by Bert Shlensky | Aug 28, 2017 | Planning
Anyone needs to read the The Path of Least Resistance as a way to drive them toward creative growth, authored by Robert Fritz and the master of one of the best quotes ever outlining true business risk and what it does to many a company: “If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”
Robert Fritz Said That, and to This Day, It’s the Mantra of Any Entrepreneur Looking to Take on Business Risk
In a nutshell, never limit yourself to what you’re comfortable with — or you’ll deny yourself the
possibilities. Risk can do that, and here’s the clincher: sometimes that’s a good thing! But don’t fall into the trap of believing that you should just stick with what ‘works’.
Yes, it sounds smart. Go with what works. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Common adages that make plenty of sense, especially in business. We’re not knocking that at all! But what we are saying is that while these sayings are true, they’re only true in the right situations.
After all…it doesn’t say “go only with what works.” So go with what works in your business according to the risks you commonly take, but don’t be afraid to go above and beyond that on occasion. Test the waters. Research the trends. Grow.
Now if it “ain’t broke, don’t fix it” makes perfect sense, but only if you’re planning on having something operate on its own and works just fine as it is without adding anything to it. What if you want to build something else along with it? Something that’ll make that perfect machine run even better?
In that case, you’re not fixing anything. You’re simply improving. Advancing. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
The Challenge Is Looking at Business Risk as NOT a Realist Factor, But an Opportunity to Have Ideas
So don’t be afraid of taking it. Risk is there for a reason. But it’s not to stymie you. It’s to enrich you. That being said, you can’t be enriched if you don’t have that creativity to reach beyond that business box and find out what’s outside of the cardboard.
In summary, you want to tackle business risk? Don’t be safe. Be creative!
Dr. Bert Shlensky, President of The Startup Connection, directs all small business clients toward maximum sales and profit thanks to his 40 years of high-quality experience. He does this through technological, social, and online integration, supercharging your business success into the next level, so don’t hesitate to sign up for a free consultation RIGHT NOW.
by Bert Shlensky | Aug 25, 2017 | Planning
Say what you want about trademarks and logos. They have their place. But if you’re really looking for brand development, making sure it’s successful in the market you’re targeting, there are three aspects you have to focus on the most:
You Simply Ask Yourself These Three Questions About Brand Development: What Are the FEATURES, What Are the BENEFITS, and What Are the ADVANTAGES?
Real quick, if you don’t know the answers to those questions, simply start researching. Get them. Without
them, your brand isn’t a brand. But just a name. And there are a lot of names out there!
The thing is when you’re building your brand, educating your consumer base about the “holy trinity” does a few things — it lets your customers know what the product/service is, why it’s great, and why it’s better than the rest of the competition. We’re talking about a 1-2-3 combo, and if you were a boxer, that’s a knockdown on the 3rd round for the championship belt without breaking a sweat! You’re, of course, asking just why these three together make so much of a difference in your brand development.
- Features — The “features” of your product and service happen to be exactly what it is. The specs. What your product/service does and provides. This is the nuts and bolts. The basic understanding. After all, customers may know what a fork does, but they had to have that explained to them when the fork was first introduced into the consumer market, right? These days, though, features don’t come across as that simple, hence why aspects like warranties, ease of use and distribution return privileges (the added “features”) make a difference as well.
- Benefits — Here’s where we get a little tricky. The benefits are like the “features” except now we’re going above and beyond what the product/service does. Why does it do what it does? That’s the question. We now know what a fork does. But why do we need one? To effectively eat our chicken Caesar salad, of course, without any of the lettuce falling off! Now that’s a benefit. But it’s only a benefit if the customer believes he/she needs it and sees it as valuable.
- Advantages — And, of course, lastly, it’s pretty obvious why a fork would be better than, say, a SPOON when eating chicken Caesar salad. This is where you have to explain what the advantages are. Target your competition. Set yourself apart. Sure, the spoon’s great for cereal, but when was the last time you successfully ate a salad with a ladle? These days selling the advantages of a product or service has been getting much more cutthroat and vicious with the shorter attention spans and seamless Internet communication capability.
Hence why more now than ever we focus on these three even heavier than before as part of branding. Packaging your product/service in this way along with that name and logo gets you started on the right foot. Plain and simple.
