Key Elements to Basic Strategic Strengths

To the few of you who follow my posts and sent me emails, thank you and my apologies for falling behind on my intended weekly entries.  My excuse???  Well, last week was my birthday week so I took the week off.  LOL!  :)

Moving on to today’s topic…

Business strategy is our selection of ideas and assets tomeet long-term business goals.  However, it won’t mean much without a marketing strategy, relationship with the marketplace and our customer base.

Let’s skip the business and marketing strategy technobabble for now and save it for another entry. The key elements to management strategic strengths are excellence in execution and systematic relationships with anyone and everyone we deal with:  employees, peers, customers, suppliers, vendors, etc.

Below are few basic bullet points of advice for creating a winning strategy that are fundamentally sustainable:

• Hire enthusiastic, positive people who are passionate about the job — ANY JOB.
• Take time to meet new people that are knowledgeable, smart, and interesting to learn something new.
• Go to lunch with other managers.  Get to know them and build relationships.
• Take care of your people and they’ll take care of you.
• Delegate and give others the opportunity to grow and learn from the experience.
• Promote people for going above and beyond NOT for what is expected of them to do or what they’re getting paid to do.
• Hire qualified people who can EXECUTE and DELIVER on job requirements, no exceptions!
• Don’t be afraid to consult with the right people so change is done in a sensible way that strengthens the business and supports company vision, mission, and values.
• Practice and promote decency.
• Commit to excellence.
• Base performance reviews on measurable value and significant contributions.
• Two golden words, “Thank You”.  These two simple words show recognition and appreciation that can go a long way.  To get you started, thank people for their time, their effort, their dedication, and their contributions.  It’s not hard.  Do it!
• Smile.  People are more willing to work with you if you at least appear pleasant.  Besides, it takes less muscles to smile than it is to be a grouch.  :)

As basic and simple as these may seem, they make a BIG difference.

Get the Wrong Who and It will Cost You --- ALOT!

In a down and unpredictable economy, we cannot afford,“Ooooppps…  we hired the wrong guy…”  Sound hiring practices are paramount. The cost of unsuccessful hire can be extremely costly not only in terms of wages, benefits, and training, but also opportunity costs.  According to the Department of Labor, a wrong hire can cost 3 to 10x the annual salary of an employee.  If we base our numbers using the median income in America in 2007, that would be around $38K.  Therefore, a “costly mistake” of 3 to 10 times an employee’s annual salary would mean an average net loss of  approximately $115K-$380K to a company.  This may not appear as much for a big company as we’re only talking about a median income of a single contributor [but what if there's more than one "costly mistake"???].  Now, let’s consider the loss at higher-level positions such as hiring unqualified, B or C Player Managers, Directors, or worse, Executives.  These titles have a considerably higher salaries which also means higher risks of a bad hire.  In simpler terms, this can mean a painful price tag of up to $1.5M or more per year plus, wasted time and effort to the hiring company.  This statistic becomes even more shocking when we factor in the fact that the typical hiring success rate of managers is only 50%.  Wow!  

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great said, “The most important decisions that businesspeople make are not the what decisions but the who decisions.”  Having certain people in place can either make or break a business as this is where either good and right things happen or where the ugly and disaster starts. When filling a position, you’ll need the right person for the job.  One may have the knowledge on how to do the job but knowledge and the ability to execute on the job are not the same thing.  He or she must walk the talk but more so, it’s the walk that counts not the talk.

With the economy heading down steeply, times are tough.  Unfortunately, there are some people who would make engaging in political activities priority to create outcomes consistent with their own political agendas as they really have nothing else to offer.  But when you’re dealing with money and mean serious business, now is NOT the time for dirty politics nor political gains.   Now more than ever, we need to cut costs, be efficient, and ensure we have the right resources to not just stay afloat but to stay in business.  

In order to prevent this type of costly mistake, businesspeople need to be clear about what is required in a job, what the expected results are, and putting the right people in the right places.  Be selective.  Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with pricey hard costs and productivity loss paying people who deliver no value [that's IF they deliver at all] to the company.  Having the right people performing the WHAT will determine if you’ll succeed.   Do not hire a resume then later on discover that you hired the wrong guy.  Put in the time and effort and the due diligence in finding A Players which would require setting the bar higher.  

So, what is an A Player???  An A Player is defined as someone who has at least 90% chance of achieving a set of outcomes that only the top 10% of possible candidates could achieve.  However, this is just a piece of what’s required in ensuring you have the “right guy”.  Putting the “right people in the right places” doesn’t only mean qualified people who can execute and deliver but also someone who would make a good fit for the mission.  Depending on what the mission is, sometimes the individual has to also be a good match to work with the team and the environment of the team including a company’s culture.   

