Speaking to local business owners for the past 18 months or more I have pretty much reached the conclusion that we are being incredibly wasteful with talent and resources in individually trying to launch and sustain businesses.

Almost every networking event you go to brings another fresh crop of “edgy new digital marketing agencies”, IFAs, printers and so forth.  All setting out to boldly go and learning on the job – whilst those that have been in business for a dozen or more years nod sagely in the background knowing that they are likely to be a part of the 90% of start-ups that fail.

The corollary to this perhaps is the “established” firm that has made a bit of profit and won repeat business for more than 5 years but remains on the hairy edge of insolvency having ridden their initial luck and now run out of ideas, expertise and capital.

Meanwhile, there is an abundance of talented people who have been made redundant through no fault of their own sat at home clicking through  job sites, pestering their in-work mates for leads and referrals and gradually coming to the realisation that “jobs aren’t coming back” in their old industry – or they’ve suddenly become “too old” but no-one is allowed to tell them.

Next, we have the companies that are doing alright or better.  Hunkered down against the onslaught of all of these annoying service and product providers that are desperately trying to catch their eye and their wallet so that they can help them and in doing so, help themselves to either stay in business or make a start toward profitability.  Many of these firms could REALLY use the products and services that are “out there” but they are scared about spending money or making a bad purchasing decision and possibly losing their “safe, secure, job-for-life” – especially in the public sector!

Compound these dynamics with a shortage of credit from scared (and insolvent) banks and “once bitten” investors with their hands firmly jammed into their pockets and the ludicrous procurement and hiring processes that have grown up under “new Labour” and you have a recipe for continued disaster – a slow motion car crash.

So what can we do to resolve this log jam or perfect storm?  Here’s my take on it:

1. Remove the HR and Purchasing blocks from companies to make it easier for suppliers and potential employees to get in touch;
2. Open up online and allow prospective sellers to contact you and your company – the opportunity cost of doing otherwise is clear;
3. Collaborate locally – there’s no sense in 20 great designers each trying to cut each other’s throat when they could work together;
4. Sack the Chambers of Commerce and other membership organizations that won’t refer and put people together;
5. Develop affiliate marketing between complementary businesses and refer and endorse each other to existing customers;
6. Work for nothing – put some sweat equity and expertise into helping someone – ideally that may have a better chance of success than you.

All of this of course seems to go against what we’ve been taught about the noble entrepreneur and by the competitive world in which we’ve grown up – you snooze, you lose; survival of the fittest and all of that.  But if you look carefully you’ll see that all of the successful entrepreneurs know the essential importance of leveraging:

• Other People’s Time (OPT);
• OtherPeople’s Money (OPM)
• Other People’s Expertise (OPE)

The key is to cut a deal that allows you to be paid later for efforts invested now – and that can be a simple written agreement – it doesn’t need to have a legal eye cast over it.

Unless entrepreneurs and struggling businesses work together and pool their OPT, OPE and OPM (as well as their collective resources) we will continue to struggle in the battle against this recession, wasting scarce resources over and over again as we try to sell things that people neither want nor can afford.  Just take a look at the wasted promotional printing at your next networking event – barking.

We need to seek out the pain that people are feeling and provide accessible solutions that remove it – that’s how I think we need to proceed.

Any takers?  Drop me a line here or on Twitter@Veterus.

Yours in business,

Brad

Accepted wisdom in consultancy (and “guru manufacturing”) is that you have to write a book so that people can see how clever you are and how much you know about your “stuff”.  Once you’ve done this, you can put your prices up, secure in the knowledge that you will have a steady stream of raving fans that absolutely have to hire you because evidently you are cleverer than the average bear.

But as Lance Armstrong reported in his famous book “It’s Not About The Bike” (bit of irony there) it isn’t about the tools and technology; it’s what you do with it.  And that comes down to hard graft and relentless focus on correct execution of planned actions toward an end goal.

