Agile entrepreneurs know anything is possible

YES YOU CAN!

It is easy to develop a negative attitude or receive advice from negative people.  This is especially true when tackling difficult situations.  In my first turnaround, I was repeatedly told to walk away from the company because of major failings in the financial market place.  The company was a text book case of a boiler-room style investment bank overselling the company’s stock in an IPO.  Adding to the complexity, the company’s technology was not advanced enough to keep sophisticated investors excited.  The over promotion caused the stock to move from the $5 offering price to a $20 per share price on the first day.  Due to failings of the underwriter and lack of advanced technology, the price fell to around $1 per share in less than a month.  The underwriter (also major investor post IPO) had similar results with 5 other companies.  Their loss of cash, coupled with other events, resulted in their declaring bankruptcy.  The clearing house each of the six companies’ failed and they declared bankruptcy as well. All of the companies the underwriter had taken public were mentioned in nasty news articles about the underwriter.   This resulted in guilt by association for the company I was attempting to turnaround!

It would have been easy to not attempt to turn the company around, but it is important to keep an open mind.  Learning to approach problems in an organized manner and not assuming failure is inevitable is an important part of building a business.  Problems may be wide and varied and solutions are not in books.  People often have biases and may be correct by responding with their gut reaction to problems.  Many times gut reactions are not correct and they limit an individual’s ability to see alternatives or novel solutions.  One of the greatest challenges occurs once you state something is not possible.  The reason this can limit your solutions is a bit like anchoring, i.e. “a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered.”  Stating something is not possible tends to prevent you from looking for solutions thus limiting your creativity.  So, even in the face of adversity and negativism from so many, I had to stay focused and believe anything could be done.  The key was finding a solution that might work and trying it.

It is different when one works extensively to resolve a problem and is not able to find an appropriate solution.  The learning process in attempting to solve the issue may involve many discussions and readings of articles.  The increased knowledge may allow that creative solution to occur spontaneously in your quiet moments.  The lack of an extensive attempt, diligent learning, and negative anchoring to a negative outcome limits options and ability for creativity to take over.  Adopting a negative attitude dooms the process or at least lowers the success rate.   It also decreases chances for a more creative output.

There are steps one can take to solve what may seem unsolvable.  They may or may not fit with your personality, but if the problem is significant, trying them may be worth the effort.

Improve attitude:  Assume all problems have a solution rather than your problem is not solvable.  By taking the positive step, you eliminate the anchoring and now must seek alternatives.

Learn as much as possible:  You have identified a problem.  Now learn everything possible about the problem, and surrounding issues.   The more you learn the better chance your creative side can contribute.

Talk with people having different skills:  One of the ways some companies increase creativity is forcing staff with differing skills to be in close contact resulting in increased interaction.  The reason is that different skilled people discussing a problem may lead to solutions because of cross-fertilization.  The same can be true for your problem solving.

Identify alternatives:  While all problems have solutions, some solutions may create more problems.  Having alternatives allows for hybrid solutions or a work-around that may be better for your situation.  Being too rigid on the type of solution can be just as limiting.  Keep an open mind.  The goal is to make your company a success not make all your ideas work the way you thought they should.

Do not give up too easily:  There may come a time when you must abandon an approach or problem because time or costs may become limiting.  Having alternatives can help in such cases, but giving up too easily may cause you to miss that one great idea that can turn a failure to a huge success.

At this point, you may be wondering what happened in the turnaround situation.  Maybe I was just lucky, but the company grew from a $3M valuation to $300M in 5 years!  I guess all the people that thought it could not be done, were just wrong!

 

  Taffy Williams is the author of:  Think Agile:  How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt in Order to Succeed to via Amazon 
  

2 Considerations for agile succession planning

You may recall the character Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movie: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.  The comedy character was fashioned to resemble Mike Myers character, “Dr. Evil”.  While the movie as made for entertainment, the concept of having a Mini-Me is something many entrepreneurs and Boards of more established companies often neglect to consider before it is too late.  Succession planning is a critical part of building to maintaining a successful business. 

Replacement of a key management figure may include a search firm seeking a new hire.  The fees for the search firm alone run around 35% of the salary plus bonus for the first year.  This would make an executive search fee around a $70,000 - $120,000 price tag if the salary were $200,000 plus bonus.  Then there may be a signing bonus and the compensation for the first year.  Now the business can be paying more than $300,000 in the first year.  Then there is the loss of time of having someone run the business or a possible fee for an interim executive that may run the business.  The costs can easily be a significant drain on the resources for any small company. 

Two things that can help are:

·        Take out Key-Man life insurance payable to the company.  In one company I worked with, the interim costs estimated before hire of a new CEO approached close to $1M.  The insurance was intended to help offset the costs and reduce the funds used from operating capital. 

 

·        Grooming a replacement can cost very little and it provides your Board with options.  Sometimes, it is possible to identify and groom a potential replacement within the company ranks.   The Board may ultimately decide to select an alternate for the permanent position, but the individual possibly could serve as the interim executive. 

