Leadership - Without Warning

Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

I Got Outcoached in a Big Way

Monday, March 28th, 2011

In recent years, NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament has had a few upsets, a few memorable moments and a few captivating quotes. This year’s memorability quotient has reached new heights which includes:

Four teams with a combined 37 losses and a combined winning percentage of .755, second lowest since 1985.

Four teams whose combined seeding equals 26, breaking the record of 22 in 2000.

Not a single No. 1 seed for only the third time since seeding began in 1979.

Not a single No. 1 or No. 2 for the first time.

No surprise then, that out of the 5.9 million entries in the ESPN bracket contest, only two had this foursome making its way to Houston. Did they go on a hunch? Or just tie on a blindfold and throw darts at the bracket?

While this year is special, from my perspective, the coach and the team to watch from a leadership/team perspective is Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs. Last year they were the Cinderella story almost beating Duke in the NCAA Championship game. This year, they’re back to their old tricks of playing the underdog role and toppling giants. And its Brad Stevens that I think leaders need study, understand and possibly emulate. Following Butler’s upset of Florida, this is what Brad Stevens said about his team and Florida’s coach, Billy Donovan.

“They (Butler’s players) carried their coach today in a big way. I was saying I got outcoached in a big way.”

This comment probably caught most off-guard, wondering how Stevens could even make such a statement. Was he simply playing his team’s underdog role to the max? Did he really mean it? Or was he simply giving credit where credit was deserved - to his players?

Let me change gears here for a second. Last week, the New York Times ran a story about Google’s quest to identify what it took to be a good boss. Their search looked at quantitative and qualitative data, from which they identified 8-key criteria. They being:

Be a good coach.
Empower your team and don’t micromanage it.
Express interest in team members success and personal well-being.
Don’t be a sissy - be productive and results oriented.
Be a good communicator and listen to your team.
Help your employees with career development.
Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.
Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.

At first glance, these leadership traits have been taught for decades. Nothing new. Nothing fancy. No surprises. Pretty basic stuff. Yet its reassuring that the simple basics of being a good boss remain relevant in an era of “whats new lately” can dominate leadership classes. So let’s get back to Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs. I’m of the opinion that the question about whether Brad Stevens was outcoached or not isn’t even relevant. I think the question should be, “Who is the better leader/boss?” Because I’m coming to the conclusion that Brad Stevens is a pretty darn good coach, however he is a brilliant leader/boss. This is why the Butler Bulldogs have returned to the Final 4 two years in a row. It’s why his players give 110 percent and don’t choke under the heat.

Just maybe, schools are doing a pretty good job of recruiting coaches, however they need to do a better job of finding leaders. I think its that plain and simple.

What do you think?

Tags: Billy Donovan, Brad Stevens, Butler Bulldogs, Coaching, Florida, google, Leadership, March Madness, NCAA
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The Business of Second Chances

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

It’s March Madness time and thought it would be appropriate to revisit two popular postings that still ring true today. So here’s the first, “Second Chance Points.”

I’ve been intrigued with the David vs. Goliath story that unfolded over the past month, aka Butler vs. Duke in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. It’s been a story few could have imagined, and am certain will be a movie in the future. It rates right up there with Herb Brooks and the 1980 Olympics, where the US Men’s hockey team upset the highly favored Russian team, and eventually took Gold. Despite the phenomenal storyline, there is an integral business and leadership lesson that lies in each of these stories. This being “Second Chance Points.”

CBS analyst and commentator Clark Kellogg in his coverage of the Road to March Madness introduced me to the importance of Second Chance Points and Points off Turnovers (Part 2). In basketball, second chance points occur when there is a missed shot and the team on offense gets the rebound or recovers the ball following a missed shot and scores. If a team is aggressive, smart and talented, they get more second chance opportunities and second chance points than the opposition. How does this relate to business success or leadership?