The Royal Marines (I think) also coined a brilliant phrase for this syndrome when chuckling at colleagues who launched themselves wholeheartedly in buying shiny kit without having basic principles and practices in place: “All the gear and no idea!”.

I worked in a Local Authority several years ago that restructured in an attempt to change their”silo working” culture.  The Chief Executive was hired specifically to deliver this cultural transformation and she in turn hired change leaders (including me) to catalyse and execute the necessary change across a business with 12000 staff.  Unfortunately, the weak-willed, stand-for-nothing councillors and jobsworth lifers (low-grade civil servants and council officers) soon discovered that they had to get on their metaphorical bikes now and then and crack out a few miles.  Sometimes, they were even asked to don the lycra when it was raining or they’d just eaten a cake!  So quite quickly they decided that they’d had enough of this “change” thing and set about resetting back to the old ways.  First they sacked the CEO, then the “Strategic Directors” and then the remainder of the “Corporate Priority Teams”.  Clearly improvement and delivering on their promises was no longer a priority.

Wind the clock forward 4 years and the same bunch of no-hopers have just spent a 6 figure sum hiring PWC to advise them on what they need to do to make the necessary savings whilst maintaining services in these straitened times.  After several weeks the consultancy reports that they need to change the culture, get rid of silo working and set up a corporate change team to drive it all through.  You couldn’t make it up!  Except it happens every day in businesses and government organizations all across the Western World (and perhaps elsewhere).

Of course it’s probably worst in public organizations where it’s just funny money (ie taxpayers’ hard-earned) that is being squandered but I also see it happening in private companies – blue chips included – that have too much cash, too little control and too many people that can’t do what they were hired to do but managed to win the job with the help of their “coach” or friends and keep hold of it by hook and by crook whilst more talented people are fended off by HR before they ever see a decision maker.

So what does this tell us?

• All that glitters is not gold.  Shiny books, websites, presentations and people are no guarantee of effectiveness
• There is value to be had in hiring people with a proven track record – and many are not in big name firms
• You need to be clear about what you want to achieve and committed to the journey as well as the goal
• The selection and management of talented people is vital to business success
• A fool and his (or someone else’s) money are easily parted
• Executing the basics well is normally more successful than poorly executing complicated things (split infinitive?)
• A “guru” with an inch thick book might be less successful at delivering what you need than a practitioner
• Change is something that gets done by PEOPLE every day – going out an buying a new gizmo will not in itself change much

What examples of this have you seen in your career?  Please share them below.

@Veterus

D-Day 2011

It’s been called many things by many people: “The Elephant in the Room”, “Blind Spots”, “The Psychology of Military Incompetence” to name but a few but essentially we are talking about people being free to voice their concerns within and about organizations of which they are members.

There’s even a cautionary tale about the Emperor’s New Clothes that’s told to children but I think the point has been lost and it’s hurting businesses, organizations and individuals.

Instead of people contributing their experience and commonsense in a collaborative way, there is now a culture of smiling sweetly, being “agreeable”,  not “rocking the boat” and “being a team player” that is disabling organizations across the world; making them less competitive, flabby and complacent.  After all, if you’re in charge and everyone keeps telling you things are going great why would you spend time pondering your strategy or plans?  You wouldn’t.

Great leaders develop a network or trusted advisors over time to compensate for their blind spots and fill in skill gaps – helping them to do the right thing right – and do it quickly.  To know and not to do is the same as not knowing.  The modern equivalent of this is having a problem brought to your attention and then spending a year or longer doing studies, raising a budget, recruiting a team etc – or fiddling while Rome burns (there’s another tale).

Whether the crisis is a rising tide or a sudden shock event, you need to develop an organizational structure and systems that can quickly establish facts, consider options, decide what to do, then delegate and GET ON WITH IT.  But if you shoot people down for bringing issues to your attention?  The first thing you know will be the last thing you know.

Agile to Opportunities – Resilient to Disruptions (and criticism)  A useful mantra for 21st century organizations…

@Veterus