Re:Focus

The Problem With Goal Setting

Growing up in Fargo, ND, performing on Broadway seemed like an impossible dream.  There were no fancy schools for musical theater in Fargo and there weren't many big shows that came through town.  But for Jessica Pariseau, making it to Broadway was her life's goal.

Flash forward a dozen or so years and a couple of cruise ship revues later, Jessica made it to Broadway.  Her big break came when she got a part in the national tour for Cabaret. After that she landed a part in one of the most celebrated shows in Broadway history - in the Broadway production of Mel Brooks's The Producers. It was miraculous.  She proved that with enough tenacity and a goal-oriented mindset, you could achieve anything. 

But then what?

Jessica spent her whole life focused on her goal that she neglected to think about what she would do if she achieved it.  For 20-something years she was so driven and so focused on that one thing, that after she achieved her goal, she didn't know what to do next.  Though performing was still fun, though she still enjoyed the singing and dancing, that steely-eyed focus and direction wasn't the same. 

This is a common feeling for many young performers who set their sites on making it to Broadway and make it.  They focus all their passion and energy on that one point that when they get there, they don't know what to do next.  Many simply go on to perform in show after show, but the passion is at a decidedly different level.  A few find new careers and go on to do other things.  But one thing becomes very clear - passion is not about the destination, it's about the journey. 

There are countless examples of this in the business world also.  AOL had a goal - to make the internet as commonplace as the television or the telephone.  Their goal helped focus everyone who worked at the company. AOL achieved their goal and upon doing so lost their focus. They are not the passionate company they used to be.  Sony set out to become a household name and make the words "made in Japan" synonymous with good quality.  Goal achieved.  These days, however, Sony is not the powerhouse of focus and innovation it used to be. To maintain your passion, you have to stay on an inspiring journey, not just pursue a single goal. Goals do not define the journey, they define points along the journey. They are important markers to gauge progress along the journey. But they are not, as most believe, the thing that inspires. 

Set goals, but also be clear why you want to achieve that goal in the first place.  If you know why, you'll be able to articulate another lofty goal as inspiring as the first.  Without knowing why, the subsequent goals will just be random numbers or achievements to reach.  They won't drive passion, they won't inspire and they won't focus all resources towards that goal.

If you've already achieved one goal and don't feel as inspired by your new goal, even though you're taking all the same steps, it's not because the goal is unclear, it's because you don't know the journey you're on. It's the journey that inspires, the goals work to remind us we're on the right track.

Helping Chris Miles

A few days ago an email arrived in my inbox from Chris Miles. The problem is, I don't know a Chris Miles. The subject of the email was "Need Quickbooks Help?"  I suspected it was a solicitation.  So I opened the email to be sure. My instincts were right. It was spam. Blech.

Though my usual inclination is to immediately delete these kinds of emails, this time was different. I couldn't help myself...I had to read it. It was like a car wreck and I just had to stare. As I read, I actually got slightly offended...if you're going to send me spam, at least make sure it starts with Why. What Chris Miles had sent me was not a good piece of marketing. It was all about him. What he did, how great he was, all the awesome stuff they do. That doesn't work in sales and it doesn't work in marketing.

All inspiring and compelling communication starts with Why. 

Instead of deleting Chris Miles's email, I decided to rewrite it. Below is the exact email Chris Miles sent me.  My version is below, with comments to help all the other Chris Miles's out there to produce better, more compelling marketing that starts with Why.

Subject: Need Quickbooks Help?

My name is Chris Miles and I am the CEO of Miles Technologies, a full-service information technology and computer services company. We provide IT and software solutions that help organizations like yours to radically cut costs and become more efficient, productive, and profitable.

Besides providing innovative IT services, Miles Technologies can also save you money on QuickBooks software. Whether you need to purchase new accounting software or it's time for an upgrade, we offer substantially discounted prices on the entire QuickBooks software product line. We can even beat pricing directly from Intuit!

At Miles Technologies, we employ a team of certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors, who have been tested and certified on QuickBooks products. Our ProAdvisors can help your business take full advantage of all the features that QuickBooks has to offer.

No matter what your QuickBooks needs are, Miles Technologies is always here to help.

If you need help with QuickBooks and want to save money while receiving expert support services at the same time, or you have any other technology needs, please call us today at 800-496-8001.

I hope to hear from you soon!

Chris Miles, CEO, Miles Technologies Inc.
412 Main Avenue
Clifton, NJ 07014

New Jersey - Philadelphia - Baltimore - Washington DC - Virginia

1-800-496-8001

Not that compelling, huh?  Here's the version that starts with Why -

Lets start with the subject of the email:  "Need Quickbooks Help?", as Zig Ziglar said, "people don't buy drills they buy holes," and Chris Miles was telling me I needed a drill.  The subject should be about what I want, not about what he does. "Get Your Company More Organized."  Now THAT I need.

Subject: Get Your Company More Organized

(The new subject line offered a more compelling reason to open the email.  What's more, it set the theme - organization.  My first paragraph, repeats the theme...after all, it is what compelled someone to open the email in the first place.)

The one thing that holds back so many small businesses from truly thriving is something that is that is easily fixed: the ability to stay organized.

(Where as the original email has already started selling, this version offers a Why - a reason Chris Miles is sending you an email in terms that go beyond what he's selling. It asks the reader if they want to buy the proverbial hole, getting organized, instead of the drill, Quickbooks services.)

I believe that the ability to keep a company's systems and processes well organized, making even minor improvements, can have exponential impact. That's why I'm writing to you, to see if you could benefit from being even a little more organized.

With tax-season upon us, we're all forced to take a long look at our books and, for some of us, realize just how disorganized we are.

That's where I come in.

(Only now, after I've established an emotional connection, do I introduce what we're selling. Only now do I start talking about what Chris Miles does.)

I started a company specifically to help small businesses get more organized. Though we offer all kinds of tools and products to help, I just want to tell you about our Quickbooks ProAdvisors. (I'm not defining his company by one product or service, but by Why the company exists.  This email is about only one of their services.  This means that someone who doesn't need the Quickbooks help but still feels disorganized, may look into other services the company has to offer).

For any small business owner that manages their books with Quickbooks and ever runs into problems with the program or how to use it, we have a team of specialists trained to walk you through any issue until you feel comfortable it's fixed (there I go again, saying how the buyer will feel, not what they will get). And if you don't have Quickbooks or need an upgrade, then we can even help you get it for less money than most retailers. (this is a nice way of saying that if you're SO disorganized that you don't even use Quickbooks, we can help there too).

If you think you can benefit from being a little more organized with your company's books or anything else, drop us a line or give us a call and we'll see if we can help.

Chris Miles, CEO, Miles Technologies Inc.
412 Main Avenue
Clifton, NJ 07014

New Jersey - Philadelphia - Baltimore - Washington DC - Virginia

1-800-496-8001

Here's the test, if after reading my version of the email, you're jotting down Chris Miles's number...then it worked. But be warned, simply improving the quality of your email marketing is not enough. Your Why, the purpose, cause or belief that explains the reason your company exists, must be embodied at all levels. The way the website is organized has to be about the Why. The way the staff treat the customers has to be about the Why. Even the products and services must be about the Why. If it's not, then it's not a cause, it's just marketing. And that's not compelling.

p.s. If Chris Miles is reading this...you owe me a beer.

Your Therapist Doesn't Want You To Get Better: A Business Story.

Therapists don't want you to get better.

Lawyers don't want to help you sort out your legal problems.

And consultants don't want to help you find the quick and effective solution.

It's not that they don't care, it's just that their respective business models don't encourage them to help you. Their businesses only grow and they only reap personal rewards if the engagement is prolonged. The more hours they work, the more money they make. This is the problem with all professional services. They bill for their time, not for their value.

A therapist that charges $150 per hour can only make more money by raising the rate or working more hours. And it's much easier  to keep an existing client coming in for more than going out to find new ones. That's so much work.

Imagine if professional service firms charged by the value they offered - the actual thing you want - and not by how long they worked - something you probably don't even care about (unless you're paying for it, of course). If you wanted to get over your anxiety, for example, the therapist should tell you it will cost $5,000 (or whatever amount their confidence and reputation would allow) to help you get over your problem whether it took a week or 5 years. Not only would you be over your anxiety in a few weeks, you'd recommend the therapist to someone else because they solved your problem. And, in short order, the therapist would make MUCH more money and work vastly fewer hours. Everyone wins.

If time is the billable variable, then the value is commoditized. If the solution or result is the thing sold, then efficiency goes up and differentiation sky rockets. If it's results you're looking for then the lawyer, consultant or therapist will quickly get a reputation for getting things done. 

The next time someone tries to sell you a "solution" then tells you how much it will cost based on billable hours, scratch your head and ask, "are you selling me a solution or are you selling me the time it will take you to find it?"

How they answer will tell you how much they care.

There's No Such Thing As Good or Bad

Are you having a good day or a bad day, today?  How do you know?

There is no such thing as good or bad.  They are comparisons to our expectations. They are not grounded in any objective standards and they are always relative - sometimes just in time. 

Is it bad, then, to get laid off? What if you hate your job but the fear of the unknown compels you to stay put.  If you get laid off you may feel a weight off your back and be given the opportunity to explore new things. Is it good to get a job, then? Not if you end up working for people you don't like, doing work that you don't find fulfilling.  I understand the realities of the world require us to make practical decisions, like making a living, but let us not judge the decisions we make or the experiences we have as good or bad.  Lets just consider them all good.

Try it.

If you have a colleague who you think is doing bad work, before you go tell them what is bad, think of one thing that you GENUINELY think is good.  Now consider everything else an opportunity to improve.  And then help them improve.

If you think you're having a bad day, think of one good thing about that day - maybe it's a lesson.  Maybe it's an opportunity to look forward to tomorrow. Or maybe it's just good that you're having a bad day at work when others somewhere else are having a much worse day.  Relatively speaking...to them...you're having a good day. This is what events like the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami, bombs in Baghdad or September 11th do - they remind us that our lives are relative, and our problems are not so bad. Maybe our problems are good.

The people who achieve the most, -the ones who lead, the ones who invent things or the ones who simply wake up every day and love their lives - all share this relative sense of the world.

Thomas Edison, for example, said of things that didn't go right, "I have not failed. I've just found ways that won't work." To perceive failure, you have to have a preconceived and subjective notion of success to make the comparison. Edison had no concept of failure; only lessons of things that didn't work.

My dear friend Keith Hayman understands this better than anyone I know. Not only is he very successful (by conventional Western standards) but he is also one of the happiest people you'll ever meet. He believes there that is no failure, there are only opportunities to try again or try differently.

Inside Personal Growth

 

I recently did an interview with Inside Personal Growth, an organization devoted to giving people the ideas and the tools to help them make improvements in their life.  We talked about about Start With Why and what it means to know your Why.

  Here's the link to listen to the interview:Podcast 153: Start With Why with Simon Sinek.

A Warning To Kraft: If You Eat Cadbury You'll Get Indigestion

Kraft Foods desire to build a "global powerhouse" as a reason to merge with Cadbury provides a telling glimpse into the future of the combined companies. Completely ignoring the diverse cultures at the two companies can result in one thing and one thing only: failure.

50% of all corporate mergers flat out fail. An additional 25% never make the promised return on investment. In other words, 75% of all corporate mergers aren't worth it. Imagine walking into a CEO's office and saying, "I've got an idea for you with a 75% chance of failure." You'd be laughed out of the room.

But merger's do happen. Companies naively believe that simply because two companies are in the same business, a merger makes perfect sense. But the first line in the Wall Street Journal announcing the failure a few weeks later is always the same, "the cultures didn't mix."

Cadbury was founded on Quaker ethics and built on the philosophy of doing good for others. This permeates their culture as well as their products. Their Why, their cause, has been so clear and so powerful that Cadbury has built a very loyal following of customers and employees. This is what made Cadbury what it is today.

Kraft, in contrast, is a Wall Street driven company that sees the merger as a "logical next step in our transformation toward a high-growth, higher-margin company," as their CEO puts it.

Just because two companies are in the same category, doesn't mean the companies belong together. And the reason is simple: people.

100% of customers are people. 100% of employees are people. Focusing on the "market opportunity" alone and ignoring the people component demonstrates a total lack of understanding of what makes companies run well...and more importantly, what makes two companies run well together.

The rationale that Kraft Foods offers for the hostile takeover of Cadbury demonstrates a total lack of consideration for what makes these kinds of mergers succeed or fail.

In a video statement by Kraft Chairman and CEO, Irene Rosenfeld (click here for transcript), she justifies the merger in order to build a "global powerhouse in snacks, confectionery and quick meals." In other words, "market opportunity."

It gets worse.

Not only does she use the word, "synergies," to further explain the "value" of this combined company - a word that I thought had all been removed from collective business vocabularies, but those synergies have nothing to do with a collective view of the world, a common Why or even common values. Nope. "Substantial pre-tax synergies as a result of operational efficiencies...and equally important...excellent revenue synergies that come from increased investment in distribution," is how she sees the value of the combination.