Nobody bats a thousand every day. And from time-to-time, even the most disciplined businesses and leaders mess up. An order was incorrectly shipped. A client sales call didn’t go smoothly. A deadline was missed. A product recall is initiated. An employee didn’t follow through on a commitment they made. If you’re a competitor, you realize the potential for picking up new business increases exponentially when the competition messes up. However, on occassion good companies get a second chance - great companies almost always get a second chance. They get a second chance because they have developed a deep relationship with their customers. In essence, the company’s value proposition is always greater than the product or service they sell. And because the value proposition is high, they are given a second chance. And if they leverage their second chance opportunity, they’re even able to score points off of the initial miss. Think of these contrasting companies and second chance points. Which companies have been able to leverage second chance opportunities?

Southwest Airlines vs. Delta, American or Spirit Airlines
Apple vs. Microsoft
Google vs. AOL or Yahoo
Netflix vs. BlockBuster

I’d suggest that Southwest, Apple, Google and Netflix are positioned to leverage Second Chance Points. Because when you’re given a second chance, you have the luxury of being able to learn from your mistakes. When you aren’t offered a second chance, you die by your mistakes. This is why companies must fight their way to earn the right to be given a second chance.

So what do organizations need to do to position themselves for Second Chance Opportunities and Second Chance Points?

Build deep relationships with customers, employees, and suppliers.
Remain true to the Vision and Values of the organization.
Acknowledge missed opportunities, fix them and learn from them.
Celebrate Second Chance Points when they occur.
Never take for granted that you will be offered a second chance.

Second Chance Points are huge strategic advantage when you’ve earned them, because it makes it more difficult for competitors to displace you.

What do you do to earn a second chance with your customers? And let’s not forget, second chances also relate to your employee engagement.

Tags: Leadership, second chance points
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An Unaimed Arrow

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

There is a saying, “An unaimed arrow never misses its mark.” With today’s modern business practices, it’s difficult to fathom that any corporation or business has an unaimed arrow in their quiver. After all, this is the era of lazer-like focus. This is the era of strategy & relentless execution. This is the era where companies are expected to deliver shareholder value, and everyone knows it. However, there are of course - exceptions. Exceptions like appear to defy logic and many of the principles essential to leading and navigating a business in the world marketplace.

Such appears to be the case of Sara Lee. A conglomerate based in Chicago that has struggled for at least a decade. A recent article on Bloomberg titled, Sara Lee Disarray Costs Shareholders About $1 Billion: Real M&A is interesting. The article discusses how Sara Lee has been a company that has talked about “creating value” over the past 10 years, yet has been on a consistent journey of “destroying value.” Now Sara Lee has been on the sales block for several months now (and been divesting companies for a decade), with several offers coming up short. the article goes on to state:

Sara Lee Corp.’s managers, who failed to boost the company’s stock buying and selling $12 billion in assets in the past decade, destroyed shareholder value by passing up three chances to sell itself in the last year. ..

While Sara Lee pushed for a sale at about $20 a share, according to two people, it decided to break itself up after JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, and the Apollo group dropped out without boosting their informal offers. After spending $3 billion for businesses from coffee roasters to fabric suppliers since 2000, and selling off more than $9 billion of units such as Hanesbrands Inc., its stock is still worth almost $2 less than at the start of the last decade.

“The board felt pressured to do something and unless we don’t understand the details, it seems to have given up on its commitment to creating shareholder value in favor of just doing something,” said Tim Ramey, a former Sara Lee vice president of strategy and corporate development who left the company in 2002 and called the recent saga “sad.”

What is the cost of just doing something, which some might say has been Sara Lee’s mantra for the past decade?

While Sara Lee has climbed 15 percent in the past three months as takeover speculation increased, the food company’s 9.4 percent drop since the start of 2000 contrasts with the 45 percent gain for consumer staples stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Only four other companies in the industry fell more than Sara Lee, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Even with dividend payments, the company’s competitors returned more than twice as much to shareholders on average.

Sara Lee has been a company that talks about delivering shareholder value, yet has consistently come up short. If their arrows in the quiver were aimed, well they either missed their mark, or they were aimed at the wrong target. In the end, Sara Lee is a company that lost their success momentum and success formula. In this arena, everything goes bad from increased turnover, depressed worker productivity, short term thinking and others.

