)


Our very own business mind, Fela Durotoye (CEO, VIP Consulting) addressed some fundamental business and related issues at a meeting we had in his house.
In Fela’s words:
Your talent and the business of your talent are different things.
You need to get into the business of meeting needs, not pushing products on people.
Consulting (selling information, expertise and know-how) has proven to be the easiest way to start a business in an industry where you could eventually end up becoming a major player.

A great way to connect to people and potential clients and customers is to say and do things that make them appreciate you, and in essence say ‘thank you’.
Learn to do things to perfection, blast your tasks to pieces!
He had this to say about weaknesses. Well, we all have them, or don’t you?

Your weaknesses will not limit you until you refuse to acknowledge, respect, restrict and submit them into the hands of someone who can manage them for you.

Finally, he had these to say about attaining leadership:

• Right Intention: constitutes the justification and bias for undertaking any tasks.
• Excellence: You ought to build the reputation of being the best at something (especially in a highly specialised area i.e. finding a niche). Many times, it’s easier to make impact as a small growing company. Though you may not boast of size, you could certainly emphasize growth rates.
• Celebrate Milestones: Your little achievements count and you should learn to tell success stories regularly to your staff and team members.
• Expertise: Realise that passion is not a substitute for knowledge, wisdom (strategy), understanding (underlying principles), expertise, genius and skill

Remember that you are the custodian of your own future. Birthing and actualising a desired future requires breaking free of controlling forces, and believe me, these forces are every where, even in the most subtle and unexpected of forms and places. This concept of controlling forces constitutes a subject on its own. Robert Liardon wrote a whole book on this. He was very candid, performed some root-cause diagnostic and approached it from a more fundamental (and Spiritual) perspective.

Many highly talented folks have been held back from venturing into the wild and attaining their full potential largely because of the demands (i.e. shackles and restraints) placed on them by loved ones to live up to certain expectations. It requires appreciable strength, determination, awareness of the bigger picture, and many times divine enablement to break free from the myriad of psychological, physiological, cultural, emotional and sometimes unexplainable impediments that attempt to inhibit the process of harnessing our potential and maximising everyday opportunities.

Nevertheless, we have a choice to escape from gravity and ascend into an unthreaded stratosphere of possibilities.

Have a good week folks!

……Still on Business Strategy and Achieving Competitive Advantage.

Gary Hamel (one of the world’s thought leaders on the Strategy theme) clearly stated that ‘Strategic Planning is different from Business Strategising’. ‘To plan is not to create something new’ (how true!). Try to read the next sentence carefully and think about it. The objective of the revolutionary is to free the process from the tyranny of the past.
This basically is in sync with the Excellence Man, Tom Peter’s top-notch consulting advice in one of his recent presentations (in Johannesburg, SA) where he declared that Managers ought to hire crazies and unconventional people. You know what guys? I’ll just replicate the content of one of his slides below:

1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY…..

10. Avoid moderation!

Now, don't you take this out of context but if you are the nice, orderly gentleman (or lady) who loves to maintain order and do stuff the normal good way (with respect to business and pressing constructive change through), you might just as well ignore this piece cause this ain’t for the faint at heart!
See what these legends and thought leaders have to say:
Do one thing every day that scares you. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy. – Nicholas Negroponte

Creative strategising in the global capital marketplace requires revolutionary thinking.
You’ve got to realise that the corporations and businesses in our world today are definitely one of these:

• Rule makers (General Electric, IBM, General Motors, Intel….): They tend to get comfortable and gradually experience creativity drought. Their perceived success eventually becomes their greatest undoing.
  
• Rule breakers (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Toyota, Apple…..): They come from no-where and rewrite the rules. They could be referred to as disruptive innovators and are usually architects of industry transformation. You’d better be here if you intend to lead a meaningful and impacting life.
  
• Rule takers (me don’t want no trouble! you can figure examples out yourselves!) They accept whatever is being offered. They are content like sheep.
  
  The primary agenda for a business that means business is to be the architect of industry transformation, not just corporate-level transformation.
  Incrementalism, what most of us find comfortable is not innovation.
  Gary Hamel clarifies that Re engineering the Corporation (Classic business improvement manual by James Champy and Michael Hammer) is more about incremental changes than paradigm breaking. (BPR, 6 Sigma, Value Chain Analysis……e.t.c certainly do result in improvements and costs savings, sometimes quite significant but seems like the bar has been raised in the current highly deregulated and technology driven international markets)
  

Companies, organizations and entities that view change as being an internal matter are liable to be left behind as the pace of external change in our world has, and is still catching many unprepared, forcing them into oblivion and irrelevance. The forward thinking individual or business wouldn’t aim to meet up with the pace, but rather dictate the pace. Now, you would agree with me that it takes foresight, cutting-edge business strategy and most importantly, spirited execution and impact assessment to do that today.
In short, you’ve got one option, and that is to re-invent your industry!

