Re:Focus

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

"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.