Today, Sara Lee’s arrow is aimed in one direction - R.I.P. And even that is proving to be difficult.

Tags: Sara Lee
Posted in Leadership, Momentum, Strategy, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Two Kinds Of C.E.O.

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Over the past 6+ years, I’ve spent most of my time working with business executives of small to mid-sized organizations under the Vistage International umbrella. It’s work that is fulfilling and business owners often see a huge impact in their business. I think I would call it - “the small business competitive advantage.” Over the years I’ve worked with many companies that were able to maintain their positive momentum because they received critical insight from their peer group and from me, their business coach. For me, there is no higher calling than to assist small business growth in a world marketplace. I therefore was introduced to a recent article in the NY Times featuring Raphael Pastor - the CEO of Vistage. It goes:

I recently had an interesting conversation with Rafael Pastor, the chairman and chief executive of Vistage, a leading organization for chief executives. He relayed a story that one of his members had told him. This particular C.E.O. has a school-age son who came home one day and asked if his father would call himself something other than a C.E.O. It seems that the boy’s classmates were giving him a hard time about the fact that his father runs a company — as if it were something to be embarrassed by. My first thought was, “What?” Maybe I could understand it if his father were a politician! But then I started thinking….

Anyone who understands advertising knows that repetition is the key to creating a “brand.” Unfortunately with all of the reports of greed, dishonesty and incompetence, the C.E.O. brand is now pretty well established. But there’s an aspect of this that is not well understood. There are actually two kinds of C.E.O. — those who run big public companies and those who own and operate smaller, privately owned companies.

Let me be clear: this is not about big-company chief executives being greedy and small-company chief executives being honorable. It is about how connected the C.E.O is to the success of the company. It is about the consequences if things don’t work out. It is about how much risk the C.E.O. assumes. While it’s not uncommon for public company chief executives to walk away from their jobs with millions of dollars for their trouble and for the trouble they cause employees and stockholders, small-company chief executives rarely get to do that.

Commitment is what makes small business great, and at the same time can make it frail. Mr. Pastor then states:

To many, betting the house may seem an insane risk to take. And maybe it is. But if small-business owners weren’t willing to take that risk, there would be far fewer small businesses in America. You see, many entrepreneurs are what I would call “all in”: all of their money, most of their time, and most of their ego and self worth and pride are involved. Sometimes they put too much in, at the expense of their families and general well-being…

But the fact is that when small company chief executives fail, they often face dire consequences. And that’s an aspect of business ownership that is rarely noted in the glamorized view of entrepreneurship that we frequently see portrayed. Nor is it fully understood by public officials who always seem eager to have small businesses borrow more aggressively and hire more aggressively.

I encourage you to read the article in total - it’s spot on. Entreprenuership is what made the U.S. great. And as this article states, most of the time its an “all in” game. Need I say more. Let’s honor those entrepreneurs we know and support them so they’re able to accomplish really great things.

Tags: CEO, entreprenuers, Leadership, Raphael Pastor, Vistage
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Choose Your Partner Well

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Over the past year, there has been an interesting fight building between Kraft Foods and Starbucks Coffee. Now granted, Kraft has been in a food fight of sorts with many over the past decade. Their C-Suite has been a revolving door. Their stock has been an underperformer. And they had a interesting tussle in their acquisition of Cadbury over the past couple of years. This is how Roger Carr, then CEO of Cadbury described Kraft at the time:

In my letter of 31st August, I informed you that the Board had rejected your unsolicited proposal on the grounds that it is unattractive and fundamentally undervalues Cadbury. Under your proposal, Cadbury would be absorbed into Kraft’s low growth, conglomerate business model, an unappealing prospect which contrasts sharply with our strategy to be a pure play confectionery company… Your proposal is for Cadbury shareholders to exchange shares in a pure-play confectionery business for cash and shares in Kraft, a company with a considerably less focused business mix and historically lower growth…

In recent weeks, Kraft has entered into another food fight, this time with Starbucks, which Bloomberg has done a nice job capturing why Starbucks wants out of their Kraft distribution agreement.

Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee chain, will miss out on a surge in home-brewing unless it can break a 13-year-old deal that ties its fortunes to Kraft Foods Inc.’s slow-selling Tassimo machine.

Under the terms of the deal, Starbucks can’t put its coffee in the Keurig Home Brewer, which dominates the U.S. market for machines that make single cups of coffee in a minute or less. Kraft’s brewing system has 2.6 percent of the market; Keurig, owned by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., has 71 percent…

In the 52 weeks ending Oct. 31, the single-cup market, which excludes instant coffee, generated almost $200 million worth of U.S. sales, according to SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago- based firm that tracks supermarkets. While that is 5.2 percent of the overall coffee category, single-cup coffee sales are growing 28 times as fast as the overall coffee market.

For the 12 months ending in October, Via generated $16.8 million worth of sales in U.S. groceries, according to SymphonyIRI. During the same period, Green Mountain K-Cups alone rang up $72 million in U.S. grocery sales.

The legal tussle underway between Starbucks and Kraft is a lose-lose scenario. And here is the really sad part. Kraft according to the news reports is trying to lock in a client. A client that no longer sees value in their relationship. A client that is willing to air their dirty laundry in public circles. A client that is downright angry!

Time and the courts will decide the eventual outcome. However, I am willing to bet on one thing. The Kraft/Starbucks deal will become another case study in the annals of time. It will serve as a reminder just how important it is to choose your partner(s) carefully.

Tags: kraft, Starbucks
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Random Acts of Kindness

Friday, October 15th, 2010

Business and civic leaders are positioned to play roles that can have a huge impact with little effort. Such was the case I experienced and participated in this week. Tragically, two teenagers committed suicide in the neighborhood in which I live. It was a tragic loss for the community, the school and the parents. During times of great uncertainty, how should such situations be treated?

The school district brought in counselors, but from I’ve been told by numerous students, with little success. Instead, classmates of the two victims took over and owned the outcome. They migrated in masses to the park where the suicides occurred the previous day. I was there, hundreds of kids started arriving there at 3 in the afternoon, and were there well into the night. They were scattered between open spaces and a densely forested area where the incident occurred. There were tears and laughter occurring simultaneously. As I watched this dynamic unfold, I was inspired. These kids knew what they needed to do to heal their broken hearts and begin to deal with the unanswered questions of “why?” They participated in a celebration of life and the sorrows of death. This was their process for healing - not a .prescribed formula coming from above

As I stood there, I realized that many of these kids had not slept the previous night - they were texting and talking with their friends wrestling with this troubling issue. And, many had not eaten during the day. Another parent and I grabbed cases of water and handed them out to the walking wounded. I then came back to my house and grabbed bags of Halloween candy, chips, crackers, fruit - anything that was easy to disperse at a moments notice.

As I was handing these gifts out, many said thanks and a few asking, “Why are you so nice to us?” All I could say was, “I don’t believe I can do enough for you and what you’re going through.”

I know I made a huge difference with a simple gesture of food and water. Insignificant from my perspective. Significant from theirs.

So what random acts of kindness can you or have you participated in? What was the impact? How did it change a person(s) life?

Tags: random acts of kindness, suicide, teenage suicide
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The 5% Factor

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

Have you ever pondered what successful business leaders do to achieve success? I know there are hundreds of business books on the subject, thousands of supposed experts and millions of articles on the subject. However when you boil all of the distilled knowledge down, several common themes emerge. Some of these would include:

Ceating a environment where continuous improvement and innovation an occur.
Having the right people on the bus and in the right seat.
Build and environment where people can and want to do their best work.
Have clearly defined goals in place.

Each of these and others are noteworthy, however something struck me the other day when I was working with my clients. This is what I discovered.