Mergers are like marriages. They are the bringing together of two individuals. If you wouldn't marry someone for the "operational efficiencies" they offer in the running of a household, then why would you combine two companies with unique cultures and identities for that reason? Of course, both parties bring specific talents and capabilities that are important to a relationship, but at the end of the day, the people in that relationship have to love each other. They have to want to be together. They have to look at each other and believe this is right. Simply sweetening the dowry will not make the marriage any more successful. It will only make the divorce more expensive.

Sadly, there is a way for a marriage of two such different cultures to succeed. Attrition. If Kraft fires everyone that belongs at Cadbury and completely destroys the "other" culture, replacing it with their own, then the merger will succeed. The question is, do we want to kill Cadbury?

To understand more about how to create successful mergers, read Start With Why.

The Best Entrepreneurs Are Like Children

They have to learn to sit up, walk, talk, go to the bathroom, get dressed...everything!

It seems children learn much faster than adults because they have to.

But do kids really learn more or faster than adults?  Aside from the things they have to learn to survive (like eating and walking), kids take in more than adults not because their brains are more developed, but because they have a remarkable innate curiosity. And they ask one question that, for some reason, we stop asking as adults.  They ask why.

Children want to know why things work and why they are not allowed to do something.  For some reason, we become more comfortable as adults settling for the way things are or the way things have to be.  Most don't think to ask why and even fewer think to ask why not.  With one noticeable exception: entrepreneurs.

The best entrepreneurs are like children.  They ask why and they ask why not. They are confounded why someone doesn't change something that can work better.  They don't understand why people say, "that can't be done."  And they have a curiosity that just can't be satisfied.  "Why?" "Why not?" "What if...?"As a population, if something doesn't work or if something can work better, an entrepreneur asks the questions and take the steps to see something is done about it.

There's a huge difference between a small business owner and an entrepreneur.  Small business owners own small businesses.  Entrepreneurs ask questions, wonder, explore and solve problems.  They have childlike qualities - they seem to love life like a child, they often have a child like sense of mischief and they have a naivete to believe they can change the world...which is the reason so many of them do.

Give Back To Those Who Give

For the past two weeks I toured three Air Bases in Europe - Ramstein and Spangdahlem in Germany and Aviano in Italy.  I spoke to many different audiences, from an audience of nearly 1,000 enlisted men and women to the leadership of US Air Forces in Europe. It was a great honor to serve, just for a few days, those who serve us everyday. And for all the fun of visiting a base and seeing all the military aircraft flying around, the most valuable part of the trip was meeting some of the wounded warriors.

As part of my tour at Ramstein, I was taken to observe the loading of wounded soldiers onto a C-17 transport to take them back to the United States for further treatment.  There is an intensity of seeing these young soldiers on stretchers being stacked on racks in the belly of what looks like a flying warehouse (I didn't take the picture here, but it is exactly what I saw).  I couldn't just stand there and watch, so I walked the cargo hold and thanked every soldier personally and handed them a Token of Inspiration.  I said the same thing to everyone, "I'm a civilian from back home and I'm visiting the base. I want to say thank you to you for all you do for us. Thank you."

What I didn't expect was how valuable simply saying thank you was. These brave Soldiers and Marines shook my hand and took the token and held it tight. The look in their eyes, the gratitude was so powerful. I learned that doing something small, like saying thank you, for example, has a huge impact on those who volunteer to sacrifice.

We can all say thank you. It's simple. I went to the USO office on the base, the group of volunteers that looks after the our men and women in uniform while they are away, and asked what they needed from back home.  Here is the list they gave me.

Please join me in saying thank you, do something small that will have a huge impact.

There is an immediate need for:

• Backpacks
• Duffle bags 
• Jackets - S-XL
• Scarves, gloves, beanies
• DVDs - new releases (NO war related or overly violent movies)
• Microwavable food

Please do not send used clothing.  New only.

Though not an immediate need, they are also always in need of:

• Nintendo Wii Games
• PS3 or PS2 Games
• XBox 360 Games
• DO NOT send first person shooting games, war games, etc. 
• Shower shoes
• Travel sized shaving cream
• Toothpaste - travel size only
• Toothbrushes
• Men's and Women's Pajama/workout pants/sweatpants/sweatshirts  S-XL (NO USED ITEMS)
• Power Bars (or any other protein/nutrition bars)
• iTunes gift cards
• Cookies (any kind)
• Snacks (rice crispy treats, candy bars, popcorn, fruit snacks, etc)

Please send your donations to:

USO Kasierslautern

Attn: CASF USO

CMR 488

APO, AE  09088

There is one other thing that I saw on the tour that is not on the list. On every bed of every wounded soldier sits a card from a child from back home. These handmade cards are on their pillows, waiting for them, when they are assigned a temporary bed. If you have kids, perhaps they can make some cards to say thank you also. 

Though you won't see the impact of theses gifts you give - take it from me - it matters.  It all matters.

Two Types of Experts

There are two kinds of experts, academic experts and practical experts. One is not better than the other, but they are very different and each offers very different value. 

As its name conveys, the academic expert is just that - academic.  To become an academic expert takes years of studying. Academic experts are experts in how and what others have done. They use case studies and observation to understand a subject. Regardless if their expertise comes from quantitative or qualitative research, whenever they comment on a question they will reply with words like, "I have observed that..." or "in many cases..." or "the data shows."

The second type of expert is the practical expert. The practical expert gains his or her understanding for a subject by actually doing it. They didn't study what they did...they just did it.  When they answer questions, they often reply with words like "in my experience."

Academic experts may not be good at doing what they are experts in themselves, but they are good at explaining the subject matter to others. They write books,  teach courses and offer lessons and give steps others can follow.

Practical experts may be good at doing what they they know about, but they are not always good at explaining how or what they did in clear enough terms that others can can learn from or follow their lead. Listen to an interview with Richard Branson or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates and see if you can build a business based on the instructions they offer - it's damn near impossible.

Unlike academic experts, practical experts didn't set out to become experts, they set out to solve a problem and gained expertise in the process. Ironically,  most practical experts started with a total lack of experience in whatever they became an expert.   Just the three examples I offered - Branson, Jobs and Gates...as well as many other highly successful entrepreneurs...started their businesses when they were in their early 20's and knew very little about building a business let alone a huge corporation.  And that was their advantage.  Practical experts are unencumbered by what others have done or "the right way to do things." They were forced to figure things out themselves which is how they gained their practical expertise.

Constant observation is how an academic expert gains his or her expertise. They study those who have succeeded or failed. Practical experts, in contrast, try and fail more than they succeed, but their drive to never quit until they solve a problem is the defining factor that earns them their expert status.  Anyone else would simply be someone who tried and trying alone doesn't make you an expert.

The academic expert is not better than the practical expert, we need both.  The practical experts do the things that the academic experts can observe and translate into actionable lessons for others. But never has their been someone who was able to achieve great success by precisely following all the steps of any academic expert.  It just wouldn't be practical. The practical experts are driven by their gut. They trust their feelings and they "read" the situation and are driven by finding a solution. And whether they like to admit it or not, the work of the academic experts gives the practical expert lots of information to assimilate and adapt where they deem fit.  The difference is, the practical expert, as their name conveys, only takes or uses the parts that make sense them them.

Entrepreneurs must be practical experts. They needn't set out to be subject matter experts in what they do,  they must set out to solve a problem or pursue some cause or purpose greater than themselves. With a clear understanding of Why they are setting out they will take the practical steps to blaze new paths that others, with some academic help, may follow suit.

Upset The Apple Cart

One Saturday morning, a Saturday like all other Saturdays, two boys were sent out by their respective fathers to sell apples at the market.  And, like all other Saturdays, both fathers gave their boys the same instruction, "I want you to go to the market today, my son, and sell as many apples as you can. The apples you sell today," they explained, "will provide for the family for the whole week." And, like all other Saturdays, the boys looked up to their fathers and replied, "I will not let you down, papa."

Both boys stood on the same street, the same street they both stood on like all other Saturdays, and sold their apples.  Both offered the ripest, juiciest apples at the same price. And, like all other Saturdays, both boys sold about a third of the apples on their carts, just enough money to provide for their respective families for the week.

But this Saturday would not be like all other Saturdays. On this Saturday, one boy looked over to the other and said, "every Saturday we come to market to sell our apples.  And, like all other Saturdays, we both sell about a third of our ripe, juicy apples. I think we should try something different today - lets take our carts to a different street."

The other boy looked over and replied, "I promised my father I would not let him down and if I take my cart across the cobble stones in search of a better street that we may or may not find, apples will surely fall off my cart.  I don't want to risk losing any of my apples.  I'm going to stay here."

He was right, there was a risk that apples would fall off the cart - apples which could not then be sold. The first boy thought for a moment.  He looked at his cart, then he looked at the cobbled street, then he looked to the other boy and said, "I'm going."  And unlike all other Saturdays, off he went in search of a different street.

That evening, the two boys were reunited on the walk home.  The boy who stayed put for fear of losing some of his apples looked over to his friend and said, "I had a good day today, like all other Saturdays, I sold about a third of my apples, enough to provide for my family until next week."

The other boy reported on his day, "I spent some time looking for a busier street. My cart bounced around on the cobble stones and a few of my apples fell off the cart. But I did find a busier street and then sold all the rest of my apples and made enough money to provide for my family for three weeks. Next Saturday, "he went on, "will not be like all other Saturdays.  Next Saturday I'm going to risk losing some apples again."

How are you building your business? Are you willing to upset the apple cart?

Don't Strive To Be A Leading Company, Strive to Lead

Dell is a leading company but Apple leads.  American Airlines is a leading company but Southwest Airlines leads. Kroger's is a leading company with over 2,400 supermarkets, but with only 270 stores both in the US and UK combined, Whole Foods leads.

There is a difference between being a leading company and being a company that leads.  A leading company may have the biggest market share or have the most revenues, but they don't lead the industry.  A company that leads sets the tone for all others to follow.  Though leading companies may be bigger, companies that lead are more innovative, more profitable and command greater loyalty.  

Companies that lead always know WHY.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Slippery Numbers

There are two types of claims: those based on hard numbers and those based on slippery numbers. 

Hard numbers are facts that, when evaluated, lead to a logical conclusion...and a hard claim.  For example, the US Constitution is 222 years old and, as such, is the oldest written constitution still in use today.  Slippery numbers, in contrast, are used to support a claim that someone wants to make, regardless of the hard numbers. For example, George W. Bush was one of the most popular presidents in US history (when compared to presidents with under a 40% approval rating).  The claim is technically true...when based on slippery numbers. But the measurement is clearly manipulated to help make the claim.

Sadly, hard numbers and hard claims are often reserved for scientists and text books.  Slippery numbers, however, run rampant in politics and marketing. Here's a real ad that Continental Airlines is currently running as an example.  The headline says - "The newest jet fleet.  Not just a new paint job." The problem is, their claim is based on slippery numbers.  The fine print right beneath the headline says, "Continental Airlines flies the newest jet fleet among global airlines based in the US." (click here to see ad full size). 

They only compare themselves to US based global airlines.  In other words, they only compare the age of their fleet to American Airlines, Delta and United - the only other US based global airlines.  Their claim of "newest" is factually correct...when based on slippery numbers.  If you consider the hard numbers and the claim they are attempting to make, you'd have to compare them to all airlines flying in the US. The problem is, the truth would not be the version of truth that they like.

As consumers we have to look out for any company that claims to be the best, youngest, fastest, smartest or any other absolute.  Odds are, to be the absolute at something, they are using slippery numbers to make their claim. Slice the numbers a different way, and some other company can make virtually the exact same claim.

As companies, we need to be honest with ourselves about what's more important to us - manipulating numbers simply to appear to have an advantage that we don't really have. Or to be honest about the things we believe and the way we conduct business.  As the old Buddhist saying goes, "how you do anything is how you do everything." Any company willing to trick their consumers in advertising is probably willing to include hidden fees in their price, offer benefits that aren't really there and promise guarantees or protections that are hard to claim when you feel you deserve them.

By the way, Spirit Airlines has the youngest Airbus fleet in the Americas and AirTran flies the youngest all-Boeing fleet...and I write the most popular blog on the internet*

*comparison made to less popular blogs.

If You Want To Attract The Best Talent, Give Them A Cause To Champion

Wanted: Talented executive to rebuild the economy for the next 100 years.

Since the decline in our economy, a remarkable opportunity has arisen – to redefine how banking works in this country if not the world for decades to come. If you have ideas about  the ways a large US-based financial institution needs to change the way it operates to avoid another meltdown and sustain growth and lead the world into a new era, then we’d like to hear from you.  The pay is competitive and very handsome bonuses are available if sustainable success is achieved.  

Do you have what it takes?    

What kind of person do you think the above ad would attract?

Recently five executives at the AIG insurance company announced they would resign if the government restricted their pay to $500,000 per year.  Bank of America is complaining that unless they can pay whatever they want, they will not get the talent they need to right the company.