Now Get Started With Your Brand, Ring the Bell, and Make It Happen
Of course, I can help you with everything you need in propelling your small business, all the nuts and bolts. But you need the vehicle first. Here are the parts. Start building. And I’ll see you soon.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, President of The Startup Connection, directs all small business clients toward maximum sales and profit thanks to his 40 years of high-quality experience. He does this through technological, social, and online integration, supercharging your business success into the next level, so don’t hesitate to sign up for a free consultation RIGHT NOW.
by Bert Shlensky | Aug 23, 2017 | Planning
These days business just isn’t about playing it safe or going with the status quo. Chances need to be taken. Such is the case for what is commonly called the business outlier, or in other words a professional who doesn’t follow the standard model of business in any given industry or market. Some might even call them trendsetters, whistle blowers, or even “contrarians.” I, of course, call them the hidden gems. The ones who might have an idea that’s never been tried before — and you never know, you just might be the first person to score a new
niche, tap into a new market, or penetrate a brand-new revenue source no one ever thought existed.
So Here’s Some Strong Advice for You: Listen to That Business Outlier. And Take Some Chances.
The challenge, though, is the fact that oftentimes the outlier or contrarian might push a few buttons or ruffle a few feathers, because let’s face it: going against the grain can cause issues. And sometimes going against the grain means you’ve got that loud voice that yells out into the crowd that the old way of working just doesn’t work anymore, and you’re all stupid, when that’s also not true.
So exercise caution — and listen to that enthusiastic business outlier. You might pull some really clever golden nuggets out of that business networking conversation.
Think of the landscape we’re currently in. Changes are aplenty. Think of the fact that we have so many ways of borrowing money at 2% to 5% or even no interest on 6-month credit cards, but even now companies are going with 12-20% requirement for returns while passing on other opportunities.
I implore you: don’t. Never assume, especially on outdated stuff. Try something new. You never know if it’ll work if you’re not testing it in your business model.
So Are You, In Fact, Testing Out Any New Business Ideas and Challenges?
If so, fantastic. If not, please reconsider. Chances are pretty darn good that even if it doesn’t work, you just knocked another low card in the deck, which gets you to that ace in there. After all, good business is like a deck of cards. A numbers game. Keep going through all of them until you land the full house.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, President of The Startup Connection, directs all small business clients toward maximum sales and profit thanks to his 40 years of high-quality experience. He does this through technological, social, and online integration, supercharging your business success into the next level, so don’t hesitate to sign up for a free consultation RIGHT NOW.
by Bert Shlensky | Apr 20, 2016 | Finance Templates, Front Page, Planning
The increased use of analytics versus intuition in decision-making has been significant in improving the understanding and results of decision-making. The growth has been particularly affected by the growth and confidence in behavioral economics fostered by authors like Daniel Hahnemann, Richard Thaler, and Michael Lewis. This article argues that there is no simple resolution, but there are simple rules to improve the decision process with both. (more…)
by Bert Shlensky | Jul 23, 2014 | Planning
Everyone talks about creating an environment that encourages innovation, change, openness, new ideas, etc. In many cases this enthusiasm for innovation, however, ignores a number of powerful practices:
“If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it!
Another is,
“We have always done it this way.“
We at Startup Connection believe in trying simple ideas and approaches that work to foster innovation: (more…)
by Bert Shlensky | Mar 28, 2014 | Marketing, Planning
What is “Excellence?”
I recently asked several professionals to answer the question: What is Excellence?
Respondents included teachers of developmentally challenged kids, heads of hospital emergency departments, and fast food restaurant executives.
Their answers were simple:
- Developing excellence in the business planning process should be the major focus and direction
- Focusing on results is biased by outlying variables
- One needs to accept small gains and details and understand the differences in individuals and structures when defining success.
These responses were typical of those I received in my survey, as exemplified by the teacher who beamed about her young challenged student learning to say a color or being able to walk up the stairs. For the emergency department manager, the example had to do with reducing average patient waiting time a few seconds. She noted that those few seconds could prevent more severe complications from heart attacks and save lives. The fast food manager emphasized the importance of coordinating production of food with its prompt delivery, either “for here” or “to go”.
The purpose of this article is to make the point that these responses don’t really get to the heart of the question “What is Excellence?” Instead, they focus on specific actions and outcomes rather than on the culture and execution of excellence throughout the organization.
