Innovation – Page 15 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Why Product Simplicity Always Wins

May 14, 2012/2 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

We humans love to complicate things. The more crap we hang off of a product, the better we think it is. The more engineering that goes into it, the more we can sell, right?

Wrong.

Simplicity wins. Every time. (iPod, anyone?)

As an entrepreneur, I get to hang out with other entrepreneurs (and we act all clubby and hip and cool like it’s some secret club – but it really is). In those circles I get to see and hear a gajillion awesome ideas and pitches.

Oftentimes, many of the idea pitches suck (and if you want to know why they suck, here’s a straightforward post that explains all the contributors to suckitude). For the ones that don’t suck, the difference between a winning or losing product invariably comes down to simplicity and elegance.

For example, you’ve probably heard the urban legend that during the late 1960’s, NASA spent tons of money on pens that would write in the zero gravity of outer space. Huge amounts of R&D by private firms went into creating the highly-specified, super cool, usable-in-any-environment writing devices. I mean, who wouldn’t want a space age pen that could write anywhere?

Now you’ll remember, the dirty nasty red menace commie bastards of the USSR were also locked in the space race with us (chillax – I’m saying that tongue in cheek for those of you who are new readers and aren’t familiar with my style or lack thereof). They didn’t have as much cash and they were super-lazy too. They just said “Here komrade kosmonaut! Is pencil! Is good, da?” (They actually totally said that too. I’ve heard the recording).

A pencil. A freakin’ pencil. Simplicity of design wins. Lower cost. Easier to use. Arguably more effective. Frees up resources to work on higher value stuff or to market the simpler product and outspend your competitors on advertising.

Here are a couple of examples of how I’ve seen the space pen dynamic show up in entrepreneurial ventures and, more importantly, what you can do to prevent spending hoards of cash on useless products that no one ultimately wants:

The 7 Deadly Sins of Entrepreneurship

April 23, 2012/3 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Most new ventures fail. Accept it.

Sometimes those failures are market-driven. A great new competitor beats you to the punch. The economy tanks and you run out of cash. Meteors take out your corporate headquarters.

However, many failures are self-inflicted. I’ve been lucky enough to be an entrepreneur for a while and I’ve also hung out with a ton of great (and not great) entrepreneurs. I’ve seen businesses thrive and I’ve seen others fail.

I’ve noticed a few things along the way that can cause entrepreneurs to fail. I’ve tried to neatly bundle them up into what I affectionately refer to as the seven deadly sins of entrepreneurship. If you want to succeed in building your new venture, I strongly suggest you avoid these sins at all cost.

Lust

Sex sells. But sometimes trying to make your product so sexy can lead to your downfall. Excessive thoughts of sexy UI’s, features, bells, and whistles can distract you from building something a little frumpier but more durable. When you spend all your time thinking about how to make a sexy javascript HTML Boolean double-quad Flash SDK widget app, you’re likely not focusing on the core functionality you need to create to solve the one or two major problems your customers actually want you to solve. Throw a non-sexy muumuu and a bathrobe on your product and build the basics.

Gluttony

Over-consumption can kill you. Just because you have the funding you need (now) it doesn’t mean you need to go buy all sorts of crap so your offices can be hip and cool. It also means you shouldn’t go out and buy up a ton of people (via hiring) unless you’re equally prepared to fire a similar number of people when your cash can’t keep up with your appetite. Know your burn rate and keep it to a minimum. Buying stuff just because you have cash will burn your business down to the ground.

The Road to Value

April 11, 2012/1 Comment/in Communications, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Thomas Butta, Founder and CEO of 21 Weeks. You can read more about him at the end of the post. Here’s Thomas:

Much is written about value. Even more is said about it. Value just might be the most overused word in business today.

At the organization level, we hear about customer value, shareholder value, and enterprise value. At the department level, Product Management wants its products to be perceived as good value not high cost. Sales wants to sell from value rather than feature/functions. And, Marketing is measured on the value of leads and brand equity.

Even support departments like Finance, IT and HR strive for value. Finance wants the return of value for capital deployed. IT must demonstrate value to its business unit customers. And, HR strives for a culture that recognizes the value of individuals.

If value is so important, why is there a dearth of proven ways to create and capture value in a given market space? A clear path to value would seem to be critical at a time when competitive differentiation is short-lived and the rate of change has accelerated.

My experience shows there is little content out there to help an enterprise know how to truly identify and realize top and/or bottom line value in their market. Which is enormously frustrating to client-side executives looking for clarity amidst the noise created by multitudes of companies touting their particular solution sets.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be shown the way to value rather than sold solutions? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a roadmap from a trusted advisor to guide your way to value — especially in a market that’s undergoing rapid change? You bet it would.

How to Avoid Stupid Consequences by Thinking One Step Ahead

April 2, 2012/7 Comments/in Books, Business Toolkit, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our government is full of morons. I know – and the sun is hot.

But seriously – we can learn a lot from their stupidity and lack of foresight. All too often our “leaders” identify problems they want to rectify. They then create a perfect solution targeted at resolving exactly the issue they identified.