And that’s where they are completely wrong.

If money is the primary lure to get someone to join a company, then it will attract those candidates who are attracted to money as the primary incentive to show up and not for the real reason the company needs them - to change the way they do business.  Offer someone the opportunity to rebuild a company or reinvent an industry as the primary incentive and it will attract those drawn to the challenge first and the money second.  And which would you rather have running the company?  

More importantly, after an economic downturn caused in large part to a money-first mentality, who do you think we should hand the keys to now? The executive driven by the cause or the one driven by the money?

We're all so offended by how much bankers pay themselves that we've lost sight of the real issue. Money, even obscene amounts of it, is not the problem. But it should be the reward for building strong, long-term sustainable organizations and not given as the primary motivation for showing up or simply making the quarter or even the year. That's the strategy that drove Lehman Brothers into the ground and caused the mess in the first place.

There is nothing wrong with compensating someone handsomely for the work they do and the results they achieve, but not in a vacuum.  Money is a short-term result that incentivizes short-term decision making.  A cause is something that lasts and is the foundation of sustainability. 

As we’ve all had to suffer in the economic downturn, it falls to us to speak out louder and demand that the banks hire executives inspired to be a part of something bigger than themselves over those who demand something bigger  before they feel inspired.  If we don’t, start saving your pennies for the next collapse in 10 years time.  

As the would-be CEO of Bank of America, I'm pleased to hear the deal fell apart over a debate over compensation.  Though I'm disappointed to hear the executives at AIG won their argument – I hoped they would quit and find better paying jobs at less influential companies in less important industries.  That way we'd all get what we want. 

Back To Basics

There was a time when there was a GAP store on every block.  They were to retail clothing what Starbucks is to coffee.  Everyone had at least one GAP item in their closet – a plain white t-shirt or a pair of khakis.  And that was the problem.  GAP’s biggest challenge was its own success. The GAP thought that, because of their success, they no longer had to serve fashion – they could dictate it.  They stopped offering basic cuts and started selling low cut mini-skirts and candy colored shirts with puffy sleeves, for example. People would buy them, they thought, because the GAP was selling them. But their growth strategy (and their hubris) cost them. And cost them big.

They used to have 1,800 stores 7 years ago, these days they've got 1,084 - that's 40% fewer stores. And their stock price hasn't lifted above half of what it used to (it's hovered around $20 for the past 7 years when it used to trade at nearly $50).  Realizing that they had overextended the value of their brand, their CEO revealed their new, new strategy – “back to basics.”  Sadly, the GAP was not the first to go back to basics and they won’t be the last.

 Whenever a company starts to think they think they can do no wrong they start to overextend themselves. A fact they only discover when their grand plans for world domination either lose money or flat out fail. And when the inevitable collapse happens, they always invoke the same new strategy to right the ship:

"We’re going back-to-basics," they say.  And they’d be right.

 Back-to-basics is shorthand for a company’s strategic return to their cultural roots.  GAP was founded in 1969 by Don Fisher with the purpose of, as he put it, "a simple idea: to make it easier to find a pair of jeans." It was only when they forgot why they were founded and started pursuing random market opportunities that things started to go awry.  Market opportunities that, on paper or when delivered by consultants, I’m sure seemed like viable options.  Until, that is, you take a step back and realize that the company, its brand and its culture don't belong in those businesses.  It doesn’t make sense for GAP to be dictating new fashion trends...they are supposed to be the fashion staples in our closet.

 If basics is where so many company’s end up returning after they eat a big piece of humble pie, then why do they leave the basics in the first place?

The answer is surprisingly, well, basic.  They simply forget.  With great success, companies often forget why they were founded in the first place.  The best way to stick with the basics (thus avoiding ever having to return to them), is to talk about why the company was founded.  Constantly.  Write it on the walls.  Put it in your tag line. Tell the stories and pass on the folklore of when the company was founded.  Anything to keep the story alive, the message clear and in the forefront of everyone’s mind.

Takashimaya, the Japanese luxury department store, has a motto that sums it up best.  Though the company was founded in 1831 as a kimono shop, the live by the credo, “Never changing, always new.”  A perfect expression to always remember where you came from.  Though their products and their stores have remained new and modern, their Why, their founding purpose or cause, has never veered.  

If you never want to find yourself in a position in which you’re forced to implement a “back-to-basics” strategy, make sure you and everyone in your organization always know what the basics are…then remind them again everyday.   It's that basic.

Learn why the basics matter so much, read a free chapter from Simon's new book Start With Why

Read Now - http://bit.ly/L26zk

Twitter - @simonsinek

What The U.S. Special Forces Know That You Should Also

Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you.  He is training with minimum food or water, in austere conditions.  He doesn’t worry about what workout to do – his rucksack weighs what it weighs and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him.  The True Believer doesn’t care “how hard it is”; he knows he either wins or he dies.  He doesn’t go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the cause.

  Now, who wants to quit?   

These are  the words that hang on a nondescript door, in a nondescript hallway, in a nondescript building on a military base somewhere in the United States.  There is a small plaque next to the door with a room number embossed and the word: SOCom – military speak for Special Operations Command.   What the leadership of SOCom understands so well is that belief is more powerful than resources. Devotion is more potent than technology. And “the cause” is what inspires people to take extraordinary risks or suffer awful conditions for no other reason than to advance the cause.  

Business is no different. 

Apple, Southwest, Disney, Harley-Davidson, Container Store and the handful of other companies that seem to have mystical powers and unbalanced success all have something in common.  They are defined by their cause, not their products or technology. More importantly, they only want to hire “True Believers,” those who believe what they believe.  And for good reason. People who believe what you believe will work for you with blood and sweat and tears.  People who don’t believe what you believe work for your money. Customers who believe what you believe will pay you a premium, suffer inconvenience and give you a lifetime of loyalty.  Customers who don’t believe what you believe will demand that you offer them a cheaper price and even if you do, they’ll still never be satisfied.

A company of True Believers will always frustrate the competition, regardless of how well resourced the competition is.  Apple frustrates Microsoft.  Lexus frustrates GM. Google frustrates pretty much everyone.  And Obama’s grassroots $5 and $10 fund raising frustrated both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.

Being flush with resources does not guarantee success.  In fact, it seems the better resourced an organization is, the more its people seem to stop caring about the cause.  They become more concerned with how many hours they’ve worked, the size of their offices and the benefits they will get.  The huge advantage companies with a cause have over even much bigger competitors is that everyone who comes to work is there for the same reason - to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They have no resources.  They have no expense accounts.  They play the hand they are dealt and they will fight on for no other reason than because they believe. 

People who go to work to be a part of the cause don’t go home.  They are home.

Now - who wants to quit?

Are You A Product Or A Shelf?

Almost every business in existence is either a product or a shelf, an idea or a platform for ideas – they either have a thing or service to sell you or they are a place to buy things. Wal-Mart has shelves and Proctor and Gamble has products for those shelves. It is a beautiful and symbiotic relationship because all products need shelves and all shelves need products.

 

As a business model, the shelf is easier to scale because products have, please excuse the pun, a shorter shelf-life.  Things go stale, technology advances, new systems and processes are developed.  The products and services we buy are constantly being swapped out for something newer.  Better.  Faster.  Cheaper.  Whatever…

 

As a company you must decide if you want to be a product or a shelf.  It’s very hard to be great at both.  You can’t aim to have the best product and the best website to sell it on also, for example. How would you know where to allocate resourses?

 

Amazon is a shelf and they spend all their time and money making their shelf easy to use.  Their shelf even offers us new products they think we might like.  Starbucks is a shelf too.  It’s not about the coffee or the food or the logoed mugs they have for sale.  Starbucks is place to go to.  The minute they start trying to differentiate based on how good their coffee tastes they will stop focusing on their store experience.  Remember, it’s hard to truly excel at both.  Companies like Lavazza make much better coffee than Starbucks – but they don’t have a shelf – they rely on others to help them sell their product.

 

I’m a product.  I offer ideas.  The only ways I can share my ideas to more people is by looking for more shelves for my ideas.  I write a blog - typepad is the shelf I chose for that.  I wrote a book – it’s available on real and virtual shelves. I speak at companies and conferences who offer themselves as a shelf for me talk for an hour or two.  I teach - Columbia University is my academic shelf. I know as a product , the only way I can succeed is by finding more and more shelves.  But I’m not just interested in any shelf.  I only want to stand on shelves that help me spread my cause – to inspire people to do the things that inspire them.

 

But likewise, all the typepads, book stores, conferences, universities and other shelves need to stock the products that help them advance their causes also. Wal-Mart wouldn’t work if they sold $1,000 couture dresses.  If their products don’t serve to promote their own Why, then the perception of the value of their shelf goes down.  And that’s the perfect symbiotic relationship between the two models.

 

To be the best at whatever you do, first you have to decide which you want to be – a product or a shelf.  Then the focus has to be on being the best shelf or product you can be.

No One Has A Passion For Customer Service...So Stop Saying You Do

I love it when companies say things like, "customer service is our passion"...because it's a flat-out lie.

Our passions are formed when we're young and there is not a single person involved in customer service in any company today that dreamed of being in customer service as a child.  Not a single one was lining up their teddy bears pretending to help them fix a software issue, get their cable TV working or helping them return an item of clothing that they've clearly already worn.

The truth is no one has a passion for customer service so saying it lacks any credibility whatsoever.  It is totally inauthentic.

However...

There are lots of people out there who care about other people.  There are many people in the business world who carried their teddy bear with them where ever they went and tucked it in to bed at night.  Later in life, the teddy bear was replaced by people.  These same kids genuinely cared about other kids on the playground.  They made sure everyone got invited to the birthday party so no one would feel left out.

And as adults - those same people make the best customer facing employees - not because they have a passion for customer service, but because they genuinely care about people.

If you want to offer great customer service, then hire people who care about other people then give them the tools and the freedom to do it.

And if you want to tell people about your "passion for customer service," try saying this instead: "we only hire people who care about other people." And, if you actually do it, your customers will feel the difference.

Do You Want To Be A Leading Company or A Leader?

There's a difference between being a leading company and a leader.  Leading companies sell more than everyone else.  Those who lead set the direction for the rest of the industry.  Here's what it takes to be a company that leads.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

To read more about what it takes to lead, read Start With Why.

And to be one who leads, give your copy away to someone you want to inspire...

Start With Why

Read an excerpt - http://bit.ly/L26zk

Twitter - @simonsinek

Which Way Is Your Monkey?

Too many companies are organized like a tree of monkeys. Everyone at the top, looking down, sees only smiles. But everyone at the bottom, looking up, sees only asses.

Self-serving leaders are keen to climb up the tree. Their careers may do well, but they are not leaders. The higher they go up the tree, the more people who can see that they are just another ass trying to make their way up the tree.

The servant leader faces down the tree. They concern themselves with getting more of the people looking up to see a smile - to see something good.  To inspire them. People would rather follow the smile than the ass. 

The good news is that the servant leader's career still does well.  Though those at the top of the tree may see something somewhat disagreeable, the smiles beneath that servant leader, the loyalty they command and their ability to inspire, can not be ignored.  In fact, it is rewarded.

Being a downward facing monkey is the best strategy to avoid short-term pitfalls in a career and for a company. If you're a servant leader, all those beneath you, looking up, will tell you which branches to look out for.  No one is looking out of the self-serving monkey.  No one cares what happens to that ass.

Membership Had Its Privilages

Being a member of American Express (and “member” was indeed the term) used to mean something. To carry that green card with the Roman centurion in your wallet was a sign of success, a sign of independence, proof that you were going somewhere. But the brand built on the premise of “Membership has its privileges” seems to have forgotten its cause and become just another company selling credit-card services. In an attempt to capture all the market segments, to have something for everyone, AmEx has tarnished its brand.  And worse, it’s hurting its own business.

Anyone who has an American Express card knows that it’s not accepted everywhere—but we were okay with that. The occasional inconvenience was acceptable. As with any premium brand, there was a price to be paid because we wanted to be part of an elite group. We didn’t carry an AmEx card because of  universal acceptance, anyway; we carried it because it was a symbol of who we were.

But no more. What had once been an exclusive club has thrown wide its doors to admit everyone. Suddenly, membership doesn’t feel so special anymore. The entire concept of membership—the whole idea of premium—is that it’s exclusive. The physics of it are unavoidable: The more you appeal to the masses, the less exclusive you become, and the less value your premium possesses.

This degradation is no theoretical matter: With the loss of value inevitably comes the loss of business. Card carriers hear the phrase, “I’m sorry, we no longer accept American Express,” more frequently now than ever before. I understand a small business’s decision to stop accepting the card; the fees, they say, are too high. But for me, the real red flag started waving when my American Express card was denied at H&M. The clothing chain has 175 stores in the U.S. and 1,800 worldwide. Last year, the company rang up $14 billion in sales—and it no longer takes American Express.

