…personal development for smart professionals
Uncategorized
Embrace Change
0397 days
by Lee
in Uncategorized
Probably the best way to grow your business is to embrace change. There are lots of examples of companies large and small that have failed to embrace chance and as a direct consequence, have become extinct.
Change is scary. There are no guarantees of success when you change something but if you fail to change, you risk becoming extinct. Blockbuster video was late to adopt new ways of delivering video rentals and as a result had to file bankruptcy. Blockbuster’s failure at the hands of Netflix and Redbox was as must the fault of a business strategy that failed at innovate.
Change is risky. Coke introduced Coke C2 with half the calories of regular Coke to target males who are increasingly calorie conscious but might view Diet Coke as a girly drink. Coke C2 failed but the failure wasn’t catastrophic and it didn’t prevent future attempts to reach the calorie conscious 30 to 40-something males. Coca-Cola stepped back, examined the lessons from the failure of C2 and made another attempt at reaching that target market with Coke Zero.
Change is inevitable. The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be. People and businesses that adapt quickly and easily to change are generally more successful. Rigid attachment to the status quo is deadly to your business and professional development.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
False Causes
0398 days
by Lee
in Uncategorized
It’s easy to assume our efforts have certain outcomes but sometimes we’re wrong. Human performance is rarely completely consistent. The same can be said of the performance of any given business.
People and businesses have good days and bad days. There is a tendency among managers to forget that really good days and really bad days are usually followed by ‘average’ days. People and businesses typically experience what is sometimes called “regression toward the mean” which simply means both outstanding performances and rotten performances are usually followed by performance that is more typical or average.
For example, a sales professional has an “off” week or quarter. His or her sales manager swoops in with a remedial plan and like magic, performance improves. The sales manager assumes credit for correcting the poor performing salesman when in reality, performance would have improved even if the sales manager had sprinkled pixie dust around the office.
Knowledge of “regression toward the mean” will prevent business leaders from overreacting to peaks and valleys.
To hear a podcast on this topic click HERE
AT&T and The Pareto Principle
0407 days
by Lee
in Uncategorized
I talk about the 80/20 Rule and the Pareto Principle frequently. Last week, I got an email from AT&T that demonstrates in a real-life setting just how powerful the 80/20 rule can be.
AT&T is changing the way they provide home internet service. Beginning soon, if you are what AT&T considers a “heavy user,” you’ll have to pay more for your internet service. True to Joseph Juran’s early observations, AT&T long ago realized that the majority of internet bandwidth is consumed by 2-5% of it’s customers. The pattern is nearly identical with smartphone users. A minority of customers consume the majority of resources.
As soon as I read the email, I called AT&T customer service and was assured that the change isn’t likely to affect me. The customer service rep sounded as if he had been having that same conversation with other concerned customers all day.
My initial response was indignant. How could they possibly think for one minute that I’m going to sit still while they nickel and dime my internet usage -I’ll be on the phone with Comcast in a heartbeat.
After a day or two, I calmed down and realized the new rule wouldn’t affect my bill. The change is actually designed to prevent ‘bandwidth hogs’ from jamming up the network thus ensuring optimal use for the rest of us -thats a GOOD thing.
In the future, if you want to stream audio or video over the internet all day long, be prepared to pay extra. My only hope is that AT&T will take the extra revenue this new policy will generate and make some long overdue upgrades to their network.
Effort ≠ Results
0416 days
by Lee
in Uncategorized
Most people are under the mistaken impression that there is a direct correlation between efforts and results; hard work equals high pay-off. With just a minimal amount of careful consideration, one discovers the fallacy of this belief.
If there were a direct 1:1 correlation between effort and results, we’d all be millionaires with amazingly fulfilling relationships and fully satisfied lives. Clearly, that is not the case.
In reality, there is closer to an 80/20 relationship between effort and results. Only 20% of our efforts produce 80% of our results or rewards. This predictable imbalance is found in everything from business operations to our personal relationships: most of the activities in which we engage are trivial with only a small percentage of what we do falling into the category of productive and efficient.
This is why measurement is such an important part of your business. Unless you measure key elements of your business, you will not really know for certain which of your efforts are paying off and which of your efforts are wasted.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
How to Clone Yourself
1423 days
by Lee
in Uncategorized
McDonald’s, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, The Mayo Clinic, Jiffy-Lube, and Harvard University all have something in common. They all have systems in place that dictate how things are done.
A hamburger from McDonald’s in Spokane, Washington looks and tastes just like one in Keene, New Hampshire. Why? Because theres a manual that says “put the pickles here, use this much ‘special sauce’ and ask the customer if they’d like to super-size everything.”
Having various systems in place not only ensures consistency and stability but enables the owner/operator to be away from the business without noticeable change in the delivered product.
Having good systems in place allows business owners to essentially clone themselves so they don’t have to be on the ‘frontline’ all the time.