And then stupidity happens. Why? Because the world isn’t static. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction folks (can I get a holla for Sir Isaac and 10th grade physics?).

Guess what? You do stupid stuff too (and so do I). Why? Because we don’t think far enough ahead about what the reactions in our environment might be. Today I’m going to share some of my favorite moronic decisions and their corresponding reactions and I’m also going to give you a great tool for staying out of the lack-of-foresight-stupidity-trap yourself.

To illustrate these points, allow me to share five of the stupidest government decisions I’ve ever seen and their unintended consequences. After doing so, I’ll share the simple question that will prevent you from being equally moronic. So here are the five stupid decisions…

How Creating a Value Roadmap can Lead to Sustainable Success

March 14, 2012/3 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Thomas Butta, Founder and CEO of 21 Weeks. You can read more about him at the end of the post. Here’s Thomas:

Do you remember the popular book, Dress for Success? It sold millions of copies based on a simple concept: If you want to get ahead you need to look the part. And that starts with what you wear. Wardrobes were updated everywhere.

Dress for Success was itself a resounding success because it nailed the fundamentals. Its basic premise made sense — appearances matter. And, it was easy to execute.

So, the individual had a playbook, albeit one book in the broader scheme of things, on how to increase their odds of success. Cool.

What about the organization? Is there an equivalent playbook for driving success for the organization as a whole? Is there something fundamental that can be executed across the organization that would also accelerate momentum, value and sustainable success? I would argue, yes, but it’s not what graces most reading lists.

Certainly, there is good thinking about the effectiveness of culture, the importance of community, and the benefits of branding. There are also new ideas about more efficient organizational structures and models. All are worth investigating and deploying.

But, none of this work gets to the root cause of why organizations are not as successful as they can be. Organizations are not achieving their full potential because organizations do not align for success. For all the talk of one corporate culture, one community, and one brand, we continue to see departments operating within their own agendas, goals and motivations.

While some success is being achieved as a result of innovative products, smart selling, and brilliant marketing, an organization will not be as successful as it can be without integrating all three of those fundamental behaviors.

So, how can organizations align for success?

Entrepreneurship – the Tech is the Easy Part

February 13, 2012/5 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Tech is easy. Execution is what matters.

There. I said it.

Why is it that so many entrepreneurs believe the tech is the be-all, end-all? Where did the notion come from that if you have nothing more than a killer application, website, algorithm, or any other combo of 01001010101110110 that you can build a multibillion dollar company? (I probably just dropped an f-bomb with that combo of digits).

Wrong.

It’s about executing, people (note the comma in this sentence is *very* important).

Sure, you need good tech. It must solve a problem. But once it’s built, you have to execute. That’s a whole different skill set than writing code and drawing wiring diagrams. Think about how many awesome technologies went the way of the dodo because the company simply failed to execute. Lots of them.

So how can you get better at execution? Here are a few thoughts:

12 Most Consequential Books for a New Leader

January 11, 2012/38 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by David Dye – COO of Colorado UpLift. You can learn more about him at the end of the post. And check out #11…

You may have heard that leaders take responsibility for their own growth, but with thousands of leadership and management books to choose from, where do you begin? You want resources that help you today, that you can immediately apply, and that build a strong foundation for your future leadership development.

To help you get started, I’ve put together a list of the 12 most consequential books for a new leader:

1. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
The book in the #1 slot doesn’t even have leadership in the title? No, but it does feature a skill so rare and yet so vitally critical to effective leadership that it fully deserves to be at the top of the list. Effective leaders are able to build relationships while discussing the most difficult subjects and Crucial Conversations by Patterson, et al helps you do exactly that.

2. The Leadership Challenge
Kouzes and Posner make the case that leadership is influence and that effective leadership relies on your credibility. What sets The Leadership Challenge apart is its focus on five leadership practices through which you grow your influence and credibility. These five practices are easily understood and can be learned by anyone willing to do the work.

3 Keys Leaders Can Use to See the Future

December 14, 2011/0 Comments/in Books, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Daniel Burrus, author of Flash Foresight (CLICK HERE to get your copy now). You can read more about Daniel at the end of the post.

We’re all aware that there are timeless leadership principles that have been true since the dawn of time and that will continue to be valid in tomorrow’s business environment. Things like integrity, honesty, and personal responsibility immediately come to mind. While those are all vital traits, they’re not the leadership traits I’m addressing right now.

In today’s world of technology-driven transformation, leaders need to embrace a new leadership principle if they want their organization to be relevant today and in the future.

In the recent past, leaders have focused on agility—being able to change quickly based on external circumstances because change from the outside-in has been coming at an ever-increasing speed, and it’s only getting faster. Many of these types of changes are driven by technology, but they’re also from our customers, because technology is influencing our customers and changing the way they interact with us.

We also have increasing transparency, meaning your customers and prospects have access to complaints, as well as accolades, through social media and other new forms of communication. All of these changes, which are coming from the outside-in and force agility, cause leaders to react, crisis manage, and put out fires on a daily basis.