Only a bit less disconcerting is to slide your AmEx card across the counter and be told by the cashier that the store “prefers” that you use Visa or MasterCard, if you have one. There was a day when “members” insisted on using their AmEx cards. We did this because the experience of using it meant something to us. These days, more people are all too happy to flip through their wallets and pluck out the alternate plastic, as requested.

And that’s a problem. When those who pay to be a member of a club—and once a year, the membership fee still pops up on their statements—no longer defend the club as though it were their own, it’s a sign that the brand is slipping. Almost every AmEx cardholder also carries Visa or MasterCard, but not all Visa or MasterCard holders carry American Express. In other words, AmEx holders have a choice—and they are becoming increasingly indifferent to that choice.

Consumers’ appreciation of their American Express membership has never had anything to do with points or air-miles. Those are tricks that lots of companies use to drive repeat business—but it’s not the same thing as loyalty. Loyalty is the willingness to pay a premium, or even to turn down a better product, in order to continue doing business with the same company. Like any couture label, the American Express’s centurion was a badge of honor, and a physical symbol of living the American Dream. “Privilege,” as AmEx should know, isn’t about perks—it’s a feeling you imbue in your loyal customers.

And what of the retailers? Retailers rarely have nice things to say about AmEx anymore. They complain that it takes AmEx forever to pay them. The retailers are just as much a constituency as the cardholder; they should be made to feel like members, too. When a company has a strong brand, its constituents either tolerate the inconveniences or rationalize them away. But when the brand is weak, the only thing people focus on is what’s wrong.  And it gets worse. AmEx used to be one of those stocks that people held onto for the long term. But it’s very different now.  Like its product, AmEx stock is becoming just another equity, and investors bail out at the slightest hint of a cloudy day.

It all boils down to a few essentials: Great companies are built on the backs of the loyal, not the masses. AmEx no longer has shareholders, it has share-squatters. AmEx no longer boasts members, it gets visitors. And retailers no longer want to be a part of a purportedly exclusive club when they can get all the same services at the YMCA. Serving the mass audience and the luxury audience is fine—but you can’t do it with the same brand. Honda has Acura. Toyota has Lexus. American Express needs another card. Call it, say, People’s Express. People’s Express can chase market segments and go head-to-head with MasterCard and Visa. Meanwhile, that proud centurion on the AmEx card needs to stand for something again.

Learn how to keep your membership exclusive.

Read a free chapter from Simon's new book Start With Why

Read Now - http://bit.ly/L26zk

Twitter - @simonsinek

Article originally featured in BrandWeek.  

The Best Thing You Can Have Is Bad Intelligence

During the Cold War, America would fly spy planes over the Soviet Union to count how many bombers they had. Knowing exactly what the Americans were doing, the Soviets laid out hundreds of fake, wooden bombers to trick the Americans into thinking that they had a much bigger capability than they actually did.  The problem was, America believed its own intelligence and built real bombers to counter the perceived Soviet threat. 

It wasn't until after the fall of the Berlin Wall did we learn that, if we ever had gone to war with the Soviet Union, we would have annihilated them because our resources vastly outnumbered theirs.  This massive unfair advantage would not have happened if it weren't for the good fortune of some bad intelligence. 

Believing that your competition is stronger and better than you will pushes you to better yourselves. Whether real or perceived, believing you have a disadvantage forces you to find new and clever ways to compete. It's always the organizations that are resourced constrained that come up with the good ideas to win.

You can save money on competitive analyses by simply pretending that whatever your competition is doing, they are doing it better than you. This works no matter if you're the leader or the challenger.  Instead of constantly trying to compare what you're doing to others, focus instead on constantly trying to improve yourself and the way you do things. You should believe, true or not, that there is always someone lurking on the horizon waiting to take advantage of you.

The greatest threat any organization can face is not its competition but its own success. With great success comes complacency - the false belief that you are the best and that you don't have to worry. The problem is, you'll only realize it's a false belief when someone else catches you by surprise. This pattern is repeated over and over and over. Wal-Mart, Microsoft and General Motors all believed that they were unbeatable...until a company who believed they were not as strong found a better way to compete with the 800lb gorilla.

Who Cares About Customers?

One day, when you get old, would you like your family to support you or would you like them to care about you?

If you're family supports you, that means they will pay the bills for the old age home, call you the prescribed number of times and visit you on your birthday. But if they care about you, they will visit you more often and not on any set schedule. They will bring the grand kids over and make sure you get an extra helping of marshmallow sweet potatoes (your favorite) at Thanksgiving.

No one wants to be supported, we want to be cared for. So why are so many companies so proud of their "customer support?" You see it all the time on websites...the link in the upper corner that says simply, "support." To most that means giving you the ability to send an email with your question.  Support means answering your questions and acting in the prescribed manner.  But "care," that's an entirely different standard. Care is human...like the customers.

There is power in words - just as you plainly understood the difference when I asked you if you wanted to be supported or cared for when you get old, so too does that word impact the behavior of the people we hire to support...er...care for...our customers.  Firstly, the department itself is usually called, "customer support."  It should be called, "customer care."  We tell those who work in the department to offer "customer support."  We should be telling them to "care for our customers."

We, as customers, can always tell the difference too.  A customer support agent who has been told to offer "support" tends to follow a script.  They tend to be matter-of-fact about things. And even if the problem is not resolved to your satisfaction, they will actually tell you all the things they've done to help you and that there is nothing more they can do. That is, by all fair metrics, good support.

But customer care agents who have been told to take care of the customer, will talk to you differently.  They have more patience.  They will go out of their way or even ask one of their colleagues for help if they don't know the answer.  There is no script.  They don't need one.  If you hire someone who likes people and you tell them to take care of other people, there is no special training required...just special words to inspire them to do the right thing...to take care.

Values Must Be Verbs

Corporate values are so often written as nouns: integrity, respect, innovation.  But for values to be actionable, for you to hold people accountable to them, them must be verbs.  Here's A clip from my recent interview with Capture Your Flag.

To learn more about how to manage the values in order to build a strong corporate culture, one in which innovation and trust are the norm, check out chapter 6 of Start With Why. It describes how to build trust in any organization.

The Difference Between Direction and Directions

There is a difference between giving directions and giving direction.

Direction is the far-away destination to which you are heading and directions are the route you will take to get to get there.

As leaders and managers, we often forget the distinction.  When we want to tell someone to do something, we give them directions when we should be giving them direction. Great leaders do not get involved in the details of what route is taken, they focus on ensuring everyone is clear of the destination.

Once established, a leader needn't obsesses about the short-term gains or losses, but rather the long-term trend.  If a submarine commander, for example, says head north, he doesn't focus on the frequent course corrections, he just wants to feel confident that his ship is heading due north.  The same is true for any company or organization.

Any leader who spends too much time worrying about the directions instead of the direction risks destroying any morale, creativity and commitment they may have gained.  Worse, while looking down, they will miss what's far ahead.

Directions are instructions given to explain how. Direction is a vision offered to explain why.

Directions are given by teachers, of which there can be many. It is for you to decide which directions suit you best.

Direction is set by a leader, of which there can be only one. It is for you to decide if you want to go on the journey or not.

Direction must always come before directions otherwise how will people know where they are going?

The next time someone asks you "what do you want me to do?" Don't answer their question.  Don't give them directions.  Point and offer them the direction you want to go in and let them figure out the rest. That's what all the great leaders do.

Advertisers Ruin Yet Another Medium. This Time, The iPhone.

We complain about there being too much advertising in magazines.  We love our DVRs so we can skip the ads when we watch TV. We call the advertising sent to us in the mail, "junk." And we install "blockers" to suppress the pop-up ads that want our attention while we're surfing the internet.  It seems no matter how hard we try to avoid it, advertisers will always find a way to get in there messages in our faces. If there's a wall or a construction site or a bus stop - if they can find a way to stick an ad on it, they will.  So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that advertising is slowly becoming more and more invasive on the iPhone. 

I'm quite fond of my iPod Touch (my telephone-less version of the iPhone) and I download apps on a fairly regular basis. Early on, there wasn't a single ad on any of the apps. Slowly but surely, however, the ads started to creep in.  For a while, they didn't bother me. There were banner ads at the top or the bottom of a screen. Fairly unobtrusive. But now? It's pop-up city. More and more app makers are trying to up-sell you on a new version or another app. I hesitate to turn on my iPod now because it's starting to feel like I'm walking on to a used car lot.

What Apple has created is remarkable. Not only is it a clever piece of technology, but it has become a legitimate marketplace. Many years ago, Sears allowed us to shop without going to the store with their beast of a catalog. The internet offered another marketplace, for which some companies, it is their only store front. The iPhone/iPod is the new frontier for commerce. The majority of the money passing through the device is from buying apps to use on the device itself. But not for long. You can already order a pizza to be delivered from Pizza Hut. You can buy a book to read from Amazon. Soon we'll be shopping for just about everything from our little pocket shops.

I applaud Apple's ingenuity for creating this new marketplace. And I've always appreciated Apple's obsession with simplicity and user friendliness.  If you buy a PC, in contrast, the desktop is jammed with all kinds of icons from third party sellers trying to hock their wares - Norton wants to sell you some anti-virus package, AOL would love to sell you something too.  It takes at least 30-60 minutes to decontaminate a new PC of all the sales pitches before we can start enjoying your new computer. Apple never went down that root. You buy a new Macintosh and all you get is...a new Macintosh.

But not the iPhone. Apple is letting the app makers destroy the simplicity of it all. I'm all in favor of iPhone-commerce, but can't Apple create rules about the advertising to protect the user-experience? If things keep going the way they are, the iPhone is in danger of, dare I say it, looking like a PC.

What do you think of that Mac?

Do You Know Why?

  Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their successes over and over?

 People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with why. Their natural ability to start with why enabled them to inspire those around them and to achieve remarkable things.

 Three and a half years ago I made a discovery. I discovered that all the most inspiring and successful leaders, regardless if they are individuals or organizations, regardless of their size or industry, all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way—and it’s the complete opposite of what everyone else does. I called this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. WHY is not money or profit—those are always results. Why does your organization exist? Why does it do the things it does? Why do customers really buy from one company or another? Why are people loyal to some leaders, but not others?

Start With Why is a book for those who want to learn to inspire others and for those who want to find someone to inspire them.  Start with Why is available now at your favorite book seller.

Special Promotion: Buy two copies, give one away and we can inspire even more people...

Passion vs. Pressure

There’s a difference between a passionate pitch and a pressure sell.  A passionate pitch is when someone believes in something so deeply that they’re keen to share it with others.  A pressure sell is when someone is so keen to extract something from someone that they will push and push until they get what they want.

 Though we may feel pressured in both situations, we enjoy the experience with the passionate salesman and feel excited if we do decide to buy.  In contrast, we often feel dirty after we make a purchase we were pressured into making.

 Those with passion may sometimes apply pressure and those who apply pressure may defend their behavior in the name of passion.  But for us, what matters most is how to tell the difference.

 People with passion will never make you feel bad for not partaking in whatever it is they want to sell you.  If you say no, they will say something positive to you to hopefully encourage you to think about it in the future. Conversely, those who rely on pressure to make the sale will always try to make you feel bad if you seem to be tilting towards “no.” In other words, they turn up the pressure.

 A pressure sell may produce the sale, but it will not engender loyalty. It may even do the opposite. In contrast a passionate pitch will engender loyalty, even if the sale isn’t made.

 The simplest way to ensure that your sales force (or even you) are selling passionately and not just pressuring the sale is to be clear about why you believe so strongly in what you’re selling and only hire those who believe what you believe.

When The Two Parties In A Two Party System Don't Know Why They Exist

Republicans are completely befuddled by Obama’s “star power” and don’t seem to have a clear or effective strategy to compete. Though they are able to coordinate their messages better than Democrats, absent a leader who can clearly articulate a Republican vision for America, the only thing they can do is attack, attack, attack.

Democrats have a leader who defies all the political odds. Obama became president with little experience, he’s making headway reforming health care, and won a Noble Peace Prize which, even he admits, he probably didn’t deserve. But as a party, they bicker, they can’t coordinate messages and they seem more obsessed with “setting the record straight” than advancing their vision for America. Absent the ability to focus, the best they can muster is defend, defend, defend (and sometimes, maybe, if it’s not too harsh – attack).

Leadership is not derived from having the loudest voice or the biggest base.  Leadership isn’t about having all the answers or having all your i’s dotted and t’s crossed. Leadership doesn’t necessarily even come from simply having your name on the door. True leadership comes from inspiring people to focus on where they are going, not fighting against whatever is happening now.  This is what it means to offer a “vision for America.” This is what it means to inspire. 

Democrats are flummoxed by Republicans ability to stall or redirect progress. No matter the message Democrats develop, Republicans almost always come up with a better sound bite for the headlines. The Democrats response throughout the healthcare debate? Give the people more statistics.

Republicans are perplexed how Obama’s star shines so brightly. No matter how much they attack, Obama seems to keep moving forwards. Just this week, we learned the Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) supported the health care bill in the finance committee. The Republican response? Attack Olympia Snowe.

