Future Blogs

Although I will continue to post here from time to time, the majority of my posts will be on my web site at http://www.beyondthechickendance.com

Today there’s a new blog entitled “Negotiating Surprise.”

Hope you continue to enjoy them.

More Creative Thoughts

Here are some more points to consider as you expand your thinking “outside the box .”

“Challenge everything.  Assume nothing.”  Sergio Zyman

“Never be afraid to try something new.  Remember: Amateurs built the Ark.  Professionals built the Titanic.”  Anonymous

“If the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”  Jack Welch.

Creativity Breeds Success

Succeeding in today’s global economic environment more than likely will require new technologies, new applications of existing technology and new ways of thinking. Fortunately, for those of us in business in the US, we should be able to leverage our entrepreneurial spirit and continue to create new opportunities.

Just to get started, here are some creative thoughts to consider from those that have proven track records:
– “Out there is an entrepreneur who’s forging a bullet with your company’s name on it. You’ve got one option — to shoot first.” Gary Hamel

– Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, progress stops.” Thomas J. Watson

Stayed tuned for more creative thinking.

Are You Sure About That?

We all have heard the expression that “There are two things in life of which we can be certain — death and taxes.”  Well, I am here to tell you that there really are three things of which we can be certain — death, taxes and change.

The key is recognizing in advance that change will occur and having a plan in place to deal with it.  Taking this approach will able you to respond  proactively to the change (s) as opposed to reacting after the fact and implementing potentially sub-optimal solutions.

GM Adds Some New Steps to the “Chicken Dance”

In September 2009, I posted a blog entitled “Is the Chicken Dance Continuing or Is It High Stakes Poker?”  The focus of the commentary was to highlight the chicken dance GM was employing in the sale of Opel.   At that time, GM already had accepted an offer from Magna International, but appeared to be leveraging its position to obtain a higher price for its Opel and Vauxhall business units.

In November 2009, GM announced that it was not going to sell to Magna International and the consortium put together by Magna.  GM had decided to proceed on its own.  Apparently, proceeding on their own involved obtaining aid from several European governments.

Today, the Associated Press announced that “GM’s Opel withdraws European aid applications.”  Now it appears that, GM now believes the fact that they finally have reported a quarterly profit — even though they continue to lose money in Europe — they are in a position to take control of their own destiny without any government aid or any other party involvement.

This shows that the “chicken dance” can continue indefinitely if all of the parties do not understand the actions and antics that are being employed to gain power and position.  In this case, it appears that GM kept adding new steps to keep the dance in motion until such time as they could bypass the bidders, the politicians and the governments and take control of their own destiny.

Makes you wonder if they ever really had any intention of selling Opel and Vauxhall!

New Tricks for An Old Dog

Who was it that said “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”  I just finished reading a book entitled Turn Your Business Card Into Business” by Reno Lovison  and learned that my business cards — past and present — really could have been better.

Given that I have held many different positions over the past 40+  years, I have held a broad variety business cards.  After reading Reno’s book I realized that while some of the cards were good, NONE of them incorporated all of the criteria that would have made them more effective.  I also realized that I never had maximized the power of my business cards as a marketing tool.

After all these years, I wonder how much business I lost as a result.  You can avoid the mistakes I made by reading the book.  It is clear, concise, to the point and could help you grow your business.

Part III – Can History Help Us Develop Better Plans?

As stated in an earlier blog, “It would appear that history could provide many ‘lessons learned’ that would enable the military strategists to avoid some of the mistakes made in prior conflicts.”

Looking at what has transpired, and what is continuing to take place in Iraq and in Afghanistan, raises some serious questions as to whether any of the history lessons have been taken into consideration.  Looking at what transpired in Korea and Vietnam, and the eventual outcomes in both of those “wars,” one could conclude that we continue to follow the same path and could end up with similar outcomes.

In Korea we ended up with a situation with no satisfactory conclusion and with no resolution after over 50 years of stalemate.  The factors leading up to this situation included: a military that was poorly armed and trained as a result of budget cuts, serious command issues with politics an even bigger component of military strategy than usual, the US believing that its technical superiority would overwhelm the enemy and result in a quick victory and underestimation of the number of enemy combatants.

Similarly, with regard to Vietnam, the military and the Washington politicians were in constant conflict, the US believed their technical superiority would overwhelm the enemy, the commitment of enemy ground forces was underestimated and many people in the US were openly against the war which not only was demoralizing to the US troops, it actually may have served to embolden the enemy.  Ultimately, the US left with no victory and no resolution of the issue that caused te US to enter the war in the first place.  It was a forfeit, and indicated the possibility that the US could not be counted on to defend its allies.

So, do we have a better plan now?  Look for my perspective on next week’s blog

Part II – Can History Help Us Develop Better Plans?

In Barry Ritholtz’  book “The Bailout Nation,” he quotes Bob Algern, the former counsel for BP Amoco regarding a “key lesson from history: We should pay heed to the sheer number of empires that became overstretched militarily and then sunk under their own weight.  We need a military and intelligence system structured for the next century, not the last one.  And just as important, we need to be able to size these endeavors at a level we can afford.  We can’t continue to subsidize the entire free world by acting as the globe’s policeman.”

By the same token, if we decide to get involved anywhere in the world, it would appear that the military strategy would need to be predicated on “winning” in the sense of turning around a dangerous or untenable situation.  It also would appear that history could provide many “lessons learned” that would enable the military strategists to avoid some of the mistakes made in prior conflicts.

We’ll look at Korea & Vietnam in next week’s blog.

The Seven Keys to an Effective Plan

As opposed to plans developed in an atmosphere where broad, grandiose objectives are set at the top of the organization, effective plans are “bottom up,” cross-functional plans that have consensus at the operating level.  Effective plans embody the following characteristics:

• They are based on a vision of the future
• They are focused on customer needs
• Everybody is involved and informed
• Goals are integrated at each level to support the vision, and to ensure that one area’s plans complement those of other areas
• Every objective supports the overall plan goals and vision
• Specific responsibilities are assigned to people to ensure that planned actions are implemented and that progress is being monitored
• There are scheduled progress reviews

How to Recognize an Ineffective Plan

Ineffective plans typically are “top down,” and as a result, do not have buy in from the people responsible for achieving the desired results.  There are other significant problems with these plans including:

• They are based on executive “wish lists”
• They are not based on customer requirements
• They do not tie to daily operations
• They tend to be kept somewhat secret — hidden from loer and middle management
• They are a compilation of isolated department plans
• They are not correlated with other conditions, specifically human and financial resource requirements
• They do not contain a means to measure progress
• They sometimes contain objectives to help enhance executive compensation