The following illustration will help clarify my point:
Excellence Embodied in Business Planning
Examples of companies that, by using good business management, embody excellence throughout their organizations.
Many companies say they are committed to excellent customer service. However, some companies have come to embody true excellence and not just give lip service to the term. Examples of such organizations include Lands’ End, Ritz Carlton Hotels, Nordstrom’s, and L.L.Bean. These companies have truly embraced business planning excellence at the heart of their identity, vision and mission. Excellence permeates every aspect of these organizations.
There are several common factors in these diverse companies that illustrate the components of excellence. It is sometimes overlooked in business planning that it is the culture and the commitment required throughout the companies in developing excellent practices.
Examples include:
- In order to offer unlimited returns you need to provide excellent quality
- Service companies like Nordstrom’s and Ritz Carlton both recruit and train staff to be excellent from the very first day
- Companies focused on excellence exhibit trust in their customers. The reality is that most consumers are honest. If companies are preoccupied with the few cheaters they will often ignore many legitimate complaints and not improve as a result
- Empowering employees both encourages satisfied customers and motivates employees to experience success.
Another component of excellence is identifying, nurturing, and realizing the potential of excellent people. While it is easy to extol the virtues of excellence, we frequently ignore the conditions and risk of not pursuing it.
- Excellence requires integration with organizational cultures, structure, and collaboration
- Excellent people often tend to be independent by nature and require a culture that encourages their energy, determination, and focus
- Evaluating the potential of excellent people becomes complex. They are frequently introducing new concepts, processes, and technologies. Evaluating both the risks and costs of success is frequently done in unchartered waters.
A major negative consequence of “results-focused” excellence is that we can make more errors in constraining excellent people than we do by encouraging them. The reason for this is quite simple. Everyone is aware of the costs and failures of special programs that do not succeed. What we are not aware of are the losses we never realized in not pursuing new and exciting strategies.
These issues also relate to us as individuals. We all want to be effective at whatever we are doing. No one starts their days saying “I am going to do a lousy job today,” or “I am going to make my day miserable.” However, many times our aspirations, goals, and efforts become frustrated. There are numerous dimensions to this dilemma that can all contribute to our ineffectiveness. Avoiding failure and stifling excellence has now become epidemic to many organizations. The organization builds layers to take every idea and ensure it is analyzed and reviewed to meet various legal, cultural, and strategic criteria. This almost always results in delays, watering down, and eventual rejection of the exceptional and different.
A friend of mine once put it this way when talking about many students coming out of ivy league business schools: “They are not trained how to succeed, but how NOT to fail.”
Some suggestions for creating an environment and approach that foster Excellence include:
- Recognize strengths and weaknesses—then pursue the strengths. For example, in interviewing applicants I will focus on the strengths rather than the weaknesses to learn about the successes to understand the energy and dedication of an applicant
- Find opportunities where one can succeed. People are frequently terrified to quit many dead end jobs or admit they are wasting their careers. This is particularly true in declining companies and industries
- Provide the confidence to pursue what one should be doing. Many times both individuals and organizations minimize risk even if the payoffs more than justify the risk
- Stop spending so much time trying to correct weaknesses. Start exploiting advantages that can result in significant opportunities. Organizations continue to feed lost causes and ignore realities like changing demographics, technology, and competitive position
- Organizations need to commit to professional decision making as opposed to position. Companies need to start accepting expertise through giving more responsibility to their key employees and having flatter organizations. These organizations are also frequently more nimble and have lower costs
- Within organizations, different cultures need to accepted and appreciated. For example, the accounting and product development teams have different roles and require different structures and rules to be optimally efficient
- If an organization is not making mistakes, they aren’t trying hard enough. This is the best phrase I have heard in terms of learning to accept risk. The key issue is not to encourage failure. The successes will justify the total effort.
It is clear that both individuals and organizations have over-emphasized the risk of failure versus the rewards of success. One need only look at the old line industries, such as retail and furniture, to realize that many of them have simply not adapted to their changing environments and taken the necessary risks to survive. Similarly, individuals underestimate the risk of staying in poor situations and the rewards of trying to maximize their capabilities. Both individuals and organizations need to realistically assess the risks of failures and the rewards of success.
As Gandhi said:
Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you.
Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time.
If you’re right and know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind.
Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.