But neither party does a good job of contextualizing why they have the opinions they do in the first place. Both care about America, both believe in upholding the values laid down by our forefathers. Both are deeply patriotic.  And both know why America exists – it’s all about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The difference lies in how they think we should deliver on that American Dream. Though both parties know why America exists, neither party can tell you why they exist.

Republicans are the party of “I”. They believe the responsibility of government is to support those who pursue the American Dream – which is why their policies have historically favored the rich and businesses. Buried in the pages of their newly designed website, the RNC hints at why the Republican Party exists, “The Republican Party is inspired by the power of ingenuity of the individual to succeed through hard work, family support and self-discipline.” Instead of opening their website with their cause, with their Why, there is a video about how bad America is doing and how bad Obama is. It’ll make you angry, it may rally a crowd…but it’s not inspiring. It’s not leadership

Democrats are the party of “we.”  They believe the responsibility of government is to try to help everyone pursue the American Dream – which is why their policies have historically favored labor and the poor.  Buried in the pages of the DNC website they also hint at why the Democratic Party exists, “The Democratic Party is committed to keeping our nation safe and expanding opportunity for every American.” Instead of leading with their cause, with their Why, one of the first things is a section called “Call ‘em out” devoted to correcting the lies being spread by Republicans.

Instead of trying to plan the next attack strategy, it may benefit the Republican Party to try to understand why Obama's star shines so brightly. After all, it is this “star quality” that Republicans attribute to Obama’s winning the Nobel Peace prize last week – an observation that would be entirely correct. I understand why Republican leadership invests so much money and energy trying to dim his star, but the benefit to trying to understand it and even learn how to turn up the wattage of one of your own is not only better for the Republican Party, it’s better for the country. A strategy of attack, attack, attack – from either party – inhibits progress and divides us as a nation. 

Though he's not always perfect at expressing it, Obama has a vision for America, one born out of optimism, that comes out whenever he gives big speeches. Sadly, that’s the only time it does. He believes that any people, no matter how divergent their differences, can always find common ground to advance a common cause. He believes America can work together to mend its economy. “Yes we can.” He believes that America can come together to reform healthcare. “Yes we can.” He believes the nations of the world can come together to find common understanding. “Yes we can.” And it is his optimism in this belief that inspires and gives him his star quality. Democrats need to focus around Obama’s vision and focus their message and energy on drafting legislation that will breath life into the vision.

Republicans don’t need to look to Obama to learn how to make a star. Go back and study Ronald Reagan – a visionary leader who confounded Democrats at the time with his own star quality. Reagan spoke about “morning in America” – he oozed an optimism for what America could be. Reagan had an undying belief that each American has the ability to make their own lives better if they put our minds to it. In stark contrast, the modern Republican Party defines itself by what it’s not rather than what it is.  Republicans need an optimistic leader who can present an alternative vision for America’s future instead of just rallying against Obama’s vision of it.

The way the two party system is supposed to work is that both parties present their vision for America and then the people will choose which they believe best suits them based on the challenges they face at the times.  Sometimes we want to celebrate the ingenuity of the individual – like in the booming ‘80s and sometimes we feel the need to band together and work to support those who can’t support themselves – like in times of war, economic crisis and when the social security and health care systems are ailing.

I’ve studied great leaders and great organizations, those with the ability to inspire. And they all have something in common. Regardless of their party or their politics, unrelated to their business or their industry – they all think, act and communicate the exact same way, and it’s the complete opposite to everyone else.  In all cases, the “stars” clearly communicate an optimistic vision of the future, they tell us why they do what they do. It is so clear that the rest of us know why they do what they do also, even if we disagree with the specifics of how they aim to do it. When there is clarity of Why, those who believe the same will take it upon themselves to join the cause. A following, by its definition, are those who share a common set of values and beliefs. This is the reason great leaders command a loyal following.

Democrats have a leader with a vision, but lack focus. Republicans are focused but lack a leader with a vision. Perhaps, in a day-and-age when both parties can only point at each other and define themselves as “not that,” we need a president who can find their common ground. Yes he can.

To learn more about how great leaders lead, read Simon's new book Start With Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action, available for pre-order now and on shelves Oct 29th.

This post originally appeared on the HuffingtonPost

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-sinek/when-the-two-parties-of-a_b_321568.html

When Your Why Is Clear...Everyone Knows It

I am often asked "how do people know when your WHY is clear?" The wonderful thing about a WHY is when it's clear, you know it...and so does everyone else. Sounds suspicious right? What you just read is a manifesto, a statement of belief, from the home page of a company called Yoga To The People. Do you know what they believe?

Even if you've never been to there, you probably have a very clear idea of what the experience would be like? It might not surprise you that they charge $7 for a class...or that on same days, the cost is just a donation.  Their goal is to get back to the essence of yoga - to relax. As they say, "Yoga is meant to help strengthen and stretch your arms and legs, not cost you one!"

This manifesto is a statement of WHY they exist.  WHY they do what they do. What they believe wasn't buried deep in some "about us" page - it was right on the home page. Because Yoga To The People starts with WHY, anyone who comes to their site knows exactly how they see the world and already has some level of expectation of what their products and services will be like. And they didn't have to read a single brochure.

When people believe what you believe, it piques their interest to either learn more or  buy from you without much "selling" required. If people don't believe what you believe, they will either turn away or do business with you anyway because you meet some other requirements. In other words, you won't lose those customers, but you will gain some very special, high quality ones.  Start with what you believe, start with WHY, and you can instantly filter and attract the customers most likely to be loyal.

Surf around the web, look at some other companies and you'll quickly see websites with home pages filled with details, prices, facts, photos - everything to "attract" new customers.  But none of it really does. And of course, your IT professional will tell you the importance of filling your homepage with more instead of less.  All that does is attract more people but it doesn't inspire them to do business with you.

The best part is, if you have the discipline to start with WHY and if someone believes what you believe, even if they don't buy your product, they may talk about you to their friends...or blog about you.  And that blog may attract more new customers than the one you think you lost.

p.s. let me know if you visit their studio because of this blog. 

TED Talk - Simon Speaking at a TEDx Conference in Seattle

We make assumptions about the world.  More importantly, our behaviors are often governed by those assumptions. But what if our assumptions are incomplete or wrong? This doesn't necessarily only apply to things when they go wrong...what about when they go right? Do you know why things go right? Most people would say yes - but then why is it so hard to repeat great success?  If we know why Apple is so innovative, for example, why can't anyone else do it? Don't you want to know WHY?

This is what I talked about when I had the honor of speaking at a TEDx event in Seattle this year. It was such a privilege to share the stage with some remarkable and inspiring people. Ed Visteurs, the only American to scale the 14 highest peaks in the world without oxygen, and Erik Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh's grandson and an amazing human being in his own right, to name but two. (Click here for other TEDx talks).

The vision is that everyone knows WHY. To learn more about why you do what you do, check out Simon's new book, Start With Why. If you order a copy, order two and give one away to someone you want to inspire. The goal is to share the WHY with as many people as possible.

Executives May Make Decisions, But That Doesn't Mean They Know The Answers

This weekend I walked into a Verizon Wireless store to pick something up. They had these fancy new tablet computers that the agents carry around the store with them. Apparently, some folks back at corporate decided that having the tablets was a way for their agents to spend more time face to face with customers instead of being stuck behind a desk.  Sounds like a great customer service decision, right?

Wrong.

You see, the executives who decided to put the tablets in the stores have never actually worked in the stores.  And no matter how many surveys they had their agents complete, there is no better learning than being in the trenches.

In the case of Verizon Wireless, when they used desktops, their agents had to be signed in - one computer for one agent.  But with the new tablet systems, they have to share the interface. If one agent has a lot of information they need to fill in about a customer, the other agents have to wait. I think this is hilarious. They want their agents to spend more time with the customer...so now, the agent and the customer can stand next to each other while the whole transaction takes longer than if they stood at a counter.  As a customer which would you rather have? Stand at a counter and get out quickly or be forced to make chit-chat while the transaction time is needlessly protracted?

It is for this reason that more companies are including front-line people on design teams or decision groups - because their insights are second to none. Boeing, for example, invited real flight attendants, pilots and passengers to help them design their new 787 Dreamliner. They boast that it will be the most comfortable plane for all those who have to fly in it and not just those who manage its numbers from far away desks. 

Including those who will be most impacted by the decisions in the decision process is much more powerful than focus groups.  Focus groups will simply report what they want or don't want.  What they like or don't like. And very often the requests or desires are unrealistic or financially impossible. But when they are on the actual design team, on the inside, they are subject to all the budgetary and production restrictions and are more likely to work with management to solve the problems and find the best solutions.

As for Verizon Wireless, this time, they got it wrong.  But next time, I hope they'll heed this advice and include some customer service folks on the team tasked with how to improve customer service. Can you hear me now?

How To Be More Creative

The driving force behind innovation is creativity.  That's not such a profound realization.  But where does creativity come from?  I'm always fascinated when organizations have "creative sessions" to come up with ideas. Putting everyone in a room together for an hour or two with the purpose of coming up with a new idea or a new way of seeing things is not necessarily the best way to come up with new ideas.

Think about it.

How many of your best ideas happen driving to work or standing in the shower? Or watching a movie or reading a book that has nothing to do with the problem you just solved? The fact is, our brains are processing vastly more information than we're even aware of. And sometimes it's making connections between things that we weren't even looking for at the time. 

Jarbas Agnelli, for example, created music simply by seeing. "I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires," he said, "I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes." Below is what he created. There is no Photoshop edit, it is the exact picture he saw.

Creativity comes from curiosity. The more curious you are about the world, the more you experience and learn. The more you experience and learn, the more connections your brain is able to make. And with more connections, you can find new solutions to problems or just see things no one else can see.  In other words - you can be more creative.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Those who know WHY are more creative. Do you know your WHY? pre-order Start With Why and find out WHY. And if you do, please order two and give one away to someone you want to inspire.

If You Want To Be An Entrepreneur, You Have To Take The Bagel

Most Sundays throughout the year,  the New York Road Runners organizes races in Central Park. They range in distance from a mile or two to distances just shy of half-marathon length.  Though there are medals for the winners, hundreds even thousands of New Yorkers take part simply for fun or to try to beat their own times.

One  Sunday morning, a friend and I ran in a 4-mile race together.  My friend is a decent runner. He is more disciplined about keeping a regular running schedule than I am. And because of it, he's generally a little faster than I am too. Though he works for a large bank down on Wall Street, on more than one occasion he has mentioned a desire to start his own business one day.  Given his discipline, I assumed that he was well suited to be an entrepreneur. 

That was...until we got to the end of the race. 

Sometimes they give away free stuff to the runners at the finish line.  On this day - free bagels.  There were boxes of bagels sitting atop 2 or 3 of those long, brown fold-up lunch tables, like in high school. One one side of the tables were volunteers giving out the bagels. On the other side of the tables was a long line of runners waiting to get a free bagel. A long line of runners. 

I turned to my friend and said, "lets get a free bagel." He turned, looked at the line and said, "nah, forget it, line's too long."

I looked at him, puzzled. Pointed to the bagels and said, "lets just get a bagel - they're free."  He pointed to the line and said, "yeah, but I don't want to wait."

And it was at that point, I realized he could never be an entrepreneur. 

Entrepreneurs see the thing they want or need then try to figure out a process how to get it. People who shouldn't be entrepreneurs see the standard process they need to go through to get the thing they want or need then decide if they want to go through that process.  My friend didn't want to stand in line, so he opted to abandon the bagel.  I wanted the bagel, so I opted to avoid the line.

I could see that he would rather not have a bagel than break the rules. So I pushed him, "come on, we don't need to stand in line, lets just get a bagel." He refused. He pushed me back, "come on, lets just go...the line's too long."

Realizing we saw the world differently, I walked up to the tables, leaned through the line, put my hand in one of the boxes, pulled out two bagels and walked back to him with our breakfast.  Not a single person in the line said anything to me or even seemed to care.

Entrepreneurs smile when I tell this story.  Non-entrepreneurs like to tell me that I shouldn't do things like that, because if everyone did things like that, we'd have anarchy.  And they'd be right...IF everyone had what it took to be an entrepreneur.  But everyone doesn't. Which is why most people don't start their own businesses and why most people are perfectly fine to stand in line.

And this is why the whole system works. Because the two mindsets need each other. If no one ever broke the rules, then we'd never advance. But if a few people were willing to take the bagel, to break the rules in order to find or create a better process for the majority to follow...that's called progress.

The most successful entrepreneurs all start with WHY. Do you know your WHY? Pre-order Start With Why and find out WHY. And if you do, please order two and give one away to another entrepreneur you want to inspire.

If You Want To Lead, Give People A Direction To Follow

There are leaders and there are those who lead.  Leaders hold a position of power, but those who lead inspire us.

You can see the rest of this interview and others at captureyourflag.com

How Did That Idiot Get To Be My Boss?

