Strategy – Page 36 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

The Power and Danger of Overallocating Goals

June 28, 2017/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Goal setting can be tricky business. By overallocating goals from top to bottom, you can improve the odds of hitting your top level goal; but be careful you don’t put too much pressure on your team members.

Goals shouldn’t just tie from your strategy down to the individual goals. When you add your goals up, they also need to align from corporate goals down to individual goals.

Ensure everyone’s work is headed in the same direction and people know how they fit in and how their work contributes to the broader goals you’re trying to achieve. The way you do this is you work from the company vision down to divisions, then down to teams below that, all the way down to individual goals.

Goals should cascade from the highest levels down, and when you add them all up, hopefully it’s more than you’re trying to achieve at the top level.

Why?

Well, you want to make sure that you hit your big corporate or division goal. By overallocating that goal across the organization, you’re going to increase the chances that you hit the big goal.

Here’s what overallocating a goal looks like:

The Power of the Mind in Decision Making

June 5, 2017/0 Comments/in Books, Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

The inner voice, or what is more commonly referred to as “intuition,” is a powerful tool in the decision-making process. Opportunities open when the guidance of the inner voice is used because it is a reflection and compilation of the knowledge, experience, and conclusions thus far in a career and/or lifetime.

Today’s post is by Gabrielle V. Taylor, author of Legacy of Wisdom (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Imagine you lead a $1.5 billion company in the United States that sells financial products and services. The firm offers everything from mutual funds, derivatives and money market instruments to financial management and insurance. There is an opportunity to expand into virtual currency, the most widely known type being Bitcoin. The Blockchain technology, which is the encryption method used for many types of virtual currencies, has come a long way; but there is a trail of investors that have fallen victim to hackers who have targeted Bitcoin-based accounts and investments. Do you take advantage of this opportunity? What does your inner voice tell you?

At first, you ponder the expansion into virtual currency. Your firm might be able to position itself on the cutting edge of the virtual currency revolution that is in the nascent stage in the U.S. but further along in other countries such as China, United Kingdom, and Germany. Early entry into this market by a U.S. firm may facilitate new innovations that prepare you to take advantage of opportunities for growth.

Then, your inner voice no longer throws caution to the wind and gives you doubts about the viability of this opportunity. There is considerable risk and many financial firms are deferring to the Central Banks to explore this market first. Why should you risk losing share value and possibly customers through increased liability by participating in the complicated world of virtual currency that is still prey for hackers? The situation is riddled with pros and cons but your inner voice plays a critical role as a trusted advisor that no one can see. For many leaders, the inner voice guides us when sorting through opportunities in order to make decisions.

Have you ever heard your inner voice telling you what to do and then you don’t listen to it? Read more

Build Your Business Like an Architect

May 24, 2017/1 Comment/in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Building your business requires a balance between creativity and pragmatic planning. Architects can serve as a useful metaphor for the skills and techniques required to build a bold and innovative business.

At some point in our careers we’re all responsible for growing our business in some fashion. Whether it’s driving revenue growth, building your team’s capabilities, expanding facilities, or any other techniques for growing your business, we’ll all do it at some point.

When you face the task of growing your business, tackle the challenge like an architect. You know, those people who design buildings, draw blueprints, and use all sorts of sciency-looking devices to make sure their right angles are precisely 90 degrees.

I’ll bet the majority of folks reading this post are thinking “but architects are so boring. All they do is draw straight lines on two-dimensional blue paper. What can they possibly teach me about growth?” A lot.

The Creative Side

Have you ever looked at a building and thought “Wow! That thing is freakin’ cool! How did they come up with that awesome design and actually build it?” Answer: a creative architect.

It’s easy to get sucked into seeing architects as boring, rigid blueprint designers. The thing is, they have to be creative and dream up their designs in the first place. I’d venture to guess that when they’re building something bold and innovative, they start with concept drawings that push the boundaries of the possible. For example, check out this one from Singapore:

5 Strategy Mistakes That Will Derail Your Business

May 17, 2017/0 Comments/in Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Dealing with rapidly changing markets makes strategic planning challenging. You don’t need to make it more difficult by making five common strategic planning mistakes. Know the symptoms of a defective strategy to avoid making a mess in the market.

Today’s post is by Paul Petrone, editor of The Learning Blog for LinkedIn.

