Take me to your leader

When the outer space visitors come to town, they are always looking for the leader. This is a note to all the leaders: company founders, presidents and CEOs. Your employees are looking for their leaders. One of the most essential items crucial to success of your business is clear leadership.

Businesses are a reflection of the leadership (or management team). If you are disorganized, your business will be. If you are spontaneous, your business will be too. Who are you, and who do you want your business to be? At some point this is a really essential question to answer.

It may not seem necessary at the beginning, or even seem like it will help. But once you move to about employee number 3, or maybe number 5, everyone will be looking to you to provide guidance, a plan and direction. Be prepared to offer this to your team.

Employees are simple to figure out. We want to be treated well. We want to be compensated fairly. We wan to be rewarded for our contributions. We want to recognized for our achievements. And we want to be appreciated. But we don't want to be mind readers. Be prepared to articulate and define what you want, and most importantly, determine milestones to get there. If we know where we are going, where we have been, and what paths are available to get there we can help you achieve your goals. If you don't tell us the goal, we won't know how to help you. And it's the only way you can tell if we are playing for your team.

Positioning the Intangibles

One thing that tends to to happen in the tech industry, the people in charge are "engineering types" and engineering types get really excited about the technology. And then focus on speeds, feeds and horsepower. At some point in every niche, there are a few players with virtually similar systems, all offering up the same functions, specifications and applications.

Once this happens its time to bring in the "marketing types." The marketing types tend to be better at communicating the intangibles. The sorts of things that customers and prospects can grab onto, but cannot be easily quantified or compared with the competition. Selling the soft features becomes key. It is pretty hard to win the deal by focusing only on specs, when everything looks virtually the same, so understanding the intangible stuff the prospect is looking for: service, compatibility, ease of use or even product vision are all possibilities. These intangibles can overcome price, tech specs and other 'drawbacks.' Once the prospect falls in love with these items, it is harder for the competition to win. Get into the heads of your customers and focus on the soft features.

You can't pick your family......

As the old adage goes, you can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends. The same thing it true of hiring a team, you are ultimately in control of the team you build. In a previous life, organizations were loyal to the end rewarding employees with pensions and lifetime benefits. Small business tend to offer 'friendly' atmospheres. No matter the size of the business, there is one key factor to success: the human capital.

Organizations that spend their resources on employee development tend to get a higher payback. For smaller organizations, every hire is critical. Most organizations take on the personalities of their owners, and some even create a monoculture.

Hiring is strategic, employees should add value to the team and help you achieve your goals. Google has some great ideas on hiring the best and brightest, and their practices demonstrate that. As my post on strategy and planning mentions, corporate goals should impact all decisions. It is very important for executives to understand the strengths and values of their team members [especially in a small company], how much they can grow and where the plateau is. Once you identify the individual and corporate ceilings for the employee, determine if they still make sense as a member of your team. Can they contribute or are they adding extra weight? Don't be afraid to part ways if an employee inhibits revenue generation, your growth, or your goals.

Although we aim to be friends with our coworkers; at the end of the day the goal of your business to make money while still being fair. It's not fair to you or your employees to continue the business relationship when you don't have the right fit.

Practice for Business by Playing Risk

I don't know if you have ever played Risk, it is an interesting game to practice thinking. The core strategy revolves around choosing when and which territories to fortify. Basically it is the sort of war/military game for people who aren't into the bloody part of the war. Depending on how you play, you can randomize the territory selection, or you, as a player chooses the territory. Based on the surrounding competition, you can choose when and what to attack. In my experience, the successful players fortify one area, or continent, pool their resources there, then attack (when no one is looking hopefully). The first time you play, you may try to spread yourself too thin, just to have coverage everywhere, but typically someone with resources, momentum or both comes in an knocks your army off the planet. The goal is to take over the world. The last man standing is the winner.

Just a thought. Read in to it as you wish. But if you can find an online version to play, try it out. And run some experiments. Look at how your thought processes guide your decisions. Did you get sideswiped by unknown competition? Was your competition obvious and looming? Did it show up out of the blue, or grow slowly over time?

Now, model your business (or industry) after a Risk game. In this case, you don't need to take over the world to be successful.... one continent (or island) is enough. You can use a geography model, or keep it abstract, or even use customer segments. Position your armies and pick your battles wisely. You might be surprised by the results.

