Strategic Implementation

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question for business leaders.

I've heard some people say that Twitter is a waste of time.  On the other side of the table, the opinion is vastly different.  I will not go into the details of using Twitter as a strategy for online social networking to create business solutions. In my opinion, it is a simple decision.  If you want to be a part of the conversation about your company or organizaiton, you should be using Twitter.

As the leader of a global business services firm, I tweet for a couple of reasons.  First, I want to share my thoughts on topics related to our clients.  As a result, I receive feedback that could be helpful to our clients.  Second, I follow people who are actively involved in running businesses.  Yes, you can learn from your peers.  Overall, Twitter is a useful tool to achieve our goals at S4X.  By the way, you can follow us at S4X on Twitter.

Are you using Twitter?  How has is impacted your organization?

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The door is open.

The time for complaining about the economy is over.  Whether you are a start-up dealing with business formation issues or a existing company looking for ways to grow your business, it's time to walk through the door.

Business owners need to take a step back from the noise and review the landscape.  Broadly speaking, business are failing and people are losing jobs.  Upon further review, some businesses are failing due to bad management or lack of investing in their infrastructure during the good times.  If your organization is looking to survive or grow, you may want to explore strategies outside of working with banks or grants for funding sources to assist with growth.

For example, one of our clients, a start-up, is working on closing their first round of funding.  They will use the funding to begin production of their product.  In concert with the funding round, they have secured LOIs (Letters of Intent) and other agreements which will generate revenue in their first year.  As a potential solution, we have been approached by and are in talks with several marketing firms which can make the investment.  The marketing firm would be the strategic partner and investor.  The revenues of both companies are projected to benefit from this partnership.

Although we are a business consulting firm based in Indianapolis, we are observing the success of alternative business models from Seattle to South Africa.

Have you been successful with strategic partners investing in your business?

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I think the mega-mergers and acquisitions that have occurred over that last few months may be creating an opportunity for corporations that fall in the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) and/or virtual business category.

For example, Pfizer's acquisition Wyeth has created a global pharmaceutical giant.  If you are trying to increase profit and a pipeline of business, this looks like a good deal on the surface.  However, a couple of major issues include culture integration and decision-making hierarchy.

In the case of SMEs, the strategic implementation process can proceed much faster.  By utilizing virtual network partners and by utilizing network orchestration, SMEs may be able to out maneuver mega-corporations.

Sometimes it's better to be the speedboat instead of the Titanic.  In today's economy, I think the SMEs need to leverage the power of their nimble networks.

Are you being a speedboat or a Titanic?

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“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than anything else, will determine its successful outcome.” - William James

While your strategic plan implementation is important, your underlying attitude is the rate-limiting step for positive results.

These days, many of the conversations at business networking functions and across the business social networking sites convey an attitude of scarcity and fear.  I think it should be just the opposite.

If your firm is still doing business and you have time to fear, you have time to focus on creating abundance.  Instead of fearing a loss of clients, we have been focusing on increasing the depth of relationships with our current clients.  After all, business is about relationships on some level. 

By focusing on your current clients and how you can help them grow their business, your firm may also benefit. 

Attitude is the key.  How are you spending your time?

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Currently, we are working on the completion of our planning session for 2009.  I often remind our clients the lessons that can be learned from your peers in other industries.  This especially can be true with regard to strategic planning. 

An excellent business blog, I have been following is Market Mine by Penny Herscher, CEO of FirstRain.  Penny's blogs are informative and practical.  In her most recent post, Startup to IPO: Building your annual plan, she mentions three points of emphasis for her team.

1) a strategy for greatness
2) team alignment
3) a pragmatic roadmap of how we are going to achieve our plans within a reasonable budget.

As a virtual business, we have several partners with which we communicate to provide services for our clients.  In addition to the roadmap, we focus heavily on team alignment.  Our structure dictates that all the components of our team have a focus aligned with our overall strategy.

Whether the client equation involves emerging markets or social networking, the team has to provide solutions that are aligned from the front-end planning. 

I look forward to completing our process and sharing our experiences in 2009. 

During your planning sessions, what are your areas of focus?

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This week, I continued my annual ritual of reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  For the past 4 years, I have taken the time at the beginning of each to read the book to remind myself about the lessons that can be learned from this book.  The book is focused on the following personal agreements made by an individual:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
3. Don't Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best

I understand that life and business can be complicated.  With that being said, I think the four agreements in this book can be useful for personal and professional reasons.  From a business perspective, the agreements can help to create a sustainable culture for your company.

I mention culture for a company because the culture is often overlooked during strategic planning sessions.  Additionally, culture will trump strategic implementation every day of the week.

Whether you are a business development professional or a social entrepreneur these agreements can assist you.

Do you have an annual activity to begin your year?

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The temperature outside has dropped 30 degrees in the last 24 hours here in Indianapolis.  With the frigid temperatures and strong winds, a strategy from staying warm has to be implemented.  One of the key strategies is to dress in layers rather than wearing one big coat.

