by Russell Cummings | Oct 10, 2013 | Business Tips
In this article, I just want to talk to you about some recent changes we’re noticing in developing leaders in very chaotic environments.
The Current Business Environment
There’s a new term being used called VUCA to describe the current highly complex, business environments. It’s a term previously used by the U.S. Military around the complex environments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it’s currently being adopted by business leaders around the world to describe what’s happening in their current business environment.
What is VUCA?
VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Change happens rapidly and on a very large scale. Things are very volatile and they’re also uncertain so the future cannot be predicted with any precision, and so we’ve got this volatility, uncertainty combined with complexity.
Challenges are complicated by many factors and there are a few simple causes or solutions. We’ve got this volatile, uncertain, complex environment that’s also ambiguous. There’s little clarity on what events mean and what effect they may have in the future.
We’ve got this complex VUCA environment that most of our businesses are starting to deal in and there’s some evidence to suggest that it’s going to continue for quite a while.
What does this mean in terms of our ability and the tools available for us to develop our business leaders?
If we talk about leadership development models, there are probably two clear models. One is what we call “horizontal development” and the second one is “vertical development”.
What is horizontal development?
Horizontal development is most useful when a problem is clearly defined or there is known techniques for solving it. We’re talking about traditional training for things like routine surgery, engineering, maintenance, bookkeeping, those sorts of things and many others where there is a well-defined skillset and it’s easier to find people.
It’s very outcome-focused and a lot of the “Certificate 4” training in Australia is built around this horizontal learning.
What is vertical development?
What we’re finding though in a VUCA environment, it’s really important that our business leaders have vertical skills. These are the skills to plan, problem solve and allow us to evolve our leadership management abilities to make sense of this very complex world. They are about collaboration. Coaching and “soft skills”.
We get these vertical skills through applied learning and then by pushing through hurdles and barriers that enable us to learn from the application of these things. It’s about providing skills that are adaptable, collaborative, create problem solvers and good planners, and creating leaders that are very self-aware.
Vertical training is all about giving them the tools to deal with this VUCA environment, if you will. It’s about a different training.
Next Steps
It raises a couple a questions for me – where is your business development currently focused? Horizontally or vertically?
Many companies that I talk to are very horizontally-focused still and we need to spend more time on giving our people and our leaders the skills and the tools to vertically-challenged.
You need to understand where it needs to be focused in your business and make sure there’s a balance between horizontal skills-based training and vertical training which is about aptitude and giving people the freedom and the flexibility to solve problems in a very complex world.
Our belief is that vertical development of business leaders is really important. We also see it as an ongoing process of training, applied learning so applying the tools and processes to real problems in your business and learning from those outcomes, about collaboration as teams and about sharing your best practice across your organization.
For more information on how we approach this and what some of our thoughts are, please visit which is www.sbdbusiness.com.au and watch a short video on business leaders which explains this in a bit more detail.
by Russell Cummings | Sep 5, 2013 | Business Tips
Many family businesses suffer from “loneliness at the top” and a lack of external input and this can compromise business growth and performance. One option that I would obviously advocate is using an external Coach or Mentor to provide that external perspective and structured thinking.
Another effective tool, that can include your Coach/Mentor, is to establish a Business Advisory Council. This is small group of suitably qualified advisors who perform the role of a “quasi-Board of Directors” by overseeing the strategies and operations of the business with a broader and impartial point of view.
The other benefits of having a Business Advisory Council for your business are:
1. The Business Owner, can have an objective “sounding board” for ideas and strategies;
2. It can build rigour into the management of the business by having a requirement for up-to-date Financials, which are reviewed on a regular basis; and
3. You can use it as a mechanism for holding your Team (and yourself) accountableby having them report to the Council.
What makes up a Business Advisory Council?
A workable structure for a Business Advisory Council is to have two or three permanent members with a “spare” seat for technical specialists on an as-needed basis. For example – Owner 1, Owner 2, Business Coach with a spare seat or two for others as required such as an Accountant for tax-planning, Financial Planner, and Marketing Specialist.
After having structured your Council, having a good Agenda is essential, as well as making sure the Council are provided with effective Management and Financial Reports.
Overall, a Business Advisory Council can provide clarity with their impartial view and knowledge, provide confidence by helping you achieve your vision, help you execute your plan, and help you focus on your goals. With all of these benefits, I think you should give working with a Business Advisory Council some thought.
by Russell Cummings | Sep 5, 2013 | Business Tips
This article is about understanding the stakeholders in your business and how we can influence them
What is a stakeholder?
According to BusinessDictionary.com, stakeholders in general are “…a person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization”. In general, the word stakeholder refers to the business, its investors, employees, customers and suppliers. In broader terms, it also includes the community, government and trade associates.
In a video by David Butter on Stakeholder Management, he defines a stakeholder as someone who can make or break a company. In other words, they’re either with the company and make things happen or they can kill the company.
Oftentimes, companies are passionate about getting close to their customers and making sure that they are given what they want. But the definition mentioned above implies that because stakeholders can either make or break a company, it is therefore important to also have a high level of passion with working with them.
Who are the key stakeholders?
