Robert Dickie CEO Newswire

A Thoughtful Failure Isn't Bad

I heard this quote from a speaker talking to a group of business leaders in Detroit. “People will tolerate your conclusions and act on their own. If you have a culture of “change of the month” they will not take your new changes seriously.” This really hit home. All businesses have to change and adapt to the new market forces that are affecting the economy right now. As the old adage goes you should “measure twice and cut once.” Some business are moving fast, making solid quick changes to position their business to be successful while others are keeping their head in the sand and changing nothing. One would think that not changing is the worst thing you could do. However, this speaker felt that changing too quickly and too often was actually worst. There is an important balance one must strike.

When I think of change I think of “thoughtful failure.” Hopefully, the change is thought out, planned, discussed and then once implemented watched for its results. If it is a failure you can mark this up as a “thoughtful failure” as you tried something new to gain a new result.  If the results were not what you were hoping for you go back to the drawing board to get better. This is part of the PDCA loop or Plan, Do, Check, Adjust (productive loop) that many learn about.

Thoughtful failure is good.  Given the choice I am sure we all would prefer not to fail but this isn't realistic.  If you are pushing yourself and your company you can expect failures.  That is part of the growing process.  I have heard some people say "if you aren't failing you aren't trying hard enough."  This is how we learn and improve over time.  In this economy everyone is making adjustments whether it be with personal or business operations. Don’t be afraid of making a change. Just make sure you have thought about it, studied it, and know what your desired outcome is from this change and then take the time to review the results. A thoughtful failure can be one of the most important growing experiences for us personally and as a business. In business, be careful your “change culture” is not too excessive.

Seth Godin on why continued learning is important...

This is a great post by Seth Godin. The link to his site is highlighted below.  This is one of the few blogs I read everyday. Enjoy!

Learning all the time

My post on possible uses of education struck a chord with people. Different people are looking for different outcomes.

The first implication of this list: why did you stop educating yourself when you graduated?

Not you, of course. You read blogs and by that action demonstrate that you're looking for something new, or useful, or important.

I'm fascinated by the way the marketplace treats non-fiction books, particularly business books. The most popular business book of all time was purchased by less than 3% of all the people who could benefit from it, and read by a tiny fraction of that group. I'm guessing that less than 10% of the people who read this blog have read one of my books.

Books remind us of school, of chores, of homework. Give someone a DVD of a hit movie currently in the theaters and they'll eagerly thank you and watch it that weekend. Give them a book and it's a whole commotion. "I read that book!" they brag to you next week, when maybe they didn't really.

 Which leads to The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, which is a shortcut in the best sense of the word. Not some sort of prurient blog list designed to draw traffic, the book actually makes you sound smart because the authors tell you what each book says... so you can get back to your DVD.

 The #1 habit successful people share with me is this: They read books to learn. They do it often and with joy. It's cheap (or free, at the library or online) and portable and specific. Jack and Todd's book might be a good place to start the habit.

Excellent blog post today by Seth Godin!

What are you good at? By: Seth Godin As you consider marketing yourself for your next gig, consider the difference between process and content. Content is domain knowledge. People you know or skills you've developed. Playing the piano or writing copy about furniture sales. A rolodex of movers in a given industry, or your ability to compute stress ratios in your head. Domain knowledge is important, but it's (often) easily learnable. Process, on the other hand, refers to the emotional intelligence skills you have about managing projects, visualizing success, persuading other people of your point of view, dealing with multiple priorities, etc. This stuff is insanely valuable and hard to learn. Unfortunately, it's usually overlooked by headhunters and HR folks, partly because it's hard to accredit or check off in a database. Venture capitalists like hiring second or third time entrepreneurs because they understand process, not because they can do a spreadsheet. As the world changes ever faster, as industries shrink and others grow, process ability is priceless. Figure out which sort of process you're world-class at and get even better at it. Then, learn the domain... that's what the internet is for. One of the reasons that super-talented people become entrepreneurs is that they can put their process expertise to work in a world that often undervalues it.