In business, we are all experiencing a change in the weather.  If we try to use a one-size-fits-all solution, we may not be able to weather the storm.  We prefer to advise our clients on incremental solutions similar to wearing layers of clothing to protect yourself from the cold weather.  You've heard about the principles of Kaizen and Six Sigma.  For those that don't know, Kaizen focuses on ocuses on continuous improvement.  Six Sigma focuses on improving processes and eliminating defects.

As a business consulting firm, we help our clients (including virtual business clients) to implement the components of these principles that work for their given industry.  From a law firm to an Indiana life science company, we partner with our clients to develop incremental solutions which can help to provide stability in a time of "quick fixes".

When the winter temperatures hit our area, we prefer to use layers and dress for long-term warmth.  What does your winter clothing look like?

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In our role as a business consulting and knowledge management firm, we assist our clients in several areas including business formation.  I'm excited to tell you that we have been working on the creating a new business of our own.

We are finalizing the formation of a specialized division focused on emerging markets in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Southern Africa.  We expect to finalize by the end of the year.  Due to this expansion, we are welcoming a new member to the S4X family.  Brighton Dube will be our Senior Managing Director for Southern Africa Strategic Initiatives.

I'll keep you posted on what the equation for the division looks like.  Is Africa in your equation?

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"With the world in turmoil and doubt, the American people, faithful to the values that have always defined America's identity, have expressed with force their faith in progress and the future. At a time when we must face huge challenges together, your election has raised enormous hope in France, in Europe and beyond."
- Nicolas Sarkozy, French President
(Reuters)

As President-Elect, Barack Obama will become the first African-American
President of the United States.  With that being said, the focus should not be on his ethnicity.  The focus should be on the goals of the campaign and how those goals will shape the future of the United States and with President-Elect Obama's global peers, our world.

The strategic implementation of President Elect Obama's campaign plan was the key to his campaign victory.  His campaign stayed focused and did not stray when competitors tried to steer the focus away from the real issues.  They utilized online social networking, virtual teams and other online communities to enable people from different ethnicties, religious beliefs and social-economic backgrounds to collaborate for a common cause.

In politics as in business, the great leaders surround themselves with solid advisors.  As a leader, President-Elect Obama shifted paradigms by working with and being supported by Republicans including Senator Richard Lugar and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The future holds many unknowns for the United States.  If President-Elect Barack Obama and his team operate during his term as they during his campaign, the United States will move in a positive direction.  Additionally, we must remember that the actions of thousands of people contributed to the success of his campaign.  Change will not happen just because Barack Obama is the President-Elect.  Every American must continue to take action to make our country a better place.

What are you doing to impact your present and our future?

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Making a virtual company work takes careful planning.  The major components are relatively simple.  Those being attorneys, accountants, C-Level executives and understanding your product.

What if you are an Indiana life science company looking to working with a South Africa life science company?  Not only due you have cultural issues, you will also have different regulatory issues to manage.  Additionally, how will you ensure the communications are seamless and real-time?

With regard to the communications, we are working with a client to utilize the online social networking infrastructure in a business social networking environment.  The goal is to create a collaborative culture and decrease communication cost.

For the regulatory component, our client and partner, Safis Solutions provides excellent advice for ensuring compliance.  Gretchen Bowker, Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance Services has a great article relating to virtual companies in the October 2008 Safis Solutions Newsletter.

How do you manage the components of your virtual business?

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Last night, I spent four hours in a strategic planning session for a non-profit board on which I am chairperson.  During the meeting, I was reminded about a few business benefits of participating on a non-profit board.  Of course the opportunity to impact the people in my community is never lost on me.  From a business perspective, you can learn about best practices for business networking and business development.  Additionally, you can learn what not to do in a board meeting for your business.

For the first two items, the non-profit world must constantly get out their message and cultivate donors and volunteers.  This is no different than cultivating clients both internal and external.

As for learning what not to do, the lessons can be endless.  There are several lessons but two that I think are most important are getting materials out early and board members reviewing the materials.  This can ensure a productive and action-driven meeting.  One of the best blogs I have read about this area is the Market Mine blog by Penny Herscher, President CEO of First Rain. 

A good example of an organization that crosses the line between non-profit and for-profit is the social entrepreneur-driven organization.  Have you reached out to one?  You may learn something new.

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Over the past few weeks, my friend Dave Castor of Alerding & Castor and I have discussed the virtues of strategic alliances.  In my opinion, one of the major reasons for success or failure is lack of real communication. 

An good example is the BioCrossroadsLINX collaboration between Indiana and San Diego.  Spearheaded by BioCrossroads, this project is focused on the Indiana Life Sciences industry.  The collaboration allows for both sides to benefit while maintaining there strategic advantages.  Through multiple meetings and open dialogue on the proper strategic implementation, this alliance works.

Open communication is only one part of the deal.  I watched this quick video from the folks at The Deal.com this morning that helps with the other key business issues.



Are you ready for an alliance?

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I'm in the middle of reading Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar.  Unlike many business books out there, this book is a history lesson as well as a great story on the work that goes into making a deal happen.