The same suggestions may apply to other key positions in your company.  Suppose you lost your lead person for product development and all the corporate knowledge for this function was with a single person.    How long might it take your company to recover and get back on track?  How much time might be lost from launch of your product?  Finding ways to ensure retention of key corporate knowledge and capabilities is critical. 

People move on to new companies and usually without much announcement.  People die and it is difficult to plan alternatives when feeling the effects of a painful loss.  You can plan for unknown events that may have a serious impact on your company.  For this reason, succession planning is worth consideration by all executives and Boards of Directors.  Great planning may help the business continue functioning with as little downtime as possible.  The planning may also include financial planning that reduce the drain of your financial resources should such an event occur. 

The bottom line: find the Mini-Me(s) in your organization and train them.  Planning for unknown events may save lots of money and lost time.  In fact, the planning may save your company from total collapse.  When the company leader is gone, the team may not be able to rally and continue.  Your Mini-Me may be just the ticket to keep things going!

Taffy Williams is the author of:  Think Agile:  How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt in Order to Succeed and the Startup Blog. Connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter @twilli2861,  ColonialTDC , Facebook, and Startup  Group. 

  

6 Important needs for great networking



Let's tag team the intros with the crowd!

I have had discussions with young entrepreneurs that felt networking was not worth the effort.  They commented that it was impossible to meet big name people of interest to them in the bars and events.  The inability to meet high-profile people in events is difficult but that is not the goal of creating a great network.   Creating a great network involves meeting people, establishing relationships, maintaining relationships, growing the network, and eventually accessing to their network.  Proper networking eventually leads to the meetings or introductions with those you hope to meet. 

One of the best places to start is with friends and family.  Your friends know people, their friends know people and so on.  You may find it amazing how rapidly the contacts you make will ultimately allow you to reach individuals you believe can help you in your business.  In a recent lecture, one person asked how he could meet people in Texas where he wanted to get a job.  The class size was around 30.  I asked how many people in the room knew someone in Texas and half the class raised their hands.  That class was a great place to start! Consider starting your networking with those around you.  This person had not considered that as part of the process, but got the message once he saw the potential contacts sitting near by. 

There are a few tools and attitude adjustments you may wish to consider that make you more effective at networking.  The list below highlights a few:

Attitude:  Having a positive attitude is important.  You may feel you have nothing to offer, but this is rarely true.  You have talent and skills that develop over time along with your network.  These may be helpful to others and are something you can offer those you meet.  Some people are shy and it takes them a bit longer to meet people in events if they work the crowd alone.  Try request help from a close contact that is more outgoing. This individual can make introductions in meetings and you can do the same for them, kind of like a tag-team approach.  In short, develop an attitude that you will meet people and engage in discussions.  Standing in the corner is not an option!

Business cards:  Some believe that business cards are becoming outdated.  This may be true in the future, but handing a card to someone usually results in getting their card.  This allows you to collect and catalogue the skills and contact information after a meeting.  You can write notes on the cards when you get home and use the cards to recall those you met followed by finding a means of staying in touch; the key is staying in touch.  You should not expect help from people you met years ago that only hear from you when you want something!

Listening skills:  An important part of the process is listening.  You must learn about the people you meet and show interest.  Your objective is to find common ground and to develop a real relationship that will last.  You may talk (but do not dominate the discussion), and you must listen and remember.  Cards will help remember their name; the web link on the cards may take you to a bio for the person.  The discussion will reveal more info that makes the meeting personal and more friendship building in nature.  The first interaction is not a sales meeting where you download everything about you and learn nothing about them. 

Engagement skills:  Good relationships and friends take time to build.  One should never expect the initial interaction to immediately give you access to their A-class contacts.  People need to know each other better and find mutual respect along with sharing before they make that A-class connection on your behalf.  It sometimes takes months or years to build a trusting relationship.  Once you do, it takes time to maintain it.  Great contacts and friends are something worthy of the time it takes.  Do not skip on this step!

Relational database:  You may not need a database if you have a few contacts.  One thing that occurs is that over time the number can grow to a very large number.  Finding the time and a database method of keeping track of the contact info along with how you met them can be very helpful.  Other info can be included to help you recall key things, add filters, or search words.  Recalling the name of a person is easier for some than others.  Recalling just one key factor may allow you to search the database and locate the record for the person, if you forgot the name.  This may seem surprising but memory tends to fade a bit as you age; a database is helpful as this occurs!

Follow up and maintenance: This is extremely important.  Finding ways to keep in touch does not always require calling people or meeting them in person.  Consider sending a congratulations note when you see something positive about them; example, they got promoted or changed companies.   Send holiday greeting cards or emails.  Stop to talk to them in conferences or meetings.  Seek ways remain in contact without being overly intrusive.  Always look at how you may help them.  Good networking is not just about you, it is also about them!

Taffy Williams is the author of:  Think Agile:  How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt in Order to Succeed to via Amazon