Seth Godin speaks on idea diffusion...how do you make your idea SPREAD?

The sad lie of mediocrity...by Seth Godin

I really enjoyed this insight from author Seth Godin. This is a post I thought everyone should see. If you would like to read his blog daily here is his link.
The sad lie of mediocrity

Doing 4% less does not get you 4% less.

Doing 4% less may very well get you 95% less.

That's because almost good enough gets you nowhere. No sales, no votes, no customers. The sad lie of mediocrity is the mistaken belief that partial effort yields partial results. In fact, the results are usually totally out of proportion to the incremental effort.

Big organizations have the most trouble with this, because they don't notice the correlation. It's hidden by their momentum and layers of bureaucracy. So a mediocre phone rep or a mediocre chef may not appear to be doing as much damage as they actually are.

The flip side of this is that when you are at the top, the best in the world, the industry leader, a tiny increase in effort and quality can translate into huge gains. For a while, anyway.

What is a key to be a resilient company?

When I read this I thought it had to be highlighted as quote of the day.

"To be resilient, an organization must dramatically reduce the time it takes to go from 'that can't be true' to 'we must face the world as it is." Havard Business Review Oct 2008

Maybe it is becuase I have dealt with a company or two who did not seem to grasp this principle that made this quote resonate with me. I learned a long time ago that ignoring problems do not make them go away, they just get bigger and harder to deal with. Ignoring the facts in business or trying to spin them carries the same fate. In the end, you always have to deal with the truth and it is much better to do it from the start than to delay the inevitable.

You can stick your head in the sand and ignore your problems...

...or you can stare them in the face and deal with it head on.

DNA of Good Decisions

I received Executive Leadership today in the mail and this next passage was on page two and I thought it was something I should post for our readers. For those of you who may not have read Jim Collins book Good to Great I highly recommend it. This passage was adapted from Jim Collins book Jim Collins on Tough Calls by Jerry Useem, Fortune.

After combing through 14 years of research, here's what Good to Great author Jim Collins says about the art of making decisions:

1) Great decisions come from saying "I don't know." Collins asks: "Which is best? Saying you don't know when you've already made up your mind? Or presuming to know when you don't and, therefore, lying to yourself? Or speaking the truth, which is: "I don't yet know?"

2) The higher the questions/statements ratio, the better. The best leaders Collins studied did the best job at igniting debate using Socratic questions. As for himself: "I tried to make heroes out of those on my team who identified flaws in my thinking," Collins says. "At the next meeting, I might say: "I really want to give Leigh....credit. She really pushed my thinking, and I wasn't looking at this right."

3) Deciding is not about consensus. Debate can be "violent," but in the end, the leader makes the call. "No major decision we've studied was ever taken at a point of unanimous agreement," Collins says.

4) Great decisions come from external awareness. Fabulous organizations are internally driven but externally aware.

5) Even huge decisions decide only a tiny fraction of the outcome. "The big decisions are not like 60 of 100 points," Collins says. They're more like a six of 100 points. And there's a whole bunch of others that are like 0.6 or 0.006."

6) Think long term. Real leaders manage for the quarter-century not the quarter.

7) You can make mistakes -even big ones- and prevail. What a relief!

Do you have any points you would add to this list?

What Makes A Great Entrepreneur?

Over the past few weeks I have had a number of interesting conversations on the topic of entrepreneurship. One conversation in particular had me jotting down notes quickly on a napkin in a restaurant as a friend and I shared some ideas on what makes a great entrepreneur. What is the DNA of that type of person? Are there certain characteristics that can be developed overtime? What type of mental mindset is required to start your own company, head up a new venture and set out on your own? I have been compiling some of these ideas to share with the readers of this blog and happened to pick up the book “The Millionaire Next Door” and some key points in this book are right in line with what my friend was sharing with me. This is a great book by the way and I highly encourage all of you to pick it up. I think it will be well worth your time.

