Monthly Archives: March 2010
Those who follow my blog or have heard me speak to business groups and conventions know that I constantly talk about the dangers of MSU, or making stuff up.Making stuff up occurs when we listen to the thought bubbles inside our heads that tell us the world must be a certain way; when we fill in the voids of information with our own interpretation or beliefs. We get into trouble when we make decisions or take action without testing to see whether the assumptions underlying our thought bubbles are actually true. Or when we forget to pause every now and then to question the thought bubbles that we have had for awhile.Thought bubbles come in all shapes and sizes, and contain all sorts of half-truths and misinformation. Here are two that frequently wreak havoc with efforts to implement a strategic plan.Killer thought bubble #1: “Once the strategic plan gets written, … Continue reading
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, commonly referred to as ‘SOX’, was enacted in 2002 as a response to Enron and the Enron-like financial scandals of the time. I’m in the enviable position of (1) being an ex-accountant and auditor, and (2) selling software that among other things is used to track compliance with SOX, which gives me some perspective on the impact SOX has had on companies.Without getting into the boring details, SOX can (and has) be generalized as forcing companies to document their risks (i.e. “what can go wrong”) and ensure that they have controls in place to prevent, or worst case detect, when something does go wrong. While it was a response to accounting abuse, SOX is sometimes interpreted by companies or their auditors more broadly to include virtually anything that could go wrong with the business. It can reach into the HR department, legal, IT, operations – everywhere.What is … Continue reading
I’ve been in many corporate meetings that left me wondering where I could apply to get back the two hours I had just spent that were completely unproductive, so I am completely convinced that it is possible to lose time, or use it ineffectively in any organization. But what’s puzzling to me is the argument that I hear from many people that they need to “find” time to innovate, as if there are spare pockets of hours or days in hidden corners in their office, simply waiting to be discovered. Finding time to innovate is nonsensical, at several levels. First, if an initiative is important to you or your management team, then those activities make it onto your calendar. Second, if you are good at what you do, or are in demand from others, then they will place demands on your calendar to participate in their work or activities. Third, … Continue reading
If corporate growth is what you seek, but you lack the patience to endure the slow pace of organic growth, and don’t have the capital necessary to finance an acquisition binge, then you might want to consider the many benefits associated with partnering. While the concept of creating a strategic partnership is familiar to many, the reality is that few companies take advantage of them. Let me offer the initial disclaimer that the subject of today’s post is a complex area that would require much more in depth coverage to do it justice. That said, in the text that follows I’ll provide an overview of the many reasons why partnering should be included as a key component of your corporate growth strategy.AcquisitionsGrowth by acquisition in most cases constitutes a complex, capital intensive, and time consuming process. Furthermore the brain damage associated with an acquisition is just beginning when the deal … Continue reading
Three things came together to make me think of this post:I regularly get feedback from my research interviews that people really enjoy them. That’s interesting, because I’m a lousy interviewer. After the last round, we got some feedback from our contact at the firm who said that he had received thank-you emails for setting up the emails. My colleague was a bit taken aback by this, and said to me “but we didn’t say anything”. True, I said, but we listened to them.And it occured to me how infrequent that is in a lot of workplaces. It’s sad, really. I was reflecting on this on the walk in to my office this morning, and decided that in a lot of businesses, having genuine empathy could be a source of competitive advantage. This is built on scarcity, since genuine empathy is rare. Something to think about I guess…Then when I got … Continue reading
Open innovation at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) presents both great opportunities and great challenges. Forming open innovation relationships can give a growing enterprise access to resources that might normally are beyond their reach with the potential for greatly speeding up time to market. At the same time, working with larger – and in some case much larger companies – is not without its perils.Let’s consider a growing startup or a small company that is on its way to become a mid-sized enterprise. The early phases are very much about executing on single, great product, idea or technology. However, as the company grows focus tends to shift towards control rather than keeping the visionary thinking and bold approaches that build the company. This must be re-ignited. Open innovation can be the vehicle for accomplishing this objective.Because of the high level of risk-taking involved with young ventures, leaders of entrepreneurial enterprises … Continue reading
