I recently sat down with Scott Alexander from Jairus Marketing for another insightful discussion about a topic that resonates deeply with both of us: shifting from a founder-led business to more sustainable business models. This is especially relevant for early-stage companies, particularly those in the healthcare sector where the CEO is vital as both the visionary and primary salesperson.
Tue, Nov 27, 2012 — The concept of team building has been around since the 1960s and continues to multiply as CEOs increasingly embrace developing people and teams as an indicator of their own leadership success. But, to be successful, effective team development for a CEO requires knowing when to do team building—and when not to do team building. I’ve seen CEOs insist on referring to their employees as a team and have pointed to how well their employees get along with one another as the metric of their effectiveness as a team. Calling a group of employees a team doesn’t make them a team, no matter how well they get along. They may just be a group of workers who really like one another—or at least have learned to pretend to like one another. When does a “Group” become a “Team”?
Sun, Nov 25, 2012 — Does your company offer the best customer service? Most every company claims to have the best customer service—but would their customers agree? When running a midsize business, you face an ongoing battle to effectively connect and engage with your customers. Employees constantly multi-task and resources are stretched. As a result, customer experience management often falls to the back burner.
Wed, Nov 7, 2012 — My International Business Class This week, teaching my Business class at Rutgers was tough. Students had been without power or internet access for a week, mass transit was a mess and some students had waited in line more than four hours to buy gas. At the same time, none of us had suffered any real loss of property or injuries like others that we knew or had heard about.
Mon, Nov 5, 2012 — What would DaVinci’s vision be for three pieces of alabaster? Your most important activity as a CEO is to create the vision for success. I once worked for a CEO who was brought in to a struggling company and he only lasted 12 months. The team he was brought into manage correlated his vision to "arranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic." Was his vision flawed? If not, then what went wrong? Did he gain trust, agreement, readiness and shared consensus? Was there something wrong with his vision? How does your team rate you? Let’s think of some great visionaries and what they had in common. DaVinci, Edison, Einstein, Jefferson, Bell, Zuckerberg, Gates are considered great visionaries. They all focused on the result that their vision would achieve. They all created the vision. They all communicated the vision and they all kept trying. Once they created the vision they were single-minded in the mission and strategies to achieve their vision. Did their vision make them trusted leaders? Michael Gelb, NY Times best-seller list author and executive coach, writes in his Vision Crafting article (Executive Excellence Magazine, Jan 1996) on leadership techniques to create a winning vision. Gelb lists 8 key words to remember when crafting the vision. 1. “Juicy - inspiring, energizing, alive“ 2. “Original - a unique expression of you, your company or team” 3. “Succinct - every word packed with meaning” 4. “Inclusive - reflecting the concerns of all stakeholders” 5. “Positive-active - focused, and affirming” 6. “Memorable - everyone knows it by heart” 7. “Aligned - with universal principles and basic goodness” 8. “Integrated - into everyday behavior” Gelb goes on to recommend that the CEO use “Mind Mapping” techniques to craft visions, missions, strategies, and value statements, because the CEO must develop the ability to understand patterns of change and see the web of connections that underlie complex systems. Gelb goes on to state: “Outlining is a reflection of a hierarchical mind-set. Although valuable as a tool for presenting ideas in a formal, orderly fashion, it is useful only after the real thinking has been done.”
Sun, Oct 28, 2012 — The Age Old Story You were content in life, working to contribute in operations, sales or product/technology development. You were a master, an expert in your field and were comfortable in your skin. Then the business was rocked when the leading family member became seriously ill; or your key partner suddenly seemed to go nuts — focusing on personal enrichment at the expense of the business; or simply sudden CEO succession was needed. It is an age-old story, a company needs a competent new leader — and through no fault or desire of your own, you find yourself playing the central role of the accidental or reluctant CEO. Over the years, I have met countless CEOs who never aspired to the position of business leader. Some took on the three letter title at startup but never really expected to be the leader of a significant, complex and demanding business. Others were suddenly thrust into the role to save the company or replace a previous CEO. Regardless of how it transpired, these CEOs did not aspire, position or groom themselves to lead a business, but they did step up when required.
Thu, Oct 25, 2012 — Bloomberg Research Services has recently published a report entitled "The Current State of Business Analytics: Where Do We Go From Here?” In this publication several key findings from a survey of 930 global businesses in various industries were highlighted. I found these insights to be particularly useful: Business analytics is still in the “emerging stage.” While business analytics has gone mainstream, most organizations still rely on traditional technology. Spreadsheets are the number-one tool used for business analytics. Organizations are proceeding cautiously in their adoption of analytics. Use of business analytics within companies has grown over the past year, but at a moderate rate. Analytics also tend to be used narrowly within departments or business units, not integrated across the organization. Intuition based on business experience is still the driving factor in decision-making. Analytics is used as part of the decision process at varying levels, depending on the organization. Companies are looking to analytics to solve big issues, with the primary focus on money: reducing costs, improving the bottom line, and managing risks. Data is the number-one challenge in the adoption or use of business analytics. Companies continue to struggle with data accuracy, consistency, and even access. Many organizations lack the proper analytical talent. Businesses that struggle with making good use of analytics often don’t know how to apply the results. Culture plays a critical role in the effective use of business analytics. Companies that have built an “analytics culture” are reaping the benefits of their analytics investments.
Wed, Oct 24, 2012 — Today's Guest Blog is by Barret Blank, President and CEO of BB2e
Tue, Oct 23, 2012 — Marketing Executives from Comcast, BuzzManager and the Brownstein Group shared valuable “learnings” on how they deal with the challenges of building and protecting their brands at our recent CMO Breakfast held in Philadelphia. All of the panelist agreed with discussion moderator, Daniel Korschun Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Marketing at Drexel University, when asked if they thought the findings of a recent CMO survey conducted by Duke University were accurate. The Duke survey found that in the current marketing landscape there is: More intense rivalry for customers More competitor innovation Increase in number of domestic competitors More competitor price cutting
Mon, Oct 22, 2012 — Customer Relationship Management The idea that a company can increase their competitiveness by focusing on how a company interacts with its customers is not new but little has been accomplished to this end across corporate America. In 1992 the Harvard Business Review published a ground-breaking paper called Staple Yourself to an Order. I came across this paper several years after it was written, while I was in an operations and logistics role and it captured my imagination. In essence what the paper was saying is that companies did not have an end-to-end process around customer relationship management. There were no processes in place to manage the customer at every interaction point in a consistent manner. There is a great chart in this document on page 6 entitled "Why Orders Fall through the Cracks" (see below) that really captures the issue and illustrates a typical organizational structure and what happens to a customer going through the entire process of placing an order.