BIZBUZZ: Gary Hamel: Leading The Revolution

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to episode 14 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations in order to challenge business owners to Be Different and to Act Boldly.

The following video highlights some content from Leading The Revolution, written by Gary Hamel.  This is a book that is essentially about leadership.

I am going to comment on three suggestions that grabbed my attention.

The first one is Hamel’s statement that sense of purpose, sense of accomplishment and sense of making a difference is what we are all about.  Is our leadership style supportive of these needs?

Secondly, Hamel suggests that imagination not investment drives innovation. One of the questions by which he would judge new ideas is to ask to what extent does the idea deviate from industry norms?  That causes me to ask: Are we ready to do some dreaming?  Are we bold enough to try being different?

My third choice is Hamel’s suggestion that business concept innovation is a way of going around competitors.  It’s based on avoidance not attack.  He further stresses that if the concept is not different then it is not strategic. Period.

Well, that’s it for Leading The Revolution.

Thanks for watching.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZ BUZZ.

BIZBUZZ: Gary Hamel: Competing For The Future

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to episode 13 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations in order to challenge business owners to Be Different and to Act Boldly.

The following video highlights some content from Competing For The Future, written by Gary Hamel. I enjoyed reading this book and it offers some interesting observations on the subject of differentiation, which is one of my favourite topics.

http://youtu.be/8MCbRuKBEgI

I am going to highlight three of Hamel’s suggestions that I find particularly noteworthy.

The first one deals with return on investment (our return/our investment). Hamel contends that we spend too much time obsessing over the denominator (the amount invested). In an environment where our competitors are growing, denominator reduction with steady revenue is simply a way to profitably sell market share. Hmm. Do we know how well our competitors are performing?  Are we paying sufficient attention to what is happening with the numerator?

Secondly, Hamel suggests that tomorrow’s competitive advantages must necessarily be different from today’s. Companies must be capable of getting different. He further states that laggards follow the path of least resistance.  However, challengers follow the path of greatest opportunity. Which are we?

There are numerous other interesting tidbits in this book but I’m going to end on Hamel’s assertion that it is not necessary to be a seer to discover the future but it is absolutely vital that you be unorthodox. Now if that isn’t a call for differentiation, what is?

Well, that’s it for Competing For The Future.

Thanks for watching.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZ BUZZ.

What’s hard to acquire but easy to lose?

We have likely all heard that people buy from others that they know, like and trust. I would like to stress that when I say “buy”, I don’t just mean the exchange of money for some good or service. I am including all transactions wherein one person is attempting to convince, influence or persuade another person to exchange something that they have for something the other person has. We’ve also likely discovered that trust, like Rome, is not built in a day.

Trust might be compared to money in our bank account. It has value and the more that we have the more valuable it becomes and the greater the number of options that present themselves to us. Without it, our options are greatly diminished. It takes a concerted effort to build our ‘trust account’ with others.

So, how can we develop this thing called trust?

One possibility is to look for situations where we can make a commitment to do something. Once we’ve made a commitment, please realize that a commitment is a promise. The good news related to promises is that most of us believe in keeping the promises that we make. Our promises help define us.

So, make a small commitment to a prospect that you absolutely know that you can keep. Then deliver on it. It can be as simple as making an offer to send something of interest that you spoke to your prospect about. However, don’t surprise the prospect by simply sending the item to him/her. Instead, clearly state that you’ll send it and indicate a completion date. Then follow through.

The above action will demonstrate that you keep your word.  And bear the following in mind. When you are working towards building a trusting relationship, “we are our word”. Others don’t know how to judge us in the early days of a relationship except by what we say and whether we do what we say we are going to do.

When that elusive trust is gained, it would be a shame to squander it by breaking our word.

 

BIZBUZZ: Gerald Nader & William Chandon: Smart Questions

This is episode 12 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations in order to challenge business owners to Be Different and to Act Boldly.

The following video highlights some content from Smart Questions, co-written by Gerald Nader and William Chandon. I thought that it was well written and offers some interesting observations.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZ BUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on Smart Questions, a book co-written by Gerald Nader and William Chandon that discusses problem solving as its central theme.

There are three assertions made by the authors that I find particularly interesting.

The first one is that we should adopt an attitude of solution creation rather than problem solving. The idea is that creating solutions can lead to bigger possibilities. It’s a mindset that can lead us to different results.

Secondly, the authors speak about three foundation questions that they feel should be employed when seeking solutions. The first question is: who should be involved to help assure that we’re working on the right problem?  The second question is: what’s the purpose we’re trying to achieve?  The third foundation question is a stress test for the second question. By that they repetively ask: and what is the purpose of that?

Finally, the authors have included a insightful quote from John Kenneth Galbraith.

“People are the common denominator for progress.  No progress is possible with unimproved people.”

Well, that’s it for Smart Questions

Thanks for watching.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZ BUZZ.

Or Is It?

I recently completed two posts and I used the expression ‘or is it?’ in both. That got me thinking about some reading that I’ve done recently on the subject of decision making.

We are often confronted with situations in which we are called upon to make a decision. Our decisions frequently look like binary choices. That is, we pick one of two choices. We either choose to do something, or we choose to do something else.

My posts spoke about two choices. Different choices, but essentially two choices in each case.

Why do we so often get fixated on the ‘EITHER/OR’ choice? Why don’t we pause long enough to consider that the best choice might be the ‘AND’ choice? In other words, why don’t we choose to do both?

I am not trying to suggest that the ‘AND’ choice is the best. But, if others are impacted by our decision making, then considering ‘AND’ demonstrates some sensitivity towards others. This in turn could lead to more creative thinking on the part of others because they feel that their input is being listened to and is being considered.

Who knows, perhaps making the ‘AND’ choice will open up opportunities that simply would not have been possible otherwise.