Below is an excerpt from a book that I read last year.  It is sooooo true that it stuck like glue.  :)

You are who you hire.  Hire C players and you will always lose to the competition.  Hire B players and you might do ok but you will never break out.  Hire A Players and life gets very interesting no matter what you’re pursuing.  Hiring “A PLayers” is not everything.  It is one of the most important skills to growing the value of a company.

In summary, most executives know what needs to be done but the greater challenge is finding the right people that will and can successfully execute on the job.  Astute companies arm themselves by learning and diligently implementing hiring best practices to ensure they have the right people in the right places.  Invest in the WHO behind the what and eliminate the costly oops.

Understanding the Voice of the Customer

I’ve always been a proponent of customer advocacy, promoting best practices, and applying proven methodologies and frameworks to meet business needs, deliver on customer requirements and manage their expectations.  However, before all of these can come into play, it is a MUST to understand the voice of the customer.

Understanding the voice of the customer requires fact-based foundation and knowing what to closely pay attention to as they express their needs and expectations based on their experiences on a product and/or service delivered to them.  As managers, we need to be able to translate these “customer voices” into actionable terms.  Once the translation is complete, it may also be necessary to review our company’s focus.  What do I mean by this?  Some companies focus on releasing products and are more concern about time to market but with the current state of our economy, we may need to change our “product-out” mentality to “market in” mentality and at the very least, keeping existing customers happy.

Fact-based foundation requires data gathering.  The collected factual data can be turned into useful information that can be used as a decision-making tool.  Sometimes, to beat the competition, we need to have that “edge” by understanding the voice of the customer and focusing on great service instead of just selling products and/or services.  In my opinion, it’s equally important to make service central to a business strategy especially for product companies.  This not only builds and strengthens customer relationship but can be extended to go beyond the initial sale.  Earn an excellent reputation not only for producing great products but also providing excellent service.

To boost revenue especially in our current economic climate,  targeting customer goals and understanding what they value is key. Get customers involved and allow them to influence every aspect of the business as this can serve as the core foundation of your organization’s success.  Think about it.  What is the point of having all the bells and whistles if it’s not what your customers want?  Right?  

We live in a very competitive market place and this alone should be more than enough for us to think about creative ways on how we can be flexible in accommodating or fulfilling customer requirements to the quality they expect and the time frame they need it by.  How do you do this?  Listen to your customers and build long-term relationship with them through partnership and commit to delivering excellence in every transaction or every opportunity to serve them.

Understanding the voice of the customer will help your business maintain the “edge” and focus required to make effective and sound business decisions and harness the power and commitment your company needs to weather turbulent times. Partnering with customers represents a company’s ability to anticipate what customer needs even prior to them requesting for it.

Quality Management - One Size Doesn't Fit All

Quality Management is a system of organizational structures, processes, responsibilities, policies, procedures and evaluation mechanisms to ensure that an organization is delivering products and/or services to specified standards in an efficient and effective manner.

There are several quality improvement frameworks and strategies.  I do not believe in “one size fits all” methodology.  In my opinion, the best approach is choosing industry best practices and applying them to the framework of a business.  Sometimes, it’s also necessary to borrow from other quality control techniques and integrate these best practices to provide solution for an organization that makes the most business sense.  In addition, it’s also important to know what the goals and motivations are in selecting a certain strategy.

Frameworks I’ve used includes (but not limited to):

Six Sigma – Started by Motorola is a way of reducing defects in the manufacturing process.  It is a quality management methodology using DMAIC problem-solving framework to measure quality, improve processes by increasing performance and decreasing process variation leading to defect reduction and improved product quality.  DMAIC is an acronym for Define opportunity, Measure performance, Analyze opportunity, Improve performance and Control performance.  [Tons of information available online on Six Sigma, feel free to search.]  

Six Sigma represents a statistical measurement of variation from a specific attribute or characteristic desired by the end-user and expressed over six exponential layers:

One Sigma = 690,000 defects per million
Two Sigma = 308,000 defects per million
Three Sigma = 66,800 defects per million
Four Sigma = 6,210 defects per million (relatively efficient)
Five Sigma = 230 defects per million (world class efficiency)
Six Sigma = 3.4 defects per million (perfection)

Most books on Six Sigma cite examples on how it’s applied in manufacturing.  However, Six Sigma is NOTonly used in manufacturing.  It’s actually a great tool for driving difficult process problems back to their root causes by applying process analysis and statistical analysis techniques.  I highly recommend it if you want to measure quality in numbers.  The statistical analysis can help detect anomalous variation.  Six Sigma may be very popular but it is not always the best framework to use.

Total Quality Management – Deming is one of my favorite quality leaders who contributed to the work of Juran and Cosby to what’s known as TQM.  TQM is more flexible and suitable to various types of organization.  Its primary focus is on continuous improvement and promoting “quality culture”.  It is applicable to any company that strives to provide customers with products and services that meet their needs and/or expectations.  “Quality Culture” means doing things right the first time and eliminating defects from all aspects of the company’s operations.  I personally like Deming’s 14 Points and also his PDCA cycle.