Once a year (at least), the leaders of an organization usually meet to set their strategy for the next 12 months or so.

These are important conversations. Because the decisions that come out of those meetings will directly impact the day-to-day life of nearly every employee within the organization, as well as where resources and new headcount will be allocated.

So you want to get these strategic planning sessions right. But, too often, these sessions devolve into analysis by paralysis or become too cumbersome or, worst of all, a plan is created but never actually followed.

How do you ensure that doesn’t happen? It comes down to recognizing when your strategic planning is becoming unproductive and then course correcting.

To help you, instructor Mike Figliuolo, in his LinkedIn Learning course Strategic Planning Foundations, listed five telltale signs that your strategic plan is getting off-track. If your strategic plan has any of these five qualities, it might be time to rethink things.

Those signs are:

1. Initiative proliferation

This can be summed up as trying to do too much.

Is the list of initiatives you want to accomplish for the year longer than a page? Than you are almost certainly trying to accomplish too much, which will likely mean you’ll accomplish nothing at all.

That’s not to say there aren’t many areas your organization could improve in. But the reality is your organization can only take on a handful. So it comes down to ruthless prioritization.

Which are the absolute most important initiatives your organization can take on? While there’s no set amount and it can vary depending on the size of the tasks, five or is a good number. That’ll allow your team to focus in on those five and knock them out of the park, as opposed to doing twenty things half-heartedly.

2. Thinking too small

An 8 Step Guide to Successful Startup Leadership

April 24, 2017/0 Comments/in Books, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Launching a successful start-up requires more than a great product. It’s about leadership. How you lead your team and develop yourself is a key determinant of success.

Today’s post is by Tom Hogan and Carol Broadbent, authors of The Ultimate Start-Up Guide (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

After having helped launch over forty startups, we have been exposed to—and coached—a wide range of CEOs. Most are first-timers, others are on their second or third startup. But over time, we’ve culled the following best practices for aspiring CEOs:

Hire the core and outsource the rest.

Companies should distinguish early what is core to their business and hire to that – outsourcing and virtualizing the rest. These days every new position in a company should have to justify why it deserves a full-time employee in it. Once it passes that test, hire the best and pay appropriately, but stay flexible with the rest of the positions, especially those that can be done part-time (legal and early finance) or remotely (software development: see Ukraine and India).

When picking your Board, experience and true partnership trumps valuation.

You are going to be with these people for a long time, so be picky. A team of experienced investors and advisors who will help you with your planning, hiring, and early management challenges are worth their weight in gold. That doesn’t mean you should not worry about the structure and valuation of the deal—just don’t let it trump establishing a long-term relationship with someone with whom you would want to be in a foxhole.

Leadership often comes with a sell-by date.

Why Pricing is the Biggest Lever You’re Not Pulling

January 25, 2017/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Pricing is a powerful lever but we don’t pull it often enough. Thinking through your price point as well as your pricing model can dramatically improve profitability.

Pricing is one of the most critical decisions an organization makes. A 1% difference on top-line price is worth a 10% profit increase on a business with a 10% gross margin. That’s huge! All too often we don’t think of pulling the pricing lever because it seems small. “Heck, it’s only 1% or 0.5%. Why bother?”

Why bother? I’ll tell you why to bother!

Pricing and Profits

By way of example, if you’re selling your product for $100, and you make $10 per unit, that’s a 10% margin. If you raise your price by 1%, and go from $100 to $101. That incremental dollar drops straight to the bottom line! Now you go from making $10 to $11. That’s a 10% improvement on the bottom for a 1% improvement on the top! Even with a 0.5% price increase you’re still increasing your profitability by 5%. Better yet – if you’re a publicly traded company, your stock price is based on a multiple of your earnings so that 5-10% profit improvement gets multiplied by your P/E ratio which boosts your stock price. Pricing just got compelling, didn’t it?

Pricing has a huge impact on your overall profitability. You need to understand how your product or service is priced. Is it a one-time fee? Is it a subscription model? Do you have a razor and blade model where you sell something really cheap, but the replacement parts are an ongoing stream of revenue? Do you sell accessories or extras with your core product? Do you offer additional services or warranties? Different prices for different customers and different markets and features are typical for most businesses. The better you understand your pricing model, the easier it is for you to increase prices without undercutting the volume of product you sell.

