Archive for the ‘In 100 Words’ Category
Thursday, October 31st, 2024 by AdvisorCatalyst
Could
being resource rich be a problem?
Leaders work to build resources to weather storms or take advantage of
sudden investment opportunities. This is
wise. There is a spot, though, where
resource abundance can become a disadvantage.
Manager’s mindsets shift subtly.
The greater the buffer, the less careful leaders become managing
resources.
Resource
scarcity forces us to think more carefully about how we deploy those limited
resources. We get more creative in our
solutions. History shows innovation
often emerges from people who turned their limited resources into an advantage.
Build
buffer but manage as if your organization is resource poor.
“Beware
of little expenses. A small leak will
sink a great ship.” Benjamin Franklin
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Tags: Leadership, management, Troy Schrock
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Wednesday, July 31st, 2024 by AdvisorCatalyst
Single
points of failure (SPOFs) lurk in unexpected places throughout your
organization. It may be related to
people, technology systems, physical hardware, or outside service providers. Today’s complex, automated, and highly
connected systems create greater degrees of SPOFs than in past times. Seemingly minor issues can trigger SPOFs which
can quickly cripple an organization’s ability to provide desired levels of customer
care.
How
well does your team understand and anticipate SPOFs? How well do you prioritize resiliency vs
efficiency thinking? It’s a different perspective. A worthwhile exercise – list as many critical
SPOFs as possible then generate ideas for continency plans.
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate
to the stormy present.” Abraham Lincoln
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Friday, June 14th, 2024 by AdvisorCatalyst
Some things, like lines in a queue, are better shorter than
longer. This includes business
communication. Emails, presentations,
memos, and books are often longer than necessary. It’s easier and faster to over-express in
drafting or ad-libbing. However,
lengthier doesn’t correlate to greater impact.
It can also be inconsiderate of others.
Expressing something in an economy of words requires extra
time and effort. It’s work! Utilizing a good editing process will deliver
benefits, though. The communicator is
forced to slow down, tackle one thing, and dig for deeper understanding. This effort should produce greater clarity,
conciseness, and a more impactful message.
“The present letter is a very long one, simply because I
had no leisure to make it shorter.” Blaise Pascal
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Tuesday, April 30th, 2024 by AdvisorCatalyst
Data
presented without context should come with a warning label. Context is king. Movement and momentum are far more important
than a current data point. Dashboards
often provide quantities of data yet little useful information due to the lack
of context in the presentation. This
increases the risk leaders make incorrect assumptions as they weigh decision
options.
Data
might be presented without context through oversight or sloppiness. Regardless of the reason, achieving context is
simple – e.g., rolling trend line, or current period vs previous periods. Data presented graphically should also
reflect context.
Is
your team viewing data presented with context?
“Information
is data endowed with relevance and purpose.” Peter Drucker
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Tags: management, Troy Schrock
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Friday, March 15th, 2024 by AdvisorCatalyst
We should treat the old adage “great
minds think alike…” with some skepticism.
Leaders should cultivate alternatives for significant decisions they
consider. Healthy dissension typically
yields better decisions.
Alfred Sloan, the person responsible
for leading General Motors to the top of the global automotive industry in the
1930’s and 1940’s, is said to have set aside decisions for which the executive
team too easily agreed. Peter Drucker
says Sloan would postpone some decisions to give his leaders “time to develop disagreement
and perhaps gain some understanding of what this decision is about.”
“Great minds” might periodically offer
a different perspective.
“And
those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not
hear the music.” Friedrich Nietzsche
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Wednesday, January 31st, 2024 by AdvisorCatalyst
Taking care of good talent is imperative for
leaders – especially in tight labor markets.
Here are two sure ways to aggravate your top
performers:
- Overburden them without consideration of their
personal lives. Sure, sales demand is
strong, but know when and how to say no to more revenue.
- Tolerate poor performers so you have a “body in
the seat.” Pruning people out of the
organization may seem contradictory, but few things drain top performer’s
engagement more quickly than picking up the slack for other employees.
After addressing these two put your energy and
resources into strategies for attracting new employees.
“To add value to others, one must first value others.” John C. Maxwell
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Friday, December 15th, 2023 by AdvisorCatalyst
Without a doubt, the existing, successful business
is the number one barrier to innovation.
This is why many new market-shaping innovations come from organizations
which are start-ups or outside an industry.
Yet managers shouldn’t be faulted. Innovation (beyond incremental efficiencies)
requires investment. Financial returns,
if any, won’t show until sometime in the future. Managers are tasked and incentivized to maximize
short-term financial returns which are better when focusing on the existing
business.
If organizations desire market innovation, leaders
must balance this conflict. Some organizations
find success by separating resources from the existing business and establishing
different measurements for innovation leaders.
“The creation of a thousand forests is in one
acorn.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Tuesday, October 31st, 2023 by AdvisorCatalyst
Trend spotting is imperative in the world of
fashion and design – move quickly or miss out.
For most organizations trends are less faddish, but no less important. Does your leadership team value the
discipline of watching and weighing the impacts of significant trends?
- Are you considering both macro and micro trends
in demographics, the economy, technology, society, and the regulatory environment?
- Do you think through the influence these trends
might have in the lives and businesses of your customers (2nd level
impacts)?
- Are these trends accelerating or slowing?
Your team should regularly assess key trends to
remain alert and relevant.
“Facts are stubborn things.” Ronald Reagan
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Friday, September 15th, 2023 by AdvisorCatalyst
Serving the
customer is the first objective of the business organization. This is why it is puzzling to see organizations
implement systems, processes or policies which make life more convenient for “managing
the business” yet make life worse for customers or the frontline employees serving
the customers.
Here are three important
condition questions to ask when considering a new system, process, or policy.
Will this:
- Add more value to
our customers?
- Make it easier for
customers to do business with us?
- Make it easier for
our customer-facing employees to serve our customers?
A business organization
doesn’t exist without the customer.
“The purpose of
business is to create and keep a customer.” Peter F. Drucker
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