Knowing this, it’s evident that simply being agile no longer works. Instead, today’s leaders need to be anticipatory.

Best of thoughtLEADERS 2011: The Awesomest Posts Ever

December 12, 2011/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Project Management, Sales, Social Media, Strategy, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

This year is almost over so it’s time for the year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published in 2011. It’s time for the 2011 edition of The Figgies (here are the 2010 and 2009 editions).

This is an annual event here at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. Here’s how it goes: this list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work as judged by you the readers. There’s also a kicker bonus post on the list just for good measure (it’s a “wayback” – and speaking of wayback, check out the photo on the trophy… yes… that’s me ’80’s style baby!).

Enjoy. Share. We’ve loved writing them. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. I don’t ask a lot of you folks so I have two small requests as your holiday gift to me (you are getting me something, right?):

1. Invite all your coworkers, friends, and family to come check out the blog and become readers. The only way we get better is by raising everyone’s game. I’m not asking a lot here. If you found this blog helpful at all this year, here’s your chance to return the favor for all our hard work. Just email folks and tell ’em to come take a look.

2. Pick up a copy of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership. Yes – I know I talk a lot about the book but it’s not for the money (I would have made more money if I worked in a sweat shop in Asia making sneakers). I talk a lot about it because I’m evangelical about the topic. Buy it. Read it. In the words of Roland Smith (CEO of Wendy’s) “It could change your life.”

Thanks for your incredible support in ’11 and best wishes for ’12! We hope to be a part of your future success!

Enough preamble. Here’s the best stuff we’ve written all year:

Leadership’s Role in Process Improvement

December 5, 2011/4 Comments/in Innovation, Leadership, Project Management /by Mike Figliuolo

Those of you who know me well know I am not a process guy. The notion of process can make me physically ill. That said, there’s a huge role for leadership in process improvement. I’d argue that without good leadership, any process you try to improve will fail.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kevin Eikenberry (author of From Bud to Boss) for over an hour on this topic. Today I’ll provide an excerpt of that conversation and at the end of the post I’ll provide you with a link for the actual audio file of our conversation.

So, here are a few thoughts on how leadership plays a critical role in process improvement as an excerpt from my conversation with Kevin.

Kevin Eikenberry: So let’s start by talking about why process improvement is so critical for leaders from your perspective with a variety of experiences that you have got. So let’s talk about process improvement from your perspective.

Mike Figliuolo: Yeah. You know, as leaders you can go in and you can manage, and we have got to parse management and leadership, and you manage things and you lead people.

So when you are new to a role as a leader or even if you have been doing it for a while inherently you have got certain processes that you are responsible for making sure run smoothly. The thing that ends up differentiating people is whether you sort of take that process at face and just make sure it doesn’t blow up, or if you question everything about it and seek to make it better, make it faster, make it cheaper, make the quality higher.

Creating Constructive Conflict

October 20, 2011/2 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Jeff DeGraff – author of Innovation You (CLICK HERE to get your copy). You can learn more about him at the end of the post.

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. “ Arthur Schopenhauer

Dale Carnegie advised never to talk about religion or politics in public because you never know who you might offend. While I will leave religion to the wise, I would like to tackle the politics of the day for it provides a luminous example of how innovation really works… and doesn’t. So while I may not win friends or influence people, I do hope to use recent exasperating events to illustrate its fundamental dynamics.

Case In Point: According to the Congressional Research Service, the debt ceiling has been raised 74 times since March of 1962. However, on the advent of the 75th “adjustment,” it became clear that projections of growth and expenditures by the US Federal Government resulting from myriad of factors, including the Great Recession of 2008, would put the credit rating, and the cost of capital, of the great nation in peril.

While the deadline of August 2nd for a new agreement loomed large in the psyche of the world economy, it seemed to have little effect on the über-quibbling of our friendly neighborhood “representatives” who resolved the conflict at the proverbial eleventh hour through Homeric acts of derring-do. Ta-Dah! What, no applause? Whereas this type of “trigger” event is boondoggle for traditional management, it’s a veritable windfall for instigating the nouveauté.

Why? Because breakthrough innovation typically occurs in either crisis or exceptional situations.

Everyone Needs a Little Revolution

October 17, 2011/2 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Revolution. It’s cleansing. It’s scary. It’s awesome.

The wonderful thing is you can start your own.

Revolution is that point in time when a critical mass of people get fed up with some kind of pervasive crap and collectively decide to do something about it. That “something” is usually scary, somewhat extreme, painful, brave, and life-altering.

The American Revolution. Occupy Wall Street. Civil Rights. Wakeup Startup. Revolutions large and small. They all center around a pile of crap, some fed-up people, a cause, and a spark.

When run correctly, a revolution can bring about fundamental societal change. When run poorly, a revolution can bring about fundamental societal change. It cuts both ways folks. The good news is you can start your own revolution pretty easily providing you can galvanize people around a few critical things.