Cost-Plus versus Value-Based Pricing

Two common pricing approaches are cost-plus or value-based pricing. Depending on your industry, your product/service, and customer behavior, one of these models may be more appropriate than another. That said, just because you currently have one pricing model, that doesn’t mean you can’t change to another.

Let me explain the difference between a cost-plus pricing model and a value-based pricing model. Read more

How knowledgeable are you about global megatrends?

January 19, 2017/0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How knowledgeable are you about global megatrends?

– Very — We monitor the pace of change, long-term, across all megatrends: 10%
– Somewhat — We stay informed only about megatrends we think directly affect our business: 40%
– Not very — Industry trends are our main focus: 29%
– Not at all — Too busy fighting fires to look beyond our business and the present: 10%
– What’s a megatrend?: 10%

The broader the better. While a slim majority of you are focused on trends beyond your own industry—such as global demographic, economic, political, environmental, societal, and technological trends—there is the possibility of missing out on key insights by being too selective. As this blog post points out, environmental disasters such as the recent earthquake in Japan can affect a wide range of U.S. companies and sectors. Engaging in broader scenario planning could make all the difference in securing a sustainable future for your company.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Best of thoughtLEADERS 2016: A Basket of Kickass

December 21, 2016/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Sales, Social Media, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s time again for our annual year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published over the last 12 months. Welcome to the 2016 edition of The Figgies (our EIGHTH YEAR of em! Wow!) which are the awards we give ourselves for writing awesome blog content (here are the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 editions of those awards).

This is an annual event at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. This list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work. 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 all 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 my books. They make great holiday gifts for the professionals in your life. The titles include:

One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership. In the words of Roland Smith (former CEO of Wendy’s/Arby’s) “This book could change your life.” To get a sense for what the book is about, read this free ChangeThis Leadership Manifesto which is based on the book. If you like the manifesto, you’ll love the book.

Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results. “Finally, a leadership book that cuts through all of the noise. This book needs to be on every leader’s desk!” – Andrea Procaccino, Chief Learning Officer, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved. If you’re looking to get to “yes” for your idea, this book will give you the method for doing so in an efficient and effective way.

Thanks for your incredible support in ’16 and best wishes for ’17! We hope to be a part of your future success! Now on to the best of list!

Balancing Current Performance with Future Growth

December 19, 2016/0 Comments/in Books, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Finding a balance between current performance and future growth is a critical element of your strategy. Too much focus on either the present or the future can lead to disaster.

Today’s post is by Jeffrey Saltzman and Scott Brooks, co-authors of Creating the Vital Organization (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

What is the difference between companies that succeed and those that fail?

The answer lies at least partly in the concept of vitality. All organizations have daily operations that help create or deliver the goods and services that make up the core of their business – current performance. Yet no matter how strong or successful an organization may be at delivering their current performance, they run the risk of stagnation and even failure because eventually competitors, changing marketplace realities, or new technologies will render their current performance irrelevant or obsolete.

In order to stay competitive and relevant, an organization must constantly explore future potential opportunities and ideas. These efforts require investments of time, resources, and specifically money, yet despite all this, many of them will fail.

Nonetheless, it is critical that organizations work toward building new capabilities. Eventually, one of the future potential ideas will succeed, and will become current performance that helps support even more future potential exploration. In other words, it is a cycle of using current performance to support and fund future potential that will one day become the organization’s current performance.

We first came across this idea years ago when listening to a company’s CEO discuss how his company refreshed its products lines. After determining that the life span of their product was roughly five years, they realized that they needed to refresh 20% of their product-line annually to stay relevant and competitive. The concept of constant renewal stuck with us, and we started researching just how important renewal is to an organization’s success.

How to Survive and Thrive through the Blade Years of Business

October 3, 2016/0 Comments/in Books, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Building a business can be challenging, especially in those first few fragile years known as the “blade years.” If you focus on a few simple principles, you can increase your odds of success of surviving those challenging times and thriving once you’re through them.

Today’s post is by Bobby Martin, author of The Hockey Stick Principles (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

When we see flourishing businesses, it’s hard to believe that they haven’t always been that successful. During the first year of launching First Research, I had almost nothing to show for it. Our year end revenue was just shy of $4,000, we had $399 in cash, $899 in accounts receivable, and a $20,150 loan payable to me. Without being able to answer if I should keep going with First Research, I kept fighting, and I am glad I did.