These are just a couple of many available strategies that can help assess and define a problem, identify goals and how to reach desired end-results to improve quality, processes, and productivity and add value to company performance.  In addition to these frameworks, tools, and techniques, it’s also very important to know and understand high-level planning, organizing, leading and controlling processes which every manager should know how to do by default.  

There is no perfect or “one size fits all” approach.  Every company should be well-rounded and be open to other available methodologies and best practices and not be focused on one single approach.  Assess various models and determine optimal solution to problems.  In many cases, it’s not a “one size fits all”.

Corporate Culture and Office Politics

I received a request to write about office politics.  Before we dive into that topic, let’s talk about corporate culture first.

Corporate culture is a set of behaviors, values, and codes that guide interaction between employees of a given company. Some examples of corporate culture are:  what people wear to work, the hours people work, type and size of cubicles and how information is shared. Corporate culture is often incorporated into company goals and mission statements and is the center point of how the company is operated and evolves.

Often times, corporate culture is undermined by “office politics”. Office politics is defined as counterproductive human factors present between coworkers, in an office environment. Some examples of office politics are: the boss’s friends get the available promotions, the office inner circle gets the first pick of the work schedule and office gossip controls people’s actions and views.

Office politics is a fact of life in every workplace. It is not a dirty word until you build political capital while compromising integrity or taking advantage of others, is when it becomes unethical. However, without the required political power and influence, it will be a challenge to reach your goals such as delivering on successful projects, interest in upward mobility or professional growth and advancement.

So, what is the reality in large corporations? I worked for a company that believes that their strength is their people.  With a diverse workforce and customer base, the approach is all-encompassing and that it’s free from discrimination, employees are valued, there’s equality, and all that happy stuff.

If I were to describe my experience of the culture that I was exposed to back then, there was less opportunities for females and minorities. Company policies don’t always apply to all employees and they are bent from time to time. “It’s highly political.”  [Oooooh....  I heard this before...]  :)

In addition, great value is placed on “perception”, a representation of what is perceived or conceptualized but not necessarily the truth or reality. Between politics and perception, work is lost and metrics skewed, if non-existent.

Rewards and upward mobility highly depends on who you know, how tight your relationship is with that person and not what you know. Successful business qualities such as intelligence, drive, high productivity or performance and quality standards don’t guarantee success nor promotion. Top producers are punished with more work without incentives or rewards. There’s no point in working hard and giving that 110% because when the yearly review season comes, the amount of percent raise available is shared among department staff. So, what’s the point? In order to succeed, you have to be a seasoned veteran to play the political game.

One other indicator that can gauge corporate culture is observing the Senior Management team and what they either pay attention to or what qualities they reward.  There are people in management that do notreward employees for coming up with new ideas and challenging old ways of doing things. Non-conformists are pushed out and status quo protected. Best practice is not applied and they don’t pay attention to employees’ well-being but rather focus on perception. In addition, employees do not participate in the direction of the company as some people in power make most decisions pulled out of a hat.

Corporate culture starts and shaped from the top. Top-level behaviors including their vision, goals and how they handle situations set the tone of corporate culture. For optimum performance, corporate leaders define, develop and change cultures. These set of values are expressed in various ways such as: mission statement, dress code, policies, mode of communication, corporate events, salary, bonuses, fringe benefits, work environment, employee interaction and core values. These factors have a significant role in employer-employee fit.

To optimize performance, leaders must define and create the necessary cultures, communicate and define culture through actions as culture is more caught than it is taught.

In my opinion, corporate culture is very important as it’s a driving force for an organization’s overall performance.  Equally important is for managers to set foundational values that will serve as guiding principles that will guide employee decisions, behaviors, and day to day operations.

How’s your culture?

Allergic to Processes

There are people that just can’t appreciate nor know the value of processes.  Some people like their work environment, the people they work with, some parts of their job BUT certainly do not enjoy following procedures nor the repetitive processes.  Is there really a job where you simply apply your skills and do what you like doing and leave behind things that give you serious dose of boredom [such as processes]????  Does this sound familiar?  :)