As anyone who has every held a job can attest, at some point in ones career you will work for someone who clearly has less talent or ability than you do. On a regular basis you’ll ask yourself, “how is THAT guy my boss?” The answer has less to do with the poor sod who was promoted above you and more to do with how we view talent and reward performance in an organization.

The biggest problem is that companies often promote someone who is good at their job to being a manager. But doing the job well and managing others to do it well are not the same thing. In fact, they are completely different skill sets. A great salesman is just that, a great salesman. But a great salesman does not necessarily make a great sales manager. But very often, the top-performing salesman is promoted to sales manager not because he’s necessarily qualified, but because he did well at his other job. And it gets worse. Not only are we promoting people into the wrong jobs, we’re not even training them once they get there. I can guarantee that top-performing salesman was given tons of training to be a salesman. He probably even shadowed more seasoned veterans to learn the ropes. After he became sales manager, however, his training likely stopped. And he almost certainly never shadowed more seasoned sales managers to learn the ropes.

click picture to buy the t-shirt

When people are in middle management and below, we train the heck out of them. That’s because they are doers so, logically, companies train them so they can be good at their jobs. With all that training, they prove themselves and earn promotions. But then the amount of training plummets.

As people get more senior, they move from being doers to being thinkers and managers, but most companies don’t train people how to manage or think. If you make widgets – there is a training on how to make the best widget. Get promoted, and you’re left to figure things out by yourself. There are painfully few companies that train their managers how to manage or think strategically.

Being good at your job does not equip you to manage others, nor does being smart. Two men in recent history widely regarded to be some of smartest to become US Presidents were Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Nixon’s intellect, in fact, was said to be astounding. Yet neither of them had particularly remarkable presidencies. Smarts do not necessarily equate to leadership.

Leadership is a skill set that does not always mean you’re good at the job itself. Tommy Lasorda, the famed LA Dodgers manager was hailed as one of the great all time baseball managers. His own baseball career, however, was short and not so sweet. In contrast, Isiah Thomas was one of the great basketball players in the ‘80s. He eventually joined the management of the New York Knicks and he was an abysmal failure.

When someone got promoted because they were very good at doing a job, they feel they can do it better than those who now work for them (and maybe the can). The temptation to micromanage or to tell people to do it their way can be overwhelming. Sometimes their intentions may be good, they may be trying to teach, but other times they simply miss being in the trenches and yearn to get back in. Either way, it manifests as poor management. And poor management is to blame for a lot of the ills our economy is facing now. It's not that bad things were being done at the lower levels, it's that the people weren't managing properly.

Great managers, in contrast, are able to coach others to maximize their own potential and work to their own strengths. They give out responsibility instead of tasks and allow people to make mistakes. Great managers may even have an advantage if they are not good at the tasks themselves because it forces them to step back and rely on those around them. And most importantly, great managers are always aware of the big picture and the long-term strategy.  That, afterall, is their job.

American organizations need to change two things if our management is to become as skilled as our workforce.

1: Companies need to get better at assessing people’s skills before we simply reward good performance or big brains with promotions. The higher someone gets in a company, the better they are supposed to be at managing down. Instead, the Peter Principle rules – where we promote people to their highest level of incompetence.

2: If companies ignore this first requirement, then there is even more pressure to provide more training to people as they are promoted up the ranks. We teach technicians what to do, but we need to teach leaders how to lead. Management and leadership, like any skill, require learning and practice.

So the next time you get a promotion for a job well-done, ask for some training as you enter your new job before you find yourself as the idiot that people can’t believe they are working for.

Is your company doing any effective management or leadership training your company is doing? Please let me know in the comments.

Originally published on The Huffington Post

Agreement Comes When What Is Said Is The Same As What Is Heard

If You Want To Rally People, Don't Bore Them With Facts

Leadership is only part vision. The other part is the ability to communicate that vision. President Obama is failing to lead America into a new era of healthcare reform not for lack of vision, but because he's not talking about it properly. Worse, he's starting to sound like "just another Democrat."

Too many Democratic politicians suffer from an under-diagnosed and often incurable affliction - Democrats Disease; that insatiable need to always want to "correct the facts" and "set the record straight." Democrats often seem more concerned with being technically right than advancing their cause. Though it is important to have all your t's crossed and i's dotted, the facts never inspire people to rally for a cause...which is exactly what the President needs America to do.

What inspires people to raise their hands to volunteer to make change happen is the feeling of being a part of something larger than any individual. A noble cause. What's more, that noble cause must be stated in terms that people can relate to - i.e. themselves. Ronald Reagan, a great communicator, understood this better than most. He was the first president to invite a "hero" to sit in the balcony during the State of the Union address to personify the benefits of a policy - a tradition that has continued in every single State of the Union since.

In his recent speech to a joint session of Congress, Obama started to make his case for national health care reform by laying out some numbers. "We are the only democracy," he implored, "the only advanced democracy on Earth -- the only wealthy nation -- that allows such hardship for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two-year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone."

Though I appreciate that he is trying to tell Americans that we need to do this because it could happen to you, unfortunately, all those big numbers get in the way of the message. What most people actually heard was, "you have to be responsible for giving insurance to 30 million people." No wonder there is so much animosity to such an idea - it sounds big, expensive and nearly impossible.

More important than the number of people without insurance or what the statistics might prove, is the answer to the question why? Why should I bother? Charity and goodwill on a massive scale are not good enough reasons to take the risky journey into the unknown. This cause can only be championed with relevant, human language not statistical reasons to act.
Obama defended the fuzzy (and dare I say socialist sounding) language of a "public option" by saying that fewer than 5% of people would need it. If that is the case, then he should have used language that communicated why we need a public option in the first place. Call it, "assistance for extreme cases," for example. Without any statistics, this revised language clearly communicates that such a system would not be a financial burden on the general population. Facts and stats should only ever be used to reinforce a message not define it.

The President has a clear vision of what American could look like if his plans are enacted. The irony is that he has had to spend too much time to set the facts straight because he wasted so much time making a rational case for "national health care reform," instead of rallying the country to look forwards and find a way "to provide a doctor for every child." Clear, simple language that explains why this matters to America.

This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post

How To Become A Legend

Usain Bolt knows why he needs to win races and shatter records. Though money and fame are nice additions, what drives him is something much, much bigger. It's even bigger than winning each individual race.

The 23-year old, gold-shoe wearing Jamaican track star became a household name after he shattered multiple world records at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. When asked what his secret is, he replies with surprising humility, "my secret's just hard work and dedication." Great advice, for sure, but it takes more than just hard work to become such a dominating force in sports...or in anything, for that matter. It takes a sense of purpose so big, it's  hard to measure. It may even sound like fantasy. And for Usain Bolt, he wakes up everyday to, as he puts it,  "become a legend."

It is this sense of purpose, the sense of WHY Bolt works as hard as he does that makes such a difference. Whereas other competitors train for a race or for an event, Bolt trains for something that he may not fully appreciate in his lifetime, because inherent in legend-status, is that it will outlive him.

Though each race he wins and each record he breaks matter, they are not the end goals. They represent the milestones he needs to pass to achieve his very big dream.

In our careers and in our businesses we often limit our ability to succeed because we set goals with relatively short time lines.  We work hard to achieve these goals, then set new goals the following year. But quarterly or annual goals are just too short. How many people or organizations are planning to achieve something that will be fully realized after they die?

A strategy of setting a goal, reaching it and working to achieve the next goal does not inherently prevent progress or success, but it limits the ability to make massive leaps. It also begs the question, why are those short-term goals important? "To be successful" or "to grow a business" are insufficient as answers. Everyone who races against Bolt is running to win races, but few, if any, are running to become legends.

Quarterly or annual goals should not be the goals, they should serve to mark the measurable progress we make on our way to something much grander.  The Wright brothers didn't set out to simply make a flying machine, they set out to change the world.  Steve Jobs didn't just want to build a successful computer company, he set out to, as he put it, "make a dent in the universe." That ability to see beyond the year, to see beyond the money and the profit, to see how the world will change because of what you achieve, is what makes legends.

Consider this analogy: If your goal is to drive 350 miles in one day, you may achieve your goal, you may even drive a little further. You'll be elated that you reached your goal or surpassed it.  Your victory may even encourage you to attempt to drive 400 miles the next day. But to become a legend, you need a lofty, almost unrealistic and quite bombastic vision of the final destination...not just one of the way points.  It's not about getting 350 miles in a day, it's about seeing yourself laying on the beach on an island in the South Pacific. In one single swoop, you see the 350-mile achievement as small and slow. You are instantly able  to see opportunities that others miss.  Where others see the need to drive faster, you see the need to jump on an airplane.

Usain Bolt doesn't run each race because he wants to win. He wins each race because he wants something so much grander. And it is this ability, to understand why each race matters towards achieving the grand plan, that he will indeed become a legend.

Click here to download a PDF of this article

Do No Work

I sat down with Mike Michalowiz, the entrepreneur's entrepreneur and author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.  He's nuts and brilliant and understands better than most the things to do to build a successful small business (and how to keep it fun).

He was interested in my theory of going to work to do no work. 

Interview With Simon Sinek from Toilet Paper on Vimeo.

There Are No Mergers, There Are Only Collisions

50% of all corporate mergers completely fail. 

An additional 25% never achieve the ROI that was promised.  

That means 75% of mergers weren't worth it.  Can you imagine walking into a CEO's office and saying, "I've got a great deal, it's got a 75% chance of failure."  You'd be laughed out of the room. Yet CEOs initiate mergers and acquisitions all the time. And when their mergers fail, the first line of the article in the Wall Street Journal is always the same, "the two cultures didn't mix."

Months and months and often millions of dollars are spent combing through the books to see if all is in order, yet what CEOs forget is that companies are nothing more than structures...and those structures are filled with people.  What makes two companies fit well together is not their product lines - it's how their people get along. Sadly, this little detail is often completely ignored. 

Just because there is "synergy" (the rationale so often used to justify so many mergers in the first place) between product lines or marketplaces, doesn't guarantee any success.  That one company makes ink and another makes rubber stamps, for example, means little when it comes to two entirely different corporate cultures needing to play nice together. Unless the plan is to fire everyone from one company and completely rehire for all the new job openings with employees who fit one of the cultures, more diligence should should be spent evaluating the cultural fit before the collision...er...merger takes place.

The great irony is that the single biggest factor that contributes to the majority of merger debacles is amazingly simple to evaluate.  It costs neither millions of dollars nor countless of months to evaluate a corporate culture.  It takes about a day per company.  One day.

It begs the question, then, why is something so important and so crucial to the success of a merger so often completely ignored until it's too late?

The answer is uncomfortably simple: you can't see the culture. The product lines, the market opportunities, the balance sheets are all things that can be easily seen, and easily evaluated and tabulated.  The culture is not. A strong culture exists when all the employees within an organization share the same values and beliefs.  We can tell a company has a strong culture, not because we read it on a balance sheet, but because we can feel it when we walk the halls. There is an obvious camaraderie among the employees and a genuine desire to do good by the company.  In contrast, when we walk the halls of companies with a weak culture we feel cold...or worse, we feel nothing at all. People in a bad culture are more motivated by self-gain than by a desire to see their company...and their colleagues...do well. When we feel a strong culture, we sometimes wish we worked there.

The best part is, if you try to have this discussion with so many of the CEOs who initiated the mergers in the first place, they'll tell you that what you're talking about is fluff. But if that fluff is important enough to avoid a 75% chance of a collision, then maybe it's worth buying that model with the anti-lock brakes after all. 

Click to download a PDF version of this article

Why People With A Sense of Humor Love Southwest

As for companies who aspire to be loved as much as Southwest, the trick is to know what your personality is first and then hire people who represent it.  Don't just hire anyone, no matter how great their resume and try to force them to be something they are not. Herb Kelleher, Southwest's founder and former president, said, "you shouldn't  hire people for their skills you should hire them for their attitude, you can always teach them the skills later."  The problem is which attitude? It has to be the attitude that fits your company. When your employees belong in your company, when they fit your culture, then their ability to properly represent you will come naturally.

The Best Leaders Show Up For The Cause Not The Result

Offering CEO's big money to come and run companies does not guarantee great leadership. In fact, the practice may attract the wrong leaders altogether.

With banks failing, the auto-industry in a mess and Steve Jobs returning to work after his secretive liver transplant, it's a good time to raise the subject of succession again.  

Wall Street was quite upset that Apple was so close to the vest about Jobs's health.  And well they should be, the last time Jobs left in 1985, the company slumped and didn't re-emerge as the powerhouse they are now until Jobs returned to the helm a decade later. But Jobs's health is irrelevant. Cancer or new livers aside, the fact is he can't lead the company forever and knowing how to find a good leader to succeed him is important.

But Apple is just one of many succession conundrums.  Many of the banks are sailing rudderless into the future as are companies like AIG, Chrysler and GM. Rick Wagoner, for example, was ousted from GM for mismanaging the company, only to be replaced by a man who, well, lets just say he's not much of an inspiring leader. And given the desperate need for real leadership these days, there is an ongoing debate in boardrooms and on Capitol Hill about how much we should pay these leaders for their contributions. 