As mentioned above, stakeholders are typically any person that has an interest or concern in an organization and consists of a few categories. But who are the key stakeholders? Key stakeholders, as the word ‘key’ implies refer to the main people that can help a company’s planning effort succeed or fail by providing key information and resources.
Different companies have different stakeholders. Some consider their Senior Leadership Team – CEO, COO, CFO as key stakeholders while others have customers, owners, investors, creditors, directors, etc. as part of their key stakeholder list.
With that said, it is critical to identify who the key stakeholders are in your company to better address them and work with them to get things done.
How can we influence them?
And because stakeholders have a say on the company, it is also very important that a company engages them toalign interests and avoid conflict during the planning process.
One of the best ways to do this is bydeveloping a One-Page Plan (1PP) for each stakeholder.The 1PP will help simplify the process when deciding on which actions and steps are appropriate to meet the needs of each stakeholder and ensure a smooth relationship going forward.
Another way of influencing your key stakeholders is to compare yourself to the competition against the criteria that key stakeholder groups require. How does your company fare against the competition when it comes to engaging key stakeholders? Are you willing to listen, meet and exceed their expectations?
Will you consider changing some things in your company as a result of engaging with your stakeholders? Managing and engaging your stakeholders is relevant to any organization. It plays an important part in the success of any company.
Who are has the most influence over your business? Have you had meaningful discussions with them lately?
by Russell Cummings | Jul 2, 2013 | Business Tips
It is not a new idea that smartphones and mobile applications are the latest buzz in the cellphone world. These kinds of devices and applications are already a part of almost everyone’s personal lives and businesses. In fact, because of its popularity, the word “app” has been chosen by the American Dialect Society as the “Word of the Year” for 2010.
To get a clearer view onthis reality, an infographic from Topapps.net lays out in detail how mobile apps have changed the world.
According to Topapps.net, among the popular App stores, Apple App Store grabs the top most position with total available apps of around 850,000 and 50 billion total downloads.
Following the list are Amazon appstore with 75,000 apps, BlackBerry App World with 120,000 total apps, Google Play with 800,000+ apps, Nokia Store with 365 million apps, Microsoft Windows Phone Store with 145,000 apps and Samsung Apps with 13,000 apps.
On the basis of the market share and approach to the monetization, ABI Research (2013) has ranked Apple as the number 1 apps store followed by Google at number 2 and Microsoft at number 3. Wide variety of mobile apps are available among which the most popular ones are for games that accounts for total of 33%. Widgets hold 8%, Entertainment 7% and Social 5%.
There are various messaging apps used all over the world and among all, the top most position is taken by Facebook Messenger with 700 million users. WeChat has around 300 million users, What’sApp 200 million, Viber 175 million, Line 100 million and BBM 60 Million.
The direct revenue from the sales of apps in the year 2011 was around $7.3 Billion which is expected to reach the figure of $36.7 Billion by the year 2015.
By looking at this infographic, we can easily see that mobile apps have largely impacted the way we do things. For me, this poses a couple of questions:
1. Is there scope to develop a custom app for your business? These can be internally or externally focused. The cost of doing this is no longer prohibitive and the benefits in terms of customer service, access to information and/or process efficiency can be high.
2. Where next? As custom software (apps) become more and more affordable and accessible – what is the next phase in this trend? More consolidation of apps across businesses or more specialization and loyalty?
Your thoughts?
Russ
Top Apps
by Russell Cummings | Jun 19, 2013 | Business Tips
1. When did you last complete a competitor analysis?
Almost all business leaders are aware of their direct competitors but when was the last time you actually completed a formal analysis by way of a ‘competitor analysis’? This should be at least an annual process to help pin-point key opportunities for improvement. To complete a competitor analysis:
- List 4-5 insights / key success factors down the left hand side of your page then weight them out of 100
- List your business now in a column along the top followed by a further 3-4 competitors
- Now score your business 50% of the weighting as a benchmark and then score each competitor against the various insights / key success factors
The key question to ask at the end of this quick exercise is, “What is the biggest area you could focus on to lift your score and thus improve your ability to beat your competitors?” For more information on this tool please watch this short video: Competitor Analysis
2. Focus on your early adopters
When planning a new innovation, project or roll-out of a new strategy businesses will often announce the change to all team members or customers at the same time. This can typically lead to the ‘laggards’ or those not as open to change pushing back regardless of the positive impact the suggested change will achieve. This in turn reduces the potential success of the new initiative. To boost the potential of success in rolling out a new project or strategy a more effective approach would be to introduce it to the early adopters in the team or within the customer base to get their buy-in first and iron out any issues (as they are happy to provide constructive feedback and embrace new ideas). After this first phase is completed with early adopters and issues ironed out the entire team can then be approached and the potential for success will be much higher than before.
3. Under-promise, Over-deliver
Whether you are setting time-frames for growing into a new market segment, setting budgets for next year or just responding to a sales call its critical to ‘under-promise’ and ‘over-deliver’ in the time frames, figures or parameters being suggested. As this is far from the norm in the current high-paced business environment having this as a fundamental ‘theme’ will greatly assist with higher customer satisfaction and keeping stakeholders satisfied.