One of the more interesting themes in the book is the value of strong social networks and how they relate to strategic plan implementation.  In the book, F. Ross Johnson leverages his relationships to accomplish most of the deals he completes. 

Another theme is exemplified by this description, "After dominating the cigarette business for so long, the Reynolds line executives had grown complacent."  This line was describing arrogance of the Reynolds folks towards Philip Morris.  In many ways, this attitude is what has hurt many companies in the United States.  By growing complacent, companies have fallen behind the curve.  Now, they are fighting for new business development opportunities or going out of business.

If you have read the book, I would love to hear about the theme that resonated with you.

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This comment by Ms. Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of DC Public Schools represents the philosophy that all administrators and staff should have in the K-12 education system.  With the demographic trends continuing to show a widening gap between in the education landscape, I think it's about time that adults stop being the lead weight holding back our students. 

One big issue is the position taken by teacher unions to maintain something close to status quo.  Maybe they should take a look at the issues faced by unions in the business community.  Major corporations are not including unionized areas in their strategic implementation plans.  In a more basic example, the unions of the U.S. automakers have forced the creation of alternative business solutions to make up for financial issues.

I thought we learned a long time ago that, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

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This morning, I read a press release with title "National Law Enforcement Leaders: Dropout Rates Fueling Violent Crime" issued by an organization named Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

The global education landscape has many issues.  This press release focuses on the issues in the United States.  Once again, the pundits and officials have convened to report on a report that high school dropouts in the United States are less likely to be productive members of society.

The press release speaks to the lost wages and taxes, and the costs for incarceration. The sad thing is that this is yet another group of adults that are wasting money gathering data that yields the same results and trends from a decade ago.

In my opinion, let's stop wasting money on reports and invest (time, money and skills) in our youth.  Too often, we cut the funding or invest in archaic, corrupt or mismanaged school systems.  If these school systems were corporations, they would be out of business. 

The corporate world needs to take action as well.  For a sustainable business, you need a diverse a deep talent pool.  As dropout rates increase and graduation rates decrease, the talent pool is depleted.  One way to help your chances is to include high school internships in you strategic plan implementation.

You might ask what we are doing at S4X to help the cause.  We require our employees to volunteer 1% of annual hours worked.  Personally, I am a mentor in the Starfish Initiative in Indianapolis.

You might want to pay attention if you are not involved.  The future of your business is at stake.  In the United States, we easily create business solutions yet we have difficulty creating solutions for the education system.  What are your thoughts on the education system in your area?

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I had a mid-morning meeting this morning with a business partner.  His firm focuses the social media industry.  During the meeting, we talked about various ways to increase business development opportunities without straying outside of your core business.

From a consulting standpoint, we discussed how we tend to forget that our most valuable assets are our knowledge and time.  He mentioned how his firm has given away strategic implementation materials to potential clients.  Now, his team is working on maximizing the knowledge they have acquired over the years.  I know they will do just fine.

Are you leaving revenue-generating opportunities on the table?

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Yesterday, I attended a performance in Chicago by the Born Again Floozies.  A good friend of mine is a member of the band and invited me up for the day.  My plan was to use the day to recharge and relax.  I was able to do both with an added bonus.

The bonus was an introduction to a potential business partner.  This potential partner is the president of a global corporate security firm and friend of my friend's husband.  We talked about our virtual business model at S4X and the business consulting we provide for our clients.  He explained the intricacies of corporate security.

Moving forward, we both believe by working together in some capacity we can provide more comprehensive business solutions for our clients.  Of course, the next meeting will be at another Born Again Floozies concert.

Have you attended a concert lately?

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            OR            
 

Everyday the news seems to be getting worse.  High gas prices, high food prices, on and on.  But as the say goes, "one person's trash...".

In today's economy, there are still deals being done.  Yes, the credit markets are tight.  That does not mean the economy is stopping its progress.  Are you reviewing your strategic plan?  From a business consulting perspective, Our clients are looking to global joint venture opportunities, virtual business models and acquisitions to take advantage of the current market

Are you turning your trash into treasure or will another organization do it for you without you benefiting?

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 We have all heard about the K.I.S.S. method of making decisions.  If you haven't, "K.I.S.S.", stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.  The question is, how many people actually practice K.I.S.S.? Are you the person with a 1,000 people on your social networking site or the entrepreneur focused on the minutiae working of the strategic implementation of your latest business venture?  If you are in this group of people, you may want to consider simplifying.

Bruce Lee said, "True refinement seeks simplicity."  In his book The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss describes two ways of living your life.  The "Deferrers" live life to have more at the end of their life.  The "New Rich" live life to have more quality and less clutter throughout their entire life.  Both focus on simplification.

Simplicty is not just creating less steps in a process.  It includes recognizing that you may be over-thinking a process and thus cluttering it up.  As a result, you are wasting time.  Simplifying can occur almost anywhere in your buiness including business formation or your interactions within your business social network.

How are you keeping it simple?

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