Archive for the 'Future thinking' Category

Do you prefer achievement or success?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on May 9, 2013
in Entrepreneurship, Future thinking and Start-up
. 0 Comments

What’s the difference between success and achieve? Webster is unable to define either word without the other.

If there’s no difference, why don’t we use achieve more to describe wealth, fame, status, credentials, etc.? Perhaps it’s because success is a noun and achieve is a verb, and nouns are handier than verbs.

But grammar isn’t the only reason success is more popular. Even achievement, the noun cousin of achieve, isn’t as preferred when describing accomplishment.

Perhaps early on, success just had better PR than achievement. Today success is synonymous with celebrating at the finish line, holding the trophy or the check, while achievement has more of a work and effort connotation. But don’t you have more memories of the journey of work and effort toward your goals than of the high fives at the end?

Legendary actress, Helen Hayes (1900-1993), said, “Always strive for achievement; forget about success.” But are there benefits to focusing more on the virtues of achievement? My friend, Dr. Gene Griessman says there are.

In his audiotape, “The Path to High Achievement,” Griessman identifies common characteristics of high achievement and how they’re in evidence long before anyone flourishes a checkered flag. Here are five of those characteristics, each followed by my thoughts.

1. The power of self-knowledge.
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses may be the most important characteristic to seeking excellence. High achievers regularly critique themselves and make adjustments.

2. Time consciousness.
Like soybeans or gold, time is a commodity. And although not traded in any market, any billionaire will tell you that time is more precious than gold. High achievers don’t waste time.

3. Persistence.
Stick-to-itiveness is a real word and a handy noun coined in 1884, meaning dogged perseverance. High achievers personify stick-to-itiveness.

4. The power of decision.
Indecision is the Kryptonite of achievement. History has shown that an army with a poor battle plan boldly executed can defeat a greater force tentatively deployed.

5. Learn from mistakes.
No one likes failure, but high achievers recognize the value of setbacks and actually leverage them in the quest for excellence. Failure is the abiding harness mate of achievement, and high-achievers expect to always be hitched to both.

No one lives their life in the winner’s circle. Strive for success, but focus on achievement.

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Check out my latest segment on The Small Business Advocate® Show about why achievement isn’t used to describe accomplishment more than success? I talk about the similarity and differences between success and achievement, and to recommend thinking more about the latter. Click the link below to listen!

Offering evidence in praise of achievement

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Are you practicing Age of the Customer prospecting rules?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on February 26, 2013
in Entrepreneurship, Future thinking and The Age of the Customer
. 0 Comments

As described here previously, control of the three primary elements of the business relationship has shifted as the Age of the Seller is being replaced by the Age of the Customer. The buying decision and access to information about how to make that decision are now controlled by the customer, leaving sellers with control of just the product.

This shift has created many disruptions, especially with entrenched Age of the Seller sales practices, but perhaps none more than business-to-business prospecting. Here are four facets to this prospecting shift:

  1. The expectation of buyers meeting with vendors as a daily course of business is over.
  2. After 10,000 years of needing a salesperson to provide information to make a decision, buyers are acquiring much of that information on their own online.
  3. Prospects are now self-qualifying themselves, and then pre-qualify prospective vendors they choose to meet with, perhaps as few as two, or even just one.
  4. Prospects are essentially ruling competitors in or out before first contact, often before the business knows the prospect even exists.

Prospects like this new empowerment because it saves time, contributes to their decision-making journey, and reduces contact with uncompetitive and irrelevant vendors. Consequently, getting in front of a prospect for a first meeting, which once was almost automatic, now requires addressing the following new Age of the Customer rules of prospecting.

  1. Prospects require a higher level of introduction before granting a sales call.
  2. Prospect research must be conducted.
  3. Networking – in person and online – is essential.
  4. Prospect development and nurturing must be practiced with patience and a dialed down sense of urgency.
  5. With competitiveness now assumed, being relevant is the new differentiator.
  6. Contribute first, contract second.
  7. Relevance and values must be demonstrated.

Even the best salesperson, who will still need every classic selling skill to close the sale, is useless if he or she can’t get in front of the prospect before the buying decision has been made.

Companies that expect to meet sales goals now have to put as much, if not more, emphasis and resources on training, equipping, budgeting, measuring, and perhaps even compensating salespeople for the prospecting disciplines of the Age of the Customer.

Which age is your sales organization prospecting in?

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On my website I have a section dedicated to The Age of The Customer™. Go there for interviews, articles and videos related to The Age of The Customer™.