This is not all that uncommon as I’ve worked with people that just can’t stand processes.  Sometimes, they intentionally circumvent processes to cut things short or cut corners for whatever reason [valid or not].  Sometimes, we may not realize it but there are parts of the job we love that goes through process that makes the job itself great!  If we just shift our focal point from these “processes” to the real PAYOFF or reward, it’s then we’ll see the value of processes.  We all have our own set of “struggles” but these are no different than that of any other professionals.  For example, I challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone and try something new and foreign to me which is Ballroom/Latin Dance with the goal to compete 6 months from the time I started.  I certainly did not enjoy the long hours of practice and step-by-step process I must repeat again and again and again to get it right.  It sure wasn’t fun.  It was exhausting, painful, and left me with 2 bunions to press on as I execute each step.  No fun but no pain, no gain!  :)  What got me through all of that was setting my mind on the end goal which was the payoff or reward — to compete.  On the day of the competition, I felt great because I made it!  Win or lose on that day, I knew I met my goal…  be on that dance floor and compete at the California Star Ball.  It was great!  The best part of it all was the experience of placing in all the heats I was in.  16 first place, 5 second place, and 3 third place.  Take note, this would’ve not happened if I didn’t learn the basic process of learning how to walk then dance on those 3 inch heeled dance shoes.  :)  Now, even though dance is still a challenge, it’s manageable.  :)

Regardless of what job, what title, what company, etc., there will always be something that we prefer doing and things that we’d rather not do, especially if given the option or opportunity.  Every job has its irritating, mundane tasks that is the least of our favorite thing to do.  However, it’s not to say that you do not have the capability to focus on the end goal.  All these little things contribute to the bigger picture and are important to reach a goal, so why fixate on the process?

Regardless how boring or tedious some parts of your job is, in reality, it’s just up to you on what you make out of the experience.  If it’s too mundane, think of ways on how you can make it exciting and fun!  Do not focus on what you do not like or what you do not enjoy as this type of negative energy can take root leading to frustration and eventually will disengage you from becoming or bringing out the best in you.  Focus on the rewards of your efforts, not the processes.

Negative People Resemble Black Hole

From time to time, negative people just pop out of nowhere affecting your good mood.  Sometimes, the negative energy is so strong it invades your own energy and you end up feeling tired, drained, blue, or simply end up feeling super BLAH.

Dealing with negative people can be a challenge but do not allow yourself to be consumed by it and be robbed of your own joy and positive energy.

But how do we avoid negative people or black holes???

First of, let’s start by making a conscious effort and decision to NOT feed into the negative energy.  Don’t take everything you hear as “THE WORD”.  Sometimes, even our friends or relatives can be over reacting to situations making them amplify their stories.

Just because someone is your best friend, brother, sister, mother, father or cousin, who may be concerned for your well-being does not always mean that their advice or input has value.  For instance, I’m very knowledgeable when it comes to processes, project management, service operations, and performance metrics.  However, I know absolutely nothing about being a mechanic so if I ever give you any advice on what to do with oil leaks, expect it to be “BROKEanic” advise.  :)  This type of input has no value at all.

Sometimes,  friends and family can be the same.  They can give negative feedback about your plans and viewpoints on certain things but this can be because they lack information or the know-how to see the positives of a situation.  Sometimes, ignorance can cause them to feel apprehensive for your welfare.  Know the difference between caring and the knowledge to offer helpful advise.

Second, refrain from the need of having someone else’s blessing or approval.  Coming from Asian descent, needing approval was actually part of my culture.  America taught me to think otherwise.  Someone once told me of a principle that I’d like to share with you — “As long as you must have the permission, approval and acceptance of your peers you are a victim of their limiting beliefs.”

Third, eradicate your own negative thoughts.  If you keep a strong positive thinking, other people’s opinion especially negative thoughts won’t or shouldn’t matter.  You’ll find these negative opinions as preposterous.

Outside of the confinement of my solitude, I’m usually bubbly and carry positive energy.  This however, doesn’t come from Starbucks.  I take care of myself by giving Anna the “me time”.  Sometimes, I go to the spa to enjoy a nice, relaxing atmosphere; visit my masseuse for a nice massage or reiki; workout or dance to release endorphins which helps with happy thoughts and good mood; or the easiest quick-fix EVER — retail therapy.  :)

I understand that not everybody may have the time or luxury to do the aforementioned items.  However, there’s other things you can do to gain positive energy such as reading to expand your mind and knowledge, increase your mastery or proficiency in areas that interests you.  Hang out and surround yourself with positive, smart, and dynamic people.  Play a yoga video and stretch (down dog, plank, tree, etc.) not only your body but expand your mind.

Summon yourself to the challenge to perform better than your previous best.  Perhaps, you need to redefine the word “best” to doing what’s needed until it hurts.  When you extend yourself mentally and physically to a goal, you also increase that belief in what is possible to thrive and flourish at a furious pace.

We have the freedom to choose.  Choose to find what’s good in people and you’ll find positive things in life.  Do it enough, you’ll soon find yourself with a habit that will transform not only your thought process but how you view and experience your daily life.

Life is not all about doom and gloom.  You’ll appreciate good because there’s bad situations.  Find what’s good or great about whatever it is and before moving on, think about the lessons learned and how such an experience or situation can make you a better or stronger person.

There will always be negative people and black holes.  It’s up to you to redirect your mind back to the positive and retain that positive frame of mind and energy.