Mac vs. PC is it really the money?

Looks like Computerworld is offering up a special feature on the great Mac vs. PC Debate.

And one of the most common threads of the debate is well Macs are more than PCs. Glad to see Computerworld set the record straight. Windows is cheaper because there is more choice. Apples and Apples, they are fairly close with a few minor details, as long as you compare the right class of machine. Same is true for cars. If you compare, lets say a Kio Rio and a Mini Cooper, the Mini Cooper will look totally over prices all though both have an engine, keyless entry, AC, and a stereo. Clearly they aren't apples for apples, but they do the same thing. What do you think, does DJ Shadow have it right, or is it really.....the media?

The important question for any company when planning the product strategy is defining who they'd like to be: everything to all people or the be-all product for selected people. Unfortunately it is pretty difficult to be the everything to all with limited resources, but that doesn't stop people from trying. More often than note it is better to start with strategy 2 and grow into strategy 1 then try to do everything before you are ready.

Now is a good time to look at Starbucks (Well really Peet's since Starbucks admittedly copied their former employers). They started off selling premium coffee to people who cared and didn't mind spending premium cash for a "better" cup of coffee. So they continues on the path, seeking out the coffee seekers. Eventually they caught on that adding flavored sugar syrup and focusing on the experience, a few extra people joined the premium coffee seeker club. Sure enough, over a few years, everyone came to appreciate the creamy sugary coffee the shop was peddling, and everyone else wishes they started selling $3-5 coffee. So did Starbucks try to sell to everyone? Nope, they decided to sell to a few and the masses followed. Even Walmart took the same strategy by focusing on the small markets lacking affordable shopping options.

Focus....and the masses may come to you (or you can make a tidy profit while you wait for the masses, without spreading yourself too thin.)

Strategic Understanding Required ..... even when you work the mailroom

Although I have claimed my topics here would really be related to marketing and opinions, I thought I'd branch into workplace politics for a moment.

We all know there are "big picture people" and "small picture people" as well as "strategic jobs" and more "task-oriented jobs." One of the biggest mistakes organizations can make, is not correlating the tasks and busywork with the big picture. Some managers I have talked to don't believe in letting their receiving person, receptionist or janitor in on the overall picture of the business, but fail to notice the mindset of the executives impacts the team. They like to keep this information to the managers, and people who ask for it.

So why bring this up now? We one thing I have seen happen is companies hire a specialist for a few critical positions or projects. Let's say a graphic designer, shipping clerk or executive assistant. I understand not everyone cares about the how behind collecting their paycheck, but understanding the business side is a great way to provide additional value to your current organization and your resume. Understanding the business can make your projects and ideas effective and increase the impact.

Case in point, currently my company is undergoing a website redesign. Since our web designer doesn't understand much about our business, corporate goals or market segment, he runs into roadblocks on his design ideas. Since his experience and interest lie with product oriented shopping sites, his design ideas are pulled from those ecommerce-type sites. For many technology companies, the goal of the website isn't only to sell a specific product, but sell a vision to the world. The organization wants to present its values, uniqueness, expertise and mission with its web presence. Designing a website focused on presenting an entity, not just an item requires a different perspective on presenting the content. With these wildly different perspectives, it is hard to come to a consensus. So we enter a never-ending cycle with design after design that isn't quite right, since for him content is boring and product presentation is key.

What about the marketers? Well of course we have a long list of goals: reach our audience, build an image, educate the market, generate more prospects, prove market leadership or value. The list goes on an on. As a marketer, I find it difficult to achieve any of these goals without having a good grip on where the organization is trying to go. Why do we need to build our brand, and reach out to the audiences? What is my objective here? If you don't know, ask. If your executives are unable to articulate the corporate vision and execution strategy [focus pays dividends], it is very difficult to make sure your programs and results will match up with management's objectives. If this happens to you, work from another angle. Articulate your own goals for the position, create a list, and start checking these activities off. If you can't fulfill the corporate goals, fulfill your own. Don't forget to figure out your exit strategy. An organization without a clear vision and execution plan won't last too long.

Business education isn't just for executives and marketers. Approaching tasks with an eye on company goals and the bottom line will save you effort and headaches. If your activities don't have any relationship to company goals, be warned, you are expendable and replaceable. Understanding the business helps you control your destiny.