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Plan for success while operating for survival

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 31, 2013
in Business planning and Future thinking
. 0 Comments

Blasingame’s 2nd Law of Small Business states: It’s redundant to say “under-capitalized small business.”

Growing small businesses operate in the narrow danger zone between the leading edge and the bleeding edge of the marketplace. And since our capital reserves and options are limited, every small business CEO makes decisions every day that are at once as much about survival as success.

Operate for Survival
Here are four “operate for survival” things to do that will serve you well this year, followed by four “plan for success” ideas.

1. Cash used to be King, today it’s the Emperor. Ask employees to find and cut waste. Get them involved in reviewing operational processes and eliminate or tighten up inefficient ones. What’s their motivation? How about job security? Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.

2. Stay close to accounts receivables and cash management. Many tasks can and should be delegated, but in a small business, whether you’re growing or just holding on, cash management is not one of them.

3. Declare war on excess inventory. Inventory is cash you can’t spend until a customer pays for it. Practice Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory management, not just-in-case.

4. Stay close to customers. This isn’t complicated: Ask customers what they want and then give it to them. We’re in the Age of the Customer – know your customers’ expectations.

Plan for Success
Since opportunities will present themselves over the next year, here are four “plan for success” thoughts to consider as you take risks:

1. Eyes wide open. The marketplace we’re entering is going to look different than last year. That means opportunities – and threats – will look different, too.

2. Measure twice, cut once. Before taking a big growth step, apply the carpenter’s rule. Don’t scrimp on due diligence: check your assumptions, recheck your assumptions and then proceed with the best information you have, which might tell you to stop.

3. Mistakes are expensive. Can your capital picture support inevitable mistakes and/or surprises? Remember, there is a very fine line separating opportunity at the leading edge and the cash-eating bleeding edge.

4. Make your banker your partner. Keep him or her informed whether the news is good or bad – especially the bad. Remember this: An uninformed banker is a scared banker and no one ever got any help out of a scared banker.

Successful small business CEOs operate for survival while planning for success.

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I talked more about how to operate for survival while planning for success this week on The Small Business Advocate Show. Click here to listen or download.

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Jim’s 2013 crystal ball predictions

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on December 31, 2012
in Economy: National and Global and Future thinking
. 0 Comments

Here are my 2013 predictions. Buckle up, especially if you suffer from triskaidekaphobia.

Prediction: Whether before or after January 1, the political class will claim “fiscal cliff” avoidance, but the unleadership product will be more postponement than policy.

Prediction: The two dominant factors in the 2013 economy will both be government-created headwinds: tax increases and Obamacare.

Prediction: Small business uncertainty as a decision-making factor, now worse than during the Carter administration (according to NFIB), will continue for the fifth consecutive year and produce the following specific behaviors:

  • Continued reluctance to hire full-time employees.
  • Capital investment more for maintenance than growth.
  • Continued bank loan demand below recovery levels.

Prediction: The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index has been recorded below 93 points 58 times since 1973, with 34 of those in Obama’s first term. There will be more in 2013.

Prediction: Chronic unemployment and persistent under-employment (U6) will continue due to the following factors:

  • Small business’s ability to adopt technology as a productivity alternative to hiring.
  • Obamacare’s compliance floor of 50 full-time employees.

Prediction: The unemployment rate (U3) will remain above 7%.

Prediction: U.S. GDP in 2013 will remain moribund, below 3%.

Prediction: For the first time in history, the national debt will exceed GDP, putting the U.S. on a short but ignominious list that includes Greece.

Prediction: The U.S. credit rating will be reduced for the second time in history during the Obama presidency.

Prediction: State insurance exchanges, structural platforms for Obamacare, will not be ready for the 2014 launch.

Prediction: The 2014 Obamacare “guaranteed issue” mandate will artificially cause increases in 2013 health insurance premiums.

Prediction: Israel will be under more regional pressure, and able to count on less global support, than ever in its modern history.

Prediction: While feckless and fecklesser - the U.S. and the U.N - watch, Iran will take the world across a nuclear Rubicon.

Prediction: At a price too great, the Newtown tragedy will create a comprehensive national conversation on violence in our culture, not just more gun laws.

Prediction: Alabama will defeat Notre Dame in the BCS Championship game in Miami.

Alas, 2013 is shaping up to make us think of the Mel Brooks movie, “High Anxiety.” Just the title; not the comedy.

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Ask the owner of your business where it’s going

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on December 17, 2012
in Future thinking and Management Fundamentals
. 0 Comments

Do you know where your small business is going next year?

The best way to find this answer is to ask your business’s owner. But do you know the right questions to ask yourself in order to increase your ability to accomplish next year’s business goals?