I will be posting my thoughts on this blog within the next few days. However, if you have any thoughts or insights of your own feel free to share them with me using the comment link right below this article and I will highlight your thoughts and comments in my post in the next few days. Thanks for your participation!

Building a Competitive Company

There is nothing I enjoy more than reading about great leaders from various industries to see how they lead, create, collaborate, and define their business market. Insight into the mind of Carlos Brito, CEO of InBev NV, can be summed up in this one quote, “To dream big or dream small takes the same amount of energy. So why not stretch a little bit?”

What a profound statement when you think about it. You can read the entire article about Carlos Brito that is titled InBev’s Chief Built Competitive Culture by Matt Moffett in the June 13, 2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal. It is a short article but packed with incredible information by Mr. Moffett.

I think the following passages written by Matt Moffett really give insight into how Carlos Brito leads and what makes InBev NV, different from its competition.

“The key to InBev’s success-and one explanation for the occasional controversies it has found itself in is a MERITOCRATIC (emphasis mine) culture in which performance incentives and cost cutting are given prime importance.”

Matt Moffett from the Wall Street Journal goes on to write, “Mr. Brito works at a table, set up like a brokerage trading desk, surrounded by his vice presidents. “I sit with my marketing guy on my left, my sales guy on my right, and my finance guy in front of me,” he told the Stanford audience. As a result, he says, the company can make decisions very quickly and save money that other companies spend on the trappings of corporate power. We always say the leaner the business the more money we have at the end of the year to share” he added, referring to the generous InBev bonus system.”

Finally Matt closes out the article with this telling passage. “Part of the Brazilian way is creating a competitive atmosphere with bonuses and promotions based on performance rather than seniority. “In our company we think that to be fair with people is to treat different people in different ways,” Mr. Brito said at Stanford. Mr. Brito told the Stanford audience that out of InBev’s 85,000 employees 200 to 250 “are the ones who make a difference.” He said InBev is unapologetic about giving special treatment to the difference makers.”

Wow! That is so true. Many corporate leaders would be afraid to speak clearly like that in fear they would upset or disenfranchise the rest of the company. I know there are a couple companies here in the United States that could use some of this type of common sense leadership and a performance based structure put in place instead of a seniority system. Mr. Brito wasn’t afraid of any disenfranchisement of his other 85,000 employees by letting them know that there were 200- 250 key people who really make that company run and that those people earned the right to be treated different. If you think about it those 85,000 employees should be happy and excited that they have great leadership and performers in the company that are helping it grow and be competitive in the market place. By attracting and retaining that talent they are ensuring future growth and profitability for the company from which they all benefit from. That is a true meritocracy…by your performance you should be rewarded and recognized and those type of systems are a benefit for everyone in the company. The Team handles issues like this with our own formula driven profit sharing plan that was developed by Orrin Woodward and our board.

Just last week I spoke with a friend who said that he was looking at leaving a major automotive company and putting his resume in around the country. He said there was a mass exodus of the most talented people in the company and he saw the writing on the wall. When your best people are leaving what does that tell you? How long can a company survive when its top IT, engineers, marketing, and design people all decide it is in their best interest to leave? All you have to do is watch the leadership of any company to see how it is doing.

The issue of top leaders leaving companies is something that is being noticed. Rich Karlgaard quotes in the June 30, 2008 edition of Forbes Magazine, "A 2005 McKinsey & Company study suggests that leading companies - top quintile performers in their industries as measured by revenue, profit, and market share - fall out of leadership at a rate that is three times greater than it was 30 years ago. Thank (or blame) technology, entrepreneurship, free-flowing capital and globalism." Once the leaders start to leave, you better start asking questions. Our chairman, Orrin Woodward has made it publically clear why he left a former business he participated in and his reasons were very similar to what my friend was saying about this automotive company. When companies lead the right way and retain this talent it will promote growth and future stability.