These are other critical elements that have a direct impact on your organization’s overall effectiveness:

• Values & Ethics: These are the communal foundation and basis for all socio-economic activity. i.e… the cohesive bonds that hold social order. When they aren’t sacred, assertive and shared, you tend to experience inconsistencies that check quality and organic growth.
  
• An Articulated Cause: You must be able to conceptualize and crystallize ideas. Your Cause is what underpins your existence. It reflects what you believe in and determines your relevance to society. It explains how you fit into the bigger dream of regional economic prosperity and development. Normally, it should leverage on your position, uniqueness and inherent design and capabilities.
  
• Research, Collaboration and Strategic Partnerships: which of you embarks on a project without counting the costs first? The mind ought to be engaged vigorously (ATP: Analytical Productive Thinking. We are what we think, not what we eat – Walter Anderson. We must have foresight, and the ability to chart a course indented by specific actions and executions that lead us to the projected future-state. High selectivity in collaboration and partnerships is also paramount. How many emerging companies and great ideas have gone under just because they got in the wrong train!
  
• Mentoring, Coaching and Succession Planning: We are way past the era of the superstars and untouchables. If you get so good that no one else could attempt taking on your responsibilities, and you become aware of this and do nothing about it, you are practically what I call a shooting star and in the process, set up your organization for extinction. Organizations are set-up with persistence in mind (let’s ignore SPVs – Special Purpose Vehicles) meaning that they are designed to live and continue to grow. This is compromised when superstars litter and thrive in your organization. Their exit becomes the organization’s exit.
  
• Control and leverage: Would you volunteer to drive a car without controls, or perhaps fly in an airplane with the slightest control faults? When an organization lacks effective controls that are in sync with its strategy, such organization is inadvertently bracing up itself to join the greats viz: Enron, WorldCom, Cadbury…the list goes on.

Excerpts from Leadership the Goran Eriksson way, a book about the contemporary leadership style of the ex-England manager provides us with some insight into the cornerstones of effective business leadership in our world today. Here are the main points and distinctions from what previously obtained.

Features of the Old: charismatic, action oriented, idealistic, top-down structure, motivate thru fear and intimidation, task focussed, IQ, self confident (examples are Jack Welch – General Electric & Rupert Murdoch – Newscorp )

New leaders: understated, reflective, pragmatic, bottom-up, motivate thru reason and inspiration, relationship focussed, EQ, self awareness (examples are Richard Branson, Goran-Eriksson)

That does it for now folks! I hope we all continue to learn and APPLY these truths in our daily business and personal engagements. We’ve all still got ground to cover on our mission to becoming highly effective people, but the journey of a sextillion miles starts with a step. That leads me to the concept of doing, acting, executing….whatever name you choose o call it! Without this, we could all just have remained within the walls of those classrooms and training centres.

Hallo Friends. Welcome to the Strategic Year of 2008

Hello friends. I believe it’s been a great start into the New Year for you, and believe me, 2008 would be the best year yet (say Amen now!) Well, I want to apologise for failing to update my blog page regularly. Some have visited my site http://www.adetayo.blogspot.com/ a number of times expecting to see something new (but were disappointed), but be rest assured, there’s going to be something new at least every other week this new year. (I should let you know that I changed my job about three times last year, and was involved in quite a lot of relatively disconnected activities but this year has been declared one of greater glory (by my pastor, Rev Yinka Ojo – obviously echoing God’s mind) and experiencing this Chabod and Shekinah requires focus and consistency.

Alright, let’s shoot! I will use the first quarter of 2008 to share my thoughts on Strategy, Leadership, Values, Cause, competitive advantage and ‘spirituals’(other themes would also feature from time to time). These are highly critical and brain tasking mysteries that several leading authors and consultants of repute are still trying to unravel. (I guess you are then wondering…..’so what makes you think you’ve got what it takes to talk about, or perhaps provide insight into this high-octane arena that has kept Harvard Professors, thought leaders on strategy and CA, executives of PwC, Mckinsey, Boston Consulting group…..e.t.c working over time?’)

Well, let’s just say my mind, head and most-importantly Heart (or ‘Spirit man’ for those of us that understand the language of ‘Spirituals’) have been doing significant work along these lines, and I believe the little that I have to say would add value, and help at least a few people make better decisions that will impact their communities, constituencies and stakeholders positively. Hope you get the point!?

I was perusing the initial issue of Harvard Business Review in 2008 (and guess what? The cover page and most of the content echoed strategy and leadership!) Before I had even read through the magazine, the very first sentence in Prof. Michael Porter’s revised “Five Competitive forces that shape strategy’ (or something like that) was rendered invalid and/or inaccurate by Dr. Oren Harari on his aw-inspiring blog at http://www.harari.com/blog/. This probably provides you with some degree of insight into the intense warring amongst diverse schools of thought on these hotly contested themes.

Alright then, too much talk and too little action isn’t my style, so I’ve got to halt and get to the crux of the matter. Wish you the best as you learn a few things from my posts in 2008.