The truth is, almost every business has had to endure what I call The Blade Years at some point to get to a place where their business is thriving. The Blade Years derives from the “hockey stick” revenue metaphor when revenue is low and hardly growing – the flat part of the stick. It is the period of time when founders have fully committed to making the business work. They have usually quit their day jobs and are ready to endure whatever it takes to launch through until they hit the growth-inflection point of their new business.

My research and personal experience show that this stage usually lasts three to four years, during which revenue is low, if any is coming in at all. The stress of inadequate funds, feeling burned out and experiencing extreme highs and lows leaves many founders overwhelmed and in a place of wanting to give up and wondering if they should keep going.

The Blade Years can be very tough, but because I decided to fight for my company, I was able to leave the Blade Years behind and eventually sell First Research to Dun & Bradstreet for $26.5 million. Here are a few tips that will help you make it through The Blade Years without breaking or giving up.

Bootstrap

Do more with less and take on as many projects as possible yourself to save money. You can also find an alternate source of income to free you up from the emotional financial burden of having no income. It will allow you to focus your energy on developing your market and improving the product or service. These are the things you should be focusing on during the beginning stages of business growth. Don’t let the extra stressor of lack of finances dictate your focus.

Less Marketing, More Learning and Iteration

Communicating Strategy is as Simple as Creating a Map

September 26, 2016/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Strategy doesn’t have to be something reserved for executives or communicated in a secret language that most people don’t understand. By creating a simple strategy map, you can effectively communicate your strategy to your entire organization.

Today’s post is by Sanjiv Anand, author of Execution Excellence (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

A few years ago, I visited a client who was the CEO of the subsidiary of a major French firm. Waiting in his conference room, I saw not art, but power point slides decorating his walls. When he walked in, I asked him what was going on. He said he had the slides up there because he had a significant number of employees take a walk through the conference room each week and read the slides. He felt it was the most effective way to communicate his strategy to his team. I know it sounds funny, but it’s not. Look at what extremes people go to to communicate strategy.

For too long strategy has been the like the keys to the executive washroom. Those who have the keys know what the strategy is. Unfortunately, those who have to execute it have no clue. Town halls, the quintessential American invention of CEOs sharing their wisdom on the direction of company and key themes, don’t do justice to the topic of strategy.

Many firms have attempted to deal with this by expanding the involvement of a large number of employees in the strategic planning process, supposedly a more democratic process as it’s bottom-up. These initiatives are clearly pushed by HR professionals seeking employee empowerment.

The reality is none of this works. Not decorating the walls with power point art, nor the bottom-up approach. The bottom-up approach doesn’t work because as one goes deeper in the organization, the role becomes less strategic and more operational. And the tendency of management taking a bottom-up approach is to then think operationally and what the potential strategy could be keeping current processes in mind, while good strategy is about change and innovation.

So what works?

Using Speed, Agility and Innovation to Beat Your Competition

July 18, 2016/0 Comments/in Books, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Innovation, speed, and agility can be a winning combination if they’re used appropriately. Those elements must be tied closely to your strategy if you really want to win.

Today’s post is by Jeffrey Phillips and Alex Verjovsky, authors of OUTMANEUVER: OutThink, don’t OutSpend (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Every executive knows speed is important. Meg Whitman at Hewlett-Packard declared recently that “the future belongs to the fast.” But is speed enough? If you can simply accelerate the current activities, products and strategies that your business implements, will that help you win in the future?

Or what about being more “agile.” Agile was originally a software technique, meant to shorten software development times and make the development team more accountable to customer needs. From there, everyone is adopting the concept of “agile.” There’s agile marketing, introduced by thought leaders at CMG. Can agile help you win more? Of course. Is it, by itself, enough? Probably not.

Or, think about innovation. There’s probably no other topic that has the same level of emphasis across industries and geographies. Everyone knows innovation is important. But again, if you can innovate successfully, is that enough? Do any of these factors, by themselves, help your company win?

We believe that each of these factors is important, but left to themselves, implemented in a discrete fashion, without integration or coordination they won’t make a significant difference. But if you could create a framework in which each of these activities were a vital component leading to a completely new way to compete, then you’d see a significant impact on your revenues, profits and market share.

Maneuver Strategy