The argument is that companies can not attract the best leaders, the leaders they need, unless they are very well compensated. And that, believe it or not, is actually the problem.  The flaw in the logic is that the best leaders do it for the money, which they don't.  Great leaders show up for the challenge or the cause. The bad leaders show up for the money.

Instead of finding someone with an impressive resume who is willing to help if you pay him or her enough, imagine if the Obama administration made this appeal:

The recent economic melt-down has taught us a valuable lesson - that the way we did things in the past is not the way we can do things in the future. We may have enjoyed the short term riches of the past decade or more, but we have done so by weakening the very foundations of our corporations and indeed our economy.

Now is the time for change.  Now is the time for new ideas and new leaders to emerge to rebuild our economy and our nation so that we may, once again, be the beacon of how a great free market economy should run.

We are looking for the men and woman who want to help shape the corporations of the future and help build the new American economy. The salary will not be big. The challenge will be great. And the opportunity to influence the future of our county is real.

Are you up for the challenge?  If so, please contact President Obama and tell him you want to lead.

Such an appeal does not mean that prior experience is ignored, it just means it is considered second to the leaders desire to help.  If a leader shows up for the cause, they will work with blood, sweat and tears and they will inspire those around them to do the same.  If the leader does not believe in the cause, then they will work for the money.  The very fact that got us into this mess in the first place.

Click here to download a PDF version of this article

This blog also appeared in The Huffington Post

What Companies Can Learn From The Homeless

"I'm homeless. I'm hungry. I've got 6 kids.  I've got AIDS. Pleas help. God bless," reads the handwritten cardboard sign sitting in front of the homeless man. Sometimes we are drawn to give and sometimes we're not.  Regardless of what you may think is happening that sign he are holding is in fact a piece of marketing.  The question is, is it an effective piece of marketing?

As much as we like to think we are giving selflessly, the fact is, every time we drop some spare change into the cup of a homeless person we are completing a perfectly legitimate business transaction.  What the homeless are selling is the feeling of goodwill...and sometimes we buy it.  More importantly, our decision to buy goodwill from one homeless person or another is based on all the same decision-making principles as any other purchase decision we make everyday. And, like most businesses, the homeless use marketing to help drive the transaction. In their case, billboards.

 If the principles of communication work the same way for a company as they do for a homeless person, I decided to do a little experiment to prove it.

We found a homeless woman in New York who was willing to help. Sitting on the corner of 23rd St and Park Ave, she told us that she makes between $20 and $30 over the course of an 8-10 hour day ($30 constituting a good day).  Her sign was similar to the norm - I'm homeless, I'm hungry, please help, etc.  She agreed to use our sign the next day and with it, she earned $40 in 2 hours.

So what did the new sign say?

For starters, it didn't talk about her. Like so much bad marketing out there, her original sign tried to sell based on facts and details about her  without considering why anyone would give to her in the first place. We don't know if any or all of their claims she presents are true and, like companies, she has also experimented with which claims work better than others.

Companies are no different. They offer features and benefits, facts and figures, everything they think we need to know about their product or service to encourage us to buy. A computer company, for example, tries touts the superior memory and the processor speed or other bells and whistles.  A law firm tells us they are one of the biggest firms with all Ivy League attorneys.  A cereal company tells us their product is packed with vitamins and minerals and is part of a well-balanced diet.   But why should we care? They've spent most of their time and energy telling us about them without saying a single word about us.

Claims or no claims, what if the whole marketing approach was completely flawed?  What if effective marketing had nothing to do with features and benefits at all?

Good, effective marketing is that which talks about the buyer not the seller.  We don't care about the seller, we care what we can get from the seller, and I don't mean the product attributes . We want things that reflect our own values and beliefs, things that fit into how we live our lives.

So what can companies learn from the homeless?  Stop talking about yourselves and start talking about why anyone should care.  Talk about our lives and simply place yourself and your products comfortably into our lives.  That's exactly what we did with that homeless person's billboard.

And what about that sign?  What did the new sign say that was able to double revenues in a quarter of the time?

It said simply: "If you only give once a month, please think of me next time."

Click here to download a PDF version of this article

This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post

It's Better To Be Given Than To Take

You arrive at a meeting but you forgot to bring a pen.  It's not the worst thing that could have happened, but it may be a little embarrassing. You get a break, however, the person with whom you are meeting excuses himself for a minute and leaves the room. There is a cup of pens on his desk, so you help yourself to one of them. They are not expensive pens, just your run-of-the-mill disposable pens that he probably picked up from the supply cabinet. You know it's not a big deal, it's not really stealing, he won't miss it.  You just need a pen.

The gentleman with whom you are meeting returns and sits back down at his desk and the meeting commences.  And there you are, with your pen, ready for the meeting.

But there's a problem.  The pen's not yours.  You took it. You're using it.  But it doesn't belong to you. Even though you know it's not a big deal, you KNOW it's not yours.  One of three things will likely happen:

1. Fearing that he will notice that you took his pen and say something that could create an awkward situation,  you take notes on your lap to keep the pen out of sight.
2. You take notes as normal, but you still hope that he doesn't say anything for fear of being caught.
3. You say something as soon as he arrives back. Something like, "I hope you don't mind, I took one of your pens." To which he will likely reply, "no problem, let me know if you need anything else."  Your guilt relieved, the meeting can continue in a more productive manner.

There is a difference between being given something and taking it.  When we take things, even if the item being taken is of no consequence, we know it does not belong to us.  Even if you left with the pen, you know it is still not your pen.  But if something is given to you, then that thing becomes yours.  You earned it and it creates the feeling of belonging.

The same is true for things bigger than pens. When we push others a side for a  job or to get recognition, we took the recognition, we weren't given it.  Even if we did the work required for it, the fact remains, we still took it. This creates the feeling of fear that others will know.  We may become a little defensive when others challenge us.  Worse, the fear of being caught may become the motivation for how we act moving forward. We've all worked for people like this. They may have achieved something but it's no fun for the rest of us

However, when we focus on the work at hand and not on the reward and are given a promotion or bonus as a reward, as a symbol of gratitude, then that bonus belongs to us.  We earned it.  We are less bothered if someone challenges us because we know that the bonus belongs to us.  After all, it was given and we didn't just take it. 

When we fixate on the reward, we will stop at nothing to get it.  But that reward will never really belong to us.  We just took it.  However, when we fixate on the reason we come to work, if we fixate on simply being the best at what we do, we do not set out to best anyone else but ourselves. Fear, as a motivator, declines and confidence goes up. We are better able to take joy in the success of others and feel vastly more fulfilled when we are given something. 

This dynamic exists in almost every situation where we can "get" something.  We can take clients by beating our competitor's price, for example, or we can be given the business because the client feels more confident working with us regardless of the price.  In both cases we get the bonus, the promotion, the job or the business, but in only one case does it belong to us.

By the way, I noticed you don't have a pen...please, take mine.

Simply Doing Your Job Is Not Special

I saw this fantastic commercial for a car company that has an amazing new model.  It goes when you press the accelerator, it stops when hit the brake.  It's got another seat next to the driver and a big seat in the back for kids or friends or whomever wants to join you on your trip.  Here's the best part - you can travel between any two points you want - no bus stations, no waiting for a taxi - you can go directly from your home to work. Amazing right?!

Imagine if that's how car companies attempted to sell their products to us.  Not sure many of us would be that impressed.  We expect a product to do what it's supposed to do. Amazingly, so much advertising today, does just that -  they simply advertise what their product is supposed to do.  They advertise the category, not themselves.   A fast food company tells us their food tastes good.  A weight loss center says it will help you, you guessed it -  lose weight.  A gym says it will help you - wait for it, wait for it - get in shape. Cellphone companies tell us that their calls get through - isn't that a minimum standard?  And so on and so on....you get the idea.

Here are links for two commercials from the Super Bowl, Career Builder and Monster.com.  Both are very funny.  And both tell us nothing other than what we expect.  If you hate your job, we are a job posting site that will - that's right - help you find a better job.  Isn't that what they are supposed to do?  No one can remember any of the claims or that are supposed to distinguish one from the other. We expect them to both basically do what they say.  And neither does a very good job of telling us any more about why we need them beyond what we already know - to find a new job.  Sadly, this is the norm in marketing today.

I long for days when companies tell us what they believe, not simply what they do.  When they align themselves squarely with one point of view or one perspective, something to which I can relate.  Trying to appeal to everyone that may need what you sell often results in fewer people wanting what you sell...no matter how good you are.  Giving a few "differentiating" facts and figures is not enough either.  No one walks around with a score card to keep up with all the claims made in advertising.  For the most part, we to ignore them.  Monster, for example, offers some "differentiators" and Career Builder offers none.  Are any of us convinced Monster is better because of a couple of claims?

Few companies have the discipline to focus on a small group of higher quality customers that share their values and beliefs and instead aim for the lowest common denominator - those who just need what they sell.  I have to imagine that Career Builder is better for some people and Monster for others.  But, with no help from their advertising, none of us will ever know which is right for us.  But they will keep running their commercials and they will send me emails telling me how effective their advertising strategy has been.  And if you throw enough spaghetti against the wall, some if it is bound to stick.  "Good" advertising, however, is only throwing the spaghetti you know will stick. 

If You Want Your People To Perform, Don't Give Them Permission...Give Them Intent

David Marquet graduated at the top of his class from the Naval Academy.  After serving aboard submarines in the Atlantic and the Pacific, Captain Marquet finally earned something many officers dream of - his own command.  Marquet was handed the keys to one of the finest boats in America's fleet - the fast attack submarine, USS Santa Fe.  Stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, this was a great honor indeed. But there was a catch.  The crew Marquet inherited was the lowest performing crew in the US submarine fleet.

But it didn't stay that way.

In just a short period of time, things turned around.  A lot.  Very quickly Captain Marquet's submarine became the highest performing crew in the fleet.  Scoring the highest marks in a number of metrics, Marquet's crew went on to win a number of distinguished awards.

 All to often, those in leadership positions too quickly blame poor performance on the people around them.  That may be the true in some cases, but more likely than not, it's the leadership that failed to produce results.  In the case of Capt. Marquet, it was all about the leadership.  And what Marquet did was change the culture aboard his boat from one of permission to one of intent.

The Navy is a permission based culture.  Before a sailor performs any act he asks for permission.  For example, "permission to dive to 400 feet."  To which the captain will reply, "permission granted"  And the sailor will acknowledge the permission and perform the task, "Aye sir, diving to 400 feet."

Marquet completely did away with this.

Aboard his boat, his sailors didn't ask permission, they announced their intentions. "I intend to dive to 400 feet, sir."  The captain was still in charge and could still affirm or deny the intention.  The task was the same.  Everything that happened, in fact, was the same.  Except aboard Marquet's boat, every action was owned by the person performing the action.  He built in accountability.  And not in the traditional sense of setting a goal and a metric and making someone responsible for achieving that goal, but in a deeper, more personal sense.  The crew aboard the Santa Fe weren't just accountable for the results, they were accountable for their actions.

We don't think of businesses as permission based cultures, but they are.  Pay close attention how people talk to each other in status meetings or when they talk to their boss.  "What do you think we should do?"  Is a common question.  "Can I...?"  "Should I...?"  "What if I...." very often precede a thought someone has.  What if companies required all employees to announce their intention instead of passively asking permission?  Imagine a status meeting in which every person at the table explains their intentions not their plans.   "I intend to call this client to apologize for over charging them."  "I intend to get the website built by the end of the week."

Nothing at the superficial level changes.  The boss is still in charge.  The tasks are the same.  But everything changes in how people feel about their jobs.  With intent, psychologically every member of the team puts some proverbial skin in the game.  They are not just accountable to some arbitrary metric, they become accountable to themselves.  An employees ability to perform is now on their shoulders. 

Intend to try this and see what happens.  The effects are felt immediately.  And the results are profound.  David Marquet proved it.  With the same people, the same resources and the same tools, simply by allowing people to have intent instead of permission, you can completely turn the boat around.

"More" Is Not A Value Proposition

    In the 1970s, there were two choices of Colgate toothpaste.  The last time I checked, Colgate is now up to 32 different types of toothpaste.  With 32 options, I'm not sure anymore which one I should choose to get my teeth clean.  There is this rather odd assumption that companies have that more is better.  The problem with more, is that more is never enough. 

    The best example of companies trying to differentiate simply by offering more is in the razor blade business.  I still remember the commercials.  "Because two blades is better than one."  "Because three blades is better than two."  "Because four blades is best."  "Because five blades gives you a closer shave than four."  Companies like Gillette and Schick spend so much time and money trying to convince us that each blade they add is better, they forgot to do something that actually distinguishes one company from the other.  I ask all you who are reading this - which company is better? See what I mean.

    Value is not a see-saw.  A company and it's products either have the perception of value in a consumer's mind or they don't.  Simply by adding one more of something does not mean that there will be a sudden shift in loyalties simply because one manufacturer offers more than another.  More raisins.  More chocolate chips.  More taste. More destinations. More channels. More features. More, more, more.  More confusion is all it creates. 