Our policy council and the executives at Team continually strive to maintain quick reaction times when change is needed. The continual cost cutting measures we have been able to achieve over the past few years have allowed us to increase service and quality of our products while at the same time reducing the price to our customers. Orrin Woodward and our policy council has also engineered a very aggressive performance based profit sharing system to instill a “meritocracy” within our company. This article validates our efforts and motivates us to continually improve service to our customers while lowering our prices. We have a lot more work to do but everyone on the leadership Team is excited about the challenge.

If at First You Don't Succeed, You're in Excellent Company

This is a great article from the Wall Street Journal that I thought everyone would enjoy. Never give up on your goals and dreams!

Wallstreet Journal
If at First You Don’t Succeed, You’re in Excellent Company
By Melinda Beck

In her new autobiography, “Home”, Julie Andrews tells of taking a screen test for MGM studios when she was 12 years old. “They needed to gussy me up a bit because I was so exceedingly plain,” she writes. “The final determination was ‘She’s not photogenic enough for film.’”

J.K. Rowling’s book about a boy wizard was rejected by 12 publishers before a small London house picked up “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” Decca Records turned down a contract with the Beatles, saying “We don’t like their sound.” Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor who said he “lacked imagination.” Michael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity basketball team sophomore year.

What makes some people rebound from defeats and go on to greatness while others throw in the towel? Psychologists call it “self efficacy”, the unshakable belief some people have that they have what it takes to succeed. First described by Stanford University psychologist Albert Bandura in the 1970’s, self efficacy has become a key concept in educational circles, and is being applied to health care, management, sports and seemingly intractable social problems like AIDS in developing countries. It’s also a hallmark of the “positive psychology” movement now sweeping the mental-health field, which focuses on developing character strengths rather than alleviating pathologies.

Self-efficacy differs from self esteem in that it’s a judgment of specific capabilities rather than a general feeling of self-worth. “It’s easy to have high self-esteem-just aim low,” says Prof. Bandura, who is still teaching at Stanford at age 82. On the other hand, he notes, there are people with high self-efficacy who “drive themselves hard but have low self-esteem because their performance always falls short of their high standards.”

Still, such people succeed because they believe that persistent effort will let them beat the odds.

Sometimes, the rest of the world just hasn’t caught up with an innovator’s genius. Prof. Bandura points out that one of the original Warner Brothers said of sound films, “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were rebuffed by Atari Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. when they tried to sell an early Apple computer. And sometimes genius itself needs time. It took Thomas Edison 1,000 tries before he invented the light bulb. (“I didn’t fail 1,000 times” he told a reporter. “The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”)

Where does such determination come from? In some cases it’s inborn optimism-akin to the kind of resilience that enables some children to emerge unscathed from extreme poverty, tragedy or abuse. Self-efficacy can also be built by mastering a task; by modeling the behavior of others who have succeeded; and from what Prof. Bandura calls “verbal persuasion” –getting effective encouragement, distinct from empty praise.

“I teach teachers here, and one of the things we teach them is how to build up children who have been told they aren’t competent,” says Frank Pajares, a professor of education at Emory University who has adapted self-efficacy to nurture academic confidence.

It’s not too late to recover. “You can develop a resilient mind-set at any age,” says Robert Brooks, a Harvard Medical School psychologist who has studied resilience for decades.

One key, he says, is to avoid self-defeating assumptions. If you are fired or dumped by a girlfriend, don’t magnify the rejection and assume you’ll never get another job or another date.

And don’t allow a rejection to derail your dreams. “One of the greatest impediments to life is the fear of humiliation,” says Prof. Brooks, who says he’s worked with people who have spent the last 30 years of their lives not taking any risks because they are afraid of making mistakes.

What if you really do lack the talent to succeed at what you’re trying to do? That’s a tricky question, psychologists’ say-one that’s on display in the early episodes of “American Idol” each season.

Try to objectively assess how much you are likely to improve with training and hard work, and how much it’s worth to you, or whether there are other ways to enjoy your passion-being a coach instead of a player, for instance.

On the other hand, what if Dr. Suess had given up after his 27th rejection and not tried once more? In the words of Henry Ford: “Whether you think that you can or you can’t, you’re usually right.”