Strategy Central

Disposing Batteries

Just checked out the Squidoo site of the day, How to Dispose of Batteries.  Good stuff over there.  I know this isn't about strategy or mission or vision, but it is about change...the personal kind.  If you're beginning to switch out your light bulbs to CFLs or conserve water (maybe catching water as you wait for the tap to heat up), your next step might be to actually dispose of your batteries properly...instead of just thinking about it.

Earth 911 was mentioned as a site that allows you to search for a local disposal site.  Seems like way past time.  I found several right where my new office is.  Already doing it?  Awesome.  Join me?  Thanks.

Foresight vs Hindsight

Are you the type that needs facts and figures to make important decisions?  Or do you rely on gut feelings or intuition?  The challenge right now might be that we're no longer in a time when gut sense is reliable.

Traditionally, managers depended on experience and intuition to develop insights―"gut feel," if you will.  Most often a gut feel is based on past experiences.  Gut feel and intuition are important, but in a fast-changing competitive environment, experience of the past is less and less valuable.  Foresight, not hindsight is of value.  (p. 83, The New Age of Innovation)

Nancy Duarte on Powerful Presentations

If you give presentations (or preezoes as my friend John calls them), you need to check out this webinar by Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design.  She was "one of the gurus" behind Al Gore's Inconvient Truth presentation.  Definitely worth taking a look.  You can take a look at it by clicking here. 

StrategyCentral Turns 3 Years Old

I started blogging 3 years ago.  Amazing how fast these 3 years have gone.  A lot has happened.  Good stuff.  I've met a lot of great people through the blog.  While there might have been a few times when the anarchist in me came out (not the Antichrist), for the most part there's just been a hint of organizational dissident.

Thanks for coming along!  It's always good to know you're still here.

Digging the New Coldplay

Enjoying a little downtime with new Coldplay CD as the soundtrack.  Several of the songs really pull me in.  Definitely growing on me.  Especially like Life in Technicolor (has an almost U2 feel) and Violet Hill.   Interesting to try and puzzle out the lyrics.

Ready to download your own copy?  You can do that right here:

Knowing Who Your Customer Really Is

One of Peter Drucker's best known contributions is a list of the right questions.  One of the right questions is, "Who is your customer?"  Do you know who your customer is?  Some of us do, but many of us are really designed to settle for whoever shows up.

Loved this line from a New York Times article on Herb Kelleher's (the founder of Southwest Airlines) retirement.  When asked what has kept Southwest successful all these years, Robert W. Mann Jr., the president of R. W. Mann & Company, an airline consulting firm said:

“The single focus that has kept Southwest on the road to success is that they always knew who their customers were: they were people who had to make the choice to either fly or drive."

Do you know who your customer is?

Treat Your Employees Like Customers

One of the great stories in modern business is Southwest Airlines.  No question about it, no getting around it, that company is just a great story.  Fun to hear about and fun to talk about and at the root is the amazing story of founder Herb Kelleher and his relationship with the employees.  There were two quotes from a recent New York Times article that tell part of the story behind the story:

The Southwest pilots union is in the process of negotiating a new contract with management (as is American Airlines). But not only did the Southwest pilots not set up a picket line, they took out a full page ad in USA Today thanking Mr. Kelleher for all he had done. “The pilots of Southwest Airlines want to express our sentiment to Herb that it has been an honor and a privilege to be a part of his aviation legacy,” said the union president, Carl Kowitzky, in a statement.

(Later in the meeting) when he (Kelleher) brought up the pilots ad — and when he talked about how much the company’s employees meant to him — he wept. “I’m Lucky Herbie for having all of these years with all of you,” he said. More than a few people in the audience wept right along with him.

If you want to read the whole New York Times article you can click here.

Thanks to the 37signals blog for the link to the article.

Consumer-Centric vs. Firm-Centric

In the global transition from boilerplate and off-the-shelf to personalized and custom-to-the-need, the pivot point is "firm-centric" vs. "consumer-centric" (For our purposes, let's call it "customer-centric" so we can debug the negative connotation of "consumer.").  One important element of the "personalized" future is the idea of allowing the customer to co-create the experience.  This is a huge part of what's happening with iTunes, Google, and Build-a-Bear.

You don't think this is coming for all of us?  Think about the number of times that one of your core programs doesn't work for individuals in your customer base.  Insisting they buy what we have because we know what's best is a lot like Henry Ford saying that a Model T buyer could have any color they wanted as long as it was black.

Granted, there is a tricky element in this discussion because of the elegance of simple.  But it is coming.  And it will be everywhere.  Want more on the idea?  Check out this free preview of a C.K. Prahalad talk on the subject. 

The New Age of Innovation

Picked a new book off the stack for my trip to Dallas, The New Age of Innovation by C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan. Prahalad was the co-author of Competing for the Future (with Gary Hamel) and I had heard him on several podcasts (including this one on the book itself).  What caught my eye on this book?  Two key concepts that are extremely relevant for all of us.

• N = 1: "Value is based on unique, personalized experiences of consumers.  Firms have to learn to focus on one consumer and her experiences at a time, even if they serve 100 million consumers.  The focus is on the centrality of the individual."
• R = G: "No firm is big enough in scope and size to satisfy the experiences of one consumer at a time.  All firms will access resources from a wide variety of other big and small firms—a global ecosystem.  The focus is on access to resources, not ownership of resources." *Don't be put off by the word "global."  The real concept is that you'll have to go outside your own capability to meet the needs of the individual.
  

Now before you get all worked up about not being in the kind of business that Prahalad and Krishnan are writing about...just stop and think with me.  Doesn't this actually apply to all of us?  This is about your ability to truly serve your customers.  You may be thinking, "Wait a minute! This is only going to happen to those organizations, not ours!"  I'm thinking it's already happening.

Think about your programs.  Aren't many of your conversations already about how this group or that individual customer isn't being served by what you've got?   You know that's happening!  What are you doing about it?  Don't you just shrug your shoulders and watch them leave?

There is admittedly a tension between this concept (which implies customized solutions) and simple.  What does it all mean?  I'm not sure yet.  Want to come along?  You can pick up your copy of The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks RIGHT HERE.

The Answer to How is Yes

One of my favorite books is Peter Block's, The Answer to How Is Yes.  Hard to describe how it works, but it really resonates with me.  I took it on the plane yesterday and re-read the first few chapters.  If you read it slowly and thoughtfully you can't help but come away with some nuggets like this one:

"We have yielded too easily to what is doable and practical and popular.  In the process we have sacrificed the pursuit of what is in our hearts.  We find ourselves giving in to our doubts, and settling for what we know how to do, or can soon learn how to do, instead of pursuing what most matters to us and living with the adventure and anxiety that this requires."

Where does this quote leave me?  Convinced that I've been too quick to go in the direction of pragmatic and practical where I need to insist on discovering purpose first.  Hmmmm.  Take the pebble from my hand Grasshopper.