The most effective business leaders are constantly thinking about how they could make their business/organization 5% more effective. It’s as if they’re wearing a pair of rose colored glasses with “5%” etched into the glass. Questions that might go through their mind could include:

How could we make this marketing campaign 5% more effective.
How could I become 5% more effective as a leader.
How could we improve workflow to reduce waste by 5%.
How could our sales staff convert business opportunities 5% more effectively.

If you look at a computer keypad, it’s serendipitous that 5 and % are kindred souls - placed together on a single key. And in most businesses, the 5% factor should be a key part of many conversations. Because a mere 5% improvement can and will make a huge difference for every organization.

What 5% factors are you or should you be contemplating today?

Tags: 5% factor, business success
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The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Part 2

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Mark Hurd’s sudden departure from HP, stating:

…months prior to being placed on the “crosshairs of failure,”more often than not, these individuals (like Mark Hurd) were being praised for their leadership acumen, their business insights and strong stewardship capabilities. They were the future, and being treated accordingly. However once the shoe fell, everything good was displaced. The list of accolades, forgotten. The awards, dismissed. The strong words of praise, erased. Everything feels and appears different.

Needless to say, such events are messy situations, with everyone focused on covering their perverbial A**. And in this whirlwind, emerges the The Good, The Bad & The Ugly as relates to forced outplacement of key executives.

Well over the weekend, Mark Hurd’s friend and perverbial cheerleader during the crisis, Oracle’s Larry Elison, came to Mark’s rescue by offering him a position as a President. And now, not surprisingly, HP is going after Hurd with a vengeance. “In his new positions, Hurd will be in a situation in which he cannot perform his duties for Oracle without necessarily using and disclosing HP’s trade secrets and confidential information to others,” HP said in a blog posting.

Hurd, the chosen one, is quickly losing favor and face. And while Mark Hurd may have embarrassed the HP Board upon his departure, I believe that this will be payback time for HP - rightfully so. And this will become the ugly part of Mark Hurd’s legacy. This is one cat fight that Mark Hurd entered willingly and will reveal his true personality as a business leader and as an individual. And my guess is - his name will be toast.

Tags: HP, Mark Hurd, Oracle
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Exit - Stage Left

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Have you by chance wondered about the CEOs of the two P’s, and what really got in their way? I’m referring to Mark Hurd of HP, and Tony Hayward of BP. From what I’ve read and been able to discern, each of these had SPs (silent problems) to the max. And due to their SP affliction, HP’s and BP’s stock has suffered, and their careers derailed.

Each has exited Stage Left. Stage left for Tony Hayward means frequent trips to Siberia for the foreseeable future. The crisis in the Gulf will forever be associated with his name. For Mark Hurd, we’re unsure, although it was reported pocketed a quick $28 million, which should provide him plenty of options - including a quick retirement. However in the bigger picture, Mark Hurd symbolizes another epic chapter of HP. It’s too bad, because there’s a lot of blame to go around over at HP.

For any leader, Exit - Stage Left is rarely a pretty event. It’s filled with drama, and emotions and too much hurt. The need for true leaders is greater today than ever, unfortunately, there appears to be a shortage of them in the marketplace.

Tags: authentic leadership, BP, HP, Mark Hurd, Silent Problems, Tony Hayward
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The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Each year, hundreds of business executives find themselves in the crosshairs of outplacement. Some are being replaced due to lack of financial performance. Others due to a lack of strategic direction, cultural fit, and from time to time, reasons related to ethical and moral concerns. Quite often, these events turn into a media fiasco. Just mention the name Mark Hurd (H-P) or Tony Hayward (BP), guess what happens. You’re likely to have a strong emotional reaction to them as an individual and as a leader.

Guess what? It wasn’t always that way. In fact, months prior to being placed on the “crosshairs of failure,”more often than not, these individuals were being praised for their leadership acumen, their business insights and strong stewardship capabilities. They were the future, and being treated accordingly. However once the shoe fell, everything good was displaced. The list of accolades, forgotten. The awards, dismissed. The strong words of praise, erased. Everything feels and appears different.

Tags: executive outplacement
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Rodney Johnson - Without Warning