To help you get started, here are five questions proposed by John Dini, one of the top management experts I know. Following John’s questions, I’ve added my thoughts to give you a little jump-start.

Question One: How much sales revenue do we want to achieve next year?
If you want to grow, it all starts with driving the top line on the profit and loss statement (P&L). How does your prior sales performance, organizational capability and ability to grow customer relationships support your new sales projections?

Question Two: What gross profit goal do we need to achieve to accomplish our operating goals?
Gross profit is sales revenue minus cost of goods sold (COGS), and it’s what covers operating expenses on the way to net profit. Be sure to align this goal with your new sales projection, because increasing revenue at the expense of gross profit is a fool’s errand.

Question Three: What are the most important things we can do to achieve this performance?
Better marketing? More advertising? Better sales training? Staff changes? New products? Better online capability? Expand market penetration? Start with the one that looks the most like low-hanging fruit and proceed from there.

Question Four: How should my own role in the company change in the coming year?
Each year, every business owner should fire themselves from jobs they no longer have to do and promote themselves to new jobs only they can do. Delegation and professional growth is the key to management success and ultimately, business performance.

Question Five: What is the most desirable personal goal I would like to make for myself?
If a genie gave you one wish to make your personal life more fulfilling, what would it be? More family? More golf? More bridge? More fishing? More whatever-the-heck-I-want-to-do-whenever-I-want-to-do-it? You’ll be a better manager with healthy outside interests.

Of course, these aren’t the only questions – just good ones to start with. Our job – John Dini and me – is to help you climb out of the trenches long enough to ask the owner of your business where it’s going.

Ask yourself these, and any other questions you think of. Then write down the answers and make it happen.

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On The Small Business Advocate Show I regularly talk with John Dini, founder and operator of the most successful peer group franchise in North America, overseeing 15 monthly meetings of business owners’ groups under the auspices of The Alternative Board®, about growing your business - and your employees. Click on one of the links below to listen to our conversations on starting the New Year off right.

Starting the New Year off successfully

How can you grow revenue and profits?

Evaluating your role as the leader of your business

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Recapping Jim’s 12th annual predictions, his results and score

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on December 4, 2012
in Future thinking
. 0 Comments

Here are my 2012 predictions, what happened and my score.

Prediction: U.S. GDP will improve from 1.7% in 2011 to 2%.
Actual: The most recent Dept. of Commerce report has 2012 GDP at 2%. +1

Prediction: Small business optimism will improve.
Actual: The NFIB Index showed optimism barely improved, but still better. +1

Prediction: Unemployment will remain above 8%.
Actual: 7.9%.  -1

Prediction: Expect reports of unfilled skilled jobs due to lack of qualified applicants.
Actual: Multiple sources indicate up to 1.5 million unfilled skilled jobs openings. +1

Prediction: The European Central Bank will prevent a financial melt-down, but not a European recession.
Actual: The EU recession continues and is deepening. +1

Prediction: Iraq will prove unworthy of the price paid to liberate it.
Actual: Al Qaeda has returned to Iraq and Iranian weapons are crossing Iraq to arm Syria and Hezbollah. +1

Prediction: Iran nuclear program will continue to influence oil prices.
Actual: Avg. 2012 crude prices, $103 PPB, from $99.85 in 2011. +1

Prediction: Obama will approve the Keystone Pipeline.
Actual: President Obama proved he is more committed to a war on carbon fuel than lower energy costs for businesses and consumers. -1

Prediction: Occupy Wall Street participants will increasingly look more like anarchists than reformers.
Actual: With the motto, “World Revolution,” OWS is searching for relevance, like attaching to Wal-Mart protesters. +1

Prediction: Wall Street will continue to be a leading indicator only of itself, not the economy.
Actual: U.S. economy is barely growing, yet stock indexes are at near record highs. +1

Prediction: The Supreme Court will rule Obamacare unconstitutional.
Actual: Chief Justice Roberts literally rewrote the law for a contrived ruling. -1

Prediction: Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee.
Actual: +1

Prediction: Joe Biden will not be on Obama’s 2012 ticket.
Actual: They actually did talk about it. -1

Prediction: Barack Obama will be a one-term president.
Actual: -1

Prediction: Republicans will retain control of the U.S. House.
Actual: +1

Prediction: Democrats will lose control of the U.S. Senate.
Actual: -1

Prediction: Alabama will defeat LSU in the BCS Championship.
Actual: Bama 21, LSU zip. +1

This year, 65% accuracy. Underestimated the president and his Chicago machine, and overestimated the electorate.

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