    A real value proposition, one that can truly differentiate one company from another, is not pegged to the number of features offered.  A real value proposition is born out a company's ability to articulate what its values and beliefs are.  Believing they offer you a closer shave, is not a belief, it's simply what the product does.  And that is the root of the problem.  Too many companies believe that their value is defined simply by their products.  It's not.  Of course good quality products are important, but having the best does not guarantee everyone will fall in love with you.  There are countless examples of better products or technologies losing out to someone else.  Beta was better than VHS, VHS won.  TiVo is better than all the cable company DVRs, but TiVo has trouble selling its products.  XM and Sirius Satellite radio battled it out, each attempting to woo customers by offering more channels than the other.  The results were so miserable that they they gave up and decided to merge the companies into one.

    What if a razor company announced that they recognize that getting ready in the morning is something we all do, but for some, the requirement is more ritualistic.   What if this razor company said that it believed that we are all different and we should celebrate our rituals in the morning.  It believed in making razors that suited who we are as people.  A razor for the person who likes to wake up extra early in the morning so they can take their time getting ready.  Those razors are made to offer a slow shave.  And the shaving cream that goes with it has to be really lathered up so that it gets full and soft.  For those who are always running late, a razor that is great (and safe) when you're in a rush.  And special shaving cream that goes doesn't clog the razor (because that takes time).  It's entirely possible that all the razors only have two blades, but it's how the blades are mounted to suit you and your own ritual that matters more .  Unlike Colgate that just kept adding toothpastes or the razor companies that just kept adding more blades, my mythical company decided to fit its products into our lives, not just offer us better products.  In fact, if it wanted, it could decide to sell toothbrushes and toothpaste to match your ritual.  And soap.  And towels.  The list goes on.  The value we'd have from these products is not that there is more of one ingredient.  It's not the addition of features and benefits.  The company is now differentiating itself because their products suit me and my lifestyle.

   The success of Method brand products proves this.  Are their soaps better?  Do they kill more germs?  Does their dish washing liquid cut more grease?  Who knows.  They could be worse for all we know, but the packaging looks good in our kitchens and bathrooms.  And for those who care about design, that matters to us...even more than more.  Method, more than other companies has the ability to sell products the others can't.  They sell hand soap and leather cleaner, for example.  Would you buy leather cleaner from Dove?  Of course not, we'd only by soap from a soap company.

    I'm not suggesting that any company can differentiate simply by offering pretty things.  I'm suggesting, however, that when companies start thinking about how they fit into the lives of their customers and not just thinking about themselves and their products, they might find something more might happen.  They'll have more loyal customers and they will make more money.  And that's real value.

 

Why So Many Successions Don't Succeed

There were three words missing from Bill Gates’ goodbye speech when he officially left Microsoft in July of this year.  They are three words he probably doesn’t even realize need to be there.  Three little words:

“I’ll be back.”

After abdicating his role as the head of Microsoft to Steve Balmer in 2000, Bill Gates has completely relinquished influence over the company he built so he can lend more time and energy to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  But Gates forgot to do one thing that would allow his plan to work. This one oversight could have a devastating impact on Microsoft and will require him to come back in 3 to 5 years to right the ship.

 Bill Gates is special.  Not because of his brain or his management style.  Though important, those two things alone are not the formula for building a multi-billion dollar corporation from scratch.  Like all visionary leaders, Bill Gates is special because he physically embodies what he believes.

When Gates founded Microsoft just over 30 years ago, he did so to advance a higher cause.  A noble purpose.  He believes that technology is the great equalizer.  Give people the right tools, make people more productive, and everyone, no matter their lot in life, will have an opportunity to achieve their real potential.  “A PC in every home and on every desk,” he envisioned (which is remarkable from a company that didn’t make PCs).  He saw the PC as the great equalizer. Microsoft’s most successful software, Windows, allowed anyone to have access to powerful technology. Tools like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, gave everyone the power to realize the promise of the new technology – to become more efficient and productive.  Small businesses, for example, could look and act like big businesses.  Microsoft’s software are the tools that helped Gates advance his cause to empower the “every man.”  It was Gates who is responsible for the advancement of personal computer.  Gates put a PC on every desk and in doing so he changed the world. 

Gates is important to Microsoft because he physically embodies his vision.  He is the “every man.”  He dresses like you and me.  He drives his own car.  He is understated.  He his not flamboyant with his wealth. Bill Gates is the original vision of Microsoft.

So what happens now that he’s gone?

Such a departure is not without precedent among companies with equally visionary leaders.  Steve Jobs, a man who personifies the notion of challenging the status quo, who is the physical embodiment of “Think Different,” left Apple in 1985 to start Next.  He left the company in the hands of a capable executive, Pepsi’s John Scully.  The problem was, Scully ran the company as a business and not as a tool to achieve a higher purpose.  The company thrived on Jobs’s fumes for a few years and then it started to falter.  Not until Job’s return in 1996 did Apple reinstate it’s power for innovation, for thinking different and to, once again, redefine industries.

Michael Dell had a cause.  One he didn’t effectively communicate before he stepped down as CEO in July, 2004.  And when the company started to weaken with him gone, he came back in fewer than 3 years.  In 2000 Howard Schultz resigned as CEO of Starbucks.  And for the first time in it’s history, Starbucks started to crack.  Schultz returned in 2007 to put things right. 

Jobs, Dell, Schultz and Gates are not God’s gift to management.  Their companies are thousands of people deep and they alone can’t pull all the strings or push all the buttons to make everything work properly.  They rely on the brains and the management skills of teams of people.  In this respect, they are no different from any other executive.  But what they all have in common, something not all CEOs have, is that they physically embody the cause around which they built their companies.  Their mere existence reminds every executive and every employee why they show up to work.  Put simply: they inspire. 

Like Bill Gates, these inspired leaders failed to properly articulate their cause in words that others could rally around.  And as a result, they are the only ones who could lead their movement.  But they still have the same challenge – what happens when they leave again? 

  

The best thing Dell, Schultz and Jobs can do while they are back is to make sure that everyone knows why the company was founded in the first place.  What’s the cause they are there to champion?  What movement are they leading?  Why should anyone care? 

Schultz hasn’t done it yet. He is back at Starbucks talking about coffee.  There aren’t many employees at Starbucks who are truly inspired by coffee.  In fact, if you go back to the history of Starbucks, it wasn’t even coffee that originally excited Schultz, it was opening coffee shops.  It was the vision of building a space between work and home that allowed Starbucks to single-handedly drive a coffee-shop culture in the United States. Talking about coffee will not re-energize employees at Starbucks and it will not drive innovation.  And, more importantly, it will not prepare the company for when Schultz leaves again.  Schultz needs to refocus the company around the coffee shop experience, not the product they serve.

Gates made the same mistake.  As the company grew, he stopped talking about what he believed and how he was going to change the world and started talking about what the company was doing.  Microsoft changed.  Founded as a company that believed in making people more productive so they could achieve their highest potential they became a company that simply made software products.  Such a seemly subtle change impacts behaviors.  It alters decisions.  And it impacts how a company structures itself for the future.  Though Microsoft has changed since its founding, the impact was not as dramatic because at least Bill Gates was there, the physical embodiment of the cause that inspired his executives and employees.
But now he’s gone.

Gates left to do something else that also embodies his cause – to use the Gates Foundation to help people around the world wake up everyday to achieve their potential.  The only difference is he’s not doing with software anymore.  Steve Balmer, a smart man by all accounts, does not physically embody Gates’ vision of the world.  Balmer is not seen as a humble man.  He is not “one of us.”  He has an image as a powerful executive who sees numbers and not people.  Like John Scully at Apple, Jim Donald at Starbucks and Kevin Rollins at Dell – all the CEOs who replaced the visionary founders – Balmer might be the perfect man to work alongside a visionary but is he the perfect man to replace one?  The entire culture of all these companies was built around one man’s vision.  The only succession plan that will work is to find a CEO who believes in and wants to continue to lead that movement, not replace it with their own vision of the future. Balmer knows how to rally the company but can he inspire it? 

Successful succession is more than selecting someone with an appropriate skill set, it’s about finding someone who is in lock-step with the original cause around which the company was founded.  Great second or third CEOs don’t take the helm to implement their own vision of the future, they pick up the original banner and lead the company into the next generation.  That’s why we call it succession, not replacement.  There is a continuity of vision.

Gates’ departure from Microsoft is no different from the founder/CEO departures at Starbucks, Dell and Apple.  If Microsoft does not clearly articulate the cause around which the company was built, then no matter who takes over, Gates will have to come back in 3 to 5 years.  Like the other examples, he will need to return to remind everyone the cause by simply being Bill.  If that cause is not clearly articulated and if Gates doesn’t come back, then Microsoft probably only has about 5-7 good years left before it starts to look like AOL, Netscape or Yahoo – other once-mighty forces who, after the vision left with their respective founders, floundered about only to become irrelevant in the long-term shaping of an economy.

Have fun in Africa Bill and see you in a few years.


This piece also appeared in The Huffington Post.

Find Your Dream Job

What makes a perfect job?

Is it the amount of money they pay you?  Is it the great benefits package?  Or is it something else?

We all know that there is more to a great job than how much we get paid - but how do you find that great job.

Here's an interview I did with Ariane, author and found of first30days - an organization dedicated to inspire people find the positive in their lives and navigate the change to get there.

Here's the interview:

And here's a link to Ariane's book:

The Battered-Wife Customer Service Model

I saw a TV interview  with Dave Barger, JetBlue's current CEO, on which he answered some passenger questions.  One passenger asked why the airline was charging for pillows and blankets.  Barger's reply?  He said that although JetBlue was charging for those amenities, every passenger also got a leather seat and 36 free channels of live TV.

I couldn't believe my ears.  JetBlue, the symbol of how an airline is supposed to treat customers had changed strategies.  It seemed they are now opting for the "battered-wife" customer service model.  It's akin to when a battered wife asks her abusive husband why he beats her and he replies, "What are you talking about?  I put food on the table and provide a roof over your head." 

When a customer complains about something, the appropriate response is to explain the circumstances or apologize.  Offering a "counter argument" completely misses the point and ignores an opportunity to do right by your customer.  Complaints are a cry for help!

A legitimate customer service complaint had been raised to the most senior executive in the company to which the best answer he could muster was a memorized boiler plate of product features.  Did I miss something?  When did American Airlines buy JetBlue?

When a company says they "promise" to do something, that's a pretty weighty commitment.  Uphold that promise and your customers will give you a lifetime of loyalty, even if you screw up now and then.  Violate that promise and you can quickly destroy any sense of authenticity you may have built.  Worse, you quickly find yourself looking and sounding exactly like everyone else.

JetBlue used to serve as a prime example of exactly how to treat customers.  They were teaching the old boys that it's how you treat people not just the degrees of pitch your seat reclines that really matters.  Sadly, since the departure of JetBlue founder David Neeleman, JetBlue are starting to act and sound like everyone else.  Sadly, JetBlue is now teaching us a very different lesson about customer service.

JetBlue says the reason they exist is "to provide superior service in every aspect of our customer's air travel experience."  They even offer a bill of rights which includes being honest about a situation.  David Neeleman, JetBlue's founder and former CEO stood out among CEOs in and out of the airline business for his willingness to be honest.  After JetBlue suffered serious service problems during a big winter storm in 2007 (hundreds of passengers were left stranded on planes for 6 or more hours), Neeleman went on national TV and said, "we screwed up."  It was that kind of honesty which endears customers.  The JetBlue board ousted Neeleman three months later preferring the leadership style of Dave Barger, JetBlue's former COO. 

In an age in which too many companies opt for the battered-wife customer service model, JetBlue really did seem to believe in humanity.  Neeleman maintained a blog (or flight log, as he called it), the current CEO does not.  JetBlue used to have one class of service aboard their aircraft - we are all equal, we are all human - they professed.  Now, however, JetBlue allows you to pay a little more money to get a little more legroom.  I hate to be the one who points out the obvious but that's a class (though I concede, there is no curtain). 

With or without Neeleman at the helm, honesty and humanity should still prevail at JetBlue.  Barger simply had to explain that the oil crisis had put tremendous pressure on the airline and it pained them to have to nickle and dime their customers but it was either that or suffer much more serious set backs.  All he had to do was appeal to the humanity of their customers to work with them in this time of need.

There are many advantages to not making any promises to your customers.  For one, you have more flexibility.  Secondly, it's much easier to meet low expectations.  The disadvantages include vastly reduced customer loyalty (different from repeat business) and little opportunity to differentiate.  Making a promise and operating your business based on Why your company exists means you hold yourself to higher standards.  You have to be less flexible because you'll need to opt for what's right not for what's most profitable or most expedient sometimes.  But the benefits include greater long term value and much more loyalty and support from customers, even when you're not operating at your best.

I'm just sad to see one of the few companies who believed in customer first start to show signs of cracking.